Overall winner and all around good guy Jeremy Rodriguez taking it all at the first ever (legal) cross country mountain bike race in Cook County.

Palos Meltdown

Next weekend. This Labor Day the woods were filled with people doing laps in training for the first ever legal bike "race" in Cook County Forest Preserves. I think the overall thought on the race is short and sweet. Granted the laps are a bit on the difficult side-But "Hot Lap" racers can pull a 30 minute lap. (Probably) Singletrack was getting dusty and hopefully it will rain a bit before Sunday.

5 years

Week before 24-9

Buzzin through on the x-cal-limbs are down and now I have another broken helmet. Scary ass feeling to see your glasses fill with blood and none of your friends want to look either.
The usual smack; and pop goes the helmet. But this time I was screaming I'm bleeding and blood was pouring down my face. I love helmets. No damage to my eye thankfully. That's 6 more stitches and I think I've broken the 200 stitch mark.
Fast track at Palos Hospital had me fixed up in just over an hour. Being a repeat customer I didn't have to fill out any paperwork. Then off to Pepe's for a pitcher of Margaritas.



Thanks Canal Trail. Your dead limbs are going down be-och.

September 9th, 2007

Palos Meltdown. beginner 5 miles, sport 15 miles, expert- 25 miles.
www.cambr.org for more info.

Memorial Day Crew

MIA

Things are coming together.. The Mesa is up and running and no bike shop employees around yet.. Hopefully last years plan has scare the non-locals off has worked..
Underground singletrack has returned with a vengenance. With two separate rides being pulled off this weekend the trail got some much needed use. There is some more work to do but its ridable. The Rainbow Bridge is rebuilt and we will be able to get at least one or two more seasons out of it. I think its going to be four years old and it still stands. Two areas need new bridges. We're getting by with what we have.
I'll post some new photos later today.
There is just nothing like waking up to a dozen or so mountainbikers outside your door to go for a ride and my lazy ass is just rolling out of bed. We hung out by the prez's house for a cocktail and some brats post ride. Steve has become the most welcomed addition to the merry ban of misfits in which I call friends.

Palos

Last nights ride was good. Canal to Dynamite. Up Dynamite to Psycho down to TURF. Over thru Red Gate and down the bottom of The Back Door. Out and across to Coyote out thru the Metra Lot and up to Country Lane. Back South to behind the Airplane field and back to the Moto-x track and back to Kean. 3 hours and not bad conditions all of those trails where ridable. TURF had a couple of muddy spots, but overall things are looking great for this weekend.

Remember

I forgot. I lose stuff all the time. Put it somewhere and think its a good spot for it-then I can't find it. I find stuff all the time too so I guess it evens off somewhere. I forget.

done with one

Hanging out with this gamer kid Josh. He was building amusement parks all night and I had something to build too.

There were some things I wanted to accomplish with the Heckler. Like take the studs off and put some lighter weight tires on and put on an air fork - plus add poc loc to an already packed riser. Its about 2 lbs lighter than last year and about 5 lighter than with the winter studs. (Maybe less but it felt like 5) Peoria is chock full of fun stuff.

Still need to work on the x-cal but this was easier and it just had to be done the x-cal is ridable but not tricked out quite yet.

Hoo Ha

The Mesa and Sublime is done. We did get more rain last night but we got a good jump on things. All bridges are intact and over all these years apparently I've found out how to make them last. The place seems huge when its wet because you just can't travel fast. By foot or by bike. The outer leg will be next.

Peoria this weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to boogie from work at noon or so. Big 3 truckload job today and then another loop tonight. Did one last night after putting in a good days work on The Mesa.

Commuting again. Past up this morning but will get back to it tomorrow. I had one good commuting day last week. The weather is prime.

Peoria. 2005

Crapper

Its been a while- In two weeks is the Midwest Mtn Bike Fest. I have a crap load of crap to do. T-ball practice. Two jobs and trail work. Work Out. Yard work and crap. CRAP CRAP crapcrap crapper.

It'll get better. But I'm not getting faster. Whatever.

Snow Day in April

The crew at Tim's. From 31st Street beach to his house and back round trip is about 22 miles. Along the lakefront and thru some of Wrigleyville.

