Spring crash and MTB bike build

Last week I was out on a ride with 2 coworkers out Buckhorn road west of Ft. Collins. We had just finished the major climb of the rout and beginning the decent on very gravelly road surface when I came around a corner to see a stopped cyclist (my co-worker Robert) and a stopper car side by side blocking the road! At 25 miles per hour down 8% grade on gravel over asphalt my options were limited. Stopping was not going to happen in time. I swung to the 36" wide gap between the car and the outside of the oncoming lane. I rolled along the edge of the road for about 20 feet before sliding off the road and down a 15ft bank at about 15mph. Flipping over the bars I came to rest on some bolders and logs at the base of the 4 white trees in the picture bellow:

The impact was on my helmeted head and shoulder blade. My back hurts! I laid there a few minutes to see if the intense pain would pass but it did not. I crawled up the hill and lay on the roadside trying to find the least painful body position. My ride was certainly over, only about 25 miles into an 80 miler ride:

At that point I noticed Steven with a bloody arm and realize he crashed behind me as well. He locked up his rear wheel and skid though his gatorskin and the tube, and then swerved off the same side of the road to abound the car. His landing spot was softer but his shoulder was also hurt. 

It would seem that the lead rider Robert swung his turn into the oncoming lane whit an oncoming car ridding the line and the both stopped in a panic side by side. If either party would have kept going, nobody would have been hurt. Son of a #%*! My bike was still in one piece and I avoided a potentially deadly crash and took the painful but sirvivable option. Some times you have to pick your lemons in life. 

The pervious week I had logged my longest week ever, 275 miles including a killer 80 mile gravel road ride. I was feeling awesome and on my way to log another week well over 200 miles when I crashed. Some shots from the gravel group ride the week before. Steven riding to Ft. collins on the Horizon and myself fixing a flat:

So now after a full 7 days off the bike I am back on my bike riding to work, somewhat uncomfortable but not in a ton of pain. My back is recovering each day. I should be back at 100% in another 2 weeks, I hope. 

After the crash I saw my life and plans in a new light. I don't want to leave my wife states away for work. I need her love and support too much. Since that is decided, I also scrapped my all in one bike build idea. I'm now going to build a full on XC race bike with flat bar and lockout suspension fork. I will also need to leave Fischer Plumbing for a new team next year. No need to paint my bike team colors. I bought a blank Carbon frame from China and did my own graphics with 3m reflective tape. I'm pleased with it so far:

I am going to go with a 1x10 drive train since it will be a dedicated off reader. I'm going to run a 34 ring and 12-42 cassette. Will be killer! 

Winter training, summer planning

So far 2015 has been an excellent year. One month in I have logged 750 miles, 50 hours, and 25,000 vertical feet. By far my best January ever! Feeling fit overall and looking forward to the year ahead. 

I'm also in the middle of planning for major changes in my life come spring. I am planning on taking temporary contract work in Seattle, Washington with a target of May 1st start date while my wife will stay here in Colorado to attend school. I will be living cheap, probably living out of a 100 square foot rented room with only a car load of possessions with me. 3 bikes and all the extra gear seems a little excessive. Especially considering I only logged 200 miles on my Mt. Bike last year. I have begun parting out my Mt. Bike to raise funds for a new all around bike. It will have 29" wheels, carbon frame, drop bars with cross levers, 10 speed road bike drive train, cable action disc brakes, and no suspension to start. I may add a fork with lockout later. I will have 2 wheel sets. One with 25-28cm road slicks, and the other with 2.4" tubeless knobbies. This bike will be built for aggressive road riding, cross racing, and XC MTB racing. All my old MTB parts are getting sold on eBay to prepare. 

It's hard to part with this 15 year old aluminum bike. I got it on sponsorship when I was 17 and have ridden it about 10,000 hard off-road miles since. It has served me well but is painfully stiff and I welcome riding a full carbon bike with bigger wheels on and off road. 

I am working with www.dengfubikes.com  to build a custom painted full Carbon bike frame, fork, seatpost, and stem directly from China. This is the frame and fork, base price $480 shipped at only about 4 lbs:

And is is my team color scheme I came up with:

Very excited to see the rendering of what they come up with! Bike companies have done exactly this for the last 25 years. It's time to cut out the middle man. This technology is so common and standard now and China is much more reliable to work with than they used to be.

Once I have the frame in possession which will take at least a month, I will canabalize/part out my cross bike to finish the build. I will be down to my singlespeed commuter bike during the final transition. That $400 steel tank has served me very well so far after upgrading to white industry ENO freewheel. I've had it for 6 months and logged about 1,700 miles on it. What a great low maintenance work horse! Just what I was hopping for. I will be taking this bike to Seattle for commute and rain riding. It keeps me from getting lazy on the climbs.

