Evergreen on Tuesday April 10, 2007. It began snowing as we pulled up to the Park N' Ride / Church in Evergreen. "Dammit! We are riding anyways."
Mike S. has been someone I always have loved to ride with. Today he was sporting his 6" travel Kona that he has upgraded all over the place. It is now set up for anything that can be found on a trail.
I am concentrating on getting smoother and faster, so I am sticking to the same bike for a while: Black Sheep Ti 29 SS. It is fast and fun.
Today, I was ready for the cold. I had some thermal gloves and a compression top from the one and only Louis Garneau. Icebreaker on the outside for the warmth. The only change I made was midride... I pulled up my sleeves. Otherwise, I was the perfect temperature. My diaper (or chamois) was the LG Big air short, which is easily the most comfortable padding I have encountered in my years in the business.
I called Dave (aka Slowerthensnot) to see what conditions were to be like in Evergreen. He said that is would be likely muddy and sloppy. As I said, it was snowing lightly as we drove up. As we stepped out of the car, it opened up to be amazing and beautiful. We rode out in the green and got lost as quickly as I have ever heard of.
After back tracking for a while, we made a big change and turned back on track. This led to downhill after downhill where I couldn't catch up, nor wipe the smile off my face. The trail was as sticky as I have ever seen it. So, there was no slipping, no sliding, no missing lines. It was pure fun. We agreed that this was the most ideal we had seen the trails in a long time.
We finally descended into Evergreen and checked in at the great Creekside Winery. They were closed, but gave us some good directions back to the car.
We had a blast! Come with us next time, instead of just reading about it. Bring water and a snack and you will have a blast.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Mmmm... death...
What do you get when you cross 4 male cyclists, 3000 vertical ft. of climbing and 4 SS 29ers? Tired.
Eric B. (of Ground Up Designs), Scottie B, EJ and Myself did a super secret trail in Colorado Springs. I couldn't take you there if I tried.
We started out from EJs place above a coffee shop downtown. We met up with Eric on the way to the trailhead. It was cold. So cold that I had to stop at a Starbucks... to wash my fingers. It burned severely. I guess I wasn't ready for the cold as I should've been. We made it to the trailhead and everyone warned me that we were in for a bit of a climb. Damn. Damn. %$*@#!! 8 miles on a SS going up 3000 ft. Steep, bumpy, cold. Also, for grins, there was a bit of a crackle in the air with a threat of lightening. Mmmm... death.
We rode underneath a shooting range near the top of the mountain and Eric told me we were almost there. No close calls with the shot flying overhead. MMM...DEATH!!
Eric and I stopped to wait for Scott and EJ (who were fasting at the time, so they were feeling unfresh to say the least (mmm. death.) Once we stretched a bit, we went through a secret opening in the side of the road and voila, scary tech trail.
The trail was as east coast as I have seen on the west coast. Wet, rooty, loggy, and green. I was truly a treat to be had. All of us had to walk several sections because we felt that dying on each other would really impose on our friendship. Mmm... death. Several of the sections were so scary that they had nasty nicknames. Something about gashing your head open and bleeding out half you body weight into a river doesn't seem appealing. We rode in a creek for a bit that actually moved to take over the trail. We went over logs that were 3 feet around with makeshift rock ramps. You couldn't tell what was on the other side till you were on top. So FUN.
The trail ended up coming out to a gravel access road that we flew down into Manitou Springs. We (eric and I) drank some yerba mate and relaxed.
Thanks fellas for a great ride in the Springs!
Eric - Ground Up 29 SS (prototype aluminum)
Scottie B - Vicious Cycles 29 SS steel
EJ - Redline Flight 29 SS steel
Scott T. - Black Sheep 29 SS ti
Eric B. (of Ground Up Designs), Scottie B, EJ and Myself did a super secret trail in Colorado Springs. I couldn't take you there if I tried.
