Liberty One

The Inland Road Race Series kicked off today with the Liberty Road Race. The series is something new and cool cooked up by the movers and shakers at Spokane Rocket Velo, and the Liberty Road Race happens twice, as part of that series. Today was number one.

I'm very much on the fringe of road racing in our area, but I help out with setup for some of the races and as they go, this one is super low-key, setup-wise. Normally I'm out on the course a while before people start showing up, but in this case, I was able to hang around in the staging area a while longer before heading out. It was SO great to see some friends that I hadn't seen for quite a while and just really made me realize and appreciate the great friendships I've forged while roaring around on two wheels.

After a bit of setup, I also did the flagging at one of the corners. Flagging can lead to some confrontations with motorists as you are [gasp!] holding them up for a few seconds, and I do what I can to be the best ambassador and wave and smile like hell, but still, some people have it in their minds to be a-holes and there's not a lot you can do. Today was fairly uneventful for me in that respect.  One of our other flaggers got blasted, though.  Its a given that one douche motorist will surface at every race.

In 20-20 hindsight, the only thing I'd do different would be to stop one semi truck, who looked like he was gonna get through the intersection in time, but then slowpoked, and then took the turn way wide, crossing over the centerline into the lane of some racers. Timing can be tricky and it wasn't that big a deal, but next time I'll just stop his ass, and not worry about it.


My office.  The wasabi almonds kept me at the top of my game, all day.

 When it was safe and there was no traffic, I was able to take a couple pics from my corner, paddle in one hand, camera in the other . . .

Fast bikes against a nice sky.

Fast bikes.

Fast bikes against a nice sky.

As the racers turned north on Old Hwy 195, they were greeted with a strong tailwind.  It was amazing to see how quickly they crested the bridge and vanished. 

Today's feed zone find.  Second Recycled Cycles bottle I've scored doing course cleanup.

Great job today by all the racers, organizers and volunteers.

New Shewz For The Crewz (er)

The 24" cruiser that Glen dropped off last night is showing the potential to be a kick-ass pump bike. At least on this track. But the tires are glaringly wrong. I could order some just-right tires online easy enough, but I like to keep my bike money local whenever possible and I hoped I could find what I needed at one of our fine LBS's. OTOH, I don't have time to run all over town. I'd give it one shot, though. And if there's one shop in town that should have a 24" cruiser fast-roller, it would be Spoke 'N Sport, I would think.

And they did, but it was a 24 x 2.3. The tires on the bike now are 24 x 2.1 and there's hardly any clearance. Shit. Oh well, what the hell. No guts, no glory.  I presented my plastic and brought 'em home.

These can't come off too soon.

This tread pattern must be for like hitting the sand dunes or something.  The lack of clearance is what is making me nervous, though, as I prepare to mount a bigger tire.



Nervouser.



Even though the new tire is bigger, I'm counting on the difference in profile to buy me a little room at the chainstays.

Just by the hair of my chinny . . .

. . . chin, chin.

No sweat. I was never even really worried. Properly shod tonight, ready to rip it tomorrow.

First Pump Track Session

A "hang" and a "session" are pretty close to the same thing: Bikey friends getting together, nerding out on velo minutia, fully enjoying each other's company, laughing, smiling, eating something fun, tossing down a coupla brews. The only subtle difference is that at a hang, everyone breathes normally all night long and at a session, someone goes anaerobic about every two minutes. On average.

Don't even think for a minute that this is a bad thing. I'm not sure that there exists an activity in the history of the world where pain and pleasure are so hopelessly intertwined.

John's got a great recap here and I'm once again too tired to string much corherent narrative together, so this will mostly be another picture dump, but I just have to say a coupla things first . . .

I'll take plenty of solo laps, but this crazy track won't be much fun if we can't share the love. This first "session" was VIP-only. These are the guys who stepped up and believed when there was nothing in our yard but a lawn. There are always plenty of people around to tell you why you shouldn't or can't do something - these were the guys telling me I SHOULD, I CAN. They deserved to ride it first and I wanted to reward them accordingly with cheap beer and cheap food, and then hand them shovels. John, Joe, Jake, Glen, and Jeff (who couldn't make it tonight). Glen's kind of the odd man out with a name that begins with G. What's up with that. Seriously, tho, big-big thanks, guys.

Second, Patty is so, so, so awesome for having some faith in this totally insane vision of mine, letting me tear the hell outta our yard and spend hundreds of dollars on dirt and all the other things that are necessary to make this happen. This whole deal won't work for me at all if it's not something that she enjoys, and I think she had fun tonight and is starting to get a glimpse of how great backyard sessions could be, and I am so pleased about that.

And then last but not least, I wished out loud about some different pedals a coupla days ago and tonight John and Joe both showed up with those particular gifts. And I didn't even know I was wishing for a 24" cruiser and Glen showed up with that. I'm pretty overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends tonight.

Okay, I guess I narrated a bit after all. So what's new. Finally, pictures then.

Christmas in May

I get the sense it's a semi-permanent loaner, as long as it gets ridden



The current in-house pump-trackable stable.



This section was a mes - over the course of the night, it got straightened out more to Glen's (and my) satisfaction.

bumpy

 John going fast

The least useful bike is doomed to become the beer holder

Roxy rode up the hill from 19th to session with us.

