Noswot/Fredneck trip

This past weekend I headed south on 95 to Maryland to ride some new trails. I met up with Peter Friday night in Towson, MD and grabbed some late night beers . The one bar, CVP , we went to we felt out of place due to the lack of our "new haircut". Then we headed to Lil Dickies', a cool rock and roll bar, then the Rec Room, which was also cool. If you're ever in Towson late night. Get a hot dog from the hot dog cart in front of Hudson Trail Outfitters. But, pet the pit bull at your own risk! You've been warned. He's hunrgy!
Hung over Saturday morning, Steve showed up and we went riding @ Loch Raven. To sum up the trails @ Lock Raven, they were a natural Middle Run. We all had a blast there. Lots of logs to ride over and natural hip jumps. I got some video of the freeriding, but since I'm not totally used to my new camera, the setting was wrong for xtreme action.

Then on Sunday Peter and I met up with his buddy, Rob, to go ride the Frederick Water Shed. Rob had hurt himself BMXing the day before, but he drew us a sweet map of the "best of the water shed loop". It really was a great loop. Thanks Rob, hope your shoulder heals.

This is the Lawn Mower trail. It was super rocky, lots of kicker jumps, and sweet turns. In this one "S" turn that was bermed Peter told me I kicked up some roosted. I love roosting turns. I rode this same trail on my 7" travel DH bike in the fall, but I felt way faster on my 4" travel XC bike.

We also found a nice step down. I was a little pussy footed about doing it. Peter did it twice, so I had to do it.

Sshhh!! Secret Henry's Team freeride practice.

All the tire tracks on the landing were 2.5 or 2.7s. My 2.1 tire track looked pretty kool among all the fattys!

On a techno geek note:
I saw some really cool MTB products @ the SIC office
Chris King 1.5 headset next to a 1 1/8 headset.

Since star nuts don't work to well in a 1.5 steer tube. King has their own solution, the preloader. Their version of a headlock

Please Trevor, let me have one!!!

The trip to Maryland was totally worth it. I needed some gnarly rocks to ride to center my technical chi!

Just Riding Along Vol. 1

"Bicycle Bob" brought in his bike and shocked us pretty good. "Bob" wore a hole straight through his XT crank arm. Now, everybody has a little wear on their cranks, but these take the cake!

"Bob" said he he also wore out the inside of his right foot Sidi mountain shoe. After the first couple rides of your foot hitting the crank wouldn't you change the position of your cleats?

Bicycle Bob claimed it was a design flaw and asked for some warranty cranks.
Warranty or rider abuse? You be the judge!

Long Walk Back To The Car

There is a first time for everything. First bike. First skinned knee. First love. First broken heart.
I had my first Chain break today. It was a long time coming. I could have avoided it, I was being careless.

Before a ride last week with the Boschinator, I decided to check my chain with my trusty Parks chain checker. It was wooped, so was the cassette. Installed a new XT cassette and a handed down chain from Slick Rik, because we were out of 9spd Sram chains. I will never run a Shimano chain, unless it comes stock on my bike. So I went with the ghetto chain. Ghetto, because it was held together by 2 power links.
Come Friday I'm thinking about putting a new drive train on my DH bike. I was holding a 9spd Sram chain in my hand and said, "Naw, I'll wait until I get the rest of my parts (mainly the Sicness cranks) from SIC to build the DH back up to race specification. I totally forgot about my neglected XC bike, didn't replace the chain, and had to walk 1.8 miles back to the Honda.

Before the mechanical I was having a great solo ride in my beloved Brandywine.
Shit happens! You just have to deal with it!

Savannah Wildness Part. 2

So The lovely Megan posted some pictures from the Savannah weekend. Here we go with a random recap.

Partners in crime

Our Host Red Head Joe on a 12" Walmart special Spider Man bike.

Pabst 24.oz, Probably my favorite picture

On River street I saw a checkered blow up finish line. I had to check it out. Motorized cooler racing!!! $5 for 3 laps. Head to head track racing. The coolers had a Grip Shift like throttle on the right and a brake lever that I didn't need on the left. I won my race. (Watch out I've already wone one race this season!!, Drunk) Remembering my favorite line from Days of Thunder, I yelled "Rubbing is racing" as I cross the finish line. In the distance I heard a red neck yell, "damn straight brother"

Meg's Favorite picture

Bag pipers on River ST.

