T-shirt weather...

Enjoy it while it's there...

Finally, temps above freezing.  Unfortunately between work, errands and date night with the lady I'll be lucky to get in two hours of riding today.  Tomorrow is another story, though.  Anything less than six hours will be a fail.  A cool hundred on gravel would be perfect.  Trans Iowa is only ten weeks away and I need the mileage.

Exploration

This sign was nailed to the utility pole, 20 feet off the ground.  I wonder how many times it was stolen before they put it up there.

Went out today to explore some new-to-me gravel and level B I've been meaning to check out.  Ended up having an incredible ride.  Near freezing temps feel almost tropical after single digit and low teen rides.  The sun poked out every now and then and the fresh snow made for great views.  I rolled for a few hours, occasionally taking pictures and riding with no intention other than just enjoying myself.  After I got back home and cleaned up, we headed over to my boss's for a sledding party.  It was a great day all around. 

Randomness...

I don't have a rabbit.

 

I just finished making enough biscuits and gravy to feed half the company for work tomorrow and now I'm relaxing with a cold beer.  I say "beer" because "Mike's pink lemonade" doesn't sound nearly as manly.  I probably lost the rights to half my chest hair once I opened the bottle.  The other half was forfeit when I told you I made biscuits and gravy.  Chicks dig a bald chest and a frilly apron, right?

So I've been daydreaming about building my own bike frame.  Got the garage/workshop cleaned out enough that I'll probably order a 29er tube kit I saw on Nova Cycles Supply.  I wanted my first frame to be lugged but there isn't much to choose from in MTB lugs so it'll probably be welded instead.  Right now I'm envisioning a drop bar steel 29er since the hardtail is about to be retired.  I'm hoping I can have something rideable in time for Dirty Kanza.  I've got just enough design and metalworking experience (and friends with equipment) that I'm confident I can pull this off.  From there, I've got a few other design ideas I want to futz around with.  Gravel grinder with polished stainless steel lugs and a wood or bamboo frame is at the top of that list.

I'm also thinking about taking some of the heated insoles that are out on the market and building up a new controller for them.  My assumptions with the ones out there is that they are either on or off.  I don't need constant heat so I want to design a controller that you can program to cycle on and off to extend battery life.  I may also add a wireless remote into the mix so I can control it from the handlebars.  I'm planning on doing at least one more winter race in addition to Triple D next year, so this will really help.

Archer is on right now.  I love this show.

My boss is having a sledding party at his house on Saturday.  Got an old steel saucer sled and a great mod idea for it.  Only have a night and a day to implement it.  I can do this...

Summer Daydreamin'

Shaky helmet cam footage for that total immersion nauseousness.  If I could embed scratch-and-sniff I would.  I'm all about realism, baby!

"great footage of your front wheel...!"  That was the snarky-but-true comment left today on my Potter Hill video from RAGBRAI 2010.  Funny :-P  Still, the timing was good because I've had RAGBRAI on my mind the last few days.  Last year I threw a front brake on my fixie, strapped on the helmet cam and did the final day with a few friends from work.  The video above is my leg-burning climb up Potter Hill road.  We had a lot of fun and are planning on riding the last two days this year.  In fact, once the route was announced I got online and reserved a campsite at Sugarbottom for the Coralville overnight.  Yeah, it's months away...  But the distraction from the current winter suck is nice. 

Alright, back to the here-and-now.  Gotta suck it up and drag the trainer up from the basement.  I blew off my lunch workout so now I have to make up for it.  Wish I could ride outside instead, but we're being hit with this year's blizzard of the century.  I'm pretty sure I just saw a yeti fly past the window...

The Blahs

Turn left and I'm home in an hour.  Head right and I'm grinding for another two and a half.  I took the easy way out tonight.

I left the house with every intention of a 4+ hour ride today, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Physically I was fine, but when I hit the point of no return I wussed out and cut it short.  I just wasn't in the mood for a long one today.  This time of year I'm usually getting pretty tired of winter, so that may have played into it.  Still got two and a half hours in, but more would have been better.  Oh well, sometimes you have to fail.

I did get a couple decent pics though. Click on the image to Viagrafy...

I wonder if they even questioned it...

On the first issue that came the mailman drew a question mark next to the name.

Years ago when I was working at my uncle's polishing shop we'd occasionally get a group together for a lunch order.  Any time I called in an order that someone else was picking up I'd give a fake name.  My favorite was "Lord Nibbles, Patron of the Hamster Clan".  Think I'll try that on my next subscription.

BIFF!!!

Making snow angels...

Results and pics from Triple D were posted today and I have a new favorite race picture.  This might have to be turned into Christmas cards next year.  What you see is crash #2 from my previous blog post.  Full slide show can be found here.

A couple final notes on Triple D while I'm on the topic.  A little over an hour of my race was spent not moving.  25-30 minutes of this was in check points, the rest of the time was spent waiting for traffic, eating, swapping gloves or just resting.  Two things that could have knocked this down dramatically are pogies and and accessible feed bag.  Not that I'm playing shoulda-woulda-coulda.  My one goal this race was to finish so I'm very happy with how I did.  This is more of a how-can-I-improve-in-the-future thing.

Moving on...

Did my first ride outside today since the race.  I'm pretty much on the tail end of my cold so I wanted to get outdoors for a bit.  My plan was was to ride out on the snow and come back on the gravel, but it didn't quite go down that way.  In fact, it was actually kind of a crappy ride filled with little issues.  I had to readjust my seat right from the start, which could have been an omen of things to come.  Once I got going I rolled out to catch the snowmobile trails in Lisbon.  I found a good line at the start that took me deep enough into the cornfields to not turn back, then the snow turned to mush.  As I was trudging through, my front wheel suddenly seized up.  I rolled it back and forth a couple times, checked the brakes and rims and finally found the culprit.  Apparently my studs had grabbed a corn cob and wedged it between my tire and fork.  Not much to do but laugh and throw my new souvenir in my pocket.  I decided then that my new term for locking up my front wheel is "Getting Corncob'd".   Sounds just dirty enough for a fratboy high five...

So I trudged on til I hit some gravel and took off for a quick five mile loop.  I started getting cold pretty quick since I wasn't dressed for the winds that come with higher speed riding and decided to turn back and cut my ride short.  My tire pressure was pretty low so I took a minute to air it up.  This was when I found out my new mini-pump was Schroeder only.  What the hell?!?  Guess I should have paid closer attention to that when I bought it.  I'm pretty lucky I didn't flat at Triple D.  I'll have to throw an adapter in my bag for my next ride.  Lucky for me I wasn't too far from home, so I just took it easy the rest of the way.

Tomorrow will be an endurance ride.  I was hoping to do it on the snow, but it looks like I'll be stuck with gravel.  That's fine though, I've been wanting some more bonding time with the Surly.