pics from the 3rd annual Chicken Crit

the annual Chicken Crit has come and gone……once again i drew up enough courage to ride the tyke bike as did almost twenty others. I probably shouldn’t have rode and just sat my arse to the sidelines to officiate ; ) as i ended up scoring one of my roughest crashes of the year and also managed to come across the finish line with my shoelaces completely wrapped up on my pedal spindle…….thinking back i don’t think that’s happened to me since i was about 6 years old. Oh well……the things that happen when you tip a few back.

So here’s the race wrap up……Dillon, our good pal from Missoula was easily the fastest thing on 16″ wheels but with a slight self made course modification he earned a DISQUALIFICATION !!!! Thats right…you heard me correct, first time ever in CC history. But don’t worry…… Dillon more than made up for it by being one of the first to go down the cattle ramp, sacked up for the fire jump and easily had the finest dress attire of the bunch (allthough B George’s embroidered shirt made for a close second). But anyway……that gave Hamilton’s very own Tim ” Big Kahuna” Buhl the victory. And we all know how he deserved it……he trained hard all year. Ate the right foods and substained from alcohol and sex. We’re proud of ya timmie. Hot on tim’s wheel was my beautiful wife Tracy……she was smoking fast and she made pedaling the small bike look natural. Third place was taken by Lance….very well done sir !

AND……the offical standings:
1 – Tim “BK” Buhl 51sec
2 – Tracy D 54sec
3 – Lance P 57sec
4 – Chaybo 1.01
5 – B George 1.03
6 – Dan Gager-bomber 1.07
7 – Alaska Jim 1.08
8 – Cassie 1.10
9 – the flying kiwi Warwick 1.13
10 – Shrek 1.16
11 – Dean the machine 1.20
12 – Jeff 1.23
12 – Shiela 1.23
14 – Jerome 1.26
15 – Thomas 2.18
and a few pics before, during and after:
socializin’
cass & tra
yours truely laying out the course and the rules (which changed by the minute)
safety first.
the course……first you had to chug a brew, and then thread your way down the cattle ramp. Once safely down the ramp you headed off into darkness and around the barn.

if you were lucky enough to make it this far, eventually you were guided by the light of the bonfire, a bunch of hecklers and small jump

gotta love this photo, which gives “trusting in your partner” a new meaning.

after you got past the jump you headed around the power line that Jenny tried taking out with her subie and then back down the road and across the teeter-totter from. A few more feet past this and you arrived at the finish…..and if you made it around the course without crashing you were one of the few. Easy to do……if you didn’t par-take in the socializin’ : )

and a few other noteable pics, the hecklers:

campfire hucking
campfire hucking gone bad

By |2008-10-15T17:59:00-06:00October 15th, 2008|party|Comments Off on pics from the 3rd annual Chicken Crit

End of the year gathering

By |2008-10-01T16:13:00-06:00October 1st, 2008|party|Comments Off on End of the year gathering

Portland

got to Portland on friday night, checked in at the Red Lion, threw our bags in the room and headed up to the 6th floor to wet the whistle, eat a few appetizers and talk shop with some of the faces that were also on the same mission…..i managed to get hold of Teresa and Sherwood who were also staying at the same hotel and they decided to come on up and join in on the riff-raff also. I also happened across a couple from Lincoln Ne. who recently purchased the shop where i purchased one of my first ‘true’ mountain bikes from…Bike Peddlers, how coincidental ?? It was cool to catch up with the local Lincoln hub-bub, and also cool to see that the shop was in good hands with some damn good folks.


We hung out about as long as Don Walker could stand and i could tell that the general roar of our small group kept getting a little louder and louder so we figured it was best to take the party to the streets of Portland, on the bikes.

yyymmmm, tasty says the captain

By |2008-02-12T19:22:00-07:00February 12th, 2008|bike shows, party, ride|Comments Off on Portland

Chicken Crit

Chicken Crit recap and final results. Well, it’s been a few days since my last entry and it’s not because i’ve been avoiding the blog. It seems that we’ve had a little spurt in the action at the shop here and folks have been coming in to visit and to get their last doses of riding before the snow settles in for the long haul. Today alone we had visitors from Missoula, Great Falls and someone passing thru from california and actually bike shopping in Montana (sounded kinda bizarre to me too ), but anyway during the last few days it’s allowed the fun to sink in from last weekend. The Chicken Crit, in it’s second year of carnation has been embraced and we’ll certainly have a third if you all would be kind enough to come back again. What is the CC ?? Well very basically it’s an end of the year celebration and a party with the same company who we spent lots of time out on the trails this past year with. We grilled, fried , and baked just about every type of meat plate you could imagine. We drank great local beer, and some not so local Tequila (Mag, thanks for making the margaritas) . We sat around and enjoyed damn good conversation, which VARIED greatly dependeding on which circle of friends you stumbled into. We also had a slide show that highlighted 2007 in review….lots of new trails were ridden and new friendships were made along the way. The chicken crit is my way of bringing all of these good folks together and saying ” thanks for the g-times”. And then…..finally …..to cap off the evening we have adults on tyke bikes racing for glory and pride. A pretty damn good night by my own personal definitions.

fried salmon
slide show
and finally….the result (time penalties assessed…yes you brother George, you drip and the time gets nipped)
1. A Riley
2. Chaybo
3. Brother George
4. No-way T-Buhl
5. Walt finely representing the tues night brethren
Wmns catagory we had two fearless females take the plate and it was a close race for sure.
1. TD
2. Sassie Cassie has some fine a#$ boots
and finally…in the b-day suit division
1. and much to the surprise of us all
2. No way T-Buhl who kept a little something- something extra left in his reserves
3. Brother George
4. and last but not least, inspiration for the newly added catagory, L Physer.

