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Gold Belt Century

2010-06-21T22:51:00.005-06:00

It's been forever since I've posted to this blog, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to resurrect it.

This past Sunday, I made the jaunt down to Colorado Springs along with John, Brett, and Eric for the Gold Belt Century. The ride was originally planned for the previous Sunday, but good 'ol Colorado weather led to a prudent cancellation and rescheduling of the event for this Sunday.

The organizer, Eric Althen, put together a great route. Several other riders joined us, including Rad, Peter, and Kirk (organizer of the upcoming Dirty Century) for a total of 8 riders. Dr. Steve drove the SAG vehicle, and I must say that he provided the best SAG I've experienced on any ride!

Eric's site does a great job describing the route, so I'll sum up my experience quickly: great company, beautiful scenery, 24 mile climb, hardest saddle known to mankind, awesome weather, delicious pizza, more climbing (!), car accident, 7 emergency vehicles, temporary road closure, crazy fast 11 mile descent, 40mph pinch flat on 'cross tires, weird sculptures, and a very satisfying ride overall.

In keeping with the century-a-month schtick I started in Jan. 2009, this is the 19th century in 18 months. Second one on the 'cross bike, 6th this year.

Threadbare

2008-09-05T00:24:00.002-06:00

I went for a quick one hour jaunt up over the Wall and out Hwy. 128 to US93 and back this evening. On the return trip, a rider named Will from Vitamin Cottage caught up with me so I jumped onto his wheel and chatted with him for a little while. No more than half a mile after Will turned off, my rear tire went flat--about a mile from my workplace. Figures. I was hoping that I could ride the tire soft, but it lost air quickly. When I inspected the tire for the cause, I found this:

The casing was showing through nearly-bare spots all around the tire. I guess it was about time for a new one. I threw on a blue Maxxis Detonator--the season is winding down, so a training tire seems like a good choice. Besides, it looks cool on the Giant.

On another note, fellow rider Brett was hit by a car today! Fortunately he's mostly OK, but his wheels were trashed and his helmet cracked, among other things. Knowing Brett, he's downplaying the severity of his injuries. The driver was at fault for running a stop sign--but as anyone who rides regularly knows, it doesn't matter who's right when you're on a 15lb bike vs. a 2-ton vehicle. Brett's advice:

Stop at the stop signs, and always wear your helmet.

Hope you heal up well, Brett!

So close!

2008-08-10T23:39:00.004-06:00

Anyone who knows me also knows that I have two cars in the garage that haven't run in a long time. The one that I refer to as 'the 2G' (for second generation) is a 1995 Eagle Talon TSi AWD. It was running just fine when I pulled it into the garage last October to undergo surgery. It has not run under its own power since!

The initial plan sounded so simple--basically just upgrading the puny stock T25 turbo to an MHI EvoIII 16G, plus a few supporting mods. Those few supporting mods rapidly grew, however, as it often makes sense to make multiple changes at once to save money and effort in the long run. Thus, a quick rundown of some of the changes that are taking place with this round of modifications includes:

upgraded turbo (EvoIII 16G), ported compressor outlet, clocked and polished compressor housing, ported hot side, welded for external WG
FP Race Manifold, ceramic coated
2.5" SS O2 housing w/ recirculated external wastegate
38mm Tial wastegate with upgraded 'racing' valve for race gas compatibility
port-matched extrude honed 2G intake manifold, polished plenum
1G NT 60mm throttle body
phenolic spacers for both intake manifold and throttle body
Treadstone TR6 FMIC (22x6x3.5", small by most standards)
Custom 2.5" SS IC piping
Custom 1" valve cover vent
ProVent 200 air/oil separator rerouted to intake pipe
Custom cold air intake (places S&B dual cone filter in stock SMIC location)
HKS 264 cams, degree'd per cam card
Fidanza adjustable cam gears
EvoIII oil filter adapter (to replace water/oil cooler with air/oil cooler)
Setrab 625 oil cooler w/ -12AN plumbing
Stacked plate power steering cooler to replace OEM "cooler" (line)
polyurethane front and rear engine mount inserts
Kosei K-1 TS 17x8 +35 Gunmetal wheels
Hankook 245/40R17 Ventus R-S2 tires
Red splined Gorilla lug nuts, for bling
smoke colored bumper lights, again for bling
A/C removal (weight savings for AutoX)
Cruise control removal (again, weight savings plus simplicity and less clutter)

There may be others I'm forgetting, and there are tons of details that are glossed over in a bulleted list like that, but it's pretty obvious that it's taken a long time to get this far...and the car still doesn't run!

Thankfully, my friend Bert gave me some motivation to make that last push to get it running this weekend, and we almost made it! Bert offered his services for a workday on Thursday, so I took Thursday and Friday as vacation days at work to make for a continous long-weekend work block. The two biggest obstacles keeping the car from running at the beginning of the weekend were the intercooler pipes and the O2 housing. On the last workday (many moons ago, it seems) Bert helped me to cut and fit the upper intercooler (UIC) pipe, which has remained in its taped-together state since then. It just needed to be welded...simple, right?

The thing is, I don't know how to weld. I bought a TIG welder from Harbor Freight a long time ago, but that was the easiest part. I subsequently had to purchase a tank and regulator, figure a way to get 220V in the garage, buy welding rod and tungstens, bought a stainless restaurant table to use for welding deeds, bought a bandsaw for cutting deeds, blades and lubricant for the bandsaw, fixed the grinder and belt sander (WIP) that my Dad gave me...and oh yeah, still had to learn to weld!

Long story shortened a bit, the Harbor Freight welder is not the easiest welder to learn with. Namebrand welders have features like foot pedal controls, and more importantly high frequency or lift starts. I'd take either--the scratch start used by the Harbor Freight version has a tendency to contaminate the tungsten easily if you don't get it just right, which makes it very hard to weld unless you go grind the tungsten to a good tip again. The thing is, the Harbor Freight welder was only $200, versus the $1000+ one would pay for a namebrand welder. Yes, cost alone was my motivation!

I've taken some time to practice over the last few months, and I've made some progress, but I'm still not very good. Nevertheless, at some point I was going to have to break this stalemate. So, thanks to Bert's encouragement, I finally broke out the welder this weekend to do some "real" welding. We started by tacking together the turbo compressor outlet elbow and the UIC. Sounds simple, but I was having major problems relearning the scratch start and it took much more time and energy than such a simple task should have required. Ah, the joys of learning!

