Congratulations, Amy!

On Sunday, while we were bouncing off of rocks in Connecticut, Grace's favorite riding partner, Amy, sealed up the overall title of MASS Sport Women 2 by winning the final race at Bear Creek ski resort. This, despite flatting three times!

Great job, Amy, and congratulations!!

Good riding in CT

Monica and Rich, Grace's sister and her husband, moved to CT a few months ago. I was concerned when I heard they were moving, because there was some *good* mountain biking in Greensboro, NC... but after visiting this weekend, I found my concerns were unfounded. They live just off of the Shenipsit trail, which despite the name which begs for variations, (sheep s**t, snippy s**t, conniption, etc) is pretty awesome. It's very technical, littered with rocks, and you really have to work for it, but it's amazingly fun.

I have to also say that the back issue seems to be completely resolved. I rode yesterday and today, and rode hard enough that I was totally wiped out at the end, but my back was fine. My back hurt a little when I was off the bike Saturday night, but was fine by Sunday and didn't bug me at all on Sunday's ride. I'm VERY happy to be done with that chapter.

We came across several other cyclists, and while thinking about it later, I realized nobody was riding a twenty-niner. Considering the rocky terrain, I was pretty surprised about this. In Wissahickon, niners are just about everywhere and taking over... and the rockiest sections of Wissahickon aren't anywhere near as tough as the average rock gardens on Shenipsit. Mind you, we only saw about 10-12 other cyclists while we were out, but the same selection of riders in our area would have netted at three or more niners.

Speaking of riders we met, we met up with a couple on the trails who were out riding with their dog. We asked about the trails, and they offered for us to ride with them since it was easier to show the trails than describe them. We gladly accepted and rode with them for a while. At one point when we stopped to regroup (and recover) and they mentioned that they are the president and webmaster for a local club, Eastern Bloc. Stuart and Laura were really cool and told us next time we come back to get in touch and we'll meet up to ride again! Gotta love the awesome people you meet while mountain biking!

I also had another first on this ride... I failed to clear a technical climb for a reason I had never thought I would use -- my arms gave out! As strange as it sounds, I realized several times while muscling through the rough stuff, I was REALLY cranking on the bars. On this one climb, I was slightly out of the saddle to give the bike more room to move over the ground, and to keep my position as well as push on the pedals harder, I was pulling back on the bars good and hard. My legs were fine, my lungs were fine, everything seemed good, but I realized that my arms were fatiguing from the effort, and had to stop before I lost my grip! Not having my gloves contributed, no doubt... my hands had gotten sweaty and the ESI grips had started to get a little slick after we started riding with Stuart and Laura.

I also should mention that all the riding Grace has been doing with Amy has been paying off bigtime. Grace has been riding VERY strong, and even having a hardtail with a road cassette didn't slow her down through the gnarly rock gardens. Returning to the house on a road climb, she dropped me like a bad habit. Yes, she's strong, and yes, I'm psyched!

Funny story about that... while we were riding with the Jensens, we were doing a prolonged technical climb, and the day's riding was starting to catch up with me. Stuart was starting to gap me up ahead, and I heard one of the ladies catching up to me. I took a quick glance back, and saw a green jersey, and thought it was Laura. She sat on my wheel for a while as I climbed, and at one point I offered to let her by. She declined, but was stuck to my wheel. I was fading, and figured if I couldn't clear a technical section, I'd get in her way. I considered telling her that it was okay to pass me, I didn't mind being passed by a woman -- since I wouldn't be able to ride with Grace if I did! Didn't actually say it (was gasping for breath anyway) and a little while later realized it wasn't Laura after all, but Grace sitting back there and apparently not even breathing hard!

My big, crazy, pointless project...

Recently I've undertaken the project of rearranging my digital pictures. One of the things I've done is renamed them with the date and time code in the filename, so they sort in chronological order, even if the sequence numbering out of the camera is screwy. (like what happened when the numbers "rolled over" from IMG_9999.JPG to IMG_0001.JPG on our trip to Bend, OR)

Of course, in order to include date and time info, you really want to have the date and time info be right. Although I usually keep the time on my cameras set and adjusted properly, sometimes it can be a bit tricky, like when we took that trip to Bend, and I forgot to adjust for the change in time between EST and PST. In that case, I was able to use a picture of a sunset along with the sunset data from aa.usno.navy.gov to figure out the proper time adjustment, which I then applied to all the pictures before renaming.

