WOOHOO!

New bike. It rocks. Maiden voyage tomorrow, I guess. Poor me.

Here's the new baby in front of the Enduro Pro (which I love).

So the whole 'quiver' thing works well to explain having a bunch of bikes but it just doesn't convey the real attachment that one has with one's bikes. A quiver kind of implies that you just pull one out (so to speak) and go for it. That ain't it.

I've got the harem...
I love each one differently. A different bike for a different mood. Left to right in this mug (pay attention), we've got the Sputnik fixie from Jamis. 2006 with flat bars, plastic pedals (nuthin' but the best) and still no brake. Bottom left, super-hard to see is Susan's Bontrager CX with a road 9spd setup with no seat. That's orange and black hiding out down there.

Santana Visa is the 'Tandem of Love' in red with the Ultegra 9spd tandem setup with Hadley hubs and bottom brackets. Fatty tires and Old Man Mountain rear rack. Family fun. Straight on is Susan's Trek 6700 or something. Stock. Whatever. The white roadie in there is a Bontrager Road Lite (yes, he made bikes, too!) with a 9spd Ultegra setup and Cane Creek wheels. Great steel fork on that sucker. Salsa steel stem... Finally, the right hanger is the Bontrager Race Lite mtb that I got in San Jose for $100, unridden. It's got some King, some XTR, 9spd with a Manitou SX fork in 1". Yeeha. That's the bike I really learned to ride mtn well on. I raced that bike quite a bit and I still like riding that thing (when I have to). On the ground on the bottom right are the stumpy carbon FSR 5" bike and the Enduro Pro snuck in behind it. You can almost see the Rocky Mountain Instinct frame sitting on the floor in there. Tough, I know.

How could I leave out the Phil? She gets her own picture. Ahh, I remember when I could make her go fast... Actually... I don't.

This picture only cuts out three more bikes that Susan and I have as well as a trailer. Make that two trailers.

I built the bike with some MORE guys hanging around and I don't think I took a breath for about 3 hours. Unlike me, I know. I only got one beer in me I was talking so damn much. I'm sure it was mostly useless babble but we'll do a brake bleed demo in a few weeks. Gluttons for punishment they are, eh?

I'm checking out a new fit system on Friday called Dialed In Motion. It's hip and should be something cool to at least flirt with. It's real-time video fit analysis which is the new cool thing, I think. We'll see how it goes and how far down we can push the price. Here's hoping.

Cherry city

DC goes nuts around this time of year. I think it's the number one tourist week(s) of the year. The Cherry Blossom Festival is two weeks long just in case the blossoms are early or late. They've got it covered.

If you are around, I would get down there Thursday or this weekend for peak pink. It's good to get out of the office and check it out if you are down there. Get out, dammit. It's Spring in full force. AND it's dry out there which is rare around here.

I put the new bike together last night with some of the MORE guys. We had some beer and pizza and I almost finished on time. There was some unrelated drama that delayed me a bit, but whatever. Sub-26lb 5" travel mo-chine is looking GOOD. Pics later. I need to fix the front brake rub. That fork casting or 7" rotor adapter are going to have to lose some weight, the old-fashioned grinder way. Here's to maiden voyages!

Bikes and ?

Now this is what happens when you are a little TOO 'Specialize.'

'I was riding so fast, the 'D' ripped off!'

How about, 'We left off the last 'D' for 'savings!'

All bad, but this is a real bike at the shop. Specialize(d) offered to take it back but we thought we'd keep it. If it was a 58cm, it would be mine in a heartbeat.

We call it a limited edition. What else, right?

Now THIS is the perfect picture. I was snapping pics of Brian in the CC parking lot in the dark and it turned out all right. The loving gaze of a proud daddy on the first day of new bike-dom.

Dreamy...

JoFo told me that he ran in to Punga when he got to Schaeffer then saw Joel on his new Sworks Stumpy and they all tooled around for a while. When JoFo was leaving, he saw this guy (see left) pulling up with that bike (see left). That's a City Bikes day if I've ever heard of it...

And finally, I thought that I would put up a pic of my favorite commuter bike. This is the one that REALLY tickled me. Andy told me that he wanted me to build my dream bike for him and damn if I didn't. He picked it up back in September and he's been loving it. How could you not?

She's a looker. I've sold a bunch of Moots bikes but I always thought the PsychoCross Ybb was the best all-around bike to have. If only Cane Creek made a disc-specific set of the Volos XL...

Keep an eye out for this one every day around Rockville and on the Capital Crescent. Good luck trying to catch Andy, though.

My carbon bike will be 'born' on Monday (tomorrow). Blaze and I are meeting at CC to ride down to see the cherry blossoms and he's going to do some business. So am I, but we'll split up before he rocks in to see the competition. Will Tuesday be the maiden voyage? I'm just not sure. I'll have to check my schedule... heh.

