sweet

found this in my mailbox this afternoon...

Hi Hal,
OK, I just got those dropouts, should be starting your bike early
next week.
i'll keep you posted.
mt

frame update

received an email from mike truelove, and it looks like there is movement happening on the new bike front.

here are some specifics for the bike:

29er singlespeed

head tube angle: 72 degrees
seat tube length: 21.5"
seat tube angle: 73 degrees
top tube length: 25" (sloped)
chain stay length: 17.5"
BB height 12"

seat tube and down tube will be reynolds 853
top tube is tange ultimate
seat stays and chain stays will be reynolds 725
dropouts are paul single speed rear drop outs with axle keepers
adjustable disc mount

other details:
two water bottle mounts and guides for hydraulic brake lines

the bike will be built with the following:
thomson elite seatpost
selle italia slr gel flow saddle (if it comes back from warranty)
race face next sl handlebar (31.8 mm)
ritchey pro stem
chris king headset
avid jucy 7 hydraulics
pace rc29 carbon fork
truvativ stylo cranks (180mm)
egg beater candy pedals

i'll have two sets of wheels for this bike
set 1 (just built by the poosher) will be tubeless with notubes ztr rims, revloution spokes, white industries hubs, and a 16/18 dos freewheel (tires to be determined)
set 2 i will use with tubes. this gives me flexibility to use different tires and ability to use these wheels on my cross bike. they have mavic open pro rims, revolution spokes, and chris king hubs (singlespeed rear).

this is about as close as it gets to being like a little kid at christmas.

we need a drum band

that time of the year

the banner of this blog says it is about bikes, beer, and bread - well its october and that means it is time to start baking again.

one helluva race

one of the better races and cross courses to come our way. fast, with a nice mix of technical sections - also a very pretty course to ride on. probably, one of the best races of the season to watch (too bad for those who missed it). the "b" race ended with a print to the finish line between rick y and dan lockery - a great race where rick had the lead the whole race as dan continued to make up ground lap after lap, finally catching him with 3 to go. dan took the lead going into the final lap, but rick caught and passed him at the line. there was a lot of support from the "a" racers and it was a riot watching dallas and others rag several "b" racers, while giving support to others. in fact the support for all the riders was classic - pure cowbell madness. The "a" race also ended in sprint to the line between ollie and daniel with daniel taking it by a wheel or less. luc rocked and almost stole 5th from jon b in a sprint to the line. there was some classic racing go on in the middle of the pack as cam and tom broke out on their own as jon, kuc, brain s and I worked together to try and reel them in at various points. eventually brian fell off the back and the rest of us conitnued our pursuit of the second tier crown in the "a" race. cam got too far ahead of us but the lead between the rest of us changed hands several times. jon broke out alone eventually, and tom also created a gap. luc and i found ourselves trying to catch tom somewhere in the middle of the race. we worked together for 3 laps and managed to pull tom in and the three of us rode together for a bit. luc jumped again and he and tom took off after jon - I just couldn't hold their wheels and settled into 8th place with nothing left to try and catch tom. luc managed to reel in jon and the two of them sprinted to line where jon won by three inches. sweet stuff. i was pleased with my race, finally making it through a race without getting lapped by the leaders, a first for me in an "a" race.

keeping up with the jones's

okay, i made the leap into 29er-ville at the beginning of sumer more on a lark than a well laid plan. in spring i thought that i would be racing the bianchi lewis and using the redline as a fun bike. what i did not realize at the time was that this bike, the redline, would become my preferred choice for a race bike and that the bianchi would just end up sitting in the basement (hope to be selling it soon). at the end of this season i decided that i wanted to get a lighter frame and decided to look into buying a new frame. after consulting with the poosher and paddy at the shoppe i have finally made a decision on a custom made fame from mike truelove. some of you may recall that i was looking into this earlier, but did not bite at that time. well, that is no longer the case as mike and i have sent several emails back and forth and a new custom made frame will soon be in the works. so far i have decided on a more aggressive head angle, more slope on the top tube and slightly longer top tube. the bike will be mostly made from reynolds 853 and maybe some tange ultimate tubing. even though the frame is not scheduled to be built until some time in october, i am way too excited - almost like a small kid at christmas. more details will follow.

wednesday morning cross training

who ever thought that running cross training rides the morning after a fgbc tuesday night ride was a good idea may need to reconsider their decision making abilities.

