Muck-a-muck-e-yuk!!!

Spring seems to have come...I base this not on the return of the Robins who mysteriously started showing up here in mid-January this year, but on seeing the first trees bud and ultimately the first blooming flowers.

Along with spring comes mixed weather (snow, rain, ice, melting...etc.) which typically means you will end up with mud on your face during any off-pave riding.


It can be challenging to ride off-pave and off-road this time of year since the once frozen-firm trails and roads are now wet and soft, which equals tires sinking into the terra firma or in this case terra soft-i-osis-muck-a-muck-e-yuk, which means a huge increase in pedaling effort to maintain forward momentum (yes you now have to pedal downhill just to overcome the increased resistance and keep forward progress) and inevitably you will, if not careful in choosing your riding route, end up with muck-a-muck-e-yuk on everything. And yes I somehow dirt (mud) riding way more fun than road (yawn) riding anytime.

WALL-E???

No...

A short while back I received a new set of bike lights from Oz (Australia) made by a company called Ay Up! They kind of remind me of the Disney Pixar character Wall-E. The company name Ay Up (I'm informed by those always, marginally dependable internet definition web sites) is a greeting meaning something like hello or hey what's up...hmmm?

The lights are ultra small, ultra light (you can mount a light and 3+ hr battery on your helmet...did I mention small?), and best of all they light up the night so well that my night riding is as fast as any day ride.

It takes a lot to impress me (not really) and when it comes to the typical bike light and manufacturer's claims I have not been impressed with the product vs. the exaggerated claims. But these Ay Up lights got me a bit giddy when I lit one up out of the box and could see all the way across our 5-acre backyard pasture with ease. Another point about Ay Up, I e-mailed these guys with a question and had an answer in less than 5-minutes...impressive to say the least. Can you say SOLD? I can and I own a set of these lights and now I see better than ever riding into the night.

Summer night rides are on my list of fun this year. The overall plan is when the daytime temps are hitting 100+ I'm planning on starting out on a late evening ride into the coolness of the night. Of course anyone is welcome to come along.

Team Fatty - A Worthy Cause

I got mine, a Fat Cyclist - Twin Six jersey that is. This jersey is hard to come by, highly sought and many have desire to own. Why? Because the jersey represents and shows support for both a single human being battling cancer and a worthy cause, cancer research. Some things are worth fighting for - Susan and cancer research are it.

I regularly contribute small donations to various cancer efforts, especially those that are related to cycling somehow. I am picky about the charity I send money to since I need to have trust that the money is going to the cause and not lining some pig's pockets along the way. The Fat Cyclist has become one of my favorite cancer charity efforts. Elden (the Fat Cyclist) was been spearheading a very successful cancer charity drive in association with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Elden's has a direct link to cancer, his wife Susan has metastatic breast cancer at this time. The Fat Cyclist has rallied huge numbers of people (mostly cyclists) through his web site and by raffeling off cycling related items.


Recently Twin Six offered 1/2 of their website's income for a single day to the Fat Cyclist's effort and Twin Six offered several rare jersey's like the one I got, which sold out in the first few hours I noticed. Twin Six sold over $16,000 that day, which means they contibuted over $8000...what a great company!

You can donate to Team Fatty's effort through the Lance Armstrong Foundation here--> Click to Donate for Team Fatty

The Winter Rides Continue

My winter riding continues...I am riding as much as possible between providing care for the young 96-yr old Grampa in Grangeville, work, and everyday life stuff. I have developed a real passion for riding around Grangeville with its clean air, cool views, and huge number of options for a different ride any given day.
At home I am finding I have much less motivation to ride after being in Grangeville. This is partially due to a discovery made after riding so much outside the Lewis-Clark Valley...it seems that deep breathing all the filth spewing from the local paper mill and such is causing me breathing issues that I do not seem to have when I ride beyond the valley. I've noticed it enough to motivate me to start looking at housing elsewhere.
Riding one of my steel single-speeds continues to be my choice for pegging my fun-o-rama meter at this time...Just to be sure I was not missing out on something, I went out on a geared road-bike the other day only to find it beyond boring except when I ran into Cori and rode with him up Evans Road at a rather chipper pace. Cori definitely has some GO in him at this time, so beware all.

Winter Riding Passion

I have a love of riding in the winter on snow-packed roads. It's just so peaceful riding my single-speed (SS) and the SS is the best option anytime in the winter...no shifting gears to mess up, gunk up, or ice up.

