Winter Advertising Special Email me for a special 20% off winter advertising special! sttarlite@hotmail.com! Reach your customers this winter!

Nurse Needed! Willing to Pay!! I am having major surgery in January 16, 2009. (Don't worry, I'm fine!!) I just found out that the person that was supposed to drop me off and pick me up from the outpatient surgery center is not going to be able to do so. I'd like to hire a private duty nurse or someone that is a nurse to do so and possibly stay with me for a few hours after I get home. All in all, it would be 8-12 hours. I know it's not going to be cheap, but I have no choice and will pay. If you are a nurse and are interested, please contact me at sttarlite@hotmail.com. I'll be happy to give you my phone number privately, so that we can talk.
 

Press for the TdG Petition Oh yeah! Pez gives the TdG Petition some Pez-style Love!

1-2-2008 Charlotte News From Charlotte Sports Cycling: Sunday, January 4
We have a trail work day planned for the infamous short track course at Renaissance Park. We plan to start working this Sunday, Jan. 4th at 9:00am. We will meet by the dumpsters on the softball side of Renaissance Park. The plan is to make some improvements to the existing course, but mainly we are extending the course to include the first part of the Figure 8. This will add a little more fast singletrack to the course and break the climb up into a few parts with more passing room on the gravel road section. This should be a nice change for those who have raced the Winter Short Track before, and it will make the laps a bit longer, maybe 45 seconds or so.

Come out and bring a shovel if you have one to help move gravel. We will have the Ditch Witch loader and 2 ATV's with dump trailers, so the work should go fast. Oh yeah, we plan to provide Topper's Pizza for all volunteers at lunchtime.
If we have enough people, we will add a few more features to the course. This is the time to add input.
Thanks and we'll see you there.
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Mountain bike museum opens in North Carolina
By Gary Boulanger, BikeRadar
The sport of mountain biking is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, and leading the celebration is the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology (MOMBAT), a new museum created to preserve and chronicle the evolution of the sport, its personalities and products, located in Statesville, North Carolina.

The museum's collection contains over 400 bicycles, including more than 250 mountain bikes. Displayed alongside the bicycles at MOMBAT are hundreds of vintage parts and accessories and thousands of pieces of literature, including period catalogs and magazines that follow the evolution of the sport.

"With our location near the intersection of two major interstates, the museum is convenient for anyone traveling in the area, and we've had visitors from all around the US and overseas as well," said Jeff Archer, the museum's curator. Archer told BikeRadar the museum is split between two floors of 5,000 square feet each, with 14-foot ceilings.

"The online shop history tells quite a bit about how we got to where we are now," he added.
In the mid 1970s, the mountain bike sprang to life as a grassroots effort by a small group of riders in Marin County, California, who converted balloon-tired cruisers into trail bikes by removing superfluous equipment and installing knobby tires. The first purpose-built off road bikes were made in the late 1970s when the term "Mountain Bike" was first used to describe them, and the sport grew rapidly worldwide in the following years.

The original mass produced mountain bike, the Specialized Stumpjumper, arrived in stores in 1982. An example of this model now resides in the Smithsonian Institution, and a similar model is displayed at MOMBAT.

Technological innovation is evident in the bicycles featured at MOMBAT, with the evolution of front and rear suspension designs, hydraulic disc brakes and the progression from five to 27 gears over the life of the sport. Frame materials also evolved, from basic steel tubes to wildly shaped and extremely lightweight composites and metals. Artistic design and construction is also found on bikes and components as some of the best examples of bicycle fabrication are on display at the museum, including details ranging from experimental to innovative and artful.

The museum also sponsors the Cackalacky Cup, an increasingly popular vintage-themed mountain bike festival that takes place each summer.
MOMBAT is located within First Flight Bicycles in historic downtown Statesville, NC. Admission is free and the museum is open to the public Monday-Friday, 10-6 and Saturday, 10-5. Visitors are welcomed and encouraged to take their time to view the exhibits.
Those unable to visit the museum in person can view much of the collection at www.mombat.org.

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2009 Nothing But Noodles Winter Short Track Series
January 18 & 25, February 1, 8 & 15
ALL SUNDAYS
Word on the street is lots of teams and shops are really excited about the Team Competition during the 2009 Winter Short Track Series. The Team competition will consist of team members across all categories earning points. The points will be derived from a new system called "Pack Points". Pack Points are based upon the number of people racing in your category, with a minimum of 10 points for the winner. The top six people from your team will be scored. This scoring system is separate form individual scoring during the series.
1st Place Team - $250, Winners Trophy and a year of braggin rights!
2nd Place Team - $155
3rd Place Team - $100
We will be providing space on the course for all of sponsoring teams and clubs. All team members must wear team kits during the race and provide registration with the proper name.

We are working hard on growing the 2009 series and brought on many new sponsors.
We currently have 13 of the local bike shops sponsoring the 2009 series: SouthPark Cycles, Bike Line of Charlotte, Bicycles East, Bicycle Sport, Ultimate Bicycle, Cool Breeze Cyclery, First Flight Bikes, Trek Bikes of Charlotte, The Spirited Cyclist, Luna Cycles, BikeSource, Bolt Brothers, Blood, Sweat and Gears and The Cycle Path. Jesse Brown's Outdoors is also supporting the series.

We also have product support from Blackdogbikes.com, Clif Bar, Hydrapak, Cane Creek, American Classic, Defeet, Giordana and prizes from www.TotalCyclists.com .

American Classic is providing a set of their sweet Mtb26 wheels as grand prize raffle for the series. Cane Creek is providing a 110 headset for the raffle. Every time you race, you are entered into the raffle. I am also working on a couple more cool prizes for the series raffle. Stay tuned for more detail.

We will have online registration for the whole series soon. There will be a discounted rate provided for those who plan to race the whole series. Also, we have rented a chip timing system for the whole series so we should be able to have results posted even sooner and have laps, time splits and the works.

And to top everything off, we will lots of great food from our new sponsor Nothing but Noodles. Nothing but Noodles will be providing many of their famous pasta dishes at each of the events. Nothing but Noodles has two great locations in Charlotte, one on Rea Rd at Stonecrest at Piper Glen and the other on Elizabeth Ave near Presby. Visit the Nothing but Noodles website at www.nothingbutnoodles.com Hope you all are looking forward to a fun series.

Info on the 2009 Winter Short Track Series has be posted on www.charlottemtnbike.com
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Saturday, January 31st
Women's Cycling Clinic Presented by TotalCyclist

Featuring: Multi-Time US Pro Champion Tina Pic, Coach Robin Farina and Pro Cyclist Erica Allar
When: Saturday, January 31st 2009 @ 2pm-6pm
Where: TBD (Depends on how many sign up!) Somewhere in Central Charlotte, NC
Cost: 35$
Who: TotalCyclist/Uptown Cycles and influential women in the sport!
And: Special deals on women's gear compliments of Uptown Cycles.
Why: Because it seems to be the right thing to do.
Who is it for? We are targeting only women, obviously. However we will be discussing a myriad of topics and they will likely include:

· Training for ALL levels of women. Enthusiasts, Racers, Pro's and Beginners
· Mountain, Road, Track, Cross
· Nutrition informational specific towards women’s cycling.
· Bike Purchasing
· The Mental Side!
· Much More

Contact Chad Andrews @ chad@totalcyclist.com or www.totalcyclist.com See you on the bike. Neal
Charlotte Sports Cycling Inc. nealboyd@charlottesportscycling.com www.charlottesportscycling.com www.charlottemtnbike.com

Beyond Allatoona Long Option  is Back From Cycleworks:  The long option is back! Approximately 75 miles. Most of A group will be doing long option.

Kennesaw/Beyond Allatoona, Rolls at 9 am on Saturdays. 55 miles-Training- Definite A (18-19 mph) and B (17-18 mph) groups after restroom break. Not for casual riders. Rolling terrain from Kennesaw towards Cartersville. Course is well marked with white "CW"s. One restroom break and one store stop. Take I-75 to exit 271-Chastain Rd. Go west on Chastain Rd approximately 1/4 mile and take a left onto Town Point Dr. Bear right at first intersection and park in Pacesetter Steel parking lot-3300 Townpoint Dr. Watch out for the the low-clearance bar! From I-75 and 285 expect about a 15 minute drive to the start of the ride.
 
1-3-2008 If You Try to Contact Me If you try to contact me this weekend, my home DSL is down. I hope to have service restored by Monday. There is an AT&T outage in my neighborhood. Please be patient. Thanks! At the very least, I'll head to Starbucks Sunday night to check email. DSL is back up as of Sat. Afternoon.

1-5-2008 Barnsley CX Flyer Self explanatory. :)