Yes, the riding has been excellent this Summer.....and, I am back on the trail and off the reserve list. Ripping the trails with a new found appreciation for my health and fitness. Surgery really puts everything into perspective! First rugged ride after getting back from Utah....Blue Mountain with Sam, Kevin, and Eric. One of the more punishing rides I've ever experienced....pure brutality. It rained right before we got there and Kevin decided we were climbing up the backside for 3 miles of technical, slippery singletrack to get warmed up. Wow! After that one....back on the Spot for singlespeed mania on many rides including Jeremy's birthday ride with the Sos at East Setauket. Also, pre-riding the Dark Horse 40 course at Stewart MTA with Sam, Emily, and Ari! Ari's first big ride on his new Cannondale Flash Carbon 29er. He killed it and was smiling for hours :) JC and I blasted out to Glacier Ridge for a SS 29er session with the Spot and his Voodoo Dambala for some fun and the twists never seem to end. My movie is awesome! More to come...
On the way to Blue at the gas station/smoke shop....
Kevin, Eric, and Sam getting ready at Blue....
Sam demoing a new Yeti!!!
2 bold Flash Carbon 29ers and the Birthday Boy Bean
Jeremy and Sos at East Setauket
All American Burger...yep.
Birthday Boy Burger Feast
Voodoo and Spot on the way to Glacier Ridge
On the trail at GR.....
Emily, Sam, and Ari at Stewart...some wicked 29ers
Well....here I am, catching up again. It's not easy being me :)
Sam (from Bicycles NYC) and I traveled out to Snowbird in Utah for the annual Specialized dealer event. It was excellent! Great weather. Great bikes. Great riding! We made an impression, as always, and brought our NYC brand of hijinks wherever we went! The trip started off lame as our plane was about 4 hours late out of JFK so we ended up drinking Budweisers out of aluminum bottles for brunch... As soon as we landed in SLC, Sam saw the speed gun on the airport road and had to see what he could do against it. 13 mph is what he ran and luckily we didn't get arrested :) Snowbird is amazing and beautiful! Stunning views everywhere you look! A great venue for the event. We learned about bikes. We looked at bikes, helmets, shoes, tires, equipment, you name it.... We rode bikes....road bikes....mountain bikes. I rode the new SW Roubaix with new SRAM Red, awesome! Also rode the new Bad-ass Allez Race with SRAM Rival. Excellent! Best mountain bike.....Stumpjumper FSR EVO 26 & 29. Superb! Ripped the Enduro too and loved it!!! Hung out with my pal Rebecca Rusch. Hung and dined with Don Langley of the Langster fame and also fabulous racer Ned Overend. Hung out with our boys Luis and Dave from Toga/Gotham a lot and Pat and Josh from Cycles Plus on LI....also Lester, Josh, and Bryan from U-Bikes in Boulder, CO. Great seeing everyone and having fun living the bicycle life. I'm pretty lucky....
Sam at JFK
Sam running.....13 mph in SLC
Hotel room with a view....almost unreal
First breakfast with Rebecca Rusch
Road Demo
2013 Specialized S-Works Allez!
Chris Whehan presents at road presentation
Ilya from BOA fixes up my S-Works shoes!
Snowbird
At the mtn demo with our rep Chris Facas
Our warranty guy Bruce working the mtn demo
2013 Stumpjumper FSR EVO 26 (and Sam)
2013 Enduro...and Sam
Kit management :)
Womens' road bikes
Globe Roll Rare with belt drive, 8 speed, sweet....
