Exciting News...

If you didn't notice it in the title, I will be riding for a new team. After 5 AWESOME years racing for Wooden Wheels, it is time to move on. I have enjoyed every minute I spent with the Wooden Wheels family both as a racer and as a leader. I along with 5 other very close friends have been invited to race for Spot Brand. With fatmarc as our captain it will be a fun, exciting and successful adventure. I will be joined by, Matt (run forrest), Keith G (bobby's boy), Todd, (local old guy with one gear), Andrew (2 hours is never a long enough ride) and Fitzy aka Johann. Even though I will be wearing a different jersey, I will still be a part of the Wooden Wheels family.

This opportunity is a dream come true and I would like to thank Michael and Jessica from Spot for giving me this chance. I also have to thank fatmarc for believing I belong on a team of this caliber. I will do my best to make sure everybody knows I belong on this team. The East Coast Spot Brand Racing Team.

ta ta for now
Buddy

Typical Bureaucratic Bullshit...

Yesterday was supposed to be a day file with excitement for My wife and I. You see Rachael is from England and yesterday was her greencard interview. She received the letter telling her when the appointment was 3 months ago. We had to be at the immigration building in Philadelphia at 1:00. It was both exciting and nerve wracking. It has been a long and emotion filled journey to get to this point and I was ready to get the greencard and move on. Rachael has been looking forward to this day for 6 long years. Up to now she was here on a work visa which has to be re-newed every 2 years.

Rachael's employer and friend Mr. Scott was kind enough to help us out with a lawyer. Rachael was very prepared, she had all her documents in a nice binder and everything seemed in order. We found the place no problem, we were a little early but it was better than being a little late.
They called us in for the interview and everything was going well. They asked her the questions; Are you a terrorist? Are you a Nazi?, Have you ever sold drugs?, you get the point. Then the guy conducting the interview starts playing with his computer, prints out some pages and leaves the room for a minute. When he comes back in he begins to tell us that a name check has not been performed yet. You see Rachael and I went to Baltimore last October for her to get finger printed and they were supposed to do the name check then. She had to go into Philadelphia last month and get finger printed again because the original ones had expired. This all seemed a bit odd to both of us, but it's the government. The guy then starts to tell us it's a back log thing and the info could come in today or a year from now. I could see the disappointment in Rachael's eyes. We were then told the green card will just show up in the mail one day. There will be no approval notice or anything just a green card. The worst part is we had no idea when. Needless to say Rachael was absolutely crushed. 6 years waiting for this day only to leave with out a greencard because some government official Fucked up and either lost the document or forgot to put it in her file. I tried to stay positive hoping things will work out sooner rather that later.

Rachael called the lawyer and left her a message, when she called back the lawyer was furious. She said that we should have never gone in for the interview if they didn't have all the info they needed. She also said the guy doing the interview knew this and was trying to cover his ass. Rachael's lawyer told us this will get to the supervisor and be resolved quickly and we should see the green card within a month. I only hope she is right. I guess this proves the system sucks.

Thanks for reading,
Buddy

Tough Night...

Last night I tried the Jones H Bars with a longer stem. I have to say right off the bat it wasn't working for me. They definitely felt better with the shorter stem, well now I know. I will be riding my traditional bars for this weekend. It is late in the year and a drastic change may cause problems. The ride was form Marc's house, the group was Marc, Todd, Mike K, amd Matt. It was advertised as a, well there wasn't really a clear cut description. What it turned out to be was super fast. I was riding in the back, I don't like riding in the back. I felt the slinky effect right away, plus I was struggling to with control. The longer stem made the steering slower. Todd, Marc, Matt, and Mike were flying and I was having a tough night.

When we hit the road for the ride back to Marc's house I took off. I wanted to make up for my lack luster ride in the woods. It paid off I felt good and nobody caught me, although I don't know how hard they tried. Never the less it felt good.
Well that is it for now, but stay tuned for a BIG anouncement.
Thanks for reading,
Buddy

Sometimes Change is Good...

