ndanger.organism

it’s cold.

And I had to go scout out more routes for the aptly named Frozen Hell. You owe me, Pittsburgh alleycat scene, you owe me.

A Frozen Hell

What

A cold, muddy, frozen hell. It’s a fixed course, continuous (no checkpoints) race that will cover open roads, fireroads, and some singletrack. Mountain bike, cyclocross skills, and/or the willingness to walk certain sections recommended. Followed by post race potluck… sponsored by pabst!

When

Sunday, January 27th
Race: registration at noon, 1pm start
Potluck: 2p until 7pm

Where

Race: The Smiling Moose
Potluck: 542 celeron st #2–upstairs

How much

Race: $5 or free if you bring something for the potluck
Potluck: bring your favoritest food or drank

Prizes?

Nope. This one’s for the glory. Maybe I’ll make you a golden spoke card or something

Come out and race through the woods in January… I’m hoping for snow. Or just come to the potluck. Or do both! I’m trying to get an estimated attendance so pabst knows how much beer to give us. Please email me at dave@pghalleycat.com and let me know if you’re going to race or come to the potluck! I need to know so we can get free beer!

A flyer and the course will be up by Sunday, so you have a week to pre-ride the route. The course will also be marked on race day.

Thanks again to Pabst!

Casey’s bike & Iris II

Casey needed a beater winter commuter frame, so I ordered her an IRO group buy frame. For those that missed it, it was $150 + S&H for something like the Mark V Pro (though I think it had special tubing). At that price, I might as well order two, right? So I picked up the blue & green and let her pick the color she wanted.

She went with the blue. Put on some mountain flat bars, her old orange brake levers, cheapie Nashbar brakes, Concor saddle (now changed), cages & green straps, and my old wheels. The wheels will soon be orange Velocity mid-V’s. Oh, and I almost forgot her green bell that matches her straps. A nice accessory, though I have to say I’ve never seen her use it.

I took the green one and built up the 2nd version of Iris. The first Iris was an IRO Jamie Roy. She’s now hanging on my wall and destined to be stripped and re-painted. It’s basically all of my old components but with the change to the pimped Thomas Masterpiece seatpost that had been in fallow.

Go roadie, go!

Josh hooked me up with a Cannondale over the summer and I rode it… well, hardly at all. In fact the most use it got was when B. Funk borrowed it for the MS-150. Anyway, I finally decided to get it polished. Ultegra 9/10 speed rear derailleur & front double. Ultegra 12-25 rear cassette. Ted’s old right hand STI. The front shifter is still downtube, mostly because I didn’t have a left lever. Also swapped the bars & stem. So far I’ve just taken it for a test ride but it’s pretty fun. It tracks really well. I don’t feel comfortable on it yet, mostly becaues I’m stuck between the instinct that I’m on a fixed gear (so coasting weirds me out) or that I’m on my old road bike (so I forget how to shift the front). I guess I’ll learn.

See what’s been keeping me quiet for the last few weeks:

Pittsburgh’s 1st Annual Pirate Bike Triathlon

So I managed to win the Tour de Yinz Prologue!

I finished the 5.5 miles in 13:39 for an average pace of–holy crap–25.4 miles per hour. That’s way better than I thought I’d do (I was thinking 23 mph for a little less than 14:30). It was 13 seconds faster than Jon Lomax’s pace and another few seconds better than Jimmy. Though to be fair they were both running wack gears: Jon was too mash at 49×14 and Jimmy too spin at 46×16. Iris‘s 49×15 was perfect.

The only prize is a time bonus in next Saturday’s full event, which makes me feel like I should come out of alleycat retirement. We’ll see.

Full results are on Justin’s blog.

Went for a ride yesterday for lunch:

Nice 15 miler. Started with a time trial on the trail then headed for some climbs:

But the big news is I climbed Sycamore again. Woo hoo! And this time I was in my road gear (49×18)–which means I looked like death the whole way up. Dead or no, my biking goal this summer was to climb Sycamore fixed…

Check!

