More drink and thanks to the city of Ankeny

Surly's Coffee Bender. Very very interesting, with a hefty brown ale as a base, and a liberal dose of coffee. Most coffee beers are stouts or porters, I'm a fan of adding it to not super dark beers provided the base style can withstand the additional (and often strong) flavor. This beer certainly delivers in that regard. If you're not local to Minnesota, and particularly the twin cities, you probably can't find this beer, but if you see it, I highly recommend it.


While not actually a beer, I picked up something else in Minneapolis that I'm excited about: Rogue's Pink Spruce Gin. This is Rogue's interesting and delicious spruce gin aged in Pinot wine barrels, which impart more complexity and a lovely pink hue. If you like gin at all, give it a shot. I personally really like it, but find the cucumber notes to be a tad pronounced for my taste, but then again I'm not a big cucumber fan. While my photo above doesn't really show off the color, nor the taste to be fair, it does show off how good my martini looked.

Finally, I'd like to give a big 'thanks' to the city of Ankeny and whatever crew they've got that keeps the bike paths clean. For the past couple winters that I've been commuting to the shop, the paths are generally cleaned of snow quickly, nearly completely, and I am appreciative. Someone told me it's only done on school days, and I've noticed that big snowfalls on weekends is not cleared until midday on Monday, but I'm impressed they bother at all, especially as far away from any school that I ride.
The above photo is on my trip home after some snowfall both overnight and during the afternoon. If you look closely you can see the edges of the path, clearly piled with snow previously plowed, and the snow is obviously not very deep. Thanks Ankeny city workers!

Minnesota trip: beers and no bikes

This past weekend I went with a friend to Minneapolis to see some other friends' of ours play a kick ass metal show. We arrived Friday before the snow started falling, we fell asleep with the snow starting to accumulate, but we didn't think much of it. By the time Saturday afternoon came around and the snow was still coming down it became clear there would be no show, and we would not be going anywhere for any reason. Then this happened:


Yep. there was enough snow that the roof of the Metrodome fell in. Crazy. So we drank fancy beers and watched movies and football all weekend.
On Monday we finally ventured out into the world. Everything seemed fine, just snowy. We had originally planned to get to a beer store, a home brew store, and a few restaurants. We only went to the homebrew place and a beer store. And holy cow did we go to a beer store. Found all sorts of goodies, all of which I'm sure I'll talk about here in good time. That said I set a personal high score: $214. Sure there was a $40 bottle of gin + 6 Bourbon Barrel Quads + my normal amount of fancy beers, but wow, over $200. Guess I don't need to spend anything on beer for quite a while. I, of course, grabbed a 4 pack of each variety of Surly. Despite being from the Minneapolis area, the brewery has nothing to do with the bikes.
So far I've cracked open two of them, the Furious, and the Cynicale.
The Furious is Surly's 99 IBU American style IPA. Big hop flavor, smell that I noticed while pouring, easily 18 inches from my nose, and a solid malt back, all add up to a competent entry into the world of American IPAs. Nothing super duper amazing to report, but it is a quality beer. Maybe I'm getting burned out on monster hoppy IPAs or perhaps my palette is maturing, or I just need something more than a ton of hops to make me live a beer, but I'm not in love with this beer. Sure it's good and well made, but nothing about it stands out in a sea on similar brews. Certainly worth a try, and I'm glad I picked it up, but it wouldn't be my first choice in a bar that had other AIPAs.

The CynicAle is a very well made farm house ale. The French farm ale is either a new trend in craft brewing, or a style I'm just becoming more aware of, but either way, I dig it. Surly's example is really really good. Smooth honey and hop flavors in the nose and initial flavor which fads to a lingering peppery aftertaste. Easy drinkin and super smooth for sure. Not sure I like it more than something like Tank 7 from Boulevard, but it's pretty close, and a bit different flavor wise.

Cold commutes and ( you guessed it) new beers

Weather has gotten colder, the commute has required a bit more gear, and I've kept drinking.
Temperatures at my work bound commute have been in the mid-20s and the trip home has been that or colder, plus the unstoppable wind of course. As such I've donned my snowboard helmet and goggles, as well as an extra layer sometimes. Especially with the stronger winds, I've noticed my gloves aren't as warm as they once were. I'm using the Specialized Sub Zero, which is really a liner and an outer shell system, which as been working really really well, until recently. See:

I've got 2 full winters of every day use out of these things, and plenty of other use as well, so I'm not terribly upset that they're wearing out. I am a bit upset that the new model doesn't fit my hands worth a damn. I'd still wear these in a 40F rain storm, but for wind chills in the low teens, they aren't cutting it any more. Now I have to figure out new gloves. Pondering lots of things, lobster mitts are highly likely, bar mitts are also a possibility. Not sure what to do, and I kinda need to make a decision.

In less cold, and somewhat happier news, I'm still drinking fancy beers. Rye beers have been a recent "thing" in the beer scene. They've been around basically forever, but rye is having a huge resurgence in popularity as an ingredient. Perhaps the rye whiskey explosion of the last few years has spilled over into the beer world. Whatever the cause, I'm fairly excited about it. Rye has a spicy and deep flavor profile that adds an interesting flavor to any beer it's used in.
Left Hand Brewing's Rye Bock, is a smooth yet complicated beer, with a spicy nose, heady middle, and smooth finish. A traditional bock (which as you know is a lager) is smooth and full of flavor. This beer does not disappoint, big props to my buddy and drinking cohort Andrew for hooking this up.
Sour beers are definitely the wave of the future. Set to supplant ultra high octane IPAs as the way for brewers to show off their skills. Until know the way to (cynically) judge a brewer/brewery was to check their huge IBU IPA, both numerically and flavor wise. Sours are awesome, tart, complex, often fruity, generally aged, and they come in a ton of varieties. A hallmark of the style is the lactic/wild fermentation that imparts that wonderful tart/sour flavor. New Belgium's La Folie is a great example. Based on a Flander's brown and aged in spent wine barrels, it's tart, deep, with a sour finish that's outstanding. A serious top notch sour, and fairly readily available. Go buy some.

