It's Monday again

On a side note, I just got back to town and if you weren't aware yet, burning man is apparently happening this week. Here's a tip if you're out on the road and find large amounts of brightly colored feathers blowing all over the side of the highways and the gas station smells more like patchouli (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=patchuli) than gas. Chances are you've stumbled onto a main thoroughfare of the hippy migration. I think I saw both of these guy's on the freeway between San Francisco and Tahoe. I could smell the hemp fumes a mile back...






Just because this first one's so short, we'll go for two.

There's No Helmets In Klunking

I'm in a rush and low on battery but the long and the short of the day was this. I had deep fried French Toast for breakfast. (Automatically means the rest of your day will kick ass no matter what) Did I already mention the French Toast?
Anyways, next I went to Fairfax met some friendly locals and went for a ride up the highly revered Mt Tam. This is like a pilgrimage for mountain bikers and I truly feel like a man now. As a side note, since I wasn't really planning on doing any trail riding, all I had was my single speed, 1 water bottle and no other trail riding gear. So, it was an interesting ride, but hey if you're gonna ride anywhere without a helmet, this is the place to do it. Aside from not having a helmet I also didn't have a pump, which normally wouldn't be a big deal except that my bike had a pretty fast leak and I was just able to find 3 people throughout my ride who had pumps to use, with little to no back tracking. Lots of swear words though.

After reaching the beautiful peak of Mt. Tam I turned around and jammed down the hill in hopes to make it back to my van in Fairfax with enough air in my tires to not send my helmetless carcass to the boulders at an extremely high rate of speed. (Long sentence, I told you I'm tired) After getting to the van I took a French bath and headed over to visit my friend Mike over at Marin Bikes. Mike gave me the 24 cent tour and I must say, I was impressed. Apparently before Marin bought the building it was owned by the Grateful Dead and was there hang out and recording studio. I got to see their old sound room and some of their left over equipment. I think I still smelled dope in that room. After the tour we hung out in the office a bit and headed back to freshen up for some tasty burritos. Now, on a full belly and an empty brain, the night's scheming begins.
FTW

Wheels

This week has been short on time and subsequently, I have not done much in the way of producing any kind of material that would be of interest to anyone, really. Can't totally say that's a bad thing since that usually means awesome stuff is happening for me at a rate much too fast to keep up with and post here. I am currently sitting outside a library in the beautiful (and historical) town of Fairfax, Ca.

The mountain and trees all around here are amazing and I am looking forward to heading over to Fairfax Cyclery to check out some of their historic stock piles and artifacts. I'll be headed up to Tahoe next for some riding at North Star. Haven't ridden there in quite some time however I hear the bike park has been blowing up.

In other news, check out Scott's site as he threw is swingin photo party Friday night and it was amazing. Big props to Scott for all the hard work and dedication he put into this project. I feel very proud to have been a part of this and fortunate to have it documented so well. Check out http://www.itsbetterinthewind.com/

It's Better In The Wind - Book Release & Opening Party from Scott Toepfer on Vimeo.

As a side note, if you ever find yourself tired while driving through Marin County, be sure you wake up and move your car often since they have a law here that only allows you to sleep in your car for 4 hours. I found that out early this morning with a nice wake up call by the Marin Sherrif's Dept. Thank you Deputy.

I've decided that Monday mornings I'm going to host a contest; a contest of skill, luck, and determination. Moronic Mondays will consist of reader submitted videos with any kind of ridiculous content. Since this is the first Monday we'll start it off with a dual!



Happy Monday!



I'll work on gettin a link up so you can post your videos, for now you can email me direct. Lookin forward to seeing what you guys can come up with!
FTW

Das Right

Poached from The Sensus. Keeps the theme of the day goin...

