Thursday, December 27, 2007

The 'ol Give and Get

I received a gift card to GNC from my Parents.

As far as my giving, I gave 3- Motorola Talk Abouts to Christie and Gus.

Aris Is getting a little something, but I haven't given it to him yet.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Is it just me or are...

my parents those people that are the butt of Jeff's Blog. I think they are part of those nieve people that don't even want to acknowledge a cyclists existence in the winter. They are the kind of people that is the topic of Jeffs Blog. They are making a stink about me going out riding today. Its mid 30, the roads are clean, its Saturday. Any other cyclist I know would be out on the roads right now, by winter standards today is a beautiful day. They said, "people aren't looking for cyclists in winter. That maybe true but that doesn't make us invisible. Then they said, if your going to go riding, better stay in town, and that is the last place I'd ride besides the fact you can't get any good training in that the highest probability for a rider driver confrontation would be in town.

I just want to ride in Rural Herman where the only thing I have to worry about is the farmers pretty much. I know those roads really well because its where I train in the summer. As a cyclist I know the fact that "I have rights on the road" doesn't mean anything in the here and now, as a cyclist I know you have to expect the unexpected. Its either that or to spend like 3 hours on the trainer, if you were me where would you rather be. They would rather me ride on a trainer for 3 hours or ride out on the road for 3 hours and anyone that has ridden a trainer for 3 hours knows I'd rather take my chances on the road.

Allow me to also point out I did 38 Races This year and I did at least 20 last year, how many have they been to? NONE!

Friday, December 21, 2007

This Evening's Feature is...


Rush Hour Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker

I spent 1 hour and 30 Minutes on the trainer making my daily total 2 hours and 43 minutes, not too bad for one day. Now I just have to keep it up at this rate, I'll be 10 lbs lighter by Race day, but I doubt it.

Running Total is 4 hours and 33 minutes, at this rate I'll have 30 hours of training in before race day, not likely to stay at this high of a rate though. I would love to plug Russell's Self Run New years eve ride, I just copied this from his blog:

The Rusty Tool Shed's 7th Annual New Years Ride!
That's right Boys&Girls, there is no better way to celebrate the end of the year then to drag your sorry a$$e$ out on the one of the worst rides of the year. Last year we had 40 degrees and rain. The year before it was 34 degrees with an inch of slush on the road. On some years it was actually kind of nice out. What will the weather man bring this time?

This years excitement begins at 9:30 am and will last for about 3 hours - longer if people get flats or just plain ol' break down & cry. This fun event is a mildly-paced ride and it may include a mix of city streets & urban roads and maybe some of that fancy paved bike path. Finish and I promise to stuff your ugly faces full of cheese, sausage, crackers and PBR's (soda pop for the kids!) .


Where? - At The Rusty Tool Shed of course! 2559 N. 68th St in Wauwatosa. MAP.
When? - On New Years Eve. The ride leaves at 9:30AM!!! - be on time & be ready to ride.
What? - It's a road ride in winter so bring your Winter Road Bike! You say you don't have a Winter Road bike? Then bring your Cyclocross Bike! Or your regular Road Bike! You can bring a Mt Bike if you must, but please don't whine if it's too slow!
Why? - Don't make me slap you, cause I will.

Directors Commentary

Add another hour and 13 minutes, had to quite early to go to work. Total is over 3 hours already. I'm revising my goal to 18 hours before January 2nd.

As Personalized Products is Paying for my Flight to Florida and my Transportation to the Race I want to give credit where credit is Due, I have placed a link in my right hand bar. They offer Personalized Polo/Golf Shirts, Wool and Leather Jackets aka letterman's jackets, We are also a dealer of the Full Carhartt Line of products. In January and February we often turn orders in a week so come on in they'll keep you warm this winter. If that doesn't suit you we also do t-shirt and sweatshirt screen printing, many many selections to choose from.

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

I'm signed up, so now what?

Now we are going to do 12 straight nights of movies, by that I mean with my on my bike watching it, if I didn't watch it, I'd get bored especially on a mag trainer. Tonights movie was In Good Company, which had Dennis Quaid, Scarlett Johanson, and Topher Grace.



