Nice!

I'm loving mine. Granted, it's my first motorcycle in several years, my first dual sport, and the lightest bike I've ever owned, so my judgement isn't worth a lot -- most of the things I love about this bike I'd probably love about any small dual sport.

:lol3 Guilty as charged. It doesn't take a lot of motor to feel fast to me right now. But even before my layoff from motorcycling I was firmly in the "more fun to ride a slow bike fast" camp.

Actually, now that you're in the bay area, you're in one of the relatively few good places to ride a bike like that on the street- there are enough really twisty roads around here (you're not too far from alpine dam, king mountain, and tunitas, along with the south end of skyline, and Mt. Hamilton/Mines just to the east), that you can rip around riding your slow bike plenty fast. But I guess I should leave the motorcycle discussion to the rest of the site, huh. . . .

I don't think I've ever had too much water when riding. I do know the feeling of bonking when I failed to bring along enough food/electrolyte replacement magic.
I once cramped up as I turned across a freeway acess ramp headed for the shoulder. Everytime I tried to relieve the cramp the other leg would go. I rode off the shoulder and fell into the weeds and gravel at the side. Flailing about trying to get my feet out of the shoes/pedals and relieve the cramps; up walks a CHP. Woman. She thought I had been hit and having a seizure.
I said as calmly as I could that I was fine, I just needed to get my feet off the bike so I could stand and un-cramp the muscles.
I finally got her to un-latch the Time Crit shoes and I could stand in the dirt and trash and finally get my drink bottles downed and the muscles relaxed. She kept telling me I couldn't stay there. :huh

Once I got the legs calmed down I got my shoes back on and back on the bike and rode the mile back to my office.

When I'd left on my two hour lunch ride I was certain I had two granola bars and a couple of plastic bags with electrolyte powder in them along on my jersey pockets.
I'd forgotten I'd switched to the lighter jersey at the last moment. Luckily I remembered my wallet, and at the water stop near the dam found this out. Headed off to a not so near by 7-11 type shop. That bottle of ice cold gatoraide was good. But did not kick in soon enough or rme to avoid the cramps that lanede me in the weeds.

Those little packets of Gu I see littering the paths work for me for about an hour. I only use them as a last resort. For example on a long ride and the wind kicks up on the way back home and I've done too much chasing.:baldy

I'm lucky here to have parks with water fountains and plenty of scattered stores. I'm getting to where I know where the bike shops are so getting more fuel is pretty easy. That and I plan better. Long rides over 50 miles I wear the hydration pack with 3 liters of water and ice to start. Two bottles of electrolyte on the bike, two tubes of Gu, a couple of packets of Gummy Chomps and I'm good for 6 hours riding.
I once rode from my home in Yorba LInda California to Westminster Colorado eating only a half packet of chomps, and lots of water. Nothing else. Only stopping for gas, and the toilet, and to put on every piece of gear I had with at the top of Vail Pass. It was over 100 degrees F in the desert and light snow up high, with drizzle as I came into town 1,054 miles later.

I underestimated the time it'd take to do the loop I just finished riding. Instead of 3hrs it took 3:35.

Weather guessers were saying T-storms all day and I went out anyway. Took the Gore Tex jacket 'just in case' tho.

So I got out the door and looked west towards where I wanted to ride. Rain. Hmmm.

Looked south at the puffy white clouds and sun. Guess I'll go *that* way!

So I did. Managed to ride around all the rain except for one little bit of sprinkling just outside Bealeton. Went Nokesville to Summerduck to Remington to Bealeton to Casanova almost to Catlett and then north to 605 then to 28N back to Nokesville. I can make loops from 1 to 8 hrs on secondary roads and usually not hit the same road twice. :ricky

Stopped at a MC repair place asking em how much to replace the clutch in Dad's Wing (and to get some agua). They're doing research... We'll see. I'm suffering from a crisis of motivation on that project too.

M

Climbing hills (mtb)
 

So having conquered all the easy and intermediate trails at Santos, I'm feeling ready to make another attempt at the Expert level trails this weekend. The ONLY part of those trails where I constantly get stuck is on the steep uphill climbs, so I'm looking for some pointers from the experienced mtb riders here. You've probably all seen the type of hills I'm referring to: they range in height from 5-10 feet, they're very steep, and often littered with rocks and exposed roots. The biggest problem is that they're sometimes hidden from view until it's too late: you go around a corner and suddenly you're confronted by one, but you don't have the momentum to make it over the top. The obvious solution is to downshift and just winch yourself up, but what happens then is that the front wheel won't stay down due to the extreme slope. Having that front wheel barely touching the ground also means you can't effectively steer while climbing. This happens even with my weight shifted forward over the handlebars, which sometimes results in a loss of traction at the rear. :splat Shown below is the dreaded Ant Hill trail at Santos, which is full of those kinds of climbs:

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Get out of the saddle and learn to position your weight in such a way that you're balanced between the need to keep the front end down and the rear hooking up. I know that bending my arms and getting my chest close to the handlebars helps a lot with this.

