Selma is here!

It's here!

Check out the carbon seat stays!

The geometry looks like it will work compared to the surly

And light! I know it's not 3.5 lbs like the Niner would have been but it's close. That's with the eccentric and seat clamp.

I had to take out some pictures so I will post some more soon.

Finally after such a long time of waiting the Selma is in my grubby hands. I stripping down the 1x1 of it's brakes and wheels I cruised down in the company truck to 503 cycleworx where Josh was awaiting my arrival. He knew I would be down. I thought he was going to call me as soon as it came in the door. He let me open the box!

I've looked at this bike on line for a long time. Over 7 months! The picture they have on Salsa's website really doesn't do it Justice. The one selling point for me was the carbon seat stays. They are really beautiful. I wish they had some close up shots of those seat stays. I'm amazed at the seamless joint and how it goes from gray to clear coat. I don't know how they did that. Frame technology has really come a long way.


The Surly will now become my winter bike. I'll throw my XTR v-brakes on and find a crank. Or soon put a better crank on the Selma and use the old XTR crank on the 1x1. I was thinking that Jesse could ride this too. I'd love to throw some really huge tires on this bad boy and put my fixed gear wheel on with some flat pedals.

Selma project

Box-O-Stuff.

Team shirt and bar tape

I met Charlie out at Nassahegan State forest last night and had a sweet ride in the misty rain. Charlie was riding awesome! The slick conditions made it really fun. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun in the wet slippery stuff. I skipped a skinny bridge section that he rolled down. I just couldn't trust the slime coated wood. He's the man! All 137 pounds! He also hooked me up with a bunch of tires, Handlebar, stem, Salsa T-shirt, and seat post for my new ride. Charlie said,"the t-shirt is for the podium." I don't know about that, but you never know.

" Broken"-in saddle from my MTB will now grace my Cross Bike


This Saddle is really hard on the old butt. Specialized makes 2 different size seats of this kind and I was given this larger saddle. The "cut-out" is brutal. It's like sitting on 2 skinny rails. I've tried moving it to all different positions and my hands still go numb on long rides. When it dawned on me that I could use my mtb saddle I was stoked. I'm looking forward to this weekends century ride now. At the beginning of the week I saw the weather forecast and thought that I wouldn't get any ride time in. But the rain held off for Wednesday and I was able to get out with Josh for and incredible road ride down to the Housatonic Race and back. 70+ miles and held a 19.5 average.

Ask and ye shall receive

This mornings post left me to wonder what the day will bring. At my wits end I called Josh and he began to tell me that there was yet another problem. But he was just busting me and told me that he ordered the Selma! It should be here on Monday! And the other good news is that I don't have to get another bottom bracket because the one I have will fit the new ride.

Riding this week looks a bit dull with all of the rain. After last Sundays 5 and a half hours of road riding it might be a good idea to rest a few more days. We were going for a century but bailed at 97 miles because we were dang tired and dehydrated. I paced myself to endure the climbs and watched Josh pull away on every climb. I thought "that's okay" and just let him do his thing. I was happy to have something left at the end. Unlike some other rides I've done that left me with foggy vision. Just had fun. We both saw 2 coyotes, a bobcat, a partridge, and two dead porcupines.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

I don't know what you believe but I'm starting to believe that there is a God. A cycling God. Or CG. This God has been with me my whole life and has metamorphosed into the current Cycling God. He's (make things simple and genderize him) the One that spiritually nudges me towards perfecting my game in the cycling department. CG has been teaching me some valuable lessons recently. Patience for one.
6 months ago I really wanted to get a new bike. I waited patiently for this Frame (above) to be available to order. Promises were made and broken. Salsa said that the production date would be in February. Then it was March, then April 1'st. Yes it was a joke. Then they said May and I started to get my hopes up. And once that didn't happen I had enough. I decided that I would find a frame on-line and be done with it. Sorry Salsa you failed. So I started looking at Niners. Really nice bikes that were built for speed. Josh wanted to help me out and applied to get some Niner frames. Turns out that Niner is dragging their feet and won't have a frame for me until late July! How long do I have to wait CG!



Now I'm back looking at the Selma frame. Salsa lists them as available and Josh tries to order it. Oh, well don't you know they can't let him order it because he's not an official Salsa dealer. I guess the "official" dealers get the first crack at sales and so it will be a few more weeks. I need a bike and I need it now!


So that brings us up to date. No frame. WTF!


So what have I learned from CG's teachings?


A. It must be my fault because I'm a sinner and only good little boys get what they want.



B. I should just learn to live with the bike I have. It's building strength and character.



C. I'm too picky with bikes. No bike is going to be good enough for me.



I hate waiting and I think I've waited long enough. But all of this bitching is not going to get me a frame.
Through all of this Josh has been working really hard to get me a frame. He's been on the phone and emailing, having to deal with a lot of BS from some of these company's to get me a frame. Thanks again Josh. It's just my luck.


