Last Ride of 2007....

Since I have to hit the road early tomorrow and head to the Gator Bowl, I figured I'd take my last official ride of 2007 this morning. The weatherman called for rain all day, and as I headed out to load up my gear, it was beginning to sprinkle already. I stopped and pondered my options...stay home and be bored out of my skull, or hit the trails, mud and all...

Blue Clay road is notorious for mud, thick mud that seems to take on a life of it's own, however today the trail was almost perfect. As I started the ride, I was thinking about the post that Sir Bikes-a-lot posted last night of a virgin trail they had worked on yesterday, and I couldn't wait to ride it. The older section of trail was great, a little slick in some places, but the mud was easily avoidable so that I didn't rut up the trail.

I was almost to the very end of my lap, and I could see the beginning of the virgin trail. these guys had done a great job... After I completed what I thought to be the entire new section, and was heading out I saw to my right what looked to be the beginnings of yet another new section. It had been raked out and partially cleared, and was just waiting for someone to follow it to the end....and what a perfect way to spend my last ride of 2007, just me and my Cannondale....


Part of the virgin trail, and my Cannondale Prophet 3





part of the new trail


part of the new trail


part of the new trail, yes that's sand at blue clay


IRC Kujo DH tires are the best! These bad boys grip!


All loaded up and heading for the house before the rain sets in... What a great way to end 2007.

Happy New Years!

Dirt Jumper!!!

Thanks to Shawn, the owner of Bike Cycles here in Wilmington, I finally have a dirt jumper. I talked with him a while back, and he found me a 2008 P1 Long. I spent all afternoon yesterday playing on this bike. I felt like I was 13 years old again riding my old Hutch BMX. There are a few things that I will upgrade, like the brakes, and get a Thompson seat post, but other than that, this bike is fantastic....

Christmas Parade 2007 - Cape Fear Cyclists

I know I'm running a few days late, but here's more pictures from the 2007 Christmas Parade here in Wilmington NC. This was the first time that the Cape Fear Cyclist took part in the parade, and we won Third place!



Sir Toots, Mary Ann, and Nancy


Sir Lamm-hammer and Josh showing off their skill on the "big bikes"


Not a great picture, but Sir Bikes-a-lot, Sir Toots, and myself in front of our bicycle pulled float... We won third place!


Sir Launch-a-lot and his wife Sherry (That's John in the background, check out his boots)


Last shot, Sir Lamm-Hammer sitting aboard his decorated tall-bike.

What a great turn out, we had so much fun, and so many people commented on us during the parade. I hope to see 10X as many people riding in next year's parade. I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas!

Let's Ride!

After a go around with the flu, and several weeks on the road that kept me hopping from Oxford Mississippi, to Gainesville Florida and finally winding up in New Hampshire, I am finally home, and on vacation, and on my bike! The first few rides were so-so, but I am finally feeling my legs begin to get back to where they were a month or so ago, and it's nice to just pedal.

I also made it home just in time for a few events that I didn't want to miss. The first was a ride with the other club that I belong to, the Down East Cyclist from Jacksonville NC. We are hosting one of the Winter Series Races this year, and these guys have not rode Blue Clay yet. So, this past Sunday, several of their members came down to ride... Here's a few pictures.


As you can see, the parking lot was packed! it stays that way on the weekends


Luke from DEC on his Santa Cruz Nomad...


John from DEC hammering the whooptie-section...

All in all, it was a great turn out, and everyone seemed to like the trails. Unfortunately the Wilmington Christmas parade was the same day, and several of us had to leave early to take part in that which was the other event that I didn't want to miss. Here's a couple pictures and I will do a follow up post on the parade.


My Prophet showing some Holiday cheer.


My wife JJ and me along with the bicycle pulled float and other riders...

until next time... see you in the trails...

My first Night Ride - Nov 6-2007

Spring ahead and Fall back.... Each year the time changes, and for the winter riding season when the time rolls back an hour, it leaves very little daylight to ride after a working day is complete. Sunday after our ride at NRT, I payed close attention to what time the sun set and at around 5:20 or so, it's pretty dark outside so you can imagine what it would be like within the trees.

I called up Bike Cycles to see if the had any MiNewts in stock, and they did, so I headed over to purchase one. When I got there, all they had were the MiNewt X2 which mounts on your bars, so I decided to demo one for my first night ride.

I learned one thing real quick last night on my first lap, if you are only going to run one light, put it on your helmet, NOT your bars... I was really impressed with how well the MiNewt worked. Riding at night was a totally new experience for me in biking, and a lot of fun. Before I realized it, I had already pedaled ten miles.

Im going to head back over to my buddies at Bike Cycles and pick up one that will mount on my helmet, probably the SolMate to use for this year. If I get to use it alot, next year I will upgrade to one of the bigh 600+ lumens lights...

If you haven't tried night riding, call your LBS and barrow a light, and give it a try, you won't regret it.

See ya in the woods...

Return to NRT - Nov 4-07

Nine a.m. came early for me after drinking with my wife, and a friend I haven't seen in 19 years the night before.


However, the fun we had at NRT just a week before was still fresh in my mind, along with the fact that my wife was coming along with her SLR to take pictures. Yes, we are some vain riders, let's face it, we all drool over the pictures in decline, mtb action, dirt rag and the like, so when we see pictures of ourselves it gives us what we need to feed our egos.

Most of the same riders attended, (Myself, Josh, Randy, Brandon) and this week we had some new guys Tony, Wayne, Austin, and Bennett. Josh and Brandon went straight to the playground with my wife and camera following behind. The rest of us, hit the trail to start logging some miles on the smooth flowing single track.




My goal was to get in 20 miles, but I ran out of time and only got in 13, which was still a good day's riding for me. I also did the drop that Stu was hitting the week before, which was so much fun, that I had to do it three more times.




A few of the DEC guys were out riding, which is always nice to talk with them, but the cool thing this weekend there were four Marines there riding their 20" bikes, hitting the jumps...INSANE! Only one was wearing a helmet, and one bailed hard face first, and got messed up pretty good...



I don't know if I will head back this weekend for a third straight weekend or not, with gas topping $3 a gallon here, road trips may have to be reserved for once a month or so...

See ya in the woods....

NRT ride -{Sunday Oct 28}

Sunday morning seven guys gathered at the parking lot of Bike Cycles to head over to ride New River Trails. These are the trails that I actually learned to ride years ago when I made the transition from my 20" Hutch Trickstar to my first Cannondale. It was like going back in time, only on a much nicer bike.

The trail has a little bit of everything to offer anyone, the freeride guys like to hit the playground and the natural drops, the XC guys like to ride the well flowing trails, and then guys like me get to learn how to ride the skinny or the teeter-totter.




{me learning some mad skillz}


{Captain Stu, bombing the natural drops}


{Josh pulling a one-hander over the gap}


{Sir Lamm-hammer over the gap with J.V. video tapping}

We are planning a trip back next Sunday, hopefully I'll get some more pictures of these guys, as well as the other riders to post up here.

Catching up

Well, I knew it would happen. As soon as the Doctor released me, I had to hit the road for a few weeks. It's not that I mind working or traveling, I just hate that it disrupts my mountain biking. I feel like I am in a constant "beginner" state, because every time I build up my endurance, and get my legs and lungs working together and actually see improvement.... I have to hit the road. It gets extremely frustrating.

I also had to miss a local race that I was looking forward to, "12 hours in the Pit Endurance Race" for the wounded warriors. Once I got back in town, I went the very next day and purchased a few shirts and talked to the club Prez about the event, I'll post a link as soon as I see the write up on it.

I have three more days in town before hitting the road again, next stop Dallas Tx.

Local News - Leland Bike Proposal

Leland Bike Proposal Town Meeting.


I'd like to start off by saying that I was very disappointed in the lack of support by the Cape Fear Cyclists at this meeting. You would think that since the CFC rides several routes in the Leland/Town Creek area, they would have showed up decked out in their jersey's in support of this issue, but the were nowhere to be seen. As far as I know, the only two that showed up were Sir Bike's a lot, and myself.


It just drives me up the wall, to hear cyclists bitching about "their rights" but when there is an open forum for them to have a voice, where are they? Can you imagine the faces of the guys putting on the meeting to see 275+ local cyclist lining the walls because there were no more sitting room? It would have been awesome... oh well, maybe some day.

The Plan as presented sounded good for the most part. And the part that most interested me was the plans for a 990 acre tract of land dedicated to mountain bikers and equestrians. To think that we have almost 5.5 miles of trails on our 208 acres out at Blue Clay Road, imagine what could be done with close to a thousand acres? Whew...I'm in heaven just thinking about it.

So far this is just a proposal, and it lends itself more to the road cyclists, and recreational rider far more than the mountain bikers. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, I hope to hear more about it in the local papers.

For more information, I'm sure Sir-Bikes-a-lot will do a much more informative write up on it, so check out his site to read about this and all other local cycling news.

see ya in the trails!
Sir-disappears-a-lot

Seeing the pay off

I can't help but think of the long day's last winter, hauling treated 8X8's a half mile back into the trails, and all the discussions that we all had about things we wanted to see happen at the park the county had given us. We knew then that it was a long and uphill battle, which is expected anytime that the government, local or other, are involved.

First of all, I want to thank all of those guys that spent long days in the woods, making our local trails what they are today, and I am proud that my son and myself were right out there with you guys. And to the guys that have lobbied and met with the local officials to get this project pushed through, thanks just doesn't seem enough. Blue Clay Mountain bike park is growing by leaps and bounds.

What started out as a handful of us, spending weekends working on trails, has now become a vast number of rider's there on any given day. The picture aboves is of the presenting of the almost $10 thousand dollar grant that we received from Bikes Belong, to continue work at Blue Clay, and to help with the B.M.X. course...

I can't wait to see where all this takes us next...

