Flying Los Alamos to Albuquerque

Pacific Airways operating as New Mexico Air introduced a commercial flight (reintroduced really, maybe third iteration of commercial flights out of Los Alamos) back and forth to Albuquerque airport. I took the flight in late May amid light rain and cloud cover. Flights are $50 and 30 minutes each way, which beats the hell out of the 100 mile 1 hour 45 minute drive. The schedule is still getting dialed in but if it works for your connections, it is a fun little trip. Flight seats 9. Pretty much takes off and from Los Alamos and follows the Rio Grande down to Albuquerque, banks around a bit and you are there. See all the photos here If you like little planes and flying photos, check out a post about the last flight I took out of here
Update! Sharp memoried former Los Alamoosan Chad recalled the following incident related to Los Alamos airport history: airplane fornication

Handsome little Cessna 208 Grand Caravan

Taking off from Los Alamos County Airport (LAM)

Looking back over the town,lab and ski hill

White Rock Canyon and the Rio Grande

Jumbly Badlands in Cochiti

More Rio Grande in Cochiti Pueblo

Planned Sprawl North West of Albuquerque

Rio Grande Closer to Albuquerque

Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque

Landing at the Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)

Anyhow, I will take it again. I urge you to as well if it makes sense for your trip. The flight was pretty smooth, certainly smoother than the times I have flown from Santa Fe to Denver. The air service is heavily subsidized, likely at numerous levels, and I am not super confident that this will last in the long run at this price, but it probably makes some financial sense at some weird level for all of us to use it as we probably paid for the subsidies through our taxes as we do for all our transportation. So don't worry about it and enjoy the flight...

Lizards, Ravens, and Me

After a hot short ride to get some lunch and coffee, I took the scenic route back through the county trails in the canyons. I only had to share them with the lizards and ravens, and maybe a few jays. Most of the other trails in the area are closed for fire restrictions right now, so I was surprised to see not a single other person on the trails from the aquatic center to the roundabout. It has been about as hot as it ever gets up here and a bit smokey still from a number of local fires, but still it was a nice bucolic ramble in the canyon.

I drank my coffee on the bridge looking over the depths of the canyon. Dawdled about for a bit, snapped some photos and then headed on my way. Trails are not too technical, mostly singletrack, just combinations of smooth dirt, loose dirt, sand, slick rock, and rocky trails. The ocean air rambler shod in the bruce gordon rock and roads is just spectacular on most smooth trail. Swoopy fast smoothish stuff is a blast. Handles great on single track. The bottom bracket is too low to be really in the monster cross category, but with careful pedaling you can get through reasonably technical rocky bits. I had a great ride.

At the roundabout I hopped back on the road and head back home and enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching some much needed thunderstorms roll over the mountains.

Couple a things Saturday morning

So you all saw this, right?:

Like I says, I hope he sleeps in piles of money.

But also you should see this, this guy can straight up ride the living crap out of a bike:

Couple a things Saturday night, e-mags and weird skateboards

So I think I am going to no longer post at velocanoose, unless I get back on the blogging train big time, so I will try to post some stuff on the weekends here that normally would have went there.

Anyhow, if you have not seen bunyan velo you should check it out. It is the pinnacle of bicycle based pubs for me right now, hitting the adventure bike zeitgeist square on. Issue two just came out a bit a go, to go with the spectacular issue one. E-journal only, and quarterly, but it is worth the wait.

Also check out this interesting way of skateboarding:

Interesting Commutes Home

NM is on fire again. Its been dry as a dry thing this year and windy too, mercifully cool though so it has not been the tinderbox it has been in past years. However, combination of lightning and powerline fires have been spreading throughout the area. One fire, the Thompson Ridge Fire, is reasonably close to Los Alamos, probably not a worry for reaching our town, but it is at 7500 acres and threatening some local towns. It has made for some interesting commuting the last few days.

