Arroyo Honking and Such in Santa Fe

A couple of Fridays back I had to drop the old car off for service down in the way other end of Santa Fe. I took the opportunity to bring the pugs to do some arroyo honking back up to town and have some fun while they replaced the fuse box on the Golf.

in the wild intersitials of Santa Fe

I used to ride the arroyo a bunch before Aida was born. Elena would drop me off in south santa fe hell while she did some errands and I would ride up the arroyo to the bike trails and head downtown for some coffee and such and then she would pick me up on the way back home. Lots has changes since then. The Lamy trail between Siringo and downtown is completely paved now. The Rail Runner, passenger rail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, was added in the last few years. As such, all the interesting stuff and single track on the trail is gone. Including Hunter and the Zia Caboose, for those of you who were long time readers. The path is really well used now, which is good, but the old path was good too. For old times sake, check out old ride reports Santa Feans with mad sand skills, Lack of Big Rides, Caboose Home, Return to the Zia Caboose, Return of the son of the Zia Caboose, Boring Same old Folding Bike Santa Fe Post.
Anyone know what became of the Zia Caboose and Hunter? I think he was set up along the tracks diagonal across second from the Brew Pub for a while, but no sign of the caboose or even where the hell it would go.

Wheeled Detritus! my favorite thing to find.

Anyhow, when I have ridden the arroyo before, it was mostly hiking and riding, only really riding during monsoon season when the sand was a bit more packed. It is rough going on a normal MTB, and virtually unridable on the picnica. On the Pugsley, it was completely feasible. Just like the snow, lower the pressure until you can ride. Between the Santa Fe auto maul and Rodeo drive, it is pretty soft slow going, above Rodeo all the way to Siringo, it was pretty ridable. Hard work going up arroyo into the wind that day, but pretty easy coming back down. It was dry enough that I am pretty sure it was more or less unridable on a normal MTB. It was pretty smooth on the pugsley. I fell over in the deeper sand a couple times, but for the most part the section from Siringo to Rodeo was completely ridable and eerily clean of crap. There must have been a big arroyo clean up day. Good job peoples, the arroyo looked grand in this section.

Cruising down arroyo

There was still good stuff here and there to see. It was hot and smokey from the big fire down in the Gila, so I did not take quite as many photos as usual of the sights. But there was some wheeled detritus and other good things along the way.

Land Cruiser and pick up with engine in it parked at the Second Street Brew Pub

Once I hit the Lamy trail and went through the railyard, I got lots of comments on the pugsley. Mostly of the "look at those tires" variety, the winning comment of the day was from a slightly inebriated looking fellow fixing a car in a parking lot. He ran up toward me yelling "does it float?". I did get the chance to talk to Santa Fe fixture Ray for a bit. We chatted about bikes and some other stuff. He graciously let me take a pic of him and his service dog and his Worksman Trike. He loves the wheels as they don't need truing. The wheels did sport some damage was from someone backing into him in the Trader Joes Parking lot.

Ray and his rig

I stopped in the other Second Street brewery Railyard edition for some lunch and a beer. It was pretty fun to watch all the cyclists pass through the railyard on the way to wherever on a fine Friday afternoon. I picked up a growler to deliver to the fellers at Mellow Velo. It sort of fit in my musette, but I used another bag to kind of tie it in there.

Pugsley, Raleigh International, fully loaded Surly LHT. A great rackful of bikes.

When I got over to Mellow Velo, I delivered said growler checked out David's latest acquisition, a Schwinn Hollywood, to go with the coveted Schwinn Flying Star. Dammit, covet, dammit. I was also able to watch the shop van get painted in its new Wonderbread/Mondrian livery.

A side

flip side

So anyone want to give me their Flying Star or Holywood?

After chatting a bit at the shop, I took a nice easier ride back from whence I came and picked up the car. Total riding was probably about 16 miles or so, maybe 6 or 7 in the arroyo. It was a good day.

I picked up 700 billion goatheads getting out of the Arroyo back at the automaul. Fortunately I had slimed the tires that morning. Fortunately surly thought to put removable cores in their fatbike tubes. I am not really sure if any of the goatheads actually made it through the tires, they are pretty thick, but I will probably spend some time with a pocket knife prying out thorns before winter. While I was removing thorns in front of the service area, most of the mechanics came out to check out the Pugs. I probably should have let them ride it, but I was worried that the tires were going to go completely flat due to all the thorns. They are still holding air two weeks later, so maybe next time fellers.

