Happy Halloween (The Darth Jam)

Whoa! My alter ego came out for Halloween. I told "Vades" no candy until you practice your Halloween Jam.



Slash hides behind his top hat. Bucket Head hides in his KFC Bucket. Los Straightjackets wears those awesome Mexican wrestling masks. Me, I prefer a plastic mask that fogs up so bad I can't see out of the clear plastic eye sockets.

New Things

There's been a few new things with me lately.


I know it's not that much to get excited about but I have the first step done in getting a motorcycle license. My motorcycle permit was supposed to come in the mail about three weeks ago. Today, I had to go back to the DMV and explain that it hasn't showed up. The first guy I talked to was sort of a jerk about it. The next guy looked into it and agreed with me. He was able to get it done and I was out the door with the actual hard-copy of the permit. Why couldn't they just do that a month ago when I was there? I figured they would just use the picture that's on file so I didn't go in expecting to take a picture with hat head and looking so scumbaggish. Ha! Do I really look like that. Yikes!


This might be me. We'll see. Yamaha WR250r.



I decided to purchase some new roller skis and they arrived on Monday. After a mountain bike ride I took them out for an hour. These Pursuit roller skis from rollerskishop.com are superb. I haven't roller skied in about 5 years because my old skis I realize now were not as fun from being old and worn. The Pursuits seemed smooth and stable. With 105mm rubber wheels (instead of harder poly wheels) I was surprised how they handled cracks and irregularities in the road. On my old skis you had to watch those things or you'd crash. My worst crash was never on a bike. It was on roller skis. Hopefully there is still some time to get in some roller ski training before the snow comes. Even if I don't get in shape at least its another activity besides going for a run.


An athlete on the Timex Team burned some CD's for me which arrived in the mail today. Music is the best gift. Thanks Barry!!!!!


Took the time to learn some "jazzy" sounding chord voicings and progressions. It's been refreshing to learn some new things and applying them towards new things to practice.

Kona recap

Something is wrong with this bike too.


Something is wrong with this bike too.


Something is wrong with this bike.


Kirill's Bike. A perfect team bike.


There are a few people I see a few times a year during my travels. Hanging with Kiki at the start is one of them.


PJ is another friend from the Lake Placid days that I see occassionally at events. He is working with Road ID these days.


Darrel is another guy I don't get to see enough of like I used to. If you've watched the Ironman broadcast, olympic coverage, Crankwerks vids you've probably seen some of Darrell's camera work.


The first triple amputee finisher. What's your excuse?


Team photo after post race brunch.


Cliff Jumping after post race brunch.

Kona Mornings

Laughing while on layover

On my way to Kona, HI. During a 3 hour layover in Denver, I ran into Keith and Brooke Meyer. I will see them there in about 8 hours. My flight is all over the country today. I also got this video off the Kona Bikes blog while waiting. I had to contain my laughter a bit in the airport.

Fun Weekend

Here's a look at my weekend events.

Saturday and Sunday I got in two good road rides. Saturday was a bit cool (chilly), i.e. long sleeves and leg warmers. Yuck! By Sunday I'll be riding in Hawaii wishing it wasn't so hot. Anyways, stopped into the local Starbucks for a hot choco. I hate to admit it but I kinda liking our local Starbucks. It has free wi-fi now. Alterra has better coffee but it's sometimes too busy and they are discouraging people to hang out there too long. It gets a boat load of med students practically living there.


Saturday night I took myself on a date to see Junior Brown. I've seen him before and he kicks you know what. He did not disappoint. If you like good old fashioned honky tonk tunes mixed with the blues and wicked guitar showmanship you should check him out in your town. The drummer was fun to watch. I sensed that every night must be different for him and needs to be on his toes to follow Junior. The Bass player was solid too. When you don't notice the bass player it usually means he's good.



Sunday went over to Sun Prarie for the Cyclocross Grand Prix. Beautiful day. Good racing. It was nice to catch up a bit with some of the riders I know.

