14 Days in a sling: DAY 3

Monday; back to work. Can''t typ w@rth a damn,. Oh, and balancing a phone on one shoulder while typing with the other...I'm screwed.

New train

Things are happening here.

14 Days in a sling: DAY 2

It's the day after the dislocation. Twenty minutes into trying to put my right contact in with my left hand, I give up and waer my glasses.

14 Days in a sling: DAY 1

Some things you learn quickly.

Dislocated

Not sure what this will mean for my racing season. How long does this take to heal?

Hands down

Living in Southwest Virginia is just amazing. No really. As a cyclist I am continually surprised (pleasantly) by the things I find here. The trails are abundant and awesome. The country roads are in fabulous condition (wanna see what could be, look up road conditions in my home state of Pennsylvania) and there's always something interesting around the corner.

Where else can you ride through a pipe?

Yep. That's the one.

I'm just gonna stop talking about it

Another year, another time I bail on doing the SMT 100. I'm just gonna come right out and say it now so I'll never have to say it again: I'm never going to race this event. Maybe now I'll finally do it...next year.

Traction action

I've tried all of these 29er tires on Stan's 355s mated with the Niner One 9 singlespeed:

Kenda Karma - Too little climbing traction, too little cornering traction, too little breaking traction, and not at all durable when run toobless. Besides that, they're great. The are now on the heap of disgarded tire in my basement, never to be used again. Oh, but they are light!

Maxxis Ignitor - Great traction, terrible durability. Will flat (when run tubeless) if you look at it the wrong way.

WTB Nanoraptor - Durable tire, quite heavy, average traction. No fun at all on loose-over-hardpack.

Hutchinson Python (tubeless ready) - Average weight, good rolling resistance. Good for hardpack. Loose-over-hardpack is this tire's downfall. Terrible on that stuff. Little girls on tricycles are beating me on downhills.

Stans Crow - J.U.N.K. Just take out $100 bucks and light it on fire. Same effect.

So the next tire on the slate will be...(drum roll please)....

Bontrager XDX 2.1 (tubeless ready) - I'll be trying them out soon, stay tuned!

It's almost time!

A new team sponsor, along with new kits and vibrant new colors will be announced very soon!!

All this on one ride!

This guy was serious. "You're not throwing out my couch!"

Purple mountains majesty!

The bottomless pit.

Giant, happy faces.

A unique new event.

Bike art.

Hopscotch, on steroids.

Tall tales.

Deisel power.

All in a day's ride around Roanoke.