O NO you DiDnT

I am, admittedly, obsessed with Humans and human interaction.

After all, let's be honest, I started this blog with the unconscious choice of firing of social flairs and saying to everyone, "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME"..

And it has worked, back in the start of 2008 I made a personal goal that I am well on my way to achieving. I like the fact that at my ripe age, I am still very ambitious and still chasing down goals and dreams and what I have recently started calling it, "checking things off my bucket list".
I have done well for myself when it comes to cycling and cycling is my war. It is my battlefield, it is what I do to satisfy my warrior urges.

I enjoy it as well, enjoy self powered travel, enjoy the feeling of satisfaction that I get when I clean a particularly difficult climb or section.
Arguably I am easily amused. Arguably, I am quick to see the kinks in others armors. I question their resolve? When I hear others philosophies, I think to myself, am I right or are they wrong? Its even worse when someone gets some philosophical mumbo jumbo behind their thinking and now not only are they spouting off, but they are spouting off and sounding real good while they do it.
What is this all about? Who knows? At this point, I am trying to just enjoy the simple things. Enjoy the fact that I have a nice little home in the country. Enjoy the fact that I have the gift and blessing of doing the type of riding and adventuring that I so adore and enjoy. I am enjoying the fact that I have a beautiful family that I can share my evenings with. Enjoy the fact that I have 29 LOYAL readers of my blog. Enjoy the Fact that I got such great friends and associations in my life that put up with my eccentric and outrageously insane ways. I am blessed in so many ways.
AND, if you took the time to look, you would see that so are you. We can create heaven here or we can make it hell. OR if you don't believe in such things, we can create pleasure here or we can wallow in suffering.

Its all on you!

Take care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

DYiNg

Someone politely told me yesterday words were dying on my Blog.

I feel ya buddy. Lately, I have had some sort of writers block or something. Have not been feeling the SPICY nacho to get on here and rave and rant or even recant.

BUT, when you got 20 Plus people who live and breath Naked Indian Rhetoric you have to at some point suck it up and drive on.
My MIND is by nature a Multi Tasker, even though I am on the literal precipice of one of my big time races for the year, I am already thinking about the two bike packing related trips I got going on later in the month. As well as the Singletrack Samurai Wool Jersey thing I got to work up, the CFiTT announcement that needs to be officially made, Movie Premiers, etc, etc. Its insanity what is going on in my mind right now.

So Maybe that's the source of my issue. Out of Respect for the PMBAR I will not make an official CFiTT announcement till Next week, I will not discuss the wool shirt order or continue my plans for lots of Ride the Divide premiers till next week. I need to Focus Dammit. Why?
Well, Battle? Right? Why ride, why race if your not going to Ride or Race to do your best, and believe me I am doing all I can to do my best. I am picking out my Mantra for the day as I climb climb climb and at the same time document my adventures and update my not to be named social networking site status. Also need speakers and music, which I think I got worked out.

Tomorrow I will be on an all day mission from GOD, which leaves Thursday as my official Bike prep day, and it wont even really be a day, it will be more like Bike prep hours cause I got three dentist appointments in the afternoon to contend with.
So, what's left to do with the bike?

Because I am in Guaza Mode, I cannot say. I cannot reveal as my would be dispatchers are watching my blog closely for any clues as to what I may be up too or planning.

I will tell you this, I am not riding packless at PMBAR, dont have a 70oz bladder and Bikepacking ethos does indicate the more technical the terrain the more you should have on your back vs on the bike.

One thing from all these years of tripping is that I have gotten pretty good at packing. Matter of fact I have not even thought about packing as I know it will go down smooth, its like Autopilot. No sweat no worries.

NOW, one thing I will start Teasing about is the Huracan at the end of this month. NOT only will I be out to pedal that beast and complete it, but I Guarantee when I am done I will have a new record, take that, convert it into a visual feather, stick it in your cap and call it macaroni!

Yankee Doodle Dandy!

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

PiMMMMMBaaaaRrRr PreP cont....

So this weekend I met up Early at Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve with Mike Kanning to do some riding and take some time to shakedown my new set up.

