Kona Midwest Rider raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan!

NORTHVILLE, MI – APRIL 1, 2006 -- Kona Midwest racing's Bryan Mitchell is riding in and photographing this year’s Make-A-Wish Foundation WAM 300!
So I am asking for pledges of minimum of $25 ($100 from companies) from all my family, friends, clients, bike sponsors and anyone else that will listen!

What is WAM?
Wish-A-Mile 300 Bicycle Tour is a three day, three hundred mile bicycle tour from Traverse City to Chelsea. This is the 19th annual Wish-A-Mile (WAM) 300 Bicycle Tour! Hundreds of caring cyclists, volunteers, and wish families will join together July 27-July 30, 2006 for this wonderful event that is sure to inspire and change lives as it brings hope, strength, and joy to some very special children suffering with life-threatening medical conditions. In 2005, WAM raised more than $775,000 for the children of Make-A-Wish! Come join us this year, as we aim to raise $800,000 to make more wishes come true!
www.wishmich.org/events/wish-a-mile.shtml

What is the Make-A-Wish Foundation?
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan grants wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.
www.wishmich.org

Why am I riding?
What compels you to ride 300 miles, rain or shine, and train for months in advance? Well why not? I have raced in several endurance races over the past 9 years including the 24 Hours of Snowshoe Mountain West Virginia solo. Racing alone for 24 hours straight! One thing that helps me through the physical and emotional pain of a race like that is the fact that I choose to inflict that pain on myself. And there are many people much worse off then me and in much greater pain then me, not by their choosing. Think about the people in last year’s hurricanes, people with cancer or especially kids with life-threatening medical conditions and their parents. My self inflicted pain does not even come close to what these people have to live with. With children of my own I can’t imagine kids going through this, so I’m doing it for the kids! And for the great work that Make-A-Wish does. I hope I nor anyone I know never needs them but I am so very glad Make-A-Wish exists!In addition to riding, I will also be taking my photo gear along to document all the activities of the WAM 300 for Make-A-Wish from a rider’s point of view. You will be able to see a photo story right after the event on my web sites, www.bryanmitchell.com and www.mountainbikephotographer.com. I will also be posting updates to our mountain bike team blog, http://konamidwestracing.blogspot.com before and after the event. (I will also try and post during the event if I can find an internet connection near where we will camp.)

The average cost of a child’s wish through Make-A-Wish is about $8,000, so why not aim higher than the minimum $650 each rider is required to raise? The possibilities are endless.
With the money raised from this tour, Make-A-Wish will grant over 100 wishes this year alone, and has granted more than one thousand wishes since WAM’s inception. Remember, the kids are the benefactors of your money! These kids need some fun and joy in their life and together we can help provide it! I have photographed kids with life-threatening medical conditions who have received some type of gift or special day and have seen first hand the huge smiles and joy. NO kid should ever have to suffer and be sad but the reality is some do. So I am grateful for Make-A-Wish and I’ll hope you’ll be able to support them too.
Thank you!
Bryan
Checks can be sent to:
Bryan Mitchell c/o WAM 300
21700 Connemara DR
Northville, MI 48167

Donations via www.paypal.com
My account is bryan@bryanmitchell.com

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Contact Information:
Bryan Mitchell - Team Manager
248.420.3488
bryan@bryanmitchell.com

Riding to work

Rode my bike to work today. Took a minute or two, but I made it the whole way. It is 25 miles one way so assuming I make it back home I will get 50 miles in before supper. I could use it also as I am just a donut away from being a clydesdale. I felt fine though and the day is nice. I used my 22inch Kona Hoss. It worked great. I put 53 tooth road cranks on it, a ridge fork, disc brakes, & Mavic Speed City wheels. I also put on a nice side view mirror which is dorky as can be, put it made the commute nicer and safer. Can't wait to ride home it is going to be 60 degrees!

-C-

Dirt Jumps

While Crispy, Dan and Amanda hit Yankee springs I was out at the Ann Arbor dirt jumps. Shooting and trying to jump. This is Thomas, the builder of the jumps. He is very smooth! Its tough trying to learn how to jump at 39 years old! But it's fun. I think I am in danger of becoming less of an XC rider everyday. But I can't wait to get on the trails in North Carolina nest week. Today I rode the new King Supreme out on Hines Drive, it was a nice ride.

Yankee Springs pre-ride

Yesterday Chrispy, Amanda and I headed out to Yankee Springs to ride some dry Michigan trails. What a beautiful day it turned out to be, but it was still to cold for Chris. The goal was 3-laps and even though we bonked, we crashed, flatted, bent a fork and arrived at the trailhead a little later than planned we still rode the 3-laps. 39-miles or all trail riding.