We started out from EJs place above a coffee shop downtown. We met up with Eric on the way to the trailhead. It was cold. So cold that I had to stop at a Starbucks... to wash my fingers. It burned severely. I guess I wasn't ready for the cold as I should've been. We made it to the trailhead and everyone warned me that we were in for a bit of a climb. Damn. Damn. %$*@#!! 8 miles on a SS going up 3000 ft. Steep, bumpy, cold. Also, for grins, there was a bit of a crackle in the air with a threat of lightening. Mmmm... death.
We rode underneath a shooting range near the top of the mountain and Eric told me we were almost there. No close calls with the shot flying overhead. MMM...DEATH!!
Eric and I stopped to wait for Scott and EJ (who were fasting at the time, so they were feeling unfresh to say the least (mmm. death.) Once we stretched a bit, we went through a secret opening in the side of the road and voila, scary tech trail.
The trail was as east coast as I have seen on the west coast. Wet, rooty, loggy, and green. I was truly a treat to be had. All of us had to walk several sections because we felt that dying on each other would really impose on our friendship. Mmm... death. Several of the sections were so scary that they had nasty nicknames. Something about gashing your head open and bleeding out half you body weight into a river doesn't seem appealing. We rode in a creek for a bit that actually moved to take over the trail. We went over logs that were 3 feet around with makeshift rock ramps. You couldn't tell what was on the other side till you were on top. So FUN.
The trail ended up coming out to a gravel access road that we flew down into Manitou Springs. We (eric and I) drank some yerba mate and relaxed.
Thanks fellas for a great ride in the Springs!
Eric - Ground Up 29 SS (prototype aluminum)
Scottie B - Vicious Cycles 29 SS steel
EJ - Redline Flight 29 SS steel
Scott T. - Black Sheep 29 SS ti
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Lately I've Been Thinking 'Bout Just Hittin' the Road
I get those lyrics in my head all the time. It is from a song called "Last Night/Tomorrow" by Urge Overkill. I wish they would've only put out Tomorrow. Anyways...
We had a fantastic Sunday Morning ride this week. Let me tell you why:
1. A bunch of great people showed up
2. We went to a fantastic restaurant (Gaia Bistro 1551 S. Pearl St.) where the coffee is "epic" and the food is outstanding
3. All of us were interviewed by a young woman from the newspaper, The Metropolitan. And we might just have changed her mind about owning a car (or atleast how she will use it) The article comes out this week, so who knows
4. Myra came along in her Giant Pea Pod, barking the ENTIRE time. She also jumped out when her carabiner bent and broke
If you didn't join us, you should this week. Again, we go slow, so don't count this as exercise. And you can wear lycra, but you may be the only one. We'll still love you though. Only wonderful people have shown up thus far, and that is something we plan on continuing.
We had a fantastic Sunday Morning ride this week. Let me tell you why:
1. A bunch of great people showed up
2. We went to a fantastic restaurant (Gaia Bistro 1551 S. Pearl St.) where the coffee is "epic" and the food is outstanding
3. All of us were interviewed by a young woman from the newspaper, The Metropolitan. And we might just have changed her mind about owning a car (or atleast how she will use it) The article comes out this week, so who knows
4. Myra came along in her Giant Pea Pod, barking the ENTIRE time. She also jumped out when her carabiner bent and broke
If you didn't join us, you should this week. Again, we go slow, so don't count this as exercise. And you can wear lycra, but you may be the only one. We'll still love you though. Only wonderful people have shown up thus far, and that is something we plan on continuing.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Myra's first ride along
Our newest mechanic and I (Scott) went on an actual real mountain bike ride yesterday. We took our bikes up to Green Mountain for a quick and dirty loop. Our lungs were relieved to be out of the brown cloud, but quickly found the burn as we started up the winding forever climb. I always forget how long that climb is because I keep thinking it has about 6 turns before you get to the "top". No no... it has more like 14. We took Myra the shop dog on this ride, thinking she would appreciate a good long jog. We made it up to the top and began our fun descent. It seemed like Myra could keep going forever. Being that she is just a puppy, she started to get pretty pooped about 65% of the way through the ride. I let Brian take off like a bat out of hell and stayed back with Myra. She trooped it all the way back to the car without so much as a whimper. She did have to stop to play with a border collie, but otherwise she was focused. I thought bringing a dog on bike trips would be a lot more work, but she was purely pleasure for us. Once she gets older, I'm certain she will be leading the way instead of following behind. I look forward to more people joining us on our morning rides in the mountains. It is way more fun to ride in bigger groups.
