get yer moots today

just wanted to give a heads up to any fellow moots freaks out there - if you want to get an SL (super light) from moots, as of april 1 (no joke!) they will no longer offer sl tuubing.

the work thing has been keeping me super busy as of late, when i am not working, i am either sleeping or riding my bike.

not mucho going on right now, other then getting things ready for this year and trying to sneak in some more base miles. road racing should start up pretty soon, sea otter is coming up which should be super cool.

the 24 solo project from the gripped film guys is in the final stages of production. it will premier at sea otter on friday night, then have showings every night after. there is a handful of other venues showing the film after that, hopefully one of them being up in the cleveland area. CAMBA and gripped films are working out the details, so keep a look out for that.

that's it for tonight - meeting with my boss tomorrow so i gots to review a ton of stuff that i have been putting off for way too long.

hopefully we will be negotiating me working less and getting paid more....

ya, right.

sologoat out

windy days in ohio

the wind has been hellish the last few days in ohio, but at least it's starting to warm up a little. hit a high of around 42'ish today. i swear this weather is driving me nutz.

asylums are getting rebuilt so i am giving a shout out to all those who have stepped up and have helped getting things together:

dan the man
pretty much is the only person who has ever worked on my bikes and they have worked flawlessly throughout my 24 hour racing career with speedgoat. mucho thanko.

genuine george
has built all of wheels for the past 7 seasons - cross, road and mountain. he's currently in process working up some magic with some dt 190 hubs and stans rims for the 2007 bikes.

jeremy
has super rad tat's, mad skillz on a bike and a wealth of knowledge about the industry. he's also helped tracked down parts that were out of stock everywhere that we needed for the current builds, got my clothing in line and helped with sponsors for the past two seasons. he's pretty much the team director for the one man team of asylum cycles.



one of the new tifosi optics glasses i will trying out this year with be the
TIFOSOI KILO's. so far, they are working out great - removable lenses, nice wide glass with interchangeable lenses. retail price is 50 dollars which comes with 3 lenses and a case. sweet.

i'll be using the kilo's this year along with the quam 1.5's and my all time favorite the Q3's.

in training tools, i am debating on picking up a GARMIN EDGE 305. i'm hearing good stuff about it and i figure that it may be a good tool to use during my business travels - i can download training routes off the web making it a little easier to get a good ride in.

with that, gotta run.

sologoat out.

a day in the life of sologoat

6am
wake up in a holiday inn express in columbus ohio. eat some yummy cinnamon rolls, pack up and head out to a client office.

8am
for the next 8 hours, i teach 6 service tech administrators how to setup and workflow of their great plains wennsoft field service accounting system. what they will learn in the next two days will give the basics of what they will need to know to run their 100+ man service divsion.

4pm
start the drive home, planning out my route in my head.

6pm
arrive home. check emails, change into riding clothes, grab a little to eat, mix up some bottles.

6:45pm
i start my ride. thunderstorms are hitting north, i decide to chance it. it looks bad, so i turn around only to realize the storm is now blowing to the east and has missed me. i turn back north and wrap up my 3 hour ride.

9:45pm
at a time when most people are going to bed, i am just eating dinner.



11pm
after checking emails, checking out way too many blogs, cycling websites and ebay auctions, i head to bed.

just another day in the life.

sologoat out

greetings from columbus

probably one of the hardest things in my training schedule to figure out is trying to fit it in with a 40 hour week.

columbus ohio has been a common workplace for me for years and today i found a new training area - sunburry. nice rural area out of the city and i can ride out of the hotel.


got an ergon grip question the other day - his keen eye caught the fact that i am running the trigger styled grips with twist shifters. note, this is not by choice as they are setup on my winter training bike and that is the only type of shifter i have. and, the super light weight carbon grips are on their way -- i do believe mr. kerkove has got one pair of the new ones in his mits.

also in ergon news, keep an eye out for their new backpacks that has a pretty unique design that allows full access to your back jersey pockets.


