Maybe!

A happy return to outside lunchtime riding yesterday!!

It was a real Hawk buffet out there on this ride. The ground squirrels are out but had to run about on top of the snow cover. I watched four or five of them get snatched up by hawks. Easy pickins'!!
Circle of life stuff while riding my bike.

Maybe this marks the transition to spring finally. Moisture will continue on in the form of rain and we can climb out of those teen temps.

Stay positive everybody, I am!!

Jim

Outa-town!

Every Spring I have always tried to get a trip down to Albuquerque. In the past to touch base with my folks, now I keep up the tradition to visit with my sister Nancy and my Brother-in-law, Mark.
This was an odd year because I kept making plans and then stuff kept happening to postpone it.
Does anybody "deserve" a vacation? I don't know the answer to that. Probably different for everybody. I know for me, the winter does get to keeping on a bit and I can tend to start draggin' ass a bit in my job, just going through the motions. A long weekend away seems to re-charge my batteries and gets me going again.
Finally got all the planets aligned with employees and wife and family and a chance to roll out!

This is the morning of leaving, -2 degrees, brrrr....good timing!!

I have made this drive so many times.........same stops for fuel, same stops for bathroom breaks, pretty consistent, 8 hours door to door.
The whole plan for the weekend was a chance to get some miles in on my bike with some golf with Mark and some non-responsibility down time for ME!
Started out with a little city riding early Friday morning. I dragged a bit of the cold temps down with me but it warmed up by the end of my ride for the afternoon golf session!!
Some nice riding for city riding on Tramway where there is about ten feet of shoulder!

Pretty hard for me to ride by My favorite Albuquerque coffee spot!

Over the years Mark has become a pretty good friend. We share a lot of interests and I sure respect him for the job he has done with raising his son (my nephew!) and being a good life partner with my sister. They sure have built a very nice and fun life together. Headed north to Santa Ana to play golf.
I always have liked this course. A very pretty mix of green grass, desert, and the Sandia mountains in your view!

Happy Jim!!!

We also managed to find our way around with a few of these

After we got back home Mark broke out a wee bit of the Irish......the conversation went on into the night!

The next morning found the three of us on our bikes on the most excellent Bosque trail that follows the Rio Grande. Albuquerque sure has a lot going for it to explore on a bike. There are great rides no matter what style you prefer. Road riding in all directions of town, bike trails all over town if that is your style, and many dirt roads and trails leading out of town and into National forests not all that far of a drive from anywhere. I have so many bases to touch and find out about. Excellent LBS's with info and Cass's and Gypsy's blog to follow with the idea that those guys are willing to offer up places to explore and experience. So much life to live with limited time.......this whole work/responsibility thing is sure crimping my fun!!!

Nancy and I taking a break next to the river.

You know, the real world keeps turning while I was checking out of reality. My most excellent daughter-in-law was skiing up on the top of Breckenridge with Dave and twisted up her knees in some deep  cement-like new spring snow and had to be hauled off the mountain.
Bummer!!

And, one of the guys killed in the avalanche near Loveland ski area was from Estes that David knew and had spent some time with back country on sno-boards up in the National park. Makes me sad...but relieved that he was only on the mountain at Breck, helping his wife deal with a crash that can be walked away from.

What a great time I had. Said goal of re-charging the batteries was achieved. The only bummer was the drive home. This is what greeted me as I headed back up the mountain from Lyons......Winter's last blast (I hope!!)

Snow to leave by, snow to come back to, but a lot of sun and fun in between!!

Thanks for traveling along with me!
Jim

Sprung??

Is that even a word? I consulted with my girl in the office who is my go to person for grammar and spelling. She confirms that it is the past tense of the word spring.

Just not in Estes Park. I live in a fantastic, beautiful place, but, in my opinion it is the toughest time to live here. Not twenty miles away down either canyon Spring is going on. Green grass starting, buds on the trees, bulbs coming up, warm temps, soft rain. Yet come back to to town and still brown, cold wind, white flakes. In the future I don't think I will ever be a "snow bird" and flee the winter months but I might become a "spring bird" and head out for the month of April!

I got the outdoor riding season going this weekend. Always seems a bit counter productive to pack a bike in my truck and drive someplace to ride but that is what I did for Saturday. Started down in Lyons for a flatland ride.

 Lyons north up to Loveland and back. I picked up 20 degrees in air temp and probable dropped off 15 MPH in wind. It was a good ride of firsts! First ride in shorts for the year! First extended ride on the Univega since its rebuild. Even got to say hello to the Easter Bunny as he was resting up before his big day.