Truthfully the going was kind of slow for me, I realized quickly that I had put way too big a middle ring on there and before the day's grind was done resolved that I was not gonna go to PMBAR with equipment my leg's were not used too.

The ride was fun as we rode all kinds of kick ass techy type trails with steep drops and ups and sweet flow, that place is pretty kick ass if I lived close by I would go there ALOT. Some of the sections reminded me in ways to Razorback, but really, nothing can compare to Razorback when its all said and done.

We took some time to explore the furthest boundaries of the park and then even went as far as exploring some stuff where we actually had to look at the GPS to figure out where we were and figure out how to link back to the start. Added a little fun and the added resistance of two track is always good training. All that sploring made me dream about the possibilities for other types of activities out there.

At the very end on the two track a guy came up and flew by us, quickly followed by another guy. I actually let them go for a minute then mounted up and attempted to chase them down. Unfortunately I waited to long to chase, kind of made me mad that I didnt catch them LOL.

Saturday Eve, I headed out to Bradenton and met up with Ryan and his Lovely wife, had a kick ass dinner, drank beer and laughed. It was alot of fun and I was glad I got out and was able to spend some time with Ryan. Ryan does a ton of work for the web site on a volunteer basis and he is an all around good guy and friend so It was time to head out his way and visit. Really nice part of town he lives in.

Sunday, after sleeping in, I went over to Luis' house and we put the 32 in the middle, discovered my front dee shifter derailleur cable was toast and that I had forgotten to put a spacer in my cranks, whoops. I guess the shop was right when they said I should not work on my own bikes, all In all I created more work for everyone and I still got more work to do. This week is gonna be a busy one. O well right!

Cant wait to be lining up Saturday morning to just spend a day in the forest adventuring, exploring and enjoying the beauty that Pisgah has to offer. Gonna be good indeed. Still have to figure out how to rigg a head mount for my MiniNewt. O well.. LOL I will get it.

Thats all for now,

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

PiMMMMMBaaaaRrRr

As a weirdo bike racer, I have only 3 or 4 races that mean worth a damn to me, PMBAR is one of them.

Last year, We rode a ridiculous ride, had a lot of fun, but alas missed the cut off.

For Years, Luis and I have tried to put a team together and its been unsuccessful. One year My health bad, one year his health bad.
This year, there are still obstacles, but we are determined. Determined to DOMINATE the other Teams.

See, what Eric Weaver, Pisgah Productions main man doesn't know, is that there are Little races going on within the big race. And this Little race is For the Florida Title. SO, our goal is to be the fastest Florida Team without a doubt, Make the White board, and Shred the GNAR.
Not a tall order, not at all. I'm feeling strong. Mucaro MTB dot blog spot dot com was the first finisher of the Hardest 50 in the state on Saturday, does that give you any idea of where our fitness is at the moment. It's keen. Plus I KNOW Pisgah forest, Luis does too. Both experienced back country riders, Both strong, do other Florida Teams Stand a chance. NO, sorry. You are not going to be able to have the necessary combination of skills to dominate.
And there it came out again. The phrase that means all in a Race Like the PMBAR. The necessary combination of skills.
Its not just speed, its not just ascending skills, not just descending skills, its not just mapping skills, self supported skills, gnar tech skills, chunky monkey tech skills, route architecture and execution skills; its all of these.

What you got FloRiders????

Nuttin.

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

BooM GoEs The DyNaMiTE

The Dirty Dan O was a success.

Usually I have a twisted tale with lots of blow by blow, but I was not riding I was promoting. So here is my twisted tale as I saw it..
Arrive a little after 6am to find a parking lot full of people, WTF, I thought only 5 people were riding early.
Immediately the scramble begins, sign this, here's your shirt, take one of each of these 5 total, who are you? Ok let me sign you up, give me this...

