sup

k. uh. i havent been on the bike in about a week. its cold and rollers suckkk. i may be landing a super rad new wind resistance unit for my rollers... lol. did i just say unit.  anyway, in my time off i have decided 3 things: a) twenty niners are not as bad as i once thought- 26 is still better though. b) punk bike was the best day of my life. c) i promise to re-start my blogging. its very important to sooo many people, i feel obligated to resume it- i have so many opinions to share. heres my promise: I PROMISE TO BLOG MORE

kewl new find

not much happens in life when you get old, but sometimes you learn ways to learn new things- hopefully i can learn something.

back to school

back at skewl means time to ride hard in preparation for racing, and maybe some time to make it official via the internet....

And maybe not.

right now lsat studying is dominating my free time, and my riding has suffered. i probably only get like 6-8 hours in a week...at best. for the time being (which may no longer be being in 3 days) i am an official mechanic at performance bikes- pricewhores if ever there were such a thing. though i ammaking more there than i ever have before, i need WAAAY less hours- i am confronting the big boss man today- or to quit/get fired/ pissoff the big boss so i get my ass beaten and have a lawsuit and wont have to work for the next decade. the work is easy peasy, as their standards of quality are lower than im used to by a considerable amount, and there are hardly any repairs to do. you didnt hear it from me, but we now do on the spot tune ups. but this work is cutting into riding time and lsat time... and right now things look like this: lsat>school>bikes>beer> sustenance >money>sanity ... my job is getting in the way.

However, i should make it "home", as in eastern PA, in 2 weeks for the lehigh university mtb race. i thought i could try and go to all of them, but driving to syracuse, and nh, and vt might just be to much. Anyway I did well at Lehigh last year (real well, actually) in a lower category. Seeing as im more out of shape now than i was at this time 365 days ago, ill just stay in the lower class and try and do well.


lastly, i stumbled upon this. read it and know it... its the law (literally)

NUUN

THIS POST WAS MEANT FOR TEEM HEEB BUT IT ALL GOT MESSED UP. I HATE MY LIFE. THIS POST HAS NO RELEVANCE TO MY MTB-ing


I emailed scott, the main man over at NUUN- my 2010 sponsor, of sorts- around 3 pm today; i was inquiring about a heeb sponsorship- and a few hours later he gets back to me with this:


Hey Adam,

Here at nuun we sponsor lots of teams out there! A majority of our sponsorships are in the form of pro-deals through our website with a discount code specific for the team. We also can do special deals on bottles. We are rearranging our sponsorships for 2011 and there should be much more opportunity out there for teams and for nuun. 

Thanks for keeping us in mind. Once you have the team together, just touch base with us again and we would be glad to support the team the best we can. 

glad you love the nuun and are spreading the love! much appreciated.

cheers for now! 

- make your water count -

scott forrestall


... pretty badass. i will get team heebs shit together (aka my shit together) and get back to him asap. I really like NUUN, and i can be found drinking it for recreational purposes- its better than water and i have a pretty hefty supply so i drink it a lot. I dont think it is a revolutionary product and i dont think it will make you/me stronger, but its better than drinking just water or my "homemade gatorade". Its got some electrolytes and some flavor and i enjoy it. id love to have NUUN on board for 2011, and you should too.


THANKS SCOTT, your run an awesome business (i doubt he'll ever read this)

it it taint broke dont fix it

i have been devoting a lot of time to school work and my team heeb blog (as i guess it will officially be a for-real team), thus i have been away from here. anyway, after my training ride i was searching for why my taint hurt an unusual amount today and stumbled upon this article. it has nothing to do with taints (from my reading) but it helped me understanding training and how the body works a bit better. school is over tomorrow= drive 5 hours and afternoon intervals.

finals week

no time, finals week. but i think one of these sexy new stems in going to be ordered soon for my GT. back to finals...

newz

i got 25/35 at my race in fair hill, it was a killer race and if i spent less time in the big ring (as i thought i was in the middle one) i may have had more energy to go faster. thats the boring news...