Week 2 weigh in time...fell short again

WTF? I weighed on Thursday (against my wife's suggestions) and I was sitting at 240.3 and was pumped hoping like hell to post a weight in the 230's this morning. Well, I ended up at 242 which sucks. I'm happy taking off the two extra pounds, but I was hoping for more.

My goal for next week is 239.

Old friends, there's nothing better.

When I was growing up, I had this one guy that was kind of like my partner in crime. Very seldom did you see one of us, and not see the other. We grew up in a small town, and we terrorized it on our 20" freestyle bikes, thinking that we were the local Ron Wilkerson's and R.L. Osborne's of this little place. There was a total of about five of us that rode freestyle, and we were very close. Mischievous? Well, that goes without saying.

Over the years we ended up going our separate ways. There are a few that I haven't seen in quite some time, but my ole' buddy Fuzz, my partner in crime and I stay in touch on a regular basis. He had got out of biking, like most of us had and just recently found the urge to dive back in.... Here's a picture of my life long friend, my brother in life... Tommy on his new ride the first day back at the trails... Here's to you Bro!

Week One in my quest to 195

Was my goal of 10lbs in the first week to much? Or did I just not try hard enough? Needless to say I went from 249.6 lbs down to 244 lbs for my first weigh in. I'm happy with the almost five pounds that I lost, but I think I could have done better. After doing much reading on the "Clydedales" forum on MTBR, and also talking to a few people that have lost weight, I think maybe I should shoot for 3-4 lbs a week instead. So, my goal for next Monday is 240 lbs.

I also picked up a road bike, so I can start putting in miles to help with my endurance on my mountain bike, plus aid with my weight loss.






Well, lets see how it goes...

My first ride after my injury...

I've been out of riding for about six weeks or so now because I had a steel rod go through my hand at work. I think other than the initial incident, the worst part of the entire ordeal has been not being able to ride my bike. Technically the doctor has not released me yet, but I figured "what the hell", I'm bored out of my damn mind.

Since I am still in the "take it easy" mode, we hit the UNCW trails today to do an easy lap. It was Josh, Randy, Tony and myself. We started at 8am, and it was already muggy, although I am not sure what the exact temperature was. We rode for about an hour at which time Tony was not feeling well, and Randy got a flat on his single speed. So we headed back to the parking lot to repair the tire. I think I only ended up with 4.17 miles for the day. Not much, but it felt great. I am going to try to start working on my endurance, which has always been my week-point. Now that my single speed is ridable, I think I am going to start riding 5 or so miles every day on it, and then build on more and more miles as I can.

The countdown begins!

Ok, today is the first day of my diet, I weighed this morning, and I weighed in at 249.6lbs. I realize that's not huge for someone that is 6'5" tall, however when you are trying to push this weight up the side of a mountain, it feels like twice that much.

I'm still off my bike due to my hand injury, but I have three more weeks until I can ride. My goal is 3-5lbs a week, so hopefully by time the fall gets here I can be at my target weight of 195lbs. However I want to do this sensibly, and that's why I am setting smaller goals from week to week. That way if I have a bad week, I just have to work harder the next week.

Well, wish me luck.... hopefully the next post for a weigh in will be in the low 230's but as long as I meet my 3-5lbs, I'll be satisfied....

see ya in the trails!

Farwell Max!

Being a long time Cannondale owner and rider, it is very sad news to hear that the power's to be have laid the Lefty Max 140 to rest. Fortunately I have one and will not be one of those people that have to go through life wandering what it would have been like, to ride this amazing fork. For more insight, and a great write up, visit Dan Gerous's write up on "Goodbye Lefty Max" at his blogsite.

Farewell old friend!

They won't see this on an XBOX

I saw these two pictures this morning on MTBR.com, and borrowed them for others to see. Just remember if your kid is sitting on their butts playing video games and watching TV, well this is the sort of things they are missing...

it's all about the kids

I have way to much time to surf the web right now, and one of my favorite places is the forums section of MTBR, because I love looking at the places that others have the chance to ride. However what really makes me happy is to see people spending quality time with their kids outdoors on their bikes.

This little fellow rocks!

I wish that every parent would spend more time doing stuff like this with their children instead of buying them another damn xbox or playstation game.

see you in the trails....

trying to figure out pictures..

here's a quick picture of my Prophet at the Tsali Trail sign.... This was an incredible weekend of riding. Wish I were in much better shape. I rode the Mouse, The Thompson and part of the right loop. Next time, It's all or nothing.

out of commission...

What a way to start a blog for mountain biking huh? I guess creating this is because I am out of commission for a while. I had a steel grounding rod go through my hand, so I'm off the bike for at least three to four more weeks... which SUCKS! Oh well, I'm just very thankful that I have full use of my hand and have all the feeling back in it.

How did it happen? Well, that's a long story. It happened while I was working in Tulsa Oklahoma. I'm home in North Carolina now, and counting the days until I can get back on my bike.

I'm not sure how to post pictures or do anything fancy on here yet, but as I learn more I'll be sure to add pictures of different places that I ride, my bikes, and of course the guys that I ride with.

I guess that about does it for now. See you in the trails!