New Link added...

I just added Nick Martins site to my links. He just updated his site w/ a call in from my roommate Doug Ryden (see past interview). Check this white Rasta out Click Here for the voice update...hehe

Hope all is well, one more week of work for me and 3 moths of play, damn, my life is hard!

SOLD

The only thing Wal-Mart is good for!

A few weeks back Mike BLACKmore a.k.a. Blackie (as pictured) and I went Dickies work short shopping. Just an FYI Wal-Mart has the cheapest Dickies work shorts, $15.92 plus TAX buys you any color, any size! Oh back to the story; so we hit the mall with a few useless expenditures (i.e. my new Puma Driving Shoes) and several panic attacks later we end up here…yes, Wal-Mart and one of your best bro's has a silly ass grin buying his first pair of work shorts at the cheapest price possible! As for you fellow travelers if your going to Australia buy as many as you can! Sell them to skate shops, auzzies will pay $100.00AUS for USA designer Dickies work shorts… you do the math, take 15 pairs over with you, sell them to a skate shop for $60.00AUS and clear about 35-40 US, that will pay for ½ your airfare!

Kickin some 14er ASS!

Billy atop Mt. Lincoln


Time away from work can only mean one thing, play time! Yesterday at 4:30am I found myself in a barrowed 4x4 (thanks Blackie) on the way to pick up Kelli E to hopefully bag lots of 14er’s...by arriving at Kite Lake (12,000’) @ 6:00am along with the mind set of “peak baging” Mt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln, and Mt. Bross. Yes, it sounds like a lot of hiking but why not, right?

The day was awesome! Early morning hiking (early morning, shoot crack of dawn is more like it), good company, laughing at each other about tripping over rocks while suffering from hypoxia, and doing once again what most people in other states cant! Did I mention how much I love Colorado?

I could never comprehend how cool it was to look down on all the valleys and see eye-to-eye with the other 14er’s in the area, until standing on one of those monster. It was a moment every outdoor loving person with applicable fitness should at least enjoy once in there lifetime. Well for me, I’m hooked! After yesterday I graduated into double digits of 14er’s hiked, yes that now 10 bagged with 43 more to go in Colorado alone.

Kelli "Big E" Emmett atop Mt. Bross

Semi-Retired

Overall PRO MEN SUPER D standings after round 4
Men
1 Mike West (USA) Maverick
2 Amon Pease (USA) Intense
3 Chris Eatough (USA) Trek/Vw
4 Bryan Fawley (USA) Wheelsinmotion/Kenda
5 Michael Valach (USA)
6 Tom Wehe (USA) Kenda/Norco
7 Ariel Lindsley (USA) Maverick
8 Jiro Nakamura (Jpn) Wtb
9 Troy Heflin (USA) Recycle/Marzocch
10 Billy Holmes (USA) Ford/Specialized

Ah back in Utah once again…

You have to get a kick out of this local Porter!

Note: this picture was stolen from Tony! Tony works Manitou and is a pretty cool mo-fo check out his blog at www.fixedandsingle.blogspot.com also it now linked to my site (see right hand link section!).

Now I’m off for yet another 5 weeks of travel, wrenching, and even some ride/racing!



Question:
Is pimping easy?
Answer: Yes!
Surprisingly enough that is correct.

Now thats what I'm talking about

Pro Bono Mechanic Work?

I had the privilege of helping April Lawyer (my old Teammate from last year) onto the podium twice this weekend! What a privilege to help such a caring person! Congrats Apes for all of your hard work!!!

“It’s been a while since my last update”???

My first line every time I start typing is… “It’s been a while since my last update” my conception of time is so skewed that I can’t remember the date, only where we are traveling to next. Well the last how ever many weeks are now in the book, last I remembered I was reroute to Angle Fire, NM on the 4th of JULY, now it’s some 20+ later and I’ve meet an abundance of new people, enjoyed the company of my old friends from all over the world, and even managed to make home alive thanks to the Bonner County Hospital in Sandpoint, ID. Yes Hospital and Billy Holmes usually don’t come up in the same sentence but I’m really grateful of the I.V. bag or all 4 that they pumped into me due to food poisoning and SEVER DEHYDRATON. NOW I’m home for 8 days and have no clue what to do with my time??? I got up a 6:00am this morning after agreeing with my internal clock to sleep in today, but that guy wasn’t listing too me!!! Damn it! What should I do today?



