Category: cycling

Today’s unseasonably nice weather found me home with time to get in a bike ride before the sun set. Not long after setting out I realized why my legs were more sore than normal after Sunday’s ride: my seat was too low. I stopped, move it up about 1cm, and it was like a whole new world. I’d suspected it was a bit off, and my legs were sore in the way that a too-low seat makes them, but it hadn’t really felt bad. Apparently it’d slid down a bit over time and I didn’t outright notice it. After fixing the height I simply felt faster and my legs felt better. It’s amazing what a difference such things make.

While out and about I ended up poking around various neighborhoods and took the back way into River Bends. The trails were surprisingly sold, with the vast majority of it being completely ridable. There’s a few unpleasantly muddy bits, but overall a few more dry days will have it ready to go. With luck this spring won’t be nearly as wet as the last and there will be lots of dirt road and dry trail riding happening soon. I also hope that we’ll be able to route around or fix some of the muddy spots at River Bends so they won’t be problematic in the future.

It appears that someone has been trying to live out in the woods at River Bends. Way back off of the Seasonal Loops I found a makeshift shelter (photo) that someone had assembled out of deadfall, recently cut smaller trees, and tarps. No one was around, but there were some large metal cans inside and the shelter had quite a smell coming from it.

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This February’s bizarre weather has made for some really nice riding. After a hectic (but good) day working I was able to get out a little early and go for a ride. Trails are still too squishy to ride, but almost all of the pavement was dry, the sun was out, and the air was warm enough that I could wear knickers, toe covers, a base layer, and a light wind jacket.

During this ride I explored a few neighborhoods that I’d yet to pass through, finding a new (to me) connector to the MOT near 24 Mile and a route through an undeveloped neighborhood, up a small rock retaining wall, and into another neighborhood that I frequently pass through. While I didn’t venture into it (because of the aforementioned soft ground and my relatively skinny tires) I also came across a sane entrance to this path-filled yet apparently abandoned area which might be a nice place to take a break and eat. More and more of this area is starting to come together mentally, and I’m getting even more ideas for long path/residential/dirt road rides.

The full route / GPS data for the ride can be seen here if you’re interested.

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This afternoon, in lieu of a lengthy dirt road ride^†, a few folks and I met up at River Bends to ride some snow covered trails. This was quite a bit of fun and I managed to get in just under an hour and a half of moving time. Some of the trails were a bit iffy on the current tires on the Mukluk (particularly the Endomorph on the rear), but it was still a good time. I may want something a bit knobbier next year, but for now I’ll stick with what I have.

The photo above shows James (with the mohawk, who didn’t originally plan to meet up with us but just happened along as we were in the parking lot), Bob, and Nick as they are queued up to cross a stream in River Bends’ Seasonal Loops by walking on a very makeshift bridge. I’d already passed, as did Carlos who was standing a few feet behind me. This ended up being a pretty nice ride, and hopefully I’ll be able to get out for a few more rides this winter. Maybe tomorrow… We’ll see…

^† Mostly due to the 30MPH+ wind gusts and negative-digit-Fahrenheit wind chill.

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This morning I finished converting my single speed Salsa El Mariachi to a 1×9 (one chainring, normal 9-speed cassette) setup with a rigid fork which I think might be nice for springtime dirt road rides. Reusing the old (and relatively light) rear wheel from the Titus meant that this setup is essentially the same weight as when the bike was a single speed. There’s probably a couple more ounces now, but the scale shows it around 26 pounds before and after, so this is a nice treat.

To complete this build I used the following:

· Salsa Ring Dinger (Bash guard / chain guide.)
· N-Gear Jump Stop
· SRAM X9 Long Cage Rear Derailleur (2010)
· SRAM X9 Trigger Shifter (2010)
· DT Swiss X370 / X470 Wheel (old wheel from the Titus Racer X 29er)
· Generic Bottom Bracket Cable Guide
· Jagwire L3 Housing and Caps
· SRAM PC-991 Chain (Leftover / Spare)
· Shimano LX-level 11-34 Cassette

Of all these parts the only bits that I had to purchase were the Jump Stop, shifter, and cassette which were purchased from Amazon, the MMBA Forum, and the MMBA Expo (respectively). Pete helped me out with the bottom bracket cable guide, as he apparently has a stash of them. Everything else was laying around the house leftover from other projects or bikes. Total out of pocket cost for this project was less than $60.

Tomorrow’s plans are for dirt road riding, so to test everything out I set off from home and did a nice paved route up to Stony Creek and back, totaling just under 35 miles. I ended up stopping off twice to visit a friend who works at local fire stations; these (and in particular some of the tools there) were pretty nifty to see. The ride went well overall, and I was able to ride pleasantly fast (for me), regularly seeing 20MPH+ including a 36MPH+ downhill just outside of Stony Creek.

So far the bike is working out really well. With a 34t chainring I had a quite pleasant gearing, spinning out only when on longer/faster downhills. For most things that I did today it was a quite sufficient gearing, and something that I could also see myself enjoying on most local trails.

The knobby Racing Ralph is probably a bit more than needed as a front tire, but for now it’s what’s on the bike so I’ll leave it there. Perhaps I’ll switch to something a bit lower knob in a few days, but we’ll see (Kenda Slant Six, maybe?). For now I’m just hoping to enjoy riding dirt roads on a rigid geared bike with normal MTB-type tires. If we can’t have snow and/or frozen trails and/or properly dry trails dirt roads will have to do.

Here’s two more photos of the El Mariachi in its new 1×9 configuration:

· Sitting against a (unused this year, I presume) piece of snow plow equipment near some local condos.
· Detail of the 1×9 drivetrain.

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