Artistic Cycling

FU*%^NG unreal. Seriously.

feelin' it

focusing on sswc09. not so much on the race itself. more on the entire trip that encompasses the race. this years goal is to keep the fun/ride ratio at an incredibly high rate. sure, riding 5 days in a row before a race isn't the best way to "peak"... but i'm a glutton for single track who's traveling with two other riders who not only share my thoughts on the "more is more" theory but also have the strength in their legs and numbness in their brains to ride single track like it's their friggin' job all----day----long. road trips are too few and far between to "hold back" when there's virgin single tracks to be had. plus, the next time i'll be in Durango, Co is..... well, i really don't know when/if i'll EVER be in Durango again so we'll just have to try and ride everything in one week. oh, and don't forget a stop in Moab as well.

yesterday was another day of epic riding/trip preparation. we definitely put the "all" in all terrain bikes. everything from road to goat paths... we covered it all. i'll save you the boredom of route description and just say that we did a plethora of trails in and around Tahoe Lake. checked out some oldies on the west shore that haven't been ridden in a "coons age" (however long that is). lots of climbing to start things off. some epic ridge riding. then some more epic ridge riding culminating in a descent into blackwood canyon. i actually saw Nate get tired on this ride which i'm sure shows that my fitness level is where it needs to be for a road trip of epic proportions.

two thumbs up

I laughed. I cried.

thanx Tomi.

Well, this looks fun

Once again; from our home office in Pennsyltuckie.... thanx Big Air.

As Monty Python would say: "And now for something completely different".

clickie on pickie tells story

another epic

Ryan Fowler: if you're about to read this, the day sucked. nothing fun at all happened. the ride was so bad i'm thinking of selling all my bikes. you really shouldn't read this. i know you had other obligations and couldn't make the ride. sorry you missed it... but you didn't really miss anything... honest.

Everyone else: read on.

the skinny: rose to marlette. chimney beach dh. hwy28 to spooner summit to kingsbury grade. fox and hound for cheeseburgers. heavenly to armstrong pass to corral trail. misc. roads to meyers.

the stats: 107km/66.48 miles 10,000ish ft of climbing w/ 12,000ish ft of descending.


the good: rain showered/tacky/oh-so-good trail from rose to chimney beach dh. trafficless ride on hwy 28 due to bursted water pipe. cheeseburgers for lunch. epic views at 10,000ft by Freel Peak. 12ish miles of descending from armstrong pass finishing juuuuuuusssst before dark. (no, actually it was dark)


the bad: mike t's broken frame. super slumming climb to armstrong after cheeseburgers. lack of time/energy/motivation to swim in star lake. waayyy too much driving after the ride.


It started like most rides in Tahoe.... an hour late. Nonetheless, the trail was ALL TIME from a nice rain shower the night before. I'm sure Conrad was regretting his choice of rides as we saw him climbing up Rose on his road bike on the wet pave'. At about 6 miles in, we stop to re-group. Sam arrives with news of a broken frame and we backtrack 2 miles to assess the damage.

Yep, that's broken...

.....that side as well. Nice job mate.

We hand the keys off to Mike and he starts the inevitable hike back to the car as we continue on as a group of 6. Our next stop would be flat #1. You don't need mechanicals to qualify the ride as an "epic" but it doesn't hurt. Continue to Tunnel Crk, Marlette Peak and hwy 28 without incident. We were pleased to find that a water pipe break had shut down the road almost the entire way to our next trail head. I had a buddy (Larry the Legend) get hit by a car while riding his road bike on this section of road about 7 years ago. I saw the whole thing go down from about 150 meters back.... and it wasn't pretty. I'm amazed what the human body will endure. Anyhoo... it was comforting to know that we had the road all to ourselves this day and to celebrate I planted my front wheel right between the yellow lines, put things into auto-pilot and stared at Tahoe Lake while climbing towards hwy 50.

Next comes Spooner to Kingsbury. This trail can be a real bastard.... or the best thing ever. The first climb can and will bite you if under prepared. Like a month ago when we did it as an out and back. Nothing like a 6 mile climb with 2,400ft of elevation gain to start things off. No warm up. No gears. No chance. But, today things are good. Today the cards are in my favor. I know how the trail unfolds and choose to start the climb in the back of the pack. At 3/4 of the way to the top I catch Sako and Matty who were dictating the pace. "Nice catch" Matty mumbles as we soldier on. I'm too tired to comment and we leave it at that silent, slummin' pace as we hit the top of what would be the second hardest climb of the day. One by one our group summits the climb and after taking a nice break it's time to descend the 6 miles of epic single track to Kingsbury Grade. The trail points mostly downhill with tecky bits thrown in to keep it interesting. We encounter our second flat and loose another rider from our crew on this section due to time constraint. The single track finally terminates and after a short road ride it's time for re-fuel.

FFWD 45 minutes. The Fox and Hound has treated us well. Five riders sit around a table cluttered with empty plates of food and crinkled napkins. We decide to get back on the bikes before the "food coma" settles in and start the next part of our journey which will find us on the hardest climb of the day. It's 10.5 miles w/ 2,500ft of soft sandy climbing to the base of Freel Peak.... and it's no picnic. Although my saddle usually looks comfortable, my backside feels like I've been sitting on a cheese grater for the past 7 hours. I ride off the deck of the Fox and Hound slow... reeeeaaaal slow. I know that the next 2ish hours will be spent climbing and that the first 15 minutes is the hardest. Get the legs turning. Start that rythmic breathing. Try everything to get comfortable on the saddle (to no avail). Get the mind into the task at hand.

