Journal Archive from April

April 30, 2001

Some days I feel I need a vacation from the weekend! It has been a weekend filled with practicing, getting projects done and getting wedding plans straightened out. So that's about it for now. I'm just trying to unbury myself right now. But tomorrow's post will have a load of cool news about some new stuff on the way and a super spring time show happening in Hartford this weekend. More detail to hit tomorrow!

April 23, 2001

Yes it has been a few days again since my last post, but who can blame me for not wanting to be behind a computer in my spare time with all this perfect warm weather! This passed weekend was full of seminars and classes for me so nothing much happened between Friday through Sunday. It was just great to get home and sleep in my own bed for not being in it for the past week and a half. My bike is still somewhat out of commission because of the smaller front rotor. I talked to Tim and he said my new one should be in tomorrow sometime. So I see a nice ride in my future on Wednesday. Hopefully I can get a few people together because it is supposed to be a cooler day which does make for perfect for riding. So tonight I have been working on re-painting parts of my demo section. I'm so tired of messing around with paint! I wouldn't mind hiring someone to do it for me. Here's something funny for you. Last night I decided to break out the bread maker for the first time. I figure while I paint it can cook up some fresh homemade bread. So I followed the destruction's on making some standard whole wheat bread. The only part of the recipe I didn't follow was use half wheat flour and half regular flour, I used all wheat. So for the four hours of whirring and churning, the buzzer goes off and there looks to be a bread in there! It looked really tasty sitting in the pan, so I pop it out on a cooling rack and the next part is the funniest. I grabbed the knife, and the bread seemed to be totally impervious to the stainless steel blade! I was thinking, "I do like hard crust". So I went at it again, a little coaxing I finally cut off a slab. It turned out to be a very dense bread, very good bread, but dense! So dense I think I could use it in the foundation of the new house. I think I'll follow the recipe a little closer next time. Oh well, it's off to bed now and I can't wait.

April 19, 2001

I'm awake and much better! Over the past few days I haven't been my normal self. OK, you got me there, I guess that is yet to be seen. Since this morning I woke up with a nasty headache and just feeling lousy. So I went home a little after one to get some rest. Let me tell you this is the first time I have been sick since I can remember! Once I got home I hit the bed and slept for three hours straight! It was much needed rest. I woke up and felt much better. It's crazy what can happen when you run yourself thin. Your body just wants to shut down. So the evening was a bit more rest and drinking lot's of fluids. I'm thinking all this cold to warm back to cold days may have something to do with it too. But tomorrow starts the weekend, unfortunately I have to go to seminars this weekend. It's all good and maybe I can sneak in a bike ride somewhere in between? We'll see. I'll post the results come Monday.

April 18, 2001

This is kind of a mass journal post from the past few days. It's been a little crazy the past week because I have been house sitting three cats and a dog. Humm, that could almost sound like a sitcom. Well today Pete and I went for a noon time ride at Elm Park in Worcester. I felt a little out of it for some reason. I just feel worn out today. Weird. We were practicing mainly gaps and pedal gaps today. We also threw in a few ups for good measure and to break things up a little. Overall the ride went OK for me. I was definitly having problems with my front brake that I set up last night. It did not have any power because the rotor is only hitting half the pad. On the other hand, Pete pulled this rock I talked about a few days back! It is a huge and technical up and we planned out the line and he nailed it. Pretty cool! We'll have to get pictures next time.

April 17, 2001

I finally received the adapter I need to get my front brake to work on this Manitou fork. Well kind of. It is a Shimano adapter that is supposed to convert the stupid, yes stupid hayes mounts on the Manitou to the International Standard. I can never figure out why companies need to "be different". Then the worse part of it I had to get a shimano part to make this work! Na, I don't have anything against Shimano or Manitou, I just can't wait to get my ROCK SHOX back! So I attached the adapter come to find out the mount which was supposed to work with the Magura Louise is not indented to fit the slave piston! Off to the grinding wheel I went! Well I got it to work but the only problem I ran into which I knew was going to be an issue is I now need a 170mm rotor. But all that matters to me is I can ride my stock again!

April 16, 2001

I may have some pretty cool news in the next few days related to biking! I'll let you know once things get more firmed up. Also check out the new Singletracks Magazine from the New England Mountain Bike Association NEMBA. It's got the famous Trevor Young on the cover and a recap of the Harpoon demo by yours truly! You can get it at many of your local bike shops. But if you join NEMBA, you won't have to go that far because it will show up in your mail box! SO SIGN UP TODAY!

