everything looks cooler in slow mo

I had some fun with Thad and Newmyer on Sunday. Life is good...

Growing a palette, painting with razors and other pointless yet satisfying things to do.

Been staying busy having fun lately. Of course the Enduro De Ocho continues to fill the void that I have felt for so long in the mountain bike scene. It is satisfyingly to do stuff just because you can and somewhat of a lost art in this day and age. Way too often events or done because of some sort of title, points or some weak ass swag. Event promoters sometimes cash in on the new cycling craze and milk it for all it's worth. Just this past weekend I personally witnessed grown adults riding for 12 hours in 7 miles circles in a field after paying 80.00 and walking away with a one hat a beer cozies and a bell. Now to be fair the event promoter from the past weekend is donating the proceeds to charity which in the bike scene is still not as cool as loosing money for super rad events like I throw but wtf? Yes I am jaded but way too many events are done because of points when the events themselves are pointless. Sure a few can grow rad facial hair and get paid to ride. But for the less than uberfit that spend too much on entry fees to race on A lame course I say head for the hills and get your RIDE ON with your homeboys and spend that money on beer. Well the Enduro de Ocho is certainly not for everyone and as a race promoter I am only just getting started but I wanted to share a perspective with you will my mind is wondering. Event's should be more fun these days (like this). OK I'm stepping of the soap box now. In 2004 Yazoo Racing was born and we have been trying to get the cycling scene drunk and get in it's pants ever since. We have sponsored every form or fashion of cycling for the last few years. I like to think I take a few things seriously, good times and bringing people together. I have always been a uniter and not a divider, a lover not a fighter and one hell of a lover at that... Now listen here; as cyclist we must unite and stand up as the adults that still love riding bicycles that we are. Represent!
OK, now back to other pointless yet satisfying things that I am up to like growing facial for competition. Yes, I am partaking in one of those silly moustache competitions you may have heard about some dude in the office doing while hydrating around your water cooler. I feel kinda gay for doing it but I have secretly been looking for any reason to bring back the stash after letting it go last year. I only had it for a second but I grew attached. I think in my past life I probably had one as it just feel right in a not so right kinda way. I will keep you up to date on it's progress and I am gunning for either the creepiest or most original category. I have six weeks to grow it out and look like a complete dumbass. Word. I need sleep.

Jut

I'm a Loser Baby...

Yea, last week I lost my Planet X. Yesterday I rode Kitsuma Peak yesterday and lost my water bottle before even making it all the way to the bottom. I stopped at the road to fix my disc brake and realized I lost my I-pod. The speakers stopped playing music shortly after the descent began but I thought they were just turned down to low to hear it over the voice in my head telling my to slow down. After riding 5 days in a row my legs felt dead and although I climbed Kitsuma with four dabs instead of walking all the way up as I have done in ORAM, I was done. When I realized I had lost my i-pod somewhere at the top I told Bruce and Benet to go ahead and complete our goal of riding up to Star Gap and then riding to the top of Heartbreak Ridge on single speeds and back down then on to the Kitsuma parking lot. Apparently they didn't really feel up to the task either so they climbed back up to the top going backwards from the direction of ORAM. Damn, going that way hurts! If you think going up Kitsuma is bad I suggest you ride it backwards and you will appreciate the fact that they send you up the 100 switchbacks. Well yes I am a loser but I must have good karma because all that I have lost has come back to me. As you know the Planet X came back to me on Thursday, I found my i-pod at the top of Kitsuma and even my water bottle was spotted in the woods by Benet as we made our way back to the top. Two hours of climbing and ultra fast descents and I called it a day. If you need a short power ride this is a GOOD one! It was back to Bruce's pad to give the bikes some love and work on my bike build for the Enduro.


I feel like a kid at Christmas... The Enduro De Ocho is almost here and it has consumed me. If you knew half the story and are planning on attending you would probably have the same problem. Last night I was up until midnight getting the Enduro Bike ready for action. Here is a sneak peak...

