R.I.P. Karate Monkey

So I made a tough decision yesterday and ended up selling the Karate Monkey frame and fork...it'll all work out though because I sold it to my co-worker Mr. Sean Gallup. As it turns out the KMX will be built up and see the light of day, just with different components and under new ownership...but honestly it could not have been sold to a more solid dude. In the meantime, the funds have been transformed into desperately needed components to finish the Scalpel, finally! I will get some pictures of the Franken-Scalpel up when the monster comes to life...hopefully by this weekend so it can get in the FAST picture I think we are taking. Until then the trusty Volpe will prevail!

On a side note: This years Bianchi San Jose (same frame as the Volpe, but a flip flop hub) now has disc brake mounts which is pretty cool...the only reason I mention anything about the San Jose is because it is so F'ing nice (and its fresh in my mind because I built a 52cm today)

Hot off the Newsdesk

This just in...drinking 3 St. Bernardus Prior 8's and having your buddy buy you 3 shots on top of them makes you feel like shit the next day...ALL DAY. Save yourself, don't do it.

Very Understanding Wife Type Lady

The above set of images is a look into the area of the house that most people would refer to as the "office", I guess you could call this my office of sorts...big speakers and bikes, I kinda like it. The look of horror as I moved things around and organized was picture worthy, but I was too slow on the trigger...maybe next time. Anyway, these few snapshots are proof enough that I have a "very understanding wife type lady", chalk one up for this guy. Oh yeah, as it turns out Scheels is finally good at something...selling hundred dollar fox helmets to me for $39.99, not that I have much to protect up there. Godspeed.

Eye opening day

So I woke up early this morning for no good reason and came to the conclusion that I was going to ride the Volpe in. I received a call an hour before I was to be at Harlan's that my tax money had shown up so I figured "what the hell" and made it a stop on the way to work. I am honestly REALLY REALLY glad that I chose to ride today, something clicked in my head on the 2 mile (maybe) ride in to work that let me in on the secret that THIS was freedom and it left me with the most satisfying feeling that I can remember. I have finally grasped a hold of the passion in me for bikes and biking and am thankful everyday that I get to wake up, ride my bike (the Volpe is hands down my new obsession) and learn about them with the group of guys that are available to me. I hope everyday is like today was... PS. Angie and the Roxy ambushed me on the way in.

Here a rig, there a rig....EVERYWHERE a rig!

So I added another two wheeled thing-a-majig to my home, for those of you who might ask...its a Bianchi Volpe 'cross machine in (wait for it...) GANG GREEN, the best color to grace steel in the history of humanity. Thanks to Sean at Harlans for the chance at this steed, I am eternally grateful.

E-mail...whats that??

About a week ago, give or take, I ordered myself a few of the "trail building" DVD's from the Federal Transportation website. I received one copy in a nice bubble mailer with the invoice inside shortly after which was nice, but the real puzzling sidenote is the second DVD I had ordered that somehow showed up at my mothers address. Not sure exactly how or why this went to my moms pad, as this is something I would have had to type in manually...and since I don't live with my mom....well, you get the picture. The best part of the mailing that went to my moms house is this: The same bubble mailer showed up carrying invoice, but the invoice (that was two pages long for some reason) had the quantity as 0 and the explanation of "out of stock". Now please let me know if I am stupid here or not but....was an e-mail saying this same thing (thereby not wasting 2 sheets of perfectly good paper, a bubble mailer and 42 cents to mail it) out of the question? I did not have to think too long OR hard about that statement as the first word of the organization that sent it to me is FEDERAL. Mystery solved. Carry on. Ant

There Goes the Neighborhood Squared

As it turns out I managed to get out of bed long enough (I have had some bullshit stomach flu since late wednesday night) to make it to the appointment where my fiance and I found out the sex of our puny human. Verdict is that we are going to have a little girl joining the family somewhere around the date of June 4th 2009. Probably not much of a shock to the masses I was a tiny bit disappointed as it would have been stellar to have a little boy to teach the finer things in life (how to throw a sinker and how to be a within-reason smart ass) but I am certainly warming up to the idea of a little lady with cunning wit and whip-smart come backs. I mean, girls can ride bikes too, right?!?

From the Archives

This poster is a bit old but it still makes me laugh when I run across it, must be the obvious truth of it all...then again, on the other hand it makes me really quite pissed off because it makes you and I the scapegoats. I LOVE AMERICA!! (nah, I really love Sacco and Vanzetti)

There Goes the Neighborhood

So in my earlier post today I spoke of an ankle biter. I found out quite a few months ago (about 5) that I will be a father. It was pretty crazy news at the time, but I am really really excited for the fact and I will probably be all dictator-like and goad my kid into digging bikes. Having a kid is actually going to be such a good positive and motivating factor in my life, considering my past existence on this planet could have certainly been much better. I have big plans of hauling my kid around on the KMX conversion and cleaning my self up (health-wise) so I don't end up with Type 2 diabetes because I chose to be a fat lazy slob instead of a self-aware human. So if you see me ingesting things that I should not be (beer does NOT count, ha) slap it out of my ham hocks and send me packin'. For now, Godspeed. Ant

Almost Forgot

So I recently bought a Specialized Langster off of the Bay. I was interested in either going with a Bianchi Pista or San Jose but found the Langster for a helluva price outfitted with some nice parts so I went all in. It is set up fixed 42:16, had the wheelset upgraded to a set of Velocity Deep V's with Conti Gatorskin rubber, Specialized Phenom 143 (for my fat ass) and a pretty narrow riser bar to boot. My "upgrades" were the Blackburn X series LED light and the Thomson seatpost. I rode it to work a couple of times last week but it's really cold and I'm a pussy so I have been driving the Civic all week. My plans for the spring / summer are to hopefully sell my Honda and to invest some into smarter clothing choices for next winter. My other plan is to get the KMX ready in the same timeframe and get it all decked out so I can haul around my ankle biter when it (I say it because I'm not sure of its sex yet) comes!

C' Dale Report

So I am roughly halfway done with my XC winter project the Cannondale Scalpel. So far it looks like the following:The parts list so far is as follows:

RaceFace Evolve XC Crankset, Evolve 100mm Stem and Diabolous Riser Bars
Oury Lock On Grips
Chris King ISO Disc front hub 100mm spacing in Pink.
DT Swiss XR4.1 Hoops
RockShox Reba Race suspension fork
FoxShox Float R rear suspension
WTB Shadow V saddle
Hayes Stroker Carbon Hydraulic Disc Brakes 185mm

The remaining items I plan on purchasing will hopefully be taken care of and this beast built in time to ride some of our newly planned out singletrack in Leaders Park! The remaining list is as follows:

(1) Chris King ISO Disc Rear hub 135mm spacing in Pink.
(1) SRAM X.9 Long Cage Rear Derailleur and matching X.9 Shifter Pod
(1) Thomson Elite Seatpost in 250mm
(1) Wippermann Nickel coated chain
(1) SRAM P980 or 990 Cassette
(1) e.thirteen 32 special Chain Guide System

New Jobby Job

So January 5th was my first day working at Harlan's Bike and Tour. I figured sitting around all winter collecting an unemployment check was going to be entirely too boring so I took a job at Harlan's. So far its been a really good experience learning the ins and outs of the business and learning certain functions such as setting hubs correctly and truing wheelsets.