Brrrrr

This past weekend was 70 degrees and the lake front path had the lot of reckless down to watch the lumps bouncing. Now its back down in the 20's and back to indoor workouts. I need to get a bunch of crap done. Not enough time to get it all done. sheee-it. Bouncing tonight and tomorrow. Saturday a Sublime cover band is playing so at least I won't have to listen to a full night of Irish music not that its bad but you know what I mean.

damn

Damn this rain.

loop de loop

Beautiful weather yesterday and the loop was hoppin. Jetted from work early and let off some steam before seeing The Number 23. I give it a thumbs down. Jim Carrey is just not a real believable serious actor. At least not for me.

PSSST.

There will be a race the first weekend in September in PALOS. It took us 3 years of convincing- but we'll be meeting up and getting all the details together. More to come.

bringing the gnar

Rode the loop and did some of the Lake Katherine Multi on Sunday. Missed the Stairmaster for 200.00 dollars.
I'm a hooker. A gnarly one.
As of late workouts have been good with sprinkles of outdoor rides here and there. I'm up to 3-4 times a week weather permitting and including indoor rev master rides. I'm really looking forward to riding singletrack again. Rain is in the forecast for the next four days. So I'll be bringing the gnarly shit with me everywhere I go. So bring it bitches. I have a fresh case of gnar for you. Going back to Friday nights at Quig's. I'm happy that the St. Patty's day(s) are over. Man- the Irish sure know how to drag out a holiday. Made some loot and I can pay off some more of the x-cal.

Parade day.

Bouncing at a Irish Pub down the street from the Southside Irish Parade proved to be exactly what I thought it would be... Fights and drunk chicks sleeping in stalls of the bathroom. At one point I was throwing someone out about every 45 minutes or so.
Also-got the first ride on the x-cal 29'er. Did a loop. I'll describe it as like what I do all day-driving a truck. The ride was smooth and I was able to cruise along with little effort. Hopefully todaywill be the next ride. We'll see. 73 degrees yesterday. 60's today- Yahoo.

right on the right

Went to see these guys. Saw them here. Weird that there was no smoking... It was quite refreshing. 50 degree weather today. Feels like summer.

brick by brick

3 bricks that counted for 7 points apeice. just a bit over 5 lbs. each. I grabbed up 6 total bricks including 2 blues and a orange. So for about an hour 30 lbs. was dragging you down. It was a fun race and had some fun. Then we had Waffles. John Gatto took the trophy home. He is the Bricklayer. Stairmaster next.

Lay a brick bitch

Tonight Bulls game. To watch some brick laying of a different kind. But this Sunday's tour stage is going to be fun. The weather looks good and I don't have to work-
Here is the specs for this weeks race......

Racers have 90 minutes to hit as many checkpoints within the mapped area (map and manifest provided at registration) as possible and collect a brick labeled with point value (2-x) and checkpoint code. If bricks are gone, write down checkpoint code for one point. One Point deduction for every minute over the time limit. Rider with the most points wins. Finish order settles ties. If you intend to win, you could be carrying 35lbs of bricks. Bring something to hold them, something to write with and something to write ON. I will not accept crumpled, sweaty, folded, illegible manifests. Neither would your dispatcher. Rookie. Pancakes and beer-mosas to follow, old-school TDC style. You'll have earned them. Volunteers to help set out bricks.
Oh hell yeah lets kick some ass-its everyone favorite thing to do.

spectacular lameness

Teamed up with the promise of a 5 hour 150.oo dollar night I chose bouncing over the crummy weather and a tour stage. Yep pretty lame. Well this craptacular weather has pissed me off and spent an hour on the revmaster today. It was just like doing the 11 mile loop. [Cough] Thats nine mile up there.

coming soon

The snow is melting and its in the 30's. Singletrack is out for now. But the next Tour stage is Sunday. The Royalty Race. This is the description as given by Erin....

