Ah yes, that extra day of February. The 29th. I got a coupon for you, 29ERDAY. Use it at checkout to receive a special 1 day only 15% discount.

I’m going to be leaping into some cool projects in the month of March. I have a set of ENVE rims inbound to build, and will also be checking out the new WTB Frequency rim. Sadly, I seem to have misplaced my camera, which also means I might be leaping into a new one. Anyone out there have one they like?

Also inbound is the first of the new Continental 29er tires that never came last year. The first to arrive is the much anticipated X-King (Cross-King) in 2.2. I’ll have to post up a crappy iphone picture when they get here. I’ve been told that the rest of the line up is not far behind.

Tune in next month for a legit post, when I shall be rambling on about my final thoughts on the Spot Brand Rocker.

As I’m sure you will know if you’ve been reading this blog, today, I’ll be a guest DJ on a local radio show. I haven’t done this since college, where I had a metal show. This was before there was even a thing called “internets”, which is too bad, because I think I probably could have had a different profession in life if I had a larger audience. The show was always a lot of fun, and I thought I was pretty good at it. I lost the tapes years ago, but I remember listening to them for years after my stint as DJ. They were quality.

Music has always been a really important part of my life, and I’ll be playing some of the songs from my youth, along with a couple of new favorites. Lot’s of people claim metal cred that they don’t really have, but I assure you I am 100% authentic. I had the hair and the high tops with tongues of power to prove it.

Mulletica

I’ll be steaming over the internet world wide, so make sure you tune in today at 2:30 EST to listen, you won’t be disappointed. The name of the show is If  I Can’t Dance, it’s Not My Revolution. Click the link, turn it up and rock out. And, as this is also a fundraising time for this little station, if you are feeling generous, donate, a little goes a long way.

We’ll get back to bikes tomorrow.

deepness

I know a lot of my friends are super happy about the snow that fell here over the weekend. They deserve it. I’d be bummed if I had bought a pass this year, the ski conditions have been meh at best, but at least for now there will be “freshies” for those that seek them out.

I don’t mind this little delay of spring. I have that bike with the big tires to play with…. Mandy and I set out for a trundle in Sterling Valley, but found that the snow consistency was not quite prime for riding. We brought beer just in case.

trundling the gnar

I had attempted a pub crawl on Saturday night, but as I was by myself, I didn’t do a very good job. Resort town bars are not my scene, and paying a $10 cover to get in to one of these bars was not something I was too terribly excited about, so I trundled on. I did make it to one bar for a beer, but made it a point to stay for one and go back home. The best part of my attempt was the ride itself, but then I got to thinking how much fun it would be to have a pub crawl on Pugsleys. So, if you aren’t doing anything on St Pattie’s Day, and you have a fatbike, let’s do a pub crawl! We’ll meet at the Stowe rec path parking lot behind the church in the lower village at 3pm on Saturday March 17th.

Pubsley

It would be wise to plan accordingly, and have either a place to stay, or a designated driver.

Also, do not forget my assault on local eardrums tomorrow at 2:30 EST. I have my set list together, and I think you will be in for a treat. You can stream the show over the webs by clicking this link, just make sure you can turn it up real loud.

And in other exciting news, Maiden announced US tour dates for this summer.

Keep it METAL!

Well, looks like winter is back. And it’s a little pissed.

But first, I want to let you all know that I’ll be a guest DJ on a semi local radio show. After a few beers last week, I was coerced into helping out a friend raise some money for a local small community based radio station. The good news is twofold. One, I’m helping out a local small community radio station during their fundraising time. Two, I’ll be playing METAL. That is the beauty of an open minded radio station. Oh, the poor townsfolk…

The show will be Tuesday Feb 28th, at 2:30 EST. Tune in to WMRW and listen to the show anywhere there is streaming internet. And maybe even donate if you are feeling generous. I’ll be playing metal and upsetting the simple, god fearing locals for an hour and a half or until they break the door down to the station and drag me out.

Metal aside, I did manage to sneak in a ride to test out the new goodies recently installed on Kermit. After a somewhat pathetic phone call between Nat and myself, we agreed to meet up and go for an impromptu ride. It sorta went like this:

Nat: Are you riding?

Me: I dunno… maybe…

Nat: Well, I want to do something. Maybe I’ll just go for a run.

Me: Me too, If you show up, I’ll go riding with you.

Nat: F*** you!!!!

Well, Nat did show up, and we got on our bikes and started our ride. The question was asked (mutually I’ll add) “why does the sky always look like that when we go for a ride?”. We headed out to do the Rt 2/100B/100 loop.

the darkness...

