Looks like someone has got a case of the lazies.

With finals and the holidays surrounding all my free time, I didn't get much done in the way of biking. However, now that Christmas is over I hope to get back at it. I look forward to regailing you with more tails of my adventures and some fresh photos very soon.

I hope you all had a good holiday season.

Winter bike expo and other goodies.

It has been a couple weeks since my last post as I have been very busy spending last week working on homework and setting up the Freewheel Winter Bike Expo!

I took the Lake boots on their first longer ride and they did pretty good for a while. About an hour into the ride however my feet started getting cold. I could tell right away it was due to the heat sink problem from the cleat. I could tell because the cold didn't start in my toes where it normally would, it started on the bottom of my foot. I have been hearing a lot of good things about the Aerogel insoles from 45Nrth, but I think I am going to buy the rabbit fur and the Aerogel insoles and see which are better. I am always interested to see if synthetic stuff can stack up against natural things. Much like tech materials versus wool, wool kills it every time. I think it will make a good gear review too.

On other news, we spent quite a few hours setting up the winter bike expo. It was a hoot! I got to see a lot of Freewheel employees I hadn't seen in some time and meet some new friends too. Lots of product transferring and cleaning and moving things and finally Friday night we had a bike expo ready for the next day.

When I had started working on the expo with everyone else they had already knocked out a wall and most of what we were doing was clean up. On Wednesday I drove the van from Eden Prairie to Midtown with the few obstacles we had out there. Then Thad and I took some trash to West Bank and picked up the mugs and Project One display. When we got back to Midtown we did a few other things but then I had to take off for class.

Thursday was spent bringing in fixtures for merchandise as well as bringing in the bikes for the demo rides. I also was introduced to a place called "the molding room", let me tell you that is an appropriate name. Another name that comes to mind that would be equally as accurate is the diarrhea hole, it smelt awful.

Friday was merchandise and beautification day. We turned a messy back room into a store front. It was pretty rewarding. The only part I didn't particularly enjoy was moving the obstacles around trying to get the flow of the course right. I payed for it the next day.

When I woke up Saturday morning I was so sore from moving so much stuff on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that I could hardly even move. I spent some time waking up and then stretched out for about an hour and felt much better, so I headed down.I am glad I did. I missed all the cool seminars on different fun things, which was a bummer, I really wanted to catch the one about doing the Arrowhead 135, but I missed it. There is always next year. I met a bunch of cool people like Trevor from Surly (bikes), Gomez from fat-bike.com, David Gabrys from 45Nrth, John Gaddo from Salsa, and a few other names that are not coming to me at the moment. I also just met a lot of cool random people that I didn't know before and that was a lot of fun. The fat bike race was a lot of fun to watch and there was plenty of beer and burgers to go around. I also got to see Pete from Fat Tire MN again.

In case you are not from around here or did not hear about this let me break it down for you. Minnesotans love to bike. We don't let things like a little cold or snow get in the way either. So it only makes sense that as winter biking becomes more popular that more winter events for bikes would come about. Luckily I work for the best bike shop in the nation so we really have created something that is a bit of a staple for winter biking in the Midwest. People did come in from all over.

So what is at a winter bike expo? Well, we have fat tire bike demos, we have bikes set up with studded tires so you can see how they handle on the ice, we have clothing out the wazoo. This was not just about retail though, we also had a bunch of seminars ranging on  topics from winter bike commuting to ultra endurance marathon training. Something for everyone really. Not to mention the owner of Freewheel unveiled his new carbon fiber fat bike made by his own bike company, Minneapolis Bike Company, which is also new! This was all followed up by a very fun to watch fat bike race with beers and food. Fun was had by all in attendance, you would be hard pressed to find a sad face after listening to Mario on the microphone calling the race. Everyone who was working to set this thing up put in a lot of work and it showed. That is what I love about Freewheel, we, as an entire company, pulled this off as a team. It was pretty great.

Boo for me I had to leave early. I got a text from my friend Thad the next morning that read: I woke up with a hangover and a black eye... best winter bike expo ever! I am already excited for next year...

Waiting for the fat bike crit to start!

The Yeti!

The Fat Bike Racers

Hanging around the keg

There was even a pirate!

This guy had some serious unicycle skills.

Spotted a sweet Jeff Jones bike, wowza!

Natalia getting rad.

Heavy on events, light on action.

Lots of developments, not a lot of riding. Fail.

I did end up commuting to school at least once last week. It would have been more if I didn't have to spend so much time writing up lab reports for my physics class. I put a solid 36 hours into 2 of them that were due last Wednesday, yuck.

The weekend was super busy as well. Ann and I are finally getting settled into this place and we got our storage locker emptied. One step at a time.

It snowed on Thanksgiving, not a whole bunch, but most of it is still around because the temps have been stuck in the low and mid twenties. I am excited for the arrival of winter. I also got a call from my boss the other day and he wanted to know if I was interested in helping set up the Freewheel Winter Bike Expo, my response was "Hell yeah!". I have been looking forward to this years winter bike expo since I found out there was one and I missed it a couple days after it happened last year. I really hope the snow pulls through and makes it a fun day. I've got the itch to put on my studded fat bike tires. I think as soon as I can put them on they will stay on until the snow is gone and I think I will be picking up some Larry's around that time, the Nate's are just far too aggressive.

I'm also going to be on the look out for a part time job through the holidays to pull in a little extra cash for presents for my loved ones and also a few bike parts I really want to score before all my races come up.

