[mplutodh1]

Here's our new baby

Got to wait for the University Purchase Order to go through but this is her. 6x10 with rock guard, side vents, side door, spare tire, extra 6" of head room (storing bikes on the walls). Now I have to get the artwork all together for the sides, place our Park Tools order to outfit her, and design a way to haul as many road, DH and XC bikes as pissible along with our gear. Put that sucker and our huge custom team tent together and we are lookin pretty sweet!

Too bad I won't get to see her much for the next few weeks, the roadies are traveling for the next 4 weekends and taken her with them.

 

[HippieKai]

thats so cool man! You guys are starting to look like a REAL team.

 

[Carbon Fetish]

Did you guys buy that with your own cash or did the university help out?

 

[Heidi]

Nice! Can't wait to see it finished with the artwork1

 

[mplutodh1]

We raised the money ourselves. Bike-Athon we put together after the holidays, 24 hr relay around campus in the rain and cold. A few sponsors donated money to go towards it also. We have a few extra bucks layin around to pay for the decals, inside fitting and some tools so we are excited. Now if only I could race collegiate this year

 

[HippieKai]

Now if only I could race collegiate this year

uh...why can't you?

 

[Serial Midget]

We raised the money ourselves.

That is the only way to do it.

 

[mplutodh1]

uh...why can't you?

Long story short, its been a hellish past few days. I got home from the eye doctors to get an email from the College of Business and Economics telling me that i had been removed from my major and classes I registered for that were restricted to majors. Myself and several friends did not pull off a C- in our Business Stats course so we were all in the same boat, so at 2 this afternoon I had only 4 credits (12 are needed to race in the NCCA). Long story short I got screwed along with a few friends. Think I figured out a way to get full time status and still not get screwed over too bad. So I MIGHT be racing collegiate this year if it works.

 

[toughguymagee]

Nice rig Matt

 

[Velocity Girl]

Long story short, its been a hellish past few days. I got home from the eye doctors to get an email from the College of Business and Economics telling me that i had been removed from my major and classes I registered for that were restricted to majors. Myself and several friends did not pull off a C- in our Business Stats course so we were all in the same boat, so at 2 this afternoon I had only 4 credits (12 are needed to race in the NCCA). Long story short I got screwed along with a few friends. Think I figured out a way to get full time status and still not get screwed over too bad. So I MIGHT be racing collegiate this year if it works.

That sucks. When I was in school a failing grade for engineering was a C- while most other departments had it set to D (or D+). But they at least gave you the chance to retake it.....still not something you want to do though Been there, done that, learned my lesson about skipping too many classes the hard way Hope it all works out!

 

[mplutodh1]

That sucks. When I was in school a failing grade for engineering was a C- while most other departments had it set to D (or D+). But they at least gave you the chance to retake it.....still not something you want to do though Been there, done that, learned my lesson about skipping too many classes the hard way Hope it all works out!

That is the hard part, I went to class, I studied, read the chapters, did the suggested homework but when you don't test well and your grade is based on 3 exams because your prof drives from seattle 2 days a week to teach the class and was unable to find a TA so she "doesnt have the time to grade hw" she had no idea if the class was understanding the material or not. It's pretty bad when two of my friends dont pass either and we all worked pretty darn hard at it.

Oh well... hopefully after I get off the phone here in the next 20 mins I will know for sure if I can race this summer.

 

[Velocity Girl]

That is the hard part, I went to class, I studied, read the chapters, did the suggested homework but when you don't test well and your grade is based on 3 exams because your prof drives from seattle 2 days a week to teach the class and was unable to find a TA so she "doesnt have the time to grade hw" she had no idea if the class was understanding the material or not. It's pretty bad when two of my friends dont pass either and we all worked pretty darn hard at it.

Oh well... hopefully after I get off the phone here in the next 20 mins I will know for sure if I can race this summer.

Definitely frustrating.... work you butt off all semester and the end result is determined by about 5 hours of that :mumble: (Personal pet peeve of mine that some profs continue with that mentality)

 

[NateH]

Hey this may be a little off topic but does anyone know the date and location of collegiate nationals this year? I really want to race them, I think it would be fun.

 

[mplutodh1]

Good luck on that info anytime in the next uh... until about 2-3 weeks before the race. They SUCK at getting that info done ahead of time. But... you better come to the conference championships up in Bellingham. They'll be the first weekend in October now, we pushed the date back due to the fact that we can see a drought and fire problems ahead of us... last year the DNR shut down all the lands in the area. We just want to be safe... so plan for it!

 

[NateH]

alright i'm working with UW right now to try to get some sort of association with the cycling team here, not realy any sort of UW mtb squad at the moment. Keep us all up to date with the confrence championships, i'll definately come if there aren't any conflicts. Should be a blast

 

[mplutodh1]

let me know if you need help with setting the mtb stuff up at the UW.

 

[NateH]

while, truth be told I realy don't have the time to do anything managerial so I am hoping those of us who do race and go to UW can work out more of a loose association.

 

[mplutodh1]

Wasn't there an XC squad a few years back? Working with a road squad can be VERY challenging, I know first hand. But the benefits of having both are worth it for the roadies. Let them know how it can help out. Honestly your school has the affiliation, just see if they will let you in the "club" that the school has approved to be the cycling team and go from there.

Good luck with it.

 

[ioscope]

Wow...
This makes me want to attend western.

 

[mplutodh1]

Haha now our problem is finding vehicles to tow it... we didn't really think that far ahead too well. We quickly asked if anyone had vehicles, hands went up so we figured we could tow it. Right now I have one of 2 vehicles on the team that I know of that can tow it and my Jeep's title is still in my parents name because I am not working full time up there to afford the car and insurance on it... so when they tell me I can't tow it.. I guess I have to listen.

Haha oh well, we got a cool toy we can look at for now!

 

[mplutodh1]

Picked her up today. Working on the graphix and outfitting over the next few weeks.

Don't think I wan't to tow it though... kinda glad the parents said no go! They don't need to know I picked it up today! haha what they dont know wont hurt them. But yeah, not sure I am comfortable with my car's ability to tow it, I know everyone says itll tow it just fine, but that sucker was on the bump stops, and a ROUGH ride...

 

[RhinofromWA]

Picked her up today. Working on the graphix and outfitting over the next few weeks.

Don't think I wan't to tow it though... kinda glad the parents said no go! They don't need to know I picked it up today! haha what they dont know wont hurt them. But yeah, not sure I am comfortable with my car's ability to tow it, I know everyone says itll tow it just fine, but that sucker was on the bump stops, and a ROUGH ride...

I know at Central you could reserve a campus van....does Western have a similiar program and are any of those rigs better equiped to tow the trailer? Ideally you could pull the trailer with a WWU van full of riders. Then you don't have to maintain the rig.

I just hope that the WWU cycling team didn't just buy a heap of trouble and inner coflict.

Nice rig though! How much did it end up costing you?.......PM if you please...don't need finances being shot around the web.

 

[mplutodh1]

Yeah we can rent vans but we pay by the mile, some outrageous price. To take it for a SHORT weekend we are looking at well over $700.

The sports clubs usually go with Enterprise cuz they cut us a deal but they dont have a hitch on their vehicles so if we want to tow it we are stuck with our vehicles or motor pool for that pricey cost! We will figure it out, so far so good, it is being used this weekedn to host the Road Race (which by the way if anyone is in town should check out, gonna be pretty sweet!)

As for heap of trouble and conflict, this is nothing compared to the problems the school is causing with sponsor orders and other legal crap. Let's just say it isn't pretty and I hope our sponsors understand I am doing everything i can to get it figured out.

 

[kinghami3]

Very nice trailer, almost makes me wish I went to Western, could have walked to campus from home . I thought about starting something like that at SPU, but only about 5 people here ride any kind of bike in general.