2010 in Biking Review - less gears, more beers

How did 2010 fly by so quickly?  The older I get the quicker the time motors by and the more and more I realize I am no longer a spring chicken!  Harsh reality, but it is what it is.

2010 was a good year for us.  I hit the big 4-OHHH and insisted on believing I did not feel that old until the little nagging injuries woke me back up to reality when they just would not go away as quickly as in yesteryear....weaaahhhh

With the danger of getting too verbose in this entry, I am going to just look back on the 2 wheeled exploits for the year....

The main cycling objective was to enter the Cascade Cream Puff and do it on the singlespeed.  I somehow survived the 100 miles of dirt, the sweltering heat (in the 90's), the 17,000 + of elevation gain, the pain of singlespeeding, & the agony of riding a rigid bike with no suspension for 13+ hrs...but I finished!

The other 'events' of note were the Pierre's Hole and the 8 hrs of Boise.  All events were on the singlespeed and it gave me a whole new perspective of the big boys who are able to hammer their single geared bikes at almost the same pace as the gearies.

Towards the end of the year, I moved to the geared bike because my knee started to act up a little.  When I finally got back on the singlespeed later in the year again, I fell in love all over again - the simplicity, the beauty, the pain, the attitude...all GOOD!  less gears, more beers...

I was fortunate enough to also squeeze in some great training rides and some awesome recreation rides.  The two rides that come to mind are the Curly Lake ride in the Tobacco Roots and the Lionshead/W Yellowstone area rides.  Both were super enjoyable, unbelievably scenic high alpine rides.

The wifer also achieved her main athletic goal of the year which was to train and finish her first 1/2 iron man triathlon.  She survived the crazy headwinds on the bike and gutted it out to finish.  She also managed to include a X Terra tri and had a lot more fun doing that race than the ones she had survived prior.  She enjoyed so much she is talking about signing up for a few next year.

I am not sure what 2011 holds in store from a biking perpective but it will probably involve some form of suffering, training, and then forgetting just enough about the pain to look forward to the next event.

e-stim the Pinot way

I have slowly been forcing myself onto the indoor trainer 2 of every 3 days to try and maintain some fitness through the winter.  It is always a battle of wills and at times the bike wins, and at times laziness wins.  I have been trying to tweak my seat position slightly to see if I can find a state of mutual understanding between my right knee and the pedal.  My knee has been a little sore since last summer and I was hoping a little time off the bike was going to help calm it down.
The knee is been just slightly grumpy (but not enough to stop riding).  The indoor bike trainer and I have an agreement where I try to make sure it is kept happy by giving it company occasionally, and in return it makes sure I don't get too out of shape.

My last two trainer rides have been a little bit of an eye opener.  My heart rate has been getting a little higher than normal which must mean one of three things.
a) I rode a lot of last year 'tired' and over-trained and subsequently could not get the legs to fire up enough to crank up the heart rate.  or
b) I am slightly out of shape and am working harder (relative to heart rate) in the offseason. or
c) a little bit of both

After my indoor sesh, I fired up the e-stim unit and cranked away for about 45 mins of firing electricity through the quads.  A big chunk of the time was on the active recovery cycle on the unit but some of it was on what they call an 'endurance' setting where the muscles hurt as much as they would with traditional exercising.

It is pretty damn sweet to be able to drink a glass of Pinot while 'working out'

Lazily Confused

That phrase just seems to be stuck in my head this morning.  Those two simple words are so descriptive and they almost describe a state of acceptance of apathy...or maybe they just resonate with me because we all use the being confused as a cop-out at times.  Sometimes all it takes is a little motivation to figure out the unknown, but that little effort can be just enough to deter us.  As I type this there must be a reason for those two words being etched in my mind this morning?  The problem is I can't figure it out (or just maybe I am lazily confused) -and round and round we go.

It has been a relatively calm week.  We made it up to Discovery on Sunday to get a little snowboarding and tele action in.  The wifer has decided to punish herself by picking up telemark skiing.  I could make fun of her for this but this is coming from the mouth of a single speed biker so there is no margin for smacking my gums about her choice of ski style!  The mountain was in OK shape for this time of year.  They definitely need more snow to get better coverage but it was still good to get out and play a little.  We did a quickie 1/2 day.  We got up there a little late and wanted a relatively easy day given the ankle and my bruised tailbone.  Bruised tailbone + snowboarding can make for an ugly combo.  At the end of the day no further insult was added to the small collection of injuries (ankle, tailbone, and slightly grumpy knee) so I consider it a success.

The indoor trainer has been the bike of choice lately - mostly due to the weather (or maybe I am just lazily confused about where to ride right now?).  I have managed to get on the trainer a couple of times and have also fired up the stim unit.  Unfortunately the support guys for the stim unit are out until next week so my lazily confused state regarding the stim unit will have to remain that way until I can call support up and harass them with my gluttony of questions.

Until then the legs will just have to deal with more indoor trainer time and the occasional bombardment of electricity shocking them to wake up.

Holy SCHNIKE's

Wingsuit Basejumping - The Need 4 Speed: The Art of Flight from Phoenix Fly on Vimeo.

Fat Man treated us well

Thanks Santa - things were good in the Reis household and we appreciate you swinging by and dropping off the goods.  The missus got me a Globus Premium Fitness E-Stim unit which I had been eye-balling as a curiosity for the past year or so.  I was reluctant to spend money on a unit without fully understanding the benefits.

The wifer pulled the trigger and I look forward to finding out about how it can benefit training.  It seems like the biggest bennie is as a compliment to existing workouts as either an active recovery where the muscles are stimulated just enough to pump blood into them and flush out some of the gunk out (which would speed up recovery), or to hook it up and fire up the muscle group so more fibers are engaged than what you would usually engage via normal activity.

