Suis-j'en France?

Went or an easy spin on the backyard creekside trail under a gray, dreary sky. It made me think of '99 in Caen, pedaling around under the same conditions on a Saturday morning - chilly & a constant mist in the air.
Got my hopes up for Primanti Brother's.............never found it.

Back on the homefront, some dirt & plants met for a lifelong partnership of good tastes: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil, cilantro.......mmmm, mmmm good.

Had a great pedal out at Buffalo Creek last night for the weekly, which I've missed the last 4) T.I.T.S. ride. 12 started, Jeremy lost a crankarm at the start, so we were down to  9 riders. Baldy-Buck Gulch-Strawberry Jack-Charlie's-Sandy = 22.8miles. Niiiiiiiiiice!

What's this 69-er shit people been raving about?

Sounds fun. Hell, I'll give it a try.

Swapped out the QR for a solid and threw on my old-ass beat-up flat-spotted 26" XT/DoubleWide/WTB WW 2.5". Dood, that thing is heavy! 1kg for the rim alone. 7.12# for the whole shebang. If it stops raining, I'll pedal it somewhere & see what's up.

Winter?

Big snow, not in our yard, but on the trails. Almost 5' at friends' house in Coal Creek Canyon, almost 4" here in Lakewood. Had to resort to pedaling the Steamroller around the past 2 days.....man, riding on the road is boring! And here in the USA, scary & dangerous. Enough whining, let's rock...

Tomorrow, Fruita has dry trails & I will ride them.

Pre-blizzard spin

All forecasts point to huge piles of snow in the next few days. Insert frown here. Decided to wheel out to Centennial Cone, since I thought this might be my last chance to hit it up since they are closing Mayhem Gulch over the summer, & I refuse to drive an extra 20 minutes to get to one of the other trailheads. It turned out to be a lovely day with the best trail conditions I think I've ever experienced there.

Me at the rocky high point of the ride.

Troy wheeling along. 

Felt pretty good, does that mean I might be getting in shape? 22 miles with 4,500' (unsure if that is correct) of joy.

Slashed & trashed

Headed out w/Steve yesterday to roll through Green Mt, but more specifically to get over to Dakota Ridge to play in the rocks. Our day didn't turn out too well. First hill we head up & his chain blows. I thought this was a bad sign since we were heading towards a bigger hill at the moment. Got there & I hear him yell....yep, ride done & walking time.

Steve headed back, half-walking, half-coasting & I rolled up Zorro, dabbing on that stinking left-handed switchback, which I've cleaned smoothly only 1 or 2 times so far. Hung a left & rolled through the techy stuff, fun as usual, following another large rider, who showed some nice skills, and a few lines I didn't notice before.

Popped out on the road & rolled up o the other side to notice that my goop was starting to leak outta the sidewall of my WTBWWLT, I noticed it when I Stan'sed the tire & was hoping this wouldn't happen. Wouldn't hold up at all, so called home for my saviour to scoop me up on the way back home.

The rain kicked in today, so I blew off the spin I wanted to do. Did enjoy some Affligem while enjoying the Paris-Roubaix. I caught a pretty good buzz, so the day wasn't a total loss.

That's a nice pair......

Had MikeC build me a rear wheel last year. Ebay & Craigslist sales of late increased my PayPal account enough to get the matching front finally done.

Here 'tis mounted & ready to roll.

The dirt beckons!

Ummmmmmmm, yeah.

Back on this thing........finally got out for a pedal yesterday after about 3 weeks off the bike, and following a nasty virus that had me in bed last week. Wheeled outta the garage at 3:50 - headed to Bear Creek park via Stonehouse & did about 2 laps. Made all the climbs, but skipped 'Granny's Grunt'? on the 2nd, cuz I still had about 10miles to get back home. Arrived back at the pad at 7:30 and boy, do my legs hurt!

Did ya know??

Stone-age sk8er

Boomer made it to town again, on his way to Whistler. We went to Denver skate park & he showed the kids what's up.

Those pads are over 25yrs old.

Today, I decided to try to get to the top of Argentine Pass, 13,132'.

The snow & lack of lungs kept me from making it. I was SOO close.

I'll be back.

We're losing sunlight!

Summer solstice has passed & there's still snow up high.
Let's get rolling.

I worked & I rode, nothing new here.


Breaking in the new brakes at Golden Gate.











Jamie wheeling Walker Ranch.








Mt. Falcon was friggin' hot!!










That's more like it. 

Waterton to high point on Marshall Ridge & back. Very cool ride.

Techmology ain't all bad

I rode gears & suspension in Moab & GJ.

I was pleased.

Capabilites & Limitations of Shedding

My luck for the past days has not been there. Had off yesterday, so I thought I'd head out & pedal a few miles. Problem was that I couldn't find my keys. Looked & looked, then Mally got home & found'em within 5 minutes.

Worked today, for an hour....so load up the bike & try to wheel Green Mountain starting at the Stegasaurus lot off 470/70.

