Shattered Fork, Shattered Dreams

Now why was I trying to save money by having a $2500 deductable thinking I wouldn't have any claims? Doooough!!

Fork snapped/Frame buckled. The Dura Ace is still good but dented and headed for the Kelly cross! Too bad that bike won't accept Dura Ace cranks. Chris Kelly thought cross bikes should be designed around MTB cranks, apparently. The small ring (39t) hits the frame and if you try to space it more outboard the chainline gets funny. Then again, bike mechanics never were my strong suit.

The new Tete de Course should be here soon. 800 gram frame with the Sram road group and Aeolus wheels. Fast. Faster than a Mercedes SLK? NO! But still fast and it weighs a scant 15.5 lbs I'm told. Can't wait.

I love my wife, but...

But she drove my Titanium lugged to 120 OCLV carbon fiber bicycle into the garage. The Aeros carbon fork with aluminum steerer (fricking sweet fork) is snapped, the frame is questionable. Road race on Saturday is looking questionable. Durache levers dented. I saw it happen. I didn't even yell or turn red like normal. I just hugged her. Know why? Secretly I know now I can put those dented levers on my cross bike and get new ones for the road bike. Maybe even justify a new stem/bar for the bike. Muhuhaahaa! I still win.

Mercedes SLK better spelled P-I-M-P

Yep, that's the car I rented for touring Germany in September.

Allison and I are going to visit Nick and Heather and go to Oktoberfest. Mine drenk em biers.

I figured if I'm travelling on the Autoban I might as well be able to keep up with the rest.

Is it worth watching the Tour anymore?

With two top contenders thrown out and a few more not allowed to start again, it seems like the cycle of doping or doping allegations will never end. It's been getting worse and worse the past 2 years and it's starting to wear on me.

I started at 27th and Vine in 1999 about 5 months before Lance won his first Tour. I remember Gast getting all excited about the Tour and I had no clue what was going on. We watched videos of the previous day's stage on a little TV by the BMX section and he explained to me what was going on. Back then Phil Liggett just asssumed everyone watching knew what was going on and didn't dumb it down quite as much so I needed help understanding what was going on. Over the years I came to enjoy this sport and now I love it. Reading about it and watching new and old races is great and exciting. I don't know if I can deal with all the top guys getting constantly thrown out cause they keep getting caught cheating. The sport is grand and elite but really it's the stars that I want to see, not just a bunch of no-names riding around. What if this inquisition had happened a few years ago? I wonder if Lance would have faced more scrutiny than he did. Who knows, he may have been booted for his relationships with questionable doctors.

Everyone seemed so damn sure all the riders were clean now. I wonder if any of them are. They talk about Frank Schleck and Contador being a "breath of fresh air" because they are young riders. What does that prove? (As a side note, how come Barry Bonds gets to keep playing baseball even though he doped?)

A clean break wouldn't be too hard for me. It's not like I grew up watching cycling. It's not bred into me like Husker football was. What business does a Nebraska boy have watching this stuff anyway?

Me and the Girls

We got a professional photo done for the website that Mitch Kline is building for me. He does nice work.

Boring Flat Stages...Huh?

I can't believe Robbie came back up through the group to take Stage I after that crash ~25K out. His accelleration could not be matched by anyone. I've never really liked the guy but I'm starting to come around. And how about the way David Millar stayed at the front of the peloton after he got caught. He was making the pace so he could get across the points line in 2nd and take the polka dot jersey in the U.K. Nice!

4th of July

Elaina trying to get dad a beer.

Here is an interesting picture. On the left is a shed that has the Mount Rushmore fireworks being projected on it. On the right are the actual Mt Rushmore fireworks. I'm about 30-35 miles away from Mt. Rushmore in this picture. You can see the light patterns match. OK, OK, so it's not that cool. I'm never trying night photography again.

The Hounds

Violet and Daisy hanging out by the landscaping project in the front yard. Violet says "hi" to uncle Icon.

Allison and Kirsten

Allison and Kirsten did the Mickelson 1/2 marathon. Good job ladies.

Oh wait, I forgot I won the Dauphine Libere

Thanks to Steve for this photoshopping job. Is it me or does Cadel Evan look like an evil underground dark elf?

Christophe Moreau Wins 2007 Dauphine Libere (Thanks Steve-o)

Vino had a pair of nice stage wins. I hope he crushes at the tour.

“The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.”

From "The Rider" 1978

Racing Buddies

Here is Jim, Me and Jon. Jim is an Environmental Engineering PhD and Jon is an engineer at the DOT. Try outwitting these guys in a race. These are my road riding buddies here in Rapid. This shot is before the Rochford road race. We almost swept the podium spots last Saturday. Two out of three ain't bad though.

New Philosophy in Kids Bikes

So according to my buddy Jon training wheels are bad for kids learning to ride a bike because they don't learn how to balance and it makes it harder once the training wheels come off. He got this wooden bike sans pedals at Target. The only complaint is a frequently loose headset which is just a long screw. Another way would be to buy a 12" bike and just take the cranks off. Wooden bikes are cool, but not as cool as a Calfee bamboo bike. Pictured is Nolan doing big pimpin on BLA Dees. (He's got the 12's not the 24's.)

Blur LT

Seven years is a long time to wait for a new mountain bike, so when the time comes you may as well make it sweet.

This years Talas RLC and RP23 both work very well. Thanks to Zach for the shock tip.

Friday Morning Road Ride

A little rain on the way to Keystone, then it cleared up nicely.

George and his 3 buddies were crying this morning.

The climb up to Mt. Rushmore is pretty strenuous.

Elaina O and Estella Mae Co Kickin' it at Yia Yia's

Nick and Heather Shulte were back from Germany our girls got to play downtown.

I almost had a "Hindcappie"

This is the head tube and steerer from my Lemond Tete de Course. The steerer is aluminum. You can see the length of the rivets that hold on the head tube badge are too long. They gouged into the steerer and created a 360 degree .5-.75 mm score. This is very similar to what the plumber does when he wants to remove a section of copper pipe. I noticed it when I was pressing my King cups into the frame and installing the new baseplate onto the fork. Needless to say the fork is garbage now. The fork is the Race XXX lite version from '06, the same the Disco guys were using.

I wonder if the bike Georgie was riding in the '06 Paris-Roubaix that broke had a headbadge. (I kind of don't think it did.) And I wonder if the rivets holding it on were too long and scored the fork. And I wonder if the early crash caused the fork to fail and then in the Forest or Aurenburg or wherever it was...snap!

Anyway beware of rivets that are too long. I'm lucky I noticed this. If it was steel or ti I wouldn't have sweated it but with Aluminum I just wasn't comfortable. New fork is now installed.