Savin' some weight..................

Who me?

I took the 2.4 gumball downhill tires off of my hardtail yesterday and replaced them with something more reasonable in a 2.0 size. The tires I took off weighed close 3 pounds a piece and the ones that went one were considerably lighter. That took off about 3 pounds of weight at the best possible place to take weight off of a bicycle.

Click to make hugerer.

Well, maybe the second best place to take weight off. Been riding pain free most of the spring, now I suppose it's time to push the fitness a little bit and lose a few pounds. Those huge tires make for great handling downhill but uphill.................ugh.

I'll just have to get used to riding on "normal" mountain bike tires again. I bought Specialized Enduro tires in a 2.0 size, they kinda look like road bike tires compared to what I was running.

Since I was scrounging around for inexpensive stuff at the LBS, I picked up a set of new set of handlebars and a brand new seat. Sure, the handlebars don't match the rest of the bike since they are bare aluminum and everything else is either red or anodized black..........whatever, I really don't care about that kinda stuff much anyway.

While I was at the shop, some really strange guy bought new tires and tubes for his bike. Not sure if the guy had a speech impediment or he just got done smoking some crystal meth but he was really slurring his words. I'm thinkin' he just lost his license and was in the process of getting his "liquor store" bike in running order. Whatever. Just don't get run over on the way home from the bar.

I was planning on riding my Surly over to Lancaster to watch some of the race preparations on Tuesday but our son's asthma flared up and he stayed home from school. Maybe next year, looks like I missed a good race.

I was riding some of the new singletrack our club put in over the weekend. Awesome stuff, I really dig the tight switchbacks. Some of them are so tight you have to hop the rear wheel around to make the turn. Fun stuff.

There are some pointy rocks that basically point directly at your front tire and a couple of dips shaped exactly the same circumference as a 26' wheel. .............I have a feeling somebody might end up missing a few teef :-)

3 more nights of work and it's goof-off time for a week.

Yay.

Till later.

Get the spray paint out............

I gotta say, my friend Greg is pretty good with a welder.




All it needs now is some paint.

His chopper does the same thing mine does. You grin like an idiot when you ride it.

We had our club's kid ride last night, not a really big turn out but 7 year old Alex had some serious fun. And he liked my donuts.

He's going to be giving his dad some competition in a couple years.

The Giro d'Italia is over, I'm finding it hard to get excited about professional cycling, maybe if they can make it through a whole year without any doping scandals I'll change my mind.

Check out the pics on this site. These folks do the kinds of races I might do well in.........it's dark, guys are wearing womans clothes and drinking beer. What could go wrong????

I look at my blog stat's once and awhile, on average 50 to 60 people follow my blog-most folks are from around here. Maybe someday I'll be famous.

Or not.

I see Jesus. WTF? Come on people......it's a freakin' window screen.

This is a cool lawn mower. All they need to do now is add a remote control to it.

Cop motor, cop tires, cop shocks.......only 200 miles to Chicago.............hit it. I think the new Charger is uglier then a freight train but it looks pretty nasty dressed up as a cop car.

Stupid. I love the Onion.

Till later..........

One more week..............

One more week until vacation.

I have some big plans for the week, I am gonna hang out at the pool with our 11 year old, wash and wax my minivan and ride all 6 of my bikes. Other then that-I plan to sit on the front porch and drink 7&7's every night. I'm not a very big drinker, so I might just drink the 7 Up part..............


I'll also be riding a loaner bike from Ed's Ski and Cycle for a day or two courtesy of my friend Will.


Cool lookin' bike,huh?

I'm not going to be in the market for a new bike until March or April of next year but doesn't hurt to sample the wares. Maybe I'll post a bike review if I don't manage to kill myself riding a full suspension bike again. I used to own a GT XCR 3000 and I had all kinds of fun on that bike. Will, if you're reading this-I promise I won't wheelie drop off of any loading docks :-)

We have our club's kid's ride tonight-looking forward to it, I made a few dozen fancy donuts for everyone to pig out on afterwards. Hopefully, I'll have some good pics for my next post.

