Small Wins Count - Big Wins Count More

After a bunch of fantastic years travelling around Europe I thought to myself - this European life is nuts, I have to go back to Canada and live a 'normal' life. I have to go to Canada and pursue this normalized lifestyle that proves the Euros to be ABSOLUTE nut-jobs. 

Two years into my return to Canada - I scrape up enough money to naively afford a 1973 VW Camper Van.  At this point I think to myself "Boy am I kicking ass now".  

Fondly I recall in the same VW Camper Van - that in 2002 I received a speeding ticket in North Vancouver driving THE VAN.  According to the lovely police officer who pulled me over -  I was doing 20km/hr over the posted speed limit.  

I will note the infraction was committed in the on a downhill road in the rain - on a certain stretch of road that no savvy VW camper van owner would ever touch the brakes on - EVER.  Unless of course they wanted to obliterate themselves, everyone around them, and alot of trees, shrubs, and neighbourhood cats.  

I didn't ask the officer to repeat what he just told me.  Being a VW owner - when you are going 20km/hr over the speed limit - you fucking know you are. You don't need a police officer to tell you what just happened.  

We all know that getting a shitty ass VW camper van from the seventies up to speed in itself is a bit of a big deal - and if we reach the promised land of 20km/hr or more over the speed limit - we fucking know well before you nabbed us.  

I told the officer I deserve an award for getting the van up to that speed, I insist that this is no small feet.  I with a clear mind continue to explain to the officer it took about 18 blocks of planning to reach this speed - ON A DOWNHILL.  

Which leads me to the fact a 62 year old road racer in the glorious US of A was recently nabbed for EPO & testosterone use.  The rider - even though he was 62 years old - managed to fight it out and competitively compete in Cat 1 races for a while, and unfortunately recently dropped to Cat 3 road races. 

That's right - some drug testing agency in the USA - nabbed a senior citizen.  They nabbed a 62 year old. 

Now - in case you've never tried your hand at a road bicycle race - let alone anything Cat 3 or higher - these races are not easy.  Let's be crystal clear - for the 'normal' person aged 18-40, these races tend to be 'balls-to-the-wall' and extremely fast.  For anyone who is reasonably fit, trains alot, and gives it everything - you may not even be competitive at any of these levels.  

So the USADA decide to nab a 62 year old racer.  Sixty two fucking years old.  No-one else.  A senior citizen. Tell me - this is progress?

Correct me if I'm wrong - shouldn't this 62 year old guy be given an award for getting his old-ass body even on a bike in the first place - let alone keeping pace with Cat 3 guys?

So what he took some gear, let's be serious people.  'Catching' him is insanity, not progress. And honestly - was the writing not on the wall?  Whenever y ou see a 60 year old or more man ripping it up with the Cat 3's - what do you think is going on?  Leave him be.

Think I'm a hyprocrite - good for you.  Get rid of your smartphone, coffee, asprin and your vehicle for a year then get back to me.  Then tell me how the 'puritan' lifestyle helped you get ahead. 

The Free Stuff Giveaway Continues

I am having a hard time believing I'm doing this giveaway since it is so damn good. Sure, I'm a nice guy and all, but this is a sweet deal. Let's start out with what is actually on the line here:

One Brand New

Michelin 26" x 2" XCR Dry mountain bike tire

High volume dual compound casing

Super light: 600 grams per tire

Comes with two 26" x 1.9-2.125 tubes

(schraeder valve)

The name of this tire pretty much says it all: the XCR Dry 2 is meant for fast rolling dry XC terrain. This bad boy is an XC racers dream, the stuff the fast lycra clad crew are using. I won't give you all the jibberish you always hear about & read in the normal tire reviews but I'll tell you they are damn fast. I rode a pair of these in a particularily dry & hot edition of the TransRockies Challenge (http://www.transrockies.com/) and was blown away at the level of grip & low rolling resistance.

So anyhow - how do you get your hands on this tire? All you need to do is to be the first to donate to my MoSpace page (http://ca.movember.com/mospace/161239) in the next 24 hours and the tire & tubes are yours. I'll even cover the postage to get the swag over to you.