Fire started Friday, but started the weird light on Saturday night

During Monday's commute home in an early twilight due to intense smoke, my teeth felt like they were being coated in ash. I got rained on for a bit, then tiny balls of ash rained down on me for a while. Then the sky cleared just enough to allow me to enjoy a blood red circle of a sun on the rest of the ride home.

Missed the red sun, got the weird smoke over the mountains

Tuesday night's commute was accompanied by a light rain of charred pine needles, some blowing ash and a nice garter snake on the trail, sunning itself in the smoke apparently.

Smattering of charred pine needles covering pretty much everything

Tuesday night's mountain smoke

Anyhow, the Thompson Ridge fire is up to nearly 7500 acres, with its pal the Tres Lagunas fire over in the Pecos up at 9000 acres. Both a far cry from the two huge fires in NM over the last two years, but still big enough and close enough to make things genuinely suck for some people nearby and to worry the rest of us.

If you want to see what is going on the best site is really the NM fire info website has been providing spectacular coverage, images and maps. NMfireinfo.com.

Other resource and coverage dump:

LANL has a pretty good air quality data site here. Some other interesting local takes over at La Bikes: here and here. Local photog goes picnicing at the caldera when the wind blows the other way here. LA Daily Post is the easiest online accessable local Los Alamos news source, has had good coverage and photos. Outside Magazine (based just down the road in Santa Fe) posted this interesting little vid on the the Tres Lagunas Fire in Pecos:

Pecos On Fire from Outside Magazine on Vimeo.

and here is what the two local fires look like from nasa images

Update: Really nice post on the fire and the Jemez over at terry wallace's blog.

On the Tall Bikes

My internet acquaintance David "dirtysixer" started a company dirtysixer to make 36'er mtb's for really tall people. Bikes debuted at Sea Otter and look really good for those of youse in the 6'6" or taller height bracket. David sent along some photos:

6'10" looking balanced on the 36'er

6'5" wheelie machine

Pretty cool and pretty normal looking. David also pointed out to me that there are now some better than corker 36er tire options. Specifically a newish tire from former Los Alamos denizen Walt W. of Waltworks.

Waltworks 36er tire

Which to me looks like a 36er game changer. No more relying on super heavy, no tread unicycle tires. It kind of looks like the WTB nanoraptor in some ways which was THE tire that really made 29ers viable. Good stuff David and Walt. The moscaline bike compound has no 36ers yet, but I did really enjoy careening around on one at night after a couple tasty beverages at one of the SSWWC durango 2009.

I am glad to see a bike like this for the very tall, as I am tired of seeing NBA players on odd fitting cannondales or people ordering stems like this just to get a stock bike to fit:

Finally, if you came here looking for the other tall bikes, check out this:

Yeah! More info the at the LA streets blog

Mmmmm, trails

So just last Thursday as I was running at lunch along the rim of Mortendad canyon, a trail that I commute on nearly daily, and I came up behind a largish feline with a short tail loping up the trail ahead of me. It was a bit big for a bobcat, too small and short tailed for a mountain lion, kind of dark haired. too cat for a coyote. I am going to call it a lynx, or a really large bobcat. It turned and saw me and then took off like a shot and disappeared over the edge of the canyon. Unlike last lunch run feline encounter, this one was large enough to not favor me to follow it. So this lead me to think: man, how good are our trails?

So good. Yep. So so good. Most of my riding and running and hiking occurs on trails that start well within a mile of my house. I commute to work and back on trails. It is good. I don't even ride most of the trails anymore as I don't have time, but my little local loops and paths are well worn and enjoyed often by me, and often fantastical other creatures. Just this year on the way to work (3.5 miles each way) I have seen: Coyote, mule deer, elk, the magic giant bobcat detailed above. I have seen ample bear crap to know they are all over the place. I have seen foxes and large owls on my commute, but not yet this year.

