The Long Fix

Rode the Fixie over to CDA (90 miles). It was windy (10-15 mph headwinds), we rode fast (20-24 mph) and the 49x16 gear kicked my ass. A whole lot of food and an hour nap later and I feel pretty good.
I had been contemplating selling the fixed to help pay for the new bike. Today's ride was an attempt to see if this bike has a legitimate training purpose. One of the reasons I got the bike was so that I could have a big gear workout to balance out all the mad spinning I normally do. The test results will come in a few days when I should either be feeling like an unstoppable climbing machine on the mountain bike or I will be nursing some sore knees.
I have never had knee problems despite all the singlespeeding and I worry that this bike, at least the way it is set up now, could result in my kneecaps getting ground down like a mortar and pestle.
I could just keep the bike for the pure fun of it but I know that no matter how many bikes I have, I never ride more than two and one of them is always my Hakkalugi. With the new bike soon to be getting all of the attention, the reality is that the fixie will be getting only the occasional joy ride but never the attention it deserves. I like to have bikes that get ridden, bikes that are ridden a lot.
If I do keep the fix than I am going to slap a 17t or 18t on the back to help with the grinding. I don't think it will make it any slower it will just make the cadence more to my liking.

New Trails

Warning: Do not ride with mouth open.

For some time now my regular riding partner Ben has been talking about the "Northwest Passage" trail. Since I am generally out of the loop on things like the correct name for a given route I assumed it was something I was familiar with by my own nomenclature. Today he introduced me to the course and I am bit smitten.
The ride follows the all too familiar bluff trails to Hatch road. I avoid the bluff because there are too many people walking with their dogs on a hillside trail that provides no room for passing. The bluff used to be riddled with head exploding climbs. It was the least singlespeed friendly hills in town. A dedicated trail builder has worked nonstop for a decade to provide universal access to all skill levels with trails that rarely angle more then 1 or 2 percent grade; further enhancing the over crowding problems.
With that said, the bluff trails were merely a way to get to the real riding. After Hatch the NW Passage meanders on the South side of Latah Valley through diverse conditions that made me think I was riding in another part of the state. Fir trees and Native Birches were a nice change from the dominant ponderosa pines. We followed the trail up and down valleys and along basalt cliff edges. The riding was so good I never thought to take a picture, I was just riding.
Riding this route reminded me of the old days in the late 80's and early 90's. I would explore the back ways to and from every place in town. I was constantly prowling the perimeter of neighborhoods looking for the long forgotten trails. As time went on, for the sake of efficiency, I began riding the same routes over and over. This practice eventually led me to burn out on mtn biking all together. All last year I stuck to the pavement in an attempt to regain my love of the dirt but now I realize that this was the wrong way to do it. Mtn biking is adventure, it is exploration it is being in the wilderness. I did not need to abstain I needed to find new terrain and just ride.
P.S.
It was not a perfect ride. With just a mile to go I suggested to Ben that we could cut across some railroad tracks and follow some singletrack down to the Columbia Plateau trail. I used to run this route daily. The trail is actually an access route for transient who frequently live in this area. Unbelievably while riding Ben had human feces hit him and his bike. During the extended clean up session we tried to find where in the trail it was but there was nothing (I was riding in the front and never saw it). Based on where it hit his bike the only conclusion we could draw was that the poo had been flung from the short cliff we were riding below. The stuff smelled terrible and resulted in a long drawn out cleaning both on site and back at my house. That stuff was everywhere. Just when you thought it was all gone more would be spotted. Ben's day was ruined but I still could not be knocked off of my cloud.

Is It Christmas Yet?

Clickie Make Biggie

I am calming down a bit after getting a response from Doug Curtiss regarding my frame. Apparently I am in the next batch which gets started next week. He does not do the drawings in advance of the fabrication so that all the information discussed is still fresh in his head. It is impossible not be getting anxious as the time gets closer and the weather gets better, my fitness is ramping up and my plans for a summer of wilderness riding is taking shape.
I will try to remain calm and focus on the parts list again. Ben found a good looking rigid fork for me. I like the natural look but where are my brake posts?

Epic jr.

Epic is an often over used word in the cycling world. If I am going to use the word epic there would have to be so many over the top components to the ride that even using the word epic would be an understatement. Today was not epic. It was five hours of riding that included long sections of snow running, many climbs in the 4 mile long range, a small injury, some minor navigational errors that resulted in an extra 30 minutes of climbing and it was blue sky beautiful the whole time. But it was not epic. It was the precursor to Epic.
I need some epic days. Mile after mile of back country isolation, climbing over passes, following ridge lines and forging terrain rarely scene by people. It is hard to get this at the local state park down the road, but 40 minutes drive into Idaho is the Coeur d'Alene National Forest which starts at the edge of the city and continues uninterrupted into the cabinet range of Montana. This area has the potential for hundreds of miles of GDR style riding. Today was the first tentative steps into that proving ground.
The snow limited the directions we could go but we had no problem finding climbs that were the perfect match for the kind of riding I need right now. I would have thought that my 29er with 34X17 would have been too big of a gear but I was getting into a good rhythm both seated and standing. My lower back showed some signs of tiring because I have not been exposed to out of the saddle climbing of that duration this year.
The drive back from the ride gave Ben and I a chance to dream up some truly epic routes in the Coeur d'Alene N.F..