Brian: GF Full Suspension
Scott: Giant Trance
Myra: 4 Paws
Brian: GF Full Suspension
Scott: Giant Trance
Myra: 4 Paws
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Greasy Seatposts and Stuck Seatposts
We spent several hours over the course of several days on a young woman's aluminum seatpost that was chemically bonded to her steel frame because of a lack of lubricant between the two.
We first used the torque of our palms to get the post to spin. Because it was a cheap seatpost that was two pieces of aluminum temperature bonded, it broke off at the top. We then gave it a healthy dose of helper fluid to break the bond. The fact is that the bond was from the bottom of the post to the top. After about a 24 hour soak, we went back at it. This time we drilled a nice clean hole in the post in order to insert a piece of tooling steel in there to get some nice torque. 2 of us with cheater bars provided in the neighborhood of 800 lb/feet of torque (I'm guessing here) and the post literally shattered. Our next idea was to open up a channel to get the fluid further into the frame by using a saw blade to slide a channel into the post. After about 45 minutes of this tedious procession, we had made a small slit part of the way down. The post still did not budge. We let it rest for a while with loads of caustic fluid hopefully finding its way to the chemical bonds. Our next idea was to put a quill stem inside the post, tighten it down and hammer it out. We quite literally broke the stem in half attempting to hammer out the post. (Some laughter may be necessary here) Finally, we decided to try reaming out the post from the inside out. We were going to attempt to shave the post to nothing. After a few hours of removing small amounts of post we made a call to our custom frame builder, James from Blacksheep. He explained that we would be doing this for many many hours and it may not work quite as easily as we were imagining. We decided to let the customer decide whether she could afford our labor or if we needed to call the project done.
I have to say that the young woman was both sad and understanding. She immediately saw the bright side of the situation, that being that her next bike will be fully adjustable and will have a nice slippery seatpost.
By the way, she bought this bike at VeloSwap. Yet another word of warning about buying from an unknown source. Check to make sure the seatpost was greased.
We first used the torque of our palms to get the post to spin. Because it was a cheap seatpost that was two pieces of aluminum temperature bonded, it broke off at the top. We then gave it a healthy dose of helper fluid to break the bond. The fact is that the bond was from the bottom of the post to the top. After about a 24 hour soak, we went back at it. This time we drilled a nice clean hole in the post in order to insert a piece of tooling steel in there to get some nice torque. 2 of us with cheater bars provided in the neighborhood of 800 lb/feet of torque (I'm guessing here) and the post literally shattered. Our next idea was to open up a channel to get the fluid further into the frame by using a saw blade to slide a channel into the post. After about 45 minutes of this tedious procession, we had made a small slit part of the way down. The post still did not budge. We let it rest for a while with loads of caustic fluid hopefully finding its way to the chemical bonds. Our next idea was to put a quill stem inside the post, tighten it down and hammer it out. We quite literally broke the stem in half attempting to hammer out the post. (Some laughter may be necessary here) Finally, we decided to try reaming out the post from the inside out. We were going to attempt to shave the post to nothing. After a few hours of removing small amounts of post we made a call to our custom frame builder, James from Blacksheep. He explained that we would be doing this for many many hours and it may not work quite as easily as we were imagining. We decided to let the customer decide whether she could afford our labor or if we needed to call the project done.
