January ride totals

I was already a week into January before I was able to get on the bike and start my 10000mile/year goal.
But I kept at it and knocked out a total of 741.54 miles (my tracks miles read more accurately then the ride tracker shown on the top right hand side of this blog)

I have also been using two different bikes for this so far, my road bike and the fixed gear bike. ( I have yet to use my mountain bike )
Road Bike miles: 375.59
Fixed Gear miles: 365.95

Ride down under

~3950km Perth to Sydney... Who's with me?

FIXING

though this was a pretty amazing video, check her out!

Walker's Pass

This past holiday weekend I drove 3 hours north of me to a town called Ridgecrest CA to hang out and ride with my buddy John Jones. The town is pretty much in the middle of nowhere cali.

Ridgecrest is located in the southern portion of the Indian Wells Valley and in the northeast corner of Kern County, surrounded by four mountain ranges; the Sierra Nevada on the west, the Cosos on the north, the Argus Range on the east, and the El Paso Mountains on the south. It is approximately an hour and quarter from the Lancaster/Palmdale area and approximately two hours from both Bakersfield and San Bernardino. A favorable characteristic of the City is its proximity to two major highways, the 395 and 14. Air travel in and out of the city is provided through the Inyokern Airport. These attributes make Ridgecrest, a central location for shopping and business for the Eastern Kern County area.   Ridgecrest is also easily accessible to the rest of southern California making it an ideal location for industry. ( More can be seen here )

It was a small dusty town with not much to it, well except for some gorgeous open desert and plenty of amazing quiet roads to bike on. On Sunday we went on a 56 mile loop where we pretty much had the roads to ourselves. We headed out late in the afternoon and road back into town in to the setting sun.

 Monday we took another route that took us up a 22 mile climb on Walker's Pass to the summit. I found it pretty interesting to learn about this Pass and the history behind it. More info can be seen here at this website

I had a great weekend and plan to travel back up to Ridgecrest for more riding. Total mileage for the two days was 101. 

MS Paint your mishaps..

On my ride today I passed a guy on his custom bike which allowed him to pedal using his arms, as he had no legs. He waved and I gave a thumbs up and a few kind words. It's great to see people unstoppable like him.

I was browsing a few bike forums and came across some track race photos, a few of which had amputee riders. These people are some real athletes and I can't express how great their dedication is for the sport.

Friends who Ride

My buddy John finished up his roadie, an 99' Ironhorse steel frame in original chrome. Used a mix of Dura Ace, Ultegra, SRAM,  Miche wheels and also added just enough red accents to make this bike pop.

Litespeed Tuscany

I finally dialed in my 01 Litespeed Tuscany, and can you believe how great astonishing a 10 year old bike can be!? Anyway I have tinkered with different saddles and bartape, etc. but now for 2011 I dressed her up in full Ritchey WCS carbon parts, Zipp 101 wheels and topped her off in black leather (starting to break out in a sweat).. This bike is staying with me for the rest of my life, so why not indulge a little? You only live once.

Enjoy, I'm sure you will see much more of this beauty

Friends who Ride

A good friend of mine John Jones sent me this pic and has been cruising around on this monster road bike with disc brakes.

a LoVE STORY

Great video featuring a friend of mine I met in Flagstaff AZ, the lovely Dana Howard! A girl that good looking who rides bikes daily is a win in my book. Keep it up! Video by Doug Morehouse

Road to 10000

Last year I picked up a new "Droid" smart phone and was introduced to a tracking application from my brother Ray, also my friend John Jones. This app is called My Tracks and uses Google maps and tracks your activity, running, hiking, cycling, etc. It has features like distance, altitude, speed, times, and the like n is very helpful! I started using this to track most/all my from last year rides (seen here!)
Starting this new year I set a goal for myself to ride up to or pass 10000 miles. This is usually easily done by pro riders etc, but for me being in the Military and deploy-able this can be a challenge. Now growing up and until now I have ridden countless miles but this time I will track every one and blog/share/learn. I calculated this to be about 30ish miles a day and will be broken down to shorter lengths for the week days and longer on the weekends. I will have to cram all this in between work schedules, standing watches, deployments, and life events through this year. Will I accomplish this? who knows yet, Ill keep at it. All I ask is for some motivation from all.
Ill see you at the finish line, 2012
***Also I want to do a friends who ride feature in my blog! So friends and family and other readers, please feel free to send me your riding photos! ill post them on your permission! send them to mikeetow@gmail.com ***

All work and no Play........

