It’s worthwhile to check out writeups from Tim and David. From their descriptions, I glean that it was very, VERY difficult, and involved a lot of suffering. I’ve had little time for training lately, so it may be a blessing in disguise that I wasn’t able to ride. Even so, I’m still irked that I didn’t get to go.

Saturday night I came down with a cold or something, just in time to be sick for possibly my busiest week of the entire semester. I’m hoping winter break in a few weeks will allow me to decompress and maybe even do some recreational riding.

But it needed some work. My brake cable was rusty, and my brake pads weren’t grabbing well, both on the rear brake. I’ve been getting better at working on my bikes, and I stopped and got some parts the other day. Tonight, I went to work and I was making great progress. I was following a particular method for adjusting my Avid BB5s (first article, second article).

Long story short, the first article tells you to “tighten down as tight as you can with out breaking it,” speaking about the adjustable brake pad. I did this and went through the rest of the steps, but it turned out to be too loose and it didn’t work right. I tried again and tightened a little more this time. Made some adjustments, everything seemed good. Then I went to back the adjustable pad back out and I stripped the head of the screw! I couldn’t get it out. It’s still stuck there. I also busted the red hand knob that goes around the head of the screw.

Naturally this means I won’t be going mountain biking tomorrow. I’ll probably do a road ride instead, so all is not lost, but I’ll miss out on mountain biking with friends. And now I’ll have to pay my LBS to bail me out. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to buy a whole new brake at this point. Damn.

It started out well enough. We finally had a break in the heat, after something like 23 days with 90+ temperatures. My morning commute was downright cool, and the lower temperatures were just wonderful.

However, less than a block from work, a truck nearly hit me. They ran a stop sign, then, as I was signalling for a left turn, they passed me literally about six inches away. They nearly hit me, and it made me mad. I had to keep going straight, actually veer off further right, to avoid being hit. I was mad enough to file a complaint. It was an IU Physical Plant truck that cut me off. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the truck number or license plate, so there was little they could do. In all fairness, the manager seemed to take it seriously.

So, I wasn’t hurt, but the close call certainly highlighted the dangers you face when cycling, even if you’re doing everything right. In fact, the incident reinforced my habit of not hugging the right edge of the lane. I was about in the left tire track when this happened, which meant I had plenty of room to move over when the truck got too close. If I had been close to the curb, it could have been much worse.

My commute home was uneventful, and pleasant.

In the evening, I met up with a guy at Brown County State Park. He had a spare 29er wheel, and we had arranged to meet there so I could buy it from him. I bought the wheel, and brought tools with me. He helped me install the cassette, and I got the disc brake rotor installed just fine. Then I managed to get the brake and shifting adjusted adequately — all of this in the parking lot. For me, this is quite an accomplishment. I’m getting a little better with a wrench.

My friend Dave met me at the trailhead, and we headed out for a ride, once I was ready. We had planned to do a night ride, bringing lights and everything.

After we rode for a little while, we came across some EMS personnel in the woods, hauling gear with them. They told us they received a report that a rider had crashed, and they were looking for him. We rode on ahead to find him.

Unfortunately, we rode quite a ways, passing some more emergency folks, before we found the rider, nearly 4 1/2 miles into the woods. There were quite a few other people at the scene of the accident, and one EMS guy had made it there, and had the rider immobilized. I couldn’t tell what had happened. We rode back and forth a couple of times, trying to lead the paramedics back to the rider. We heard talk over the radios that DNR was sending a four-wheeler down the fire road to try to extract him.

I was glad that we could be of some help. But, one time when we stopped, to walk back with the EMS people, I smashed my toe on a root, really hard. Then had to walk a while, in bike shoes. My foot hurt, but again, I was just glad we could help a little, somehow.

Eventually we felt like we had done all we could to help with that situation, and had a decision to make. We had hoped to ride the new Green Valley trail again, but it was getting later than expected and I felt a little spooked from not one but two safety incidents in one day. We decided to head back, though we did take the long way back to our cars.

