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2012 Iceman Cometh Challenge

Published November 6, 2012

This past weekend was the 2012 Iceman Cometh Challenge, a mountain bike race which runs from Kalkaska to Traverse City; a distance of just over 30 miles. I really like this race, so once again Danielle and I made the trek up north and I set out on a cold morning with about 4000 other people to see how quickly I could complete the ride.

The morning started out dark and cold, with my brushing 1/4″ of snow off the car before meeting Jeremy before dark at the Rasho Road parking area so he could get a ride to Kalkaska and have his truck waiting for him near the finish. The sun rose as we drove in a line of bike-laden cars to Kalkaska, got ready in the Kaliseum parking lot, I made my way to the start line, then at 9:33am it was my time to race.

As usual I started out slow, not pushing myself as hard as I should have for a good race pace, but I was having fun. I pushed more as the kilometer markers ticked down, and the closer we got to the finish line at Timber Ridge the more snow appeared on the ground, the wetter and greasier the trails became, and the faster I felt like I was riding. Faster everywhere except for on some new single track that was built in weeks before the race, designed specifically to avoid some logging-damaged sand roads.

Early on a woman swerved harshly in front of me, and later on I choose a line to pass which lead around a curve into deep sand and walked my first hill of the year. I also walked the notorious Anita’s Hill near the end, and once I got near the top I was glad I did. I was walking up it at the same speed as many were riding it, and the trail near the top was quite chewed up. By walking what’s essentially a rooty stairway at the right side I stayed out of people’s way and had a slight change of pace. The only other walking point was early on where someone fell over in front of me while in some sand, forcing me to stop, so I opted to walk up the next hill instead of trying to get going in soft sand.

A few miles in there was a bit of excitement as a panicked deer ran between some riders about 30′ in front of me and another ran parallel to us for a few hundred feet. I yelled at it, scared that it’d try to cut between us as well and hit someone. Fortunately it veered off the other direction and there were no problems. At another point someone riding along called out a notorious root located around a sharp corner, which was quite welcome as being parallel with the trail and around a blind corner it could easily cause a crash. By giving a heads up riders can keep an eye out for it and allow the notoriously heavy Iceman traffic to keep moving.

Before too long I was crossing the finish line and it all was over, a quite uneventful race. I ended up finishing with an official time of 2:26:42, putting me at 16th of 61 in the Men 34 category and 1269th out of 3881 finishers (3498 men). This is about eight minutes slower than last year’s time, but with a much more difficult trail (due to the extra single track and weather) I’m content with the time. I was definitely not nearly as worn out after this year’s race as I was last year, though. While I was tired of riding in wet conditions I could easily have done another 20-30 miles at a smilar pace.

While the weather was cool and damp which led to some greasy trails, spinning rear wheels on uphills, and drivetrain issues for many, the moisture kept much of the sand well-packed and allowed for some parts of the trail to be very fast. As I approached Traverse City there was quite a bit of snow hanging on the trees, leading some parts of the trail to feel like riding through a snowy, wintery tunnels. It was incredibly beautiful and a wonderful feeling.

If any of you are interested in more detailed results my plate number was 1266 and detailed results can be found here. I also have a copy of my Garmin data from the race on Strava and visible here on Garmin Connect and here on Strava.

The photo above (from HaysPhotography) shows me about 1:23 into the race, about a mile east of Williamsburg Road, which is a very popular spectator location and generally considered to be the point after which the difficult climbing in the race begins. Danielle drove to Williamsburg Road to see me pass, and it was quite a nice treat to see her along the side, cheering me on. Here is another photo of me, this one taken by Jack Kunnenn somewhere near the finish line, but as I didn’t pay for it I won’t be hosting a copy myself. There’ll likely be other photos online later, but for now that was all I could find.

Also, here is a video of this year’s course from someone who started ten waves (almost half an hour) in front of me and finished in just about two hours, so by the end of the video he is almost an hour ahead of me.

Now it’s time to clean off my bike. As can be seen here my drivetrain has a nice, thin layer of crud packed into it. Similar dirt caused drivetrain issues for many others, but thankfully my cobbled together 1×9 setup held up nicely with only a bit of noise when in the largest cog on the cassette.

