New kona SS Cross bike

Hot off the press, Kona Major One - same Scandium frame as the geared major for a sick ride. Available as a frameset. Color, yeah um, not so sure i'm down with it.

Dave, keep your chin up mate.

This is a little shout out to my friend Dave, of current, I work with Dave at Yakima and he also rides for the Bike Vigilantes. Of current Dave is a man of injury, this great injury came of greatness, courage and speed. Dave broke his collarbone by executing a large man flip over the handlebars of his zesty cross bike, of course this was under race conditions and at high speed, thus resulting in bone breakage.

The other bit of a bummer here is that Dave is a monster, yes, a bike monster, Dave has had a particularly good season, getting faster winning races, catting up. really fearlessly tearing it up out there, unlike myself who had a few mechanical but then lost all motivation mid season like a big looser.

I can also sympathise with Dave, for when I tore my bicep where it connects at my shoulder, I soon realized that life is pretty tough without the use of one arm and also the long long time it takes to heal. The good news for Dave is that bones heal quicker that tissue, and there are less long term side affects (I think my shoulder still bothers me now) so he will be back on the bike in no time at all, getting some fat and dark winter miles for the onslaught of next season when I'm sure he will be a Cat 3 roadie.

Dave keep your chin up mate.

Dave in action (read more about Bike Vigilantes by clicking the image )

Windmills, Foampits, Jetlag and lack of motivation.

Being wide awake at 5:30am on weekends is not fun, I blame this on jetlag.
Now that i'm back in the US I have such mixed emotions, each time I go back to the U.K. I am reminded of what I really love and what I can leave behind. There are so many British attributes of the culture that I dearly love. But the freedom and public cycle paths of America still win.
My family is well and my gran has no clue who i am - she has alzheimers, but she is well.

Really , I will get my UK photographs sorted and posted to flickr.... soon, soon.

Anyway onto something totally different. This weekend was a big cyclocross deal. The Single Speed Cyclcocross World Championships were held about 10miles from my house. On the was a 20ft windmill with rotating arms and a well wicked foam bath. I did not race this weekend, apparently I have a problem with motivation.

The foam pit - people rode through this mess.

The windmill about to chop some bloke.

more cross racing, in the fog, in the trees

Paul from Ziba rode. Good times

mr. funny bloke in the picture here is Jordan from Hufnagel cycles

pretty pretty trees, nice mix up on the course

Disgusting right, no I didn't pee my pants.
When you flat both tyres with half a lap to go, it meas you have to run 3/4 of a mile with your bike, and up a big juicy hill as well.... makes your butt sweat!

any camera you see, stick your tongue out.

Well I was rolling between 10th - 14th place for the first 4 laps (10min / laps), then half way through the 5th lap, I got two flat tyres from some spikey thorns on the course, since I hate running with my bike this was not good. I rode the flat until iIcould no more, then when I encountered off camber grass n dirt. I had to carry and run with my bike the last 3rd of a lap. A good 20 or so people passed me. Oh well , that's how it goes sometimes.
Still managed to take #44 despite the run & carry out of 140 racers.

Cross Crusade #2

gotta make a silly face for the camera, yeah.

Sunday - Cyclocross race #2 - , this was in a dirt construction site in Wilsonville (25 mins south of Portland). The morning started off cold at 40 degrees, no rain, I was up at 6:30 am and throwing stuff in the car. My race was at 9:50am, in the C's. It warmed up a little but not much by the time I had to race.
For some reason people line up at the startline to get a good position, trouble is they line up 30mins prior to the race and stand there and freeze! My start position was behind maybe 60people back. The course was garbage, it was crappy, rutty and not really fun to ride, but whatever it was a cross course (perhaps), this week I managed not to break anything, thankful Felt had sent me a new fork after last weeks incident, that arrived last Wed, so my bike was good to go. I still managed to flip over the handlebars at one point in the course, but no damage done, myself and the bike was ok.

I placed 15th out of 139 riders, not too shabby, the bummer was that when I was coming in across the finish line on my final lap, I thought I had 1 lap to go, so well before the finish line, I sat up and slowed down for a breather, then 3 guys sprinted around me to the line. Oh well, I could have been 12th if I had been a little more aware - next time I guess. Also leaving it all on the racetrack is a good thing, yet something that I find hard to do.

Dave one of our riders had an open house since he lives near by and had nice warm chilli and showers to get clean. Dave Condon cleaned up the C's taking a first, he did a great job and deserved the win, after having won last week as well.
There were lot's of guys from our team out there.

Dave C - C's - 1st.
Jeff - C's - 22nd,
Tony -B's, 23rd
Nick A's - 64th
Corndog in the SS...not sure.
Joe P in the B+ - 103rd (chain snap)
Sautter A+ - 24th



In the meantime check out this t shirt - yeah you got it, naked bird and a cross bike. Let me know if you want one, I know a white van man who can.

New Cyclocross wheels for Me !!

Been a while since I posted and lot's has happened, but prolly too much to catch up on, so I'll start with what's new today... new wheels... yeah...... new Cross wheels just in time for the start of cross season, check out these handbuilt wheels by Chris King, sexy machined and anodized red hubs that sound like angry bees :) This is also good timing since my cross bike has been hanging up in the basement, since I bust - read destroyed ...the rear wheel a month or so back.