Penny Farthings and Tandem musings

We were talking about penny farthings the other night after a group ride.
then I saw this while cruisin the FFL

Riding a fixie is enough fun for me, thank you very much. Crit racing while riding a fixie 7 feet in the air......thats.......Australian.
On the upside I am currently looking into a box full of tandem bike cranks. I also have a excel spreadsheet with parts and QBP numbers ready to be turned in to Aaron at Big Poppi so we can make this tandem mountain bike happen. I still have not been able to find a fork for the mighty beast, cuz every punk kid on pinkbike thinks his beat up Marzocchi is the greatest thing since fullfaced helmets. I am really tempted just to snipe a few bids on fleabay and buy a Maverick DUC 32 but that woul blow my budget pretty quick once I factor in the cost of a new front wheel. stupid 24 mm thru axles. If any of yall want to unload a heavy duty fork for a 20mm thru axle let me know, I am in the market

Emporia XC Race

Lelan gave me a heads up on this event that they are putting on down in Emporia. There has definitely been less XC with the Heartland hiatus, and folks down in Emporia aim to rectify that.
http://crampalexanderrace.blogspot.com/
I have still yet to understand why XC races here in the midwest start at noon, especially given that they are racing in the hottest time of the year. Plus that just means that those of us that do not live in KC (I hate being a minority) have to devote an entire day to an event. The upside is that I do not have to get up and start traveling at the crack of dawn.
Meh. its a toss up, that is the downside of not living close to where the races are held.
It is great that they are gonna be showcasing some trails that the rest of us would not normally see.
Looks like good times.

I did not know that a honda could do that

Thats what folks were muttering as we brought the party to Lake Wilson. John Waller brought a jet ski so we could diversify our recreational opportunities in the heat of the day.

Packed and ready to roll.

Were Bad Goats go when they lie.

When we were riding we scooped out some really sweet canyons that looked narrow enough to stretch a slack line across. We needed about 10 feet more line to have been able to get the line really tight enough.

Once you got to the center of the line you got your feet a little wet.

John Waller hates wet feet

Late Saturday night the ranger at Wilson came in to tell us that there was going to be a really big storm with high winds and large hail coming in so we exercised prudent judgment and made a hasty retreat back to manhappenin. This morning we hit the river trails for a couple hours

John needed some coaching on how to roll one of the skinnies

Big Al was like, "focus".

John focusing.

Eyes on the prize.
We then proceeded to recreate on the mighty Kansas River.

The river has been up and with the sandy bottom its a great place to take a jetski, and a really easy place to learn to knee boardsince the surface is so flat and glassy

We also just played around with the jetski.

We also would play the game were Waller would fling a frisbee and I would try to chase it down over open water. Great fun!

We just could not get John out of the water. Good times Kansas River style.

Nebraska rambling

Her al-ness and I decided to make journey to Lincoln, NE to check out the single track of Wilderness park, only to be skunked by an inch of precip the night before. So we relegated ourselves to some Homestead rail trail time trialing, spinning 34-19. Felt like a hamster for ~30 miles.

We did have strong headwind so it was important to assume the mtb aero position

Al was not deterred by a lack of gnar.


In case you are not familiar with Amoeba Research and Development, they are our light sponsor for Bad Goat Racing. Pretty sweet stuff.

Al representin BGR and looking snazzy as we make the turn to get the wind at our backs


Ahoy Lincoln!

We had a great time just shooting the bull and enjoying each others company. Lincoln definitely has a great cycling scene as we saw lots of people out enjoying the great weather.

Next we headed south to drop off the Gravel Conspiracy kegs at Spilker Ales in Cortland, NE.
Sam Spilker was hosting a open house and we were able to get a tour. He runs a great institution and produces some spectacular dry hopped Ale!
Off to take Brutus swimming and then a BBQ with friends!
Cheers!

It surprisingly interesting what I can't tell you

That about sums up my job interview. Lots of really vague questions that have no "real" answers.
Landed in DC on Tuesday evening and met one of the other candidates, Hannah. We barely survived the drive to our corporate quarters with our driver. He drove a 15 passenger van like it was sports car through DC rush hour. Hannah and I ate at a Indian restaurant and swapped supositions about what our interview would entail, and traded cycling stories. She had served in the Peace Corps previously so I picked her brain about aid work.
After the interview I wandered about DC, and then caught the MARC train to Aberdeen, MD. My older brother Matt picked me up, and we went out for Crab Cakes. HHHMMMHHH
The next morning I met my dad and we went kayaking on the the Susquehana River, then we washed up and went to my cousin Kara's wedding rehearsal dinner.
Then the real treat of the trip was getting to order a bunch of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
and eat them with my dad and brother, while Aunt Tracy regaled us with tales of the of the states attorney office and how they tried to institute a loaner handgun program in addition to the loaner cell phone program for abused women. Thugs and other ner-do-wells keep a healthy distance from Hartford County.
Then the next morning we went to Inner Harbor of Baltimore to see all the sights.

