5 years ago

Heh.

Team Ed

I am proud to be a founding member of Team Ed. Our namesake has an excellent profile this week in the Knoxie Paper: here. Note the terms "tortoise mentality" used in the article. I think that means Ed is sort of the kent of the southeast.

Make sure you watch the video:

Well done Ed and G.

Also note that shorter fellers that ride more than you and live in super twisty rooty muddy knoxville are all about the 29'ers. Probably a lesson in there somewhere...


I was able to find a nice photo from the initial race of Team Ed at the 2002 edition of the 12 hours of Haw ridge race:

We were all on single speeds. That is Ed, Eric, Tarik and Gary from left to right. Ed is the one we are talking about, Gary is featured in the video and article as well. Eric has the sweet vanagon and was serving hot soup and cold beers to go with his laps. I think we were attempting to grow Ed like mustaches on short notice. Good times.

Team Ed still races actively. Check out their tales here

I am so proud.

Its a thing! Bikes on smartcars

If you see three, its a thing.

1st sighting:
Driving north near Pojaque, I saw a smart car going the other direction with a Yakima hitch mount rack with a dual suspension MTB on the back. It was cattywumpus on the rack with the rear wheel above the roofline of the car.

2nd sighting:
not a week later

Framebuilder and tiny car aficionado Curtis Retrotech Giantman Inglis himself seems to have this set up, seen on his flickr stream click for source.

3rd sighting:
A day after number 2:

This guy in my neighborhood has a homemade rack added to the factory hitch on his Smartcar. Factory hitch! Who wouldathunkit. Note the sweet lustron home in the background.


It is now officially a thing. All the rage. I am going to get a smartcar and festoon it with biketites screwed directly into the plasticky smartcar body and mount as many bikes as I can simultaneously so I can join the fun.

Also, Smartcar v. Bakfiets

update! 4/30/10
From the comments, we received:
This excellent visualization of smartcar bike festoonage:

from reader JRA

And then this most excellent conceptually troubling folding bike on a smartcar:

Caught in california by andy R.

Thank you fellers! I knew it was a thing.

A formidable bunch

Buried way deep in the letters section on velonews is this lovely photo of a group of vintage cyclists.



(click for huge image at source)

That is a group that looks like they would put you in the curb before you knew what hit you. And then stop for wine and pastrami sammiches mid ride.

Previous and relatedvintage pic on moscaline.

Smaller velodromes

I have long been interested in the small velodrome phenomena. The vandedrome was the first one that hit my radar. Then, a great regret in my velolife, I never bought the ticket to go to canada and ride the Human powered roller coaster.

I noted recently there is this tiny redbull branded minidrome floating around the antipodes:

Red Bull Minidrome from Radar Films on Vimeo.

Pretty neat, but maybe needs more banking, wouldn't it have been cooler if it was cross bred with this:

(put that on youtube!)

Or maybe crossed with a pump track somehow?

Update 5/19/2010:
Welcome Coco's variety readers! Also, check your local paper for some more tiny velodrome action:

Pomona student Samuel Starr makes velodrome inside a library!
Read the rest at the la times
132 foot circumference, 5 second laps. Well done!

SF bike racks

Third street:


Not bad for arty racks, you might be able to get 2 bikes on each.


Church and Market. Virtual Racks:

I locked to them my invisible bike and all was whole.

Went to SF

Rode a ton, still gained weight, took many photos. Here they are:

I consult the oracle:


Done saw the bridge:


Mr Cell Phone Talking Bag head:


The Sealions among other landmarks:


Down on Cesar Chavez:


Pier 23 Fishbike:


Did some tiny wheeled fixie off road riding in Marin:


F-market Trolleys, still cost the same as a bus.


Better than cable cars:


I imported NM finest burrito for JimG to try.

He liked it!

This tiny woman fits in her own backpack:


Saw this place down on 20th in the Mission while trying not to drown in the rain:


All the photos here

29er rim opinions?

Normally I don't do this kind of blog post, but I have been out of the loop for a while whats new in the 29'er world.
Someone out there reading probably has some experience with this and I need some help.

I am imminently going to receive my new 29'er rigid single speed from Kelly.
First bike in the line is mine, look at those stays


It is designed to fit huge freaking 29er tires. Hopefully it will fit 29x2.75" tires when someone makes a set.

My current plan is to have two sets of wheels. A race wheel built on 32 hole disk hubs and 28-30mm rims using wtb weirwolf 29x2.55race tires.
My thoughts are either Salsa Semi Rims, Velocity Blunt or WTB speed disc.

The second wheelset will be more all mountainy and will be built on 36 hole disc hubs, 35mm rims and fatter tires. Probably WTB kodiak tires, or maybe Conti Mountain King 29 x 2.4
My thoughts here are for the Salsa Gordo or Velocity P35 rims.

I have built alot of wheels around velocities and I really like them. Anyone have any experience with either the Salsa or the WTB rims? Are the Salsa rims worth the extra cost? Any others that I am missing? WTB rims seem to be much cheaper. Any thoughts?

Any other fat tires in the 29'er size I should be looking at? I have been running the 26" weirwolfs for years and love them, so I am looking forward to the 29'er version.

Leave any opinions in the comments. Thanks pals.

Proud bikes

A set of well used rusty bikes proudly awaiting their field worker owners return.



Goleta.

The James Black Cycletruck (taco) experience

A few weeks back I was in Santa Barbara for a meeting/family visit, but we flew back through LAX, so I took the opportunity to FINALLY meet with James Black and try out his Cycletruck. I think this has been in the works for 2 years, I had a bunch of interviews in LA in 2007-8 and I was plagued by flight delays that prevented this test ride from happening. Until now!

First. The man and the bike. James designed this pucky, iterated it with David Wilson who built it. James got it and has been riding it around for about 2 years, David seems to have moved on to non-active building.


Click over to the new cycletruck to get the full scoop from James himself.


Second, note, Tacos Por Favor. In Santa Monica no less. Delicious.


Also, for reference, James is hitting a taco joint a week around the LA basin, and blogging it, so please check out cincuenta taquerias. See the relevant review here. I think I have met James face to face now twice. He is a dedicated individual in search of truths of various type and well equipped with both motivation and vernacular to achieve these trooves. I am impressed. Especially since he used some architecture theory description (which I should have wrote down) to describe his preference for tacos arriving pre salsed from the taqueristas. I am not sure if he was kidding or not, but good stuff nonetheless.

Anyhow. The bike:



James generously let me ride his bike while Elena, Aida, Carmen and James chatted on the corner.



Aida found the conversation tedious and fell asleep, but Elena enjoyed meeting bike friends of mine, yet again, I am sooooooooo lucky.

So the bike riding was great. I probably did a mile or two of riding about, stopped to talk to James a bit betwixt mini rides. Here are the perceptions:

1. Nice overall wheelbase. It had that subliminally trackstandable geometry that I associate with a shorter wheelbase and a load that helps you damp out the nervousness, kind of like balancing a broom on the handle end vs. the broom end.

2. It rode smooth. The fact that the rack was fixed to the frame was weird (you can't see the front wheel at all). But I got over that pretty quick. It rode like a bike. I had the James Pizza Bag on it with assorted James detritus within. I would guess 10-15 pounds on the front rack maybe?

James' watchful eye and excellent pizza cargo bag:


3. It shimmied a bit when riding no handed and one handed. I rode it one handed with a light touch and it hit a low speed resonance. No handed it continued to the point that I was not ready to crash James' bike to see how far it went. James claims it is mild and ridable in the condition that it was in, but it can be much worse with more weight strapped on tight, even with two hands on bars. I believe him
No issues with the rack clamp says James. Also, James rides with nice shoes:


4. Nitto Promenade bars are cool and all, but way too narrow for my taste, especially on a cargo bike. This is the only hardware change I would feel obligated to make if I rode this regularly. I think Honking wide swept flat bars would be my initial choice. I probably would put much fatter bmx freestyle high pressure tires on it as well, but the bike rode great as is.

