Hill Repeats

I don't live in a very hilly part of town, but that doesn't mean I can't find over 1000 feet of hill climbing in the neighborhood. Short, sweet and to the point.

I think I had some blades like this on my table saw at one point.

30 Days of Biking

Been doing it since it's pretty close to no effort on my part. Well there is effort, but little change to my routine since I bike most days anyway. Tweeting as prescribed though keeping it pretty low key. This guy, on the other hand, has been doing it up big time with videos most days. He posts as The MinusCar Project, but in this case should maybe post as The PlusHumor Project since it's had me laughing every single time I watch it.



And, yes, I have questions; Is that a tubeless rig?

It's Good

It's good to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while. I'm a midwestern boy and know how to ride midwestern single track. Sure there are some rocks but they are nice round ones and I know how they move under my tires. I've ridden in Alaska, but that's much like the midwest just on a grander scale. Steeper, a little grittier than the swoopy MORC designed trails that I have come to know and love, but close in kind.

I've also ridden in Arizona before where the rocks are sharp, the climbs are steep and everything would just as soon kill you. But it's always been day trips on a rental. This time I'm 5 days into long hard rides on my own bike. I'm starting to learn how these sharp rock channels filled with loose rock shards, and deep gravel beds carry the bike. I'm riding stuff I wouldn't want to walk and loving the hell out of it.

I have to give a lot of credit to my Pivot, a bike that is proving it can carry me through amazingly rocky, nasty trails just about the same when I very carefully pick my lines as when I just blindly bomb my way through. When the bike is engineered to take almost any terrain I point it at, confidence goes up. I'm riding faster, harder and cleaner than ever. Thanks goes out to John and Harlan at Bicycle Garage in Fountain Hills, AZ for putting me on this bike!

Fantastic Spring Riding!

I don't have time to do this weekend's riding justice, but have to send a shout out. Here in the Twin Cities, MN, we don't get two warm, sunny days like this in March.

Like ever.

Except this weekend we did. Mid sixties both days, lots of sunshine with a bit of wind. It doesn't get much better than this. Fifty warm sunny miles in March riding from the house is almost like winning the lottery.

Almost...

Rites of Passage

Seven years have passed.

So how can you trust anew?

It's not love without.

Carry that baggage?

Love like you never got hurt,

else it isn't love.

Not baggage, learning.

Didn't kill me. No. Stronger.

Past won't stain future.

Ready for today.

Free of yesterday's baggage.

Together we go.

Can't get enough

I don't think it would be possible to get too much of this stuff:

Serious Mountain Biking Video

I wonder how they learn to do this without dying?

Christmas Eve at 4,723,061.7 mph!

We started our Christmas Eve on the bikes. No news there, just a leisurely ride to a lazy breakfast followed by some quality time at our LBS. It's happened before, in fact it's a good model for how to spend a Saturday morning as far as we are concerned.

This evening I uploaded the GPS tracks from my unit and noticed what could be a new land speed record:

I wasn't that tired but is is the first time I burned over 4000 calories in a 19 mile ride. I was curious as to where this amazing speed happened because I didn't really notice when it was happening. So looking at the map I had a couple clues looking at the overview:

It could have been the breakfast joint on the right: 

Or the bike shop on the left:

While there was plenty of activity during breakfast, I suspect the speed surge happened at the bike shop, when the coffee really started to kick in. It's certainly a lot more frenetic, don't you think?

FatBack Haiku Too

...nish, but now I'm done!

First semester is over

FatBack riding time

First snow on fat tires

Nine months of waiting. Worth it!

So let the snow fly

Fatback Haiku

Snowbiking today!
Semester end overload
Struggling just to fin...