A small fraction of the 700 billion goatheads

I drove back through town stopping at Trader Joes for supplies and was delighted when a previously unknown to me blog reader stopped me and introduced himself. Whats up Rick? This has happened to a few times and it always makes me really happy. It is hard to find the time to blog about stuff anymore, and I always wonder if it is just me, my ma, the seven of you who comment regularly and random google searches providing all my traffic. Stuff like this tends to spur me to slightly greater blogging heights. Anyhow, if you see me and know me through the blog, please say hello, then I can take your photo and have something to blog about. I will even hook you up with some Tarik Saleh Bike Club stuff if I have some with me.

Me and loyal(?) reader Rick in Trader Joes

After I loaded up with frozen pizzas and coconut oil infused dessert products, I headed home to the family. I grabbed Aida and plopped her in the trailer and rode downtown for the Red Elvises show at the duck pond. Aida really liked it.

Aida, Me, Red Elvi

Dancing with Mila and Clay

Like I said, good day.

Three years later

Then

Today



Crikey. Actually six years since I first rode by that heap. even crikier...

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.

2008 La Tierra Torture MTB Race Report

Very short report:
I dominated the novelty bike division.


Take that "norms".

Much much longer report:

So last saturday I got up and started to tinker with my trusty single speed mountainbike for the race. I noted the headset was knocking a tiny bit the week before and wanted to get it tight. I loosened the stem and tightened the top nut and felt virtually no resistance. That is odd, I thought. I pulled the top nut and cap off and saw that the star nut was pulled almost all the way out. Not so good really.

I am usually pretty aware of not tightening a threadless stem cap while the stem is clamped on, so I thought this was really weird. I had no star fangled nuts in the parts box, so I was able to pull the nut out and reset it. It still pulled right out.

Damn.

So I hopped on the trusty schwinn and rode downtown to see if the LBS had one. Nope, LBS was closed at 1pm on a saturday. I like our little LBS, but only if it is OPEN, which it is falling into the habit of not being. This is a huge problem with living in this town, there is no good help, so there are inordinate demands on shop owners to run their shops solo, which leads to shops being open sporadically at best. And then people don't even bother going to the shop before driving to santa fe or mail ordering things and then the shop goes out of business...

So anyway, I am still out a star fangled nut, I call a few pals no body has one, so then I remember there is a guy who repairs bikes out of his house and I swing by to see if he is working. He is not. Double damn.

So I drive 45 minutes down to santa fe and buy a couple of star nuts. I grab some lunch, ride around on the folding bike a bit and and then head on back up to the mesa for some star nut installation. I go over to the stand, thread the star nut onto the installation tool, and drop it in. The star nut does not even engage the steer tube. Fuck.

It appears that the tasty hunter fork I got last year (to replace the cracked kelly fork) has a really thin steertube and thus the star fangled nut does not engage all the way on the old nut, and at all on the new ones. Crap.

So plan B. Build up the BMX bike, which is still in bare frame form, and race that. So I did. I built the hell out of it and 4 hours later:

I am ready to race. Except for one thing. My handlebars twist in the stem too easily. Crap crap crap.

I am pickled in phil grease and too burt out to figure out the bars, so then I go to plan B, and pull the trusty cross bike down from a hook, clean it up a bit, swap the 36-15 hard man of october gear to the 36-20 up way to late the night before the race gear, slap on some 35mm knobbys and a bottle cage and call it good. In bed at 12:30 am with a headless MTB, an almost built 24" bike and a race ready cross bike. Woo!

A few short hours later I got up, ate a small amount of oatmeal, bannana and coffee for breakfast, drove over to Pal Paul's house and got his bike loaded and headed over to the race site.

The race is just outside santa fe, and is chock full of smooth singletrack and short steep climbs and descents, it manages to cram 1100 feet of climbing in a relatively flat area.. I had two 9+ mile laps on the agenda. Last year it was cold, windy and snowy and I had some digestion issues that caused me to fall apart the first lap and come back strong on the second.
last years report here. This year is was obviously going to be alot warmer and the course had more single track and it was alot drier which implies much more sand and possibly less ideal terrain for the cross bike.

