Get some!!

Free stuff is always nice, especially when its fly fishing gear!

http://www.flyfishingfrenzy.com/2011/12/19/frenzy-holiday-giveaway/

As I'm sure you've figured out I no longer use this space. Please visit my new blog at:

Salted Pig

Sorry!

I have been seriously slacking on my posts up here. As you can imagine I've been spending 100% of my free time locked in the dungeon that is the old gutted post office. But it has all finally paid off! Last night I took the bike out for its first trouble free run!! I had it out Saturday for a bike show but I ended up blowing my chain off and ripping my oil pump in half, so that was not a good ride. The bike ended up puking oil everywhere and I had to ride home with a slick rear tire. Needless to say I went very slow. I will post some proper pics of the finished bike (not painted yet) when I get it outside.

In other news we have finally experienced the Puerto Rican week in our neighborhood. All I can say is that next year we are taking a vacation that week! It was nuts, cops, honking, music and lots of yelling and this was all hours of the day. We were taking care of John's dog Henry and he didn't know what to make of any of it. Luckily he is very calm and took the whole thing in stride, it also doesn't hurt to have a pit bull with you when that many sketchy people are around! I don't know how many people asked us if we wanted to breed him! Morons.

Its Alive!! Sort of.

After three years of tooling around with the Triumph I finally got it started yesterday! Not before a week of head scratching trying to figure out why it wouldn't fire. Turns out I was timing the magneto on the exhaust stroke and not the intake stroke. Stupid. So....after getting it started a couple times and checking all the lights I decided to put it in gear and check the clutch. Bad idea. Something went "boom" and now it won't shift into 1st, 2nd or neutral. I've decided to take today off from the shop and reassess the situation. I've almost reached the end of my patience with this transmission. I have now stripped and rebuilt it 5 times, and I think I might cry if I have to do it again. I'm at the point where I'd rather pay somebody to just do it right. Oh, wait. I already did that and it got me nowhere! But seriously I think I'm going to have somebody with more experience take care of the tranny. Say what you will about the British, but they should never be allowed to engineer anything. I've never seen a trans with so much slop and free play in it and one of the most ridiculous selecting mechanism. That being said the bike idles nicely and the mag is putting out a fat spark. Hopefully I'll have this little road bump fixed soon and I can road test it. So much for finishing this bike for the Mods Vs. Rockers Rally.



On the cycling front I screwed up big time. I was really looking forward to racing this weekend at the Subaru Cup, but it is not to be. With this event being so big they race on both Saturday and Sunday. Me being a little scatter brained requested Sunday off, not Saturday the day of the XC race. And like Mike put it "I'm not driving 4 hours to race a 30 minute short track race".

Sorry about the bad photos, the shop has very bad lighting and its even worse with the flash. Mental note: a tripod would help next time.

I'm Back!

After all the complaining I've been doing about no motivation, yesterday knocked some sense back into me! Ben and I hoped in the car around 9am and headed out to Palos for a little trail riding. Ben claimed his legs were sore from a ride the day before but I've that non-sense before! He left the route up to me and I decided to do some sections that Jason had shown me 2 weeks before. The had just recently been cleared and was rolling very fast. The trail is not very technical but real fast and flowing, the fact we didn't see another person was perfect. After taking the canal trail we hooked up with a rocky gully that took us back up to the main trail system. We hammered down my favorite section and the back up the hill to the car.

This all may sound very simple and easy for a training ride. What mattered about that ride was that it reminded me why I looooove riding trails so much! Thanks Ben for a great ride, and the White Castle "reward" was just perfect! Short post for a very momentous occasion.

Weekend

As usual I don't have much going on right now except for work and the bike. This past weekend was a nice little break from the norm. "Summer Camp" opened up at a fellow employees house in my old neighborhood. Leyla and I cruised down there with a nice supply of New Glarus and some Salt Cod Fritters I cooked up for the event (the theme was small plates). Well, needless to say the party was a blast, but what happens when you get to many kitchen people together at a party? You got it, drinking games. The ChoBlo has a signature game we like to play called Flippy Cup and of course chaos ensued. I hate to brag but I have to say I haven't lost my touch! But one thing I did learn is that cycling has dropped my beer tolerance to almost nill. Leyla took over my spot and represented very well indeed. Check my Flickr page for more shots.

In motorcycle news, we are sooooo close to being done. I don't know why but nobody in this city has any oil lines in stock! Other than that I need to time the mag and mount the exhaust. I'm also waiting on a little expansion pin that holds the kicker arm in place. Monday I spent till 2am wiring the bike, hopefully right! We'll just have to wait and see on that one. If all goes as planed I should be able to kick it over next week!!!! Prepare to read a ton of posts on how the engine won't fire.

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!