Jitensha and Flâneur Culture

Very nice...first pics....

2009-02-27T12:54:00.003-05:00

Tubular gluing failure...

2009-02-25T09:05:00.003-05:00

So yesterday I went to go check on the set of tires that I had glued before.

This was the first set of cross tubulars I glued without using the tape so I was pretty curious how it would come out.

When I was testing the tire adhesion, I was gut wrenched to find that I was able to peel the wheel off just by pulling on it with some force. What I discovered was that for one wheel, the glue did not seem to adhere very well to the base tape, and for the second wheel it adhered to the base tape, but not very well to the rim.

The process took about 4 days total, 3 thin layers on the tire and rim, and a final tacky layer on the rim before mounting.

I am curious how hard it should be to pull a properly glued tire from the rim? I had to use a tire lever to break some of the interface, but it seemed to come off MUCH easier than when I used tape.

Maybe back to tape...

Vallely Barnyard

2009-02-23T13:12:00.002-05:00

This is a deck that I used to ride all the time, and would beat the crap out of. I crashed while doing a trick and it fell into the Copley fountain where I left it. Now a new one goes for more than $2000 on ebay.

Much like bikes, I went through about 20 boards in the two years I skated (1990-92).

Here are some memorable ones....in chronological order

Powell Caballero Dragon and bats
Toyoda
Powell Underhill
Powell Barbee
H-street Magnusson
H-street Hensley
Blind Rudy Johnson
G&S Street Chomp 1 & 2
Vision Double Tail
Vallely Double tail
Vallely Elephant
Vision Double Jinx
Planet Earth Miller
New Deal Templeton
New Deal ??
Santa Cruz Slick
Jeremy Klein Super Mario

Nothing

2009-02-23T11:53:00.003-05:00

I have nothing of interest to post today.

I thought the Tour of California's last day was pretty boring.

There were no real attacks, racers seemed pretty content with their final GC po-sish.

I would have liked to have seen the "Alpe de Huez" of California be the final climb to really destroy the riders, have a screaming down hill, and a 10 mile finishing straight away.

Also, for some reason, I find many of the "Runners" in American races much more irritating than the ones in European racing. I am not quite sure why that is, but the whole time I was watching the climb, I was thinking, my god, who are these idiots????

Green Line Rant

2009-02-20T09:43:00.002-05:00

I haven't taken the Green line in almost two years. Last night I got on at Fenway and traveled to Park street.

In that time, a girl puked on another girl's "expensive" jacket, and a large homeless person wanted to Sumo Wrestle people on the train.

I was afraid a tidal wave of puke was going to take over the train, a la Stand By Me and ruin my new glasses. Luckily, the train just started moving when I started to feel overwhelmed with the savagery known as commuting.

To make things worse, the train got stuck in between stations because the wheelchair device became stuck.

I could see Park street station from my oiled up window...

The 1.5 mile trip took 45 minutes.

Why do Bostonians put up with this crap. Seriously.

A new carbon frame!!!!

2009-02-19T11:56:00.004-05:00

I just picked up my new frame and lenses from Eye-Q Optical in Harvard Square.

Those guys are very patient, and awesome, and they have a huge selection of unique and comfortable frames. They also always give you really great discounts.

They were not supposed to be done until Saturday, but for some reason they were already finished. A departure from my Ti and Al frame days, this frame is light, with super thin lenses and anti glare coating. Some would say that I am going with a full carbon frame this year.

The maker is a Japanese designer called Kisura.

Color is light caramel going to a darker caramel in the front of the rims.
These will be my Varsity level glasses which I will take to special events, such as the museum trip, or night at the opera.

Valentine's day...

2009-02-17T08:58:00.003-05:00

On Valentine's day, I dragged Meg out to the Quadbikes, which is some sort of a Harvard run bike shop/tool workshop. You can rent space there for $10 an hour, and they have almost every tool you could ever need.

The work area is really large, and although it was a bit messy, you had full freedom to work at your own pace and get things done right.

I installed the King brown Sotto Voce headset, installed the crown race, cut the steerer, and installed the star nut.

It all came out surprisingly well.

Dry land is not a myth!!!

2009-02-10T14:10:00.005-05:00

This is a first hand look at the custom made FMB/Fango tubular tires. This tire is a size 32. The tire casing is amazingly supple. Compared with the FMB tires two years ago, these seem lighter and even straighter.

Thank you MZ.

This weekend

2009-02-06T16:16:00.002-05:00

It is actually warm this weekend.

Very nice.

Sunday night is a power session at the workshop:

1) Install headset on to the Zank
2) Cut steerer
3) Install star fangled nut

Also, there will be a small amount of riding to be had.

Also I will take pictures of our new custom FMB tubulars that just arrived from France.

DeSalvo Tenth Year Anniversary and the new road ahead..

2009-02-04T16:42:00.008-05:00

Mike DeSalvo at DeSalvo Cycles has been making badass racing/touring/cruising frames for almost ten years.

I can still remember when I contacted him in the summer of 2002, or was it 2003?, I can't remember, to have him build me a white ciclo frameset. It really does feel like a lifetime ago.

In the past, I have been lucky to have both a road and a cross frame made by Mike. Recently I have decided to only have frames built by guys named Mike.

Although I have never seen another DeSalvo frame in person, I have seen many of them on the internet. I know there are more out there and I wish more people would post their DeSalvos.

Much like a Dutch Frite, each one has its individual texture, flavor, and color to them. Each one a little treasure.

This year I am going through some new and exciting changes. It seems like many of my close friends, as well as members of my family are going through some large changes as well.

I sold my two DeSalvos this year. I really loved them and never thought that I would sell them. I felt very guilty about selling them, as it is rare in this life to have someone build something just for you. But in many ways it felt really good to sell it so that someone else could really enjoy the frames, as they are amazing frames, built to last a lifetime. In the end, I felt that it was better that someone was putting in some big winter miles on the DeSalvos then having it sit in my basement.

P.S. One of the only times I cried in the last ten years was when someone stole my DeSalvo Cross bike as I was quickly checking email at the HAC Lab at Hopkins...

Head Tube Lugs

2009-01-27T13:03:00.004-05:00

Today, some delicious headtube junction pictures.

I have nothing else to report at the moment other than that my brown King headset should be coming in at sometime in the near future and Jeff and I will slap those babies on to the Zanconato ASAP.

On a happy note, I just layed down the first coat of Mastik One on my tubular wheels as well as on my FMB SSC tires. The wheels are simple Shimano Ultegra 6500 hubs laced 28 spoke to some Velocity Escape rims. On recommendation of LCC member Jeremy, I had them built by Norm up at Harris Cyclery. These are really well made wheels, and in the future, I would like to have a black version of these made with some Gold King hubs. Maybe next year...

Gluing tubulars does get immensely easier with adequate preparation and experience.

For the Zanconato, I went with all top of the top tube cable routing.

Also, a quick Shout out to the "Punisher from Henniker."

Bottom Bracket Area...and an ode to Dura Ace 9spd

2009-01-23T08:59:00.004-05:00

Today I bid farewell to all of my Dura ace 9 Speed components. I have had some incarnation of this group since 1997. That is a really long time ago. Much has happened since that time, and in some ways, it will be sad to see these components go since I feel that it would mark a new chapter in life.

More pictures and a movie clip from Belgium...

2009-01-21T15:06:00.004-05:00

In a couple of months...

2009-01-21T14:05:00.004-05:00

At some point, it has to stop snowing right?

I can't wait for the days of wearing shorts and getting scorched by the sun...

Seat Cluster...

2009-01-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

After really looking over the Zanconato frameset, I can't imagine not owning a lugged frameset.

When I look at my other bikes with TIG welding, I feel that just that little something is missing, like a Mannekin Pis without his costume.Versus

In my life, I have owned only 5 other lugged framesets.

Bianchi Trofeo
Bianchi Axis
Ciocc SLX 77
Colnago Crystal
Guru Carbonio

Although I do not know of any structural benefit to have lugs, I do feel that they help complete the look of any frameset.

When I was in College, I saved up for about 6 months to buy a Ryffranck. I read about how he uses silve brazing on all of his lugs, and how they are so fricking tight and perfect that you can pour a cup of water in the tubing but water will never seep out from under the lugs. I read a frame builder report about him in Bicyclist magazine. I wonder if he is still building bikes???

Zanconato Pictures...

2009-01-20T10:37:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday I went to meet up with Zanc and others to take care of some business and also to pick up my new cross frameset.

The frame has so many small, intricate details, most of which must be seen in person, that I am blown away every time I look at it.

These picture were taken in the basement at night, and the metallic orange color still jumps out. To see this frameset in the sun, is truly something else... Perfect stainless steel fork tips...

Thank you Zanconato, this frameset is perfect.

More pictures later...

Mannekin Pis Need I say more?

2009-01-16T13:13:00.001-05:00

Ultegra SL Crankset

2009-01-13T16:52:00.004-05:00

When I was a super poor student at Hopkins, and just started riding, I had something like a Shimano RSX groupo or something like that. It came on my KHS Aero Turbo that I bought at the Original ATA cycles. The shop was not like what it is now, but a narrow, really small shop with a ton of stuff.

Anyways, during those early years, I truly lusted after the Shimano Ultegra crankset. At the time it was called Shimano 600. It was like $90 used, but I had no idea the hell that would follow as I tried to install it without the proper tools. that is only one of the times I cried during college.

Anyhow, now I am totally lusting after the Ultegra SL Crankset. I can't explain it, but I think I like it even more than the totally perfect Shimano Dura Ace Crankset. There is something so sleek and robotic about this crankset, while not being over the top, and still affordable($150 on ebay new).

The birth is near..

2009-01-13T14:18:00.005-05:00

A bit too early to start thinking about cross next year. Or is it?

This is a before decal picture of my new Zanconato Cross frame. When I pick up the frame this weekend from Mike, I will post some more pictures and a write up.

White decals will follow...

Possible builds include...

2008 Sram Rival drive train (Although I can't shift the chain into the big ring without making this ridiculous exaggerated motion. SRAM should recall these horrific levers.)

Saddle: Specialized Phenom (Brown)
Seatpost: Thomson
Headset: Chris king(Brown...Maybe)
Stem: 3T Arx Pro
Handlebar: Ritchey Classic Bend Bars
Crankset(Undecided)
Wheels: Easton 70X with FMB SSC or Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL with FMB SSC Sprints
Pedals: Shimano XTR
Brakes: Kore Kross White
Cables: Maxxis Orange

Result: Badass machine.

LCC Luxembourg

2009-01-12T13:30:00.003-05:00

It was truly awesome to run into another LCC member in the quaint town on Petange. This was none other than Jeremy Dunn. I believe he had just arrived from a New year's night out in Bruges. Do not believe In Bruges. Bruges is a pretty awesome place.

Cold, but awesome.