In other news about training I am going to start P90x again today, I will be following the lean schedule. I really need the endurance that this program brought to me the last time I did it. This combined with some hill training I have planned should do me well for getting race ready. I have no misconceptions that I am not going to win anything, but I just want to do the stuff and not look like a fool out there. I mostly just want to do these races just to do them, I don't really care much for competition.

I wish I had time to ride this weekend but I didn't. I also didn't take any new pictures. I have not posted any for a few weeks so I will just post some older ones that I like.

This is from spring of 2012.

Walker Sculpture Garden

Feb 2011

Boom Island Park lamp post

Awaiting the white stuff.

I know normal people don't usually get excited about snow and cold... but who ever said I was normal?

It snowed this week finally, even though it was only a little bit and it is already gone. It is a good reminder to start getting prepared for winter. I am doing exactly that. I had posted my Nokkian Gazza Extreme 240's online for sale and sold them the next day which was nice because that put a good chunk of change in my pocket. I was going to use the money from those tires to buy the new Xerxes tire from 45Nrth but I didn't get around to it. I attended the Freewheel Fat Bike Friday which is a ride out of the Freewheel at Midtown and they spend a couple hours riding the river bottoms.The ride kicked my ass big time, not just physically (48 miles at a 15 mph pace) but it also served to show me, once again, that I am not equipped for winter.

So I went to Freewheel later that day and picked up a pair of Lake MXZ 303's which we had in a wide and it fit my foot perfectly. I also have room to wear thick wool socks with them. I took them out for a spin in about 30 degree weather and my feet were toasty the entire time. I know that at some point I will have to do something about the insole and I think the answer will be rabbit fur insoles. I heard a lot of buzz about them and Sunrise Cyclery carries them for like $10. Even with my employee discount the new 45Nrth Aerogel inserts would cost me more than that. So I feel like it is worth a shot. Besides that if it gets really cold they may not work as well but I did find out that I can fit my neoprene booties over the boots. This would create a pretty nice stagnant layer of air that might help on particularly cold or windy days.

I am still going to pick up those studded tires for the Cross Check, but other than that I think I am ready for winter finally. Those boots will be a wondrous boon. I may have to experiment with gloves as it gets colder but so far a good base layer glove and the Pearl Izumi gloves that have wind blocking properties seems like it is working well.

In other news Global Fat Bike Day is going down on December 1. It is open to anyone who wants to come and I encourage you to come. We are aiming to beat out both Wisconsin and England. If you are interested then you can click here for details. It is a link for Facebook, you don't need an account to view the details. It is going to be just a ton of people so it is not going to be a super intense ride or anything. Come out with your fat bike and have some fun!

I did another ride earlier this week as well. Went out for some really good Chinese food with some people from the internet. All in all I rode about 35 miles in the cold and it was super fun. I always have a good time when I get on my Cross Check. Starting this Monday I am going to start commuting to school every day. The first week might only be 2 of the days but then I will do it every day. I am sick of making excuses about how far of a ride it is. I just don't care anymore, it makes me happy and I am going to do it.

That is all I got for this week. Get out there and ride.

A few things.

So I am back up North of the Metro and I find myself with an abundance of time, this is okay as I rode almost every single day.

I've got some things happening in my life right now that have returned me to Maple Grove for an undisclosed period of time. I have mixed emotions about this, for reasons I'll not talk about here I really despise this place, on the other hand I am only 7 miles from school. It is a really nice distance to bike, I feel like I rode my bike but I am not dead afterwards. It only takes roughly a half hour to get there because it is mostly down hill. Always up hill and always head winds on the way home; it is predictable and right now I'll take that.

So other than commuting I did a fat bike ride on Saturday afternoon. Woof, the weather was extremely beautiful. I could not believe it, when I got to the river bottoms I ditched a bunch of layers that I was anticipating needing. I wish I had brought a short sleeve jersey and some more water, I was dying on the ride. Friday night I registered for the Lake Minnetonka ice race and the first ever Fat Bike Birkie. I chose to do the 45k so I wanted to see what my time was like so there was not a lot of putzing around as there usually is on my rides, it was pretty much all business. Two and a half hours is what it came out to, that is with two Nate's for tires. If I can get that down to an hour and forty five minutes I will be happy. I believe I can do this well before March hits. I'm going to start some "training" on Monday, mostly to drop some pounds and strengthen my core.

No pictures really this week, I did snap some pictures of my bikes that I will post up in the "Bikes" section.

It's been one of those weeks...

Holy shit. What a week.

On Tuesday I said screw everything I'm going for a nice ride. So I went out for a couple hours and had a really fun and relaxing ride. Saw a golden eagle but couldn't snap a shot of him. Then I ran into this fellow:

I also found this:

and I got some "rad" air off it.

It was a ton of fun. I cannot put my finger on it exactly but something about the river bottoms between 35W and Cedar really make me happy.

I don't even remember when but my 45Nrth Dillinger studded fat bike tires showed up. For what they are, they are pretty dang light. I think that for what I have planned for them, they will work out fabulously. 

45Nrth Dillinger

So many things have happened this week that I am just emotionally drained. The best thing to do in those kind of situations for me is to go on a super long ride. So I planned on doing a century on Friday. It was a disaster.

