29ers

So, maybe 29ers are the superior wheel size. Seems to work for these guys.

Winter Hours

Winter hours for bike repair are as follows:

Thursday-Friday-Saturday: 9:00-6:00
Sun thru Wed: Closed

The wrenches still turn at Mighty Mobile in the winter.... just not as often.

Having just done an inventory of sorts, I can honestly say that parts supply is pretty good. If you have a broken doo-dad or gizmo on your steed, I probably have a shiny new one to get you back on the trail.

vacation

Still closed.

It was actually a collaboration of ideas from my branch managers to give me a week off from spinning the wrenches. Ahh, hard work does have its rewards. Thanx guys!

meet the management

Having a desire for dust free singletrack and good pizza, I hopped on a plane and headed to the east side of the US of A. Yup, back to the motherland... Pennsylvania. Friends, family and Yuengling Lager. But first, I gotta get there.

Flying really sucks. I mean, it DOES beat driving across the country in a car by a long shot, but the typical experience during a day of air travel is horrendous. United Airlines claims to have 11,000 people per day working on its customer service to ensure you have a pleasant flight. Well, I'm here to tell ya.... they need more. I find it a bit redonculous that they rush you on a plane - close the doors - require you to power down all electronic devices and then mention that the reason you're not moving anywhere for the next half an hour is because their waiting for the fuel truck to arrive. Huh?? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having gas in the plane but can't they get that shit handled before people get on board? Then there's all the broken promises. Like this one:

Clearly there's supposed to be a baby tickling station somewhere here, but damned if I could find it.
Although it'll probably be much later than the promised arrival time, you make it to your final destination and celebrate the small miracle that consists of your luggage having somehow actually making it to the same place as you... most of the time.

Eased into vacation today with a nice road ride with my Dad. The road riding in this part of the state is pretty good. Road surfaces are usually nice and there's a plethora of routes to choose from. Farmland dominates the landscape once you get a mile or so from town.

It wasn't too far from where this picture was taken where I had one of my worst crashes on a road bike to date. 1985. Pine Rd. I was an eager 13 year old on a 24" wheeled Gitane' road bike that my dad had built for me. (sick bike). The wind was to our backs and I was on my dads wheel like Mark Cavendish getting the lead out for a sprint finish. As we spun down the road I looked back to see if any cars were coming up from behind (there weren't) and when I looked forward again I was on a collision course with a 3ft high "ROAD WORK AHEAD" sign. Sheeeeiiite!! A split second later.... BANG!! Over the bars. Front wheel tacoed. Skin on the road. Blood on my clothes. My dad, assuming I was still on his wheel, had drifted out towards the center of the road to avoid the sign.... I did/could not. My dad probably felt like shit that day. Meh. Lesson learned... you can never look too far ahead. Some high school kids gave me a ride home. Epic.

Later on our ride I had a chuckle when I saw this.

See that power line cut in the trees going over that ridge line in the distance. I remember a late/crazy night many years ago when Jerry Shughart and I drove my first car (1969 VW beetle) up and over that power line. Scary. But that's a story for another time.

This little beauty hangs in my Dads basement for 51 weeks of an average year. Only then does it leave the comfort of its corner parking spot and get to see the light of day. That bike's ridden some of the trails in the area so many times it can damn near do them by itself.

I usually like to do a little "shakedown" ride around town to re familiarize myself with its ways before hitting up the local trails. It's also neat to ride around on the streets and alley ways that I used to terrorize as a kid on a BMX bike. I always ride up by my old high school.


Yeah. Man. Lots of memories.
I rode up along the front of the school and had to stop and scratch my head a little when I saw this:

Geesh. I didn't exactly like school all that much, but I didn't think it was THAT bad. 

We'll be closed

   Howdy folks.
   Just dropping ya'll a line to let you know that the van's getting parked this Friday (13th) and won't get fired back up again until Tuesday Sept 24th. Yup... closed for buisness for a week..... or so.
  Not to worry though. We'll recover, get things fired up and be back after it in no time. Just like this guy!

