clubvelo

INTERBIKE WRAP-UP....AND THEY'RE OFF!

2009-09-25T13:11:00.001-07:00

So - as of this writing (err....typing, I guess) it's mid-afternoon here in the good ol' EST so it's been nearly 1/2 of a day since I was last in Vegas. We got up-n-at'em yesterday bright and early again, packed up, checked outta our room, grabbed breakfast and headed over to the Expo Center for the final round. Lotsa appointments + a Tech Service seminar for the Berg meant a full day of looking at my watch and making sure that we were where we needed to be. I met w/ the Electra guys - lotsa WAY COOL retro-styled city bikes there! They've gone bull-goose crazy w/ all the retro-esque parts too...if you need a pair of classic looking large flange hubs or a faithful copy of a TA crank - they got'cha cvered!

After that I roamed a bit - checking out 2XU's compression wear, lotsa fast-looking carbon wheels and all the related coolness. Then I hooked back up w/ JB and we headed over to the DeVinci Tandem booth. Not sure what'll happen here frankly but it'd safe to say that we were intrigued w/ their unique independent pedaling set-up! I need to ride one! from there 'twas Terry, Salsa and a few others and before we knew it the show was closing for the day. From there we wandered the corridors of the Venetian looking for the uber-hip club called "Lavo" where the Cervelo party was being held. After we found it (and convinced the platoon of bouncers that we were on the level we went in and spent 45 minutes tryin' to get through the crush of people so we could actually SEE the bikes. (The S1 looks awesome, by the way!) As you oughta know by now - hangin' w/ the Beautiful People in trendy clubs is not exactly my thing so hopefully they'll excuse us for sneaking out in the middle of the "presentation ". (Couldn't hear or understand it anyways).

So - that was that. Another Interbike Show. I have no idea how many that makes for me.....15? HellifIknow. 'Twas a good one - not a lot of $ wasted on nonsense stuff that no one will ever ride. Given the current trend towards practical real world bikes there's renewed hop that we won't go back to the days of concept bikes and silliness of that sort we grabbed dinner, then a cab, then a plane, then breakfast, then another plane, then a shuttle and then I dropped Jeremy off @ his place and headed down here to the shop.

And here I be.

Here's what's most likely to happen as a result of what we heard and saw this year:

Salsa bikes and frames in stock - especially the 29er ATB's

Castelli clothing back in the house!

2XU compression gear.

At least one new shoe company.

VCC socks, caps and m-a-y-b-e a new jersey design!

There's more, but I've been up now since 6:00am yesterday so I beg your forgiveness if I left something out. Feel free to swing by the shop to hear tall tales and outright bald faced lies!

MC Weary

INTERBIKE REPORT - DAY THREE (WHEN IT GETS REAL)

2009-09-24T00:46:00.000-07:00

So - our 3rd morning waking up to the rising outside our 23rd floor window. We face due east and the sight of the dawn over the low hills east of town is a mighty purty sight! #rd day here but the first day of the actual show.......so we ate an enormous breakfast (in an effort to stay clear of the 7 dollar greaseburgers or 10 dollar tiny salads @ the Sands Expo Center) and headed across the street to the Big Show.

Big it was - it sure doesn't seem any different than the past 15 years or so - a virtual city of bike stuff, bike folks, bike dreams..........it's hard to find a way to express what a e-nor-mous gathering of people and stuff this whole deal is!

So - what cool stuff did I see, you ask? Well....there was some to be sure. Rolf has new wheels, Twin 6 has a buncha new jersey designs, most of which I like so much that it's gonna be hard to pick what to stock, Co-Mo's tandems are lookin' good, I still really like the Salsa 29ers, Giro has a new helmet that weighs 200 grams (about 7 oz!) and the flat-out, #1 lust-inducing-make-ya-wanna-howl-at-the-moon gorgeous bike was a simple RetroTec roadie featuring a 3 speed Sturmey Archer fixed gear set up! Dang was it sweet!

After the show closed fo rthe day we rushed back here, unloaded and headed back to the Expo Center to catch the Lazer bus to the 'Cross race. I guess they don't have a lotta big helmet dealers if our lil' shop qualifies for the type of royal treatment we got tonight! We sat on the open upper deck of a funky old double decker bus, eating pizza and enjoying frosty adult beverages. (Most of us, anyway). In my most notable brush w/ fame (or infamy, perhaps) I helped Tyler Hamilton find his missing I-Phone and received an as-far-as-I-could-tell-non-chemically-inhanced fist bump in return. (Oh boy!)
The race was a massive hoot - Euro-dogs and US Pros tangled head-to-head amidst the clamor of cowbells, 2 announcers that sounded like frustrated "radio personalities" and even a white jump-suited "Elvis" performing the National Anthem! ( He even said "Uhh thank yew verra much" afterwards!) Katie Compton slayed all in the Women's Elite Race and Cannondale guy Jamie Driscoll made an early 2-up break stick to surprise the monster field of studs from both sides of the Atlantic. Then back on the bus..........which wouldn't start. We sat there for 3040 minutes, having fun @ our own (okay - and the driver's) expense. It was a beautiful night and no one seemed to be in to big of a hurry to get back to the Strip but eventually the driver gave up on his bus and we abandoned ship for other buses, taxis, etc. (Tyler did not offer us seats in his cab it must be said. Short memory!

Tomorrow I have a buncha appointments - Terry, Endura, Electra, QBP (home of Salsa, Surly and a bazillion other brands we carry) & at least one more that escapes my weary brain @ the moment. Then it's the Cervelo party, the airport, a red-eye flight and then.........back at the shop!

See you there!

MC

By the way - lime green is the new white! You read it here first!

INTERBIKE REPORT - DAY 2

2009-09-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

So - 6:00am comes early, I don't care who you are or what time zone you're in! But - duty called (our hotel uses an Elvis impersonator for the wake up call, 'twas awesome!) and off we went in search of breakfast and the shuttle bus.

At the Demo we stopped by the C-Dale booth and picked up our matching Super Six bikes for the Tour de Lake Mead ride that is the fixture of Tuesday morning. Formally known as the "hangover ride", this is a 13 mile downhill blast into the Lake Mead Natural Area and the l-o-n-g climb back. Given that our bikes were equipped w/ new Dura Ace bits and fancy Mavic wheels...I reckoned we could get there and back. Man - that frame is something else! Following the current bike biz M.O. of making everything lighter, stiffer and faster (as well as overseas, alas) the new Super Six is a sprinter's dream! Wicked quick when you jump outta the saddle, but pretty comfy. (At least as far as I could tell on a 2 hour ride anyway). Very fast bike!

After that I took advantage of the fact that I was @ the C-Dale booth and grabbed a chance to try out their new Flash Carbon hardtail. They didn't have any of the 29er version (their bad) so I "settled" for an old school 26er. (Assuming that you can call a 19.5 lb carbon fiber ATB "old school"!) I set the fork for my considerable weight (sigh) and headed off for a lap on the longest and most technical (and therefore my fav) loop. Given the aforementioned sub 20lb weight, the SRAM XO 2x9 set up and the schweeet carbon Lefty fork it was all you'd expect for a bike that'll run ya a cool NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!!! (Granted - that will be w/ the ultra-new and fierce-hot SRAM XX group). Musta been the most expensive dirt bike I've ridden, I bet'cha. What's that? Is it worth it? Ummmmmmmmmmm...........well...........of course not! Good Lord - 9K???!?!?!?!?!!?!?!? You could get a damn good fleet of bikes for that! (And you should - you know that, right?)

Still - someone's gotta come out here and ride this stuff - it's the least we can do!

After that lap - which came to about $1500 / a mile - Berger and I hooked up w/ Danielle and Scott and off we went to ride Salsas. I grabbed a Dos Niner, their 29er "soft tail" design that offers about 1.5" of rear travel in an effort to take the edge off the bumps w/ only an 8 oz weight penalty over their way-light Mamasita frame. I've ridden it before...we had a demo in the shop for a season that started the whole 29er thing for us....but wanted to try one again. Berger did a reprise on the Big Mama & Scott-n-D each got a Mamasita , one of which had the aforementioned wicked hot XX stuff. They liked their bikes better than I liked mine - but I suspect my issues were a combo of a poor position on the bike and the fact that I was pretty wiped out by then! I've ridden (and liked) that frame before.

That was it for riding - we attended a SRAM tech seminar on the XX stuff, strolled around a bit soaking up the vibe and the sun (and the dust and the heat) and then headed back to the noise and clamor and stink of the Strip. Tomorrow is the actual show, followed by your trusty reporters jumpin' on the Lazer bus and heading to the Cross Vegas race and then a party w/ the Ridley folks. Liable to be a long day, but I'll try to post up before callin' it a day.

Later, MC

MORE FROM DAY ONE OF INTERBIKE...

2009-09-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

Misc stuff I learned from the Outdoor Demo today:

SRAM over Shimano ( No surprise there)

29" wheels over 26" (That's new!)

Castelli's new bibs w/ virtually no seams (okay - maybe 2) look awesome and I'm gonna hafta try a pair.

Every bike I rode today had hydraulic disc brakes but I still prefer mechanicals. (Sorry!)

Other than that - not much new to see there today, or at least not that I saw. Tomorrow we do the Tour of Lake Meade first thing in the am (you literally coast about 13 miles down into the Lake Mead National Park and then climb back to Boulder City.) and then I'm gonna try to get some time on a few more bikes. I wanna ride that super-crazy-light (16 lbs!!!!) Cannondale hardtail, do another lap on the Big Mama (to make sure) and a lap on the Dos Niner from Salsa too. If I'm still riding @ 3:00pm I'll be amazed, 'cuz I'm plenty tired right now and last year that ride up from Lake Meade pretty much handed me my ass. But - I'll try. For you. It's the least I can do. I wanna ride some road bikes too - and that's not quite as draining as the singletrack.

Stay tuned - there are still 3 days to go!

MC

INTERBIKE SHOW REPORT - DAY ONE

2009-09-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Berger and I got up early so we could stand in line for breakfast, stand in line for our show badges, stand in line for the bus to the Outdoor Demo, stand in line to drop our extra junk @ the bag check and then........f.-i-n-a-l-l-y ride some bikes! And ride we did! I love the tight, dusty, rocky and steep trails of Bootleg Canyon - they're a hoot and between their challenges, the heat, the sun and (today) the wind it's a pretty tiring day.( I know, I know...your heart is bleeding for us...we know. And - we appreciate it! I looked into bringing all ya'll out here but the logistical challenges proved unsurmountable so you are there and we are here and that's gonna hafta do it.

Anyway - as I was sayin'............we rode full-sus mountainbikes exclusively today. I like every hardtail I ride so what's the point of that? I rode 2 Salsas, 2 Ellesworths, a Cannondale & a Rocky Mountain. Here's the scoop, in order of preference:

Salsa Big Mama - This 4" travel 29er was the best bike I rode all day. None of the stuff I dislike about full-sus bikes was present (mushy rear sus, dragging pedals on the dirt, that feeling of being way up in the air, general ponderousness) and despite the fact that it's a damn big bike when you stand next to it - once aboard it felt quicker, lower and zippier than I expected. I liked it a ton, and I could totally see having one of these babies for desert trips.

Ellesworth Evolve - 'nother 29er, this time w/ 5 inches of travel. Felt good - I've always loved Elleswrth's desigh - but not quite as quick as the Salsa. Not good when you factor in the fact that you can have the entire Salsa bike for the cost of the Ellesworth frame! Still - US made, Tony Ellesworth is a genius and the bike rocked.

Cannondale RZ 120- This was the best riding 26" bike I rode. Feels a lot like the Rush (a fav) and the Lefty fork is as good as it gets. Given that you can get RZ-120's for as little as $1800.......this bike is pretty dang impressive. (Like the name implies - this bike had about 5" of travel)

Ellesworth Truth- I rode this 'cuz the Evolve wasn't available. I've long felt that this is the best full-sus frame I've ever ridden but given what a better value the C-Dales are........I'm not so sure. It rides great, the US made frame and all the machined sus bits are schweet...but I'd hafta go w the Evolve, thank you. (The Truth is a 4" travel 26er)

Rocky Mountain Altitude 29- Nice bike. Not sure what the point of riding it was - 'cept I had a coupla good laps @ 12 Hours of Pando on a RM hardtail 29er - so what the heck, right? It was nice enough, for a 5" travel 29er, but the Big Mama pretty much ate it's lunch.

Salsa el Kaboing - Man, I did not like this bike at all! If I had ridden this one first and then you told me that the Big Mama was the same design in a 29er I wouldn't have even ridden it! This bike was like every other full sus bike I've never liked - slow, mushy, tall.....blah! And - my calves hit the frame and I hate that too!

More later - dinner time!

How'd We Get From July to September!?!?!?!

2009-09-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

I promised myself that I wasn't gonna start everyone of these w/ an apology so let's just agree that I'm late, I suck and move on, 'kay?

I'm in Whitefish MT @ the moment - Aaron & I flew out here 5 days ago to provide tech support for the 4th stop on the JDRF Ride to Cure 2009 World Tour. It went well and this is a remarkable place! We spent yesterday up in Glacier Nat'l Park (finally! It's my 5th time here in 3 years and my 1st visit) and I have a semi epic ride planned in my head for next September. We head home later today - and it'll be good to get there!

Last week Berger, my son Sam and I accompanied 45-some members of the West Michigan team to the 1st ever Ride to Cure in Killington VT. Awesomeness was observed breaking out there as well as we managed t o pull of the biggest Ride to Cure ever in wet, cold and challenging conditions. We drove over for that one, hauling a trailer fulla bikes and gear for the Bike Room. Another very cool place to be.......but not as cool as here!

So - things settle down on the JDRF front for a bit - until the ride in Death Valley in mid-October. 'Tween now and then we have the Interbike show in 2 weeks, the start of 'cross season, the arrival of all the indoor stuff (trainers, rollers, etc) and all the outdoor stuff (tights, warmers, booties, etc) so there'll be plenty to do back @ Ye Olde Cool Bike Shop. The Fun-Raiser Ride Series starts back up, the weekly rides continue 'til the end of this montth and then we'll fire up the Crazy Bastard Ride machine! Hoo-BOY, I better get my weary ass HOME!

....and that's just what I'm gonna do. Talk to you later, MC

el WEEKEND GRANDE'!!!

2009-07-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

WOW! I gotta tell ya - big weekends aren't egg-zac-lee all that unusual 'round here but this past one..........whew! Lemme tug on yer coat* about it a sec.........

Saturday was the 35th Annual Holland Hundred Tour. The shop and I were both up to our arses in this - I was on the committee since Day One and we were committed to provide a SAG Wagon all day too. Friday nioght we had early registration here @ the shop and that was a zoo w/ a capital "Z"......roughly 28 bazillion gazillion folks crammed in here all evening, signing up, buying t-shirts, buying other stuff........fun! We had a pre-ride bash 'cross the street @ the brewery too so that was cool. It was cool and wet all night and that didn't bode well.

Saturday dawned (I know - I was up @ 4:30) kinda cloudy and I was sort of worried about the weather. We had nearly 780 riders pre-registered so we were kinda expecting 1200 or so but I was afraid the weather might keep some local riders in the sack. It stayed dry all day and was actually pretty damn perfect for a long ride.......temps in the high 60's/low 70's range, no humidity, some sun,. some clouds. There was a nasty headwind for part of the day but whatterya gonna do? I was on site before 6:00 and there til 6:30pm. By then over 1250 riders had enjoyed a helluva day. I was WAY glad to have that day behind me!

Sunday was "recover from the HH day" for me and i had the perfect plan - spend all day sitting in the sun and listening to bluegrass and folk music @ the first ever Green Food - Blue Grass fest out @ Felt Mansion. My fav band from my "youth" (okay - mid to late 20's) was playing their 1st gig in the area since the early 80's! Cabbage Crik has a lot to answer for 'cuz w/out them there'd be no Last Call Band! It was great and I.Did. Nothing. all dang day.

'twas grand it was!

Okay - now iot's time ot get all the Bike Room stuff worked out for the JDRF Rides! No more "I can't deal w/ that 'til after the HH!" Jeremy's off to KC on his own 'cuz I gotta gig then a big crew to VT and then just me to Montana. That covers the next 7 weeks - then we have time to catch our collective breath 'afore Death Valley.

Guess I oughta get after it, huh?

later, MC

MID-SUMMER DAZE........ER....DAYS

2009-07-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Man - things are just full-tilt-boogie madness here @ the shop lately! Lotsa new bikes goin out, lotsa old bikes comin' in for service, ton's o' folks @ the rides, the phone ringin' offa the wall w/ peoplekl askin ''bout the Holland Hundred..........what a hoot! Still - I'll be pretty damn glad when the HH is over and those of us on the committee can look around @ 1300-1500 happy riders and slap some high fives on each other!

This past weekend we had a great Team Ride - the "Tour de Taco" rolled from Casa da Clark on Sunday for miles of smiles and LOTS of chicken, steak, veggies, beans, rice, cheese, tortillas, guac, salsa, cheese, cabbage, cilantro, salad, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, strawberry shortcake............whew! Lotsa folks and big fun was observed being had. THis am I got to ride w/ buddy Zac from Seattle and his lovely lady Beverly. Berger joined us as well rolled out to the lake and back. Then they split and JB and I sat outside @ the bagle shop and tried to get a handle on the rest of the season.

I gotta say right-dang-now ...our staff rocks! Everyone is workin' it hard, keepin' it in the big ring and ridin' on the rivet as we try to keep up w/ everyone's needs and wants. Fun! (Mostly)

Tomorrow is get-the-scoop-on-2010-Cannondale day, then it's pretty much Holland Hundred 24/7. (Lather, rinse, repeat).

Gotta go - more later, I promise. ( I know - you've heard that before. What can I say?)
MC

Wow, I Suck Worse that Usual!

2009-07-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah - great job keepin' up w/ this, huh? i was kinda amazed to see that it's bene since mid-April since I wrote anything - pretty week. Lessee - what's gone down since then.......?

I've been up to my ears in the shop stuf - we've been crazy busy, which is awesome. Berger has been a force in the shop, everyone is rockin' it hard and we're having fun. The rides have been awesome and full.

JDRF stuff has been keeping me busy too - I just got back from Santa Rosa @ the 1st Ride to Cure - 'twas a big weekend! I was doin' the Head Coach thing so Berger was there to rock the Bike Room and rock it he did!

The band's been busy - 5 gigs comin' up in the next 6 weeks.

I'm riding a lot - at least 5 days a week. Legs aren't bad but I dunno if I have any real speed - haven't been to Grattan yet and I've been doin' the Sprint Ride on the tandem.

Michael Jackson is dead, Bernie Madoff is still scum and le Tour starts Saturday. I wish I was more excited about that...it's liable to be what my grandfather called a "real barnburner" but I'm so tired of all the cheating and doping and lying..............blecchh!

Still -= Bikelife is full and fine and for that I'm more grateful than I can tell you. Ride lots, be careful out there and stay in touch, okay?

MC

A Helluva Week!

2009-04-19T07:29:00.001-07:00

Man! If there was any way I was gonna survive a week w/out my One True Love (who flew down to Mexico to visit our son) it would hafta be a week filled w/ rides and other Cool Stuff. Lucky for me - that's just egg-zac-lee the kind of week I've had! Actually this week sorta started last weekend - the band played a gig @ the Saugatuck Brewery that was a complete hoot - great crowd fulla friends and buds, we played well .........'twas pretty much perfect. Then Sunday Lin and I got out for 2 hours in the afternoon w/ good buddy CD in the warm part of the day and that was awesome. ( I do so much of my riding in the a.m. that I hardly ever hit the warm part of the day here in the Spring) I'm SO pumped that Lin is diggin' her new road bike and seems all about gettin' ready for her first JDRF Ride this summer. (As a rider anyway!) Monday 'twas her B-Day and then she left for the airport @ 4:00a.m. Tuesday. I came down to the shop after she left and f-i-n-a-l-l-y got my Seven back together and it is beautiful! 16 pounds & 2 ounces of fixed gear fury! We had a small turnout for the TNR - it was wet and cold - but we rode and it was great. Then the weather broke (about damn time!) and 'twas sunny and warm! We had a great ride Thursday morning, an even greater one Friday morning and then the 1st Sprint Ride yesterday was a blast too. Jess and I were a factor on the tandem, topped the climb up Beeline Hill w/ the group and laid down the law a bit on the return leg. Then after work I met up w/ C.P/T. for 30 miles on the White Pine (in shorts and a s/s jersey!!!!!!!) and then burritos. Now it's time to head over to Grandville for Team Ride # 2 and a Ride Committee meeting.

Somewhere in there (Thursday night, to be exact) a goodly chunk of the JDRF Team joined about 200 other folks @ Celebration Cinema in GR for the freakin' World Premiere of the movie that Tom made about our 2008 ride season. Words fail me.........it was SO well done, SO powerful amd brought forth SO many memories and feelings that I've haven't even come near to comin' down. We'll have DVD copies here @ the shop - feel free to come and get one - it's something else!

I've been too busy to miss Lin! (Too much anyway!)

Sounds like the weather's gonna turn to crap again for a few days but they're talkin' 70's for the end of next week and in 2 weeks I'll be in the desert w/ some good buds so it's hard to feel to blue about anything. The shop's been WAY busy, my staff is workin' hard and kickin' ass and I'm feeling pretty good about stuff in general.

Here I am again talkin' about how I'm gonna do a better job of keepin' up w/ this blog-thing. We'll see!

Later, MC

2 Races, 2 Uphill Finishes! What's Wrong w/ This Picture?

2009-03-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well -pretty much everything if ya gotta know!

New stoker/victim Cathy & I did the inaugural Barry Roubaix Gravel Road Race on Saturday and the Fisk Knob Time Trial on Sunday - both hurt bad and were a ton of fun. Assuing that Rick does the Barry-Roubaix again next year you DO NOT wanna miss it - it was a hoot! 90+% gravel w/ a bit o' 2-track and a fast run ot the finish on the asphalt, 2200 feet o' climbing in 31 miles, great scenery.....perfect. The weather co-operated w/ sunshine and cool temps and we puffed, panted and sweated the new C-Dale to a 5th place finish. (Okay- outta 5 but so what?)

The next day we matched that finish exactly after flogging the big bike and our tired legs over the 17 miles of the Fisk TT course. Cold, wet and windy was rthe order of the day but we sucked it up and got 'er done.

Thanks to Berger and the boys for getting the bike re-set from dirt road warrior to TT machine on Saturday afternoon.
Thanks and congrats to all our compadres that braved the conditions on Sunday w/ grace and good cheer.
Thanks to Uber Good Sport and Full On Gamer Cathy Tahy (Priest) for comin' along for the rides!

April! Outdoor rides! No more Coach Troy! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More later - gotta go.
MC

SCUM I TELL YA....SCUM!!!

2009-03-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

Bernie Madoff? Scum.
Dude that ran the plant that shipped the poison peanuts? Scum.
A-holes @ AIG? Scum.

What do these jack-holes (and their all-to-numerous ilk) have in common you ask?

They think money is the shit. They let their desire for mo' money mo' money mo' money subvert the basic human decency they were (theoretically anyway) born with for the sake of the bottom line, a fancy car and a mansion w/ a heli-pad.

Scum.

They offer nothing, they take everything, in short...............they suck.

Screw them.

Let's talk about a better class of people. Let's talk about the folks @ JDRF for example. They will never be rich. They will never have a mansion w/ a heli-pad and they will damnsure never be doing the perp-walk from the courtroom to the jailhouse 'cuz they ripped a buncha folks off or killed some poor sucker to enhance the bottom line. (and their wallets)

What they will do is bust ass to make the world a better place.

What they will do is play a part in defeating Type 1 Diabetes and that means that they're gonna leave this world better than they found it.

And that, my friends, most definately does not suck!

This is a shout out,-and a long-overdue one at that - to everyone that has taken up arms to fight cancer, AIDS, hunger, homelessness or any of the plagues that bedevil this planet, be they man-made or a "gift" from the Gods.

You guys rock, w/ a capital "R".

Next time I'll talk about Bikelife, I promise.

Ride on, MC

Bike Life its Ownself

2009-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

This crazy mashed-together & mixed up thing I call "BikeLife" gets crazier and more mixed up every day it seems like! The running joke @ meetings is that I need a cap w/ at least 3 "fronts" so I can rotate it to tell folks which "we" I mean when I say that "we" oughta do this or "we" need that. There are some meetings where that cap would spin so much that it'd wear a groove in my scalp! JDRF, VCC, MCC....they all combine and seperate like 3 rivers that join for awhile and then split off again downstream. And every once in awhile you can toss the band in there too.

Still - I don't thing I'd have it any other way!

Lots' going on, 'natch. The Ultimate Cycling Challenge was last weekend - a 24 hour indoor relay ride to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. (Whoever he is). We had 3 teams - JDRF, a shop-employee team and a Velo City squad. I did 8 hours at differnet times throughout the event, mostly in one hour chunks. There WAS that 11pm - 3am shift.......that last hour went by s-l-o-w! ( "Dont' look at'cher watch! Don't look at'cher watch! Don't look at'cher watch! Ohhh DAMN - you looked at'cher watch!") It was cool to see a coupla hundred folks goin' nowhere fast and raising 40K for the L.A.F.

This Sunday is the Handmade Show in Indy and I can't wait! It's gonna be awesome, even if I hafta miss a ride!

Dang - the sun's out and it's supposed to hit 40 today! Could it be that Spring is actually gonna show up this year?

The JDRF stuff is keeping me busy - lots of planning for all the Rides, the Tech Support, all the Team stuff.........it's a damn good thing that I love it so much 'cuz sometimes it's kind of a pain in the ass! We have a great team again - a goodly % of my favorite folks I've met through JDRF!

The staff for the season is taking shape - just gotta fill in a few gaps and tie up a few loose ends. It' sux not havin' KP on the schedule but she'll be around and Rhonda's gonna be great.

It's hard to figure out what to expect w/ all the economic gloom and doom out there......I don't intend to take it lightly in ANY WAY but we're gonna proceed here @ VCC as if things are gonna be okay. Not great, but okay. The suns' gonna come out, the roads and trails are gonna dry out and folks will be on their bikes. And we'll be ready!

Ride on!
MC

Spring was here (for a sec anyway!)

2009-02-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

Man! Was that sweet or what!?!?!?!?!? 57 degrees and sunshine? On 2/10? I'll frickin' take it, thank yew very much! My good bud J2 hit me w/ a text @ about noon - "Ride 2:30-ish?" My first response was that I couldn't get away.......I'm kinda pretty much buried in shop stuff, JDRF stuff, wondering-who-I'm-gonna-work-with-this-year stuff, you name it. I told him to count me out but thank gawd he came by and talked me into it. I rode home, kitted up and off we went, west and south into the howlin' gale that we owed the warm temps to. Oh - did I forget to mention that we were riding about 17K of demo Seven carbon bikes that are still here from the Seven Rendezvous? I did? My bad! (I'm not the world's biggest carbon frame fan to say the least but that V11 is sweet! It had Sram Red on it as well - nice enough I reckon, if you can't have Campy!)

Damn glad I went, and I owe it all to J2! You da man, man!

Speakin' of the Seven Ron-day-voo.....it was a huge success. We had at least 45 folks there, gave away some cool tech tees and displayed over 30 Seven bikes and frames! Joe-from-Seven was way impressed w/ the turnout and the whole deal. We'll do it again sometime, you just wait and see!

The other BIG NEWS around here of course is that manana' is Ted's last day. The commute from GR has f-i-n-a-l-l-y gotten to him and he'll be @ Ada Bike Shop as of next week. A good change for him methinks and I hope it works out. We've worked together for a long time - it seems weird to contemplate him not being here.

But - shit like this is a regular part of any bike shop and has been a constant thread in my life. I'm excited about Berger takin' the reins in the workshop - he's a great wrench and I know he's excited. It'll be a drag for awhile - especially for me - but by mid-April my guess is that we'll be rockin' it harder and stronger!

Soup Ride this Sunday - big fun!

Ride on!
MC

Off the back AGAIN....dang!

2009-02-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

Man, at the risk of repeating myself - how do all them Blog-studs do it!?!? I really wanna keep up w/ this project (putting aside the whole "why?" thing for the moment) but I swear.......it's kind of a challenge!

Lots goin' on at the shop. Let's see if I can deliver a re-cap in somewhat chronological order:

I went down to Greenville SC on a scouting trip 2 weekends ago. I know a decent # of folks there through my work w/ JDRF and I was hoping to take a shop trip down there in March. Plenty of good rides there to be sure, but the main thing I learned is that there ain't no flat ones! Jeez......every good local ride involved headin' outta town and then up and over something big enough to have it's own name! Great climbs, sweet switch-back-y descents...it'd be a great place to put a nice edge on your fitness @ the end of a long winter! As it happens, recent events have made it less-than-likely that I'll be able to pull it off, but still....it was worth a shot and good to get outta town for a few days.

JDRF stuff is rocking hard! Velo City will be the official provider for the tech support @ every Ride this season, so that's new. A big deal and a considerable source of stress for Mrs. Clark's favorite son but there's nothing new about that! Our Team has 55 riders registered for either the new Killington Ride in August or Death Valley but it's not to late to get on board! (Man, I gotta start fund-raising!) We added a 2nd Coach to help me out so that'll be good. (Yay Nicole!)

The shop has been kinda busy, actually. We have this "Seven Rendezvous" coming up this Sunday, the Indoor Rides have been drawing a solid 18-20 riders, Yoga Class has been going well, we're still ridin' outside on Fri. morning and Sunday afternoon.........lots goin' on! I'm late getting the newsletter out 'natch, but that'll happen within 48 hours, mark my words!

Hard to believe, but I'm up to my ears in 2009 Fall/Winter clothing decisions. Kind of a drag, when you get right down to it. I understand that they gotta have time to get stuff made and all but sheesh! (Gotta say though...the new Cannondale stuff looks pretty good. I really like the LE jacket I've been riding in all winter!)

I sent my beloved Seven Axiom back to the factory for a re-finish and it looks wicked awesome! Nice to see the original ti finish again! It'be be one sweet fixxie for the Spring!

So - the big news shop-side is that Ted's leaving later this month. I totally understand - the drive is a drag. (Hell - I wouldn't do it!) and there's a position open @ Ada Bike Shop 'cuz the last wrench they got from me just left. Still - it's always a drag when key staff leave.......not to mention friends. For sure my least favorite part of this gig! Fear not - your bike will be in good hands even if I'm not 100% sure whose hands that might be at this very instant. (I have some stuff going that's not solid enough to discuss right now)

MCC meeting tonight - then I hafta go to the Rapid Wheelmen meeting in GR on Thursday w/ my JDRF hat on. There's a Fitness Fair @ GVSU this week, the GR Bicycle Film Festival on Saturday, the Seven deal on Sunday...all this in addition to the regular rides and such.

Like I said.......lots' going on!

I guess I better get to it, huh?

Talk to you later, MC

CHAMOIS REPORT, PART ONE!

2009-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

So - despite the possibility of publicly declaring myself an idiot I am compelled to offer this endorsment of the new-for-2009 Pearl Izumi P.R.O. Octane bibshorts:

It's my habit to test potential new stuff for the shop in the only way I really know how - I use it. In the off-season I like to try out new shorts 'cuz I've always felt that if I can find shorts or bibs that don't bother me on the rollers or trainer then they're gonna be great out on the road. (By the way - that theory applies to saddles, shoes, cleat placement and any other positional changes you might be contemplating. There's no better place to experiment than the trainer!)

So - I've been putting a pair of these new bibs from Pearl to the test. They are pretty good lookin' - featuring the oh-so-trendy black and white look that 90+% of the bikes, bibs, shoes and helmets we saw @ Interbike had - w/ a zippy little red stripe. They are 100% Italian in a departure from PI's US roots and I'm kind of digging them so far.

