I went to see a man about a dog.


I guess I covered most of what needed to be on Monday, but since I said I’d elaborate, and I am nothing if not a man of my word, I will do so presently.

I suppose it was four or five years ago when the Meet Your Maker ride series was initially conceived.

Maybe it was six. Or seven.

I don’t know… If you wanted historically accurate information, mine is as suspect as that of the Creationists;

Whatever the case, this series of rides was originally conceived with the idea of giving people from all walks an opportunity to come and join like minded humans on rides routed and scheduled by specific regional northern California bike builders.

Wanna go mountain biking on Jeremy Sycip’s backyard trails with the likes of Gary Helfrich, Bruce Gordon, Sean Walling and the like?

We’ve done that.

Likewise, we’ve done it in Richmond;

Marin;

Oakland;

Chico;

As well as a host of other spots.

Somewhere along the way, Robert decided that he would allow his ride to grow into its own particular monster, and use it as a vehicle with which he could help support two local pit bull rescues. The bigger his ride grew, the smaller all of the rest of them shrank. This was a point of conversation more than once over the course of the weekend, and no one had any clear reasoning why.

Just the same, Robert has maintained his directive, and despite the fact that it was hot as balls, as usual, hundreds of folks turned out, and fun was had by every one of them;













With twentyish miles down, and not much of a staff to show for the fact that I started building it after midnight the previous evening (as long as you assemble your staff between midnight and midnight, it’s all fair), I reckoned I’d co-pilot with Namba from Squid Bikes in their black bomber for a spell, (ironically I came to realize I was in the van for the only shaded portion of the ride), and get to imbibing;

As an added benefit, I was able to snap a few additional shots from other points in the pack aside from the one I had been sitting previously;











Finally at the last aide station I ditched my bag, camera, staff, and what was the last of my cognitive function into the depths the Squid bomber and got back on my bike to rejoin a group for the final block of miles back into town where we all eventually met up for hand slapping and food eating at the world HQ of Bike Dog Brewing.

Once there, I milled around a bit and got a few shots of the action, but because of the previously, and regular mentions of the absolutely suffocating temperatures, could either concentrate on remaining upright, doing my job, or barely both, so I committed to the latter;




One bike on display that caught everyone’s eye was the new BMX cruiser from Squid;




That right there is a spicy meatball.

Though I didn’t get specific details on this number, (or at least any I can recall) I can say that if they’re not available currently, they will be made so real soon. Other points of note are that they are American made, real expensive, and real limited, so if it strikes your fancy and you’re some kinda hotsy-totsy venture capitalist or whatever, shake a leg, because once they’re gone they’ll be gone for good.

Finally, the raffle I was guaranteed to lose went down, and lose I did.

Luckily my bad luck don’t rub up on others, and most notably Frankie, who walked away with one of the grandest prizes of all being the spanking new Di2 equipped Blue Collar ripper;

Of all the ducks, she is assuredly among the luckiest.

At this point, Amigo number two and I melted back to Blue Collar HQ where we focused on continuing to sweat our faces off and got down to business with our primary directive;

At 11:53 I strapped on my 26th can, and went inside where I ultimately fell asleep with my head on an icepack.

The following day was spent driving the course and cleaning up all of the markings and/or evidence of our previous day’s presence.

As of posting time, I’m not sure of the total dollar amount raised for Sac County Dogs, and Chako Pit Bull Rescue, but I’d bet my weight in chew toys and healthy kibble that it was a bunch, and at this stage in today’s post I’d like to thank Robert and Cary Ives for all they do, the volunteers, Bike Dog Brewing, everyone who bought raffle tickets, all of the builders, the folks who contributed prizes for the raffle, and certainly every single person who came out to ride.

It was one for the record books, and I look forward to next year’s, which hopefully will occur on a day when the heat gods are on vacation.

It is then that for both their time and consideration on the matter, I would sincerely thank Dog.

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7 Responses to “I went to see a man about a dog.”

  1. j_cup June 22, 2017 at 12:34 am #

    qt pick of crizzle in muhrin

    • j_cup June 22, 2017 at 12:35 am #

      whoops wrong post still interested in doing a demo derby teem?

      • j_cup June 22, 2017 at 12:36 am #

        i’m kind of kidding about the demo derby let’s ride and drink beer and see where it goes from there. stay hesh mr shredder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8vZBrnEao

        • Cleavon June 22, 2017 at 5:57 pm #

          From the merch section:

          “Please note- These are just like the last run of black hates we had, except they’re different because they’re charcoal”

          One of my total of two college credits was intro to grammar.
          I knew that shit was going to pay off.

          P.s. The other was psychology. So even I if that was a Freudian slip, I’m still reaping the benefits of higher education.

          • Stevil June 23, 2017 at 5:43 am #

            I have so many words I need to keep track of. It’s fixed and thanks for the eye.

  2. Ellery July 5, 2017 at 8:48 am #

    OK, I need to know about that narrow rack that the orange prison Paul jumpsuit was running in photo #7

    Awesome shots btw.

  3. Dustin July 9, 2017 at 11:19 am #

    That throwback rig tho. woooof