Does anyone remember the old guy who used to ride his weird bike up and down the coast. The bike was a Trek OCLV and painted Pink, White and Yellow. He always wore knee guards....

I haven't seen that dude in years.

Do you people watch? I do. I frequently sit at the coffee shop and watch the world passing me. The professionals, the weirdos, the surfers, the high schoolers, the homeless.... About 5 months ago I started noticing this strange old guy everyday between 5:30 and 6:00. He walks down the side walk to the newspaper stands and checks the machine for change. He has a method so it's not spontaneous, then he walks across the street and checks the ones down the block and walks back.

Does he make any money doing this? Is he OCD? Has he lost his job and now is trying to recoup some of the loss? Is he trying to escape his nagging wife?

These are some of the scenarios I and my fellow "regulars" have come up with. One day I will get a photo of the chap.


Couple bikes rolling out the shop this week. A Cannondale System6 Team, a Cannondale Six13 Team and a Serotta Legend Ti. Business is starting to pickup finally.

Got back from the 12 hrs of Temecula

I kept my perfect record for Solo Tech Support, Razzberry won his race! He cranked out 9 laps! This was his first attempt at endurance Mountain Biking, he handled it like he was a seasoned professional. Congrats John!

My buddy Brendan was at the race showing off his new frames as well as teching for his wife Mary. He had two of his frames at the race, The Fifty Five (29" front, 26" rear ((29+26=55) and The Trauco (29er all day bike).

Fifty Five
Trauco

Brendan's niche is Aluminum. He is one of he few small guys* out there that do custom** Aluminum frames. For his first attempt on his own brand the frames have plenty of new touches (custom sliding dropouts, bent TT, gusseted DT, etc.) and great welds. The few frames I have seen have been raw but, I can't wait to see one with color. That Trauco might be the perfect addition to my fleet although I don't know what The brothers will say.

*Custom AL framebuilders:
SyCip
Ahrens
Action Frame
Strong Frames

**Custom sizing, tubing thickness, setup, etc.

"No heat

"No heat

You know it's cold when:

a) Your feet are so cold that when you step into the hot shower you scream because you're feet are burning from the shock.

b) Whenever you are in your apartment you are in long sleeves, pants, socks, and have a huge blanket wrapped around you.

c) You are wearing a super-padded bra, tank top, and long-sleeved shirt and you can still see your nips.

d) All of the above."
Taken from jennystopmakingmecookies.blogspot.com

I resemble this....except for c).....sometimes.

Can somebody pinch me? I think I am having a nightmare.

It was 36 degree's at my house on Saturday morning. Did I wake up to ride my bike, not even close. Instead I stayed in bed until 8:30 and then bundled up and went out for a coffee. Imagine my surprise when I saw some roadies out on 101. Crazy.

I have been trying to overcome a "cold" for the past two weeks. It's not the normal "cold", it drains my energy and gives me a headache. It's Bull"S".

I am pretty sure it doesn't help that my cottage (and when I say cottage I mean step above shanty) doesn't have a working heater. Well it might work but, every time I turn it on it smells like it's going to burn the house down. I would rather sit on my sofa in my sleeping bag than burn the place down. Although it might help me clean the place up....Nope sleeping bag is better.

Links for today;

I am wrenching for a few Solo racers this weekend in Temecula.
12 hours of Temecula

Part of my new Race Gear are my Carhartt Double front jeans.
Carhartt Workwear

Another new piece of Race Gear are my IronClad gloves.
Ironclad Performance Gear


Checkout the ala MasiGuy blog list at the bottom of the page. Do you have any blogs that you read regularly that aren't on this list? Let me know and I will add them.

Happy Birthday to the Chicken Sympathizer!


CS invited a group of ruffians down to his neck of the woods for a (hopefully annual) rolling bar crawl. Yes, that means bikes. The party started at Adams Avenue Bikes with pizza, beer and snacks. A good base of carbs to soak up the tasty beverages that followed.

I picked up Mister Smooth at the Smooth lair (*ladies beware* he is called Smooth for a reason). Fortunate for me I am a dude and it was easy to escape. We made it down to AA around 5:45pm. The place was already packed. A mix of AA coworkers, B&L former coworkers and misc others. I think we rolled out around 6:30 although my memory is a tad foggy. Jumping in to traffic on Adams Ave, we turned onto 30th which led to the first event of the evening. Boy Band (wrench at B&L) somehow was involved in a BB driveby. Luckily he was only shot in the leg but, still it could have been tragic. The Kaiser tried to chase down the vehicle but it got away (If you are in the North Park area on bike watch out for a dark green Blazer or Explorer).

