Bad Got Worse

So as most of you know I not been keeping up with this blog for a very simple reason..and here it is! Although as of this afternoon the whole thing has been torn down in order to re-weld the neck and add some brackets. I am literally on the home stretch and every waking hours is spent with my hands covered in grease and a big grin on my face. The transmission went together fairly smoothly (I hope) and I fixed the timing gears which was not done by the guy who rebuilt the engine. The exhaust is still an issue but I think I have it figured out. I also broke down and bought another magneto, since the old one was lost in the move up here. Depending on when I get the frame done I should have the bike together, plumbed and started by middle of next week. Having it run is a whole 'nother issue!

As I expressed in my last posts, due to all the time I've spent on the Triumph there has been little time for training and this weekend it showed! I drove up to Lake Geneva with Mike and was actually pretty excited about racing until I hit the first hill. My body pretty much shut down and I started to ride like I had no idea what was going on. Worst thing you can do on a mountain bike is ride "scared". The second you start to over think moves, that is when you get hurt. I rode the brakes on a hill and didn't make my moves when I should have. I got about 1/2 way through the course and took a nasty spill. Normally I would blame gnomes but frankly it was all my fault. I know better than to go over a wet log at an angle while trying to pass, at least now I do! I went down hard and hit my arm on said log. When I tried to get up and ride I could grip the bars with my right hand and ended up walking out. Thankfully WORS supplies an EMT post and they gave me sling, ice and a suggestion to drink some beers, thankfully we have a tasty sponsor! Check out Ben's Flikr page for pics of the sling (not sure how to get pics off his page). Also, props go out to Adrian for racing his first MTB event!!! He did great and enjoyed every second of it, I think he's hooked! All in all it was a fun race. We had a great team showing, good cheering section, and Ben and Mikes race was one of the best I've seen in a while.

Of course no trip to Wisc. is complete (at least for Mike and I) without a stop for delicious local beer!!! I picked up a nice sampler from New Glarus and a Porter from Central Waters. I haven't tried the Porter yet but it looks amazing. Mike went on a can kick and got some great beers in cans. Summertime just screams canned beers!


Now I have to go find my "game face" since I seem to have left it in last season.

Motivation

Ever since the start of spring my motivation to ride has steadily gone downhill. The biggest reason is simply my yearly allergy attacks. When the pollen comes out I literally go through 2 months of hell which no medication can curb. Even if I did get out and ride I would be at a major deficit because of how messed up my sinuses are. I feel another factor is that I rode so much through the winter my body has decided that this is break time and not go fast time, kinda sad. There is a WORS race this weekend but according to Ben it may not happen due to the weather. If it does I'm just going to ride it like a hard training ride, just kinda sit back and work on some things.

Not much visual progress on the bike yet. Spent last night working on the seat and headlight. I'm waiting on a small part to get the tranny back together and then I can pretty much button up the bottom end and concentrate on the frame and brackets. More pics will be posted once I get the tank on.

It's Here!

After 2 years of f'ing around with this project I finally have the financial means and space to get this sexy beast finished! It doesn't look like much in the picture but I pulled a bunch of pieces off to finalize the tranny and timing gears. I was lucky enough to meet some great guys through Pablo that offered me a space in their shop. It's an old gutted post office where about 8 guys build mostly brit bikes. They have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome and help finish the project. Stuff that has taken me months to find was procured in 2 days with their help. I've been spending my days off just sitting in the shop staring at the bike and loving every minute I spend in that shop. I completely forgot how much I love working on that thing. I'll be posting pics as I move along.

A Good Sunday

Finally a nice day where I don't work! Unfortunately there was a race this weekend but due to the long drive and the fact I was still sore from the crash I decided against hitching a ride with Mike. My race being earlier then his would have required us to leave at 5am, and that's just not going to happen. That being said I ended up going out to Palos and just doing some nice base miles to get my sea legs back. It rained lightly the night before I was expecting a little mud, but it turned out to be pretty wet on the singletrack. I really don't like blazing through mud holes and destroying/eroding other peoples hard work so I did a fair bit of walking around the peanut buttery mud. All in all it was a good ride and perfect weather for it. The bike got pretty muddy so I found a local car wash (thank you iphone) and pressure washed it clean, smart move on my part.

