Since the building of the takeoff went so well – my oldest boy and I decided it had to have a landing. We used the “shoot from the hip” method of design. I held a piece of plywood up on while my son watched from the side – “right there”, he said – measured the angle with a protractor – then put the chop saw to work.

Putting the finishing touches on the plywood.

The final product – takeoff and landing.

10 mins after he started jumping (note younger brother enjoying jump as well)

10 mins later

jump day

What do two geeky mountain bikers do with a couple of free hours and its too wet and cold to ride - my oldest boy and I built a kicker!!!



Took about 2 hours - and only used scrap wood that I got from work from old pallets and crates - total cost, about 5 dollars for screws. Got the plans online here - we just doubled all the dimensions to get the size we needed - like doubling a recipe for a cake. We still have enough wood for the landing - it wont be curved, and will have a 3 foot flat section on top - just in case of a case.



Today on my commute was the first (real) time I needed to use my new Night Rider Minewt.X2 - all that I can say is this is he best things for bikes since the QR - if you ride at night - small, bright, and lasts a while -

Trail find! - it’s been a while, but nuttins better that a good ole trail find, especially when it is a useful one:

I’ll keep it in my pack – that is, until I’m face to face with a wild bear, a pack of wolves or when I want to look cool eating steak without a fork.

Anyway – took the Litespeed on its second offroad ride today (Friday I rode 30 miles at riverside) halfway up Mica and down the waterfall trail to the Cedar grove. It worked great, cleaned all of the switchbacks. Also, added about 16 miles of road to and from the trail head. Pedaled good on the road as well.

I can’t believe it took this long for manufacture to realized that a quick release designed for a road bike has no business on a high performance mountain bike.

My new Fox TALAS 32 has a 15mm axel QR. The difference of feel to a nomal QR is immediately apparent. Makes the lateral rigidity of the front end closer to a DH bike than that of a road bike.

Since i last posted I have done a little travel and a ton of riding. Had to go to a meeting back east that lasted a few days - but other than that I have ridden every day. The rides varied from my every day commute to DH runs with my son at Beacon to a 70 mile ride I did last Sat. on my fully loaded Specialized Tri-cross to a 3 hour dirt motorcycle ride at Batey Bould 100% technical singletrack - where I was schooled, and realized that I ride a bicycle in the dirt much better than a motorcycle. Yesterday i finished building my new Litespeed Kitsuma. In this pic the travel of the front fork is at 140mm - but I think I will ride it at 120mm most of the time -

The build is:

XTR Hubs with DT 420 rims - I was going to go King, but I've had a set for 10 years and they act funny in the winter

XTR Crank

Fox 2009 TALAS 32 fork

XT dual control levers and calipers - 8" front and 6"rear XT disks

10 year old King headset

25.1 lbs - strong and light



I went stealth with no decals - just because I love the finish work and all the CNC'd bits on the frame:-


and
The bike is wet because I just got home from riding it to work - usually I ride my Tri-cross with panier's and fenders, but riding this made me dig out my old custom Reload messenger bag - still waterproof after 8 years -
Tomorrow the Kitsuma will get it's first real test in dirt - I'm sure it will ride as I expect - then the Owl Hollow will find it's way to Craigs list or Ebay -

greece - y

Well it's been a little while but I'm still in Greece - no cycling - going a bit stir crazy - however the light at the end of the tunnel is visible - should be home soon.

It's not all depressing though - got to do a little sight seeing by the Aegean sea –

This is the White Tower of Thessaloniki – it’s kind of interesting to walk up and touch something that is 500 years old – much history here.

Yea – looks a little disgusting, but I have had it three times since I have been here and I clean my plate each time.

I think each culture develops perfection by repetition – the Greeks have been cooking octopus a very long time.

Home sick?

Being slightly home – not really “home” – sick, but more family sick was somewhat rectified today when C sent some pics from before and after I left on this trip –
This is the whole family riding the Hiawatha trail a few weeks ago (note my son coveting the Litespeed I let him borrow>



After being on stage for many plays (4) J is trying his hand at a backstage job with TAC>

B taking a few tips from the old man at clearing the Twisted Sister” – good arm pump>

Well life goes on in Greece, so does the food>

Traveling straight from China to Greece is very interesting. The most apparent change is the sound. China is loud. Horns always blaring, people on cell phones feel the need to shout to communicate. No place is taboo to engage in cell phone conversation – meetings, bathrooms, etc. Greece is the opposite – I am in Kilkis at the moment a small town of about 12 to 14 thousand. As I traveled to get here through the Vienna and Budapest (I may have to make a travel blog of all the places I have been and never left the airport) airports I noticed the sound was 20% of what it was in China.