The race is going to have a more ‘classic’ alley cat format –no set course, no set order for the checkpoints with the exception of the first. There will 7 checkpoints total, 5 of which will be given out 1 hour before the start of the race, the remaining 2 will be handed out at the first checkpoint. 2 bonus points will be awarded to the first rider to reach the first check point, while rider deemed to be the most courteous and chivalrous at the first check point will be awarded 15 extra minutes to finish the race (flowers would be nice). There will be a 2 hour time limit to the race and riders coming in late will be ranked last, making it far more important to finish on time than to hit all the checkpoints. Registration will begin at 7 a.m. Sunday Feb. 25 at 500 w. Madison and the race will start at 8 o’clock sharp. The finish will be at the Ravenswood entrance to Rosehill Cemetery. Out of Towners are encouraged to show up early and bring a map.

This one should be in my favor. We'll see.

snow cover

Friday Night worked the door here. Nothing exciting happened. Only a bagpipe guy from Guiness that surprised the Manager. I guess it was a toast thing or something. Except that no one could here a damn thing. It was just too packed.

We had some snow here on Friday Night. Saturday Morning I took Josh for his sledding fix and he had a blast. Belly Button hill had a good jump built from the older kids and Josh and his tube was all over it. He jumped some kid and then started trash talking and was sticking out his tongue and ran. The kid left him alone which was a good thing-he was twice Josh's size. I thought that I could probably take this kids dad if it came down to it. (thats Josh with gravedigger)

Sunday-the crew hit Cascade just above Madison and had some decent snow. By two o'clock the lines were nuts and I boogied. But the first 4 hours were pretty much non stop up and down and the lines weren't terrible. The usual craziness went down. Snow Boarding in the Midwest just doesn't do much for me anymore. Next Year I'll go out West. Its been a few years.

a little more.

-4 degrees. 5 more days (supposedly) until we hit the 30's. Ice City.

Skiing with the Prez.

We have at least a foot of snow. John and I went for the ski around the hood and out towards the Mesa. We didn't get to the Mesa. The snow was deep and we killed a flask of Whiskey in an hour and a half.

Happy Valentines Day.

+3 points

For every 2 degrees below 20 at race start gets bonus points.
The Island Getaway started a Humboldt Park Lemond-style. Running from the island in the middle of the lagoon. Some took the across the ice way and others took the bridge. From there, the main group headed toward Armitage and towards the first checkpoint. The first check point was on the north side of the Lincoln Park Zoo. The Island here was a raised cement island in the middle of a fountain. Here you were Lei-ed.
Then off to 1000 N. Halsted. This houses a spot a bunch of skateboarders decided to build an under ground in door skate park/ramp. Here you were shot. And were marked.
Side note: I won't take a route that takes me in view of the vehicle we drove down in. Unnessecary thoughts of how I could somehow get out of riding the next 25 miles trickle through my brain.
From there the next checkpoint was 222 N. State Street. (State and Wacker) where you were marked again. I dragged a Milwaukee guy through a couple of quicker streets than what the group was doing. He was impressed and was trying to tell me so and then I lost him. never to be seen again.
Off to Northerly Island. The wind and the cold on the Lakefront was pretty bad but you didn't have a choice in the matter. Northerly Island used to be Meigs Airplane Field before Mayor Daley bulldozed it for the reason he said was to stop terrorists from landing there. Now the Charter One Music Pavilion stands here. Here you were marked and given a name.
From there we went to The Japanese Garden behind The Science and Industry Museum. The only way to really get there was in the wind up the lakefront from the Planetarium to 57th Street beach. Under Lake Shore Drive and then sneak behind the museum and onto the lagoon island via two bridges. You had to know the name of the skipper from Gilligans Island so you could get your mark and get off the Island.
Then off to the ghetto- Racine and 55th Street. Sherman park. Grab a rubber ocean animal and get to 500 West Madsion. My route back took me through the Stockyards and the smell of cooked pig. Down Morgan St , in the summertime its where the Latin Kings hang out and then east on 31st where the Kings rivals The Disciples hang. Up Halsted through Maxwell Street Market and Greek Town. Madsion east to the Finish.
It was a real character building day.

Dammit

Why is this so wrong?

I don't think I know anyone around here who still drinks this.

chit

Zesty had to go to the emergency room for the pain in her belly today. She was thought to have appendicitis. Doctors like to scare the crap out of you. They gave her an IV, a Ultrasound and a CAT scan. Apparently she just needed to chit. Enough said. She's fine and well.

