this space for rent

long sleeves and 100% merino wool, two things that my arsenal of jerseys was desperately lacking.  Oh and the hand signed Wes Freed DBT posters you see there are getting framed too, just have to wait for the holiday rush to die down at the frame place so they can get to them.  BTW the big ball you see there above the jersey, that’s made of nothing but rubber bands.  It weighs about 4 pounds and will probably end up getting dropped off the balcony the next time I have a bit too much to drink (more of a public service announcement for my neighbors, just in case they come across my blog).
  So far I’ve put in two 3 hour rides on the road bike, one on Christmas Eve after most of the family had taken off, and another today with Speedy.  Both rides were in and around the Canton, Alpharetta, Cumming or Canalphumming area as I like to call it.  About one and a half hours into the ride today I notice that Speedy’s rear brake is dragging really badly.  We pull over and I pick up the back end of his bike to spin the wheel and it gets all of about 4 revolutions before coming to a complete hault.  I did my best to try to get the brake recentered, but his Ultegra brakes and different from both my Campy and Durrrrace brakes so I couldn’t get it right.  Fortunately a pair of other riders passing by asked if we were ok, I ate some crow and asked if they were any good w/ Ultegra brakes.  As fate would have it one of them was and had Speedy all set up in no time flat.  You would have thought he had crammed a rocket up his ass the way he took off after that, “this bike rides so much better, I mean it was riding good before but now….. I mean DAMN!”  FUnny how a well functioning bike makes a difference……
  Hope everyone is doing fine and getting some rides in, with any luck it won’t rain too much tonight and the trails will re-open tomorrow ’round these parts.
POAS,
Matt-

I hope that your holiday is filled with joy, laughter and days of good riding. 
POAS,
Matt-

  Skipped my Wednesday ride in favor of doing a core workout, every time I got ready to leave the house it would either rain a little more or something would happen that would keep me tied up at the house.  So after a few failed attempts I decided that it was best to workout instead of riding.

  Not much else to report other than Davis and I went to the sneak preview of the new National Treasure movie, I lucked into some tickets from the Dunwoody Cycling Group that I sometimes ride with.  Traffic was a nightmare getting down there, and we both missed the first 20 minutes, but the rest of the movie is great.  If you liked the first one then you’re going to like the sequal.  They followed trend for this one and there was no cursing or anything else that you wouldn’t want a five year old to see.  I’m not big on sheltering people, but for those that have kids it’s nice to know that there are still films being made for the mainstream audience that you can take your whole family to.

  That’s all for now, dress warm and get out and ride.
POAS
Matt-

Al. says “I’d rather have a beer.”

  So in true BOD send off fashion, we rode Blankets Creek with our Bumble one last time and took him out to eat at Taco Mac afterwards.  The ride was good, but my fingers and toes were frozen to a near useless state by the end of it, Flatfender rode his fixed gear rigid 29er while I choose to ride my Turner Flux.  In all I think there were two laps around Dwelling Loop and one around South Loop, I missed out on the first lap around Dwelling b/c I thought for some reason that it would be faster if I took surface streets and backroads as opposed to just sitting in traffic on the interstate, bad move on my part.
  The wings were the perfect compliment to the beer, I think most folks opted to have the beer of the month which was some sort of milk thistled flavored stout, I opted for the Sweetwater Festive Ale followed by a Sam Adams Winter.  I love this time of year not only for the riding and the weather, but also because some of the best beers are released to the public to enjoy.

Al. CycleSmith aka Captain SpellCheck and Fish

Bumble

Me Bumble Shortbus and Speedy

It rained last night/early this morning so it looks like I’m going to be sticking to the road for todays ride.  Cold and wet, my kinda conditions.
POAS
Matt-

  For the most part it was just me out there yesterday which was really nice, I even decided to ditch the iPod after an hour and just enjoy being out alone.  As I was completing my umpteenth lap ( I lost track) I come across the top of a hill riding slow and trying to keep my heart rate low and saw these guys.

