Videos of me following Brian last week at Sugar Maple

I followed Brian with a helmet cam last week at Sugar Maple.  There will be a D16 race there next year, and it will be great.

The first video in a small little woods section that has not been worked on yet.

 

 

The second video is me following Brian for a mellow lap or 2 on the MX track.

 

 

We need to do a bunch of work to make the race great, but there is plenty of land to do that.

(both of the video’s are from Dave Hollub’s facebook page spidermxpics)

Joe

Text to Movie – can be really funny

Text to movie stuff can be really funny.  I have found a couple that I think are great.  As a racer and organizer and helper and…  I think I have met both of these people in person.

And this one.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5721683

(can’t get it to embed, but follow the link – it is good.)

Joe

Sugar Maple MX track

Today I went out to Sugar Maple MX track.  It is on the far western side of the state, about 1.5 hours from my house.  There will be a D16 HS race there next year, and I had a chance to go and check it out with Brian Terry today.  Chris Halverson was there with Brian as well.  Chris owns Hixton riding park and it a decent rider in his own right.

That is me feeling ready to ride.

 

All is right with the world when I can see that via the rear view mirror in the truck.

When I left the house, it was 51 degrees. Look closely at the center info.

Halfway there it was 53 degrees.

There were street motorcycles out. November 22!

Then, when I finally arrived. Wow 57. November 22.

The Sugar Maple track is really really good.  It is a great mix of old school and new school.  Big hills, lots of great turns and whoop sections as well.  I really had a good time.  There is a ton of woods sections all around it that will make for a great HS race as well.

Here are a few photos from the track and area.

I ran behind Brian for a couple of laps on the track and in the woods, with a helmet cam.  I don’t know if it will be any good, but if I can I will put up a link to it when I find it.

That is anice view after riding.

At this time of the year, even to walk along the side of the road in Wisconsin you have to wear orange.

Next week, mountain biking in Arkansas.

Out,

Joe

 

Oh Yeah, that new truck smell!

So the old truck was showing it’s age. Not horribly, but a bit. It was having some transmission problems. Sometimes when you would put the truck in reverse, it would just sit there. Revving and making noise, but not going anywhere. Hmmm… Not good.

Ok, time to take the truck into the dealer. They definetley saw me coming. They offered me top dollar for my truck, even though they knew it had problems.  They knocked a third off the retail price of the truck!  1/3!!!  Holy cow.

They sent me home with the beauty you see below.

The new truck is bigger than the old truck, has 4 wheel drive, a bigger motor yet still gets better gas mileage.

So far I have only put a bed buddy in. I also put 4 bike mounts on the bed buddy, so that I could take a bunch of bicycles with me as well.

It is the best vehicle I have ever owned and the best truck I have ever been in.

Kind of a crummy photo, taken with my cell phone camera, but you get the idea.  Dodge Ram 1500, 4 door.

I did add the Bed Buddy.  Helps to give the front wheel of the motorcycle something to push against, and keeps it straight.  Also has tie down spots on the sides.  The new truck will hold 3 motorcycles.  Works really well.

I added front wheel QR’s to be able to easily bolt in 4 bicycles.

This one was made special for me to be able to put a bike with a 15mm through axle.  Ray made it for me at work.  I also have different end caps to use for a 20mm thru axle.  Sweet.  Ray is a master at this kind of stuff.

I still need to get the Line X style bed liner stuff sprayed in.  I will also get a soft toneau cover to hide stuff that is in the back, yet rolls out of the way to be able to put bikes and motorcycles in the back.

I am definetly a confirmed truck guy.

Out.
Joe

Wow. Kailub Russel video is incredible

Wow.  Check out this Kailub Russell training video.  Now I know why I cannot keep up with guys like him.

Wow.

Cycling week/weekend #2

Taiwan road bike ride

This past week I was in Taiwan. Working all week, it is halfway around the world and when you have been there a bunch, you tend to want to just get through it. The days get long.

But, I have been planning an extra day lately, just to get out for a ride. So, Friday we planned a big ride in the mountains outside of Taichung.

There was a pretty good group of us.  8 riders.  Mostly expat Americans, but also 2 Taiwan nationals.

We left the hotel in Taichung at 7:30.  The roads were wet, as it had rained overnight.  We looked at the skies and they were ominous, but we decided we really wanted to get a ride in anyway.  It was misting a bit, and we probably should have taken that as a sign.  We didn’t.  I left the hotel without a vest, without a jacket.  It was 70 degrees, afterall.

We had the usual experience getting out of the city.  Taichung is over a million people, and the hotel is pretty much right in the middle of it.  But, unlike American cities, a million is not that big.  People live in apartments, and there really are not any suberbs.  So, there is traffic but getting out of the city doesnt really take that long.  The traffic can be pretty intense.  There are a ton of scooters and cars and bikes and buses and trucks and people everywhere.  The normal laws of traffic do not always apply in Taiwan.  People just tend to do whatever they want to.  It all seems to work, but it makes riding a bike there a bit hairy.

