Category: cycling

Masala Dosa, Race Across The Sky

Published October 22, 2009

Here, have a photo of the Masala Dosa from Rangoli Express that I ate for dinner before meeting some friends to see a mountain biking movie called Race Across The Sky. While the dosa was excellent, too large to easily fit on the tray, and requiring some 16:9 cropping to look passable, I thought the movie was just okay.

I really enjoyed the footage of people riding through interesting and beautiful places, but much of the fanboy / celebrity worship bits wore on me. In particular, during the panel discussion portion before and after the movie the presenter’s strong desire to talk about Lance Armstrong whenever possible wore on me. Although, I guess he is a brand to be sold, and one which brings lots of attention to the race…

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Temporary Illumination

Published October 20, 2009

After breaking my normal biking headlight I fitted Danielle’s bike light, a NiteRider MiNewt Mini-USB Plus to my bike. At 110 (stated) lumens it’s probably not going to be enough for riding single track, but at least I’ll be able to go ride around the normal paved loops, as long as I pay particular attention to cars, since they won’t be able to see me as well.

This evening I sent my light off to NiteRider for repair via UPS’ 2-Day Air. It cost $23 to ship, but if I get the light back two days sooner, it’ll be worth it. After talking with a customer service person on the phone I expect the repair (and new helmet mount) to cost US$60 – US$80 with a five day turnaround. While not cheap, it’s still cheaper than a new, comparable light.

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My NiteRider TriNewt Is Broken

Published October 19, 2009

Tonight was a perfect night for a ride. Beautiful clear skies, upper 50s, and a light breeze greeted us as we rode from my house to River Bends Park to poke around the new limestone path and some unofficial single track. Not long after entering the park we even ran into some other people we knew who were out enjoying the same trails.

Heading back into the woods things were going well, until I ducked some overgrown brush and caught my head light. While I stayed on the bike, my NiteRider TriNewt stayed with the brush for a bit, breaking off the mount and apparently stretching the cable to uselessness. I was then left holding a non-working head light, roughly two miles into overgrown single track trails which were frequently bench cut along ponds. Thankfully the two people I was with rode behind me, so I was able to see well enough to make it out, even if some of those points involved ensuring that the front wheel was pointed at the narrow, dark shadow in front of me.

Once we made it back to the wider limestone / paved paths in River Bends things were much easier, and I was generally able to ride along next to people, using overflow light to see by. We were then able to finish up a nice loop, totaling ~17 miles. I’m quite lucky that I wasn’t out alone tonight, as a broken light six miles from home on trails would have meant lots of walking and not-safe riding.

Tomorrow I’ll try contacting NiteRider about getting the light fixed. Per their warranty website this should cost $30 in bench time, plus a new cable and light mount. I opened up the light briefly to check for broken solder points, but everything looked fine, so I suspect the cable. Since the cable and its strain relief is not something I can easily remold myself, I think I’ll just pay them to do it. Hopefully I can have it back quickly. Until then I will probably be using a borrowed HID, which should be interesting. There’s a reason why people are moving in droves to LEDs for bike headlights.

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Ride Log

Published October 18, 2009

Today I headed out to Stony Creek and rode a 9.15 mile lap, non-stop. By the time I got back to the parking lot I was a bit winded, but felt like I could ride quite a bit more. I’d considered more trails, or possibly doing a lap or two of the park’s paved road, but there are some shifting problems with my bike and the chain was squeaking over its need to be lubricated, so I figured it was best to head home instead.

Taking after Bob’s example I’ve also started logging my riding to a spreadsheet. Having a bike computer makes it easy to know how far I’ve gone, so I’m now just entering these numbers and random notes in a Google Spreadsheet. This should make it easy to track things long term, and provide a concise historical record. If any of you would like to view this spreadsheet, it’s available here.

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New Bike Ideas

Published October 8, 2009

I’ve been wanting a bike for more paved / dirt road uses, but something rugged enough to be banged around as I’m wont to do. For a while I was looking at the Salsa Fargo, but now I’m starting to have other thoughts, steering me towards building up something myself. In particular, I’ve been thinking that a black Surly Karate Monkey frame could do quite nicely with an Shimano Alfine hub and Avid BB7 Road disc brakes. With dirt drop bars and a Jtek Engineering Bar-end Shifter, I think this would be quite the machine for random go-anywhere-but-singletrack rides.

