Girls night out.

After wednesday nights steak night at the tap and maybe one too many beers (not sure which one was too many) I stayed home with the kids last night so my wife could go out with the other 'cycling widows' for some drinks. It always amazes me how creative kids can be they road their bikes around then parked them in the yard unloaded a blanket and toys and had a picnic on the driveway. Then drew some more anatomically correct stick figures on the driveway I guess it's called a 'tail' when your 3,5 and 7.

I decided that it is again time to cut back the beer since the remodeling at work is over and everything had calmed down and bike 'season' is in full swing now (that's rodie season). So on to the other couple addictions coffee and cycling. Maybe I can loose some of the spare tire on my waist or maybe not. More Rain today so this weekend looks like gravel and not single track. I hope to get a gravel century in Saturday and maybe center will be dry sunday afternoon so I can try out my new tires on my mountain bike. Purgatory 2.4" tubeless and they are monsters, but I need forgiveness not speed when it comes to off road.

Sunset :)

Mamma's new bike

Fixie Season

The track bike has moved from the hook in the basement to the living room after about 20 miles tonight cruising the bike trails so.... The next week of wet rainy yuck I will be hitting the black label on Squeaky 2 (long story) high gear and skinny tires and no coasting. It had been 5 months since I rode a fixie and it kicked me a couple times tonight to remind me to pay attention, but I have missed back pedaling and slowly grinding down hills :)

Fixies and beer :)

The sun peeking through after the rain. AWESOME!

Nice :)

Fixie Time

Gravel Metric #6

Always a Good Sign!

Mickey Mouse head with Wagon wheels

Didn't get all of it but it appears to be every car and truck

they have owned parked in order of age from 70's to present

Fall down and go boom.

Started out a little late yesterday morning around 10am. Headed out through Ankeny then worked my way south through a section of eastern Iowa that has nothing in it. When I say nothing I mean nothing I stopped around 50 miles for a short rest in the first place I could find somewhere to sit a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. The Roads were not to bad to start out but I was unprepared for fully loaded touring on gravel. The mushy roads are bad enough with a 25lbs bike but try it with a 100lbs bike. It is impossible to hop the front wheel the center gravity never changes no matter how you shift your weight around and the long downhills start to overpower the brakes and 30+ mph is a little disconcerting on gravel. The weight is nice in climbs you can get out of the saddle and not spin out the back wheel. I was close to Newton when the rain started so I decided to hit Newton for some dinner. After Dinner the rain was light so I headed out for camp. A Couple of wrong turns and the last hour into some of the strongest winds I have ever road in. I gave up after I had only travelled 5 miles in the last hour and had gone the wrong way. So I called for a ride got onto the paved highway t-12 Back to Newton, the tail wind was nice and I was cruising 30 mph totally spun out in my 36x11. That was fun I had a car that didn't pass me for over a mile and then I realized the speed limit was 25 and I was doing 30. But not all was lost I got my April metric in and I found out TI6 was cancelled do to weather, and the bike had NO mechanical issues (thanks sram) the Arkel xm bags were in the rain for 4 hours and ALL my stuff was dry.

70 miles before the rain

Tourimg time :)

Just leaving Ankeny. Gravel mud here we go.

Really really not cool!

Grocery shopping by bike

extra work with 3 kids.

Bone Bender race report

Drove down with Nick and Brian after a 4am ride to Norwalk got in almost 2 hours early so plent of time to sit and contemplate the race. Normally I'm very nervous before a race but this time it was no big deal even though I didn't pre-ride the course and new very little about it. It was a mass start with hundreds of people after a short run I got to my bike and threw out every ounce of power to get to the single track as fast as possable but not fast enough. Got stuck behind a lot of obstacle walkers in the first lap, but it made for a nice warm-up / preride lap. Lap 2 I had been passing people for an hour and 15 minutes and started strong. Cleared everything and passed several people until I got to the end of the rock garden and heard the rear tire deflate. A large thorn al most 3/8 in diameter and the tire sealant just couldn't seal it. This is my lesson that Stans dries out and you are suppose to change it from time to time. Got a tube in and inflated thanks to Troy for an extra co2 (this is my lesson that 1 co2 will not fill 2" tires. I was off and passing again the riders that I passed before. This is the point I got lapped by the leader. The leading 2 riders were very fast 15mph + though the rocky cliff I was proud to be doing 8. Back to the Rasmussen tent for some water and I was off to lap 3 at just under 3 hours still feeling strong and ready for 3 more laps. All the way through the rock garden cleaned it and no flat, but the tire was bulging and I had a bad feeling. Oh well push on. 1/2 a mile later the tire deflated I knew I was done :( 2.5 inch cut in the side wall I was walking. almost 3 miles back to the tent. Nick offer of his rear wheel to finish the race was tempting but after the long walk in mountain bike shoes my feet were killing me and I couldn't sell myself on it being worth it. I did learn some valuable lessons: 4 co2 cartridges, small roll of duct tape ( this would have let me ride back slowly instead of walking), no more cheap tires, and Front shocks are awesome in rocky trails. I had a great time and even though I was disappointed I didn't get to finish I did get 4 hours in on a new trail and the Rasmussen team had a great turn out for a race that was 3 hours away. Now I get to do some tire shopping.

