if you're reading this, you probably tried to go to the web site. the blog will be the new site. we're making some changes around here. on the web anyway. so stay tuned for more action. this is a good time for this kind of thing. the weather has turned horrible here. more soon, g

OREGON MANIFEST CONSTRUCTOR’S DESIGN CHALLENGE from oregon manifest on Vimeo.

The folks at the Oregon Manifest posted this video of the constructors challenge. It's super cool! You can even see Raz in it. That dog is a super star.

i've been in austin, texass for the last few days. it feels like i'm still in washington though. minus the mountains. cool and rainy. what the hell? how am i supposed to shred the bmx in this weather? well, i went to the ramp ranch yesterday. super bmx friendly indoor park. fun. but i can tell i haven't ridden since before the sswc in durango. rusty and sketchy. go pack go!!

it's been damn wet around here lately. lots of good mud racing. the one downside to spectacular cross conditions is loads of double wash laundry, and bike maintenance. sscxwc was completely off the hook. epic weekend. we had a rental house for a large portion of the washington/hodala crew. needless to say, no deposit was returned. lots of rain, mud, beer, bikes, and mayhem. if you weren't there, you really missed out. off camber, muddy downhills, a pond to ride through, stripper shortcut, thunderdome, a sabbath cover band called "rat salad", and a metal rock out with this cat nick and his freakin' sweet long bike w/sound system!! hell yeah, now i'm motivated to build something like that. oh, and the washington crew brought the sscxwc 2010 to seattle!! so start makin' plans now. it'll be good. this past weekend was the last mfg series race at woodland park. right in seattle. killer course and turnout. then an after party at brouwer's. one of my fave drinking establishments. man fall rules.

it's finally here, sscxwc!! should be an unbelievable time. flag...check, cowbell...check, brews...check, bike...check. ready for some cross action. if you're not going, you are definitely missing out. but there will be lots of internet jive keeping everyone up to date with the carnage. i will also be picking up the oregon manifest bike i built/raced for that event. it's the last weekend of the celebration. so now everyone up here can check it out. next weekend is a cross double header north of seattle. saturday there's a race at squalicom park. new venue, so it should be good. then sunday is a scx series race in sedro woolley. so come on out and make some noise at some good events in our backyard.

fall really is here, finally. lots of wetness = good cross conditions. wednesday night was cross practice at lake padden. perfect conditions, lots of wet mud, no water in the sky. there was a good turnout, and everyone looked like they were having a fun time playing in the mud. saturday there is a race at civic field. so go there and get muddy, or cheer on the racers. other news, sscxwc is on the horizon. guaranteed good times! plus, where will it be next year? seattle? CROSSing my fingers for that(c'mon sally). though it would be nice to check out a different scene. at the same time, it's hard to leave the northwest cross scene. we've got the weather, and the crowds! fu manchu has a new album out, and is playing at neumos sat night in seattle. and is one of the best live bands. i've had my tix for weeks. hell yeah!! i don't believe i've posted these shots. this is moe's 29er. moe owns kulshan cycles downtown, and is tall. that is a big bike.

whew! it's been a crazy last couple of months. where to start? we've had some really awesome weather around here lately. too bad i've been too busy to really enjoy it. the mt baker hill climb was a great time, again. fantastic weather, and the fact that no one was really trying to break the record, made for a sweet ride up to artist point. of course the ride down with no cars is what it's all about. for me anyway. three days after that, we loaded up to go to durango, for sswc 09. wow, the local crew did a hell of a job puting on a rad event. too much fun to list. you should've been there, for real. they had a little handmade bike show(the pics are the ride i brought to the party), group rides in and around durango, lots of parties with yummy brews, and the weather held out. the race course was brutal. and left me with a couple of injuries i won't soon forget. good times. back to washington to get ready for the oregon manifest. what a project that was. i didn't get as much on the bike as i would've liked to. but it turned out good, and everybody seemed to like it. instead of me ranting on about it, check the link. lots of coverage by bikeportland.org. and the only photos of the bike at the moment. the judges liked it enough to have it displayed with 11 other bikes at the union for 6 weeks! sweet. the race was hard as hell, but spectacular. i rode half of the race with tony pereira, who won the constructor's challenge. congrats tony! you'll be pimpin' in that suit. thanks to rapha, chris king, and everyone else who helped on that event. it's now cross season full on. so that's what i'll be up to. looking forward to sscxwc. oh yeah. i love fall.

