infinitely sustainable pace

Had my fortune told.

According to this ancient, mystical oracle I’m will be a ninja.

Perfect. Just gonna ninja my way through the next week at work. Try to keep the sanity. Kinda just like what Doug says. Only I’m a week and a day from getting to the desert, seeing my friends, life living, etc.

I ended this mountain-tastic weekend with a golden hour Pugsley ride up in Waterworks. The busy crowd of snowshoers, hikers and skiers had tracked out the trail network over the weekend, and then abandoned everything to go watch their football game. Seamus and I had the place to ourselves.

Riding soft, squeaky snow. Singletrack snow biking. Pink sky and golden mountains.

Saturday’s snowfall still lingered on all the trees, waiting for the wind (or possibly rain) to knock it off. Such a gorgeous end to a brilliant weekend of mountain living.

Earlier in the day K and I had gone to Bolton Valley for our first turns of the season. This year he’s got new boots and a new, longer board and has picked up right where he left off last season. Though I didn’t end up getting a season’s pass for us, I’ll be watching the discount offers closely so that we can get our chair lift time this year.

The open trails have coverage, but overall the snowpack is really sad this year. Check out the above photo. Those are benches behind K. Last year there was so much snow that the benches were completely covered, this year you’d have to be a giant to sit on them. There are still many trails yet to open, but I have to admit that conditions were perfectly fine today for green run cruising and it really wasn’t crowded.

Felt like I really took advantage of living in a mountain town this weekend. Saturday I made it to the dump and then rode snowmobile trails for two hours despite the bitter cold. Greensky Bluegrass at Higher Ground on Saturday night. Sunday riding and riding with a stop at the local pub in between. Good times indeed.

Crashing on the Pugsley is supposed to be fun. Sliding out of control into 5″ of brand new, fluffy powder. Sounds good, right?

It is pretty good. Even when you dig your bars deep into your thigh, leaving a mark and a big bruise through 2 thick layers of clothing. It’s still a fun time.

Dropped the boy off at school, navigated the slick roads and met George at Town Loops for a pre-work snow bike ride. Warm enough at 17 degrees to make it fun. Sun poking out at times. Exploring some of the snowshoe trails. Damn good start to the day.

It still surprises me what this bike can ride through. It’s so solid and responsible feeling. Note, I didn’t say ‘responsive’. It’s definitely a tank. Can’t wait to get out on it some more this weekend.

I was supposed to be in NYC right now, hanging out with my brother and helping out at the web/mobile conference that his company is putting on. However, things are all over super busy and the ‘optional’ trip was starting to stress me out. So I opted out. Good move I think. It’s already been a busy start to the week, my house is in shambles, my work is pressing and life is strange.

If you’re into such things, I got the website up for Singlespeed USA. There aren’t a lot of details yet, but when there are they’ll be found there. For now it seems to be a nice little shit-talking forum for the folks vying to host the 2013 edition.

The big news — I got new bike shoes. No more busted up boa system that has prevented me from tightening my left shoe ever since SSAP last april. No more poorly fitting shoes. I got a scorching deal on these fancy Specialized shoes while I was in AZ. They need to blow out a little bit, but I’m cautiously optimistic that they’re a step up.

Skiing. Finally got out for an XC ski. Rec path on Monday. With twenty first and second graders yesterday. As always, I continue to really suck at this sport. Can’t wait for the time to get back out on my pugs — that I can do.

After a really rad whirlwind trip like that, I relish a weekend at a home catching up on sleep and laundry and grocery shopping and basically trying to reorganize myself as best as possible. With high temperatures in the single digits, this was the perfect weekend to hunker down and get some stuff done.

My travel bike needed some love. So far I’ve taken it to Ireland, Oregon and Tennessee and the repeated assembly and disassembly had resulted in a bunch of parts rattling around in the bottom of the case. In addition, in December I pulled the fork and shipped it off to Push Industries for a rebuild and performance tune. It came back really quickly and already feels better. Until I get to ride it for real to know for sure, I can only hope that a little attention made a big difference.