I love this picture! We had to stop at White Castle (WC) while in the Mid-West on the last stretch of our journey. So naturally I had to document the “late night” WC adventure. Now I’m not saying that the marketing marvels at WC had the demographics planned when making location choices but the 2 that we visited where located in what I like to call the CRACK district of town. I guess that’s how you can market ¼ of a hamburger for 50 cent, but if think about value…well that’s 2.00 for a whole hamburger and then all off a sudden they are way over priced for the other fast food chains. But apparently if your “cracked’ out at 2:00am (or in our case blitzed on red bull driving 40 hours straight) you’ll fall for the marketing ploy and all of a sudden your saying “got damn this is the best mini-burger I’ve ever tasted”!


With less than a month to go, the SSWC is well on its way!

Nothing new really to announce, just some details to clarify. So far the schedule looks like this:

Saturday
- Registration @ shop 10-5pm
- Late Registration @ Big Easy 5:30 -10pm

Sunday
- Rider‚s meeting @ 10am Tussey Ski area Parking lot
- Rolling start @ 10:30am
- First finishers @ 1pm
- Go-Cart qualifying @3pm
- Go-Cart finals @ 4pm
- Post Race Gathering @ Big Easy 7pm
- Awards @ Big Easy 8:30pm

Ok a sudden motivation to go running has come over my body…time to got torture myself. Take Care!

Traveling the USA…

Off Choppers!

How many truck stops have I been too in the past month? Hell, I can’t remember but this picture was by far the coolest one so far. Period. The stop hade everything Swords, Mini-bikes, mini-Choppers (as seen here) you name it they had it!

I’m now nestled in Sand Point, ID for another NORBA stop. Ahhh, a few days of rest, rides, and a little work. Wed night was off the chain, once again blessed with the presence of John Dawson, Damion Smith (Yeti Mechanic) and Paul Rowney it was sure to be a good night…details? Umm naaa, just a report of having a blast with the boys here in I-Da-Hoe.

I have a semi accurate total of miles to date: 18,478
Beds I’ve slept in: 34

Off to dinner that Chris Sheppard (Haro Team Manager/Fast as Hell Racer) is making for us. Take Care!

“now that’s anything”

Bush Diving???


I got to go home for 3 nights and brought a maniac along with me…life on the road is just too damn funny! I’ve been all over North America in the past two weeks, something like 100 hours of driving in 10 days! One thing that I’ve learned is Holiday Inn Express has free Wi-Fi and Cinnamon Rolls, how can one beat that? Plus all the rooms look the same so it’s like a bedroom you never left, “now that’s anything” (that was a Paul Rowney-ism)!

Oh here is a picture of one of my new passions “bush diving”, yes it’s dangerous, and has the potential to yield major dismemberment, well probably just an itchy rash or small abrasion but damn it I’m a risk taker at heart.

Thanks to all my friends that came out for my few nights in the COS! It’s good to have quality friends that you look forward to coming home to see; sure I’m chattering in code! Blah blah blah.

Things that I’ve seen in the past 2 weeks:

A random trucker chasing his “Big Rig” down the HWY. Note: always check the parking brake on the Haro rig so we don’t have to deal with that mess!

Rusty passing everyone in his go-kart backwards, yes, backwards. Well he did manage to spin out of control passing 3 of us on the outside of a 180 deg turn and stuffed the kart into a ditch!

A tank driving down the interstate w/a cannon attached to it?!?! Weird!

Quebec City, Canada “A”?

Travels back from the World Cup Mount-Sainte-Anne. I’m slowly moving back to the states following the Yeti racing truck filled with just about every detour possible, damn Paul Rowney made us stop for 2 hours at the go-kart track yesterday! Bummer.

I’ve been totally neglecting this site due to all the travel and shoty Internet connections, so I’m sorry and I’ll be slowly responding to my emails, please be patient.

On a recap in the past two weeks on the road, shoot I can even begin where to start! Silly parties, lots of work, epic bike rides, seeing all my friends from all over the world, Go-karts every night (fast here in Canada), chilling fishing with team Haro (Mick Hanna and co-worker Rusty), and squeezing in about 100 hours of driving has consumed the majority of my free time! I have some killer pictures so be patient once again and I’ll post them this weekend.

