Me and the Bike

Gravel.

2011-10-03T23:39:00.000-05:00

I'm hoping to participate in some longer gravel rides in the next year. You guys know that my plans always fall through, but let's hope I can make at least one or two of these.

First off, we've got the Gravel Grovel on Thanksgiving weekend

The Sub-9 Death March on 03/09/12

Barry Roubaix on March 24th, 2012

Don't forget about the Gravel Metric in Dekalb, that'll happen around Memorial day

OK, I know that Chad is salivating. Let's do this!

Take a Kid Mountain Biking day 2011

2011-10-01T20:49:00.001-05:00

Today was the 8th annual Take a Kid Mountain Biking day. IMBA proposed it a few years back & folks have taken advantage of the opportunity to introduce their kids to the sport. Eli had been riding singletrack at Knoch Knolls a couple of times and I thought it was time to bring him out to Palos for the first time.

Everything went great. We had about 13 kids show up with their parents, uncles, or aunts. The kids rode Roadkill & Cemetary Hill. We came back to the Maple Lake lot and had a picnic lunch. Many thanks to everyone who brought out great food to share. Also, I want to thank all the folks who came out and made it a fun time. I could tell that all the kids had a blast. What's important to me is that several of the kids are anxious to get back on singletrack. That's awesome. Thanks to Nancy Fallon for taking pictures of the event & sharing them so quickly.

Let's just skip to Summer shall we?

2011-03-08T00:20:00.000-06:00

This crappy wet weather even make the multicrap, ummm... crappy. Dirt. I need to ride on it.

Sunny Arizona

2011-02-02T10:48:00.001-06:00

I came out to Phoenix to spend some time with my folks & prepare for some new responsibilities as I help them with a fund raising project for their ministry. The time has been great as I have been able to also catch up with old friends and coworkers from when I used to live out here.

I also had a chance to ride a little as well. I shipped a bike out here ahead of me and rode a trail at South Mountain called the Desert Classic. It's been a blast. I chose to use the 1x9 while I was out here & it was a good choice. Tons of guys were riding singlespeeds, but the short climbs & rocky terrain made me happy to have a few inches of travel up front & the ability to gear down for climbs.

I unboxed the bike & rode about seven miles on the first day. It was a fun experience, the trails are WAY different from Illinois, as you might expect.

I got a chance to ride on four out of the five days I was here. The landscape is really different, and I wish that I had been a mountain biker back when I lived here.

I was supposed to fly home today, but the winter snow storms in Chicago are giving me an extra day out here. The bike is boxed up already so I won't be riding today. Soon I'll be back to cold weather riding on my rigid SS. I'll also be back to family. Whoo Hoo!

Snow

2010-12-28T22:31:00.000-06:00

Guitar Ted said that snow is like hero dirt. I'd say that he's dead-on right. I'm not saying that snow riding beats a good ride during riding season, but it sure brings a special smile to you when you go out and ride a few miles in it.

I was lucky to get a message from Red Fuel today, he wanted to ride at KK in the afternoon. It just so happened that my afternoon plans had changed, so I was free to ride. Today's snow ride was slow, but fun. I'm going to try and get back out tomorrow as well. Maybe Palos over the weekend? That'd be nice.

Riding trails again.

2010-08-11T22:10:00.003-05:00

We've had a wet summer. Really wet. I've been able to piece together some trail rides over the past few months, but we've got bad wet spots on every trail around here so we get few decent trial rides in, unless you're a ninja or something. That leads to tons of limestone & road rides. Boring, but at least your cranks are turning, right?

There were some highlights though, like the dirt jam at the garden. That was fantastic & the marketing folks really got the media out there. The day was amazing.

So, after settling for the occasional KK ride, I tried Palos on Sunday. The trails were too slick so we bailed and hit the multitrack. Lame. I went out to SWK for the first time in ages today and had such a good ride. The trails are mostly in good shape. There are two trails in the park that are unridable due to water. It was so good to rail singletrack again and have to actually think about each turn as it comes up in order to not crash.

