Gravel Grinding

Due to local global warming I was forced to abandon snow riding because there is no more snow to speak of - it all melted. Rats! So I've geared up for the next best thing - gravel grinding on the local back roads.



My favorite riding in warm weather is exploring the endless local forest roads on a bike. I seem to find an inner peace up on the mountain amongst all the trees and flowers...well for the most part, there is always someone around riding a motorized thing that shreds my flowery little bubble. The motorheads are typically quite nice though and I enjoy talking to them.



Right now the forest is turning rather crispy since we seem to have instantly gone from a dry spring into sweltering hot temps in the last few weeks. At my house we have not had moisture since the end of February and my fields are looking like the end of July right now - not good.



The mountains are about the same, snow is essentially gone (I'm riding stuff that is usually snow bound until mid or late June on a normal year), the roads are dusty, and the forest floor it getting rather crisp. Hopefully we'll get some substantial moisture soon or it could be a banner fire season.



My Volagi has become an awesome gravel grinder bike, I'm quite impressed with the ride comfort to say the least. I'm still playing with position and components to make it fit me and my goals for this bike. So far I've put nearly a thousand miles on it and love riding it each time. It's a keeper! (which is something you never hear me say about a bike)

Transition Time - Spring Crust to Gravel Grinding

Yep, still here, still riding fat on the last of this season's snow. I'm a little sad that the snow is nearly gone now, all I have left is some supreme crust riding up on the tops and shady sides. It's still totally worth the extra effort to get up there and play in these spring conditions.





There are some huge rolling drifts up on top that are so much fun to play on....it's like a fatbike pump track and then some. This another awesome thing I never would have imagined without having a fatbike.





Well as the snow fades away I'm starting to transition into my summer mode of Gravel Grinding. It seems that another new bike has "appeared" in my evil bike laboratory. This one (a Volagi Viaje) is one I've set up just for gravel grinding and to conquer the oh-so-steep climbs up in my mountainous playground. I also have some intentions of using this bike for bike packing with Relevate Design packs that I've been using for some time now. So far the Volagi is quite comfy.

I have also begun experimenting with a Salsa Woodchiper dirt dropbar and Retroshift brake/shifter setup. I use Retroshift with my cyclocross bikes so I know how durable and good it is. The Salsa bars thus far are very impressive on the Volagi. I'm still experimenting with stem rise and length as well as bar tilt. My hands are happy, which is what matters most to me, plus I have great control with these bars. I will continue experimenting some I'm sure.



My heart is still dreaming of snow and I can not wait until next fall when I get to start playing on the Fatback in the snow once again. In the mean time, as my snow fades I'll just have to put up with riding the fattie on dirt and playing in the gravel.

Slush, Mush, and Crust

I've been experiencing a local, global warming trend here lately, which makes riding conditions change with both elevation and time of day. Early in the morning there is a nice crust that I can typically ride on top of nearly anywhere. As the temps rise to above freezing the crust turns to mushy snow, and finally a bit slush at lower elevations. At higher elevations it only gets a soft and mushy.



There are lessons to be learned with all this local climate change going on. For example a few days ago I rode a beautiful crust to a new destination that was very cool, but on my return trip I had to slog through (post-hole) knee deep mush for 2-miles. The crust had warmed just enough that it would no longer support the bike or me so I sank. Oh well, it was still fun...I smiled through it all.




These snow condition changes are also a small challenge with riding, since in the crust I have what seems to be unending traction, whereas in the mush and slush I slip-n-slide quite a bit. I have definitely increased my riding skills this winter.



This is awesome!!!

The Super Fatback Bowl

It seems that over the last week we've had an attack of Global Warming here. I was trudging through knee-deep new snow last week praying for some for some of my snowmobile friends to make a track for me (which never happened that particular day). Today all that snow seems to be gone, the lower part of the mountain is soft and mushy (no to be confused with slushy, which is wasn't) whereas the top was better but still soft-ish feeling. The good part was that the snow was well tracked, which made forward momentum easier for the most part...whoohooo!



