2008 Pink Bike Raffle
Speedgoat just released their 2008 Pink Bike charity raffle. Tickets are $10 and benefit breast cancer. You have a chance to win the kick ass, all pink (well, just about), Niner Jet 9 they put together.
Speedgoat just released their 2008 Pink Bike charity raffle. Tickets are $10 and benefit breast cancer. You have a chance to win the kick ass, all pink (well, just about), Niner Jet 9 they put together.
Yesterday yielded an excellent, fairly large (for me) road ride. I had to be out of the house for the morning while the pest service was convening war on the carpenter ants that have come around. Initially I thought the guy only needed us out for 2 hours, but then he said 3. So, I grabbed an extra bar, and set out on the road. At first I thought I'd dressed too warm. It was supposed to be a rainy day, and my various thermometers said 56 degrees, so I had tights on, thin wool base layer and a thin long sleeve jersey, jacket in back pocket. Right as I set out, it was totally sunny and my cyclometer thermometer read 70 degrees! Eeek. Weather held, but the temp on the cyclometer did drop, and things were fine. I rode out and did my first climb up McBeth, weather was ideal. About 10 seconds after reaching the summit it started to rain lightly. I proceeded down Fox Hollow which is a fairly long and fast descent. Within a minute, it was raining hard, and the temp had dropped a bunch (down into upper 50's). At this point I pulled over and donned my jacket. I was glad I did, as the rain just got harder and colder, and it was stinging my face, etc. Quite the turn of weather. Of course, by the bottom of the climb, the rain had calmed down, and it was real light. I kept cranking and knew that to be out 3+ hours I'd need to refill water, so headed towards the "town" of Crow. Crow amounts to a few houses, a gas/convenience store, and a combination middle school/high school. But hey, the gas station always has gatorade or something. By the time I got to Crow, I realized I was into it pretty good, at 32 miles and just shy of 2 hours. I for some reason thought I was only half way, so figured I was in for a pretty big ride, which was cool. I hadn't done 60+ miles in a long time. I nabbed a 32oz Gatorade, and a 12oz V8, and some of those junky peanut butter-cheese cracker things. It was noon, and I was hungry, even though I'd had a bar and a gel (but a light breakfast). Refilled bottles, drank the V8, ate the crackers, and carried on. Turns out I was actually exactly 2/3rds of the way through the ride. The roads back went fast, and the total mileage turned out at only 48 miles. I was glad to be back earlier as I needed to get back to work, but was bummed it didn't turn out to be 60+ miles and 4 hours. Still, a great ride, and I had good weather for most of it, mostly just that one descent that took the bulk of the rain, which was fine. Recovered very well, and don't feel the ride this morning, nice!
Yesterday evening I went to a presentation at my local REI here in Eugene, OR, by a woman named Jude, who along with two friends rode for 3 months in Patagonia, essentially from Buenas Aires to Tierra del Fuego. She talked and told some stories, and showed a slide show. She also has a blog that she wrote during the trip: http://overtheandes.blogspot.com/ I haven't had a chance to read all of the blog, but see that it has some of the same pictures, and many more stories and so on. It's a really amazing trip. They did it totally seat of the pants, or as she called it a "SOPA" (Seat Of Pants Adventure). What that boiled down to was the fact that they didn't plan squat. They basically packed up their bikes, some clothes and gear, and flew down there, unpacked their bikes, bought a map, and just started riding. No set plans of any kind, no routes known ahead of time, bought and carried food along the way, etc. They have some great pictures, and some of the scenery is amazing. Also, some insane conditions at times, like this: http://bp3.blogger.com/_heWRvjK67EM/SAFZfQOHnjI/AAAAAAAAAQk/8-pVXDViw_A/s1600-h/P1080855.JPG They do have some riding experience (varying), and Jude is/was a bike mechanic (her last day was yesterday) as well as she's a cycle touring guide. The youngest woman was 20, and Jude is 25 I think. Pretty cool. p.s. one funny thing that sticks out to me was how Jude said she never eats mayonnaise, but on the trip, to get calories, and in part as its what they could get at times, they were wolfing down mayo - including putting it on cookies!
