Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The "soon I won't be able to eat again" recipe

Sarah modified this from a Bon Appetit recipe. It was my final meal before double root canals tomorrow. It was a good final meal.

As an aside, having tooth problems is a great way to lose weight. I lost 6 pounds in a matter of less than a week.

Without further ado...

Sarah's Thai Tofu/Peach Spaghetti

-Cook some noodles. Any kind you want. Set 'em aside. Make a decent amount - 6-8oz uncooked.
-Cook some tofu (or chicken) and set that aside as well. 1.5# or so.
-Saute:
2 c swish chard, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
Leave them in the pan

Now combine all of these in a bowl or a jar:
1/4c veggie broth
2.5 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP hoisin sauce
1 TBSP sugar
! TBSP sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed red pepper or chile paste
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 large peaches, diced

Dump everything together, heat up a little bit (if you want) and eat!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Congrats, Nick!

Nick accomplished *my* dream from 2 years ago - making the overall podium at Winter Park. Like me, he came into the final King of the Rockies/Tipperary race in 4th overall, but unlike me, he had a great final race (4th!) and jumped up a spot (nearly 2, actually) to end up 3rd overall. Great work, Nick!

You can see a fuzzy podium shot (copyrighted) here.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Random forsale: Marzocchi 44 TST2 29er fork

Tony and I rode this for most of the summer, but we have both graduated to other forks (in Tony's case, a cool 140 Reba taper setup, in mine the 38mm rake old-school Reba that matches my frame geometry). So I have no need of it, and it's gotta go.

-44mm offset
-120mm travel (can be adjusted to 140, but you gotta pull the fork apart)
-about 4.9#
-15mm through axle
-Steerer cut to 8 3/8" or 213mm.

The fork is in great shape, with a tiny bit of dirt/dust the only evidence of use. $250 shipped anywhere in the continental US, others gotta pay me for shipping. Drop me a line if you have any questions.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Thanks, Collin - or, the road goes on forever and the party never ends

Yes, I get to quote the Highwaymen when complaining about my teeth. Ironically, of course.

Long story short, Collin is going to get himself a HELL of a bike, because I don't need just one, but TWO root canals. Yippee! I'm going in next wednesday, and then again in another week. Expect me to be out for a day or so each time, so building progress is going to be somewhat hindered.

If that weren't enough bad news, I recently found out that Costco is selling Kirkland Signature Beer. Surely I am in hell...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Eszter interviewed .... again

Pretty neat interview about the 2010 CTR here. Check it out.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Long shot...

Any of y'all a dentist in Boulder/Denver? Want to trade a root canal/crown for a bike frame or other bike stuff? Drop me a line...

Holy crap having bad teeth is expensive!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Vacation update: don't hold your breath

Let's just put it this way: I'm ending the vacation with half a bottle of Gordon's (that's vodka, you old farts) and about about twice the recommended dose of ibuprofen. I am having an emergency root canal/tooth pull tomorrow, if all goes well. If not, I will be accessing our supply of excess prescription painkillers until Tuesday. I really hope that isn't necessary.

Please, please, do not be upset if I do not respond to your email quickly. Hopefully I will be functional by mid-week.

PS, my wife proofread the blog post, in case hyou don't don't believe the Gordon's bit.

P.P.S. I (Walt's wife speaking) did not proofread the PS part.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

On vacation!

Sarah and I will be in Vail for the next week. Back on the 23rd. Maybe some posts of vacation idiocy, maybe not. Don't expect email/phone responses until I'm back.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

CTR report from Eszter


Over at the Gooney blog, both Chris and Eszter have written up really nice trip reports on the CTR.

BTW, Eszter won and broke the women's course record by a LOT!

Congrats also to Jefe, Steiny-poo, and Ethan. CB represent!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Bikes, or BLACK HELICOPTERS?

This blog is not typically about politics. But those who have been vaguely following the CO governor's race (the primary) know that the current leading candidate, Dan Maes, is kinda crazy: he recently made a speech that featured a bit about his belief that Denver's bike-share program is "a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty."

