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2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day

Published May 9, 2010

Today was the 2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day out at Michigan’s Island Lake Recreation Area. At this event a number of local shops and bicycle companies showed up with all manner of bikes to try out on a ~2 mile segment of relatively flat single track. Despite the on/off rain and mid-40s weather it ended up being a rather nice day as I was finally able to try out a number of different bikes and components that I’ve been curious about.

Specifically, I tried five bikes today; all 29ers:

· Mike Flack / Trail’s Edge‘s Pivot Mach 429 (Formula brakes, SRAM twist shifters)
· Marty’s Orange Vassago Jabberwocky (32:18 29er steel single speed, White Brothers Magic Fork)
· Niner S.I.R. 9 in A&W Rootbeer Brown (32:18 aluminum fully rigid single speed, Hope hubs)
· All Carbon Fiber Cannondale Flash (Lefty fork)
· Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper Carbon HT 29er (SRAM XX 2×10 drivetrain, Specialized Phenom saddle)

Out of all of these, the only bike I didn’t care for was the Specialized S-Works. Being a super-light race bike I think it was just a bit too stiff for me. Having a not-quite-right drivetrain didn’t help matters either as shifting wasn’t great in half the cassette but I imagine that’s just something that happens on demo bikes, especially towards the end of a demo day, which is when I tried it out.

I liked all of the other bikes that I tried. Each would have needed some minor adjusting to be something that I’d be able to ride frequently, but that’s just part and parcel of any new bike. I would have liked to try some road bikes, but the wet roads, cold weather, and on/off spray kept me away from it. It also would have been nice to try out a cyclocross bike, but there were very few of them present and I just didn’t really get around to it. After all of this I’m thinking that I might like to get a 29er single speed. However, that’ll have to wait for a bit, as I just recently picked up a new bike and I can’t actually justify one. Thankfully I may be able to borrow one from time to time.

This was also a nice day for hanging out with people, both those that I regularly see and others with whom I haven’t crossed paths in a while. I also happened to meet a few new people (including the frequent-replier-to-these-posts Ali B. and some other folks from the MMBA forum, including someone from whom I bought some tires and pedals.

Anyway, here’s two more photos from today:

· Erik on the Pivot Mach 429 as we headed down the pavement to the demo single track section.
· All of the Trail’s Edge demo bikes, tent, and work stand area fit in the back of Mike’s van. He packs very well.

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Silverton Brewery’s Ice Pick Ale

Published May 8, 2010

After a long (but good) day I’m enjoying a can of Silverton Brewing Company‘s Ice Pick Ale, a 6.8% (ABV) IPA that’s fairly mildly hopped. It’s quite nice, and I appreciate the bottle-label-on-can marking technique, showing that they are probably just getting started with canning operations.

This is one of the beers that Erik and Kristi got for me, and is something that I’d definitely buy in the future if given the chance.

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Ranger Skinny Dip, Old Chub!

Published May 6, 2010

While out west on a recent trip Kristi and Erik brought me back some really nifty beers for my birthday. Here they all are: New Belgium‘s 1554, Ranger, and Skinny Dip, Oskar Blues Brewery‘s Mama’s Little Yella Pils and Old Chub Scotch Ale, and Silverton Brewing‘s Ice Pick Ale.

Tonight I am having the eight percent Oskar Blues Old Chub Scotch Ale along with a plate of hastily assembled nachos for a late-night dinner, as most of my evening was spent doing a walk-through of the neighborhood with Dave, one of the other people with whom I sit on the homeowner association for my condo complex.

This beer is quite tasty, and once again reminds me that cans are an outstanding way to package beer, as its lightproof, more airtight, and more compact than a similar volume bottle. They aren’t good to drink out of, but just like a good beer in a bottle it’ll be poured into a glass. Here’s the Old Chub poured into one of the nifty glasses acquired for the New Year’s Eve party.

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Germany!

Published May 4, 2010

Continuing with presenting photos out of sequence of events, here’s the gallery of images from when Dominic and I were in Germany, visiting Dusseldörf, Aachen, and Ralitza / bumblebee (from the #llamasoft IRC channel) / inkscar.

We started off by taking the train from Amsterdam, then met up with Ralitza who showed us around Dusseldörf after we checked into our room at A.O. Hotel (also a hostel)†. After wandering and eating some outstanding pizza in the Altstadt (old town), and wandering some more she took us back to her apartment where she made us pancakes for dinner, which we ate with jam while sitting around and talking and drinking tea. The following day we went and visited Aachen, then once again met up with Ralitza to walk around more of the city, eat at Curry, and see all sorts of nifty things while walking along the Rhine after dark.

