Word up from EWR Land. This is a new blog that the kind folks at Dirt Rag have asked me to write. From here forward you will see my musings and thoughts. We can sit with coffee and talk of the old days, eat Fiddle Faddle and type with sticky fingers, and wax philosophical about all the realm of stuff cycling. Quite an upgrade from the Trials Section days when I used to send Elaine hand-written articles by fax for her to translate. I know she loved that! (you know, I don’t think I ever once made a deadline with her, either. Seriously…) My writing has not improved much since then, but at least you can read it. So, a big THANK YOU to the Dirt Rag staff for the privilege, and to you for reading. I will look forward to your comments and slings of arrows.

Thus it begins, sitting in my favorite coffee shop on the Delaware River (Peaberry Cafe in Reigelsville, PA). This place has saved my ass on many a frigid fixed-gear ride. It is positively frigid outside right now, and I feel all guilty being cozy and warm and not on my bike pushing tough guy miles up and down the river. Just as well, got to recover from the bike swap in Westminster, MD this past weekend. It was like the the Motorama days — spending all day walking around on a concrete floor in a cold arena building, looking at all kinds of bike stuff with all kinds of bike people. It was great, and I got to see sooooo many people from my riding past and future. Y’all kept dropping by the EWR booth and we sold quite a few t-shirts. I got to see old friends from the Balto Scene like Ron Bayne, Big Sexy Marvin, Megan Bilodeau, and the OC Racing/Suburban Cycles crew. I got to meet Carey Jones, a new EWR owner from the historic EWR Bikes first production run, and he got to ride my personal bike to see what his’ll feel like. So nice.

My head has been buried in EWR stuff as of late, and my mind is certainly up north dreaming of big powder days and Nordic race skiing, but spring riding is all too close around the corner. This weekend brought that reality. Plans were made to dirt jump with the OC/Suburban guys at 495 trails, XC with Dave Weaver and Dave Grant, and to repair Hilary Elgert’s shoulder. Dry dirt is just around the corner.

Thanks for reading — Jay de Jesus