Hot

After church Ryan and I headed out for a ride.  It was HOT.  We rode north through the Overton Valley and climbed Pleasant Home to the west.  After helping a woman get her mower unstuck from a ditch, we made our way back home via Cedar Valley.  The sweat was flowing and our bottles were drained.  Did I mention it was HOT?

Little Boy Heaven

Daniel and I were sent on a mission this morning... to exit the house and leave peace and quiet behind for mommy.  Fair enough, we were up to the task.  By pure coincidence we stumbled upon some great excitement in the form of construction equipment!  What better to entertain a little boy... and his daddy.

Daniel's initial sighting of our "playground".  He was

pretty excited, running through the field pointing.

For the next hour or more we went from machine to machine for test drives.  Then, after driving each machine, we started over and drove most of them again.  What fun!

 

Noah's Speakers

Last fall Noah, buddy from work, and I decided to build a pair of small, single driver, desktop speakers.  In the past I have built numerous subwoofers, a nice set of towers, and a similar pair of single driver, tiny speakers.


For the driver we chose a Tang Band W3-1053SC from Parts Express, it's a 3" full-range speaker.  Noah designed a vented enclosure with internal dimensions of 4" x 4" x 13" and a 1" x 3" port.  The enclosure is made of 1/2" MDF.  A 500uF NPE capacitor is wired in series with the driver to attenuate low frequencies that would not play nice with the small speaker.

Half a year later, I finally finished the speakers and gave them to Noah.  Here's a look at the project:

Almost finished... soldering terminal cups to the

Tang Band full range drivers.

The finished speakers.  Noah picked a

slate blue paint for the cabinets.

Port and driver on the front, terminal cup on the back.

How do they sound?  We've only listened to them once so far and that was in a less than optimal setup, prior to the speakers having any break in time.  First impressions were good.  Noah played a piano only track that was very clear and detailed to my ears.  I think the lower frequency response will improve as the speakers break in, but they are showing potential to play lower than their size would suggest.  I look forward to listening to them more!

Father's Day #2

Daniel made me a nice Father's Day card.

Behind the Spotlight

Here's a random, non-cycling adventure... operating a spotlight at a country music concert.  Long story short is Ryan's brother-in-law organized a country music festival and tapped into family resources for man power.  After our last ride at Mohican Ryan asked me if I'd be interested in running a spotlight.  My reply, "sure, sounds like a good adventure!"

Jo Dee Messina was the first act, no spotlights needed.

Wow, these guys look pro.

After a 5 minute lesson on how to run one of these

things we were ready to go.

Jake Owen was the second act.  Throughout the show

a guy was giving us commands over the headset.

The third act was Dierks Bentley.  It became much easier

to see what our spotlights were doing after the sun went down.

It was a pretty cool vantage point for watching a concert.

Dierk's act was full of stage lights coordinated to the

music.  Our spotlight work was also coordinated

to the show, via commands over our headset.

 After the show ended we hung out atop our scaffolding

and waited for the crowds to clear out.  It was

an adventurous evening!

First Lunch Ride

Bill, a buddy in the office, bought his first road bike, and we did our first lunchtime ride today.  The weather was nice, a little overcast to keep the sun from beating down on us, as we rode an 11 mile loop "around the block".  It should be fun to get away from the office and enjoy some fresh, mid day air on future lunchtime rides.

I said to Bill, "Sweet!  It's like we work at a company in the bike industry and people go out and ride at lunch!"  Maybe we can stir up another person or two to join us.

First thing in the morning, showing off the new bike.

We found a good loop: Geyers Chapel, Canal, 

Honeytown, Secrest, Sylvan, Hillcrest and back.

T

The new Trek, introduced to the road.

Thank the Paint

Today I left work promptly, stopped at home for a few minutes and then continued south to Loudonville.  I planned to help out with some trail work but ended up missing the guys leading the work.  Thankfully I considered this scenario before leaving home and had packed my bike and a bag of gear.  After a call to KT to let her know I was riding instead of working, I hit the trail at mile 0.