Unfortunately there is not a ton of information out there so it will be a learn and build as I go.  I had to see what it felt like though so I hooked up the sensors to engage the quads.  The first order of business was to shave the hair off the spots where the sensors would go...result: hairy legs with a few patches of skin.  I hooked up the sensors and felt a little bit like a science experiment.  There was a moment of anxiousness before turning it on as I wondered just what would happen and if it would take on a mind of its own and start shocking me without me being able to control it.  I probably should have figured out the off switch before firing it up, but nah....As it turns out, the stimulus starts out very very low and you adjust according to what levels you want to spasm your muscles with.  I slowly cranked up the stim unit until my legs were no longer twitching at their choice, but rather controlled by this unit.  It was bizarre at first.  Once I got used to it, up up up went the stim action...to the point where the contractions were powerful enough that it made my legs extend and straighten out.  After a re-adjustment so that I put my knees in a bent position and did not allow my legs to straighten, I realized that the muscles were actually getting fatigued!  It was as if lactic acid was building up just like a hard effort on the bike, or squatting, etc...it felt weird to feel the muscle burn from something that was not a true athletic endeavour.

I have barely scratched the surface on any of this and look forward to doing additional research and experimenting to see just how to incorporate it into training - although the 'training' has been put on the back burner as of late...speaking of, time to go sit on the trainer for a bit.

Happy Stimming....

Surprise...NOT

Santa has a busy couple of days ahead of him....and in case you are wondering, there is a Santa Tracker and NORAD is kind enough to share his whereabouts:
Tracking Fat Man in a Red Suit

As I write this, he appears to be somewhere in Russia dropping off gifts along his way.

As for the Reis household, the element of surprise was removed this past week for me.  The missus put a lot of thought into trying to get me something that would surprise me...but alas, there appear to be few surprises around here.  The sneaky cat somehow got out of the wet paper bag this past week when someone from the company 'X', that she bought the product from called the house and left a v-mail on our landline asking if she had any questions about her recent purchase of product 'X'...DOH.

I am somewhat confident that the wifer has not yet figured out her main gift yet...the element of surprise is hopefully still intact (unless of course she decided to lift the blankie in the downstairs bedroom and peak-a-boo).

Early Bird Gets The Worm

or in this case the early bird wakes up, goes to work out and wakes her husband up (who can't get back to sleep).  Between the missus getting up early and the dogs licking themselves this morning, it was an early rise day.  That is not always a bad thing considering early starts can lead to good productive days.  I am going with that for the day and thinking it will be good to check things off the to-do list.

After feeding the pups this morning, I looked out, saw a full moon and realized I missed the lunar eclipse last night.  It was on my mental notepad to check out but apparently the glue on the back of the sticky note must have lost its stickiness and floated away with the arctic breeze.

The ankle is starting to feel better and I am hoping it will be formidable enough to handle some light spinning with a day or so.  Until then I am going to be doing my biggest winner impression (just think of the opposite of the show 'the biggest loser') by sitting around, eating, and gaining some winter weight to keep me warm.

As it turns out, we are going to be local for the holidays and we are very content with that.  The last month has been really crazy and we will be more than happy to kick our feet up and have a more chill finish to the end of the year.  The wifer's gifts are wrapped and now we just have to see if her curiosity gets the better of her and she scopes out her unwrapped gifts before Santa's official visit.

Busy Week Unfolding

I am finally back home and it feels good to be back with the family and get back into a routine.  This week is going to be a busy one though - Work is going to be full of last minute administrative deadlines that will sneak out of nowhere and need to be completed ASAP before the fiscal year end finishes.  Suffice it to say that regular work will provide plenty of surprises and other pending projects are also going to kick off this week.  Those projects also include meeting with college department chair for Computer Science to see if there is a good fit to teach a class up there.  It depends a lot on the content of the classes, class size, etc...Since it would potentially be the first time going through all this for me, it would be a little overwhelming to have a huge class size, etc.  Wonder if I need to buy a tweed jacket?  or a cord jacket?  It reminds of me the classic Animal House (so many great scenes!!)....



I will also be meeting with the clinic in town today (the one where the missus works) to see how I can help with their Electronics Medical Records implementation that they are about to kick off.  It will be really interesting and am looking forward to see the process soup to nuts to see what the big challenges are for rolling something like this out.

As for Santa Claus...the shopping is mostly done at this point and the last step is going to be wrapping.

play hard...fall hard

The danger about playing hard is when you crash and burn, you do it in grand style.  Like most sports, the faster you go, the more in control you are (until you cross that line) - once that line is crossed then all bets are off and yard sales await.

Last night I went out with friends and did a little ice skating with their boy.  Bear in mind I have not laced up skates in decades so it was bound to be an interesting night.  I bit the ice a couple of times and I wish it was done in grand style at high speed but it was puttering on the ice and falling like a cartoon with arms waving in the air while my budonkadonk met the ice with a thud!  The worst part about  hitting the ice at slow speed is that it is always awkward and it always hurts.  As it turns out, the ice is hard...hmmmm

The first couple of laps were an adventure until I got my bearings and was able to get my balance a little.  I started to skate a little faster realizing it helped in keeping me upright...until of course I came up on people and had to try and navigate my way around them around a turn.  I over-estimated my new found skills and was able to save a few yard sales until of course the budonkadonk thudaroo.  All in all it was a great night and I have no delusions of being a good skater...or even an adequate skater.

Old Friends

There is nothing like hanging out with old friends and last night I was fortunate enough to do just that.  There is something so easy and comforting about enjoying the company of friends that have known you (and you them) for many years.  As I read somewhere recently, "it is not about the accomplishments you have achieved in your life, but it is about the relationships you have developed."

It really got me thinking about the clarity of that statement and how we easily get caught up in chasing accomplishments.  For some reason that statement resonated with me and has been swirling around in my head the last couple of days.  Those simple one liner statements are great because they are ummm well simple but yet we have a tendency to over-complicate and then soon enough we are off on a tangent chasing our tails in circles because we have lost sight of the forest for the trees.

and another keeper:
"Life is not a dress rehearsal" - We get one chance through all this craziness so we should make it count - no need to weight ourselves down with toxic people, etc...

OK OK, enough of the deep thoughts....for the time being, it is off to go chase some work accomplishments.....

On a Roll

And I don't mean dinner or tootsie rolllllllll....It has been a good past couple of weeks with some great productivity and prepping for 2011.    I am looking forward to getting back home and settling back into our usual rhythm with the dogs being silly and me having my creature comforts!

