A good suggestion

My friend Leta over at The Flibbertigibbet had a suggetion that you could find some interesting stuff by hitting the blogroll of sites you like. That may sound pretty self evident, but it is still a good idea. Try it and see if you like any of what you find.

Road Trip

Wednesday the family will be heading out to visit my parents in Xenia, Ohio. Since we usually only make it out over the Christmas break, it will be nice to visit in warm weather. I'm already planning to bring my bike and hit some of the roads and trails there. Xenia is the hub of several paved rail trails, like the Little Miami. It is also near mountain bike trails like John Bryan State Park and Caesars Creek. Hopefully I'll be able to put a day together to do a section of the Little Miami and then cross on backroads over to Springboro to visit Cycles Gaansari, a shop I've found very interesting from their online presence. Two years ago they were closed over the holidays so I missed visiting . Lat year they were moving from Dayton to Springboro so I missed them again. I wonder if fate will intervene again or if I'll actually be ablt to check them out.

Weekend News

Once again, I find myself not updating this blog over the weekend because of being busy.

This weekend we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate my wife's youngest sister's wedding. A nice time with nice people, nice surroundings and excellent food. Can't ask for much more than that.

Sunday morning I read about a fatality on a mountain bike trail in Utah. The fatality was the daughter of someone who posts on one of the forums I frequent. I don't know them, but sometimes those forums can be like a big family (with all the pros and cons of that), and so it was very saddening to hear of the loss. My heart goes out to them.

The rest of Sunday was spent in the yard and garden. The kids and I cultivated a few rows, and got the pumpkins all planted. I sprayed a bit of poison ivy (but much less than last time, so I'm making progress), mowed the back, and went down into the woods to clear some more trail.

We ended the day with a trip to the Jimmy Cone in Mt. Airy. Mmmmmmmmm. Ice Cream.

Commute Again

Yesterday was a nice day to ride in. It was actually quite cool in the morning with a light fog hanging around.

Warm but not hot in the afternoon. I explored a few residential streets on the way home. Just as I was rolling up the driveway, my rear tire went flat. Better there than somewhere 15 miles from home.

This morning we're getting some much needed rain. I hope it lasts a bit.

New Bike New Bike New Bike New Bike New Bike

Well yeah! I guess I'm pretty happy. See how little it takes? The bike came on Friday, I put it together Saturday, Rode it Sunday, and rode it to work today. Still love it. I'm going to ride it for a couple of weeks, before I go and make any big changes to the setup. I'll probably just add a fixed gear cog and a couple of bottle cages for now, but I'm already considering switching out the stem and handlebars to get me a little more upright for using the bike off road.

Busy

It's been a busy week and weekend so I haven't been up on my posting. Here are a few things going on.

The Great Divide Race is on. Kent is in it, but is having some wheel problems. Updates available at the Great Divide Race Blog.

NEW Bike! This will get a new post in just a bit, but the Quickbeam arrived on Friday. (Thanks Tim!!) Hjalti is a happy boy. I took it on a first ride on Father's Day. Woo-Hoo!!!

Soccer. Number One Son's soccer ended Saturday with the Boonsboro Tounament. They were beaten in the quarter finals after tying the game, in the shootout. Boo!

Dad's Day. Besides the ride, Dad's Day was a very relaxing time. The kids were absurdly well behaved, but I'll pay for that later I'm sure.

The garden is looking a bit dry. No real rain to speak of for days. I think the corn is a bust, but beans and greens are looking OK. I got new paths cut through the woods down to where the foot bridge is under construction. The Mrs. is on board for the bread oven idea, now I just have to do it.

Kent Peterson

Kent is a guy who lives in Washington State. He rides his bike a lot. No, I mean a lot. Right now he is riding it to the start of the Great Divide Race in Montana. The mountain bike race is from The US/Canadian Border to the US/Mexican Border. I bought a shirt to help him fund his attempt. I was thinking about the "Not a nutritional role model" shirt, but that would have been a little too obvious, don't you think? He may not be a role model, but having gone back and tracked down much of what he has written, I find that I can learn quite a bit from it, about cycling and about life in general.

Anyways, Here is the first photo report of the trip, and here is the first text report. He'll be writing some articles for Dirt Rag Magazine as well.

Go Kent!

First Commute

Well, the year is almost half over already, but today I made my first ride to work of the year. While school is still in, it is pretty hard to ride the bike to work, because I have a lot of after work commitments involving carting kids around to various activities. In the summer the Mrs. is available to do most of the carting, so I can ride a bit. Of course, I chose what is likely to be the hottest day of the year so far, with temps reaching 96F and a heat index of 105F, but the during the first part this morning, temps weren't above 85F, so it was a good ride. Going home, I don't have any time constraints, so I can take a nice easy pace.

Update: Man, it was hot on the ride home. The temps were close to as forcasted. I used the easy pace and got home without feeling any effects of the heat.

Bucolic Sunday

Pleasant but strenuous day today. Up early for a bike ride. 30 miles through the Monocacy Valley in and around Woodsboro and Detour. After I got home I worked out in the yard and garden. Despite my getting the garden started late, stuff seems to be coming up. Not too much corn, but everything else looks like it will work. Cultivated among the crops and did some bed preparation for the melons and pumpkins to go in soon. Then I went down the hill and cut some new trail towards the creek. I'd like to finish a bridge this summer. Turned the compost pile and picked up some wind fall branches. Number One Son drove the tractor and cart for me. Finally I sprayed some poison ivy in a few places around the yard. This will be our third summer here, and I've beat a lot of it, but there are a few places it keeps coming back. Me and poison ivy don't get along, so I'll keep after it. I took a lot of breaks, and relaxed in the breeze and shade, so even as hot as it was (more like summer than spring), it was all good.

The Right Choice

Ok, so I posted that I ordered my next bike today, a singlespeed/fixed gear off road focused bike. Tonight I got a spam/virus-carrier email with the following title:

Subject: Re: Go begin so overage scorcher

(Lots of folks have referred to fixed gear bike riders as Scorchers)

Overage Scorcher, that's me.

Try, Try Again

Well, my bike shop confirmed that the Karate Monkeys are a couple of months out. I'm not willing to wait. While looking around for a KM, I found a Rivendell Quickbeam in my size. Since the Quickbeam was the inspiration for what I was planning to do with the KM anyway, I decided to re-evaluate if I could use the skinnier tire'd QB for the amount of offroad riding I plan to do. The folks over on MTBr.com seem to think I can do so. So, this afternoon I placed the call and bought the bike. It should be on its way to me next week. Hooray!

Ridin' Hard and Fast

My friend rickyd over on bikecentric is thinking about doing the C&O Canal towpath (185 miles) in one day. I've done the towpath twice. Once about 8 years ago in three days, and about 26 years ago in two days. It is not a particularly difficult ride, just a very long time in the saddle, over dirt and gravel. He wants to do it solo, which is great, but maybe its time to get another group to camp it over three days again.

Go Ricky!

Photo: SSO

Western Maryland Railtrail

I took a break from Fixing Frederick this Sunday to take the kids out to a ride I'd been meaning to do for a while. We just picked up Number One Son's new Trek bike, and the Western Maryland Railtrail seemed like a good place to test it out. The trail is a nice flat trail that runs for about 20 miles from Big Pool, Maryland to west of Hancock, MD. It is pretty much parallel to the C&O Canal, but is a paved surface. We did about 4 miles of the trail before he started to get uncomfortable, so we took a break and headed back. The princess stoker was along for the ride on the back of the tandem and also had a great time. Next time we'll head to the canal and down to Ft. Frederick first, and then do a few miles on the trail.

Elvis

Last night running errands (new bike for Number One Son) I picked up some dinner for the kids a Burger King. The Princess was dipping her fries in ketchup and pulling them out with a little flip. She looked at the fry and said "Look, its an Elvis fry...Uh-huh-huh." Wow I didn't know my seven year old would even know who Elvis was.

Last Sunday's Ride

I finally got last Sunday's ride posted over at my Fixing Frederick Website. Sunday was a fantastic day for a ride and topped by being the first time I've climbed Catoctin Hollow Rd. on my fixed gear bike. I even did a bit of cross/underbiking on the watershed trails near the Thurmont Overlook with my skinny tires. It was a blast.

Suddenly worried

Surly posted today that the wait for their Karate Monkey frames might be until Mid-August. I cant let the summer go by without a MTB. Looks like I took apart the old bike a bit early. I wonder what affordable other options are out there. IRO, VooDoo?