One Hundred Posts Later..

Well, its been a year since we started the blog, and this turned out to be the 100th post. Not much compared to the high volume of Gizmodo or those other 20-posts-a-day blogs but.. eh.. it's a start.

I think we've stuck to the original intent for the most part... chronicling the goofy adventures around here, starting the year off with NYRAD


Then, the wide variety of "Gotta get outside or I'll go crazy this winter" trips up north ... snoe.down


Then onto spring, when most new englanders brains get scrambled with the excitement that all the frozen water turns back into LIQUID!

Then it rains. Alot. Of course, all that rain has to go somewhere, and it becomes the perfect time to take a River Trip.. aka FARTAB! FARTAB Vol 2 , FARTAB Vol 3
after which, of course, its time for my epic summer vacation to well, nowhere

After my vacation, summer flew by while Mrs 40 and I looked for a new place to live after we sold our house.

In mid August we found a place in the woods in the Alps of RI near Crayons Taste Like Purple and Flat-tires. The Beermuda Triangle was formed, into which brain cells drown and house projects get sidetracked on an almost daily basis.

Of course, we couldn't end a summer without the now internationally famous RAMHADAB
RAMHADAB Part 1
RAMHADAB Part 2
RAMHADAB Part 3

BaldBoyWonder and I couldn't get enough of bike trips, so we planned a trip along CT's Airline Trail. It was a good trip, a whole lot longer and tougher than we had figured on: The AirLine Trail

After that, we all started to slow down for the winter and get focused on house projects etc.. of course we needed a Firepit

Now that we're into the holidays we get back to thinking about NYRAD again, and all the stuff that goes along with it.

BBW is heading down to RI today, we'll kick off the weekend with a trip to Hooters with CobraKai and CTLP, then tomorrow we'll mess around in the woods, then over to CTLPs for UFC night, the back here for New Years Eve. Then, of course, on Monday we'll have the 2nd Annual NYRAD!

Stay Tuned... Thanks for reading all this....

40-

Season of giving.

So, I thought I would get you all a
present


From my heart to yours.

Hope you have a happy, safe and memorable holiday!





editor's note: depending on where you work, video may be *slightly* nsfw if you have your speakers on...

long night

You florida and warm-weather folks can just bite me with your, "What? It's *dark* already up there??? We're still in the pool and it's 75!" Hehehehe

So every year around this time i get two thoughts stuck in my head. First, 'why is it so f'ing dark out...' and second, ' Whew! It's *finally* the darkest it's going to get...'

Anyhow. The second thought.

tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. It's something to think about....it only gets better than this from here on... more light every day until summer.

I'm missing my self enforced summer vacation during the longest days of the year. In a single day in the summer around here you can Get up and go surfing/kayaking/mtbiking... then eat breakfast... then go surfing/kayaking/windsurfing/sailing..... the eat lunch....etc you get the picture.

Though, around the holidays I'd prefer to hibernate. Next week I hope I can do some of that. Can't wait.

Don't forget, NYRAD about a week away. that's right... New Year's Ride And Drink. Mtbiking down to the river to do some backwoods recuperating and whatnot on New Year's Day. Head on down if you can.

40-

The City.

I like Gotham. Sometimes I wish that I had gone down to NYC to live for a couple of years before settling in the 'Middle of Nowhere'. I can't see wanting to live my whole life there, but I understand the draw for friends of mine who can't imagine living anywhere else. Regardless, I would have never been a Yankees fan. Mets- perhaps. Yankees- hells no.

Traveling to The City from RI is pretty nice. Taking the car is stupid- the effort, traffic, burning of fuels, parking costs... No thank you. Taking a plane? Granted the flight is only a half hour, but you need to get to the airport two hours prior, they gate check all your bags for the little planes, a much larger amount of burnt fuel, and the cab ride to Manhattan from the airport which takes forever and is $50 each way. The best route? The train- by far. $20 more gets you in business class on the Amtrak service where you have a ton of room, less people, and all the cran-apple juice you can drink for free! Okay- so the juice thing does not make it worth while, but having a lot of space to yourself is pretty key. So long as they do not combine trains in New Haven and screw you out of your peace and quiet. Grrrr...