rough day? fancy beers to the rescue

Today was a bit rough. As it sometimes happens in retail, people all showed up at once, then no one was in the store for a long time. This went on all day; I rarely had just one person in the shop, but usually had 3-4 that all arrived at nearly the same time, and that's never a fun time. It started pretty much from opening the doors onward. Three people were in needing different things in the first 15 mins, two of them needing to get set up on our trainers, which can take a while. Anyhoo, somewhere in that process I pinched a finger in something and took a good chunk out of it. It was deep enough/a big enough piece missing that it quickly soaked through a single bandaid. It's on my left index finger so, while it doesn't hurt much, it's super annoying doing anything with two bandaids on a single finger. When I got home, I cracked open a couple fancy beers and promptly enjoyed the hell out of them. Enough petty bitching, on to the beers:

Three Floyd's Broo Doo Harvest Ale.

Wow. I can't believe I drank a beer with a wish troll on the label, but I'm really glad I did. This fall seasonal is wet hopped, which means the hops aren't dried before being added to the beer. In this case they claim 24 hours or so from harvest to wort. This technique enhances the aromatic qualities of the hop and impart a certain "fresh" characteristic. According the their website, this brew has 80 IBUs, which isn't surprising given the incredibly citrusy nose to the beer, but depsite the large-ish IBU count, it is smooth and entirely not bitter. The smell is the biggest attraction here, full of citrus, pine, floral notes, and more citrus. They don't say exactly which hops are involved but I'd be surprised if Cascades and Citras, weren't involved. There's enough malt to balance the potent hop dose, but not enough to muddy up the complex flavors involved. A++++ would drink again. Next up is a beer that is finally available in the US, and one all my globe trotting friends insisted I had to try:

Guinness Foreign Extra

A different version/style of their regular stout. It has finally gotten out of the UK and into my grocery store. It is different, richer, deeper, just a bit more flavorful. Certainly not going to be drinking this all the time, but it's a nice change. If you like Guinness, or darker beers in general, give it a shot. Decidedly not on par with something like Shakespeare Stout from Rogue, but it is an new option in the vein of "regular" Guinness, and that's a-okay.

Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA

The color is highly accurate.

Fact: Stone makes several mighty fine IPAs.
This is an extra fine one. Brewed to commemorate the brewery's 14th anniversary, they've used all British ingredients to really outdo themselves. The flavors are well balanced, and overtly hoppy. Piney, peppery, earthy, with a scant whisper of citrus, the hop character is big bold and nearly overpowering. A strong malt profile supports the 100+ IBUs, and is noticeable in the middle of the tasting. Hops up front, malty middle, and a bitter and lingering finish.

If you see this beer, buy it.

JingleCross race report and (as always) more beers

Last night (Friday November 26) I went to Iowa City to race in Jingle Cross Rock's night race. Being a lowly category 4, my race took place during daylight hours, but by the end of it, the lights were on and I was glad they were, as parts of the course were getting pretty dark.

It was pretty chilly (low 20s with some wind) and the course was pretty tame (we skipped the monster hill), but overall a twisty, flat, quick fun course. Because I didn't know how I'd feel, nor how the weather would be, I didn't register ahead of time. This turned out to be a mistake. Riders were lined up six wide in the order they registered, so I was almost dead last. I'm 99% sure I in the last or second to last row of guys. With 70 or so people in the race and a short starting chute, followed by a fairly large amount of tight turns, the first lap was a total mess full of little passing and lots of traffic. After that though, it opened up a bit and I started passing scads of people. Eventually I worked my way up to 11th which is where I would finish. Other than keeping it upright over the sketchy gravel corners, the highlight of my night was catching a couple guys down the finishing straight towards the start of the second to last lap, and another shortly thereafter in the twisties, and the announcer said something like "and a good ride out of Mark Fiddelke, passing a couple three guys right here in front of us, he started well at the back." Not only did he say something cool about me, he pronounced my last name correctly. Awesome. One thing that stuck out as I talked to other people was that a local area junior racer finished 4th. He was the second person registered so he started front row. I am a bit faster than this kid, and if I'd registered a week ago, I coulda been in contention. Nothing I can do about it now and due to my lack of training and general not fastness I figured I had next to no chance to even be more than packfill, but mildly frustrating.

More about the course: it was mostly flat and twisty, with some dicey corners around the gravel paths/roads in the fairgrounds. The stairs/ramp/overpass thing was awesome and really tricky. I was sad we had no barriers other than that, and the Cat 4 skipped the big hill (dubbed Mt Krumpt), which is what they've done every year, but I could have made tons of ground on it. Plus I rode it once in my warm up laps and while slippery and bumpy, it wasn't unreasonably hard. It got worse later as the temperature dropped and the ground firmed up with an almost icy top layer. Verdict: fun but coulda been a little more technical.

After the race I hung out with the guys from World of Bikes in Iowa City. Both the guys from the shop and a few of their customers, all kinds of fun yelling at the other racers (including the pros), and drinking a few beers. Great buncha folks, glad I was a part of it.

I currently have no photos because I obviously couldn't take any during my race, and after my hands were too cold to use my phone to take any. Plus everyone else did a great job of it I'm sure, and most of them aren't back yet from the three day event. That said, check out the little coverage VeloNews did about Friday's night race, with some photos: go here.

One thing I do take pictures of: beer.
New Glarus's Wisconsin Belgian Red. It's a classic Belgian style ale with a bunch of tart cherries in it. Bordering on a sour, this beer is tart, fruity, and utterly drinkable. Sadly, unless you're in Wisconsin or are passing through, you will not find this beer. They only distribute in their home state, and have no plans to up production to meet demand.

Anchor Brewing has released their 2010 Holiday Ale. They change the recipe up a bit year to year, and as always, this one is a good one. Spicy, rich bodied, smooth, malty, everything a cold weather, and particularly a christmas, beer should be. Out now until mid-January, grab some if you see it. Totally worth it at $9-10/six pack.

