Adrenalin Junkie

It has been a while since my last post. I have been a bit busy and a bit uninspired to write because of the lack of miles in my log. But in the in the last weeks I have had a few experiences to blabber about.

First off, I want to mention that even though I haven’t been commuting by bike as much I have been riding a lot. As much as my friggin crazy work schedule allows me to. I am a workaholic which cuts into my time on two wheels. This decreases my motivation for being on the road during absolutley silly hours (am/pm).  Secondly, this winter I was able to be on the bike a shit ton because I had very little social life. Now that it is brewing I am much less willing to  show up to my destination(s) sweaty and covered in lycra.

 Hang on…gotta get another beer……

My riding constists of fixed gear, short miles, and of course beer. One or two road rides on Red in the 30mile range. A whole lot of mounatin biking on Bessie and Opie which usually involes trail maintanence and beer as well. Some rides are very notable which I will get to shortly.

Before my notables, I would like to cover one thing. Something that has been weighing on my spirits as a rider.  RIDE ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE FUCKING ROAD WITH A FCUKING HELMET!!!!!! I wasn’t even in a busy city today and this douche with a Trek 820 had no friggin helmet and was riding on the left side of the road with no helmet into traffic. I yelled at him. He said “Fuck you!” So I continued to pursue him…which wasn’t difficult. Although I didn’t cross the road to tail him because..well that’s stupid…I went on with my preaching to him from across North Ave. in Wakefield. He continued to curse while cars were swerving around him because he wasn’t even riding with the breakdown lane. He was pretty much in the middle of the lane. I finished with a “You give Cyclist a bad name asshole” and turned off and mashed away.  Freakin’ morons learn the rules of the road and ride a bit safer. I don’t feel like witnessing unneeded carnage because you feel you are all knowing and imortal.

Deep breath….okay onto good things.

Lately, I have been progressing in my off road prowess, especially on the freeride shit. I have been mountain biking seriously for 14+ years. Even though I am 10yrs older then most of the little buggers in Junior X that I ride with, I seem to be feeling comfortable enough to have that “no fear” riding style. Even though there is…a lot of fear. BUT I have never felt as comfortable and smooth on a bike then I do now. And I am continueing to feel better and better each time I ride.  Maybe it has to do with the winter miles. Or with the bikes I am riding. I am not competely sure. Maybe I have just become sooo comfortable on two wheels at this point in my life that I am more at home on rubber than I am on my feet. I will always have a lot to learn. I will always see different things. But doing “Old Spruce” (seen above from Highland…yes thats me) Puts me in a hole different caliber of Zen. Also Doing “Serene 13”, which has been a personal right of passage for me, raises the bar. After doing drops like that my adrenaline pumps soooo much and I feel like if gravity weren’t there I would float away.

Flying feels so good. Even when it is only for a second.

It must always start with something that brings your balls into your stomach and then into your throat. Start fast and sketchy and the rest with be like buttah! A taste of small town WC is here then it’s fluid-ride the rest of the way down.

I honeslty believe that things happen for a reason. I think that we are all here for something. This is the begining of something that has already begun. This jump represents the true initiation that I have been waiting for into the trail building (even thoug I have done a ton). This jump is just the intro. It is the following 1000 or so feet and many yards of dirt that will put me and my friend into this areas underground trail building hall of fame.

It ends with a kicker. A kicker that pops you into a landing berm. Crosses an existing trail to a pump-line ending with a double over a fallen tree.

This berm came about because of this old ski jump that was on the far side of our project. We added a jump at the top of the line along with a knarly DH section at the top. It will be a strange Bump & Jump line, but very unique to what we have up here in… well you know were right?

A while back, maybe 10 months ago, this place was discovered. This place has continued to astonish us. There are so many possibilities. And so far we have had nothing but good counteractions with the surrounding inhabitants. Even the bugs seem to like us.

IT may seem as though I am being cocky. But I am only cocky because of how hard we worked on this shit. AAAANNNND it has already gotten good feed back. Fuck Ya!

