10 Things about the Univega

I just went for a ride around town on the Univega. This time was wearing Converse low-tops, no gloves, and a baseball cap.
- 1. Oh...I remember this. This little ride brought back a lot of memories of when this bike was my only bike.

- 2. Gearing...big spaces between gears. Takes quite a bike of moving the shift lever to change gears. The old Suntour derailleurs work great.

- 3. Slightly flexy bottom bracket. On the slightest incline where I am putting a little more power to the cranks, the chainring starts rubbing on the front derailleur. I think this is due to the derailleur being very narrow.

- 4. When shift gears in the back, it is necessary to adjust and feather the front derailleur to keep it from rubbing.

- 5. The Mafac cantilevers are stylish, but they take a lot of effort to operate. I am so used to XT V-brakes, where you can stop using one finger.

- 6. Toeclip overlap. I forgot about this funky thing about the bike. Got to be careful when making big turns.

- 7. Need to repair on pannier strap. Working on that right now.

- 8. The Avocet saddle and old school pedals will have to go when doing the Katy. I'll opt to put on my Pure V and the SPD pedals off Mr. Litespeed.

- 9. Stationwagon...This bike is like the Vista Cruiser in "That 70's Show". A sled.

- 10. I still love this bike! Its so styly!

The Univega!

Just picked up my old 1981 Univega from the bike shop. Boy howdy, have bikes changed! They had a heck of a time getting parts for it. 5-speed freewheels are nearly impossible to find.

It is sport'n a new wider handle bar, a new rear hub (the old Japanese Suzue hub was cracked), and a new bottom bracket.

I took it for a spin while wearing my sandals. Not the best shoes for riding but...I have forgotten how fine of ride this bike is. It rides like an old Cadillac. Very smooth. It corners like a race bike. Nice geometry.

I love this old bike. It has a lot of sentimental value for me.

I'll be using front and rear panniers for the Katy Trail ride. It'll be like old times. I am really looking forward to it.

Back in the USA

I am back in the USA for a few weeks. Drove to Silver City this afternoon, sitting in my mom's kitchen at the moment. I'll be posting from time to time about this trip.
So far I've spent about 48 hours in Albuquerque. I hung out with my son Kyle. I bought a few things that I hope I can take back to Venezuela...We will see!
More later!

The Antennas

When I first moved to Lecheria, one of my first mtn bike rides was up into the coastal range to set of TV antennas. It is a tough climb with a few pitches steep enough for shift into the small ring. After year one, I lost my riding partner (he was fired from school and is now working in Pakistan) so I hadn't been up there since. Everyone says it is hostile territory with the real potential of getting mugged, robbed, or worse, killed.

Sunday I was invited on a group ride back to this area. I left our condo apartment (sea-level) and met the group at the Mobil gas station at 6:00 AM. We rode through town, through the sketchy barrio of "El Pozo" (The Well). It is a slight climb, but we kept a good pace through there.

At the PDV gas station in El Pozo, we picked up a couple more riders and headed into the hills.

Once we turned off the main road, the country road winds up into the hills. It eventually crosses a small river then we started really climbing. I was the oldest rider, and probably the heaviest, so I am a fairly slow climber (but steady and strong). I was able to keep up, not letting the group get too far ahead. I actually liked being alone when the pack was ahead of me.

Somewhere on the route, we took a turn that I wasn't familiar with. It was a technical Jeep track that was steep. I used my 22:34 to climb, but cleaned the hill no problem. I was unfamiliar with this new route, but the rest of the climbing was a steady grind, with a couple of concrete sections that were very steep.

We made it to the antennas around 9:00 AM. Someone had an altimeter and it read 728 meters (about 2380 feet). So about 18 miles with more than 2400 feet of climbing in 3 hours (including two stops for Edwardo to fix two separate flats). Not too bad.

The best part is when we turned around and blasted back down the hill! The Litespeed handled like it was on rails...very smooth, very precise. I am really liking the Litespeed...it is a better bike than the Merlin! EGADS! I love my Merlin! It makes me sad to say that.

We were back into town in less than an hour (including two more stops to let Edwardo continue to deal with flat tires). The most dangerous part of the ride was riding against traffic (I was just following the other guys) on the Intercommunal (main avenue through Barcelona/Puerto la Cruz). I finally hopped onto the sidewalk to give myself some relief.

