Renewal through riding.

A couple days ago I found myself with a large block of time that was totally unspoken for so I decided to go for a ride. I ride almost every day but it is usually to work, I had not been on a recreational ride since Easter, so I seized the opportunity.

I was aiming for a century which I later realized was a little too ambitious but I did end up coming close. I rode on nearly every surface you can think of that is readily available in Minnesota. Bike path, street, gravel, crushed limestone, dirt, mud, water, and single track. Doing this type of adventure was definitely made more fun by having the ECR. That bike can do anything.

I took the LRT regional trail out to Hopkins and kept on going through til it spit me out in Chanhassen, I was trying to follow the signs to get down by Murphy's Landing but got turned around somewhere and ended up by Lions Tap and 212. I topped off my water bottle at the artesian well and started climbing back up the obnoxious hill towards Pioneer Trail. Then I headed west into Chaska. I crossed over 41 and took a rest stop at the gas station then hit the trails going around the lakes. While I was riding around the lakes I saw one of the openings for the trail to hop on to Mammoth, so I hopped. All of a sudden it spat me out on the side of highway 41, so I took that north to highway 5. I took highway 5 over to Carver Park Reserve and then got on the Minnetonka Regional Trail to start heading back.

A more prairie covered section of Eden Prairie.

I took another break in a shaded boat launch in Minnetonka close to where the regional trail is closed for the bridge maintenance. I took the road around and eventually found my way back on the trail. I took the trail back into Hopkins and stopped at The Depot for a delicious coffee and sandwich. I left The Depot and headed north on the Cedar Lake trail which brought me back to the Greenway. I stopped in at Midtown to lube my chain because my drive train was making all manner of sounds. Then I continued on to the river road and took that south to 35th and met my roommate at Blue Door Pub for a burger and a beer. It was delicious. We mounted up and headed up on 38th street.

Some blurry Mammoth.

The bridge is up now, hopefully the regional trail will open up again soon.

All told I ended up putting on about 80 miles. I was pooped and my legs are still sore but it was totally worth it. The time out there in the saddle really helped me to clear my head and relieve some of the mounting stress I had building up. I always tell people that cycling is the best anti-depressants that money can buy and it is true.

Summer time.

Since summer has hit I have had a lot less time to ride. In addition to having less time to ride most of the trails I like to ride have been under water since the snow melted. Then it started to rain. I've been riding nearly every day but it is just to work or to the grocery store and back. Nothing really spectacular.

We did the camping trip through Freewheel at the end of May/beginning of June and that was fun but pretty uneventful. Three people signed up and three people showed up. It rained a lot. We all had fun and a nice ride back on Sunday.

Other than that, I have not been doing a whole lot of riding. It is kind of a bummer but at the same time my ride into work every day has been pretty enjoyable. Just yesterday I got a job offer from a company to do what I went to school for and I will be starting with them near the end of July. It seems that I will still be able to commute to work via bicycle because they have a shower and a locker room. So that is promising.

I hope to be doing some more camping soon so I'll have something to report when that time comes. If it ever doesn't rain all week I could even do just a nice quick overnight. July is on its way so I assume the rain will trade places with the sweltering heat. Huzzah!

That's it for now.

Camping season.

On Monday I am fleeing the city to go sleep under the stars for a week. I couldn't be more excited. Blue Mounds is my destination. The original plan was to head up North but the forecast looked very unfavorable. So a new plan was formulated and executed. I must say as a side note that I was overly impressed with the ease at which you are able to change a campsite reservation from the Minnesota DNR's website. Kudos to them!

In more bikey related news, we've got a camping event through Freewheel in which myself and Joe will be leading a small band of happy campers into the "wilderness" and showing them that there is nothing to fear when it comes to bike camping. The event is scheduled for May 31st. It costs $10 to join. The details can be found here. The weekend before the trip, May 24, I will be holding a small gear inspection where you can come and ask all your gear questions both big and small as well as have me rifle through your stuff to see if you would have what you need to do the overnight. I am really looking forward to this event as the one in the winter was a big old flop.