I am adding some gears to the mix for what will be a true test of bike selection. Since you may only ride one bike for the entire weekend, bike selection will be key to winning the overall MBAMBW Title. I figured the Planet X came back to me for a reason and what a better reason than winning my own event. Before you start saying that I should not be eligible I say "throw your own enduro and if I show up and you beat me I won't complain". All joking aside, winning will not be that easy as there are some big names ready to sign up and give it hell so I continue to add events that will level the playing field and add a little chance to the whole thing. Again I jest and will not be eligible to win, not that you will really win anything except the title of the Most Bass Ass Mountain Biker in the World Title and whatever crazy contraption of a trophy I can come up with in the next few days and some super swag from local shops, Pisgah Works and Swiftwick Socks. This is an event where everyone one is a winner and your entry fee for getting on the bus will be well worth it since there will be free beer provided all weekend. Details will be up on the Enduro Blog tomorrow so check it, check it out. If your planning on training for this one I suggest drink, ride, and work on your sleep deprivation skills. That's all for now. Jut

The Ocho is coming, are you ready...

I am taking a day off from hard rides... Catching up on dirty clothes, cleaning bikes, updating the blog and preparing for the Enduro De Ocho. It will be here in less than two weeks and the details are coming together to make the enduro muy bueno... Get ready to suffer, sin, laugh, cry, fall down, do the robot and maybe even obtain enlightment. Beth Roberts drank the kool-aid and stepped up as my accomplice. With her help things are coming together and an itinerary has already been prepared with two weeks to go till showtime. Details will be on the Enduro Blog by middle of next week and registration will begin next weekend. Remember there are only thirty spots for so be ready to sign up or you will have to wait till 09' to ask yourself "wtf was that?"

Over the past few days I have been hanging with good peeps and riding killer trail. Since I don't want to spend the whole days in doors typing I will be give you the cliffnote version of an action packed week on the bike.

Wednesday - Bent Creek with Pisgah Bruce. I tried to make myself puke by racing to Ingles Field then doing a time trial to five points (12 minutes if you're wondering). Bombed Greens Lick and sessioned the new kicker at the bottem which by the way is perfect.

Thursday - Back to Bent Creek with Matt J, Ben, and guest. Good ride up North Boundry to Green's Lick and back to the car.

Friday - North Mills River area with Beth. Spencer > Trace >up 5000 > Bath in Creek > Papa's and Beer. Good laid back ride and extreme planning session for the enduro.

Saturday - Rode with the Tomato, Jay, Jody and Clay. 5 star single-speed ride on excellent trail. We even made a jump (see below) and I rode the really big tree for the first time. Kicked back in the sun at "the best swimming hole ever" as declared by papa tomato.

It was a week of highs and lows which really added to the experience. Things had been going so well that it was hard to get all the juice out of life and when my bike was stolen on Monday night I felt crappy for the first time in a long time. It reminded me that to feel the intense highs in life we have to know what it feels like to be low... Live good people. Jut

Life is good again.

After a bummer two days of dealing with bike loss heartache, I let it go. On Wednesday night Ty and I got together and joined a few ladies for 80's night at Broadways. Ty felt like crap and I had already started letting go of the negative feelings and encouraged him to do so as well. After all, I still have 6 other bikes I can ride and I know I am fortunate to have such a sweet fleet of bike options. I knew I could pull together another DJ bike without much trouble thanks to friends in the bike scene. Wednesday night was great and after sweating out my troubles and throwing back a few beers I was feeling like myself again for the first time in a few days. Ty let go as well and we got back to the good times. After a mind blowing night and kick ass start to the day, I said to myself "the only thing that could make this day any better would be if I were to find my bike today". Well the universe heard me and after mailing off a father's day card I drove down a street where we thought the bike thief may reside and sure enough my bike was lying in the front yard beside a fence in plain view. I pulled over, walked into the yard, picked up the bike, put in on top of my car and left the scene. I didn't bother stirring up any trouble as I saw the dudes that lived there hanging on the front porch the day before and each one of the four dudes out weighed me by 100 pounds. The cops will be notified today as I would love to see this guy brought to justice and to see what other stolen goods might be returned to other owners that are hanging at this guys house. Once again, my belief that when you visualize positive outcomes the universe will provide. It has been an amazing experience to have so many examples of this in my life. I could get into it further and provide some enlightening insight to you all but I have to go ride my bike at North Mills today and make some plans for the Enduro De Ocho. I have been at Bent Creek for the past two day making the most of the new kicker and the close trails. I have some video and will post up when I get a chance. I just wanted to say thank you to all the dudes that sent me their sympathy and kind words and suggestions on where to best post up the word. I had the feeling with so many good people looking out for my bike that it was just a matter of time. All the best people.

