Further Defining Adventure.

Adventure: 2. Huh. I wonder if all the trails are this muddy?

Friday was a (mostly) road ride... why not make Sunday a (mostly) mountain ride?

I'll tell you why. Mud. And snow.

So my plan for the day was to see how far out my usual Skunk/Walnut Canyon/Arizona/Loop Trail route I could go before I was chased back to tarmac by the mud. The answer was not far, as I braved some wet sections and a mostly dry trail into Skunk Canyon, where it promptly turned into a cold soupy mess, buried in spots with snow. Durnit. After trying a couple other options which ended in similar situations, I decided to cut across town straight to the base of Mt. Elden, and ride up Lower Oldham to the Forces of Nature trail, and head east.

Don't let the snow fool you... I was wearing shorts for this ride.

This time, the best bike for this ride. Have you hugged your mountain bike today?

Now, I'm sore, I'm tired, and quite happy with the ride. I'm glad the mud and the snow covering the trails on the west side of town sent me to the relatively dry trails north and east of town, as I've never hit the Forces of Nature trail with relatively fresh legs. It was a blast, and one I'll be adding to the growing list of trails I'd like to ride on more often.

So many trails, so little time.

Mileage: 36

Define: Adventure.

Adventure: Taking inappropriate equipment to out of the way places.

So, I woke up with a dull ache behind my right eye today, which is the herald of a migraine. Getting outside and doing something physical usually keeps the migraine monster at bay, so I packed up STeve and took off on what I had loosely planned on being a road ride "out 89 a ways."

I have a problem with plans.

About the time I was riding through the neighborhood where I grew up (Which is not exactly close to Highway 89) I detoured off the pavement onto a trail around Cave Hill, and followed that for about 3 miles, then some fire roads until I got back on 89 several miles later.

Flood control measures to try to manage runoff from the Schultz Fire burn area on the Peaks. What's hard to tell from the picture is that the channel is coated in ash from the fire that has been washed downstream.

Well... STeve is technically a crossbike. Tame singletrack is well within his capabilities.

But I brought the wrong bike for soft cinders.

By the time I got home, I still had that dull ache behind my right eye, but it had faded out and back in, having been forgotten for the majority of the ride. It will be gone soon. Add to that that, for my first long ride of the year, I feel pretty good about it. I'm not sore, my arms and back didn't hurt at any point, I kept good speed on most of the hills I encountered, and my legs have that happy post-ride twitchy thing going on.

Good stuff.

Mileage: 52.8

Bike Vision

We're getting back into the normal Flagstaff weather trend that we all have a love-hate relationship with. You know, when it's 45 or more degrees outside, light breeze, sunny one day, then below freezing and windy the next day.

I've been trying to make the best of the warm days when they come, but what I've been lacking is a long ride. The type of ride that makes me feel good, like all my problems are so much easier because I just spent the last 8 hours kicking my own butt on a bike. Mountain or road, at this point it doesn't matter, I just need to get out and lose a day to spinning the cranks on a bike.

Anyways.

One of the things I love about riding my bikes everywhere is the things I see. Arguably, you see the same things from a car, but everything seems so much closer and real on a bike, and I feel like I see more, verses a car. It's also so much easier to stop and take in a scene, maybe pull out the camera and take a picture, without being in someone's way.

Food by bike: grocery store run from a couple weeks ago. Go go Surlys!

Define Irony. (Yes, it was on and grilling.)

I saw the last one at the store today, and had to share. Personally, I think it's awesome and ingenious, and I can't say anything bad about it.

Ride on, and see you some stuff.

Mileage: 6

Get a little mud on the tires.

There comes a time when you just have to say "Screw the mud and the snow, I'm going for a ride!" and do just that.

That moment came today for me. I finished Tri's new wheels yesterday, it was 50 degrees out, and I had an itch to go for an off-road type ride. I knew everything was going to be muddy and wet, so I stayed off the single track and stuck to forest roads, which were already pretty torn up.

Tri rocking the new wheels. I think they look much better than the old ones. They definitely ride better.

For the first few miles, it wasn't bad, as the ground was still pretty firmly frozen, and the snow was firm in the shade, letting me ride in tire tracks. But then I wandered into the areas where they've been doing some thinning, and things started to get muddy.

Saying "Hi" to a snowman.

By the time we made it back to the road to head home, having ruled the test ride a success, I was pedaling through mud 3 inches deep, with another inch or more of water on that. Normally I don't like mud that much, but this wasn't that sticky gumbo-mud that binds wheels. By the time I got home, there was one thought in my head:

Most trucks around town only dream of doing what Tri and I did, and bringing home the mud coat we did.

Mileage: 10.4

Blah Blah Blah Cold Blah Blah Wheels

This post was supposed to start out with me ranting about how the cold has been sapping my motivation to go on any sort of ride, what with spending between 5 and 10 minutes judging how cold it is, equipping enough cold weather gear to keep me just warm enough to be comfortable, but not be too warm, then feeling like I'm pedaling through corn syrup because of the cold.

Miserable, eh?

But, this is Flagstaff. The past few days, the temperature has risen about 25 degrees, with today being the nicest day in more than a month. So I got off work early to do a little riding around. I'll take it.

But I've still been riding despite the cold. Friday, TC and I caught a sunset:


In other news, I decided that Tri has been so good to me this past year, I decided to rebuild his wheels with new rims. The wheels I got for Tri were the cheapest ones I could find, since I built him on a pretty tight budget.The rims are intended to be road rims, not mountain bike rims, and are a bit narrower than I'd like, as well as the braking surface isn't even, so the brakes are very grabby and unpredictable. (Someday I may even upgrade to disc brakes...) I figured all that and nearly 1,000 miles of pretty rough riding warranted some attention:

Yeah. Really rough riding.

The plan was to lace some Sun Rhino Lite rims to the existing hubs. That was before I discovered how badly chewed up the cones in the hubs were. Then I found out that no one has any replacement cones for those hubs.

Ahh, plans. They never pan out.

So, instead of rebuilt wheels, Tri is getting brand new wheels, hand built by myself. A pair of Shimano XT hubs is on order from Absolute. I have to thank Exe for helping make that decision easier to make. Hopefully the new wheels will be built up and ready to roll this weekend. Then, all I need are some dry trails to test it out on.

Do I wait for spring, or hitch a ride to Sedona? Decisions, decisions...

Mileage: 14.5

Oh wait... it's 2011 already?

Or is it "Finally! 2011!" I'm not entirely sure. Regardless, it has been a year since my last mileage tally, which means it's time for.... another mileage tally! *Applause!* Fashionably late, as seems to be the trend.

What, I've been distracted.

Somewhat.

Anyways, in the tried and true format, the numbers for the past year:

Bi:..........1416.4
Henry:...787.06
Tri:.........831
STeve:....1000

Total: 4034.46 miles.

This is significant. Why?

Well, the last week of September, I tallied up my miles for the year so far, and found I was dangerously close to 3,000 miles. So, Exe convinced me that I should try to hit that by the last day of September, thus riding 3,000 miles in the first three quarters of the year. Achieving that, I should then try to break 4,000 miles by the end of the year.

Lofty goals. So I pushed for 3k. And I made it. Then, after that, I sort of let it go. I did lots of riding, but I wasn't pushing myself to go out and put in miles towards breaking 4k. I rode for the same reasons I always did, to have fun, and see stuff, and relax. I tallied every now and then, to see how close I was, to see if I could figure out which mile it would be on which bike, so I could take a picture of where I was when I hit it.

With that goal met, and discussed, what of the other three I set at the beginning of last year?

1: Ride a full century. This mainly is just a round about way of saying I want to build up my endurance further. DONE!

2: Do a short weekend camping tour. Pack my tent, sleeping bag, and foodstuffs on Henry, ride somewhere far-ish away, camp for a night or two, and ride home. I wanted to do this in '09, but I wasn't ready, or set on it. DONE! Sorta.

3: Enter in a mountain bike race. Preferably the Crazy 88, but we'll see. This one is highly uncertain, but we'll see. Amazingly, DONE!

So... with those met... I'm sort of at a loss for goals for this year. There are some things I'd like to do bike-wise, but they are fairly specific, and not so much general goals. I'd like to actually make it to the Grand Canyon. I'd like to ride down to Sedona and actually ride back. I'd like to ride more centuries. I'd like to take a week to bike camp around Northern Arizona. Things like that. Personally, I feel like all those things are well within my realm of possibility, having done the riding I've done in the past year. They're not so much something I need to work up to now, so much as just get past the mental block that keeps me close to home.

On the flip side, there's also quite a few things I'd like to do this year that don't involve pedaling my crazy rear all over Arizona, too. I have some ideas for woodworking that may end up on my poor little neglected crafting blog, eventually. (Give it a click, it's lonely.) I also have two motorcycles that saw very few miles this year, and I'm starting to miss riding them around.

All said and done, I probably won't turn out so many miles this year... and I'm fine with that. The important thing is that I enjoy whatever I chose to do.

May '11 be a good year for all.

Mileage: 4.5

Winter Riding on Holiday Streets

We got our first decent snowstorm of the season (Decent in my mind meaning 4 or more inches of snow.) on Wednesday night on into Thursday. I was one of the few crazies on his bike out playing in the snow:

That elusive arctic snow snake is back.

However, it is Flagstaff, and with snow comes... well... typical Flagstaff weather. By today, a lot of it had melted off. I decided it was a good idea to ride Bi out to meet up with family for dinner, when I saw one of the coolest light and cloud shows over Mt. Elden.

You don't see something like that every day... I wonder what that looked like from space?

After dinner, I rode home via the airport, though not from the place where dinner was. (It's sort of a long story.) It was truly a nice ride. It wasn't too cold, just cool enough to make me work to keep warm, but not cold enough to ice up the roads. Cars were out there, but scarce. By the time I got home, I felt like I could have easily kept going, all night if I wanted to.

Tomorrow, the roads ought to be nearly empty.

I'm looking forward to that.

Mileage: 20.4

Riding around

So while I wait for the Tron: Legacy soundtrack to download, and while I can't sleep, I figure I'll catch up on my neglected bloggery.

I've been taking advantage of the warm-ish weather since our first little snowstorm of the season, and going on some post-work rides. I've put some miles on Henry, sine Bi's got the really heavy studded tires on, which are rumbly and heavy. Where have I gone?

Agassiz Peak basking in the last rays of sunshine, peeking out from behind Andersen Mesa.

Lake Mary.

Lake Mary.

Contrast: Snowball in a still-sorta-green field.

The Peaks from the Naval Observatory road.

Henry and I decided to go ice-skating out at Fort Tuthill.

I leave you with yesterday's sunset.

Mileage: 4.2

Cold.

Dreading the cold. We've all been there.

Alex put it best this evening, as I was putting off heading home from TC's. He said it's only getting colder.

So I bundled up. Slowly. Two pairs of socks because I didn't pack toe warmers. I lingered. Played with Zoe. And finally wheeled out the door.

I'm hit with a blast of cold, square in the face. Take off the rockin' gloves to turn on the lights. They're already cold by the time I put them back on, 10 seconds later.

It is going to be a long ride home.

Crank up Switzer and spin to Beaver Street. Roll downtown. See the crossing arms drop for an approaching train and turn right on 66. Gotta keep moving to stay warm.

My face is freezing. My fingers are chilly. My feet are cold. I follow 66 up the hill, past the car dealerships. I turn left on Woodlands. Down the hill, backpedaling to regulate speed.

I'm not as cold. My fingers are warm, my toes aren't that cold, and my arms are borderline sweating. Even my face isn't half bad.

Amazing how just a few hours earlier, my toes were in pain from the cold, and my fingers were chilled enough to restrict their movement.

Coming up on Lake Mary Road, and a decision is made. I roll straight, following 89 out to the fairgrounds. "What the heck." I think.

The cars are less frequent this way at 11:30 at night. I'm sure the few that pass me are thinking about just how cold I am, and happy that they're sitting in nice warm cars.

They don't realize just how warm I am now, as I crank up and down the rolling hills. The cold is no longer dreaded. It is enjoyed, embraced. It fuels my ride.

I find myself too soon on Pulliam, aimed at home. I look up at the stars, and veer into the oncoming lane. No matter, there are no cars here now.

On the urban trail through High Country. My face is cold again. The high is wearing off. The cold is creeping back, reminding me that it is indeed Winter. Almost.

Roll to the door. Go inside, where my glasses instantly fog. Curiosity begs to know how cold it was... A balmy 22 degrees.

Yes, it was a long ride home, though not the way I was afraid it would be.

Mileage: 25

What a bunch of studs.

The question I get asked most often when I say I ride my bike all winter, no matter the weather, is surprisingly not, "Wow, how do you stay warm?"

No, people are more interested about whether or not I make my own studded tires.

This will be my something'th winter with bicycles as my primary mode of transit, and my third with studded tires on my commuter bike, Bi. The last two years I ran a pair of Innova studded tires. Nothing fancy, I needed studded tires, and they were affordable, as well as the only thing Absolute had on the shelf for a 29'er. But, with regular steel studs, not carbide, the studs wore down after two seasons, leaving me with two perfectly good tire casings, with worn down nubs of metal embedded in the tread.

They still work... a little.

Well, this year, I considered my options for the winter riding season. I could shell out some money for longer lasting carbide studded tires, (Starting at ~$60 per tire.) or, I could buy carbide studs to replace the worn down ones in the existing tires. (Also about $60 per tire.)

Studs be expensive, yo.

I ultimately decided on neither of these, and spent $15 dollars on three hundred #6 x 3/8" sheetmetal screws. Yes, this may be a little overkill, since each tire needs 114 studs.

The plan was to rip all the old studs out of the little tread pocket they are embedded in, and jam the heads of the screws in their place. Easy enough. So, I set to work, using a quick clamp (To squish the tire and make the tread release the studs easier) and the can opener on my Leathermans. (to get under the stud and pry it out.)

I should warn you at this point, should you decide to try this, WEAR EYE PROTECTION! Sometimes the studs will fly away, with great speed, and like most small rapidly moving objects, they aim for eyes and fine china.

220 studs later... (Some went missing...)

It was time to start installing the screws. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to grip the sharp end of the screw. I squeezed the tire to open the tread pocket, and just sort of twisted and forced the head of the screw in.

Once again, USE EYE PROTECTION! There's more force behind the screws than the studs, and they will fly far and hit hard. A few screws flew away, and I'm sure I won't find them again unless we move out.

If all goes well, and you haven't shot your eyes out, you'll have tires that look like this:

Now. Having just finished both tires, I have yet to ride them at all. I can tell you now, traction on pavement will be horrible, what with 1/4" of screw sticking out of the tires, and will likely result in several of the studs being ripped out. Even on ice, this is a bit impractical. For this reason, I'm thinking of trimming them down shorter with a pair of heavy wire cutters. Also, my fingers and thumbs hurt from removing and installing 228 studs total.

These screws are steel, just like the studs I replaced them with, and therefore won't last more than a season or two. However, they're cheap to replace, (If a bit labor intensive) and I can keep replacing them as long as the tire casing is still good. I'll be sure to post an update if anything significant (Good or bad) happens.

So, in answer to the question, do I make my own studded tires?

Not really, but I replace the studs with screws when they get too worn down.

Mileage: 5.3

Contrast Ratio

I love Fall in Flagstaff. The contrast between changing leaves and evergreens just makes me take a deep breath and wait for Winter to bring it.

I had thought I had missed the majority of the leaves changing colors this year. Normally I'd have ridden into the Inner Basin to see the aspens, but it's closed off as a result of the Schultz fire. So, I headed south on the Arizona Trail in search of some gold, and not expecting much.










Methinks I was just in time.

Mileage: 41.7

Photo Dumpage: Meadview and Fall Colors

Last weekend saw a trip out to Meadview Arizona with TC and Alex, and one of the days involved me getting the bright idea to ride from Meadview to Lake Mead, more specifically the boat ramp at South Cove.So under cloudy skies I set off.

I see the lake!

Will the weather hold out?

This downhill was the whole goal of the ride.

Boat ramp extension construction.

I scared up a flock of ducks.

The long grind up hill...

Made it to the top!

At this point I decided to explore, and ended up riding to the Meadview International Airport, Hair Care, and Tire Center, which sits on a mesa north of town.

Looking towards Pearce Ferry from the mesa.

STeve checking out the view. I love the geology of this area.

The airstrip. I decided to see how fast I could ride down it and back. I am decidedly slower than a Bugatti Veyron.

Long straight road back to Meadview.

Now... it's the end of Octoberber, and I'm sure someone's wondering where the usual fall colors I seem to post every year are. Fall came late, and I've been a little busy, but today, the Josh monkey and I set out for a ride over the Dry Lake Hills, which took us through some colorful trees.

Josh climbing a boulder...

Followed by myself.

Not many things will stop me when I'm rolling down sweet flowing trail like Sunset on the way down to Schultz Tank.

But that did.

Mileage: 32.3