Fixing to commute again

There was a one-year period where I really embraced the whole fixed gear thing. That was about 8 years ago. In fact, one my first posts on this blog was about the HD trails and riding it on my Quickbeam. Like a lot of folks, I discovered the idea of fixed gear through Sheldon Brown. But the guy that really inspired me was Kent Peterson. He would post epic ride reports on the mile43 website that he did on his fixed gear bike. And I'm using that beat-to-hell term, epic, for real: we're talking about rides from Seattle to Minnesota. In like, 6 days, loaded with gear. What the hey?

After a while, I enjoyed gears and the fixed gear went away slowly. I gave my favorite fixed frame to my brother. But I ended up building up a fixed gear every spring as a way to force myself back into shape. And I've always built one up for ice riding in the winter.

So this year I put the Shogun together as my ice bike and there really wasn't any ice. I rode it to the store a couple times, but otherwise, it's just been in the way in the garage. Last night, I decided that I'd  go back to the spring-conditioning-on-the-fixed-gear-bike approach, and so I put some 32 mm Pasalas on the Shogun.

Bars are sort of jacked up. I' need to bring them in and level them off. 

I expected the commute home to suck for a number of reasons: patchy ice, my miserable out-of-shape-self. Well, that's only two reasons. But the commute ruled. All that snow you see in those pictures is barely snow. There's very little ice under it and it presents almost no resistance. Overall, my fitness level does suck, but the fixed gear really smooths out the effort, which is higher, but reasonable and consistent until you get to the hills.

The last couple miles of my commute is all climb. Not monster climb, maybe 400 feet, but it's steady with some little kickers. The fixed gear forces the hammer down. That's what I need.

I may put some CX tires on it for a bit of trail riding. That FLT section of parallel trail is kind of perfect for this bike.

When I got home, I found a package on the front porch. It's Volsen's old Kogswell. He rode the shit out of it, bringing it on his South American tour. He went through Pat's Rackufacturing Institute and built a bitchin' rack for it. I was all set to find a home for it until he reminded me that he had adapting it for 26" (559) wheels, which makes it way more interesting. It'll probably become the new trusty turd. At least for a year or so.

Here's a picture of this frame when I owned it and it had 650b's:

I think it might look like that again. But with 559s. And a single gear. Verily.

Seeing that picture reminds me of a wreck I had on that bike on the HD trails: the old front-tire wash out. Freaky stuff; I just flew like superman off the trial and down the side of the bluff. To this day, every time I go by that spot where it happened I tense up a bit.

The Sunrace Sturmy Archer ASC -- Maybe it's not vaporware?

(This image sniped from Sheldon's ASC technical page)

I just got this email from the folks at Sunrace:

Hello Everyone,

I would first like to thank everyone for their interest in our upcoming remake of the ASC. As we grow closer to production I will be posing questions on our blog www.sunrace-sturmeyarcher.blogspot.com regarding what you would like to see in the final production model.

The first question is regarding the acceptable amount of backlash in the hub. Meaning the amount of slack there is before engagement. The original was quite sloppy in this regard but we are interested in your opinion. The question is up now in the form of a poll and if you have a minute and could head over to the blog and add your 2 cents I would greatly appreciate it!

David Prosser
Sunrace Sturmey Archer
3212 Jefferson Street #409
Napa, CA 94558

The ASC was Sturmy-Archer's 3-spd fixed gear internal hub. Oh. The holy grail.

He says, "As we grow closer to production..." so it's still on the drawing board. Hopefully next spring or so? Or is it a year away, to ship on '09 bikes?

So there's that. I wonder how much it will cost? Will they ship with multiple OLD's? Hopefully they'll have a 120mm, a 128mm, and a 132.5mm version. Assuming it's not crazy expensive, I'll buy one and make it work on my Trek 720.

Newman Lake Loop and Welcoming The Hipsters to Spokane

Liza and I had plans to take a mini bike tour this weekend, but some stuff happened and we had to cancel, but we still had Friday cleared. So, we decided to do one of my favorite loops: The Newman Lake Loop. The link there goes to the bikely map of the loop -- just shows the interesting bit, which is up Lehman Road, to Forker, over the hill via Temple Road and down to Newman Lake.

This is a great ride that I've not done for over a year. Last time I went it was April of 2006 and there was a ton of mud. A truck had just been abandoned on one of the tough sections of road back in ought-six (left picture). The truck is still there, but it's been heavily vandalized (right).

Anyway, this ride is another great "fat-tired road bike" ride. It's mostly road, with a nice 5 or 6 miles of dirt -- some county road, some logging road, and a wonderful section of Summer-Only road. A hard climb. A harder descent. And nice views.

