Roundin' it out...

Happy New Year's Eve 2009

Promised myself i'd get another entry in before the new year. Gahhhhhhh. The blog feels so distant, but not detached. Plenty o' words coming out the fingertips. In riding news, I haven't done much of it. Well. It all starts with the Angeles Crest/San Gabriels Burning up. Tragic. The crest highway, where 80% of my training takes place burned to bits. More on that later. A bunch of guys switched to the mountain bike to get their dose of climbing in, in and around the Verdugo Mountain Range. I felt left out...then by craigslist miracle...this bad boy popped up, as you see it...

$440. Great deal, in any condition. The guy lived in palmdale, but worked in El Segundo. Took the train down to El Segundo, met the guy, tried to play down my shock at home clean the thing was, and took it home. The frame is an XL, and not an L as was listed, but eh. It's still shorter than my road bike, so it worked. My "serious" riding began on the MTB, so back to the roots in some ways. The Magic Motorcycle/CODA 900M crank are vintage early 90s nostalgia in huge doses, as is the 80mm rear wheel travel, and 50mm up front. What do I know? Lots has changed on the bike since, and though it weighed 27lbs when I bought it, it's now up to nearly 30. Here's what it looks like now:

Without getting too technical...the bike now has a cable-disc front brake and a more modern fork (another craigslist special). The tires are beasts. Twice as heavy and 3 times slower than the originals...but lots of fun coming down. The bike has 8 speed sram/XTR, and the final upgrade is to find a swingarm that I can mount a rear disc to. The most difficult part of the MTB game for me is the arm-fatigue during a long descent...and the front disc is terrific. So there it is. About 25% of my riding has been on that bike. There's a great loop that I can do from home that's almost all dirt road. The highlight of which is this little loop. Followed by the La Tuna Singletrack. Neither video is me, but gives you an idea. The crashing is the biggest downside to this game, but eh. Had a bad wrist sprain (opposite wrist from my accident), and finally cracked my caseless iphone after a low speed tumble. I've held up nicely otherwise.

Ok, done with the mountain bike bit. Actually, let me just close this entry down without getting too introspective on your asses. I've got a cute little team for 2010, possibly a new custom built bike, and a really loud new kit as well. I haven't shaved my legs in weeks. I'm sick, not super-motivated, unemployed, but i'm training and still sane. Will try to make it out to the New Year's Ride tomorrow morning. First crit of the year is on January 25th. Dios mio. Suerte.