Tuesday, December 19, 2006

off road fixing...

Is what I am looking forward to. I have ridden some cross races on the fixed but have yet to get a full on xc ride in on the fix. I have been riding it around town a bunch and hitting the trails, but they are more walking paths and such than real single track. I have however been trying to hone my skills on the bike while here in town so that I can be kind of ready when the time comes to actually put tire to dirt. I have set obstacles outside the house and hop up and down curbs, drop off things of varying heights whenever possible, this is all I can do when trapped in the city for most of the time. That and the weather here has been so miserable, rain, rain, wind wind. I wonder how many trees are down out on the trials right now, inside the city it is a disaster. So below is an image of the little obstacle that I have out front. It is 8 inches high and 12 inches wide. I can now bunny hop it on the fixie, soon I will be making it a bit higher to further improve my skills. By bunny hop I mean clear it, no tire touching the obstacle.

On the fit front I have been trying to find the right position and I am getting close. I have tried many different stems, stack heights, and am getting close to feeling great on the road, now I have to ride off road to see how the muscles hold up on the rough stuff. My friend keith thinks that I am going to crash and burn and can not wait to see it. to him I say this, when I beat you down with out coasting, I will laugh sooooo hard. I am not sure that this is possible, but I will give it the old college try. so on one of the first bunny hop attempts I had the pleasure of crashing , I landed a little over the front end and proceeded to land face down on the pavement, I only burised my hand a bit, but I tore my favorite bar tape, concrete is a little less forgiving in the give department than dirt. I have gotten the sticker on downtube. I think it looks good. The bar tape ripped, thats ok I messed up wrapping it the first time so I will wrap with new tape soon.



I am really liking the fixed gear riding right now, cant wait to get out on some longer dirt rides in the near future. enjoy the holiday's. i must say the wade at vulture made a bike like now other, it is soooo fun to ride and beautiful to look at. thanks so much wade. cheers. as always keep pedaling.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

holi daze

tis the season, I have been super busy with work and parties, shopping not me, we have decided to go on a diet this holiday season and are abstaining from buying in to the whole buying gifts and giving big presents thing. dont you think it is not necessary and a corporate marketing sceme to get your money. Lets face it the season is not about the gifts it is about spending time and honoring those you love. I would rather save my money and spend it when my loved ones are around. enough about that. I got more eggnog to attend to. to everyone that reads this thank you. I will leave you with this, taking the my other skateboard is a fixed gear thing to a new level is this guy, mind you he must have been a street skater or more likely a Rodney Mullen fan. watch closely as it is impressive. It is obvious to me that he had a lot of time, or he just has really good balance.



Dustin over at Cadence had a link to utube and the above video, I must give credit where credit is due.

I have been riding the Vulture fixie a lot and trying to improve my skills, I can now bunny hop 6 inch obstacles and had the pleasure yesterday of dropping off a foot and a half ledge. I hope to bunny hop some stairs this evening.

A group is meeting up this evening to discuss an endurance race here in Washington, boy do we need on, the trails here are awesome, more on that later. back to the egg nog. over and out and as always keep pedaling. nat