5. James probably has slightly longer legs than me and likes his seat at a messed up angle. Personal preference. The seat was an extra cool fuji-approved japanese leather saddle with white stitching around the skirt. Very nice.


6. The little Bendix-torpedo 3 speed shifter was a revelation to me. It was shifting a Sachs dreigang 3 speed in back. This was the best IG trigger shifter I have ever used and is absolutely better than the twist shifters that come on newer Sachs/SRAM 3 speeds. Anyone know if these shift sachs 3 speed coaster hubs of later vintage?


7. Overall it was a great bike. I wish I had a week in LA to ride it and play with the loading, but it was sweet. Big thanks to James for letting me ride his Cycletruck 001.
the grin of bicycle happiness:




8. The bike has a dual position fork. Lets call this one the JimG moneyshot:

James claims it makes little difference in the shimmy. I think my general experience jibes with this. If the frame and loading induces shimmy, you can probably change things a bit via load and damping, but the steering geometry (within reason) is not a good parameter to play with. James claims the biggest change in shimmy is with tightly lashed loads v. loosely lashed loads. L^3 better than t*l^2.

The Tacos:

I had three initially. The recommended chorizos con queso, the al pastor and the carne asada. Those that have come before me claimed the chorizos con queso was the thing to get, so I got it. It was great. but really, no where near as great as the al pastor. They were sublime. The carne asadas was right up there with the chorizons con queso, but man, the al pastor was just great. I was still hungry and got another al pastor and another taco. I have forgotten what the other was. The al-pastor was that good. I was really impressed with this taquaria. Their salsa rojo was also excellent. On a taco-taco head to head battle with Super-rica in Santa barbara, recently visited, I think Tacos Por Favor wins hands down. Super-Rica has great specials and other non-taco stuff, but their tacos are unaccompanied with salsa or cheese and do not quite meet the standard of excellence of los Por Favoritos. In battling Por Favor v. Taquaria San Jose in fruitvale/oakland (which I have not stepped foot in for a dozen or so, but last I did, I was eating there 1-2 times a week) I would declare it a tie. The pickled carrots and peppers were probably better at S-J, but the al-pastor was so good at P-F. I think the tiebreaker would be a throw-down between the lenguas and the sessos tacos at each place. In retrospect I am not sure I saw any organ tacos at all at P-F, they did tout their healthy lard free menu. So maybe S-J wins on a technicality...

Post tacos Elena and the baby had a disco nap on the ridiculously plush median on Olympic Blvd:



And then driving back to the airport we saw a Rock Racing escalade in Venice:

Rock on LA.

Moscaline Video Test Ride Exclusive, Specialized Hotwalk

Thanks to the kind sharing nature of my niece and nephew I was finally able to do a test ride on the specialized hotwalk I got my niece 2 years ago

Three part video for your viewing pleasure.
Part 1: In which I nearly run over my daughter and niece:


Part 2: In which I shred the patio drop with musical accompaniment from my brother


Part 3: The aftermath of the most daring stunt:



Verdict: Two thumbs up. Sophie can ride really well, even though she is now too tall for it at 4. Oliver, at 2, is mostly interested in the trikes. Aida, at 17 months, liked it but it is too big for her. I loved it. I was a bit scared my knee would slip from the seat causing great pain. I also feared that I might pinch flat it or put a wheel permanently out of round. But, no, it had a fairly predictable ride and it seemed to plane and the bike disappeared under me as I rode along. Very unusual for a fat tubed aluminum frame. I am impressed. The two years of use has rendered the paint on the frame very scarred, but it was still solid and rolled well.

New bikes

I have a ton of great stuff from a recent trip to california, but in the meantime Elena got her new bike and my new one is becoming reality.

Elena's:



Mine:


more spyshots of mine

More info and reviews soon.

2010 Pajarito Pinhead Challenge race report 3/13/2010

Here is a timely race report for the Pajarito Pinhead challenge, Los Alamos' local uphill downhill nordic/skinning race.