My feet were totally frozen before an hour had even passed. I could feel the cleat just draining the heat from my foot, so I put on the neoprene shoe covers. They did absolutely nothing. A few miles later my feet were totally numb. I was stubborn though and kept onward. I kept trucking for a bit and was okay because of the increase in body heat.  

At mile 32 I took a rest and started considering turning around... again I failed to do this. I should have, but I didn't. So I kept going and made it to Water Town on the Luce Line State Trail. I needed to stop to get water and such so I did and when I got back on the bike all of my motivation had been drained. My knees were screaming because of the cold and my love handles were frozen solid too. So I pushed on to mile 40 and then turned around and started heading back. I had to stop a bunch of time because the cold was just tearing it out of me. Next thing I know it is dark. So I kept going super slow in the dark for about ten miles then I ended up having to get a ride home. I was completely shot. It is time to reevaluate my cold weather gear. We just got offered an employee purchase deal from Gore Bike Wear and I ordered a few items so that will be nice, but for now my riding is going to be a bit limited. I am also going to have to switch over to platform pedals because the cleats just act as a heat sink and it killed my feet. 

I'm hoping to get a few rides in this week. We'll see. I certainly need them.

Calming sensation.

This week was pretty rough, with a lot of things on my plate I was wound pretty tight about everything... until my ride on Saturday.

Last week was pretty lame. I had so much homework to do I didn't see the outside of the house except to drive to school. I didn't have time to run any errands or anything, it was just homework all day every day. Then Friday, my usual bike day, I had a bunch of errands to run so I ran them and then it got too late and cold, plus I was tired. On the plus side I got my Dillngers from 45Nrth ordered, they are supposed to be coming in stock by November so I should see them before the snow flies. I also picked up the front version of the Dave's Mud Shovel from PDW and a pair of wind resistant insulated gloves from Pearl Izumi, they are just big enough that I could put some liner gloves into them, so I suspect they should work out pretty well all in all. I also stopped in at Midwest Mountaineering as I had not been there in quite some time. I picked up a nice Shak City Roller jersey from Ibex. Let me just say, if I have not done so already, that I love wool clothing. Ibex in particular because of their lifetime warranty and the fact that most of their goods are manufactured in the United States. So after that I caught the movie Sinister, it was pretty decent. The only problem with all this was that at the end of the day I was stressing out about everything again.

Ann and I had a Halloween party to attend on Saturday night and I knew with my homework load that Sunday would be mostly homework so I had to get my ride in on Saturday. I decided to go explore the river bottoms between Lyndale and 494. I got there and saw another gent loading his fat bike up as I was getting mine ready. There was no wind, hardly any clouds, and the birds were chirping; It was almost perfect. I hit the trail and immediately the stress of the week started just melting away. It was so much fun to be out on the trail, it was not particularly challenging or anything like that, but something about not seeing anyone and the weather being so amazing just made the experience very relaxing. I got to see a bunch of things I had never seen before and there were some man made obstacles that I took on that were pretty fun. Mostly some cool log piles and rolling lengthwise down a log and things of that nature I also had a blast on the small rolling hills and picking up speed going around the corners and kicking up all the fallen leaves. I hit the Cedar bridge and it was a little chilly at this point but I was having so much fun I kept going. I went over the pedestrian bridge at Cedar and then continued on the trail to 494 at which point I crossed over to the island and rode around on it again and then on the way back left the island and connected back with the trail and then headed back to the car. On a side note, the Dave's Mud Shovel worked out perfectly. There was some pretty sandy sections and it kept almost all the sand off my water bottle and quite a bit of it off my legs as well. It also worked well for the couple of mud puddles I went through, I never had to worry about striking it with my pedal either. If you have been looking for a good front fender for your fat bike, I highly suggest it.

By the time it was all said and done I was a happy camper. I stopped on the way home and got a nice big hot cup of coffee and sat on the porch and drank it with Ann's cat. It was a really good ending to a really bull shit week.

I have also decided two things. First is that I am going to try to update this blog at least once a week, most likely on Sundays or Mondays. Secondly, I need to do a century on the Cross Check before the snow comes down, I have not done a century yet this year so I gotta get on it. (A century is a 100 mile bike ride)

That is all I have for this week, hopefully this next week treats me a little better.

Lazyness

It was a good week but low on activity.

I had no Thursday class this week so I went out on a nice four hour fat bike exploration ride. I rode around the river trail between 55 and Cedar, it was super fun. I did a lot of off route exploring and finally got on that island underneath 494. The mud was dried and cracking it looked pretty neat.

So I rode all the way down to the Cedar bridge and I saw a lot of cool birds: turkeys, a blue heron, great egrets, and a bald eagle. I was also admiring the handy work of the beavers.

On the way back I decided to really go off road and I went through the woods heading back towards the Sibley house. That was a mistake, I came to a spot where I could no longer bike, hell I could hardly walk. There was a bunch of tall grass getting caught my in derailler and chain, wrapping around my handlebars and it took me down a few times. The last time I fell on a sharp root that nearly impaled me. From that point on I took it on foot. I ended up hiking about a quarter mile in an hour. It was thick and hard to navigate. Once I passed the Mendota bridge I knew I had to be close, then out of no where the woods appeared again and I was able to navigate my way back to the trail. By the time I was all done my right leg was all bruised and scrapped up. It is bright yellow right now as I sit and write this.

Totally worth it...

Birthday Weekend

It has been a fun week.

Thursday night I got a call from Thad asking if I wanted to go on a ride and that I should bring beer. I said sure. So I hurried home and got changed and got my bike ready to ride, threw it in the car and took off for Thad's place. I got there and assembled my stuff quick and we were off to try to catch the train to meet up with some other fellas from the shop. We missed the first train by about 10 seconds so we waited for the next train and got off at American Blvd. We left the train station heading for the dry decent into the river valley area. It was fun riding it in the dark as I had never done so before. Night riding always makes me a little on edge because my biggest fear is running into some sketchy person or people at night. This was all fun though, cruising at a good speed and then hitting a patch of sand and not being ready for it really tested the fat bike and it did super well. We got to our destination and started a fire and cracked some beers and had a good chat. I got to know a couple people that work within the company but I don't work with directly. Also we burned some magnesium because it makes fun colors and burns really bright. All in all it was super fun, I learned that I need more options for cold weather gear and that riding and drinking on an empty stomach is not a great idea either, but I somehow knew that already but chose to ignore it.

Saturday was Death Rider's Fat Bike Adventure Ride II. The weather leading up to Saturday was very vague and made it seem like it was going to rain all day. It was overcast but slightly warm, perfect. I got everything together and loaded up the car. I grabbed some snacks and what not for the gas station on the way out, including bananas because I am convinced they can save any ride. I parked near the Sibley house because I thought the hill up to the meeting place would be a good warm up before the ride. As I was riding to the meet up spot my front derailleur stopped shifting, awesome just what I was hoping to have happen. I spent some time trying to get it to work and eventually just said "Screw it!" The chain was stuck in the small ring which I figured was not so bad because I was expecting a lot of mud, sand, and hills. We gathered up and Josh said a few things and then we hit the trail. We took a really back route way to the river bottoms and then zipped in and out of some trees and through some pretty thick mud. Then we literally climbed out of a hole and a bunch of other crazy stuff. I hung in there for about an hour and a half before I just decided this was not what I had in mind, I was not really struggling. It was more of the fact that we were having a pretty massive accordion effect. I was expecting it to be gnarly but it ended up being more hiking than biking, at least for me. A couple guys got a little upset, I wasn't upset at all. It was advertised a little differently than what it was, but Josh spent a lot of time prepping that ride and I think if you actually read his blog you should have expected it to be slightly brutal. Next year I'll be better prepared.

However all was not lost. Pete from Fat Tire MN was at the ride and so I finally got to meet him. When he broke off from the adventure ride I decided to go with him. We rode the river bottoms a little bit with a couple other guys that ended up dropping off too and we all went for a little ride. We all parted ways and I ended up going back to my car and heading home. It had started raining and I was already cold and soaked from some creeks we were riding through. So I headed home and had some pizza with Ann and then fell asleep while watching Louie. When I got up we went out to eat and then to my friend's house, where Ann had organized a surprise birthday party for me. She got me good.

This has been a pretty damn good weekend. I'm pretty lucky to have the friends I do and to be able to do all these things I get to do. Getting older is not a high priority on my list but I am starting to realize that a lot of it has to do with just not giving a crap. Just because I'm getting older doesn't mean I can't keep riding. It doesn't mean anything, it is an age and I will only ever be as "old" as I let myself be.

First impressions of my mukluk.

So I've had the Mukluk for a little over a week and have put a good 100+ miles on it now.

It handles single track pretty well even though I have found out I don't handle it that great, that is okay though, I am excited to learn and not almost kill myself on log bridges. Going over something thin with fat tires is not as easy as I thought it would be. It handles Elm Creek Park really well though, the long rolling hilly sections are its playground. It is good at eating up the log piles and rock gardens too. All in all it is fun as heck.

Now for the meat and potatoes. I was out just cruising with the fat bike along the Minnehaha creek bed when I noticed it was completely dry. So I veered to the right and went in it. I was not equiped for a long ride so I rode around slow and checked it out then ended up heading home. The next day however I spent 6 hours in the saddle just exploring the creek bed, areas around the MRT, Pike Island, and the actual river itself. WHAT A BLAST! I cannot say in words how happy this bike has made me. I have found my calling, I am pretty sure I was made to fat bike.

I went out again last night with a co-worker from Freewheel and we swallowed up 23 miles of river bottoms and then went to Matt's for a Juicy Lucy and some beers. Delicious post ride meal. I am writing this over my morning coffee and I am about to head out to where Lyndale ends by the river and explore out there for a few hours. All in all it has been a great week for biking.

Thanks for the photo Thad.

I've gotten fat.

Yesterday was a strange day. It was the first day in weeks I had not thought about my fat bike I had on order. I was too busy getting ready to move again and I was also studying for my first physics test. My girlfriend and I were just packing away when I got a phone call from work, they had my bike and it was ready. This call came in 1 hour before my physics test. D'oh! My seat post clamp on the Cross Check was broken so I couldn't ride my bike to school, it was only the second time this semester that I had not ridden to school. So I drove to school, knocked out my physics test, went home and picked up Ann and then headed out on some errands. The last errand was picking up the Mukluk 2. It was beautiful! 

Getting ready to load the beast.

I really need to get a roof rack and mod it to fit this guy.

So I got it home and it was dark and I was exhausted from a long day so we relaxed and watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie; hilarious.

I woke up early and sped over to Elm Creek Park to run some single track. I was making decent time and clearing all the obstacles and then in the part where it is kind of flat but mostly rolling hills I skidded into a corner and the alternator drop out on the side with the brake shifted. The tire was rubbing against the frame. Needless to say I was not pleased.