That went on, till I did my rider's meeting, then I sent them off.
8 o' clock the small group rolled out. Now even though they were the later group, it was folks from that group that caught the lead group and finished the 50 first Mucaro Mtb dot blogspot dot com was the first official complete route finisher, good job brother.
I caught the group at Landbridge, did some video clips to gauge how they were feeling and kept the work going, cleaning bikes, lubing chains, handing out water, things like that.
After that I left the girls there to look after Murray Fox and kept on going to get the food. I double checked my pizza math and in the end bought three pizzas too many. Better too much then too little.
At the Lunch stop we discovered one rider got hurt on Vortex, total bummer, and one had to be extracted out, don't know what route he followed but he looked like he had a good time regardless.Once we were done with Lunch we rolled up to Stumpknockers to wait for the rest of the group. We arrived at Stumpknockers at 230pm. So from then till about 5 pm or 6pm we drank, snacked and shot the shit by the river. It was really nice. Linda was way too busy and we hated that part, but gosh, we laughed so hard. And wait as I did, I only had to Sag one person all day. The group that came, came determined to finish either the full thing or most of it under their own power, Radical!I coordinated dinner and made sure everyone got taken care off in a timely manner. Dinner went down great, nothing but smiles and laughs, right around 930 I was looking at the clock regretting the long ride home.
The ride home was grueling, I was exhausted, and tired, and fighting to stay awake, cause of this the ride home took an hour longer then it should have, but when I finally did hit the bed, I enjoyed it.
Sunday I got up and took the Black Beauty to the shop to install a new drive train and other tid bits, peep the stats.
Up front I am now rocking a 44 - 36, in back 11 - 26 9 speed. And I figured it was time to replace that 4 year old carbon fiber seat post, probably a failure waiting to happen. It still works, but I know Carbon is not forever, so Thompson's it is. I managed to trade a dood for some old 170 mm cranks and some 29er tires.

So, good day, ready to do some commuting this week, prolly Thursday and Friday, I need to put just a little bit of miles into the legs, I have done nothing but rest them aside from walking. I have not even done any Yoga in fear that the problem was being caused by said Yoga, so I will try and shake that down part of it on Wednesday...

Ok that is all,

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

I LoVe To Do iT DiRTy!!

The dirty Dan O rolls tomorrow morning.

How did I get into the whole ride/race promotion thing???

Well, I think it all started when I attended the Catch 22 and I heard Robert Bounds give a Riders meeting and at that point, I said, Self, if these guys can do it, why cant I.

And now, its exploded into so much more.

My favorite part of the ride is giving the riders meeting. Gives me a chance to tell jokes and share the genius of my concepts and ideas. Remember folks if you don't pat yourself on the back, then who will.

The course as its Laid out, in my opinion, is pure genius. You get to ride every trail in Santos In a logical manner backwards and forwards!

What I discovered after studying the maps is that the trails on the Vortex side and the Santos side are basically laid out in big circles. On the Vortex side you start on the smallest tightest circle and then fan out, on the Santos side you do the exact opposite, You start on the biggest circle and work in. Then on the way back its reversed, you start tight on the Santos side and work out, then Big Circle on the vortex side and work in. GENIUS I TELL YOU.

I am blessed to have found not only something I enjoy and have a passion for, but a gift for being a Route Architech, who knows where these new found skills will take me as time progresses.

All riders should of received an Email, its time to have fun. As expected there will hopefully be some prizes in the a.m. and maybe even a game centered around these prizes. We will see what happens when I get home if the Postman drops me something good from one of my best sponsors EVER!~!!

OK so, see ya in the morning, bright and early, bring your shred and your can do attitude, Quitting is not an OPTION, not even KIDDING!!!
K!

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

OHoWcOuLdiForGet

Saturday night.

Flying thru the twisty track.

Chasing Blond Afro.

The twist and the turns.
Pure Delight.

Tight.

SingleTrack.
Was the Order of things.

Slippery Leaves, Whipping Branches.

Carpet Nipps sends one branch flying, seemingly for my shorter make up

at face level.

I cut wide to miss it...
Cut the trail brush to hit the fastest apex of the corner.

Within the brush.....

A stump....
Sent me front end over end
But me. I didnt let go of the bars at all, as Me and my bike rolled in one big ball...

Of dust....and convulution...

"RIDER DOWN!" Jonesy Exclaimed...

