K:1

Jon talked about the Fi'zi:k Arione K:1 before. While not least comfortable saddle he had used, it left a bit to be desired. Now, saddles are a... uh... personal choice. What works for me, might not work for him. So, with that in mind, he shipped it out to me to try. I reviewed the original Arione a while back and it ranks as one of the most comfortable saddles I've ever used, period. With that in mind, I agreed to try out this saddle for him, all in the effort to give it the best review possible. Not to burst your bubble, but I haven't reached my conclusion... yet. I do have quite a number of miles on it, though, and thought you might like to know my preliminary thoughts.

Frankly, this is a Love/Hate saddle. Now that my butt has been broken in to the saddle, I find it to be rather comfortable, to a point. On smooth roads I can use the saddle for about an hour, but on rougher roads -- like the one I did this morning that was paved with the devil's own chip seal -- the K:1 transmits all of the road vibration right into my tail.

As Jon noted, this is a good climber's saddle. Or if you are into track racing, this would be a great saddle for that.

Even More Pain and Suffering

These days, I'm busy. Really busy. Probably not any busier than others, but too busy for me. Specifically, too busy to ride.

What could possibly make me too busy to ride? I mean, surely there's something I could give up to buy myself a little ride time? Nope. That's how busy I am.

However, due to the timing of my hectic schedule, I've been stuck in front of a computer (that's what I'm busy doing... sitting in front of a computer) and, obviously, there's the Tour. So, with 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there, I've been getting my cycling fix by reading the tour.

Things that are different about reading Tour footage over Riding

• More drugs are involved.
• I'm not burning calories.
• I get to see the front of other riders instead of just the back as they pass me.

Similarities?

• Um, bikes... and some of the riders shave their heads like I do... I guess that's it.

In short, there is hardly anything I have in common with the Tour--or even just reading about the Tour (and looking at pictures)--which is pretty far removed from actual cycling.

That being said, however, it has really helped me tolerate my time away from my bike. My dilemma is the Tour ending in two days. And I'm not done with my all-consuming project.

This could get ugly.

Oddities

Normally I don't post about races. Normally, I just post about rides and gear... mostly gear.

This year's Tour hasn't been normal.

I've always been a fan of Alexander Vinoukourov (Vino), and felt he got the shaft last year. This year, he crashes early on, messing up both knees. Does he quit? No way, he soldiers on winning* two stages in the process.

Now, it turns out, he didn't. Sort of. Legally, any way. So, he's out for homologous blood doping. And his team with him.

Next up, Cristien Moreni gets popped for doping -- he used testosterone -- so he gets the boot. And his team with him.

Now, it turns out that Michael Rasmussen -- you know, the guy in yellow for the last week or so -- gets fired from his team and is kicked out of the Tour de France. Why? He lied about his whereabouts earlier in the year. You see, they -- Pro cyclists -- have to inform the governing bodies of their location at all times. Filed ahead of time. So that they can be found for out of competition drug testing. Rasmussen said he was in Mexico -- where he resides -- when, in fact, it seems he was in Italy. Oops.

I'll not level any accusations about other riders and I will continue to watch the Tour, but man, this sure does make one bitter.

Epic, Part... Final

It takes longer to write this thing that it did to ride it!

Last time I left you we had completed the paced road climb out of Harlan.

The road turned back into gravel and we dropped down a bit to the river. The descent was notable for two reasons; first, the rock used to gravel the road was HUGE and, second, the downed limbs almost took me out -- and D. along with me. We were descending rather quickly, and I was trying to not just keep up, but lead the guys on mountain bikes. I had never been on this stretch of road and just as I pass D. we round the corner and there are two downed trees, one from each side of the road. I swing right, hard, to avoid the first and see the second. I lock up my rear wheel and just make the turn back to the left to go around the second tree. D. is right behind me. We pick up speed again, round another corner -- are trees near road corners weaker? -- and there is another downed tree. There is no way to go around it, and without suspension and fat tires, there is no way I can plow through it at the speed I was going. I grab as much brake as I can -- remember D. is right on my tail -- and make it over the limbs at a walking pace. D. however, couldn't see around me well enough to see my predicament and was very close to running over the top of me when I hit the binders. Instead of taking me out -- Thanks! -- he goes to my right, over the downed limbs. Good thing he had suspension and big tires! Whew... tragedy avoided.