You can see how the drop out is maxed out to the rear.

So I had no tool to fix the thing because I was too anxious to ride and didn't bother packing a tool kit. So I ended up bashing the drop out against a tree to shift it back into place, I then proceeded to ride back to the parking lot very slowly. After almost taking out a family a deer I made it back to my car where I had a tool to fix the problem with the drop out. I wanted to do another loop but I had somewhere to be so I had to take off. Only about 6 miles for the first ride, not terrible but not what I wanted at all.

I ran some errands after the ride and then ended up stopping at work to return some shoes and put together a tool kit for the Mukluk. So I ended up picking up a spare tube, a seat pack, and a quick stick. I work at a bike shop so I have a ton of extra Allen wrench tools and I also already had a "big air". Kit complete. I also remembered seeing that Gas Tanks from Revelate Designs were back in stock at QBP so I ordered one of those up. I am excited for that. I picked up a Thomson seat post for the Cross Check and life is good again.

I have a wedding to attend this weekend in which I am the best man so that will be consuming a lot of my time, however I will get a ride in tomorrow morning before all the chaos starts. I know right now I will not be interested in swapping pedals out between the Cross Check and the Mukluk so I will need another pair of those at some point, other than that my only complaint on the Mukluk is the shifters, they are probably the weakest link. I would rather have primo shifters than great derailleurs  However, I love the bike so I don't know why I am even attempting to portray otherwise.

I am excited for tomorrow and the future for this fat bike. Already got another ride planned for next week with a guy from work, I might also try to do the river bottom ride with work mates next Friday.

The excitement is building...

I only put my money down on Friday but I am getting awfully excited about receiving my Mukluk.

I have been without a mountain bike now since April and I really miss riding on single track and just places I can't really get with the CrossCheck. Don't get me wrong, I have taken the CrossCheck to some places that most road bikes would have folded up and cried like the light weight pieces of plastic they are, but I would also like to do these routes with a little more control and a little more confidence on a bike that is more made for those sort of conditions. Hence: fat bike.

I had a lot of fun doing the one race I actually participated in last year, the freewheel bike frozen frolic ice race on Lake Minnetonka. It was a blast and I completely plan on doing that again as well as a few others. There was also a 3 part single track series that I missed out on due to lack of a fat bike that I will take part in again if they decide to have it. I also have my eye on the Fat-bike Frozen Forty, which last year was held at Elm Creek park in Maple Grove, a single track spot I am familiar with. I just want to put some miles in on the new fat bike.

Also, definatly not this year, but I am shooting for next year... I want to try the Arrowhead 135. Just to do it. It sounds insane and I was just looking at a topographic map of the route and it looks like it will certainly be a challenge, but I think with the proper training I can do it. We will see when the time comes next year. Of course next year for the Arrowhead 135 is in 2014. We will see what happens however.

I have all sorts of fun rides planned for when I get the Mukluk, I just need the damn thing to show up!

Worth the wait.

Things are finally coming up Millhouse.

I got my hands on a pretty nice compact digital camera so I can snap some cool pictures on my many adventures. I ended up picking up a Canon SX260HS. It has a lot of fun little features and the zoom is just killer. 12 something megapixels which is more than enough. I am really excited to get out there and test it out.

School has been kind of kicking my butt. Physics while interesting is quite hard for me, especially since our professor just kind of yells a lot and uses Harry Potter as an example of how to calculate acceleration, not very legit for those of us who don't give a crap about HP. Oh well, one semester is all I have to take, no biggie.

Oh, I also purchased a 2013 Salsa Mukluk 2 today! They did not have any at work but the first small Mukluk that comes in is mine! I decided to go with the small for the extra stand over clearance, the medium was more comfortable but the top tube and I were pretty close together, and if I ever had to get off the saddle and sank into a snow bank my boys would not be happy with me. So I will just get a little longer stem and a Thomson set back seat post. I am really excited to pick this bad boy up. When it comes in I will certainly snap some pics of it for the homecoming.

Here is what they look like this year...

 I borrowed this photo from www.fat-bike.com

Laboring the right way on labor day.

Wow! What a ride!

I drove from home and met Brian at his home in South Minneapolis and we departed around 5:30 PM on Sunday evening. We headed up to the Greenway and headed East to the river road. From there we headed over to the Mendota bridge and crossed that and basically followed the river to St. Paul Park. We did get lost but found our way. We knew we were getting closer because the hills were killer. Finally around midnight we arrived at the park which was littered with descents and climbs of all sorts. We got to the trail head, the camp sight was the kind where you had to hike in, we read the map and rode off on our way. We went about half a mile when we came to a climb that was too loose and steep to bike. Little did we know we were about to go straight up for about a half mile. Pushing a couple of fully loaded steel bikes up a grade that was steep enough that while I was pushing my bike I was only about a foot off the ground was intense, but we finally made it and set up camp. The reward was a couple lukewarm Surly Furious. I think I drank like 6 water bottles after we set up. I was dry.