What gets really complicated, though, is our trip to Tucson, AZ for a Western Spirit mountain biking trip. Not only do I have my own pictures from the trip, I also have pictures from four other people who were on the trip! So, now it's a real detective job to figure out who's got the right times and the ones who don't. I thought my times were right, but a sunset picture shows that I never adjusted my camera for MST. Another guy who took pictures at the same time has the times set at 2:23pm the next day! Yet another doesn't have pictures at that sunset, but in one picture, you can read the time on my watch and see he's off by two hours as well... which is appropriate since he runs a bike shop in Montauk. A third, well, I still haven't figured out exactly what the adjustment is on his, because he didn't take that many pictures, and the only overlap I have is with the guy whose pictures appear to be 20 hours off. The last guy? His camera didn't timestamp the EXIF information, and the file time info is useless, so I'm more or less on my own. (Thankfully he only shot 19 pictures, and there's pretty good overlap with the others, so I'll be able to fake the time info so they sort in the right general area.)

If that weren't bad enough, there's the question of -- if it's wrong on this picture, can I assume it's wrong throughout the vacation? Sometimes I remember a little late, and then I adjust the time while I'm out there. Most of the time, honestly, it doesn't matter if I'm off a couple hours in either direction, but when I'm trying to put together the work of five different photographers, it's another story.

Okay, yes, the really important part is I have the pictures themselves, and getting the time right really does not matter a hill of beans, but it's pretty cool to have a picture of Grace and I taken by Jim, right next to another picture at almost the same exact time, taken by Mark, of Jim taking our picture. Plus, when viewing the pictures, it's nice to see them in order, and not wind up jumping around.

To be perfectly honest, it's not an important project at all, but it is fun simply because it is such a challenge, and a learning opportunity. Hey, before I started this, I didn't know that the Navy provides a site that can tell you that on March 16th, 2006, the sun set at 6:32pm in Tucson, AZ, and civil twilight happens at 6:57pm. (nor did I know that "civil twilight" means the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon) It's also a fun challenge to look at different pictures from different cameras to try to correlate what's happening... and the fact that the pictures are of a great vacation with friends and bring back good memories just makes it even better.

Beaten with my own stick...

I got out for a ride yesterday with Dmitri, a buddy of mine who is a dedicated singlespeeding mountain biker. He's decided to ride the MS-150 with us at the end of the month, but he doesn't have a road bike, so I put my old Airborne Zeppelin together for him to use. Yesterday was his first ride on the bike in several years. Back in 2004 or 2005, both of us entered a local time trial, and he rode the Zep back then... but hasn't touched a road bike since.

Well, I have to say, it's pretty interesting to see my old bike fading away on up the road. Apparently the preparation for a 100 mile MTB endurance race translates well to the road, even if he wasn't familiar with this whole concept of shifting, and having to pedal all the time. On one stretch of road, I was holding about 20mph, and he comes around and starts pulling at a steady 24mph. Yikes! Thankfully I kept the climbing to a minimum, as otherwise the ass-whuppin' would have probably been worse.

The good part was that since we're about the same size, we were able to swap bikes so I could ride the old Zeppelin. Still a nice bike, but definitely different ride. Softer, yet more chattery than my carbon fiber Giant TCR. One thing I really liked, though, was the 46cm c-to-c bars. I've had the bars for a while, but hadn't gotten around to testing them. They're only 2cm wider than the Eastons on the Giant, but that little bit wider is noticable, especially when cranking out of the saddle. The extra leverage is really nice, and the flat tops of the bar is even wider. Of course, having the 31.8mm stem clamp area and being made of aluminum, they are also far stiffer than the carbon Eastons with the smaller 26.0mm clamp. Most bars only come to 44cm c-to-c, but if you're a big person, you might seriously consider looking for the wider 46cm bars. I'm considering getting rid of the two pairs of 44cm bars I have now and finding a carbon 46cm for the Giant.

My town is better than your town.

My town is better than your town.

What's my town? Doylestown, PA.

