go ride your bike

As the world turns...

2008-01-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

At first, I thought this was a former co-worker and blogging rock-star, masiguy. Turn out it is.

2007, a year in review...

2008-01-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

I did not take my advice in 2007. I did not go ride my bike often enough. I probably got in less than 50 rides. Embarrassing. I used to be able to ride almost every day. I used to have a lunch hour that I used to the full extent. Used to have trails one mile from my office that were a hoot to ride. A hoot, that is until they fell prey to the D9 and the earth mover. That was a sad day when all access was choked off.

Luckily, there was plenty of road riding. Just wasn't the same, though. Riding the trails was fun. Trying to knock out an hour on the road felt too much like training.

Then I left the world of the hour lunch break and had all kinds of time to ride. But I ended up frittering time away working what were essentially two jobs and tried to squeeze out the occasional ride. Then I left all that and moved to, what some bicycle riding folks might describe as riding heaven. I wanted to ride more but this thing called getting a bike shop started by myself got in the way.

Well, it's 2008 and I started it off with a New Years Day with a ride and actually followed that up with a few more. I think I'm going to be getting in as many rides as I can this year and boot 2007 out the door. This is what it looked like a couple of days ago looking out from Inverness Ridge and the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. What a great day for a ride.

(What's playing: Neko Case Deep Red Bells - this sounds really good loud. Musta played it 5 times already today.)

Remember freewheels...

2007-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

This one is a Suntour 7-speed freewheel. It's threaded onto a 20 year old Specialized hub and sits in the rear of my cross bike frame that I made about 15 years ago or so. Thought the picture turned out pretty good in color, but even better in black and white, especially all contrasty. Converting to B/W and increasing the contrast while decreasing the brightness took some of the emphasis out of the blurred background and put it smack dab on the focus of the shot - the freewheel.

Tour de France, Tour de France...

2007-10-25T22:33:00.001-07:00

I've always really liked Kraftwerk's Tour de France. Being new to the Bay Area, I've been searcing out bike related info via are blogs and websites. It's pretty amazing how you can follow links and find some cool stuff like this super cool old footage of bike racers and Kraftwerk's Tour de France.

If after watching this, you don't get the jones to hit the road on your bike, tackle some dirt roads, and pull the cork on your aluminum water bottle, you need to pick up some running shoes.

Bike Dispenser?...

2007-10-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

The Dutch sure know how to get around by bike. And they know how to make it easy. Here's the latest way for the savvy commuter to get their bike for 20 hours. Bikedispenser!

Register for 10 euros. Three euros for 20 hours. And a cool storage system and dispenser to boot! Could it work in the states? I hope so.

Here's a photo of the interior of the storage locker.

Here's a shot of your bike being dispensed for your pleasure (or transportation).

And here's what it looks like when you return your bike-for-the-day. You will be assimilated.

Check out more info at, what else, bikedispenser.com

Not that it matters where I now live...

2007-10-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

The Governator signed a bill requiring intersections to have automated detectors for bicycles. Good job, Conan. I have yet to hit an intersection that has a stop light now, but in San Diego where I used to live, you hit stop lights every 1/4 mile it seemed like. I knew every stop light that could be triggered by a bike and I knew every stop light where you treated them like stop signs because a bike would never trigger it to green.

I only hope that this bill applies, not only to through traffic, but to left turn lanes as well. It sucks being stuck in a left turn lane with a red arrow and no cars in sight behind you to trip the light.

"On Monday, October 8, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 1581, which will require all new and replaced traffic signals to detect bicycle or motorcycle traffic. This bill will take effect when Caltrans adopts uniform standards, specifications, and guidelines for the detection of bicycle and motorcycle traffic. This is an important provision, as many existing traffic signals do not currently detect bicyclists, creating dangerous conditions for bicyclists trying to cross the street and abide by the law.

The California Legislative Counsel’s Digest writes: “This bill would include as an official traffic control device a traffic-actuated signal that displays one or more of its indications in response to the presence of traffic detected by mechanical, visual, electrical, or other means. Upon the first placement of a traffic-actuated signal or replacement of the loop detector of a traffic-actuated signal, the signal would have to be installed and maintained, to the extent feasible and in conformance with professional engineering practices, so as to detect lawful bicycle or motorcycle traffic on the roadway.”"

'Bout time for a mountain bike ride...

2007-10-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been on the mountain bike. I got some "Testrider" Conti Trail King 2.4 tires a few weeks ago and finally got to hit the dirt with them. Since I'm kinda new to the area, I've been slowly exploring the trails closer to home. This week, it was Barnabe Ridge Trail becuase I could do it and be back to open the shop by 11:00.

First off, those Continental tires are really slow on the pavement. They have a somewhat small, tall, sticky knob that doesn't like to go fast. However as soon as the tarmac turned to dirt, that slowness translated to traction. They stuck like glue up the Barnabe Ridge Trail. Part of the great traction was because the recent rains made for stellar trail conditions. I think any tire would have stuck like glue, but because I didn't have any other tires, I'm saying it's because of the new Conti tires.

