Mechanicals and Flats

I woke up today for the Aspen to Millie ride, in a daze I started to search around for my bike gear that had been tossed on the ground from yesterday's ride. During my commute to work, I managed to misplace my prescription sunglasses (essential piece of gear when flying down Lemmon at 40+ mph). After looking for about 20 minutes, I decided that I probably left them at work during my bike commute. Bummer. I tossed in some contact lenses and glasses, loaded my bike, and grabbed some oatmeal and raisins. No coffee, no sunglasses, this was starting off to be a bad day already.

We shuttled to the top of Mt Lemmon for an all day mountain bike ride "down" Mt Lemmon. Things slowly got better as we started on Aspen Draw, dodging pine trees and streams. This is the Arizona that I will come to love this summer, escaping to Mt Lemmon is going to be a common weekend occurrence this summer I have decided.

We started at Aspen Draw on some semi-technical trail and ended up tossing in the towel after Bugs Springs, partly due to mechanicals and flats and partly do to a lackluster motivation to continue. A gatorade and fudge stop also was a major culprit in the decision to bail rather than continuing down the relentless technical Prison and Milagrosa trails. Frankly, I could have done Prison but I (nor my front shock/bike) was not ready to do Millie.

Those that are unfamiliar with this network of trails, take my word when I say this is one of the best, technical rides in Arizona. The route is also part of the Climb or Die (Scott's idea) challenge that Scott and I have been trying ton conquer. During today's ride, we managed to only cover 29 miles over the course of the 6 hour trip. Honestly, it may be easier for me to ascend this mountain than to descend it.

Ride Time: 5:56
Total milage: 29.80
Ascent: 6521
Descent: 12829

A shot looking down at Bug Springs, south toward Tucson.

I think we all took our spills pretty well, especially Steve, who not only ate it twice, he managed to break his new ultimate Avid Juicy hydraulic (which retail for $500) while taking a spill on Bugs. Surprisingly, I had no flats or mechanicals today, although everyone else at one time either had a flat, mechanical, or both.

Looking forward to some the Coconino Dirty Century in Flagstaff on Saturday and some reconning around the Tortolitas...

...on Tuesday, super early morning.


Max and Vern, thanks for the beverages. Thanks again to Cat for the shuttle ride and congrats again on graduating!

A post dedicated to the driver of the blue, raised Ford 350

This blog post is dedicated to all those idiots in their cars that pass me everyday and either honk or yell out their window while I am commuting around town or to work. More importantly though, this is dedicated to the jackass that yelled what sounded like garble while proceeding to ride through the stop light on Ina and Thornydale today. Oh, and flipping me off was a nice touch to the garble. Upon further review of your garble a few hundred yards down the road, I realized what you said, "Stay in the F@#ing bike lane you !&@#4 biker."

Firstly, I am sorry if it looked like I was out of my bike lane while riding to the post office, it was after all a turning lane that is technically a bike lane, hence the sign "Yield to Cyclists" that was clearly visible from your view in that ugly truck that you are still making payments on. I was merely trying to let other cars into my lane so that they could turn while I was going straight through the light. Imagine that, a cyclist being nice to motorists. According to the Bicycle Traffic Law, I acted in the best interest of the driver and myself.

Secondly, next time you yell something out the window, make sure you are farther away from me, so I do not have time to see your license plate on a your ugly-ass truck. Also, if you have a vehicle that is more popular, your do not run the risk of having something happen to your truck in the event that I happen to ride by it while sitting out at Wal-mart. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it is going to be easy to find your truck around the northwest side of Tucson and when I do, I guarantee that revenge will be had on your P.O.S. truck.

Finally, I am sure you have never had the opportunity to ride a road bike around the streets of Tucson. As I am sure you are aware, Tucson often takes 25 years to repair some of the street surfaces. If you are not aware of this widely known fact, I encourage you to read the local newspaper from time to time in order to get updates on Tucson. Consequently, this makes it hard for road bikes to maneuver around the potholes, rocks, and glass, so you can imagine how easy it might be for me to move over to the white line in order to avoid getting a flat.