A week or two ago I ordered a fork from Bikeman. Unfortunately they sent the wrong size(1″ instead of 1 1/8″). Kind of irritating. So I sat around for 2 weeks before finally emailing. They asked me to call, so I called in and talked to Joel. He was the most apologetic / helpful dude ever. They’re emailing me a pre-paid UPS return label and crediting me the cost of the fork & shipping.

I’ve always liked Bikeman because they ship fast, have a good selection & are cheap. Now I like them because they are awesome.

Crime and perception is an interesting article on Cyclelicious about bikes & breaking the law. The premise is that driver’s deride cyclists lane splitting and red-light running while conveniently ignoring their own red-light running, speeding, failure to yield, double parking, etc etc etc.

I agree. But it’s different than my personal justification for running lights: the effects of illegal biking are far less dangerous. I might scratch your hood and raise your car insurance, but I’d gladly swap for my ER trip. In short, car’s are more dangerous; their operation requires more responsibility. That’s probably why you need a license to drive one. By analogy, car + 18-wheeler = bad news for the car. Hence truckers need a commercial license.

Most driver’s acknowledge the discrepancy. How often have you heard “cyclists need to be careful because regardless of right or wrong it’s their life.” While this is completely true–which is why I approach every green light ready to stop–it places the responsibility of survival solely on the cyclist. Isn’t the responsibility of the large and deadly to protect the vulnerable?

To complete the analogy, are trucker’s running around saying “Those cars better get out of my way because if I’m not paying attention I’ll crush them like ants”?

Inspired by the link to 1985 Paris Roubaix video that Brian posted on the Bike Pittsburgh forum, I test rode the Pittsburgh-Roubaix course.

Whew! Riding that course at race speeds is fun/awesome/hard/. I started strong (20mph?) but after Stanton I rode a massive 6-7 mph to Murray Hill. Then I flew it up the hill at… I dunno, 3mph? Anyway, I picked it back up down Forbes and through Wilkinsburg.

In the end, I left at 12:30 and finished my three laps at 3pm; around 2.5 hours for a 15-16mph average. That was about my goal, so I guess the bonkage wasn’t too bad.

If you’re planning on riding:

Your friends:

• 2 water bottles
• gatorade
• pasta dinner on Saturday night

Your enemies:

• 90 degree weather
• headwind
• sweat in your eyes
• road construction

See you on Sunday!

It looks like Ken is trying to stay up for a long time in preparation for next year’s Crush the Commonwealth. Good luck!

She’s been resurrected, and now she has CSS. And IMAGES. The 20th century is almost here!

pghalleycat.com

Saturday

The day 1 route was 100 miles. I left in the first pack at 7:30 am. Started off with the normal group of aggresive clubbers and weekenders who pull too fast and then drop-off. Stopped at the Moraine rest stop and choked on a PB&J. Spent a lot of time alone until I met Mark–a UPMC rider with a Colnago with matching saddle, tires & bar tape–a few miles before the lunch stop. We paced together (skipping lunch) for a few miles before I couldn’t keep up on the hills. I did most of my training at 45×17 and the 48×17 was rough on the long rollers.

I refueled at the Cochranton rest stop and then split onto the Century route. The first quarter I spent waiting for the one steep climb. When it finally came it was bad, but passable. On the descent Mark sped past me, I guess he must have stopped at a rest stop.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and I got to Meadeville at about 1:15.

• Wall-time: ~5.75 hours (17.4 mph average)
• Ride-time: ~5.5 hours (18.2 mph average)

Getting in early was great. I was showered, tented & rested by 2:30. Drank some beer with the rest of Team Vocollect before going to dinner. After dinner hung out with the Bike Pgh people.

Sunday

The route.

Breakfast at 5:45, missed team photo and was on the road a little after 7:30. Didn’t leave early enough, though, and spent the first half hour passing groups. Hung out with the same group of weekenders for awhile, but lost most of them when they decided to go to the rest stops. I felt good on the bike and spent most of the day tucked and spinning. Nothing of note happened and I was in Conneaut around 10:30.

Wall-time = ride-time: ~3 hours (21 mph average)

This was my fastest pace for the second day ever; perhaps the fastest long ride I’ve ever done.

