Watch out folks

Looking ahead in my appointment book tells me that I'll be spending the first half of Sunday doing support for "Americas Most Beautiful Bike Ride". For me this means flat tires, broken spokes and bikes that won't shift. For you this means that you'll see 3,000 of my closest friends (kidding) riding five wide on the hwy 89 and the entire perimeter of Lake Tahoe (unfortunately not kidding).

If you're doing the ride, great. Good for you. It's a bute. Personally, I'd suggest just sticking to the 74 mile loop around the lake and use the extra time for cocktails and hanging out. Adding the out and back on Hwy 89 just to make it a century is sort of a buzz kill if you ask me. Cars. Poor road surface. An almost garanteed headwind. Yik.

 
Regardless of the option you decide to pedal, please do the other bazillion people operating vehicles on the same roads as you a favor and ride single file. It's not a race, the roads aren't closed to traffic and there are bad drivers everywhere.... PROBABLY TEXTING!!! WTF!

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have fun, be safe and see ya next time.

Dream Job

Someone told me the other day that I had a "dream job". And ya know what, most of the time I would say she was right. A typical day doing mobile bike repair sees me working on sweet rides in the fresh air as I work my way through the various neighborhoods of a cool mountain town surrounded by singletracks in every direction. My customers are rad. I bring my dog. I'm my own boss. Shit man... what more could ya want? I'M WINNING!!

Then, there are the other days. A heinous west wind is blowing paper towels off my work bench and testing the breaking point of the wooden dowels that hold up my sunshade (now acting as a sail) above me. All of this is happening while I'm looking for an incredibly small Mavic freehub spring which has accidentally fallen off my workbench and now hides camouflaged by the surface of a black driveway. Can't they make those things in some sort of day glow color? Then, while looking for another spring in the parts bin, I'll "find" that replacement hydraulic line cutter blade now embedded deep into the end of an eerily dirty thumb.

Yep. Dream job.   

Wow! Things at Mighty Mobile continue apace. My status of being "busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest" has held true for almost a month now. I've been backed up with repairs about 5 to 7 days.

First off; if you've contacted me in the past couple of weeks and I haven't gotten back to you, I'm sorry. I had another iPhone die on me (I'm currently on my fourth one!) and with that being the case I lost some information that was stored in the phone. The info that I wish I still had included some phone numbers, my "wish list" (a list parts for an order) and some photos. The photos I could care less about, but the other bits I wish I still had. If it's been curiously long since you've heard back from me, you might want to give me a call.
Funny. I chose the iPhone because of their good customer reviews and low-ish SAR rating but have had anything but positive results on my side of things. As mentioned previously, I'm on my fourth phone. My journey in Apple land started Jan 17th making my experience with Apple products less than stellar. "Hardware issues" I've been told. They claim it's an "isolated issue". Right. I'm in the cycling industry pal. "Isolated issues" or "we've never heard of that" is the standard, bullshit response you'll get even though you've got a pile of the defective "what have you's" in the back with angry customers expecting some sort of resolution. Anyone remember the great GT I-Drive frame failure back in the early 2000's? 9 out of 10 frames would crack at the seatpost/top tube weld and it took most of the summer before GT would admit to there being a problem. This kind of shit really disgusts me. If you know something isn't right, put on your big boy pants, own up to it and get it sorted out. Anhyoo, is anybody else keeping UPS and FedEx in business with defective iPhones or am I really the only one? I'll stop bitching now... at least about phones.

Riding. How about the riding. In May. Yippee!! Although my previously mentioned work load has me mostly holding onto wrenches instead of handlebars, I have been out on the trails a couple of times in past weeks. As I was climbing up some local singletrack last night, I couldn't help but think back to last year at this time with snow still falling from the sky and the closest snow free trail being in Auburn. After last winter, I'm totally fine with the fact that the ski season wasn't "all that" and my front yard is currently free of snow.
I'll be "that guy" and throw out a friendly little reminder that this is the time of year when you'll encounter mud and snow on the local trails. Unless you want to ride ruts for the rest of the summer do everyone a favor and stay out of the friggin' mud! I know, sometimes this just isn't an option but most of the time - it is. If you find yourself riding through sections of muddy trail and hear that little voice in your head wondering if it's ok or not.... it's probably not. Same goes for snow patches. If you can't ride the snow pile, then walk it. If you can't walk it then go ride somewhere else. Riding around snow piles that are going to melt in the next three days is NOT ok. Stop it.