that's it for tonight, tired beyond belief tonight.

sologoat out

weekend wrap up

was a hectic weekend last week - lots of miles and a trip out to the goat. very nice day out there on saturday, but my favorite climb had about 2 inches of ice on it half way up.

el mariachi comes in today, asylums are now in the hands of dan the man. we are swtiching some things up as far as the bikes go, most noteably is that i am going back to 3 rings up front. we were originally going to maybe switch out the middle ring with a slightly smaller ring depending on the course, but we decided against it to save the hassle of having to switch things around for each race.

and my wobblenaught fit will get slightly tweaked - we had my position dialed in, but i was sitting a tab more upright. we're hoping to get me down a little more to what my position is on my cross bikes - which, seeing as i had some good results last year during cross season is not a hard decision to make.

that's it - gotta run.

stay tuned this week - princeton tec and ergon updates are coming at ya.

sologoat out

it's friday night

and i am loving the 45 degree weather in ohio.

local yocal hike/bike trails somehow still have 2-3 inches of ice on them despite the warm weather, so i have said the hell with getting trashed this week and i rigged up the ultra night road riding rig. if you don't see the flashing lights from my bike a mile away, you have to be blind.

bikes and i are departing to speedgoat to meet up with dan the man. he'll strip down the bikes and all the new stuff is going on. should be interesting to run a full xtr group - haven't done that since about 8 or 9 years ago. gasp.

in single speed news, the el mariachi is on it's way. going to actually run the stock 1x9 setup for awhile - salsa has done a very good job setting up stock kick butt kind of bikes, so i am interested to checkout the overall setup before going single speed.

that's it - gotta run. early departure tomorrow to try and beat the rain.

sologoat out.

a cold ride and the handmade bike show

sundays adventure in 20 degree weather was quite a treat - 2 flats at the turn around point of 3 hours put me directly in the middle of nowhere. oh, the fun we have trying to change a flat in the middle of winter.

got home and checked out the homemade bike show pics from MTBR. honestly, i'm not really into a lot of what is out there in this area of the industry as i tend to look at a bike as to wether or not it functions in a race situation. but guys around like indy fab, castellano, vanilla - you are sure to see some really cool stuff.

here's my favorites... (all pics can be seen at FLICKR)



this is a shot of the vanilla stem that is actually the top cap for a king headset as well. saw a few of their frames out at cross nats - very pretty classic looking steel bikes. these guys do some nice work



wolfhound caught my eye with two crazy 29er designs - this is the first of them. note the internal cable routing on the top tube (reminds me of my old panasonic road frame from back in the days) and check out the crazy seat tube that splits into a "y" near the bottom bracket.



and this is off another rockhound. you heard of eccentric bottom brackets, right? well, how about an eccentric rear dropout?



then to top off rockhound's zaniness, check out this 29er frame. more curves then you know what to do with.



indy fab showed up with a 26 inch hardtail with a carbon lefty. too bad the wheels are the wrong size, or i would guess this one would be going to harlan.



and.... ah, the bow ti is back.



the bow ti in it's original design was built by ibis - now by castellano who also makes a 69er..

this frame is way cool, but i dig the old frame design better.


that's it - gotta get some asylums cleaned up to get ready to a speedgoat visit so dan the man can work some magic.

sologoat out

winter riding 101

yesterdays ride was a question of how much sliding around on ice covered bike trails i could take. the answer was about 2 1/2 hours, with another couple of hours on top of that.

not much to report on, other then my new ergon grips have found their way onto my soma juice winter bike. very nice grips, curves where they 'ought to be, soft material compared to some of the other lock on grip brands - sort of feels like the grip is really shaped to the palm of your hand. i have a tendency to just rest my hands on the bars without my thumb locked underneath when i don't need to (going up climbs, mostly - to save my hands over the next 24 hours), so these grips are working out really nice. and when you do stand up, it feels like the grips give you a little bit of extra leverage on the bars.