I got a text on my way home from Gennaro (guy I'm splitting shop space with) that they were meeting up a the Matchbox. After a shower I rolled down there and they had already acquired a prime space outside in the sun. I ended up meeting some great new people (Gennaro knows everybody) and after plenty of Schlitz, fried chicken and general mayhem I gave Gennaro a ride home. There I had the pleasure to meet his two dogs, one of which is very famous in the motorcycle world. He is the dog that bit Russell Mitchell's leg while they were filming and episode of Biker Build Off for the Discovery Channel! This incident resulted in Russell falling off his bike and breaking his ankle (I believe)!! Needless to say I find Russell to be an arrogant prick and I gave the fat little dog a big hug for doing us all a favor!

Full Contact Commuting

I won't bother you with the details but I had nice little encounter with the side of a car on my way home today (yes, I was wearing a helmet). The girl turned into a parking lot with no signal while I was coming up the bike lane. Luckily I just bounced off the side of her car and lost control of the bike. I used my body to slow down after hitting the pavement and ended up with some nice road rash on my left arm and leg. I couldn't bring myself to get mad at the girl she parked the car and came running up literally offering to buy me a new bike! She was crying and kept apologizing offering to give me her info so she could pay for any damages. The Bridgestone appears to be ok except for the trashed bar tape. What made the situation worse was that she was carrying flowers on her way into the hospital! You just can't get angry at somebody in that situation. Oh well, I rode away; slowly. Now that I'm home and washed out the cuts the adrenaline is starting to wear off and its all starting to really hurt! Worst part is that it's a gorgeous day outside and I had a bunch of stuff planned. So much for a day off!

I'm Off!

Now that it has finally warmed up in Chicago I'm taking a trip to visit the family down in FL! But the weather arrived just in time! Sunday was my first MTB race of the season and I successfully rode it like I was on training wheels. I haven't been taking my riding to seriously and it also doesn't help I haven't been on a trail since October. I was feeling pretty good about this race but like usual I gunned it off the line and was in no shape to be doing that! About a mile in my legs decided to slow down to a crawl and I watched fat men with bandannas pass me by. Luckily I grabbed a second wind a litttle later on and I was able to drop said fat men on a couple climbs. That little effort did nothing to improve my standings and I ended up placing in the high teens, possibly worse. All in all the course was a blast, fast and muddy with nothing super technical, just how I like it. The bike is still covered in mud and sadly it won't get washed till I get back on Friday, neither will my cleats!

Sorry for the lame post but I need some sleep to get up early for my flight.

It's Alive!

As I mentioned in a previous post I got some pork belly from Arnolds Farm which I decided to cure half of and make some bacon. Well, the cure is over and I took it over to Bower's place yesterday and we (read as "he") smoked it for about 3 hours till it reached an internal temp of 150. We were a little worried that a good portion of the fat would render off, in reality there was a little shrinking but almost no fat loss. The cure came out to be a little salty and I think next time I'm going to cut 2 or 3 days off the cure and just smoke it longer. The other option is to get a new belly and divide it up equally and cure each piece for different lengths and come up with a good standard cure time. Once your smoking the meat the cure isn't so much for preservation but flavor. The smoke brings the internal temp up to a safe zone, so frankly you could eat the stuff raw. My next project is going to be some air cured meats. I've been aching to do this for many years, and I think I'm finally going to take the plunge. Funny thing is I told myself I'm going to start brewing again, not really sure where I'm going to keep all this equipment! I digress. I brought the bacon home last night and showed him where he would be sleeping. I then cut some very thin slices and fried them up to make a very sexy BLT. I had some cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, mayo and sourdough toast along with the thick and crispy bacon. Nothing to say but Wow. The lettuce cut the saltiness nicely, and it was just plain yummy.


On another note I finally found a great little neighborhood bar just down the street. Archie's looks like its been there for way to long and the sparseness of the decor would suggest they are not out to impress any hipsters. Mike, Leyla and I went after a great dinner at Glunz's Bavarian Haus. The fact that there were only 10 people in there on a Friday instantly makes it great in my book, it didn't hurt that there was Pit Bull running around playing with his ball. Hamms beers were $2 and some very stiff 7&7's were the same price. Free pool and nice jukebox make this my kind of place. Dark, friendly, no attitude and empty.

Days Gone Past

Just got off the phone with Ken a very good friend from FL and he tells me the Mighty Might Bosstones are headlining Sunfest this year! I figured they might be touring (not so) so I checked the site and found this little video



I never realized how much I missed these guys. They were one of the first shows I went to in FL (Pietasters, Piestomp Tour was the first) and I'll never forget how crazy they were live and how much energy bled off that stage. Its too bad I'm the old man at the show these days. Usually just standing in the back with a beer shaking my head at what the scene has become, yeah I'm bitter, so what. I made some great friends attending shows and I would trade any of them for the world. There were days when we would hit 2+ shows a week, mind you we were driving to Ft. Liquordale at the time.

