First S24O o' 08

The quick sum up:

Destination: Long Lake

Lot's of rain. A couple good down pours and a lot of of consistent wetness.

I had company: Brent came. Easy guy to travel with. Look at that tiny load he was carrying! I could learn a lot from him.

My toes were numb the entire time I was on the bike. But toasty warm as I slept.

Actually: it was a S27O to be exact.

Slept great: 15F synth bag + 3/4 medium pad + hammock. Slept in til 7AM!

Suncrest hospitality

High Drive Trails Are Ready

I'm surprised at how dry the top trail is already. I wonder how the lower trails are. I rode the top trail before lunch today from High Drive/Bernard to 22nd -- all of the south and east-facing trail looked like the trail in this picture: mostly dry and firm. A few north-facing shadow spots had some mud and there was one 5-foot patch of remaining ice/slush.

I'm going to ride the mid-trail tomorrow down to Polly Judkins and see how it looks.

I love love love these trails. Love em.

1st Commute of the Season

My wish for a commuter turned up a guy named Travis riding a single-speed mountain bike. It was a beautiful blustery morning today. Blue skies. Wind. Sun. Kind of cold. We rode from Brown's Addition out to the Valley. As it goes with a tailwind, you don't really know you have one until you go home. Pretty gusty.

Travis recommended that I go back into town by going on a trail that runs on the south side of the river, from about Felts field to the Mission St Bridge. I've been on this trail, but it's been a while. What a great route. That's where the pictures are from.

I think I may need to rethink my tire approach for this early spring riding, I got 2 more flats this morning. That makes 5 flats over the last 2 weeks. That's a lot. Even for me.

We're in the worse part of the year for flats: the snow/ice just holds onto the crap that would otherwise be blown/washed away with non-freezing weather. So when it all melts, there's literally piles of junk in the road. On wet days, as this morning was, all that junk is lubed up with water and just slides into my thin tires.

I like cushy/supple tires. I run Panaracer Pasalas (non-tourgaurd) and love them. They're wonderful and a great value, but with the comfort comes flats during this time of year. I've tried Schwable Marathons, Pasala Tourgaurds, Specialized Armadillos, Avocet Cross (normal and Kevlar), Continental 2000's, and a host of cheapo tires. I've also tried running anti-puncture strips. The ride for all of these tires (except the Avocet Cross) is awful and not worth the puncture resitance they offer. The exception is our tandem, where I run Schwable Marathon Plus -- or whatever their super puncture resistant tires are. I don't want to deal with changing a flat on the tandem.

I can change a tire pretty quickly, so normally, the trade-off between comfort/convenience doesn't really matter to me. But when I get a string of flats like this, I begin to rethink that approach.

Today, after my second flat, I realized that I didn't pack my patch kit. Liza was on the way to work, so she was able to deliver a patch kit. She saved me a long walk.

Finally, if you commute by bike, please help out the Bike to Work folks by telling them about your commute.

Are you commuting yet?

It's time. Today's weather has verified that it is now time to commute to work.

Since I work from home, I have to latch on to other people who get to commute daily.

If you commute by bike, no matter how short or far or slow or fast, please contact me so I can get your route. The 'why' and contact info is here.

City of Spokane is what we're looking for here. If you commute outside the city, I still may want to come and get your route.

Must Be Spring -- Love is in the Air

I've seen a ton of cyclist out this week. It was a long miserable winter and folks are ready to roll. I'm seeing roadies, commuters, kids. It's great. Liza and I think there are even more than normal for this time of year. Let's hope so.


I'm back on my waving/acknowledgment-to-other-cyclists campaign. I think some folks find the wave/head nod/pinky wave/acknowledgement of other cyclist annoying and unnecessary. It is. But I like to feel the love.


Although there's weird sub-categories of cyclists: commuters, roadies, mountain, huckers, fixies, freds, 30-y.o.-burn out BMX'ers, etc... when we're on a bike and we're on the road (I'm not counting sidewalk riders as cyclists; those are pedestrians and don't get the love), we have enough in common to share a brotherly/sisterly acknowledgement.




The blue bike here is a great bike I see parked down on Main all the time.

It's a Novara X-R. Sort of a hybrid done right from the 90's. LX components. Tange double butted steel tubing. I used to have one, but it was too small. This one is my size. With drop bars, this would make a great all rounder; trail-rider; CX'er; tourer. I once left a P2P business card on this bike that said "Nice bike."

This is the kind of under-valued bike you can find once a year or so at garage sales, or maybe on craigslist, or at Goodwill in Spokane for under $30. The one I had I found on Craigslist for $30. It had track bars and bar-end shifters on it. Nice. I rode it for a while, stripped it down, kept the components, and gave the frame to a friend. He ended up giving the frame to a woman in Seattle who intended to make it into a daily commuter, which is a great life for this bike.

Nearly There

I figure I'll be able to take my maiden ride around the block on Weds night. I can hook up the brakes tomorrow night. Then Weds I'll get my chain, some fancy new pedals, and we'll be ready to roll.

I got the chainline/tread figured out. I'm running the Sugino PX crank with 44/30 double. I hooked this to a 116mm Shimano UN73 with 4 mm of spacers on the drive side. Perfect chainline and a tread/Q of about 130.

The threadless headset is new to me. I need to work some magic to secure the decaleur w/out overloading the bearings, but I have a plan there. I like the face plate on the threadless stem. Seems like a PITA to adjust height though. Of course you only need to do that once or twice, then it's set. Jury's still out on the threadless deal.

Good seatposts in 27.0 are damn expensive. I found this old Laparde up in the P2P stash. Not a super nice post, but for $4, it's a much easier pill to swallow than the $85 I'd have to spend on the fancy Nitto that I'd rather have. But damn, man: it's a seat post! That's $85 I just don't think I'll ever spend. Well. Maybe if I had like one or two bikes then I might get them all decked out with the super fancy components. But I'd rather have a heap of good-enough bikes with good-enough parts.

Speaking of good enough. I'm running the Pasala 32mm tires on this bike. They're cushy, fast enough, and super cheap. Suntour barcons. These are wearing out. I'll probably spring for some silvers when these finally give up the ghost. CR-18/Shimano Dyno on the front wheel; LX hub laced to Velocity Synergy OC on the rear wheel. Good hearty stuff.