a new rating system

Last Thursday, I did make an attempt at riding my newly acquired 20t cog. Unfortunately, it was 38 degrees and pouring that day. Before I left my house I convinced myself that after riding for a little I would be warmed up enough to be comfortable. I was so, so wrong.

When I unloaded the bike from the Grumbler my clothes started to get wet. I should have expected this. Man has know for millennial that when water fall from the sky, man gets wet. Again I convinced myself that once I started to ride my body would become so warm that it would vaporize any water that touched it.

So I rode. And I felt every damn drip that hit my wool jersey. Drip. Drip. Drip. I cringed with each freezing impact. After rolling through some tall weeds, my arms became totally soaked. My original plan was to ride the Blue loop at Apollo once with the 18t, and once with the 20t and compare the times. But I was freezing, and the poly-poo pants that I was wearing were soaked and not holding any warmth at all, so I resolved to return to the Grumbler to change my clothes and install the 20t. One lap of the course would be plenty that day.

I got back to the vehicle and changed my pants (I'd rather wear a live raccoon than wet synthetic) and socks, and put the 20t cog on. I was short one spacer. Apparently, a surly cog is narrower than an endless bikes cog. At that point I was cold, wet, and annoyed. So I threw the bike in the Grumbler and drove home. The weather beat me that day (I'm not mountain biking in 38 degree rain ever again. Unless I'm racing, or somebody decides to pay me to do it.)

I did go back to Apollo on Sunday, and it was a gorgeous sunny day. The leaves were out in all their colorful golden glory, I was able to wear a short sleeve jersey, and I didn't have a ride ending flat until I was two hours into my ride. What more could a guy ask for?

I'm guessing that topics for blogscussion are going to be scarce once the race season ends and the snow blankets the trails. So I plan on writing a few gear reviews over the dark months. I'm not insinuating that I'm actually qualified to review a carefully designed product, but hell, this is the interwebs. Everybody is an expert.

To facilitate my reviews, I've carefully designed my own rating system:

From Drop Box

In the four skogkatt system, a product receiviving a score of: three skogkatts is very good, two is functional, four is

perfect, and one is poorly designed. No skogkatts is a very bad thing.

But more excitingly, the Grumbler is getting some new clothes:

From Drop Box

Hells yeah. Its going to look sweet.

winters end review

I meant to do this ten days ago. And I really meant to blog more than once in the month of March. But I did not. So I'll write this post with much goodly goodly quality.
The winter was so so long. But I rode more than I would have ever dreamed I could. I commuted to school an average of four days a week, with another ride or two on the weekend. I learned a lot about riding in the cold through trial and error (by a lot, I mean I learned everything that I now know.) I put in great base for the upcoming race seasons, both mountain bike and running, and I learned to be tough on the bike.

January was bitter. As I look back through my ride journal, numbers like 2:05 hrs at 2*F, and 1:58 at -3* stand out at me. Here in my warm house, I can hardly believe I rode through crap like that. For added craziness, I recorded all my temperatures without the windchill. I can only imagine how cold it really was moving at 15mph through -3*F. If memory serves, for about 25 days of 2009's opening month, the mercury did not break 15*F. I logged 197 miles and 15 hours from 1-13 to 1-31. Brr.

With most days above 10*F, February felt mild. By the middle of the month, I started getting my clothing right. The recipe for success was toe covers with thick wool socks, wool tights under knee warmers with polypoo tights over top, all covered by windbreaking pants. On top a wool shirt squeezed under a wool jersey was comfortable down to 25 degrees. I put a soft shell on for really cold days. Ski gloves, hat and turtle fur neck warmer kept the extremities comfy. I only needed ski goggles in driving snow or hail (didn't ever have them in those conditions. of course.) The majority of the time, I was fine with regular sunglasses.

All most all of my winter miles were on the fixed gear. Until the day I had to chop off a canti stud because of a frozen brake, I was running a mountain tire in the front and a cross tire in the rear. I used a clip on rear fender and a homemade licence plate fender for the front. I stayed reasonably dry, and never had a problem with slipping in car snot.

Commuting every morning in the dark manages to somehow suck while being cool at the same time. I had to leave at 6:30 to make it to school by 7:20. On the especially dark, snowy mornings, I could hardly tell I was moving (except for the tingle my slowly freezing cheeks (the facial variety of course)) It was sort of like being in a deprivation tank. Very cool experience.