Jut

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

Well, just when you think it's safe to go out there someone has to come into your world and crap in your Cheerios. My bike was stolen last night from the Charlotte Street Pub. Ty has been using the planet x to get around town since my arrival and last night he came out of the pub only to find the large piece of wood it was locked to broken and the bike gone. Apparently some low life bike thief decided he needed to either hit the pump track at 2am or sell a bike and hit some crack rock. I bet it was the second one although Asheville does have a core bike scene. If anyone sees her out for a ride under some hoodrat's ass please throw a frame pump in the spokes and don't worry one bit about breaking a few spokes. If you haven't met her, here are a few specs.

White Planet X with a red, white, and black stick on frame pad

Black Reba Fork with no stickers

Profile Cranks with machined front chain ring/chain guide

XT Rear derailleur

Maxxis Holy Roller Tires on Rhynolite rims

Avid Mechanical brakes with Avid levers

Thompson Laidback seat post

That and the pic above should give you enough description. There's a case of your favorite coldie's for anyone who can help me get her back.

Here are a few pictures of the good times we have had lately. Oh well, blogging about it is just getting me more pissed off and it's happy hour. Death to bike thieves and karma's a bitch. Update at 11.

Jut

Avoiding it will make it go away...

I know one day I will have to go back to working more and riding less but until that day comes I am making the most of my current situation. I have realized that in life you better get it while you can and I can, therefore I will. The good times are here and if feels like summertime in Asheville. It is warming up here but the heat isn't as bad as it was and is currently back in Nashville. It's more of a smack to the cheek instead of the kick to the nads feeling of the heat/humidity in Nashville. I give myself one or two summers here till I forget how awful the heat humidity is in Nashville and start bitching about how hot it is in Asheville but until then I know I have it pretty good. Although we are breaking records here in town a quick trip to N. Mills and it drops another 5-10 degrees. It doesn't help my sleep situation that my house doesn't have A/C but I figure it will speed up the acclimating process for riding in the heat and give me some preparation for summer camping for two months as I head west for the worlds. I don't mind the heat that much but the sweating part sucks. I have started looking at routes differently and strategically planing rides that end around a nice creek or river. The mountain streams are cold enough to make you snap back from any suffering you experienced riding in the heat and take the pain away. Speaking of riding, creeks and good times, last week was another stellar one that kicked off with a tour of North Mills with M.J. and Benet. We hit several new trails and pushed the envelop for a good three or four hours. A few urban rides, late nights, root ball and music over the course of the week and it was time for a solo trip to Turkey Pen on Friday. Rode Mullinax, Squirrel Gap, Cantrel Creek, swimming hole, South Mills. Saturday was time to give back some love to the trail that never stops giving the love. Benet and I went to Bent Creek and hooked up with 120 plus other trail users to work on Green's Lick for National Trail Day. It was truly inspiring to see how many people came out and how much work was accomplished in one day. I hopped on the jump building crew with Adam heading things up. We built two berms and a giant kicker that offers several lines with options for transfers, step ups, step down or a two foot step up to a drop in. I am heading back there this afternoon to hit it and will try to get a few photos to post up tomorrow. The trail work day was followed up by a party with kegs of Green Man brew and cookout. Mountain bike videos on projectors and a good crew of people made it a great time and post mountain bike party we hit West Asheville for more good times and cocktails. Called it a night and made our way back to the Crow's Nest for some much needed sleep. The night was tame enough to make the 10 am ride from Daniel Ridge trail head with Clay and Tomato. We explored the backside of the Fish hatchery and rode out to Graveyard falls and then took the back way to Farlow. Benet was with us for the tour and was a Farlow virgin so that added the fun of making the decent. Benet rode incredibly strong and didn't let the rocks get the best of him despite being a Farlow newbie and I pulled off the best decent I have ever had on Farlow with two dabs on the big rock section and cleaning all the shoots with the exception of the stairs to 90 degree turn, wash out section and boulder filled creek crossings. Once again a cold mountain stream on Daniel Ridge washed away the dirt, sweat and party slime just before getting back to the car. Feeling content as one can feel we made our way back to Asheville for some food and rest on the couch before getting the call from Pisgah Bruce for a beer Downtown. So it was back on the Surly for one more ride and of course "a beer" turned into four and then a trip to the store for a six pack and back to Bruce's with a few of his lady friends for beer, pizza and Singapore Slings. Made it home by 4:00 and slept till noon. Not a bad way to avoid the bummer life for a week. You better get it while you can...