On this last night we also happened to walk past a building which I was told was the center of Nazi steel production during World War II. In my life I’ve seen and touched a number of old Nazi items, from flags to coins to busts of Hitler himself (some bearing bullet marks) and visited holocaust museums and the Anne Frank house, but seeing this foreboding building in person had a completely different, disturbing feeling to it. It was almost as if the interesting, curious, fascinating bits of the story were removed and replaced with the frightening reality which can only be detailed by seeing part of the bureaucracy and mechanisms which allowed such a system to function.

Here’s some of the more notable photos, although as with the Brussels photos you’ll need to look at the Germany album itself to see all the photos:

· The toilet at A&O Hotel Düsseldorf is a modern style and does not have a shelf. This is good.
· The soap / shower gel provided by the hotel is Tricky Ricky scent.
· A man making pizza at Colopic, a very tasty pizza place in the old town part of Düsseldorf.
· Pizza from Colopic in Düsseldorf. I had an Artischoken, Dominic had an Italia, and Ralitza had a Napoli mit Oliven.
· Füchschen Alt with Ralitza peeking over the glass.
· Apparantly one’s coaster is marked with the number of beers consumed, then the individual or table is charged for these.
· For dinner Ralitza made us pancakes. We ate them with jam and they were very, very tasty.
· Non-blurry image of Ralitza in her kitchen cooking the last of the tasty, tasty pancakes.
· Looking back at A&O Hotel Düsseldorf.
· This airplane contrail is the one of the first obvious signs we had of normal flights resuming in Europe.
· Wandering around a nice looking neighborhood in Aachen.
· 20*C+M+B+10 decal on the door to a shrine. This appears to be a way of blessing those who pass through the doorway.
· A DB train coming into station, taking power from the high voltage lines.
· Going up the side of a wall I think this hopscotch playfield is a bit ineffective.
· Somewhere in Aachen someone has lost their pineapple. Beneath a bicycle.
· Bicycle lane stencils laying on the sidewalk.
· This political sign confuses me. I think it is trying to promote a German politican based on the behaviors of a US LaRouche Democrat. I think.
· Another view of Rhine Tower.
· Another view of the red Gehry building in Düsseldorf, with the moon.
· Currywurst and frites, with mayo! I’d ordered aioli (garlic mayo) but received plain. That’s all right, though.
· Looking over at the table next to my bed, with the Vodafone Nokia 1661, earplugs, bottle of Tom’s of Maine Mint Soap, Nalgene bottle, and Ikea lamp.

After this nice trip I want to return to Germany, both with more time to spend exploring and a better command of the language. Despite my four years of German classes in high school I’ve forgotten most of what I’d learned, and generally seem to lack the ability to do much besides order beer and a bit of food, find the toilet, and apologize for not speaking German.

† I would definitely recommend trying A.O. Hotel / A.O. Hostel if you are looking for a clean, nice, basic room for cheap in most major German cities. Our room was €92 for two people, for two nights, with a private bathroom. And it was in a nice neighborhood, within walking distance of the train station (Hauptbahnhof / Hbf).

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Brussels; Not The Vegetable

Published May 3, 2010

After taking a 2.5 week trip to various bits of Europe and returning a week ago I’ve begun uploading and captioning photos. Hitting the low-hanging fruit I decided to caption the Brussels photos first, so here they are: Brussels.

We (my friend Dominic and I) traveled to Brussels on the way back from Düsseldorf, planning to spend eight (or so) hours there before catching a Eurostar train back to the UK. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not researching Brussels at all, presuming that we could just wander away from the train station (Bruxelles Midi-Brussel Zuid) and find interesting things to do. We found interesting things, but nothing great. The city around the train station had much more in common with the populated parts of Detroit than any other European city I’d been in thus far.

After ruling the train station out as a good place to wander from we hopped on the Metro and went over to Atomium, which was originally built for the 1958 World’s Fair. Wandering up inside of this was quite nifty, even though we weren’t able to reach the top node/sphere, which would have offered a panoramic video of the city. Still, there was quite a bit to see with both the internal exhibits detailing modern design and the World’s Fair and the windows offering a nice, high-up view of the surrounding area.

Once we were done looking around Atomium we wandered in the local park for a bit, then headed back to the train station and eating at a very tasty cafe next door. I had mushrooms in a cream sauce over toast with a salad and a nice glass of Westmalle Triple while Dominic had the same beer and eggs and salmon over toast. After this wonderful lunch we headed back to the train station and passed a couple hours in Sam’s Cafe using appropriated internet access (via the Philip’s WiFi AP, I believe) while I sipped a Rodenbach and then a Leffe Brun, both of which I managed to order myself using what was probably a terrible bastardization of French.

