Scarce........

Ya'll won't be seein' lots of posts this weekend.

I'll be busy riding, swimming and blowing stuff up with our 11 year old. My sister-in-law bought 150 dollars worth of fireworks and I think she is planning to come over with her kids as well. We'll be lucky if someone doesn't lose a finger or burn our house down.

-Sat. work until 4 AM sleep until noon, pool until 4, short ride........collapse.

-Sun. Mtb ride at 8AM, pool at noon, nap, screw around on the computer for a few hours then go to sleep.

-Mon. morning road ride, pool at noon, have a few beers, blow stuff up.

It oughta be fun, I'll post some pics if I remember the camera.

I did get an e-mail from a fellow bike blogger, you all have to check out her site, it's cool and she's cool because she's a pastry chef. If you get brain fade-I'll have the link up on the left hand side.

This is just flat out messed up. Only 10,000 bucks for a forehead tattoo?

To cover private school for her kids?

Hope it's a low budget private school...........

............On the other hand, if I got a forehead tattoo, I could probably fit the entire NASDAQ on mine because I am all about forehead.

"This tastes like shit" Don't click on that link if you're a fan of Rick Santorum.

Damn, this is cool. I'd pay money to drive a Caterpillar D-9 through some stuff. Like a grocery store.

This could easily be me.

Ya'll have a spiffy weekend.........I'll update the festivities on Tuesday if I'm not in the hospital getting fingers reattached.

PS-Our daughter is away at the University of Pittsburgh for the next month.

She reads this blog and I am sure she will enjoy the upcoming pics of her room as my lovely wife cleans, declutters, organizes and disinfects her room.

I rented a small dumpster.

Till later.




Just kidding about the dumpster kid. Love ya:-)

Test it Thursday................

The best a man can get.............


Hey, if it can make Saddam look good, it can make anybody look good.

Seriously?

I really do use this razor and I like it quite a bit. Something about having a motorized razor appeals to the geek in me. I don't ever plan on shaving my legs but if I did-this razor would probably be pretty good at it.

The blades aren't cheap but they seem to last a lot longer then normal blades. I can get at least a dozen shaves out of one set of blades before I change'em out.

I did shave my head once last year with it and my scalp was as smooth as a baby's ass. Unfortunately my wife thought I looked like a convict, so she made me grow at least a little hair back.(Yes, that's my forehead.) One thing I've learned in 23 years of wedded bliss is that if my wife ain't happy.........ain't nobody happy. Oh, by the way......save the forehead jokes okay?

One other item for Test It Thursday.......

I don't own many bike specific tools but this one is a must if you do cables on your bike. Cuts cables perfectly and does the same with housings as well. I used to use a plain ole pair of wire cutters which smash housings and almost instantly fray cables when cutting through them. Step up to the plate and throw down the money-good tools are worth it.

Next week on Test It Thursday.........I'm gonna put flames on my chopper.

On to other things.............

Wassup with the whole "Blue States" vs "Red States" thing? I thought I lived in the UNITED States of America. Whoever came up with that whole thing oughta be slapped.

I was listening to a podcast last night and a lady said her dogs were just like her children...... what utter bullshit. I think I've covered this before but it still pisses me off when I hear that. One of the many differences between kids and pets.........

A kid gets deathly sick?...........you do everything you possibly can to prolong their life to the very end.

A cat or dog gets deathly sick?........you eventually take it to the vet and have it professionally killed so it doesn't suffer. If your fish gets sick? You give it a spin down the crapper. Having said that, I think we have a couple of fish and a few gerbils buried in our backyard.

Have an iPod and wanna keep up on how Lance and the Discovery boys are doing at the Tour? Click here for the feed page. Also, iTunes 4.9 is out, which includes support for podcasts.

Also, listening to a PBS podcast last night about earthquakes..........the New Madrid faultline is due for a big one. Last one back in the early 1800's made the Mississippi run backward for several hours.

I'm gonna get one of these for night riding. I wonder how long the batteries last.........

I hope he takes a bath before his next court appearance.

I think this is a great idea.

How to be a professional slacker.

This is an eye opener. We'd need 4.9 planets if everyone was like me. I think I'm gonna install some solar panels on my forehead to generate some extra electricity.


I like the concept, but you'd have to be rockin' a fairly big set of balls to actually use'em. (Link contains foul language)

This has gotta be the stupidest bike I've ever seen.

I heard about this bike shop on one of the podcasts I subscribe to. They have some pretty neat ideas about bikes, they interviewed one of the owners of the shop.

I remember going to the drive in with my mom and dad to watch the original of this movie.. ..........I wonder if Lindsay can outrun the media in Herbie.

Holy crap. This is seriously cool. Read the hardware requirments before you download you need a fairly recent computer and broadband.

Wow. There's actually a car club for these. I owned one for 9 years and other then stuff randomly falling off and accessories that ceased to function over the years (lighter, air con, power door locks, radio, rear defroster, heater motor, power mirrors, fuel gauge, etc) it wasn't a bad car. Actually I wish someone woulda stole it and ran it over a quarry cliff.