We've got the Meltdown and PBP Dirt Jam coming up and I hope we'll have a dry autumn. I want LOTS of riding time on dirt.

CX on singletrack, oh yeah!

2010-05-28T00:25:00.003-05:00

I saw this video posted over on Facebook. I love it, especially since I ride my Iro Rob Roy over at Knoch Knolls a lot and have even taken it out to Palos a few times as well. I also like the quality of the video that the rider/videographer gets out of his camera. I think I need to add this camera to my want list.

Local trails ala cx from Andy Wardman on Vimeo.

Sweet Sweet Spring.

2010-04-21T20:05:00.002-05:00

The trails have been so sweet. Looks like rain is coming soon. Get out and sneak in more riding time if you can.

Can't believe I never posted this.

2009-11-12T23:56:00.005-06:00

So, there I was riding the sweet private trails at Trek HQ early this year when I quipped that it'd be sweet to ride 'em on a SS instead of my 1x9. Ridaholic overheard me and asked me if i was interested in a SS frameset that he had lying around. Fast forward a few months and I got the bike built up with a raid into my parts bin & a lot of help from Chad over at P&S. I've been rolling on this thing since mid-July and I am loving it a lot. The only changes I've made from my original build were to add a longer stem & change to a setback post. I'm also playing around with different gear ratios. I built her up at 32x18, but I swapped to a 20t freewheel the other day. We'll see if this is too easy or not tomorrow.

It's a good bike.

Summertime...

2009-09-08T15:22:00.006-05:00

...is almost over. Riding has been good this year. Less this Fall with the lil'un in school now, but I'll try and squeeze some night rides in at the local spot, hang out at the Dirt Jam, the CAMBr Poker ride, and I might get to pop in at the SWK campout. It would be nice to do another metric too. Then there's the ChiCrossCup, the Bartlett & St. Charles races might work.

It had to happen.

2009-07-30T20:20:00.002-05:00

It rained.

That's not so bad though, it was just a little of it, I'll bet the trails never even felt it.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's KK ride, even if it ends up being another solo one. Then we've got workdays at SWK on Saturday & KK On Sunday. I'm looking forward to clearing out the south river trail so it can be used again.

I like riding on dirt

2009-07-14T22:59:00.004-05:00

I rode KK with NapervilleKerry and OoklatheMok this evening and it was fun. I was able to prove to Kerry that he isn't the slowest guy out there after all. I live to give people joy, that's what I do.

Trail riding proves to me that all that limestone I ride isn't enough though. I'm still out of "trail-shape." I'll go see the doctor, but I know what he'll recommend, take two trail rides and call him in the morning. Who needs that mess? I'll just ride and save the co-pay. :D

Hopefully the rain will either hold off or just be light enough to not drench the trail. I hope to get back out soon.

Riding a lot!

2009-06-29T15:29:00.002-05:00

I've been rolling on two wheels a lot this month. Not nearly as much dirt as I'd like, but at least I've been riding and that's pretty fun. July is going to be crazy busy with church, family, and CAMBr stuff. It'll be a lot of fun. Good stuff.

Ack! This rain!!

2009-06-13T09:46:00.001-05:00

Riding limestone gets old. I need more singletrack.

I'm a geek and I know this.

2009-05-20T07:46:00.003-05:00

I just heard about Wolfram Alpha this morning and then I stumbled across this comic at the same time.

Doghouse

Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine. It looks like it'll be useful to someone out there, but that person isn't me.

Been riding

2009-05-14T00:33:00.003-05:00

I can't say that my local MUP is all that exciting, but it's here and it gives me a chance to ride when I can't make it out to other trails. Couple that with the wet Spring that we're having and I get to ride it a lot.