My blog isn't about to be about movie reviews, but the purpose of the blog is to prove to all of you people out I'm taking this race seriously, I want a good finish, and I won't let something like Darkness Stop me, aka yesterday's post. Today's movie was an hour and fifty minutes, I did it low resistance, medium cadence. I'm not going for HR intervals or Wattage testing or anything like that, just working on toneing my muscles, work out the ol' ticker a little bit with some medium intensity stuff and get myself into respectable shape. I think 50% of the Battle in endurance racing is just staying on the bike. So anyway.... keep it tuned right here for the Day by day progress Leading up to and including the 12 hours of Oleta.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Lights, + Plane ticket = 12 hours of Oleta





So my lights came, my Plane ticket will officially be bought tomorrow, and My bike will be hitting the UPS Truck Tomorrow or Friday. I'm so psyced, all you peeps are going to be freezing in WI, I'm going to be cramping up from heat exhaustion in Florida. I will be sure to document my Journey as best as possible, I highly doubt I will have any pictures of me on the bike in the race however, I'm self supporting myself for the race, I'm going to KISS as much as possible, I've found trying to keep it too simple can be as much of a problem in the past though. I'm going to be getting down there on the 3rd of January and the race is on the 5th, I hope that I have no issues with assembling the bike, I should have no problems, I should be able to assemble it with nothing more than a few allen wrenches. I still need to pack all of my support materials yet, I will be flying with most of that.

If I ride for the whole 12+ hours I see no reason why I can't get a top 10 in solo.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I can't Freaking Wait

Monday, December 17, 2007

For you Fans of Expo Racing

Put this on your Desktop

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Its bigger that the Blog allows me to do so go to this LINK.

My 2008 Off Season Wishlist

1- Light and Motion Li-ion 9-Cell Battery

2- Stella 180-L

New Road Racing Wheels possibly the New Mavic R-Sys
or
Dura-Ace or White Industry Hubs w/silver Wheelsmith spokes and silver nipples on silver Wheelsmith rims. Now that is a silver/chrome overload.

1- White Industries 32h M16 Front Hub laced to a Black Velocity VXC w/DT Swiss Revolution spokes.

To pay off my Outstanding Account @ Expo.

To Make some Expo Racing Embroidered Team Collared Sport Shirts. If anyone on our team would like some I can do them for cheap.

The things I think about when I can't sleep at night

I couldn't sleep last night. You know when you see that guy in cartoons with a light bulb over his head when he gets an idea, it was something like that. So in response to my own post I think I will get an additional 9-cell battery for my arc and I will get (2) Stella 180-L. So I have three lights the reasoning being that if something happens to one of the other lights you have a back up for endurance racing. I need the extra battery anyway for endurance racing. Each of these set-ups provide 5 hours at the max setting which is approximately 3 solo laps at 9 mile.

Total system MSRPs at $1600. You can bet your bottom $ that I will be getting a deal on these. Gus is no longer formally sponsored by L&M (edit: he still loves them and endorses them though) but I have a hookup through Expo from QBP.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Cycling stuff for sale

I currently I have for sale my Bontrager Race Disc 6-Bolt Tubeless Wheels for sale on Ebay.
You can find then here.

I also have a Bontrager Race Lite fork for sale, you can find that listing here.

And last but not least I have a Pair of Size 8/42 SIXSIXONE Shoes found here.

You'll be happy to know I'm putting the money on this auction and my other auctions currently towards my choice of high performance lights. Tell you freinds about these listings and help me out.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

I need some lights NOW!




I want to get some lights, I'm going to need them for the 12 hours of Oleta. I will have to ride from about 5pm till after I finish my last lap after 10pm. I'm thinking if I want to get lights on a budget I should get a set of Stellas, the great thing about Stellas is they have really long burn times on small batteries I can get 5 hours of burn on a 1 lb system. I can get into these very reasonably, I'm not at liberty to say how much. On the other hand I could bite the bullet and get some bight tried and tested lights, tested by people like Expo Racing's own Fixed Gear Gus I can buy two Stellas in place of one of the ARCs. The light out put is like 4 fold of that of one Stella 675 lm. vs 180 lm

Prices MSRP
Stella 180-N $200
Stella 180-L $300
Arc Li-ion $499
Arc Li-Ion Ultra $599
Ari Ni-MH $409

At this point I'm thinking its going to be either two 180-L Stellas or one Arc Li-ion Ultra.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

lets race in the single digits

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Aint that the truth

An item that you've been having trouble finding will finally turn up. Snap it up - even if it's not on sale..