This was just heading to the top of Dakota Ridge, I didn't even make it there. Just walking the bike was enough for this slop to stop the wheels from rolling, so I turned around & headed home to pout.....

Moab/Fruita tomorrow!

Hisashi buri!

This thing is too confusing to me, so I haven't added nothing new.
Anyway, lots different a year later.

Camping trip to Mt. Evans area.


Nederland to Winter Park ride


Kenosha Pass to GA Pass ride.


Renlynn's Sweet 16 party.

Hisashiburi desu!!

I remember this thing.......sorta.


So, last time I wrote up anything here, I was in Cackalacky prepping for the haul out west. Since then, I been around CO, France & recently hit up PA for ma's 60th.


It’s gonna take a montage

Boulder	Pueblo	Mt. Evans
GA Pass	le Puisac	Dakota Ridge
Vogue	Summit Lake	The Bourges

NCCSSR

This is what it's about.

















Pat sporting the new t-shirt, slightly used.

Ouch, I hurt.

Typical Friday night

Psyched up and ready for my 2nd NCCSSR tomorrow. Had rain all day and the temp dropped a bunch. I will be a superhero.

Money Pit?

Wonder how badly this will nickel & dime me?

Broken , now fixed

My oldest steed has seen some heavy usage & finally the rear hub worked its way down to 30spokes. I guess riding off-road didn't help the situation much, along with my 100kg.

Finally dusted off the wallet & picked up a flip-flop rear end & slapped it on entering the fixed gear world. Went out yesterday for the 1st time as such, and I can just say it ain't too bad....till I want to stop. Let me just say, I'll be leaving my front brake on for some time.

Who's says there ain't no such thing as golobal warming. January 14th & mid-70s. Something doesn't seem right here.

2007

Another year down the tubes, the dog's done & now it's the time of the Boar.

Took off for Denver to start out my new year & arrived just in time to see some snow.

Well, in addition to the approximately 2' they already had. Streets were covered with 4"-6" of ice with ruts where the cares were rolling, just put the tires in the tracks & let go of the wheel, auto-pilot on!

Then, I got out just in time to miss the next dropping of the white stuff. 'Twas cool to visit winter, since it sure ain't around these parts. Gonna be 70f during this weekend. Denver offered up many food opportunities & I took advantage. Raw fish, mussels, Indian, Mexican galore. Be jealous, be very jealous.......

Go to shopping.

Finally got my excess pile of junk a little more in order & took to E-baying. I sold, I bid, I bought...a new camera. So now after 4 years of the Kyocera, I broke into the 90's by getting a Sanyo Xacti. Just playing around & fingering out the goings-on of the controls.


Here's how I roll......












So, you win some & you lose some on E-Bay. I made out on some sales & buys so far. Didn't do so well on a few, such as a RaceFace DH ring. Sold for less than I paid at cost....ouch! Whatever, it's less baggage to haul.

Oh yeah, Merry X-mas....

summer I

Wow, lots of posts during the summer, eh? Had no 'haut-debit' line around, so it was e-mail only...and that was a pain in the ass at times. Now, let's get down to what went on from May 9 - Sept 25 with at little pain as possible to my typing finger & your reading eyes.

Here's a view of the grounds. That's the moulin just below, a 15th century building. I lived upstairs in the guesthouse.

Ended up having a very cool bossman. Here's Steve lugging around some beverages at Jamie & Brooke's wedding that took place in August.

We had a pretty regular schedule for our clients during their stay: We would head to la Gare de Nevers Monday afternoon, as they would arrive at 14h29. After they got settled into their chambre, we would head out on a 10km introductory spin to vist l'Abbaye de Fontmorigny.

Tuesday was the highlight of the week. We would hop in the van & head to Herry, then unload the 2-wheelers & ride up to Sancerre, passing through some of the vineyards on the way. This was also the day where we heard the most complaining about the ride, as we went from 499' to 900' in 4km to reach the central square of town. But after reaching the 'summit', guests were pleased to find a very cool town & views of the surrounding area.

Wednesday was the market & chateau ride, passing by the market of Sancoins in the morning, then both Chateau de Bannegon & Chateau de Sagonne.

Thursdays were up in the air during the year. Started the year with a trip out to Donzy, then later in the summer it turned into an afternoon in the big city of Nevers & folllowed by a leisurely ride along the Canal Lateral a la Loire, with a stop at the Pont Canal de Guetin.

Fridays were a short roll to Apremont-sur-Allier with its marvelous garden, followed by a picnic along the banks of the river before heading back to the moulin. The evening we took the guests to Nevers or Bourges, where they could shop, dine...etc.

Saturdays led us to la Charite-sur-Loire. They had a little market, which we used to pick up supplies, before heading through the fields to Pouilly-sur-Loire to sample some of their wines.

I can't seem to add any more pix to this thingy, so I give up for now.

Anyway, that's summer in a nutshell, a very small nutshell at that.
Don't worry, or maybe you should, cuz there's more to come.