tonight was the Bike In at the Pickford outdoor cinema. there was a beer garden, mt bakery, bike trivia for free stuff, and a show & shine contest. there were some cool rides to look at. an old peugeot tandem was very nice. jill entered the "jill", and ended up with the award for "best of show"! that was exciting. you know you're in a good place when people get together to close down a street downtown to show an animated bike movie on a huge screen. lots and lots of bikes and people. in not so exciting news, i received my box of goodies from king for the manifest bike. i think the UPS gorillas got a bit to rough with the package. if you look closely, you can see a dent in the hub shell. that means i have to wait that much longer to get that wheel built. oh well.

whew, it's been awhile. we had a sweet june around here. last year it was cool and rainy. pretty much the opposite this time around. the trails have been dry and fast!! here are some pics of a 29er fork. i'll get some more pics soon. there are 2 frames and 3 forks at the painter. happy birthday america! nothing like celebrating our independence by buying tons and tons of imported fireworks from china. anyway, the padden mountain pedal is next weekend. this race is part of the indie series. great course and atmosphere, so come on over! word.

what sweet weather we've been getting lately. it's hard to stay indoors. raz, the spoiled brat, just acquired a new toy. the "tail wagon" is his new chariot. he is getting along in years. he still rips the trails like a sum bitch, but on the way home he starts to slow it down. he is still getting used to it. he isn't jumping out, so that's a good thing. it's good to have my fav ridin' buddy back on the trail.

hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. i sure did. i learned that memorial day started way back in 1865 or so. civil war time. i thought it was a newer day than that. friday night the Melvins played at the showbox in seattle. it was f'n unbelieveable. man they are loud. the plaved all of houdini. plus tons of other heavy shit. sunday was the ski to sea race here in b'ham. it's a relay race. check the link if you're unfamiliar. it's one of the biggest things to happen in this town. i did the road leg for a really fun team. i hurt like i rode super hard. but i only bested my time by one minute from last year. oh well, maybe next year. watched the race, and my team through the mtb/kayak transition. then eventually, off to the after party. i guess there were 3 different teams there. live bands, half barrel of boundary bay esb, lots of food, and lots of laughs. went out on the mtbs today. the weather was beautiful all weekend. the reason i live here. days like those. thank vets for doing what you did.

the warm weather is hanging out a bit more and more. I like it. we went over to orcas to ride mt constitution, before the may 15th trail closure to bikes for the season. rode onto the ferry, then rode to moran state park. that's a haul on a ss. great day, and sweet ride. the ride back to the ferry was overly long. we were in the saddle approx 6 1/2 hours. when we were cresting the last little incline before you ride down to the ferry, i heard the horn blow. we then ride around the corner to see the ferry 100 ft off the dock. "we missed it by that?!" so we went into the little market to get some grub, and brew. when i see a ferry pull in. i finally look at the time and realize we didn't miss our ferry at all. sweet! it was a nice boat ride with snacks and all back to anacortes.

it's bike to work day! head down to the hub community bike shop for some pancakes and celebration this morning. have a good ride!

hope everyone had a good star wars day!! may the force be with us all.

well, this is the 100th blogpost. too bad there's nothing too crazy to report. except the oregon manifest registration is up. that will be a good time. already looking forward to that, and cross season in oregon. but there is a lot of summer to enjoy first. 29ers are the hot item these days. stay tuned for pics of these big wheeled frames. shown are frameparts before anything happens, a bad pic of a headtube badge just after brazing, and raz in bed with jill. he's so photogenic

the cherry blossoms are starting to fall off. it must finally be spring!joe, craig and i went for 5 1/2 hour single speed ride yesterday. they're getting ready for the cream puff. i guess i'm down with the pain as well. sweet ride though. started from the house, and headed up to galbraith for a bit. then down to samish way toward the lake. then up and up and up to blanchard on british army trail. that climb freakin' hurts. but the downhill makes it all worth it. then over to sick joke. there is nothing funny about that monster. along chuckanut mountain to hush hush. we rode the rail trails through fairhaven for a cool down. and to enjoy a rad afternoon. we finally made it back to the house, and started to think about food. craig wanted to ride the tandem downtown. joe said he was up for it, so off we went. raz came with, so i was going slow on the sidewalks. but the tandem was doing hot laps around the boulevards on railroad st. funny shit. here's the latest commuter ride. the little rack is mainly designed for loading on a bus, and not having fenders, brakes, get crushed. late, g

