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Full Day at Poto

Published May 25, 2013

As Nick said, driving out to Potawatomi (the mountain bike trails at Pinckney State Recreation Area) for the 8-hour ride I was supposed to do on Memorial Day Weekend was probably the best drive time to ride time ratio ride I could have for that trail. Leaving the house at just after 7am put me on the trail at around 9am, and this weekend was some amazing riding. The trail conditions were perfect, I was able to make every climb cleanly on the first try, and I didn’t have any “oh crap!” almost-falls. It was all I could ask for.

I ended up getting in four laps of the full trail, which gave me 73.12 miles completed in a moving time of 07:42:04. My total time for the ride was 08:37:27, with the gap time eaten up by stopping to urinate, a visit to the toilet between laps two and three, filling water at the pumps, and eating a tasty Danielle-made protein bar while stopping to talk with some folks. This was a bit short of the 8-hour prescription, but I imagine it’s close enough. (Strava data for the ride can be found here.)

I had brought supplies for and somewhat considered a fifth lap, but I was feeling a bit tired and wanting to get home. This would have put me out on unfamiliar (and rapidly emptying) trails until ~8pm without emergency lighting, which would not have been a good idea. Especially not when creeping up 10 hours of challenging trail…

The photo above was taken on one of the boardwalks along the route. I believe this one to be near the end of the Gosling Lake Loop in the north end of the system, but I may be mistaken. This one stood out to me more than many of the others because of how the grass is grown up along side and through it, giving a feeling of riding on a plank sidewalk through an unmowed field.

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Missing Pavement and Vibrating Walls

Published May 23, 2013

The pavement in the parking area of the condo has been removed so that it can be replaced, and part of the work involves this Dresser Industries vibrating compacting roller. After the curbs have been removed and dirt moved this roller is used to compact the soil into a firm, dirt road-like surface. This process produces a tremendous amount of noise and vibration, so much so that while sitting at my desk this afternoon some pictures were falling over, my cell phone was bouncing slightly, and the walls were resonating loudly. It was loud enough that Roxie was becoming scared, but she did seem to enjoy looking out the window and watching the people working.

I’m looking forward to the pavement being done. We are temporarily parking next door in the church’s lot, which isn’t too bad as it is a shorter drive to 22 Mile, but carrying things across the lawn and relatively steep berm which separates the properties is a bit of a pain when when loading or unloading the car.

More photos of the torn up driveway can be seen in this album, including this one looking out the garage at the dirt and gravel, which was what originally caught my eye and made me think to get the camera out.

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Pontiac Lake and Stony Creek

Published May 20, 2013

I’ve really been enjoying the new Salsa El Mariachi Ti, doing some long-ish rides each of the past two weekends. This past weekend I headed out to Pontiac Lake twice, once on Saturday with a coworker who is new to mountain biking and again on Sunday to try and do a six-and-a-half hour ride as part of the training plan that I’ve been following. Both of these were a success, with my coworker doing well for his first trail ride (particularly on such a challenging trail), and I made my goal of six laps. The latter was a bit less than 6.5 hours, but I was still content with it. I considered doing a seventh lap, but I was beginning to feel a bit worn out

The weekend prior I participated in the Fun Promotions 12 Hour race at Stony Creek, quitting when the rain started, but only after racking up just over 100 miles. The weather that day started off quite cool, but was otherwise quite nice for riding I’d really been hoping the rain would hold off until I’d reached my goal and it did, so that made me quite happy. Following the race was lots of hanging out with friends time both at the park and at home, and it made for a great weekend.

The photo above was taken at Pontiac Lake after one of the longer climbs near the end of my ride, likely on lap 5. Despite clear skies and relatively high temperatures for most of the ride (low of 75.2 °F, high of 98.6 °F, average 84.0 °F) it was fairly pleasant  and the trail was quite beautiful. One part that I particularly enjoyed was under some manner of tree which dropped fluffy seeds, as each pass through the trail near there showed more and more of the white fuzz building up in the woods. (Photo)

As the miles rack up the bike is now getting to the point where I need to adjust little things as they settle in and I notice small things, which is good. I’m finding myself quite happy with it and comfortable riding it, and I hope that continues. If things go as planned I’ll be riding a bit of Potowatomi this upcoming weekend, then in three more weeks I’m slated to have another go at Lumberjack 100.

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Trilliums at Clinton River Park

Published May 17, 2013

This evening I was feeling a bit bored / down so I headed out for a ride at River Bends, extending that over to Clinton River Park Trails as well. The trails were in great shape, and white trilliums are coming up lining many trails, which was beautiful.

I’d figured that this wouldn’t be a very long ride, so I only took a long a bottle of mid-strength Gatorade (mixed from powder) for the ride, but this ended up not being enough for a two hour ride after dinner time. By the time I’d made it back to River Bends I was feeling quite crappy and had to eat a Clif bar to feel better. I picked up a large pizza on the way home and ate most of it for dinner and now I’m feeling back to normal.