That's about it for today...time to hit the sack.

Till later.

Slacker............

Miles ridden this past weekend? ...........A big fat "0".

Time spent working?......... Three 8 hour shifts.

Time spent sleeping? .......Alot

Time spent at the pool hanging out with our 11 year old? Enough to get sunburnt.

Time watching TV? More then usual-at least 6 hours.

Just haven't been motivated to ride this past week, I suppose the scorching temps have something to do with that. Working in a bakery during a heat wave does kinda take it out of you over the course of a 8 hour shift. Sometimes I drink almost a gallon of water in those 8 hours and I leave feeling totally drained.

Summer sure is hard work :-)

I shoudn't complain, I really enjoy being able to hang out with our son at the pool because I know in a few short years-I won't be cool to hang out with.

Our daughter is at Governor's school for the next month, on Tuesday-they get to inspect cadavers. Woo hoo.

I guess these retards never heard of Lance. Like'em or not-It's gonna be awhile until someone gets 6 or possibly 7 in a row.

I made my own little "Bike Donut Guy" button (look on the right hand side of my blog home page) from this site here. Not sure what it's exactly good for but it was kinda fun making it.....

Hey all, I saw this in TV Guide while my fat ass was parked in front of the TV this weekend.....Yeeeeee haw. Who couldn't use a geeenuine Dale Earnhardt locomotive? What a waste of money. I guess folks will be putting that bad boy right next to their Elvis collector plates..............


Air conditioning. We don't need no steeenking cab.

Got into a conversation at work last night with my fellow overnight co-workers. Subject? What was the craziest thing you ever done. Mmmmm.......... I think the statute of limitations has run out on this.............

When I was about 18 or 19 some guy at a party smacked me on the face with a chair. Hurt like hell. The next week, we stole his car, pushed it off a quarry cliff and then set what was left on fire........... hey, it was only a Vega, so it wasn't that big a loss.

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

E-mail, I get e-mail.............

I received an e-mail from one of my readers concerning my post about the do-it-yourself checkouts that seem to be proliferating everywhere. Of course, I'm not going to identify the writer but here is the e-mail in it's entirety.............

I NEVER use those damn check yourself out lines. Screw that union-busting, let's-boost-the-bottom-line-by-getting rid-of-cashiers bullshit.

Hey, George, maybe next they'll have a bake-it-yourself donut line!

Remember when someone pumped your gas? Those days are never coming back. Once these corporate middle managers with their great money saving ideas get us accustomed to doing things ourselves, they figure we'll just shrug our shoulders and go with the program.

They ain't gonna give us discounts for doing it either. Probably charge us more for the "convenience". Just think, they get the same amount of profit AND get to fire the cashiers.

I hate corporations.

You know what? I agree with you for the most part. Couple things I'd like to add............

I don't really hate all corporations, some are better then others. The company I work for has supermarkets all over the world and I've been working for them since 1976. I left them in 1988 for a few years for a substantially higher paying job but things didn't work out(I hated the job and they really didn't like me either so we parted ways) and was rehired in 1991.

I make about 2/3 of what I used to make. But I am lots happier. I have a pension, full family med benefits, dental and prescription for less than 10 bucks a week. They also match the first 5% of my 401k deduction. While it's certainly not "executive level" benefits, they are pretty good for a working stiff.

The cashier thing? Yeah, I suppose it saves them money but in our company's defense- good help is hard to find. I think Wal-Mart's annual employee turnover rate is over 40%. Ours is considerably lower. Not sure what the deal is at Wal-Mart but our part timers get full healthcare benefits after 90 days and after a year-they have the same healthcare deal full-timers get for their families.

Man I hope they don't come up with a bake-it-yourself donut! By rough count over the past 10 years, I've trained about 75 bakers and been to 25 grand openings to help train new associates. So while I suppose some corporations can be a pain to work for-mine ain't half bad..................

Random bitch....................Where we live at, we have these concrete traffic islands separating the opposing lanes of traffic. We have these groups of people that will stand on them and beg for money when the traffic is stopped for a light. They are always dressed nice but the pitch varies from week to week. Sometimes it's for a "Rescue Mission" sometimes it's for a church, it just depends on who is there asking for money. Thing is-people actually give them money. I'm okay with that but guess what?........ they pick one of the busiest intersections in the county and when people have to dig for their wallets and purses-it holds up traffic. There oughta be a law...............Random bitch over............

I could be a newscaster. I have gas.

Nice. Teach those parents how to behave before they kill each other.

I'm not sure what's worse...........................

..this or the fact that there is a "British Hamster Association"

With that..........

Till later.

Zippy the Pinhead fries donuts and his forehead..........

You know what's better then working in 95 degree heat and loading and unloading 400 degree ovens?

Doing it with a sunburn.

Yessiree bob, everytime I opened an oven door and got hit with a blast of 400 degree air on my sunburned face..........well, let's say I wasn't lovin' life a whole bunch last night.