Braaaap!

I have had many dreams. Most of them really fucked up and disorienting. I usually wake up with a look of relief on my face. They aren’t scary (to me) but I am sure some brain monkeys would love to crawl up in this one. 

Most of my greatest thoughts come to me late at night. The moment I feel that weight approach my eyelids and the rope tied to my chin gets pulled on. I get these amazing flashes of flight, speed and flow. I am riding (in my head) to a destination unkown. What ever my mind can muster pops into my head.  Most of these trails are made up in my head.

This type of thing may not happen to many people. Starting my slumber with the amazing feeling of weightlessness and the smell of dirt flicking my nose hairs.  The fight is over and I find myself in the incredibly warm place. A place I can feel no harm and gravity only takes over when I want it to. That even a 68/11 is the easiest gear and speed has no limits. The sound barrier is only the begining. Roots are slippery and rocks are shaped just right. Potholes have kickers just before them. And my legs never get tired. This is when slumber sets in.

I am totally relaxed and my brain shuts off for a few moments. Then the lobes start firing. the light slowly glows brighter to a world that seems fimilar but in so many ways. My mind puts a smattering of locations in the picture. People I know and don’t know (or do I?). Things happen, sometimes repeats, in and very well corrigraphed way. This dream has a purpose and most likely will not reveal this purpose. I awake with no gratification of what happened and why. Of who was there and why they were part of this unfinished journey through my brain.

Then I remember it is time to ride.

I hate Stella Azzurra!

I hear this phrase a lot.  It is usually accompanied by many other words that usually go in my right ear, swirl around angerly, and shoot the fuck out of my left ear. Why? You ask. Because they mean nothing to a mechanic.  The “angrly” part is not anger pointed towards the rider… Okay……you know that you are incorrect about the “not many miles” part. You know that it has a fuck load of miles, very little maintance and oh yeah it was ridden throughout a New England winter or I should say winters, without any love.

When people (friends, customers, and coworkers) say “not many miles” I usually chuckle  inside. This means that they wished that they had gotten another 10,000 miles before they brought it to me. This way they wouldn’t be spending the paper to fix their clapped out shit now. Instead dealing with even more clapped out shit later…more excuse to by completely new… right? More reasoning to convince their spouse that it was REALLLY neeeded. When they wouldn’t have to “convince” anyone if they had loved it a bit earlier.

This is how I think of it, and many mechanics think this way as well. If you had an infected wound. It was a small wound and you thought to your self “ehhh that sucks but it’ll get better the less I take care of it.” After about a month of picking at it and showing your friends of how disgusting it is, you realize “Fuck this might be bad…my wound is oozing and I can smell it…”. You go to your favorite doctor and he/she says ” Hey Fucking asshole we now have to cut your arm off with a butter knife…might hurt a bit…but it won’t be infected any more!” This is what happens with your bike. You neglect obvious problems (even though you don’t admit it to yourself) and you end up loosing much more. Like your wallet or debit card.

My job is to help you realize these issues. My job is to tell you that your bike , with out the proper care, will loose its original extremities and will need some new bits.  7,000miles without bringing it to someone that has a non-biased opinion is neglect. Neglect on your bike and honestly negelect on your own well being.

We, as “wrench monkeys”, know more about how things look and act when they are worn and burnt out then anyone riding there “own” bike. Why? Because we see it once every so often. Your bikes integrity degrades over time slowly. So you never notice how shitty it actually rolls. We do! Listen to us and we will have your bike ridding like buttah the next time you see it. We are not BSing you, we are not getting paid commision, we are not here to make a buck. We are here to love 2 wheeled creatures and machines. Doubt us and we will doubt you as a “rider” as a person who loves the tools we use to get from A to B. Doubt us and your next ride will be shittier than the last…and don’t blame it on us. We are just the ones that you supposedly trust to work on your bikes. We get paid pennies to make your adventures more relaxed and fun. Do not make the mistake thinking that we are in it for the money.