Chris riding his Stinky bike and noticley punishing himself for not spending a enough time on the trainer, was done by the time the third lap came around. Amanda got the course knowledge advantage and is ready for the TT. I hit a tree on the SS and bent the fork on the last lap. it hurt.

To celebrate your ride we ate the brownies Jan Macks gave me. Coke Chris brought and then Taco Bell!

What a great Day!

My first video!

Hey my first attempt at video editing.
Right click and save target as, big file, windows media player.
http://www.konamidwestracing.com/video/first%20bike%20vid_final.wmv
I borrowed Jim's camera and was finally able to capture video. I did this in about an hour using only Windows movie maker. Not great but it was fun. I can't wait to try editing with Adobe Premier.
Bryan

Doored!

Whew, I don't know what happened.................... Yesterday did a lap out at PLRA and it must have been the worst lap of my life as I had nothing. I mean my younger brother, Mike, who was out on his first ride of the year doored me. I mean he finished 10 minutes before me and I took all the shortcuts. Anyway hope it was just the green beer still in my legs from Friday cause if not then I have some work to do!.

Ride your bike more!!

-Crispy-

Back Home :(

All of us put in a huge day in the cars yesterday and made it back home. No one got tickets either :) We all would have much preferred to be out on the bikes as it was nice and sunny the whole drive back. However, what's up with this cold as a mutha weather here in Michigan !?!

We got in some good riding the last couple of days in NC. On Friday, I went out on a road ride as my shoulder is still tweaked from the crash on Pilot Rock. I did put in a good 5-6+ hours in the saddle. The first 3 I rode with Terry and Tom as we hunted down every steep road we could find to climb. If you're down there check out Jeter Mtn Rd if you like steep climbing. There are so many sweet road rides down there in addition to trails. The rest of the crew hammered on the mtb's in DuPont. It sounded like they had a great time with Stewy doing some trailblazing of his own on the slick rock. I would much have preferred to ride with them but what can you do. Next year!

The last day, we took it easy on the mtbs. We rode some fire roads into Pisgah looking for a scenic waterfall. After MUCH climbing we kinda got lost and turned back. Go figure, everyone was following my lead. It turns out we were on the right path but didn't know it. I'll do better next year, I swear! Sorry guys.

Well, gonna recover for the next couple of days and hope the weather stays good up here in the north so we can hit the trails soon here.

Later,
Pete

Stackin' It - Pisgah Style

Yesterday, the crew decided to the Laurel Mountain - Pilot Rock loop. A really fun trail but no foolin' around on this one especially coming down on the Pilot Rock side. Our late rising crew - myself, Justin, Dan, Jamie, Lummis, and Stewy rolled on down to the trail head and met up with another Michigan grouppo - members of the former Whole Foods team. It was a bonified Michigan boy racer reunion in the middle of Pisgah National Forest. A good fire road climb awaited to warm the legs. We got on the trail and every one was jamming and climbing really well. We had a nice strung out 10 man single track line snaking on up the mountain. Only a couple of mishaps on the way up due to stalling out on some techy climbing sections (Dan with the most amusing of them) and we got to the top. At that point everyone decided I should lead the way down. Uhh, allright I guess. Damn you all! All was good until I figured I should check my uhh 'brisk' speed. My small child alter ego entered as I pulled the famous super rookie move and grabbed a touch too much front brake just as I was rolling into a small bowling ball sized rock which proceeded to superman me into another small boulder shoulder first. Booyakasha - Ouch, Crunch - Pain! Well I tucked my tail between my legs and ran down the rest of the trail as I couldn't hold my bar and wasn't about to try to ride out the rest one handed. Well, I'm hoping for the best and I can still move the thing. Looks like the next couple of days I'll be rolling road bike style. One of my shoulders looks like a football player's but it works and that's what's important.

-Pete

3 years in the making

I was a bit too tired to talk about this yesterday but I and the rest of the guys climbed Mt. Mitchell. This was my 3rd attempt as the first year it was snowed out. Last year we just climbed the wrong mountain. This year I got it right. I don't know if that was necessarily a good thing but we did. Everyone was climbing really well including Terry "I only broke my neck in 2 places" Ritter. It was funny to see the looks he was getting from other cyclists as they took a glance and then did a double take at the neck brace he was wearing. Starting out in downtown Asheville it was about 78 degrees. By the time we reached the top we had to put on every piece of clothing we brought with us. We spent about 5 minutes enjoying the view and then decided to get the hell off that mountain. Temp was dropping and a storm was moving in so we started our decent. Managed to top out at 46.7 mph and it was pretty smooth descending all the way down. We were slowed down at the end by a silly Honda Element but give how steep and twisty it gets near the end it's probably a good thing. More to come.

-Justin

Yesterdays ride was just as good as Dan described it and I have to say the Crossmark tires that Maxxis has provided us are fantastic. Everyone is climbing really well with them and while descending you still have that same confidence. Of course having hydraulic discs helps a lot in that department. I cannot stress how much those have helped the sport.

