Umm, yeah

Most of the summer has gone by, my last 3 or 4 posts have been largely reminiscent bittersweet trips, and here we are on the eve of Autumn. I'm pretty well worked from the last couple of weeks preparing for Interbike w/ Surly and taking tomorrow off to spend all of Carrie's birthday with her. I'm really glad it's going to work out to not go to work, because it's tough even though I don't do business trips to often to leave her for a week where I'm having fun, but hating every minute. I'm also going to sleep until the sun warms me tomorrow, which I can seriously use an extra day of that before the tidal forces of late nights and early mornings consume me for the next week.
Cross racing looks to be fairly nonexistent except for crunkcrossmpls and perhaps a trip up to the middle north or wherever the hell I went for a really fun race on Halloween. It was at a tree farm, but not Trebon, and there was a red barn, that's all I really remember; it was awesome, I almost threw a lung.

If you're lucky, tradeshow report in a week or maybe even a post on the Surly blog because I'm big time like that.

"I have to admit....this feels mighty good"

It's been a couple of weeks since Greg jumped off the front of this mortal peloton and honestly I've been a bit out of sorts the whole time. I'm counting down the hours until I'm back in Lincoln to celebrate his life with some old friends and some I've never even met, but were part of the earlier Deluxe crew. In the past I'd been up to my ears in bike work at work this time of year and avoiding it on my personal time, but now, I've been clocking quite a few hours in the basement the past couple of weeks after work. It's been pretty soothing using some of Greg's tools and using all of them the way he, Tom, and Pat taught me. This is good. Sew ups on the PG cross bike(wicked sweet) and clinchers on the Mondonico(?, but at least I'll ride it more).


Oh, in other, brighter news, waterslides are still awesome. Carrie and I spent last weekend in the tourist trap of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There's a lot of overpriced bullshit there, but I'm still working on a brick of homemade fudge(that doesn't melt!!!) and scraping the burnt skin off my scalp. There is some cool shit in that town, but you have to look for it, and still take it in the backside of your wallet. I recommend Wizard Quest for your daily lot of silly problem solving and the Torture Museum, which was questionable, but interesting. It had a real Gacy painting though.

At Noah's Ark waterpark, we pretty much stuck to the traditional waterslides because we don't jam on standing in lines. Maybe we missed out on something, but I don't think we would've had much more fun.

"Jesus and Tequila"

I remember way back....

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on any net type thing other than a facebook update. The Minnesota Spring has been quite kind and kept Carrie and I on our bikes and saddled up at the bar or music venue. The Volvo is running strong and spending much time typing about radness has seemed trivial.

I got a call earlier this afternoon that mentor and friend that started my journey in the bike biz passed away this morning.

Greg Dunbar gave me a shot at Deluxe about 12 years ago. I was just some punk ass who spent nearly every afternoon and dollar I'd made working in the kitchen at Ag Hall on the fairgrounds at Deluxe; hair down to the middle of my back, Dead Kennedys and Bouncing Souls cds in my messenger bag, a gem of a Specialized Stumpjumper that was sitting dormant far too often as I learned about road and 'cross, cobbling together some miscellaneous shit as bikes really took hold in my life. The whole Deluxe crew, Greg, Tom, Pat, Gom, A, Sean, and Paul(sometimes even Lieutenant Stading) helped me learn and grow a lot for the year I worked there, the final year the shop was around. Greg was the one who's bench was right across from mine and was always there to tell me my brake pads were too low, I could cut the housing smoother, my write up sucked, good job on that sale, and ask if I was getting paid to play foosball.

There are a couple of things I've maintained over the course of the past few years. I certainly wasn't taught everything I needed to know about bike fixing and the bike biz at Deluxe, but I was taught how to learn what I needed to be to be successful in the future. The other is that if I wouldn't have had my first bike shop job at Deluxe, I honestly believe things would have turned out differently for me. I grew a lot as a mechanic and a man at Honker Hangar and mostly at Cycle Works, but it was the setup at Deluxe that allowed me to continue moving on the path I've been on that has treated me so well.

Greg, thank you.


I've been rough on these, I ought to get them touched up.



"...you taught me my first barre chords" Hot Water Music-Moonpies for Misfits

Turnaround

Holy fuck was I in a foul mood when I got home from work.
A brisk evening ride home from work did nothing.
I went through a list of awesome songs in my head that usually do the trick, but still nothing.
In case you are wondering they are:
Roots Radicals
Sound System
Us and Chuck
Bound
Table 19
Bookworm
Kiss the Bottle
Want
Scraping
Softcore
International Cover up
Lamar Vannoy
ECFU
Petroleum Distillation
Summertime
Liquid America
Longview
Glory Days
Atlantic City
Tour Song
Jimmy Jazz
Well you get the idea, or maybe not.
I vegged out on the couch for about twenty minutes and rehydrated 4 pints of Blue Dolphins and then descended to the basement to finish up my old man's new ride. It got the complete O/H treatment, riser bars, rapidfire, and v-brakes. He's hassled be enough over the last ten years about never wanting to go fishing with him anymore and my typical response has been, "you haven't been on a bike ride with me....ever." Well, I might have to bait the hook because I won't be able to slip that noose anymore. I'm really jazzed that both of parents will have bikes and seem pretty serious about replacing their shorter car trips w/ bike rides. Finishing up his bike really flipped the switch on my mood, a couple of glasses Malbec haven't hurt either, but mostly it was working on a bike for the old man, the Bouncing Souls "Manical Laughter", and Kid Dynamite self titled.

Can you feel that?

The earth just slowed down a little bit.
All of my hubs are laced to rims and all of my bikes are put together with the exception of the one on evilbay.
I'm really stoked on my new wheels for my PG, they're going to be the fastest wheels under the slowest singlespeeder in the midwest. I might have to go to some races again this year. Maybe. Maybe I'll just show up and shotgun a beer.

Tomorrow ends the roller derby season. I expect the estrogen blender to be on puree post bout.

Stripping

I'm not talking about my wife you god damn preverts.
I'm already nearly positive I'll regret this, but I haven't ridden the Spider more than 100 miles in the past three years. You'd think I would have wanted to get one last ride on it, but when it time to go, the cord must be cut. I'll probably be regretting this in a couple of years, but on the bright side, I think bike are still going to be around and I always figure out how to get a new one when I need it. For now, it looks like it's going to be this, because, well, I work there; or one of these depending on how much loot the Intense brings. I've got a feeling I'm going to take a solid kick in nads on this one. Fuck it.
If anyone is interested.....

Some NAHBS Pics

Familiar end of tradeshow feeling

A mini boner in my pants that wants to get all growed up
Should be Camo

Hessians on a ladder

At least that "seconds from disaster" feeling doesn't directly affect me this time. Like early Thursday morning when someone was dumping bottle rockets into one of the three propane heaters going in this garage where bourbon shots were being taken out of meat cups.

The long awaited NAHBS recap:
It was awesome. If you missed it, I hope you had a good reason and it is not to be missed next year.
Many thanks to the Susan and Skip for planting the seeds to get us there.
I also took possession of my first War Axe fork there. I put it on my Travelers Check w/ 2.2" Nevegal up front and a 1.8" Bontrager Jones XR in the back. This fork is making my travellin' bike way more versatile and is a great ride to boot. It will be a good bike for those hybrid moments.

Full report to follow

I need some recovery time.

Ass=Cookiedough

I thought doing errands and riding to various beer serving establishments would make this day a little easier. 30 mph wind gusts out of the West said otherwise.
At least the ride home was a little easier.