So.......we had a 2 hour indoor ride scheduled for last Sunday. I thought it'd be a great chance to really check them out so I made sure that they were washed that morning. I had to leave for the shop early so I got grabbed them outta the dryer and threw them in my bag w/ just a quick check to make sure they were dry.

Oops.

90 minutes later I'm kitting up for the ride and notice that the chamois is soaked. Not just "not dry"......................soaked. I figure that I'm screwed, 'twas my bad so I resign myself to a l-o-n-g uncomfortable ride and jump on my bike.

Well.............it wasn't until we had 10 minutes to go in the ride that I remembered the wet chamois! I never thought about it the entire ride! Pretty impressive, I gotta say.

Still stupid, sure............but still.............impressive.

Thanks for savin' my ass, Pearl!

Now - are we gonna carry them? I dunno yet. After all - they are $275 and there are some other bibs I wanna try in that price range. I'll let'cha know.

I'm Proud of My Friends.....

2009-01-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

....and it's a beautiful thing. I was tryin' to think of a better word than "proud"...it's a great word but it seems kinda, I dunno, serious for an entry on my blog, y'know? Still.....it's the right word and I think that I'll just go w/ it. (After all...you'll never know, huh?)

Heres' the deal (and you can decide if I oughta find a new word)

There's a new face around here. By "here" I mean the shop and the rides and the JDRF team and that whole loosely defined chunk of my life that's all wrapped up around what I usta call "BikeLife". We'll call her "Carol Bishop" (not her real name). She showed up for a Tuesday Night Ride in late November or maybe early December....in conditions that were gnarly enough to keep the majority of the "hardcore" riders home and on the trainer. (Or the couch!) She stuck it out, stayed for yoga, came back for another ride, helped set up the 'cross course, did the 'cross race and has pretty much become a fixture on the scene. No big news there....that happens all the time, right?

Well - yes and no. I've watched the loosely-defined group of folks that I'm lucky enough to get to hang out with bring "Carol Bishop" into their circle w/out hesitation or weirdness. She's a rider, she's a friend of mine and that's good enough for them. (Not implying that being a friend of mine is an endorsement or carries any special weight...at all!).

I dig that. A ton. If I had sat down 25 years ago and tried to tell you exactly what I hoped to accomplish w/ the shop this is what it would be: A place for "Carol Bishop" to discover and use as the entry point into the whole big beautiful world of bikes and bike folks. Especially bike folks like my friends, 'cause they kinda rock.

But they know that.

I'm gonna go w/ "proud". I hope that's okay w/ you.

There ain't no bad rides!

2008-12-29T06:58:00.000-08:00

A case in point: Yesterday's "Crazy Bastard West" ride wasn't the best one ever by any means! The seasonal roads were an impassable mess of ice ruts, frozen snow, thinly iced over puddles and that meant lots of walking, pushing, falling and wet feet. BB's crank arm fell off at the farthest-possible-point-from-the-cars and we had to push him back (on gravel and pavement) until a rescue car arrived and it was cold and windy.

In other words - we had a blast!

'Tis true............11 "grown-ups" endured all that crap when they could've been doing a whole buncha other stuff and all agreed - once we got back to the coffee shop - that their days were made and another Great Ride was in the books.

Go figure.

Take my bike for a walk in the uneven, well-nigh-unwalkable frozen snow? You bet.

Push buddy B for 3-4 miles 'cuz his bike broke? Sign me up.

Thaw my fingers out around a cuppa hot chocolate while doin' the post-ride wind down w/ good buddies? HELL yes!

We'll see you out there next Sunday, huh? Same time, same place. It'll be a hoot. Trust me.

Don't forget the first riode of 2009! Here @ the shop at 1:00pm on 1-1.

'Whole Lotta Things That I Have Done - I Ain't Never Had Too Much Fun"

2008-12-09T06:17:00.000-08:00

That's a lyric and title of a Bill Kirchen song (that's him playing that signature guitar run on Hot Rod Lincoln) but I gotta say that if ol' Bill had been w'/ the Crazy Bastards on their last 2 rides he might've had to re-think that song!

The last 2 Sundays we've met down in Hammy-town and headed into the Allegan Woods area on 'cross or mountain bikes in search of snow-covered dirt and "seasonal" roads. There've been at least a dozen of us - all bundled up and ready to get all wet and cold. Folks look at us as if we're full-on loonies as we kit up and roll west outta the parking lot of the market - especially a coupla Sundays ago when those big wet flakes were falling faster than plows or windshield wipers could keep up - but we just grin and pedal on 'cuz we know something that they don't...............and that is the simple fact that riding a bike w'/ your buds is ALWAYS better than not riding - even if it means falling on your ass several times and/or freezing your toes off.

There was one point on that first ride where 4 of us were down in the snow -I had my front tire slide out in the rut I was following down a 2-track, Alan was too close behind me and piled into my bike, Dave hit the ground as he passed us and Kirk wiped out tryin' to get around the pile. We all lay there in that soft and welcoming snow and laughed our asses off. I remember thinking to myself as I got up and brushed myself off ..."These are grown -ups! And not just bike shop guys - some of these dudes are respectable members of the community - the kind of guys that have jobs w/ real offices and a closet full of shirts /w collars and shoes that you can polish! You know - adults! And we're back here falling down and getting up and laughin' 'til our sides hurt."?!?!

That's when I knew that we were on to something. Just another reminder of the Power Of The Bike I guess. You may think that your bike(s) are just that - bikes. Not that there's anything wrong w/ that - the bicycle is one of our finest inventions and the most energy efficient vehicle ever devised - but it's more than that. It's a time machine and it'll take you back to those perfect, care-free, sun-filled days of your youth when your sneakers and your bike and your buds were all you needed to be Superman (or woman!)

Good Buddy Ross and I were talking as we rolled back towards the cars and he said that the best way to describe the silly kick of rides like this was that it feels like we're Getting Away With Something. It's true - the odds are that our moms would not approve...so we got that going for us!

These rides are apt to keep happening but there are several other events coming up ('Cross race! Fun-Raiser!) that'll keep them from being a regular event. Wanna hear about them - drop me a line (mike@velo-citycycles.com) and I'll make sure you get word. Keep in mind that these rides call for a 'cross-esque or mountain bike, a good collection of cold weather gear and - most important of all - an adventurous spirit and the surgical removal of your whining gene.

As mentioned above - there's a ton of stuff goin' on - this weekend sees the band playin' on Friday and Saturday nights, the race on Sunday, the big Mel Trotter Benefit Party on the 17th (gig #3!), the "Holiday Ride" next Sunday, all added to the regular menu of indoor and outdoor rides, yoga class....Man! So much for the concept of an "off-season" huh? Screw that! Let's just keep it in the big ring!

Hey - if you get a sec feel free to join me in writing a letter to the editor of our local paper (the Holland Sentinel) and let them know what you think of their "Miss" editorial about folks that commute by bike in the winter! Turns out that they're against it. Wankers. (Be nice, yet firm!)

See you out there...be safe, ride lots, stop in the shop if you have a mind to...it'd be good to see you!

Off the Back Again!

2008-11-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

Man! Here I am again, wonderin' how all those dedicated Blog-Meisters do it! It's just a lotta words man, y'know? Now...I gotta lotta words. I use 'em every day. All my jobs (shop, band, JDRF) involve words. I LOVE words! Everywhere I look there are books to read, websites to visit, magazines, newspapers...........!!!!!

Not to mention all those songs!

Too late - I mentioned 'em! How you could run outta song lyrics to dig? There are so many great songs! Holy crap!

Anyway - the point that I think I'm s-l-o-w-ly workin' myself around to here is that I think about writing stuff down a helluva lot more than I do it. Aside from minor issues like talent and work ethic that might be the major difference 'tween writer-hacks like me and real writers like my friend Heather. You read her stuff and you go "Oh, that's what it's supposed to be like!" On her Blog she writes about how writing can be like cycling. She's a lot smarter'n me so I'll take her word for it but I'm secretly suspicious.

It's been a good coupla weeks......the Yoga for Cyclist classes have been well received and that's cool. I like it when New Stuff works out. We've had a steady 10-11 "students" (Acolytes? Practitioners?) and some new faces each night. The class pretty much hands me my ass and remonds me that I'm way fatter than I oughta be. Heather (a different one!) says that steady attendance @ the class will pay off - once again here we have a situation where a person named Heather is smarter'n me (I sense a trend!) so I'll go along. One issue is the timing.....Yoga Class is a mere 11 hours prior to my weekly torture session w/ The Queen of Pain, my trainer. (AKA Jessica). I'm still kinda sore when I get up on Wed morning for Yoga and then there's an hour of core work and such. Oof. It's a good thing that I hate being out of shape more than I do getting into shape!

The 'cross season is drawing to a close. I did 3 races in as many weekends, there's a week off now and then 2 more in December. The State Championships are next Sunday and then we host the KissCross Season Finale on the 14th. I'm gonna finish out the season on the fixxie........it's not slowing me down at all (like I need any help doing that!) and I'm kinda diggin' it. I've had 2 okay and one shitty race so far - but I crashed last week on the last friggin' lap and I'm still whining about it. (Tore a nice chunk outta my hip - waaa waaa). Damn - I love everything about 'cross! The weather, the bikes, the vibe, embrocation, the cowbells.......!!!! It rocks! I just gotta figure out not to suck at it so bad.

So. December. Christmas. New Years. All that stuff. I dig it. It's gonna be a good month @ the end of a good year. Let's keep riding, shall we?

As my friend Baber would say.............."Peace Out!"

ICEMAN, CHILLY MAN, TIRED MAN!

2008-11-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

So, the Iceman race has cometh and goneth. I had fun, mostly and had an okay race. I was about 5 minutes off of my PR of '07, but I was racin' single-speed and all...so I'm mostly okay w/ it. There are many trails where I truely believe that having gears would not be any faster, (since a s/s makes you attack the climbs) but the Iceman isn't one of those trails. I geared up pretty heavily so I'd have enough gear for the flats but I still spun out on several long-ish sections where I could've gained some time. Of course - I coulda been fitter and faster too, but what's your point? The weather was fine, about 37 degrees and spittin' snow-ice-rain drops @ the start but 5 minutes in it dried out and I never thought about the elements again. I gambled on the "if you're under-dressed you'll hafta hammer" strategy when I kitted up and it paid off. (Although I was one frozen popsicle on the start line!) Wool l/s baselayer under s/s VCC jersey and knicks was the perfect set-up. The course was in great shape and as far as i could tell all 2500 of had a fine time! I finished, racked my bike in the corral, grabbed my bag outta the tent and jumped on the first bus back to Kalkaska to get the van. I was back @ the finish line when J2 rolled in and we hung a spell then collected bikes, bags and such and hit it for home. At 5:30, 26 hours after leaving town, we were back with only empty wallets and tired legs to prove that we had even gone a'tall!

Then it was off to the market for chili fixings. I did a red "Texas" style (I put beans in it just to piss my least favorite Texan off) and a white chicken one. Sunday dawned wet and cold...but my ride time it was just cold. Oh yeah......and windy. We had about 30 riders and 9 pots' o' chili. It was a good ride, although we got kinda broken up, but back @ the shop everyone was in a great mood, eatin' chilio, drinkin' beer and talkin' rides and races and bikestuff.

Sounds good, huh?

So...looking ahead there are 4 more 'cross races, a coupla holidays and a few gigs. There oughta be enough in there to keep me engaged and hoppin'.

By the way - has anyone seen my fitness? I had it earlier but now I can't find it anywhere. If you happen across it, lemme know, okay?

Thanks!

Bike-ma bites back hard!

2008-11-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

"Karma" - n. 1. Buddhism and Hinduism the totality of one's acts in each state of one's existence. 2. loosely, fate.

"Bike-ma" - the same thing, but in the saddle.

So it's a beautiful day in early November and J2 and I are takin' advantage of it. Shorts and short sleeves! In November in Michigan! You gotta grab that, am I right? Anyway...we're rollin' south and I decide that it's my solemn duty to give good buddy Ross some crap 'cuz he's at work and we're not. (After all -what are friends for?) So I send him a text message. (Yes - while I was riding....I know it's dumb)

"Hey! J2 and I are rolling south and you're not!" Or words to that effect.

He responds right away. (I knew he would) "Bite me! I haven't seen the sun for 3 days!"

Touched and feeling emotional I respond "Don't feel too bad, there's a little headwind and the sun is really bright in my eyes!" (I'm a softie, huh?)

As I hit "send" I feel something wrong w/ my bike. Shit. Flat tire. We pull obver and I pull a sheet metal screw 3/4" long outta my rear tire.

Bike-ma.

Still....'twas a great ride, 40 miles or so w/ J2 as company is about as good as it gets. Sorry you missed it Ross ol' buddy!

Big weekend comin' up - Iceman on Saturday and Chili Chilly Ride on Sunday! YEE-Haa! Then 4 more 'cross races in the next 5 weeksens, then another Fun-Raiser and then it's frickin' Christmas and then it's New Years and then...............well, there's lots goin' on, that's all I'm saying.

Be well, ride lots, stay safe!
MC

Pineapple Bob Classic Report

2008-10-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

So........it was a somewhat disappointed group of 20 or so milling around the shop yesterday, kitting up and talking about the much-better-than-forecast weather outside. "Where's the 'wintery mix'?" "Whats' w/all the sunshine?" "What 'plummeting temps?" and other such comments were commonly overheard as we got ready to roll.

It's weird that way......although if you're reading this it may well not seem weird at all.....but it seems like a main component of a great ride is having some horrible weather thrown into the mix. I know that I was mentally prepared to be miserable yesterday - and the fact that I wasn't didn't ruin the ride by any means but it did change it. Still - we had a blast. 30 miles, 7 of it gravel and what seemed like most of it into a stiff west wind that had us lookin' @ single digit speeds once in awhile. My group included JD, Ross, Tom W., J2 and Berger and we amused ourselves by goin' outta our way lookin' for mud puddles and extra "Flahute Points". Big fun!

("Flahute" is a Flemish word used to describe the 'hard men' of that region who are always out there in the wet and wind training for the Spring Classics)

Back at the shop there were tacos w/all the fixin's and a buncha dirty dudes.

Speaking of "dudes" - there were exactly zero riders of the female persuasion on this ride and that reminds of the truest thing I ever heard Berger say. Now - Brier Berger is one of those "still waters rub deep" sorta guys and for all we know he's chock-full of pithy wisdom but last Friday he said one of the truest things I've EVER heard anyone say about riding. We had done the Bagel Ride despite the fact that it was 45 degrees -n-raining so we had no one to blame but ourselves when we rolled up to the cafe as 4 popsicles. Soaking wet, chilled to the bone and most likely hypothermic we sat, a little table of misery, in the middle of the bagel shop, dripping on the floor w/ numb hands cupped around coffee, tea and hot cider. At one point Greg pointed out through chattering teeth that KP, despite having the day off and looking forward to a ride was a no-show. That led Berger to observe that "Yeah, there's never any women on these stupid rides." to general agreement.

And it's true. And by no means a knock on our cycling sisters in any way - I know and ride with LOTS of way hardcore ladies - but when it comes to what Berger so adroitly termed a "stupid ride".......they're smart enough to say no.

Maybe when I grow up I'll be that smart.

Anyway - the ride was a blast and it's great to have the Fun-Raiser Series back on the calendar. It's Chilly Chili Ride time in less than 2 weeks so it's time to start experimenting w/ this year's recipe. Rumours that Bobby Flay might show up for a chili "throwdown" are just that - rumours! Still, you don't wanna miss this ride, it's one of the best!

Man - the calendar is crazy-full still! Looking ahead @ the next 7 weekends they look like this: Cross Race - Iceman / Chilly Chili Ride - Cross race - Cross Race - Thanksgiving Weekend - State Cross Championships - Cross Race in Holland! Is that cool or what?

I've decided to go w/ my fixxie for the races...at least for the one this weekend. We'll see if that's as stupid an idea as my HupUnited buds seem to think that it is. My theory is that since I have failed utterly - again - to carry my summer fitness into the 'cross season I might as well try something different. Besides, I'll need all the excuses I can get!

Stay tuned - ride lots - vote - get excited/angry/passionate about SOMETHING!

What a difference a week makes!

2008-10-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last Friday's Ride (10/17) - Furnace Creek Ranch to Golden Canyon and Zabriseke Point, Death Valley. 15 miles. 90 degrees. 100% sunshine. S/S jersey, bibs, summer shoes. gloves etc. Sat @ the Point w/ about 50 other riders and about 300 Euro-Tourists.

Today's Ride (10/24) - From the shop out to Gilligan Lake via South Shore Drive and 66th. 45 degrees. Steady rain. Wool baselayer, Thermal jersey, knickers, winter shoes, thermal gloves, winter socks. Got to the bagel shop mildly hypothermic - sat there shivering and dripping - still chilled an hour later. 3 compadres.

I think I prefer Death Valley. In fact, I wish I was there right now, rolling out bound for Jubilee Pass or Scotty's Castle and surrounded by my buds. Sounds pretty much perfect to this boy. Next year I wanna stay out there for a day or two after the Ride - I've been there 4 times now and have basically seen the same damn 53 miles 8 times. I'm guessin' that since it's the biggest National Park outside of Alaska (where you can see Russia from your house) there might be more to see.

Until.............guess I'll ride around here. not a thing wrong w/ that!

Let's go, huh?

Wow!

2008-10-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

So....if I turn my head to the left I can see the Effel Tower. Okay - maybe not the real one, but from the 9th floor of the Paris casino it looks kinda real. ( For all I know). I woke up in Death Valley and I'm goin' to bed in Las Vegas which means that I've merely traded one surreal environment for the next. There might not be any 2 locations so close geographically (2+ hours by bus) and yet so bloody different.

I like DV a helluva lot more!

Yesterday's Ride was AWESOME! The Team rode great, strong and caring. All the riders (all 290 of us!) had a safe day and we got the course cleared of riders by 6:00pm. To quote our National Head Coach TSC "By any imaginable measure, this was a great Ride!"

I second that emotion!

A whole buncha West Michigan Riders had a record day. I'm not gonna list names "cuz I'll for damnsure miss one and that'd be unfair and would suck, basically. Trust me when I say that all our riders - first-timers and vets - all rode strong!

In another nod to our Team I was voted "Most Motivational Coach", an honor I'm not sure I earned but will cherish.

It's been a spectacular season for JDRF and I really can't fathom that it's over. It'll hit me eventually I suppose but since we're gonna start planning for '09 asap I'm not sure it matters!

You really oughta join us you know! The 2009 dates are set and will be up on the website any day now.

Gotta go.it's way late and i have an early flight. See you around.

MC

SOMETIMES I JUST DON'T THINK THINGS THROUGH ALL THAT WELL, PT 2

2008-10-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Or 3, or 4......or whatever.

I've been so geeked for the Death Valley Ride that lately I've actually been paranoid about gettin' hurt before we leave. That's a first, as far as I can recall. As I rode to work yesterday, and then rode over to the Holland Stadium to see about the 'cross race course and then back I was extra-mindful of cars and the regular daily dose of risks that I guess I take every day just to get around. I mentioned it to Ted, John J and Dennis @ various points throughout the day so it's on record, that's all I'm sayin'.

So.....keep that in mind 'cuz, as I once heard a guy in a bluegrass band say from the stage - "I told ya'll that story so I can tell ya'll this'n"..............

On the Tuesday Night Ride I noticed that the rear wheel on Dave Z's Salsa was in a world of hurt.... outta true, outta round, outta everything. The bike's fairly new so I asked him whether he had ridden or driven to the shop - tryin' to get an idea of when we could get our hands on it. You see - I kinda get the vibe that Dave's a member of what we call the "shut up and ride club" (folks that aren't all that fussy about their bikes) PLUS I know that he's a very busy dude and I was skepical that he'd be able to get it to us asap - which is what needed to happen. When I realized that our route would take us through his neighborhood and that he had the same pedals as I use an idea worked it's way through my soggy brain. "Hey Dave", says I "How 'bout I leave my bike w/ you and ride yours to the shop? That'll save you a trip and we can get'cher wheel fixed up tomorrow." "Great idea" says he "Can you ride my bike?"

A fair question since it's about 3 sizes too big.

"Oh sure - I can deal w/ it for 4 miles" I say, thinkin' to myself that at least I can clip in even though I'll hardly be able to reach the pedals from the saddle.

So I tell the group what I'm up to and Dennis right away asks if I want him to hold up the group. "Nah", says our clever narrator "I'll be fine and right behind you guys." So off they go.

Dave and I get to his house and do the switch. I climb (I use the word in it's literal sense) onto his bike and realize that I WOULD be able to clip in to his pedals IF I was actually wearing my road shoes but since they are on the truck on the way to DEATH FREAKIN' VALLEY I'm not.

Oops.

Oh well, no biggie, I can carefully stand on those little tiny slippery Speedplay pedals in my slick nylon soled off-road shoes for 4 miles, right? And I can ride this bike w/ the rear wheel feelin' like it's gonna collapse at any second, right? And......oh yeah, no lights and the group's up the road.

Oops, #2. (Or #3, or #4, or whatever, I've lost count)

So - now I'm THAT GUY again! Riding through town, in the dark, with no lights, on a bike that's WAY too big, that I can't clip into, with a sick rear wheel.

Way to be extra-careful huh?

Well, since you're reading this and I've written it I musta made it, and I did. Once again whatever Guardian Angel that drew the short straw and got stuck w/ watchin my back came through and I got away w/ it. Again. Still - I was compelled to go home (my headlight died on my commuter bike en route, of course) and confess to the Lovely Linda that she was married to an idiot.

She did not seem surprised.

So......Death Valley tomorrow and as previously stated I can not wait! I dyin' to see the Panamint Mountains, Furnace Creek Ranch, Jubilee Pass and all that stuff but I'm even more excited to get another dose of the all-powerful JDRF medicine. It's good for what ails ya!

If you read this drivel (and I have no idea who does - or why) I assume that I'll be carrying your best wishes for our Team as we head out to the Valley and for that I thank you. If any of you have seen fit to support any of my Team Mates w/ a donation then I thank you once again. (It's not too late - go to www.ride.jdrf.org, click "donate" and choose a rider!)

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring - if you do. (It's cool either way!) I'm not sure that there'll be internet access in DV so I might be "off the 'net" for a bit. I imagine the world will survive!

Be safe! Ride lots! Get passionate about something! Take care!
MC

Time to Catch Up! (Again!)

2008-10-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Man! I repeat...how do all those dedicated daily Blogger types do it!?!?!?!? I have a hard time believing that it's been 2 weeks since I sat down to update this damn thing.............it feels like we just got back from the show. Anyway, here's what's been goin' on:

We got back and for a while there the shop was becalmed in the off-season doldrums. Then someone turned on the Weather Way-Back Machine and summer staged a strong comeback. Temps in the 80's and heartbreakingly clear blue skies were the rule for most of early October and the buzz at the shop rose accordingly. Kinda fun. We've been doin' the 'Cross Clinics for 3 weeks now but the turn-out is low. Not sure if that's due to the location change (Ransom Park on the North Side), the 'un 'crosslike weather or the fact that I've been listed as one of the "instructors". (That seems most likely to me)

I'm dyin' to get my cyclo-cross season started but I'm resigned to waitin' 'til November. @ that point the JDRF Ride season will be done, my #1 bike will be back from Death Valley (one of my riders has had it since May) and I'll be able to focus. November looks full......3 'cross races, the Iceman, a gig...........too bad I have ZERO edge or fitness. Based on a one-time experiment I'm seriously considering using my Macatawa Bike Works fixxie for 'cross - I can just fit a pair of Maxxis 'cross tires on it and there's just something about the whole fixxie thing...............

Wanna read something extra-cool about this sport that we love? My good friend Heather is a real live writer of no small renown and she was inspired after a Tuesday Night Ride to toss a few lines together about just what it is that makes her so crazy 'bout cycling and she was kind enough to gimme a heads-up. Man.......reading it gave me goosebumps and almost made me tear up! Do yourself a solid and visit www.heathersellers.com/blog/ and enjoy!

So......we're off to Death Valley in 3 more days! The last JDRF Ride of 2008. The 5th of 5 for me this season but only the 2nd where I'll get to ride and the first where my only duty will be as coach of my team. (Kinda excited about that!) 43 members of the West Mich squad will join 260+ other riders for the biggest Ride to Cure O' the year! This group has a pretty decent % of Velo-Folk.......J2, Ross, JD, Ted, Lin and I, plus Did, Cindy, Katie & Steve, Tom & Mary and other mainstays of the Team lo these last 3-4 years. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!

I'm fired up to get the Fun-Raiser Series rollin' this month too! Life's just better when there's a Big Ride comin'up every month. For October it's gonna be the (in)famous Pineapple Bob Classic w/ a Taco Chaser. I've decided to move the November Chilly Chili Ride from the date in the newsletter (11/22) to the day after the Iceman (11/9) You heard it here first! (Unless you were on the Friday Morning Bagel Ride last week - but you know who you are!)

I'm starting to ponder staffing for next season...........the more we talk about stuff on this end the more it seems likely that we'll be lookin' for a full-timer to help keep things here on a even keel while I work on Velo-Ventures trips, JDRF stuff and suchlike. Know anyone I oughta talk to?

Lots to do before I shove of for DV.........there are 5-6 pre-season orders that are due by 10/15, all the usual loose-end-tying that precedes a break and at some point I gotta pack.

Maybe I oughta get workin' on that, huh?

Later..MC

Interbike Wrap-Up Report

2008-09-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

Whew! This Bike Show thing is kind of a bitch when you get right down to it, y'know? By the time we all re-convened @ the end of the day Thursday it was all we could do to ride the escalator up a floor to our fav Mexican joint, re-load and limp over to out hotel to retrieve our bags and catch a taxi f or the airport.

I know.................you're bleeding for me right now, huh? I appreciate that, I really do.

On Wed I had several appointments but managed to get around the show a bit as well. Co-Motion's tandems looked great - not a lot new there really - and I checked out a buncha new stuff from Terry, Salsa, Surly and a bunch more that frankly escape me @ the moment. The big thing was the 'Cross Vegas rcae that night. Rumours were all over the show that His Lanceness was gonna make the scene and race but we were skeptical to say the least. We had the major hook-up through our friends @ Quality Bike Products and Lazer Helmets......we caught a ride in the Lazer bus, all neoned out and stocked w/ Belgian beer and pizza(I don't think it was Belgian pizza). They kitted us out w/ a sweet Lazer polo shirt, cap and cowbell and let us loose on the race. The Women's race was wild....Katie Compton slayed all on the grassy-n-wicked-fast course. By then the announcers had whipped the enormous crowd into a frenzy w/ his regular Lance Status Reports. ("He's in the airport!" "He's en route!" "He's here at the venue!!!!!"

And so he was............all kitted out in LiveStrong and on a nondescript red Trek. He held his own....considering this was the most stacked field EVER in a North American 'Cross Race. Ryan Trebon gapped Tim Johnson on the last lap to win and L.A. was 20th or so. The whole cowbell-ringin', beer swillin', taco eatin' scene was a stone blast!!!!! You shoulda been there!

Thursday was more meetings, more shitty Expo food and more walkin' the endless aisles. I met w/ Seven MajorDomo Rob Vandermark, the Felt guys, Pearl Izumi, an interesting new little clothing company called Panache, Sidi, CycleOps and a ton more. Stuff that made an impression?

Sidis new prices. (Ouch!)
Felt's tri bikes (Nice!)
QR's too. (")
All the new stuff @ QBP. (Salsa, Surly, Assos, Civia....tons more)
Easton wheels.
Blackburn lights.
Giro's gloves.
Lazer's new $110 helmet.........................and a bunch more. Stop in the shop, we'll have the stuff to show you!

So...I was home for a whole 36 hours, then I headed to Chicago for the JDRF Coaching Meeting. It's a quickie.....I'll leave for home late tomorrow afternoon......and then I'm really looking forward to getting back into the flow around the shop and back on the bike. Death Valley is 3 weeks away.................and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!! DV is one of my fav weekends of the entire season and it can't come soon enough.

So.....gotta go. The red-eye flight Thursday night, workin' all day Friday, giggin' last night and comin' here today is catching up w/ me.

Hope all is well in your world...............things are great in mine!

Oh yeah...KP would want me to tell you that the new VCC Hoodies are awesome and that they were all her idea. (Truth)

Interbike Report - Demo Daze, Part Dos

2008-09-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hello again and greetings again from the weirdest city in the whole US of A. Here's a list of things that I learned today, our 2nd day out @ the Outdoor Demo Day in Boulder City NV.....

The "Tour de Lake Mead" kicked my ass! Also know as the "Hangover Ride", the "TdLM" has become a staple of the show. You line yourself up a road bike on Monday, (I had a dandy C-Dale Synapse) get your butt outta the sack @ 5:30 Tuesday morn, work yourself out to Bootleg Canyon, grab your bike and line up w/ about 200 other bleary-eyed showfolk. When the nice officer rolls out w/ his lights blazing (Police escort - gotta love it!) you head down Route 93 bound for a lovely scenic turnout on the shore of Lake Mead.
Here's the thing......it's 95% downhill from start to finish. And a large percentage of that 95% is WAY downhill! 40mph downhill. Ridin' the brakes once in awhile kinda downhill.
And we all know what THAT means, yes? Yep......let's just say that it takes me a helluva lot longer to do the return leg and leave it at that. Okay?

Shimano's new electronic Dura Ace drivetrain is pretty dang cool! Coming from a guy that doesn't use Shimano, doesn't like electronic anything and for that matter hardly ever shifts......that oughta carry some weight! If they actually get that stuff to market it's gonna be pretty dang cool. The battery only weighs 70 grams (and that's the TOTAL weight diff 'tween mechanical and electronic groups), is good for 1000+ miles and the front der. trims itself as you shift in the back. Pretty dang cool.

I rode the new Dura-Ace non-electronic stuff too......I like the new shape of the hoods and the hidden cables a la Campy and SRAM.

Salsa's new Pistola steel frame is sweet........Tru Temper tubing, nice and light. Still...I think for similar $ you could get a Gunnar, although I won't know that for sure 'til tomorrow. (Or whenever I get by their booth)

It's my fault that Ross isn't riding much. (www.rossschueller.blogspot.com) 'Tis a heavy burden to be sure!

I just don't like carbon bikes!!! I rode a sweet Look, and an even sweeter Felt (assuming that $ = sweetness) They look kinda different, one can assume that the designers had different goals and/or philosophies and.......they felt pretty much alike to me. Just like pretty much every other CF frame I've ever ridden. A decent tool for the job but not anything I'd ever find myself passionate about. (Olde Farte Rant Mode off)

The buffet @Harrah's kicks the buffet @ The Imperial Palace's ASS!!!!! Take my word on this one, it's not even a contest. (And that's before you get to the chocolate fountain!)

I think that's about it......I only had the legs to ride until about 2:00, then I "de-kitted" and walked around takin' pix and scorin' schwag 'til we all headed back about 4:00. Tomorrow the show proper begins....I have 4 appointments, which seems like a lot for a guy that was determined to adopt an "appointment-phobic" attitude prior to the show. Hopefully I won't be sittin' on that plane Thursday night brooding over the stuff I didn't get to see @ the show. We're goin' to the 'cross race after the show tomorrow night so it'll be a l-o-n-g day. If there's no post tomorrow night that's why.

Later, MC

Demo Daze, Part Uno

2008-09-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

So....in no particular order heres some stuff I learned today while riding 8 different mountainbikes on the twisty, dusty, rocky challenging singletrack of Bootleg Canyon outside of Las Vegas:

Every bike had a Shimano drivetrain. That's a huge shift! (No pun intended, really!) The trend over the past 3 years has been more and more SRAM stuff, at Shimano's expense. Not sure what it means but out of all three of us riding all day, only Ted had a bike w/ SRAM, and only the one.

