Tales of woe

They say that bad things come in 3's. I really hope that is true, I have had 30 days of the worst cycling luck of my young and eventful career.

First I broke a spoke on the front tyre of my road machine. 10 miles from home I sat dejected on the side of the road until my bride could find me.  It's still not fixed, Easton Wheels are hard to deal with. The company and not the product.

Then last week I got a flat on my mountain bike. I have tubeless tyres but I had not kept up on the maintenance and they were dry, totally my fault. I whipped out a tube to throw it in thinking that it had been over a year since I had caught flat. I used my CO2 to pump it up and prepared to move on but the tyre was not holding air.  The tube had been in my seatbag for so long that it had worn a hole in the side from the friction. Out of CO2 and tubes I ended up walking 6 looong miles back to the truck.

The coup de grace was yesterday. I was ex filtrating out of the Rim Runner trail system huffing my way up a particularly steep pitch, when with a loud snapping noise I was thrown unceremoniously to the ground. Stunned, I looked for the reason of my graceless dismount.

I found this.

I had stripped the bolts on my chain ring, breaking it and folding it like a giro sandwich. I could have felt just a smidgen of pride thinking that I was laying down enough power to break this.

The first thing I did? I calmly sent these pictures via email to the manufacturer. This ring had 3 rides on it. I did not expect much but I got an email back straight away saying that though they denied the problem was theirs they would replace it. Winning!

Secondly, I determined that it was 10+ miles back to the truck. Or... 3 miles mostly downhill to Santa Clara where my lovely, patient, helpful, vivacious, smart, resourceful, and understanding wife could again pick me up, yet again.

Lets all say a little prayer that these ignoble events are behind me and the rest of the summer will be clear sailing.

It's a rental

I am going to be walking the fine edge of sacrilege for some of my readers in this post. So if the words "carbon  fiber"  offend you, you may want to log off now. (I am talking to you JRuss and Steve G.)

I was bumping around the newest bike shop in town, Bike Fix over in Washington. Ian, the owner is also a SS guy and his personal sled is a Niner Air 9 Carbon. As I was admiring the bike, I jokingly asked if I could borrow it for a day. To my surprise he said yes, I must have a trustworthy visage.

This bike is Carbon Fiber everything, stem, bars, wheelset, frame, seat post, fork, everything, and it weighs a mind blowing 18lbs.
I took it out to Navajo for a run up Rattlesnake and down Stucki.

I wanted to, and was prepared to hate this bike.  I could not.  Uphill this ma'sheen is an absolute rocket and comfy to boot. Niner's geometry is spot on and it soaked up the bumps like a champ while remaining stiff under power.
I had done 42 road miles the day before and was a little toasted but that did not stop me from laying down my fastest time form the TH to the top of Rattlesnake and I didn't feel like I was pushing it.

While the climbing was a dream the descent was a horse of a different color. The ride quality suffered when I went north of 15 mph, and through the chop it was like riding a jack hammer. The bike is so light that it was difficult to hold a line, I was tossed around and felt like I had to fight the bugger through all the chunk. If I had more time with the bike I think you could get used to it's trail manners but my hands were achy by the bottom. With a squishy fork this bike could be the cats pajamas. 

But will I be spending my hard earned cash on the A9C.......no.  Did I have fun and wanted to keep it another day.......yes. 

Burrito at the bottom of the world

The title may be a little misleading but you can trust me, for those in the know it is hilarious.
A friend of mine from High School has taken the path less traveled. I love to hear or read about his latest accomplishments. I am linking a short write up, Todd is one of the guides in this story.

He recently started his own guide service, In The Company of Guides, and I wish him all the best.

Good on ya' Passey.

Good things from Arizona

Its February and those that know me well, know that February brings two things; My birthday and Old Pueblo.  Guess which one I look forward to more? 

This years team consisted of Duane, Curt, Myself and a new addition, Scott. 

24 Hour town seen from the air, we are located in the top right corner.

The course, I have become a fan of the bypass section marked in green. It could be my favorite part of the ride.

Bikes lined up at the start, this is only small portion of the bikes.

Sunrise after a long night of racing. It is always amazing to me that I can be completely partied out but when the sun shows up, I am good to go.

Home sweet home in Duane's lushly appointed, yet not overly ostentatious, tent trailer. I think he bought it just to do this race every year. Due to some slight miscommunication we placed eighth again for the third year in a row, at least we are consistent. If we had our ducks in a row we would have finished sixth, but that matters only to me.

Also in Arizona is the famed Coconino County, located within that county you can find Coconino Cycles and it's proprietor Steve Garro. I have been riding one of Steve's frames since 2009 and have been completely happy. Last year I had a malfunction with the Paragon Sliding dropouts, Steve repaired it but because he is a perfectionist, and consummate professional he was not satisfied with how it turned out. So upon returning home from the 24 HOIP I found my Coconino 2.0 with new Coco-Moto horizontal dropouts to tension the chain.