Brian's New Love

There's nothing to really say about this. Check it.

Short list: King XC717 Disc wheels, 7" rotor fr, 6" rear Juicy 7s, Pike Uturn 20mm thru, Deus crank, X.0 rear der, Sic bar, Thomson bar/stem, WTB 2.55lt Weirwolf tires...

Oh baby. Bike porn at it's finest.

Site stuff and Yeti

Charlie has been spending a lot of time updating the site. We are CONSTANTLY updating the boring parts of the site (new models, correcting pricing, etc) but only get to add significant info every two years or so. The SOB even added some staff pics, including a fat me in a tux from two years ago at the WABA auction at the Finnish Embassy. Dana keeps her old picture up there, Adam looks stoned (better f'in not be, boy), Bega gets the tux treatment, big Shawn looks as friendly as ever... I think they took the cig out of Paul's mouth before the picture...

I spent a few minutes this afternoon getting some Yeti pics up (stolen from their site, of course). I'll have some pics from the shop bikes up soon. We should be seeing them in the coming weeks. I think I have one going out soon, which will help. They are also sponsoring some event I'm not supposed to talk about at some local mountain involving lots of gravity and some sort of deer. Aw, hell, it's June 23-25. There will be open mtn riding on Fri, Sat will be a SuperD race with the DH course open and Sunday will be DH race with SuperD course open. The whole weekend, racing or not, will run you $100. Best f'in deal around. Other sponsors include City Bikes (no sh*t, right?), Jamis (giving away four bikes), Cannondale, Serfas and more. Oh, and MORE, I meant. Straight from Racers Edge:

"The second event is slated to take place at Whitetail Mountain Resort, June 23-25. This will be a three-day event and is the first and only chance to ride at Whitetail in almost six years. The Capital Cup will consist of a “Dual” event as well as downhill. The downhill format will be unique in that we plan to race one course on Saturday afternoon and another course on Sunday afternoon. The champions will be determined by combined time. This format is not absolute and we would like to hear your input, please feel free to email us at theracersedge@comcast.net."

So check it out.

New tires (pronounced 'tars')

So, I got some of the new WTB Weirwolf 2.55lt tires two weeks ago and I finally mounted them, so to speak. Here's a shot of the new tires next to the 2.1s. The 2.55s are on a wider rim and the 2.1s are on a standard xc 23mm-ish rim. The tires are light for 2.55s at 720ish grams. They roll fast with the lower knobbies and will be great for rocky rides, dry or wet. With that much width, you can just drop a few psi and increase your grip a lot. We'll see how they ride this year. They might be a bit big for racing, but I'm sure I'll end up on them at some point. I think they are going on the new carbon stumpy when it gets here in a few days.

The kids went to cousin's birthday party at a local funhouse called Rolly Polly. It's foam pit, trampoline, moon bounce heaven for little ones. They had a great time. Pics to follow on that as well...

Emma, as always, had a great time and simply forgot that Susan and I were there. That's her swinging on the rope over the foam pit with birthday-boy and cousin Jonas in the background. I think other cousin Lindsay was about 5 feet higher off-photo, doing something death-defying, as is her way. She's fearless, to be sure.

Luckily, even the 'big kids' (me) are allowed to get crazy. J-rock had some troubles climbing up the moon bounce so I volunteered to hop in and carry him to the top of the slide. The rest was up to him and gravity. It's hard to tell from the look on his face, but he was having a great time. He had some fun in the foam pit, fell down on the trampoline lane thing (and loved it) and climbed in and out of a squishy circle-thing a few dozen times.

My wrist is acting up so I haven't been able to ride for a few days. After breaking it twice (skateboarding age: 12, freeriding age: 26), I think she's a little tender. I had to yank like crazy on a cork at Susan's St. Patrick's Day work party and I think that did it. Of course, the jumping and drops that I did yesterday in the 'hood didn't help. At least I found the jumps that the kids built behind the library. I hit the little ones as I didn't have a helmet or healthy wrist, but I'll be bouncing off the ground there soon enough.

Chris Eatough never showed for that ride last week but I did get to ride with Jason Berry of Off Road to Athens fame as well as some other fun dudes. Some fellow City Bikes riders showed up as well.

Just so 'no' to crack aka going to sleep

This from big Joel and his big broken-ass bike. The Monkey took one Karate chop too many from the small gorilla but large man, gwadzilla.

'It felt a little flexy in the bottom bracket for the last few months, can you take a look at it?' Exhale... Yup, it's broke. 'Didn't you look at it?' 'Nah, I just figured I would wait.' 'For what?' I says. 'I dunno,' he says. Literature, I tells ya.

