It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Woke up at 6am this morning and met two riders at the bottom of the Chutes. We rode the Chutes up to Buckhorn, Jacks, and down Columbine back to the open space. It's 70 degrees and sunny today and the trails are great if not a little too dry. 2 hours and 15 minutes on the bike in the morning at a pretty good pace makes it a lot easier to sit at a desk for 8 hours. I rode the Heckler and had a great time but missed the big wheels in the loose gravel. My wife read my blog for the first time and is opposed to being called my "wife". She doesn't like the sound of the word so from this point further I am supposed to refer to her as my "lover". Soooo my "lover" is having her sister from New York in town this weekend so we get to play tour guide and show her a good time. Every time we show people around Colorado they end up moving here within a year.

Creepy Spec

I was looking at a fellow cheesehead and fast singlespeeder's blog and his new build looks almost identical to the Rig build I have planned. I may not be anywhere near as fast as the Lalonde bros. but the bike should be a rocket.

Rest Day

Today I'm resting with a light Yoga and weight workout. Yesterday I parked at the La Veta lot at the bottom of Cheyenne Canyon and biked up the Chutes to St. Mary's Falls back down to Buckhorn to Captain Jacks and played in the open space for a little while. All in all I rode for about 2.5 hours and had some fun on the Rig. When the wife got home I went running through Ute Valley Park with her so got to tack on some extra cardio after we ate some sushi. It's starting to feel like spring in Colorado. All the necessary parts for the Rig have been ordered so it will be in race mode soon.

Feng Shui

Feng Shui

This is an old article from Dirt Rag that let me know that Feng Shui and bike set up are intimately related. This explains why I prefer XC racing to Downhill and still think 8 speed setups are better than 9. Instead of riding Sunday I went hiking with the wife and dog. We hiked up Gold Camp to St. Mary's Falls and the trails are looking great. It was refreshing to see everything while going slower and enjoying nature. I brought the essentials for a hike in the camelback (Dales Pale Ale and Pringles). Today I'm going back up but with the bike. 

Here's a great video

Here's a reminder to stop the consumerism.

www.storyofstuff.com

It's been a long week.

It's been a long week at the office and not enough time on the bike to clear the head. I am really making an effort to keep things in perspective and go with the flow. The company I work for is going through a large reorg so maintaining my Zen-ness is going to be very important over the next year. It's the biggest cliche in biking but the singlespeed is a constant reminder of how I try to live my life. Keep things simple, keep moving forward. There is only go or stop and stop don't get you anywhere but where you are.

29" vs. 26"

I rode Ute Valley Park on the 26" wheeled bike yesterday morning and on the 29" wheeled Rig this morning. The Rig is just more fun and an awesome bike. It took me about a year to upgrade everything on the Heckler for the "perfect" Front Range trailbike. I'm now debating on putting the bike on Craigslist. I'll keep it around for a change of pace (and a loaner bike) but the Rig is going to be the go to bike this year.

Odds of Dying

Your odds of dying are 1 in 1 or 100%. Here's a fun breakdown of how it might happen.

Race pictures

Here's a couple pictures from the Lake Pueblo race. No ride this morning but I'm bringing the bike to work and will ride an hour on the Santa Fe trail this afternoon. I'm planning the Rig upgrades before my next race at Chalk Creek May 3rd. I'm changing the wheels out to a Bontrager Race X Lite set off of a local racers Superfly. I'm going to keep the stock cranks for now but swap out the bars, stem, and seatpost to something lighter. I don't think this will make me any faster but I'll look better and that's what's important.

8 hrs of meetings

I just sat through 8 hours of meetings. The mind is now numb. The legs needed a rest but tomorrow morning I will take the 26" wheeled Heckler out to see if it's worth keeping after riding the Rig.

2 flats in 2 days

I've owned 8 different bikes in the last 2 years and only had 1 flat in all that time until.... On Sunday I was standing next to my  new Fisher G2 Rig getting ready to warm up 20 min. before my first race of the season at Lake Pueblo. My friend a very fast Sport class rider Nick looks at my tire and casually lets me know, "dude you got a goathead." I pick the little sucker out with a sssssssssssss sound quickly following. This is my first 29er so I didn't even bring a spare tube but luckily another friend John had an extra tube so we got it put together with minutes to spare. The race went great and luckily no mechanical issues. Pueblo is not a very forgiving course for tires (cactus, goatheads, and thorns everywhere). I felt really fast through the singletrack and was riding most of the course with another singlespeeder from the Springs. I came out of the singletrack in 10th place and got passed on the pavement by a guy on a geared Cannondale and got passed right at the end by the Springs singlespeeder EJ. I am going to try to meet up with the Singlespeed Sundays crew this weekend for a rematch. So yesterday I decided to ride up the Chutes to Buckhorn and down Captain Jacks. At the top of Buckhorn (the furthest possible point from my car of course) I got another flat. Another thing about me, I haven't ridden with a spare tube or pump in over a year so I'm a very very very long hike from the car with a dead cell phone in my jersey. 2 minutes after flatting the cycling gods smiled unto me and another rider came up to the High Drive lot who had a pump and patch kit in his pack. Thanks a million man. The singlespeed 29er made quick work of the canyon. I have found my sword and am again training in the hidden art of kenjetsu. Time to go tubeless and enjoy the flow. Om mani padme hum

32x18 Pueblo

First race on the new GF G2 Rig. Pueblo Reservoir 4/20 race was fun, fast, and geared perfectly. My friend Nick got 2nd in Sport with an amazingly fast lap time of around 1:19 and John and I finished real close to each other at around 1:38. It was a hot day in Pueblo and a bunch o' fun.