South East Cyclist

my tooth cutting 08' track season is over. it was great and i learned a lot. despite the fact that i am looking across the room at four silver medals and one bronze, i didnt really have any super strong finishes except for in match sprints.
i really enjoy racing on a regular local basis, i had great times at the charlotte sports cycling winter series short track races for the past few years, and the lowes motor speedway TT series, but racing on the track weekly definitely helps keep one motivated. i know my Eddy Merckx is a hair too small for me now after getting uncomfortably wobbly up front in sprints so i am going to sell it here in the off season to buy a better fitting and more handsome bicycle.
speaking of handsome bicycles, i should see a nice titanium cyclocross frame show up with my name on it from the folks over at Lynskey one state away in Chattanooga TN. so i'll hopefully get to have a tooth cutting cross racing season this year too. so along with selling the Eddy Merckx, i'll be selling my Cannondale roadie as well. to fund a build kit. i figure the cross bike will do me double duty just fine on the road.
Track + Cross = skinsuits (and i am skinny as fuck.)

so what else is new? yeah ive done a lot of new stuff. a couple of weekends ago me and the dudes from work took a long weekend vacation to <a href="http://www.ride.snowshoemtn.com">Snowshoe mtb park</a> in WV to get rad gnar and do some freeriding and downhilling and ride the lifts up instead of our bikes. i got hooked up with a morewood downhill bike from a pal of a pal for the weekend.
i am remorseful at how much fun i had. i dont have a bike to sell to fund a DH rig.
i hope you all are taking advantage of this nice long weekend to ride your bikes. although besides the quick after work N. Mills River ride, all i have ridden was 37 miles in the woods on my moto this weekend.

A year ago tonight, I was hit by a car riding my bicycle. This might have been the single most important things that has ever happened to me. If you choose to continue reading you will find out why.
My friend Jason had announced that he was moving to NYC to get out of Charlotte for a while. Charlotte had jaded Jason as it soon would me. Jason was a fellow bike messenger and he had won most of the Alley Cat races that we had around Charlotte, but in the previous year there had been a new fleet of fixie riding fashion clad North Davidson types.
Aside from Jason himself, only I and Arleigh Jenkins ever put on memorable underground races or on predictable dates. I took it as my responsibility to give Jason what he needed as a last impression of Charlotte. I planned out a punishing alley cat race that would make him struggle to win. And win he did.
As I was riding from “home base” to the finish line of the race I was riding at full clip to make it before the first wave of finishers would. I was punishing my lungs and legs down pecan ave. as a 78’ Chevy Caprice made a left turn (into me) that scooped me up onto it’s hood. The startled, inattentive driver instinctively slammed on the brakes shooting me to the ground shoulder first and with my foot still in the toe clip. The flimsy bill of the hip-cap I was wearing broke and sliced a clean cut into my forehead which looked way more intense that it turned out to be when cleaned.
The first thing I did when I got home even before taking pain killers with a few beers to reduce the swelling was call Rachel.
Rachel and I had met through mutual friends a little over a week before, and we hit it off right off the bat. Off the bat and out of the park and through the windshield of some un suspecting ticket scalpers car in the damn parking lot. We met and spent a concentrated amount of time together that weekend unsure of when or how but that we’d for sure continue to hang out again. Rachel lived about 4 hours away on an island on the beach.
I called Rachel first. I had a broken clavicle (obvious but yet to be prognosed) I couldn’t continue working the rest of the summer as a bike messenger with a broken clavicle! I called Rachel first and she offered to pick me up in charlotte that coming weekend and take me back to her home on the island on the coast and take care of me for a week or so.
Yeah DUH. I took her up on the offer not knowing how this concentrated time to be could or would turn out. I just knew deep down that I would be an idiot not to.
Yeah no shit, I would have been an absolute waste of human if I had turned down an offer to be taken to a beach island by this beautiful woman that was willing to take care of my broken ass.
A lot can be assumed about the week at the beach I spent with Rachel. But only she and I will ever know the respect and experiences and emotions we shared with each other that week. Having been relatively unfamiliar with each other up until that point(with the exception of known shared interests) it was the best way that we could have ultimately or eventually become such a big part of each others lives. That week started what has brought us to where we are right now.
Over the following months we shared many powerful and emotional events that put us in a place to where we could help each other realize what our goals were. We continued to learn about each other. We have helped each other overcome challenges, and challenged each other. We have slipped up and we have helped each other up, we have changed and grown and developed focus on creating a life with each other with goals and with strong personalities.
Getting hit by a car one year ago brought me to where I (we) are right now, living together in our home in the mountains. It fast forwarded the relationship to be developed with Rachel but it also brought me a hefty settlement sum that in parts funded the move and a period of unemployment. It funded a motorcycle and a bitchin’ bike that I race on the track, home furnishings and settled debts I owed to collectors and the IRS. We celebrated our one year anniversary a little over a week ago, because we pretty much became a couple that first week end, but one year ago today was an unpredictable event that put a magnifying glass on what was to come.
I am thankful for the breake I was given (PUN INTENDED! Subtract one of the e’s) despite the pain. And I am thankful for the life Rachel and I have now.

