Sunday, April 27, 2008

Back Again

Michele and I headed over to South SeaTac so I could show her the goodness that was there for her. Unfortunately our bodies had other plans, I was attempting to weather a serious gastrointestinal storm and Michele took a nasty little fall while dismounting to avoid a fall. We spent all of 20 minutes before turning around and heading home(Elliot Bay Brewing actually).

This is the only picture I have from the day:

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

SST

No Colonnade today, just South SeaTac, but that's ok because it was good. Very good.

Very little tech to speak of, but plenty of smooth singletrack lined with berms and under plenty of tree cover. Of course I'm not counting the dirt jumps where the 40+ lb full sussers were doing their thing. Not far away I found this little trail marker:

Michele's got a day off tomorrow and I'm dragging her out here for sure. This kind of riding is right up her alley.

Nice little concrete and moss easy chair out their if you can handle the blackberry bushes up your ass.



Parting shot.
Oh yeah, since yesterday I've discovered more about the McMenamins/St. Eds deal. The neighborhood didn't want it and put up a lot of resistance and the plug was pulled last year.

Bummer.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Post Work Riding Season Has Begun

I loaded up the El Mariachi this morning and boy did I ever make the right call. The day got really nice about an hour before I called it quits. I cut my guys loose a little early(to avoid OT) allowing me to leave the site promptly at 3:30. It's a pretty short drive from Yarrow Point to St. Eds and I was on the trail by 4:00.

The trails were mostly dry, which is a good thing. I don't think I've mentioned this before but the WWLTs both suck and blow in the muck. I think I might have to look into at least a new rear tire at some point.

The old seminary, I've heard rumor that there have been moves made by McMenamins to acquire the building. I don't know if the rumors are true or not, but how bad ass would this place be? Post ride beer and burger at the trailhead would be a dream come true.

Just shy of seven miles and if you believe the GPS there's 3100ft in there, TopoFusion brings that number down to 980ft. Personally, I think both sets of numbers are on the high side.



Tomorrow I'm either going to ride to Colonnade or head down to SST and actually do some riding there. Who knows, maybe I'll ride both.
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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Done.... Mostly

Here it is, the urban battle bike is nearly ready to roll. The new front end is a nice set up with the P2, a S-3 headset, and the Avid disc. The P2 A-C measurement is near exact to the Indy SL that came off at proper sag so geometry is still spot on. The S-3 went on because I had it and I like it a lot better than the shitty loose ball that it replaces. As for the disc, Avids are dummy proof and provide great stopping power.

The 21 speed shifting is down to 14 thanks to the missing granny, after all dad's not going to need it anyway. The old crankset was five hole 110 BCD and the new LX is a 4 hole 104 BCD requiring new rings. The SS ring that came with the cranks was toast so I used a 32 tooth Salsa SS ring, after all without the granny there's no need for ramps and pins. New 44 tooth FSA big ring, this one is good for shifting.



So what's left? I'll swap tires with Michele's commuter right before the race, and dad's bringing his own pedals. It turns out that I'm all out of 26" tubes and I'm going to need one of those as well. Dad can take his pick of a couple different saddles and that's it.

The crazy thing? Without pedals, this is the lightest bike in the garage. By nearly a quarter pound no less.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Happy Earth Day

I'm a big fan of Julia Sweeney, and not just because she went to my high school. Actually, that has nothing to do with it, but I do have a theory about liberal Catholic education creating more Athiests than Catholics in the long run. That's a story for another time. Back to the point, she put together a 30 minute radio program for Earth Day, in case you missed it, you can find it here.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Dash Point SP

Busted ass down to Dash Point State Park this morning to confront the rumors of decent trail. Let me just start by saying that the rumors are true. Definitely some good trail to be had. I don't think I made a bad choice taking the bike formerly known as Unit, but on less wet trails(or w/ more mudworty tires), the El Mariachi would totally kick ass.

I didn't really follow the prescribed route, instead opting to follow my normal operating procedure: find trails, get lost, ride for a while, get tired, find my way out.

While not exactly chock full of bermy goodness, there were a couple bad ass berms to be found. This is one of them.

I nearly bought it at this little crossing, one of the sections wasn't attached to anything I got pitched pretty good when I hit it and the whole thing rocked to the side.

The tide was way out when I got back to the lot so I hit the beach. While not exactly smooth the sand had enough water to make it very rideable.

Awesome.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Dumbass Move of the Day

I've never had so much trouble getting a crank arm off. I figured the fucking thing must be rusted on there or something. I'm jumping on it, using a cheater, lots of WD-40, and eventually breaking out the impact gun.

Of course it helps to swap the crank tool from ISIS to square taper. Much easier that way, the crank slipped right off.

On a slightly different note, I don't remember ever swapping this chain, but I also find it hard to believe that it lasted so well over the last 11 years. No significant stretch, no tight links, free and happy. Go figure.

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Yet Another Project

Alright, I know I've got my fair share of idle projects but what's one more?

So I hit the shop this morning in search of parts for the urban battle bike. It's Michele's old mountain bike that I sold to my brother once Michele made the switch to full suspension. Dad's going to be riding this bike in the upcoming race. This bike's got some problems, the big one is the stripped drive side crank. In addition to that there are other miscellaneous adjustment and tune up items needed, but I'm going a step further because I can. Rigid and a front disc brake.



New(used) LX crankset, new(takeoff) P2 disc tour fork, brake cables, old front Avid BB7, old front disc wheel w/ new bearings, no granny, but new(old) 32 and 44 rings. Tires will come from Michele's commuter for race day and dad will be all set. The P2 disc will eventually live on Michele's commuter and the Indy will go back on before the bike goes back to Pat.

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Mea Maxima Culpa

I love cars, I'm sorry but it's the truth. I am plagued by the standard liberal auto dependency guilt, but every once in a while my love of cars comes to the fore. Today is one of those days.

This is not what got me today, but only a primer in honor of the Sea Otter Classic(it takes place at Laguna Seca, if you didn't already know). Football has "the catch", auto racing has "the pass":



If I've lost you that's ok, really this is all for the benefit of Pat and dad. No more car-centric posts for a while, I promise. Anyway this next video is really a setup for the last one, so if you're still with me, don't skip ahead.



Very good, now for the finish. This is what got me.



Just so we're clear, Sabine Schmitz can kick your ass.

Friday, April 18, 2008

What The Fuck??


Taken 5 minutes ago and still coming down. It's the middle of fucking April and I live at 100ft above sea level.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008

And so it begins, again.

Michele starts Harborview Trauma tonight. That's two solid weeks of twelve(thirteen) hour shifts, followed immediately by a couple weeks of Q4. I guess I'm going to be living the life of a nearly single man for the next month.

Oh boy.

Monday, April 14, 2008

MRT Revisited, Sort Of...

After a quick breakfast in Sisters, Michele and I headed over the pass in hopes of taking in a little McKenzie River Trail action. Unfortunately for us much of the trail was still under quite a bit of snow, including the hot springs at Deer Creek. We ended up doing a little out and back from the lower trailhead.

Very flowy and super fantastic. I love this trail.

Plenty of snow in the shade and a little still to be found in the sun.

Steeds resting.

Michele pondering something.

One shot of me, kinda.

Post ride we drove up to Portland and checked in with Tim and Lucy. The plan was to go to dinner with Pat and Leah but since we were hungry and who knows when Pat would get done we hit Widmer alone. Michele calls it the brew pub gold standard, excellent food and beer, not too big and not so small that you'll never get a place to sit(like my current favorite, the Jolly Roger).

Drink up.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Mmm... Bend

Bend is going on the future homes for Sean and Michele short list. Anybody know if there's a need for docs? I'm guessing not so much. We started with breakfast at the hotel and then we were off.

It's been a while since I've posted a ride profile, mostly because I haven't had one worth posting in a while. We headed North of town about 12 miles to an area called Maston. I had heard that it's relatively easy riding but plenty of fun. It didn't disappoint, the trail was pretty sandy but still had a smooth line and mostly flat. The trail had very good flow, Michele described it as "zen".

Michele was very excited about the mountain views that we had all along the ride.

We found a little side trail that offered us a beautiful view of the Deschutes.

Michele bit it pretty hard at about the halfway point. Not a lot of crashes in Michele's mountain biking career, but when she does fall she makes it count.


Michele happy to be back at the car.

After Maston we went to Smith Rock State Park and did a little hike. It's around 200 ft to the bottom and we hiked less then 2 miles total. No climbing for us though, now thatour personal guide lives in Michigan anyway.

Very cool views.

Dusty and tired we headed back to the hotel...

...and into the soaking pool.

Post soak it was time for a meal of food. The four block walk to Deschutes seemed doable.

Michele claims that I look creepy in this picture.

Whatever.

Michele powered through her post crash knee pain for a little walk around the park.

Saw these guys tearing it up and had to snap the picture. I know it's blurry and out of focus but I really like the way conveys the way I feel about bikes.

Today we head to Portland with an attempt to stop at MRT, for the hot springs at least.