Since I last posted the Easter Bummy (what Allie Rue called it) story I've received so many emails with really cool comments and concerns. I had no idea so many people from all over the world where reading this BLOG, I hope we as a team can get on our feet for Sea Otter, we've over come so many obstacles in such a short period of time to have such a small group of people to set us back! I still don't have any tools, bikes, or parts in my possession and we only have 14 days until the first race at Sea Otter. Talk about working on a tight time line, ok, ok, ok I've got some other things on my mind other then crying over spilled milk!

New MOTO...

I got's me a motorcycle!!! That's Right a big bike, not a scooter, a KTM 250 EXC (2 Stroke), damn that thing is soooo damn fast, for reals, I'm busting wheelies in 4th gear and going fast, burrrrraaaaa! One of the funny things according to eye witnesses; is seeing a skinny 130 pound ex-cross country racer ripping around on a "big" bike. My ex-Independent Fabrication teammate Ken Helgeson has convinced me that I need to race a Hare Scramble this weekend, so I've only owned the bike for 4 days but I'm in for a 2 hour endurance motorcycle race north of Denver...keep your fingers crossed for me.

Looks like someone bought my scooter in FL, so now I have to learn about freight shipping a scooter. Hummm? Oh well it will be a fun learning experience.

Oh if anyone has a ton of bicycle shop experience and is looking to relocate to Colorado Springs send you resume to Mike Blackmore (a.k.a Blackie) c/o Colorado Cyclist and see about getting your self a jobby job at a sweet ass mail-order company! See Blackie I told ya I would post it, just better late then never, right?

Easter Sunday Thieves

Bummer today we lost everything in our team trailer, that's right everything, YES EVERYTHING! Some thieves decided to clean up the storage facility that our trailer was parked at on Easter Sunday. I'm making an inventory list of everything in the trailer, man its hard to remember how many M5 bolts you have!?!? I'm not sure how Sea Otter will turn out, we have the doors ripped of off our little trailer right now, no bikes, no parts, everything is gone! All my tools and repair stands, they even took my HIKING BOOTS, yes, used stinky hiking boots! So I'll be learning how to reattach trailer doors and OVER ENGINEER the latches! I guess I'm bummer about everything so if you know someone thats a theif please kick a few hundred times for me. I think the next few days are going to be long days once again, so much for my mini vacation, i'll keep you informed as the caper unfolds. I hope to be in much better spirts once I can get to my mobil workshop and evaluate exactlay how much damage repair is needed and hope that our sponsors can choke up some bikes for Sea Otter, my fingers are crossed!

Think I can get by at Sea Otter with a screw driver and Duct-tape?

Tahnks for reading!
B Ho

Happy Easter



I keep added more links from my friends. Jeremiah from DylanDeanDesigns.com busted out some sweet pictures of all the pro teams at the NORBA Nat #2 NOVA, lots of hard work for a gravity photographer, he was bummer about no chair lift, no wild parties held by downhillers, but managed to hike 20+ miles, battling rattle snakes to get these top shelf pictures! Nice work Jeremiah!

Ford Specialized Team
Amon Pease (Intense XC) someone to keep an eye on this year!

I just bought my 2004 Yamaha Zuma Scooter but I’ve already grown out of it, I need a Trail Bike badly “no doubt, no doubt at all” so this baby must go! Here is my ebay auction, please pass the link along to help a poor team mechanic get a KTM EXC 250…they aren’t cheap! Hutch finally got his “Pit Bike” a Honda 2005 CRF 50, It’s little but he’s dead set on racing Mini Bike Nationals in Las Vegas! Sunday night after Sea Otter tech is all packed up, maybe around 9:00pm we’re going out to celebrate his birthday, I mean BIG TIME! Stop by and find out the where abouts of the shenanigans Sunday afternoon.

I miss La Salsa…Good thing I fly into Tucson April 6 at dinner time, land, pick up baggage, and straight to LA SALSA!!! Only 10 more days until a tasty Cancun Shrimp Burro. Someone should open a La Salsa in Downtown Colorado Springs.

