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….

End of a crazy year…looking forward to 2011

 

Symbolic of new horizons for 2011.

 

Well, I’m continuing to fail at my attempt to keep my blog up to date with at least one post per month. Would love to shoot for one a week but we’ll take twelve over fifty-two and see where that goes first.

In any case. I just wanted to take a bit of your time and mine to point out a few things about 2010 (both good and bad) as well as a few hopes for 2011.

From beginning to end as best as I can remember.

1st Quarter of the year….

Kera having fun... Antman is somewhere else.

Had a great visit from our buddy Anthony where we had a bit of outdoor fun.

Kera in the worlds largest salt lake.

We went to South America, had a great time and managed to precede any of the many disasters there. An amazing place that we’d both like to revisit some day (maybe starting in Chile and heading south from there).

Only back a week or so and then Kera was off traveling for most of a couple of months. It was interesting being alone that much after being together so much for our first 5+ years together. Yes, we definitely missed each other but we survived.

2nd Quarter -

Work, work, work….. for both of us.

Me racing in München

Did the München City Bike Marathon per each year…. singlespeeded a 95 km course and enjoyed almost every bit of it.

Me racing in Finale Ligure, Italy

Kera and I in the Italian part of Switzerland

 

Off to Finale Ligure for the 24 Hour race and then a week of vacation in Italy and Switzerland. Who knew that in parts of Switzerland they don’t speak German?

Also, broke my first frame of the year at Finale.

Went in and added yet another bit of tattoo work to my small but growing collection.

3rd Quarter -

Mother-in-laws jump in Austria

Went for an amazing week long hut-to-hut hiking trip around Dachstein in Austria. We’ll be doing a lot more in 2011.

Avoided death and paralysis when my bike broke in two and I smashed my face into the ground while racing. Spent the next 6+ weeks in the hospital and then recuperating at home. Really glad to be in an amazing German hospital.

Kera… continued to work, work and work.

While recuperating I started to take on some of the hat construction that Kera had previously done on her own (outside of color combo recommendations from me).

After constant prodding from many friends we went to SiS (Schlaflos im Sattel) which is a yearly destination. I was awarded the #1 number plate for life and a lifetime entry.

Discovered that in spite of my sarcasm and cynicism I have an amazing group of family & friends in the U.S., here in Europe and other places worldwide.

4th Quarter -

The new Indy Fab

Received my new Independent Fabrications Ti Deluxe 29′er and started riding again.

Switched from my old job to full-time teacher trainer within the same company for many reasons.

Kera received her Niederlassungserlaubnis (a long word for Permanent Residency) and I received the ability to work anywhere doing anything I want.

Back to working a lot for both of us. Sadly, that means that working out and riding suffered also (tends to make me REALLY grumpy as a side-effect).

Two new Mexican restaurants (Wahaka & Milagros) opened in München which help fill a HUGE void in our dietary needs. Believe it or not… they are both REALLY great!

Our new (to us) car

We bought our first car in Europe. Freedom….FINALLY!

Went snowshoeing a couple of times in the large amounts of snow that we received in December (record amounts, by the way).

Had a great Christmas seeing friends before and after as well as hanging out with Kera for both Christmas and New Years.

Now… on to 2011.

Plans and wishes

London (my first trip) this coming week.

Much more hiking

Much more cycling and at least working out in preparation for 2012 (planning to do a HUGE race for my 50th)

Much more sewing and creation

Maybe starting a couple of small companies (depends on how the German government takes it). Only time will tell.

Ireland for Single Speed World Championships 2011

Possibility of us moving out to the country, closer to the mountains, at some point if we can work out Keras commute situation (again…super tentative and a big wish).

Kera is going to do a fair amount of traveling in the first quarter again.

….Some other things up our sleeves too.

The main plan is for us to stay healthy and happy.

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!

Kind of alive… Finally an update!!!!

My dear wife being herself!

This is us at Dachstein - click for more pics

Before the carnage - Click for more pics

After the carnage

It’s been ages since I’ve written.

Why?

Well, my excuse boils down to my new job and trying to ride as much as I can. Sadly, a large part of the time the two goals seem to cancel each other out.

Not only have I pretty much vanished as a web presence/blogger, I’ve also not been able or made time for a few other things (i.e. Phone calls, emails, stuff around the house, the list goes on).

