Strider bike went two blocks to get to the park. Adjusted the seat and she should be more comfortable.

Special thanks!

Thanks to the Fat Cyclist, his weight loss challenge motivated me this past month to cut out some of the crap and start putting some good stuff in me again. Total loss of 12 pounds since the start of his contest to this point.

No a month of eating better and drinking less soda isn't going to counter the years of beer drinking and pizza eating but its a start to a healthier life for myself and the little roommate who doesn't pay rent and always leaves her toys around.

Christmas time

Now that Christmas is over and I can get focused on something else I thought I should update this little guy.

The baby is getting huge fast, she's gone from backwards crawler to agile monkey seemingly overnight. I've found myself constantly on my toes as I try to keep up, this can't be a good sign for when she gets bigger. I can't believe how quick she can climb up some of her toys or the entertainment center.

The trainer sits nearly idle in the basement, I've practiced clipping in and out a bit but have no motivation to hop on the bike and spin for hours while staring at a wall. I've done some low speed non-intense stretching on it to loosen up some sore muscles but nothing major. Of course the upgrades haven't stopped even if my season is over, got a set of Crank Brothers cobalt bars and a new stem I have to install but after removing my old stem I realize now that I need another small headset spacer, might poach it from the project bike or order a new set.

Revenge of the _____

Did it all and then some with no mechanical break downs or other major issues. For the first time in two years I'm proud to say nothing exploded, spewed parts in the woods or forced me to walk miles to get back to the car, but... There were horses. I walked about a quarter mile behind a set of horses and their riders and made enough noise to let them know I was there.

Horses seem to do alot of damage to sandy hard packed soil. The bike tracks were packed down and clean looking while the hoof marks were a large disturbance on the side of the trail and in the hard pack.

Horses hate bikes, I didn't want to test this theory but I have a strong feeling a near silent bike is scary to anyone. I'm not a fan of scaring anything five times larger then me that wears a adult like a back pack. I didn't care for the fact that the riders didn't acknowlege the fact that there was a biker behind them deliberatly making noise and trying to get the attention of the riders. I just considered this a chance to get my heart rate down.

Crank brothers cobalt grips are a solid upgrade from the stock bike grips. My only complaint is they were nearly two months behind the release date I got from CB. Slim and easy to install and quite comfortable.

And a final note, nothing says "project bike" like getting the brakes setup and getting the project ready for a final tune up, like having the pedal fall off and take two turns worth of threads out of the crank arm. I should call this the never ending project bike.

The curse of the camp.

I was lucky enough to ride the Reforestation Camp twice this week. The first time I quietly bowed out after 40 minutes of slow going pain due to a tweaked lower back from last week. The second time (this morning) I rode it like I owned the place, knowing vacation was over in a few hours I picked a steady pace. As I mounted up I saw a group of two guys and another pack of three that followed me off the highway but hit the gas station before hitting the trailhead. This would be the last time I see another human for about a hour and a half.

The first thing I noticed was my chain was ghost shifting or slipping slightly once in a while, its done this before and usually I trim out the rear derailer at some point and the problem goes away. Today I rode along thinking nothing of this minor annoyance on climbs and flat sections. After 10 miles and alot of dodging of small stumps I hit my final climb, it wasn't final because I was home free, it was final because my chain sheared off and took out my rear derailer breaking it off halfway through the hanger. So as I sit out in the middle of the woods 3-4 miles from the parking lot I think back to the last time this happend. The last time I was out here and broke something was about a year ago when I drilled my non-drive side crank arm on a small stump (anyone who's rode out here knows 99% of the small stumps are painted orange.) I hit with enough force to loosen the bolt holding the arm on and had to use my keys to tighten it enough to get back out of the woods.

I think these trails are cursed...

I did enjoy my hike to the parking lot and did see one other person gave me a friendly "hello" as he finished his ride. As I walked out I ended up going the wrong way and found myself downhill of the parking lot on the far side of the Zoo in with the maintenance vehicles.

Special thanks to Stadium Bike for fixing me up right after they openned, and for selling me the great Pearl Izumi jersey off the discount rack.

No go for 9 mile the rack wouldnt fit

Training or the lack of.

I've been on one ride since the start of summer, we've also gotten 21" of rain in that time. This past week I've rocked some overnight shifts and gotten a solid ride in. Here's what I discovered on my ride at Baird Creek.

1. The Parks department doesn't care... Really they don't give a shit. They parked a earth moved across the Creek from the gravel abomination they're working on, and parked it on the back trail forcing you to ride around a heavy construction machine. They also think that putting a metal bridge up for said machine is OK for erosion. They forgot the silt fences, but they did put silt fences up in other areas 20 feet from the creek.

2. The Parks Department is a bunch of morons. A tree was down over the new crashed gravel trail, this forced people to make a new trail in the woods around it. If they're going to spend tax payer money to put tons of gravel in the woods they should at least clear the trail when its blocked.

3. If Velociraptors existed on Earth currently I'd have been killed. If anyone has seen the scene in Jurassic Park : The Lost World where the mercs are running through the tall grass and getting picked off by raptors, that's exactly how I felt.

4. 21 inches of rain means the creek is still swollen, and moving faster then I can cross, leaving me in the swamp to be eaten alive.

5. I saw two camp fires and one cast iron skillet. The camp fires looked old, but I'm not a homeless camp expert and they could have been from the prior night.

6. I'm out of shape but not nearly as bad as I thought.

Update on the 820, I've got the rear derailer nearly dialed in, its shifting ok but missing a few gear changes. The front derailer is a mess I'm going to have to read up on how to tune it, chances are I had it in the wrong position when I attached the cable. Still need new brakes but its V-Brake so I'm not too worried about cost.