Monday, March 31, 2008

A Long Day

The chickasaw race ended up being a bit more of an adventure than I expected:

Door to Door time: 16.5 Hours
Time on the SS: 4.5 hours
5th* place SS, 12th place Expert

I'll get the full story up either tonight or tomorrow.

There was a bit of mud...

Monday, March 24, 2008

Tha 865

To get the full effect, you're gonna need to turn up those speakers and click here. (Don't blame me, you clicked it)

Where you from?

In order to have a unified voice on cycling matters in the community, the various Knoxville cycling clubs have banded together under the "865" banner. Its not a bad idea in itself, but it always cracks me up because it reminds me of the awful rap song you are probably listening to right now. If you've ever been here, you would know that Knoxville's street cred ranks somewhere between Nantucket and Boca Raton. So hearing this song trying to rep the 865 like it's compton, you can't help but laugh. Although, I have to say he could be on to something, more and more it is "the city where the gangstas talk with the nine". Just not so much the gold teeth and impalas...yet. Gotta leave something to aspire to.

Because in Knoxville,

you can't bring it if you don't bling it.

Maybe...

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Shiny


The superfly is all built up and ready to roll... I can't wait for Saturday to come around so I can get out and get her muddy. I've got to run back to Morristown on Sunday, so that will give me a chance to hit up Panther Creek and take some pictures to update the Disc Burner site, which has been sort of neglected.


My money is in for Dirt Sweat and Gears and SingleSpeed USA. DSG was probably my favorite 12 hour I did last year, it just has such a great overall vibe to it. Great organization, breakfast, a tough course, the best competition, dinner, beer, and the almighty schwag raffle/toss-up. Watching people risk breaking their face trying to catch a chain or a box of CO2s that have been flung 20 ft in the air was quite entertaining. Maybe they'll throw cassettes and chainrings this year. If you do only one 12 hour this year, this is the one to do.

As for SSUSA, I really have no clue what it will be. According to the site, I'll be riding my bike for "more than 1 hour but less than 46000." Beyond that, I've heard rumors of whiskey, beer, and a "mule named Merle" being involved. Eh, what the hell else am I going to do the day before the 12 hour? At least my entertainment is nearly guaranteed. I can't wait to see what random SS prize they come up with. Can they match the world championship golden speedo from the SS cyclocross worlds?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Ahead of Schedule

Just got the word that my superfly is en-route. This is quite a shock to me, since it was supposed to be showing up in the middle of May. I had my season set through May for the singlespeed, but the Superfly complicates things. Now I have to think about what bike/category to race? Com'n!

Right now I think I'll stick with the SS for the Cohutta, DSG, and SSUSA. The 12 Hours of Tsali could go either way since they have a SS class. On the bright side, I'll have gears for the Burn 24 Hour. Last year's 5th place left a bad taste in my mouth, and I think I'll have a better shot at redemption with gears since there isn't a SS class.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Force divided by Mass

School, work, and riding have all been in acceleration mode the past week. Great timing since the weather is finally improving. This will probably mean a lot more riding in the dark, sleep deprivation, and eating at really odd hours of the day.


Getting it done in the dark

If nothing else, the past week’s riding had variety. I got quality time in on the road and off, along with a few healthy doses of epic commuting. I’ve been rocking the Soho a lot at night lately, as it’s much more entertaining than taking the road bike to the boulevard. The weather saw me go from sweating in full on summer gear all the way back to thawing my shins and toes after every ride. Rainy, snowy, and windy conditions made for some interesting days as well. Maybe I’ll just tell myself all the random weather and darkness are good mental training.

Greenway Hazards

Every now and then something slips… I realized I had forgotten about the Cohutta 100 registration, and it is now full. I’ll have to give it a few weeks of begging, and then I guess I’m stuck in the 65 as a last resort. At least this makes me motivated to finally register immediately for SSUSA and DSG…tomorrow.

Wasting Time:
Google of the Day: “MySpace Angle

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

UnoSpedato


I finally got the Rig finished up last Friday, just in time to watch the rain soak all the trails. Two days of warm weather dried them up nicely though, and I couldn't have had better weather on Monday. The singlespeed definitely rocks, and I'm looking forward to racing on it. I was impressed with how comfortable the ride was, as I was expecting to get a bit of the shakin spine syndrome going back to a hardtail from the double squishy. The big wheels combined with low pressure in the tires really soaked up all the rough stuff. Two hours at IC King with a 32x18 was no problem, but there is going to be a bit of an adjustment period to dial in my cadence, gearing, and to become efficient enough on it to make it work for 24 hours. Hopefully it will be dry enough sometime in the next week to get a 4 or 5 hour ride in on it and see how the legs like it.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Sunday Spin

For the past 2 years, I've been hearing from multiple people that the Mt Larry/Oliver Springs ride is one of the best road rides around Knoxville, but I've never made it out to give it a shot. With the weather looking to be sunny and almost 70, Jeremy and I figured it would be as good a day as any for it.

How bout that Sunny and 70?

Overall the ride lived up to the hype with some nice roads, good steady climbs, great views, and fun descents. I'll def have to check this route out again later on in the spring. The start of the ride looked a little ominous with dark clouds and light winds, but it cleared up after an hour or so. Climbs were a nice and steady grade, so it was pretty easy to find a comfortable gear and spin it up. Not too much random excitement on the day to speak of though, so I'll just throw some pictures up and act like that counts as blogging.




Abby and Jeremy like to make faces