Too Much to do!

It seems odd to me, that I've complained about not having enough time to do things for the past 4 weeks now. Thanksgiving break, I had 5 large projects to work on. The following week, dead week, those 5 projects were due as well as a couple presentations. Then finals week...which I was happy to be done with on Thursday capped off with the team meeting/party. Then got busy on my job, expecting to work 70hrs this week.
The whole time we had all these team orders to compile and send in, with all kinds of questions about colors, options, sizes, prices...between the 7 odd orders, the total was more than $50,000-fun checks to write.
I didn't have time to join in on all the team skiing this past week. :(
I feel kinda bad, not having time for the girlfriend, but having to make time for the bikes, since they have deadlines. Sure am glad she doesn't.

Cannondale Factory Tour

Hey Guys, everyone post some pics from the tour, and your thoughts.

I had an great time, and I want to sincerely thank Zerbe for taking the time out of his day to show us kids around the factory. It was educational, fun, and super duper awesome.


Afterwards, we all shared lunch at the Jean Bonnet Tavern, and said goodbye to Zerbe and hit the road. I gotta say, I was stoked for the new frame, and now I simply can't contain myself.

I stole some pics from Liew but I won't steal his opportunity to post them!

PS check out the link to my blog to see how my KM looks with a suspension fork on it...no more rigid....for now at least.

Roost the Narr!

Sorry I couldn't post last night, but my interweb was non-functional.

The club ski trip was a super hot success! Liew, Bala, Amber, Jimmy, Lemma, and myself all hit the slopes early yesterday morning for Wisp's $7 birthday spectacular!

The crowd was actually pretty moderate considering the price, and the snow was very nice. Mostly packed powder everywhere, with the exception of one icey patch on squirrel cage. We spent the first part of the day on some greens and shaking some of the rust off, and then went and stretched our legs on the blues and blacks. The weather could not have been more perfect as it was sunny and in the upper 40's. Jimmy wasn't even wearing gloves by the end of the day.

Lemma even had a near cell phone/lift chair disaster as she went to answer her phone we all were able to witness it floating at almost slow motion speed towards the ground and we continued onward. Luckily she and Jimmy were able to ski down fast enough to save the day, and the phone!

The most improved skiier award goes to Mr. Chetmun Liew, for claiming to "suck" but going out and dominating the slopes with his killer carving capabilities....and yes I did just use some alliteration.

Hopefully we can all go again as a group. Sorry for those who couldn't come. We will catch you next time!

... pt.2

Somedays the air feels perfect, the wind seems to always be at your back, the hills pass with ease, the bike feels just right, and you feel faster than ever.

...today was one of those days.

It's amazing what a day of nice weather and empty roads can do for your body, mind, and motivation level. I wish these upper 60's days would stick around more in December, so I better start upping my carbon footprint.

-Chad

...

Some day's the air feels too cold, the wind feels too hard, the hill feels too steep, the bike feels to heavy, and you just feel too slow.

...today was one of those days.

Training motivation level = -2

Supposed to get warmer in the next two days, lets hope that brings motivation.

-Chad

OMG it is like....over!

Congrats to all for finishing another semester of excellence! Go and be quite merry on your break-ness!

Ride, ski, board, chill, watch tv, eat, read, hang, walk, run, drink, be safe, and of course, keep it sick.

Play nice and don't smoke.

Jake-ub

Chaos

You wanna see mass hysteria? Offer a SRAM Red BB30 for $150.
WVU Thread

Doing some exploring...

Today Ryan, Andrew, and I hooked with with Phil and Frank from Mon County bike club in hopes of exploring some new rides that we had not been on. Frank is apparently the Morgantown area road knowledge master (more so than my GPS, at least).

It was a balmy 20 degrees when we met this morning outside of the courthouse. The ride started promptly at 10, so Ryan and Andrew showed up at 10:08, just to bring some WVU cycling spirit to the ride. Our goal was to climb as much as possible, and descend as little as possible (Why wasn't Jimmy there? Must be cleaning the bike house for tomorrow's guest I suppose?).