We then cut and fit the LIC, which required a blade swap on the bandsaw. I've learned the hard way that not using the correct blade pitch will quickly result in a busted and worthless blade.

With the intercooler piping all tacked together, we took a break for lunch. Bert was in the mood for sandwiches, so we hit Silvermine Subs on the east side of Longmont--where we just happened to run into his wife Alex and daughter Lily, who had just come from a manicure at a neighboring nail salon in preparation for the wedding of Alex's sister on Friday. Small world, eh?

After lunch, we decided to move on to the O2 housing. This proved to be a rather frustrating end to the workday. We deliberated about our cuts for a while before making the first cuts on the $100 stainless "donut" that we had purchased for this project. The cuts went as expected, fortunately. We then spent a great deal of time deciding how to "cheat" one of the cuts (meaning cutting it on a bias relative to the centerline of the tube), since the stock O2 housing isn't a simple bend. The cut went as planned, but this is when the frustration began as we realized how difficult it was going to be to meet all of the requirements with only one cheated cut. Bert had to take off, so I spent a few more hours cutting from a scrap bend and fitting small tubing "slices" before finally setting it aside for later.

The last thing I did was to remove the cam gears from the Galant to be used on the 2G. They started out as anodized red, but they turned a bleached pink color when I was cleaning the head with brake cleaner a while back. I bought new red gears to put on the Galant, but I wanted to remove the rest of the pinkish red anodization from the old gears before putting them on the 2G. Bert had suggested hydrogen peroxide, but a quick test confirmed our thoughts that the weak 3% drugstore solution had no effect. So, I exercised my Google Fu and came up with oven cleaner and Drano as alternate solutions. Our oven is self-cleaning, so Drano was the top choice.

I initially cut the solution with water a good bit to slow down the chemical reaction, then slowly added Drano to increase the concentration once I was comfortable that the reaction was relatively slow. I used a Scotch-Brite pad to help remove the anodization, soaking the cam gears for a minute or two at a time, and in the end it turned out quite nice--all silver, at last! Of course, with the anodization removed the aluminum is prone to oxidization; but fortunately, I like the dull grey color of oxidized aluminum and the gears won't be exposed to elements that will make it a structural concern.

The gears done, I pulled the stock cams...then realized I don't have spare cam seals. Honestly, it was a bit of a relief to realize that there was no chance the car would run this weekend, as I was a bit overwhelmed with how much was still left to be done. At this point it was 4am, so I decided to call it quits for the "night".

The next day didn't start until almost noon for me, and a lot of the work is all blurred together in my memory. I welded up all of the intercooler piping, tapped the holes on the BOV flange, and ground the end of the stub pipe for the BOV flange using a piece of software called Tubemiter as a cutting/grinding guide. Welding the BOV flange proved to be the hardest part of the project for me--on one end because I wasn't used to welding to a thick flange (let alone a 90-degree joint), and on the other end because I didn't think things out well ahead of time and had a very hard time fitting the gas cup and tungsten between the 2.5" pipe and the flange. D'oh! After welding the stub pipe to the UIC, I drilled a hole in the middle and hogged it out with a carbide bit on my air grinder.

I just have to mention my air compressor here--the new 60 gallon compressor my wife let me buy last winter has no problem keeping up with my tools, and that absolutely rocks! Pair that with the auto-retracting hose reel that Michelle bought me for Xmas and the super-flexible Flexzilla hose I used to replace the super-stiff hose that came on the reel, and I'm super happy! The only questionable part of the setup is the "universal" quick couplers that I bought from Home Depot, as they occasionally stick open when removing tools and have a tendency to pop off the industrial style connectors if they're even slightly worn. I think I may be headed back for other connectors.

Somewhere in here I took the time to modify a couple of OEM hydraulic lash adjuster (HLAs) to work as solid lifters for the purpose of degreeing the cams, installed poly engine mount inserts front and rear, installed the intake manifold and (rebuilt) NT throttle body with phenolic spacers, and attached the coil pack and power transistor to the manifold. I also trimmed the stock radiator intake shroud to fit perfectly between the FMIC and radiator, and attached a foam rubber strip to the fiberglass inner bumper to seal against the upper edge of the FMIC. I purchased some smoke colored bumper lights on eBay as a reward for my hard work this weekend, so I popped those in to make me feel good about my weekend progress.

So, now that the weekend is over, I finally have intercooler piping! I still need to have the pipes beaded to prevent them from blowing off under pressure, but that's a minor concern. The O2 housing is the last real obstacle to getting the car running, so I'm going to have to mull that one over a bit before attacking the problem again. In the meantime, I need to purchase a few parts to complete my cam degreeing setup and place an order for some OEM parts like the cam seals. It's great to see things coming together, and at last I feel like I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Once it's running, I'll have to make sure I enjoy it for a little while before starting the next round of modifications (I have shelves' worth waiting in the wings...).

So close...just need to build up for one final push!

(pics to follow...it's a bit late to get them transferred and uploaded)

Crazy Frog - Axel F

2008-08-02T22:36:00.002-06:00

I promised some of the Ride Against The Machine crew that I would post this video since they haven't seen it, so here it is. Enjoy!

Hot, hot, hot!

2008-07-26T22:46:00.005-06:00

I spent the early part of the day working on my mom's 91 Civic, preparing it for sale. It's pretty sound mechanically, but pretty ugly looking. I bought some bumper slide brackets on eBay to re-attach the front bumper, and I ended up machining a 3/4" spacer with a couple of holes for the mounting bolts on the driver's side to even out the bumper since the metal bumper had been pushed in. I also did a bit of MacGyver engineering on the rear passenger's side busted slide bracket to make it work. Finally, I spent some time with rubbing compound trying to buff out the oxidized paint before deciding that it was going to take far too much effort to make a real difference. There are a few little things I might still fix (cracked DS mirror, cracked windshield, busted antenna), but I'm going to post it to Craigslist this weekend and fix the other items as time allows until the car sells.

I haven't blogged in a while, and it's not because I've been riding a lot. In fact, I only have ~1200 miles on the road bike this year, which is pretty sad. I'm going to try to make a late season run at a reasonable showing in the King of the Rockies race at WP next month, and right now that means I need to log some miles.

