Where Bikes Come From

Here's a customers TT bike about to get the chainstays tacked on.

See Marcroft Cycles IS real.

In Case You've Forgot

I'm a bad man.

Fine Day

I rode today, 3.5 hours, big ring. It's amazing how fast you lose fitness in the fall. I think this was the longest ride I've done in 2 months. Like it really matters what I do for training right now.

Tomorrow is the Peach of a Century event ride out of Salem. I think I'm going to fill my bottles with Jack and Coke. I should be good and lubricated by mile 50 or so.

Frame Building

I haven't really had much to say about the progress of Marcroft Cycles lately. I've sold some bikes, I have some others waiting in the wings to make purchases. Things are starting to roll along a little bit.

I read today that another custom frame builder is throwing in the towel. There seems to be a disturbing number of builders closing their doors this year. It makes my second guess this line of work as a full time profession. I'm going to adjust my goals for Marcroft Cycles. Instead of doing 100+ bikes a year I think I want to focus on doing about 25-30 per year. I think that is an attainable number that I can do while still working for 'the man'.

It's a good thing I haven't burnt all the bridges at Garmin. I'll need to remain gainfully employed there for some time to come.

The Finale

I'm done. My 2005 road season is finished. In review it wasn't too bad. I got a win, some top 5s and a shit ton of top 10s. Between WSBA and OBRA I racked up over 45 starts on the year, by far more than any other year. I met a bunch of good people and handed out 100s of Marcroft Cycles cards. I can't wait until next year. Although I still might do some cross races this season but just for fun. And by fun I mean drunk.

Speaking of next year, my wife and I will be having our worlds rocked by a new arrival. Kristin is pregnant. We were both very surprised and at the same time very excited by this news.

I guess I'll have to change my description on this blog to:
Find out what it takes to make it into the world of elite cycling, start a custom frame business, be a good dad and maintain a normal life outside of cycling

Climbing the Walls

I don't know if I've had too much caffine or listened to too much speed metal this morning but I'm busting at the seams to race. I rolled for a couple hours this morning, nice and easy to losen up for tomorrow. Now all I want to do is race. Not just race but inflict pain. Big pain. Like cry to your mom pain. I'm going to be chewing on my handle bars for most of the race tomorrow wanting to attack....gotta stay in control. The last 10 miles will be fun.

NBA vs Cycling

As some of you know I'm a pretty big basketball fan. Well maybe not that big, but out of the major american professional sports (baseball, football, hockey...) I follow basketball the closest. Remeber a few years back when a ton of NBA stars were getting busted for weed. I remeber one of the excuses was 'it's part of my culture.' Maybe cyclists that are busted for dopping should try that angle. It's no more silly than complete denial.

I stink!

I've decided that my win in Washington was a fluke. I rolled into the crit weekend in Portland with a ton of confidece and all I have to show for it is a 14th, 15th and a 24th place finish. Not what I wanted. Today was Woodland and it featured an uphill finish, 13th place. Dang it! At least I'm consistent.

Let's see if I can make some things happen in Bend and Eugene.

Dang Good Look'n

Check it out, I'm 'Photo of the Week'. I'm going to buy this image from Amara and use it for the family Christmas card.

Merry Christams Suckas!

Race Report

Here's how my Saturday went.