It was misty as I said earlier but it was warm and just as soon as we got to the edge of the city, the traffic fell away.  But, the road also went up pretty much  from the edge of town.  The route for the day included 3 big mountain passes.  The mountains are not super high in  Taiwan, the island is at sea level afterall.  But, the mountains a really really steep.  The second climb was the steepest and the hardest.

After the first climb it started to rain – hard.  I am talking ocean tropical rain.  Big huge rain drops.  The wind picked up and the temperature started to drop.  The temperature dropped not to really cold, but so that when soaked on the 2nd descent, it felt really really cold.  We quickly went up the 3rd climb and that warmed us all up.  But, it was still raining.  In fact it rained the rest of the ride.

3 hours in the rain.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all pruned and tired of being in the wet.  I am afraid that I made a huge mess of the hotel lobby with my wet and disgusting bike and gear.  I trashed the hotel room as well.  Sorry.

I had to pack my wet gear in a plastic bag and head to the airport after that.  I can tell you that when I got home, the inside of my suitcase was – ewe.

 

Mountain bike ride on Sunday.

So back at home and we are still enjoying the great fall weather.  Today was about 50 degrees for a high.  It rained just once early in the week, but the cool temperatures and the regular rain has made the dirt completely epic at our trails at work.  The leaves are all down, and the traffic on the trails has made the ribbon of singletrack just perfect.  Wow.

Liz and I went out with our friends Aaron and Kathy Mock.  We rode for almost 3 hours.  It was really incredible.

So, the month has not been much for riding my motorcycle, but the mountain biking and road cycling has been spectacular.  Next weekend is the mountain bike race in Arkansas.  I hope that I do not shred my face again like I did previously.  Eiter way, it will be fun.

After the Arkansas trip, it will be time to get back to specific training for the coming race season.  Time to work with a trainer and set up a program and get after it all.

Joe

Offseason!

That is a funny word.  I have come to loathe that word.  It means that the leaves are off the trees, and the riding trails are closed and my bike sits apart in the shop for much to much time.  It also means that I find myself working on my shop more and on my bike a lopsided number of hours.

The offseason also means that I get to focus on my fitness and figure out where I went right or wrong last season.   Here is a preliminary list of that.

Right
–    Switching to the 4 stroke.  It  is for sure the right bike for me these days.  Rides better, handles better has better power etc…
–    Riding with Pete Laubmeier.  He has been teaching me how to use my back brake properly.
–    My Moose gear.  It is all really good stuff.
–    The graphics on our bikes.  Everybody says they look dynamite.  Even Mike Webb at Suzuki noted how good they look.  Thanks AJ at Victory Circle.
–    Raced more than last year.  The combination of 2 series here in the state, and GNCC and OMA and…  has made for a lot of racing available to us.
–    I won 3 races outright this year.
–    I was 2nd more times than I can remember.
–    I know how to go really fast for the first half of the race.

Wrong
–    I only did 1 GNCC race
–    I only did 1 Enduro
–    I did not get to do the National Enduro in Marquette, and now it is not on the schedule for next season.
–    I have fitness problems.  I go really really fast for the first hour of the race, but then struggle in the 2nd hour.
–    2 series in the state has split up where riders go, and sometimes we do not get the size field that we should.

That is enough of a list to get me started on the offseason.  It means that as we look forward to next year I will be focusing on
1.    A fitness routine that helps me get through to the end of the race as strong as I can go in the beginning of the race.  I have 3 different trainers that I am working with to help me do that.  Scott’s wife Mary Daubert, Mary Grinaker and Kathy Mock.  They all will help me to build a fitness base that we can make work for the whole race.  I will be doing some XC ski racing this winter to help with that also.
2.    I will be laying out a schedule of racing that will allow me to be at enough races to pursue the overall win in the D16 series or the WIXC series.  After that, I am going to focus on doing the big races that I want to flush my season.  OMA winter nationals, National Enduro’s over the winter.  GNCC races in the spring and late summer.  D16/WIXC during the late spring and summer.
Today is an unheard of 70 degrees here in Wisconsin.  That means I will be putting off getting started on working on my shop and my winter bike work, in favor of a big mountain bike ride today.  Duh.

Off to the races.

Joe

Husaberg Jump!

So glad this was not me.  Could have been though.

 

Crawfordsville confederate flag. With Ying/Yang on same trailer

Original Message
From: Vadeboncoeur, Joe
To: ‘joev3.7092@twitpic.com’ <joev3.7092@twitpic.com>
Sent: Sun Nov 01 10:02:52 2009
Subject: Crawfordsville confederate flag. With Ying/Yang on same trailer