But I was fine... Down, but not out...

Gathered my things, Re threaded the Chain...

And continued the ride....

Mental Note...

Unless I know the trail, dont attempt an apex slashing bushwacking switch back cut...

Take care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

2 BiTz

For some reason I didnt discuss it. But if you saw the last pics you will notice my hair is 12 inches shorter...
Why?

Well, last year round fall a friend of mine got cancer. For those who remember back that far I actually dedicated my CFiTT Fixed Gear Run to her, and attempted to raise money, but no one donated, except for one person.
Regardless, I had just cut my hair when I had heard the news, I was an emotional wreck at that point in my life. I let it grow. And the time had come that I wanted to do something good with all the hair I had on my head. Make a differance in some ones life. Have someone enjoy the hair that I can grow so easily. So I did it, after some research I went to Great Clips across the street from the Tuskawilla Bike Works store and got the snip snip done.
I will tell you that I dont like my short hair. My face looks huge now, but O well. I will grow it back, it will be long once again, but it has not done any wonders for my ego as I have been pretty depressed about it off and on for the past couple of days.
In Native American Tradition, an individual cuts their hair as a sign of mourning for the passing of someone. And in a sense, maybe that is the source of my depression, I am mourning a loss, that hard as I try to let it go, like a ghost it haunts my spirit, and I Yearn for things to be like they were.
In other news, I officially received the Dirty DanO shirts, they came out pretty rad and I am all proud of myself. These are the first ever SSP event shirts and based on that information are by default, collector's items. If you didnt get one, your missing out.
As well, I am contemplating having SSP jerseys made up, Im thinking Wool. Why Wool, cause, its the raddest fabric ever, and preliminary results show that the expense would not be outrageous, in fact, downright reasonable.
How would we do it? Pre orders for those interested, the more that buy the cheaper it is, so would you be interested in an SSP wool Jersey? Have you ever owned a wool jersey? Cause if you dont you should.
Feedback is appreciated,

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN

2010 ReNeGadE RuN

Days leading up to this ride had not been good. Knee had me at maximum worry level and I had been feeling nauseous off and on for days. Total bummer without a doubt. But, I was determined to do this ride. I know how much of a soul boost it is and how euphoric the experience is. Did it deliver? Indeed it did.

That Saturday I didn't sleep as much as I would of have liked to have slept in, but o well, I got up, took care of some things and rushed back home to meet up with the crew. Packed up, loaded up and before we knew it we were rolling, reaching Paisley, swapping cars, changing and then back up to the start.

As we made the final adjustments for the evenings load, I was feeling rather well, the dizziness I had been feeling all day had been done away by some medicine my friends shared, and we pedaled our way up under the bridge only to discover that Jonesy had forgotten his meditation. O well. We got going as we know we had a full night ahead of us.

At the ride start, Love MK's ability to always do something cool in a picture, missing from the photo is Jonesy, who want back to the car to "look" for something.

The bridge. Went with a black and white series of fotos I like the way they come out.

If your a picture appreciater you will notice that you can see the bridge twice in this picture

Rob Roberts, President of SSP and all around Swiss Army knife, a must have on all Epics.

Kanning, what a goof ball, Love this guys ways!

a cock shot, and the Freddie's, I may not be the strongest or the fastest, but I make my riding experiences Comfy.

Handsome or not, I hate the short hair, but a good shot nonetheless.

As the ride got under way, the grassy road on top of the levee made for some fast pedaling and before we knew it we were dropping down onto another fire road that previously was mushy and nasty, this year, was packed down well. Seems like the first 4 miles were like taking a tuning fork to a guitar as we had to make mental adjustments and establish new rules. OK, stop at every intersection, navigating was already becoming a challenge, considering that you just wanna roll and float and not think.