Anyway, if you’d like to see photos from the time spent in Brussles, take a look here: Europe (April 2010) – Brussels. Or, here’s some of the more-notable photos:

· Looking out of Atomium over Brussels, #4.
· Self-photo of standing under Atomium, taken with fill flash.
· Me standing in front of Atomium, taken by Dominic.
· My lunch in the foreground, with Dominic’s in the background. He had salmon and eggs on toast with salad.
· Empty Westmalle glass.

If you’re interested in some of the things we could have done, take a look at this article at Wikitravel about Brussels. I really should have read this before heading there. Oh well, next time I’ll know better.

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Sleepy, Wet, Dirty Roxie

Published May 2, 2010

Today I took Roxie out to some parks and now she’s tired, wet, and with some rather dirty fur from playing in the mud along the banks of rivers.

Here is a photo of her standing on one of the ramps on the dock into Lake Sixteen (yes, that’s really the name) at Orion Oaks Dog Park (Bark Park). Since I’m watching her while Danielle is in Europe I need to take her out for regular play and exercise, so I figured that some playtime outside with other dogs would be a good idea, and this is a particularly nice park. Amusingly, after she feels that she’s done at the park she will actually walk back to the main gate, stopping only to look back for me, waiting to get in the car.

On the way back home I decided that we should stop for another walk, so I took her to Holland Ponds and we walked through the park and out along the Clinton River, through Yates Cider Mill to Yates Park and back. With today being a rather warm and humid day (73°F, 78%) she kept wanting to stop and lay down in the river to cool off. I let her do this a few times, and she’d usually go wallow around in the water for a few minutes, lay there for a while, then stand up and shake off.

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Last Night’s Dinner

Published May 2, 2010

Here’s a photo of last night’s dinner; chili sin carne, Trader Joe’s cornbread (from a boxed mix) and New Holland’s The Poet stout.

The chili contains the following:

· One can each dark red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, great northern beans.
· One bag frozen chopped onion (it’s cheaper than buying a whole onion!).
· One bag frozen corn.
· One can each crushed tomato and tomato sauce.
· One bottle of super-malty beer (four year old Rochefort 10 Clone).
· ~4 tbsp chili powder (premixed stuff for making chili).
· ~1 tbdp cocoa powder.
· ~1 steeped and chopped chipolte.
· ~8 cloves garlic, sliced thin.
· Olive oil and butter (for sauteing the onion).
· ~1 tbsp chili powder (spicy indian stuff).
· ~1 tbsp cumin powder.
· One bag Morningstar Farms veggie crumble things.

I think that’s about it. I just realized that I left out the mushrooms, though. Now I need to find a use for half a pound of portabello mushrooms. Hrm.

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Extreme Cheese Explosion!

Published April 29, 2010

Tonight’s dinner is the rather odd Extreme Cheese Explosion version of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It’s not bad, but quite salty. Since I’m working back up to middle America-style food it’s probably a good idea to eat this. I’m not sure I’ll eat it in the future, but I may if I’m wanting a mouth full of hot, creamy, salty sauce.

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LOHS; Lots Of Hard Singletrack

Published April 27, 2010

Lake Orion High School (LOHS), site of the Dragon GAP Winter Race that I participated earlier in the year, was the site of today’s bike ride. I met up with someone from the MMBA Forum named Mike in the parking lot, then Mr. Steve Kinley, builder of all the great (and difficult†) trails at LOHS. While I’d ridden the trails before, it was only during races so I only got to see bits and pieces of the single track. As he led today’s ride Steve clearly illustrated the route through all the single track, and a nice outer loop around the trails at Bald Mountain South Unit. I’d imagine that I won’t have a problem finding my way through the trails next time I’m out there.

Amusingly, while riding through Bald Mountain we came upon a group of ten or fifteen hikers / walkers, most with children, who were congretating at a particularly hidden intersection. As we slowed to make our way past / through where they were standing, most of the adults were commenting to the kids about us wearing helmets and using us as some sort of example. One kid piped up, rather amusingly “can we eat them?”. In retrospect it’s possible he was talking about some found berries or whatnot, but the timing was perfect.

† Mr. Kinley is a very good rider, and I feel that he builds trails which are challenging to him. Therefore they are particularly challenging to normal people like me. In this case it’s just a solid overall workout, leaving both my legs and lungs feeling a bit worn out.

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