Skyline Dr

We have been having some unfortunate weather (for my skiing).  It turns out, this unfortunate skiing weather is excellent cycling weather.  I am wanting to do a Skyline Dr Gravel Grinder perm, so I figured I would scope it out.  I actually need an information control at the top, but I didn’t quite make it that far.  Riding in the snow and mud got old really fast, and with the new bundle of joy at home, and I turned my wagon around prematurely.

I went back and forth on which bike to use, and when it was settled on the Mountain Goat, I debated changing the tires from my studded snow tires to “normal” tires.  Out of laziness I left the studded tires on the bike and decided to risk loosing a stud or two.  Turns out it was a good idea, as a guy on a dirt bike showed me the icy spots as he laid his motorized bike down over a patch of ice.

Up towards the top, the entire road was covered with slushy snow, which made riding very difficult.  My strokes were inefficient and I could feel my rear tire slipping.  After a 1/4 mile or so of the snow, I decided to have the gross and very old “protien bar” I grabbed from the mix bag of gross and very old energy bars we have.  I choked about half of it down wishing I had some saltines and peanut butter.  But, I was tired, so I entered the descent.

The descent didn’t go as fast as I had hoped, but it was still fun.  I need to secure my fender to my chainstay bridge a little better, as I had to stop twice to adjust that.  Also, there must be some super cool way to get down besides that road, because tons of lazies were hauling their pimped out dual suspension bikes up in their car.

Ride Details here.

2011 Mileage

5,365 miles.  or 447 miles/month.  or 103 miles/week.  or 14.7 miles/day.

Hopefully 2012 brings me as many ENJOYABLE miles!

Ski Mounting, and humbling Mountain Biking

Since I have no desire to mount my bindings on my skis with my cordless drill at home, I was tasked with taking the skis down to the shop for mounting.  While driving is always an option for me, I elected for the much more exciting choice  of biking them to the shop.  Besides, no one points at you and excitedly screams to their parents, “LOOK!” when you have skis in your car.  It’s only when you carry them on your bike.

And that is my new trusty mountain goat.  I elected for the Bikes Direct route after my failed attempts at purchasing a bike on KSL.  And, if you’re ever wondering what to price your bike on KSL, be sure to check out my nifty pricing guide.

Anyway, on my way back from the ski shop, I picked up my laptop so my mother could update the software on her Android phone (boo to Android for not working with Mac computers, BOO!).  And I figured I would just take a little more adventerous route home over the mountain via the Bonneville-Shoreline Trail.

It’s been a while since I have ridden a mountain bike on a single track trail.  And to put this frankly, I got my butt kicked.  But, determined not to quit, I pushed the mountain goat up the parts I was having a hard time riding.  It was much better than sitting inside on a nice Wasatch December day, so I’ll take it as a win.  Besides, that inversion is nasty and I may have escaped some of the durdiness.

Anyway, I look forward to improving on the mountain bike trails.  It can only get better from here.

How an egg got me “epic” footage

Way back when I used to live in Houston, I had some punk teenagers throwing crap at me. Police reports have been filed, but I was unable to remember the full 7 digits of the license plate. All I could remember is CD4 M86. While this would be acceptable if this was the old Texas license plate, that is not the case here. It is a new license plate, and it therefore has 7 wonderful characters, one of which I can’t remember. The Houston police have been very unhelpful in the matter, and I am sure they have bigger fish to fry. But, the dealer 2 blocks down was still slingin’ sacks today.

Nonetheless, these punk teenagers in a beige Cadillac DeVille threw things at me on two separate occasions on Heights Blvd while I was in the northbound bike lane. One incident was near 13th St, by the library, when an object was thrown at me striking me in my upper left arm (I’m sure they were aiming for my melon), resulting in bruising on my tricep. The other incident occurred one week later, on the same road, around the same time, with the same Caddy DeVille, but this time near the intersection of 7th St, by the park with the cool playground, when it felt like a bottle of water hit me in the back of the neck. It turns out they hit me with an egg.

Egg thrown at me by some Punk teenagers

While there are much more dangerous things than teenagers throwing eggs, it can cause serious injury to someone.  So, I spent $25 of my hard earned dollars for a spy camera, because if I was going down, I wanted to catch these punks.  I was having a hard time to remembering the license plate numbers, and I figured $25 to document my commute was worthwhile.