The party regrouped at the first "Stop", Bluefoot Bar & Lounge. Boy Band showed off his "Welcome to North Park" temporary tattoo on his thigh. I started the evening off with a nice refreshing Jack & Coke, the only way to drink Tennessee swill....I mean whiskey, water it down with Coke. Please comment when I get your names wrong (The two times I met these guys I has slightly intoxicated) Nick and Everett pulled out some pretzels which were a perfect addition. Five minute warning is sounded and we're off.

(most of my evening looked like this, dark and blurry)

Around the corner and through the woods to grandmothers house......Sorry. Where was I? That is one of the issues, I am a North County guy. I am not familar with the area at all except I kind of know where the Livewire is. We took a few rights, then some lefts and we were there, The Red Fox Room. This place oozes old school. When I say old I mean Old. The average age was 75. That's not the only thing old, Senor Large was telling me that the wood in the place was shipped over from England. They had a live jazz band playing last night. I ordered a Captain & Coke. Mister Smooth claimed he didn't know what that was so he ordered a Pinot Noir.....What? Pinot in this place? The perfect drink would be an old fashioned but by the time we arrived there I had drained my flask and feeling no pain. Let's get back to the Pinot....what? Not to mention he ordered a salad and garlic bread....granted he raced earlier that day (Storm the Beach Cyclocross race) and got 2nd in the Cat 1/2/3 race but a Pinot? and he is wondering why the ladies weren't all over him..... The next big event happened when the singer came over to our section and asked whose Birthday it was. He unfortunately thought CS was a female because he sang "I only have eyes for you" (originally by The Flamingos). CS was quite embarassed, priceless. Two minute warning was sounded and we rolled down the hill to the Livewire.

I have been to the Livewire many times. It is our meeting spot for the annual "Midnight Madness" ride. Dark, usually loud and packed are words I could use to describe the Livewire. Last night the patrons were more interested in watching the Simpsons than listening to "the best jukebox in San Diego". I noticed they had a fresh bottle of Knob Creek so I ordered two Knob & Cokes (notice the theme?). I originally had planned to drain both but, when I saw them being poured into two normal sized pint glasses I decided I should pawn one off onto CS. He was visably scared. I killed mine within 20 minutes or so and noticed his still full.....You guessed it! I took one for the team and knocked it back.

(No this isn't the Paris Hilton video. This is the view from the bar. From L to R GiJoe, Miss Chicken Sympathizer, Senor Large and Chris).

This photo is for the AA guys Use this one for your own pleasure.....

Two minutes and we were rolling back to the shop. Waiting for us back at the shop were some ice cold Tecate's which ironically sobered me up not to mention I think I sweated most of the toxins out.

To CS, you are a great friend, one of the nicest guys around (besides me of course), the best cyclist I have ever known and humble to boot. I'll never forget all our adventures including Whistler, Idyllwild and Tucson. Welcome to the 30ish club.

Back from the Holidays.....

I do feel refreshed and effervescent. SG gave the lot of us the Xmas week off. So I proceeded to drink more Mocha's, think about work less, pretend to clean up the shop (aka my dining room) and drink more spirits.

I did ride a fair amount, not as much as I should have, but I road 6 of the 10 days I was off. Unfortunately I had to go in for a couple hours to finish my inventory and it looks like I will be counting more this week.

Dainty, the beard and I went for cheese steaks tonight. I don't care what sporkmag has to say about the place, Philly's Best in Oceanside has the tastiest steaks this side of the Mississippi. Makes me feel like I am in Philly again.

So here is the gossip overheard.....
The beard is growing the beard again ( much to his other halfs distaste), Dainty will collapse under emotional stress very soon, The beard secretly owns a car and is married in China, Dainty is going to sell every Kelly he owns and buy more Masi (Masi's? Masis'?), The beard will be retiring from 24 hour races this year and G is perfect in every way.

It's great being perfect, I tell ya.It's an oldie but a goodie. The 24 hours on the old pueblo (where this photo was taken) is coming up fast. My manager (I didn't even know I had one until he made my decision, not to race, for me) has signed me up to wrench for John Razberry (aka Jensipoo), Tofu Smith and his SS team, yay.

I have a new race kit that I will be showcasing at Pueblo. I haven't hammered out all the specs but, I will post my setup and after the race, my impressions and what I need to change.

Links

Samsung BlackJack
Keen Footwear
Pactimo Sportswear
Honey Stinger
Masiguy

Socks:
I love Bike Porn
iTunes:
Cake, "No Phone"
In the stand:
DeRosa Ti