Also get ready for another pro rider interview… Kelli Emmett. That should be up by next week, along with miles traveled, and the “Foye Troute” beds I’ve slept in the year counter.

The world’s fastest update…

Yes, I have almost no time to update this silly BLOG right now, but I assume some people would like to know what’s going on with my travels and me. So I had my first few days with Haro, wow what a sweet team to work for!

Today after a 15 hour work day the results where clear!

Cody 1st place Pro Slolom
Shamas 5th TT
Shep 8th TT

Yes I’ve got to go sleep, sleep, and well sleep for 6 hours. I can’t wait for the 50-hour drive to Mont-Saint-Anne Sunday night.

Oh also nice work to the 3-d boys 2 in the top 10 in the TT (nice work Cody Peaterson!!!).

Take Care
Billy

What does one do with 3 months of his/her life?

Well I’m almost ready to leave town for the summer. I forgot how much of a pain in the ass traveling as a cyclist is, let alone a cyclist/mechanic. I’m bringing too much stuff but it’s all needed, I think, I mean for real; bikes, tools, work stand, clothing for riding and casual…damn this is turning into a lot of stuff! I’m off to SRAM in the morning to drop off a ton of crap to be transported to the race venue then flying out to Park City to get started working for Haro! Woo-hoo! Thanks John Dawson for hooking a brother up and taking all my stuff to the race, IOU big time!

Jason Sager thanks for keeping us updated with the D-Town gossip it’s now a daily favorite site to read, wonder how all this blog stuff is going to pan-out once the season really starts? I hope I can keep everyone informed of results and my good times while traveling the country? My fingers are crossed.

Check out this sick ass moto JUMP!!!

Humbled XC Convert!

Angle Fire World Cup DH Course

Damn, that was a hard race! I made it, no broken bones, contusions, concussions, etc.,. Practice damn near killed me, my little ass forearms kept giving out from the death grip I was putting on that 40lb DH rig. I mean come on were hitting 45+mph on the straights and pinning it into the woods, holy poo-poo, it was fast! Thanks to my boy Blackie for getting me all hooked up with CSR (Colorado Springs Racing), yes, I’m hooked on the gravity racing!

My friend Josh Powers (another SKINNY little XC racer) is in town Chillin at my house for the week. Josh and I get like little kids when we see each other (well more so then normal), so last night we decide to light off fireworks in Downtown Colorado Springs! Bad Idea, Really BAD IDEA! We finished when we where chased by pissed off neighbors and then questioned by the local authorities. Fun? Sure it was Josh and I talked our way out of the confrontation with “the Man” claiming AZ and MI stupidity. Good Times!

We’ve also narrowed down the calculation for how wide an ass can be before it’s too large… The calculation is simple, take ones torso length (shoulders to mid back) and then measure the ass in question? Thus resulting if final measurement (ass width) is grater then ones torso measurement, well you gots one large ass!

Inspired by change…

Chillin at home w/nothin better to do then bunny hop trash cans...


I’m getting everything ready for a mini road trip down to Angle Fire, NM. I’ve converted from a Pro XC racer to DH/mechanic and have managed to bust 2 ribs and tear some stuff in my shoulder (yes that’s the technical jargon for: fucking myself up!) in a short period of time, but the packing for DH is so different compared to XC! When I was doing the XC gig I would train and managed time to pack, now dirt jumping and silly little intervals take up much less time, I have an abundance of free time to ponder…Hummm, maybe I could do an XC ride then hit dirt jumps and still make it downtown to meet up with friends for a burrito? Easy street right? Almost!

Please keep in mind that over the years of XC racing I’ve managed one useless trade that only XC racers can manage to pull off! It’s TIME MISMANAGEMENT. So I’ve got a list of stuff that needs to be done before I embark on one of my first DH race endeavors (I hope I get everthing done):

Pick up Keg of cheap beer
Build up new 4X bike
Pack all riding gear (I assume I need to pack more then just SPANDEX, right?)
Pack Tools and Stand
Pick up spare parts (that’s right I have 2 days of practice to destroy parts and hurt myself before race day)
Buy a serious first aid kit w/suture kit (plus lots of ADVIL)
Bring 40lb DH Bike and 30lb 4X Bile

No wonder all the DHer’s have big Pick Up Trucks…damn that’s a lot of Shit to carry around!