Oh, and how the hell is it that my new DSL line uploads twice as fast as it downloads? What the hell is that about? People hate me...

A little late - race report

From our friends at Jamis... I gotta tell ya, I hates me some html formatting.

CRCA/SAKONNET TECHNOLOGY U25 CYCLING TEAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: basil@skntcycling.com

McLane Pacific Report

New York, NY (March 9th, 2006)

3/6/06 McLane Pacific Cycling Classic (Pro 1) – Merced, CA

The team’s first NRC event of the season became a great learning experience for our young squad. We had hopes that the boys would “cut their teeth” in the big leagues with out too much trouble and that is what we did at last weekends McLane Pacific criterium and road race. Highlights of the weekend was David Wiswell’s attacking riding in the criterium where he towed the field around for 3 successive laps and Andy Guptill’s strong finish in the road race as first amateur in 23^rd place.

On the downside we have several crashes in the criterium (Wiswell, Guy East 2X and Chris Kuhl), some punctures in the road race (Kuhl and East) and a mix up pining numbers on the wrong side of the jersey that has up to today robbed Andy of his top finish. Moving forward we believe the boys will regroup and have a great race at the Central Valley Classic this weekend in Fresno.

Note, David Wiswell is scratched from this weekend’s team, as he’s still not 100% after having the flu. Our roster for CVC is: Guptill, Kuhl, Hayes and East.

3/6/06 NYC Metro Racing Report (NY, NJ, CT)

Sakonnet riders Robbie Giannini and Stephan Badger had top finishes at last weekends Bethel Series in Connecticut. Giannini road the off the front in a breakaway for most of the afternoon as Badger and Louis Perez kept a lid on the peleton. Giannini finished in 4^th Place and Badger snatched 8^th Place.

Sakonnet riders Basil Moutsopoulos and Russell Kelly road the Tour of Lion in Newark, NJ last Saturday in freezing temperatures. Moutsopoulos finished a creditable 12^th Place and “in the money” at his first event of the season.

3/6/06 Collegiate Review

Several Sakonnet riders have seen action in the last couple of weekends riding for their respective collegiate teams. A recap of results is as follows:

2/25/06 2^nd Place DePauw Road Race – Jon Swain (Marian College)

2/26/06 1^st Place DePauw Criterium – Jon Swain (Marian College)

3/4/06 1^st Place Ohio State Road Race – Jon Swain (Marian College)

3/4/06 1^st Place Rutgers Road Race – Michael Chauner (Bucknell College)

3/5/06 1^st Place Rutgers Criterium – Michael Chauner (Bucknell College)

3/5/06 3^rd Place Rutgers Criterium – Chris Ruhl (Penn State University)

3/9/06 Redlands Team Announced

With Lee Rosenthal recovering from a broken collarbone the squad will be subbing Robbie Giannini into the Redlands Bicycle Classic roster (3/24 to 3/26). At just 23 years of age and after an injury plagued 2005 Robbie is back on track and ready to go. Team management calls him our secret U25 weapon and lucky # 13 on the U25 squad. As one of the original riders on the U25 Team Robbie has seen action at both the Tour of Ireland (2004) and the Tour of Taiwan (2004). Now a “working stiff” for a hedge fund in CT Robbie is looking for the opportunity to supplement the U25 team at big events when needed.

Complete Roster:

Andy Guptill

Chris Kuhl

Johnny Hayes

Guy East

David Wiswell

Robbie Giannini

Team Manager: Bob/Bruce Weyman

For More Information Visit: www.skntcycling.com

Pro deal

Can it be true? How did I get involved in this?

Riding with Chris Eatough tomorrow? God, I hope that's not the case.

Maybe I'll just put him in to a tree. Yeah, if I get anywhere near him.

Pics to come. This would be fun, if I remember my camera. I'll try to snap a few fotos.

Who knows who else will show up. I'm not trying to be Mr. Fast Guy ever anymore, but it's nice just to not be last. Talk about striving for mediocrity. I'm afraid that 'the best I'll ever be' was nothing special and a long time ago. Long time.

Well, at least I'm getting better looking. Or more humble, I forget which. I'll ask my wife, I'm SURE she'll know...

Sunburn in March

Yup, it's possible. Even without going skiing, hitting the Bahamas or fake-baking. March in the Mid-Atlantic means 85 degrees, this year. Last week was solid 60s-70s through today. Busy at the shops, to be sure. People start getting crazy this time of year. I can only imagine what it's like after Winter in a place like MN or WI. Oof. You've really got to want that... you know who you are. It ain't me.

I have some pics I want to put up but it's getting late.

Word is there will be a local mountain opening up this Summer for a little DJ, freeride and 4X race action. Who will it be? You can bet City Bikes has already sewn up the inside line on that one. We'll be there as title sponsor with bikes to try, giveaway and buy. We'll have plenty of support (of all kinds) for the event. Look out June, here we come!