Come camp with me!

Camping!

I didn't do one post during the month of April. Things have been moving fast for me with school and other stuff. I haven't done a lot of recreational rides or exploring. Mostly commuting, which is great still but I am longing for some off road riding.

A few days ago I gave a seminar on bike camping. I think it went fairly well, I was a little less prepared than I had hoped but I think it went alright anyway. I'm going to be leading a bike camping trip on May 31st to Carver Park Reserve. This is going to be a nice short overnight trip to help people who are worried about taking the first step. Bike camping is not rocket science but it can be intimidating. Hopefully this will be a good supportive opportunity for folks to come give it a worry free trial run. I'll probably offer a quick gear inspection day around noon on the 24th of May.

Some of the details are still being hammered out but it will soon come together. As I have more things to share I will post them here to share with you all.

In other news, I will be camping from the 19th to the 23rd up North. It won't be bike camping but it will still be fun and I am excited to get away for a few days. I'll probably have things to post when that time comes.

Thanks for tuning in.

Super Happy Fun Times.

I've been getting some good rides in with my buddy Joe who will be rolling down the Maah Daah Hey trail with me later this year. We are trying to get some more substantial miles in our legs for the upcoming trip. In addition to that I'll be on my bike a lot more as I am moving back to Minneapolis! I scored an internship with the city of Minneapolis and it sounds like I'll have no problems bike commuting to this job. That makes me very, very happy.

Yesterday was the 30 days of biking kick off ride. I had a really good time. I heard a few complaints about it being a slow ride but there was 260(+/-) people there. When you have that many folks, it is not going to ever be a "fast" ride. Despite that, it seemed like everyone had a good time. I was a ride marshal so I was sprinting up and down the line trying to make sure cars didn't take us out. I had a lot of fun doing it and people were being very kind and grateful. I got to meet so many new friendly folks and saw a lot of familiar faces. To some people these rides don't sound appealing for one reason or another but you should honestly go to one of them at least once. The positive vibe of the event was very uplifting. There is something about that many people of all walks of life congregating to ride bikes together that just makes you feel good. From old folks to young kiddos in trailers or trail-a-bikes, fair weather cyclists to hardcore riders, ti mountain bikes to the oldest most beat up Schwinn you can think of, we had it all and it was great. We have a pretty special thing here in Minneapolis, don't take it for granted! I didn't have time to take pictures really but you can find them all over the place. If you have Facebook just search #30daysofbiking

That is all I got for now. Be well.

First outing of the season and other things.

On Friday I took off for a camp at the river bottoms with a new buddy that has been coming to my Sunday rides at Freewheel.

I met him at his newly purchased home and we rolled out. When we got over by the falls between the VA hospital and Fort Snelling, he was thinking his tires were a little too low. So we stopped so he could brake out his pump to add air. Low and behold, the pump was no good. I was able to rig it up a little bit to put some air in there and we were on our way.

Rolling out.

When we got to the trail head I snapped a couple pics of our bikes.

Trail head.

As soon as we hit the trail we figured out this was not going to be easy going. It was really soupy. The snow was soft and nearly impossible to get traction in, especially with fully loaded rigs. So we did a little hike a bike and pushing and riding and kick pedaling. We finally got going and Robert had forgot to shift out of the big ring and was in the lowest gear in the back and snapped the chain. Woops. Cross chaining strikes again! So I start in and pull out my spare master link and chain tool, I remove the busted link and am struggling to get the master link to work. What the hell? Oh crap, he has a 9 speed chain and I have a 10 speed link which is much thinner. So I proceed to ghetto rig the chain. It worked. So we rode a little bit down the path and then hopped off at an undisclosed location.