Dudes that rule

   You won't be getting much creative writing from this post, but you might just find yourself hitting the "replay" button a few times on this one.


Safe to say, I was doing a little rockin' out this morning making breakfast.

27.5 650B Enduro

Mighty Mobile here. You guys still waiting for that Downieville race report? Yeah.... me too. Been too damn buys here at the jobitty job fixing bikes and whatnot. I was really thinking that I should hire some help to fill some positions and so far, this is what I've come up with.

Ahh shit. Maybe I'll just keep on doing what I've been doing which is everything by myself. I mean, bikes are sooooo easy to work on. There are times that I need to defer to the interwebs for some sort of technical data and other moments when I'll call a manufacturer in search of needed info. And sometimes the information is right there in front of me the whole time!

 

Ok. Maybe one Downieville pic.

Ryan. Crazy bastard. Bet you'll think twice next time before making a bet while drinking.

Oh, what's the title of this post have to do with anything? NOTHING!! But my new branch manager figured that since these are the hottest topics in cycling right now, we'd run with it in an attempt at drawing some more traffic to the site.

My Downieville Report....

..... will have to wait. I'm fried. Two days of standing in the sun followed by two late nights (show in Reno last night) have me feeling beat down.

As a first year "professional spectator", I was surprised just how much work it actually is! After riding up to my position on course (on cramp hill at the junction of 2nd/3rd divide) I stood on a steep hillside for an hour which really made my legs hurt. I think I'll bring a lawn chair next year.

Once I got back in town there was obligatory beer drinking in the sun for 5 hours along with high fives, catching up with old friends, checking out vendor row and live music till late night (for me).... all in a hard days work as a "professional spectator". And that was only the first day! Damn. I either need to learn how to pace myself for "professional spectating" or go back to racing.

Day two (for me) I did a 2-1/2 hour ride in the morning (N. Yuba) then went back to the "trenches" of vendor row where I caught up with some of my suppliers for critical repair info (shout out to Ed at Chris King!), acquired pictures and info for product reviews (yeah, I might start doing that again) and tried to keep an eye on incoming results. It was at this point in time that I got sucked into the comfy leather couch at WTB schmoozing for tires. My position on said couch had me in a very relaxed position where I'm pretty certain that my camera crept out of my pocket and got buried somewhere deep in the cushions of that couch. We'll see how my ABP to WTB plays out over the next few days.

Not to worry. I have the pics from Saturday transferred to my laptop so I can still proved some reporting for a "professional spectators" point of view.

Hang in there. More late.     

Downieville Results In....

..... and it ain't pretty.

The thrill of victory....

And the agony of defeat.....

Race report to follow.

Over the Verizon

   Soooo.... we're having a little telephone communications issue here at Mighty Mobile..... again! Please text or email me for best response over the next few days. Today is Friday, Aug 2nd.
  
   Also.... we'll be closed this weekend for Downieville. Back to work on Monday the 5th.

 For some reason, my phone is intermittently losing sound on both ends of a call. This is obviously a frustrating situation for both parties of the attempted conversation. I don't know why this happens to me. I don't consider myself "hard" on phones but I've been through 8 of these damn things in the last 16 months! (5 IPhones/3 Motorola's) WTF!!  My phones status of "in warranty" is the only thing that kept it from skittering across the street a few times yesterday. I know that throwing my phone against the ground wouldn't fix the phone's ability to transmit sound, but seeing it explode into a couple of hundred tiny pieces would've surely made me feel a heck of a lot better.

  I spent some time with Verizon last night in an attempt at getting the situation resolved. This took a great deal of time, not to mention a couple of cans of Modelo Especial to get through the "process". Monique (at Verizon) was very helpful and friendly until I wouldn't give her a "yes" to the question of "have I resolved all of your issues today sir?" This lead into another ten minutes of conversation that went nowhere... except another can of Modelo.