I only regret not getting a picture with Molly.
Here molly is putting on some surgical gloves under another pair of gloves. There were no explanations given to as why this was so.

Sven and Me

2009-01-07T10:22:00.002-05:00

That is me and Sven.

He is the one with the green hat.

PVB is actually in electronics.

2009-01-06T15:04:00.001-05:00

Officially Japanese Cyclocross Blog

2009-01-06T10:21:00.007-05:00

Now this blog is officially Japanese Cyclocross.

This is Keiichi Tsujiura (Team Bridgestone Anchor) who has been the Japanese cyclocross champion for the previous 7 years. He is badass and was totally suprised that a fellow japanese dude was there to cheer him on at one of the most random places in the world, Petange Luxembourg, on New Year's day.

2008 Cross Season Recap

2008-12-03T09:46:00.005-05:00

Although many of my team mates and friends are racing this weekend and at Nationals, I ended up retiring for the season after the BRC Lowell race.

I started off the season in the heat of the August sun at Blunt Park. Earlier in the spring, I designed my season so that I would be in super form for the warmer earlier races, peak around Canton, and slowly roll into retirement by late November. The season played out just like that, but I would have to say that it was a bit disappointing to get slower as the season went on while the other guys were all getting faster. But then again, it was cool to put the hammah down on some of the earlier races.

I had several goals for the season.

1) Do not get injured: No injuries this season, but I had to be extra careful with my knee which was super sensitive all season. I had to limit racing to one a weekend so I would not irritate it too much.

2) Top 15 at Suckerbrook: My only regret was that I did not sprint with James Morrison at the end for 13th place. I tested out the FMB File tread's on this course for the first time and I was extremely impressed. A year ago, I was 30th or something, so this was a big jump for me.

3) Top 50 at Gloucester: I did not accomplish this goal, but I blame this on the race being too fast and too dusty.

4) Top 15 at Canton: I was on track to getting this one done until I flatted my Tubby and also crashed and got my white skinsuit dirty. But what was super cool is to have Mattison, PVB, and others pitting for me. Those guys are very propro.

5) Do the NoHo races: These fabled races have been hyped up for years. I thought that they were just okay. There were so many roots that I was like WTF? I know that many will say just toughen up, but I hate roots no cross courses.

6) Do not race like an asshole: This is important to me. I hate it when dudes act super aggressive in a big race and take big risks. It accomplishes nothing, and it is dangerous.

7) Be a good team mate: I learned how to be a good teammate by watching and learning from Hup Chip. That is the coolest guy on the planet, and is the best team mate ever.

Awards:

1) Most improved rider: Cort Cramer. So many times on the first lap, Cort has come by to give me a quick word of encouragement. He has done something quite special in his training programme this season. He is absolutely flying this year.

2) Best looking bike logo font: THE MANTIS!!!!!

3) This is a double category since the winner is the same. Best pick up line used by a cyclist:
"Hey Ladies, where is the other half?",
"WHAT?",
"Wait aren't you girls the girls from the Hot Tub?"
"No (Said in the most egregious tone)"

Part 2: The most tytest cyclist on the east coast cyclocross circuit: The Kyler.
Definition of Tyte: Often times in life, we come accross words that embody such awe inspiring Tyteness that it cannot be put into words. I guess the closest you can come is if you imagine squeezing Cipollini's chamois after a 7 hour race. Chemical analysis will reveal that the liquid investigated will be equal parts Pure unfiltered testostorone, Cologne, and Sweat. Now that is tyte.

4) Best Course: Lowell. The forest of Lowellenberg sent many $1,000+ carbon wheelsets to meet its maker. What a great course...

5) Pimpest cross bike: Chip Baker's Full Custom Sycip. I need pictures.

Jimi Wallets for everyone

2008-11-25T08:47:00.005-05:00

If you are thinking about getting some sort of a trick, "Super Taaiht" and inexpensive gift this year, check out the Jimi wallets. I have had one for the last 2 years and I love it. I thought that I would only use it for riding, but it has now become my "A" wallet and the Aquascutum is stowed away in my closet somewhere. I typically carry 2 credit cards, my ID, and my now useless USCF cycling license. There is also a small money clip built in. I have the Orange one. My dream gift would be this wallet with some benjamins stuffed inside it.

Previously there were some very heated debates on several forums and blogsites about "Custom Tailored Wallets", like the one shown below. This was created from an Engineer/Cobbler/Professional bicycle racer who lives in Cambridge. Last time I checked, these wallets were going for like $200 at select boutique shops in the South End, but real street value was more like $65.
Although I did not think anything could be as cool as our $250 (140UK pounds or quids) Aquascutum wallets, you cannot use these little nuggets every day and not have it look ratty. Much like a fine set of silk sidewalled tubulars, wallets like that must be saved for occasions that involve the top of the hub or what ever other places wealthy people like to go and talk about pros and cons of gentrification and which Yoga studios they are absolutely smitten about. (Please note that models were used in the picture below, and Spencer and Kenji are not affiliated with Aquascutum or Jimi wallets)
A while ago I promised many of you guys that there will be some sort of coupon code that you can punch in to get a discount to buy a Jimi wallet, so here it is.

Cruise over to http://www.thejimi.com/store/index.php , order the products you want and on the payment page type in "yash" in the coupon code window, and you’ll get a 15% discount.

Yes, I know, the coupon code really is "yash".

Next Victim Cracked Thomson X2 Face Plate

2008-11-10T11:53:00.004-05:00

The next equipment victim of this fall season is the Thomson X2 faceplate.

Although the Thomson X2 is 20-30 grams heavier than other stems in similar price categories I bought it anyways because it is one of the only silver stems out there, and I assumed that the extra material will make it stronger. The design of the stem is also outstanding and compliments just about any frame.

The X2 stem has no more that 20 rides on it, and already there are 2 cracks that go all the way through the faceplate. Currently it is being sent back to Thomson where they will examine it and send me a new one afterwards. So no riding this weekend which is a bit dissapointing. I was told that perhaps I had over or under tightened the stem, but it was tightened at 5N/M which is the recommended torque. The diagram shows where the face plate began cracking. The cracks originate from the 90 degree angle and into the faceplate. I can only assume these cracks developed from side to side torquing of the bars.

Mad Alchemy Trial

2008-11-03T12:41:00.005-05:00

So this stuff works. No question about it, and I only tried the Medium setting.

Unlike in many other blogs where everything is the stiffest, lightest, and most comfortable, if things don't work for me, I hope to tell like it is, although usually I don't write anything at all.

Some history. I first learned about embrocation when I noticed that Frank VDB's legs were unnaturally shiny before the big world's race back in 1998. I think I asked my friend Chris why his legs were so shiny and he told me that it was "liquid courage". I believe the race was especially cold and rainy that day. From what I hear embrocation really becomes activated/reactivated when it comes in contact with water.My first real life experience with embrocation was up in the New Gloucester race in 2005. Although it was an early race, it was raining pretty hard and it was already starting to get pretty cold (45-50 degrees F). This was also the first race that Rosey, PVB, Zac and I traveled to as the HUPUNITED Varsity squad.

Zac D was pushing out this strange marmalade like substance from a blue bottle. One of the best advice he ever gave me is to put the embrocation on your triceps and back. The other advice that I did not take is "Stop your bitching." Psychologically it helps tremendously for me to put the embrocation on my back because I can't tell if my back is hurting during a race because the heat from the embro is so intense. You can slightly mask your back pain with the embro. The first 2-3 times I used embrocation, it worked amazingly well. After that, no matter how much I put on, or how much I worked it in the muscle, it never seemed to work.

In the last two years I have used several types of embrocation labeled as HOT, but nothing even gave me a tingle.

Products I have used in the past:

Sportsbalm XXX-Starts to work about 7 hours later while taking a shower, no shine. I usually use about half a handful of this compund.

Quolem Extra Super Hot (One with the snowflakes)-did nothing, but smells okay, very little shine. I put enough on my legs so that it turns white. Then I rub it in. I guess what I am trying to say is that I use a lot of this stuff. Chris Bailey almost fell on his ass laughing when he saw how much I use.

Greyhoung Juice: I have only used this once or twice when I received a sample at the Lowell race. It worked okay, smelled good, but really never heated the legs.

MAD ALCHEMY TRIAL: MEDIUM HEAT SETTING

DATE: 11/3/2008
LOCATION: Northampton
WITNESSES: R.Michael, PVB, the Mantis, the Kyler.

RECAP: For the last several weeks, I have heard a lot of guys talking about Mad Alchemy. Pete Smith, who is a super strong rider and has occasionally eaten riders like me for breakfast, digested me and shit me out before the first set of barriers, has mixed up several varieties of compounds ranging from Warm to HOOOOT.

I was pretty eager to try this out since they even had a compound that smells like coffee. Fricking gernius!

During my days as a consultant for the Hupunited Embrocation development program, I pushed hard to have one called Black. This compund will not only have self tanner in it, but it would also smell like Polo Black.

Okay, enough blah blah.

Allow me to set the scene...

Sunday, day two of the Northampton weekend of racing.

On Saturday I endoed over some dude who crashed into another dude who ate shit on the nose bump-able mini ramp. So my back was super sore and I was having trouble sleeping and breathing.

I borrowed some of Mike's Medium blend. I think it came in a nice plastic container which was this dark brown amber color. I didn't really know how to use it at first because the consistency is a lot thicker and less gel like than all of the other balms I have been using all season. I was instructed to stick my dirty monkey fingers in there and slowly heat it up so it starts to change from a solidus state into a liquidus state. I took maybe a teaspoon, maybe even less of the balm and spread it on my lower back and my shoulder where I fell on the guy's bike.

In about 10-15 minutes, my back started to really heat up and you could physically feel the heat from over my jacket, it was pretty amazing actually. I would have to say that the medium was pretty intense and I was glad my bravado kept me from caking on the HOT balm. It stayed hot for about 2 hours, just enough to get me through my race, and after that it was gone.

What was interesting about this balm is that it did not reactivate when I took a hot shower later that evening.

If other balms have not worked for you because your legs are already preloaded with years of embrocation use, I would definitely give Mad Alchemy a try.

Kits that I love...

2008-10-30T09:31:00.003-04:00

Last year I think my attitude was too negative and I focused on shit I did not like. This year I am a new man. I will be like Oprah and have a column of things I like.

This post is about a new team kit that I like very much.

The new Team Embrocation kit is designed by Jeremy Dunn.

A couple of weeks ago I caught sight of a new kit that more or less blew me away. At first I thought that maybe Jeremy was wearing a retro kit, but upon closer inspection, it was something quite new and refreshing.

This piece is modeled by Gary Eldrich.

I like this kit because it looks like it fits extremely well, and has colors you don't see every day.

Strangely, the way the kit is designed, it makes the rider appear unusually svelte.