Stopped by Greg's house Saturday to drop off a rear tire for his chopper and it's actually rideable. It's a sick bike. He still has all the metal finish and paint prep and a few minor details but it's gonna be cool.

It's Memorial Day so take a moment to thank all the service men and woman who serve our country and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Till later................

Helmets, Hunting and Choppers......

One of the blogs I read had some interesting comments about helmet use. Some folks think they are a good idea and some don't. When I was a kid growing up in the late 60's and early 70's-there wasn't such a thing as bicycle helmets. I made through childhood just fine without one and I attribute that to one thing.

Luck.

I don't pull out of my driveway without a bicycle helmet on and since our state has changed the helmet law for motorcycles-I can not believe all the helmet-less motorcycle riding organ donors out there. Yeah, I miss the wind in my hair but I'd rather put up with that then having someone feed me and wipe my ass for the next 30 years.

Since I got back into cycling 8 years ago, I've had a few times where having a helmet has saved me from serious dain bramage..................................

And here's why I am very careful when I ride on the road.


Our state is probably gonna go to 7 day a week hunting soon.

Lovely.

Since the county parks I ride in allow hunting-I am really looking forward to sharing the woods with them on Sunday rides this fall. Sure hope the hunters don't mind if I tie a cowbell to my handlebars. Since our state has over 2 million acres of land set aside for the exclusive use of hunters-let'em drive to a SGL to hunt on Sunday.


I paid a visit to my friend Greg Friday evening, he is smokin' on the chopper!

Here are some of the latest pics........


Looks like a bike now.


Like I said before-That's a long ass fork. Greg says it handles like a pig. .........they all do that brotha.


Looks like a push bike right at the moment, Greg is still deciding on where to place the bottom bracket. I am digging the proposed paint scheme........The frame will be a bright metallic green at the front fading into flames and the either metallic purple or blue on the rear half.


Something like this maybe??
Everything else will be black. It's gonna be bitch'n..........

That's about it for the weekend..............

Till later and stay safe.

I'm absent-minded.........

In my post about the crit I was at last weekend, I wanted to include a pic of my friend Will and his neutral support tent but ...... I kinda forgot to take a pic. Doh.

Will sent me a link to a really cool blog from the brand manager of Masi bikes. Fortunately Tim has included a pic on one of his blog's entries.

I received an e-mail from someone named Corri asking me to put up a link for her mom and a friend that are bicycling across Canada to raise money for lung cancer research. I have no idea who Corrie is but since I used to smoke and I am married to a cancer survivor- It would be hard to say no.........


It's a done deal. I'd like to do something like that before I'm too old.

I hope they raise a boatload of money and more importantly-I hope they have a safe trip. That's a nice blog, by the way :-)

Our club is having a "Kids Ride" this Sunday, I always look forward to these as I love to see kids get outside and have fun that doesn't involve a TV or a computer. I'm not in charge of the ride or anything-but the way I see it- the more you get kids and their parents outside spending time together, the better. I plan on bring one of my neices with me so it oughta be a fun time.

One of my smartass friends sent me a link to this. It's bad enough that a 45 year old guy (me) rides a chopper bike around his neighborhood-I don't need to draw anymore attention to myself.

Saw this and while I don't doubt the process works in certain applications, there ain't no way he gets 120 mpg unless he is driving all downhill.

I respect the office of the Presidency, but 2008 can't get here fast enough.

Okay, so I checked out the video........my question is-who the hell washes their car wearing high heels? 20 years from now-they will be doing one of those "Where are they now?" shows on Paris Hilton. She's had so much plastic surgery, she looks totally different then she was a teenager. Gotta respect that, huh?

We need more phone lines into our house. Our 17 year old daughter talks on her cell AND our regular phone at the same time.

Maybe she would make a good stockbroker.