Riders of the Storm

R2

MK

R2 looking animated

This shot looks so fast, LMAO

Over the shoulder, MK shredding

dusk at the dam

The Dam and the view was as beautiful as I remembered. I was addicted to photos tonight and decided I wanted to capture as many moments as possible. and I really loved how everything looked. The mosquito's were everywhere and I marveled at the huge bats that were flying around feasting on the bugs that seemed to be thick in the air.

riders ahead

Me and My Shadow

the lock

self portrait, Princeton Tec is Mandatory technology

As we made our way into the singletrack I was caught up in the charge. It was blissful the road like hammering we were doing. The pace was quick, but not forced, the terrain was either up hill or downhill but the flow was infinite, peaceful and cosmically hypnotizing.

that red light is MK

Jonesy?

Jonesy and MK

shine a light on me will ya

More night shots..LOL

I kept a close eye on my food, and kept feeding myself constantly and consistently. In my mind I was paranoid about my knee and did all I could to not focus on the pain. And although It got tight I am glad to report that my efforts have paid off and I was able to ride, hammer and really put on a good singletrack clinic with only a slight discomfort. At the Prairie I sat, ate, updated Facebook and listened to the frogs. There is a video recording below which is to be appreciated for its audio contents and not the video footage. Once rolling we had an interesting conversation with a man at the campground and before we knew it we were on the forest road. We were feeling so good that we started attacking and counter attacking, playing like children, living only for the moment and not much else. It was sometime before the back and forth smash party, that Jonesy communicated that he was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation. Strength he had plenty, but his sleep patterns were being challenged. I told him it was not far to the rest stop and that he could rest there, and we all motored on.

JOnesy at this point was telling me he was feeling a little tired and asking when was the next stop.

Stupid me, with my super high feeling from the endorphins I was way too loud at the rest stop and got us kicked out. But, not before we refueled, ate, let Jonesy rest a little, and took pics and updated social networking pages, etc, etc. I had us calculated at 31 miles to the finish and was feeling super strong for the task. I also knew the next three sections were gonna be the hardest of the entire trip.

Looking fresh over half way over.

The genius of MK

Jonesy, taking a little rest. He has never rode all night before, its harder than you think.

Hate my haircut

Love this bike, Black beauty is my BFF

Lately, I have been wondering if Insanity is setting in. As I have fostered some real affinity towards my bike, my backpack, my tools that make these trips happen. I love looking at the maps, and seeing all the cool stuff that I am able to do and create. I really adore this bike and I marvel at all the miles we have done together.

MOTH

Up close MOTH

And another

The trail was tight, and there were climbs, but never as bad as I remembered. I guess riding this trail Fixed was way harder then what I had picked to do this time. And I was really just enjoying how I was feeling and the work I was accomplishing. I was worried about Jonesy, but not overly worried, and he was a good sport, he takes advice. We got water at the last major water site before the final push and discovered Jonesy had acquired a friend. Took some pics, had some laughs, ate a little, drank some coffee and then, we rolled out.

Jonesy brought a pet on the ride.

Look at his little fingers, how cute.

Before we got to the final water spot, we discovered Jonesy's rear shock had quit working. There was nothing we could do to fix it. The lower Bottom Brackett left to a pedal strike in the final 8 miles that led to a branch kick up that led to his rear derailleur being snapped in half. It was disastrous, but not hopeless as Rob did all he could to rig a fix for roll out. We rolled, stopped, rolled and stopped, but eventually, it was unusable and Jonesy was left stranded.

And Jonesy's derailleur explodes.

busy on a fix, Black Ops on the task

Bungee cord actually worked for many miles

However, I had different intentions. We took the bungee, tied it to his bars, secured it to the tow loop on my Osprey Talon pack and I towed him out. 3 miles I towed him, up hills and downhills till we both finished together as a team, accomplishing another renegade run, in record time!

a Little stretch after 76 miles.

MK looking like he just rode a long ride.

Jonesy, conquering and adding a HUGE notch on his belt

Me, so adorable!

Dirty Legs, LMAO

I counted alot of blessings that night. I was left marveling the beauty of this universe. Enjoying the glow of my effort. Feeling the Love for all and every creation. As I ate breakfast and made my way home, I was in love with the universe and felt refreshed and reborn. These are truly the things that add significance to this time of year in my world. And that is the reason we do this run. Its not just about the ride, but a ceremony to celebrate, rebirth and rejuvenation. Han Han Catu!

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN