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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…

Here it is completed...

I had a great idea… so I thought.  I headed to Wolverine Canyon to jump on some snowmachine trails from a major trailhead today.  I know the canyon.  From the parking area you climb 2000 vertical feet over 8 miles and peak at the top of the “W”. It is called the “W” do to the switchbacks. It was my goal to make it  to the “W”.

Yesterday’s ride hit the snowmobile trail network on the backside of the “W”.  They were icy for the most part and very rideable… I figured the Wolverine Canyon side would be similar.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The trails at Wolverine Canyon are beautiful.  From the parking lot you start ascending through an area called the Narrows.  In the Narrows jagged cliff walls line each side of the road-wide-trail.  The trail never sees direct sunlight this time of year.  With all the snowmobile traffic the trail condition was LOOSE.  The pugsley did far better than any bike I could imagine but still the riding was like slogging along… the 32×18 gearing proved to be too much for me so it turned into a ride-walk-ride.

Knowing the Narrows is only about a mile I forged on.

Once I was in direct sunlight I was hoping the trail would be icy/firm so I could cover some ground efficiently.  It was not to be… the sun was so intense today the trail was very wet and slippery-snow-mush…. I was able to ride much better then in the Narrows but the riding was trickier then riding rollers with no hands… Whenever I came to a steep pitch I had to G-E-N-T-L-E-L-Y pedal to avoid loosing traction in the deep wet snow.

It was hard, I was sweating like crazy, and I knew the steepness of the trail was backloaded.  I made it to the 4 mile mark and turned around defeated.  The 8 mile ride took an hour and twenty five minutes…. Ouch.

I have another route planned for the morning… we will see.

Wolverine Canyon Ride Elevation Profile.

I am sitting here drinking Pernod.  Every since reading Foucault’s Pendulum it has been a favorite of mine…. enough.

Todays news…. the Pugsley is alive.  I went on the maiden voyage today… more about that later.

Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and have the local bike shop install some Avid Juicy Seven hydraulic disc brakes on the Pug.  I knew the price going in but during my ride I realized I had just paid more for brakes than I had paid for my first mountain bike (a diamondback topanga).

Here are the Build Details:

Frame: Surly Pugsley
Fork:   Surly Pugsley
Crankset: FSA Carbon MTB
Hubs: Shimano XT, Surly SS Disc
Brakeset: Avid Juicy 7
Seatpost: Thompson
Seat: Brooks B17
Tires: Surly Endomorphs
Pedals: Wellgo DH
Headset: Cane Creek
Stem: Weighless 120
Bars: Titan Hellbent 3/4″ rise
Grips: Ergon

That is pretty much it…  I have been slowly building this thing over the past three years… I did I quick back of the napkin calculation and I am into it for $1522.00.  I purchased a lot of components and even the frame off ebay.  I think I have saved about $1K if I where to have had it built to spec by the LBS (local bikeshop)… I got my stem for  1 cent plus $5 shipping, my Carbon Fiber MTB cranks for $92, and the Frame and fork itself for $200.  I am thinking of building another for Wendy…. so she can join me.

Now the ride….  WOW… it is unique.  I was amazed at how well the bike rolls over stuff. Having read a number of reviews an realizing people complain about the Surly Puglsey weight I was interested in HOW heavy it would be… its not too bad.  It is heavier than my Titanium GT MTB but hell what isn’t?  I have the Pugsley rigged up as a Single Speed so I think if you set your expectations in line with what the bike is… a beast for covering snow, sand, and mud you will be suprised at how well it rolls.

The two things that impressed me the most…. It tracks like magic!!!  This bike can hold a line.  I was traveling roughly 30 MPH downhill in a snowy truck tire rut and had no worries at all about drifting.  The big tires grip.  The second thing I was wondering about was how a 4130 CrMo frame would feel…. I have no idea…. the 3.7 endomorph tires offer such a cushion I have never been so comfy on a bike… I went with 10 PSI in the tires and got a little bob action when my cadence went over 90 but other than that it was smooth…  smooth like a big leather sofa or or Knob Creek on the Rocks.

My first ride was a 16 mile ride… an 8 mile out-and-back on unmaintained county roads that get groomed as part of the Southeast Idaho Snowmobile Network.  The conditions varies from ice to packed powder to broken-up compacted snow…  As I said I road about 16 miles…. I  had to get off and walk twice for a total of about 150 yards.  Each time was when the grade exceded 10% and my wimp-ass could not pedal my 32×18 single speed up the grade.

Elevation Profile

All in all the Puglsey excedes expectations… I am riding again in the morning.

Come on up to the house….

Tom Waits original, I love this video…..

I like this version better…. I love female vocalists.

I had a startling weigh in over the holidays…. 14 Stones 2 Pounds, 89.8 Kilos, yes 198 Pounds.

I am not much for dieting… I looked on-line for a diet that would complement my lifestyle, one that included beer.  I didn’t find anything I wanted to subscribe to.

I did find a blog entry of a guy who tried a lot of diets, Atkins, South Beach, etc… His advice was to make a few subtle habbit changes rather than try any of the diets.

