Night Rider!!!

Fall is certainly upon us as the temperatures and leaves have descended. I always try to get my weekday ride fixes in with my commutes to and from work, but its no substitute for the intensity of trail riding. My work and family commitments seem to become larger daily forcing me to creatively search for time to get out and burn it up. Shorter days make it even more challenging. I can get to my local haunt from my downtown office in about 15 minutes, but I still only might have a half an hour of decent light.

Undeterred, I dusted off my headlamp, a Niterider Flame Thrower HID their first series. I have used this light sporadically since I got it and have read some less than favorable reviews, but it has always been pretty bulletproof. It is blindingly bright and provides a daylight view of everything in front of you for about 20+feet. I suppose I could add a handlebar light for even better shadow definition, but I am able to see pretty well with this puppy. I have tackled technical rides and small jumps without too much fear whilst using it, but never any man made stunts. The 'switch has some fun stuff to play on so I decided to give'r a go.

I arrived a lil' before 6 PM and it was already dusk. There were some of the BMX'ers packing up, but not another soul around. I fired up my light within the first ten minutes. I was feeling pretty good, music playing through my pack and I had no trouble seeing anything. The Nomadizer felt great as usual. Hell, I could ride uphill through a manure pile on that bike and still enjoy myself. The platform ramp pictured below is about 8-10' up from the base of the exit and requires a slight right turn at the top before you descend the 45 degree incline ramp. I conquered this in the daylight, but it is pretty sketchy as there is little room to put a foot down at the top. I was not sure about trying it in the dark, but I was feeling good so I went for it.

I cleaned it perfectly and I cannot begin to express what a rush it was in the pitch black woods. I went on to ride for a little more than an hour. I never saw anyone else. I have always felt that night riding trails feels like you are in video game with darkness all around with the only light in front. I suppose in some open sections you can get some ambient light from the city or moon, but east coast woods are generally too dense to allow much if any light in. All totalled it was a blast and half. The only thing that would have made it any better would be to have some other like-minded riders to join in. Those are far fewer here than back in Georgia, sigh. I will be working at the EVMA booth at the 21st annual Tidewater Mountain Bike Challenge this weekend. The course is fantastic; maybe the best XC course (read: not dumbed down to a street with dirt thrown on it) I have ridden. See y'all there.

Lets Go...

...do it now.

I am far from a sycophant for any Hollywood elite, but now would be a good time to vote and make your voice heard. I cannot think of a more important election in my voting lifetime '85 to the present. Plus Sarah Silverman rocks. She is messhugah in a good way. Now go ride yr bike. My next ink:

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

Ready to Ride and the Nomadizer

Depending on whom you ask Samuel Levi, our newest player, rider, pack member (according to our dogs) was born on Friday 9.12.08 at 10:23 PM. My wife is recovering well, the family is thrilled and lil' Sam should be ready to rock in no time. I must say he is pretty awesome, in great shape and I am psyched to be able to do everything for him from the feeding to cleaning to changing and entertaining (we stick out our tongues when discussing politics). Speaking of politics, Tina Fey should receive an Emmy for this performance. Funny stuff no matter how you swing. Yes, I already have his first bike picked out too.

The "Nomadizer" is my nick name for my new Santa Cruz Nomad. It is my cunning lingual blending of the name Nomad and one of my favorite Fu Manchu songs, "Anodizer". This is somebodies homemade video which is mediocre, but you can at least hear the tune.



I held out on getting a new frame for quite awhile. I had been aboard my Heckler for over 3 years and it had served me well. I never felt out-gunned on it and I rode it all over the place including on my trip to Switzerland last year. It was on that trip with its high burliness factor and relentless downhills where I felt I wanted more bike. I tried Nomads before, but I originally felt they were too stretched-out for my routine riding and that would not translate well on the tight east coast single track I frequent. I was not real concerned about weight, but I kinda wanted to stay around the 35 pound mark or less. My hope was to retain all the positives of the Heckler (razor-sharp handling, and acceleration) while adding improved climbing ability and stability in the nastiness. I was well aware of the Nomad's reputation and had listened to Mo-Fun Mike rave about his since day one. Still I held off.