Shows may not be the same but the friends are still by my side and frankly thats all that matters.

Bad Weather and Ribs

I never expected the weather to be perfect when I moved up here but this is getting a little ridiculous! Snow showers this coming weekend?! Come on. With all this rain I have yet to get on the mountain bike and my first race is coming up next Sunday, but even that may get postponed due to this weather. My original plan was to use my days off next week to go fly fishing around Madison but if the rain holds off I may just have to use those days to get on the bike and iron out the kinks. With a new fork, crankset, chain, cassette and rear derailleur there is bound to be some issues and I'd like to find those now instead of on race day.

So whats a guy to do with all this nonsense going on? Make ribs. For some reason I had 2 racks in the freezer and the day off. I started off by making a dry rub for them consisting of ancho chili powder, cumin, black pepper and cayenne. I then wrapped the racks in foil and added a little liquid which was simply a small amount of soy, hoisin and chicken stock to thin it out. I filled the packets with the braising liquid, put them in fairly low oven (300F) and allowed them to cook for around 3 hours. The result is what you see on the right. I looked at what was left in the foil packets and with the amount of collagen floating around that I couldn't just through it away! The leftover liquid was reduced slightly and then brushed on the cut ribs and put under the broiler to make them nice and sticky. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this since none of them came out. The glaze was so shinny that every pic looked awful.

Also had a great lunch with Mike, which probably lasted longer than it should have! We went out to Sun Wah for some Chinese BBQ. We both ordered the rice bowl topped with BBQ Duck and Roast Pork Hong Kong Style. Amazing. For 4.50 this was a ton of food, best part was it came with steamed Bok Choy and half a preserved goose egg. Once again no pics, but this time it was due to the fact that food didn't last to long! The pork at this place it heavenly. Real moist with a nice layer of fat and crisp skin. Same goes for the duck which is slightly sweet but literaly falling off the rib bones. My favorite aspect of Sun Wah is the large glass vessel at the counter that if filled with crisp fried chicken skin for 3.50/lb!

Presents For The Kitchen

Thanks to my job at the Chopping Block I get some very good discounts on some very fancy cookware. This past month's promotion was for Emile Henry, Mauviel and Rosle. For those not in the know all this stuff is usually waaaay out of my price range, especially the Mauviel. Most of their copper runs at insane price points (saute pan is 260.00!). Needless to say I jumped at the chance to get some new gear for the kitchen, considering I don't think I will every be able to purchase copper at these prices again! From Emile Henry I got a shallow brassier and a tagine, both are ceramic capable of taking some real high hear. The Mauviel pieces took many hours of deliberation to choose, in the end my order turned out to be exactly the same as Bowers', odd. I ordered the thickest copper wall they make with cast iron handles, all in all the pieces weigh about 20 pounds a piece. Out of 3 very classy boxes came a splayed side saute pan, large saute pan and a med. sautoir (or straight side saute). I don't have the heart to cook in these yet! I want to do something real special but I can't figure out what that will be.

On a side note I made one of the tastiest sandwiches ever yesterday. I got a whole pork belly from Arnolds not long ago with the intent of making bacon. One of the ends was nice and meaty so I figured there was no reason not to cook that right away! I cubed up the end and placed it in my new Emile Henry brassier along with some Shoyu, Dry Sherry, ginger, garlic and water. I let this all braise for about 3 hours and then I cooled it down over night. The next day I got some a baguette and placed two pieces inside with a nice dose of Siracha. The end result is not all that pretty but it was so good I had to take a nap afterwards. The cooled fat from the belly acted like butter on the bread and the meat was falling apart. Salty, sweet, fatty and spicy. You couldn't ask for a better meal.


The rest of the belly is curing in the fridge as I write this and should be done in about 4 days. I'm curing it in a mix of salt, sugar, black pepper (alot), garlic, and crushed bay leaves. Once its finished Bowers is going to smoke it for me and we shall see what we come up with. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Life Revolves Around Food

As most of you know I did not go to Hillsboro for the race due to a stomach virus. I decided against going and completely destroying my body for a discipline I don't even really compete in. Hopefully I'll make up for it at the end of this month at the Rock Cut race. Now that I mention that I need to get start getting up early and getting on the path.