Sitting By The Phone

While the GDR community is all abuzz about whether to allow cell phones (the basic fact is cell phones are only allowed if you don't use them, if you use them then you have DQ'd yourself) I am more concerned about whether I will have a bike.
On January 22 I had a phone conversation with Doug Curtiss of Curtlo. We went over the bike and body measurements I had sent him. He told me to send him some photos of me on my present bike and half of the money for the frame. On the 24th of January I did both. The last question I had for Doug was "what is the turn around time on a frame." I asked so that I had some reference point, so I could put the bike out of my mind until it was time to start thinking about ordering all the parts I have selected. Doug told me 10 weeks. He also said that the next step in the process would be him getting ahold of me to go over the drawings of the frame. After the drawing had been approved then it would be on to fabrication.
That was the last time I talked with Doug. Almost three weeks ago I sent him an email asking what the status of the build was. No response. Last Monday I left a voice mail message asking the same thing. No response. Short of driving to Winthrop and knocking on his door I don't know what to do.
I understand that independent frame builders have a reputation for working at their own pace and often being behind schedule but I am disconcerted by the lack of communication. Had he told me this was going to take 10 months I wouldn't even be thinking about it right now.
I even went as far as to scour the internet for news that could help explain the silence. Skiing accident, FBI raid, big lottery win. In another week I may call the local bike shop in Winthrop and ask them if they know what is going on.
BTW, the deposit check was promptly deposited.

A Clean Century

Clean centuries don't allow for much picture taking but I snapped this shot of the distant long lake dam as I stopped to stash my sweater and leg warmers.

Last week I felt great and had some good rides that were not long but were high efforts with some good climbing. I still haven't fixed the broken tooth on my mtn bike so a long road ride was in order. I had to be back in the afternoon to pick up my daughter at choir practice. I had thought about taking on the 150 mile route I recently mapped out, but even if I left early enough to get the mileage in there would be no way to shortcut the route if things started going wrong. And to make matters worse most of that route is outside of cell coverage.
What I settled on was doing a clean century ride. By clean I mean that I wanted to do 100 mile of somewhat hilly terrain at a good pace with very little stopping. I packed two large water bottles and a 100 oz. platypus with powerade, four Bumble Bars, an almond butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, some gummi bears and a valrhona Manjari chocolate bar.
The ride was off to a fast start with a good tailwind. Actually the tailwind was somewhat of a curse because I am still riding with 39x17 because the 17t freewheel I have on my Paul hub is not threaded on but mashed on the now mangled threads. If I want to move up to a gear more suitable for this time of year I will have to get a new wheel. Since I am trying to divert all of my bike money into the new bike I was forced to spin some high cadence for 3 hours. The fast spinning really starts to cook the legs after awhile despite the apparent ease at which the pedals were clicking over.
For some reason I thought that a bumble bar every hour was going to be enough calories for the first half of the ride. At Springdale I ate my banana and sandwich. I layer the almond butter on thick so that the sandwich weighs in at around 500 calories. Once I started heading back into the wind I found that I was able to keep a solid pace and forged ahead. At around 4 hours I started experiencing the subtle symptoms of bonking. This wasn't a full on system crash. I was still chugging along at a high pace, the legs were doing there thing unchanged but mentally I began to wonder about whether the muscles were going to hold up. I began worrying that the discomfort in my knee was going to turn into a chronic disorder that would derail all of my future plans. I began to notice that distant road signs took a long time to reach me, my mind wondered around in a negative world of self pity.
It is only because I have been through this many times that I realized that I needed calories. My body never said "I'm hungry" the bonk manifested itself in a decidedly mental train wreck. I stopped off at a grocery store in Deer Park and ate a slice of pizza, drank a cup of coffee and finished off the gummi bears and chocolate.
By the time I got back on the road I was singing out loud and bunny hopping over shredded tires on the highway shoulder.
As for doing a clean century, my 16.7 mpg average is as good as it gets for the hills, the three hours of headwind at the end and my choice of gearing. After a shower and a pound of beef jerky I feel fully recovered. Clean enough. The true test will come tomorrow morning when I try and do some fast, hill climbing.
Here is my route: Springdale Century

Morning Ride With Friends

If you need a good workout in a short amount of time grab a single speed. Then call two of the hardest riding mountain bike riders you know and have them bring their full suspension, geared superbikes. Let them choose a twisting, rock-studded trail that you have never ridden so that you have to spin like mad to catch up whenever the trail straightens out. Since you might have a chance at making up some time on the hills, break a tooth on your rear cog so that whenever you commit to a big push the chain skips, forcing you to ride smooth and slow up the hills when possible and when it's not, jump off and run. Continue for two to three hours.
Shower, eat and go to work.