Because of the car work, I got a late start on my ride, leaving the house around 4pm. I was worried it was going to be super-hot since we've had a near-record-setting 14 days in a row of 90+ degrees in Denver; but fortunately, the clouds were out and I never felt like I was overheating. I did, however, feel the need to consume a lot of water.

I stopped for water at the little shop just before the big downhill on the north side of Carter Lake. They have a bike rack out front and a sign that reads "Cyclist Parking", which (to me) implies they are cyclist-friendly. I walked in, water bottle in hand, and asked politely if I could fill my water bottle. I was shocked by the rude response: "No. We have to pay for that water." I walked out without saying another word.

So, looking at a recent Longmont utility bill, I pay .002530 dollars per gallon for the first 10,000 gallons of water I use. Let's say that this campground needs to have water delivered and stored in a tank due to its remote location, and with gas prices going up...let's say it's 10x as expensive. Thus, we're talking 2.5 cents per gallon. An average water bottle holds no more than 22oz. of water, even less since I had brought along some Cytomax and dumped it in the bottle, but let's stick with the 22oz. figure to be on the safe side. Thanks to Google for the conversion:

22 US fluid ounces = 0.171875 US gallons

Hence, filling my water bottle would have cost

0.17875 US gallons x 2.5 cents/gallon = 0.45 cents

I could have rounded up and offered him a penny...think he would have been offended?

In any case, the ride was 68 miles of goodness. I hit 54.5mph on the backside of Carter (on the low side of what I usually see), then continued up over the backside of Horsetooth into Fort Collins and back. Sights along the way included some pigeons humping in the road, a deer crossing right at the deer crossing sign, a yellow Lamborghini Murcielago cruising the opposite direction just as a Larimer County Sheriff's vehicle passed me, a Volvo 164...nothing so interesting that I regretted not having a camera with me, but enough to keep me entertained.

I rolled up to my door around 7:45, and I was very happy to be done. My legs were very tired (on the verge of twitching for the last half hour--must have been low on electrolytes or nutrition!), and I had a hot spot under the middle metatarsal of my left foot for the last 1.5h. That's become a pretty regular occurrence, regardless of what pedals or shoes I'm using. I should probably go see a podiatrist about it.

Tomorrow Craig is coming up early for a ride at Hall Ranch, so it's off to bed I go!

CCTT #4

2008-04-30T23:42:00.007-06:00

It's been ages since my last post, so I figure I'm due for at least a quick one. (For what it's worth, I have several 'saved up'...I have a bad habit of getting them mostly done but not having the pics uploaded, and that sort of thing. Look for some magical pre-dated posts to appear as soon as I wrangle some time to catch up, hopefully this weekend!)

Tonight was the 4th of the seven races in the Karen Hornbostel Memorial Time Trial Series held at Cherry Creek State Park by the ACA. This is my third year racing the series. It's a little inconvenient for me to drive down for the races since they're on Wednesday evenings and rush hour traffic turns it into anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours of stop 'n' go, but it's really nice to see the rest of the Ride Against the Machine crew each week and race each other into shape. The course is a mere 10.5 miles long, mostly flat out-and-back with only one hill of significance.

I considered missing tonight's race. I haven't been on the bike since Thursday, which was the day of my PRK surgery (posts to come, promise!). I was off the bike for a couple of days due to the surgery, but then I caught some sort of stomach bug that made me so miserable I didn't even want to ride the trainer. On the bright side, I lost about 4lbs. this weekend because I couldn't really eat or drink for a few days. The weight loss was probably all water or muscle, the worst way to lose weight, but I'm trying to stay positive here.

Anyhow, my sleep habits went WAY south--as in 5 hours laying in bed trying to fall asleep Monday night, feeling absolutely miserable and exhausted, finally crashing for a few hours in the morning before dragging myself into consciousness to get to work on Tuesday and be productive. Last night I was able to extend the "sleep" period to about 4.5 hours.

Prep for today's race? Let's see...lack of sleep, check. Poor nutrition (instant ramen and a Monster energy drink), check. Dehydration, check. Oh what the heck, I haven't missed a race yet, including the blizzard-like conditions two weeks ago.

I got to the course WAY early for a change, and actually had to waste some time before starting my warmup. Marni borrowed the fluid trainer to warm up, so I brought along my ancient Minoura wind trainer for the warmup. I did a long (for me) 50min warmup, and timed my wrap-up the same as last week since I made it to the starting line in perfect timing. That would have worked great...except I didn't account for the fact that it takes longer to tear down the wind trainer. D'oh! So I missed my official start by just over a minute, as I had to wait for the minus-one-minute-rider to start before I left the line. Oh yeah, the PowerTap head mount broke again on the way to the starting line after hitting an expansion crack despite my quick epoxy fix at lunchtime. Grrrr! You'd think a $1k gizmo would have a better mounting system...

It was windy (ugh!) but nice and warm (almost too warm for my preference--my engine runs hot). Several of the RATM crew missed their starts as well tonight, and one of the side benefits for me was that I had some fast rabbits to pace me on the outbound stretch until they pulled out of my sight. With the PowerTap mount broken like last week, I again rode "blind" and just went by RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion). At the finish line, my unofficial time per my PowerTap file was 27:03, which is only 11 seconds off my PR that I tied last week. For any geeks that care, my normalized power was 204W (201W average), slightly down from last week. Considering the circumstances of the past week and the strong wind tonight, I'm very satisfied. The official time doesn't particularly matter to me because I'm pretty slow, so it's not like I'm fighting for standings or points.

The rest of the RATM crew also rode very strongly, with most people pretty darned close to their PRs considering the wind (in my opinion). The actual TT times are hard to decipher due to the missed starts, but unless I hear otherwise I think we all did pretty well. Quite frankly, this was one of my favorite CCTT nights yet. The missed start didn't really bother me, and the only real downside in my book is that allergy season apparently started for me tonight (but fortunately not until after I finished the TT). A few of us grabbed some grub at Tokyo Joe's, and then I fought heavy winds for the 60 mile ride home! Thankfully the Jeep did most of the work. *cough, cough*

I'm very much looking forward to next week's post-TT RATM BBQ at Scott's place! G'night.

Band Saw Nirvana

2008-02-19T23:20:00.005-07:00

My newest garage addition arrived Friday afternoon. A while back I went shopping for a bandsaw to cut metal, since I do a fair amount of fabrication for my cars. I ended up purchasing an older 12" Craftsman band saw off eBay. It's a pretty neat design--the table remains flat and the entire bandsaw head tilts up to 45 degrees to make bevel cuts. Even better, it has a DRO (Digital Read Out) for blade angle, speed, and tension. I ordered some nice expensive bi-metal saw blades from MSC Industrial and thought it was the cat's meow.

That was about two years ago. Fast forward to about a month ago, when I started preparing for some more metal fabrication projects on my 2G Talon. Even though the saw cut metal pretty well, it was clear that it was cutting too fast. When cutting aluminum, the blade would get so hot that the aluminum would fuse to the blade and occasionally even seize! I had never truly investigated blade speeds for metal cutting saws; instead, I had taken the seller's word that it was "metal cutting". The slowest blade speed on the Craftsman is 1500fpm. Recommended blade speed for my applications are ~90fpm (stainless steel) and ~300fpm (aluminum). Clearly there was a problem here!

I started by pulling apart the bandsaw to see if I could slow it down via resized pulleys. Some simple math made it clear very quickly that I would need multiple sets of pulleys to gear the bandsaw slow enough for metal cutting. This would require a fair amount of expense and effort to do, with no guarantee that I'd end up with what I wanted in the end. To paraphrase a quote from Top Gun, I decided it was better to retire the saw and get a new one than push a bad position...

Any sane person with my budget would have probably just headed over to Harbor Freight for their 4x6 bandsaw (so named for its cutting capacity of 4" x 6"), on sale at the time for $160. This same saw can be had under many different brandnames from numerous sources, but they all use the same castings as far as I can tell and are basically the exact same saw with very minor changes (different motor, slightly different base, nothing significant). We have one of these saws at my workplace; and despite the fact that it's the most inexpensive bandsaw available, I am of the opinion that it's an overpriced POS.

I briefly toyed with the idea of buying a portable bandsaw, as used on construction sites. I found this Vertikut accessory that would allow one to turn a Milwaukee portable band saw into a vertical metal cutting saw (which I thought I preferred over a horizontal saw--more on that in a bit). Milwaukee also sells an accessory to turn the saw into a horizontal cutting saw, but it uses a chain pipe vise--not ideal for the varied cuts that I expect to be doing. In the end, it would end up costing a pretty penny to go this route, and once again I felt I would be pushing a bad position.

At this point, my problem was that a "good" bandsaw that had all the features I desired was at least 3-4x as expensive as the 4x6 HF version. As much as I love having good tools, I couldn't convince myself that it would be worth spending that much money. In my research I found that there is a subculture of garage machinists out there, some of whom have taken the time to put together some very nice pages detailing 4x6 bandsaw mods (also one here and another one here). Problem is, I want to spend my time on my car, not tweaking a saw! (Ask my wife how easily I get sidetracked...)

I was just about to suck it up and head over to HF to pick up a 4x6 saw when I received an email that made things very interesting. A few days earlier I had found a very nice (albeit somewhat large) saw on eBay at a low price with zero bids. I emailed the seller to request a freight quote--why not, right? Well, his response came hours before the end of the auction, and no one had bid on the saw yet. Adding the two numbers together, the price was very appealing and well below anything I had seen on Craigslist, HF, and eBay. I quickly started researching this particular bandsaw, and I liked what I saw. So, I got an OK from my incredibly understanding and supportive wife, and I bid on this saw--and won! Final price including freight was several hundred below the lowest price I could find on the web without freight, and less than half the price that most places are asking. I think I got a pretty good deal!

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I was preparing to list my bandsaw on craigslist at a significant loss. I mentioned this to a coworker that sits two cubes away, and he seemed interested in the saw. Sure enough, he picked it up a few days later. I gave him a good price, and I'm happy to know it's going to a good home. Even better, I now had space in my garage for the new saw! Thanks to good Q2 FY08 performance, my employer gave me a half-day last Friday. I arranged for an afternoon delivery with the freight company. We had a going-away party for a couple of my coworkers, so I was a bit late getting home. I almost missed the delivery, as the driver was preparing to drive away! Needless to say, I tipped him for the inconvenience.

Here it is, in all its glory:

For those who care, it's a Clarke Power Products 7in. band saw (model BT1025). As the photo shows, it's a horizontal saw (although I've noticed it has provisions for mounting a simple baseplate for vertical saw use like on the 4x6 saw). It has a hydraulic downfeed, which is probably my favorite feature. Unlike the hokey spring tension downfeed adjustment on the 4x6 saw, the hydraulic downfeed allows me to precisely adjust how quickly the saw head "falls" and hence the pressure on the saw blade at the cutting interface via a small knob on the side of a hydraulic cylinder. The saw also has a coolant pump with drip tray, flexible spray head, and bucket reservoir. I haven't cut with coolant before, but I'm excited to have it--heat is definitely the enemy when it comes to cutting metal.

I spent an hour or so aligning the saw and setting it up to make straight cuts, and here are the results of the first few cuts:

The "smeared" cut on the far right was from the Craftsman, in contrast with the other cuts from the new saw. These cuts are a bit rough, most likely due to the relatively coarse 8tpi pitch of the blade that came on the saw, but they're as square as the carpenter's square that I used to set up the saw (i.e. the best I can measure). A few quick passes on the sander will quickly clean up and deburr the edge. I never made cuts this square with the Craftsman vertical saw, even using a guide--they always required refinishing after I made the cut, and occasionally I had to start all over because the part ended up underdimensioned. The Clarke's blade is a whopping 3/4" wide, which certainly helps make the cuts straighter. It's also a bi-metal blade instead of a cheap carbon steel blade like the one that comes with the HF 4x6, so it ought to last a very long time.

Overall, I'm really psyched about my new saw, and I'm looking forward to creating some great new stuff with it!

Brrr...

2007-12-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

The winter driving conditions we've been having lately here in Colorado tend to highlight the weaknesses of vehicles. Weak battery, bald tires, old wipers--it brings out the worst! Fortunately we took care of the tire situation on the Jeep by replacing the 60k mile OEM tires with some new rubber in the form of Continental Cross Contact LX tires. They received high marks on Tire Rack for an all-season tire, and they're priced pretty nice as well.

I had The Tire Source in Boulder order them up for me before Thanksgiving, and we had them put on ~2 weeks ago. I got up at 5:30am to stand in line for the KBCO Studio C Vol. 19 CD, and Michelle got up a few hours later to have the tires installed. After I bought my CDs, I picked up Michelle since the Jeep wasn't ready yet. We nabbed a bite to eat, did some shopping, and cruised back to The Tire Source when they called to pick up the Jeep one hour ahead of their estimate. I've always been a big fan of the customer service that The Tire Source provides, whether on our daily drivers or the race cars. It sounds like they'll be moving soon, and I'll continue to do business with them at their new location.

At the same time that we were replacing the Jeep's tires, I had The Tire Source install some OEM tire pressure sensors that I purchased off eBay. The OEM TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) was an option for our Jeep, but ours doesn't have it. TPMS monitors the air pressure in each tire and warns the driver if any of them are too high or too low. It can also be programmed to monitor the spare with a 5th sensor, and it's smart enough to know when the spare is being used. Since the Jeep sees only daily driver duty, I'm not as diligent about checking the tire pressures regularly like I am on the "performance" vehicles. Thus, I wanted to add the TPMS option for some peace of mind since Michelle is the regular driver of the Jeep--it's my lazy way of looking out for her safety and satisfying my inner geekness at the same time.

Fortunately, adding the TPMS option to our Jeep is as simple as replacing the valve stems on the wheels with the OEM sensors and replacing the EVIC (Electronic Vehicle Information Center, that overhead console thing that tells you the temp outside, the direction you're heading, gas mileage, oil change interval, and so on) with one that has the TPMS circuitry. We don't have the EVIC yet, but I purchased one off eBay earlier this week so we'll have it soon.

I didn't just figure this all out on my own, though--credit is due to wjjeeps.com for the TPMS information page. Incidentally, this site provides an invaluable wealth of information regarding the WJ (1999-2004) Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I spent many hours reading through all the pages when we were shopping for the Jeep. Ain't the internet great?!

The Jeep's new shoes seem to be working quite well so far, according to Michelle. The Overland edition of the Grand Cherokee comes with full-time QuadraDrive 4WD, so it has no problem driving on even the unplowed streets. Our other daily driver, the 92 (1G) Talon TSi AWD, also fares pretty well in the wintertime. The AWD makes it an absolute blast to drive in the snow, and I'll admit that I take advantage of empty lots when no one is looking to play in the snow. It's more than just having fun--it helps me to find the limits of the vehicle in a "safe" environment, and each time I'm honing the skills needed to regain control of the vehicle in case I start slipping and sliding when driving normally. The 1G doesn't have ABS, so in this world of standard ABS-equipped vehicles I have to have a good feel for how much room it will take for me to stop the car in an emergency.

Still, the car is 15 years old and has its share of problems. Last winter I fixed the rear defogger--the connector had somehow busted off the rear window, probably from me loading and unloading bikes all the time. I fixed the A/C late this fall, which strangely enough can be quite useful in the wintertime to prevent window fogging. The biggest shortcoming of the 1G is the wipers. It was getting pretty hard to see on my drive home tonight, so I made a quick stop at Walmart to buy some new wipers and installed them in the parking lot. Ahh, clear vision--such a nice thing to have! I still need to replace the stalk switch because the intermittent setting doesn't work, but that's more of a convenience issue than a safety issue. One thing at a time (and one thing after another, as any DSM owner will tell you)!

Back to the topic of cold weather: a local TV weatherman recently helped clear up a source of confusion for many people. Ever wonder why it's so much colder in the winter when the wind blows? Meteorologists use the term wind chill to describe this phenomenon. But what is wind chill?

"Wind chill," explained the weatherman, "is a combination of the wind and the chill."

That clears it up for me. G'night.

Betasso, Brake Bleeding, and Bike Tites

2007-11-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

[Before I get started, let me just say that I'm dreadfully in arrears on updating my blog. I keep thinking I'll go back and fill in the blanks; but the truth is, time flies, things happen, blah blah... I actually have several posts waiting in the wings for me to organize and upload some pics, so I'll set aside some time this coming holiday weekend to get them published. In the meantime, I didn't want to wait around on yet another post...]

Today was quite possible the longest 3-mile ride I've ever done. How does that work? Let me explain.

Earlier this past week, I suggested Betasso as a first trail ride for Michelle on her new Yeti 575. She had never been there before, but I thought she would enjoy it because it's fairly short and smooth. (Turns out I was wrong--more on that later.)

The first task was to finish checking over and setting up Michelle's 575. When we first unpacked and set it up, I noticed that the brake contact point was very different between the two levers. The front lever firmed up after only a small bit of travel, but the rear lever was nearly parallel to the bar before it became firm. Personally, I prefer the latter--but since Michelle preferred the feel of the left lever, combined with the fact that the levers should have been set up the same in the first place, I concluded that the rear brake needed to be bled.

Michelle's 575 has Avid Juicy 3 brakes. Aside from the namesake, they don't share many similarities with the Juicy Ultimate brakes I installed on my Sugar earlier this year. Most notably, there is no contact point adjustment on the Juicy 3 brakes. Fortunately, the Avid Bleed Kit is compatible with all the Avid Juicy brakes, and I had purchased one to set up the hose lengths on my Sugar (which I have yet to do!).

I must admit, I had reservations paying what seemed like a lot of money for essentially a couple of syringes, some small pieces of vinyl tubing with hose clamps and bleed port fittings, and a small bottle of "performance (DOT 5.1) brake fluid". I finally concluded that it was unlikely I would find the fittings necessary to fit the bleed ports on the Juicy brakes without considerable effort, so I bit the bullet and splurged on the namebrand kit.

After using the kit per the instructions, I must say that it was well worth the price. I watched some seriously large bubbles come out of the system, so clearly it wasn't bled properly when it was assembled. Bleeding the system fixed the problem, and all that was left was to adjust the lever reach per Michelle's preference and we were done. Piece of cake!