The trail starts off with a left off of the Cross Marin Trail and shoots almost straight up. The ride description I read said the trail climbed in "terraced sections." Now "terraced" to me means it climbs, flattens out, climbs, flattens out, repeat until peak is reached. In reality, the trail climbed, flattened out once and then climbed even steeper before reaching the top. My GPS unit showed a sustained section of 20% + grade. Ouch.

But, that climbing just meant that the views would be sweet. Here's a couple of panorama shots taken on the way up and on top.

First "terrace"

At the top with great views.

Looking towards Tomales Bay with Point Reyes Station at the base of the bay.

After a quick respite up top, I headed back down towards Devil's Gulch. Another spot the new tires don't do so well is in sticky clay type soil. What was in actuality a very small blip up in elevation, felt like an arduous short climb. But it was short lived because that put me into the Devil's Gulch. Very primeval feeling. I took this shot because the greens of the moss were so vivid.

When I got back home I fiddled around with this shot in Photoshop. When I used to shoot a lot of B/W film, I used a red filter on the lens to increase contrast in certain situations. I thought I'd try to achieve a similar effect digitally by adding red to the color image, converting to B/W by removing the color, and then bumping up the contrast and decreasing brightness a bit. Turned out pretty nice, I do believe.

I was only a few minutes late opening the shop, but it was worth it. The weather is supposed to be spectacular this coming week and I've got more trails planned - and a new bike to get dirty.

That's a mile and a half climb with 1200' of elevation gain - ouch! And that little squared-off bump at the end of the chart - forgot to turn the GPS off after loading the bike back in the car.

Everything and the kitchen sink...

2007-10-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Came across this on BikeRadar.com. Charge Bikes out of the UK has some really sweet bikes. At this year's London Cycle Show, they showed up with everything, including the kitchen sink. Now this is a creative trade show booth. Very fun.

B-Double E-Double R-U-N...

2007-10-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

B-Double E-Double R-U-N, Beer Run
all we need is a ten and a five-er
car and key and a sober driver
B-Double E-Double R-U-N, Beer Run

My brother-in-law turned us on to Todd Snider recently. Listening to his live album it sounds like he mixed a bit of Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, John Prine, and Randy Newman. How can you go wrong with a combo like that?

Anyway, he's pretty darn funny and and has a great sound. Highly recommended.

a couple of frat guys from abilene
drove out all night to see Robert Earl Keen
at the K-pei swine and sworay dance-
they wore baseball caps and khaki pants-
they wanted cigarettes-so to save a little money-
they got one from this hippie who smelt kina funny
and-next thing they knew they were both pretty hungry-
and pretty thirsty tooo
B-double E-double R-U-N beer run
B-double E-double R-U-N beer ru-unn

I'm kinda thirsty now. When is it gonna be 5:00?

What's he building in there...

2007-10-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

This started off as "What's he packing in there" as a reference to those mondo huge water packs some riders choose to wear.

What's he packing in there?
There's enough food to feed a village
What's he packing in there?
It's a hundred degrees
Is that a jacket I see?
What's he packing in there?

I've been listening to a lot of Tom Waits recently. I can pretty much put him on the iPod when I open the shop and when the music stops, its time to close up.

So, with apologies to Tom Waits, the bike version of What's He Building in There

What’s he building in there?
What the hell is he building
In there?
He has subscriptions to those
Bike magazines…He never
Waves when he goes by
He’s hiding something from
The rest of us..He’s all
To himself…I think I know
Why…He stripped off his
Gears from the bike he once ignored
He has no riding buddies of his
Own you see…He has no car
And he has no friends and
His lawn is dying…and
What about all those packages
He sends. What’s he packing in them?
With that shop light
In the basement. What’s he building
In there…I’ll tell you one thing
He’s not building a tandem for
The girls he might meet
What’s he building in there?

Now what’s that sound from under the door
His dull hacksaw to cut
Something hard…and I
Swear to god I heard someone
Moaning low…and I keep
Seeing the blue light of a
TIG welder…
He has a compressor
And a truing stand…and you
Won’t believe what Mr. Dunlop saw
There’s chain lube underneath the sink
Of course…But there’s also
Enough degreaser to drown
A horse…What’s he building
In there. What the hell is he
Building in there? I heard he
Has an ex-wife in some place
Called Occidental, California
And he used to have a
Bike shop in Monrovia
But what is he building in there?
What the hell is he building in there?

He has no friends
But he gets a lot of mail
I’ll bet he spent a little
Time in jail…
I heard he was up on the
Hill last night
Signaling with an LED light
And what’s that tune he’s
Always whistling…
What’s he building in there?
What’s he building in there?

We have a right to know...

Fall is in the air...