this new stuff from shimano REALLY piqued my interest today, as i am ALWAYS looking for new things to buy. would 10 speeds make me faster-probably not. would i pretend like i was faster if i had 10 speeds- defiantly yes. i have been thinking about going 2x9 as all the cool pro-style pros ride that (or so it seems), but 2x10 would be even cooler cause i could buy new stuff. id probably do it cheaply and just get the cassette and shifter. the pricing isnt too bad either:

2011 Shimano Deore XT Specifications:
RD-M773 – XT Shimano Shadow Rear Derailleur

Low Profile Shimano Shadow rear derailleur design reduces the component profile by 15mm less than a traditional design in high gear.
Top normal spring design to mesh with the more common choice of RapidFire shifters for trail / all-mountain riding
Sealed bearing guide and tension pulleys
Available in medium and long cage (GS and SGS)
Total capacity: 43T (SGS), 35T (GS)
MSRP: $129.99
FD-M770/771-10 Front Derailleur Specific 10s cage design

Available in Top Swing, conventional, or E-type configurations to mount on most any frame
Adaptable clamp means one size fits all for 28.6, 31.8, 34.9 and multi-pull allows top or bottom cable pull
Set screws are angle outward for easier adjustment on some full suspension designs
Clamp band positions the same for 9 and 10s versions
Cage profiled for more tire clearance
MSRP: $59.99
SL-M770-10-R RapidFire Plus Shift Lever (rear)

Additional rear shifter option with 10s vs. 9s
Alloy main lever 2-way release trigger allows thumb or finger actuation
Two position clamp band for tune-able ergonomics
Multi-bearing construction for greater durability and reduced effort
Removeable optical gear display
MSRP: $99.99 (set, front lever same as 9s)
FC-M770-10 Front Chainwheel

Hollowtech II design maximizes stiffness while keeping weight to a minimum
Precision two-piece construction for perfect chainline and chainwheel alignment.
42T-32T-24T
Carbon / Steel composite middle ring adds rigidity for better shifting, increases service life, and smoothly delivers powers to the cassette.
Outboard bearings maximize stability and stiffness
MSRP: $359.99
CS-M771-10 Cassette

Largest 6 cogs on two spiders for light and rigid construction
11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36 and 11-13-15-17-19-21-23-26-30-34
Alloy lock ring
MSRP: $114.99
CN-HG94 Chain HG-X direction chain

Inner and outer plates feature asymmetrical design to optimize front and rear shifting
Zinc-alloy plated for maximum durability
Uses standard connecting pin
MSRP: $49.99

8am?

uhh, it 8 am, and i only have 1 cup of coffee in me so no fair hill race report. but i pre-class-internet-search stumbled upon these - pretty cool id say. i only wish they had em in "my tire".

stuff and stuff

rode my gt today for the first time in a while- it felt great. i got my new heart rate monitor and maxed out at 187, i guess thats good? but the coolest thing of the day is this...- i think my bikes are dealing with #97. tomorrow is bike tune up day and cleaning day, my brakes need one of these.

Sucknell

Dear blog, sorry for being away. i only have time to for schoolwork and bikes. i havent even been to the co op 3 week; im afraid its dark smelly hipster infested walls have forgotten me. anyway...

racing at Bucknell university this weekend was very good. i finally moved up to C and got new number-386- i think its a very sexy number combination. i had a 38 mile road race and i felt great until, oh, maybe, the last 200 yards, when some assholes from RIT thought they could sprint, but they couldnt. they both collided with each other and caused an epic field crash. i crashed, my sorta friend Adam from UCONN crashed and broke his face/nose (he and i used to race D together and he beat me in the Lehigh xc race), a newly made pal Jordan from Penn State crashed and broke both wheels, and my good friend and teammate Jeff crashed and broke part of his skull and his nice front wheel.

