new team kit

new team gear is in!! '360racing' is official. will post team kit pictures later this evening. paying for my sins today by working at the bike shop. trying not to shop too much while i am here.

cold and windy commute to the shop this morning. 30 degrees and snowing a little riding over. maybe up to 4 inches of snow tonite. could be great mtb weather over the next couple of days.

later!

stover metal works

are right, let's get the mundane suff out of the way early. finally got to ride the 'road bike' for a change. sun was shining and it actually got into the 50's. not until i was done riding though. high 40's, maybe 50 by the time i rolled into the garage. a group of 5 of us did a nice tempo ride for a couple of hours. i actually got in 3 hours and 50 miles. man, it was nice to be outside in the beautiful weather. it's been a while.........

i got some pictures below of my new reciever hitch bike rack. none of the big or even small companies makee a 'fork mounted' reciever hitch rack anymore. just the kind that lock in both wheels of the bike. i dont' like that style at all, and have heard to many horror stories about bikes falling off.
so a friend of mine, who was actually my first captain on the fire department, designed and welded one for me. he actually made one for himself first. his first production had an elbow hinge that swung out to the side of the car so you could access and open you hatch on the rear or your car. the one he made for me, i asked to simplify and lighten a little. it actually hinges at near the base of the tongue from the reciever to swing up when not in use. pretty cool stuff. allows me to get the bikes off the top of my car, which i hate because it hurts the gas mileage.

nathan is in the process of making a few more to sell and should have few to look at and to sell come 'spring fling' races. more info from 'Stover MetalWorks' forthcoming in future posts. nate is trying to get a website up and running and will have a contact number for questions and interested persons.

hoped you enjoyed the couple of days of sunshine and mild temps, cuz it looks like another round of artic air is headed towards kc and the midwest.

till next time,
vote, even if its for an idiot, at least vote!

note to haters out there

let's see...............weather channel had olathe as 5 degrees when i left my house at 10:30 am to hop on my bike.....................who's a pussy, you ask. not me! anyway, i hopped on my mntn bike to meet ted at shawnee mission park. stayed warmer and out of the wind by taking the streamway path. no wind though and I ended up working harder than i would have preferred due to snow pack on the pathway. oh well. this just means i suffered the cold on the way home by taking the main roads. legs could use the break of grinding all the way home from the snow. able to spin higher gear on the road out of the snow.
it ended up being a really good ride. not near as bitter and painful as i expected. the sunshine and lack of wind really made for an enjoyable ride. ted has a cx loop figured out come next july when we start prepping for cx season.............god, i'm screwed, i am already thinkin' about cross'.
i need help!!

go ride! oh, i wonder what lucas was doing while ted and i were riding?hmm...................probably not riding.

so i've got a couple of excuses for not joining some friends on a sunday morning ride. 1: its only 12 degrees. 2: it was a busy day at work yesterday, we had structure fire my crew spent a couple of hours at. 3: i dont want to battle with my wife with why i'm riding when i'll be on shift at the firehouse starting monday for 48 straight hours. then she will be working the next couple of nights during the middle of the week. so, i probably ought to put her first.

but honestly, those three reasons may be good ones. however, i think for whatever reason the motivation is down and it is just easier to hop on the trainer for an hour. the alternative is to spend 20 minutes preparing for the cold ride, then another 25 minutes driving to the trailhead, ride for an hour and a half at god only knows who's pace. this basically puts back home at noon or so, cuz the guys i'm meeting didn't want to start riding until 9:00. which really means wait for everyone to show and maybe the ride will start by 10:00.

like i said, its just easier to hop on the trainer. i may not be saying that come tuesday afternoon at the firehouse when i'll be starting my 4th day in a row with my daily ride being spent on the friggin' trainer. oh well! today i choose the pathe of least resistence.

i'm sure the guys will have a fun ride with or without me, and i'm sure my wife would'nt have kept me in the 'dog house' for very long, and i'm really sure i'll be cussing at the trainer monday and tuesday. the motivation to tough the elements and other life' obstacles will only increase over the next few weeks, and i will be riding under nasty midwest weather conditions.

besides, i'm not as 'lucky' as Ted. i am not able to commute to my firehouse.
I dont wonder, I Know What Ted is doing!

human powered two wheeled machines are better for you.........