A little before my bought with the flu Mike and I headed out for our first "exploring Chicago" lunches (part one in a series). We went down Grand to Bari Foods for their famous sandwiches. As is evident from the picture this was to be a curb meal and it made the lunch all that better. Right next door to Bari is Damato's Bakery where we stopped in for some cookies. I had the lady make me up a mixed box of her favorites. I must say that they where worth the trip on their own! Not usually a huge fan of the dry Italian style cookies but these were very well made and I'd defiantly go back. Next on our agenda is unraveling the mystery of the Jibarito, a sandwich invented here in Chicago.

This past weekend Leyla and I finally made it out to Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights after hearing about it for the past year. Mitsuwa is a Japanese supermarket with a built in food court. We had a little lunch before diving into the shopping. I hate to say it but the best part wast the green tea soft serve ice cream, although the food was not bad either. The market itself is amazing. Very clean and filled with packaging that I could not decipher, lots of big eyed cartoon characters telling me to buy, buy, buy! So I did. The fish section was very nice, we bought a couple pieces of salmon, yellowtail and chu-toro for nigiri later that night. I was finally able to find some nice high end Shoyu (soy sauce) along with good quality short grain rice. My favorite find of the day was something that I thought was 100% Brazilian. I used to drink this stuff called Yakult when I lived in Brazil. Its a small shot of a yogurt flavored drink, basically a shot of lacto-basilicas, but very tasty! Turns out its a Japanese/Korean product! Needless to say I bought about 30 of them! After making our way around the market and checking out we headed over to the booze section! Always bad news for me! To make matters worse there was a lady giving out samples of different sakes. Needless to say I bought some along with some plum wine for Leyla. While looking for a bottle I found this poster towards the back and proceeded to study it and figure out how sake is made. Well, all I got from it is that a cartoon bottle runs the production line and lays out flow charts, then POOF! Sake's done!

I'm Back!

After many arguments with Comcast I finally have internet access back! I'll be posting once again. REJOICE!!

Enough Already!!

I woke up this morning to snow. Snow. Please don't make me say it again, because this getting very old, very quickly! Almost the end of March and we have yet to see any real nice days, and I'm not talking warm, I just want sunny and above 48. Oh well, I guess waiting will make the summer that much better.

And yes, that is all I'm writing today because nothing else is going on because of the snow!

Shopping

Had my first experience with the megalith of Ikea yesterday. All I can say is "wow". That place has literally thought of everything to keep you in there for the better part of a week. They even thought of tie down straps and tarps for your car when you buy a whole kitchen and realize you drove your Twingo (French joke) there. After about 2 hours of walking around I was able to find a desk and file cabinet that worked for me and also managed to come up with umpteen billion other ideas for the house.

My plans of going for a ride yesterday with Mike went down the tubes. I was beat and the weather was just plain ugly (like today). Training is getting worse by the day. I've come to find out that a member of our team is a USAC certified coach. I've been shooting emails back and forth with Bob and he is currently working on a plan to get me ready for Nationals and the WORS season. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to improve my diet a bit. I don't eat very many solid meals while I'm working, just alot of small portions scattered throughout the day. I think this is a big factor in me being so sluggish lately (the weather doesn't help either).

I also just got another order from Arnold's Farm! Bowers got a whole pork shoulder and I got a whole pork belly to make Rillions and Bacon. I'll post some pics when I start the process. I'm sure Bowers will also have something to say about the shoulder when he get it. I'm looking forward to Pulled Pork Sandwiches!

Been a While!

Now that I have lost 80% of my readers, I'm finally back! #1 rule while moving is take care of Comcast first! One week to get my service installed!! What a joke. Otherwise we are almost moved into the new place and not living out of boxes anymore. That's not saying we have things put away but its getting there. I'm not going to post any pictures of the apt. since I know there are some real creepy people out there who read this, you know who you are!

As for cycling I have been slacking like never before. I keep telling myself that MTB season doesn't start for a while but that is no excuse. My 30 min. on the trainer today was a joke, I felt sluggish and just had zero motivation. Last Sunday a couple of us from the team headed down to Hillsboro to pre-ride the course. I'm screwed. After the first 22mile lap I got dropped like an ugly baby. I had never ridden hills and these were short and brutal. I'm hoping I can at least hang with the pack on race day but coming in DFL is looking very likely. Oh well, we'll be out sporting the new kits and it should be a good time.

Below are some pics I have taken while the blog was down. I've found that I delete more pictures than I take with the new camera!

Amazing burgers at Kumas! All named after Metal bands!

My first meal at the new place. Mangos with chili and lime and Mexican
Street Corn. Bought from a guys food cart!

Me+2 bikes+backseat=Not Comfortable!!

Gotta love scenic Illinois.