cool I thought to myself (there was no one else for me to say cool to at the moment) they don’t even see me yet.  It’s pretty common to see a couple of deer out on the trail, urban sprawl has severly limited their available land to live off of, so they’ve had to assimilate to living amongst us.  However a quick look to the left reveiled these girls too,

and if you look close enough you can see Big Daddy standing there eyeing me.  An 8 point buck and pretty good size spread on his antlers.  Once he saw me he started to move away, which made the reset of the group move with him.  In all there were ten deer total in a space of about 80 square feet, including this lil fella

All in all it was a good ride, about 2 hours in total and all at the you know what pace.  Even ran into Farmer G of Sorba fame who needed some directions on where the rest of the trail system was hiding.  Going to go to the going away ride for my friend Bumble tonight, he’s just recently taken a job that will have him relocating along with his family up to Boston.  I mention his family because his just recently saw a new addition, Bumble and his wife are the proud parents of a baby boy they’ve named Nathan.  I hate to see them go, but I’m excited about what the future holds for all of them and I hope to get to visit with them when I head up to New Hampshire next August.
That’s all for now, got to get some work done and that bike room isnt going to clean itself (though I wish it would)
POAS
Matt-

This weekend saw the X-mas ride with Sorba Gainesville out at Chicopee on Saturday.  I made the call to a few folks late Friday night to see if anyone was interested, Shorty and Speedy both bit and said they were in for a 10:00 ride time.  So I went to bed around midnight with the intent on waking up around 8:00 to eat and get on the road.  However about an hour later my body decided to have its own little civil war between both ends of itself and have its own contest to see which end would win.  Every two hours saw a different skirmish of sorts, and around 4:00 AM when I was thinking pretty heavily about pulling the plug on riding, both sides came to a peaceful agreement and balance was again restored within the force (still not sure which side won, there were some pretty heavy casualties on both sides)

So I wake up at a quarter past 9:00, hop in the shower, skip the coffee and breakfast and hop in the car thinking to myself “OK self we can still make it on time if we hurry.”  BEEP, F@#K!!!!! forgot to get gas last night, oh well at least this will give me time to get breakfast.  So I make the call to let everyone know that I was going to be running late and did my best to get there as close to 10 as possible.  Once there I got ready, and wouldn’t ya know it, Shorty got held up by “traffic” so I was spared of the title of DFL on arrival.

twisted and all Ti’d up, you know you like it!

At this point, I’m still feeling pretty awful, but I had just built the Niner back up the day before with some, ok a lot of help from Hodge, and I really wanted to start forming the bond with new bike.  We get to rolling and right off the bat, something feels off in the front end, a quick check and the bolts on the stem weren’t tight enough.  So after a re-torque I was off and rolling again, we had a good mixture of riders and paces at which folks were moving at.  I had told myself I was going to take it easy and not push it too hard, but if you’re going to ride a single speed there’s only one place to be, and before long I found myself at the front of the group.  We got to the intersection of the Outer Loop and Zig Zag and I started to make the left hand turn to keep moving along the Outer Loop when I hear Norma saying, “Oh come on y’all, Zig Zag isn’t that bad, even Johnny said so the last time we rode it.”  Now at this point I have to give you the Norma to English, English to Norma translation.  What she was really saying was, “Hey you, quit acting like a four year old little girl with a skinned knee and get your butt moving ya weak sissy lil punk.”  Anyone wanna guess what trail we rode next?  That’s right, we rode Zig Zag, which actually ended up being great.  The bike handled really well and I was starting to feel the love again from a steel framed 29er w/ one gear.  Soon enough we were done w/ the trail of a thousand turns and up and over Champain hill and moving down what to me is the reason why I ride a mountain bike.  The first time I rode there it was love at first lap, it was the first time I can remember finishing a trail system and thinking to myself that I had really done something big and how much fun it was.  So that section from the top of Champain down to the creek has been one of my personal favs for a while now and it keeps getting better.

Oh and we even saw a challenger conquer the hill climb too!  Hey Johnny, smile ugly for the blog.