And just think of this - a donation of around $20 or so (your choice) is gonna net you a sweet new XC tire and two new tubes. How rad is that? You're helping out a great cause, and getting something more in return too.

When you donate be sure to include your address in the message body of the donation page and then I can mail you the goods. Good luck!

Update - Movember Free Stuff Giveaway

Need to say a big hell-yeah to Stewart Harper. Our pal Stew was the first to donate to my MoSpace last week and won himself a pretty sweet set of Race Face handlebars. Congrats to Stew. As part of my commitment to Movember very soon I'll be doing the second giveaway of my Movember Free Stuff Giveaway. The next prize? Hint: they're fast and go on mountain bike wheels...

Until then I'll also use this time & energy to let you know about a little project our good buddy Stewart Harper is working on. The gig is called GoBreadCrumbs (www.gobreadcrumbs.com), a wicked online application where us adventure, bike & fitness nuts can not only upload our sweet GPS tracks via GPS device or smartphone, but also attach those beauty action shots & videos as further proof of just how rad we all are.

Stew is one of the main big-shots behind the GoBreadcrumbs project, and I met him one year thru the NSRide weekly rides. Although Stew showed up for the rides on a barely functional Cannondale hardtail c/w 4" Lefty travel fork we still took him in as one of our own, and I quickly learned that despite of his funny choice in bikes Stew is a regular dude like you and I and created GoBreadCrumbs as a result of alot of his own riding and alot of adventures.

Cool stuff the site can do for you includes posting your ride details to Facebook, share tracks with friends, and soon post to Twitter. I really like the 'Manage Track' feature. This gives the user the ability to edit those instances when their GPS device goes a bit 'drunken sailor' and records instances like - 'holy shit, I rode my rode bike right into the ocean'. You can drag the track back to where you actually rode in the first place, and voila - save it.

So - if you ride, run, hike, walk, kayak, snowboard, ski, motorbike, use anything with a GPS device that tracks, get on GoBreadCrumbs and give it a whirl. Very cool app.

The 'Need to Know':

Web: www.gobreadcrumbs.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gobreadcrumbs
Twitter: @gobreadcrumbs

Movember Giveaway

Right folks, I know you're all pretty saavy. Most of you are on Twitter, Facebook and so-on & probably already know it’s Movember. Even if you’re not on any of these social networks is easy to tell it's Movember just by taking a quick look around.

"What is up with all these moustaches, just why in the hell are there more & more guys these days looking like my creepy Uncle Rick anyhow?”

I’m no exception, right now I look like your creepy Uncle Rick because I'm doing Movember and I look hideous. As I’m quite unskilled and not-so-smart when it comes to cancer research my talent is limited to growing a disgusting 'stache. No shame though - I’m ready to look creepy and foul for a month to help raise some $$$ for prostate cancer research.

However there is one major difference between me & the other schmo's doing Movember:

I have free bike sh*&t to give away.

What?!?! That's right, free bike stuff. For the following 2 weeks there will be special random giveaways for donations made to my ‘Mo Space’:

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/161239

What will the giveaways be you ask? Sweet bike parts.

Today I kick it off by putting up for grabs a sweet set of never-been-used handlebars by Race Face. Why handlebars? I’ll let you take a guess on that one….hint: see the pic on my MoSpace page….

Have a look:

What you need to know:
- aluminum riser bar
- fits stem with a 25.4mm clamp
- 1.5" rise
- 9 degree bend
- weight: 350 grams
- BRAND NEW

How do you enter? Be the first person between now and 500pm PST on the 14th of November that donates to my MoSpace page - first person to donate wins the bars. I'll even pay for the shipping (snail mail though, gotta keep costs down). If you donate please include your email address in the message box so I can contact you if you win.

So don't be stingy. Even if you don't need a brand new set of RACE FACE HANDLEBARS maybe one of your riding buddies does so DONATE NOW.

And good luck to everyone and remember to watch this space because over the next two weeks I'll be giving away more cool stuff. Maybe some jerseys, wheels perhaps, stems, tires. Who knows!

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/161239/