We got back into town at around 2pm and had a snack at Madeline's Bakery there on Main and Post. What a great spot to watch folks. I sat there one morning about 2 weeks ago and was really surprised by the number of early morning commuter cyclists I saw. At 2pm on a Friday, it's a whole different show. We saw a bunch of sidewalk riders -- one girl in particular who appeared to be time-trialing on the sidewalk, against traffic, and slaloming through groups of pedestrians. A lot of older BMX dudes. And one righteous dude on a BMX who was doing power skids and bunny hops while slaloming through walkers on Post. Liza was cheering him on -- especially when he wheelied or did other cool stuff.

But then we saw them. They have arrived: the fixie hipsters. Two of them -- complete with spoke cards, top tube pads, deep v's, the clipped and flipped drops on one bike, and... wait for it... the ultra-short "cause I gotta fit through tight traffic" chopped riser bars on the other bike. I've pretty much become a disciple of Mr Bike Snob of NYC with regard to most of the fixed bikes I see in the online galleries. You never see them around here -- until now.

So here I am calling the kettle black. I love riding fixed and I even have a deep V rim on one of my bikes, but my fixed gear bikes are really dorky. I have brakes and everything. So there. I'm cool cause I'm lame. I'm probably jealous because I'm the nerd that doesn't match anything on my bike or what I wear to my bike or even with the other clothes I'm wearing at the time. And I wear SPD sandals. With wool socks. All nerdy by any standard.

The truth of it is I welcome the hipsters. We have a pretty narrow and sickly bike culture here in Spokane and the hipsters are a critical component to any healthy bike culture. Spokane is usually about 5-10 years behind all other cities when it comes to fashion and fads, so this timing is about right for the fixed hipsters to move in.

That said, it was still a shock to see these well-kept hipsters grooving down Post on their boutiquey fixed bikes. I'm happy that I will have to get used to seeing more. Welcome hipsters. Welcome to Spokane.

OTM April: Carrying Stuff

The April issue of Out There Monthly marks my entry into the world of (non-geeky) print publications. I'll be writing a monthly column called "Everyday Cyclist." My first article was about how to carry a couple bags of groceries on your bike. It's pretty hard to give the topic complete treatment in under 900 words. Luckily, there's no limit on this blog; I can be as verbose as I want. Lucky you.

There are a couple additions I wanted to make to the article here. I want to get pictures up of all the options mentioned in the article and I want to mention a couple other cheap options that I didn't have room for .

But first, if you're interested in carrying loads and city bikes, you should know about Bicycle Quarterly, which just published a whole issue dedicated to city bikes. Specifically, in the Spring issue, they review the Breezer Uptown 8, the Jamis Commuter, and the ANT "Basket Bike." The issue also includes an article by Liza where she writes about her favorite bike, which is a city bike we built up from a garage sale mixte. In my opinion, Bicycle Quarterly is far and away the best cycling periodical in print today. The quality of writing and overall content is just superb. If you only subscribe to one bike-related magazine, it should be Bicycle Quarterly. I have no financial tie or interest in the magazine; I just would love to see its readership grow.

Anyway, here are pictures of each rack solution mentioned in the Out There Monthly article.

Milk crate

Wald basket

Bucket panniers

Fancy panniers

As I mentioned in the article, there are tons of solutions for carrying groceries and loads on bicycles. But a couple other easy and not too expensive solutions to consider are the front basket and the saddle bag.

Front baskets are nice because you can keep your eye on the load. A good front basket should be easy to pop off and take into the grocery store. Some bikes handle better than others with front baskets, but as an easy solution to carry smaller loads on most bikes, a front basket can be a great solution. Again, I have to go with the Wald here. Wald makes a nice basket that is easy to put on most bikes and has a super simple quick release mechanism built right into the handle. A net is essential for front baskets, as stuff tends to bounce around quite a bit. A net is nice too since it allows you to cram a bunch of stuff in the basket. Here's a not-so-great photo of a stuffed Wald basket.

Saddle bags are great too. A saddle bag is a bag that attaches to the saddle and hangs over the rear wheel. Rivendell Bicycle Works has been pushing saddle bags for years and was the company that introduced me to the practical goodness of the saddle bag. Most saddles made today do not have saddle bag loops, but some still do. You won't find much for saddle bags in any of the local bike shops. Online, Rivendell is a good source, as is Wallingford Bike Parts.

I like saddle bags because the weight is right under the seat. They're typically not waterproof, but since they're right under your butt and body, you block a lot of the rain. Plus, I like the way they look... distinctly not cool and not aero and not racey. Of course the milk crate has that going for it too and it's way cheaper.

Cranked

Well, today was a day of firsts. I busted a crank. A crank! And I had to call Liza for a ride -- I had a mechanical malfunction that I couldn't fix on the road. That was also a first.

I guess I'll need to start packing an extra crankset and chainring in my tool pouch if I want to be REALLY self-sufficient.