Total dumbass move on my part for forgetting about the sunscreen until I was at the pool yesterday. I shoulda asked to borrow some from someone. I'd like to say "That'll teach me" But I've done the same thing in the past and I'll probably do it again.

I put a new thingie on the side of my blog you can click to find out the top 5 clicked on links on my blog. For some reason..........."sheep" is number one as I type this. Hmmmmm.

Put up some new links in the link section. In particular, check out Stick Boy Circus Bike, this is a new blog by a really good buddy of mine who lives in my area. He was one of the first guys I ever went on a "group ride" with and really opened up my eyes as to how much damn fun bikes are. He also never complained about how slow I was.

Since it's gonna be 95 degree later today and I have sunburn.......I think riding is out for today, maybe I'll catch up on some TV before I go back to work.

Random thought..............My wife makes these cookie like things out of graham crackers and some kind of sugar/caramel glaze that are like crack cocaine. Betcha can't eat just 30 or 40. Yum.

Tom Cruise is 10 pounds of shit packed into a 5 pound bag.

You just know this is around the corner now. The Supreme Court had a R/C inversion when they handed down that decision.

Pruno. Yum.

I love this shit.

I don't love this shit. Yeah, I know it's a link to IMBA and I've been a member for a long time but please stop mailing me stuff every other week asking me for more money. Get a clue-I sent you the check when I renewed. That's all you're getting.

This would be cool. I'll put it under the file "Stuff I'm gonna do after I win the lottery"

Supermotard is where it's at. Does that look like a fun bike or what?

My only question.........what doctor goes to med school to specialize in penis lengthening????

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

Bar ends for life............

Here is Test-It- Thursdays review.............a day late.


click thumbies for full size pics

SingleTrack Solutions bar ends........Guaranteed unbreakable. I've tested out their warranty and they do stand behind their product. I've sent them back broken bar ends twice and they have shipped me a new set both times no questions asked.

The bar ends weigh practically nothing and you don't look like a total goober when you run them on riser bars. Another thing I like about them is that they help keep your hands on the bars when the going gets stupid.


Also in this pic- I have a shot of Pedro's "dice" grips........I've tried all kinds of grips over the past few years and these are some of the most comfortable I've tried. They are made out of very soft rubber and while I wear gloves 99% of the time I'm riding, I don't know if they would be kind to bare hands due to the raised "dice". I use paint on the inside of the grips to secure them, that's the grey stuff you see all over the handlebars and grips in the pic.

Yeah, I know-I'm a slob............what can I say?.......................


Here is today's project for ya'll.........go to this website- "World of Possibilities" and download this weeks show. Here is the RSS podcast feed if you have podcatcher software............

http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/audio/aworldofpossibilities.rss

It's titled Wrangling Over Energy: The Struggle for the Soul and Soil of the American West.

Burn it to a CD or put it in your iPod-I guarantee that you'll be steamed when you hear the natural gas people defend their position. I get this show as a podcast every week and it always has eye opening content.

Another place to get some NPR lovin' is KPBS in San Deigo. Here is their feeds page for you podcast freaks out there.

One of the PA blogging bike riders has a good post up about what people bring on rides. I think I am on the minimum end of things. I carry tubes, a patch kit, a cell, money and ID with me. Plus a deraileur hanger when I'm on the mtb hardtail. Don't ride with a heartrate monitor and I use my bike computer mostly for the time of day. As far as a Bluetooth headset for my cell?...... please.

I ride to get away from everyday stuff for a little while...............

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

A small delay.............

Test-It Thursday is gonna be delayed until Friday.

The donut guy is tired and I'm gonna hit the sack about 2 minutes after I post this.................

Till later .....zzzzzzzz

New neighbors............

We have some new neighbors.

Not sure if they have completely moved in yet, haven't met them.

I do know that they ran my mailbox over and attemped to put in back in. Our kids saw the whole thing, correct me if I'm wrong, it woulda been nice if they woulda knocked on the door or left a note describing what happened????? One helluva of a first impression.

Really interesting discussion over on "Oil is for Sissies" about buying new or used cars. I am the "buy new and drive them into the ground camp" I've owned 3 brand new vehicles in the past 27 years. At that rate, I will get to own 2 or 3 more cars.

This shit just ain't right...........

From the AZCentral website.............

Dad picks up $600 tab to get Marine battle ready

Jun. 18, 2005 12:00 AM

John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father's Day worrying about his son's pending date with the war in Iraq.

Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments.

Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival.
advertisement


The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.

"He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had," Tod said.

Total estimated cost: $600.

Tod said his son's call about two weeks ago from the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma was a sobering reminder that the military is not prepared to equip Pfc. Tod and fellow Marines with the best equipment.

Besides the essential flak jacket with steel "trauma" plates, the shopping list for the young Marine included a Camelbak (water pouch) special ballistic goggles, knee and elbow pads, a "drop pouch" to hold ammunition magazines and a load-bearing vest.

Tod, 45, is picking up the tab for a son who blew most of his savings on a new pickup truck. And dad says he is tempted to forward the bill to the Pentagon. "Or maybe I can write it off in taxes," he said with a grin.