Pretty sure it is not that interesting


Gratuitous sub shot for Brad

I know I want a buzzard on the front of my boat!

Foolery

I thought that the world should experience this. you will laugh until you cry.
In other news I am off to DC in the morning and am gonna try not to suck at life in this interview.
Otherwise that $400 suit will have been for naught.
Mike Marchand won the DK 200 by mostly just being a machine. I saw him dominate at Cruise the Blues last year(read: I got dominated). He really is not phased by heat at all. Cornbread and Troy rounded out the top three. Joe Fox and Peter Krause rolled in later to make up the top 5. This was Peters first DK and he JUST GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL! I do not think he came even vote. Peter, you will have to use a stick to keep the Coeds at bay when they find out about your gravel road staying power.
Peter and several other folks definitely took a much smarter slow and steady approach to this race. Very smart tactic. But, then again Peter is a smart kid.......not like these morons

My throat hurts, my feet stink, and I don't love.......

....Quitting.
But that was what i did.
My 2009 Dirty Kanza 200 experience was no where near as enjoyable as last year, and judging from what I have heard so far the attrition rate was really high.
I woke up feeling pretty good, but as the day wore on I started feeling a sore throat coming on.
Anyway, We rolled out of Emporia in a mass start with the pace set pretty high. I was feeling pretty good, and was trying to keep Skip in sight, as he was last years 2nd place SS finisher. For that matter all of the Nebraska crowd was looking very strong. My money is on Cornbread at 3:1!
At about the 12 mile mark, where you encounter the first real hill, I felt my rear rim make contact.
I was set up tubeless so I hit it with some CO2 and did the shake and shimmy. I was rewarded with a spraying of Stans from a sidewall slit that was parallel with the bead. No sealage.
Throw a tube in and watch the entire field pass me by. Get back on and charge back through the field. I have to admit that it felt really good to be able to reel positions that quickly. I was able to catch back up to Joel Dyke, the copromoter of the DK 200, at aroud mile 45. I slipped away for a few hundred yards and then decided to walk a (not so) big hill as the camera crew drove by giving me all kinds of crap about my weak skills(thanks Lelan!)
Got to the top of the hill and started rolling down the backside when I hear the PPPSSSSHHTTT of my front tire going flat. Stop, change tire, and watch the field pass me by again. from here on the fun factor went way down. I was out of water before hitting the 60 mile checkpoint at Cottonwood Falls, and while I managed to catch everyone that passed me on my 2nd flat I knew that this was not a sustainable effort.
I managed to jump on the John Mathias/Peter Krause pain train as we were rolling out of Cottonwood Falls. John pulled me for a long way, and it was obvious that he was feeling very good, as was Peter (who, by the way, is capable of sending a text message while riding gnarly gravel). I was able to hang on to John and Peter until about the 80 mile mark, where we picked up BGR Teamate John Waller.
less than 2 miles later I look back to see that John Waller is kicking at his pedal. He snapped the retaining spring in his Crank Bro's pedal so there was no clippage. We decided that we could not keep up with John M. and Peter, and went it alone.
At mile 85 I was feeling absolutely shelled. My chest felt really tight, it hurt to take deep breaths, and my throat was sore. I looked at John and told him I was calling it. I called Alison and said come get me. We kept riding toward the 100 mile point. We came across Dennis Grelk changing a flat. Dennis and I have a lot of experience seeing each other with flats. I whipped out a CO2 cartridge and got him aired up and on the road while Waller chatted with Doug Long.
We made it to the 93 mile point before Alison found us. On our drive back to Council Grove We also found a very lost and out of water Mike Wise so we crammed one more bike into the back of the Recreational Turd Colored Vehicle (RTCV) and John and rode on the tailgate into Council Grove.
All in all, I have to admit that even if there had not been strong west winds for the first 40 miles I still would have pulled the plug.
To give you some perspective last year I averaged 17.8 mph up the first CP, this year I averaged 13.9 mph. There was some serious wind!
Riding 200 miles in the flint hills is not a impossible feat, but when the wind and the temperature conspire against you like they did this year it really is a super human accomplishment just to finish!
Big thanks to Joel and Jim for all their work putting together a really great, well marked course.
I think that everyone appreciated the spray painted arrows in addition to the ribbons.
I am looking forward to seeing who finished. If you see a 09 DK finisher you can rest assured that you are looking at one tough hombre!
I am gonna go mix up another theraflu cocktail and try to get some more sleep.
Cheers
Joshua