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Entries from April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008

This is the definituion of friendship

Simply put, motivational emails like this from my boy Boups:
I am who I am due to the absolute luck I have on this earth with peeps like Boups surrounding me. I am the luckiest guy on earth.

Thanks for the book too, Boups. Everyone needs a Boups. Or two.
All the love kid. You rule.

Broken...but not out!

Tons to tell sports fans. A day of 'awakening'.

So as previously blogged, I'd been having this awful left leg pain. Sort of centered in the ass but down the hammy and into the shin. Listening to friends, I went and saw Dr. Dave Boynton at North Boulder Chiropractic. Long story short: the guy is awesome. On my first visit, we did some bench marking tests on stregnth and some data gathering. No corrections, just getting to the cause through data gathering.

Today, as he suggested, I did a light recovery spin in the AM before my next lunchtime appointment. The leg wasn't too troublesome. It never is when going easy. Today would be another day of more advanced data gathering in my hour long visit at lunch.

I showed up and he's prepared for me. We go into lab-like room and I strip down and he proceeds with the first series of tests to look at what's firing and what's not. Dr. Dave affixed a number of electrodes to me and I proceeded to do some movements to look at how the muscles were firing. Amazing. Absolutely imbalanced. One 1/2 of my back firing madly, the other virtually NOTHING. Dr. Dave continued with more tests to look at temperature readings and other like tests to look at balance of the muscles to ensure there is a discrepancy in their work load. Again. all tests showed again that one 1/2 the back is working overtime, the other 1/2 as if it were dead.

The the 'test of truth': The X Ray. Dr. Dave takes a bunch of pictures and low and behold, there in all it's digitized beauty is obvious sources of my problems:
See that red line? My spine should be following that fairly exactly. So, now you can see how hard my muscles in my back are compensating to pull and keep corrected. There is likely a nerve being pushed on due to all this which is wreaking havoc on my left leg and Dr. Dave is going to get me sorted out over the next few visits. The curve is likely due to a number of things but exacerbated by my crash in the first week of last season. That followed up within 2 weeks with another spectacular beauty crash.

So, now I know. And I THANK Dr. Dave for all his attention. He is the 'Muscle Whisperer.'

Invstigate Lance Armstrong

Hmm. Since the bomb went off between Trek and Greg Lemond, there seems to be an immense level of activity with respect to Lance's 'training' activities during his seven year reign as king of Le Grand Boucle. As an example, this site, InvestigateLance.org has surfaced bringing to light some interesting topics on Lance's cleanliness during that time. So, It should be looked at and you as a cycling fan and a fan of clean sport should formulate your own opinions on the subject.

Winsor White Photos

I came across this local photographer's site on Road Bike Review announcing that he's assembled 100's pf cross pics for local Colorado racing action. They are all really great!

If you are local, come see yourself in digital celluloid. You know Winsor, I am not sure if you and I have met, but say hello this season!

El Camino Fabrications

So, when speaking Mike about the Revolver 29'er he made for me, I asked him who the person was behind the torch. Mike for many years had Paul's gifted hands assemble his designs on the jig, but Paul's demand has been increased given the growing popularity of 'cross in particular so trying to find windows where he could focus on Mike's bikes was growing harder. Mike was able to source a new welder and as Mike explained to me one of the best in California was responsible for sticking the tubes together.

My Revolver was welded by Jason Groves of El Camino Fabrications. His site has a great collection of photos of the types of frames and welding techniques but is building a fantastic rep for his own frame designs. He cut his teeth at Boeing before his bike lust pulled him from teh multi billion dollar aerospace industry into the less lucrative bike industry all due to the passion. I love that. He worked at Control Tech, Titus and Strong frames and other places before launching El Camino Fab. And while he now calls Oaktown home, homie, Jason lived in Fruita so he's practically a local. No wonder why my Revolver rips it out here in the CO terrain.

The latest Mountain Flyer issue has a great write up of various frame builders highlighted at the NAHMBS including a spot on Jason and El Camino fab. Keep an eye out for this guy!

Scumb of the Earth - EYES OUT FOR STOLEN BIKE

Here is a picture of a happy boy. In fact, this is my bro and team mate, from Boulder Dave W. See his smile? This is in part due to the epic ride taken on this day, but mostly due to his pride and Joy, his Maverick ML-7.

