Made it over the hump

Almost a week ago was Mother’s Day. On the same day, I celebrated a milestone in my and many other peoples lives. I turned a half century old. I wish I could tell you that I felt differently than I did a week ago, but I can’t. I still wake up groaning the same way as before. Mentally, it only slightly bothers me and I have to admit that I currently think about my age a bit. Hopefully, those thoughts will quickly fade though.

In other news, we’re about to head for the States for my sister-in-laws wedding. We’ll be hitting Seattle on the 23rd of May, then head south for the wedding, back to Seattle for a couple of days to see friends, hit REI and the Patagonia store and then off to Canada. In Canada we’ll visit a couple of friends in Vancouver, then hit the Arcteryx Outlet store and work our way over to Banff. Kera will drop me off and she’ll head off to a family reunion in Montana.

Out for a training ride…. I made the yellow bags

On June 8th, I’ll be off on one of the biggest adventures that I’ve ever undertaken. From what I last heard, there were somewhere around 120 people signed up but the hope was to whittle that number down to around 100. If it’s anything like normal, at least 50% of those will drop out in the first week. I’m going to do everything possible to avoid becoming a statistic at that point. ‘Sides, I don’t think that Kera will let me attempt it a second time. From all accounts, if you don’t finish it becomes something that haunts you until you do.

I have to say thank you to my loving wife Kera as she’s put up with a couple of years (mostly the last year) of me talking to Phil and David about it relentlessly every time we get together. She calls is the “Big Stupid Race” because of the bear danger. That’s something I don’t take likely. I’ve never lived somewhere that I’ve needed to worry about bears and it definitely makes me nervous. That’s part of the reason that it’d be nice if I can keep up and ride with Phil at least till we get out of bear country.

Anyway, thanks so much to Kera, my friends around the world, my team mates in Big Wheel Racing in Europe and the States, sponsors and family. I also have to mention my various employers and students as well. All have been incredibly supportive. I really hope to come back with lots of stories and photos for them to hear and see.

I found another site with some good info. on the TDR with GPX files, etc. Check it out HERE. A couple of their statistics that might be interesting though.

Trip statistics:
2562.77 mi (870.37 mi uphill, 951.49 mi downhill, 735.62 mi flat)
191,525 ft total ascent (191,325 ft descent) – 5.4 % ave uphill grade, 4.9 % ave downhill grade

I’ve had a few requests for how you can follow along. Here you go. Go to the TourDivide.org website and click on the Leaderboard. That’ll take you to where all of our SPOT trackers report. You should then be able to choose my name and see where I am. If all is going well and I’ve remembered to turn on my SPOT or it’s not out of batteries, my track should show where I am within a 10 min. span. Additionally, you can subscribe to MP3′s of the racers call-ins. I believer that we’re supposed to call in daily but most don’t ever seem to do it. In any case, most people are so tired that they sound drunk or stoned. Therefore, the phone calls get pretty animated and funny. Just go to MTBCast.com and subscribe through iTunes or you can listen via the website.

Honestly, I think I’m ready to tackle this beast. I’ve ridden so much this year. In April alone I rode more than 1400 kilometers. Pretty much the last 6 months of my life has been dedicated to this race. Maybe more actually. We started with intense spinning in November and did that through the winter. I also rode and ran during that time as well. There was about 3 months where I was working out about 25 days out of 30. Right now, I’m feeling very strong but I’m also attempting recovery mode. Kera calls me the “shittiest relaxer” as I have a really hard time sitting still. Relaxation for me is movement. As you can imagine, recovery mode is difficult.

After I finish the TDR and figure out how I’m getting to K.C. I’ll stay a week or so with family and friends. It’s been more than 5 years since I was back in the K.C. area and I’m overdue for a visit. It’ll be really good to see everyone. Sadly, Kera has to go back to work so she won’t be able to come along. Coincidentally, she’ll be heading back to Seattle for “work” about the same time I’ll be heading back to Germany. She’s going to Glacier Bay via a client which ought to be great. Our kayaking trip there in 2005 is still one of the best trips I’ve ever had.

My hope, when I return, is to go back to teaching half-time and start making the bags half-time. I’ve already received a few orders and it seems that if I come through with those, it’s likely to break into a much broader group. Wish me luck!

The Triple Whammy!

Grrrrr!

My last post was called Anticipation and this is one of the things that I’m anxiously waiting for….