Sunday, well it was just too cold for me to want to get out on Sunday.  Especially after having to work in the cold rain until after midnight on Saturday night.  So I cleaned house and rode the trainer for an hour, Wheeee, trainer!  Mista Krista got into town around 3:00 and we watched Apocolypto before heading down to the Sorella party at the Atlanta Brewing Company, BTW if you haven’t seen this movie yet you need to check it out, it’s pretty good.
  The party was a good time, and the beer there is pretty decent, hard to beat my beloved Sweetwater 420 though.  It was good to see some folks that I haven’t seen in a little while and share a few pints.

  me, mista krista and the Bear
It’s cold again today, but I’m going to make the most of it and go play in traffic for a few hours.  Coffee and layering is good.  Thought you good folks might want to take a look at the bike room and the need for more space, prject for the week is to get the garage cleaned up…..

POAS
Matt-

Got my Niner Sir9 warranty replacement frame in the other day, the first one had developed some rust bubbles in the paint around the head tube gussett so it was back to the left coast for a new one.  Their customer service dept. was great and they are really easy to work with, however this bikes not going to be seeing as much action as its former frame did, thanks to Vassago stepping up and deciding to sponsor our race team for next year.  I can’t wait to get my new frame in, rumor has it we should see them some time in January, which gives me proper time to figure out the build parts I want to use for this one and then get them here.
 So in other news, I quit my job.  Long story short, I was hoping to stay there until I found something new or at least until the first of the year when it’s a bit easier to find a new job, but it wasn’t in the cards and I’ve now left the company.  Marty noticed yesterday that I seem a lot happier and I have to agree with him on that, I am happy to be rid of the stress that came with that job and rid of a boss that has zero listening skills and even fewer managerial skills.  I’m not going to turn this into a lets bash the former manager session b/c I’m just not that kind of guy, but I’m still amazed that someone with such a blatant lack of understanding of the job and lack of desire to understand the employees working underneath him and the issues they deal with can be held in such a high regard.  Like I said enough of that, I’m sure everyone has dealt with it at one point in time or another and there just isn’t much point in rehashing it.
  On the brighter side of things, the job search is actually going pretty well.  I’ve been offered a few new positions in other industries, and I’ve got some really promising leads that I’m excited to persue, so hopefully I’ll be reporting to you all about the role I decided to take.
  The BOD christmas party was Saturday night, for those not familiar w/ the BOD group, these people are like a second family to me.  Once a year we get together for a night of food, drink, and the now infamous dirty santa gift exchange, some of you might know it as a white elephant party (which is how I was first introduced to it)  For those not familiar let me give you a brief explanation of how it works.  Everyone brings a wrapped unlabled gift and then draws a number, you then go in starting order from the lowest to highest ( I prefer to start somewhere in the middle numbers, but we decided on low to high for this years)  the frst person goes to the “tree” and takes and unwraps a gift.  From there, the second person can either steal that gift or go to the wrapped pile and choose one from there.  Now if the gift is stolen the the original possesor can either steal someone else’s gift or go to the pile.  This goes on until the gifts are all gone, now a small detail is that the same gift can only be held three times before it’s off the market, which was the source of controversy for Sat night.  Bam Bam has come to be the title holder of best gift giver, not b/c he buys the best gifts, but b/c he makes them.  This year he brought a cornhole game painted in the BOD logo and colors, (if you’re not familiar w/ the game cornhole, do a google search but make sure the safe search option is on.  I don’t want to be held responsible for someone getting in trouble w/ work or wives.)  and he also brought a piece of BOD artwork he had made out of barbed wire, copper and a chain ring

  pretty cool huh?  I’ve been telling the guy for years that he could make a living off of his artwork and salsa, he makes the most kickin’ spoke bracelet you’ve ever seen as well.
  I ended up w/ a collage of photos that MOMentum had made, last year she did the same thing and I got beat out in the game for it, so I was really stoked to be able to bring this one home.  I’m going to hang it right next to my two Wes Freed pieces just as soon as they get back from the frame shop.
  Well breaks over, time to get back to resume revisal and job searching, if anyone reading has an opening for a sales person w/ some pretty quick wit and a bad bike addiction let me know.  Oh and a starting salary of six figures wouldn’t hurt either, just kidding y’all.  Ride bikes, drink beer and happy holidays.
POAS
Matt-

