That Oil Thing

I don't really like going into this kind of stuff here, but at some point, if you ride enough --especially if it's riding to get to work, store, or other non-recreational riding -- the ridiculousness of our car-culture will hit you like a ton of bricks.

Riding your bike will not insulate you from the rise in oil prices. Clearly, our entire economy is based on the fact that oil is cheap.

There are a bunch of interesting sub-topics around high oil prices: transportation, urban planning, bio fuels, politics of NIMBY drilling, ANWAR, refinery issues, the war in Iraq, oil speculation... the list goes on and all of these issues are connected. And there is very little consensus on what "THE ANSWER" is.

I know one thing: the quality of our children's future relies on our generation to make some changes in our lifestyle. And that's the last thing people want to hear.

Anyway. The guy on the phone in this YouTube clip is Matthew Simmons. The absolute recognized world expert on oil and oil production. He was the advisor to HW Bush and an advisor to Cheney and Co. He's an ex-oil guy with tons of creds on both sides of the aisle.

The look on the faces of the talking heads as he explains why oil is still cheap at $140/barrel and will only go higher is priceless.

He also explains the fix: we need to make some changes in how we live.

Cracked Up

Click to see a mondo picture of THE CRACK

The careful reader of cyclingspokane will remember that a few days ago I mentioned how I went over the bars on my RB-1. And how afterwards a little creaking noise began. Well, there it is. The crack at the bottom bracket.

Dang. My bike karma is is coming home to roost lately. Wheel issues on the RB-1 and the RB-T (the RB-T needs a new rim -- it's offical); my cranks on my blue RB-T have been revolting on me too. Now a cracked bottom bracket shell.

I guess I'll haul it over to Hairy Gary and see what the cost is for replacing the shell. If I don't replace the shell what'll I do with this bike?

I tried riding it today; I think I could get away with riding it and listening for the creak to get louder. That's the benefit of steel right? It fails gradually. With lots of creaking and groaning and swaying and bending.

Damn!

Mini Epic Ride

"Mini Epic," I guess that's an oxymoron. That's fitting after today's ride. I feel a bit like a moron.

I was finally able to do the Mica Peak climb I was hoping to do a couple Fridays ago. I had the rare occurrence of having a crummy ride. There were lots of contributing factors.

The biggest reason was that I ran out of water way too early and pushed it too far without water. I was about 3/4 up the hill when I ran out of water. But I was so close. I knew there wouldn't be water at the top -- yet I kept going. Dumb.

My knee has been bugging me a bit lately. Normally I stand on long climbs like this and just take it slow, but there was an inch or so of loose gravel and the grade was crazy steep. So I couldn't engage the rear wheel unless I sat down. My RB-T is not geared for spinning up climbs. For rock stars it would be fine: 30/28; but for me that's grinding. So my knee paid for that -- not having gobs of water didn't help the knee either I assume. So that was stupid too.

After I got to the top I took a quick walk around the buildings to see if I'd get lucky and find a water tap. No luck.

As I bombed down the other side, which was really an old road: bigger than a trail, but narrower than a road, my camera popped out of my handlebar bag. It popped out because I didn't close the pocket it was in. Of course I didn't see it. This required an hour of back tracking UP the hill again... only to find it about 100 feet from where I had started to back track. By this time I was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded for lack of water. Lame.

I finally ran across some water trickling down the side of a hill. I drank two bottles worth w/out treating it. (Sounds lame, but I trust water that comes out of the side of a hill, especially if there's no grazing up above. But we'll see, maybe my next blog post will be about how I stayed up puking all night.)

I got off course and a bit lost for while. I only packed a GPS. I didn't even bring my Spokane County map. If I had a good map, I would enjoyed the ride down the hill after finding water. Instead, I had to rely on my GPS, which is OK, but not enough. You need the context provided by a map. I got lost for about an hour as the trail got narrower, rockier, and steeper. There were also a lot of fallen trees across the path. Sucky.

By the time I popped out on a logging road that appeared to have been traveled in the last 10 years, it was 3pm. I had company coming at 5. The road finally led me out of the woods and to Highway 27. I hammered on the Palouse. By the time I got to the climb to Baltimore, I was pretty shot. At that point, some racer dude passed me and said, "Good job!" That is a damn condescending thing to say to someone when you pass them.

I was home by 4:30.

Here's the GPS output:

Lies. Mica Peak is not 5000 feet. I think it's about 4600. But all the same. The climb is pretty severe and packed into about 8 miles.

There's lots to explore in that area; I'll go back next summer and find a better route. I'll also bring more water and a map.

Even though it was not a fun ride; it was still worthwhile. Lots of obvious lessons there that I'm embarrassed to think that I still need to learn.

An Easy One to Support

If you are looking for easy money to spend and a good meal on Sunday night, here's a slam dunk.

