Speaking of babies

I have the 100 miler in Crested Butte next weekend and I am super pumped about it. I need to get a quad map for the area as I've never ridden over there and I'd rather not get lost. Eddie Turkaly called me the other day. Eddie is a guy that I spent a good chunk of time riding the CTR with. He wanted to do a big ride on the CT this weekend. Sounded like it was gonna wind up being an 8ish hour ride over Kenosha and then dropping down into Breck and on from there. I'd really love to do it but this damn graduate school is getting in the way. I've got a case study that I should be able to finish tonight if I burn the midnight oil. However...today I got roped into a little bit of baby sitting tomorrow morning. My buddy Hays is up in Washington state on an elk hunt. He always makes sure to have a black bear tag while he's on an elk hunt but he's never had the opportunity to harvest one. He got a shot the other day and got his first bear. Anyway...his wife Casie needs to get her hair did tomorrow and so Heather and I are going to watch dear Charlotte. I'm super excited about it. I love kids. The best part about watching someones kid is that eventually they come and pick them up.

Like a baby

I was burning up when I went to bed last night. Even with the window open it was still really hot. So...I slept outside on the deck. What a gorgeous night it was. Darn near full moon and loads of stars out too. I love sleeping outside.

Shine on...you crazy diamond

Yesterday the keyboard player from Pink Floyd (Richard Wright) passed away in his home after a long battle with cancer. Wright split from the band during the making of The Wall and then released some solo stuff and some stuff in a band called Zee before, eventually, coming back to Pink Floyd after the departure of Roger Waters. Richards style was one of the things that gave Pink Floyd their incredibly distinctive sound. I'm a huge Pink Floyd and David Gilmour fan and am truly bummed by Richards death. I can spend hours listening to the hypnotic sound of their music and Richard had a big part in one of my favorite songs off Dark Side of the Moon, "The Great Gig in the Sky." He was 65. What a true loss. RIP Richard.

Since I started riding again, I have not been fishing all that much. For a guy that normally is on the water every day in the summer and 3-5 days the rest of the year, it's been tough to get used to. I decided to go see how the fishies were tonight. I didn't go to my usual hot spots but it was just good to be in the water again. Normally when I fish I cover a lot of ground and quickly. Some guys will pound a certain section for hours just because they think fish should be there even though they don't see any. I'd rather walk and glass the water until I find a fish that's feeding and then I'll go to work. As long as I can see one being active I will work that fish for hours changing my indicator depth, adding/removing weight, swapping flies, etc. It is so amazing to be within 20 feet or so of a nice trout and watch it feeding and knowing that, more than likely, it's just a matter of time. Soon the fall spawn will be on and madness will ensue.

Dems the brakes

I've been struggling with my Shimano XT brakes for quite a while now. I always hear them dragging more than they should. I spend a lot of time adjusting the calipers (particularly the front) but it only helps temporarily. During the CTR I thought one of the front pistons wasn't retracting and that's why I eventually just unbolted the darn thing and taped it to the fork leg. As soon as Ghisallo heard about my struggles (with the brake...they can't help the rest of my issues) they sent me a new stealth black XT caliper. They use a different line than last years model so I had to source that yesterday. Luckily I found one and a new set of XTR pads. I got the new caliper installed and bled this morning and it works perfectly. Just in the garage I could tell a major difference from the other caliper. Maybe it really was a bum caliper? While I was there I reset the rear pistons but I still am not crazy about that rear caliper. The rotor is true as an arrow but I still get some rubbing. I think before CB I'll install another one of the newer calipers. Thank you again Ghisallo. Since each loop in CB will start and finish in the heart of town, I will pop wheelies and yell out, "You gosta get to Ghisallo peoples!!!!!!".

Crested Butte 100

I was going to go check out the 12 hour race this weekend in Snowmass but I just have a problem with throwing down a hundred dollars to race. I can go ride 12 hours for free. I found the CB100 the other night and am definitely gonna go. It's free and the trails over there should be incredible. We will start in town at the Brick Oven Pizzeria and do 3 laps. We will ride Strand Hill/Deer Creek on lap 1, trail 403/401 for lap 2, and the Dyke/Wagon trail for lap 3. Total elevation is supposed to be just under 14,000'. I am so glad I found something else to do before winter gets here.

I stole these pics of the area from mtbr.com. They were taken by Mike Curiak.







I'm gonna be so busy taking pictures.

Congratulations Adam and Dave!

My friends Adam and Dave have always been into Volkswagens. They used to do a lot of SCCA stuff but several years ago they decided to give drag racing a try. They have built an A2 Golf into a mid 10 second car. It's a 2 liter, 4 cylinder, turbo charged motor sitting in a shell that's been completely stripped of anything unnecesary. Complete with Lexan windows and a full cage it's as light as it can get. The most recent dyno runs have the little motor putting out just under 500 hp AT THE WHEELS! They have won loads of races and series. Just the other night in St. Louis, they showed up at the track and were told they couldn't run due to an oil leak. They pulled everything off the front of the motor and got the leak fixed with 3 minutes left to qualify. Then they qualified the fastest for the night and went on to win the whole thing.

Several months ago they attended a race where the show Pinks was at and looking for new cars for their show on Speed. While they did not make the show, they were just on Speed for "Pinks All Outakes". Really neat to see them and the car on national television. They are probably a bigger turbo and bigger front slicks away from being in the 9 second range. Last night they ran just tenths of a second below 135 mph. Very shortly they're gonna need a parachute on the car. What's really impressive is that the car is using a stock trans and stock axles. Since they're putting out so much power right now, they're starting to break things. They break trannies all the time now and they recently snapped the solid end of an axle!! Those axles have taken a beating and have about 350 passes on them. They've really done an amazing job at keeping this thing pretty low budget but they may have reached their peak. Adam says that a beefier trans and axles could be as much as $6000. Way to go guys! I'm super proud of you.