One thing that we don't have here in Los Alamos is a large scale unifying trail plan that will attract others to our trail systems. But we are working on that. As much as I like having trails for me all me. I also know the town needs some non-lab traffic and the trails is a good start. I was able to take part in a trail planning meeting last year with an IMBA rep and a trail consultant hired by the county to come up with some sort of large scale ride center like plan. I was pretty impressed with what they pitched when they were here and what they came up with in the final report. check it out here. This is the kind of commuting planning I can get behind. Rather than endless rivers of money flowing toward giving Los Alamos "an identity" or a "retail core". We can spend some time improving what we have already, great trails in the beautiful high altitude mountains, and reap the benefits for visitors and locals alike.

Society of Three Speeds!

As the founder of a prominent bicycle club, I appreciate chances to join other clubs. I am pleased to have received this excellent membership package in the mail last week from my internet pal, three speed connoisseur, purveyor of fine comics, good handwriting and all around funky/bohemianism, Shawn Granton:

Society of Three Speeds!
There are rules and such, but they are non-onerous if you are fan of three speed bikes:

1. I will endeavor to promote three speeds as a viable means of transportation.
2. I will not denigrate three speed bicycles and will not allow others to disparage these humble bicycles.
3. I will ride my three speed bicycle with pride and immense enjoyment. If I have not yet procured a three speed bicycle, I will do my best to obtain one posthaste.

I heartily recommend joining for the attractive membership package including pins and frame stickers, as well as for the general support of three speed style bicycling. Memberships appear to be currently discounted, so join quick if you are soinclined. If you happen to live in Portland, Shawn organizes many a three speed ride. More info on the Society of Three Speeds website, Shawn also blogs at Urban Adventure League which gets the Moscaline seal of approval.

Part of the reason I started the Tarik Saleh Bike Club was so I could have something to trade with other bike clubs. So let me know if you want to trade some TSBC pins for your bike club stuff. We are truly living in the golden age of bicycle clubs.

Vehicular Hawaii

Went off to Hawaii for a bit for some belated anniversary fun with Elena. Saw some bikes and other vehicles and other stuff. For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos with italicized commentary.

Fastest Rack in the west

Curbside Board Check, Waikiki

Fat bike fever crosses over to the segway set.

Sweet lockbox on a trike parked on the streets of Waikiki

Coach had some frame bags, hilariously awesome

Wicked Skidouts

All sorts of good aspect ratios

Totally got the upgrade

Cool airport vehicles

Walmart Thruster Fixies are everywhere, this one with the requisite backwards fork

Superfantastic robot time on the volcano

V-Dub badonkadonk

Vaya con Dios said Elena as I paddled into the heavy surf

Old Light

Five years, five long years, she said

These guys pretty much ran Kauai

rest of the pics

Good Parts of NAHBS part 1.

Resolved media issues aside, here are the good parts of the show: The bikes. Also pals I had not seen in years. Also Pals I only knew from the internet, also new people I met. Anyhow, the show was much bigger and much better organized than I expected. Not sure on how many builders were actually there, but it was many. I am out of the loop enough I have not heard of many of the newish builders and possibly some of the semi-established ones, so there was plenty to see. There were are fair bit of weird booths for clothing, hat and bag makers, some larger component people had pretty large presence, to go along with a bunch of the smaller Paul Component, White Industry types. Kind of a weird mix, but pretty satisfying. It also was a consumer show, which was not connected to a race, which I have only been to a few of its kind, none remotely as big or as organized as this. So anyhow, some pics and some words:

Best thing at the show, Rick Hunter Semi-long superfat bike, also my best picture for the show. I think he calls this his fat high plains drifter, he made it for Scott of Porcelain Rocket, who makes really nice frame bags for bikes. He outfitted the bike completely with white super Xpac fabric with some glowing green interiors. Very nice. Clearance for 4.7 big fat larry tires, 170mm hubs front and rear, fillet brazed frame, removable rack, semilongtail, Aida approved, that is Rick Hunter smiling behind the bike:

I like that the rear rack is removable, I like that it looks like you could, with a few changes, retrofit a rack like that on a pugsley.

