A New Beginning

Wow, these past few weeks have been HARD! No riding (outside), lots of snow, and LOTS and LOTS of f*cking work. Lots of 16+ hour days, and other such madness. When I worked for that suck newspaper that steals souls and shits them out, I hardly worked at all, and made an adequate living. Right now I work like a f*cking Malaysian sweat shop worker pumping out duds for Calvin and don't make enough to buy.... well to buy much of anything! HA! Thank God for a wife with brains, a good career, and things that "heave!!" LOL!

Having said that, this whole XXC thing is one crazy trip. To work on what I want, when I want, with whom I want, is a f*cking dream! Especially compared to the shit I used to have to deal with (used car dealers asking to "make the logo bigger!"). At my old job I used to think about quiting on a daily basis and hardly worked at all. Now I work my ass off, make 99.9999% less than I used to, and all I can think about is what I can do to make it better.

XXC is not Bicycling, Bike, or Mountain Bike Action (not that there's anything wrong with those pubs, I've bought enough of them!). I just don't know if I want it to be them. Sure I like advertisers- A few extra bills or some goods is great. But I do NOT want to become a tool for them. There has not been an advertiser in XXC yet that I didn't already use, or believe in.

How many ads were in #6? 3!... Salsa- been riding them for 5+ years with no end in sight. Bikeman.com- I used to ride for them, they're great folks, who know bikes, ride, race, and are damn cool. I'd still be with them, but I went local for the support, bonding, and hands on help that only a fine local shop (Pro Bikes, 3 Pittsburgh area locations to serve you) can offer a wrench-less ass like me. BUT I still believe they are some great folks. When you can't go local, or need something fast- Go bikeman.com, and tell them Large Marge sent ya. Or Jason from XXC.

Lastly was Kyle from byeKyle Simple Straps. Dude sent me a strap to test. It rocked. It did what I wanted, when I wanted and how I wanted. On top of that Kyle has been cool with me and what XXC is all about. If you need to strap one on, do NOT go with the "Persnickety Penguin," go with Kyle. BTW I dare you to Google Persnickety Penguin!!!!!!

You may (or may not have noticed, slacker!) there were NO reviews in this issue. Yep. None. There may be one here or there in the future, but I want the pages of XXC dedicated to the ride, the race the EXPERIENCE of endurance racing. Not random product testing. Plus, I'm a mid pack at best racer, If I told you a bike or piece of equipment was titz, would you buy it?? Why???

The worst part of the past week was when a potential advertiser asked what my "circ" was. I told them. And lets just say they're not in the issue. When I was giving XXC away the numbers were out of sight! When I went to pay for... not so much. I guess what I'm trying to say in this Hop Devil induced diatribe is that I love my job, I wish I could give XXC away like I used to, or only charge $5.00 for the print mag, but I can't. I make the same from the print sales as I do from the digital, and that is sort of sad.

While my goal is to get as many folks hooked on the crack that IS endurance racing, I also have to at least TRY to make a buck. I might succeed. I might fail. But either way I'm having one hell of a good time trying!! I hope those of you who read the mag dig it. There are surely a lot of mistakes. For that I apologize. I'm working with someone to make that better in the future. My goal is to let the world know what a kick ass sport this is. To let baseball, football, hockey, basketball, etc., know that they can go have sex with themselves. You want to do something hard? Do a 24 hours solo. Shit, do a 12. Cramp, puke, DNF, see God, whatever. Just don't DNS!

Oh well, it's been a long few weeks. Snows have now put an end to yet another bike adventure scheduled for this weekend, but have not put and end to my will.

Thanks for letting me blather tonight. I needed it.

EDIT: XXC #6 IS OUT BY THE WAY :)

Later.