Wednesday.
-Jim.
They look way better without the logos but I keep thinking they look like a cowboy mustache now.
Going Long and Hard.
- Thread starter Steve Vai
- Start date
They look way better without the logos but I keep thinking they look like a cowboy mustache now.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
That's even better!!
Thursday.
Group ride with Freddy, Kirt, Joe Mundi, Jean-Loius, and Dr. Silberman. We did a slightly longer version of the Tuesday A-Loop. It's my lighter, more rest than not week, so I drove in to keep the hours on the low side.
We had fun, it's always cool to ride with people, especially cool people. I hopped on the gas a few spots during the ride just to test the legs a little and felt pretty good. I sorta feel like it's all coming together for me finally?
We had some sort of Tri-clinic thing at the shop tonight. Mickey was doing something and talking about Tri-things. The PowerBar guy was there giving a speech about food. Our Eric, not the short fat one, the fitter one, gave a speel about bike fit and poop. Then everyone set up trainers to do some kind of Tri-workout. I know I cant make fun of the Tri crowd but seriously, Tri people are fuckin' weird!!
Yet another Eric brought his pooch in to eat the weirdo Tri folks.
We've been kicking around the logistics of dog ownership for a couple years now. We all want a dog, I'm not sure how much time we all actually have for a dog though. They'd be alone from 9-5 everyday, is that normal to do?
Came home and my son had a puppet show set up. So I sat on the floor and watched a few sets before dinner. The plot was thin at best. Something about a bear, a duck, and some white tube with tape on it.
Another recovery day on tap today. I'm gonna take the opportunity to button up some details on the TT bike to make sure everything is ready when the frame shows up.
Gotta go make lunches, I'm out!!
-Jim.
Thursday.
Group ride with Freddy, Kirt, Joe Mundi, Jean-Loius, and Dr. Silberman. We did a slightly longer version of the Tuesday A-Loop. It's my lighter, more rest than not week, so I drove in to keep the hours on the low side.
We had fun, it's always cool to ride with people, especially cool people. I hopped on the gas a few spots during the ride just to test the legs a little and felt pretty good. I sorta feel like it's all coming together for me finally?
We had some sort of Tri-clinic thing at the shop tonight. Mickey was doing something and talking about Tri-things. The PowerBar guy was there giving a speech about food. Our Eric, not the short fat one, the fitter one, gave a speel about bike fit and poop. Then everyone set up trainers to do some kind of Tri-workout. I know I cant make fun of the Tri crowd but seriously, Tri people are fuckin' weird!!
Yet another Eric brought his pooch in to eat the weirdo Tri folks.
We've been kicking around the logistics of dog ownership for a couple years now. We all want a dog, I'm not sure how much time we all actually have for a dog though. They'd be alone from 9-5 everyday, is that normal to do?
Came home and my son had a puppet show set up. So I sat on the floor and watched a few sets before dinner. The plot was thin at best. Something about a bear, a duck, and some white tube with tape on it.
Another recovery day on tap today. I'm gonna take the opportunity to button up some details on the TT bike to make sure everything is ready when the frame shows up.
Gotta go make lunches, I'm out!!
-Jim.
how many sprint's did you win?
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Friday.
Recovery day. No bike. Normal day at work. When I got home I forged ahead with my murder bike project.
Threw down a bunch of thick coats of primer. Waited until everything dried and then wet sanded it all smooth and pretty. I recon this will need to happen a few times before I put the final satin finish on...
Saturday.
Rode up to the shop early to hit the B-Ride. Ran into vlkslvr, looks like he's been riding. Delivered Sean's bike and that's about it.
Came to home to play my geetar and ended up breaking 2 strings. Ended up having to strip, clean, polish, and re-string my old Talman. I've had this guitar for a long time, we've been through a lot together
Sunday.
Hartshorne Trifecta. Usual suspects for a sunday cruise. Dusty, Sean, Mitch, Sneeze...We ran into English Mark and Mike in the lot and then Greg and his homie so it was a party!!
We did the harder version of my Hartshorne loop right out of the box. In an all time first, I made every climb on the Pugsley, some of it wasn't pretty. Took Mr. G's secret connector trail over to Huber for some fun over there. I think we dropped a guy or 2 by then, but pretty much we all stayed together pretty good. Back at the lot the group split up, some dudes went home, some went back into Hartshorne, me and the Sneeze headed over to the Hook to ride on the beach.
