Fargoing about

I haven't been out biking on the weekends much lately, but managed to get a quick ride in this weekend in between other goings on.  My Fargo has been hanging up in the garage for a couple months now, and decided to take it at the last minute.  I figured the sealant in the tubeless tires was all dry now, but didn't want to take the time to put in fresh goop.  So I gambled and just aired up the tires.  Headed off without a garmin or lights on the bike.

I had a vague idea of going up Houston Rd and wasn't sure after that. I didn't feel like riding either Gov't Way or the Centennial Trail so instead I veered off onto Trail 100 at the TJ Meenach Bridge and followed it.  I had an option below the Military Cemetery of climbing up and connecting with Houston Rd, but instead I stayed on 100 until it ran into Trail 25 (of course).  Then to the Bowl and Pitcher and back home via the Merkel Trail.  There's a little meandering single track trail behind the baseball and soccer fields I like to take, then continued on a trail between the Joe Albi parking area and the cemetery to get to Wellesley Ave.  Turned out to be a good loop.

Returned with all the air in my tires.  I really like the Fargo setup tubeless - smooths out the trails a bit.

A few pics.  A ride in Northwest Spokane just isn't complete without going by the wastewater treatment plant.

2015 Honk! Honk! / 2014 Mileage Post

it's been kinda quiet here in wileydog blogland (like a certain foosball player) but it's time for me to do my required duty and spout forth some officially sanctioned blog content. And I am wearing only Blogger approved logos as I type this, no unofficial wileydog merchandise here.

I have a a few draft posts that I never finished, but here's something fresh not-so-fresh-now from the wileydog backyard:

2015 Honk! Honk!

Its seems like not too long ago I wrote about how I didn't get honked at much in 2013 (Honk! Honk! 2013).  And I'd been thinking there was hardly any honking directed at me in 2014.  Then I'm riding home a couple weeks ago, heading north on C Street approaching Rockwell Ave (just before the Driscoll One Stop).   It's almost dark.  A car is heading east on Rockwell and we approach the intersection about the same time.  It may have got there a little bit sooner because it was moving faster than me, but they slow down and stop.  I slow down and check my right hand and determine I am indeed on the right and have the right of way.

Now my experience in this neighborhood, unlike some other neighborhoods, is that when motorists think they have the right of way they don't slow down and let some poor schmuck on a bike go first.  Which is fine.  So I'm real careful in these uncontrolled intersections.  But this occasion I had the right of way (I double checked again to make sure - maybe I should label the right side of my handlebar), the car was stopping, and I thought might as well go first.

I clear the intersection and they proceed forward.  Then I hear a honk behind me once they're through. What? everything seemed fine, I thought we had an understanding and the motorist/bike dance went off smoothly.  Maybe they were honking at my awesome studded tire bike.  Maybe they didn't like my flashing light.  I had the Cygolite on the SteadyPulse mode which is a steady medium beam with a brighter flashing.  It's not terribly bright, at east not like the airplane landing lights some folks use.  Maybe it was just a friendly honk.  But it sounded like an irritated honk. Darn biker slowing me down type of honk.  I've heard all types of honks, and this one didn't sound like a friendly tap.  Weird, too, how it was delayed.

Well this year is starting out great in the honking department.

Ok, enough ruminating on one silly honk.

2014 Mileage Post

 (complete with recycled image from last year's mileage post ).  This is turning out to be a lazy blogging year.

Again, it's hard to tell how many miles I racked up last year.  Not a whole lot, but I like to think it's respectable.  It's not the quantity, it's the quality, right?  Had some good rides last year.  Did I mention I'm a year round commuter?  Seems like I should have more.  I was without a bike computer the first month or so of last year, but got the Garmin Edge Touring device around this time. It shows around 2500 now.  It's missing a few rides so I think I can round up to 3,000 for last year. I've always been a little fuzzy with math.

This Winter's Icy/Slick Streets Bike

My trusty Marin Muirwoods decked out with the 2' wide Marathon studs:

pic taken before we finally got some snow to speak of. obv.

My first decent bike, the Muirwoods is pretty cool - it came equipped with smooth 700 x 40mm street tires - Continental Town Rides that weren't available retail last time I checked - but has room for mountain bike tires. Shoot, could almost get a 3" tire in the front.