The ride from Kingston station south takes me across the Wood River, which always brings back fond memories of FARTAB's past. Making me think more about goofing off than the long work days ahead. Once you clear Westerly, you hug the CT coast and have great views of the sound, beaches, salt water marshes, beautiful houses and sailboats at the marinas. Just sit on the left side of the train on the way down, and the right side on the way North.

If you leave at the right time you also get a nice sunset to watch while shuffling your work papers.


(Okay- so the scenery in this particular picture is not that great... Think of it as a contemporary juxtaposition of the natural world with man's desire to reshape the landscape. Or something that sounds even more hoity-toity.)

Train takes you straight into Penn Station at MSG which is a pretty central location to most things south of Central Park. (And also two blocks away from Kang Suh - Broadway between 31st and 32nd- where great Korean BBQ can be had)

Speaking of Central Park, there is a reason why it is wonderful. I mean- the value of that real estate is unfathomable in a time where single buildings downtown are selling for a billion plus. But the value to New Yorkers (and the value to those whose property borders Central Park) keeps it as a little green oasis where one can be mugged if not careful at night and enjoy physical activity in the outdoors in the heart of The City during the day. I keep hoping to meet some of the mountian bikers who use the park to get an idea of their loop. I know that they ride there...

And well- seeing as the site is not letting me add anymore pictures, I guess I will have to do it later to illustrate my point...

Additional Patch Aaawg Pics:

Maggie doesn't like to sit still when there is water to be played in...



Game time! A Stone Ruination 22oz'er to the first person who can tell me what is missing from the picture above. (Hint: it looks like it is also not present in the first picture either, and it is not CTLP)

Patch Awwwg

This weekend CTLP, Flat-tires and I headed to CT to check out Pachaug State Forest .Unlike RI, CT does not allow hunting on Sundays. In RI, It's not only hunting season, it's shotgun season ....on public lands. I'm not one of those anti-hunting nuts that goes on and on about it, but I don't like riding while hearing *boom* just a few hundred feet away. Kinda takes away from the peaceful experience of mtbiking. KWIM?

So, we got in our vehicles and headed west. After an excruciating journey across the vast Beach Pond, we were there. One whole state away.

I gotta say, I've never been in Patch Awwwg before, but I was pretty impressed. It's kinda like Arcadia, everything goes. Horses, twisty throttle dirtbikes, hunting during the week, mtbiking, and hiking. It didn't help that it was almost 50F out... we saw a ton of people.

CTLPs and Flat-Tires dog-ters, Maggie and Ingrid came with us. Maggie, a black lab mix, has been 'riding' with us for a while now.. she does really well out in the woods, and doesn't like being the lead dog. Ingrid, a great dane/bull mastiff likes it.. She'll get up there and run exactly 9.9feet in front of you. No more. No less. I gotta say, a little different riding in the woods with dogs. Its kinda like hiking with a kid... they gotta stop at every stream, every rabbit hole to give it a good *sniiiiiiifffff*! Well, it slows down the ride just a bit, but not as much as some of the annoyingly rocky strewn trails we picked. It's okay tho, It gave me time to check the map I brought with almost obsessive-ness.

By the way... the ground isn't *quite* frozen yet. I stepped in a mudhole. Went up to my ankle in icy cold, stinky, mud. It *rocked* riding like this for another couple hours. Nah... It sucked.

Yep.. Hopefully I'll get more posts up here soon. Sorry the blogs been.. um... empty. I've been having a busy time at work and been really distracted. The company I work for is in the midst of being bought out, and i'm doign everything I can to stay, well, employed. I'll get some posts up here soon enough. Yep.

And In Other News.....

...there's been a recent sighting of the infamous "Special Olympics Cartman" in the southern Rhode Island area. We'll keep posted as the story develops...

GUDG reporting.

Ingrid NO!

Hey, It's been awhile since the last post.. sorry about that. Mrs 40 and I have been pretty busy getting the new casa pulled together and ready for the holidays. We have tons of company coming over the next week.

