Dialing in the cargo bike

This was one of the more complicated flat tires to repair. The Madsen Cycles cargo bike weighs about 75 pounds, which makes it pretty difficult to flip over or move around to get the wheel out from underneath it.

Afterwards, I swapped out my modified Ergon GS3 grips to the Madsen. You mean you're townie doesn't have grips designed for ultra-endurance racing on it?

So long...

Goodbye old buddy. I'll miss you.

Breck Epic Packing

Every item has a specific purpose and has been thought about as I've packed up for Breck Epic, which starts tomorrow morning.

Aid station bags will have almost identical spare parts, including shoes, a tube, a tire, sunglasses, and clothing. Nutritional items (not pictured) will vary, with more food in the first aid station bag.

I've toiled between a saddle bag and backpack. It was not until I purchased the Ergon BX-2 pack that I've enjoyed riding/racing with a pack but due to the nature of the Breck Epic, I'm carrying a few extra items I wouldn't normally carry for a race like a rain jacket and a first aid kit so I've opted for the pack. At least today, I'm thinking when it gets to hiking up some of the passed and steep climbs I'd Thayer have a bit more weight on my back than have to be pushing stuff strapped to my bike.

Jerseys- not enough for a fresh one everyday, which means I'll be doing some laundry, but one is Boulder Cycle Sport's current year kit and then I have a slew of older jerseys as backup.

these are my more sport specific personal care items like chamois cream and SportLegs. I do have a tube of diaper rash cream as I had a few saddle sores earlier this season and it's worked well with healing. It also subs in for chamois cream well (just a very thick one).

These are my recovery tools. I've been using a foam roller since my knee surgery in 2003 left me with IT band issues and the TP Therapy Grid has taken rolling to a new level. It is much more firm than a standard foam roller and the pattern does affect how it works my muscles.

Singlespeed Sunday, Episode 5

(Get video play by play via my BlipSnips Channel)

Yesterday was much warmer than a week ago. As a result, we kept the Singlespeed Sunday route to mostly bike path and roads with only a minimal amount of dirt road and gravel crusher bike paths. The Koppenberg climb was an absolute mess so we hiked to the top on the side of the road.

Knowing that the South Boulder Creek Trail would be a disaster, as we were slogging our way down 66th towards Marshall Road, I asked Josh if he wanted to go do some climbing. We headed towards Gillaspie and Harlow Platts Park and climbed towards Greenbriar and Lehigh. Now, this is not a very steep climb but on a singlespeed, it'll start a good burn.

We cruised along the Broadway bike path before cutting through the CU campus towards the Boulder Creek Trail. We linked that to the Goose Creek Trail and hopped onto Baseline. After cutting through to S. Boulder Rd, there was more climbing to do-- again, not a serious issue with gears. We dropped back down towards the Louisville Rec Center and parted ways.

But Singlespeed Sunday wouldn't be done yet. Part two began as I entered the garage and moved my water bottles over to my new Gary Fisher X-Caliber, which I had picked up Saturday night. I took off for a few minutes for Super Stealth Sunday, a reference to any training Josh or I do in an attempt to gain an edge over the other. I cut it short so I would have enough time to shower before heading to a leisurely Sunday lunch at the Southside Walnut Cafe with Esther. Just as we were driving into Boulder, the snow started and I realized how glad I was that Singlespeed Sunday had started early.

My quick spin on the Fisher wasn't really all that telling of a ride. I need to work on positioning and get it dialed in before I give a good ride report on it but I will say with my WTB 29er LaserDisc Trail wheelset, the bike comes in at a respectable 26.4lbs. Watch out!

2010 Sponsors Update

I made an earlier reference to my 2010 teams and sponsors in my January 14 video post but hadn't updated the rest of the blog to reflect new sponsors and all. The list this year is a good one and I am looking forward to putting it all together.

For the mountain bike season, I'll be racing with the guys from ALL MTN Racing and we've picked up Bicycle Outfitters up in Evergreen as our shop sponsor. Most of us will be riding Gary Fishers and a few will be on Niners. I'm excited to give 29'ers a go since I've been running a 69'er setup on my singlespeed for three years now and spent a season on Trek's 69'er Top Fuel. We have kept WTB for our tires, wheels, saddles and grips and added Honey Stinger for energy gels, bars, chews and other food needs and also added Rudy Project to the list as well.

For the cyclocross season, I'm planning on riding with the Boulder Cycle Sport crowd again.

Saturday Ride

Shop Local...

If you're ever in Amsterdam, I would reccomend you stop in at Kaptein Tweewielers. It is on the Overtoom and what impressed me about this shop the most was their product to floor space ratio. They had a solid collection of bikes— road, mountain, townie, touring, singlespeed/fixie, cyclocross, and a few time trial bikes as well. The majority of their stock bikes were Trek, Kona, Scott and Ridley with a few Santos, and Rocky Mountain too. They also had a great selection on clothing and parts as well. How many shops will have the SRAM XX full gruppo in stock as part of the window display?

