Random acts of beauty and insanity...

Oh my pretty... One of the hot new rigs that people are hootin about on various forums and yonder is the new Blur LT from one of my fave bike companies Santa Cruz. There is a very cool write up on nsmb.com about the behind the scenes development of the bike and its prototypes. My pal Bobasaki (rockin' his Mustang below) bought the original Blur LT last year and it is a smoking ride. The new one is something I might consider even though it has less travel than what I am running now. Those VPP's sure do ride nice though and the geometry is almost identical to my beloved Heckle-beast. The new BLT's shape is very similar to the Nomad which my pal Mike rides and swears by. The Nomads I have rode all felt a bit too stretched out for me since the coresponding size has a longer top tube, wheel base, and slacker head angle. If I was going to hook up with one it would not be for awhile and I would likely buy the whole bike as opposed to cannibalizing parts off of something else. The closest SC dealer is in Richmond so I would either buy online or sweet-talk my lbs into hooking up an order. We'll see. I am going to ride tomorrow w/ the EVMA for the Sunday morning group ride up in Williamsburg. Despite my lust over the new BLT its highly likely one ride aboard Heckle-beast will dissuade me from such impure thoughts. Its hard to argue with a rig that has held up to my endless abuse for nearly three years, has never held me back from any kind craziness I attempted and always felt dialed throught multiple component and suspension changes. Its always looked bitchin' in flat black too.

Another black thing I have always been drawn to is Black Sabbath. They are currently revisiting their "Dio" days a period for which I was not a fan of 'cept maybe the title track to Mob Rules but I digress. One of my very first albums (not counting assorted Disney story records) was Paranoid. No matter how important, influential or whatever anything is you can't take anything too seriously. I nearly pee-ed myself when I saw this ultra-sweet Cindy and Bert video. Whats up with the dog? Check out the blistering original first then put on yr dancing shoes for Cindy and Bert's version.





1000 Homo DJ's did a cool dance remix of the song "Supernaut" a few years ago, but this takes the cake. Now lets ride.

Getting the "Sweet Down" in Pisgah Part 2

So Friday at Bent Creek I had just about everything go awry that could and decided that it only could get better from there. Fortunately, it did. Friday evening the bulk of our group crashed at Mark's swingin' Saluda cabin, which is just about perfect (throw in a hot tub, a go-cart track, suana, steam room, etc. and it will be perfect-HA!). A nice pot-luck dinner with spagetti, lasagna, cup cakes, brownies, assorted deli-meats, cheeses and tons of beer helped me forget about my less than great luck during the afternoon's ride. We watched bike videos like The Collective the Earthed series, talked bikes, looked at bike magazines, and could not have done more bike-related stuff save taking baths in chain lube. BTW, being the music nut/snob that I am I could not help but notice how impressive the soundtracks that accompany the Earthed videos are. I certainly would never expect to hear Fang and Television in a bike video, but needless to say it rocked. A few more brews, my earplugs (buncha snoring creeps!), a lil' reading and I was out.

