Commute 2

30:34 this morning on the Dirt Shark cross bike. A little slower than the Scorcher but I spent the entire ride chatting with a guy I met at a stoplight about the current trends in venture capital. Only in the valley.

Dirt: Kennedy, Priest Rock and St. Joes

I rode the epic Kennedy - Priest Rock - Saint Joseph's loop from the house yesterday. Here are the details:

Distance: 27.5 Miles
Vertical: 2748 Feet
Time: 3:43
Average: 7.4 Mph

I rode the Tracer but it can certainly be done on a cross bike. Man, the Kennedy climb is a stiffy. I got an early start, leaving the house at 6:30 but it still wasn't early enough for what turned out to be a 90+ degree day.

First Commute by Bike

I rode the Scorcher today and clocked a personal best of 30min9sec to cover 7.88 miles yielding an average speed of 15.7 Mph. Not bad for a 53:23 fixed gear bike with a top speed of 19 Mph.

Cable Free -- Week 3

It's been a couple of weeks since we canceled our cable service and we seem to be over some of the withdrawal symptoms now. Part of the reason for cutting the cord was our move from Denver to San Jose. Now that it's complete we can settle down and see if this really will work.

We just had AT&T Uverse installed taking only the internet product and skipping the TV and Voice offerings. It took the guy over three hours to complete the install. That has got to be expensive for AT&T. I elected to get the 18Mb/s service for about $50/Month. Adding the TV service (with HD and a DVR) would add at least another $50/month to my bill.

On the programming side there has been a minor set-back. We had a great live morning news from CW2 in Denver but now that we are in the bay area I can't find the equivalent.

The biggest change has been from simply watching less TV. I'm staying in a hotel room for the first time since we cut the cord and I realized that I haven't turned on the TV in the room yet. I don't think this is a bad thing.

Cutting the cord

After leaving my position in the TV industry last month I actually had to start paying for TV service for the first time in many years. I had subscriptions to all the major services and had taken that access for granted. I took a look at my bill and realized how expensive these services have become, I had one bill that was $216 per month for only TV and Broadband service.

After analyzing our viewing patterns I realized that we really only watch a small handful of channels -- History, Science, and Discovery and our local broadcast channels and of course, SpeedTV.

We looked at Comcast, DISH, DirecTV and AT&T and came away really frustrated. Because I already had service with many of these providers, no promotional discounts are available and everything is full price. Because DISH and DirecTV don't offer broadband service and the associated bundle discount, their prices are higher when combined with a broadband only product from another provider.

The real frustration is with the channel packages, We were happy the most basic packages from most providers, typically in the $25-$35 range -- if you ignored SpeedTV. Moving to the package the has SpeedTV doubled or tripled the cost every time. I realized that just watching SpeedTV would add $30+/Mo. Weighed against their ever increasing NASCAR focus and there many weeks dealyed coverage of Grand-Am and SCCA World Challenge and Bob Varsha's inane F1 commentary, I realized that I don't need them anymore.

So I "cut the cord" and ended my pay TV subscriptions.

I'm now using a Mac Mini - in the living room, and a old MacBook Pro -- in the bedroom, as STBs. Ironically the largest challenge hasn't been getting content. It's getting the PCs to play video quietly. Both the Mini and the MBP tend to overheat during long periods of decoding video, forcing the fans to run at full speed. This becomes the loudest thing in the bedroom after 20-30 minutes.

I was using an AppleTV (which seem really quiet all the time) but found the fact that it costs $$$ to watch just about anything really frustrating. I find a PC and sites like Hulu and Netflix to be more useful for me.

While all this has been interesting, the service providers are likely going to put an end to this by moving to usage based pricing for broadband access. Just this morning an executive with TimeWarner Cable indicated that much like AT&T, cable broadband providers will have to move to a usage based billing model soon.

Garmin 705

I've now had my fancy new Garmin Edge 705 super-deluxe cycling GPS for a few months and have discovered most if it strengths and weaknesses. Overall it rates 8/10. It does everything you could want. It does so many things that the UI is a little complicated and that is its weakness.

It is too easy to forget to start the timer after turning the unit on. Why not have it start automatically? I occasionally forget to reset it before starting a ride so that two rides run together. Minor annoyances sure, but either one renders the current ride's data inaccurate.

I found a pretty good site for creating maps and loading them into the unit. Bike Route Toaster is free and had worked really well so far.

I use RubiTrack as download data and track rides and mileage.