I did not get to ride many trails. On the rare days that a could hitch a ride with the lady bear up to hidden valley, I found myself wishing for a fat bike. On one particular ride, my front tire was punching through the snow about ever ten feet. I would just drop through and stop. Not fall over or crash, just stop. It got annoying. But the snow did make it easy to get the heart rate up. And toe covers are not good for hike a bikes.

This winter had its good moments, but overall it was rough. I'm so ready for hot and humid weather.

marshmallow fields forever

The feeling of a tire almost rolling off a rim is a curious thing. It feels like the back of the bike turns into a trailer and swings out to the side. Or like the rear wheel just ran into a pit of marshmallows and lost traction.
I felt that twice today. Then I flatted. Again. I am soooo damn sick of tubes.
I rode most of the way to the lady bears house on about 5psi in a 26c tire. That says great things for Soma Everwears. They hold their shape really well without air (much better than say, a larson mimo). And the blue stripe on mine makes them extra fast. (when they do have air, of course.) The whole way I was riding gingerly, hoping that I wouldn't pull the rubber off my rim.
3/4 of the way to her house I remembered carry a Co2 inflator in my bag o' shit. Oi. I hate my forgetfulness sometimes.
After I gassed up the tire I was off again without and problemos. And it was a rather pleasant day.

ice cold dressing: commuting part 1

The cranial area:

From Worthless Garbage

The head region does more to regulate body temperature than any other area of the body. Getting the hat situation figured out is more important than a jacket, as important as a morning bowl of cereal.
On chilly days 40-20F I were the black hat of the right. Its a loosely knit viking cap that breathes nicely and works great on days I have to go pillaging. The sunglasses (natives) are enough to keep my eyeballs happy down to about 10F. However, they don't do a damn thing when the snow starts falling.
The red hat is a pollypoo blend of some sort. It does not let nearly as much wind in as the viking cap, and is much tighter. It keeps my head toasty enough in the negative Fahrenheit temperatures (-5F has been the coldest we've had this year in lovely Picksburgh.) I feel a little self conscious about wearing a red hat under a lime green helmet, but I really don't want to buy another hat. When the sky starts falling, there is no substitute for ski goggles. I really don't like to wear them because they're a pain with my helmet, but sometimes there is just no choice.
On the subject of helmets, I've had my Giro for something like 6 years and its sooo nice. I just love it to death. I don't have to much trouble getting a hat under it.
The final piece of head gear I swathe myself in in the cold is a neck warmer. It makes a huge difference in holding in body heat. At this point in the winter, when I'm used to the temperature, I can wear the warmer instead of a jacket. It makes that much difference.

Minoats

I need more saddle time. I just started logging my rides, and I'm only coming up with about 5.5 hours a week. That's really not enough for the amount of racing I want to do this summer. But oval season (track) is coming up and I know that once I start running I'm not going to have the time, or energy/ desire, to put in more hours. So do I ride more now and hope that my cycling fitness will carry through the running season? Or just not worry about it and get on the bike once track is over? What a dilemma I have.
It really is hard to get in long rides in the cold. My body is starting to get used to the temps, but my water bottle is not. It freezes after about a half an hour in the cold. Turning it upside down in the bottle cage works to an extent, but still it freezes. I've looked into getting a miniature dragon to blow on the bottles, but then I would need to buy miniature goats to feed it. Minoats, as they're called in dragon breeding circles, are notoriously salty. If I fed my dragon with nothing but minoats, he would get thirsty and likely drink my water after he thawed it. And I would still be waterless.

winter be har

Winter is here. For sure. The ride in this morning was pretty uneventful, though it showed me how used to the cold i am becoming. It was around 26 degrees without the windchill, and all I wore were two layers of wool. A month ago I would have had to bundle up like a certain individual who will remain nameless.

Oh how I wish I could find a onesie that glorious

Wool is definitely my favorite. Ive worn the same base layer for two weeks of riding and it has yet to stink or become nasty in any way. Beautiful.

fat(ter) front

Last night I finished the long and arduous task of installing a clip on fender and new front wheel. I like this set up for the winter. The velociraptor on the front is much better than a cross tire in the slush, and surprisingly I can't tell any difference in rolling resistance. But most importantly, it looks cool.

I got hit by a little snow storm on the way home. The wind was blowing me from side to side. Its a little disconserting to be blown sideways into oncoming cars. The snow was bad enough that I had to bust out the ski goggles. But even with all the slush on the road, my bum stayed dry. Thank you clip on fender buddy.