Jut

34 Laps Around the Sun

Saturday I completed my 34th lap around the sun. It didn't really take a lot of energy since the earth did most of the work for me. However, I did manage to work pretty hard celebrating the momentous feat. Thursday night kicked of the nonstop party weekend with Ty and I hitting the town and shutting it down. It's kind of bad when you are calling bartender friends to let you in the doors once they have already been locked and it gets even worse when they answer, let you in and pour you one hell of a Makers and sprite. We left our rides and stumbled home from downtown and made it home with out incident. Friday morning came and it was clear that the party on Thursday had continued well beyond the point of just having the average good time. However, I knew at least one brave soul was still planning on making the trip from Nashville and looking for more good times so it was time to harden the fuck up and get ready for some more. Yazoo rider and fellow beer/brown liquor aficionado Greg Lawrence made his way into town and we were off to Bent Creek with Benet for some pump track, skinnies, steep climbs and fast descents. Great session at the pump track with an awesome skinny to gap to more skinnies and a pump track with a new wall ride bonus. Good times and a big thanks to Ben Blitch for his work on this place and all the others who have contributed to the fun afternoon I had on Friday. After sweating out the poison from Thursday it was time for more so it was off to the Yacht Club for beers and burgers then an urban assault to the west side for more beers at the Admiral. (Do all my favorite bars have names that deal with boating) oh well I digress. We left the bar at 1am and the ride back home did more to wake me up than put me down so we kicked off an early birthday celebration with growlers of Yazoo Pale Ale and Markers Mark and sat around telling stories till 4. For some reason I woke up at 9 am thinking we were going to do some sort of epic ride despite back to back nights of being totally inebriated. We had breakfast at five points where I ran into my cousin and packed my stomach full of pancakes and it was back to the crow's nest. Running a little slower than expected we finally made it out in search of kegs for the party on Saturday night and some more good single track. We made it back out to Bent Creek to show Greg the rest of the trails and stay close to home. Two hours of riding did what it needed to do for me and it was off to pick up a few warheads from French Broad Brewing Company. We got back home cleaned up, hit the store and fired up the grill. Greg rocked out the kabobs as Ty and I got the place ready for the festivities. The party was great, the master pastry chef Benet brought a kick ass cake that I will not soon forget. The Golden Rod Pilsner was just the beer to top of a hot day. Tons of great people made the stop by the Crow's Nest and by 3 o'clock the kegs finally ran dry. Stayed up to watch the sunrise and finally crashed around 7 o'clock. Slept in on Sunday and saw Greg off to Nashville. Sunday was the first "throw away" day I have had in a long time but I earned it. Surfed the couch watching horrible movies all day trying to see how little I could move. A day of rest did me right though as I woke up feeling good on Monday and got out for 4 hours in Pisgah with Matt J and Benet. All and all a killer birthday weekend. The Enduro De Ocho will be here before I know it and the party will once again commence at the Crow's Nest.