I went out on the road yesterday. As I was getting ready, it was pouring, no dumping, no, I started looking for scuba gear! I almost bagged it, but then the rain let up a bit, and I was really eager to ride. I had the waterproof tights on, booties, jacket, rain gloves, hat, etc. I also had a new set of Specialized All Conditions Armadillo Elite tires (my review here).I rolled out in the rain, and plunged down the descent from my house to the first climb. Up and over that (it's steep, but short), and out into the Lorane valley. The first 20 minutes or so are on Lorane Hwy with heavy trees, almost tree-tunnel type setup. It was wet. But upon popping out of the tree tunnel area, and passing the Grange... what was this? It was dry, and partly cloudy! I hammered on.About 15 minutes later, it'd gotten darn near hot (at least when you're wearing all the rain gear), and I stopped by the side of the road to shed. Off came the booties and jacket, stuffed into my rear jersey pockets. Onward, but then was really getting warm (well, relatively, was probably in the low 60's). Stopped again and shed the rain gloves. Riding at this point felt like I had a big messenger bag on - my jersey pockets were totally stuffed with rain gear (plus the food, pump, etc. I had in there already). Now for the series of climbs.The climbs are quite nice back in this area. There are wineries, and just the most beautiful trees at this time of year. Red, orange, yellow leaved maples line the road, making for a beautiful ride. I continued through the countryside, and wound my way back home. As I got back to the tree tunnel area, it was a little wetter, but fine.Now then, up the steep climb to my house, where obviously it started to rain again :) The rain was light though, and I didn't need to put any gear back on. This was a great ride. Oh, and the tires worked really well, amazingly well in fact - killer in the corners, and I've never seen a road tire spray up so little water in the rain, a definite bonus!
Today was my first ride on the WTB Weirwolf 2.55 LT 29er tire. ??I had it mounted up front on my fully rigid Niner. ??After inflating it, I was rather disappointed in the size. ??It seemed smaller than my Panaracer Rampage 2.35's. ??Upon measuring them, the Weirwolf has a wider casing/volume, but the Rampage has wider knobs. ??The "LT" portion is definitely true as well, I'd call this tire a semi-knob, as the knobs are very short, and not aggressive. ??I rode the local Ridgeline area, which is mild. ??The tire has decent volume, and felt squishy enough, but I did not find I felt confidence with it in the corners. ??It was fine on tacky soil, and at slower speeds, but when things got going fast, and there was a bit of loose, and really, I mean, only very minimal loose dirt, covering harder soil, it just didn't feel like it was holding that well, or felt like it was going to go at any second. ??I did not lose it, but, I didn't feel I could push it as hard either.In part, I suspect this tire is not intended for technical, or really aggressive riding, but who knows. ??It certainly seems to roll fast, and the large volume is great (although I didn't feel to be much more noticeable than the Rampages). ??If you ride mild terrain, and want a large volume, fast roller, it's probably a good choice. ??For me though, I think I will likely not be using it much more, but sticking with the dual Rampages, as they simply rock. ??I'll put some more rides on the Weirwolf to see for sure though.
Welcome to Mountain Monkeys! ??This site covers mountain biking, skiing, and various other activities as told and inspired by those who love their mountain-oriented activities.
Check out this blog: Up in Alaska: Jill's Subarctic Journal. Jill is working on doing the human powered Iditarod, as well as she does other long distance, extreme weather events. A recent entry shows an epic training ride: 68 miles, 9 hours, in 19 degree weather, in the snow, etc. Frickin awesome! Go Jill!
