The Angry Owner Blog

Big thanks to ChrisP and Tim for helping me do a ‘one day remodel of the shop/studio”. Its basically done. My office is now in the closet…which sounds funny. But really, I never used it.
We got the retail portion of the shop moved upstairs so now you have the whole studio on the same floor. Service/Repair is still ‘in the rear’ as it should be. Hey, thanks again Chris and Tim…You made a 3 day project into a single one. And I had time for a ride.
If you are in MN or anywhere near this weekend you should check out Homie Fest. Check out Hurl’s page here. Bookmark it.
And if you are in Park City on Friday, drink beer with me on Friday at 5…then do an easy night ride at 6:30…then drink beer at the No Name Saloon…then go to my neighbors “spook alley”. Yeah.

So for YEARS, I’ve been trying to get to Vernal. If you live in Summit county, you’ve heard the stories…great trails, warmer than Summit County (during the daytime) and closer than Moab.
These are all true, but the best thing of all is the Lupcho family and Altitude Cycle.
All of you need to check out the link, bookmark it and then make it your home base when you ride in Vernal. Here is another excellent link to learn about the trails…Here is a story from Kim and myself.
So, there is never enough time for a vacation it seems…so we decide to watch the weather and do a one day, one night trip. Yes, we left the office/shop late on Friday, but with a 2.5 hr driving time, who cares. You could do a day trip to Vernal. Check into the motel and hey, lets get wasted at the brewhaus.

Pitchers, peanuts, deep fried food…the bomb.
So after sleeping in (which I never do, but love), Troy pointed us toward Bettys…which rocks. They asked me if I wanted my cinnamon roll ‘heated and buttered’. When I die and go to heaven, thats what all the waitresses are going to ask for every meal.

So, after a large meal, we actually rode. 10/10 riding. And I”m biased dear friends because I love desert riding. The trails have handmade touches - it so obvious that there is so much love in every inch of the trail. Really fun. Check out the altitude cycle site for descriptions. My trail of the day, More Hoes. So, get your asses to Vernal. Its worth it.

Its not too cold to ride by any stretch….or too muddy….yet.
However, the snow of the past two weekends prompted the possibility of a trip. Well…its UEA weekend (which means it crowded in St. George and Moab), Fruita would always work…should I just stay home? It isn’t like there isn’t anything to do?
I have been trying to go to Moab for 6 years. Surprised? You should be. But here is the reason. The Rarick family/Over the Edge Sports/Fruita mountain biking. During a trip, right as I”m about to turn off to head towards Moab, I hold it straight for Fruita so I can experience the great trails and super fun people of Fruita. Well, Jason set up a Moab trip since he has Thurs-Mon off. The plan was for Saturday to be the Hazard County Trail system day. That means 1. leaving after work on Fri 2. taking a $20 shuttle up to the La Sals 3. making it back to park city on Satuday night for dinner with my in-laws.
Friday was another crazy day at the office/shop. But we made it through. Had to turn in a car in Salt Lake. Yes friends, at 4:20 I hit the road. Got to the camp ground at 8:30. Hmmm.
6am, up and at em. Great breakfast at the red rock coffee house place. Great Pumpkin scone,
and we’re ready for our 8:30 shuttle.
When you go to Moab, you take a big bike. Like a Knolly Delirium (or DT as its known). Its always such a drag for me to see people on the wrong bicycles. Doing hazard county on a trail bike is like riding a cyclocross bike on a mountain bike trail. Possible, but painful.
What a great trail system. Starting out at almost 9000 feet, and descending to the Porcupine rim trail.

Here is a great link with info on the trail. http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/hazard.htm
What can I say about the trail. Super fun, the DT was great, lots of rocks, lots of features, lots of descending. And the best part, the city of Moab put a bike trail in that bypasses the hill back to town. Can you ask for more. And yes, I made it home for dinner.

As you can imagine, I have absolutely no money….in the stock market. I basically also have no money to put in the stock market or anywhere else, but hey, at least I have job(s) that I like and people who I work with and work on that are awesome.
I had this really funny picture of a cardboard sign saying ‘jump you fuckers’ that some dude had outside wall st. But it was in .htm and I couldn’t make it happen for the blog.
So, instead I have this picture. Somebody came up to me and said, ‘hey, I heard you got 2nd place in SSWC bowling?” That would be runner up to Durango to bring Single Speed Worlds here to Park City. No….not me at all. I couldn’t bowl to save my life. This guy, big Johnny, got 2nd.
I also couldn’t grow a beard like this to save my life either. Enjoy. I”m off to ride to work.

Well, mud season is here. I think it will dry out…but it rained all day sat. Today, the ride Kim and I got in was an urban one. I’ll take it. Here are some photos from team Evil - who were carrying the torch while I was sleeping…
So here is Cheeves, the stanster and the skipper…all who wore fucking cheap suits the whole show. I love you.

Then, all I can say is Jesus Fucking Christ Simon, you make me think of my band “The Sons of Lee Marvin”, and Allumnus mandolin player Dusty, and our song ‘Go Ugly Early’.

Geno also rocks a cheap suit….and it looks like its impressing the ladies. To bad he’s a fag.