i am running the mens model, but i have heard from others that they are using the womens version as it is a little thinner/softer grip overall.

the maxxis ignitors are on the way and the maxxis crossmark's are not out yet, though i heard a rumor of availability some time this month.

thoughts of the salsa el mariachi are dancing in my head, but i don't know what gearing to run. any suggestions would be appreciated. offhand, was thinking of running something like a 32x18/19 and then having a 16 or 17 tooth cog for when i am riding the flatish paved hike/bike paths here in kent/cleveland area.

with that, gotta roll.

sologoat out

a few links to check out

here's a few pages worth reading today:

cycling news
has mountain bike updates at ya, including 12 hour razorback short write up with mentions of harlan and ernesto.

Summit Freewheelers
has their RATL races starting up soon if you are in the akron ohio area. also starting up again this year is the road races down in the valley, but i have yet to find the link to that site.

speedogoat.com blog
a post on this site brought up a comment in regards to 29er tubeless systems. and now speedgoat has a new blog entry up from chris in regards this.

i honestly have not ever ridden a tubeless system and after talking to chris at speedgoat, decided against it a long time ago.

check them out.

sologoat out.

princeton tec review now served

blog review now up at the SPEEDGOAT BLOG on the Princeton Tec Switchback 3. I've now got about a half dozen rides in with the system and i am very impressed with the overall setup and the coverage area. read the full write up on the link above.

also coming up soon on the speedgoat blog will be the lighting system that i will be running during my 2007 season from Princeton Tec which will have me running their Switchback 2 for my main light and a modified head lamp system for backup.



another entry will include TIFOSI OPTICS with a couple of new frame choices for my 2007 season including their PAVE model.



and, don't forget NORTHWAVE SHOES. i ran their Iguana model from years ago, then to their Shields and now onto their KAMELEON model which includes a slimm carbon fiber sole, a micro adjuster and the ability to adjust the top strap if you have dainty small foot like myself.

and, in other news, my training schedule is now about 95% complete for 2007 - every single day has now been charted out pretty much through mid december which will again come to a glorious end at cyclocross nationals. looking to be a pretty full schedule with a lot of races, enduro's/utras -- with a few cross country races in west virginia thrown in for training purposes.

looking forward to warmer weather, new xtr, dt ceramic hubs, getting back to my roots by hitting up some west virginia cross country races, and to the feeling of pain that i thrive on.

sologoat out.

damn thy ice

ah, 30 degrees and dry roads yesterday.

35 degrees and ice covered roads today. the joy of living in ohio.

speaking of joy, HARLAN PRICE has got his write up for the razorback race up. and just to let you know a little race secret of harlan for 12 hour enduro's -- pre-cooked salmon. yep, read that again.

my pit crew has seen riders eat odd things - tinker ate burritos. chris e ate some chicken. cameron ate some pizza and a coke. rob l eats vegan donuts. eddie o ate a mcdonalds breakfast sandwhich.

harlan now takes top honors with pre-cooked salmon. had it stuffed in his jersey pocket and would take little bites every little bit.

also, harlan has a bike raffle going on right now - check it out and support a fellow racer.

in addition, he may be at the 24 hours of big bear snapping off some pictures this year -- which, do note that he was also the one that took the photo on the back of one of hammer gel's promo's featuring yours truely.

and, on the topics of other riders and bike stuff, if you are heaing out to sea otter, the gripped film guys now have tickets for the premier for sale. rumor is, trek is going nuts on this.

that's it for now -
sologoat out

let the fundage begin

oh razorback, where is ye warm weather? ohio still has winter, but the temps are on the rise. wind chills are above 20 degrees which makes this ohio rider pretty stoked.

with razorback behind me, i can now rest up a little and focus this week on getting bikes setup/organized. looks like my asylums are going to get their re-builds probably next week.

and, the dt 240 hubs have magically turned into dt 190 hubs through the wonders of dan the man at speedgoat and our friends at QBP.



