Glass + Tires = Shredder

Some times people question why I buy Bontrager's kevlar belted road tires...I have some difficulty convincing them (or maybe they have difficulty believing me) that many of the roads down in this valley are lined with broken glass (typically beer bottles). There is no getting around the fact that at some point on any road ride that I will incur direct glass-to-tire contact. The Bontager kevlar tires have saved me from more flats than I can count...I'm always digging glass pieces out plus pieces of metal. The wear factor of these tires is also quite good since I typically get 4000-5000 miles from a set. However, on occasion a tire gets so shredded that it needs an early retirement...like this tire (after only 1800 miles) that sustained a direct impact with a rather large chunk of glass that I simply did not see in time to avoid (because I was looking around trying to enjoy a boring road ride).

I rode this tire home and 38-miles later it was still inflated...it was a bit annoying to ride.

Skinnies on Dirt

Everyone knows how much I like road bike riding (yawn), but when there's an adventure involved I seem to fore go my perceived boredom of skinny wheels. Over the last week I seemed to have peaked to any all time high with a few fun road rides. The first was riding the Whitebird grade down and back from Grangeville. The Whitebird Grade is a fun, narrow, twisty road to ride.

Going down...


Climbing up...


In between the grade I managed some Roubaix-style dirt road riding (yes on the road bike with skinnies on).


I have never realized how much fun skinny road tires could be on the dirt...or how fast.


My sister, Megan, was along on one of my mountain bikes for part of the trip.

The next trip was also from Grangeville...I had to drop off my Grampa's Jeep (yes he still drives at the age of 97) after my sister used it to get to the airport in Spokane. Since I had no way home I decided that I would ride home on the old highways through Nez Perce, Craigmont, and Winchester. It was a nice day with a few sprinkles here and there, but the trip was scenic along the way and I enjoyed the adventure of riding a new route (for me). So after 5-hrs, 20-min of riding time I rolled into my driveway with 107-miles on, at which time I was beyond ready to be off the bike. I think I may ride this route in reverse another time.

Racing the Think Pink Rigid

The performance of the Think Pink SS Rigid had me all giddy before, during, and after the Devil's Slide MTB Race.

(In the Hunt...Photo credit: Doug Goodenough)

This SS bike was not the ideal choice to run in this event this year due to some long, long, looong, flat sections, but somehow I was holding my own and held off many of the geared bikes until the end of the first lap on these ultra long flats...Single Speeds Rule!!!

(Photo credit: Scott Trost)

I ended up taking 2nd (still not sure how), but that doesn't mean too much since the race had a small showing this year. It was super fun to do the race on the Think Pink SS.

(Photo credit: Scott Trost)

In the tradition of cancer support I wore my pink and black Fatty jersey with matching socks to support Fatty's wife, Susan, who is struggling with metastatic breast cancer.

Think Pink Goes Rigid

Yep, that's right, once again I am messing around with bike setups. People that know me well enough understand I have an obsessive behaviour that involves changing up things on my bikes on a regular basis just to try something new.

Recently I had my Fisher Ferrous SS 29er set up rigid and rode it on back-roads mostly. I really liked the setup, but on the trails I did not think it was so great...in fact it downright sucked.

Then on one of my trail rides I had a "duh" moment (or maybe it was a "Doh!" moment) and realized that the fully rigid bike may ride better over the rough stuff with a bigger volume front tire for a bit of suspension effect. But after running through the mental inventory catalogue I found that I did not have a 29er tire larger than a 2.1 in my stock of "stuff". So that led to another inspiring moment within milliseconds...after which I raced home where there was instantly a flurry of activity in the bicycle laboratory. Within minutes the Think Pink Gunnar was transformed into a fully rigid, ultra trim, single-speed.

With the Pacenti Neo-Moto 650Bx2.3 tire up front I headed out to prove it was a worthy ride. Out at Hells Gate State Park I was a tad disappointed at first since the ride was nicer than on the 29er, but still a tad stiff and "boingy" over the rocks. So I let some more air out, then even more, and more, and...until the desired effect was achieved. The end result was an air pressure of 18psi in the front tire...at this pressure the bike was a smokin fun ride. The Pacenti tire is a true 2.3 and appears larger in volume...I never pinch flatted or even came close and my entire body is thankful and I seem to smile a lot while riding it...of course the normal, gentle thrash testing will continue.

One more thing has been brewing in the background here for some time now...his name is Jeremiah, soon to be adopted by Donna and I unless some weird unforeseen thing happens.

Who Turned up the Thermostat?