From 20090130_Grangeville

Lately I've been spending some quality time caring for my Grampa (a real cool 96-yr old guy) living up in Grangeville, ID. Grangeville has some super nice places ride that I have been taking advantage of as much as possible. Many of the locals have been looking at me with rather large, disbelieving eyes...they're getting use to me I think and they're all quite friendly.

From 20090130_Grangeville

Below is a ride I did on a day last week when the temp was a slightly cool 8-degrees outside. There was no wind and the sun was so nice, while the snow under the tires was crunchy as I rode some 27-miles. I was toasty warm in my layers, wool, and Lake winter shoes...

From 20090130_Grangeville

From 20090130_Grangeville

Cyclic Traditions

Out with the old in with the new? Hmmmm...it's amazing that one day every year creates such a fuss, not to mention the drunken traditions. New Years Day is just another day in the passing of time, which is truly only another mark on a cyclic chart to inform us of our relative age compared to others or mark an event that has passed. Age as we know it has nothing to do with eating habits, weight, physical health, smoking, drinking, lard ingestion, current state of mind, or stress, but it does seem to weigh heavily on some people's opinion of appearance and social status. We even have odd sayings about age - my favorite is "Act your age," which is hard to figure out since there is young, old, and the rather broad neither-world in between. To top that off there is no defining line to separate any of these. Personally I feel young so when someone says, "quit acting like a kid" or "act your age" I not sure why since I am acting my age according to me - young that is. Then again I find it rather insulting if someone labels me old, since I figure if and when I ever feel old then I will most likely have a shovel in-hand digging my grave.

From 20081231

Everything is cyclic...minutes, hours, days, years, life, and of course the two wheels I love to spin endlessly. So as we continue the circle of life together I hope your wheels remain flat free and you are young at heart in the coming cyclic event we have labeled 2009.

SINGLE-SPEED RULES!!!

Snow Fish?

The riding days have been more adventurous here lately since snow has decided to accumulate in a series of storms over the last several weeks...I love it since we rarely have snow here on the ground for more than a day and I miss having it after living in Montana for most of my life. The down side is that people here have no clue (and I mean they are stupidly clueless) about driving on snow, which means fear for your life much more so on the streets. Also most people here can not seem to grasp that riding a bike in snow is an option and fun...I get some crazy comments and looks.

From 20081223

Riding in the winter just takes a wee more thought and preparation about clothing and warmth options. Layering is key, just like it is for any winter sport. Hands and feet, which seem to be the most difficult to keep warm, to play in the cold you need to pay for quality in my opinion and many experiences. For example, I keep the feet toasty with my Lake winter boots and a quality pair of wool sock...I have yet to experience cold toes with this combo in temps down in the teens.

From 20081223

On a recent adventure I was just riding along and...WHAM!!! I hit something under the snow which popped up whacked my pedal. Upon closer observation, I realized I had come across the elusive Snow Fish and it appeared stunned after I ran it over.

From 20081223

After a few minutes though the Snow Fish seemed OK and I coaxed it off the trail (which no sane cyclist would be on anyway) and back into its native environment...

From 20081223

In snow I also think that riding a single-speed (SS) is the best option since derailleurs and shift cables seem to get a bit iffy with snow and ice on them. Tire choice is something to think about also and running good grippy tires and low air pressure is the best, but as you can see I get away with tires that have a very low tread design. I've also found that Stan tubeless sealant works very well in the cold - I have yet to figure out what is puncturing my tires in the snow but no flats yet.

From 20081223

Yes winter riding is a tad more fun than building cholesterol plaque in the arteries in the Lazy Boy all winter.

From 20081223

Think Pink/650B Race Testing

The Gunnar-Think Pink single-speed bike was blindly selected for a mountain bike race course I knew nothing about. I kind of decided to do this race at the last minute and was a tad late leaving for the 140+ mile journey to the course. I arrived with 1/2-hour to spare, which means I had to register, dress, and frantically change the rear cog on the bike after hearing and seeing the course was essentially flat and twisty (aka fast and ideal for the SS). Mission #1 was complete as I rode up to the starting line within about a minute of the start. Mission #2 was to start cold without any warmup and ride fast on a course I was unfamiliar with since I did not preride it (both of these issues are not recommended practices if you want to be competitive). I quickly studied my competition at the start line and picked out 2-guys that would be the fastest and therefore good to be behind going into the single-track...that was my plan...

