Here's a totally addictive game

Escapa anyone? Try to keep the red block from the blue block. Just click and hold.

Again, the link is the name of the post.

The Surrealist

This website is fun. You can put in some lame info or words and it will spit out some fun slogans, alter pictures, "sex" up a dossier of boring intelligence :) and other things...The title of the post is linked.

My name, sloganized:

Kills All Known Chad - Dead.

or

Got Chad?

Well, do ya?

Sunset

Crystal thought this turned out good, so I thought I'd post it: From our deck at the new apartment.

Party at Mike's!

So, a few weeks ago we had a party at Mike's. I think it was like a "divorce" Party or something. Whatever. We invited a lot of people, bought a lot of food and drinks, decorated (mildly), but alas, as party's go, it was not well attended. Who cares, we still had fun. Here's Mike:



Pimped out in the basement:



Crystal's new best friend, Mike (or as some call him, "Mickey"):



Mike's brother John and sister-in-law, Holli:



Playing darts. When Mike's wife left the house, she took the dart board. I had to have another one! One can only play so much pool...



Me and my dart "skills":



Who's Superman? Me:



Get down, get down...

Good times were had by all:








The significance of this party was small, but it started a revolution. On the walls, you can see that we chalked it up good with drawings and signatures and such. This got Mike to thinking that he needed to build a bar. Then, Crystal wanted to paint. In a future post, I'll show the results of this amazing transformation. Gone are the grey walls and cold floor. Mike now has the best club in town!

Tubeless Update

It took about two weeks or so, but the tires sealed up and have been holding air now for two weeks. As I understand it, other tires are easier to work with (I used Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Dual Tread Compound). I'm thinking of converting Crystal's bike this Spring as well. Worrying about flats is such a pain...

Horsetooth Ride

Finally got out to Horsetooth for a ride on the new bike. I tried to get out last weekend and though it was sunny and warm, there was too much mud.

We climbed for about an hour or so to the Spring Creek/Mill Creek junction. We ended up going down Spring Creek on the way down...a very fun ride, not much pedalling down!



It was a sunny day (warmer than I expected, too) and I was eager to test out the new bike on the big trails at HT Mountain Park. The bike climbed much better than I expected, actually, though they've done some grading to the service road that makes it a bit slower than in the past. With better knowledge of the trail and few bike tweaks, it'll be riding perfect.



I was able to get some good pics of Dave riding:





It's funny, when you ride, you really have to make a conscious effort to get off the bike and take pictures. So much of your time is spent focused on the trail, the riding and the other trail users. These all could have been better...

This is one place where I can go on the front range to get some trees and a different perspective than the low, open desert areas of Devil's Backbone and Coyote Ridge.





It was a good ride. I think riding some of the roads near my house has helped my fitness this year. We'll see, but usually I'm whipped after a ride at HTMP. This day, I felt good.

Tubeless tires and the dilemma

So last weekend, I did a full conversion of my wheels to a tubeless system. Find more info here:http://www.notubes.com/

I have to admit, it wasn't very difficult to do. The tires I'm using are Kenda Nevegal 2.35 DTCs. I've read that they're some of the hardest to seal. It was a day long process, but I was able to ride on Sunday. The performance gain was instantly evident, but I could not get past the fact that they might leak on me or something. They had been slowly leaking air all day Sat. but seemed all sealed up. Either way, the ride was good and the tires were doing thier job.

Well, come Monday, I find the front tire flat, leaking sealant. I went through the steps to reseal it and on Tuesday, it had lost some air but was doing ok. I rode Tuesday afternoon (just ahead of the snowstorm, I might add. Temps close to 60 degrees) and they held up pretty good. The rear has a wobble in it that's a bit annoying (I've noticed this on new Nevegal tires before) but on the trail it's not noticeable.

Come Wednesday, the rear tire was flat overnight! I pumped it up before work to 40psi and it was holding air, so that's not the issue. It seems that maybe it's not sealing or that during riding, the seal is breaking. I can't figure it out. I'm not giving up yet, but it seems that tubes are much easier to deal with. I just love the faster rolling wheels that tubeless provides. And with all the thorns around, the flat resistance is a must. But how resistant is it?

To be continued...

Winter blahs?