Backcountry


So I'm finally settled into my home environment once again. My plans are simple; relax, do some epic MTB rides, and just enjoy life to it's fullest. But snow stopped my "epic" day, so plan B was set forward with out my knowledge. Blackie called me at NOON and said his day went to shit, he left work early, explained that he needed to blow off some steam and the local watering hole, skeptical, a light weight, and not really willing to piss a day away drinking I said yes. Damn straight it was so much fun! Bars, meeting new people, drinking, dinner at the point, more beers, heckling models, mixed drinks, and even bowling! Good Times, Thanks Blackie!!!

I'm working for a team with really light weight riders (-120lbs) so I've been doing some reasearch on the most important weight to consider in bicycle theory: Un-sprung weight or drive train (Rotational) weight. Here is an interseting artical and Katie Compton's (Womans CX Nat Champion) Dad's web site.

What??? Josh and Myself on a Single Speed ride

Build her a cake of somesing



Getting my drive on!

I left the 2nd NORBA Nat Monday to take Sara to the airport and head back down to Tucson where the team is temporally set-up, but for some strange reason I decided I needed to go home and just like that I packed up and started driving 850 miles to Colorado Springs at 2pm! I still have no clue why Monday at 2pm I needed to embark on a 12 hour drive, but nonetheless I'm now at home in my house (insert happy sigh) enjoying some sweet mountain air. Looks like this week is going to be a pretty hectic week; parts orders for Sea Otter, well, mostly some sweet Specialized UST Fast Track S-Works, and then off to Vail for a few days of late season snow...Hummm Tele-skis or Snowboard? Wow it's a tough decision!

I read a quote on Allie Rau's (Pro Woman's Super D winner 2004) email line that is so good I had to post it: "Why are we all in this hand basket and where are we going again?" now that's top shelf! I'm also thinking I need to invoke "post delay" yes it's like "pleasure delay" but my new term for BLOG sites...think about it I cant just keep feeding it everytime a reader wants it, right? I need to hold off a few days and get everyone good and ready.

Thanks to everyone that left beer at the trailer this weekend it's still being used (like as I write this)! Cody Peterson your more then welcome to give me a six pack of Ska Brewing any time you feel like it! Shep, now we're even; guess that's a good trade? Bar ends for a Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper?!?! Ford Specialized -1 Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper vs. Haro -1 set Bar Ends, hehehe, Thanks Shep!

And now for the fallen mechanic Marty "Foye" Troute "beds I've slept in this year counter":
- 9 beds to date.
- 0 strange women that I've woken up next too (yes mom that's ZERO).
- 4568 miles driven

OK I'm off to do some serious sleeping.
Thanks for reading!
B Ho

I almost forgot here are some pictures from
David Meyers Photo now posted on the Ford Cycling web site, enjoy.

Racing Super D Pro Mechanic Style!!!


and that's a wrap!

That's it folks another weekend of mistakes, mayhem, and a long learning process for the "green" mechanic on the circuit. As for the results promised, well thanks to the inefficiency of tabulation for the general classification (come on how can you split a STXC and get an effective tabulation of results) I was tired and called it quits on chasing down results, so I'll give it a try at Sea Otter and see what happens. What makes me really think is that o.k. I'm getting the hang of this whole pro mechanic deal, but now I have 3 months until the next NORBA National, Weird? I mean most of the US is still sitting in a blanket of snow and I'm sure as hell missing some sweet ass tele-skiing in Colorado for this early season race stuff, wow it's really starting to sound like work! Hummm...

Thanks to Phil T for hooking me up with all of my new sweet ass SPY glasses this weekend, John at SRAM for all the tech support out of his mini-van and golf case of parts (you try to smuggle bike parts w/o paying freight charges), all the team mechanics for answering my questions, Hutch for letting me race super d on a work day and even helping me wash bikes in the dark!