   If only I made bicycle components instead of fixing them, I'd have the means to drive my Ferrari down to the Verizon store and simply pay retail for a new phone. Sram has announced it's releasing 1x11 in a more affordable X0 version. Remember... it's the more in "more affordable" that keeps the statement from being ridiculous.

 

Sheeeite!! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting rid of front shifting, but damn... that's some serious coin. I used to preach the "almost everyone can afford to ride exactly what pro racers ride" statement, but Sram's sort of getting a little out of hand here. Yes, for the low low price of $399 you too can have a cassette (just the cassette) that's NOT top of the line. Of course you'll need a crankset to go with that which will set you back $319... but you'll have to come up with some more cash for the chainring and bottom bracket.... cause their NOT included. It won't be long before the price of a nice mountain bike will surpass that of a nice dirt bike (motorcycle) and folks will start to realize that they can twist the throttle of a moto and ride more trails in a day than they could in an epic week of pedaling a $10,000 bicycle.

 

All right. Enough ranting and bitching for now. I've gotta keep something "pent up" for when I talk to Verizon again later today (while using someone else's phone).

 

See you in Downieville!

 

 

ps... Sako... I love you!! 

 

The Dirty Dozen

With Downieville rapidly approaching I figured it may be the ideal time to get to know our two high stakes betting athletes (Ryan and Sako) a little better. For those of you new to the subject at hand, just hop back two posts to get the low-down. Lets fire off a dozen questions at these guys and see how it goes.

1: Who would play you in a movie?
Ryan Fowler: Val Kilmer
Sako Kapano: Al Pacino

2: Who was the last person to make you nervous?
RF: My Doctor
SK: You... with this friggin' blog.

3: What's a talent you wish you had?
RF: X-Ray vision
SK: The ability sing

4: What's your favorite sport (except mountain biking)
RF: Grassy hill biking
SK: Skiing

5: One sport you would never try?
RF: Speed skating....the whole "ice thing" scares me.
SK: Pole Vault

6: Best place on earth?
RF: I kinda live there (Truckee)
SK: Truckee!!

7: Worst place on earth?
RF: India
SK: West Palm Beach

8: Guilty pleasures?
RF: Justin Timberlake music
SK: Beer

9: Favorite food?
RF: Sushi
SK: Greek

10: How many times will your competitor flat during the race?
RF: 2x
SK: 1x 

11: What's your race strategy for this Saturday?
RF: Keep Sako in sight on climb and put lots of pressure on him on downhill to force him onto a mistake.
SK: Common'... I can't tell you that!

12: What would your single best piece of advise be to a newbie racing Downieville?
RF: Four scoops of Stans, two shots of whiskey.
SK: Don't even try to pass me.

Well, there you have it folks. Some insight by some of Downieville's top athletes. Wish them luck... their going to need it.

People always ask me....

..... what did you do during the week leading up to the race at Downieville. Reflecting back, I remember usually being busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest rebuilding forks, installing tires, building wheels and otherwise prepping bikes for guys that were going to be toeing the line with me at the race the next weekend. Of course, I'd be trying to work on my bike as well, usually at some "wee hours of the night" situation. I'd usually follow this up with a couple of "adult beverages" before going to bed. How's THAT for pre-race strategy!

    However, I realize that the advise folks are probably looking for is in regards to having their best day at what may likely be the only race they do the entire summer. Now, I'm going to give some advise here and tell you what I would do/have done, but it should be known that my theory on what I do in the days leading into the race may (probably will) differ from what a "coach" or "trainer" would recommend.

    First and foremost, I'd have my bike prepped early in the week and get a "shakedown ride" on it so I know it's good to go for the weekend. The afore mentioned ride would be on trails I knew well and would usually be an hour at the longest. The main thing to keep in mind on this ride is to have fun and feel the flow with the bike. After the ride, I'd give it a wash, lube the chain and hang it up till the weekend. I'd usually try and get this handled by Tuesday for two reasons. One, if I needed an unexpected part, I'd have plenty of time to get it handled. Two, I won't be riding the mountain bike again until the weekend.

