long time. smeh.

Haven't written here in a long time. Sorry. I've been busy and lazy and drunk. Lots going on in September kept me from wanting to sit down and write despite it being something that I totally should have done help get my brain around everything that was happening. Now it's October and I'm finally back to my normal easy going, bike riding, beer drinking self, at least kinda.

Tons of bike stuff happened in September. There was the Interbike trade show, that yet again I did not get to attend as my boss went, so it fell to me to run the shop. No huge deal but I've never been and would *love* to get out to the outdoor demo where you can ride a ton of sweet bikes (both road and mountain) from tons of manufacturers, and the indoor trade show part is likely fun as hell too. But such is the life of a second in command type person, so whatever. While he was gone there was the National Championship for the IronKids Triathlon series in Des Moines. Hy-vee was the title sponsor and we were tapped to run mechanical support and bike shipping and such. 99% of this happened while Kyle was out of town. It was a bit stressful, but overall kinda fun. The shipping in and out of bikes was hectic and I'm glad I've got a solid staff with me, helping me get this kinda shit handled as well as can be expected. Being out in West Des Moines at 5:15 am to run support was kinda horrible, and the day was overcast and pretty cold for mid September, but I had fun. There's something endearing about tons of kids trying their best to do a triathlon. The enthusiasm that 90% of these kids had overshadowed the crazy "sports parent" parenting skills of the rest.

Labor Day weekend, whilst taking a slightly buzzed mid-afternoon bike ride around town to enjoy the sunshine and the day off, I broke the seat tube on my commuter bike. Check it out:

I guess my awesomely powerful legs are too much for a 1976 mMotobecane frame. No, but seriously, I can around a pretty lazy corner in town, going maybe 12 mph and felt a "clunk" and wondered, "wtf was that? wheel seems straight, chain seems fine, what was that noise?" Just as I thought those thoughts, I pushed a bit harder on the cranks to see was else might be wrong and they felt super spongy, I quickly figured out what I'd done. I limped home and figured I'd have to ride something else to work the next day. I eventually got a replacement frame figured out and had to futz with assorted parts to make everything work, but I think I've got it figured out, but sadly no photos yet. I did get another new bike though.
BLAM! 1996 Specialized Shark Cruiser. All sorts of kick ass shark related detailing, and a pretty sweet cruiser ride. Someone traded this in with some other bikes and we gave them a package price assuming we couldn't sell this for much. After we sold one of the other bikes for a decent price, I snagged this for not much money. Being a cruiser, it only came in one size, and me being 6'4" I was too big for it. So, like any bike dork, I upgraded/swapped some parts to make it fit/work better. Enter the ape hangers, longer seat post, clear grips and pedals:
I not only sit completely upright on this bike, I'm comfortable doing so, and have adequate leg extension.

As I mentioned above, I've been drinking more than normal. Just the usual suspects mostly, Point beers (cheap-ish and awesome), martinis, assorted whisk(e)ys, the occasional fancy beer. Not 100% sure why I've been drinking more. Okay, wait. Scratch that. I do. My personal life is a shambles. Plus stress from work, a surprisingly active social life, and general malaise, my drinking took a slight upswing in September. A few noteworthy things to tell you about: New Belgium's Lips of Faith series has not disappointed me yet. Kick and Clutch are awesome.
Fall seasonal: clean, crisp, tart, minor cranberry and pumpkin notes. love it. Won't bore you with details but you should totally go drink this beer.
Clutch is a sour dark ale. The band with the same name helped create this, and it rocks. Seriously, the band is super rad and the beer is awesome. Go try it. It's dark but not crazy black and motor oily, with some sour, but not too much. 110% recommend it.

One last thing before I wrap this rambling and probably too long of post up, new tires for my mountain bike! Not just any tires, but tires you can't even buy yet. Our Specialized rep stopped by Wednesday and dropped off some 29er mtb tires that have "prototype" on the side.
This is the Fast Trak 29 prototype. And if I've got a set, I'm guessing this is the 2012 version or 2013 or something coming soon anyway. Check out the tread on this thing:
The center is like the old Fast Trak/fast Trak Lk tires that I love, while the weight is darn low (575 g or so for each tire on our shop scale), and the side knobs are much beefier than the old Fast Traks. Thanks to Kyle's wife being out of town, he suggested we go mountain biking at Seven Oaks near Boone this morning before work. It was awesome. The best/most technical/most difficult/most fun trail in the area on a sunny fall morning while the trail is in amazing condition save for the leaves covering a few bits. Woulda been fun regardless of tire choice, but trying new tires was darn fun. I've got a bit of a history with this trail and different tires. I've ridden here a bunch and the last three years of the 24 hour race I've been on different tires. A few years ago I had the Fast Traks, last year I ran the Captains, most recently I ran the ultralight Renegades. So trying a different version of a tire I like was a treat. Review: awesome. If you like XC tires that hook up better than the Renegade of the Fast Trak, go buy this tire. While the Captain had more sheer traction, this thing rolls great, is pretty light, and will be my go to tire for 99% of my riding. I ran them (as I do every tire I can) tubeless with 32 psi in both front and rear. They were incredibly easy to set up, and felt like I probably could have used a hand pump instead of the compressor. I'll have to ride them more, but for right now, they're an incredible tire that hooks up really well in dry conditions in both hard pack, off camber, loose dirt, gravel, etc. My coworker Bret was riding the same bike with the stock Renegades on it, and I had noticeably more traction than he did in virtually all situations.

I'm seriously gonna try to update more often than monthly. September (I hope) was an aberration, and I can get back on track. Hassle me about it on twitter or something if you give a shit.

Finally got a longer ride on the new mtb

As astute readers will remember, I mentioned my new mountain bike (Stumpy comp 29) a while ago, and just recently have I gotten a chance to spend much time on it. This past Sunday I made the trip down to the Center Trails after work for a bit of a ride. The trail was in killer shape, my bike was awesome, riding with my coworker Bret was great, overall one helluva night. I neglected to take any photos of the ride, or nay new photos of my bike, but other than the grips(now Ergons), it is bone stock. The bike rode really really well. It's light, snappy, stiff, and very quick handling. It is better in almost every way than my uber fancy Jamis I had last year. The parts are nothing exceptional, Reba fork, Elixir brakes, SRAM X-7 and X-9 shifting bits, all good workhorse component choices. The DT Swiss wheels are pretty light and roll really well, especially at this price point, the durability is a bit suspect. I'm not terribly hard on things, I'm usually pretty smooth, but I've already had to touch up the true on these things a couple times, and I've hardly ridden them. Here's hoping they weren't built as well as they could have been and they're okay now.

One part of the build I was unsure of is the tires. New model from Specialized, S-Works Renegade. At a listed 1.95 inches wide, and with a ton of tiny knobs, I wasn't sure they'd be the right tire for anywhere, let alone my locale. Having put some miles on these, I gotta say I love them. Perfect for hardpacked trails with occasional damp spots, loose bits, and general trail obstacles. At 430 claimed grams for a 29 inch version, they're super light, and the sidewalls and understandably thin, so they're not going to hold up anywhere there's a bunch of rocks. The 1.95 width is probably closer to a 2.05 or bigger in reality, and set up tubeless they roll really well, and grip like crazy. i've only had minor issues with them is greasy corners and super loose dry climbs, but in both those situations almost nothing was going to work well. Another big plus is that they set up tubeless as easy as any tire I've ever used.

I'm a big-ish guy who really likes 29er hardtails, and this is one of the quickest handling and tightest turning bikes I've ever ridden. The chainstays are really short, a scant 435 mm, which in only 11 mm longer than the 26in version. This helps the bike accelerate like crazy and makes lofting the front end easy, and keeps the wheel base tight for sharper handling. Compared to the Jamis, this thing is 100% more race ready, fits me better, and with a modicum of tweaking/adjusting is super comfortable. If the weather would cooperate I'd have tons of miles on this. More updates (and pics) as I ride more.

best day of the year: new bike day!

Yesterday (Wednesday May 4), I finally put my new mountain bike together. It's been in the shop for at least two, if not three, weeks, but because of the weather and my generally busy life, I had no motivation to put it together. I assembled it and hit the trail:
Brand new Specialized Stumpjumper Comp 29. So far so good. Snappy, stiff, fairly light, killer bang for the buck, but I've only ridden in on one lap through Sycamore and a few miles of pavement to and from, so I'll have to give a more detailed review after I spend more time on it, but I'm excited to have a new toy to play with. More updates as I ride it more.

After my ride, as is my custom, I drank a beer. This time it was something pretty terrific from Sierra Nevada, their Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale. As the bottle explains, the compounds that give hops their flavor/essence/scent etc are called alpha acids and they peak just before the end of the growing season, effectively right at harvest time. Hops are harvested in the fall and there are two hop harvests world wide, one for the northern hemisphere, and one down south. This beer is made from fresh hops from the southern half of the globe and the flavor is great. Multilayered, piny, smooth, deep, everything a hoppy beer needs to be, nothing it doesn't. Sure it isn't some insane ipa that kicks the door in with hop power, but it's a clean fresh hop ale that works in every way possible and necessary. Obligatory photo: