East bound and slightly up

Yesterday morning while I was trying to bust out my Jill Homer/Raisin Smuggler post the latest foster puppy started yipping and yapping. He is a tiny little rat terrier. Our initial guesses as to why they call them "rat" terriers were off just a bit. It is not because they look like rats, it's because they were bred to kill rats.

Bred to kill, not to care.

Anyways, when he started making his pathetic puppy noises The Pie decided to get up and take care of him. After addressing his needs she then brought him into the bike room/office to play on the hard wood floors. Normally I am used to working in privacy, so imagine how difficult it was to explain to The Pie that the reason I've been staring at pictures of nipples for twenty minutes straight was research related and very important. For just a short while yesterday I felt a little like Pete Townsend.

So anyways.....

This Sunday's Heartbreaker Super D was canceled yet again due to conditions. The mountains still have snow on the ground, and it just wouldn't be the way Jut intended it to be if we were all sliding down the mountain just trying to stay upright. Kudos on the second cancellation Jut.

Which means I have a free weekend, which means that I had to find something to do, which means I asked around, which means I was hoping that someone would save me from another weekend of not doing something different. Luckily Scott Hodge (Certified USCF racing mechanic) of Addictive Cycles is going to be driving right past Charlotte this evening on his way to NAHBS, so I'm gonna stand on the side of the Interstate 77 with my thumb out. I have no real purpose in being there other than looking at shiny bikes and seeing some people. The folks from MOOTS will be on hand (I still like them AND their bikes), and I've been practicing my high fives with the family to prepare myself for my first meeting with the twins of Twin Six (Brent and Ryan). The people of Dirt Rag will be there, so perhaps I'll stand around their booth and act like I'm part of the staff. I'm also going to have to ask about the benefits of having my own department, which so far seems to be in name only. Other than that I plan on taking a lot of blurry, washed out photos of some shit you'll see all over the internet even if I don't bring my camera, and I believe that beer is on the menu for the weekend. Now I just need to look under my bed and dig out my Dokken collection since Hodge mentioned that he has a tape deck in his car with auto reverse..... sweet.



No... suh-weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

FYI: I have added this to the schedule:

Yes, the New Belgium Brewing Urban Assault Ride is coming to Charlotte this summer. All of you hipster haters and hipster fixsters can bring your game to the uptown and show us what you got. I've already asked Big Worm to be my partner in crime, so we'll be fielding a team that has over 25 years of experience in the skreets of the QC. By the way, it's worth mentioning that the UAR is not your typical blue barrel festival event. They do their best to limit the environmental damage that would normally be associated with an event like this. I am stoked to be doing this race, and now all I have to do is convince Big Worm that we need to put away our silly fixed gears and go all out aboard our ancient eight speed road bikes.

Let's see if this race gets snowed out.

One last reminder:

Hey there, all you middle men
Throw away your fancy clothes
And while you're out there sittin' on a fence
So get off your ass and come down here

This is the last weekend to register for the Trans-Sylvania Epic Stage Race before the price increases by $100. Get your ass moving and register for this race you know you want to do. Make sure to contact me first though and get a coupon code worth another $50 off. I'll be checking my emails off and on over the weekend, so hit me at teamdicky at hotmail dot com... capiche?? Just so you know there is now more info up on the course with maps, profiles, and what not to wet your whistle.