The Island Getaway Sunday.
If your old enough go here.

X-C Ski night ops

We have enough snow now to get some skiing in and we rode Stonehenge last night.
Five of us went and after the first five minutes everyone forgot how cold it really was. But when your shell is frozen stiff after about an hour you remember. At that point your pretty much as far as you could get from the car. Singletrack skiing can be treacherous and every hill seems tough. On a bike you buzz a couple miles of singletrack like nothing but skiing not so fast. Stupid -4 degrees.

Twin Six and Fat Cyclist

Brent and Ryan kick ass. They have come up with another killer jersey. Check it out. http://www.fatcyclist.com/

The Zesty One

negative

Well I hate to be negative but the feels temp is -14. That sucks. Flying with the birds on Johnny Spinner makes me want to gag but hell-the gym is getting emptier by the day. January 1st the place is packed for a month and now February hits and its a ghosttown.
So apparently Palos has been invaded by Polish speaking ATV riders. Its like waiting in line at any Midwestern Ski lift with them. Lets pretend not to understand english so we can do what ever the fuck we want. Oh by the way I'm Polish.
So bunch of Mountain Bikers have taken upon thenselves to stop the destruction by having the direct phone number to the Palos Division Forest Preserve Cops. Anyone see anything find Ed Bartunek at www.cambr.org He is Chicago's IMBA rep. Oh and he also keeps the showers up and running at 24-9. He loves heiniken (sp?) beer. If you see him get him one.
Lets kick some ass! Its everyones favorite thing to do. Zesty McGillacudy-ski out.

witness

the robopocalypse.

A Pair of Robotic Pants would be sweet. With Auto Pilot of course.

Aces

You'll have to smoke him if you want the Million.

Watch out for this kid; Dawg. He's a G.

Crazy ass shit.

More Snow

We got another inch or two of Lake effect snow last night. Its brutally cold and the wind just won't stop making it feel 15 degrees colder. Wasteland type cold is going down tonight. My dog won't go out. BAAWAAA!
Midwest Mountain Bike Festival is the same weekend as Iola. http://www.pambamtb.org/festival/index.php
I got one of these Cats for Christmas. I thinking of busting it out right now.
Alley Cat weekend after the S.B.

Done

Some things need to change but this is what it is for now.

Vintage (relatively)

You know where. But do you know what.

One week.

By next Monday a little thing called the Super Bowl is going to decide who is the best football team in the nation is. While I was downtown for the dvd release party I snapped a couple of photos of a deary downtown. The Emerald Isle is at Wabash and Wacker. Accross the river is the Wrigley Building. No not the field of losers. The Building. Buckingham Fountain a.k.a. The Married With Children Fountain has been turned off. Soldier Field is lifeless this Sunday. The Bears are playing next Sunday and the hype on every media outlet is already getting Super old.

Unneeded Rings do this.

or two words-Duck Tape
First ride off road and the answer winter boots get shredded.

Rick, Steve, Beth, George and Coco the Lab were out today. 2 hours Canal to Dynamite-3 Ravines to Ho Chi Mihn-Out and Back to Burrito and back to the Canal. Not so bad for how cold it was.

Crap its Cold

This is what the weather is. BRrrrr.
Local Weather Forecast Chicago, IL
Current Conditions (as of 7:51 AM)
Flurries
8°F
Feels like: -8°F
Wind:
14 mph W
Hi:
20°
Lo:
7°
Snow Showers
9 AM
14°
Snow Showers
Noon
19°
Snow Showers
6 PM
16°
Indeed it does feel Like 0 degrees outside. We'll see how long this ride lasts. MMMMmmmm coffee.

Two Days Three Rides

Yesterday- Palos- The Canal 45 degrees and melting. Last night the 11 mile loop was slushy when we left and icy on the way back. Today Palos was super icy due to all the melt yesterday and its super slick. But the Heckler and the Kenda Klondike studded tires were hooking up thru all the turns.
Three Ravines, One Day, Gravity and Out and Back. Sweet for the end of January.
Tomorrow the Canal Trail Early. Then the dvd party for the Toys For Tots ride where we delivered 750 toys by Bike from Niles to downtown Chicago.