Lunch Hour Bike Paths and Singletrack

I have a job that I go to a couple days a week.
The best part of having a job is riding a bike to and from it.  In addition to commuting I've been taking advantage of the "lunch hour" encouraged by the company to get out and ride a few miles. 
Just a couple of minutes from the office and I'm on one of the greenbelts that wind through and across Anchorage.

 

Less than 15 minutes from my desk and I can snag a slice of pizza, a thermos of coffee from the Beartooth and boogie down to sea level to enjoy my lunch with a view of the Alaska Range. 

 

I've been exploring every little spur of urban singletrack spur I can find off the Chester Creek Trail.  Most of it leads to homeless camps.  Some of it makes for some pretty sweet, creekside cruising.

 

Not bad for being in the smack dab in the middle of the biggest city in the state.

 

 If I don't grab coffee from the Beartooth there's a little coffee stand a hundred yards or so from work that can fill my cup before I lockup and go back to staring at a computer for the remainder of the afternoon.  Most of the time I make it back to work without spilling too much hot coffee on my hand.

Winter Trail Hazards

I got out for a ride last night . . .  a sweet, 1,000ft of descending, 97% singletrack, fatbike ride last night.

The last little bit of singletrack is a 0.5mile piece of trail I've been trying to get packed in and rideable for the last month or so.

I'd been out snowshoeing on it the night before (and I only don snowshoes, begrudgingly, for the purpose of better bike riding) and last night it was riding better than it ever has when I came upon open water where there had been none the night before.

 

It seems a moose approached from the lookers left of the above picture, intersected with the Jumpy Squirrel trail, and punched through to a creek I didn't even know was flowing underneath the trail. 

 

From the other side.  One moose sized hole in the middle of some winter singletrack. Must have been fairly startling for the moose to suddenly be standing in flowing water, even if it wasn't terribly deep.

Since We Were Together Last . . .

Since I last bothered to update this blog I've done a few things. 
Here's a few of the highlights in no particular or chronological order:

 

 Little and I spent some quality time together.

 

He loved going out an rallying dirt trails  on his push bike.

 

A three year old working on his no handers over the table top in the 

backyard is enough to make a parent worry about what the

 adolescent years have in store.  He also showed off his 

Superman seat grab more than once.

I got the realest job I've ever had.  I'm talking Mon-Fri, 

8am-5pm, shirts tucked in real.  

Did that for a couple months and tried to quit.  

Reached an understanding with my employer, 

now I work part time.

 

Got LoL to join me for a fatbike beach 

ride I've had on my radar since 2005.

 

Ever since I talked to Pat after he and Kathy did their pioneering beach ride I've wanted to find this cabin.  

The riding, nor the cabin, did not disappoint.

 

 

This little dude mastered the combination of pedals and balance.  

Never had training wheels.  He loved it and so did dad.

Still need to work on mastering the concept of 

speed control through braking.

 

My parents came to visit and my dad left 

with his first new bike in 25 years.

(A Surly Ogre.)  We went and rode it in 

the mountains, which made him smile. 

He's been taking it out for lots of 

fun adventures since he got home.

 

We welcomed a sweet little girl into our family in July 

(part of the motivation for my parents' visit.)

She is happy, healthy and awesome. 6 months old this week.

 

I continue to perform much of my own bike maintenance.

Occasionally with interesting results. 

 

Did some fishing, but not nearly as much as we'd like.

He wanted to keep every fish we caught that day. 

I let him keep this one.

That kid devoured every last crumb of that little trout

 

Did I mention fatbiking on the beach near Nikiski?

That was awesome.

 

My brother came to visit.

We rode bikes.

 

My iPhone Tried to Kill This Blog

A new job, a new baby, and a smartphone all combined to try and kill this blog (but mostly it was the phone.)

But I still ride bikes, and I'm hoping to even write a few words and post a few pictures every now and again on this here blog.
So if anybody out there is still interested here's just a little something:

My wife's Christmas gift to me was one simple thing.  A fat, aggressive tire named after me, even though I am neither fat, nor terribly aggressive.  The yin to my yang I suppose.

It seems I change my brake pads even less often than I update my blog.
Stopping power was greatly improved when I switched to some pads that weren't worn down to next to nothing.

Clipped

Clipped in for the first time in eight or nine months, and I liked it.

Tangle bag isn't mine, but I thought I'd try it out before I gave it away.

April

Thirty for thirty.

Some short.
Some less short.

But at least one ride, everyday.

Always better than not riding.

Things and Stuff

April has been amazing, and I've been getting some riding in.