Monday, December 10, 2007

SCORE!



A major score with a hookup with these will be forthcoming.
Sub 1500g for the set, AND THEIR DISC AND 3X LACING FRONT AND REAR!

This is bigger news than me racing the Illinois CX Championship. For that matter I'd rather not talk about it all together but the day was fun though. I'll make a post recappng the weekend During the Week sometime, This week and next week are my finals so time will be thin.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Guess what I did this afternoon

I registered www.exporacing.org

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Where is Cody on the Waitinglist

Well I emailed the promoter of Trans Iowa, and I am currently 37th on the waiting list. Needless to say things are looking pretty bleak that I will make it. Not impossible but bleak. More than likely I will ride in the pick-up/drop-off car with Christie. Among other things, things are coming together slowly on my Salsa 1 part at a time, Frame isn't available until January, I'm in no rush so it's no big deal. Last night I replaced my pully wheels on my cross bike, they had seen their better day.

The cross season is winding down, Sunday is the Wisconsin State Cyclocross championship, I don't know what the course is like like but likely doesn't favor me, I like fast wide open courses. This is my second to last race this year, my last will be @ Montrose Park on the Chicago lakefront. That is the Illinois State Cyclocross Championship.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Friday, November 23, 2007

January Endurance Racing in 80 degrees weather

Any one up for some early 08' warm weather endurance racing?

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Its in the mail

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I'm not promising that I will do it, all this is is that I have the option to do it if I so choose.

UPDATE: It already appears like I'm going to be Waitlisted, which is fine with me.

Expo Racing End of year Video

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Preview of Expo Racing Movie

Monday, November 5, 2007

Worst weekend of Racing Ever

I had a Terrible Terrible Weekend, Last place @ Kletsch Park, 3rd to last @ Estabrook, I got to the Sunday night Wisonsin Night racing Championships late and went out night riding and my helmet light went out, as in dead, on me and I began hitting stuff I wouldn't normally hit, I still had my Bar light though, like trees and stuff. All around just terrible. At least the weekend wasn't a 100% loss, at least Aris won Juniors and the Overall and we celebrated by going to Chipotle. I helped him out with getting the RIG functional again and cleaning it up.

I feel terrible just terrible, I really felt like I have let myself down this CX season, I did great at both days of Laphem Peak and Cam-Rock and I have been shooting blanks ever since, I'm going to kick up my training regime again, I have been slacking off, just 15-30 minutes a day is all it takes. I will not be @ the non-WCA CX Race in Stoughton next week. I highly doubt it but I have considered going to Knobby Gobbler in Palo, IA on Thanksgiving Day. If I'm leaps and bounds better by then and I have the money to go, we'll see.

I Just want to Say Good Luck to the entire EXPO RACING Masses this Coming weekend @ Iceman in Traverse City, MI.

Friday, November 2, 2007

I Guess that wasn't so hard

We'll none other thatn Kaitie Antonneau Won my Guess the Rider Picture. I would normally link to her, but since she is a minor, I will not. Props to Katie better know as KT.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Analyzation of a Bunny Hop

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Support THE MAN

I want to give a shout out to Ben Popper. He will be racing out east in a number of UCI races. He needs all the support he can get so go over to his blog and give him a shout out. I think he is a great up and coming CX Racer, he's gone from his first CX race to Cat 2 in less than a year, now if he only trained...lol.
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Me and the Big Baby

I have found my duo partner, its none other than the big baby

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Me an Theo Peters have informally agreed to do the 12 hour Duo Series next year, its a good fit for him and for me. He will be contesting the 24 hour Junior Team Title @ 24-9 and he needs to train up for it and I'm looking for a partner and its best to keep it within the team when possible. I will still probably need a 3rd man on the roster as I know the peter's family doesn't do the entire schedule and I want to Points chase. I am sitting down with my mechanic tonight to figure out my '08 bike as described in earliar blogs and finalize build spec.