It was also a beautiful day, but something odd about the whole situation...I was all alone. This was very peculiar since I usually run across many snowmobiles on Sundays, especially on clear, windless days like it was today. Hmmm...It took me a while to figure out, not that I was really too concerned, that today was Stupid Bowl Sinday. I have no love for watching sports on the TV and I'm quite certain that my little fans screaming in my brain celebrating my new world record time trial climbing the Fatback up 2000-ft was louder than any crowd on TV watching a football game (in which the whole thing is more hype than sport). I win!

No Fat Momentum Today

Today was an odd day weather-wise, kinda warm, kinda cold, dark ominous clouds, sun, and new snow.




Thankfully there was no wind to drift the snow any deeper. I had enough of a workout climbing 2500-ft today. Of course as I increased elevation the snow only got deeper as I would expect.



The hard part was that the base under the new snow was not its typical crusty self, which made tires sink a tad more, creating more resistance, thus making forward momentum much more difficult, making pedalling harder, making my legs works more than normal, giving me one heck of a workout over my short 14-mile ride today.



I was disappointed that I had to turn around but I was trudging (walking the bike more than riding) through knee-deep new snow. Just a few days ago this same area was like a super-highway, nicely packed by snowmobilers (love those guys). The snow looked like it was only going to get deeper up further, so after deciding to turn it around, I sat on the ridge overlooking Oregon and the Grande Ronde River Gorge, enjoyed this beauty all around while eating some snacks.

Spinning the Fat

This time of year many "normal" people and countless weirdo cyclists take to spinning classes or, in the case of the purely stupid, spinning on a trainer in their garage or basement for hours on end. I once tried to spin on a trainer in my basement...OK I actually tried it several times, but the result was the same...yawn! Yep, those were by far the most boring bike rides I have ever done and I still curse myself for wasting time trying.



If I had to ride a trainer to stay in bike-shape through the winter I would most likely have quit riding bikes altogether and started drinking heavily, plus I'm sure I would need brain surgery to remove the stupid factor that made me keep doing it.



Long ago I began a path of self-construction in the winter with one goal in mind - to have fun and if at all possible ride my bike. I love winter, I love snow, and I love playing in the cold.



Yes, I'm an odd person in this world. Winter presents much more challenge with the cold since it simply will kill you in short order if you are not prepared. I learned long ago in my teens while exploring Montana's Beartooth Wilderness Area in the winter just how quickly fun turns to danger. After many lessons learned the hard way since I have found that I get high the challenge of winter activies.



This year I've taken a bike in places I could never reach before. Prior to my fatbike I was fairly limited in my winter travels by bike. Now I can make 30-miles fly by on packed snowmobile trails (I love snowmobiliers - they make some nice trails for me to ride on). 



Fatbiking has become my winter spinning class. I can not believe how much fun it is riding a fatbike on the snow.



All these years I've been missing out. Why I do not know, but moving up 2000' on top where snow exists much of time really got me started on the "need" for a fatbike.  While everyone else is whining and wishing for an early spring, I'm happy and praying for more snow and a late summer so that I can go spinning on my fatbikes all the longer this year.

 

Found my Fatitude

I, like many other fatbike obsessionists, celebrated the New Year with a fatbike ride...well shamefully I did a week-long fat celebration of the new year on my 9:Zero:7 super-fatty (the Fatback is waiting its turn patiently).



It was a fun-filled week of daily attitude adjustment. Long ago I found that biking is my fix for a bad-i-tude, however I have little motivation to make riding happen in the dark days of winter. So evilness typically surrounds me in the winter months.





However, something is diffent this winter season. I am finding that instead of diving deep through my internal darknes to find the motivation to ride that I am actually planning rides in advance and I am psych'd about getting on the bike. Plus, when I'm not riding one of my fatbikes, I think obsessively of new fatbike upgrades, and planng more rides!





All this new unstoppable motivation is the result of (yes I'll say it again) Fatbikes!!! My baditude seems to have morphed into a fat-i-tude. Those super fat tires have made me unbelievably stoked about riding the snow in my local mountains - areas I've never been able to get to in the winter.

I even got up at 4AM one day just so I could pedal up a few thousand feet of elevation to see the sunrise on top of the mountain...



...at first I was not sure I would see the sun that day since the fog was so thick riding up, but after about 2300 feet of climbing it finally broke open just in time for the sunrise...



