White Christmas

Yeah, everyone has snow. We are no portland, but we have had two big storms in the last week, 18 inches last tuesday and then another 12 inches at the house this week.

The commute has been difficult:


The skiing has been sublime, at least on touring skis. The groomers have been overwhelmed for no skating yet:


We are on for another christmas day storm, so bike safe and enjoy the end of the year and the gradual lengthening of the days...

When I was 5

A trip to the pediatrician on monday excavated a long dormant memory. I was a young man of five playing at a friends house. Just as my mother came to pick me up, a chunk of Fisher Price Plastic was removed from the toy closet and playing commenced. Just long enough for me to realize I was in the presence of the greatest toy I had ever seen. The cow went moo when you pressed the lever! Then, just as the holy grail of plastic crap revealed itself, it was time to go. I had a complete meltdown. I can remember how upset I was when I was unable to play with this toy, I think inconsolable, crying so hard I was probably incoherent. Thirty one odd years later, as we waited for the pediatrician to administer shots to our baby, I looked at the toy basket and saw this:



Angels wept, horns sounded, heavenly glow emanated. There it was. The cow barn thing. The source of a dredged memory meltdown. The lever even sort of worked. It blurps "Mo". Joy joy.

It is much smaller than I remember it.

Short track XC ski action

We got something like 18 inches of snow in town in the last 36 hours as well as a bonus day and a half off of work. It was snowing heavily all day today so we hung out at the home most of the day. In between bouts of shoveling and walking the baby to her two month checkup, I set up a little short track XC ski course around the house.


There was a tiny climb, a chicane, a descent that dumped you into a chainlink fence and a million turns. All I needed was three more competitors to make it more fun. I did about 20 laps on the touring skis. more pics of the course

Alas, after the skiing was done, shoveled off the driveway and thus ruined the course. We have a bunch more snow predicted this week, so maybe the course will return! Failing that, there should be groomed skate skiing this weekend up here, unless we get alot more snow. There is already too much for the grooming machines to handle, so if you live in los alamos, get yer back country skis and get up the mountain and pack the trails down a bit...

The other type of child hauler

This is so great that I wept when I saw it:

click for full size glory!

My good friend Andrew (who lives in portland of course) cooked this up for his young daughter. When I asked if I could use the photo, he replied yes as:
the world needs to know that kids can be put to practical use!
Word!

I can't wait to yoke Aida to a velocipedal hauling contraption. In the meantime, her tiny fingers are being trained to lace spokes.

The Golden Age of Twin Plate Fork Crowns

Some recent nice handmade examples of the twin plate:

Naked Tony Pereira fork:

click for source

Courage Cycles with nice caps:

click for source

Hollow topped restoration via Keith Anderson Cycles

click for source

and the twin plate blog
not updated often, but good browsing if you have not seen it before...

The time for studs is now

Scenes from the commute


Not quite ski time yet, but maybe a couple a more storms, which seem to be on the way. Go winter.

And then he did me smitely didely

A couple of weeks ago on a nice mailing list run by the highly opinionated and often but probably not always right Peter Jon White (aka PJW), he wrote something I thought was dumb. In a thread started by the innocent question can you use 700x25mm tubes in a 700x 35mm tire, Peter said that:
It's a very bad idea to use inner tubes designed
for skinny tires in fat tires.
and for people who have used this combo successfully in the past
You've been a bit lucky.

His point was that if you use some smaller tubes than the tire you are using, the tube will stretch and cause strain at the valve stem and tearing in that spot.

I replied that this is BS for a variety of reasons. Bottom line is that if you are tearing out valve stems regularly, you either got a bad batch of tubes or you need to learn how to use your pump without pulling the valve stem out. Mostly the latter. I and many others have done this with no issues at all for years. If you want to read the thread it is here.