This is the time of year that Kera spends a fair amount of her time traveling the world for work. I miss her a lot in part because she’s my wife (of course) but she’s also my best friend and adventure buddy. Mostly because she’s just pretty AWESOME! She’ll be home Saturday and then off again in a week. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder….” Right?

My Triple in Construction

Second would be this… My new Retrotec Triple 29′er which will be my singlespeed and probably my primary bike.

The fork for said bike plus some Chuey hats

and this…. The fork for the Triple.

The view from the Prienerhütte

Last weekend I went snowshoeing a couple of times. Friday for a couple of hours close to home in the mountains and on Saturday morning I headed about 25 km/15.5 miles south into the mountains and hiked up to Prienerhütte. It was a beautiful hike and I motored it trying to make it into a workout. It must’ve worked because the recommended time was 5 hours and I made it in about 3.5. It’d been more fun with Kera there though. Next time!

My second prototype for a front toptube bag

I’ve been doing a lot of spin class, some running and two weeks ago I did the big 4+ hour spinning marathon at the fitness center. Some other things I’ve been working on are my bike/part reviews for twentynineinches.com and maybe the coolest is prototyping the SpoK bikepacking bags. I’m about half (or more) complete with a frame bag and I’ve finished a top tube bag that I’m proud of and worthy of selling. Step-by-step….

Our newest adventure/s

This weekend we’re heading off on our next adventures (2 in one trip…maybe 3 if you stretch the idea). The main part of this trip started off as a trip to SSWC 2011 or SingleSpeed World Championships in Ireland. As Kera doesn’t do a whole lot of mountain biking these days I had to help make the trip fun for her as well. This resulted in adventure #2 which is a 5 day hiking trip on the Beara Way around most of one of the peninsulas on the southwest end of the island. The “stretched” part of the adventure is the 2500+ kilometers we’ll be doing in the Touran. It’s our first real road trip in many years.

We’ll be taking a lot of photos and having a great time while away. When we return, we’ll be sure to share our pics with everyone.

Till then….

WTF?

Those of you that know me also know that I’m cynical, sarcastic and a full-time smart ass. Somehow, my loving wife finds this endearing. Lucky me!

In spite of these disabilities (my maladies not the love of my wife) there’s a couple of things that people here in Germany (doesn’t seem to happen other places) do that completely befuddle me. At the top of this list is the helmet over the handlebar habit. For some unknown reason, more often than not, you’ll see people riding along with their helmets securely clasped to their stem and handlebars. Who knew that handlebars and stems needed the protection?

Check out this video… at about 35 seconds, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

My opinion…. if you’re going to bother taking it off of the shelf…. WEAR THE DAMN THING!!! I actually understand not wearing a helmet far more than I do taking it along for a ride and not wearing it.

Breath Cleveland… breath. Ahhhhhh, need to relax now.

So, Kera and I have figured out what our next brief adventure after next weeks will be.

Does it get more beautiful than this?

Of rocks and huts

One of the places we would stay

The Dachsteinwanderweg… it’s theoretically an 8 day hike around the Dachstein (where Reinhold Messner got his start) with our nights spent in mountain top huts. I’m looking forward to it…. a lot!

Lap just before sunrise

This coming weekends and next weeks adventures start Finale Ligure at the 24 Hours of Finale (pics from last year) in Finale Ligure, Italy site of one of my all time favorite 24 hour races. Part of it is that we get to see many of our European friends and because of the amazing views from the course.  The course it self is also great. After the race we aren’t sure where we’re going. Could be Arels, France back to the site of one of our favorite meals ever (when we met many of said friends) or St. Moritz, Switzerland. We’ll decide as we go.

Last thing… really cool video from Iceland of the volcano.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

It’s been ages… or literally months…

Sorry friendly readers… I/we aren’t dead and didn’t fall off the face of the planet. I just haven’t really had much to tell other than the million things running through the gourd on top of my shoulders. Normally, it just spews from my mouth (often without a filter) and you take it in or don’t. As you can decide whether to read this or not, I realize that you don’t really care about my every waking thought or whim. Thus, I’ll shorten this to the Readers Digest (are they still in business) version.

Kera on the Salt Flats

Us... hanging out on the Salt Flats of Bolivia

Kera helped a couple of these ladies by buying lots of yarn

Machu Picchu before the landslides

My guinea pig dinner. Fit for a King!

First… Kera and I hit Peru, Bolivia & a very small slice of Chile (maybe our next big vacation). We had a great time, saw amazingly beautiful things, met some really cool people and discovered a place that we didn’t have any idea was so cool and beautiful. If… when we go back, we’ve decided that to make the trip all it could be, we need to know a reasonable amount of Spanish so it might be a couple of years before we can swing that.

