Monday, March 25, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
2013 SF Spring Classic
So, the SF Spring Classic is over. What a disappointment. The route came out late the night before and unlike last year, it features no mixed terrain whatsoever. No fire road. No gravel. No broken pavement. It was just another road century. The nicest thing I have to say about the event is that the people working the rest stops were really nice. Takeaway: Won't do that one again.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Not yet...
Somehow this event went from fun to suck in just a couple of days. If this is how these events are run, this is my last.
We got another email last night. Still absolutely nothing about the route's location. Just a plug for all the good food they are planing and a vague promise of details on Saturday. Seriously, the night before the event we get the location? Like I said, this just doesn't feel like fun any more... Just stress over start/finish logistics. If I hadn't just spent two months training for this, I'd bail today and just go for a ride without these jokers.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Spring Classic?
With less than 3 days until the SF Spring Classic event and still no details on the route (other than 110 miles, 10k feet).
A 110mile circle with SF at the center covers a lot of ground (North Coast, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Monterey). Many riders are enlisting the support of family and friends for logistics that day and "No, I really have no idea where we are going to finish" gets old with just a few days to go.
I'm starting to wonder if the "suspense-building" is really just disorganization.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
49ers Stadium
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| 49ers Stadium - September 6th, 2012 |
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| 49ers Stadium - September 7th, 2012 |
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| September 11th, 2012 |
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| September 13th, 2012 |
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| September 20, 2012 |
Monday, February 18, 2013
New 49ers Stadium
Last summer I started commuting past the new 49ers stadium site in Santa Clara. It was still just foundational steel at that point. Since then I've taken a couple dozen shots, all for the same location.
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| 49ers Stadium August 21, 2012 |
Here is what the stadium looked like on the 21st of August 2012. This location is different than all the subsequent photos. It was taken about 20 feet from the location of the remaining photos. Here you can see the four construction cranes lowered for the evening. The white columns on the right are the beginning of a ramp behind the score-board.
Here is the first photo from "The Spot"just two days later. This location covers the entire stadium. One crane is still working. On the left is the beginning of a block of offices and boxes. It appears it will have a multi-story glass wall framing a series of escalators as a central architectural feature. In the center is the beginning of the first tier of seating. On the right the ramp is nearly three stories now and more of the scoreboard foundation is showing.
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| 49ers Stadium August 28, 2012 |
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Woodchippers
I love Woodchippers!
The "dirt-drop" style handlebars from Salsa are my favorite handlebars by far. I selected them when I build my MonsterCross bike a couple of years ago and fell in love with the shape. Their shallow drop means I spend more time in the drops and the outward flare creates a super-wide base for climbing in the drops. They have a very wide flat-bar section and the angle of the brake levers seems a natural fit for my hands.
I'd been riding a number of ancient WTB Dirt Drops of varing shape and width. These were all swap-meet or e-bay finds. Until the wood chipper I had never found shape I liked as much as those old WTBs.
Over the last two years I've converted nearly all of my drop-bar bikes to Woodchippers. The only bike still running "regular" drop bars was my Ibis Hakkallugi cross bike. I didn't want to change anything on that bike during cross season but now with the SF Spring Classic looming I was ready to make the change. I also wanted to replace the front Cantilever brakes with my favorite TRP CX-9 Mini V-brakes.
For a heavy-er rider like me, front brakes are always a bit of an issue These are a great front brake upgrade for many cantilevers equipped cyclocross bikes.
My Haka', like many cyclocross bikes, uses a cable hanger that mounts to the steerer tube near the stem. For a tall guy like me this means the cable is almost 12 inches long - stretching from the stem to the fork. You can see the cable hanger (sans-cable) in the picture.
The front of the Haka' is really stiff, but it only takes a little fork flex to cause "shudder" under heavy braking. When the fork flexes, the distance from cable-hanger to cantilever stud changes which changes brake pressure.
The TRP Mini-Vs don't need a hanger so the shudder is completely eliminated. Like Woodchippers, I've installed them on the front of all my cross/road bikes.
The picture also shows (half of) my current favorite tire setup. That front tire is a (now discontinued) Schwalbe Marathon Extreme 700x42 and the rear is a Clement MSO 700x40. These are about the biggest tires that fit a Haka and my AlphaQ fork. This set up works perfectly for mixed-conditions spring riding. The agressive tread of the Schwalbe works everywhere and is a good match for the MSO in the rear. I started using the Schwalbe in the front to deal with mud. The Clement is great tire everywhere but mud. After a couple of terrifying muddy descents, the Schwalbe offers great mud performance. When things dry out, I tend to go back to the lighter, smoother rolling MSO at both ends.
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| Installing Woodchippers and TRP Mini-Vs |
I'd been riding a number of ancient WTB Dirt Drops of varing shape and width. These were all swap-meet or e-bay finds. Until the wood chipper I had never found shape I liked as much as those old WTBs.
Over the last two years I've converted nearly all of my drop-bar bikes to Woodchippers. The only bike still running "regular" drop bars was my Ibis Hakkallugi cross bike. I didn't want to change anything on that bike during cross season but now with the SF Spring Classic looming I was ready to make the change. I also wanted to replace the front Cantilever brakes with my favorite TRP CX-9 Mini V-brakes.