Phil also had a great and innovative idea to stay warm! He grabbed one of his girlfriends menstruation pain reliever pads that heat your midsection and wore it for the entire ride.

Anyway, we started on Rt100 to Ft Martin, past the road to Taylortown and kept heading north to Mapletown. After Mapletown we descended into the river valley north of Ft. Martin. I bonked hard around this point and had to accept an ever so delicious, tasty and nutritious Clif bar from Phil. We headed south towards Dillner where we climbed Cemetery Hill Rd. in an attempt to get back to Ft. Martin and head to Taylortown. After a wrong turn back towards the river we swiftly corrected ourselves and re-climbed what we accidentally descended. We got back on course and headed to Taylortown. My gas tank ran empty and I sagged hard. The cold really got to my muscles and I felt super lactic soaked. I actually lost sight of everyone at one point coming down onto RT100 because even with my head cover my face was freezing and couldn't bare the wind of going fast down the descents. I finally met up with everyone on Rt100, where Frank told me to set the pace for everyone. This turned into Phil and I dropping Andrew, Frank, and Ryan. That also led to Frank dubbing me a sandbagger. Sometimes even when you're down and out you can still find some power for a nice run... sorry Phil. It worked out well when Andrew caught Phil and I right after coming under the train bridge and back into the river valley. I then quickly dropped from them as we started getting snowed on and were riding into an extremely fierce headwind.

Eventually Ryan and Frank picked me up and I proceeded to suck wheel all the way home. Ryan fell of hard at the end with lactic soak. We never again saw Phil, Andrew, or my bottle that I put on Phil's bike since I broke my bottle cage.

We ended up climbing 4,000ft total today. It was a hainus, cold, and also expensive ride, seeing as we did around 45 miles, and have to spend $200 more on cranks because we missed a crank auction we weren't aware of. If I knew that I was costing myself about $4.50 in savings per mile on a SRAM crank, I probably would have turned around sooner. Weirdly enough, as crappy as the weather was and as much as we climbed/hurt, I really did have fun today...

Go pedal

GPS:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7250403

-Chad

Bruceton Mills CX

Chad and I decided to go watch some cyclocross racing in Bruceton Mills today on the Don Parks farm. I've been to some bigger races in MABRA-land, but it was pretty cool to go to simple yet well done race.
Liew had to leave by 1, so he didn't carpool with us. So we started the race day out well by exceeding 110mph on the interstate, passing some cars with bikes on the roof. We then added a helping of uwie which put us behind the other racers. Those racers pulled off into a lot, and pulled in behind us. We then proceeded towards the race, seeing the green mailbox as listed on the flyer directions, but it wasn't with a silver as flyer suggested. So we drove on, and had a second helping of uwie, very excited to see that we had misdirected 2 strangers cars aswell.
It was interesting to see that the parking lot was a grass covered yard, as we crossed the course. Yes, the parking was inside the course, on a grassy, snow covered slope. 4 wheel drive anyone? Not us.
The race had pretty good turnout, maybe 40 racers? Nothing too notable, no spectacular crashes, just some guy from Freddie Fu came and lapped everyone in the fast race. Plowing is a cool way to mark a course.

Heres a boring video
.

Coopers Rock...Still Rocky and Kind of Snowy

Yesterday, Saturday of the 23 day of November in the year of two thousand and eight, I decided to go ride my bici at Coopers Rock.  For those who don't know, Coopers is currently under attack from chainsaws.  It was around 29 when I ventured out into the 1-3 inches of snow around Coopers.  I embarked through the race  course and road most of the trails on the course (no idea what they are called).  I was surprised, there really was not that much damage that I saw during my ride and the snow made it extremely crazy and hard to ride.  It was nice to be riding and then be on the ground and have no idea why.  I would recommend going to ride out there in the snow, it was pretty crazy fun...The end... 