We had a party this weekend to kick things off for thanksgiving week, and the entire Pandapas gang was there with the exception of Mr and Mrs GUDG....unfortunately they had a family commitment and couldn't make it.

BBW and I spent the day before raking up leaves and getting the house in order. We had to drag all the scrap wood to a pile for CTLP to light with his flamethrower:



In addition to the Pandapas folks, we had some work friends over to hang out around the fire and consume some fine barley beverages. Some of us had a few more than others with varying results.



We rode mtbikes around the yard, through the woods and then Sleepy busted out a really cool housewarming present.... flying discs that have LEDs built in so you can play Frisbee in the dark. This got things really going with a round of Night Disc Golf. Seriously, a HUGE hit. We wandered all over the place, smashing them through the woods and into other people (oops.. my fault)... having a blast.

Later, Mr and Mrs FlatTires joined the party and brought the latest addition to their family, a 2 year old puppy, Ingrid. Ingrid is part Great Dane, part Bull Mastiff. She's awesome and very friendly. She was very curious to BBWs "results" from overconsumption of barley beverages, prompting all of us to scream... "Ingrid NO! Don't eat that!". Nuff said.

The party started to wind down after that as we all were getting tired. BBW, CTLP, and Sleepy all stayed over to go mtbiking on Sunday. I was *dragging* Sunday morning from my own over-indulging on malted beverages.... until Sleepy cured us all with 3 egg omelets and blood mary's. Yum!.

We went for a quick ride down to the river this afternoon, and that helped shake out the cobwebs. Nothing cures a hangover like a bike ride.



Anyhow.. I'm planning on taking some time off next week to catch up on... well... everything. Hopefully I can post some progress on the BFB, and other projects I've been working on. My sisters and their husbands are coming to stay with us later in the week, and on Tuesday I'm heading to Jersey to see Mr and Mrs KungFooFish and the latest addition to their family, Young KungFoo. I hear he's adorable.

Anyhow.. Have a good week if I don't talk to ya... -40.

Riding on Election Day

So tomorrow we get to vote. I'm not going to get all political, but just go vote.

Vote for anything, whatever you want.

I'm going to ride my bike to the polling place before work. In a sense, voting twice.

This past weekend Bald Boy Wonder headed to the RI Alps to help dig firewood out of the woods around my house. Our very generous neighbors let us drag dead wood off their land...so we do. CTLP headed over to help out. Thanks!

After that we built a HUGE firepit in the backyard. Check it out:





Tomorrow night is the local mountain bike club meeting at Famous Pizza in West Warwick at 7:30. We'll be riding before the meeting. Cya there.

-40

Trick or Treat...

I feel bad for my dog sometimes. Yeah- she gets to sleep most the day, run around outside and sniff things, roll in/eat fecal matter, get fed regularly and gets plenty of affection. But she is also subjected to humiliating things like unwarranted BBW affection and being dressed-up around Halloween. I think this started with my mother's willingness to dress up my parent's dogs for each holiday. Mrs. CTLP thought that it would be a good idea to pick that tradition up. Hence poor Maggie goes through this ritual every year. I thought a recap would be in order.

Halloween 2004:



Halloween 2005:



Halloween 2006, the home made version:



Hey- all I know is, it is not me being dressed up. This time... I'll save those for later...

Making the world a better place.

One thing I try to do is volunteer my time to change things for the better.

I have posted on eelgrass planting already, but among other activities I also volunteer on the fire department and (along with 40 and GUDG) also am a NEMBA member, trying to keep places available and open to mountain biking in New England.

The other day I was thinking to myself- what can I do to really lift up my fellow human beings? Bring him or her a little joy, a lot of hope, and perhaps a big smile? Then it came to me. Get 'em loaded.