Despite the drama, we did manage to fit in some fun riding, and it felt great to ride my 29er again. So far, I haven’t heard any more about what happened. I’ll post an update, if any more information becomes available. I hope the rider is OK. I really have no idea what happened, or if his injuries were severe.

These incidents both served as a reminder that cycling can be dangerous, and we are all vulnerable, even if we’re doing everything right. So, let’s try to be extra vigilant out there, OK?

We rolled out, and I was excited to be back on the trails for only the second time this year, and I felt good, and strong, and the bike felt pretty good, too. I was anxious to see how the bike would do in its new setup. It quickly became obvious that it handles a lot differently from what I’m used to, and that it would take some time to get used to it. It was a warm and extremely humid morning, so much so that my camera lens fogged up and I couldn’t get it to clear up.

The first technical challenge of the day involved a short, but steep, eroded climb with a nasty root at the top. I picked up some speed to help myself clear it. I hit the root pretty hard, and my tire bounced a bit. I didn’t exactly crash, but I sort of fell, and I laid the bike down. When I got back up, I took stock of the situation. I wasn’t hurt at all, except a small bump on the leg. But then I looked in my handlebars, and was shocked at what I saw. These photos are from Dave …  my camera lens was still fogged up.

We were less than a mile into the woods, and my handlebars were severely bent. My ride was over. Actually, it’s probably a good thing that this happened right away, rather than deep in the woods.

Dave snapped this shot of my contemplating my bars … or pouting, perhaps.

Dave walked back to the trailhead with me. As we were walking back, Dave said, “Talk about ridus interruptus!” — thereby naming this post. Dave grabbed his earbuds and headed back out. I drove home. Later, he sent me this shot of a great switchback from the Green Valley trail, to let me know what I was missing. Damn!

So, I was pretty frustrated. I drove home. Once there, I ate some lunch, and then I decided to put the bars from my old mountain bike on The Beast. Within three hours, I was fed, the “new” bars were installed and wrapped, and I was riding once again, this time closer to home.

The Beast was hilarious on paved roads, with knobby tires. It sounded like a helicopter going down the road. I like to imagine that it must be sort of like a mini Pugsley, in that the tires seem oversized relative to the frame.

I explored some nearby parks, covering some familiar ground, and some new trails I found. Sadly my GPS crapped out on me, so I don’t have a map of my exploration. Alas.

Here, you can see my new/old bars. I used these for many years, and they usually work well for me.

I can’t get over the carving in this log — perfect for a singlespeed ride!

T’he Beast looks menacing, from a low angle.

So far, everything had been pretty flat and easy. I found some additional trails off the beaten path and explored. Some parts were wide open, like the photo below, while others were overgrown and not maintained … it was like bushwhacking, on a bike (bikewhacking)?

I practiced some skills like log-hopping, riding over rocks and roots, etc. These trails were tame enough to be ridable, but technical enough to give the bike a good shakedown ride. I learned that climbing on the singlespeed really requires a wide handlebar. The ends of this bar worked perfectly for this, and in fact I could have spent most of the ride holding onto them instead, except that I can’t reach the brake levers from there. I wonder if I could move the levers to the outer portions of the bar, or something.

At one point, I came out of the woods and had a nice view of the gazebo at this park. From the gazebo, you can’t tell the trail is even there.

More bikewhacking …

So, despite the fact that my original plans were foiled, I had a good ride, and these bars are definitely better than the ones I had on there before. I haven’t decided yet if they’re staying or not. My first real offroad ride on the Beast in singlespeed form was illuminating, and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was quite hot, and just as humid, later in the day. I was really cooking. I’m glad I rode anyway.

Once I was sure the Beast was doing well, I contacted Dave and we decided to try again at Brown County on Sunday. More on that soon!

For a while, I was commuting on “The Beast,” a mid-80s Miyata Street Runner which I picked up very inexpensively from someone on Craigslist. Well, eventually the Trucker became my full-time commuter, and The Beast was just lying dormant.