Cheers to those who ride! Cheers to those who maintain! Cheers to those that wrench!

Tuned bikes make tuned riders.

Fuckin’ A. Not only do we have to deal with fuckin’ telemarketers, Spam emails, Spam pop-ups and the shit heads that feel it is necessary to call my fuckin’ cell phone and try to sell me shit. I have to deal with FUCKIN’ Spammers that write these amazingly long comments. They are just random words with links and adds placed in amongst the words. Shit!!!!!!

Leave me the fuck alone Spammers. I just deleted 42…YES fuckin’ 42 spam comments on my blog. Damn…BostonBiker.org please help with this shit. There has to be a way to stop it.

If you are legit in leaving comments please leave ME comments on how much you hate this shit. Maybe BostonBiker will pick up on how the rest of us are annoyed by it.

Don’t worry not all negative…next entry will be positive.

This past Saturday I went for an Urban MTB ride with K. We started in Cambridge and road 75% of the cities fun spots. Then rode back to Cambridge. The weather was awesome despite a chilly breeze near the water.  This was the first Urban ride on hardtails (mine was rigid style…not that makes me cooler or anything) that either of us have done in a long time…years. So we were both doing the basics. relearning manuals and jumping up things on our hardtails. We just built up his new ToP from Transition and it is soooo nice. He has an eye for nice stuff.

I was impressed with my jumping. I think I actually improved since last time I rode Urban.  I felt good with manuals but as usual I still need to practice a lot. K was soing great for his first time on a hardtail in a very long time. His jumping was great and I was very impressed with many of his other skillz. We both need some practice with some key areas but so far I would say we are on the right path.

One of the drops (5-6′) that I did…near the beginning on Comm Ave I tweeked my shoulder. Kind hinder my riding for the rest of the afternoon. But I powered through it and stayed away from the bigger drops that I used to do.  Plus I had a bit of squish on the fork to cushion the blow.  I was also missing my front brake which took away from some of my “tricks” if you can call them tricks. They are to me so THHPPPP to you if you are cool enough to through flips and turn downs. I can’t….o well.

The last couple of days i have been a bit sick. So I haven’t ridden all that much.  I rode in to work on Monday…it was beautiful. I started get sick through that day so. But I hopefully will be back on the bike tomorrow or if I am still sick tomorrow I will stay home form work and ride in on Friday…in the rain.

Cheers and Ride fast and take chances!

The last few days have been good. Lots of riding and lots of beer and good food. I have only been on Totem a couple of times and have been riding Red (Trek road bike). Red has been treating me well. I did get two flats and took a good spill on her but otherwise she has been better than I could ever ask.

Tomorrow is a day of Urban riding with K. He just got a new sled and wants to go spin around Bean Town and terrorize the Saturday tourists.  Opie has been fitted with some new gear so he is ready to be thrashed. As am I. Haven’t done and Ubran MTB ride in…..along time.

I actually just realized that I have only posted pics of one of my bikes. A shame I know. I will get a few pics to post up and put in a new post in the next couple of days. I have 6 and I am pretty proud of them.  One of them “Patriot” is and has been a carcus for some time now. He will be built in the next month or so as a back up A.M. (All Mountain) bike.

The other bike that is not quite were I want it to be as a bike is “Space Rider”. She has been sitting in the bowels of the shop for some time now. Found by K and given to me for a winter time project. It is an old (I won’t guess the age) 3 speed girls 24″ bike. My plan is to….well pimp the shit our of her. She is a coool blue color and in great shape considering she was found in the trash. Some pics are posted of the Pre-pimpin’. I love old bikes and considering how good of shape she is in, it should be a beautiful bike when I am done. It’ll take a while though. Stay tuned and I will continue to post updates and pics as the she grows into a beautiful flower. Isn’t that what ever father hopes for their “Lil’ Space Rider”.

Also in Adrenalin Land Totem will be seeing a bit of work in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for updates and pics of him.