Jeff is ok, but he gets to miss school for a week and wear a dopey neck brace, and he will probably not race again for a while. it kinda sucks because he was one of/the main reason(s) i moved up to C- Pitt needed another C rider. However, after that epic crash, i got on my bike (first i made sure everything was there) and said, "fuck all of you guys..." and sprinted the 200 yards to the finish. i ended up in 16th which was better than i thought i could do, but Jeff and I (and UCONN Adam and PSU Jordan) were all pretty much up front - i was in the 3rd row back- and we all were going to take a better finish. Whatever.

now its on to mtb racing next weekend (i hope), as Yale is too far away and i hate long car rides, and Jeff will no longer race the road race at Mt. Joy so i have no reason to do that. im probably driving home and doing the Fair Hill xc race sunday and then driving back to the 'burgh. im feeling real good about it too, as i think im in much better shape this year and i recently got some more skillz- - kinda like that but bigger logs and on my rigid SS. i hope i do better than last year where i broke my chain more than halfway through and had to walk 5 miles in the brutal heat and then got a dnf.

massan

if one can have a favorite fixie ride, one mine would be massan fluker ( i hope i spelled it right). since i started riding i though he was pretty damn cool- probably cause he wore cut-off jeans. anyway, just saw this "ad" for him and his bike on urbanvelo and i remembered how much i liked him. this year my fixieness is down a little bit- as i spend more time training and less time fucking around- but i still wish i could ride with reckless abandon through the city.

Massan for Leader Bike from Dan Arel on Vimeo.

life is boring

im getting bored of life, so ive been doing nothing but riding my bike and riding my bike some more. i just got upgraded for collegiate road cycling so i need to train my ass off in order to have the severity of my beating reduced for my upcoming race at bucknell. a ~40 mile road race is going to be hell, considering that 40 miles is usually a decent ride for me at non race pace. anyway, i got 20th in the Philly Phlyer crit and 10th in the circuit race. i felt good, but probably not good enough to move up to the next level, but who cares.

with all this riding ive been wanting to gain more power, as i will need every advantage i can get at the next level. to do this i have been thinking about a bike fit from upmc. i think i need shorter cranks, but who knows.

i think riding so much has made me lose part of my sense of humor. im becoming a machine who only writes papers and study s the law and rides bikes. maybe getting back to freeride and working on shitty bikes will restore my personality.

anyway, saw this today and though i didnt plan on racing in the race i enjoyed the video. i also agreed that charging a shit ton of money for not world class races and expecting amateurs (such as myself, though i wish it werent so) to participate is not the way to promote races. ive been wanting to do some epic races with a days drive or so but i simply cant afford to dish out hundreds of dollars knowing i will see no returns, and in fact, will probably end up spending 25% more than i bargained to when all is said and dunn.

oh, and i forgot to mention this, something i found when trying to determine the max tire pressure of my rims. i just thought it was cool as it debunks myths about tyre pressure and tubulars being supreme.

goings on

ive been riding so much recently that bloggery is the last thing on my mind. its all found by using a simple math equation x hours biking= x/(x^2) hours blogging. x represents hours on a bike in a week and that little "^2" means squared. so if i ride 2 hours in a week i can blog 1/2 an hour. if i ride 10 hours a week i have 1/10 hour to blog a week. its all very simple.

anyway, to explain my lack of presence i have ridden i have averaged 90 minutes of riding a day EVERY DAY for the last two weeks, that figure includes my one day of rest in that time period. yesterday i did a century-102.1 miles to be exact. it was my first ride of that length ever, and though i went slowish, it felt great.NUUN was in full effect till it wore out, but ill attribute my great riding experience to it- until someone can prove otherwise.

over the weekend i had two collegiate road races- saturday was a crit (i placed 16th out of 55+) and sunday was a circuit race (i placed 15th out of the same number of folks). that fat kid in the pitt kit is me. i was with the main pack though in the crit, and had i known how many laps were left in the damn race i could have probably willed myself to a podiumesque finish. i felt great in both races and could have done better if the conditions were right. hopefully i can move up in the classifications in the next few weeks. road racing is kinda shitty but id still like to do well. and its great training for mtb season (i cant wait). and if i can find a pal and a shitty bike to do the muddy buddy race in ny with, i think that may be on my agenda.

thanks dirtrag

need i say more...

hey, i was wondering if i could ride out to you guys and pickup my order, as i live in pittsburgh and think it would be wasteful to use a parcel service when my legs work just fine. thanks.

