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Oct 25
SMV Site
I may have spoke too soon. I got a note form Scotty O. that the site may be back in a slightly different format. As soon as I get a link, I'll pass it on so you can keep track of their activities. I also heard that the Spin Classes in Joe's garage are going to be a go this year too.
VeloSwap
VeloSwap is saturday. I haven't missed one of these but this year I'm going to miss it. I have a conference in Reno this weekend. I know, I know, it really is a conference, not just a poker thing. Poker will come into the weekend, but riding most likely will not. If I spot Bobby Jullich I'll give a yell.
Red Bull RoadRage
November 6 in Malibu, I'm thinking about going but it doesn't sound like it'll be easy for spectators to view the race. There is a full website with all the info. It has the list of invited riders and it looks interesting. You can also check out this audio file that has interviews with the course deisnger and some of the equipment these guys will be using to pull it off. Don't forget to check out the Trash Talk section of the web page.
Oct 23
Big gap since last post.
Road, road, road., the wind has been whipping through the canyon lately making road rides a terror. The magic of Del Puerto Canyon is that if you have a headwind going into the canyon you also have a headwind coming out. It's magic.
I'm waiting for some pictures and a report of Fred and Ogre going up to Silver Lake. I'll post when I get it.
For Colette:
That was the last time I rode dirt. I really need to pull the Blur completely apart and replace the pivot bearings. I'm sure a complete tune up would do wonders for the girl.
Finch is trying to strum up interest in an Urban Assault ride of Stockon. Let him know.
MTBR Jersey Vote
www.mtbr.com is trying pick a design for a new jersey. The vote is closed but you can see who won. I'm not sure if that means Ladd's design is final, the mtbr staff has the final say but I think it'll be close to the voted for design.
Voodoo Cycles
I never really thanked the guys at Voodoo Cycles who took care of us during Interbike. John, Matt, Gizzelle and I pretty much spent most of our Interbike hanging out at the Voodoo booth. We also got to party with them at the bowling alley at the Orleans. Big Johnny from www.drunkcyclist.com (NSFW) was there as well as the guy who started the whole LiveWrong stuff. It's hard to explain what kind of things you see with a bunch of drunk bike nuts thowing 13lb balls down an alley. Stickers were stuck, beers were drank and the bowling alley attendants put up will all of it.
I guess I missed this article on SWDRacing from a couple months ago.
Speaking of racing.
The SMV Racing site has officially been closed. Not much use for it anymore. It was going strong for a couple of years but last year it faded and this year it never really came back. I'm sure like all things, there will be a time when it all comes back around. It's happened in the past, and it'll happen again. This last cycle of racing pretty much coincides with Armstrong's tour domination.
I still remeber hanging out at the bike shop when I first met Chaney. He had been watching Armstrong at the tour so he dusted off his ol' bike and brought it by the shop to get it tuned up. It was an old mongoose and it was crap.
The next thing you know people are buying bikes, road and mountain and everyone is racing. Wednesday night rides became popular again and 20-30 people would show up every week including Sacramento racers who came down to tear up the pack.
All the cat 4s upgraded to cat 3 and everyone was riding multiple times a week. All winter long you could find spin classes in either Joe's or Craig's garage and lots of people showed up.
Everyone was riding.
Oct 2
Write up later.
Sep 26
Two days to Vegas and Interbike.
Trying to get everything ready and there doesn't seem to be near enough time to cover everything from work and stuff around the house. I've talked to Big John and it looks like I'm going to be gone an extra day and go back to St. George and do some riding in the rocks again. Sweet!
I got ahold of El Chingon and Crash the Dog from St. George and they have something planned, I can't wait. I just need to survive 3 days in Vegas before I get to Utah.
I put in some road miles today, 55 or so around Turlock Lake and up near Don Pedro. My legs were dead by the end. The ride was just a little longer than the typical Del Puerto Canyon ride but I really felt it. I hope I'm not getting sick.
The nice surprise at the end was as Matt and I rolled into Waterford we saw Greg Galupo in the parking lot with his new wife Terry. He had gone with the club to Snelling and back on his tandem. We talked about how many of the SMV riders have been laying low or stopped riding. Cycling goes in..... cycles. Personally, I'm looking forward to doing some of the Early Bird Crits in January. I may be singing a different tune in January.
I just want to keep my riding going through the winter.
From the People who brought you the LiveWrong Braceletes
I just ordered one.
Boonen wins the worlds. He's had a really good year.