I got this crankset just over a year ago. I put it onto my old Trek a couple weeks ago. They are Sugino XD's. If you're keeping score.

As I walked the bike out of the trails to meet Liza, I tried to figure out how many miles this crankset has on it. It's hard to judge: I ride a bunch of bikes and I never track my miles. I'm not a super mileage person. I ride a lot, but not long miles on a regular basis. The fixed gear has certainly gotten the majority of my time, if not miles in the last year. And much of the riding is very hard. I'm heavy and I'm a grinder and I love racing around on the fixed on the high drive trails and any other single-track that looks interesting. My guess is that these cranks lasted somewhere between 1200 and 2000 miles. Not much.

This calamity befell me as I was mashing up the single track there kind of north of the doomsday hill bridge on the single track that follows the west side of the river -- going towards bowl and pitcher. Anyway, the chain popped off on a grind up a steep little climb. I walked to the top, put the chain back on, then started going down a bit of a hill and back pedaling. Then ca-chank! The crank is done. Sheered. Lame.

I may be ultimately to blame though. I had a bit of chicanery going on with my set up. To get a good chainline, I put spacers in between the crank spider arms and the chainring on the inside of the arms. I think this localized the stress on the spider arms more than they could handle. If the chainring had been seated up against the inside of the spider arms the load would be spread a bit more across the chainrings, bolts, and arms. That's another theory I came up with on that walk out of the trails.

We took a great walk/hike on the highdrive trails this morning. Damn, I love those trails.

Here's Liza: bikes locked up and all ready to roll. Maddie was already halfway down the trail at this point.

And there's Don and Maddie. Post-hike. Maddie ran the entire way while explaining/singing something important (and in great detail) that we didn't quite catch.

You're Invited...

Liza and I are going out Saturday night. We've got a sitter. Liza works until 5. We'll eat, then digest, then we'll go for a ride. We'll ride to some bar a few miles away and have a drink. Then we'll ride back downtown and settle in at the Baby Bar.

It happens to be St. Patrick's day, but we're celebrating Liza's new job and her new bike.

If you are interested in a night-time ride and some revelry, meet at the carousal at 7pm. We'd love the company of other night time riders. If you come: be comfortable (and visible) riding at night -- on the street.

Lots of Long Lunch Breaks Today

What an amazingly beautiful 55F-degree day. At about noon I decided to take a lunch break ride. My plan was to ride a package to the post office for mailing. When I went outside and began shedding my layers that I now put on in auto-pilot, I knew I'd have to hit the trails instead.

I usually hit the Highdrive trails about twice a week this time of year. I rarely see anyone and I never see cyclists. Today, I saw 5 cyclists on the trail, 4 walkers, and 4 dogs, one of which was actually on a leash!

I have figured out a neat little loop on the trails that allows me to stay on the trail and gives me nice downhill and good climbing without riding all the way down to the bottom of the trails. It's about 4 miles and about a 1/2 hour ride or so. I'll GPS it next time around and post it. It's a perfect lunch time spin.

Here's some pics of Liza's new fixed gear. Just finished. She built the whole thing up -- built the wheels, wrapped the fancy bar tape. She's legit now. Dang it -- if we only would've sourced some pink Deep V's instead of those boring old Mavics.

Fish Lake Trail

There's a well-coordinated and supported effort to pave the Fish Lake Trail from Fish Lake to the Centennial Trail. Personally, I'm sort of in the middle on this one. One of my favorite quick runs is a ride through the unpaved portion of the Fish Lake Trail. I have it documented on Bikely.

I really enjoy riding Thorpe Road, which is a nice dirt county road, and hooking up to the trail at the top of the hill on Thorpe. The trail is some single-track, double-track, and contains all sorts of surfaces: sand, hard-pack, pebbles, "rail" rock. It's an interesting ride -- and fun. Right now the pavement starts about 2 miles out of Marshall and goes for about 3 miles, where you end up on a Burlington-Northern access road, cross two sets of live tracks, and then another mile to the Fish Lake Trail head parking lot, where the trail is paved to Curtis Road/Cheney. I enjoy taking a fattish-tired road bike or fixed gear on this route. So as I think about FLT being paved, it kind of bums me out, because today this is a quiet, under-used, no-traffic bike route.

Folks pushing for pavement here suggest that this will be an ideal commuter route for Cheney-Spokane commuters. Maybe so. The Cheney-Spokane Road is a good route for that too, although there are some pieces that are a bit tight.

The major cost of the project is not in paving, but in putting up overpasses over two live railroad tracks. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but what I seem to remember is that there is about a $6 million cost for this project; $4 million of which is for the overpasses. That's a good gob of money.

