Fat Tire Tandem?

What to get Carolynn for her upcoming birthday???

Maybe it is indeed time for that mountain bike tandem.  We have been thinking about a MTB tandem for several years now.   Could we handle the local single track here in Kansas City?  Sure looks like fun below.

First Impressions - Ritchey Swiss Cross

I have wanted a Swiss Cross for years.  Only thing was Tom Ritchey no longer produced them and finding an older model was hard.   Lucky me Mr. Ritchey and the fine folks at Ritchey Bicycle Components decided to start producing the Swiss Cross again.

A couple of months ago I picked up the new ride from The Wheel Cyclery  and have looked at it ever since.   The main problem was what to build her up with and I have had some nagging injuries the past couple of months.  One in particular is a hip injury.  Because of this the build process has been very very slow.   Finally the Poser could  not take it anymore and offered up a SRAM Red CX Groupo.  I could not say no and found a renewed motivation to complete my dream bike.

Christopher decided he might try a couple of cross races this year after the MTB season ends later in October.  I told him he could race the Ritchey if he helped build her.  Heck, he has a much better chance at doing well on her than I would anyways. I am trying to teach him how to build, maintain and repair his own equipment.  We worked together on the Swiss Cross and I do believe she is a thing of beauty.  I can honestly say this is one of my finest builds ever. 

First impressions:  I just got back from a 30 mile gravel/dirt road/cross course practice ride.  I can not wipe the smile off my face.  This is by far the finest cross bike I have ever ridden.  I have a nice route that included some levee, double track, farm land, old construction area and two cross courses that I hit.  The Swiss Cross shined on all of them.  I was very impressed with how smooth the bike was.  Nothing like the ride of a nice steel frame.  I hit the double track hard and just floated over the bumps.   The double track lead me to my secret cross course.  This bike is very fun to ride fast on a flowing cross course.  Very balanced and  responsive.  Everything worked great including the SRAM Red.  Looking forward to healing up and gaining some form.  I really only have one A event on my cross calendar.  That is the Missouri State Cyclocross Championship in December.  Might have to order up another Swiss Cross because I am sure Christopher is not going to give up this ride easily.  I told him we would race for it. He said o.k., but it has to be a race with pedal power. Go figure...

    

New Cross Rig - Swiss Cross

I have the most awesome wife there is. She asked me what I wanted for Valentines day and I said Swiss Chocolate because I have really had a sweet tooth lately. But she really knows what I have been wanting as of late (besides that...) a nice new Ritchey Swiss Cross.

Guess I have no excuse for this years cyclocross season. Now I just need to decide how to build her up. I am really excited and have always wanted a Tom Ritchey Swiss Cross frame.

Speed Weapon

Speed is the name of the game and here is my new weapon of choice for Tri's/Du's and TT's.

Well, mostly updated than new... I will again use my Orbea Aletta frame. I added a Ritchey Logic seat post with a normal set back this year. I liked the 76 degree seat angle of the Orbea last year, but when I resumed training this year I felt "out of sorts" on the bike and my TT position was causing pain in my shoulder. After many adjustments I found I felt more balanced and comfortable when I positioned my saddle more to the rear. This took a lot of weight off my shoulder and as a added bonus I climbed a lot better. So far the more relaxed geometry did not deter a good run - at least during my recent brick workouts.

One obvious new addition is a set of Williams 58 carbon tubular wheels. I was very afraid of going back to sew-ups (disclaimer: only road sew-ups for one year about 15 years ago). But Dave offered this wheel set as a trade and I decided I could not go wrong. I will not go into details due to time constraints , but after my experience with gluing on a new set of tires this will be my last set of tubulars. That is unless the "ride" is that much better like some say. Hopefully my new Kenda Volare perform as expected.

The final addition is a new Rudy Project Syton TT helmet. It is their older design TT helmet, but the price was right and I liked the way if fit more.

First test of my new speed weapons will be this weekend at the Sedalia Spring Into Summer Duathlon. Wish me luck.

Yea It is Winter Time.

As a native Floridian I must tell you that for the most part winter sucks. We almost did not make the move to South Florida when I was a little kid. My dad and mom almost moved us to Michigan, but after one too many trip on the truck with holes on the floor board my Dad say F*** this and moved to the warmest place he could find - good ole sunny South Florida. On a couple of rides lately I have gotten this same feeling. Funny how the mind works when you are freezing and body aches from the cold.

Carolynn and I both tired of the cold already and looking forward to our little trip back home to Florida next month. There are some good things about snow (see below), but for the most part it sucks. Hikes like this keep me sane this time of year.




One really good thing about winter and the snow is we get some cool rides in. For some reason I really like riding in the snow. Once you get the proper equipment it can be very fun and makes the winter time go very quickly. One new item I have been wanting to get for the past several years is a set of snow tires. I finally got a two sets of Kenda Klondike tires - one for the mountain bike and one for my cross bike. Plan to break in the cross bike one tomorrow morning during the Smithville Gravel Grinder. Looks to be great conditions for them. Just check out those studs.
Speaking of equipment, I got a few new toys. One is a nice new Anthem X. She finally arrived at the Wheel Cyclery earlier this week and I can not wait to try her out. Below are some pics. Very sexy rig. This beauty is equipped with XT groupo (do you really need anything else?), Hugi wheels, Fizik saddle and Fox shock/fork. I opted for the 3 x10 set-up. You do not really need a small chain ring around here, but I am planning on some trips to the mountains and that 22 is much appreciated climbing those darn hills. With the 36 our back I will be able to climb just about anything. I will report back as soon soon with a complete report.

