So close………………
Ready for the trail eh? Nope. Not quite. Maybe God doesn’t want me to ride a bike from Erik’s. Well, at least he’s making it more difficult then I would have thought. I started building up my newest edition to Bad Andy’s fleet last week. This was probably the most fun I’ve had building a bike. Yes, road bike was fun with the Campy, but hell, this is and S-Works. It truly is what the big dogs ride. To 
you’re left welcome to problem #1. See that chain rubbing on the seatstay? Yea, not supposed to happen. Now the American Classic hub came with two spacers for the cassette. I put on the narrower of the two, problem is still there. I’m sure a little grinding wouldn’t hurt, but still I shouldn’t have to do that. I try my XTR/Sun Ringle wheel and no issues. Fuck beans. I hope I can find a way to use these wheels.
Feast you’re eyes on problem #2. Its kinda hard to see with the flash, but the wheel is not sitting straight in relation to the frame(spacing from side to side differs). The Park Tool FAG-1(Frame Alignment Gauge) does not work well with this frame so I do the old "string" test. Sure enough, the rear triangle is out of alignment. Cripes. I make the call, get a new frame on order and life is good right? Besides the facts of having to wait for a new frame to come from Specialized, build up another bike early next week, quickly get a few rides under my belt on the new frame, scurry to make small fit adjustments then race on the 8th. Oh yea, its all good. I know I shouldn’t complain too much. I was totally stoked to get the chance to own one of these, it’s just these problems have come at a bad time. On the upside, the road bike has been seeing lots of miles. 50 on Sunday, and 60 today. Nice long rides. 
Myself, Nate, and Matt bussed it downtown this past Friday to watch Stage 3 of 5 stages in the Nature Valley Grand Prix. A local road stage race that is starting to get some national attention. Friday’s race was a 1 hour Crit through downtown. Those of you who are not familiar with this term, a Crit is an all out sprint with numerous laps around tight turns. It was a blast. I’ve never had the opportunity to see one
of these in person and it was a treat. There’s a blast of wind as these
guys go blowing by. Speeds on the laps were around 30-34mph with the
last lap at a quivering 36mph. Thats a fast speed to maintain for an
hour. It was a great scene. Brits was nice enough to give us plastic
cups so we can enjoy our drunkenness right up on the gate. A great race and a great crowd. It was announced that some 35,000 people attended the race. Though I think thats a bit exaggerated there were a lot of people watching. All kinds. Not just the uber hard core cycling crowd, but you’re every day person just checking it out. People just getting off work staying and watching, kids of all ages. It was fun.
So for those of you who have not talked to myself of Matt in awhile you do not know that our landlord put the house we are living in up for sale about 3 weeks ago. Not cool. We love living here and before this news had not intention of moving out anytime soon. Now there is a chance we could continue living here, but there are a lot of variables and volatile chain of events for that to work out. Obviously the buyer has the will to do whatever he/she wants to the house. If they decide to keep the house a rental property there’s a chance the rent will go up. Or, if they keep it a rental property and want to move in they will most likely move into our unit. For two reasons. 1. All the showings are in our unit. 2. Its the biggest unit and in my opinion most unique. Or, the buyer will kick all of use out, and change the entire house. The ideal situation for us would be no or minimal rent change and that we continue not paying for heat(yes we don’t pay for heat). With that said, you guys will definitely know if we are moving out and will have one last party. Well, I think I’ve earned a couple cocktails with today’s ride. I’m off to William’s for a couple drinks. See you all on the flip side. Ciao
daily quote - "this sport is so hard, you can’t do it for a paycheck" -24 hour and endurance mt. bike racing pioneer John Stamstad commenting on 24 hour solo mt. bike racing.
today’s term - vegetable tunnel n. a singletrack that is heavily overgrown with foliage, so a rider must duck and bent to get through it.