Behold

Almost twins. Outgoing bike is on the right, note the simpler design of the new dropouts.

New frame all built up with old parts, the new dropouts are awesome. They require about 35 seconds extra to set up but the bolt on hub and lack of moving parts is waaaaay better.

Big props by the way to local superstar Delena for a third place finish in the Women's SS Solo category. You can read all about that here as well as a pretty good food review for the Haji Baba's.

Ripped from that blog

Silver Reef

By now you know that I am a sucker for new trails and cool stuff, I had heard from a friend that they had added some new property and subsequent trails to the Red Cliffs Desert Preserve. The trail head is called White Reef, and starts across the highway from Harrisburg. 

The Silver Reef area was a booming mining area during the late 1800's. It's still the only place in the world where you can find silver veins embedded in sandstone.  The Smithsonian deemed an early sample of the ore, "an interesting fake." Not believing that silver could be found in sandstone. 

During it's heyday Silver Reef boasted a Main street over a mile long, it's own China Town and according to one historian, was the murder capitol of Utah for quite a few years. Despite the number of Mormon settlements in the area the town never had a Mormon Church. 

Due to a drop in silver prices the town began its decline in 1880 but in 1951 Uranium was mined there for a time. 

The old mines are still very visible along the Reef

Behind the bars, looking into a shaft. 

Dead center you see another mine as well as numerous tailing piles from other workings.

Just outside of the populated area I ran across this shaft. It's a terrible picture, I was scared to death that I would drop my phone.  That chasm is about 25 ft across and I am sure goes straight to the center of the earth.

The old Wells Fargo Building is now the museum.

I plan on going back to do some more exploring, as well as reading up on more history. The ride is okay, mostly double track and lots of horse destruction. I am not sure which I despise more, horses or 4-wheelers. 

The Garmin pooped out for about 6 miles of stream crossings and the hike-a-bike sections.

By the numbers

My neighbors, friends, family and coworkers all know that I ride my bike. They use it as a means to elicit conversation with me because I am not by nature an outwardly loquacious guy.  I don't mind, because if pressed  I can talk about bikes all day long, but I usually have to take into account the audience to whom I am speaking and tailor the conversation to their real level of interest. 

If I told them the absolute truth about riding I am sure they would think I was off my bean. 

I keep a log of all my rides, I have been doing this since 2005 and I will admit to you that I am a total bike dork. I keep track of everything. 

I have taken a screen shot of the last two months of this year. 

You will notice that I color coordinate to denote what type of ride. Green is commuting, Brown is a dirt ride and the Gray represents road rides. Clever I know.

So by the numbers for the year of our Lord 2011;

3800.5     Total Miles to date
162          Total days ridden (why am I not faster)
77            Road rides
85            Dirt rides
288.12     Hours in the saddle
224,871   Calories burned (why am I not thinner)
264,858   Vertical feet climbed
144          Average heart rate
17.4         Average speed road
9.8           Average speed dirt

There you have it, the reality of my psychosis. Not to shabby for an aging, slightly overweight, father of FIVE girls, with two jobs and playing a part time Mr Mom because my Sugar Sweety brings home more cheddar than I do.
I would like to take a moment and thank her specifically for being so supportive of my habits, I think it's because she knows first hand the superb ability I have to put away the calories and she does not want to be married to a chubby guy. That would be a deal breaker.

That should give you guys some more fodder for our conversations, see you in the New Year.

Peace.

Falling with style

Had a great day planned on the bike today, I was set to meet Pete at the trailhead on Navajo at 11am. I had planned to ride there from Santa Clara with Duane, ride with Pete for a a bit and then ride home.
You know what they say about the best laid plans; the only thing that did happen was that I got some good mileage in. Duane had to go do a job in Kanab and Pete had to rescue an employee from the Purgatory Correctional facility. I got his text when I arrived at the designated spot. That's what you get when you hire a guy who's nickname is The Green Mile.


Tale of the tape, still interactive.



I also read a great article this week, "The Art of The Bail."  It's a pretty well thought out piece on crashing and that 1 in 100 rides crash that is going to get you.
I have not had a legit get-off in what seems like years so I know the odds are not in my favor.

If you can't read the whole article be sure to watch the vid at the end. I gave up on airing it out just after my second knee reconstruction. My wheels need to stay on the ground now but there are some great carnage shots of guys on the Shore. Interesting to see someone else's skewed view of reality and there is an absolute do-not-miss crash at the end. Skip the hospital shots as they are kinda gory.... unless you like that thing.

The fine print at the end also says, "pretty much everyone was hurt in the filming of this video."

If your not falling your not trying.