Sunday, some foolio stole this bike out of his garage. I will provide info on this bike including his Maverick Head Badge "name" (all Mavericks are given a unique name on the head badge) and other characteristics, but in general, keep an eye out on Craig's/eBay/local trails/local shops for the following:

  • Large Black Maverick ML7 Frame
  • Rear Wheel has a prototype CycleOps PowerTap...it has an all black hub (e.g. no carbon or silver bits like the road ones do. The rear rim has no manufacturer details on it either but had wheelbuilder.com stickers on it.
PLEASE KEEP AN EYE OUT!!

The Ahrens Revolver 29'er

Dialed. I have finally got the Ahrens Revolver 29'er dialed. And I will say this: TIGHT! Mike, my friend, you did it boy. You built me the perfect bike.

I ended up going for Ritchey WCS bits featuring a 120mm 4-Axis stem which I have on all my bikes. With it flipped an the steerer now cut, I feel more comfortable on this bike positionally than any mountain bike I've had before....and that is nearly an IMPOSSIBLE statement for me considering I have been saying for a decade + that my 1996 Dean Colonel frame was (and still is) perfect.
So why do I say this and not just giving props to my hombre who built me this frame (and trust me, Mike as an engineer by trade want me to nuke it if it wasn't performing)? I would say that it boils down to this:

  • Geometry: Mike knows my style of riding is extremely aggressive. If there is even the slightest lip or bump, I'm launching it and he knows after years of riding with me that I'm pretending I'm Lopes most days in the woods carving and wheelie-ing and leaning. You get the picture. But specifically, the head and seat angles are spot on and tight for the type of immediate steering precision and wheel-under-ass acceleration I love. I do NOT want a hook and ladder fire engine feel for my mountain bikes and I feared that going to a 9'er would immediately give me this degradation to my riding experience and slow the whole feeling of the bike down. NOT the case! The bike feels equally stable bombing fire roads as it is nimble when I rail the big wheels and my 6' 2" carcass around trees in tight single track. Recommendation if you talk to Mike about your Ahrens: Add an infinitesimal degree change to the front steering (to slacken) and a 1/4" to 1/2" to the rear wheel base to lengthen and it will fit that nearly all-around riding style. My proto frame is perfect for me, but may not be ideal for all riders and these tiny production run changes will be the nut.
  • Design: Yummy. What makes Mike's bikes nice to look at relates to the whole picture. The Gothic graphics are rad but it's the frame aggressive style and overbuilt appearance that make me stare at my own bike like Augustus staring at a Wonka bar. Mike is an engineer's engineer and it shines through with the over-built qualities of the bits holding the Easton 7005 (or Scandium) tubes together. Mike will CAD himself through complicated problems of his frames for his customers to eek at the best performance to weight to strength ratio. And he has nailed it. My 4.4 pound XL frame built up to approximately 24 lbs and change but the solidity of the yokes...the BB yoke in particular shown here is spectacular. It is pure beef having been CNC'd out of a solid block of 7K series aluminum and the acceleration I mention above is in part due to this and the beefy chain stays. Yet the lightness factor is still maintained. Incredible. Many frame manufacturers are now coming to Mike for his engineering work on complicated problems like sliding drop outs and other bits he now OEM's to them.
  • Stuff Mike is not responsible for: Mavic CrossMax 29'er wheels and Shimano XTR Groupo. Both are capital N nuts. The Mavic's are bomber. I bought them as I have the 26" version on my 1 x 1 and they are so solid under that kind of stress it is crazy. I am running them tubeless thanks to Tim Faia's donation of the Bontrager tires to try out (which are AWESOME and hook up beautifully in our terrain here in CO). The wheels are not stupid light but I will take a bit of heft for reliability and solidity any day. There is no flex. Say again: NO flex. The way I like it. The Shimano bits are as you would expect: Flawless. I am running the paddle shifters this time (I ran the integrated set on my old Moots) and I like the feel. Shifting is super crisp...about as crisp as my Dura Ace on my cross bikes and road bike. As mentioned before, I made the mistake of getting the Mavic's in the 6 bolt pattern and not the Shimano lock ring style. So, I am running Hayes rotors with the XTR brakes and they are super solid.
So there you have it folks. I will run some more posts on the bikes performance over time and will be short tracking this thing later this summer so stay tuned. Mike, you did it hombre.