Not much to report. Figured I should try to put at least a few blog posts out a year. Uh, yeah.
I rode in this morning in -10 degree wind chill temps. It wasn't bad overall except for my nose and the tips of my fingers. In case you're wondering, here was the clothing breakdown:
Base layers - wool long johns, midweight wool long sleeve shirt, wool socks.
next layer - Bonty commuter pants, cycling wind vest.
over layer - Minus33 lumberjack wool workshirt
Head - Pearl Izumi Balaclava, Bonty winter cap
Hands - wool glove liners, lobster mitten/gloves.
Feet - plain old Addidas Sambas pedaling my flat pedal commuter.
Also, to protect my eyeballs from becoming marbles, I wear some horrid shop safely glasses. They are huge, but that also protects most of the skin around my eyes that the balaclava doesn't cover.
I was sweating by the end of the ride, but that was because I had a tail wind and was trying to ride quickly on my heavy commuter.
Thanksgiving was nice but tough. Spent time with as much family as we could. Christmas will be similar. At least we'll have my lil bro, his wife, and their cutie pie 1.75 year old in town. She's talking some now so it'll be fun to interact with her.
I really need to clean my bike so I can't use that as excuse not to go on rides with people. I meant to clean it last week so I could ride on Saturday with a few people I knew were heading out. Sure wish I had a basement or someplace inside to make a mess with cleaning. That will be one of my requirements in a house, whenever I get around to buying one - a basement shop with a drain. Someday.
22 comments:
Munson - Just when I was starting to think you wouldn't post until August 25, 2013 - here you are. Thanks. You want to know something kind of gross, but what works well to protect your exposed skin? Vaseline. I used it on some bitter cold rides last year. You'll look kind of shiny at work, but it's worth it to me.
Oh and - $20 will get you a decent pair of ski goggles. I don't have those, but I hear they're the cat's meow.
I've been getting by with boots, PI bib tights over old bib shorts, a long sleeve tech shirt under a thermal long sleeve jersey, lobster claws, a scarf|balaclava, and a knit hat under helmet.
Munson, get your mountain bike out. Good times await in the woods, too. It's also more sheltered from wind, therefore feeling warmer. But you know this already.
I'd love a Mountain bike, but I can't afford it. Do you think Shim has any more of them?
Hijacking in progress ...
Rehijacking... I don't actually have a mountain bike, but my CX bike(Trek Ion CX) can take 1.8" mtb tires. I've run it at Swanson and only felt a little more rough compared to when I ran a rigid 29er singlespeed mtb with fat 2.25" mtb tires. However, the canti brakes are no where near as confidence inspiring as the disc brakes on the mtb.
Let me get my bike chain cleaned and unsqueaky and let's meet up for a CX mountain bike ride sometime. Fred, you still have a CX bike, right? It's a little daunting but very doable and fun.
Oh yeah. My CX bike is in good condition too (the chain is clean). I would definitely be up for some off road crap. Some day ... I want a decent mtn bike, but I'm completely ignorant about them, so ...
Fred, I believe all you would need for around these parts is a 21" 29er with front suspension and mid level components. The bike will be quite a bit more heavy compared to anything else you've ridden. Mountain bikes are more ridiculous than road bikes when it comes to price swing between lowest and highest. Entry mtb is around $600 and, aside from having cheap shifters and wheels, is a solid ride. To get near the "light bike" barrier in mtbs, you're talking about going carbon frame and nice suspension fork - at least $2000. If you were to get a mid level aluminum frame and crap components, you could upgrade when you had extra money - first move being to nice wheels. That's the route I'd suggest to anyone getting their first mtb.
9.
Shim has a Rocky Mountain, um, mountain bike. He said I could claim it and even paint yellow. But that was then. The latest is that the bike is in James Swanson's hands for a complete overhaul, which is more than lubing the chain. He's doing new paint (red) & a new Rocky Mountain decal set.
I myself will be riding a powder-coated frankencross bike. It gets the job done
Munson - thanks for the info. Let's ride.
The question is which trail? The easiest trail is probably Swanson. Tranquility is good too, but has some slightly extreme camel humps that scare me sometimes. Plus there's a good bit of climbing there.
Does this weekend work for anyone?
12.
Yeah - weekend's good. I've been to Swanson 2 or 3 times. I'd do whatever works. I'd like to see what Tranquility is all about. Should I get more mountainy tires for my bike? I have fairly traditional cross tires on it right now.
If you can do Swanson on a CX bike, you can do Tranquility. Really, the only iffy part in Tranquility, for me at least, are those camel humps. Basically you carry momentum up a steep hill which is immediately followed by a steep downhill. You do that 2 times and there's not much on either side of the trail, so if you falter, you fall for a while. But the rest of the trail is a blast.
14.
I'm partial to Swanson or Manawa. Yes! Manawa is open again, at least the south fork is.
I think Manawa is the least technical among the three mentioned. Well, there is this fallen tree that requires the skills of Shim and above, with a full suspension bike, to get over it. And there are also a few narrow sections between trees that might freak some out, but they're fine if you're JRA. (<-- see how it'd done, Fred?) But aside from these, it's currently the least technical among them.
This weekend is good for me.
(<-- see how it'd (sic) ... it's done...)
15.
Hey Munson, do you have my Hiromi Uehara CD?
count++
google
I'll burn you a copy Brady. I've also got some Georgia Satellites or Cowboy Mouth. Anywho's - does this Manawa have some climbing? That's what I'm most interested in. I'm not sure I can JRA when I've got RMA, but I can sure give it a go.
http://drunkcyclist.com/2012/11/12/strava-terrorism/
Manawa's flat as a pancake. If they got the sand cleared out, I'd consider that if we don't want to bring motorbikes to ride up hills. But if we want to use our legs to climb hills, Swanson or Tranquility are the way to go. Also, it looks like Sunday would be the wiser of the 2 days, weather, uh, wise. If it rains too much on Saturday, then we'll have to skip it all together.
Oh, and when did you give me that CD, Brady? That must have been a reeeeallly long time ago, cause I don't remember it. Give me details about it (name, cover art) and I'll start looking around for it. (read: buy another copy since it's probably totally lost)
You're right Munson: Manawa is flat as a pancake. In fact, the only hill that it had was the one by the river bank that crosses the creek and it got washed away in the 500 yr flood. It also has some sand, but the worst of it was either shoveled out by the good folks of THOR, or new wooden platforms were built to span it. Therefore, the sand is not an issue. Let's keep an eye on the weather and regroup in about 30 comments or so to plan the day and location.
Fred if you want hills, then Lewis and Clark is where it's at. You should ride Jack's bike. I hear you can KOM JRA on that rig.
Munson, a couple years ago, I was stranded in Japan, 10 years into the future. You see, I was out of whale blubber and I heard that the Japanese were the only ones still harpooning narwhals. I found my way over there to pick up some blubber. A local fisherman gave me a gallon in a plain paint can that he labeled "PAINT". But before I could leave, he insisted that I also take a copy of the best of Hiromi Uehera, since she had gone triple platinum. I told him to not mess with the space time continuum, but he just kept nodding his head, saying, "yeah, pretty good". Before I went back to the present (two years ago), I looked you up and gave it to you to burn a CD for me. If this is confusing, it's okay. You'll understand in eight years. YPG
Munson - do you still have my Zippo? If so, I can go ahead (literally) and get that cd back from you for Brady. Or you can probably wait until it's available for pre-order from Amazon. Swanson is the only one I've been to. I am eager to go to any one of these places. Even Lake Manawa, because why not? 'Manawa' by the way is a Native American word, meaning "Rancid Potato Salad"
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