MTB

The used to be a front derailleur here. I've been doing a lot of hand sanding lately. Chasing irregularities and finding new ones along the way. I probably could have taken the frame somewhere and had it bead blasted, but for me, there is something.... Well, there is something about hand work and metal that I like. I used to be a bench jeweler, and I got to polish up a lot of gold and silver, but I also would polish up about anything metal in my down time. I once polished a prong file's back side to a chrome-like, mirror finish. It's kind of a mental clearing activity, and I suppose I have something wrong with me.....But you all knew that! Anywho, I enjoy the hand sanding, and I find it rewarding when I can make something look better than it used to, if it is metal. Maybe I should have built custom cars or something, I don't know.... But the point here is that I have large areas of exposed metal that I needed to cover up, and all I have around to keep rust at bay right now is some Pepto Bismal Pink spray bomb paint. So, most of this rig looks mighty bright pink at the moment. Might just incorporate that color with another really bright hue and do some masking and....well we'll see. I am getting ahead of myself here. I sanded off the down tube decals, just because, and I think I am going to sand all of them off. May as well, and that will leave a cleaner looking frame to lay ones eyes on. Stay tuned, this could get real interesting....

After the OOB and the Midterm, the first ride I had on the Stache 8 was over a few miles of multi-user, technical single track that climbed and dropped through the course of three canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains of SoCal.  It set the stage for me for the duration of the test of the Stache, for if this bike were only ridden on smooth fire roads and buff trails, it would be a shame.  That first ride was a few hours of steep on-the-nose-of-the-saddle climbs, switchback turns, rocky creek beds, and swoopy blind turns on scrabbly dirt.  From the very beginning to the very end of that ride the Stache was balanced, composed, and fun.  And ‘fun’ was a word that I used a lot whenever I talked about this bike to others and within my own fevered little brain.  This is a fun bike to ride.  This is why, or at least, why I think it is so. Bikes have become pretty well niche these days.  There is something for everyone no matter what you like to do or aspire to be.  From full on XC race to All Mountain work, the 29″er hard tail is a pretty versatile beast and those big wheels can do a lot to make you wonder if you really need full suspension.  But at the extremes…say a stiff carbon, steep angled race bike book ended by a 140mm fork equipped, short stay-ed steel beast of an AM hard tail, lies a broad range of uses that just requires a bike.  Nothing fancy or dramatic in intent…not niche.  That middle section between the bookends is a fat cut of the trail riding pie and that is where the Stache sits, topped with a nice dollop of Cool Whip. Ed The Tall on some buff trail, high in the backcountry of So Cal. From the beginning I liked the way the Stache was on-trail.  My weight was back off the front wheel and yet I was not feeling like I was balancing over the rear wheel either.  It was cockpit rear-ward if that makes sense but it felt better to me than anything I had been on lately.  Picking down techy sections was a notch above what the ‘normal’ 29″er hard tail would be in the same situation.  In the past, I have not been particularly impressed with G2 ‘equipped/designed’ Fisher bikes.  The Hi Fi left me cold and the Rumblefish was so so.  But I suspect that the G2 approach with the 51mm fork offset is a good part of why this bike comes together for me.  I am becoming a fan of slacker head tube angles if you can keep the bike from getting too long and keep it from flopping around when speeds are slower.  The 68.6° HT angle on the Trek combined with the 120mm G2 fork, and, with the stock bars and 100mm stem, seldom gave me anything but good results and when speeds came up, it was calm and fun.  There is that word again.  A 72° seat tube angle helps pull the front center in a bit so even though the wheelbase on the 21″ is getting a bit long at 45.71″/116.1 cm, it was an easy bike to get around tight turns and felt good at slow speeds as well.  The only time I felt the rearward weight position and the slacker front end working against me was on very steep uphill switchbacks where, if the soil was loose, the front tire would want to push.  It took a more aggressive position on the nose of the saddle to combat that. So while any skilled rider can ride a trail on a ‘typical’ 29″er hardtail (71°/73° head tube/sest tube angles, 100mm fork etc) just as fast as they can on the slacker Stache, the Stache gives you a bit of grace and feels just great when the ruts come along, the whoops get deeper, or the grade gets you off the back and past the dropper post.  The 120mm fork pays off and sucks up a lot of trail nasties.  So while both riders may be riding the same trail at the same speeds, the Stache ride is not working as hard to do it.  I am willing to bet that means more fun. Some bullet points: 120mms for fork travel and a slack HT angle on a hard tail 29″er means that you can go pretty darn fast until the amber warning lights start flashing in your

Even Bob Barker is psyched. Enjoy! © Nuno for Defgrip, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: animal bikes, BMX, the price is wrong, video

