Making the world happy one driver at a time.

Looks like J-No and I are famous. It amazes me that not only did we ride for 7 hours on snowmobile trails, but we blocked traffic on a bridge in LaCrosse, made skiers mad because we rutted out the Douglas trail which has never been intended to be a ski trail, caused headaches on 2nd St in Rochester by riding on a 4 lane city street, and disturbed a man that is insecure about his sexuality because he saw us in our "leotards" while he was driving this summer.

Extreme Ride Club; pissing off the world one grumpy person at a time.

BTW

Extreme Ride Club

Farrow has the DBD rides, I realized J-No and I have always called ours Extreme Ride Club. There is a story, but I can't talk about it, right Maury? This would be ride #5 or so this year.

As alluded to before in the comments area, J-No and I had plans Christmas Eve. I was up at 4am, out the door at 4:30 on the Rig. We proceeded to set tracks in the 3 inches of wet snow left the night before. Up the snowmobile portion of the Douglas trail was slow going. The temp was high which led to squishy snow with rutted out slightly harder snow underneath. My front wheel got kicked around while J-No was able to keep his Puglsey a little more straight. We both would end up tipping over at least once (I forgot the camera).

Gears finally adorned the bike but 1/4 the way through the combination of the worn middle chain ring from last year and packed snow suddenly made chain engagement impossible. The rest of the way would be big ringed. You would expect nothing less, no?

I finished up with 7 hours bike time for the day. A quick nap and it was party time at the folks. Presents, food, and freestyle rapping are all part of the tradition.

Christmas day was presents at our house. Santa had a high opinion of me this year. Let's just say that I am now too good to ride alloy rims on my mountain bike. Blingy. Pictures to come soon.

Hope all is Merry and bright, blah, blah, blah.

Riding

Remember when I used to talk about actually riding my bike? Well, the riding has been spotty as "situations" arise. It seems it is full on now as I hope not to completely embarrass myself at the Arrowhead 135. The Gary Risher Rig and I took the monster wheels for some snow riding.

Heading out for a 4 hour tour this weekend. Yes, I use the clock on the seatpost as a watch. Other than that my "zones" I stayed in could be accurately described as J.F.R.


Mayowood, Mayowood always up to no good. A beaten path made things easier, but lowering the tire pressure did the trick. Took a lap on the recently held microcross course. Was able to ride it without dismounting once. I must be amazing.


Woke up too flipping early so I could be out the door at 4:30am yesterday and be back by 7am. Recent snowfall of 2-3 inches made things more fun. The local road crews heard about my ride and brought out a plow for me to motorpace.


A picture is worth a thousand words, but looks like I only wrote fourteen.

I am not sure if I will be in optimum shape for Arrowhead, but things are looking positive. This has to be the best shape I have ever been in for the time of year that I normally am making belly jelly.

I am hoping to finally get some gears on this thing tonight as I am bogged down in anything harder than smooth flat pavement. Good training though, eh?

Christmas is almost here, get some work done before your day off, o.k.?

Seasonal Singing

Merry Christmas!!



BTW

Don't be that guy.

So this one time in college I went to use the bathroom. There were 4 urinals, one was lower than the others, similar to this picture. The 3 high urinals were being used and the 4th lower one was not. As I prepared to make my way to the vertically challenged depository, I realized someone was in the bathroom before me. He was just standing, waiting. What was he waiting for? One of the high urinals. I gave a guy a look and then went about doing what I came to do.

Don't be the guy that is too good to use the kiddie urinal.

BTW.

So it starts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got a butt load of snow. Finally got to test out the snow wheels on the snowmobile trails. Met up with J-No at 5am Sat for 3 hours of Douglas trail riding. Snow was not ideal, but we did well. One thing I found is that his 26X3.7" tires on 70 mm rims have better float than my 29X2.5 tires on 47mm rims, but not a lot better. It was 7 degrees with a -10 windchill at the start and 9 degrees with a -3 windchill when done. Only taking in 350 calories caught up to me in the last 1/2 hour as I knew it would. I think I do stuff like that to see what my body will tolerate.

Oh, the bike still does not have gears on it so I was pushing some very low rpm's on the trails with my gearing. Legs were begging for lower gears to spin in the last hour.

BTW

PSA

We are in trouble...

The
population of this country is 300 million.


160
million are retired.



That leaves 140 million to do the
work.




There are 85 million in school.




Which leaves 55 million to do the work.





Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal
government.




Leaving 20 million to do the work.




2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied
with killing Osama
Bin-Laden.



Which leaves 17.2
million to do the work.




Take from that total the 15.8
million people who work for state and city
Governments. And that
leaves 1.4 million to do the work.




At any given
time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.



Leaving
1,212,000 to do the work.



Now, there are 1,211,998 people
in prisons.





That leaves just two people to do the
work.





You and me.



And there
you are,



Sitting on your ***,




At your computer, reading jokes..


Nice. Real nice.


Time for you to get back to work.

Help me out here.

I am looking for suggestions for a charity that is most worthy. I have several in mind, but I am partial to helping children who have been dealt a bad card (illness, abused, etc.). This is just the start of a bigger plan I have been thinking of for a long while, so please help me with suggestions.

And since everything needs a funny picture,

BTW.

Sorry Joe.

Mr. Friel,

.....I appreciate you helping my riding structure again this year. Just like the previous years I am upping my "yearly hours". In accordance to your ways, a plan has been set out to not embarrass myself at the Arrowhead 135. Yesterday marks the start of my second week in the base period.
.....This is where I owe you an apology. You see, you want base to be primarily long slow miles following your guideline for hours in a week. Well, I did ride or workout the required number of hours, but they were not all slow. Saturday there was a local "micro" cross race. It sounded fun so I lined up with about 10 other guys to take part in the free race that was only a mile from my house. I figured it would be fun as I was on my Rig all single speeded out and with the big monster snow wheels.
.....The start was relaxed, and I was not there to try to crush people as it was all in fun. There was a whole smattering of people on single speeds, mountain bikes, and such. One local made it out on his Belgium cross bike and skinsuit. A far cry from my bike and 15 year old jersey and tights. We all started out together, but 3 of use pulled away with me in third. My gearing was limited, so most of the course I was just spinning it, enjoying it. Eventually, I pulled into the front and built a gap. I was never attacking, it just seemed that I continued at my same pace while others slowed during the 45 minutes of racing.
.....I know, I know Joe. There should not have been a race according to you, but it was fun. I attached my award above for you to look at. Not being a beer drinker, I let the Wookie take over the duty of polishing this off. I still don't understand the fascination with such things, but I am just one person in this world. A fire was made and a hotdog consumed before riding another 3 hours. Yes, they were slow and steady.

I look forward to working with you more this year. Have a Merry Christmas.

Yours Truly,
Charly

Clean up.

So I added 2 blog links and took 2 away. I figure if you haven't updated in the last 6 months then it is too bad for you. Tom, you're on the edge.

It is Obama's fault.

BTW

Less like the Doughboy

So in the past I would pull the plug on consistent workouts in September or so. I just lost motivation. A lot of that has to do with the fact if I have nothing to be fit for I am not. Well, here it is November still and I have not gone too hog wild on cookies and kept a fair amount of my fitness. I am not in shape to go toe to toe with Ivan Drago, but the Pillsbury Doughboy and I have a lot less in common then we normally do this time of year. I have been hitting the weights a little and my strength is there, no relearning, no post lifting soreness.

Now with Arrowhead in Feb, I start my official "training" earlier then ever, as in today. So, I am starting earlier and the pinch test results are reading record results for November. Neato.

On another note, watched Napoleon Dynamite again with the wife last night. Too many funny lines in that movie. Too many.


My monster bike seems to be going well. I have to throw gears on it here soon and rock out with my derailleur out.

BTW.

Arrow through my head.

You ever get something in your head and you can't stop thinking about it. Researching, planning, replanning? That happens to me too often, and now I am thinking about the Arrowhead to which I am on the roster. I really don't feel like losing digits or dying.

I had a friend ask me if I expected to be in the same shape as I was early this year. It could have been phrased differently as, "Are you going for the win?". Uh, no. The veterans of this race have a huge advantage mentally. They know what to expect. I don't care how good of shape anyone is in, this is not all pedal pedal.

Just trying to get all the gear is a battle in itself. Then it is what to bring for food/water. How to carry all of it. Where to carry it. Gotta make sure it does not freeze. Gotta make sure you don't freeze.

Order this, borrow that. Trying to do it on the cheap because the money tree in the back yard has yet to blossom.

Will my "plump" bike be a poor choice compared to the "fat" bikes?

Well, at least I managed to clean out the gutters. BTW.

I do dumb things.

Not many people consider things I enjoy as smart. For instance, I categorized the 3 races I registered for just this weekend.

Dumb
Raganrok 105. Gravel, 105 miles worth. Self supported.


Dumber
Transiowa. Gravel, 320 miles worth. Self supported.


Dumbest
This race. To date, the hardest event I will have every tried to do.
I have a lot of planning to do, like how to keep all my body parts.


You have a lot of planning to do. Like how to goof off on the internet until lunch without the boss noticing.

Other Bad Boys.

Just finished up the new monster truck wheels. Kris Holm 47mm wide rims, WTB 2.55 weirwolf's (not really that wide unfortunately), and XT hubs. Split tubed ghetto tubeless (homemade stan's strip from a 24" tube) and held air great all night.

Not a ton of clearance on the back (plenty on the front), but oh so much more float for those "secret" winter trails.

Now I need to really think about registering for some of those crazy endurance races held at stupid low temps.




No, your coworkers probably would not be impressed. What would impress them? You pitching in more around the office.

The Bad Boys

Witness the athleticism. The coordination, the strength. I am going to incorporate this into my cross training this winter. Well, maybe not the exercise move at 1:10. I love the robot moves btw.



Your boss is wondering why your tapping your foot while staring at the computer. Better act busy....

So I have this thing.

Anyone know what this bad boy is worth? Seems to work great, but I have no use for it.








BTW

Checking in.

Hope things are going well for all you blog readers. I feel like it is going well for me. Just got back from "the cabin" where my Pa and I installed new kitchen cabinets and moved the fridge to a more appropriate spot. Looks really nice.

Went out on the Makwa trail in the single speed, rigid. That bike is fun, but I will not be a "less gears more beers" kinda guy anytime soon. Met some nice people, Dee from Duluth, John from the cities, and Kevin from Freewheel. Does anybody from WI ride the CAMBA trails? Simply amazing trails and it sounds like by the end of next summer the Makwa will be connected to the Ojibwe. What does that mean? Well, I will be able to ride from the cabin to Hayward on singletrack (probably about 20 miles worth). Maybe grab a bite to eat, and then back to Cable.

I have some secret BIG wheels assembled, but not tensioned. I'll get those on here soon and you can awe in their bigness.

And a super cute picture of my daughter at the Zoo. This is right after the tiger came by and sprayed her. Well, he sprayed the window, but she was the target.


Sorry to waste more of your work day.

Another Level

Buy a piece of my soul

Well, time to sell stuff. You want? charly tri at yahoo dot com. Stuff has been removed as it has been sold.

2009 Gary Fisher Hi Fi Pro 29er, not at all stock, all high end stuff. This is the BEST bike I have ever ridden. Crazy fast, super light, tough. 24.5 lbs as you see here, yes 24.5 lbs. $2,500.


Size 17.5" (MD)

Frame	6066 hydroformed butted aluminum mainframe & chainstays, co-molded carbon seatstays, cold-forged dropouts, G2 29" Geometry
Fork	Custom Fox F100RLC 29, 100mm travel, custom G2 Geometry 51mm offset crown, air spring, 4-position external platform adjustment, external rebound adjustment
Rear Shock	Custom Tuned Fox Float RP23 w/air pressure, 3-Position Pro Pedal, external Rebound adjust 7.5x 2"
Drivetrain
Shifters	Sram X9 trigger
Front Derailleur	Shimano Ultegra
Rear Derailleur	Sram XO
Cassette	Shimano XT

Wheels
Wheels	Bontrager Rhythm Pro 29, 28mm wide tubeless ready* rims
Tires	Bontrager XR-1 expert
Components
Crank Set	Shimano XTR, 36/24, Hollowtech II arms, integrated BB spindle
Saddle	Bontrager Race Lite, superlight hollow cromoly rails
Seatpost	Easton EC-70 Carbon
Handlebar	Bontrager Race Lite Big Sweep, 640mm width, 12d sweep, 31.8mm
Stem	Bontrager Race X Lite OS, 7d rise, 31.8mm
Headset	Cane Creek ZS3, semi-integrated, cartridge bearings, short top cap
Brakeset	Avid Juicy Ultimate, Carbon levers, Ti bolts, 160 mm Ashima rotors

Time Atac XS. Used for several years, but bearings and bushings have been replaced. Everything spins great, no excessive play. Come with cleats. I have 1 pair. Retail is $175. Yours for $60.

charly tri at yahoo dot com

BTW

Something Strange...