So, I started thinking about ways I could turn it into something more fun or useful to me. I ended up converting it to singlespeed and removing, for now, the fenders and rack. I had some help from Jon, both in terms of parts, and advice. Honestly I am not sure if this would have happened without his help. He put together a singlespeed “kit” for me, including a wheelset, cog and chain, and dropped it off when he visited. When I realized I was going to need a different crank, he shipped me one later. What a guy!

So, here is the Beast, as it stands currently … a couple of notes: I increased the chain tension since I took the photos. Also, in an attempt to channel Jon’s style, I flipped the handlebars upside down. They have an interesting feel, but eventually I am going to need to get different bars. I never cared for these bars anyway.

And here is how it was set up previously:

I intend to use the bike for all different kinds of purposes. The gearing is quite low right now at 32×17, I believe. But I hope to try it out on some singletrack, so this could be a good thing. I also want to use it for rail-trail riding, generally bumming around town, probably some commuting, and some snow riding, come winter. And of course, it makes for a good Apocalypse Bike.

I imagine the fenders and/or rack will go back on, eventually, but for now I’m enjoying riding it in a more stripped-down form.

I’m hoping that this new setup will help me avoid situations like this:

The (re)build process went something like this:

• Remove old chain
• Remove wheels
• Remove grips, shifters, brake levers, derailleurs, brakes, handlebars, and cables
• Install cog on rear wheel
• Install new wheels, using spacers to get the rear wheel aligned properly
• Remove fenders and rack
• Strip a bunch of parts off my old GT Timberline
• Check chainline (not good)
• Pull crank, to see if I can reconfigure chainrings to fix chainline. I couldn’t so Jon sent me a replacement crank
• Put crank back on
• Install better brakes and levers from old mountain bike, using old cables for now. Attempt to adjust brakes. This was the most frustrating part of the whole thing. I suck at adjusting canti brakes, especially the older style.
• Remove old crank
• Install new crank
• Set chain length (using Park Blue Book as a guide)
• Cut chain
• Install rear wheel and chain.
• Readjust rear brake.
• Reinstall grips
• Do a brief test ride. Chain skipped a bit
• Retension chain.

The tire is a 700×35 Panaracer Pasela Tourguard.  The tread still has plenty of life left in it, so it’s rather disappointing that I can’t use it anymore. On the other hand, these tires are known to have rather weak sidewalls, so in that sense, I can’t say I’m surprised.

According to my records, I put this tire on the bike in December of 2009, and it has lasted 4361 miles (all as a front tire).  Those miles were on all kinds of terrain: pavement, gravel, trails, debris-strewn urban streets and harsh country roads. These are relatively inexpensive tires, so I feel pretty good about this. I don’t have exact records, but I think I got, at most, one or two flat tires that entire time.

I had an extra tire in the garage, of exactly the same model. I replaced the old one. We’ll see how long this one lasts …

Anyway, I finally got the mountain bike rolling again, just in time to fit in a ride last weekend. My friend Dave and I headed out to Brown County State Park. The trails there had just reopened after the latest round of storms, some of which were quite severe. There were even a couple of tornados in the area, though not exactly where we were.

Our ride was a real treat. It was hot, but once we got back in the woods, in the shade, it was a few degrees cooler, and a stiff breeze helped keep us cool.

We rode the North Tower Loop and had an absolute blast. Being Memorial Day weekend, we expected the trails to be busy, but there were surprisingly few people out. We did see  family hiking two miles into the woods in flip-flops, who seemed to have gotten in a little over their heads. Not too bad compared to the past, where we have seen things like people with babies in a seat on the back of their bike, taking to the mountain bike trails. Yeesh.

We were really enjoying the ride. The trails at Brown County have amazing flow and it felt great to be on a roller coaster ride through the woods. It’s hard to explain, but somehow it’s simultaneously thrilling and relaxing.