-Alarm goes off at 5:00AM. Shit I've gotta get going. I calculated that I needed to leave Salem no later than 6:00AM to get to Gig Harbor in time to get through registration, duke, prep the bike, pin numbers, kit up, piss, roll around looking good and make it to the start line on time.
-Load my bike and gear. Load Cree's bike and goodies taking extra care not to scratch the new bike.
-Hit the road.
-Stop at Starbucks for coffee and a bagel
-Dammit no bagels! Fine, give me that walnut-rasin baggett....yuck. But it was a better choice than frosted lemon pound cake.
-Drive north
-Crank up i-Pod
-Crap I forgot my sunglasses. I guess I'll be squinting all day
-Countinue driving north
-Contunue blasting my playlists
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-Still driving
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-Sweet the Tacoma narrows bridge. I then realize I still have a problem with giant man made expanses across bodies of water. As i cross trhe bridge I notice I'm hunched over the steering wheel driving very tense and my palms are sweaty.
-Find the race and park the hooptie
-Get my rental number and go through the pre race rituals
-Hear how everyone is searching for late season upgrade points, myself included.
-Line up at the start. We didn't really have a pre-race meeting, or maybe I just wasn't included, or maybe i just missed it because I was too busy rolling around flexing for the fans. Anyway, it was kinda known that because this was Gillette's race he should get the win and he placed 3rd at the first race of the series. Col by me. He wins, I get a top 5 and get to keep all my toes.
-Race starts. Russ is the offical in the caravan behind us. If I get dropped I'm sure he'll ask the driver to run me into the ditch to put me out of my misery. That's motivation.
-The course is sweet. One longish climb followed by a buch of false flats and rollers.
-Broadmark is active all day marking guys and attacking the group. We had 5-6 guys and Garage had the same. Wines was there and Second Ascent. So there were some teams represented.
-It was apparent that the race was going to come down to a sprint finish as nothing was getting up the road. Typical cat 3 racing. Oh well.
-Race finish. 3 Miles to go: take a flyer with a Second Ascent rider. No soup! We come back. 5km to go I'm sitting 6th wheel and a RAD racer puts me into the ditch! I recover without losing any ground and promptly flick the RAD racer and take the 5th wheel. 1km to go: the pace is getting hgher and Gillette is second wheel. 350 meters to go: Gillette goes long, damn! He's got big balls! 200 meters to go: We get both lanes and I come out into the left lane and wind it up. 100 meters to go: I've passed the five guys that were in front of me including Gillette. 50 Meters to go:....holly shit I'm going to win. Across the finish line: Arms in the air and a holla! I hope my jersey was zipped up for the photos.
-Feel a sense of releif as in 5+ years of racing bikes this is my first win.
-Get congratulated by every Broadmarker I see.
-Find out we went 1-2 in the sprint.
-Hear there was a nasty crash in the group at 100 meters and a Broadmark rider went down.
-Immediately go back to find out if they are OK.
-Find out it's Ted and he's pretty banged up. Damn it! And he's the wheel I was on fo most of the final 10km. Get well soon!
-Ride back to the parking lot feeling on cloud nine.
-More congratulations.
-Change.
-Hand off custom Marcroft for delivery to Russ's brother.
-Hit the road home, calling and texting everyone I've ever trained with.
-Stop at Burgerville for a cheese burger and fries...don't judge! I earned this!

In all: 8 hours of driving, 1.5 hours of racing and my first win. Not too bad.

I Won...

Can you believe it? I actually won a race and it had more than 10 people in it. I'm still in disbief.

If you don't believe me check out the cat 3 results for the Gig Harbor Circuit race WSBA

Nevermind

Apparently that giant cock of Floyds on stage 17 was merely a testosterone injected ego. I hope he's able to clear his name and I hope he smacks his docter for screwing up.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to talk my wife into some rigorous sex to elevate my testosterone level. I've got some big races this weekend.

Peace!!

The Floyd

I think we all know who has the kong dong in the pro peloton now. A day after getting his ass kicked on the last cols of the stage, the Floyd comes back and rides all the 'contenders' off his wheel with 120km to go. Thus getting the stage win and moving from 11th in GC to 31 seconds out of the lead. Wow! A move that will get you some respect in the peloton. Eve nthe great uni-balled one should be impressed.

Step aside please, we need to make room for the Floyd and his gigantic cock.

I'm Back

After 2 weeks of living with the hippies and Californian transplants in Ashland I'm back home and ready to move Marcroft Cycles into the next phase. That phase....Titanium frames. I've been busting ass getting my shop dialed in for Ti frame manufacturing so I can build up a new road frame and MTB SS. It's going pretty smooth and I should be up and running in another week.

I'm putting together some exciting stuff for the up coming cyclocross season. Trying to sweet talk riders to be on my bikes and kits is tough business. I always feel like a used car saleman but oh well, if that's what it takes. I've got some good people that have shown interest, I just need to get them nailed down.

It's very important for me to have good representation at the cross races in Oregon. Since they get over 600 entries per race, that's 600 potental customers in one place, at one time. Bitch'n.

Oh and BTW I have silly good fitness right now. I've got a build up over the next month that will have me destroying the field in no time. I shouild rack up some serious upgrade pionts in the coming weeks. Finally.

