things are getting a bit racy

It seems to be a trend lately, a lack of fitness that is. I've been hearing that lately and it actually makes me feel a bit better. I'm in the same boat, life in general has caused my riding to take a bit of a backseat. I am finally getting caught back up on some of the work that's been pending at our house for some time. I hope this weekend things will turn around and I'll get back out on the bike. I really need to that's for sure especially with 2 more races just around the corner.

Next on tap for GRT Racing is the 12 Hours of Tsali, I missed this one last year due to the Night Owl race which I placed a respective 3rd place in my class. Originally I planned another solo attempt for Tsali but Andy and Abby were looking to put together a 4 man team so Anthony and I decided to go for it. The entry fee this year seems to be a bit cheaper than I remember @ $40 and that includes a t-shirt surprisingly. I wonder if the folks from Gone Riding realized they needed to give a little back in order to keep racers coming back.

The cool thing about doing the 4 man team is I'll have more time to hang out with Melinda and the dogs during the race and I won't be as physically spent the following day. Due to my lack of riding in the past couple of weeks this may be a good thing, I'm not sure I'm ready for a 12 hour solo attempt.


Also on tap, the H8R, the 2nd race in the TN Cup Endurance racing series. Coming up in June B-Rad and I will be heading to Haw Ridge in Knoxville for this one. We're not strangers to this course nor podium finishes there either so hopefully we can continue with good finishes and stay on top.

Speaking of good finishes I was looking over the lap times for the Ocho and I realized that we did out run the 2nd place Open Team which consisted of 4 racers. That may have been what we heard at the award ceremony. Mine and B-Rad's time were pretty close during the entire race just dropping a minute or two after each lap but we consistently stayed around the 1 hour mark. Brad's last lap was one of his best times during the race, right before he went out for his fourth lap he asked me if I thought we could get 8 laps. I told him to haul ass because I expected to get in a 4th as well and he did just that.

the before and after

The other day my Dad posted up a couple of pictures on Facebox of the transformation of "Brownie" into the "Ghost of Brownie". I never really took a good before and after pic which I should have and when I saw these it was really cool to look back at the old version and compare the differences.





Brownie




The Ghost of Brownie

Don't let the before picture fool you, that photo made Brownie look alot better than she did in person. The tires were in such bad shape I'm not sure how they didn't blow out on my Dad. I was a little afraid to ride on them.

After the disappointing award ceremony at the Ocho I guess Brad had heard enough of my complaining. He volunteered to contact the promoter and ask if we should stay in the Sport catagory or move up to Open. I guess it depends on if our points will transfer, not that we would really stand a chance against the other Open teams but who knows. Some teams may only show for one or two races giving us a better shot at the overall.
I had originally thought we did more laps than the Open class 2nd place team. After looking at the posted results I realized that was not the case. I think the promoter had tapped into the post race beverages a little too early when he began calling out the winners and their acheivements.

The past couple of months I've been riding in some pretty nasty weather, mud, rain more mud and.... oh yeah, two races with muddy laps. Why do you ask am I talking about this again? Well I never got around to purchasing one of those BackCountry Awesome Straps like I had planned. I did run across a seatbag, a brand who's name I cannot recall right now but it's design was almost identical to the old seatbag I used for so many years without fail. I've been swapping it back and forth between the JET and AIR9, really putting the velcro to the test. The brand is not one I am that familar with so I really didn't expect it to live through this spring's nasty weather. I've been proven wrong so far, this new, no name seatbag has taken quite a beating and is still hanging in there without the slightest bit of a slip. I'm really surprised at how well it has performed and am curious to see what else it can take.

Speaking of gear and accesories, I've been on a bit of a tire purchasing spree. Ever since Bontrager did away with the Jones ACX I have been on the hunt for a suitable replacement. After the recent Conti trial I ordered the Bontrager 29-4's which proved to be a bit more beefy than I wanted on my hardtail so I ordered another set, the 29-2's, which I've yet to receive. While waiting on them to return I ran across another deal on a set of the XDX's that I could not pass up. Now I have more tires than I know what to do with but plenty of options to keep me entertained for the summer. Hopefully I won't spend more time mounting up tubeless tires than riding.

the 8 hours of lake Ocho

The week leading up to the Ocho, the 1st race of the TN Cup Endurance series, we had plans to camp for the weekend. Mother Nature had other plans and we decided rather than camp in the rain we stayed home, saved precious vacation days and made it a daytrip on Sunday since the drive was just barely over an hour.

As soon as we arrived Sunday morning I knew we had made the right choice. Despite the sunny skies and warm weather in middle of the field where we were supposed to camp was a swamp of standing water. It was kind of hard to tell at first because of the grass but as soon as I felt the rear tires give way I threw in it four wheel drive rather than tear up anything. We roamed aimlessly around the field in search of a place to set up our pit until we finally headed for higher ground and dry land.

Unfortunately the start/finish line as well as the course leading in and out took you right through the middle of lake Ocho. For the next hour while we set up we were entertained as several two wheeled drive vehicles attempted to cross the flooded area, slinging brown water all over the sides of their cars.

Originally I had planned to do this one solo but got an offer from B-Rad to join him in a duo attack so I took him up on the offer knowing he would lead us through the first lap strong arming weaker riders off the trail as he charged through the field.

I wasn't counting the number of riders that came through the pits after the first lap, I think because we were more worried about the fact that half of them had lost their # plates all together or had something resembling a # plate just barely hanging on. The promoter handed us a brown marker ironically and Eric D. and I took turns writing our #'s on our legs. When Eric wrote mine on my leg what was supposed to be 69 turned into 62 but I didn't realize it until several hours later. Luckily my # plate made it through the entire race but just barely.

When Brad came in off his first lap he was earlier than I expected somewhere in the top 10. Excited at our chances I took off determined not to get passed by any other team riders on my lap.