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Addison Oaks Lake George Entrance

Published November 5, 2012

This afternoon while hiking at Addison Oaks to collect some map data I saw that the new non-motorized park entrance from Lake George road is complete. This is a gap in the fence with both a triangular gate to allow equestrians but help keep motorized vehicles out, and a swinging gate allowing it to be locked shut. The swinging gate is latched shut with a chain that slips through a latch.

The latching mechanism is a bit awkward because of how the installers positioned the wooden posts in relation to the chain link fence. When I first got to the gate the chain was looped around the wood post, as seen above. This can be done by someone standing inside the park, but once outside it’s very difficult to get the chain wrapped around the wood post. Looping the chain around a metal post, as seen here works better from the outside of the park, but clearly isn’t the intended design. Regardless, it still holds the gate securely shut.

Having to close a gate behind one’s self is a bit abnormal for cycling in this area. From what I’ve read it seems common out west and in Europe, but I’m not aware of any legal trails in Michigan that have gates which one needs to open and close in order to traverse.

I’m really happy about this entrance, as it’ll allow one to enter Addison Oaks from the west. The other (and larger) part of the project that installed this entrance is a path connecting through Addison Oaks, along some boardwalks, to Addison Oaks East, leading to Oakland Township’s Cranberry Lake Park. This adds a nice, safe, easy option for dirt road riding in this area.

Here’s two more photos of the gate: gate open and the latching mechanism, with the chain looped around a metal post.

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Fixed Tie Out?

Published November 1, 2012

Roxie’s collapsable tie-out broke, which meant we could no longer let her lay outside; something which she loves to do. I had a bit of time at lunch today, so I had a quick go at fixing it.

The plastic used for the body of the tie-out is quite strong, and I was able to drill a new hole and reattach one of the metal stakes. It all seems quite solid and went back in the ground easily, so I think this fix will last. The original break occurred while it was being pressed into the ground, so as long as we are careful about placing it in the future I suspect (and hope) it’ll last for quite a while.

Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle.

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Muddy Trails Enhance OpenStreetMap Data

Published October 30, 2012

Part of my map making workflow that uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) data requires updating the existing data set to be as accurately as possible before exporting the data. The data that I originally loaded into OpenStreetMap for River Bends was based on GPS surveying that I did not long after some new trails were built. Thus, the (prone to error) GPS data was the most accurate data available.

When updating OSM data, one is explicitly permitted to trace Bing imagery to enhance maps. Earlier today while poking around in JOSM (which adds Bing data as a tile so it can be traced) I noticed that the latest imagery for River Bends was taken on March 11, 2012 and most of the recently built single track is now visible. Because of the particularly wet spring here in Southeast Michigan many of the trails were muddy while these photos were taken, resulting in the trails being visible dark marks on the traceable photos.

The image above demonstrates this, showing the imagery date, current OSM data (red dashed line), and the wide/dark lines are the trails themselves. By adjusting the routes to match the imagery I can radically clarify the OSM data, validating and refining routes. River Bends is due for a map update soon after some new trail construction is complete, so this means that the next map of there will be much, much more detailed and accurate. Thanks in large part to a wet, muddy March.

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New AeroPress!

Published October 25, 2012

Nearly seven years after purchasing my first Aerobee AeroPress (photo) and with daily (or more frequent) use by Danielle and I, it has been replaced. With a new one. After all these years the plunger seal was getting weak and it would frequently leak while brewing. This resulted in coffee spurting out the top unexpectedly, sometimes spraying around the kitchen.

The new one works much better, exactly as I remember the old one being after first receiving it. Hopefully this one will have an equally long life, as it get used every day for brewing coffee here at home; part of a very cost effective system for acquiring quality coffee.