(does this look like it is going to lead to high levels of participation for cross training?)

by the time i got to bed it was 1:00 am, and the thought of getting up at 6:30 to be at omand's creek park at 7:00 sat about as well as the sometimes skanky beer that is served at the f-n-h. regardless, i rolled out of bed with the encouraging words of mrs. dr. trailing behind me ("are you nuts?"), and got into cycling gear. half of my motivation for getting out of bed was that this was going to be good for me, the other half was avoiding the ridicule of the others if i did not show. when i showed up, only deanna and scott were there. with scott still on the mend, deanna and ran hills, did laps, and practiced our cross dismounts and mounts. after 45 minutes we were done. we headed home feeling good about the training, and for me, an added sense of moral superiority that i showed up (soon to be dispelled i am sure)

running laps up and down the hill

this time with the bike

xc8

last weekend the poosher and i headed out to xc8 for eight hours of joy and pain on the fabulous course at buffalo pound provincial park. we left the city at about 3 pm and headed west

(yet another car window view of the prairies as we speed by)

7 hour later we arrived and promptly set up the tent and had a pint of the good stuff

the morning was cool and we woke up to find a slew of other manitobans had made the trip (dave, seema (sp?), corey smith, shawn zayak, mike kuczer, shane lindsay, and others). it was at about this time that the karma that the poosher was going to experience the rest of the day made itself apparent. at the very first wednesday night race of the season someone left a nice cycling vest at the race site, tom picked it up and carried it around for the next 5 races. since no one claimed it, tom thought he had some nice trail swag for himself. of course the first time he wore it (this weeked) shane identifies the vest as his and tom gives it back - which is not so bad, but tom felt embarrassed. that behind him, tom got ready for the race and just prior to the start did a warm up climb on the hill which was the at the start of the race. anticipating a long day the poosher had selected some tunes for his ipod shuffle and clipped it on to his jersey. he did not turn it on for the warm-up so he did not notice that it had come off during his warm up some where on the hill - where it still lies as i write this post. with the embarrassment of the vest and missing shuffle behind him the poosher settled into the race. on his third lap tom was pushing the pace and attacking a downhill section which was fairly straightforward except for a few bumps and at times a high sided rutted main path - well this got the better of him. as he describes it he knew he was in trouble even before he got in trouble, and the trouble was there was nothing he could do about it. tom caught the rut at a bad angle and slammed hard into the ground, breaking his catlike helmet. it was right after this that i came upon him and he was pretty banged up and shaken. we discussed whether i should go get the medic, but tom said he felt okay enough to ride out - his race and weekend were done.

(morning of the race)

the race course at buffalo pound was excellent, much like birch, but with some really fast twisty flowing single track descents - what a blast and one of the better coursed i have ridden. i was riding the 29er with a 32X20 set up which was find for the the first 4 hours, after that i wish i had 22 cog for the back, because the climbing started to take its toll. the last 4 laps that i completed were hard as the climbs and bumpy descents (i also like to punish myself by riding a rigid fork) added up. i managed 10 laps and think i finished 7th overall which i was pleased with. dave finished with 11 laps and corey had an excellent race and finished in 6th with 10 laps just ahead of me. seema rocked with 8 laps and managed to make the podium with a third place finish, where she got a medal, prizes, and cheap champagne to spray over the crowd - cool.

following the race the poosher and i packed up and headed back to winnipeg, arriving at 3:30 in the morning; a long day, but well worth it (tom may disagree).

i heart dr. laura

when it comes to beer in winnipeg, our selection is somewhat limited. we need a better beer store. someone needs to open a fine beer store, just like there are fine wine stores. minneapolis has plenty of fine beer stores, and laura proved that by bringing these fine selections home from her weekend trip to the twin cities. yeah! i am going to put on my belgian cycling socks, pop in a 'cross dvd and enjoy a fine lambic.

friday night fun

with mrs. dr. out of town visiting friends from her doctorate progam, my social calendar was wide open. with nothing better to do i headed to the shop to hang out and shoot the breeze. paddy was building some wheels, the poosher was helping a friend price out bike parts, al was working the front, and john and adrian were turning wrench in the back. upon discovery that the fridge was bare, i departed for the f-n-h to replenish the stock. upon my return i was pleased to see that jon b and dave had joined the fray. we sat around the back, talked and had few beers as jon's trusty steed got a makeover. when it was time to close the shop jon, dave and i decided to take in a movie. now, i had a couple of beers, jon had a couple of beer, but dave - dave had a couple of beers and a bottle of wine earlier in the day. i had no doubt jon and i would make it to the theater in tact, but dave was another story - would he survive the ride to the theater. the short answer is no - in fact dave wiped out big time on portage avenue as we made the turn to cross the st. james bridge. big ouch (thank goodness for helmets). dave got up, dusted himself off and declared himself good to go - and he was until just before we got to the theater. we stopped so jon could take care of some plumbing issues and when dave came to a stop down he went like a poorly constructed house of cards. dusting himself off, dave once again declared himself good to go and we finished our ride to the theater. arriving at the theater we locked our bikes to the rack - well at least jon and i did, dave on the other hand managed to get the lock on his bike and that was about all. i quickly re-locked dave's bike to the rack and the three of us found our way into the theater to watch the movie. good times and a funny movie with some great lines. after the film we parted ways and i made my way home - what happened to the other two i do not know, but there must be another story there somewhere.

belgian fun in the sun

the belgian triathlon went off on saturday afternoon - what a blast. the day started with an early morning meeting at the pole archery grounds where myself, tom and ian met to set up the 'cross course

(the poosher surveying the grounds - "yes, it is good")

following the setup i headed back home to get my ultimate gear and make it to assinaboine park for our first playoff game. on the way i had a very president-like moment when i lost control of my bike after hitting a rock on the river trail behind balmoral hall, causing me to careen into a tree - ouch. after a hard fought battle on the ultimate field (we lost - however, our team came back in its second game of the day to win. yeah team.), it was back to the pole archery grounds for the triathlon. the format for the triathlon had one cyclocross rider pared with a bowler, pared with a archer. each team received points based on how the team member did in their event, you could enter any or all of the events. maybe i was still feeling the effects of the run-in with the tree, for whatever reason, i did not put my name in for all of the events and found myself only entered in the cyclocross.

ian and eric figuring out the teams

cyclocross went first and we had to race around a short course which was all grass. nothing kills me more than racing on grass - it sucks you dry from the get go.

tim on the 'cross course

the next event was belgian bowling. belgian bowling consists of rolling a beveled disc, which curl as they roll, at a stake placed in the ground.

jon

gianni

apparently tom has signed us up as team for the belgian bowling league this winter. our team name is mucr-vecken(sp?) and our team uniform - yellow 'lion of flanders' cycling socks.


the final event was the pole archery. pole archery is where you try and knock birds off their perch on a pole 110 feet above your head with a bow and arrow. the arrow's have blunt ends which is a very good thing for obvious reasons.

birds on the 'fork'

here is what it looks like from below

tim shooting with his homemade bow (he built this while in high school)

arlene shooting at the women's target which was 40 feet away and horizontal

sol shooting

the next four pictures show colin preparing to shoot

of course the final event of the day was going back to the belgian club for their other national activity - hooray for the belgians!

tom's pictures from wed night race

pictures from the last wednesday night race. only one more race this year coming this wednesday. unfortunately i will not be there to fly the fgbc - anyone willing to step up to the plate?

me looking at the back of the braunonator's bike (this is the only thing i ever get to see - and only for the first 7 minutes of the race). i know i look like some soccer ref with the knee high socks, but damn, i hate that poison ivy

arlene and sol

good times

bianchi for sale

selling this bike. only ridden 4 times and it's time to let it go. reason: went to 29er ville.

option 1: frame (21") and fork (reba team) for $700
option 2: above and wheels for $1000
(wheels are mavic 717, revolution spokes, white industry hubs, and white industry 17t freewheel - wheels are two seasons old)

gianni's job

yesterday tom, ian, paddy, and i went for a ride to scout cross courses for the upcoming season. prior to the ride ian told me had a good day a work because he got to take pictures of llamas. here is ian's picture of cinnamon

wednesday night ride photos

it was a scene as they say...

young john riding to dr. h's

mr. dr. and matt waiting for the bus

juan and jimmy waiting for the yahoos to finish drinking their beer at the bus stop

the yahoos

young john and luc eating their baconators at the f-n-h

ATHF Opening

for those who like movies and death metal (i'm looking at you jonny b)

1/2 men

another wednesday night race has come and gone. as usual, jon b. and i rode out to the event (real racers ride their bikes to local events - or those who want to put themselves behind the 8-ball before the race even begins, unless your name is neil grover, paddy, or tom). any ways, we had a couple of out-of-town riders attend the event: a couple from alberta and a guy from england. seems like they enjoyed the race and liked the course. when talking to the guy from alberta he mentioned that gord's charged him $20 to join them for their tuesday night ride. what the hell's up with that???

why i titled this post "1/2 men" is jon and i decided not to ride back home after the race, excepting rides instead of biking back in - wimps that we are.

the following picture shows the good doctor and myself manning the cyclocross booth at the belgian pavilion tuesday night. the only question we could not answer was "do you speak flemish?"

laps counted and not

well the results are up for 24 hours of 9 mile and it seems like they missed the lap i did without my timing chip. more my fault than their's. any ways, 13 laps equals 270+ kms (185 miles) ridden on the weekend.