It seems that Someone turned up the thermostat over the weekend - we went from cold, snow/rain to the 70's in what seemed to be one day's time. My bare skin is now seeing sunlight and I instantly noticed that vehicles were avoiding me a tad more...it took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I realized it was the bright flashes of light blinding them, a.k.a. the sun's reflection off my ultra bright-white sheen of pure energy pounding along at high speed (good thing I wear dark sunglasses or my legs would probably blind me too).

The riding is great except that now I'm getting dehydrated much easier, but who cares because the riding is spectacular. Nothing like a little sun and warmth to bring the attitude back a spiking high. I could not get enough of the great weather it seems and rode myself into a state of pure, blissful exhaustion each day.

The power of the sun also brings some of my most favorite things in this world...Spring Flowers! I found these at the edge of the lower snow level...


Ahhh..I feel better just looking at pics of these little beauties, don't you?

The End of March Maddness

This March has been nothing but pure weather chaos. Here are just a few of the conditions I've been caught riding this month...snow, rain (light mist to pure deluge), hail, sleet, thunderstorm, bitter-cold, sloppy-mud, dry, frozen, warm, sunny, and blow-you-backwards-winds. Riding is always an adventure this time of year that often results in some unforeseen weather related hardship during what started as a nice ride. I use to cuss my way home by the shortest means possible when caught in one of those sudden, soaking downpours, now I just laugh about it and continue on with the adventure.

Here are a few pics of my rides over the month of March...I got rained on during most of these.




Can you say Tailwind? Here it's called no effort pedaling...so you can imagine what the ride into this wind was like...


Hmmm...

Snow Tires?

Well it seems snow tires are still in season - at least where I'm riding...




But this little guy tells me that the end of the snow tires is near...


I've been seeing plenty of mountain blue birds up high - a sure sign the snow is leaving and spring flowers are near.

Until then I still have to deal with the snow in places I really want to go. Today I ended up "post-holing" (that means I was sinking (making post holes) up to my knees in the snow) for a mile or more while taking a "short-cut" back road. During this knee-deep trek I had one of those awe-inspirating ideas...I decided that some super-mini, ubber light weight snow shoes that I can strap onto my bike shoes would make for some quick treking through these spring time snowy places I am insanely driven to make it through. Hmmm...

Sun + Bikes = Happy

So many people seem to complain about the weather forecast being wrong that I thought today I would happily commend them for being wrong. In fact I think we should give weather forecasters a happy award everytime they predict rain while the sun shines all day...like this truly great day of rain you see in this pic...

Wow! What a day that was...two bike rides, one road, one mountain...9000 ft of climbing, 97-miles on 2-wheels, sun all day, smiles abound, tired legs, happy me!

Way to go guys...predict me another day of rain like that!

The George Cr. School of Muck-a-Muck-e-Yuk

Listen up, school is in! Most of us have been schooled in mud riding (typically not by choice), but there are few local schools of mud riding better than that of George Creek Grade. There are diffent kinds of mud: First, there's thin mud that coats you and your bike, but washes off easily. Next there's the ultra gritty mud that eats your chain, gets in your teeth, shreds your eyes, and Lord help you if you have rim brakes because when you get home the rims will be junk. Finally there's the kind of mud found on George Cr. Grade - it sticks better than super-glue and water will not wash it off...and yes it bonds to every thing it globs onto and ruins every thing... sunglasses have no chance and clothing...well it takes many washings sometimes to remove to poop-looking stain on your hind-end. In addition (yes there's more) the George Cr. mud eats chains in seconds, reduces rim sidewalls to paper thin thickness with rim brakes, and takes a chisel or at least 8-10,000 miles of riding rough terrain to get it to finally leave your frame.

A few local riders (Corrie and Doug) found out the hard way recently and I'm sure they are now aware that you just don't go treking up George Cr after there's been a bit of moisture. There is an exception of course...cold, frozen ground. While Corrie and Doug are still chiseling the George Creek mud off their bikes from this last weekend, today's ride up presented no mud problem.

I could see where they had stuggled through the ultra muck-a-muck-e-yuk, sorry, but I was snickering some because several years ago I had done the same thing (you can read Corrie speak his mind on this here--> click). Today the ground was quite firm after some recent cool weather, but as soon as it warms a bit you can bet the gumbo-bike-destroying-muck will be back.

Here's the proof - a pic of my tire...hmmm clean...

After finishing George Creek mud-free, I decided to zip over to Hellsgate State Park for a few loops - overall it was a cool day, but the bright sun made up for it.