Well, I haven't had them! We've had days of 70 degrees this winter and I've been able to ride at least twice a week. It finally snowed last Wednesday, but it melted by Friday. It's snowing now again, but I'm confident that it will be gone soon enough. I'm glad for it too...who likes dealing with all the snow and ice? The mountains, however have been utterly blanketed with snow this year. Steamboat Springs reports that the champagne powder is "epic". Vail has had record crowds. Denver Int'l Airport is setting records for the number of travelers moving through. That means that spring will be green on the plains! The reservoirs are predicted to overflow for the first time since the late '90s when the state officially went into drought. For a while, things are getting back to normal around here. But I suppose that's only true in our microcosm of the world - in Seattle they've had record rains. California, too. Wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma in January! The NE is saturated. Killer hurricanes, increased glacial melt in places like Alaska and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa where they predict there will be no more glacial ice in ten years at 19,340'! Read more about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilimanjaro.

I feel like I'm outside the storm, but the evidence is there that things are heating up. And I'm not sure that people really mind. Still, it can't be good in the long run. For now, I'll be content with my 70 degree days in February and maybe I'll start driving less. Maybe it would be a good time to begin recycling - $35/lb for aluminum. If only bikes were that cheap! I figure my aluminum bike is about $700/lb! I'd better start recycling to help bring down the cost of Al for my OWN good!

Cake and the Unlimited Sunshine

Defnitely one of Crystal's favorite bands, we got our second chance to see Cake in Colorado at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. The Auditorium has a storied past. It was once a roller rink and the old hardwood floors remain. It's a great venue for a concert.

Cake is excellent in concert, so if you get the chance to see them, do so! They might be coming to a town near you! (or not, it looks like they'll be in Japan next month) We'd have preferred to go see them in Vegas, but we'll settle for Denver!

More from Coyote Ridge

At the crest of Coyote Ridge you can look back and see how small your car is. The parking lot is center of the pic, on the right hand side.



A view looking down the trail, east toward the plains.



Virgin trail that will link up Blue Sky to Coyote Ridge and extend south to Devil's Backbone.



Far off, is Devils Backbone, middle of the picture:

Coyote Ridge and the Resurrection

She lives! A new derailleur hanger, new chain, new derailleur and shifting cable later and we're back in business. All in less than 1 week. Ellsworth was quick in getting the hanger to me and Larry had parts on hand. Overall, it could have been worse.

I went with the X.7 instead of the X.9 that I broke. It was cheaper and only marginally heavier (40g). The action seems to be the same. So far, so good!



The first ride was at Coyote Ridge. Coyote Ridge is kind of the sister trail to Devil's Backbone, though they are different in character, they share many attributes and are only about 7 miles apart, driving. Off road, they're closer. Trails to connect these two locations are in the works.



It's a mile of climbing from the car. This pic is about 1/2 way through to the top, looking up, then back. A bit of snow still lingered on the north side climbing up. It always does on this trail.

A view east of the Great Plains. This is the first ridge of the Foothills of CO. Beyond this stuff, it's all higher and higher altitude. Coyote Ridge peaks out at about 5,700', starting at about 5,100'.



I figured out the timer on my camera and got this shot. I didn't go for anything artistic, but it turned out pretty good!



The most exciting part of this ride was seeing some of the new Indian Creek trail that's been constructed. I worked on this trail last Fall, helping to build a culvert through a small valley (before and after):





That metal pipe is now buried under rocks and dirt. It took a day to build this and another half day to fill in the gaps and pack it down. There were over 250 volunteers building 2 miles of trail in 2 days. In the next photo, you can see where we were working by following the trail to the first small canyon, just where the shadows obscure the trail. Rest assured that this culvert is now there and that the trail flows through that spot!



This part of the trail will link Indian Creek/Blue Sky trail with Coyote Ridge. I tired to follow the line and see where, but it's not evident yet. Apparently the county wants to wait until the last minute to connect them up so that users will stay off until it's officially opened in Spring/Summer 2006. The trail will go from Devils Backbone Open Space to Horsetooth Mountain Park in Fort Collins. It's estimated to be 20+ miles one way. Further trails can be found at Horsetooth and adjoining Lory State Park, making for some epic rides. Horsetooth Rock, roughly 10 miles away at 7,300' elevation.