Wish I Was There

Well, earlier this week Chris came back to the office with a grin as big as the Cheshire cat telling us we needed to get bikes built in a big hurry and he would be leaving town in a couple days. "I'm goin riding the Geore Bush!" Well I offered to be Chris's body guard for the event however I guess he felt I was needed more here, at my desk, helping the people.... I digress, We are all stoked that Chris and Steve got to go out and ride with W. (except Salty, he's a hippie) Regardless, being able to ride with a former President would be a pretty amazing experience and I would love to do a sweet wheelie pop high five as I rode past Dubya, maybe get a picture of me jumping over him or something I don't know. Anyways, they're out in the Bungport now shreddin the New England trails and truly livin the high life, crab cakes and Presidential mansions, life's tough!
Ride On

Anyhow, here is Chris's personal account. Tales from the trails with Chris and W.

Well the ride went fantastic and we had a great time. The morning started with all of us waiting for The President to arrive. Soon a convoy on Suburbans rolled into the parking lot. The President stepped out and greeted all of us in person. I was really nervous but had been planning my greeting since yesterday. He hung out and we chatted a bit. There were just 7 of us total. The other riders were the regulars on "Peleton One" , The Presidents regular riding group since 2004. After some small talk we were off on our ride with The President leading the way. We all followed along with 4 Secret Service men on bikes and a detail of Suburbans. We had a short road ride to the trail head and had traffic stopped along the way as we traveled up the road, very weird to see.
We hit the single track and we were going at a really fast pace. The SS guys were really struggling and I was a little worried to, and glad I have been doing the Tues night rides!!! The pace settled in and we formed a train as we snaked through the woods of Kennebunkport. The trail was tight and twisty but with very little climbing. There were plenty of roots and rocks to dodge and negotiate. The President kept a very good pace and Steve and I were having a blast following.
At the end of the trail The President declared it was his personal best time on the trail buy 3 min and we shared a fist bump! He was really happy and seemed to really like the Jet 9. He is going to ride it again tomorrow. Brendan told us The President does not pull any punches and if he did not like it he would have requested his regular bike for the next ride.
We are riding again tomorrow morning but with a much larger group 18-22 people so I doubt we will get the same attention. Steve will be staying later Fri to visit The Presidents home, I will be returning to LA to catch my flight to Europe.
All in all The President is a real guys guy and a lot of fun to be around. He was very down to earth and easy to talk to, although I think I was pretty star struck the whole time and felt like it was a little like a dream.
Thank you for making this happen, with out all of our efforts this day would have never come. I hope you are all proud that Niner Bikes has been able to enjoy this moment of recognition.

Chris Sugai

Amazingly Disturbing

This guy actually scared me at one point... Wait for the gainer to flat at the end!
High speed pole dancing

Do you see what happens

To poor little bunnies that nap on Greg's street. They wake up with 1 less foot!

I Feel the same

No need for a long story or rant and rave. Great phone service, horrible customer service and even worse problem resolution.
Garbage!

That being said, anybody needing to contact me, leave a voicemail with your number as my phone thinks it Dec. 31st 1969.
Phone Phree

Happy Friday the 13th

This may be one of the funnier Craigslist ads I've seen. Lately it seems that people are trying to one up each other in the Clist world.

http://drunkcyclist.com/
Also, I've apparently done another number on myself and have destroyed the meniscus and ruptured a cycst, hooray! If anyone is or knows a physical therapist and wants to be a really nice person, I won't sue you, I'd gladly take some help.
Thank you!

Forever Two Wheels

After many long hours on the road, and many more hours by Scott in, THE LAB, his project is finally drawing nearer to the grand finale. We all had a great time chasing our front wheels down the back roads and highways of the south west and although my time was cut short on some trips by training and the BC Bike Race, the guys went out and had plenty of fun nonetheless.

Next Friday is Scott's show which is going to be held at Secret Service LA, you guys should all head out and hang with us check out some cool pictures of kick ass dudes doin kick ass stuff! Maybe you can even get a life sized autographed picture of yours truly...
See ya there.
FTW

http://itsbetterinthewind.com/
http://vimeo.com/11486905

Sometimes You Gotta Let It Roll

Well, I split town this weekend, didn't have much of a plan other than lookin for a good time and seein some pretty country. Shady motels, cowboy bars, party down with Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, swimming in rivers and oceans, train tracks, bridges. 
Mission accomplished:

(Sketchiest motel I've ever stayed in, which is saying a lot, I watch too many movies)

  
 (Me n' Kinky)

 
  

Good Ol' Days

 


Coulda gotten into a whole mess a trouble back in the days before we started sucklin' on the electronic teets... These guys knew what was up

FTW

I live the life I love

and I love the life I live...