2007-09-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Just the day before, it was 90 degrees at the house. The warm weather invited me to go for a ride. So by 8:30 the following day, I was out the door for a quick hour ride before opening the shop. Welp, that quick hour turned into 2 because it was just a great day for a ride (good thing I open at 11 on Thursdays). Although it was a bit chilly under the canopy of the redwoods, it was still a beautiful ride. I might have to start wearing gloves soon.

Go ride your bike, Mike...

2007-09-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

When I worked at a bike manufacturer (distributor?) in the San Diego area, I always thought it would be a cool thing to ride my bike to Las Vegas and the Interbike tradeshow. Thought about it, but never did it. Actually, that's not 100% true. I have ridden my bike from San Diego to Las Vegas, once, in 1989 as the first 4 days of a transcontinental bike ride a friend and I undertook.

Well, Mike Sinyard and a few others at Specialized did something more than think about it, they are doing it. Last Friday, six of them left Specialized in Morgan Hill and headed for Las Vegas via Death Valley. It sounds like a fantastic trip. I'm not a big fan of tacking on a bunch of links (or I guess they are called tags when posted in a blog???) in posts, but here is the link to follow the Innovate or Die Ride to Interbike. Pretty dang cool.

Go ride your bike, Mike.

Observations...

2007-09-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

I received in the mail today, the November/December issue of Road Bike Action (do I underline, italicize, or boldicize the name of a periodical) today and there are some interesting things I noticed.

1. Carbon fiber bikes are boooring. Yeah, they are fancy as all get out, but they are boring to look at. Is there only one person in the world deciding on colors and graphics? Do these carbon things have any soul? I don't think so. With very few exceptions, they all get popped out of the same, or darn similar, molds. They all use the same carbon fibers regardless of what mumbo jumbo marketing spiel gets spelled out. "Our frame uses a special blend of high modulus carbon fiber...." I call BS. Most of the carbon actually used isn't technically "high modulus," it's more of a medium modulus. And c'mon, who wants to drop all that coin on a bike that won't be under your ass in 20 years. Why don't more people realize the benefits steel has? Oh yeah, cuz it's hard to find a good steel bike in a shop.

2. A GT carbon road bike. Oh boy, another carbon road bike on the market. Buy ours because it's the same as the newest Specirekiant. Wake me up.

3. I think the Kona Sutra steel touring bike is friggin' hot! Now there's a bike that'll be around long after you've recycled your carbon gee-whiz roadie bike.

4. An article on the Tour de France. Lesseee, November/December issue arriving in September reporting on a race that happened in July? Who won again? Who cares.

5. BH Carbon review. Guess what? It's carbon! There's a photo showing the rear brake and the rear brake cable stop. The point where the cable goes into the rear brake is along the center-line of the top tube. The cable stop on the top tube is a couple inches in front of the brake caliper. That equates to a most horrible cable routing for the rear brake. That thing is going to feel like crapola in no time. Why can't an engineer look at that and think "we must move the cable stop forward to straighten out the cable routing."

6. Best picture in the issue - the Bell ad with Jens Voigt back on his bike with torn jersey and bloody shoulder. Jens would go.

7. There's a whole page and a half on climbing and descending. That's easy - pedal fast up the hill and faster down.

8. The article on bikes in Amsterdam was too short and the pictures too small and too few.

9. A Turbo Cat light ad - I'm really glad to see Tom still kicking out these lights.

10. Other bikes of note that caught my eye: Schwinn Madison - very cool blast from the past done in steel and painted PSB (that's the informal version of cyan according to my friend LB - not going to say what it stands for, though). It needs a silver crankset, all silver rims/hubs, though. Salsa Casseroll - Very cool do-all bike. Masi CXR - okay, it's not steel, but I have one, it's a blast to ride on my road/trail loops with my 38c tires and best of all, I designed it. There is one fault with it, though. The chainstay where it joins the dropout is a touch on the wide side. It could use a different dropout that narrows the chainstay a bit.

11. And because my list goes to 11, check out the photo of the Tour de France podium. Are all of those dudes men trapped in the body of a 12 year old? They look like little kids up there wearing their dad's shoes. At least let them wear flip flops with no socks so their shoes don't look ginormous on their glass slipper feet.

Sacrilgeous? I think not...

2007-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Some might think it sacriligeous to sacrifice a perfectly good Campagnolo dropout to serve out its life opening bottles of fermented, hoppy beverages. Me thinks not. After all, it will be used and appreciated on many more occasions in its current form.

Start off with a rough, pristine dropout.

A little filing to get a nice square edge, just like on my old Masi Gran Criterium. I filed the forward tip flat so it sits against the cap nice and square. A notch to catch the cap's edge and VIOLA!

The only opener that might best this one is possibly converting a track dropout. Hmmm, what to do with this one of two?

The only problem is I can't stop myself from fondling my new bottle opener when my keys are in my pocket.

To torque or not to torque...

2007-08-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Back when I began working as a bike mechanic, we didn't use torque wrenches. We just "knew" how tight to make something to make sure it didn't slip or move. You used certain allen wrenches for different bolts because each one, in your hand, had a certain torque limit by virtue of the leverage you could get out of them. The longish 6mm wrench was used to tighten the quill. The short 5mm secured the brake cables. A Bondhus ball driver 5mm (the one that is like a screw driver) was perfect for making sure the derailleur cables were secure.

Now days, that's not enough. You have to make sure bolts are tight so they won't slip and you have to be careful you don't crush the part you are securing. I recently began using a torque wrench because that's what all the "experts" say you have to do. I also perused various websites that have torque tables for various bicycle parts. It is interesting that different manufacturers have very different recommendations. Most are pretty close to each other, but some are very different.

The other factor that is a major PITA is the value each manufacture assigns - in-lb, ft-lb, Nm or kgf-cm. Would the manufacturers just make up their dang mind and agree on one method of measurement so I don't have to constantly look up conversion formulas.

So, I've got some fancy lightweight aluminum handlebar and stem on my bike. Initially, I tightened it with my trusty Park y-wrench and all was good. Then while bombing down a long fast hill, I start thinking that maybe I should use a torque wrench to tighten the bolts. Turns out that according to the torque wrench, my initial tightening was not tight enough. However, when I tightened the stem by hand, the bars would not move and the stem would not turn on the steerer. So I use the torque wrench and bring the bolts up to the manufacturers specifications. It seems like they are really tight now - almost too tight. But, the torque wrench is telling me they are correctly tightened.

I'm getting older and find that my low stretched out position is not as comfortable as it once was. I'm going to swap out the 0 degree rise stem for one that is 10mm shorter and has a bit of rise to it so my neck doesn't hurt so much after a ride. I pull the face plat off and discover that the bar is crushed in the shape of the stem. Looking at the stem, I think, well, that's pretty stupid to have such a small section that interfaces with the bar.

Now I have to install a new bar as well which means removing the tape...not a simple stem swap, but it also means the potential of bar failure is greatly diminished. So my new bars are carbon and the stem manufacturer calls for 5Nm - it still feels too tight. I wish the venerable Cinelli 1A was available for 1 1/8" threadless steerer tubes.

Closet weight weanie...

2007-08-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

I don't usually consider myself a weight weanie when it comes to my bikes. I don't weigh them. When someone asks how much a certain bike weighs, I can only answer, "I don't know." Usually the question asker is a bit confused. "What do you mean you don't know how much it weighs. You're a bike geek. All bike geeks know how much their bikes weigh." Well, evidently not this bike geek.

But I guess, there is a bit of the weight weanie in me after all. I mean, I'm not going to do something stupid like drill out a crank to save weight. But if I've got a wheel that has low spoke counts and the spokes are sort of paired, it seems kind of stupid to run rim tape all around the spoke bed when you only need to run the tape in short sections where the spoke holes are achieving the goal of protecting the tube - and at less weight.

I was changing out tires on a wheelset of mine yesterday and found this. However, the reason I originally did it was probably not to save weight, but to not waste good rim tape.

If you can't ride your bike...

2007-08-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

You might as well drive in absolute style. There were six of these beauties parked in front of the Station House Cafe in downtown this morning. What a way to cruise in for a little breakfast.

Very cool side window etching - and an inadvertent reflection of yours truly. Good thing I was dressed.

Who needs curb feelers when you've got green spokes.

In case you didn't recognize the cars as Fords.

Social documentary in high heels...

2007-08-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

I ran across Copenhagen Girls on Bikes a few days ago. Refreshing to see real people riding bikes without having to get all dressed up in "riding" gear. Just go with what you got. There's some really nicely composed photos.

Here's an amazing statistic pulled from that site, "35% of the population - 550,000 people - ride their bike to work or school each day." That's almost 200,000 folks riding their bikes every day to work, to school, to the store, to the park...kids and adults riding. Can you imagine that happening in the US?

This Land is Your Land...

2007-08-13T20:11:00.001-07:00

This land is my land. I've been listening to a compilation box set of music called American Roots Music. It is based on a PBS documentary highlighting the roots of various styles of American music. Super good and highly recommended. One of the standouts is a version of the Cash classic Ring of Fire sung by Mingo Saldivar in Spanish. Very unmistakable even in Spanish when he gets to the chorus.

I remember This Land is Your Land when I was in grade school. It seemed like it was in the same vein as America the Beautiful, the Pledge of Allegiance. Lines like the following sing of a happy little ditty.

"From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me"

But if you listen to Woody Guthrie sing his song, it becomes a very rebellious song of one who is saddened to see his country become commercialized and developed.

"As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tresspassin'
But on the other side, it didn't say nothin'
Now that side was made for you and me!"

Funny, I don't remember that bit of lyric from elementary school. Nor do I remember this last bit.

"In the squares of the city, In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me."

I feel I been hoodwinked in my formative elementary school days.

Now I don't know nothing 'bout no infringement stuff, so I'll just add this little bit here because big brother's watchin'. He always be watchin'.

©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.
BMI)

Dramatic differences...