April 15, 2001

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

April 14, 2001

This morning I slept kind of late which was nice for a change. After I got up Wendy and I got geared up for a little cross country at Wells State park. Wells Park is a pretty nice place for mountain biking. It has some really technical trails, and fun single track. We went out for a 4.5 mile ride on one of the mountain bike trails. Nothing like dusting off that XC bike, well getting it muddy actually. There were small running streams that went along the trail. Well the small running strams actually were the trail! So the start was a bit of climbing in wet muddy conditions. Once we got up the main climb and made it to the higher elevations it dried out rather nicely. It was a real fun ride but it seemed to go by too fast. We were only out for a little more than an hour on the trail, then we cruised around looking for future riding possibilities.

April 13, 2001

Friday the 13....Look out! It is Nero's day, (my black cat) and he crosses my path all the time. What was really funny though, I was heading to my riding spot and a white cat crossed my path. It's Friday, I have it off, it was such a nice day, so what better way to use it than go riding at Purgatory Chasm! It was a little wet because it was raining yesterday, and was still a little overcast this morning. I met Trevor at the main parking lot around 11:00 and it was non-stop riding from then on. I was actually on my mod bike for the first time in quite a while! I'm waiting for an adapterto mount my disc brake to my new Manitou fork on my stock. We rode for two hours straight just busting ourselves on the natural terrain. The weather added a bit more difficulty leaving the rocks and the moss on the rocks wet enough to make it very, very slick! It was a perfect practice session. At one point we scoped out inside the chasm and noticed some very crazy lines. These would have to wait until all the snow and water is cleared before we even think about trying it. But the potential is there. After that I headed home to get some work done and relax! Isn't that what your supposed to do on a day off?

April 9, 2001

I can't believe how excellent it is being able to ride every day. It's great seeing progress in certain moves I have been practicing, getting that confidence back that I had at the end of last season, and just plain getting in shape! It's hard to believe that not being able to ride much because of the bad winter we had, caused this atrophy of skills. On the other hand, the break caused extra enthusiasm in my riding and my skills have returned fast, bigger and better! It's really exciting to see this. I hope this weekend we can get a small group together for a ride at Purgatory Chasm. May be a little wet, but it' will be fun and challenging. So if your interested drop me a line.

April 4, 2001

It's great to be riding again! I ended up going to the LBS and picked up 6 tubes! I need to make sure I have spares. I got home and fixed the front flat and at the same time I worked on my front Louise disc. I have been having some problems with it's stopping power. I know right when I started to have problems with it. I ended up going for a winter ride around town and it was a day after it snowed, so there was a lot of road grime and salt everywhere. So I performed a cleaning. It definitely helped but I think I need to do another cleaning to the pads because there is still grime that got on the disc after tonight's ride. Yes! Two days of riding in a row! Tomorrow will be another. I'm not letting this weather go to waste. There are going to be many shows and competitions this year, so now is the time to get that boost to get my riding back in shape!

April 3, 2001

This afternoon I had a pretty fun ride at Elm Park in Worcester. Well until my front tube decided to go flat. I met up with Pete and Craig for the afternoon jam. There was still a bit of snow on the ground but the worse part was alot of mud. We ended up finding a few fun lines on the playground equipment at first, then we headed to a few of the large boulders that are placed around the park. The first one we hit was about 4 feet high, and had so many different ways to go at it. It was under cut along the bottom and the top was a bit rounded and the sides were slightly sloped. It was a pretty tough up afterall! It was a great rock to practice huge jap-zaps. The first time I almost had it but I didn't drive my momentum foward enough. The second time, well, that was a flop. I splattered that thing and blew my front tire. At least I know I'm doing the move right! From there I decided to call it a day. Later in the evening I worked on my demo section a little bit more and the next component is almost finished! It didn't come out as bad as I thought. Well I'm really into woodworking, and if a project doesn't work out to what I had planned, I scrap the project and start over. Maybe a little crazy, but it's just my standards. All it needs is a little finish sanding and to be painted. Now for a side story about my trials cat Nero, last night he pulled a side hop from the window sill to the top edge of the bottom window! It was this narrow ledge he was able to hold onto, well until he slipped off about 5 seconds later. I'm going to try and get it on video and put it up!

April 2, 2001

I know I did it again! I really have to stop doing this. Well there hasn't been too much to talk about anyway. It's that time of year where riding is difficult. You will most likely dissapear in a mud bog and not be found until summer! We have had so much rain over the past two weeks and the temps are still very cold. This week is looking up though. Good news I have been coming along on my projects! There are a few demo section projects and a few personal projects. The first demo project only has a few more days of work remaining. Once it is finished I'll post some pics of it! Yes still top secret, I want to make sure it works like I have planned. My second project was building the new drawers for my entertainment unit. Well last night I finished two of the drawers but I need to pick up more oak for the last drawer. These will of course hold my extensive collection of biking videos! More awesome news, Kryptonite Locks and I will be working together for another season! If you don't want your bike stolen check them out! I have some great stuff to hand out to my volunteers at demos. There may even be a giveaway or two coming up in the next month right here! Stay tuned!