It's interesting what draws bike-related money -- people love the idea of multi-use paths with no traffic. I understand the draw, but if I had $6 million for bike-stuff in Spokane, I'd be pretty satisfied with the Centennial Trail. If you're a recreational cyclist; Spokane is great. You've got to be happy.

On the face of it, it sounds crazy, but, thinking about it, I'd blow most of that wad on education: teaching drivers and cyclists that it's ok and normal and lawful for cyclists to use the road. Like the "seat belt saves lives" campaign when I was a kid. There was a time no one wore seat belts. Then we were clobbered for years with TV, radio, print ads that told us to wear seat belts. In addition, there was a threat of fines if you didn't wear a seat belt.

What if we did the same for cyclist/driver-education? What if the message: "cyclists have the same rights to the road as a car; bikes are vehicles; cyclists have the same responsibility to follow the rules of the road as car drivers" was pounded into us everywhere we turned? What if we taught our kids, in school, how to safely ride in traffic? What if parents rode their kids to school, on bikes, while following traffic laws? What if the WSDOT manual and related driver training had more emphasis on bikes-as-traffic? What if your traffic violation doubled if cyclists were in the area, as we do for work zones? What if cops busted cyclists for traffic violations or riding on the sidewalk?

Eventually, I think we'd see a lot more folks riding their bikes in traffic and a lot less need for more multi-use trails.

Oh yeah, and if there was any money left over; I'd be painting some sharrows.

It's All About the Kids

I am on the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board. We advise the City of Spokane on things related to bicycling. Seeing change and the effect of our work is a long long process -- measured in years. So I was pretty skeptical when I wrote off a quick e-mail a couple weeks ago to the park manager at Bowl and Pitcher (B&P) State Park suggesting they add bike/hiker camp sites.

B&P is a great local thing to have: basically a full-service campground on a giant river with hundreds of acres of unique topography just a couple miles from downtown. If you look around Spokane, you see a lot of amazingly cool things like this (trails on the bluff, Fish Lake Trail, Minnehaha, Dishman Hills, etc etc) -- but anyway. The great thing about B&P is that you can kind of spontaneously decide to go bike camping with the family on a Friday or Saturday afternoon: load up your bikes with the minimalist gear in an hour, then a short ride (a good chunk of which is on the Centennial Trail) and you're camping. There's swimming, hiking, exploring and just general camping/outdoors stuff.

So anyway: the email. I'm getting there. Last year, Maddie and I did one of these spontaneous deals and showed up at B&P on a Friday afternoon and the place was full. I was shocked that they turned us away -- two people on a bike. Our overall footprint was one 2-person tent and the bike. The park is sprawling and huge. They wouldn't even let us set up in the day use area on cement! Policy is policy. We ended up going further down the river and camping in the bush, which is fun too, but with Maddie, we would've been happier in the campground.

Anyway: I sent an email to the park manager/ranger, Rene, who emailed me back the next day informing me that the park officials were about to meet to discuss issues for the upcoming season. And then about a week later, she emails me back:

Hello John, We are going to establish two

hiker/biker sites that are on a first come first serve basis.

They will be located at the Bowl and Pitcher.

I'll let you know the locations when we receive

the approval from our parks planner. Thanks Rene'

That may be my biggest and best contribution to the world of cycling in my life. And I want it documented here.

Funkenstien and Other Random Fillers

Oh my god! I want to do more riding but I'm a lazy bastard. I've got into the post holiday funk and it's a hard climb out. I will, no matter what, start getting out again in two weeks. Really. It's not that I have to for some weird-o regiment here. It's that I have to because my whole world just sucks when I'm not getting out and riding a few miles first thing in the morning. I'm going nuts here. Why two weeks then? Well, Liza is in Ashland OR at UBI. That's a bike school. She's learning bike maintenance and loving it. That will hopefully relieve me as the primary bike fixer in the family, and I'll finally learn the right way to do things from her. Anyway, I'm on my own until she gets back and it's sort of frowned upon to leave your 4 year old at home alone in the morning. So that's my excuse for now. Come back in two weeks and see what it is.

Bike Swapin'
Ok, Spokane needs a bike swap. Make that "the Inland Northwest." I'm on a mission with some friends here to put something together. Watch this space.

Dumb bike update
A month or so ago I wrote a review on 63xc.com about our funny Fuji fixed gear mountain bike. Here's the URL if you're interested: http://www.63xc.com/johnspeare/laidback.htm. Anyway, I expected not to like this bike. But I've been digging it. It was intended for Liza, but she pretty much hates it. Way too much reach. I tried mustache bars, flared drop bars, flat mountain bars and we've finally hit on something she doesn't hate as much: big-ass flared albatross bars. I'll take a picture one day. Anyway, I haul Maddie to school with this bike every day. When I have to make a run to the store, this is the bike I grab. It's like an SUV. It's got huge studded fat tires on it. It's geared super low and as a fixed gear, it can just go everywhere as long as you're willing to sacrifice your knees to get there. With the albatross bars, I really like it more than any other iteration.