The final 4 miles home was on the flat bike path with a slight headwind. I had zero water was was fairly tired because I only slept 4 hours Saturday (due to being Internet-Guy). I rode past the condo to the Gorditas for two breakfast empanadas (1 fish, 1 chicken) and two cans of Malta (unfermented beer...a Venezuelan drink).

Anyway, it was a good ride. I was beat afterwards, but feel great now. I am really liking the Litespeed. Its a fun bike!

Racing the Great Divide

Me riding on the spine of North America

I grew up on the continental divide in Silver City, NM. I always thought that was pretty cool as kid...once I figured out what my dad was trying to explain to me. On the highways there are markers that tell you that you are on the great divide, but what really cool is to be out in the woods and figure it out. "Oh...this drainage goes to Bear Creek and Bear Creek flows into the Gila, which flows into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) therefore its on the Pacific side. This drainage flows over here, which, if its lucky will make it the Rio Grande which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, therefore it is on the Atlantic side." It is a very cool thing that I still get a big kick out of.

Back in the mid 90's was a legendary bike racer named John Stamstad. He was somewhere out in Ohio or the Midwest, and he was a mutant! He set all sorts of long distance records and is in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame! And he's the one that started this whole racing the Adventure Cycling Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR).

I remember when he came through Silver City in the mid-90's. He needed a wheel, so he stopped at my LBS, Gila Hike & Bike. He said the Gila was the toughest part of the ride. He was drinking straight canola oil for energy. He completed his first trip in about 3 weeks, if I remember correctly. He did it again the next year, breaking his own record by several days. John's final record was about 17 days.

About 10 years later, several guys lined up in Roosville, MT to duplicate John's run. About 2300 miles, zig-zagging down the spine of the United States to the small border outpost of Antelope Wells. The trip takes about 15 days for the fast guys and about a month for the stragglers. I did a similar trip in 1981 that parallels the newer GDMBR, following a mostly paved route from Palomas, MX (on the NM border) to Jasper, AB. That trip took me over 75 days to complete. You got to envy these racers...they are going through some of the most beautiful country in North America.

Technology has allowed us, the arm-chair racer, to watch the progress of the riders on a daily basis. This year's new race, the Tour Divide, organized by two time GDR winner, Matthew Lee, used Spot technology...little GPS trackers allowing fans to follow the racers via the Internet. I guess the racers could use this technology too to their advantage to see where their competitors are. Purist might not like it, but its has made the Tour Divide a very entertaining event to keep track of.

Anyway, this year's Tour Divide (Banff, AB to Antelope Wells, NM) winner was Matthew Lee in a little more than 19 days. This year's Great Divide Race (Roosville, MT to Antelope Wells, NM) winner was John Nobile is slightly more than 15 days (setting a new record!...way to go John).

Today I challenge any (former) Tour de France riders to enter either of these races next year. Floyd, Lance, Jan...you guys aren't doing anything next year. Let's ride! I want to do it!

Matthew Lee Wins Tour Divide Race (part II)

Here's a new photo of Matthew's 2008 finish on July 2. Congratulations Matt!

Photo credit goes to Matthew Lee and tourdivide.org

Matthew Lee Wins Tour Divide Race

Matthew Lee is the greatest cyclist you've never heard of, but what he has accomplished ranks him among the best of the best.

Late in the evening on July 2, Matthew rolled into Antelope Wells, NM, a small outpost on the U.S./Mexico border. He started his 2700+ mile journey on June 13 in Banff, Alberta, Canada, following the Adventure Cycling Great Divide route.

Matthew averaged more than 140 miles per day riding unsupported mainly on dirt roads; buying groceries at mom and pop markets in the back country of the West, and sleeping on the ground.

I met Matt in 2005 as he rode down the final stretch to Antelope Wells. At the border, we celebrated with a few beers, then we loaded his bike into the car and tried to get back to Silver City (almost...my car broke down at Gold Gulch...we had to hitch into town).

He won the race again in 2006, but I was still in Venezuela, so I could not help him at the finish line. Same in 2007 where he came in 2nd place finishing about 12 hours behind the winner.

When I met Matthew in 2005, he talked passionately about the GDR, but wanted the start line pushed back to Banff because the scenery and track was so beautiful. The GDR still starts in Rooseville, MT, so a second race was organized, the Tour Divide with the start line in Banff.