The semi long tail fat bike with either 29x3 or 26x4 or 5 tires was a thing, there were three of em that I saw and liked. This was my second favorite bike at the show, this was a really utilitarian show bike:

Moots IMBA "chainsaw" bike

I have this saw, therefore the bike should be rightfully mines

While the saw part was awesome, the demountable Ti-handled work tools up front were pretty keen too. I am sure there are a million photos on Google under "moots imba" go forth and seek. Other really notable things were the insanely wide Ti handlebars and another Porcelain Rocket bag. Scott had bags on the two best bikes at the show. Well done pal. Here is what he looks like, if you, like me, are a flickr follower of his but had no idea what he actually looks like:

The third bike along this line was this very sweet shorter tailed well racked Ti-Black sheep:

and without child

Note the cool fat tired tandem back there. That was thing too. There was that one, this nice SNS coupled Engin one:

and ludicrously awesome AMPierce Tandem that I did not take a photo of. I am not a tandem person (yet of course) but 29x3.0 Tandems seem like a great idea.

Finally, I wanted to add a few grainy photos of another 29x3.0 bike that I really loved. This Retrotech.

Curtis and I think the new owner and the bike with the best MTB in show prize

Aida and I checking out the bike earlier

The split top tubes, the cross bar, the paint and the tire clearance were all perfect. Curtis is also one of the undeniable nicest guys in the framebuilding game. Great stuff and a well deserved best mountain bike prize.

OK more in the next day or two. The rest of my somewhat limited photos here: 2013 NAHBS on flickr, if you want to want to get a sneak peek or see em all large.

Quick Update on the Resolution with NAHBS

So since that last post went mini-viral, I wanted to kind of reiterate what went into that getting posted in the first place and how Paul Skilbeck and I came to a resolution. After a couple unproductive email exchanges after I put up the post initially, Paul called me and we got down to some resolution on where things went sideways and some legit apologies.

So I think I have been clear that I was not pissed at getting rejected for the media pass, but more because someone was walking around with my name and blog on their media pass.
I do acknowledge that stuff like this happens often at shows, and I was expecting a quick apology and resolution when I went to talk to Paul in the press office.
The fellows at the desk sent me back to talk to Paul, which I don't think he was expecting as he was dealing with resolving a pretty time sensitive crises. He probably did not have a full grasp of exactly what the issue was at the time and basically acted in a way that I misinterpreted as a complete blow-off which truly angered me and spurred me to write that post. I was with my daughter and did not really want to stick around beyond a quick resolution so I bailed out quickly as well. There were some other extenuating misinterpretations that probably exacerbated the situation in the Media room Saturday morning. I think we got to a point where Paul genuinely apologized for the error in the media pass and I certainly apologize for getting that spun up. I am not sure that my original post is that inflammatory, but certainly combined with some blog comment name calling and I suspect a fair bit of impolite direct email, and massive traffic, it did get out of hand this afternoon. Combine that with me not being able to moderate comments or monitor page views and that leads to me getting a pretty interesting phone call from Paul tonight, that ultimately lead to understanding, apology and resolution. I think we both are at the point we should have been quickly Saturday morning in the media room, but with a much more interesting journey between than we intended. That is pretty much all I will say on the matter anymore, feel free to comment, I will close em up if it goes all sideways again. Thanks for reading. Tomorrow some pictures, really...

NAHBS - the bad press review- Update with Resolution!

Update: After this got blown up on the reddit and the twitters and such to an unprecedented level (at least for this blog), I talked to Paul the communications director for a while tonight on the phone, I think we are good now. Some simultaneous time crunches and misunderstandings led to this not getting resolved as we both probably wish it did Saturday morning. I am good with Paul, I will write a bit more about this in another post tonight with the photos and such from the show...

