Apropos of nothing... CORN!

Once upon a time...

...I was fast and people took cool blurry pictures of me (in my case, generally better if the background is in focus and I'm blurry, but I digress).

Now I have baby vomit stains on the left shoulders of all my shirts and some of my jerseys.

But Mark is still cool, as you can see.

Carbon wheels, steel bike. Rad.

2014 Smart Money Build list!

You've all been waiting anxiously, I know. And so have I, but I was waiting for pricing for X1 from my OEM distributor (yes, you will survive having a 320g cassette instead of a 250g one, dude). XX1/XO1 get moved to dream build this year.

So without further ado...

2014 Smart Money Build

$3900 or $4900 full suspension w/through axle rear end and CTD shock


Fork   Fox CTD (taper or non, 15 or 9mm axle)
Headset King I7 or 1 1/8
Stem Thomson X4
Handlebar Easton EC70 or Haven Carbon
Brakes/levers Shimano XT (choice of rotor size)
Shifters X1
Rear derailleur X1
Bottom Bracket RaceFace Cinch (!!!)
Chain X1
Cassette X1
Crankset Raceface Turbine Cinch w/choice of ring size
Pedals None
Cables/housing Included
Seatpost Thomson Elite
Wheelset ZTR hubs with Crest/Arch/Flow rims (your choice) and XD driver
Tires Ignitor 2.1
Grips/tape Ritchey WCS
Saddle WTB Laser V pro

That's an awful nice bunch of aspen saplings you have there...

...sure would be a shame if someone chowed on 'em and pooped 'em back out all over your yard. You can leave the protection money/tasty alder branches on the back porch at midnight. You know, if you feel that's wise. I leave it up to you.

Flooding your yard and turning it into a swamp would be a nice gesture to the Fraternal order of Ungulates, as well. I can assure you that would be looked well upon in our happy little community.

-Your friendly neighborhood Moose

Hutch and David - done and... almost done

Quick pictures, geometry to follow tomorrow or this evening when I have a little time. Still need to do brazeons/guides on David's 29+ frame, Hutch's is done.

29.

29+! Crappy banged-up ISO slider inserts are only for holding stuff together while welding.

I'm baaack...

And looking as sexy as ever. Nick and I prerode (well, he prerode, I just went for a ride and tried to hang on for dear life) the Winter Park Valley P2P course on Wednesday. A great day, and it must have paid off - he won the expert race by more than 3 minutes and would have made the top 10 in pro (sandbagger!)

Thanks to Rusty for the loaner Waltworks!

And... we're outta here until August 10th

The whole clan wants to see the new baby so we're headed back to Boulder for the week starting tomorrow. I will still be answering my phone and email, though, so feel free to drop me a line.

Don't be that guy...

Warning: first rant in months. Probably boring. Maybe incoherent, I haven't slept a lot since Alice was born.

Also, a caveat - this is something ladies do too. I just see it more often with dudes.

I used to have single/unmarried friends who were cool. Now I have kids. But I still remember hearing the same complaint over and over from random people:

-My girlfriend (boyfriend) won't go mountain biking with me.
-I took her out on this easy ride and she cried.
-He refused to ride this easy waterbar and then walked the rest of the way down.
-I had to wait forever.

Now, getting a friend into riding is hard. Mountain biking is painful and dirty and intimidating. And it's doubly hard when the friend is a significant other. But I see the same mistake over and over. Dude, why is your girlfriend riding a $100 Walmart bike when you're on your $5k carbon wondermobile? Are you really surprised he's having trouble and not having fun?

Don't take your SO on a ride on their current "mountain" bike. Don't borrow a crappy bike that doesn't fit. Go to a shop that rents nice bikes (yes, it'll cost you $75 for the day. HTFU) and get him a bike that fits decently, works decently, and has modern suspension/gears/brakes. Get a decent helmet. Don't make her ride clipless pedals, or toe clips, or get mad if he has trouble figuring out how to shift up/down. Stop as much as she wants to adjust stuff and don't get frustrated if you have to move the brake levers around 5 times.

A decent bike will mean that your SO has a shot at having fun. And you have a shot at going on a ride as a date again.