I really like Hayes brakes. Actually.....I only really like the levers, 'cuz they feel good and have super-easy-to-adjust reach for my stubby digits. I don't really like any hydraulic brake over another - gimme cables!

I love riding in the desert! Okay...I knew that and have known it for 20+ years. Still......I frickin' love it!

After riding just about every state-of-the-art full sus design - Ellesworth, Ibis, Titus, Santa Cruz, etc - I really think that Cannondale has it knocked. The Rize I took to Moab and Fruita was every bit the bike all those fancy-ass ones are, for way less $. The Ellesworth Truth remains my 1st choice if you're buying.......but if it's my money on the table I'll be on a C-Dale Scapel, Rush or Rize.

I'm still 100% conflicted about the whole 29"/26" thing. I rode a Felt 29'r that claims to be the lightest on the market - it felt good. (The evening resounds w/ puns!) Then I ride the 26 version and like dit just as much. I rode Tony Ellesworth's personal ride....a pink 29'r Evolve......and it was fine. In fact.....I didn't even realize 'twas a big-wheeler 'til I was almost done /w a lap. (What does THAT mean, pray tell?) I rode a C-Dale 29'r and dug it, but more 'cuz it was a hardtail than any othr reason. (I had just done a lap on the much ballyhooed Ibis Mojo full-sus and it made me feel like I was shot and worn out for the day). So.......who knows? Not me, that's for damnsure.

Tomorrow is Demo Day #2.......Greg (who just arrived-fresh from finishing 11th in his age group @ the National Tri race in Portland), Aaron, Rick and I are gonna do the Tour of Lake Mead (aka "the hangover ride") first thing in the am, then I wanna ride some road and 'cross bikes. On Wed the Expo opens, then we go watch the huge "Cross Vegas Race then another day @ the show, then the huge crit, then we fly home to open the shop on Friday morning. We have a ton to get done in the next 3 days.........I'll try and keep you posted!

Later!

Vegas Baby!

2008-09-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

That's what Ted says every time someone says the name of this town out loud. It's not annoying yet........but we just got here.

"Here" is the 2008 Interbike Show. Ted, Aaron and I got in a few hours ago, accompanied by our old buddy Rick "Snake" Plite, a.k.a. "Mr. KissCross". Greg gets here tomorrow night, fresh from his 11th place finish @ the National Age Group Tri in Portland yesterday.

Agenda is to ride our asses off tomorrow @ the Demo in Boulder City a 30 minute drive from here. We have a buncha bikes and brands that we wanna check out on the tight-n-dusty trails of Bootleg Canyon. Tuesday is the Tour de Lake Mead and more test-riding, then the actual show kicks off 1st thing Wed morn. We'll be posting pics (hopefully!) and words here and on Ted's Blog as well so stay tuned!

I'll take that fixxie for 150 please!

2008-09-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

and that's pretty much what I did. Saturday was O.D.R.A.M, aka the "One Day Ride Across Michigan and one of my favorite days of the summer. What's not to dig? You get up early (way early!), catch the Velo Ventures bus up to Montague, mount the lights, pull on your arm warmers and vest and start riding east. 150 miles later you're at the Bay City State Park. In between you rode your bike, met the VeloVentures Support Truck every 25 miles, ate way too many Golden Oreos, hit the lunch stop @ the church and ate homemade chicken soup and generally had a blast.

I rode my trusty fixxie all the way. I had my C-Dale in the trailer "just in case" but never needed it.

What a great ride! I strongly suggest you put it on your calendar for 2009 and beyond!

So that was Saturday. Sunday I went up to Cedar Springs w/ J2, Heather -n-Brian for a JDRF Ride. Can't say that my legs felf all that great...but I got by. That's my new thing, I guess.......no riding throughout the week due to travel-n-such so I gotta make it up on the weekends w/ 200+ miles.

Off to Whitefish again on Wednesday, for Round 4 of the big JDRF Traveling Circus. After this one there's "just" Interbike, the 2 Day Coach's Meeting in Chicago and Death Valley be fore I can put my travel gear away for a bit.

'Cross season is looming................not that I feel even remotely ready for it. Hell...as of right-damn-now I don't even have a bike - I loaned my Gunnar to a member of the Death Valley Team - so I'm not sure what I'd even race on. Not that it'd matter.

I had a chance to reflect on the season as we were rollin' towards Bay City on Saturday.......Fisk Knob, Moab/Fruita, Grattan, Sonoma, Lumberjack, Asheville, Holland 100, Whitefish, all the shop rides, all the Crazy Bastard rides.......man! How'd I get so lucky?

Don't tell anyone, okay?

MC Hammered

Ouch!

2008-09-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

So.....started 'cross training in earnest this morning. In this context "cross training" has a dual meaning - it involves other-than-bike stuff and it's designed to get me ready for cyclo-cross. Thus.........'cross training.

Basically for this chubby old dude it means haulin' my bulk up and down that flight of 170 stairs in Sanctuary Woods on 66th. It's about a 25 minute ride from home, then I jump off of "Ugly", my fixxie commuter and jog to the stairs, run up, try and run the 1 mile loop of trail @ the top of the dune and run back to my bike. It's not a pretty sight. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find myself @ the top w/out stopping (I had my head down counting steps) but I wasn't able to run the entire loop up top. My left Achilles tightened up in the way back up the the top and I got kinda freaked, despite the fact that my right one ruptured w/out any warning almost 6 years ago so I ran down the staris to Ugly and cooled down by riding home.

Assuming that my body holds up - and there's no real reason for optimisim in that regard - I'd like to add a little running into the mix. I have a lot of bike-less travel coming up (Whitefish and the bike show) and I always envy runners since all they gotta do is bring shoes and shorts. I'm gonna try but like I said.............no reason to count on it.

ODRAM this Saturday and a JDRF ride on Sunday so I oughta get my mileage back up to where it belongs easy enough. Assuming that my Sofa King gets back from MT in time I plan on using it Saturday - I think I can do 156 miles fixed but there's only one way to find out, y'know?

Back to MT on Wed, this time to work as part of the 'Route Crew" which means everything from shoping for bananas to marking the roads to pickin' up trash afterwards. Should be interesting. It'll be good to see everyone again...I miss 'em already!

Ride and Rock on!
MC

"Turn out the lights.....the party's over"

2008-09-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you Dandy Don! (Don't get that?.........Guess I'm showin' my age!")

It's kinda like bein' in the circus.......the tents are comin' down, the riders are homeward bound, I said my goodbyes (more like "see you in a coupla weeks") to Trish-n-Aly and I'm outta here in a couple hours. The Bike Room is back to being 'The Glacier Room", a sterile, boring conference room w/ those adjustable walls. Hell..........for the last week it's kinda been the heart of the Ride, the one place staff, riders and family could hang out, connect and shoot the bull. That might have been the high point of the Glacier Room's whole life, 'cuz the Bike Room will be back in the old location next time.

Time to go home, see my other family(s). Lin and Sam are en route from NY as we speak, gonna meet me @ the airport. Katie Jo's holdin' down the fort @ home w/ the dawgs. Ted's on his way home from Brian Head UT and the rest of the shopfolk are enjoying their day off and coming to terms w/ the whole "end of summer" thing, hopefully. I'm anxious to get ODRAM done, then focus on the next trip out here, then Interbike. September will be full-n-fine!

Later, gotta pack and all that crap.
MC

Whitefish Wrap up.

2008-08-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

So..............Sunday night. Time to go home, my work here is done. I've ridden a total of 25 miles while I've been here.......slept hardly any at all, eaten WAY too much and pretty much set my 'cross season back in any and every way I can.

So what?

The Ride was awesome. 3 for 3 this season so far. Great weather, riders, stories...you name it - we had it!

Just in case you ever get asked to be the Bike Room Guy for a JDRF Ride...here's an idea of what you're getting into:

Tuesday - Fly to Whitefish (or wherever). Check out the room, unload the truck if need be. Eat too much. Get a decent night's sleep. (For the last time!)
Wednesday - Set the Bike Room up......start assembling the DHL-shipped bikes that have arrived. Stress about the 16-19 bikes that are late and in the clutches of the morons @ DHL. Grab lunch on the run,get a quick ride in, dinner downtown, start figuring out where you're gonna get the rear wheel you need for that C-Dale that got smashed, get as many bikes assembled as possible. Eat too much. Go to bed late......midnight or so.
Thursday - Riders are arriving through out the day so the job shifts from 100% Wrench Dude to Wrench Dude/Bike Consultant/Host/Coach/Bike Fitter/Personal Shopper. Get the rest of the bikes ready, except for the 4 still missing from DickHeadLosers, eat too much, sleep too little.
Friday - Get up early to help get bikes ready for the "tune up ride". Pump tires, help riders find bottles etc. Weather the storm of post-ride complaints, need for adjustments, etc. Work on bikes all day, installing recently purchased computers, H2O cages, clipless pedals and the like. Basically stay in the Bike Room from about 8AM 'til midnight. Somehow find time to eat too much.
Saturday...Ride Day - Up @ 4:45, breakfast @ 5:00. In the Bike Room by 6:00, help riders get rolling 'til Ride Start @ 7:00, pack SAG van w/ tools, stand, spares and hit the road by 7:15. Patrol the Star Meadow route 'til about 10:30, then to the Whitefish Lake loop......fix 7 flats, a tight chain link, a loose saddle, etc. Haul the Glimmer Twins around for a bit, show them the course, co-ordinate Coaches and riders, etc. Come off route @ 4:30 to get a couple rental bikes back to the local shop, then spend some time hangin' around the finish line and wishing that you were a coach and out on the road where you belong. Sort bikes, head to the dinner then back to the room until midnight.Load the truck. Eat too much.
Sunday - try to sleep in but be foiled by your damn internal-set-to-Eastern-Time body clock. Too much breakfast, the into the room. Truck is gone so "only" 24 bikes to deal with. Start packin' them @ 9:00 or so........takes about 25 minutes per. Break for lunch downtown, then do some more. Run downtown on t-shirt run, then back at it. More bike packing all afternoon nd into the evening. Abandon plans to get a ride in. Finish the last bike @ 8:30, pack up tools, stands etc and load into storage unit. Fend off many offers for drinks and such from grateful riders (too tired). Quick dinner, (eat too much.) then back to room to bask in the feeling of being done and homeward bound. Post blog, read e-mail, take shower, plan to sleep in. All in all......a great, if tiring, week!

It'll be good to be home, good to check out the shop, good to trade tales w/ Ted, who's been wrenching for the Kenda/Titus team in Utah all weekend. I'll be back here for Ride #4 in 10 days.

Can't wait!

JDRF Ride, Take 3

2008-08-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

So. Whitefish MT again. 4th time in the last 3 seasons. I'll be back here in 2 weeks too. This time I have my "Bike Room Guy" hat on....which means that 'tween now and friday morning I have 150 bikes to get ready for the weekend. It's not as full-tilt-boogie-crazy as that sounds since a decent majority of them are packed in the trailer of that semi that's sittin' in the parking lot and will just need a gentle goin' over. (Hopefully!)

There are a bunch en route via DHL, FedEx and such and they'll need more work.

The Ride is Saturday, then I'll have until Monday noon to reverse all the work and get them headed off back to wherever it is that their riders hail from.

It's awesome here at the edge of the Rockies-it's cold enough after dark that we needed fleece jackets just to sit around the "fire" pit behind the lodge. (It's a bunch of gas jets surrounded by a pile of big rocks.) I brought some cool temp riding gear but I'm gonna give it a while to warm up before I head out for a spin.

I can't wait to tap into the whole JDRF Vibe that keeps me comin' back for more.....I reckon that'll start to be more apparent as more staff and riders arrive over the next 2 days. I love being involved in this program and as long as they keep asking me...........I'm in!

I'll keep you posted! MC

Damn! Did it again!

2008-08-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

When am I ever gonna learn? The LAST time I included a list in a blog post (and I guar-an-damn-tee it WILL be the last time!) I left someone out and then I had to post an apology. Now - the fact that said apology gave me an opportunity to take a gratuitis shot at Billy Joel eased the pain somewhat but still....................it was still an apology.

So. With that said allow me to state, with all appropriate humbleness and shame, that Da've Pa've was ALSO amongst the fallen after our little pavement-kissin' party @ Grattan last Wednesday.

That's D-A-'-V-E P-A-'-V-E.

Aka Dave Page, soon to be ex-Velo Citizen, Grand Valley student of no small aclaim, bartender of distinction @ the Lakeshore's coolest brewery (You can tell 'cuz they like to have Last Call play there).

Yep.......THAT Da've Pa've.

He of the fast hair, smooth pedal stroke and lightning black Cannondale.

He of the goats.

He of the "married to Linda".

He of the "Lives on the MNR route".

Yep. THAT guy!

He was there. Racing. In a VCC jersey. There, at Grattan. On August 20, 2008. I saw him myself. Right there next to me in the peloton. Not at the back. Not off the back. Off the front for a bit, as a matter of fact. Yep, 'twas him.

Allow me to be perfectly clear and on the record. He was there.

I missed him.

'Twas my bad.

No more lists.

Billy Joel still sucks and "We didn't start the Fire" is a crap song.

There, I feel better.

MC Listmeister

Well...I shoulda been "that guy"!

2008-08-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

So..........last race of the year (for me at least) @ Grattan last night. We had a great turn-out and the peloton was fairly shining w/ VCC jerseys - A-ron, Greg, Ross, Bull, Aaron and I were all flyin' the colors along side our MCC Brothas M2, C-Rad, Bob, Tom and Tator. It was a beatiful night and I was having a ball.

That's where today's lesson comes in. (Alas)

There was a new guy in the field............he was kinda squirrely, like first time riders tento be. I figure that's part of the deal and if I wanna avoid new riders I need to man up, ride faster and race in the "A" class, y'know? You see a guy like that, you make a "note to self" about keeping your distance and you deal w/ it.

But.............w/ 3 laps to go I notice that his handlebars were so loose in his stem that he was movin' his bars up nd down and back and forth as we blasted around the track at speeds of up to 30 mph.

"Sub-optimal" as my friends @ Seven Cycles might say.

So..........did I say anything to our errant hero? Did I put my "Elder Statesman" hat on over my helmet and politely-yet-firmly convince him to retire before he killed himself (or worse yet...me!)?

I did not.

I pussed out. I didn't want to be "that guy", y'know? I thought that we only had 2 laps to go, I was having fun, he was having fun...what the hell, right?

Wrong. WAY wrong. Custer was this wrong. The captain of the Titanic was this wrong. 'Cuz w/ one lap to go and the whole damn pack thundering down the mainstraight w/ a tailwind and the bit between our teeth Mr Loose Bars crashed his brains out and started the biggest pile-up I've seen for awhile. I thought I was gonna get out of it for a sec......I was on the brakes big time and was a-l-m-o-s-t stopped @ the edge of the carnage when 2-3 dudes piled into me from behind. When the dust settled I was all tangled up w/ Tom and his arm was pretty much crammed into and through my front wheel. (There's blood and chunks of his arm on the spokes.......it's cool and gross.)

Final tally - at least 3 ruined front wheels, including mine, The instigator's bike is totaled and the local med guys used a lotta gauze and tape. Coulda been worse............way worse. No one went to the E-room and bike parts can be replaced.

Still................next time it occurs to me to be "that guy"........you can bet that I will be!

Oh well.............now it's 'cross season! Can't wait!

Off to MT this tuesday for JDRF Ride #3 . I shipped my fixxie out there so I can ride in the mornings so I don't loose the fine-tuned edge that I have oh-so-carefully honed my fitness into. (We'll pause here for all my riding buddies to recover from their laughing fits. Okay now? All right then.)

Hard to believe that summer's almost gone. KW and I were talkin' about that very thing on the ride this morning. The older we get the faster time goes by. Is that gonna always be the case? Hell...at this rate 10 years from now a whole damn year will slip by while I'm shaving my legs!

That can't be good.

Catchin' up!

2008-08-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

Man...........this blogger gig is more work than it looks! It sems like oit was just a coupla days ago that I was postin' up from my hotel room in Asheville on the eve of the big ride and here 'tis a wek later and I'm off the back yet again!

Dang!

The buzz from the Asheville experience is just b-a-r-e-l-y startin' to wear off........I'm so proud of the Team and what we have going here in West Mich that it's easy to forget that it's been only 3 short (but way full!) years since the whole long strange trip began. I'm off to Whitefish to run the Tech Support for the next JDRF Ride in 9 days, then home on Labor Day, back to MT a week later for Ride #4, home or a week, then to LV for the bike show w/ Ted, Aaron and Greg, then home for 2 weeks then Death Valley!

So much for maintaining any fitness for the 'cross season!

The shop is kinda crazy busy too. Ted's been gone on vacation, as well as Saandy so the rest of us have been hangin' on for dear life. School starts soon so that means new schedules for KP, Matt and Sandy and Da've's last day as a Velo-Cit is 8/26. What a drag! Still....he'll be around and I'll see him @ the Saugatuck Pub for sure.

I'm excited to get the Fun-Raiser Ride sereis started again - I miss having them every month. We'll hafta wait 'til October though....no open dates in September!

'Cross season is right around the corner.....I gotta decide what I'm gonna ride! My Gunnar's on loan to one of my JDRF riders 'til a week after Death Valley so I'll need to figure that out. I gotta jones for a Salsa Chili Con Crosso or mebbe a Redline. We'll see.

I hope this weather holds..............it's been off-the-hook bee-you-ti-ful all week and I'm not even close to sick of it!

Ride on!
MC

ASHEVILLE REPORT, DAY 1

2008-08-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

The drive down was a huge drag.........I'm not exactly a pro @ driving the shop truck w/ that big-as trailer on it and it was kinda nerve-wracking. I missed our 1st exit like a damn fool and while looking for a good place to turn around I managed to get in a little fender bender in Niles. What a lame move....there's nothing I hate more than pulling a dumbass move when there's no way I can think of to blame it on someone else!

Still.......on we pressed, w/ thoughts of how much worse it could've been giving some scant support. The rest if the trip was only an improvement in the sense that we avoided any more accidents......lots of traffic, lots of construction, lots of stress. The fact that I enjoyed it despite all that is a testament to just how much I like hangin' w/ Lin........we really oughta do that more often.

We hit town about 8:30 last night, had pizza @ the Mellow Mushroom w/ Trish and Aly (aka the JDRF "Glimmer Twins") and called it a night. Today we spent working on unloading the bikes, getting the door posters ready for the riders and in general helping the staff get ready for the arrival of the riders. That's happening as I type........w/ most of the West Michigan folks within a few hours,

Tomorrow I have to get ready to lead the pre and post-ride Dinner presentations and run several meetings. I guess the work will start then!

It'd take a far better scribe than this one to describe the feelings that being @ one of these rides gives me...........every time I come to one I'm reminded of how powerful a thing this can be and I am so glad to to be allowed to be a part of it.

I'll try and post a report tomorrow night, otherwise it'll hafta wait 'til after the ride on Saturday.
Stay tuned!

el Flop-o grande'

2008-08-02T04:37:00.000-07:00

So...got my ass dropped @ Grattan this week. Dropped! That hasn't happened in awhile......since my "comeback" from the ruptured Achilles a few years back.

Sigh.

How do you go from finishing in the top 10 or top 5 all month to doing the "ride of shame" past the spectators in one short week? Well...........lemme tell ya - I'm pretty sure it was a nifty combination of chutzpah, carelessness and general fatigue. It was supposed to be a Big Night - we had 6 or 7 VCC jerseys out there, it was the first time ever for Greg and Aaron, I was gonna bag it after Juoy to get ready for 'cross and I wanted to go out w/ a bang.

More like a whimper.

The pace was hot, if kinda erratic. I spent more time than usual up near the front, expecting there to be the constant breakaway attempts that made the last race so volatile and I got kinda gassed w/ about 6 laps to go. I had done an extra-viscious workout w/ Jess and John that morning and my legs were kinda dead anyways, so that didn't help. There was a split (I guess) and I was kinda hangin' on the rear of the lead group for dear life and when I sat up to drift back and take a break........there was no one there. Oops. I looked around and the pack was up the road 30 yards and I couldn't chase back into the wind.

Game over.

So.....now I'm gonna hafta go out there again this month, dang it. No way I'm wrappin' it up on a pitiful showing like that. 'Cross prep will hafta wait.

Rats.

Other than that.............things are crazy still. Ted's over in Wisconsin w/ Danielle @ Nationals, Asheville is next week, the shop's still nuts..............Yee-Hah!

Gotta get to it............see ya later,
MC

GLAD THAT'S OVER WITH!

2008-07-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

I don't mean that in a negative sense, at least not exactly. The last coupla weeks have been crazy busy even by my semi-twisted standards as the Holland Hundred approached, we had a JDRF fund-raiser attached to it, we had 3 band gigs and the shop was swamped w/ work while Ted and Matt were outta town. Lotsa meetings, lotsa details, lotsa e-mails and phone calls and running around.

Whew!

Somewhere in all that I managed to get the first-but-by-no-means-last "Dawn Patrol Century" off the ground too. 2-3 weeks ago I mentioned to Greg and Aaron that if we were willing to get outta bed before dawn we could try and get 75 miles in some Friday and then join the Bagel Ride to finish up a pre-workday century. Yeah...I gotta learn to just shut up once in awhile, y'know? But there we were - 6 morons lit up and rollin' south @ 4:45 am last Friday. Greg, Aaron, KP, Ross, Chad and myself w/ a full moon and lotsa deer as our only companions. We rode the 67 mile loop of the HH, then joined a big (by weekday morning ride standards) group back @ the shop for another 25 miles. I had 95 when we pulled back into town and not being a slave to the little black box on my handlebars I was perfectly content to be halfway through my first bagel when Greg and Aaron rolled up after riding around downtown making sure that they had both done their 1st ever century.

'Twas a hoot.

Saturday was the Holland Hundred, so little sleep for Mrs Clark's favorite son..........I was @ the park @ 5:40am and stayed there (w/ the exception of a quick SAG run) 'til about 4:30. The rain was a huge drag......but we still had 1200+ riders and that's prety dang cool. The comments about the ride, the route, the organization and the park were pretty good...at least as far as I know. I have lots of ideas for '09! After stopping by the JDRF Post Ride Bash @ New Holland it was home to change and load the band gear and then off to the Saugatuck Brewery to play 3 sets. The crowd was great, especially considering that Barry could use a little more climate control down there @ this point. (Translation - it was hot as hell in there!).

Hoot # 2.

After a little sleep I headed up to Montague Sunday mornin' w/ J2 and Ross for the JDRF Ride. We did 46 hilly miles on some way-cool roads up thataway and then hung out by the pool. I was the judge of the salsa contest (good work if you can get it!) and although no one else knew it...I considered myslef the judge of all the desserts as well, and proceeded accordingly. (Burp)

All in all................a helluva weekend!

Now it's Monday. The HH is in the rear-view, Ted's on his way home.....things might just mellow a tad. I'll be in Asheville in 3 weeks @ the next JDRF Ride, then Montana, then it's September and that means the Bike Show and then Death Valley. Good Lord, I better get to it!

Next time............."Rants per Week - what's a reasonable number?"

MC

The Two Rookies

2008-07-16T18:54:00.001-07:00

So...there were at least 2 brand-spankin'-new riders in our race @ Grattan tonight. (It was fun, it rained, I felt fine. That's another story, not as good as this one) It was very interesting watching the 2 of them deal w/ their first Grattan experience.........and it got me to thinking.

One guy - let's call him the "Guy in Pink" (Not the actual color of his jersey) was a COMPLETE menace! I watched him terrify everyone in the pack as he wobbled and lurched all over the track. Now......my intention IS NOT to 'dis the Guy in Pink - it musta been kinda freaky for him, out there w/ 50 other racers blasting around tight haripin turns @ 25-28 mph, haulin' ass down the back stretch @ 30+, etc. Grattan may be billed as a "Training Race Series" but it ain't exactly easy. He was strong too, our Guy in Pink, strong enough to be towards the front of the group which gave him many chances to scare the bejesus outta everyone several times.

The other guy couldn't have been more different. Let's call him....oh, I don't know......"Ross". (Not his actual name). Ross looked like he'd done this a million times. I was proud of him....he was smooth, held his line in the corners, looked and rode like a seasoned vet. Even when that dude sorta leaned into him in that S-curve and he was caught 'tween 2 riders he just dealt w/ it. Most guys - even non-rookies - woulda gibbered and screamed and then would've had to pull off the track to scrap out their shorts. Assuming that they lived.

Not our man "Ross". (Not his real name)

Here's my point. ( You were hoping I had one, and would get to it, yes?) Good ol' Ross-not-his-name is one of "our" guys. Shucks, odds are that if you read this crap you've ridden w/ him, maybe even lots. He has "grown up" as a cyclist wrapped in the arms of the cycling community that is centered here in Holland and.......if I may be so bold......here at the shop. He's been brought up right. He's learned how to be a rider, a safe one, a good one, hell...even a kind of fast one, and he's learned that by riding w/ all of us. Whatever you wanna call this extended Velo City / MCC / JDRF / HUP United / Crazy Bastard family of riders that semi-calls Velo City home is who "Ross" (Not his real name) learned from. We did good, we taught him well and he did us proud.

It makes me feel good and I sure wish that Guy in Pink (not his actual jersey color) had ben lucky enough to meet folks like "Ross" did. I'd feel a lot better having to share the track w/ him then!

Ride (and rock) on!
MC

Cool Ride w/ a Weird Side-Story

2008-07-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Feeling kinda weird about our ride before the ride yesterday and it's turning a great day into a sort of strange one.............................

Here's the deal - 8 or 9 of us met here @ the shop @ 7:30 to ride down to S-tuck, pick up B. and H. and get some miles before joining the "official" ride preceding the 'Yoga for Cyclists' class that H. was teaching. After dealin' w/ not 1 but 2 mechanicals before we even left the shop we were all rollin' west down a very quiet 8th street. As we coasted past the cop shop (well...some of us coasted) I see a guy on a recumbent comin the wrong way up the street. (It's a one-way) Not only is he riding up a one-way street - he's goin' curb to curb, slaloming up the street like a 9 year old on a Sting-Ray.

I almost said something to him for riding up a one-way.....noy sure why I didn't.

Then he does a big 180 and stars riding w/ us. Well...not WITH us exactly, but ahead of us, behind us, alongside us, etc. It was kinda weird, none of us knowing him, him being on a 'bent, you name it. Hell - he stayed w/ us all the way to Fennville! ('bout 30 miles). Hung on too, mostly.

I felt bad 'cuz I never chatted him up. That's not like me and I'm not sure what the deal was. It's not becuase he was on a 'bent I don't think. K.O. on the JDRF team rides one and he's plenty cool. I think it's 'cuz when I first saw him he was pulling that dumb-ass move and I'm so damn sick and tired of seeing other riders pulling one dick move or the next...all of them making it tougher for the rest of us.

I know.......that's not you. You behave, right? Me too. It's those other guys, I know that. Except................is it? Can you say that for damnsure? I hope so, 'cuz if you can't you're part of the problem just like our 'bent buddy. Oh sure.........riding huge "S" curves up a one way street is "worse" than jumpin' a 4 way stop or cuttin' onto a sidewalk to beat a train.

Except it's not.

You're either playin' it straight, or you're not as far as I can see.

I know it's hard sometimes. I know that it's inconvienent to hafta sit @ a red light when there's no one in sight or go 4 blocks outta your way 'cuz of the one way streets. So what? It's the rules and it's the only way that we are ever gonna be able to stake our claim to roads that are rightfully as much ours as anyone elses.

Think about it at least, okay?

(Full disclosure Department - Yes, I jumped the stop sigh @ 24th and Country Club for the sole reason of grabbin' the City Limit sign. Guilty as charged / Guilty as Hell. I could tell it was clear from everyone else's body language but still..........a numb nuts move on my part and I'll cop to it.)

Holland Hundred this Saturday! It's gonna be HUGE! We have over 750 registered and we're expecting that many more as day-off registers. Good Lord! See you there!

MC

"Spokes in the wheel.........."

2008-07-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

4 of us went down to ride @ Fort Custer on the 4th. Aside from getting caught by the World's Longest Running Race through Richland on the way there and inadvertantly becoming part of the Richland Independance Day Parade on the way home....one thing has stuck in my mind.

As you top out on that tough little switchback climb on the Green Loop you are greeting w/ a lovely memorial stone. I don't know who "Erin" was but she must've had some friends to whom she meant quite a bit. The quote on the face of the stone has stayed w/ me - "Friends are spokes in the wheel of life". I like that. A LOT. It makes me think of why I ride at all and how little riding I'd do w/out the friends and buds I have to share it with. (Hint - not very damn much!)

I figured out about 30 years ago that all the things that I spend my time doing are all for the same reason......to hang w/ folks that I dig. I don't ride alone hardly ever. I would not be a solo musicial if the band broke up. I'd never take a job (like being a sales rep) where I was alone a lot. Don't like it much. Never have. Now - that might mean that I need to like myself more......I guess I'm cool w/ that. Besides - kinda late, ain't it?

So..............thanks for bein' a spoke in my wheel, that's all I'm sayin'.

Bike Life is great, by the way. The shop is full-tilt-boogie-crazy-madness ROCKIN', the Holland Hundred is 2 weeks away(!!!!!!!) and there's a JDRF ride nearly every weekend. 5 weeks from rignt now I'll be finishing up my first-ever stint as Acting Head Coach @ a JDRF Ride down in Asheville. (Way nervous about that!) 2 band gigs this week, lots of milesthis weekend.......it's all good. Ted's off to his Big Time Pro Wrench gig on Wed.....damn, I hope his toolbox gets here from Sonoma tomorrow!

Phew!

I hope you are having a great season.............see you on (or off!) the road!

GREETINGS FROM SMOKY SONOMA CA!!!

2008-06-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, who woulda thunk it? I don't know what seems more unlikely...that I'm sitting here in the Bike Room @ the JDRF Sonoma Ride to Cure bloggin' away on my laptop (!!!!!) OR that I'm here in the capacity of Head Mechanic. As long as all you guys keep quiet for another 24 hours I think I can get outta here w/out blowin' my cover!

I've been here since Wed afternoon. It's a small ride - only about 70 riders - so the workload has been more than manageable. The weather is awesome, except for the constant haze from the 1000 or so forest fires said to ragin' out of control as close as 50 miles from right 'chere. It's been great to get a dose of what makes theses rides and this organization so special to me............the folks, the enthusiasm for the cause........the whole enchilada. I've never been to the early rides and I've met quite a few folks that I might not have ever met if I hadn't come out.

Back home our Team is getting ready for Asheville and Death Valley. I'm getting lotsa kudos out here for the size, passion and reputation of the West Michigan Team.......like it's cuz of me! When people ask me how and why our Team grew so much I have to admit that I have no idea........a weird combination of luck, timing and personalities. It never seems to be a satisfactory answer for them but it's the best I have.

I'll be driving a Sag Wagon tomorrow, so I'll get to see the course and the area. So far I've seen the bit from the S.F. airport to here, the Bike Room, the dining room and the 10 miles up to the closest bike shop. By all reports the course oughta be awesome.

This ride is gonna go down in history as the ride w/ the largest Support/Rider ratio in the history of cycling! There are 7 Sag Wagons, 6 Coaches, a Med van, an ambulance, 7 food stops, 3 cops and a ton of other volunteers and staff to watch over 70 riders! Hell....in the event of a terrorist attack we could literally sag everyone off of the course at once! The reason for the excess is that this is rehersal for the next 4 Rides and we have a new Ride Co-Ordinator and he's working out the kinks.

Okay....almost dinnertime. I have all the bikes ready, I'll just hafta get here @ 5:30 to get all the tirs topped off and everything else ready for tomorrow. It's been great but it'll be great to get home Sunday night too.

Tlak to you later, gotta go!
MC

On the subject of waving..........

2008-06-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

.............at each other as cyclists, by the way. Not @ ball games or from parade floats or whilst signing off on TV programs.

