ndanger.organism

At one of the volunteer meetings for podcamp marketing guy Mike Munz said something to the effect of “all blogs are really about marketing.”

I disagreed, and have proved such by forgetting to advertise the mountain bike event I just got finished running. Anyway, if you go back in time, check out A Balmy Heaven 2009:

And next Sunday I hope you all make it out to The Pittsburgh Roubaix 2009:

Clearly, the white balance is different.

Cervelo, I finally own you

It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve wanted a Cervelo for at least 4 years. I’m not sure if it was seeings Jens Voigt riding one or reading about their history but at some point I decided it was all I wanted in a bike: a sexy pro-level frame designed by geeky Canadians. Thanks to the upped 5k limit on IRA contributions, my tax return almost covered the cost of the S1 frameset.

I had Rob at Thick chase & face the bottom bracket and did the rest of the assembly myself. The internal cable routing was not nearly as dreadful as I thought, thanks in part to engineering.

The 3T Funda Pro fork comes with an insert you epoxy into the top of the fork instead of a compression plug. But seeing as how epoxy is forever and I am uncertain, I shelled out the $25 for an FSA compression plug and have a nice stack of spacers above my stem. Someday.

The Cervelo got it’s first ride longer than a mile in the MS-150. In short: it was amazing.

The first thing I noticed was the ridiculously short wheelbase, more specifically the 2.5″ of toe overlap. I noticed this almost falling over as I slow pedaled across the parking lot to get to the start. But once I started moving the handling improved; at speed it’s wonderful. It tracks great through corners which gave me confidence descending.

I’m not heavy enough to really test the stiffness but it definitely didn’t feel flexy. I could make the chain rub the front derailleur while standing and climbing, so there’s evidence of flexing and/or my excessively tight tolerances for the limit screws.

Similarly the frame (& especially <400 g fork) feel light, but the rest of the components aren't chosen for weight: Ultegra 9 + Dura Ace STI's, 32 spoke wheels, Dimension/Ritchey cockpit. I weighed the complete bike and it was around 18 pounds.

Cervelo's emphasis is on aerodynamics. I don't have much to compare, but in the rare cases where I was descending beside people I found I could pass them without pedaling. That can't be bad, right?

After coming home and riding around on my steel track bike, I can say the geometry or carbon seatpost on the Cervelo soaks up large bumps well. On the other hand lots of the MS-150 course was over chip & seal roads and the chatter was tiring. I'm not sure how much of that is because of the frame and how much is because chip & seal sucks, especially when you weigh less than 140 lbs.

You’ve filled out in front, Kristen

That’s not an optical illusion: the front wheel is bigger than the rear. Turns out that Redline 29″ disc wheels are only $80 so I went ahead and tried out this whole 69er thing.

Prognosis: eh…

I test rode it through Schenley & Frick and liked the handling (once I got used to it). But then I rode it at Bavington and strained through the winding sections: the bike just didn’t want to turn. It seems easier to go up and over stuff but some of that is due to the change in position: the taller wheel rotates my weight backwards.

Since she’s in North Carolina for a month, I borrowed Casey’s 26″ wheels. That will let me quickly switch between 29″ and 26″ wheels to get a better comparison. I’ll probably also end up with a 10 degree stem to see how that affects my position & handling.

EDIT: if you’re thinking “oh no, I missed my chance to donate!” fear not: donations are open until July 17th. See the original post begging for donations.

Another year down.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I caught a ride up with Kimberly and we got there early enough that I could get out with the first batch of riders. After pushing through the first weed-out hill I settled into a nice solo pace. I skipped lunch and stopped only at the last rest stop to pee & refill my water bottles (though not at the same time). Somewhere around 5 miles out I was caught by a group of about 5 riders, including two UPMC guys who I see every year (mostly passing me).

I rolled into Edinboro around noon and ate some recovery food and laid around. Finally I got around to setting up my tent and taking a shower. That’s when I found out what I forgot: soap. So I got a handful of soap from the dispensers by the sinks and ran into the shower. Truly classy.

While reading under a tree in front of my tent another camper came and asked if he could share some shade. His name was Greg and it was his first year riding. Going to get some more snacks I ran into Jim (team captain, who snapped a picture) and Kimberly and Jim (not team captain). Kim & Jim got their stuff and met me by my tent to set up their own camps. Jim had a dorm room but had also brought his ultralight camping hammock. He strung it between inverted soccer goal posts and hung out talking. In the meantime Shane–old college buddy & hiking trip planning extraordinare–showed up and pitched his tent in our circle. In conversation it turns out that the Rachel Carson Challenge is already full! Between that, the Pittsburgh Marathon and the Megatransect it seems like this will be a year of near misses.

Dinner was better than past years, with a slightly better array of cafeteria food.

After dinner we met up with Shane again to catch the shuttle to downtown Edinboro. We had some time to kill before the Pens game, so we got some ice cream at Dairy Supreme. Mint malted = awesome.

Next we hit the Edinboro Hotel for a pitcher of Yuengling and some pre-game coverage. But the bar was a little crowded so we ended up at Boro Bar. Boro had a dark wood-paneled interior, Killian’s red, and camp-buddy Greg. Turns out Greg had been there since a little after 6 waiting for the game to start.

The game started well but when it got to 3-0 we decided to head back to campus.

I fell asleep immediately.

Sunday’s breakfast was similarly better than previous years. I was particularly proud of the oatmeal/Cinnamon Toast Crunch suicide.

The team picture was another pleasant success. Not only was I early, but everyone else was on time too. We were done by 7:17.

Then I pushed my way to the front of the pack to avoid getting stuck in the crowd. I promptly almost missed the first right hand turn then hit the road. Again I tried to ride solo but spent some time riding with a rider in a Papa John’s jersey who knew Nathan and Andrew from Vocollect. After yo-yoing in and out of some small groups, I solo’ed past lunch and followed signs. Soon I was on a road that seemed suspiciously busy and poorly marked. I thought I was saved when I saw someone ahead directing bikes, except that the bikers were coming from the other direction. I followed them and ended up at the 2nd rest-stop. Somehow I had gone backwards 15-20 miles. Oops.

At the rest stop I saw Kimberly and Jim (not team leader). After eating and talking to Rob–Thick Bikes SAG van driver–I rode with Kimbely and Jim to lunch, where it started to rain. There I ate a turkey sandwich with lots of other Team Vocollect riders before heading out solo. On the road Jim (not team leader) passed me. I thought about trying to grab his wheel, but was feeling the extra miles and decided to go alone. Further on I saw an Alcoa jersey on the side of the road and slowed, thinking it might be Jim. Turns out it was someone who looked not at all like Jim, but who did need help. I tried but he needed a schrader-valve compatible pump.

The ride continued into the outskirts of Conneaut where I ran into a guy whose chain had exploded. I stopped and used my chain tool to help him. Twice, unfortunately, since I didn’t realize that he hadn’t routed the chain the first time. Apparently he didn’t do much bike maintenance since the chain was also covered with a 1/8″ layer of black grease which quickly transferred to my hands, jersey, bibs & bartape. Yay.

A few more miles and I was at the lake. Pictures (once again I promptly saw team leader Jim), pizza, etc. etc. I changed clothes and waited a few minutes for Kimberly. We headed up the final hill to load the bikes on the truck and get on the bus back to Moraine.

The bus beat the truck by half an hour, so we waited by the lake. We finally got them loaded on the bike rack and headed back to Pittsburgh. We were both starving and were planning on getting some Kassab’s until we got out of the car and saw they were closed. Kimberly took a shower while I did some research. Turns out Gypsy was open on Sunday so we headed in for some prix fixe. Decent.

Finally Kimberly went to her friend’s chakra dance birthday party while I started to unpack.

I woke up on the sofa around 1 am. I hadn’t yet showered. Gross.

Well holy cow.

As of early June, yinz have donated $730! I thought we were in a recession? I’ve had to bump up my fundraising goal about 5 times already. Anyway, thanks everyone.

In other news, did I mention I bought a shiny new bike frame for the ride? Unfortunately this is a back-breaking-ly busy week, so it’s been sitting prettily in it’s cardboard shipping box. Hopefully I can get it together for this weekend, otherwise it’s old faithful.