The course for the most part was dry as a bone all except for one section. The most technical section on the entire course, so technical in fact that bridges had to be built a few years ago just to make it rideable. It was like a night and day difference once I hit the mud, it was nasty slick and an energy sucking vampire, just to stay upright and moving forward took alot of time and skill. Several places I found my self riding somewhat sideways as my rear tire found some traction and started coming around as my front tire just slid around aimlessly. I rode as smooth as I could which wasn't long until I hit the rock garden. It didn't take long before my bike slide out from under me and rather than waste energy and take the chance of a nasty crash and ruining the race for myself I opted to just run it out. Running through the mud was definitely more efficient and made my chances of finishing the lap unscathed much better. Not expecting to catch any rider being so far up in the field I was surprised when I caught a glimpse of two riders ahead through the trees. I stomped on the gas hoping to improve our standings only to realize it was two off-road unicyclists still on their first lap. I'm amazed at what those guys did on their unicycles finishing two laps without a scratch.

My goal for the race was 4 laps a piece for Brad and I, 8 laps in 8 hours. The cut off for the last lap was at 4:15 with the finish time of 5:00. I knew as long as we kept our lap times right at the hour mark we would have a good chance of pulling it off. Our first lap Brad and I both came in at just under an hour. After that I added a minute or two to each lap as fatigue and the pain set in.

Race fuel???

Throughout the course I would stay fairly clean and dry but as soon as I would enter the pit area and cross lake Ocho, it was all over. As the day wore on it got worse and worse. Coming off a fast decent into the finish our tires were slinging brown water everywhere. By lap 3 and 4 the brown water turned into mud. The shiny silver polished finish of my AIR9 was converted to a nice shade of brown.

As Brad went out for his fourth lap I told him to finish strong and hurry up, I had plans for a 4th as well and as long as his lap went smoothly we should be good for me to go out before the cut off. As I waited for Brad to return I tried not to pay much attention to the teams all around us that had called it a day, tempted by the free flowing beer. To make matters worse the promoters rolled in was a massive pile of pizza. I lined up on the line waiting for Brad and joked around with the other racers who were stuffing they're faces to save me some.

My last lap went well, I felt surprisingly stronger than the previous lap. The nasty section that had challenged me all day while still nasty in spots looked a bit drier. Not wanting to have been a pansy and run it every lap I gave it my best effort and rode the entire section with only a couple of slips.

I finished my last lap strong and headed straight for the beer and pizza. I grabbed a cup off the keg properly chosen for the occasion, Red Hook's "Mud Slinger" and a couple cold bottles of Yazoo's finest, Pale Ale.

As we waited for the final racers to come in Brad and I learned that we had victoriously finished 1st in the Sport division but because of the low numbers across the team categories we had been grouped together with the Open guys. Our overall placing was still good in 6th finishing with 8 laps only one lap shy of the team with the most overall.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony hoping to receive some sort of prize for our efforts. In the Open category 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams all received swag bags, for 1st place in the Sport division Brad and I each received a bottle of champagne from some local winery. I was kind of disappointed in the winnings but the swag we received just for showing up helped some. Every racer received a t-shirt, pint glass and water bottle not to mention post race pizza and all the free beer you could drink. I made sure I got my money's worth and came home with a cooler full of Yazoo. It was the least I could do so the promoters weren't over burdened by a bunch of stuff to haul home.

I'm not sure if I'll actually get around to drinking this stuff or not, maybe I'll hold onto to it until B-Rad and I get together for the 2nd race, the H8R in Knoxville at Haw Ridge.

bringing the pain......... on myself

Man am I tired, I feel like I've been riding hard everyday since the 6HWC but actually I've only been on the bike twice. Our local club has taken on the task of building another trail at Bays Mountain in an effort to make the park more mountain biker friendly. When I first started riding there it was all fireroads and well fireroads. I take that back there was one doubletrack trail that also serves double duty as a small creek during rain storms but now it's starting to take shape of a mini version of the Grand Canyon. I think I've put in close to 15 hours this week of trail work which is huge for me. Normally I miss most workdays due to my job but I finally decided I'm going to just go out on my own and work by myself if I want to show any support. Trails are an awesome thing and I can't stop thinking about how cool it's going to be when this one is done I should have been resting this week because this weekend is the 1st race of the TN Cup Endurance series, The Ocho, at Panther Creek State Park is one of three 8 hour races B-Rad and I are competing in this summer as a duo. I have never competed in a series before so I'm pretty excited. I just hope that I can keep up with the terror B-Rad is going to lay down on the race course. I'm afraid all of my efforts off the bike might be leaving me feeling a little used up this weekend when the flag drops. In an effort to re-energize I'm only going to put in only one workday this week at Bays, I shouldn't but I can't help myself, I'm a bit obsessed with building this trail for some reason right now. I'm sorry there is no new videos to watch, I've yet to look at any of the footage from the 6HWC race last weekend, maybe next week. I did finally mount up my new tires today, the Bontrager 29-4's, they're a little on the beefy side of things but I'm going to give them a whirl this weekend and maybe order another more racier set for the summer. All the tubeless tire swapping I've done lately has improved my skills a bit and maybe having two different sets of tires to run is doable for me. So I'm at the crossroads of what to do about the JET9 again. I rode a lap at Warrior Creek with Melinda and had an absolute blast on it. The sections that chattered my teeth on the AIR9 Saturday disappeared underneath all of that squish. It is still up for sale but I ain't letting it go cheap, like I said before I'm in no hurry to sell it.

