February Air
Now I am not complaining, so do not think that, but it is crazy how warm it is right now. The bad thing about this is that I have not been able to enjoy all of these great days because of work. I have caught myself walking outside during my lunch break just to get outside and feel the breeze and warmth. I can not wait for it to get warmer so I can go mountain biking. Thankfully I was able to ride on Sunday. It was probably the first time I have had nice weather on my day off in over a month. No joke. To take advantage of it I went to ride my road bike on the greenway. It was a pretty pitiful ride since it was my first time on the bike in weeks, and there were people everywhere. Now I hate to be another cyclist complaining about pedestrians, but I really wonder about their intelligence sometimes (often). Is there any reason they should be walking in the middle of the greenway, or 4 wide? I see none. Please get out of my way. please…..
First ride outside in weeks….it was rather windy
I really need to get around to uploading some videos I have taken with the GoPro. Maybe I will just throw tons of random clips together from the past few weeks.
Today was also great so I was able to play fetch with Copper some and mess around with the GoPro taken some vids.
Not much of an update I realize, but things have been busy at work. (I feel like I use that excuse lots)
Winter Hits Hard
It is hard for me to believe that over the weekend the weather was so nice. Yet today and yesterday it was in the low 30s, and maybe peaking into the 20s. Thankfully I was off on the weekend, which meant I could enjoy some of the great weather. (Until my sinuses decided to destroy me, joys of cleaning the garage)
My cousins are in town for the holidays, so we all decided to go out for a bike ride to enjoy the weather. It turned into the shortest bike ride ever. After about a mile of riding one of my cousins crashed. We were going down a hill and some pedestrians were blocking the whole greenway, no surprise there. Well he was not very used to my friend’s bike since he rides a single speed. So he ended up going a tad brake heavy causing him to go over the handlebars and crash pretty bad. I have it on video to enjoy also 
We all stop quickly to see if he was ok and instantly we all noticed his eye. He was bleeding around his eyebrow, and he had instant swelling. He was persistent that he was fine, but none of us wanted to start riding downtown only for his injuries to get worse. So instead of riding, we all decided to spend the afternoon just driving around memory lane. Most of this video was taken that afternoon. The mountain biking parts were a few days earlier from my first chance to test out the GoPro camera on the trails.
Taken a few minutes after the crash, before the swelling, and eventual black eye the next morning.
Stealth Rider
As of last week, I am the proud owner of a new bike. It may of taken me two hardtails, but I finally decided to jump on the full suspension bandwagon. For years I never thought I wanted to go that route because of the perceived drawbacks they had. However, the more and more I looked into them, the more these issues seemed to not even exist. So after seeing a deal I could not pass up, and then a few discussions with the staff at Bike Pedlar-Hermitage, I decided to pull the trigger.
The bike I purchased from Bike Pedlar is a 2011 Trek Fuel EX8. The bike is the perfect day to day trail bike to even XC racing. The specs can be found here if you are so inclined.
Thankfully after a few days of it sitting at the house I was able to go take it out on the trail for some pics. Sadly I am still hesitant to get it dirty haha. The pictures below were all taken at a local trail called Shutes Branch. After the pictures I did go for a short ride to gain some initial thoughts on the bike. I forgot to put my clipless pedals on, so as odd as it sounds, not being able to clip my shoes into the pedals made me feel less confident.
Trek’s E2 headset flares from 1.125in at the top to 1.5in at the bottom.
ABP or Active Braking Pivot puts the rear suspension pivot concentric to the rear wheel axle.
This keeps the suspension active and the rider in control while braking.
Fox Float RP-2, “trail tuned” w/Trek DRCV, ProPedal on a 2011 Trek Fuel EX 8
Detailed picture of the Full Floater logo on a 2011 Trek Fuel EX8. Trek’s Full Floater setup allow for unparalleled performance.
This setup allows the rider to have control on the slow technical sections along with the big hits.
Day at the Trails
There are some poor ways to spend a day off, watching football is starting to become one of those. Today I was able to spend part of my weekend off mountain biking. THANKFULLY, riding did not end with me feeling angry and disappointed. Instead I had a great time spending a few hours at Lock 4. The weather was perfect for mountain biking or just spending it outside. The trail was wet enough to be sticky, and the temperature was cool enough to justify arm warmers at the beginning, but after a few miles it felt perfect. I have not been to Lock 4 in a few months, so it was great to have time to ride the whole trail and then some. As expected, when we were going around the second time my thighs were starting to call it quits. However, I kinda wish I would of stayed longer since the Titans decided to not show up at their game.