The end-all-be-all-bike update
I think I've ridden my Garyized trek a total of about 11 miles. There were a couple days there where snow was not covering the ground and I got in a couple short rides. It rules. I've not changed any of the issues I wrote about in the last blog -- so, there's still work to be done. I've decided that I really can't provide a full on report on exactly how much it rules until I do a really long ride on it. Like at least 50 miles. But really, it should be around a 100 miles. Those in the know say that low trail bike are better handling for folks that are about to fall over from exhaustion. So I need to test the bike under those conditions. At my current rate of non-ridingness, maybe I'll only need a 10 mile ride or so to test it out.

Ugg. I don't even want heat here. I just want clear roads. Not roads that are mostly clear with the randomly, yet well-placed ice patch, but clear. And above 30F.

Palouse'ing

Since moving back to Spokane about 3 years ago, I've stayed clear of the Palouse as a riding destination. I think the reason is that my memory of the Palouse is two roads: the Palouse Highway and Valley Chapel Road. The memory of driving around these roads as a teen hadn't inspired me to go and ride them later as an adult. This last summer I spent some time getting reacquainted with the Palouse.

I was pretty much right in my memory of the Palouse Highway. Not ideal -- lots of loud, fast traffic. But it has a nice shoulder and serves as a good arterial to many back roads and dotted lines.

I've not taken a ride beyond 15 miles or so for at least a month, maybe longer. So I decided that Friday would be a longer ride. And I would ride south.

I wake up and it is 23F. If I wait a while -- take my time packing a lunch, have coffee, read the paper, have another coffee -- then it may warm up a bit. It does. By 10AM it is 25F and I have fussed all I can.

I ride a couple miles and begin to rethink my ride. I'm warm, but I just feel so slow and heavy. I'm wishing for gears, but I'm riding fixed today. I'm carrying extra gear because it is so cold: an extra wool shirt and neck gator; my jetboil; a liter of water; an extra hotcup of ginger-water. Plus, I have a lock in my front bag, along with lunch and the other crap that finds its way into my bag. And of course my tool kit. A lot of crud... I am planning on a 5 hour ride in sub-freezing temperatures and I want to be prepared for it. The weight is worth the piece of mind.

As I pass Luna's Bakery, I notice both of my friends are working, so I stop by and said hey. My buddy Joe gives me some input on my route and suggests a couple cool roads. He had driven all these roads during high school with his buddies.

I pedal on a couple more miles to the Palouse Highway. The wind is sharp. I also don't want to listen to the traffic; I need quiet. So I pull on to Ben Burr road instead.

Most of my day rides share the same goal: to find some dirt roads that I've not ridden before. I head up Ben Burr road thinking of this goal. I've been down Ben Burr before. But I remember wanting to check out "Willow Springs Road." It's just a couple miles south. More climbing and Willow Springs leads me to Big Rock Road.

Big Rock Road is a fine dirt road that goes straight up for about a mile. I enjoy the first of 2 long walks as I push my bike up the steep grade. I am rewarded at the top: Big Rock levels out and curves it's way around the side of a mountain; the icy-cold winter views are stunning as I look out across Spokane to the north and the Palouse to the south.

I end up popping out on the Palouse and immediately find another road that I've wondered about: Weger Road. Like any good road, this too starts out with a mile-long walk up a steep hill. The reward on Weger is a long, rolling stroll through the Palouse on frozen dirt roads. The wind is still fiercely cold. Luckily, among the crap in my bag was a pair of sunglasses. Without them I'd be tearing up from the constant cold wind.

I enjoy lunch on Valley Chapel Road, amid high school memories of driving out Valley Chapel to go to "the bridge" and swim.

Lunch is soup: bullion cube with mushrooms, spinach, chopped onions and some dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes. All brought to a boil in an instant in the Jetboil. What a great device the Jetboil is. I also have some caponata; my Sicilian mother-in-law makes this for me. I can't get enough of it. I'll document it sometime because it is the perfect cycling food. Bread, banana, and a hard-boiled egg complete the lunch. Bumble bar for emergency. In this weather, a warm lunch is such a huge treat. I also keep my hotcup full of hot water -- I have a piece of crushed fresh ginger in the hotcup too. This makes for a nice flavor and guards against stomach troubles.

As I finish lunch, it starts to snow. It's coming down lightly and swirling in the wind. By the time I arrive in downtown Spokane, the snow is coming down harder and I'm glad to be getting home. Thanks to the chemical foot warmers and my wool I am never freezing. But I am cold. The ride only turned out to be about 3 hours and about 30 miles, but I found a couple new roads and found a way to enjoy the cold weather. Map of route is on bikely.com.