Santa Cruz rolled out their updated Blur LT (long travel) this spring which I spoke about here. At first it would have seemed to be an ideal choice for me with its matching geometry to my Heckler despite having less travel. However, after being assured that I would be better off aboard a Nomad for my shenanigans I set out to locate a frame. I knew that pretty much everything off of the Heckler would transfer over except for the Cane Creek Double Barrel shock so I procured one from T2. Then SC debuted their revised Nomad which would be available later this fall. I am sure it will be a kick ass ride, but I figured I would rather have the pinnacle of the original design, and the updates were not really that big a deal to me. Also I liked the looks of the original better with its hump echoing the shape of a 50's hot-rod. Last but not least I knew I would be able to locate deals on this design as shops salivated to get the new one in.

Initially I was a bit concerned after building the Nomadizer up as I was not used to the geometry which felt noticeably different than the Heckler. My first ride out the bike felt sluggish and unbalanced not to mention heavy. The frame and shock are heavier than the Heckler and with the beefy build-kit I have the weight was close to 39 pounds. I decided to speak Malcolm at Cane Creek about dialing in the shock who promptly returned my call. I remembered when Mike first had his Nomad and then later purchased a Double Barrel that it took some trial and error to find the sweet spot for the bikes suspension balance b/t solid pedalling, a plush ride over the trail chop and the bottomless feel that the VPP design is known for. Malcolm said that it would take some experimentation, but once dialed the Nomad works great with a Double Barrel. He made several simple suggestions which worked like a snap and the sluggish unbalanced feel disappeared. I then took inventory of my componentry and looked for ways to drop some weight. First and foremost, would be my wheelset which although bombproof is on the heavy side of the fence being better suited to DH (which I will save them for) versus all mountain riding. I ended up going with a set of DT 340 Enduro Trail wheels and immediately lost a noticeable pound and a half of rolling weight. All of the other components did not have as big a weight savings, however I switched my bar/stem combo to an Easton Monkey Light DH/Raceface Atlas and down-sized my WTB DH seat to a more svelte WTB Pure V Race in Camo like Diamond Dave loves. Final score: 35.6 pounds with pedals; same as the Heckle-beast. I added my "HELLBELLY" sticker on the top tube and I was ready to ride. (Part 2 soon)

Guilty Pleasures

I had a fantastic ride yesterday up at Freedom Park. I ran into some familiar riding acquaintances and met a new one. The weather was pretty much perfect, the trails in great shape having received a little rain during the previous days and I felt dialed in aboard the Nomadizer (detailed review and discussion forthcoming). One thing that riding there always re-enforces for me is my enjoyment of the kind of riding I probably should be "maturing" away from. In particular are my adorations for the sketchier technical-side of mountain bike riding versus my more efficient exercise-obsessed, light weight bike worshiping cross country riding brethren. Maybe one day I may find my way to measuring my riding enjoyment in miles covered, grams saved or faster lap times. This seems to be more acceptable to most as opposed to flying off drop-offs/jumps, careening down wheel-demolishing boulder fields or negotiating precariously narrow logs/bridges/ledges that span heights where falling comes with high consequences. They are all guilty pleasures that are just playing to me.

I felt I should share a couple other guilty pleasures that I have no real explanation for other than I am just fond of them. Feel free to judge/laugh at/condemn as you wish. The bands mentioned below have little if anything in common with most of the stuff I yap about here. "Everything She Wants" -Wham!

One of the reviews for this song says that it just rocks. I agree. It contains a stomping back beat and thumping bass with Michael Jackson-esque vocals (back when he did not suck) except with more soul. Powerful stuff. George Michael's personal antics have long overshadowed his musical output for many years, but he and Andrew hit a home run with this one. Yes, I do have this song in my iPod alongside Zeke and other aforementioned musical monsters.

"Good Thing" -Fine Young Cannibals

I loved The English Beat and I still rank "I Just Can't Stop it" as one of my all time favorite albums. After the Beat's short, but impressive career output the band splintered into General Public and Fine Young Cannibals. Although I was not really blown away by General Public I was always drawn to FYC's unique sound. I don't know why, but I love the retro-soul vocals and simple circular rhythm of the song. The video imagery which is reminiscent of Quadrophenia has a great look. Yes, I do sing these songs in the shower. Guilty as charged. We'll get back to the usual maelstrom soon enough.