For that, I apologise. Things are slowly starting to normalize, a bit. I’m managing, or should I say, we’re adjusting to me working full-time and not having anywhere near as much time for all the things I could do as a freelancer.

Kera and I have begun going on one, if not two long rides (100 plus kilometers) each weekend. Also, I’m doing my best to get out at least twice a week for a ride with intervals. Strangely, I feel like I’m in pretty good shape because of those rides.

That was two weeks ago. Almost no exercise for me since then. We’ve been on a long weekend trip to Hallstatt, Austria since which was great and we both needed.

Wow, that was written a few weeks ago. Things have changed a bit…. or, a lot!

It’s already snowed here. I crashed pretty hard in a race and have hardly exercised in a month and we’re both very busy with work.

Right now, Kera us in Australia. In the last month, she’s travelled to Toronto, Canada, Seattle, London, Zurich and now she’s taking on the Southern Hemisphere. Needless to say she’s a busy girl.

I just felt the need to get something posted for the first time since June. Please excuse the absence and scattered thoughts. This was all typed while on the subway or train between classes.

Ciao!

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.

Back and alive!

I got back from Italy late Saturday night from a week of Alpentouring. It was fun, hard and incredibly beautiful. Would I do it again? IN A SECOND!!

Currently, I’ve got to head off to work but I wanted to let you know that I’m uploading photos as quickly as I can and I’ll write a full report ASAP. In the meantime, some photos will have to suffice.

This weekend, we’re off to our favorite race of the year Schlaflos im Sattel. I did it last year solo and this year we’re a 4′er team. Don’t expect results as we’re doing it for fun. Kera and I are going over early, trying to get in some riding and have a good relaxing weekend with some cool friends and folks.

In about 3 weeks we’re off to SSWC in Napa, CA and then up to Seattle to see the inlaws and sort through a bunch of stuff that we had in storage. UGH! The last part sounds like fun eh? NOT!

O.K., gotta get!

Lazy and hot….

No post is complete without at least one photo of a bike. Saw this one in Rome. Check out the integrated brake levers.

Nice stencil too. We went by one day and then again the next. It appeared overnight.

_________________________________

…….. It’s been awhile in part because I’ve been gone and busy. Phew! I’ve, finally, had the chance to slow down for a bit.

However… the short list:

A week in Italy on vacation with the in-laws

Too much work

Germany getting to #2 in the European Championships

Locking myself out of the house while Kera was in England

_________________________________

So….

First: A week in Italy on vacation with the in-laws

Very enjoyable. My in-laws Dee and Don are just really cool people. After a week in close quarters we were still happily speaking to each other and doing things together. We started on Friday heading through Switzerland (St. Moritz to be exact). Man… beautiful. I now understand why people love it. Kera and I will have to go back and ride there sometime. We then wen to Cinque Terre. It’s an amazing collection of cities that hang on the side of the cliffs bordering the Mediterranean Ocean. If you’re ever close, check ‘em out. Take the train from La Spezia though it’s far, far easier than driving.

After Cinque Terre, we headed towards one of Kera and my favorite places on the planet… Volpaia. It’s just so easy for us to relax there. Not to mention excellent food and wine. While there we visited quite a few of the local cities. From there we headed toward Rome to visit with some of Dee and Don’s friends (Di and ? who were wonderful). We got the grand tour around town and kept running across the filming of the next installment of the Dan Brown based movies “Angels and Demons”. Di had seen the stars throughout town.

Rome was never a place that I’d wanted to visit as I’d built it up in my mind to be overrun with tourists and just not worth the bother. Honestly, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Rome is a beautiful, vibrant city with a lot of cool areas away from the zillions of (American tourists while we were there) visitors. There’s lots of art, cool shops, things to see, etc. everywhere you go. The restaurants aren’t crazy expensiveand outside the really hot temperatures while we were there everything was great! We’ll definitely go back again.

Next: Too much work

I was crazy busy which, thankfully, has slowed a bit. I was working 3 or so nights a wee plus everyday as well. It’s now down to 1 or so night (if I don’t substitute) and everyday at least 1/2 day. The slowdown has given me a bit more time to ride. I did get some great news in that I should be getting a 25% raise starting Aug. 1. Woohoo!