Anyway, as someone put on a post of the Tour Divide blogsite, Well done Matt, well done!

note: the photo posted is Matt at the 2005 finish. I took the photo, not sure who's camera, his or mine. Probably his. My photos of Matthew are lost on a crashed hard drive. Anyway, credit Matthew Lee and tourdivide.org

Strange Day part II

We go shopping for curtains. The lady gives us an estimate of Bs. F. 6500! That's roughly $2200 for 3 windows! Nuts!

So after a nice lunch we go downtown to shop for cloth to make our own curtains.
We eventually got separated and Oscar and I go look for Tania. We walk back to the car, but the car wasn't there!

What happened?

Was it stolen?

Tania didn't have a key.

There are no other cars on the street where we parked it so I figure it must have been towed.

There is a motorcycle police right there, so I use my bad Spanish and ask him if he knows where my car is, a white Kia Rio. He said it is being towed to the commander's impound lot and it will cost me Bs.F. 1500 (about $500) to get it out, but he calls his tow truck buddy on the cell phone, and his buddy still has the car hitched to his truck and can bring it back for less money.

Oscar and I walk in the rain to Paso Colon, meet the motorcycle cop there, and here comes his buddy with my car in tow. They want Bs.F. 400 (about $129) to give me back my car, but Oscar says we are from Anaco and didn't bring that much with us. So the truck driver says, Bs. F. 200 ($64.50). We get away at half price.

We eventually find Tania, pick her up and go home.

Strange Day part I

Got up and did a ride. Here's what happened...

Thinking about the Katy ride, wanted to get some miles. Got a wild hair to do something different. When I woke up, I looked at Google Earth to make sure where to make a critical turn if I was to do this. So left home on the Litespeed and this is what happened...

A - Home

B - Ride to Gorditas' newsstand for a coffee.

C - Weird...Someone throws a 2-Liter bottle of orange soda at me. I heard it skidding on the pavement behind, it hit my rear wheel, jostled the bike, speed and momentum brings the bottle around spinning under my bottom bracket, hitting the front wheel, continues spinning/skidding to the curb.

D - An urban bus nearly sideswipes me, misses me by less than 6 inches, probably doing at least 30 mph.

E - After summiting a steep little climb, that happens to be a detour today (I didn't know this when I headed out this morning) I am riding down a steep hill in bumper to bumper traffic, I get a front puncture and have to pull off to repair my flat. I find two small holes. I patch them, and get back on the road.

F - Traffic is backed up to a dead stop. I ride in the left hand lane to get around the stopped traffic and find protesters have blocked the road. Apparently some angry mothers don't like heavy trucks being diverted onto their road putting their children at risk. A couple of motorcycle police on the scene trying to defuse the situation. I walk my bike through the chaos, trying to be invisible, get back on as soon as possible and sprint away. This is a sketchy barrio I am in.

G - Rode through the industrial park (Polar brewery, Coca Cola bottling, etc.) Cross this major intersection, easily, but have to ride around traffic, fording deep standing water from recent rains. I get muddy.

H - Dodge more heavy traffic by riding on the sidewalk (ala "The Cyclists") hop off the curbs, weave through traffic, cross the Rio Neveri, on this narrow bridge.

I - Nearly get T-boned by a Dodge truck

J - Oops...I don't know my alphabet

K - Go to Gorditas' Annex for a breakfast empanada (cazon...dried fish) and 2 Polar maltas (unfermented beer)

B - Cross the street to Gorditas' newsstand for a newspaper for my wife.

A - Home again according to Google Earth, I rode about 18.7 miles.

Playa Santa Fe

Today Tania, Oscar, and I took a little adventure trip. First stop was the fishing village of Playa Santa Fe. It was Sunday market day, so the place was busy.

A Surreal Afternoon

So I am on vacation and just milling about, relaxing and taking care of business. Tania and I went shopping for a new PC for Oscar this morning. We found one at a decent price so we decided to go back to the mall to buy it since Oscar was at his art class.

We get in the car, I'm driving, pull out of the condo property, go to 1 block to Ave. Playa Lido that goes along the Caribbean. I enjoy that little street because it goes along the beach.