My new addition to the bike. RaceFace bashguard which has already showed some signs of usage.
Over the past year or so of owning my current mtn bike I clearly have had some issues with pedal placement when going over obstacles.
Rocky’s bike after it’s first time around Lock 4. The first time he was on a friend’s bike and I am guessing he enjoyed having some disc brakes this time around
Gah I love the tread pattern on my FR3 tires
Starting to “dislike” my 6500. Tempted to sell it and then get a nicer ride. Temptations temptations….
Bike Ride Video
Well it took me a few days, but I was able to put together a video of my ride around downtown. It also has a few of the pictures at the end. Soooo check it out, leave me a comment. I am a noob at making videos, so editing/filming is difficult for me.
Valley of Sugar
Today was an awesome day, even with it starting with me turning off my alarm at 6:20 am on a Sunday. This morning I met up with some of the employees at Bike Pedlar, along with others, for a morning at a new trail. The trail is more so a playground, which allowed for some great chances for photos. HOWEVER, my flash is currently not working, so I was extremely unhappy with the results. But overall the morning was successful and I got to meet lots of new people. I call the trail a playground since it is not very long, but instead has many jumps, drops, a wall-ride, and then a horrendous 10 foot gap over a deep hole. I think my life flashed before me just standing at the top, and I was just there for pictures.
How I spend the morning hydrating for the day. I kinda like this flavor.
As you can see, we had the benefit of going to the trail on an extremely humid morning. I do not think it is a good sign for the day when the car is sweating this much, and it took about 30 minutes for my camera to defog.
Adam doing some slight adjustments to his bike before leaving for the trail.
One of Ryan’s many bikes. He has so many, I am pretty sure he could spare to give me one of them.
Since the trail is short, and in a way mostly downhill, it was spent mostly riding down for a quick run and then walking back up to ride the section again. This was taken between runs.
Approaching the 10 foot gap. It is impossible to see the overall gap from this angle. But the logs are where the foundation for the beginning was built on.
If I was not trying to take a picture I think I was lusting over the bikes that everyone was riding. I came back to my car and looked at mine and felt ashamed.
It seemed the day involved lots of this.
Spare bike for one of the guys….must be nice
Adam having a smile on his face for probably the last time that day. I think this was about 20 minutes before his bad crash. But we all needed a reason to call it quits since it was so hot outside and a few of them had to go open up the shop. Just glad he got up with just cuts and bruises. Same for Justin who was a bystander taking pictures also.
Yeah…..Some of the guys there made it look easy. But I have seen 2 to many videos of people crashing on it to ever try and go up high.
Ryan showing everyone why he has some skill on the bike.
Jeff approaching the wall ride. He is one of the guys who helped develop the trail to what it is today.
We ended up having about 10 people show up during the ride in the morning. So the turnout was great!
At this point I am pretty sure Ryan was looking at Adam crashing a few yards in front of him. I did not get to see it, all I heard was the carnage and Ryan stopping to check on them.
About 5 minutes after the crash. Lots of pain in his chest, and I am not sure he was there 100% but thankfully everyone left without anything broken. Nothing a PB & J can’t fix back at the vehicles.
And I guess I should clarify that the day was great mainly because of the morning. Because after returning from the ride I spent the rest of the day helping load up a trailer for when we move Alex tom. Another early morning for me!!
Tour de LP Stadium
It seems like every Wednesday night I always have something planned. But thankfully last week I was available to go downtown and watch the Crit races at LP Stadium. These races are held every Wed. night during the summer and anyone from experienced to beginners can ride. I have thought about riding, but each time I watch them I see how painful it looks to race in the heat of the summer. So for now I think I will stick to being a spectator. That option tends to involve much less work, and a whole lot less sweating. As for the actual racing, I usually only show up for the last two races which are the more experienced riders. These are just better for pictures since they tend to have better equipment and more skill on the track. It brought back lots of memories from the bike shop since many of them I knew while I worked there. So it was nice to get to say hey to everyone and see how much better shape they were in than me.
Fancy wheels…I want a set please
Elijah was watching his dad go around one of the turns, and then returning to ride with Seth in the parking lot.
Seth providing some entertainment for Elijah.
Riding Weather
Ok so it really was not the best weather for riding. But after driving home I decided to take some pictures of the bikes. Looking at these pics makes me realize how much the weather has changed in a few days. It is Sunday and in the 60s. Crazy how big of a difference a few days can be. Anywho, the pictures are of my mountain and road bike in the snow(if that was not obvious enough.)