this year, my bikes are getting a bit of a change around. i love single speeds, but since turning to 29ers, my surly 1x1 has not seen much use.

so, the above pink surly is for sale. most parts are brandy new with only a few rides on them, and the bike is sporting a sweet set of orange paul single speed hubs off an old bianchi i had years ago and a pink king headset to boot.



and you single speed and old school freaks will love this - the old skool wtb bars. this piece of bike history is up for sale as well.

any inquiries about the surly/wtb bars can be sent to my gmail account above.

that's it, gotta roll. stay tuned for a princeton tec blog entry at the speedgoat page by the weeks end.

now it's trainer time.

sologoat out

12 hours of razorback write-up

sorry for the delay on the write-up, work is pretty hectic right now and i am trying to figure out cross bikes for the 2007 season too.

headed out of town to the race with fellow ohio rider brett davis. slight snafu the night before left our support guy out, so this would be the first race in a long time that i went to a race un-supported.

left late on thursday and brett was my hero and drove straight through the night to get to the race course by friday AM.

course is a short one, around 10 miles long with no climbs, but has short little steep climbs that go straight up. and rocks all over. nothing big, but pointy sharp type that say "flat" all over them. and the flats, sometimes they were false, but they were generally swoopy with lots o' turns in them that made you sharpen your skills of dodging trees with your head.

got two laps in, got back and brett lost the keys to his call with all our stuff inside. long story short: brett rode around looking for the keys for over 2 hours and when he got back, he realized he had them with him the entire time. guess sleep deprivation had something to do with it.

friday night we camped out (for me, this was the first time i had camped out in about 7 years) and florida frooze over and got down to 22 degrees. i was quite warm in my nice sleeping bag, but my face got cold several times and i woke up.

prepped all my stuff as best i could for the next 12 hours and got ready to race in the AM. coming down to florida low-key like to get in some early season race hours with no pressure was not working out so swell - harlan, rob l, harvey and a some others all showed up to make this race pretty stacked. (side note - eddie o was there, but was racing the 6 hour)

race took off on what must of been 1/4 to 1/2 mile run. i was running good, got to my bike and made a few critical passes while still in pit row - i was either the first 12 hour solo male to get in the woods, or i was not far back.

things were going good, the trail was super tight so it was critical to get ahead early to avoid traffic. and then it happens.

flat #1 - ten minutes in.

i change the flat only to get behind slower traffic. i loose time to both the flat and getting caught behind riders, but i push on.

3 or 4 laps later, i start catching up to the top 6 - hey, what's wrong with my rear tire?

flat #2

i was near the pits, so i turn around and change it. i have now lost at least 15 minutes at this point due to flats and traffic. i get discouraged, but push on.

i push on, by slowly my back realizes i am probably pushing too big of a gear up the short climbs as it is killing me. i start shifting to easier gears more often, my back starts to feel better but harlan and rob have now passed me.

they are having a good day.

i ride out the remaing laps, coming in at 7th place. disappointed with results and the two flats, but glad i got through my longest ride for the 2007 season so far.

razorback - see you next year.

sologoat out.

12 hours of razorback - short version

results are in:
12 hour of razorback results!

i finished 7th on the day, making it my first race for the 2007 season, along with my first intervals of the year.

flatted in the first 10 minutes of the race, then flatted again on 4th or 5th lap.

hats off to harlan who took us to school and brett on one hell of a good race.

full race write up in the next few days - gots to unpack and get things organized for a possible stop at the shop in the next week or so.

sologoat out

off to... a race weekend.

will the sologoat hit up either a 12 hour or 24 hour?

hmmm..... stay tuned for the updates as i don't know what kind of internet access i am going to have access to for the next few days.

in other news...

sologoat dad and part of pit crew #1, is offically retiring this friday from "work" and starts his first day of full time asylum pit crew service on saturday.

the pay is a lot less, but the rewards are a plenty.