On Tuesday morning in my yoga class, my yoga instructor talked to us about approaching our yoga practice with a beginner’s mind. Essentially this means, leaving ourselves open to possibilities, opportunities and discoveries. To not get caught up in repetition or routine. I found this to be an excellent reminder of how to approach my yoga practice and so many other aspects of my life. Often our lives become so routine – we repeat patterns over and over until things generally start to feel mundane. Remember your first few weeks at your current job? Everything was so new – the people, your role, the way the company operates, etc – after a while this changes and it is so easy to get sucked into not being as stimulated and challenged as you were in the beginning. Or think of your training rides – you likely have one route you choose for short intervals, another for tempo rides, another for threshold efforts and then your favourite long ride loop – some days it seems so boring to go out and ride those same roads. If you find these patterns and routines happening – try to remember what brought you to yoga or to your bike or to the new job in the first place. Remember how excited and challenged you were in the early days of your training routine and day-to-day life routine. This is something I’ve been trying really hard to embrace. On the bike this is still quite easy for me since last season I wasn’t able to ride any of my favourite training routes – this season I’m making up for it the best I can. As for work, well one of the good things about being a technical writer is that I’m challenged everyday – to write documentation that explains complicated concepts to others as well as to learn and understand the software I’m documenting. On the yoga mat, I try to really listen to my instructor and understand how I can “release my shoulder blades” or “tighten my triceps” or “use my core”. I suppose the beginner’s mind really comes down to not losing sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Remember why you chose to do it in the first place.

Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France champion, entered this year’s Giro d’Italia as one of the favorites for the overall title. But after crashing and losing time on a wet descent into Pescara a week ago, and then losing more time on wet descents in Florence and Naples, the British... ...view the full story & post your comments at our site: http://cxmagazine.com

As well as keeping this blog, I contribute stories to Worldwide Cycling Atlas, a website that profiles bike-related initiatives from around the world, and helps promote cycling advocacy in all its forms. This week, I wrote a short piece on Get Britain Cycling - a multi-party enquiry tasked with accessing the measures needed to shift cycling into the mainstream in the UK. Namely, what it would take to make cycling an integral part of life at both transportation and social level. The findings of the report have just been published, detailing a series of 18 far reaching yet realistic recommendations. These include a suggested goal of a 10% cycling modal share by 2025 – which is to say, one in ten journeys to be made by bicycle, upping this to a fifth of the pie by 2050.  Currently, world-leader Netherlands stands at 27%, with Denmark at 17% and Germany at 12%. As a dad, one of my favourites is the recommendation to bring cycling into the national curriculum, by teaching school children bicycle handling skills – just as kids are taught to swim, they should be taught to ride a bike safely and confidently. Of course, a safe environment and bike-friendly communities are part of the jigsaw too, and there are detailed suggestions for more bicycle paths, and urban speed limit cuts for vehicles. Given cycling’s breadth of benefits – from transportation to health to a happier workplace – there’s some very pertinent ideas on how all this could be funded. Now is the time to ensure that the political powers that be react to these findings. The Times newspaper has set up an e-petition to bring the report to Parliament: 60,000 people have signed up so far – another 40,000 are needed. As journalist, newsreader and CTC president Jon Snow recently underlined, “the lessons from Europe are that this takes strong political leadership, leadership from all parties.” Please read the Worldwide Cycling Atlas post, sign the petition and pass the link on (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49196). It’s quick and easy to fill in. This is a very real chance to help initiate a monumental change within the UK, one that will help shape its transportation future over the next few decades – just as the Dutch did so progressively in the early 1970s. It’s inspiring and exciting stuff. Signing the petition will only take a few moments of your time. I’ve also now set up a While Out Riding Facebook page, where I hope to promote cycling advocacy issues as well as my own travels. Please ‘like’ it, if you feel so inclined!

When the color green predominates within the irrigated walls of a western town, it must really, finally be spring.Odd, or ironic, that we most often choose to recreate outside those artificial boundaries, then flee back to the relative safety to spend our nights?Hmmm. Maybe we just don't see a choice.Oops, but with a happy ending.Scoping and scouting. Less obvious but more to the point: Appreciating the fingers of green that reach into the hills."God, why does she have to keep calling me Moobs?"Because that's your name. Deal.Poking around in our neighbors' backyard.Sssssaaaaaaayyyyyy--that's an odd smelling juniper...Remembering how to rock-monkey:Spring break? Nope, spring bummer. Or, when rock monkeying goes sideways.The big picture.Among other notable recent anniversaries, Fang turned 11 last week. And there was much rejoicing! Thanks for checkin' in.