Most of you didn’t notice, but some of you may have. The “Buy Some Stuff” page went crashing into the interweb’s abyss on Monday. I know that all of you were dying to find out what happened. So to satisfy your interest, the page basically sucked. You could only order one thing at a time and I didn’t like it. So I went and began to figure out how to get an ecommerce site that was, well, a real store.
To end this story I have one. It is called the Mooseknuckler Market. It still has all the amazingly cool things that will make everyone think you are beautiful, but as an added bonus, you can now order more than one item at a time. It’s got stuff and stuff.
If you feel like the MCA should be buying you beer. You are probably right, so add to our budget buy purchasing something from the Mooseknuckler Market or if your budget is small, simply click on any of the links at the side of the page and know that at some point the Alliance will buy you a drink.
I used to hate to ride Prospector/Church Rocks. I found nothing interesting about the trail. It was slow, sluggish and made me tired without giving anything back. I would pedal to the top of one of the hills only to slowly ride back down to repeat. I avoided the trail almost as much as I now avoid Paradise Canyon. It was boring.
Then I rode it with ProZac on a Saturday morning on a bike that was being treated to its first bout of dirt. Suddenly, Prospector turned into a quick, flowy trail that left me with this strange sensation often known as fun. The ups were quick and I spun out on the back side grinning and laughing all the way to the next up. I had to stay on top of it to keep from missing a turn. I was hooked. Continue reading →
This past weekend we had a No Dabs Contest on Gooseberry. I had a good day and was able to beat Sir Prattipuss by one dab. It was fun and the weather was amazing. But that is not what this post is about.
I conquered a demon that has been haunting me for years. Yes years. I am right now trying to figure out how long it has been since I first pussed out on this move, but my memory is failing me. I’m sure it has been at least five.
It was such a huge demon for me that I dubbed it the Wall of Death. I’ve watched it ridden by numerous people hundreds of times, but I could never get myself to drop in.
The past few days it seems that the cyclewebs (what I am now calling bicycle related internet media) have exploded with hate. I’ve been receiving emails with links, facebook posts with links, links to links and what have you’s that probably also lead to links. What do they all have in common? A lot of people being pissed off about other people riding bikes.
First, DC went off with a rant about riding indoors, using crossfit and trying to get that extra edge. Which can be read here. While it is a good read and may motivate you to get out and ride, it may have the opposite effect on many other people, who in most circumstances would be trying to find some pedal spinning time.
Maybe it is the new year since my normal reaction would be, fuck yea, that is what I am talking about. If you have to watch your power meter to ride, then you are retarded. However, when I read this post it hit me differently. I thought that kind of sucks.
And again it may be my introspective nature of late, but when I received the email to a tech’s rant on MTBR, I was repulsed.
Again, naturally I understand the frustration. I understand the pain of beating one’s head against the wall of the public psyche. I get that sometimes you need to vent. But what repulsed me, was that it is this very attitude that keeps people away from cycling, out of bike shops and sitting in front of their tv’s watching bull shit.
If you ride your bike great. If you ride your bike to race, great. If you ride your bike to get to the post office, awesome. If you ride your bike to relieve the stress your cubical job gives you, even better. I honestly can’t think of a scenario when someone riding a bike would make me mad. Unless of course, you consider a mad scientist riding a bike out to kill baby seals. OK you got me, that last one would make me mad, but in all seriousness when is that going to happen.
I guess what hit me about these posts was how much it was like holding a mirror up to my own rants at times. And the realization that I don’t care what you ride, as long as your ride.
As the day that we have assigned to be our changing over of time, has come and gone many things have lingered through the hazy halls of my mind. In the spaces in between, if you will. Without torturing you with all the inner workings of that maze, let me just say that I am thankful for the people I have met, have ridden with and those who have befriended me.
I’ve always held that my best friends are those with whom I have shared singletrack. There is something mystical about riding that forges bonds, bromances and what have yous. For the past three years I have had the opportunity to go riding with many students at Dixie State College as part of the Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance outreach program. I get eight rides to show the ropes of riding dirty. I hope I do it justice.
There are students that I enjoy, students I don’t remember, those that linger in my mind like bad socks and those that become friends. The above picture is of a Norwegian student that came through my class, taking it multiple times and whose company I always enjoyed. Not because he was the best rider. Not because he thought like me. Rather because he always had something to say that made me think. He was an outside opinion. I got to ride one last time with Erlend over the Xmas break and as always enjoyed it.
