My Fighter Jet

The bike is pretty much dialed.

I've got some small tweaks to make on the rear shock but the beast is sweet. After some prodding and coaching, I finally maned up and trimmed the hydraulic lines to my brakes. It went a lot better than I thought it would and I'm super glad that I did it. I got some help and lots of encouragement but it feels good to be able to work on any part of my bike and make it work like I want/how it should. I can't wait to bleed my next pair of brakes because I really understand the process a lot more. Plus it looks really good now.

Now I've just got to wait for the dumping that we were getting last week at this time to disappear. We're close.
I had a fantastic long ride yesterday. Temps in the 50's, rockin' the Belgium knee warmers

The downside is when the roads aren't that great you take them with you. I also haven't nailed down the removal. Jumping in a nice warm shower quickly makes your legs burn like shampoo in the eyes. Dish soap helps a little, but I just can't seem to get it all off. Chalk it up to the cost of lookin' pro.

I happened to bump into a guy that works at the other shop in Concord who was back in town with some of his college friends. They were all racers and we soon got a impromptu group ride in. I had forgotten what it was like to be on a Collegiate team group ride. There is only one speed as the pecking order must be established. With 3 hours in the legs, it was nice to throw in some fast paced tempo riding.

I've been one up'd with my road combo of egg beaters and mtb shoes.

Word to your moms.

I useda' read word up magazine

I think I got called out when I found this in my in box:

Things have been good. The usual. Training, eating, sleeping, netflix with the lady, walking my dog.
The snow dumping we got this weekend was fun. I left my mtb at the shop and came in on Monday to find this:

It takes a shop to rear a racer.
All the guys really believe in me, its really great support. I've been taking things a bit differently this year. Not as strict with my diet as the season started, but slowly bringing it together as the season has gone on. I haven't really been thinking about racing or beating other people or even racing other people. It's all been about me and how hard I can push myself. We'll see how it works out.
I think this weekend will usher in some racing. Time to take a sip of the jungle juice and see just exactly where everything is. The thing about racing in New England or Boston for that matter, on any given weekend you can toe the line with some decent pros. I've gotten myself into breaks with dudes only to think "Shit, I'm on XY's wheel, how cool is that?!" I think the plan this weekend will be to get into a break and go for a prime, then sit in and watch everyone take each other out going into the finish. I got the keys to the car, might as well take a peek to see whats under the hood.

Real bike racing will arrive in early April. It can't be soon enough. I'm ready to ride my mountain bike all the time. Too bad the trails have been absolute sludge.

I've gotten one decent ride in on the new bike and its pretty sick. I've got a lot to dial in and figure out how to use the dulie to my advantage but in due time. This bike is a natural at all of my weaknesses. Wise man once said: Race your strengths and train your weaknesses. Word up.

Spotted the newest industry trend the other day too. Integrate the seat clamp into the seat. Saving weight, thats how we do.

Rollin on Dubs

I've been going back and forth on if I should blog about my new ride now or wait until the parts flow in (tomorrow) and write about it in it's bling bling state.

You'll read about both I'm sure.

I have yet to break the bottle of bubbly over the bow and give it a good first ride. My training this week doesn't really allow for it. Saturday and Sunday will be here soon enough.
My first impressions are very positive. Once I get the multitude of things to dial in, dialed in, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my favorite bike yet. I've never had a dualy, and I can see already that I'm going to feel much better at the end of a long race.

I've been lusting over Fox's new white forks since they came out. Fox already made the best forks out there, but the upgrades that they made make the fork even nicer.
Mavic also impressed me with their newest incarnation of the Cross Max SL wheels. The hubs have a new design that looks to shave more weight and the yellow spoke adds a bit of flare. The down side is the decals are etched into the side of the rim, so there is no removal of the decals for the sleeper look that I love.

The Maestro linkage system is top notch. I've mainly been riding on the road to and from work the last two days, and the rear acts like a hardtail. But when I nail the every pothole between work and home (there are a lot, and I hit them all) the rear end just sucks it up. The rear shock has a lot of different options of adjustment that I'm starting to wrap my head around and understand more and more.

The "gusset" on the underside is super sweet looking and makes for a lighter frame.

I could go on and on about all the cool things about my new bike, but I'll spare you. A few good rides this weekend will really help me dial everything in and help me get a better view of the overall picture.

More to come for sure.

Mainly because I was made fun of tonight

getting acquainted:

More later.

To be Fre-eeee!

"Who's your heroine honey!?"
"HUH! WHA WHA? HUH, I don't do heroin!......right?"
"You didn't hear all of that?"
"uhmmgggrrrrgle hear what?"
"Downstairs is practicing again...you slept through that?"
"It's 3 a.m....."

The Mrs. and I live above some fellas who fancy themselves rock stars. They aren't very good and the copious amounts of adult beverages they consume don't make them any better (Although they do play a mean rendition of New Kids on the Block and Tom Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance).

3 a.m. seems to be their hour of bewitchment. Its their favorite time of the day to keep the beat with their feet, play the beer pong, yell and scream and play their music amped up and with full percussion.

What does any of this have to do with cycling?
I put in such a good week of training I was able to sleep directly above the sounds of a real life rocking roll band. There are times I'm sure that they have the "11" on their amps.

Double shammy gits'er done.

The eagle is airborne. Somewhere between here and the Giant warehouse.

The Baba received the Giant T-Mobile Team bike this week.

The same bike the T-Mobile team rides in the Tour, before the tour. Only 16 in the country spread out amongst 2000+ retailers and ATA got it. As I like to say when something is really really cool: It's the shit.

It's lookin' like another weekend of the Belgian knee warmers.

Should be fun. Next week it's all about my favorite four letter word.

Dirt.