Not Quite Gone

I had some questions about all my bike stuff but nobody has offered to buy yet. It goes on Ebay this weekend so get your offer in if you want it.

Fun stuff in Greenville this weekend with the dopers (just kidding George) racing around town. You guys do know George reads this right?

Ride on Monday, up the Old Toll Road and down Heartbreak. I have only ridden Heartbreak 3 times in my life and two of those were during ORAMM. I can't wait. Get a hold of me if you want in.

Have a great weekend.

Dirty Dirty Spam

Good ride last night at Dupont. We explored some new trails and found some gems. I am not ready to spill the beans quite yet, some more exploring needs to be done first. It is amazing that I have been riding out there for over 4 years now and there are still one or two trails I have yet to set treads on.

I will be moving soon and I don’t want to drag a bunch of crap with me. I am going to try and sell some stuff locally but otherwise it is all going on Ebay. I will get some pictures up over the next few days. Here is a list:

Cake I DLX frame and shock: The frame has < 100 miles on it and the rear shock is a brand new replacement I received from the factory. I also have the Fox Float (0 miles since it was re-built by Fox) that goes on the front. If anyone wants all three components, I will cut them a deal. Contact me at extrmtao at hotmail if you are interested.

I also have a Mavic Crossride 26” wheel set that I can either sell with the bike or separately. I am not selling a complete bike because the drive train is crap and I have swapped out parts for my other bikes.

I have some carbon riser mountain bike bars that are brand new in the box as well.

If your interested, let me know, otherwise I am throwing it all on MTBR or Ebay by the end of this week.

SORBA Picture Dump

Somtimes people are so scared of me, they reach for the sky as soon as I point anything at them.











Gildas (God I hope I spelled that right) Says "Why do you crouch on the ground instead of riding your bike. . . "













This picture is from Sunday, Kristin doesn't realize it but I was making her practice her cross skillz. She is going to kill everybody on the five speed.















Stephanie (again I hope I am spelling names right) helps me show off my camera skills.


Me coming off the big rock on the tech. Thanks for the picture Paul! Shortly after this picture Paul took flight 1305 service to the ditch via a bridge. He hit pretty hard after a good six foot fall from the bridge. His thumb was pretty black but otherwise he was intact.
Cliff shows us how to negotiate the step down.
Paul, while he was still following the proper flight itenerary.
Cliff is either hungry or scared, not sure which.

Charlotte is a trooper, always smiles even when climbing the steeps.

Waivers N' Such

UpState SORBA ride tonight. I am going to try and bring some applications, flyers and waviers to cover all the bases so we are 2 legit 2 quit.

That's right people my propaganda hat is on, get used to it.

Paris Mountain @ 6:00

That's all I have today, have a good one.

Blood Thirsty Hornet Ride

It is 5:15am on Saturday morning, the sun won’t be up for another two hours. Everything is ready for the day except the cooler. I pack it up, and walk out the door to my apartment into the upstairs foyer. The door to my neighbor’s apartment upstairs is cracked and I hear quick footsteps back and forth.

I have my backpack with my shoes and clothes on my back as I am carrying my bag of essentials and the cooler. As I approach the bottom of the steps I notice glass all over the floor of the downstairs foyer. I see that one of the small diamond shaped windows in the door has been busted out. I set the cooler and the bag down so I can open the door and judo chop anyone who might be waiting outside. I fling open the door like a swat team headed into a meth lab and see two pools of blood reflecting back towards me. Not enormously large but enough to bring alarm and wonder where the bleeder is now. I see a crumpled dollar bill on the ledge of the steps and now know who the culprit is. Why he had to break the pane to get inside I am not sure as we have a push key combination lock on the outside of the door.

A couple of weeks back, I had left early to go mountain biking on a Sunday morning and found $15 - $20 in crumpled ones and fives on the floor downstairs. When I later questioned my neighbor about the money, he just explained that the Liberty Tap Room was awesome.

So I load my bags into my car and head back up for the bike, I am concerned about leaving Kristin and I am running late for the ride. I wonder if my neighbor is bleeding to death in the apartment, I figure the world would be better off if he is.

As I drive north up 25 headed into the mountains, I text Kristin to let her know what I have found and tell her not to go outside unless she can see people around. I meet up with Jody, Erinna, Eric and Mike to start our ride up Laurel Mountain.
As we are riding up 1206 headed to Laurel, we meet up with Dave from Atlanta who I had never met before. He declared “his quickest getting ready ever” and we were spinning up the gravel road.

