Snow biking

Today was a great day for a ride. The first somewhat serious snow of the year, where the snow actually sticks to the ground. Riding a trainer indoors lets you pedal when it's cold and dark, but it's never the same as getting a good ride outside, in fresh air. This is the time of the year when riding after work basically means riding in the pitch black so I'm not big on it.

It was a bout 30°F, I set out on the trails I grew up riding on the high tension powerlines down the road. Those trails have gotten really bad over the years. Many sections are impassable because they are submerged in too much water and mud to pedal through and are lined with thick bushes. I did find some promising new trails though. The snowmobile/atv trail network crosses those powerlines and so I hopped onto them. Never having explored those trails I wasn't really sure what I was in for but they ended up being really nice riding.

I'm not sure exactly how far I went, but I am guessing about 12 miles. On the mechanical end of things, these linear pull brakes have got to go. They got so caked full of crap that I had to stop and unpack the snow and leaves from them quite often or the drag would be unreal. I have a set of Hayes 9 Carbon discs in a box waiting to be installed. I'm waiting for some IS to post mount adaptors to come in to mount them up.
A number of places provided for some interesting riding, in this place the trail had been long since washed out and there was a long technical descent down what had evolved into a streambed. I saw a huge flock of turkeys at on point, they didn't quite know what to make of me. Eventually I came out onto another smaller powerline and I thought I was heading in a different direction than I actually was. I thought I was on a trail I had never been on before, but it turns out that I was actually on a trail that I had been on several times, the snow just made it look different. Granted, it was also about 15 years ago the last time I was there. It was a great ride today, made me feel pretty good. Hopefully the ground will freeze up a bit more without lots of snow falling here quite yet so I can get out on the trails here a few more times before winter really settles in.

New Bike, New Turf

N+1=10! WOO!

I finished the build of my new Redline Monocog 29er. Cane Creek 110 headset, Hope Pro 2 hubs, WTB Dual Duty rims, Panaracer Rampage 2.35" tires, Sette Venn seatpost, Jamis Stem, Easton EA70 Monkeybar, Ritchey True Grips, Bontrager Race saddle.



I took said bike on a ride:





Needless to say, it was a pretty long ride for a single speed. The trails I found were smooth and fast, so the relatively tall gear (32x18) I have on it right now is OK. Didn't really get the bike dirty. The trail entwork I got into is aparently quite extensive. I met a guy out in the middle of it that told me if this was my first time out there, not to get lost cause it is big. So I explored lightly and am looking forward to going back again. Looks like there's a good bit of single track available out there in addition to a bunch of double track with some fun little whoopty-doos.

So that was last weekend. This weekend, I revisited the powerline trails I grew up mountain biking on. I haven't been on them for probably a good ten years now. They've changed a bit, some parts were moved, some parts washed out, some permanently flooded. The 32x18 drive is too tall for this area. I have a 20t on order to try out. Some parts of teh trails are very technical. But on the whole the present state of the trails could be described as "muddy."

After:


I learned a few things about the bike:

1. It will roll over just about anything.
2. The tires, though reviewing well for mud, well, not so much.
3. I need to lower the gear ratio.
4. I want to try lock on grips.
5. The brakes I have suck in mud.

Tomorrow, hopefully riding some trails I've never been on with some buddies. Oh yeah, I turned 30 on Friday, woo.

Two flats and a Challenge

So today's lunch ride was via my tour bike due to the crappy OEM rim tape on my road wheels that I never bothered changing when I bought them. I blew two tubes while changing over to the Vredstein Fortezza Tri comps I had on my fixed-gear. I've been looking forward to having these on my road bike, I loved riding them on my fixed-gear. 140 psi rolls so smooth but aparently is too much for the OEM shrink tape, which puckered under the load and allowed the tube to blow out in the nipple holes. Arg. Need to pick up some good old Velox or Pedros. Up until my road tires blew, I actually had all nine bikes in rideable condition at the same time, a rare occurence. Also, N wil soon equal 10. I am currently building up a single speed 29er. More on that to follow...

The Challenge
Jim wants me to do the Cadillac Century with him. So I have 2.5 weeks to get ready for my first century. Ouch. Basically, I'll be trying to get as much saddle time as I can spare between now and then. I foresee a big tube if icy hot in my future...

Holy bloody Hell it was hot today. Bad ozone too. At least my tan is improving. Today's lunch ride was nothing special, but on the 4th, I had a great ride. I was in Williamstown, MA for the weekend visiting Liana. Williamstown is at the extreme north west corner of the state, so it borders NY to the west and VT to the north. There's a 30 mile loop that follows up over the Taconic Trail that lets you ride through all three states on a pretty route. Lets try this thing:


Holy crap it worked. It's MapMyRide.com, and it'll have to do till someone figures out how to use the real road data for non drivers, the mileage is a little low because you have to draw your own straight lines on the map. Anyway it was a gorgeous ride. Several mile climb right out of Williamstown up to the border of NY, then also several miles of downhill on the other side, WHEEEE! One thing is confirmed, my ass can tell the difference between an aluminum seatpost and a carbon one. New aluminum post, say hello to your replacement, a new CF post.

Still awaiting some parts for the John Deere, but I rode it fixed the other day, I think it'll shape up nicely. Hopefully it will look acceptable for the contest.

N=9

So I picked up a black John Deere "racer". It's destined to be a fixed gear road bike now that my Trek Cruiser frame is sporting big fat whitewalls on coaster hubs. I've actually entered it in the Fixed Gear Gallery Open Design contest, in which I will no doubt get an absolute spanking. Whatever, the entry fee is for a good cause. I'm presently on the hunt for a decent stem and a seatpost, and debating color schemes. At the same time the old Schwinn will finally see some action via some transplanted parts from the Deere. Getting sort of excited for Le Tour this year. I still wish Astana was allowed to ride, but I'm squarely behind Slipstream, not that they stand a chance.

This weekend will find me riding in the Berkshires I'm looking forward to that, it's gorgeous out there.

Spring!

Yay! Winter is going! Two rides this week, one painful ride last week. I think if someone took a good close look at my rear end they would find a little imprint that says "Flite Ti". I love my saddle. It's the best darn saddle I've ever ridden, but that first ride out last week, it felt like it was going into me. Luckily, that has passed and I am now in the general constant soreness phase till I build up tolerance again. Note to self: Get a damn trainer for next winter!

New 0 offset seatpost coming to get me a little more forward on the bike, I think I'm too far back on my road bike. That will pair up with a longer Ritchey WCS stem I've had for a while but needed to find a decent seatpost to mate up with to avoid getting bunched up. Also I picked up a new set of cruiser wheels for the Trek frame that is currently my fixed gear bike. Red rims black hubs and big fat whitewall tires. Might put the track wheels from the fixed gear onto my Dad's Schwinn? Dunno, I kind of want to maintain a somewhat sport geometry fixed gear bike and the Schwinn ain't that.

In other news, what the hell is up with the ASO and the UCI anyway? I'm sick of the lot of them.