Jimi Version 2

2008-10-29T09:06:00.003-04:00

Some companies really surprise me by being so proactive in ensuring that their customers are really happy. Jimi, the company that makes the Jimi currency carrying device is one of those companies. After my tragic destruction of my other Jimi, I was pretty depressed since I really loved my first one but I broke it while at Canton, and I briefly wrote about it on the blog.

Last wendnesday I was really surprised to get an email from the president of the company explaining that he had read my blog and would like to send me a replacement. I was shocked first of all that people read this blog, and more importantly I could not believe that I would be able to get a brand new one!!!!!

I even had the choice of color. My unhealthy obsession with Orange continues...
MONEY CLIP
There are several things I love about this functional art...

more to come later.

Time for work.

Embrocaters

2008-10-20T10:04:00.002-04:00

All right...why don't these things work anymore?

I am using the Quolem Super extra hot balm. It has snow flakes falling on it on the sticker. It even SMELLS hot.

I always buy the hottest stuff, I slather it on to my legs, but I don't even get a tingle, nothing. I do get a nice glossy sheen though.

So what has happened?

Could there be some sort of a threshold where once you use the embrocation more than 12 times, your body becomes immune to it? The stuff used to work miracles back in 2005, but now, it is just no more than a fragrance.

The Death of Goods Revised: Even Steven

2008-10-20T10:02:00.009-04:00

In the last 7 days all hell has broken loose and I feel that everything I own is falling apart and I have no money to contain this mass destruction...but luckily there are super great people and great companies out there who have very much changed my outlook. Read on friends.

Yesterday, I found a $20 dollar bill on the sidewalk. I got to it before these BU girls wearing matching black North Face vests and tights lunged for it. At first I wanted to bring it to the police station, but I quickly noted that there was not a station for miles. So I kept it, but gave a substantial amount to this poor looking gentlemen. I gave him some money and he gave me some sweet smelling cocoa beans and some tasty portabella mushrooms.

1) Yesterday I am riding home and my fricking awesome Lazer genesis helmet falls apart. The little plastic piece that attaches the retention system to the helmet broke off so I am riding around Cambridge with this blue retention system around my head and my helmet is half way down my neck. It reminded me of a toupee that flys off on a windy day. This is THE one helmet that actually works for me. The head retention system is amazing in that even when it is knocked around, like when you hit your saddle on your head as you desperately climb the run up, it returns to its original position so you do not look like the goof with his helmet on crooked.

I contacted the nice people at QBP and it turns out the product representative is a fellow Hupster!!!!!

So today I received a new Lazer Genesis helmet, and I must go home to paint it.

2) Slow leakage on my FMB tubular tire. Very sad indeed. I was riding into a good spot yesterday, taking strict orders from the Holmes, making up good ground and keeping the HR below 80%. after taking a light decent onto the pavement, I just feel and hear this booooooooaaaaaaaa(imagine a tubular crying for pain as it is being unrecognizably deformed) The tire is going all over the place. Thankfully, I got the most professional bike change from my 5 man pit crew. REVISION. I threw a small bit of Stan;s in there, and after 3 days it is still holding perfect air. Yey Stan's!!!!!

3) My fricking Jimi broke! No no, not the Jimi us Bostonians refer to but my cool space age wallet. It broke...I crushed it underneath some luggage while at Canton. As a former plastics engineer I love this wallet on many levels. I love the different translucent colors, the functionality, the slightly tacky feel, and of course for its minimalist attitude. Full write up later....
After the race I was frantically looking for my Jimi. I found it underneath a pile of shoes, leg warmers, and spare wheels. The top had been sheared off. I was devastated. I believe this was fitting since several hours earlier my soul was shattered and bruised by the wind and fellow competitors. I do apoligize to the young man with a mustache I drafted off and outsprinted at the finale. You came by to say hello, we shook hands, but I had terrible gas and was not much of a conversationalist. Sorry! I will find you and greet you next time!

4) My stomach. What is going on there. Every time I eat anything I feel nauseated. Help me. I am showing signs of the Stigmata.

5) My Reynolds Solitude wheel finally died. I crashed on it at Canton and I may have stepped on the wheel as I simultaneously blew out the ligaments in my knee. It is currently being repaired at the Cambridge EMS, which is actually my favorite bike shop in the area.

Canton Race Report

2008-10-20T10:02:00.007-04:00

I dropped my chain.
Flatted.
Race over.

Eco Cross Race Report

2008-10-20T10:01:00.005-04:00

File tread did not work here so well.
I changed wheels and had only the 14 and the 15 gear.

A young man lapped me twice.

Soul shattered.

Gloucester Race Report

2008-10-20T10:01:00.004-04:00

I dropped my chain 3 x
Everyone was fast
Cheering was loud

The Wedding and The minutes that would not end...

2008-10-01T10:26:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I took a pretty cool trip down to Charlottesville, VA. I headed down there for my good friend Jamie's wedding. Initially I was going to drive down 10 hours, but at the last minute, a super cheap flight appeared so I just flew to Baltimore and rented a car from there to C'ville.

It had been about 4 years since I quit grad school and left Baltimore. I have always had this love hate relationship with Baltimore. As I drove down North Calvert street, I had this immense sense of nostalgia, and I could not believe how much I had missed this really shitty city. At least that is what I thought of the place when I lived there. While visiting, I could not believe how cool of a city baltimore had gotten. I felt that the city is much rougher and grittier than Boston, but the architecture and the way the city is laid out is at once provocative and inviting. It looks like a place where they could film dark feature films like Batman, or the Crow. I envision one day living in some of thier super old and beautiful warehouse structures they have in the district right behind Penn Station. I never thought I would say this, but I truly miss living in Baltimore, and now I see how cool it could have been when I lived there.

The wedding was totally fun. I usually hate weddings, but I was pretty pumped in going so that I could hang out and reconnect with GenjiRyder. Being a bit of an introvert, I was a little bit nervous about meeting the other groomsmen, but they turned out to be the nicest, funniest group of dudes ever, and I wished I had friends like that when I lived in C'ville. Jamie and I spent most of the morning and afternoon chilling out at the cafe, talking bikes, and eating incredible sandwiches at the Revolution Soup thing. The wedding went by amazingly fast, and at 11PM I snuck out to drive back to baltimore to catch a flight out. I was such an idiot and should have booked another day in C'ville.

Suckerbrook Cyclocross Race

2008-09-24T14:09:00.003-04:00

Saturday morning I went on a leg opening ride with a new hupster Josh. I think the term Leg Opener is totally appropriate because at times you feel that there is limitless potential bubbling within your legs, but you just don't have the right key, or the right combination to set it free. The morning was incredibly cold and I even contemplated turning back home.

Josh and I rode for two hours through the Winch and concord and back. Very mellow and a totally perfect ride. He went home to take his GF bird watching and i went home to do some errands.

Sunday morning, I got off to a slow start and ended up getting to the venue way later than usual.

I looked all around to find the HUPSHIFT tent and was relieved to see Jeff, Matt, Steve, Theo, and many others hanging around and watching some racing. It turns out Jeff and Steve rode super strong and finished quite well and we should be expecting these guys to upgrade to a three after this season....

Ipod Touch and Cable and Temperpudic

2008-09-12T14:53:00.002-04:00

I can die happy now, or I guess I can live happily now that I have the three things every non-peasant should have

Ipod Touch 2G

Cable TV

Tempur-Pedic bed.

Finally, road bike pictures...Fuji Roubaix Team LTD

2008-09-09T09:11:00.003-04:00

The first real bike I ever owned was a Fuji-Mt. Fuji. It was bright orange and totally badass. It was a hard-tail non suspension mountain bike. At the time I had $250 for my birthday and I had the choice of buying the Nintendo Cube, or the Mt. Fuji. That is the life decision which has led me to where I am now. Interesting how one small decision like that can carve the direction of your lifestyle for years to come.

Right now I am listening to a song called Paper Planes by M.I.A. I like it alot. Also, I am checking the weather report to see if this weekend will be muddy or not...

Equipment Choices and Modifications

2008-09-05T09:48:00.005-04:00

CHAIN GUARD

Recently I modified my chainguard on the Hampsten MudPig to create the following contraption (See below).

The metal guard was bent at a specific angle (42 Degrees) so that it did not rub when the chain is on the 27 or the 12, but also followed the contours of the chainring itself. The set up is pretty sweet or considered "TIGHT" in some circles, and I hope that I don't drop any chains this year like I did at Gloucester last year.

I think if I had a really nice vice and some real tools I could have created something much nicer, but at the time, I could only find a pair of scissors and some pliers. I think Zank should include custom chain deflectors on each of his bikes.

The chain guard is called "Jump Start Chain Deflector" and it can be found at www.cyclocrossworld.com

I love that shop...

http://cyclocrossworld.stores.yahoo.net/justchde.html
TIRES

Currently I have the FMB SSC Sprints that I bought off the Zank on my race bike. They are Tubulars which I glued myself. I drank 3 beers during the gluing process so I would estimate that the process took about 2.5 hours. They are 34 in the front and 32 in the back. I will be using these in most of the races unless it is really muddy, I suppose. I like them a lot and they are super-fast on the flats although they tend to drift on slow corners where I am not leaning enough to use the little nobbies. The more I know how to ride these, the faster I can ride them. I am running 30 psi right now.
This year I am experimenting with some lightweight gear. The Specialized Phenom saddle (~200gms) is very very comfortable, and rock solid, but I question the durability of the hollow Ti rails. The Thomson Masterpiece seatpost is so incredibly light (~160gms), and just so well made.

NH Training Camp

2008-09-02T15:54:00.005-04:00

Here is my HR Profile from our NH Saturday morning cross workout. The course was very flat , with no sharp turns, one shallow sand section and a dangerous chain which I avoided at all costs. This was the perfect venue to really open up to high speeds and hold it for 6-7 minutes. As can be seen from the profile, the first 6 intervals are done really well. On the Seventh one, I cracked halfway through and never recovered. The eighth one started pretty well and I was able to finish strong. It is amazing how much harder you can ride with Simpson's encouragement. I dug pretty deep into my office desk drawer of courage. There I found some pennies and a used band-aid.

Here is Marky Mark giving a short speech about the importance of Chamois Cream. I am not sure what Chip is doing.
Quiet Steve, not to be confused with Naked Steve, is not having any of it.

I am about to go on a run with Steve after the workout. It did not last long.On Monday, PVB and I went on a pretty great Labor day ride for exactly 3 hours. We had coffee at Bloc 11 and discussed some fundamentally provocative issues relating to the abstract use of Greek mythology in Post Modern Neo-Retro Morman theology.

A_Bike, B_Bike, C_Bike

2008-08-28T08:51:00.003-04:00

This one is my A-bike, made from Columbus Mega "Bitch Ass" Zero tubing. The 3 or 4 bikes in the background are my B, C, and D bike frames. The B bike is made from Columbus super zero tubing, and the C and D bikes are made from Columbus Junior Varsity Bordeaux tubing.

They will all be painted "Sweet Morning Dew" color fading to Bastogne Yellow, then finally fading to Neon Sparkly purple.

Big Hit Man...Blunts Park

2008-08-25T09:11:00.005-04:00

UPDATE! After spending 5 full days scouring various websites to find pictures of myself, I met Soups at the cross training last weekend and he gave me 14 pictures!!! What a gentleman.

Yes, I do spend hours scouring the web for race results and pictures after a race. It is a partof my coool down.

This is my one race report for Colin Reuter.

Sunday Sunday Sunday, R-Michael, Natasha, and I headed to Blunt Park for the first cyclocross race of the year. On our way we got lost three times on the same street and rear ended some nice people also trying to get to their race.

As I got there the 35+ men were finishing so I got to yell at Chip for a couple of laps. He was flying through some corners with some very nice tubies.

My only race cheer is "POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" for this year.

After Chip's race we proceeded to do a lap of the course together. I could not fricking believe what I saw. There were like 7 sets of barriers or something ridiculous like that.

I was talking to Josh from CBT and he seemed to agree that this race would suck big time and many people were going to eat shit over the barriers.

Anyways, there was a lot of bitching coming out of my mouth, and the main reason is that I was scared of the one barrier that was actually just a tall fence. I am not sure if anyone has experience Ollieing Chains, but one of the most difficult things is to gage height of something that does not have a solid face to it. Everytime I went over this barrier, I could not judge how tall it really was. Very scary...

After riding several laps, I decided to go with the File tread FMB's. There was no mud on the course and it was a relatively fast course with some good straight aways on pavement. I rode the tires at around 25-27 PSI which was a pretty good pressure for the course and I was able to ride through much of the bumpier stuff without my back seizing up. But as you can see, even for a pretty non technical turn, the front tire gets pretty deformed. (Pictures from the Soups.)

I was hoping for some really long stretches where I could open up my HR into the high 190's, but the legs said no.
At the starting line, I had a good position, but could not clip in right away and also chose the wrong gear and ended up in 12th or something like that. I had some good battles with Nick M who rode the D2R2 the day before. The whole time I whispered D2r2 D2r2 D2r2 into his ears, and eventually he dropped his chain and I was able to sneak by him.

He is looking very strong this year, and I hope to battle him all season. The race went very well, I kept it under 194BPM for most of the race, and it felt very comfortable. I think when I have more fitness and confidence, I hope to race at 197-200 BPM. The whole race maybe 2-3 guys passed me, but I was able to keep my position pretty well. I was dissapointed that I was not able to beat the R.Michael but he had a good start and is also riding some very good form. Dr. Cory J was showing some good form as well.

Good to see Meg powering into second place yesterday and wished I could have seen Jeff, Zoo, and Murat racing as well. There were also rumors that Theo Paul was there as well.

Contract stipulations...

2008-08-18T12:36:00.004-04:00

Since my contract does not allow me to wear anything other than Hup clothing, someone out there will get a huge deal.

F.S. 2007-8 Capoforma Landrys kit, size medium. Used about 5-6 times. Retail is around $240

Jersey and Bibs, made in Italy by Capoforma.

This kit is tight. Kyle knows, just ask him.

Asking $100.

Am I allowed to sell stuff on my blog? I guess it is okay.

SVEN NIIS Special Edition Leisure Jacket

2008-08-18T12:18:00.003-04:00

Dear All, I am selling a used Banana republic jacket that every Euro Pro is wearing in Cambridge, MA.

It was retail $4,500, but willing to part for it for $150. Used ten times, never raced, never crashed.

(Medium Banana Republic Leather Jacket, Fall 03 Collection...)

When worn correctly, it should look like this.

Saturday workout

2008-08-18T12:16:00.001-04:00

Q. Why must intervals be so hard?
A. The Sultan of Pain will have it no other way.

Never having to work again...

2008-08-18T11:54:00.002-04:00

Patent Number: 7,401,643

Some rich person, please buy this technology so I can live the good life of watching a movie every day at the ICA, eating fresh made pancakes, and riding carbon framed machines...

Anyways, Sunday morning we had our first equipment shakedown at the Harvard stadium.

6 guys showed up to test out tire pressure, non working brakes, and a new set of bunny-hoppable set of barriers. Not having remounted a bike in 6 months, our skills were less than stellar. Almonds were repeatedly crushed along with our souls after an attempt at a HOT LAP.

Ommegang Cyclocross

2008-08-04T16:09:00.001-04:00

Just found this picture. The Ommegang cyclocross race was my favorite race last year. 60 minutes, 2 hard climbs, barriers through the beer garden, super mellow scene. Great great race.

Wee wee wa wa

2008-08-04T12:40:00.002-04:00

Races start this month...

2008-08-04T08:53:00.002-04:00

It must be nearly cyclocross season. All the signs point to it.

1) The Annual HUP Board members meeting was held last night. In attendance PVB, Daab, and Katsumi. 2009 plans as well as 2008 plans were discussed in full detail, contracts were negotiated. Some were rejected. We discussed our ever changing image. Apparently Bikesnob's prodigal son openly claimed that HUP is now filled with bloated Giambornis, which is a good sign for the future.

2) The pit bike and the race bike is completely rebuilt with new Sram Rival shifters and derailluers, cables and bar tape. Hopefully I can get some pictures on here of both bikes very soon.

3) There was even a slight comfortable breeze as I walked to work today.

Gluing Tubulars

2008-06-30T09:01:00.002-04:00

It was a bit messy, but with some serious prep work, it was much much better than last year. My new weapons...electrical tape and tubular tape.

Here is the deal.

I put on two nice layers of glue to the rim. Slapped the tape on there. slapped electrical tape on the rim walls.

Here is my new contribution to the world. I also slapped on electrical tape on top of the peel off section of the tubular tape so that it does not tear and is super easy to peel off when time cometh.

I put two dry layers on the tire, and one tacky layer on before assembling. After it was all aligned, I rolled the tires over a broom so that the base tape is in good contact with the tubular tape. All looks strong so far, but who knows with this crap.

In search of the Dover Demon...

2008-05-28T21:12:00.002-04:00

Dover Demon Search Mission #1

Kastumi's Log: Monday 5/26/2008
Weather: warm, sunny, but with an unsettlingly strong luke warm breeze coming in from the northwest

Equipment: Bilenky PVB Rapha Custom Sram Force Speciali: Birthdate 5/25/2008 and Fuji Roubaix Dura Ace: Birthdate 5/24/2008

Summary:
PVB and I met at Flour in the south end at around 9AM this morning with all of our paranormal detection gear in hand. We quickly had our double espresso, small coffee, and gooey caramel delight and headed down through Roxbury, JP, and other ups and downs on our 1st combined quest in search of the Dover Demon. There was a sense of mystique and energy in the air as we had just received a telegram last night that there were numerous sightings of the demon by several trustworthy sources.
For those unfamiliar with the dover demon, please take this time to read up on this lesser known and uncommercialized menace that has been terrorizing the quiet town of Dover since the mid 70's. The demon has not been sighted in quite some time, but as PVB noted, it has most likely abducted anyone who has been unfortunate enough to encounter it. There has been 36 peoples missing in Dover since 1976. For a small town of 5,000, those statistics are staggering to say the least, and are not mentioned on the town website or on real estate ads.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/doverdemon06/

We were both on very very new equipment and were eager to test it out in search of the demon. I noticed that compared to my steel tool, the aluminum carbon mix was noticeably stiffer and lighter, which allowed me to keep in pace with the PVB. He was riding a new tool from Bilenky. All decked out in Sram force with ceramic bearings, even for the Voce Sotte King headset and wheels.After stopping for supplies at Dover centre we were ready for some action. As predicted in the channel 4 news last night, the Dover Demon appeared at around 11:30 AM right on South Road.The unsuspecting PVB is about to be surprised by the Dover Demon. I was going to say something, but I was too lazy. It turned out the Demon is actually your typical average extra terrestrial, about 35 in age, and enjoys clubbing, going to Barnes and Nobles, and likes to shop at Ikea when it is not crowded with people pushing their huge baby carts.
This is a terrible look I am giving as I am watching PVB trying to feed the Dover Demon a clifbar. Moments later, the fricking eyes lit up on the demon and it started to chase us. Although it looks very unathletic, it was actually pretty fast, and as can be seen in the photo above, I am riding for my life. We never were able to recover any samples for testing, nor did we discover that it was a male or female.

From The Past...

2008-05-20T14:34:00.006-04:00

Road/Cross/Track
KHS Aero Turbo 1997
Bianchi Trofeo 1997
Giant CFR 1998
Ritchey Road Logic 1998
Giant TCR 1999
Bianchi Axis 1999
Strong Racing Cyclocross 1999
Cannondale Caad 4 2000
Ciocc SLX 77 2000
Litespeed Tuscany 2001
Lemond Malliot Jaune 2001
Colnago Crystal 2001
Orbea Zonal UVA 2001
Klein Quantum Pro 2002
Fondriest M. Di Campiglio 2002
Soma Double Cross 2002
Abici Road Machine 2002
San Rensho 2002
Fondriest Cross 2002
Desalvo Cross 2002
Desalvo Road 2003
Cannodale CAAD 5 Saeco 2003
Guru Carbonio 2004
Specialized Langster 2004
Giant TCR ONCE 2004
Specialized TriCross 2006
Ablocco 2007
Cannondale CAAD 8 2007
Bianchi San Jose 2007
Specialized Langster London 2007
Hampsten MudPig 1 2007
Hampsten MudPig 2 2008
Zanconato Cross 2008
Fuji Roubaix Team LTD 2008

Finally... a New Frame!!!!

2008-05-19T10:37:00.010-04:00

On Saturday I went into ATA cycles to see if they had any road framesets in the $800 range, just to see what kind of cool frames they had on blowout. I really wanted to buy a BMC from the ZD, but it was just out of my price range at the moment, although he made it very very tempting. Having dealt with ATA before, I should have known better. The guy there looked at me like I had just come in off the streets with tattered clothes and a shopping cart full of items I had collected over the years. He was trying hard not to throw up at the thought of what janky frame can be purchased for such a small sum.

This was the same dude who tried to sell me a Dura ace crankset, which was taken off a bike, for $560 and told me that that was below wholesale. It was for the better I suppose since some things came up this weekend and my budget was reduced down to $500.
In the past, I would have never considered getting a Fuji. They are just so fricking ugly, but this one is really growing on me, and it actually looks a lot better in person. I will take some pictures when it gets here. Like in the picture, I will use a white Specialized Alias saddle, and maybe some Lunar orange handlebar tape. All in all, I think it is a really racy looking frameset.

I ended up getting a 52cm, which has an effective TT of 53cm, and I will use a 12 or 13 cm stem.

In the end, I settled on this one, $500 shipped. The frame and fork will be about 2-2.5 pounds lighter than my current road frameset.

At this point I am having some custom HUP decals made so I can transform this frame from the biggest poser frame, since I don't ride for Toyota United, and change it into a FauxHup team bike. Ha Ha Ha!

Newest Hipster Helmet

2008-05-13T10:29:00.005-04:00

I have a tangential acquaintance with a part time artist/kung fu instructor/ 401K supervior named Steve Link.

He is apparently on the forefront of something called Elevated Fashion. Elevated Fashion is approximately 5-7 years ahead of High Fashion, which is widely regarded as 10 years ahead of fashion, as we know it today.

Recently he shocked me to my foundations by casually noting that these helmets will be the biggest trend among Hipsters within the next 2-3 years.

It is true, it combines everything hipsters love. It is White, it has a star, and it is not an official cycling helmet, and retains much funk inside the helmet.

Disclaimer: This is a sincere post. This is not meant to be a hater blog on hipsters.

Quiet lives of white kits...

2008-05-12T09:01:00.004-04:00

Much like PVB's car that can only be operated between the ambient temperatures of 280-294 Kelvins, there is only a small window each year when I can use my beloved white kit. I like to keep this thing as white as humanely possible, which means three things

1) Never sweating in it
a) It leaves a yellow stain
b) Your butt birthmark becomes revealed to all.

2) Not using it if there is even a hint of moisture on the Doppler 5000

3) Don't wear it while experiencing LATE NIGHTS AT THE DISCOS! (I always found it funny that Marco Pantani and other Italian cyclists would talk about going to the disco for dancing after a hard stage at the Giro)

Sadly, I missed the first Hup Blanco order so both of my kits have been preworn, but I discovered that I could bring them back to their original blinding whiteness by using a little somethin somethin I like to call OxiClean.

I take a load of that stuff, bring a large pot tap water to a light boil let sit for 5 minutes, and soak my kit in their for approximately 6 hours. After that, hand wash, and it is looking like new, and perhaps even better than when Zac or Jamie initially danced around their living rooms in their brand new white kits.

Sleeping bags....

2008-04-07T09:27:00.003-04:00

This morning I woke up and felt like I was placed in a tight sleeping back and beaten for hours with a hockey stick.

My upper body just feels completely shattered.

MTB Race report to follow.

Day Six: Weekend in NH

2008-03-24T14:24:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, I went up to NH with some good friends from highschool. We were up in a place called Tamworth NH, and there was still tons and tons of snow. I finally had a chance to try out cross country skiing and I loved it. It was soooo bad ass and when you start going, you can really fly! Too bad I feel like it tore my Hip Flexors.

Anyways, this is a picture of what the snow looked like outside the cabin. It was completely frozed, and underneath it was about 4 feet of snow.

Even out there I was able to occasionally check to see who won La Primavera.

Day Five: Europe in Brookline

2008-03-21T09:04:00.003-04:00

In Brookline, right near my work, there is this strange, and beautiful section right by the Saint Mary T-Stop where there is a Japanese bakery, a new French bakery and a small Spanish Tapas Restaurant. There is also an Economy Hardware store where many hipsters like to work.

Finally, there is a really small Sushi Express there that serves addicting Fried Chicken bowls. It is a must try.

DAY FOUR

2008-03-20T16:17:00.003-04:00

This is Meg and I's cat Gwen. I used to have my own cat named Gwen, but she met a terrible death when she got run over by a car two years ago. Coincidentally, Meg also owned a cat named Gwen. Although hers is Gwendolyn and mine was Gweneviere.

She sleeps, literally, for about 20 hours a day.

She is usually a sweet cat that often exhibits outbursts of rage and violence.

DAY THREE: Building in times of great economic uncertainty

2008-03-19T09:21:00.002-04:00

Also, I just want to say a big hello to many of my European visitors. I see that there are some visitors from the Netherlands, Germany, and England.

Hello and Welcome!

Tough times ahead...

2008-03-18T13:31:00.003-04:00

You know that tough financial times lurk ahead when you start using Coinstar and start patching tubes...

Day Two

2008-03-18T09:28:00.003-04:00

This is a little pig that makes a Oink Oink noise and his noise lights up with Blue LED's.

Ritchey Road Logic 1997...

2008-03-17T13:30:00.002-04:00

My first real road racer...Ritchey road logic 54cm.

This frameset had the deepest Cobalt Blue paint job I have ever seen. Nothing I have owned since then compares to how beautiful this frame was.

I had to sell two road bikes (Bianchi Trofeo, Giant CFR) to get this frameset and some Campy Athena components, which was like $650 or so after the pro-deal.

I loved this frame so much, but i had to sell it when the graduate program I was enrolled in at UVa did not pay me when they said they would....

The terrorizer...

2008-03-17T10:40:00.001-04:00

This morning I was walking to work and ran into these creepy creatures so I terrorized them by chasing them all around Brookline.

DAY ONE

2008-03-17T09:59:00.004-04:00

I hope to publish one picture a day for the next month.

No matter how crappy. This one is from my walk to work, over the BU Bridge. It was super cold and windy and my hands went numb just taking this picture. Then I saw some girl riding her bike with no gloves. So insane.

3/17/2008

Why do people eat sushi when they can eat this...

2008-03-14T16:27:00.003-04:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a weakness for delicious bottled drinks and Japanese snacks.

In my house I have a whole cabinet filled with Japanese snacks which I may devour in one sitting while watching some ridiculous Japanese TV show.

The flavors in these snacks are just so fricking complex, with the subtle tertiary flavors giving rise to caramel goodness. And they are just so fricking SALTY!!!

Many of these candies and snacks are not for most people. PVB almost threw up after eating a half melted Mochi Surprise.

Below you will see some of my favorites...

1) Salt + Seaweed potato chips...(You must never buy the ones with English titles on them)
2) BBQ flavored crisps
3) Cheese and fishy splendors

4) Kinokono Yama. Delicious Chocolate mushrooms.

New Best Friend....

2008-03-13T09:10:00.005-04:00

Back in 2002 I spent hours weighing out different options for the best digital camera under $300. I finally bought this little number, the Fuji Finepix 2600. It had a wopping 2.1 MPXL, and was around $350 including all of the accessories.

Today, I shall make a huge purchase...A new portable digital camera that I can take to document the plight of mankind...

I just bought he Sony Cybershot W55. I cannot believe you can get a camera of this caliber for $129.99. It has fircking 7.2 MPXLs!!!! That is more than my digital SLR. How can they pack so much equipment into this little nugget???

Totally Tubular...

2008-03-10T11:02:00.004-04:00

This year I vow to accept tubular wheels and all of the rewards, as well as the pains that are associated with owning these little nuggets.

There are several interesting tires out right now. But this one especially caught my attention.

Note the addition of the side knobs on a smooth file tread.

HUP 2008 Team Launch Event

2008-03-07T09:56:00.008-05:00

2008 Hup United Team Camp Details...

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE…..

Chris Milliman, who is an amazing professional photographer, friend, and Hup Teammate, has volunteered to take our team photos! As many of you know, his photography as well as his writing has been featured in well known magazines and websites, such as Velonews and Cyclingnews, as well as in many ads we see everyday. I am very, very, very, excited that he will be taking our team photos. Just take a look at his website as well as his blog, and you will understand…

http://www.chrismilliman.com/

Photo courtesy Chris Milliman

You Must RSVP on the Evite so we can get a headcount.
Please bring some food for the Friday Night cook-out and/or some waffle mix for the Sat breakfast
Bring sleeping bags, and if they desire tents to camp out in the backyard (There may be a fire pit in the back yard for bonfire)....
Feel free to bring a movie for Fri night...(No R-rated movies because Young Jamner is not yet 17)
Professional Photo session is on Saturday so bring your race kit if you have it and your nice bike.
On Friday there will be an optional MTB ride for those that can arrive early, will roll out by 4pm from the base camp into the woods!....
Please bring your Varsity game for the Saturday road ride, there will be some KOM, QOM, town-line sprints....will be likely 3 hour road ride with coffee stop. I will be bringing my Junior Varsity Game.
Bring a proposed race schedule for the racing season so we can chat and strategize race support
Spring clothing distribution.
Matt does have a wife & 3 kids (6 yr old, 4 yr old, and 1 yr) that will all be in the house while the camp is going on...so we must be on our best behavior and not make the kids cry.
BYOB: Miller High Life or other fine beverages.
Matt is working on getting an official videographer to film parts of our team ride. May get motopacer (working on this as well)....need to document this camp on video.

Itinerary

FRIDAY MAY 2^nd the year 2008

Arrive into New Hampshire HUP TRAINING CAMP between 6-7pm (at training camp base) (or those that can arrive earlier, see below)

4:00 TEAM RIDE (MTB or CX bikes) (Optional attendance for this time)

7:30 TEAM DINNER (cupcakes welcomed by anyone wanting to bring) - local + organic food choices

8:30 TEAM UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION

9:00 TEAM CHAT - SEASON RACE & CAMP PLANS (perhaps monthly mini-camps)

followed by MOVIE and-or Games (+ BONFIRE pit)

** Please note - bring your own tent if you want to camp in the yard....

SATURDAY May 3^rd the year 2008

7:30 TEAM BREAKFAST (Belgian Waffles)

8:30 TEAM RIDE (ROAD) (3-4 hour ride)

1:00 TEAM PHOTOS (In Woods behind house)

3-4 TEAM DEPART

PLEASE SEND IN YOUR RSVP THROUGH THE EVITE!!!

And thank you Matt for hosting us for the weekend!

Blown Away....

2008-03-04T17:01:00.009-05:00

I am blown away by how awesome the MINT flavored Bontrager handlebar tape looks on my Hampsten.

I mean Damn!!!!!

It is like this light blue/green embodiment of utter awesomeness.
Please super relax and enjoy some pictures.

This is the result of living in Cambridge and buying too many bikes.
The little DuDad barrel adjuster...
Hampsten Mudpig. Complete, in Training Mode. For the races I will be using Mavic 32 hole Reflex rims laced to Dura ace 7850 hubs, Challenge Grifo Dry Tubulars.
I finally broke down and bought some Paul's Neo Retro brakes. They are not mind blowingly strong, definetly not as strong as the mini v-brakes, but they have so much more mud clearance.
The cockpit. The Thomson X-2 stem is pretty nice. one of the only silver stems out there.

Mint................Hint of Mint.
Some welding work by Co-motion. It is really good work, but it does not blow me away like Moots welds.
Kind of a cool rear brake bridge.
The superlight BBG chainring guard. This chainring guard allows me to use a 39 without the chain rubbing. Astute readers will notice that I have three of those damn connector links things in a row. Is that dangerous?
My cross bike from 2006. This thing was actually pretty incredible.

I ended up getting the Iris Blue tape for the DeSalvo road bike as well(See picture 1 above). The Bontrager tape has a thin Gel backing to it so it is almost twice as thick as the Fizik Microtex tape. I hope that I will no longer have numb hands after a 4 hour ride...

My next big purchases will be the LUNAR ORANGE BUBBLE handlebar tape for the white DeSalvo cross/pit bike, as well as a salsa Lip Lock in Dark Blue.

Look no...

2008-02-29T16:33:00.003-05:00

Nothing has demoralized and fattied me up more than the snow this winter. Tomorrow I made an appointment to pick up my trainer in the morning so I can get some 150 Watt Plus workouts in the comfort of my second bedroom(or my dorm room as Meg calls it)

Unfortunately, there is a fricking snow advisory tomorrow morning.

At least there is the gym.I have just bought something so awesome. It is coming in the mail.

It will change everything about being PRO. It is so Not Pro. Yes. You guessed it. I will be proudly running "Mint" colored handlebar tape from Bontrager on my race bike and "BubbleGum" colored tape on my Pit bike.

Also, has anyone tried Challenge Griffo Dry Conditions Open tubular tires? I have heard from the man that the tubular versions are quite incredible and fast...

Finally doe sanyone know where I can hang out with these guys???????????????

Goals for this Year

2008-02-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

I would like to learn to true my own wheels. Is this too much to ask?

The Suitcase of Courage Vs. The Designer Bag of Courage...

2008-01-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

On saturdays ride, as I was nearing bonking and cramping strange muscles I never knew I had, the Kyler told me to dig into my suit case of courage.

For the next few miles I thought of this strange advice.

If Ludo D, Michele Bartoli, and Andrei Tchmil had suitcases of courage, I think it would look like this...
But for people like myself, and my friend Pepe, it would look more like this...a Louis Vuitton Handbag of Courage,

or in my friend Pepechins case, perhaps a Hermes Handbag of Courage.

Helmet Modifications

2008-01-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

This post and this project is inspired by a little conversation I had with the Jamification(Jamner) about helmet aesthetics and how a small change in the shading of a helmet can dramatically alter its overall apperance. After drinking a nice cold bottle of La Fin Du Monde, I decided to steal Meg's expensive nail polish to put some new additions to my helmet. Tomorrow, I will be receiving a completely tricked out Chris King wheelset she told me to buy off ebay. It should be the nicest wheelset I have ever owned.

Anyways, those with a keen eye will be able to tell right away what I have done. I think the helmet looks WORLDS better than it did before. Jamner, I think you should do the same, since you have the same helmet. It seriously looks like a brand new helmet.

Today Mike M. and I went on a blisteringly cold ride. It was 15 or something with a windchill of 4 degrees. When we started my face was beginning to get really itchy bceause of the intense cold. We ended up doing a really great cross workout somewhere off the bike path with us trying out the McCormack method(Unclipping both feet and stepping through) of dimounting versus the Sven Nys(no Step through) approach that I like to do. With the Crank Brothers pedals, I have found that the pedals don't necesarily unclip if I do the step through, so I have completely stopped doing the step through apporach to dismounting. I am very glad we did not ride too far since it was way too cold.

We both lamented the conditions of our shitty shitty brakes.

We rode laps on the arlington soccer field. The snow riding was crazy hard and totally treacherous!!!!! At one point I found this total sweet spot where I was riding peoples footsteps.

Anyways, I was pretty excited to get some riding in this weekend, and of course to see the Patriots win.

"Buy when there is blood on the streets"

2008-01-10T16:37:00.000-05:00

Last night, utilizing the magic of a fast internet connection and the art of savvy bidding, I realized one of my dreams.

With talks of the recession, and the news of possible interest rate cuts, people's worries were not in how high this particular item was going to fetch on the open market.

Usually, I have seen USED wheelsets comparable to this one for as high as $600 WITHOUT tires nor skewers.

Tonight I will celebrate this momentous occasion by buying myself some liquid property at the LCC meeting.

Bye for now.

How I gained an extra 50 Watts

2008-01-08T10:40:00.001-05:00

Anyone use these things?

Also, I am really sweating a racing/training wheelset, around 1500 Gms for under $500. I have narrowed it to

1) Easton 90 SLX
2) Rol Volant
3) Williams System 19

I don't really need a new wheelset, but I have been having this horrendous and truly time consuming urge to get one.

I hate being OCD.

Silence....

2008-01-02T16:44:00.000-05:00

Very little activity on everyone's cross blogs this time of year...

HUP UNITED 2005-6 Recap Part I

2007-12-23T09:16:00.000-05:00

Back in the summer of 2005, my good friend Jamie from C'Ville wrote to me to tell me about this new team he had just joined called HUPUNITED, which concentrates its efforts, as well as its $2.5M budget to solely focus on cyclocross. Not knowing anything, or have ever heard of HUPUNITED, I did some serious web based research on them. I had just moved up to Boston from Baltimore and was mostly riding with the Quad Cycles guys, but only 2 -3 of them were interested in cyclocross. I ended up doing a Tour de France ride from Red Boned one day in July and met up with Zac. He was in his full HUP kit and was riding some sort of a sexy Seven prototype machine. Luckily I was in full form and broke away on mile 7, 15, and 56 to convincingly win that group ride and gain the respect and admiration of this entity known as Zac. Hence, making me the first signing of the fall 2005 season.
Fast forward to Fall 2005. I haven't seriously raced since my racing days at the University of Virginia....and was pretty damn nervous, not to mention I loved smoking Nat Sherman Hint of Mint. (Kids, smoking is bad, unless you have an iron will like me and can quit anytime. Actually what made me quit was that I no longer thought it looked cool, but more myspace than anything.) I showed up at the first edition of Sucker Brook and ended up meeting Zank(who I thought was a little scary at first) as well as Jimbo(The nicest dude, ever. He even cheers for me when we are in the same race!) and Justin Ziemba(One of these days I will bring a small leather briefcase filled with $$$ for JJ to come over to ride with us). I didn't meet PVB that race, but he totally dominated the race to finish 5th or something...

One thing I don't understand is why we got rid of the cheerleaders after 2004????

Part II to follow...

a) the epic ride to New Gloucester
b) gloucester
c) Sterling
d) The Enormous room
e) and other adventures.

Hup Team Helmets 2008

2007-12-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

MudPig II and some thoughts on racing better next season

2007-12-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

MudPig II DOB 12/15/2007

So this is the second version of the Hampsten Mudpig. The frame is built at the Co-Motion factory and the Alpha CX20 fork was custom painted White Mica to match the frame. This frame was rebuilt during the middle of the season to fine tune the geometry. The frame came back, I think, with slightly beefier chainstays, the braze-ons the toptube are offset (Picture to follow) and the rear brake braze-on does not have the circular cut out that the first edition did. As expected, with the new geometry, toe overlap is non existent, and the reach to the bars seem perfect.

I wanted to try out the single ring application this year. The only time I dropped my chain this year was at Gloucester when my chain came off after the run up section and it fell between the chainring and the Third Eye. I noticed that I hardly ever shift the front ring during a race and the 42 I ran two years ago is perfect.

On the whole, I am a total retro grouch and resist new technology. But after riding on the Shimano Dura Ace 9spd, which came out late 1998, for more than 7 years, I decided to take the bold move to 10 spd. drivetrain.

I ended up going with the Sram Rival for several reasons:

I really like how it looks with the concealed shifting housing
Very light weight
Can be found for around $550 for the complete Group
The cable pull of the Double Tap shifters is more than 6 mm as compared to that of the STI Shifters.
The shifters mate nicely with most bars, leaving you a huge platform to work with

I hope to have all of my cyclocross equipment sorted out by May. This year I started building my cross bike a week before my first race. Up until then, I had not ridden my bike since may 4th due to a bike accident that lead to a lawsuit. It is impossible and stupid to try to race into shape. It lead to a pulled groin, which ended my season, for going too hard too soon. This year I hope to have 2-3 working bikes. I hope to make sure the Desalvo is in tip top shape, as well as the Hampsten and a Zanconato cross bike, which is currently in the womb, if you will.

It will be quite sometime before I will get to ride this bike again. There is about 1.5 feet of snow outside, and what isn't covered by snow is covered by ice.

This year I have a slightly different approach to the cross season. Since I hate the cold, and love the heat, I plan to do around 10 road races in July and August to get ready for the cross season. I hope to hit the cross season in full form and taper off in mid-November. This will allow me to try out some road races and race cross when I love to be riding my bike the most. This year, I have had a major break through when it comes to braking. In the past I have constantly obsessed about having really strong brakes. What i could not come into grips is was that super great brakes is not necessary in cross racing. It IS important when riding out in the roads and you need to stop so you don't get hit by the #1 bus, but it is not as important in a cross race. This concept has been very hard for me to accept, for one reason or another, but now it does not seem as important to me...

For me, the Mayo drips from the frites back into the can.

Kent Eriksen Ti post with a Specialized Phenom SL Ti Saddle. This was a special gift from Steve Hampsten at Hampsten cycles. This seatpost is pretty trick, super light at 160 Grams, and is fabled to be extremely strong. It was really easy to adjust because of its simple but creative design.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Frame: Hampsten MudPig 55 cm

Fork: Alpha Q CX20

Headset: Chris King

Handlebars: Ritchey WCS Classic 42cm, 135mm Drop

Stem: Thomson X2 100mm

Tape: Fizik

Front Brakes: Shimano BR550

Rear Brakes: Shimano BR550

Crankset: Shimano Dura Ace 7700 172.5mm

Chainrings: 42T

Chain: SRAM 10spd

Cassette: SRAM 10spd12-26

BB: Shimano Ultegra BB-6600

Pedals: Crank Brothers Candy SL

Seat: Specialized Phenom SL Ti

Seatpost: Kent Eriksen 27.2

Brake Levers: SRAM Rival Double Tap

Shift Levers: SRAM Rival Double Tap

Front Mech: NA

Rear Mech: SRAM Rival Short Cage

Wheelset: Reynolds Solitude

Tires: Schwalble Fast Fred Light 700X35mm

Tubes: Salsa 700x35

Kanashibari!

2007-12-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

"I remember with perfect clarity that first night I lost the ability to sleep. I was having a repulsive dream
- a dark, slimy dream. I do not remember what it was about, but I do remember how it felt: ominous and
terrifying. I woke up at the climactic moment - came fully awake from the start, as if something had dragged
me back at the last moment from a fatal turning point. Had I remained immersed in the dream for another
second, I would have been lost forever. After I awoke, my breath came in painful grasps for a time. My arms
and legs felt paralysed. I lay there immobilized, listening to my own laboured breathing, as if I were stretched
out full-length on the floor of a huge cavern."

~ Murakami Haruki, Sleep

Last night I experienced an episode of what in Japan is known as Kanashibari. It literally means being bound and restrained by metal. it is one of the most frightening and terrible sleep experiences ever.

