Bikes out of the Garage Lean

Took the bikes out of the garage this afternoon to show my friend Kialo. Each bike is unique and has a story or history. Not shown is my Univega touring bike because I was riding it when the photo was taken by Kialo. Just a cool photo in my opinion. 

Merlin, Litespeed, Coconino, Bridgestone

(not shown: Univega, Rocky Mountain)

Some Pics of Big Bend State Park (TX). Good fun!

Gypsum crystals on the Crystal Trail

Resting

Heading to the mine

Contrabando Trail

Coconinos!

Down Freno Canyon

Coconino bike and Mimbres Man jersey

Nice bike!

Fresno Canyon

Water Trail

Water Trail long angle

Mass Mountain Bike Descent to Lordsburg, NM via the Continental Divide Trail

The other day, November 9th, I finally got to do the mass accent to Lordsburg. This is the one ride I was somewhat envious when reading about it from Venezuela. 

We had a group of about 15 leave the parking lot on NM 90 about 25 miles south of Silver City. Our plan was to ride the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail to Lordsburg. I ended up using my back-up bike, my geared Litespeed leaning against the bumper of that Ford pickup because the rear valve on my Coconino started leaking as I was airing up the tire that morning. 

It turned out to be a beautiful day and ride, about 40 miles of dirt, the first half being single track and the other being 2 track dirt roads across the desert. 

The group regroups

Cooke's Peak in the distance

Technical uphill rocky section (walked this section when I should of/could of ridden it)

End of the single track

Into the desert

Lordsburg is to the left of center just below the horizon.

Charging the bull

Hard turn

Skewered

My bike's puny wheels

End of the ride: mediocre food, cold beer

 I really enjoyed the ride. I wasn't as fast as the 29" wheeled bikes, but I didn't care. I wasn't the last to reach Lordsburg, and it is all about the ride and enjoyment. This ride was well worth the wait!

Lecheria Bike Path

Shot from the hip while walking Benjamin.

Merlins

Back in the day, I rode with a good group of guys from Albuquerque. We were all in our late 20s to early 30s and we were passionate about mountain biking. We pushed our bikes to the limit and we broke them. Finally one of us got a Merlin and that changed everything. Soon, all of us were riding them.

Merlins in their prime were hard to beat. Beautiful, light, strong, and fun to ride.

As far as I know, all of us still have each of ours; Jim's is now SS with its original steel fork and sits mostly in his shed in Corrales. He has since moved on to an Ibis Mojo SL.

John's is also reborn as an SS and a Russian Ti fork is presently running around the streets and hills of Salida, CO.

Mike's is still configured with its original stuff; rigid Ritchey steel fork and 3 x 8 gearing but it sits in his garage in Albuquerque because he is now riding a custom 29er SS. .

Mine is with me here in Venezuela as my prime bike and currently configured as a 1 x 9 with a carbon fiber fork. It will probably go back to SS mode when it moves back to NM later in the year since I will have the Litespeed and Rocky Mountain as geared bikes.

Technology and innovation plows ahead, but original Merlins will always be considered the ultimate to me. Classic!

Road Tripping

Finally got out of Silver City and on the road. First stop was Black Canyon City, AZ to see my friend Mike. Mike and I laugh a lot when we are together. 

 Traditional stop one, Javalina Crossing where we had a couple of beers before going off to eat ribs.

Ribs.

Nice CJ-2A (being towed by a tractor)

On to Flagstaff and the Garros. Steve makes some of the finest bicycle frames on the planet. Hours of meticulous work goes into making a single frame. 

At Steve's I made myself a smoked trout burrito! Very tasty. Fresh ingredients...homemade salsas, organic red onions, avocados, and the trout had been out of the Colorado river for less than 6 hours.

Did a great bike ride with Gullo. Dusty due to horses. 

More to come.

Gila Proven

An Internet friend showed up today, Kyle from Texas, to ride mountain bikes in the Gila. Great to meet him face to face finally. Great guy and he rides a nice custom Coconino!