For a heavy-er rider like me, front brakes are always a bit of an issue These are a great front brake upgrade for many cantilevers equipped cyclocross bikes.
My Haka', like many cyclocross bikes, uses a cable hanger that mounts to the steerer tube near the stem. For a tall guy like me this means the cable is almost 12 inches long - stretching from the stem to the fork. You can see the cable hanger (sans-cable) in the picture.
The front of the Haka' is really stiff, but it only takes a little fork flex to cause "shudder" under heavy braking. When the fork flexes, the distance from cable-hanger to cantilever stud changes which changes brake pressure.
The TRP Mini-Vs don't need a hanger so the shudder is completely eliminated. Like Woodchippers, I've installed them on the front of all my cross/road bikes.
The picture also shows (half of) my current favorite tire setup. That front tire is a (now discontinued) Schwalbe Marathon Extreme 700x42 and the rear is a Clement MSO 700x40. These are about the biggest tires that fit a Haka and my AlphaQ fork. This set up works perfectly for mixed-conditions spring riding. The agressive tread of the Schwalbe works everywhere and is a good match for the MSO in the rear. I started using the Schwalbe in the front to deal with mud. The Clement is great tire everywhere but mud. After a couple of terrifying muddy descents, the Schwalbe offers great mud performance. When things dry out, I tend to go back to the lighter, smoother rolling MSO at both ends.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Do I really need a new mountain bike - Part 2
After a wonderful weekend with the Ibis Mojo SLR I wanted to try a modern 29er so I rented a Santa Cruz Tallboy from Passion. It was set up a little different than the SLR; it has a Fox Talas fork instead of the Fox Float on SLR. I've always preferred the feel of the float over the travel-adjust feature of the Talas, since I never seem to make the travel adjustment during rides. It also lacked the Ibis's dropper post.
The Tallboy is a little more flexible than the Ibis, which may be due to the larger 29er wheels. It's still much stiffer than my Tracer, just not as stiff as the Ibis. It also seems to have a lower bittom bracket -- I hit the ground with the pedals a couple of times - something I've never noticed before.
My canyon lap as a little slower on the Tallboy, but that is due to a hard the day before rather than the bike. I have to admit I missed the dropper post a bit on some of the more technical sections. At the end of one of those sections, V noted that the trail would have been ridable on cross bike -- it would have been miserable -- but it was ridable none the less.
One thing I noticed is that after a couple of years riding cross bikes on hard terrain, I have learned to select and ride my line with "skinny-tire-preservation" in mind. So when I climbed on bikes that can just go straight down the hill with absolutely no concern for tires and pinch-flats, I still used the conservative line. My riding partners pointed this out at every opportunity. Gotta work on that.
So, two weeks with two awesome mountain bikes. What have I learned? Both bikes did everything I asked of them with ease. Both climb beautifully with no pedal bob and limitless traction. The rear suspension geometry allows them to climb without the front end lifting -- a good thing considering their 24/36 low gear (I ride 30/36 and 34/36 on my cross bikes. Descending is more like riding a 125cc motocross motorcycle then a bicycle.
Do I need a new mountain bike? I don't know yet. I still need to rent a Niner Jet9 RDO for the final comparison before making a final decision.
The Tallboy is a little more flexible than the Ibis, which may be due to the larger 29er wheels. It's still much stiffer than my Tracer, just not as stiff as the Ibis. It also seems to have a lower bittom bracket -- I hit the ground with the pedals a couple of times - something I've never noticed before.
My canyon lap as a little slower on the Tallboy, but that is due to a hard the day before rather than the bike. I have to admit I missed the dropper post a bit on some of the more technical sections. At the end of one of those sections, V noted that the trail would have been ridable on cross bike -- it would have been miserable -- but it was ridable none the less.
One thing I noticed is that after a couple of years riding cross bikes on hard terrain, I have learned to select and ride my line with "skinny-tire-preservation" in mind. So when I climbed on bikes that can just go straight down the hill with absolutely no concern for tires and pinch-flats, I still used the conservative line. My riding partners pointed this out at every opportunity. Gotta work on that.
So, two weeks with two awesome mountain bikes. What have I learned? Both bikes did everything I asked of them with ease. Both climb beautifully with no pedal bob and limitless traction. The rear suspension geometry allows them to climb without the front end lifting -- a good thing considering their 24/36 low gear (I ride 30/36 and 34/36 on my cross bikes. Descending is more like riding a 125cc motocross motorcycle then a bicycle.
Do I need a new mountain bike? I don't know yet. I still need to rent a Niner Jet9 RDO for the final comparison before making a final decision.
Friday, February 8, 2013
SRAM Shifters
SRAM shifters are MUCH harder to re-cable then Shimano.
Note to self: If you take on rebuilding your bike on a Friday night before a Saturday morning ride, make sure you know how to get those new cables through your shifters.
Note to self: If you take on rebuilding your bike on a Friday night before a Saturday morning ride, make sure you know how to get those new cables through your shifters.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
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