I’ll no longer be posting here, instead I’ve moved over to my new site www.davehord.com

It’s live and running now.

-Dave

“i think for the most part, if you’re really honest with yourself about what you want most out of life…life gives it to you. “

This one scared me at first, the metal bit on the right was stuck to the magnetic drain plug. Took me a while, but I think it’s the rivet off the oil screen. With the way the engine is sitting at the moment, I can’t pop the screen out to see what’s going on.

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Drove the ‘69 beetle to work this morning, parked, and discovered we had been leaving a bit of a trail.

Don’t quite see it in the cellphone pic? Here, this is under car after 2.5min…

Houston, we have a problem. After work the stain was just a bit larger, but the whole left side of the lower block and engine ancillaries was coated in fresh oil. I had checked the oil two nights ago, and it was just above the mark. Now? about 1.5qts down. When you consider the beetle has a stock oil capacity of 2.4 quarts…that’s pretty significant. Thankfully I have a 2 quart external sump attached to it!

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Hmph, August 21st! Geesh…I must have been getting bored with this or something. The last real riding post was middle of July!

Well, never did finish counting how many days I rode, but with 54 on the board and at least 15 in my drafts section…I’d say it’s fairly likely I hit my goal of 100 days of riding. Of course, I didn’t document it, so I’m probably back to trying again next year. Why? Who knows…but it seems like an accomplishment to me to ride 100 days in a year while working full time.

I did reach my original goal for the season though. I set out wanting to ride each of the BC Bike parks, those glorious places which allow you to ride the chairlift to lap after lap of riding goodness. We hit Whistler all the time so it feels like it almost doesn’t count. Mount Washington, Sun Peaks and Panorama or easily taken care of due to the racing schedule. I’m pretty confident that Panorama is my favorite place to ride for racing. It’s a weekend that feels like a fun bro-trip but has an awesome race rolled into it as well. I raced it again this year, but missed the podium by one spot. That left Kicking Horse and Silver Star to finish off my goal for the season. We nailed down Kicking Horse by taking a day of work and stopping in on the Panorama Trip. Pano is 10+ hours from Squamish, and Kicking Horse is just one hour towards home…so it makes perfect sense to combine the two. Connor, Trevor* and I loved it, but agreed that with the upper alpine closed while we were there, it was only good for about a half day. And with that, it was silver star.

Connor joined me for a bro-trip on the final weekend for the ’star. We rode endless laps with little to no lift lines for two days. Berm after Berm after berm. You cannot do any better then SilverStar, and I highly encourage all of you to continue riding the braking bumps at Whistler…leaving the buttery smooth SilverStar for those of us who ‘know’.

Yup, it’s pouring rain in Squamish now, the trails are snowy and we’re into winter. Yee haw…

-Dave

*Apologies to Trevor for forgetting to include him in the original posting. The kicking horse day included Connor, Trevor, Kyle, Craig and I. By my initial recollection Connor and I were the only two who didn’t complain about paying $35 for essentially 3 or 4 laps of the bike park before heading home. Trevor maintains that he was not one of the whining individuals both at the ticket booth and in the suv later…so in fairness I now include him.

It does, however, make me wonder if Connor wasn’t one of the complainers when we initially arrived or during the parking lot picnic lunch. Hmmmmm…

I simply maintain that _I_ did not ONCE complain about the day, the park or the ride.

Your interpretation may vary

It’s been a while since I made some music suggestions…so here’s two you need to have on your iPod.

Otis Taylor - Ten Million Slaves
Whether you sit at desk in an office, or a desk in a classroom…if you’re reading here, you are probably day-dreaming about something better. Is it a ride, carving your way down some single track with the boyz? Maybe it’s a drive, twisty roads and following the double line where-ever it leads you. Regardless of what you’re dreaming about…this song would fit as the soundtrack.

YouTube Video with the song

Band of Horses - The Funeral
This song first grabbed us when used with a wicked mountain bike video…but it solidified it’s way into my brain when Eric Bana used it for the teaser to his movie “Love the Beast”. (more on that in a day or two). In the meantime, you need to get a hold of a copy. The rest of the album is pretty good too!

YouTube Music Video

-Dave

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly “perfect”…we did get a little lost in the middle…but it was darned close!

I wasn’t planning on riding today, I’ve got a new thumb-splint to go along with a second-degree UCL tear, but then I also wasn’t planning on bringing a work truck home for the evening. Hmmmm…have truck, will travel? A quick text message was put out to see who might be interested in riding. Connor was in for a ride, which pretty much shouldn’t be at all surprising at this point. If it involves his bike, he’s interested. I swear he thinks cleaning his bike is exciting!

Dinner was in the oven, ready in 1hr and 10min. Warwick offered to drive up the mountain (okay he didn’t really offer, I kinda told him that he was driving up the mountain) and so it was off to Connor’s to pick him up. I expected he’d be on the driveway, geared up and bike in hand…but instead found him in street clothes chilling in his room. DUDE!?! RIDE?! The rush was on, roast chicken was going to be ready in an hour!

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I skipped riding today, still haven’t had the thumb checked out. Instead, I checked out Connor’s progress on the local jump set. The tricks are starting to get dialed for the season, and I was there for the first slow-rotation backflip. It wasn’t quite successful…but it will be soon.

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Warwick, Scott and I went out this eve to take some shots of the bug for Thule and the RackStop…

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I can’t believe it’s Saturday. It honestly feels like yesterday or the day before that Connor and I were helping out Shaums at the Garage Sale. Our ride down Powersmart? That could have been yesterday too. This seriously feels like I’ve already had a three day weekend…and it’s only saturday night!

When our road-trip plans fell through, Connor and I agreed that we’d have to throw an airdome session into the weekend. Friday night didn’t work out, so tonight seemed like a good idea. I really wanted to know if my backflips the last time were a fluke, or if I’d remember what I was doing. Connor needs to dial in his tricks for the upcoming competition season and Trevor decided to join us since the airdome is such a good time.

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