The thread is a microcosm of why I try not to participate in email lists anymore. I am impatient with others on the internet now and again, especially so when people have a knee jerk anti racer/carbon backlash. Also when they are wrong and I am right. I totally hate that. Bikes is bikes, i says, but everyone needs to ride a bit more, especially me. I probably was grumpier than I should have been and should have just let it lie.

But that is not what I am here to talk about. What I am here to talk about is PJW's disturbingly long reach.

Last Friday I was cruising through the canyon on the Big Dummy on the way to the grocery store, I hit a rocky whoopdedo going a bit too fast and I pinch flatted on the front tire.



No big deal, I quickly take off the tire and pull the tube out. It had two big snakebites on it, so no quick patch. I rummage around in the Big Freeloader bags for a spare tube and found I only had a 26x1.0 tube in the bag, but, gasp! I was running 26x2" tires. I immediately thought back to the email exchange and smirked. As I have done for thousands of miles before, I put the skinny tube in the fat tire, pumped it up and rode on to the market.

Later at twilight I was toodling around in the canyons on the way to my next stop when I ended up on a old trail behind the highschool that ended in a new fence. Rather than ride back from whence I came, I cut along the fence through some invisible scrub back to a trail that actually went somewhere. I rode on to the pharmacy and as I pulled up I could feel the front tire going flat. Crap I said. I rushed in to the pharmacy before they closed and when I came out the tire was completely flat. I pulled the tire off and looked and saw not one, not two, but threehundredandfiftymillion goatheads in it. Shit.



I pulled out the easy to find goatheads and then started fishing out the the broken off hidden ones. It took about 30 minutes and the borrowing of a pocketknife from a stranger to get them all out of the tire. Fortunately I had another spare (correctly sized) tube tucked in a hidden spot in the bag and I finished up the flat repair. Curious I thought, usually there are no goatheads in Los Alamos, only once in the last 5 years had I seen a goathead in town.

I briefly checked the rear tire, which was still holding air and appeared not to have any goatheads in it and had a slimed tube in it and rode on home. The next day I hopped on the BD and rode on downtown for some more errands and as I pulled into the post office, my rear tire was going flat. I hopped off the bike and took a quick look at the rear tire and saw not one, but two huge intact goatheads in the SIDEWALL of the tire.



Sidewall? How in the hell did they get there? I pulled them out and pumped up the rear on the big dummy, hoping the slime would hold. The rear tire on the big dummy is pretty hard to get to due to the rack and bags (previously) which is why I put a slimed tube in there. But even pumping it up is a pain with a small pump, I was kind of half lying on the ground as I pumped it up, but I got it full up. With that done I dipped into the coffee shop for a bit, got some bags of grounds for compost and, as I came out, I saw the rear tire is flat again.

Crap. I pump it up again and spin it real good to get the slime to spread and wait a bit, it is still holding, so off I ride. About a mile down the road, I feel the tire going flat. Crap crap crap. I guess there is no getting around it, I unload the bags on the back, pull off the rear tire and look for thorns. There are none. I pull out the tube, and pump it up and there is no leakage. I pump it up more and see one tiny hole that is more or less sealed by the slime. I pump it up a bit more and see that it is less sealed by the slime and the tube deflates. There is very little that is more depressing than a slimed tube that does not seal. Then you have a heavy messy flat tube that is hard or impossible to patch. Crap.

I check the tire for remnant thorns. There are none. I flip it inside out so I can really feel the inner surface... Nope, no thorns. I flip the tire back right side out and the bead is rolled up on itself. Huh?




I invert it again and flip it back the otherway. Now the other bead is rolled up on itself. crap crap crap. I have changed hundreds, maybe nearing thousands of flats in my life and I have never had this happen before. After about 15 minutes of this I bust out the tire irons and force the bead to unroll, cutting my hands in the process. I replace the tube with a fresh (correctly sized) one and pump it up and spend a few minutes getting the wheel back on the bike and the bags repacked and off I go home. And on the way home, the rear disc brake stops working and the front one starts squealing uncontrollably when applied.

