Return of the Beer Silos

January 30th marked our annual pilgrimage to the great Beer Silos of Webberville, MI... also known as the Michigan Brewing Company. There was a small pit stop at MSU for some Expo thing, but once we made short work of that, it was Team Hot Dog time!

The beer, nachos, and tasty burgers and sandwiches began to flow. Stories were shared. Lies were fabricated. Fake beards began to grow.

From there, it was on to a spandex fitting party like no other.

The great Beer Silos!

My tasty IPA. It was hoppy!

Shaun pondering his next beer

Myroo with his booty

Ummm. I had to. Steve on Jrad here reminded me of a pic I snapped at the zoo in 2005.

The 2011 Thd Christmas card!

Fresh off the Press!!!!

One of our own Hot Doggers may not be who he says he is. I was able to come across this picture which was taken in the woman's bathroom by a photographer who chose not be named. This is our very own Coach Steve. Is the look on his face the state of excitement? or arousal? Could he be thinking of his new Epic full suspension? Beer? or just the thought of having a feeling he never knew existed? The answer will remain among legends. Nice work Coach. You just gave us the visual expression of the word "WHeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".

Happy Birthday, Hot Dog!!!

First things First...

Secondly, I just want to share an except from a conversation that John (Hot Dog) and I had this morning:

Hot Dog: Today is going to suck
Hot Dog: wow
Hot Dog: I'm not Drinking Sunday
Hot Dog: I'm just the DD


So...Myroo and JRAD, get ready to Party! We've got a Designated Driver, Let's Party!

Wienermobile leaves my place at 9:00am Sunday morning for the MMBA Expo and more importantly, the Michigan Brewing Company's Beer Silo Festival at noon. Be there!

- Coach Steve

Greetings Team Hot Dog

My name is David. I recently discovered through facebook that my friend Steve has a hot dog fetish and likes to mountain bike. I of course shared my interest in hot dogs, mountain biking and the Echidna.

Echidnas are by far my favorite four legged Austrailian animal. The picture above shows three Echidnas enjoying a cold beverage after a long ride. Anyway, after Steve and I had a long discussion of echidna mating habits, he invited me to join Team Hot Dog. Low and behold, I accepted the invitation.

Besides my love of Echidna's I also enjoy their beverage of choice, beer. I have been riding for quite a while and typically enjoy a cold "carbo load" upon completion of a long ride. I have wanted to get involved in racing in one form or another for some time. But nobody had a hot dog suit that would fit me. My weapon of choice is a 2001 Stumpjumper Comp. However, the only original thing left of the bike is the frame. I upgraded just about everything between 2007 and 2008. I think I'm going to move up to sram x.0 hydraulic discs this year rather than the mechanical I have on there now. I'm still on the fence.

That is the corner of a pool table as well. Yes, sometimes I spill beer on it. I also have a Vasago Bandersnatch. It's a 29er for those not familiar with the Bandersnatch. It's also a fictional creature found in Lewis Carroll poems. It's a steel frame rigid bike setup as a 1x9. It's a fun ride and I may opt for a suspension fork this year. I think I'd rather buy the hydraulic discs and save the rest for beer money. 29er suspension forks are a wee bit pricey and that's a whole lot of beer.

I tend to ride the Tree Farm and Maybury most frequently due to location. I'm in Redford and it's a relatively quick drive to either trail. However, my favorite trail is probably Highland. Tree Farm is tons of fun too. On the weekends I like to make the drive and hit something other than my usual weekday rides. I sometimes head up to Brighton and do Murray Lake and Torn Shirt. Last year I gave Proud Lake a try. I liked it due to the lack of traffic. However, you had to dodge the occasional horse dump. I found the Kensington connector and started riding from Proud Lake to Kensington, doing the Milford loop and then riding back. That actually turned out to be a pretty fun ride and if one really wanted you could take the paved trail through Kensington to Island Lake and ride that as well. And if you really really wanted to you could probably start at Hickory Glen and ride that, Proud Lake, Kensington connection, Island Lake, Milford and make your way back. That gives me an idea for this year. I'll have to pack a lunch.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I'm really looking forward to the Spandex Party where I'll get meet you folks face to face. It'll be good to see you again too Steve, it's been ages. Oh, can I bring my roller skates?

Recruitment Time!

ATTENTION! ATTENTION Hot Dog fans!

Do you like to ride your bike? Do you like to drink beer? Are you looking to join a team or club to further your biking excitement? Well then, look no further than Team Hot Dog! We are looking to add to the fun group of “hot doggers” we already roll with, and are hoping you become part of that group.