1. Don’t go out to lunch.
2. Snack on fruit, nuts, and raw vegetables
3. excercise at least 3 hours a week.
4. Drink lots of water

So I thought I would try it…. I had already set up my bike trainer to get in shape so I just need to ensure I ride for 3 hours a week or supplement trainer time with other excercise.  I also gave up Mexican Food for lunch. My packed lunches include several servings of fruit and veggies. And I have been drinking at least one Nalgene bottle of water a day in the office.

The result…. after one week I had lost 6 pounds.  I know weight can very a few pounds one way or the other… but hey its a trend in the right direction.  I even feel much better…

I think these are changes I can live with, pass me beer.

I am lazy.

I spent most of the morning staring at the bike-trainer-torture-contraption in my bedroom hoping the gates of hell would open and swallow it before I decided to get on it today.  Sometime around the crack of noon I decided to check the weather.  What do you know Southeastern Idaho emerged from deep freeze so heading outside was the plan.

Initially my plan was to do a 20 mile loop around the potato fields turned housing developments.  As I was dressing, my girl Nellie let me know I was not leaving without her.  The plan changed.

Plan bravo was to head to Ammon with my Lemond Poprad and Nellie.  As I was getting ready Nellie was distracting me with bites, moans of joy and her trademarked Grumbly-Growl.  I was so distracted that it was not until I got to Ammon that I realized I had everything…. layers of wicking clothing, helmet, gloves, water bottles but NO BIKE. The Lemond Poprad was leaning against the house, not laying in the back of my pick-up truck

I did not take it as a sign that I was not supposed to ride… the 2009 Doug would have.  I turned around and got the bike… the delay was just what the sun needed to break through the grey skies. Sometimes we are blessed.

Nellie and I headed out Henry’s Camp Road (Ammon Road) towards Taylor Mountain.  The road is a non-maintained county road that gets a lot of red-neck traffic.  You know the type, traffic to blow shit up, shoot guns, drag crap and kids down the road, ride snowmobiles, and shoot guns again.  All those rural activities condition the road nicely for my purpose… take my dog on a ride.

The road surface was packed snow/ice with a dusting of snow from last night covering the low-no traffic areas.  We did a 6 mile out and back.  The further we went the less traveled the road and the more difficult it became on the Poprad’s 700×32 tires.  When we got to today’s turn around point I was ready to continue but Nellie is coming off-the-couch too so we turned around, headed to the truck and called it a day.

Thats it… the first ride of 2010.   I discovered climbing on ice and snow is a lot easier to do than descending.  I only dumped it once but could not imagine the mad skills Sven Nys, Lars Boom, Bart Wellens, Albert Niels, and the rest of the cyclocrossers must have.  The good news is the Pugsley is going to rock out there.

Lately I have been using this blog as a place to throw up content I find on the web.  I have not been using it as a journal documenting my interests and activities as I did at the inception of the website.  I stopped in large part because I had been going through a tough time… a tough times at work… a tough time with Wendy in Telluride… just a rough stretch. Times are changing.  I am going back to the basics…. good food, good rides, good times and hopefully a few good posts.

To get the ball rolling I dug my 1992 Masi Team 3V out of the shed. Why it was put there is an interesting story for another day… but it is now dusted off and on my trainer.  I am riding it 30 – 60 minutes a day until the weather clears for outdoor road riding.  I have a couple good trainer workout that I cycle (no pun intended) through.  I was looking on-line for some new trainer workouts, the only thing I found were Computrainer Workouts.  Perhaps in the future I will post my working-class workouts that do not involve a $1500 trainer system.

I am also committed to building my Surly Pugsley.  Compliments of Wendy, her Parents and Christmas I now have the elusively expensive wheelset that has

prevented its completion for a number of years.  My goal is to have the frame build up to a singlespeed rideable configuration by the end of the month.  It will be tight but lots of parts are on the way…. The wheelset should arive from Bikeman on Tuesday, I have the tires compliments of Christmas 2 years ago, tubes are on the way, yesterday I purchased a Brooks B17 Saddle for the build.  With the parts I bought over the years I am just about there… I need a brake system.  I found the Local Bike Shop has a pair of Avid Juicy 7’s at a very competative Price.  I will probably get them since the price includes installation.

Soon Nellie and I will be terrorizing the snow bicycle style.

The other big changes is my diet… Having traveled soooo much lately I had been putting on  some weight… I am not looking like the Lampre Fan but I am a solid 30 pounds heavier than when  Wendy and I  met (which was unhealthily thin) and I am a good 15-20 pounds heavier than just 5 years ago.  So I decided to give up on the daily Los Pancho’s visits and pack my lunch.  It is amazing….. fruit and vegatables (of which there are plenty on a Chicken Torta) are addictive.  The new year marked the beginning of my habbit changes… ride more, eat better and I am already seeing results in mind, body, and spirit.

Final comments…. I am not very satisfied with my new version of wordpress.  I dont have control of image placement… or at least it has changed and I have not figured it out.

Cheers.

enjoy…. or suck my balls!