40th aniversary of the Tet Offensive

Today is the 40th aniversary of the Tet Offensive. It gets me thinking that just over 40 years ago LBJ was assuring the American people that the war in Vietnam was going great and that we were finally making some headway against the VC and NVA. Sounds a little like what we have been hearing recently out of the White House about Iraq. Hopefully it's just coincedence.

Beautiful day

Saw a pretty amazing movie at the Imax in Jordan Commons Friday night. U2-3D is a 3D IMAX presentation of a U2 concert performed in Buenos Aires. U2's concerts are awesome, U2's concert movies (especially Slane Castle) are amazing and this 3D IMAX presentation took it to a new level. I know that in the past 3D movies have been pretty gimmicky, i.e. Jaws 3D, but the new crop that have been coming out in IMAX over the last few years have been great. The 3D immerses you in the movie like never before. At one point during the song Sunday, Bloody Sunday as Bono is singing "wipe your tears away" he reaches out toward the audience and it feels like he is reaching out to you personally to wipe away a tear. There are also numerous times where the camera focuses in on The Edge playing guitar and he appears to be standing about 3 feet in front of you playing. The theaters digital sound matches the camera position to add to the realism. If you're a U2 fan or just a fan of excellent concerts in general I'd say it's a must see.

Was able to enjoy the first nice weekend day of the new year on Saturday. Got out for a quality 40 mile road ride. Rode from my house down to Sandy and back via Wasatch, Dimple dell and the Old Mill. It was great fun even though the roads were a little wetter than expected and there was a slight temperature inversion. I froze my ass off on the way home riding up 23rd in the shade before climbing back up out of the cold air to my house. By the time I got hame my road bike looked like I had just finished a cross race. Covered front to back in dirt and road salt. Got home, cleaned up with a hot soak in the tub and headed up to TC's for a happening shin-dig. Met some cool new people and caught up with some biking friends.

New Stan's goodies

Good old Stan's Notubes has done it again. Are they the only ones really trying to do new things to make MTB's faster? You could aready build up a set of wheels through them that was stronger and a bit lighter than Crossmax SLR, now they can smoke the Crossmax's . The ZTR Race wheels are only 1210 grams complete which is almost a pound lighter than Crossmax SLR. A pound on a wheelset is a crazy big deal and they are a bit cheaper than Crossmax SLR to boot. These would be a must have for any serious racer. They also have a new road tubeless setup out that I think I might get. Any time I try to run less than 115 PSI in my rear tire I pinch flat. The problem is my bike corners much better at 110 PSI compared to the 120 that I run. I'm due for some new rubber anyway so I think this might be the way to go.

St. George in january............priceless

St. George was amazing this weekend. Temps in the upper 40's sounds cold but when you're in red rock country and there's not a cloud in the sky it's pretty close to heaven. On Saturday we rode from Coral Canyon, through the "haunted drain pipe" over to Church rocks. Did two laps on Church Rocks plus an out and back on Prospector. About 23 miles total. It was a wonderful day until I noticed some play in my Blur's rear end near the end of the ride. My rear shock mount bolt/axle had snapped in half! Needless to say that ended the weekends riding. Rhonda did a couple of Bearclaw runs on sunday but I just hung with the mother-in-law and chilled in front of the TV.

Rhonda's mom is a rather different person. Last winter after she moved to St. George we came to visit and she didn't have any salt. When asked why and she said that salt was bad for you. I had to explain that in normal quantities there was nothing wrong with salt. This trip we found she didn't have any honey or maple syrup, she just uses sugar mixed with water. Every trip down it's something new with her. Another one of her things is she won't eat fruit smoothies because they have too many calories and she won't buy fresh produce because it costs too much. Strange.

We tried out eggbeaters saturday to see what we thought. I have always used SPD but between the weight savings and mud shedding ability I thought I should give the beaters a try. I was pretty happy. The release seems more consistant than SPD's but eggbeaters do seem a little more difficult to clip into. Maybe as I get used to them the clip in will work better.

Coming home on I-15 we got blown off the road by some asshat in a new Lexus doing 100+. It was rather sweet when I saw the same guy 20 mins later on the side of the road having a discussion with the Po Po.

Ol' Fred Thomson dropped out of the race today. It took him five primaries to realize you need a little more than "I was on Law and Order and I'm a christian" on your resume' to be elected president.

Aerodynamic wheel test & spring training

California Bob (California Bob is the biochemist who helped me formulate my home-made energy drink recipe a few years ago which Chis Charmichael and Power Bar borrowed for their new drink last year:) sent me this interesting article about an aerodynamic wheel test some french wheelbuilders are doing. Very interesting stuff for bike tech geeks such as myself. No suprise that of what they have tested so far the bling bling Zipps are on the top. Of course my ghetto Gipiemme/Rolf setup didn't even make the list.

The man just approved my time off for spring training this year. February 29 thru March 10th. 10 days of hammering desert singletrack and pavement down in Dixie. I've got the aformentioned Carmichael's plan all ready to go and if it doesnt kill me it will make me stronger as the saying goes. Should be sweet. I'll probably skip doing the Icup race that saturday and just cheer Rhonda on before heading off to ride. I'm shooting for low-mod intensity long rides that week as opposed to a short high intensity XC race. I'll have to wait till Cholla or perhaps Hell of the North to do my thing this year.

The biggest pothole

On the way to work today I hit what was the largest pothole I have ever seen outside of a 3rd world country. I thought for sure as soon as I hit it that my tire was done for but the snow tire was able to soldier on. Unfortunatly this was not the case for the four other cars pulled over on the side of the freeway changing tires just past the pothole. Gotta love winter in Utah.

Just read BK's post describing his 100k MTB ride open to all on Gooseberry this weekend. It sounds interesting but I haven't been on my bike in a month and that might be biting off a bit more than I could chew in January.

The weekend

I put the finishing touches on Rhonda's new ride yesterday. Just needed to adjust some cables to avoid rubbing the carbon and installed the eggbeaters. This coming weekend will be the grand premire down in St. George so hopefully she'll be loving on it like she did at the Solitude demo last summer. I also started the build on my Mamasita. I have the frame, fork and drivetrain ready to go but I still need to get a Stan's Arch/Hope Pro II wheelset built and a crankset ordered. Probably going to go with a profile racing crankset since it's the only non custom set made with arms longer than 180mm. I've heard good things about them on MTBR and the extra length should help my extra long legs push the pedals just a bit harder. I even managed to find 90mins to sit on the trainer while watching the Giants beat down the Cowgirls. Nothing better to help forget the misery of the trainer than watching the Cowboys lose.

Watched 3:10 To Yuma on friday. An amazing movie, definatly top 5 I've seen this year. Christian Bale is rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors for his consistantly great performances. He brings something special to every role and I make it a point to watch everything he is in. Russell Crowe was of course excellent and it was amazing how by the end you were routing for him when only an hour before you cringed as he repeatedly stabbed one of the "good guys" in the face with a fork. I should do one of those cheesy yet fun top 10 movie lists of the year.

New year, new idea

I'll admit it, I'm a bandwagon type of person. Everybody else is doing this blog thing now and it seems like fun so I'm going to give it a shot. Hopefully it won't suck too bad! Now the name you ask. Well I'm not super, I'm not fly and I dont ride a Gary Fisher. So why Superfly? It's been my internet handle since my college days and I enjoy it's irony. Enjoy