I chalked this up to doing a fairly hard on-bike workout last night (hill repeats) and then not eating enough for dinner or during the day today. Danielle thinks that if I start eating more protein more regularly this won’t happen as often, and I tend to agree… But I did have some eggs for breakfast and a bunch of tofu at lunch. It’s probably a mixture of the two.

During this ride I also found that a spoke had come loose giving the wheel a slight hop, and one of the dropouts had slightly shifted putting the wheel slightly askew. Both of these were pretty easy to fix once I was home and fed, and I was also able to do a little shifting tuning made necessary by some trail-side repairs during this past weekend’s endurance race. During the race my rear derailleur cable came loose so I had to set it all back up trail side which wasn’t too hard, but it wasn’t as accurate as I can tune it while on the stand.

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Warranty Replacement Garmin GSC 10

Published May 13, 2013

I’m a strong proponent of using a Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Sensor to eliminate under-measurement when using a Garmin Edge 500 bike computer. When I found the GSC 10 on my Salsa El Mariachi single speed to have stopped recording wheel revolutions I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t really want to spend $40 – $50 on another one, so I phoned Garmin and asked about a replacement.

I found that the reed switch on the extended arm (the part that detects wheel rotation) would only intermittently trigger if a large neodymium magnet was rubbed on it. Tapping on it didn’t free up the apparently sticky reed switch either, so I figured it to be dead.

Garmin has been good to me in the past about warranty issues (namely, replacing an Garmin eTrex Legend whose input stick ceased working) so I decided to give them a call. After talking with the phone support person for a few minutes and explaining the problem he agreed that it seemed defective and offered to send out another. It arrived today, and now my single speed has a working sensor again and should properly measure distance on trails.

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Google Nexus 4 Supports GLONASS (and GPS)

Published May 5, 2013

A few days back Jeff pointed out to me that the Google Nexus 4 supports both GPS and GLONASS for satellite-based geolocation. I hadn’t noticed this before, but sure enough as seen above in GPS Status & Toolbox there they are. The GLONASS satellites are the boxes shown in grey, where the GPS satellites are the green circles.

This helps explain why the device is so good at getting fast location fixes and also why it works so well for my amateur mapping work. I’ve wanted a GLONASS-supporting device for a while and now I have one. Yay!

(This screenshot was taken while logging the location of Stony Creek’s Trolly Trails so I can commit the route to OpenStreetMap.)

 

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The Poop Box

Published May 4, 2013

Reading up on various healthy things, Danielle came across information about using a box or platform to raise ones legs while seated on the toilet into a position similar to when one is using a squat toilet. I resisted trying it for a couple days, but then gave it a go. Initially the bathroom had been fitted with an overturned plastic basket and I found it to be rather nice, so I’ve since upgraded the platform to an old monitor stand. The purported benefits to this position are well documented elsewhere, but I can heartily say that it’s a very good option for when sitting on the toilet.

I normally have no issues with the number two process, but by using a platform such as this to adjust my internally bits into a slightly more evolved position everything is even smoother, leaving me with a much emptier feeling. Because of this I must strongly recommend that everyone try putting a box under their feet while pooping. It makes a magical process even more amazing.

(There are a few logistical concerns with this, such as how does one sit down with a platform/box in the way. I sit down, then use my feet to pull the box back towards the toilet, then put my feet up on it. If I don’t do this I have to somehow put step over a platform that isn’t designed to hold my full weight with my pants around my ankles. Perhaps a different approach would work with a more solid platform, but this one currently works well and sliding the box to and fro before and after use is not difficult.)

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New Cleats and Fixed Bumps

Published May 2, 2013

During my last long bike ride I found my toes going oddly numb after pedaling for a while, and I swore that I could feel small, half-pea sized lumps just under the ball of my foot. I rarely have such numbness, so I thought something had changed, like maybe the sole of the shoe was starting to fail or the mounting posts in the cleat plate had broken free and were pressing upward.

This evening I found the cause: the screws used to attach my cleats were forming bumps in the midsole of the shoe, and they could be felt through the insole. Apparently when pedaling hard for a while these would become noticeable and — I suspect — cut off a bit of circulation and cause my toes to tingle. I’m not sure why this hadn’t been a problem before, as I’ve had these same length screws in there for quite some time. Maybe my feet were getting sweatier on some of these longer or wetter rides, softening the midsole, and allowing it to deform more.

It’s been around two years since I picked up these shoes, and I really like how they fit. Had they been failing I was ready to buy another pair, but for now it looks like they’ll keep going. I was definitely in need of new cleats and Shoe Shields, as I was starting to wear out the cleats and through the protective metal plates into the sole of the shoe (photo). It was a little easier than expected to remove the old cleats and pres down the lumps using the rounded end of a Sharpie, so new cleats and Shoe Shields with shorter screws were quickly fitted and the issue seems resolved. Hopefully with the shinier and unworn bits (photo) this problem will not reoccur.