Once again, I’m riding the Escape to the Lake. It’s the 2-day 150 mile fund raiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. It’s the one-time a year when I ask everyone to donate money, unlike all the other times of year when I just try to borrow your car and eat your food.

You can sponsor me using the wizzy online payment system; if you’d rather give me a wad of cash or a check, email me.

PS: and this year I’ll be riding a shiny new bike frame. Oooooh yeah.

Inspired by DHD:

Apparently we might soon have sponsored bike racks attached to parking meters. Great! Except for the titular question. The mini-U is sized to go around meters. It’s true that larger locks aren’t always safe since the bike can be lifted off, but in general an area with meters has lots of other lock targets (trees, signs, fences, railings).

I suspect the main use is as a revenue source; I can only hope the ads are as classy as those above urinals.

I am excited about the expedited process for allowing businesses to install their own bike rack (more about that at Bike Pittsburgh).

After years of prodding, I finally rode the Punk Bike Enduro. I was going to try to gather some of the many write-up/photo/video links, luckily awesome guy Rob (though I also sometimes call him 90’s Rob on account of his living colour t-shirts) already did: 2008 punk bike enduro. (He also produced the above photographic proof).

Downsides

• Leaving a pot of potatoes boiling and falling asleep the night before (this is why all my clothes smell like burnt)
• Almost eating it on the first hill (photo proof via Chris)
• When my ankles stopped working during the run-up
• Coming in one place away from pointing on the run-up
• Walking back down the run-up (I know my downhill limits)
• Wearing away half of my brand-new rear brake pads
• Having to touch my disgustingly muddy bike afterwards

Upsides

• Not eating it on the first hill
• Cleaning the rest of the downhills
• Having brakes–Chris had basically nothing at the end of the ride while Dan(?) just did without his front brake. But I mean, hey, it’s only the front brake, right?
• Getting a ride out there with the DORCs in tiger Larry’s Chevy Suburban (I learned to drive in a Suburban)
• Adam’s Freddie Mercury outfit
• Adam’s Freddie Mercury outfit w/ faux-shitstains
• Hanging out with a bunch of peoples, including all the mountain biking people I never see (Justin, Eric, Karen)
• Potluck goodies
• Good excuse to take a shower

And now…

…your moment of bike zen:

Or a supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again until I get better at mountain biking¹

Sometime back in July (or June, or May or maybe August) Jack, Jess, Casey and I went to Moraine State Park. After an hour of walking our bikes over rock we turned around and headed back to the car. Total distance: 2.5 miles.

“Well,” I says to myself, “that was ages ago! Surely I’m a better mountain biker now!” So I borrwed Erin’s car and drove, alone, into the heart of darkness².

Two guys in the parking lot gave me some tips. One had helped build some of the sections and had brought his friend from State College. He advised going into the woods right away instead of taking the power line cut. “But be careful,” he warned, “it starts with some rock gardens.”

Yup. It looks like this:

…but about a million times worse. I rode the rocks until I bounced off and had to walk until I could find a place I could remount. To be fair, after the rocks there were some really nice switch-backs. The trail split and I went down hill and ended up back on the same power-line crossing trail I had ridden before. Like before it was half awesome and half terrible: uphill rock gardens that sucked up all my momentum.

The next few miles were about the same and I rode/walked until I hit the lake. I was on a fire-road looking for the other half of the trail when the two guys from the start came out of the woods. I talked to them and found that I had taken a wrong turn and was riding the loop backwards. I went up the trail they came down. This was my favorite section: lots of rolling dirt.

Finally I ended up back on familiar trails. Trying to find where I went wrong the first time, I took a turn onto a new trail that turned out to be the most extreme uphill rock section of the entire trail. I guess you normally ride it downhill, but still… holy crap. Anyway, lesson learned: if you turn onto a trail that immediately crosses a long wooden bridge stop, turn around, and go back to the power-line cut.

I hiked the rocks and ended up back on the first wooded section. A brief ride & hike and I was free. Free!

I saw a few people I’d talked to on the trail in the parking lot–one of whom wrecked his ankle in the last half mile–and then the two guys from the start showed up. We chatted for a little, then I drove off. I decided to go north on Mt. Royal to figure out that route.

I got lost.