I went to the 2013 North American Handmade Bike Show in Denver this weekend and had mostly a good time. The people running the media credentials were not a part of that good time, they pretty much invited me to use my tiny angry pen to give em some bad press, and since I am a blogger, I am contractually obligated to come through, so here it is:

A week before the show started I applied for media credentials for the show. I was not super optimistic that they would give them to me, but they did have a blog category on their media credentials page, and I blog and I know from handmade bikes, so I applied. A few days later I got a very polite yet somewhat oddly written email denying me my credentials that read more or less in full:

Tarik, thank you for your NAHBS media credential application. Sadly this year I am unable to offer you a credential. Build up your readership and we can revisit next time you apply. Best regards and every success with the growth of your blog.
Paul the Communications Consultant
North American Handmade Bicycle Show

I am fine with that. As awesome as my blog is, I don't have enormous readership, the value is really only seen in the advanced metrics like VORB* and RIPV**, which, frankly, I don't expect everyone to appreciate. I also understand that NAHBS is a "big deal" now. I thanked them for the quick response and went on with my plans to attend the show. I had intended to try to set up a couple interviews with some framebuilders I know from way back, and try to get some high quality pictures during the Friday morning media hours for blog gold purposes, but I am pretty flexible and planned on going and seeing what I got.

So I was walking around the show, waiting in front of a pal's booth to check out his bikes and I spot someone talking to the builder while wearing a badge with some familiar words on it:

Hey look, someone is wearing a three day media pass with the words "Tarik Saleh, Moscaline". And yet they are not me. I was more than slightly taken aback at this and was not sure quite what to do. I decided not to push them down and take the pass, but instead find out what was going on. So I talked to them for a bit. Turns out their spouse is working in some press capacity for NAHBS and they gave them a badge from someone who the media people said is not coming to the show. This actually is not really that unreasonable, I have been to many big trade shows and there is all manner of badge swapping, borrowing and the like that goes on. The fact that they gave the spouse of someone working for the show a badge that was lying around is pretty typical. What is a bigger deal is that they denied me a press pass and then printed one out and gave it to someone who is not me.

I was kind of disgruntled at the media folks, but not that angry. But over the course of the day at least 4 people (all of whom had booths at the show) asked me who was wearing the badge with my name on it, which does not really reflect well on me or my blog (Moscaline is a "really big deal"), and after telling my story over and over again, reflects badly on the show. I was pretty prepared to let it go, but after other people noticed too, it kind of lead to my resolve to go and ask for my media pass the next morning.

So the next morning I go down to the media room to get my pass, the nice people volunteering have no trouble finding my name on the pass list, but they can't find my badge. So I tell them, look here is the deal, and explain that I was denied a pass, yet there is someone on the show floor walking around with my name on their badge, could I please have my media pass. They go back and talk to someone named Paul (could not see if it was the same guy who sent me the email or not) and they come back and say, sorry, we can't give you a press pass. Ok, can I talk to Paul? Sure they say, so I walk back there (with my daughter in tow) to go talk to Paul the decider.

I explain to him again what happened and he clearly does not want to talk to me as he refuses to meet my gaze as I am talking to him. He mutters a non-apology along the lines of "that should not have happened, we will look into it". I reiterate to him that I am not pleased that there is someone walking around the show with my name and blog on their credentials and I ask him to please issue me the media pass in my name he has already given to someone else. He refuses. I ask him if he realizes that this is going to result in bad press. He avoids eye contact and does not respond. So I ask him two more times much more directly if he understands that this causes bad press, until he finally looks at me and answers "yes". I tell him, OK you got it, and walk out. Hence the bad press you are reading now.

