You've got to check out Boulder's own '6Degrees2Slush's' photos from the Boulder Short Track last night. Rad imagery!

It’s Time to Make the Doughnuts

It’s here. The next wave in my life and that of my family’s is here. It’s HERE!!! HA! I am so proud to announce that as of next week, I’ve accepted a new position as the vice president of product management at Lijit Networks…right here in downtown Boulder Colorado. Yes, my commute will be an unbelievable bike path from my house right to downtown. When I say it’s time to make the doughnuts, anyone from the East Coast will appreciate this old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial and what it came to symbolize for us working families…especially my dad and what he taught me about supporting your family and the need to get up at the crotch of dawn, inspire others even though you’re worked, and get home to your family when the day’s done. His antics of trying to drive his Mazda up our snowy hill in Connecticut, in an attempt to get to the train station for his 1.5 hour commute to NYC (each way…every day), are legendary and are the real-life example of a man who’s going to make the doughnuts. All for us, his family. Now, I’m back on it again. I’m ready to make the doughnuts.

I want to take the time to decompose everything below mainly so I remember this period of my life. Kind of get into the way this all came to be…the state of my head…the hazy vision of the future…etc But in sum, I’m right at the beginning of this beautiful trail and have no idea where it’s going to take me…take us…but it’s too enticing to pass up and I know that there will be plenty of hills to climb on. But that’s all part of the challenge, right?

On Recent History

You ever go to an amazing concert and when you leave the venue, your ears are still ringing…sometimes for a day or two afterwards? Well, this was the state of my head from about April 1st of this year after my former employer and I said adios to one another. 12+ years of pushing to build product and make the people believe in it was a rush of highs and lows. It made my head ring when I thought of all the years put in, all the places seen, all the products launched. I needed a break….desperately wanted it….and made it happen. I kept flicking dominoes to ensure that this was the case and I would not get complacent. But even when you get what you want, if you’re like me, you fear a bit. It’s funny that way. The future. Will I be able to push at the same levels I once was able to? Am I smart enough? Do I have what it takes again to do this? All of those feelings and more. But of all the advice I got, one thing rang true: “take time to think and when that’s done you'll go forward. Any sooner and you’ll go sideways.” Thanks T.

On Patience and Timing

Believe in what you’ve established behind you. If you have not totally messed with the Universe, she’ll take care of you. My instinct is to just GO! GO! GO! But for some reason, I just needed to remain calm as I knew I could get Elvis back in the building….but needed to wait for the right timing. It’s just not a great feeling when you are a husband and daddy and you are the one left standing in the game of musical chairs. Exploring what you want in life, vetting it and not yielding from your vision is the only way to live regardless of circumstance. Practicing patience to believe we could realize our vision of raising our family here in Boulder and for me personally, building something absolutely rad with phenomenal people was all I wanted. Not too much to ask, right? Ha. Patience. It’s like asking a fish not to swim for a while. It took everything.

On Belief

When you call my mom’s house, her answering machine still says “Thanks for calling, leave a message…and remember to keep the faith!”Beeeep! That’s what my pops always used to say. And I can’t yield from that either. When my mind thrashed to extremities that I was failing me and my family, I’d simply say on some of those lonely rides: Keep the faith Greg, just keep the faith. Or if religion is not your thing, just recall that scene from Star Wars: Stay on target! You just have to believe in your vision and what you want in this life and that the Imperial TIE fighters won’t nuke your tailpipe. It’s all the same. Just believe and don’t flail about woe-is-me-ing. That’s too easy. Get on it. And now.

On the Unbroken Chain

Bikes could unite us all. I mean it! Ha! But in all seriousness, this new episode of my life is yet again related to and attributed to bikes. I once wrote about the chain of inter-related episodes that linked my life together…one stage after the next…all due to bikes. Meeting The WK through Boulder Cycle Sport and having him rub his chin and say: “So what did you do in the software industry again?” started it all. And that was nearly 6 months ago. There are no accidents and it proved yet again that the purity of the bike and how it unites like minded folks is something to believe in.

On the Next Wave

You. Me. Our mutual friends. Those we’ve yet to meet and understand and share mutual interests. It’s the ‘trusted social graph’ and is the way forward towards semantically making sense of this thing we have now call the “internet”. The web is merely piping…electronic plumbing if you will…and no one’s yet been able to service the reality of what it is really meant for: Connecting real people and their real lives as we rush towards visually and textually describing and documenting our personal growth all on the internet. Lijit is on a path forward to realizing this goal and I am honored to play a part in shaping product and technology to make it easier for all of us to inter-relate, amongst many other exciting opportunities the underpinning technology has to offer the interwebs. 

On You

You can f-ing DO ANYTING YOU WANT. Anything! All that shit above is rhetoric above unless you absolutely, positively have faith in yourself…and the right amount of fear to spark it. It’s motivating to me, especially the unbelievable amount of private emails this site gets…all asking the same questions. And not about bikes or tubulars or white sex shoes most of the time, but about the day to day stresses that cause major fissures to our real lives. Similar lives whether you’re that single-speeder in Toronto or that gal in SF or a lawyer in Diegem, Belgium. It’s all the same! We clearly want to do the right things in this one shot we get. I’m indebted to those emails of back pats I receive when I boo-hoo on my site and conversely, those I’ve tried to electronically send back to those that ask the real questions. We’re in this shit together and my choice to document this stuff on this blog is my choice. Doesn't have to be yours. Just know I’m a trusted ear as you’ve proven to me with your trusted eyes and dedication to reading what is often my drivel.