From 20081027

Ready, set, go...CRASH, stop...Go again. That's how the expert race started with 2 guys getting tangled up about 25-meters from the start who then blocked the entire back field while they untangled (it was rather comical and we were all laughing about it, including the 2 that crashed). However, it was not so funny that a nice sized group were off the front and completely unaware of the crash behind them. Needless to say by the time I got around the crash there was a huge (and I mean HUGE) gap between me and the group off the front. So here I was chasing a few others that got around the crash just ahead of me and a lead group that I could not even see anymore. Well I red-lined it (bad idea with cold muscles) until I was seeing stars while my legs were screaming in an endless, painful agony. I had thoughts of quitting so the pain would quit, but my ego never let it happen.

I quickly learned the areas of the soft, twisty course where I was fastest and used them to my advantage...I steadily picked off riders in front me while getting faster on the course as the laps sped by. I came through the finish after the required 10-laps all alone with nobody in site front or rear - my eyes just about popped out of my head in disbelief as I signed out in 4th place.

I ran the Pacenti Quasi-Moto 650B tire up front and a Bontrager 26" Revolt (tubeless) in the rear. I was wishing for the beefier Pacenti Neo-Moto 650B up front and a Bontrager Jones ACX in the rear to maintain more speed through the numerous sharp, soft-sandy corners in this course. The tire combo I had on the bike (Quasi-Moto/Revolt) did OK, but both were sliding through the corners which equates to less speed and more effort coming out the corner. Pushing both front and rear tires to their limits and sliding through corners is a good skill to practice (and fun) and that is the attitude I took instead of worrying about it as I raced.

SS Cyclocross

Why I continue to pay for self sufferage at cyclocross races is still something I ponder on a daily basis (and more so during these events). It just seems contrary to normal thinking to pay someone money so that you can self-induce extreme burning muscle pain that makes you want to puke and send one's self into an ego depleting humbleness when you get your butt stomped by those that actually train for this insane sport of cyclocross. And I still am praying for a sloppy rainy, muddy course to make all this even more fun!? I've lost my sanity it seems.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

I bumped my pain up a notch this last weekend (and my ego down a notch or two) when I raced a Spokane cyclocross race on my single-speed (SS) converted Gunnar cross bike.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

After pre-riding the course I realized I was at a gun fight armed with a water pistol...not good to say the least. The opening run-out was at least 1/2-mile of fast pave (which is so anti-cyclocross). The long pave start translated into a need for SS crank RPMs that are not physically achievable by me to keep up with 28-30 mph speeds. I was spinning like mad at the start and doing 25+ mph while I was watching everyone pass me and steadily fade away. Then once onto the dirt there was another long straight stretch that was again a high speed runout. The end result was that I had no chance to keep up from the start.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

By the time I got to the more traditional cyclocross stuff (twisty with barriers) were the SS shines, I was so far behind that all I could do was to overtake anyone in front of me with continuous all-out-I-don't-train-for-this-kind-of-stuff-effort. I was happy that I was not lapped (not even close) and that I finished within the middle third of the group.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

Also I was happy that I was not the only SSer out there that got their butt kicked by this road-toad course. I only hope that the course designers come up with something a little more creative and cyclocross-like for the next few races that are up in that area.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

On the better side of this story, this was another fun event and I do believe I am addicted to cyclocross racing...so much so that late next summer I may actually change up my endurance training for some short power training needed for cyclocross. It's too bad they don't have a super-cross event that went on for 3-6 hours so that I could shine at what I do best...the long haul.

After my event Donna (my mate-for-life) and I cheered on some familiar faces (as well as nearly everyone else). Louie Fontain got plenty of support from us as the only SSer in the elite mens group. He worked hard and had the same problems/limitations as I did on this course, but his effort made everyone else's look minor in comparison.

Then there was Ted from Pullman who made the hill run-up look easier than anyone else...he ran up that thing so smoothly that, in appearance, he made it seem effortless (which he and all of us know that it was not so easy). He started fast, but somehow ended up nearly last after the first few laps. However Ted showed us all how it was done by steadily picking up places and putting in a hard effort until the end.

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane

From 20081102_Cyclocross Spokane