ok, i'm here i swear. there just isnt enough time in a day or days in a week for bloggins y'all.

i havent had time on the blog front to plan a post lately.
i have settled in Asheville nicely. the new house is awsome. we got a garden started out back by the creek. the new job is treating me nicely. pictures from work are comming soon.
just a few things:
~Stans ROAD tubeless system is dangerous. stick with the real deal.
~A.R.G. is an abreviation for awsome. and on a scale of 1 to awsome, i am the jam.
~the new line of industry nine road wheels is called the "EGO" series. with a  base model EGO and a carbon fiber clad "Super Ego" model. Super EGO will be available in tubular OR clincher with no aluminum sidewalls added.
~Photos of my A.R.G. base model EGO wheels coming soon!

wheels are Egos. we knew it long before Indusrty Nine was a dream to come. atleast they arent being called O.C.D.'s
get over it roadies
(yeah i know i have become a roadie myself)
~Drew

... all i have left to move from charlotte to here is my mountain bike. how dumb right?

Im back in brunswick county after a *quick* jaunt across the state.
things were supposed to go like this:
Weds: drive to clt,work on bicycles for me and Patrick Swayze, do the first Lowes Motor Speedway TT
Thurs: work on Swayze's bike some more then go to Asheville to sign a lease and be there for support as Rachel's father undergoes spinal surgery
Friday head back to the coast stopping in concord to borrow a trailer that will get our stuff from the coast to the mountains.
it diddnt go that way.
a tanker full of sulpher blocked us in for over 4 hours. we had to head an hour into wilmington to put us and hour further back on 74.
diddnt get to TT, oh well. i got to the bike shop to pick up parts for mine and Swayze's bikes, but Patrick's fork is the wrong size (any one wanting a easton ec90 sl with 1" steerer let me know) so we proceeded to meet up with pal's at Sir Edmond Halley's for beers.
Good news as it was we left for Asheville earlier than planned because Mr. Wingo's back opperation was moved to an earlier time slot in the day and scheduled with a better surgeon! The operation went better than planned and we got our lease signed and we headed in to rutherfordton for a nights rest.
woke up friday went to town to finally get to work on Swayze's bike for a few hours, went to concord for a nice thick steak and borrowing my step father's trailer. drove all night real slow because trailers drag like crazy.

i'm exhausted.
but it'll only get more tiring this week as tear down and packing on the island home happens. as of friday i will be an Asheville resident so please sent all house warming presents to:
276 state street
Asheville NC 28806

BE WARNED! this is going to be an ambitious entry touching on such subjects as the state of our national ecomonomy, the bike industry's role in said economy, ways it might affect us, ways we might affect it and international trade.

i'm going to keep this shy from politics since mine are mostly irrelevant.