yes more 6HWC but also the Ghost of Brownie and some rogue hoes

I guess apparently there is something wrong with blogger, my last two posts have been posted as one giant freaking paragraph and that's not the way I originally constructed them. I've tried several things to remedy the situation but nothing seems to help so far. There has always been some sort of spacing issue with blogger especially when it comes to posting photos. You never really know if there will be spaces between your text and the photos uploaded. I usually put at least 2 spaces between each and sometimes I get none, 2, 3 or 6, I guess it all just depends on what kind of mood blogger is in that particular day. Do I still have more to talk about from the 6HWC? Why yes I do, have you heard enough about it? Of course you haven't! When I learned that this year the after party/awards/swag give away was going to be at the Warrior Creek campground and we didn't have to drive down the road I was pumped. What I didn't think about was the fact that alcohol is not allowed so there would be no free beer served with the post race meal. I didn't say there were no post race beverages consumed or there were no last lap beer hand-ups and I'm pretty sure no one almost spilled their beer hand up on one of the race organizers. There just wasn't a Boone Brewing beer truck there this year. I have to say having the post race festivities in the same location of the race was indeed nice but the lack of free libation did suck but I'm still on the fence as to which was better. The post race meal was still the best I have ever had at ANY race I've attended, BBQ pork, chicken, beans, slaw, pasta & cornbread, it was awesome. The swag give away was also one of the best I've ever seen, for 3 years in a row I've walked away with swag. Not the cheap crap you get in a swag bag for registering, stuff you can actually use. I hate swag bags that are nothing but advertisements for crap I'll never use. This year I walked away with a Bell Slant helmet and I actually got to pick my size, very nice indeed! I have to hand it to the BMCC folks they put on one of the best races, if you've missed this one or chose to do the Knobscorcher for some reason, wise up folks and put the 6HWC on your calendar for next year. I can tell you from personal experience, this race out ranks the SERC crap any day. If your a Facebox friend of mine you may have noticed the pics of Brownie I posted the other day upon it's final completion. The parts have been in for a while I was just finally able to go and picked them up Monday. Speaking of "Brownie" a buddy of mine came up with what I think is an excellent name for the new ride, "The Ghost of Brownie". With all the white going on I think the name fits it well. I think now that it's finally finished it looks better and more complete, the white grips are definitely something that's going to bug me, especially when it comes to getting them dirty but they should clean up easily. I went ahead and replaced the black seat with a white one I had in my bin of old seats and I think the white one looks much better. Probably one of my favorite additions is the Topeak Alien head blinky. Short post today, I've got a date with a rogue hoe up at Bays Mountain, we're going to build some trail together.

6 Hours of Warrior Creek re-cap: part 2

I'm sorry about the jumbled mess that was my post yesterday for some reason blogger refused to cooperate with me and everything posted as one large paragraph. Not sure what happened or why but everything I tried was a failure, maybe today blogger will cooperate maybe it won't. Anyway, once we finally got moving Saturday morning the sun came out and started warming things up. I really wasn't too worried about the rain the night before, I've ridden Warrior Creek in the rain and while it was slick in spots everything held up well. Andy, Chris and a few others left early that morning to secure us a spot while I hung back at the campsite with Melinda and the dogs. We rolled into our pits around 9am with plenty of time to get everything squared away and get in line. This year the start finish line was situated on the other side of the pit area for what reason I'm not sure. I'm sure they explained why in the racer's meeting but I was too busy fiddling with my Go Pro to pay attention. As usual most of the NTMBA/GRT crew line up close to the back of the pack, we never really get too carried away with the start, it's usually a cluster anyway. This year the start was worse than I had ever seen it. The normal road section at first did it's job of spreading the pack out somewhat but when we rounded the corner 200 yards before the entrance to the woods there was a line of racers standing........ yes standing, waiting to go in. I was really surprised and confused at what had us held up. As we walked closer to the beginning of the trail it became clear as to what the hold up was, mud, slick and nasty. I couldn't believe it was so bad already. In the first 50 feet there was a climb and the traffic was bad, one person spinning out was causing everyone to dismount and walk. We were off walking or standing more than riding the first 20 minutes of the race. I got irritated quickly and lost my patience, once we started rolling I just couldn't bring myself to stop again. Unfortunately the line came to a halt again but my impatience took over and I rolled past 5 or so people on the side of the trail which of course got me fussed at. The people I passed were not too pleased with me. I realized how stupid that was and immediately apologized. I felt bad for about a half a minute and then thought to myself hey this is a race not a line at the amusement park. As things rolled on the group thinned out and passing became easier. Someone would go down in front, two or three would pile up behind them and I would pass on the outside. I don't know how I managed to stay up right the entire first lap but I did. The whole course was slick and nasty and never got any better. The whole time I was thinking if this gets any worse I'll be lucky to get two laps in. I finally settled into a groove with a couple of guys for a while until someone would slide out and get passed. I lost count of how many corners I came through Dukes of Hazard style but after a while it seemed to be the norm. The first lap I ran the Go Pro but no matter how much I tried I kept missing all of the good wipe outs. Everytime I would think it was about to get boring and switched off the camera, someone would eat it hard. I should have just left it running the entire lap. I thought it was never going to end and I lost site of all my crew as I worked my way through the field but I knew we would re group in the pits. It took over an hour and a half to finish the first lap, most folk's second lap was their fastest. When we rolled into the pits I immediately began working on my bike trying to free up the drive train from mud, everything was a mess and just before we arrived a water line had busted leaving us with no spare water to use, all I had was what was in my bottles. After refueling a bit and getting my bike running properly we regrouped and went out for a second lap. Immediately we noticed the conditions were vastly different on the trail. Everything was drying up faster than I had every seen it. It was as if the NASCAR track drying trucks had gone out after us and dried off the course. I kept thinking things would get bad again but they didn't, they just kept getting better and better. My second lap was much faster and smoother than the first. After rolling in the pits again I chilled out for a bit stretching out my back and neck. I felt really stiff but refused to sit down for long afraid that I might not get back up. As we hung out I noticed Chris never once sat down or changed he just stood under the EZ-UP and looked as if he was hurting. I think he was playing possum because once I sat down and asked him what his plan was he announced he was going back out now to get it over with. I really wasn't ready but I got up and moving anyway. I started looking for my water as Chris rode off and I realized I had left my last bottle back in the truck. I searched around until I found one of Melinda's and dumped it into my mud covered bottle. By the time I got ready Chris had probably a 10 - 15 minute head start and I figured there was no way of catching him. I asked around to see who else was ready to go and got the same answer all around, they were done for the day. Damn, I guess I'm on my own for the rest of the race. Not really thinking there was enough time for a fourth lap I just sat back and tried to enjoy the ride. I stopped every once in a while to stretch and let the faster guys pass convinced I would not see Chris until the finish line. What amazed me was the amount of 29ers out on the course, I swear 70% or more of the bikes in this race were 29er's and Niner seemed to be the most popular. Another thing I noticed was how fresh so many of the fast guys looked. Several of them had clean bikes and kits as if this was their first lap and I went ahead and let myself believe it to be the case since they were so much faster than me, they had to be on fresh legs. My bike and kit looked as if we had run through a gauntlet of people throwing buckets of mud at us. About 3/4 of the way through the course the wind really picked up. I had already seen some downed trees but had never felt in any danger. At one point the wind was roaring with such force behind me I keep waiting to be engulfed by a twister. Tree limbs were being snapped off left and right and flying through the air all around me. I really was surprised a tree didn't come down right in front of me. At mile 12 probably the section with the most climbing I saw a red and black bike ahead with a rider wearing a green jersey, I couldn't believe it but it was Chris. Seeing him actually lifted my spirits a bit and gave me enough gas to finish out the lap a little stronger. I gave him a friendly yell startling him a bit I think as I passed and spent the rest of what I had left in the tank putting a gap on him just in case he was playing possum. I rolled into the pit area and crossed the finish line relieved to be done and happy with my finish, not only did I achieve my goal of three laps but I had a clear head the entire time. Had I been in fifteen minutes earlier I would have pondered going out and suffering through another lap but I was more than satisfied with my performance. This year I think I redeemed myself for my porr performance last year. I did get some Go Pro footage but as usual I've yet to look at it. More to come and hopefully a video in the next few days.