    By this point in the season, I'm as fit as I'm going to be. No amount of hard rides or interval training this week is going to help gain any fitness. You can't get fit the week before the race, but you can damn sure burn yourself out if you do too much. Be careful! I'd do some easy road rides, two hours max! I'd try and stay away from big climbs and keep the heart rate down for the most part. I might "give 'er" a little bit on Thursday, just so my body doesn't get lazy, but not too much. By Friday I'm usually itchin' to be riding trails but the emphasis will instead be on drinking lots of water and eating a slightly more than average amount of good food.

    Saturday morning, I'm up early. I haven't ridden the mountain bike in almost a week so I'm completely joensin'. I'll drink lots of coffee and a good breakfast consisting of eggs and veggies. Since I've loaded up the car Friday night, all I have to do is hop in, crank the tunes and get to the start with plenty of time to mingle with friends, warm up and get a good position on the line.

    Regardless of what YOU do, remember the most important thing... have fun out there.

   And don't flat!

Thursday Night Race Re-Cap

I must say, I was super excited for the Thursday night race at Northstar for a couple of reasons.

First off, the race was a fundraiser for the Luna Chix team and what's not to like about chix racing bikes and supporting a good cause.

Secondly, for some odd reason I was prepared to suffer for an hour and see where I am fittness wise as I haven't exactly been setting the world on fire in terms of miles on the bike recently.

Last but not least, the dynamic dou of Ryan and Sako were both going to be there racing which would surely set the tone for who's got a (shaven) leg up -pun intended- on the great Downieville bet between those two.    

Sooooo, I got to Northstar early in hopes of getting signed up early and pre-riding a lap of the course. Ran into an racer friend (Matt) that lives in Nevada City, shot the shit with him for a bit, then headed up the hill towards registration with Ryan. We rode around for a few minutes looking for registration and found this instead....

Race cancelled. No suffering. No insight on the Ryan/Sako battle for supremecy. Nothing. Natta.

Soooooo. We haeded back to the cars. We met up with Sako and quickly formed "plan B" which was to go across the street and do a lap in Martis. I'll keep this short and just say that we had fun, the recent rain made the trails awesome and we got back to the parking lot completely exhausted of all spare tubes and Co2 cartridges after "someone" in the group flatted FOUR times.... yeah.... FOUR times.

 

Four times. 

Dueces Wild In Downieville

Following up from my last post, I'll get to the "high stakes betting" at Downieville I was mentioning.

Sure, the Downieville Classic has the glitter and glam of high profile athletes competing over the weekend, but for them it's just "another day at the office" as the likes of Carl Decker, Adam Craig and Katerina Nash hurl themselves towards the finish line in search of All Mountain Supremacy.

Now, I could do a race report on the aforementioned riders and get the usual race re-cap reporting that you'll be able to get at dozens of other media sources, but where's the fun in that! Going with Mighty Mobiles' typical "outside the box" thinking, I've got a scoop on a race within the race that's sure to be far more interesting than what you'll get anywhere else.

It started with an innocent wager. Two dudes. Fairly equal in fitness, bike selection and competitive spirit. The bet started with the looser paying the winners entry fee. At nearly $100, this was a pretty good deal for the winner but then the ante got upped. The stakes were raised and it was decided that not only would the looser be $100 lighter in the pocket, he would have to shave one (and only one) leg. (I'm almost positive there was drinking involved here) As if this weren't enough, it was later decided that the process for hair removal from the leg wouldn't be shaven with a razor, but with wax. Yeeoww!! Yeah baby.

Without further adieu, lets meet our two contestants.

