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.

Bankfull and Then Some

Pop quiz for Gypsy Nick (or anyone else who would care to play):

Name that flooded creek.

This is some of the good stuff that you miss zipping around in a car.

Things have been wet and wild up here for the last week or so, especially for communities north and south of here.

I was fortunate enough to see the sun for a few minutes earlier this morning, so I won't complain.

Zipping Around on Dirt

Took the long way to school this afternoon.  

Rode my CrossCheck like a crossbike for the first time in a long while.

In the winter Anchorage has a couple hundred kilometers of groomed cross country skiing trails.  In the summer they're perfect for zipping around on a cross bike.  Fast and smooth, but not too smooth. Fun, fun, fun.
 

This sign was on the door as a I headed to the lab.  Exercise caution   .   .   .   goes without saying in Alaska.

Spring Gravel Grinder

This winter the DOT and municipality of Anchorage spread approximately 40,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel around town.

Now that the snow and ice is mostly gone from the roads much of that gravel has migrated to shoulders and bike lanes, turning my typical rides around town into a lot of gravel cruising.


It won't be there for too long though. Thanks to enforcement of the Clean Water Act there is a June 1st deadline to have all the streets in town swept (and in general they get swept twice by then).
Last year the city had a $1.8million street sweeping budget, and will likely spend closer to $2mil this year.
A significant change from the ~$70,000 budget they had for street sweeping back in 2005.

Makes riding bikes nicer.



I spotted this thing abandoned on the bike path on my way home yesterday. Still had gas in the tank, so I wonder what the story was.

Of all the days to not be riding the Big Dummy.

It was gone by the time I cruised by this morning.

Defender of the CrossCheck

I put studs on the CrossCheck this weekend. The last of my three bikes that will get studded this year. I also tossed the Bridgestone in the shed seeing as it won't see pavement until next spring. Now I just need to get studs on one or two of Mrs' bikes and we'll have completed our seasonal change over.

While I had the wheels off I decided to pull the fenders off the CrossCheck for the time being. Riding this past week in temps that were in the neighborhood of 15 deg below zero splashing water and spray seem like they will be of little concern for at least the next four or five months, and its nice to see cleaner lines on the bike for a while. Besides I still have the rear rack on to prevent a mudstripe up my backside if I do get caught out in some sloppy conditions

Flatbed

Spent a couple nights at a public use cabin with the fam recently. It was only a 3mile ride to the cabin on a pretty flat trail so I decided fast and light wasn't the way to go.



In other news, my chain was embarrassingly loud on today's 30mile ride.

Shop Help

Little wRider is getting big enough to help out in the shop.
He loves to spin cranks.

Sort of Spring

Here you can see the mud flap on my front fender.
Dorky, but effective.

Pulled the studs off the CrossCheck last night.
Took it out for a quick spin this morning.
Felt light and quick on pavement and it was really nice to be able to really lean into corners again.

Of course I pointed it straight for a nearby gravel road that I like and ended up riding icy road and then slushy trails. I love the way this bike handles itself, even when things are sloppy and it should be washing out on me.

Been Needing That

Life's been hectic, winter is coming.
I put in some overtime in the library this afternoon, then rolled home for some dinner and family time. Got a text mid ride that Mrs. BikewRider was out shopping.

Decided it was a good time to take the long way home. Threw a new tire on the back of the crosscheck the other day and hadn't had it on dirt yet. Cousin RyeN got a flat on an old WTB tire early in a night ride this week. We were close to home and hadn't hit the trails yet so we made a quick bike swap and cruised around the woods in the dark on SS 29ers. but I digress.

image from jupiterimages.com

Today peeled off course a few minutes from home and did a quick lap around one of my favorite little loops in town. The leaves are all down, shaping trails that are often wider than I prefer into neat little ribbons of singletrack. Wound along the creek for a bit, then cruised towards home in the fading daylight. The setting sun glowed through the tops of the naked trees, and rode faster than I ought through the dusky woods.

Got home happy. Nose running, limbs chilly, torso toasty. Dinner is on the stove waiting for Mrs. and Baby BikewRider to get home.

-Bike wRider

$0.02 on a Cross Check

A buddy in the southern hemisphere sent me a message the other night (morning for him I guess) and said he was looking at getting a new cross bike and wondered how I liked my Surly CrossCheck. I realized my response might be worth sharing here, so here it is:

I love my cross check! I could go on and on about it, but I'll boil it down to I love it. If you want me to rave on and on let me know, I'm more than happy to do so.

Previous set up: Single speed studded.

I've run it singlespeed, fixed and currently I've set it up nice and tall with flared drop bars (On One Midge) and STI brake lever/shifters. It is super comfortable and can rally off road.

My only caveat is with the fork. If it weren't such a great fork I'd swap it for something else. It has a nice smooth ride, and handles superbly, but for some reason it is prone to excessive squealing/shrieking. Some kind of tuning fork, vibration issue when you apply the brakes. EXtreme toe in can quiet it for a while, but only temporarily. I've tried a few things, but I'm thinking of getting a brake bridge for it and see if that helps.
The new forks have rack eyelets on them, so you could just slap front rack on there and hopefully that would kill any noise.

My ideal Cross bike would be a CrossCheck with disc brakes, and I'm hoping that since the UCI or whoever legalized discs for cross racing it won't be too far off.

THe closest thing I've found so far is the Singular Peregrine.

http://www.singularcycles.com/peregrine.html

At this point if my crosscheck kicked the bucket I would have to seriously consider replacing it with the Peregrine.

Hope this helps fuel the thought process a bit. I can say more if you're interested, and you can check out my blog @ www.bikewrider.blogspot.com for more of my semi random musings on things bike related.

Happy Springtime to ya'

All Aboard

Our upcoming move involves a ferry ride with our vehicles. Up until today there was only space aboard the ferry for one of our vehicles. This meant my wife insisted that we take the baby friendly mobile instead of the bike friendly truck. It was looking like we were going to have to travel bike free and get by with out our bikes until the movers got our things to us and we got settled.

Well, persistence paid off. I faithfully checked the ferry berths until this morning when a spot for our truck opened up. I made a quick phone call, and secured a spot for the truck on the ferry, as well as a plush cabin for all of us.

A quick discussion with my wife and we decided we could comfortably take 3 bikes with us, leaving us with some decisions to make. My wife said she could happily get by with her single speed 29er, and left me to fill the other two spots.

The ferry leaves from a little coastal free ride hot spot where we happen to have a couple of trailbuilder friends. I've been itching to get back there and ride ever since we rolled through there a year and a half ago, so the full suspension rig is going. I am excited to rally some of the new trails and indulge the bike in what it was meant to do.

The other spot will fulfill my practical needs. The crosscheck is a dream of a commuter bike and is a hoot to ride on everything from asphalt to flowy single track.

My wife and I will both do much better coping with the transition if we're able to hop on a familiar bike and ride.