This site is different. Naked guys riding SS's and fixies don't really do a whole lot for me but whatever floats your boat.

Foot long penis closes Interstate highway. Sorry, no pictures.........

Another penis in the news.

Continuing on the wayward penis theme.........A dog? That ain't right.

Books I've never read.

Last link for today and you might spend some time here. I know I did.

Till later.............

Just some random crankiness

How come iPod accessories cost so damn much?


I had to pay almost 20 bucks for a little clip that will let me put my Shuffle on my belt loop instead of hanging it around my neck like a goober.

I guess the stuff cost so much because dumbasses like me step up to the plate and buy it. I was at Circuit City and they have all kinds of stuff for iPods. Docks, connectors, chargers, cables-you name it and none of it is cheap.

I shop at our local Border's because they have a great assortment of mountain biking and cycling magazines. There is this clerk there that is so *s l o w * ringing up everyone's order and I always seem to get her when I'm waiting in line.

Today she was all by herself at the front and the older woman in front of me was questioning the price on everything she was buying. First off, If you are gonna be that much of a pain in the ass when you check out-go shop at Wal-Mart where they have do it yourself checkouts. Second.......yeah, I know-be patient but while I and other customers were waiting (for at least 5 minutes or so it seemed) at least 3 employees walked by the register area and none of them either paged for more cashiers or ran one themselves.

Outstanding customer service..............Not.

Being patient is just not in my nature when it involves having to wait to pay for something. Took the test and I am relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic but not patient. Go figure.

This is nice. Now all they have to do is figure out how to make their hambugers not taste like greasebombs.

Hunting with .50 caliber handguns? Holy shit, there won't be any deer left to eat.

We could sell them water...............for 5 bucks a gallon.


Yes, He does........when he's not riding His chopper.

Hey, this is cool. It took Darth 30 questions to get the object I was thinking about. The object?

A turd.

Yeah, I know............I need to grow up already.

I used to smoke, maybe this guy oughta consider quitting as well while he still has some face left.

Dumbass of the day. Gasoline and dishwashing detergent=napalm. I knew that already, too bad they didn't.


I have a tough job.

If anybody can figure this out-lemme know. Since I am so impatient-I gave up after 5 minutes.

As if the above link wasn't enough of a time waster, check out the pictureofeverything.

I'm guilty of not checking my e-mail all the time, I missed the fact that someone had comment on an earlier post I did. I had posted a link to this story and said that Newsweek f**ked up. Here was the comment posted by "Anonymous"...........

____________________________________________

"Newsweek f**ked up"? Not hardly! Newsweek reported on something that's actually been reported on many times before and seems to have happened repeatedly. The only reason they were taken to task for it is because their report happened to coincide with riots that were breaking out over it. The problem isn't reporting, the problem is Administration knuckleheads telling military commanders to "turn up the heat" on suspects taken captive, who in turn give a wink and a nod to poorly educated 19 year old kids who think it's funny as hell to beat the living crap out of people whose culture is different from theirs and who, 99 out of 100 times are completely innocent, guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And we wonder why people around the world are starting to hate us?
____________________________________________

................My thoughts on the above comment? I completely agree with you that the Administration is full of knuckleheads.

Newsweek also has some knuckleheads working for them as well.

As far your comment about "poorly educated 19 year olds kids beating the crap out of people" is a bit unfair. Whatever.......you have your opinion-I have mine.


I saw this and was surprised they didn't mace and taser her. Those 86 year old women can get out of hand in a hurry.


Damn, that's a big fish.
According to the story it took over a half hour to reel in. Shoulda used a stick of dynamite and saved some time.

Gosh, I wish my parents woulda used this when I was a kid. Then I woulda been normal.

I wonder if I can just buy the motor for my chopper. Shucks, I'll just get some spokey-dokeys.

Till later...............

Podcasting stuff+chopper update

I suppose it's no small secret that I am a really big fan of podcasting. Most people I've talked to have never heard of it before. Here is a very brief explanation.



