Wednesday 30 March 2011
Saturday 26 March 2011
Frosty
It's still feeling a bit frosty out these days!
Friday 25 March 2011
March Madness
In the last week we've gone from busy to hyperdrive. Then Friday afternoon super duper hyperdrive kicked in. It's fun, but hurts the remainder of my life, because even at "just" busy, cycling and moving were only getting minimal time. So tired... So I'll likely do a different version of March Madness than the guys going for a big ride this weekend. I'd take it no other way really, as I love the intellectual challenge; other than perhaps a degree of predictability mixed in would be nice.
Monday 21 March 2011
Moving
Moving is a lot of work. It’s also not the best pre-Portugal training, but it’s a little hard to forgo moving to train for a bike race (unless I was comfortable with perma-camping). I don’t really frequent places like Bed Bath and Beyond or Wal-mart, but I’ve done very concentrated shopping sprees there. Two trips have thus far almost filled my house of needed items while draining my bank account proportionately. A day of work by movers, several days work by mom and dad, myself, etc. have begun to create the homelike feel. I’m down to 4 remaining “major” items – window coverings, a bbq, patio furniture and the hot tub as the icing on the cake. After that it’s nothing but hang bikes in the garage in tidy fashion and I can get back to just a simple office + bike routine… or so I hope! Even managed 3 rides this weekend… one where Shawn held a steady pace that ended up working me over, one where Craig, Craig, Kate and Dylan intensified my exhaustion, and one trainer ride for time efficiency on Sunday with sore tired legs.
Saturday 12 March 2011
Sunday 6 March 2011
Two Bike Weekend
So it was a little cold here again this weekend, and I'm sure I could have worked up the energy to go out and ride... I just didn't. After a long week, I wanted to just sleep in Saturday morning and have an easy day, but I got up decently early to go for a breakfast with Cindy's friend Heather.
The background is a two foot jump into the tri/biking/everything active world, and has the fitness and skills to do well from the start, but not exactly a "real" mountain bike.
After breakfast, I came home and was going to nap on the couch, but thought I'd try Jon Nutbrown to see what he was doing with his old Devinci Desperado hardtail frame - it was sitting in the basement with La Ruta mud on it from Jon's first crack at La Ruta. Perfect actually. Dropped by, watched Gavan play a while, and caught up with Jon and Kelley. Left with a muddy frame and a few miscellaneous parts.
Came home, stuck the crankset and fork in my dishwasher, and went to town on the frame with cleaner. I'm not a fan of un-needed v-brake mounts, so I filed the right side one off for over an hour and painted it (left one stayed as it had a slick disc brake line mount on it). Collected up all the parts I had, figured out what I needed still and who could be called on to part with a few items collecting dust in the garage... as everyone knows a muddy and used bike part is way happier than a dusty and unused one.
Pat Doyle had a sweet set of XTR hub/Stans Olympic rim wheels as well as a few other tidbits (more on this later), Craig had some tires, handlebar/stem, some misc tools and accessories, and a set of headset/fork tools I was going to need.
After dinner at my parents, I did some build prep, but the new bike rider herself came to help on Sunday morning.
The end result is the desperado frame, XT bb and cranks with brand new FSA chainrings, new chain and XT cogs, new Shimano brakes (in white no less), new XTR derailleur, fully housed derailleur cable after drilling out the guides, ended up with a Thomson stem/Easton bar based on fit, Specialized saddle, XT pedals, Nobby Nic in front and a Maxxis Monorail in the rear, Sid fork, a Chris King inset as I couldn't find parts for the existing headset, and the sweet XTR/notubes wheelset, with a new XTR freehub to boot. Lots of scrubbing, polishing, greasing, tightening, tweaking, etc. led to a 24lb hardtail with a lot of potential and a pedigree of some really good bike rider karma from Craig, Pat and Jon who have passed along extreme amounts of climbing, endurance and downhill prowess no doubt. I really like how it turned out, it's pretty sweet. It proved handling agility on some good kitchen laps.
Since it wasn't a two ride weekend, might as well make it a two bike weekend. When I was picking up stuff from Pat, I mentioned the moving thing and that I might need a simple commuter bike just to go the 15 blocks. He said "here, buy this"... and long story short, I did. Dangerous when he had other "tid bits" sitting around. I thought it'd be small at 54cm, but it's a big fitting 54cm repainted Kona Jake, cable stops filed off, White Industries Eno hub to provide chain tension on a non-SS frame, and a set of brakes... that's it. I'll slap some platform pedals on and cruise in with a suit on once the slop melts. Price was right on both!
The background is a two foot jump into the tri/biking/everything active world, and has the fitness and skills to do well from the start, but not exactly a "real" mountain bike.
After breakfast, I came home and was going to nap on the couch, but thought I'd try Jon Nutbrown to see what he was doing with his old Devinci Desperado hardtail frame - it was sitting in the basement with La Ruta mud on it from Jon's first crack at La Ruta. Perfect actually. Dropped by, watched Gavan play a while, and caught up with Jon and Kelley. Left with a muddy frame and a few miscellaneous parts.
Came home, stuck the crankset and fork in my dishwasher, and went to town on the frame with cleaner. I'm not a fan of un-needed v-brake mounts, so I filed the right side one off for over an hour and painted it (left one stayed as it had a slick disc brake line mount on it). Collected up all the parts I had, figured out what I needed still and who could be called on to part with a few items collecting dust in the garage... as everyone knows a muddy and used bike part is way happier than a dusty and unused one.
Pat Doyle had a sweet set of XTR hub/Stans Olympic rim wheels as well as a few other tidbits (more on this later), Craig had some tires, handlebar/stem, some misc tools and accessories, and a set of headset/fork tools I was going to need.
After dinner at my parents, I did some build prep, but the new bike rider herself came to help on Sunday morning.
The end result is the desperado frame, XT bb and cranks with brand new FSA chainrings, new chain and XT cogs, new Shimano brakes (in white no less), new XTR derailleur, fully housed derailleur cable after drilling out the guides, ended up with a Thomson stem/Easton bar based on fit, Specialized saddle, XT pedals, Nobby Nic in front and a Maxxis Monorail in the rear, Sid fork, a Chris King inset as I couldn't find parts for the existing headset, and the sweet XTR/notubes wheelset, with a new XTR freehub to boot. Lots of scrubbing, polishing, greasing, tightening, tweaking, etc. led to a 24lb hardtail with a lot of potential and a pedigree of some really good bike rider karma from Craig, Pat and Jon who have passed along extreme amounts of climbing, endurance and downhill prowess no doubt. I really like how it turned out, it's pretty sweet. It proved handling agility on some good kitchen laps.
Since it wasn't a two ride weekend, might as well make it a two bike weekend. When I was picking up stuff from Pat, I mentioned the moving thing and that I might need a simple commuter bike just to go the 15 blocks. He said "here, buy this"... and long story short, I did. Dangerous when he had other "tid bits" sitting around. I thought it'd be small at 54cm, but it's a big fitting 54cm repainted Kona Jake, cable stops filed off, White Industries Eno hub to provide chain tension on a non-SS frame, and a set of brakes... that's it. I'll slap some platform pedals on and cruise in with a suit on once the slop melts. Price was right on both!
Thursday 3 March 2011
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Valparaiso
In case anyone was under the impression I was exaggerating the steepness of the city when visiting at Christmas time...
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