Swapping the bars for a more standard mountain bike bar would even turn it into an interesting, fully rigid off-road device if I wanted to do that. Or, I could even consider something between the two like a On-One Mary Bar or Titec H-Bar or J-Bar, as long as the brake levers chosen work right wtih the shorter pull BB7 Road calipers…

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Nice Weather, Long Ride, Dead Raccoon

Published September 27, 2009

Here is a dead raccoon which was occupying 2/3 of the single track mountain bike trail at Addison Oaks. Thanks to a conveniently located rake I had no problems moving it off the trail, leaving only a moist spot on the trail. This ride through Addison Oaks was part of a trip from Rochester Mills to Lake Orion, over to Bald Mountain, through to Addison Oaks, back through Bald Mountain, then town the Paint Creek Trail back to Rochester Mills.

Knowing that some other friends were riding the Macomb Orchard Trail to Richmond and back, after getting back to Rochester I headed out the MOT to meet up with them, and did so seven or eight miles later. After finishing up the ride with them and being sure that Danielle wouldn’t mind driving me back to my car, I then rode home for a total of 61.83 miles. Seeing as this included quite a bit of single track, I’d say that this is one of the longest rides I’ve done. Last year had some similar length rides, but none of those included as many segments of proper mountain biking.

For another odd photo, please see this one which shows some latex gloves and a rather oddly stained cylinder that appeared to be made out of wood. This was found along a section of the Roller Coaster in Stony Creek while having a brief hike there yesterday.

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Downtown Rochester at Night

Published September 23, 2009

This evening after some late work, just after 10pm, I took off on my bike towards downtown Rochester. 21.88 miles later, averaging 15.2 MPH, I was back home. For rather knobby tires still at off-road pressures (leftover from Hanson Hills this past weekend; more on this later) I don’t think this is too bad. I took my normal route to the Clinton River Trail, then that into Downtown Rochester, then over to the river and bridges which indicate the start of the Paint Creek Trail. After standing around for a few minutes and texting a bit with Danielle I turned and headed home.

This was an interesting ride, as I’m not used to being on paths like the Clinton River Trail in the dark. With the 100% humidity there was also quite a bit of fog; enough that it was hard to see at times. The routes were also pretty much empty, save for one skunk, two rabbits, one possum, one muskrat, one raccoon, and a couple unidentified glowing eyes. Any cars encountered seemed a bit more confused by my presence than anything else, which meant no car problems.

I’m really tempted to build up my old fork, crankset, and wheels into something with smoother tires for this type of riding. I can’t help but continue to be tempted by something like the Surly Cross Check or Salsa Fargo, though…

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River Bends Trail Closed?

Published September 14, 2009

Tonight I fitted my bike with a 185mm front rotor (Avid G2 Clean Sweep; upgrade from 160mm), so I set out towards River Bends to try both it and a new (to me) CamelBak Podium bike bottle. For some reason both the paved and dirt paths through River Bends were closed off, leaving me no place to go. I continued on past the closed sign on the paved path for a bit, but just as my light was illuminating some heavy machinery I heard a loud CLUNK come from it, similar to a door latch, so I turned and headed back. I’ll try and remember to call tomorrow and see if I can get some information about the construction.

Being only a few miles into my ride I considered heading up to Stony Creek for some night time single track riding, but as it was getting late (just before 9pm) I instead headed over to downtown Utica, over to Clinton River Park, through the park’s paved path to Clinton River Road, out to Schoenherr, 19 Mile to Hayes, then back home.

During this time it seems that the rotor has begun bedding in and starting to work better. Due to its larger diameter I’ve found that I get an occasional rubbing / chirping sound when turning tight corners. So far it seems that this will work out well, and hopefully it won’t fade as fast during extended bits of downhill stuff, which is a problem I was particularly noticing while riding the North Country Trail (NCT) over Labor Day.