Our little road trip on Friday was pretty awesome. A few of us got to ride some precious dirt while it rained back home. We'll ride SWK this evening, by all accounts most of it dry is enough to ride. It'll be hard work, but it'll be nice to hit more dirt instead of limestone. Then we go camping up in MI this weekend. I'll ride some trails out there and maybe hit Palos on Monday.

Dirt, precious dirt, I've missed you.

Getting back to normal.

2009-04-22T21:25:00.005-05:00

Man... What a couple of weeks it's been. I got back from AZ last night at midnight and got a couple of hours sleep before we all loaded up the car and drove town to Purdue so Savi could take a final for her current class. I was so tired on the way down, but made up for it with a power nap while she was taking her test. My mom-in-law was keeping the lil guy company as he played with his new Spongebob PSP game. [Note to self: get him some nicer headphones.]

We made it down there and back in record time so that both Savi and I could catch a power nap before she had to go to work, my nap was a little longer since she was long gone by the time I woke up. Savi's mom had taken a nice walk to enjoy this great weather and Eli was out playing with some neighbor kids so I grabbed the Iro & headed out to hit the MUP with Jason. I rolled out for a nice and easy 20 miles. It doesn't make up for missing out on the Desert Classic, but it'll have to do. No more rain on the immediate horizon might even mean I can hit some trails this weekend.

Hopeful.

In a funk

2009-04-04T22:58:00.002-05:00

Bad weather is rolling in so a ride tomorrow is unlikely, and I've only been riding sporadically as it is. It was a good day though. Spent time with the extended family, then my wife successfully managed a meltdown from the lil'un. He was right as rain by the time we were three minutes into our drive. Not bad.

I'm so lazy.

2009-03-02T17:22:00.001-06:00

I walked around 1/3 of the booths at the NAHMBS with my camera and shot pics, then I got lazy. Now I'm home and too lazy to even bother putting the pics online. Maybe I'll get around to it tonight, maybe not.

NAHMBS - Here I come!

2009-02-27T13:00:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow's going to be a good day. YC, TS1, CDT, and I are heading down to Indy for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. We're going with cameras in hand and maybe some money too? Good times.

It's beautiful outside.

2009-02-25T13:58:00.000-06:00

I'm gonna wash my bikes when I get home. :/

The only clean one is the Kona, and that's cause it's been on a trainer all winter.

If you can't ride...

2009-02-24T08:36:00.004-06:00

...go out and pretend that you're a good photographer. Whoo Hoo!!!

I like to ride my bike

2009-02-17T13:16:00.001-06:00

I need to do it more often. This once or twice a week thing has got to stop.

Did a little riding...

2009-02-09T20:52:00.004-06:00

We had great weather over the weekend, so I headed out with Baudler and Jake to shoot a few pics in Lemont. I see how folks can get into this photography thing. These are the best out of my pile of lousy shots. Now I want to get back out and take better ones...

Garage Door Pictures Suck!

2009-01-28T21:25:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking of picking up a new bike rack for the car for a while now. My wife always complains about how I mess up the interior of her car. Now I have a remedy. A hitch for her car and a Thule T2 rack.

I also got a Bontrager workstand to replace the piece of crap Performance rack I've been using for a couple of years.

Lastly, I'm gearing up for more urban and DJ riding in 2009 with the West crew. I lucked out and got a nearly mint ride for next to nothing. Whoo Hoo!

I can't ride in the cold.

2009-01-20T07:44:00.004-06:00

Heck, I can't even breathe out there. The cold really affects my asthma in the worst way. Also, these new non-CFC aerosol inhalers are worthless.

At least I've got an indoor trainer and a gym membership.

Cruisin'

2009-01-04T22:25:00.002-06:00

We're headed out of town to board a cruise ship and enjoy the warm sun while it's freezing and snowing here in Illinois. Sadly, there won't be any cycling involved unless I decide to try and look for an exercise "bike" on the ship. I foresee a lot of eating and lounging around with the family instead. See you in a week.

So, winter is basically here

2008-11-26T18:59:00.005-06:00

It's cold out and it's been forcing my asthma to give me more trouble. I finally had to set this up. I'll probably be using it a lot for a while.

Here she is

2008-11-26T18:18:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the new bike. I snapped them at Springbrook this afternoon.

Ready to roll

2008-11-21T13:11:00.003-06:00

Big props to Dennis at the shop, he turned that sucker around quickly. Now I'm ready for tomorrow's ride. I'll snap some pics of the new ride in the AM.

Surgery

2008-11-20T19:30:00.004-06:00

The D460 is at the shop getting the new fork installed. I'm having them put the brakes on too since I'm kinda lazy right now. I should be set for Saturday according to the wrench over there. I'm looking forward to checking out a new trail with Tim. That ought to be pretty good. I've heard about this place for a while, but haven't ridden there yet. It's about time.

It almost happened

2008-11-14T07:50:00.002-06:00

I got home from work while there was still light out, the weather was in the low 50s, and I was suited up with a fully charged battery for my light. The wife rolled up just as I was getting ready to ride and asked if we could take the kid to the circus. How could I say no?

So Eli had a good time watching the clowns, acrobats, and animal tamers. I had a good time watching him smile.

I'm looking forward to WFG this evening before the CAMBr meeting. It's been almost a week since I was rolling on two wheels.

I'm having enchiladas for lunch today

2008-11-13T07:41:00.000-06:00

...and I'm sure that they'll be tasty.

Raining

2008-11-11T21:52:00.002-06:00

It'll rain through Saturday and then start up again early next week. It'll be wet for a long time before the ground freezes up enough for some action on the dirt. It's time for the indoor trainer and more trips to the gym.

Maybe I'll get lucky and get a FRT or IPP ride in on Saturday.

It's cold...

2008-11-10T19:56:00.004-06:00

Man, I haven't posted in forever. There have been a lot of rides since I last posted. The Poker ride, Kettle, a lot of KK and Springbrook, The klunker ride, etc. Good times.

I almost made it out tonight for a quick run at KK but got tied up at home. I might get to ride if it stays dry tomorrow. I'll probably have to bring out the lights too since it gets dark so early.

I've been on the 1x9 pretty much since a week after the Poker ride. I'm getting ready to hang the Monocog and JTS up from the ceiling, but I think the Rob Roy and the D460 will stay down and readily accessible.

Choices, it's all about choices.

It's all coming together

2008-10-17T19:43:00.002-05:00

The Reba showed up. I'll have the brakes next week, and something to hang them on pretty soon. Keep watching.

Another good weekend

2008-10-16T07:43:00.004-05:00

I got a pleasant surprise Friday afternoon. Mark gave me a call and wanted to know if I was up for a couple of laps around Springbrook. I gladly obliged. I jetted home from work and rode over to the MUP on the Rob Roy. We enjoyed a nice conversation and some fun riding. I brought my lights but didn't need them until I hit some asphalt. Nice.

Saturday started with a drive up Rt. 59 into Barrington so I could hit Beverly Lake with the rest of Team Slack. We rode a mix of grass trails, singletrack, a little asphalt, and more grass. The ride was actually the hardest 10 miles I've done all year, but it was good to ride with almost all of the original DG crew at one time again. We finished the day with talks of grand dreams for DG, BBQ, a swag giveaway, and we watched RR and GHGH catching air off of a ramp. Good times. I finally ended up putting on my 18t freewheel after the Beverly Lake ride.

Sunday was good too. Cgreg, YC, and I hit Palos. My front rotor was rubbing on the caliper and I wasn't sure what was going on. I ended up riding one of the noisiest bikes in the forest preserve that day. We started up Bullwhip/ML East up to the road where we rode Cemetery Hill, Post Hole, Stonehenge and the Yellow trail back to the Out & Back. It's strange to see that giant log pile gone. Anyway, we rolled on and Chris bailed in order to get home in time. YC and I rode on to Gravity Cavity and stopped at the bridge. We decided to head back up and go grab a bite to eat. On the way back we chatted it up with Steve, Ryan, and a few others in the Staging area. It was a short drive to this little hot dog stand that I hadn't been to before. We ended up seeing Steve there again just as we were about to head our separate ways.