It's not the cost that concerns him, even though the self-employed home repairman will have to dig deep for the cash.

"We're supposed to have a professional army," he said, "the best in the world. And we're not providing them with the type of gear they need to protect themselves as they do their jobs."

Marine Maj. Nat Frahy, a spokesman in Washington, said the military issues equipment, but it's possible that young Tod's commanders told him that it was perfectly OK to buy equipment that would help him on the battlefield.

Told about the Marine request, U.S. Rep. J. D. Hayworth, the Republican whose 5th District includes Mesa, said he has never heard of a service person being told to buy his own equipment.

Hayworth said he will contact the military to "find out what on earth is going on and why isn't that stuff there for them already. If it involves bottlenecks and glitches to get equipment to them then there should be a voucher system where military personnel can be reimbursed."

Tod refers to himself as a regular, middle-class, blue-collar guy who is a fairly close fit to the economic demographic of most families with sons and daughters serving in the armed forces. His son, now 19, enlisted last year after graduating from Mesa's Westwood High School.

His dad says America was better served with the military draft because today's professional army is not representative of the country's economic and cultural spectrum.

Yet Tod is proud of his youngest son's decision to serve even though dad doesn't believe American troops should be in Iraq.

In a recent interview, Tod recalled the kid who made an unassisted triple play in Little League and the boy who became his father's best fishing buddy before he went to Marine boot camp in San Diego.

"When I close my eyes I can see him looking up at me and asking, 'Pants on swimming, dad, can I, huh?' when he wanted to go for a swim," Tod said.

On Father's Day, Tod will hang out at his home in north central Mesa and hope that Jeremy, the 5-foot-5 155-pound Marine, will get time to call as he trains with about 2,800 fellow Marines in Yuma.

"I'll probably get to see him before he leaves for Iraq," Tod said. "I just hope and pray nothing happens to him."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe Bush could crack open the checkbook for those folks in the above article................


That's it! I ain't goin' if the Crue isn't gonna be there. Who the hell wants to hear Bob Geldof sing?

This isn't a big surprise. I'd rather wait 3 months and spend the same amount of money to own the movie. Maybe this is the reason why they are going into the tank.

A sheep is bad enough but a dog? Allllrighty then.

Never overestimate the intelligence of the American public.

Interesting show about Wal-Mart. As much as I dislike some of their politics, I still shop there from time to time.

I like the 456 frame. I'm a sucker for blue. Click to enter the website, they have all kinds of cool British stuff.

Here's one product you'll never see me try on "Test It Thursdays" It will be a cold day in hell before I wax, shave or chemically remove my leg hair. Not ever gonna happen.

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

A small rant...........

Now, I'm not the smartest guy in the world but this really makes me wonder..........

Ever go into a store that has the "do it yourself" check outs? How come I don't get a discount for doing all the damn work?

One more thing............If I owned a grocery store, I'd have express checkouts where the sign would say.....

"10 items or less-not 11, 12 or 23 items-don't even try that shit"
"No checks"
"No charge cards"
"Have your damn money ready"

Why do people stand in line and when the cashier finishes ringing up their order, the customer acts surprised when the cashier asks them for money?

Our son and I were in Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago at the do-it-yourself checkout and while we were checking our stuff out, the scanner kept screwing up.

After a few frustrating minutes-we were done and when I electroniclly signed my charge receipt, I signed "Eat My Shorts"

..........Yeah, I know that's not very mature for a 45 year old but the machine accepted the signature, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

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

Awesome ride last night...........

The best part of riding a chopper is all the reaction it gets. My favorite is the "What-the-heck-is-that?" face people make when you pass them. We rode down at our local rail trail last night and while Greg's chopper is much cooler looking then mine.......his seat is way to small to ride for any length of time.





Riding a chopper down at the rail trail is way more fun then it sounds. Sure, you don't go very fast but since I sit bolt upright on mine, I was noticing way more stuff then I usually do when I am bent over on my Surly Cross-Check.

Stopped at what used to be a total hole in the wall store in Seven Valleys, now it's been remodeled into a very nice cafe with fine dining.

The new owners hired a chef , they have deep tissue massages.........all kinds of good stuff.

Here is their website, I sure hope they make a go of it-it looks like they have invested quite a bit of time and effort into it.

The cafe is absolutely beautiful. I didn't get anything to eat last night but Dusty Gordon's wife (yeah, I forgot her name) got a wrap and it looked really good.

I'm looking at their website as I type this and I think I'm going try one of the massages. 35 bucks for a 1/2 hour back, shoulder and neck massage seems like a reasonable price to me.


Not even close. Being around rental trucks on the highway makes me nervous.

This is spiffy. Can't beat homemade air conditioning.

I've never seen this show but if they make the movie, will it be 24 hours long? Seems like a long time to be in the theater.

Wal-Mart is going after Target. I don't get into our local Target much because there is a Wal-Mart closer to our house. I do like the way Target merchandises it products, they have way fewer junky displays and there aisles are much more open as a result.

