The Aspen Lodge cyclocross race in Estes Park was a bit of an experience, nestled away up in the mountain, 9000+ feet under the watch of Longs Peak. The location was spectacular, the vibe was spot on and the event very well run. Anna, Logan And I ventured up to get some good mountain cross going. Going into this race I knew it was going to be a tough day for me but sometimes it is ok to just participate and get the training in – mental and physical. Upon initial inspection of the course I was a little frightened, in typical Colorado fashion the course was designed with the mountain bike in mind. It was a mildly treacherous course and I am sure there were a few casualities on the day. I really had no problems with the course except when I needed to go fast I went slow and when I needed to ride technically smooth, I rode technically sloppy but I again, it was going to be a tough day and I knew it from the start. The course: A ton of elevation change, some pavement, some nice off camber and some really technical sections. It was partially an awesome cyclocross course and partially a great mountain bike venue. Some great forced natural running sections and some sweet turning is the grass on a hillside. The start was good, a nice drag race into a 180 uphill turn which had a few people hitting the pave. I [...]

I was born in 1974, Eddy Merckx won the Tour, Albert Van Damme of Belgium won cyclocross worlds and the Vietnam war was ending. One of the things I love about road cycling is the spectacle of a stage race, city to city, country to country, the moving caravan rolls through. I have always found the team cars of these grand events to be very interesting – I am immediately drawn to the Mavic car, Rock Racings Escalade and any other truly thought out team branding. I was looking around craigslist and seeing what I could buy for $1000 that could be used as a team car. There really wasn’t many options, but for a mere $1900 more you could have a 1978 AMC-Concord .  It is a pretty rad looking car,  so it got me thinking that it would be cool to design some Bicyclenerd team cars starting with a car from 1974,  the year I was born. Perhaps I will do one for every year since,  that would be a hell of a lot of designs.  What was interesting was looking at the old cars and deciding what might make a good team car and why. I searched and looked at 1974 Fiats, Fords, Volvos and many more but I thought that for the first version it should be American through and through.  Not the coolest, sportiest and fastest car out there,  but one that every American could possibly relate too? Why? I thought it would be interesting [...]

I have the bug to get some jumps going, when I ride my mountain bike I do little jumps but not like hitting up a dirt jumping park and flowing over some sweet jumps and around some berms. By my house there are 2 jump parks, one is pretty burly and the other is for little kids. I wander over to them on my cyclocross bike and pump around the outsides wishing I could cascade over to one of the bigger jumps. Watching dudes flow through the pump track and jump course, so smooth and looks so fun. As a kid we were really into BMX, In 1982 I got a silver and baby blue SE RACING P.K. Ripper, it was a loop tail, and was so rad. I loved that bike and upgraded parts as I got little bits of money here and there. I bought the frame from Cycle Craft in Parsipanny, NJ. It was only offered as a frame and fork so it sat as I accumulated parts. First some SKYWAY mags in white and a uni seat, the rest of the bike got outfitted with the crappy parts from my old bike. I then upgraded the crankset to a profile crank and of course rocked some really cool camo pads – handle bar, gooseneck, top tube. I lived the PK Ripper. We had some fun jumps nearby in the neighborhood, right down the street across from Mr. Margquez’s house was “Marquez”, a big quarter pipe style [...]