6 Hours of Warrior Creek re-cap: part 1

Oh man what an awesome weekend, not only did the weather cooperate with us, so did my allergies. I felt great all weekend and not once did I feel like dead people were trying to communicate. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't feeling that positive about the weather when we left Friday morning for the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek, not only did we get a weather warning call from the weather Mama but as soon as we rolled into Boone we hit snow. Luckily I was dressed for the occasion in shorts and a t-shirt. As we rolled down the mountain into Wilkesboro the snowed stopped, the sun came out and the temps began to rise. It wasn't really warm or cold but as long as the sun was shining I was happy. Not wanting to get burned by an unsuspecting rain shower like last weekend, Melinda and I decided to hit the trail early. Andy rolled into camp fresh from the Niner demo at the Warrior Creek trails and reported back that there were no SIR9's in attendance so we opted to hit the OVT which started just up the road from our campsite. The OVT was in great shape, smooth fast and bermy, Melinda's skills have really began to improve as she is riding over stuff she walked last year and she is really beginning to pick up the pace. Back at camp more and more peeps rolled in, the campfire was lit and beverages began being comsumed. I never really realized how sneaky Chris Dillow can be when it comes to racing. While we were preparing dinner he walked up to me and handed me a brown bag, the kind you only get from a liquor store and said Happy Birthday. All night he talked and talked about drinking Jim Beam but he never poured one drop he just sipped his beer with a funny smile on his face that I sear looked like he was holding back an evil laugh. Brad has been telling me for a while about his newest hobby, playing the ukulele but I had yet to see him perform. As we were all relaxing around the campfire he broke it out and handed me the lyrics sheet and asked me to sing. I'm not much of a singer but pour a little Jim Beam in my cup and I'll sing all night. I've yet to review the Flip cam footage of our campfire concert but I'd say it will be entertaining. We sang a little Johnny Cash, Coldplay and some Old Crow Medicine Show. It was good times indeed, maybe if we practice enough we can take our show on the road and make enough to pay for our race fees. If you missed this one the next show will be April 16th at Panther Creek. Not wanting to ruin a good day of racing and realizing Chris was up to something I swapped out my drink for water and I swear Chris's evil grin turned into a frown. As expected a rain storm did show up but only after we called it a night and were in bed. It was brief but was followed by another just before dawn waking me up early. Just coming off of my early day shift schedule at work I never went back to sleep. I tossed and turned for about 2 hours thinking about what the conditions would be for the race while trying to remain positive. Enough for now I've got a ton of things to do today around the house including an interview with one of the local newspapers about mountain biking in Northeast TN. To be continued......

a little air guitar, air piano, dancing and of course smack talk

I'm running a bit behind as far as packing goes for this weekend. I've been working 12 hr shifts and most of my time after work has been spent tinkering with my bikes and camera equipment. Melinda unfortunately pulled a muscle in her back last night working out. I think she got a little carried away lifting weights. I came home to find her laid out on the living room floor with ice packs and pain reliever. She's pretty bummed out about being on the injured list this weekend, we were hoping to get down early Friday to take advantage of the Niner demo day put on by Luna Cycles. I'm not sure if she will be riding but hopefully she'll be in a lot better shape by Friday. Yesterday on the Facebox, Chris left me a message, something to the effect of, "Was I going down to Wilkesboro this weekend to race or shoot a freaking movie?" My reply, something along the lines of making sure at one point during the race I would point the camera behind me and as long as he could keep me in his sights on the trail he might just make it into the "movie". If he is unable to do so I'll get a shot of him with the Flip cam as he crosses the line, well that is if the line at the beer wagon is not too long. Good luck Mr. Dillow, I'm glad you didn't pansy out like so many of the others we know. I stated earlier in the week I was going to give the Conti Mountain King a shot this weekend at Warrior Creek but for some reason it didn't hold it's air all weekend. I think it was contributed to the rim strip getting a bit out of whack and since it's officially up for sale and I'll be swapping it out for a new set of Bontrager 29-4's. I went ahead and put the old ACX back on, it's still in good enough shape to last a bit longer.

Earlier this week I mentioned the plan "B" we resorted to on Sat night while camping near Dupont. Rather that sit out side in the cold rain with no campfire Melinda and I converted the ECO into the party zone for a couple of hours.

Although the dance floor was a bit small for one person alone, Fat Tony did not let that stop him from getting down and cutting a rug.

Then he proceeded to entertain us with his air guitar skillz or should I say beer bottle guitar skillz.

Really long guitar solo.

Once things calmed down I played a soothing air piano piece to soften the mood for Andy. The new beard is started to look really good in my opinion.

getting ready for the big show no matter what they say

Rain, yeah that what we've got, good for people who like rain bad for me. The weather forecast for this weekend is up in the air right now if you ask me. Last year I would have said, "It's gonna be awesome! Just check the forecast." Right now the call is for rain today and tomorrow for sure no doubt about it. Fri it's a 30% chance and Sat and Sun it's nothing but clouds and sunny skies. I have several pessimistic friends who like to tell me just before we leave, "It looks like rain for you all weekend." Don't you just love those people. Never the less I'm paid up for the race and my campsite so I will be racing unless they cancel it which probably won't happen. Being an optimist I look at it this way, if it does rain there is a better chance for me to get closer to the podium because no doubt there will be some pansies who will stay home. Another good thing about all this rain is it knocks down the pollen count, yay for me and my allergies.

If you haven't been paying attention lately this weekend is the first big race of the year for me, The 6 Hours of Warrior Creek. I'm pumped, excited, and giddy like a little school girl. Melinda and I were planning to head down Thursday after work until we realized Friday is the first official day of the season for Bandit's Roost campground. So instead of making a late night of it and camping out in Wilkesboro's WalMart parking lot we're opting to leave early Friday morning. Luna Cycles is setting up shop with a whole fleet of sweet Niner demo bikes at the trailhead and we plan to be there to sample the goods. Fingers crossed there might just be a SIR9 in attendance.

If you haven't been over to Warrior Creek in a while there is some new trail that's been added, the section shown above is one of my favorites. Just around the corner, over the bridge is a really cool rope swing. You can see it in action here along with what it's like to ride the trails there when wet.

Speaking of SIR9's, I called my LBS and Niner has a couple in stock in my size and color. So on a whim I threw up a couple of pics of the JET9 on my local club forum to see if I would get any bites. If you're interested in a 2010 Jet9 give me a shout.

It's in perfect condition with less than 100 miles on it. I'm selling it frame only with the headset, seat collar, and Thompson seatpost. I might let the Reba go with it for the right price. I'm in no rush to sell nor do I need the money so any low ball offers will be ignored. Shoot me an email if you're interested and we'll talk prices.

Race-ready 29er full suspension, updated for 2010

3" of CVA™ suspension

custom valved Fox RP23 shock

Compatible with 80-100mm forks

Tapered headtube technology

Hydroformed tube construction

Custom forging throughout

The headset is an FSA that comes with an adapter if you don't have a fork with the tapered steer tube.

I spent a good portion of the evening sorting through my GoPro stuff, charging the batteries for it and my Flip cam. I also spent some time thinking about new angles to shoot from and such so anticipate a new video coming down the pipe in the next week.

setting my goals too high

The first race of my season is coming up this weekend, The 6 Hours of Warriors Creek. This year so far my allergies have not been bothering me even with camping all last weekend. Fingers crossed I'm hoping this is a good sign of things to come for the weekend. I totally plan to ride this race until I can take it no more. My plan is to complete 4 laps minimum, in fact unless I get injured or break both bikes I will finish 4 laps come hell or high water. If I have any gas left in the tank after 4 and there is still time left which I doubt both will happen I'll attempt a 5th. As of right now the weather man says it will be dry but I'm sure that will change. I've ridden Warrior Creek in the rain and it's actually not that bad, the trail sheds water pretty well but it will also shed you if you push it too hard in the turns, banked or not. I've seen that happen first hand with more than one rider. I know there are alot of IF's going on but I'll just be happy with a clear head and a decent race this year. Maybe I've set my goals a bit high this year but I'm feeling good and there is nothing wrong with a little trash talking. The Go Pro will be in full effect as will my Flip cam, which finally made it's filming debut in the IMBA TCC video.

I did get around to uploading our pics from last weekend so here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

The water was pretty high at all of the crossings and still too cold to be riding through, especially at the beginning of the ride.

I took the JET9 out on Saturday and had an absolute blast on it. Just when I think I've made up my mind on which bike I want something happens and I start second guessing my decision.

We forgot to pack our Park Tool bottle opener but thankfully Jackson and Moonshine are both sporting the Cycle Dog collars these days. I got to put them to use Friday night sitting around the campfire.

We had an unusually large amount of dogs running around the campground Friday, seven to be exact.

Saturday night we put the ECO to good use and stayed out of the rain. Some might say owning a camper is not real camping but it does allow you to stay no matter the weather while others are packing up soggy gear and heading home. The reason we originally bought the ECO was not because we're getting soft, I actually miss tent camping sometimes, but when we're out on a 3 or 4 hour ride in July we can't leave the dogs behind in the tent, and no campground will allow you to leave them tied to a tree unattended.

The stereo was really rocking between 3 different Ipod's, it was interesting to see all the different genres of music we had between Fat Tony, Andy and myself.

the back-up plan

How many more camping trips are going get rained out before we get a dry one? After this weekend we are well past due for a dry weekend. Melinda and I left home early on Thursday in route to Dupont/Pisgah hoping to get in some extra trail time in before the rest of the crew rolled into town on Friday. Our anniversary was Friday and there is nothing more romantic than a mountain bike themed camping trip.