Commuting in the Snow, doh

This morning was so purty. A little cold, but wasn't windy, nice sunshine and a light white covering over grass and road. I got up early this morning; had a quiz and exam to finish preparing for. Headed out the door feeling plenty warm with my WVU Cycling hoodie on, and opted for glasses today to keep my eyes from watering.
While on my ride to class, I was looking down at my fenders thinking how great they were. The roads were beginning to melt as salt had been applied. I was so excited that I wasn't getting that brine all over my legs, back and in my mouth as used to happen without those fenders. I thought about how perfect my tires were for commuting. Nice 1.9" tires gave enough cushion to the bumps, while the smooth tread gave little rolling resistance. I was a little upset that my brakes didn't feel smooth from all the frozen crap that had accumulated. The roads sure looked slick, and I wondered how badly my bike would stop given my brakes and the frosty roads.
As I got onto the engineering campus, everyone was hustling all bundled up with winter jackets and gloves, and I had on a hoodie. WVU takes pretty good care of the sidewalks, and they were pretty clear. I could see the salt crystals on the wet concrete. As I rounded the last left corner near the PRT to go into the grassy inner area between ESB and MRB I thought, man, I'm glad this turn it well salted, I'd hate to wreck.
Then it happened, the bike dropped out from under me to my right, and while my fender drug on the concrete with a loud screeching sound, my left foot touched down. I stayed upright trying to run out the momentum I had no traction to slow down. The concrete landing pad ended and I saw bushes and a brick wall rapidly approaching. I opted to fall into the grass to scrub some speed before impact with much harder things. As my knee went into the grass, my momentum carried me over and I landed upside down in the bushes.
My ego was badly injured. All those bundled people definitely heard and saw that. I got up, completely covered in snow. As I dusted off my pants, I realized my knee was all muddy, can't wear these pants the rest of the week. I picked up my bike, and proceeded VERY cautiously to the rack, locked my bike and went inside. As I got to the door, I saw my reflection and realize my entire upper body was covered in snow, including my head. I brushed it off while walking to class, with just about everyone I saw making some comment about it.
Then I thought, that coulda been bad. I think I'll start wearing my helmet on my commutes to class again. But as it turned out, my day only got worse once that exam started.

Logo

Howdy,

Got some new logo ideas!  Let me know what you think.  They would be used for Ts/website or anything we need a logo for.  Glade to see it is snowing, wohoo, snowboarding!

Image could be used for anything

Here is the new header idea (mtnbiker people can moved around for T's, etc)

The Smell of Cold Air

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been staying up later and later working on random things like the team website, team biography, some homework, Ebay, watching TV on the internet, and playing games. Now that I've succeeded in completely flipping my day over, I decided to go for a 1 AM road ride.
I finally got to try these new Knog Frog lights from Pathfinder along with my MTB day light bright head light. Figured I'd go ride the rail trail to Sabraton, and see how many homeless I could bunny hop on the way there. Sadly, there were none tonight.
While on my ride, I realized how much I love the smell of cold air. It smells so clean, and reminds me of deer hunting. Which reminded me this is the last week until break! WOOO.
Oh ya, I didn't dress warm enough, and turned around in Sabraton w/o doing Dug Hill as I had planned.

Going Tubless on a Budget

Hey everyone,

I want to report in on something that I've found works great and is cost effective: "Ghetto Tubeless"

I have always had problems with flatting on my MTB, especially with my new found love of urban assault paired with my current inability to hop my rear tire properly in key situations. Flatting also cost me some positions in two MTB races this year, boo.

So here's the instructions for ghetto tubeless!

Pt1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRM7gq1fcoQ
Pt2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwON2VxZL0g

Also, Sponge has the sealant you need to do this... so go harass him for some.