It all started with a dream with some weird dude in a striped shirt coming into the room and laying his knee on my chest. I was trying to bend his fingers back and at that point I woke up. Unfortunately I woke up to Kanashibari where I had no idea where I was, the room was cold, and I could not move at all. It was terrifying. I was trying to scream but all that came out was this weak squealing noise.

I think Meg woke up and noticed that something was terribly wrong so she tried to wake me up. I could hear her trying to wake me up, but I could not move or say anything. Eventually I realized that it was a case of Kanahibari and I tried to free myself from it by convincing myself that it will pass. Eventually it did pass and I was able to move around but what a horrific experience.

I experience this from time to time, and it is a pretty common experience in Japan, but in the western world, almost nobody has heard of it.

New DeSalvo Road bike...

2007-11-24T17:30:00.001-05:00

Hello people of earth and beyond.

I have taken countless hours today rebuilding and tuning my DeSalvo road bike instead of riding since it was too cold. Instead, I brushed the dust and cat litter off the rollers and watched Old School until the point where Frank the Tank is in the Trust tree and talking about really cool new underwear that he doesn't even know about.

Now I am making a permanent, and devastatingly important mark on the world wide web with this great post about some used road bike. This is what a sad Japanese man does on an exciting Saturday night. There is nothing sadder than a sad Japanese man.

But I digress.

A little history. I had Mike at DeSalvo Custom cycles build me this frame about a year after I had the cross frameset built. I really like his work and I am very glad I was able to order a road frame from him.

I bought this maybe back in 2004. It is hard for me to remember now. The geometry/graphics design work is another Brewer/Katsumi collaboration. One would not believe how many countless hours (Precious Graduate Student Research Hours) were wasted at Q-level discussing the merits of a masked decal, over a cup of double espresso. The graphics are totally trick. The colors are dark metallic blue, light metallic blue panels, and masked logos. In hindsight, I think the bike would have looked even better if I had used the light blue as the main color and the dark blue for the panels. The tubing is Columbus Zona steel, and the seatstay and the chainstay are ovalized and shaped, and the downtube is what Columbus calls MegaDowntube, translation, super heavy but super stiff. The fork is 1.125 inch and have panels too!

I come from riding a really stiff, and race rocket-C-dale. I loved that machine for its efficiency, but after a 2 hour ride, my hands were totally numb, and I thought it was a really ugly looking bike. On the other hand, this bike is about 2 pounds heavier at around 20 lbs., but it feel really smooth, possibly because the micro as well as the macro vibrations enter the two pound fork, never to be seen again. I think this bike would look so trick with some deep dish carbon wheels. I hope to be very good to this bike and not leave it out in the elements.

I took the parts off the Hampsten Mudpig and put it on the road DeSalvo. The cross DeSalvo is somewhere in the basement but missing a seat and post.

Serious Dillema...

2007-11-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

I finally worked enough overtime and liquidated all of my assets to buy a new Zank in a Pearl Hup Blue "Grouppo Compacto" Edicion'
(This is a completely Premier item, and only 5 will be produced worldwide).

BUT, should I get a cross or road frame?

My dilemma is such. I would really like to have a really well built custom road frame, since I don't currently have one, but since its a Zank, I feel like it should and must be a cross frame.

Why can't I be a wealthy English Country side gentleman who needs not deal with such peasant like decision making?

ALSO!!!!

Recently I have been romantacizing about a truly Petite bourgeoisie lifestyle. My current dream is to move out into a much smaller city and living a quiet life as a man whose earnings come from the crafts created from workings of the hand.

Pictures like these get my blood boiling. (Japanese dudes making a sword)

Next year, I hope to take some basic metal shop classes as well as plumbing, electrical, and also accouting classes. My goal in the next ten years is to have my own super high end Plumbing/Electrician business.

Back in Love with the DeSalvo Cross Bike, all over again

2007-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

It is amazing how changing that one thing on your bike, in my case putting on a Zac Daab Speciali All Ivory Arione, can completely change the look of your machine, making you fall in love all over again. (Thanks Zac! Also for the matching white Hup kit!)

In all of its years (since fall of 2003) the DeSalvo has never looked this good, and has totally come through during a pinch time when I lost my main machine.

I am not sure exactly how I chose the DeSalvo. I remember sitting in the Krieger computer lab at Johns Hopkins during the summer of 2003, pretending to do serious graduate level research in materials science, but instead looking at DeSalvo's homepage and frantically writing him an email about getting a custom frame built.

Working with Mike was such a pleasure. I knew that things would work out right away. I was, as usual, a bit of a pain in the ass and asked him to do all kinds of new things like using a cursive decal, custom head tube logo, and other such things. The frame is a TIG welded steel frame using columbus Zona and Thron tubing. The downtube is a Mega Tube or something with a very fancy name. I totally dig the straight blade 1 inch fork!

For a steel frameset it is actually very light, the whole bike weighs in around 19 pounds.

Dura Ace lever. It is only 8 years old, and has been switched around on 12 different bikes.
Still works perfectly to this day.

Scratches on the Desalvo...

I was thinking about getting it resprayed, but decided not to. I love this paintjob.

Hup Bibs

2007-11-03T17:28:00.000-04:00

I have two pairs of totally worked, really used Hup Bibs in Medium if anyone is really desperate for HUP clothing. They are free.

My baby is back from the dead...

2007-11-02T16:55:00.000-04:00

After sitting in my dank basement for 2 years after I unintentionally "Integrated" the seatpost to the frame, I had the nice guys at Circle A cycles in Providence fix it for me. I have not seen it yet, but I am very very excited. Now I just have to find out where I put my fork. It may be any where.

Thank you to Brian and Chris at Circle A Cycles. Another reason why I would like to move down to Providence!!!

KATSUMI 0 GROIN PULL 1

2007-10-30T13:12:00.002-04:00

So I went to the surgeon and she did some poking tests and made me cough and other things and she said "This is not a Hernia, but a groin Pull."

Yes! No surgery! My brother who has had two extensive open heart surgery gave me some advice last weekend. He was like "Oh Dude, surgery is the best, you don't feel anything, you get to lie around all day afterwards watching TV or playing videogames and everyone brings you presents. Don't worry about it."

Well, still 6 weeks of active rest. I can ride my bike and jog around but not the lethal combination of 15MPH + Dismount + 40CM barriers + Remount.

I want to thank everyone for their caring wishes and yes, I will be back next year with a vengence, and these wheels that I just picked up for $250....

HERNIA 0 KATSUMI 1

2007-10-30T13:12:00.001-04:00

Cantoooon

2007-10-28T19:50:00.001-04:00

I was able to find my way to Canton, my favorite race ever, to go cheer on some good friends and some teammates. Same as last year, it was windy. Damn windy.

It is always a bit weird to show up at a race and not race. You know that you are there to do something, but you are not sure what.

It was cool to hang out Tom N and to get to know him better. Next year, he should make a really strong B-racer. I also encouraged him to buy a full custom Ti bike before next year.

Although going to a race to watch is not as exciting as racing in one, it is still amazing to cher and taunt your good friends as they plunge down into the moist well of agony and pain.

While there, I got to hang out with all my good teammates, Oscar, and many of the Quad and Cambridge guys.

Below please find some pictures. I find that some of them give me motion sickness, so do not look at them for too long.

I think these are the most interesting of the set. None of them will be clear crisp and what not. I don't think I would be justifying the pain, the intensity and energy of this race if I could show positively clear and crisp pictures.

This one is of the Young Josh. He is doing what the truckers call, "Putting the Hammer Down". I like to call it, "Putting the Jamner Down"

Here he is again, casually running up the hill.

Here is PVB in the omnious looking black helmet. Every time he rode by the crowd could smell the 7 pints of belgian beer being evaporated from his skin and orfices.

Matt flying over the barriers. He was taunted by the crowd to bunnyhop them, but he did it his way to a strong third place.

Intensity.

Bunny hopping through the traffic.

Zank...

Zank Bunny hoping. I like this picture because it is not completely in focus. Sometimes it is difficult to capture so much energy on film.

Craig from Cambridge Cross team. A good dude.

Jamner, too fast to capture on film.

Ziemba and friends.

Kenny from Team Z killing it.

And ofcourse, the crowd favorite, MurphMonkey.

Game Over...

2007-10-24T16:06:00.000-04:00

Just came back from the doctors, off to the surgeons on tuesday. A once spectacular season has come to an abrupt end.

Diagnosis: Sports Hernia
Treatment: Surgery

Scary stuff.

SPORTS HERNIA....? Or just bruised boys...

2007-10-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

Last week while riding the road bike for a couple of hours, I felt this strange compressing feeling in my left almond. I thought it may be the new bibs that I was wearing so I just rode it out.

Two days later it still is sensitive and my lower left abdomin hurts when I bend forward. I did some web surfing on the World Wide Web and I think it may be something called Sports Hernia? I am going to the doctor today to have it checked out. Have any of my loyal readers (I know there is at least 4 of you out there) have experienced this affliction? It feels like there is pressure all the time where there should not be. I first experienced it when I was doing hill workouts a month ago and went into it too hard without warming up enough, I rested for a week and it went away.

It does not seem to affect just riding around as I found out last night, but I have this dull aching pressure all of the time there.

Gloucester!

2007-10-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

There must be a worm hole somewhere between CT and MA because there is no way my friend Chris and Elizabeth could have left Brooklyn at 5PM on a friday and have arrived at my house, Gin and tonic in hand, by ten PM. There is no fricking way it is possible. On thursday it took me 1 hour to get from Cambridge to Brookline for Naked Steve's birthday party. That is like 4 miles at most.

Anyways, so friday night, we chatted a bit, drank some beers, which I spilled all over my leg, and we strategized for the next day.

Fast forward to saturday....we get to the venue at around 11 AM, chill out, hand out and say hi to characters like Daab, PVB, ZANKS, Cary, Rosey and C.Greg and many others.

The race started pretty unremarkably. I think life is completely different when you start on the front row. There was no pushing, shoving, or any of that shenanigans that you see when you start 5 rows back. The view is clear and all is calm around you. I equate it to how good looking people or very wealthy people have such better chances at succeeding in life than say, the average joe who has to gouge eyes and kick balls to get ahead.

We had a clean entry off the pavement and into the dirt paths I was not really super intimidated by the pace. But as soon as we hit the open road again, dudes were passing with so much force that some reynolds numbers were reached and a turbulent cloud formed in front of me which slowed me down to no degree. I rode the first lap in 26th, the second in 40th, and just maintained my position until lap 5 when I dropped my chain between the chain guard and the frame. It just would not come out. I wasted about a minute as I desperately watched 30 guys pass me as I started to cry and the crowd tried to console me by yelling go Zac!.

I rode with fury for the last two laps and caught about 7-8 people on the advice of a little friend sitting on a rock. I thankfully put in a good sprint and shattered a soul of an ECV guy for 70th place.

Bad news:70th place.