Here is how I listen to pods. First I downloaded iTunes 4.8 to use as my music managing software because it works well with iPodder. After you have iPodder downloaded and installed, just click the "Podcast Directory" tab and go to the iPodder.org-Podcasting Central tab and double click it. Go to the "Categories" section and open it and you will find all the pods organized by category. Double click any pods that look interesting and they will be added to your subscribed feeds.

You can configure the iPodder software to check for new feeds automatically or any number of ways by clicking "Tools" and then click " Scheduler".

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts, if you have some other type of MP3 player, just drag the files out of the iTunes library and into your MP3 players disc drive and they will play. You can also just listen to them on your computer by double clicking the file.


Click the above image to get a full size diagram of how podcasting works.

Here are the RSS feeds for some of the pods I am currently listening to..............If you have podcasting software installed, just click on the links and copy and paste the feeds into your software.

IMC Radio- this is a collection of feeds from Indymedia.com, all kinds of stuff shows up here. Kind of like a potpourri.

These Days- San Diego public radio news and interviews.

Adam Curry's Daily Source Code- The father of podcasting-he has a daily podcast that has music features,promos and the latest podcasting news.

The Bike Show- stuff about bikes.

Radio Free Biker- more stuff concerning bikes.

Slacker Astronomy and Slacker Astronomy Extra- You don't have to like astronomy to enjoy this podcast. Learn some stuff about science.

The View from Here- A couple talks about life in Israel.

Keith and the Girl- A couple of clowns from NYC. Very funny and VERY off-color.

Benjaman Walker's Theory of Everything. Very eclectic. Something different with every new update.

Fly With Me- What airline pilots really talk about.

Catholic Insider- A Dutch priest. He talks about stuff other than religion-it's pretty darn interesting.

Here's a very good directory. Here's another.

I have a 512mb iPod shuffle and it's big enough to hold at least 12 hours of shows which works out well because that's how long it will play before it needs recharged. I listen to them at work through one earbud at a fairly low volume so I am able to have a conversation with someone and don't appear totally non-social.

I could go on listing podcasts to listen to........ go ahead and experiment-not every pod you subscribe to will be to your liking -it's all good- just unsubscribe and check out some different ones........... they are free after all!



My buddy Greg sent me some more pics of his chopper build up. Folks.........this thing is "forking" scary looking.


Nice shot of the triple trees. You have to remember, none of this stuff you are seeing is off the shelf parts- It's all coming directly out of Greg's brain and into metal.

Click the pics for the largerer versions.

Izzat some wild stuff or what?


Riders eye view.


Sweet Jesus, that's one long ass fork.



That's about it for today, next time I'm gonna rant and rave about how much iPod accessories cost and shitty service at Borders.

Till later.

Crit pics..............

Here are some pics from the crit I was at yesterday.....................



















My favorite one is the last one, man those guys are FAST. I have to apologize for the blurry pictures, this is the first time I've used my new camera for action pictures and I am still a little bit unsure of the settings. All I know is that they race inches apart from each other and I'd have to estimate they are going at least 25 mph.

My friend Will from Ed's Ski and Cycle was providing neutral support for the race and he had some pretty neat road bikes on display as well. I haven't been up to his shop yet, but maybe he will let me take some pics of the place when I manage to free up some time and pay him a visit.

I have a friend that is thinking about trying out his bike fit service and perhaps I could document the whole process and post up some pics. We'll see how that works out..................

After the race I rode over to my brother and sister-in-laws house to catch the tail end of my niece's birthday brunch. When my brother in law built his house several years ago-it was on a hill totally by itself on several acres of land. Now-it is surrounded by a new development of mini-McMansions............all the houses look the same to me. Same color, same size..........totally boring looking.

I also gave away one of my bikes yesterday. We have a nephew the same age as our daughter and he needed a road bike to do some commuting on. My 1977 Raleigh worked out really well for him so I gave it to him. I think it's pretty cool that a 17 year old is more interested in riding then driving. The bike is older the he is-truly old school.