One Sweet Ride

Finally! Dry trails. Heading out to Lawrence with high hopes that the River Trails would be dry enough to ride (Thank you Jeff for the trail report). They were not only dry enough they were in the best shape I have ever seen them. I really liked the new section in the back. Very nice indeed.

It has at been a long time since our local trails were dry enough to ride and I needed get in at least one good ride on my new rig before next weekends Ouachita Challenge. Well, I got that and more. Riding today was pure joy. It was like being a kid again with unlimited energy. Clipped off 5 laps like it was nothing.

The Bandersnatch is complete and she is One Sweet Ride! She is build with a combo XTR/XT groupo, Sun Ringle' 29er wheelset, Kenda Small Block 8's (tubeless), Manitou 29er fork, Ritchey Logic stem, bar, headset, seat and seatpost, Haynes Stroker Trail brakes, and Crank Brothers pedals. Thank you all so much for your support and product donations.

How does the "snatch" ride? Incredible. She fits me like a glove and does everything I asked her to do. The Wet Cat geometry rocks. A totally balanced ride. I was amazed at how well she cornered and I can not wait to test her out down in Arkansas next weekend. The Stroker Trail brakes were great out of the box. The Manitou fork was silky smooth. The XTR/XT group was like "butter". Of course, that could have been the awesome build job I completed.

On one of the laps I shot the below video. I was riding with one hand so take it for what it is. Maybe a waste of 4 min and 49 seconds....

I Got a New Snatch tonight.....

.....and it looks sweet.






































the build process begins. More to come soon....

New Ironman Rig

Only have one more month to go until my Ironman triathlon. I have been looking for a new TT bike to use. One with a 76 or 78 degree seat tube angle. I have have never raced with TT geometry. You would think that after 20 years of on/off racing traithlons that I would have acquired one. Well, you would have been wrong.

After much searching (and trying to stay within my budget of $300.00) I finally settle on an used Orbea Aletta. It has a 76 degree seat tube. Finally got all the parts off the old Assissi and transferred them over to my new TT rig. I went for a quick test ride and was really impressed. Position and comfort in the aero position was much better with the steeper seat tube. I will hit a few rides this week to dial in everything do a long ride this Saturday (125 miles if anyone is interested).

Speaking of long rides. The Cow Town 200 was yesterday. A few brave soles showed up for most of the ride including Dave Wathen and Jeff Haug. Randy meet meet us up in Dearborn for a portion of the ride. The weather was nice. We had to head south out of Smithille due to some tired riders which cut some miles off the planned 124 miles. After pulling Jeff back to E.H. Young I put in about 15 miles. Add that to my ride to the park and I ended up with 112 miles. That is the distance I need for my Ironman. I asked myself after the ride did I feel like running a marathon. Hell know was the answer. I still got some work to do this next month. One good thing is that I am down to 162 lbs (morning weight). Only two more pounds to lose to reach my goal race weight of 160.

Off to work on that swim stroke....

First Winter Ride

I finally got to hit the trails for my first winter ride in the snow. I planned to meet a couple of my teammates at Landahl for a couple of hours of fun, but I was the only one to show up.....

Today was also my first ride on my new Mary SS. She sure does look perty and smooth, but she rides like an old broken down mule. Even with the soft snow I was getting beat up. Maybe it was just me or I had too much tire pressure. I will give her another go tomorrow morning. Got in 2 1/2 hours before my toes started to go numb.

29er??? Not so sure about this either. I guess I need to get used to it. All I know is that my Giant Anthem sure seems to ride a lot smoother than these big old things...

Maxxis Ardent Tires. One word - SWEET. They hooked up very well in the snow. I can't wait to try them in some other types of terrain.

My New Rides

Well I finally did it. After that last ride home in the tow truck I (well, actually Carolynn made the decision for me) decided to break down and buy a new vehicle. It is a very hard process to find the right vehicle. After about 20 test rides we settled on a Chevrolet Equinox. I almost got another van since they are most practical, but decided to try something new. Thanks to Randy for helping me out with the GM Family First program saving me a ton of cash.

This weekend we took the Equinox on it's maiden voyage. After a hard day in the saddle fighting the wind on Saturday, we decided to hit the trails. Bad thing is all the mountain bike trails are muddy so we decide to ride the Little Blue Trace. I 'thought' the rock surface of the trail would be dry, but I was wrong. Most were dry, but there were several long sections of mud. As luck would have it, I just got done washing and tuning up Carolynn's and Christopher bikes....

The wind this weekend was something else. It was a battle just to get dressed outside before the ride let alone ride in it. And it made for a bad hair day and wind burn face.

Was it just me or did it seem like you fought the wind for what seemed like hours only to finally turn around and get only a few minutes of tail wind. I guess a few minutes of tail is better than none.

I also got my new single speed rig built up. I decided to test her out on today's family ride. Late last year I bought a used Airborne Lucky Strike. I first built her up as a SS cross bike but now she is all set up to do what she was made to do - tame some serious single track. First impressions are good. The Mechanical Disc brakes feel very good and my position is a lot better since I put a suspension fork on it. I never could get used to the rigid fork that I used for cross season. I can't wait to hit the trails once the dry up or at least freeze over again. If the trails are frozen Monday night I am hitting Smithville for a night ride.