The weather forecast when we left town was showing a 40% chance of rain for Saturday and nothing else. I knew I would be in SORBA meetings for a large portion of the day Saturday so I wasn't too disappointed but things changed rapidly. I checked the forecast again later that evening and the percentage shot up to 70%, not looking good.

We made the most of the dry weather and headed out for the trail head as soon as we got things situated. Moonshine and Jackson made they're first trip up Cedar Rock and I think they were impressed with the views.

Friday Melinda and I hit the trails again realizing there was a good chance it might be our last chance to ride for the weekend. The weather was almost perfect and the trails were in awesome shape.

Saturday as expected we woke up to the rain. Anthony, Andy, Rick and myself got up early before the ladies and drove into town to register for the days events. This whole trip was centered around the SORBA, Southern Mountain Bike Summit. Anthony and I have been in the process for a few months now to get our local club, NTMBA affiliated into the vast network of clubs that make up SORBA. This weekend at the board of directors meeting we were to be voted in making that the last step in the process.

We showed up late, checked in and grabbed a couple of danishes and bagels off the breakfast table and snuck out the back door before the morning classes started. A majority of the the morning's material was stuff that we had already experienced so we were just there for the important stuff like free breakfast.

By the look of the skies it appeared as if the rain was there to stay so rather than hang around a soggy campground we rounded up the ladies and headed to the local coffee shop for breakfast #2 and hung out until time for our meeting with SORBA.

As luck would have it we made it to the meeting just in time to score a free lunch and grab some seats in the back row in case the meeting was slow and I fell asleep. Since I'm the president of the club I was expected to stand up introduce the club and give a brief introduction. Of course Melinda suggested earlier in the week that I sit down and write out my speech on paper but I opted to wait until the last minute to throw something together. My rough version was drafted in my head on Friday in the truck as Melinda and I drove home from the trailhead and the final touches were applied as I sat on the throne Saturday morning after multiple cups of coffee. Yeah I guess you can say I was slacking a bit but when it comes to speaking in front of a big crowd I always get nervous and end up saying whatever comes off the top of my head anyway. A month or so ago when Anthony and I went on Channel 5 news, Anthony kept trying to get me to throw in the word jellybeans somewhere randomly which I did not. So when I was called upon during the board of directors meeting to speak for our club I did manage to throw in a NASCAR mention but nothing about jelly beans and it did get a few laughs and we did get voted in so no harm done.

After the meeting was over it was still raining but just barely, I was wanting to ride so I mentioned to Andy and Anthony that we should go anyway but unfortunately all of Anthony's riding gear was in his car, in Asheville with the girls who were shopping. I don't think he believed me either when I told him he would be fine riding in jeans.

Since we could not ride and the girls were gone shopping we decided to do the next best thing. Drink beer at the local bike shop.

Yes, The Hub in Brevard serves beer, not just any old beer but local craft beers. We rolled into the Hub joined the required private membership, which was free and spent the afternoon the best way we could think of considering our situation.

Slowly as time went by more and more folks from the summit trickled in, I guess we weren't the only one's with the same idea. A bike shop that serves beer is an awesome thing and a bad thing all at the same time. It's cool for obvious reasons but also bad in the sense that too many Pisgah Stouts almost caused me to walk out with a sweet set of Industry 9 wheels priced at a little over $1000. Yeah that would not have been good.

We did take a bunch of pics but I haven't had time to sort though them much less upload any but hopefully tomorrow.

tire delimma

I finally went out and bought a new set of tires for the AIR9 yesterday. When I built it up last summer I just moved the Bontragers off the Mamasita and over to the AIR9. They have been great tires and I got a good deal on them when I bought them but Bontrager has discontinued them so I've been on the hunt for a replacement for a while. In my search I've learned one thing, 29" tubeless tires are not only hard to find but they are also freaking expensive, almost as expensive as tires for my truck. I've been shopping around, getting quotes here and there but not really finding much, that I could afford anyway. The tread on my rear tire was really starting to get low and lose traction so this week I decided I needed to make a move especially with two big, back to back weekend trips, one being the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek.

Yesterday I decided on a set of Continental Mountain Kings. They were reasonably priced and had a good looking tread in my opinion. Really my opinion on tread is really not something I would base a purchase on because I'm clueless when it comes to tires and tread. I listen here and there to conversations about tire tread for as long as my attention span will alow (5 min max) then I go out shop around throw all my good info out the window and buy on what I think looks good for the best price. Sounds like a good way to pick a tire huh.

I bought the Mountain Kings, took them home and began the ridiculously long, painful, irritating and messy process of mounting up a set of tubeless tires. Normally I make a mess of epic proportions, cuss and fight the tire for 2 hrs before giving up and running down to the local bike shop for help. You see I have no air compressor which makes this process alot easier but I'm always putting off the purchase of one because the only time I need one is when mounting up tubeless tires.

Last night as usual I spent alot of time trying to mount them with my floor pump and as usual I made a mess and got no where. I finally gave up and waited until this morning when I could get access to an air compressor.

Once I did I got them seated only to find out one of the tires had a slice in the side wall. I was forced to return home and swap it back out for the better of the two Bontragers and make the drive to the air compressor again. Finally after wasting too much time with my tires I was ready to go but something wrong. The Bontrager was alot bigger than the Conti. They were both supposed to be 2.2's but I guess it's that whole European skinny tires are better crap that screws everything up and running it on the back made it look even weirder. I was already late for a ride so I said screw it and decided to swap them around later.