The next hour is hard. It's loose, sandy, rocky... usually everything I look forward to... but not today. Eventually, things mellow out and the trails gives in a bit.

The views from near 10,000ft are incredible.

Nate @ Star Lake. I really don't think this guy EVER gets tired.

Sako with his game face on... or maybe he's farting?

After more time than I care to remember, we reach the base of Freel Peak. You can go up from here, but not us. We're turning right. Right+North= Downhills Car & Beer. The next 12 or so miles is blazing fast. The trail starts straight and scary eventually ducking into deeper woods where the pace slows... but not too much. Then to Corall trail. Can you say burmed turns? I knew you could. Still fast, but not the warp speeds from a few miles back.... and good thing too as it's starting to get dark. This section makes you earn it as you twist and turn down the side of the mountain. There's log rides and a few doubles to keep things interesting along the way. It's amazing how sore body parts seem to disappear and you forget about the past two + hours of climbing after a few miles of killer trail. You hope that the sun takes its time setting and that the trail goes on like this forever but then it happens. First a flicker of light from the back porch of someones house. Then the beam from a cars headlights on the road just up ahead. The trail spills onto the road and it's over. As you spin the last mile or so back to the car, nobodys' talking about "the next epic" but I'll bet everybody's thinking about it. I know I was.

More pics here.

Tahoma Cruiser Rally

"You'll know when you're there" Shana tells me on the phone as I'm asking directions while on my way towards Tahoma. As I head out towards the lake with my Dad and Girlfriend, folks are out in their boats, family's are riding in masses down the bike path and there's the seemingly endless string of rafts heading down the Truckee River.... a typical day in Tahoe.

We ride through Tahoma and head for 6th street where I was told the action was. As we round a corner, I see at least 100 people, just as many bikes and lots of kids and dogs just up the street. Yes indeed, we've arrived. As I park my bike, I'm told I'm "on course". A quick survey of the street reveals chalk lines, a few cones and a make-shift ramp set up in front of someones driveway. I'm pointed towards a fully stocked cooler in the garage as crackled voice comes from a bull horn advising to "clear the course people!!" and continues on with the names of the next rider/passenger in the parent/child obstacle course. This 40ish second course starts riders in a driveway, navigates a slalom of cones, goes through a looped driveway, out onto the street, over the jump, through another looped driveway culminating in a sprint to the finish line... all while pulling your (or at least someones) kid in a trailer. Good times! Now, anyone that's been to Tahoe knows that the people that live here are typically athletic, competitive and not afraid to "push it" a little bit. This would be evident in "heat two" as a trailer with not one, but two passengers highsides in the right hand sweeper coming out of the first driveway. Good thing for helmets.

After the obstacle course, the crackled voice from the bull horn instructs people to head down the street a few blocks to the next set of events. Here, there's a kids event navigating some of the street and a dirt course that goes through a set of lawn sprinklers. For the "big kids" there's a circle outlined with chalk where two riders enter simultaneously. There are two rules to this event. You need to stay within the circle and you can't put a foot down. The last rider still on his bike within the circle stays in the circle and the next rider comes out to try and "de-throne" the previous victor. Needless to say, anything goes as riders use everything from grabbing the other rider to aggressive full on ramming speed tactics.

A little later, we move on again. This time to the relay race, slow race (where the author was quite successful) and skidding contest. Again the crackled voice from the bull horn "The band comes on at 6:00 and the DJ at 8:30.... pace yourselves people!!" I think about this as I've already had more than a couple of "cocktails" and choose the cooler that was labeled "for kids" as apposed the the one that said "NOT for kids" by the dispenser button.

This would go on throughout the day and be quite the good time. With the Tour De Fat not coming to Tahoe this year, we definately have some other options... some might say even better. Check out some pics from the days events here.

the van.... again

Well, it's back to more fun with van conversions. It starts with an idea. You move some stuff out of the way and begin the process of throwing in some miscellaneous tools, doing some measurements and thinking about how you want/need things to work.

This time she's gettin' a wall with access door between the cargo area and drivers compartment. To start, we'll build a framed wall out of punched angle steel right behind the seats. The wall is similar to something you probably have in your house complete w/ a bottom plate, studs and top plate.... kinda.

Layout marks for anchoring the bottom plate.

My dad takes over in an attempt at, what I started to call, "the bastard screw". No, my dad's not wearing a headband. That's a headlight. You really want to have a headlight when your doing van conversions at night. After anchoring the top and bottom plates we frame in the door and call it quits for the day/night.

The next day, my help heads to the coast as I soldier on. I really believe in positive thinking but as much as I tried, when I opened the doors in the morning the wall didn't automatically build itself overnight. Moving on, it's a new day. I'm well hydrated with coffee, well rested and best of all.... I have daylight!

After getting all the studs in the wall, I built another shelving unit, re-routed the compressor line and anchored an existing set of shelves in place where the compressor previously lived.

I'll give it a "test drive" for a few days before we commit to sheeting the wall with peg board and installing a door. The framework is all bolted together making it easy to tweak things slightly if need be.