To be continued...

Single-speed-a-palooza!

Kombucha tea, homemade brew

This was a fantastic race put on by the darkhorse cycles guys in Stewart State Forest, NY. I was super impressed with the promoters as they invited all of us ding-dongs to get together for one huge single speed race. Sooner or later someone would "Git 'Er Done" and I'm happy that they did-r. The course was marked perfect including laminated signs of encouragement along the trail saying things like "Got Toast"? Or "who needs gears?"

The results are up. I got 5th and Josh crushed it for 4th. 503 Cycleworx represented!

Back up a few days to Friday and I was on the couch with some kind of stomach bug. Didn't eat dinner and just slept. I tossed and turned all night and then ate a little bit for breakfast and went right back to bed. Woke up on Saturday at 2pm. Still felt like crap and was really getting bummed that I was going to miss the one race I was really looking forward to. I rode for 1/2 an hour with my 2:1 gear on the surly and felt really crappy. I could barely push the pedals over. My replacement rear wheel was feeling sluggish and I don't know if it was the frame or the wheel flexing but I couldn't get the rotor from brushing against the brake pads. On top of that my bottom bracket was chirping pretty good. So my bike was not really encouraging me to do well. Telling me things like "you suck.. you suck..you suck." I'm really looking forward to getting my new bike soon.

Sunday morning came around and it was now or never. Feeling okay I got ready to go and met Josh at the bike shop. Thankfully he brought the directions and knew all the back roads to get there. I wonder if he got the directions because we got lost coming back from Landmine last year and wound up going through Boston, costing us an hour of travel time? The trip out there was uneventful. Josh only got 3 hours of sleep the night before and was yawning the whole way.

Thankfully when I got on my bike to ride a little my legs felt good. Pre-rode the first climb section called "Major Mike" with Charlie Beal and Josh and was happy with my gear choice of 2 to 1. Charlie was pushing it hard up the climb (Josh noticed too) and I needed to rest. He ran the same gear inch as me (52). He told me he based that on my results at Farmington, and if it didn't work it would be my fault. Just kidding. I wasn't sure but I don't think it worked for him since he said that he would go one tooth harder next year. Whoops. I guess I like to spin 200 rpms. It seemed like 2:1 was the gear of choice for 29'ers except for Monte who ran a "little better than 2:1" Acording to my calculations he was running a 61.6 gear inch! I was running a 52. So for every pedal stroke he was going almost 10 inches further then me! No wonder he beat me by 10 mins!

This was just before the single track section. I was trying to wave Jesse past me because I didn't mean to cut him off and I knew he would not be happy behind me. He did get around before the single track.

The start was a way down from the actual course so that riders could get sorted out before the single track. Knowing we had almost 50 fast dudes in our class I got down to the start early and pegged my self at the starting line with Sean C , Monte, Roger Foco, and Rob Stine. We got off to a fast uphill start and once we crested the hill Monte looks back and sprints chirping his tires as he punches it into "4th gear." Thankfully I was able to draft off of Sean and stay with the top guys. After the initial climb Monte, Roger, and Jesse are drifting away up ahead down the hill. I almost lose it into a tree and regain my head for a second. Damn these guys are fast! When things flatten out a bit Josh pulls ahead and sets his sights on Foco. I try to keep up and then a short down hill section gives them the gap and that was the last time I saw them. Now Sean and another Cannondale guy are right with me then passing me. I follow and then they pull away. I start to wonder if I will ever catch them again and then I would rally on the flat sections and catch them by the second lap (which is weird because they were running a bigger gear so you would think that I wouldn't be able to catch them on the flats). Once we got to Major Mike again I made my move that would seal my 5th place finish. I had a second blast of energy and pegged it down the hill and made my second lap faster than the first.

I came up on Thom Parsons ,who was having some tire trouble, passed him and then he caught back up. I tried to keep on his wheel and he just floated away. Then I caught him again hanging his bike up in a tree to work on it. Some how knowing that Thom could come up behind me again gave me some extra motivation to keep punching it as hard as I could. Too bad Thom had to change his tire. I know he would have been top 3 for sure. I knew Sean was behind me now too and this was his turf. He knew every corner and burm. Sean was really tough to beat and he was still feeling the effects of being sick last week. He'll get me next time for sure.

Mile 17 and I was out of water. I only had 1 and 1/2 bottles of water at this point and really could have used another 1/2 at least. The feed zone was a little bit confusing and I didn't know where to put my bottles. So after the 5th mile I picked up a full bottle and used that for the rest of the race. Like a jerk I forgot Rob Stine's water bottles that I collected for him at Coyote Hill. He was able to get some water bottles to use. Sorry again Rob. I've got the whole bag of them for next time I see you.

