(eds. note: so it seems that this never got posted because I never got pics from from Wayne4 and Zac, and I just noticed it in drafts. so anyway here it is with my pics. it was written 16 March 2009.)

Presidents Day week-end 2008
We flew out to AZ to escape the winter in Prague and then the winter in MD, only to find winter in the desert.

When we landed it was 60s but the wind on the approach and a choppy landing were ominous signs. It seems a storm was a brewin’. A couple of hours later at about 5pm on Thursday it started raining. Winter rain in the Sonoran desert is not the worst thing. It usually lasts less than 12 hours and actually knocks the dust down. Both of our bikes made it on the plane this year, so we were excited. Plus, as always, or better than ever, the Clarks met and welcomed us like their own. So with warm food in our bellies and the bikes ready to go we turned in for the evening. When we woke the next morning it was still raining, but was expected to stop by noon. By then we were already heading north with Wanye III (Damien’s pops) in their eco-suv, the hybrid Highlander. And we were using it since the road, usually about 15 miles or dirt, was completely mud and stream crossings.

This was not looking good.
I had done this race a few years back in the rain, and it wasn’t as fun as usual.

When we got to the venue, Wayne 4 (D’s bro) and friend Zac had already set up camp. They had gotten up there Thursday to beat the rain and all were glad they did. It’s always amusing to see how hard it can rain in the desert. Temps were hovering just under 50 now up at a little higher elevation in the foothills of the mountains.

We settled in here too, and started drinking and listening to music in the mostly-renovated Airstream of W3. Food and beer and a nice waterproof trailer made us forget about the rain a bit. Unfortunately we still had to go out to get more cold beer and to hit the portojohns. As night fell 2 things happened. The temps dropped and some virus later determined to have likely found us on the MD-AZ plane caught up with Verča, so she started regular and often trips out to the second option above.

She only hinted to me at her condition that night, but by her mood, I realized all wasn’t perfect. plus when I awoke in the middle of the night to hit the head myself I found 2″+ of snow covering everything. A strange desert site for sure, especially on my friendly cholla, whom I try to piss on as much as possible.

By late morning the rain had let up, and the race itself got underway, so we rode in circles for several hours and had a generally great time.

Verča had a pretty amazing race, considering she had to stop to desecrate every other cactus every time she rode, due to her shall we say, intestinal distress. She ended up in fourth place in Solo SingleSpeed Female with 6 laps, while essentially riding only on oranges, cliff bloks, and water.

I had only 1 more lap for a total of 7, placing me at 24th in the Solo SingleSpeed Male.

Only after the race (and into the next day) did I appreciate her will, as the evil virus found me and completely incapacitated me. I could barely get out of bed. We even had to stop 2x on the way back to Tucson, so I could vomit/lay on the side of the road and moan.

Funny thing is, we both loved it and Verča, especially wants to go back soon!
(eds. update: although last year 2009 didn’t happen for $$ reasons, and it looks like we are maybe too busy for 2010.)

ok, so I went for a short ride the other day to meet the misses after work, for a tool around on some city park paths. it turned pretty short, when on a steep little dirt climb my front wheel kicked up a piece or path debris (a stick or a rock, in the end I wasn’t able to determine which was the final culprit.)

It nicely struck my rear derailleur, which is of course a Campagnolo Record 10 with a carbon outer plate. And with enough force to push it pretty hard. And to an insult to injury, I will have to assume that I had not conservatively enough set the inner limit screw, as the impact was enough to send the carbon mech spokeward.



It grabbed a spoke, snapped the carbon loops off the pivot and bent my alu hanger/slider a bit. So I trashed what appears to be a $400msrp derailleur. I looked up the part number for the replacement carbon outer plate from campy and it’s like $150!!

Needless to say, I bent the hanger straight and put an old all aluminum 8-spd Athena that was in a car accident crash on, and shifting is back to perfect for the 2×10.

As an added amusement, when I flipped the bike over to see how the hell I was going to ride home (which was suprisingly not a problem as long as I didn’t try to shift or do any drops over 8″) I found that my no-good-drunk mechanic didn’t tighten my fancy campy record aluminum chainring bolts very tight. 2 were missing. 60% of them were there, though; and that’s passing.
He still gets a D for that one.