Thoughts on different ride mental states

First, let me say that many of us ride bikes for fun and to get some exercise. Many/most of us notice a better mental state post ride as well. Not just a post workout high, but a deeper and longer lasting reduction in stress and worry. Problems seems smaller/easier to deal with after a good ride. Hell, when I've been busy and in a bad mood for a couple days, my wife damn near boots me out the door.
My two rides on Wednesday made me practically a new person. I felt great for a couple days. I thought about it later though, and realized that road and mountain biking are effective in these ways for totally different reasons.
Mountain biking is about being intensely in the moment. Every second is about the thing you're doing and the immediate next thing, cornering, making it up and over a log pile, hitting a jump or drop smoothly. This type of focus blocks everything else out, and if you can completely ignore a worry for a couple hours, how bad can it really be? Mountain biking is also seriously fun, with the opportunity for lots of small challenges that as you complete each one give you a minor self esteem boost, which can only help if you're feeling a little down or stressed or whatever.
Road riding is more of a time to ride hard and let your mind wander, see other angles to problems, and just destress. The physical workout helps with the stress but the meditative quality to simply allow your mind to wander completely is what really does it for me.

You know what else helps you destress and relax?

Booze. And for me at least, specifically beers, the fancier the better.
This weekend I went to downtown Des Moines and some of my favorite bars: El Bait Shop and the Red Monk. I sampled a delicious Java Stout from Bell's:
Very strong coffee flavors, smooth if bitter finish, definitely one of the better coffee related beers I've had. I really like the deep coffee flavors, lots of beers half ass the coffee and have "hints" or "subtle touches" which for most beers is a dumb idea. More coffee flavor = better.

I also had a beer I had only recently seen in stores, usually for $20/4 pack, Delerium Noel. Fancy spiced holiday ale from the Huyghe Brewery. Plenty of spices are involved, but my average pallet could only pick out a few, nutmeg features prominently, and the whole experience is really really good. Look for the pink elephants in Santa hats:

Currently (Sunday night), I'm enjoying the hell outta a Widmer Brothers Barrel Aged Brrrbon. A fine entry into the current popular trend of whisky/whiskey/bourbon aged beers. It's smooth and surprisingly sweet, but has a solid bourbon bite, with a lingering sweet caramel finish that dries the longer you let it sit. Not as good as a Boulevard Smokestack that's been aged in something, but a solid option. Plus, it comes in a box:
Things like higher end scotch come in boxes, why not a fancy beer?
The beer is actually a deep red color. Digital photos being what they are, it came out a bit darker than it actually is, but trust me, the color is great, the smell is even better, and the taste is very good as well.

Wednesday rides

As many of you central Iowa (or even midwest in general) people can attest, the weather has turned. This week was awesome, until today. Wednesday is my day off, and I took big advantage of what would likely be my last good day to ride for a while. I got up and out and headed down to the Center Trails in the middle of Des Moines. Conditions were outstanding; dry, fast, hard, every single piece of trail was ridden in, and excellent. The temps were in the mid to upper 60s. I wore a short sleeve jersey. That's how nice it was, summer weight clothes in early November, absolutely perfect. Check it:
I rode ever spur of every trail I could find. Spent a hair over 2 hours on the bike with several loops through Hillside in particular because it's the most fun and has the most flow. So much fun. I had a goofy grin on my face most the day.

After such a great ride with such great weather, I knew only one thing could be done that afternoon: more bike riding.
I generally ride to Ames on Wednesdays to drink fancy beers for not much money and do a team trivia thing at a bar, then take a car home from Ames with my wife, who's in Ames everyday for grad school anyway. This week was no different, save they finally finished R38 (pictured above). R38 is the road that runs north/south through Slater and has a bike lane on it. Before recently it was closed near Kelly, requiring a detour and several miles of gravel. Not a big deal but a minor hassle, and I'm glad they've opened the road. As you can see it is super smooth, and in great shape. With a tailwind, the ride was fast and fun, and ended with me at my favorite bar, with some of my favorite beers, all for $2 or less. Welch Avenue Station absolutely kills it on Wednesdays with any beer in the building for $2 or less. This includes things like Sam Adams winter lager, Spaten Optimator, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, etc etc. They have 19 beers on tap, about half "good" and quite a selection of bottles. I had 3-4 fancy beers for less than I would have paid in a grocery store. It was awesome.
Only minor problem I had was that I had wanted to brew some beer between bike rides, but I ran out of time. Oh well, like I said, minor problem.

more mountain bikes and beer

This morning I not only enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, but I got up and out, and rode mountain bikes. I went with a few other guys to the center trails. Squirrel has been pimping the condition of these trails on facebook for several weeks, and I know he's been putting in tons of work keeping them in great shape. He wasn't lyin'. Holy hell, these trails (all of 'em: denman's, hillside, rollercoaster, everything) are in incredible shape. It's been years since I've been down there, and everything is outstanding. Hillside in particular was in great shape, and more fun to ride than I remembered. I might have to get down there on Wednesday. Usually if we're going to ride mountain bikes, we just go up to Boone, and ride as Seven Oaks because from Ankeny, both places are darn close to equidistant, at least time wise. Sadly, I failed at taking pictures of our ride, but I did not fail at taking a picture of this excellent new beer I'm enjoying:

New Glarus Abt

This beer is a darker abbey style ale with dark candi sugar, complex but smooth flavors, and a nearly 10% abv punch. Not much else to say other than it is very very good. Check out their info: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/Headlines.cfm?NewsID=165

mountain bikes + new beer

Last night I rode Sycamore with several other folks, most of us (myself included) on cross bikes. I failed at getting pictures because I was trying to keep my relatively skinny tires upright. The trail itself is in great shape for the most part, Rob, Squirrel, and some others did a bit of trail work today, and reportedly made everything even better. If you live in the area, go ride it now. Winter is coming, the trail is finally in good shape, so get out there. Back to last night: we started around 5:30, and rode from the north end. Once we got to the paved trail that connects the north and south ends of the trail it was getting dark. With lights on, and sand everywhere, we braved the Targhetto side of the trail. It was brual. Slow, sandy, tons of dead fall, pretty sketchy to ride Lame. The north side is definitely the part to ride. Definitely gonna try to get back (on a mountain bike this time) in the next few days.
Interestingly, I've already got plans to ride mountain bikes at the Science Center Sunday morning. Should be a fun time, and the weather is amazing for November.

