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.