The next day we ate a Cliff Bar each and headed out. Our destination was Perkins. We took off on the bike trail and ended up doing some weird super gnarly single track with our bikes. I was surprised at how well the  CrossCheck handled. This is until I rolled over some super mossy rock and nearly slid into a ravine. Oops. Then there was a hill on a hiking path that we had to push our bikes up, not a good way to start the morning. About half way up the hill the caffeine withdrawals started to kick in and so did the head ache. I became pretty irritable pretty quickly. There was one last hill leading out of the park that was so steep that when I came out of the seat to pedal my rear wheel spun like crazy. We made it out of Afton State park. There was still another 10 miles of really sucky hills ahead of us. We made it to Perkins. We sat down and ordered some coffee and water. The water was sat down and before she finished pouring the coffee the water was drunk. Then we downed the first cup of coffee. The wave of caffeine rushed over me and the world was right again. After slamming a bowl of fruit, a ham and cheese omelette, hash browns, and toast, we got back on our steeds and headed out. On the ride back we found the route we initially meant to take and it was a beauty. My everything was hurting at this point and it became pretty hot. I slowed us down considerably but I never quit or complained too much, even though at the time I felt like I did. 

Finally we made it back and I was a sweaty mess. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. On the way home all I could think about was dinner. I went out to the Olive Garden with my girlfriend, went home got drunk and passed out. All in all it was a great experience, something I want to do again soon before it gets too cold out. I learned a lot and there are definitely things I will do differently next time, but it was a great learning experience. I am looking to go south the next time, less hills.

New Developments

I went on a great ride yesterday. I am planning to go camping on Sunday and I am going to bike to my destination. Yesterday I packed up the tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes, etc, etc, in my panniers and went out and killed some miles. It was a great day for a ride, the end was a little hot but it was perfect otherwise. I have a spot reserved at Afton state park, all told from my place it will be a 45 mile ride. One of the guys from work is going so we may end up leaving from Minneapolis from his place, if that is the case it will be more like a 32 mile ride. That is okay, I am just excited to do something of this nature. I have been wanting to go camping via bike for a while now and I finally have the opportunity because the girlfriend is leaving Friday for her family's cabin and won't be back till Tuesday but I have to work Friday and Saturday.

Also it looks like the new Mukluks will be available very soon so that means I will have mine pretty quick. I have decided to go with the 16" even though it is a tad small. I can throw a different stem on it and get that bend back seat post. I would rather it be a tad small than super big so if I have to bail off the seat I don't rip my boys in half. So I am super excited because I have been craving a big dirt sandwich and some stinky river rides.

I am pumped for this weekend. I will certainly have a post on that after the weekend. For now, here is a picture from yesterday.

Same shirt, different day.

Long weeks at work and long commutes have made for less actions in the last couple of weeks. Just kind of waiting for school to kick in. Once that happens I will have a little more free time to do things like ride for pleasure, so that will be nice. I'm still having dreams of fat bikes, so much so I have decided to add more rubber to my CrossCheck. I am going to go from the Continental contact tire which is a 700x32 to the Continental Touring Plus tire which is a 700x45. So that should be a kick.

I attended the Salsa bike demo at Carver Park in Woodbury, where it's all good in the hood-berry. It was pretty fun. I got to speak with John, Eric, and Justin of Salsa bikes and they were all good people. I had a nice talk with Justin about the new line of bikes they are bringing out and where everything is headed. I also, of course, got to test ride some bikes. I rode the Horsetheif, Mukluk 2, Warbird, and Colossus. If I was into full suspension mountain bikes the Horsetheif would be a bike I would look into for sure. It was light, it climbed like a traditional 26 inch wheeled mountain bike and it was nimble in cornering. The Mukluk was a riot of course, that will be the fat bike I end up getting. It has been retooled so that the bottom bracket is a little higher and thus shortening the chain stays, that in combination with the new head tube geometry make the new Mukluk a very fun bike. The Warbird, which is aluminum, borrows from some of Cannondale's success with the Synapse road bike. They took the chain stays and made them really long and then they flattened them. So even though the bike is aluminum, with the fat bottom bracket and the frame design it rides really comfortably. It handles well in really rough stuff but not so good in like hairpin turns and such. If you are looking for a comfortable road bike for long distance biking and such, this would be a good option. Finally I rode the Colossus, which Justin called "The road bike for mountain bikers." It is steel but until I was told so I was under the impression that it was aluminum because of how light it was. I took a few hot laps around the parking lot, and I was really pleased with how well it handled and how fast and responsive it was. It had a fair amount of gitty-up but really shined in how much speed you could keep going through corners and coming out of corners.

All in all it was a great experience. I will most likely be getting my Mukluk here in September. I'm excited.

All these little things.

So I have been riding quite a bit recently, there is still room for improvement but I feel good. I've been riding down to Minneapolis every Monday to meet my girlfriend after she is done working. I have also been commuting every Wednesday and Thursday to work. There have been other little random rides on the days not mentioned and I think I am going to start doing the "Sunday Fun Day" rides on Sunday morning out of the Midtown Freewheel location, they look like a lot of fun and I like fun. My goal of 4500 miles for this year, which is 500 more than last year, is in sight.

So after some consultation from one of my inspirations for starting this blog in the first place, I am going to start saving up for a decent quality point and shoot camera so I can take and post more ride photos. I see so many things that stick in my memory when I am out riding that I wish I could capture to show everyone, soon I will be able to do that.

I am still waiting to see what Surly and Salsa will be doing differently for fat bikes this year but I am pretty sure I will be looking at a Surly still. I am stoked, it will be my birthday present to myself.