Now, it’s time. Go and make the doughnuts YOU want to make.

I’m misty eyed. Za bike, she is done. When I think about what I put together here, and the fairly minimal cost believe it or not to accomplish it, it is amazing. I’m not using all the latest do-hickeys and gadgets. This thing is heavy, old school and bomber. I love it. I initially saw this Kelly Roshambo sitting there collecting dust at The Pros Closet  on one of my weekly fly bys to say whatup to the fellas (they're about a baseball's throw away from my house). I could NOT believe this thing wasn't moving. She had to be mine...and so she was after some finagling and promises of beer.

With the frame in hand, I parted out my old Dean Colonel which I converted into a 1 x 1 and leveraged the parts (cranks, headset, hubs, brakes, seat post) and sold the rest via The Pros Closet. (FYI follow 'em here on Twitter.) P-Lo, Nick and the team had my stuff on line and getting bid on in less than 24 hours. Amazing. But to make the bike complete, I needed some stuff to complete the bike which the selling of teh old stuff would fund. I needed...

• Stans ZTR 355 Rim Brake Capable Rims (I'd be using my old and BOMBER 1998 Chris King hubs)
• DT 14/15g spokes
• SRAM 8 speed chain
• Surly Tuggnut and Cog
• Aluminum Nipples (red…bling!!)
• Titec flat bar and Ritchey WCS shorty bar ends. (Yes I am going to give ‘em a try again after a decade of riser bar action. I need me some leverage!)
• WTB Exiwolf rubber.
• The MOST important piece: A very rare 29.8 size Woodman Deathgrip seat post clamp. 28.6 was too small, 31.8 too big. Trust me.

Nothing more left to say…so I’ll just show some pictures. Thanks to Mike D at Boulder Cycle Sport for dialing in this bad ass machine…especially the wheel build! Yum. Click on the image below to see the set.

It all seems just around the corner. Right there around the bend. And when I say all, I mean all.

I am peering so intensely ahead these days; shaping my own destiny and by extension that of my family. The ‘next thing’…a.k.a the job hunt...is shaping up very interestingly. Tons truly is happening and I am practicing patience that I truly didn’t know I had. Frankly it’s atypical of me! It’s interesting in that in one hand you want to control your destiny (e.g. have fun, be inspired, work hard and with great people and build something of substance)…in the other hand exists volatile market conditions and prioritization shifts companies are forced to accommodate which are as chaotic as the DOW itself.

But it’s close. I think things will be just fine.

The body too is coming around the bend. I am lusting cross more than you know. OK, you know. Trying to keep it all constrained but I’m busting at the seams already. I am going to continue the long epics peppered with an increase of weekly interval work that will overlay the base…a base designed to have fun, enjoy my mountain bike and keep the pounds off. My weeks of training mimic what I’ve always done, but WAY more mountain bike. Essentially weekends are for massive loads, take the early week recover, Wednesday/Thursday intensity spike then rest before the weekend. and load up again. The closer to 'cross I get, the more the intensity frequencies grow until seeing cross-eyed is normal and being fluid under stress is 2nd nature.

Tick tock tick tock. Gluing. Porting. Ridleys. Thinking. Clinics. Changing leaves. Shorter days. Cooler temps. Embrocations. Commuting.

Soon. It’s all just around the bend.

So I wrote this post ages ago about Chance Noble's absurd (irragionevole in Italian) wheelie antics and then got FaceBooked by my friend in Italy today that wanted to one-up it. So here goes:

Irragionevole!!!

Rad ride today, but I am a ball of mush tonight. Another Ned-pic today with the boys. Bus up, climb in and up and traverse goodness at altitude. 5 hours, lots of miles covered and wasted legs.

We again hooked up some National Forest with some magical singletrack and used some ‘classics’, Sourdough and South St. Vrain, to connect even more.

The week was a bug’un for me with tons of early AM sessions on the fatty tires…even a session on the skinny tires. Riding today never felt good. No power, rhythm, flow. I attempted in vein to hike up my big girl panties but to no avail. Riding Sourdough is like this 6 mile slog over a gigarntic rock field. Rhythm is hard, constant power spurts to climb up and over small lips and riding clean…OK, I’m complaining again. It was sickeningly beautiful but you need to be on your A game which I wasn’t. The pay off is that you pop out at Brainard Lake at 10,000ft  at the end of Sourdough and it’s rad. I recommend that whole area as well for camping and hiking. Insanely beautiful.

From Sourdough we traversed through the Brainard Lake Park area on some great singletrack and you start losing altitude. We’d end up dropping about 5K of elevation by the time we’d get home. We hooked up with South St. Vrain and the trail was exactly the same as Sourdough, except it tilts downward. ‘A’ game was an absolute necessity to keep concentration over the rock fields and drop offs…else you will bury your mug in a large granite rock. It’s sick though and if you have some skills, I recommend you rail this trail at some point.

