What a parent won't do for their kids.......

Mom and me made these little yummies tonight after the kids went to bed. We are surprising them tomorrow by dropping them off at Ella's preschool and Madee's 1st grade class. It will be so fun for them.

Lots of work but the look on their faces will be worth the effort. They are suppose to be scary black cats but they look more like mice to me.

Have a great Halloween everyone! Play safe!

Captain Bob.

Ride till the cows come home......

I wish I could on a day like today. Just a perfect day to out riding a Salsa Mamasita. Everyday is a good day for that though. I had quite a bit of company today. Saw a friend out jogging, saw some cows, horses, dead coons, hawks and a couple of dogs. I think the cows were wondering where they can get a fancy 29er like mine. I said they could have it for $1500 but they just told me to move.....or maybe they said moo. Maybe I left before they finished....they could have been starting to say mooooola. Crap! I bet one of them had the cash! Oh well. I know they would have complained about the spd's pedals. I bet they would prefer those egg beaters. Mainly just so they could tease all the chickens back at the farm.

By the way.....if you are looking for a single speed mtb or a cross bike, stay tuned. In the near future I will have three to five bikes for sale. Good prices too.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend! Check out this site later today or tonight for some cross action fotos.

Captain

Sunsets and 29ers..........gotta love it!

wearing mom's thong again......

Little Ella can always find a way to make us laugh.

Captain Bob

A couple of my new toys.

My laptop has opened up a whole new chapter in me being able to blog and do photo related things. I have before work and during my lunch now. As I said the other day we have wireless internet in the building I work it. It is nice.

I will leave you now but wanted to show you a pic of something else I have been working on. More to come on that later.

Enjoy the rain.

Captain Bob

Project Schwinn

I recently picked up this little Schwinn Traveler road bike. She is a beautiful metalic red. Check out the chrome on the fork legs. She will soon make a complete transformation into a fixie or single speed, depending on what type of rear hub we have. Looks like she has not ventured to far from where she was purchased. A Schwinn Shop in Waterloo Iowa? Some of you older folks might even remember this shop. Maybe you can even post a comment on the shop history???

Keep checking back for some updates in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple more secret projects that I will be posting in the next few weeks. One is a 29er and the other is a fixie project.

Captain Bob

My sweeties.......

Today is a good day for me to show off my lovely little ladies. For those that do not already know, Madee is the dark haired and Ella is the light brown haired.

They are both so wonderful and make my life complete.

Have a great day folks and if you have kids go home tonight and give them a hug (or phone call) and tell them how much they mean to you.

Oh yeah, & don't forget to ride your bikes.

Captain

Finally bought a laptop......

Well, I have a laptop now and wireless internet at my workplace. So, I will be blogging again starting this week. Nothing really good for today. Just catching up on things.

Lots of busy things in my life lately. Some biking, kid things, house remodel and family activities.

What a rapid end to the summer. I have so many outside projects left to finish.

Talk to you soon.

Captain Bob.

The wait is over........I am back!

Sorry for the lack of posting. I figure that if I can't take the time to put up a good post...why even try. So, after a long break I am ready to post again. Thanks for hanging in there.

First, thank you to all that gave me support and encouragement in the Chequamegon prep. What a great time with friends I had. Thank you folks for the birthday card. It meant a lot especially due to me being away from my lovely wife and two little girls. Thanks!

The race. Wow! What a race. I may have only done the short and fat but what a hoot it was. My best time and placing yet to boot. 1 hour 2 min and some changte. That put me in 43 place out of 858 (I think). 8th in my division out of maybe 74. Sweet! The rest of my racing clan did a little better.

The bike.....Salsa Mamasita. Wonderful! Flawless! Perfect! And oh so fast, lively and quick. Not me, the bike. 29ers rock! Nuf said.

Thank you all that attended the festival for a great time. I can't make it back next year and maybe not the year after but I will be back, someday.

Okay. Back to the bike. I received a comment from this fella who I have inspired. I do not think I have ever inspired anyone before. This is cool. Here is what was written.

mark dunn said...
Captain Bob,RE: Mamasita sizingYou have inspired me to pick one of these up. The question is which size as per the Salsa spec chart - they have the small-Medium and medium-large thing going. Also what length stem are you running?I am 5.8 1/2" tall with 31 1/2 inseam with no shoes. Your thoughts on sizing will be appreciated also taking into considering the 29 wheels as well. I usually run a 18" fram with a 23" top tube and a 120MM stem in good old 26" size wheelsThanks

My response: Here is the sizing chart taken directly off of Salsa's website. Scroll to the bottom of the page. My size is the medium. I am 5'11" and my inseam is around 33in. That is my pants length. It's a near perfect fit for me but it took some tweaking as I am on the tall end of the bike. Which means a size large would probably fit me better. I am running a 110mm stem but did run a 100mm for a while. It was a bit cramped with the 100mm but the bike steered better. A large for me with a 90mm stem would be perfect. One thing you will notice with 29ers is you will want to run a shorter stem than with a 26er. I think. I was riding a smaller than normal 18in frame in a 26er and did also run a 120mm stem. The medium Mamasita with a 100mm stem steered better than my 26er with the longer stem. I think the medium would be a perfect fit for you Mark. I would bet a 90mm (0 degree or -3 or -6 degree) would be perfect for you. I also had to swap out my Thompson seatpost for something with more layback. The Salsa Shaft seatpost works perfect for me and is much stiffer than the Thompson. Your size would be great with the normal seatpost though.

Do you live anywhere near Waterloo/Cedar Falls Iowa? You are welcome to ride mine. You will be delighted with the ride. It feels alive underneath you man!