Did not drive myself too hard and felt pretty good for a Spring ride. About 2 1/2 hours on the bike and 34 miles.
Woke up Easter Morning and after some family time cooking up some waffles and eggs, I thought what the heck! A little bike time! As usual a different Spring program up here. Full cycling pants and a couple of layers and full gloves. Not too bad for the temp but a pretty good wind working out of the west. I have Santa Fe in the back of my mind that I have to get some miles in, so, out we go!

Seems that no matter how much time I spend on the indoor spin bike during the winter, the legs always feel it come spring riding!
Here is the consensus of the legs talking to my brain this morning....

Headed for my favorite place with my thinking that I would climb against the wind until it rendered my soul to be crushed.
The arrow on this sign is accurate...it is uphill to the park.

This is the east end of Horseshoe park and just about the end of going west into the wind. There is one more climb to get up to Deer Ridge Junction but you swing around and head south and east so have the soul-sucking wind out of your face!

West end of Horseshoe Park, just have to stop and check out the view of Ypsilon Peak.

Kind-of found my second wind and powered right up to Deer Ridge and got ready for a fast cruise back to town, down hill and down wind. Did not get to far and just had to romp on the brakes to stop for this look. I have lived here for almost all of my adult life yet views like this still make me stop and catch my breath......I love living here.

I had to tap my brakes a couple of times because the downhill/downwind thing got me a little nervous. When I looked back on my computer I hit 40.7 MPH. My bike performed very well, but a little fast for an early season ride! Big difference today to yesterday. I rode for two hours but only got 17 miles. Probably a better riding work-out with the climbing. It is probably because I do a lot of it, but I do enjoy the big climbs. Nothing more rewarding than just getting after it for a couple of hours and then the big reward!
After the weekend my legs are the only thing feeling a little sprung but that is a good feeling and the knowledge that summer will re-appear!
Have fun everybody!
Jim

It's Puch!!!

Ewww...not that kind! Two wheel variety. I'm not sure how the Italians pronounce this word but the yard guys immediately christened it the "Puke" bike.

Lets start over with the story. A few months ago having a pleasant five-o-five cold one (or two or three!) with my yard guys, the talk came around to bikes. Strange, as the guys are on the four-wheeler, dirt bike and Harley programs when it comes to off work vehicles and choice of beer conversation. Anyway my yard forman told about when he bought his house some fifteen years ago there was a bike left in the crawl space that was still there. This perks up my interest and I ask if I could take a look at it. The next morning he shows up with the bike plus about six wal-mart style bikes that he had bought for his kids that had been wrecked/abandoned over the years as they grew up. He told me to deal with it all as he was happy to have them cleaned out of his garage.
Score!!!
The cream of the batch of course was the crawl space bike. A late 70's, early 80's vintage Puch ten speed. Lugged steel frame, typical components of that era of bike, suntour front and rear, dia-compe center pulls. It was a small frame so no real use for me or anybody in my family, (we're all tall'ies!). One of my young yard guys lives only about a mile from work but ends up having to walk many times because his car is a beater and does not start all the time. He is a short guy so I'm thinking, perfect, a match!

Here is the starting point.

Not too bad. A bit of rust especially through the drive train.

I don't think this bike had that many miles on it. The chain, while rusty was not stretched at all. I got it off and soaked it in some solvent, came back pretty clean. No chipped or worn teeth on the cassette so just some wire brush work with some solvent. If this was going to be a bike I would ride, I would change the chain rings. But Anthony is young and strong so I just left it original with its 52-36 double.

Kind-of a cool head badge on this!

The wheels gave me some work issues. This bike had some kind of house stain dripped all over the frame and the wheels. It cleaned off the frame OK but it took some real elbow grease and steel wool to get it off the rims and spokes. Even still the rims were pitted up a bit, just could not get them all sparkly. I was in my LBS and they had a set of 27 gumwalls, some made in china brand, good enough to get this rolling!

The cockpit

I was never a fan of the cheater brake pulls, but I left them to leave the bike original. Replaced all the cables and housing with a nice black to give it all a uniform look with newbaum's black cloth tape. Kept the original dia-compe brakes with new pads.

After the final clean up and some car wax, here is the final look!

All in all I am pretty happy with getting this bike saved from a crawl space and back out on the road giving service to one of my guys!
He of course really enjoys having a ride even with catching a little big of the play on the name from the guys!
Keep riding everybody, spring, and commuting weather is almost here!!
Jim

Winter day's doings!

Started the day out with some sunshine but it was about 22 degrees and a solid 20 MPH wind rockin' along. No chance at all for a ride, and even bumping up the motivation to get into the garage and do some bike mechanic-ing was waning.
I heard a little blurb on the radio about the North American Handmade Bike Show at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, so, Debbie was game for the drive and off we went!
We really have become a couple of small town rubes.....we went around a few blocks looking for parking and then while walking over a few blocks we caught each other doing some rubber-necking at the tall buildings, both of us wondering why people live way up there???