It's still a bit early this morning and just a few of us are up eating breakfast. Today we're going to ride Mt. Mitchell. Weather is supposed to be fairly good but windy :-(. Right now I'm debating on weather or not to but this 12-17 on the back of my road bike. I'll report later on how it went and what I used.

Day #2 Mountian Bikes

Yeah I was taking the photo



What a day. Yeah everyone kicked my ass! Lummis, Pete, Justin, Jamie and Craig. We started at about 12:00 riding from the Mountain house we started at Davison camp ground with a single track warm-up loop, which was by far not a warm-up for Michigan standards. From there Sycamore Cove, which was where I fell off the on the end of my handle bars landing on my face! Stupid mistake on my part trying to get around Craig in t very technical section. Then after about two hours of riding we rode the service road up to Black Mountain for 25-30 minutes depending on who your are to Avery Creek trial that was a hell of a ride up and the descend down the mountain was why I love being here and everyone else here for that matter. Then for the trip home and back up the drive way. HELLZ BELLZ!! Justin and Pete were practically racing up I was just hoping I would make it with out puking. Four hours on the bike! What a great day! The weather was beautiful, the sun was shinning I think everyone got a little red and had great day.

The Brownies are in the over and ready to be pulled! Read on tomorrow, wish you were all here too!

Ray's Rocks

Crispy and Bryan hit Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike park in Cleveland again today for the 4th time this year! I was on the new Howler and felt I rode really well today. Even getting better at jumping clearing a few of the jumps and getting better at the big Red Bull box jump. I cleaned everything in the sport and expert stunt/skinny section as did Crispy like he always does. It was just a real fun day! http://www.raysmtb.com

Great Day at Ray's

Ray added to his collection of stickers on the door of Ray’s Mountain Bike Park with a Kona Midwest sticker.

We have arrived

We left the Ann Arbor area at about 5:30 this morning. This let us get to the Pisgah Mountain House by about 4:30. Not having a key to the place yet we all just pulled out our road bikes and headed down that super steep drive. Wow does it feel good to ride in nothing but shorts and a short sleeve jersey. We cruised around the area's local road loops till the sun when down. Dan slashed his sidewall on the way back, but Macguyvered back together with a empty gel wrapper. With the sun set we headed back up the drive and called it a good day. Tomorrow the temps are supposed to get near 80. Should be yet another good ride.

Howler on virgin ride.

I took the Howler out on her virgin ride doing a little urban riding in Northville. She isn’t speced exactly like I want. I’m still waiting for parts and I ran out of $$. I hate using a front derailleur as a chain guide, looks stupid, but I wanted the bike built up to take to Rays on Sunday! She needs a shorter stem as well. :) Awoooooooooooooooooo!

North Carolina Bound

Half the team is heading down to North Carolina in the morning for spring training in the mountains before the season starts. Justin, Pete and Jamie are riding with their coach Terry Ritter and Dan is also going along as are a few other riders from Michigan. If Justin can find an internet connection from the Pisgah Mountain House where they are staying he will do some blogging while there. Ride Safe Boys!
Bryan, Chris, Eric, Amanda and Shirlee head to North Carolina on April 7th. Riding in Pisgah National forest is the best!

the Bike!

isn't it pretty! can't wait to build it and take it for a ride!

2006 Rudy's!!!!

We got our Rudy's!
I am wearing the Silver Velvet Apache frames with the multilaser orange lenses. We also have the new 06 Horus frames, the white sport version. http://www.rudyprojectusa.com

What a fat ASS!!!

Ok so Crispy and I (Sorry C) were riding big bikes on a little urban ride today. I did a 3 1/2 to 4 foot drop to flat off a cool wall ride, slipped a pedal some and my big butt landed on the saddle, snap I heard. Great what did I break now? A bolt? No I cracked the saddle and bent the ti rails on my SDG Bel-Air. So either the saddle sucks, its only a month old or I am fatter then I thought. Probably a little of both. I let myself gain way to much weight over the winter and now I am paying for it. Out of shape and fat is no way to go through life or to ride a bike. So I can either sulk in my fat frustration or challenge myself to once again get in better shape. So any encouragement is appreciated. Like, "you can come back again Bryan, you did it before," or even, "Hey fat ass climb that hill!" So maybe I'll be in shape for my trip to Whistler or maybe in time for Iceman or maybe next year when I turn 40! Bryan

New Bikes Next week!

One of my new frames!!! The Kona Howler! www.konaworld.com. It will be here next week and I can't wait. It will be a blast taking the Howler down to Rays Bike Park www.raysmtb.com in Cleveland and playing on the stunts in my backyard!

The King Supreme will be my XC Bike!