I was approached yesterday for a possible adjunct instructor opportunity with the local college.  The opportunity sounds like it could be a lot of fun but unfortunately my schedule has no wiggle room at all for another gig.  It is always interesting to me how things can unfold - seemingly meaningless encounters and meetings with people that are actually planting seeds for future germination.

The holiday season is getting closer and closer and it seems to be like things get more and more hectic (even if you don't let yourself get caught up in the hype).

in tribute to tootsie roll and don't believe the hype....here it is:

Lynskey Progress, Pugsleys and Mukluks

How did Tuesday sneak up so quickly?  Yesterday was a barn burner of a day and it somehow passed really fast.  It probably has something to do with being uber busy.  The upside though is that it was a day full of accomplishments and possibilities so I will take that.

The Lynskey frame has been sitting in the basement for the past month and although there is no rush to get the bike built yet, it still looks a little lonely sitting all by its lonesome down there.  The build is coming together in terms of parts.  I have been working with Great Divide in Helena to put it all together and help in determining parts.  As of right now, my preference is to go with a Niner fork in moondust (which should match the Titanium frame) and as for bottom bracket/crankset, the current preferred choice is the Truvative Stylo.  The fork is a fully rigid carbon fork and weighs in at 565 grams!

Since there is no rush at all on the bike build (after all, it is winter and we do live in Montana), the mind has wondered off to other options.  One of those daydreams took me to what the options are like for real winter riding.  There are two snow/sand specific bikes that have huge 4 1/2 inch wide tires.  The Surly Pugsley and the Salsa Mukluk are not the lightest bikes in the world, then again they are not supposed to be....They look like the Hummer tanks of bikes.  They just look like they would be a ton of fun!  Both bikes are apparently made by the same crew out of Minnesota.  It would be really fun to try and ride one sometime just to see how they handle in the white stuff or deep sand.

Backcountry day-dreaming

Monday is here and it is back to the work grind.  It should theoretically be a slower week considering people are either out of the office or more or less checked out for the holiday season.  There is still some work to get through this week from a planning perspective as we head into 2011 but I am hoping for a chill week as we progress through the holiday season.

All this work lately has made me yearn for the backcountry...until there is enough snow and enough time the memories of past trips will just have to suffice.  I am hoping that the splitboard will be the weapon of choice this year but that all depends on our snow and how it packs because last year was an avie nightmare!

Don't Call it a Comeback, I've Been Here For Years

Thanks LL....It has been several days since any posting on the blog and life has been speeding by for the past week.  Combine that lack of time with the lack of content and voila that equals blog neglect.

Too much work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy and in this case it rings true - no one wants to hear about how busy work has been or how life has you chasing your tail so I will refrain from trying to even blog about that and make it interesting...NEXT

I have been able to get to the climbing gym and even made it there on Tues and Thurs this past week.  It felt good to pull on plastic but it was very humbling to realize much of the go go juice was missing.  I was able to sneak a couple of good sends in there.  The funny part is that my hardest sends were my on-sights early on in the bouldering sesh's.  So as soon as my go go juice (which admittedly there was not much to start with) was gone, it was all was about trying to pick problems that looked interested and would help build some endurance.  It is difficult to build power endurance when you have neither!  So my theory is you have to be able to build some endurance before you start to push the power (the tendons appreciate the lower stress in the beginning too).

It was really good to have a gym to go to but it makes me realize how much I miss going in somewhat regularly to a place where you can grunt and groan your way up plastic.  During the grunting and groaning, I must have rolled an ankle on the gym mats because it has been killing me for the past few days since my last climbing session...load up on Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and onwards we march.

no pix, no glory...just good old fashioned blah blah blah today....and now time to try and squeeze in a little fun before the work starts back up.

Cee-Lo

Not sure why but Cee-Lo tunes have been stuck in my mind the last day...so no pomp, no circumstance, gimme some FUNK brother man - he is just a straight up balla':



and some older school Cee-Lo, awesome tune!



and with Asher Roth???

Climbing Gym

The highlight of the day yesterday was hitting the climbing gym.  It was great to put on the tight shoes, hobble around and get spanked by plastic.

The only thing saving me from getting worked like a six yr old chinese laborer in a textile factory, was my technique...it saved me a little considering all the lack of climbing power and endurance!  Apparently not climbing regularly for a few years does not exactly help to maintain any semblance of what used to be quick ticks on problems.  Instead it was more about just getting on problems and climbing.

Hopefully the power will come back fast, but it would required a regular regimen and living in Montana does not allow a guy to get outside and climb regularly...so my ego will just have to be humbled each time I get on stone or plastic.  The interesting thing was that my power and endurance felt fine at the beginning (considering the time off), but there was a definite line of where my power stopped (or lack of power).  I could on-sight v3's all day long but as soon as I stepped into v4 realm, I lost the go-go juice to finish the problems and then could not really touch v5's.  It might have had a little something to do with not projecting problems either.  I was just trying to get volume to get the forearms worked and allow the tendons to ease into it...but still the ego wanted more - not to be for now.

Programus Interuptus

something about best laid plans...of mice and men...It turns out that being on the road is not super conducive to keeping a blog updated.  Go figure!  Being on the road also has a tendency to interrupt any regular sort of physical activity (unless of course the reason for the road is pleasure).

At this point, the body is healing (that is what I keep telling myself) and all those little nagging pains are getting a chance to recover.  It makes me feel better to think this but there is always that guilt associated with the body being idle.  However I do plan on changing that all up today.  The plans include hitting a local gym and maybe even getting in a climbing session at a climbing gym.  It could all get derailed based on time constraints, but yet again we will go with the intention for now.

This 'slow' time of year from a bike recreation perspective is a good time of year to start coming up with events for the upcoming year.  Everything is still in its infancy stages in terms of ideas but everything must have a genesis...for now the ideas rolling around in my head include the High Cascades hundie, maybe the Puff again,  maybe a 24 hr race or two (although I am sort of 'over' the 24 hour races - but never say never).  Looking at the list, it looks pretty meager so time to hit the research mode and see what else is out there - need some motivation to scare me into training through these short, cold days of old man winter.