Anyway, Her are some pictures of bikes that I thought were cool. What am I saying......everybike there was cool in it's own way. If you ever wonder about the direction the design and technology of bike world is going attend one of these shows. People out there are very creative and excited about the work they are doing!

Just inside the front door was this wooden bike to catch my eye. It is made with laminated wood Much like an LVL piece of support beam.
There were many bikes with Gates belt drive systems and Roloff style gearing.

This was the first of many, many fat tire bikes. This had a Lincoln penny, copper theme going for it.

This was one of Debbie's favorites (and mine too!!) of the show. The stylish line made this a very sexy bike to look at!. Just Beautiful!

I just liked this handlebar set on the bike.

This was a nice bikepacking set-up, although there was better to come!

Pinky Fat-Bike!!

How about a handmade track bike??? There were all styles of riding displayed! Track bikes, cyclocross, fat tire, trail, road, touring, cargo, tandem, everything!!

Not sure how you would ever get comfortable on this bike!

Here is the ultimate adventure/work bike. These were made by Moots Cycles out of Steamboat for the forest service crews.

These two bikes were in my opinion the most crafstman/artistic bike there. except for the drive system and brakes,and rear spokes, everything else was a piece of wood. Handlebars, seatposts,forks,even seats....wood. The builder was a wood boat builder that just decided between boat projects to build up theses bikes.
All in all a great way to spend a day and even worth the drive to Denver! Fat tire bikes are really the buzz and driving the market for future bike sales according to many of the guys I talked with. Debbie spent the most time in the Brompton booth talking up folding bikes. Maybe she'll just get interested!!!
My personal favorite??? There was a beautiful touring bike there by Littlefield bikes that I got so interested in I forgot to take a picture!
Spring is coming people!!
Jim

Winter Blahs??

No, I don't get the blahs during winter here in Estes Park. I save them up for the springtime here in the beautiful Northern Colorado mountains.

How does that work out?

My avocation keeps me busy, coaching basketball at the EPHS.

Everybody on the edge of your seats, asking why does he do that???

Funny, I like the game, and I like high school kids. I really loved the game and as I found myself not being able to play much (or very well!) anymore, I decided to get involved in officiating. Becoming a high school basketball official is a process of taking a class, passing a test, belonging to a local association and working your way up through age group games gaining experience. Becoming a good high school official takes a commitment to keep learning, stay in good physical shape, and have a positive and strong outlook on the world that looks to yell at you (a lot!!) for the instant decisions you make on the court. I had a nice run as an official. Worked 15 years, was chosen to work in the high school post season,  was respected by my officiating peers, and was told by many different coaches that they liked when I worked their games because they knew they were getting an official that worked hard and called a fair game. Why give it up? A couple of reasons, one, forty something guys just can't run the floor with 16-18 year old boys, and I did not want to be one of those officials that had to rely on his partner to "carry" him to keep up. Two, I had an offer to coach here at the high school, so, hung up my "stripes" and jumped in with both feet. I had a bit of experience coaching up my boys on their middle school club ball teams but I was pretty green. Fortunately, I worked for a head coach that has forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know and we took some lumps but moved the program forward. Now I work for a young guy who is still finding his way as a head coach but has a great knowledge of the game and the tools to become a good coach and a good leader of these young men.
I get so much enjoyment working with my fellow coaches and so much from working with these young men. I believe I am a positive person for a brief time in their young lives and in my little way, contribute to the process of these young men growing up and becoming solid citizens.

If I am honest with myself I am a bit selfish. With my kids gone out of high school and moving on with their lives. High school basketball keeps me in touch with kids and I can suck the youthful energy off them to keep me going strong. I finish each season with thoughts and ideas on how to be a better coach moving forward to next year. As long as I have those feelings, and if they will continue to hire me, I'll keep getting after it and just work at being better today than I was yesterday! (coach speak!).

Our program, Winter 2013!!

Get After It 2013!!

Yeah, it was just my usual lunchtime ride.

OK, it is just for about an hour of riding.

I know, about the usual 12 miles for mental mid-day break from work.

But it was the first time on the bike for 2013!! And that gave it all a bit of a different vibe.

A few road hazards to ride around.
Like this.

And some of this

My original idea for a blog post was to look into my soul and psyche and think about why I ride and what I enjoy about being out on a bike.
And then it came to me while riding....screw that. Live for the moment. Live for the time on the bike.
It is January and the wind is not blowing and it is mid-40's and there is all the sunshine that anybody could bottle up and dream about.

Sometimes it is a shame there is nothing to look at when riding around here.....

A brief break from reality and heading back into town to get back to work.

What a nice way to start 2013 cycling season!
Jim