Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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vpc66
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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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It is a great feeling riding with your kids.My daughter will ride a bit but my son and I go riding all the time.
Relax and have deep water thoughts.

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neo_pop_71
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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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skubi1 wrote:as for Missy "the missile" Giove and her pet pirhana (Gonzo)...she had the water too hot in her tank and boiled her fish. I used to have the biggest crush on her. (hope she's doing well in prison) O_o


Ha... she beat the charges and walked straight out of court, the cops and the DA blew it... she's still "The Missile" and doing well! As far as that crush, I was right there with 'ya! I think most of us (male) mountain bike riders dreamed that our girlfriends (or wives) would tear it up like Missy did but that was so not the case! Unfortunately though, like us guys... Missy only eyes for the ladies. *bust* :roll:

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Here is a 1994 LA Times article about Missy "The Missile" Giove... nice article and a nice comment by Dos XX Team rider Eric Sakadinsky. Any of you that liked Missy will enjoy the read.


Ask and She Shall Succeed : Fearless Missy Giove Crashes to the Top of Mountain Biking World With an Odd and Aggressive Style
July 06, 1994|PETE THOMAS | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Missy Giove never dreamed of a career riding bicycles down mountains at breakneck speeds. But then nobody had ever asked her to ride one.
Until 1990, that is. During a competition four years ago in Mt. Snow, Vt., a friend lent Giove his bike and dared her to enter. She won a beginners' race, then finished second in a pro-class event.
"I also crashed really, really hard," Giove recalled in a recent issue of Rocky Mountain Sports. "I was going about 40 (m.p.h.) down this ski slope, because I had no concept of what you can and can't do on a mountain bike."
She went flying over the handlebars and landed about 40 feet down the hill.
"I got up, with grass sticking out of my helmet, got my bike and did the same thing again," she said. "So (friend and pro racer) Charlie Litsky saw this and said, 'I've never seen a woman do that. You're psychotic.' So he got a local bike shop to lend me a bike and pay for my entry fees."
And professional women's mountain bike racing hasn't been the same since.
Sporting dreadlocks and a nose ring, wearing a dead piranha around her neck for inspiration and carrying the ashes of her dead dog in tribute to her former "buddy," Giove is still crashing more often than the rest of the women on the tour.
But that's only because she is riding faster than they dare.
"I think she's a new breed, in that she doesn't have any fear," said Eric Sakadinsky, 26, a friend and rider from the Dos Equis-Barracuda team. "She makes all the other ladies realize that they're going to have to go a little harder if they're going to win races."
Says Kim Sonier, 30, a rider for Team Iron Horse: "She is very fast, but she doesn't always make it to the bottom. But we definitely have to try harder just to stay closer."
Giove, 23, who left Team Yeti after last season to join the new team, Volvo-Cannondale, is leading the Grundig-UCI World Cup Downhill Standings going into this week's competition on Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes. Racing starts today, and the downhill on Saturday will cover 3.5 miles and drop more than 2,000 feet.
In the first World Cup race of the season, on May 29 at Cap d'Ail, France, Giove had to dismount to repair her chain derailleur, but still finished third. Anne-Caroline Chausson of France was the winner. Giove's victory on June 5 at Hindelang, Germany, was by an impressive 16 seconds over second-place finisher Chausson. Elke Brutsaert edged Giove in the last World Cup downhill in a driving rain on June 26 at Mt. Saint Anne, Quebec. Giove leads Chausson by 11 points. Sonier is third.
Giove credits her aggressiveness and instincts, and, of course, her once-feisty motivator, the piranha.
"The piranha was my bud, my little warrior buddy that used to hang out with me when I was in college studying late nights," Giove says, explaining that the voracious little fish died one night after jumping from its tank while Giove was in Vermont competing in a ski race. "For me, my pet piranha is my reminder to be aggressive and to act on instincts, and to not think too much and to just be , you know?"
As for Ruffian, the black lab that watched over Giove for 18 years before dying, Giove merely sees no reason to let go.
"I got him cremated and I carry him with me--just a part of him, not the whole urn; he was a large dog," she says. "So I just take a little bit of his ashes every time I race and sprinkle them on me and I just take him for a ride. He was my buddy."
With her flamboyance on and off the mountain, it's easy to see why Giove is the most popular rider on the women's tour. She is well liked by most other riders because she is always willing to help.
"She has a different side that most people don't see," Sonier says. "She really cares about other riders. If we're standing around, looking like we need something, she comes over and she asks us what we need. She is really a nice person and not just this wild and crazy girl."
Giove only wishes that she had always been so well understood.
While growing up in Manhattan, she was kicked out of several schools.
"I was a good student, but I always questioned authority," she says. "I was either very liked because I was creative and my own person, or I was very disliked because (teachers) didn't want to accept me because I was questioning them, instead of just understanding that I wanted to further my knowledge."
Giove learned how to handle a bicycle while delivering Chinese food on Manhattan's East Side.
Her athletic prowess surfaced on the kick-ball courts of Manhattan and then on skateboards in and around New York.
"I'd just thrash the chutes in New York City and then I would thrash the chutes in New Jersey and (later) in Vermont," she says, still clinging to the street-talk she grew up with. "I was just really into skateboarding."
She later got into motorcycles and, after moving to Vermont, became interested in competitive ski racing. A downhill racer, she finished second in the 1989 U.S. Junior Nationals.
Then came her grand entrance into mountain biking.
Some were slow to accept this brash young newcomer, who dressed and adorned herself as she pleased.
"Sometimes I was misunderstood because I present myself differently, you know, like on the exterior," she says. "I look different than the next person. I might act different than the 'quote' stereotypical woman. But I choose to express myself."
And always quick with the tongue, she ruffled more than a few feathers.
She was suspended last year for 20 days for swearing at and spitting on a race official at the Iron Horse Classic in her hometown, Durango, Colo. The suspension might have cost her the downhill championship, because she missed three races and still managed to finish fourth overall.
One high-ranking race official even said Giove was bad for the sport, that "mountain biking will flourish in the long term only if we have a more conservative image than what's presented in Missy."
But it has been quite the opposite.
Giove seems to be just what the sport needs. She has the biggest fan club among all female and most male riders, consisting of mostly young wanna-be pro racers who, if their parents would let them, would probably be wearing dreadlocks and nose rings.
Officials at Volvo-Cannondale realized that and went after Giove before this season. First they had to assure Giove that they wanted her as she was and not "a clone of everybody else."
Says Volvo-Cannondale General Manager Tom Schuler, "We talked to a lot of people and realized that Missy was an obvious choice. Her personality works and she's very popular. People appreciate her style."