No problem, when is good for you? Just let me know so we can make sure someone is here when you arrive. We are open 9-5 m-f.

Thanks,

-Andrew

tomorrow will be a scorching 37 and cloudy, to dirtrag we shall go. unless, however, they have changed their address and it is now where it says it is.

also, trek a pgh-a good store that offered me a job (but id have to give up road racing to work)- is having a HUGE (i cant really spell it any bigger) sale this sunday which i should be attending. apparently they have tons of stuff for cheap, and though im running low(er) on money, i can never pass up a good deal on bike parts and woolen clothing. hopefully i dont see you there, as that means more shit for me.

Durt Rag

I have been a fan of Dirt Rag for a few years now (even though they wont reply to my requests for an internship- which they have listed as available on their website) and i think its cool that they are in my backyard-as i now partially live most of the year in pittsburgh. anyway, on a whim i went on their closeout merchandise store and saw sweet sock..so i bought 5 pairs 'cause theyre wool. anyway, i asked them if i could ride out to them and pickup my order because they are around 12 miles from my home in pgh. here is what i requested, hopefully they oblige:

hey, i was wondering if i could ride out to you guys and pickup my order, as i live in pittsburgh and think it would be wasteful to use a parcel service when my legs work just fine. thanks.

Hopefully. Anyway, 5 bucks a pair of socks. GET SOME!

Blue Star

I just got a sweet ebay message saying im a blue star:

Congratulations! You've achieved a feedback rating of 50 and that means you've earned a Blue Star next to your user name. This tells other eBay users that you know the ropes, and you're an established member of the eBay community.

If you've earned your Blue Star feedback mostly through making purchases on eBay, perhaps you would like to try being an eBay Seller. What should you sell? Just about anything! Chances are, you have something right around the house that doesn't quite fit or you simply don't use. Why not try selling it on eBay? It's a great way to get your feet wet. Visit the Seller Information Center to learn everything you need to get started.

Finally, we want you to know how much we value you as a member of the eBay community. You are our foundation. Your success is our success.

I guess im the man. Maybe ebay is the man. from my first real mountain bike (i was strapped for cash after my other fist real mtb was stolen on march 23 2005/2006, i forget) to my first road grouppo (i was short on cash and needed to build up my road bike with 105 or better) to some recent brakes and tires (i was strapped for cash but needed more bike parts to make me happier that my bikes cost more money) ebay has always been there for me. and i guess its always been there to gladly take my money as well. i guess a common theme here is that i always like a bargain and ebay is my go to guy.

ebay, you are the rock in my life

FOXXX

ok, so i totally forgot about what things and or companies i applied for sponsorship with about a few months ago... but today i get an email from fox shox. I know i didint get it, because why would a grade A company want to sponsor me. GT is, in my mind, a great company, but they are not fox shox- fox shox transcends bike brands. anyway, heres the sorta nice but all too unfortunate letter


Dear Athlete:

Thank you for expressing interest in FOX Racing Shox sponsorship for the 2010 racing season.

Each year we receive more requests than we can provide sponsorship for. We appreciate your
interest in FOX Racing Shox, but at this time we are unable to fulfill your request for sponsorship for
the 2010 season. FOX Racing Shox believes in and supports racing. We understand the importance of
sponsorship to athletes and teams in order to ease the high cost of racing. We hope you will continue
to express interest in our program in the years to come.

We wish you a safe and successful 2010 season and we will see you at the races.


Sincerely,

FOX Racing Shox Race Management

Hey, at least they were nice. some companies, like triflow and odwalla have never even responded to me. besides, i knew fox wouldn't sponsor me, i just had to try though.

cya next year, maybe (probably not).

