Go, Speed Racer, Gooooooooo!

The dream car of my youth is coming to the big screen, and it is AWESOME! The Mach 5, Speed's jumping, flying, swoopy, speeding car is going to be in a full length movie. I want to go see it in a bad way. Of course, I'll justify it by saying the kids wanted to see it.....

Awww, SNAP!

Nobody's perfect, eh?

Memorial Day

Water Fun

This is just some of the fun that was had at the Tilles Park playground. Eli had the time of his life chasing the waster spouts. More than once he had his face over a spout when it erupted. It started to rain and thunder, so we dashed to the car and loaded up just in time for the sun to come out.

Holden Efijy

I've talked about the show car from GM Australia's Holden division before. But, every time I see new photos of it, I can't help but show it again. The Efijy is built on a streched C5 Corvette platform, and moved along by a supercharged 6.0 LS2 engine pumping out 645 horses. Ah, love at first sight.

mmmm

nothing like late night cartoons after oreo's and milk....double stuffed.

he did this to himself

yes, he will crawl into the dryer while we are doing laundry. no, we don't turn it on while he's in there. yes, that's a sock in his mouth. yes, it's clean.

high and tight

the boys got a haircut on saturday. eli was wriggling like a worm in his chair. i have no idea how the woman cut a straight line at all, but his came out pretty well. mine? i've had the same hairdo for 10 years, although less actual hair. i hardly get my moneys worth when i pay for a haircut.

a brief moment of silence

eli is not a quiet child by any means. there are precious few moments during his waking hours where he isn't vocalizing his pleasure/displeasure about anything and everything. using crayons, however briefly, is a silent moment. then, suddenly he realizes that he wants me to take him downstairs to see the bikes again. oh, the silence.

she's a looker

i'm diggin' the dark red. looks great with the black stuff on it. i've been reading up on the rear shock, a rock shox ario mc3.3. all kinds of cool settings (that i'll probably never use) that are very easy to set, even on the go. if i could do something about the rain outside, i'd go break it in.

pay no attention to the circular saw, it was not used in the building of any bikes.

I've got a lot to do today, Dad!

first i need to climb around in this basket of laundry. it's one of my favorite things, dad.

and, like you always say, i need to stop and smell the roses. this is a great veiw of the trees in the back yard.

a quick detour into tyson's room to check out the latest big boy toys. i don't even know how to play with the box for this one.

another basket in your room, dad. not as many clothes in this one. may as well get to the bottom of it.

this cushion isn't very secure, dad. i'd better get to fixin' it. where's that screwdriver when i need it?

can't complain about everything

i can't complain about everything. the beautiful mrs k and i took grandma and eli to dinner at el paisano's on watson. great mexican place. the service was horrible, but the food was great, and eli really dug the live mariachi band. he was clapping along, gosh it was so cute.

i also bought a new mtn frame today. yeah, yeah, whatever. i don't listen to you when you whine about me getting new bikes. i have a sickness, accept it. i got a salsa el santo. i had one in 2005 and i loved it until i sold it to my nephew. the 2007 version is even cooler, with a bitchin' camaro dark red paint job, sloping top tube, and 4" of travel. orbea is supposed to introduce some hotsy totsy new longer travel machine in the fall, so i decided to go budget on an interim machine. i wanted more travel, and i got it cheap. but it's a fine, cheap machine. i'll post pics tomorrow. maybe. it was only 24.44lbs on the scale, not bad for a comfy 4" travel machine.

i have a cold

actually, it feels like my old sinus infection friends are back for a spell. they just take up residence in the back of my nasal cavity, just above my palate. like a big tumor of mucus, waiting to wreck my fragile respiratory system into oblivion.

so, i didn't ride thursday or friday. i've been reading a book that the great, all-knowing, all-seeing kaiser was kind enough to get for me. in it is some pretty sound info about grinding one's self into a fine paste, very much like i am doing to myself right now. the cold, of course, is the icing (paste?) on the cake, ensuring that i will never, ever, ever feel much better than said paste. add a couple of stressful days at work, stepping in a little dog vomit in the middle of the night, staying up late reading (and writing) drivel on the net and....ta daaaa!