I have always been very picky about my bike set up. I never mad big changes just upgrades. Until now. I just picked up a set of Jones H Bars. This is a big investment, and I was a bit nervous thinking I would hate them. I did lots of research, and got lots of opinions from folks that ride them. All I heard was praise about how much better they are.

Yesterday I found out for myself. I headed out in the morning to try em' out. I had them set up with the same stem I use for my riser bars. Before the ride I was thinking this is going to be awkward, I am not going to be able to ride these bars. I set off and was pleasantly surprised. They felt very natural. There was no awkward feeling at all. I was cruising along pretty well then the first climb. I must say these bars keep getting better, I love the way you climb with them. After about an hour I did realize the stem I was running was abit too short, not a lot but enough to notice it. I kept riding feeling good and having fun.

I picked up a slightly longer stem, Thanks Mike K, and I am planning to ride them tonight at Fair Hill. I will let you know how it goes.

Only 4 days until SSWC05
Thanks for reading,
Buddy

Crashing, Racing, and Proof Chivalry is NOT Dead...

Topher making his bike faster, with Chris day dreaming.


Before the past few races I was doing openers the day before. It didn't seem to be working for me so this week I just rode easy for an hour. It couldn't hurt. Matt and I, with a brief appearance by Ted Logic, hit White Clay. The ride was going well, we going easy and it felt pretty good. We hit the skills trail, we were talking and riding when all of the sudden my front wheel hit a soft spot and washed out on me. I hit hard, first a tree then the ground. My shoulder looked like raw hamburger and I managed to take a chunk out of my shin. We rode on but I was a little ginger at first, my shin was hurting pretty bad. After a while the pain eased up and we finished our ride.

Today was the Iron Hill race. Iron Hill was the spot my first ever mountain bike race. It was cool and since then I have never missed Iron Hill. Today would be no exception, even though I thought about bagging it.
The trails were in great shape and the weather was dry, but man was it fucking hot. Wooden Wheels was well represented today and everybody raced their asses off. It was good to see folks gathered together before the race and then stick around after for a nice little cook out. By the way a special thanks to Johnny and Karen for bringing the grill and there kick ass chicken.

My race went like this, there was a nice single speed class today. Topher who rolled away with the win, super fast Nick took 2nd, Todd battled past Ben (not Yoder) for 3rd, and I came in 5th. The class was also graced by Ted Logic, Fitzy, Joel aka Gwadzilla, and Chris from the bike shop.

Lap 1, the start was supposed to be civilized but as we were casually cruising up the fire road Todd took off. This brought an immediate reaction from Nick and Topher. I went with the move for a while but decided the pace would kill me later so I settled into my own groove. I felt pretty good, I made the big climb up Fuzzy's and rolled through with a 24 minute lap.
Lap 2, I was feeling good and started to crank it up a bit. got to Fuzzy's and dabbed which meant walking the bottom section. I got passed by guy as I was walking then caught him again when I got back on the bike. He even made a comment about getting passed by a guy on a single speed.
Lap 3, I was still feeling OK until the first little climb. I hit it pretty hard and popped. I tried to back off for a while hoping to recover, but I think the heat was really getting to me. Despite not feeling great I managed to make Fuzzy's climb again but it cost me.
Lap 4, I was now in survival mode. Thanks to Will from bike line for hooking me up with a bottle. I was hurting and didn't even attempt the first part of Fuzzy's climb, but did manage the rest.
I came across the line with a time of 1:42, which I was happy with.

Now I would like to tell you a story. Joel, who I mentioned earlier had the misfortune of breaking his chain. At some point he came across Amy Bralin who had broken her derailuer. Joel, figuring he was out of it stopped to help, but only if she promised to finish all 4 laps. He set Amy's bike up as a single speed and she continued on. At some point she got Dan's bike to finish the race on. Which she did. It wasn't her best race but she kept her promise and made sure she finished. Kudos to Joel for helping the damsel in distress, proving Chivalry is not dead.

Well I have written too much already so, Thanks for reading,
Buddy