Snake takes States

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Our boy Jake “Snake” Rubelt won the Arizona State Pro 1-2 Championship road race today in an 18 mile solo effort for the RideClean squad.

I believe he has now taken a state title six or seven times, in the disciplines of cross, mtb and road.

Snake's 2010 Arizona State Road Race Champion Rig
Snake's 2010 Arizona State Road Race Champion Rig

I haven’t found any pics from the race yet. I’m sure someone will have them up by this time tomorrow, feel free to please post a link in the comment section if any of you find ’em. Here is a small video recap/interveiw with the RideClean boys, posted over at Facebook: facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1284217820994

Congratulations from all of us.

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About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

53 Replies to “Snake takes States”

  1. Jake, one time long ago I proposed we ride together and you told me, “I’m fast.” No embellishment, just a warning that I may want to ride with someone more my speed. Since then, I’ve realized that you probably did me a big favor. You are fast! Congratulations, you are the man!
    Vance

  2. Nice job dude! That’s a huge accomplishment. For the love of God man do some celebrating.

  3. …total props !!!…but shouldn’t that kuota be “propped” against a beer cooler ???…

  4. Comparing the seat level to the handlebar level makes my “Milwaukee muscle” hurt. Congrats! See you at the keg someday. Hellbelly

  5. hell yes snake! i working registration at my race today in OHIO and there was a ‘ride clean’ team member registered.

  6. Congrats, really. Racing is tough and it’s no easy feat clean.

    But the whole ride clean thing does come into question here.

    The bike in the pic is now way ‘clean’. Seriously, that thing will be here in a thousand years, part of a junkyard. Can’t be recycled, can’t be reused.
    Carbon is enviromental SHIT. Steel is real.
    If you can do this on carbon brother, you can do it on steel, then recycle it when your done. The extra weight will just make you stronger.

  7. @baddcog— I climbed my favorite local hill, Newport Way, on the Trophy Bike Friday and The Iron Pig on Saturday. Guess which one I went up faster on?

  8. Post #10…really? What’s your feelings about the use of wind turbines?

  9. Let’s see @baddcog, that carbon frame weighs probably 3lb, right? At about 300 lb/barrel, the “claimed” emission from that oil well in the Gulf is 300*5000 = 1.5 MILLION pounds per day going into one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. If you rather trust the independent engineers, not BP, then the value is more like 15 million pounds of toxic soup in your back yard.
    Stop driving cars, ride carbon fiber bikes and the world will be much better off. So will we all.
    Great job Snake and the entire Ride Clean Team. You’re doing the right thing!

  10. Meh. Ride plastic all you want. I got my own fat ass to worry about LONG before I start sweating a pound or five on my bike.

  11. Baddcog,
    I did re-cycle that frame. I dug it out of the trash about 2 months ago. The guy said I could have it, he said it was broke and beyond repair. The drive side chain stay had broke where it meets the chain stay. I took it down to a buddy at the material lab here at the U of A. He layer it up with some new pieces of carbon and its as good as new.

    So before you go spouting off on the forum here make sure you know the full story. It just makes you look stupid and ignorant.

    Snake

  12. “Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming … WOW! What a ride!”

    “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

    Way to go SNAKE “The State Champion”

  13. I look stupid because I state carbon is trash that cannot be recylced. OK.

    Maybe that frame was saved for more use, good on you. But carbon all in all IS trash that will be here for thousands of years. I’ve worked in shops for along time and have seen plenty of it go by the way side.

    “Stop driving cars, ride carbon fiber bikes and the world will be much better off. So will we all.”, sure, but how many times do you see a carbon bike on a car at a trailhead/race. If only those guys would stop driving right?

    “I climbed my favorite local hill, Newport Way, on the Trophy Bike Friday and The Iron Pig on Saturday. Guess which one I went up faster on?” -and if only I was on EPO I could’ve done it faster.

    Point is there’s always an excuse that ‘what I’m doing isn’t as bad as what someone else is doing’…
    Sure, one carbon frame is a drop in the bucket compared to BP’s little ‘tiny’ mess (quoting the guy in charge). But to him it’s just a tiny mess, to someone else it’s just a carbon frame…

    But hey whatever. Trek says carbon is good, let our childrens childrens try and figure out a way to clean up the mess. Personally I’m still gonna boycott all those carbon companies.

  14. My favorite frame is a 34-year-old bit of lugged 531. No reason why it wouldn’t still be going strong in the next century.

    And it’s still ahellofalot easier to provide custom fit with steel than it is with carbon.

    I don’t race. I use my bike for transportation. I could probably find ten folks to repair one of my steel frames (in the unlikely event, yadda yadda) before I would evben know where to look to get a corbon frame fixed when (or hopefully if) it brakes.