Last year I had these Marathons on my mountain bike but had trouble with the front tire skittering over the ice and not gripping very well. It worked okay on the smooth thin ice, but I had trouble when the street was a lumpy compact snow mixture.  I  attributed it to the longish effective top tube length on the mtb and therefore not much weight pressing down on the front end. The Marin is a 17" model compared to the 19.5" model mtb, and the ETT is about 2 inches shorter so I figured the Marin might work better and I put the 2" studs on it this winter.  I've always complained this bike feels too small for me, but so far it's handling snow and ice better than the mtb.

(sidebar: I usually have the seat post extended past the warning line, but it keeps slipping down because I have trouble getting the quick release style clamp tight enough.  Working on finding a longer seat post.)

I remember my first winter commuting on 35mm studded Marathon's and I was a little disappointed in the results.  The studs worked great on those days when the streets were just frosty or icy, and for those hidden patches of black ice, but when the streets were a bumpy, lumpy, jumble of ice and compacted snow, it was hard to stay upright.  Or if the snow was deep and between slushy and frozen,  I couldn't get much traction. Somedays, a regular mountain bike tire worked better than the studs.  The 2" Marathons work better for the bumpy conditions, but I'm still not sure if some days an un-studded mountain bike would be just as good.

This brings me to what really works great for winter commuting - the fat bike.  It's a good complement to the studded bike. I ride a lot of side streets that turn into a rumbly solid sheet of compact snow and ice, and the fat tires roll over them with ease.  Even without studs - I think due to the wide track.  They also work in the deep slush better than studs.  With our variable street conditions, it's great to have both options.

oh yeah and happy new year!

Locally Global Big Fat Bike Day

I forgot Saturday was the Global Fat Bike Day until Regional Headquarters contacted me through the underground fat bike channel.  See what happens when you neglect to check in at the FatBike forum at mtbr.com for a month or so.  It's an annual thing, the first Saturday in December, so I don't have any excuse really, but I had other plans with Debbie.  Which I was promptly able to wiggle out of.  Others in the group of 12 or so weren't so fortunate.  It's tough to get everybody together so some went there own ways, and 3 of us - Eric, Pat and myself - were able to coordinate schedules and meet at Antoine Peak's West Trailhead at 11am.  

I woke up early to the sound of heavy rainfall and checked messages - anybody going to be the first to bail?  Friday night's forecast said the rain should clear out by 10, and when I checked the radar map early Saturday it, it was going to stop after 8.  That was a good sign, and it appeared we were on.  I packed a little bit of everything and headed out.

From the North Side, the trailhead is a straight shot from Francis to Bigelow Gulch and I arrived a bit before the others.  I expected mud, but the forest/service road from the trailhead was covered in a thin sheet of ice even after the rain a mid-30]s temp.though the temp.  Not promising.  Eric and Pat arrived and we figured we'd give it a try since were there already, and didn't know if our backup Riverside Park would be any better.

Trailhead pic stolen from Pat - this is after we were done

Surprisingly, the bikes rode easily over the ice and we headed up the peak.  We were well prepared - each of us had our own flask. We climbed up the peak, and had a blast on the way down. And great brew at 12 Strings Brewery afterwards to top it off.

A few pics, more over at 26InchSlicks.

Eric and Pat

i was going for the burly fatbiker he-man
pose, and missed it by a mile or so

this is what happens when you a) don't take the time to transfer a rear rack
from one bike to your fatbike to fashion a mudguard out of, and b) then
don't wear your plastic pants you brought along.

a little gopro vid

   

Black Friday/Sunny Sunday rides

a few lazy notes about last weekend's rides before it gets too long past to post them:

Friday morning I woke up feeling a little off, and wondered do I really want to bike the Black Friday Ride?  Then I thought about it - I'm lucky enough to have the day off, and I'll feel better if I go ride (thanks, mom - that sounds like something she would tell us when we were kids - go outside and play!).  Besides, I had my Pugs Neck Romancer all ready to go.