Keep praying for sun, warmth, melting, better weather to drink beer and eat food outside with friends. It is coming and even though it seems like a long way out…it will be here before you know it.

Space Rider

Lil Space

The light settles on the snow. Showing the sand, salt and remnants of torn asphalt on the side of the arena. Tubicus lifts his shield and cowers for mercy. The crowd ROARS. Pinchatron stands over Tubicus with his pothole axe in one hand and a curb sword in the other. Pinchatron swings his pothole and strikes Tubicus on his sheild time and time again. Tubicus’ Kevlar shield gives way and Pinchy forces his way through.

Tubi falls to the ground. Cutting not his armor but his rubbery skin underneath. “Pinchatron must have some sort of magic in his pothole” Tubi thinks. Tubicus rolls away and stumbles to the earth. Looking down at his gasping wound realizes he has to do something. He holds on as much as he can. But all of his Oxygen is quickly rushing out. He struggles to get up and swings his casing whip with fury and lashes Pinchatron. But pinchatrons armor is to strong it is made of stone and tar. Tubicus patches him self up in the corner while Pinchatron laughs and raises his arms to the crowd. The crowd chants “Flat Him! Flat Him! Flat Him.”

It looks dismal for our friend Tubicus. A fair maiden comes out from the gates. Runs to Tubicus and injects some sealant into him. Uses a CO2 to inflate him enough to get him through. This maiden has faith in Tubicus.  The crowd Booos the maiden. She flips them the bird!

Tubicus crouches down and grabs a hand-full of snow and sand. He hides it behind his dilapidated shield and rushes Pichatron. Throws the mix in his eyes and slides under his legs, turns, and stabs him in the cobblestones. Pinchatron drops to his knees in pain. The crowd goes nuts. The maiden comes back out and lays a huge kiss on Tubicus’ cheek. He’s smitten.

Tubicus sees the opportunity to go in for the kill. Slowly creeps up behind Pinchatron and Slices his throat with a tire lever that was slipped to him by the maiden (she’s a keeper). Pinchatron falls on his face and Tubicus is dubbed the winner of the battle.

Tubicus is carried away on the crowds shoulders in celebration. Fall back to Pinchatron….still breathing. He grumbles “Tubicus…my family will finish the job I started”. Pinchatron is no more…fade to black.

I HATE POTHOLES!!!!!!! FUCK HIS FAMILY I GOT HARDCASE TIRES!

I know what you are saying to yourself right now….” Is he complaining about driving again?” Well I am not complaining about driving persay. But I am complaining about the laws and regulations that this state and many other states have. In order for me to renew my liscense and Reg I need more proof of identity than there is potholes in Boston. WTF. Eghhhh! The place is an Easy-Bake Oven for already surly people.

Anyway, the lovely experience of the RMV aloud me to get a ton of miles (36.7) in on Totem. Of course this is because of the monkeys at the RMV not removing certain closed locations from their website. Damn bastards. So I rode my bike to Reading…Closed. I rode my bike to Melrose…CLOSED! So I tried Wilmington. Got lost ridding through the area. Finally figured out what I was doing wrong and got there. After I got the wonderfully great news (sarcasism) I headed out to go to work. This is when I really realized people need to learn how to drive and be retested after the age of 60. I am just glad that I have cat-like reflexes and avoided 3 potenially bad situations. The last one I think I actually need to change my skivies. It was a triple threat. Old purple haired lady on her cell phone with a bunch of crap piled in the rear window of her Buick (great for blind spots). I hit her trunk with my hand and she swerved all over the road she was turning onto. This made me realize she had no Fucking idea I was there. Argggg!

Even with that I was super stoked to be on my bike in 40+ dergree weather in the 2nd of Febuary. Even more so because Puxatany Phil saw his shadow. Yay 6 more weeks of winter. Do you buy into that shit? I sure don’t. I think Ol’ Phil is paid off by the media to create more tears in our already depressing word.

Ride long. Ride strong.