we will soon...

have uniformity here in ohio as far as cycling goes. local governments will not be making laws for us anymore. it is placed on a state level. we will be seen as slower moving vehicles. so thus having more traffic rights. i believe that the ohio bicycle federation had a lot to do with this. they're the ones that deal with all this bicycle legislation stuff. so a thanks to them. it just makes things a lot simpler, and having more of a legal feeling out there helps.

namaste...

odds and ends...

mount trashmore sign
Originally uploaded by divine_gear.

that i just wanted to post about...

this is a sign that i liked at mount trashmore in virginia beach. its a mountain made from trash. your garbage is turned into a park. nice.

i've been listening to my ipod while riding. i just have one ear bud in so i'm still able to hear the traffic; so i'm not completely tuned out. also it helps me relax while i'm riding. relax, you say? yes. before i would just yell at these people and i don't think that this was healthy for me, and others. the best music to listen too is anything heavy, and angry. when you've got a guy yelling in your ear "pure fucking armageddon", the guy that cut you off really doesn't matter anymore. also heavy and fast guitar riffs keep driving me to go faster. so in conclusion...heavy metal is good for commuting.

also, ever since i sold my ybb, i've noticed a changed in my attitude in a lot of things. the coincidence also may be the books i'm reading, but in any case, things to me really don't matter. now what i mean by this is i feel no allegiance to any one thing. to no company. no object. i felt very close to the ybb, because it was my first really expensive bike, but when i got rid of it, it just felt like a lot of things either lost their luster or life became a lot easier for i knew that giving up that bike made me realize that things just don't matter. so this is my new mantra before i drop money on any material thing...'does this matter?' if the answer is 'no' then i save my green. if it is 'yes' then i reason why, and if i am able to refute myself i save more green. i look around my house and i have stuff that i am able to do without, but it is not worth getting rid of because i would never make nearly as much green back as i picked it up for, but such is life.

also, i'm not too happy with camba right now. sorry guys...you suck. nazi scum. a few post back i wrote on how i'm going to start to build a trail on some land that i have, and i emailed them for some pointers and such. this is just a part of what i got back from them...

'To start with, 31 acres is not considered much land to build trails on. And even more importantly, it really depends on how much of that property can support sustainable trails…..meaning, is all that property flat?......or does it have a lot of varying slope? To effectively build sustainable trails that hold up to usage and can withstand our weather conditions, the land must have slope.'

hey, thanks for supporting. that's great of you. bastards.

namaste...

there is a travesty...

in the single speed world. a travesty that i have a hard time accepting. now, i love single speeds. i love looking at them. at pictures of them. fixed or not. there is just something about them that i find so aesthetically pleasing. riding them.

i am able to accept all kinds of beautiful single speed rides. old. new. beat up. slick as alligator snot, or not. whatever. what people do to them. how they build them up.

but this is a travesty. this should not be. i accept the rig before i'll take that other thing, because gary gets it. he lives it. he rode in the sswc. travis is in the loop. not gt. i cannot and will accept this. it is blasphemy against the single speed community. a wound that is deep.

this is the start...

entrance...
Originally uploaded by divine_gear.

of something that i've wanted to do for a long time now. my family owns some property, and we have nothing on it. it's just land. a some what opened field, and the rest of the land is a wooded area. so i've finally decided to build a trail on it. i've had this thought for a couple of years, but i'm finally getting off my butt and doing it. this will be the entrance of it. i started this last week. cleared out this small patch near the front. and yesterday i worked on the exit. so i have these two things started. i'm going to start to go through it and map it out and do some every week. i'd love to have this up and running by next year. something fast and fun. put some obstacles, and crap up, and just have a good time.

i mowed out a lot of this stuff out, and went through with an ax, chainsaw, and a rake. so i think i'll just keep it that simple. there are many trees inside, but nothing that is not easily cleared out. the only problem is that there are a bunch of osage-orange trees, or monkey fruit trees that line the inside. this is a very, very hard wood that they use to use these as property line markers. so just after this shot (i have a pic of this tree in the flickr where you can see the orangish saw dust) there is a line of them, and then we have another line of them about eight or ten acres down from that, and they suck to cut. but they are a beautiful wood.