To those that continue to drive to work on a daily basis, citing lame excuses, you should be ashamed. Take the public bus once a week, carpool, and bike. Some of us do it everyday, but I understand that you might have some pressing issues, so once a week is the bare minimum. I would rather ride my bike 20 minutes to commute to work than have to wait in rush hour driving 5mph.

Wild Burro Trail

Tim, Vern, Max and I rode on some new all-purpose trails out near Dove Mountain today. We rode for about 3 hours on almost of the trails, slow going mostly in part to the amount of hike-a-bike as you can see from the profile view



I am going back on Tuesday or Wednesday to explore some more, possibly trying to connect said trails with Honeybee and the Catalinas based on Max's beta.

Here are some shots of Upper Javelina.


The Wild Burro Trail, a main pedestrian artery into the area, connects with several other routes — including the Lower Javelina Trail, Upper Javelina Trail and Alamo Spring Trail.



There are currently 15+ miles of trails that have been constructed and opened to the public. These completed trails include Wild Burro Canyon (3m), Alamo Spring Trail (2m), Upper Javelina Trail (2.6m), Wild Mustang Trail (4m), and the Cochise Spring Trail (3.6m).

When completed, there should be a total of 30 miles of trails. Right now, many of them are big hike-a-bike trails, although I think some have some great potential. I guarantee we will be seeing a lot more riding in the Tortolitas in the future.

To reach the trailhead, take North Oracle Road or North La Cholla Boulevard to West Tangerine Road. Go west on Tangerine to Dove Mountain Boulevard. Then follow Dove Mountain Boulevard north a little more than four miles to a signed trailhead and parking area on the right.

Kokopelli Trail

Good luck cyclists!

Sold!

My TT bike has been shipped off today

Its departure brings in a new era of mountain biking for me. I originally purchased this bike to compete in an Ironman last year. A bout with an Achilles injury has prevented me from doing an Ironman, along with the shifting of my interests to endurance mountain biking. The AZT 300 Race this year was one of the biggest disappointments I have had in my short biking history... to be held back by equipment rather than will or ability was devastating. I tried to continue on in Reddington (due mostly in part to the encouragement of Max) but was forced to stop due to my saddle causing the worst case of chaffing/soreness I have ever had.

So what now? Well, with the money in my Paypal account, I can now begin the process of purchasing my new bike. I am thinking big wheels and light, most likely either a Lenz or Moots. I rode both at Interbike '07 and fell in love with their geometry.

Additionally, this year's touring adventure needs to be finalized soon, July looks like the best timing for work and the southwest is definitely in the plans, most likely Arizona, Utah and Colorado. I originally was looking at completing the Pacific Coast Highway that I started last August, but now I am thinking about starting close to home and heading north with a pad, sleeping bag, my mt bike and camera. More details soon.

Man vs Wild

Found this article on Man vs Wild in my morning reading. An interesting article..

“Man vs. Wild” doesn’t speak to concerns of an apocalypse; it speaks to fantasies of luxury deprivation, the same ones that drive people to high-priced fasting spas to live on the tap water they could drink at home free. Most of us won’t ever need to be vigilant about anything in Zambia, but we’d like to imagine that we could hack it for an hour or two and then order up a nice cabernet.

I find the show not only entertaining, but many times I ponder what I would do in such an emergency situation while on the bike, canyoneering or backpacking in the wild. Another show that has recently caught my attention is The Alaska Experiment on Discovery Channel. I have only seen one episode but it is intriguing.

Coconino Dirty Century

Cue sheets and GPX file are finalized. I am waiting for my tt road bike's auction to end in a few hours, it is still below the reserve price unfortunately. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that it may go up in the next few hours as the auction ends.