Ok people. Till next time. Have fun out there.

Killer bike for sale

With my O-ficial retirement from the racing world, I've O-ficially got a super sweet race bike for sale.
If you're vertically challenged, such as myself (5'-6" or less), I've got a killer carbon 29er for sale.
http://reno.craigslist.org/bik/3000352014.html

I'd love to be posting things of other importance, information, or other newsworthy rigger-merole', but judging by my schedule for repairs these days, ya'll are an eager bunch to be out hitting the trails. Good on ya!

I've got a hook

I've got a hook.
In the closet of my office.
It's where I hang my hydration pack I use for riding.
Been off the bike for a couple of months,
Damn it feels good to be using that hook again.

Sea Otter

No. Not going. People always ask.
Even before my status as "retired" from the bike racing world I still didn't go to this race. "Why?" you may ask. My excuses range from "too early in the season" to "too expensive in the wallet" but the biggest reason I never went to the Sea Otter to race was because I've always heard the course isn't all that exciting. It's one of those flattish, smooth-ish "power" type courses I always found uninteresting and unrewarding as a racer - at least for me. The course has to be good to be good, right?
But that doesn't mean that Sea Otter isn't cool! Or so I've heard. I've actually never been there. The Sea Otter hosts some fierce competition in most cycling disciplines at a world cup level just a few hours from Truckee. And that's just the racing.
The other reason Sea Otter is so popular is that it's almost like a mini bike show. The vendor list reads like a who's who in cycling. Fox, Shimano, Sram... the list goes on. If it's a component bolted to your bike, chances are there's an industry presence there. Sea Otter is usually the "launching point" for next years product. I just saw online this morning some new Fox goods that will be available before you know it. Like it or not, as far as the cycling industry is concerned, 2013 is just around the corner.
If you can't make it to Sea Otter but still want to keep tabs on cycling's current events, don't read by blog page! Good grief, this thing doesn't get updated near enough to be "hot", "current", or anywhere near "late breaking". I've got too many bikes to fix and trails to ride to be bothered with keeping my blog updated on a daily basis.
Want the latest "this & that" at Sea Otter? Cruise on over to BikeRumor and see what you'll be spending your hard earned $$'s on in the near future.
Stay tuned folks. I'll be doing some Truckee trail updates as things start melting out.

I'm Back

Not that I really went anywhere.
Seems as though I was having a little battle with Tomi to see who could win the "who's gonna let their blog run idle" contest. And by damned... I won! It might have been a better contest had Tomi actually known he was in one. Meh. I celebrated my "victory" with a face lift to the look of this here blog thingy. Black... just like Johnny Cash would've done.
So, what's new? Well, not a ton really. As far as Mighty Mobile is concerned, the shelves are full of the goodies that we all need and require to make our bikes ride the way we want/need them to. Tires, cables, housing, brake pads, drivetrain parts, rims, spokes, fork seals.... everything's a go! There's not a ton new or changed since last year. I'll get more into the nooks and crannies of what's new in future posts.
If you've been thinking of getting some service on your ride, you're not alone. Mighty Mobile's been running anywhere from 3 to 7 days out on service as of late. Call anytime for an appointment.
Skiing. Yep. I did that a few times this year. But literally only a few. Lack luster snow on the days I had for skiing. The only records I broke this year for skiing were in the "least days" and "shitty snow" categories. Unless you count cross country skiing. Keeping a nice xc ski track in down the street from the house was easier than ever this year. Sure did keep the dog happy.
After not swinging my leg over a bike (other than test rides) for over a month I decided to head to the Bay area last weekend and do an underground ride in China Camp. As if 55 miles and 11,000ft of climbing (yes, this IS possible in China Camp) off the couch weren't enough to get my legs and arse into riding shape we continued the trip to Santa Cruz for two more days of single track bliss. Heads up if you're heading that way, I've never seen so much poison oak condensed into one spot. Bring the Tecnu!
As for riding in Truckee, it's juuuusssst starting to show signs of dirt. There's some snow in the forecast for this week, but with the suns long hang time these days, snow won't hang around too long on lower elevation and south facing trails. Get ready folks, mountain biking from your house is right around the corner. Get ready.