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Mountain Bike Trespassing in Michigan

Published October 23, 2012

I’ve recently been involved in some conversations about riding bikes on trails which connect to designated park-owned mountain bike trails, but lead off of park property on to other lands. As a result I decided to research trespassing laws in Michigan, specifically the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (Act 451 of 1994), Part 731: Recreational Trespass. In particular, 324.73102 states:

(1) Except as provided in subsection (4), a person shall not enter or remain upon the property of another person, other than farm property or a wooded area connected to farm property, to engage in any recreational activity or trapping on that property without the consent of the owner or his or her lessee or agent, if either of the following circumstances exists:

(a) The property is fenced or enclosed and is maintained in such a manner as to exclude intruders.

(b) The property is posted in a conspicuous manner against entry. The minimum letter height on the posting signs shall be 1 inch. Each posting sign shall be not less than 50 square inches, and the signs shall be spaced to enable a person to observe not less than 1 sign at any point of entry upon the property.

Since we all live in a land where everything which is not prohibited is permitted, I read this as an assurance that entering property of unknown ownership, for any recreational purpose is permitted so long as one does not cross a fence designed to keep people out or pass a sign prohibiting entry. While on this property one is not permitted to modify the property, as per 324.73109 there are penalties for property damage.

Therefore, I take this all to mean that riding from trails on known park property to trails on unknown, unposted property is wholly permitted, so long as one does not modify the land (read: build new trails or other stuff) or cause damage.

UPDATE: As Cefai noted in the comments below, this is consistent with section 750.552 of the Michigan Penal Code which states:

(1) A person shall not do any of the following:

(a) Enter the lands or premises of another without lawful authority after having been forbidden so to do by the owner or occupant or the agent of the owner or occupant.

(b) Remain without lawful authority on the land or premises of another after being notified to depart by the owner or occupant or the agent of the owner or occupant.

(c) Enter or remain without lawful authority on fenced or posted farm property of another person without the consent of the owner or his or her lessee or agent. A request to leave the premises is not a necessary element for a violation of this subdivision. This subdivision does not apply to a person who is in the process of attempting, by the most direct route, to contact the owner or his or her lessee or agent to request consent.

Thus, unless you’ve been told not to enter the property or to leave, you may do so, unless it’s a posted farm. Then you may only enter to seek permission to remain.

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Home-Made Cheez-Its

Published October 15, 2012

Yesterday afternoon I came across this post about making home-made Cheez-It-like crackers on LiveJournal. Since they sounded good and we had all the ingredients around the I went ahead and made some. It took about five minutes to make the dough then 10-15 to cut them out. After this they baked for 18-20 minutes until they were done.

Brief recipe is as follows:

  1. Combine the following ingredients in a food processor and process until crumbly:
    • 8 oz. Shredded Cheddar
    • 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
    • 4 tbsp. room-temp Salted Butter (Use 1/2 tsp. of salt if using unsalted butter.)
    • 1/2 tsp. Smoked Paprika
    • 1/4 tsp. Ground Mustard
  2. After completely integrated, drizzle in 2 tbsp. of tap water and process more so it forms a dough.
  3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
  4. Lay the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll thin; perhaps 5mm thick.
  5. Cut the dough into rough squares with a pizza cutter.
  6. Poke small holes in the center of each piece of dough with a round toothpick with the end cut flat.
  7. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
  8. Sprinkle with flaked salt. I used a flaked Spanish sea salt.
  9. Bake at ~375°F until golden brown. This took me almost 20 minutes. (If underdone the centers will be soft and they won’t be very good.)
  10. Cool, transfer to an air tight container for storage.

These are very, very good. They are similar to Cheez-Its in that they are snack crackers, but they taste much better and don’t have that odd vomit-like smell familiar to anyone who has opened a new box of the Nabisco product.