When we get to the meeting log, Eric declares that he got stung twice by hornets. The whelps look painful. After another mile, Mike and Jody are ahead of me and climbing hard when all of the sudden I see Jody grab his bike on a techy section and start running like a madman. I almost yell out to him because I think he is going to break his ankle on the rocks. Then I see what he is running from, a swarm of hundreds of hornets. He got nailed a few times. I walk back to Eric, Dave and Erinna and tell them of the swarm. Our group is now split with Mike and Jody ahead of the swarm.

Eric and I walk up toward the nest to scout out an alternate route when Eric points out a small path through the 40 degree slope off the trail. I go back and grab my bike and head toward the alternate trail. I take the first step down the slope to get around the nest when the dirt under my feet breaks away and I see that I have disturbed another nest and hundreds of the not-quite-deadly beasts come pouring out of the ground. I take off running with my bike in hand like a crack dealer running from the cops. I trip and toss the bike, almost breaking my thumb on the ground.

We come up with an alternate route and meeting place for Jody and Mike to meet us and continue on with our ride. I lead the descent for a bit but feel I am slowing Eric so he takes off with me in tow. Eric is fast and flying down Laurel, I am way beyond the edge of control trying to keep up. We both roll over the crack-in-the rock section for the first time in our lives and keep flying. I pull an outside line to correct a mistake when I realize I am not going to correct. I have to bail hard to keep from flying off the edge. As I dig into the side slope off the trail, I only have one thought, hornets.

Luckily I don’t crash into a nest but realize I better not try and keep pace with Eric anymore. Headed up to Slate Rock was fun and tough climbing. The descent coming down was much more controlled and therefore less deserving of a description. Great trails and friends make for a great day.

Driving back I have almost completely forgotten the “Friday the 13th” episode I was living earlier until I pull up to the house and see some stranger sitting on my front steps. I walk up to the steps and see that none of the now dried blood has been cleaned up and there is a stranger with a large scar on his hand sitting on my steps drinking a miller light out of the can and smoking cigarettes.

I walk up and he says “Been Mountain Biking today?” I respond “Are you going to clean this up?” He says “What, are you getting tough with me?” I said “No, I am just wondering how you can sit out here and not have cleaned this up, I have a girlfriend and she doesn’t want to see this shit.”

The argument goes on for a minute and I walk upstairs livid, more angry than I have been in a long time. I walk in and Kristin has “the look” on her face that says it all. She got the “sob story” from the strange man on the steps who is staying with my even stranger neighbor.

He is my neighbor’s brother, who has been here since Thursday and he got “locked out” when they were coming back from the bars. He supposedly came back from the bar via cab (we live downtown) and didn’t have money (wonder where that went) so he needed to get inside and get money. He didn’t know the combination (extremely complicated three button push system) so he was “knocking” on the glass when the pane “just broke” and he was bleeding everywhere. They told Kristin “We are thinking about suing the owners.”

I walk back outside to get my bike as the brother is headed up the stairs. Hoping to keep this at a bare minimum I say “Sorry about my attitude but I am not having a good day, please just clean the mess up.” Brother “Well that is just no way to approach someone.” I walk past get my bike and head up to put it in the laundry room upstairs.

When I get to the laundry room, Bro and Bro come out. My neighbor says “What the hell is wrong with you?” I said “there is blood all over the place and I want it cleaned up.” Neighbor “I don’t complain when you bring your bike up here and get mud all over the place, what about the table that has been outside?” (The camping table is sitting next to the trash) I couldn’t deal with their rationality anymore, pushed my way by them and slammed my door in their faces.

Peace

Profiles

Thanks to David George, these are the profiles from Wednesday's ride.

Got Four Wheel Drive?

Driving down Green River road last night I noticed the roads were wet from a thunderstorm. I got about a mile and a half from the trailhead when my forward progress in the car was stopped. This tree had snapped off like a toothpick about twenty feet up on the trunk.

David George was there as I was heading off to try and catch the others for the ride. When I pulled up into the lot, I tried to convince the others that I had ridden up Caesar’s Head from Greenville but they weren’t having it.

After our ride, the tree had already been cut out and luckily our cars were still there. Good ride last night, it was good to ride moist trails instead of dry dusty ones.

SORBA meeting tonight at Cleveland park by the Dog Park.

Pisgah ride this Saturday, if you are ambitious, meet at the North Mills River bridge at 7:00. If you are less ambitious, meet at Trace Ridge parking lot at 10:00.

Not Happening

I am not going to Shenandoah to pick up my pride out of the gravel where I laid down last year dry heaving and hoping a monster truck would come run me over. I said that if I “had a good showing at Fool’s Gold” I would go ride the 100.

I had a good showing, didn’t find any gold for me or my fools but I still don’t want to go to Shenandoah. Everybody always wants to know why so I will try to explain. I love mountain biking in the fall. It is my absolute favorite time of the year. You can camp without corrosively sweating, most people can ride without sweating but not me, I don’t have any allergies in the fall and it is generally just a fantastic way to go out and see the big views in my favorite place, Pisgah.

So what does that have to do with racing right? Well, everything you see, now that I am done with the Fool’s I am still super excited about riding my bike this week. I have stated before and will state again that I am in general an outdoor enthusiast who seeks to fulfill those needs through mountain biking. I know that if I go to the SM-100 that there is the big possibility that I will come back not wanting to ride my bike during my favorite season.

I have confirmed that Joe and I will be liberally participating in the Double Beer. Oooops, I mean Double Dare. This is the “honorary invite” race that banks of the Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race. Joe and I qualified for the Double Dare last year by finishing PMBAR but we were both too burnt out to try it. Plus you can’t really avoid anything that is advertised as “Really funking hard special tests” now can you.

So we will be supporting Pisgah extraordinaire Eric by attempting his double dare. I see your Double Beer and I raise you two kegs.

Nice SORBA ride last night. We had about nine people show up for the ride. I have been getting quite a few requests for “how do I do this” and “how can I fix this.” I am not too good with the fixing but I will try to work up or find some general tutorials on negotiating trail features.

Don’t forget about the Thursday night SORBA meeting in Cleveland Park at 6:30.

Strange People

Well, it is official: http://55nine.blogspot.com/2007/08/fools-gold-100-50-mountain-bike-race.html

I am officially down as tenth and if the times are accurate I was less than an hour away from first. I am pleased.

SORBA ride tonight!!
6:00 @ the first lot

Why is that so exciting? We are official baby, yahhhhhh. That is so sweet. A huge congrats to everyone that helped make this happen. Now if you are reading this in Greenville and aren’t a SORBA member, I am coming for you!

So I have a funny little story to help you with your Tuesday. Last night I thought I would recover by heading out for a “few” beers and some pizza. Well Barley’s was closed for some strange twilight zone reason and I had to settle with the crap beer they serve at Wild Wings. I was tired and not in the mood to talk to anyone, so of course some dude drinking water at the bar starts up a conversation with these exact words “Are you from here?” I said “No, I am from Indiana.” Hoping that would shut him up. Well, after a few moments of me staring anywhere but his general direction, he says “Are we in Spartanburg or Greenville?” Ummmmmmm yah don’t talk to me anymore.

So he left and after I got over my mood and had some food. A nice fellow that paints cars at BMW and I started chatting and got a little too rambunctious with shots. That doesn’t matter as I am digressing, well in walks Mr IdontknowwhatcityIamin with a big box of “stuff” that he has the bartender put behind the bar for him and he tells the bartender to buy me a beer and then proceeds to hand the bartender a crisp hundred and walks to the bathroom.

The bartender pulls out his magic counterfeit pen, marks the bill, looks at me and says “Well it is real.”

That’s all I have to say about that.

Fool's Gold 2007

Quick facts and Numbers:

Tenth out of 89 riders in the 51.987654365 mile race

Zero crashes, cramps, mechanicals, forks, shocks, camel bak’s

One Gear, 32X20

Two qualified “OH shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit” moments

One guardian angel

A little under six hours on the course

Seven pre-race beers, an insurmountable amount of post race beers

Six hours of volunteer work at checkpoint 4 after my race

An hour and a half of “rescue” riding from 8:45 – 10:00 with one borrowed light

Less than 10 finishers of the 100 mile race

6,000 – 8,000 feet of climbing

With those short facts behind us I will describe what I believe to be one of my best races to date. I am going to really enjoy writing this because it is the first time I have really felt like I was racing the entire time out on the course.

Fool’s before the race:

After checking in and eating dinner Friday night, I attempted to re-stans my tires by deflating them and squirting stans through the valve stem. I was partially successful and they aired back up perfectly.

I then proceeded over to the Sweetwater 420 keg and drank about six beers while chatting with Chris, Allan and TeamDicky. We really didn’t chat about the race much, mostly movies, books and general bullshitting.

We slept in little 4H bunkhouse cabins with metal bunk beds and metal springs that went errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk, weaky weaky, whenever anyone moved, breathed or had a tremor. I slept well for awhile until I had an extremely disturbing dream and then Rebecca Tomawikiwikiwiki and I proceeded to turn over in our combined bunk 4,002 times creating a mechanical music festival that would have beached flipper.

In the morning, I got over to the start line in time to wish Rick good luck in his first quest at a hundie. I rode up the first gravel climb, listed to Eddie’s pre-race speech and attempted to film the 100 mile start but it was too dark to see anything. The only thing you would “hear” on the video would be Rebecca saying “It’s too dark, we can’t see the arrows.” And Rick yelling “Tomatooooooooooooooo.”

I was surprised at the amount of racer types lined up for the 50 mile race. I spotted Kristin setting up for pictures and figured I would give her a show. I took off at the “go” and got the hole shot onto the gravel road. After the first turn, you will see me thrust my arm in the air as I yelled Mr. Bean style “I’m Winning, I’m Winning!” (I have the videos loaded but can't access them yet at work) The first 12 miles were a brutal gravel road climb, my lead would last for about 300 yards.

I hadn’t warmed up and my legs turned to bricks as I watched about fifteen leaders take off in a pack. During the first portion of the climb I would watch another ten to fifteen people roll by me. I figured it was going to be another one of those rides.

As the road pitched steeper I started passing people back. Then the road pitched even steeper and I started passing more people and I saw a Vassago singlespeeder walking his bike. The climb was rutted severely over the whole road, steep with a 30% grade and loose rock. I thought I would blow up just trying to get to the top.

I passed a few more on my quest to find the first single track and finally I made it a little over 12 miles to the first rest stop, I blew by the rest stop and about 5 people “resting” or getting ready to head back out. One of those five, was the Vassago singlespeeder again as he had motored back by me after the steep section early on.

Eddie had warned us about the next section; it was a steep rock road descent that got fast, upwards of 40 miles an hour. It had huge ruts that I am sure had caused some amber alerts from kids getting lost in there. I got in behind two suspended geared riders that were throwing up so much dust that I couldn’t see. All of the sudden I hit the ruts at about 30 miles an hour, a sped up drunken mechanical bull bronco ride commenced. I felt my front tire bottom out twice and thought for sure I was going down hard to ultimately end my race. Somehow I pulled it out, pulled my head out of my ass and continued on to pass both of the gearies on the way down.

We finally hit the first single track and it was fun. Nice and flowy, I passed three people and was generally having a blast. After a small climb, the widely spaced forest opened up to an incredible view of the gorgeous Georgia Mountains.

I made quick work at rest stop two, I was there less than 40 seconds, passed a few more people and continued on to suffer up the bull mountain section. A root strewn, rutted out climb made my heart rate spike as I hunted down some more carrots. I knew if I could pass most of the people in my way on the climb, they would never catch back up on the downhill twists and turns.

There was an old rocky roadbed climb that made me feel good, I was able to sit down and really churn the pedals hard, it was at this point that I realized I might be making up a lot of time and actually racing hard.

After a creek crossing, a steep road bed forced me to walk for a minute. As I got off the bike I saw a racer stopped for a nature break. It was Rick, I said a quick hello, he said he was right on pace to finish the 100 and we bid each other adieu.

It was then that I realized that I had no idea if I was passing 50 milers or 100 milers. It didn’t matter, I just wanted to pass them all.

Rest stop three, the same spot as two was my longest of the day as I ate a little, replenished my food supply and lubed my chain. I was there about a minute and a half.

I was done with about 30 miles and headed into a 15 mile stretch between rest stops. It was a tough section with some unrideable sections of steeply rutted single track. About 5 miles into this section, I felt better than I ever had and I was hammering hard up some steep climbs and passing some more folks. I eventually caught up with the only 50 mile woman racer that had passed me on the first climb. We were rolling down some super fast straight rutted out single track descents and I was amazed at how fast she was descending.

As I was flying behind her, I pulled a real bad line into a steeply rutted wall, unclipped my right foot at about 25 miles an hour and kicked the ground twice in an attempt to stay upright. Thanks to the Nevegal gods, my front tire didn’t let go and I pulled out my second sphincter shrinking moment. I realized that I better pay attention if I wanted to drink beer in 11 miles instead of visiting the ER.

I passed the fast descending woman from Chattanooga up a steep climb and continued on to pass another fellow. A mile later I hit my low point of the race. I struggled hard, my stomach grew sour and it was everything I had to pedal up the grades.

I popped out onto the gravel and saw some volunteers directing people into a turn. I saw Chris there and I had never expected to see him. He had motored off with the front five and stayed there for the majority of the day. He had ran out of water and was hurting bad. The volunteer told me 3 miles to rest stop four and I passed Chris and another fellow headed into the single track. I popped back onto the road and Namrita gave me some encouragement and direction to the next sag.

I rolled into the sag with a bunch of 50 milers (3 – 4) and Kristin was there filling bottles and just generally being a fantastic volunteer as always. I told her that I was hitting a wall and she told me to gitty up and get back on the course. Kristin handed me a bottle of what I thought was water and I chugged half of it and realized I had an awful toothpaste taste in my mouth. I said “what the hell is that?” Jessie said “That is RapidAide and it is supposed to be some great electrolytes.” As far as I had figured it was the worst shit I had ever put in my mouth and I could feel my stomach wrenching. The fast descending girl from Chattanooga rolled up, Chris rolled up and I figured I better boogie.

I took off as hard as I could up the climb from sag four hoping they all were watching me and thinking they would never see me again even though I felt like utter poopy. I never saw them again.

During the ensuing climb I could feel my stomach battling back against the juicy juice that was RapidAide. I finally overcame the puking sensation after I hit the single track.

The last 8 miles were un-eventful fun single track and gravel miles. I passed two more people and dreamed about jumping in the river that flowed next to the last single track sections.

There were two creeks along the rock road to the end that were hub deep. I only saw baby heads in the deepest parts so I made sure to hit them at 15 plus miles an hour and that caused an over head monster truck splash that made my so happy it is indescribable.

I saw one more victim climbing up an asphalt road less than a half mile from the finish. I flew past him hoping I had scared a chase out of him as I knew a descent was coming up and all he had to do was big ring it down the hill to get me. I kept him behind and rolled across the finish number 10 and what I believe was first single speeder but that is not confirmed as it wasn’t a class.

Post Race Fools

After lunch and a couple beers, I asked Namrita when Kristin was going to come back from aide station four. She said she didn’t have anybody to relieve her so I volunteered as long as I got some beer. They gave me some Terrapin and she drove me out to the stop. Kristin was happy to see me so we stayed with Jessie to help with the sag.

This was the most rewarding part of the day. Kristin instructed me how to be an excellent volunteer and I slammed beers while encouraging 50 miler’s to continue on to the finish. It was great to lift spirits and convince them to continue on.

As we waited and waited and waited for the hundies to start rolling in we knew that this was one of the toughest 100 milers now on the circuit as it was a little before 4:00 before first place came through looking strong.

Next up was Harvey “Guns” Minton and he was looking rough but strong. He said “do you have any RapidAide” and as I put three huge scoops into a bottle for him, I was amazed that anyone liked that crap.

Rich flew through in fourth looking strong and I was pissed that he flew through so quickly as I didn’t even have a chance to heckle him. He was finishing strong and I was thoroughly impressed. I would later get him back for not staying up to party with me. I convinced some other un-named folks to help me wrap his car tepee style with caution tape as he slept inside.

The most inspiring moment of my day was after Trish and second place women’s 100 came through, Rebecca came rolling up at 7:00. She was crushed, her spirits had been drop kicked by Chuck Norris and she admitted that she had been crying for the last two hours. It was our moment to shine as volunteers. We encouraged her by telling her that most people had DNF’d and she was guaranteed third place, she had to go on. She was past the cutoff for going out without lights and she didn’t have any. Being a problem solver by nature I grabbed Allan’s lights and strapped them to her helmet for her. I figured Allan would be welcome to help and afterward when I told him, he was glad he was able to help someone finish.

As Rebecca left the station, we were cheering and she was pumping her fist in the air. It was awesome.