After the ride I finally broke down and bought an air compressor so I could swap the tires around before heading out for the weekend. Now that I have two totally different tires and two obviously different sizes I'm going to go crazy worrying about the whole vanity thing. I mean you have to look fast and good too right? Anyway the AIR9 is a hardtail and a skinny European girly tire just won't do when it comes to smashing my way through nasty rock gardens. Since I have already paid for and ridden the tire I guess I will keep it a give it a shot. Obviously the cut tire went back to the shop for a return but I'm pretty much stuck with the other one.

bikes more bikes and a flashlight

Our bike room at home is full, of bikes that is. The norm for our bike room is 7 bikes but we've added 2 extra in the past week. Moonshine loves bikes almost as much as I do but she was complaining the other day that she was running out of room for her bed on the floor. Really only one bike is permanent, for now, Brownie is back to stay and I'll be damned if I can't think of another name for it and for some reason keeping it "Brownie" when it's no longer brown kinda sounds fun to me. The other addition, while temporary for now is another 29er. No we're not flipping bikes these days, it's a demo Niner Air9 that Melinda is currently putting the screws to at Bays Mountain as I type this. She's been pondering the big hoops for a while but I never thought we could find a size to fit her much less a demo for her to ride before throwing down the cash on one.










Not the prettiest looking bike I've ever seen, Kermit green, gold and red kinda hurts the eyes but it's hard to come by demos, especially in a size small. Having this bike in the house does help me make up my mind whenever it comes to whether I would like the Kermit green color or not. It would be hard to find parts that flowed with this color and you would really be limited to all black.


On the subject of new bikes I'm still on the fence on what to do with my full squish frame, I like it but yet I feel like it's not me. It's fun on the downhills but in my hood you have to do alot of climbing to get there and I'm not 100% sure I'm really that much faster going downhill with the full suspension vs a hardtail. I had serious thoughts of selling the JET9 for a SIR9, Niner's steel hardtail that can be run geared or SS. I almost talked myself out of it but now it's creeping it's way back into my head again. This year they've got the SIR9 in the sweet Moondust grey color and to tell you the truth I think I might just enjoy riding a singlespeed more than the squish. It's simple, fun and challenging not to mention the feel of steel on the trail is like non other. The deraileur/gears on my JET9 has been nothing but a pain in the ass the whole time I've had it, some of that has to do with the fact it's a 1x9. The debate continues inside my head.




LED's are getting brighter and brighter and coupled with a Lithium Ion battery you can have one small, lightweight light that lasts longer and is super bright. Melinda says I have an addiction to flashlights, blinkies and other lighting systems and she's probably right. I ordered 2 high powered LED flashlights a couple of weeks ago from China and they finally came in the mail the other day. These things are super bright, brighter than any flashlight I own. They are almost if not as bright as my LED headlamp I run while night riding. They each came with 2 small Lithium Ion rechargable batteries and a charger. I only paid $10 for the light, 2 batteries and a charger. I've seen several similar flashlights you can order that are about half the lumens of these at 10x the price. With a little bit of engineering I could strap them to my helmet for riding and I might try it soon. Some of my older LED's won't even hit the back of my yard at night but I have to be careful where I point these things cause they'll light up my neighbor's house 2 houses down. I'm scared what I might see if I accidentally shine the light into the windows down the road.


Spring is looking up, I'm seeing the trees starting to bud and green stuff sprouting up in my garden and so far my head and allergies are doing good. I'm really hoping the new allergy meds are going to make this spring clearer for me. I'm determined to silence the ridiculousness that goes on in my head and straighten out whatever distorts my thought process. I'm convinced it's congestion effecting my inner ear or something of that nature. I've talked myself till I'm blue in the face to several doctor's but they all look at me like I'm an idiot. I've researched this on the webMD sites for those people who think they're internet doctor's and some tried to tell me I'm paranoid but that's crap. Why can one minute I feel normal then the next have trouble processing thoughts or sentences. I've thought about telling my doctor I see dead people just to mess with him so maybe he would take me seriously but Melinda doesn't think it's funny when I say things like that.
I'm really hoping to redeam myself this year at the 6WC coming up in two weeks, the past two years really sucked last year being the worst. It's the first and only time I've bailed on a race like that. I busted out two rides at Warriors in the past two days and felt great, no allergy side effects or weird feelings in my head.
Last night I met up with Fat Tony at 6:30 to squeeze in a lap after work. I thought for sure we would need lights near the end of the ride but we were able to finish out the lap with enough light to still pin it in the corners coming down MCR.

If you haven't already seen the IMBA Trail Care Crew re-cap video check it out.








It took a little longer than expected to finish it. I had to wait a few days for the rain to quit before I could get out and shoot a ride on the new section of the Big Oak re-route and it rides great. It may not be as fast as the old section but it's 500 feet longer, no longer has a creek running down it and it's rideable going up hill when wet. Give it a couple more weeks to get properly ridden in and I think it will continue to get faster. If you're still pissy about the change you can still go bomb down the creek called Azalea trail that keeps getting wider and more rutted out everyday.

brownie makes a comeback

Friday after my ride on Buffalo with B-Rad and Ben the Applebeast I headed over to Norris Bicycles to check on the progress of Brownie. I was told over a week ago it would be ready on Friday but I was trying not to get my hopes up. Technically it wasn't ready, it still need brakes and a few other minor accessories but once the brakes were installed it was ready to go home with me. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, better than I expected. I probably should have waited to post up any pics until every last detail was taken care of but my excitement over the project was too great to wait.

The old Brownie

The new Brownie

The majority of the bike was kept original, all the drivetrain and the hubs were overhauled. The brown paint was changed to a very clean white powder coat. The original handlebars and stem were missing when I got ahold of the bike but Dave replaced the heavy four bolt stem with an antique Schwinn stem that looked good and suited the style I was looking for much better. The bmx style handlebar went away and was replaced with a Soma Fabrications Noah's Arc bar.

The brake levers were also replaced as they just didn't fit the new style as well. There are new white Oury grips on order as well.

