ibis makes great bikes, i love mine, just got some new wheels for it.

over the last year ive own the bike there have been a few changes.

the dura ace 7900 crank was traded for a zipp vumaquad crank. i have both 53/39 and 50/34 rings for it. the 50/34 rings get more use.

the dura ace 7850 tubeless wheels have been swapped out for reynolds assaults. no tubeless, but the carbon rims soak up road chatter. they weigh the same and the aero is nice.

the stock san marco cyman was not giving me any love. i swapped it out for a slr, but for multiple days of riding it just makes me unhappy. so i opted for a flatter flite carbonio. i like it alot more, no weight penalty.

the foam tape has been changed for deda. its slick when wet but stays clean and feels good in my hands.

for best results. hand wash, and line dry

elvis perkins makes beautiful music, Ash Wednesday was amazing and the newish album Elvis Perkins in Dearland is stunning.

Yesterday was the LiveSTRONG challenge in Seattle. I rode as part of team fatcyclist.com fighting for Susan. The event was Sunday morning at Seattle Center, by the Space Needle.

There are so many stories from the day. So many people are dedicated to fighting this blight that so many people are afflicted with, it brought together many people in one single purpose.

Three big lessons were learned during the day.

One of the many cool things throughout the day was that as the top fundraising team team fatty got to line up IN FRONT of the chute, 3k people were behind us, but out ~70 or so were leading the charge. At the front I meet Keith, who writes Keith’s bike blog, his wife was unable to ride that day, she was out with an injury.

I also meet Kat, who I’ll admit, I developed an immediate little (harmless really) crush on.

At rollout no one fell down, which was good, but team fat cyclist, for all our heart is apparently bad at directions, we were rolling down 2nd ave when, following what turned out to be a pace car, then the car turned. We however, keep going. Lesson number one: don’t follow team fatty.

Riding in the city core sucks, so we needed a quick way out of the city, enter the i-90 express lanes, they closed down the lanes for us, which was super cool. I felt like we were all breaking the law being in the tunnels and on the bridge deck.

We then took a loop around Mercer Island. I saw the lead riders break off, my legs were tight from yesterdays 82 and 3 big climbs, so I tuned it back. Enjoyed the ride.

At the rollout the director of operations, or some such important titled woman said that 80% of every dollar donated to the LAF goes directly to fighting cancer, that is great. I think at least 10 cents of every dollar goes to singage for the ride. I have never seen so many direction signs on a ride. Up here, our big ride organizer is the Cascade bike club, they usually get away with Dan Henrys spray painted via stencil on the road.

The ride went on, my legs loosened up, I flitted through some riders, meet back up at ‘power stations.’ the support on the ride was great. I even saw an event supported holding a bike while the rider peed in the bushes, I mean, come on, how great is that?

The day cleared up, I started to feel pretty good, but tried to take it easy and keep my hear rate below 170 (I can max at 215ish). I rode most of Saturday in the 170s and my goal is 300 miles this week, so I didnt want to hate my bike after Sunday.

Going up the last big hill of the day we learned another lesson of the day. Satan lies. Going up Mountreax is a typical Pacific Northwest climb. Steep and short. Mountreax goes from 150 feet to 850 feet in just over a mile. Near the top there is a character dressed as the devil, he’s telling you that the top is only 25 yards away, first I thought Satan used metric, 2nd he is lying. The steepest was yet to come.

I think lesson number 3 involved the weather. Working down from New Castle area around the south end of Lake Washington I could see a dark cloud over Renton, it was warm out and I was thinking it would mean showers. Sure enough, by the time we rounded through the Boeing area it began, first they were big fat, interspersed drops. Soon the downpour began. Lighting and thunder directly overhead gave the three guys I was riding with and myself enough to think about. Glasses quickly fogged and became useless, soon we were in a downpour. I was pulling the group and was of the mentality that if they stay behind me I’ll keep going, so when I turned around and there was no one there I figured it was ok to pull off. I shot this video then. The support stations, I mean POWER STATIONS we well stocked with ice, fearing heatstroke. I hid with a few other soaked riders under and awning. Soon enough it let up and Jeff, Jeremy and Jon came rolling past, I left my fellow refugees and rejoined my group.