We seemingly preceeded a number of natural disasters as we travelled. First, El Nino has hit South America hard this year and it’s to blame for a lot of things. However, we were in and out of Macchu Pichu just before the landslides and then we left Santiago just a few days before the earthquake that rocked the city. Are we bad luck? Maybe you shouldn’t answer that.

Our tour guide Shirley was awesome! She took care of our little group like a mother. She really tried to help us have the best time possible and answered our every question. Our co-travelers were a very diverse group from Ireland, Korea & Canada. We really enjoyed meeting all of them and they all really added to the enjoyment of the trip as well. We hope to see all of them at some point in the future.

Peru photos click here

Bolivia photos click here

Kera took some beautiful shots that are still yet to be posted and there are some great ones from Chile yet to be posted as well. I’ll update the links as soon as I do it.

Cheese! Don't get bugs in your teeth.

Kera has been working like a slave lately. The last few months she’s been in either or both Zürich or London seemingly once a week. As I write this, she’s in the U.S. on business which was preceded by a few weeks in Australia. She also has to go to Canada and may have to head back south of the Equator before she lands back on European soil. Her business trip might be as short as a month and as long as 1.5 months. That’s the longest, by far, that we’ve been apart in almost 6 years together. Weird… we’ll have been married 5 years this year. Hmmm!

My job is going pretty well. The trainers/teachers that I work with are a really diverse and interesting group of people. Most have travelled the world, done things that many people only dream of and make me jealous on a regular basis in those terms. The people that I teach also teach me many different things about finance, banking, Real Estate, IT, fund & asset management and so much more. I work hard, like the people that I work with but really, really wish that I got paid significantly more money. For the amount of stress and number of decisions that I am asked to make daily, I feel like I’m way undervalued. For the most part, I can’t complain about too much more though. Our office is on Viktualienmarkt (the big fruit & veggie market next to Marienplatz) and I get to get out of the office for lunch daily.

I did my first race of the year yesterday. Last year when I did the City Bike Marathon I believe that I mentioned that I would probably never do it on a singlespeed again. Well, it seems that I’m now a liar! Sorry gang… guess it was only a matter of time. I debated all last week; gears…. singlespeed…. gears….. singlespeed. In the end, my love toward singlespeeding won out. I finished 125th overall but I believe that I was the first place singlespeeder! Woohoo! I suppose that since there were 1500 people in the “race” my placing isn’t too shabby. I’ll post pics as soon as they are available. A few more pics of me here.

I’m about to finish building a really nice set of wheels to ride and race. They are White Indus. M16 hubs laced to FRM/Bor XMD 388 rims. They’ll be tubeless and light. Zoom!

That’s it  for now. Tschüss!

I’m a Turkey…you’re a Turkey!

I need a vacation!

Turkey.. not for Thanksgiving

We’re off to Turkey for vacation in just a couple of hours. Can hardly wait as it’s been something like 7 months since we’ve done anything other than weekend trips and both Kera and I are tired and ready for a few days away. On this trip we’re doing a few days of see kayaking along the Southeastern coast. Should be fun. Here is the link to our tour (which is just Kera, myself and the guide).

Christian is taking care of Baby-cat. Thanks man!

In other news, I’m now working for another school. It’s called Accelingua. I’m attempting to get a staff job with them as I am really feeling the need to have a “real” job and have responsibilities. Funny how that works.

So, we’ll take lots of photos which will go up when we return.

Sorry that we’ve been really really out of touch. Like I mentioned, we’re both pretty burned out and we’ve been quite busy even when we’re around home. Seems like we never stop running.

I have my first race of the year the weekend ever we get back. It’s a flat-ish 90 km race around Munich. Still haven’t committed to doing it singlespeed even though that would be my preference. If I can just find a gear ratio that won’t kill me I should be golden.

Sometimes things just don’t work out

So, the job that I’d really been expecting to get, I didn’t. Seems I didn’t sell myself well enough or they didn’t read my resume well enough. Maybe it was a combination of both. The apparent reason that I didn’t get the job was not having enough quality control experience. What did I do onsite with a multi-million dollar project? Anyway. As you can see, I’m not too thrilled about the result. The woman that won the position is fantastic, I just felt that I was the best candidate for the job.

—————————————————–

On to other, happier, things. Here are a couple of good photos from SS Italy where we had a fantastic time as I’d previously mentioned.