Yeah, it was a bit dark, but there were some blue splotches clearly visible. It was also sleeting a little, but we set out anyway and found that the riding was not so bad. Warmer than we originally thought, we settled into a nice rhythm and were making good time on our loop. I was enjoying my new grips, and found myself on the bar ends for most of the ride.

I will say that these ultra boring singlespeed road rides are always better when you can ride with someone, the time and distance was passing quite quickly. I was beginning to think that I was overdressed for a while, even more so once we reached the hill to climb back to Waterbury. We had a really good head of steam going at the bottom of the hill, and despite the headwind, I was feeling like I was going to overheat.

Still, I managed a respectable climb (at least in my head), and on the parts where the climb flattened out, I was able to rest, and then notice that the sky was actually getting darker. And the headwind had calmed down some. A few more miles went by, and the sky grew darker still. And the wind was gone completely. Before I knew it I was at the top, and it was time to bomb the downhill.

It was about 2 miles from the shop that the sky turned a weird color, you know, the color the sky turns when shit is about to get real. And then, a huge gust of wind almost took me of my bike completely, and a wall of pea sized snow pellets pummeled me. It was crazy. The snow/hail has coming down with a vengeance, like all of a sudden winter had realized we had been enjoying the nice weather in it’s absence and needed to make up for lost time. I had a hard time seeing as the pellets were singing my face and sticking to my glasses, the wind was making it hard for me to stay out of the way of passing cars, it was slightly hellish.

it started going wrong here...

...and got worse here

Once I got back to the flat, I blindly made a dash back to the shop, my once warm hands frozen into claws, and totally soaked to the bone. Every leading edge on my bike and body was encased in a layer of snow, and I can tell  you that I was pretty pleased to make it back to the shop alive. Nat showed up just slightly behind me, and promptly threw his bike on the floor of the shop and told me how much he hated me.

I love my friends.

It was a good ride that became epic for sure. I really liked the new wider and lower stance Kermit has. I really think that a slightly taller gear would do wonders too. Overall I’m into it. The bars were solid and I really like the grips. With maybe the most significant snowfall this season in the forecast for the weekend, I’ll be making sure the Trundleraptor is ready to rock. Remember, Tuesday, 2:30pm WMRW. Listen to me make an ass of myself in public and enjoy some METAL.

After almost a year, I finally got the care package I was promised by Backcountry Research. They are the makers of the Awesome Strap which I find to be exactly that. Awesome. My goodies were delivered to me in AZ via Dough, who handed me a bag full of Tülbags and Awesome Strap Race (my fave).

Tülbag

I’ve never used the Tülbag before, or even seen one up close, but it is a well constructed bag, useful for carrying things that might get lost, or prevent things from rattling around your pockets. Going to out one of these guys to use soon. Notice the düshbäg on the hang tag, nice kit!

awesome!

Now, with multiple Race Straps, I no longer have to swap my tube/inflator bundle between all of my bikes. Having even one less thing to worry about before going for a ride is a huge improvement for my quality of life, so thanks!

race bundle of joy

Also, since Kermit has been re-activated, I have found that my preferential riding position has changed. I used to favor a more upright position, but have found myself running the bars lower these days. I changed my stem from a 10° rise to a flat, lowered it on the steerer tube. I also thought htis might be a good time to check out the new Niner RDO crabon flat bar. I have been exceptionally pleased with the regular crabon bar, so I’m interested to see what they have done differently.

new cockpit

Also, Mr Kerkove hooked me up with a set of GS2 grips in Team Green, so with my riser bars gone, I thought this would be the perfect time to try them out. As we all know, there is nothing more mockable than riser bars with bar ends. With the increased leverage available with wider bars and bar ends, I also thought this might be a good time to increase my gear, but wouldn’t you know it, winter has decided to come back. The wet snow and yucky roads have sidelined my riding plans for the next few days, so you’ll have to wait until next week for my initial impressions of the new goodies.

Stay tuned for more exciting news tomorrow!

 

Just a friendly reminder folks, the Gravel Grinder is right around the corner! We will be running the 5th Annual Spring Classic on Sunday April 22nd. We will meet at the usual place, the parking lot at the Pilgrim Building in Waterbury. Get signed up! The route is expected to be around the same distance as in previous years, with plenty of bail out options should they be required. You can expect to ride up and over all of our favorite hills here in Waterbury.

I'm melting! I'm melting!