Took the fireroad through Hartshorne and popped out at the upper lot. From there it's an easy coast down the street and over the bridge. We took the pedestrian bridge across 36 and it dumps you right onto the beach. I think it's less than a mile of road to get from Hartshorne to the beach.
Riding on the beach is pretty cool. I stayed along the water's edge and rode through the break as it came up. At one point I hit some weird soft spot, sunk, and flipped off the bike.
It was weird.
I wasn't sure how far out we wee gonna go. I wanted to go all the way around but I was sorta waiting for Chris to complain or something and we'd turn back.
He didn't complain. We rode all the way around the tip of the Hook and headed back on the bay side. The bay side is a lot cooler to ride, there's all these big beach rocks and stuff to ride over. We ran into the Coast Guard base though. There was a big fence across the beach and into the water that was like "No Tresspassing, government property" and poop like that. We walked over the dunes to see if there was a way around. Nope. We backtracked a bit until we saw something that looked like it was a road at some point. That went along the big fence until we found these cool trails or something. Came across some old army base stuff...
Eventually we made our way back to the pedestrian bridge and back to the lot. Good ride. 40 miles. Took us 4-hours. This is the shortest amount of road in any multi-park loop I do. It has to be less than 4 miles.
At home, the wife hit the gym as soon as I got home, the little one was asleep, and the bigger one was at his homie's house. So I continued on project murder bike.
It's starting to look clean and smooth. This might be the last coat of primer before the satin goes on.
The fork is coming out really nice, this is how it started out...
-Jim.
Recovery day. No bike. Normal day at work. When I got home I forged ahead with my murder bike project.
Threw down a bunch of thick coats of primer. Waited until everything dried and then wet sanded it all smooth and pretty. I recon this will need to happen a few times before I put the final satin finish on...
Saturday.
Rode up to the shop early to hit the B-Ride. Ran into vlkslvr, looks like he's been riding. Delivered Sean's bike and that's about it.
Came to home to play my geetar and ended up breaking 2 strings. Ended up having to strip, clean, polish, and re-string my old Talman. I've had this guitar for a long time, we've been through a lot together
Sunday.
Hartshorne Trifecta. Usual suspects for a sunday cruise. Dusty, Sean, Mitch, Sneeze...We ran into English Mark and Mike in the lot and then Greg and his homie so it was a party!!
We did the harder version of my Hartshorne loop right out of the box. In an all time first, I made every climb on the Pugsley, some of it wasn't pretty. Took Mr. G's secret connector trail over to Huber for some fun over there. I think we dropped a guy or 2 by then, but pretty much we all stayed together pretty good. Back at the lot the group split up, some dudes went home, some went back into Hartshorne, me and the Sneeze headed over to the Hook to ride on the beach.
Took the fireroad through Hartshorne and popped out at the upper lot. From there it's an easy coast down the street and over the bridge. We took the pedestrian bridge across 36 and it dumps you right onto the beach. I think it's less than a mile of road to get from Hartshorne to the beach.
Riding on the beach is pretty cool. I stayed along the water's edge and rode through the break as it came up. At one point I hit some weird soft spot, sunk, and flipped off the bike.
It was weird.
I wasn't sure how far out we wee gonna go. I wanted to go all the way around but I was sorta waiting for Chris to complain or something and we'd turn back.
He didn't complain. We rode all the way around the tip of the Hook and headed back on the bay side. The bay side is a lot cooler to ride, there's all these big beach rocks and stuff to ride over. We ran into the Coast Guard base though. There was a big fence across the beach and into the water that was like "No Tresspassing, government property" and poop like that. We walked over the dunes to see if there was a way around. Nope. We backtracked a bit until we saw something that looked like it was a road at some point. That went along the big fence until we found these cool trails or something. Came across some old army base stuff...
Eventually we made our way back to the pedestrian bridge and back to the lot. Good ride. 40 miles. Took us 4-hours. This is the shortest amount of road in any multi-park loop I do. It has to be less than 4 miles.
At home, the wife hit the gym as soon as I got home, the little one was asleep, and the bigger one was at his homie's house. So I continued on project murder bike.