At the end I ate lots of pizza and chatted with Heather about grad-school and vacations. She says both are pretty good.

I took the bus back to Cranberry. Erin gave me a ride to my apartment. And then I took a shower.

In preparation for the MS-150, I put a 48t chain-ring on and rode to Ohoiopyle. I left around 6 and got to Connelsville (60 miles) around 10:30–a good time for a bagel sandwich from Sheetz. By 11:45 I made Ohiopyle to stop to finish my bagel and poop. By noon I was heading back. I headed back to Pittsburgh via 837–not nearly as sketchy as I thought it’d be–and got back to the Southside around 4:30. To test the new gear on climbs, I went up Josephine into the slopes and then back down 18th street. After a snack & a shower, I tested the hills again by riding up to Casey’s parent’s house in Spring Hill.

Sunburn: minor

Butt hurt: medium

All else: fine

The route

My goal this summer was to make it up Sycamore on the fixie. The last few rides had a walking section in the middle. But not this ride, oh no. I crushed the hill like a tiny tiny bug.

Ok, so “crushed” is inaccurate, the actual process was more like:

1. I started riding up the hill
2. I thought I was going to die
3. I realized I wasn’t going to die, but would probably puke
4. The top!
5. (Repeat steps 2 and 3)

Of course this was also at 45×17, which has been my training gear. We’ll see how things go when I move to 46×17 or 47×17.

PS: I went up again Wednesday. Since I was heading to the library I had my bag, 10 graphic novels, and my lock. The process was mostly the same, except I knew I wasn’t going to die.

AM

(the route)

Casey and I planned to take a ride to the french bakery in Millvale and then ride through the North Hills. The bakery was closed, but the ride was great.

After she changed shoes at her house in Northside, we rode the trail to Millvale. Then we took Stanton to Hoffman to Mt. Royal Blvd. It’s a nice climb: longish (for Pittsburgh), steep enough that you feel it, but not so steep it’s impossible on the fixie. Turned on to Mr. Royal Blvd to Ivory to Perrysville. Perrysville to Spring Hill via/ Riverview Park & Bellevue. Down Itin Rd. w/ a side trip to go up Goehring/Kaiser. Kaiser is only 200 feet long or something, but brutally steep (at least on the fixed, this is the first time I’ve made it up Kaiser on the fixed, so… yay!). Down through Spring Garden, climb Homer back to Spring Hill to Casey’s parent’s house for a water refill.

Decided to go to brunch at Zenith w/ Casey’s friends from NYC (staying at her mum’s house) & Linda (Casey’s mum). So we headed to Zenith via my apartment (I needed my lock). And because we rock so much, Casey and I waited at Zenith for half an hour before the car-folks showed up. So we were properly hungry by the time our table was ready. Oh yes, I ate a crap ton.

PM

The route

After a brief respite, we took the afternoon ride out to the EEFC. We were supposed to meet Casey’s coworker Michelle (I think), but her pedal stripped (WTF?). So I got groceries, we ate apricots, and I rode back through Schenley.

PS: Tuesday morning I went back to the bakery. It is awesome.
PPS: I <3 the Gmap Pedometer

Urban Velo wants you to answer their questions and give them pictures of your pretty faces.

Check the Myspace bulliten for more info.

I’m riding the MS-150 again this year… here’s the begging email I send out every year. Figure I’ll post it here too, even though I think only 2 people read this, and one of them is me:

On June 9th and 10th I’m riding my bike 150 miles to raise money for
the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This is the fifth year I’ve
done the ride–and the fifth time I’ve sent you one of these
emails–so I won’t spend time telling you why this is a good cause.
If you want more information, check out the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society’s web page:
http://pax.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=PAX_homepage

If you need a reason for why you should donate money to my good cause
instead of someone else’s… well, I don’t have any references for
that, but I am pretty awesome.

If you want to donate, you can do it via the web page:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=2092872&pg=personal&fr_id=6120

Or in person (you know where to find me).

Thanks much,
Dave

…and a 19 tooth cog. Oh yeah!

PS: they’re Ritchey MotoVader 2.4′s, if you care.