I think maybe John's okay with how things are working out.

dogs

Somehow Patty happened to capture the one moment where everyone was workng all at once.  Major accomplishment, with this group.

Yeah, that's bbq smoke. Rad.

Tommy, who was more often on the track than the pile

dirt shot. plain and simple

The Shoe Solution

I'm in the ride-and-tweak phase of the pump track buildout, which roughly translates into riding up to just the verge of puking your guts out, which is roughly 3 laps, and then moving dirt until you recover. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Thing is, the dirt-moving part is harsh business . . . squishing around in mud, balancing atop rocks and roots, stomping on shovels, that type of thing. So you gotta wear work-like shoes. And it's an absolute marital necessity to take them off when you tromp into your newly remodeled basement bathroom to pee off the beer you drank while you were digging.

And you also don't exactly wanna wear those same inertial mud-bombs when you're ready to swing a leg over and go postal on your track.  You want your feet to be fast like a cat!

The search for a solution takes us back to Mister Rogers.

I am not in any way kidding when I tell you that I totally admire and respect the man.  He was a super high-quality-character individual both in terms of his personal and professional life.  On the air, he taught kids all kinds of great shit about how to treat other people right, along with some other things, which left lifelong impressions, but which might have taken some of us a few decades to figure out how to apply to our own lives.  In my case, a certain lightbulb finally lit: "Change shoes when you change jobs".

So that was the first part of the grand solution and then the second part is the concept of slip-ons. I've never been that guy, but all of a sudden, apparently, I am.  And surprisingly proud of it.



Hardcore work slip-ons.  They've never seen the inside of the new bathroom.  Nor will they ever, lest I die. Quite violently.



Badass new riding shoes.  Think 'fast like a cat'.

Clap on, clap off.  Not quite, but almost like that.

The color coordination is not by accident.  I powered hard through the valley mall on my lunch hour in order to make it back in time for a 1:00 meeting.  I hardly ever go there because of their totally stupid parking lot arrangement, so I could totally not believe how many shoes and shoe shops were under that roof.  I'm fine on how I dealt with the pressure.

Truth In Advertising

One can only imagine the unbearable amount of shit his buddies gave him on those 4 rides.

The Circle Is Complete

Amazing news about Bin Laden tonight. I can't even fathom the horrendous sorrow that has been endured due to the man's hatred. Wishing for another human being to be dead is a hard one for me. But in this case, I'm truly relieved that he's no longer on the planet.

And now on to the relatively mundane subject at hand . . .

I think that a lot of people start to build pump tracks and then, due to the amount of concentration and effort required, never get there. I wanted to make sure that wasn't my story. I had the rare luxury of being able to totally clear my schedule this weekend and do a massive energy dump into the project. As a result, I am so tired that I can't even tell you my name. So I'll pretty much do a picture dump. And then dump myself into bed. Never have I looked so forward to going back to work on Monday so that I can rest up.
 

Patty kept trying to steal my dirt for her lawn project.

I got my hands on enough, though.



Apparently, she's beginning to feel some pump track love.

Maddie, ruling the (diminishing) dirt pile.

Requisite bigass ladder shot.

It's time for some rest.  The next step is to ride the hell out of it, tweaking every berm and roller along the way.

Saturday In Review

I woke up late (eight) because I've been hammering on the pump track every night after work, including several stints under halogen work light, and it caught up with me and I guess my body just put its foot down and shut me off.  Then I went back to sleep for two more hours.  Then I went to the The Chalet and got a plate of pancakes because I needed quick and easy dirt-moving fuel.  That place is so rad about getting you in and out.  So I was rested and fueled and ready to rock, but I got slowed down again when I hit something with my shovel and had to go into archaelogical dig mode.

It had been planted totally vertical.  No way this was not intentional.  Possibly a time capsule!

A bottle within a can.  Maybe a message in the bottle?!?

No message in the bottle.  All I could get off the label was that it was imported.  Maybe they just wanted us to know that they played tennis and drank imported beer, then.  Pretentious bastards.  Fine, we get it.

Jeff and Joe showed up.  Pump track angels sent from heaven.

After a ton of work, a rainstorm eventually rolled through, which was the perfect excuse to move into the garage and cook up some pizza burgers, which are the official food of my pump track (TM), whether people like them or not.

Jeff adopted this berm and lovingly shaped it to perfection and from here on it shall be known as Jeff's Talladega Berm.



Near the end of the day I got out my bigass ladder and took a shot of some of the rocks we'd dug up.  I know how impressed you must be this moment. 



This is the big deal pic - starting to look a bit like a pump track, don't you think???

Toolage

Premature blowout - these gloves are just a few days old.  Now I guess you can see the kind of toll pump track building takes on hardened men. 

After the dust settled and the sun went down, we headed down to Huck's to see my nephew play.  The dude is unbelievable.

Back at home later, I finally rode a few laps on the track, in the dark.  It certainly has a way to go, but I can feel that it's gonna be a fine track.




Picture of the day.  Extraction complete.  Dude shoulda been a dentist.

 To be serious for a second, I just have to say thanks, bigtime, to Jeff and Joe for making this day a major success.  At this late hour, I'm feeling the satisfaction of a crazy dream maybe actually becoming a reality. Which is made possible only through the help of good friends.  I hope that in return I can at some point reward them with some fast and fun laps.