utahDOG!: February 2012

Friday, February 24, 2012

The one that got away, part 2.

My family was pretty shocked that I put pictures of peas floating in wee on the blog, so I'll try to redeem myself by posting something a little less crude but somehow at least as uselessly childish. It's time for another Track Car Shopping Update!

This tidy little unit fetched $1800 on the flea. Location was in Utah, so that limited my participation. Why can't cars like this be located in Atlanta or even Baltimore, at least somewhere on the east coast!?

A very clean example of a MkII Scirocco, and while the Scirocco is not a dream platform for a track car, being that it is essentially an overweight Rabbit, it would be a hoot.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Style!

Bam!

I am pure culture. Envy me.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Poignant

Two small lonely beings tossed about on the seas of tumultuous existence, with only one another to assist in coping with the futility of their precarious predicament, teetering on the verge of total oblivion and wasted potential of a life squandered....

...and with the flick of a switch all is changed forever and a lone survivor waits with a heavy heart for the story to end and the curtain to fall and for the silence of lasting sleep to embrace forever.

Damn peas. Can't flush a pea down the shoot without a fire hose.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

12 Hours of Santos - 2012

This past Saturday I competed as part of a four man team in the 12 Hours of Santos mountain bike race in Ocala. It was a great time. I was sporting the Turner, which surprised me right before the first lap by almost barfing up a pivot bolt in the rear suspension. EEK!

Here I am churning my way to one of the slowest lap times recorded all day!

Dropping in after the transition zone, starting the second slowest lap time of the day.

Standing around with my back to the camera, wondering in a fog what the hell I'd gotten myself into!

This was the first competitive event I'd been involved with since about 1992 or so. It was fun! I think I could get used to this, assuming the rest of my team gets used to my slow lap times! The Turner worked flawlessly, after a quick going over to ensure all pieces were in place and accounted for.

First lap, 56.9 min

Second lap, 58.1 min

Third lap, 66.9 min (night)

35th place out of 41 teams.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Higher Ground Bicycles - Tallahassee

Holy Crap!

A Bike Shop Review!

Yes twerps, I actually went into an unfamiliar bike shop this past weekend, and as usual that means I need to feed my urge to talk badly about those around me who have actually gotten off their a$$es and committed their lives to bicycle retail and all that that entails, (you know, the drinking, debt, tax evasion, spousal abuse, drug addiction and trafficking, etc.)

I was in our fine state's capital city of Tallahassee visiting the often praised Tom Brown Park trail system. More on the park in a bit, but first, a little quip about the town and the shop.

First, Tallahassee is another in a long line of supposed college towns in Florida generally misinterpreted by definition and constructed by blind happenstance by a population of rather simple minded folks; who have never visited a legitimate college town, working hand in hand with a nest of inebriated FDOT roadway engineers. That is to say that the place is riddled with poorly conceived 4 lane roads and dilapidated sidewalks packed to the gills with single car drivers and featuring few pedestrians.

However, hats off to the throngs of tireless workers searching for and deploying ways to improve the vehicle dominated landscape into one more suited for the ped and pedal powered among us. "Tally", as the tattooed locals call it, is making strides in the right direction...

And this place is helping out! Once you get past the brand new homogenized strip style shopping facility which hosts the establishment, (a facility that also hosts a "Zaxby's"), you enter into a world seldom presented by bicycle retailers in the great state of Florida. A world where the proprietors recognize the value of stocking parts! High-end parts! Parts people actually WANT! WOOEEEE! 8 King headsets, 8 King bottom bracket sets, both in all sorts of colors, Salsa bits, Fox Forks, Turner frames, Niner goodies, all in stock and on the walls and for SALE!

You don't see that every day in Jax. You don't see that ever in Jax! If the QBP catalog disappeared most shops in Jax wouldn't know how to get their hands on anything even remotely high-end, short of asking their Specialized rep...

BUT! In the landscaping outside the shop, mere feet away from a display of vintage Diamond Back's, Cannondale's and even a "Spalding Blade" mountain bike from the late 80's, was this little nightmare!

OJ's glove!

Still covered in unmentionables!!

Still, I bought socks. The fellas in the shop deserved it.

RING IT UP!

BIKES - Specialized and Cannondale. Even under Pacific ownership, Cannondale as a complimentary brand is quite a statement.

ENVIRO - They have a couch and beers!

MERCHANDISING - Joe blow cabinets and racks. Albeit dressed nicely with the King and Salsa bits.

DOODS - Good guys and lots of facial hair. A happy bunch, although one dood in particular wanted $20 for the cruddy stem next to my socks in the pic above.