I look at the sea and it is a popping 3D-like color of green!

I look at other things in the environment as I am driving, and all the colors are surreal and extremely vivid. I am really enjoying it. Traffic flows with ease.

We buy the PC then go for a coffee. It is killer! Open-air restaurant, jazz/electronica is playing on the sound system, and the flavor just explodes on my tongue. Cafe' Venezolano...major en el mundo!

We walk around the mall a bit, enjoying each other's company, mosey over to the plaza where workers are tearing down the boat expo that was held over the weekend. We talk to a salesman about buying a Zodiac. Yes! Tania wants one!

We get back in the car and drive up the El Morro, my mountain biking place. At the summit, we are enjoying the 270º view of the Caribbean. The sun is fairly low on the horizon, and its hard to tell, where the sea ends and the sky begins.

Tania has the white receipt from the computer store in her hand. She waves it from left to right and I see an electric blue streak. The colors around me are popping again. Red, orange, and pink flower blossoms are neon. I can see a hundred shades of green, the soil is a brownish orange and the clouds silvery white.

It was a wonderful experience.

Tuesday

I've been fighting some kind of virus or infection since last week. Last Monday I went on my own to an "ear doctor". I had to wait for 5 hours! It is there I probably picked this mess up. Once I saw the doctor, he looked at the ear that was bothering me, prescribed some medicines; one that I had had before and other I wasn't familiar with. I forgot to tell the doctor that I was allergic to penicillin.
I started taking the medicine and after a few day, things started getting worse. By the time I got home to PLC on Thursday night (no school on Friday) I was starting to cough up phlegm and my “good” ear was starting to bother me.
By Saturday, Tania had had enough and took me to an emergency clinic. The doctor right away recognized I was having an allergic reaction to penicillin and got me off the regimen. He prescribed a few new things and things are looking up. I slept 13 hours Saturday night.
Still coughing phlegm, but feeling better.

Testing the Birds

Today I fired up the wind tunnel and were able to get data from 4 of the student's birds. The students have never done a lab investigation like this before, so I am having to teach them all sorts of stuff.

Today we just set up the birds and collected some data. Monday we'll complete the data gathering and then begin to analyze what we got.

I took off the upper A-arm on the wind tunnel's suspension system. The balsa wood is strong enough not to need the second arm. The second arm was adding friction and weight into the system.

The fan I borrowed for today's session is a small Electrolux. It is pushing air through the test chamber at 1.1 to 1.2 m/s (about 2.4 mph). I designed the wind tunnel to use a large volume window fan. Even with the small fan, the bird pictured produced a net lift force of 1.1 g, (with a slight nose-up attitude) so this bird can fly.

More on this project next week.

Bird Project

Right now in middle school Life Science we are covering vertebrate animals and currently on birds. I have my wind tunnel and need an excuse to use it, so we are making small birds out of polystyrene. It is a messy project (polystyrene chips everywhere) but hopefully tomorrow we can test our birds and see if they “fly” inside the wind tunnel.

The Mimbres Man Cometh...

Here's an old ad from the past.
Details...
Rider: Your's truly
Age: probably 34 or 35
Photographer: Mike Padian
Time: About February or March 1994 or 1995
Place: White Tank Mountains State Park in Arizona
Bike: 1993 Merlin (1" headtube) w/ Specialized Stumpjumper fork

Bar ends: Onza

Tires: Ritchey Z-Max
Helmet: Etto
Sunglasses: RayBans (the 90's)
Jersey: Mimbres Man (of course!)

Nothing New

I wish I had something to add since San Bernadino but nothing really exciting happened over the weekend.

I rode the Merlin SS on Saturday. Stopped by Jacques' to see his shoulder. Saw the X-rays. Weird stuff! Instead of his collarbone snapping like most peoples, his separated at the shoulder blade. There was a gap of about 1 cm. The doc in Caracas used titanium wire to tie the bones back together, then sutured the tendons back in place.

On Sunday I rode the Litespeed. I rode alone mostly, but hooked up with the locals for a little bit, then continued on my own. I climbed as much single track as I could. I climbed and descended the Fausto Trail which is tough.

Riding the two bikes is like night and day. When I get on the Merlin, it is almost an extension of my body. I've been with this particular frame since 1996 and my other Merlins since 1990 (1990, and 1993), so I am used to them.