Sprints

now i know it may be hard to believe, but once upon a time i wasn't a bad sprinter. after all, the only way i ever won a bmx race was by winning the race to the first turn. (i take that back...in 1982 i passed a guy in the last turn at a national race in dayton, ohio for the win.) and, the only road events i ever won without sprinting for it were my first three road events ever.

be that as it may, i haven't done much sprinting in the last year. no real need, or desire, i guess. semi-retirement has it's way of weeding out activities that aren't rewarding, such as sprinting against one's self.

but, peanut, fresh off of his personally disappointing state road championship, has sprints written into his training program. actually, sprints with me. i don't mind doing sprints, i just don't feel good, and i certainly didn't invision feeling any better AFTER doing sprints.

wednesday was the day to do 'em. it was windy, windy. so, we figured out a way to go with the wind. the first sprint always feels awkward, like doing a lay up in basketball if you've never done one. both of us were slow on the first sprint, but we improved as they went on. we'd circle around for about 5 minutes and come around for another kick in the groin. not being bad at sprints, i was mopping up the floor with peanut. he has no jump just yet, and my jump is not bad. by the last, he was getting the idea that jumping with an easier gear would be preferrable, and his jump improved, as well as his follow through. training does, indeed, yeild improvement.

i still had to ride home after the carnage, so peanut accompanied me up to about clayton and schoettler. there, he peeled off, and i trudged on, into the south wind. about clayton and 141 (.5 miles later) i was blown to bits. the rest of the ride was not enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination. but i made it home, safe and sound, 6 solid sprints under my belt.

a meal with friends

oh no! i spilled the whole box of cereal on the floor. mom's gonna be mad!

ah, what the heck? get it while it's hot, boys!

ho hum

monday could not be ride to work day as it usually is. i was too tired from off-roading on sunday. so i drove to work with the beautiful mrs k and road my bike home from work. very nice compromise.

this compromise is ensuring that we only drive two cars two days a week. for 4 or 5 days, the escape sits. which is good, because it guzzles so much more gas than the freestyle. that's very curious, since the FT weighs at least 4oolbs. more than the escape, and utilizes the exact same engine. the transmissions are different, so perhaps that has something to do with it. also, the escape is AWD, and perhaps that extra drag drags the milage down. the freestyle never gets less than 22mpg, the escape hasn't gotten 19mpg in recent memory, and it gets more like 16mpg on a regular basis.

deanna and i were going to ride eli over to grandma's house this morning, but woke up to rain and it didn't happen. it's an idea we'll persue again, though.

it's been busy days at work lately. lots of bikes and projects and loads of small details that are making things rough. being busy (and profitable) is what makes our little world go around, so i can't complain.

i've been thinking about more travel. not traveling, but more travel for my mountain bike. the Oiz is fast and fun, but i think my old-man butt is spoiled. also, since i haven't been racing, i haven't been worrying so much about weight, and sort of having more fun while blasting around the trails. i've pretty much gotten to the limit of the Oiz travel universe. i don't know what direction to follow, though. there are so many nice bikes at my disposal. i know, i know, life must be rough for the poor bike shop guy, right?

i wonder

how many times i've been to castlewood? i first raced there in january of 1989. it was pretty customary for mtn bike races to run all through the winter in those days. we did the very basic course, since, well, there was only a basic course. field, up cardiac, along grotpeter, down hairy switchbacks, repeat. my bike had cables routed under the bb, as most did, and a few times through some semi frozen water caused them to freeze so i didn't really have much in the way of shifting. i got second, or third, i don't remember. it was the first time i had ever been to castlewood. actually, i had never heard of it before i drove there to race that day. i still remember pulling my raleigh seneca out of the trunk of my '77 granada, looking at all the nice bikes on roof racks. i stayed in the car until the promoters told us to line up to race. it was just too cold for me.

since then, castlewood has emerged as the ubiquitous mtn bike park. it sure was today, at least. it was a gorgeous day and there were a hundred people there, i bet. walkers, hikers, dogs, bikers. still, i went for a long, hard ride. i went back to blue ribbon, then out for a common lonewolf, cardiac, ranger station loop, and repeat. it took 2:10, and i was bushed.

