Welcome to the new year!

Yes, I know, it's been an intolerably long time since I last posted.  Thanks to all the kind folks emailing and calling to check that I'm ok and remind me of my blog absence.  Honestly, I was not sure anybody read this thing anyways  :)

Not much transpired shop wise that was worth mention that I've not recounted and documented numerous times previously on the blog, so I thought not to burden you with laborious rhetoric spewing forth from my keyboard.

However, there was plenty of forward progression in other aspects of Grooydom, so let's do a quick bullet point update for y'all.

- November and December evolved into a Luv Handle fabrication snowball, rapidly growing as it rolled along, as I tried to meet everyone's requests before the Christmas season.  I made a metric butt load of bars in all flavors and finishes, and quite honestly, am glad to be done for a bit.  We're accepting orders for April delivery, but if you'd like one sooner, please call or email Jason or Mike at http://www.theedgeoutdoors.com/ , Wakakko at  http://bluelug.com/ , or Neil at http://www.cyclemonkey.com/ , all who have bars in stock and are ready to sell.

- We had our Groovy race team shin-dig at the house just before Christmas and had a really nice time.  Lots of good hearted folks who really care about grass roots racing, enriching kid's mountain bike skills development, and supporting public access trails.  The overwhelming request for food was  Coccia House pizza (though I was rooting for sushi), so we chowed down on this local favorite, shared cycling stories and chatted, then moved downstairs for some rousing Foosball and pinball action.  All said, it was a nice night shared with our extended family.  We look forward to the 2013 race season.

- Speaking of racing, the 331 Racing crew were able to get together and hash out a direction for next year.  We had over 27 different requests from clubs/venues we don't currently serve asking for us to bring races to them for this season. Unfortunately, as much as we'd love to help everyone out, there is only so much time in our collective schedules.  To check out the action for 2013 we decided on, looky here... http://www.331racing.com/cms/event/powerseries/index.html

14 races in the Ohio Series including xc, tt, enduro, and short track.  We're also complimenting these with a full slate of kid's events and a night/under the lights cyclo-cross...whew!

- December was also a period where I devoted time to moving the establishment of the Vulture's Knob Recreation and Education Foundation forward.  Kevin and I met with attorney's and accountants to get our ducks in a row to continue our forward progression of federal non-profit status, allowing us a strategy to secure the property for public access forever.  It will take most of the next year, but the effort will be worth it. 

To those ends, we had a very successful Family Christmas Tree cut at the Knob, helping us cull out a few of the 9000 evergreens we have growing there.  Please disregard Kalten's fly...unintentional, he swears  :)

- Christmas was a bit of a bummer...ended up having about 4 hours to share with the family on Christmas eve before I headed into the Fire department for a 60 hour shift, Christmas eve through the day after Christmas. 
- Rob G came down from the greater Cleveland area to pick up a bar and decided to jump on the build list for a custom bike.  Welcome Rob!

- Speaking of the build list, as you may have noticed, I've got a lot going on.  Between the Fire Department, Groovy, 331 Racing, Vulture's Knob and family life, I'd like to squeeze in a little time for myself and some projects that I'd like to work on.  Hopefully, the future holds building a replica 1940's motorcycle from scratch and traveling a bit of the globe with Christi.  Right now, we're out close to 8 years on work, a huge undertaking of time and patience for all involved. So, I've decided to give anyone else who'd like to get on the list for a bike within the next decade (did I really just say that???) one week to get ahold of us, then I'll not be accepting any more custom bike work until we are caught up and have shared a little time for us.  Bars and cranks will continue to be a staple, but for those personal one off cycling projects, the time to commit is now.

cheers,

rody