49ers Stadium

Int he next 5 shots the framing on the left starts in the distance and moves closer. The ramp on the right gets taller and a new small mobile crane shows up on the left.

49ers Stadium - September 6th, 2012

49ers Stadium - September 7th, 2012

September 11th, 2012

More vertical steel appears on the right.

September 13th, 2012

September 20, 2012

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.

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.

49ers Stadium August 28, 2012

Woodchippers

I love Woodchippers!

Installing Woodchippers and TRP Mini-Vs

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.

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.

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.

SF Spring Classic 2013

I'm in. Training starts today.

http://springclassic.wordpress.com/

Do I really need an new mountain bike?

A few weeks ago one of my regular riding buddies, V, got a shiny new mountain bike. Now V and I have been riding road and cyclocross bikes together for a few years and we have been searching out more and more difficult terrain -- Skeggs, Demo, Etc. Routes that saner riders tackle on full-suspension mountain bikes.

Last weekend we rode the classic Montebello/Stevens Canyon loop, a 2.5 hour, 20 mile ride with ~2800 feet of climbing. Since V's cross bike was down for maintenance he showed up on his mt. bike.

Locals will know that it has been raining pretty regularly for the last few weeks and we have had a series of strong Pacific storms. The canyon descent is in pretty rough shape, lots of downed trees and branches and rivulets like small canyons to that try to suck you in. Pretty tough going on a cross bike. Even a cross bike with fat 40mm tires.

So, in a vain attempt to keep up with V, I crashed. I lost the front end awkwardly during a muddy creek crossing that involved a downed tree. V saw the whole thing. It looked much worse that in was -- over the bars and head-first into a rock filled creek bed. I emerged a little wet but without too much damage. I blame the bike. My wonderful Clement MSO tires were covered in a smooth, solid coating of mud rendering them pretty useless. I've looked for more agressive treaded tires in this size for years without much luck. So, for the remainder of the ride, my thoughts turned to my old mountain bike with massive 2.5" mud tires, certainly a better tool for this kind of job.

I haven't ridden my Mt Bike much since I returned to CA. In fact I only rode it once during 2012. It's been so neglected that the rear shock seems to have locked up. As a christmas gift V took it to a shop to have it overhauled. the shop suggested that it would be cheaper to replace it then to overhaul it.

Well, I guess it is almost 13 years old so I took a critical look at the parts and have to agree that both front and rear shocks and the brakes are in need of replacement. The wheels were rebuilt just a couple of years ago and the drivetrain has a new XTR cassette and CN-7700 chain.

So I conducted the classic exercise -- searching for discount replacement parts on-line. I created spreadsheet, found a number of forks, shocks and brake options. In the end, the bike shop guy is right, every upgrade model I built showed prices that were just a few hundred dollars less then a complete new bike.

Then I spoke with an old friend who owns Passion Trail Bikes, a Mt. Bike specialty shop in Belmont. He suggested -strongly- that I go with the whole new bike. He pointed out the significant improvements in every performance category over the last 13 years. Suspensions are much longer, frames lighter and stiffer, brakes stop harder and feel better.

I'll admit that I bought my previous bike, an Intense Tracer, without riding it. I had ridden a bunch of Specialized FSRs that use the same suspension design so I assumed that the Tracer would feel the same. After I got it I realized that the Tracer had a couple of handeling traits that I later found quite annoying. I livend with tem for 13 years so I don't want the same thing to happen this time.

So, to get a feel for how improved current bikes are, I rented a 2012 Ibis Mojo SL-R for the weekend. It's a 26" wheeled trail bike that weights about 28 Lbs. fitted with Shimano XT parts. Next weekend I'm going to rent a similarly equipped Santa Cruz TallBoy to try out a modern 29er.

Last night I rode Montebello/Steven's Canyon on the Mojo and knocked almost 10 minutes off my best time on a cross bike. The Mojo was 4 minutes slower on the climb but almost 15 minutes faster on the descent. This is especially impressive give I was riding solo on an unfamiliar bike so I was pretty cautious on the descent.

This is my first time riding a "dropper" seatpost since I took the Hite-Rite of my Yeti in 1992. I like the control mounted on the bars, but I have to admit that I was a little tired on the descent and I hade to raise the seat a couple of times just so I could sit a little and rest the legs. Also the Steven's Canyon descent isn't really technical enough to actually need to drop the post. I've descended it over a dozen time this year alone on a cross bike with a full-height saddle.

I have run short bar ends on every mountain bike since the late eighties. I really like having alternative hand positions that mimmic hand positions on a road bike. As I type this my wrists and hands are a little sore from the 2.5 hours ride last night on just a straight bar.

So all in all, I really like the Mojo. It handels well, climbs well and descends better them I can. I've got a couple more rides on it, then next weekend we will see what a modern 29er feels like.