Maintenance Matters

Liza and I had a night out last night. After Maddie fell asleep, a babysitter came by and sat. We headed downtown. The picture here is not very good. Not to make lame excuses, but it was taken while going up Adams street (good climb on cobblestone) with a camera that has no view finder. I took about 5 of these. This was the best one.


Anyway, it was about 20F last night and patches of ice, so Liza rode her studded Fuji fixed and I rode my studded, geared bike (the Shogun). I re-learned a couple lessons last night.


1. Riding a fixed gear in super cold weather keeps you warm on the downhill rides. I knew this, but the lesson was driven home last night. Our house to downtown is about a 400 foot elevation drop over about 2 miles or so. On a fixed gear, you're backpedaling and engaged with the hill -- you're working a bit and keeping the blood circulating. On a geared bike, this is a coast. You're just sitting there, literally just sitting exposed in the cold and getting colder with the wind making you colder yet. Man! I froze on the way downtown last night. Dang.

2. Coasting doesn't require pedaling. When you pedal, you will notice potentially bad stuff in the chain, gear, and shifting departments right away. Not to mention that the gear and shifting departments are non-existent on a fixed.

I've been riding my Shogun lately on longer snowy rides. I typically come home and leave it in the cold garage. The drive train, the rims, everything is packed with snow and ice. Eventually that melts and takes all the grease/oil with it. Riding home last night, I couldn't get over how noisy and chunky the chain was. When I shifted down the rear cog, a mousy squeak complemented the grindy chunky chaconne (I've been waiting to use "chaconne" for a long time ... years actually). Aside from the noise, I could feel it: that unsettling notchiness feel -- like a cup and cone bottom bracket that is too tight; or a chain link that is halfway busted and just ten pounds of torque away from popping off.

Then I checked out the chain this morning.

Chains are not supposed to be orange and dry. I've never been much for maintenance, but I've got to do better than this. It would not have been a good thing if I had popped a chain link at 11:50 PM, at 20 F, with no cell phone. Of course I carry a chain tool and an extra bit of chain. But when it's that cold, and after a couple drinks, and under the stress of babysitter overtime, that's about the last bit of bike work I want to attempt with numb fingers, with the exception of maybe, say, building a wheel.

So, I fed the chain this morning and it sucked up gobs of oil. I tried the "wet" oil this time. Does it really matter what kind of chain oil we put on these things? If everyone has their absolute favorite that they "swear by," and each sworn by oil is different, then how can it really matter? On a ride out to Liberty Lake a couple months ago, I heard the little mouse squeak symphony warming up on my Atlantis. I ended up stopping by the QuickLube and borrowing a tablespoon of oil from their overflow bucket. Worked great, whatever kind of oil it was. My buddy Alex keeps a tiny bit of oil in a "Beano" container when he tours. That works too. I recently found a small eye drop container that looks like it may be suitable for carrying some oil. At some point I'll get around to filling it up and adding it to my fussy, long-haul tool kit.

More Snow

Although winter officially just happened on the 21st, it's about this time of year when it feels like the winter part of the year has lost its charm. I think about riding in the summer in a t-shirt a lot this time of year. And how nice it is to just be able to jump on the bikes with the family and go. Riding in the winter requires gobs of suit-up time. At 4 years old, Maddie tires of riding in the Burley trailer -- she's actually a bit big for it now. She can no longer stretch out her legs in there. Hauling the trailer through snow is a work out. On ice, it's slow and deliberate.

For Liza's 33rd birthday yesterday, we loaded the bikes on the bus and went downtown, rode to the MAC, then rode to a new Indian place for lunch buffet. The arterials are clear, with slush and ice on the side of the roads. The secondary streets are a combo of slush, ice, packed snow, and slippery man-hole covers. We had a great time and ate way too much for lunch, but riding this time of year is now getting a bit tedious.

We woke up this morning to about 3 inches of new snow, with new snow still falling. Maddie and I got up early and shoveled and enjoyed the brief quiet. Predictably, the quiet was soon broken as folks fired up the snow-blowers to clear their 20 feet of side walk. We've got to the point in America where every single outdoor chore where folks used to get some basic exercise has been replaced with loud internal combustion 2-cycle engines. It's such a bummer: snow blowers, lawn mowers, leaf sucker-blowers, hedge-trimmers, weed eaters, edgers, pressure washers, etc. Think of how quiet the neighborhood might be if gas shot up to $10/gallon.

Maddie and I decided that walking to Manito Park to sled didn't sound like fun. But our neighborhood is flat. So, we rigged up the bike-sled and took a couple laps around the block. She was singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of her lungs the whole way. That's good neighborhood noise.