Ya know, if they are gonna have a "beer trail" why doesn't someone come up with an "ice cream" trail? It's one of the reasons I ride my bike. I want to stop back into Serenity Station for more ice cream.

I'm a motor racing fan........I woulda been a little bent out of shape if I paid to watch this race.

I'm kind of addicted to watching No-Limit Texas Hold'em on TV. This guy is a legend. It's fun to watch on TV because there are so many players and they all have their own styles. Good clean fun.

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

Happy Father's Day.........

Happy Father's Day out there to all those dads out there reading this!!! Being a dad is just about the best thing ever..............even better then riding a bike. (If either one of my kids are reading this, I'm just kidding about the bike part)

I was planning on doing all kinds of stuff Saturday but my internal body clock is having one heck of a time getting adjusted back to working 3rd shift. I ended up sleeping 11 hours. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I am off Sunday night, so I'll force myself to sleep maybe 4 hours Sunday morning and then get up. I gots stuff to do.

Saw this article, the impressions of Nissan's CEO are interesting. Of course car makers are in business to make money but they are gonna have to learn to make something else besides cars if and when the oil runs out.

What would I do if the oil ran out? For the most part, I'd be okay with it as long as I didn't have to share the roads with cars. My wife would have to get a different job, 30 miles one way is totally out of the question on a bike.

I'm not one of those hardcore guys that ride their bikes everywhere and are full of disdain for folks that use cars. I'll be the first to admit that I like sitting in my minivan with the A/C on "stun" when it's 85 degrees out in the summer. I also happen to like not freezing my ass off in the middle of winter riding a bike. Unless of course, I choose to.

I don't want to paint all lawyers with the same brush, but some attorneys can be real assholes.

If you have any doubt, this is the ultimate SUV. The "S" in the case would stand for "safe"........

If you thought yesterday's link to that quad with a motorcycle engine was wild...............this one is sicker. Much sicker.

How am I going to celebrate Father's Day? Gonna hang out out the pool with our son and some assorted neices and nephews and go for a chopper ride with some buddies later in the day down at our local rail trail. Sounds like a pretty good day to me, the weather forecast sounds perfect.

Been playing around with new software

My user name is "bikeridingdonutguy" if anybody wants to talk or chat............. About the only time I am online regularly is from 4 to 6 AM in the morning so ya better get up early if you wanna catch me.

Jeb is as much of an asshole as his brother. Sorry folks, I'm not a G.W. fan.

Bill Frist makes my "asshole of the month" list as well. (You'll need to register to read the link)

This little guy has a big set of balls. Sprinters aren't right in the head.

4.482 seconds at a track record speed of 332.26 mph in a quarter mile is hard to beat. If you've never been to a NHRA race.........ya gotta go to at least one. 175 decibels is louder then any rock concert. The Top Fuel cars use about a gallon of nitromethane every second..........

Till later and if you're lucky like me and are a dad..........Happy Father's Day!

Mostly Non P.C. today..............

Can guys win too?

Off-color joke time................

A man is lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his mouth.

A young nurse enters his room to sponge his face and hands. "Nurse," he mumbles from behind the mask, "Are my testicles black?" Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know Mr. Jones, I'm only here to wash your face and hands."

He struggles again to ask, "Nurse, are my testicles black?" Again the nurse replies, "I can't tell. I'm only here to wash your face and hands."

The head nurse walks by and sees the man getting a little distraught, so she marches over to find out what's wrong. "Nurse," he mumbles, "are my testicles black?"

The head nurse whips back the sheets, pulls down the man's pajamas, moves his penis out of the way, has a good look, pulls up the pajamas and says, "There's nothing wrong with them." Frustrated, the man said.................. "ARE MY TEST RESULTS BACK YET?"

Perhaps I am wasting my time making donuts.................

250 HP on a quad. If I owned that thing, my life expectancy would be measured in minutes.....

This is a tad un P.C.

This site is totally not SFW due to the ads but the video is totally badass. Ain't nobody takin' that dudes money.

When I hit the lottery, this is the kind of stuff me and my entourage will be doing most of the time. Does that place look amazing or what?

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

Not much ridin' going on............

I've been on a bike a total of about 3 hours this week. Getting my system acclimated back to 3rd shift work as taken all week. It usually doesn't take that long to get back into the swing of things..........it sucks getting old.


Our daughter found this awesome website.........I could spend some money there! I really like the bumper sticker above.


Part of me really likes the idea of this car but part of me would be afraid of getting T-boned by a cell phone using soccer parent while they were drinking their latte. That thing is tiny. Not sure what the hold up is but they have 12,000 people with cash in hand for one-they haven't sold one yet. Maybe they don't use enough gas or something.

I know I've posted this guy before, but his rant on coffee made me laugh my ass off.

Been reading some other bike blogs and the recollections of some of the authors earliest bike rides.

I have some gruesome memories.

Are you surprised?

I remember when I was 5 years old and I destroyed the first of my many bikes. I was riding my tricycle (a tricycle is a bike,right?) when I dropped off a curb and snapped the handlebars clean off. I did a 180, flipped the bike over onto it's side, slid down a ravine and promptly shit my pants. Hey, I was only 5, whaddya expect?