at the end, i saw my good friend matt and his wife liz. at the same time, my old friend brett pulled up on his 2000-vintage homegrown, looking exactly the way he raced it in 2000. it was nice to talk to friends, even if i was half-delirious. glad i went.

holy lamborghini batman!!!

the lamborghini murcielago is a beast of an automobile. actually, it's a bat. i'm not sure where they have taken the v12 behind the back seats, but last i checked it was a 6.5 liter in the 640hp range. that's enough to go 205 mph and pretty much get there as fast as you want.

the other morning, when i was riding with mrs k, i saw one of these, in black with black wheels, on old olive. they always sound so frantic. like they have some place to be, but everyone is holding them up. whoop, whoop, whoop! what, are the plugs going to foul if you let the rpm's drop too low, buddy?

who am i kidding? i'd probably keep it in first gear the whole time i owned one, just to hear the engine and smoke the tires every time i blipped the throttle. next time i have $350k just sitting around gathering dust, i'll let you know.

garage = storage

i did spend a bit of time thursday morning straightening the garage up. my brother in law kevin made some fine, fine shelves for us for my birthday, and they have been a mess since i haven't put one thing on them.

i dismantled a metal shelving unit that was perhaps held over from the 50's. i threw away countless useless bolts, nuts, screws, brackets and widgets that have just gathered dust since we moved in. now, although there are things properly set upon shelves, there remains the problem of getting 10 pounds of crap into a 9 pound bag....that's what my garage is. bikes, trailers, strollers, joggers, bikes, mowers, scooters, jacks and jack stands. it's reasonable now, but there is only so much you can do when you have too much stuff. i think garages are more for storage than for auto coverage. neither car would fit into the garage right now without heaving some of that stuff to the other side.

maybe we can build a 2 story garage in the back yard complete with a mechanics pit and....

pedal. pedal. pedal.

i rode quite a bit this week. after riding home from work on wednesday night, however, i didn't do anything thursday. eli kept us up, and then woke up early, so i just said 'no' to riding.

friday morn, mrs k wanted to do some reconnaissance for the upcoming wednesday morning women's ride. that meant that i sort of had to ride with her, even though it was bone chilling outside (in late may, 45 degrees is bone chilling). it warmed up by the time we left the shop, though. we braved the traffic down old olive street toward centaur. she was hanging tough and i was riding a nice pace. after making the right onto centaur, we met up with mr. lynch and aaron. they were sporting the 'county cops' shirts and getting all respect from the angry motorists. not a bad idea.

they bid us adieu at wild horse. mrs k and i turned left, so as to go up wildhorse toward 109. doberman, is what i think everyone calls that hill. she was having a tough time with it, but kept pedaling and made it up in fine fashion. we sped down wildhorse and back to the shop on long road just in time to clean up and open for the day.

i rode home friday evening. i'm just so slow. pedal. pedal. pedal. just so darn slow.

1985 Fiero GT

remember these? the pontiac fiero was a pretty homely little two seater until the GT version came along with a 2.8 v6. i liked them. they even came with a 4 speed manual, which i had forgotten about. they improved each year until ultimately the car went away, right about the time it was really getting to be a nice sports car.

my nephew is selling his. nice shape, black, GT v6, complete with the sportier manual transmission. give me a holla if you want to take a trip down memory lane.

sorry about the barney purple

i have no idea why this holden ute is barney purple, but i like it. call me a hoosier, redneck, loser, etc. but i really liked the early el camino/ranchero cars from gm and ford. holden is the australian arm of general motors, and like ford, they have lots of high-powered cars of every type in the land down under. it seems that australians just believe that any car can be made better by putting a bigger v8 in it.

i'll take one. just not in barney purple.

i really wanted to go slow

mrs k wanted to ride tuesday morning before work. i was planning on spinning around on the homegrown, so getting ready quickly to ride with her was a good plan.

she starts off kind of fast. i start off slow. i start off slower on the homegrown, because it's slow. it's a mountain bike, for god's sake. so i'm pissing and moaning to myself as mrs k is leading me around, her with new bike power, me with 'i wanna go slow' written all over my face and my 'i'm riding a mountain bike with slicks' disposition. i was happy to hit the first hill out of LA (lower affton) because i knew it would slow her down. no matter how fast she gets, and how old and slow i get, i figure hills will always be the great equalizer.