Starting up the climbing switchbacks of the opening miles I thought about how this was my first solo mountain bike ride.  This made me wonder how well I paid attention to the trail’s direction when riding with Ryan.  Oh well, I figured that trail was marked well and I’d be fine finding my way.

The trail work that had been done along the way was mostly obvious.  There were some reroutes to avoid wet areas and the shoulders of the trail had been smoothed out all along the way.  I reached the short loop turnout and stopped to decide which way to go.  KT had asked me to be home before Daniel went to bed, which seemed to dictate I do the short loop.  Hmmm… what if I continue to the covered bridge and then ride the road back to the parking lot?  It seemed too far for the available time, unless I ride faster.  I clipped in, up shifted and stayed on the full course.

Nice night for a ride.

I really started to get into a rhythm and felt like I was moving along pretty good.  After mile 8 I turned right onto the access road and pushed my pace.  Looking up ahead I saw the dirt double track abruptly disappear to the right and I thought “I’m not slowing down, going to hold my speed!”  I moved left to enter the turn and dove in to the right hander hard.  Looking ahead, I saw the exit of the corner come into view and prominently in the middle of the trail… a skunk! 

The skunk saw me, turned its back end towards my front end, and lifted its tail.  “Oh crap!”  At this point my new disc brakes were put to the test and they almost worked too well.  Hard, hard, hard on the brakes!  My rear wheel lifted off the ground, then came back down as I shifted weight back.  I came to a stop partly sideways 5 to 7 yards short of the skunk.

Mr. Skunk looked back over its shoulder at me.  I looked at him thinking, “should I abandon the bike and make a run for it?”  A second or two later Mr. Skunk lowered his tail and slowly finished crossing the trail.  I reached for my camera but thought he would disappear too soon.  As slow as he moved, I probably could have taken a picture if I had acted on my thought to do so.

Wow.  With my max heart rate for the ride established in the previous 10 seconds I clipped in to continue my ride.  I wondered why he didn’t spray me and quickly reached the obvious conclusion: he liked the paint scheme of my Gary Fisher!

The sun was getting low, but I made it

home before Daniel went to bed.

Disjointed Mohican Ride

The weather for the past couple weeks has been predictable: "scattered thunderstorms" pretty much sums it up.  Every time it seems like we'll have some dry weather another wave of wet comes through.  Knowing we may encounter a course too wet to ride, and with another forecast for "scattered thunderstorms", Ryan and I headed down to Mohican first thing in the morning.

As we pulled into the MTB parking lot we found Ryan O'Dell at his truck.  He talked about the course condition and 4" of rain that fell in a single day.  On this morning he was heading out with volunteers to do trail maintenance a couple miles into the course.  Sometime in the future I'd like to help with trail maintenance and now I know who leads such work.

Post ride down tube adornment.

Knowing people were working a couple miles into the course Ryan and I decided to drive to the snow mobile parking area (MTB parking #2) and start our ride from there.  I liked this plan as it would let me ride the only portion of the course I had not yet ridden, miles 15 to 23. 

For the first mile or two I'm trying to remember if I ever pedaled.  It was fast, flowing trail that was mostly downhill through pine forest with ferns all about.  Pretty fun and a good way to warm up.  At this point it takes me a little bit of offroad riding to get the feel, but I imagine that will improve with experience.  There were a couple short rock gardens and down hill corners to test me as the miles went on and I felt pretty good, but several uphills got the best of me.  I wasn't doing so well at keeping weight forward and kept loosing my front wheel.  In retrospect I think I was being too much of a road cyclist and pulled on the bars as I climbed to generete power.  This had the negative effect of unweighting the front wheel.  I'll have to work on that.

At the suggestion of Ryan O'Dell we didn't ride the final couple miles of trail along the campground, he said this section we still pretty wet.  Instead, we rode through the campground to get to SR3 and then road SR97 back to where we started.  We road down the road to covered bridge before plowing back into the woods for the climb up Mt. Doom.  At the bottom of the climb I had more problems weighting the front of the bike but I started to figure it out midway.  After the climb was once again fun blasting through the woods.  I remembered really liking this section the last time.

Post ride shoes.