 Gotta pay to play sometimes. 

I had the pleasure of once again spending an hour and change in a loud plastic tube this week. I'm not one to be afraid of the dark or tight spaces very much, but it's still a bit rough slidin into these things. I recommend you avoid Dr's and MRI's whenever possible. On a positive side, upon entering the building I found a big sign on the front door advertising baby abandonment. Always nice to know there's people who care out there. Never know when one might want to change their mind and just "surrender" the little human they've created. 

Check the finale of the H.O.L.T. tour, Cam Zink's incredible Kawasaki gettin airborn!

Keep on truckin

http://thesensus.com/ 

 

Good Morning America,

Arise and shine, I am your native son, New Orleans, by tonight I'll
 be 500 miles gone.

This weekend I went over to the Decker's house to hang out and was lucky enough to see some pretty special and very rare stuff. After calling Jake he told me his brother Jeff was in town and working on a 1914 Harley, that I would later find out, would be carrying him across the country in a vintage race with 100 other pre 1920 Harley riders would be competing in. 

The Decker's are an extremely nice and super talented family. I love hanging out there, it's like an escape from being in southern California. Allen and Jake are always friendly and incredibly knowledgeable. They have always been more than willing to help any time I needed it while working on my old jalopys. This weekend, Jeff was in town working on a special project. Jeff lives in Utah and is an incredibly skilled bronze sculptor. I highly recommend checking out his site. http://www.jeffdeckerstudio.com/  

Ride on

    

          

Beating the Dead Horse

But it doesn't really ever get old. I wonder if Matt knows the art center girl who likes the FONT in the owner's manual?

Hot Tub Time Machine

Yesterday was one kick ass day, woke up from my extended nap and drove out to Valencia to meet up with everyone at Carlos's house. After everyone was there and loaded up, we set out for Big Bear, after making one very important pit stop for the guys.

Snow Summit in their infinite wisdom closed it's lifts so downhill bikes some 8 years ago after a couple of deaths and some lawsuits from broken necks etc... Nevermind that those were in part due to their own horrible trail work and unsafe jumps. Regardless, we lost use of the mountain and subsequently the town of Big Bear was hit hard. It was pretty amazing to get up there after so many years and see how many business were gone or for sale. They still haven't opened the lifts up for big bikes which worried us some on way up. They limit the bikes to having under 2.5 inch tires, 2 chain rings, and under 35 lbs. Needless to say our "all mountain" bikes were pushing a few of those restrictions. We all hoped that we didn't make the long drive just to be turned away.

Anyhow, we got there after an exciting drive up the mountain in which race pace Pablo showed us all his F-1 skills while making multiple car passes over the double yellow before putting his 15 passenger lunch box sideways into corners. We were happy to be in the other truck needless to say. We put on our gear and made our way to the lift line. Now, I've never seen or even heard of this Hot Tub time machine until yesterday, and believe me I got heckled for it, but, being back in that parking lot and looking at the trails as we flew past them in our "high speed"quad, it felt like last summer we were up here for the Am Cup and other such races. Shit, I must be getting old if so many years feels like it was yesterday... I digress. The trails at Big Bear were silty and soft as usual. It was great! Except if you were behind someone, or let alone the last one in our group of 8, the chalk like powdery dust would kick up so quick that you literally had no choice but to watch the next person's shoulders and helmet, follow their moves and hope no head sized boulders were in the way. All in all we had a dirty, fast day with only minor flesh wounds and 3 flats. Gotta say, despite Snow Summit blowing it big time, we had a great time and there is no reason a 5-7 inch trail bike is insufficient for those trails. I know I'm excited to head up there again soon, and we probably will be in a few weeks. So, come on up, the more the merrier.

FTW