we headed off toward grant's trail, and for the most part i wasn't enjoying myself. mrs k was on a mission and i just couldn't shake the fog. we got to the trail head and i pulled beside her. finally, things were looking up. she was going to do intervals, of all things. just a way to spice up the ride and get a bit more speed in her step. i was impressed, and it's a well known fact that i like my intervals. we were careful not to anger the trail walkers, no matter how widely they spread across the trail or how much they ignored the fact that there were other trail users. by the time we got to pardee, she had worn herself out and i was warmed up. that hill coming up from the trail always gets her. it's great to see her improve so much and enjoy it.

getting close to home, she ran over some glass and flatted. i didn't bring a tube. or a pump. she didn't bring a tube. or a pump. to save the new wheels, i took over. i looked, and felt, pretty dumb riding a bike two sizes small for me with vibrant pink handlebar tape. on the other hand, mrs k had to ride a bike with the seat raised 2" too high. oooooh, it sucks riding a flat. no scratches on the rim, though!

monday is...you know

ride to work day. i sound like a broken record, but the weekend wasted me. eli was in rare form all weekend. he fussed, he screamed, he shouted, he crabbed...he did everything but sleep. and so, we did everything but sleep.

so i tried to take it moderately easy riding to work. but the brisk air just egged me on and i rode at the same pace i always do. what a great morning. i was happy to make it to work a little early, and the busy weekend meant the shop was in need of some tlc and refills on everything. the beautiful mrs k, being the attentive hot wife that she is, came to the rescue as soon as i got out of the shower with a pbj. mmm, pbj.

i left work an hour and a half late. it was crazy today. on the plus side, i actually sold a colnago, which i didn't think i had the ability to do. i guess it's easy when you like something. i rolled along easy tonight on the way home. the weather was superbe, and i didn't have anything more to give. again, dinner was waiting, and so were the boys. ahh, what a life.

monday is...you know.

happy anniversary to us

not an official anniversary, but one that the beautiful mrs k and i keep near our hearts. may 13th, 2004, was our first date. it was our first date, and we had only talked on the phone. we got along so well when we talked and emailed, which went on for nearly two months. finally, we met and the rest is history.

what did we do on our first date? nothing big. we got pizza at fortell's. we had a beer at malle's. and i took her home. she liked me, though. i could tell. and i liked her. a lot.

family weekend

we took the whole clan to see 'meet the robinsons' on saturday evening. it was quite the funny movie. sort of acid-trip strange in the middle, but pretty cool nonetheless. i missed the last few minutes because eli was being such a terror. no reason for the rest of the viewers to miss the show, right? that's fine, because eli learned how to drink from a drinking fountain while i was entertaining him in the lobby. it was so funny to watch him slurp the water and get it all over his face.

after that, we went to bread company (to get me an icy mocha) and dairy queen (to get the kids some ice cream) and still spent less than a pop corn at the movies. i spent the rest of the hectic evening drilling holes in the livingroom ceiling. yes, the kids bathtub faucet was spewing water back into the wall, which came to rest just above our heads in the livingroom. so, to drain it out and avoid a completely trashed ceiling, i drilled some holes and let it drain into some buckets. mrs k helped me and we looked like crazy people, drilling holes in a perfectly good ceiling while water poured into buckets. why did the water do that? we have this little ducky thing that goes over the faucet and squirts water up. fun, fun, fun. but it also directs water back, and the faucet that we have has a small hole underneath which sucked up the water and spat it down into the wall. ducky gone, leak gone. now i just have to patch some ugly holes in the ceiling. i knew all that handyman work at my mom's house would one day come in handy.

sunday, we all got together after church to have a mother's day dinner. we went to olympia. not really your regular mom's day spot, i know, but it was not crowded and the food is yummy.

then, the kakouris clan saddled up and took eli for a bike ride. hanna and tyson are such good riders. eli is starting to enjoy the trailer more, too. we rode over to kevin and katie's. that's where we dropped the little guy and the trailer off and we rode home, just the big kids and mrs k and i. that way, we could go a little faster and pay more attention to them. i'm sure they get a little tired of all our attention being directed toward the squeeky wheel (elijah). that's ok, we try to make up for it. hanna has been a bit timid on the bike since she crashed, but she came back around on the way home. i'm going to try not to push her into going fast, but to have fun instead. tyson has become quite the competitor. he's alway trying to race people. maybe he'll be our big bike racer.

what every kid wants

the car show on saturday also had municipal vehicles, like cop cars, ambulances, and a big red fire truck. i should speak to someone at the maplewood fire department to make sure he checks all of the equipment out after eli got a hold of it.

and another thing....