WINTERMUD

ok, so i thought i invented the word "wintermud", but apparently it already exists... this makes me somewhat angry. However, since i dont buy UK mags, and because i have never ridden in the UK, I, for all intents and purposes, will assume American wintermud (yes, my version is only one word) is of a different breed-especially when mixed with snow and ice.

What is wintermud? well, its the mud that is on singletrack trails in the winter. This is not any ol' summer mud though... no way Jose. this stuff is thick and slippery. it feels just at home freezing into your pedals (maybe you have crank bros like i do) as it does freezing onto the bottom of your shoes, and thus covering your cleats. it loves to get stuck in between every knobbie on your tire, effectively turning your mountain bike into a ski bike. on many occasions it has accumulated between the tire and chainstays/seatstays, making my carbon racing steed climb hills like a three-legged elephant . i dont really know how else to describe this stuff. its more dangerous than snow because you never know if its still soft and slick or if its simply frozen old tire tracks which grab your wheel and throw you off course. this stuff sucks! ive walked up many hills due to its ability to seize all my power and momentum, but today wintermud went too far.

its latest victim is the left knee of my trust leg warmers, along with a cramping left asscheek as of right now. that is a quarter in the hole, just to show how large the tear is. normally i wouldnt care about leg warmers, but these are FLEECE LINED!!! i dont have a job and bikes are taking all my money- i still need to renew my usa cycling license and pay for races.

im glad i could get this issue off my chest. i feel much better, even though my riding will probably cause the rip to grow bigger each day. now i just have to wait for the mud to thaw off my indy fab and shoes so i can clean it.

PUT THE FUCK!NG LOTION IN THE BASKET !!!!!

everybody knows how to dress for a few hours out in 0 degree weather, its a no brainer. but one of the most important items you can use is not a warming gel (though i do get a sick discount for being on my bike team), or windstopping device, or foot-warmers ( because they cost more than gold by weight...though they do work well), its... face lotion. the only part of my body exposed is my face and i gotta keep it from getting dried out. my secret to (relatively) great feeling winter rides is lotion.

off day

today is an off day, and though i want to ride my coach says no. though i usually defy him (often by not riding long enough or doing the intervals as long as i should) it was just too friggin cold out. i guess im glad its an off day and my weekend starts tomorrow at 5 pm. anyway, saw this today.... i hate how they torture the animal (though im sure its living a better life than everyone in haiti) but its amazing that the chimp can wrench and ride better than some folks i know.

ok

ok, its been a while. thats because ive been training big time. ive been following my training plan pretty well thus far (hell, i just rode in 17 degree weather with snow and 20 mph winds), a plan which was made by brodie at big bang bikes . im doing a lot of foundation miles/endurance stuff and soon ill be doing more high intensity intervals and very hilly rides. ive been using nuun, and besides for its ability to prevent hangovers, it does a damn good job of keeping my pathetic body feeling a little less pathetic during very hard and long (no real sexual referenced meant there, seriously) workouts. in fact, i love nuun and their sweet lookin water bottles. However, i wish it stayed a lil' fizzier a lil' longer. anyway, racing starts in a few weeks- it better not be below freezing then, but thats another story- and itll get its true test then.

nothing

nothing is happening cept for the fact that i just rode my bike on my rollers harder than i have ever ridden before (or so it felt). anyway, i found a bunch of random photos both new and old- none really need explanation.

this one was taken on a day when it was so muddy that the wheel would not turn. i have a theory that the colder the mud the more likely it is to do this to your bike.




the new topcap which facilitates my fancy ass headset working properly is from interbike 2007- i got it for free today, thats why i like it so much.