1. A reference, or belated homage.

2. A reference, or incredible stupidity.

Another year, another 164 miles.

Saturday was 100 miles in ~5.5 hours, Sunday was 64 miles in ~3.25 hours, which puts my times pretty close to last year’s despite being on a road bike. So the road bike didn’t add much speed, but I’ve got to say my joints sure felt a lot better this year. Also last year I did some last minute cramming by riding to Ohiopyle and back (150 miles). This year my cramming was riding the Pittsburgh-Roubaix course, all 40 miles of it. Combined with the mountain biking and step running, my training this year perfectly prepared me for short intense rides, not 100 miles of rolling terrain. Oh well.

Thanks to all those who donated. I raised $155 online, probably around $100 in cash & checks and $400 in matching team funds (which is new this year, normally team funds only go to current employees, not ex hanger-ons like me).

If you didn’t get a chance to donate, don’t worry! Donations can keep coming in until July sometime. Email me or donate online. Thanks!

Hey hey, it’s that time again…. TIME FOR ME TO BEG FOR MONEY! I’m riding the MS-150 in two weeks, and I have to raise $200, but I’m shooting for $300.

“Dave,” you say “why didn’t you start soliciting earlier?”. Well why don’t you just shut that yap of yours, hmm?

Anyway, all donations go to a good cause and are appreciated, both by the MS Society and by me. There’s more information at my MS-150 page.

Rob tried to comment got both a rejection by WP-IDS and a nice PHP error message about missing paths. Woo boy.

The error was probably caused by a configuration error that I think I fixed. But I’ve got no idea why the comment was rejected in the first place.

If the same thing happens to me let me know and I’ll try to fix things.

Hey-o,

My friend Jack is selling some bikes. They’re mountain bikes which are super ocol. Plus they’re cheap. Email me if you’re interested and I’ll pass it along to Jack (I don’t want to out his email address on the web).

He says:

The green Kona needs some love, but the steel frame is still in very good condition. I’ll let it go for $50.

Update: 18″ frame. Here are some specs

(click for full-size pics)

The white GT is in really good shape. Jess took good care of it. It’s got an aluminum frame that was the same frame that GT used on several of their higher-end bikes that year, so it would make a great bike to start with that can be upgraded as fit. It’s ready to go right now for someone looking to get started. We want $100 for it.

Update: 14.5″ frame. specs.
(click for full-size pics)

Kristen is shown in it’s natural habitat: weather-proofed windows and dying plants.

Despite the big stack of “oh shit” spacers above the stem, I think I’ve finally got Kristen dialed in. The only thing I might change is adding a set-back seatpost, but I’ll have to ride it more before I decide.

Quick take-aways? Mountain biking is fun, Avid makes great brakes & levers, and 2.14 WTB MotoRaptors are way lighter than 2.4″ Ritchey MotoVaders. Oh, and Thomson is solid stuff.

And now for a sexy portrait:

Gosh she sure is pretty.

Since Wordpress 2.3 added support for tags, I’ve moved my old categories to tags and created some new ones:

Cycling

Info about bikes

LOTD

Link of the day

Misc

Everything else

Music

Chunes

Programming

Computer related

Categories will be stable and let you filter down to the posts you care about. So if you find yourself saying “cygwho?”, maybe Programming isn’t for you.

The plan is to add some display of tags later. But man, tag clouds sure are ugly.

Implementation

Moving the categories around wasn’t too bad using the built-in cat2tag and Rob Miller’s Batch Categories plugin.

Due to continued space and power constraints in our primary data center,
we will be moving the “randy” cluster to one of our newer data centers.
This move will begin Friday, February 8, at 10PM PST, and is expected to
last up to 8 hours, until Saturday, February 9, 6AM PST. All web servers,
mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the randy cluster will be
unreachable during this time.

Fear not, loyal readers! It is only 8 hours.

(Really) sad bike news

Sheldon Brown is dead. RIP

A lighter ending

Another reason I live alone: washing mountain bike in shower

I’ve spent a bunch of time over the past few weeks organizing a bike race. Well now it’s done. Maybe that’s why this is my fourth post today.

Looks like Justin has made the big-times… yes indeed, the MS-150 homepage. Also check out his pittsburgh alleycats myspace page.