From Sunburn to Snow

We've had some pretty wild weather swings here in Eugene, OR over the last 10 days or so. The weekend before last, I went on a road bike ride on Saturday and wore short sleeves, and actually got a sunburn! It was a gorgeous day, and hit temps in the low 80's. I rode on Sunday of this weekend as well, and it was still pretty warm. Then, during the week it rained and got colder... This past weekend though, it snowed. Yep. We actually had an accumulated 2" around our house on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning I went out for another road ride, leaving the house while it was snowing, and with temps in the mid to upper 30's. It was beautiful as well! It was not snowing hard, and was amazingly nice to ride in. I rode out doing a new chunk of rode that I hadn't been on, and eventually reached this place: You betcha, Whopperoonie Ranch! What a great name. I was unable to see the actual ranch itself (I only went a few feet down the road as I didn't want to trespass, and knew it was a dead end, etc.). Fun. By the time I got home this same day, it was sunny and the temperature was about 44. Of course not long after that it snowed again. Sunday was crazier. We woke up to the snow as mentioned, and then it got probably up to 50 degrees and sunny, then snowed, then sunny, then it hailed several times, and so on. Just wacky. From what I understand this is the latest its snowed since 1911. New record, set first Saturday, then again on Sunday.

First Real Ride On 29er

Today I did what I'll call my first "real" ride on my new 29er. By that I simply mean it was of decent length, and involved trails (even if it was a small chunk of the ride). There are two very short trails within town, so decided to see what it was like to ride over to one of them from my house, ride it and come back. The quick of it:Distance: 13.7 milesTime: approx 1 hour 45 mins (of which about 20 mins was on dirt :(Ascent: 2300'The trail, Ridgeline, was quite buff - with scenery/surroundings that made me think a lot of Skeggs/El Corte de Madera in the Bay area: shady with tons and tons of trees, lush, buff trail with a few small rooted sections. It was actually the perfect intro to a dirt ride on the rigid 29er. It is going to take some getting used to to be fully effective on a rigid bike! The thing rolls really well, and it climbs quite well. But, I did a small little drop off, and wham, uh, ya, there'd be no give at all in the rear end :) Interestingly enough, it's really the rear suspension that I miss/notice the most. I think the front is more obvious, and I'm lifting the front wheel as needed more. I will most definitely be getting some fatter tires for mtb riding (and I already received the Schwalbe Big Apple 2.35 mostly-slicks for town riding). The bike definitely rails the buff singletrack, very direct-drive. Any way you slice it though, it's a fun ride, just have to re-train my brain a bit. One note... I haven't played with tire pressure much on this bike yet I was running the tires pretty hard, mainly cuz I've been riding on pavement a lot. For real dirt riding, I could go lower pressure, plus, as said, I'd use something bigger (I'm riding the WTB Nanoraptor 2.1's, will likely go with some Panaracer Rampage 2.35's).The ride overall was nice, mainly because I got out for a couple hours on my bike in beautiful weather, and got to be on some dirt (even if it was weak). About 30 mins in I was pretty hurtin' and just bummin' over my fitness. But, by the end, cranking up some seriously steep hills, I was enjoying it a lot, and much more positive. Hopefully this ride, and some others will become a multi-day per week event going forward. Working at home again I'm feeling I'll be able to do that.

Tags: 29er, bike, Eugene

Figuring Out the Percent Grade of A Climb

You always hear about the percent grade of climbs during the grand tours, or other road races. The final climb up to my house after any road ride is a fairly harsh way to finish up a ride, and I wanted to see what it was.I realized I wasn't truly sure how they determined what the percent grade of a climb was. As it turns out, it's pretty simple, it's just rise over run, or the tangent of the angle. So, you can easily figure out the average gradient of a climb by using Google Maps for quick distance, and Google Earth for the elevations. You don't need addresses in Google Maps, just find the area on the map, and right click to set start and end points. In Google Earth you can just hover over the spot and look at the status info at the bottom to see the altitude (in meters). Using that, I found that the average gradient, over the .7 mile last climb to my house is 9.2%. Not too shabby.Now go figure out the pain of your local climb...

Even Loan a Wheel to a Pro? Check This Out...

There is a great thread over on SlowTwitch.com about a guy who loaned his rear wheel to Bobby Julich during the Tour of California this year, and the whole ensuing story. It's a long thread, but a great story, and has a good ending. Check it out.

Cycling Podcasts

I just found the Crooked Cog podcast, courtesy of the twentynineinches.com site. Haven't listened to it yet, but looks like it has potential. I've listened to a couple of Specialized's podcasts. What others are out there that are at least halfway good?I should note that I'm familiar with VeloNews, Bicycing magazine, Zipp, and various other more commercial entries, but haven't been interested in those. Obviously everyone's taste varies, but if you have ones you really like, lemme know!

Custom Eriksen Seat Post

Eriksen Seat PostOriginally uploaded by Christopher Bailey I received my custom Kent Eriksen seat post, and have now mounted it on my Niner. This is absolutely a beautiful piece of jewelry, I mean, bicycle component! Check out the picture. At 430mm it's very long (which I needed, or wanted to ensure a longer than minimum extension down into my frame). Another picture on my Flickr page shows the length if you're interested.

Crossmax 29er Wheels and Tubeless Setup

Niner Crossmax UpdateOriginally uploaded by Christopher Bailey I received my C29ssmax (Crossmax 29er) wheels yesterday, and got them mounted up today. They are sweet! First, I'm stunned by how easily I was able to mount up non-UST tires tubeless. I used some used Panaracer Rampages with Stans. When I first mounted them, I was worried because they fit really loosely. But, amazingly, I was able to inflate them first shot, with a floor pump! This doesn't even work half the time with UST tires (at least in my experience). Very nice.The wheels ride great. They feel a smidge lighter than my WTB Laserdisc Lites (they should, they're a 1/2 pound lighter, but I haven't weighed the bike to see what the overall weight difference is, given the other factor of tubeless vs. yes-tubes).

Crossmax disc boltsOriginally uploaded by Christopher Bailey Another interesting bit is that my front 7" disc is now perfectly quiet, whereas before I was getting some rub and squeek, even after several remounting/adjustments. Check out the picture of the disc bolts though - they just go straight through the mount. Wild.Very happy to have these wheels, and I can't wait to get into some terrain that really showcases the tubeless advantage. Need to go ride MRT again or something.

Crawfish Ride

I rode Crawfish yesterday, which you can do starting at the same place asBrice Creek. Here's the map. Many say Crawfish is better. I'd seen these pictures of Brice Creek and was eager to ride it. The DoD guys had just ridden it last weekend, but Brock suggested Crawfish, possibly hitting Brice at the end. We wound up not doing Brice, but that was no problem.We did Crawfish as a full loop, but many shuttle to the top, because theinitial climb is 6 miles up gravel road, and took our group 2.25 hours(and I was the first to the top, so you get an idea of the group'sclimbing speed :) Four of us were riding: Brock, Steve, Sarah, and myself.But then the descent just rocks! Best ride I've done so far here.All singletrack, all the time. And, there were rocks! The descenthad full on rock gardens, including a couple uphill sections, and thenjust tons of twisty, sometimes rooted, singletrack that went on for2.5 hours. Superb.Brock and I loved it. Sarah and Steve were not as enthused, asthey thought it was a bit too technical. Sarah commented at one point that we were riding down a river bed, not a trail. Heehee, that was one of my favorite sections! I do love the rocks. We were going to tie in Brice Creek at the end, but everyone needed to get back, and/or was wasted.Total ride was over 5 hours, with 5000' of climbing, 16.7 miles, two broken spokes (Brock), and this was the first mtb ride here where I didn't run out of water!

Brice Creek Ride On Niner

I rode Brice Creek today. This is an excellent trail, and was perfect for what I wanted today. It's on the shorter side as compared to the mtb rides I've done here in OR so far, as I spent exactly 2.5 hours out on the trail, which included flailing around at one trail junction trying to figure out where to go (which turned out to be relatively easy, but I had mis-interpreted the directions I had).The trail has some nice rocky bits, and superb views, of both the river/creek, and the waterfall. The pictures linked to above show the waterfall, which is cool, because you can actually ride behind it. This was certainly the first time I've ridden behind/under a waterfall.I rode my Niner today which was wonderful. I just have so muc fun with this bike. Sure, it does float over the rocky bits, or land airs like my Reign, but it's just a ton of fun, and is a nice change of pace.Drove home, and as I got into town, conversed with the family, and picked up some excellent Mexican at Fina Taqueria, and ate at a park. Gorgeous day too.

Bike parts, clothes, frames, etc. for sale

Recently got a bunch of photos and descriptions of random bike stuff I have for sale. Just a bunch of random stuff, but check it out.