Then: Germany getting to #2 in the European Championships

Well, that about says it. I know most Americans could give two hoots about soccer. For the most part, I often feel that way as well. However, when you live here, the fever is easy to catch during both the European Championships and the World Championships. I wasn’t too impressed with the way that Germany played but I’m not an expert either. Maybe next time.

Last: Locking myself out of the house while Kera was in England

Kera had to go to England for work for a few days. On her very first day gone I went out for a semi-long run. As I walked out of the house I put on my iPod and grabbed what I thought was the apartment key. After running around the Oktoberfest grounds and getting back to home I pulled out my key only to realize that it was the wrong key. I stood there trying to figure out what to do. It occurred to me that I’d just given Christian our house key back the night before. He and Sara live not too far away up the hill in Giesing. I couldn’t take the subway since my pass was in the apt. as was my cell phone. My only chance was to either call a locksmith or run up the hill, get my key and run back. That’s what I ended up doing.

I got back home after running another 40 minutes in addition to the 45 that I’d previously run. Needless to say I was tired that night as well as glad that I’d given Christian our key back. Phew!

Other than that, I’ve been to the Ministry concert (photo link) with Christian and finished my tattoo (just last night). We’ve also been to our friends Susanna and Matthias’ wedding which was quite nice.

Here’s the link to photos from our Italy trip and other things. More photos yet to be loaded as well.

At the end of next week I’m off to Italy for a week to do the Dolomiten cross. It’s 6 days of riding, lots of miles and lots of elevation. I’ll take lots of photos and share them with you later.

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.

Surprise/d…. yup, I passed

Surprise and call me surprised!

I was checking email while at the Taipei airport only to find a message from one of my Deutsch teachers telling me that I’d passed my test with a very good score.

WOOHOO! Hurray for me.

I’m uploading photos from Vietnam at a mad rate. There’s quite a few in there already and should be more coming in the next couple of days. Kera has yet to start doing the editing that she’d like to do before she uploads hers. I’ll let you know when that happens. In the meantime….. go here for pics.

It’s good to be home for a bit. However, we’re always looking forward to our next trip. Speaking of which, I got my entry in to SSWC ’08 in Napa. If all works out well, we should see a few of you there.

Also, a sign that the Deutsch are FINALLY realizing that 29′ers aren’t of the devil. I saw a Specialized Stumpjumper Comp 29′er in a window on Leopoldstraße the other day. Here’s a pic of the bike in question.

Anyway…for someone like me that’s been riding 29′ers for almost 5 years, I find it somewhat unbelievable that they still haven’t filtered in to the market here. The magazines still refer to them as “Trend”. Ingorant…. that’s about all I can say about that.

O.K., guess that I’d better get on to something else. Ciao for now.

Well….it’s almost a wrap.

You might know that after 3.5 weeks of attempting to access my blog, I find a place where I’m able, the day before we leave for home.

Oh well. Definitely worse things than that can happen.

 In short, I’ll write about the whole trip when I get home and after posting pics over on Flickr.

 However, I can say that we’ve had a fantastic trip and having an extra day here in Hanoi to goof off is probably a good way to end a trip. It’s a bit like bookends for our vacation, actually.

If any of you folks ever manage to make it to this side of the planet, whatever you do, don’t miss the amazing mountain village of Sapa. It’s been, by far, the highlight of the whole trip. Well, add to that the wonderous Phuoung (our tourguide). He’s endured the terror of an incredibly diverse crew of miscreants the likes of which he’ll probably not soon forget.

 I’ll expound on the previous comment about not being able to access my blog. I seem to remember a report of NPR a couple of years back about many Southeast Asian countries not allowing access to blogs from the outside world. That seems to be true as I’ve not been able to access mine or anyone elses blogs from anywhere in the country until I found this little internet cafe here in Hanoi.

 Kera is back at the hotel attempting to rest up and recover from a cold that she caught a few days back. It’s been getting progressively worse. Luckily for us she got it on the end of the trip, not the beginning.

 O.K., to end this, we’re very well, very happy and ready to head off toward Munich tomorrow morning. We’re looking at heading toward South America as our next big trip in maybe 2 years or so. Who knows. It’d be great to do a couple weeks of hiking and camping in the mountains of Peru, Chile or Bolivia. We’re both ready to do a bit less riding in buses, trains and walking in cities and headout on a bit more of an adventure.

 We hope that everyone is well and we’ll see you folks in Munich in a few days.