todae

today was the day when the stars aligned- i finally had a rim to match my old skool red paul hub. it was not easy finding a decent rim brake rim for under 50 bucks, but i managed with a mavic 519. i wanted a red one but beggars cant be choosers, especially if ebay, the megastore for cheap-o's like myself, doesnt even offer such a rim. anyway, i calculated the spoke length with an app. called spocalc-it can be found on sheldon brown's site and it is very useful. the stars aligned because i couldnt really afford to buy spokes and i was praying that the bike co-op-freeride- would have what i needed. they have a huge selection of boxes of decent donated spokes, and i needed them to have either 263 or 263 mm spokes. they did. i got 32 dt revolution silver spokes and built my wheel in around an hour without instructions. i guess im almost a decent wheelbuilder...prbably not though. anyway, the wheel came out great except my king headset is having troubles staying adjusted properly and the new rim needs to be broken in; the brakes sequel like a pig-eeeeeeeeeeeeee
i also got some sweet new tires- they are like 2000-2003 model tires but theyre light and folding bead and have more traction than my worn out crossmarks. i got all this for 5 bucks which i donated to the co-op. dont think i exploit them too much cause i donate about 8-12 hours of work a week helping them (for the last 3 years, too), but sometimes i take advantage of the phrase "donate what you see fit". hopefully i get to ride my mtb tomorrow in the nice weather (yeah, 40 degrees and overcast is nice), but if the trails are still slushy like they were today i guess itll be more road biking.

next season?

im looking at the 2010 MASS calendar and im thinking about which races i want to do vs which races i can do. my schooling, and collegiate road season, and distances i must travel to get to races (as well as a job and trying to get off work etc. etc.) are all playing into my very tentative pencil-me-in-for-now plans. but dont use a pencil, its too permanent. im thinking about doing the opener at patapsco MD, the fairhill MD race, escape from granogue (3rd place last year, through all the shit colored mud) and hopefully the french creek race the week after (where i had my epic pedal failure riding to my tent from the registration booth). there are other ones id like to do in the MASS, as well as some other non MASS ones which i have not yet found, but know exist. i was thinking about a stage race, but i dont think it is in my budget, as i am just a pathetic college kid who gets even deeper into dept every day (a 50 minute class session costs me roughly 36 bucks, not including books/living etc.), and im about to blow some cash moneys on some new brake pads for my gt and a rim form my IF. bikes suck because they take all my money and life sucks cause i cant buy more time. im going to go drown in the "enduro proteen cheesecake" i cooked up earlier.

happy nuun year!

this nice brown box showed up on my doorstep the other day, and though i hoped it was new bearings for my crappy front coda hub, it was something even better-nuun. i got a few 3 backs and some sweet water bottles (they are specialized water bottles-i think they are the best kind). i havent had nuun in a while, but i used it on a long rollers training ride (it was about 1.5 hours long- i started in a low gear and tried to keep the same cadence while switching to a higher gear every time the songs blasting out of my speakers changed). the kona kola tasted good, as ive never tried that flavor before, and i noticed that i did not feel as depleted after the ride. i cant say for certain yet if it was totally nuun, because i havent done extensive testing or riding in the heat, but it seems pretty good. im happy.

dublin chase

the name sounds hoity toity, and it is... sorta. its the woods down the block from my house, and i have started working on a short technical loop around the township owned woods. its probably illegal, but ill take my chances. driving 20 mins to get to good mtb'ing is kinda crazy. today i cleared out many thorns (the kind with the painfully large barbs). i was bleeding all over my coat/ax/sexy ergon grips. the trail starts with a narrow flat section and then turns to a short but very steep and narrow downhill. you ride along a flat section with some small bumps and twigs for about 200 yards and then hit my pride and joy of todays work. you must ride over about 8 8in diameter logs all piled next to each other- it sounds lame but its kinda technical. then about 12 feet ahead is a nice large log you must hop. i spent a while trimming the log etc so that it wont break too many chainrings. its about 1.5 feet off the ground and about a foot long. i also have a small jump rebuild plan (last year some neighborhood kids messed up my sweet jump i made) and maybe some burms. there will also be a short steep uphill which will lead back to the starting position. thats all i have planned thus far. i want to make it about a mile long so i can practice my mtb skills without getting in a car. the course is hardly started, as frigid temperatures and early sun sets make it hard to work for more than a few hours. by spring i plan on having a sweet local (illegal) place to ride.