Yep. So I gave my boss a call last night and told him that I needed half of Thursday off so that I could head down to Cottrell Brewery and help Newport Storm bottle up pallets of yummy Hurricane Amber Ale. Here are some of the empties waiting to receive their frosty golden deliciousness:





For my day job, I get to sit on my ass all day. Actually DOING something felt pretty damn good. Especially when I was informed that, "it is never too early to sample...". And that was at 9am. Hells yeah. My kind of job. I had been thinking to myself that operating a brewery would be a fantastic career- were it not for huge weight gain I would undoubtedly accrue. Well- I'm here to tell you- these guys work- and probably work much of those calories off. I know I did... Hence there not being a picture of me smiling surrounded by hundreds of fresh, full soldiers. No time to take a person off the line to pose a picture.

For my efforts, I was rewarded with some take home items to sample:





So, to try my theory out, I took some of my new friends with me to the Thursday night Bat Patrol ride in Big River. After a couple hours pounding the trails (By the way- night riding is fabulous. That ride should be a weekly event), we got back to the parking lot and each cracked one open.

I saw smiles. I think we have found the path to world peace.

Random Bits of Junk

Hey hey.
Man.. what a nice weekend. Cold at night and crispy during the day. You know.. the kind of weekend up here that gets you freaked that it's going to be *cold* soon.

This time of year it seems that every idiot with a gun was out in the woods making me think I was in Platoon or something. That's right... Hunting Season.

Two tips... 1) cover your ass with Day-Glo Orange and 2) pray that that a-hole in the tree stand isn't *that* drunk at 9am. I'm serious.. I was out in Big River this weekend and couldn't wait to get the hell outta the woods. Man. Spooky.

Not related....I found this and was LMAO: People Who Suck

I don't miss the GhettoTrack bikepath at all.

BFB Part 2

So a while back I told you about the BFB. Yeah it still looks rough but the basics are there: Simple, cheap, sturdy as hell, capable of carrying a ridiculous load. I reduced the size of the rack to a more reasonable size to carry two plastic tubs for grocery and beach runs, and made rack extensions if I ever need to haul two more tubs. Yes, the gas grill fits on top of the rack.

I took some closeups of my fancy fillet brazes on the custom rack before I painted it, but lost them when this computer crapped out over the summer.

Tangent: Fillet brazing is hard. I always had a real tough time getting the nice whoops in the brass I've seen on some people's fillet brazed joints until I read somewhere (lost all my links in the hard drive crash too) that I should get a smaller brazing tip. So, very unlike me, I *special ordered* a 00 (say "Double Ought") tip for my torch. OMG.. it was like I was trying to braze with a rocket engine before. The smaller tip allowed for a much cleaner joint, and I stopped f'ing up the fillet joints. So, if you're having trouble getting a good fillet, go find a smaller tip. Yup. Back to the BFB story....

While the bike has been done(-ish) for a while I haven't had a chance with packing/moving/working to tell you about the master plan. If you look real close at that original picture
on the whiteboard of Pandapas Skunkworks # 1, you'll notice a red circle in the middle of the rear triangle. Hmmm what could that have possibly been for? More on that later...

Part of the idea behind this bike was to be a poor man's Xtracycle/Longtail. A cheap, durable, load hauling, monster... and that is what is has become. There is a revolution of sorts happening in the US of bikes becoming more utility than the toy status they were relagated to and have begun to wriggle into the mainstream. Evidence of this is the recent WSJ article that mentioned a couple of my favorite developments.. the Monster Truck of bikes, the Surly Pugsley, and the electric assist.

Time to let you in on my plan...in order to meet the goal of a possible car displacement, the BFB had to have the ability to tow a trailer for the kayak, a second seat for a passenger, and definitely be able carry a surfboard. Well, I dunno if you ever tried riding a loaded bike up a hill, but it sucks. I've been reading about electric assist for a looooooong time, scouring the web for developments in homebuilts, commercial kits and such. Until now I hadn't found one that I thought was durable, fast or simple enough to plunk down any cash on. The red circle in the picture was where I was going to put the StokeMonkey motor.

I found the CleverChimp blog by accident while reading the Xtracycle blog over the winter. Here was a guy out west pulling together a reasonable electric assist kit for real cyclists. He uses the idea of a stoker on a tandem driving the power through the left side of the bottom bracket, taking advantage of the gears! Brilliant! (Electric motors are efficient over a limited rpm range, a fact most other kit mfgs ignore, either driving the front or rear wheel without gearing...)