We don’t require much in order to join the team. You don’t have to race expert or semi-pro. Good friends, good fun, and better beer after the ride is what we are all about. And don’t forget about an occasional hot dog. All we kind of ask is that you participate in at least one event throughout the year, and roll our jersey (which you’ll have to purchase) while doing so. Public humiliation in a hot dog costume may or may not be included.

Some of us race quite a bit, some, not at all. We’re just looking to expand our group. Think you got what it takes? Please e-mail Steve or John to get the party started. Please e-mail the following information to us:

• A brief summary of your biking past
• Why you would like to become part of a team
• A recent photo of you on a bike (yes, we discriminate)
• Your favorite beer

Once we receive and review what you’ve sent, we’ll decide whether or not you are cool enough to join our elite group of bikers.

Thanks for your interest!

ATTENTION Hot Doggers and Fans of the Tubed Meats...The Dogeroo Wheels are in motion for the 2011 tHD Jersey and we're planning to order a Fit Kit from Pactimo. When I need to know from y'all is who is planning on ordering Jerseys and what sizes would you like them to send us to try on?


We are going to have another Spandex Fit Party as soon as they come in...SO WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM EVERYBODY WHO IS PLANNING TO BUY A JERSEY BY WEDNESDAY what sizes (mens/womens short/long sleeves) and we will let you know as soon as they come in. For those of you who can`t make it to the party, I still want to hear from you about what sizes you wear now and we'll try to figure something out.

Anyways, Post up sizes or send me a message!

- Steve

Shrinkage

It's been a while since the Hot Dog Suit has made an appearance....It's been kind of cold out!

Can You Proof My Wiener?

Well, ol HD is kind of feeling sick, the gf is in the other room watching Twilight, so I figured, "why not go design a jersey?"

So here is Proposal 1. From what you all sounded like you wanted, we kept last year's theme but incorporated the two big winners from our winter meeting. A wiener on the front riding a bike, and a wiener on the back atop the podium. Let me point out two more of my favorite updates for this season: 1) The word "Wheeee!" atop the back of the jersey. 2) We have a sponsor! I know the font is small, but in the back middle pocket, it reads: "Rad's Road House - Home of the beer silos"

UPDATE: Here is "Proposal 2", with some red on the shoulders and a little yellow piping. Let me know what you think:

If you look closely, I've added condiments to the back... unsure of what to think:

Coach wanted to see font that looked like it was squirted on, so here ya go:

I'm so f'ing bored right now....

Hey Steve, how is this?

Ok, this is the deal. Steve and I have agreed that version 2.1 below is probably what we are going to go with. PLEASE! Post up with your comments so we can get the ball rolling with Pactimo soon. Thanks dogs!

An Epic Journey

There have been jokes...and more jokes and even more jokes about me someday going to a Full Suspension. For all of the jokesters out there, I say to you now....BITE ME! I am just really happy about this bike and never knew this feeling existed!

Over the years I have gone from a 26" Hardtail, 26" Full Suspension, 26" singlespeed, 26" Full Suspension, 29" Rigid Singlespeed, 29" Hardtail Singlespeed, 29" Hardtail and now I have finally arrived at the 29" Full Suspension (and I`m sure many more in-between!). I'm guessing in another few years, I`ll be back to 26" bikes....who wants to bet?


- "Coach" Steve

HAPPY NEW BIKE DAY COACH!

Congrats on an EPIC day Coach Steve! Post some pics of that bitch up so we can all jerk off to it now!

First Ride of 2011

As we all said goodbye to 2010, or as I like to call it "The Year of the Cookies", we all symbolically push the reset buttons on our Garmins and start counting our miles again. For some of us, we're hopefully thinking about taking our newly acquired GPS's out of the package, reading the directions and thinking about doing a little test-riding.

Since the Polar Rhino Ride was looking to be more like a Monster Truck Show, complete with a large entry fee and all the mud you can eat, we planned to wait until the next day when temperatures were supposed to dip into bone chilling and life threatening numbers (come on, who would want to ride in 50 degree weather when you could ride in 20 degree weather? Duh!).

The spin out to the Biggest Hills in Michigan was like a non-stop slurpee brainfreeze with the wind and the snowflakes blasting us the whole way and exposing whatever flaw our winter riding gear had. Once we made the turn onto McKeatchie Road, the trees finally gave us a little protection from the elements and allowed us to suck what little hydration we could get out of our frozen waterbottles. With a little help from the Curiously Pleasant odor from the hippie van that passed by and the Snow God that Shaun crapped out at Indian Springs, we caught a tailwind home and survived to tell the tale!

26.62 miles down, 2,973.38 miles to go!

Happy New Year,

- Steve

Happy New Year!

Fockers.