Rode to the post office with Little to mail a birthday present to my brother in-law.

I had to hit up 3 different LBSs to find an AK shop t-shirt for a birthday present, but I was really pleased with what I eventually found.

Noticed this sign while I was locking up to the bike rack.

I'm pretty sure it's entrapment to install a bike rack where bicycling is forbidden.

Vic inspired me to experiment with some hose clamp, stem mounted water bottle.  Little saw what I was doing and requested on for his trike.  He and I were both pleased with the results.

LoL came by this weekend with a sweet new fork for his Moonlander.  It's amazing how light this hunk of plastic is.  

 

Fortunately I have an irrational fear of crabon that keeps me from investing large sums of money in shiny plastic bits.

Ocean Air Cycles had their t-shirts on sale for cheap.  Nice looking shirts, funky, small US bike company, how could I resist.  I was even happier when the package arrived with more than just a t-shirt.  A few stickers and some beautiful postcards were just above and beyond.

Like I said the April riding has been amazing. Blue sky, warm (above freezing) day time temps and smooth snowy trails are hard to beat.

Neither this guy, nor myself were in too much of a hurry this afternoon, so we spent a while checking each other out and sharing the trail before we both went peacefully on our respective ways.

The trails were holding up pretty well, even as the temps approached 50deg F.  Nice to be out riding in a short sleeved jersey and shants.

 

Things were a little punchy and deep if you had to dab off the packed trail, but there are worse problems to have.

 

Stumbled across this old run down cabin in the woods.  Less than two miles from our house, but on a little used trail that I had never explored before.  Would have been a pretty sweet place to live back in its day.

  

I persuaded Little to help me slap the Big Apples back on the Dummy and ride to the park with me.  He did an awesome job hanging on to the back of the Big Donkey.  I still plan to build a proper seat for him or something, so that he and I can both relax a little bit while he's back there.  As it was I was rolling slowly and constantly seeking conservation that he was still hanging on with both hands (most of the time he was).

 It's really fun to have him out of the trailer and to be able to maintain a conversation while we roll along.  4 fun miles together this evening.  His only complaint was that he hurt his bottom when we practiced riding off a curb at low speed.  I'll set him up with a magic carpet or something similar soon.
I'm really excited for this next chapter of family riding.

Pink

Spring is most definitely in the air (you can smell 6 months worth of dog waste melting out of the snowbanks) and we have been blessed with a good long stretch of beautiful cloudless days.  The trails have remained in fantastic condition, freezing firmly on the cold clear nights and staying firm almost all day long, and I have been fortunate enough to get some excellent riding in on a new (to me) bike.

That pink fatbike you see is now legally mine.  The previous owner was kind enough to allow me a good long window to test ride and think about the purchase.  Mrs. was in love with it the minute she saw it and has no qualms about being married to a man who rides around on an XL pink bike.  Getting her stamp of approval was not insignificant.

The bike fit me amazingly well as soon as I threw a leg over it.  It's not often I hop on another person's bike and don't feel the urge to fiddle with one thing or another.
The story is that the bike was originally built up by a local shop/fatbike company employee.  He put in the special request for a XL frame in pink and then decked it out in the parts you might expect from guy who gets a shop discount:  XTR rear derailleur, SLX front, Mr. Whirly crank, cut out Speedway 70mm rims,  Thomson stem, etc.
Apparently he moved out of state not too long after finishing the build and a casual friend of mine scooped it up for a steal.  However, it seems that for my friend the lure of 800cc snowmachines trumped pedal power and the bike saw almost no action for the past two winters.

Long story short, he was happy to let the bike go to someone who would ride it, the bike fit me and Mrs. approved.  I initially hesitated, but encouragement and sound advice from a couple of fellow bike junkies pushed me over the edge.

It may be pink, but it rides like the darkest black of a moonless night.

I'm secure enough to enjoy the obvious jokes that will ensue. My favorite so far was the woman on horseback asking if I had borrowed my wife's bike.
I've actually had a thing for pink frames ever since I first saw Pat Irwin's pink 1x1 eight or nine years ago.
I figure with one kid and another on the way my manhood is adequately accounted for and I shouldn't let a good deal pass me by.

Changes thus far:
The bike came with a horribly narrow carbon bar, so I swapped it for an On-One Mary bar before I rode it for the first time.  The Mary bar is nice, but I think I'll ultimately change it out for something with a little less back sweep.  I was thinking a Salsa Whammy bar would be nice, but it seems no one is selling them these days.  On-One Fleegle perhaps.  To be determined.

