thanks, dude
To quote a friend:
“Yeap, there is a reason why golf and baseball only require one ball.”
Since this bike grabs some serious attention on the street, we decided to let you know a little bit about it and its owner…
GNARLUBE would like to introduce you to Jay #GNAR. On a scale of 1-10 on his bike/life, Jay is an 8. He is the GNARLUBE headquarters leading cyclist on rides 2 hours or less and likes to chase STRAVA trophies when he is not strapped to his desk. In this photo he is straddling his leading lady, whom has not yet been named. She is a Land Shark carbon bicycle hand built by world famous John Slawta. The out of control candy colored abstract paint job was done by John’s daughter Sara Slawta. Like her father she too is an incredible artist whom spends tons of her time filling sketch books with similar art and likable famous quotes!
The bike that was built by Velo Hangar’s bike mechanic extraordinaire Gordon Yeager shifts flawlessly with its Shimano Ultagra di2, and steers with precision with its ENVY bars and stem. The finishing touch is the purple fi’zi:k seat that Jay trusts his balls and butt too.
Jay is wearing a sweet mix matched GNARLUBE Chain Drop kit from our Spring 2012 line and believes is the #powerofthepinksocks.
For more on GNARLUBE: http://www.gnarlube.com/
Facebook: http://gnarlu.be/gnarlubefb
Tumblr: http://gnarlu.be/tumblr
And on Instagram and Twitter @gnarlube. Please always #GNAR
To find out more on Land Shark Bikes: http://landsharkbicycles.com/
Or Velo Hangar: http://velohangar.com/
Oh and if you were not looking at the bike and noticed Jay’s dope tattoos they were done by San Diego’s finest Aaron Della Vedova at Guru Tattoo. http://gnarlu.be/guru
Undertow
fred to work day!
today is bike to work day. the day where masses of huffies, cross trails, and other fredly rigs make their unicorn appearances upon the road. clad with their highlighter jockies, these ponies are sight to be seen. don’t regard this as a condescending post, i think its great that people are riding their bikes. i just think its rather silly that you should have a designated day for you to do so. sorta like Valentines day, Mothers day, and Halloween (you should be allowed to be Darth Vader everyday, all day). anyways, this is what my fred to work day consisted of.
I’m going to keep posting this video until everyone realizes how good it is.
my first 3 races
the past few months i have felt like absolute shit on my bike. my chest burns
when i go up hill, my legs feel like they;re going to cramp when i take a pull,
and my arms are locked trying to keep my tired up. my schedule has been crazy
too, sometimes taking a day off randomly because other things in life have
called for my attention. growing up sucks, doesn’t it?
its been my goal for the year to get my two up grade, and along the way figure
out how to do this complex and frustrating sport of cycling. the amount of
mental focus and the many countless beatings on and off the bike have made that
goal seem so unattainable. you get a great result one race, then DNF another,
get some sub par results, and then the moons align and you get the results that
you’ve expected. this roller coaster, with its parallels to life, is the ride
that we all accept when we pin our numbers on our back. as bike racers we all
understand and embrace it, which creates a bond between us all. we’re all in
this together. enough of this though, im going to tell you about my first two
three races.
first was wente road race. this wasn’t a race that i had any ambitions at all.
i simply wanted to show up and see who was who and get a feel of the other
riders in my category. i have to say that the field is faster and slightly more
organized than the fours. but other than that, the races play out similarly.
chase everything down, sit up, and then soft pedal. terrible tactics. so i sat
in and watched it all play out. i was mid pack most of the race, saw the
winning move ride away, and then tried to be in top ten through the last right
hand turn up the kicker. i was top ten going into the turn, but i took the
wrong line and got pushed out while the inside line was swarmed and about 10
other guys were suddenly infront of me. the group riding for the field sprint
was slowly pulling away while i was stuck doing the paper boy to get around
everyone. i ended up getting 14th out of 50+.
the second was Cats hill crtierium. ever notice how there is a whole different
group of new faces at criteriums and a whole different group of faces at Road
races? Again, i was here trying to see who my competition was. however i came
into this race with some ambitions to get a result. this was one of my first
races as a 5 back in 2010, and at the time i was just some skinny mountain kid,
well i still am, with no idea as to what i was doing. i knew that the hill was
steep and it would start to hurt. but tactically i had no clue as to what would
work and what wouldn’t. i did have one tool that i used to my advantage, and
that was the technical knowledge of the course that was shared by team mate Ben
Dodge.
the line to take up the hill is to hit the corner outside inside outside, swing
over to the left and ride the gutter all the way to the top. the grade isn’t as
steep and the hill is slightly shorter. We save our penny’s. also, it was
important to take the right turn at the bottom to the long stretch at full
speed. most importantly STAY AT THE FRONT!!! you dont want to get stuck behind
some overweight dummies going up that hill. loosing position on this race could
be devastating.
so whistle blows and we’re fallowing Paul Blart on his LG Volunteer police ATV
crusier. from the gun the pace was blistering, strung out from the front to the
caboose. i sat uncomfortably in the middle of it, trying to make my way up a
few positions to stay on the wheel of Ben. our plan was to stay top ten and
then ben would shoot me from 5th wheel on the last lap to sprint for the win.
but in true bike racing style, the plan never gets hatched. instead some crazy
killer bee swarm comes out, attacks your lead out man, and then carries him away
in a carbon honey frozen tomb back to the hive. well not really, but ben wasn’t
feeling it today and got popped half way through the race. i was on my own.
about 5 to go, i was on the top of the hill, looked around and decided to have a
go at a break. i made it down to the bottom where start finish and was feeling
great. i then made it to the first right hand turn and felt like shit. by this
time another BBC rider had bridged up to me and i was hurting a lot going up
that hill. sorry dude, but im out for this one! i got absorbed near the park
on the top of the hill and stuck back into the top 10.
coming into the bell lap, a rider infront of me decided to ditch his bottle on
the inside of a turn. it bounced back into the field. it caused a crash behind
me. i can’t believe he thought that was a good idea. the metro mint rider
infront of the field looked back and capitalized on this and drilled it. i saw
the move go and i knew what he was going to do, but i didn’t think he was going
to stay away for a whole lap. well, he did. about half the field got tangled
in that wreck and no one wanted to chase the metro mint guy down. i was about
the same position going up the hill for the last time. Coming down into the
last strait ,before the right hand turn into start finish, i sat right behind
multinational U23 cyclocross champion cody kaiser. i was beyond stoked because
i knew this guy could give me the biggest lead out of my life. it turns out
that it was indeed the biggest lead out of my life, so big that i got dropped
from his wheel 200 meters to go. and then i got passed on the right by some
dumb junior, and then some dumb mikes bikes dude nipped me at the line for 4.
so i got 5th.
i think im going to do alright here in the 3’s.
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