The next morning we were up early for our rendevous with the rest of the group at a Whole Foods-like market closer to the trail. After some milling around we caravaned off to the trail parking area. Our guides Marty and Christian, Asheville locals from Pro-Bikes http://www.pro-bikes.com/ felt that we would all prefer to end the ride with a descent back to the vehicles rather than a five mile fire road climb and we all agreed. Thus we began the ride up to the Heartbreak Ridge trail head with the aforementioned climb. I will characterize the ride overall as a death march as the bulk of it is climbing; up to an elevation of close to 5200' with over 4000' of climbing during the 20-some odd miles of riding. It was easily the most climbing I have encountered since last summer's rides in Switzerland with the two characters in masthead picture. I was hurting something fierce but managed to climb and descend all of it, albeit slowly. The last 5-6 miles of the climb was nothing but rocks. It was like climbing up poorly made steps which maybe would have been easier aboard smaller lighter-weight bikes, but I was thankful to have that extra stability when we began bombing down the sketchy descent. Heading down was pretty damn fun and included some gnarly rock sections, rooty off-camber exposure and some hectic switchbacks. Overall, and I am not complaining, I thought it was a bit too much work for the descent, which was fun but not as mind-blowing as the climb was heart-breaking. I am glad to have taken part and pleased I kept the rubber down, but I do not have any burning desire to do that one again anytime soon. I love the idea of big epic all-day rides so in that sense it fit the bill. I guess I just prefer more downhill or at least close to equal with the uphill. I learned a long time ago that I will never be a great climber or all that fast, so I have set up my bikes to maximize the parts of the ride I enjoy the most (the technical and the downhill) and tolerate (survive?) the rest. We all finished the ride together and cruised back into town for some pizza and beer. We then bid farewell to Marty and Christian (y'all kicked ass, thanx!) and retreated to Che-Mark. I took off the next morn after some breakfast and got home in time to chill followed by a nice dinner with my honey. I look forward to getting back soon if not for the Homers in Pisgah ride coming up in May. I will likely get back before that maybe for just a day blast with the fellas.

Afterword: I thought a lot about how I was feeling weak during both rides, as if nothing I could do gave me any energy. It is highly possible that my bloodsugars were outta wack and I was having insulin pump problems. I did some research and found some websites that deal with type 1 diabetics and exercise concerns including some specific info on mountain biking diabetics. Granted I may not have a great atheletic make-up, but I know I can at least not have any diabetic side-effects slow me down. See ya out there.

Totally unrelated and f#%*d up: The all-time most weird ink I have ever seen was a tattoo of Priscilla Presley riding a unicycle nude, juggling pills. I wish I had a picture, but you can use yr noodle on that. This is a close second in pure wrongness. Yuck.

Getting the "Sweet Down" in Pisgah Part 1

Wow, whew, wee!!! There was some whoop ass riding that went down this past weekend in honor of Mr Maleski's 38 years on this planet. He is the guy just to the right of center in the above photo with the groovy gray camo shorts on grinnin' like a Cheshire cat. The group in attendance was gathered from all points as near as the Asheville vicinity where the rides took place and as far away as Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories. All in all it was just about as perfect a weekend of riding as anyone could have asked for.

It was cool to see some different cats out on the ride. Pro photographer and all around bike maniac Bill Freeman came out from Los Angeles, rode like a beast and regaled us with tales of various pro riders. Daniel, a NORBA pro/expert from Whitehorse and friend of Ray and Elaine (great couple we met during last summers Swiss blitz) came down dealt with the ATL airport misplacing his bike and still rode like a fiend on one of Mark's rigs. Good folks all around.

I started out early Friday in order to make it down in time for the 1 PM Bent Creek ride. Six plus hours later after getting slightly lost, I blazed into the parking lot to find the gang already suited up, itching to go. I have gained a reputation for making everyone wait and rolling in at the last minute was not going to help improve matters. I am not proud of this but, oh well. We took off up the miserable climb up to Green's Lick trail which was steep, muddy and slick. My blood sugar was fucked up, my adrenaline was in the red, and I went terribly hypoglycemic 3/4's of the way up to where I felt I was going to pass out from becoming so winded and dizzy. This was calamity number one. I stopped and caught my breath, ate some energy goop and finally made it up to the trail head. I took off down the run that is a whoop-de-doo plastered, bermed and rocky roller coaster. Less than a minute into the craziness I flat on some rocks so mishap number two ensues. I get down to the bottom and was starting to feel pretty good and then followed the gang around to the next climb. As I was bringing up the rear a nice glob of mud flew into my left eye and blinded me long enough to lose the entourage and go up the wrong trail before I turned around and found everyone. Goof up number three was on me. At this point I was just biding my time I figured before I wrecked. I would not have wait long as ditched the bike off a small jump and caught a branch on my face giving me a small scrape that looked like some kind of retarded war paint next to my left eye. I guess four is a charm. It may sound like I had a bad time, however quite the opposite is true. It was all still fun and I would and will do it again in the future. Big thanks goes out to Malcolm from http://canecreek.com/ for showing us around and working with the cats who put out the best shock in the biz http://www.canecreek.com/double-barrel-shock.html . Stay tunned for Part 2.