I worked on my bike a little after I was done. It turns out that there was nothing wrong with the bike other than a slow leak and a front wheel that was improperly placed in the fork dropouts. User error. :( It was still a good mtn biking weekend overall.

Just another ride

2008-10-09T20:22:00.002-05:00

It's getting dark much earlier nowadays. I'll need to start riding with lights all the time pretty soon.

Here are a couple of pics from my ride this evening:

It's a biking weekend!

2008-10-05T21:18:00.006-05:00

I did the lightweight 20 miler With the Iro on Friday night, got to hang out and get dirt all over my brand new PBP tshirt on Saturday, then did another 20 on the JTS today. I'm all smiles. Thanks go out to Baudler for loaning me a ride since I left my bike at home on Saturday.

Well, mostly smiles, I've got a couple of bruises too.

I topped it off by watching Star Wars cartoons with the lil' guy tonight. I've got to get him off the training wheels and out to do the pump track.

It's a pain in the legs.

2008-10-02T23:09:00.003-05:00

YC warned me that the soccer moms would kick my butt, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Spin class was rough. Pedaling hard wasn't an issue, but the two minute long stand & pedal portions of the class were painful. I wasn't really hurting after the class was over, but it certainly felt bad at the time. I'll probably go back again.

Oh, one more thing. I've got a surprise coming at the end of the month. Keep your eyes peeled.

Art, Music, Justice

2008-09-19T23:59:00.004-05:00

I was at the first show in the Art, Music, Justice tour tonight. It was a pretty moving experience that brought issues of global poverty, human trafficking, and other abuses to the forefront for me. I've talked about these issues with others in the past, but haven't done anything about it myself. I was reintroduced to the issues by Sara Groves, Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Charlie Peacock. They discussed topics, sang songs, and showed us videos of folks that have been filmed by The International Justice Mission and Food for the Hungry. I don't know if any of the shows on this tour are coming to a town near you, but I urge you to check it out. It'll open your eyes to a lot of things that you can do to help your neighbor, whether he/or she lives across the street or across the globe.

Alaska looks pretty awesome

2008-09-18T23:46:00.004-05:00

Awesome (def: inspiring awe) is the exact word to describe the images I saw in a MTBR thread this morning. A couple of guys took nearly three weeks to travel around the wilderness of Alaska via bikes and rafts. I'll probably never do anything like that trip. I'm really glad that the original poster in that thread decided to share his adventure with strangers on the internet.

I got home and played with the kid for a bit, then headed out to do a few loops out on the limestone again. I hear that Knoch Knolls is drying out pretty well. I'll probably get a chance to go out there sometime over the weekend. In fact, hitting dirt all weekend long seems like a fine idea.

My legs are tired

2008-09-17T23:31:00.005-05:00

Our IPP/FRT ride last night and then a quick trip out to Silver Springs at lunch today has worn out my legs. I skipped riding in the evening and had a family night.

We went over to my brother-in-law's place for dinner. An old family friend of my wife/in-laws is in town so we all hung out at caught up on old times. Everyone reminiced about old times and caught each other up on the happening of their respective families. I just hung out.

I found this cool web comic tonight while I was catching up on email and my internet bike porn addiction this evening. It's about a couple of bike geeks who work in a shop somewhere. I read through the entire series in one sitting.

It ain't raining, but it sure ain't dry yet

2008-09-16T01:08:00.003-05:00

The rain came, and it kept coming, and coming some more. Everything is soaking wet and flooded around here. I see no hope of riding on dirt until the end of the week at best. A lot of the Fox River Trail is under water too. I'll be riding a lot of limestone this week.