I think I spent about 2 hours over two days fixing flats that should not have happened in Los Alamos. I also now have two disc brake problems that I did not have before. I blame this on angering the more-powerful-than-I-thought Peter Jon White.

I conclusion, even if you disagree with PJW and you know he is wrong, do not do so in public internet forums. He will visit upon you a whole mess of goatheads and unusual tire misfortunes plus odd braking issues. I am sorry PJW, I am sorry I was uncivil on your email list and I am very sorry that I said that you can use small tubes in big tires with no ill effects. Clearly if you do, bad bad bad things will happen. Please, no more goatheads. I am sorry.

Maybe I need to order some LED generator lights to appease him.

Some views from about Los Alamos

Saturday sunset out on north mesa tip:


Sunday sunset running down Quemazon trail:

The view from the living room

Taken a few weeks back.


In case you can not make out the critter:



I think it is one of Wink256 larger horned relatives.

I summoned you here with my mustache

are you man enough?

2008 Fort Marcy Cross race report

Since little Aida has come along my riding has consisted exclusively of a 6 mile rt jaunt on the Big Dummy to work and back. I was getting a bit jumpy about not riding that much and had an opportunity to run some errands in Santa Fe that neatly coincided with the NM cross series #7 race in Fort Marcy Park, which is a few blocks from the downtown plaza in Santa Fe. I knew I was not in great shape, but I was hoping that my veteran cross wiles would get me through the A race happy and no worse for the wear.

pre race. Luckily the little girl in the back was not in my race or she might have lapped me too


I got down to the race site around 11:30 with a half hour or so to spare. I quickly changed and registered, but due to an unfortunate snafu I spend 15 minutes looking for a restroom that did not exist. Apparently the portojohns were never delivered and the local gyms restroom was not open as planned. Bummer. I climbed down into the arroyo that cut through the park and somewhat stealthily watered some trees. Problem solved but course pre-ride was not completed before race time.

training the night before the race, like 95% of my cross specific training this year


The course was a nice example of public park twisty chicane celebration. Making good use of natural berms, sidewalks and bridges. The first half of the course was something like start, hard left, hard right onto bridge, hard left off bridge down dirt path across another bridge up a loose climb, tricky right onto gradual dirt climb along the road at the edge of the park, short right turn onto a downhill into a series of chicanes through sand and then up a set of stairs. Back down the gradual climb with a loose detour around a truck parked on the course. Hard left back down the park with a loose turn leading to another bridge.

This lead to the second part of the course which started with a hard right off the bridge along some pavement to a 270 wide paved turn to some dirt leading to a hard right up a loose bumpy climb. A 180 at the top of the climb right back down to a loose left and then a dirt gradual climb to a tight left that led to a three long straightaways with a couple of very loose tight 180 turns linking them. After this a sweeping loose right hand descent on to pavement followed by a tight left and short straightaway leading to a final bridge. Hard left off the bridge onto a paved path that surrounded a soccer field with sharp corners with the start/finish at the end.

It was a long fun course with lots of loose stuff and tricky bits. The stairs were the only place where you needed to get off the bike. The course was really narrow, but there were probably only 20 starters or so in the race so it was not a big deal.

looking fast, although reality was quite different


Anyhow, here is the report, I started in the back, yo-yo'd off the back of the pack a bit as I screwed up every technical section in the first half of the course. I passed a three or four people who I think had raced earlier, jumped in the A race for a few laps and dropped out. Then I popped, dropped off the back completely. And then I finished the first lap. I then rode on my own for a number of laps and then started getting lapped. I started riding a bit faster as the lappers came through, taking better lines and enjoying myself, attempting to hold onto wheels.

I did do great on the stairs though, I was able to take them two at a time almost every lap, and look smashing while doing it. The course could have used a second set of barriers or other forced dismount feature, but overall it was really great.