So I took it into the shop and George and I (well, honestly mostly George but that’s why he makes the big bucks) stripped it down, cleaned it up, and regreased all the bits that needed to be regreased. Remember that time I arrived in Nashville and my rear wheel was missing a spacer and there was a whole big adventure to get a wheel to borrow? Well, while mucking about with my rear wheel George found the missing spacer. On the axle deep, deep, deep, inside the hub. Where it was never meant to be.

The spacer in question

And then he showed me where all those other spacers were supposed to go. And I took exploded diagram-esque photos in the hope of maybe doing a better job next time I put it together.

Think this will help?

The Center Track belt drive is finally available in other gearings so he put on an easier sprocket which should make riding the Caletti in areas with climbing a lot more fun. However, it seemed that I managed to come home from TN without some other spacers and my fancy Chris King lock ring to hold everything together. Whoops.

New tires. Trying out the Hutchinson Cobras. Just a bit of fiddling with the brakes left to do and then to pack it back up again for Singlespeed AZ on Feb 4. It’s a fine looking ride and seeing it all built up and shiny has got me all excited to ride it again.

Sometimes you get lucky. This past weekend was my annual excursion to Las Vegas for a couple of days of meetings. Scheduling hurdles meant those meetings needed to happen all day Saturday and Sunday. That’s a lot of working. And Vegas. At the end of the meeting on Sunday I caught a ride down to Phoenix and Monday morning I woke up bright and early to join a series of conference calls for work. By the time I hung up the  phone I had already logged over 21 hours for the week. Time for some fun.

A bike to borrow, some sunshine, 14 miles on South Mountain, Carne Asada burritos. Good business.

The next day involved an excursion to Sedona. Red rocks, hero dirt, more sunshine, 70 degrees, and the new trails on the west side. We rode Chuck Wagon, Gunslinger, and finished up with Mescal. A couple of spins around a vortex. Three hours of riding and this out-of-season girl was pooped. Beautiful day.

Back at it. Thankful for a weekend of good meetings and a little treat at the end. Hoping those few hours of sunshine and trails are enough to keep me going back in cold, dark winterland.

K has pneumonia. An hour in the drugstore yesterday. Waiting waiting waiting. He was not a patient boy. I imagined making a documentary, Drugstore Waiting Area, about an afternoon in the drugstore and all the characters that pass through.

Back on the road. Headed west for a few days. A lot of work. Maybe some cool stuff, just wait and see.

Dusk. Deep in the woods. Quiet. The only sound is the dog padding along beside me in the snow. Climbing up Cottonbrook. Closing down 2011 in a most satisfying way.

I wanted to just keep riding. As darkness fell the snow set up and traction improved. But I had other plans and places to go for New Years Eve, so I turned around and pedaled back to the car.

The inaugural snow bike ride was a success. The bike itself is nothing special, it’s the stock complete Pugsley with a Chris King headset and WTB Deva saddle. It’s not light, 37.25 pounds. But as others have mentioned, it’s fun.

I’ve ridden in snow enough to know how frustrating it can be, but the Pugsley makes it different. Even in the warm smooshy conditions the bike didn’t get bogged down in the slush.

More snow. More adventure. More exploring. Happy new year to everyone.

A quick trip to PA to have more Christmas with my parents. My parents swear they’ve scaled back their Christmas efforts, but their houses were still packed with cookies and candy and crap. I resisted as best as I could and planned to get a couple of good singlespeed rides while I had access to snowless terrain.

climbing the fire road into the bleak winter Trexler landscape

Actually, this was the first time I’d been back on my singlespeed (excepting the ride in TN) since the great groin bruise crash of mid-september. For three and a half months I’ve been riding gears and full suspension, taking it easy, trying to help that groin strain heal up. I’ve mostly succeeded. So, this week was a triumphant return to the singlespeed.

Niner One9

Wednesday was chilly, but the wind was way worse than the cold. Windy, as in the kind of wind that stops all forward progress. I felt sluggish and struggly on the bike and didn’t understand why it was so hard, after all my 22t cog was still on there from the summer. Or was it? Nope, turns out it was a 20t. It didn’t just feel harder because I’m out of shape, it was harder.

Thursday was much colder, not even 30 degrees but no wind. Back over to the trails. Everything felt better and I found my groove. Great ride before packing up and hitting the road back to VT and away from all those cookies. My mom snuck some in my bag, but I’ve got a plan to use those to bribe the bike mechanic later today…