UPDATE / Lessons Learned: The second time I made these I did a couple things differently which made it much easier, and they came out quite a bit better (photo of the second batch):

  1. I split the dough into two halves, rolled the halves out separately, and baked each half in a separate pan. This gave me much more room to work and allowed me to roll the dough thinner making them more properly cracker-like.
  2. When rolling out the dough I put some thin bamboo skewers down next to the dough and used this as a spacer for the rolling pin. This allowed for all the crackers to be a consistent thickness.
  3. Dough was cut into 1″ squares for consistency in baking.
  4. After cutting the dough into squares I inverted the cookie sheet over it, then flipped the whole assembly over. Don’t bother separating the dough squares, this can be done later.
  5. Part-way through baking use a spatula to separate the partially-crunchy squares, shake to distribute them throughout the pan, and continue baking. This is much easier than trying to separate the squares when putting them on the pan.
  6. Be sure to bake any mis-shapen trimming pieces from the edges. They are just as good, but know that they’ll cook faster.
  7. Err on the side of over baking. Slightly browned crackers are better than chewy ones.
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Clean Your Butter Bell

Published October 13, 2012

The Butter Bell is a great device. Danielle and I received one for this last Christmas and we used it quite a bit up until the summer. After letting it go for a week without changing the water we knew it needed to be washed and refilled, but we instead just let it be. Danielle didn’t want to see what was in it, and I was a bit interested in letting it go as an experiment.

This is the result: a moldy butter bell.

Since this is stoneware it’s quite easy to clean, and a run through the dishwasher tomorrow should have it ready to use. With the weather getting cooler we’ll refill it and use it again, and this time we won’t let it go for a week without changing the water.

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Projected LED Die

Published October 12, 2012

Needing a new flashlight Danielle purchased this $5.29 BBQbuy@7w 300lm Mini Cree Led Flashlight Torch Adjustable Focus Zoom Light Lamp via Amazon (photograph). It’s small, and the button seems a bit flimsy, but it otherwise seems nice and it meets her needs. One amusing feature is the laser-style warning decal (in gold, none the less) on the body, but the most amusing is that at the narrowest focus setting it projects an image of the LED die.

This was photographed by clamping the flashlight to the camera’s tripod, pointing the two at the same point on the basement wall, and taking a photo with the lights off. I’m almost tempted to modify the focus mechanism to allow a little more movement which would likely allow the image to wholly focus, but I’d probably damage it during disassembly.

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FOX F29 RLC Seal and Oil Replacement

Published October 9, 2012

Today I did my first seal and oil replacement on a FOX fork. I’d watched Erik do his before, but it was a few years back so I didn’t remember much about the process. While I took my time this was easier than I’d expected, and almost everything went smoothly.

To do this work I’d purchased a bottle of 10 weight (Green) Suspension Fluid, a SKF low friction seal kit, 5mL packet of Float Fluid, and a seal driver tool to help seat the seals. I’d also picked up some graduated cylinders for measuring the oil, and a friend made me a very nice tool for removing the top caps. These parts all worked out very well, and following FOX’s documentation for seal and oil replacement, oil volumes, and use of the seal driver I had no problems getting everything together.

The greatest difficulty was removing the old seals, but a little persistance on the first one paid off, and then using this as a model I was able to get the second out much more easily. There were a few small things learned that’ll make the work easier next time, including:

· The foam rings take very little time to soak up oil when pre-soaking them.
· Once the damper is in place, there’s not much room below the damper cap for adding oil unless air is let out of the spring side to collapse the fork. After this there’s a plenty large space to pour in the oil.
· Tilting the fork while adding oil to the damper side makes things slightly easier.
· The nuts on the bottom of each fork leg are identical.
· Crush washers stick solidly to the nuts on the fork legs and blend in. The replacement ones, before being crushed, fit much more easily.
· Suspension oil tends to get all over the place. Even with wiping the entire fork down there is still an oily residue which leaves a nice sheen, especially if the fork is a bit weathered and becoming matte.

I received this fork when I purchased this bike in December of 2009. Since that time I’d put around 5000 miles on the bike, but never rebuilt the fork nor replaced the oil. While I’d been particular about keeping the stanchions clean I was not shy about riding it in poor conditions. FOX recommends changing the oil every 30 hours on forks. I definitely exceeded this, yet the oil in the fork was still quite clear, the foam rings mostly clean and oil-saturated, the stanchions unmarred, and there was still a fair amount of oil in the various chambers. The only way the stanchions look not-new is some fading on the portion which was exposed to sunlight. Here is a photo of the disassembled uppers and lowers showing nothing more than a slight bit of fading.

Hopefully after the work I’ve done the fork continues to work as reliably as it had for these past years.

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