Next on the agenda was figuring out how to fit the bikes into the back of the Jeep. Usually seat clearance is the problem with our bikes; and since Michelle's 575 came equipped with a quick-release seat post clamp, this was a non-issue. Instead, the problem was with the height of the handlebars. The 140mm fork, combined with a rather upright bar position, made it so the handlebar could not clear the lip at the top of the Jeep's hatch. I had hoped that the travel adjustment on the Talas fork (which is the main reason I upgraded to it from the originally spec'd Vanilla) would sink the front end enough to clear, but no dice. Pushing the bike deeper into the vehicle wasn't an option either, as the angle required to make it fit behind the folded rear seats would have precluded fitting a second bike next to it.

The only reasonable solution I could conjure in a short period of time was to reduce the height of the Bike Tite itself. I removed the individual Bike Tite mounts from the base piece, then mounted them to the side of a leftover piece of wood. (Incidentally, the leftover piece of wood was a section my dad and I had cut off the 36" solid core door we used to make the garage workbench. Yes, I'm a packrat, but sometimes it pays off.) With this modification, the 575's handlebar just barely clears the Jeep's hatch.

At long last, I loaded the Sugar next to the 575, reinstalled the headlight on the Jeep (another project, another story), packed up our gear, and we headed out to Betasso. It was already 2:15pm when we left the house. With the early sunset of winter days upon us and Michelle's (understandable) reluctance to ride in the dark, I was worried we would not get much riding in.

In retrospect, I should have checked my Sugar over before we left. When we got to the trailhead my front lever would travel all the way to the handlebar, even with the contact point adjusted fully out. D'oh! That's what I get for being lazy and trusting the factory bleed. Pumping the lever with the rear end of the bike in the air to put the master cylinder vertical got the lever to a "good enough to ride" state--thank goodness Betasso requires almost no braking.

Betasso was surprisingly unbusy. For those who haven't been there before, bikes are not allowed on Saturdays and must ride the 3 mile loop in the direction indicated by the arrow at the trailhead. The idea behind the arrow is to facilitate traffic flow with hikers/pedestrians generally opting to go the other direction--it's easier for a bike to yield to oncoming foot traffic than it is to try to pass from behind. Today the direction was counter-clockwise. I've only been to Betasso once before, and at that time the direction was clockwise, so I wasn't really able to give Michelle an idea of what to expect.

The trail was rather loose in spots, kind of a gravel/sand consistency. I don't know of anyone who truly prefers riding in this stuff, but I had forgotten how much scarier it can be for a novice rider since the tendency is to freeze up rather than relax when the wheels start slipping and sliding every which way. Michelle did just fine, but the anxiety got to her and prevented her from truly enjoying the ride. Michelle was also pretty tired, so the climbing (which is truly one of her strong points!) took its toll as well. After one particular loose steep section just before the end of the first loop, the combination of these two factors led Michelle to proclaim "I hate this trail!" Not quite the "this is my favorite trail, ever!" response I had been hoping for!

I had originally mentioned doing at least two loops, but I told Michelle that one loop was enough for today. That didn't sit very well with her because she thought my reason for stopping was because I was upset with her. I had to explain that a) it was clear she wasn't having fun, so why force another loop? and b) a second loop would almost certainly mean we would end up riding in the dark. The first argument wasn't too convincing (Michelle has a very stubborn "never give up" attitude--in a good way!), but the second convinced her before I had even finished the sentence. Did I mention she doesn't like riding in the dark?

The ride wasn't a complete loss, though. Michelle learned how to use the travel adjustment on her Talas fork, and she said that made climbing much easier since she could put down more power with the front end lowered. She also concluded the seat has to go. Fortunately we have a small stash of spare seats in the basement, so the stock Yeti seat will soon be replaced with a WTB Speed She Team. We also need to do some tweaking to the cockpit, starting with a proper fore/aft seat adjustment and probably a shorter stem. She complained that the bars felt too wide, although they're just as wide as the bars on the demo 575 that we rode. A shorter stem may make the reach manageable; we'll see, I guess.

I was very proud of how Michelle rode. I know the scary stuff still makes her anxious; but when I'm riding behind her, she looks like she's just cruising along, out rolling the trail like she's done a million times before. Her lines are good, and she climbs very well. With a little confidence and some practice on the technical stuff (when to brake and when not to brake, weight shifting, etc.) I think she'll be a monster on her 575! I look forward to seeing more smiles like this:

The evening wasn't over, though. The coworker friend of mine that talked me into the Nikon D40 and helped me plan the Yellowstone trip for our 1st wedding anniversary in September had graciously offered to give us a primer on Photoshop use with digital photographs. In just a couple of hours, he opened up a whole new world to us! I'm very much looking forward to using our new skills with the photos we brought back from Yellowstone. I may post some on here, but my real motivation is to print some enlargements to display around our house.

By this point we were starving, so we stopped at the Flatirons Mall on our way home and ate at PF Chang's (a first for Michelle). We stuffed ourselves with delicious food and rolled on home. Michelle went to bed immediately (something to do with getting up at the ungodly hour of 5:45am to go to the gym before work!), but I stayed up to bleed the front brake on the Sugar and (of course) make this blog entry. I'm going to be worn out tomorrow, but at least it's a short work week!

Topeak come back!

2007-08-31T22:30:00.000-06:00

In my KoTR post I mentioned that I loaned my chain tool to a fellow racer on the side of the trail. After the race I checked the lost&found and didn't find it, so I was ready to write it up as a loss.

On Monday, Chris emailed me a link to a craigslist post from someone who had borrowed a chain tool during KoTR but couldn't find the owner afterwards. I emailed the person with a description of the tool I had loaned out, a 10-year old Topeak Power 21 multi-tool that's no longer made; and sure enough, it was mine that he had posted! The package showed up today, and I'm happy to have my multi-tool back. It's nothing particularly special, and $25 would buy something equal or better these days, but it's nice not to have to buy a new one.

That's twice this season that I've loaned out a tool to another racer (I gave my CO2 inflator to another racer in WP Race #5), and both times I got it back. I know that I'd want someone to stop for me if I were stuck without tools or air during a race, if only so I could ride across the finish line, and I hope anyone that reads this will do the same for someone else.

Sugar Time

2007-08-29T23:52:00.000-06:00

Tonight's group ride was Mt. Falcon, and we had a pretty good showing:

I was on the Sugar for this ride, mainly because Michelle didn't want to get stuck riding in the dark again (even with lights!). I had to take a picture of the Sugar for Scott since he always comments on it being too clean--I haven't cleaned it since KoTR!