No, not my hometown but that of Garrison Keilor and the same way he introduces his weekly monlogue on A Prarie Home Companion.  Which is my favorite radio program, and has been for quite some time now.  I first got into it a long time ago because my grandmother would listen to it, and when I would spend weekend with them I would stop and listen along with her.  It seemed to usually come on just before her other favorite radio program which was listening to Skip Carrie, the voice of the Atlanta Braves baseball club.  For those who have never heard the show it now comes on Sat evenings and again on Sunday mornings on National Public Radio, and the segment highlights whatever has happened in Garrison Keilor’s hometown that week and at times it’s hard to tell where the lines of fiction and reality seem to blur.
  I make mention of this because recently I’ve discovered that you can download his two weekly podcasts through iTunes and I’ve got hours of the show on my iPod now.  It’s great for those long monotanous solo rides where music can sometimes become a bother and all you really need is the sound of a voice to move you along and tell you a story.  I’ve also found it to be the perfect way to wind down on those long car rides home at night from either rides or work, and it has a way of removing the days troubles and wrapping you up in a story for 15 or so minutes.  The thought I had as I was pulling into the garage last night was how much this weekly monologue of his was like a blog, only in a different medium.  It’s purpouse, to take the reader/listener to a place away from where they were when they came across the writer, and to let them escape into their world for a moment.  That’s often how I feel when I read other peoples works.
  I had dinner last night w/ Speedy and we talked at length about how this kind of writing can be very cathartic.  I told him that I will typically just write whatever comes to mind w/out putting too much thought or editing time into it, that way it seems to flow more freely and feels more natural.  Much like the way I wrote songs, back when I wrote songs of course, these days its just music that likely no one will ever hear.  Not because it’s not of any quality or worth, they all are, but mostly because I’ve stopped recording what I write and instead just play it and if I like it, I do my best to remember it for later on.  If not, then at least it’s still gotten out of me.  Funny how these days what seems to come out when i do get around to playing is much more condensed than what it used to be.  In some ways, I feel as if all that there is to be said has already been done so, and my contribution has already been made.   I do look forward to what the future generations will bring to the music world, especially when the cycle of music comes back around to the focus on quality songwriting and not this overly produced, excesively packaged, overly played slammed down your throat variety that I am inundated with on a daily basis.  Thankfully for me, my catalog of music has been piling up for so long that I don’t have very far to go to find something I like when I want to hear it.
  So, not much riding this week, life has demanded other things of my time but that’s ok.  Rumor has it that I may be reunited w/ a certain red bicycle by the end of the day that I feel quite certain will again spark my obsesive riding nature in the weeks to come.  BOD x-mas party tomorrow night and the ever growing family will again have its annual reunion of sorts.  I love this party because in a lot of cases it’s the only chance I get to see some of the people I’ve come to refer to as family. 
  Well thats the news from Funwoody, where the coffee is strong, the bikes are good looking and the children are just about average (thanks Garrison)
POAS
Matt-

  So after that, w/ the shop open and Hodge there to run the day to day I helped out on a few bikes then headed for home to meet the folks for dinner at Seasons 52, pretty cool place.  All the entrees on the menu are under 475 calories and are a normal sized portion.  I hate heaping plates of food b/c it’s so ingrained in my subconscious to not stop eating until the plate is just the way it looked before someone put food on it, b/n that and my no beer left unfinished rule gives you a good explaination for my chiseled physique.
  Anyway, that’s about all the excitement that’s going on round these parts.  Urban ride tonight and then get ready for Saturday’s sufferfest w/ Clem.  We’re going to ride from Smyrna to Cedartown and back on the Silver Comet trail, the original plan was to go for 200 miles, but we’re going to shorten this one to somewhere between 150 and 175 miles.  Gotta get back home to get ready for the 3rd annual PBC&Pebbles bOday party.  Hope things are all well in your worlds and you’re getting plenty o’ ride time in.
POAS
Matt-