Help a fellow Crew member out...

So Marty Tank is a guy who does some very cool mountain bike videos and is a fellow Flight Crew member...
Anyways, he's trying to win a video contest for the Wisconsin Off-Road Series and needs our votes...
Check out here and vote, it'll help a pretty cool guy out.
http://vimeo.com/22906820
Thanks

Last of Sea Otter ..and an apology...

So as I was working on bikes last night in my quiet corner of the stor (I'm sooo lonely over there...) I was thinking about the day and what I could/should have done different. Thinking about what I wrote yesterday left me feeling quite ill... I need to apologize. After re-reading it again last night, I came off whiny and insensitive. I realize that what I complained about last week was life and I promise to get over it. I'm pretty lucky to have the life I have and if I take a bit more initiative, I might be even to ride more...Thanks for listening.


Well let me wrap up some other little Sea Otter goodness here....

FRS, my favorite energy drink, was there handing out FULL CANS of their product. At least they were until The Man shut them down. Food vendors were complaining that no one was buying their beverages so FRS had to pour everything in cups. Still pretty awesome, but lets be honest, not as cool. I love this stuff, starting to replace my Diet Coke supply when I can afford it...lol

A bunch of us went out to attack the XC course on a few Goblins.... Well sorta. As we rode up to the entrance we stopped for a bit to watch the pro men short track race (those guys are soooo fast, and of course I forgot my camera) then headed out.
A few of us realized that a couple of us weren't keeping up. Turns out Jim Davis (husband of Wendy Davis of Flight Crew fame) had rear wheel issues and couldn't ride. So me being the nice guy that I am, gave him my wheel thinking I could go back to the tent swap out and catch up... boy was I wrong! never saw them again until I got back to the tent.
The XC ride was by myself and I had no idea where the course was taking me, but it seemed way out there. Lots of sandy dirt roads and singltrack. One "technical" down hill was just rutted from the rain. What's that all about?
The the cat 1 race started so I wanted to get of the course and wind my way back. All hilly dirt roads... good times. I was missing the great techy stuff we have here.
Of course the Goblin was great, but I missed my personal one.

Speaking of Wendy, what a super cool chick. Her husband is alright too...lol. You can read about her pretty amazing story here...http://apabstsmear.blogspot.com/.
Now like most of you, I thought what a strange title for a blog, then it hit me. Pabst Blue Ribbon! PBR Baby! A woman after my own heart and liver. Check out what she gave me...
I know, you're all jealous! Gotta get it on my bike today!

I also got to spend a bit of time on the new Delta cross bike and the Wingman dirt jump bike. I wanted to take the Delta out a bit longer but was afraid I wouldn't get let back in since I didn't have my wrist band at the time. That bike is so cool. When I heard about it, I thought "You can't put discs on a cross bike!" (We don't do that here in New England) but this idea has potential. Jeremy did a great job in ride quality, weight and value.. as usual.
Check it out here....http://www.airbornebicycles.com/category/56-cyclocross-cx.aspx... I WANT one of these!

I also enjoyed my limited time on the Wingman, which surprised me. If I was a few inches shorter and did more Mt. Dew commercial stuff, I'd be all over this. Solid bike for a great price...
http://www.airbornebicycles.com/category/59-dirt-jump.aspx.... Goose would be proud.

Alright.. I got crap to do today... thanks for reading!

More Sea Otter news and notes (and other crap that happened last week that kept me off my bike)

Well it's been a week and a half since I've been home and the shit hit the fan fitness wise...More on that in a bit.

One of the cool things I found at Otter was www.Plus3Network.com. Last year when I was diagnosed and then realized I was going to be OK, I told myself I was going to give back and one way was to start a website for locals here in town to help them solicit funds and sponsors online for their charity events.
Well, me being the tech savvy guy I am, I never was able to figure out the best way to go about it. Well some one did. Basically they set up a website that allows you to choose a charity you want to support and then log in your work outs. They went ahead and matched up corporations for each charity who will pay dividends for your work out time. How cool is that?
I'm working on putting a local team together and get in touch with those of you interested.


I didn't get to do quite as much riding as I wanted to out there due to an sinus/ear infection I brought with me, but when I did get out, it was "interesting". Looking back I'm glad I have an opportunity to ride where I do, the trails out there were, let's say, boring. Great if you like to climb fire roads all day, but where's the rocks? The logs? Roots? Riders of New England... enjoy what you have here....

When we got back the family did do a day trip to NYC to hit up the Museum of Natural History and some Time's Square action... Place was PACKED and the kids didn't get many thrills out of the Museum. It would be neat to go there alone and be able to actually read some of the exhibits. We also bought the most expensive 2 pounds of M&M's in the world at the M&M store in Times Square.

Because the bike department at work pretty much shuts down if I'm not there, I picked up some extra hours at work too... Still not enough.

The sad news of the week was the loss of a family member. Connie's sister-in-law's grandfather passed away while I was away too. Don "Bompa" Griffen was a really cool guy. He served 65 years on the Hebron Volunteer Fire Dept., 25 as Chief. He loved the Sox and Uconn, and was fantastic to his family. We'll all miss him.

So basically with all of that and other stuff (kid's, soccer practice, house work).. I haven't really been able (or maybe , chose not to) to ride or work out since I got back... and lets not even talk about holiday time diets....
I need to get back at it now.... First race on the 14th (Winstead Woods) and the doing the second part of the Angel Ride (http://www.angelride.org/) on the 29th... I'll be hitting you all up for donations soon...
I'm going to need a road bike for that sucker...

Talk to you all soon!

Man Do I Take Crappy Pictures (At least when I remember the camera)

So it's been a week since I've been back from Sea Otter out in California and I'm just getting around to posting about it. It really should have been sooner, but this ended up being a long week.
The kids were off from school, we took a day trip to NYC, worked some extra hours, a holiday and we lost a dear member of my "extended" family.
Nothing personal but the blog was low item on the totem pole, if you know what I mean.


The trip to California was FANTASTIC! The trip out was kinda lame. I knew I'd be in trouble when I washed my phone the night before I was to leave and had to scramble looking for a new one. The other issue, a guy who is pushing 6'5" and can't sit still is NOT built for long trips on a plane... And the food sucked.

It was great finally getting to meet everyone that, up to that point, I only had e-mail or Facebook "relationships" with. What a great group. Intelligent, funny and very down to earth, my kind of people....
The venue was just as I remembered it... gorgeous. The sun was shining and the temps were great. Perfect weather to hang out with thousands of other biker geeks like myself.

One of the big surprises were set up at the tent.... all of the stuff Airborne sent us home with....

Look at all that stuff...just for us!
Here's my stash...

Can you believe it? 2 jerseys, 2 bib shorts, one long sleeve, one downhill jersey, 2 Dickey work shirts, new hoodie and a beanie... I better sell some bikes or some one in accounting is going to be very unhappy...

Here's some random pics with some witty banter .....


Lot's of people all week end... and this was just the first row...

Eric of Airborne (and Emily Batty fanclub) fame getting one of our demo bikes ready. Digging the hat too, not bad for an Ohio guy...


Bikes, bikes and more bikes...

Goblin goodness...


Arm wrestling for handle bars at the Truvativ tent....


Beautiful blue skies all weekend...


This was on my "Bucket List" for the trip... but I chickened out


This was about 1/4 of what they brought...I wonder why Specialized bikes cost so much...?


Kevin's new best friend....

Compared to some of the stuff the other guys did, these pics are really LAME (check out their work on the Airborne FB page)... plus I usually forgot my camera most of the time.... I promise to do a better job with my photogenic eye as time goes on....

Flight back was much better then out... cute redhead sat next to me on the short leg to LAX then there was open seats on the final two legs of the trip so I could spread out a bit....
Glad to be home... I missed everyone.

Check back later for more stuff that went on out there and here at home...

Title Town, USA

Well the big news around here is that UCONN men are the national champions. I'm not a true hoops aficionado but from what I watched last night (not alot) what an ugly game. But they played great D and a win is a win....

Training has hit a bit of a road block. Yesterday was supposed to be another ride but I was COMPLETELY wiped out so I took the day off and napped. I've been battling a sore throat and have been a bit run down the last few days so I'm going to go checked out and rule out anything (like Strep) before the trip. I'm thinking it's just a cold and a bit of post nasal drip...

In 8 days I leave for the big trip with Airborne Bicycles. This is going to be an epic time, bra... (sounds better in aJeff Spicoli voice...). Anyways I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone, reconnect with some old friends, ride some great bikes and check out the national scene. It's been a few years since I've been involved with anything on this scale.

When I get back, the plan is the first race of the season should be the Massosoit Lung Opener in East Taunton, Ma. We'll see how the schedule allows. Body and mind is starting to feel good, so if I can keep up the training and such, I should be ok... If anything fails, it's not the Airborne Goblin, it's the rider....

I'll check back soon...