It's starting to look clean and smooth. This might be the last coat of primer before the satin goes on.
The fork is coming out really nice, this is how it started out...
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Monday.
Nice long day out there. So nice out!! Met the Flying Frenchman at the Watchung circle and then headed west to Round Valley. I wasn't sure what kind of legs Jean-Louis would have today so I wasn't too sure what kind of miles we'd get in. He was totally into going long though so I decided to push him just a little. Once we got up Stanton Mountain I checked him to see how he was holding up and he was fine. Jean-Louis is stupid strong for such a big guy. Get him out on the flats and he can just sit on the front and pull you along. He's the guy I need to break my Sandy Hook Century time. The fastest I can do it on my own is just under 5 hours, with Jean-Louis I think we can do 4:30 or less.
We stopped at the Oldwick General Store for some snacks and to take a breather before heading out to Rockaway Rd to hit some of the cool little back roads out that way. Sort of around the 80 mile mark the big guy finally stared showing signs of fatigue and we had to drop the pace down a bit.
We went by the shop and up around Mountain Ave to drop by his crizzy before I headed the rest of the way solo. Once I left I headed up Hillcrest Rd. and then up the backside of Johnston Dr and then into the ghetto to round out a 100 mile day
5:45 on the bike with over 5k of vertical. We went around Bissell and a few others to save Jean-louis' legs, normally this route has about 7k of vertical.
I would seem to be on point to make goal#3 while I'm in Cali next week, I'm just over 300 miles out and have more than a week, should be a done deal.
-Jim.
Nice long day out there. So nice out!! Met the Flying Frenchman at the Watchung circle and then headed west to Round Valley. I wasn't sure what kind of legs Jean-Louis would have today so I wasn't too sure what kind of miles we'd get in. He was totally into going long though so I decided to push him just a little. Once we got up Stanton Mountain I checked him to see how he was holding up and he was fine. Jean-Louis is stupid strong for such a big guy. Get him out on the flats and he can just sit on the front and pull you along. He's the guy I need to break my Sandy Hook Century time. The fastest I can do it on my own is just under 5 hours, with Jean-Louis I think we can do 4:30 or less.
We stopped at the Oldwick General Store for some snacks and to take a breather before heading out to Rockaway Rd to hit some of the cool little back roads out that way. Sort of around the 80 mile mark the big guy finally stared showing signs of fatigue and we had to drop the pace down a bit.
We went by the shop and up around Mountain Ave to drop by his crizzy before I headed the rest of the way solo. Once I left I headed up Hillcrest Rd. and then up the backside of Johnston Dr and then into the ghetto to round out a 100 mile day
5:45 on the bike with over 5k of vertical. We went around Bissell and a few others to save Jean-louis' legs, normally this route has about 7k of vertical.
I would seem to be on point to make goal#3 while I'm in Cali next week, I'm just over 300 miles out and have more than a week, should be a done deal.
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Tuesday.
Easy recovery commute. Felt really tired all day for some reason, it kinda sucked. Not a ton going on. Nuggles brought in a pair of tubular 29er tires...The CX guy in me really likes them, the mountain biker in me thinks it's the worst idea ever.
Made a new guitar video. It got pulled off FaceWorld because it's a cover. Stupid FaceWorld.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQfe7O9hseQ&context=C398ca9bADOEgsToPDskKVF8xQ4uQ7mMh0y_yRtlN4
Wednesday.
Day off the bike. Body says no dice. I could've hobbled through an easy commute but decided against it. Used the day to drive in and take care some odds and ends. Like clean my Pugsley after riding through the ocean. And taking home my new Thule carry-on pack. And bringing in some wheels to work on and sell.
I saw the new Red in real life today. I came in my pants.
I don't think it's a secret that I really like the Sram stuff, at least for the road, and cyclocross, and time trials...
This group is over 500 grams lighter than Shimano Dura-Ace DI2. Actually, for the record, Sram Rival is lighter than DI2 also, and it's over $3,000 cheaper
Had some work. Some guy brought in 2 Zipp 404s and wanted me to switch the hubs from one to the other. Seemed kinda weird, but I did it anyway. Or at least half of it, need to finish the other one today...
