And now for something completely ... different.

Hello, again!  It has been quite a while, but issues of late have given me a good reason to post.

First up, new bikes!  So far this year, all of my bikes have gotten makeovers, and I got a brand new bike.

Pugsley:

The Pugsley got a couple of upgrades.  First off, an 11 speed Shimano Alfine hub.  This was an upgrade that worked out in a trade with Polar Bear.  So far, the hub is finicky, but a good upgrade.  Specifically, the hub needs to be mounted in a very specific orientation.  For example, my Pug has seat-stay cable routing which puts the hub into the wrong orientation.  This caused the hub to "lose" certain gears.  I was only able to surmise that the orientation has an affect on the fluid flow inside the hub, thus allowing it to work correctly in one orientation, and fail completely in another.   All in all, a fantastic upgrade to put more life into my knees.

I also found another frame crack in the Pug.  Same spot (where the seat-stay is welded to the seat-tube), but on the non-drive side this time.  Luckily, Surly is an awesome company, and warrantied the frame for me.  So now I have a "Snow Blind" Pugsley with basically the same build as before, but without the rack.  Don't need it with the Ogre. 

Ogre:

I updated my Karate Monkey build to an Ogre frame, so that I could have a bit more of a commuter.  Again, I did an Alfine hub, this time an 8 speed model to keep the price down.  But this is a full-fender, mostly-slick-tire, bike with a Surly Nice Rack on the back so I can carry all my junk to work.  So far so good.  The 8 speed hub is less finicky, probably due to being dry inside.

Karate Monkey 2.0:

After having problems with the Pugsley, I found myself wanting a mountain bike, instead of being stuck on the commuter.  At first, I was looking at just getting a Specialized as a "bog-standard" build, so that it would be easier to repair should I have problems.  Unfortunately, it is hard to find the build I want on the size of frame I want due to my height.  Eventually, I decided to just get a Karate Monkey in a custom build that would still be fairly standard, but that way I know the frame's fit and feel going into it.  Absolute Bikes did a great job with it, and it is a blast to ride.  The best feature I can recommend is the hydraulic brakes.  They have amazing power without much effort, and a fair amount of feel.  I'm sure more feel will develop as I get more miles in.

The bike Wall:

Well, that's the big updates.  Oh, yeah, I also crashed.

Rocks just jump out in front of you, man.

Mileage: Not enough. 

And now for something completely... the same.

 The Absolute Team has started hosting a group road ride out Lake Mary Road on Saturdays, something that I looked at and said "Ehh... I'll give it a try, if I'm feeling up for it."

Yes... a less than enthusiastic response, I know.

It's not that I dislike road riding... my sufferfests up Snowbowl road point to the contrary. It's that I'd never ridden in a group with more than two or three people, let alone in a paceline with lots of folks. So I decided "Ehh. We'll see if I wake up early enough to meet up at Absolute to start the ride at nine."

So, this morning, I woke up at 7:30, and started trying to come up with excuses not to go.

8:35, and I was ready to roll out, having failed to rationalize my excuses.

Bikes, nearly all the way around the Mormon Lake overlook circle. I couldn't catch them all.

The two other Absolute members and myself ended up hitching a ride with the Red Rock Racing team on the way out of downtown, and we set about riding. Pace lines are scary, and I had no idea how to rotate through the line at first. But after a while, I got the hang of it, though I was still unsure of it. It did start to get fun after a while, and I can appreciate the social aspect, which is a very nice change of pace from what nearly all of my riding has become... basically a solo endeavor. Though I'm not used to covering so many miles so quickly. I kind of wish we had gone farther.

I'll do it again though.

However nice road riding may be, there are some things that it can't do for me. Like last Sunday's ride up the Dry Lake Hills, and the scenery there.

You've gotta admit... That's a nice view to have while you're eating lunch.

Mileage: 49.5

Weekend Bike Related Eventery.

Busy busy weekend, with not much riding, but much in the way of bike related happenings. That's ok, I made up for it with how much I rode last week after work, and I plan on doing the same this week.

So, let's see here... *shuffles*

Saturday was National Trails Day! I joined about 210 other people out near Woody Mountain Road, and we built out over 1.25 miles of Loop Trail! It was dry, dusty work, but I had a blast, and got to build some really pretty trail. This segment will join up with Soldier's Loop, and drops through Sinclair Wash, past some very scenic terrain.

Never expected to find a salamander on a trail day...

Under construction.

Let the dust fly.

Anthony guarding the end of today's work. NONE SHALL PASS!

 Of course I rode the trail once all was said and done, which meant that Henry picked up most of the dust on the trail, mostly with the chain. So Henry got his annual chain scrubbing/lubepalooza, amidst testing the weight limits of the bike work stand.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH WHERE'S THE GROUND?!

 I think that's the longest Henry's been off the ground since I built him. But soon Henry got tires back on solid ground and got to go back with the rest of the bikes.

Is it me, or is it starting to look like a bike shop in here? (The three on the right are Jack's...)

 Today is the start of Flagstaff's annual Bike to Work Week, kicking off with the bike bazaar in Heritage Square, and the People Powered Parade through downtown.

Hey, it's the Bike Bar!

Staging for the parade.

Here we go!

I didn't know dragons rode bikes...

 

 

Batman even showed up.

 

The Pedallac! I see this around NAU now and then.

 After the parade, I took a leisurely cruise home. I was going to go out on a road ride this afternoon, but if the hour long nap I dozed off on is any indication, I probably needed the rest.

Stickerz!

Another thing to come out of this weekend... I'm looking into becoming an IMBA volunteer trail ambassador, as well as joining a mobile trail maintenance crew. Most of the things involved I already do informally, however there are classes and certifications and reports involved. We'll see. But after talking it over with Anthony, and reading up online a bit, it's something I'm interested in.

As if I wasn't busy enough already.

Mileage:10.6

Rage Riding

 Yeah, there's an interesting post title. Rage Riding. That is what I feel best describes Thursday's and Friday's rides this past week. This past week was a rough week, and I had some steam to blow off. What better way to do it than to hop on Tri, and push myself up hills with only one gear as fast as I can, while listening to angry music?

Well, I'm sure there's better ways, but I know that riding works for me, especially mountain riding. It felt good to be back on the singlespeed hardtail, after riding Pretty for a few weeks. Full suspension is indeed nice, as is having thirty gears to sift through, I suppose. But, when I've got anger to burn off, I want something simple that I don't have to think about. Pedal if I want to move, pedal faster if I want to go faster, and only one suspension setting to poke, not three.

Well, and Tri's a whole lot cheaper to repair if I decided to rail headlong into a tree, which was a very real possibility.

Needless to say, I felt much better. The problems that lead to it in the first place are still there, but I'm in a better place mentally to deal with them.

That said, having bounced back and forth between Tri and Pretty, they make a nice compliment to each other. Pretty helps my confidence to ride over stuff on Tri, which helps my confidence to bomb on Pretty.

In other news, I saw another bike that I had to take a picture of, because of its owner's ingenuity:

I'm really diggin' the leopard print duck tape grips.

 Believe me when I say I'm not making fun of the bike or the rider. I think it's awesome. I'd love to see it in motion, to see how the rear rack construction interacts with the rear suspension. The cat litter bucket on the bars works for quick access to items while riding, (I would use it for ammo storage for drivers on cell phones) though I'm curious why he has duck tape covered reflectors on the handle pointing backwards. The kickstand extension is clever, as is the horn placement. Only one brake, but it's on the front, which is the important one.

I hope I see it around town, like some other bikes I have to admire for their riders ingenuity.

Today I still had some rage to ride off, but I was calm enough to ride Pretty. The system trails were pretty busy, so I ended up exploring some of the less commonly ridden trails, including finding a trail I've been looking for for almost a year. Now that I have a GPS track of some of the non-system trails, I can add them to my paper map to keep with me.

However, crowds or no, it was still a fun ride, and a beautiful day to be out riding. No wind, warm temperatures, and most people were pretty polite.

Good views, too.

Very good views. Though, that bike needs a bath. Pretty's looking pretty dirty.

Tenacity... That rock's 8 feet tall.

A closeup of the bloomin' cactus.

 The trail I had been looking for is called Easter Island, so named for the boulders along it. At one point the trail goes through a rock that split in half. I had heard other riders talk about it, and was always interested in riding it myself.

Tight squeeze... just an inch on either bar end!

I turned around and rode through the gap for real after the picture. All in all, a great day of riding today.

And now I feel pretty good.

Now to scribble on my map.

Mileage: 44.9

Welding helmets, eclipses, and bikes.

There was an Annular Solar Eclipse today. An annular eclipse is where the moon moves in front of the sun, but is not large enough to completely cover it, creating a ring of fire. The coolest thing was that the centerline of the eclipse passed north of us, just to the south of Page. I had planned on going up there to see it, but decided not to.

Instead, I strapped my welding helmet to my backpack, hopped on Surprise, and rode up to Snowbowl to see it.

Click for the big view!

It was worth staying in town to see the closest thing to a total solar eclipse I'll probably see in my life. I really can't describe it any better than that.

I took many more pictures, and I'll post them, once I'm done playing with them, as well as more rides to post about, but later. I just wanted to post a teaser before I went to bed and tried to sleep.

Mileage: 34.5

Diggin' it.

Dum de dum de dum...

Thursday saw a ride out to Fisher Point after work, where the sun was being very photogenic, hiding behind a cloud.

Peekaboo...

 Friday was another ride on Surprise up Snowbowl road. I'm making it a goal to ride up it after work at least once a week. Mostly because it's beautiful, also because it's challenging. And you see stuff, sometimes.

Smoke from a prescribed burn on Hart Prairie.

This little guy was being a character, running all over around me.

 Saturday... I worked on Slide, pulling apart the carbuerator to clean out the pilot jet, which is so small it gets clogged if you try to pass a neutrino through it. Exe also got grillin' stuff, so a grill cleaning and inspection took place, followed by the first grillinating of the season. We avoided making hockey pucks, and successfully made good bacon-wrapped cheeseburgers.

What does this have to do with bikes?

Well, after that, Exe and I took Su out to Fisher Point.

"Where are we?"

Love this view.

It occurs to me that the backlog of during-the-week rides that get saved up for a post lack in-depth descriptions... because usually not a whole lot happens. They're usually pretty uneventful, which is good.I try to relax, at least mentally, on my rides after work, but I still want to share the stuff I see on them.

So... today. I've been trying to have one big torturous weekend ride every weekend, something bordering on epic. So far I think I've been doing pretty good, and today was no exception.

After discussion with Jack, I decided to do my usual Arizona Trail east of town loop. I just got the proper length stem in for Pretty, and I wanted to see how it felt, as well as see how Pretty did on a trail that I'm more than a little familiar with. Also, it's been a while since I've done it in the spring time.

So, roll out on the Loop trail, breeze quickly through Skunk Canyon, and power to the top of Fisher Point, where I stopped to call TC and wish her a happy 27th lap around the sun.

From there, Pretty made short work of the Arizona Trail along Walnut Canyon. Spots that were sketchy on Tri were no problem, and stuff that I impulsively panic-stopped for and walked I was able to roll over, drop, or climb, albeit with some hesitation, but no incident.

It also does help matters that there has been a lot of rerouting of the trail, pulling it out of drainage, and eliminating some of the steepest and most unrideable sections. (Unless your Danny Macaskill...) That said.. there are still some sections, that despite the awesomeness that is the Pivot Mach 429, I am just not strong or skilled enough to ride yet.

Like this section. The picture doesn't show how steep and loose the trail is.

But it has a nice view of Walnut Canyon.

 What the Pretty Pivot does do is make my favorite section of the Arizona trail in this area even more fun. I thought it was a blast rolling through it at 18 mph and catching air on the water bars with a singlespeed hardtail. But doing it at 25 with the soft landings of a full squish bike is just bliss. The downside is that section seems so much shorter now.

Before long I found myself a ways east of town, as the Arizona trail winds away from the ponderosas into the junipers and piñons of the high desert.

Mt. Elden, and The San Francisco Peaks.

It's even green out here.

 And then it winds back again.

Pines and oaks.

Good trail.

The nice thing about doing this ride in Spring... this field is not full of sunflowers!

Picture Canyon.

 It was somewhere around here that I had a conversation with my bike that most people would likely find odd. It started when I stopped to carry the bike up a staircase built into the trail, scaling the canyon wall, and Pretty kicked me in the back of the knee with a pedal.

"OW!"

"You're seriously going to carry me up this? Aren't you even going to try?"

"Pretty, you may be awesome, but I'm not. I can't ride up this."

"You didn't even try!"

"Alright, fine, I'll try."

So I hop back on the bike and manage to ride up the first four steps before the front tire planted, and I flailed about trying to keep from falling over, during which time Pretty bit the back of my ankle with a chainring.

"OW!"

"That's for talking out loud to an inanimate object!"

Pretty is an aggressive bike, in more ways than one.

Fortunately, all was forgiven, peace was made, and we continued on.

More greenery, behind Sheep Hill.

 The part of this section of trail that I hate, the slog through the cinders... well, once again, despite Pretty's awesomeness, was still a slog. I need to take Snowblind out here. Maybe then I'd have fun on it.

Closer and closer to Elden.

Hmm... which way?

One way heads to town... the other way goes around Mt. Elden. I was feeling pretty good, so I let my water supply decide for me. Just over a liter left, and it's still cold, let's go!

Little Elden.

I had never ridden this section of Little Elden Trail before.

I'm glad I came this way.

Winding around the mountain, faster than I had planned.

Little Elden Spring.

So green.

Someday I'll come down this trail again...

 Little Elden Trail was one of the trails affected by the Schultz Fire, and subsequent flooding. It was also one of the first to be re-opened, earlier this year. The work that's been done to shore up the trail in the fire and drainage areas is amazing, and I have to thank everyone who worked on it. Little Bear Trail is a trail I've done only once, before I was any good at all at this mountain biking thing. It was also one of the hardest hit by the fire and flooding. They're hoping to open it later this year, and there is a trail day dedicated to reaching that goal, which I plan on joining in on.

Not long after Little Bear, I ran in to Anthony from Absolute Bikes and FBO heading the opposite way. We chatted for a while about trails, bikes, and shoes before heading our separate ways.

You know you go to the bike shop a lot when the manager recognizes you on the trail and doesn't have a problem with stopping and hanging out for a bit.

I see nothing wrong with this.

Fire scars.

The edge of the burn area.

Soon I made it to Schultz Creek Trail, where two things happened. First, I ran out of water. (Oh noes!) Second, the downhill started. (Aww yeah!) As expected, Pretty ate up the trail, though I didn't make nearly as many bad line choices as last time. At the bottom, I hooked up with the FUTS and took that home.

So, after 43 miles today, and over 100 miles since I got it a week ago, what are my impressions on full suspension?

I am definitely more confident on Pretty, than I am on Tri. Of course, I was more confident on Tri than I was on the Giant and the B-52, both being 26" bikes. The Pivot makes me a more confident rider, but not a better rider. However, one thing Anthony mentioned to me today, is that going back and forth between the hardtail (Tri) and the full suspension (Pretty) will make me a better rider on both, which makes sense. Pretty builds my confidence to just roll over stuff, and Tri builds the skill to roll over things, once I have the confidence to even try to.

The other thing is endurance... I have much better endurance with Pretty. It could be gears, it could be the fact that I'm almost 30 pounds lighter, I dunno... but I can go on longer rides, and come back with energy to spare, while before, it was a struggle to get home, sometimes. It has me wondering what my range might be, now. If I hadn't run out of water when I did, I probably could have gone another 10 or 15 miles today.

So, in short, I'm diggin' it.

Mileage: 43.4