Now I am down to 5 bikes.

I think my next bike is gonna be some type of full suspension bike. I like the Specialized Enduro and the Jamis Dakar. Both are really nice looking bikes but until I save the bucks for one or the other-I am thinking I will end up with a Dakar since they are a good bit less expensive then Specialized. Who knows, maybe I will hit the lottery and buy one of each:-)

I know I keep blathering on about podcasting but if you spend any time on a bike solo riding or commuting in a car- listening to podcasts are a great way to entertain and learn some stuff. My next post I am going to list some of my favorite ones again and how to listen to them.

Till later..................

Quick ride.............

Did a quick little ride over to Lancaster Saturday. 35 miles at about a 16mph average. Almost got wiped off the face of the earth on the way back to my house.

Not sure why, but I always seem to get the 88 year old lady with silver-blue hair driving her dead husband's 88 Coupe de Ville out there tryin' to kill me.

Had some old lady blow through a stop sign at 4 way intersection-she didn't see me until the last second-and she hit the brakes so damn hard she and her passenger slid right off the front of the seat (no seatbelts, I guess) and hit the dashboard. I saw her way before she saw me and I had nearly come to a stop, thank God.

Old people shouldn't drive.

Get with the program..........

Which program is that you may ask? ..........................

The EXTREME program. You know, where everything is turned up a couple notches.
Several examples............

-Speakers

-Energy drinks

-Marketing

-Elvis

-Sex toys No wait-I guess that one has always been somewhat extreme.

-Sports

-Ironing

-Hubcaps

-Pizza

-Pumpkin carving

And yes, even mountain biking. I'm so sick of everything be labled extreme, I am ready to projectile vomit on the next person I see that mentions anything that is "extreme".

Whoa.

I suppose that would be a little "extreme" of me, huh?


I haven't seen the newest Star Wars movie, I'm pretty sure
the above dialog wasn't included.

I'm glad this little guy isn't living in my neck of the woods. Scary shit. I've read that sex offenders are not happy that they have to register where they live. I have a solution-don't be a sex offender.

That's about it for today. My next post will hopefully include some pics from the crit I will be attending on Sunday.

Till later.....

Rocket Science...........

I suppose building a chopperbike from a pile of tubes and an old frame or two isn't rocket science, but to me it is. Not sure how my friend Greg's mind works but it's damn fun watching the progress on his chopper build up.

Click the thumbnails to supersize.

At this point Greg has decided to go with a Aheadset style of headtube.


Not having one handy, he makes his own out of steel tubing.


Old one from the donor frame on the left, new one on the right. According to Greg, this has been the most difficult part of the project so far. I can believe it figuring that you have to precision machine both ends of it. I'm really looking forward to checking out his handiwork when he constructs the fork.

Bike riding is not a crime. Awesome blog, check the rest of it out.

This is a seroiusly cool way to make a living. I wonder if something like that would fly around York?

I wish this shop was right here instead of Cali. I am digging the flamed seats.

This is why I don't watch much TV. Network TV makes you stupid.

While I'm not too hot on the idea of teenage pregnancy (yeah, my daughter is 17-you got a problem with that?) I totally think it was wrong for the school in this story to do what they did. They let the father (also in the class) participate in graduation? That's messed up.

Saw this and I had to laugh. I bought a Plymouth minivan the year before this was offered. Less then a year after the warranty expired-the transaxle ate itself. What a piece of shit. I'm sticking to Subies after the van wears out.

I know I have a couple readers in Minneapolis, this looks like a really nice bar.

Hmmmmmmmmm...............get it?

Till later...........

Wal-Mart..........

Lots of folks really hate Wal-Mart. I'm not a super huge fan of the company myself because the company I work for goes head to head with them in all our local marketing areas. I do know a couple things about them..........

-They are ballbusters when it comes to price. Price is everything for them. Which is good for customers in the short term but perhaps not in the long term.