Good news: The winner beat me by 11 minutes at nationals. But this time, only by 5 minutes. Also, there were over 20 guys within a minute from me. I will train super hard next week and come back as the Mexecutioner.

On Saturday night we all went out to the North End for dinner and ate some delicious pizzas and drank Gin and Tonics at home until I passed out.

SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNDAAAYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Exactly at 1:20PM on sunday, as men were digging deep into their 401K of pain, I was practicing my Hatian barrier move.

Contrary to popular belief, the correct tire pressure to ride over Chris's spine was 28PSI in the front and 30 PSI in the rear.

12 Laps To Go...

2007-10-08T18:59:00.000-04:00

This weekend I took trip into Cooperstown NY to race what I think may be the coolest race I have ever done...Roughly 3400 miles away from Brussels sits the Ommegang Belgian Brewery, nestled deep in the countryside of upstate NY(Maybe it is not exactly upstate). As we pulled in to the gravel driveway and saw all of the Belgian flags hanging as we drove through the large archway connecting the two buildings, I decided that from this moment on, I will dedicate myself to a higher being so that I may persuade the crew from the Boston area to make this religious journey, much similar to what the characters in the movie "kingdom of heaven" had done.

The atmosphere was super mellow and will be the complete opposite of Gloucester this weekend. It was a bit strange to go to a race and not see any familiar faces.

There was only one race for the young men, and it was the Open Men's race. The coolest part of the race was that they started the race with not a whistle, but by uncorking one of their fresh ales.

I have never raced 60 minutes before so I didn't kill myself at the start. I was in about 30th place through lap 1-6, and something happened where I just kept maintaining a nice steady pace but dudes all around me were getting shattered. It may have been the super steep, but climb-able, hill, or the twisty bumpy descent, or having to go thourgh the beer garden 12 times. I clawed up to 13th place. I knew I was doing well since the announcer gave me no love during the first 6 laps, but gave me good loving after I started to make up some time.

I am a bit nervous for Gloucester, but I think as soon as the racing starts, all will be well, the strong riders will come to the front, and I will suffer to stay in top 50.

Fall in New England

2007-10-04T16:48:00.001-04:00

Last night around six, I took off the eggbeaters off my DeSalvo and put on some platform pedals so that my friend Naked Steve and I could go ride some cross. We rode all over Cambridge and had a hot cocoa in Davis and just watched the locals hustle off to watch the game at the Joshua Tree. Afterwards we went to Ace Wheelworks to check out some MTN bikes. All in all a very peaceful evening. Naked Steve has never been on a real cross bike before and was just trying to rip through every corner.

When I think of fall, I can't help but think of this poem I read while a young Lower at Phillips Andover Academy...

Márgarét, áre you grieving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves líke the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Ah! ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you will weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It is the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

Let us enjoy the next two months of cyclocross season with friends and family.

One of the coolest things I own...

2007-09-26T21:01:00.000-04:00

This is a super rare Japanese National Champion Mapei jersey. It was given to me by a friend who stayed at my house in Boston in the winter of 98 for a while who was apparently friends with this dude and had one of his jerseys. I didn't know too much about cycling, but I still kept it because I thought that I could sell it to some of these dudes who would frequent the rave scene.

Since he didn't care at all about cycling and wasn't about to wear this thing around town, but only to the disco, he left it at my house. It was still dirty from the last race it was worn in. What makes this jersey so cool is that it is from one of the most powerful teams ever assembled (Musseuw, VDB, Tafi, the list goes on and on) The rider is Yoshiyuki Abe, and is a pretty accomplished rider in his own right. He was on the 1997 Mapei GB team...

Check out his palmares...
http://www.dewielersite.net/db2/wielersite/ploegfiche.php?id=9738

The first real jerseys Ben, Chris, Al and I designed for Team Hopkins were loosely based on this jersey I believe.

Another reason I love this jersey so much is that1997 was the year I started cycling. I can still vividly remember being in my apartment at the Broadview in Baltimore and watching the Tour for the first time in my life. As customary during those summer months, tehre was a heavy downpour and I could hardly hearthe commentaries due to the frequent thunderstorms. Strangely there are no thunderstorms in Boston...

They actually had thrilling riders back then, like Cipollini, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Jalabert, Pantani, VDB, guys who could literally drop a gernade into the peloton at a moments notice, or headbutt their way to victory. Racing seemed very different back then. I had so much more passion for pro road racing. I thought the red Saeco train was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I still have a framed Campagnolo poster of Der Kaiser. My favorite bike of all time is from that era and is a MBK world leader edition ridden by Belgium's prodigal child.

After watching one race, I went to ATA cycles while I was home on vacation here in MA and bought my first road bike. It was a KHS Aero Turbo and the dude there assured me that it was the "best bike ever built"(We all know who this is). It was designed by Leonard Zinn, and had this curvy seat tube. It had something like shimano 105 or something like that. Unfortunately that bike got crushed by UPS on its way down to Baltimore. It was when they were on strike and they did not give two shits what happened to my bike. With the insurance money I ended up buying a Bianchi Trofeo with Campagnolo Mirage and Miche components. I truly loved that bike.

To run or not to run...

2007-09-24T12:19:00.000-04:00

"People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck.

It's scary to think so much is out of one's control.

There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back.

With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win.

Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose." From Match Point 2005.

It is constantly amazing to me how a split second decision made in a race can ultimately change the course of events for all those who are directly or indirectly involved in that race. As I was running up the small run up in the Bedford race this weekend, I made a last minute decision to run down the hill instead of trying to clip in admist all of the chaos. This small decision turned out to be crucial since the young gentleman in front of me hit a small divot in the ground and flipped over the bars since he did not take the time to clip in. I would have surely gone down with him, and into the trees.

I am going through a strange time where I am really suffering and having a tough time on the cross course. It is not like last year where if I wanted to pick it up a notch I could and make up 5-6 spots. Now I feel like I am riding almost right near the max and I really can't even get going for a sprint at the end. I think I am going in the right direction. I remember a particular race in in high school when I ran the 2 mile. I felt good so I sprinted the last lap. Much to my surprise, my coach was totally pissed at me and told me that if I can put in a 65 second quarter for the last lap, I was totally slacking off during the race. At the time I thought that the dude was just a J-Hole but now I think I understand.

Cross is a pretty interesting sport. At times you can use different sections of the course to your advantage, at times it can be your worst nightmare.

This week, I would like to write a bit more of something that is fascinating to me...

Nosferatu

Life Goals

2007-09-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

Alberto Tomba once said "In life, I have but one simple desire...to tear down the sky."

Although Mr. Tomba's goals are a bit pedestrian, after many beers I have been heard uttering my one life goal, which is to have long free flowing hair which forms curly wings from under my Lazer Genesis helmet. My current role model is Professional Cyclist Colin H. Murphy. He has realized this dream, and is a constant inspiration for me. He started with nothing, and look at him now, driving around in a Mercedes E-class, girlfriend, a 6 figure professional contact.

Recently I decided to take firm and direct steps in achieving my life goal.

1) I looked in the mirror and said, "No more barbers, only stylists for this head."

So the quest continues. Yesterday I ventured off to a Salon to get a $40 dollar haircut. The place was literally 6 stories tall with crazy girls running all over the place with funny things in there hair. So this is where and what girls do after work...

I had approximately 40,000 hairs styled to perfection. I was assured that I would have free flowing hair for all of the verge races NEXT year. Would Rogaine make my hair grow faster? Also is there a direct and linear correlation between riding your bike fast and losing hair?

The Desalvo gets some serious SuckerBrook Time....

2007-09-18T21:52:00.000-04:00

The day started ordinarily enough. I loaded up my two pearl white bikes and headed to D&D's for some freshly made egg and ham sandwiches. Roughly about the same time "The Zanconato" was casually deciding whose hearts he would like to put in the HUP microwave while ironing out his short sleeve skinsuit.

I was not at all nervous about this race. Strangely enough, after Agawam I have been pretty good about not getting too nervous about the races since my main goal for the season is to Bowl a 210 game at the local Bowling alley, and learning how to sail my new 45 foot yacht.

Currently there is a super annoying euro guy outside the house talking loudly on his phone. I started taking flash photos of him, which he does not like. I think it is pretty funny, like I am a papparazi. but I digress.

Conditions were perfect for the Suckerbrook. Similar to the last two editions, it was warm, sunny and fast...

I have to go to sleep now. I am very tired. Perhaps I will use valuable work time to write something spectacular.

The Shakers

2007-09-18T16:49:00.001-04:00

On Saturday Meg and I traveled up to Harvard MA to go to this thing called the Fruitlands museums. It is a very special, and strange place indeed. Apparently this was the location of one of the Shaker settlements. For those who are not aware of what the Shakers are, you should not be ashamed. I did not either. you can read up all about it on this thing called the World Wide Web. Anyways, I had some really good BBQ at this county fair and ended the day by going to a nice orchard where I bought a carton of Peaches. I discovered this awesome pear called the Bartlett Pear. It is a cross between a normal pear and a Japanese Pear. Very very delicious.

Now for some serious news.

Free OJ!

Nano V-Brake report

2007-09-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

After the torrential downpour which seem to bring Boston Traffic to its knees, 7 of us(Mattison, PVB, Nick, Seth, Alex, Cary and myself) met at the Harvard Training grounds to get some laps in. The course was totally worked. There were enormous puddles, the depth of which I could not even fathom. I took my pit bike to test out the Nano-Brakes I just installed last weekend. I wanted to try out the V-brakes in the rain because I was told that they are very effective in all sorts of weather.

Equipment update...

I am using Tektro RX5 brakes with stock pads, and Dura Ace 9spd STI levers.

Currently my wheels are very true so there is no rubbing on the brakes when spinning the wheel around, which is a good thing I suspect. The first thing I noticed while going into some corners is that the brakes, with very little pressure, will slow down the bike, even if the rims are completely soaked or covered with mud. I did notice by the end of our pretty tough 1.5 hour workout that my front brake pads were pretty worn out and I could easily pull the lever to the bars. Even at this point, I was able to confidently stop the bike. This setup has about 2mm's of clearance between the rim and the pad(Pictures to follow) which is about the same amount I had on the BR550s. Even through the mud and the grass, it seemed to be enough clearance for me. I am totally impressed with these brakes and will install these on my race bike with an upgraded SwissStop Brake pads. The brakes are much mushier than on my Shimano BR550, but the lever action is so much lighter that my hands are not tired after a hard workout with lots of braking. I will also be adding a noodle with a built in barrel adjuster so that the bike can accomodate rims of different widths, which I was not able to do with the Shimano BR550. I think I may be the only one on the circuit using Nano V-brakes, but I think they are totally worth it, and if it is a super muddy race, I hope to be coming in to the pit for a bike change.

Technically speaking, the closer you have the pads to the rims, the less mud should get on your rims right? Since they will be scraped off by the pads? These ideas have not yet been tested.