trainer wins

snow ride

mid 20's and 3 inches of snow on the ground doesn't sound like fun stuff to ride in. let me tell you though, the tempurature becomes an afterthought and the snow makes it seem like you are on virgin singletrack. i rode out at shawnee mission park this morning and i think i had a couple of hikers and another mtb'er on the trail before me. as much as i wanted to do an easy tempo ride, it is really impossible to do that kind of ride in 3 or 4 inches of snow. unfortunately you are going to have to work a little harder than on a normal day. it was still a super fun ride, and for those of you who haven't ridden off-road in the snow. you need to try it, it's well worth it.

oh well, back to work on shift tommorrow which means more trainer time. my hour and a half ride will have to carry me thru until i can get out again on sunday. think i have got my new 'ride' dialed in. had to get rid of the riser brs and go back to flats to get handlebar height to where they were on my previous bike. feels a little more agressive with flats instead of risers. jury is still out though.

so till next time........dress warm and go ride!

maiden voyage

First ride with the new bike. i only rode off-road for about 30 minutes before the ground was in full thaw mode. it got really goopy and i just didn't want to deal with spending 2 hours cleaning it, since i was going to change front ders later in the day. another 30 minutes on gravel and pavement at shawnee mission park gave me an easy recovery ride of an hour.
The 'Niner' rode like i thought it would. steeping head tube created a quicker handling bike compared to my Fisher 29'er. i also thik itmight be a pound lighter. this is unsubstantiated though, cuz i haven't weighed it yet.
I think i will make another change in the set-up of mountain bike. i am going to a single ring up front, replacing the standard 3 rings. i just don't like the lack of clearence issues and the cross gearing really limits your gear choices anyway. i've got 3 chainrings on order, a 32, 34, and 36 tooth. depnding on the trails, i will change out accordingly. i am unsure how the single ring will work in race scenerio, so i will use the next month and a half to experiment with the 1x9 set-up. i hope it work out, cuz the simplicity of it really intrigues me. i've run a 1x9 set-up on my cross' bikes the last 2 race seasons and loved it. however, a mountain bike race has got a little more elevation change an is generally at least an hour longer than a cross' race. we'll see..............if the 1x9 experiment doesnt work for racing, then plan B is to go to a 2 ring set-up, similar to a road compact gearing set-up. i've had in mind a 29/40 , 30/40 or a 29/42 gear set-up. with mountain bike cranks, its tough to find anybody making the exact sized rings with the right bolt pattern and spacing. i think my only option will be going back to an octa-link style BB and crankset. and i belive my only option is the company FSA. they are the only company that i can find doing that kind of set-up and gearing.
I've got a cold and possibly wet commute to the bike shop tommorrow. i hope its snow and not rain. i think kansas city is supposed to get another blast of arctic air over the next week and a half or 2. makes for some long cold base miles. fortunately my motivation is still pretty good so getting on a trainer a feww days a week doesn't seem so horrible right now. eventually the monotony of it will drive me outside to bear 15-20 degrees, even 10 degrees on the mountainbike. riding in the frigid cold is like anything. if you are prepared and dress acordingly then it can be an enjoyable, almost an adventurous experience.

till the next time! and don't bother steering on ice.............

the new ride, courtesy of my beautiful better half

alright alright, my man my man.......about 3hours of leg work and i got my new mountain bike built. my lovely wife bought me the Niner frame for x-mas and it was delivered to the shop today. i could hardly contain myself. going to take it on a test run tommorrow morning on some frozen singletrack and check my build. i got it built with not really any catches to speak of. which is new for me. each build over the last couple of years has gotten a little bit smoother each time. the only thing missing on the bike is my Thompson seatpost i have on order. i didnt realize the niner aluminum and scandium frames came with that gigantic seattube(31.6). oh well, when you look at the pics below just imagine that good looking bike with a silver thompson seatpost! we'll see tommorrow, but i think i need a new front der. ther's a lot of play in it so i think i may match it with the rear and make it a sram instead of the shimano

anyhow, check out the pics! and
see you on the trail!

oh man! why did he have to show up?