A mighty week of flurries and whatnot dumped a foot or so of new snow on our favorite mountain the week before this race leading to great conditions on a 94" base and somewhat oddly for march 13th an open ski hill for Skiesta and the associated festivities. (base is accumulating as we speak as it is dumping snow as I type this!)

early morning ski hill displaying perfectly groomed conditions



Here is my whiny part of the report. Despite an excellent ski year and lots of skiing leading up to the beginning of february I was laid low by a sinus infection mid february, followed by two middling races and then a nasty cold the wed-thurs-friday before the race. I was sort of recovered by race day, but not really. I only did the race as it was 10 minutes from the house and for some perverse reason, I love this race.

The race, for those who do not know, is the best race ever, and perhaps one of the races I am most poorly suited for. It begins with a mass start from the ski lodge up one of the jeep road. After a bit of climbing the race diverges and one of two paths you may take. If you are on backcountry/at/tele gear you may skin straight up dogpatch to the summit. If you are on nordic gear you keep on going up the steep but not too steep jeep road. The course comes together at the top of dogpatch, hits the steep trail over the top of the mountain and then across the top, down the fairly steep I-don't-care run and then back down the jeep run to where you start. Total elevation something like 1200 feet climbing followed by the same descent. The first year, the skaters took one-two. Last year the skinners took one-two. This year, well, read on!

Pre race assemblage. Note Zack is facing wrong way and Mike starts with skis in backpack


Like I said, lots of new snow, but the last few days had been really warm (50's) followed by cold nights, so the course ended up being pretty much well groomed frozen corduroy at race time. Both the jeep road and dogpatch had been groomed, in startling contrast to last years mushy fresh snow festival.

A strong field of 15 or so lined up, pretty evenly matched with 7 skinners, 6 skaters and two guys on classic touring gear. I think this was the field record. Anyhow after a bit of warming up and then panic as everyone realized it was 40 degrees and climbing rapidly we started the race.

At the start, last years winner Hans Hanson (last year on telemark gear, this year on skate skis) and Gene Dougherty took off fast with me a bit behind. Now I will pretty much give you the Tarik view of the race as I could not see much other than ahead of and near me.

Anyhow, as we started climbing I felt pretty good. Hans and Gene were way up front and I was skating along merrily with a skier or two close behind. I was in no shape to chase or really go hard, but was focused on maintaining form and glide on the steep and off camber climb.

Shortly into the climb Susan Hanson and Sanna skated by me and slowly pulled away. And not too shortly after that I passed Sanna who was stopped on the side of the trail leaning on her poles looking about to puke. I was hurting badly but was somewhat relieved that I was not hurting as badly as Sanna.

I followed Susan at a distance and could watch ahead as Hans was distancing Gene. We made a switchback and doubled across the mountain to even more off camber trail. it was pretty hard skating, but the course was still hard and fast. Susan was skating away from me, but I snuck a look back and no one was anywhere near me. Eventually we crossed the dogpatch skiers and I think I crossed just below Rob, skinning up the trail. We made two more quick switchback and joined the trail with the skinners up a very steep pitch. I was pretty much 5 feet behind Rob up most of the pitch. I had no glide and was barely skating at all. I could see Gene up ahead with form looking worse than I felt. Susan was closing in on him and I imagined that I was catching them. Hans was no longer in sight.

typical pre-race dork mode photo


There were skiers and snowboarders coming off the lifts by now, fortunately there were not too many and there seemed to be no problems with anyone getting in anyone's way. Just a steady stream of people hauling off the lifts, looking quizzically at us idjits practically crawling up the hill and then dropping down the steep runs.

At this point in the race I felt as though I had been sick all week. My form went to hell, I had no glide and I really was working hard just maintaining my will to keep going, let alone race. After a long stretch trying in vain to get closer than 5 feet from Rob, I looked up and realized not only was I not going to catch Susan or Gene, I could no longer see them either.
update check Mike Engelhardt's brief race report in the comments for the view from second place!

