Engineers

Engineers are often times a misunderstood lot. While many engineer's work can be enjoyed by the masses, their process often isn't particularly sexy. At least in my experience. Basically you sit someplace for long periods of time, often in isolation, and try to solve problems. Just as catching a fish defines the fine line between fishing and sitting on a dock drinking, engineers have to generate solutions. Otherwise they are just sitting at a desk..thinking?

I've asked a lot of people to send things to me to for our news section. For some reason, engineers rank among the most prolific. Second only to those without jobs...



Dylan is an engineer for a very large bike company. He enjoys riding his Fall Guy indoors in the winter. He's about to be a Dad..again. Congrats Dylan!

Chad was the first person who bought a Fall Guy from us from outside of the PNW. Over time he's also submitted some incredible riding photos too. Chad is an engineer for the State of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanian's driving across bridges: Thank Chad.

Here's a winter driving story he sent recently..enjoy.

What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you hear the word “snow”?

Well, if you are like me, the first word that comes to mind is “BRRAAAAPPPPPP!”

“BRAP”, as in, hop in the car – or in my current case, big bad SUV – drop the pedal to the floor, light ‘em up, and scream “BRAP… BRRAAAPPPPPP”! I cannot over emphasize the importance of the scream here. Of course, bonus points are added if the window is down and your head is outside of the cabin while screaming, both literally and figuratively. And if you’re really out to get the ‘full pull’ score, throw the horns up while you’re at it.

Now understand, “BRAP” is usually associated with 2-stroke MX bikes, but it’s really all about attitude as far as I’m concerned. Just tear into it and let it rip. What a stress reliever that is for me, I just love driving on a snow covered road. We got a real pisser of a storm today: It’s March 16th, and a foot of the white shit just fell to the ground – again. Hell, we changed the clocks forward last weekend; didn’t Mother Nature get the text message? “No more fucking snow, its time for spring.” Even the little rodent over in western PA said spring’s coming early this year, so get on board, bitch.

Never fear, though, for Jesus Chrysler is on my side. Actually it’s a Chrysler Aspen, which is really just a re-badged Dodge Durango with some Chrysler options, but it’s pretty darn cool. I thought the Subaru went thru the snow well; with the added ground clearance, Jesus Chrysler just parts the snow like, well, you know…

I decided to take the back road over the mountain to get home tonight, just for the fun of it obviously. The road was not plowed, but JC (Jesus Chrysler) and I went up the mountain like angels ascending to heaven (if that’s your bag). What goes up must come down, and there’s where you can usually find trouble. Actually, I can find trouble going up too, but that’s another story.

Meanwhile, I put JC in ‘Low 2’ and started creeping down. There were a couple of deep ruts in the snow from some other fearless (i.e., idiot) drivers and I tried to stay in those thinking I’d have better traction. I didn’t. JC started to slide, the anti-lock brakes began doing what they do, which in snow is to basically cause the brakes to not work. But I’ve had experience with this kind of stimulation before, so I knew I had a couple of options. First, I put JC into the lowest gear, reasoning that I’d let the engine do the braking for me while still letting the tires grasp for traction. Well, that just made things worse by causing both front and rear tires to slide, and I now found myself sliding sideways down the road. Mind you, I wasn’t going very fast at all yet, maybe 25 mph, but the problem is that I was gaining speed and there was a turn up ahead. Still, no cause for excitement yet. I put JC back into ‘Low 2’ and got things a bit more under control. While doing this I noticed that I slowed down while in the deep snow, but accelerated while in the ruts. (Insert cartoonish light bulb illuminating above my head.) I was nearly about to resort to option 2 (E-brake), but no longer needed to – I was back in control.

So, I continued down the mountain at a leisurely pace. Up ahead I saw what looked like a fellow motorist (in a Jeep) stuck in the snow. I approached slowly, rolling my window down, about to ask if he was prepared to accept Jesus Chrysler as his one and only savior. However, as I passed this fellow, I realized that he wasn’t actually stuck but was still moving forward. Mind you, it was at the break-neck speed of about 1 ft/sec, which is roughly 0.6 mph for those who don’t have the razor-sharp intellect as I do (cough, cough). My fellow motorist also had his window down, probably in an effort to hear the symphony of engine roaring and tires spinning at 50 mph. My wheelchair went thru the snow faster than this poor guy did, but he was giving it his all, and that’s what counts in my book. Also, he seemed to be enjoying himself as much as I was, so I guess one last blast of snow did have a positive aspect.

Now, if only the snow would quickly melt and flood the area, I’d be able to test Jesus Chrysler’s ability to (at least figuratively) walk across a body of water. It’s just a matter of faith, right?