    Having said all that, I doubt we’ve even touched the full potentioal of the plastic stuff. I’d like to be around when the bugs are all figured out.

  15. Baddcog, as long as you admit to you being stupid then Im cool with it. Just dont come at me like that. You, I, all of us have a right to state what we think, and yes please do state it. But thats it, just state it. Dont start pointing fingers. If you do that then your just as bad as the “rest” of them. Me included. You in your mind have done the right thing and you ride steal. Thats fine. No problem. If you want to state that then fine do it. If you want to state what you think are the merits of riding steal then do so. Thats fine. But if you start to point your finger at me then you have crossed the line. Who are you to judge me? Last time I checked there are only a couple of people that have that power and you my friend are not one of those.

    So please stand on your box and tell the world. Im cool with it. But if you point your finger at me, then at that point your as good as “them”.

    Snake

  16. Thats why my bike is made of wood. It came from a tree that was already dead, and when I am done with it….toothpicks baby.

  17. if my recollection serves me correctly, we live, and are all carbon based life forms. unless you are a hypocrite, that means you must ride a bamboo bike because by your logic, metal is bad. metal stays around for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.

  18. Na, fuck this. Baddcog you suck ass. even as cool as saving the planet may be, your little battle you chose is as relevant as the saddle sore i got from racing yesterday. go figure out what it is to be a cyclist. you are in need. and while you’re at it recycle a couple frames. ifin all you want to be is a happy two wheeled commuter who likes steel then im fine with that. but sure as shit don’t be calling people out on carbon frames and EPO. fuck. you’re off base, and remember, no one likes a judgmental hippy. sorry for being one of “them”

  19. @baddcog: How much of the computer you used to post that comment do you really think is going to be recycled?

    We’re all living in one big glass house here.

  20. Snake, Congrats on an amazing victory. I don’t give a fuck what you, or anyone rides. Just ride!

    I doubt most of us here could even hold your wheel.

    Very cool on fixing that frame, though.

    And I’m pretty sure the manufacturing process for steel isn’t all that eco-friendly.(I ride steel, for the record)

  21. Chill out there snake. I never attacked you, I just stated that I thought the ‘ride clean’ thing (while I get where it’s coming from – dope free) is a bit ironic really.

    I was just encouraging you to ride steel, push a little more weight and become even stronger. Maybe if you re-read my first post you will see that instead of being so damn defensive.

    And I stated that garbage in is garbage out. I know you can’t dispute what I said about carbon, it will be here in a thousand years. No matter what justification people use (my fat ass is too lazy to push a few extra pounds up the hill so fuck what people in a thousand years have to deal with).
    Like I said in my last post, good on you for recycling that frame, that’s 100% more than most carbon bits will ever see. Just because YOU recycled ONE frame doesn’t mean that the thousands of carbon frames created each year will ever be recycled.

    I didn’t even know who’s bike that was, I just said the bike in the pic will be here in a thousand years.

    At what point did this sound like a personal attack?
    “If you can do this on carbon brother, you can do it on steel, then recycle it when your done. The extra weight will just make you stronger.”

    ———–
    Domonic, I think all of you are smarter than to make stupid responses like that.
    Seriously, metals can and are recycled every day (doesn’t mean alot goes in the trash too) but looking into the future it IS possible to see a world strapped for resources digging up trash piles for the valuable discarded metals to be found within.
    Once again, the carbon fiber will remain trash.

    Carbon is found in many forms. Carbon fiber is not. There is a difference, don’t get republican on me.
    ————-
    Alan Longhorn,
    Figure out how to be a cyclist? Are you fucking joking? Or fucking stupid. I’ve been riding bikes my entire life, from tricycle, to BMX flatland, street and vert, mountain bike, road and CX, even trials. I’ve been a mechanic for over 12 years in highly regarded shops all over the country and with my resume can get a job at any shop I want. I didn’t get my drivers license until I was 25, even then still commuted year round in all weather to this day. Just yesterday I did a 10 mile 1500 foot ride on my handbuilt (by me) steel custom singlespeed. I was the one in shops fixing stuff that other people wanted to throw away and sell new shit to customers.
    I’ve raced, built trails, belonged to trail groups including IMBA, donated race prizes and volunteered for races like 24 hours of Moab. Anyone who knows me would describe me as a cyclist first and foremost.

    Learn how to be a cyclist? Bah. What I need carbon to do that? Or I need to delude myself into thinking carbon is actually a good thing after all the waste I’ve seen come out of it. Man, if only I was on a carbon bike yesterday, I could’ve shaved a minute off my time.

    I call out people on carbon because of what it is. Anyone who wants to turn a blind eye can, but honestly I have had people thank me because they had no idea of what carbon was about in the first place.

