Cyclecross Hillsboro Stadium

This weekends race was at Hillsboro Stadium. I thought it was time to get my ass kicked again so I raced as well. I put knobbies on my commuting bike and took everything else off to make it a little bit lighter. It was a pretty muddy race but lots of fun. It seemed it was over faster than last time and I had paced myself a bit too much and didn't push as hard as I should have. Now Keevin, he pushed himself and fell on his boys and nose. There are a few pics of him in pain. At the end I saw a guy was about 10 bike lengths ahead of me and tried to sprint and catch him but lost by a half wheel length. I think I pulled a Carl Lewis.

My photo finish - 1/2 wheel short

Cyclecross Estacada

Today we went down to Estacada for cyclecross. The course was really cool. Matt & Keevin both did really well. Here is a video of them on an off camber corner.

Start

Cyclecross Astoria

We went out to Astoria for the race this weekend. We stayed at the beach in Gearhart and hung out Saturday night. Megan, Dan and I went to the beach after drinking and Megan ran into the ocean. The course looked badas and had a jump people went off.

Bridge to Astoria

Cyclecross Rainier

We went out to the Cyclecross in Rainier on the way to Astoria. We saw lots of people biff it in the sandpit, nothing on film though.

Start of Mens

Cyclecross Hornings Hideout

Ingrid, Matt and Jeremy - known as JT to his people, ran cyclecross at Hornings Hideout off of Pumpkin Ridge Road. It was badass. There's some dude who rolls on a modified mountain bike w/ a leaf spring for the front shock. I saw him pass quite a few people. Not Matt or JT though.

Masters

Cycle Cross Alpenrose

On Sunday we went out to Alpenrose to do a Cross Crusade race. Matt and I rode in the beginner race where I came very close to dead last, Matt got 45th(ish). I blame it on my bike. Ingrid rode w/ the women and did really well.

Start

Hill ride

I've been sending out google maps to Ingrid and Matt for our rides to show where I thought we should go. It has a nice mileage calculator to give us an idea of how much we're in for. This is today's ride(ish).

View Larger Map

$250 ticket for blowing stop sign on bike

As I rolled down Salmon street on my way to work I saw a group of bikers on the side of the road with police. I thought it was pretty cool the cops were giving out coffee and donuts. Not so. They were busy handing out $250 tickets for running the stop sign up the block.

I've been wondering when they'd have the police monitoring the 24th and Salmon street stop sign. It's right at the bottom of a pretty nice hill so who wants to stop? I always double check the side traffic and cruise through if no one is there. That doesn't really work for the police. I asked the officer how many they've given out so far that morning - at least 30. That's like $7500.

I really think they need to make 4 way stops into yields for bikes if no other traffic is present. I'm sure most drivers won't feel the same way, but if people rode their bikes they'd understand.

Fruita

Ron and I just got into Moab after spending the weekend in Fruita, Colorado. We did a few days of biking and some climbing as well. I did my first trad lead (5.6) and it was bad ass.

Here are some climbing pictures and biking pictures

Firelane 7a

On Sunday I thought it'd be fun to go ride some firelanes that I haven't touched in a few years. I went down and up firelane 10 (which starts across Germantown from Leif Erickson). I remembered that it was BS before, and it still is. If you do it, it's best to ride down from Newtown instead of from Germantown up to Newton. I didn't have to walk, but I had to stop for a minute to stop from throwing up in my mouth.

I went over to Springville and down Firelane 7. I had been thinking I can totally go down the bottom, which is very steep and rutted. So I flew down 7 to the steep part and unclipped so I could bail out. I made it down 20% of the steep section, but there were a few things I had to get off for and it's too steep to get back on the bike. It was Moab steep and I had my stomach behind my seat.

I thought it sucked that I had to walk sections of it, so I went back up via Saltzman to do 7a - which shoots to the left of 7 near the bottom. There was more bomber trail until it's steep section. I unclipped again and just rode on my toes. 7a is actually rideable and I eeked down it to Leif Erickson and started screaming like a little girl. I thought my brakes might be hot so I dropped water on them and instantly it hissed and steamed.

Surveyors Ridge

On Saturday Ron and I went out to Hood River and went mountain biking on Surveyors Ridge. It normally takes 1h 5min to get there but I got us to Hood River in 45 minutes.

The ride got 4 or 5 cranks in the book so it looked like it'd be a lot of fun. Ron said it was the worst ride in the history of biking. I'm not sure it was that bad, but it did suck. It was 14 miles up and then the down hill still had ups. And there were no bomber sections except for one 5 foot long area.

I was cruising down one area and while thinking of trains and trying to avoid the bushes that were constantly slapping our faces my right tire veered off the trail and turned 90 degrees. So I flew over my bars and skidded to a stop on my left arm. I spent the next 5 minutes walking around swearing and throwing rocks at trees.

Ron's Pic

Don't do Surveyors Ridge. Unless you're those guys from Hood River who ride up from town (15 miles) and ride up the ridge and back down. But they're sick in the head.

Moab IIX

Last week I was in Moab, Utah with my buddies Sara, Ron and Dan. It was pretty badass. We rode every day and had pretty solid weather. The poofs from the cottonwood trees were out in full force, but if you could ignore them (which we couldn't) then it would be allright.

Ron came up with a new term for getting hurt on/by the bike: gak. Ron got gakked almost every day. The worst gak was on Bartlet Slickrock and we hadn't even started the slickrock ride. He was standing on the rock and just started sliding and then fell down the slope, got attacked by his bike, did a few rolls, stood up and started bleeding from his leg.

Anyhoo, it was a lot of fun. We drank almost all of our 10 6 packs of beer, the last one is in my fridge. Awesome riding, good weather, good people.

My New Ride

I saw an older bike for sale on craigslist, so I decided to get it. Here it is. While it looks a little rusty and dirty now, after a bath or two and some grease, it will be like a new shiny nickel. Ron had the great idea of getting the metal chromed out. If it's not too spendy I think that'll do just fine.

New ride

The fast looking ride

Moab Pictures

I finally got the pictures up from the last trip to Moab. Funny how I got a cabel modem so I could upload pictures and I really haven't used it for that yet.

Anyhoo, take a look see

I broke my bike

I was gently riding my bike home on Thursday when I felt it shimmy, kinda like when you taco a wheel. But I was just going on pavement so I figured it was a flat tire. I pulled over and saw it wasn't flat. But the rear wheel was a bit out of true and I spent 10 minutes truing it up on the sidewalk.

I hopped back on it for a test spin and it had the same shimmy. I figured I got a flat this time. No flat. Then I saw the right side chain stay was sheared. Not too much you can do about that.

I tried riding down the street but the wheel kept hitting the frame and it felt too funky. And if the other stay flexed and broke then I'd be in a world of hurt.

I called everyone I could think of. If I didn't call you it's because you need to get a truck or a bike rack.

It took me 20 minutes of limping the bike along to realize that we have a thing in Portland called buses. And on these "buses" there are bike racks. And they go right by my house.

So I walked down to Division and hopped on the # 4 bus. I know people were thinking, "what a sack, he has on his little biking getup and still uses the bus." Cos I would think that.

On Friday I brought my bike to Acme Welding on 7th and Salmon and they fixed it right up and now my bike is running fine.

Phil's Trail

Over the weekend I went over to Bend with my buddies Sara and Ron. We left Portland where it was pouring and soggy outside. As soon as we crossed the Cascades it was sunny with pretty skies. Apparently Bend averages 300 sunny days a year. If they only had some jobs...

We did our riding on Saturday at Phil's Trail, just outside of Bend. We had heard it was the trail to ride so we gave it a shot. It was nice singletrack that weaved through the trees and up the gentle hill.

It was fun riding up the hill and we were pretty psyched for the downhill. At the top of the hill it got steep and we walked a few sections cos we're lazy and the dust was pretty thick.

We saw on the map that there was a section called Whoop-de-doos. We weren't sure what it was, but it'd be different than going down the part we just did. A party of bikers passed us and I asked how the trail was. We wondered why it was called "Whoop."

"Lots of potential for air." Ron thought she said "error." Either way she'd be right. The downhill was fairly modest, but the trail whipped through tight sections of trees and over moguls. After the first one, Ron and I were yelling and hollering as we bombed down the whoop-de-doos. The moguls were placed about 10 feet apart so you'd get air on one and have to get ready for the next right away. And then you'd hit a banked curve and do it all over. I'm sure we didn't get over 2 feet of air on each jump, but you add it up and it's pretty sweet.

We booked down the rest of Whoop-de-doos and then hit Ben's trail. It didn't have as many jumps, but it was still dope as we sliced through trees and around curves.

We celebrated the 16 mile ride by hitting the Deschutes Brewery and getting a few beers. And then going back to our campsite for Whiskey Sours, brauts, beer and brownies made in a dutch oven.

Kryptonite

I'm sure everyone has heard about the Kryptonite fiasco (which affects all similar locks.) I figured I'd give it a whirl on my lock. I didn't have a pen that fit the lock correctly but I got a pen in there after pounding it into a wall in the parking lot. And the lock did make a 1/4 turn.

But then I couldn't turn it all the way, or get it back to where I could put my key in. I eventually got the lock back to a good state after pounding it against the ground with a cheapo pen. I'm going back to using a combonation lock until I get a rebate and can buy a new NY Lock, which is not supposed to have these issues.

Mt. St. Helens

On Sunday my buddy Sara and I met in Woodland, Wa to go up to St. Helens for a little biking. My body decided it was time to get the runs, so I ate a few Immodium ADs. I thought it was the calamari from Saturday night when I went out for greek food with Faustina after the Tears for Fears concert. They only played a few songs, but it was all good (and free!)

At the trailhead there were two other cars with bikers going up the hill. And a hunter in camo sitting on a rock near us. I asked him what season it was.

He looked up to the sky, "Summer."

The other bikers laughed a little uncomfortably and said "We asked him the same thing."

"It's Elk season", he finally said, " and bikers." No smile.

"Well, we don't taste too good."

"That's ok. I just drop the Elk and bikers and leave them there."

I figured he was just joking with me and seeing if I'd react like a liberal and say "Hey, you can't just leave the animal there, that's wrong." So I just laughed.

We got ready and he came over and chatted more with us. I think we passed some sort of test. Or the runs made me think more was going on.

"I see all of these fancy bikes." Which makes me worry when people say that... "And no kick stands!" I had to laugh.

"I know, you'd think you'd get one."

"I'd take it back. Those shoes good for pushing up the hill?"

"You know it, not good for biking, good for pushing."

And we were off up the hill, to do some pushing. I remembered the Ape Canyon trail being pretty difficult cos of the elevation and being out of shape. It wasn't too bad this time. I stopped from time to time to relax. Ok, to breathe. But it was ok.

It was pretty up on the Plains of Abraham and we toodled around, taking pictures and looking around. We couldn't see the top of the mountain because of the low clouds, but every now and then the sun would pop out and make the area look like pictures of Tibet.

We went over towards Windy Ridge, which funnily enough was pretty windy. You could see the main visitor center towards the North, with no real vegetation inbetween.

The clouds started to come in so we started back and flew down the hill back to the car. We celebrated our conquest of St. Helens with a shake, a few burgers and some fries.

Downtown Bike Gallery

So a few weeks ago I was biking with my buddies up in Washington, doing the Falls Creek ride, when my Crank Brothers pedal broke. It wasn't a normal break where the bearings were worn or a bushing was [whatever bushings do when they break], but the actual metal spindel snapped. This was a pain in the ass because this ride is the ride, 5 miles up and 20 down. I was on the top of the hill, just getting ready to go down. But you shouldn't try and bomb down technical hills with one pedal, just won't work. So I limped back to the cars on one pedal.

I jogged by the Bike Gallery today on my way up to Washington Park to drop off my pedal. I handed my broke pedal to the guy at the counter.

'Do you have a receipt?'
"No" who keeps a receipt for a pedal? Those things are supposed to be bomb proof. "The Sandy shop said they'd warranty it."
'Why didn't you take it there?'
"Uh, cos you're on my jog route."
Another guy came over.
'What broke?'
"The spindle."
'You have a receipt?'
"No, Sandy said they'd do it though."
'Oh, why not take it there? They do the warranty stuff.'
"Because, you're both the same store."
'Yea, it's not a problem. We can't guarentee it'll get fixed.'
"Right."
'It'll cost $10 for shipping. They'll probably fix it though, because it's a cheap pedal.'
Right, I spend $75 for a pedal and it's cheap.