CX Tires

I am always looking for a better cyclocross tire. I own a disturbingly large number of bikes but find myself on a cross bike more often than anything else. While the UCI limits competition cyclocross tires to 33mm in width, the terrain I ride (and my larger than a pro-racer size) require something a bit more substantial. With the luxury of multiple frames that can fit 42mm or larger tires (My Black Mountain can actually fit 29"X1.95" mountain bike tires) I prefer tires in the 35-45+mm range.

Finding a large CX tire that rolls smoothly on the road and provides good traction in the dirt and weights less then 600grams is always a difficult task made more so by the constant churn of the bicycle tire industry products. For many years I rode a Ritchey WCS tire in 38mm that reamins my single favorite CX tire. It has a supple carcass and large, agressive knobbies but still rolled very smoothly on pavement. It provided a perfect balance of rolling resistance and traction. I rode them, rotating front and rear frequently, until they were nearly bald. 10 years later, I have still not found a replacement that hits that perfect balance. Ive tried Bontrager, Specialized, Maxxis, Michelin and Vittoria tires searching for the magical combination. The closest was the Schwalbe Marathon XR that offered the low rolling resistance and nearly the same traction but have a rather thick carcass that lacked the "feel" and light weight of my beloved Ritcheys. To make matters worse, it was discontinued right after I bought my first pair. I moved to another Schwalbe, the 42mm Marathon Extreme that is much like the XR, heavy, strong and durable. Availability of these larger CX tires from Schwalbe is problematic, often requiring ordering them from shops in Europe and paying some stiff shipping for tires that are already on the high end of the scale.

After reading reviews by men who know about such things here and here, I recently purchased a new tire that seems to offer everything I want from my tires. It's the new 40mm Clement X'PLOR MSO in 120tpi construction. It rolls like a road tire and offer great grip off-road. The carcass is soft and provides great feel. They have quickly become my favorite tire and are the heir-apparent for the "Best Cross Tire" title. They work well on the loose, gravel covered hardpack common in mid-summer California. It digs in nicely to redwood duff and provides out-of-the-saddle-climbing traction when the trail is a little damp. They work best when aired-down -- I don't use a pressure gauge but I suspect I prefer them at or below the suggested minimum on the sidewall.

Last Sunday I did expose a possible weakness due to that soft carcass and preference for lower pressure -- pinch-flats (or snake-bites). I hit an exposed root descending the newly-recontoured White Oak trail in Stevens Canyon and simultaneously pinch-flatted both tires -- something I doubt would have happened with the Schwalbe tires. Add a little forgetfulness on my part (leaving my seat bag, tubes and patch kit on the Tandem after a ride with Kathy on Saturday), poor cell coverage, and being 20+ miles from home provides all the necessary ingredients needed for an "Epic". Oh, and I also managed to lose (and much later recover) my wallet too.

To be fair, this is a pretty agressive mountain-bike trail where cross tires in general may not be the best choice so I'll hold final judgement until I get a few more miles and roots under them but in every other category they are without question the best large, agressive, CX tires I've ridden in many years.

Dry cleaning bag to the rescue

Putting the 4th of July holiday to good use I rode my bike to the beach yesterday via Lexington reservoir and the old Santa Cruz-San Jose highway. I met Kathy there where we had a nice espresso, walked the beach where I learned to surf, and enjoyed lunch at Betty's Burgers. On the ride I was reminded how fickle our coastal weather can be. I left the house in full sun wearing nothing but shorts, a light jersey and PI's "Sun Sleeves". Nearing the summit I got the first taste of the wet, cold wind that was waiting on the other side. The heavy fog at the summit became a cold rain as the trees filtered the water from the air and dropped it on my already cold back. Where was the warm sun I left just a few miles ago?, I wondered. As the "tree-rain" continued, the temp dropped to the mid-50s I began to shiver. Taking a que from the Tour riders I began to look for a newspaper to stuff under my jersey for a little insulation and respite from the wind until I could reach the Summit Store a few miles ahead and wondered wether they would have warm clothing for sale. Then I spied it, a plastic dry-cleaning bag tangled in the weeds just off the roadway. It was clean as though it was placed there moments before and torn a little by the hasty removal of hanger and cloth. It was perfect. I smoothed it out and stuffed it under my jersey where it did an awesome job blocking the wind and cold during the 16 mile, 40+ MPH descent from summit to the beach where Kathy was waiting with a warm sweatshirt. I didn't even think to stop at the summit store. The ride would have been much different without my little roadside find. Here is the ride on Strava.com.

iPhone 4 repair

I dropped my iPhone at the track on Saturday and shattered the front glass. It still worked fine, just the broken glass.

I found a local place that would not only replace the glass but gave me the option of picking a different color front and back glass. I now have a blue-tinted mirror finish that looks pretty cool. Nice to know there is an low-cost option after Apple care expires.