Jingle cross

finished my first cross race

Turkey Day Ride

trackstand contest.

this is a little boring after 2 or 3 minutes

this is a little boring after 2 or 3 minutes

100 miles on the Masi

With my Sunday-Monday weekend this week I have been able to do a ton of riding. I however didn't, so only 100 miles or so. I had planned to do a proper century on the Masi monday but it turned into a half, oh well I can't complain anytime I get to ride in November in shorts. Cranksgiving was fun on sunday I might be the first intown ride I've done with gears, but the new bike thing overcame the fixie thing. I think there should however be a prize for DWI after the holiday lights ride, I did a little off roading off the side of the trail on the way home. Its only 12 foot wide so give me a break.

The new bike turned over the first hundred miles yesterday and it is great.

Grand Randonneur

Well a long time building but here is my first build from scratch.

09 Masi Special Randonneur frameset.

09 Rival brifters

10 Force front & rear derailleurs

1070 Sram 11-28 cassette

Trektro caliper brakes

Surly "Nice Rack" front and rear

Truvative Carbon compact double crankset

truvative gpx bottom bracket cups

Schmidt Nabendynamo 28 front hub

Velocity 40 hole rear hub

Busch & Müller Lumotec IQ CYO headlight

Mavic 719 40 hole rims

Some crappy 38c tires from my basement (upgrade later)

Crankbrothers Candy pedals

and of course Brooks B17

After the wheel build and riding on hand built wheels I'm not buying anymore prebuilt wheelsets. Also a full custom bike feels perfect when you get on it to ride there is non of that all I need is to upgrade this or that. So I will relearn haw to use gears, ya right.

Brake Clearance was very trick with the surly racks I guess most people use cantilever brakes on touring rigs

Like there is any other kind of rear Derailleur

Carbon Race crankset might be overkill. Like bringing a Chainsaw to a knife fight.

Bday drink at the tap :)

New Touring Bike

The tunnel stop after cummings tap seemed like the right place for the pic of the new bike.

Masi weigh in 32.26 lbs

not bad for touring bike with racks and 40spoke wheels

beer run

Sweet

Winter

Snow blower out studded commuter out

Skinny tires into the basement.

Gears :( . . . :| . . . :) . . .

I have 'Finished' reworking my old mountain bike to be a multispeed (whatever that is) cyclocross bike. Took a short ride to my dads last night to test out the gearing and adjustments. I started down vine ran through all the gears (42/32 Crankset and 11/32 Cassette) got it up to 28 mph (tail wind much) then turned on Giles and started climbing this is were the gears part doesn't allow me to slow down and climb but causes me to sprint and try to hold my gear. I'll ride the "new crossbike" tonight for the pavement taco ride to really make sure it is ready for Jingle cross and hopefully get used to the gears. All I need now are 26" cross tires.

Seven Oaks

a little torn up but they let me ride for no charge. not as technical as I thought

Off to Seven Oaks

No Rain !! So I'll be going to Seven Oaks for some new to me trails. It says Very Technical so it should be a ton of fun. Later posts today will be about the pain.

Bonus Time

Since my 3rd Quarter bonus came in right about were it needed to it looks like I will be buying the remaining parts for my touring bike (except bags/tires) I'll be using extras that are laying around my basement for now. So soon I can order Brifters, Brakes, Derailliers, and cassette. Good times but now I won't have any prodjects to work on. :( Next bike please. If anyone wants a bike built let me know its a lot cheaper for me to build bikes for other people.

More Drool.

I Think that these are the important parts af the XX group

X9 is good enough for everthing else.

Droooool Much

In black with matching chris king set, Sram XX/X9 2x18 combo anyone have a couple extra thousand dollar I can have?

If I could ever make up my mind.

As the 19th (30th Birthday) looms over me like a dark cloud half way through a ride. When your 50 miles out on a fixie and just realize how wet you are going to get (actually happened to me 3 times this year). I still try to figure out what I hope to accomplish in the world of cycling. I would really like to lose 25 more pounds and would like to get in several road races next year. I also hope to get into TransIowa (I think) I have thought a lot about some of the enduro gravel races and I guess I just need to sign up and do it to see if it's for me.

I purchased a single speed mountain bike and my exact words were "I'll never get into mountain bike racing anyway" So 4 weeks later in my first mountain bike race I understand why mountain bike usually have gears. I have this year became a lot better mountain biker (still not that good though) and this has seriously reduced my road milage the end of this year (not going to make my 10k goal) but I enjoy mountain biking even when I'm off the back alone. So I do think a multispeed 29r is on the radar for next fall.

I haven't been on a geared bike (unless you count my crappy commuter) since The Dr Bob ride in september. I am looking forward to my touring bike next year for a little more multispeed riding. However multispeed is for going faster not for slowing down.

I have put together a multispeed cross bike from an old mountain bike to see how my first cross race will go (jingle cross) I'm not trying to win just to survive.

So all together I don't know Road races, Touring, Cross Races, Mountain Races, Mountain rides, Commuting, and Road rides I need more hours in the day. And another new bike.

Silence in the forest

I walked with Patrick yesterday in browns woods, we were hoping to see some deer or at least a cool bug. What we did find was so much better, we found a stream with rocks next to it. Patrick laid down on the bridge and watched the water until I showed him what seemed to be the obvious thing to do here. Throw the rocks into the stream. The best part of hiking is the time you get to stop and enjoy peaceful silence and the excitement of a 3 year old over something as simple a trying to throw the biggest rock into a stream.

Taco ride

2 people drinking 2 pitchers.

All Day

I got off work early yesterday due to an early start for a special sale. So at 3:30 I headed down to denmans for a whole lap on Center Trails. As I pulled into denmans I got that immediate feeling of peaceful quite like I had been there all day long. I realized that I had been there all day because I had tuned out the whole day at work. It's nice to ride Denmans a little slower now and then it give you a chance to think and decompress and everything is simple for a short time. After chickening out on the big teeter again (someday with beer) I took dirty to Hillside were after riding the whole loop on the south side I rolled over to the north and quickly noticed the trail went a different direction. The guys from CITA had been out building for many hours. The new piece of trail is great I won't tell you about it just go ride it. I got to test the new "jump" first that was cool.

Night taco ride

After a couple laps of Denmans with Mike we met up with the rest of the group for tacos. Somehow I ended up with my own pitcher of Fat Tire. That usually works for me but going back out for another ride with Rick at 8:30 the extra beer makes things more interesting. Only hit one tree. We chased a group of riders over to hillside. I am a little shakey on hillside at night but I did okay for about a half lap. Something about a 5 beer buzz then spiking your heart rate for an hour and trying to steer and not end up in the creek. Good times

Denmans by foot

Yesterday I took Patrick and Anna for a 2 hour hike in Denmans. It's amazing some of the stuff you see when your not doing 15 miles per hour on a bike through there. Some of the cool parts are the beavers work on the trees at the shore line. An owl flying around during the day, the closest I've ever gotten to a blue bird and one of the biggest wood peckers I've ever seen. Also the elusive single speed 29r that flies by every once and a while.

Off road :)

Started with 50 miles of gravel, btw if you hit the booneville road fresh gravel and freshly graded. That sounds good but makes everything a lot harder. I took a wrong turn somewhere so I made it to Winterset then back tracked to Cummings. Believe it or not no beers today. After 50 miles on the cross bike I took it home and traded for the mountain bike for some "slower" laps of center trails. So a quick lap by myself first then met up with Keely and Tucker for another quick lap. Then on my way home met up with Kristen for another lap of denmans/nest. A good day at 82 miles.

Snack break

somewhere around cumming I think...or hope

Spooky cross