Only about 3 more weeks before fall semester starts, that is awesome and weird. I will really miss working at Freewheel as often as I do now, I will still pick up a shift once a week but it is just not the same. I really have never had a job that has made me so happy and made me feel so fulfilled, ever in my life.

Sorting things out.

Just out for a ride. It is hot and windy and I found out my mother has cancer. That kind of news has a way that always makes you reevaluate what you think you know.

On The Road Again

On Monday I took a nice 30 mile ride from home (Brooklyn Park) to South Minneapolis via the River Road and the Greenway. Met my girlfriend at her folks place near her work then we rode our bikes down to the Lake Harriet beach area and cooled off for a swim.

It felt really good to be riding for no other reason than I wanted to. Having the time to ride because I wanted to felt even better. I miss all the adventure of biking. Things like unannounced races with roadies who ride in the road, detours due to cranes being erected in bike paths, and all the nature you could want. It is a good feeling.

I realized recently that I don't post a lot of pictures any more. Part of that is because it is kind of a hassle to drag my DSLR around and the other part of that is that my phone takes awful pictures. I think it might be time to invest in a point and shoot digital camera for easy picture taking.

I am about to embark on a ride to work, so for now I'll be signing out.

...and now I can breathe.

Oh boy. Lots of stuff has happened since the last post. Let's jump to it.

I got my Surly built and it went much better than I had expected. I ended up using a Sram Rival cyclocross drive train kit. This included cranks, bottom bracket, chain, cassette, rear der, front der, shifters, avid shorty 4 cantilever brakes, and all the cable and cable housing. I really like the functionality of the group set and it was pretty affordable as well. I bought a basic kalloy seat post and put my B-17 special saddle from Brooks on there. It has been exceptionally comfortable for me right out of the box. For handlebars I went with the Salsa bell lap, I like the ergonomic grip section in the drops plus I like how they shoot away from the bar kind of like their wood chippers. I used my front wheel off the old bike that came from Handspun at QBP, it is a Mavic touring rim with a Deore XT hub and straight gauge spokes, so it is heavy but bullet proof. One of the fellows from work hand built my rear wheel. For the rear I went with a DT Swiss 350 laced with straight gauge spokes onto a DT Swiss TK540 rim, basically another bullet proof wheel. Heavy, but indestructible.

My original thought was to have the mechanics at work build up the bike for me but due to financial limitations and a desire to learn about my bike I opted to put it together myself. So I had the guys at work chase the bottom bracket threads and shave the paint out of the head tube area as Surly is renowned for using a metric shit ton of paint, which is a good thing in my opinion. So after that I took the frame home and started slapping parts on it. I started with the bottom bracket and crank set, then put the cassette on the rear wheel. However I then realized I should have probably done the head set first so I took the crank arms and bottom bracket off and cleaned all the grease off of them and took the frame back to work and use the head set press and then took it home and re-installed the bottom bracket and crank set. Next was the wheels and seat post so I could hang the bike from the work stand. From that point I added the brakes and front/rear ders. Then I added the chain and measured and cut the cables. Last but not least was wrapping the bars.

It was actually a lot of fun and challenging for me but I learned a hell of a lot. I did an alright job even, when I brought it in and had it checked over it was really just minor derailleur adjustments except I had routed the chain on the outside of the cage of the rear derailleur as well, oops. Other than that it went great and I have put on almost 500 miles on it so far. I wish it was more but I have been busy with other things which are now done so now I can make more time for riding.

Once again I have fat bike fever. I think I have finally come down on the side of the Surly Necromancer. I like that it comes with the Moonlander fork and has the Darryl's rather than the Large Marge rims. More float. Another bonus in my opinion is it comes standard with a 36/22 Mr. Whirly Offset Double crank set, which makes a lot more sense, I dig it. Also the Surly, unlike any other readily available fat bike comes with vertical dropouts which allow for a single speed conversion if one wanted to.There are just a ton of options that appeal to me with the Surly over the Mukluk or 9ZERO7s. I like options and I know I like how steel rides now, it might be a little heavier but I can live with that.

That is all I've got for now. My goal this week is to ride at least five times this week. I'll post back with an update later.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I have got a lot to report for this post so bare with me.

First of all as I had mentioned last month I got a job as a sales person at Freewheel Bike in Eden Prairie and I love it. I have been doing well and learning a ton about bicycles, parts, the bike industry, and all the different types of cyclists out there. I really like Freewheel because they don't discriminate against any type of cyclist. They are not road snobs or extreme mountain bikers or hipster fixie riders, everyone is welcome. I think I am a good fit there and that it is a good fit for me. I have never had a job that I actually loved to go to.

Second my girlfriend finally got a bike! It is a Trek 7.5 FX. It is more like a road bike with flat handle bars than a hybrid. It has a 2x9 drive train with pretty decent components and she is able to ride it much easier than her old billion ton pink Target Schwinn. She is excited and I am stoked for her. This will be a fun summer.

My bike is trash. The Dawes Lightning Cross that I paid $450 for on bikesdirect.com is finally dying. I knew it would happen sooner than later but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly into it's second season. However, I've got over 6k miles on it so I suppose I have totally gotten my money's worth. So what am I going to do? I am going to do a custom build. This is something I have toyed with in the past but it has always seemed so expensive. So now that I get an awesome discount it is way more within my reach. I am going to do a Surly Cross Check with the Sram Rival cyclocross group. I am still figuring out the wheels but I think that I can use my nice Mavic rim with the Shimano Deore LX hub front wheel that I have, at least for now and I am kind of leaning towards a DT Swiss rear wheel. There is a lot of buzz about how awesome their wheels are. More on that later.

