mb – Page 65 – littlecircles

April 15, 2011April 15, 2011

Chopped

B17, after some surgery. Trimmed to have a similar nose shape as my Brooks Swallow, and tied underneath with the left over long sides. The B17 has been comfortable for my ADK double century rides, the Fleche, and countless fixed gear rides on dirt and in the woods. The Swallow has always been hit and miss on rides longer than 200k – especially with lots of dirt or rough pavement – so I’m thinking this might be the best of both worlds for brevet season.

I don’t yet have the courage to cut a Brooks Imperial / Selle Anatomica style slot out of the center… but by summer’s end I might.

April 13, 2011May 3, 2011

Soma Juice29r SOLD

Sold, thanks for the interest.

April 12, 2011April 12, 2011

Water, Wind(power), and Fargo

Good morning shakedown on the Fargo. Surprisingly capable bike, and even though I can’t pull in the reach anymore (I’m all out of stems!) – I was pretty comfortable on the bike path, road, and some trail this morning. Its snappier than I expected, and while it feels huge climbing aboard, I noticed that it disappears underneath me when I stop thinking and ride. Hopefully I’ll get a mixed terrain ride in this Sunday to put it through its paces – road, dirt road, maybe some connector trail. I’m thinking that the 2010-11 model will fit me better than the first generation frames. They’ve pulled in the ETT a bit, making the medium size closer to my IF. They also shortened up the chainstays and corrected the head tube so you can run a rigid or suspension fork. The Vulpines roll surprising well on pavement and hardpack.

My usual morning dirt / path loop is a bit flooded. I still have a pack raft on my list, so no mixed terrain / aquatics riding this morning.

Tesla Roadster parked in the ONE. Love the license plate.

Snapped a pic of the Fargo on the singletrack connector from North Ave. to the lakefront MUP. The Epic (Revelate) frame bag is really nice.

April 11, 2011

VT 200k Pic

Per snapped this as our little group had a social start to the first control. More pics on the Old Spokes Home FB page.

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011

Wreck

The little one took a full on downhill wreck on the bike path this weekend. Part lack of experience going fast, part helpful stranger trying to catch her. She freaked out turning hard to evade the guy who stepped into her path trying to slow her down and ended up with a skinned knee and some scratches on her hands. Lots of crying, but resumed the running and playing with a friend withing 15 minutes.

I almost cried when I picked her bike up – I remember the first time my bike broke when I was a kid – I was devastated. I’m thinking about making a new bar out of a piece of maple… I can unbolt the existing bar and trace it. I’ll just have to get creative with the bar ends.

April 11, 2011

Go Far

Testing. More later.

April 10, 2011

VT 200k

I certainly got my money’s worth on the VT 200k. 130 miles, 12.5 hours. A bit slower than I had hoped and planned – but I had a strong first half until something went awry with food intake and stomach. My plan was to ride a stronger second half – the route had the big climbing out of the way by Bristol in the first 40 miles. After the midway point I bloated up and had a hard time taking in water and fuel. I suspect it was some fructose in a bottle of juice I drank at the midway point. I struggled on – reduced to a pretty slow pace over any elevation change – but it was beautiful day to spend on the bike. Early in the year for me too, to take on more than a century in one sitting.

We had 9 starters, and I’ve yet to verify brevet cards – but I’m fairly certain we had 7 finishers. We had 1 DNF due to mechanical, and Greg turned around somewhere after the first control as he was having no fun climbing after a weeks worth of late nights getting a large project finished up.

I took a total of 2 photos, nothing really worth posting other than the line of cyclists at our first control, and a shot of the mountains from the top of any number of ridgelines we crossed. There were ample photo opportunities on the inbound leg – but I kept my head down and the pedals turning.

April 7, 2011April 7, 2011

Soma Love

First ride on the Soma since just after the Pugsley arrived. Swapped bars, dropped the stem, pulled a used saddle from the OSH. Running fixed 32×17 at the moment. Nokians are still on – which helped in the woods this morning. I need to shorten the cables – I swapped from the Jones Titec back to the Soma Odin bar. Great morning to spin easy – the VT 200k is this Saturday, so I’ve been lazy all week.