Then the odd thing happened. 1 mile away the pavement was dry, not like ‘oh it rained a little here then passed’ but like ‘huh? Rain? Wha rain?

A few little hills over the hump of Madrona and we were downhill to downtown. The 4 of us finished together.

We did the post ride food big, sat with Massachusetts, a rider who picks a differe LiveSTRONG every year and bases his families vacation around it. Really cool guy, gave him some Co2 on a hill.

The great thing about livestrong is that it takes people who would normally ride their bikes and harnesses that to do good work, we get to do what we love to help those around us.

Great thanks to Elden and Steve Peterson, our captain and co captain who have put themselves into this fight. This ride was as much about the people there doing it as the people who werent there

you would like I posted all my photos here, and you can download them in full quality.

WIN!

The week up to Flying Wheels Summer Century I was debating doing it. Ive dont the ride every year for four years. I cant think of anything besides birthdays and Christmas I’ve done four years in a row. The debate was between Flying Wheels and doing the RAMROD training series ride. RAMROD training series is something I’ve been doing through Cascade Bike Club. It is devolopmental series of rides that started off with ~50 mile ride and is progress of working up to 120 or so, all in aims of preparing the riders for a successful RAMROD ride. Theyre great rides, but untimately Flying Wheels won out.

I meet Keith (hes famous) at the start line at 8 on what is officially my first day of summer vacation.

Both decked out in our Fatcyclist.com gear. we rolled out at 8 am sharp.

The layout of Flying wheels is full of typical notherwest climbing for the first 25. There 3 climbs, short and steep, and then rollers and flats for 55 miles, one last hill, the worst of the day, then 10 miles along the lake  for a route that looks like this

View Larger Map

and an elevation profile that looks like this

yes virginia, you can climb 4,500 feet and never get above 525 feet above sea-level

The first couple of miles are flat along a pretty buys road  and being the largest century in the state of Washington, there are also 25 and 60 mile ride options, there are plenty of people out on the rode. For the first few miles everyone is on the same route.

Everyone on a bike is a friend, but some of my friends really need to ride on the shoulder if they’re going 15 mph on the flats. The ride comes to a damn stand still as we assault the first hill, and I think the steepest, Inglewood. Out of the gate there is 100 yards of 10-12%, I am quickly in my granny 39-28 but still passing people, some people are walking. People popping off their bikes on the climb always reminds me of jack in the boxes.

My heart rate is getting up there, but nothing serious, soon enough it is over. There are some flats to a light where everyone regroups, then a good downhill down 228th a short section on highway 202 then another steep climb, Ames Lake. Keith lives on Ames Lake, so I know this hill, the pothole out of the corner, where the road has moss on the side, the turns. It is steep for the first 1/4 mile, but then it levels off and if you notice this you can dig and make some good speed up it, if you still think youre climbing at the same pace you can plod along at 8 mph. I hook on a good wheel up the hill, a serious cyclist. She’s little and light, she has finesse where I have to rely on power. It is a mutually beneficial agreement as she tucks into my draft on the descent, it is a solid 35+ for a couple of miles. Some skinny bastard I ride with calls me a bus.

We get spit out into the lower reaches of the Snoqualmie River Valley. There is a rest stop, I had gone out with empty bottles like a retard and needed some liquids. We work our way onto 203. I hook up with Mike (?) who says hello by calling me fat, or rather he said, “GO FATTY” I talk him up for a few miles, we get buzzed by a ‘get off the rud ya moran’ car and take a sharp turn up to Cherry Valley road. I leave Mike at this point and climb alone, everyone climbs alone.

Soon enough, after the climb flattens out into roller, I encounter the Eastgate cycle club. Theyre fast so I jump on their wheels. They’re also accordions. They surge and brake, bunching up and spreading out. They’re dangerous group riders, but they’re fast. Someone peels off the front done taking their pull and fades back. I give the rider a slot in front of me letting me know that his last teammate wheels is his. I do not want to get into their line. I am sure this was seen as a ‘I want to benefit from the group but I don’t want to put into the work’ move but it was really a ‘I want to keep you all where I can see you move.’ Moments later a bottle gets ejected from a cage, or dropped, somewhere near the front and all kinds of shit breaks loose. People are locking up their brakes, skidding and swerving. I’d like to thank Fatcyclist and Ibis cycles for my wonderful set of 7900 dura ace brakes, I was able to slow and avoid the confusion. The scary thing is that during the entire episode and the entire time I rode with the Eastgate folks that nothing was called out, no obstacles were pointed out. We hit Duval, cross the river and come to the second rest stop. I see a way out.