P.S. If my employers at Haro are reading this I promise to be CAREFULL, yes it’s a long season and you don’t need a mechanic in a body cast :-)


Thank you to my Billy Holmes Fan Club local Colorado Springs 80907 for the picture! That was a fun night! Maybe one more fun filled night before I leave for the summer?

YES! www.wanderingwrench.com is now mine!

link my new site URL biatch...

A first ever Wandering Wrench interview with my roommate and Pro XC Racer Doug Ryden!

Judging by Doug’s pain face, He’s ALL Business!

Wandering Wrench: Which athlete do you most admire, respect?
Doug: Probably The Champ, big Al Dunlap. She’s just a badass, even if she is a girl.

WW: What’s it like being Teammates with Kathy Legg (I mean Katey Compton)?
DCR: That girl has more talent than a football player has ego. SHE A BAD FUTHERMUCKER. The only drawback is feeling like you’re descending really well, looking back and seeing a girl about to crawl up your asshole on her bike.

WW: Favorite Porn Site, Pictures or Videos?
Dougie: http://www.labatidora.net/ photos. Havent found one for video; havent really looked.

WW: What makes you angry or frustrated?
Def Con: Contradiction.

Wrench: Do you live at home? Or on your own?
Guy that I’m interviewing: I live at home, but not with my parents, nor alone. My roomate is some dick ex-racer with a goddamn blog.

Dick w/a BLOG: Have you ever shagged a MTB chick?
My Gay Roommate: You mean from the team, or a girl that rides mtn bikes? Yes for the mtbiker, no for the team.

WW: Are there any guys you race against that you wouldn't mind punching in the face-or do you just like everyone?
That guy again: Bitch slap, yes. Outright punch, no.

WW: Has there ever been a defining moment where you said to yourself "Man, I am a fast mutha focker!"?
4:20 said: Usually around 4:25 I seem to think that.

Wandering: When was your first MTB race, where, what did you ride, class, result, the feeling driving home?
Stony Bologna: Bananna belt loop, Salida CO. 1991. 2nd pl under 18 category (before they seperated juniors into categories) I was 15. Rolled in a SWEET mesh jersey, hardshell bell helmet, hiking boots, khaki hiking shorts, toe clips, canti’s, moto levers, fully rigid steel, baby. On the way home I was jealous that I couldn’t have any beer like all the other racers, but I gave mine to my dad, who drove me to the race.

Interviewer: What kind of car do you drive?
Intervieweeee: Bobby D. aka. ’98 Plymouth Neon.

WW: Favorite place to hangout (besides home)?
Bla bla bla: Single track.

Wrench: Have you ever passed out from being drunk?
Doug: Not this week, and not while riding, but I wont say about last week or the week before that, and I seem to be able to dismount while still concious.
Rebuttal: LIAR!

WW: Who would win in a real fight between Danny Pate and Todd Wells? Why? Speculation: The Pate. I don’t know t.w. real well, but I could just see d.p. goin’ ape shit. Plus he’s got all those jelly bellies. Those things are like crack.

WW: If you saw George W Bush in the woods while on a MTB ride, what would you do?
PC Guy: I reserve the right to not answer this as there is still a law on the books where any citizen can go to jail for even Speaking about harming the president.

Wandering Wrench: Who is Greg Frozley? And why is he so mysterious?
Dougie: You mean MISTER Alison Dunlap?!!!? He’s kinda like Ned Overend, Craig Kelly, and some really famous Norwegian who is a super good telemarker and skate skiier, all wraped up in one fabulous husband of a world champ and probable father of said world champ’s children. As for the mystery, it can be simply explained in the attached photo (beardedfrozley_fun)
BeardedFrol_fun.jpg

Mid-West Swing

Jesse Rients is now a Mid-West farmer/Pro XC Racer with his new Massey Ferguson MX180 all wheel drive Tractor. By the looks of that picture he’s a “Tillin Tough Guy”, I wonder if he’ll be showing up in Park City in a Straw Hat?