By |2007-10-10T19:44:00-06:00October 10th, 2007|party|Comments Off on Chicken Crit

Chicken Crit Duex

It’s midnight….i’m flippin’ tired, g’night. but here’s a few crazy pics from the 2nd Annual CCC for your enjoyment:

mrs devall:

your’s truely:
a disaster in the making

By |2007-10-06T00:23:00-06:00October 6th, 2007|party|Comments Off on Chicken Crit Duex

2008 IB

Welp, we’re back from Interbike and all i can say is …….uuggghhhhh, i’m tired. We Flew out of Missoula at 10am and didn’t arrive to Vegas till well after 3pm on thursday afternoon, ended up missing a bunch of meetings and missed out on whiskey shots at the Knolly booth. Supposedly our flight was delayed because Cheney was flying into vegas and security made us do loops hovering the city for over an hour.

Vegas urban sprawl

THE BIKE SHOW

We had a blast reviewing the 2008 products and we’re happy to be dealing with our current line up of manufacturers because once again each and every one of them have made slight changes that will undoubtedly strengthen their product line. Felt has once again increased their line of mtb and townie type bikes, and plus their cruisers rule (after all they do make the New Belgium Fat Tired Cruiser).

Dt-swiss and the Hayes group made big changes this year by adding suspension lines. Dt-swiss purchased the popular UK brand of suspension forks….PACE. Their new forks will be highly priced and majorly weight focused; Hayes may have hit a home run on their new in-house 29er fork, and judging by the amount of manufacturers that had the fork on their bikes it appears that they are well on their way. The Phil Wood stainless BB cups were also pretty damn cool.

650b bikes were also sparingly present, and it’ll be very interesting to see how well the industry accepts yet another wheel diameter. The Rawland was probably my favorite if i were to vote.

Here’s a look at the Ventana booth…..Alan was present and helped Teresa and Sherwood out. Ventana’s product remains relatively unchanged and just some subtle refinements. Their new bearing tool kit is available too.

We brought home with us from the show a Gunnar Rock Tour with 29″ wheels that will be a dedicated off road tour bike with drop bars…..just for those back country forest service roads. Should be nice. Here’s a picture of the new Waterford road fork crown:

THE BIKE RACE

and then of course we had a damn good time watching the World Championship criterium held downtown on the strip and at night. The crowds were massive and most folks were standing 3-4 rows deep. The speeds that the pro’s were going was just incredible and the cash primes were huge which motivated the racers to ride all out which eventually spurred a ton of crashes. We saw 6 seperate crashes within an hour of racing ! we tried hard to twist Sherwoods arm into going with us, but neither he, Alan, or Teresa had any interest in hanging out till past midnight and getting caught up in the skinny tired chaos.

Cippo:

THE PARTY

and then finally speaking of chaos….the party and the company of many familiar faces. Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas unless you went at it with intentions of self bodily harm.


By |2007-10-02T14:27:00-06:00October 2nd, 2007|party|Comments Off on 2008 IB

New Belgium good times

So, saturday was good….damn good. Good buddy Rick and i loaded up the Ford truck with a load of less desirable cruisers dug out from the depths of the barn and we headed up to Missoula for the New Belgium Fat Tire Fest., The Festival is always a carnival of freakish bikes and folks….mix the two together and a throw downhealthy sampling of New Belgium and you have yourself some fine entertainment.

The old cruisers were well recieved and i ended up selling a handful, actually truth be told i think rick did all of the selling/collecting fundage. He’s a pretty decent salesman (professional b-s’er) with a couple of brews down his neck.

so we headed home much lighter than when we left….paid for the gasoline to get up there and back and also to get a couple of burgers down our throat so i suppose we faired out pretty well.

riders and obstacles courtesy of the Bike Doc

entertainment courtesy of Mr. George

Rick the bike salesman
good pals

By |2007-09-04T12:02:00-06:00September 4th, 2007|party|Comments Off on New Belgium good times

Tour of the Bitterroot pics

welp, it was an exhausting weekend but we’ve pretty much got a wrap on everything. We had some fantastic racing action that included a Pro 1-2-3 mens race in a cold downpour, fortunately the crashes were minor, even though there were primes going left and right.

we also had a huge womens field by montana standards and a nice sized jr. field too.

the kids race was the highlight (at least for me)

and the red barn party a close second.

By |2007-05-28T11:15:00-06:00May 28th, 2007|party|Comments Off on Tour of the Bitterroot pics