Tuesday, February 21, 2006

anonymous

in response to whoever posted as anonymous, and started their comment with "dude" and said blame myself... i work six days a week. thats six. monday through saturday. they used to close on mondays, but started opening a year or so ago from 12-5. and i don't mind the amount of hours at all, i just don't like the fact i have one day off.

in other news... i rode my road bike today. it was interesting, time off of it and it feels rather twitchy, compared to the mountain bikes at least. we only rode like 22 miles or so, but it was fun. had a decent average nearly 17mph, considering we had so many slow spots to "walk" through the construction. anyways, it was a good day overall.

so clarifying the work situation, and talking about a road ride. that's enough of a post for me. later.

Monday, February 20, 2006

no purpose

days go by and i wonder what am i doing. i know thats a profound statement, but i dont really think about it all that often. i work at a bike shop, and a bar, and have one day off per week, and not really even a whole day. i dont want to be in this town anymore, but somehow i'm stuck here. i apply for jobs elsewhere and nothing. i dont want to leave without a place to go, but that seems like a better option. im scared to leave and not know anyone, but i dont really have too many good friends here. but i know people. at least i could (probably) meet people through mountain biking wherever i went, but some mountain bikers are wierd. i've never moved anywhere before, except different parts of town, but that doesnt count. and i dont really even know how to. but i want to get out.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

boring one day off.

so i've been thinking a lot about how working six days a week affects my life. i'm almost positive its a bad thing to continue with. but seeing the guys at the bike shop want me to keep working six days a week, i figure i'd better move along. they told me the other day they'd heard a rumor that i was leaving and they wanted 90 days notice. i tried not to laugh. i think i'll give them like a month notice. but there is no way in hell i'm waiting around three months so they can find someone to replace me, something they should have started doing a while ago. anyways. on the possible job front, my top two picks are King Cycle Group, the guys that make Chris King headsets and hubs, or the Hawley Co. A parts distributor in South Carolina. KCG is in Portland Oregon, which while being far away, is most definitely a cool possible place to live.

i'm excited about racing this year. i got the results from icycle. the race i did last week. i got 18th out of 33 in sport class. at first i was disappointed. but for my third xc race, especially racing sport, i didn't mind it. the next event i'm planning on going to is in athens, ga. its the ga singlespeed championship. march 19th. we put a suspension fork on my surly saturday, so thats cool. it won't kick my ass as much as before. anyways. thats all i really have to say for now. not that i really ever SAY anything.

jg

Monday, February 06, 2006

2006 icycle race and frozen toes.

for the first time in my life, i thought i would have to have some toes on my left foot amputated. that is a scary thought.

it was raining when i woke up saturday morning. i drove to the inn at the top of the hill and had breakfast. went to the fontana bike shop and changed my tires. kenda nevegal 2.1's. i liked them. they hooked up really well in super nasty stuff. so i changed and for some reason went out for a pre-ride. brr. it was raining still. the race starts, my parents roll up. i say hi and toss my keys to my mom, sweet, lost another 75 grams or so. ha. there is a lemans start, we run for our bikes. and ride up an incredibly steep muddy hill. i walk the second half. we ride through the parking lot, turn onto some dirt, the pile-up begins. people are all walking. we turn the first switchback and people start riding. more switchbacks. then i notice, its stopped raining. yeah, now its snowing. great. ride some. ride some. then we get to the fun stuff. a long downhill. people are pulling their bikes off the trail as they hear me coming. ha. so i'm a downhiller at heart. i pass like 6 people. they pass me shortly after on the next climb. some mucky stuff. through the softball field. second lap. i push up the hill again, eating a gu this time. ride everything, wishing i had a camera to take pictures. the snow is settling on both sides of the singletrack. lots of white now. long downhill again. okay, so i went a little slower, for some reason my front brake stopped working. but i still passed people. some climbing, but this time i passed people. sweet. through the mucky stuff, pass a girl, she stays on my wheel. our times don't really matter to each other, but we were still racing each other. through the softball field. pedaling hard. lactic acid. burn. super low gear. tires spinning. not really moving. start the final climb. i made it. the girl didn't. hahaha. i have no idea what place i got. but i finished. quite unlike half the field, and this guy, with a broken fork.








so that was my experience at the first race of the year. results should be up soon at: www.jandwevents.com
thanks for looking.
jg

Thursday, February 02, 2006

bikes races latex etc

so things have been good lately. i ordered the demo 8 yesterday. it's predicted arrival date is monday. believe there will be a picture up as soon as i get it. schweet!!!! i got the 2005 demo 8 pro. there were only 7 left nationwide. its got a manitou 4way with a ti spring. heck yeah.


and i rode a couple weeks ago at phenix city then buddy's land with some friends. john and taylor came down from tuscaloosa and we met randomly up with patrick and ben near the log rides. we went up to the road gap and little gap, hit a good rock drop, then headed out. we ate taco bell, then headed to buddy's land. i re-grew my balls and decided to jump some stuff. got a pretty sweet pic of me doing the creek gap, and one of taylor off the specialized banner drop. enjoy.

i put latex tubes in my epic too. they weigh roughly an ounce less a piece than regular butyl tubes. and they are supposed to be more flat resistant. we'll see. they better do something, they cost about 10 times a regular tube. and i put crank bros. egg beater sl pedals on the bike. it lost about 5 ounces in the past couple days. i'll pull the waterbottle cage soon too. that's another two ounces. and i am losing some myself too, which is nice.

i'm going tomorrow to fontana dam north carolina to race saturday. it should be fun. weather.com is currently predicting snow. hahahaha. we'll see. so pics...