Class Act

I'm leaving for 2 more weeks of training in Ashland. That's right, I'll soon be able to offer titanium bikes. It's funny how as soon as I mention that custom Ti bikes will be avaliable soon from Marcroft Cycles people light up. Nobody wants steel right now. Even if I can make a lighter, better riding and cheaper frame from steel. Oh well, I gotta give the people what they want right? Whatever puts food on the table.

I've got a couple bikes at a custom painter right now. I can't wait to get them back. I'm not one to get too excited about pretty paint but if his portfolio is any indication these bike will look sweet. I'll get pictures up on my site soon. Which brings me to the website. I have a guy getting a site together right now. He's a graphic artist that has a good eye for color and all things cool. Along with the site he's doing up a kit design for me to race in next year. I've got to get out of the kit that has a Belgium painted/Taiwan made frame company on it. I wish I had the money and resources to replace that name with mine. Oh well in time I suppose.

I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing time in Ashland just going to class and then riding my bike around the Rouge Valley. I hope to use it as a little training camp and build some fitness for the second half of the season. I want to turn my top 10s into top 5s. You never know I might actually win a race. That would go a lot towards my upgrade.

Later

Almost Tour Time

Keep up to date with Der Kiaser's inner most thoughts.

Der Kaiser

Road Bike Success

I've gotten feed back from the first road bike I built for another rider....he loves it!

I have to say that I'm releived. He says it does everything he wanted plus some.

Now if I can only convince more poeple that steel is indeed real.

Off to Ashland

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm rolling to Ashland with a buddy to do some mountain biking and whoop ass at a road race. I love riding my mountain bike down there. The single track is so sweet. It's one of the few places you can ride a hardtail and not seem lame. You won't hear a bunch of talk about how much travel there bike has and how they did this 'killer 15 foot drop.' Whatever, just ride your bike.

Peace

Tri-Geeks

It would seem it takes an act of God for me to post anymore. Actually it only takes one a-hole tri-geek. You see, I was out for a little recovory/I gotta sell some bikes ride on Tuesday and I had a little run in with a local short short wearer. First off let me state that this group ride has been dubbed the 'hour of power' by some. It's gives all the wannabees in town that can't hang on the Wednesday night world championship ride to put the screws to rec riders that just want to ride their bikes with a group and socailize. Anyway I do these rides sometimes because I know everyone there and it gives me a chance to show off my frames and let people know what I've been up to.

There was this dude there on a naked Trek Madone with clip on bars. I noticed that he had his saddle jammed as far forward as possible and he was wearing the lamest kit ever. Short black shorts with a sleevless jersey. He sceamed triathelete. Hey, whatever, he's gotta get in his miles and what the hell he's on a bike, he gotta be a cool guy...right? Well not really. Everythig was going fine. The 'superstars' were putting the boots to the group, I was sitting in rapping with someone about my latest bike build, everything was nornal until I look up at the front of the group. I see Mr. 'I Own running Shoes that I Actually Run in' at the front of the goup, head down in his TT bars motoring away. Ah shit, that's not right. Every cyclist knows that it's a cardnail sin to ride in your TT bars at the front of the group. Well I thought this guy must be new to group riding and I should give him a pointer on group riding etiquette.

I roll up to him at say, 'Hey how's it going. Just a little pointer, it's not cool to ride in your bars while riding in a group. It's not safe'

His response, 'I'll ride in my bars when I want. You don't need to give me pointers.'

What the hell!! He's lucky I didn't saddle smack him into the ditch. I explained to him I wasn't trying to be a dick to him, I was just looking out for the safety of the group and letting him know what isn't acceptable in a group atmosphere. Well he wasn't listening and continued to tell me that it's alright and he'll do what he wants, when he wants.

Screw him! I didn't speak with him the rest of the ride.

I know that roadies have an elitist aditude and I'm aware of that. I try to speak with all cyclists, even if they are riding a recumbant. I didn't expect this attitude from at tri-geek.

So, here's to you on the Madone geeked out with clip on bars....Get Bent!!

Readership Up??

It's been brought to my attention that people have been looking at my website and blog. No way!

First off let me say the Marcroft Cycles website is in development and the splash page that you see today is just a place holder.

As far as the blog goes, I promise not to get drunk and post any more. And I swear I'll update more often.

Peace!