Aric and Gary, man I see these guys everywhere. Tour De Blast, HPC, 7 Hills of Kirkland, Crater Lake century, they turn up in their Cycle U gear everywhere. These guys embody the PRO riding that Belgium Knee Warmers talks about.  From their kit and their gear to their group etiquette to behavior these guys are serious. I say hey and we head out. A group of 3 is much more my style than a group of 15. I’ve ridden with Aric more than Gary, but Gary is riding like he’s on a mission today, indeed he is, he is participating in the Etape du Tour in July.

Gary is a metronome, steady and smooth. You can get power quickly, just take a winter sit on the trainer a few days a week. Smooth takes time. And at 59 he is a model of where I’d like to be as a cyclist as I get older. Oh Gary, sorry about pointing out how you’re older than my parents.

With Gary pulling and either Aric or me in the two slot we go miles, always a doable pace. The effort level stays about the same. We slow through Snohomish, in years past Keith and I would stop for pie here, not this year. =(

On the way to Monroe, up Lords Hill, as we roll past Lords Stables on Lords Road (I’m not kidding) The Eastlake group catches up. They pass us and promptly slow, sitting in front of us doing their sthitch. Gary looks over his shoulder the way everyone does when they’re going to go, I smile, I think Aric says ‘yeah.’ Gary bursts around them, seriously upping his work. The Eastlake kids cant let us go, its not in their nature; but now were working so they don’t overtake us again.

Carnage on the roadway. Sadly, not everyone has a good day, over the course of the day I see 3 people with medical personal attending to them. One had a guy laying in a ditch, a sherif standing over him, he was limp and his head was lolling side to side. One of the others was on a total flat spot with no traffic (by aldera baseball field) there was a team surrounding the rider. The third was on some downhill rollers, with like minded jerseys around the person on the gurney

fatty leads the way.

Midway stop in Monroe, bottles and some food. Keith is coming in as were going out. He quickly grabs some food.  Were not in a big paceline but we pick up a few riders, I do a little pulling but gary must like the look of the road with no one in front of him we eat up miles. Keith drops off with some cramping in his foot, we loose Aric somewhere along the line. At the base of the last hill my legs are feeling ok, it is 80 miles in and I know that, but I’m not done yet. Gary out paces me, over the little over a mile he grabs ~20 yards on me. We roll into the mile 82 rest stop, are there a while, find Aric and Keith.

The final 10 miles has gary laying on the hurt. Its rolling and everytime I looked down at the computer its between 24-31, Gary is trying to rip off my legs.

I ended up with a 19.4 average speed for the ride, 4:56 ride time for 96.13 miles with 4,975 feet of climbing. One thing I am trying to work on this year is stopped time while still eating enough, I did alright on the eating and was only stopped 12% of the time. This was one of my first rides with a garmin hr monitor, I saw an average of 158 and a high of 185, I never got piqued even on icky hill.

I meet jerry after the ride. I meet jerry last year on 7 hills, last year we were both in pink fatcyclist jerseys. this year were sporting black.

Thanks for reading, i think i do these ride write ups as much for me as for anyone who might be reading.

Tour de blast AND LIVEstrong are next week, going to try to make it a 300 mile week.

found some pics from years past

2006

2007

couldnt find 08, ill look on keiths machine

So I wrote a final paprt on the values of the social contract theory as a foundation of a legitimate political order, and how i felt tacit consent is insufficient to justify the ingrained inequality that hobbes, lockes and rousseau’s (1st) contracts build. then i penned another shorter one on the good/bad vs good/evil moral code in Nietszche.

