SSUSA! part 1 of 2 or how to make a 2k carbon fixie look ghetto!

Is in the bag....

Tucson beats the crap outa me and my gear...

Flew in last Thursday and Katie picked me up after she was done with work. (i did have some flashbacks to June when Brendan was soposed to pick me up before the divide)

Anyway showed up and re-met chewy (met him at TI3 i think) and Nick Sadie (formally of surly and now at Renovo wooden bicycles so good to put faces to i donno know how many emails i sent to nick) We all headed out to Martien's crazy so grabbed a slice and let tree drinking begin!

rolled into katie's some time after midnight and all cuddled up...

Met up at 2pm at Dj's place and then a place called chewy's before we headed out to star pass... been there before but was looking forward to it...

well about on the turn around point my cog breaks loose (setup on tranny is xt wheelset with tomicog and dt swiss center-lock adapter) the center-lock deal came loose.... well got it tight sortof and got about another 1/2 mile down the trail.... this time though i figured out the hub was stripped where the center-lock adapter threads in... fixed that with a ziptie making a spacer between the hub and dropout... no knife to trim the ziptie so it was rattling and making all kinds of racket.... well i then also stripped the qr nut so had to use a derailur hanger i had a steal a salsa seatpost qr to make my qr work.... pics are somewhere....

Well got it back to DJ's place.. Fuzzy had the stuff for me to fix my qr (i owe you a coffee when your through Hurkin)

Then back to Katie's for more beer and get food and then head out to the surly wrench for the pre party... More beer drunk... I think we left at 1am??? back to katie's and some sleep before riding at 10am the next morn.... Katie woken up and cooked for 3 hungover riders and we headed out to the start..... I was cossing my fingers a ziptie was gonna hold for 40+ miles...

Stickers

I've got em.... $1.50 for one, $5 for four, $10 for ten.... sent by snail mail, payable by paypal...

If you want them fast get an order in before wends night so I can get them out before I leave for SSUSA

Stiring the pot....

Still a bit fried from organizing the shop and attempting to dye my hair purple... trying to pull off looking like a purple troll doll for SSUSA..

But today I really enjoyed a short ride and a 8 mile hike on the canal trail down by the virgin river...

Nice to hike when you have alot on your mind.... you can think... when i'm riding esp on the fixie I get into this hyper focused state where I don't think about anything but whats in front of me.

Was offered to help part time with some guiding that is happening in hurricane... and get my wilderness first responder certification. But i'd have to bail on ssusa. And I know there are parts of guiding I would dig. But my mind keeps flashing to What happed last year in May to Joe Manning. I guess mentally i'm having a very hard time not thinking about that every time i'm leading a group ride. Maybe at some point i'd be ready to guild but not right now...

Got some sweet cages from King Cage. Such a good bottle holder and also got this neato tool pouch and also a stem topcap that you can bolt a cage to... yay for carrying tons of water!

Also got my custom corrugated plastic box to pack my tranny in when I travel.... I shouldn't be charged anything extra unless it weighs more then 50 lbs! I'll be posting a full deal on packing the tranny next week on the ibis forum on mtbr.

A big shout out to the nutters who are riding, sking, running the arrowhead 135 next weekend. Esp Chris Pelsko and Deanna!!! BBBBUUURRRR!

This is pretty interesting reading esp the comments....

I'm kicking around the idea of doing a six day endurance fundraiser ether this year or the next... weather its on like a running oval or on the dirt somewhere.... Guys in the early days did six day races solo in the velodrome and it has me intrigued for sure.... maybe i'm in love with the idea... maybe that was my problem with the divide attempts? I donno...

Blogger isn't happy uploading pics so you can see some here....

State of the Union and other things.... Warning soapbox content

Wow what an exciting day.....

Steve Jobs comes down from the mountain and releases the Ipad, and President Obama gives a 70 min SofTU speech.

I thought it was kinna a brain drain ....

this quote was brought up by Bob McDonnell (Virginia Gov)

It was Thomas Jefferson who called for "A wise and frugal Government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry ….and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned…" He was right.

I think that pretty well sums stuff up. Maybe TJ would have thought differently with the mega corps and such but i don't think so.... I think its ingrained in human kind to blame and be un-trusting of those that are hyper successful... How many does Wall mart employ in the US? At least 1.6 million folks dependent on what links you look at on google... and how many indirectly?!

And still small biz employs at least 52% of all US workers

so why isn't more being done to support that segment of society?

This might sound like an argument from the gop party line but i think this is one of if not one of the biggest issues

well that and the debt that the US government is in but i'll save that for another time....

anyhooo....

So far my For sures for this year are :

SSUSA

Growler

Growler might not happen, hopefully i can get the time away :)

I hope the weather starts to get nice, Looking forward to a new frame, new wheels, fork ect.... as well

Start of the new year only 18 days late?

Things that have already happened this year:

5 sweet days of riding in sedona!

some very slow days in the shop

3 sick days with the flu

some rain in hurricane

A great moonlight ride on new years eve

have some shop improvement projects in the works

Stuff thats in the works:

SSUSA in Tucson

Trans Iowa- so wanna git r done

Breck Epic- trying to get in on the blogger contest

CO trail?

VT?

Bigger unknowns?

put in an ap at the animal shelter

getting back into paintball?

Join Livestrong?

Main thing for this year is more fun riding with new folks in new places....

Raffle update

So I can't do paypal anymore... still have 90 or so tickets available. You can make a check out to Dave Nice for $12 and send them to:

Dave Nice C/O

Over The Edge Sports

76 E. 100 S.

Hurricane, UT 84737

I well still Honor the paypal entires...

2010 Breck Epic Blogger's Grant Contest Entry:

So i'm throwing my hat into the ring..... Funny how the desire to race comes back after a break and a podium :)

Shooting for the blogger contest because otherwise this event is just too expensive for this dirt bag bike mechanic ect...

So at some point i'll be asking for people to vote and or writing why i should race in breck on August 21-27

1. Name:

Dave Nice, Fixie dave, whiskey dave, chef dave (depends on how long you have known me)

2. Porn Name...theoretical of course. Unless you actually have one. (And if you don't know how to get one, well...someone needs to explain Google to you.):

Sweat Jiggles

3. Hometown:

Hurricane, UT Pronounced "Hurkin"

4. What bike you gonna ride?:

Siren John Henry *Fixie Dave edition*

5. Why does it rule? (100 words or less): \

Well its based on my Vassago Jabberwonky witch I've been riding for 2 years. But with some fixie, endurance tweaks.

6. Best day ever on your bike? (100 words or less):

Racing the 25 hours of frog Hollow and podium'ing for the first time on the fixedgear

7. Your favorite bumper sticker slogan?

Jerry's dead, fish sucks, get a life

8. Who's gonna play you in the Breck Epic movie? (I love this question):

Seth Rogen and i think he could pull off the facial hair :)

9. Favorite quote/words to live by?:

Moderation in everything, including moderation

10. 100 words (or less!) about you. Feel free to lie.:

A classically trained French chef turned wine maker turned distiller turned bike mechanic.... I love riding my bike long long time! Love the jedi mind meld with the trail that riding a fixed gear in techy terrain provides

11. Quien es mas macho, Fire marshal bill VS The black knight (monty python the holy grail)? (Insert two ridiculous opponents, choose the winner, then defend your position about why your victor would dominate. 100 words or less

I think it would end up being a draw. however the gore and dismembered body parts would make for fun entertainment... I would have to put money on FNB though

Bikapalooza

Had a blast with some so cal guys... Too much fun at little creek...