And then the famous Trek 12000…or something like that
I would write more but I honestly am really tired from the bike ride today. First time I have gotten a good ride in forever. But I have some pretty big news to give, so be on the lookout for that update.
Busy as a Bee
I am sorry that I have not updated this lately. But I have been swamped at work, and have not had a chance to take any pictures in awhile. I had attempted to take some pics Thursday night only to find out the batteries for my wireless flash trigger were dead. ANYWHO, I just wanted to update everyone with why I have not been around. Our shop is starting to prepare for the Spring. So that means a large bike order( 125 bikes), and then tons of parts and accessories. We received the bikes last Friday, and then the rest of the stock on Tuesday. SOOOO needless to say I have either been checking in orders, stocking the floor with P & A, servicing our work order bikes, or building bikes for the sales floor. I did get to mountain bike Sunday, which was great minus it being muddy in a few areas. But after that I went straight to work to build some bikes on the day we are closed. It can be very difficult to build bikes with the distractions when we are open.
What the shop looked like after unloading the semi full of bikes. It took us FOREVER to unload the truck.
A Day at the Office
If you are local then you have probably noticed all of the snow we have gotten lately. Snow is not good for the bike industry. It has been an incredibly slow week so far and it is just Wednesday. So Tuesday I decided to bring my camera to work, and we just happened to have a Trek Madone 6.9 Pro come in for service. Talk about luck!!! Glad I chose to ride my mountain bike in Monday and drive the car with camera in Tuesday.
Picture from my phone of the bike ride to work Monday. It was amazing until I got onto Old Hickory Blvd. Slushy roads plus bike with no fenders does not equal fun and clean.
Trying to find something to use these for on a slow day.
My work bench.
CLEAN!!!
Soon to have some new goodies!
Winter Riding
There is one big thing that has changed over the years for me. That is my love for the winter. Over the past few years I have started to hate the cold. I think the main reason for this is because of my joy for cycling. It is very hard to get myself to ride in the cold weather, which is sad because I have some good winter riding gear. So one thing I did last year was buy a cycling trainer. It is a great thing to have to stay on the bike over the winter, but it is very very hard to push myself on it since you do not move.
This is how I spent my Sunday morning instead of watching football. Trainer ride followed by an all day marathon of Harry Potter. AMAZING!
Trail Riding
It took many weeks of planning, but Adam and I finally were able to schedule a day to go riding and take pictures. The weather was either bad or we were already busy. All of the pictures were taken at a local trail called Hamilton Creek. It is probably our most technical trail in the Nashville area. So needless to say, I was a nervous wreck riding my bike with all of my camera gear. THANKFULLY I had no crashes(not because I am a great rider), so no damaged gear.
Anyways, we set out on the trail with a few spots in mind for photos. The first location we ended up leaving pretty quick. Some of the areas looked good at our previous ride, but when the camera was out they just were not working well. I think we ended up being on the trial for around 2 1/2 hours but headed back to the car before it started to get dark. One thing we both have learned from past experience is that Hamilton Creek is not generous to riders at night. All of the below photos are taken of Adam, the head mechanic of the Bike Pedlar stores.
Adam’s bike laying down as he was scoping out the location
My ride. Not a fan of having a water bottle on it, but I couldn’t bring my camelback with my camera gear.
I might of been 2 close on this one.
Ghetto Fisheye
My favorite two pics from the ride
Working the Trails
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend a trail work day at the Shutes Branch Mountain Bike trail. Every few months there is a work day to help clean up the trail and add some new sections. Around 20 people showed up Saturday morning to volunteer and help improve the trail. After eating breakfast provided by The Bicyclette Cafe, everyone put their names in a drawing for a Bike Pedlar and/or Biker’s Choice gift card. The weather was great for the hard labor involved. By the end of they day the trail had been improved, cleaned, and then around 1/2 mile was added.
This was the first time I have attended an event like this. So I had no clue how much blood(sometimes) and sweat was involved in keeping a trail ride-able. I helped pull up tree stumps in the new section, and after about 3 hours of this I was about to die. I would of loved to of rode the new section but I had to leave around noon for work. I definitely have a greater appreciation for the trails, and everyone who volunteers their time weekly to keep the trail trimmed during the summer.
Bright n’ Early in the morning. Waiting for everyone to arrive, and getting the tools out and ready.
Making a bypass to the trail from the lot.
One of the rocky areas towards the end of the trail.
Thanks for looking!
