Call off the dogs...the search is over :)

Well, after 3 different folks called me last night in the shop asking..."dude, are you all right? I check the blog every day and nothing's been posted", I figured I better get cracking on some new posts to let you know that I'm still kicking.

No good excuses, just have been burning the candle at both ends and in the middle and have not made time for much posting. So anyhoo, let's catch you up on what's been shaking...

I stole an afternoon sometime in the last two weeks and got out biking in Mohican forest with some friends. The leaves were just past their prime, the weather cool, but the trail was in fine shape.

While waiting on a few more folks to arrive, I could not resist the opportunity to snap some gratuitous shots along the river...

As expected, there is never enough time or energy to set up for some good riding shots, but Mike was able to get a quick blurry pic of me dropping into valley...

The business trip to NY was a positive venture, meeting some good folks and hooking up with a customer and friend for some ride time. I came away with a couple of observations...

1.) I'm definitely not a City guy...too busy, congested and not my bag baby.

2.) There is some excellent, diverse riding available just hours from the city.

3.) and finally, we had a New Yorker come through and ride at one of our local trails proclaiming, "Now this is what mountain biking is suppose to be...I'm from upstate NY and there are f*cking rocks EVERYWHERE!" After a few days sneaking in some rides, I can confirm that he is right ;)

That was the good of the trip.

The bad is that my business cell phone died on the trip, losing all my contacts, voicemails, and pics. Christi called and told me that the microwave at home is turning on and off on it's own and that the fridge is about dead and both would need replaced upon my return. When I got back and headed into the shop I found that when the Utility companies came to shut off the service to the business in the front of the building they turned my stuff off as well. Fortunately, the electric and gas was only off for two days before they were reactivated, one of which I was at the fire department, so not too much pain was caused.

For now, I've been welding up Luv bars...62 of them, so that I can get the remaining October, November and December bars out the door early.

Filling up the table...

I also made a trip up to see Joe Bringheli to pick up some tubing. Joe had Deddachai make up some custom spec'd seat stays for me so that I can save some time in the shop that I would normally be custom bending the straight tubing. There are S bend stays available from other sources, but I've never been happy with the tire clearance available from many of the current offerings, so these custom stays were worth the time and monetary investment to make me happy :)

Does it look like a grand in tubing?

I was able to combine my trip to Joe's with Emily's USFSA testing date in Strongsville. If y'all think bikes are expensive, check out the cost of figure skating at a competitive level some time...you're two wheeled toy will seem quite the bargain!

Here's Em and her moves coach Jesse stretching out prior to taking the ice...

So, that brings us up to the present. I taught at the hospital all day yesterday, instructing a class on Pediatric Advanced Life Support, then welded into the late night. Today is Halloween, I'll be doing some more bars, finish welding the belt drive bike so I can clear it from the jig, and hopefully catching up on some emails.

That's all for now...check back in tonight or tomorrow and I'll share the unique layout and chainstay interference issues present with designing for a belt drive system.

cheers,

rody