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The Potawatomi Trail

Published May 25, 2009

I’d been invited by some friends out to The Potawatomi Trail at Pinckney Recreation Area for a group today, so, I went. Having heard about this trail since even before I’d started riding, I was interested to see what it’s like. Well, I’m really, really glad I went.

We did something near a 15 mile loop, with nearly all of it being narrow single track which included fast, winding downhills, rocky and rooty uphills and downhills, long and sandy climbs, wooden railroad ties (water bars) stretched across fall line hills to cut down on erosion, and lots of wooden bridges across watery areas. There was also lots and lots of roots and 8″ – 14″ drops, one after another, which I had to carefully pick my way down. In short, an absolutely excellent but challenging trail. From my limited experience I’d say that it’s a very good mix of everything that I’ve ridden on to date. The only problem is that the park is about an hour and a half away from my house by car.

Here’s three more sites about the trail:

· Trail’s Edge Outdoors
· dirtworld.com
· singletracks

Since the photo I took of Kristi and Bob standing at one of the meetup points (called the Four Corners, I believe) came out a bit blurry, I instead give you this photo of the bike that a guy named Kevin rode today. It’s a fixed, rigid bike with clipless pedals, Ergon grips, Jones H-Bars, and two front brakes. The two brakes? Just in case one hand gets tired.

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Special Spicy Dosa

Published May 24, 2009

Rangoli Express‘ Special Spicy Dosa is sort of like a normal dosa, except it’s not rolled, smeared with chili chutney, and has had its potato-based filling spread out over it. It is then cut into quarters, like a giant pizza. Since I wasn’t given a spoon, eating the sambar involved a fork and drinking it out of the metal cup. This was not a bother, though.

Also, please excuse the terrible white balance.

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Gatorade and Erma’s Custard

Published May 24, 2009

This afternoon was a nice, brisk ride from Dodge Park to Metro Beach and back, along with Brian, Nick, and Marty. Total moving time for this ride was just under two hours, which is a nice pace for that route.

After returning to the parking lot at Dodge Park, not wanting to miss a BBQ, Brian had to leave, but then we continued on to Erma’s Frozen Custard in Utica for some tasty, tasty custard. I ate a nice, small cone of Dulce de Leche flavor, which was really good, not overly sweet, and just the right size. Adding on Erma’s, our total ride was a little bit over 37 miles.

On the way home I was able to stop and get pita from Yasmeen Bakery, which should go nicely with the hummus I’ll be making for a BBQ tomorrow. Now it’s time to shower, assess which ingredients need to be purchased for making the hummus, and figure out what I’ll be having for dinner. Having eaten a Gu Chocolate Outrage Gel, drank half a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, the custard, and a few handfuls of raw almonds I’m not too hungry yet, but when the need for calories catches up with me, I want to be ready.

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Salad: The Hard Way

Published May 23, 2009

There. Two rows of lettuce seeds have now been planted: Mereveille des Quatre Saisons and Forellenschuss. Danielle acquired both of these seed packs from Seed Savers Exchangeand had enough spare that I was able to plant some.

Per directions they were sowed 1/4″ deep and about 1″ apart, then after they sprout I’ll be thinning them to 8″ apart, as I want looseleaf lettuce. If I were growing them as heads, which isn’t really possible in that planter, they would be thinned to 12″ apart.

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Park Tool SW-20 vs. SW-40

Published May 23, 2009

Back when replacing the nipples on my rear wheel I found that the Park Tool SW-40 Four-Sided Spoke Wrench (on the right above) didn’t work well. Because of the orientation of the hole through which the nipple and spoke pass, if the spoke came off of the nipple at a particular angle it would jam against the vinyl grip, wedging the tool on the nipple. I emailed Park Tool about this and they indicated that some of the SW-40 wrenches were made wrong, and that they would send a replacement.

Well, a week and a half later I received the replacement, a Park Tool SW-20 Master Mechanic Spoke Wrench. As seen on the left above, this is a solid metal wrench with lots of space both around the part which grips the nipple, and plenty of place to hold when turning the wrench. It worked out very well when rebuilding my front wheel today. I also used a recently purchased WAG-3 (used) and TM-1, which all worked out quite well. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a test ride in tomorrow, just to be sure there aren’t any problems before heading out to some single track on Monday.

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Enduro 7901 RS2 MAX in Surly New Hub

Published May 22, 2009

Ever since getting the Bianchi D.I.S.S. I’d noticed an odd rumble from the rear hub, so I’d been wanting to rebuild it. When my friend Erik placed an order with Enduro Fork Seals for some bottom bracket parts, he also grabbed a pair of 7901 RS2 MAX bearings for me, which are what Surly specifies as being required in their “New” hubs.

This is an angular contact bearing which must be fitted in a particular manner. Thankfully Surly has this document about the hubs which indicates that the black seal must go outside.

When I pulled the hub apart at first, I found that it actually had 6901 bearings in it, which means that it had at one point been rebuilt, but with the wrong part. These bearings are the same size, but being a regular bearing they probably wore rather quickly. Thankfully it didn’t take much effort to tap out the old ones, clean the parts, then reassemble and readjust everything.

I think that now I’ll go for a ride and explore a local area which I suspect to contain some dirt jumps. I’m not interested in riding them, but I would like to see what’s back in the interesting looking area. I’ll use this ride to be sure the bearings are fine, and keep thinking about whether or not I should sell this bike. Single speed is really fun, but my knees seem to ache a bit after riding hard. I’m not yet sure if this is needing to build up my legs some more, or something more damaging, and risking one’s knees for a couple of years of fun riding isn’t worth it.

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Second Place, Twice

Published May 19, 2009

That was me, last week, at the Lake Orion High School Dragon GAP mountain bike race, taken by someone from the Cannondale Midwest team. I did the race again today and received another second place medal, beaten out by someone who runs a mountain bike program for kids at a local middle school.

Today I did the ride on my Specialized geared / multi-speed bike, which was probably a good thing as the course took a different route which included some very soft, freshly cut trail that I had to slowly grind through. Even though it was quite a bit more difficult than last time, my time was a bit faster than the last time. I guess that’s what happens when one doesn’t get lost, eh?

If you’re interested Here’s a photo of the two second place medals I received on the number plates, and here’s one of Doug (black2003ss), Bob (utabintarbo), and I after receiving medals for our various places in the two beginner / citizen classes (35 and under, and 36 and over). This really is a nifty race. It’s short, difficult, fun, and the entry fees go towards some nice after school programs.

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South Park Trails

Published May 18, 2009

After work today I met up with Kristi, Marty, Nick, and (unexpectedly) Jon for a ride around Stony Creek. We first headed over to the new South Park Trails (map photo) which have been put in around the Skills Park. That photo up above was taken in one part of the South Park Trails where there happen to be some really beautiful CCC-ish red pine stands.

This new section of trail was very recently cut and thus has a mixture of small stick-like stumps and larger stumps, but it’s becoming rather firm and is really fun to ride. Most of it is up and down, curving double-track like the easy tracks in the other mountain biking area, but there are definitely some challenging climbs and fun, flowing descents. I’m really looking forward to riding this again, and particularly once all the stumps have been removed.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but fun. We made a run through The Roller Coaster, and found that the newly cut parts of it are becoming particularly great. The trails are coming along very nicely, and are a whole bunch of fun to ride.

(Unfortunately, because of the high speed burst mode of the camera the quality is a bit crap, but it’s still quite a nice area. I really should take my good camera out there. Maybe one day when there is a race…)

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For Sale: Metal Masters Mfg. Table and Chair Set

Published May 17, 2009

For Sale, US$500: One antique, Detroit-made table and chair set from Metal Masters Mfg. This is a set of four chrome and vinyl chairs and a sliding leaf table in excellent condition. I’d acquired this from my grandparents back in 2001 and used it briefly before putting it in the basement for storage.

This set is available for pickup at my house in Shelby Township (ZIP code 48315). The legs detach from the table with minimal effort, making it possible to transport in a small car.

UPDATE: This set is no longer for sale. Sorry.

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Generic Ride Home

Published May 15, 2009

After this morning’s commute by bicycle I had to ride home. This was a relatively uneventful, and only a couple of people got directly in my way, and no one almost hit me. I also stopped behind my Dad’s plant, which is along the Clinton River Trail, and he was able to come out and say hi for a few minutes. He warned me that the rain was coming a bit quicker than I’d expected, so after that I hurried home. It’s a good thing too, because light rain started about a mile and a half away from home, and within five minutes of getting in the garage an actual downpour began.

Now, time for dinner.

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