HHHSSSSSSSSSSHHUUUUUUU!

Thats the sound of air gushing out of my tire. It happens without fail every year. I get a new quiver of tires and rip the side wall on one while the tire is still semi-new. I guess thats life. I should prob. change them out anyway to use the other tires I have to see what the tread can do.

With the beautiful weather we've been graced with, work has turned crazy. Everyone wants a bike. It's good, but it's also tiring.

Google changed blogger and with it messed up my page. I've been trying to figure out how to change stuff around for the better part of a week, but no dice. I'll figure it out at some point.

And now, a picture of Bracket enjoying the sunshine.


Dirt game this weekend.

With two options to race this past weekend, you'd think something would pan out. Saturday' Battenkill Roubaix never worked out (shame to, cuse that race had my name all over it). And Sunday's Wells crit got monsoon'd.

I raced Wells the weekend prior. Things went well until I nailed a water bottle, shattering the rubberized plastic top and hooking my front wheel up with a nice flat. The sensations were good tho. (of the race, not the flat)

Its always a good feeling pinning on them numbers...

All the real races seem to be taking their time in coming this year. I feel like in years past, I've already gotten my dirt game on a handful of times. I thought that I'd be able to rip the Anthem 0 this weekend but I'm premature by a week. I think I've found a road race for the weekend to keep me away from Wells Ave. We'll see tho, it seems like the course is kinda weak.

I got a new seat or "saddle" to those purest. The Tioga Spider. Its pretty sick looking eh? I guess at this point I'm leaning towards the road bike but I have yet to pull the trigger as the debate continues.

Da shop is in the running for Boston's A List. Its a business game that pits the best against the pretty goods, to find the amazings. I'm making it easy for you to vote...go HERE and type in your e-mail. Because I believe in choice and democracy, if you really have to vote for someone else you can go here. Now I know a lot of you aren't hardcore customers, but if I've delivered watter bottles and a free hub or talked to you about your favorite Italian addiction that I sell and you ride or shown you the latest carbon wonders when you are really in town to take me out to dinner...I expect you to vote. I know that you have more than one e-mail too.
Just for the record, I haven't gotten any spam from voting.

More in the works.

The Season has started.

Like last week.....

Left out to dry

I was looking back at all the posts from the last month or so. L-A-M-E on the amount of posts.

Still no racing.
I guess it was two weeks ago I was going to giv'er at Wells Ave, but the race got nixed due to the snow. There is a Dirt meet in CT on Saturday but homie gotta work, so no dirt for me. As long as snow, sleet, rain, meatballs don't fall from the sky I think I'll debut this weekend at Wells. But who knows, Mother Nature seems to be pissed at us right now.

Last weekend I went home for a handful of days. The thing about going home is I always try and pack everything I miss into the time I'm there. By the time its time to comeback to Boston, I'm uber tired. Thats just the way it is.

I got my bike game on while I was there. It was a really great to see the crew of A.T. and C-Dogs + Marc Gulliickson. Marc is a two time Cycle Cross national champion (among other things) who has since retired. I've hungout/talked to him before I think even ridden with him before but I felt a little silly having him on my wheel being that I have a poster of him winning the a national championship on my wall in NP.

It was a hard weekend for a number of reasons but something that is still on my mind and bothering me is the way I road. With the gazillion hours I've put in this year, I road like shit. On the first climb it was everything I had just to keep pace and the way I climbed didn't get much better from then on out not to mention how I was a squid in the single track. I was really looking forward to giving the new rig a second real ride and showing the PROs that I've done my homework and it was time to play. I know I'm hard on myself but what made it worse was that I was missing the season opener of the NORBA Nationals. I was really aiming for that race but things just didn't workout. I love racing nationals. I up my game, I love the travel of seeing new places and riding new trails with different dirt.

I also get to add to the nationals number plate wall. I guess its good that I didn't go out to Arizona being that I sucked at the bike game this weekend.

I've gotta find some motivation and get my confidence back 'cuse the mental state isn't there right now. We all know that it's 10% physical and 90% mental.

It looks like I've picked up one last sponsor late, late in the sponsorship season. I'll hold off on naming them until I know that its all worked out. I've also got some volunteer stuff going down that will be good for my head/skills and the shop, but I'm going to hold off on the who/what/why/when for a little longer.

over n' out

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.