I took him on a introductory ride of the Gila and I think he's seen the light!

The Buffalo Soldier

The Buffalo Soldier...

...probably the most incredible racing bike on the planet.

It has taken Matthew Lee to at least two Tour Divide victories...
(correction: The 2009 bike was aluminum and the 2010 bike is carbon fiber...2 different bikes)

  ...and I rode it across town yesterday to deliver it to his motel room. Yeehaw!

Uberbike; 2009 Rocky Mountain Vertex Team RSL

I bought this frame yesterday. I bought it used from a friend, a Rocky Mountain aficionado. This deal has been in the works for about a year. It is a limited production, Rocky Mountain Vertex Team edition RSL. Super light at 1.25 kilos (2.75 lbs), but made of super strong 40-ton carbonfiber. It was his "spare" RSL frame. He had bought both the Vertex 70 RSL and the Vertex Team RSL, built them both and decided he liked the 70 better (lower modulus carbonfiber gives a gentler ride). 

This bike will be my first carbonfiber mountain bike. I am sold on the strength and ride characteristics of carbon, having been riding a carbon fork on the Merlin for about a year now. The fork completely changed the ride of the Merlin. It improved everything about it. 

It will be built with a XT drivetrain, XT wheels, SID Team fork, Avid BB7 brakes, and other goodies. XT isn't the lightest, but its bomber.

BTW, I still haven't bought a brand-new out-of-the-box bicycle since 1992 when I bought my Bridgestone.

I Hardly Knew Ya Rocky!

I sold my 2008 Rocky Mountain Vertex Team to a friend a couple of months back. Problem was, the bike was in New Mexico, and we are in Venezuela. Well I went up to New Mexico last weekend for personal reasons, and brought back the bike.

I acquired the frame and fork,on a whim last year, for a good price from the RM sales rep in Vancouver, and actually only rode the it 3 or 4 times last summer, before it went into storage, so I was never really attached to it. To build it, I bought a set of wheels for it (nice American Classics), a Race Face crank, Cane Creek Aheadset, and some Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes. The rest of the parts came from my Litespeed after its extensive overhaul last summer, so it was built fairly cheaply.

Yesterday and today, I got to ride it on trails that I can do in my sleep and focus on the bike instead of the trail. Conclusion...super sweet bike! Climbs like a goat, descends straight and true, corners wonderfully, and is one of the most perfectly balanced mountain bikes I've ridden. The scandium frame smooths out the bumps and vibrations. Definitely a sweet bike!

Riding with a friend this morning who also has a Team issue.

This bike will eventually end up in Kiev, Ukraine where my friend has taken a teaching job at one of our sister schools. I hope it gets a lot of use there. It is a huge improvement on the POS bike he was riding. Everyone deserves to ride a good bicycle.

Now I want to retrofit disc brakes on the Litespeed and Merlin! 

Update: I have a line on a 2009 carbonfiber Vertex Team! Yes! 

The Meeting Place

This is at El Morro on the top of the Cerro climb which goes from about 8 m (26 ft) above sea-level to about 65 meters (212 ft) above sea-level in 1.6 km (1 mile). It is a moderate climb with steepish pitches in places. Usually there are a group of cyclists hanging out in the shade of the little police shed deciding where to ride to next. 

Yesterday I was riding with my friend Jacques and had just come down the "La Falla" trail and paused here just to see what everyone was going to do next. You can see by the bicycles, the ones pointing right, are all full-suspension free-ride type bikes. These guys are a sub-set of the group of mountain bikers who frequent El Morro. All nice guys with big bikes. The two bikes pointing left on the right of the photo are Jacques' Rocky Mountain and my full-rigid Merlin (I love that bike!). 

The more I look at this photo, the more I like it. I like the crude splicing job I did on it using Photoshop. It makes for a more interesting photograph in my opinion.

Saddle for Tour Divide

For the past 15 or more years I've been riding WTB saddles almost exclusively. After much trial and error, I found I really liked the SST. Surprisingly it was dropped from their line back about 2004, so I replaced my worn SST with a Pure V.

