Short update

Sorry no updates in a long time, things have been super crazy around here lately.


There has been a little riding going on.

Most of its just screwing around

On fixys more than anything


Noah is doing well, his musical talent abounds.



Levi is hanging in there as well, getting little bit of attention when he can.

Columns or Rows, You Decide

I have no intention of making this a political blog but, here is another video I ask people to watch and forward.



I promise to get back to bikes and Noah real soon.

Copenhagen

Oh, how I want to visit Scandinavia. Just to fuel the fire I stumbled across: copenhagengirlsonbikes.blogspot Check it out and see regular folks (albeit, female and attractive) using bikes in their everyday lives.

World Clock

Check this out.

They can’t all be great,

I went to Pisgah this weekend. Saturday’s ride turned south fast when the group split up mistakenly within the first half hour. I spent more time sitting around in the woods wondering where everybody went then actually riding. When I did ride I was confronted by yet another I9 failure. A hard day of not ridding and breaking stuff was topped off by a disgusting BBQ diner. At least the campfire was huge. Sunday it started raining the minute we broke camp, I had no mood to put up with riding in the rain all day so I packed it back home and did a little greenway fixy riding in the afternoon from home. It takes bad trip to help you appreciate the good ones.
Ride Log:
5th Greenway Fix – 3:00
8th Pisgah – 2:00 (3.5 hours in the woods resulted in 2 hours of riding)
9th Neighborhood fix -1:00

Jog log
5th 2 miles
6th 2 miles
Marathon training has taken a nose dive lately.

Stuff

I ask that everyone that visits this bog to please take 20 minutes of your time to watch the following video:

Click - Stuff

If you are willing, please forward a link for the video to others.

Lax on the posts

I haven’t posted anything since before Thanksgiving. I guess not much has been going on and I can’t find my camera so no pictures lately. Thanksgiving was great, Noah got to spend some good time with my mother and everyone ate too much.
I got a little riding in last week. Jeff and I went to Pisgah and had a grand day hitting up some of the best easy climb for maximum downhill thrill routes I know. Jeff tested out his new Nomad which is one of the best looking bicycles I have ever seen. We went to the Hatchery, road up the gravel road to the top of Long Branch and then did the full Longbranch/Cat gap descent then jumped back in the car and drove to the base of Black Mountain and road North Slope> Claw Hammer>Maxwell>Black Mountain>Grassy Road>Sycamore. The weather was perfect and trail conditions could not have been better.

Its neerly oficial now, I am going back to 26" wheels. Well at least for a while and on a longish travel bike. More details to come.

The weather is supposed to be supper nice this weekend and Tara is going out of town with the boy so I will probably go camp and ride in Pisgah all weekend. If anyone is interested in meeting up, shoot me an email. (Briannicholson at charter dot net)
Ride log:
25th Neighborhood fixy ride
28th Greenway fixy extravaganza 2:00
30th commute to work 2:00
2nd – Pisgah 4:30

Jog log:
22nd - 2miles
23rd - 7miles – ouch
27th - 3 miles
28th – 2 miles
29th – 5 miles

This is a coaster for a shot glass

Nice week, I did a little running and very little riding. I spent Saturday at the Ridge with Thomas and Eric, all of us on gears. We had a great ride spending the first hour and a half without riding along the lake any. It was an interior tour like none other. Saturday night was an engagement party for Terry Jeffers with a lot of Knoxvillian’s I would have never met otherwise.

Sunday was back to the ridge with Eric, Thomas the bithday boy, plus DJ and Jeff, this time all on SS. As always Thomas got a bunch of cool pictures and I’m ripping him off. Maybe Santa will help out with a camera that will fit in a pocket.


I borrowed Eric‘s Blur LT, and rode it around my neighborhood Sunday and I.C.King Monday. That is a fantastic bike. I’m almost certain the ElCapitan is on its way out. As a long time 29’er freak, I have to say big wheels don’t make as much sense as suspension is added into the eqution. The last two 26” bikes I have ridden have been significantly more fun than their 29” counterparts and I’m all about the “fun factor”.