After this hair raising descent we meandered through the lush flora near the river's edge.


After more gravel road -- at this point we had been on the bikes for over 6 hours -- and all the gravel road was looking the same. We rode some fantastic double track. This was swoopy, overhung, water-barred and just about as much fun as a roller coaster.

This was fun... and it was fairly long too. It more than made up for the pavement section.

We only had one set of horrible climbs to go... They were steep and the large gravel was loose, meaning that I couldn't stand up to pedal, for the most part I had to stay seated -- or nearly so -- to maintain traction. But, I am happy to report, I managed to stay out of my granny ring. My knees weren't happy the next day -- or next week -- but I did it.

We were almost there... looking into the distance you could see where the land ended and the water picked up.

The bay shown above is used for oyster farms. You can see them in front of the clump of trees in the middle.

One more obstacle -- that we didn't foresee -- and some singletrack and we were there. The obstacle? A downed tree that prevented us from using the road.


A short hike around:

And we were home free.

Not long after this, the epic was over. We had ridden from Corvallis to the Coast, mostly off pavement.

Using a cross bike was both good and bad. It was great on the smaller gravel, and the pavement. It wasn't so good on the singletrack, or when the road/trail was totally overgrown. Without suspension I couldn't relax much and toward the end my shoulders were really feeling it. I had to pick my lines with care, whereas had I used my Jekyll I could have just rolled over the rougher spots with nary a care. Next year, I'll probably do it on my mountain bike.

New Gear

Ok, I know that I have not finished up my ride report. To be honest, it started out as a two-part idea that has gotten bigger than anticipated. I don't want to have crazy long posts -- most of you visit during work hours so I am just thinking about your production here -- so two parts became four. Other stuff is happening, though, so I thought I'd take a brief hiatus and let you know about some cool stuff that just landed on my door.

But first, check out the Polo Pony review, then go buy one, I am going to pick up two more, then come on back here... I'll be waiting.

It's no secret that I like riding bicycles -- I do it whenever I can, which is very nearly every day. But I have small children at home. All they see is their Dad leaving them to spend time on the bike. What to do? Enter Baby Jogger.

This week I received the Switchback, shown below.

This fits two kids, switches between trailer and stroller modes without needing to pack anything separate (except for the front wheel). The trailer arm folds up and stows, as do the fork legs for the front wheel. It even has a brake for the jogger mode.

The other item that they sent was the ATS, or All Terrain Swivel stroller.

The key to this stroller is that the front wheel is allowed to rotate for maneuverability, or, if you choose, you can lock the front wheel straight so that the stroller behaves like a traditional jogger.

The rear of the stroller is also suspended to help cushion the blows that junior receives when the stroller is used off road. It is All Terrain, you know.

With these two items, I can take my kids with me. While this is a good idea to them now after the ride it might be a different story.

The trailer has a roll cage, right?

Epic, Part 3

Of course, the ride wasn't all Stinging Nettle. We also saw quite a bit of this:


One of the cool things about riding with a doctor (R.) -- who is also a life-long outdoorsman -- is that you get interesting facts about the stuff you are riding through. For example, not being botanically inclined, I did not know that the flower above was called Fox Glove. R. kindly let me know this. Then he went on to say that there is a heart medication out there that is based on this flower. You see, the plant contains a drug that depresses the heart, so it is used to settle the heart down during arrhythmia. Of course, now the drug is synthesized, but it originated with this little flower.

Then he hands me a large clover and asks if I had ever eaten one. Uh... no. He explains that it is Sorrel. In small quantities it is perfectly fine to eat, and would be good in a salad. Don't eat a bunch, though, it interferes with normal digestion -- whatever that means. Tasty, though.

Back to the ride.

Buried under the foliage was the trail. Along with the trail were many limbs/sticks/pieces of wood lying in wait to knock us off our bikes. These would be nearly parallel to our direction of travel, damp, and devoid of any feature that would provide traction. D. and C. refer to these as "slippery sticks." Apropos, if you ask me.