The Litespeed has only been around since 2006, though it is a 2000 model. I like it a lot. It is probably a better riding bike than the Merlin, but I don't spend as much time on it as the Merlin. I am now tweeking it more and more to suit me. Steve Garro of Coconino custom cycles will be building me some custom wheels for it. I've also locally ordered some new 2.4 tires for it. I plan on getting a Thomson stem and seatpost for it in the next few months. Slowly, I am giving it more of my personal touches so it is my bike and not the previous owners.

Job wise everything is okay. My big project now is getting the middle schoolers to make polystyrene bird models to test in the wind tunnel. We are investigating the physics of bird flight. They are jazzed about this project.

San Bernadino

We rode last Sunday to San Bernadino. I rode the Merlin single speed. The group I ride with don't get it (the single speed thing). Anyway, I rode from where most of the others did, so it was an extra 12 km (7.5 miles) to the trailhead.

There was a moment on the ride when I was completely alone. It was nice. Just me and my most simple (and favorite) bike.

In San Bernadino I took a few photos, but nothing outstanding. My favorite is the one posted above.

On the return trip, Jacques crashed hard on the downhill. He mangled is left shoulder pretty good. Today I got word that he had surgery in Caracas and had a pin put in his shoulder. That's nuts!

Carnival Weekend

Well, I had a good Carnival weekend. 4 days of no work, got some things done on the apartment, and 4 days of riding.

Everyday I went out and rode from about 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Lots of sun, lots of fun. I rode the Litespeed exclusively. I don't ride it as much as the Merlin. It took me a day of riding the Litespeed to get used to it again. It is a size larger than the Merlin (19" vs. 18") and has flat bars as opposed to risers, and it has a full compliment of gears; XT-9 speed (34-11) in the rear and 3 in the front vs. the Merlin's 18T ENO and 32T Black Spire up front.

The latest mod on the Litespeed is I swapped the stem. I had the generic 100 mm stem from the Merlin available because now its sporting a new 100 mm (105 degree) Thomson. The stem on the Litespeed was a 130 mm (0 degree) Zoom. I felt too stretched out with it and wanted to try a shorter set-up. I like the 100 mm length. Now I'll have to buy a second Thomson for the Litespeed.

Saturday, an electrician came and installed two new light fixtures; one in the living room and the other in the kitchen. They are killer looking! He also installed 5 dimmer switches, so now all out main lights are on dimmers which is a nice touch. I need to find brighter bulbs for the kitchen fixture. I didn't realize it, but the fixture is European so it is set up as a 220 V (60 Hz) application. Venezuela uses 110 V (60Hz) like the USA, so my kitchen lights are dim. I am thinking of ways to solve this problem, maybe the best will be to see if I can swap out bulbs. Either that or modification.

My wife is starting to understand my vision of the apartment. It is starting to look pretty swanky. I like it a lot!

The rest of the 4-day weekend was low key. Just lots of bike riding.

This coming weekend; more apartment stuff on Saturday, maybe Merlin riding on Sunday.
MM

Whinner

I am such a whinner. I shouldn't complain so much about what happened. I've been at the Tigre school for a week now, and the students are way cool. I like them a bunch, especially my middle schoolers (but that is my favorite age group anyway).
I spent a weekend at my place in Lecheria. It is nice to have a place to go home to. I've never really have had a place like that before, owning my own place, that is. Its a good feeling. I love my little apartment.
Fred came down from New Mexico and headed to Margarita for the month. Hopefully, Tania and I will get over there for a visit. We don't do Margarita very often.
I am feeling much better!

Kite Boarding

I got a new digital camera at Christmas. I bought the latest Canon ELPH, the SD1000. It is the size of a tin of Altoids, so I carry it with me everywhere.

As you can read from my previous posts, I am not really living in PLC anymore until work is done in June (coming to El Tigre was a mistake BTW). This was what I watched everyday when I got home. I'd watch these guys skim back and forth on the water.

Anyway, what I enjoy about digital photography is the instant gratification and the ability to tweek images via computer. The images posted are from outside my condo. The first one was from the apartment window in which I had the camera on a color swap setting.

With the others, I went down to the beach and got some action shots of these guys having some fun with their kite boards. They do this everyday.

Life is too short to be stuck in Tigre.