Friday, August 29, 2008

Hu.

Never thought I'd say this but damn here it is:

Metallica may yet kick ass as a metal band. The new single is SOLID! It is awesome in a way I'd never thought I'd hear. If the whole album can hold up I'll be SUPER impressed.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Down with the Sickness

My cough cold continues to hound me, but I refuse to slow down much since it put me down early in the week.

So this week I got out for a schaeffer loop with the guys, and J came out and trooped with us on tbe beginner loop. She fell a few times but more to stopping issues rather than terrain. She cleared some tough logs!

Friday I hit the Little Bennett Friday Night Lights ride, we had a couple of regulars and of all surprises Brizn was out! It was a damn fun ride with everyone even though I did take an unplanned bath in the larger creek due to an unseen rock. The rest of the ride was good, and the slower pace was fine with me trying to hack out my lung every frickin 100 feet.

Sunday I went out and hit the Fairland Regional Park trail and had a good fun ride. Ran into rob, gary and co again who I hung out with Thursday after the Schaeffer ride at DFH. I kept missing the turn to head over to the easier area near the main rec center but it was okay. Ground out some hard riding before I went over there.

For the week I hit darn near 32 miles total. I'm pretty happy. Probably won't ride tommorow, think I'm gonna go hit the gym actually and do a bit of weight work.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Does this tire make me look fat?

Does this tire make me look fat?

Last night I finally picked up some more Stans so I could finally swap on the new tire for the rear of my bike. I've replaced my old MAxxis LUST Ignitor with a Maxxis LUST Crossmark. Following some people's suggestions I went from a 2.1 to the 2.25.

HOLY COW the damn this BARELY fits. As in I have to deflate it a bit to install the wheel! The CM is a massive tire. The old Ignitor went 1.5 lbs, the new Crossmark goes 1.9!!! Test riding in my basement it seemed not to rub but I'll have to get it actually out on trails. I think with this tire I'll be able to comfortable run at say 35 psi and get a nice cushy ride out of it. Damn it was a biatch to get on, feels like a much stronger wire bead in this one.

Now I just have to figure out my new front in the next month or so.

And I'm sick as heck since Sunday, I got a cough that started mid last week and by sunday I was misserable (Saturday wasn't bad). Monday I was off fortunetly and layed around all day. Had a backache from hell thats just now really getting fully better.
MY cough is a bit better today but now the damn thing moved up into my head. hu?? Thats frickin backwards! aARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

Also had to do a full lube/pm on the bike yesterday. I'd washed it on friday and didn't dry it or spray the moving components with the teflon/lube/dryer and it was BAD!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Round 2 - Titanium Seat Rails vs MY a$$

Winner - My a$$.

This is the 2nd seat I've destroyed since I got this bike, this was a replacement from last November'ish. I'd crushed the cro-moly rails on my original WTB Speed V. This time it was a clean snap near the seat clamp, I can only assume that this was perhaps in part due to over tightening the seat clamp bolts.

I replaced with a shiny new Bontrager Inform R, in medium width. Whats up with that!?!?!? Just kidding. But really it's strange in ways, I'm down nearly 15 lbs plus I didn't have my pack or anything on either. The jury is out on the seat for now, but I'm gonna send my Fly off for repair next week anyways. Got a 90 day money back on the Bonty.

Rode wakefield 2x times (before and after), when I cracked the rail I was making a good run on a W@W timed ride and I think I would have been inline for a sub 20 minute lap. On my return I did my first full lap at just a hair of 21 minutes. My 2nd lap blew as I was pooped, and the light conditions caused me to run a bit more carefully then before.

Tonight I'm kinda waiting on the weather to set what I'm going to do. If it rains a lot regardless I'll be headed home and to the gym. If not I'm going to try and ride schaeffer but incase i get stuck at work I'll fall back and do Wake again tonight. Haven't hit a group ride there since the spring I think. Ended up near 15 miles total putting me already at 40'ish for the week which is pretty good. I'd love to hit 50-60 miles a week regularly. Gotta make better use of Mondays.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Riding, Ride Like the, uh nevermind

Sorry, attack of those that shall not be named, this nice weather makes me want to drive a car with a convertible top, any car really.

Such nice weather here the past few days, so I've been outside a bunch and intend to the remainder of the week.

Sunday the wyf and I went out to wakefield to break my wife into riding clipless. It was quite an afternoon. She did great for the issues she was having. We need to adjust the tension on the pedals some more. She trouped through even after 3 different falls. Her 2nd lap was much better than the first. I'll try and get her back out there in the next week or two to solidify the course/area in her head.

Yesterday since I was off I snuck off for an hour and half of play on Cabin John in the beautiful weather. Nice day to be out rolling. Went from the Democracy Tennis center all the way up to goya drive and back. Took a non-direct way home and it totalled out nearly 15 miles, giving me 25 miles ish for the week already.

And suprise suprise, I weighted in later this evening and saw a new number I long thought gone, 205. EESH!

Saturday, August 09, 2008

August, where are you going?

Where are you going this August?

Myself, I've already gone to Dewey Beach and had a semi-relaxing 4 days of Beach Time(tm). One of my favorite parts now is that my wife and i did a round of Out Run 2 and almost finished the whole first stage, which i've never gotten that close. It was a hard fought race with both of us making some good passes and driving. We also took one long ride out to Lewes and a bunch of short rides. Unfortunetly on the way back from Lewes, the wyf, in a fit of not paying attention attacked my rear d, and bent it pretty good, my 2 big cogs in the back are currently unreachable. Gotta do some creative bending tonight to see if I can get it better or if it's time to order a new rear d next week on payday.

Monday I'm going for a ride anyways but I guess I'll have to limit myself, and maybe go for a pile of mileage out at somewhere like Wakefield or maybe I can survive schaeffer.

Also on the repair/replace docket is my rear tire. It's got a TON of tiny gashes that aren't sealing well and a few rips. It's amazing how well it's held up. But I'm kinda pissed as those tires only have about 600 miles of my own on them and maybe 50 or so from the original owner. Oh well.

Also I need to get the damn garmin in for repairs, I want it fully fixed for the fall, I'm going to push hard to break 1k off road miles this year.