Check out the new video from Take the Day, they are local Kansans!

Hey all my bike buddies, the guys in this band are really good friends of mine so if you could go check them out on face book and like them it will be great for all involved.  This song  kicks butt!

Mason's Midsummer Meltdown, Top fuel bearing rebuild, crash

Racing the Marathon class at Wyandotte lake,  finished 11th out of 19

Prior to racing on Sunday I had to tear the topfuel way down to replace all eight of the suspension bearings.  I did a complete overhaul on the bike.  I started to think I wasn't going to get it done in time for race day.  This picture was the day before the race.  Yikes, I started to sweat a little, because I was having trouble getting the lower pivot back together; the inner sleeve that protects the bearings from being crushed was making it difficult to push the pivot bolt through.

Here is an exploded image of the bearing replacement I had made.  I do not recommend trying this the day before a race.  I had no choice because the bearings were trashed.

Here is the the trail head that I crashed on just 30 minutes before race time!  I felt like a tool!

Here is my ugly mug sporting my team colors.  It looks like I knocked my teeth out!  They are all there, lol.

So It's been a while since I have been around the race scene.  I just finished up grad school after two years and I am now a licensed school psychologist.  Whew, who would have ever known? 
         I have been getting some miles in this summer, but during grad school it was very difficult to train.  I have only been on my mountain bike three times since last September,  all three being races.  I was really rusty and I wrecked within 5 feet of hitting the trail!  LOL.  It was prior to the race so the only thing hurt was my ego, although my ribs are a little sore right now.  The picture of the rocks were my point of impact, I went right down the middle which is true to my fashion.  My rear brake pads were evidently contaminated which in turn were squawking really badly, I tried to use too much front brake to compensate for the awful noise and over I went.  This made me really timid on the first lap, but once I got going I was OK.  I made it over those rocks all four times during the race without incident.  Well, anyway I will be competing at a bunch more races from here on out,  hopefully I will be ready to get back to cat 1 racing soon.  Until then I will be training and prepping for my first full cross season.  See you all soon!

No Handed Bike Moves // "Golden Tree" by Martin Brooks

I Found A Bike Today

Get Dirty

SRSLY

So what have I been up too?

      Well it's been hectic, but the dust is starting to clear!  Graduate school was a bear, and I had to shut down my training regimen for a while.  I was out for several months, gained several pounds, studied a lot and completed my Master's degree.  I'm now working on my Ed. S., and have also gotten back on my bike to prep for a big month of racing in August and September.  I'm also thinking about racing cyclo-cross this season, but I will see how I feel in September when I'm in my practicum work. 

    The pictures below are of the Dirt Jump track that we are building; we finished Phase 1 today.  It has 8 jumps ranging from 7 feet tall to 3 feet tall, 2 berms ( the first one is 12 foot tall and doubles as a wall ride, and a 40 foot mogul set.  The following Phases will include a 12 foot tall DIRT HALF PIPE!  A pump track, and a pyramid will be coming also.  In the more distant future we will make make bigger jumps!  But we are waiting for  a few logistics to fall into place.

above we are sculpting the first two jumps, each jump has a table top on the left and a spine on the pro-side The first jump is 7 foot tall and the second is about as tall.

Here is a before picture

 Bob is in the bobcat starting to build up dirt mounds to work with.  On the far left he has started clearing the woods so that we can come out of the trail network and down the drop-in hill to access the jumps.

 Here me and the boys are sculpting the pro side of jump one, as you can see the spine is about 3 ft.  The table top side is about 5 feet deep.

 Here is a picture of the first two jumps and the first berm,  that's me  Waaaay back there standing in front of the berm, this might give a perspective of how big it is. 

 just trying to sculpt the landing side of jump 1

We decided to play a little bit!  This kid was  digging the jump, and it wasn't even finished 

This little guy was getting some good air and Roger is talking about giving some helmets to some of the kids that helped us build.  That's a relief because these kids have too much going for them to take a digger on the noggin.  I will try and get some pictures of the complete track.

Once upon a time I was in a rock band!

It's funny how things come back to haunt you sometimes! I was surfing the internet and someone had posted this on YouTube, anyway this is one of the bands I used to be in. This was our first album and I think we recorded it in 2001, but I would have to look to know for sure, during our touring days we opened up for Cold, Unloco, One Side Zero, Zac Maloy of the Nixons, The Feds, and others that I don't remember. We played a private party for Papa Roach and their touring manager wanted us to go on the road with them, but our self proclaimed manager screwed up the deal so it never happened. We almost got signed by the band Stained, it was down to us and another band and when that didn't pan out I walked away from the band. I left the music scene pretty bitter, I often thought it ruined my life, but now I realize it just postponed things for a while. I still play my guitar, but anytime someone tries to get me to get in a band I throw away their phone number! Lol, I have some crazy stories I could tell about those days but those should be kept in private.

Common Bicycling Injuries and misc.