    And on no, don’t want to touch the EPO subject. It’s not like it has had a bad record among roadies now has it? But the excuse is just the same, it’ll make me better. Of course EPO only hurts the user when/if they get caught, someone in a thousand years won’t find it and go ‘WTF were those selfish bastards thinking’.
    ——–
    art, this computer will be sent to the recycler, just like the pile of old work computers we recycled last year during the recycle drive. Monitors, towers, ram, mobos, all of it. My last Mac went to a guy who restored old macs, my last PC is going to the recycler as well.
    ———-
    lol, just cracks me up that everyone gets such a bug up there ass ’cause I said a bike in a picture was an enviromental mess.

    So that’s where I stand stupid or not. I never personally attacked anyone, and certianly didn’t mean to get anyones panties in a bunch. Defend carbon all you want, it’s not going to change what we all know it is or make it ‘right’.

  22. “Just yesterday I did a 10 mile 1500 foot ride”
    First, was your ride 10 miles or 1500 feet,if ya didn’t know those are not the same? Either way, that’s quite a long ride for “just yesterday.” Second, I suggest that you go back over the route that you rode and scrub the rubber that you littered on the street so that it can be recycled and pay the $1000 fine, and after you read this turn you computer off and stop wasting electricity, then recycle it at the local plant. And third, chill out (wo)man and consider changing your screenname to “pmscog.”

  23. pmscog. that is hilarious. whatever. discuss, don’t bad mouth each other.

    i have a better one – vaginacog. gnome, maybe i should change my dc name to that?

    titanium is better than anything, imo. this chick i raced yesterday was riding a 12 year old titanium frame and loved the shit out of her bike. the next road frames we get will be titanium. carbon doesn’t hold up all that well.

  24. If your ass is too fat to pedal a steel frame (which I do every day), switching to carbon (which I wouldn’t do even if I could afford to*) probably won’t help you all that much. Just sayin’.

    *If I DID have that kind of money I’d sink it into titanium. No brainer.

  25. ““I climbed my favorite local hill, Newport Way, on the Trophy Bike Friday and The Iron Pig on Saturday. Guess which one I went up faster on?” -and if only I was on EPO I could’ve done it faster.

    And on no, don’t want to touch the EPO subject.”

    @baddcog— you brought up EPO, Sherlock. And I’d be faster on the Trophy Bike than the Iron Pig + dope. You’re being a moron, and you got called out.

  26. Ti is popular in the Pacific Northwest because it doesn’t corrode. Oops, neither does carbon. Huh. You can have my Trophy Bike when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the drops.

  27. …baddcog Says: “Chill out there snake.”…sorry, bud but 68 lines of defensive justification is hardly “chilling out” so it’s kinda unreasonable to request that of others if you can’t produce it yourself…

    …panties in a bunch,
    panties in a bunch,
    y’all done got yer
    panties in a bunch”…

    …just sayin’…

  28. rip it, snake. congrats on the win, and great interview over there on the venus weekly.

    this thread’s starting to smell like daycare.

  29. Grats Snake!

    As to the other topic under discussion, whatever your bike be made of, be it steel, Al, Ti, or carbon, it and all the other parts that allow you and me to pedal up one hill and fly down the backside are manufactured using processes that are horrible for the environment. The emissions from a steel forge? The amount of electricity required to extract aluminum from bauxite or titanium from rutile, or the polymerization of fibers from petroleum pumped out of the ground (and leaked up and all over the shores of the Gulf of Mexico)? Each material has it’s pros and it’s cons, but the one advantage they all share is they are used to build bikes that under normal operation emit no greater pollution than some bad gas and B.O. from the engine running them. We’re all one the same side here (pro bikes) aren’t we?

  30. @baddcog – Give Snake some room to breathe, and stop being such a self-righteous ill-informed idiot. The moral high road you claim in steel is littered with just as much environmental baggage as carbon fiber. Yes, steel does indeed rot back into the Earth, but have you actually ever set foot in a steel yard? Or how about the plant where your bike was finally tempered and then painted? Steel is dirty, friend; just as dirty as carbon fiber when it comes to environmental impact.

    Don’t believe me? Come to Cleveland and take a look at our river.

    The point here is that you are being an ass. Snake took home the bacon today, and deserves a hot minute on the front page to gloat. Speaking from experience as a, er, retired semi-pro (lamest title on Earth), the glory that he gets today on the front page represents about 0.5% of the time he has spent training for this moment over the past decades. That, and by this time tomorrow, the glory will have already worn off thanks to the hours of training still ahead.

    So, back off, and don’t spoil it by being a dweeb. If you want to be an iconic beacon of environmentalism, throw the goddamn computer out the window, get an education, and stop badgering people about a fucking bike on an Internet forum. When you’re done with that, go make something of yourself so you can make an actual difference, instead of just projecting your fake, ego-centric, wanna-be pseudo-environmentalism on the Intercom.