SRV in Japan

I haven't seen these Stevie Ray Vaughan in Japan posting before. This version of "Say What" has a different tempo than how he usually played it. I wonder if that was on the spot or rehearsed? Either way these guys are so tight and could play off of what Stevie was doing. Makes the hair on my neck stand up listening to this.



Also found him doing a German tv version for comparison. If you break it down it's freaky the way he phrases and accentuates with the Wah pedal and his bending. Not to mention his TONE! Blows me away.

New Roller Board and other random stuff

Hey,

I finished a couple of projects this week that required power tools and making saw dust. My days are so much better when it involves fixing or making stuff. "THE CASE FOR MAKING STUFF WITH YOUR HANDS!" One of them was a new shipping crate for the stuff we ship to Kona, HI for Ironman World Championships and the other was a new roller board.


I didn't take a pic of the shipping crate but here is the new roller board (A roller board is used to build ski specific strength ie. double poling). What do you think Randy? If I build another one someday I might tweak it differently but it seems to do the job.


Nordic skiers have been building roller boards long before Chuck Noris started hawking his "total gym" thing. So, no it's not like the thing Chuck Noris uses!

Speaking of Chuck Norris how about some jokes.
1. Chuck Norris does not wear a condom. Because there is no such thing as protection from Chuck Norris.
2. Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.
3. Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him.
4. Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
5. When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
6. Chuck Norris doesn't breathe, he holds air hostage.
7. When Chuck Norris crosses the street, the cars have to look both ways.
8. Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
9. Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
10. They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but it wouldn't take shit from anybody.


This past Saturday was the Crank and Crawl gathering downtown.


Jack's new moto. I now have a partner in crime to talk about motorcycles with. We both are new to it. I'm shopping for a dual sport bike.


Would love to get the Kawasaki KLX 250s.


Getting ready for Kona. This year we have 15 athletes from the team who qualified.


I meant to post pictures of the truck ages ago. I think it will always be a work in progress because my ideas for efficiency change depending on useage.

My workshop, office, bike hauler, expo display hauler. Everything has a spot.


The race room is actually pretty comfy now. I like sleeping in it when I need some privacy. Traveling with people is not always my favorite thing to do for a loner like me.



Some of you may have noticed that I'm on the Facebook thing now. Total peer pressure! Why is it that I find Facebook annoying? When I do go on it I scratch my head about what to do with it. Someone should have told me maybe I shouldn't "confirm" anybody who asks. It seems really inane stuff I don't care about from some people. I saw on the news today that the kid who invented Facebook is about the 3rd richest person in the U.S.. How can that be? How does he get that much money from such a useless time waster?

Should I start in about people on their cell phones when driving? I'm in a mood I guess. I sort of compare it to mother's with kids that are smoking.

I should go now. I'm getting worked up!

Off to Hawaii in week! I will be missing a another visit by Rodrigo Y Gabriela to Milwaukee again. Aargh!



Mahalo,
DJB

It was nice to be back in Penticton, British Columbia for Ironman Canada. I haven’t had this race on my schedule for about 3 years and it's one of my favorite places to explore. The views are amazing and the area has a unique climate well suited to fruit growing and wine production. It was also rewarding for the team to have some solids results. Viktor Zyemstev won the Pro Men’s race with 4 of the 5 athletes getting on the podium as well. Kyle and Janelle were also the best-placed Canadian Pros, eh!

This trip was particularly fun for me because I fell into a routine that many would consider a vacation, except for me its what I get to do for work. I think I figured out that the less social activities the better for my well being as it lets me explore the places I get to visit.