On June 1st I had hernia surgery! What a bummer.... The only good news is now I am bionic and have kevlar mesh sewn in to my body! Crazy! My fabulous surgeon Dr. Lo at Beth Israel Hospital in NYC told me I could not ride for 4-6 weeks!!!! Not good for me. My inner superhero channeled extreme healing energy immediately... I walked home from the hospital after the surgery.....10 blocks, and yes, I was well doped up. Ayuh. I stayed home for 3 days resting/healing, then I went back to work. I walked to work for 2 weeks, 4 miles a day. It was so incredibly hard not to get on one of my bikes and ride. It took immense will power, but I had to do it. Then I started to commute by bike again. What a relief to be back on wheels. First mellow road ride 18 days after surgery. First xc mountain ride 30 days after surgery in Southern MD for the 4th of July. I got 3 days in on the trail in extreme heat. It felt great! I am back, almost. Not quite 100% yet, but ready to get back to the rocky rough stuff in another week or so. I can barely wait. Riding road is getting me back in shape and it feels great. I love my road bike! In a few days I'll fly to Snowbird in Utah to see and ride all the new 2013 bikes from Specialized. I'll have a full report upon my return. Sorry that I've been away from the blog, but what could I say except ARGH!!!
First road ride up to the
GW Bridge and back...
First mtb ride....JC, JW, and Amy ready to ride
in 97 degree heat! Amy got heat stroke. Ouch!
JW explaining his spider web catcher invention...hehe
That's the line I've been thinking about for a few weeks as I've been writing this entry in my head. And...what an understatement it is. Catching up on this blog. Catching up on the little details that slip through the cracks. Catching up with friends and family. Catching up on life. Living. I've got a lot of catching up to do. And I've been doing it over the last few months. And I need to keep doing it. A lot more.
I was just watching the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and I was touched by something Flea (from the Red Hot Chil Peppers) said. He said that when he's performing and they're on, and the groove is in the pocket, that he feels oneness and those are the moments in his life when he truly feels free. I get that. I feel it too....when I'm riding. Not always, but sometimes. I strive to find it. I am always seeking it out. It's always there, but I can't always latch on to it. Sometimes it's so close, but I can't touch it.
For musical accompaniment, click the button below...
Anyway....I digress. This was the year of the Winter that never really arrived....and that put a major crimp in my snowboarding jones. I got 4 days. They were all good ones, but I wanted more. Snow riding. 4 days after waiting for months to shred. I guess mountain bike season came early since there was no snow to melt. In early March I went to Jamaica with mountain bikes and rode 7 days straight. That was fun...really fun. Thank you Bigga and all of the people in Negril that made us feel welcome and offered to keep our bikes for us when we left to go home. Me And My Friends. We are mountain bikers....wherever we go.
Lots of rides since JA. All good ones. Pics below to prove it. It's Spring. A new season. A time to start over. Get in shape. Time to ride as much as possible and find that feeling of freedom. We're all looking for it in one way or another. I'm all caught up now, on this blog at least. If you've got some catching up to do, get to it. It feels good.
I've had an amazing weekend culminating with a fantastic ride at Jungle Habitat today to celebrate the debut of Jeremy's (Germany, String (Bean), Beaner, Bean, Clipless) new, race-ready Cannondale Flash 29. 3 rockin' records I listened to today that made me feel great: Led Zeppelin's Houses of The Holy, Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak, U2's The Unforgettable Fire. Rock is good.
Check this out:
My ride was powered by 40 Clash songs...timeless, driving, motivating to rip the trails every time. Finally, Jeremy got his new mountain bike together! It's been a long process and I'm not going into the details... The bike is wicked light and the kid was flying over everything. Did I mention that it turned to Winter suddenly in NYC? 60s the other day and I was just wearing a t-shirt.... 30s today and frigid. I was rockin' out to The Clash during the ride and thinking about meditation and Rhino's. Quite a combination. Two ends of the spectrum, or is it? Jason broke his rear derailleur off less than halfway through the ride. It looked like he was done until Pauly the magician laid down the magic on it and hammered it back into place with 2 rocks from the trail....I kid you not. Then, Jeremy had the brilliant idea to zip tie it on too so it would be doubly strong. It's not often that I get to use the word doubly. There, I just used it twice. Ha! As luck would have it, for Jason, the bike shifted better after the hammer/zip tie method. Who knew? Nothing would derail this ride so we moved ahead destroying rocks likes superheroes. It was satisfying. It was hard. Everyone ripped. This ride was just what I needed since I'm still finishing up shooting the extortion scenes in my second movie. It's been a little stressful lately. Almost done and on to the third and final movie of the threequel. Mountain biking. It cures whatever ails you, I mean me.