  31. Wow. @baddcog like everyone else above said…go find something else to do. What Snake just did was fucking bad ass. Who cares what his bike was made from. Now fuck off.

  32. I sold equipment to a titanium foundry at one point. The process ran under inert gas, spun madly to get the metal into the lost-wax mold as fast as possible, and they only ran at night because they needed the entire power grid of Oregon to melt that billet. It was AWESOME.

  33. Jezzuzz team,

    can we just back the bus up here ?

    Snake, first off, Fucking well done !! your photo winning Bisbee was inspirational & this is just absolutely awesome !!

    @baddcog, you sound together & I have no doubt of your sincerity & passion for leaving this tired piece of clay a better place for future generations.

    Good on you too!

    Me ? I’m Hurben & I have a passion for Softrides, (choke), yes, them with the steel frame & huge as carbon seat strut.

    My current project is to get a 80’s era softride loaded with good componantry & as much carbon as it’ll take.

    That probably makes me the ultimate fence sitter.

    Play nicely kids..

  34. …totally ironic but craig calfee, who was the man who introduced (that nasty) carbon for custom frames, to the bike industry, was also the man to reintroduce & utilize bamboo on a regular basis for custom framesets…
    …basmboo ‘townie’s’ have been around for years in asia but calfee’s are made for serious riding & racing…

    …not many natural materials grow as prolifically & thus as environmentally clean, as bamboo…a little water, warmth & an absence of pandas plus some hemp to wrap the joints & you’re in bidness…

    …hurben…last time i did a cross ride w/ my ol’ buddy ‘sully’, jimmy sullivan, a nats & world veteran champ for ritchey years ago, he was riding an softride beam…he still rides road, cross & mountain bikes, all designed for & utilizing alsop ‘beams’…

  35. …hurben…see what we can do in the near future…sully just had a personal loss, so now’s not a time i wanna pursue anything…

    …in fact i need to head down the coast soon & ride w/ my amigo…we’re both heart patients so we go out & pretend we’re not trying to kill each other off when we ride together…bwa-ha !!!…

  36. My condolences out to him, you just both take care out there.

    @55 and at work I’m sort of facing up to this shit, I have all these kids saying things like, Fark! you were in the gym for an hour this morning & you still went out for a cycle at Lunch time!!

    Personaly, I know no different.

    Probably stems from growing up in a combat zone.

    AfricanSingle, a tip of the hat to you brother.

  37. Sorry if I rained on your parade Snake. That wasn’t my intention at all and as I said in my first post I’ll say it again.

    Congrats on the win, quite a respectable feat.
    ——-

    Guess I just thought higher of DC before. Seriously. I said carbon isn’t clean and it turns into a shit fit and name calling?
    Really?

  38. @Baddcog here’s the issue, everyone here thinks higher of the site than to have your twat talk fill up space. there are plenty of other blogs/sites where you can complain about environmental issues. you’re off base and irrelevant with such an abrasive post. go ahead and put up your own post on environmental impacts of bike frames. ill read it, as well as most of the rest of us. just keep it relevant and don’t detract from a perfect race. You are the one who turned it into a “shit fit and name calling” by missing the whole point of the post.
    That taste in your mouth right now, you earned it.

  39. “Guess I just thought higher of DC before.”

    Well. There’s your problem right there. Higher ?

    DC is more of a friends in low places kinda show.

    Wouldn’t want it otherwise.

    But to address the issue. @Snake. Congrats. Best of luck in any future races.

    @badcog. As just stated, this was a fucking race. He’d want a bike like that. Total sense to me. Now if my fat ass went out and bought a carbon bike for my casual rides around town then you could bitch.

    But in this case…..go fuck yer self.

  40. dominic snapped his carbon frame today while out climbing with me. we are so fucking bummed. the fuji rep at our lbs is going to make it right, but dominic is too fucking big to ride carbon. he’s putting his gears on his steel serotta. he’s on the look out now for a used titanium frame.

  41. This reinforces the perception that carbon fibre failure is not a matter of “if”, but “when”. And yet the stuff has been used in aerospace for decades. One of those things that makes a person go “Hmmmmm”. But I’ll say it again-We’ve only begun to tap the potential for the stuff. I’d love to see where it goes in ten more years.

    I’m sure a carbon bike could be made that even my fat ass couldn’t destroy, and it might still be lighter than steel by a couple pounds. But one look at me and you’ll understand why I could care less about a couple pounds of frame, more or less. I’m not obese, but at 6′ 2″ with a large frame, well, I’ll always be a Clydesdale. I’m cheap, to boot. Good thing I like the steel bikes I already have.