My body is taking a mad abuse it seems though. I love my hard tail, but I need to get back on FS at some point. These long rides are taking it’s toll on my carcass. I get somewhat  chub-ified over the WB’s S-Works. 22 lbs and a perfect amount of travel for the epics that we do week in and out. Oy. I need to save my pennies…sell some bikes (and a kidney) and maybe I’ll go hunt something like it down.

This buttercup is going to rest up. Git back  on ‘er when I feel all rested up.

Time to take stock and pan the head rearwards, to see what’s been done, and then pan forwards and plan for what’s ahead. It’s been a couple-of months since my Freedom Face was exposed and lots has been done and experienced during this period: My family and I circled wagons in Mexico to celebrate; Face time with prospective ‘next chapter’ gigs measured in XX numbers of hours invested meeting with boards, staff...building trust and opening channels; Setting up an LLC; Rides that have left me healthy and happy.

I’ve learned to structure my days into distinctive segments:

• Early AM is Social Networking Time. Peer into my graph’s doings and happenings and respond. Blog, think bikes for a bit and write about it.
• Early AM then blends into a ride to stimulate my senses, see our insane surroundings here in Boulder and commune. Recharge. As you all know, the mountain bike has called me and I am listening. The trees are speaking to me loudly these days.
• Mid day is all about technology projects. e.g. the stuff I am scheming over that I’d like to see built, working on projects with friends who need a trusted set of eyes on what they’re building and finally moving towards things that are exciting here in Boulder’s unbelievable technology community.
• Evening….before I know it, my boys are all up in my grill and we go and have some serious play before we need to cram some dinner in our gullets.

I’ll look back on this schedule and these days as something remarkable. The recession is very real. Many of you feel it. But hope and promise…and massive doses of patience…are what I need and my wife is constantly re-enforcing to me when the days seem pretty bleak. The work being put in in this period of massive transition is very real. The connections, the new technology landscapes, the networking on all levels. It’s fun…and the timing of the market correction will intersect with the groundwork I am laying.

Or so I lie in bed and construct scenarios to ensure this is realized.

I don’t know where many of you are at these days, but patience and the prospect of timing are all lessons being learned. That and the faith I’ve put into who I am and the relationships I’ve built. It truly is all that you have. Literally ALL that you have on this earth. Everything else is an accoutrement.

Patience grasshoppah.

Now HERE’S something to check out! My bud Mat Barlow assembled this fantastic short on the trail maintenance done up at Heil Ranch on June 6th. Boulder Mountainbike Alliance spearheaded the volunteer-driven activity with fantastic support from Oskar Blues, REI, GoLite and the Boulder County Horse Association. Can’t wait to try out these new re-routes!

Lastly, I’ll just say this: I get emails all the time from folks around the world (literally) asking about Valmont Bike Park, how to get started, etc etc. Well, it starts with people who give a _ _ _ _ and choose to organize and evangelize. Watch the vid. This happens often in Boulder. You need to organize.

“Ahhhhh ringk gingk gingk!” That was the sound of the ‘chant’ my buds and I used to make as we threw our paper, rock or scissor on the 3rd and last ‘gingk’. You ALWAYS throw on the 3rd gingk. So many rounds of beers, shotgun seats or general slave-like tasks were won and lost over rounds of Ro Sham Bo amongst my crew…so when I saw this little number for sale on the Pros Closet, and then focused-in on the name of the frame, she had to be mine. It was destiny.

The Kelly Roshambo is a steel singlespeed frame, made of True Temper OX Platinum Steel. She’s old school with V-Brakes, but irresistible nonetheless. I am selling my old 26” Dean singlespeed as I just can’t justify riding on 26” wheels any longer. My 2 years on my Ahrens Revolver 29’er has converted me to big wheels without a need to look back. Seeing what Specialized and Gary Fisher are doing with their full suspension 29’er bikes has also effectively blown up this image in my brain that 9’ers would simply not have a place in the FS market. All that has changed too…

So to the bike, I am building it slowly. Transferring parts from the old Dean including a (I think) 1st generation Chris King headset (bomber!!), 2007 XTR V-Brakes, Time ATAC pedals, Syncros seat post circa 96 and ultra-bomber and stiff Race Face DH cranks. New stuff will include a Thomson 110/0° rise stem, flat bars and bar ends. The wheels will be built up on a set of 1998 Chris King MTB hubs with new Stans ZTR 355’s (for rim brakes) and likely DT spokes. Not 100% sure on rubber yet but those Geax Saguaro’s tread pattern is delicious in their 2.2 and likely I’ll stick with those which I tested on the Edge Composites carbon wheels.

Anyways, the project is fun and being done on the super-cheap as a 1 x 1 should! I’ll report back once I get this thing to a completed state and have ridden around on it. And yes, this is what I’ll be rocking in Durango come September. 

Holy shnikees. The photography and angles filmaker Aaron LaRocque is unreal. Absolutely unreal. Follow this link on PinkBike.com for more info, but enjoy this trailer with an adult beverage.