Of course Brownie got new cables, housing, chain, tires and brake pads. I have new pedals on order to replace the current bent ones.

I plan to put the chain guard back on but Dave hadn't got around to painting it or the fenders yet so it will probably be another week or so. The fenders will stay off but I'll be holding onto them in case I change my mind. The saddle and seatpost were replaced as well but the saddle on it right now is just temporary, I've yet to decide what will go on it permanently. Hopefully by next week the new pedals and grips will be in so she will be ready to roll. CRAWL season is just around the corner and I'm ready to roll in style.

Friday when I was out riding Buffalo we stopped for a bit of refueling and B-Rad pulled out a small pouch of peanut butter & chocolate by The Peanut Butter & Co.

The pouch was perfect for carrying in a jersey pocket and perfect for a trailside snack. I had tried their peanut butter several times before and was impressed but I had not seen the small pouches. Today while I was at the store I grabbed a few to give it a try, they pack quite a punch in the way of refueling and with dark choc. and peanut butter it has to be good.

IMBA TCC photo re-cap and Buffalo Mtn. monkey business

Last weekend Melinda and I hosted the IMBA Trail Care Crew at our house for the weekend. Who the heck are they you ask? Go here to learn a little bit about who they are and what they do. We had Steve and Morgan Lommele, a really cool couple that we had alot of fun hanging out with.






I've already written a re-cap of the entire weekend for the NTMBA site so if you want to know more of the details about what went down go here. I didn't see any reason to repeat everything I've already said and what alot of you have already probably read. Steve and Morgan have their perspective of the weekend reported here.
So anyway what I've got for you are some other little tidbits that maybe weren't as important or might have left the NTMBA report a bit lengthy and of course alot more pics.

It wasn't all lectures and workshops, there was alot of hanging out shooting the bull, drinking a few brews and of course a bit of riding.

The section of trail we worked on last weekend was basically built all wrong, during heavy rains it had a small creek running down the middle of it as you can see above.

Friday afternoon several of us accompanied Steve and Morgan into the woods to watch their flagging process.

I basically took a bunch of random shots and video, scouted the other new trail across the creek that is the Azalea Trail and goofed off.

It crazy some of the stuff you can find in the woods when your just standing around in the same spot for a couple of hours. Steve and Morgan went back and forth in one section of trail flagging, reflagging and then reflagging some more. Finally they came to a mutual agreement and we headed back to the cars to go ride.

Since they had already ridden Bays the day before we took them over to Warriors Path to show off one of our crown jewels.

Both Friday and Saturday we started the day off with workshops fueled with coffee and donuts. Yes I ate more donuts that weekend than I have in a long time but I'm pretty sure I earned the calories.

We had a good sized crew show up for Saturday's workshop despite the threat of rain. We actually got pretty lucky the entire time we were in the woods because I really don't recall getting rained on at all.

The photo above is #1 in a series of 4 all taken in the same spot. The trail you see to the right is the old section of Big Oak just above where the problem area begins. Look closely on the left and you will see the orange pin flags marking where the new trail will begin.

#2 This photo is at the very beginning of the workday as the volunteers are just beginning to clear away the leaves on the new trail.

#3 The digging or benching of the new trail (left) has officially begun. On the right the old trail is being prepared to return it back to nature and make it disappear so it will look like the old trail never existed.

#4 Again this photo was taken in the exact same position as the previous three. The new trail is officially completed and the old section no longer exists. It was amazing to look back and try and figure out where the old trail used to be.

Later that evening Melinda and I host a social event at our house in celebration of the new section of trail we built. Unfortunately the weather did not hold out for the party but I took necessary precautions and set up the EZ-UP out on the deck for crowd gathered around the uh... um... adult beverage dispenser.
I shot quite a bit of video from the weekend, some riding, some trailwork and just some random stuff. As soon as the trails dry up, hopefully tomorrow, I plan to head up to Bays and ride the new section, completing the footage I need to make a video. It will probably be next week before I get a chance to put it all together so stay tuned.


Pretty much all week I've been stuck indoors except for Tues when Melinda and I spent the entire day digging ditches. Today B-Rad, the Applebeast and I went for a ride on Buffalo Mountian. I kinda figured we would get rained out when I went running yesterday but B-Rad said we were on and that we were riding the roads from his house to the trailhead getting in about 8 extra miles. We saw a little bit of everything as far as conditions go. Sun, strong winds, clouds, snow, and small streams where there are not usually small streams.








It seems that everytime I ride Buffalo Mountain the weather is either rain or snow, never sunny and nice. I'm not sure why that is but I aim to change that this summer. I always wonder how B-Rad got to be such a strong rider, the ride we did today is his normal route and it hurt. I think I need to joining him more often especially if we're going to be competing together in the TN Cup series together.






We ascended up to the firetower which is currently being restored, somewhere I haven't been in a while. We really only rode around 2 miles of the new Pinnacle Firetower trail which was nice from what I could tell but it was completely covered with snow.





A view form atop the firetower, the views weren't the best with all the clouds in the way but it was too freaking cold to be up there for very long anyway.
I was probably a bit under prepared, riding up I was sweating alot and once we started back down I got really cold. Cold enough that it took me a few hours to warm my core back up. At one point in the decent I lost feeling in my toes which made me nervous until B-Rad told me it would take a while before I did any damage. Every once in a while I would have to stop and warm up my hands, they would get so cold I was having trouble shifting gears and braking.

Once we rolled back into B-Rad's driveway I think we logged close to 24 miles, not bad considering the conditions we dealt with.

After I left B-Rad I headed over to Norris Schwinn to pick up the bike formally know as Brownie. Dave finally finished her and I have to see she looks awesome. I still have a few things to do to her before I'll call it done but it shouldn't be too much longer, at least I brought her home. I really didn't have time before work to snap any good pics but I will tomorrow and I'll give a full run down on the restoration job.