Since I had stopped to take some pictures, I was chasing back to the rest of the group when... WHAM... I am down. I hop back up, take a quick survey of myself and my bike and I am back up and riding... a little slower perhaps, and with slightly more care, but I am still trying to catch up.

Once we regroup and pop back out onto the gravel road -- having completed the first adventure section -- I discover that one of my water bottles is missing. The full one. The one I hadn't been using. Now, this sounds worse than it is, since I was carrying a hydration pack. The bottles were full of Cytomax. On long rides I count on this stuff for energy and acid buffering for my legs. And, I really liked the bottle it was in. Not enough to go back mind you, but I missed it nonetheless.

After a short downhill -- why are the downhills so short when the uphills are so long? -- we hit the "town" of Harlan.


This is just outside Harlan. You can't buy anything there, there are no services. If you need water, there is the river -- hope you have a filter! If you like living near no-one this is your kind of place.

In Harlan, we pick up the last stretch of pavement. This is the biggest climb of the ride, I think, and thanks to the pavement, it's quite do-able.

The image above was taken while riding, over my shoulder at D. riding up the hill behind me. We were riding through lush forests, mostly in the shade. It was wonderful. We were also 2/3 completed.


Once we hit the top, the road returned to gravel and turned down. I don't have many pictures of the next bit because... well... I was hanging on for dear life at times. At times, the gravel turned into fist sized rocks -- my poor 38mm tires! -- and since I was the only one without suspension, I really had to watch what I was doing, and I had to pick my own line. Thank goodness it didn't last very long. If you look at the profile from part 1, we had now gone over three "peaks." The fourth little set of humps wasn't terribly memorable, and I was starting to ride in autopilot mode. But it was during this bit that I began thinking about the gear I was in.

On my 'cross bike, I run a mountain crankset. This gives me 44/32/22 chainrings. Out back, I was running a 12-25 road cassette. It dawned on my that not once had I used my granny ring up front. I started to get excited about this. I thought, "hey, I can middle ring this whole ride!"

I confided this to D. and he responded, "oh, we've got a couple of really nasty climbs up ahead." Oh... thanks.

Next time, I'll wrap up this long tale, and let you know if I did make it without resorting to my granny.

Epic, Part 2

We started at 6am. Frankly, this is earlier than I normally even think about getting up to ride -- especially on a day off -- and here we were rolling out of the parking lot.

My bike is on the right... the odd one in the group. Due to the fact that there is quite a bit of gravel road on this ride, I opted to run my 'cross bike. I was running 39mm wide tires, and these turned out to be too wide since I was hitting my non-drive side chainstay at times. Other than that, the bike performed with aplomb. Notice there are two water bottles on my bike. I'll miss one of them before the end.

We, as a group suffered exactly zero flats on the ride; pretty amazing, really. We did have our first mechanical just a mile from the parking lot. R.'s cleat was acting up. Pulling over, he discovered that he was missing a bolt, and that the other one was loose. Uh, oh. This would make for a l-o-n-g ride, unless... Asking around, we discovered that C. had a spare bolt with him! We fixed the cleat and off we went.

Right away, we were climbing. It wasn't a long climb, but it was steep. The climb started out on pavement, but soon became pea gravel. After we passed through a gate, into an area that is off limits to motorized traffic, the gravel was loose and harder for me on my skinny tires. Standing up was out of the question. Thank goodness it was short.


Once over this small rise, it was mostly downhill to the second section of pavement. The pavement was uneventful, leading us to a nice covered bridge.

This was our first break of the day, and after a brief stop, we soldiered on. We were back on gravel now, and we were loving it. The temperature was still cool -- mid 60's -- and this was the whole reason we left so early, so that was good.

After meandering along the Mary's River for a while, the road turns up, and gets interesting -- at one point disappearing all together!

As we are riding up the first major bit of climbing -- not as steep as the climb we had right off the bat, but much longer -- C. regales us with what happened to him while he was scouting this route. It turns out that he got stuck in the section we are heading toward. His 2WD Suburban just wasn't up to the task of getting him out of a slippery, muddy, rutted double track and going forward, as you'll see, was not a question. He ended up getting towed out and if you ever wonder what the expense is of getting towed of a remote location... well... lets just say it's way, WAY more than your normal towing fee.