Zap has this months issue of Exit 180 up. Usually a good read. The last part of the article has people from around the country recomending burrito shops. I don't think I'd ever take a burrito recomondation from someone in Indiana. Maybe that's just me.
I don't know if you're in charge of the burrito hunt, but the best burrito in the world is at the Jiffy Treat ice cream shoppe in Bloomington, Indiana. Several people can attest to this. After a hard Southern Indiana (quite hilly) road or MTB ride, a Jiffy Treat burrito (hold the jalapeno on mine) is a necessity.
Adam Rodkey
Jiffy Treat ice cream shoppe? Are you laughing like I am?
Don't expect another update until after Vegas. I'll take a lot of pictures and a good report about Interbike when I get back.
Sep 18th (pictures)
It's been a while since I've hit the dirt. I think it's been since Brian Head. Anyway, Ogre managed to get Finch and crew to come to Pinecrest Peak and I figured I'd have to be in for this ride since it's always more fun when you get to introduce people to a new trail. Ogre and Fred wanted to ride it from the Strawberry store and considered that for about a microsecond and shuttled. Dan was supposed to shuttle with me but he had some trouble at Tahoe and bailed. Lucky for me once JFR got there, he was all for shuttling, and then Cory showed up and suggested riding up to Eagle Peak and then Alex and Max were shuttling too. Then at the last minute, Jilm jumped in.
Now, Alex had been giving me crap for shuttling and all of the sudden, he was shuttling. Somewhere karma was text messaged that she needed to take care fo the situation.
Char was nice enough to shuttle JFR, Jilm and I up to the gargoyles with Cory, Tony, Alex and Max to be up shortly. On the drive up, Cory hit a hole cover that shot up under his car and broke a leaf spring and shock mount. JFR, Jilm and I were up at the gargoyles so we didn't learn of this until after waiting an hour for someone to show up. Cory's ride day was over.
Alex, Max, and Tony showed up and we started the climb to the top of Hammil Canyon. Alex sort of had a map to Eagle Peak and we were counting turn offs but missed the correct turn and ended up at the bottom of Eagle Peak Jeap Rd. I started up this nasty road and decide better of it. Jilm, JFR, Tony and Alex continued up and I decided to just wait at the top of Hammil Canyon for the rest of the group. Since we had to wait an hour at the gargoyles I figured the non shuttle group couldn't be more than 20-30 minutes back. Plus, Alex was leading with a hand drawn map, this was a recipe for a death march and I wanted no part of it.
I made it to the to of Hammil and 20 minutes later Finch came rolling up with the rest of the crew following. We waited for about 20 minutes hoping the Eagle Peak crew would show up so that we could ride together but they never showed and we didn't know how much longer they would be. Off we went down Hammil Canyon.
Hammil Canyon is a nice piece of singletrack, it has a bit of technical challange at the top section but about 1/3 of the way down it turn into loamy singeltrack. Near the bottom of the canyon I finally hear Alex over the radio, that had just reached the top and the view was worth the 6 mile climb. View shmiew. I've seen views, I want singeltrack. Hammil Canyon singletrack dumps you out at Herring Creek about 1/2 mile up from the gargoyles.
From there we climbed up to Pinecrest Peak Lookout, and we looked out over the valleys and the lakes below. I reached into my camelbak and brought out my new toy. I flask with some liquid courage. Passed it around a bit and the next thing we knew were were bombing down some classic Sierra singletrack. 
It's had been at least a hear since I rode PCP and I remembered it being harder that it was today. It's always still a challange. You get worked by the loose rocks, you get worked by the loose soil, then you get worked by the twisty rocky section at he bottom.
At the bottom, there was only one question left. Where is the beer and how long before the rest of the guys make it down? People were tired, hungry and dirty.
I decided to wait until everyone got down. About an hour later we got a call on the radio. Alex had crashed hard. He took a header into a bunch of rocks and wasn't getting up too quickly. They were kind of worried about him since he smashed his helmet and said his neck hurt. Luckily, he made it out on his own. He looked pretty tore up when I saw him, but I'm glad he's ok.
Now, rember karma? Alex had giving shit for shuttling and then ended up shuttling himself. Karma felt it has her duty to give Alex, a speeding ticket, then karma lost Alex's body armor on the ride, then sent him over the bars as a demonstration of her power.
I'm glad you made it back OK Alex.
Sep 14th
Almost 2 weeks since last post, but, I've been busy.... riding..... a little.