...if i catch you playing with my rocking horse again, it'll be twice as bad, got it?

deer creek car show

1967 mercury cyclone gt. color was a super cool dark metal flake green. had a little 289 4v under the hood, as well as an ailing radiator. that's coolant on the ground that spewed forth while we were standing around. i love the stacked headlights. one of my favorite old fords.

hot '69 camaro. ultra clean with a 355 and full cage. the paint was stunning.

cheby malibu. 350 and nice, nice body. a photo album with step by step restoration photos was on the grill. this beauty used to be that horrid chevelle orange.

do drugs, lose your vehicle. i think this 'vette is one of those confiscated cars, and the county now uses it for anti-drug PR. either that or we are paying our county cops to cruise in style.

rain couldn't stop me (us)

Saturn Sky Redline

actually rain did stop me. i was hoping to ride to and from work on friday, but the radar was angry and i have had enough of riding in the rain. so i drove to work with the beautiful mrs k.

.

the rain couldn't stop me from riding home, however. i had the moots in the car, along with my gear, and the weather cooperated. it was quite nice, really. hot, sunny. oh yeah.

and at my extended track stand at baxter and clarkson i had the pleasure of viewing one of my favorite roadsters, the saturn sky redline. i have never, ever been a miata fan. perhaps a lack of masculinity. but the sky/solstice duo remind me of 3/4 scale corvettes. there are even companies that have gone that extra wild step to make that more true by installing GM LS-V8's in them. i didn't mind hanging around at the stop light looking down at the interior, either, as GM has finally gotten out of the 70's and put some real quality interiors in their better cars. i say better cars because someone forgot to tell the cobalt product manager that the ol' calendar had rolled past 1979 a few years back.

.

when i rolled up to our driveway, mrs k was mowing the lawn. normally that is my job, so it was with mixed emotions that i watched her tug and pull and push on the mower in the thick wet grass.

.

"you know, it'll be much easier tomorrow afternoon when the grass is dry," i said.

.

"i know," she said.

.

"well, why don't you wait to do it tomorrow?" i asked.

.

"because i wanted to get it done tonight," she replied.

.

good woman.

wednesday hammerfest

peanut and i have made it a point to throw down on wednesday nights after work. his coach usually writes in a hard day mid-week, so we oblige. his quest for the cat 4 state road race victory is on the line, after all.

and, as usual, we both complained about how bad we felt when we started. mostly he did. personally, i never feel great, so not feeling good isn't much reason to complain, and it wouldn't do me any good anyway. just like always, we both come around and pound the climbs pretty well. my favorite is bassette as it seems i can get a nice rhythm, and his best climb is on bouquet. he snuck away, about 50-60 yards up, and i never closed it past 20 yards or so. i remember dropping him like a hot potato the first hill we ever climbed, so it was a testimony to his hard work that i couldn't catch him. he did attack me early in the ride, when we went up ossenfort, but that didn't turn out well for him...

the hardest part of the ride for me is the flat section heading home. wildhorse/centaur/old olive into chesterfield valley is dead flat and it's all i can do while we turn it up to keep going. we pounded it out, swapping the lead whenever we get close to blowing up. i always look forward to rhombach's because it signals the end of the madness, only there is another mile or so of it before we hit airport road.

those cat 4's may not know what hit 'em.

tough job

the local weatherman has a tough, tough job.....

schvonzie

what in the world is going on? do i have to remove your link again to get an update??

best buddies

morning cartoons are so much more fun with a friend. my cute boys.

and lying on the couch with nothing to do is more fun with a furry partner. never thought this day would come, but since rudy now lives with hanna full time, these guys have gotten closer. we all miss rudy, but he gets so much more attention now.