Another huge difference from China is the food:

I could get fat here.

The view from my balcony just after sunset – is it Greece or the Palouse????

hell

There has been many movies made and books written on what would happen to the people condemned to hell – Now I am pretty sure it would be being reincarnated as a donkey in China>

Another day in China

I was in Guiyang China about a month ago at the same site I am at now. Between my temporary office and the production area (I walk this route several times a day) they started construction of a building. When I left last month it was pretty much just a large pit in the ground. When I returned this is what it looked like>



The tower is an elevator that is used to carry the concrete up the structure – 1 to 2 small wheel barrows at a time. The cables are wound around a spool powered by a little gas engine – runs the motor to raise – and lowers with a brake. The concrete is brought by this little contraption that puts out more pollution the 100 cars in the US with smog control>







Besides the 2 tools that I mentioned, everything else used on this project is human powered -



This is pretty typical in China. I have to admit, every time I visit I appreciate what we have at home – laws, government, etc. Although far from perfect – pretty good, relatively speaking.

Some bike content

My favorite bike is a 1998 Litespeed Owl Hollow – until now. Maybe. In 1998 I bought this bike – since then it has had 4 different forks, 3 complete build kits and a plethora of odd parts. Every part of this bike has broke – except for the frame. I have owned many bikes, but this one has been the best investment (if you can ever call a bike an investment) of them all. In the last 4 -5 years a few things have driven me nuts about this bike:

1. No disc brakes – since the design of this bike the trails and terrain we ride on have gotten harder and more technical (better) and technology has brought down the weight and price and raised performance, I believe they are a must for the way I ride – was able to correct this with a Specialized DB adapter, a small chunk or aluminum, and a whole bunch of filing. >

2. 2.0” rear tire MAX – 1.9 is best to keep from rubbing the stays. – pretty much the same reasons I gave for the brakes. However, I cannot just widen the stays.

3. It is built for a 3” travel fork – but I have a Pushed FOX that feels like more. But 5" of FOX travel would be nice.

About 2 months ago I had a standing search for a Litespeed Kitsuma on Ebay. - Litespeed made this bike in 2001 only, they had some left over and labeled them 2002. This is a very unique bike built around a 5” fork, 2.5”+ tires, disk brake only, freeride geometry (for the time, freeride now is 7” of travel and a 67 or slacker degree headtube), and weighs just under 4 pounds for the frame. So, fueled by a few beers, being edged on by my 13 year old son that may love riding more that anyone I have ever met, and the fact my wife was not around to stop this little party, when the auction came to an end – I became victorious - I think I have heard that somwhere before. Anyway, berfore this trip I had Chris at Wheelsport East start searching for a couple of parts for my new ride - a FOX 32 TALUS with a 15 mm axel - and a hand built wheel set with DT 420 rims (not sure of the spokes) and XTR hubs - would go with Kings, but I have had a set for nine years (now on my road bike) and I have just had enough of that "I'm getting chased by angry insects" sound any time I coast. - I will post some pics of the project when I return home.

Clean again

I finally got my luggage back from Air Canada after about 3 days – I was once told by a wise Chinese man (really!) that you can get 4 days out a set of under shorts – on the second day you turn them around, for the third and forth turn them inside out and repeat.

I passed by this meat stand in the morning on my way into work – I took this picture at about 3pm when I was coming back from getting my luggage from the airport – it was about 90 F outside – mmmmm.>

First post

Well this is my first blog entry – let’s see if I keep it up. I plan to mainly blog about cycling, probably my greatest passion. But there with be some other stuff as well – my kids, running, my travel – yada yada yada.
Right now I am writing from Guiyang China (where all of the cycling I have seen here is for necessity) >

I should be here until the end of the week then I am off to Thessaloniki Greece, for about two weeks (where maybe I can sneak a ride in) – then back to my family and bikes.