Here comes The Darkness

Something made me think of this psuedo 80's band! LOL

106 miles on New Years day

The 11th annual Tailwind Cyclists New Years Day century started with 11 riders, most turned out 30-50 milers and only four of us went the full distance. It was a tough ride with brisk 15-20 mph wind gusts, but the temp was fair and the sun was shining! The four man squad included local strong man Todd McGeorge, Tailwind's John Mayfield, BMC/Walmart's Jacob Cauble, and myself. We started at the shop in Pittsburg and went to Girard, Union Town, Ft. Scott, Arcadia and then back home. Those guys pushed me hard, but I donned my poker face and did my share of pulls. I don't think they believed me when I told them I was hurting pretty badly. I was also suffering from soreness from Wii bowling during the New Year's Eve festivities, LOL. Believe me when I say we take our Wii bowling seriously! Anyway, what a way to start the year! I hope everyone has a great 2012, and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at the races!

PRC September 2011

Fellow Kansas Cyclist, Cameron Chambers! Such a great guy.Other than Ned Overend,
Cameron is the fastest guy I have ever riden with. He will totally kick your butt, but will never
act pretencious about it. Check out this video featuring him.

TANK

This is one of the bands I used to follow when I was in a band wayback when. LSD is the name and this is one of the most popular songs they had, It's a good pre-race song!

Project Mayhem

If I could talk about Mayhem I would tell you that I finished 2nd overall of 17 experts and that I had the second fastest lap of all 100 racers; but since the first rule of Mayhem is not to talk about Mayhem, well I can't tell you!

SAC River Race MWFTS

Go to the Ethos Blog for my full race Report---You can find it in my blog list to the right on this page. I finished 2nd in the 35+ Expert group

Crocodile Rock, Kansas State Championships

OK, now that I have had a little time to reconcile with myself over my disappointing race result at the Kansas State Championships, I must say I'm seeing some positives from it. I had set out to win this race. I can only think of a few races that I have wanted to win as much as I did with this one, and I have batted .500 so far. I used every trick I know to arrive at the start line in the best fitness possible, but evidently I missed something.
I lined up with 19 of the best racers Kansas has to offer, I have only been back in the racing scene for two years now, and at the ripe old age of 39 (racing age 40) I have had my doubts on what I could realistically accomplish, yet I lined up on Sunday with the desire to outrace any and everybody on that line. I didn't care if you were 19 or 59, I was going to race you with everything I had to offer!
So we line up, and I didn't get the position at the start I wanted, but it was OK. I knew in the end, it wasn't going to be a big deal. Back in the old days I would put a guy in the trees in the first bottleneck if that is what it took to get the hole shot, but I'm a little more civil these days, so when I hit the trail head in 5th I didn't sweat it too much. I followed teammates C. Hoppe and J Douglas into the trail, and knowing how strong they are, I knew I was in good shape. I tried not to panic too much not having the lead position, but traditionally that is my style...take the front and go till I blow, crash, or win! I think I would have panicked had I not been cramping a little in my belly from my pre-race nutrition, I knew the belly cramps would subside pretty quickly, so I just took it a little easy knowing that I was saving my matches for the ladder part of the race.
I saw Hoppe get away but JDoug was setting a pace that was just about perfect for me, he obviously didn't want me sitting on his wheel and eventually picked it up enough that I thought I better let him go and hope that I could keep up a strong consistent pace.
Lyle had predicted 28 minute laps for the experts, so when I came through the first lap in 25:03, and just starting to feel good, I was pretty confident! On the second lap my stomach felt better so I started moving up, I surprisingly caught Hoppe and shortly after that I reeled in JDoug. Jason had a little bobble on some of the treacherous slick rocks, and I managed to luck out with a clean pass to get around him. I know how fierce of a contender he is, so I plugged my big ring and went with the classic pedal mashing style that I have used in the past to get every bit of speed I could. Outta sight, outta mind! I'm now sitting in second place and only 31 seconds behind Damian. After getting around my secret nemesis, JDoug, I'm now feeling like superman! I keep mashing the big ring, because I had been catching a glimpse of Damian, from time to time. But..... then it happens! Towards the end of the third lap my left thigh starts cramping! Shit, I'm thinking! I quickly start soft pedaling with my left, using my right to push and pull through the strokes. Then, my right begins to cramp! Now I know it is probably due to the heat and that I'm suffering from lack of hydration. For the next 3-5 minutes I had to slow to a crawl, this was the longest few minutes of my life! I start to think I may not even finish the race! I manage to get to the end of the lap and grab some drinks, I keep digging it out and the cramps subside a little. I now have a little hope that I can hang on till the finish, but I'm realizing that the win is not gonna happen. With about a mile or two till the finish, I'm passed by Brenden Jenks. He was looking strong, but I stayed with him as long as I could, a few times I thought I could pass him but he slowly pulled away. I finish 3rd in my group and 4th overall. I lost the win by 2 minutes and second by 27 seconds! In the podium pick that I stole from Chris, I'm not very happy. But, now that I have had a little time to think, I know that I'm lucky to be finishing 3rd with such a strong group of racers; after all, less than a year ago I was racing as a cat. 2. When I upgraded to Cat 1, I thought my days of seeing the podium were done. Just a few months ago I was getting beat by double digits, and now I'm only getting beat by a couple of minutes. So, with that in mind, I'm gonna take a recovering week and enjoy my favorite holiday of the year. Then it's go time!

