Cost of the War in Iraq

uuhhhh -
holy shit

Hello Kitty AR-15 Assult Rifle

Hurry, buy one of these California Legal AR-15 Assault Rifles before your local WalMart runs out!

Seriously - this is a real gun (AR-15, post Clinton Ban production, with California legal grips). It's not sold in Walmart, but is an example of some someone trying to make their Assault rifles less "Assault looking"

Hope you enjoy!

Frozen Dead Guy Festival

Be there in March 2008, or be square...

it's real, and it's tons of fun. I'll have a newborn by then - so I doubt that I'll make it up there.
if you have a chance to go for the weekend, I highely suggest it!

For the background story

Anthony Bourdain

Who watches Tony's show, No Reservations?
I'm not a big TV buff - but I think that Anthony may be my long lost brother. oh yea - the show's pretty entertaining too.
Here's 2 clips -





BTW - I'm working on my "portfolio" today, and I'm pissed that hedge funds are only available to the extra rich wacko's that don't need a monetary vehicle as bad as the rest of us.
The rich get richer....

Tara Llanes

Tara Llanes has a clip on Access Hollywood today - be sure to check it out.

http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=198604

Please don't forget to donate to her overwhelming medical bills.

Tara's the strongest and most determined person I've ever met, and there was not a single person who ever met Tara who didn't immediately want to be her friend or spend more time with her.

http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com

http://www.tarallanesracing.com

Tara's Myspace Page

Here's a shorter clip on the Denver news channel - the above story is better

Where's Santa?

MapMyRide.com

Looks like there's another fun service for us cycling folks. MapMyRide.com provides a service where you can upload your map, and allow for mile markers. there's even a calorie counting function for you concerned types...

Town Production

Last night, we headed over to a local youth production. It was a dance/play put on as a charity for a local foodbank.

It was fun seeing kids of all ages (from just 3-17) in the production as our first child is expected in February. Kind of puts things into perspective... all the kids on stage and their families in the audience, it was fun to see all the interaction.

Energy Drinks Rule

Loving your bike

Some people take their bike love a little too far -
Click Here for the story

Mountain Bike Buyers Guide

Big Props to the boys at Decline for putting this together...
it doesn't have everything - but it comes pretty close!

http://www.mtbbuyersguide.com/

Working From Home

I love working from home -

Right now it's 70 degrees, the leaves are falling, and the skies are blue.
And I'm working on my Deck in the Backyard.
And a leaf just fell in my tea.

Life is good,

I'm out

What to do in case of encounter with Cougar

Please click on the image to read all the detail.








Courtesy of your friendly Front Range Mountain Bikers.... I hope I'm not riding with these guys when it's time for the showdown.

Bud-weis-er

ReSkin

wow -I couldn't make this up if I tried

protect the taint

• ReSkin® is applied to the perineum. The perineum is the piece of skin between the anus and the genitals. The perineal area contains sweat glands,hair follicles and sebaceous glands that can often become irritated by rubbing,leading to an infection.
• We advise ladies to cut the strip off along the dotted line marked on the product for enhanced comfort while using ReSkin®.

Rap Chips

Yo... playa
www.rapsnacks.com

Corsair

Looks like these guys have an innovative idea -

I encourage you to check out their frame designs at http://www.corsairbikes.com/
If you have no other reason - they have a cool "animate suspension" feature built in to some frame pages.

They have a unique linkage system (called an Iron Fly, but looks like a true scissors link, and a low leverage ratio (2:1 on the DH bike).

The bikes are definetly oriented towards the technical and burly riders - one look at the geometry and you'll be thinking about gravity. The head and seat tube angles are all pretty slack - but I bet their all mountain frame would make a hell of a Super D bike - or VERY good at megavalanche events...

Also - check out the DH frame with their optional "blow off shock". I've seen some successful custom builds with this concept, but never in production. It adds some travel and some weight, but maybe be the added cushion needed for those extremely diverese trails, where a race setup won't work, but neither will a freeride setup.

Tomac Primer 220

Many people have been anticipating a release like this for some time - myself included. Tomac's bikes have always been very, very nice... and the new lot look to be on par.

Can I explore some suspension with you?
Some of you may remember the days of old - when Tomac Bikes originally released their 204. It was a Lawwill design, also used by Schwinn (I have a customer built Schwinn Lawwill DH rig) and now by Rotec.

Schwinn's Design (they had 2 vesions) was by far the most inferior from a frame design standpoint, but given the rear shocks available at the time - was the best implementation for the day and thus was th best performing.
Tomac had a much better design (front traingle AND rear neo-floating shock), but the dampening was always overwhelmed due to poor shock design.
Rotec's got it nailed - almost. The frame uses a concentric bottom bracket, floating shock, and a stiff front end with low clearance. Rotec should also offer a version that sheads a few pounds as well as offering a frame that will accept multiple shock types (now limited to 1 choice)

Tomac did see their shortcoming and envoked a simple single pivot later (no real leverage problems here) - but still ran into shock limitations.

I digress - on to the new shizzle

Tomac's latest offering looks to be similar to Commencal (single pivot, with modified linkage to lower the leverage ratio) - but I haven't seen a pic that shows the non drive side of the bike.

The photo's that Tomac released show a full build - but their site details frame only info. No Smalls? WTF?



The geometry seems to be "race" specific - and thank god. I thought Devinci was the only company out there that understood DH race geometry.


Some spy shots up in Whistler show a differnt build - with a craptastic crapitou at the helm. Manipoo has failed many of my friends and fallen to the wayside.... I hope they get their act together... back to the bike. The pivot looks a little high for my taste... but who knows. Maybe that kind of placement is working better these days.


I'm toying with the idea of getting one... but the Devinci design is spot on - and very light this year...
single crowns are cool too - and they are getting more attention from manufacturers lately.

Whatever I decide - I'll have a nice little rant for all my dedicated fans

Today's Words of wisdom -
Don't poo where you sleep

Very Cherry

Has anyone else noticed a disturbing trend with canned fruit?

No one makes Fruit Cocktail with extra cherries anymore. It's now called "Very Cherry" and it uses Cherry Flavored Syrup.

I'm being ripped off.



New bar called the Waterloo opened in Louisville, CO - They have great Chicken and Apple Sausage (goes well with a brown ale).

Beer Bike

I'll take 2