it must be nice out. i haven't updated this for a bit. well, saturday was a ride i tried to organize,"Ronde van Whatcom". some people were ill, and the rest must have been afraid. craig came up from seattle. that was enough reason for me to go. we started off at the meeting place, Mt Bakery. of course we had waffles. then headed out for the Ronde. the route ended up being really good. not too much traffic, lots of little steep climbs, and beautiful weather. i tried to design the route without a lot of 40mph+ zones. it took us about 5 1/2 hours to complete. then a little party to celebrate with frites and westmalle trippel!! woke up sunday to see stijn devolder crush everyone at the Tour of Flanders, again. what a badass.

i can't believe we actually came home. it was incredibly nice down in cali. we ended up going to calistoga to waste some time, and look for a place to ride. upper 70's and sunny. boggs mountain is where we ended up riding. great place. state forest with lots of single track. it's the north end of the napa valley. very beautiful. then our last stop of the trip, ashland, or. sweet single track, great brewery, and an awesome skatepark. here's a list of stuff from the trip.

three fave rides:
1. tamarancho
2. boggs mountain
3. ashland watershed

three fave stops:
1. ashland, or
2. chico, ca
3. fairfax, ca

three fave brews:
1. sierra nevada chico ipa
2. standing stone double ipa
3. rogue barley wine

three not so cool things:
1. northwest traffic(worse than cali)
2. hailstorm at mt shasta
3. redding, ca

three very cool things:
1. riding almost everyday we were gone
2. chillin with james in monterey
3. no one getting hurt(especially raz)

so that's it. back to work. frames to pick up from the painter, bikes to assemble, and get ready for the ronde van whatcom this coming saturday. see you at mt bakery. g

we're now in the bay area. lots of traffic. but lots of beautiful scenery. very good mountain biking as well. we went up to tamarancho boy scout camp to ride. the signs say " bikes must stay on single track". sweet! raz was with so we only were out for a couple of hours. but one could link these trails up with some Marin County Open Space trails for a longer ride. views of the bay and all. good stuff. there's also a pic of a local at fort ord close to salinas. the salinas valley is very good for farming. so monterey and the area are into the "buy local" attitude. so it's nice to go out to eat, and get some fresh, local produce.

made it to the salt water. left chico and headed south to monterey. a little note: if you want to look like a local in chico, wear a sierra nevada hoody, and ride a balloon tire cruiser. anyway, monterey is nice. beautiful coast, moderate temps, fresh fish, and some decent riding. nothing too technical, but when it's 70 and sunny, i'm not gonna complain! there has been more interest in donkelope frames, so i might be damn busy when we get back. that's a good thing!

me, jill, & raz are on the road to sunny california. trying to escape the rain, see some friends, and do some riding. we stopped into rainy peak cyclery, in cottage grove, or. just to say hello, and say hi to gus, but he wasn't at the shop that day. maybe next time. it took three days into our road trip to find some nice weather. and after a crazy hail storm coming into lake shasta, we found some sunshine in chico, home of sierra nevada! we rode the bidwell park trails today. kind of a city park. a huge city park. pretty damn rocky double track, but the single track was great. we rewarded ourselves with dinner at the brewery. yummy! chico is a great town. very bike friendly. most of the people ride beach cruisers around town. it's totally flat, in town. so that makes for some easy commuting by bike.

i did some surfing, and got some emails about the seattle show. it will be completely indoors next year. which is a relief. it will probably be super nice out next year, we can only hope. donkelope bikes has been well represented so far. check out dirt rag's gallery, and road bike action did a nice piece on the show. sweet pics. leave for cali day after tomorrow, can't wait.

well, another bike show in the books. the seattle bike expo was a good time. a very diverse group of people showed up to check stuff out. we had good feedback at our booth. the weather was absolutely horrible. wet, snow, and high wind speeds. which might not seem like a big deal for a show that's inside. but half of the exhibitors were in tents. so it kind of sucked that way. we had tent supports running through the middle of the booth space. there also were garbage cans at our booth to collect water running off the tent. but you can't control the weather. and after a beautiful friday, who would've expected the weather to change so much. saw some bike friends, and made some new ones. dirt rag and road bike action stopped by and shot some pics of the bikes! that would be sweet to see a donkelope in a magazine like those. keep your fingers crossed. all in all it was a pretty good weekend. we also have a new tee.