You have to 'row' your bike when it gets really steep. Pull the bars back and down to drive the rear wheel into the ground.

The steeper the climb, the farther forward you need to sit on the saddle. If its really steep, you're all the way up on the tip of the nose of the saddle. :nod

M

"Yank and crank" :D

Re-posted because some don't go where it was originally posted. :evil

The Tour of CA rolls into town :deal

We stood to watch it although we did find a bar that had it on TV.
http://stinez.smugmug.com/Sports/Bic...IMG2887-XL.jpg

The crowd was crazy and VERY enthusiastic. (The winner is behind that camera. :Damn!)
http://stinez.smugmug.com/Sports/Bic.../IMG2890-M.jpg

And the winner is...Sagan
http://stinez.smugmug.com/Sports/Bic...IMG2904-XL.jpg

Most Aggressive Rider Jersey - Jeremy Vennell (NZL)
http://stinez.smugmug.com/Sports/Bic...IMG2901-XL.jpg

King of the Mountain...Sébastian Salas (USA) (in red) - Most Courageous Rider Jersey - Wilson Marentes Torres (Col) (in blue)
http://stinez.smugmug.com/Sports/Bic...IMG2902-XL.jpg

Edit to add:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ayscLVtKbKM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I got out again last night for a short ride down the river trail and back. I had a pretty good headwind but kept it steady and slowish. I figured to ride 45 minutes and make my turn.
On the way back I could click up two cogs out back. That was pretty cool. BUt, that still didn't reall bump my overall slowness. And once I hit the bump up to the road, I was done. Lots of folks past me. But, I was able to maintain focus.

Primarily due to not having anything in the tank to go faster.:lol3

I oly had to stop once to swap bottles around. A little calf cramp tried to get going at about 50 minutes but I just kept an even cadence and pressure and it subsided as I drained my first bottle.

No electrolytes or Gu or anything other than ice water this trip. Tomorrow night I'll take a bottle of go-juice.

The work computer doesn't allow me to see the stuff from Strava anymore. I guess I'm supposed to spend my lunch time reading policies and processes.

Excellent.

I've been reading that it was in the mid-90s. I was about 4 hours north of there, and it was mid-80s. Plus the wind.

155 miles = :gdog

It is a balancing act between keeping enough weight on the back to maintain traction, enough on the front to maintain steering and moving back to unweight the front to clear obstacles and forward to get the rear over it. Stand up in a crouch to get your weight off the seat, basically stick the nose of the seat between your butt cheeks and keep your chest down over the bar. Now it is easy to move your weight front and back.

Another tip is to look past the obstacle you are about to hit. If you stay focused on it you are more likely to smack it with your front wheel or not be prepared for what is next if you do happen to clear it. Also try to pedal in circles in order to keep your torque constant so you don't have any sudden bursts of power that spin the rear or pop the front up. I avoid the granny gear too since it doesn't get you enough momentum. Finally practice riding super slow. Do track stands and just get comfortable staying clipped in when your forward progress stops or comes to a crawl. I used to bail when I would hit something that slowed me way down just based on survival instinct but once I got good at slow riding I was able to stay clipped in and clear stuff that I always used to have to walk.

I'm actually pretty comfortable keeping the bike upright at very slow speeds, or even at a full stop for a few seconds. Doing that with clipless pedals still freaks me out though, due to the fact that the last time I couldn't unclip my foot in time, I ended up breaking my hip as a result. Eggbeater pedals are very easy to get out of though, so it's just a matter of getting more practice with them until clipping in and out becomes instinctive. For some reason I have a very difficult time getting my left shoe clipped in, so if I had to put my feet down on a hill, I would definitely have to walk the bike up. In any other circumstance though, those pedals work much better for me than flats.

Son of a bitch. What did you land on?

Asphalt. Although, I imagine landing on a rock would have had the same result. :kurt

http://aurelius.smugmug.com/Sports/B...scan0001-M.jpg