It is crazy to think it is December already!  Although retailers will not let us forget that as the bombardment of advertisements are coming fast and furious.  It is amazing to me that some businesses really depend on this time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make or break their year.  What might be even more amazing is that we as consumers enable this to happen by buying, buying, buying, and buying.

It reminds me of that bumper sticker 'I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go'

Back to Regular Scheduled Programming

The big glutton fest that is Thanksgiving is behind us and it is time to get back to the grind and all the usual stuff like work, errands, etc.  I have to admit that I might have taken the easy week (exercise wise) a little too easy as I made it onto the indoor trainer all of two times last week.

Sometimes a break is good not only for the body, but for the mind too - all those nagging little aches and pains have a chance to heal a little - until the next round.

Today is cyber Monday and perhaps there are people scouring the internet for deals - not this kid...Fortunately the wifer's holiday list is fairly concrete in my mind and there is no rush one way or another to have to jump on a sale because the media says I should - so there!

not much to report...more to come later - perhaps a stroke of genius will strike, until then...hmmm, that might be a while...until then, it will be time to think of unfinished business:

Facebook Obit

Belated Happy Turkey Day to all.  It was pretty uneventful on this end which perhaps is not such a bad thing at all.  It has been a pretty mellow week ride schedule wise (recovery week) so the rides have been somewhat short and easy.  I will probably do another light spin today but will maintain the easy week concept.

This week should help in letting the legs recover and get some snap back - although it is difficult to ascertain that on a spin bike.

On another note, I decided to cancel my profile on Facebook.  I had been thinking about it for a while and can't help but think that it might at some point be used to gather yet additional data on us.  It might just be a paranoia but Big Brother (which has now extended to Big Business) is constantly watching and vigilant and they don't need to know everything about us.  

Another reason I killed the FB thing is because I can't help but think that despite technology 'connecting' us to each other, it is actually having the reverse impact of making us less connected to us (unless of course you are one of those people that don't have a filter and post everything on Facebook - which no one really wants to read).  It is easier to drop someone a 1 line update as opposed to picking up the phone or sending them an email (partial beef with that too...when was the last time you got a real letter snail mail route from someone?).  In a way it has turned us more 'impersonal' and it can't be a good thing in the long term for society.  It also has a way of making people more 'self-absorbed' as in the look at me and what I am doing scenario.   Generally at surface level, it is all good but there is a subversive tone it has having which seems to create more separation between us all.  It also has a way of connecting you to people you might not really want to be connected to - not enough degrees of separation!   I have not yet had any withdrawal symptoms from FB and it feels pretty liberating.  Bear in mind I was not a frequent poster but none the less it is one less thing to think about...and who knows maybe at some point it might make sense to rejoin the FB tribe but for now it feels awesome to be disconnected from the connection hub.

Winter Playground Options Around Butte

As per the reports, we hit a minus 22 last night and all I know is it is COLD.  I did some shoveling of snow yesterday and fortunately it was relatively easy to shovel because it did not have much moisture (probably because it was so cold).  Unfortunately, when it comes to shoveling, we have a corner lot...so  not only is the more shovel action, but it is amplified by the slabbed concrete parking area in front of the garage.  This is usually the biggest time consumer of shoveling.  The parking area is about 40 ft wide by about 20 ft deep.

It is a little too cold to go out and play right now but when it warms up above zero there will be some options to explore and leverage.

Our local resort is Discovery.  It is a great local mountain because it has great terrain and the best part is it is very seldomly busy.  I have never had to wait in line for a chair!  It is about 45 minutes away from Butte and the prices are very very reasonable relative to what we saw in Colorado.  Suffice it to say that for the price of skiing two days in Colorado, you can get a full season pass at Discovery!

There is more resort action relatively close by (over an hour drive wise) .  A little further way towards Bozeman, we have Big Sky & the Bridger Bowl.  Both those options are over an hour away but add to the palette of choices.  Big Sky is much larger and on par price wise with many of the Colorado resorts.  Bridger is more local and has good side country access for those who want to explore the 'out of bound' options.

The golden nugget of local backcountry is the Tobacco Roots.  They have put in a yurt the last couple of seasons in the Bell Lake area and we have yet to explore this area.  It is about a 6 mile approach to the yurt and it looks like it has killer access to a good variety of slopes.  The Bell Lake Yurt is only about an hour away (not including the skin/approach to the yurt).  I look forward to taking the splitboard up there and checking it all out.
Depending on conditions, there are also some backcountry options around the Highlands (roughly 10-15 minutes south of Butte).

There are also some options for cross country and skate skiing.  The closest is Homestake Lodge that is about 20 minutes away.  Mt Haggin is about 45 minutes away and provides additional terrain.  There are some other lesser known areas that depend largely on snow and how frequently or infrequently areas are groomed.

There are a couple of places for kite-boarders but I don't have any beta considering it is a sport I have not yet picked up (somewhat reluctant considering the potential for big falls!).

the 'B' Word

Old Man Winter is grumpy right about now!  Our temps are supposed to drop into minus 20's for lows over the next couple of days.  They are also throwing around the 'B'lizzard word in the weather forecasts the last 24 hours.  This probably means we won't see anything but it is enough to cause some commotion and mess up traffic for the Thanksgiving travelers.  If nothing else, it definitely means that riding of the two wheel kind is out of the question given the weather (and the fact I don't have a functioning mountain bike).

As one door closes, the next one opens and the one that appears to be slightly ajar at the moment is the snow sports...It is time to dig out the snowboards and start thinking of the possibilities.  Our local mountain (Discovery) saw somewhat of a lame season last year.  We had cold temps, but no precip.  They (not sure who comprises this collective 'they') say it should be a good year for snow because it is an El Nina year which means it is wetter than usual.  I am hoping for better conditions this year (heck, if it is cold, it might as well snow so we can play).

We do have some options for playing locally...we have backcountry access, resort access, and even cross country/skate ski access.  More on that tomorrow, but for now it is time to get the stoke on:

Stubborn Blur Bushings

As I worked on the old Blur frame yesterday, I started to come to the conclusion that it might be beyond repair...not such a bad thing considering it has lasted a good 10 yrs at this point.  My original plan was to build up the Lynskey and then band aid my Blur until some point later in time.