Anyhow.... I started emailing Todd back in February to find out how to get one. At that time he was in the beta testing phase, and not quite setup for mainstream consumption. The test reports on the blog were encouraging, so I got Todd to get me on the "Wants One" list. In August Todd announced limited availability, and since I had a "custom" (*ahem*... I mean.. *hacked*) Longtail ready to go, Todd gave me a call and hooked me up with one of the first full production run kits! Whoo Hoo! Check out the shipping method... From the date on the blog I think one of the kits in this load was mine... Talk about proof of a good thing. Each kit is ~50lbs, plus his son, all on one Stokemonkey'd bike.

Anyhow.. the concepts of Longbikes and Stokemonkeys as practical load hauling transportation alternatives are exploding in the bike world(by exploding I mean I've read about three... Todd's Xtravois, the Vanilla(f'ing Gorgeous as anything they built), and Curtis Inglis's Xtrabike). Surly recently wrote about a StokeMonkey'd Xtracycled Instigator(hauling a keg), and then announced they were developing the world's first production LongTail, the Big Dummy.

I think we're reaching the point... Gas prices are high, traffic sucks, oil is for running out, and forward thinking entrepreneurs are starting companies with smart products like the StokeMonkey. Encouraging indeed.

Airline Trail

This weekend BBW and I were planning on a lake and mtbike weekend. We were going to ride on Sunday at an organized ride.. but the weather was looking iffy. So, we decided to move the ride to Saturday. BBW had been reading about this trail in CT... the Air Line trail. So-called because it follows a "line through the air from boston to new haven". Really.

So.. he did his homework, found a place to start, a place to end, and we stashed some camping gear about midway along the trail. We parked my veggie car at the end then met BBW at the beginning. We brought a bunch of trail food and full camelbacks.

The trail is multi-use. Bikes, hiking, horses, all that. We came across a MONSTER steamer in the first few miles. I mean.. this thing was HUGE. BBW knew what he needed to do:



We did pretty well... we didn't know how long the ride was going to be. We were pretty lucky we didn't have too many mechanical problems. The trail was in great shape in some sections, others were horrible. Some of the better sections were long, straight, level or downhill, and in pretty good shape.



Others were covered in trap-rock, uphill for miles, dug up by horses, or super muddy.

We got to one section that crossed old barbed wire. We didn't think much of it... much of the trail was abandoned. There were no signs that it was private, or closed, etc... so we hoisted the bikes over and found this crazy, groomed, trail through the woods:



Turns out, the barbed wire was there to keep animals in. We came to the end of this freaky section and right into the middle of a herd of cattle. I didn't think much of it until BBW pointed out the freaking BULL lowering his horns and stomping the ground. So picture this.... we're standing in the back pasture of an old New England farm, super tired from 30+ miles of mountain biking, dressed like bike geeks, and staring down a real live bull. I decided I would take my chances with a pissed-off farmer and headed for the gate. Lifted my bike over and rode out to the road. BBW was right behind.
On the OTHER side of the trail we saw a tiny 8"x11" sign saying to go around the farm. Great.... that would have been nice on the trail leading INTO the farm. wtf.

Overall it was a great weekend... the trail turns out to be 44 miles from Putnam to East Hampton... we didn't need to split it in two day but it was surprisingly tough. I was expecting a somewhat easy ride, since it follows an old rail bed. But... it wasn't. I'm thinking it'll be a good spring two day ride, with camping halfway.

The lake was pretty calm sunday after the rain. Not too many more days this year like this:



40-

RAMHADAB Vol 3... Recovery Day (part 2)

In the middle of the crochet battle, Maggie found a baby turtle crawling across the field. These are yummy this time of year...I couldn't help myself.



Of course I'm kidding.... we let the little guy go down by the brook.

After a short break we switched over to disc golf. For those of you not in the know, disc golf is like real golf except it's played with frisbees. (whamo please don't sue). Someone picks a target, and everyone tries to hit it with the minimum throws. Of course, it's a requisite that it be played with beer and the ibucket cranking away.