Tried and Liked - Aught Six

One of the ways I waste a gob of time is reading bikelists online. My favorite is the iBOB list. Google it for more information. Anyway. Every year about this time, people on the list send out the "tried and liked" lists. The title is self-explanatory. Here's my list:
Ride abouts:
Kind of a silly name, but that's what I've been doing a lot of this year. Longish day rides where I don't have a route picked out, just a general destination where I've not been before or in a long time. Things like weather, hunger, flats, sun sets/rises, etc change the course and overall flavor. The general goal is to explore and find new dirt roads -- so these are mostly rural rides.




Bike camping with daughter:
My daughter was 3 years old last summer. We had a few great bike/camping trips at a local campground that's about 13 miles away. We froze on the first one and had a great time when we went with mom on the next one.

Solo S24O (sub-24 hour over-nighter):
Did 3. Loved them. Plan on doing at least one a month for 6-7 months starting in March.





100+ mile day rides:
Did 5 or 6 of these this year. The hardest/longest being 140 taking the "long way" to my father's house up north. I really like this ride and plan on doing the "long way" a few times next year.
That's a picture of my dad there tooling down the "fishing road" on what used to be 395 many years ago. He lives up on the Kettle River. A perfect century (the short way) away.

Blogging:

Just jumped in about a month or so ago. I like it. I decided to just write on what I know, and that's cycling in Spokane, WA.(http://cyclingspokane.blogspot.com/). What's cool is that I was out the other night and I ran into a cyclist who owns a bar downtown and he was telling me about this cool blog he was reading... turned out to be mine!
Fixed:
I got a Rivendell Quickbeam about a year ago, set it up fixed, and I've not rode much else for the last 6 months or so. I'd ridden fixed a bit in the past, but this year I've really enjoyed riding the fixed bike on long day rides. I also find riding single-track to be a much more interesting experience on a fixed gear.
Stuff:

• Bug tent: (http://tinyurl.com/c2mlj) Rain in the Spokane summer is pretty rare. If you know there won't be rain, this thing is a great replacement for a tent where bugs and creepy crawlies roam.
  
• Jet boil: (http://www.jetboil.com/) -- lots of virtual ink spilled on this on the touring list. I have the small one. When I go on a longish ride this time of year -- it's with me. A hot ramen with hot tea this time of year is wonderful on a long day ride. This pic was at lunchtime. It was about 35 degrees out all day and I had a great ride.


• O2 rain jacket: (http://www.rainshield.com/1111_large.html) - Kent has talked this one up a couple times online. He's right. For $35 you can't find a better/lighter jacket that actually-mostly breathes. The Burley may be for sale next year if it continues to go un-used.


• Rack-top front bag with decaluer. (http://www.velo-orange.com/) After touring with Alex and seeing his "pre-release" Ostrich bag in action, I got one. It's the perfect size for a long day ride where you need food and rain/cold weather is threatening. With the decaluer, it's just super easy and usable. It does require either really high trail, or low trail for decent handling. Handling on my mid-trail RB-T with this bag was awful. It's ok on the Quickbeam.
  
  

Music: Wayne Krantz - yowsa. This guy and his players are amazing. I'm on week 4 or so of "Greenwich Mean," and I'm just figuring most of it out now. The musicianship is insane.

Food: Bumblebar - (http://www.bumblebar.com/) another great thing introduced to me by Alex and his touring buddy, Larry. The Bumblebar is made in my hometown and is a great tasting alternative to the awful "power"type sawdust bars out there.

Ice

Yowsa. So, we had about 4 inches of snowfall a couple days ago. Then it got to about 40F that night. Everything kind of half melted into a mess of sno-cone-like slush. Then, it froze. I don't think it's gotten above 30F in the last couple days.

Here's what the street in front of my house looks like:

It's not obvious from the picture what's going on here. The ice is solid for sure. It's not a clean, smooth sheet. It's rutty and bumpy. At the moment it's snowing lightly, so there's a film of snow over the top of that.

This makes for really interesting riding. We took two rides today: first, we took Maddie to school. Liza did great. She was on the Fuji and hauled Maddie. No issues. We took it nice and slow. Then, I rode to the doctor's office this afternoon. I tried going a bit faster, maybe 10 mph? I went down in a flash. I guess my front wheel just slipped out from under me. It was sudden: one second I'm just riding along (JRA), the next second my bike, my frozen-solid water bottle, and I are having a little skate down the road -- sliding silently and effortlessly.

Riding on this stuff -- even with studs and on a fixed gear -- really takes equal parts of luck and skill to get around on. I took a spill, I messed up my pants and my knee a little; no harm to the bike. But really, given the overall distance I rode today (probably about 6 miles), and the fact that I'm pretty new at this, I'm pretty pleased with my accident to miles ratio.

