A long history of retardation

Because I've gotten this thing going again, I felt the need to take a trip back in time and look at some posts from 2008, when I first started punching the keys for this blog. I was 24, living in Gainesville, FL, failing the shit out of community college for the third time, and averaging probably 25 hrs a week on my bikes, mostly on ratty old singlespeed mountain bikes. I had no money, few goals, zero responsibility and just wanted to ride and party. Life was pretty damn good! Here's a little gem of a post of a typical Sunday for me and my good friend Joe Melvin, who is now a mechanical engineer and doing quite well for himself in Richmond, VA.

Enjoy!

welcome to the pretty and fancy show

Dano out.

Breaking loose with some Big Plans.

I guess its time to crank the engine on this thing for the summer. Here at the bike shop I've been getting questions lately with the sudden appearance of one Nate Wyatt turning wrenches in the repair area. For the few of you that don't know at this point, my time at Sycamore Cycles is coming to a close, almost 5 years after I first got a paycheck. Its been a great time, and I can't thank Wes enough for all the help over the years, especially when I was being a shit, which i most definitely can be. He's a good guy and busts his ass to make his business and more importantly his hometown into a place we all love and are proud of. I've learned a lot from him and probably need to learn a lot more...

So a big THANK YOU to Wes and the rest of the crew and regulars at Sycamore, y'all are awesome!

Who knows, I'll probably end up covered in grease back in the pit in the future, but for now its time for new adventures.

Making changes, saying yes, mixing it up, I decided last summer it was time to do all of it. I went back to school last fall for what feels like the 37th time, and its been great. I fully feel like it was the best decision I've made in a long time. If things stay on track I'll be graduating in exactly one year with a degree in Environmental Studies.

This summer I'll be doing things a little differently than in the past. I've been hanging out in Brevard every summer, racing locally and having a blast because I'm pretty sure Brevard is heaven during the summer. This year though, I'll be heading west, living out of the back of my truck with some bikes, a grimy old dirt bike, and my licky licky brown dog Addie. I'll be following the Big Mountain enduro series, the Utah enduro series, and a lot of one day events. I'll base out of Crested Butte, Colorado with one Gattis Tyler. Hit me up if your coming through. I'm doing a 2 day work week at Big Al's Bicycle Heaven, the rest riding and traveling. I leave Brevard May 15th, and I'll be back mid August.

That's all for now, but stay tuned and I'll try and stay updated regularly throughout the summer.

Dano out.

Home.

So lucky to be from such a beautiful place.

Dano out.

Broken body, 1 year older, not dead yet.

So this summer was the first one in memory that i spent most of off my bike. First the shit (giardia), then i hurt my back, and finally blew up my hand. Not all at once mind you, but one after the other with a week buffer between each. Real nice.

What can you do?

I started thinking about other projects that I'd been putting off for years. I finally put together an alleycat race for Brevard, and it WENT OFF. 70 people showed up out of nowhere to get rowdy and act ridiculous on bikes on a Sunday in July. Shit was awesome.

So I'm doing it again. Better be there, and you better be zombified. Or I'll zombify you personally, and you won't like it.

And picking up where the Fast Times race left off.....

The after party.


Better be there,

Dano out. (but hopefully for not as long this time.)

Welcome Back

Its offical, winter is finally here in Western North Carolina. The snow hasn't really come yet but the 16 degree mornings have. I haven't really minded yet as I've got a handful of indoor projects that I've been spending my time on but I'm sure I'll start to get a bit stir crazy soon. Hopefully I can entertain myself with a few trips, mid day quickie rides, and snowboarding to keep the stoke up this winter. I haven't posted up in a while, I actually needed a break from it and its been good- I've continued to write just in a personal and more focused fashion. As always I'm thinking about goals and dreams for the upcoming year and how to make them a reality. I've realized that I'm in a unique position to do anything I want, and I definitely plan on taking full advantage of this in the near future. Honestly I've been figuring this out for the past 6 months or so and doing whatever I want whenever I want. Hopefully I can strike the balance to continue this while at the same time taking care of the small responsibilities I do have.

This year is quickly coming to a close and with 2012 looming I have to have a little retrospective look at the last year and figure out how to build off whatever accomplishments and/or setbacks I've had over the past years. A whole lot of really good things happened this year and i'm really happy about that.

More as I feel like it,

Dan Ennis

holey moley!!

Hly wow, I ttally forgot about this haha! i guess I've just been busy. first and biggest time bandit has been transforming the front yard into my own personal jump park, sweetness. check the wastespace for pics as I'm way to lazy to upload them twice. its good though, I'm still working out the kinks in the flow but give it a few weeks and we'll be all good. jump jam/BBQ/front yard camping/epic trail rides weekend is coming down the pipes, details on that as soon as Tim (our totally awesome heavy equipment loaning neighbor) fixes the skid steer which in turn lets me fix a few oversites that are holding up this show. it'll be worth the wait...

other shit that's been occupying my time is racing dh bikes a bit, the post below sums it up well. hawksnest number two, mud spikes, air time, good time. thanks as always to the dirty bird crew for another awesome race.

last, i finally got a legit trail bike. well its not in my hands yet but its in fedex's and that's good enough for me. so stoked to bust out some big trail rides. I've already committed to the swank 65 so now my goal is to get the rest of the southern dh guys to do it too. misery loves company, and hell its got some burly ass terrain in it. lets do this.

dano out.

Thanks Ryan!

Dano out.