Josh placed 4th for his single speed debut race! I knew he would do awesome! He can suffer a lot so single speeding is perfect for him. I'm crossing my fingers that he will be racing more with his single speed. Maybe even a new bike might be in the works for him? He rocked out his Specialized with a chain tensioner and V-brakes. After the race he told me that that was the most fun he has had on a bike in a long time! He loved the course because it reminded him of racing motocross. Ya, he's a sick motocrosser. I've learned so much from riding with him and love to follow him on the single track and watch him catch huge air off of stuff. I wish I had some video to show everyone how sick he really is. Of course he won't do any of that stuff during a race. I'm really lucky to be able to ride all the time with him, and he's the best mechanic I've ever known. He knows every trick in the book. If you need your bike fixed or need to build up a new bike I would take it to him. He's the best! He's saved my ass so many times with bike issues and is super generous with taking the time to figure out what's wrong with your bike, but will get your bike to you fast. He's an Indi Fab dealer and gets new builds all the time.

This was a really important race for me. I was handed $100 for placing 5th! The guys at Darkhorse are really generous and I hope that other promoters can afford to do the same. It really makes you feel good and want to do more racing. A lot of guys could have won 5th. The time difference wasn't ridiculous. A bobble or a crash or flat and that would have it. I'm overwhelmed with the caliber of people who are racing single speed bikes and I get to ride with the top guys. I'm so lucky!

Shout out to Charlie Beal, Emile Smith, Sean Cavenaugh, Rob Stine, John (who beat me at Farmington in 2006)

Coyote Hill Race Report

Jesse and I went up to Fairlee Vermont for the weekend so I could race at Coyote Hill on Sunday. We left on Saturday afternoon and made some stops along the way but with some planning I had Jesse drop me off at Coyote Hill so she could run to the store to get our food supplies for the weekend. It was getting dark and I was on the bike at 7:23pm to pre ride the course.

With the dry weather the past week the conditions were next to perfect. Super fast packed trails and dry roots. After being in the car for half a day and then suddenly drop in on some downhill single track action just made me smile the whole time. I was really having a blast rolling over the roots and rocks without any trouble at all. I was really looking forward to the race being in the same condition.

Rob Stine, single speed extraordinaire, was hanging out at the campfire with Matt Green and some other top notch racers. He told me to check out the hill climb course that they raced in earlier that day. I had never done a hill climb mountain bike course before and I imagined a single track going straight up a hill to the top of the climb. It was a cool single track trail that would go up but also have some switchbacks and flat sections. It didn't take long to climb but I'm sure if you were to race up the hill you would want it to be over very fast.

The Coyote Hills course is a real mountain bike course. It will beat you senseless if you let it, or just ride it ridged and all your body parts will writhe with pain. I would describe the course as lots of roots going every direction and short steeps that only with the small gear of 34x19 you will be able to climb. Slow uphill switchback grinds and fast descents that if you are geared and have full suspension you can really fly on. And mud. Lots of slippery roots and rocks. Holes of mud, and a long section of swamp with logs laying perpendicular. Going ridged on this course is like riding a fixed gear bike on a charity ride. You feel like you are doing the right thing but wonder if there is a better way. Except I didn't raise $17,000 for kids with cancer or get a massage after the race. And the yo-yo effect of being fast on the up hill but couldn't descend worth a darn.

The start of the race is what might have costed me some time. Last week at Winsted Woods I went out hard and the course beat me up bad and I was blown out by the 5 lap. So my approach this time was to hang back on the first lap and maintain a good pace for all 4 laps. It worked but my start sucked. Usually I try to get the hole shot but I was really intimidated by the 40 pro riders all around me. When we started we wound around a grassy field and straight into a single track bottle neck. It seemed like an eternity waiting for the guys to get going. Rob was behind me and said "Just another Sunday ride!" That's how I wanted the race to go. Just another Sunday ride that goes smooth and simple. So then we started up the grassy climb and onto the dirt road where I passed some guys but up ahead the pack was way ahead.

The dirt road climb was long and it finally popped out into a down hill single track. Followed some guys and realized that passing was going to be limited. Out of all the races this was the one to be out front. Like a cross race you don't want to be in the back of the pack. Like I said before the trail was brutally rough and with a ridged bike it made it tough to get any speed on the down hills. By the last lap my hands were blistered and sore. I really could not push it too much because then I would get sloppy and go off trail. I just had to keep it smooth and keep my bike upright. Big ups to all the single speeders that were ridged. Paul Simoes and Rob Stine. Especially Rob who still finished the race with only one cleat. Nice one Rob! Thom Parsons while being a single speed demon was not ridged. Maybe that's why he's so fast. Or is it he rides 50 times more then me and has years of experience. I think that's it.