seattle bike expo today at magnuson park. yesterday was awesome, but i guess that couldn't last. oh well, we shall see how many people brave the weather to check out some bike stuff. stop by and say hi. and grab some chocolate! if not, get out and ride to be ready for the Ronde van Whatcom.

what unbelievable weather we had today. i am not down with it. oh well. it does make me think of being in belgium last spring for some of the classics. we're in the early stages of planning a fun ride on april 4th. the same weekend as the tour of flanders. the most awesome one day race! so this ride will be in that style. climbs,in and out of town, and maybe some bad weather to make it authentic. so mark your calendars. should be a good time. flyer will be posted in the next couple of days. feel free to email or what have you for more info. in other bike happenings, this coming weekend is the seattle bike expo. donkelope bikes will be there to spread the word. so stop on by and say "what up?"

as i sit here, in our recent snowy bullshit, i am watching last week's clone wars and eating pancakes. getting ready for tonight's new episode. anyone, whose anyone, is in indianpolis getting ready for the masses at the North American Handmade Bike Show. Don Walker & co organize one hell of a show. wish i was there this year. it's such a great scene/ crowd to be hangin' with. i hope everybody has a good show, and a fun weekend. check out urban velo for lots of coverage.

whew, it's been awhile since last post. not tons happening. enjoying some dry weather for riding. planning trips for the upcoming year. that's always fun. building some frames. all good stuff. something that's not so good happened last week. our friends brandon & di had to put their long time companion down. timber was awesome. he was 14, pretty darn good for a dog that big. he was having some health issues though. he had stopped eating, and that's when they decided he has done plenty of living, and enough suffering. a very sad time. but lots of good memories. you will be missed.

this whole stimulus shit is just that. just give the people back their money, and let them "fix" the economy. here's another non progressive douchebag spending our tax dollars. more on why i think that.

happy birthday buddy!

well, the wampa made it happen. made it into the 2009 sswc. they even posted my entry, freakin' sweet! should be a blast. i raced the first one in minneapolis. that was awesome. cold, but awesome. cold for the month of may anyway. went to see bruce hornsby tonight at the skagit casino. weird venue. although the theater(?) was nice. good tunes. there were 2 shows, so we went to both. he only repeated one song! we've had some crazy weather around here this winter. i guess the cold = no rain. which means decent mtbing for january. me & raz went out for a few hours today. granted, the same ride in the summer should be about 2 hours. hopefully. something to work toward. since i seem to be bouncing all over this post, it was rastus 10th birthday this week. so we celebrated with a nice night ride. i wish i could see that well without lights. it was very eerie on the mountain that night. the fog rolled in low. once you got up to some elevation, you couldn't see any city lights. some spots kinda glowed, but that was it. no moon light, and tons of stars in a clear sky. it was cool. that's enough of this randomness. oh yeah, we finally have a new president.

there must be lots of events and races going on this year. entry forms are due already for a bunch of shit. the test of metal registration is over. the cascade cream puff is under way. and the 2009 sswc in durango is due by the 23rd. it's not even the end of january yet. crazy. well here's my entry form for the sswc. oh yeah.

just received the latest issue of my favorite reason to check the mailbox. digbmx. this issue is " the trails issue". reading and looking at it, makes you wish it was nice and warm out. but it's not. if you love to ride on dirt, or catch some air, go get this mag. it will put some sun in your winter.

happy new year everyone! it's exciting to see what will happen with a new regime. i guess it can't get worse. right? anyway, piss poor gov't or not, 2008 was a pretty damn good year. showed bikes at the North American Handmade Bike Show. that was an experience that was intimidating and motivating. took a little bike trip to Belgium to ride and watch Tour of Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix. fucking sweet! a little time off to go to the motherland, wisconsin, and hang with family and friends. another awesome bike event; the Oregon Manifest. what a blast that weekend was. shortly after, was the SSCXWC in portland. probably the most fun i've ever had racing my bike. a day for the history books, election day 2008. wow, i still can't believe all of the positive energy in the air that night, and beyond. a thanksgiving day spent on the bike in missoula, mt. good food, good friends, good times! then the weather turned to shit, it was jesus birthday, and here we are. what a year. i hope 2009 doesn't dissapoint. here's a pic of the latest to go out the door. joe's 29er. look out for this rig on the indie series this season. late, g