After we finished the loop, we decided to see if we could find the new Green Valley Trail that’s in progress. We had heard that part of it was done, and open. We found it fairly quickly and checked it out.

The new trail is a lot of fun. You can tell a lot of work has gone into this when you see some impressive rock armoring, or a bridge like this:

Like all the Brown County trails, the Green Valley Trail has excellent flow.

The scenery is wonderful, as you traverse a few different ravines and cross beautiful creeks.

There’s quite a bit of climbing, but it’s the slow, gradual kind. It never gets overly steep, even though the terrain is quite steep. The trails more or less follow the contours of the land, which makes for a great ride. And, long, gradual climbs also means you get long, flowing descents. It’s just a stunning trail.

We thought the trail had enough technical challenge to be interesting, but not so much that it was unridable. Pretty much the perfect balance, as far as I was concerned.

When we reached the end of the finished trail, we took a break.

Here you can see some of the yet-unfinished trail on the other side of the ravine. I love the way the trail skirts the edge of the ravine, and climbs gradually out of it.

Because the trail switches back a number of times, we were disoriented. Here, Dave is trying to figure out where the heck we were. There was a lake not too far away, which looked pretty interesting.

Since we had reached the end of the finished trail, we turned back and the ride back was even better. There was a climb that hit us pretty hard, though. Just as we were thinking we needed a break, the trail turned back downhill. Phew!

After we finished that trail, we rode back to the car. The ride back is a lot of fun, too. It was just a great day to be out on the trails, and I felt a sense that I wanted to go mountain biking again soon. It’s not every day you get to ride a brand new trail!

Unfortunately, once back at the car, I saw that I have another broken spoke. I think that makes four on this wheel. I think I’m going to need to replace my rear wheel. Ugh. I have no idea when I can afford to do that. I have a 29er and 29″ wheels are, of course, more expensive than their 26″ counterparts.

Here’s a map of our ride. The new trail is roughly from mile 4.2 to mile 10.2. So, it’s three miles of new trail, or a 6-mile round trip. I think when it’s done, it’s supposed to be about a 4-mile loop.

That said, since I started school in January, I have changed my commuting strategy slightly. Before then, I was a very dedicated commuter. I commuted by bicycle every day, no matter what. Lately I’ve changed my stance a little bit. Oddly enough it wasn’t the cold, wind, snow or ice that made me change that. It was rain.

Frankly, I’ve never enjoyed commuting in the rain, but it’s worse when I’ll have to slog around campus all day. Sometimes I do enjoy rain on country rides, but in general, rain is one of my least favorite riding conditions.

Eventually I decided that I didn’t need the aggravation of commuting to class in the rain. And I have to say, giving up my stubborn, I-must-always-commute-by-bicycle attitude felt quite liberating. Now when it rains, I take the bus. And while on the bus, I read a book and listen to music. Then I have to walk a ways to get to class, but I don’t really mind walking in the rain, so long as I bring an umbrella. And again, I can listen to music while I walk and see more of the world around me as I go.

So, am I less dedicated to bicycle commuting now? Maybe. Bicycling is about different things to different people. For some people riding no matter what gives them a lot of pride. I’ve been there myself. But sometimes my bicycle commute had started to feel like a chore … and for me, riding is about fun. I’m glad to have some alternatives.

I still ride nearly all the time, but I don’t feel bad about taking the bus when I need or want to.

I had an interesting mishap last week. I had my hardest midterm Thursday morning. I got up earlier than usual to give myself plenty of time — in fact, ironically, I had just started writing this post about how well bicycle commuting is working. But, just as I was maybe 1/3 of the way to class, my chain broke! I called my wife, and asked her to look up the bus schedule (I was right by a stop). But the bus wouldn’t be coming for 45 minutes or so. I’d be too late for my midterm. Fortunately, Sarah was able to leave work for a while, pick me up, and take me to class.  I was only about 5 minutes late for my midterm. Whew!