Some of the 'holes' were brutal... check out GUDG pulling out his best stuff.



It was a good time, but all this effort was wearing us out.



Time for some beer-die.





The rest of the day turned into a blur. Beverages, disc golf, beer die, grilled meat, beverages, and of course, at some point the keg ran out.



That was it. The weekend wound down and we all went back to reality on Monday.

Sorry again it took so long to get these posted. I fixed my computer tonight so I'll be back on track with posting. I've got lots to post about.
Mrs. 40 and I moved out to the woods, I got a StokeMonkey for the BFB(it kicks ass!), and BBW and I rode the length of the Airline Trail this weekend. More on all that later!

RAMHADAB Vol 3... Recovery Day (part 1)

Yeah... the posts are slow and far between lately. Sorry. My home computer is broken and I have to fit these posts in when and where I can. I've been dragging around a disk that CTLP made me with all these pictures so I could do this. So far its only taken a month! Arggg.. sorry. Hopefully *someone* out there is still reading this.

Without further ado... here is the summary of the day after RAMHADAB: relaxation and beer. Lots of both.

So, after multi-tens of mountain bike miles on saturday, we spend saturday night burning things, playing with fireworks, and putting a hurting on the keg. Not so good for recovery from lots of exercise, but a great way to end a long day. Sunday morning always starts pretty slow. Sleepy always prepares a fancy breakfast... this year was no different. Sleepy Gonzalez created *massive* custom breakfast burritos. I mean.. these things were about 4lbs a piece! Yummy! And of course, we whipped up some tasty bloody marys.

After that we went out to brave the drizzly fog to play some rounds of crochet. Yes, crochet. F you... it's cool when you're drinking.





The action got pretty heated. Sleepy had to strip down to cool off. (*WARNING: Picture NSFW)










....to be continued....

RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 3)

So... after wandering around in Carolina we finally came out in the giant cornfield. For the last two years we had gotten lost trying to find the correct way through. This time we tried something crazy... we followed the signs. BBW liked it better the old way and decided to express himself:



After some more riding we ended up in Burlingame North, some quick hills over fire roads and we were on the home stretch.

So far so good.. no accidents, no mechanicals, even no flat tires! CTLP was starting to lose it after all the roots and rocks in Burlingame:



When we were about to head out onto the final dirt road FlatTiresFink and his brother McFink were wheely-ing through a huge mudhole when FlatTires dumped it right in the middle! We didn't get a picture of that but man you should have seen it!

Maggy and Mom headed down to meet us at the lake for a swim. By then the wind from Ernesto was howling out on the lake... we all went swimming anyhow.



After a quick trip back up to the CTLP's ranch we had a killer barbeque then some fireworks. We had a minor malfunction and we came pretty close to blowing ourselves up.



We were all pretty tired from the ride and decided to spend all of Sunday recovering. I'll write more on that later. -40

RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 2)

The trip had its ups and downs... here is a short and loose uphill that we all had to walk on the Sand Hill Trail. Go figure why they call it that:



The group made it to the first planned rest stop everyone and all the equipment intact. Of course we had to pose once again for a picture:



Before long we made it to the midway rest stop where Mrs CTLP brought us food, h20, and of course, beer. Nothing to keep you going on a long grueling ride like this than some beer.



Of course, it wouldn't have been a rest stop without at least one suggestive pose. Here is GUDG with his now traditional pose:



After rolling through the easy parts of Carolina we found this old beat up car on the side of the trail. Us being who we are, of course we figured it was a good photo op. This picture was taken 7 seconds before we heard a shotgun being racked by the owner about to pursuade us to get back on the trail:

RAMHADAB Vol 3! (....part 1)

Sorry this took me so long to pull a report together. Mrs 40 and I sold our house, packed, and moved to a new house over the last few weeks after RAMHADAB. I just got my computer set back up, and a few spare minutes from working/unpacking to write this up.

So... after what seemed like a very short summer, Labor Day Weekend arrived. Thursday night Greased Up Deaf Guy and I got out to BJs(*snicker*) to buy the food for the weekend. I was busy packing that day and dropped a box of bike handlebars on my foot....right on my toe. It hurt like h*ll and looked horrible. I didn't care, I figured I was going to ride anyway.