Anyway, I think he made national news for being a loon, but here's the great part - if he wins, I think Jeff over at Alchemist is going to make some of these:


Kickass.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Classy.



Nice one, Chris.

Friday, August 06, 2010

A long-awaited post!

No, I didn't build up my singlespeed. Sorry. I keep having to make the choice between riding and working on getting it put together, and I keep choosing riding.

Nope, this is a followup to the 8" of hail post. I now have photographic evidence, thanks to Feldman. Check it out. That's all hail, and this is ~12 hours after the actual storm.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Brad's 36er fork


Just some early shots to check out. Very rough stuff here, no mill scale (the grey stuff they spray on the tubes to keep them from rusting at the mill) cleaned up, even.

This will run a Paul 135mm front hub - so in order to clear the disc rotor, it ends up having a REALLY wide crown. Snow fork type clearances, but there's really not a good way around it with the disc.

For what it's worth, as an aside, if the rims were a little better, I'd almost do rim brakes on a 36er, just to simplify things a bit. But we're going disc, so that's that.

I cut the lugs on the mill/chop saw, then clean them up a bit and slide them on to get everything fit up. Next step will be to clean everything (boooooring!) and then start welding. I'm waiting on some feedback from Brad about the tres-weird look first, though. Believe it or not, I'll be doing *another* 36er soon... seems like a trend!

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Motivation!


So this day is sucking. I didn't sleep well, tweaked my neck somehow and can't look to the right, found out that I screwed up Kyle's long-awaited frame (that spent 2 months at the powdercoater!) because I forgot to put some bottle bosses in the correct place, Nova shipped me the wrong downtube (so Brian's frame is even MORE delayed), and as a final insult, the USPS site got all screwy and it just took me almost half an hour to print a shipping label...

Aaargh.

But thanks to Mike, I'm wearing my new attitude. And thanks to the terrifying display at our local King Soopers (that's the supermarket chain here, equivalent to Vons or Safeway or whatever) I know how to approach my problems! Remember, Walt, let's make this bike OZ-some!

Good lord I'm glad I don't work there.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Just in case you're bored...

Thanks a lot, Rusty.

(don't click if scatalogical rock-climbing disasters offend)

Random items for sale

It's that every-six-weeks tradition: stuff that got ordered and wasn't wanted, or got the wrong item somehow (this has been happening a lot this year):

-Rockshox Reba Team 29er 120mm taper fork with 20mm maxle. This fork does NOT have a u-turn feature, and the lockout is NOT the remote model (so it's got one, but the lever is on top of the left side of the crown). I got 2 of these, one for Tony and one for myself, and the distributor didn't get us the U-turn models we wanted. Doh. Still a very nice fork, never used or installed. It's a taper steerer, so it will only work with a frame compatible with a 1.5 lower bearing.

$475, shipping included in the US. OR, if you buy a custom frame to go with it, $350. What a deal - these retail for somewhere around $720!

-Custom WW 26" rigid fork. I built this for Todd and put the lowrider bosses in not quite the right place. It's 425mm axle-crown, 38mm rake, with v-brake bosses for a 26" wheel. Uncut 14" steerer tube, never installed or ridden. Glossy black. $100 including shipping. A great fork for a touring bike or a commuter - plenty of room (and mounting points) for racks and fenders. Beefy enough for a big person carrying front panniers (ie, no weight limit).

Drop me a line if you're interested in either of those items.

Monday, August 02, 2010

CTR is on!

The Colorado Trail Race, that is. Go Eszter! Go Millertime! Go Sportman(s)!

Edit: Go Jefe! Go Aaron!

Lots of Waltworks bikes and bits out there. Must mean WW riders are not very smart, the forecast looks terrible for pretty much the whole week.

You can track everyone's progress here. Click on individual names for mile-by-mile info (this can be confusing, but it's interesting if you're bored or have a good friend doing the race).

Notably the weather this year looks to be total crap, so be safe out there, guys, and good luck!