The reason it might be beyond repair is that the bushings seemed to be stubborn and unwilling to come out:

In the above picture, you can see the bearings, and in the middle, you can see the bushings that are not playing nice.  I tried the recommended approach of threading the bolt partially and then tapping out the bushing, but all that did was start to mess up the threads.  I tried using a socket to fit into the inside of the bushing to hammer it out...no go...The alternative is to really put a little UMMFF into the hammering but then I might compromise the integrity of the frame by hammering sideways on the bushings/bearings.

It might just be time to salvage what I can for parts and move on - say it ain't so!

I realized that I am currently in the precarious situation of not having a mountain bike to ride...the old singlespeed is being parted for the new....the Lynskey is not yet built...and the Blur is a goner.  The quiver/stable took a big hit this week!  Ouchie MaMa!

Parts is parts...

We went up to Great Divide Cyclery in Helena yesterday to start building out the Lynskey.  I am going to use the hubs from my old singlespeed and have a new wheelset built for the 29'r Lynskey.  The wheelset will be made up of the Stan's Crest rims with black spokes and a little nipple bling.  I opted for red nipples on the wheelset, as well as a red headset from Chris King.  There are still several unknowns at this point - namely fork and BB/crankset.  Considering out current weather, there is no rush:

We got about 3-4 inches of snow over the last 24 hours and it looks like the arctic freeze is heading our way.  They are forecasting low temps of  minus 20F in the next few days.  We are supposed to warm up to a high of 19F today so hopefully it is warm enough to get out and play a little.

In the interim, there is plenty of bike maintenance to be done.  I started to tear apart my Blur yesterday (in order to fix the broken upper link assembly).  The parts are here and now it is just a matter of completed dismantling everything in order to remove all the bearings and links.  Below is a picture of the old and the new assembly link:

In order to get to all the bearings, it has been a little bit of a puzzle.  First, everything has to come off....I was hoping to be able to remove the lower link assembly and bearings without having to remove the crankset and bottom bracket but no dice...It is just cold enough that once I got to this point, I raised the white flag because it meant having to go into the garage to get the wrench to remove the cups/bottom bracket/crankset.  It was just enough of a deterrent to stop me for the evening.
The big thing I had to figure out was how to remove the bearings.  The bearings are held in place with loctite and are difficult to remove.  I had to rig a little system up where I threaded a bolt through a couple of washers, then used a butterfly nut to tighten onto the bolt until enough pressure was built up to break the bearing loose.  I removed a couple of bearings and then got stopped by the next two which are smaller and required smaller washers...What first appeared to be an afternoon rendezvous with the bike has turned into a multi-day affair - mostly due to my learning curve.

As I work on the geared bike, I can hear my singlespeed snickering in the background reminding me of how many fewer moving parts there are on it, and that this is what I get for riding a geared, full squish.

Nirvana Elevator Music?

There was yet another hint of age creeping up yesterday as I found myself in a store looking for some hardware items and what do I hear???  I heard Nirvana playing in the background.  This in itself would not have been a big deal as I would have considered it a one off in the sense of "Wow, pretty progressive K-Mart".  Earlier in the day I had to go up to take a drug test (for a pre-screening for employment - my current employer is having me change contracting companies).  There was a minor nuisance when they informed me that they did not have my paperwork ready and subsequently I would not be able to take the test, etc...so I had to come back at yet another lunch day on yet another day.  Urgg.. While waiting for them to try to find my paperwork, I heard the Smashing Pumpkins on the sound system at the office!

As it turns out, it started to dawn on me that my generation's music is becoming 'elevator music'.  Who would have thought that something so cutting edge and alternative back in the day would make its way into large shopping marts and doctor's offices?  Not me!  Just another sign of father time catching up and dating us - a sad reminder of what we used to think as fringe is just elevator noise.

as a tribute...here is my favorite Pumpkins song that was part of a movie play list from one of my favorite directors of all time:  David Lynch's Lost Highway:

and some Nirvana elevator action:

Friday whacky linky

Last night was another night on the trainer as the weather is changing and trying to make up her mind.  It started off in the 40's during the morning and then we watched the temps drop throughout the day and saw the storm rolling in.

It was a relatively light spin, keeping the heart rate at around 130 or below for most of the ride.  Summary of the ride:

Since it is Friday and we are all looking for some comedy....here it be...I am not sure what makes me laugh harder...the performance, or the guy in the background cracking up!


and since we are on men impersonating women...and Beyonce....this is just classic:


Beyonce and Justin Timberlake - Single Ladies from Josh Wolrich on Vimeo.


Thanks JT, SNL and Beyonce...funny every time I watch it

2010 MTB Redux Video

Yesterday was a day off from riding, but a busy day none-the-less.  It was one of those bizarre days where just about everything I touched seemed to take a step backwards.  I did make it to the Y to get in the pool for a very short swim.  The water temps were actually decent for a change!  They usually crank up the heat in the lap pool, to the point where it is uncomfortable to swim - unless you like swimming in a spa...not my cup of tea.

I signed up for a Vimeo account yesterday thinking that it was worth checking out as an alternative to YouTube. The upload process seemed a little easier and I like how they have groups set up to be able to include your video.  There is still a lot more for me to figure out, but it will be fun to try something new....

Here is the latest incarnation of my video skillllzzzzz:


2010 MTB - SW Montanny Redux from Tiago on Vimeo.

Lynskey Pro 29'r frame

It was an early Christmas yesterday as the new eBay purchase arrived yesterday.  The source of my distraction yesterday was waiting for UPS to arrive so I could sign for the package.  It finally arrived at around three in the afternoon and it did not disappoint!

It is a Lynskey 29'r titanium frame.  The frames are hand made in Tennessee (lineage is the Litespeed...the former owner sold Litespeed and start Lynskey).  The welds are absolutely amazing and the bike frame is sick light.  The frame weights in at around 3.3 lbs:

The frame can be built up as either a geared bike or as a singlespeed bike.  My intent is to build this up as a rigid singlespeed and try to make it as light as is affordable and reasonable...no need to spend a ton more money to shave a few grams. - especially considering I have a few kilo's to drop on the beer belly!
Back to the bike:

I will be retiring my old 26 inch singlespeed and will use many of the parts from that bike to build this bike up. The gaps will be building a new wheelset using the hubs from the old singlespeed....a new drive train.....a new fork (will look at rigid carbon frames), stem & headset...I should be able to use the parts from my old bike for just about everything else.  It will be a great winter project and I am looking forward to building this up as we plug through the winter months.

The beauty is that there is no rush to get this built up right now considering the weather has turned and we are getting into winter.  There will be no hemorrhaging of $ and I can slow the bleeding of spending $ over the next few months.

I love the sliders for adjusting chain tension.  It will be much-O fun to build this bad boy up and even mo' FUN to get out and ride.  It will be interesting to ride the 29'r geometry although this should 'ride' a little smaller because the top tube and geometry should make it somewhat more responsive.  There will be a little flex in the frame but not enough to notice compared to my aluminum frame.

It is a good motivator to ride the trainer until spring arrives...last night was another hour session of indoor spinning:'

Big Arrival

We received another trace of snow last night but we still don't have real accumulation in town.  The hills are getting more and more snow and hopefully this will keep up so the winter play areas start to open up to snow sports!

Considering the weather, it was another trainer day...I decided to do two sets of reverse intervals where you warm up for about 15 minutes, then start the first set which consists of alternating equal times with a hard effort then recovery so it was something like:
2 mins
1:30
1:15
1:00
45 secs
45 secs
45 secs
So it started with a 2 minute hard effort, then 2 mins rest, then 1:30 hard and 1:30 rest, etc
It is always a tough work-out if you go as hard as you can for the 'on' times.  The workout looked something like:

The second set is the tough one, especially when you get to the tail end and your recovery periods are getting shorter and shorter.

The big arrival is a frame that I purchased that should arrive today.  I am anxious to see it get here and will post some pics tomorrow (assuming it arrives today).  It is a Lynskey Titanium 29'r frame that can be built up as either a single speed or a geared bike.  The idea is to try and build it up as a single speed (mostly likely set up as a rigid frame).  More to come....

Tinkering & Indoor Riding

Of things Globetrotter:

The weekend ended up being a somewhat productive one in terms of getting things done.  I spent a big part of Saturday working on the Globetrotter.  We even managed a quick trip to Bozeman on Sunday to get supplies at the big box stores.   I replaced most of the lights so we don't have the horrible worn out, yellowed plastic lights throughout.  Instead, they have been updated with newer, contemporary lights that fit in stylistically much better with the updates.  I swapped out two reading lights towards the front with the following:

The bathroom towards the rear got this light update (yet to be attached):

speaking of bathroom, the counter top now has a stainless top (still need to find and replace faucet):

I swapped out a couple of light switches (wall plates are on order since they need to be wider than standard - will be stainless too):

I re-installed the cabinet doors and put on some hardware:

In terms of riding, it was bound to the trainer...a 1 hr spin on the trainer on Saturday that was more about trying to keep a high cadence:

Sunday was the proverbial day off for the legs and it was followed up with a quickie 30 min light spin this a.m. - to be followed by a longer spin at some point this evening:

Tweener Weekend

What to do?  What to do?  The weather is just barely cold enough to make most activities a little bit of an annoyance.  There are a few things I can do on the Airstream but it would entail sitting in a cold un-insulated garage to get things done.  There might be some hope to salvage an outdoor ride a little later out towards Pipestone where it is about 1,000 ft lower and the terrain generally faces south so it gets more exposure to the sun.  This will largely depend on the motivational factor though.

I did sit on the trainer for an hour last night and unfortunately the file did not import correctly into the SW I use so no graph today...it is somewhat of a convoluted process to pull the data in and graph it...the workout data gets pulled into the Powertap SW (called PowerAgent) and then in turn I take that data and export it into the 'Sportracks' SW that we use fort he Garmin info.  This allows me to graph it all and pull it into a picture format to upload to the blog.  The data loaded correctly intot he PowerAgent but then exporting into the Sportracks data today seemed to be an issue.  Hopefully this is a one off and it will be back to no snafu's going forward....tiz' verboten!

I was able to push around 210 watts for an hour yesterday with constant pressure on the pedals.  At some point I will need to change the workout up a little and suffer by integrating some intervals, speed work, etc.

off to plan the day -

Night Ride Bail & Tenacious D

It might have been the 23 degrees (and dropping) on the thermometer, it might have been the gin and juice, it might have been the lack of motivation...you get the picture...The net of it is I bailed on the night ride last night and I can't help but think it was a good idea considering the temps.  Instead, I set up the Wii downstairs and watched a few episodes of The Office while I sucked down some gin/tonics.  There were some good belly laughs had, although there was just a touch of guilt for sitting in a nice warm, comfy room as the other knuckleheads were out slip sliding around in the cold temps.

The weekend is quickly approaching and there is not current agenda for what is in store.  Unfortunately, the options are somewhat limited this time of year so it might be a home-bound weekend.

Since it is Friday and since I don't have much to blab about...it is time for some funnies....if you are easily offended, then I urge you to click away from this blog entry!!

Trainer Time

A hard man I am not...a hard man would have gone out and ridden in the cold this week.  I weenied out and chose the indoor trainer.  It is more of a mental struggle than a physical struggle to get through a training session indoors.  It might be a little more difficult physically than being outside due to constant pressure on the pedals.  When you ride outside, the terrain usually dictates your exertion (to a certain extent).  It seems like riding outside provides you with brief windows to let the legs stop for a moment while the bike keeps rolling downhill, etc..

On a trainer, once you dial in the resistance...it is fairly constant (until you change it).  The last 2 days of rides have looked like:
Tues a.m. light spin:

Tues p.m.

Wed p.m.

I keep thinking it would be a good idea to let the legs rest for a month but in the back of my mind I keep thinking maintaining some fitness is a good thing and will allow for a faster ramp up on the base once spring rolls around.  At some point in the near future, it will be time to dial the bike time down and start to pick up some other things...

We are heading over to Pipestone this evening for another night time ride.  It will be chillier than the prior rides as we have been waking up to temps in the teens.  It is time to dig out the warm layers!

1st Dirty Hundie

So today is the 100th post of this young blog.  It is strange to think I have had that much to say - then again, many might opine that despite posting frequently, I don't really have much to say...the whole quantity vs quality argument.