We got to the race site an hour before the start, I bottomed out my golf about 70 billion times on the rutted rarely used road to the parking area. I got registered, picked up a nice jersey that was a registration bonus for the first 100 racers to pay. Got the bike ready and rode around a bit. I felt pretty good and I felt that I was well digested compared to last years debacle. I knew I was not in as good shape as last year and that the bike might be a liability so I was not too worried about racing well, mostly just trying not to crash hard and break the bike..




The race started with about 15 odd singlespeeders on the line. Glen, the organizer, announced that we were racing for two laps, but if we wanted to, we could do a third for the "advanced single speed" something division with the clever acronym ASSHAT. Eh. I guess one of the racers complained that two laps was too short for the singlespeeders and we should do three, but then he did not even show up. Nice. No matter though, I was in it for two and utterly underfed and watered for three, so no wavering on my behalf.

Race started and I got a pretty good start, not like last year, but easily in the top five, we got to the top of the hill and then started a the singletrack and the entire field passed me. Slow and steady says I. I was pleased that I could clean almost everything in my 36-20 gear, and it was much easier than in my 36-16 mtb gear I ill advisedly ran last year. I got into a nice rhythm of descending in the hooks and climbing on the tops or hoods. I forget how much fun my cross bike is when it is not in race gearing. I am pleasantly suprised with how firm the course is. THere are a few sandy bits that I can't ride and the new singletrack is pretty loose, but it goes well. I think I am in dead last for the singlespeeders in the first couple of miles, I pass one guy in some demoralizing hilly bits and another who probably dropped out with a mechanical.

The downhills are very twisty and loose but I am having fun drifiting and skidding around the course. I pull over often for the sports men field to ride by, but no biggie. The lap ends with a fast fun woopty doo arroyo crossing fiesta, the course snakes across an arroyo 7 times in a short period of time.

As the long climb into the second lap begins, my legs tell me that perhaps I have not been taking it as easy as I thought. It is really getting warm, and I feel hungry. I am pretty sure I can fake the second lap with out bonking, but not positive.

I kind of struggle through the hilly bits at the beginning of the lap, get passed a bunch, pass a bunch of people on the smoother climbs and the non technical descents. It is pretty good. While the first lap I climb pretty smoothly, pick some good lines and avoid alot of the sand, the second lap finds me hitting every rock and tree and sand pit. I can't really get my smooth on, but I am probably going faster as I am not getting caught up with sport riders passing me and then flipping to the granny gear on the climbs... My legs are on the verge of the cramping, yet I press on. Not much else happens. I did get lapped by the two leaders in the last half mile or so. It was probably the longest race I have ever been lapped in. New fast guy Mike was pulling established fast guy Damien through the singletrack. People who saw the sprint finish claimed it was really close, but with a half mile to go it was pretty clear to me that Mike was doing all the work and looked like he was about to blow a gasket while Damien was kind of chilling in his slipstream waiting for the hill in the last 100m to sprint by him. It is good to see someone pushing Damien this year, he has been winning all MTB races and hilly road races by a ton in the last couple of years. Next time, I bet Mike tries to get him to do some work...


People seem inordinately impressed that I rode a cross bike in a mtb race. While this is not the best race for cross bike riding, it is pretty skinny tire friendly and certainly is much much better than many other races we have here in NM. Anyhow, I finished in around 2 hours, which is about 20 minutes slower than last year, but maybe the course was a little longer. I was 14th of 15 single speeders, results here. I survived and only crashed once at low speed when I steered slowly into a large loose rock that was the only feature on a smooth bit of singletrack climbing.



Anyway, great race. It was really dusty but not sandy. It was hot, but not scorching. It was hard, but not too hard.
Maybe I will ride the BMX bike next year, or maybe I will compete for the 3 lap asshat award, or perhaps I will sleep in. It is a really fun course and not too far away. Director Glen and the Pedal Queens and other volunteers did a great job with the course marking, results and the like. Well done.