The car could use a wash too!

We took our time on the ride up, but eventually it became clear that it was going to get dark before we got down. We split into a few groups; Chris, Bill, and I cruised up past the gazebo on the Castle Trail to hit Ute Trail. I remembered to bring my Niterider 15W headlamp this time, and I was happy to have some light on the descent. Towards the bottom I tried to hop around a switchback instead of rolling it, and that's when I discovered that a headlamp doesn't light the ground immediately beneath the rider. *ahem*

After picking myself up and dusting myself off, I learned another lesson--an 8-year old NiCd battery has a limited capacity, and trying to stretch the charge across two rides instead of taking the time to fully discharge and recharge it after Michelle used it on the previous week's ride meant that I was going to be riding in the dark soon. Fortunately we were nearly at the bottom, and I made it back to the car without incident.

Dinner at the Morrison Inn hit the spot as usual, and we learned that Chris was once a calculator-programming geek extraordinaire! If only I could find a link!

Unusual Visitor

2007-08-28T22:13:00.000-06:00

While I was sitting down this evening eating a late dinner of reheated crab legs (thanks, Robyn!), Michelle got up to put some letters in the mail. As she was coming back in, she called out "Come here! You've got to check out this weird bug!" This is what we saw:

This is the first time I've seen a praying mantis in person that I can recall--I didn't even realize they could survive in Colorado! I'm no expert, but this particular specimen appears to be a European Mantis (M. reliogiosa) based on photos from wikipedia.

Mantids are generally considered beneficial insects, as they feed on pest insects. We made sure that the mantid was safely out of the way before closing the door.

By the way, this photo was taken with the Canon SD800 IS that I bought Michelle for her 25th birthday last year. The photo is nothing amazing, but not bad for a point-and-shoot! In fact, it was so dark when I took the photo that I could barely even see the mantis on the LCD to frame it. I was impressed that the macro function was able to focus accurately and quickly despite the darkness, and the flash didn't completely overwhelm the photo like my old Canon SD40 would have. Digital camera technology sure has come a long way!

If you click on the photo to zoom in, you can see that it's not perfectly clear. This is the difference between a point-and-shoot and a dSLR. As much as I think I want a dSLR, I've resigned myself to the fact that most things I do are better served by a compact point-and-shoot. Too often the photos I want to take are spur-of-the-moment, and it's just not practical to lug a huge dSLR around everywhere. I considered a mid-size prosumer camera like the Canon S5 IS, but then I realized that it's a compromise--too big to stick in a pocket, and you lose the fast action and large sensor advantages of a dSLR. An ideal setup for me would be a nice point-and-shoot to carry around everywhere for the spontaneous photos, plus a nice dSLR for those instances where I really want to take a mind-blowing shot. I love photography, and I still think a nice dSLR is in our future, but it's going to have to wait for now.

Toolin' around

2007-08-26T19:25:00.000-06:00

Today my dad came down to hang out, and I suggested he bring his bike along with him. A few years ago I built up a mountain bike for him and gave it to him for his birthday, but we haven't gone for a ride together since then! It got hot pretty early in the day, and I was dreading going out in the blazing heat, but fortunately the clouds rolled in and cooled things off a bit before we headed out. We tooled around the area, explored some paths and neighborhoods I haven't seen before, and overall had a great time wandering around. I think this was the first time we've been riding together since I was a teenager! All in all a good day. I wish I had a picture of us together, especially with my dad fully outfitted in his bike gear, but I forgot until we had already put the bikes away. We'll just have to go riding again so I can get a pic next time--right, dad?

King of the Rockies 2007

2007-08-25T22:01:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to start a blog for a very long time. After reading my friends' blogs and discovering how much easier it makes it to keep in touch with friends and family, share stories with others, and just keep a record of the goings-on that run our daily lives, I found myself composing blog entries in my head. This has been going on for months; but sadly, I've never sat down in front of the computer to type any of them! As they say, there's no time like the present, so I've finally decided to make time to get the ball rolling.

Saturday was the 2007 King of the Rockies ('KoTR' for short) mountain bike race, Race #6 in the Winter Park MTB race series. This is my second year racing in this series. Last year, my first MTB racing season, I raced in the Beginner 25-29 category. I raced hard, learned a lot, and had a lot of fun riding and racing with my friends. I earned a podium in each of the 5 races I entered (missed the 3rd race because I was out of town) and took home 1st place in my category for the series.

Needless to say, this year I had to move up a category from Beginner to Sport. The jump to the Sport category alone is pretty big, but I also turned 30 in June, and that put me in the 30-34 age group this year. For whatever reason, the 30-34 group is way more competitive. After my string of early success last year, my goal this year was simply to place in the top 10 in at least one of the races. As of Saturday I hadn't achieved my goal, so it was my last chance.

The KoTR course (aka 'Tipperary Creek Point to Point') is an absolute blast to ride, and I was very much looking forward to this race because I enjoyed it so much last year. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up with my riding like I should have been lately, and that came back to haunt me during the race. The start was fast, but not obnoxiously so. I was able to hang with the front group up the first 3.5 miles of dirt road to the start of the singletrack. Once on the singletrack, the group settled into a comfortable climbing rhythm. I lost touch with the frontmost group of riders in my category as we encountered slower riders from the groups that started ahead of us, but as far as I could tell I was still mid-pack.

With me from the start of the race was my friend Mike. We've been riding together on our summer Wed. night MTB rides, and for the last few races we've been very closely matched. We usually pass each other back and forth several times during the course of a race--Mike's a very strong and fast descender! So, somewhere on the first climb I jumped ahead of him for the first pass of the day. A little further on, a rider stranded with a mechanical failure on the side of the trail needed a chain tool, so I paused just long enough to toss him the multi-tool out of my seat bag and tell him my name and number so he could find me at the end of the race.

Shortly thereafter I passed a girl on a singlespeed and complemented her on her determination. The rider that passed her before me cussed at her for not getting out of his way--clearly this guy has never been on a singlespeed! It was only the first of several incidents of 'trail rage' I would witness that day, a couple of which were directed at me (more on that in a bit).