Guess the Rider

I submitted a photo to the Admin of the Wicycling.org page for the Guess the Rider section, they did decide to use it. Go guess who those riders are and do it quick, first person to guess correctly gets mentioned on the Wicycling.org Website and the Doing Something to the Max Blog Good luck to everyone.
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Monday, October 29, 2007

Proposed Build for '08 Geared bike

My First double blog day.

I have been getting a mix of feedback, some that is conflicting, I think that I have come to a head and I think I have made a decision as far as frame and build up. I'm going to remind you once again, this is not a bike for WORS this is a WEMS Bike specifically for Duo/Team Racing. I believe I have found a partner BTW, detail to come in a blog another day. Proposed build is listed as follows.

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$500 Frame: 16" Salsa Moto Rapido '08 w/ carbon seatstays

Headset: Cane Creek S-8
Fork: Reba Team (Dual Air) 80mm
Shifters: SRAM X-0 Trigger Shifters
Rear Der.: Sram X-0 Rear der.
Front Der. Shimano XT Front Der. (own used)
Cassette: CS-970 11-32 (own used, but barely 20 miles on)
Chain: SRAM PC-991 Hollow Pin
Wheels: Bontrager Race Disc (own used)
Tires: Maxxis Cross Mark (own used)
Brakeset: Avid Juicy Ultimate (140mm Rear & 160mm Front)
Crankset Crank Brothers Cobalt SL Cranks
Bottom Bracket: FSA Platinum ISIS
Pedals: C Egg Beaters (own Used)
Seatpost: Thompson Elite (own used)
Seat: WTB Speed V (own used)
Handlebars: FSA K-Force ATB (31.8) Flat
Stem: Ritchey WCS 4-Axis Alloy (100mm) (own used)
Grips: Ergon GX1 (team sponsorship)

Pictures from Haloween CX, Enjoy!

Give it up for Aaron Brandt Everybody.


Everyone Else

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Halloween CX

This years Halloween CX Turned out to be not a great race on my part. I got there around 840 ish, Registered, Gus and Christie got there shortly after me and they set up the party on the hill. I prerode in my regular pants and jacket. Then I went to go put on my costume, turns out it wasn't such a good idea. IT DIDN'T FIT! oops. As Theo Peters said, "I was going as a Roadie". I got a good starting position was about 5th or 6th to the first turn, up the steep hill... I spun and spun and spun my tires, I literally lost like 20 to 25 positions. The move to put my Michelin Jet (30C) on my rear and take the Panaracer Cinder X (35C) off turned out to be a bad decision. Oops again. That did it for the Oops category, but about 1 lap in I started feeling like absolute junk. I felt nauseated and sick to my stomach, I wanted to stop and hurl, no clue why, but that's what I felt like, even as I write this I'm still a little nauseous. I looked down and my HR was in the mid 170s for the first 2 laps and slowly came down when I was letting it get the best of me. I finished it out getting lapped only about .3 of a mile from the finish. Laps were about 1.53 miles and were in the 5-6 minute neighborhood. The end result was something like 54 out of 58 or something, not last but pretty terrible. The Party on the hill was a Hit, Hot cider, prizes for costumes, candy, cookies, music, beer and just a grand ol time. I will post pictures from the party and the races tomorrow, probably in a Slideshow format. I got some good ones so stay posted. I have also had some good conversations with teammates and friends on other acquaintances today that have helped me be more informed as to some decisions next year. Blogs to come.

Personally I like Guatemalan Polak Costume, as described in the Rusty Tool Shed Blog, he has to be the only Guatemalan Polak in the world.
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Saturday, October 27, 2007

For All of you people that are flipping out

I do have a costume, it may disappoint, but at least its a costume. Its so bad I might go to jail for it.

Friday, October 26, 2007

As Suggested, here are some suggestions

Steel
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Cro-Moly
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Full-Carbon
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Composite
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Alloy
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Titanium
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Swiss
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I've been told I should get a Hardtail because its the only way I'm going to be happy on the bike. As far as fast goes its really the only way to go here in WI. Here's a pick of the lot. Leave Your 2cents, I'm only wanting a frameset ignore components.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Pondering about my '08 Purchase

With my only geared MTB going up on Ebay, you can find the link here I'm pondering what to get to Replace it. I'm thinking about trying a brand I have never tried before, something I little less mainstream. I'm kicking around the idea of a Ellsworth Truth or Ellsworth Evolve.