After hiking across a semi frozen stream we found a nice spot to set up camp. I got my hammock up and Robert got his tent up and while he was getting stuff situated I got the fire roaring. After we were all situated I made some dinner and had a beer. We kept the fire going and chatted a bit before we called it a night.

Fire

Right as we were turning in for the night we learned what the fox actually says. It sounds like someone being murdered. I suspect they were fighting over rights to mate. Who knows though. Later in the night we had the full nature choir going off. Fox, coyotes or some sort of howling dog like creatures, owls, and the foot steps of curious deer and raccoons. It was a good night.

I used my hammock for the trip and it worked out pretty well. I screwed up the ridgeline so my tarp was saggy, but my guylines were pro stock. Thanks to my friend Kinnell who took the time to explain how he set his up, they worked great. The underquilt I bought from Arrowhead Equipment worked so good but I still need to get rid of it. The thing is synthetic so the smallest I could get it would about the size of two footballs end on end. So basically it took up all the room in my backpack, which I didn't like. I need to get a down underquilt if I am going to be doing this kind of stuff again. Other than that the only problem I had was my boots freezing.

I woke up in the morning and forced my feet into the deformed and frozen boots. I got a fire going and stood by it while they thawed out enough for me to get them into place and tied up. I've been pleasently surprised with those Keen boots. They are super warm, even when they are frozen.

Robert and I had some breakfast and got all packed up to hit the road. It had gotten much colder over night and it wasn't warming up too much in the morning either.

Summer sausage, cheese, and oatmeal. Yum.

Packed up and ready to go!

We got back to the path and since the snow had frozen over night it was rideable. Not by much because of all the deep foot prints that were like potholes but it was faster than walking. So we were riding along and I looked back and Robert was nowhere to be seen. So I turned around and went back and he came around the corner holding his chain is his hand. D'oh! He said not to worry about it and he would just walk. I offered to fix it one last time and he said he would be fine. I was cold and wanted to keep moving so I agreed. I pedaled my ass off and made pretty good time.

I got back to my car and loaded up and cranked the heat and then went and got a nice hot coffee. All in all it was pretty successful, except the mechanical issues. Robert ended up running into someone who helped him with the chain and then he rode to the bike shop and got a new chain, a chain tool, a spare master link, and a new pump. I also picked up a pump this weekend because I have been just rolling around with a big air for backup. Kind of stupid when I think about it.

The Sunday Funday ride this week was amazing! We had a really good turn out of people and since it was a little colder and a lot of the good riding areas are all screwed up right now, we decided to do the southern half of the Grand Rounds.

I got to meet a bunch of new cool folks and we had a good time. We rode around down towards the falls via Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet and then ended up cutting over on 42nd to the river road which we took North to the Greenway and then up to the West Bank where Pete was supposed to be there grilling for us but he had food poisoning! Woops! We made the best of it and headed over to Pizza Luce in Seward and had some beers and lunch.

Wow. Much success. Such ride.

Dave Knox, Phil Velo, Robert Brown, Adam Turman, and Charles Youel

My Bike is Weird or The Story of the Fender and the Wheel.

So I've been riding the ECR quite a bit as of late and with the warmer temperatures my face was getting a toxic salt shower. I had decided it was time to get a front fender on this beast.

At first there was a problem with the clip on fender for the front I had purchased, namely the mounting bolt for the dynamo light interfered with the fork crown plug. Not to mention the step up in the fender would interfere with the actual light itself.

It don't fit Pa!

I had also purchased some Cascade 29er full fenders from Planet Bike for when I started touring more with the ECR, so I decided I would try to put them on. The Knards are just too damn wide. The fender wouldn't fit. I got pissed, then I got creative.

I started thinking about all these elaborate plans to modify the fender with a heat gun or make my own set out of a sheet of polypropylene. Then the simplest idea hit me, the one that made the most sense. So the next morning I went to the hardware store and picked up a few supplies.

Mounting bolts and washers and a strip of steel. Let's do this.