I was actually pretty happy that my back did not get locked up like it does during cross races. The big gear I run in cross and the constant on and off at high speed is much different pain than what I put myself through this time. I think I set the handlebar height on the cross bike in 1996, so I was pretty happy that I can still ride in the drops as well. My neck was a bit sore, but all in all, no biggie.

Paul finished and was happy with his first MTB race in a million years. As soon as he learns that you don;t need 50psi in tubless tires on a full suspension bike, he might be even faster. We boogered off after the race as I was starving and went to the Santa fe brewing company for bitters, fish and chips and salad. Good day was had by all, probably. Anyone still reading?

I choo choo choose

To take too damn many pictures of trains.



See the rest of the set from a fertile hunting day at the Santa Fe station here on Target Salad on Flikr

one oh nine and three quarters

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Bike piles

One of my favorite tags on this blog is the wheeled detritus one. All sorts of marginalized former rolling stuff. I found some good bike piles in santa fe last week.

At least two bikes worth of detritus front of the Santa Fe Library:

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With some stick welded repair on the down tube:

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On DeVargas St, downtown:

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If you like this sort of thing, there is a nice little picture book called Bicycles Locked to Poles by John Glassie. Basically abandoned and half stolen bikes locked to poles. The tragicomedy of the human condition is exposed as you page through the book. Oh the pathos!Or, just as easily, you could recreate these photos yourself if you live in or near any city/big college campuses.


Its no Bicycles Bella Cosa, but it has its own charm, especially to those of us who really appreciate the bicycle in ALL its forms.

Some bikes at the whole foods

Some bikes at the santa fe whole foods.

I always am a big fan of the milk crate on the rear rack. This bike probably belongs to an employee at the store as it is always there.


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Nice use of plywood, hinges and hasps to make the milk crate more secure



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This presumably homemade recumbo-car is owned by a frequenter of supermarkets in santa fe. I see the owner every other time I shop in santa fe, so hopefully I will get some better pictures when it is sunny.


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Nice little cockpit view:

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Rolling about santa fe, yet again...

Spent some time this weekend tooling around Santa Fe on the picnica, even more photos. Enjoy...

derail?

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Oh!, Derail!

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Some young and green goatheads hardening up for another rough fall:

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I will go and append those images on my popular post on goatheads


Now with 50% more dog!

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Sky and wires at the corner of Chama and cerillos

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watching a caboose on the Santa Fe spur from Ohori's

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Boring same old folding bike santa fe post

Hit the Lamy trail last week, took the same pics as always, enjoy

thought it was DRY mud:

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not so dry:

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open car with train wheels

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with housings!

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While the zia caboose slowly decays

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In the arroyo there are not roadrunner footprints:

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Mutant chicken? Raven? Pheasant? Velociraptor? Nagini?

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Thanks to a recent article in Naturwissenschaften 94, 657–665 (2007)I learned that they found nice roadrunner like fossil footprints in China. How did they know they were roadrunner like? They had zygodactyl toes. Which means one of the front three toes is rotated clockwise so there are two forward and two back, giving footprints like a nice X look when they hit the ground. Unlike the mystery snake footprints I found above. Hopefully the article link is available to all, as they have some nice pictures of bird footyprints.

One step beyond!, er um I mean...

twist and crawl!

So it turns out the touring version of the English Beat were in santa fe last night at a July 4th kickoff party . I think they only contained lead singer Dave Wakeling from the original version, but with a tight backing band of ska veterans and Wakeling's vocals dominating the harmonies they were spot on.



It was a hilarious santa fe crowd of old hippies, drunk trustafarians and old dudes (like me and older) getting their ska on. No plaid suits. Some goth kids wearing checkerboard sneakers. It took place at the Santa Fe brewing company compound just south of town. Their beer is a bit hit or miss, but they have a nice outdoor concert venue enhanced a cool breeze and distant lightning storms in all directions.



Anyhow, they went through all their hits (minus twist and crawl) and may have thrown in a General Public song or two in. At this point, without new material, I think they should have played some Madness or Specials or other 2nd wave songs as well to just go over into a 2nd wave coverband. Then they could release an album called "Dave Wakeling plays Madness" or something.



Elena was thrilled, and really excited to meet Wakeling and get his autograph on an English Beat poster as the grainy cell phone images show. Good stuff, pretty entertaining show.