Essentially, I concerned myself with a daily schedule that looked like this. Up early with a leisurely breakfast on the deck of the restaurant to read the paper (The salmon run was the best its been for 100 years was the big news). A couple of times I went for a morning spin too. After that, it was off to the expo to work on our athlete’s bikes and generally hang around the truck. It often got extremely windy in the afternoons so it seemed like a constant job to make sure tents and awnings were securely staked down or put away. Once “work” was done I took advantage of the amazing riding in the area for 2-3 hours. This year I had my mountain bike too so it was nice to ride the road one day and then switch to the trails the next. I hope the pictures convey how nice it is to ride around there. Nice climbs and good scenery around every bend. I would have like a few more rides on the mountain bike trails. The area I was directed to is a maze of forest roads and singletrack but very little signage or anything so it was trial and error finding my way around. You could tell some trails were meant for downhill only but I wouldn’t realize that until I tried going “up” them. Throw in the fact that its open range for cattle and you never know what’s up ahead. One morning I had to do some backtracking since the herd I came across didn’t appear as though they wanted to move out of my way. I wasn’t too sure how well behaved those things are so I played it safe as I felt out numbered.

I often was just finishing the ride as the sun was going down and after a quick shower it was off to dinner and a nice glass of wine (I’m in wine country after all) with a book as my companion. I probably got a few looks as the lonely guy eating by himself but really I like it that way. In bed by eleven o’clock and I was ready to start again the next day.

I’m back in Milwaukee for Labor Day weekend then off to Madison, WI for Ironman Wisconsin. After that it’s off to Vegas for the annual bike industry convention (looking to see if I really need to go. I really don’t want to). Before I have time to be at home again in Milwaukee for much time, it will be time to pack for Hawaii for Ironman World Championships. Man, where did summer go?




Great shack for a burger the way you want it called Burger 55.


Nice roads to ride.


The KVR rail trail was a nice 3 mile warm up to get to the trailhead.






Okonagon Lake.


Saw this old Trek with Scott Drop-In bars on the rack. Back in the day that was a...unique bike.




Skaha lake.


Vineyards all around.


View of Penticton, BC.

Some More Lake Placid Catching Up

After Ironman ended i stayed a few more days to continue catching up.



Like I mentioned in the last post, I spent time just hanging out at Placid Planet. Shane brought in one of his handmade guitars for me to play. The body is from a old beam out of a friends house in Massachusettes. It plays great. The wood is marred with worm holes which give it some character to look at.


Kelly pieced together a tall-mans-kid-bike. It's a 26" wheeled Schwinn inspired copy from a Giant frame he found. Tall guys can actually ride this thing.



Another long time riding friend of mine owns Placid Boatworks and builds some beautiful carbon fiber boats. It's always interesting to hang out in another kind of shop and to see how he and his crew does it.


One of the main reasons to stick around was to be shown some of the new mtb trails that the guys have been building. The long running tuesday night leaves from Placid Planet. I forgot how different the riding was. I've become used to the flowy fst stuff from traveling out West. Adirondack roots and mud was a slower pace that demanded more technical awareness. Of course when someone flats we all stop. Good commarderie. It's nice to know that sometimes 15-20 people will show up. In the lean years sometimes it was 3 or 4 of us.



After the ride we hit the summer concert series on Main Street park. Actual "young people" music being played out in the open. The town father's must be rolling in their graves.


The Wednesday night ride, which meets by the tree at the beach, has become an even bigger night to ride. It's officially called the "Booze Cruise". Show up with a 6-pack. No one gets dropped. Beer stops along the way. I was told up to 30 people show up but this particular night was kind of rainy. I was so pysched to hear that 30 people come. We tried for years to get rides going like this. I think back then we ruined things by being "racer" types. The crew there now is really behind doing trail work and just enjoying some good group rides.


Rest stop. Crack! Splish!


Another Rest Stop.


And another rest stop.

Leaving Lake Placid I made a few stops too.


Chapel Pond


Beer walls climbing area.


Spent a night at Jim's handbuilt house in North Creek, NY.


Jim and Pooch. It's a great place for morning coffee on the deck.


Thanks for reading! Cheers!