 First thing I did was use the big washer and put it near one of the ends and traced the outside of it for rounding the corners of the steel and then marked the middle as well so I knew were to drill the hole. This thing didn't have to be perfect, it just had to work.

The grinder and I getting to work.

After I ground the edges down and filed off the burs, I put the bolt through it and marked where I would need to make the bend in the steel. Once I had my mark I put the steel in the vice and bent it. Then I bent the other side and cut the excess off. Marked another hole and drilled it and did some more corner rounding.

Ready to drill the next hole.

Once that was all done, I found the center on the long side and drilled another hole. I mounted the plastic clip for the fender, put the mounting bolt for the light through and figured out where I needed to cut the bolt off.

Finished mounting bracket.

I mounted it up and it fits snugly, then I had to modify the fender itself a little bit. When I say modify the fender, I of course mean cut it up. So I cut a little slot for the dynamo light bracket to stick out. I did it just right and it fits nice and clean.

Snug as a bug.

No more salt in my face/eyes/mouth.

I rode to class last night and it worked like a charm.Other than one dry knuckle from the grinder throwing hot pieces of metal at it, I had no injuries. I don't take on these projects too often but when I do it is always rewarding to accomplish the mission and have something that works.

It has arrived!

I finished up the ECR. It was a challenge to be sure. I learned a hell of a lot and it was fun but I probably wouldn't do it again.

Schmidt hub and Supernova lights. They really are bright.

Finished building the front wheel, put the rotor on, and the tires!

Front light and handlebars with shifters and Paul Engineering brake levers put on.

So close I can taste it. Just need to put the rear wheel together and string the cables and housing up!

All done!

Beastly.

I took it for an inaugural ride to Birchwood with my buddy Joe who helped me finish it. It is a lot of fun to ride. I took a leap of faith on it, buying and building it up sight unseen. I had never ridden one. I suspected the geometry was exactly what I wanted and I was right. Let me tell you that these Knards are a lot of fun. The bike doesn't accelerate super fast but when it gets up to speed, holy crap it just rolls like butter. Hopefully Surly makes a smooth tire for the 29+ crowd like they did with fat bikes and the Black Floyd.

I'll be doing a little longer ride tonight to school, we'll see how it holds up.

Marcus Nalls

On Monday Februrary 3, Marcus Nalls was hit and killed by a drunk driver while he was riding home on his bike. The fellow that hit him blew a .27 which is about three times the legal limit. He has been charged with a felony and will start trial tomorrow. Yesterday was Marcus' memorial ride. Over 200 people showed up in solidarity. It went very well and everyone was respectful; the police, the riders, and the drivers whom we were holding up for the ride. It doesn't matter to me that he was a cyclist, I'm just bummed he was taken away so young.

Lots of people showed up at Loring Park.

More ECR...

Rear wheel with rotor!

Cranks

Bryan posing with my bike.

I added more parts to the ECR today! Cranks, deraillers, brake calipers, and a rotor to the rear wheel.

Planning....

Coming to a reality near me in fall 2014....

The ECR is coming, the ECR is coming!

My ECR frame has arrived. I have begun building it up and I am super excited.

I ripped open the box that contained the frame so I could get started chasing the threads and facing the bearing cup surfaces. I wanted to get it done so I could spray frame saver into it. Low and behold, Surly is now using the ED coating just like All City does. Hooray!

ECR

Faced and chased. Coated on the inside, yum.

So after I faced and chased the frame with help from my buddy Joe, I got to work putting in the headset. I went with a nice and easy Cane Creek 40. It is a solid headset and economical. I threw on the stem and didn't really have any of the other parts available so I called it a day.

Headset, fork, and stem installed.

 A couple days later I came back to build up the rear wheel. I have never built a wheel before so I tapped my friend Joe for help again. He walked me through it while I did the labor. It was fun and a very cool experience.

The pieces.

