TEN YEARS!!!!!

What have you done for TEN years straight?? Me?, nothing except stay married to a wonderful woman from North Carolina. Never thought I would have done anything for tens years in a row... I love Christie as she truely completes me, sounds corny but it's true. There isn't anybody else that truely knows me or understands me or would put up with me the way she does. Thank you babe! Ok enough of the sappy stuff, Christie made a nice post with some pictures from WAY BACK HERE. And since I had class tonight we went out to the travelling Banff Mountain Film Festival last night, woo hoo a evening without the kid/minion!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!?!?!

That's right MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Seahawks crush the Packers!!! My good friend Bryce Weaver, season ticket holder, had an extra ticket and invited me to go tonight! It was colder than you know what but TOTALLY worth it!! Thanks Dream!! Here are a few pictures of the field at game time!! Can you believe it snow on the Seahawks playing field and the Packers lost?!

SNOW!!

We recieved a little of the cold white stuff last night!! Abigael had a blast in it you can check out Christie's post here. Up north in Ferndale and Bellingham they got almost 24" of snow!! Temps are at or below freezeing!! I love this weather!!

Doctor's appt...

Went to see my Ortho docs yesterday morning and all looks well! I had x-rays which according to the docs didn't show any significant change from my Oct 18th visit. The docs did say that there was a considerable amount of conective tissues in the area of the bone graph but it just has not calcifide yet. The good news is that the bone graph is still there! Some graphs of this type can just dissolve/wash away and they have to start all over again. It is just going to take time! They did seem impressed with my range of motion and activity level. I asked if I could start doing some gym workouts with my legs and I got the ok to start a weight traing program. I was told to start with low weight, of course, high reps but in regards to my left leg I need to start with "E"ccentric exercise. Eccentric is the controled lowering of weight vs. contracting and pulling the weights up. Erik Moen my PT has explained this to me also, as lift the weight with both legs, mostly with the right, and then slowly and controlled lower the weight with my left leg only. The ortho doc said to also include some strength training as well to include higher weight lower reps slowly building the weight up to the point that my left leg can handle the same amount of weight the right leg can. Other than that I am down to the next lowest level of pain meds, only when I need them, I will see them again in THREE (3) months, and continue with intensive Physical Therapy!!!

Long time no write...

So I have been busy as I am sure you can tell by my lack of writing/posting. Yes, I may have been alone last week with the girls outta town but I was VERY busy with school and family friends visiting. The Chocholak parents, John and Dianne, were up to visit with their daughter Wendi and soon (I hope!) to be son-in-law Sam and meet Sam's family. My best friend Julian, Wendi's brother, tagged along and we got to visit and hang out together. I built him his dream mountain bike, a Santa Cruz Blur LT with full Chris King and XTR build! Julian was able to take delivery of his bike with an ear to ear grin! We got a small chance to ride a little up at the park behind the house. We rode on a few bum trails in the overgrown section of the park (an area I have been thinking about doing some minor/small trail improvement...) and dropped the big ledge. We were having a great time until we realized we had rolled through some rouge dog poo and it was every where! So we went home to clean shoes and bikes. On Thursday of their visit I was able to arrange through George Westbrooke, a friend from Skyway fire recruit academy, a private tour of the Renton Boeing 737 assembly plant! John Chocholak was my high school shop tech teacher and he sits on the California Industrial and Technology Education Association
executive committee as the Advocacy liaison. We had the opportunity to not only see every step in the construction of the 737 but also walk through a few of the planes as they were being built. It was an awesome tour Thanks again George!!!

And of course the weather has not let up much so everyone is starting to get ill. We have tickets to NC leaving on the 20th and returning on the 28th of Dec! I'll try to keep up to date with my entries....

A new link blog about my passion

So I have started to create a new blog (LINK) that I will link to often from here about my bikes and not bore the few of you that read Track Daddy with bike stuff all the time... I will soon have a link off to the side>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Black Sheep Ti Highlight 29er

So I just received my CAD rendering from James at Black Sheep Bikes last night. I am SOOOOooooo excited I need to call him and talk to him about it, but then he did make this CAD drawing based on a BUNCH of custom measurements taken from me. The only measurement I am concerned about is the 24" Effective Top Tube measurement. This bike will be suspension corrected so that if I want to throw a Reba on it I can. This would make the head angle steeper from 71.5 deg to 72-72.5 with fork sag, BUT James says that everyone that has ridden one of his Ti rigid forks and switches to a squishy front end always swaps back to the Ti. James will be making a Ti unicrown fork with a heavy duty steerer and thin walled legs to lighten it up and give it the suppleness that Ti forks are known for! I can't wait James also said he could deliver by Dec 1st!!!! As long as I can get it by the 20th so I can take it to NC for the holidays I will be stoked! It will be a great chance to test out the S&S couplers and not have to worry about which airlines we will fly on (We used to have to fly United because I could fly my bike for free through USCF).

These are my Fitup Measurements:
1. Height______________180.6cm
2. Inseam______________86.2cm
3. Deltoid to hip_________42cm
4. Hip to ankle__________104.5cm
5. Hip to knee___________61.5cm
6. Knee to ankle_________45.5cm
7. Deltoid to wrist________66cm
8. Width of palm_________10cm
9. Foot Length__________28.6cm
10. Sternal notch to ground_147cm

These are the measurements of my current or former mountain and touring bikes.For the most part I ride with a 90 to 100mm 5 deg Thomson stem some times 110mm

My current Mountain Bike is an 18” 2004 Kona Explosif Maybe FOR SALE when I get my new 29er
HA 70 SA 73.1 TT 23.1” SO 28” 100mm fork; stem 90mm x 5 deg

The bike I ride a lot (and my touring rig) is a 56cm 2005 Kona Sutra FOR SALE $1200
HA 72 SA 73 TT 56cm SO 30.4” stem 100mm x 5 deg

I had a 19” 2004 Kona Unit which I felt was TOO BIG for me??
HA 70 SA 72.1 TT 23.6” SO 28.8” 100mm fork 100mm x 5 deg

My cross country race rig was a 19” 2003 Kona Kula Primo
HA 71 SA 73 TT 23.5” SO 30.2” 80mm fork stem 100mm x 5 deg

New DeSalvo Team Cyclocross bike!!

I took delivery of my long awaited DeSalvo Team Cyclocross frame and fork on Friday the 27th. I quickly, with the help of Adam at the Counterbalance, built it up in time for the "Meet the Team" group ride the morning of the 28th. Man is this frame sleek and beautiful!! She turned out just as I had imagined her!! This is a frame I had asked Mike DeSalvo to build for me when Jeff, Todd, and I put in the FIRST team frame orders back in May of 2005! Mike built me a beautiful track frame instead which I am very greatful for!! But I still wanted and needed a cyclocross frame. I had race the previous season (2004) on my Surly Steamroller which is by design a track frame!!
And the I went and broke my leg and the cyclocross frame went to the back burner:( Even though I will not be able to race any 'cross races this year, still not strong enough and Erik my PT won't allow it, I still wanted to have Mike build this frame so I could ride it and get ready for Cyclocross season 2007!! The frame is made from Columbus Zona steel tubing and it is VERY light. The rear dropouts are horizontal with a derailleur hanger drive side and a bottle opener non-drive side so I can either ride it singlespeed, fixed (rear brake mounts are removeable for a cleaner look), or in it's current configuration Geared 1x8! The bike rides like a dream!!! It is painted Matte Black with Blood Red panels and lettering!
Very stealth like, MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm......!Mike built the fork with a 1 inch steerer tube even though the frame has an 1 1/8 inch head tube. He included some headtube reducers so I can use the 1 inch fork. The 1 inch steel fork is about a pound lighter than the 1 1/8 inch steel fork and Mike did not have any 1 1/8 inch available so it all worked out. It also afforded me the opportunity to use the 1 inch Ti Chris King headset I picked up at the Bike Swap for $40!!! In it's current build it has Salsa Bell Lap 46cm bars with interceptor levers, a left front Dura Ace brake lever and a right rear 8 spd Sora shifter/lever. Salsa 1 inch cro-mo stem black 1 inch CK Ti headset Paul cantilever brakes front and rear. Thomson post and Selle Italia Flight saddle. World Class Ti 113mm bottom bracket and Ti SRP bolts. White Industries ENO crank 170mm with a 38 tooth chainring and Time ATAC pedals. Rear XTR short cage derailleur, SRAM 8 spd cassette, and currently a cheap Bontrager rear wheel and my Dura-Ace hubbed front wheel off my road bike with Ritchey Tom Slick tires. I believe the weight comes in around 21 1/2 lbs without Race Blade fenders, saddle tool pouch and a black waterbottle cage. When in cyclocross singlespeed mode it will have my fixed/free Phil Wood rear wheel with a White Industries Dou freewheel 16/19 tooth and a Mavic fron hub tubular wheel both with cyclocross tires. Nice stainless steel head badge!! I do believe this bike might usurp my old school 1989 Specialized Sirrus road bike as my main all around bike for training and road riding!

I have also been working with James at Black Sheep Bikes on my new Ti 29er mountain bike. It's gonna have S&S couplers so I can take it on the airplane with me where ever I go!!! SOOOoo if you know of anyone that wants to buy an 18" Kona Explosif mountain bike totally tricked out to the nines and/or a sweet 56cm Kona Sutra road/touring bike also fully upgraded shoot me a line at brandon448 at yahoo dot com! I am slimming the stables down to the '89 Sirrus road bike (had it since high school and I'll ride it till it breaks!), DeSalvo Track (racer), DeSalvo 'Cross, and Black Sheep 29er Mnt Bike. Can you believe Brandon with only FOUR bikes!?!?! Abigael was a scurvy pirate for halloween this year! She deffinately lived up to the part and would throw down an "AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!" at the drop of a hat. She went to school on the 31st in her costume and her class went trick or treating around the campus as well as that evening in the Magnolia Village. Check out the Lockwoods blog for more. I am doing VERY well in school aceing my math class, solid B+ (87%) in A&P, and doing ok in Nutrition....