sologoat out

the mystery of love

is greater then the mystery of death
- oscar wilde

and now i bring you the greatest love song of all time, stand inside your love by the smashing pumpkins.

happy valentines day to all

sologoat out

battling mother nature

is the name of the game this weekend, no major snow hitting ohio, but the temps will hit highs today of the mid twentys with wind chills in the teens. almost heavenly compared to earlier in the week.



roller riding was the workout for me for the first part of the week - until i got my new "secret" cold weather riding weapon, my super ugly atv bar mitten contraption. they look hideous, but they are keeping my hands very toasty. no issues at all the past few days - and friday was around 15 degrees, with wind chills down to 4.



and, i have also been testing out the princeton tec switchback 2 and 3. (above shot is the 2 - the 3 uses the two main beams as well, and puts a frosted beam in the center, thus providing a wider beam).

watch out for a full review on the speedgoat blog within the next week.

sologoat out

new sponsor to the mix

along with JEFF KERKOVE and HARLAN PRICE, ernesto will be sporting some ergon stuff for 2007. stay tuned for more details.

parts are rolling in, got some changes coming for the bikes in 2007.

post will be updated to a thompson elite - about the same weight as the easton e90 carbon, but the price is a lot cheaper.

bars updated to a straight easton ec90 straight bar, coming in at tad under 100 grams. going with 25.4 diameter as the bigger diameter bars are usually stiffer, meaning more shock coming up to my shoulders. no thanks.

and, running a new lighter version of a ritchey stem, the WCS 4AXIS Stem coming in at around 120'ish grams.

and, good news on the wheel build ups, as we went with dt 240's, stan rims and the ever so kewl sapium spokes i have been dreaming about.

part update over, sologoat out

negative 15

is the windchill today, and the weather advisories are out because of it. damn this weather.

nothing new to update on, other then the new product i have recently picked up from northwave, tifosi and princeton tec are all being setup and tested.

the tifosi's are awesome as usual, got a few new types of frames to select from this year, along with my standard favorites, the q3's.

princeton tec lights are great - currently testing out the switchback 2 and 3. very nice setup overall. mounts for bars are good and cords are short and come with extensions (nice if you like to run the light as a bar setup). probably going to run the switchback 2 for my main light - comes in right around 500 grams. sweet.

and the northwaves - pretty hella cool. nice and light, carbon all around - ah, those italians sure do make great shoes. i've been running their shoes for about 7 seasons now and the one thing that is awesome about northwave is that their top line shoe always gets improved year to year.

xtr stuff for the aslyums are trickling in - still waiting for a few things here and there. and i need to make a decision on some bars - decided to go with a straight bar this year to save on my quest to lighten the bikes up.

that's it for today - superbowl watching to do soon.

go steelers!

sologoat out.

mucho updato

lots of updates today.

it is in the early works, but CAMBA, the producers from gripped films are trying to get cleveland on the list of film showings for their upcoming release 24 Solo.

the initial release of the film will be hosted by TREK and will be held the friday during Sea Otter. rumor is, the premiere is going to be a hella sweet party. yours truely will be attendance.

stay tuned for updates on both my blog and the CAMBA site as we are hoping for two showings in the cleveland area. we may also hold a "movie debriefing" during one of the CAMBA meetings as the dates get set in stone.

princeton tec lights have arrived, and not only have some of their systems survived the climb to the top of everest, it also survived a 3 hour 15 degree ride last night. check the speedgoat.com blog in a week or so as i'll have a full write up on them, but my first impression is that the overall setup of the system is very nice and the lighting is very good. stay tuned for updates.

asylum updates - jerseys will be updated with the new sponsors in the next week or so. last call for sponsors to get on the jersey, yo!

and - the Salsa El Mariachi Complete Bike
is now available at the 'goat, confirmed by my man steve. very nice setup, very nice price. i need one.

and - reading up on several websites, a UCI World Cup Cross race is looking like it is going to happen the first week of October in 2007. very cool.

that's it - gotta run. lights to test, work to do.

sologoat out