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It has not been an especially bad winter in Idaho Falls this year.  My thoughts are just elsewhere…. on Summer.

I have bike commuted a few times but the slightest anomaly (e.g. below zero weather, freezing rain, and my general lameness) diverts my attention from hopping on the bike.

Yehuda sums my feelings up with the comic of the week.

Yehuda Moon

I have several things in the works.  I have this GREAT idea for a wonderful project that will keep me going for a while.  I would write about it but someone is likely to catch on… All I can say is I am scouring ebay looking for parts.

I have been solicited to find the best possible road bike for under $1200 dollars.  When you commission me for such a task you don’t get the typical Trek, Specialized, Cannondale line-up.  There is always ebay where you may find a good deal on something used…. I happen to like taking more control…. with a Surly Pacer but the new Redline Conquest Classic caught my eye as well.

All the looking at bikes for a colleague got me looking at bikes in my category.  It is amazing how prices for high end road bikes keep climbing. I have a 1992 Masi Team 3V.  In 1992 I paid $1500 for it as a complete bike with a Campy Chorus and a spare set of tubular wheels.  I will grant you 1992 Record gruppo would have run another $500 bucks but today you are looking at $3K just for a Campy Chorus build kit bicycle frame not included. Here is another example… ten years ago an XT derailleur was about $50, today about $110.  My salary is not keeping pace.

I love Single Speeds.

Other items… my right-hand man, Roelof, is headed for greener pastures.  He is headed to Sky Research in Hanover, New Hampshire.  The thought of Roelof leaving for New England has me considering returning to New England as well…. the problem is I don’t want to pack my crap and move across the country, I don’t want to ski on ice, and I don’t want to give up access to the intermountain West or the Utah desert.  So I sit and dream about New England until things get so intolerable I start packing.

Next weekend I am headed to Moab to celebrate Owen’s 10th birthday.  Wendy and I remember just like yesterday when Wiley McDonough turned 10…  look at him now…. he graduates from the Univ of Montana this Spring. (Hats off the Carson McDonough for making the video).

I heard this song last spring and was unable to find out who sang it…. tonight I heard it again so here it is…. this one goes out to my love… Wendy,  Here is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Now that the Surly Pugsley is built I am looking for a new bicycle projcet.

Pugsley at Taylor Mountain

I road the pugsley to work today. It was my first commute of 2010.  I debated whether I should take the my Kronan City Bike for the commute.  I decided on the Pugsley to show it off to my engineer colleagues.

Back to the Kronan… When I purchased it I was really hoping to have enough funds to get an Azor Mechanic 108 from The Dutch Bicycling Company.

By the time I talked to the folks at DBC they had stopped selling Azor but could build a Mechanic 108 using a Velobris Churchill.  I settled on the Kronan as a substitute mostly due to price… but now that the Pug is build I am thinking of a Kronan remake.  The wheels are unbelievably heavy and untrue… I hate the saddle and the handlebars.  Rebuild wheels, new tires, Nitto All Rounder bars, and a Brooks saddle should about do it…

Azor Mechanic 108

Kronan Just Like Mine

Six more weeks of winter…. ughh.  I love skiing but I feel life cheated me out of last summer…. work, Wendy in VT, and did I say work.

I am really looking forward to riding this summer lots of things are converging to make it a great year of riding.  My shoulder is getting better, I dont have any gigantic projects, Wendy will be in Idaho, and Owen is old enough to start doing some interesting rides.

Fucking groundhog.

Other news…

I am back from a week in Telluride.  It is always great seeing Owen and Wendy.  I got a good powder day in on the mountain.  I also got to play a bit of guitar every day…. and had plenty of good food made from recipes in the Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern Cookbook.  I can’t say enough about how great that book is… I am no chef… but I was able to make some GREAT dishes while Wendy and Owen were at School.

Well not really… this following piece is from the charlie the bikemonger

We have all seen the probable effects of global warming: extreme weather, droughts, floods, icecaps melting, whole species facing extinction, and most agreeable cider apple harvests. There are many common beliefs as to the cause of this “new” weather, and many of these are no doubt correct, however until now one possible suspect has been overlooked.