Jacque smashed out 8 teeth and busted her jaw when she wrecked on her bike a few weeks ago. She needs help with bills to put everything back together. Last I heard this was in the $30k range. The event is a fundraiser at the Wild Sage this Sunday night.

The Wild Sage is hands-down my favorite full-service place in town. And Jacque's step-dad is just a really good guy who loves riding. To top it off, one of the silent auction items is a a Pedals2People Basic Maintenance Class for you and 3 friends, taught by Liza-the-Great.

See you there.

Wheel Woes

Nice dish!

It's been sort of a crummy few days for mechanicals. On Sunday I did that road bike thing on my RB-1. The front wheel slid in between the slats on the Bowl and Pitcher suspension bridge. I went over the bars; the wheel slid all the way down to the hub. Nothing broken, but the front wheel has a bit of a wobble to it and there's one of those super lame impossible to diagnose little creaky noises coming out of the bottom bracket chain ring pedal area. Errg!

As for my RB-T dirt machine trail rider: I knew I was a bit rough on it last week in Bayview. I was doing too fast descending on rough, rocky, rooty, washed out logging roads. It was really fun, but I can remember at least 3 brutal rear wheel impacts that made me grunt on behalf of the bike.

I really shanked the rear wheel. I trued it up a bit last week and there was still a huge bump in it. So tonight, I attempted another full-on rebuild: loosening the spokes all the way and rebuilding it. There's a good dent (and is that a hairline crack?) in it and a pretty severe flat spot. I can't achieve equal tension, roundness, dish, and lateral trueness at the same time -- not even close. If I get reasonable lateral trueness and tension, there's huge bumps in it; by the time I work out the bumps, it slides out of truness and the tension goes to crap. By the time I fix true that out, the dish is off. It's frustrating and I'm no pro wheel builder. I can do a new Velocity rim pretty well, but this kind of stuff is beyond me.


Oh. And I have a flat now too. Nice.

So, I'm running a 36 hole LX hub with a 700c Velocity Synergy OC rim. I'm wondering if maybe a Deep V rim would be stronger? All other things equal, which is stronger? The beefiness of the Deep V or the OC-ness of the Synergy?

Any opinions out there? Is there a better 36 hole rim to run with this? The hub is fine. Within reason, weight is not an issue. I want strong and I don't want to buy a new hub.

How about the Blunt? It's 28mm wide! Maybe the Dyad makes more sense?

Trails and Climbs - Far and Near

GDR'er

Mr. Blaine is out. A few days ago David hadn't SPOT'd for about 24 hours and had only a short check-in where he mentioned a stomach problem. He dropped out of the race a few days ago with a high fever. I was thinking of keeping the GDR-links here to see the race through, but when I learned that David wasn't in the running, I sort of stopped keeping track of the other racers. So, if you want to keep track, you best book mark this link: http://greatdividerace.blogspot.com/

However, I am interested to see how Jen Hopkins does. Jen is also a single-speeder. And a woman. Both of these attributes put her in a special class for record-holding in the GDR. She and David were in the same neighborhood for a day or two as they rode. She's holding up well.

Mr. Blaine: you gave it a go and I'm certain you'd be rolling over the finish line next week if not for your fever. I would love to know more about your ride, and I hope you provide a ride report on your blog. My hat is off to you sir for the attempt.

A couple days ago

I rode around the Gov't Way/Palisades Park area. Last time I did this specific ride was with Joe about 4 years ago. It includes a climb up the side of Rimrock. And not the "climb" we normally talk about when we're talking bikes, but a real "climb" where you have to climb about 15 feet of ledge-rock. The alternative is to back track a mile or so of steepish-single-tracky-rocky-old road. And after earning my way up that stretch of hill in the 90 degree heat, I'm not turning back for a stinking rock wall.

The picture above shows the base of the climb. With two people this is easier, but I figured out a way to climb this by put the bike in front of me as shown here. Then, you pick the bike up, set it up the hill an arm's length away. Hold the brake. Climb up closer. Repeat. It works well as long as you can sort of stand on the hill/ledge. When the drop becomes too steep, as it does here at the end, it's a "hope you have good footing and throw-a-bike" kind of deal.

Here's how the bike "landed." Nice Spokane view there in the back ground.

This last picture shows where the road ends. I think many years ago the road went where the erosion/cliff deal is now. Today, there is a trail that leads you up to a bunch of big rocks, which put you at the base of the climb. And that's the easiest climb out of there.

By the way, the picture at the very top of this post is down by the river, just below SCC. There is a great trail from the Centennial Trail. Here's my guess of where it's at:

View Larger Map

This is an old timey trail. I think I first rode it when I was about 16. It was my first intro to "mountain biking." Course now, it's way more fun on a drop-bar'd fattish tired road bike.

Bayview Rides

Took two fun rides today in the Bayview area.
The first was a solo morning monster climb on logging roads.
The second was a ride around the trails at Farragut State Park with Liza the righteous disco queen. She just loves that $75 bike.
Maddie played and swam hard all day.
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