I don't mind spending money on shipping and all that, but it's always a hassle to deal with the downtown Bike Gallery. You'd think I'll learn.

Verena & Luciano

We were in Moab a few years ago (I believe it was Moab IV) and there was a slideshow being given by a couple who were traveling the world by bike. It was an amazing show and they seemed pretty cool. They have a website that is over in Japan that hosts their pictures. You should check it out - the Bolivia and Argentina pages have some awesome pictures.

I don't know about you, but it makes me want to get some dinero together and head out for a long ride.

Bike tire goo

I recently put slime filled inner tubes on my road bike - they're supposed to plug up holes as soon as they get punctured. On Monday I was riding home in the rain and heard the dreaded sound of "Pffttt sisssssssssssssssss" as a hole got made in my front tire. I looked down and saw the green slime shoot out and the hole stopped leaking. Amazing, it really worked.

The next day I was riding to the rock gym and heard the same sound "Pfffffttt sisssss". Well, I have my trusty tube to plug the hole. I pulled over because it wasn't stopping. I looked at the hole on the top of the tire. No slime, no goo. After the tire went flat I remembered the instructions "When tire gets punctured, rotate tire until the hole is at the bottom." So the goo will fill the hole.

I took the flat tube out and pumped it up to get the slime working. I held it upside down and everything. The hole was filled, but so was my valve, I couldn't add any more air.

So you know, don't do what I did. Instead follow the directions. I guess they're there for a reason.

My biking buddy Vince

Everyone who goes biking should have a biking partner like mine. He just called to confirm that we were in fact going riding today after work. The last 2 weeks he's had to bail for lame reaons like "My son is shipping off to Iraq tomorrow and this is the only night he's in town." Whatever -- I don't see the commitment.

He said today, "Look, I haven't ridden in a while, so we're going to be moving slow." I pointed out that we always have equipment failure and that's a good reason to turn around. He laughed, "Well, I brought my knife so I can have an 'accidental tire blowout' and we can go drink beer." That's what I'm talking about, willing to sacrifice the bike to get some beer.

Dumba$$ II

Yesterday was a swell day. After spending 70 buckaroos on a tooth that I shouldn't have broken, I went biking with my buddy Vince up in Forest Park. He couldn't ride until 6ish because he was having a lousy day.

I had time to kill so I started fixing the squeek on my new rear brakes. I took the pads off to push the pistons back and then replaced the pads. That took a little jiggling (of the pads, not me) because they're different than my old Hayes brakes. Sound gone.

We started up the hill with Vince's rear brakes squeeking like only a dirty disc brake does. We stopped a few times for him to add and replace shims, but nothing could silence the chalkboard sound.

One stop was at the porta-a-potty, where I saw the door was "occupied". For some reason I thought that someone was playing a trick on me and had locked the door from the outside and left. Because no one could actually be in the Honey Bucket. So I swore about the door being locked. Of course someone was inside and yelled "Yea, I'm in here." A tall blonde woman jogger traipsed out of the Bucket looking not too happy and ran off.

So a few miles later, I reached for my right (rear) brake to slow down from my highway speeds to go around a corner and had to pull the lever all the way to the bar to get any resistance. Why, that's funny, I just fixed that. The braking sounds reminded me of a brick scraping over glass (which I've done before.)

I kept on riding, like a dumbass (as Red would call me, I'm sure) just adjusted the lever so it would connect earlier. I rolled up next to Vince and he looked at me and said "Dude, you're grinding metal!"

No way, I just fixed those puppies. I hopped off and saw that I indeed was grinding metal. My right brake pad was gone and that side of the rotor was all torn up. It's one thing to lose a pad (around $25), but I ruined my rotor (probably like $80.)

We said to 'Hell with it all' and rode the 4 miles back to our cars which were nicely positioned close to McMenamins and a large basket of fries.

McKenzie River

On Saturday Trey, Ron, Tubby T Tom and I rolled down the the McKenzie river east of Eugene for a little bike ride. We used my birthday (which is today, in case you haven't sent me my gifts yet) as an excuse to go riding.

Since I seem to have lost my camera (which is a good excuse to buy the new 5.0 megapixel version), I have no pictures of the ride.