The keg of choice was Flying Dog, Doggy Style Pale Ale. This was to keep with our theme of Mount Up and Ride! It was an exhausting choice to pick this beverage, but all the hard work was worth it. It was a fine choice of ale with a good blend of.. um... hops, barley, and liquidy goodness.

The riders began to arrive Friday night for the traditional pasta dinner and keg tapping. We made some last minute bike adjustments in CTLPs garage and made the t-shirts(the design is at the top of the post).



The next morning the crew assembled. The forecast was for Tropical Storm Ernesto to spoil the party, but we weren't going to let a little rain stop us. The trails were dry for the past few days of sun, and the weatherman was 50-50 on rain during the ride. So.. off we went...(as much as BBW wanted Maggie to ride with him for "company", she stayed home with her mom)



:

Strange talent

My ex runs her parents nursery and they have the typical sign out front. It normally says what plants they just got in, or what's on sale, or reminding people what to plant now. A couple times a year, someone has been coming around and rearranging the letters to make funny sayings. They don't steal any letters, or add more letters in. They use every letter that is already on the sign to say what they want to say. I think this is a pretty neat talent. Here is the latest edition, both sides of the sign.

RAMHADAB Vol 3 Sept 2!

Hello!

We're now about a day away from the ride! Plan on
being ready to ride for an 8:30-ish departure Saturday
morning.

We've been watching the weather forecast, and we're
going to ride unless it's an absolute deluge. Right
now Saturday's forecast is a 50% chance of light
showers in the afternoon.

If it pours before the ride we'll detour from the
sensitive singletrack in Arcadia to fireroads (Don't
want to be irresponsible pr*cks and screw the trails
up). Yes, riding fireroads is boring but they'll get
the job done.

So, come prepared to ride in any conditions. Bring a
poncho, slap some cheap walmart fenders on your bike,
and bring your drinking shoes....The keg has been
delivered and is cooling down in the kegerator for
post-ride. Bring a bathing suit for an after ride swim
down at the lake.

We're getting food tonight for the after-ride
bbq/bonfire. Hopefully Mr and Mrs CTLP can control
themselves and not drain the keg before the weekend.

The souvenir t-shirt is complete and turned out nicely
horrific.

See you Saturday!

40-

Why Aluminum Sucks

I went riding the week before last with GUDG, CTLP, FlatTiresFink, and the Doctor.... I was feeling pretty good, and had just converted my bike back to a 9speed. Instead of our usual loop, CTLP and I convinced everyone to take a ride up Mt Tom. I fell twice before we even got there, then I biffed it a couple more times scrambling over rocks. The last time after i fell I sat back down and the seat post fell off the bike!



Now, I would usually say that this is a fluke, that i didn't have my seatpost far enough into the frame(which admittedly I didn't). Except, I have a SECOND, Raleigh M80 in my basement with a broken frame. In the same place. CobraKai busted one last year. Yup.

Here's my three word blurb about why aluminum sucks: Finite Fatigue Life. A fatigue failure is what happens when you bend a paper clip back and forth until it breaks. Steel is much easier to use for a frame to prevent failure.

RAMHADAB was only three weeks away, and I was crushed my bike was busted. I went on ebay to find another frame, any frame. I found a black Surly Karate Monkey, 18" frame. It was built up as a single speed, perfect for me. So, I put in a bid and won! Whoo Hooo!

I pestered the seller into shipping on Monday, and got the bike on Friday! I swapped my seat over, changed gearing a bit, and rode it a ton this weekend. Two ghettotrack rides out to Stump Pond, one long dirt road/road ride on Sunday(it had poured the night before so no singletrack sunday).

So far i'm digging the 29" wheels through loose trails, but they aren't nearly as swoopy on the bumps. Check it out... this is out at Stump Pond:



Don't forget, RAMHADAB is now less than two weeks away. The official beer sponsor has been selected from a large pack of hopefuls. Don't worry if you haven't been riding much... nobody has except for maybe Bald Boy Wonder. Most of us can barely ride 50 feet without stopping for a beer so... don't sweat it... it's going to be one of *those* rides.