The CamelBak Podium bottle also worked out very well. I’ve been having a problem with HEED, my preferred electrolyte / sugary drink while riding, leaking out of bottles and getting on my frame. Even worse, when on the NCT enough spilled that it dried on the shifter cable guide, sticking the cable in place, and making shifting very difficult.

After reading a bit of Fat Cyclist’s blog I’d found that he particularly liked these bottles, so I’d wanted to give one a try. Due to a series of interesting circumstances I ended up with a barely-used one yesterday while cleaning up the trail, and I decided to take it home, wash it out, and use it. While I only took a short ride on relatively smooth surfaces (save for a few curbs and potholes and hopping random things), I had no problems with leakage. Liquid flowed quite rapidly through it when squeezed, and it fit snugly in my bottle holder. The wider-than-my-other-bottles neck also made pouring in a scoop of powdered HEED very easy. I think I might have to get another one of these.

If you’re interested, here’s a few cycling-related photos from the past week or two:

· Fern-lined downhill part of the NCT. Riding up this was terribly hard.
· More fern-liked trail along the NCT, this time in a nice stand of trees.
· Inside of the tent where I slept over Labor Day at my grandparents’ house.
· Bob trying to hit me in the golf cart that we had for setting up the Addison Oaks race last Friday.
· Cones, set up to divide the two-way paved path and bridge connecting the single track with the start/finish line.
· A very dirty Rob with a bent-up hand and scraped arm after a fall on one of the very last turns at Addison Oaks during the race.

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2009 Stony Creek XC Race

Published August 30, 2009

With today being the start of a long stretch of great weather, I set out to Stony Creek to watch Tailwind‘s 2009 Stony Creek XC race. Some friends were starting at 1pm, so leaving my house at noon I made quick work (for me) of the ~14.5 trip, arriving just before they started off. This route took me up to 24 Mile and Dequindre, along Parkdale, up to Letica drive, then east along there and Sheldon, into one of Stony Creek’s rear entrances, then around two-track to the trailhead.

Once at the race I mostly hung out with folks, then snapped a few occasional photos of people. I would have headed off into the woods to grab actual photos of people, but since I’d left the memory card at home, I was only able to grab a few frames. These ended up being the following images:

· Bob, getting ready for the 2009 Stony XC Race, while Robert from Tailwind explains some things.
· Bill passing a guy riding Aerospokes while going into his second lap of the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Bob, crossing the line to start his second lap at the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Mike, crossing the finish line at the end of the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Bob, crossing the finish line at the 2009 Stony XC Race.

After the race I headed back home via a slightly different route, heading out the main Stony Creek entrance, up the Macomb Orchard Trail to 24 Mile and Dequindre, then back the normal route home.

End result was just barely over 29 miles in 2:00:06 on an absolutely glorious Sunday.

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In The Face!

Published August 24, 2009

Please excuse the poor quality photo, but it’s hard to take a macro photo of one’s own lip.

Today while riding back towards Rochester along the Paint Creek Trail with Bob, Erik, and Kristi, just before getting to the Tienken Road crossing I crossed paths with a large insect. While hitting, inhaling, or simply swallowing bugs is pretty common during late-summer riding, this was different. As soon as the bug hit my face I instinctively closed my mouth, which apparently trapped it between my lips.

In between that time and when I was able to pull it off my face (seconds, really) three quick bites or stings were applied to my lip. I’m not completely sure what it was, but the spindly, leggy feeling between my fingers and multiple punctures in such a short time leads me to believe that it was a wasp. It could have been a black fly or deer fly but I’ve never known them to bite so quickly.

At first the pain was like a sharp, stabbing cut, bothersome enough that I needed to stop for a few moments. After that it went down a bit, and now is sting a deep ache, similar to both the pain of split open chapped lips and having bit one’s lip quite hard.

At least the ride tonight was really nice. We started out at Rochester Mills, then headed up Bald Mountain South Unit, rode most of the mountain bike trails, then (due to my misdirection) didn’t quite find the connector to the Lake Orion High School mountain bike trails before sunset threatened.

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