Then I went for tiny bike ride to gas works park. gas works is seattles industrial super fund cleanup site turned poster park still with old coal gasification plant relics. two years ago they removed the top eighteen inches of topsoil due to mercury contamination, no kidding.

there is a multi use trail on the way there, burke gilman trail. I didnt take the trail as muts kinda scare me after dinner. towards the park the mut disappears as you go around a bend and over some abandoned tracks. out of the corner of my eye i see kids playing soccer on a side street, the ball gets away and comes rolling towards this rather shitty confluence of tracks, mut, roads, bikes, roller bladers and cars, oh and its getting dark, this is what the intersection looks like, thank you google maps

i track the ball, i see that the ball and i will reach the intersection about the same time, theres a roller blader coming the other way, a walker going the same way and a car behind me who hasnt worked up the gumption to pass me, dude im on the shoulder, you have room.

i make an executive decision about engagement, i yell “i got it” to discourge the kid chasing after the ball. i  hit the tracks, unclip my right foot, tap the brakes, and kick the ball up the side street all at 20+ mph.

the kids yell back in very 80’s tv ‘thanks mr!’

the really cool thing was how it lined up perfectly, change any of those variables and it would have been different, ball would have gone into traffic, hit a roller blader (not that bad a thing) and forbid the kid kept chasing.

sometimes things flow.

Helium is one of the two original elements in the universe. Earth’s gravity isn’t strong enough to hold on to helium. The helium we use on earth is the product of decaying uranium and thorium.

source

I had a warmer than I thought day on the bike a few weeks ago. It is a nice way to be wrong, having more clothes than you need.

Bike clothes are pretty compact, in fact the arm and leg warmers are more clothes components than stand alone clothes. Theyre like clothes in AA ball, they haven’t been called up to the Bigs yet, as such they fill a niche. They’re not really clothes. If you would like to test this walk around the house in nothing but arm and leg/knee warmers, you’ll feel like a mostly naked idiot, and you should because you are. Dear Gods, don’t let anyone, even a loved one youve been naked around see you in leg and knee warmers. On the plus side, if you choose such a tactic you’ll have more tie to ride, you’ll be single.

So…

So my jersey pockets were crammed with arm warmers, knees warmers, rain jacket, over gloves, ie jam packed. And I’m hungry. So I pull by my favorite burrito joint, Chipotle (say Chip O tttle) and order up a fajita burrito, sans guac.

Then the problem shows up, I have no place to put it. I can shove it under my jersey where itll get smooshed. I can try to ride with one hand, but U district, rush hour, one hand is bad news. I’m perplexed. 

Then I am enlightened. 

I get to combine 3 of the things I am real fond of. Chipotle, Ibis cycles and fatcyclist.com .

It fit perfectly.

Cancer sucks, no bones about it. It has affected good friends of mine along with people I’ve never meet. 

Fighting cancer is cool. 

One of those people who it has affected is Susan Nelson, her husband, Elden is uniting hundreds millions of people nationwide to help in ways that we can to help fight cancer. You might remember Fatty and how he gave me an amazing dream bike that I love for almost nothing last summer. Same bike in the above picture.

Well, that was last year, this year we’re doing something different. First Team Fatty is registered in every single city that the LIVEstrong Challenge is going this year. Im riding in Seattle. Team Fatty training rides are trouble, people are spread out all over the country, but we’re getting together to ride in May. On trainers. 

Trainers are the bane of all riders. It is where you ride where fitness is the goal, theyre not a whole bunch of fun. For me the fun I get out of biking is riding my bike, I love riding my bike, I get fitness out of it. Riding gives different terrain, wind in your hair, pushing up mountains, going fast down big downhills, finding your limits and surprising yourself when you have more in the tank than you thought. Riding a bike is a great way to spend a spring day, riding rollers isn’t

So I signed up for the 100 Miles of Nowhere

If you’d care to donate some money to help me fight cancer I think it would be great. I know things are tougher now than they have been in the last few years, so giving might be tougher than normal, but every dollar you give helps someone who needs it.

Oh hey, look I found a donate button. Look at that. How convenient. 

To the person who donates the most I will give you the DZ nuts bottle or the shot blocks, your call.

rode in shorts and a tshirt around the neighborhood, yeah i got looks from decked out bikers.

i just sat and watched the sailboats, there seriously were 5 but when i thought to take a picture they didnt cooperate