I just got back from the LAST wed road ride heading out of Cyclemasters. It was a shorter loop and I did a little better this time. I even went off the front for a bit and then when caught I was able to hold 27-28mph for a couple of miles before I finally popped. They kept the pace up and I just faded away and rode in on my own and finished the ride.
Vegas is only a couple weeks away. I saw Matt N. at Cyclemasters. He was getting his bike ready for the Mammoth Nationals this weekend. It looks like he's going with us to Interbike. Last year Matt won the Beginners Cat in the DH Nationals. He's eyeballing the Sport DH title this year.
I've been talking to some Utah locals who come down to Interbike. They may have a ride set up for St. George during Interbike. They did it last year so I'll have to keep my eyes open for that one. I really love St. George riding.
Looks like they had a good group for the Plunge a couple weeks ago.
Looks like Ogre has convinced a couple of visitors to hit Pine crest this weekend. I'm giggling as I write this because I know what's in store for them.
Fred and Danger just got back from a top notch road trip. Business in the south eastern US gave them an excuse to go and while they were gone then took their bikes and hit some rides on the way back. I got a call from Fred when they hit Moab. He was looking for suggestions on where to ride since they only had a couple of hours. I suggested Slickrock but I wasn't really sure what else was in the 2-3 hour range so I posted on mtbr to see what the locals suggested. They were split between Amasa Back and Slickrock. I never got ahold of Fred again but it looks like they found Amasa Back all on their own.
Sept 2nd
Lots of good rides over this past week and some good rides coming up. Last week some Trogs went up to Bear Valley but what looked really interesting to me was the Silver Lake ride that Finch and Ogre did.
Speaking of Ogre, he should be on his way to Kernville about now, or maybe early tomorrow morning. Last I read they he had a big group going.
If people aren't going to Kernville, they're planning on going to the SF Grand Prix. I haven't decided if I'm going to watch or not. I might head up there Saturday night and watch the race from the Expo area.
I actually got off my ass and I've ridden about 120 miles in the last week. All road, but with gas being what it is, I'd like to get more miles in locally if I can. I am trying to get a ride together for an exploritory ride of Milo's Run on Monday. I have a few maybes. Let's see if we can pull it together, be ready for a bunch of pictures if I go.
I need to get in better shape before I make a showing at Interbike this year. I intend to bring the bike and maybe hook up with El Chingon and Crash the Dog for some rides back in Utah or at least Bootleg Canyon.
My Own Personal Stalker
The Trogs email list has a little over 60 members. In all that time we've only ever had to kick one person off the list (well 2 if you count the spammer but he pretty much volunteered to leave). This guy Shane who 'rides' in Modesto got belligerent on the email list so he was finally booted. Now, you have to understand what kind of rider he is. He's the kind of rider that spends a couple thousand on a loaded Heckler and rides 99% of the time at Dry Creek. A few years ago he showed up at a Trog BBQ, eat a bunch of food and drank a bunch of beer, rode 5 miles, got tired and then left. Anyway.........
Ever since he got booted of the email list, I get these stalker emails from him. This is the latest,
From: paddler33@xxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: You are such a trendy FAT Faggot.
Trendy pussy.Get that as a tattoo.
Now, this is from a guy who rides a Heckler on a trail that kids ride their bmx bikes on. If you're down at the creek and see a big guy going slow on Black Heckler ask him when the last time that bike has been in the 'mountains'. Oh, I can't wait for the email now.
Racing
The third grand tour is going strong, but it get's so little coverage anymore that it might as well be on the moon. When OLN used to broadcast it, I used to watch it every day. Discovery did pick up a stage today but it looks like Herras is in charge.
Del Puerto Canyon new water stop.
If you're going to ride up Del Puerto Canyon anytime soon, there is something new you should look out for, fresh filtered water. For the longest time, if you wanted water you had to settle for the nasty tasting water at the Off Road park. A couple years ago they put a sign on the faucet that said, "Do not drink." It's the same water he had been drinking for years so we just drank it anyway, but it did taste bad. A couple weeks ago I heard that there is a water source that is cold, and filtered. Just past the 18 mile mark you'll see a large white arrow on the hill side, follow the arrow across the street to a short driveway and a white box with two spigots and a sign that says "Adobe Springs". The two spigots have fresh clean filtered cold water. The sign says "Closed on Saturday" but everything was turned on last Saturday so I don't know if it gets shut off sometimes or not. So next time you're heading up the canyon, top off the water bottles.