2007-08-13T08:42:00.001-07:00

Last week on Bolinas Ridge, my son wanted to take this picture because he liked how the fog and trees mixed.

Yesterday, we stopped at the same spot and noticed the same two trees but the dramatically different view. Interesting, we thought.

This one's for Gordon...

2007-08-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, Gordon, here's a mountain bike ride. Steve Potts dropped me, my wife, my son, and Steve's son Brennan off at the top of the Bolinas Ridge trail where we were going to ride back to the north end and then back to Point Reyes. When he dropped us off, the fog was so thick, that huge droplets of water were raining down on us from the redwoods. It was a bit windy, wet and chilly. If the entire ride was going to be like this, we were way underdressed. But off we started off and Steve headed back to town.

That section of trail up top, I understand, is wet all year long due to the thick tree cover and almost daily moisture from the fog. So the ground needless to say is also always wet and any depression is filled with water.

So, we start riding uphill. 100 yards from the start, Brennen, and his monster 12 year old power, broke his chain. I'm a bike mechanic and knew exactly where my chain tool was - in my seat bag. In a seat bag, on another bike that was at home. I only spent a few minutes thinking I could use a 4mm allen and a rock to punch the pin out to reconnect the chain before I knew that this was impossible. Heck, we only had 12 miles to ride on a mostly down hill trail before we got to the road.

So off we go with my wife on the chainless bike and Brennan on her Salsa. I would have volunteered, but there was no one in our little group who could have even straddled my bike let alone ride it with the seat all the way down. Running up hill, coasting down, and me pushing her on the flats, we made it back to the highway where I pedaled back home to retrieve the car and pick them up to end what turned out to be a pretty fun ride. It was the first time my son had really done a full mountain bike ride on his single bike instead of being on a tandem with me and he wants to go back this weekend and do it again on his bike.

Within a short time, the fog disappeared, the sun came out, and we were treated to a beautiful sunny day.

Every ride is stellar...

2007-07-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

I am quickly becoming very spoiled. The riding here is absolutely stellar! Not only are stoplights very rare, but this area really has it all. Not only am I a few miles from the beach, but I'm also a few miles from fantastic mountain road riding. Granted, I don't have the elevation that comes with the mountains of Colorado, but the mountains are spectacular to say the least. This is the road up to Inverness Ridge from the Point Reyes side. Looks like it could be straight out of Big Bear. But it's a scant 8 miles from the beach.

This one is from the top looking south along the ridge - sun on the inland side, overcast on the ocean side.

I rode out to Limantour Beach today. I plotted it out on a really cool site called mapmyride.com. It gave me about 12 miles out to the beach (which was pretty darn accurate). What it forgot to give me was the amount of climbing on the route. I knew I'd have some climbing because I'd been up to Inverness Ridge on mountain bike rides with my friend Steve. And the climb from Point Reyes was fine - a nice steady 5%-6% or so.

So, I feel pretty good climbing. Stop and take a couple of photos. Head off down to the beach the road's pretty fun. The back side of the road is a little wet up top from the trees capturing the moisture in the air and letting it drip down. I come on this little gem of a sign and think "whoa, this is going to be fun!"

Bombing down the hill, I think to myself, "crap, this is an out-and-back and I've got to climb back up this!" Okay, don't think about it too much. This hill is probably why the cyclist I saw just before the hill turn around and head back. I know now.

Carrying on, stiff upper lip, I make it to the beach where I'm treated to a pretty much unspoiled coastline, eat a Clif Bar, take a couple photos, and head back.

It's steep going back. And steeper still going back up that 17% grade. I imaging this is what would be considered an hors categorie climb. I also start thinking I'm getting too old to keep riding on this silly 11-23 cluster. Granted, I've got a 50/34 up front, but a 34/23 is still a big gear to muscle up a 17% grade. Luckily, the approach to the wall is a short steep descent and without cars coming I take full advantage of the road's width and blast down the hill to take full advantage of my friend Moe (momentum) and ring out a 50/17 (then 19, then 21, and finally, mercifully, drop into the 34/23) as much as I can until I succumb to gravity's pull and geologic forces that put that hill in my way.

It's actually not so bad. Sure, it hurts, but the pain is temporary and soon I'm over it and over the last of the hills on the climb out and thoroughly enjoy the steady descent back down to Bear Valley Road and home.

Once again, GPS and Motion Based have helped me rationalize my lack of fitness. The elevation profile is pretty cool, though.

One month and 5 days

2007-07-19T22:41:00.001-07:00

Wow, it looks like it's been over a month since the last post. My how time flies when you don't have internet access. And ya know what, I didn't really miss it all that much. But now that I got it back, I've got a bit of catching up to do.

The nearest stoplight is 1/2 hour away...

2007-07-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

We just moved from the stucco hell that is Southern California to Point Reyes Station, CA. We've got no street lamps lighting the road where we live so at night, it's pitch black and amazingly quiet. We've got a grocery store, a gas station, a hardware store, a bakery, a bank, a surf shop and soon to be opened a bike shop. Yes, each on of those is an "a" as in singular.