Returning to the parking lot where we started, we caught up to four guys from Michigan.  They were from the Detroit area and had come down to stay in a cabin and ride mountain bikes for a couple days.  Hearing that these guys drove 4-5 hours to ride here made me feel fortunate to have Mohican just 20 minutes down the road from my house.  I'll have to make it a point to help out with trail work one of these days.

Squeezed in a (Mostly Dry) Ride

With a wedding to attend this afternoon and rain in the forecast I didn't think a ride would be part of today.  Late morning Daniel and I went to the basement so I could clean the Litespeed, which was still dirty from the rain we encountered on the club ride Wednesday night, and Daniel could clean his trike.  Of course 45 seconds after our cleaning session began Daniel was ready for another source of entertainment.  I hurried to finish my cleaning and in the process decided I wanted to ride my freshly cleaned bike.

Despite the massive presence of green on the radar I found a gap between blobs on the map.  After a quick lunch I rolled out for a short ride.  The plan was to ride out to Flickinger Hill and do a climb or two before coming back.  On the way out the skies were cloudy but just at the radar picture promised, dry.

Down, up, down, up, down, up on Fry Road.

After a second climb up Flickinger I decided to start the ride back home.  The skies were not terribly threatening but I remembered how small the window of non-rain was on the radar map.  After pushing it up Silver Road I was met by a very light rain that would accompany me the rest of the way home.  It was rather refreshing giving the high humidity of the day.

This was the radar image moments after I

arrived home, just south of Wooster.

About five minutes after arriving home the rain really began to come down.  I guess this has been the story of the past two weeks, intermittent strong showers.  Watching out the back door and seeing the rain soak the landscape, I was glad my ride brought me home without delay!

A not so uncommon scene these past couple weeks.

Homemade Bike Work Stand

Perhaps our first mountain bike ride at Findlay State Park was unusually sloppy.  Still, the follow-up experience of cleaning the bikes in the front yard made me realize bike washing is no longer a basement event.  In the past, with road bikes, I always carried the bikes to the basement for cleaning and storage.  A road bike washing consisted of clamping the bike into my homemade, of course, work stand and using a spray bottle of water and old cloth diaper to wipe down the bike.  This method is obviously not going to work with muddy, knobby tired bikes.

My second homemade work stand.

After a couple times washing the mountain bike in the front yard I decided an outdoor work stand would be helpful.  It's not practical to carry the one up from the basement, as it's base consists of a 40 pound piece of steel tread plate.  What would I use for the base on an outdoor stand?  And, what style stand should I build?  I think I came up with a practical solution.

The finished work stand in action.

For the base of the stand I decided to use something solid: the Earth, what a novel idea.  I figured I'll always wash the bikes in the same spot in the front yard, near the driveway and garden hose.  Instead of moving around a heavy base or trying to make some sort of tripod base, I buried a 30" pipe into the ground.  The work stand will drop into this pipe.

The base pipe is sunk into the ground.

The workstand I built about five years ago, for use in the basement, has a clamp that holds a bike by its seat post or seat tube.  It's solid and works well, but I decided to try a different style workstand for use in the front yard, one that holds the bike with a fork lock and bottom bracket cradle.  Yes, this requires the front wheel to be removed, but I figure it will be easier to clean the front wheel and the forks of a mucked up mountain bike with the front wheel removed.

Some dumpster diving provided pipe and a tee connector, quite a bit of elbow grease was needed to clean up these pieces.  (Otherwise, a couple pieces of black iron pipe and a threaded tee from Lowes would've worked just as well.)  Next I needed attachment blocks that would clamp on the pipe and also mate to the bike.  Ideally these would be made out of aluminum, and I still may do that someday, but for now I made blocks out of some hard maple and coated them in polyurethane.  I'm sure they will hold up well enough.

Rear block that cradles the bottom bracket shell.

After a quick test to determine the final length for the horizontal pipe, I cut this pipe to length and installed the blocks.  A skewer is needed for the front block and a small piece of mouse pad material is added to the back block for gripping and padding the bike's bottom bracket.  Both blocks have a 1/4" bolt for clamping and thumb knobs for pinching the blocks securely onto the pipe.  To prevent the whole stand from rotating in the buried pipe, a small bolt is threaded into the upright pipe and a corresponding notch made in the buried pipe to capture the bolt head.