-They pay jackshit. Our company is guilty of that to a certain extent as well, but once you make full time at my company-the benefits are pretty good. Part-timers also have fairly decent benefits after a year of employment, including healthcare after 90 days.

-They exert too much influence on their suppliers. That's okay sometimes, sometimes it's not. Am I complaining? No, I buy stuff there fairly often. We purchased a 32" TV there this past winter for 200 bucks. Money talks-bullshit walks.

On to other stuff............

I checked my site statistics and found a person that was looking for how many calories are in a donut somehow ended up at my site............

Alot.

I'm guessing that someone is on a diet and wanted to know how many calories were in the donut they snuck before bedtime.


I also have a huge bruise on my ass cheek from the "off" I had up at Rocky Ridge this past weekend. Oh, my aching ass.............

For lack of a better term, Newsweek f**ked up. News at all cost isn't worth people dying.

Going to watch this bike race this Sunday. My friend Will owns the LBS that is providing neutral support and I am gonna hang out some.

Till later and more pics from my friend's chopper build up. It's rocket science I tell ya.

Till later.

Chopper pics...........

Is this neat or what? (clickia to make biggia)

Greg has been fitting some pipes and welding away.

Man, this thing is gonna be cool.

I don't know jackshit about welding or metalworking but I really like the lines. Hurry up and finish it so we can terrorize my neighbors.

I used to be a really big NASCAR fan. I think that in the past 10 years or so, that the sport has become a caricature of itself. I mean, do I really care if Tony Stewart says a couple of bad words once and awhile? Shit no, I think they oughta have to wrestle for the trophy after the race. Or least have a fistfight. Then my favorite toupee wearing driver Jimmie Spencer would be kicking some major ass.


Folks, this is the real deal. Anytime you get all 4 wheels off the ground-that's driving.

I also follow drag racing. Yeah, go ahead and make fun of me but it's hard to argue with 7000 horsepower.

Anybody see this? That ain't right. Even if the dog was gonna be euthanized-it still isn't cool.

I'm damn proud to say that I am not on this list. Because I don't have any hair to style. Just a whole lotta forehead. And it's sunburnt forehead after my tennis whooping Sunday.

I'm not sure what kind of music this is. It's certainly different. I like it.

You dickhead.

This is cool. I'd like to give it a shot. I think it would be useful for getting through an 8 hour shift at work. The donuts might end up being funny shaped though.

Tired of needless content? Get this......

What the hell was this guy thinking when he got dressed?

I love this site. I haven't gone through all the rants yet but I especially like the one about American Idol. I'm not one for much network TV, so I can see the guys point. Turn off the damn TV and go for a bike ride or a walk.

I haven't really been following the Giro much but I'd really like to see Ivan Basso do well. He's the only guy out there besides Jan Ullrich that has the slightest chance to kick Lance's ass in July.

Almost got creamed walking out of Target Monday afternoon by you guessed it..........a soccer mom in an SUV talking on her cell. I had just bought a 1/2 gig iPod shuffle to listen to podcasts at work and was looking at the package so it's sorta my fault but she shouldn't have been going 45 mph in a parking lot.

I like my 4 gig iPod mini a whole bunch but it's getting too beat up being carried around in my shirt pocket. The Shuffle is a lot smaller and the 1/2 gig size is more then enough to hold 8 hours worth of podcasts.

Something crawled into a ventilation duct at work last night and died. Our air conditioning smelled like rotton eggs on and off all night. Holy Mother of God it smelled bad. For once, I'm glad that the bakery isn't air conditioned.

Helmets save lives. Just read something on the YAMBA board about the owners of one of our LBS's having a crash on the rail trail. They are going to be okay but you can never be too safe. I wonder how the hell I got through childhood back in the 60's and 70's without a helmet. I used to do some very crazy shit on a bike and never got more then the occasional scrape. I must be right with Jesus. Or something.


Drink up.

Till later.