100....a look back in time takes me to the first dirty century I did which was the Cohutta...
It was early season and it meant putting in a lot of miles during the winter around Denver.  It was really memorable for being the first hundie for me, but more so because I shamed Dan and Abe into also doing it.  The experience was special because we got to share this experience of training & suffering together - there were frequent calls wondering aloud if we had trained enough, brought the right gear, had our nutrition plans together, etc....  We talked about how it would be the first of an annual suffer-fest...subject to change each year based on who was picking the event...it could be riding, climbing, tri-athloning, etc...  Unfortunately we did not follow up on this threat and 3 yrs have gone by without Team Caliente re-grouping for some masochistic ritual:

The race was in the south where mullets are still the haircut of choice, so what else was there to do than to let the boys shame me into getting my hair cut to rock the mullet?

now that is a sight to behold......

We rode in rain and wet conditions for the first part of the race.  Floyd Landis was in the race too, so we can all say we raced against a Tour De France winner...OK, well a stripped Tour winner...I am pretty sure Floyd was not doping that day though because he got crushed by some other hard men who put the hurt on him.

I learned a lot that day...I learned not to dump your bike in a river (to get all the mud off) because it would also wash off a lot of the lube on the chain...fast forward 10 miles and my chain started to seize...it would eventually snap and I would have to remove a link and beg a fellow rider for some lube.  I also learned that 100 miles on a mountain bike is a long way - well DUH!  I learned that suffering with good friends somehow makes it better.  I learned how to dig deep....and I learned that I can ROCK THE MULLET!

Single Speed Bottom Brackets

The snow has arrived...boohooo.  It is just a trace as of right now so there is not enough in the mountains to be able to go play, but there is just enough to mess up the options for riding the bike.  The words 'indoor trainer' are once again entering the training lexicon and it is not necessarily a good thing.  C'est la vie...

It took a little convincing to get the dogs out for a walk yesterday but once they were out, they had a fair amount of energy and spent the rest of the evening recovering.  On our walk at Maude S canyon, I saw something in the distance that was moving.  I think it was a moose but we never got close enough to verify so we will just have to go with the 'potential moose sighting'.  The good thing about having snow on the ground is that you can really see the contrast of animals in the hills.  So the wildlife stands out a little more (especially since the leaves have fallen too).  It made for a nice peaceful walk - somehow the snow always seems to make things quieter...I wonder if it absorbs the sounds waves?  That is my theory and I am sticking to it.

I have been looking at titanium frames lately and have been drooling over some of their craftsmanship.  The idea is to build up a hard tail that will double as a single speed and a geared bike.  I have never liked the EBB's on a lot of the singlespeed designs out there and have always preferred the slider technology for adjusting chain tension.  For those still trying to picture what I am talking about...the EBB looks like:
Niner BBB/EBB
The idea is that when you are on a singlespeed, your chain will 'stretch' a little and once it starts to stretch it will start to skip on you.  If you adjust the chain tension to tighten it back up, then everything becomes copacetic again.  With the BBB/EBB system, you rotate the bottom bracket so the chain tightens up. What I don't like about it is that it will change the position of the bottom bracket/crank so it will change your riding position slightly.

Here is an example of the slider action:

When the chain needs to be tensioned, you loosen the bolts, pull the rear wheel to tension the change, tighten and the you are done.  it does not really change the geometry of the drive train (other than the minor adjust of the wheel sliding a few mm's forward or back.

The slider options just seems simpler, easier to clean, etc...it might be marginally heavier but I think it is a better design.

My latest obsession has been the Lynskey line....mmmm mmmmm GOOD!
Lynskey Frames

Airstream Globetrotter - New Floor & Gaucho Install

Sunday turned out to be anything but a rest day.  It was a day off the bike (legs were a little heavy after 3 days in a row on the singlespeed).

It was a slow start to the day until the weather warmed up enough to get moving and get things done.  The main agenda item for me yesterday was to try to make significant progress on the Airstream considering that the weather was going to turn cold.  The impetus was to get the floor in and start putting things back into the Globetrotter.  The floor went in easily enough although it took some time to cut templates out and cut around closets, rounded sides, etc.  We chose the bamboo vinyl planks.  My theory was they would be easy to install and easy to keep clean.

I also re-installed the frames/screens on the window (after painting the frames the dark brown color).  The rest of the painting/staining/sealing is also completed:

It is all coming together pretty nicely and the big chunks of work are done although I suspect that the last list of to-do's will take a while as there is still a pretty long list.
After the floor went in, I started to re-install the gauchos.  The pre-work (which I did earlier in the summer) on the gauchos included a couple coats of the dark brown on the front, and some serious scrubbing on the metal components to get rid of the anodized copper color and get it down to the stainless color.  I learned a trick on our fireplace grate last year where if you apply oven cleaner and let is sit for a while, you can scrub down the metal to the nickel/stainless look.  It takes about 3 rounds of serious scrubbing with steel wool / scrub pads, etc...but the results are pretty good (you can see the original color on the metal on top of the gaucho and the scrubbed down steel look after).

Notice the pile of stuff that was ripped out of the Globetrotter above...it was certainly a little daunting at first but it was all worth it....The picture above also shows the screens before they were painted.  A lot of things just took time to get through...lots and lots of paints...tons of nooks and crannies in the Airstream which does not exactly provide you with easy angles or spaces so you end up contorting yourself to try to reach into places that need paint (while not getting paint on other things that you are not looking to paint).

After putting in some serious elbow grease it was time to paint the non-metal part of the gauchos:

After re-installing the gauchos in the Globetrotter, things start to take shape a little bit:

All of the trim work now matches with a dark brown color.

The big things left to do are to get fabric and maybe even new foam for the beds/couches...as well as re-build the table so that it matches the counter top.  Things are definitely coming together though and it certainly feels much closer than it did a few months ago.  I need to spend a little time taking more photos to make some before/after comparisons.  It really feel totally different.  The nice thing is that most of the work now is stuff that is 'visual' so the work makes an immediate visual difference - it is good to feel that gratification of all those months of work....slowly but surely...

Bo-Zone Overflow

Saturday treated us to yet another surprisingly warm day in southwest Montana.  The mercury climbed to around the mid 60's and we took full advantage by taking the dogs for a long walk up around Blacktail trails and then hitting the CDT trail for a couple hrs of singletrack riding.

We went up to Homestake Pass and got on the CDT and rode over to the next pass over (Pipestone Pass) and back.  It is about a 17 mile loop with ridiculously good riding.  We pulled into the parking lot and we wifer and I both commented about the number of cars in the parking area.  There were probably around 15 cars parked there and the vast majority of them were from Bozeman.  I have never seen that many cars or bikes on that trail. It was great to see people riding (it is usually an anomaly to run into people, let alone multiple groups), but it also made me a little protective of the trails hoping they don't get 'too discovered'.  In some ways, it felt like spring fever in reverse where everyone was trying to get in a ride before the weather turns (which it is supposed to do on Monday).

The recent snow and rains had packed the trails down really well and all the areas that were loose a month ago, were packed down again.  Most of the trails here are decomposed granite so they have a tendency to get a little sandy as the season progresses and they see more traffic.  Fortunately, mother nature gets back to work in the winter and packs everything back down again for spring/summer riding.

There is about 2,600 ft of elevation gain over the 17 miles of out and back trail.  Here be the profile:

It was a big bonus to get a great ride in on one of my favorite local trails this late in the season.  Big thumbs up and smiley face!

Thompson Park - New Goods

Friday turned out to be a mellow day work wise and I was able to get out by 3 and enjoy an abby-normal (Young Frankenstein reference for you Mel Brooks fans) warm day for this time of year.  We pedaled up to Thompson Park and decided to check if they had completed the new trail building up there.

It was great to do a little exploring and figure out where these new trails linked up.  It was the missing link for the area that now links up to the 9 mile junction.  What is nice about this new link up is that it gives you access to new trail without having to ride on Hwy 2 at all.  You can pretty much avoid the road and the grade going up hill is very reasonable.  It was a quick ride but a really good ride to piece together.  There are multiple loops up there and you could easily put in a couple hour ride without doubling back on trails.  This will be a great place for taking the dogs in the summer too.  It is nice and shaded and has some great little aspen groves (also have been some bear sightings in that area).  The ride profile looked like:

There was about 1600 ft of climbing and it was almost an 11 mile ride.  It was nice to be able to get out and finish the week off on the dirt...There is something very therapeutic about it.
During our ride, Sean's chain-ring snapped like a frosted flake under a car tire.  It broke in two different places.  He has been having drive train issues all year on his singlespeed and this was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back to get a new bike...It was good to get out on the singlespeed again and the knee seems to be holding up so all in all thumbs up, unless of course you were Sean and had to coast back home.  There were a few times when the trail leveled off and I grabbed a branch and pulled him along.  It all felt a little awkward - almost as if we were holding hands while riding.  We just kept hoping no one would see these two lycra clad fellers holding a branch as we rode.  The big picture was that it could have been worse...this could have all happened last week on our Halloween night ride when we were all costumed up and I was wearing a tutu and Sean was wearing his mullet - imagine what people might have thought if they had seen us in that situation then!

and for you Mel Brooks fans...here you be:

Zelda's Night Ride

We were fortunate enough to be able to get on our bikes again last evening and get a good ride in.  I dusted off the singlespeed and was anxious to see how it would feel to get back on SS.  It really reminded me how much I enjoy the singlespeed experience!  There is something so simple, so beautiful...and of course painful.

We went up along Hwy 2....our band of bouncing lights heading down the 2 lane Hwy until we hit the second Thompson Park entrance where we took the trail up to the railroad bed.  I figured this would be the test of how strong the legs felt because that first push up Thompson has some steep punchy sections where I was out of the saddle and doing the singlespeed side to side dance.  I cleared all the switchties with the exception of the last one which was just too steep and too sharp to clean.

Once we got to the railroad bed, we headed through the tunnel, over the truss and up to Pipestone Pass where we connected onto the CDT and took the CDT over to Beaver Ponds.  Once we got to the Beaver Ponds, we took Zelda's trail back down to our starting point.  It was a good ride....around 14 miles and 1,800 ft of vertical gain:

The light system held up well and I continue to be impressed with their overall performance and quality.  They are made in China so it is all good as long as I don't lick or try to eat the lights (made a point of making a mental note after seeing all the issues with the 'made in China' drywall, toys, and just about everything else).  I suspect you are going to say something like 'well, why in the world would you lick your lights?'....good question and I don't have an answer - then again, who was the first person to think it was a good idea to pull a carrot out of the ground and eat it?  I will however leave the lamp licking to someone else...

Vuja De

At this time last week I remember spewing the same bewilderment at our longer than usual ride season...well this week it is more of the same...nice weather, wondering if it mark our last night ride of the season, etc...I plan to take the viddy cam out again this evening and see if there is any interesting footage to capture with new camera angles, etc...more vuja de...wash cycle, spin cycle, rinse cycle, spin cycle...and throw into dryer.  So instead of regurgitating the same cud over and over in different stomachs, I will chew some new tin can cud.:

The Globetrotter got some loving last night.  I started to put things back into it and it is starting to look like a trailer (as opposed to an empty tin can shell on wheels).  The floor is about 2/3 of the way complete now...the screens that have been painted are all back on now too.  There was a fair amount of prep required in order to get to this point but we are slowly making progress and pictures to be posted a little later once we have enough light to do the photos justice.  It was a little bit like piecing a puzzle together as things went back in but so far, so good....there is still more to piece together but for the moment, it will have to wait until the floor is in all the way.

Parts (curtain rods & lights) are on the way from a vintage trailer supply place and soon enough all the aesthetic changes will start to take shape.  Up until recently it has been a lot of work, with little to show visually...now is when those dividends start to pay.  I hope to have the floor completed at some point this evening.  

There is still a ton to do, but considering we are in winter mode, there is no rush.  The big items once everything goes back in will be the upholstery and re-doing the table.  Those will both be new items so will take some time to get right.

speaking of getting it right...here be a funny clip ...Ohh My God....Magnum!  Higgy Baby and Magnum are just like an old married couple...