From Taiwan w/ Love

Dumpster diving this weekend brought me to another frame in great shape and thanks to all the rain I had plenty of time to get it pretty much completely built up. all it needs now is wheels. Gonna be my fixed gear boston whip since I am trading the other one I built for art.

probably wont ride it a whole hell of a lot but whatevah. its a 'Takara Advantage' all red with white decals and the wheels i bought have yellow (edit:blue) rims. its gonna look real nice and it will probably (edit: defenitely) get stolen in .4 secs in beantown. Its gonna be geared huge 51-16, should be (edit: is) hilarious.

here it is. took it for a test drive around the block and the gear is BURLY. but whatever, my man legs have bent chainrings into 'S' shapes, so i think i can handle it. I really like the way this one came out considering it was a fast, unplanned project. i hope to ride it in boston at least 5 times before it gets stolen....gotta have goals.

The Chopper v3.0? v4.0? I dont even know anymore

okay first a little history on 'The Chopper'. Arguably started as a Specialized FSR full suspension back in 2000 then changed out to a lighter Jamis Durango hardtail in '01. Many of the parts carried over to the new frame. Some, due to compatibility issues, did not. Hence the beginning of its hybrid, frankenstein, chopped up existence.

It had been upgraded over the years continuing the bastardization until finally after repeated manglings of my rear dérailleur i converted it to a jerry rigged single speed (many zipties were used).

It has been recently retired from regular MTB use when i 'upgraded' to a rigid 29er for my race bike. It has been hanging in my basement dormant ever since....and I'm not gonna let the Chopper go out like that. I have recently been introduced to a 'go anywhere, no terrain is unridable, cyclocross-ish' group ride that has the Chopper's name ALLLLLLL OVER IT.

ITS ALLLLIIIIIIIIVVVEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

EFTA #1 Glocester Grind

I came in last and finished 40 minutes behind the 'main group'.

BUUUUUT

I flatted twice and had to run the entire last lap because I was out of tubes. Translation: This race, all though it didnt go very well, demonstrated some promise for my title chances this year. The last lap alone took me 1 hour so I would have been right in the thick of things for sure.

First flat came about 2 miles into the first lap, I was sitting in about 5th or 6th( out of I think 10) having beaten some guys off the line. By that point I had put some time into them as well and I was feeling good. Adam had just caught me and I was going to try and hold his wheel as long as I could to put even more time into them and hopefully catch some people in front of me. Then my front tire went flat. probably took me 10 minutes to fix and i was passed by everyone.

Got back rolling and actually caught 2 of the SS'ers who had passed me while I was fixing my flat. which kind of amazed me because at that point I was sure i was screwed for the rest of the race. so mentally i was feeling pretty good, riding well. first lap took 40 minutes, second lap took 30 minutes, 3rd lap took about another 30-35 and right before the finish of my third lap my rear tire went flat. I was out of tubes and pretty pissed at this point because I was going so well, so in typical 'me' fashion i said screw it and started running. Running turned into walking and i pretty much ran/walked the entire last lap (5 miles). last lap took 1 whole hour and I finished in about 3 hours.

My main rival from last year came in 5th at 2h20m and if you do the math of my laps 40m - flat tire =30m + 30m + 35m + what im assuming probably would have been another 35-40m last lap - having to walk and im in at around 2h20m give or take. This is a dude who beat me by usually around 20 minutes last year.

so officially the race was shitty but promising.

Here is a pic of me I found on the interweb from the race (i believe its from my first lap right after my flat):