Crossing the start/finish line


I was probably running my tires at too high a pressure and was unable to hold some of the loose lines on the course. It is a delecate balance for me as I ride pretty light, but I do weigh 200 lbs, so no sub 25psi pressures for me. I think I was probably up around 40 on my michelin sprints which was a bit hard and jarring, again, getting there earlier and preriding would have shaken this out a bit. I did end up flatting, but it was a slow leak over the last lap that pretty much held until the last corner where I almost bit it. Goatheads. It did not cost me any places though as it happened over the second half of the last lap and no one lapped me and I was already last. I had some specialized airlock tubes in there, but they are probably the same tubes I have been running since 2003, so they might be a bit light on the sealant now.

After the race I headed over to 2nd st brewing company with my Ski Club buddy John D. and his Nob Hill Bike club teamates for some delicious beer and sammiches. Good time was had by most.

Results over on nmcross.com I took DFL in the A race. Yea me. If you want to get some idea of the course and racers, there are some good photo galleries here and a big one here where I borrowed a couple photos fro

My buddy Glen is the race promoter and I heartily thank him for putting on a race in Santa Fe. In my dotage I am reluctant to drive two hours to albuquerque for a cross race anymore. Glen has lined up the Santa Fe PD to help sponsor the race next year and allegedly they will bring their big barbeque truck, so it should be a can't miss race. Thanks to Glen and the other volunteers for putting on a good race.

Quadzilla Cycle

Click image for source

Found via some sort of non-reproducible link following. Some sort of norway based stolen fashion photo blog, not sure what the deal is or how I got there, but one can not deny the powers of the monster army stoking your quad.

The communist mock olive

After reading about this excellent olive harvest at Cal Tech over on ramshackle solid I thought to my self, well my neighborhood is lousy with Russian Olive trees, I wonder if you can eat the little fruits on these trees?

Turns out you can, thanks Wikipedia! They are not really olives, but they are loaded with lycopene, which is the same stuff in tomatoes that repels werewolves allegedly helps prevent prostate cancer. They were rumored to be tasty after the first frost, according to the internets. Huge bonus as we just had our first frost in the last month or two.

Russian olives are a pesky invasive tree that is planted everywhere around Los Alamos as shade/windbreak, but unlike Chinese Elms which have no known use except for reproducing like mad and being impossible to eradicate, the Russian Olive is kind of edible.



I hopped the fence into my snowbird neighbors yard and picked a bunch of tiny mock olives from the tree. I put a few in my mouth, they were kind of delicious. They were sort of tannin tasting, but had a bit of sweet to them, not too dissimilar to fresh dates that have the skin you should peel, but are too lazy to do so...
They are probably much lower on the desirability scale than any of the bountiful crab apple trees in the neighborhood, but they are edible right off the tree, which makes them more desirable than, say, juniper berries...

Apparently there are much more delicious mock olives from the similarly invasive relative Autumn Olive tree which grows in the east. But these are not terrible, I may raid the neighbors yard some more for some low reward snacking. I am not sure if I can actually get enough flesh off these little pitted fruits to do anything with them, but they are not unpleasant. In fact, I think the more shrively ones are almost tasty! The firm ones are a bit bitter.



So there you have it, the Russian Olive:
Not really olives, somewhat tasty, mostly pits.

And I am back!

Huge thanks to uber guest bloggers Cody and Steve.
Steve (with furry friends and Chad):


Cody (with the mostly rev)


Please go visit their blogs and subscribe to Cody's zine if you like things like that, kind of a better drawn more interesting moonlight chronicles if you will...

Anyhoo, blogging shall return regular like if a bit slower due to difficulty of typing while holding the baby.


Ill advised cross race report, adventures in facial hair, and tales of hunting and gathering the high altitude mock olive to come this week!

Gratuitous Kitty Cute

I had planned on doing a post on our local Bike Library, but I suddenly realized there has been a tremendous lack of cat around here. Enjoy Maru... perhaps the Japan counterpart of the beloved Wink.

Thanks to John L. for the hot tip!