so needless to say...i've got my work cut out for me, but it'll be good stuff.

i could...

tell you where these were taken, but then i'd have to kill you...sorry...but if you spot certain clues you'll get it...

so the call comes in...

at two thirty...'you still in?' and the answer was a 'yes i am.' mother nature decided to start to rain on us, but we did not care. my brother-in-law and i have been wanting to ride together for a while, and we finally got it together, so we said screw it.

we hit a trail near his house at reagan park in medina. as we pulled into the lot it started to come down a little, but what did we care. we figured that the trail wouldn't be in that bad of shape yet. as we were getting ready in the rain, i put on my rain jacket just to stay dry before we leave. it was odd putting on dry socks on wet feet to head out. make sure we had everything and we took off. the loop of this course took us a round an hour to do. didn't take the camera the first loop, because of the rain being too much, but on the second loop, the rain slowed down, and we grabbed some shots...

the first time i was there, and i think the second time he was there, so we really didn't know the trail too well. so on the second loop we just messed around and took shots...

this was a little hill that was next to the trail...

sean coming around next to it...

me running up...

and coming down...

i think i took him by surprise on this...

over a small bridge...

getting by and over...watch that rock...

over...

are you seeing a pattern here...run up that, and i'll take the pic...why am i the one always running up...

coming down...

what follows here are a bunch of pics of us (mostly me) going over a bridge, but all the pics turned out blurry, and we didn't notice that the camera wasn't set correctly until later, and i thought that i just put them all up, so hopefully you get the idea...









coming...

going...

a well deserved snack...

dirty single speed...good single speed....


we had a great time out there. the trail was fast where it needs to be, and slow were it needs to be. it's just a short time away from both of us, so we will be hitting that more often.

i'd like to...

send an unofficial congratulations to john satory for his finish at leadville coming in at three forty-nine in eleven hours and twenty-two minutes.

now i have...

this on my plate...

mohican twenty-four hour race. they offer a twelve, but it seems that we have enough man power for a four man team, so why not do the twenty-four. this will not be on the single speed. mohican is a bitch on a single speed. half of it is going straight up hill. i mean straight. even with a thirty-two eighteen it sucks.

also on the plus side of it all the bluegrass festival will be happening at the same time, and i love bluegrass music. grab a ticket and check out some music in between loops.

so i guess i better start riding some more...

never done...

this here before but...

currently spinning and loving...peeping tom.

it's a mike patton thing...check it out.

think about...

the last couple of rides you went on. what were they like? what did you experience?

the thought process might go something like this...'this is the route i took. i pedaled here. up here. down here. over here. etc...'

but i experienced something totally different on an urban ride recently. i went out on a saturday night. i was boarded, and it was getting dark, but i said what the heck. i took off out of my house on the slider, and headed into cleveland/tremont area. it's a nice ride. hit a couple of what i call 'ghetto bridges'. the bridges that go over a freeway to link neighborhoods together. the kind of bridges that are all graffitied up.

anyway, i thought to myself...am i pedaling? i got in such a zone, such a mind set, that i wasn't even thinking about pedaling the bike. like i forgot about my legs. the force of pedaling...gone. it was an amazing experience. one i cannot remember ever having. good stuff.

although riding the slider so much has changed my climbing style. i noticed this on my saturday ride. i'm climbing in a much bigger gear, since the front chainring on the slider is a forty-two, and the inner ring on my road bike is a high thirty something. so the lesson...having different bikes to choose from is a good thing. you learn different things. you might even progress as a rider. good stuff.

shalom...

i said once...

when this whole thing started, and i'll say it again...

if found guilty, i'm done with professional cycling...

washington post

cycling news

done. period. i won't care one bit.

i was in conversation recently about doping, and one person said that he really didn't care. personally? o.k. but what about the message that it sends? cheating is fine, kids. fill your self with non-natural substances, win the game, and maybe kill yourself doing it. hell, maybe i'll do it this cross season. pump myself up with stuff, and go out and kick some ass. why not? they don't test on our courses. and i could be the best cross racer, and when it comes time to go pro, i'll refuse on terms that i want to stay true to the grass roots of it all. yes. remember the lesson, win at any cost.