The whole.

I laced the DT 350 to the Velocity Dually rim. It is a beefy wheel but surprisingly light. Today I ordered the front hub a Schmidt Son generator hub. The hub and the lights should be arriving this week I hope. Some of the parts came in from Shimano, but no crankset yet. I have everything else besides the handlebar which is on order from Soma Fabrications. I decided to go with the Clarence bar, it should work out well.

I am really stoked to get this thing finished up so I can start riding. I was worried I wouldn't have it turned around in time for spring, but I found a solution. More updates to come soon.

Updates

I've got some parts coming for the new ECR, I'm pretty excited about that. I should have this thing ready to go by the first week in February. Woop!

I've been doing some pretty boring rides just to help alleviate the cabin fever. I don't want to drive somewhere to ride so I've just been riding around Maple Grove, which is fine but it has become far too familiar. I've been trying to do some exploring but with all the fresh powder and considering I am the only person out here riding it seems, I get about 10 miles in before I am dog tired.

I've been doing the Sunday Funday fat bike ride but hardly anyone shows up so I don't know if I will continue to do it for much longer. The whole idea is for it to be a group ride and when it is just myself and one other, well I could do that almost any day. To be fair I have not been pushing it super hard either. I will see how things go in the next few weeks. If they continue how they have, I may throw in the towel.

In other news, I'm planning some fun bike trips for this year. First is a four day weekend at the Maah Daah Hey trail in North Dakota. Probably around May, assuming spring comes when it is supposed to. The second is a tour starting in Washington and ending in Idaho. Planning on starting in Mount Vernon WA and traveling to Sandpoint ID, traveling through the Northern Cascade Mountains. I am pretty stoked to do a real tour instead of these two or three day trips I've been doing. I also plan on doing some more of those this year as well, in preparation for the big one!

That is all I got for now. Take care, stay warm and safe.

Good bye to an old friend.

I've decommissioned my Surly Cross Check. I tore it down and it is just sitting there in pieces. I'm slowly selling them off, bit by bit. It was a tough choice but I've been thinking long and hard about what I like in a bike and there are a few things that consistently come to mind. I like disc brakes. In most situations rim brakes work just fine, but there are those handful of times where you get yourself into a situation where you just wish you had disc brakes. The other is big tires. The more I ride the less I care how much my bike weighs. I like fat tires. Mountain bikes make me happy, you can pretty much get what ever you want done on a mountain bike. Also, for a commuting / touring bike I really turned the Cross Check into a sporty little thing, which was silly. So keeping all those things in mind I plan to build up a Surly ECR. I've got most of it planned out right now but I don't need to sweat the small stuff just yet, until I sell the rest of the stuff. I will post updated as it gets built.

I suspect the ECR will be a wonderful bike. I've read some really good things about it and I am pretty excited. The geometry of the frame is a little less upright than the Ogre, which I was originally looking at, and a little less aggressive than the Krampus. It has the ability to accommodate big ass tires and rims, which I also like. For the wheel sets I am planning on using the Velocity Dually rims, which are 40 mm wide and about 300 grams less each than the rabbit hole from Surly. They can also be set up tubeless because they are a double wall rim, which the rabbit hole is not. I'm going to go ahead and get a Schmidt generator hub as well. I want this thing to be a true touring/commuting machine and I think the hub will help out with that tremendously. I'll cross the bridge about what tires I want to use when I get there.

As far as components I am thinking of just going straight Shimano SLX. It is not super expensive and it works well. That is all I really need. Beyond that I'm thinking BB7 for the brakes and the rest of the stuff will be improvised. I will use my seat post and Brooks saddle from the Cross Check on the new ECR, a little piece of the old for the new.

While I will miss my old friend, I don't regret anything. We had some good times together and I hope to find it a good home.