Which is too bad because then I could show everyone where Trey biffed it. We were crusing down the singletrack with Trey in front of me and he tagged his right handlebar on a tree and started wee-wabbling. That lasted about 1/2 a second until he fell to the left. We happened to be on the section where the left side is a steep embackment that changes into a straight drop onto rocks in the river. Luckily for Trey, there was a little tree that stopped both him and his bike from being totalled. But he was ok, as was his bike and we continued on our merry way.

After riding we had some dindin at a restaurant in Rainbow,Oregon which is next door to Nimrod, Oregon. The dinner was pretty good (since everyone else paid for it, hahah).

As half the point of the trip was to soak in a hot tub after running into rocks and trees on the trail, we then proceeded to hang out in the warm pool. We got scolded by the old people from Cocoon for hogging the hot water. Apparently standing near the hot water outlet stops the water from getting to the wrinkled ones.

Moab 7!

Ron, Henry and I just got back from Moab this evening. It was an awesome time, we had good rides and no one got hurt. We rode Bartlett Slickrock, Monitor Merimack, Slickrock, the bottom of Porcupine Rim and Amasa Back. My brakes wonked out on me again so I ditched them to get some mechanical Avid disc brakes and they work really well. So I'll be trying to hock my other brakes after I get them warranteed.

It was Jeep Jamboree week and we got to see the thousands of Jeeps and other four wheeled monsters. We hung out at Potato Salad to see if anyone would mess up their rigs, and came up flat. But we got to watch as people threw their vehicles up the wall and get heckled by the crowd. One guy in a Toyota was having a hard time getting up and got yelled at by a young girl "You want to use my winch!?!" That was pretty damn funny.

Jumping at Porcupine Rim

New Wheel

Last night I got my new 48 spoke tandem rear wheel. It's being fitted to my bike today, I'm getting a new chain and cassette after 2000+ miles. It's not as heavy as I had thought, but it looks pretty nice. Hopefully I won't be getting any broken spokes with this baby.

Wheel

Well, the wheel I bought on the coast during the summer was starting to get more wiggy so I finally took it to a shop to true it up. I normally fix my own wheels but the nipples broke easily and I was tired of it. The woman at the shop on Belmont fixed it, said it wasn't the easiest job she's done.

I decided to order a super back wheel from them. I wanted disc brakes, but she pointed out that I don't have a place to put the calipers, so no disc brakes for me. But, I'm getting a 48 spoke tandem wheel. There were a few options for hubs, the Shimano (which I got) is around $100, and the Phil Woods was $250 (which I didn't get.)

Bike Lights

I was at the Bike Gallery last night dropping off my mountain bike to get a tune up. I looked around for a few lights I could put on my spokes or wheel so people can see me easier. A guy there said I should try the Hokey Spokes. You can program these spokes to write letters or words as you bike around. I thought it was BS but after checking out their site, it looks like they really work.

They cost 30 dollars, but for what they do that's not too bad of a price. Maybe Santa Claus will bring me a few (red) ones for Christmas.

24 hours of Moab

Last night I was reading through Time magazine about the 24 hours of Moab. A few years ago, Trey, Ron, Sara and I thought we should do it. Nothing's come of it yet. After reading the article (which isn't that super, but got me thinking) it's time to do the 24 hours of Moab. I figure we'd have the distinction of coming in butt last place. That's better than 13th to last or something.

We already have a team name that we loosely refer to our selves: Team Fat Boys/z. Before we thought (if a girl rode with us) that we'd be Fat Boys/z and a Chick with Sara yelling "I'm the chick!"

Our slogan for the t-shirts and jerseys is done also: Fat, Out of Shape, Tired and Lazy. Who wouldn't buy one of those?

So it's time to start training, hills and night riding so we don't eat too much dirt down there.

Moab VI

I just got back from Moab on Monday morning. We had perfect weather down there, cool at night (to kill off the mosquitoes) and warm in the day.

As I was driving down I-5 my car stereo died. As I still had over 1000 miles to go I stopped at Grants Pass to finda new stereo. A little shop had one Alpine stereo in stock and I snagged it. I needed the same type of stereo I had before so it'd work with my CD changer. A few hours later I was on the road with a new stereo.

I had a great drive across Nevada on Highway 50. I kept the speed under 120, but usually above 90. I got into Moab before everyone else and camped at our first ride. It was a clear night and you could see