After the gravel road climb, we enter a more rugged double track, and this is where the adventure begins. You didn't think this would be a tale of one l-o-n-g gravel road ride, did you? Oh no... the rest of them were on mountain bikes, you recall.

The two track looked like easy sailing at first. It was fast, it was swoopy -- well, as swoopy has two track can get -- and it was pointed down! Then, it got rutted. Then it got overgrown. Then... it disappeared.

Rutted double track:

Hey, where's the trail?
Now the fun part... much of this was stinging nettle.

C. and D. had quite the run in with the stuff last year on their first aborted attempt at the C2Sea. This time, they came prepared for it with plastic bags for their legs.


They even had some for R. and I, but we declined. We were too tough for that. We could handle the little stings. We were MEN, darn it. We got stung and, speaking for myself, inwardly wondered if the plastic bags weren't a good idea. Oh well. Next year, maybe. If no one has a camera out.

Next time, the sea and "where did my full bottle go?" and "you can eat this?"

Epic, Part 1

Epic rides. They happen on the road, off the road, have a mix of both, have a long ride time, many miles, an obstacle to overcome, and more. What makes them all stand out is the memory they make. These are rides that stay with you for years. You look back on them with fondness... they are the rides you talk about. No one talks about riding the local loop for the hundredth time, but that time you ended up riding out in the dark after 10 hours in the saddle... that is the stuff of legends.

Four years ago, I rode the entire North Umpqua Trail in a day with T. and another friend. That was epic, no matter how you define it. It was long -- both in distance and time -- and it was almost entirely singletrack. 70 miles worth. I have never done a ride since, or before, that stands out in my mind as much as that ride does. It is a reference point. Ironically, we did a training ride for it that involved riding the nearly as good McKenzie River Trail as an out and back ride... that one ended up being 52 miles of singletrack and would have been epic, but it paled in comparison to the Umpqua a few weeks later.

I don't get to do enough epic rides.

One week ago, however, I did. I took the day off to ride from Corvallis, OR to the ocean at Newport, off road. There were four of us, C. D. (C's brother), R. and myself. This was C.'s route, and it differs from the route that is being put together officially in a few spots and, notably, it avoids Mary's Peak -- the tallest peak in the Coast Range. That isn't to say there wasn't any climbing, there was. There was 6100ft of climbing.

As you can see, there isn't really any flat areas. We were either going up, or going down. Also, there is very little net elevation loss, since we started at only 300ft above sea level.

The route is similar to the one below (click for jumbo size) but the starting point was at Bald Hill, not in town, as shown.


We met up at 6am and shortly thereafter, we were off! More in Part 2.

Pace Arrow

I can usually ride my own pace, no matter who is riding with me. I think that this ability comes with age, but I no longer feel the need to keep up with those younger and faster than me. I can merely shrug their taunts off and convince my self that I have nothing to prove, they know I'm slow. There is, however, one function on my road bike's computer -- and most bike computers -- that I cannot ignore. I cannot stop looking at it. I cannot rationalize my way out of it. It's the Pace Arrow.

This is a small indicator -- sometimes an arrow, sometimes a dot -- that indicates if I am above or below my average speed. I try and stay above. This is rather easy at first, especially on my commutes to work. You see, I start out with a slight uphill so after the first mile my average is usually only 14mph, or less. As I continue to ride, however, my average speed goes up, and this is where things get interesting.

The faster I go, the higher my average; the higher my average speed, the faster I have to go to keep the arrow pointing up. At some point, I reach an average speed that I can just barely exceed. By this time my legs are burning, I am gasping for breath and I am paying more attention to that tiny little devilish arrow than I am to the road. It becomes everything. I am giving my all -- truly my all -- to keep above that magic, ever-changing, average speed.

And I am becoming faster because of it.

The beauty of this is that it works in the wind, up hills, and on the flats. Rather than trying to maintain a particular speed, I just try to stay ahead of the average.