First, we have Ryan Fowler. Born in Vacaville Ca and raised by a pack of wolves high in the Sierra, Ryan is no stranger to racing the bike. He'll toe the line with anybody and could give two shits about how many KOM's his competitors have on Strava.

 

Ryan's the kind of guy who does his research, makes a list, checks it twice....



 

... then follows through with authority!

 

 

Ryan takes his racing very seriously and is always in search of ways to improve his program. Bike selection for Downieville is paramount and he'll stop at nothing to try and get an upper hand on his fellow competitors.   

He's not afraid to try new things in an effort to shave (no pun intended) precious seconds off his race time. Seen here, Ryan experiments with a new aerodynamic technique he calls "planking" at a secret test site in the Swiss Alps.   

 

Ryan is a good egg. His favorite color is green, eats his veggies and is an all around doo-gooder.

 

 

Next up, Sako Kapano. Born on the east coast with the attitude to prove it, Sako isn't one to take things lightly. He'll race a 7yr old down the street and celebrate the victory like he's just won the Tour De France. Sakos' legs aren't much bigger than a #2 pencil, but he somehow still manages to "throw down" on the bike.   

 

With an amazing ability to light up his nipples while negotiating technical singletrack, Sako's sure to be one tough adversary.

I've been riding with Sako quite a bit this season and must say that he's pretty fit. My only hesitation on putting all my money on him is that he's often the victim of mechanicals... as seen here....

 

.... and here.....

 

.... and here....

 

.... and here. (I have tons of these shots)

 

So, it's any ones guess as to who will emerge victorious at the 2013 Downieville Classic but one thing's for sure... it's going to be one hell of a battle. Tune in race weekend to see how it all went down. 





What a mess

  Wow. This blog is in some serious need of maintenance. It hasn't been updated in a coons age, the sidebar links to manufactures service sites take you to "error land" and the "pic of the week" must be damn good... it's been there for months! As outdated as I thought my blog was, I realized that I wasn't doing too bad when I checked in with this guy.
   So, here we go. I'll start my blog overhaul by throwing out a little sumpthin' sumpthin' in the form of a post and take it from there when I have a little more time to put some real meaning into this thing. Lots to tell ya' all. Mighty Mobile has been at it hard. Fixing this, repairing that and acquiring new accounts in a constant ongoing effort to make this business better so your bike can perform to its potential. But more on that later.
   I'll be going somewhat against my word of "not racing this year" and racing this Thursday at the Luna Chix fundraiser held at Northstar. The Thursday night races have always been fun and since I was a big fat no show at any of the races last year, I'm going to go out and give it my all (which may not be much at all) this Thursday night.
   More racing news is that the Downieville Classic is fast approaching and I'll be there... but not racing. I'll be taking more of a "reporting" role at this years race as we have some top athletes competing at this years race with some high stakes betting going on. More info to follow. Stay tuned, you're not going to want to miss this one.

FLAT!!

I don't always pinch flat. But when I do... I make sure I use up every patch.... and every tube that everyone has. Then I pinch flat again... and ride out on the rim.

Super Lame Post....

.... but NOT a lame event by any stretch of the imagination.

Go git 'cherself some raffle tickets and win some loot! This place ALWAYS goes off.
I'll be pouring some cold frosty ones.
See you there!

April showers bring May flowers

Yeah. Too bad it's still March. So, showers (consisting of rain... not snow) just bring frowns to skiers, puddles to my driveway and leave me with a need to think up excuses on why I probably won't work on my "rainy day list" today, which is indeed a rainy day. See.

 

Never say never

 

All three of you that actually look at this bloggity thing probably remember me spewing about how I'm done racing. And for the most part, I am done racing. That doesn't mean, however, that one can't partake in some "organized cycling event" in which one pays to ride a predetermined route.... albeit with a number on the front of ones bike.

