Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Winter

Winter is not my favorite time of the year.  With the shorter days (they seem short when you wake up at 9am) and the colder temps I tend to spend much more time indoors than I'd like; much of it in my basement workshop tinkering with my bikes.  Currently I've got my StumpJumper taken completely apart and I'm cleaning/lubing all the pieces. 

I like getting out and messing around in the snow but in southwest Missouri we don't get that many opportunities.

I'm really looking forward to spring and the start of racing.  I participated in CXMAS a couple weeks ago and had a great time but man, was it cold.  Hopefully I'll be able to get off the waiting list for the Ouachita Challenge and can use that to kick off the summer.

The race schedules for the MWFTS and UFD have been released and I'm looking forward to seeing what AMBCS has in store.  It's going to be hard to choose between the races and a lot of it will depend on what my competition is doing.  I'll be racing expert this year so if will be much tougher, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I hope I can continue to improve.

I've decided to join a team for next season.  I'll be racing for Revolution Cycles.  That will be a new experience for me and hopefully a positive one.  It's a new team and I'm glad Jeff invited me to be a member.  I think we will be able to work together and have some good races.

Just a few short months....

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Epic in hand

Yesterday I called A&B Cycle intending to bitch about why I didn't have my new bike yet.  When I got Pete on the line I asked "Do you know where my bike is" and he replied "Yeah, I'm looking at it".   NICE!  They were in the process of putting it together and said I could come pick it up in the afternoon.

I got the bike around 3 and after taking several photos headed out to little sac to get it dirty.  Here are some pics:
My ride was short but sweet.  I didn't have much daylight to play with and I spent most of the time tinkering with the suspension settings but the ride is amazing and I can't wait until this weekend when I'll be able to really test it out.  I'll take it out on the new I-64 on Saturday, followed by a day on the trails around St. Louis.

The shop set it up with tubes and since I rode at sac I got a thorn flat.  After I got home I converted it to tubeless and it was the easiest conversion I've ever done.  The front tire (an s-works captain 2bliss) sealed with a floor pump and the rear tire (an s-works fast trak 2bliss) sealed with a short shot from the air compressor.  The bike came with the rim strips and stems so the only thing I needed was the stans.

I still have a little adjusting to do on the suspension but it's close to perfect.  Man, I love this bike!