Back in the lab

I'm still screwing around with stuff. As I promised last week I got around to making my results site a lot slicker. Observe the Old*VS the New. Same results, but I think the new site presents a more shiny image of the polished turd that is my results.

*Ooops. I just deleted the old results site. Oh well.

I also added another race to the schedule. I found out earlier this week that the Cowbell 12 Hour Challenge will now be the Cowbell Marathon race. Last year I think I burned myself out on this local race, but with a new format I think I gotta go ahead and do it. Besides, June was kinda empty, and as Axl so eloquently put it "I ain't got nothing better to do, and I'm bored."

Also, as some of you have already noticed by looking at my EXIT LINK stats, I have affiliated myself with a local bike shop. Well, let me re-phrase that... a semi-local shop. Although I know most of the shop owners in a ten mile radius from my house I'm associating myself with Bolt Brothers in Waxhaw, NC. I have been roaming between bike shops since Bicycles South closed back in January 2007, and I've been just buying my goods locally wherever the wind blew me. When the deal with MOOTS was struck I looked at the MOOTS dealer finder and found out that I had a MOOTS dealer withing 35 miles of my house (Bolt Brothers). Since I've only heard good things about the shop from a few friends that live out that way I figured it was worth looking into doing something with the MOOTS dealer closest to Bad Idea Racing headquarters. I "scheduled an appointment" with Will Bolt over the holidays, and we made arrangements to have an arrangement for parts acquisitions in the future. In an effort to reduce my carbon footprint Will has agreed to ship my parts to me VIA USPS or have them hauled by pack mules depending on weight, time constraints, and his weird desire to reintroduce pack mules as a viable shipping option. Anyways, it's a cool shop in a quaint little town with a nice community atmosphere. Very nice.

I've been trying out some new bars....


Before the deal with MOOTS was finalized I decided to try some bars with a little bit more sweep. Had I known I was going to be sponsored by a company that makes custom ti bars I mighta waited, but as with most things impatience won over forward style thinking, and I ordered some Salsa 17 degree bars. Looking at the picture you might notice a few things.

The bar SHOULD be ran with a longer stem than what I normally use (a 50mm Thomson). I used a 75mm Syntace over the weekend, and I hated it. I put my 50mm stem back on and after a very short but conclusive driveway test I have to say I like it. As we all know bike fit is determined by the ability to get the front end off the ground, and this bike is now a wheelie machine. Actual dirt testing will be carried out this weekend to see if the driveway test was worth doing in the first place.

The Ergon grips are off... for the moment. When I'm trying out new stuff I like to reduce the variables in the experiment. The Ergon grips were a variable, and I am trying to figure out if the increased sweep feels better or not. That's all I have to say about that.

Instead of paying an ungodly amount of money for carbon Salsas I coulda got Salsa's aluminum version or Peter's NuBar. I figured if I liked the new sweep I'd get all weight conscious and end up buying the carbons anyways. Besides, Peter's bars are a little narrow, and I'm trying to compensate for shortcomings in other areas.

Of course I have to mention that if you are interested in a 2009 Bad Idea Racing jersey read this post here. It's looking like it's gonna happen, and this year they will be in your grimy mitts well before summer.

I missed some stuff that happened over the holidays.

Even though The Pie and I agreed to not be a part of the commercial and fiscal nightmare that is Christmas (at least with regards to buying each other stuff) she went ahead and got me something anyways. What does a woman buy for her man when he doesn't have any needs and has a lifetime supply of cool jerseys from a great company like Twin Six?

Of course you get him a Primal Wear AC/DC women's jersey... of course. Think MOOTS will be OK with me rocking the AC/DC kit for two years in a row at the SSWC??

I also missed a great opportunity when I got the T6 wooly around the holidays. Here's a reenactment of one of the best scenes from the cult classic "Three Amigos".

"A SWEATER!!!"