I have to say that the young woman was both sad and understanding. She immediately saw the bright side of the situation, that being that her next bike will be fully adjustable and will have a nice slippery seatpost.
By the way, she bought this bike at VeloSwap. Yet another word of warning about buying from an unknown source. Check to make sure the seatpost was greased.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Pedal Fetish?
I love pedals. I cannot help it. I love looking at them. I love thinking about them. I love talking about them. I just love pedals.
I have a few pairs that I am most proud of...
1. I am most proud of my Brooklyn Machine Works Shinburgers. These are CNC'd out of solid aluminum to make your feel stick like clipless. Once, while I was jumping off of some stairs, I actually became unglued to the right pedal. As I came down full force, I felt a dull pain on my left shin. The kind of dull pain that smell like a hospital is in your future. The kind of pain that makes you forget everything around you. I rolled up my pants to see the damage. I leaned in for a good look and found a perfect pyramid indentation about 3 cm deep right where the pedal had gone in... to my shinguard... I still got a nasty bruise and bragging rights.
2. My second favorite pedals are my old school Atomic Lab Trail Pimps. They are super thin and beautiful. I love looking at them and I love getting hurt riding them. My best injury with these pedals came when I was waiting on my sidewalk for my friend Evan to show up so we could get really really hurt. When he showed up, I was laying down holding my shin sort of laughing. I had been trying to be a trials rider on my bmx bike and had slipped. The pedal shaved a wide thick chuck of skin off of my shin and it was hanging from my pedal. I should've taken a picture because it could be its own website.
3. My last, but still favorite pedals aren't original or different, but I still love them. It is the Crank Brothers Mallets. I just love the simplicity and the absolute usefulness of them. I don't have any great pedal related accidents with them and I plan on keeping it that way. I can pull up as hard as I want and not worry about rolling off the pedals. That is fun. Feels like I am running up the hill instead of doing lunges.
I have a few pairs that I am most proud of...
1. I am most proud of my Brooklyn Machine Works Shinburgers. These are CNC'd out of solid aluminum to make your feel stick like clipless. Once, while I was jumping off of some stairs, I actually became unglued to the right pedal. As I came down full force, I felt a dull pain on my left shin. The kind of dull pain that smell like a hospital is in your future. The kind of pain that makes you forget everything around you. I rolled up my pants to see the damage. I leaned in for a good look and found a perfect pyramid indentation about 3 cm deep right where the pedal had gone in... to my shinguard... I still got a nasty bruise and bragging rights.
2. My second favorite pedals are my old school Atomic Lab Trail Pimps. They are super thin and beautiful. I love looking at them and I love getting hurt riding them. My best injury with these pedals came when I was waiting on my sidewalk for my friend Evan to show up so we could get really really hurt. When he showed up, I was laying down holding my shin sort of laughing. I had been trying to be a trials rider on my bmx bike and had slipped. The pedal shaved a wide thick chuck of skin off of my shin and it was hanging from my pedal. I should've taken a picture because it could be its own website.
3. My last, but still favorite pedals aren't original or different, but I still love them. It is the Crank Brothers Mallets. I just love the simplicity and the absolute usefulness of them. I don't have any great pedal related accidents with them and I plan on keeping it that way. I can pull up as hard as I want and not worry about rolling off the pedals. That is fun. Feels like I am running up the hill instead of doing lunges.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Well, it could be real. But...
Here goes with my re-"but..."-L's:
But, my seat doesn't actually hurt me, because my bike is set up so there isn't any pressure on my crotch, and certainly no junk ripping harness when I fall.
But, I can get going as fast as you do on your video on my mountain bike with big tires.
But, I can't lift it up into my apartment
But, where do I get parts? Tires? Service?
But, I like that bikes can go pretty much anywhere
Okay, I'd still love to ride one and see what it feels like. I'm a sucker for 2 wheels and gears.
More Links:
Official Hyperbike Site
Hyperbike Video or something
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