...it was an unbelievable exerience sitting up there watching the beauty of new day start...



....the early morning views were breathtaking that day...



Yeah it was cold and it was hard work getting there, but I can't wait to ride the fat on some snow again this week.

A Fat Year's End

Well it's gone - another year of fun on the bike. Due to all my "new home" projects that needed to be done this past year the quantity of riding time was hugely less (love putting terms like that together). I suffered plenty of mental anguish dreaming of bike riding while working on those projects, but the work needed to be done and such is the price you pay for moving into a new place.



I love where I live...I have 360-degree views, lots of my favorite back-road rides at my door step, the forest is only 10-miles away (my favorite place to be) and best of all is the snow. I love snow and can not believe I spent so many years in that dreary snowless valley. After living up here last winter, I rediscovered that love of snow and winter activities which set in motion my fatbike obsession.



Actually the discovery of snow biking escalated my obsessive-compulsive need to buy-and-ride-every-bike-possible. It's a shameless disease, I try to control it, but I admit I am weak when it comes to new bikes and parts to test in my evil fun bike laboratory.

The first fatbike was a 9:Zero:7 (appropriately named the Baconator, due to it's amazing fatness that I'd never seen before). Then, mysteriously, a forest green Fatback showed up (aka Mr Gump)...yeah, I'm weird for naming my bikes, but I've found that I tend to keep them longer when I name them - one of my self-treatments for my obsession. I've been swapping back and forth between the two trying to find a weakness so that I can sell one, however I've discovered nothing except each frame has it's own strengths in the snow. Now I'm starting to think that my boy may inherit (steal) one before long.



Before fatbikes I rode to the snow, then turned around and went home simply because I couldn't ride far in the snow. With fatbikes I'm riding over huge snowdrift rollers that are stupidly deep, plus fatbike riding on the snow has simply reignited my biking passion in a big way. Back country riding and exploring in winter on a bike is unbelievable and I can not understand why it took me so long to discover it...sometimes we need to take the blinders off and be a bit more open minded I guess. My interest grew only after I moved up a few thousand feet higher in elevation, where winter's beauty can not only be seen, but lived.



2012 was a great year, it was my 50th year on this earth, my 22nd year of marriage to the best gal ever and my best friend ever, a year of becoming a parent again with the adoption of my daughter, a year of rediscovery that snow is a gift that brings out the childish nature in me, and my 1st year of riding fatbikes. WhooHooo!!!

Comparing Fatness

This past week I was both elated that more snow had arrived and I was singing the blues because it was sooooooo hard to pedal through all that wonderful white fluffy stuff. You have to realize though that my version of the blues involves a huge, continuous smile. I love deep snow, but after this week I am praying for snowmobiles to pack it down some. Hmmmm, knee deep here...



I did a little tire experimentation this week...I was not so happy with the so called "velcro" grip of the Surly Bud tire up front so I had to prove it was worthy. I put on my Surly Larry tires (aka no-traction-in-soft-snow) and flailed around having a great time improving my bike handling skills. Then I put back on the Surly Bud up front (aka serious fatness with squirrel eating knobs) and my Surly Nate out back (aka kung-fu grip).  Both the Fatback (Mr Gump) and the 9:Zero:7 (the Baconator)were used in this little tire shuffle...it's so sad that I had to ride so much to do this.





Was there any comparison? If there was it was laughable to say the least. I think the Larry tires are far superior considering speed aspects on packed roads, but are fairly useless in deep snow for forward momentum and steering control.  The Bud and Nate combo proved that, although not perfect, were far superior in floating through deeper snow as well as in steering and forward propulsion. I went miles (yes miles) further in the deep snow with what seemed to be less effort with Bud/Nate than than Larry/Larry. However the Bud/Nate combo were much slower on hard packed snow...must take a little more POWer to motivate those big lugs over the hardpack.

The velcro grip of the Bud still does not exist in my opinion since it slides around a lot more than I would expect with such a deep lugged monster tire. No worry though since it is also improving my bike handling skills.

Really though, who cares about all this technical crap? The underlying moral here is that I'm having too much fun riding fat bikes. But all this play did result in the Bud/Nate combo being Mr Bacon approved for superior fatness in loose, deep snow!