I biked from downtown to the start at the Scoop on the South Hill.  The temp was in the 40's, but the wind was brutal cold, and I had second thoughts about my choice of clothing - 3/4 shorts, long-sleeve t-shirt and light base layer.  Real glad I threw some arm warmers in my bag before I left.  I made my now traditional (ok 2 years in a row) stop at the Rocket Bakery at 14th & Adams for a latte and no-bake cookie to fuel the ride.

There were five of us - 3 mountain bikes and two fat bikes. Let's see, John, Glen, Justin, me, and um, a strong rider on a Pugsley.

Either the wind died down, or I got used to it, or the trees on the hill protected us but it quickly got warm and off came the arm warmers and wool beanie.  The High Drive bluff trails are fun to ride, and I don't get up there often enough.  

No pics, didn't feel like digging the phone out of the zipped up pocket on my shorts.

Turns out I didn't have to toss the heavy Pugs N/R across the creek - we modified the route a bit from years past and skipped the creek crossing.  It was a most excellent ride.  I posted it at garmin connect - take a virtual ride here. Finished with some well deserved brews at River City brewing.

Sunday rode to the YWCA to meet my wife then over to the Backyard on Broadway (formerly the Broadway Bar and Grill) for breakfast then back home. Took the long way there, went on Gov't Way and then when I was crossing the Sandifur Bridge, a heron landed in one of the pine trees across the river.  Another I-should-carry-a-better-camera-than-the-phone-but-smaller-than-a-DSLR-moment. Something small with a good zoom, decent quality pics and can fit in a Revelate Tangle or Feedbag.

hint: above the brownish trees in the lower middle lower of pic

Fatting around Riverside

Took the Pugsley N/R down the Merkel Trail to Riverside State Park on Sunday. Haven't been out on it for awhile, but immediately remembered why it's the perfect machine for Merkel and Riverside.  The fat tires keep the bike on the trail in the loose stuff, and roll easily over the jagged edges and lumpy, bumpy rocks and stones.

some pics, starting off with a shadow selfie:

okay, have to walk this section

I took a meandering route from the Bowl and Pitcher -  Trail 25 to 7-Mile then a trail going west, eventually turning back towards and crossing 7- Mile Rd, to Deep Creek parking area, down State Park Drive then back across 7-Mile Rd to a Trail that leads back up to Inland Rd.  I think it's one of those Trail 25-but-not-Trail 25 trails.  I'm going into some detail so I can remember, because this time, before I reached Inland Rd, I saw a trail off to the left I hadn't seen before, heading down the ridge.  A new to me trail. Looked promising so I took it.

It petered out in spots, and I almost lost it under the pine needles.  A fun ride down.  Crossed 7-Mile Rd yet once again and rode the real Trail 25 back to the Wilber Rd trailhead, then to the Bowl and Pitcher.

Coming back from the B&P campground area, I can never decide if it's easier and/or quicker home to ride up to Merkel, or to ride Aubrey White to Downriver golf course.  Sometimes I haul the bike up a the side of the hill on a trail near the water treatment plant up to NW Blvd. I opted to do that, and found yet another new to me trail that was less steep than my normal one.  Ended up not being quicker as I came across a herd of deer that I waited for, not wanting to spook them.

might be able to make out a deer in the middle of the pic,
cautiously eyeing me.

Finally made it back home after waiting them out.

<insert abrupt ending here>. it's late.

new pedals for me Vaya

finally ditched the $25 Redline pedals I've had on my Vaya since I got it.  they were cheap and got the job done, but were getting slippery.  With the rain in the forecast and winter coming on, figured it was time.

Replaced them with the VP Components VP-001, same ones I have on the Fargo. VP calls them an Urban Flat Pedal so they may not be intended for heavy duty trail riding.  But I've been happy riding the Fargo with them on trails, pavement and gravel wearing Five Tens. They're light, thin and grippy with adjustable pins. Available in black, silver, gold, red, green, blue, magenta, pink or turquoise, I went with basic blue.  Getting a little too matchy-matchy with the blue-themed Vaya, think I will pick up another color for my Marin Muirwoods which I have back in the rotation for winter.

VP says they are 345 grams - I don't know how that compares to other pedals - and 109 x 97 x 16mm. Towards the ends they measure around 14mm.

I feel more secure now with these on the Vaya, and my feet aren't accidentally slipping off the pedals anymore.

Gratuitous pic of our dogs in the wild: