dejay, thanks for sparing some time for us.

the clock is running for us all…tick tock, tick tock

tell us a little about yourself. when did you start riding and racing?

good food, better beer, great times. i remember photos of when i was 2 or 3 with my dad pushing me down the grass hill in front of our house without training wheels. i lived in the country so that turned into freedom soon after.

my first race was in oct. 2000. the great pumpkin fest in tucson, az.

at what point did you give up the gears?

well it’s a pretty good story, do you have the time?

i had sold my balance 150 to my roommate, so i could use the money to buy a “good” mtn bike(rocky, thin air). my roommate traveled a lot skateboarding around the world. he had left the balance tied (yes with a rope) to a tree in our backyard. months had gone by and the bike was just rusting away. so i liberated the poor thing and began to rip off all the broken and unusable parts. i was left with the frame, bars, stem, post, rear lever, calipers, crank, ft wheel and some hope to ride it again.

i pieced back together with those parts and a rigid fork, a donated wheel (that i spaced out to work and the big bucks were spent on a paul tentioner.  all was ready to go. i rode that thing all the time, rigid and just a rear brake, so much fun. soon i realized my rocky getting jealous and so she left me.

if we're not mistaken you were the self proclaimed single speed endurance world champion in ‘05 and have fought to make that a recognized position within the cycling world. what’s new on this front?

wait i’m confused. There was an endurance champion award brought about by our friend over at endurosnob.blogspot.com. it was a close battle, but the tribe spoke on my behalf. i’m not sure if it was a world election.

  i think it would be interesting to see who would chose to ride/race ss if the category got more exposure/resignation. think a short track where everyone is racing with the same gear ratio, come on i would pay to see that or even if they were just all ss.

anything our readers can do to help the cause?

email usa cycling and voice your opinion. put on your own ss events. scream from the mountain tops.

24hrs of moab this year saw it’s worst weather ever with flash floods and washed out trails. you decided to go solo with a geared bike. what the hell? and looking back do you think you would have fared differently on the ss under those conditions?

yeah, solo, geared. i’m glad i brought my ss. nothing like riding a geared bike for 4 hours just to realize that a square peg doesn’t fit in a round hole.

what’s the game plan for racing next year?

hit up some new events, try to find some dry weather, do whatever it takes to get to scotland in august (sswc07 ).  can i borrow some money?

will you still be touring with genuine innovations? when? where?

nothing on the schedule right now. consider me a gun for hire.

next year will see your 2^nd annual single swizzle ride down near tucson the weekend of february 10^th. tell us a little about what this ride is about and what got you to put it on.

just giving a little back. gather the friends and friends to be, ride and do what ever else may happen. there are some good things planned the only way to know is to attend. come for a week if possible 2/17/06 is the 24 in the ol’pueblo . so it will be a week to remember.

okay, enough about you let’s get to the bikes.  how many do you have and how many only have one gear?

your not going to ask me gear ratios as well are you? is 7 single speeds enough? 2 are fixed with a third on the way. my litespeed is in a land of confusion, we’ll see. touring
(man i need to go on a trip), road (want to buy a bike?), bmx(which is single), old schwinn (just waiting) and one to grow on.

what was it that made you decide to loose the gears and what about riding the one geared bikes is appealing to you?

Everyday there is a new reason and everyday i can’t wait to find it.

how much time would you say you spend on your one geared bikes compared to your geared ones?

if i’m on my geared bike and don’t shift the entire time, does that count towards the singe side of things? i think of it as weight training.

if you could pick or build your ultimate blinglespeed or fixie what would it be? frame? components?

hand built ti frame, ti ring, cog and bell, everything else will work.

lastly, got any advice for someone out there who wants to build up his or her first single speed?

do it now and never get rid of it!!!!!

dejay, thanks again for giving us your time. we’ll see you in tucson!

i hope you can make it down, it’s a great place to ride and ready for anyone. smile on.

<> 2005 cycling news interview