killthedarkness

covered in ants.

rewind. 4.26. work all day. drive to stevens point. hang out with legster and andy, two of my old roomates. drink a few beers. sleep. 4.27. wakeup. hangout. take off for home. stop at standing rocks for a hot lap. 4.28. head to kettles with johnny dog fang. ride. 40? 50? 60 miles? somewhere in there. 5 hours. rode my new ergons. different feeling than my normal set up. gonna have to ride them some more before i race them. they have a nice shape to em. thanks kerkove. also, thanks to patrick rollins, john miller, and last but not least, the trek bike stores of madison (bgave and crass) for some huge monetary support for sswc.

s.f.

this guy is off to san fran today to take on the fastest messengers in north america. im sure he'll spin his tits off to show em what the stars n hearts are all about. props to ronsta da monsta for throwin some cash my way for sswc.

4.22

look what you made me do.

barely in the door fifteen minutes after the race last night and the phone rings. t-da was fresh off his amsterdam binge and ready to ride. a night of contemplation and its decided, off to levis/trow mounds. off by 9 riding by noon. four and a half hours of rocky, rooty, hilly singletrack isnt exactly recovery, but how can you pass? in my opinion, hands down the best trails in wisconsin. apparently, roughly two weeks off the bike legs are equal to day after race legs. we both rode to near bonks. the trails and scenery made it worth it.

elaboration on the race setup yesterday: i opted for my aluminum fisher rig, recently converted back to  disc and tubeless. the rig is a pound or two lighter than the ferrous, so i figured it would help on the climbs. i ran bontrager xlite tubeless 29 wheels with modified bonty jones acx tyres, 2.2. brakes were avid juicy ultimates. the bike was great, as usual. the tyres were hookin up great at 35 psi. as soon as the rains came, game over. i dont think of them as mud tyres, but honestly, i dont think anyone's tyres performed particularly well. i had modified them by chopping the side knobs in half. weight and width savings. first race on tubeless, and im impressed. bontrager is going to be releasing several tubeless ready 29 tyres this summer and im really excited about the mud x and the xr treads in various widths. the ulimates performed flawlessly as usual. i have a set of these on each race bike and some juicy carbons on my 69er. no problems. ever. nothing else will do.

check out my photo galleries for levis photos and race pics from rusty. rusty has some seriously sick photos. top tier. finally, huge thanks go to mark scotch for a generous donation to my scotland fund.

impact.

wors #2 in lake geneva. great course. preride on friday. loved it. lots of singletrack. lots of climbing. rock garden. off camber. ff to sunday. decent warmup. nervous shits made me nearly miss the start. i rolled to the start as everyone was already lined up. backed it in front row. start i was out ok. worked up to top 6 goin into the singletrack. stuck on matter as best i could. i yoyoed off of him and eventually got pulled up the the train of jesse, tristan and mike. i continued to yoyo. caught my barend on a tree on lap 2 and went down. as luck would have it i caught up to matter shortly after as he was having the same troubles stayin on 2 wheels. the front 3 were out. we went back and forth. lap three i got away from brian for a bit. mike was up thirty seconds. shortly after i see him on the side with a flat. through three and four brian and i went back and forth. the rains forced a lot of dismounts and one foot in one foot outs in the corners. somehow on lap 5 i managed to get away from brian. i managed to only go down once more at the end. third on the day with tristan first and jesse second. props to gary fisher and bontrager for the ride, bret and tbs west for transport, oakley for the eye protection, and meghan and amanda for the nutrition. more pics later. off to levis. big thanx to bear, bill livingston, and josh radlein aka [165] for hookin up donations to my scotland fund. pic by djonnymac.

a.m.

                                                                                                                                                thanks to mountaingoat for givin up some hard earned cash to help send me to sswc.

the energizer.

the days blow by in agile moments of clarity and blind despair. with rage so thick it's bittersweet to see a smile come through here and there. you put your faith in living, but  youthful idealism is no longer welcome here. im not dead yet. hopes not dead yet. a hero's march down scorn filled halls defeats the charity of last years hell. your vain eyes show no respect, just loss of recognition broken spirit burnt out will. sing a song of cynicism, a foul smell of shit decay and degradation in the midst of celebration. im not dead yet. hopes not dead yet. bob hooked me up big time with not one but two beautiful forks. the original premise was to get a fork for my bontrager race lite to run as a 96er. through t-da and jesse's experimentation with geometry, they figured out that you can do so without altering the geometry whatsoever. bob knew just what to do. one inch steer tube. bob's  soon to be signature flatish double crown. sure enough, if you were blind you'd feel no difference in geometry. being the obsessive compulsive bike freak that i am, i decided to also get bob to make me one a dem purty forks for my il pompino as well. the axle to crown and rake are an exact match to the stock fork. it's lighter for one. it looks so much better. and often rough commute i did today seemed slightly smoother. i do this time and time again. continually upgrading things on bikes until the frame is no longer worthy of the parts. i seem to have walked the path once again. all that's really left is to get bob to make me a frame to go along with the fork. at this point theres a little thing called sswc that's standing in the way. maybe though. maybe some day. check out bob's site. view the amazing craftsmenship. drool. that's me. every day.

turncoat.

with gas prices continuing to rise, i couldnt bring myself to drive somewhere to mountain bike. instead i opted for a solid seventy mile ride consisting of rock, dirt, gravel, and grass aboard the jericho cx. first time out on it in months but we got along like steel and lugs. out on the sw path entering the trail at the ghetto, onto seminole for a tad, then off in pursuit of basco, belleville, and finally monticello via badger state trail. upon hitting monticello i decided to treat myself to some exploration. se on the sugar river trail to  albany. pit stop in albany and then backtrack. the srt is a lot faster than the bst. its been around longer, thus is more used. trail consistency was mainly very hard pack with some looser gravel in spots. i welcomed the headwind on the northwards backtrack for the first time in a while. it felt good to push into it with a bit of cooling. i passed several riders heading the opposite direction. close to ten in all, more than ive ever seen in all other rides along this same trail. spent a few hours after the ride intalling my new bbbb forks on the pompino and the new old bontrager 96er. the eyes eat first and i was stuffed after opening the box and laying my eyes on them. amazing. havent gotten much riding on them but they seem like they are gonna be great on the trail. enough flex to soak up some shock but not enough to revive memories of the sibex. pics soon.

internets.

takeover? takeover!

sell your body.

updated photo album for the mtb season. most pics by rusty. updated sponsors list. these guys are gettin us back to our northwoods roots. got word today from bob that my forks are on the way. its lookin like kettles tomorrow on the ferrous, followed by a tux fitting and one rig rebuild. big thanks to rusty for donating to the scotland fund.