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I want a sporty full-suspension bike that can rail like a hardtail. I'm not looking to buy anything ASAP because I'm not really in a postion to spend that kind of money. But when the time comes I will spare no reasonable expense. I'm willing to spend up to $2000 for top-of-the-line frameset. A freind on my team also suggested Niner. I plan to go Full Sram XO and Juicy ultimates or something like that. I plan to use this for WEMS @ 24-9. It all depends on if I end up doing solos or Duos. In the case of Solos I want SS Duo or team, Geared for faster laps. I know that multi person racing is fun I want a piece of the action.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

My favorite Pro Cyclists

Have you ever given thought to who your favorite Professional Cyclsist is? If you have did it occur to you did you think about your favorite Male and Female Cyclist as well as consider Mountain, Road, Track, and Cyclocross. You may have not, but I have. My Favorite Female Cyclist Hands down is none other Team Mata's Monique "Pua" Sawicki.

Pua was the 2007 24 hour Solo National Champion finishing 4th among all Male and Female Solo riders a field of 99.
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My Favorite Choice for Male Cyclist is a hard decision I like David Zabriske From Team CSC I also Like Saul Raisin from Team Credit Agricole, and lastly I like Jeremy Power of team Jelly Belly. With it being Cyclocross Season I'm going to give the nod to Jeremy Power. Have you ever seen his mad Barrier Hopping Skills!
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

I need some help on something

I need some low to no cost suggestions for costume or something to go as for the Washington Park Halloween CX Race. It needs to be easy to ride in and be easy to dismount and mount my bike as well as not get caught in the chain. I'm open to ideas and people who think outside the box, cause I don't. Your Idea's and Suggestions are appreciated.

Monday, October 22, 2007

I'm looking for a partner

For 2008 I would like to possibly do a 12-hour duo for the Series. I am looking for a partner or two to do this. For a duo you can have a roster of three. So you don't have to do all the races. Inquire with me if you are at all interested. The WEMS Series has put out their 2008 Schedule already. You can find it @ WEMSeries.com. If you aren't willing to Endurance race with me I have one other position open. Race support. I need someone to help me out in the pits for solo racing if that is what I end up doing.

If I cannot find a Partner I will end up doing 12-Hour Single Speed for the Series. I also am strongly considering doing 24 hours solo @ 24-9 Single Speed, but we'll see. I need to buy lots of lights and I'm going to have to kick butt training and hope that I have a good first half of WEMS or else I'll do a 12 or 24 hour Duo or 12 hour solo like I did this year. I have already decided I'm doing Sport Single Speed in WORS for '08 unless I have a killer off-season as far as training but I don't think I'll be that great come spring, just simply competitive, not dominating. I need to podium some and have some success. As you know 8500 #1 is Raring to go, the only thing that may change is I might build up a new front wheel and I may do new hydraulic brakes. But neither are nessasary. I haven't decided quite yet how I'm going to build up 8500 #2. I'm only a v-brake compatible fork and handlebars short of having the minimal amount of stuff needed to having a working bike.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

That didn't go as planned...

As you may know I was going to try to do the triple this weekend, 3 races in two days. Well I had made arrangements with a freind in whitewater to stay the night and I couldn't reach him and didn't know where his appt was. I called everyone I knew in Whitewater and Madison since Sunday's race was on the NW side of Janesville. So anyway I ended up going home and I woke up Sunday morning and decided that I shouldn't waste my gas and that I thought it wasn't worth my drive. So this weekends Triple ended up being nothing more than a single. I decided to do some laundry and Mow the lawn then after I did that I decided, what the heck I want to build myself a Cyclocross barrier.

So I did...
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

I don't want to even resemble Bambi

Today went so-so, I finished 26th out of like 40. My legs felt a bit flat too. I didn't care for the course. I was going to go to John Muir but when I listened to the trail hotline and they were strongly recommending that riders wear blaze orange I decided I didn't need to go riding that bad. Tomorrow will bring the Gibbs lake course, its not much fun either. We'll see how my legs feel and if somehow I bring home a decent finish I will continue on to Carpentersville for the Chicross race.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Is the impossible possible?

This weekend is going to be freaking crazy.