What we don't have are any stoplights. The closest stoplight is 1/2 hour away by car. I recently did a road ride that was a little over 35 miles. I left my shop and had to stop at stop signs only 3 times. Not because I blew through them, but because there were only 3 stop signs! And not a single stoplight. I'm afraid that if I find myself in the big city, I won't know proper protocol for intersections guarded by stoplights.

The ride I took left Point Reyes on the Petaluma-Point Reyes Road, turned left at Hicks Valley Road, made another left onto the Marshall-Petaluma Road and then hung a left on Highway 1. I had my GPS with me so I could be told how bad I sucked on the ride and how much I was suffering on the climbs. These GPS things are pretty durn cool as you review exactly how slow you go and then export the info to Google Earth where it plots out your course.

I'd heard that the Marshall "Wall" was a pretty unforgiving climb so I went out in search of it. The Marshall Wall is found on the Marshall-Petaluma Road. I rode the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. As I was toodling down a country road passing farms, the road comes out of a narrow valley/canyon into a wider valley. There you see the road climb out of said valley. And climb it does. My GPS unit has a grade feature in one of the available screens which I stupidly chose prior to the climb.

The road almost immediately tilts up out of the valley to a tolerable 6% grade. Then it tilts even higher. I watched the grade bump up to 8% - still not horrible. Then it bounced over 10% to 12%, bumped against 14% for a moment before settling back at 10%. And then it was worth it - an amazing view of Tomales Bay spread out before me with a fast descent down the other side of the Wall onto Highway 1 and a tailwind back home.

And not a single stoplight! This is riding!

I love the 2:00 hour

2007-06-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

Actually, I really love waking up and brewing that morning pot of coffee. I pull the pot when it's not quite half finished brewing the whole pot and pour myself a cup. That first cup seems to get the whole full coffee flavor times ten. It's kind of like a big espresso as only a couple of cup's worth of water has filtered through the entire basket of fresh coffee.

But the 2:00 hour (14:00 for everyone not living in the States) is pretty good too. It's the time of day that I make myself a cup or two of coffee with our French press. The process of grinding, boiling, waiting and plunging (after a respectable 4:00 wait) is probably as enjoyable as the actual drinking of the final product. There's something about the smell of fresh ground coffee that is my aromatherapy. It's also interesting to note that the smell of fresh ground coffee smells nothing like the actual coffee tastes, unlike, say, homemade cookies.

Unlike brewed coffee, pressed coffee produces a nice foamy head - not unlike another favorite beverage of mine.

Today it's Peet's house blend, coarse ground. That Salsa mug can't wait to be filled with the brown gold.

We Gotta Get out of This Place

2007-06-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

I often wonder if there is any plan to developing open space. The seeming uncaring manner and frequency in which land that has been left alone is churned into new houses or tilt-up industrial space is astonishing in this little corner of north San Diego County.

Where I used to work, there was a system of incredible trails to ride or run or hike or look for rattlesnakes (rattlesnakes are so cool). Flightline was a whole one mile square but in that square, there was a trail system that, within the past several years, had been expanded by industrious mountain bikers wielding shovels, hammers and creativity. The original trails were created by motorcycles from the nearby Carlsbad Raceway (which sits under 50' of fill dirt now - sniff). In the past 5 years or so, the trail system was expanded to a point where, in this one square mile, one could ride for at least a couple of hours and never have to traverse the same trail twice. You'd have to cross trails because of the serpentine way the trails covered the land. This is what Flightline looked like until a year ago.

This is what it looked like today.

This view is looking north square at the center of the satellite photo which is oriented north on top. That massive wall of dirt next to the houses on the right rises 40' up obliterating any view those folks might have had. It's got to be very claustrophobic after looking out on an unspoiled view of the coastal chaparral. Depressing.

But wait, there's more! Not only was that place lost for riding, but near my house 1/4 mile away was the beginning of a trail system that climbed up to the top of Double Peak. The singletrack climb was super fun. Then you got to that one short, steep, loose, rocky section that you could clean maybe 70% of the time. From there, the climb continued on a trail that had a very technical rocky section that was super difficult to clean. Sharp rocks spaced not very evenly that required good trials skills and a bit of momentum. That once technical section now looks like this. A smoothly graded gravel path.

That little trail is called Double Peak Trail.

I think it should be called Double Peak Road.

Once you got to the ridgeline, there was a fun rough and rutted fireroad that could be bombed at pretty serious speed. It's paved now and the only thing you have to watch out for are the little piles of dog crap left by dog owners who don't care enough to pack out their dog's excrement - at least get a stick and flick it off the trail, er, road. Oh, that's right, the hillside has been denuded and there are no sticks left. (As a dog owner, I don't like it when others don't clean up after their dog.)