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0.64 Pounds of Dried Mud

Published April 29, 2013

One benefit to weighing my bike after assembly is that I have a baseline for doing things like… determining how much mud stuck to it while riding. During today’s 5.5 hour ride comprised of many dirt roads I ended up collecting quite a bit of mud on the frame (mostly on the downtube), which came out to 0.64 pounds after it dried.

Today’s route can be seen here on Strava. This was a good ride, and was possible thanks to the flexibility of my current workplace. I was able to work half a day yesterday (Sunday) while it was raining to wrap up some scripting stuff I’d been doing, and then took the afternoon off today to ride. This let me meet my weekend training plan ride requirement: a bunch more hours of riding in heart rate zone 2. Except this time and contrary to the plan I added in some bigger / sustained hills, but made a point of keeping my heard rate as close to the prescription as possible.

It asked said to “Get at least 50% of ride time in heart rate zone 2. Avoid 3-5 zones”, and I think I did that. Total moving time was 5:53:27 (81.91 miles), with 4:17:12 of that in Zone 2, and only 00:13:12 above that when I’d accidentally cross over to Zone 3.

I’m really liking the Salsa El Mariachi Ti that Trail’s Edge was able to get for me. It felt great on all the washboard and single track I ended up on, and with today’s mud I’m really thankful for the the full length cable housing routed along the top tube, which was one feature that had really sold me on the design.

I still have to sort out my stem choice, but I rode with the 100mm stem today I feel surprisingly good. There were a few times where I felt like I was holding myself up by my hands, but it might actually be a pretty good fit…

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Defective Thomson Stem Screw

Published April 28, 2013

On Friday I found myself in a tough spot. I had a brand new bike, but a bit of measuring and maths had shown that there was 30mm more reach than on my other bikes. I was about to head out on a 3 hour ride, and I had a 5.5 hour ride scheduled for Sunday. The bike might be fine this way, but it also might be terribly uncomfortable at the end of those three hours. The best solution for this was to get a 70mm long 0° degree stem, as this would move the bars rearward about 30mm, and would then match the other bikes. But, how do I get a stem of that sizing before Sunday, when I’ve already got a busy Friday evening and Saturday, can’t make it to many shops, and most shops won’t stock stems of this size? If I’m sore after Friday’s 3 hour ride, what do I do?

After thinking it over I ended up just ordering a Thomson (my preferred stem brand) from Amazon and having it shipped overnight. This commanded a bit of a premium, but I decided it’d be worth it to be sure I’d have a stem that would make the fit match existing bikes and also be one one I’d want to keep. (Zach over at Rochester Bike Shop had let me borrow a 75mm x 7.5° for testing, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make that one fit as nicely, and it definitely wasn’t a permanent fix, so I’d still have to order a Thomson eventually…)

Friday’s ride went quite well, and I found that the extra 30mm of reach may not be too much, and had quite a great time riding around Stony with some friends. I’m not sure if it was new tires, tubeless, the Fox fork, or being a bit further forward, but I was really liking how the bike held on to the trail. Post-ride I had a bit of newfound upper back soreness, but as it wasn’t anything terrible I was on the fence about switching to the shorter stem that was to arrive on Saturday. Maybe I just needed to adapt to it… Still, the stem arrived and I was happy to have options.

This evening I measured the bike a bunch of different ways, comparing it to my others, and decided that for Monday’s 5.5 hour ride† I should try the new shorter stem. That’s when I ran into a problem. When taking the faceplate off of the new stem I couldn’t get a tool to fit in one of the screws, as the head of one screw hadn’t been manufactured properly and 3mm hex tool wouldn’t slide in. I also found the screws to be questionable, as every other Thomson stem I can remember uses 4mm-fastener cap head screws and not the 3mm dome ones that this stem came with. Amazon (direct/Prime) is usually a pretty reputable seller, but I can’t help but wonder if something is up with this stem.

As can be seen above (or in either of these photos: 1, 2) the head of the screw on the right is just… not right. For those who are familiar with Thomson X4 stems you may find these to look a bit… different. I can’t help but wonder if this is a counterfit stem, although I imagine it may simply be one from an early production run. I’ve emailed Thomson asking if they can address this or if they’d like me to take it up with Amazon, so hopefully they’ll get back to me soon.

In the mean time I’ll just keep riding with the 100mm stem. I’m really liking the bike thus far and am really glad that Mike (and Aaron and Dan and Paul…) at Trail’s Edge were able to get this bike for me. They seem to be quite hard to come by, and I’m really liking how it feels. I just want to be sure I’ve got the fit spot on before I do too long of rides and end up either really uncomfortable or injure myself. Getting this stem may just sort that out.

UPDATE: Thomson replied to my email this morning indicating that it is a legit stem, that they changed style last year, and that they’ll send me some replacement screws.

† I was able to arrange things with work where I put in half a day and got a bunch of scripting done from home on a rainy Sunday. This should let me work half a day on Monday and hopefully get out for a nice ride.

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