It also had Endomorph tires front and rear, which had amazingly awkward handling characteristics.  I've since swapped those for (27tpi) Larrys.  I picked one Larry up cheap at the local bike swap and acquired the other from a guy on craigslist who wanted to trade a Larry for an Endomorph, don't ask me why.  Handling was noticeably improved by the tire swap.





Down the road I'll likely get the MWOD rings for the Mr. Whirly crank.  I have absolutely no need for the big ring, and wouldn't mind moving the chain out from the rear tire a bit.

The little ski hill in town has closed for the season so I snuck over there one evening this week after a quick singletrack ride and goofed around on the groomed slopes.
Good times.

They Tell Me It's April

They tell me it's April, but you could have fooled me.

Spring Time in Alaska.  No offense to Johnny Horton, but June's voice makes this my preferred version of his song:

 

Had a modified version of this stuck in my head riding around last night:
"When it's springtime in Alaska there's four feet of snow."

We've had two storms move through in the past 5 days, each dropping 6-14inches of snow depending on where you're at in town.
While lot's of folks are grumbling and understandably ready for spring I've been more than happy to watch the snow come down.  And what great snow it's been.
Not the heavy wet concrete snow you'd expect in the spring, but fine, light powder. One of the finer things in life if you ask a ski bum in recovery like me.

I haven't managed to ski much lately for a variety of reasons, but I have managed to get out and ride around in the fresh stuff.

Sunset Sunday.  

In between storms. 

Over 14hours between sunrise and sunset these days.

Fat tracks in fresh snow.

 

The front deck on our house has a ramp instead of steps.

The previous owner built it so a wheelchair bound friend 

could drive his 4wheeler right up onto the deck and hang out.

The bike friendliness was a definite bonus when we bought the house.

Hard to tell by the photo, but it was still 

coming down hard when I was out riding last night.

Spring will appear sooner or later, but for now I'm going to keep doing my best to enjoy the amazing combination long days and great snow.

The Freaks Come Out At Night

Tonight I manged to get out and join the LBS ride that was in the neighborhood.

I have been fortunate enough to have yet another Fatback come my way.  That's 3 in 3 weeks.

This pink steed was offered to me for an extended test ride with the option to buy at a very fair price.

Gypsy Nicholas told me what I should have know already, that I ought to thin out my stable in order to add a fatbike.  If you are looking for a quality used bike give me a shout, I've got a few that I'm looking to part with.

The ride tonight was great.  A dozen fine folks came together to roll through the woods on fatbikes.  Conversations were pleasant and effortless and a few eye catching bike bits came out of the woodwork.

First was a pair of powder coated Surly Rabbit Hole/Knard wheels.   These bits were not on a Krampus, but rather on a Pugsley (NeckRomancer if I'm not mistaken). Looked like a fun set of wheels to have for a fat bike, might have to do something like this some time  if I should choose to acquire the pink Fatback.

The other thing I spotted on the ride was these wheels on a Salsa Mukluk:

 

I  didn't get a chance to chat with the owner, but I did do some serious gawking.

Good gosh, look at the size of those cutouts!

100mm rims with Bud and Lou mounted up. 

This ride was ready for business

There was a pair of spokes, parallel to each other between each set of cut outs.

I love the creative thinking and the willingness to just go ahead and do it, the wheels seemed to be working just fine this evening.

 Trails were in great shape and it was really nice to get out and cruise around in the woods with a bunch of other bike appreciating folks.

Fatbacking

I have had the pleasure of having the opportunity to spend some time aboard a couple different Fatbacks recently.
Cousin Rye N was out of state for a while for work, so Biermag, Little and I made the most of his absence.
The icing on the fat cake is that March is one of the finest months to be in Alaska:  snow, bluebird days, warmer temperatures, no bugs, no bears, no brush.  Take it from me, this is the good life.

I had to bribe that little face in the trailer with some tortilla chips to get him in there.  After that he was good to go for a two hour ride.

The Pistenbully rolled through heading the other direction during our ride, smoothing out the 5+ inches of heavy wet snow that fell the night before.

Experimented with my sunglasses as a filter in the bright sunshine, no instagram action here.

GSC took off for a little spring break and was kind enough to invite me to take his new steed out for a ride.

That steel fork looks (and rides) awesome if you ask me.

 I dashed up to a permit only winter trail and spent about an hour climbing in a t-shirt.

Trail was in great shape, I had a huge grin on my face the whole ride down.

Both bikes were a treat to ride.  I most definitely concur with Gypsy Nicholas and Sheldon Brown that the fatbike revolution we are seeing is the biggest thing to hit the cycling world since the early days of mountain bikes.