And to more interest to most of the few people reading this, I drank a new beer. It's a newly available (to Iowa at least) beer in the Lips of Faith series from New Belgium, Sahti. From the label,

"A Sahti is a Finnish rye ale brewed with juniper. A settee is a seat for more than one. A soiree is enjoying this cascade and amarillo hopped, orange and lemon peel spiced, hazy amber sahti on your settee with your sweetie."

This is a pretty complex beer, whose complexity becomes easier to discern as you work through the bottle. The rye is apparent at first taste, as are the citrus flavors, and the hops are there too, but not strongly represented, at least not up front. Interesting and complex, but not inaccessible.

Boulevard turns 21, makes a special beer to celebrate

Boulevard's info on the beer right here.

It's fresh, hoppy without being overpowering with enough malt to back it, complex, using six hop varieties and three malts. There's plenty of subtle flavors to pick out, and with the 750ml form factor, plenty of beer to have a few glasses and try to find them all. Mostly citrusy, but with some piney and peppery flavors mixed in, with a strong malt back, is the basics, the rest, well you really have to taste it. Despite the abundant hops, and the fresh name, there's only 40 IBUs, though you'd never guess that low just from a taste. Whatever process they're using to fresh hop this, it works like crazy, and delivers a beer that tastes amazing. $12-ish per bottle is a bit steep, but worth it, at least once. Not sure I'll drink this especially often, but as it's a limited release SmokeStack and won't cellar well, I might not even get the chance. Definitely worth picking up at least the one time, go find it, it's out now.

Race report + new beers

This past Friday night there was a night time cross race, next to a bar. It was a ton of fun, despite a pretty small/short course, that was super twisty and fairly technical. They called it Oakley Night Cap Cross, and Rob (from Oakley) and Scott (from BikeIowa) did one helluva job putting it on. I raced in the Cat 4 mens, which ran concurrently with the master's (35+ and 45+) and juniors. All these races going at the same time meant 99 people on the course at the same time. The first several laps were a mosh pit of asses and elbows, with lots of congestion as the slower/less skilled took bad lines, crashed, and otherwise held up faster riders. After the first couple corners, almost no one passed me. Seriously, maybe 3 people all race. After about lap 4, I'd found a groove, and focused on catching whoever was in front of me, and grabbing an extra gear when I could. With so many people on the course, I was constantly catching guys in front of me and having to corner hard and pick interesting lines to pass people. The course was fun but tough, with plenty of space for the crowd to be heard, and with the race being almost inside the bar, there were tons of spectators, and they were loud. Aside from one hilarious crash, the race itself went well for me. I came around a corner in traffic approaching the low single barrier, which I'd bunny hopped the last 5-6 laps. Somehow my stabbing the pedals to get some speed, and my timing on the hop were not good enough and I almost got over it, but got tipped forward and rolled to a stop, nowhere near my bike. I was fine, but it shot my confidence to hop it for the rest of the race. I tried to keep the hammer down the whole time, but I know I was losing steam towards the end. The last 4-5 laps I was pretty shot, but knew it would be over soon. That said I had no idea when the last lap was, or what the hell was going on with such things. When I crossed the start/finish line for the final time, the tape was broken and lots of riders (not in my race) were standing on course, waiting to do a warm up/ test ride lap. Not saying I could have picked up the pace even if i'd known, but maybe a tiny bit. No biggie, I was happy with my race and thrilled with how fun everything was. Officially, I'm 12th of 68 Cat 4 racers, but my newish coworker Bret was 4th, and I'm 110% sure I beat him. So is he. I've got an email to the concerned parties, and they're reportedly working on it. I must have done an extra lap at the end, but whatever, I had fun.

I've also (as always) been drinking new and exciting beers. Some recent notables are an unflavored lambic, and revistiting a Smokestack I didn't pay enough attention to the first time.
Cuvee Rene. Tried this at the Red Monk the other night, at it is super interesting. It is an unflavored lambic, so it's a wild fermented ale, that did not have fruit added to it. There's a killer lactic flavor, a tangy sourness and gets more intense, but also more pleasurable as you keep drinking. I was surprised that this beer is from Lindemans, the same people who make those really sweet fruity lambics. While maybe not as intense or as complex as a Flemish sour or nonsweet lambic, it is very very good, and an unusual beer.

Seeyoulator Doppelbock, from Boulevard's Smokestack Series, is a very nice beer that I admittedly have had before, but did not fully appreciate. A buddy was talking about how amazing this beer was, and I was like "yeah i've had it, it's pretty good. so what?" His enthusiasm encouraged me to buy more, and give it another shot. It is really good. It's a standard doppelbock, but aged in cedar barrels and bottle conditioned. Smooth with a spicy, earthy finish. Check some out.

bike together, new beers, streetlight down

Finally got my cross bike all together just in time for Wednesday's practice. I did not have time to get a chain retention system figured out, and subsequently dropped the chain several times, until midway through practice, it blew it up. Ripped it right in half, and had to sit out the rest of practice. Anyhoo, here's a photo of it the next day, still without a chain:
From the front:

Aside from cross, I've pretty much only been riding to and from work. All very humdrum, of course. I have seen this on the path for over a week now (Oct. 11):

A downed, small light post that was laying more in the way earlier in the week. Obviously got hit by a car, and shattered everywhere. Zero effort to clean it up by the city or anyone else. At least someone gave it a nudge so it wasn't 3 feet into the path. Pretty weak, Ankeny.

On a more fun side, I've been going out quite a bit recently, and that almost always means new beers.
Monk's Cafe, Flemish Sour. Officially a personal top 10. Amazing stuff. Reportedly made by the same people who brew Piraat and Gulden Draak, for a bar in Pennsylvania or something. Too lazy too look it up right now. If you see this beer, buy it. I paid $19 or it at the Red Monk, 100% worth it.
Cornucopia from Iowa based PeaceTree Brewing. Pretty great farm ale made with some corn. It was pretty good, pretty affordable, and a slightly different flavor on the traditional farm house style.

Some friends went to Oktoberfest in La Crosse, Wisconsin and returned with several New Glarus beers to share. So far I've tried the Staghorn Octoberfest and the Stone Soup Abbey ale. Both are pretty good, but Stone Soup being a very nice Abbey ale and the Staghorn being okay, but not tremendously memorable. If you're in Wisconsin, buy some of this stuff, it is worth your time.

Major update(I get my CX frameset)

So yeah, super long time, no blogging. My bad, got busy and distracted. Been drinking too much and riding too little and having a helluva time keeping the shop together while the boss was in Vegas for Interbike.

I finally got my Specialized Crux frame. My rep called up and said, "Hey Mark, you know I've always got your back, right?" I'm thinking that something's gone wrong with something and he;s had to go to bat for us, and bad news is coming. I tell him that I understand he's got my back, and ask what was up. "That big, pink, cross frame is here and waiting to be shipped. You still want it right? I'll get it out the door today." I was elated. What dorky bike thing got me that excited?

This.

Specialized has finally built a race oriented cross bike. Their previous offering, the tricross, was too much of a touring bike, and did not have the right geometry nor the lighter build to be a true race bike. This frame set is race ready, comes with the sweet carbon post, and has tons of tire clearance for fatter tires on gravel rides, or mud clearance in cross. Plus the color is completely insane, especially in a giant 61cm size.

It is a brighter pink than I thought it'd be, but I love it.

I spent a good chunk of today building it up, mostly with parts off my touring bike, and took it out to practice, I did not have time to snap a pic, I will fix that in the near future. The 1x9 setup worked pretty well, and the 42T should be a good gear for the front, but the hasty build left me with no good chain watching solutions, and I dropped the chain several times. Then about halfway through practice, I snapped the chain in half. Seriously, just straight up murdered the chain. So my day was done, no biggie. I really really need to ride more, I've been on edge for weeks, and I have no idea what I'm so stressed about. I think the problem is I don't do much. I work, I ride sometimes, I drink. Sometimes on the weekends I play board games with people in Ames. I've got a pretty solid routine, that is enjoyable, but I get in a rut. Maybe the new bike will help motivate me to get my ass out and ride more.

cross, cans, neat old bikes

Minor confession time(this is me 110%): one of the things that keeps bike shop guys bike shop guys and not doing other jobs, is that we (generally) love bikes, maybe a little too much. The chance to work on/own/play with the newest and coolest stuff is a big perk, and sometimes getting the chance to see/work on/poke at some of the older stuff that hold memories and is totally different from what's out there now is a thing that keeps us in shops. Recently a really old Schwinn came in:
Not certain on what year, but Kyle is semi-certain it's a war era, so 1942-46 or so. I personally really like the way the top tube flows so smoothly into the seat stays, regardless of how old the bike is.

The head badge is amazing.

The drivetrain is a defunct system/standard called "skip tooth" not exactly sure what the thinking was, but it's a neat style even if is has gone the way of the wool mammoth and the three martini lunch.
This photo shows off the chain better than the first one, in particular the low portion below the chain stay. Note the odd spacing on the links, visually interesting but maybe not the best idea from the engineering stand point.

On the new bike/cool new stuff front, my awesome cross frame that was supposed to show up, didn't. I'm a little pissed because now I have to punt, and figure out what to do for a cross bike on short notice. Here's how it went down: I check around for cross frames, notice Specialized has a pretty cool frame set for a pretty good price, but it isn't available yet. So I place my order anyway assuming that once the frames get off the boat from Taiwan, it will come to me. The rep called today and said that they only got six in my size, and I wasn't high enough on the list to snag one. Super weak. So yeah, now I gotta figure out a cross bike/frame in short order.

Last thing I wanted to talk about and actually the whole reason for this post(originally), canned beer. There is plenty of pretty good/really good beers coming in cans now. This is a great development for the craft brew industry. What are the two biggest enemies of beer? oxygen and light. Even dark bottles let in some light, and most bottles are sealed pretty well but oxygen contamination is a slight possibility. The can taste is a 1970s (or maybe early 80s) relic, with modern technology imparting no taste to the beer itself. Reportedly the biggest reason more beers aren't canned is that the machinery to put beer in bottles is fairly cheap, but to put beer in cans, it's fairly expensive. But I like cans aside from the cost on the production end of things. Cans themselves are cheaper, lighter, easier to transport, less likely to break, allowed everywhere you can drink, etc etc. Hopefully the future holds more cans of craft beers for us all.

Moose Drool in cans. Neat.

Gubna!

Two posts in two days? No, I haven't gotten ambitious, I just got some awesome beer and had to talk about it. My buddy Drew visited his folks in Des Moines and brought some fancy canned beers for his buddies. I was fortunately on the list to get some. He brought Oskar Blues Imperial IPA, dubbed "Gubna" and Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi. Tonight I cracked open a Gubna.

It says "Imperial IPA" and holy cow does this beer deliver a punch. 10% ABV, 3 malts, 1 hop, Summit, by the way, and about 100 IBUs. The nose is an earthy citrus, with a hint of the malt. The flavor is hoppy, bitter, with a complex malt back, and a smooth and lingering sweeter aftertaste that still has some hop flavor in it. If you're in Colorado, or many other western states, pick some up, it's totally worth it. Currently (as far as I know) it is unavailable in Iowa, but with our new beer laws, we might be getting it sooner rather than later, but until then, try it if you can find it out west.