24 hours of 9 mile

last weekend was spent going to the 24 hours of 9 mile race in wausau wisconsin. paddy, dallas, shona and i were riding; luc antaya and drew hwarniak were along as support crew and driving crew. the plan was to meet at starbucks on pembina at 7:00 and drive till we reached alexandria or better, break, and make it wausau by noon the following day. plans changed. seems like paddy was the unfortunate victim of city's mishap following the rains last wednesday - he was 'on the fence / off the fence' whether he would make it because of the need to clean up his basement. with the city coming through for the clean up late thursday, paddy, dallas and luc sped (as paddy about trying to make up time in construction zones - ouch) off late thursday while shona, drew and i left earlier that evening.

friday found us in wisconsin, and making it to wausa by 1:00.


we quickly set up our base camp and began the process of prepping for the race - this meant tinkering withe bikes, getting the gear sorted out and making lists for the shopping trip into town.


one dude brought his segway, equipped with off-road tires, to the event.


once we sorted out our gear, had lunch, and bought our groceries, it was off for a pre-ride of the course. the loop was either 14 or 15 miles in length (i can not remember) and contained a variety of terrain - rocks, roots, wood chips (f*#k the wood chips), logging roads and miles and miles of singletrack.

(pre-ride pictures)

about 2/3's of the way through the course we came across third of three water stations, except this one also served beer - god bless them. the big difference between this event and the 24hours of adrenalin people is here they are much more relaxed and are willing to have fun with event. during the race two of the water stations were party sites, complete with loud music and enthusiastic supporters. the signature event on the second water station was an optional jump, complete with runway lights, which brought howls of support if you took the ramp (except when i did it - seems like everyone was concerned with a rider who was in need of technical assistance and i received no love as i lamely propelled my self off the earthen ramp - sigh).

it was an early rise on saturday morning because there was last minute items to get ready, a quick trip into town for breakfast, and we needed to pick-up our timing chips which we were to wear on our ankle during the race in order to record our times (i forgot to put my on for one lap when i changed shoes and socks - but the timers were cool with it and they gave me credit for the lap any ways)


dallas' morning did not get off to such and good a start as he woke up with a migraine headache and spent his pre-race hours tossing his cookies followed by trips to the can for expulsions of a different kind. the poor guy was doubtful for the start of the race, but after many advil and watching paddy get on the segway (he knew the guy who owned it) and taking off down the road only to crash into the fence (picture i wish i had) dallas bucked-up and managed to get himself to the start line in time.

this was my first running le mans start for a race. so far i have been lucky in all my other 24 hour events and i have never had to pull this duty as other riders on my teams had their names drawn over mine, but being a solo rider means this could not be avoided. it was not as bad as i thought it would be except i almost got on the wrong bike as there was another redline near where i left mine (about the bikes at this event - it seemed like 29er singlespeeds almost outnumbered the more conventional bikes. wow. a lot of people down there are riding the 29er - the revolution is gaining momentum).

(you can see the blu et orange of paddy's uniform in this shot)

youtube video - i think the last person you see is dallas, the dude was hurting

the first lap was done and now it was a matter of settling into a routine of getting food, liquids, clothing changes, and bike tune-up for the next 22+ hours. it totally rocked have luc and drew there as support. they were always making sure i had what i needed; fresh water bottles, bike tune ups (luc rules), food, morale support and anything else i needed. their services made this event much easier and i can not thank them enough.

because i was actually racing there was no time to take pictures of the event (well, if that isn't stating the obvious), but drew managed to get this shot and the following video.

video of dallas and i finishing a lap

paddy's streak of good luck continued when his feet blew-up big time. the dude could barely walk when i came in and he pulled out (temporarily) of the race. when he finally got back on his feet - literally - he pulled support duties for dallas and i over the next 10 hours which was much appreciated. in fact, i got to use paddy's stadium lighting system at night and what a difference that makes, you can actually see freaking much everything and ride almost as aggressively as you do in the day. unbelievable, and i need to thank paddy for the this - it made the night time much easier.

(luc continuing his support duties)

night time came and it became a different ball game. this is were the mental part of the racing comes to the front - you're wasted and you know you need to go out again and again and again (hopefully). it was at this time that the physical part of riding a rigid bike really began to take its' toll. my arms were dying because of the relentless pounding. the rest of the body was also beginning to wear out, but it was the lack of strength in the arms that were starting to slow me down the most.

(dalla vs the pepperoni stick)

12 laps later and i knew that i only had one left in me. this allowed me to spend more time in the chair and think about nothing but how good sitting in a chair real feels (i would not say the same about 10+ hour car rides home). dallas, the endurance machine he is managed one more lap after he finally got enough calories in him to go out for one more for a total of 14 laps and a fourth place finish. as amazing, paddy somehow managed to pull his shoes back on and do two more laps, the last one almost being his fastest - most impressive. shona knocked off 7 laps in 12 hours and finished 2nd in her event which was most impressive as this was her first race like this - way to go shona.

(dallas post-race)

(shona at the podium - another story)

this event was excellent and i am looking forward to going back next year. learned a ton and know what to expect for future events. thanks again to the crew that went out - it was a blast

results should be up sometime.