'wood again

i figured with all the rain we've been having castlewood would be the safest bet for riding. i was right. there were several mud holes, but otherwise it was quite nice. and i was quite slow.

on purpose. i rode quite a bit over the last 4 days, so adding a hard off-road ride was not a good idea. it was kinda nice climbing lone wolf in the little chainring, and pedaling sloooooowly up ranger station. it was also a little boring at times. the 'wood just isn't exciting at sub sonic speeds. downhill was fun. the flats and rollers and uphill, not so much.

two things that were in abundance: turtles and mosquitos. i guess it's mating season. i saw turtles on the road to and from castlwood, and 10-12 of them on the trail. and while i was climbing slow? mosquitos kept up with me and feasted on me. ug.

snuggly

don't they all look snuggly?

some days

are better than others. even on the worst days, you can find something good. it may be hard, but it can be done.

good things today:

1. great, brisk ride into work today, never honked at once.
2. the beautiful mrs k got in a nice longer run and she is feeling better pushing it.
3. my inlaws took care of our boys while we had things going on.
4. nice, hot ride home, further enhancing my tan.
5. my dogs were happy to see me.

um, yeah. that covers it. the rest i can do without, and would pretty much like to forget and pretend it never happened.

busy sunday, good for business

although we aren't normally open on sunday, we took this opportunity to invite in the riders of the ms150 ride today in west county. a few of us from work got in early and the riders started trickling in slowly and then in hoards. by noon the place was a zoo. there were anywhere from 30-40 people milling about the store. it was nuts. mrs k was running the front register and i was pumping tires and corky was changing flats and anthony was doing everything else. it was like the old tc warehouse sale, only without the sale. then.....poof. the ride started and it was peaceful. awesome.

the mrs and i drove out together, and i rode home. i took the long way, down south on strecker, which i hadn't ridden on since ethan and i did 10 years ago. i went further south to castlewood and home that way. it was better than a 2 hour ride, which was nice since the sun came out and my tan improved.

when i got home, it was the beautiful mrs k's turn to ride her new bike. she took tyson around for a while, then she took off on her own. she had nothing but grins on when she came home. now she knows why i like nice bikes.

after that, we took tyson and elijah to put put golf. eli was being so good, eating cheerios and drinking juice. tyson proved that put put is not a serious game. deanna is good at most sports, especially those that use equipment other than putters.

back to work tomorrow. wait, what have i been doing all weekend??

greek food rocks

i spent about an hour saturday afternoon cleaning gutters. yep. nasty work. the lowest gutters on my house, the only ones i can reach, are filled with muck. so, i got my ladder out and started shoveling muck. then i realized that since i had the one gutter replaced last summer, it sags down in the middle. that meant that i had to pull out some screws, push it up, and reattach it. i'm so handy i can't stand myself....

deanna and i took eli with us to olympia saturday night. we sat outside, even though mccausland resembles a freeway every 3 or 4 minutes or so. it was just such a nice night. we both really like greek food, and i am particularly fond of the gyros there. that place has a nice neighborhood feel to it.

elijah didn't like the gyros, but he sort of liked the humus, and the pita bread. and mrs k's chicken. he's such a mooch at the table. he wants anything that you're eating. mooch, mooch, mooch, we say. of course, he lets everyone in the place know he's there. he's been on this screaming kick. like, loud. super loud. metal hitting bone loud. nails on the chalkboard of god loud. he did sleep pretty well last night, though....

ho hum

i did the ghisallo saturday morning ride. it was terrible. not the ride, but me. i just stunk up the place. it was painful from the word go. it was nice to see some of the guys, talk to people, get out in the nice morning humidity. but it wasn't nice to pedal. i love my new moots, but it really couldn't do much for me. the lack of sleep coming at the hands of the little guy is killing me.

The Beautiful Mrs K

got a new bike. ain't it purty? she was able to put some miles on it today, too, and proclaimed it to be ALL THAT. sad to see the cannondale go, but happy to be on such a smooth ride.

tyson's pool party

We had a pool party at the Heights for Tyson and some of his classmates. The indoor pool park is pretty darn cool. That slide makes even a dry-land kinda guy like me want to get in.

"You gotta get some of these new goggles, man. They're the coolest!!"