Thoughts on the week that was, plus a new to me brew from the desolate state of nebraska

Since my nearly triumphant self induced mauling at the 12 hour race, I've been less than excited to ride a lot. I've been doing the usual back and forth to work, and I attempted 'cross practice on Wednesday, but otherwise I've been sitting around. Work has predictably gotta slower, which I must admit is an okay change in my book. Summer was a bit too hectic, a bit too often for my tastes, but we made it through and had a great season. The only way we know this fall is slower than last fall, is that our computer system compares daily and monthly total sales with last years figures, and this year we're up, but for September we're down. After the summer we had I think we've earned a bit of a relaxing/regrouping fall. Cyclocross practices are Wednesdays this year, which totally messed up my schedule, but whatever, they're fun as all hell and I'm not gonna miss them if I can help it.

On Wednesday I was at the shop changing tires on the Jamis touring bike, as my new Specialized Crux frame set had not arrived yet(I'm getting the pink one), and Scott Sumpter walks in to hang out for a bit/talk about something or other, and mentions that he's planning on riding down in a bit, which was exactly my plan, so we rode down from Ankeny into the heart of Des Moines, chatting about new regulations for the 2010 cross season, and about the best way to get to the park. Once there, Rob put us to work flagging out a course, which was surprisingly fun. Practice itself was pretty fun too. The different position, especially hand position, as compared to my mountain bike, gave me no issues. The super intense effort didn't either, for about 30 minutes. I pushed on and rode for about 45 minutes, but on man, those last few laps weren't super fast, and my knees/thighs/shoulders were starting to act up. I thought I was pretty well recovered from the 12 hour race, turns out I didn't know what I was talking about. Hell, here it is Sunday night, and I know I'm not back to 100% yet.

Post practice we rode(most drove, but some of us rode) down to El Bait Shop for beers and food. I was fully prepared to ride all the way back to Ankeny, but someone offered a ride and I gladly accepted.

Randomly, this morning I got on the scale and found that despite eating worse than I normally do, and drinking as much or a little more than normal, I'm down a little over 3 pounds since the race. Weird. Not too concerned. I worry if I crest the 200 lbs mark, otherwise I hardly pay attention.

Now on to the beer. Saw this particular brew in Ames the other night, so I grabbed a sixer. Empyerean Brewing's Burning Skye Scottish Style:

It is a good quality, smooth, malty Scottish Style ale with a lingering sweetness that is quite enjoyable. A friend of mine from Omaha gasses on about this brewery and it seems that now we can get some of their offerings in Iowa. Go us. Given the strength of this offering, I'm definitely going to try more of their stuff. Even though most of Nebraska is a boring drive through/fly over state, it seems they've got at least a few folks in Lincoln that can brew a good beer.

24 hour race report(okay, just 12 hour)

This past Saturday/Sunday was the 8th annual 24 Hours at 7 Oaks. I once again did the 12 hour solo race. This year I managed a scant seven laps, compared to last year's nine, but I finished second instead of fourth. Good for me. Here's my lap by lap race write up, much like last year.

Lap 1: Started slowly on purpose. I knew the course wasn't in great shape and I knew I had a long way to go and planned to ride slowly and steadily. Being damn near in last place was an okay place to be as I didn't have to deal with any traffic to speak of, especially given the low participation. The course (as promised) was in highly mixed condition, lots of muddy spots, several reroutes, plenty of dry /hardpack places, and a surprising amount of tacky, perfect dirt. With no one around me, and the extra bit added to the start to break the field up, this lap seemed to take forever. I planned on this and grabbed extra Gu and carried two bottles.

Lap 2: I cruised past my camp without a stop due to the extra food and beverage I just mentioned. Second lap went about like the first, slow, lonely, peaceful, pretty low effort. I really started noticing all reroutes and some of them were very nice, and should be worked in as permanent changes, some were of course quick work arounds that will be changed next spring. I focused a being smooth and trying to stay off my brakes to maximize my efforts, not so much my speed. This would be the most time I'd spent on my bike actually off road all season. I've a sweet new Jamis D29 team since this spring, and with the weather and working too much, I've barely ridden it off road. It was working great, and the position was pretty god after my minor changes earlier in the week.

Lap 3: Stopped at camp to reload bottles and Gu. I was starting to think of laps as doubles and trying to get my brain around only stopped at camp every other lap to minimize down time and keep me rolling forward longer. This is when people started catching and passing me more than just occasionally. I was still plodding along and faster people (especially teams) were going very very hard. No problems with any traffic, but it didn't help me mentally knowing I was that much slower than basically everyone else. Towards the furthest away point of the course, I noticed my rear tire was getting a tad low. This was a bad sign, as I was only running about 30 psi in it to start and though tubeless, it wouldn't ride well if it got too much softer. Shortly after I noticed it feeling soft, BLOFF! Blew it off the rim mid-corner, and somehow kept it upright. Both beads stayed on the rim, I just burped it really hard, and lost all my pressure. Going to my seat pack to pull my CO2 and a tube to fix it, I discovered it had come open and everything inside and fallen out. Awesome. With no other options, I started pushing/jogging/walking my way along the trail, hoping someone would come by soon with the stuff I needed, and a willingness to share. It took a surprisingly long time for anyone to approach. Fortunately for me, the first person who saw me, asked if I needed anything and happened to be riding a 29er. This guy (whose name I've forgotten) saved my race. This is a microcosm of why I love mountain biking, everyone is friendly and there's a camaraderie that isn't found in other types of cycling. After this lap I stopped inhaled a bagel and used a bread bag twisty tie to make sure my pack was closed.

Lap 4: Still slow, but still moving. Mid way through this lap I started getting a wicked headache and noticed I was really really hungry despite the bagel. Other than that I really have no distinct memories about lap four. I took a pretty long break after this lap, refueled as best I could with more food and gu brew. In a big to perk up mentally, I drank an entire can of Monster. I did feel a bit better, though my stomach was not 100% okay with this idea, and I was burping monster flavored burps for the next couple hours.

Lap 5: Again, nothing terribly new here. I walked a bit more of the climbs, and probably rode slower overall, but kept moving forward. With a quick stop to reload Gu packs and grab a fresh bottle, I was off for lap 6.