He is off to greener pastures and the Alliance wishes him the best of luck…
Speaking of pastures and the things that tend to lay within them, we had our third Alley Cat this past Friday. Fortunately, the only people to show were more interested in racing to the bar to have a drink than doing any actual racing. So we headed to Jazzy’s by the straightest path and never looked back. I have saved the course for this month’s race, unless the same friends show up and we just want a beer.
Speaking of this month and its inaugural sense, we had the second installation of the Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance’s No Dabs Gooseberry Contest type ordeal. The contestants were few but came ready to rock. Prattipus, Shelby, Kevin Foote, the Berg and I headed up the South Rim to try our luck against one of the hardest trails in the area. We all faired quite well. I must admit it gave me pride to listen to the Berg counting hers and trying her best not to dab. She did well.
In the series, Prattipus and I find ourselves tied at two dabs each.
The Photo Evidences.
In mentioning photo evidences, Shelby has some good ones over on his blog as well. Check it out.
The weather has been pretty much on the amazing side for the past couple of weeks. If you haven’t been riding you should be ashamed.
Here’s to finding more empty spaces, longer rides, deeper shades of orange and following every road to its end. Here’s to Peace, Love and Revolution. Here’s to super sad monkey face. Happy New Year!
I can’t even watch this. I’m not scared of heights, per se, but I can’t stand to watch people on the edge of a cliff. I also tend to have nightmares after spending time on the edge of cliff.
Two Sundays ago, we did a multi-surface ride with Fixie, KB and Lynda Wallenfells. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride the CX bike on a ride so perfectly designed for it. I got my skinny on by skidding down the steps on Dino Cliffs, cruising on the pavement and hammering the dirt roads.
We did a Fixie designed loop that consisted of all three of the above surfaces. We started at the Winkel Trailhead (or if you prefer the official name, Cottonwood) and headed out on Prospector. The only bike that is more fun than a singlespeed CX is a singlespeed 29′r. The skinny tires make things a bit more sketchy and you can gain some amazing speed on the smooth sections. Just don’t forget about the sudden turns. I don’t think you could have knocked the smile off my face.
From Prospector, we headed to the Dino Cliffs. I tend to ride the Cliffs on my way to Church Rocks, but riding it this direction is a hell of a lot more fun. Except of course, the sand hill. We hit the dirt road known as Grapevine and made our way to the Interstate over pass and bombed down to and across Telegraph where we hit the bike path that drops to the Virgin. We followed this for as far as we could and then did some “This Land is your Land, This Land is my Land” traversing to hit the dirt road that is the back way to Sand Hollow.
It had been some time since I had been over that way and the views were pretty awesome. The road was loose in a couple of spots but the skinnies did just fine. After the dirt road, we made it to the paved road into Sand Hollow which we followed back to the highway and made our way around to Quail Creek and to the bottom of Prospector in Red Cliffs. And you guessed it, we road the bottom section of Prospector back to the car.
All in all we did about 27 miles. It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all.
Getting back on the CX bike has kept with my whole trying not to be a pussy thing we discussed a few posts back. Long rides, rough terrain and skinny tires.
Yea, I like that combination.
Some Photo Evidence from a few rides that the Alliance has hit since the last post.
And yes I do use cheater brakes. After today’s ride, I realized that it may make them easier to use if I actually adjusted the lever so I could grab it. I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow.
Jumping to a completely different subject, This Friday will be this month’s Alley Cat. It is a New Year’s Eve Eve Alley Cat. You can read all about it here.
The Alliance has also been busy working the “advocacy” side of the table. If you haven’t checked it out yet, hop on over. DMBTA. There will be more content soon. I promise.
Anyone interested in doing a night ride tomorrow? Drop me a line. I may become interested if there is the right kind of persuasion.
Now a jam for Prattipuss.
I may be crazy but it seems that he once told me that he couldn’t stand to build houses for ass holes he would never meet and that never made an effort to say thanks. Great song.
Remember to get the skinnies out on the dirt and to keep it hard.
Sometimes I get bored.
s the day that we have assigned to be our changing over of time, has come and gone many things have lingered through the hazy halls of my mind. In the spaces in between, if you will. Without torturing you with all the inner workings of that maze, let me just say that I am thankful for the people I have met, have ridden with and those who have befriended me.
Skinny tires on the dirt are fun.
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