We scored a set of Crank Brothers Smarty pedals for 30€ ($43 USD) and a pair of Wellgo flat/clipless combo pedals for E.

Welcome home kg271

A few weeks ago I got a DM on Twitter from @madsencycles... And then I wrote about Urban Utility afterwards. Well, kg271 arrived yesterday, just in time for the snow to start falling.

I found this video as part of MTBR's Virtual Interbike coverage for WTB.

I'm looking forward to getting set up with some new WTB tires for next season with the Tubeless Compatible System (TCS). It takes the strong wire bead of a true UST tubeless tire and matches it with a standard casing to work with a sealant system to drop the overall weight of a tubeless set up by dropping the UST casing weight. I have been running the WTB Mutano's all year on my Bionicon and just recently put on as my rear tire on my Surly 1x1 for Single Speed World Championships. The high volume, light weight of that tire makes it a great choice for racing on the mixed conditions at Winter Park.

Urban Utility...

After getting a halfway suspicious direct message from MADSEN Cycles on Twitter last week needing to confirm my eligibility for the free bike give-a-way, I quickly called the number I was given. I told the MADSEN employee that yes, I was indeed over 18 years old and I did indeed live in the USA, and confirmed that I lived in the great state of Colorado, he laughed. 'People are going to think this bike-giveaway is rigged because you're the third person to win from Colorado." 

"Well, hot dog. I'll take a bike with a bucket please!" Once the MADSEN crew has settled from Interbike, they'll be shipping off a new townie to me. I should expect to see it on my doorstep and in my garage in about three weeks.

My next trick...

I'm busy prepping my bike and stuff to head on down to Durango for SSWC'09 and as I'm looking at it, I've got a lot of things I want to fit into that small saddle bag.

2 tubes- a 26", a 29"
Patch kit
2 tire levers
A wrench (bolt on rear wheel)
A pocket tool, complete with chain tool
CO2 blaster and 3 cartridges
2 Clif Shots- back up to a gel flask.

I put some fresh rubber on the wheels tonight- WTB Wierwolf LT 29 2.55 version for the front and a WTB Mutano Raptor 2.4 for the back. Both are really high volume which should provide some shock absorbtion on a fully rigid bike. I like the Mutano based on my experience with it on my Golden Willow so we will see how it handles on a different set up. I just need some fresh brake pads and I should be set, at least for gear- the course reports are looking brutal.

Today's projects

I spent a few hours this afternoon working on getting these portable barriers put together following the easy plans set up by Greg at mudandcowbells. I modified them slightly but the blue paint is to distinquish the cross bars from the legs when setting the up. I also have a fourth cross bar piece I can add in if needed and a few spare connectors in case something breaks. 

I started a Toddy brew of the Roastery Blend from the Rocky Mountain Roastery today and have it brewing overnight. It should be set so that when I wake up in the morning, all I need to do is unplug the drain and let it drain out to give me 6-7 cups of coffee concentrate. I think some of that plus the JetBoil will make for a great warm up after those late season cross races this year.

Hotter than Hades

My SSWC 2009 official rig. It's a Surly 1x1 with a Karate Monkey fork allowing me to run it as a 69'er. I might change out the tires to run a WTB set-up but can't decide on the right tires (Mutano and a Prowler or Wierwolf 29er?). I took it out for about two hours to begin dialing it in for the SSWC in Durango. It's a bit hard to get used to having raced Bionicon Golden Willow 6" full suspension bike all summer.

Denver tied its record high temperature today at 98 degrees. That makes for one toasty ride. I still had some energy afterwards so I headed out for a 30 minute run. A two hour ride and a half hour run in this weather caused me to lose 6-7 pounds in water weight. Yeesh.

One of the more frustrating, but necessary parts of the front range trail systems. You've got to keep those cattle in line.

$20

This is probably going to turn out to be the best $20 I have spent for my bikes. A quick search shows it up as being available from HSN and Cabelas at one point or another but we were at the outlets and there was a refurbished tool store and it caught my eye. Check it out- the Nomad H20 On the Go Power Washer.

I filled it up last night when we got home and sprayed down the 69er and I was very pleased with the results-- not only did I get a clean bike but it was really easy to use and seems like its going to be powerful enough to get clean up with after a muddy race. It runs off of a 12 volt cigarette lighter outlet so it may not be easily used in the pits unless you can park somewhere near the pit area but I haven't been to too many races where that is a possibility. Oh well- at least I won't be shoving a messy bike into or putting it on top of my car and worrying about cleaning later.