I'll be keeping it much slower until this ice melts away. 5 mph tops.

Snow

Yay. It finally snowed with some authority today. Looks to be sticking too. The last word I heard on weather was that it was now going to get very cold. Right now it's just over freezing, so we're getting a bit slushy. It should get down to about 25F tonight, so that will freeze everything up nicely for Monday morning. I'm happy that I ride a bike on days like tomorrow will be... but even happier that I work from home.


Here in the Speare/Mattana household we'll be running fixed gear bikes with studded tires this winter.

The picture above there is Liza getting her snow legs worked in. That miserable Fuji does well in the snow, even though it feels like it's just sucking away your energy at twice the rate of any other bike we own. What a dog.

I also hit the trails on the bluff after the snow had piled up for an hour or so. I was not the first cyclist to hit the trail with snow this year, as I followed some wide mountain bike tracks for a good portion of my ride.

We're running the Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 studded tires on both the Quickbeam and the Fuji. The tread and stud pattern is optimized for city riding, with a row of carbide studs essentially down the middle of the tire. So, on trails, I wouldn't mind a few studs sticking out of the side of the tire to grip the side of the hill, but overall, these tires are great and I wouldn't want the extra studs on the road where I do the majority of my riding. Tires with carbide studs cost about twice as much as those with mild/normal steel studs. The carbide wears much longer. My neighbor, Dennis, is a year-round commuter, who has about a 20 mile round trip commute. Last year, he left his Nokian's on his bike for about 4 months, so these tires rode on a lot of non-snowy/icy pavement. Last time we chatted about these tires, he said he couldn't even tell the wear on them.

It's going to be a great winter.

If I was the king of the world...

I would require all citizens to have at minimum, one bike outfitted with a basket capable of transporting at least one half-rack of bottled beer.
Such a bike, especially if ugly and not-steal-worthy, is an essential component for all households.
We have this old Fuji outside, under a tarp, at the ready at all times. It's really uncomfortable to ride for more than a mile or two, but it's perfect for quick grocery runs and for hauling our daughter in a trailer.
Many "serious" cyclists only have their 'road' bike and their 'mountain' bike, or maybe their 'rain' bike... typically such a bike requires the usual ritual to ride: suiting up, special shoes, etc. You miss out on a lot of spontaneous riding opportunities when you are required to "gear up." Additionally, a beater with a basket is made way more useful when you put fenders on it. Come to think of it, all bikes are way more useful when you have fenders on it... At the moment, I don't own a bike that doesn't have fenders. Seems like an essential piece of gear that is just crazy to go with out... yet 90% of new road bikes do not have room or eyelets for fenders.
So, if you don't have a beater, spend some time on craigslist or at Goodwill and pick one up... get a wald basket and some fenders and you're ready for a ride at the drop of a hat.

High Drive Trails

I don't know what folks call the trails that have emerged off the west side of the High Drive bluff. There is a name; I've heard it, but I can't recall it.

Growing up on 16th and Adams ST--which was pretty close--we simply referred to this area as "the bluff." About twice a year, I would pack up lunch and fishing poles and take some friend down the bluff.

We'd go down at about 21st Ave. There were no trails, but there was an old access road, that you can still see today. The best part was jumping down the side of the bluff where the long sandy hills emptied into the river below. It was an all day journey.

Since moving back to Spokane about 3 years ago, I was thrilled to see that someone has created a wonderful network of trails. I've actually met a couple guys that have confessed to much of the work. They do it primarily by kicking out trails with their boots; since it is a county-owned park, they don't want to get "caught" with tools. In general, they make good decisions on where to put trails, though I do occasionally see posted signs from other trail users asking the trail-builders to stop making new trails. Those posting the signs, cite concerns about erosion.

There is a network of trails directly south of the Bernard/Highdrive area, then there are 3 tiers of trails that run sort of north/south along the High Drive side. I've spent a bit of time in the network section, but the majority of my rides are on the long flat tiered trails that travel parallel to Latah (Hangman) Creek below.
I enter the trail now at the top of Bernard and Highdrive. If I'm just out for a quick lunch ride, I'll take the trail down and I'll pop up on 29TH AVE. That short loop, from my house, takes about 20 minutes. If I have more time, I'll go all the way down to Polly Judkin's Park on 14th. That's about a 40 minute ride.

The trail is wonderful. Except for weekends, it's virtually empty. I rarely see anyone on the trail on my lunch time rides. It's clean. It's got amazing views of Vinegar Flats and the Latah valley below. It's kind of technical, in that you have a lot of different surfaces to handle and some tight weaving with long drop-offs that can be a bit distracting. I typically ride it on my fixed gear, which makes for a much more interesting ride than the mountain bike that I used to ride. The trail network is a wonderful thing to have a mile from my home. I am grateful.