skubi1
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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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i thought that she was kickass when she started in the xc ring...then she got even more BA when she decided to go the downhill speed route. i remember reading articles from her talking about it and some of her crashes going 50+ mph down the ski slopes. need to dredge up the old articles i had on her. used to have my old room plastered with pictures cut out of magazines on my walls.

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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ok, so now it's a new riding season and I want to start building this to see if it's a "this summer" bike or a "next summer" bike for her, but need a fork to do so. Do I want something in the 440-450 A-C range for this? I'm guessing a non-suspension corrected fork (395mm) will be too short, and something like a Surly 1x1 that is corrected an 80 (or 100)mm fork will be too long.

Any input here?

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Hit Derek up,I think he stated that his rigid forks were up for sale...I could be wrong but whistles and bells are going off in my old head...I know I read that from one of the guys not long ago! And glad to see a post from you,has been sometime and will be nice to see another bike come together.
Relax and have deep water thoughts.

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Found a couple of forks for it.

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This is an old trek cromo fork, 410mm a-c I think. Also bought a RockShoz Indy SL for $5. My buddy donated the King Headset.

The reach and standover are a bit much for her right now. I'm really hoping she can go from her 20" bike to this without having to bother with a 24"....

I've trimmed a bunch off the seatpost already to get it in that far, but it hits the bottle bosses in the seat tube.

Next step is getting a longer BB (the 107mm I have is too short) and getting the 150mm A-C BMX cranks mounted.

Ryan

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Nice to hear from you and I see the specialized is coming to the end of life with your daughter. That is a very good friend to donate a KING headset...shows how much the person cares. Not trying to be a jerk and it would be nice if Neo chimed in here on this point, BUT by the time your daughter is ready to jump on the new ride, cranks longer than 150 mm would work better to spin those larger wheels through the ruff stuff I would think..you know, a bit more torque.
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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Finally done.

Image

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That is not her saddle height, but it's maxed out with all of the post that is left. She can just barely ride it with the seat slammed all the way down.

The rear brake cable routing is sort of a kludge here - I may try to get some stainless tubing and make a permanent loop to get it around the seat tube. Seems like a poor design unless I am missing a part.

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Re: Little 'Cuda in Michigan

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Turn out nice, my daughter noticed the picture as I was looking and said " THAT IS A NICE BIKE DADDY " the pink got her I am sure.
Relax and have deep water thoughts.

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