Why's my town better than your town? Is it because it's just a really cool place to live, and we can walk to all these great restaurants, and I can walk to the SEPTA train station to ride into the city? Well, that helps, but no, that's not why my town is better than your town.

My town is better than your town because we had one of the best pro bike races I've seen in a while. For the past two years, the second part of the Univest Grand Prix has been happening in Doylestown, but it was a low-key affair, with a simple, small rectangular course on side streets where it wouldn't bother too many people. This year, however, was different. This year, it was a REAL bike race, and there was TV coverage and everything. The course was expanded to cover more of Doylestown, had some really interesting corners, and actually encompassed the Arts and Crafts festival going on during the weekend.

The weather was beautiful, there was an incredible turnout for the race, and the race itself was pretty amazing. When there were only a couple of laps to go, we found a spot right on the rail and with each passing lap, the excitement level rose and rose. When the final sprint happened, everyone was going crazy and yelling and clapping and banging on the boards on the side of the course. I was surprised to see a McDonald's logo rolling across the line first - I can bet that nobody on that team actually eats the junk - but it was a solid victory and to a great race!

I brought my big camera to the event, and in the earlier laps, we walked around the course, with me stopping to take pictures whenever the racers went by. I'm definitely one to subscribe to the "shotgun" approach to photography, figuring if I shoot more, I'm likely to hit a good shot now and then, and Sunday was no different. I shot nearly 800 pictures, which I later narrowed down to around 500. I then weeded that down to my 21 favorites, which you can see in my gallery from the race. (or click any of the pix on this post)

It was just so awesome to see real professional cycling happening just a block from my house... and I hope that Univest keeps coming back!

Don't reinvent the wheel

I finally got around to installing the tubeless kit on my new road wheels. I watched the instructional video a couple times, then just followed his procedure exactly. The front tire wouldn't seat with the floor pump as it did in the video, so I just moved on to the rear, which seated quickly. Went back to the front, still wouldn't seat with the floor pump, so had to break out the air compressor.

All of my previous experience with tubeless conversions was with tires that weren't designed for tubeless use, so it was really nice when the tubeless Hutchinsons sealed up tight and didn't leak from the beads or sidewalls. I haven't had a chance to ride the new tires yet, but they held air perfectly overnight.

While I was doing the install, I realized something. Stan's recommendation for 2 oz of sealant in the road tires sure seemed like a bunch for such skinny tires, but he sure knows what he's doing, so I went with it. In the past couple of months, I've been experimenting with different things on the mountain tires, trying to come up with simpler or lighter solutions to the Stan's kits that we've been running for a while. Although I've had several instances of limited success, I keep going back to the basic Stan's kit when I want something that Just Plain Works.

What it boils down to is he's done all the work up front, and has come up with a great system which works without any major problems. Despite my best efforts to improve upon it, I keep coming back to use his stuff as designed. Although it can be frustrating to be unable to improve upon it, I've got to say, it's nice to see such well designed and implemented stuff available!

That said, some comments on the installation of the road kit for anyone who might be doing it:

• Installing the yellow tape - watch very carefully as you do it to make sure that it's even, side to side. I had to redo the front wheel when I got around to the second layer and discovered parts of the first layer which weren't well centered. Take your time and make sure it's installed right.
• He doesn't mention using a tubed tire to help seat the yellow tape in this video, but has in some of the MTB installation videos. I found it helped, but might not be absolutely necessary. It did help get the end of the yellow tape to stick fully, though.
• He suggests using a round file to open the valve hole. I've tried making the hole with other methods, and a round file is by far the best. Just don't file into the rim... use it just enough to separate the excess yellow tape.
• Mounting the tire - I managed to get the first bead installed by hand, but it's a REALLY strong bead, and I wasn't able to get anywhere near installing the second bead by hand. The video states "Okay to use tire levers" -- I can install almost any conventional tire by hand, but these tires were having nothing to do with it.
• The space between the valve stem and rim is pretty tight, so make sure the bead is actually down in that space before you try to inflate.

Aside from the difficulty mounting the tire, and needing the air compressor to seat the beads on the front tire, the kit was wonderfully easy. Of course, we'll see if the ride is worth it, but if our experience running tubeless on the mountain bike is any indication, it will be. I don't run any tubes in the mountain bikes anymore!