Well, I said I was going to ride to work this week and I made it Mon and Tues – the rest of the week was icy enough to get me to order Nokian hakkapeliitta 240 40C studded tires for my cross bike – hopefully I’ll get them soon enough to put em to work at least once this season.

I’m sure several people made it out riding this weekend, but I didn’t see any of them during my travels. Saturday I made it just shy of 50, it would have been 70, but I stopped a Wheel Sport East and jabbered for a while. Rode south, went to the top of Bellavista, then up 27, explored a few roads south of town – managed to stay up right on an icy 30mph down hill – last time I hit that speed on this ride.

Out of the valley sun and into the frosty fog

My Sidi Police model shoes in desert camo (really black)

Sun I rode west river view into post falls and explored some more - don't bother with the centennial trail until it's much warmer. Then my youngest and I rode to drop off a DVD – his first real ride on his new Redline he got from Santa. 7 miles – his longest solo (he’s done 35 miles on dirt on the tandem) ride to date – and he was stoked.

Winter

Like all Spokanites, I too have been getting my butt kicked by winter. My bike commuting went from every day for about 8 consecutive weeks - to 0 days for the next (almost) 4 weeks. I plan on fixing that on Monday.

However, between snow blowing, car trouble, shoveling and just plain ole winter blues I have been staying somewhat active. Snow shoeing and snowboarding have been the outdoor sports. But, as much as I hate to admit it - I have been doing a bunch of indoor working out. Swimming, running and weights at the YMCA, and some interesting roller workouts.

My wife shot this picture of me on the rollers the other day - after looking at it I have to wonder how many others do this kind of stuff - riding rollers, working out shoulders while watching NWD 9 -

I'm sure workouts like this have been fueled by my recent registration for the CCP100 for 2009 - but looking at this just seems kind of weird.

Since the building of the takeoff went so well – my oldest boy and I decided it had to have a landing. We used the “shoot from the hip” method of design. I held a piece of plywood up on while my son watched from the side – “right there”, he said – measured the angle with a protractor – then put the chop saw to work.

Putting the finishing touches on the plywood.

The final product – takeoff and landing.

10 mins after he started jumping (note younger brother enjoying jump as well)

10 mins later

jump day

What do two geeky mountain bikers do with a couple of free hours and its too wet and cold to ride - my oldest boy and I built a kicker!!!



Took about 2 hours - and only used scrap wood that I got from work from old pallets and crates - total cost, about 5 dollars for screws. Got the plans online here - we just doubled all the dimensions to get the size we needed - like doubling a recipe for a cake. We still have enough wood for the landing - it wont be curved, and will have a 3 foot flat section on top - just in case of a case.



Today on my commute was the first (real) time I needed to use my new Night Rider Minewt.X2 - all that I can say is this is he best things for bikes since the QR - if you ride at night - small, bright, and lasts a while -

Trail find! - it’s been a while, but nuttins better that a good ole trail find, especially when it is a useful one:

I’ll keep it in my pack – that is, until I’m face to face with a wild bear, a pack of wolves or when I want to look cool eating steak without a fork.

Anyway – took the Litespeed on its second offroad ride today (Friday I rode 30 miles at riverside) halfway up Mica and down the waterfall trail to the Cedar grove. It worked great, cleaned all of the switchbacks. Also, added about 16 miles of road to and from the trail head. Pedaled good on the road as well.

I can’t believe it took this long for manufacture to realized that a quick release designed for a road bike has no business on a high performance mountain bike.

My new Fox TALAS 32 has a 15mm axel QR. The difference of feel to a nomal QR is immediately apparent. Makes the lateral rigidity of the front end closer to a DH bike than that of a road bike.

Since i last posted I have done a little travel and a ton of riding. Had to go to a meeting back east that lasted a few days - but other than that I have ridden every day. The rides varied from my every day commute to DH runs with my son at Beacon to a 70 mile ride I did last Sat. on my fully loaded Specialized Tri-cross to a 3 hour dirt motorcycle ride at Batey Bould 100% technical singletrack - where I was schooled, and realized that I ride a bicycle in the dirt much better than a motorcycle. Yesterday i finished building my new Litespeed Kitsuma. In this pic the travel of the front fork is at 140mm - but I think I will ride it at 120mm most of the time -

The build is:

XTR Hubs with DT 420 rims - I was going to go King, but I've had a set for 10 years and they act funny in the winter

XTR Crank

Fox 2009 TALAS 32 fork

XT dual control levers and calipers - 8" front and 6"rear XT disks

10 year old King headset

25.1 lbs - strong and light



I went stealth with no decals - just because I love the finish work and all the CNC'd bits on the frame:-


and
The bike is wet because I just got home from riding it to work - usually I ride my Tri-cross with panier's and fenders, but riding this made me dig out my old custom Reload messenger bag - still waterproof after 8 years -
Tomorrow the Kitsuma will get it's first real test in dirt - I'm sure it will ride as I expect - then the Owl Hollow will find it's way to Craigs list or Ebay -

greece - y

Well it's been a little while but I'm still in Greece - no cycling - going a bit stir crazy - however the light at the end of the tunnel is visible - should be home soon.

It's not all depressing though - got to do a little sight seeing by the Aegean sea –

This is the White Tower of Thessaloniki – it’s kind of interesting to walk up and touch something that is 500 years old – much history here.

Yea – looks a little disgusting, but I have had it three times since I have been here and I clean my plate each time.

I think each culture develops perfection by repetition – the Greeks have been cooking octopus a very long time.