Believe it or not, this photo is at the top of the ridge. The entire south face has been obliterated, graded and delineated. The stand of trees at the top of the peak is the 1644' Double Peak. Think about 1600 vertical feet of mountain side wiped clean as if the developer shook a giant Etch-A-Sketch. Looks about as cool as if I tried to draw the Mona Lisa with an Etch-A-Sketch too.

Eric Burdon was way ahead of his time with this gem.
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you

Believe me baby, I know it baby
You know it too

Three inches...

2007-06-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Three inches. That's the difference in diameter between a 26" mountain bike wheel and a 29" mountain bike wheel. One and a half inches of radius difference. Actually, that's not perfectly correct. I just measured my 26 x 2.1 wheel at 26.5" and my 29 x 2.2.1 wheel at 29" making the difference between the two at 2.5". But what's a half inch between friends.

The arguments in favor of either wheel size amuse me greatly. For about 20 years I rode mountain bikes with 26" wheels and I enjoyed them. When I was shown one of the first 29" wheel mountain bikes at Interbike years ago, I was very intrigued. At 6'3" tall, the big wheels could be built into a frame that would or should be ideal for my size. So I designed a frame and had a couple samples made.

That first frame was a full suspension bike and it rode pretty good. Where I really noticed how well it rode was uphill. I was able to clean steep, traction limited sections with much less effort than I did on my 26" wheel bike with the same suspension system. But I wasn't totally sold yet. I really wanted to ride a rigid single speed with the big wheels after a very unscientific test at the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo race.

At this race, I brought both my 29" suspension bike and my 26" wheel single speed to compare lap times. The race course should have been better suited to a geared 29" wheel bike because the many wide open sections were perfect for big ring, big wheel hammering. Surprise! My lap times on my 26" wheel single speed were faster. This furthered my need to get a 29er single speed frame built to do a better side-by-side comparison.

[Tangent time: Why is it a mountain bike is always 26" wheels but a mountain bike with 29" wheels is a 29er and not simply also a mountain bike?
Friend 1: "What did you do yesterday?"
Friend 2: "I went for a mountain bike ride. What did you do?"
Friend 1: "I went for a ride on my 29er."
Friend 1 could have simply said he too went for a mountain bike ride.
Back to your regular scheduled programming.]

So now, I have a single speed fully rigid and a geared front suspended 29er. I also have several very nice 26" wheel mountain bikes. I ride them all. And I enjoy how each one rides - even the mountain bikes that are 20+ years old. So I'm not ready to ditch the smaller wheeled bikes.

I was lucky enough that I was able to design my 29" wheel frames so that it is essentially custom made for me and therefore should tilt the scales of preference heavily in their favor. This would be true if my 26" wheel mountain bikes were horribly designed. But they aren't. My two favorite riding 26" wheel bikes were designed by some guys who pretty much know their way around a bike better than almost anyone. Steve Potts, Mark Slate and Charlie Cunningham and the bike is a Wilderness Trail Bikes Phoenix. One of them is a steel frame with a rigid fork and the other is a titanium version with a front suspension fork.

Riding any of these bikes back-to-back does not yield any earth shattering revelation about wheel size. Yes, there is no doubt that the bigger wheels have a bigger contact patch and therefore can climb rough, loose sections with a bit more ease and they do roll through rough sections smoothly. And yes, the 26" wheel bikes do accelerate faster. But overall, I've got to say that these 26" wheel bikes perform on par with the 29" wheel bikes and vice versa.

What I find is that the 29er is really just another option in a wide variety of mountain bikes one can purchase these days. An option like a DH bike is an option. An option like an XC hardtail is an option. An option like an all-mountain bike is an option. An option like some people like country and some people like rock-and-roll.

So, what's all this rambling mean? What it means is that if your bike, 26 or 29, is designed properly, there shouldn't be any detrimental aspects to the ride of it. And as long as you have fun riding it, who really should care what you ride.

All that and the kitchen sink...

2007-06-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

I rode with some friends a while back. It was only going to be a 2 hour ride max. We would only be 1/2 hour max by foot away from any form of civilization. I had a water bottle, maybe two, on my bike. A small multi-tool, patch kit and maybe a spare tube were in my jersey pockets. I probably had a Clif Bar in there too - I get hungry after an hour or so.

The other guys had backpacks with massive reserves of water, different lenses for their glasses (in case the clouds rolled in, I guess), chain lube (I keep mine in my garage where I lube my chain prior to riding) and I think one guy had a light and battery (kind of strange for mid-morning).

As we were getting ready, one of them asks if I'm ready. "Yep." He asked me where my pump was. "In there," I replied pointing to his backpack.

Well, on second thought, I guess those backpacky things do have a pretty useful purpose.

Sometimes spare time is good...

2007-05-31T13:27:00.001-07:00

With some spare time, I've been perusing the internet. Specifically, I've been subscribing to and listening to podcasts from public radio stations. Fresh Air, All Songs Considered, A Way With Words, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, Morning Becomes Eclectic are my main listening pleasures.