Will post more about my bike project as it un-folds! 

2014 Reflection and Colorado Winter

I started 2014 with some good momentum and only had one major setback on my training, which was the process of moving from Washington to Colorado. I only took about 2 weeks off for that. Since then, I have taken on a longer commute of 10 to 15 miles each way and, due to the dry sunny weather, I

I have taken less days off the bike. I expected to log 3,000 to 4,000 miles this year and I exceeded that with well over 4,000 miles.

I did not manage to fit in any century rides and only compleeted 3 mountain bike races, no cyclocross races; those are my only regrets. I am still riding for Ficher Plumbing Cycling team which is a very flexible and diverse team out of Seattle. I really enjoy the riders, the team kit, and the encuragement to ride that the team offers. 

Next year I hope to do a bit more racing and log at last 6,000 miles. I would also like to get back to cat 1/2 (or pro/expert) level racing this year. I think my fitness is there so I would just need to do a good bit of racing and hit the podium to upgrade. I have come a very long way from 2012 when I only logged 1,000 miles. It's good to be lean, fit, and fast again! I'm 31 years one now, life is short and cycling is something that always challenges me in a fun way. 

So, back to winter riding in cold places. Colorado has been mostly cold and clear till late December but now in January, I'm thinking my studded tire, ski helmet, and ski goggle investment was well worth it. The winter shoes (Diadora Polaris 2) have been worth their wieght in gold! I have used them so much since September that the first set of cleats are about worn out on them. No more shoe covers required!

The winter shoes are waterproof and wind proof. I've ridden them down to 0 degrees F without covers! 

Studded tires? Yes please! The Nokian A10's have 72 studs each and the 32mm width fits with fenders on my cross bike. Fast for winter studs but enough bite to keep me upright on ice. Not so great in semi packed snow but fully packed/ice glazed snow like the picture above is awesome. Smooth rolling, fast and fun! 

All this winter gear is a bit of a hassle to put on but the comfort and ability to ride in anything is worth it. Colorado winter beats Seattle winter for riding, that's for sure.

Finishing 2014 strong

So far winter in Colorado has been clear and dry with a lot of daytime sunshine. Since the days are so short now, the majority of my riding has been at night. I'm pleased with my fitness and ability to ride 1-2 hours at a brisk pace 5 to 6 days a week. I fit in a few hard hill efforts on my single speed  to try and maintain my VO2 max. I have spent the last 2 years ramping up my volume so it really is rewarding to put in 150 to 175 miles a week consistently now. I was only logging about 20 miles a week to begin with. 

The most important thing I have learned this year is never miss you glycogen window if you want to maximize you're athletic ability. If I miss it, my legs feel tired and sluggish. If I hit it by consuming about 200 calories minimum within 30 minutes of a workout, I feel great! I then ride further and faster on my next ride which for me is usually 8 to 12 hour later. Can't log 10+ rides a week as I have been if I don't re-file during my window.

As I mentioned, almost all my riding has been at night so I don't have manny pictures. Here are 2 from the last 4 weeks:

Yep, it is a dark cold world out there for a cyclist in December but my niterider 600 lumen LED lamp has my back.. I mean my front.

I did manage to get a nice warm sunny mid day lunch ride in with my work riding club. It was 60 degrees but only 3 of us made the ride. I enjoyed the sun on my calves! 

I have just about completed the Ice Bike Challange which is to commute 52 times to work between October 1st and March 1st. Today was number 50! Finnally a challange I can complete! I still plan to ride every day and see how manny commutes I can get in before March. I'm sure we will have more snow days to come. That should keep things interesting.

Fall Chill and Icebike Challange

The warm sunny weather of fall ended abruptly with a major cold front that brought bellow zero temperatures and about 6 inches of snow over the week. This made my commute difficult but still doable with my studded cross tires, ski helmet, and snow goggles along with the usual winer riding gear. The cold was quite bearable and I enjoyed to challange of making the usually tame 10 mile ride to  work in extreme conditions. Check out #icebikechallenge for more pictures in Instagram!

My coldest commute so far was -5 degrees F. The hardest part was having the legs to plow though the snow on the bike path and road shoulder before it had been plowed. Talk about a resitance workout! That's enough resistance to bog down a car with 100 hp an my little legs tired quickly despite all my training. Remember though, as long as you can hold onto your summer fitness with cosistant efforts every week though the winter, you will be fit and fast come spring. I really despise indoor trainers and avoid gyms like ebolla so this is how I keep my fitness and my sanity since I'm addicted to exercise and need my daily fix. 

