Down With The O-Funk

As you may have noticed from today's earlier post, the Big Mama arrived from the land of 10,000 bike parts yesterday and is rockin' eleven-forty-seven. Super stoked to mount the Big Mama for long ass days in the saddle this year.

As I also mentioned earlier, I can't thank Salsa enough for the opportunity. When I started doing endurance races 5 years ago, I NEVER would have thought that I would get opportunities like this. I'm truly blessed. Long time readers know that you're not gonna see me on the box too often, but you will see me doing my best, pushing myself, and having fun in that "shit, this really f*cking hurts" kind of way. I'm glad that folks like Salsa, (as well as T6, Pro-Bikes, SRAM, Princeton-Tec, and Ergon can see past the results and see my passion and pure love of our sport. Thanks.

OK, now having said all that "I love you man" stuff, time to post some pics, and give some first impressions of the frame.

The frame is really a work of art. Not so much in an aesthetic way (although I do dig it), but more in all the forged parts and tube manipulating. The top tube especially will allow for nice stand over clearance in rock gardens and technical trails. It just seems like everything on the frame was truly thought out. Even down to the use of Enduro sealed cartridge bearings. Nice to see them used, you get a bunch of moving parts, being thrashed in the mud it's nice to have some quality bearings.

The "orange funk" is a much more subtle orange that of the Dos Niner. Some might hate it, some might love it. I in no way hate it, but I am more partial to the Dos Niner's in you face orange. I love the the new graphics that Salsa is using, Much more subdued than in the past.

One thing I did notice is that the Big Mama is indeed a big boned gal. She has a good 3.5 pounds or so on my large Dos Niner (EDIT- that' s an exaggeration, she's 2.5 lbs. heavier). BUT there's something about the way she feels that just feels "solid" and really that's what I want from an all day (and maybe all night) trail/race bike. The Big Mama is like the Serena Williams of bikes. "Bigger" than what most of the world expects a woman's body to be like, but built like a brick shit house, strong enough to shove a tennis ball down your throat with a 125 mph serve and still have some curves left to give me a stir in the loins. That's sort of what I think the Big Mama is gonna be like. You might not want to haul her around during a race with 10,000' of climbing, but you WILL want her jello on bed springs 4" of cush under your ass after 10+ hours in the saddle during a Solo effort or all day ride in the mountains. I'm lucky that I'll have two great bikes to choose from for racing this year. XC races and Hundies will have me on the Dos Niner and most of my Solo events will be on board the Big Mama (Code Name: O-Funk. Alias: Serena)

Now I need to get a few more parts and decide whether she'll get my Fox, my Reba or if the Reba will be sold with the Mamasita to pay for a new Fox. Hmmmm. Ok, enough about the Big Mama... for NOW! ;) For more info on the Big Mama click HERE and download a PDF information sheet.

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We went to a great dinner party last night. Had a lot of fun and I drank beer for the first time in 16 days. I found myself not really enjoying It and feeling guilty for drinking it, yet I still drank a few (I'm an idiot) it made me ill and I sort of felt like shit this morning. I laid around in my P.J.s until 2 p.m.. Then I finally started feeling myself and had a great workout on the trainer. Did a set of twenty 30 second intervals along with a warm up and cool down. Who would have thought I would have felt so good on the bike after getting home at 1 a.m. and feeling like shit in the gut. I might be done with beer for a good while. Seeing the good results on the scale (down about 6 pounds now) and feeling good on the bike is a much better feeling right now than even a good beer. The lure of a good beer is strong, but the lure of dropping 10 more pounds and riding and racing better is much stronger.

Man, it's late, time for bed. I leave you with the quote of the week that a REAL friend posted on my Facebook page -

"Last night I was leafing through the city paper and came across an advert for the Moz show. My girl says, "Morrisey you gotta give it up." I punched her in the face and then listened to Louder than Bombs. - I.P.

Dude that was too much! It makes me laugh every time I read it. Thanks.

Later.