As I was nearing the top of the climb, I stood up to give my seated climbing muscles a short break, and I felt my right thigh start to twitch. "Uh-oh," I thought--not a good sign to have cramping issues only a third of the way into the race! Fortunately the first and longest climb was over, so I had a long downhill ahead of me to rest. This was my first race on my new setup--I recently upgraded to disc brakes, changed wheels from UST to Stan's tubeless, and switched tires. To boot, I was riding with Ergon grips borrowed from my biking nut friend Chris. I was behind a rider on a hardtail that wasn't going super fast through the rough stuff, so I decided it was prudent to hang back rather than attempt a risky passing maneuver.

Even then, I almost crashed! I made the mistake of following too close, and on one loose turn I followed the line of the rider ahead of me. It turned out to be a bad line... He was fortunate enough to save it right at the end and avoid a crash; but because I was hard on the brakes to avoid crashing into him, I left the trail. Fortunately I didn't hit anything, and I reminded myself that to finish well I first had to finish! A number of riders I had passed on the climb screamed past as I redirected my bike onto the trail and looked for an opening to hop back on.

Remember Mike? Well, unfortunately he didn't fare so well. Unbeknownst to me until after the race, he also had an off-trail incident...but his ended in a broken collarbone and a trip to the hospital! Mountain biking really is a high risk sport, but sometimes it takes a reminder like this to really bring it home--it could just as easily have been me in Mike's shoes. Heal thee well, Mike--we have some training to do this winter so we can crush the field next year!

After the descent, letting fast riders pass me as needed, we had a quick short climb up Chainsaw. When I saw the steep section coming, I stood up and jammed up it in my middle ring. A bunch of riders in my category were walking up either side of the trail pushing their bikes, and it was almost surreal to blow by them like that! They seemed to look at me in disbelief, and I felt like a king!

That was shortlived, however...remember that muscle twitch I mentioned earlier? Well, this time it came back with a vengeance and threatened a full-on muscle lockup. I tried throttling back on the upper portion of the climb; but after one small spurt from a quick slip of the rear wheel on a root, it became clear that I was about to cramp HARD. As I clipped out of my left pedal, my right leg began to cramp from supporting all of my weight. My left leg joined soon as I stepped off the bike, and both of my legs were screaming in agony together. I had no choice but to crouch down immediately and try to keep the muscles extended as much as possible. The pain was excruciating!

This is where I encountered one extremely unfriendly and uncompassionate female Expert class rider. I had passed her just after the steep section, where she was muttering and cussing at herself (!) as she climbed back onto her bike after walking it. I thought that was a little strange, but self-motivation means different things to different people. I figured she must be upset because the Expert women started well ahead of me, and clearly she wasn't doing very well if I was catching her in my Sport category. Little did I know she was about to unleash her fury on me!

When my legs cramped, it happened so suddenly that I hadn't moved off the main racing line. Common courtesy dictates that one should move completely off the racing line if stopping or walking. Problem is, my legs were so locked that I couldn't even stand up to move either myself or my bike! The woman started screaming at me to get out of the way as she approached, and I tried my hardest; but alas, I was unable to move. She had to stop and dismount, and I apologized prophetically. This was not enough, though, and she spared no profanity in proclaiming her displeasure with what I had just done to her. Both myself and some nearby spectators were stunned into silence by this display. Rather than continue on her way, she stopped to continue yelling at me! It was clear she had no intention to move on and my apologies were getting me nowhere, so I gave one last apology: "Look, I'm really sorry that I lost the race for you..." Apparently this was enough for her.

After squatting for a minute or two I was finally able to stand, and then walk. I was mere yards from the top of the climb; had I just made it a little further, I could have spun the relatively flat section at the top leading to the next downhill and saved myself a couple of minutes in the race. Oh, well. A quick jaunt up Vasquez Road, and then the Vasquez Ford creek crossing. I heard my wife Michelle cheering for me as I plunged into the water, but all I could do was cheer back rather than risking a wet and embarrassing dunk in the river. I made it, and face was saved!

The next descent gave me more time to rest before the final climb up Lower Cherokee, but when the trail turned upwards it became clear that I could do nothing more than keep the pedals turning in my lowest gear and hope to minimize the time I was losing. It was so frustrating to go so slowly that I wasn't even breathing hard, but at the same time I was unable to go any harder because of the cramping! Tons of people passed me, and all I could do was let them by. The Beginner category skips this last climb, and all I could think of was how much time I was losing relative to last year when I got to skip it.

The final descent down Long Trail was blast, and I even got to ride a wall on one of the turns! This isn't me, but this is the wall:

I only rode maybe two feet up the wall from the dirt berm below it, like the upper rider in the photo, but it was the first time I've even seen one of these things in person. I couldn't believe how steep it was! When we dropped onto the final straight along the railroad tracks to the finish, I gave it my all so I wouldn't get caught from behind and teetered on the edge of cramping once again. Across the finish line, another racing season concluded!

It was a mixed bag of results for my friends. Chris told me about what had happened to Mike after I finished, and that was a real downer. The race ended for Mike's wife Jeanie when she came across Mike after his crash. Melissa and Marni both rocked again. Neither finished on the podium this time, but Marni won her category for the series! After a bad crash in the last race, Chris had two flats in this race and lost a ton of time, knocking him out of contention for the series. Nonetheless, he was still upbeat, as always.

Our token Clyde Bill put in an awesome performance, bested in this race just slightly by the biggest rider I've EVER seen, Jason (I'm serious...you can hear murmurs in the crowd every time Jason goes up to pick up an award!). Bill pulled off first place for the season, though, with Jason just behind him in second place. Way to go, guys! Bill will be moving up to Expert next year--right, Bill?

Both Scott and Dan looked strong at the finish. Marni was approaching on the Beginner's course just as Scott was coming down off Long Trail, so we cheered him on by telling him not to let her catch him. Apparently Scott misunderstood that Marni was behind him, so he sprinted off and caught the rider ahead of him as we all watched with jaws agape!

Truesdale put in a strong showing, especially for his first MTB race--KoTR is certainly not the easiest race in which to debut! My hat's off to Truesdale for showing up and giving it his all.

Alright, this premier blog entry has turned into an essay...clearly I have some pent-up writing aggression to get out! Even though the Winter Park racing series has ended, there's plenty of riding coming up... There's 24 Hours of Moab , and the cyclocross season, not to mention fun winter and night rides....

I'll post pics soon, but it's past my bedtime (I must be getting old!). 'Til next time!