Charlie The Bikemonger a purveyor of fine cycle produce, has commissioned research in association with The Dorset Institute of Cider Konsumption, that fingers a new previously unsuspected culprit.

When our cycling forefathers embarked upon the apparently noble mechanical crusade to make cycling better, little did they know what consequences their actions would bring. In 1896 an Englishman E.H. Hodgkinson patented a 3-speed Gradient gear, a pre-cursor of the modern derailleur, and from this moment forth the world began to experience increasing global temperatures.

The graph below clearly illustrates the correlation between volume of gears and global temperatures.

Note the slight temperature “spike” in “1940-1949”, is it coincidence that the in 1949 the Hercules Herailleur a rear derailleur with indexed shift levers was launched? It was a mere 3 speed setup, but with indexing… could it be that it’s not only the volume of gears, but also their complexity that fuels global warming?

The 50’s and 60’s saw little gear innovation, but also towards the end of this era we see the birth of BMX and guess what happened with all those kids cranking one cog: a bloody great statistically significant decline in global temperatures!

1985 Shimano introduces SIS indexed shifting and from here on we are on an out of control rollercoaster of ramped up graphing and pernicious upgrading: indexed gears, , STI, gripshift, 8 speed, 9 speed, 10 speed, flappy paddle shifters… and ultimately the end of the world as we know it*!!!

In a bid to correct this dreadful situation Charlie The Bikemonger is proud to be a purveyor of fine fixed and single speed bicycle produce and sincerely implores all cyclists to negate their shifty bits, build a one speed and make the world a better place. “Shift and a Polar Bear Dies!” stickers may be available shortly.

It has been suggested in some quarters that this is pernicious nonsense and mocks a serious issue. However the amount of gears is illustrative of the ability of industry to make and sell us more and more consumer goods, be it bikes with even more gears, or cars with air conditioning etc. And that’s where the real connection is.

This also illustrates that when people want to prove there is no global warming and there is nothing to worry about… it’s pretty damned easy to find the statistics that make your theory look credible.

* maybe

Sources: Temp info: Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Earth Sciences Directorate.
Gear info: http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/bicyclehistorywh.html

Wendy has a way with nature…. check out her new friend.  The picture was taken in Prospect Bowl, Telluride.

I have ridden a bike or a trainer for 5 consecutive nights…. tonight I sit here tipping a hard cider relaxing in the knowledge I am too lazy to make it six.

Whats going on…. lets see.  My improved diet and riding are starting to show results.  I have lost about 8 pounds in two weeks but more importantly I am super stoked about riding the Pugsley.  I love that bike.

Yesterday the final part arrived, my Brooks B17 saddle.  It is all Proofide up and on the bike waiting for the next ride.  I am headed to Telluride for a week of relaxation.  They haven’t been getting crap for snow so perhaps I will get some good riding in.

The Robot Scene…. I have been resurecting a 1998 robot.  A 12 year old robot is fucking ancient.  Hell I have robots that only worked for about 3 months and are sitting in my lab collecting dust.  Hats off to activmedia the damn thing still works mostly.  My man Zeb at activmedia is helping me resolve the few problems the system has so I am sure it will be fine in short order.

Last thing….. my buddy sid picked up a Surly 1×1 off ebay…. Welcome to the single life my friend.

Day three on the pugsley complete.  I am convinced I need to change my routes or modify my single speed gearing…  Back in the day…. the day that had me 20 pounds lighter I used to used a 34×17 gear ratio on my Bridgestone XO-1.  After yesterday’s humiliating experience in wolverine canyon I did a gear inch calculation.  As it turns out… the Pugsley rides like a 29er with the big tires and all…. that puts the 32×18 almost exactly the same as my old Bridgestone…. 52 gear inches.  This is all just my justification for going to a 32×20 setup.

Here is the elevation profile of todays ride…. another out and back.

Taylor Mountain Road

Here is a video from the cockpit…