Full field on the starting line


Eventually the trail flattened out and I finally dropped Rob, skated along the backside of the hill and then hit the last climb to the summit. I felt like crap, but knowing the end of the climbing was near, I pressed on. As I made my way up the last stretch I saw a guy hiking while carrying his skis over his shoulder. I could not catch him on the uphill. Turns out it was a fellow racer, Dylan, who I presume had taken his skins off too early on the brief descent and was now regretting that slightly. Finally we curled around the Mother lift and began descending gradually on Rim Run. I finally dropped Dylan and could see Toti off ahead of me, but could not catch him as I very quickly came to the top of I-Don't-Care.

The skaters skate off in tiny puffs of snow


I am proud to say I am a disaster going down really long steep stuff on skate skis. My theory is that I have too much inherent potential energy for snowplowing on edgeless skis to arrest my descent. I did make two nice snow plow turns before I fell hard and resorted to my time honored technique of sliding down by sitting on the back of my skis or on my hip. So this I did. I made it about halfway down the endless descent when Dylan passed me, followed quickly by Rob who was, as usual, was going mach-1 downhill. The nicely groomed downhill was hard enough that I actually caught my edge while I was sitting on my skis and had them roll under me painfully. It was a pretty fast descent all things considered, but it seems to go on forever and my butt is still bruised from the bouncing and the scraping.

As it looked like I was almost at the jeep road, I watched Sanna gracefully snowplow past me on the very steep last pitch and disappear down the trail. I made my pathetic way down to the jeep road and descended quickly to the finish feeling pretty bruised and battered, but happy to be done.

Tail end of the field at the start


Results looked like this (photo evidence (here and here, with annotation, this is at least double or triple transcribed off the race entry forms so sorry for inevitable misspellings :

29:12 Hans Hanson - Skate- New course record
35:12 Mike Englehart - Skin*
35:30 Gene Dougherty - Skate
37:24 Susan Hanson - Skate - First Woman
37:43 Jeff Johnson - Skin
39:35 Toti Larsen - Skin
40:18 Dylan Harp - Skin**
40:42 Rob Cunningham - Skin
42:11 Sanna Sevanto - Skate - Second Woman
43:00 Tarik Saleh - Skate
50:49 Zach Baker - Skin
54:57 Hawke Morgan - Classic***
55.35 Martin Peck - Classic***, +
56:38 Paul Graham - Skate, +
1:08:39 Jerri Sullivan - Skin - Third Woman.

* = Started with his skis in his backpack and booted up the hill
** = at least he was booting up when I saw him
*** = were on edgeless touring (classic skis) and, AFAIK went up the long way with
the skaters
+ = deskid at the top of the descent and ran downhill to the jeep road

I assume that I lost about 3 minutes on the descent to those around me, which was better this year than other years. I think I lost 7 minutes on the descent the first year. This was my best time, the course was super fast and despite the cold I was probably fitter than years past as well. The course was a touch icy for the skinners and many of em had issues with grip on the way up, hence the booting up.

I ate a giant breakfast burrito, traded war stories with the rest of the racers, went to the awards ceremony, won a nice beer glass and then went snowshoeing with my mom, who is visiting this weekend. She took most of the pictures.

I tower over a rare fledgling ski-dino post race


Big thanks to the organizers for putting on a great fun free race with great prizes. everyone should do this. It really hurts, but it is worth it.

I think I would like to do better last year, but I really need to practice going downhill on skate skis and/or go much faster uphill, probably by loosing some weight. I finished right behind Toti and Rob for three years running now, so I predict it will happen almost exactly the same way again next year anyway.

Til next year pinhead.
2009 Pinhead race report
2008 Pinhead race report

post race snowshoeing to the overlook with ma

Beer taps getting smaller

Last year:



This Year:


mid schnitzle feasting at the Longbranch in Granby, Colorado
Maybe I will get off my ass and write some race reports. Suffice to say, I did not enjoy trying to race 42km when it was 44degrees and sunny. I enjoyed stopping half way through much more.

Still not spring

Despite temps in the 50's this week. Monday's commute home was a reminder not to take the studded tires off until april.



That happened in the first two miles of my three mile commute home. There was a lot more coating the front of my jacket completely at mile two. Alas the last mile was unkind to snow coverage.