Front block with fork lock.

The stand works well.  It's nice to clean a bike standing up instead of bent over, and it's certainly easier to lubricate the chain or fiddle with derailleurs with the bike up on the stand.  After use, the stand is pulled from the pipe in the ground and hung on the garage wall for storage.  I found a plastic cap to put over the buried pipe, to keep it from filling with water or junk.  I'll call it a successful project!

Daniel tested and approved.

Parade & Storm Evasion

First things this morning I drove my road bike and I to Ryan's house.  We pointed ourselves west and pedaled past Fredericksburg to Shreve for the Memorial Day parade.  KT and Daniel met us for the parade.

Daniel seemed to really enjoy the progression of the parade.  The Triway band came by playing followed by all forms of exciting vehicles including old cars, tractors, a large tow truck, a cement mixer truck, firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars.  Basically all the vehicles an almost two year old boy reads sees in his books.

Daniel's first parade experience.

 

After the parade we said good-bye to KT and Daniel and headed back towards Apple Creek.  As we climbed Harrison Road the sky was dark to the south and west.  As we continued through Fredericksburg on Harrison we began to hear thunder coming from behind.

We began trading pulls in an effort to get home before getting wet or, even worse, caught in lighting.  Turning north on Carr we saw the black skies coming our way.  Thankfully we pulled into Ryan's driveway having only felt a few drops of rain.

Within three minutes of making it to Ryan's house the storm hit with persistent lighting and hard, blowing rain.  Wow, if we had needed to ride even a mile further we would have been in a bad situation.  The good Lord was watching over us!

Mohican Quickie

KT and I made a Friday plan that ended up working so well, we hope it can be soon repeated.  It went something like this:

• I left work promptly and was home by 4:30.
• KT had loaded our bikes onto the car rack, packed most of our gear, and made some PB&J sandwiches.
• The night before we asked my parents about having Daniel down for dinner, and the grandparents were onboard with the plan as well.
• By 5:15 we had dropped off Daniel and were continuing to Loudonville on SR3.
• Despite the slog of Memorial Day trucks and campers, we were at the mountain bike parking area by 5:45 and riding to the trail head shortly thereafter.
• We rode the short loop.  KT did a good job of testing but not crossing her limits as we pedaled the course.  She did a log crossing and a couple technical sections too.  By her own admission, she had a death grip on the bars for most of the ride and says it will be a goal to loosen up and relax more the next time.
• After a short wade in the river we were back in the car and headed to my parents.  We reached their house around 7:30.
• Back home, Daniel had his bath and was off to bed by about 8:30, right on time.

And now, some blurry cell phone pictures...

When I grow up I want to be a mountain biker!

Today felt like a breakthrough day on the new mountain bike.  Ryan and I went down to Mohican to ride at the state park, and I'd say I felt pretty good on the fat tires.  

 

We spotted Chris and Lorena, from the cycling club, in the parking lot before heading to the trail head.  They were muddy and talked about the effect three previous days of rain had on the trail. 

 

With Ryan at the front, we proceeded to climb away from the trail head and settle in on the single track.  I was getting a much better feel for the bike and how to keep traction on varying terrain.  Having Ryan up ahead was a big help, as I could mimic his lines.  Plus, watching ahead was helping me keep my vision down the trail instead of on my front wheel.

After pedaling across the covered bridge we proceeded back into the woods for a climb Ryan called Mount Doom.  It was a good one, a challenge for my new found traction acquisition skills.  At the next road crossing, maybe mile 14 or 15, we diverted from the mountain bike trail to ride roads back to the parking lot, as I was expected back home.

Good stuff, good stuff!  I had a great time on the bike in the woods.  It makes me look forward to learning more on future rides, and Ryan's wheel is a good one to learn from.

My legs never looked this abused after

a road ride... well at least not on the outside.