so as a cyclist that races you know, if you aren't a cyclist, winter base miles can be excruciating, monotonous and painfully insane. so mixing your training up with the mountainbike on some singletrack is a much needed chance to has some fun. and even a group ride here or there is really fun as well........although you have to be carefull. this 'group ride' can be a chancy deal at best. first of all, you need everyone on the same page i. e. it's 'base miles' which means guys should hopefully taking it easy. 'base miles' are a time for the slow long time in the saddle kindof training. however, you should know or at least i should, that when you get more than 4 males cyclists together...............well..................let's just say there is too much testosterone in the group or the levels of ability differ enough that you have a higher pace than normal or wanting a person might be looking for as far as following there training log. you might just have guys on different periods of there 'program' or training. whatever the case may be, i should have friggin' known better.!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........
however, the doldrums of base training were blinding me and i was under the impression that a sunday group ride on the road with 10 other guys in sub 32degree weather was a really good idea..... man, did it sound like a lot of fun too!
jeez! am i a dumbass, or what?...........i should've known better, but it had been so long since i had riden with somebody other than myself and maybe my friend ted from time to time, well...................i was blinded i guess, or in denial.
i was immediately mad aware of my mistake and slapped back into reality when i pulled into the bike shop parking lot on sunday morning by who i saw there. the 1st person i see was an immediate 'ah shit' kinda reminder to what i had gotten myself into. a realization that this was not going to be an easy ride. hell, i was the 3rd guy there, who else was going to show up that was going to cause my legs to be ripped off? that first culprit that brought me back to my 'mortal' cat 4 world was 'Bill'. let's just say 'Bill' is a cat 1 racer who has been racing for over half of his 38 year old life and is one of those guys that just loves, i really mean 'loves' to suffer. shit! what on earth was i thinking? too late to back out now. 2 more guys show up..............i'd really be a puss if i snuck out now. oh well, its sunday, i'm off for 4 days, i can just decide to suffer. these are things i am telling myself to mentally prepare for the impending pain. its the last ride before a recovery week in my training cycle, the previous ttwo days of easy recovery rides have made my sore, heavy legs feel better........hmm, what else can i lie to myself about...............this is gonna friggin' hurt!!

skip to 3 and a 1/2 hours later, im rolling up to my driveway, i am tired, my legs are dead, i'm cold and somehow............i'm glad i took my 'asskickin'. it didnt hurt as bad as i thought, we didnt go as hard as i thought we would. oh, dont get me wrong, it still hurt, it was still a harder ride than i want for this type of year or that i have planned for my training. i might end up really feeling the affects a couple of weeks down the road...................still, its good to test yourself, even in the winter. its good to ride with guys who are stronger than you, its how you yourself improve and get stronger. right? thats what i tell myself anyway.
most of all though, it was just fun to ride with some company, some social ascpect to the ride i guess. sometimes you gotta throw the 'training book' away and just go ride. thats what time away from racing is all about. get away from whole 'just riding to train' mindset......for godsake! its a friggin' bike! go have fun!!

till next time, keep the rubber side down!

the last cross' race of the year was this past sunday, the 6th.............all my free time is spent thinking about the next race. i think i'm crazy! march 2nd the first Heartland race of the year, the first mtb race, the first race of the year. my i'm consumed or obsessed. eaither one. i've got issues.

base miles.......god! it's already been a long three weeks, 9 more to go.....

new mtb frame is due in on monday.......can't wait to get that built up and some dry or frozen singletrack to ride it on. that is a much more enjoyable way to log base miles on.

short post, i'm up early tommorrow to work. 530 comes too soon.

oh, here's something....ran a call yesterday, 23 year old kid took a 9mm to his mouth and pulled the trigger. how does it get that bad. hopefully he was an organ donor, cuz he had a heartbeat when we got him in the helicopter.

till next time!

Hello! Jan. 9: my first entry

Well, this started cuz a friend of mind started a blog. ichecked it out and thought it was really cool. just a snapshot into his life. pics of wife, kids, dog, hell it was just a window into his daily life.
i sent him some pics my wife had taken of him racing his bike, he loved and posted a couple. i thought that was really cool.

my friend, Ted and i are out riding today, and i asked him, 'how do start a blog?'.....well, that answer led to this. i seem to be stumbling through the whole set-up thing.......not quite sure what will look good or what i should say. but as i was setting this up, that's where the whole 'journal' thing seemed to come to mind. kinda like that 8th grade english teacher asking you to write in you 'daily journal'.....we all know how big of a pain in the 'ars' that was.

this doesn't seem to be that way though..........multi-media technology, i guess?

so anyway, ted and i rode for a couple of hours together. company on the bike helps those base miles go a littke faster and a little easier. i got in 3 1/2 hours and about 46 miles. a miserable south wind made it feel like 32 instead of the claimed 44 degrees.

gotta go, i'm up early to work......24hrs/7am to 7am. just saving lives and making a difference. ha ha. actually i or my crew has 'ice rescue' training tommorrow. we get to put on a cold water wet suit and jump into a half frozen pond tommorrow. it is actually some fun stuff!! seriously!

until next time.