Poppin' my musical cherry

My very first real hardcore punk show I went to was sometime in the winter of 1982-83. I was a fifteen yr old high school sophomore and one of the few other kids that I managed to befriend was a senior who saw that I was into punk & hardcore. He asked if I wanted to go up to Richmond to see DC's Void play an all-ages matinée. I was floored and jumped at the chance to go to "the big city" and see a band that had a real record out. I had only watched my friends bands practice and saw them play with other fledgling local acts at parties until then. I had been to a bunch of arena concerts already by this point, but never in a small scuzzy club and never to see such adrenaline-filled, intense music that was on my level. The clip above that was taken about the same time was pretty representative. The openings acts that afternoon were great, but Void was ferocious, even downright scary. They really even differentiated themselves from their peers at the time by incorporating a more metallic and blistering sound than the usually somewhat tinny sounding hardcore bands of the day. Their music seriously made you wanna go violently insane (again check out the video). Void had a huge impact on my taste for aggressive music; their songs weren't just some backdrop to garden variety teenage delinquency, but shook you to your core. I have continued to go back and listen to their meager output over the years which only consisted of 1/2 an LP http://www.dischord.com/release/8 and a couple singles. It was sloppy, but their intensity set a benchmark as far as I am concerned. Their best stuff can still shine and often surpass many more modern bands influenced by this kind of thing. I understand their drummer recently passed away; wherever you are thanks for kicking my ass.



Fast forward a handful of years and I like many kids who had gotten into hardcore were getting fed up, bored, more educated, or whatever and was in search of new sounds. I had discovered more arty offerings through various people in college, assorted post punk, indie pop and what have you, but I wanted to have fun. I was tired of the negativity and the more male-dominated audiences at shows I went to in college in DC that had become too much like high school jocks trying to start fights at every turn with racist BS, or other redneck-like attitudes. So one rather dreary night during my spring break me and a friend who was visiting me went down to small yet infamous dive of a rock club on the recommendation of a roommate to check out The Cynics from Pittsburgh. I really knew nothing about them other than they notoriously put on a good show. This was my first live introduction to what would become one of my continued musical passions: Garage Rock/Punk. All of the intensity was there that I saw and heard earlier with Void yet now you could hum along to it and girls liked to dance to it. I was hooked. The singer that night danced around in the crowd, wailed on his harmonica, and got the whole room moving. This time, however it was not an effort to clobber everyone around you, but to actually dance with them...fun. Who would have thunk it? I saw The Cynics many times after and even opened for them once, but it was that first show that blew me away forever. The irony of these two events is that I now play in a band with both guys from back then. More tales of cycling and music madness to come.

It all seems to come back around

There have been many times that events or experiences I have had come back to influence me days, months or years later. It is weird how little things can have an impact on you or come out in a way that can only come from yr subconscious. The very first two records I really remember listening to a lot were Black Sabbath's Paranoid and ZZ Top's Tres Hombres. I was in 1st grade when one of my Mom's boyfriends left Paranoid at our apartment. I pretty much wore that record out on my little red and white Disney viewmaster record player. ZZ Top came around a few years later after I saw them at Tulane stadium for my 1st concert ever around 1975-76. Many years later when I picked up the guitar at the height of my hardcore punk rock infatuation my playing echoed of Billy Gibbons and Tony Iommi albeit more primitive and sloppy. In high school I took a two-day speed reading course that at the time I thought very little of. However, over the years I found myself employing it w/o thinking about it. I read tons of stuff including usually 3-4 books at a time, half a dozen magazines, the most sections of the daily newspaper and piles of articles online.

Last fall I was in Boulder, Colorado and met up w/Lee McCormack (see pic) the co-author of the book Mastering Mountain Bike Skills. I enjoyed the book even though some of it was kinda corny. I found out that Lee offers skills clinics http://www.leelikesbikes.com/skills-clinics and figured "what the hell?" I met Lee at The Fix bike shop, a totally hardcore shop dedicated to Freeride, DH, All-Mountain, and Dirt Jump pursuits. They have their own set of dirt jumps and a pump track behind the shop and their neighbors are Maverick American bikes. As I said these guys are hardcore all the way. He spent 2 hours going over bike handling drills, theory, and balance techniques all very jedi-esque. It was very informative and a lot of fun, however I really did not think about it all that much with my riding immediately thereafter. Yet as recent as my ride today I found myself flowing lines and new sections with ease including some new jumps, drops, and skinnies that have just been constructed on what is IMHO the best trail around here at Freedom Park. http://trails.mtbr.com/cat/united-states-trails/trails-virginia/trail/PRD_170743_4585crx.aspx I started to realize that I was incorporating many of the techniques I had gleaned from Lee w/o even thinking about it. I went off a new drop there that depending on where you land sends you 3-5' airborne as calm as I could be and landed very smoothly. Needless to say I highly recomend checking out one of his clinics or writings. A big pat on the back goes out the EVMA who really has stepped their efforts with this new trail and its nicely challenging features. http://www.evma.org/.

As write this I am enjoying a nice post home made chicken nacho and beer buzz in honor the Super Bowl. I really don't give a rat's ass about the game or any pro sports for that matter. My friends in college used to say the only thing worse than pro sports are the fans. As gay as I am about cycling I really do not care to watch the Tour or much of anything else on TV. I would rather be involved. To paraphrase Yoda (speaking of Jedis): "no try; just do."

When I was your age Satan still ruled the airwaves

As long as I can recall EVERYONE has made fun of the music (muzak?) played in dental offices. This for good reason as the majority of dentists are pretty conservative and certainly do not need to do anything that could make their patients anymore uptight than they already are. Easy listening, album oriented rock (at least the most tame examples of the genre), and light pop have always been dental office staples. I grew up around dentists and I am actually one of fourteen in my extended family. My grandfather was my dentist as a kid and to say he was a character is putting it lightly. He was very well liked, hilarious, and talented and had a way of putting patients at ease with his often silly and occasionally non-PC antics. One of his most memorable and daily rituals was his incredible singing. He would sing along with all the clasic crooners (Perry Como, Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, etc.) and entertain nervous patients as he often made up his own lyrics to suit the situation. He would not just sing for just the patient, but rather the whole office with his loud booming baritone. This certainly set him apart fom his peers w/ their more standard bland music selections. My uncle with whom I work does this as well, however he does it to our cable radio solid gold oldies staion most often. Sometime, last week when he was out the station was changed to the swinging selections of the 70's. This stuff is almost as mild as the oldies, but now and then some cool nuggets like the above pop up. I mean come on, the slease in this song is terrific. Amisdt the schlock and roll trash I also managed to hear Alice Cooper's Schools Out, ZZ Top's La Grange and Sweet's Fox on the Run all fun stuff to do dental work to, thank you.

One of my patients today who is a regular bike commuter backed me up today in my feelings that the drivers in this area are the most rude, self-absorbed, and downright dangerous I have ever come into contact with. I am going to get one of those hideous saftey vests, because despite having lights on my bike that rival some discoteques I still have way to many people get too damn close, cut me off and generally not have a clue. Although I dream of having an RPG mounted to my bike I will try to just stay cool, listen to podcasts from http://www.garagepunk.com and happily get my ride on.