Aloha! Every now and then my job ships me out to someplace, this time a small chain of islands in the south pacific.. :) to take up a mission needed from my unit.
I tried hard to bring my bike along this trip, but was not able to due to mode of travel. I had a good amount of time off the bike, and just had to make due with running and working out. I even searched the area on Craigslist for any possible bikes to buy (singlespeed or fixed gear) but found with my work schedule I would not justify the coast vs. riding time, and wondered if I would even be able to sell the bike back before I left. I did however, had plenty of other activities to do while I was gone.
Now that I am back I made it my new years resolution to ride up too or passed 10000 miles on the bike, I will be tracking this on my Droid phone using My Tracks. and will be posting in google maps. Of course Ill be back posting my adventures through the year.
I also got a sweet new Specialized S-Works champion edition helmet. its pretty neat.
Mahalo!

TheFiXFiXFiX

I was asked again if I wanted another one of my custom bike builds featured at thefixfixfix.com. I was shocked to see how wide spread my copper Pinarello (and the lovely Joanna) got around on the net, even at Tumblr. Thanks folks for the comments an reblogs! The link above is the new set for my Litespeed fixed gear with Lindsey this set is NSFW. Enjoy !
http://www.thefixfixfix.com/fix/index.php/2010/12/lindsey-and-the-litespeed-firenze/

Where does your ride take you?

TheFiXFiXFiX

Be sure to check out my "Old Copper" bike I built, featured at TheFiXFiXFiX.com

I had a unique opportunity to have the "Old Copper" bike I built, featured on a trendy bicycle website: TheFiXFiXFiX (not safe for work)
From their website:

TheFiXFiXFIX was started as a photography project of a bicycle building enthusiast and budding photographer. After getting over 1,000,000 views on our Flickr page and tons of positive feedback, we’ve decided to put together this site as a better way to get you our photos while looking to build contacts with other cyclists, enthusiasts, blogs, bicycle shops, and manufacturers. Our goal here is to not only promote the photos, the models, and the bicycles, but cycling as a whole.
Through photography we’d like to explore the use of bicycles in today’s culture as not only a method of transportation, but as fashion accessories, art, and even objects of lust.
We’d like to feature any and all types of custom, vintage, and just plain interesting bicycles. Ranging from fixies, to road, to mountain, to bmx, to cruisers and anything in between.

I chose a location for the shoot over looking downtown Long Beach CA. The LBC was the place I first got the "Old Copper" bike and rebuilt it, so having the skyline in the background was perfect. The guy who shoots for the site is local in the area and has access to models also in the area looking for work. I can't wait to see how the photos turned out, plus it was nice to see a cute girl straddling my bike for a change..

Being back in Sierra Vista, the small military town I grew up in. I headed out on a usual mountain bike ride up into Brown Canyon. This particular trail was one in which got me hooked for life in the realm of mountain biking. I was one of the few young teensters that trekked this trail as often as I could. I even remember riding this trail two times a day. I knew ever inch, rock, jump, places I crashed, Not only did I ride this trail but walked/ran/hiked/ even slept out there. This was a pretty popular trail, and after my father and a local resident Tim created a trail starting from the end of the street I lived on to the fence line of the military base (as they wanted an better route to ride their bikes to work) there was better access for people to get to the Brown Canyon trail.

At the trail switch back/end, there is a water trough and from here you can take a trail which takes you back into Ramsey Canyon or you can take the wilderness trail that takes you up to the peak. At this point I had caught up to an older guy and got to talking to him. His name was Norm and he was 77 years old. I was so amazed talking to this guy, he was telling me how he had retired and wound up in Arizona and took up mountain biking at the age of 69. He had learned to ride on this same trail that I had when I was just getting into my teens.
This really brightened my day and it definitely proves you can always find a favorite place to explore no matter what age you are, and for Norm and Me it's the Brown Canyon trail.
For more Sierra Vista cycling info/trails/clubs/shops please check out: M&M Cycling and Sun 'N Spokes bike shops

Northern Arizona's Finest

Every chance I get to take leave from work, I always find myself speeding off to Flagstaff AZ. I found Flagstaff when I was little and my brothers were going off to college. Both Ray and Russ attended NAU and I was always coming out to visit.
My oldest brother Ray has been a long term resident here in this mountain town and working for the College here. He caught the cycling bug a while back and began riding with guys from the bike shop here Absolute Bikes. You can find him zipping around town on his old school baby blue 3 speed fixed gear, white tires and chrome fenders balance out the pure class. Or you can see him bombing up and down such passes like Schultz Creek, Dog Food, and many more well traveled trails and secret ones up in the mountain. So basically what this means is every time I come out here my truck is always loaded up with my bikes to go riding with him. It's always a great time, after I get used to the altitude again.. And we always fuel up on some MartAnne's.
I recommend the Green Chilaquiles, oh here's me caught stuffing face full of glory

I brought along my road bike this time and my brother recommended me heading down to Sedona, probably one of the most beautiful places in AZ. I picked out a loop that took me through Cornville AZ and up along Page Springs. You can track my ride here ( Sedona Ride )

I got in two great rides on this trip. One brought me 7600 feet in elevation, and despite the higher altitude and trying to catch my breath, I kept up with my bro and Eric from the bike shop along the trails they lead me. My second was a solo road ride through the Amazing colorful Sedona. Flagstaff will always be my favorite place to take a break from life, and catch up on some quality mountain biking. Oh and spending time with my brah!

Where does your ride take you?

Where does your ride take you?

All you know how to do is ride a bike..

I really like this trailer, you might even find out where I got the header for this blog.. enjoy!

Old Copper

A few years back my job had moved me out to Long Beach CA, I did not realize at the time it was going to be the start of a bike building craze  adventure  money-pit Well call it what you want. After I settled down in my own place and got the lay of the land I was comfortable enough to start building bikes on my own. I got tools, and with a little motivation (basically what my brother Ray was building also..) I started shopping around for a bike to get me around town. I settled on this red Pinarello Treviso fixed gear I found on craigslist and went to work building it to my style and comfort.

This is the first bike I bought here in Cali. This is when fixed gear bikes around here was not as big as it is now. I actually felt like the only one riding one of these. All that changed quick when this fad really took off.
Yeah I changed my red bike up, painting it copper and adding a few new parts. Turned a few heads while riding this bike around. But I loved every minute of it.

Years later new bikes came in and out. I built a few track bikes, sold them.. built a mountain bike, sold that.. and so on. But I held on to this Pinarello Treviso and knew that I wanted to rebuilt it into something special I had in mind.
I was on a mission to gather parts from all over the world, I mean really the Campagnolo Shamal wheel-set I got from a guy in Italy. I collected all Campagnolo parts from the era this bike was from. I also have a great liking to all things copper, so going with the theme I had the frame copper plated. In all it turned out to be one hell of a build, imo lol. I hope you enjoy re-introducing my "Old Copper" Pinarello Treviso single speed roadie.
(photo at very top is the finished product )

Love of the Sport

                                           

In my career (USCG) and especially at the type of unit I am at, Fitness is a pretty important factor to the types of jobs/missions we have to accomplish (wait sitting on a boat for a few hours?....) We are actually held accountable for passing a standard PT test and are required to attend morning PT 5 days a week.
A little while back, I got a buddy of mine to head out to Malibu Creek State Park with me to do some mountain biking! The above photo is Glenn in all his glory after mashing up a pretty sizable hill. It was his first time on a real trail, and I can see he was enthused and would take it serious enough to go again. Which is great, because well I always like people to ride with.
Now Glenn is pretty avid into Crossfit (oh and check here!) And because I dragged him though the trails and hills of Malibu on my singlespeed MTB.. I promised to attend a Crossfit WOT (work out?) session for PT at work.

So, because of having Love of a sport. We were both exposed to a new world of fitness / fun and a little dedication.. oh and pain and sweat

Where it All started

                                               
Back when I was little and my Dad raced mountain bikes, cycling was a big part of me growing up. I remember building my first bike with my dad (well watching him) in our garage. He got this frame for me and built it with components we had in the "parts box"

This was the first real mountain bike I terrorized the neighborhood and local trails with. Yes, cool speckle? paint and I had to have my name on it which was printed out by my neighbor. I learned how to build a bike at that time and all I seem to remember is playing and adjusting and customizing, until I out grew that frame and moved on to a new bike..