When I got a bike to replace the tricycle, it was a 16 incher with solid rubber tires. You can make awesome skid marks with solid rubber tires. For awhile. I eventually had so many flat spots on my rear tire it was like riding a Flintstones bike.

............Good times.

Till later

Test Ride Thursday.......................

This week, we are going to take a commercial bakery oven for a test ride.

Yup, none other then the Hobart Model#HBA2G double rack gas oven.

Yeah, baby...this is one "hot" oven. (sorry for the bad pun)

Actually one of these ovens cost more then a nicely equipped SUV and uses enough gas to heat 2 average size houses. We have 2 of them and we run them almost 24 hours a day.

They have programmable heat and steam zones and you can preprogram 4 different baking programs. When I am at work, I make several hundred loaves of bread, about 100 dozen rolls, maybe 40 or 50 pies, a rack of sticky buns, bagels and about 30 dozen muffins in one night. That's in addition to cutting, frying and hand finishing 100 or so dozen donuts.

This oven is about 8 feet tall and has a platform inside that revolves. I push a rack like this right into the oven and the rack and whatever is on it, spins while hot air and steam are blown over it. Yum. Just don't stand directly in front of it when you open the door if you enjoy having eyebrows. One of our ovens even has a handle in the inside for some reason.

Stay tuned for next weeks review, who knows what I'll take for a test drive................


............................When I read stuff like this, it really pisses me off. I think they oughta find the cab driver and run his ass over with a cab. Bastard.

Gonna be riding the chopper down at the local rail trail this Sunday........... anybody reading this is welcome to invite themselves. Check the YAMBA board for details.........

It's one of the few places I will ride without a helmet.

If I am on my cyclocross bike doing volunteer patrols for York County Parks, I wear one while I'm riding there because it's part of the rules for particapating in the program. Other then that-I don't wear one while I am riding on the rail trail, it's nice to feel the air blow over my rather large forehead.

Mmmmmmm ......yuck.

WTF? A "security" knife? I'm having a hard time understanding why I would buy something like a knife when I'd rather buy something like this if I were inclined to have to be worried about "Homeland Security"

I've said this before, Guns don't kill people..........drivers on cellphones do.

Till later.........

Help me, I'm melting..............

Whoa. It was 95 degrees on Tuesday here in beautiful Central Pa.


I chose the "pastry" option.


We sell inflatable kiddie pools, I think I'm gonna buy one and set up my own swimming pool at work.

I went out to get the mail Tuesday afternoon and immediately cancelled any plans to cut the grass or take a ride. Just too darn hot out.

I entered this contest. I have 2 1/2 weeks of vacation left.......sure hope I win.

Our daughter inherited my sense of humor. By the way.......it was her idea to film the fish after I spun the fish bowl around 40 times.

I blatantly stole this next idea from a fellow Pennsylvania blogger mafia member..............

I like his idea of reviewing different bike products every week.

My review day is gonna be Thursdays and it's going to be called "Test Ride Thursdays" but I am going to do mine a little different. It's not always gonna be bike related stuff, it might not ever be bike related stuff. Whatever floats my boat is gonna get some ink.

If a LBS wants to get some ink out to the 60 or 70 local people that read this every week.....send me some stuff :-) Who knows, I might end up famous. I kinda doubt it though.

Hero or pervert? Hell, he's got his own sculpture and he's been dead for awhile so what's the big deal?????

I say.................hell yeah. I'm few over and I sure as hell ain't gonna get into the next Olympics........... but I get out on a ride and it feels great. Sure I want to lose a few pounds but I'm not gonna be a stress bag about it.

Number 55. Anybody else?

Who Gives a Shit?.... #455

These boot are made for walkin'. Yes, they are.

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

Welcome back to HELL.........................

Sometimes it's nice to take a week and do absolutely nothing..................... last week was one of those weeks.

While I'm not exactly glad to be back at work, it's nice to know I was missed. Our little corner of the store looked like an all-day trail derailment. The guy that replaced me for a week normally doesn't make donuts, breads, etc and he had a fun week trying to keep up. Poor guy.

I took the temperature of the area where I fry donuts.............110 degrees at face level. Factor in the fact that I only got 2 hours of decent sleep before going to work last night and I was cooked when I got home. I know it's not a very pretty word picture, but I am sitting here at 5 AM typing in a pair of gym shorts and nothing else. A cold shower never felt so good.

Since I have first dibs on overtime every week...........only 5 more nights to go before I get a night off..........woo hoo. Gotta save up that overtime for more toys next year.

Greg has painted his chopper and here are a few thumbnails of the finished bike.

Pretty damn sweet, hat's off to ya bro- You're an artist with tubing.

Click'em to biggerize 'em












Gotta dig that combination of green and purple.
I can hardly wait to hit the streets with him.

Greg also turned me onto a couple of sites about choppers and lowriders, I know not all of ya dig that sorta thing, but go there anyway.......lots of cool pics. Those dudes are riders and artists. Click here, here and here.