Thanks for reaching out to me for info. Good luck in your decision and feel free to keep in touch.

Have a good night folks.

Captain!

getting ready for Chequamegon! almost there.

All I need now is some good ole hill climbing workouts. It's high time I get over the the gravel roads by the Scout Camp and at least one day a week I need to hit the hills around New Hartford.

Here's a few pics for you. You will count five of my favorite things in one pic alone. Let's name them. First is the frame. Salsa Mamasita 29er. So sweet! 2nd, my Ergon E1 grips. Perfect for me. 3rd, Salsa stem. Steel is real baby! I also love the 11 degree bend on those handlebars. Feels just right. 4th, 8 speed! Enough said. 5th, Shimano brake levers, just perfect. 6th, not mine but, the wheelset and tires I am testing for twenty nine inches. So far, so good.

That's all for now.

Been busy lately

Been getting in some pretty good rides lately. Getting ready for Chequamegon. Took a little time to do some shopping yesterday with the wife and youngest child. The older one was as a party. This picture was taken just minutes after she threw a fit for not getting a stuffed kitty from the last store we took her to for the day. Notice one of the business names in the background......how fitting especially given the mood she was in.

A little mtb sprint for tonight.

Thankfully I missed the rain.

Cedar Bend

Well. Let's just say it was good to get out and ride. I have been riding a bit, working a lot. Been doing a few senior photo jobs so that has been taking up my blogging time. I went to Cedar Bend Wed night and I must say what a mess. The storm that ripped through the area that morning hit the park pretty hard. Tons of large trees down. Many of them over the trail. I made a huge effort to make it out for an off-road ride for a couple of reasons. I am on a special assignment testing some high end bike schtuff and really needed this terrain to get a feel for the product. Stay tuned to twenty nine inches for a post soon on what I am testing. They post some pretty cool stuff there, especially if you like 29er stuff.

I also bought a new set of pedals from Bike Tech the other day so I really needed to put some miles on them to decide if they will stay in my hands or find their to ebay. They are the Xpedo SL CR. So far the pedals are working fine. I was hoping for a little more degees of float but I think I am out of luck. The box says 15 degrees but I think I get around 6 or something. Nothing compared to the egg beaters. Egg beaters broke though. Entry and exit is good though and the little mud that I walked through did not seem to bother them at all. The thing I really love about the egg beaters is the cleat. You just bolt it to the shoe and forget about it. There is only one way to mount it with no possibility to adjust it because you don't need it. And it worked! These Xpedo's are similar to Shimano's in the respect of overall pedal design and the cleat. They are completely compatible with Shimano pedals. I like that part since egg beaters are not compatible at all. I will continue to post my comments here about the pedals. I like the price too with retail around $99 (minus the Bike Tech Team discount they were an even better deal, thanks Brent). That puts them alot cheaper than the Shimano XTR pedals and only a little less quality but still good. We'll see how they hold up though.

Tomorrow is another Senior photo day and a good hard mtb ride. Maybe I can make my way over to New Hartford Ia for some nice gravel hills.

Take care folks & ride yer bikes!

Captain

Riding a dyke is more fun that you think.

A little Sweets Marsh tonight. Beat the rain too. :-)

EcoTri

What a grand time we had at the Eco Tri. First place with cuz and Casey Dean. What a hoot! Hats off to those guys for letting me play with them. I was honored. Also, a big hats off to Rob Houlihan for a first place in the solo event. That was amazing.

You can see links to the event and pics go here.

Captain.

Man, I love sweet corn.

We have been eating a lot of sweet corn lately. My oldest daughter lost another tooth though. That is two teeth in the last 7 days from eating corn. Thankfully I still have my meat cutting skills from when I was a butcher so I am able to cut her corn off the cob without cutting myself.

Also, you will see a nice shot of a b road about two mile from my mothers house near Reinbeck. It was dry and super fast.

That's all for today.

Captain

Final Vintage photo post.

Who can guess where this shot was taken?

The year was 2000. This was also the last year that I was "sort of" fast.

The bike was a Giant Cadex (carbon fiber) rigid single speed.

Beginner Class and the placing was 3rd.

The winner gets a free water bottle from your shop of choice. Just don't let them see you take it.

Happy guessing!

Captain

Vintage post #2.

This was in 1999 I think. It was one of those National Guard MTB races at George Wyth. It's me again minus the mullet. Photo taken by the one and only Brad Meyeraan.

Vintage time folks!

Can you guess who this fine looking man is? This is the guy you don't want to let your daughter date. No, his name is not Earl.

You guessed it. It's me. It was right after I competed in my first mtb race. It was 1996 (I think) and it was at, the hat gives it away. Volga. I was riding a fancy Pacific from Toys R Us. It even had a suspension fork. Yikes! So glad it didn't break on me. I finished dead last too. There were a few that didn't finish. My greatest memory was this old guy in a poncho cheering me on about a 1/4 mile from the finish. One of my old buddies & I called him the Mountain Man. The mountain man was from the Specialized bike helmet. I think this guy even raced that day but finished way ahead of me and had time to cheer us slow folk on. Can you guess who that was? You're right! The one and only John Adamson.

It is a fond memory indeed. Thanks again for the cheer John....

Manic Monday

Well! My Monday was very busy. Too busy to post until today. Woke up around 5:30. Got the girls ready for daycare. Are breakfast & headed to town to give something back to the community. I am a member of the Tripoli Park & Recreation Board. We installed a new playground yesterday. It went up easy & we all had a great time. Some great teamwork was had.

I even had time to make it to my favorite playground before the rain. Well, mostly before the rain. It's all good.

Captain.