Muddy MTB Break-in

Today we did our first trail ride on the new bikes.  KT's mother made the day possible by coming down to watch Daniel while we headed off to Findley State Park with Ryan and KT's friend Katie.

A 45 minute drive from our house, Findley State Park has an 8 mile mountain bike trail described as appropriate for beginners.  We found the trail head and headed into the woods, soon learning the biggest, constant obstacle of the day would be mud.  Though it hasn't rained for several days there were many puddles along the course and one section was closed.

We had plenty of riding to get a feel for our bikes.  Ryan showed us how to take charge in several places, and we followed behind walking our bikes.  KT and Katie did a good job sliding around the mud and decided they were hardcore, if for no other reasons, based on their muddy appearance.  KT had a stunt-ful flop sideways over a log, resulting in a rear end to ground impact.  She declined the opportunity for a blog picture of this particular bruise. 

 The after-party: cleaning muddy bikes in the front yard.

Katie had us puzzled when riding a section of road between trail sections.  She successfully drug her foot down a hill to stop her bike and herself before riding into a lake.  Turns out her brake ceased to function but Ryan had her fixed up in short order to continue riding, and braking without shoe soles.

AA's new bike, post de-muddin'.

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the bikes in their mud covered state.  After arriving home we did a bike washing session in the front yard.  Of course Daniel was in on the action and did his best to be helpful, only occasionally spraying people instead of bikes.

Look out, 22 month old on the hose!

It's KT's birthday today and she declares the day a fun, successful experience on her new bike.  We're looking forward to getting them dirty again!

Welcome Home Fatter Tires

Breaking news... we just bought two mountain bikes!  For a while I've been thinking about venturing off the pavement and onto some trails.  KT has also expressed an interest in some multi-terrain riding.  With her birthday coming up this Saturday, I bought her a Gary Fisher mountain bike as a birthday gift.  And, using some "rewards points" from work, I almost paid for my GF bike.

Daniel watching mom ride around the yard

on her new mountain bike. 

Hopefully we can make it out for a trail ride this Saturday.  In the meantime we have been riding around the yard like kids, along with our kid, and will probably make a trip over to the high school to play around on the bikes.

Before long I imagine we'll be buying

a mountain bike for this guy.

Top Down Approach

Here's a new idea I'm working on, it's my top down approach

to getting dressed for a morning commute.  :-)

If I'm going to ride to work, I like to set out my gear the night before in order to make a quick, mindless departure in the morning.  We're talking alarm clock sounds at 6:30 and I'm pedaling down the driveway by 6:40.  To accomplish this requires a game plan and my new game plan uses the basement steps.

On each step of the basement stairs I set a piece of apparel.  The items are arranged in the order they should be put on, planned out based on the weather forecast for tomorrow.  Simply enough, open the basement door, step down, put on item, step down, put on item, etc, etc, and by the time I reach the last step I should be ready to roll out, after grabbing my bike from around the corner and hiking back up stairs of course.  Minimal thinking is involved, which is good when I'm still half asleep from waking up only 4 minutes ago.

Tomorrow, if all goes as intended, will be my second usage of this method.  ;-)

2010 Boone Trip - #6 Sunday

Wow, wonderful blue skies this morning, and warmer too.  It was probably the nicest morning of the trip.  Getting home was the main goal of the day but a close second was a good breakfast.  We cooked up eggs, pancakes, and peppered bacon.  It was a relaxing, outdoor breakfast.

Katie's chickens made some nice eggs for us.

Beautiful morning skies.

Sometime around 10:30 we left for home.  It was nice driving and dry until we reached Ohio.  The rest of the way home was on again and off again rain.

Packed for the rest of the drive.

After dropping off Ryan and unloading his stuff I made a fuel stop and looked at the trip display.  964 miles and 20 hours and 40 minutes of driving.  We had spent $140 on gas and $80 on camping.  Prior to leaving we spent about $100 on food.  Who says you have to spend a lot of money to have a lot of fun?

Sweet trip!  Hey Ryan, let’s do it again soon!

Daniel likes his souvenir, a "bike airplane".

Mounted on his bike's handlebars, the propeller spins.

I wonder how it would look on the Litespeed?