Not to change the subject but since it's my blog............I'm allowed.

I love lawyer jokes........

A doctor, a lawyer, a little boy and a priest were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane. Suddenly, the plane developed engine trouble.

In spite of the best efforts of the pilot, the plane started to go down. Finally, the pilot grabbed a parachute, yelled to the passengers that they had better jump, and bailed out.

Unfortunately, there were only three parachutes remaining.

The doctor grabbed one and said "I'm a doctor, I save lives, so I must live," and jumped out.

The lawyer then said, "I'm a lawyer and lawyers are the smartest people in the world. I deserve to live."

He also grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the little boy and said, "My son, I've lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace."

The little boy handed the parachute back to the priest and said, "Not to worry, Father. The 'smartest man in the world' just took off with my back pack.".................. Good stuff.

Unless you were that lawyer.

March of Dimes? A March of Quarters would have raised more money. I guess the guy in the link really hates dimes.

Walk with God? WTF????It's more like Walk on God.

Hey, I have nothing to worry about. I keep my hair (what's left of it) pretty short.


I'm wondering what this sign is advertising.................

Random observation...........my 15 year old nephew would starve to death if he had to make his own food. Not sure how this happened but our 11 year old is actually a pretty good cook.

This is why I am a fat bastard. I better start ordering regular soda with my normal order of 2 Junior Whoppers and large onion rings instead of diet.

Big ass tornado and a rainbow. If I lived in the house in the picture......I'd be scared shitless.

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

Jamis XLT bike review.............

As ya'll might know, my friend Will let me borrow his shop's demo bike this past weekend. Will said to ride the bike like it was mine so I basically beat the living snot out of it for a couple days. More on the bike........................

The bike I borrowed was a 17'' Jamis XLT 1.0

Here are the specs...........pretty nice specs compared to my regular rides.........

I ride a 4 year old Schwinn Moab 2 disc hardtail and a Redline Monocog as my regular off road bikes, so most of the parts on the Jamis are way nicer then what I am used to.

I rode the bike up at Rocky Ridge and managed to hit all the trails except T7. I also rode the bike at Lake Redman as well, hitting most of the trails with the exception of the Goat Trail and T7. Prior to me riding it, Will from Ed's Ski and Cycle set up the fork and shock with the correct air pressure but I'll get into that later.

The ride...........

Obligatory garage door shot.

Compared to my aluminum hardtail, this bike is plush. Not so plush that you don't feel all the rocks and roots but plush enough that you actually have more control of what's going on. The faster you go-the more it smooths out. I was amazed that the bike hardly bobbed at all during climbs. I put that down to the Manitou Swinger SPV rear shock.

Before I left the shop with the bike, Will got my weight and dialed in the air pressure settings on the positive and negative air chambers and we set the rebound about right in the middle of its range.

You really have to get out of the saddle and honk on the pedals to break through the platform valving. Never rode anything like this before-I was pleasantly surprised at how efficient the bike pedals.

This also the first time I have ridden an air front fork. The Manitou Minute SPV fork was dialed in similarly to the rear fork by Will with the rebound about halfway in. Another nice feature of this fork is that the travel is adjustable. I left it at the "full pull" position which gives you about 5 inches of travel. You really had to mash the pedals climbing in the granny for the fork to bob but it still sucked up the bumps. The bike could still easily be pre-loaded for jumps and such.

Not sure how all that stuff works but the ride could best be described as solid and in control. This isn't a bike you'd want to race XC with but it's something anyone with a little fitness could ride all day. It feels like it is carved out of a large block of aluminum. The bike has very little lateral flex.

The frame.........

I really dig the silver anodized color of this bike as it makes the main frame scratch resistant. Check out the downtube, it's huge. The rear subframe is beefy with square profile tubing the whole way around. Solid, solid stuff. The bottom bracket feels higher then what I am used to, in fact with the front wheel off-you can swing the pedals around in a 360 degree arc.

I have a 31 inch inseam, the frame was a medium and it was nearly very close to a perfect fit, if they made an 18" -it would be spot on.

One difference from my regular ride is that I was positioned a little bit back further on the bike.
Here's a pic with me in riding position on the XLT............

I happened to like this as it's really hard to go over the bars. This might not be everyone's cup of tea though as the front wheel tends to flop around some on steep climbs.

And here's a pic of my hardtail with me sitting on the saddle in riding position...........

See the difference? I am centered closer to the front wheel on my bike.

The cockpit.............

This is also the first time I've ridden a bike with 31.8 handlebars. Honestly..........I'm sold on the concept. The bars were solid with absolutely no flex. Coulda been a little wider though. The bike came with a fairly short stem, some folks are going to want to swap that out right away.....I happen to like it. I also like the WTB seat. Fits my ass like a glove. Err.......well, you know what I mean.

The drivetrain..............

