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Published on August 6, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

Returned yesterday from the land of the Acura CSX, 5-door Toyota Yaris, Nissan X-terra, and Suzuki Swift Plus!  No, not Japan – Canada, eh!

Seem to have picked up something somewhere, as I have been feeling a little achy beyond the scope of the pain of having just ridden over 100 cumulative miles.  Felt the fever ache and chill today, so I’ll pass on the Monday night St. Louis ride and go home, have some soup and a shower then hit the sheets.

More on the 7 straight days of riding to come, including:

  • running over a squirrel
  • bear poop in the village
  • deathmarches galore!
  • where the hell IS the tennis club?

Whistler Goodness

Published on August 2, 2007 in bike by derek. Closed

This report submitted from Dave via telephone; and thusly mangled by me.

Saturday was spent getting settled and re-assembling the bikes.  Sounds like it went pretty well.  Sunday was a “Leisurely” ride going up Lost Lake, but the Hard/Wrong way; instead of taking the gravel road up, and doing the technical side down, it was reversed. Grr.  Seems that set the tone for the trip; as its just the three of them, the chosen rides have been with somewhat of a “hard edge”.  I missed what happened on monday, but tuesday was a “death march” and wednesday was picture day.  “Extreme!”  Another Death March was planned for Thursday.

It sounds like there is something for everyone during the summer, even a wuss like me could find some fun things to play around on right near town.  Daylight lasts until around 9PM or so, so you could wake up late and still get a full day of riding in.

There seem to be a few new restaurants that we may check out in the winter season.  A new greek place opened up next to IGA where the Chinese restaurant used to be; and theres finally a real Italian restaurant sort of under Tandoori Grill.  A lot of the help that we.. uh.. admire during the winter season dont seem to be around for the summer.  And in general there just seem to be less Extreme Bike Chicks.  But apparently Them White Young ‘Uns still dig Old Phat Yellow Guys.

Well thats it for now, I’m sure we will get the Final Report sometime in the coming week.

Bzzzz…

Published on July 27, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

I’m sleepy.  I’m disoriented.

I had an iced Thai mocha from Lion’s cafe.

Now I’m sleepy, disoriented, and jittery.

All packed up and ready to go.  I hope I didn’t forget anything… it’s not like I’m going to somewhere in the wilderness though –  there are stores in Whistler village – it’s just the normal traveler’s anxiety and not wanting to pay, “how much for a pack of four AA batteries?”  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post any trip info here while I’m there, otherwise, see y’all on 06 August or thereabouts.

Bzz…

Published on July 26, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

The brain is not fully functional today.  I was up until after midnight packing the bike and starting to pack my gear for the Whistler MTB trip tomorrow.  I have to remember to buy a spare XTR chain tonight – got a spare rear derailleur and brake pads on Tuesday.  The bike fit into the Da Kine case fine, but I had to drop the fork (which is easy) and pull the crankset (which is even easier) – maybe didn’t have to remove the cranks, but it makes it easier to pack the bike.  In retrospect, I could probably have left the pedals on the crankarms had I known at the time that I was going to remove them.

Must finish packing after McBike tonight, so I’ll be even more delerious tomorrow!

Whee…

Taco Time

Published on July 25, 2007 in bike by taro. Closed

Monday evening ride was Scat, CKucky and me head up to St. Louis. Summer sun now so we have some time to play. Decide to play on some jumps.

 J Scat gets too much air and is barely in the shot! Continue reading ‘Taco Time’

Tire test

Published on July 19, 2007 in bike and Review by risu. Closed

Did a test run on the Michelin Mountain A/T‘s yesterday after I got home.  I can notice a difference between them and the XCR A/T‘s.  They feel more cushy and have better off-camber and cornering traction.  There’s a little more knob flex – even though the knobs have a larger footprint, they are also taller.  The knob flex is noticable on hardpacked surfaces or pavement, but not on softer, looser surfaces.  I ran them across asphalt, concrete, short lawn, tall grass, packed gravel, loose dirt and packed dirt. Continue reading ‘Tire test’

Treads

Published on July 17, 2007 in bike and Review by risu. Closed

at_1248a.JPGJust installed some Michelin Mountain A/T 26 x 2.2 tires on the XC bike.  They’re essentially the same tread pattern as the XCR A/T 26 x 2.0 tires that were on there before, but are wider.  According to specs, these are supposedly 640g each, up from the 560g each for the XCR A/T‘s.  Both models are folding, have the grey silica dual-compound treads, and 127 tpi casings.    The XCR A/T‘s are great tires, but they are narrow.  They are labeled as “2.0”, but set up more like “1.8”.  Likewise, these Mountain A/T‘s are narrow for their labeled 2.2 size, measuring out at 50mm on Mavic XC 717 disc rims (should have measured the actual size of the XCR A/T‘s before I took them off).  It’s an excellent tread pattern – it would be great to have them in “2.4”…

Continue reading ‘Treads’

Koshi ga itai

Published on July 9, 2007 in Art, bike and rant by risu. Closed

I’ve been missing out on most of the bike rides for the past few weeks in an attempt to finish the artwork for HAA’s Showcase 2007.  Over the weekend, I pulled two days of before-noon-to-after-midnight marathon sessions, so now the digital “cel color” finishing is done.  Just have to do the backgrounds and some effects stuff.  My sciatic already was hurting from changing the shocks on the FJ80, but sitting in front of the PC for days probably made it worse.  I should really see Mitch, but his new office is geographically undesirable.

Hopefully I can finish up by this coming weekend and get the printing and framing done.  Whistler MTB is coming up, so I have to turn in the artwork before then.  I’m pretty happy with how the two pieces are coming out.  I’ll have to do a little content editing on one so I don’t get my ass banned from the Academy.  Don’t worry – there will be the “Showcase ’07 version” and the “uncensored version”.

Chase Halsall

Published on June 28, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

Chase HalsallYesterday (27 June 2007) at 07:53, Chris and Tanya Halsall became the proud parents of a baby boy.  <5lbs. More details as they become available.   

Tweaked and spikeless

Published on June 28, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

While out for a spin yesterday, I discovered that other than gashing one knee and bruising the other, I also tweaked my rear wheel in the crash on “That ride“. It’s got a good wave in it – about 4mm left and 6mm right. Hopefully I can get that straightened out… I was going to do it today, but I forgot the bike at home.

While taking a break after some mild climbs, I noticed my left shoe would rock over to the outside if I toed-down while in the saddle. Getting off the bike revealed that the outer spike had come unscrewed at some point along “That ride” and fell out. Must have been toward the end, since there isn’t any dirt inside the threaded hole. On cursory inspection, the threads appeared to be undamaged, so the spike didn’t yank out or get torqued out. Stopped by Sports Authority today to see if they had some alternative to the Sidi spikes, but the football cleats they had were too large in diameter.

6.65-miles, 38-minutes, Vavr = 10.4 mph