Speaking of Super D, let me tell you some places need not hold a Super D event and Nova is now on my list of places that I be hatin for gravity events even though Jeremiah Dean of Dylan Dean Designs stopped by to shoot our team and some of the other XC racers out-ah-suffering in the desert, so check out his site and see what he's got cooking (maybe give it a few days, he's driving back to so-cal). Amon Pease my ex-Intense teammate made his mark in the past 2 NORBA Nats clawing his way into the top 20 rankings, very sweet Amon! Keep up the good work!!!

Here is the list of the woman's XC results (complements of one of our athleats Sara Bresnick-Zocchi):

1) S. Vanlandingham
2) A. Dunlap
3) S. Haywood
4) W. Koerber
5) M. McConnneloug
6) K. Hanusova
7) H. Irmiger
8) M. Thomas
9) L. Bessette
10) J. Smith
11) W. Simms
12) KELLI EMMETT (Ford Cycling)
13) K. Barnholt
14) G. Gould
15) J. Copnall
16) DARA MARKS-MARINO (Ford Cycling)

24) SARA BRESNICK-ZOCCHI (Ford Cycling)

Work, Work, WORK...



Not much here at Nova other then a ton of work and not enough sleep. I love this job but it sure is hard, Jay hit a sweet 3rd in the Marathon so Podium number Two for the season is in the book...thanks Jungle Jay! 82 mile of blood sweat, and tears!
Ok here are the results from today's TT, now I've gota go to bed so I can finish up and race the Super D, then work on bikes into the dark of night.

Woman's, PRO

1) S. Haywood
2) W. Koerber
3) K. Hanusova
4) A. Dunlap
5) S. Vanlandingham
6) M. McConneloug
7) H. Irmiger
8) M. Thomas
9) K. Sherwin
10) W. Simms
11) Dara Marks-Marino (FORD CYCLING)
14) Kelli Emmett (FORD CYCLING)
17) Sara Bresnick-Zocchi (FORD CYCLING)

Men, PRO

1) G. Kabush
2) A. Craig
3) T. Lowe
4) JHK
5) L. Killeen
6) J. Bishop
7) C. Sheppard
8) S. Taberlay
9) J. Sager
10) T. Wells
22) Amon Pease
23) Jay Henery (FORD CYCLING)

Racing and more mud removal...

Sat was a blast in AZ, the 4th stop of the local AZ series and I'm all signed up for an ass whoppin. The day played of with sunny sky's, light wind, and 75 degs of warmth. It couldn't be a better day for some outa' shape mechanic to pedal his ass off and literally float on 2004 fitness and genetics. The AZ single speeders (about 20 of them) where soooo cool, 3 mile fire road start was at a moderate pace, I mean trash talking, no heavy breathing, and no idiots attacking with rpm's that would make a sewing machine envious. I ended up on the podium bubble, that's right 6th, but I went as fast and hard as I could, shoot even Hutch found a way during his warm up to hit the feed zone (his favorite spot) and hand a brother a bottle on a hot AZ day!


It has been nice watching the pro races so I finished and checked out my 2nd pro race of the season...the Japanese National Team was here, so I had tons of time with the Japanese National Mechanic "Bass Man" shooting the shit in the feed zone during the pro race. Jesse was going pretty damn good that day, 2nd place again to the Japanese (not even going to attempt names) National CX Champ! Nice work Jesse and judging by your jersey I would say maybe you where going pretty damn hard!

Sunday was a Mechanics day:
Detail bikes from the TX Race that was take everything off, yes everything! If it had a bolt holding it on I took it apart. That Damn mud was EVERYWHERE! So after 3 hours per bike they are almost race ready again, well race ready in my eyes, I'm sure they where race ready last week but "Type A" mechanic had to put fresh grease in everything, new chains, new cables, check brk lines for contamination, pull free hub body's off of wheels, and other "Type A" characteristics.

Things I noticed in AZ this week:

• If your an over weight female with a tan it's ok to wear a shirt 3 sizes too small!


• Camel Toes are still a fashion statment for some!