On a subsequent ride the following day, I spoke to a Larimer County Park Ranger and she noted that work to Horsetooth was progressing quickly. They plan to have the trails open by June 2006.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Just a few shots of us on the New Year!

Crystal all dressed up for a night on the town, 2005.





We went to a cool club in Denver and partied with the Big City crowd. It was a great time!

Bikes, the old and the new

This fork would have been great on the Moment. But alas, it was the pits on the Isis. It was just too tall. I replaced it with a Rock Shox Reba, which I didn't really love, but it was a good fork. I replaced that fork with a Marzocchi Marathon S. I'm a Marzocchi guy...


The newest bike, an '05 Moment in pewter. It looks great with the pink Chris King hubs. Most of the parts came from the Isis, so they look similar.


The trusty old Isis. Now back to it's maker...

First Ride on the new bike (out of order, BTW)

I wanted to get some photos of my first ride on this bike, just for posterity.

I went for a long route, up some hidden singletrack that I scoped out in the summer.



Once at the top, this trail would drop me down into a new neighborhood of multi-million dollar homes which abuts the trailhead at Devil's Backbone. This phots didn't turn out so good, but in the background I could see Pike's Peak, over 150 miles away.



On the way up, I got some photos for the buds on MTBR:



Finally, at the trail entrance:



This is the nicest trail sign I've ever seen. Mostly, they're just some enviro-type wood carving or something. But I think because of the expensive homes in the subdivision adjacent to this park, they got this spiffy sign. Who knows. At least they don't charge us to ride there.

The ride went well. I think I mostly just wanted to snap some shots of the bike and the trail. More detail is in my Ride Report blog of a secondary ride.





Someday (2006), this trail will extend out there, as far as the eye can see, joining another trail system in Ft. Collins. One will be able to ride from Loveland to Ft. Collins all offroad. Plans for the future include trail from Wyoming to New Mexico - whoa!

Post Ride report

Man, what a day...

It started out good. I did some adjusting to my suspension to correctly set the sag. The front fork still has some of the new "stiction" in it and the rear shock is an enigma to me yet, so I just messed with the fork most. I had to drop the PSI down to 15 to get it to 20% sag, which is about correct for my weight, but man was it mushy.

I chose a new route from our apartment that got me to the trail on some back roads - nice, no traffic!

The sky was blue and the sun was shining. It was going to be a good ride.



So, I climbed over the first hogback and on to the trail head. The fork wasn't right, so I added some psi. Up to 20psi. I guess the fork is supposed to be this mushy, but I don't like it. I tried it anyway and it was going fine. I was ripping along, hit my favorite jump - huge, then flatted on the subsequent climb out. Crap! Maybe the rear is too soft now? Adjusted that, grabbed a photo of the Backbone.



I've been struggling to climb this bike because of it's added weight (and mine!). But I made it up and grabbed a few more photos. Boy was it sunny!





The last time I stopped here to take pics, I was fixing another flat. It's time to go Tubeless. How do I explain that to my wife? Must...have...more...money...

Moving right along, I got some shots of the trail, just to profile how rocky it actually is out there. The new bike rolls over this stuff pretty easily. But so far, to me, it seems the same as the old bike. Could this be? Maybe it's me...





So, I've had some pretty good wrecks on this trail and drawn lots of blood. But this day, I think I'd rather have hurt myself. Well, maybe not, but anyway...

So, it was crowded on the trail, even on the backside where hikers and horses normally don't go. My goal was to head down the slope and catch these guys on the backside of the trail (okay, there's a pic, but it's not loading). At this point, they were walking. I knew I wouldn't have to walk that section, so I had a chance. Little did I know, I'd never make it...

Well, to make a long story short, I went over the bars as my front tire wedged in front of a rock and (unbeknowst to me at the time) slammed the rear derailleur down on one of those nasty rocks. After about 30 minutes of converting the bike to a singlespeed, I was able to limp out. The front tire suffered some punture, too, so I aired it up and went slow down the hill. 2nd flat of the day. Crap!

The aftermath. It's gonna be 'spensive!

It's like they say, though. A bad day riding is better than a good day at the office!