While I was taking apart Zipp wheels I stripped my 808 completely apart to do things to. I almost don't want to tell anyone what's gonna happen to this poor wheel, but it does involve an amount of primer black spray paint. At this point I'm in too deep not too.
That is all for now...
-Jim.
Easy recovery commute. Felt really tired all day for some reason, it kinda sucked. Not a ton going on. Nuggles brought in a pair of tubular 29er tires...The CX guy in me really likes them, the mountain biker in me thinks it's the worst idea ever.
Made a new guitar video. It got pulled off FaceWorld because it's a cover. Stupid FaceWorld.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQfe7O9hseQ&context=C398ca9bADOEgsToPDskKVF8xQ4uQ7mMh0y_yRtlN4
Wednesday.
Day off the bike. Body says no dice. I could've hobbled through an easy commute but decided against it. Used the day to drive in and take care some odds and ends. Like clean my Pugsley after riding through the ocean. And taking home my new Thule carry-on pack. And bringing in some wheels to work on and sell.
I saw the new Red in real life today. I came in my pants.
I don't think it's a secret that I really like the Sram stuff, at least for the road, and cyclocross, and time trials...
This group is over 500 grams lighter than Shimano Dura-Ace DI2. Actually, for the record, Sram Rival is lighter than DI2 also, and it's over $3,000 cheaper
Had some work. Some guy brought in 2 Zipp 404s and wanted me to switch the hubs from one to the other. Seemed kinda weird, but I did it anyway. Or at least half of it, need to finish the other one today...
While I was taking apart Zipp wheels I stripped my 808 completely apart to do things to. I almost don't want to tell anyone what's gonna happen to this poor wheel, but it does involve an amount of primer black spray paint. At this point I'm in too deep not too.
That is all for now...
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Thursday.
Met Dr. Silberman and Jean-louis out on Washintgon Valley for our what is now thursday morning shenanigans. My legs felt good so the pace was a bit higher than last week. The longer week took it's toll on Jean-louis and the big frenchie got popped. He said for us to go, so we did. Marc is a cat2 and like a 100 time IronMan winner so there's no pace I'm capable of that will put him in any hurt. We just brought it up to a nice tempo and cruised.
Some nutrition guy gave a seminar at the shop this evening. I sat through a bunch of it until I realized he wasn't going to mention Fig Newtons or waffels. The store closed and I rode home before he finished so maybe he did at the end. I had to jet, there were far too many tri-geeks in the shop at one time for my liking
Friday.
Commute over the rock. I made the climb into a segment on Strava so I can see if I ever go over that hill fast. So far I haven't, in all the years of going over that hill it's never been fast now that I think of it. It's friday so everyone was in a top form at the shop. Pretty sure we met our quota for mom jokes for the rest of the year. We also decided to advertise our mechanics class along with current trends...
While my wife was at the gym I finished up some of the murder. The bars are actually done now, fork might be tonight, it may need one more coat, we'll see...
I also started on the wheel. This seemed a bit too far, even for me, but like I said somewhere above, I'm in pretty deep already so WTF?
Both Angelo and Mike said to me on Thursday, "Hey, I have a black hub and spokes you can have" I was like "That's black, not MURDER SON". Or I said something witty and clever like that. Basically it came down to, you can buy a shiny black wheel, you have to make a matte black one. It's more customer. And I hear tale matte finishes are faster in the wind tunnel, that's why Lance does it. That may or may not be true. I'm leaning more towards not.
I missed DH40 registration. My debit card from the bank expired and the new one hasn't shown up yet. I had to transfer money into my PayPal and that took like 3 days. 3 days too long apparently. That shit sold out quick. I put my name on the list but more than likely it just gave me a reason to do Tour of the Catskills, which is the same weekend. I have extra loot in my PayPal so I can register for the 6-Pack. As long as that doesn't sell out in the first couple hours I'll be fine, that opens while I'm in Cali.
-Jim.
Met Dr. Silberman and Jean-louis out on Washintgon Valley for our what is now thursday morning shenanigans. My legs felt good so the pace was a bit higher than last week. The longer week took it's toll on Jean-louis and the big frenchie got popped. He said for us to go, so we did. Marc is a cat2 and like a 100 time IronMan winner so there's no pace I'm capable of that will put him in any hurt. We just brought it up to a nice tempo and cruised.
Some nutrition guy gave a seminar at the shop this evening. I sat through a bunch of it until I realized he wasn't going to mention Fig Newtons or waffels. The store closed and I rode home before he finished so maybe he did at the end. I had to jet, there were far too many tri-geeks in the shop at one time for my liking
Friday.
Commute over the rock. I made the climb into a segment on Strava so I can see if I ever go over that hill fast. So far I haven't, in all the years of going over that hill it's never been fast now that I think of it. It's friday so everyone was in a top form at the shop. Pretty sure we met our quota for mom jokes for the rest of the year. We also decided to advertise our mechanics class along with current trends...
While my wife was at the gym I finished up some of the murder. The bars are actually done now, fork might be tonight, it may need one more coat, we'll see...
I also started on the wheel. This seemed a bit too far, even for me, but like I said somewhere above, I'm in pretty deep already so WTF?
Both Angelo and Mike said to me on Thursday, "Hey, I have a black hub and spokes you can have" I was like "That's black, not MURDER SON". Or I said something witty and clever like that. Basically it came down to, you can buy a shiny black wheel, you have to make a matte black one. It's more customer. And I hear tale matte finishes are faster in the wind tunnel, that's why Lance does it. That may or may not be true. I'm leaning more towards not.
I missed DH40 registration. My debit card from the bank expired and the new one hasn't shown up yet. I had to transfer money into my PayPal and that took like 3 days. 3 days too long apparently. That shit sold out quick. I put my name on the list but more than likely it just gave me a reason to do Tour of the Catskills, which is the same weekend. I have extra loot in my PayPal so I can register for the 6-Pack. As long as that doesn't sell out in the first couple hours I'll be fine, that opens while I'm in Cali.
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Yes I'm nuts. Yes I'm riding. And yes, my nuts are next, I just need to get them back from my wife first.
While I'm here. Yeah I rode. Commuted in on the Pugsley. It sorta snowed and rained or something. I was excited because I thought I was gonna ride home in some fresh powder, as usual the weatherman blows marbles. En route in this morning I noticed an excessive amount of play and creaking coming from my bottom bracket. It was loud enough to be heard over my bangin' Missy Elliot playlist I had blasting at the time. I got to work like 1/2 hour early so I stripped the BB tout suite. That's french, I've been hangin' out with Jean-Louis too much. Peep it.
Doesn't look like much. That bearing is seized solid, my spindle was rotating on the little plastic hat thing. Blah. Took the bearing apart and it was rusted solid. Apparently submerging your Pugsley in the ocean isn't the best thing for it? Pssssh. WTF? That's what Pugsleys do son!! Put in a new BB and called it a day. I made this custom P-Touch sticker as well. Almost all of the customer's throughout the day that caught it chuckled.
I was pissed that it dried up and was like 60 and sunny at the end of the day so I called my wife to come get me. F-That. Commuting on a Pugsley when it's dry is dumb. I have to go clean the basement. My wife is mad that the back corner is now primer black. I might as well just paint the basement murder while I'm at it.
-Jim.
While I'm here. Yeah I rode. Commuted in on the Pugsley. It sorta snowed and rained or something. I was excited because I thought I was gonna ride home in some fresh powder, as usual the weatherman blows marbles. En route in this morning I noticed an excessive amount of play and creaking coming from my bottom bracket. It was loud enough to be heard over my bangin' Missy Elliot playlist I had blasting at the time. I got to work like 1/2 hour early so I stripped the BB tout suite. That's french, I've been hangin' out with Jean-Louis too much. Peep it.
Doesn't look like much. That bearing is seized solid, my spindle was rotating on the little plastic hat thing. Blah. Took the bearing apart and it was rusted solid. Apparently submerging your Pugsley in the ocean isn't the best thing for it? Pssssh. WTF? That's what Pugsleys do son!! Put in a new BB and called it a day. I made this custom P-Touch sticker as well. Almost all of the customer's throughout the day that caught it chuckled.
I was pissed that it dried up and was like 60 and sunny at the end of the day so I called my wife to come get me. F-That. Commuting on a Pugsley when it's dry is dumb. I have to go clean the basement. My wife is mad that the back corner is now primer black. I might as well just paint the basement murder while I'm at it.
-Jim.
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