I was just reading long-time bud and bike-writing-hero Maynard Hershon's post on this subject and ....well.....here we are! His comments (and you really oughta go read them, like right now. I'll wait) were to the effect that he's always waved and for years has kind of keep track of who did and did not return said waves. That habit, which he referred to as "keeping tabs" has become a scab that he was unable to resist picking at and has affected his enjoyment of this fine sport that we love. So....his new plan is to continue w/ the waving but to quit keeping tab.

Now...as someone who, like M.H. has always waved at fellow riders and who has been heard to remark on the White pine Trail that "the next jackass that doesn't wave is gonna get chased down and put into the weeds" this notion of Maynard's kinda resonated w/ me. Why DO I wave? Why do I give a crap whether THEY wave back?

I'm not sure. I wave 'cuz back-in-the-day there just weren't all that many of us, y'know? Chances are if you passed another rider around here in the 70's you knew him or her and would run into them again soon. (And they'd ask - "Hey, din'cha see me on South Shore yesterday?). It was a fellowship thing. Nowdays - not so much. I did my part and lead the club ride last week and there were 5-6 guys I'd never seen before.

Lotsa riders these days...that's my point.

I could go into the different "types" of riders and how their catagory affects their likihood to wave back.........but somehow I don't see how that's gonna lead to less fragmentation and more brother/sisterhood.......so I'll fight the temptation. I'm gonna go w/ Maynard's theory that those that don't wave back just never learned that you're supposed to. They're not rude, aloof, arrogant, clueless or too self-important.......it's just never occurred to them.

Still............I DO wonder why at least as many motorcyclists wave at me as other riders. Why should they feel a kinship w/ a chubby olde farte in lycra that other riders do not? Is the whole "we're on 2 wheels and they're on 4" thing so strong?

I wave back, but I feel a little silly.

Speaking of waving back and feeling silly...............there's the whole "Jeep Thing" too. When I drive I'm likely to be trundling around in an old Jeep Wrangler, (to which I have alluded earlier if you are keeping score). It's safe to say that my reasons for choosing such a fundementally silly vehicle are for the most part "un-Jeep-like" and like the sticker says "It IS a Jeep thing and I DON'T understand" but the other Jeepfolk can't tell that at a glance so they wave.

All of them.

Every time.

And every time I wave back. And my wife smirks. How can I NOT wave back? After doing all this bitching about riders that don't?! So......Jeep guy that I'm not I still do the little "head nod and 2 fingers off the steering wheel thing" and trundle off along my way, content in the knowledge that whoever I just waved at will not and has not given much if any thought to this whole topic.

Good for them.

Still...........as cyclists I think that we should wave and aknowledge one another. Why not? What harm could it do? (Assuming you can do it w/out swerving into a pothole or fellow rider, that is? And if you can't..............you should practice! Maybe on your trainer or rollers.

Besides...I promised Maynard that I would keep waving.

So...if I see you on the road I'm gonna wave. If you wave back - great. If you choose not to....well.....not-so-great but okay. Your call.

Editorial Mode - off.

Otherwise BikeLife is full and grand - I'm off to Sonoma CA first thig tomorrow to spend the rest of the week as the Head Tech for the 1st JDRF Ride of the season. I'm looking forward to driving sag on Saturday - it'll be the only chance I have to see the area since otherwise I'll be buried in the Bike Room 24-7. Our local team is doing great and the Asheville Ride is only about 8 weeks away! Then it's on to Death Valley in October.

The shop is crazy busy and it shows no signs of slowin' down. Next month Ted goes easy for 10 days to be the Head Wrench for the Kenda/Titus team @ 2 big pro races. He's excited and scared and that's a good place to be! Shop rides are rocking - folks are riding bikes - life is good.

Speakin' of rocking..............last night my band crashed the party down @ the just-opened Saugatuck Brewery and held an impromptu rehearsal/performance to make sure that we were the first band to ever play there. "Twas a hoot and it's gonna be a sweet place to hang! 'Tis already, for that matter!

July brings the Holland Hundred, lotsa other rides and a buncha cool stuff! Can't wait!

Lumberjack 100 Report

2008-06-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well..it was SUPPOSED to be the "Lumberjack 100", dammit. Alas - for the 3rd time outta 4 tries it was once again the "Lumberjack 75" for this boy.

Sigh.

No cramps this time. No dehydration-induced delusions, no babbling about freezing to death if I slept or hallucinations. Nope.......this time the problem was pretty simple and basic in nature.

I wasn't strong enough.

I wasn't strong enough to power the single gear that IU had w/ me over 100 miles of rolly Michigan single-track. I was....for about 65 miles. In fact, I was even going kinda fast (for me, mind you) and I was havin' a blast. My 2nd lap was easily the best lap I've ever had outta the 13 that I've ridden inthis race............I passed a buncha folks and was able to stay on top of the gear.

And that's the thing. On a single-speed you are either on top of the gear (turning it nice and fast) or you're not. And if you're not...you are screwed.

And screwed I was, after 2 and a half laps. I hit the wall and didn't have the juuice in my legs to spin that gear up the l-o-n-g grinding uphills that seemed to comprise the entire last 1/3 of the course. When your legs hurt too much to climb seated and your arms hurt too much to stand up...well, you got troubles my friend! I made it into the pits for 3 laps w/ time to go back out but it woulda been foolish as all hell. I might still be out there!

Guess I shoulda had a lighter gear, huh?

Congrats to buds Marsh, Gid and Conrad, all of whom finished. Congrats to Danielle for powerin' through a massive bonk to a podium spot and kudos to anyone that took on this race. It's kind of a badass!

Next year!

SABINE! SABINE! SABINE! SABINE!

2008-06-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite books about music is "The Worst 100 Records in Rock and Roll". It's just that...a list and page or so about all the horrible stuff that's been recorded over the years. It's written by 2 music journalists and it's hilarious. (I can't find it, by the way....did I loan it to you?)

Anyway..........while tearing Billy Joel a new one (one of my favorite parts!) they say, in reference to his stupid "We Didn't Start the Fire" song", that "A list is not a lyric!"

Yeah......Lists.

I shoulda listened to my little inner man as I wrote that list of parents and babies a week or so ago. My L.I.M. was sayin' "You know damn well that you're gonna leave someone out! Don't do it! You fool!"

And so I did. I'm not surprised that I missed someone - (I AM kinda brain-dead, after all) - but I was sorta surprised that I managed to miss listing the Most Darling Sabine Adora Wilkins- Berghorst, her lovely mother Joy and her Rightfully-Proud Daddy-O Jeremy. (We call him 'Berger" 'round the shop)

Duh.

So..............welcome to the club Sabine -n -folks! Sorry again!

(Can I have my wallet back now Berger?)

On the Bike Life Front there's lots happening. I'm off to Sonoma CA in a week and a half to do Tech Support for the 1st JDRF Ride of the season. Then Ted goes to NY and VT to work the NORBA race circuit for the Kenda/Titus team. He's stoked and I don't blame him. The Holland Hundred is coming up too soon, the shop's rocking, the rides are huge, Grattan was fun again (except for Marshall nippin' me @ the line for 3rd!) and this time tomorrow I'll be deep into the Lumberjack 100.

Wish me luck, the forecast calls for pain!

MC

Grattan.......

2008-06-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

....was a blast again last night! 47-ish miles in 2 hours-and-a-bit. No crashes, despite the very occassional drizzle. No drama. Congrats to fellow-Velo A.V.W. who f-i-n-a-l-l-y scored a well-deserved victory w/ a perfect move as we all jockeyed for the sprint.

Nice move, man, nice move.

M2 was 5th, I was 10th...........it was fun.

You know - I think it'd be cool if everyone did a race at least once. Now...I'm NOT one of those "Racing is cooler than everything else" guys, really I'm not. Most of my buds don't and, let' s face it, why wouldja?
It costs money
It hurts...sometimes a lot.
You can get crashed and bust bike and/or body parts.
You might suck....in public no less.

Still.............there's a poetry and a music and a vibe in that paceline that I don't think you can get anywhere else. The pack has a sound and a look that 's kinda special and at least once a race I find myself grinnin' and thinking to myself "Man, this is just SO COOL!" The sight of 50-75 brightly-clad racers pounding through the s-turns @ 25-28 mph is not something that you're gonna see on Tuesday night, y'know? The sound of 100-150 high-pressure tires whippin' through that hairpin @ the bottom of the hill........ditto. The feeling that you get when we hear the bell that means "1 lap to go" and you realize that you have a little something left and it's time to plan your move.....it's a good feeling!

We are way lucky to have the Grattan Series around here. For something like 28 years Skip and Diane have been runnin' races out there N.E. of GR. It's the best way to try road racing that I've ever seen and if you have a notion to check it out...........stop in and let's chat about it, 'kay?

Like I said...'tis a hoot.

It's great for this boy 'cuz @ this point in my cycling life it scratches my road race itch completely. If there was no Grattan Series I'd be tempted to waste a few Sundays a summer drivin' over to the other side of the state to have my ass handed to me by strangers. I ain't got time for that, y'know? The Grattan Series gives me a chance to race every week - it's (kinda) close by - it's cheap - it's pretty safe - it's competitive w/out being depressingly cut-throat.........what more couldja ask for?

(Well...besides a better leadout from M2, that is!)

You might wanna check it out sometime huh?

MC Out

By the way...........I want to offer my heart-felt congrats to everyone in the shop's orbit that's either a new parent, expecting or both! It seems like there's a major child-birth epidemic goin' on around here........(careful Jasker!).........and it's pretty fun to watch! So congrats to Scott, Krisanne and Miles, Chris, Dawn and Ella, Ted, Sarah and Hazel, Dan, Amanda and Riley, Marshall and Marci, Doez and Mel, the Pierces, Aaron, Renee and Levi, and any one else out there in the same boat!

Wow! Whatta Weekend!

2008-06-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

You know - every once in awhile a weekend comes along that's off-the-hook even by my standards and it could be argued that this past weekend was one of those.........the MS Society's ride was in town so there were 800+ extra riders in town from Friday night 'til Late Sunday. We were open late both Fri and Sat nights offering on-the-spot repairs, lotsa snacks, specials, massage therapists and such and it was pretty much a full-tilt-boogie zoo! It's SO COOL having all those new faces inthe shop, hangin' out, eatin' cookies and talkin' bike talk. Ted and I were talkin' today that there needs to be a big tour through Holland at least once a week.

So....after all those extra hours for the tour Lin and I hosted the JDRF Team at our house for a ride and fajita bash on Sunday. We had a great turn-out...27 riders and probably 33 eaters. A greta time was had by all - but I was up to my ears in the ride and the food from 6:00 am 'til we finished cleaning up about 9:30. Needless to say I crashed hard after that!

still....whatta great week! I got out to Grattan for the weekly road race for the first time all seasonand had a blast. It was wicked fast (or at least seemed that way to me!) but I was pretty fat and happy inthe pack, jawin' w/ Jay, shootin' the shit w/ Surly and just hanging in, y'know? I had some left for the sprint and managed a 5th place finish. (Pretty sure I was #1 Olde Farte) One thing is for sure - I don't remember ever doing a Grattan race inMay where we averaged 24.o mph for 47 miles before! Man- it's gonna be a fast season out there!

The other rides this week were a blast too. I did the MCC ride on Monday Morning since it was the holiday, did the shop Tuesday Night Ride, and the Thursday Morning Recovery Ride as well. That rainstorm on Friday morn came along at just the right time...I needed a day off.

Now it's June. There's a ton of stuff comin' up - 2 more Team Rides, the Lumberjack 100, club rides and meetings, shop rides up the wazoo.......HooBoy!

I better go rest up!

See you out there!

The Story of the Saying on the back of the T-shirt

2008-05-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here's one reason why this whole "global economy/internet/no borders" world we live in is kinda cool sometimes:

When we moved here 3.5 years ago I started a series of limited edition shop t-shirts. The idea was that we'd pick a quote from somewhere, make 3-4 dozen shirts and when they were gone....they were gone for good. Then we'd do another one. We've done about 10 or so @ this point.....displaying wisdom from Abbey, Merckx, Charles Schultlz and a buncha lesser known folk......even yours truly. This is the story of one of them and why we had to break our 'when they're gone they're gone" rule.

It was my buddy Chris' idea. "Brother", he said, "Next time you need a quote for a shirt I know what'cha oughta go with". There was a great article in a Rivendell Reader* a while back, written by a guy that had his life turned around for the better by a bicycle. He lost a buncha weight, met a woman, changed his life and wrote about it. The last line of the article was the quote that Chris had in mind. "Could the secret of life be so simple? Just love someone and ride your bike every day?"

Well.....that shirt was our fastest selling t-shirt EVER. They were gone in a flash and for the first time I was tempted to do a 2nd run. Especially after I started getting calls from a young lady in Boston who said that she'd seen someone in a bar there wearing one and had to have one. I tried to get across to her the concept of the whole "limited edition" thing.......she just wouldn't/couldn't understand.

Then I got an e-mail from Edinburgh Scotland. Check this out - a couple that had ridden their tandem around the world in 2004-2006 had stopped @ the camp that my son Samuel works at in the summers. Turns ouththat the camp director (my best climbing buddy KB) was the preacher @ their wedding back in the day. They saw Samuel wearing that shirt and that line became the last line of their Trip Blog. Friends of theirs in Scotland read it and got ahold of me. Well..that was enough to make me decide that it was time to break the rules and have a second run done. Thise shirts have been shipped to Edinbourgh, Colorado Springs, Tennessee and several other places so if you see one...........don't be surprised!

By the way...............for those of you that are wondering - I tried my damnedest to get the okay from Rivendell to use that line. They never got back to me.

Not that this was intended to be an advertisement, but we do have a few left. Lemme know if you want one.

I just think it's kind of cool, y'know? In a "It's a Small World" sort of way. Then again...I don't get out much and am easily amused! ( Too bad that I had finally lost the number of the persistant chick in Boston by then!)

MC

*The Reader is the best bike magazine EVER and has more good reading in one edition than Bicycling, MountainBike Action and Bike will publish in total if they last a 100 years. Join Rivendell. Get the Reader. Alas - it comes out (at most) 4 times a year. I have the complete collection here if yawanna check it out.

Paul Dunn You're my Hero!

2008-05-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

So...........as T.O.M.* and I were goin' for the Island Lake sprint sign yesterday morning I hit a pothole square on w/ the front wheel of The Prowler. (My Co-Motion tandem) We took the sprint but I was not a bit surprised when we pulled away from the stop sign and the front tire was flatter than yesterday Pepsi.

Rats.............we were gonna make 'em hurt on the return leg too!

Anyway..........off the road, off the bike and diggin' in the seat pack for the stuff we need. "No big deal, you guys go ahead, don't wait for us." That kinda thing.

Flats happen, right?

That's when my casual aquantance P.D. did the thing that he did that got him in the title up there.

He stopped.

"You guys got what'cha need?" he asked.

Assured that we did...he was on his way.....got back to the group and no doubt rode in with them.

Pretty simple, huh?

"What's the big deal" you ask? Well...........here's the thing. Odds are P.D. is faster than you. He's damnsure faster 'n me. (No daunting challenge - that!) We're not good buds or anything - I know him 'cuz he and I are on the same rides often enough and we have lotsa mutual friends - I don' t even know if he's ever been in the shop for that matter.

Still....he saw we were off the bike and he interrupted his ride long enough to make sure we were good. Shows that he was brought up right. His momma should be proud.

Oh..........I wanna thank Dan and Mike for waitin' and ridin' in w/ us. 'Twas a nice gesture and we appreciated it.

I don't wanna make too big a dreal outta this but after all that pissing and moaning I did a month or so ago about riders that couldn't be bothered I figured that I needed to balance the scales.

It's been a good-but-crazy week.................Ted and Sarah had their baby yesterday!!!!!!!!! (Go to his blog for pix!) I got a lotta riding in.....and I'm damn tired of wearing knickers and wool base layers! I'm looking forward to goin' in shorts and such this afternoon on the Dessert Ride.

Gonna do the club's ride tomorrow - we always have the Monday Night Ride in the morning on holiday mondays.

I put about 100 miles on thiose fancy-pants Reynolds carbon wheels that the rep left here....they feel good. Greg and Ted are more impressed than I am but neither of them run wheels as nice as I'm used to! We'll have 3 sets here for about the next week or so if you wanna try them!

Gotta go, folks are gonna be here soon for the ride!

Congrats again Ted, Sarah, Sophie and little new baby w/out a name!

MC

* The Other Mike

'I Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow...."

2008-05-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Okay...........maybe it didn't actually snow, but doesn't it seem kinda cold for mid-May? We had a great JDRF training ride yesterday and the attire ranged from Kevin's sleeveless jersey-n-shorts to Dave w/ his ninja-issue balaclava and toe covers!

It wasn't very warm, that's all I'm sayin'.

Still...another great ride in the books, at the end of another great week. Gettin' back after a trip to the desert is always a mixed bag for this boy........a week's worth of shop stuff, catchin' up on sleep, gettin' back in the groove - it always makse the week fly by even faster'n usual. This week was no exception. The shop was busy.........the rides well attended.......we had a good gig @ the brew pub Friday night, lotsa friends came out and we kinda burned it down a little bit. Sat night was Brian and Heather's JDRF Yoga deal.......Lin and I rode the "Big Yellow Taxi" (our demo Co-Motion tandem) down after the shop closed and got all stretched and mellow. Then the ride yesterday and......................here it is Monday again!

This week it's the Ride of Silence on Wed, so I'll more'n likely skip Grattan again. This weekend there's a rumour of a Last Call reprise @ New Holland and the May Fun-Raiser @ the shop on Sunday! The "Dessert Ride" no less!

I can't wait to find out how all our racers did this weekend! Danielle slayed all down @ 12 Hours of Tsali, finishing 1st women and 4th overall. Not bad for a "training race!" Aaron raced the Owasippe ATB Time Trial and Greg went down to Memphis for a big triathlon. Big weekend!

I promised some Moab pix...............I'm still workin' on it. Maybe I can get Danielle, Ted or some random 11 year old offa the street to show me how to post some?

Speaking of Moab.............folks have ben asking me how that Cannondale Rize worked out there. The simple answer is that it worked great. It was perfect, actually. The thing is...........so was my Seven hardtail that I rode on the last 2 trips.
And the C-Dale Rush.
And the Scapel.
And that shitty Schwinn Moab rental bike that year that my fork pukked up its guts the first day.
And my Yeti.
And my Bontrager.
And both of the Trek OCLV hardtails.
And my old Stumpjumper w/ drop bars.
And both Trek "Y" bikes.
And that ARC-AS that I borrowed from the Yeti guys.
And even that Cannondale Raven!

Seein' a trend here? I've been thinking about this for a bit. (And wondering if this is something that I oughta be thinking about, let alone writing about!) The fact is that I've kind of made a habit of goin' out west to do the hardest riding of my season on a bike that I've either never ridden...or haven't ridden much. Would I be better off on my bike? Maybe.......that Seven fits me like an old pair of jeans (the kind that your wife keeps threatening to toss) and every time I clip in to the pedals it's like coming home.
But...............all those other bikes (and all the ones I forgot to mention) were fine. The thing is....every one of 'em went right where I aimed it, y'know? They all rode up every technical climb that I had the skill and power to clean and they all went downhill as fast as I had the balls to go. As much as my industry is kinda based on the notion that you can walk in here and purchase more fun or performance...........you still gotta ride 'em!

And I think that's way cool.

I was chewin' this over w/ my buds @ the guitar shop across the street and my buddy Ross-the-golf-guy and.....here's a surprise......we all have the same take! Stuff is just that..............stuff. You need good enough stuff...........a bike, or guitar (okay...or golf clubs, dammit!) that's good enough to fan the flames of your interest in the idea of riding, or pickin' or......(sigh) golfing. After that...it's icing on the cake time bay-bee!

Not that there aren't other perfectly valid reasons for buying new stuff. 'Cuz there are.

Still.....every race I enter I get my ass handed to me on a platter by some dude (or dud-ette!) on a bike that's "worth" lots less than whatever I'm riding. And that's how it need to be, I reckon.

So............it's a great day on the cusp of a great week. The forecast contains a warming trend, the rides are rocking and so's the shop. (And the band!) BikeLife is good these days!

Hope to see you around!
MC

Oh yeah...almost forgot! John Jasker ! John Jasker! John Jasker!

Today's Quiz!

2008-05-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot.......I wanted to include this quiz in that last post. Oh well.

Anyway....as of this moment there are egg-zac-lee 370 pictures on the walls of the shop bathroom. Answer this question properly and be eligible for a special Moab/Fruita themed prize!

(All correct answers will be entered into a random drawing, after I decide whether the entrant is a wanker or maybe doesn't know who John Jasker is!)

The percentage of those 370 pictures taken in Moab, Fruita or somewhere in between is:

A - 17%
B - 23%
C - 41%
D - None of the above.
E - All of the above
F - Who gives a shit?

Send your answer to mike@velo-citycycles.com and put "big fancy-ass contest" in the subject line so it gets routed to the proper department. (Any ties will be decided by bribe)

"These are Days of Miracles and Wonder"

2008-05-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

So.......my 32nd trip to the desert is in the books. I had every intention of posting from out there, just like any 12 year old could easily manage...even took that damn laptop...but as you may have noticed - it didn't happen.

Technology.......................Bah Humbug!

(Fear not...the irony of bitchin' about technology on my BLOG hasn't escaped me!)

Anyway...it's good to be back, but not as good as it was to be gone! Pal Dennis and I had a good time. We didn't ride enough, true, but I NEVER get to ride enough so what's new 'bout that? We hit the road on Sunday night, after I did the JDRF ride and he did his Sunday School thing and 23 hours later................there we were in the Promised Land. Moab was busy and our little cabin @ the Slickrock Campground was kind of a pit and we were surrounded by Jeepers (It's a Jeep thing and I REALLY don't understand!) but still...........there we were and in the imortal words of Senor Marley - "every little thing was gonna be alright". To shake the highway outta our legs we did one of my favorite short hikes out to Corona Arch and then it was time to call Monday a day.

Tuesday am we saddled up and rode out to my fav Moab trail. I knew that Amasa Back was kind of a serious way to introduce Dennis to the area but I was confident that he could handle it and I was (mostly) correct. We had a great ride, interupted briefly by my best'worst crash of the whole week while showin' off what I Moab-Monster I consider myself. As I sit here 6 days later the scars are just startin' to fade! After the ride we went up into Arches Nat'l Park for a hike out to Delicat Arch so DP could get his "serious" camera gear out.....all 40 pounds of it.

Wednesday was tough - Slick Trail time! We rode up from camp like the hard men do......it's 5 miles, 3 of which are SERIOUSLY uphill. (I'm talkin' "you need your granny gear on pavement kinda steep" here!) We did the Practice Loop to give DP a chance to see what we were gettin' into and he handled that okay so off we went to the Main Loop. Slickrock vets will recall that some of the toughest sections are pretty early in the spur out to the Main Trail (Fried Eggs/Legs! Testostorone Poisoning! Wooly Gully! Thrust or Bust!) and we didn't make it far. He crashed HARD on the tight off-camber switchback on the Fried Egss descent and that was it for the day. I mean he hit HARD! I thought for a bit that the week was over. He ended up w/ a nice abrasion all along the underside of his forearm but the big deal was the (no exaggeration!) football-sized bruise on his hip. Very impressive and before you ask...........yes, pix will be forth-coming as soon as I have them and can get TB to show me how to post 'em. Tell you what though...you won't wanna see the one of his hip @ the breakfast table! I rode a bit farther down the trail but @ that point the day was over, riding-wise. We killed the afternoon in town between applications of ice and "Vitamin I" (Ibuprophen - don't leave home w/out it!) Kind of a low point.

Thursday am he was feelin' okay so we hit the road for the impossible-to-describe sweetness of the Bookcliff singletrack in Fruita. We had a blast, rode pretty much all day after sittin' out a rainstorm in the van and then hit my fav ribs joint before high-tailing it back home to Moab.

("Back home to Moab"........damn that sounds nice!)

Friday we rode up to The Gemini Bridges and back down, then wasted 3 hours tryin' to get his rear brake bled and then went out to the Sovereign Singletrack to finish of the day (and our legs!) Nice ride but not a favorite of mine. Still........'twas a fitting way to finish of the Moab portion of our program 'cuz that was our last day.

Saturday we got up early, hit the road for Fruita and were chamoised up and ridin' up the Kokopelli TRail by 8:30am. My fav memory of that day was when I was high above the Colorade River..........waitin' for Dennis and all alone. There was a Bald Eagle somewhere below me, above the river but far below the Trail and he was screechin' and yellin' about something. Bee-yoo-ti-ful. We rode out a ways, then hit the Rustler's Loop for dessert. Climbed off the bike* for the last time /w that typical bittersweet feeling. I was ready to come home and ready to stay forever. Lunch @ the Hot Tomatoe Cafe and then the road. The drive home was a bitch - lotsa snow over the Rockies and horrible wind and rain from Nebraska all the way home.

Another trip in the books. More scars, more suntan lines. More red dust on the bike and my sandals.

More later.................especially pictures.

*Oh yeah.....the bike. My Main Man Jason-from-Cannondale hooked me up w/ a prototype of the brand-spankin'-new Rize. 'Twas way-light for a 5.5" full-susser and it was great. No mechanicals at all, it climbed like a bitch and descended as good as a bike can w/ me on it. More later. ( I got a whole 'nother post brewin' on the topic!)

Is it true that Fillmore is just a bedroom community for Overisel?

2008-05-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Okay...that's a tad more "inside" than most of my less-than-serious statements. Just something that came outta my mouth as we were cruisin' through on the way back on this morning's ride.

And what a ride it was! Da've, Jan, "T.O.M." (The Other Mike), Ross, Franc, A-Ron, John-the-new-guy and I rolled away from the shop for the "Thursday Recovery Ride". We call it that 'cuz I promised our friend Jan T that she could ride w/us on Thursayd even thought her legs are usually achin' from some kinda death march hill workout she does on Wed. Works for me.......once I get back from out west I'll be racin' on Wed night so I'll be in pretty much the same boat.

Anyway...it was a terrific morning. A little windy to be sure - Hell, what ride this Spring hasn't been!?!? We rode out through Overisel and Fillmore then flew west w/ the wind and back into town on Lincoln. We lost Da've as we turned east on the way out...he had ridden in to ride /w us and was headed home... and we lost A-Ron and John as we got near town. "T.O.M." had to run but Franc, Ross, Jan and I headed over to Good Earth for a bagel.

Here's the thing..........................................I think that goin' for a ride in the morning w/ friends and then enjoying a bagel might well be the epitome of what I dig about cycling! Once again I was helpless to resist the temptation to look around and say (around a mouthful of sesame bagel) "Well, I think this is a very civilized way to start the day." If you've ridden w/ me in the morning the odds are that we've gone for a bagel and if we have...the odds are you've heard me say that. Hell - If you've ridden w/ me 4 times you've heard me say that 4 times! (Sorry 'bout that).

Still................there 'tis.

Lots goin' on...........trying to get the new website figured out. My e-mails been fouled up since we switched over and that creeps me out way too much. I tried to send out the May newsletter today but something went wrong and it went somewhere other than to everyone's inbox.

(I hate this crap!)

(How weird is it to bitch about computer-related crap on a BLOG, fer chrissakes!?!?!?!)

I have a bazillion things to do before I climb in the van and head west..........I'm trying real hard not to fall into that trap of wondering whether a week off is even worth it in light of the extra crap at either end. We have a JDRF ride on Sunday...that'll be the last thing I do before comin' home, unpackin' the van, re-packin' the van and heading out. By Monday evening Dennis and I will be in the Promised Land. A week of sun and rock later and we'll be back, like it never happened. (Hopefully by then all the web-weirdness will be settled out so I can go back to my Luddite ways.) I'm demoing a flashy new "2008.5" Cannondale Rize full-sus courtesy of my Main Man Jason so I'll be on a bike that I've never ridden. Again. Oh well...I haven't been on a mountainbike since Iceman so why not raise the stakes a bit more, huh?

So...........a couple more road rides and then a week of trails. Can't wait. I'll be thinking of you guys while I'm out there. I'll be thinking that I wish you were there....and that I'm glad I'm not here!

Later!
MC

Good Weekend!

2008-04-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sure..the long stretch of incredible weather finally came to its (inevitable) end, only after completely yankin' the moral right to bitch about the l-o-n-g winter out from under us all. Man - it was SO nice for SO long that I plumb wore my ass out makin' sure that I didn't waste any off it and I was (shhh....secret!) ready for a day off.

Saturday was way busy @ the shop, after KP and I did our debut as a tandem team on the Sprint Ride first thing in the AM. It was cold.........WAY cold....so the turn out was light but that's not gonna stop me from tellin' you that we took one hard-fought sprint in the middle of the ride. (Greg said later "I passed Kelly but not Mike". Not good enough, dude!)

Sunday was the Pineapple Bob Classic Redux.......we tried it in March but the road conditions kept us on the pavement and it ain't a P. Bob w/out gravel so we did it again. Routemeister M2 came up w/ the loop to end all loops and his assertation that "there will be tears" put the call out to all the crazies and hard men/women. We had about 30-35 riders, including a small-but worthy contingent of Bastards from GR (Surly, Wedding Bells, Big D) and 2 tandems - KP n' me and Berger w/ Mike L in the tail gunners' seat. KP and I ened up takin' the short cut back as we were comin' in w/a group that found themselves a tad off the pace but back @ the shop the sandwiches, cookies, chips and various adult beverages went down good and folks were having a good time. Good enough for me.

The other Big Deal that happened over the weekend is that our brand new website went "live". Check it out..........I dig it. (www.velo-citycycles.com) Still work in progress but a nice change from our last one - which was fine but had been up for a year or more and we wanted to re-do it.

6 days from now Dennis and I will be in the desert. I can't wait. I've ben roamin' around out there since the late 80's...I've watched the sleepy little town of Moab grow and change, mostly in an other-than-good way. I've watched Moab go from the "oolest place ever to ride" to "overrated" to "old news". I've taken close to 100 people out there for their first time, I've made 30+ trips and every time I approach town on that twisty road along the river I find myself wondering if this is the trip where I'll think to myself as I leave "Okay....that's enough.....I don't need to come back here any more." I'm afraid that's going to happen - although it hasn't yet. The thought that we're gonna re-locate out there somewhere in the red rocks and under that impossibly blue sky has been a constant for me since my 2nd ever trip out there and I'm afraid of life w/out that thought y'know? The desert got it's hooks in me - deep - a long time ago and it hasn't let go yet.

And I hope it never does.

I think it's gonna be a hoot bein' out there w/ Dennis. I LOVE introducing someone to the area...especially if there's a good chance that they'll "get it" and I'm pretty sure that he will. I haven't been on a mountainbike since last winter and I'll be on a Cannondale Demo from my rep that I've never ridden before so that'll be interesting. I'm gonna take my laptop (insert appropriate exclamation of shock and wonder here ______) so maybe I'll check in from out there somewhere. You never know.

JDRF rides are happening, the club's Monday Night Ride starts while I'm gone, the shop Tuesday night, Thursday morning, Friday morning and Saturday morning rides are rolling.......Grattan starts next week...Man! There's a TON of stuff going on!

Best get to it!

MC

"Racing, on any level, seeks a balance within us. For every moment of hassle and pain there is one of revelation and joy."
Mike Ferrentino

It happened Again, Dammit!

2008-04-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe..........................

There we were, along the side of the road, fixxing a flat. (Yes, that's 3 rides in a row where I've been in that situation - helpin' someone w/ their bike problem. Maybe it's me?)

Just like on Sunday there were 3 of us. (My wife Lin on our tandem, person w/ flat tire and no tube, me)

Just like on Sunday we were all set....just finishing up.

Just like on Sunday a fellow cyclist rode by as if we weren't even there. This time it was a mature, fit gent w/ a full beard and a Carmichel Training System jersey.