I don't usually get way, way off topic but I do have something non-bike related I would like to share with you. I love bears, for my own reasons they are very special to me. There is a man named Casey Anderson who runs a bear sanctuary in Montana for bears found in the wild who are injured or lost. He spends a lot of his own money keeping this place running but it mostly operates off of donations. Recently one of the bears, a 3 year old named Lucy, has fallen ill. They have gotten her checked out and there is nothing wrong after a full physical and blood test. They are trying to get a scan done to see if there is anything else they can find, though this procedure is not cheap. They are asking for donations to help save this beautiful young lady. You can check out the donation page here. Please take a look and if you have $5 to spare, toss it in the bucket. Thanks for reading!

Lucy the bear.

Confidence

I am no stranger to winter biking. I have been at it for about three years and I still learn something every time I go for a ride. No mater how many rides I have done it seems like every time winter rolls back around there is a period where I feel like I have to relearn everything. Granted it comes back a lot faster every year but there is still a learning curve.

I remember my first winter of biking. I was pretty nervous and totally under geared. I pretty much tried my best to stay out of the cold my entire high school life and then after that when I joined the Marines I was pretty much always somewhere warm. So for me, winter had this really ominous and unknown feel to it. I did all my research and got myself the essentials. Some studded tires, a nice coat, and boots. The stuff I had was good enough for my first winter, it was 2010, the year that winter never really came. We had very little snow and it never even got that cold. I got my winter biking bearings and started dreaming of a fat bike almost right away. I remember riding, struggling, through the snow with my single speed mountain bike and seeing the fat bike tire tracks and just thinking how much more fun that would be.

The next winter I had my fat bike and there was plenty of snow and cold. I upgraded my winter gear and it worked out really good for me. It helped build my confidence big time. It was cold, but not really cold. Not like this winter. This year I am learning about how to layer. Last year I learned how to ride in adverse conditions. The first year I got my feet wet and discovered it is totally possible. Every time I ride the more confidence I gain.

Working at a bike shop and just being involved with bikes in general I have heard a lot of people express interest in winter biking but they are also nervous and over analyzing everything, much like I did when I first started out. The following are some things I have learned in my three years of biking in the winter that I hope can motivate someone else or at least help answer a few things.

First of all, any bike will work for winter biking. If you ride at your skill level, you won't have any problems. Just know that you will be a bit slower than you are in the summer. More clothing, heavier tires, etc. it all adds up and will slow you down just a bit. Yes, winter is harsh on your bike but you bought it to ride it didn't you? A little bit of care will go a long way in keeping your bike nice and there are plenty of bike shops that would love to give you advice or even offer classes on how to keep your bike in tip top shape.

What's the best (insert product here) for winter biking? The one that works for you is the best one. You know yourself better than anyone else. I'll use the balaclava as an example. When I first started out I knew that I run super hot when I exercise and I hate having something on my face, but I still spent a lot of time looking for a balaclava that would work for me. The answer is that there wasn't nor will there ever be a balaclava that works for me. I've opted for the wrap or on a real cold day I use a balaclava with no face covering. I knew this, but I didn't trust myself. Why? Because sometimes we think things through too much. Trust yourself.

The best way to get into winter biking is just to jump in and do it. Yes, you will not be prepared and you'll have a few cold rides. It is part of the learning process. The more you ride the more you learn and soon you'll have no problem picking out the right gear for the temperature. It takes roughly 30 minutes for exposed skin to get frostbite in 20 degree weather. As long as you are covered up, you may be cold, but you won't face any serious injury.

I lucked out with my first winter, it was really tame. If you are trying to get into winter biking this year you are just unlucky with these awful temps. Stick with it, trust yourself, and just have fun. You will do it and you can do it. There is a huge community of cyclists out there that are all more than happy to talk to you about what works for them or offer advice. Reach out and you will find the answers you are looking for. The more you do it, the more confidence you will gain. The more confidence you have the more fun you will have, that much I can promise.

I would love to hear your stories, concerns, or whatever in the comments.