Up until this morning, I was content to simply listen to the subscribed podcasts. This morning, I thought I'd check out each show's website. They gotta have a website, right? The first one I checked out was All Song's Considered. "Hey, look, they have concerts that can be downloaded in mp3 form!" A lot of concerts, actually. So I download some, sync the iPod, wait until the vacuum tubes in my hi-fi warm up and fire up Neko Case's concert from the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. because it was first in the list.

Now, I'd heard a song or two from Neko Case in passing, but holy crap! She can sing! The concert was flippin' phenomenal! I'm on the second go-round of the hour and a half concert. Just can't get enough of it. Her voice is so clear and easily listened to. She obviously is having a great time performing and the audience is very appreciative as well. The band behind her is rocking a great alt-country beat.

Alt-country? Damn label on every form of music. Her band behind her is just rockin'! The first time I heard someone mention her I thought he was referring to Nico of The Velvet Underground. No way. This Neko's got it all over Nico. Now I have to run out to the record shop and pick up a couple of he records.

Also on the bill at that concert was Martha Wainwright - who has a pretty damn good voice and pedigree herself.

Listen!

Main page photo

2007-05-26T15:04:00.001-07:00

That there photo up top was taken by a friend with my camera on a trip to Crested Butte in 1987 (I think - I have such a hard time remembering years). I like how he composed the shot with Mt. Crested Butte and Meridian Lake included. The sky looks like it could storm any minute. I think it was on this trip that we ended up on one ride with snow flurries. This was back when the Fat Tire Bike Week was held in September. In the mountains, any type of weather can be expected.

A bunch of us from Southern California met at St. Patrick's church (at the time, it was renovated to sleep 20 or 30 folks). Most took the train to Grand Junction and then caravaned in a big rented van. I flew in to Gunnison with my bike and my gear loaded into some panniers. My plan was to ride up to Crested Butte about 30 miles away. However, the airlines had other plans. My bike didn't arrive until the flight after mine. By then, daylight was fading and luckily on that flight with my bike were a couple of folks who were driving to Crested Butte and I was able to hitch a ride with them.

A weeks worth of riding later, with everyone gone, I had one day to myself which I used to go for an almost all day ride solo. My plan was to go up Cement Creek and take a trail I had not previously ridden. While maps are great, intimate knowledge of the trail system is best. I got lost and a bit freaked out, but managed to backtrack to the correct trail and got myself back after an all-day epic. Here's a photo I took of my bike mid-ride.

It's interesting. I did this all with a bike that carried only two water bottles. I had a nice Mountainsmith fanny pack that carried my lunch, jacket and maybe a third water bottle. I had a spare tube, patch kit, a couple of allen keys and a 10mm open end wrench in a bag under my seat. Nowadays, riders carry these monster backpacks with 100 oz. water bladders and enough junk inside to make a Sherpa cringe. Why?

This last photo is one I took on my way back to Gunnison. I had loaded up my gear in my panniers and delicately balancing my 35mm SLR in my right hand took this as I rode down Highway 135.

Beer & Coffee go together like Laurel and Harlow?

2007-05-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

I like the composition of this photo. A growler full of Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale and an old Salsa coffee mug in the background. Breakfast and lunch...

...and no Stan Laurel and Jean Harlow don't really go together. They were just the first things that popped into my mind trying to think about opposites that are good in their own right.

Peabody and the Wayback Machine

2007-05-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Part of the impetus for this was as an alternative to a website where I could post old photos. May still do it as I start scanning my old slides. I scanned a few photos I took of the La Jolla Criterium many years ago on my trusty Canon AE-1 with b/w film that I developed and printed in a local darkroom. I'm not even going to try to guess at the date, but looking at the helmets and pedals and shifters, a pretty good date could probably be nailed down if you take the time to cross-reference. I'm not going to take the time, because it doesn't really matter to me when it was taken. I just like the photos.

I like this shot of the men's race. I think the leader of the pack is Jeff Pierce of the 7-11 team. He's being hung out and looks a bit beat. The guy off to the left with the non-aero brake levers is on what looks to be a sweet De Rosa and wearing an Alfa-Romeo jersey. I often wonder if he is looking to make a break to his right or is just clearing his nose.

These two shots of Inga Thompson and Marianne Berglund are some of my favorite racing shots - not that I have a lot. I recall Marianne sitting on Inga's wheel pretty much the whole race. I don't recall who won. Inga definitely has that polished "pro look" - nice (fitting) skinsuit, properly fitted helmet, perfectly maintained race bike, clean white socks. Inga also was famous for having a long blonde braid. You can just make it out just above her left hip. On the other hand, Marianne, while being the girl guy racers dreamed about, looks a bit rag-tag - ill-fitting helmet with no cover, a jersey that looks like she borrowed it from her boyfriend and no socks. I really like the timing of catching Inga reaching down to shift. Remember when shifters were on the downtube? The girl on the back of those two looks like she is in a world of hurt trying to keep Marianne's wheel. Inga and Marianne later shelled her and it then became a race for 3rd.