 

Event info here

 

Yeeeaaahhhhhh.... sooo, I just might have to check this one out. I mean, just look at the flyer. They don't even call it a race. It's oficially a "MTB ENDURANCE RIDE" I've heard lore of trails there that have a "mooreish" feel (as in, you'll want to ride more) and leave riders with a serious case of the permagrin. Mmmmm.... permagrin. Way I look at it, for $150 I'll get camping, breakfast, marked trail all day, at least three aid stations on course (free cookies!!), dinner and "craft beer" at the finish, then more camping. Depending on what's available at the aid stations, I could come out of this thing with a positive net gain from the buck fifty I'll spend on the entry. I really can't think of a better way to ride a new area with literally zero trail knowledge.
Will I win? Hell'z no! Shit, I might not even finish! I will, however, prolly get to ride some epic trail and surely meet some interesting folks.... ya always do at a bike race. See.

  

 

If only

If Id'a just waited two more days it would've been a solid two months since my last post. Slacker... I know. Been busy. Bikes, skis, taxes, life... the laundry list (oh, i've been doing laundry too) is long and never ending regardless of how fast you conquer tasks or goals of the day.

Definitely been thinking of summer. Not rushing it's anticipation or anything. Believe me, if/when it snows again I'll be reaching for the skis and heading out to one of our local zones for a day of schussing. But man have the past few days been nice or what! I washed the car in the driveway on Monday in shorts and a t-shirt while the dog slept in the middle of the street soaking up the sunshine and heat of the pavement. Yep, won't be long and we'll be talking about what's rideable and making bets on when -insert trail name here- is rideable.

Riding: Obviously the riding in the foothills has been off the hook for many weeks now.

• Auburn: has the type of dirt right now that makes it well worth the drive down there.
• Nevada City: is good to go up to Whitecloud campground. The trails closer to town are in amazing condition currently. If the weather stays anywhere near what we've been having, we're about three weeks out from riding everything down there.
• Downieville: has more than just "the downhill". Check out the N. Yuba trail which heads downriver from town. This trail has two sections and is really, really, really fun. There's also Halls Ranch/Fiddle Creek. Also fun but really, really, really hard.
• Reno: is a love it or hate it kind of place. I've embraced Reno for both its multitude of trails and apres' dining choices. Although I haven't ridden down there yet this year, I know it's good to go.
• Truckee: is about three weeks out from riding some very select south facing terrain. You gotta know where to look, but it's out there.

I was going to try and link maps and info to these spots, but since that takes time and effort I'll just say "give me a call" instead. The conditions change daily and I can usually give some good direction and advise over the phone.

yesterday

After a long (for me) hiatus from the bike I finally got out for a good one yesterday. Skiing has been/will be good this winter, but there's something about a nice long bike ride that just makes things right. Spending the better part of the day on trail with friends is THE best way for me to relax, regroup and sort out stuff that's been "at me".

Did you waste 3 hours of your life watching the Lance and Oprah interview. Yup. Me too. I watched the "confession" online and about the only thing I learned was that Oprah's choice of music and background image during the breaks was actually more painful to sit through than what I'm assuming were actual commercials on the TV broadcast. That still didn't stop me from watching the second night. Sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to needlessly suffer.

This is the time of year where Mighty Mobile compiles all of its "numbers" in preparation for tax time and makes me realize that, although I love what I do and will keep doing what I do, there's no lakefront property in my future. I'm almost positive I could make more money (with benefits) working for someone else doing something else.... but I wouldn't be happy. Although money can sometimes help, it doesn't always equate to happiness. For all the people that email me looking for advice on how they can get a mobile bike repair service up and running (yes, this actually happens) I tell you this; If you really really really like working on bikes (as well as office work, customer service, answering emails, doing orders, repairing and maintaining your work rig and being a slave to your cell phone most of the year) and don't mind working a lot of 12 hour days in the middle of summer while the rest of your friends are out shredding trail, then this job's for you! If this sounds like a lot of work that's because IT IS a lot of work. But again... sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to needlessly suffer.