The second lap I was going up against Mike Rowell. I remembered from last year that he would catch up to me and pass me all the way back from the 40 + group. With his full suspension bike he would dominate the down hills and hammer through the rooty sections. Keeping up with him was a battle. I was able to pass him on lap 2 and 3 on the long dirt road uphill but he would catch me and I would let him go. I did pass some really good riders. A couple of IF riders and some guy with a Kona kit on. Really strong riders, but I think because I was keeping a good pace for myself I was able to out last them somehow.

I felt strong all the way to the end of the race where I would pass Matt O'keefe who was blown out and didn't even try to catch me to the line. Alot of really good riders dropped out because of the course, even with full suspension.

Overall I was happy with my race and felt like I couldn't have done any better. I got 16th out of at least 40 guys. So again somewhere in the middle.

I went to meet up with Josh for a Mt bike ride last night and saw that my chain had blown 5 or 6 roundy things in the links. During the race I kept hearing a ping and thinking it was my cog out of alignment. But halfway though our ride last night the pings kept coming until I was free wheeling both ways. I guess my freewheel was on it's last legs, our pawls. So I'm happy that it lasted me the whole race. I was able to make it back home because the last pawls would hold until I freewheeled. Then it would be spin and bounce my back wheel until it cought again.

Winsted Woods Race Report

I have no excuses this time for you all. That was a tough course but I loved every moment of it. I couldn't have done any better. Monte won on a ridged single speed with the same gearing as me. So sick. He flew up the climbs! I could have gone with a lighter gear but as soon as the flatter single track hit I would be slower then molasses.


The start was insane as usual. Last year I would watch the Pros go off and Greg Carpenter would zoom off the front every time. This was no different. He's a great starter. Seamus Powell was awesome too. Up through the field and into the single track Tim Johnson was right in front of me up the first climb. I just wanted to hang with the big boys as long as I could. The first single track I was behind a guy from Bikers Edge right on his wheel while the leaders were gaping us. Down through the muddy switch back and onto the gravel road I made my move and spun like mad to pass on the down hill and power slid into the single track again. Bikers edge would pass my bonked ass later in the race.

I was feeling pretty good and tried to real in TJ and the rest but couldn't even see them. Randall Jacobs from wheel works was ahead of me now and was gaining distance. John Foley and Monte passed me before the really steep climbs. Monte wanted to pass me on the insane no brakes rocky decent but I yelled to him to hold on to prevent us from crashing into each other. That would have been bad. I was really proud of myself for descending that whole section every lap without touching my brakes once. Then we zoomed up the climb were Monte just sprinted up. Amazing! I cant wait to see him at Singlespeed-a-polooza! Him and Parsons are going to duke it out!

So now I'm just trying to pace myself and I was feeling good. On top of the course it was all roots and rocks and twists and turns. I was happy with my gear choice and was able to stand over all the rough stuff. A full sus bike would be the ideal bike for this course. Even a suspension fork would do wonders.

I got up to the field at the top of the hill just before the sick down hill section and I look back to see my team mate Josh Wilcox just coming into the field. I knew he would catch me but I was surprised that it didn't take him very long to do it. Less then half way down the mountain he was on me. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was bombing down that thing. He is so sick! So we rode together for a couple of laps and by the third one he was gone. My gear had beat me silly and my back was hurting really bad. I have yet to do a course where I stood the practically the whole time. This was it.

My 4th lap was terrible. I started to push my bike up the steep hills and felt like crap. By the end of the down hill section I was ready to quit. It was the closest to quiting that I had ever been. I just kept going. I figured as long as I was moving forward that was good. Surprisingly I was still having fun and enjoying the ride.

Winsted had beaten me. But it was a good beating!
I got 11th place out of 14 riders. How I didn't come in dead last I don't know.

I passed Tim Johnson while he was fixing his bike. I thought I would be able to beat him but he came back and passed me on my final lap as I was so damn tired. He did talk to me and said that he wants to get a rigid bike! I told him he doesn't want one. He said he would keep the gears though. Another guy in my class came spinning by me in the granny gear as I pushed my bike up the hill. He thought it was funny too (that I was pushing my bike as he spun 90 rpms up the climb). I think he said "that's what gears are for."

I was really happy to get cheered on by everyone. I guess riding a single speed automatically gives you some respect. I passed Chris Logan on his last lap and he yells to me "Single speeds rule!" Such a cool guy! I really needed that last bit of encouragement to grind it out into the wind on the field section. Other people would say "go single" as I passed them. Or "go ridged"

Respect! And Monte taking the cake on a ridged single speed for the win! So sick!



Bonesaw is my nickname! One day after seeing Spider Man I kept saying "Bonesaw!" like how Randy Macho-Man Savage says it during the Cage fight. I love that seen.
Nephew Leif Johnson (future pro mountain biker) and Bro-in-law Roger watched me go by on my bike. Thanks for coming!
Special thanks to my wife Jesse for being there to support me and filming. You are the best!