And I’m gonna stop paying him in bourbon and Pilsner Urquell

ok, so where did our frequent posting go, yikes!!

anyway here is a conundrum I am in these days, see if you can answer it:
(I’m pretty sure it’s a recurring issue I know the solution for, which I’ll pipe in with later.)

when I am pedaling along at a normal (~75rpm) cadence under a light to moderate load (generally flat terrain) on my mountainbike I have a distinct slipping feeling at my left foot with each revolution as the foot passes the top (12:00) dead spot. it has the feeling of a loose pedal or loose crank or even a poorly adjusted cleat. seeing as how none of these have turned out to be the culprit, please help me try to solve the problem. as a note, I do sometimes have the feeling that pedaling smoother circles can somewhat diminish the issue, and also that it may seem to go away on longer rides (maybe I just forget about it.)

in the interest of science I have replaced the pedals, with a new pair of a similar model; I have replaced the cleats with a new set; and I have tried a second set of same model shoes with their old cleats; none of which have alleviated the issue.

now for some tech specs:
frame: Moots, 29er ybb with S&S couplers (which were checked and verified to be tight)
cranks: RaceFace Deus (verified tight, then taken apart cleaned regreased, and retightened)
chainring: a single Blackspire SS chainring (cleaned, checked, and not sharkfinned; all bolts tight)
bb: RaceFace X-type (replaced with stock replacement 10 months and <1200km ago)
pedals: CrankBrothers Eggbeater S (regreased; 4yr olds but rebuilt by CBros 16 months ago)
chain: Rohloff S-L-T-99 (cleaned, no significant wear; perfect SS chainline)
rear hub: Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 CC DB OEM (no outward sign of wear; 100% functional shifting)
rear cog: Rohloff steel (cleaned, no significant wear)

btw, everything is always (85% of the time) lubed and cleaned directly (within 3-4 weeks) after every ride. and all (~35%) rides take place in ideal (or possibly rainy, muddy, or snowy) conditions.

that’s about it.
lots of little checks and the problem persists.
leave questions and answers in the comments!

-cory

I helped put together a Rapha Continental Ride, as the spoke card below denotes.  Some editors from Bicycling magazine showed up and rode it as well, and wrote it up, and gave a shout out to not only this humble, dust cover’d blog, but also to the neglected but viable dirt road database.  We thank them for that!  Here is a link to the main article by David L’Heureux aka Laroo, some quotes, and I will have links to the Rapha imagery as soon as its up, and mine, ditto.  I am developing the B&W in my kitchen as we speak. Wait! I got some scanned in.  Here is a link to the bikely map and cue sheet for the whole shebang.  Find more delicious dirt roads @ the dirt road database wiki.

“Speeds on the descent were almost scary as we tip toed the line between in control and over cooked. At the bottom we patched flats and egos, then turned around to ride back up to the ridge for and even longer and more hair-raising descent back into the valley.”

“I’d never ridden here, so word of mouth was the only thing to go on. I’d been told the ride would be stunning. It was.”

“We were riding by horse-drawn buggies through picturesque farmland almost instantly.”

Colour shots as soon as the get developed, to tide you over here (and here) are some colour shots from past Centre Rambles.

More soonish!  Flickr set, including images above, here.

For the photo dorks:  fuji neo pan 1600, yashica electro gsn 35, red filter.

of mild interest to someone, i am sure.

so I was in a nice art gallery a while back and saw this nicely brazed rocking horse that I thought you all may enjoy. couldn’t find out anything about the artist though?!

I kept meaning to remind you folks of some of the nice things about living in the Czech Republic from back in mid February.

Not the driving snow, but the fact that as I ride home from work, the beer distributor is pumping fresh beer into the pubs from a tanker truck the same size as the ones they deliver fuel in to the city center stations. I think that guys is there like 2 or 3 times a week.

Bikes In Film from the Digital Ramble blog.

Pursuant to the convo Case and I had while he was e-supervising my fixed gear conversion project I thought I’d post some choice clips from Lancey Stronglegs’ twitter stream:

“You know why else New Mexico is cool? The Shins are from here.
4:11 AM Apr 30th from TwitterBerry

Good morning! Feeding kids and getting ready for school. Luke has the math portion of the TAKS test today.
1:57 PM Apr 28th from TwitterBerry

I remember coming to Moriarty, NM in 1989 and trying to break Mike McCarthy’s junior 25k time trial record. Mom and I road tripped it here.
3:51 AM Apr 29th from TwitterBerry”

So, as you can see it’s mostly drivel, just like every one elses “tweets” that no one reads. But I did want to RT (re-tweet) the pics he posted yesterday of some Shepard Fairey painted bikes that he’s going to be riding in the Tour of Italy.