Lap 6: Starting to feel worn down. Arms, wrists, mid and lower back, plus my left knee all started to bother me a little. And of course after this much riding, "a little" is a relative term, so I was dreading every single medium sized bump, and had a couple interesting bails, including one where I jumped off the bike about 4 feet backwards to the far side of the bank of a deep washout, and the bike went in the crevice. It took a good 30 seconds to figure out how to lift the bike out. Towards the end of this lap it starting getting just a little dark in certain spot in the woods. I stopped and put my lights on and had a snack. I figured I could probably do another couple laps, as I wasn't feeling *that* bad, and it wasn't quite 8 pm.

Lap 7: Started out with the light on low, which was plenty for a few minutes, but soon I had to step it up to full power, which on a Nite Rider 600, is really really bright. During this lap I kept fighting a battle internally of doing another lap or quitting. By the middle of the lap I'd grazed a few trees, walked a ton of the climbs, and rode my brakes down damn near every decent. I was fairly certain I didn't have another one in me. Then, as it happens almost every lap, the last 30-40% is somewhat easier, and I started thinking, "hey, maybe I can squeeze in one more." That is, until I had a big, and probably entertaining to watch, endo on the last decent convinced me otherwise. No idea what caused my crash, but I was enjoying the downhill and all of a sudden my bike stopped, and I was airborne. After I stopped rolling and realized I was fine, I walked the 10 feet (seriously, it was that far) back uphill to my bike, gave it a quick once over, and finished the lap. I sat down and had a big snack and another bottle, just like I promised myself I would to double check if I could do another. It was barely after 9pm, and I had tons of time if I wanted to go again. I couldn't. I cracked a beer then had one of the top 10 best showers of my life.

After: I went and checked the score board, and found I was in second place, with a slight margin on those behind, but I was down a lap (and he was on course for number 9) to the guy who beat me for third last year, Jason Dal. I was somewhat surprised, and hoped that none of the guys chasing me had 8 laps in them. I knew I'd win the tie breaker as my 7th lap earlier than any one behind me. I hung out, snacked, drank some beers, had a brief awards ceremony, pocketed a little more than my entry fee for me efforts, then went to bed. Overall a fun day.

Feelings Monday: Still a little messed up. Hungry, but fill up pretty quickly, sore but really only my arms and lower back. Should be fine in a day or two, not as bad as last year, but felt worse immediately after. No idea what the difference was, but there it is. Course was rougher and slower, but my bike was nicer/faster/had a shock on it, but it may not have been any more comfortable. Almost can't wait for next year, almost.

Lap 7:

New rack on the trail

Same old ride today, up the High Trestle Trail and back, nice easy, familiar, boring, but not 8 blocks from my door. Something was a little different today though, there's an "oasis" about 6 miles from the start of the trail, and it has a porta john, water fountain, picnic table, and until this week, 3 inverted "U" or staple type bike racks. Those were removed and a day or two later, this thing was put in its place.
It's an old railroad track, that was reportedly found nearby and put in place by some kid of his eagle scout project. It's a more interesting bike rack to be sure, but i didn't find anything wrong with the old ones. Not that this is a place you'd ever lock a bike up, but I think it's a wash on bike capacity. Not really for or against the change, just bemused, not sure why it happened at all. Here's a pic with my bike against it for scale.

pre 12 hours race bike shake down

Went out for a little "tune up" ride with Kyle on our mountain bikes that we're both planning on riding during different events in the 24 Hours of 7 Oaks. Minor tweaks here and there, and a bit or breaking in of cables and brakes and such. We've been virtually unable to ride our mountain bikes this season thanks to the terrible weather that made most/all the trail in the area into swampy messes.
This 30-ish miles on pavement was the longest I've ridden this bike all year. I learned a few things. Firstly, the seat is not so hot for longer efforts. WTB Silverado does not play nice with my butt, can't exactly pin point it, but holy hell do I need a different one. Seems a slightly shorter stem would help with longer events. Out of the box my Jamis 29er is an aggressive xc race machine, with a lower than I'd prefer front end, which is great for pure xc racing, not so hot for endurance events. So a little shorter stem should fix my problems.
Definitely shouldn't have waited this long for a break in/fit test ride, but whatever. I'm not in any kind of shape, have no serious goals, and expect to do between 6 and 10 laps, depending on the length and condition of the course.

24 hours of 7 oaks in coming, plus i drink a new beer.

Next weekend to most folks is Labor Day Weekend, a time for final trips to the lake, big cook outs, lazy porch sittin'/drinkin', for central iowa (and beyond) endurance minded mountain bikers, it is the 8th annual 24 hours of 7 oaks near boone. Last year I didn't train, didn't really take the race seriously, planned to have fun and ride my bike all day, and nearly finished 3rd in the 12 hours solo race. In fact, I got passed on the last lap (my 9th) by a guy who also did 9, but he finished 10 mins ahead of me for the podium spot. So in 8 days, I get to try again. Same plan, just fun, but this time I might ask someone to let me know if I'm gonna podium or something.
Here's a write up I did after last year's race: http://kylesbikes.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/marks-race-report-from-the-24-hours-of-7-oaks/
Not too shabby if I must say so myself.

Now for the part most of you care more about: beer.

Peace Tree Brewing's Double IPA, from their Brewer's Special Release Series. It also claims to be a seasonal, but their website did not off any info on this beer. It is really really good. Hoppy, bitter (but not overly so), floral but not too citrus of a nose, overall top notch. It is also reportedly hard to find. I had never seen it in the wild, but my buddy Markk picked some up and saved me a bottle. If it really is a seasonal, watch for it next summer, or keep your eyes peeled now.

New beers and quick rant against hy-vee's terrible bike parking.

There are more and more interesting beers making their way into Iowa, and I've been trying whatever I can. Check it:

Goose Island's Demolition, a pretty good golden ale, clean, smooth, easy drinking, with a fine Belgian style carbonation. Nothing amazing to say about it, but I've really been digging Goose Island's Belgian Style stuff recently, so I gave it a shot and was not disappointed.

Goose Island's Fleur, a Belgian ale made with hibiscus blossoms. This beer is super interesting, smooth, flowery(duh) but not overpoweringly so. There's a sweet but not cloying floral note especially in the finish that builds and lingers as you work through the bottle. Highly recommended if you have even the faintest thought that it sounds good. I'd have to do a side by side or back to back comparison to see if I like this better than Matilda, but it's close.

Shiner Smokehaus, beer made with smoked mesquite. ZOMG this beer tastes like bbq, but in the best possible way. Smokey, not as dark as you'd think, and pairs super great with just about any meat. Not terribly complex, but that's okay, it is still interesting and very very good. Pick some up for your Labor Day grilling needs.

McChouffe Brown ale, a Belgian take on a Scottish ale. Not a bad beer, a pretty straight up Scottish ale, but with the very fine Belgian carbonation which gives it a different mouthfeel that one would expect. I thought there should/could be more malt in it, and maybe some other flavors, but it was an okay beer. My biggest complaint is how much I paid for this thing, $18 at the Red Monk. I understand it's a bar, and this is a large quantity of hard to find imported beer, but it wasn't that great. I've paid that much, in that bar, and thought it was a bargain. I would not bother with this again, both myself and the friend who I shared it with were underwhelmed.

Now on to something that's just about as near and dear to me as fancy beers: bicycles. This is the start/brain vomit/opening tirade of a bigger write up I'm working on for WeBikeEugene, Seager's excellent bike commuting oriented site for Eugene, Oregon. Without further ado, here goes: Ankeny's bike parking sucks. It's not a surprise to anyone who rides a bike to just about any business. Some have a couple staple/inverted U type racks, most have nothing. Sure there's little bike theft to worry about, but having basically nowhere to lock up doesn't exactly encourage cycling. The closest grocery store to me is Hy-Vee, it's also my preferred store, so that's a bonus, and it isn't terribly hard to get to via bicycle, a little in town MUP and neighborhood streets.

Here is their terrible excuse for a bike rack :
Seriously Hy-Vee? I'm not even sure how to use that. Plus that catering van is there most of the time. The kitchen manager is one of our better customers and he agrees that it sucks, but the higher ups don't see a good place for a rack, nor a good reason to install one. He also enlightened me as to the van, seems it has to stay there so it's out of the way for car traffic and isn't taking up parking close to the store. Again, not his call, but his boss's. It's very weird to me that a company that puts on a giant triathlon, encourages employees to live healthier lifestyles, including incentives for bike commuting (at least during bike to work week), would have some of the shoddiest bike parking ever. In fact, I rarely even both using it, I generally lock my front wheel to my frame and lean the bike on the side of the building. My bike would vanish in many other towns, but in Ankeny it hasn't been a problem.

In a longer/more complete versionI'll talk about what Eugene does right, what Ankeny does right, what else can be done and why, plus more photos, and maybe some actual counts of racks/bike parking from other popular area businesses.

Back from the promised land

No updates for a long ass time, my bad. Post RAGBRAI I took a trip (with my wife) to visit some friends in Eugene, Oregon. For my people (bike geeks and beer nerds), it is an awesome place. It was not unlike visiting a freaky parallel world where bikes were treated almost the same as automobiles and drinking fancy beers was something to be celebrated instead of derided as unmanly or a waste of time. I will do a bigger better write up in the near future, and probably a write up on Seager's excellent site WeBikeEugene as an outsider on how awesome Eugene is compared to most places.

New IPA day!

There's a new IPA in town, and it's a local one, from Knoxville, Iowa, a town heretofore known pretty much only for sprint cars. Now I'm not saying Peace Tree Brewing is going to supplant auto racing as the local claim to fame, but they do make a fine IPA. It is (as all their beers) sold in shorter, fatter bottles, which is a bit different, though a purely aesthetic choice. The brew itself is pretty good, hoppy, but supported by a solid malt character and a smooth and almost sweet finish. I'm not sure it's worth $10/six pack, but it's an alright beer nonetheless. Pricing this at $7 or $8 would reserve it a spot in my regular rotation, it just isn't quite good enough to justify $10, but it is pretty cool that another brewery in Iowa has started producing quality beers. Unlike, say Hub City, a brewery out of Stanley, Iowa, that as far as I can tell from 4 or 5 beers, can't make a passable brew. Good job local boys! I might have to make a trip over to check out the brewery and the tap room.

So my wife, many friends, and tons of customers are all on RAGBRAI this week. Some friends and my wife met the team bus in Webster City. Now I need to retrieve the car. I'm pondering a ride up there after work tomorrow. I've got a route i think will work fairly well, but I'll have to take off right after work and it's gonna be 65-ish miles. I figure I've got about 4 hours of light to work with before I need lights, which I have, but finding a gas station in a strange town at dusk might not work so well, but at this point I'm up for a crazy bike riding adventure. I just need to pack well tomorrow morning and swing by home to grab and go. It will probably be a weather based decision at go time. Anything other than a north wind is probably a go. We'll see.

Sharing fancy beers with friends.

As some of you may know/I may have mentioned in passing, but I have a friend visiting. One of my favorite things is to share fancy beers with friends. This friend is from what I sometimes refer to as the "promised land of my people", that is the place where bicycles and beer are often the two most important things in a person's life, the Pacific Northwest, specifically Eugene, Oregon. When I visit, we drink all kinds of (to me) exotic beers, and ride bikes. Finally with the fantastic Rye on Rye from Boulevard's consistently excellent Smokestack Series, I have one upped him.


A strong rye ale aged in Templeton Rye barrels for 11 months. Really complex and really intense, it is amazing, especially if you love whiskey. Sadly, it is no longer even remotely available, so if you don't have any, you won't have any. If you have a friend who might like it, be a pal and share. If you have a friend with some, offer something fancy and hopefully exotic in trade.


Here's Seager enjoying/being confused by "the best beer ever. like, seriously, ever."