some people...

its true, you know...
tomorrow i am climbing mt.hermon, singlespeed style. i will post some interesting pictures afterwards. and by interesting i mean strange. but you already knew that, didn't you?

die another day...

just got back from a friend's pub. the place is great, with nice people, and killer vibe. thing is, i now smell like an ashtray. yuk! whats the deal with smoking, anyway?

i mean, whats to it? you take some smoke into your lungs, and then puff it out. i say bite your nails. chew a gum. eat a popstickle. run. swim. write. read. live. just stop that stupid addiction.

and start drinking more beer. itay, my friend, knows better.. here he is, looking all casual.

a new day...

the weather in the last few days was awesome. the trails are dry and fast, the air is clean and fresh, and i can finally ride, after ditching that illness. i will put up some pictures from the 100 mile race.

Lior Dayan is the one to blame for these special pictures. this weekend will be another long one, with the Hermon climb on friday, and the fun Beeri race on saturday. i hope Kermit, my new car, is up for the task. oogie, you bastard!

meet Kermit !!

this is my new car. its a quircky fiat multipla, with room for six and room for bikes. if it looks like a frog, and its as green as one,i thought i might as well just call it Kermit.

just look at that huge ass. you gotta' love that...

evening time.

then i went back to my house to prepare the "back yard jam" stage. it was a great evening, with lots of good friends, and awesome vibe. the lead singer of the show was no other than subaru gary fisher rider, my friend Dror pekatch. the guy can sing. and drink. cheers.

a looong saturday.

early morning, and i am up (still sick, mind you...)- and its off to the CCC team annual picnic. an "easy" ride and BBQ are the order of the day.

Mr. tony poliak was incharge of the meat, and since he knows how to smoke things right, the meat was awesome.

meat eating kids. could they be happier?

back yard jam!!

i'm putting up a jam in my back yard. all my instrument playing friends are coming with their, er, instruments. we will all be playing infront of other drunk friends, who will undoubtly cheer and burp... and burp...

my drum set is ready to go outside and make some noise. i hope i feel better by the evening time, so i can make some ears bleed.

speaking of blood... the meat is ready. well, half ready... medium rare.

the writing's on the wall.

OK, so i know alot of people are really interested in this blog, or at least have a glimpse every once in a while. i will just ask you to leave a comment some times...

that way i'll know who's watching this life on the net. its easy- just click on "comment" and add, well, a comment. see ya'.

winter.

it's been raining like crazy. i like to wait at home 'till it rains really hard, and then i go out, and get wet to my bones. i mean, you can't get wetter (is that a word?) than soaking wet.

went to the go karts today with shap (that's shapira for you), tal and ido. it was awesome. i think i might be pretty good at this thing. ido was faster, though. next time, then...

whatever...

some people just have too much time on their hands.
on that note... i've been having some strange dreams lately. i'll spare you the details, but they're weird indeed. must be the lack of sleep hours. or the over load of singlespeed hours. good night.

sing us a song, you're the piano man...

its an israeli winter, this. 18 degrees, and raining. non-stop. i have been caughing for the past 3 weeks, and it's been getting on my nerves. time to enter a crowded, smoke filled and remote pub in haifa, then.

i went out to meet roy, a good friend of mine, whom i hadn't seen in a while. the guy is really into music these days. awesome dude. a great rider, too. a roadie, but still a great guy.

and- i have started liking beers (!?). not heineken, but leff braun, or something like that. i'm still a pussy, and i add a little sprite to the thing, but it does grow on me, this beer drinking, belly growing, head spinning thing. cheeeeeeeers.

don't drink and ride.

even if the passanger doesn't seem to mind/care/notice/understand. i tell ya', the kids these days...

cyclocross season. rabbit season. duck season.

it goes without saying...

as part of my father's ongoing 60th birthday, the whole family went on a trip to jerusalem. we went to the hertzl meuseum, which he built, and then went to the west wall. it was very inspiring going through the old city. i haven't been there in years.

from there we went to visit a monestry in abu-gosh, not skipping the whole humus experience on our way there. then we went to the desert, where 150 of my father's closest friends waited and surprised the birthday boy.

he was surprised, alright... it was an awesome evening, seeing how many good friends my father has collected during the years. ofcourse i wrote somthing. ofcourse i cried like a little girl while reading it. yes, i'm sensitive like that. shoot me.

yep, its rigid, no doubt about it...

after Shap (that'll be short for shapira from now on...) and i rode our singlespeeds for 4 hours yesterday (the guy just broke up with his girlfriend and wanted to hurt himself some more) i woke up early this morning, and took my rigid out for a technical spin.

i may ride as fast on the rigid as i do on my suspension 29er, but i make awfully different sounds while riding rigid. this thing is h-a-r-d. anyway, i'm off to a family weekend down south. i know, i spend too much time in the desert. i'll go north next time, i promise.

morning guy...

mornings are my favorite time of the day. i wake up early, even if i went to sleep really late. i'm like an old dude... of course it helps that my sister comes to feed our horses each morning at 5:30. see, i like horses, i just don't think they like the idea of us sitting on them.

they are very noble, i'll give them credit for that... and they do seem to eat alot, just like me.
its just that they poop alot more than i do. and for reasons beyond me they like to do it outside, and not in a toilet. so the flies around my house are killing me. good morning. (?)

commit.

the israeli mtb championship took place the day after my 100 mile race. it was a good excuse to sit back and relax, while every elite rider in the country was busy changing bottles each lap. it was the first time in 6 years, that i did not take part in the race. it felt good... beside, they do not have a single speed category. lame.

computer guy...

since i don't have a TV in my house (by choice...), i find myself sitting alot infront of the computer. i have time to explore all those facebook things- and i love it. this internet thing, i am telling you, they're onto somthing.

another day, another single speed...

i can't stop.
well, i always wanted a chromoly 29er. so i got one. a simple, cheap, rigid, chromoly 29er, by redline. i am about to enter a new world of pain, i know, but just look at it.
here comes the pain!

why do we do it?

because its pure fun. its pure pain. its pure. it is simple- you ride your bike for a long long long time. you climb alot. you descend. you're hot, and you cramp. you can only go as fast as you can stop, or as hard as you can push. i love it.
it was the toughest race i have ever done. choosing the single speed proved to be even more painful than i thought. good. erez was an awesome match, what with all those extra 26 gears on his "top fuel" race bike.
and this is how you prove you've finished- by taking a picture of a clock, sitting on a parked car's dash board, at the finish line. the time shown, is the time we finished. some 8 and a half grueling hours after we started. great pictures are still to come- stay tuned...

time to play.

in a few hours i'll be down south, in the desert. erez- my racing partner, ziv- my editor, and lior- our photographer will all be there with me. i am trying to drink alot, as i need my body fluid filled, and i pee every 15 minutes.
knowing you're about to race for 8-9 hours in the middle of no-where' is a good excuse to eat like a hungry hippo. i love hippos- they have funny little tails, and they're fat. just like oogi. the bastard!