Palm Monday

My old Motorola Q9h finally quit syncing up with my computer and Sprint has owed me an upgrade since March of 09. This is what I got.



So far it works like a champ. Touch screen and a QWERTY key board the best of both worlds. Maybe you can see from the pic that you can flip thru multiple apps like a deck of cards. Flip it up and it goes away.

I will be sure I will let you know when I break it.

Holiday Cheer

This is for my brothers and brothers in law. Enjoy.

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Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

This year in pictures

This is my first attempt at putting a movie together, a collage of good times and great stuff I have seen from the saddle of my bike. All in 4 minutes.

Enjoy.

We are "The Cyclists"

Good stuff from the interweb.

The intermediate state between humans and pure energy............... hilarious.

Sometimes you can go home again.

Last weekend Sarah had some meetings in SLC for Open High School of Utah, an online High School that opened up this year. Sarah hates car trips, she would rather fly 8 hrs than drive for 4 so she brings me along to A) Do the driving and B) Relieve the monotony - I am an excellent traveling companion.
So while she was occupied for 6hrs in a conference room turning the world of on line teaching upside down, I took a little time for myself.
First I met Matt and Dusty for lunch at Vino's roach truck in Bountiful. That man turns out some delicious grub, I recommend the cheese steak sandwich. We talked about old times and good times and the current state of affairs, caught up on family and generally enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
Then D and I headed off to go ride the Mueller Park trail, I used to ride this trail all the time when we lived there 9 yrs ago. I did not ride as much then as I do now and my memory of suffering up the trail to Elephant Rock made me a little nervous about bringing the SS. I shouldn't have worried, what I had forgotten was how smooth that track is and my gearing was perfect. The leaves are changing and there was a layer of yellow covering the ground. Riding on leaves makes for a very quiet ride.


This could have been the ride of the year, at least top 3. It was one of those days where I felt like I could ride forever.




Special thanks to Dustin for being my photog.



D forgot his helmet but weighed the odds and decided to ride anyway. I think he was glad he did.



The view from Elephant Rock, the canyon out to the lake.



Dusty also shot a great video but Blogger is refusing to play nice. So watch for the next post, I have something special for you. (By special I mean shortbus special.)

Open letter to Rednecks

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Put a throttle in a mans hands and you lower his IQ by 80 points.

Dear 4 wheeler, Rhino riding, inbred, no helmet wearing, rules don't apply to me Redneck,

I saw a lot of your handiwork this morning first hand, but I have been experiencing it for a long time and I finally have to say something. Even if it is only on this blahg that only 2 people read, one of them being my Mom.
You seem to be of the opinion that as long as you are on your radical mosheen and you are in what feels like the middle of nowhere you can ride where ever want. Well sir, if you see this sign it means you can't go in there.





Even if you have wire cutters in your pocket it does not mean that it will be OK.






I don't care how long you and your "Pappy" have been coming to this very special spot in the desert, ramming the gate with your Poolaris 600 until you can get through is not acceptable behavior. I don't care what your blood alcohol level says.




For future reference if you see a trail that is only wide enough for 1 of your wheels, that does not mean that you put one side on the trail and the other side out crushing bushes. The Stucki Springs trail used to be a beautiful 20" wide singletrack and now I could drive my truck down it. Thanks for nothing.
If I am lucky enough to catch you on the wrong side of the fence, we are going to fight, and as you lay bleeding in the dirt I am going to puncture all 4 of your tires with my Crank Bros multitool. I want you to have to walk all the way back to your double wide so that you won't ever forget to stay on your side of the fence.

I know that I have made some disparaging remarks towards a certian class of people and maybe that is unfair because probably half of the offenders have a degree from BYU. Which proves my initial statement.

Does anyone know what the two most common elements in the galaxy are?? You guessed it, carbon and stupidity.

Everything old is new again

I broke my bike. I broke it real good.



About a month ago as I was training for the Moab 24, it was 5:30am and dark as pitch. I had my lights on but it is not the same as riding during the day. I entered a small wash going about 15mph and saw that the water course had been completely scoured by a recent rain storm. What used to be a smooth transition at the bottom was now a 12 inch high embankment.
There was a loud crack and the sudden stop threw me over the bars, the human mind is an incredible thing because while I was airborne I was fully cognizant that something on my bike was very broken and I actually contemplated how far the walk home was.



I am not telling you something new but my frame builder (Steve Garro/Coconino Cycles) is awesome. I sent him the pics and told him about my dilemma, I assured him that the breakage was due to user interface and had nothing to do with the construction of the frame. So today Fedex showed up with my frame complete with a new front triangle and fresh paint. It looks brand new.
Here is sits on what I assume is Steve's back patio. Nice flagstone.



I put it all back together this afternoon and will take a short shake down cruise Wednesday morning. Its good to have her back, some of you may have noticed in the last post that I was riding a different bike at Moab. If you didn't notice please pay more attention.

PS...... did I mention that Steve is awesome??