My Nokian A10 studded tires are only 32cm wide but they roll like a full knobby 2.1 off road tire. The benefit is that they hold onto icy road amazingly well and I actually feel a great reduction in resitance over packed snow vs. dry pavement. 

I'm really glad I mounted studs on my cross bike vs. my singlespeed because I really need gears to overcome the various road conditions I encounter on each snow ride. 

At last, this week we are thawing out and highs are going to be in the 40s rather than 20's so I will be back on my singlespeed commuter soon. I installed chains on my Old 26er so next major snow storm, I will be ready. 32cm is too narrow for fresh snow over 3". 

Ride on all you brave ice bikers, 

Fall in Colorado

Sara and I have been enjoying fall here in Loveland Colorado. With sunny skies, changing leaves, and warm temperatures it's really hard not to ride till our legs beg for mercy. It looks like I will exceed 45 hours of training time for October which would make it my most productive training month of the year. So far, just one or two frosty morning commutes. Most mornings are in the 40's and most afternoons are in the 60's or 70's. I have yet to find a weekend club ride because Sara and I have been to busy plotting our own solo adventures. I am still on track to log more than 4,000 miles this year even with the setback of moving so I'm stoked for that! Sara passed 500 and hopes to reach 750. Go Sara go!

Sara enjoying the ride to Boulder:

Sara and I decided to make a ride from Longmont to Boulder and back. Sa it turns out, the trail isn't paved and we brought road bikes so we took the highway most of the way after getting lost. We logged over 35 miles, Sara's longest ride yet! 

We also took the river trail west through Windsor to Greeley and back which was over 44 miles. Another new record and a lovely ride for myself, Sara, and Suki!

I have been craving a good cross race but with this nice weather, I don't need an organized race to give me an excuse to ride in a downpour. My legs have been plenty tired without it. I do need to get at least one cross race in this season. I would love to race in the snow, I think that would be a hoot! 

I made some upgrades to my committee singlespeed so it can deliver 100 miles plus a week, problem free. The tires and chain were worn already after 500 miles. The $10 freewheel was also making qite a woriesome racket. The 46 x 16t gearing was a little tall for all but my best days so I changed to a 44t ring. I am actually faster by far with this gear so it was a good change and my legs feel less tired. I installed a new KMC chain and my drivetrain is looking good. 

This heavy Chinese singlespeed has over 700 miles on it now and at last feels dependable and comfortable. Manny more miles to come! The point of this bike is to reduce maintainable and keep the wear and tear down on my carbon cross bike which I have had about 11 months and I have personally put about 3,500 miles on it and I bought it used. Most bikes seem to last 5,000 to 20,000 miles depending so it's something to consider for people like me that like to ride every day.

The bike fence along Lovelands City trail:

I'm looking forward to a long cold winter of cycling to come. I joined a group on Facebook and Strava called the Ice Bike Challange so I won't be alone! The goal is to ride to work at least 50 times between October and April. I expect to hit that by January at current rate but we will see! 

Loveland Colorado, a new place to call home

I am now about a month into my new job in Loveland, Colorado. It's a small town south of Ft. Collins. Upon arriving, we stayed in a cabin for about a month while trying to secure our new residence and I decided to get 2 new bikes to add to our quiver. One singlespeed road bike for me and a hybrid townie for Sara. These bikes fit our new small town bike path lifestyle and the singlespeed is great for a daily rider since it's so flat here. The 46/16 gearing seemed perfect. I picked up this Chinese steel tank from Recycled cycles and changed the stem, bars, and levers for super cheap. 

Sara's bike is a nice light Aluminum hybrid which she has really enjoyed. We added a basket for our little yorkie but she gets motion sick easily.

My first Moutain bike ride was at Devils Backbone. Very desert like terrain here and I'm not super keen on all the rattlesnakes. I snapped this shot on my way to The Horsetooth reservoir. 

Sara joined me for a ride but found the terrain to be more rugged than she had hopped for. 

August was the end of Monsoon season and we did experience frequent intense storms. The sun breaks make for frequent rainbows. 

I cheap my Chinese freewheel only lasted 200 miles so I switched to fixed gear but 20 miles a day fixed just didn't work for my knees so I switched back to freewheel and my knees are happy. I am really enjoying my bike path 20 mile round trip commute and I am finally feeling like the 100 miles over 5 days a week is very doable and I can still fit in some pleasure rides on top of that. My previous commute I had been used to was half the distance so it took some training to work up to it. 

How can you beat a commute like this? 

short sleeves won't last much longer, next week is October!