I'm nursing an injured back right now and hopefully will be back in commission by this coming weekend. As for now I gotta head to the chiropractor before I head to work.

That's all for now.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I didn't forget about this blog, I have just been super busy. I may have made Dean's list this semester so obviously that is a big time suck. I also have not been as active on the bike as I would like. Things have changed a lot however.

I recently started working at Freewheel Bike in Eden Prairie, this is huge for me. It has restored my love after a dreary winter and spring. I am still working at the coffee shop but that will end soon. I am biking there today actually, hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can bike to the bike shop too.

My girlfriend is still on the hunt for a new bike. We are looking at the Surly Ogre, she is afraid of the drop bars and I don't really blame her. That or she is looking at the Novara Safari from REI. Both of them are nice steel frames but I feel like the Safari would be more enjoyable to her, as it is lighter and probably much easier to ride.

Frustrations.

I have caught fat bike fever again as well. Every time it snows I just wish I had a fat bike, I reckon that no one would see me for days at a time. I ride by a giant pile of snow and I think to myself "That would be fun to ride over.". It will happen some day.

After I fix the fenders that I messed up I should be good to go with the road bike again. I did ride it roughly 32 miles to work last Friday and it was good to be back on the road. I was surprised to find it only took me about an hour to travel 16.5 miles, that is pretty good time for me as far as I know.

I am considering selling the mountain bike so I can put some of the money into a new wheel for the road bike and put the rest into the savings for the fat bike. I am also looking for a rig for the girlfriend, she wants to try biking this summer and who am I to say no?

Leave of absence.

After extensive riding on the single speed, I have found that it is in fact too short for me so that is out.

I had taken the road bike down for repairs when I got my new front wheel. Deore XT hub and a Mavic rim, very nice wheel, I will be getting the rear to match it very soon. In the mean time I have replaced my brake pads, brake cables, and handle bar tape. I also disassembled the drive train for major cleaning and slapped a new chain on there. The new wheel will have to be nine or ten speed compatible, because should I ever want to upgrade my rear derailer nine or ten speeds is the only game in town any more really. Which is fine, I just don't currently have the cash flow to upgrade a new derailer and shifters. I also disabled my brakes from the STI levers that I never use and now they are controlled strictly by my "cross" levers on the flat part of my drops. I also put the finishing touch on the bike and added fenders, I am in the final stages of mounting them as I had to trim some of the V-brace ends up a little, but it is looking pretty slick as of right now and should be fully operational later today.

I think I'll ride to work on Friday. Should make for a good and fun test ride.

I once was lost but then realized I was reading my map wrong...

I took my bike on the bus to school again yesterday. Once I arrived at the Brooklyn Center Transit Center I decided I didn't want to wait another 30 minutes for the bus and then an additional 20 for the bus to get me to my location so I took off on my bicycle. Brooklyn Park/Center is a confusing area to me. Mostly because Brooklyn Blvd cuts diagonal through both of them, kind of like St Paul and 7th. Any way, I got super lost because I was reading the map on my phone incorrectly and also I didn't have the satellite gps enabled so it kept telling me I was somewhere I was not. Well after I was already late for class I figured out the way. I made it to school with about 5 minutes left of class. So I turned around and rode home. It was a nice day but again my thoughts are on different bicycles, such as the kind with fat tires. I am really just thinking of winterizing my road bike a little more or something because I want to commute still but riding 30+ miles on this single speed is just brutal.

Picture of the day: More ducks, these ducks got up real close to me so I gave them some of the crust from my PB & J.

Just Because...

My Tuesday night class was canceled so I figured I would ride the bus to school and ride the bike home along the river road. There were some spots in the path that made me wish for gears, however, I still love my single speed. Though my thoughts right now are of fat bikes.

I came to a stream that was an offshoot of the river and it was located just after the park that is between Brooklyn Park and North Minneapolis on the west river trail. Literally hundreds of ducks in both directions.

Then this ice water fall was just down the hill from Gold Medal Park on the west river trail.

It was a fun ride home, I do not regret taking the long way.

Lake Minnetonka Ice Race

On the 21st I attended the Lake Minnetonka ice race. It was a hoot. I got a little cold at first but warmed up within a lap or so. I got lucky right out of the gate because someone fell right away in the big group which put me out way ahead. I then proceeded to pass people who were falling and just not able to get enough traction on the ice to go fast. I was doing very well, then in the last lap Nate Schuff, who ended up taking first, just blew past me like I wasn't even there, it was insane. I had some people on my heels but they couldn't get the traction in the straights that I could coming out of the turns and I was able to keep the gap fairly big between us. Then I thought I was done and the guy pointed at me when I finished, which I thought meant there was another lap so I kept trucking. When I was about half way around I noticed I was the only person left out there I lapped some people that were going fairly slow and then I finished. I don't know exactly where I was but I know I was in the top five.

Once the results were posted my name was not in the top five. That is okay, it was a pretty loosely organized event and it was also my first race. These things happen. 

All things considered, I had an awesome time.

The fellow in front of me was bottle necking myself and the other guy behind me at every turn, we finally over came him when he fell, again.

The race start, I was late so I am in the way back.

Myself on the orange bike taking off out of the turn and leaving the rest of the racers trying to bridge the gap.

Some cool dogs were there too.