So what's a guy to do? Grab the gearie and go ride some limestone of course! I did a couple of laps at Springbrook and marveled at how nice it is to not have limestone dust all over your water bottles. The rain is good for something after all. There are a lot of rough spots where run-off from the rain took a lot of rocks with it. There's also a good sized "puddle" at the low spot where trail users who connect at Modaff come under Naperville/Plainfield Rd to the big loop at the forest preserve.

Something cool happened on Saturday. I had a chance to attend a community workshop that was put on by the Naperville Park District. They are working on a master plan for the bikeway and walking trails in Naperville. I was pleased to see that they're working with other municipalities and governmental agencies in order to connect trails in Naperville out to other trails in the region. This bodes well for my hope of finding a safe cycling route out west toward the office. I also liked that they recognize dirt trails as a legitimate type of trail in their future plans. I hope that they'll build more mtn bike friendly trails in Naperville in the future.

There will be one more meeting at The Barn in Naperville tonight at 6:30. Click here for more info. Go out and let the park district know what you are looking for in a trail. Mention that you want more natural surface trails too. :D

AIr pressure

2008-09-11T21:37:00.004-05:00

Make sure that you check it and fill up before a ride.

I grabbed the Kona for a quick ride around Springbrook tonight and had a pretty crappy ride. About a quarter mile into the ride I noticed that I was low on air in both tires, real low. I figured that it would be fine though, so I kept going. That was a mistake. Everytime I took a corner at speed I flet like I was going to roll the tires right of the rims. On top of that, riding on almost flat tires totally saps your strength.

I did 9.5 miles in 42 minutes today and it was hard work. By contrast, I did the same mileage on the IRO last week a full five minutes less. I'm no roadie, but I do track my progress and want to get better. Improper maintenance of my bike killed my ride today.

If by some miracle the rain holds off tomorrow, I'll be abusing myself at SWK on the Monocog. I'm looking forward to it.

Mini-streak

2008-09-09T20:16:00.005-05:00

I was able to pick the streak back up on Friday for a nice 22 mile ride at Springbrook. Half of it was solo and I was joined by a coworker who lives near me for the middle section of the ride. It was a nice warm-up for the leg thrashing that I got from YC and the boyz on the FRT the next day.

I continued the bike festivities at Palos for the Meltdown race. I volunteered all day long and got to see some folks giving it their all. I've got to hand it to the sport and expert racers. They were killing it out there, especially the winner of the expert class, Thomas Bender. He was an absolute machine. I was on on the course with CDT and we were able to see him hammer through all four laps. He was on fire.

A little more rain hit us yesterday so the streak was over. However I'm still plugging away by getting a short 10 miler out this evening.

Tonight I realized that I need to do a lot more work if I want to get better than last at a ChiCrossCup race this Fall.

Hill repeats, here I come.

Streaks don't last forever...

2008-09-04T23:28:00.003-05:00

I've been lucky enough to ride for three days in a row, that's pretty for me lately. That short streak ended today thanks to the remnants of Gustav. I'm a little bummed, but it's not so bad really. I hung with the family and played with the kid. It was a good night.

Tomorrow? Maybe I'll get a ride in, we'll see.

The Good Old Days

2008-08-30T00:43:00.006-05:00

I was looking through images on my hard drive and found this old picture. Cotterpin took it at Deer Grove during my first year back on the bike. The dustcover over the lens didn't fully open, so I'm framed by an "s".

It was a good week

2008-08-30T00:09:00.007-05:00

Group Rides: We had the Knoch Knolls beginner ride this week and I did a short FRT ride after work with a coworker this week as well, luckily he didn't die on me. It was nice to spread some bike riding joy around this week.