Kera made and gave away a bag to the winner of the Pixie Cross. Notice the colors.

Some cool and interesting costumes. That mustache is real.

Master of ceremonies Stefano looking happy in a chair. The smile is genuine. He’s a fantastic guy!

Our friend Ed scored Kera one of those cool cycling hats from Stefano as well.

Friend and teammate Ed looking a little too….something.

Kera made me suffer up this hill for this photo. So appreciate it!

Subbaqqui Rules!

A great photo of Chris another Ami.

The male and female winners admiring their new jerseys.

A charming photo of me.

Lot’s of the nutty folks.

The Gay Fisher

A good one of Kera taking many of the above shots.

Unfortunately, we won’t be going to Zurich for SS Switzerland this weekend. So, if the weather cooperates, we might just have to do our own ride around here.

Munich is absolutely nuts right now as Oktoberfest is going on and there are people here from around the world. Everywhere you go it feels like rush hour. It’s rather strange. Kera’s been once and will go at least once more with work. I’m not sure whether I’ll end up going this year or not. Due to a FUBAR situation, I ended up selling my ticket to go tonight.

Till later.

Completely Random

hat follows is just a bunch of bizarre things that I’ve found on the web in the recent past that interest me for one reason or another. Good luck and have fun.

For those fixie/singlespeed folks out there that speak and/or read Deutsch here’s a great memorial page to Sheldon Brown.

You too can have some of these socks…

Yes.... those are my legs

Those are my legs by the way.

Check this out… Dopers Suck

If you’re in Germany and want to check them out or buy them, contact Ken here at Independent Fabrications Germany. He carries a lot of the Dopers Suck gear as well as Edge composite wheels and more.

_______________________________

Found this on Steven’s Flickr page. It’s a video of the start of SiS. If you watch it closely, you can see Marty and me go by.

For some reason, I can’t get it or any other video to embed properly. So…here’s the link.

More SiS photos from my buddy David… Hope he doesn’t mind me “borrowing them”.

Kera playing solitaire on her iPod

Hanging out with Ed and Max

_______________________________

WTF?

Does he know it yet?

Can a kid look more demonic?

_______________________________

Japanese Rock-a-billy is just the best. Go here now.

Japanese Rock-a-billy hair gone wild!

_______________________________

For those of you that aren’t on a team and would prefer to stay that way…. this is the gear for you.

_______________________________

Lastly…. a good video of Liz Hatch that Maxim did along with some photos. This gal is fast and er, hot! So… there goes the P.C. (politically correct) portion of the show.

Also not able to embed this video. Guess that I need to work on that.

Here is a link to the photos from said shoot as well.

SiS race report and other things… naturally!

So, we went to SiS (Schlaflos im Sattel) last weekend. I’m glad we did. It was great to see friends from throughout the world there. This little (only 400+ participants) is one of the best events this side of the Atlantic. Phaty, Keili and crew do a fantastic job and are to be commended for their efforts. THANKS GANG! What is also commendable is the efforts of the local people. They come out, volunteer, work hard, make food, serve drinks, etc. for 3+ days. I’m sure that they make a bunch of money from all of us, but it wouldn’t be the event that it is without the participation of the people of Weidenthal.

Here are a few photos from the event. Many more here and here.

This ball was about 6′ tall and had fake snow falling inside.

Toilet out of order. That’s bad at a bike event!

Marty rocking a lap in partion BWR gear.

Me (sleeping whilst standing…I think).

My teammate Matthias coming in at the end of the race.

Another of Matthias

A beautiful singlespeed Gary Fisher Superfly

That’s me there with all the colors on the lead-out lap.

Our friend David….always smiling

There’s a lot of love going on (actually, it was after bike jousting).

Tattoos and piercings everywhere

Even belt-drive fixies could be found

Also, a Ti Independent Fabrication singlespeed it belongs to Ken who is really nice and fast… bastard!

Yup… clueless me before the start.

Marty hitting the Start/Finish at some point during the night.

Busted! Got to love the Dopers Suck socks I bought from Ken.

A great shot of Ed that I stole from Keili’s photos. Thanks Keili.

______________________________

So…. after all those pics, it’s probably time to write just a bit. We hit town on Friday, went for a ride with Ken and then had fun chatting with everyone we know and having a few drinks. We woke the next morning to a beautiful day, had breakfast, ate some lunch, chatted some more and then did a lap of the course. We watched a bit of the singlespeed race, watched the jousting, took lots of photos and generally relaxed.

The race started just before 21:00 and I did the first two laps. I felt surprisingly good. During the first lap I, somehow, caught up with Marty and tailed him up the long climb to the top of the mountain. It was really great to have teammates in like uniforms for a change. Most of the races that I go to I don’t really know anyone and it’s good to have people you know around. Anyway, I cranked out a couple of first laps and then Matthias went out. After that, Armin and then Christian. While they were out I had a shot of really good Scotch and some food up at the refreshment booth and headed back for a nap. I awoke about 2:00 after what amounted to an hours sleep and then waited. No one had awoken me and I didn’t know that Christian had already done his two laps and then he rolled around after a break with food. He dropped the food and off he went for a third lap. Way to go man!

Then I hit the trail again and cranked out my fastest lap of the night. By then, there was a beautiful tracked worked in to even the most difficult parts of the course. Sadly, most of the way through my 3rd lap I ran across the ambulance picking up their second victim of the night. He’d fallen and broken his pelvis (OUCH!!!). The first had hurt himself but not too badly (Phaty informed me that both hurt guys have said that they’ll be back again next year). Luckily, the worst injuries I received amounted to sore muscles and a small rash from Stinging Nettles wrapping around my arm on the previous days fun ride.

Another couple of comments. This race has to have a large majority of the 29′ers and singlespeeds from Germany if not the middle part of Europe in general. If you’ve got the time, cruise through a lot of the photos. There are some beauties there. Thanks again to everyone that had something to do with this race. It’s the best!

My little Dinotte light performed well as did all my various Ergon products (BC2 pack, grips and gloves). I’ve mentioned it before and will again. I love Ergon! My Black Sheep is, finally, starting to act the way that I’ve always wanted it to. I might have been the week we spent together in Italy. Who knows? Anyway, if/when I get my seatpost I’ll have a complete bike after nearly two years of waiting. Is it time to get a new one yet?

This is a little pic of said seatpost if/when it ever comes.

A little home news. I’m applying for another job at the school doing the same job as I attempted to get the last time but at the school that I teach in nearly daily. Wish me luck. At 46 I suppose it’s time that I attempt to grow up and have a ‘real’ job.

O.K., now that I’ve worn out your eyes and brain…. I’m signing off.

FYI – Ken… still working on the tagged Blog.

ESSC08 European SingleSpeed Championships – Massa, Italy

Which one is pissyer…..? Them or me?

So… a couple of weekends back I drove along with two others to Massa, Italy where the European SingleSpeed Championships were held.

All-in-all the photos probably tell the story better than I can. Suffice to say we drove a long way, 700 km’s each way, got in a bit of a ride plus the race, got rained on, had some really good food, met some really, really cool people and had some really good times. The race is going to be in Dresden for the ’09 version of the European SingleSpeed Championships. That’ll make it a bit closer… I think.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with the whole Los Lobos crowd again somewhere down the road as they’re some of the nicest, most welcoming people that I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

Oh… our buddy Isaac pulled off a 3rd place finish on a borrowed bike against a pair of pros. Not bad in my book. Unfortunately, for us, Isaac is heading back to New Mexico in a month. We’ll miss him but you guys out west keep an eye out for this skinny speed-demon.

______________________________

Vox… one of the coolest, most laid-back dogs ever… Poor guy got attacked by another dog.. hence the bandage.

This crazy chef-dude below makes some of the best ribs that I’ve ever tasted. Yum!

Check out where the path leads… too much Ramazzoti boys? It’d never happen in good old Deutschland.

My buddy and teammate Ed… also from Missouri.

The kind in the Grey French SS jersey is Isaac (aka The Fastest Boy on Wheels) and the guy in the metal jersey is Flo. A really nice guy from north of Munchen.

Gary never considered this marketing scheme…. Gay Fisher

The aftermath of the trip.

Looks as though they put me down as finishing 41st even though I’d call it a DNF. RESULTS HERE!

A few different places to find more info. and photos.

Orme.tv SSEC link

Orme pics

Stefano’s pics

Singlestoph Photos

Flickr ESSC08 Pool

Los Lobos Blog post on ESSC08

So…. got my squeaking problems fixed today after putting Teflon tape on the bottom bracket threads and anti-seize on the outside of the EBB. Thanks to the folks at MTBR.com for helping me fix it.

My in-laws show up on Friday and then I’m doing the Tegernsee Marathon on Sunday. The following Friday we’re heading toward Rome for a week of vacation.