I was dumbfounded on how to mount the spy pen camera to my bicycle, so I figured I would just hook the camera onto a strap of my pannier, take a look at the video and iterate from there.  So, I hook the camera on my pannier and take off.  Below is a clip of my video.

I’m grateful the lady stopped.

Turkey Day Rollin’

In trying to keep my in-laws thinking I am crazy, I made the 19.1 mile trek up to our Thanksgiving day dinner via bicycle. I thought that maybe pedaling to the dinner would make me appreciate the days of the Pilgrims and Indians. Of course, I skipped right over my Hobby Horse and pulled the Circle A straight out of my bike quiver. I was able to reflect on my gratitude for being on a bicycle in nice weather, a bike path that doesn’t have a stop sign every 0.05 mile, and for seemingly once this year, having the wind at my back. While I really wanted to see the Lions beat the Packers, I’m glad I pedaled to the location of gluttonous dinner–with the result of the football game making me more happy in my decision.

My first trip down the Legacy Parkway trail was enjoyable, but with all the high tension power lines, it makes one wonder when they’ll get cancer (even though I don’t buy into the cancer from power lines theory). Alas, people need their juice.

In a totally psuedo unrelated topic, I have been using Strava to track my rides. I must say, I like the simplicity and that it does everything I need it to. The only thing I don’t like is it tracks “climbs,” which are sections along the route that the uber competetive contingent of Freds have marked to pull your time into their little competition, like it or not. My only fear about these “climbs” is I am going to get caught up in the competition with all these racing wannabes and I may end up ”kitted out” one these days. I’ve secretly been watching Bonktown to pull the trigger on some team Radioshack gear.

Of course, I wouldn’t be so vain to suck it in, I’d just let my 700×40 tire hang out.

How to value your bike for sale on KSL

A big question many people have after buying a bicycle and wanting to sell it for whatever reason is what to sell their bike for. While I haven’t bought many used bikes, I am a huge bike buff and track prices pretty closely.

Recently, wanting to build up a winter commuter I have been searching for a good used mountain bike through Utah’s famous KSL. Come to find most people selling bikes on there have no idea how to price their bikes. So, I have put together some handy tips to help people out.

1- Dig up the sales price from when you bought the bike years ago.
2- Depreciate the bike’s value by $10.23/year for each year you have owned it.
3- Always claim you only rode the bike a couple of times regardless of how stretched out the brake cables are. Sure the buyer may need to take on the risk of things breaking, but nothing ever broke for you.
4- Immediately disregard completed eBay sales for your make and model of bike. Accuse anyone offering you prices comparable to eBay of wanting to pay walmart prices for a boutique bike.
5- Always have some mention of the tires in your ad. Tires sell bikes and the average bike user probably never needs to replace the tires before they put the bike back for sale on KSL. Not to mention, the tires you have on the bike are the exact ones the buyer would want.
6- Add up your local bike shop’s retail price for all upgrades regardless of you buying them online. Add to the price you paid for the bicycle less depreciation. Remember, whatever upgrades you put on are exactly what every buyer would want.
7- Remember, the bike isn’t worth what someone will pay for it, it is worth what you value your emotional and actual investment in the bicycle to be.
8- Post online with the other 2000 or so bicycles always for sale on KSL. Take calls, answer emails, repost the ad and meet people for a couple of years and you will eventually get your price. Maybe.

Guess where I am getting my bike?! KSL Bikes Direct.

Grand Bois Tires – Roll Nice & Expensive

In a preivous post, I had mentioned my skepticism of the Grand Bois Cypres Tires.  Well, because of our cross-country move, I had forgotten to order some new tires for PBP.  In a pinch, I decided to use my old Grand Bois tires and rotate them.  I certainly was hoping I wouldn’t regret this. 

Well, I had only one flat, which was much better than expected.  So, to sum up my Grand Bois experience–about 2000 miles, 3 flats and $140.  With the amount of miles I did this year, that would be almost $420 per year in bicycle tires.  Of course, you can order a year’s worth and save some money. 

I think I will continue to search for better options.  Besides, I can buy a decent used hardtail mountain bike with that amount of money.