***Also, If I have a High Speed Internet connection at NOVA I'll be posting results as soon as the official results arrive...Stay tuned and tell your friends!***

The kid in this pic is hating life, but if you look down the line its pretty much all shits and giggles to everyone but the kid that's next, maybe he's thinking "damn that was some funny shit about 5 kids ago, but now it's my turn...this sucks"! That's still cracking me up!



From: Jake "Snake" Rubelt

"first things first. You got to get a hold of all the girls skin suits and sew those arms down a bit tighter on those girls." "that flappy skin suit looks slow and ridiculous. hahahahah" "Time for the team mechanic to bust out the sewing kit" Harsh Snake, HARSH! Although maybe I can use my new safety wire kit?!?! Cocky cat 1 Rodies always worried about how they look!

Does anyone know about mini-motos? Hutch is on a full blown mission to buy a Honda CRF 50 for the stock class at Mini-Nats held in Vegas! I'm started thinking why in the hell would a grown man want to ride a little kids moto? Then I realized that in Colorado Springs (my home) we have some of the sweetest "pixie" or pit-bike races on 16" bikes and a Thursday night bar crawl completely dedicated to the bikes we first pedaled. So now the question is becoming more and more apparent that once you reach a certain age you regress back to your childhood, Now I'm no psyche major, but some of us just cant grow up (yes that means me) and for Hutch he's jonesing for a pit bike! So If you have any good leads on where to get a good deal on a Honda CRF50 drop me a line!

News Flash...Looks like David (Ford Cycling $$$ man) has retracted his "I'm gona kick yo ass" statement from Hutch in the up and coming STXC at NOVA, maybe that last post about us riding out a Fantasy Island made him think what he really got himself into? As snake would say "PAIN CAVE"! Now I'm pretty sure if I keep harassing my boss on my Blog I'll be looking for a new job so the disclaimer will read...ummm...just kidding David?

Ok now I have to go prepare for the Single Speed race out at Gardner Canyon, AZ tomorrow...Wait what do you do to prepare for a single speed race? Check the gears over? Maybe I'll just hit La Salsa and get a few beers with my burrito!

B Ho

As promised here is the Ozona, TX Mullet



I need to learn how to carry my camera with me at all times; I'm fascinated with the mullet and cant get enough of it, I see them and have to stair. So tonight I'm at La Salsa eating some of the best Mexican food in the southwest and along comes a sweet mullet, but it wasn't the dude with a mullet that made me stare for any length of time, it was your basic crew cut with about 18" of flow in the rear...but it was the fathers son that had the EXACT same mullet as his dad that just caused a commotion in my head! It was truly amazing how impressionable our youth is and this kid truly looked up to his fathers masterpiece of a hair due, all I could think is think that apple didn't fall far from the tree and it truly was "like father, like son".

I headed out the Moto Track tonight to watch Hutch race his 100cc 4 stroke motocross bike against some 8-10 year olds, man that guy was relentless on the kids, block turns, brake checking, all the old school tricks! The cool thing was how happy he was after, guess that's his vent for getting his frustrations out.

Special thanks to Bill Deputy (a.k.a. Mr. Big) at mountainbikeRACER.com for listing Dara's Ford Diary and my BLOG! Check out Dara's Link here and mine here! We truly apriciate your support Bill.

Ok and now for my first contest, It's name my web domain:

The Rules:

1) The URL can not be in use.
2) It has to pertain to cycling and mechanics.
3) contest ends March 23rd
4) winner gets a pair of Ford Pro Team socks shipped.
5) ummm..that's it, now start thinking

Please email all entries HERE

Take Care,
B Ho

Kelli Focused at STXC NORBA Nat #1



Nice work Amon Pease (my ex Intense teammate from 2004) 29th over all at the first NORBA Nat...see what happens when you don't stand on your feet all day long working on bikes. NICE WORK!

Hutch and I did a sweet ass 2 hour MTB ride at Fantasy Island, GOT DAMN that old dude (kidding) is fit and really starting to show some real Masters Expert form! Watch-out all you 44-49 experts that cat is going to win the National STXC!!! Too bad he has to race against the 30-39 Experts, but Hutch still says "Fuck-It" I'll put those young bitches in the pain cave, that means you too David (Ford Cycling $$$ Man) even though he told Hutch "I'll Kick your ass at Nova" (in the STXC) oh it's on with management at Ford Cycling. Stay tuned for updates on the fist-ah-cuffs at Nova Desert Classic.