A couple of notes about setting up the Edge 705.

* Menu | Settings | Data Recording | Zero averaging : should be set OFF for cadence to average correctly.

* It's easy to forget the start the timer. If the 705 doesn't display the current grade - the timer isn't running.

Pugsley : Done

So just over two months later, the Pugsley is complete. I had a little trouble with the front hub -- I selected a Paul Whub that isn't compatible with the Pugsley fork. How big could the market be for a 135mm front hub that doesn't fit the only production bike in the world that uses a 135mm front hub?

Anyway, the bike rides quite well. The 100mm bottom bracket takes a little "getting used to" but seems OK. The tires a spectacular -- They float on snow unlike anything I've ever ridden.

The finish turned out pretty well. It;s all white with a very suble fade to light gray on the bottom. The effect is nearly invisible unless the bike is in the snow. The pure white of the snow makes the gray color really pop. The cranks, bashguard and rims are actually gray and the bars are all white. Ther are still a couple of things to do: find a better saddle, install white cable housing and figure out the final stem height so I can cut-down the steerer tube.

I almost got Kathy out for a snow ride last sunday but we were thwarted by a sticky shifter on her mountain bike. This is a common failure in really cold weather. I soaked it in solvent and lubed it up and it seems much better now. Maybe we can try again this weekend as there is an early forecast of snow on Sunday.

Rims!

Just over two months after ordering, the genuine Alaskan snow-bike rims have arrived. They look great. These are single wall rims with large lightening holes. Each rim weighs 855g and a rim/tube/tire is 2500g. That is 200-300g lighter than the Large Marge rims from Surly.

These things are massive, almost cartoonish. I love 'em. I'm waiting on a Spot 94mm 32T chain-ring guard and everyting will go to Spectrum for Powder coat.

Parts arriving

Loads of Pugsley parts are arriving. Still waiting on the rims to arrive before we can go to powder coat.

The forecast is for 3 days of snow. I'm really looking forward to getting this put together.

Pugsley Build Kit

Now that I have cut off the cantilever studs there is no going back.

I’ve ordered everything I need for the build now using a variety of sources including on-line vendors, my local bike shop, Craigslist and E-Bay.

I wanted to keep the cost under control so I chose a mix of Shimano XT and STX drive train components matched with a pretty unique shifting system that is well suited for the Pugsley. I’m using just the lever from a 9-speed Dura Ace bar-end installed on a Paul "Thumbie" mount that works just like an old school thumb shifter. Unlike Shimano’s complex rapid-fire shifters, which are prone to locking up or refusing to shift in cold weather, thumb shifters are quite reliable in sub-zero temperatures. In case a derailleur is damaged this setup also provides a friction mode that is missing on other Shimano shifters.

I chose the Speedway Cycles rim in a 70mm width. They cost the same as a Large Marge, are a bit wider and quite a bit lighter as the have a 1” hole between each spoke. I’m using a XT rear hub on one wheel and a Surly single speed hub rear hub on the other. Cuz’ Pugsleys don’t have front wheels.

For brakes I’m going to use Avid BB-7 disks with the smallest rotors – 160mm. I originally planned to get the massive 203mm downhill version because the price difference is only $20. But after riding one with smaller brakes the some snow recently and talking to the guy who owns it I think the there is plenty of power and what is really needed in the “limited-traction” environment is more feedback and better control so I got the smallest ones.

I using a Jones H-Bar for this – they seem to be the bar of choice for a Pugsley and work really well with the thumb shifter set up. I’ve got a 120mm Thomson stem and a set of XTR V-brake levers from another bike

I’m still thinking about the finish – I’ve got another few days before all the parts going to powercoat arrive so I have plenty of time. I’ve looked at a lot of white bikes, a lot of camouflage and really haven’t found what I am looking for.

I’ll be working with Spectrum Powercoating in Colorado Springs, CO. They have already done a white/como bike. I looked at it and found the pattern to be a little too organic. I envisioned something more geometric -- like the camo on WW2 ships. I found some of the current USA/USMC digital desert camouflage has a really cool pattern that might be able to translate to a white/silver palette well.

Also on Spectrum’s site is the “Other White Moots” which I really like. The nearly monochromatic effect of silver on white is exactly contrast I am looking for.

So I think I want a three color “digital” pattern using a white base, and light silver and medium silver pattern. The effect should be pretty subtle and only applied to the bottom third of the frame – the fork tips, BB cluster, chain-stays and rear drop-outs.