I’m only kidding, and I can say shit like that because I employ persons of the LGBT sort.
Let me tell you who isn’t gay in any sort of way/shape or form sort of way. What Daniel deemed ‘team facial hair’. Yeah, I wouldn’t even be the piss boy, although I almost have to shave every second day now…….

And what bicycle party isn’t complete without Tom pissing off somebody. Thats okay, he may be skinny, but Hurl knows how to throw down with Jonny Whisky (no, for those of you who haven’t met me, thats not me - I was in bed 3 hours ago)

Its not that exciting…but if you are drinking, you may be entertained.
So, for the first time ever, the shop/office is closed for a full week. Yippie, this means Kim and I leave Sunday for Fabulous Las Vegas. Super Duper…..sleep in, finish packing…visit the shop one last time and one the road for 6 hrs. We arrive at the Hard Rock Hotel and its ‘Rehab Sunday’, a Cancun type frat party. REALLY wasted people are all around the hard rock. The front desk person can’t find me. It turns out that my first name in the system is Dr. Jon…not Jon. Jesus Fucking Christ. So, Kim and I have to log on to hotel.com in our car outside with drunk 20 something-ers falling down all around us…Finally we get checked in. We get hassled by the German shepherd police about bikes in the building. ‘We’re fucking staying here boss!” and with that our good man let us pass.
Monday…
Up early. One of the best things about the Hard Rock is that they have Mr. Luckys 24/7…an excellent place for a real breakfast. On to the sands. Kim and I brought our bikes (me and the Surly Travelers Check, and Kim with the On One Inbred steel). Register..and….Oh my - Troy Rarick from Over the Edge Sports spots me. Lack a day. We get signed in for the dirt demo and drive ourselves out there.
I love the dirt demo. You get to hang out with your friends I don’t bike shop. I did like the Turners with the new DW link. But, when you are the owner, you focus on the lines you carry, and then expand the sphere a little.
Here are the boys…

And it was warm. Not too bad, but Kim was excited for the Rocky Mountain booth, our man Derek and Thane…..and some beer and shade.

So after dirt demo, I got a little shitty. I’m sure the Knolly and Surly folks were cool with it. Chris King made us a little beef brisket. It was great. Then, home to bed.
Tuesday…
Dear Friends….I have always wanted to do the ‘hangover ride’. This year I did it. Got myself up super early….Mr. Luckys of course, and out to Bootleg Canyon for the 8am start…on my Surly Travelers Check. It was great. Here is a pic from lake mead.

Thanks to Surly for the Good Morning Guinness. And I met a super cool fella, Thor, who rode with me up from lake Mead. Fun. After rolling a couple of demos…back to the hotel. Kim and I actually had a lunch meeting with a business man whom I really respect….I’d tell you all more but he’s a local and I respect privacy. Then, it was off to the Hard Rock Pool…which was great.
Wednesday…the first day of the show.
Up early, Mr. Luckys, and off to the show. Since I actually work in my own shop, I attend the tech seminars and Kim attends the National Bike Dealers Assoc seminars on how to kick ass. We had a good one that day. Then, meeting with our reps, buying shit, getting sales pitches, etc. Knolly had whiskey tasting….I met Troy from Vernal (High Altitude Sports). What an awesome guy. I’d heard so much about him, but never met the cat. I’m going to Vernal before the snow flies. Then, shit like this starts up…

Well, There is a bunch of fashion show shit, a cyclocross race where Lance got spanked and such…but Kim and I headed back to the Hard Rock, had dinner at the Pink Taco (excellent Mexican food) and hit the sack. Party on Wayne.
Thursday…
Up early, Mr. Luckys, more meetings and tech seminars. More meetings with our reps. Nice time. This time we had a not so great seminar about how to become Wall Mart. I’ll pass.
There are fancy athletes at the show. There are free T Shirts and swag. I don’t give a rats ass. To be honest, I only care about what my customers would like and what would keep the shop profitable. Amen.

And vendors start breaking out the beers at about 4pm. This is cool…so I saw my former employers, Dwight and Vickie from the shop I used to work at (for 8 years) in Ann Arbor.
So very very nice to run into them at the show. Awesome people and great to hear how their children were. Fun to see Maurice from Dirt Rag as well. He is a sexy man.
Well, didn’t make it to the NWD 9 movie the night before….didn’t make it to the crit. Dinner at my favorite place in Las Vegas…the Cantina at the Tuscany….and then Tim and Enoch want to rage it at the Hard Rock. Okay..I’m game a little. We stayed out until midnight, but then I turned into a pumpkin.
Friday…
Up early, MR. Luckys and off to the best seminar of the week. Man, it was great. Good byes to Sov, Moots, Knolly, Torelli, QBP, BTI….all the players. Lots of hard work from the vendors, lots of great stuff to include in our shop and a super fun business to be in.
Oh yeah, thursday there was a post show alley cat race…

So, after a lunch in the casino, a 6 hr drive back to Park City. Took all weekend to really get back to normal. And now, this week is truly a catch up week. Show specials and such. Emails to send.
Hope you enjoyed the blog. I’ll do a Bo’s Cross race one tomorrow or Fri.