Matt was visiting for a few days, and we rode on Friday and Saturday. Friday we did Brice Creek, and Saturday Larison Rock. Both were good rides, even if I screwed up and had us do the Falls loop portion of Brice backwards (we probably had to hike 3/4 of the climb).Matt did a good job with the photos and blogging of them, so check these out:Brice CreekLarison RockMake sure to check out the photos page - you'll see we rode under the waterfall, and so on.Also, as Matt said, we know now that we'll almost for sure want to try to get in the Larison Rock shuttle while at Mt. Bike Oregon. I was absolutely hating life on the climb, but the descent was superb, and will be a great shuttle. It's not real long (3.5 miles), so we will be able to tack that on to whatever else we do say on Saturday. Probably a good Saturday will be to shuttle Alpine and shuttle Larison Rock. We may be knackered after Friday's epic, so a couple great shuttle runs will be sweet (Alpine has a few climbs during the descent, but it's probably 17 miles of descent and 1 mile of climbing :)It was harsh having been off the bike for a couple weeks, and just getting back from traveling, but what a great couple days we had. Matt had also scoped out this great hidden hot springs (we soaked in water up to 108 - or Matt tried the 108 pool, the 106 was plenty for me, and the rather chilly river was fun too).I also found that that Sport Legs stuff is quite effective (thanks Matt). And, that damn if the lemon-lime Sport Beans aren't awesome tasting (and I think working) when you are seriously bonked out.I rode my Niner at Brice, and the Reign at Larison. Have the Lyric fork dialed in fairly well now, liking that. Wished I had the Niner on the climb up Larison, but was glad to rip the descent on the Reign. I've upgraded to 8" front, 7" rear rotors on my Reign now (and may goto 7/7" on the Niner as well), for the long descents here. Makes a really nice difference, as I was getting some fade and such out of the dual 6" I was running before (especially somewhere like Alpine or Crawfish where you're into 5+ miles of continuous descent).
Check out these cool top tube protectors from Yancopads!
National Geographic Adventure magazine's latest issue has a great article on the "Snowman" trek in Bhutan. It was a fascinating article, and honestly, I would be seriously interested in doing this trek. The referenced article link looks like it is the full article from the print magazine, but I'm not certain. Regardless, it's a very good read. Over the last about two years or so, my interests in the kind of events or adventures I do has shifted from being more adrenaline oriented towards that of being a really great "journey" or "adventure", or "experience". This really centers around mountain biking (or road riding as well), but I've been doing a bit of hiking, and my wife and I are discussing a backpacking trip this summer (we have never done a true backpacking trip (plenty of camping though)). I've been enjoying longer rides, and have been itching to do either a hut-to-hut trip again, or some other multi-day journey. Some friends and I have been starting to consider a multi-day, full backcountry mtb trip. We've been looking at everything from a trip designed completely by us, fully self-sufficient, to things like the Ride the Divide, a 3 day, 100 mile mtb event in Colorado. My interests have really gone towards it being minimal people, very backcountry, as well as a very relaxed attitude (which doesn't mean we won't be doing big days or tough terrain, just that the people are relaxed and have the right attitudes). Unfortunately the two guys most likely to want to do this are both laid up with injuries at the moment. Likely independant of that, I am working on a small Oregon tour for myself and friends this summer. Camp-based, and riding in a couple spots: North Umpqua, MRT, and Waldo are probably the requisites, and hopefully this one epic day in Bend (70 miles from what I hear).
I'm a cyclist (mountain biker at heart, but spend a lot of time on the road as well), trail runner (no pavement for me!), skier, hiker, like to camp, romp in rivers, and generally spend as much time as I can in the mountains. I also love to surf and hang at the beach, but I don't get to do that much these days. I moved to Eugene, OR a few years ago, and am continuing to explore my local outdoor opportunities. The Lake Tahoe area of Northern CA is probably my favorite place to mountain bike (love the rocky trails!), but I love to ride any new trail I can get my hands on.
I also post trip reports from friends here; guys like Matt who is based in Silverton and skiing as much backcountry as he can year round (he goes to Las Lenas every summer), Rich, another backcountry skier as well as kayaker, and so on. Good times.