I did a little running this week. One week left before the 18 week program begins.

Fez ?!?!?!?


Ride log
17th – Haw Ridge 2:30 One of the best ridge loops ever.
18th – Haw Ridge hangover ride 2:00 = 2:00 of hang’n in the parking lot
19th - I.C.King on the Blur 1:00

Jog Log
12th – 3 miles
13th – 2.5 miles
15th – 3 miles
16th – 2.5 miles

Farlow free weekend

I opted out of the SWANK65 this year. I was in no mode or condition to pay $70 to push my bike up to Farlow gap. I hope Mr. Magnusson and the ZOO crew had a good day at it.
Sunday was a trip to Raccoon Mountain. We had a fun group of Thomas Gains, Eric Nelson, Ben Ramsbottom and I. I have been a little sick this week and definitely dragged the back of the group most of the day but still we did very little waiting around and moved together very well everyone in sight of each other all the time but never crowded. I am continuously amazed by Raccoon Mountain. It may be the most fun trail system in the south. I road several trails this time I had never seen before with rock and technical features that would challenge most anyone (I know I walked a few spots). We rode the outside loop clockwise whereas I had always ridden counterclockwise previously. Both directions are allot fun but clockwise gives you more long flowy downhills and tougher climbs. I’d say counterclockwise is a better SS direction although I’m not sure I want to take the SS to the Coon again the FS bike is too much fun in the tech sections. Check out Harvest the Ride for more pictures from the day.

Thomas weaving through some boulders (My ElCapitain's wheelbase made it extra challanging to make these moves):

Thomas on another roller:


I did my first bike commute this week since day light savings ended. It dark most of the way home luckily I have good lights and reflective clothing. I tried a new route home this week that used more greenway but the road sections had a ton more traffic and I don’t think I will go that way again, its fun to have options though.
Noah had a doctor’s visit this week, 27 ¼” and 17.5lbs. of growing boy. He doesn’t go back to the doctor for a year which seems like kind of a milestone. He is eating allot of solid food now, not 50% but getting close. He seems really fascinated with several things of late that have us on our toes he does everything possible to get into; plants, Levi’s water bowl, the staircase, and anything with buttons (Computers, remote controls, stereo etc…


Ride log (Pretty pathetic this week):
9th- commute to work 2:00
10th -Neighborhood cruzing 1:30
11th -Raccoon Mountain 3:30
Jog log:
6th -2.5 mile
7th -5 mile

Fall back

Last week before DST ends, I got a few after work rides in. I rode the Queen for the first time in a while, Its sort of fun but I was reminded why I never ride there. Friday I got to ride with Chris Young, Chris is an old paddling friend (his wife set Tara and I up on our first date) that has taken up mountain biking and is getting pretty serious about it. I had a crappy ride, I trashed both wheels on the Blacksheep and took a good fall, but it was fun nonetheless. Saturday Tara, Noah and I went to the UT football game. It was a company outing (thanks BMa) with a shrimp boil/tailgate party before the game. We all had a hoot even if we didn’t watch much of the game.

I went to Pisgah Sunday for a Hatchery tour. We had a divers group, Jay and Jen Smelser, Mark Webb, Terry Jeffers, Brian Hann, Ben Ramsbottom and I, we also hooked up mid ride with some friends of Jay’s. We road Caney, Daniel Ridge, Butter Gap, and Cat Gap with a bunch of fire road in-between. It was a beautiful day and a great time. The descent down Butter was one of my favorite ever, keeping Terry and Ben in sight isn’t easy when the trail points down.

Group:

Jay:

Jen:

Mark, enjoying those gravel road climbs:

Terry:

Brian:

Ben was so fast his image could not be captured.


Noah is doing great he is likely to be walking any second. I spent hours trying to figure out how to rotate this video and never could so those of you with laptops, rotate you machine, those with desktops tilt you head:


I have a new winter training plan up my sleeve that’s going to occupy my interest until March 30th.


Ride log:
30th IC King 1:30
1st Haw Ridge – 2:00
2nd Haw Ridge – 2:00
4th Pisgah – 4:30