Take care,
-Chad

Quantum of Solace

So, yes I bailed on the ride today! Everyone knows I love riding my bike buuuut....maybe not so much as to start a super long ride in the "cold November rain...."

Anywho, what I did do today is begin putting together a montage of all of our videos and pictures from the fall racing season. My hope is to get a sweet WVU cycling specific video together for the Outdoor Adventure Film Festival at 123 in April!

So, I have most all the videos from Sponge, and I have access to most all of the pictures, but if anyone has anything really amazing that they want in there let me know!

Hopefully I can get something nice started between now and the spring semester, and then slide in some road pics and video before it all has to be turned in!

It strangely felt good today to do basically nothing.

- Jake

Recap on Larry Chet-Mun elvis Liew

Hi all,
Sweet blog yo.We should have start this since old time. For those who don't know me, i'm Larry, you can call me Larry or Liew or Chet-Mun or Chet or echetmun(that's my AIM screename, add me!) or even cooler name, Elvis. This is gonna be a quick recap on Larry, that's me.

Recap starts here------>Ok, after a long long MTB season. From May(WVMBA series) till October(Collegiate season). I am really tired and fatigue. You know, bumpy rocks, logs, and so on, it makes me crazy, due to that, I am currently facing a problem so called "tail-bone fatigue" which when I stand, walk, sit, run, or bike will make my tail-bone hurt like crazy. Here, let me show you a picture of me:



So, bad huh? for those of you who are still concern/care about me, give me a call or come visit me at my house with flowers or fruits or food.

Yea, during the collegiate MTB season, I felt like it's been a really really long season even though only 7 weeks of racing including 5 of those are at North Carolina State. OH Oh...I need to shout out a big thank you to those who went to Pfeiffer race. Without them, I'm not sure if we can make our jersey title printed to 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08. Thank you guys! Well, yea....I think the best position I ever raced during the whole collegiate season is on VT weekend, I had 3rd place overall in short track, FYI: racing with those big gun?WOoooo. And the worst finishing position is during National weekend. Broke my rear derailleur catastrophically, don't know why but Jake saw it (ask Jake for proof). It just break..yeap...break!And, I DNF that race.Hehe...

Well..I guess I have so much thing to say until I forgot..Maybe somebody can back me up and do some recaps more on the season?

Ooh oh...when you are free...go to http://www.whitephotographic.net/clients/wvu/road_bikes/index.html.....
It's a cool website!

Boom Baby!

Let the blogging begin!

It's cold out there team! Though, I hear rumblings of a Jimmy-lead covered bridge tour on Saturday!

Check with Jimmy and the forum for more details!

I think this blog idea of Ryan's is great. This will be an excellent way to share your thoughts on rides, races, frustrations with the weather, and of course any other randomness that may suit. (within reason of course)

As for me, during the winter I like to take the time to rest, do some other activities, but I still try to get out on the ole bike around once or so a week just for fun. My training (if you really ever wanted to call it that) is over for the year, so it's fun rides, climbing at the rec, and snowboarding for me for the next couple months!

For those of you who do wish to continue the training, I first commend you, and second will direct you towards the members section for some excellent training information and schedules!

Don't forget to get money to Liew and Sponge for team orders!

PS - uh we are awesome! Great job during mountain season champs!




See you out there!

- Jake

Bicycle Accident

At 7:56 this morning authorities were contacted about a white male lying
unconscious on the living room floor half clad in cycling attire; an
apparent accident after attempting a late night training session. Multiple
open containers were located around the subject. Circumstances are still
unknown as to how the male ultimately ended up on the floor, warmed by a
towel and sofa cushion, but it appears the bike was unharmed and no one else
was involved. It is unknown if the bicycle was ever actually attached to the
stand or if any training actually occurred.

The individual was identified only as "Bear Fornicator" by friends at the
scene, his identity is still being held by authorities until his next of kin
can be contacted.

Ryan Post staff writer for WVU Cycling