Big Wheels: I rode a 29er 1x9 at the Knoch Knolls ride and I pretty much liked it. You really don't need to change gears much there, but there were a few times that I was glad to be able to drop it into a little cog in back and haul it down the widetrack. I admit, I love popping into the big ring at Springbrook and getting some speed whenever I ride the Kona out there. The IRO is still my favorite bike right now though, I don't really NEED gears when I'm riding out here anyway.

Solo Rides: Springbrook and more Springbrook, it ain't dirt but it's right outside my door. I'd also like to ride at FDR Dubuque before the weekend is out if that's possible. If not, we'll still have the alpine slides.

Mileage

2008-08-22T22:03:00.005-05:00

This post goes out to all my fans out there. You know who you are.

August was supposed to be the blow out month for me. It hasn't been. I rode for about 300 miles between singletrack, road, and limestone in July. So far my mileage for August has just topped 115. Some singletrack this coming Wednesday and a FRT ride on Thursday will help the numbers some, but I need to get my butt in gear if I'm going to even come close to touching my July numbers, let alone beating them.

Oh one more thing. I've got some carbon bars coming my way next week. I'm starting to feel the need to lighten up the old girl. A little softer ride might help too. I'll probably throw an 80mm fork on the Monocog too. What's next, a geared bike?

I think that I hear a Yeti crying in the wilderness.

Silver Springs State Park

2008-08-06T20:51:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to lead a group ride from the office out to Silver Springs State Park. The park is just west of Rt. 47 in Yorkville. We left work around 5:15 or so. There are two lots there and I mistaken led us into the eastern lot first, we left there and did the loop on the west side, then got back to the parking lot at work a little bit after 6pm. 13 miles in about 50 minutes. It's really not bad since I had to stop along the way and fill up my rear tire. It developed a slow leak somewhere on the way back.

All on asphalt in case you were wondering.

These group rides are a lot of fun. It's cool to hang out with folks from the office in a different setting and chat with them on the ride. I'm looking forward to more after-work rides like this one or trails like the FRT or Virgil Gilman Trail. OK, maybe I'm looking forward to the ones away from motorized traffic a little bit more. ;)

Lunch rides and Beverly Lake

2008-07-31T00:30:00.000-05:00

One of the nice things about working with folks who are conscious of their health is that everyone there likes to be active. That means things like lunch time bike rides are appealing to some of us. I had the pleasure of participating in a couple of them last year, but we've had a long drought of them ever since. That ended today when I led a couple of folks on a nearly four mile loop around the neighborhood near the office. It was fun to be out riding the Monocog on my lunch hour. I'm looking forward to many more lunchtime and after-work rides this year.

After work I was able to join a bunch of friends up at Beverly Lake for an exploratory ride of the trails out there. This forest preserve looks like it'll be an awesome win for CAMBr Northwest once we can begin some trailwork out there. The place has a lot of singletrack that hasn't been maintained for a long time, but with a bit of work the trail system out there could have more mileage that Palos and it'd have mile after mile of the sweet twisty singletrack that we all love so well.

Creaking

2008-07-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

I've been riding the new Rob Roy around for 100 miles now and over the past few rides I've been noticing some creaking coming from the crank/bottom bracket area. I took it into the shop and had the guy who built it up for me take a quick gander. It turns out that the spiffy blue chainring bolts I used are trash. One sheared into two when he was taking it off. I'm now using steel bolts thanks to him pulling some out of his personal stash since the shop didn't have any single ring bolts on hand.

Here are a couple of pics of the bike right after it was built up. Not much has changed other than the addition of a cyclocomputer and the swap for mundane looking bolts.

Starting all over again.

2008-07-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

Maintaining a blog seems like it'd be an easy thing to do, but it obviously isn't. This is my third attempt, maybe it'll stick this time. It could happen.

I'm always reading people's apologies for not updating their blogs often enough, or for the lameness of the stuff they post, so I'm going to make you a promise. Here it comes. I'll update this blog when I feel like it, and I also promise to not care if you're bored with the content. How does that sound to you?

Yeah, whatever, I don't care.