How to move by bike:

First, you build a trailer, and name it Scrappy. This is somewhat optional, as if you have a rockin' cargo bike, like a Big Dummy, Madsen, Bakfiets, or a Yuba Mundo, to name a few, (And their variants) the bike can haul quite a bit on its own. But a trailer behind a Big Dummy is nice for the big and heavy stuff.

Obviously, step two is to pile stuff on it:

First load! Wood lathe!

It's looking like a garage in here.
As I said, trailer optional.

There was another one of these just like it.

No load is too irregularly shaped!

The Captain's chair.

The last Scrappy load!

There are 4 or 5 trailer loads that aren't pictured, most of which could be similar to the above. The most impressive was the queen-sized bed. Mattress, box spring, and bedframe on the trailer. Also not pictured are the few Henry-only loads.

In all, the trailer did better than I expected it to. No matter what I put on it, nothing creaked, broke, flexed, or complained... except me. It is half a mile from the house to the apartment, and the house is on a hill. I was panting and sweating every time I rolled in the garage at the house with a load on the trailer, but taking the time to wind tie-down straps gave me enough time to recover and do it again. The blast back downhill made it easier, too. The weakest link in the system was the rider.

In the end, I probably have more than 20 miles in the move, and got 80-85% of everything over by bike. The comments from other people made it worth it, too. Kids loved it and thought it was awesome, a lot of adults thought it was neat, and asked if it was heavy for me to pull with a load. Though, most adults ignored it. That said, moving by bike will really convince you that you have too much stuff. I have WAY too much stuff.

But, with moving completed, apartment cleaned, and nothing left to do but unpack, (Yes, the bike rack is already up in the Garage, yay!)I decided to meet up with some Absolute folks for a Sunday ride this morning.

I left a little later than I'd have liked, but powered up to the Schultz Creek trailhead at 8:59. Roll out time was 9:00. And there was no one there. I also realized I forgot my frame pump.

When life hands you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! I don't want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am?! I'm the guy who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get the engineers to invent a combustible lemon that I'm gonna use to burn your house down!

Umm, yeah. Sorry, lost my train of thought.

While I didn't throw any incendiary lemons around, and my legs are still fairly beat up from moving, I did manage to get a great ride in. Up Rocky Ridge from Schultz Creek, up Elden Lookout Road to Onion, Onion up to Sunset.

Errrrt!

At the top of Sunset on the way to Schultz Pass, I realized my rear wheel was wobbling, because the wheel bearings were way out of adjustment. This will not do, with the rockin' descent before me. After some fiddling, (And realizing Shimano installed the drive-side locknut backwards...) I had the bearings in adjustment. Mechanical disaster averted!

Resuming my ride, I rode up to Sunset Peak, and by coincidence, right up to the very edge of the Schultz Fire burn. turning around, I flew down Sunset, Blazed down Schultz Creek, and took the Urban Trail through town to get home. Which involved going up a hill to get home. I'm going to have to plan my rides accordingly, now.

I can see my house from here!

Columbine.

The Onion trail. This one's for Josh. I miss riding with ya, man, and your trash-talking at me over the technical stuff.

Wait, wasn't I supposed to be relaxing today?

Mileage: 27.5

And now for something completely the same:

Wherein I ride a bike, work on bikes, and other general bikery.

I managed to rip a soleplate out of one of my shoes the other day, which of course meant a trip to Absolute for new shoes. I also thought about how I use my biking shoes, with cleats that clip into the pedals to keep my clodstompers in place on the pedal. Over a third of the miles I put on them per year are general commuting/errand type miles, where being attached to the pedal isn't very important, and maybe I can extend the life of the shoes and cleats if I start using regular platform pedals, maybe with straps.

The straps didn't work out too well, my feet are too wide for the setup, but I'm pretty sure I can build something myself that will work. However...

I've never ridden in sandals before. What an incredible feeling, especially with how hot it was today.

It is odd to be back on platforms after riding Clipless for so long. I keep instinctively twisting my heel outward as if to disengage my foot from the pedal. At the moment, Henry's the only one with platforms, but Bi will be getting them soon as well, one I figure out some foot retention. (Fixed gear + platforms with no straps = suicide)

However, I did put in some miles today, re-acquainting myself with regular pedals.

Greenery!

After which I came home, intending to do some packing and prep work for the impending move. However, it was decided that I should build a wheel instead. Because building wheels is much more fun than packing and cleaning.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. It really is enjoyable to me.

The manager at Absolute disagrees with me on that point.

I find it relaxing.

He thinks I'm insane.

I think he's right.

Yeah.

The parts: One WTB Dual Duty XC 700c rim, one Surly New Front Hub, 32 Wheelsmith straight gauge spokes and nipples, and some rim plugs.

Fast forward about 3/4's of the way through Tron Legacy:

Bi's new front wheel.

Being able to read the hub label through the valve hole in the rim is a mark of quality.

This was the 8'th rim I've built so far, and it was the fastest and truest build I've done yet. I think I'm getting the hang of this wheelbuilding thing.

Reason for the new wheel is that Bi's current front wheel is in the process of eating it's bearings. It was a cheep wheel to begin with, came with Bi when I bought him, and has more miles on it than any other wheel in the apartment. It's not dead yet, but after ~4 thousand low maintenance miles, it's earned a dignified trip to the dumpster.

Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to build a wheel.

Mileage: 17.1

Summer's Comin'

Warm temperatures, no wind, light clouds, of course I went out for a ride. Nothing insane, just a sort of cruise.

Everything's blooming.

Mileage: 21.7

Because a Seven Foot Bike is Not Enough...

I built an eight foot trailer out of some scraps and parts. One reason was to avoid renting a U-Haul just to move 3 inches to the right. Another reason? To see if I can. That's a valid reason, yeah?

Anyways, one weekend in the garage, and this is what rolled out:

And Exe named it Scrappy.

Cargo area is 3 feet by 6 feet. Overall, it's almost 8 feet long and 4 feet wide.

The central pivot: The tongue runs the length of the trailer, putting all the pulling force to the beam between the wheels. It also allows the trailer to rotate a full 360 degrees independent of the bike.

Henry's drop hitch. Some u-bolts, a beam hanger, and some aluminum angle. On the trailer side, some u-bolts, and a steering knuckle from a car.

Fast forward past the test ride. I screwed down some boards for a cargo platform...

...and then jumped on it. No creaks!

It handles fairly well. I definitely feel it back there when I'm accelerating, but that's to be expected, the thing weights around 60 pounds. But once I'm moving, I can't feel it behind the bike when I slow down, or turn.

We'll see how it does in a month when we start moving.

Mileage: None today. Lazy day.

Keeping with the trend

Keeping with my after work riding thing... This time I turned left at the top of Dogfood instead of right. It hurt some, in effort, but it was all new trails to me. And it came with an awesome view.

Looking across the top of Elden from the side of the Peaks... I didn't know there was a trail here.

I want to say I topped out around 9,000 feet in elevation. Not bad for an after work ride. All downhill from there, and man was it glorious.

Mileage: 27.3

Bike to Work Week!

And I'm going to miss most of it! *cry*

Part of the reason I've been working so hard is so I can take this coming week off. Well, most of it.

This involved spending this past Saturday at the shop, after which I decided that a mountain ride was in order. Josh agreed, and we set out after I got off work. Nothing insane, just a fun mountain ride to relax on.

We found a flowing spring, Orion Spring.

Schultz Creek, and Schultz Creek Trail.

Ditto.

Today was the beginning of Bike to Work Week, which kicked off at Heritage Square with a bike swap and bike parade. It's always fun, and I missed it last year. You always see some cool bikes, meet cool and fun people, and sometimes you can score good deals on bike stuff. I came away with stickers and some patch kits.

We also saw the biggest cruiser ever:

Exe with the Monster Cruiser.

After some confusion (lack of announcements) as to where and exactly when the parade started, we caught up with the group.

It's Henry's friend! I ended up pacing him, for the rare double Dummy spectacle. Wish I had pictures of it.

Afterwards, we swung by Absolute for some stuff, then went home. I ended up giving some love to the rest of my bikes, as they were all in need of some attention. Clean chains for Bi and Tri, as well as I'm giving Ergon grips a try on Tri, who also got a better stem.

Nothing says obsession like oiling each individual roller on the chain at a time.

Also at Absolute, I found out about some trails to try out when I get back. Back from where?

Backpacking in Zion! Should be fun.

At least my bikes will all be ready to ride when I get back.

Ride your bikes to work this week!

Mileage: 9.1

After Work Riding

Often, I describe my rides as "Self Inflicted Torture." In reality, it's a release for me, a chance to get lost, then find myself... or something. I think I really just enjoy riding my bikes around. I enjoy too many aspects of it to list, and the pain from pushing myself to get better at it is something I just put to the back of my mind. The fact that I'm slowly getting a little stronger, faster, and maybe even a little more skilled is just an added side bonus.

I have decided that going on longer rides after work are making longer work weeks easier to handle.

Wednesday, I met up with TC after work, and we rode out to Fisher Point. She had her mountain bike, while I took STeve, the cross bike with skinny tires. Happily, I didn't bite any rocks, therefore I didn't get any flats. TC had the satisfaction of being faster than me on the downhills.

The bottom of Fisher Point, as the sun began setting.

"Hai!"

That night, I decided I wanted some real singletrack riding, on some real singletrack trail. (Not to say that the trail out to Fisher Point isn't real, but it is short and tame, fun as it is.) So, I got Tri ready for an outing. I wound up heading up Dog Food to Pipeline, which I took across to Secret and the Arizona Trail, then hooked up with Schultz Creek back towards town, where I met up with family for dinner.

I pushed myself on this ride, as I really wanted to make it to Schultz Pass, for the full blast downhill, but I also really wanted to hang out with everyone at dinner. When faced with such a decision, I chose both, and pedaled harder. I left work at 4:30, was at the Schultz parking lot at 5:00, and Schultz Pass at 6:00, which was when everyone was meeting for dinner. By 6:50, I was sitting at the table with everyone, too. I think I made good time.

Today, I decided to take it easy, and took Slide up Freidlein Prairie Road. It was beautiful, and it'll only get better as the aspens get their leaves.

Obstacle! I don't think I can get Slide to hop over this one...

Riding Slide like this is really helping me figure out just what I want to do with Slide, how to set the bike up best for what I do with it. The list of changes and adjustments grows with each ride...

Good riding.

Mileage: Didn't keep track, but it was on a moto... does it count?

50 hour weeks will end me.

Yeah... working some overtime at work. The day I used to more or less dedicate to recovering from working four 10 hour days so I could spend the next two days riding is now spent making more donuts. Donuts that look suspiciously like picture frames. Mmm... donuts...

But all is not bad though... I've found that when I go on a long ride after a long day at work, I feel better the next day. This is a discovery I seem to make anew every year around this time, though this time it was harder to find, because, let's face it... at the end of the day, I just want to relax... and the thought of taking a 10+ mile route home versus a 2 mile ride home doesn't seem relaxing... until I actually do it.

It's not often one Big Dummy meets another. Henry makes a friend outside the bank today.

Looks like Spring to me... this was last week.

I've been trying to ride a motorcycle to work at least once a week, with a good after-work ride. So I took Slide up to Snowbowl the other day.

The weather is warming up, though the temperature is doing it's usual Flagstaff thing for spring, warm for a few days, then cold, with a generous side of wind. I'll be ramping up my outdoorsey stuff soon, I fear. It will be good.

Mileage: 15.5

Sunrise Windows

I get to see sunrises on my way to work for two 3 week windows a year... once in spring, once in fall. Before that, I get to work before the colors appear, and after, the sun is up. But, for three weeks, I get to watch the sun rise. Right now is the time for my spring sunrises.

Hard to believe it's supposed to rain and snow for the rest of the week... the trails were dry, too.

However, I was in for a real treat on the way home. I had read about a B-17 (One of my favorite planes making a visit, but wasn't sure if I'd get a chance to see it. So I swung by the airport:

Aluminum Overcast, a fully restored B-17G, one of the very few still flying.

Yeah.

Mileage: 12.3