I didn't think it was possible but 17 people can fit into a extended truck bed. Originally, we had 16. We had a jumper join us. He got out of his buddy's car and jumped into the truck bed. Only in Savannah.
The whole time I thought we were going to get pulled over by Savannah's finest. We made it to our destination safely.

Ok so Savannah lost power to a tornado. The wind was the strongest I've ever felt in my life. The sky was pulsing with lightning. It was strange. 1 low flash followed by 1 high flash in the sky.
Why not all lay on the ground and take a picture?

This is Jack. He is the coolest dog I've ever met. We go way back. He belongs to my best friend, Sarah. During college I'd come home to this mutt chilling on my couch watching TV.
He was the community dog that everyone would watch after while Sarah was @ class or @ softball practice & games

Trains, Planes, and automobiles. The only ways to travel.
At least nobody got seriously hurt or arrested.
Boy do I look hurt in this pic

Savannah Wildness Part. 1

On the 13th of March my friend Megan and I planned on leaving BWI to go to Savannah, GA for the St. Patty's Day parade. Well, we missed our flight. So, Megs got us stand by tickets for the next red eye. So we had no other choice than to go to Fells Point, Bmore and drink away our misfortune. Having friends that are bartenders is a good and a bad thing. Good because most your drinks don't make it to your tab. Bad because you do to many shots and you do things you normally wouldn't do.
What else do you want to see in the morning extremely hungover after 4 hours of drunk sleep?
Not a long line like this one.

A Couple hours later we landed in Savannah. As soon as we got to Red Head Joe's (Our host. My frat brother,(bet you didn't know I was a frat boy) that now attends SCAD) house, we were told to put our green on. We then got our solo cups and got our drink on. (note: Savannah has no open container laws. Perfect for my Frostburg posse)

I found my good friend Pabst Blue Ribbon 24 oz. can

7 30packs later
River street

Here I am @ Vic's on the river, a pretty classy bar. Here I met some old dudes that graduated from Salesianum. Not only were they from Wilmington, the one old dude's daughter was Laura's roommate @ University of Maryland. Small World!

As the night progressed We all got pretty drunk, in turn making us pretty wild. Our lady friends were nearly arrested for acting afool, Atomic wedges were given, Jack the dog, Sarah, Gnarly Dave, and Pat made it from Charleston.

Thats all I have for now Savannah Wildness part 2 will follow as a poach more pictures from facebook and myspace.

Zoo Lounger

On Friday a local celebrity came back to town for the weekend. Bain,
had enough of sunny So Cal and came back to cold, windy, over cast, and rainy Wilmington, DE. To show our west coast friend a good time we went to Zoo Lounge located in Hockessen on Rt. 41. The Myspace.com page said "A Miami style night club in Hockessen, De". I knew we were in for a eventful evening. Our crew rolling deep showed up around 9:30PM. When inside we realized this place is just a tent or pole barn with space heaters, tacky fake pond and stuffed lions & tigers. All to the background of hip-hop club music. This place was not my cup of tea at all. This club should have stayed in the mind of the person who thought it up. Another local celebrity was spotted. The guy that dropped $675,000 on the number "6" black and white Delaware license plate. To escape the trying to hard to be "baller" night club we retired to good bar, Six Paupers. Betters beers, better atmosphere. What a night.

Sunday the riding crew assembled for a windy ride through the Brandywine Valley. Bain, Ben, Chan, Tom, The Monkey (Steve Pontius look alike) and myself made it out. Good ride, minus the super hero strength wind!

Note: I do not condone riding without a helmet!
Helmets are cool. Its the smart thing to do.

Savannah, GA Thursday thru Sunday for the St. Patrick's Day weekend craziness!

What kind of mischief will Red Head Joe help us find?

SShhhh!
Check out the Secret Henry's Sale this Saturday!

Who needs facebook .com I blog now!

OK. I started blogging. Where do I go from here?