Many plans are hatching to make this the best Grinder ever. There has been talk of multiple “themed” comfort stations along the way. There has even been talk of a little adventurneering for those who might be feeling brave. Due to the crazy winter weather we’ve had (or not had), the roads are in full melt mode. The spots that get a lot of sunlight are in tip top shape, but the shaded areas are still quite soft. Because it is only February, I’m hoping that come April the roads will be fast and fun.

Either way you slice it, you do not want to miss out this year. Spots are limited, so why not sign up now?

This will be my last post regarding how much I love AZ and all the hoohaw that goes on out there. At least until my next trip. But I had a bunch of pictures on my phone, and some of them are good. Since my computers and phone do not really want to talk to each other, I have waited until now for the photo dump. And by now, I mean a time when I need an easy blog post to write as I didn’t have time for a quality one due to having to deal with my car this morning. But the good news is, a picture is worth 1000 words right? Get ready for a long post…

I recently received a care package from a new chainlube company called Gnar Lube. In the package, I got a sample of their wet and dry lubes, a pile of stickers, buttons and temporary tattoos. This small San Diego company is currently blowing up on Facebook, partially due to the fact that they use scantily clad women as their spokes models. It gets your attention. The marketing is tongue in cheek, but it is pretty effective tactic. Especially since once you get past the unicorns and dayglow colors and try the lube itself, you come away pleasantly surprised.

I decided to test out the Wet lube out on Kermit. He was pretty dirty from the last ride I went on, the roads here are in full mud mode, and the grit infused slush had made my chain a filthy crunchy mess. I removed it and gave is a good cleaning with some degreaser, scrubbing the individual links, making the sure the chain was as clean as possible.

With a chain almost clean enough to eat off of, I applied the lube, making sure to get each link and roller. The wet lube is blue, and smells like coconut, which is a bit different than the traditional smelly chemical smell of lube. In fact, it’s quite powerful, and reminds me of how strippers/bad girls smell. The dry lube smells even more like that, with a hint of vanilla, and my shop has not smelled the same since I opened the package. It’s the sort of smell that once you get it on you, it stays on you. The only thing that they could have done to make the lives of married men even more difficult, is to somehow put glitter in it. But I digress…



With the new lube applied, it was time for a ride. The drivetrain was dead silent. My ride took me over a little bit of everything, and it was mostly wet. Slushy snowmelt puddles, crusty gravel roads, and mud. Oh boy.



Parts of the ride were so soft, I was almost sucked into the road at one point, but I will say that this made for conditions that were gnar enough to see how well this lube worked. My drivetrain was silent throughout the entire ride. I’ll be getting a few more rides in this week, so stay tuned to find out how long it lasts. My initial impression is that this product works well. If you can get past the smell, it should serve as a quality chain lube choice. It even comes in bears.

 

 

 

 

 

Here in New England, it is clear that winter isn’t coming. At least not in the way it traditionally has. I’m sort of semi OK with it. While I’m hopeful that the minimalist snowstorms continue to be the trend, there are always checks and balances. I just know that there will be a major snow event that will set the bike riding season back for weeks. It’s how it works here.

I have forseen it

But, in the off chance that this is result of global warming, well, maybe we will be riding in the woods up here soon. I remember in 2010 we were riding Town Loops in mid March on dry trails. Judging by what is out there right now, it might be early March. What little snow there is, is rotting fast. Most likely because I got a snowbike. You can thank me later.

going... going...

This is the view from my apt. Look at the bare spots. Incredible. Now you can also hear the cacophony of birds as well as the constant flow of traffic from my deck. Overnight temps have been above freezing, and long term weather says above freezing temps all next week.

I’ll be headed down to Mass this weekend, and will be riding the Spot Brand Rocker in the woods, where is no snow. I hope that wherever you are, that you get a chance to go out and ride this weekend. See you on Monday.

 

If you are of the singlespeed persuasion, you might want to think about signing yourself up for SSUSA. The event happens in Stowe VT on July 28th. In case you missed it, this is how it went down in Boulder last June


There are 100 spots. First come, first served.

Course details will not be released until day of, so dont even ask. But I can tell you that should you sign up, you will ride some quintessential VT singletrack. And let us not forget the hosting competition. You will definitely want to see that. You can check out more details on the official SSUSA website too.

I am also going to be keeping a list of folks who want to volunteer. This is a big time deal, and it will take a lot of help to pull it off. Also, if someone is feeling über generous and wants to donate $5K +travel expenses, Red Fang said they would play.

One gear. One speed.