I don't like to tell people how to do their job, but let me go ahead and make a few suggestions: The only possible correct response to the above screw up is to say something like:

" I am very sorry this happened, we made a mistake, here, let me print out a press pass for you"

That would have instantly made this go from a bad review, to a humorous aside in a positive article. It would not have cost the show anything, except possibly $22 bucks in lost revenue for that day. My daughter wanted more stickers, so I happily went and paid an entry fee so we could go sticker hunting. I don't care about the money I spent on attending the show, but I do care that the media people were unable to enact a simple fix for a pretty embarrassing error. Cross the mighty bloggers at your peril I always say. Finally, let me further go ahead and make one more suggestion, I recommend you media folks stash a few credentials for "John (or Joann) Smith, Monthly Biking Publication" to give to those people who show up without credentials but need some in a hurry. That way you won't have small blondes walking around with badges that say "Tarik Saleh" on them, or worse, having innocent spouses of show employees having to be associated with Moscaline.

For those of you wanting actual NAHBS coverage, I probably will post some nice photos of the show tomorrow, while I am not currently a big fan of the media arm of the NAHBS, the show does fill a gap in the bike world and is pretty good for the framebuilders and the public, also there were lots of cool bikes there.

*Value over Replacement Blogger

**Reader Independent Page Views

List of Stuff and Things to Join!

Hey Readers,

Some of this is local oriented, but it should be interesting for all. Just look at the photos if you are not interested. So here goes:

1. Should be in Denver for the North American Handbuild Bike Show, NAHBS next weekend. Hoping for some blog gold resulting, maybe some brief interviews if I get media credentials. If you see me say hi, I will have some TSBC pins for give away and trade...

2. Speaking of pins, the Tarik Saleh Bike Club is loaded with pins again, now would be a good time to join! tariksaleh.com/tsbc, I got some good ideas for future TSBC stuff, but need to get some pins moving...

Pin city!

3. Hey! Did you know the South West Nordic Ski Club is a non profit and you can claim tax deductions on your membership AND your donation? Did you know we finally got permission to groom into the caldera portion of the Canada Bonita? And it is groomed right now? Electronic (and traditional) donation available at http://swnordicski.org/. If you live in town and use the trails, please join up and consider donating to support our spectacular trails and volunteer groomers. If you don't live in town, we are still a 501C3 non profit and we welcome any donations!

Mustaches gone by at the top of Canada Bonita

4. Speaking of Beer, Los Alamos has a beer co-op happening, they are having a membership drive - Los Alamos Beer Co-op - I finally got off my butt and threw in for a lifetime membership. I think this is the kind of thing that we need in town to make it livable. So local peeps, please consider it!

Ooof, in town trails are in great shape but disturbingly devoid of snow for Feb. Dammit.

5. Speaking of Trails, our sweet trails are one reason everyone who moves here stays. Consider joining IMBA which is an international non-profit trail organization. http://www.imba.com/. Membership includes membership in your local IMBA club, Los Alamos Singletrack Association for Los Alamos people, you may have your own elsewhere. IMBA does great work on creating and maintaining trails and access for mountainbikers and all trail users. I have been a member for 10+ years now, and have seen great things from the organization all over the country. The IMBA and LASA crew has recently been involved (with the county, forest service and other stakeholders) in both post-fire trail reparation and in some significant plans for improvements and sustainability of our awesome trails. So join them too. If you want...

Looking down the cold cold canyons yesterday morning on the fat bike burrito run

Well that is pretty much it, hope to meet some of you and see old friends at NAHBS, I will be back next week with some race reports, including where I finally win a race, and the week after that with some NAHBS goodies.

Gratuitous Burrito Shot, the other reason everyone stays here

Special Guest Expert Weighs in On Armstrong Saga

Wink256 has an unusual keenness for pro cycling and is a student of doping lore and history. He let me know, in between his many feedings, that he wanted a chance to weigh in publicly on the Lance Armstrong "crisis".

Wink, what did you think of the big Oprah extravaganza:

Huh... What do you think is next step for the Armstrong to control the damage:

Well there you have it. I am sure Wink256 will be back soon enough to weigh with prediction for the spring classics.