knog.

So this is what happens when I've had a long day at work, ate only a powerbar, 2 monster energy drinks and 2 packs of mini donuts all day, sitting around the house bored, and getting a sweet pair of gloves. Digital cameras can just be bad, but hey I've got a new profile pick now!

Knog stuff is typically pretty sweet looking if anything, I'll let you know how they hold up... too bad they are more for the colder days.

...and thus why it's the devils sauce.

DZ Days and DZ Nuts

DZ days I am taking it very easy and feel like I am in a second off season. Healing up the knee has kept me off of the bike since last Tuesday, and I am quite possibly going crazy after going out to Grattan to watch the local training series/world championships of the greater Grand Rapids area. It was the first road race I have been to since September and I forgot how much I love the whole scene. Just hearing the whoosh of the pack fly by on the first lap brought on goose bumps, I love the sound of deep wheels at 25+ mph. It looked like tough night out there as both fields blew to pieces with chase groups all over the track. The knee seems to be healing up well and isn't really bugging me I just am not going to take any chances. As excited as I am about getting back at it I am even more excited that shortly after I get back on the bike this will be released. Getting my fitness back will probably require some longer rides and what better way to remain comfortable than using the latest Dave Zabriskie cycling tool. I thought it was a joke at first but upon inspection I found that it appears to be legit and I predict it will be a hit for no other reason than Dave's personality coupled with the product name I will give it a shot. Not really the reason you buy a product that is supposed to protect sensitive areas during long rides, but oh well.

GBK

A little love for Red.

So this past Saturday night was spent with my one and only, Red. Yeah, some might find that mildly depressing but heck, what are you going to do? She needed a bit of love. As some of you remember I decided to see how much damage a curb could do to a bike. Well, a broken frame and a thrashed front rim later I thought that was it. But after getting Red all up and running I soon realized that her old handlebars weren't just right. The impact tweaked the bars just enough that I was afraid of random failure occurring while on a ride. Seeing that it's a fixie I didn't want to risk it.

Here's a picture of the old bars. If you look closely you can see that the right side of the bars are in just a bit more than the left side. They are also a hair closer.
Careful kids, Red's showing her unmentionables... remember you were forewarned...
All was going well with the install until I tried to transfer over the brake. The bar comes out a bit longer than the old bar so I was unable to mount up the lever and was forced to do some thinking as to what my next move would be.
I toyed around with this idea, seeing that this was the only way I found to mount the lever... but then remembered some thing.

So what I'm left with now is this... Sure it's pretty and simple. But I don't know if I trust myself running brakeless, maybe I still have doubts about things since my crash [although having a brake wouldn't have changed anything in that case]. Another problem being that I am still unable to skid. I actually took Red out for a spin today and attempted to try. Getting up to speed all I was able to do was stop in my normal distance of a few feet, no skid.

I guess the 'what if's' are running through my head. Geoff has got a lever I'll try but I might modify it. We'll see.

a preview of the next few posts

Now, as always I must apologize for my lack of posts as of late... I've hit a bit of a snag in life as of late which has just taken a lot of out of me where I'm continually exhausted. It's affected quite a few things, just one of those being the amount of time on the bike. So all I have for you today is a bit of a preview of the next few posts for me:

_ gloating over last months 'victory' for the April Challenge
_ a rant on working a booth
_ Red has got a set of bars and might be going brakeless
_ a little love being sent to Bottke
_ Mileage update.

But for now I leave you with this... the next wave for all you hipsters... fixed pushed boarding. werd.

Fort Custer Stampede

This is just a cut and paste from www.29ercrew.com

This past weekend was the second race in the Michigan Championship Point Series, the Fort Custer Stampede. Saturday started out nice, but by time the shop closed it was gray and rainy and preriding the course was out of the question. I settled on spinning around on some dirt roads on the old rig to open up a little bit and make sure my legs were loose, then called it a night early. I woke up to a beautiful day on Sunday with highs in the low 70’s and only a cloud or two in the sky it was a perfect day to race. I got to the Fort early enough to sneak in a quick lap before the elites took off, but didn’t dare ride the finish as the elites were on course and all the tape was up. The Expert/Elite SS class goes off in front of the sport riders meaning I had a long time to start so I got out of my chamois for a bit and just relaxed. After a good warm up I got to the line with a bit early and felt more relaxed than normal and joked around with Eric Tompkins and Joe Lee a bit, as we joked around about who would lead things out. As predicted Eric took the hole shot and I snuck past Joe as he struggled to get clipped in to claim second wheel, and we were off. I looked back before the first little rise in the course and saw a stretched out pack with gaps already forming and decided to take over pace setting for Eric and attacked separating Joe, Eric, Gus, and me from all other chasers. On the first steep uphill I took a bit trickier line and Eric clipped a pedal following I hit the gas and it was down to me and Gus. Lap one consisted mainly of spinning like crazy bumping over the numerous log piles and hitting the hills just hard enough to keep myself up front. The course was extremely fast is a blast to ride. It consists of a few Michigan hills that are loose, short, and steep, a bit of twisty turny stuff, a lot of fast bermed corners, and a stream crossing. Going into the second lap I decided to see what would happen with Gus in front and let him by to do a little work, not much changed as we kept our gap on Eric with Joe a bit further back. After the water crossing I took over hoping that I could keep the pace high enough that Gus wouldn’t be able to get around me, and it almost worked. I hadn’t ridden the finish in my preride and came into the 2nd to last turn spinning out with Gus still on my wheel, I completely forgot the corner was there and was in my roadie tuck, hands in the center of the bars leaned over and had to tap the brakes going into the corner giving Gus the leverage to go inside me on the corner and hold me off for the win as I rolled across the line overlapping his wheel but not quite good enough for first, Eric came in about 45 seconds later with Joe a bit back from him. Another 2nd isn’t bad as it puts me in the drivers seat for the CPS. Unfortunately I am now left with a lot of what ifs, I know I could have ridden harder, but counted on my ability to finish strong to win it for me. So close.

GBK

No Excuses

I knew I would get into trouble with this one. This seems like a week of excuses, the big one being my knee needs to heal. About three weeks back I banged it up pretty good and ever since it has been giving me problems. I finally decided this week I was going to look at the big picture and only ride a couple of days just to keep the driving and riding miles even. I actually find it annoying to get in my car every morning and drive to work. What is worse is not being able to ride home. Butterworth Drive isn't all that scenic, but it has become a relaxing spin home especially now that my commute seems to be in sync with a herd of deer that cross the road and hang out in a field a couple miles into the ride. My knee is healing and feels ten times better than last Sunday when I didn't dare ride more than 10 miles due to the pain and irritation it was causing. Hopefully next week the mileage will begin to creep up again so that I can get this behind me and concentrate on parking the car more often. It would also be nice to not loose some of the best form I have had in my life as well, but oh well hopefully it at least sticks around as a base. Speaking of no excuses A.Lo took down the prize for no trips under two miles, if you would like ask him how he more or less stole the poster from a good Samaritan just trying to make sure his friends got home safe, haha. Congrats on the win and closing the gap in mileage, I'll be back.

GBK