4 Venues
3 Races
2 Bikes
1 Racer

The 4 Venues

Whitewater Aero Modeling Park
John Muir trail system in the Kettle Moraine Southern Unit
Gibbs Lake Park in the Janesville Area
Carpenter Park in Carpentersville, IL

The 3 Races:

UW Whitewater Cycling CX @ Aero Modeling Park
Gibbs Lake CX
Carpenters Park CX

The Two Bikes:

2004 Gunnar 10spd
2004 Trek 8500 singlespeeded

The One Racer:

Me
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would anyone like to take bets at how many miles I do this weekend? In actuality, it probably won't be that many

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New Items installed

New Ritchey Post and WTB Saddle
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Used and Forgotten but loved Tires
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new Wheel (Rim, Spokes, Nipples, Hub, Freewheel)

Velocity VXC Disc Rim
DT Swiss Revolution Spokes
DT Swiss Alloy Nipples
White Industries Eccentric ENO Disc Hub
Generic Freewheel chillin' on the pre-loved wall @ Expo

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Close-up of the new Hub
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I will be taken all of the new components out for a test ride Saturday afternoon @ John Muir trails after the Cross Race in Whitewater. Be jealous, be very jealous. I always welcome people to check out my new equipment and even test ride it by request.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Have you seen my brother?

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Hi I'm Front Wheel Neuvation R28 SL2 have you seen my brother, rear wheel. I really miss him. I haven't seen him for over a month. He's my partner in crime. My yin to my yang. I would greatly appreciate if you would help me find him. He was last seen wearing Michilen Pro Race2 blue Tires just like me with an Ultegra 6600 10spd cassette that has seen its better day well over 3000 miles on. If you find him please call me, I'll be right over with my owner Cody I miss him so dearly. No one can change that fact we have matching serial numbers, not time nor distance can seperate.

My Picture is seen below, we are identical twins basically so I hope this helps.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Stand Alone SS Minus Singulator

Its official, 8500 #1 is now badass. I did two upgrades last night, yes I said two. Last night I stopped down by Expo and Aris and Marcus were there, I have been teasing Marcus about building a wheel for me and tonight he was like, "Where's that wheel" and I was like "Let me go get it". So I ran home and got my hub, spokes and rim and I got my new seatpost that I have been meaning to install. You might laugh at the fact that installing a seatpost is easy right and normally it would be but the bolt on my seatpost collar was stripped out. Its been stripped out for a while, I had a new one to put in we just had to get the old one off. A vicegrip did the trick, once I installed the new seatcollar I lubed the post and now I have a brandnew Ritchey WCS Alloy Post. Marcus in the meantime got the wheel laced and tentioned. For those of you who are wondering the new wheels weighed in at 970 grams with rim tape and no rotor. That wasn't enough for the night so we decided, we've come this far, lets install it. Well turns out I needed to buy a new chain because the 9spd chain is too narrow for the freewheel, o well. Installing the fancy Disc brake caliper wasn't to hard but what was hard was getting the caliber alignment correct that it wouldn't rub and the throw was correct. I'm a tad picky about my brakes besides to I like my throw short and firm. We worked on it till about 10:15 and couldn't get it right. We called it a night and Marcus said that he would work on it tonight some after he got done with work.

Pictures to follow in forthcoming posts.

Monday, October 15, 2007

New Goodies for my '08 effort

As some of you might know I intend to do some Singlespeeding next year. I don't want to buy full fledged SS bikes so you do the next best thing. Get the stuff you need to make it all the single speed bike it can be.

Such as White Industries Eccentric ENO Disc Hub.
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The best Spokes, short of Titanium, money can buy, DT Swiss Revolution Blacks
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Velocity VXC Rim.
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I plan to Run a set of these on a pair of Trek 8500 for '08 Currently I'm just going to start with one, this whole wheel is going to cost me about $300 when all is said and done. It will be one sweet ride though. SS bike #2 needs prett much everything though, currently only has a seatpost, saddle, Seatpost collar and headset. I have a few cranks sitting around I could probably throw on there if I wanted to. I would like to get a few of the free wheels that White Industries offers, w/ sealed bearings and stuff, they run like $70 a piece. '08 WORS, '08 WEMS, and 24-9 2008 is still along ways off and my bank account is saying stop spending money. With a handful of cross races left you never know what could happen that might involve an unexpected expense in order to finish the season.