Ride to Live

I was sorting through piles of cds, tapes, records the other day and pulled out a cd I listen to (well the mp3 tracks, actually) all the time, Zeke's Til' the Livin' End. Inside the cover booklet it says "Ride to Live". I have no doubt that the members of Zeke were referring to motorcycles and not bicycles, but the sentiment works for me either way. This album hit sometime in '03-04 and is by far my favorite high intensity cycling soundtrack. The whole thing is a pretty brief affair with it only lasting maybe 30 minutes or so. However, it never lets up and even the slower tracks are driving as hell. This release has been in pretty much every playlist I have made since it came out. Unlike other tunes I never skip over any of these songs. I have other Zeke albums, but none of them sound like Til' the Livin' End. The production which was handled by Jack Endino screams of the best early Motorhead output. However, it is faster, heavier and more frantic. Zeke was once descibed in a review as sounding like the Dwarves if they snorted a bathtub of meth everyday. I think they are bit more focused than that, but whatever ya like is fine. I hope to catch Zeke live sometime as I can only imagine how their brand of sweaty rock'n'roll mayhem comes off live. Yikes!

I think these videos for the songs "Chinatown" and "Dolphenwulf" provides the vibe.


Maybe I will grow up one day. Maybe not. More bike fun soon.

A cat-shaped hole in our hearts

The sweet lil' putty-tat, Beast for which this blog derives its name has passed on to the giant catnip-filled field beyond. She was 18 people years and 79 cat years old. The picture above is from a few years ago when she would nightly sleep/hang out on my neck and shoulders whilst I goofed on my computer. Beast was the runt of a litter that my girlfirend's cat had just before I went off to dental school. She was probably about six weeks old when I took her off to school with me. I will never forget our first bonding experience. She fit into the palm of my hand and as I headed up to Richmond in the sweltering August heat she was panting like crazy as my car had no AC. I pulled over and filled a bottle cap with water which she lapped up and then promptly fell asleep in my lap. Another cool thing she would do was to crawl onto my knee when I would play my acoustic guitar wrapping her front paws around my knee to hold on as I created various rackets over the years. We moved all over the place to different states, cities and homes. She took a few sabaticals over the years but always came back. Beast seemed to have a good sense about people too. Those that she did not care for I ended up eventually feeling the same about. Beast lived w/ my Mom who treated her like a queen for the last couple years of her life. We all will miss her. Rest in peace sweet kitty.

Jungle Hop

Boy oh boy I sure had fun assembling the accoutrements for our lil' boy's room this weekend. Its seems like forever ago since we picked out the theme and the furniture finally arrived this weekend. Often you wonder when you buy something if you made a good choice. I now know that we did after seeing it all together in his future bedroom. Its nice stuff, super-cute and I hope that someday that if he ever reads this he'll be embarrassed-hahaha! I originally wanted to go with an outer space theme, however we were not able to readily find bedding and all the hoo-haa in that style. My wife was amused but not crazy about the idea of a wall mural that I would paint that would have among other images a UFO abducting our dogs. That did not fly (pun-intended). In the end the jungle theme Zoofari won out. I love it as I had a jungle themed room when I was a toddler and I turned out ok. I love and respect animals often more than most people. I hope our little guy will learn to love and respect animals too and deserving people.

I had a swell AM ride up at Freedom Park today. I ran into a patient and his friends and we all hit it together. I ride alone alot so this was a nice change of pace. Another thing that was great was that they were into big bikes (hell, one of 'em was on a Demo 7 with the crazy paint job like in the photo) and milking all of the technical features that the trail has to offer. Yeah man, bring it on! No offense to any of the more tame XC riders, but I just like throwing down more. Now we rode everything not just the places with jumps (although we did each of those a few times). Call it what you want; all-mountain/trail/freeriding whatever. Its just mountain biking to me and its fun. Jungle Hop as covered by my heros The Cramps. Lots of garabge, man.