First time using a SRAM front derailleur, nice very positive shifts.
The rear is equipped with a Shimano XT and both use Shimano Deore shifters. I would have liked to have seen at least LX grade but I suppose they could be replaced when they wore out. I don't wanna bag on the shifters too much but I have the Deores on my hardtail and I know that after a few months of use they are going to feel sloppy.

The cranks were Truvativ Hussefelt and they were probably the stiffest cranks I've ever ridden. I'm no light weight and I felt no flex whatsoever. Nice stuff.

Something in the bottom bracket area squeaked the whole time I had the bike, I'm sure this is something that just needs greased or tightened. It has cartridge bearings on all the pivot points so I don't think it was coming from the suspension.

The bike came with a 11-32 cassette, I like the 11-34 I have on my hardtail so I suppose I'm spoiled.

Brakes, wheels and tires............

This is also the first time I've ridden a bike with hydraulic brakes and all I can say is WHOA!!! Ya wanna stop in hurry? One finger on each lever is all it takes. I never could figure out how those North Shore guys could do nose wheelies..........now I know-the modulation is flat out unreal. Hayes brakes are the dog's balls.

If this was my bike, I'd swap the tires out immediately to something else. Probably to WTB Moto Raptors or a tire with a rounder profile. This bike is made for 2.5 tires as it has plenty of frame and fork clearance. I just didn't like the way the tires broke loose in turns with little warning and going over wet off-camber roots was downright scary. I ran the front tire at 30lbs for both Rocky Ridge and Redman and had the rear set at 38 for Rocky Ridge and 43 for the Lakes. The bike deserves better tires.

The wheels were nice, it's hard to go wrong with Mavic rims (although UST would have been nice), the hubs are high flange Shimano 535's and since I have some experience with these, I know that they aren't going last forever. The wheels stayed perfectly true the whole time I rode the bike and I'm not what you would call a "finesse" rider.

Front Fork............

This is the first time I've ridden a Manitou fork and also the first time I've ridden an air suspended fork. I'm really good at getting bike parts to flex, this fork put up with a few botched landings off of log drops at Redman without protest, so I'd say it was nice and stiff. I don't like a lot of rebound so it was nice that this was adjustable along with the travel.

Overall ?

Would I buy this bike?

It would definitely be on my short list. The bike specs out at a little more then 31 pounds and rides like it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a race bike. I am one of those "set it and forget it" kind of riders so I once I found the settings, fork and shock air pressures I liked, I probably wouldn't make much use of all the adjustability this bike offers, but it's nice to know it's there.

At some point before I buy a new bike next spring, I'd also like to look at a Specialized Enduro, a Giant Reign, a GT I-Drive and perhaps a Kona Stinky.

Gotta thank Will Mahler from Ed's Ski and Cycle again for letting me pound on one of his bikes, it was fun riding something different. Got anything else to test ride Will?

Here's a pic of the XLT with my buddy Greg's older version of the same bike.

The older version is still pretty cool................

Here's a gallery of pics..........and here's a sneak peak at Greg's chopper after paint.

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

Wax on............wax off.

Yeah, I know that's a pretty lame title for a blog entry, but it was a lot of work! Since I only do it once or twice a year..........I do it right.

Ya gotta have Pink Flamingos.

After I wash it with Dawn to get any old wax off, I use a clay bar to remove all the acid rain deposits etc. Then I polished it and buffed it out.

After that I apply a coat of wax, buff it out and apply vinyl protectant to all the trim to remove the white wax residue from the trim.

All in all, it takes me about 5 or 6 hours to go through the whole process and since it was 85 degrees on Friday with 800% humidity when I did it-I sweated out about 5 pounds.

Check out the man-hour totals for these guys. Damn, those folks got it going on. Check out their latest project. I'd love to ride there someday. I don't think I have the skill or the balls to ride all the stunts but it would still be way cool to watch the other riders.

Next post I'll have something about the Jamis XLT bike I an beating the crap out of....err, I mean test riding this weekend. I had it up at Rocky Ridge Saturday morning. I rode for about 2 1/2 hours,had to stop because it was about 90 degrees with 1200% humidity. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Anyone ever go shopping here? It's a different kind of grocery store, they don't have many varieties of stuff but according to my expert shopper wife-they have awesome prices. Why do I mention it? They sell some of the shittiest bikes I've ever seen. Even cheaper then Wal-Mart if that's possible.

Still haven't updated my links, I'll get to it one of these days. Been too busy riding and reading.

Ever watch the kids at the mall dancing on one of these?

Here's the "extreme" version.
As that media whore Paris Hilton would say........eh, nevermind.

Update on the naked cyclists. Hmmm, let's see........I'm already 15 or 20 pounds overweight and bald. I think I'll paint up my fat body and go for a ride.............Not.

No shit. I suppose the young men and woman of America aren't willing to die on foreign soil for no good reason. I don't blame them.

Ever see anything so dumb? Actually this product comes from Britain and folks over there are using it to evade all the speed trap cameras by spraying it on their license plates.

Learn something new. The rest of the site is full of interesting stuff as well.

I like BMX just fine but have the UCI lost their freakin' minds? Sign the online petition.