and for Rody

make sure to look at Rody's blog he makes some wonderful bikes and just a good guy since he let us crash with him. We all went to Maxines Chicken and waffles last night and Rody took some pics of us in front of the building and I took this picture of him taking our picture.




and the group consisting of left to right Sean, Darrell, Bill, Aaron,Duane and Rody

at the handmade bike show

One day down and day two is going on right now. I will have a full recap when we get back. We spent all day at the show yesterday and got in a few hours today before the public since we are a shop and got out for a few hours as soon as the mob came in at 11, gonna grab some lunch and head back for a few more hours before hanging tonight and heading back in the morning to what sounds like some snow.

Probably the show winner, lots of people ooogling over this bike from Naked and Maurice from Dirt Rag who is always the coolest of guys to talk to.



think we are gonna go look in the war monument before lunch


more later
wESd

the going on's

The shop has been purty darn busy which is always good to see this time of year but we are still riding a couple times a week with the pretty good weather. Sean, Darrell and I are loading up in the morning and heading to Indianapolis for the 2009 North American Handmade Bike Show
so take it easy on poor ole Jeff if you are going to the shop, he might be a little backed up.

Sean has been re-doing the downstairs bathroom and we now have a new floor and toilet but still have to refinish the floors, lights and sink and have it all nice and respectable like.

Should have quite the post when I get back from the show, till then...don't go ninjy choppin nobody that dont need ninjin'

Better start getting ready now

9th Annual Burn 24 Hour Challenge
presented by Bikerumor.com

The 9th Annual Burn 24 Hour Challenge presented by Bikerumor.com is set for May 23 & 24, 2009 on the Dark Mountain Trail System in Wilkesboro, NC. This marks the 6th consecutive year the Brushy Mountain Cyclists Club has hosted the event. The 2008 race saw record attendance and race promoters feel no differently about this year.

Take part in the premier endurance mountain bike race in the Southeast. There’s a race class for everyone. Whether you’re super fit and want to take down defending champs The Middle Ring Mafia or you just want to test yourself and your personal fitness, we’ve got you covered. Choose from the following race classes:

Solo Female

Solo Male

Duo Female

Duo Male

Duo Coed

3 – 5 Person Team, Male

3 – 5 Person Team, Female

3 – 5 Person Team, Coed

Registration is easy. You can register online at active.com or bikereg.com. If you’re not comfortable sharing personal information in cyberspace, print this form and write a check made payable to the BMCC. Send it to: PO Box 1281 North Wilkesboro, NC 28659.

Charlotte Winter Short Track series

So I decided that I needed to finally go to one of the short track races in Charlotte and today was the day. Darrell has done two of them and really enjoyed it but I am not really the racer type so I figured that I would take the Route 29 and enter the SS class and go out for a ride but not "race". Darrell has raced the SS class the last two times but wanted to give the Sport Men's class a shot this time even on the his SS Route 29. Darrell's race went off at 11:30 and looked pretty dang fast, Darrell ended up 17th out of 21 but will 11 laps which is what I later finished with in the SS class so it would have been interesting to see if we had both been in the SS class...(please dont beat me too bad next week Darrell!)

I really had no huge hopes going into my race. Not really being the racing type personality I just wanted to support the local race and have fun. When they yelled "GO" I got going and got in the woods pretty quick and higher up than I expected. I definitely wanted to make sure I didn't fizzle out later so I tried to keep myself slowed but the track is just screaming fast and fun. Lots of berms and a couple of smoother than smooth jumps that beg you to get air. After the first 2 laps I settled into a good rhythm that I knew I could keep up so I just made sure I had fun. It was too dang hot out for a penguin and about lap 5 I could feel my pale white skin sizzling and knew that the sucktitude of sunburn was gonna feel good later. I am happy with the 9th out of 17 results I did and think I will be heading back next Sunday to play again. Hopefully next time I will have a little better tire pressure, today was my first day on my new Bontrager XDX's and my normal pressure on other Bonty products deemed to high today, the good news is that my new Bontrager shoes are better than bad...they're GOOD. Very comfy shoes indeed and the 33x18 gearing was also a good choice for me and my knees.
Lots of complements on the new shop jerseys and mine and Darrells Goats, always cool to hear and see people staring them down.
Anyways, next weekend is the last race of the series and if you have not participated yet, YOU SHOULD! I had a really good time.

Savannah came along to take pictures and got some pretty good ones. She always insists on putting them through photoshop real quick and she did these few for me tonight, she should have more soon and most likely have a link to them on her blog www.savannahstrickland.blogspot.com

Me rocking the Route 29 SS




Darrell coming up the road section at the end of the course


It's always good to see our favorite Canadian friend Ross Dowswell, glad I got to talk to him for a while before the race because he was much faster than me on the way to his 4th place in the SS category...sorry Ross your photo comes later! Also good to see our buddy David G at the race and a big thanks to him for handling a whiny Pony Boy while I raced, let me know when you sell that Superlight and are ready for your Goat.

its so cold

Sean, Darrell and I all had today off so we headed out to Signal Hill to put in some more hours. We had originally wanted to do some ground work in a few of our new sections but upon getting to the trail the ground was so frozen we decided that we would cut corridor in new trail and cut out some fallen trees. After 8 hours of work we called it a day and headed to the shop an had some lunch. Then Jeff, Darrell and Sean all headed out with loads of Goat frame and parts for some paint action...hopefully we will have pictures in a few weeks.

Other than that, Savannah and I are going to head down to Charlotte for the short track race with Darrell on Sunday and I am trying to decide if I want to race or not. I am not a racer at heart but might just have to do it for fun.

Happy Birthday Darrell

good ole Darrell takes alot of smack talk from us and we love him for it...well today is Darrell's Birthday so I figured I would post up some pics of our buddy.


good ride at Dark Mountain

Yikes

hey Darrell
Can you ride the Skinny

Darrell can't

Ready for a jihad

Ready for Match.com


Sean?....comments?...

Bike work and a beautiful day at the greenway

Big repair in the shop to get a new Fox TALAS, rder, chainrings, chain and cassette so after I cut the steerer on the fork I though about taking a few pictures.

Here is the cut Steerer which you can see is missing the star fangled nut


Star Nut setting tool and the star nut


Setting tool on the steerer but no pics of me with the hammer setting it


Finished Fox Talas with star nut ready to go on its new owner(Fox Forks are the best)


Today Savannah, Pony and I were gonna hit the greenway and were also joined by Matt and Ellen and even Darrell showed up after another race at the short track series. I am really enjoying the nice casual greenway ride on Sunday afternoons. I am going to head down to the short track race so no ride next Sunday but if you would like to come join the ride let me know and I will get you the needed info.


Savannah, Darrell, Matt, Ellen and of course Pony in the front