Nice rack

is it bad I put the bike on just for the picture?

2 Days to go...

Not going out to ride is like missing an addiction but only 2 days till Bonebender and I still need to rest if I'm going to survive 6 hours of single track. Next weekend bring the ride out to TI6 I not in the race but though why not go there it's a good excuse for a couple metric gravel centuries and some camping fun. I already have half my stuff in bags and ready to go.

Not too fast, not fast enough

First time in denmans yesterday since December! Went down in the morning for a couple laps then one more before the taco ride. Took the first couple laps slow in the morning and stopped to clear some junk off the trail left the big stuff so Squirrel would have something to do later ;) Got down right before the taco ride and Squirrel had cleared the rest of the junk trees off the trail and did a much faster lap. Hit the taco ride at 5:30 and hung with the front group for most of Denmans (except the part where I washed out the front tire of bark and did a header over the bars..too fast) I soon caught back up right at the exit. Rolled though Squirrels nest then over to Hillside. I miss planted my front tire on one switch back right at the edge and slid right off the side. This finished off my Derailier hangar for the most part new part today hopefully. Still had a good time though my leg hurts a little today from the falls but not bad over all. Watch out for dry dry trails :(

this is way more difficult this year

Winter is over

Denmans :)

testing out the new Tom Andreson trail feature after a couple laps

dirty

ouch!

ouch!

ouch!

ouch!

at least I got to ride this one day last year

Summerset

Saturday I went to the first CITA trail work day at summerset. Had a good morning of work cutting a new section returning from nude beach. Chased Squirrel (can't keep up on foot either) and cleared as he cut small trees in front of me. He let me cut the last 30 yards or so I now have scrapes and cuts and thorns all over my arms. After the work we had some sandwiches (thanks Fuller) and a couple beers then hit the trail for a couple laps. My second lap was following Squirrel I was able to keep up because Terri was riding and she is the only person that brings his speed down for some reason ;) I cleared all but 3 spots on the trail fell at the top of the usual hill and got Poison Ivy and almost made the last switch back. I had one last beer with a newer rider (bad at names) and headed for Cummings Tap for some beers. I really pushed the pace and got there in just over an hour (18 miles) not to bad for a 29" mountain bike. I was very sore on sunday it could have been the laps on Banner probably not the 63 miles. Too bad the county paved all the darn roads heading out there or it would have been a dirty metric.

Good Juju ginger beer

mmmmm beer

New Toys and some Equipment Reviews

After riding the new Masi for the second couple months of this 'season' and I use the term season lightly considering a lot of use start the new cycling season January 1 not in April. I will start with the Masi touring bike. I built it myself to what I think I need for components and personal preference (free of Shimano parts) This is the first bike I've had with a hub dynamo so that has been a new experience but a good one. The SON hub and Busch & Muller light combo work very well just as bright as some of the 5oo dollar led systems out there, also cost over 5oo dollars not having to charge them is all worth it. The next part I had a little experience with is bags. It is very different riding with large bags it almost triples your wind resistance and the bike feels very different, makes it hard to jump the front end at all. Being able to carry a ton of stuff is very nice and going back to a bike that you have to strap everything to your back you miss the bags. Also new tires Marathon Extreme were worth the money and work so much better than cheap cross tires on gravel and pavement. My 36-11 top gear is a little low from time to time but worth the trade off for 24-28 in the mud. I definitely like gravel and off road better than road riding another one to the dirt-side.

Tall bike fun at the shop

I chickened out and didn't try it

vitamin G

mmmmm beer.

always thought this was cool stop to sit on the rock next to it and grab a beer

the bike trail was boring so hit 15 miles of rocks

Tour Ready

New xm 45 extreme mountain bags from Arkel :)

New xm 45 extreme mountain bags from Arkel :)

Patricks 'new' bike

:)

This will be my first Mountain Bike race for the year.

Homebrew Red.

mmmm beer

85 degrees...

party wagon

OTB (off the bike)

Looks like a couple (more) long days at work this weekend today is day 6 in a row probably will be a 12+ day with it being welfare weekend and the store is always crazy first weekend of the month. So I will be doing very little riding till Tuesday when I'm off for a day finally, my phone will be off and I will not go near work. I will however get my first gravel century in. Got to test out the new tires.

First Taco ride '10

I took the first fall on the first log on the first taco ride, it's going to be a good year. A few laps of hillside rollercoaster and the one mile section of denmans then a taco a lot of beer.... Then rode Nick to the Lean-to some more beer....then home today I'm feeling it ouch! Good times.