I’m not sure what caused my chain to break, but I later bought a new one, and fixed it. Not without some frustration, of course. Sometimes I have trouble with even the most basic bicycle repair tasks.

I’m going back to school in January! After high school, I spent 2+ years at Northwestern University, and then dropped out (it’s a long story). I never finished the Computer Science degree I was pursuing, and I have always intended to go back to school. Well, I am finally going to do it! I got into the General Studies program at Indiana University, right here in town. I’m not sure yet what classes I’ll be taking, but I am looking forward to it. It will be strange to be a student again. I hope I am able to adapt reasonably well.

A couple of months ago, some ongoing contract work was cut way back. My budget has been severely scaled back ever since. And with school coming up, things are going to get tighter.

Cycling

I’m gearing up for winter. It’s difficult with a small budget, but fortunately I already have most of the things I need. However, this winter will be different from last year. My commute is longer, and I will be riding to/from/all around campus, as well. I have decided to use the Trucker as my main winter bike.

Studded tires

I had a pair of studded tires already, but they’re for 26″ wheels, since I used an old mountain bike as my winter commuter previously. So, I knew I would need 700c studded tires. I lucked out and Doug (MnBicycleCommuter) had recently gotten a new set of studded tires, but still had the old ones around, with plenty of life left in them. He offered them to me at a good price. I couldn’t resist. Here is his post about shipping the tires on his Xtracycle. The tires arrived today (already!) and I’m looking forward to trying them out. I’ll need to install them on the Trucker soon to make sure there’s enough clearance under my fenders.

This leads me to wheels. I really wish I had an extra wheelset for the Trucker. This would allow me to keep both my slicks and studded tires mounted on a wheelset, and just swap out the wheels. I am not sure yet if this is going to be in the budget.

Lights

My lighting situation has been less than ideal for a few years. I have a few lights which have been adequate when combined, but again, with a longer commute, I’ll be spending more time riding in the dark. I knew I would need something better. Fortunately, my beautiful wife ordered me a light. It’s not here yet, but I am looking forward to testing it out. It’s going to blow my existing lights out of the water.

This light will also be useful for night rides on the road, mountain bike rides, etc. I can’t wait!

I’m also investing in some more reflective gear. In addition to a longer commute, I’m hoping to get more riding in this winter than ever before. That will mean a lot of riding at night, and I need to stay visible.

I’m not sure yet what else it will hold, but already I can see that 2011 is going to be a very interesting year!

I am still very happy with the Trucker. It’s versatile, and a joy to ride. My only real complaint is that it’s not fast; particularly, it can be a real dog when climbing. I haven’t done a lot of rides with a full load, but it’s nice that the capability is there. Frankly though this bicycle is overkill for how I use it. A cyclocross bike would work just as well, or better. Then again I’m not exactly fretting over having a bike that’s sturdier than I need.

Perhaps somewhat enigmatically, even though the Trucker is slower and requires more effort on hills, the extra carrying capacity and smooth ride/forgiving geometry make it a great bike for all-day rides, especially in remote areas with no services. Since this is a situation I find myself in often, it comes in handy.

After 5,000 miles, the bike is getting to a point where it needs some work, and there are some improvements I would like to make. Money is tight right now, so most of that will have to wait. But, at the very least, I need to get the bike ready for winter. I intend to commute on it this winter as much as possible. That will mean buying some studded tires that will fit (I have some, but they’re 26″ and I have a 700c Trucker). I’ll also likely need better lights, since my commute is longer than before and I’ll be riding more of it in the dark.

Part of me is looking forward to winter riding, and part of me is dreading it. It can be a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot harder, and dealing with layers can get complicated, and it’s  just an entirely different kind of riding. But, every year I seem to get a little better at winter riding; hopefully that will hold true this year as well. I think the Trucker will make an excellent winter commuter. We’ll see!

Fun fact: I’m still using one of the original Continental Contact tires that came with the bike!