some of the best times i've had.....

What are you looking at, Dicknose?

If you live anywhere near the Northeast coast of America, you know how completely shitty the winter can be. Everyone is in hibernation mode and ready to jump out of a 3rd story window. Cabin fever is in full throttle and Rochester is no different. It's cold as a witches tit, grey as the day you mixed all your Playdoh together, and boring as fuck. None of us can really act like this is a surprise because we go thru it every year. Its a barren wasteland of unfun, this city of rochester. So, here are some cell phone pics showing you some of the crap that we have been doing over the last couple of monthes. Thank God for the heated parking garage to ride in this winter, or else i wouldn't get out of bed. Enjoy.


this could possibly be your next favorite band.
this could possibly be your next favorite beer.


self explanitory



















this is a video of some trails in rochester called honda hills. When I was younger, i remember a girl used to come back to the trails on rollerblades and try and make out with everyone. these are those trails. and this is their story.

24hr in the Old Pueblo

Another installment of the best 24 hour race in the country just went down in the desert outside of Tucson, AZ. This was the 10th year of the 24 hours in the Old Pueblo and I really can't say enough good things about it. The Epic Rides crew run a flawless race and if you ever need an excuse to go on a road trip and want guaranteed fun, then check out one of their events. Next up is the Whiskey Offroad in April and it is going to be a good time. It is 25 or 50 miles of singletrack in the pine trees of northern Arizona.Whiskey is already in the name, how could it be bad!
I didn't take many pictures or even remember all that much cool stuff to tell you about here. But the trail was amazing, the people were super nice out on the course, and my support was second to none.
The race started at noon on Saturday with a half mile run down a dirt road to our bikes. I decided that the run should be done in my ape suit while chasing Kate dressed as a banana.

Once all the fun and games were over it was down to the business of riding for the next 24 hours. Just me, my single speed, and a simple message written on the back of my legs.

The first 75 miles went by with such little effort it surprised me. I was eating good, thanks to my support crew, and going into the night things were looking very promising. After about 100 miles everything went to shit. The sub freezing temps and dehydration took their toll and by sun up all I could do was squeeze out one more lap.
After all was said and done the The Black 13 ended up 11th place covering 8, 16.5 mile laps for a total of 132 miles on dirt with one gear.

Full results are here and lots of good pictures and better reports over at drunkcyclist.com and handlebarsandwich

Now its up to the Rochester boys to post up some goods on here, I have been neglecting my 20inch for the past 4 months getting ready for this event and now it is time to go be a skate park rat for a while.

I just want to thank everybody for the help at the race, Kate, Garn, English Steve, and Chad. I couldn't have done it without you. Many thhanks to Todd and his crew at Epic Rides for putting on such a great event and many thanks to all the nice people out on the course supporting this solo with their words of encouragement.

get out and ride.

Going nowhere REALLY fast

There is so much going on right now for all kind of bikes in the fine state of Arizona. Our seasons are reversed here compared to back east because right now the weather is perfect and we are riding on a daily basis. But come July it will be 115 degrees outside and we will all be hiding in the bar or running to the hills to escape the heat.
This past weekend saw a big step in local biking that brought together BMX kids, Fixters, mountain bikers and roadies all in the same place at the same time. And that common bond was Gold Sprints. A 300m sprint on a stationary bike, head to head, elimination bracket style. I didn't know what to expect of this event but the hosts at Boulders on Broadway were awesome and it was organized perfectly by azfixed.com . The times were blistering fast and it has been figured out that the bikes had 23c tires on them and the gear ratio of 48x16, the winning time of 14.69 would have resulted in a cadence of 194 rpm at an average of 45.7 mph. Over 3 pedal revolutions a second!! That is amazing. Most of the times were in the 15-16 second range with one super fast guy posting all sub 15 second times.
Nathan from handlebarsandwich.com came down from flagstaff with a crew of ringers and ended up taking home third place in the A race. he did a little write up over at his site, go check it out.
I will leave you with a few pictures of the evening then i am off to Tucson for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo where i will be suffering solo on my single speed.

Here is Shawn Diggity getting it done against a guy that needs a cheeseburger

I was so impressed i needed a picture

Handlebar Nate brought his gameface

a simple message

more photos from the night are over here

It snows in AZ too

Since everybody back east is suffering in a frozen tundra it is my duty to keep these posts going with some pictures from my rides.


I spent a day in Sedona, Arizona which is a couple hours north of my home in Tempe.
This place is amazing. There is no place like it, and it should be on everybody's list of places to ride at least once in their life. There is a network of trails with everything from singletrack to slickrock and it is all bright red!
This is the type of place I grew up wanting to ride. It is the stuff that shitty mountain bike magazines wax poetic over...and it is all true. And within driving distance!!


The other day I actually got hung out in a little snowstorm and it was a pretty good time.

Get to AZ and lets go ride!

enjoy:

Sir, please take your spurs off before you come inside.

It has been a while since I have posted up here but cut me some slack, I have been busy riding. Plus it is hard to compete with those amazing alley cats that the Rochester crew is putting on. I just came back from a few days of riding around the desert and it was a wild ride for sure. Here is how it all went down:

I was reading a post that the Gnome put up over at drunkcyclist.com and it got me thinking about riding and how much I enjoy getting lost in the desert by myself. And most importanly, that I was way overdue to hit the trail. I decided on a route on the Arizona Trail from Superior to Oracle, camp and ride at the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo course where somebody will pick me up 4 days from when I started. This is a ride I have done a few times in the past and it seemed simple enough. I had alot of time to explore some new places I have never been, and test out my new setup

With my bike packed and headed to the trailhead, I meet up with the camp host and he informs me that most of the springs on the trail are dry. This is disturbing news but then he hits me with the info that there has been 14 miles of new singletrack cut since last year. and i tell you what, it doesn't get much more fresh than this.

I covered about 20 miles the first day and it was a glorious ride on perfect trails. I woke up to warm temps and pure sunshine the next morning and decided that i didn't want to go the same old way but head more east towards the ghost town of Cochran, AZ. The riding was amazing for the first half of the day, finding that stride and the miles were just flying by...then it all went to shit. The heavy winds overnight had spread Cholla balls all over the trail and dirt roads I was riding. 8 flats later, on my emergency tube, one patch left, and a good distance away from any paved road...I was just about screwed. I found myself crossing the Gila River near the ghost town I was aiming for. As soon as I get to the other side, I meet up with 2 honest to goodness cowboys and the first thing they do is put a beer in my hand. Dusty and Travis inform me that they just moved down here and they are going to be in charge of 20,000 head of cattle due to arrive at the end of the week so they have been stringing fence around an area the size of a small city non stop. Just my luck they were heading into town that night and they offered to give me a ride out of the desert. They determine that the fastest way to camp is to drive along the railroad tracks when their truck decides to break down.

We proceed to hang out and empty their cooler and then give the truck another try, and sure enough it fired up and we were on our way. They say that they will take me all the way home (about an hour drive) if we can stop at every bar we see along the way to the highway. The rest of the night is a blur of shooting beer cans, trying to rope fake cows, running over street signs in a flatbed, Cuervo, Beam, and a guy trying to start trouble with the boys because they still had their spurs on their boots inside the bar.

Sometimes you wander into the wilderness looking to be left alone and sometimes you stumble upon some really cool people. I never made it to my desination, but oh what a journey. I am even going back down there in a couple weeks to cash in on some horse riding lessons that they promised to give me, and I may have to bring along a couple bikes for them to rip around on. Because as my new friend Travis told me "Ridin' horses ain't much different than you riding that bike, it's all we know and we love doin' it"