Special Order
It was another good day at work since I got to modify a high end road bike again. The bike this time is a custom steel framed bike by the brand Waterford. The new addition to the bike would be the Mavic R-Sys wheels. Since I was delivering the bike to the customer I decided I would first take some pictures of the bike with the new additions. Some days I truly hate my job. (Thanks to Wal-mart and their cheap bikes) But when I get to do things like this it makes the day go by much faster.
With my Trek 12000 First picture with my new rear wheel I suppose.
Hopefully I will have some new wheels for my mountain bike in a few weeks. I just have to decide if I really need them for my skill level.
Introducing the $9K Bike
Well I can officially say this is the most expensive bike I have gotten to build at the bike shop. It certainly made arriving at work much better seeing this smiling at me. The bike is part of Trek’s Project One series which in a nut shell means high dollar and custom. It is a Madone 6.9 frame designed by the owner along with an 11 speed Campy drive-train. After all of the components and frame added together you are looking at a price tag over $9,000. Yep…9,000 for a bicycle….and it is worth every one of those pennies. Even though I kept the test ride to a slow speed(I was a nervous wreck), I still enjoyed every pedal stroke and breath of air on this beast. Not only did the bike feel and ride great, but I sure loved riding by the shop windows staring at this beauty in action. I just hope the owner waits to pick it up so I can continue to show the bike off to every customer, even if they do not care.
So it was a great day at the shop. Two bikes that total about 160 Walmart Bikes.
My purty mtn bike tread waiting for the next ride at the trails.
I guess since I am on the topic of bikes I should mention my new promotion. As of this week I am now the Service Manager at the Hermitage Bike Pedlar. It was definitely great news to hear because not only will it provide me with a job over the winter, but it will look great on my resume. Thanks for looking! The weather tom is going to be sunny and 80 degrees..I can’t wait..
Bike Nation
My current job does not involve my college major. But it is one of the best jobs I have ever had. That doesn’t mean it is stress free(thanks to Walmart Bikes), but it is a great atmosphere and full of some great people. So once in awhile we get to have some more fun around the shop. For example, one of our customers recently got a new Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Pro frame sent to him for warranty issues. So after weeks of ordering more for it the bike had finally been built up by our head mechanic Adam.
The owner mentioned he wanted some photos of the bike, which was reason enough for me to bring my camera to work one day. Hopefully I will get to take more pictures of the bike, and his other bike(Niner) that is being built up now. All of the photos were shot at the store after work one day. I am still editing a few and tweaking around with some new editing techniques. But I hope you enjoy. I know bikes are not that interesting to some, but it has become a more and more important part of my life. So you may see more photos in the future.
My office with my new wheel I built up
Adam got ahold of my wireless shutter release and took a picture as I was setting up the bike
Bike Mania
Well I finally got my new bike in! I ordered it Monday and it came Wednesday. As of today it has been on the trails, and crashed once but with no damage since I caught myself. Below are a few pictures of my bikes.
2010 Trek 6500 Disc These pictures are with the tires that came with the bike, but I have some more aggressive ones on the way.
2003 Trek 1200 aka TREK 12000…I only call it this because it has a front fork from a Trek 2.3 and a front wheel from a high end road bike…So it needed a different name…and i edited it on the bike to show that
And no I did not realize I had 2 blue bikes until after I had ordered the new mtn bike…so quite the coincidence.
Now for the fancy bikes…
First is a Trek Remedy 7 from the bike shop. Ordered by a customer to be shipped to Japan. So Adam built it to make sure everything was ok and to test ride it, and then we pack it up and send it off.
Another squishy bike for a customer. Trek Fuel EX9. Love the orange accents!!
These are just a few pictures I have edited. I have tons from Alex’s Prom, more bike photos, and I think I still have some Easter photos to edit….So I am quite behind
Trek World
Not 2 much happened this weekend. Construction finally ended, and I was finally able to leave the house. Around 4:30 Friday I was minutes away from going mad, so I left to hang out at the Bike Pedlar. I went to show Adam, the head of maintenance, some damage on my front fork. Well after a few minutes we decided to put a new one on the bike just to see how it looked, and because we were bored some. It was a fun process since he showed me how to get the front fork to work on my bike. Measuring the fork, cutting, hammering, etc. After about an 30 minutes we go it on, but when I say we, I mostly mean Adam.
Here is the aftermath.
2003 Trek 1200 with a 2009 Trek 2.1 front fork
Before…really old pic
I also was messing around with some of my photography equipment as you can see. These pictures were taken in our garage with my external flash and wireless trigger.
Nothing new for the mountain bike. But I had to take some pics as to not let it feel left out.
As I mentioned earlier, the construction is finally done at the house. So later this week I will have the final photos of both bathrooms completed. Thanks for looking!