More Ned

Here are more pictures of Ned and the crew, courtesy of your friend and mine, Scott 'IMBA DC' Scudamore. Eat his sweet potato fries...

Good cause

I've been working with a guy named Tom on his project for about 6 months now. He's lining up governors from a half-dozen states, Congressmen, dudes named Rumsfeld and hundreds of cops and firefighters (known in my family as 'farfighters,' it's a Baltimore thing).

So here's the jersey. His site for the Airline Ride is pretty real. It's a testament to the human spirit. He's a hero.

I first met Tom as just another rad customer who liked to drink beer and hang out with us knuckleheads at the shop up in Chevy Chase. He rode all the time and was always talking about 'just getting back from Europe' or something like that. We found out he was a pilot (no drunk pilot jokes here) and he started sharing with us his attachment to what happened here in DC on September 11. We had another woman who rode all the time raising money for the memorial at the Pentagon so we mentioned Betsy to him. 'Oh yeah, that's my sister,' he said. 2+2=4. It turns out that Tom lost his wife on the plane that hit the Pentagon. Betsy lost her sister in law.

So, Tom is talking about how he wants to do something positive for the crewmembers and their families. He wanted to bring attention to the 33 crewmembers who were near and dear to him personally as well as professionally. One day riding across the US for each crewmember. Tom is flying his last flight as a pilot out to LA. He's riding with his buddies back across the flight path of the planes that were supposed to make it to LA. LA to New York, New York to DC. Completing the journey.

I threw City Bikes and myself into the ring to help out. Jamis came on board with a small fleet of bikes for them (Zenith Teams) and I promised to ride at least part of the route. I'm down for NY to DC.

If you live in any of the states they are going through (check out the website) you should put on your Sunday best and show up. Be around at the end of a long day and have a cold beer for Tom and the boys. Meet us at the Chevy Chase City Bikes (park in the lot) and hook up with us as we cruise down Connecticut Ave with full police escort. Or just make a donation on the website.

I hope that if anything this difficult came my way in life that I would have the strength to pull through it. Tom is an inspiration and I am honored to have been a part of this. I can't wait to ride.

On your left...

Ned, DC and stuff

So here's my latest ride with Ned pic. RickyD is next to 'the man whilest I remain kitted up on a borrowed superpimp gold Stumpy FSR compliments of Blazer. It was a fun ride. It had all of the normal issues associated with 20 or so dudes (no dudettes) rolling through the woods of Patapsco on a cold day. We had lots of flats is what it really boiled down to.

Blazer asked me to lead the group and I managed to only embarrass myself in front of RickyD (actually, behind him) by not being the fastest. Ned, of course, is the fastest, but he always hangs back.

I rode the log at the top of the white trail on a borrowed bike without dabbing. Ned tried a few times on his borrowed and seriously flawed Enduro (it's host shop didn't give it a once over).

I probably should have been more worried about the ride. I rode 36m or so the day before in a serious amount of wind. I almost got blown off of the Severn River Bridge and I was tired. I seem to do that 'Tour de Severn' ride a lot and this one really hurt. I was hoping to do 50m or so, but it just didn't happen. I was stoked to get off the bike. Did I mention it was cold?

I managed to sneak out for about an hour and a half on Saturday to ride the fixie around the neighborhood. I broke out the old HR monitor to try and keep the HR below 120. It's hard when there's wind and hills. It's nice to just go out to ride with the only goal being to relax and ride.

A local pro road guy has agreed to be my un-official coach for the season. We haven't really gotten down to any type of program, he's just helping me understand the basics of real training. He's a supergood dood and I'm lucky that he's spent any time helping me.

I spent some time at the National Bike Summit on Wednesday morning and Thursday for the Congressional reception. I caught up with a bunch of friends from around the country during the opening. I went for the free coffee and socialization. The League had 370 people registered which made this year's event the biggest ever. Thursday night, Susan and I cruised downtown and hit the Russell SOB (Senate Office Building) for the drinking portion of the event. I caught up with Ned, Patrick from WTB, Johnny B from Trek, Ariadne from Specialized, Sweatervest from Portland, Gary from Quality and my good buddy Chris Scott from HBurg who I think hit on my wife. Maybe he was just being nice. Who knows. I guess I'll punch him in the back of the head just in case. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

So, we are like seven weeks out from the first race of the season. That's probably wrong, I should look. All I can do is just ride my bike. I've got plenty of work to do so it continues to be a balancing act. At least the lack of commute makes it a little easier to squeeze in a ride here and there.

April 22nd is the City Bikes Season Kickoff Party at Schaeffer Farms.