Caught in massive downpour. Hiding at The Crane Hollow Cafe in Hygiene.

On way home. Want me 2 get anything? Also this is kelan

Rabbit Mountain, near Hygiene Colorado

A stitched panorama, taken at GPS: 40.232294, -105.177856. Part of a 35 mile ride.

Vecchio's Bike Fit and my first Boulder Crash

I scheduled a bike fitting at Vecchio's by recommendation to get the most out of my existing bike, and to adapt as my health and body change. Unfortunately, as I rode into Boulder for the first time, I crashed. It was an evil thing, a puddle covering the bike lane, with a concrete expansion joint right in line and just next to the lane, but covered in water.

Jim of Jimmy and Drew's Deli in Boulder pulled over to help me after the crash. He said "your front tire went down, your rear tire went up in the air and you hit the water." That's about it. No stitches and nothing broken, but full right side road rash to deal with.

Here's the nasty intersection of Valmont and 55th, right hand lane of Valmont, Westbound (also where Valmont becomes Pearl):



It doesn't get any better a trap than this. Here's how it works (even if you meant this you could not do better):

1) Make an expansion joint about 2 tires wide, line it up with the bike lane marker.
2) Make the asphalt about 1.5 inches higher than the concrete to dam the water and keep it from draining.
3) Let the rain fill the poorly drained bog to the right and then spread to street (see dirt markers for proof).
4) Water fills and spreads at Asphalt/Concrete dam, pushing puddle to the left, covering expansion joint
5) Cyclists swerve around the puddle, then track back over the covered expansion joint, trapping tire and crashing bike

This is nearly guaranteed to work after every rain. Here is how wide that expansion joint really is:



For the happy ending (such as it is), the Vecchio's guys (thanks Joe) took care of a muddy, bloody and unhappy dude with a terrific bike fitting and a pair of "Harden The F**k Up" socks.

Longmont-Boulder-Lyons 32 Mile Loop

Starting at my place, I can head down to Boulder, go up highway 36 to Lyons and back to Longmont, total about 32 miles.



This route takes about 1,000 feet of climb so it's a nice workout.



It looks like I am finishing these 32 mile rides in 2 hours. Better than the old Austin 30 miles in 2:20, so things seem to be going great.

Broken Wheel

My front axle and hub started to make odd noises recently. Returned the bike to the shed, and when I spun the wheel I could not believe how bad the bearings were.

Of course, I had the bike overhauled every year by the "Pro Shop in Austin." Which just goes to show you, ya gotta check the work no matter who they say they are. Not the first time they completely messed something up.

It might cost $15 bucks just to clean it up, but if the bearings have gone square, or the races are ruined, that's a whole other matter.

Damn.

Remember to Check the Weather

I took a longer loop today, intending to go over 30 miles to see how my LT would hold up. Well, instead of the expected beautiful weather, I somehow managed to depart into the wind during the passage of a front. Yup, that meant I went OUT in a headwind and came BACK in a headwind. Ah, the value of checking the weather forecast.

Also, of course, I was dressed for a southerly wind and came back in rapidly dropping temperatures. I ended up shortening the loop by about 5 miles, and did 26 miles averaging 11 MPH (!!!) . Windy!

Here is the GPS track of the loop (I borrowed my son's gizmo and bike, more on that below). Start top right-ish, head clockwise. Winds were SW at departure, NE half way through. Highway 36 is hard up against the mountains, winds hard out of the North:



GRRRRR. Well, another Colorado weather riding lesson.

Believe it or not, I might have actually made this weather happen. I took a short video of the beautiful sky over the mountains on an aborted ride the day before. If you listen closely, you can hear an intermittent "ping" in the background noise, that was my front wheel bearings about to fail. That's why I took Jordan's kit.

Back on the Bike in Colorado

Now that I'm living in Longmont Colorado, I've taken a few flat, short rides to try and get altitude adjusted and frankly to shake off the winter lapse (FYI, Longmont is apparently a suburb of Boulder to some, or a distant mad cousin of Boulder to others). Today I took a longer ride right up to the mountains proper.

It was a late start, around 5:30 and I got schooled in one of the things the locals say about the weather, "if you don't like it, wait 15 minutes." When I left I was quite warm in my standard cycling gear. By the time I got back, my lungs were searing from the exertion, cold and altitude. Ouch. I almost couldn't move my arms I was so cold. Oops. Bad Judgement.

Which reminds me of this quote:

"Good Judgement comes from Experience. Unfortunately, Experience only comes from Bad Judgement."

In a nice pasture bathed in some really nice setting sunlight, I ran across a herd of Buffalo grazing. That was pretty cool. And a couple of space antennas, reminding me of the fact that the US has some pretty cool installations in Boulder, e.g. NOAA, NIST and NCAR to name a few.

Here are the Buffalo:



And here are the Space Antennae:



Without the cold wind, it would have been a better ride, but hey, I'm a local now.

Spring Training 2009

So the main neck pain is more or less under control. After much treatment, it turns out one of the most helpful things was to do light spinal decompression. I purchased this gizmo that hangs a head harness from the top of a door. You adjust it around your neck and "unload" the weight of the head by lifting it up. Works a treat.

Three short rides done this week, each progressively longer and a little harder. Feel good riding, though well out of condition. Still it feels like it will come back quickly enough.

This is the day after a hail storm hit us, with golf ball (and bigger) size hail. So the trees were shredded of vegetation, leaving a real wet mess on the roads.

Neck is sore, but only from non-use and holding the ol' noggin up. Need to do some specific exercises for the neck.

MS 150 is less than a month away.