Thanks for nothing, jackass!

Ironically............."nothing" is exactly what we needed - I had a tube, we were all set - all we needed from you was concern and camradre, both of which would've cost you NOTHING, not even time. (Speaking of time...he was goin' slow enough that even after we finished up and got rolling we passed him 2 intersections later, so he wasn't exactly goin' for a P.R.)

Yeah...I waved. (We were pulling out from a street crossing the one he was one, not overtaking him) Had we been comin' up from behind I probably wouldn't have been a big enough person to abstain from shouting "WE'RE OKAY, BUT THANKS FOR CHECKING ON US!" in his ear as we rolled by so it's probably just as well, huh?

This shit has to stop. And I'm not referring to having to stop for co-riders busted bikes. That's part of the deal, like waiting for folks off the back and taking your pulls @ the front.

Still...yesterday was a fine 2-ride day and that's a hard thing to spoil, even for a jackass w/ a personality disorder. We had a great ride in the AM, Ross, Da've, Pineapple J and I and then a HUGE turnout for the shop's Tuesday Night Ride. Good Lord...there musta been 45+ riders here! Lin and I were the leaders of the Red Group, we had 2 other tandems, a trailer-cycle and 3-4 other bikes. Way cool to see so many young'uns on the ride......be they on the back of a tandem, Trail-a-Bike or on their own.

I'm gonna do the Hutchin' Lake Loop this afternoon, we'll see who shows up. Tomorrow it's the morning ride, ditto of Friday, the Sprint Ride on Saturday and then the Pineapple BoB spring Classic on Sunday! Hoo-Haw! What a kick-ass week!

See you on (or off!) the road!

MC

Notice that I didn't mention Moab? (Well...almost anyways) Buddy DiD told me that I was sounding kinda obsessed.

The Four Assholes

2008-04-21T06:08:00.001-07:00

Sorry if this post is less-than-cheery on a beautiful Monday morn...........I wanna get this outta my system.

It SHOULD have been a perfect ride yesterday. Check it - a perfect day weather-wise, one of those mid 70's, no humidity, low wind kind of days that remind us why we put up w/ all that other crap to live here. A great group to ride with, namely 13 members of my JDRF Team, some of the best people I know. A great loop, provided by one of my All Time Best Riding Buds Doez.......all the ingredients were in place for a sublime day.

So....what went wrong?

Here's the thing..............as we rolled west outta GR we passed a single rider goin' the other way. Lin and I on our tandem were about 6 riders back in the line so I was the 5th or 6th to wave @ the guy. He didn't even acknowlege us.

Asshole #1.

Later, as I was changing Cindy's 3rd flat tire (!!) a group of three "serious" riders went past us. One was in an all pink kit, which made me wonder what a previous winner of the Giro d'Talia was doin' in the town of Tallmadge, and at least one of the other guys was in a Discovery jersey. There we were.....alongside the road, messin' w/ a bike.

They didn't even look.

No "You guys all right?"

No "Got what'cha need?"

Nothing.

Assholes # 2-4.

How is it that one of the most noble and beautiful ways to spend your time, one of the coolest sports there is attracts so many selfish assholes!?!?!??!?! I was bitchin' to Doez about it (we ran into him on the ride) and you wanna know what he said? He said "That's Grand Rapids for you." he said that he WALKED 3 miles on that same loop pushing his bike w/ a 2nd flat and had hordes of riders go by him

W.T.F.!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Tell you what..............if that had happened to me I'd still be on a crusade to kick ALL of their asses!

Now.................lemme make something clear here - We didn't need help. I'm a huge advocate of riders being self sufficient, grown up and prepared. I've spent a goodly part of my life doing what I can to make that the case. That is not the point here. The point here is that assholes # 2-4 had no way of knowing that.............they just didn't give a shit. Asshole #1 was just too self-absorbed and impressed to say "howdy" and as sad as that is................it's not nearly as sad as rollin' by a group of fellow cyclists that MIGHT need help 'cuz you just can't be bothered.

So................on the EXTREMELY unlikely event that any of yesterdays assholes read this..........piss on you from a considerable height. You suck and what you did yesterday was, to coin a phrase, a dick move. As my bud Ross would say (since he won't allow his kids to say "you suck") ....you "inhale vigorously".

No....you suck.

The rest of you.................how 'bout sayin' "hi" next time? Or at least waving? Why is it that the majority of the motorcyclists feel enough kinship w/ cyclicts to wave and other cyclists don't?

I'll never understand.

"Life is so Sweet..........

2008-04-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

....it makes you bounce as you walk down the street." (Billy Joe Shaver)

So...it's 3:30 inthe morning and I'm here @ the shop. What's so sweet about that, you ask? (Damn good question there Bubba......glad to see that you're payin' attention) Well.......it's Friday and I've had 4 great rides already this week and am looking forward to 3 more, the shop's been buzzin' as folks get used to the idea that Spring is finally here to stay, I've decided that my M.B.W. Sofa King is the best looking bike in the world, I have a new C-Dale Six/13 to race on (assuming I get the dang thing together!), I'll be in Moab 3 weeks from now, last I checked I'm still sharin' my life w/ the Lovely and Irreplaceable Miss Linda and...........I have some Form.

"Form". Hard to define, even harder to get. It's the word that pro racers use to describe the fact that they have achieved their fitness goals and that they are ready to kick some ass and take some names. Now......DO NOT get the idea that I'm suffering from the delusion that I have anything near that kinda form!!!!! I never have and I never will. But.........."Form" is different for every individual. Me having "form" is feeling like I can keep up w/ my riding buds - most of whom are younger 'n me - and that I can ride my fixxie and hang in (okay...and maybe even take a sprint now and again). As my buddy Maynard once wrote "Hey, guys like me call that fitness!"

Sean Yates, the big Brit that rode w/ the "Slurpies"* and the Motorola teams in the late '80s and early "90s called it "Stompin' Form" and usta say that he had it mebbe twice a season. That meant that he felt he could ride for the win those 2-3 races a year. Me? I settle for "Shaving Form", that point where it seems like shaving my legs doesn't seem like a silly affectation...that I have reached the point in my season where I feel enough like a roadie that I can "dress the part", y'know? When I got home from my second ride of the day on Wed, a hilly 46 miler w/ Surly, Doez, CD and Gid.......I scraped a winter's worth of hair offa my beat up old legs.

Shaving Form. Ahhhhh.

Other than that......not much to report. One dissonate note is that Jeff's moving on. Back to the restaurant world from which we stole him away. A drag, but he's gonna be happier (probably) and that's always good. That makes me 0 for 2 on the Cruise Director front but we'll keep on keepin' on and we'll get 'er done. (You have 'til 5/3 to stop by and see him here, after that better make reservations @ Boat Werks. (Maybe he can help them w/ their spelling!)

So............join us for a ride. (Tues Night, Thur Morn, Fri Morn, Sat Morn) or the next Fun-Raiser (Pineapple Bob on 4/27) or just swing by and say "Howdy". It'd be great to see you, y'know?

'Til then.............................here's one of my favorite "He wasn't talkin about cycling but he coulda been" song lyrics, courtesy of my all time #1 favorite songwriter:

"Now days I got me two good wheels
and I take refuge in aluminum and steel.
Takes me out there for a little while and the years fall away with every mile."

(Steve Earle - The Other Kind)

Let's Get it on!

2008-04-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

As I type this Marvin Gaye is expressin' that very sentiment. I suspect that he just might've been referring to a s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y different type of riding than I am..........but still, it seemed appropriate.

So...is Spring "here"? That seems to be the question of the week. It's "Spring" Break after all. (You can tell by the number of familiar faces we HAVEN'T seen 'round the shop this week!) We rode in shorts last weekend...even if I needed toe-covers and a wool beanie yesterday....and dammit...........it's TIME FOR IT TO BE SPRING!!!!!!!

So it is.

There, that's settled!

It's been a pretty good week for riding thus far - we had the first JDRF Training Ride last Sunday and had 23 riders! That's the biggest 1st Ride turnout EVER and bodes well for a great season for the Team. We're 64 strong @ the moment and there's still a few spots left for Death Valley and Asheville if you are still on the fence. I rode before work w/ Aaron and KP on Tuesday and Kelly and I did 36 yesterday in the wind and the chill. I'm lookin' forward to getting the 'cross bike and the ATB out this weekend for the GR BMX Track benefit race on Sunday - mostly 'cuz I' wanna ride my 'cross bike on the track! We're doi'nt he first official Friday Morning Bagel Run tomorrow and the Tuesday Night Ride commences as of next week so it might as well be Spring, that's all I'm saying.

A month from now I'll be in The Promised Land (Moab and Fruita) for a week of gnarly trail riding w/ buds DP and (hopefully!) FY. I can't wait! This'll be my 30th or so trip out there and I'm not any closer to being tired of the area than I was 20 some years ago. It has me in it's grip - hard - and I don't know that I'll ever get free. Or want to. Hopefully I can hang on 'til we can move out there sometime in the next 7-8 years!

Lotsa other stuff goin' on............I'm up to my ass in Holland Hundred planning, getting ready to host the MS 150 riders, doin' what I can to get the JDRF Ride Program up and rocking (when they ask me anyways!), trying to get Kelly and Greg trained up for the season, working on BIke Club stuff, trying to get some miles in.................and somewhere in there I'm supposed to run the shop, be Linda's husband, Kate and Sam's dad and remember my guitar and vocal parts for the band. no worries about being bored, that's for damnsure!

Still.............as my long-suffering spouse has made crystal clear on numerous occassions......no whining about self-inflected stress!*

Hard to argue w/ that. Besides...she's way smarter than me!

Later, MC

* "I'm addicted to stress that's the way that I get things done" Jim's Big Ego

UNDEFEATED!

2008-04-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yep...........I'm gonna hang up my racin' shoes for the year. After my "victory" @ the Fisk Knob Time Trial this weekend I figure that this is the only way I'll EVER have a chance to go through the whole season w//out a loss. Given my general level of competitiveness...which ranges from "Barely adequate" to 'What's HE doing out there?"...it takes some pretty special circumstances to get me across the line first. One thing that works about once a season out @ Grattan is a bunch sprint and some dude thinking to himself that the chubby old dude on his wheel can't be a factor, can he? (And who could blame him for thinking that, after all?) Still.....about once a year I time it right and get to the line just ahead of the rest of the field...and the reappearance of my lunch.

The other way is to implement the plan that I employed this past weekend........namely to be the only entrant in my (or in this case...our) catagory. New Stoker Mike Luepke and I smoked the rest of our competition to win the tandem class on Sunday. Okay......so 44 of the other 175 racers had better times than we did......they weren't in our class so we win! And I got the hardware to prove it!

The day was a blast and the "Velo City Effect" was in full evidence. I counted 16 riders from the general V.C.C. / M.C.C. sphere of influence and that's what it's all about, y'know?

Alas......I had to skip my favorite part of racing - namely the hanging around afterwards shootin' the shit part - and hop in the van and hook up w/ 4 JDRF homies and dash for Midland for a meet-n-greet /w some of our new Team Mates up that-a-way. Nothing like riding hard for 48 minutes and then gettin' into the back of a van for hours of driving to promote recovery! Actually....come to think of it that IS like "nothing" you wanna do!

Otherwise things are cool @ Ye Olde Coole Bike Shoppe....Spring is for sure right 'round the next bend and folks are excited about riding. We have a coupla new Velo-Citizens, the outdoor rides are startin' up soon, the Indoor Rides are over and I have a coupla new bikes to play with. That's always fun! I'm riding an actual road tandem on the road these days as opposed to my trusty-but-mutt-like converted Burley off-roader. The new Cannondale enjoys the same undefeated status that I am currently wallowing in.....but it's more likely to retain it! Man does that thing feel fast! I'll also be racin' on the road on a gaudy new C-Dale Six /13 frameset for the summer and that means one thing...............my Seven is gonna be my fixxie for the year! Hee Hee! How over the top is that?!

Anyway..lotsa stuff coming up, cool rides, more races, a trip out to The Promised Land* for Mrs' Clark's favorite son next month..........I can't wait!

Time to ride!
MC

* Moab and Fruita 'natch!

"Thinkin' about a revolution......"

2008-03-28T06:04:00.001-07:00

...of the pedals, that is. Actually - what I've been thinkin' about is the "Fixxie Thing". My Main Man Maynard wrote a piece on what he called the "fixxie cult phenomenon" on his blog a few days ago (what's that? you don't read his blog!?!?!??! Go to www.maynardnet.blogspot.com right away! I'll wait.) and I was moved to respond. I got an e-mail back from him basically pattin' me on the back for backing him up and there we were.......2 olde fartes bitchin' about "kids these days".

Yuck.

Here's the thing.....I DO sorta think that the whole "messenger" thing is just another fad that's gonna go away and I DO kinda feel like all these dudes w/ the knickers and the trucker wallets and the tats and the artfully-destressed Chrome or Timbuk 2 bag and the Chucks and the brand-new-but-looks-like-I've-had-it-forever lugged track frame are m-a-y-b-e missing the point a bit. And I DO doubt that many of 'em will be riding 2 years from now, even after bein' a rider no longer is a sure path to hipness and street cred. And I DO like to think that I could still dust 'em if I had to!

But...................they ARE riding. A lot. For transportation. For sport. For fun. Do I wish that they'd be a little better about traffic laws? I do.

Still................they're out there riding and there was a time-not all that long ago- when that would've been more than enough for me.

I sort of get the same feeling that I've always gotten from the "Free Ride" crowd.....w/ their ugly bikes and ugly clothing and "Extreme" everything, riding around w/ their saddles way too low and their shinguards. I worry that their version of our sport isn't sustainable...that they'll either run out of areas that they can carve jumps and drops out of or hafta quit 'cuz they're all to beat up to ride. I tell myself that's the reason that I don't dig it but there's an element of jealousy that I hafta own up to 'cuz those dudes can do AMAZING shit on a bike! Still....are they gonna be riding when their 40? 50? 60? We'll hafta wait and see.

I like what BikeSnob NYC said recently: "The technicolor skinsuit of cycling is truely a busy one and we all occupy a different part of it. (Although we all try to stay as far a possible from the chamois") [What's that you say? Not familiar w/ his work!?!?!?! Man, why are you reading THIS blog when you could be reading THAT one!? www.bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com!] What he means (I think) is that there's a lot to dig about life on 2 wheels and you oughta avail yourself of a nice fat chunk of it.

So.....I'm gonna ride my bikes and not worry about what everyone else is up to. Hope that's good w/ you.

Speaking of good................lots' o' good stuff goin' on here @ the shop. Got a coupla new Velo Citizens that we're excited about...Greg is a soon-to-be Hope grad and Tri-guy and Matt is a teacher (not another one!) from Holland that's gonna be helpin' Ted, Aaron and Berger out in the workshop. More about them later. April is almost here and hopefully that means that this ass-like weather is about over. The Fisk Knob TT is this weekend, then I make a run out to Midland to meet a buncha new JDRF teammates. Our team is 60 riders strong and Team Rides commence in just over a week. I made some progress on the aHolland Hundred - it's gonna start and finish @ Smallenburg Park so it'll be closer to Downtown and I think that's gonna rock. Our new website is close........sometime in Apriol for sure and it's gonna be a great season.

So let's get to it, shall we?

Here's a quote from Desmond Tutu. I know it'll annoy fans of fishing and thayt's not my intent. I find it irresitable just 'cause the source is so random! So w/ apologies to fishing cyclers everywhere..........

"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he wil lrealize that fishin gis stupid and boring."

(Feel free to address all your pro-fishing rants to jeff@velo-citycycles.com, he handles all my correspondence)

Later, MC

Kinda early to be this tired!

2008-03-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

One of the risk/reward deals in doin' this whole BikeLife gig is the whole "seasonality thing". It gets almost TOO mellow in the shop from Christmas 'til about now and then.....as soon as the sun makes itself known again..........BAM! Full-tilt-boogie-madness ensues and the next thing I know - it's October!

This week is a good case in point. It seems like I've been runnin' me arse off all damn week and I have the funny feeling that it's nothing more than a glimpse into my immediate future. (Don't get me wrong here....as my loving wife is oh-so-quick to pont out most of my stress is self-induced and therefore not eligible for sympathy. That's not the point...and feel free to "skip a bit, Brother" if you don't wanna read about my week. On the other hand, if you're wonderin' what I've been up to....here ya go...)

Sunday - Work our JDRF booth @ Van Andel for the Griffin's game.
Monday - Drive to GR to meet w/ new National JDRF Head Ride Dude. Then the shop and then band practice.
Tuesday - Shop then a meeting w/ Ted and Jeff from 5-6, the bike club Board Meeting from 6:30-8:00 and the general meeting from 8:00 - 9:30
Wednesday - Workout /w John and Jess, then @ the JDRF Office in GR (My "day off"). Then to AnnArbor w/ Lin and #1 Son Sam for a concert. (Got home about 2am)
Thursday - Shop, then to GR again to participate in the Rapid Wheelmen Bike Club's annual Bike Show meeting.
Friday - Just the shop. Hard to believe!
Saturday - Lead the Indoor Ride @ the shop @ 8am. Then do the Bike Shop Guy thing all day (which was way busy) then back to GR to do the JDRF booth @ Van Andel again.
Sunday - Sleep in (hopefully) and then get down to the shop for the Pineapple Bob Classic ride.

So.....if I missed callin' you back I have a semi-good excuse, y'know?
Gotta go!

Oops! Too long Since the Last Entry!!!!

2008-03-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

Man! How do Stud-Bloggers like Danielle do it? (www.daniellemusto.blogspot.com) How can they find so much time to update these damn things? Hell........Maynard writes for his frickin' supper and he still sometimies lets 3-4 days go by w/out a new post. (www.maynardnet.blogspot.com) It's not that I got nothing to say...as anyone that knows me will attest to with enthusism...it's just hard to get a chance to have a few minutes, y'know? So you put it off, you make a mental note to "get to it tomorrow" and the next thing you know your buddy J2 is givin' you crap during your "50 minutes of Pain" workout w/ Jess about how long it's been.

My bad.

I have a good friend waaaayyy up in Alaska. She busted my heart about a million years ago and then we were able to forge a strong friendship out of the pieces. My life's ambition is to someday start a letter to her that doesn't have to start w/ some variation of "Sorry it's been so long since you've heard from me...."

It's not you, that's all I'm saying.

There HAS been tons of cool stuff goin' on and BikeLife is sweet and fine. We had our 10th B-Day party here @ the shop last weekend and to say that it was an All Time Show Stopper would be stressing my limited grasp of understatement! There were at least 150 folks crammed into our little world for the better part of the evening...........we went through about 15 pizzas, a keg of New Holland's finest, tons of chips and dips and salsa and cookies and veggies and 2 E-normous B-Day cakes! We had about 600 bux worth o' schwag that we gave away, thanks to our reps from C-Dale, Rolf, Co-Motion, Tifosi, Salsa and Profile and The Veloras rocked the house for the el finale Grande! I ain't never seen a live rock band in a bike shop before - ever - and I'm pretty damn glad that when I did..............'twas here! Thanks to everyone that made it, (even if they were tired and on the couch) and thanks to everyone that's been a part of the shop's history thus far. I am much obliged.

We are really ready to get the season rolling w/ the JDRF Team too! I can't wait! I had a meeting w/ the New National Head Ride Dude and he's got some BIG ideas about the future. It'll be cool to see how many of 'em he can pull off. He has some big-time connections too......the new guy helpin' JDRF set up the Ride routes works w/ Medalist Sports, they of Tour of California, Missouri and Georgia fane. How cool is that? The Team grows every year and @ this point we still have a few open spots in Death Valley and Asheville so whatterya waitin' for?

The shop seems ready for the season, pretty much. A ton (literally!) of Yakima stuff rolled in yesterday. (I was @ the JDRF office - sorry Boyz) and this next 2 weeks will see an avalanche of goodies from Pearl, Sidi, Craft, Twin 6 and several others that I oughta be able to remember but don't. (Late night last night.......went to Ann Arbor to see Steve Earle. At least that's the excuse de jeur) I could still use m-a-y-b-e one more new Velo-Citizen, and Ted has yet to find himself a new wrench-type-person but basically we're set. Got the stuff, got the staff...............bring it on!

I'm fired up to see the new shop t-shirts. I have 3 different ones comin' soon, sort of a reprise of the 3 favorite quotes from past shirts. I know...I'm breakin' my rule about how our shirts are a one-time limited edition get'em-while-they're-hot sorta thing. It's is my rule after all! (Besides..... my original VCC tee w/ the Abbey quote is gettin pretty ratty!) They'll be here next week. A re-working of the shop jersey is in the works as well...........same design /w the colors moved around some. That'll be here in late April.

The Fisk Knob Time Trial is comin' up on the 30th of the month. A buncha us local types will be goin' over for the traditional Kick-Off of the road race season. Entires are limited to the firat 180 so if yawanna race.....get on it! We have entry forms at the shop.

This month's Fun-Raiser is the justly infamous Spring Pineapple Bob Classic and it's this Sunday. (The 9th). P-Bob rides involve some gravel and/or dirt roads but nothing that a good 'ol road bike can't handle. The weather forecast isn't bad, considering, and I reckon we'll have a good turn-out.

It'd be good to see you there!

Gotta go..............I promise to do a better job keeping up, but I promise that to Cherie-in-Alaska all the time!

Still...............to quote Lyle Lovett 'What would you be if you didn't try?"

MC

"Goin' Nowhere Fast!"

2008-02-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Okay..........maybe not all that fast. Still, the 2008 Ultimate Cycling Challenge is in the rearview mirror as of 8:00pm Sunday night and 'twas a hoot! (Some background.......in 'ought-six a group of local do-gooders got together around the idea that teams of bleary-eyed fools on trainers or spin-bikes for 24 hours would be a good way to raise money and awareness for the Lance Armstrong Foundation....whoever he is). I assembled a JDRF team in '07 and in accordance w/ my standard "too much is barely enough" manta decided that we oughta have 3 teams this year. So....we gathered up the forces and entered a shop team, a Macatawa Cycling Club squad and the JDRF team. All together we had 33 riders affiliated w/ one or more of the teams and forgive me a sec while I do a Public Call Out of the worthy:
Skip "Edward" Schott (VCC)
Ross Schueller (MCC / JDRF)
Aaron Dowling (VCC)
Randy Bultman (VCC / MCC)
Chad "McLovin" Pierce (VCC)
Dave Blandford (VCC)
Jim "JD" Stone (VCC)
Dan Ensing (VCC / MCC)
Jeff Wert (VCC)
Brian "Tenacious B" Bowe (VCC)
Kelly "KP" Slagh (VCC / Velo Valeo Vixens)
Joe Schmeider (JDRF)
Kevin Owens (JDRF)
Derek "DiD" Dykstra (JDRF)
Peggy Essenburg (JDRF / Herman Miller)
Scott Thompson (JDRF)
Linda Thompson-Poeder (JDRF)
Jack Clark (JDRF)
Katie Clark (JDRF)
Steve Clark (JDRF)
Sarah Bentley (JDRF)
Ted Bentley (JDRF)
Rob Andro (JDRF)
Steve Coombs (MCC)
John Wood (MCC)
Kirk Walters (MCC)
John Jasker (MCC)
Glenn Busse (MCC)
Krisanne Chapin (MCC)
John Paris (MCC)
Marshall Michmerhuizen (MCC)
Scott Chapin (MCC) oh..........................and me. I rode for 4 teams actually, all three of the ones we put together and then I filled in for a missing rider on Jessica's Valeo Personal Training Team too, since I'm a client of hers.

Thanks to these fine folks and everyone on the other 40 teams that were there nearly $40K was raised to fight cancer.

Cool, huh?

It was kind of a long day for this boy.................between getting there early-ish to set-up (thanks Jess-n-Mike!), riding 9 of the 24 hours, staying around between shifts to help out, switch bikes and be general Rah-Rah Guy and then tearing down it was a full 40 hour pull between gettin' outta the sack on Friday morning and hittin' it again on Saturday night. (Rumours that I dozed off while on the bike during that last l-o-n-g hours are just that..........rumours!) Nice to know I can still do that if I have to, I guess, but I don't think I wanna make a habit of it.

After a good night's sleep it was the JDRF Team Kick-Off party on Sunday Afternoon. The 2008 season is almost here for sure and I can not wait. It was great to see past and future team mates bonding over snacks, cookies and such!

There's still time for you to join us......we have room (at the moment) for a few folks on both Rides! (Asheville is Aug 8-10, Death Valley is Oct 16-19.) If you're interested contact me or go to www.jdrfwestmichigan.com/rideblog

So..............approaching the end of Feb always gets me fired up. That means that dry roads and open trails aren't that far away. Oh sure..............we're in for plenty o' winter yet and there will no doubt be one of those ultra-annoying "I thought we were done with this crap dammit!" late March storms but still..................just like my favorite-ever fortune cookie said "We're almost there".

Hang in there. I will if you will.

Mark Saturday 3/1 on your social calendar.............we're gonna have a 10th B-Day bash for the shop! Details soon!

Later...............................MC Hammered

Damn....no ride today!

2008-02-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

As I sit here @ my desk it is Full-On Winter out there. We've had a real one this year......lotsa school closings, dire warnings from the talking heads on the news, plenty of snow and weather in general. We had the Feb Fun-Raiser scheduled for today and I was lookin' forward to it all week, even as the forecast degenerated day by day. "High temp of 8 degrees" "Wind gusts of 30-45 mph" "Wind chills of 25-30 below" and such like. Still............I got up this morning and whipped up a big pot of tortilla soup in anticipation of a small-but-hardy turnout.

Then the phone calls began.

"Dude..are you watching TV?" That was Jeff, who must not know me very well or he would've know that it's pretty much NPR 'round our house when I'm in the kitchen. "Nope" says I. "Well...the cops are asking folks not to travel and everything's pretty much closed."

Damn.

We've never called off a Fun-Raiser Ride before. NEVER! But...in the interest of being good citizens I decided that there oughta be a first time and so...........here I am down at the shop so I can spread the word. (I will admit that my ride down here was grim............and the ride home's gonna be worse)

So................maybe I'll cancel the Indoor Ride scheduled for the 24th and we'll try again.

Stop by the shop next week..............we'll have some soup for you!

Other than that..................the Ultimate Challenge is next weekend, we have a big JDRF Kick-Off party on the 17th, our Big Sale was kinda fun the last couple days, we oughta have the Velo Ventures brochures in our hands this coming week, cool stuff from Co-Moti0n, Salsa, Twin 6, Redline, Cannondale and more keeps pouring in the back door.............I can't wait for the weather to break!

It's gonna be a hoot!

later, MC

Meeting up w/ Maynard

2008-01-29T15:20:00.000-08:00

Man! I just found out, thanks to buddy Amy waaaayyy out there in the PNW, that my fav-cycling-write-in-the-whole-world Maynard Hershon has a blog. Anyone that's had the misfortune of hangin' around me for to long has heard about Maynard and his tales.......I really truly believe that his books, (both lamentably out-of-print) should be required reading for anyone that aspires to ride a bike for more than a season and it's high praise indeed when someone compares our shop or even my-own-self favorably to Bob or his shop - the centerpiece of many a tale in Maynard's collection. It'd be pretty dang safe to assume that the style (such as it is) of Velo City (and of The Highwheeler for that matter) has been shaped somewhat due to my efforts to have a shop that I think that Maynard might hang out in.

( I'm serious when I say that you oughta read "Tales From the Bike Shop" and "Half-Wheel Hell". If you can't find em I'll loan you my copies, if you ask nice)

Anyway..............after wallowing in Maynard-Prose for a bit I got to remembering for I totally screwed up my only chance to meet and ride w/ him.

Sigh.

For the gory details........read on!

We had gotten to know each other after I had the bald faced nerve to send him a copy of our shop newsletter. This woulda been in '90 or '91 and our monthly letter had grown into an Honest to Gawd kinda magazine thing and I was sort of pumped up about it and I sent it to every BigWig in the biz that I could get an address for. He was the only one that wrote back and he told me that the "damn thing nearly made me move to West Michigan" and would I consider using one of his pieces if I did it again? Would I? Hell yes, and the next 2 issues of the "Highwheeler Annual Magazine Thing" proudly featured Maynard Hershon on the masthead w/ the rest of us nobodies.

Damn cool is what it was.

Anyway, we stayed in touch off and on and then when ex-co-worker Joel moved to Tucson we had another point of contact and when I made plans to go to Tucson w/ bud Suzy to ride w/ Joel I made plans to hook up w/ Maynard for a ride on what happend to be his 60th Birthday. To say that I was fired up would be a considerable understatement.......Maynard (fairly or otherwise) represented the Rider That I Wanted To Be........... hell.......the Rider that I wanted EVERYONE to be! I called him when we got to town, (On the phone! Just called him! He answered the phone just like a regular guy!) and we set it up for the next day.

That's where it went wrong.

I had a helluva cold the whole time I was there..........couldn't sleep, couldn't breath, not much company. Joel, Suz and I find the shop where we're meetin' up w/ Maynard (we're gonna ride out to a 17th century Spanish Mission out in the desert west of town, how cool does that sound?)
He rides up on a blue Rivendell and the first thing I do is comment on the slightly incongruous combination of modern Ultegra parts and wheels on the infamously retro frame. (I read later that he hates that! Hates it enought that he quit riding the Riv for a spell) We did our intros, he was w/ some woman racer who's name escapes me. (It was 5-6 years ago y'know) and we rolled out. I remember lots of big-city type roads, lotsa cars and it was a while before we got out of town enough to settle into a double line so we could chat. I don't remember much of the ride, I felt so crappy.

'Cuz here's the thing... The other thing... It was February. February for Tucson riders is like September to us West Michigan types. The end of the season, but no so much the end that you've lost your fitness. Joel had dragged us up and around a ride he called "the Quadriple Bypass" the day before (It crossed 4 passes, including Gates, a local test-piece) and I was hurting. Rememeber the February thing? It's kinda of critical to the story 'cuz while all the locals were tanned and shaved and end-of-season fit I was pasty white, hairy-legged and early-season fat. Besides...I was so damn sick that I was coughing and blowing all sorts of gross stuff all over my bike and self.

Now, I know where you think this is going, but it's not that bad. I didn't get dropped. I was fine hanging in, we went to the Mission (I have pictures!) and we rode back. It was nice. That night we went to a coffee shop w/ a bunch of Maynard's friends to celebrate his birthday. That was nice too. The thing is though....I was so sick that I didn't say a word, just sipped hot tea and tried not to sneeze on folks.

I just kind of feel that I missed out on a chance to have a REALLY significant experience, y'know? I don't even have a pic of me-n-Maynard and that'd be cool, no? I was just so sick, and I had to go and say something stupid and typically bike-geeky about his gear, y'know? What a dork.

Anyway..............go to www.maynardnet.blogspot.com and enjoy! If ya wanna read my story that won the silver medal in Velo News' "Write Like Maynard" contest visit www.velo-citycycles.com and go to "Stories".

Maybe I'll look him up next time I go through Denver on the way west.

I won't say anything about his Bike Friday though!

Ride on...........................MC

Gear Report...just what you've been waitin' for, huh?

2008-01-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

Yep....................what this sport and 'net and world needs most is yet another opinionated and self-impressed rider/writer that thinks his opinion about stuff matters, right?

RIGHT!

Okay..............WRONG!

Still, I'm sorta short on ideas @ the moment and there are a few things I've been using quite a bit that have left an impression. So...I'd be much obliged if you were to cut me a bit o' slack and let it go this time 'round.............I promise not to make a habit of it!

Kreitler Rollers: I've been doin' 100% of my indoor workouts on rollers so far this off-season - I started using them again in the middle of last winter and it's been fun (and challenging!) to do all the Spinervals workouts on 'em. The out-of-the-saddle stuff isn't too bad but the one-leg drills are pure hell! I switched from my old clapped-out Minouras to the Kreitlers about a month ago in some mis-guided attempt to make sure i wasn't givin' myself too much of a break w/ all my fellow indoor sufferers ridin' Fluid trainers. The Kreitlers are definitely smoother, in fact the alloy drums are so smooth that I felt a little squirrelly the first time I rode them. W/ the smaller diameter drums the resistance is noticeably higher as well - which allowed me to retain my grip on the moral highground when MM showed up for a workout w/ his rollers - and we all know how important THAT is! All in all I'd give 'em a rating of 'Pretty much perfect". They're kinda spendy, but you only hafta buy one set of rollers your entire life if you buy the right ones, y'know? (Wanna try 'em? Stop on by!)

Light & Motion Vega headlight: This little unit has become my go-to light for all road and Crazy Bastard dirt-road rides. I love the fact that it's self-contained...no cords flapping or batterypack swingin' under the toptube or stealing a H20 cage. It's way bright, light ennough and seems to have a 2.5-3 hour burn time, even on high. There are other cool lights here (and @ other shops I reckon) and I do wish it was easier to remove from the mount but still.............it gets a solid "Dang Near Just Right" rating.

Ergon Grips: These things are awesome /w a Capital "R"! Due to a thoughtless bit of pre-race packing I rode 95miles of the Lumberjack 100 w/ no gloves and I really don't think I could've done that w/ any other grips! My buddy CD swears that his chronic wrist pains are gone since he got some and basically...if you can get past the goofy look and you're not a 100% over-the-top weight-weenie...you'll like them too. These guys get the coveted "Hot-Damn-Tamale-Who-Loves-Ya-Baby-Cubs-Win Two Thumbs up" rating and you know it don't get no better!

Meijer Brand Organic Blue Corn Chips w/ Sesame Seeds: Our friend Scott hooked us up w/a coupla bags o' these bad boys @ the last Fun-Raiser and let's just say that they are the Ergon Grips of chips and call it good. Yum!

Continental Speed King Supersonic ATB Tires: After years and years of rockin' Ritchey Z-Max like we were married I'm having a love affair w/ these new treads. Light, grippy, fast....did I mention light? I'm runnin' the 2.4 on the front of my rigid S/S and the 2.1 in the rear and lovin' life. granted...I got like 5 rides on 'em before 'cross season and winter conspired to put the ATB in the rafters for a spell but these are cool tires! They do 'em in 29er too, as well as a non-Supersonic version which trades some added grams for added lifespan. It's kinda fun to be worked up about mountainbike tires again! It's been too long!

Steve Earle's "Washington Street Serenade" CD: My favorite singer/songwriter/hillbilly/activist/hellraiser done moved to the big city and got all happy! I could listen to this disc for about a month straight and keep finding new favorite tunes.

Anyway.............stuff is just that..................stuff. Sometimes you need some of it to make the things you wanna do easier or more fun but you wanna make sure that the stuff isn't obscurring the doing, y'know? Still............if you gotta put up w/ stuff it may as well be good stuff, no?

Too much stuff, too much stuff, whatterya gonna do w/ all that stuff?" (Delbert McClinton)

"How come your shit is stuff and my stuff is shit?" (George Carlin)

Just for Danielle!

2008-01-10T07:02:00.000-08:00

The Big D sent me a note last week to the effect that, now that I was imortalized on her blog as a 'blog-bud" I had to write more often. I responded that if writing as much as she does was a requirement for Blog-Bud status I would hafta respectively decline.

We reached a compromise and this is the result.

There is a lot going on though, so it's not that I haven't got stuff to talk about........it's time that's the prob!

The Indoor Rides here @ the shop are gettin' outta control (in a good way!) and I wonder what we'll do if they continue to grow. We've had at least 2 new riders at each fo the last 3 and we're consistantly seeing 15+ at each workout! Man....2 years ago 8 was a big turnout! We're starting to have trouble finding room to store the bikes and trainers and Ted's all over my butt about gettin' them outta the shop so I gotta go to plan B, as soon as I figure out what that is! Still.....what a frickin' blast to look around the room @ 19-20 folks all sweatin' and huffin' and puffin'! Crazy!

The Ultimate Cycling Challenge teams are shaping up. We're doing 4........JDRF, Velo City, Macatawa Cycling Club and the Velo Valoe Vixens Tri Team. I'm gonna ride on the first 3, as I lack the aero bars, taste for neon and pair of X chromosomes for that last one! There's still room on all 4 teams.........get ahold of me @ the shop for the JDRF and MCC teams, Jeff for the VCC one and Jess for the Vixens.
mike@velo-citycycles.com
jeff@velo-citycycels.com
jessica@valeotraining.com

It's a blast...............24 hours of going nowhere fast! (As fast as yawanna anyhow) It takes place on 2/14-15 and you can get the big picture @ www.cteam4.com

Jeff is hard at work getting the schedule set for Velo Ventures and I'm way excited! 2008 is gonna be the year that we look back on years from now as the start of something very cool! On the menu is 4 days of road rides in GA in March, a Woman's Weekend in June, more road riding in Wis in July, the ODRAM in Sept and a trip (led by me-own-self) to the off-road Mecca of Moab and Fruita in late Oct! I 'm WAY excited about this deal! Watch for full details very soon!

The Crazy Bastard West rides ahve been dormant over the holidaze but wil be back 100% come next Tuesday.

We're doin' a "Special Sunday Super Suffer Session" this weekend. That means 3 hours on the trainer. Yee-HAW!

Ted and Jeff have been burnin' up the keyboards around here tryin' to get the inventory project done........the end is in sight!

Still looking for new Velo-Citizens................we have a part time winter/full time summer gig open in the shop and in sales. Talk to Ted for the wrench gig and me for the sales gig.

I'm chompin' at the bit to get the JDRF season underway. We're kinda in neutral while we wait for the National folks to get the schedule finalized so folks can officially register. Then the real work begins! We'll be sending teams to Whitefish MT and Death Valley again. It's about the coolest thing I've ever done and if you have any interest lemme know and we'll chat it up!

That oughta be enough for now. I'm on the cusp of starting a website re-do.......that'll be a hoot!
I need to ride more, but I'm starting to feel like I'm gettin' into the groove a bit, y'know?

I hope that you are too!

Later, MC

Boom!

2007-12-31T07:36:00.000-08:00

Man, I hit the deck yesterday like a ton of bricks! Feeling it today fersure...............

We had a great ride from CD's crib down in Ham-ville, 7 riders, 2 hours and 25-ish miles of "seasonal roads". 5 total crashes, of which mine was the "best" (read: "worst"). Dang..these dirt/snow/ice rides are just as cool as it gets and I 'don't even know why!

(Story within a Story- I was sittin' @ the Sub Joint on Saturday, eatin' lunch, readin' the paper and positively wallowing in the fact that I had NOTHING planned for Sunday. An empty square on the calendar is rare enough......but a weekend? Way rare! At that very moment my phone rang and there was CD, lookin' to see if I wanted to ride. Which I did, as it turns out.)

We were on the way back, after hittin' some new-to-me dirt roads and I was next to M-2, talkin' about their upcoming new kid when all of a sudden I was on the deck. No warning, no time to think to myself "careful here, feels kinda slick", nothing. Just Boom and Ouch! Still............the ride was a blast and a great way to wrap up a great year! (FNG Ross went down twice and Tator once, just to make me feel better)

New Years Ride tomorrow.............I haven't missed one in at least 25 years and I ain't gonna start now. Hope some folks show up. (I think they will)

No NY Resolutions for me..............I prefer the "Kaizen" (spelling?) theory of "continuous improvement". Lots of work to do!

What a full year 2007 has been! It feels like we made some progress @ the shop.........there were lots of great rides, a couple of good races, lots of new folks.

I'll take it!

Post "Holidaze" Thoughts

2007-12-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

So.
Another Christmas in the books. Another onslaught of bad holiday music, media-fueled shopping madness and travel.

I really don't like it that my first reaction to the "How was your Christmas?" question is that I survived it. Seems way too grown-up / world-weary / cynical............hell...........too bitter to be me, y'know?

Still...........there it is. I gotta figure out a way to change that...pronto... before I see an old fart in the mirror that I don't wanna see.

Other that that (kind of a cop out, huh?) things are pretty cool here @ Ye Olde Cool Bike Shoppe. We did have a pretty fun Christmas and we really don't have all that much added stress or angst, (making the previous bitching even less appropriate - we'll see if I leave it in there) and it's been cool having folks that we don't see all the time stopping in. (Travis, Tim from Colo. Springs, Hedgpeth!)

The Indoor Rides are rocking..........we're getting 12-14 every time and the sweat is flowing free.

I've missed the last two Crazy Bastard Rides and that's not cool............I need to get out w/ them boys and grrls and slide around in the muck! Next week for sure.

Next week is the big shut down for the inventory / computer deal. Ted and Jeff have been encouraging me to get outta here for the duration, given my lack of empathy for and/or tolerance of computers in general and our point-of-sale system in particular. I have the same malady that my friend Heather calls "that damn work ethic thing" so it's not likely but I will try and stay out of the way! We'll be closed from 3:00pm on 12/31 through the rest of the week.

Cool stuff comes in every day............we just got a few Co-Motion tandems, the first of the Salsa frames and our Surly Cross Check project bikes are gonna get built up as soon as we re-open.

Gotta figure out what to do about the website..............yuck.

Jeff's getting the Velo Ventures stuff lined up, that'll be way cool.

The weather for the New Year's Ride looks appropriately iffy. All the better for the main reason for the ride. (To gain the moral high ground, silly!) I hope we have a big turn out.

We're tryin' to put together 4 teams for the Ultimate Cycling Challenge from our little community and I'll be ridng on 3 of 'em and organizing 2. We'll have teams representing the local club (M.C.C.), the shop, the JDRF Team and the Velo Valeo Vixens, the women's tri team/club that Jess and I got roliing last year. It's a good cause and a ton of fun so If you wanna ride on any or all of these teams.....let us know! (Me for the MCC and JDRF teams, Jeff for the VCC one and Jess for the Vixens, but I can hook you up w/ whomever)

Jeff and I put together a tentative Fun-Raiser schedule for '08. I think we'll schedule them 3-4 months out instead of for the whole year, that way we can schedule around 'cross races and tours and such. Watch the website and the newsletters!

Gotta go..............sorry 'bout the post-holidaze whining there. Workin' on it!

MC

"Ironic, if ya like that sort of thing."

2007-12-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

So...........we're bustin' down some icy dirt road somewhere out in the middle of whereinthehellarewe lat night on the Crazy Bastard ride.... (We spend a lot of time there!) and all of sudden my rear wheel locks up. I do those rides on my (in)famous glow-in-the-dark fixxie-'cross and the chain had somehow come off and jammed 'tween the tire and the chainstay so all of a sudden I'm doin' these b-i-g s-l-o-w fishtails down this hill w/ the other guys scattering around me like they'd all just found out that the paint on my bike WAS radioactive, as is sometimes speculated about. Somehow I keep the rubber side down and bring 'er to a stop in the middle of the hill. Put the chain back on, all the while wondering what happend and back down the road we go.
2 minutes later, on a nice flat open section of road I go down like a ton of bricks, damn near takin' CD w/ me. (Woulda gotten some bonus points for that!) In Crazy Bastard parlance I did a "spud" w/ a side of "slider", but no "bowler". (Translation- Spud: Noun. To hit the ground hard enough to be "planted like a potatoe". "Slider" - Noun: A crash envolving a long slide across the road surface, usually accompanied by flopping limbs and/or sudden stops as a result of collisions w/ inanimate objects. "Bowler" - Noun: A "slider" that takes out some or all of your companions.)

That's the irony by the way, assuming that you were wondering.

(By the way..........the title is a quote from a movie. Be the first to e-mail me w/ which movie and win a VCC pub glass!)

Other than that.............it's been a busy month or so! I've managed to crash in each of the last 4 'cross races but have yet to break anything major on bike or body. I did manage to tesr up my shin bad enough @ Manhattan Park that it got all infected and led to a trip to the doc for a RX of antibaotics and now every time I go down I hit the same damn place again. Still............so far so good. One more race, tomorrow @ Ridgepoint Church. the big Finale el Grande! We're gonna have chili and frites and stuff to give away..................oughta be a hoot! Jess and I are doin' the C race on the tandem and then I'll try not to suck in the B's.

JDRF stuff is happening...............we're getting close to haviing the '08 season planned out and we have a buncha new riders lined up already. Dang! That is so cool!

Ted's been gone all week @ Barnett's and he has 2 weeks to go. Kinda short-handed around the shop but we'll get through. Startin' to see a little Christmas biz, but not outta control yet. Kind of "good news / bad news" I guess.

Still looking for some folks to sign on as Velo Citizens for '08.........know anyone that wants to work in a cool bike shop and bust their ass for almost no $?

It's been quite a year! I was talkin' to a friend out west about a trip to the desert next Spring and that got to thinkin' about our trip last April.................man, that seems like it was years ago!

I guess that's good, right?................It means that there's so much goin' on that it makes it seem like it's been longer than it has since we did stuff last Spring or last year, right?

Right?

Right!

Gotta go..............be well and have a great Holiday!

MC

Ouch!

2007-11-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

Man, I crashed my brains out @ the 'cross race last Sunday! That's 2 races in a row where I've stacked it up......which probably matches my 'cross crash total. I'm tellin' myself that it's 'cuz I'm racin' harder and goin' for it....(whatever it takes, right?) but I'm pretty damn sore and the novelty has worn off for sure. I need to keep the rubber side down this Sunday @ Richmond Park!

Speakin' of this week's race................it's gonna be a hoot! My 'cross gang The Crazy Bastards are large and in charge and we're gonna raise the bar for Kiss Cross Races once and for all. A sound system, food, prizes, posters, a Podium Girl...it's gonna be an All Time Show Stopper!

(At least 'til the race here in Holland on 12/8 that is!)

Our good shop buddy and recent convert to the world of shaved legs and embrocation Dave Blandford nows holds the dubious distinction of being the first ever KissCross racer to suffer a broken bone. Two, actually. There he was.........chasin' his buddy Brian W in the C race @ Manhattan Park last weekend when a frickin' Chocolate Lab came outta nowhere and took him right out!

And that sucks, big time. So buddy Dave has a busted collarbone on his left side and a busted "signaling finger" on his right. He'll need 2, count 'em 2 surgeries and needless to say....his season is over w/ a capital "O".

(HIs bike's okay though, I know you were wondering)

Other than that, not much to report. The Tuesday Night Ride is pickin' up steam as we ride all those nasty-arse dirt roads out near the Allegan Woods. (We roll @ 6:30 - soon to be 6:00) from the Hamiilton Grocery store on M0-40. You'll need lights and at least a 'cross bike).

3 more 'cross races and that's pretty much it for the year. Given that the 1st race of the year was the Fisk Knob TT waaayy back in March, it's been a plenty long season and I'm feelin' it a bit. My off-season core workouts w/ Jess-the-Destroyer commence again tomorrow and the shop Indoor Training Rides kick off next week. (See also: No Rest for the Wicked!)

Still.............Bike Life continues to be a Fine Thing. Lots going on here @ the shop, lots of interest in the upcoming JDRF season and lots to do as we roll towards the winter. I gotta find some new Velo-Citizens, re-do various bits of the shop, do a buncha back-room kinda VCC stuff and plenty more. Before we know it it'll be Spring and the whole dang dance starts again!

I can't wait!

Be safe out there, ride lots, have fun, be good.

MC

el Weekend Grande!

2007-11-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

Man whatta cool weekend! I went up to the Iceman Race on Friday w/ good buds Doez, CD, Gid and Dan-the-semi-reformed-tri-guy. The race was a complete blast...........the course was in awesome shape, the weather was perfect and we started in the 6th wave which was great 'cuz the traffic in the tight spots wasn't an issue but there was always folks to chase and pass. I was happy w/ my ride 'cuz I was hopin' to break 2:20 and was in @ 2:14 and change. That was good for 28th outta 93 in my catagory. Danielle won the women's S/S class and most of my other buds had fun too.

It's a little bit of a drag that I had as much fun as I did 'cuz they're goin' to a lottery system to decide who gets to race next season and now I kinda care whether I get in or not!

I left after a coupla hours of post-race hangng out and headed home to make chili for the big Chili Chilly Ride scheduled for the next day. We had about 60 riders on a cool and kinda dreary day. The Cannondale Demo Truck was here for 3 hours and we ended up w/ 10 pots of chili along w/ plenty o/ beer and cookies and cornbread and such. A great time was had by all and fellowship was observed being had.

Things are still rockin' at the shop, despite the fact that we're deep into November at this point. I'm excited about being a Salsa dealer and a buncha frames and a few bikes will be rollin' in right after the first of the year. Sounds like a good excuse to declare a "Salsa Month" and have chips and a different salsa every day! The new Redlines are cool too and along w/ C-Dale and Gunnar and Co-Motion and Electra and Seven and m-a-y-b-e Niner.............I think we got it covered!

5 more 'cross races to be done over the next 4 weekends so the season isn't exactly slowing down either!

Man............BikeLife is soooo sweet these days! Good rides, cool bikes to be worked on and I love this time of the season when all our friends come by to hang and chat. We got a buncha new 'cross dvd's to play, indoor training rides start in 2 weeks, the big JDRF post-season party in tomorrow, the Tuesday Night Dirt Road Rides have begun, the First-Ever Danielle's Dirt Camp was a big hit, the Crazy Bastard Rides are rollin'..............................................

See what I mean!?

Want a taste? Come on by and sit a spell!

If you're lucky mebbe Ted'll wanna interview you for his Blog!

Or maybe that oughta be if you're not lucky!?

MC out

November!

2007-11-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Man, there's just a TON of stuff goin' on! It's so cool to sit here and write the Nov. newletter and be able to tell folks that there's still so much cool bike stuff (CBS?) to do and look forward to! There's a 'cross race on 5 of the next 6 weekends, the Iceman Race/Chili Chilly Ride double next weekend, a gig tonight, the first of several JDRF post-season parties on the 13th.........no let down, that's for damnsure!

Things are takin' shape here @ the shop for the "off-season" as well. The Tuesday Night Ride morphes into it's dirt road incarnation as of the 6th, Indoor Rides commence on the 28th, the Chili Chilly Ride is always a blow-out hoo-hah of a good time and the full load of cool new gear and bikes is rollin' in every day!

Some new stuff for '08 that I'm kinda excited about....I made a verbal committement to becoming a Salsa bike and frame dealer (We dig the Cassaroll fixie and the Mamasita 29r) and the next load of Redlines oughta be here soon. I think that the concept of a 29'r w/ a 1x9 drivetrain could easily become the hot set-up for trails in our area and both Salsa and Redline offer sweet set-ups like that outta the box. We are already lookin' forward to next Spring!

Still.............there's miles to go a'fore that happens! I'm gonna go and try to not suck @ The Iceman next week w/ some o' my best buds. I'll hafta hustle home after the race tpo get the chili on the stove 'cuz I'll hafta be here early on Sunday to meet the Cannondale Demo Truck when they show up here 3 hours before the ride on the 11th.

I haven't made a Crazy Bastard Ride for 2-3 weeks........lotsa travel, helpin' out @ the JDRF office on my day off, other reasons. I miss it like hell but I'm a little concerned that the ride's nature is changing into a 'training ride' as opposed to a group of guys that wanna ride together no matter the weather. What is it about rides? How come they get messed up when they reach a certain size? Why is it SO DAMN HARD TO KEEP a good ride togther?

More later, gotta go!

Pineapples, the desert and the Santa Ana winds!

2007-10-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Yep, thisis what happens when I don't keep up w/ all the cool sweet BikeStuff that's goin' on around here...........I get behind and hafta cover a buncha stuff all at once. You'd thing that I'd learn...but not so much.

Anyway, one of the coolest Fun-Raiser Rides we have every fall is the Pineapple Bob Classic, a ride usin' as much dirt road as we can find and a ride that pre-dates the shop's very exsistance by 5 years or more. (Not to mention the Crazy Bastards!) We have a spring edition as well and if you were here for that one you might have figured "no way the weather'll suck as bad as it did last spring, what with the 25mph headwind we hadta ride back into to!" Well.....you'd been wrong. Not just wrong, but General Custer wrong! The captain of the Titanic was this wrong! In short.....the weather sucked. We left the shop in a steady rain and I was amazed and impressed that we had 16 riders show up at all. Needless to say, the dirt roads were mud roads and the rain stayed for the w-h-o-l-e dang ride. We cut it a bit short, but we still got in about 35 miles and there were some cold, wet and weary folks hangin' @ the shop while we got the pasta ready.

The food and drink wqent down good and everyone recovered. The bikes were filthy and the floor was covered w/ wet muddy footprints so I knew 'twas a success. Next Fun-Raiser is the Chili Chilly Ride on 11/11 and you DO NOT wanna miss that!

4 days later I found myself on a plane headed to Death Valley by way of Las vegas for the finalo JDRF Ride of the season and the 3rd one for me in the last 3 months. We had a team of 32 riders, a "mascot" (Ted-n-Sarah's daughter Sophie) and my wife Linda as our support crew. We got to the Furnace Creek Ranch in DV about 4:00pm and quickly got into the groove of yet another fascinating and fulfilling Ride to Cure weekend.

Damn I love the desert! The austere surroundings, the huge sky, the stars at night........I dig it all. I totally understand why not everyone does........but it's the place for me!

On Friday morning we kitted up for the traditional shakedown cruise up to Zabrieskie Point. When I say "up to" I mean exactly that.......it's a steady 5 mile climb from the ranch to the Point. The view from there is kinda surreal and I heard about some funky / sleazy movie shot there in the 70's that I'm gonna hafta dig up. We hung there for a bit, then coasted back down to the Ranch, grabbed some lunch and split up for the rest of the day. Some rode a bit more, some hung by (or in) the pool and some joined Lin and I for a guided hike back up near the Point.
Then it was time for dinner in the Palm Grove......nothin' like al fresco dining w/ 300 other folks! (And the occasional coyote)

Saturday dawned nice and clear........and calm. Too bad it wouldn't last. We rolled out, bound for the turn around @ the top of Jubiliee Pass, 52.5 miles and 3000' feet of climbing away. There was a nice little cloud cover on the way out, when you don't really need it 'cuz it's cool in the am and you're in the shade of the the Funeral Mountains to the east. The team split up right away, there's no way to keep 32 riders of different abilities and goals together in a ride w/ 250 others and we didn't try, but we had a nice group in a long pace line for a bit. My grop arrived @ the bottom of the climb to the Pass about 10:30, almost an hour ahead of the cut-off times that they use to make sure everyone gets in before the sun drops behind the Panimint Range on the west edge of the valley. We started up the climb.....Pea, Carmen, Steve, Melanie, Amy, John, Tom, Mary and myself but again became seperated as everyone found their rhythm for the incline. I was w/Amy when she started to struggle and feel sick to her stomach. We dealt w/ that for a while then she rallied and we resumed the climb. At that point Joe came along and I entrusted Amy to him so I could go down the hill and find Katie 'cuz I'd promised her that I'd ride w/ her to the top. (She didn't quite make it to the top last year and was determined to do so now).

It took a while but we finally rolled up to the sign marking the top of the pass, posed for pix and re-aseembled the group for the return leg. I was worried about the wind and the fact that the clouds had burned off and the temps seemd to be rising as we hung around the top. The descent was the all-out blast that any 7 mile downhill would hafta be but right before we got to the Rest Stop @ the bottom a young lady wiped out in front of my group and I stopped to help her up. (Gotta do the Coach thing y'know!) By the time I re-joined my riders Amy was feelin' kinda punk again and the nexy thing I knew the med-folk had grabbed her away from me and had her in the back of the ambulance /w an IV in her arm. By this time the wind had whipped up and I knew we were in for a l-o-n-g day.

And so it was...........we had 45 miles to ride and the wind got worse for the rest of the day. Basically we were "blessed" with the tailend of the Santa Ana winds that were causing no end of trouble for the poor folks in San Diego and by mid-afternoon we were dealin' w/ full-on 30mph headwinds w/ gusts in the 40's and a temp of 104. Lovely. Needless to say we did our best and an amazing % of the Team managed to ride all the way back to the start/finish. I was amazed and impressed w/ all the riders on the team.....they ride so hard and they care so much and they are so good for each other!

The last of us dragged in just a bit after dusk........so the final count was 11 1/2 hours or so for the day and the wind was so strong that all the night's post-ride festivities were shut down by the resultant sandstorm. That was a drag too, 'cuz several of the staff told me that our team had been the topic of discussion all weekend and that a tribute to the West Michigan Team was planned for dinner. We deserve it.......the folks on "my" team are a special breed and are a class act all the way!

Sunday we split up , w/ half headin home and the rest of us to Las Vegas for a day (or 2) or R & R and just being together. As much as I despise Vegas it was great to extend the wekend by another day so we could spend some more time w/ our team mates. It's ggood to be home though.

So.......what's up 'round here? We have a bunch of folks signed up for Danielles' Dirt Skills Camp this sunday, the last Tuesday Night Road Ride is next week, Ted's on his honeymoon in Mexico w/ Sarah, 2 sweet Sevens go home this week and my wife's here to take me to dinner so I gotta go!

Man, whatta a week!

2007-10-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

So....I came back from the extended JDRF bike work fest/Interbike show w/ dead legs and a fat gut. Too much time in planes and airports, too much bad food (and too much food in general!) and not nearly enough saddle time makes Mike a s-l-o-w boy! So......in typical Clark fashion I tried to flog meself back into some semblance of condition by riding my ass into the ground last week. Not sure that I succeeded with the first goal (the fitness part) but I for damn sure accomplished the latter!
After doin' a Cyclo-cross presentation for the Macatawa Cycling Club meeting on Tuesday (by the way....it's startin' to get to me that I miss the Tuesday Night Ride 'cuz I hafta go to the Club's Board Meeting and talk about rides!) I rode w/ Da've, Aaron and Jeff Wed. before work onthe fixxie. thur night I did my first Crazy Bastard ride of the year.......forcing that 25# glow-in-the-dark fixxie over 38 miles of hilly dirt roads out there jusy outside of nowhere. What a hoot! The the Friday Morning bagel Ride w/ Jeff, Da've and JJ, then Jess and I did the Sprint Ride on the tandem on Sat morning, then Lin and I did the JDRF ride on the tandem Sat afternoon, (40 hilly miles in the Ada area) and then, after the gig Sat night......I met CD and his bud Dan-the-tri-guy-that-wants-to-be-an-all rounder @ Yankee Springs for some hot trail miles. I finally got to ride my Seven w/ the new wheels and fork and brakes. It's awesome. Ted built up my wheels w/ the pink King SS hubs and DT rims and I got a schweet Pace carbon rigid fork. I'm runnin' a 33 x 16 gear and it felt okay, given that my legs were kinda blown.

Things @ the shop are good. It's still been plenty busy, what w/ the weird "August in October" weather. The rides are still well attended and we have lots goin' on for the winter.

One development for '08 is that we are pretty much officially done w/ Bianchi. It's been coming for years as we do less and less w/ them and I think it's time, you know? It's always a drag when you make a change, but we're pretty dang determined to offer the best "menu" we can find, and I think we can do better. Stay tuned!

So..........for the most part Bike Life remains a rare and wonderful thing. The shop is rocking, the Death Vallet Ride is less than 2 weeks away, there's a 'cross race nearly every weekend, the Pineapple Bob Classic is this coming Sunday, new bikes and frames are rolling in almost every day..................it's all good. Lots of really cool project bikes have happened or soon will too; Gunnar Crosshair 'cross bikes for Bob L, Frank Y and Brian W, a sweet Gunnar Roadie for Maria V, Sevens for Matt B and Luke N, Co-Motion tandems for Paul T-for-Texas and a couple in GR and a freakin' bee-yoo-ti-ful Co-Mo single for one very lucky young lady right'cher in Holland. Lotsa cool stuff goin' on and goin' outta here!

(Note: the preceding paragraph should in no way be construed as an indication that we think that only way-high end bikes are cool! All bikes are cool!)

Can't wait for the P. Bob! Can't wait for Death Valley! Can't wait for the Chilly Chili Ride! (11/11). Man..............life is good.
MC

Interbike Report, Days 3 and 4

2007-09-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

Whew! I am fried to a crisp. The "real" show started yesterday, w/ about a gazillion ShopFolk crowdin'[ into the Sands Expo Center to wander the vast expanse of new bike goodness. I had appointments w/ Seven Cycles (who is actually shipping their amazing new carbon bikes) and Pearl Izumi and spent the rest of the day trying to systematically covering the literlayy hundreds of booths chock-fulla bikestuff madness. Pearl has trimmed down their line, re-done the chamois' in their shorts (again!) and the colors looked great. I looked @ Craft and Endura stuff as well........sinc ei'm seriously considering replacing Castelli as our main PI alternative. I looked at so much stuff it'll take me 3 days of mental downloading and messenger bag unloading to get a handle on. I talked to Titus, Ellesworth and Intense today, as the search for a new high-end MTN bike line continues. I met w/ Rolf and Mavic as well and musta talked to 25 other representatives at booths large and small.

As we don't invision major changes in the shops' list o' wares for '08 my main focus was to try and see everything and find some cool stuff. The list of potential cool stuff was a little shorter that in years past....not sure if that's me or the industry....but fear not - there will be things to talk about when I get back to the shop!

Fav Racer Danielle, her husband Scott, Betsy-from-QBP and I grabbed some dinner @ my fav mex place here in town (it's along the canel in Venice, 'natch!) and then headed out to the big "Cross Vegas " race last night. Man........100 pro 'cross racers battlin' it out under the lights and the full moon w/ Elvis and beer and burritos and rock-n-roll and a buncha bike fools whoopin' it up and ringing cowbells! What a hoot! There's a big crit tonight but it's 4-5 miles down the strip from my hotel, I'm low on taxi-cash and I hafta get up @ 4:00am to cathc my plane so...............maybe not, eh?

So, another Interbike in the rear view. I have no idea how many this makes.......maybe 15-20? It's still so cool to see how vital the industry is, but there is a little fatigue in my gut over the silly posturing of the various "cliques"........it seems that 90 % of the folks here were either flying the colors of the "Messenger Dudes" the "Freeride Tribe", the 'Serious Roadie" or the "BMX Rat". Just normal folk that love bikes seemed to be in the minority.

Maybe it's just cause those folks don't have a uniform, huh?

Anyway...........stop by the shop startin' on Saturday and I'll have lotsa catalogs and pix of new stuff.

Man.........I need to go for a ride!

MC

Interbike Report, Day 2

2007-09-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

In what has become the theme of this trip I was up before dawn again today, just so I could break fast, brave the madness that is 5:30am Vegas traffic on the 30 minute hike down to the Expoi Center, meet fav pro racer Danielle and get on the shuttle bus for the so-called "Hangover Ride" from the Outdoor Demo. (A.K.A. the "Tour of Lake Mead") I had secured the use of a coupla C-Dale SuperSixes for the 26 mile ride. (A bike that has the oh-so-rare distinction of being the only one I rode to a victory this season!) We grabbed 'em, fitted them up and joined about 300 other bike shop dudes, pros, hangers-on and various other types for a jaunt from Boulder City down to a bee-yoo-ti-ful lookout on Lake Mead, about 13 miles away. It was not lost on your reporter that it was pretty much 100% downhill all the way there........and despite the bikes's 15 pound weight and oh-so-still BB I was still hurtin' coming back up. My legs were fried from yesterday and I just wateched as Danielle rolled away, jabbering all the way about how it'd been forever since she was on a real road bike. (She raced tour of Lelanau on her 'crosser!)

Once I was f-i-n-a-l-l-y back @ Bootleg Canyou we did some more riding. First up was a Co-Motion Periscope tandem. We sell a goodly number of these way-cool bikes and they're claim to fame is the super-adjustable fit......one bike fits kids, adults and everyone in between. I figured than D's 35" inseam would be a true test of that but she fit right on. We hammered it a bit, got outta the saddle for the climb back up to the venue.....it feels as solid as a "normal" design w'/ a lateral tube.

Next up was my fav ride of the whole Demo..........a Spot single speed w/ a belt drive. It did'nt take long to remind myself how much I like a simple steel frame and the simpicity of 1 speed, y'know? The belt drive is light, efficient, durable and quiet.....at least that's what Spot claims......and they seem like nice folks. Since the last time I paid any attention to them they've moved from Vancover to Golden Colo., introduced some complete bikes @ sweet price points and even ventured into some bikes w/ derailluers (!) but only one...........they have a 1x9 29'r and a 'cross bike. The bike I rode was a 29'r and it was the only one Ive ridden besides Niner where you kinda forget about the big wheels. Sweet sweet sweet.

Then we hit the Salsa booth.............Danielle's lookin' for a new ride and wanted to ride their full-sus El Santo. Turns out they didn't have her size but by then I had picked out a Dos Niner to ride. I liked it more than I ever did when I rode our demo Dos last summer. Not sure if that was the trail sout here or the fact that I have a lot more time on a 29'r now.

I think that's it...........if I missed on eit must not have made much of an impression! I changed outta my lycra, walked around, took some pics (which'll be up as soon as I get home) and called it a day. Tomorrow is the first day of the actual expo and the Cross Vegas race in the evening. Can't wait!

Gotta go............and I may well be unable to get online 'til I get home Friday. Stay tuned!

Interbike Report, Day 1

2007-09-24T19:57:00.001-07:00

Okay, first lemme state for the record that I've been here in this Hellhole called Las Vegas for about 30 hours now.................and that's enough! i really don't like town at all and if it wasn't for the bike show and the JDRF Death Valley ride this dump would never again see the like of Mrs; Clark's favorite son!

Still...............here I am, and here I stay, 'til early Friday morning at least.

I came here fresh offa doin' the tech support in Whitefish MT for a JDRF Ride to Cure Ride. Brother Berger from the shop and I flew out on Wed, re-assembled about 65 shipped bikes, tuned up the other 85 or so, drove sag on Sat and packed 'em back up that night. Worked our asses off! Still...........what a great thin gto spend some time in the presence of the extra-fine folks that make up a JDRF Ride! Everyone rocks! The riders, the staff, the volunteers.................200-some passionate, dedicated, fun people doing a great thing. I love it!

jeff from the shop along w/ his buds Chuck and Joel comprised the West Mich team..they had a blast too!

Anyway....................the title of this here post is "Interbike Report", not "Ad for JDRF" so lemme get to it:

Today was Day 1 of the Outdoor Demo, which happens about 25 minutes outta Vegas @ a place called Boulder City. A small city of Pop-up tents and trailers pops up for 2 days of test riding bikes on the gnarly singletrack and the smooth asphalt. I rode the new Cannondale Scapel.......it gets a new rear end w/ 4 inches of travel w/ almost no pivots. I dug it..............smooth, climbed well, the sus did it's thing w/ minimal fuss. (Can you tell that I'm not really a big full-sus guy?) Still...what a great michigan bike! Plenty o' travel for our trails, still light enough to race.

Next bike was a new brand.............Pivot is thebrainchild of the guy that ran Titus forever. They have 2 frames, a 4 and a 5.5 inch travel dualie. I took the 4 incher for a run on Trail #4. (4 is the longest and most technical of the trails out there. I figger I oughta ride 'em all on the same trail, yes?) 'Nother nice bike...........but more "suspension-y" than the C-Dale and I was lukewarm on that. The same company that is bankrolling Pivot also plans to import BH from Spain, in an obvious attempt to be the next Orbea. I rode a fancy carbon one, it felt like a high-end carbon bike but hardly broke new ground.

I found myself @ the Salsa booth talkin' to homeboy Joe and the next thing I know I'm out on the trail on a Mamacita, their Scadium/carbon 29er. nIce rig and I was diggin' the hardtail but it didn't fit all that good and had the widest bars I have ever seen and that was messin' w/ my head. Still............we'd be all over Salsa if we hadn't found Niner, and we still may be someday!

I had to go by the niner booth 4 times to get a ride on their full-sus R.I.P-9. Obviously I'm fairly comfy w/their hardtails but the RIP was on my list. (Besides......I know I'd catch tons of crap from Ted if I didn't ride it) Despite my well-documented ambivilance for both 29-rs and full-sus...............this bike was a blast! The rear suspension wasn't so obvious, despite it's 4.5 inches of boiiing and it kinda rocked! They have a new one for '08, the J.E.T, and it'll be a better Michigan bike w/ 3' of travel and a pound less frame weight.

By this point my legs were feelin' the effects of 5 days of wrenchin' w/out riding in MT and 4 loops of the 4 mile Trail 4. I walked the Expo for a bit, ran into the guys from Loose Spokes in GH, Bob from The Bicycle Shop in Gaylord, Chris Kegel (Fellow JDRF guy) from Wheel adn Sprocket in Wis, etc. Then I figured "Well.I camout here to ride so ...." I grabbed a bike from the Mavic tent to try their fly new RXS wheels. prett swank......hollow carbon spokes on the front and left side of the rear, 1400 grams and dollars. They spun up super fast and were laterally stiffer than the Rolf Elans I currently run............ but those are 100 grams lighter and 400 bux less and stiff enough for my Wide load arse so I dunno. Sweet though.

That was it for me. I ditched the lycra and climbed on the shuttle. 8 hours out in the desert sun and wind and dust done did me in. There's an early morning road ride out to Lake mead that Danielle and I are gonna do, then I'll hang @ the Demo for a bit. I'll get some pictures for ya'll.

Time to finish the hike to my hotel and ditch this trashy tee shirt shop / 'internet cafe"!

Later, MC

TIME FOR 'CROSS!

2007-09-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

What is it about cyclo-cross? It's painful as all hell, I totally suck at it, it involves running, which I prefer to a root canel, but just barely and ..........well.......did I mention that I suck at it?

Still............every time that Fall rolls around and we start gettin' the 'crossers out I realize that in some ways 'cross is my favorite time of year. There's something sweetly subversive about a 'cross bike. There you are........sittin' there as if you're on a road bike but you're lookin' for gnarly shit to ride over and through! It's like you're getting away with something, y'know? I love it.

I love rubbing embrocation on my legs and wearing shorts when I oughta be wearing knicks.

I love the scene........it's casual and serious at the same time. Some dudes are there w/ their new 2500 dolla CX'ers and then there's always some guy on an old Schwinn World Sport w/ flat pedals. (And all too often he's ahead of me!)

I love the sound of the cowbells and the crowd yelling "Hup Hup" as we roll past.

Besides...........you get to rub weird smelly Euro-goop on your shaved legs and no one thinks that you're weird...........how cool is that?!?!?

The 'cross season is well-and-truly underway 'round these parts, there were 2 races last weekend and from now on there wil be at least one every other weekend 'til it all wraps up here in H-Land on 12/8. If you've not checked it out................yaoughta!

All the details @ www.kisscross.com and www.tailwinds.net

Lots goin' on here @ Bike Central. I'm off to MT for the next JDRF Ride on Wed and then I'll be going straight to Vegas for the Interbike show from there. I'll try and post reports on the show every day or so.

Hard to believe that it's Showtime again! Man.......it's been a crazy season! Mostly good......but crazy for sure!

Gotta go...............talk at'cha later!
MC

ODRAM!!!!!!

2007-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Man, what a blast! We had our first-ever Velo Ventures production yesterday as we took 15 "clients" (+ me!) up to the One Day Ride Across Michigan for 150 miles of 2 lane roads and (alas) headwinds from Montegue to Bay City. Jeff and Aaron took real good care of everyone as we worked our way across the state. 'Twas a full and long day..........we gathered here @ the shop @ 4:30 am for the trip up to Montague for the 6:30 start and between eatin' dinner near Bay City and way too much construction on I-75 we didn't get back here 'til just after midnight. Still.......we had a great group of riders, zero mechanicals or issues, everyone rode the entire distance, lunch was great and seeing the van waitin' for us for fill-ups or snacks every 25 miles was perfect. We'll do it again...............plus lots more!

I'm way pumped that we f-i-n-a-l-l-y have the Velo Ventures project off the ground! I was startin' to wonder if we ever would, y'know? It's a big part of where we want the shop to be in the future and even though ODRAM was a relatively small project the fact that it was such a raging success bodes well. Whew!

Damn...............I love a day when I just ride and ride and ride! It was nice not to feel that I was personally responsible for everyone too. Don't get me wrong.............I LOVE the JDRF gig but the rides are more "work" than "ride", y'know? yesterday I was just one of the pack. I dug it.

Hard to believe that I'm only 9 days away from headin west for the next JDRF Ride and then on to Vegas fpor the interbike show. Tons to do! We have lots of extra-cool bike projects goin' @ the moment.......Matt, Luke and Opal's Sevens, Maria, Bob and Frank's Gunnars, 3 Co-Motion tandems and a single...........plus all the regular stuff and an avalanche of "buying season" stuff. All of it needs lotsa baby-sitting.

I know............"whine whine blahblahblah." Fair enough, I'll shut up.

Legs feel pretty good for having 1.5 centuries in 'em. Lina dn I are gonna take the tandem over to the North Side to the Herman Miller JDRF team cook-out later today. That'll probably be plenty of riding!

Be safe!
MC

Okay, this nonsense has got to stop!

2007-09-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

I mean it! Either I'm a "Blog-guy" or I'm not, dammit! If I'm gonna have a Blog I'm gonna hafta do a helluva lot better job keepin' it fresh thatn I've been doing this summer. So......here goes:

It's been a full and challenging summer here at VCC. Theres' been plenty of biz (and thanks for that!) but an unprecedented amount of staff turnover and some other growing pains made for a summer that wasn't as stree-free as we'd like. Still...........a lot of cool stuff happened, we have some new riding buds, there's a lot of sweet new bikes out on the roads and trails and all in all.............'twas a great summer! Ted, Berger and Aaron got married, we got to meet and hang w/ Pea's main squeeze Ella, 12 Hours of Pando was a hoot, the Holland 100 was a monster success, we (sorta) got Velo Ventures up and runnin', the Velo Valeo Vixens Tri Team is a huge success, our fav pro racer had a helluva season in our 1st year of sponsoring her ( go Danielle!)..........the list of Cool Stuff goes on and on.

I was in Whitefish MT a coupla weeks ago doin' the first of the 3 Fall JDRF Rides w/ a 20 rider team from Herman Miller. What a blast! The ride was perfect, the team rode outta their minds, much Good was done, much $ raised to help put a whuppin' on Type 1 diabetes and the "goose bump moments" were plentiful, as always at one of these events. I gotta tell you.......being involved w/ JDRF has become a big part of my life and an ever-increasing part of who I am. It's such a pleasure and honor to be the Coach of the West Mich team. The next ride is Whitefish #2 in a coupla weeks.......I'll actually be the 'Bike Guy' this time 'round.........then the big Death Valley Ride in mid-October. Ted is ridin' DV as well, since his now wife Sarah is a 3 year vet of the program and his new step-daughter Sophie has Type 1 (as well as his In-laws!) Jeff will be in MT w/ us later this month.

Pardon me for mentioning this...........but you can help all 3 of us reach our fund-raising goals if you are so inclined. Itsa piece of cake...........go to ride.jdrf.org, hit "donate" and find any of us. (You gotta use "Michael" and "Theadore" if you're lookin' for me or Ted!) Thanks!

Grattan is done for the year. I f-i-n-a-l-l-y got my shit together and won the last race. We had our 1st cyclo-cross practice last night and I'm way psyched for 'cross! (I'll still suck @ it, but maybe a tiny bit less!?) ODRAM is this Saturday and we have 17 riders signed up for the Velo Ventures sag service. I'm leanin' towards the fixxie.......it'd be 60 miles longer than I've ever ridden a fixed gear (152) and I really wanna do it. I guess I hafta decide pretty dang soon, eh?

I go directly from Whitefish to the Interbike show in Vegas. Hopefully I'll have enough internet access to do nightly posts from the show.

Okay, enough for now. I promise to do a better job of keepin' this current. I have no idea why anyone would care to read it in the first place, frankly, but if yawanna...........it'll be fresh from now on!

Ride on!
MC

Long Time No Blog!

2007-06-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah....sorry 'bout that! (At least.....I apologise to the 2 or 3 of you that actually read this!) It's been full-tilt-boogie crazyness here @ Cool Bike Shop #1 and I've had lots better luck thinkin' 'bout bloggin' that doing it! The little Blogger-Dashboard-Thingy sez that it's been since April since I checked in..............hard to believe but we all know that computers are smart and don't lie, right? (Heavy sarcasm mode - off)

So..........what's gone down since then, eh?

Well........we did a quick trip to the desert for a dose of that sweet Fruita singletrack w/ a red rocks/cowboy blue sky chaser in Moab. 3 days of great riding w/ son Samuel, Doez, Gid and CD. Well worth the drive and the effort. I gotta say..........the riding @ The Bookcliffs north of Fruita is basically the coolest stuff ever! And that's coming from a self-admitted Moabaphile that's been visiting that area for 20 years now. Not a helluva lot to gaze in wonder upon in Fruita mebbe, but the riding is 100% Prime! (If you go.......do not skip a visit to the Hot Tomatoe Cafe downtown...my new fav.)

Lots of changes @ the shop..............Rachel and Jacque G are gone (or almost), joining Lee in the unexpected and unprecedented Spring Exodus. On the other hand....Jeff's been awesome, Da've and Sandy are kickin' serious arse and the rest of us are takin' our pulls @ the front whenever we can. We hired New Guy Aaron to help Ted in the shop... he might look familiar to you if you've been hangin' out downstairs @ The Outpost in the last year or so and we think he's gonna be a great addition to our little family. Biz has been good and the response to our Weekly Rides, Fun-Raiser Series, Bike School offerings and other "projects" has been great. (Details? Check the website!)

The party we threw for the MS-150 riders last weekend was a total blast. We musta had 300-400 riders stop in for snacks, deals on clothing, bike repair emergencies and/or to avail themselves of our resident C.M.T Joy Wilkins and and the restorative power of her massage skills. ( I call her every time I'm hurtin' extra!). We're already makin' plans to go bigger and harder next year!

The JDRF Team is gettin' together, riding and fund-raising and it looks to be a banner season. In our 3rd year we have nearly 60 riders, making us a "Top-5" team in the U.S. of A. and the first ride in Whitefish MT is only about 8 weeks away. (Yikes!)

The Holland Hundred Tour is only 5 weeks away........I gotta get my butt in gear and get some work done on the route!

Jeff's busy gettin' the First-Ever Velo Ventures trips off the ground...........we're runnin' behind but that's cool. We're get 'em goin' and make sure that we lay the groundwork for the future this season.

The band is gettin' busy too. (Figures!) We're playin the Fenn Valley Winery OPen House for the umpteenth time this Saturday.......at least part of it. For the forst time we're sharin' the load w/ another band, Natchez Trace, and we play from 1-3pm. (The weatherman sez 40% chance of rain. The weather's been perfect for every year that we've played. Coincedence? I think not) Then later that day we're doin' a trio thing @ The Curragh next door, so it'll be a busy day!

Speakin' of busy days...........the Lumberjack 100 was last weekend and I finally have a Finisher's Medal after 3 tries! 'Twas a l-o-n-g day but I was able to avoid the cramps and dehydration-induced dementia of past efforts and was able to get this particular monkey offa my back. Feels good. Danielle won, despite her stated intentions to do it for training and the conditions were civil enough (86 degrees, some cloud cover off and on, lower humidity than in years past) that the completion rate was 65%, which was last years' drop-out rate!

Okay, that's gonna hafta do it for now! At least I'm semi-caught up and I'll do a better job of stayin that way, okay?

Okay!

Later...MC

April! Snow! Yuck!

2007-04-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Man, I really don't like it when we get crap weather during Spring break. Much better to have great weather to rub the noses of everyone that went south in. (Guess I need more development as a human, eh?)

Still.........lots of cool stuff goin' down around here. All the weekly rides start next week, the club meetings have been good, plans are firming up for the Fun-Raiser Series, the Holland Hundred, the Ride of Silence, and tons of other fun stuff. It's gonna be a great season and I can not wait!

Big news 'round the shop is that we hired Jeff Wert as the new Cruise Director! He's gonna be awesome to work with, is fulla ideas and keeps saying that retail hours are gonna be a piece o' cake after the restaurant biz. We'll see about that. Still..........it'll be great to make some progress on the Velo Ventures project!

Sent out the Rider's Reader today, so there are 1300+ of the little devils working their way throught the maze of the 'net tryin' to deliver the goods to our mailing list. ( I always get a mental pic of Woody Allen in that "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex" movie, dressed like a sperm and riffin' on the old "You're scared too Sarge?" scene from countless WW2 movies.) Hopefully some of e'm make it.

Rode Owasippe Sunday...I'd forgotten whatta hoot that trail is! Kinda digging the niner too.

The JDRF team is ramping up for a big year. We have folks going to both MT rides and Death Valley. I gotta get to work!

It's gonna be a great season, I can hardly wait. Let's get to it!

You'd think I woulda learned........but no.

2007-03-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

I think mebbe I oughta get my head examined. You'd think that after doin' that team relay 24 hout indoor thing that I'd know better than to decide at the last minute to do last Sunday's 3 hour indoor workout on my rollers.

You'd think that, but you'd be so wrong!

Here's what I was using for "logic", by the way. A 3 hour indoor ride sounded soul-crushingly boring, even w/ riding buds, so I figured that the rollers would help w/ that. In the back of my head I was also thinkin' that my ratty old Minoura rollers w/ a bazillion miles on 'em would offer less resistance than the fluid trainer and that sounded good as well. Besides......I haven't been on my rollers all year, and I don't think I've ever ridden 'em for more than an hour, so that made it a done deal, right?

Right!

I know, I know............not so smart.

We did the ride, it was hard-as-Hell. It was the Spinervals "Tough Love" DVD w/ good 'ol Coach Troy and his band of sweaty subjects alternating seated and standing intervals for 180 l-o-n-g minutes. Ugh. Even w/ the lighter resistance of the rollers all that out of the saddle stuff took it's toil and I was doin' the "Hey my quads are killin' me" walk 'til about Tuesday night.

Only rode off of them 4 times, which ain't bad for 3 hours, right?

Otherwise, 'twas a quiet week here @ VCC. The big (and not-so-great) news is that yesterday was Lee's last day. I know it was coming, the fdrive in from Middleville all winter was weighin' heavy on the man and I was afraid that he'd break before the weather did so he could ride in. It's been great to have him in the house, we'll miss him and we wish him nothing but the best, even if he is gonna be spinnin' wrenches for those wankers @ Ada Bike Shop! (Joke) (Sort of)
What's the plan, you ask? Da've's gonna throw in w/ a bunch more hours on the sales floor, that'll free Rach up to do smoe wrenching, which she's actually damn good at and we're sniffin' around a bit for a new face or two. Never fear...........we got it covered!

The weather is kind of a drag, typical Michigan Late Winter tease-and-switch trick. I fall for it every damn time too. New website is up. Not done, but up. I did the little bike shop deal @ The Rapid Wheelman club meeting in GR last night, that was fun. Lots to do......JDRF stuff, Macatawa club stuff, band stuff, shop stuff, home stuff.................whew!

Our son Samuel is almost 3 weeks into his Appachian Trail hike. He calls every 4-6 days or so and he and his trailmates (Boyz 2 Maine) are doing great and having a blast. I'm jealous as Hell, 'natch. Send any extra good karma you got his way, will ya?

Speaking of karma.............I thikn we need to create the word "bikema". As in it's "Good Bikema"to take your pulls @ the front and "Bad Bikema" to not wait for someone w/ a flat. Hmmm.....might be the next VCC tee!

Gotta go..............thanks for reading, assuming that you did. Later, MC

24 hours of indoor training is plenty!

2007-02-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing that no one's thinking that I oughta be surprised to find that out, eh? Last weekend I spent a l-o-n-g day @ Ultimate Fitness here in Holland riding to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation w/ about 150 other folks. The shop was a sponsor so we had a team (MC Hammer and the Velo Vixens....catchy huh?) and we had a JDRF team there as well, doing the 12-hour event. What a hoot! Live bands, videos, a DJ (yuck!) and 26 teams grindin' away on trainers or spin bikes lookin' to achieve higher conciousness via sweat and sleep deprivation and to do the Good Thing and help put a whuppin' on the big C.

The VCC team was Rach, Jessica Ossting of Valeo Personal Training (hit the link on our new website), Carmen Hannah of Team One Services (speakin' of the new website) and the Bocks...Nate and Elizabeth...in addition to me-own-self. We all rode a bunch...EB had 80 miles on her odo.....hung out and had fun.

The JDRF team was Ted from the shop, his main squeeze Sarah, David, Mary, Joe and Rob...Death Valley vets all. ('cept for T, and he's goin' this year!) Oh.....and me.

What a cool event! Well run, well supported, lots of fun and they raised over 21 grand for the Good Fight.

When it comes around next season..................you oughta do it!

Let's see....what else is goin' on? The Soup Ride last weekend was a good 'un. We had plenty of soup since we only had 9 riders by the time we started dishin' up the soups. It was kinda cold I guess, but I was hopin' for a bigger turn-out. Still.............'twas fun!

Crazy Bastard Rides are goin' strong and are still my fav rides of the week. The indoor rides are consistantly drawin' 9-14 riders every Wed and Sat and we've been doin' some Super Sunday Special Suffer Sessions every 2-3 weekends too. (Details on the website). It's kinda sunny as I write this and that'll probably kick off the first stirrings of Spring Fever amongst the troups......hope we're ready!

I was in GA this time last week, droppin' off my son Sam for his Appalachian Trail adventure. He and his buds ( "Boys 2 Maine" ) are a week into the hike as of now and havin' a blast. I'm so jealous! We stayed @ a Hostel that would be perfect as a basecamp for a trip to ride the Tour of Georgia loops that are right there. Maybe next month?

On the less-than-great news front Lee gave me his 2 weeks notice last Friday. Sigh. I know it was just a matter of time....the boy just ain't built to commute 60-80 minutes one way to his gig....but it's still a bit of a drag. We'll miss him! (Still..........if you know someone that's lookin' for a wrench gig........now'd be the time to step up!)

Still...........Bke Life and more precisely Velo Life is good. We're ready for Spring to get here but resigned to having to wait a bit. The shop's ful of cool stuff and it's gonna be a great season! We (and when I say "We" I mean "Us and you and everyone else") just gotta hang in there for 4-6 more weeks and then.............Look out!

Later, MC

One Cold-Arse Ride!

2007-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

These pics are from a Sunday Afternoon "Crazy Bastards West" ride out in Allegan Woods. That's Jasker in disguise on the upper left, CD, Me, Surly, JJ and Berger on the upper right and one of my infamous self-portraits to the left doin' the "Beard-sicle".

Last Thursday Night I went to GR for the Crazy Bastard Ride that I try and do every week. (www.cbcross.com - but be forewarned of the chance of encountering adult language and rampant outbreaks of surliness and attitude!) The weatherman was callin' for temps in the 'teens so I was anticipating a small-ish turn-out.

Not.

As it turns out, 'tis weather that most folks would pass on riding in that pushes the CB buttons....Im shoulda known. I joined 10-11 other riders for a 2+ hour jaunt on the frozen dirt roads out along the eastern edge of Grand Rapids. We had a blast, there was a minimum of whimpering and whining and the post-ride chili @ The Honey Creek Inn went down oh-so-fine!
I was thinking that there might be some small level of interest in me goin' through the gear I employed ot stay warm @ 15 degrees..........for those of you that don't currently ride this time o' year but are intrigued by the idea.......so here's what was and wasn't workin' for me on this particular ride:
On my head I had a fairly thin lycra-fleece balaclava, IE one of those "hood things" that go under your chin and cover the lower part of your face. Not the thing ot be wearing if you stop @ a 7-11 perhaps but a must in temps below 32 or so. Some of my riding buds were wearing fleece neck muffs or some such thing, but my head was fine. A little more coverage wouldn't have hurt....I was a tad worried about a coupla dead spots on my cheekbones, but they came back okay.
On my upper body I was able to go fairly light....a sleeveless baselayer under a wool long sleeve and then my Pearl Izumi Vento jacket, since discontinued. A pity too, 'cuz that dude is way warm! This set-up was perfect, I even unzipped a bit once in awhile to cool off a bit.
I had Pearl Amfib bibs over knickers on the bottom half. First time I've done that and it might've been just a tiny little bit overkill. Kinda bulky........but warm!
I had Smartwool liner gloves under my Pearl Amfib gloves.......my fingers were numb 'til I warmed up then they were great. So great in fact that I gave the liners to Gid 'cuz his hands were not comin' back 80 minutes into the ride. Then my fingers got cold again, of course, but I made it back.
My feet were the only part of me that was uncomfortable for the whole ride.....I was tryin those disposable insole heaters but I was still hurtin' pretty much the whole ride despite the wool socks and booties. I'd say over half the dudes I ride with in the winter have some kind of insulated winter riding shoes and I might hafta try 'em. ( Actually I ordered some over-the-top Sidi rechargeable insoles.......I'll let'cha know how they work!)
So...that was the set-up. Worked pretty dang good when you think about being out in 15-ish degree weather @ 15 mph or so for 2+ hours. Still tryin' stuff, but I think I'm gettin' it down pretty good. My friends Dan and Danielle go out for much longer rides that that and they do okay too, so it ain't that hard!

Lots of other stuff goin' on, of course. The indoor rides have been rocking, we've been throwing in Sunday rides in addition to the scheduled ones on Wed and Sat and that's a special little slice of Hell to be sure! Join us here @ 8:00 on Wed night or Sat morning and we'll also be here @ 1:30 on Sunday this week.

The next 'Fun-Raiser" is 2/11.....it's the 2nd ever Soup Ride! 2:00 here for a road ride, then soup and beer and such. How could that be a bad thing?

Hard to believe that it's nearly Feb already! Damn...talkin' about how time flies is so cliche' but it's so hard to avoid! At this rate we'll be knee-deep in the season before we know it! And there's so much to do!

Ted's building up a sweet Gunnar Sport right now......I just glanced over to take a peek at it. It's a bee-yoo-ti-ful silver to blue fade, Rolf wheels, Ultegra compact........damn nice bike. They do good wirk over there in Waterford Wis and I'm glad we're hooked up w/ those folks.......even if it is hard to get off the phone when Richard calls!

Okay.....if I'm reduced to talkin' inside-industry gossip it's time to go! Talk at'cha again soon.

KIT CITY BAY-BEE!!!!!!

2007-01-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

Well, the long-awaited day is here and so are the brand-spankin'-new VCC kits! Man, we've been waitin' for-frickin'-ever for this stuff seems like! My pulse rate was up as I opened the box...........what if I didn' like 'em, how bad would that suck?

No worries................the jerseys rock, the bibs are prime-o-licious and the arm-warmers are...........................well.............................let's just say they finish off the kit just exactly right.

Can't wait to be seen sportin' it!

Lots' going on. Seems weird to not have had a Fun-Raiser for so long but there's one comin' up on 2/11. We had the first Special Sunday Super Suffer Session last week, there were 9 hapless souls here for 90 minutes of Coach Troy nonsense. Big fun!

We had a huge turnout for the JDRF kick Off Party last week as well. I think we're gonna have a big team full of cool people. It never fails to mess w/ me when I have a sec to contemplate just how awesome a program this is! I feel awfully fortunate to be able to be a part of it and that's no jive. I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the year, training manuals, training plans, ride schedules..........man, I better get on it!
(By the way.....if you are wondering what I'm talkin 'about here, check out ride.jdrf.org for the scoop on a very cool way to ride your bike and make a difference @ the same time.)

The Crazy Bastard Rides are more fun every week, it seems like it gets more fun as the conditions get "crazier"! Go figure! Check out the website @ cbcross.com but be warned.....they can be surly! Consider yourself warned.

The shop is rocking, at least for January. Lots of new bikes to build including a gorgeous new Co-Motion tandem, Cannondale 29'ers, lotsa road bikes, the way-cool Amsterdam town machine from Electra and lots more.

The indoor training rides are rocking like never before. We've had as many as 14 people lined up drippin' sweat on our sweet new shop tile floor and stinkin' up the joint. Wanna join us? C'mon down! 8:00 wed night and Sat mornings and the more the merrier.

I'm glad we're gettin 'some winter, even if I'm not doing much skiing these days. It was kinda cool being able to ride outside w/out 500 bux worth of gear, and I rode the first 16 days of the year, but I still like a bit o' winter, y'know? Still..........I'll be ready for Spring in a month or so.

The big exciting news 'round here s our 100% RE-VAMPED WEBSITE! by the end of the month it'll be up and rocking w/ new words, new pix, fun stuff and the ability for you s\to sit @ home in your PJ's (maybe like right now) and satisfy your hunger for VCC stuff right then and there. How cool is that?
Okay, gotta go, time to meet the 2 bee-yoo-ti-ful ladies in my life for dinner. Lucky me!

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring or at least being curious (or maybe bored!)

Later............MC

A new year (and a confession)

2007-01-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

So..............2007 is finally here and we've all (hopefully) survived the hype and the parties and all that crap. I've never been a big New Years' Eve party kinda guy and don't reckon that I ever will be................but it was nice to be w/ friends as we closed the books on '06 and looked ahead to '07.

The thing is................'06 was a GREAT year! Danielle and I were talkin' about that very thing as we rolled into town towards the end of the New Year's Day Ride last Monday. Both of us agreed that we'd be more-than-happy if ought-seven turned out to be as good as ought-six was.

Now....having said that.....I want more, naturally. More riders on our JDRF team, more folks @ the shop rides, more buddies ridin' more bike more often. A little more business here @ VCC World Headquaters would be fine too, natch, but in general Bike Life was a rare and fine thing all last year and we're very grateful for that. (We're grateful for you too, if you played any part in that!) I think it was my main man Edward Abbey that said that "uncontrolled growth is the idealogy of the cancer cell" and I try to keep that in mind and remember that bigger isn't always better and more isn't always what'cha want or need.

The big news @ the shop is that we're almost done w/ re-doing the service area so Ted, Lee, Berger and everyone else that picks up a wrench'll have a cooler and more efficient area to work in. New flooring (installed by part-time wrench and full-time hanger-outer Doez) and a new workbench/counter/bar cooked up for us by riding bud/JDRF rider/semi-hanger-outer John J were the first 2 big steps. Once we get the workstands mounted up to the system I stole from the Chili Pepper shop out in Moab...........we're good to go!

Lotsa cool stuff rollin' in...........the first load of Electra Amsterdam town bikes is here and they look every bit as cool as when we saw 'em in Vegas. Kind of a pisser to assemble what with the lights and rack and "fender skirts" and all...........but way cool. The VCC kit is en route as I write this and we'll see it this week, hopefully. ("Kit" in this context is bike talk for custom shop jerseys, bib shorts and arm-warmers but you knew that, yes?) We've delivered a coupla Niners, folks are lookin' at road bikes and as we head into the "quiet time" around here there's plenty to do!

We're kinda back to square one on the whole "Cruise Director" position. Julia took a shot @ it but it wasn't to be so we're lookin' for that unique person that wants to be involved w/ a cool bike shop and manage our new touring company and also what passes for 'marketing" around here. It could be a full-time gig for the right person.......or it might be 2 part-time gigs. Regardless......if you have any interest get ahold of me @ velocity587@hotmail.com so we can talk about it!

The January newsletter goes out tomorrow. I'm a little tardy 'cuz I wanted to wait 'til Ted got back from vacation and pick his brain about Tool School classes for this winter. If you don't get one by late Thursday (1/4) shoot me an e-mail at the address up there in the last paragraph and I'll get'cha one!

It's time to get crackin' on the JDRF front too. We have our big "Celebrate 2006 / Kick Off 2007" party comin' up on Tuesday 1/9 in GR. If you have any interest in joinin' the fastest growing JDRF team in the whole dang US of A consider yourself invited to the bash! Again.......lemme know by e-mail if you wanna come (so I can RSVP ya) or if you have questions about the whole deal. You can check out www.jdrf.org/ride too.

Man..............I've been runnin off at the mouth (fingers?) so much here that I almost forgot about the "confession" part of this post. Must be 'cuz I'm so ashamed over what's laying so heavy on my heart..................but that's the point of confession, right? At least partly. So......here it goes:

I quit riding my bike to work in about October and have been driving.
I know...............I know...............I know better than that and I suck. I have no excuse. I got seduced by the Dark Side, which in this case is represented by my "new" car.....a '94 Jeep Wrangler. It's just a car, y'know? Just a damn fossil-fuel vehicle. But.........I had a soft-top Jeep back in the day and i've always wanted another one. It pushes what few car buttons I have and when I drive it I feel like George Hayduke in the Monkey Wrench Gang tryin' to elude Bishop Love's search and Rescue squad down near the Maze west of Moab. (If that doesn't ring a bell.....run don't walk to the nearset library or book store and get The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey and read it. Right now. I'll wait). It's a dumb car that fails the main test of a car's viability'cuz it sucks at carryin' bikes and yet I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
I am weak and I apologise to my sport, my town, my country and my world.
It's a new year..................time to examine my weaknesses and shortcoming and try to do better.
I'll ride to work tomorrow. I promise.
Thanks to Zac-from-Seattle for reminding me to put my muscles where my mouth is.
Thanks to Rach and Lee for showing us all how to do it last year as they racked up mega-mileage commuting here from GR and Middleville.
Thanks to everyone that rides when they can, 'cuz every little bit helps.
Thanks again for a great year in '06..........let's have another great one, okay?

Later, MC

The Last Fun-Raiser of the Year......must be December!

2006-12-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been a helluva year when I take a sec to think back on it! it's been busy-like-mad here @ the shop and the rides have been bigger 'n better than ever, the JDRF Rides continue to grow (Montana and Death Valley were both awesome in completely different ways) , the Kokopelli Trail trip was an experience and a memory that's better to "have" than to "have been doing", our trip to the bike show was the usual hoot and 'cross season 'twas more fun than ever! (More painful too!)

We had the last Fun-Raiser of 2006 here yesterday. I called it the "Pavement Pounding Pizza Party" and we had about 50 riders anxious to take advantage of the mid-Dec sunshine. (Which we lost about halfway throught the ride)

I swear........half the group musta been from GR! Between Danielle bringin' her buds and me gettin' to know all those Crazy Bastards (www.cbcross.com) we see more from the Big Town every ride! Kinda cool. Hell.......more of the VCC staff lives in GR than in Holland so maybe it ain't that weird, huh?

We did 20-ish in a pretty nasty SW wind then demolished nearly a dozen large pizzas from Subs-n-More and lotsa refreshing frosty beverages from our good friends @ The Curragh Irish Pub next door.

Speaking of The Curragh.......they're the first biz in downtown to offer valet parking. That's right......head on down to check out'cher favorite bike shop on Friday night and they'll park your car for you! Just pull up out front. (And maybe stop in there for a snack when you're done over here!) No word on valet bicycle parking yet, however.

The long-awaited Velo City Pub Glass is here. A full Imperial pint mind you, not one of those sissy 16 ouncers. They rock.

The even-more-eagerly-awaited VCC kit is 5 weeks away and we cannot wait! Stop in and check out the design next time you're in the area........we think you'll dig it.

Man, there's just a ton of stuff to do and a ton of stuff going on! That Gerry Barnaby dude from Channel 41 called Rach about an article they're doing on bike commuters, the JDRF team for '07 is starting to form, cool bikes and bikestuff rolls in every day...........I need to learn to do w/ out sleep!

We're lookin' for prospective Velo-Citizens for the upcoming season, natch. Gimme a shout or stop by if that little nugget of info tickles your fancy at all.

Gotta go...............thanks for reading, thanks for caring about the shop, thanks for ridin' w/ us!

Don't forget the New Year's Day Ride here @ 1:00pm!

MC

The 'Cross season is over (for this boy at least!)

2006-12-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

So....we went over to the "east side" for the State Cyclo-cross Championships this past Sunday. The Third Coast had a decent representation.........HUP-sters Mossimo, Doez, new-friend-John-from-Kalamazoo and myself, Crazy Bastards Surley and Jeff, Jason from Slingshot and Scott ridin' for Founders, Mr kissCross his-own-self, Tom from the W.M.C.R. and Slingshot Pro and Crazy Bastard-ette Danielle were all racing plus we had CD, Brother Jurrian, Sweet T, Krisanne and M2 ringin' the cowbells. A buncha us lined up for the 10:00am "C" race and off we went. Damn, it was cold and gettin colder every minute! I was the only one the entire day to race w/ bare legs, but I had a bunch of embrocation slathered on my legs, not to mention my toes, earlobes and lower back. We did 4 laps of a long and fairly flat course that wound all over the grounds of the Waterford Raceway. (Looked a lot like Grattan) There was a bitchy run-up following some barriers, a little singletrack, a stretch of roadway and a lot of grindin' down long bumpy grass straights. Hard..... but not a killer. After 2 laps everything sorted itself out loke it usually does and it was pretty much a painful processional to the finish line. I flet better that last week........which ain't sayin' much at all.......but still pretty much brought up the rear. We done good though..........Mossimo was 7th (I think) overall, which was good enough to make him the FRIKKIN' STATE CHAMP in the 35-49 class! Surley was good for the #2 spot on the podium in the 50+ class and I was one lone spot off the podium in 4th. Rats. Doez and Rick/aka Snake/aka Mr. KissCross both had good rides too, finishing up there towards the middle of the pack overall.
In the "B" race we totally embarrassed John-from-Kalamazoo w/ our fervish shouts of "HupHupHup!!!" anytime he was in sight. He was in a chase group w/ Jason and 2 others and they stayed together 'til the bitter end.
Then, after a trip inside to thaw a bit it was time for the Elite Wmn / Masters event. Danielle and Scott lined up and off they went. Danielle settled down about 4 laps in..............she's more used to those "all day sucker" events after all.........and she was 3rd overall and #2 in the state when the dust settled. Scott had a good race but I'm not sure where he placed. Looked good though.
We watched the big boys through squinting eyes over chattering teeth...........it just colder and colder all dang day. Then it was off to the local pub for chow and fluids and then a long and semi-sketchy drive home. Long day, but a good one.

Here's the thing................I am in love w/ the idea of 'cross! I think it's so cool and I wish I was better at it than I am. Dudes that I beat all season long on the road crush me at 'cross every damn race and I keep sayin' that I'm gonna be ready for the season next year.

Yeah......that's right.....I'm gonna be ready for 'cross next year! Yeah, that's the ticket!

We'll see.

Lots goin' on @ the shop..............gotta ride this Sunday, gotta get the Newsletter out, gotta get ready for the Holidaze. Bike life remains good.............hope all is "groovey and flowing" on your end. (To quote Bob Roll)

See you later!

Fixin' to have a great day!

2006-11-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

So....wednesday was one of those "bonus" days that we sometimes get 'round these parts late in November.......unseasonably warm, lots of sun.......all the good stuff. I had the day off and I've been instructed by the staff in no uncertain terms to "stay the hell outta the shop on your day off!!!" so I thought I oughta get a buncha riding in.

I met Rach, Berger and Julia @ the shop for the morning ride (it's okay......it was before we opened!) and we rolled east. 'Twas chilly @ 8:30, we all had full tights, booties and such on but a lovely morn as we cruised around out Overisel way. We had 3 fixxies on the ride which gave us a chance to give Julia crap for being a "coastie" and a "shiftie" but she's kinda new so we took it easy on her. Musta not taken it easy enough though, as karma gave me a boot in the ass by havin' Berger strip the threads off of his (mine!) track hub about 5 miles from the shop. Now......what that means to you non-fixed types is that he couldn't pedal and that I had to push his arse back to the shop. Rach helped up the big climb on Country Club but our boy Berger is what we used to call "full grown" back in the day and combined w/ the fact that I was already pushing a fairly stiff gear on my Sofa King...............it was plenty of load on my old knees.

Still ......we had to detour to the bagel joint, natch.........it was pretty flat by then!

Back @ the shop I traded the Sofa King for my latest fixxie....the "Glow Worm" and headed east to meet Danielle @ Townsend Park for some dirt roads. (The Glow Worm is my old Surly Cross Check, set up as a fixxie and painted fluorescent yellow. And when I say "fluorescent", I mean it!) We rolled outta Townsend Park and worked our way east and north, neither of us knowing exactly where we were going but havin' a blast on all those sweet hard-packed dirt roads. It was so sweet to be comfy in knicks and a l/s jersey too! We did a coupla hours and then ran into Crazy Bastard Brethren Mark and Bill as we got back to the park. Next thing I knew.............we were riding back out w/ them and did another hour or so. As we split off from them and turned back towards the park I commented that I was "officially tired" and Danielle was kind enough to pretend to agree. All in all I was lucky enough to get almost 5 hours of riding in, all off it fixed, on 2 different bikes w/ 6 different riding buds.

See what I mean when I say that Bike Life is grand?

And grand it is! There's so much goin' on @ the shop that I can hardly wait for 2007! If you haven't made a habit of checkin' Danielle's blog yet.....yaoughta! (www.daniellemusto.blogspot.com) She' gonna be great to work with and to ride with and she's so in tune w/ what we wanna do and be as a shop that this really feels like a no-brainer match up. I just wish that she'd asked me sooner!
The shop is fillin' up with coolness from Gunnar, Niner, Cannondale, Chrome, Seven, Electra, Bianchi......you name it. The Tuesday Night Dirt Road Ride (aka crazy Bastards West) has been a hoot and the next Fun-Raiser is scheduled for 12/10. There's just a ton of stuff comin' up and I can hardly wait!

So.........'Black Friday" I hate that crap! I know that we're a retail store and all that but this nonsense of talking about the "post-Thanksgiving selling season" is such a drag. And don't even get me started on the idea of camping out overnight to get a deal on a TV or a Play Station. Gimme a break!

Okay.....Rant Mode off and I'd better shut up before I tick someone off (again). It's gonna be a great weekend.......there's the last 'cross race of the series this Sunday here in town (www.kisscross.com) and that 'oughta be a blast. Hopefully the good weather has dried up the area and the boyz were able to design a fun course.

See you there!

Long day!

2006-11-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

This is a self-portrait that I took after another l-o-n-g freakin' day on our self-supported Kokopelli tour last August.

Dang! Whatta a big weekend!

2006-11-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

Y'know........big weekends aren't all that unusual for this boy, but this last one was XL even for me. I did my first 'cross race of the season on Saturday, the usual mud-n-slop-fest @ Manhattan Park in GR. I love the idea of cyclo-cross....which makes the fact that I suck @ it so much kinda hard to take.I've been outta town and/or injured for the first 3 races in Buddy Rick's KissCross series (www.kisscross.com) and I was lookin' forward to making the last 2. I had no illusions about my fitness and low expectations.I was just hoping that I wouldn't be last or hafta drop out. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the middle of the pack and enjoying myself once we got the race started. The course was great.......lotsa mud, some boggy single-track, a big downhill that fellow Crazy Bastard MD had broken up w/ a set of switchbacks, a hard-all-Hell run-up on the same hillside that featured a chunks-blowing mudbog @ the top, a little pavement.........6 laps was plenty for Mrs Clark's favorite son to be sure but the bike worked aces, I kept it upright and rolled in 24th outta 40-ish. Fellow HUP-sters Mossimo and Doez were 11th and 30-somthing-ish respectivly, aforementioned Crazy Bastard Dettman was in the top 15 I think and newly-sponsored VCC rider Danielle was 8th overall and 1st woman. I hung 'round for the A race for a bit, watchin' Russ slay all and Nate kick arse in 2nd and hit it for home. I rode in shorts and took the opportunity to conduct an "Embrocation Comparison Test" I had just gotten 2 new kinds of heat cream to try, SportsBalm, which all my West Coast "cross buds swear by and Qoleum, which MD uses and I have comin' in for the shop. I did up one leg w/ each in the hope that I could tell you one was better that the other but........the results were inconclusive. Both were okay, I coulda used a bit more heat but I was okay. More tests!

After a bike-wash session and a rest it was off to the Sandbar in Saugatuck for a Last Call gig. Good night.......great crowd, lotsa friends showed up, we played pretty good, big fun! Made for a l-o-n-g day though, since we played 'til about 1:40AM and it was nearly 3:00 before I got home.

Sunday was the Chilly Chili Ride @ the shop. What a blast! Someone told me they stopped countin' riders @ 70! Big crowd, mebbe the biggest Fun-Raiser ever! Lotsa folks from GR......thanks in part to Danielle and fellow Crazy Bastard Jim talkin' our rides up w/ their buds.Thanks guys! The route was good.....26 miles goin' east from the shop, down PawPaw and around past Ridgepoint and up through Overisel then over to Graafschaap and back in. There were the inevitable splits and different groups but who wants a pack of 70-some riders on the road anyways? There was the typical "We show up for the rides but never set foot in the shop" performance from the Jade crew but that's cool......more food for everyone else.I do wonder what's in it for them, though. There were 11-12 pots of chili and soup waitin' here when we got back, not to mention lotsa brownies, cookies, cornbread and beer courtesy of our friends and neighbors @ The Curragh next door.(Thanks Dave!)Everyone hung out here for a coupla hours, shootin' the shit and talkin' bikes.......it was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The next ride is the Pavement Poundin' Pizza Party on the 10th of December. Mark your calendars!

I got a chance to finally debut my glow-in-the-dark dirt road fixxie on the last Crazy Bastard ride last Thursday night in GR.The ride was faster-n-usual but I was able to hang, pretty much anyways. The paint job doesn't actually glow w/ the light of all the high-end headlights on everyone's bikes but it did look cool and all dangerous-like leanin' up against my Jeep before we headed to the Inn for the post-ride repast. I was testing out a new light: the "Joystick" from U.S.E. It's about the size of an El-Mark-o marker, totally self-contained and burned for the 2:15 duration of the ride w/ light to spare. It rocked.

Lotsa other cool stuff happenin' @ the shop........got some sweet Gunnar frames in...Jane's extra-sweet Seven touring bike went home, lookin' all gorgeous-like in natural ti, black and pink...there are lotsa Chrome bags in route...the new shop kit is being produced as we speak...Lee got my Niner s/s finished and I'm gonna get a chance to ride it asap...........Man, bike life is good!

Rememeber, if yawanna get our e-newsletter lemme know at velocity587@hotmail.com and I'll hook ya up. You can always check out www.club-velo.com too for up-to-the-minute scoop on shop happenings.

Later...........MC

Death Valley Days (or is that "daze"?)

2006-10-29T06:18:00.000-08:00

So.........how to explain our team's trip to the '06 Death Valley Ride to Cure last weekend? Like every JDRF ride I've been lucky enough to attend it was such a powerful and emotional experience that I have a hard time describing it. ( As you know however, that won't stop me from trying!)

There's a lotta words here and it won't hurt my feelings if you feel the need to (in the words of Brother Maynard) "Skip a bit Brother".

39 riders and support folks set out for Death Valley via Sin City last week. The majority of us flew in on Thursday and caught a shuttle bus from the Vegas airport out to the Furnace Creek Ranch, which is nestled in a sweet little oasis full of mequite, cottonwood and palm trees smack dab in the center of DV Nat'l Park. It's about 200' below sea level as well. The West Michigan team is one of the largest (and the fastest growing) in the country and despite the name of our chapter is comprised of riders from as far afield as Chicago and Detroit. Thursday was my first chance to meet some of them that I had only communicated w/ via e-mail or the phone so that was way-cool. It was drag that 2 of our long-time riders who had been fighting injuries all season had to drop out on the eve of the ride but other than that the team seemed ready for the ride. We spent Friday engaged in a variety of pursuits all calculated to make Saturday go smoothly........a short "tune-up" ride, lying by the pool, lunch, a big pasta dinner, etc. We hung out together for a bit after dinner and I held a brief team meeting to get an idea of what everyone's plans and goals were for the big day. The weather had been perfect thus far........nice and cool in the mornings and at night, clear as a bell and completely windless.

Too bad that wouldn't last!

I got up Sat morning @ 4:45 and headed for the breakfast buffet. Gotta have time to digest, y'know? The first thing I noticed was the heat........right then, almost 2 hours before dawn it was alreadt hotter that it was @ 10:00 in the morning on Friday. Uh oh. Then I forgot about the temp when I realized that the wind was blowin' like stink! The flags were snapping on their poles all over the ranch. "Gonna be a l-o-n-g day" I said to myself as I met up w/ members of the team and we started fillin' our plates and bellies.

And so it was. We rolled out @ around 6:45, 250-some riders bound for Jubilee Pass and dreaming of finding a cure for diabetes. I drifted towards the back, as I'm inclined to do whether coaching or....alas... racing) and watched most of my team, including asst. coaches Rach and Patrick roll up the road. It was good to know that they'd be keepin' an eye on the fasted folks so I could bring up the rear and make sure that everyone was safe and having a good ride. WE got to the first breakpoint in good shape and the second one, Mormon Point was a good place to fuel up. It was hot, about 90, but everyone seemed to be dealing w/ it well. The wind was at our backs, so I kept reminding my riders that, despite what I'd been telling them all summer, they weren't gonna be halfway when they reached their farthest point away from the start. (Note.....most of the JDRF rides, including DV are "out and back" routes) Some of the folks I was with were startin' to feel it as we drew near the 45 mile breakpoint that denotes the start of the climb up to Jubilee Pass. A few decided to turn around there and I started up the climb w/ Eiko, Steve and Katie. It's a real climb......7+ miles @ an average grade of 6% so it tends to wear on you. Katie was a little dehydrated so we decided that it'd be best for her to go back to the breakpoint and recover. The rest of us kept on grindin' up to the welcome sight of the aid station that waits just this side of the sign marking both the pass and the turn-around point. I sent my riders down and stayed up there w/ some other coaches and spent some time riding partway down and helping other riders get to the top 'til we recieved word that everyone that was planning on doing the full ride had finished the climb. At that point I headed down the 35-45 mph descent, hell-bent on catchin' my riders and helping them get home into the 20-30mph headwinds that were our destiny for the rest of the day. I stopped to help a rider from NYC w/ a flat tire so by the time I got to the breakpoint @ the foot of the climb my team mates had taken off. Asst National Coach Tim and I gathered a group of 6-7 riders and formed a paceline into the wind. Everytime our speed went over 10 mph it came apart so I went to the front, checked my cyclometer and settled in for a long pull. We lost riders at every subsequent breakpoint and ended up with a surplus of coaches and just a few riders as almost everyone called it a day as we drag-assed our way in. I caught up w/ Rachel @ the 10-miles-to-go water stop and sg\he was riding w/ Mark and Eiko, the last 2 members of our team still riding. It was gettin' dark at this point but they dug deep and we got them in just before "dusk" became "dark". I waited w/ all the other coaches @ the turn-off to the ranch so we could all ride in w/ retiring Head Coach Jay Handy and we rolled in @ about 6:30 or so to a lot of cheers and tears (and beers!)

After a quick shower it was off to the palm grove for dinner and celebration. In what will no doubt be revealed as a mis-count I was voted "Most Motivational Coach" for the ride and much food and drink was consumed and merriment and fellowship was observed being had.

Here's the thing that I wanna tell you.....................I've spent a decent chunk of my "adult" life going out of my way looking for those "goosebump moments", y'know? Those few times that the hair raises up on your arms to let'cha know that at that moment you are where you should be, doing what you should be doing and with who you're supposed to be with. I've had a few while rock climbing back-in-the-day w/ my buds on the Ragged Edge Climbing Team, on rides in Moab, during a gig now and then...............but by definition they are hard to come by, right?
Well..............in Death Valley that weekend goosebump moments were everywhere ! To spend 3-4 days surrounded by 250 passionate and commited people is a real charge for this boy! I'm really fortunate to be allowed to be a part of the JDRF thing and I can't wait for next year! I wanna thank my team again..............you guys completely rock and I was so proud of each and every one of you in Death valley, Whitefish and Asheville.

There's gonna be as many as 6 rides in 2007, contact me if you're curious!

Other than that..............bike life is sweet and fine. There's tons goin' on here @ VCC. Julia Miller has joined us in the "Cruise Director" role........her gig will be to take over all the rides and tech support and to estart working on Velo Ventures which will become our Trips and Tours division. We're lucky to have her. Ted and Lee are en route to Iceman as I type. I hate that race but I'm still jealous-as-all-hell that they're racin' and I'm not. I'm totally excited that we're signed on to be Danielle Musto's sponsoring bike shop for 2007 too! She's the perfect rider for us to be involved with.......a nice person, fun to ride with and faster'n crap! She's the #2 ranked endurance woman mountainbiker in the country and we're gonna have a blast workin' w/ her!The Pineapple Bob Classic was just that......a classic! We had 40-ish riders and I got lotsa comments that it was the best P-Bob route ever from many veterans. The Chilly Chili Ride is coming up on the 12th and that'll be a biggie too. I'm workin' on the Nov Reader, tryin' to ride and get ready for my '06 KissCross debut (I'm gonna suck!) and completely enjoying al the dirt road night rides I'm doing w/ the Crazy Bastards in GR and the new ride we started on Tuesday nights from Hamilton. Plus the band has gigs the next 2 weekends. (www.tlcb.com)

My guess is that if you're still reading this you skipped a bunch and I can't say that I blame you! There's just a lot to cover, y'know?

Talk to you later, come riding w/ us!

"What's new?"

2006-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Man, there is so much new 'round here that I don't know where to start! Howzabout we start w/ all the new stuff that we're gonna have here @ the shop for this winter and next season? Here goes............

Niner bikes in the house! As a group we'ven been struggling w/ the whole 29R thing all season. Ted absolutely loves his Salsa Dos Niner but I've been unimpressed to say the least. Rach got a Karate Monkey but doesn't have have a ton of miles on it, Doez is on my side of the fence and Lee, as per usual, wisely listens to everyone else and keeps his thoughts to himself. (He's kinda Zen that way) So...one of our major agendas @ the show was to ride as many 29R's as we could get our butts on, both to decide how we felt about 'em overall and to find the cream of the crop.
(By the way..........for those of you who may be wondering whatinthehell a "29R" is.......good question and I'm glad you stopped me. 29R's are mountainbikes w/ bigger wheels, the rim size is the same as a road wheel and the outside diameter, nominally anyways, is 29" 'stead of the standard 26. They've been around for about 6-8 years, neither catching on or going away. After the initial buzz wore off they became pretty much a niche...........kept alive mostly by smaller builders and single-speeders. And then lately........re birth!)
So, out in Bootleg Canyon we tested 29R's on the crazy, rocky trails out there outside o' Sin City. Cannondales, Salsas, (Salsas? Is that a word?) and.....Niners. The results were painfully obvious. All four of us felt that the Niner frames out-handled everything else we'd ridden, that day or ever. As a result.....currently there are 8 Niner frames hangin' here right in front of me. One of 'em's mine and I'm really lookin' forward to gettin' some real miles on it.

Here's a semi-funny thing and a small confession- I was hoping that we'd all like the Salsa frames the best. It'd be easy to be a Salsa dealer......we deal w/ their parent company every week and in a big way, I dig the names (Mamacita! Dos Niner! el Mariachi!) and we like the people behind the bikes. But..............why spend all that money to go out to the show, close the shop for 4 days and then try to ignore what we learned? How stupid would that be?! So............Niner it is. These guys have been makin' 29R frames since Day One and that's all they'll ever build. Great frames, great colors, the EMD 9 is only 500 bux and the AIR 9 is the lightest 29R frame on the market @ 3.2.#. We think that they're gonna rock!

What else is new? Well, despite still semi-reeling from the bummer news aboiut Burley we are more-than-excited to be doing more w/ Gunnar and Co-Motion! Look for Gunnar frames hittin' the doors in the next coupla months and Co-Motion tandems and frames right behind 'em. We'll be offering a variety of build kits for all our frames so we can offer you a better selectiojn of prices and features than you can possibly get when buying "off the rack". Can't wait!

The new wool L/S jerseys are ordered and might be here before Christmas. The new first-time-ever VCC jerseys-n-bibs are in the last stages of the design process and will be here sometime this winter as well. It's time for a new t-shirt too.

Another brand new and top secret project has us looking for a new Velo-Citizen as well. It's not your typical bikeshop job description and it'd be best to contact me if you are at all intrigued. Suffice it to say that it's a full-time gig..but not focussed on wrenchin' or talkin' to folks on the floor.

Another new thing that I am totally excited about are my new favorite rides. I've been doing a dirt road ride one night of the week w/ a group of duds in GR that call themselves the Crazy Bastards. Basically the idea is to ride on dirt roads after dark all winetr long. I have a complete bladt o both of the rides that I've been on and am plannin' on makin' as many of 'em as I can. Still..........it's kind of a drag to hafta go all the way over to the Cannonsburg area erevy week so Brother Davison and I are gonna start Crazy Bastard West rides on Tuesday Nights starting in November. Check @ the shop for details.

Don't forget the Pineapple Bob Ride comin' up here on the 29th! Always a classic!!! I'm off to do the JDRF Ride in Death Valley this Thursday...........we have a team of 38 riders! That's almost 3 times as many as in '05! What a cool deal!

So, sorry about starting this off w/ so much commerce. I try to keep the shop stuff a little seperate from the other stuff but sometimes....................it's just all balled up together y'know? There's so much cool stuff going on, so many rides and things to look forward to....man, I can't wait! It's been a great season here..........in every way. Sales were great but just as important....we had fun, got a lot of folks out on their bikes, got a couple of new projects off the ground and did good work. That's hard to beat!

Gotta go........talk to you next time. I will write about the Kokopelli, I promise!

4 stories of cleavage!

2006-10-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

That about sums up Vegas for me.........now that they've figured out how to turn the entire side of a huge casino into a billboard there she was...........starin' us in the face everytime we walked outta our "hotel" onto the strip. I'm not sure exactly who Toni Braxton is but I can tell you that she' was lookin' good up there, all 50-60 stories of her!

Anyway.......somewhere in there in the midst of the glitze and cigarette smoke and blatent attempts to turn Mr's Clark's boy into a lesser being was a bike show. We went w/ a smaller agenda than in years past. After all, we've had a great year and that tends to make you a little more open to the status quo, y'know? ( I think they call it the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" syndrome). Still..........our quest for Cool Bike Shop-ness knows no limits and we will not be thwarted in our drive to discover same so off we went to the Outdoor Demo on the first day of the show. Our main focus was to ride every 29'er mountainbike that we could perch our chamois' on. After all..........Ted's a huge fan while Doez and I are sceptics to say the least. So, all day Monday we rode 29'ers from Cannondale, Salsa and Niner, interspersed w/ the occasional road bike or full-sus 26" wheeler. Much sweat was given up, many free paper cups of energy drink were consumed and more than a few precious minutes were wasted hangin' out @ the Crank Brothers Hospitality Tent tryin' to cool off and snag a 'burger! It was at least 10 degrees cooler than in years past, only 86 or so, but still the heat and the trails extracted a tole on all 4 of us. ( We were hangin' and travelin' w/ Shop Bud Chris D who was there w/ a different company). At the end of the day the results were clear-as-a-bell......the Niner frames rock w/ a capital "R"! They rode the best, hands down. They rode so well that even I, the shop's resident nay-sayer and skeptic, was schemin' about how to fit one into the fleet asap.

Day dos found me @ the Demo all by my own self as the boys decided that they'd had enough dust and sweat to last 'em for awhile. Given that I thrive on such an environment I boarded the shuttle bus for one more trip out to Bootleg Canyon. I caught more of the "History of Colnago" video this time 'round.............I was half asleep the first time. I left my riding gear back in the room this time...........I had ridden everything I wanted to ride on Monday and the Demo is so much busier that the trails are over-run and you hafta wait forever to get a bike anyway....... my agenda was to walk the Expo, take pictures, be outside and talk to folks that I hadn't seen for a year. Mission accomplished, I headed back to Sin City to hook w/ the boyz.

Day 3 had us lining up w/ about a gazillion other bike-geeks waitin' for the doors to open and unleash another year of wonder and new-ness on us. (Or vice versa!) Again, devoid of a massive agenda we were free to roam, searchin' all the aisles for "cool bike shop stuff". And we found some.............Phil Wood's cool little tool so we can replace the iffy stock bearings in your outboard bb w/ kick-arse Phil ones, sweet new 29'er rims, tires and forks, all the cool new sweetness that Seven has comin' out for '07, more lights and shorts and food and carbon fiber weirdness than you can imagine......blahblahblah. We had dinner that night w/ good buddy Zac from Seattle. He's the only person in the world that's worked for the Highwheeler and Seven Cycles and now he's got a sweet little shop out there in the "PNW" and is Seven's #5 ranking dealer for '06 even though he opened up in March of this year! (It strains my humanity to the near-breaking point to write that w/out muttering under my breath!) After dinner (rockin' enchiladas along the canel w/ gondoliers singin' opera...........gotta love Vegas!) we went out to walk off dinner and get a glimpse of the "life" of your average Vegas visitor. Man.......a little of that goes a long way!

Day 4, the last day for the Velo-Citizens, second-to-last day for the show. We had appointments w/ Seven, Electra and QBP so we weren't as free as before but we managed to fill in the gaps and polish off the rest of our agenda. Ted and I are both testing custom footbeds to see where we wanna go in that department, I ordered some new racks so we can fit more bikes in the shop and gathered up info on the next edition of the VCC wool jersey. I bought a big honkin' Chrome messenger backpack to haul all the catalogs and schwag back home and scored some unbelievably ugly custom armwarmers from old bud RH @ Sugoi that I can't wait to wear. We checked out Bianchi's new models, (Felice Gimondi was hangin' round the booth), the new Dutch-inspired Amsterdam cruiser from Electra that's gonna be a big hit 'round these parts, went back to the Niner booth a coupla times, saw Eddy freaking Merckx walking down an aisle all by himself like he was just some dude instead of being EDDY FREAKIN' MERCKX and in general immersed our tired selves in all things bicycle.

I love it.

If and when I don't wanna go to the show..................you'll know it's time for me to find a new gig. Here's the thing.............it's gotten to the point that shopfolk don't need to go to the show, the "big boys" like Trek and Specialized have been tryin' to render the show moot for years w/ their own little dealer parties and it's gotten to the point that even semi-little shops like ours have seen everything from companies like Cannondale and Bianchi well before Interbike rolls around. So..........why spend a buncha $, hafta close the shop and go somewhere I hate (Las Vegas, bay-bee!!) to go if we don't have to? Because.............it's a celebration of our sport and our industry and the best way to see every-damn-thing there is about it! I can't even imagine not going! Where else am I gonna see Eddy and that absolutely gorgeous Soulcraft frame w/ the internal hydraulic lines or that perfect Vanilla tourer in the Brooks booth? How else am I gonna visit w/ Zac or Rick H or Steve N or John T? Or get to see the spanking cycle @ the Paragon Machine booth(you had to be there) or all the crazy folks that make up this crazy biz?

So.there you have it...... my "Vegas Report" Sorry if you lookin' for more insight about FSA cranks or Michelin tires.............what I remember is finally havin' a face to go w/ the voice when I talk to Kelly @ Pearl or how the Dirt Rag booth filled up w/ messenger wanna-bees the minute they started pouring beers towards the end of the first day. Man, I did not have the right costume on for that party! Stay tunde for more as it occurs to me.

Next blog................Kokopelli Report. (Hopefully, instead something or someone ticks me off first!)

Current favorite fortune cookie fortune: "Declare peace every day"

Later..................MC