The Beermuda Triangle

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Mrs 40 and I sold our house in WhiteTrashLand and (until yesterday) didn't have any place to go. Of course, I've been stressing, searching, bothering GUDG with questions about land, and generally freaking out. Big Time.

This weekend we finally found someplace to live...hopefully. We're moving west and south... all the way to the backwoods of Exeter RI. Now, to those of you who don't live in Rhode Island, a 20 mile move might seem short, but to us... it's like moving to another planet. From our old house I could see a good 15-17 other houses depending on the time of the year, out there we'll see none. Zero. That should work out well for us.

The house we're moving into is much closer to CTLP and FlatTiresFink. I thought I was going to be really clever and call this the "Beermuda Triangle" until a websearch returned no fewer than 8 pages of Beermuda Triangle references... one to BeermudaTriangle.com. Oops.

One reference was to a post over at the very cool SurlyBlog (from the freaks at surly bikes... ). Recently (this weekend) they organized a Beermuda Triangle ride! They rode from brewery to brewery to beer stash in the woods... no less than 100 people. OMG.. this sounded like a mix of a Critical Mass ride (back when they were fun) and one of our Beer Fueled Bike/Kayak/Beer Festivals.

Don't forget, we are about three weeks from RAMHADAB Vol 3.

If you haven't gotten in your recommendation for keg choice please email me, CTLP, or GUDG. Tastings will take place starting tomorrow night.

BTW, This will be the last event planned in the original Pandapas Skunkworks whiteboard.... I'm sure planning the weekend will be as big of a party as the weekend itself. (who am I kidding? the weekend will be ridiculous).
RAMHADAB Vol 3 is looking to have the highest turnout ever... come on out!

Try to make one of these upcoming 'training' rides:

(By training I mean some riding, eating cheeseburgers, and drinking beers).

Tonight:
The West Warwick/Coventry Ghettotrack. Flat easy ride. (email me for details)

Tomorrow:
Arcadia Ride, starting at CTLPs@ 5:30pm

Cya, 40-

Physical activity: The only thing to do in a heat wave...

As GUDG already alluded to- we had quite an eventful bike trip Wednesday.

The plan was simple enough- it is hot, so biking down to the lake and back would be a nice trip.

So- off we went. Then- it looked like a tornado was going to come down. Seriously.

I'm no expert- but I am pretty sure that this is what the 'Wizard of Oz' effects people were going for...

GUDG seemed undeterred, so we continued on using our sophisticated 'looks like the storm will stay off to the East' technology and all of our patented 'I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for a couple of hours' Caddyshack rhetoric to push on and get in the woods.

"Don't worry, I heard that being connected to metal bikes in the forest is the safest place to be in a thunderstorm"

Seeing as it looked like it was going to open up completely, the camera went away for the bike ride portion. Considering it was pretty dark, I am pretty out of shape, and we were moving pretty fast, I am kind of surprised that we did not biff a ton of times as we headed towards the lake. Once we got there, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. GUDG pointed out to me where the Pilgrims once landed at Beach Pond Rock, and claimed the 'Alps of RI' for Albania:


Our swim might have been more enjoyable had the area we jumped in not been so rocky, had the water not been so warm, and had there not been such a bold and unmistakeable smell of poop eminating from said body of water.

But did I mention the sun was pretty?


We just took 165 back as the sun was pretty much down and it was getting dark. As we came to my road, we were greeted with two police cruisers and Tanker 15. Man am I gonna take some for showing up late to a fire call (basically at my house) because I was out biking. And I did during the 5 fire calls today... Turns out a tree from my property was blown over onto the power lines, creating a real mess:

It is pretty much too dark to see- but the dots around the left-center are the power lines burning and all the way to the left is one of the two lines that snapped and draped to the ground. So instead of quaffing a couple of brews and enjoying pork products, we sat around waiting for National Grid to show up and taking side bets on whether or not the juice was off while the tree crew sliced the tree down... On the plus side- I got to use my generator for the first time last night and again today while the power was out!