The Pure V is a great saddle. I find it extremely comfortable, but I am concerned with the seams on the cover over the long haul. I used one of my Pure V saddles on the Katy Trail back in 2008 with mixed results. I rode 95 miles the first day and was pretty chaffed and sore afterwards. The next day I was able to ride fairly comfortably for about 85 miles to our next stop-over. Because of knee problems (not mine) and to prevent further damage, we decided to stop on day 3 and end the trip in Hermann, MO and there catch the train back to Lee's Summit.

A friend, a veteran of many long distance rides, says if my butt is not toughened up, it'll be a short ride. He's probably right. I am really thinking of trying a Terry Liberator saddle. I wish I could get one down here in Venezuela and ride it for a while.

This problem of prepping from 3000 miles away is one of the more challenging things about this ride.

TourDivide/GDMBR 2010

Happy New Year, its 2010 and it is the year I turn 50. I want to do something epic. A friend is sky diving on her 50th in a couple weeks. My cousin has invited me along to do the same this summer. His 50th is in the spring, and mine is in September.

I’ve been planning a Trans-America bicycle tour for my 50th year, but also been pondering the TourDivide. Now some of my New Mexico mountain bike buddies want to do the TourDivide.

The TourDivide (on the *GDMBR) is doable in 30 days which better fits my summer schedule, however the official start date time is June 11 and I work till June 18 or so. Realistically I couldn’t depart from Banff till later in June.

I am now shifting gears to the do the GDMBR. I will be outfitting the Litespeed even though it only has 26” wheels. The major modification I am considering will be outfitting the bike with disc brakes. I will be ordering ultralight, rackless packs for it next week. I will post about the gear later.

*Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

Vacation: Recreation, Projects, and Leisure (winter break 2009)

Currently on winter break and taking advantage of the days off...

First off, went fishing (see post below) and been riding my bike nearly every morning. When I worked here in Lecheria, I was able to ride my bike everyday, but now working in El Tigre, my bike is left here, and is only ridden on weekends (arrgh!).

Friend/colleague, Daniel, also lives in Lecheria. We car pool during the week. His wife has to give up on riding her bike because of back problems so he has inherited her bike. The frame is a little small for him, it looks like a 17 inch and he probably needs a 19 inch. I gave him a long 150 mm stem to compensate for the short top-tube. Anyway, Daniel is getting into it.

Here he is climbing "The Acuario" trail. He dabbed the first try, but cleaned it on his second attempt and cleaned it again the following day.
A triumphant Daniel.
Ran into Fabricio today on his new Yeti AS-R.
He made a special trip to California to buy this bike and bring it down. A bit too much bike for me, but he's into the free-ride full-suspension thing.

Seeing the word Gila down here in Venezuela is always a bit strange.
I try to explain to people that I am from the Gila...a region in New Mexico. They never get it.

As far as projects go...

We finally pulled the trigger on some Roman shades. We've been pricing them at speciality shops and the quotes we were getting were way high...about $600 per window! One lady recommended we go to EPA (our equivalant to Home Depot) . We found some cloth shades for about $45 each. We bought two for the master bedroom to see how we liked it. The installation was straightforward. I had to drill through brick and use inserts, but other than that it was fairly simple.
We really like the shades. It seems to be helping with the air conditioning.

Yesterday we went back to EPA and bought two more for the other bedroom and I installed them today. We will probably use a similiar window treatment for the living room.

At the Lecheria Fish Market

We went to the fish market yesterday about 11:30 AM to get something for lunch. While Tania was dealing with fish (she knows what to buy better than I do...I just make suggestions) I played with my camera. I got a few neat pics. BTW, the fish we bought; a couple of mullet (very tasty) and some dorado fillets.

Here's a very nice dorado. Has some nice color.

Someone's fish drying in the sun.

Fishing lancha that doubles as a pelican roost.

Waiting for scraps.

A nice looking mature pelican.

Saltwater catfish.

Transportation. You'll always see beater bikes at the fish markets.