A few minutes later, my new hero Rick showed up right at 7:45 the cutoff for the race. His spirits were just as high as they were when I had left him 30 miles into the race. He looked fresh, took some calories and water and we hooked him up with his lights. Another fellow that didn’t have lights was going to head out with Rebecca but was too dizzy, he asked me if he could go on with Rick. I made them promise to stay together and Rick made him promise to let him win the Terrapin’s slowest rider of the race for a case of beer and they took off through the woods. I felt like a proud Father.

Volunteering at a race like this is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. It rocks the house.

Post-Post Fool’s Race Rescue

Jessie had gone out to help bring in a severely dehydrated and devastated racer. I was on my 9th beer and fifth slug of bourbon when Eddie pulled up to say that there was a guy out between sags two and four that was un-accounted for. I told him I would help. We drove back to camp, I got geared back up and Eddie and I headed out for a night rescue ride.

I was slowing Eddie down but amazed as we rode part of the section from sag 3 – 4 and I was able to power up most of the climbs. We eventually found racer 102 who was with lights and still on the course. Somebody had given him lights and I still don’t quite understand how he was gone for so long between sags but he eventually finished. Our rescue ended just in time as I popped out onto the road when my borrowed light’s battery failed.

Thanks to Eddie and Namrita for a great race. The course although lacking a little technical difficulty was hard and rewarding.

Thanks to all the volunteers that went above and beyond their duties as volunteers and my only sponsor ever E-Designs!

An Important Weekend

A big thanks goes out to my fellow SORBA members that are headed up to the mountains to pitch our case for becoming an "official" group.

Have some fun with it and I am sure we will come out just fine.

Hope everybody has a great weekend.

I Never Said I Could Walk

Crossing Little River on Corn Mill Shoals last night, I was using the sock technique when the next thing I knew I was sitting on my butt on the river with one of my water bottles headed down the river. Thanks to David Cook, my water bottle was saved. No cameras were harmed.
Our route:

Reasonover -> Lake Julia Road -> Camp Summit Road -> Airstrip -> Mine Mountain -> Laurel Ridge -> Shoals -> Corn Mill Shoals -> Little River -> Cedar Rock -> Big Rock -> Longside -> Twixt -> Rock Quarry Road -> Buckhorn Creek Road -> Cannon Creek Trail (out and back) Buckhorn Creek Road -> Buck Ridge Road -> Micajah -> Wilikie -> Corn Mill Shoals -> Shoals -> Mine Mountain -> Airstrip -> Fawn Lake Loop
An amazing trailside mechanical fix was done by Parker last night. He snapped his derailleur hanger in half, had a spare and fixed it in a minimal amount of time.


We ripped pretty good, had some good weather and swam in the lake. I might have turned the pedals over a little harder than I wanted to a few days before I take on the Fool’s but I am not about “saving myself” for a race. I would consider myself more of a “promotional helper” than actually a racer.


Coming out of Cannon Creek trail, I was tired and didn’t complete a dance move with a tree; I hip checked it pretty good. If I would have actually been dancing, my partner would have ended up dazed and confused on the floor.

Stick Arms and X-treme Gas

My camera’s battery died early last night, so all you get are three crappy shots. That’s better than no shots though right? It is good to know that I can publish crap along with the rest of the journalist world. Ha now I am even more of a comedian because I called myself a journalist.

Besides my attempt to severe my pinky from my hand last night, the ride was just a nice easy spin around Paris. Good times with good people.

So the Fool’s Gold is upon us. I am really excited about this festival. Beer drinking, bands, good food, did somebody say that there is a race? Huh, that should make for some good fun too right. Did you know that you can see who is racing and who is bunking with you? We have a good cabin line up with Allan, Harvey, Rebecca and some others that I am sure I will get to know.

I am excited to ride the GA trail system as I will have never set a tire on any of the 50 miles that I will ride on Saturday. The nice cool temps should keep things pleasurable too.

Unfortunately, I will be running my Surly Karate Monkey fork on my bike. It seems as if my extra sweatiness can corrode steal now. Yes I sweat so bad, that I was actually able to render my Walt Works fork useless after less than 7 months, quite amazing really.

Luckily Walt is a cool guy and we worked up a deal to build me a new one. He is going to do his best to make this next one as sweaty-ass proof as possible. I can’t wait to have it in my hands as the Surly is quite non-compliant. Oh well, maybe I will “shape up” a little since Lezlee obviously thinks I have no muscles in my arms whatsoever.

Peace