My 2004 Yamaha Zuma (note: custom racing strips)! 

Day of Rest!

Today is not really a day I'm going to consider productive form a mechanical stand point! I'm hitting some emails, drinking some Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, and laying low at Hutch's house (Tucson, AZ). I guess one thing I've learned form cycling over the past few years is persistence and structure, now that I'm not riding all the time rest days seem obsolete but with anything you need to learn a balance and how to just walk away form your profession for a rest day. Weird, burn out can happen in everything not just cycling, it's in relationships, work, and everyday repetitive life. Adaptation to routine kills me, so here I am tiring my hardest to rest and not work today, but still thinking about what needs to be done for a flawless Nova race is killing me...can anyone say OCD? Perhaps I really do like my job as much as I love cycling and It's hard to take a day off from something you have such a passion for!

On a lighter note: I'm really getting into scooters. I just bought a Yamaha Zuma and am in the process of modifying it, yes that's right I'm modifying a 49.5cc scooter. I've been checking out some sweet pipes and other upgrades at:

http://www.provoscooter.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=84

And believe it-or-not chicks seem to dig dudes on a scooter, well at least the 18-20 year olds do...Hummm, ok BAD BILLY, BAD!

I've also been checking out other blogs/websites that are interesting. Here is a list of sites I've been checking out:

Jason Sager's BLOG
Don't Mess With TEXAS!

Todd Wells BLOG
Cocky Olympian that Rants about Burritos!

Well, I've gota go cruise the U of A on my scooter, I'm such a DORK!

Late Night 

Late Night in the Team Trailer 

Mud, Mud, MUD!!!

Ding, Ding, Ding Round 1 of the NORBA National MTB series is now officially in the books and as a mechanic it was an uneventful race, wait that's not to say I didn't bust my ass working 10-14 hour days, but all 4 of my athletes bikes held together and for the most part they worked flawless with the exception of what my friend Jesse Rients said "its like riding in POOP SOUP" and that poop soup hindered a few things, but we prevailed w/o a mechanical! Jay Henery is now my new idol for racing the "Iron Chamois" event, that cat not only raced the 3 day MTB stage race, but added a 62 mile MTB Marathon race a few hours before the start of the National Stage Race...Now I understand why I always finished 10-15 minutes behind him in XC, He's and ANIMAL; guess that's how you get a nick name like "Jungle Jay". Nice work!

A good friend of mine Foye Troute (former Shimano USA Multi Service) once sent me updates from the road, like how many different beds he stayed in, so in the way gangsters pour a little 40 oz on the ground for fallen BRO's I'm going to keep a running log of different beds I've stayed in for good ol' Foye who is now sitting at a desk working for American Cycling Group! Here it is Foye! 7 different beds as of the New Year, but I haven't woken up with any strange women yet asking myself "What in the hell did I do last night?".

As far as meeting really cool people in the industry, well I cant believe how helpful the other seasoned mechanics are. Nothing but love, thanks Fisher, Trek, Rocky, Kona, Specialized, Shimano, and all of the cool cats at SRAM! Plus Chris Davidson your a rock-star in my book for adding cool stuff about me and the team on your cyclingnews.com blog...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2005/diaries/chris/?id=chris0503

As for me...well I cant get the racing bug out of my system, so I'll be going out for round 2 of my ass whoopin' at the next AZ state race in the one-speed class, look out "big air DJ" (DJ is the new Innovations rep and one hell of a good single speeder). So I'll be sure to update you on the can of ass whoopin' I open on myself! I'll also have some pictures posted this week form the travels to and from the National including a sweet MULLET that I found in Ozona, TX. WOW!

http://www.fordcycling.com/photos/2005/tapatio/index.htm

Take Care,
B Ho