Later, at the dry part of the party, tyson opened a lot of gifts. A room full of 6 year olds is, ahem, invigorating. A good time was had by all, mostly those under 10.

anywhere is good

for a nap. such a sweet little guy when he is sleeping, isn't he? hard to believe this is the little guy the older kids call 'the destroyer'.

Buy my Stuff!

On EBAY, get 'em while they're hot!!

Torino Talladega

In 1969 the Nascar wars were in full effect. GM was not really in the game, but Mopar and Ford were going at it. The 1968 season had shown just how aero the new Torino was. But Ford was still overmatched by the Hemi. Nascar would not allow Ford to run the 427 Cammer so they had a new motor, the Boss 429. In order for the engine to be legal in Nascar, Ford need to sell 500 to the public. Initially the motor was to go in to the Talladega but Ford decided the Boss 429 Mustang was the best place for it to be sold. Still Ford knew that to be competitive on the Super Speedways they needed a more aerodynamic car. They engineered a more slippery nose on the front end moving the grille flush the rest of the front. The bumper was a rear bumper cut and rewelded to fit the front. The biggest change was the rockers were rolled. This allowed Ford to lower the car more than a stock Torino for racing yet still be within Nascar regulations.

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As great as the Boss 429's reputation is, those that experienced it know it wasn't a very good street motor in the Mustang. That's because it's original mission was for the big oval, not the local drag strips. There were something like 750 Talladega's total, including some prototypes. Plenty of them were trashed as race cars, but some pristine examples still exist.

rain, rain, rain

friday, my plan was to ride the new Moots into work and home. as you probably could see, it was raining waaaay to much for that nonsense. so, the beautiful mrs k and i drove in together. i did, however, bring along the bike incase the weather was good enough to at least ride home.

after a hectic day at work, where the boss, peanut, and myself ate nothing of worth all day long yet we ate ALL DAY LONG, the weather cooperated and i was able to get the innagural ride on the Moots. the conditions weren't ideal, but the temperature was. there was still quite a bit of water on the road. nothing like soiling the new ride the first time out.

no matter, because i could see just what all the hoopla is about the bike. it rides great. it's rigid yet smooth. how do they do that? funny how bikes made of the same materials ride so differently. i love it.

oops i did it again

you see, i really, really like the opal. it's my first full carbon bike, and it's a really, really, good one. and i love the color. and it fits. so, i wasn't looking for a new road frame. it came looking for me.

a moots sl is a rare bird. it's 6/4 titanium instead of the normal 3/2.5 stuff. and moots is pretty sure they aren't making too many sl's this years because the supply of the high quality 6/4 that they like to use is low. so when corky got his, i told him that i had first dibs when he decided to get rid of it. 2 days later, he said he was ready to let it go. it didn't fit him. geez. thanks. i think. i have been trying to shed the BAS (bike aquisition syndrome) that i have such a bad case of, and this comes along.

everyone should have such things to complain about.

greensfelder

i just had to off-road on tuesday. the weatherman was forcasting rain for the rest of the week, and it was 70 degrees when i woke up.

i didn't want to ride just anywhere. the 'wood wears on a guy, and i just went to chubb last week. i kept thinking greensfelder, but i was unsure about how dry it was going to be. that place can take time to dry out. ah, what the heck. i loaded the oiz up and headed out.

the newly refurbished dogwood is simply a joy to ride. and attaching it to the greenrock and declue to make one big loop is just genius. there were a couple of mud slicks out there, but they were only annoyances. i mostly got dusty. actually, the dust stuck to the insect repellant that i liberally cake onto myself. you see, i am a tick o phobe. i would rather see snakes on the trail than find one of those little bloodsuckers on my body. ick. ick. ick. i found no ticks, though.

i was riding very well. technically. fitness wise, i was blown. i don't know if it was mondays heat, or just the lack of sleep since eli has been teething (or, lack of sleep since eli was born in 2006, who knows....). still, greensfelder is so much fun, i shrugged off the slow legs and let the riding do the talking.

monday ride to work day

monday was a spectacular ride to work day. the morning was warm, and the evening was plain hot. lots of people hate mondays. i find it hard to hate them when i get to ride in weather like that.