2011 Tulsa Tough Crits Day 3 - Cry Baby Hill

Tulsa Tough's Cry Baby Hill

Click on this link to watch a quick news video of Tulsa Tough's Cry Baby Hill . Ok, I know what is a mountain biker like my self doing at a National Race Calender road crit? Well, I dunno! I was supposed to go race at Blue Springs in the Missouri state Championship, but since it looked like they were gonna get rained on, I decided to go to Arkansas to race at Hobbs in the Battle for Townsend Ridge. Well, I get up at 5 AM to thunder, and after looking at the weather maps it looked as though Both Mountain bike races were either getting rain, or likely to get rain. So last option was Tulsa Tough! Being in Pittsburg Kansas isn't so bad, I always have to travel to the races, but never more than a couple hours from Tulsa, Fayetteville, KC, or Springfield. So Tulsa it was, I'm not a great roadie, but I do enjoy the competition of it. This race was huge! I'm just a Cat. 4 Roadie and we had 77 signed up for my class alone, I have only raced one other crit this year.
The crowd on Cry Baby Hill was great! They were loud, lewd and armed with super soakers, once I was dropped the harassment began! Every time we (the dropped) came up the hill we were greeted with gracious encouragement such as "Get your A$$ back up to the pack!" Followed by a nice bath! LOL, it was a blast. I have never enjoyed being dropped more than I did on Sunday. After checking the results, I was surprised to see that I finished 39th. Not a very good finish, but atleast I wasn't 77th! I must say I think I will return for the entire race weekend of Tulsa Tough in 2012. Don't worry you Mountain Bike peeps, I will Never Convert over. But, I will find myself within a peleton from time to time. After all, its still bike riding.

My prayers go out to Joplin

The devastation is unbearable, here is the hospital that surgically repaired my hand after a bike wreck years ago. I have many friends and some family in the area, I hope they are ok!

Stan's wins this time

Ok, so my little experiment had no controls. It probably had a hundred extraneous variables, and likely experimenter bias, but here is MY conclusion.
First, lets discuss why I even tried out the Caffe Latex. My friends at Scwalbe sent me a pair of the tubeless ready (430gram) Rocket Rons, these weren't the heavier UST version. The tubeless ready needs a sealant to hold air. No big deal, I would have used a sealant anyways. The 2.25 that I mounted on the front went on, and sealed with Stans without any issues, but the 2.1 that I mounted on the rear gave me a multitude of trouble. I had a heck of a time getting it to seat. I finally thought it seated ok only to wake up the next day with it bleeding stan's all over the floor. I then filled it with air again and it seated easily the second time around, so I thought. I rode it on a warmup ride the night before Bone Bender and all seemed well. So I get to Bone Bender and ride around a bit before I place my bike in the staging area, but when I start my first lap the tire is flat! I ride a friends bike for the first lap and he blast my tire with CO2 which takes hold and the tire does fine for the rest of the race.
I return home and a friend talked me into trying Caffe Latex, which foams up to force the coagulant throughout the inner surface of the tire, therefore making the initial seating process more efficient. Additionally, It's supposed to heal sidewall tears better.
I must say the tire mounted and sealed pretty easily, I rode it for a weak until I tore the paper thin sidewall on a prelap at Neosho. The tear was not very big , maybe 6 mm? Anyway, the Caffe Latex bled out without slowing the airloss at all. So I boot the tire and the Latex just reacts with my glue and the boot comes out with sealant blood everywhere. I then reboot again and use Stan's this time. The tire seals ok and the Stan's holds. To make this story shorter, the boot doesn't hold and pops in the middle, but the Stan's fills the gap enough that I limp home. So I go home and double boot the tear with a Park Patch kit, and a park emergency boot with shoe goo around the edges, and Stan's. It is holding air fine now.
What I noticed between the two sealants was that Stans has small gritty particles in it, to help plug the hole as it coagulates, whereas the Latex doesn't. The latex felt stickier than the Stan's to the touch, but it felt thin. When I cleaned the tires between sealant changes, the Stan's seemed to have bonded to the tire better than the Latex. The Latex peeled off of the tire much easier than the Stan's. Also the Stan's didn't react to my patch glue, whereas the Caffe Latex reacts to everything, including Stan's residue.
The idea of the Caffe Latex foaming is appealing, but with its lack of plugging such a small sidewall tear turned me off of it pretty quickly.

If anyone has any success, or horror stories from either of these sealants, please feel free to comment. I have my settings so that you don't need an account, nor do you need to be logged in, to comment on my blog.
When I'm not feeling so lazy I may do a full on experiment with these two sealants, I will be more stringent with my scientific method. But, for now I'm sticking with the Stan's.