I have decided to reserect the Mountain Bike Mike Website.

 

After taking a year and a half off from racing and pretty much riding altogether to give myself a mental and physical break. And to catch up on some other adventures, such as Powered Paragliding, racing Enduros and some whitewater canoeing. I started riding again this spring and then realized how much I missed it. I'm back at it pretty regular again, not sure where I'm headed with it, but knowing me I'm sure there will be some sort of racing involved.

 

Also back working at Spokes Bike Shop on a very limited part time basis, but it's still cool to be wrenching on bikes again.

 

I'll try and get some fresh pictures of my new ride as I slowly get back into the swing of things.

Check this out - http://mysite.verizon.net/reszicmw/timeformetofly/

I'd like to thank 661 for hooking me up with another year of sponsorship. They make some great stuff and I am lucky to have them on board. I love the Raji gloves for hot summer racing and have been using the Descend gloves in the cooler weather and I just got a pair of Storm Plus gloves to try out soon. I've also been rockin the SunLine Carbon bars all year with no complaints. They are a great company to deal with and make durable, reliable stuff. Thanks Debbie.

It is soon time when night riding takes over my ride time. After racing Allamuchy I realized my Nite Rider MiNewts just are not enough light for riding at my pace. So the search was on for a new system. That may have come to an end today... At the race parked next to me was Bill from Gretna Bikes, he sells Lupine light and we got to talking... He seems pretty cool, so hopefully I can hook up with a sweet deal. So if anyone is interested in a good deal on some Nite Rider MiNewt's systems let me know

What a beautiful day for a race! It was a well run event and a great value for the $35. Fruit, doughnuts and coffee pre-race and lunch post race. And a cool Yo-yo in the swag bag. I haven't played with a yo-yo for years, am I getting old? Turnout was low and that was a shame, cause they sure put alot of effort into this race.

 

Lisa was off with the beginners and beings she was the only women 35+ I congratulated her on her victory at the start line. There was one other younger women racing and her goal was to beat her. She did and that won her the bling, a nice piece of Jewlrey for the fastest beginner women.

 

Stanley was there and put in a pretty good lap time with an alomost blown out tire.

 

My class had 4 racers, and as I've been in chill mode I had no intentions of winning this thing. Well I got caught up in the race at the start and was hanging good until the big ring section, then they started dropping me hard. With no big ring I was burning up pretty quickly trying to hang on, and I was. Then we get to the first climb and I was more ramped up than I would have like, OK alot more. This is a tough climb for me when I'm recovered at the bottom. Settle in and go. The one guy in my class I just passed was on my tail and then he bailed off his bike and startet pushing, cool. I stepped it up a bit, by the second part of the climb I was getting toasted but still riding. Near the top he comes running past me pushing his bike. Damn it was faster to push than ride. He made it to the top right in front of me and jumped on his bike, I cleaned the hill but was spent. Till I recovered from my way too hard effort he was gone and never to be seen again by me. They should take 10 seconds of a racers time for every dab, that would be cool. Anyhow I dropped back pretty hard and never caught the lead group, pretty much rode on my own for the second lap and finally caught and passed some guys on my last lap. Put me on the podium with a 3rd, but I think there were only 4 in my class. I had a good ride day and did about as well as I expected. 

Lisa and I went up to Jim Thorpe and hooked up with Lath and Liz Carlson who are leading rides from the train station for the next couple of weekend. Lath leads the more advanced ride and Liz leads a more casual ride. I went with Lath and we did the Twin Peaks ride, I was never on the Flagstaff side so it was pretty cool to expand on the trails I've ridden in JT. Near the end of our ride we met up with Lisa on Liz's ride and she bumped up with the big boys. It was pretty much all down hill from there. That maybe an understatement if you've ever ridden the Indian Path trail down from the lookout. Pretty steep and technical downhill. Lisa did great and rode most of it. She sure is comimg along nicely with her skills. She used to walk stuff much less gnarly than this.

 

Jim Thorpe was a mess with people and traffic so we decided to head of of town to get something to eat. On our way out we passed a place called Flow's, which Lath reccomended, there was a parking space right out front so we took it. It was a bit fancy and pricy for our Red Robin type eating habits, but what the heck. First came the homemade bread with Red Wine Butter, that was good stuff. And the homebrewed iced tea was amazing. We were off to a good start. The main course was good as well, but lets just say it wasn't quite enough for a mountainbikers appitite. Overall it gets a good rating.

The wheels are in motion for an overnight bike camping trip on the Pine Creek Railtrail through the heart of the Pa. Grand Canyon. Haven't done a bike camping trip this year yet and time is running out. So coming up next weekend, Nick & Terry and Lisa & I will be hooking up Nick's Custom built trailers full of camping gear and heading out to do an out and back in two days. I got to play with the trailer last Tuesday a bit and hope to get some more time with it this weekend. It's a pretty cool set up, which he built and designed himself. It's got some advantages over the BOB trailer I used last year. One quickly noticable advantage with Nick's trailer is it doesn't affect the bike handling at all, where the BOB wants to control the bike and is constantly reminding you of this, that sorta sucked. It does have two wheels vs. the BOB's one, when you ride on the hardpack singletrack the trailer wheels track off the side in the rough. This won't be a problem on wider trails, but it was noticable on the singetrack type railtrail at Swatara. I'll get some pictures tomorrow. Should be a fun weekend, borderlining on winter camping, brrrrr.

Got the official word today that Trek will be giving the 69er the same upgrades as the other Top Fuels, should be available January. The new ABP and full floater suspension looks sweet, but can you feel it in the ride? That is what wonders me.

 

I sent my other Lefty back to Cannondale for a complete service, which was supposed to cost $125. It was my only Lefty that never made the trip to Bedford, it was time for a rebuild since it was acting up. Got it back today, but the bill was $185, damn! Oh wait, it's a new fork, not the old one, so I guess I won't complain. Guess it wasn't worth fixing... Now I can build the SS back up.

Not yet it seems, Blue Marsh this Sunday, is that the last one??? I took Lisa on a tour of the race loop so she could decide to race or not. She's in. It looks like it will be a low turnout, only 38 signed up on Bikereg. They even give you a free lunch, that was all I needed to know. Mike M is planning on racing and is also bringing the Spokes truck over to the event, so it looks like I'll be manning the truck while he's out racing.

 

I got a few practice loops in and have been cleaning the hill everytime. It's no slouch of a hill either. While I can ride the hill, it's probably still faster to run it, but that's not my style. This is a very fast course with two hard climbs, while I'll do well on the climbs my lack of a big ring will be my downfall on the fast flats. Oh well, like I said, I get a free lunch! 

It was 35* this morning, that can only mean one thing - winter is coming, whether we like it or not. That also means it's time to fill the wood box. Mother nature didn't help me out this year, no new trees got blown over, so pickin's are a bit slim here on the ranch. May have to venture over to the neighbors. He has a huge 200 year old oak that got blown over a year or so ago, but I'm gonna need a bigger saw... cool!