What is on my mind are reports from the "bicycle industry press" i.e. a few publications and websites that probobly source info from a small circle of folks paying attention, that we need to batton down the hatches and prepare for hard times in the bike industry. the industry trickles down from shareholders and asian business people all the way down to the kid saving his lunch money to buy a 3.99$ tube from k-mart for his bmx bike so he can ride it to his pal's house to play guitar hero on an x-box.
i have to say that i think it is bullshit. our nation's economy might be in a drought but the bike industry is moving at a good pace. there are companies in existance right now selling bourgious up-sale bike bling that cannot keep up with production, and that aint the stuff that you NEED to keep your bike rubber side down. Continental and Michelin have told bike industry press that they expect to have to pass 20%-35% of their inflated costs onto the consumer, yet are in no way slowing down on production or even introducing new products for their customers... but geez lets face it! YOUR BIKE NEED TIRES! and most bikes *still* use tubes. rubber products on your bike (yep grips too) are made from petroleum sources, and are delivered too, from, and on petroleum consuming vessels. petroluem isnt cheap and it isnt the only cost inducing factor.
i could continue all blog long about how and why things cost what they do. but i wont, it aint the point and before getting back to the point i will interject that these cost inducing factors will likely be bringing more of the bike industry back state side... we might even start seeing bicycle clothing being made stateside and we have a history with textile in the southeast.
The point is that no matter what the economy does, we as cyclists dont see the things we consume as priviledge like many other hobby sports, to us the shit is way of life. CYCLING IS A CHEAP HOBBY! no shit compare it to golf, rock climbing, owning a boat, motorcycle, or classic car. compare the industry to realeastate, or investment banking for a moment. i dont care who you are, you will never get rich in cycling. unless you are previously independantly wealthy and you just want to maintain your cashflow you arent making big gains. most shop owners simply want a pleasurable way of life and a hope to sell their shop to some one young and ambitious come retirement age. i think it is fair enough and honest. ther are bicycle companies right under your nose that have invested in detatched side companies just to keep you garage full of dirty bikes, the example that comes to mind sourced gyms with equipment seen being produced while visiting a production site in asia!
i know this is all kind of a ramble and you might be thinking, drew just go for a ride... but i have been in the sun a lot lately.
i'm not proof reading this or going back for grammar errors but just do me the favor of supporting your local community, so that your local community can contribute regionally, and your state can benifit from the money your spending anyways. it will help us all in the long run, even sahreholders in asia.

want to read more about waht makes the bike industry so expensive? read about costs of metals and carbon, as well as rubber products from any news source and read
Masiguy / Tim Jackson OR B.R.A.I.N. and if you are involved in the industry chaeck out http://www.NBDA.com

otherwise i'll be in charlotte tomorrow for the carolinatt.org time trial at Lowes Motor Speedway. i wont be on said tt rocket i mentioned in blogs past because it hasnt shipped from bianchi yet BUT i will be on one of my bikes in some form or another to be raced in the series' fixed gear catagory. my goal this year is just to get into the 23.30 or faster range for the 10 mile tt. my PR is a 24.16


i'll leave you all with
 a picture i snapped of rachel while we were riding back from the pier for beers yesterday afternoon.





























SO HOTTT!

i leave the house and 27 minutes later i am at one end of the island

at about 1 hour 20 minutes i am at the other end of the island

at about 1 hour 55 minutes i am back at the house and i have rode 28.5 miles in the wind.

lunch? duh.

with Rachel, and she likes to SHARE

 

the island is 14 miles tip to tip, it runs north east to south west so the wind is always a crosswind (NEVER A TAIL WIND) and the pavement is basicly cemented gravel.

rachel lives almost dead in the middle of it so either way i go i get the length of the island twice... there are enough different routes to go to not get bored too. you can choose the coastal side or the waterway side or the canal side on the southern end of the island... its nice.

later dudes! beach vacation / unemployment for two weeks starts tomorrow with my sugar mamma / baby cakes Rachel then off to our new home and my new job(s) in the mountains. i will be back on april 9th to see you guys and do the first time trial of the carolinatt.org series. be scared tt'ers i'll be training with a nice coastal crosswind. as well as training rides with a hot lady (rachel) to the beach to chill. i will also have a new TT track bike fitted with all the latest carbon fiber and campagnolo trimmings. SAYONARA AND SORAIKE!

fear the WOO.
i (punchy drew) and Casteen went for a Team Punchy WOO training ride after work yesterday.
Charlottes infamous and lest loudly talked about trail system is called "the back yard" by most people, but those of us in the know call it "Little Bosnia". Get lost out there and you'll understand it. These trails are super fun for the single speed eye as well as the 6 inch travel elbow pad types.
We rode Little Bosnia in its most recent incarnation (its an evloving trail system) and i have to say that it is my favorite place to ride bar none. its the best it has been since i first rode there 7 years ago (minus the plowed dirt jumps).
thanks to those neighborhood warriors that have been busy back there building fun and intermediatly intimidating wooden structures and jumps every where that WORK well with the trails normal flow.

i'll leave you all with some pictures from Little Bosnia, and one of Blair modeling the finest in Giordana triathelon gear.

after seeing Casteen roll up on his bike wich has been spray painted so that John Tomac doesnt have to associate with Raleigh bikes anymore, and has a rock shox mag 21 WITH canti brakes, i realized that this was way more "RETRO" than the wool jersey and vintage diadora shoes i had on... so i hid behind this tree. CIAO!