So, if you are looking for a computer for your bike, get one with the pace indicator... but don't say I didn't warn you!

Monster Lupine

If you haven't seen it, head on over to THIS thread on MTBR and check out the light pictured below.

What I know, and to be honest, what I know is from the thread I linked above: 1500 lumens and can be dimmed to 1W for, I assume, unreal run time. No word on price, yet. I am sure, however that it will be a case of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." I'll post more information when I get it.

200L on the Road

I've been asked for some images showing what the 200L is like on the road. I normally use the off road setting because the trees and grass show the beam shape well -- but off road pictures don't show how well the signs light up. So, below is the road I chose, with all the lights off. As usual, click on the image for a bigger version.

What you can't see in the image above is the stop sign that is beyond the street light -- it's about as far from the street light as I am, but farther down the road.

Here is one 200L, aimed near to me.

The bright spot is the stop sign -- it's very nearly dead center in the above picture. Now, with two of them on:

Both of these were aimed near. You can see the difference below, where I have one on again, but this time aimed further down the road.

With both of them on, aimed like the one above, you get this:

Finally, if you are running two of them, you might as well aim one close and one far, like this:

One thing to keep in mind, my 200L lights aren't using the current lenses. The spot intensity is about the same, I'm told, with slightly more light spill.

Tour de Cure: Three (final)

A note from Jon:
Finally, I am done with this rather lengthy ride report. My life got very busy recently with my involvement with the local Scout Troop (We built kayaks and went on a river trip). Sorry for the delay.

With 20+ miles to go, I definitely was on the homeward stretch. After all, a 20-mile ride is usually just over an hour. Unfortunately, what with my non-existent training schedule, they were by far the hardest. One thought that continually popped into my head was this: Even though I was exhausted when I finished LOTOJA, I always felt like I could have pushed a little faster pace. i didn't want to feel that way at the end of this ride.

My feelings at this point are familiar to anyone who's done a long hard ride. I was tired. I was uncomfortable. I needed to eat and drink but didn't want to do either. Of course, part of the reason I didn't want to drink was that I was tired of making stops. I felt like if I could just do the next 20 miles without a stop, I'd make it. On the other hand, I wanted to stop so I could get off my saddle and stop spinning my legs. My compromise was at about mile 85. I stopped, but it was my last stop.

I was pretty much riding solo at this point. I'd see a few people here and there, but nothing was very cohesive. My legs were black and all I could think about was finishing this ride. Around mile 95, I discovered that someone I passed was locked on to my rear wheel. It didn't bother me a bit. I thought, if I can help out some poor soul along this wretched course, all the better.

Shortly thereafter, I noticed I'd dropped him. Oh well. In despair I kept a careful eye on the time. I didn't think I'd make it and my heart sunk at the thought.

Around this time, the American Diabetes Association started putting up signs along to road for encouragement. Actually, mostly it was just advertising for them--describing the problem that is diabetes--but it gave me good comfort to read about wide-spread diabetes is and how we're making a difference.

Around another corner and I rode past a waste-treatment facility. Just when I thought the miles were torture enough ... but, oh, the smell!

Before I knew it, I was back in Brigham City. I had no idea how far off from the finish I was, but I knew Brigham City is pretty small, so I figured it wasn't long. I looked at the stop-watch: 5:50. I might just make it. And that is when I was able to dig deeper than before and find some energy I didn't know I had. I was totally cooked, and yet I stood up and started hammering on the pedals. One by one, I started to pass people who--also knowing they were near the end--started to ease up a bit.

Stop signs and construction. That's what lay between me and the finish. I flew over gravel pits where asphalt once was. As I neared the stop signs, I was waved on by a motorist. A glance at my watch told me it wasn't over yet, but close. So close and I might not make it.

And yet, there it was. Without hardly noticing, there it was. Before I knew it, I was being stopped by a friendly volunteer asking me for my number. Before I could think or react, though, I had to stop my watch and check my final time.

5:57

I made it. I beat my goal--even with stops and without James to speed me up. Besides generally feeling like I couldn't move, I was elated.

Final Stats
19.34 mph average speed
108 miles
5 hours 57 minutes