Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Knee update

Well I went to see the surgeon on tuesday, my knee has been messed up since april with only a little bit of improvement. He looked at my MRI, did an exam and didnt really see anything wrong with my knee. He thinks I may have scar tissue built up on the front of me knee because that is kind of painful, but I can deal with that pain. The pain in the back on my leg is much worse. It really feels like the calf muscle more than anything else. So I figure if I am going in for surgery I might as well go ahead and ride my bike some. It feels better than it did the last time I tried to ride a month or so ago. So now, if it continues to feel better, maybe I just need more rest. I would rather not have surgery if I dont really need it. It would just be nice to know exactly what is going on with it. Oh well nothing is ever easy.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

KTR Double Cross

What a great weekend of racing. The weather was just about perfect, even though it was not very cross like. It sure feels good that it is cross season again, I just wish I could race. Since I cant race and I dont know when I will be able to I decided to take up a new hobby to get me through, photographing the races. Check out my photos sections for about 700 pictures from the two days.
Team Sandbag did good both days. John and Ben ended up racing, John both days, and Ben just day 2.

JP totally dominated both days of racing, it wasnt even close. Right from the start he had the lead and never gave it up. But a lot of local Michigan guys raced really strong and finished really well.
Thanks to Kinetic Systems and Tailwinds for putting on another great start of the season.

Next up the GP of Ithaca. Brian is doing a great job setting up this race and I hope it grows this year over last year.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Raleigh Technium 480 Project

While we were up north for our wedding I on stumbled onto my next project. Someone posted up on mmba that they were looking for a older road bike, size 56cm. One of the responses was from someone who had a old Raleigh Technium 480 that was about a 60cm. I have been looking for a older road bike to make into a fixed gear/single speed for some time. My teammate Kyle had a older Bianchi that I was going to get from him, but that hasnt worked out yet. So for $50 dollars I am now the proud owner of a bike that was made when I was 12.

The bike is in really good shape, just a few scratches in the paint, the wheels are even true.
The color is very 80`s, mauve and white.
These bikes are a bonded aluminum and steel mix, glued at the at the head tubes lugs, and bottom bracket. It is a pretty light bike for it`s day.
I am thinking about building it up with white wheels, white Toupe saddle and white bar tape. I think I might pick up a Chris King Gripnut headset as well, but I am not sure the color.
The bike will need some work for sure. The headset feels ok, but the bottom bracket needs to be re-built.
I am going to get a set of wheels that have a flip flop hub so I can run the bike fixed/free. I think that will be the best setup, for the riding that I am going to be doing.

Here are some more pictures of the bike. I want to update my blog as I get new parts on the bike so look for more updates soon.

Friday, September 05, 2008

August 23rd

The big day finally arrived.
From Wedding Ceremony


We got married!!

Noelle found the place back in the winter, it is called frog pond village. She knew right away that it was the place. It is just outside of Traverse City, which is about 4 hours from where we live. We thought it would be nice to do a destination wedding, and TC is a place that a lot of people really enjoy. 9 months since our engagement went by really fast.

Everything went really good. It rained like crazy the morning of the wedding, but I was watching the weather and it looked like the line of rain was moving through really fast. Sure enough, about 2 it started to clear up, the sun came out and the temperature dropped. All of those are good things when you have a outdoor wedding, and are wearing a black tux.

We wanted a different wedding, we tried to keep it small also. This place was very outdoorsy and very much us. It is a really nice place, we had a jazz band playing (Mike Davis Trio) and they were great. No one danced really, but with the music playing and all the places outside for people to just hang out, it was really nice.

The food was really good, the only complaint was with the owner of frog pond, she needs to just focus on running the place and not doing the flowers. She didnt deliver what we expected and I think it was over priced. But otherwise it was a great place. (In case you stumble on this looking for info on FPV)

Just out the photo link on the right, for a ton of pictures from friends and family.