Field Trip - Cycling Silver Strand

Celeste is a Girl Scout now - and part of being a Girl Scout is accumulating various patches for participating in different activities. And selling cookies, duh. It's no secret that Allie and I love cycling. Well, Allie enjoys it, I love it and go stir-crazy if I'm off the bike more than about two days. So one way we've been able to get our less-than-enthusiastic-about-cycling daughter out on two wheels has been telling her that we'd get her a cycling patch if she completes six different family cycling adventures with us. I should clarify - while she insists that she'd rather stay home on a weekend instead of go out exploring, she almost always has a great time taking in the sights.

Saturday afternoon we headed on down to San Diego and Coronado to ride the Silver Strand bikeway. This rail-trail path is dead-flat and dead-straight - but still good as it slices through a thin peninsula with San Diego bay to the east and the Pacific on the west.
The bikeway is about nine miles long in total, but due to some time constraints we headed back once we reached the halfway point. Our total mileage was 9.25.

Celeste and the Coronado Bay Bridge

One of the more-enjoyable aspects of the trail for Celeste and I was the crushed gravel/sand multi-use path that parallels the bikeway for miles. The grrrl really enjoys riding on dirt (as long as it isn't "too bumpy" and takes every opportunity to hit the path.
Along the way we encountered a few little educational "monuments"/art installations that Celeste naturally had to explore...
We even saw a cool tall ship, possibly the Californian (?)
Another great afternoon in the San Diego sun.

Crisis Averted!

I'll say it again - The Sauce is Boss

The FedEx man delivered the much-needed supply of life-giving BBQ sauce; and just in time for Turkey Day. Thanks Mom!

Object of Desire - Moots Vamoots CR

When I accepted the gig with Electra, I was eager to ditch the past and to be able to ride whatever mountain, road and cyclocross bikes my little heart desired. In the past year I have sold off a couple of Mongoose mountain bikes and bought a stunning Pivot Mach 5 mountain bike and a Gunnar Crosshairs cyclocross rig.

I had prepped Allie for that I'd be buying a new road bike when we first placed our Monona home on the market. Well, fast forward 13 long months of it being on the market and watching the economy collapse, along with our home's asking price, thus delaying the inevitable purchase by a few more months.

I walked the floor at this year's Eurobike and Interbike trade shows with one eye looking out for different options for the new ride and have pretty much settled on a titanium or steel frame. I really like the "plastic bike" I'm currently riding but am looking for a frame with a bit more permanence. And with that permanence in mind, titanium is currently topping the wish list. Specifically:
A Moots Vamoots CR. I've lusted after a Moots since I first saw one in person about 14 years ago. Perfect welds, clean, simple and minimal graphics presentation and an enviable ride quality - all lovingly welded up by good people in Steamboat Springs, CO.

I haven't fully made up my mind on the drivetrain, but it's looking to be a Shimano Dura-Ace 7900.
And while it's going to be a pricey ride, it's one that I hope to have for a very long time. I've put over 10,000 miles on the plastic bike over the past three years - it's still a great ride overall, but the shifting is getting sloppy, the drivetrain is making some funny noises and I've kind of grown bored of it. But I'll continue to pedal it to work most every day and will likely rack up another 1,000 miles on it before I get a chance to throw my leg over some titanium.

Until then at least have a sweet new Moots Merino wool jersey to wear out on the road...

I Didn't Know I Needed This

Straight outta Verona, Wisconsin (via eBay) is this sweet 1915 American-LaFrance Speedster Racer.
It supposedly started out it's life 94 years ago as a small short-chassis chemical fire truck before it's conversion to a racer sometime along the line - complete with a massive 14.5 liter straight six motor.
That's 2.41 liters of displacment per cylinder. Power is then sent from the transmission to two-wheel chain drive. Oh, and it has brakes - only on the rear axle.
By far one of the most epically bad-ass race cars ever made. Let's go along for a ride...

If only I had a spare $50k - this beast would make one fine daily driver. Road trip anyone?

Un-Dorkifying the Ride (Part 1)

I have a love-hate relationship with under-the-saddle bags. I love having the needed tools in order to fix the 90% of common breakdowns that can occur during a road ride - primarily punctured tubes and bolts that manage to wiggle their way loose at inappropriate times. However, I hate how most of these bags look. Boring Cordura nylon shaped into shapes that are far from attractive and do a poor job of holding their shape. Many roadies will just stuff their needed tools into their jersey pocket, but that's not a good option when wearing a backpack while commuting to work. And I don't keep the tools in the backpack as I need them for when I go on weekend rides.

For the past eight years a frumpy Axiom bag has resided under the saddles of many different road bikes that have come and gone from my bicycle fleet. While it was durable and competently held the contents, it's unabashedly ugly and the strap that wraps around the seatpost has lightly chafed the clearcoat on my carbon post over the years.

the fugly beast

There are now many nice, low-profile bags on the market. But as an owner of several fantastic fi'zi:k saddles, I finally took advantage of the ability to switch over to one of their small saddle bags that cleanly mounts using their Integrated Clip System into a port on the underside of the saddle.
True, it's still a primarily-black nylon bag. But smaller and imbued with a nice dose of Italian style and good design, some reflective logos and not requiring a seatpost-chafing strap.

I've also re-evaluated my tool selection. I had been carrying a much-heavier and bulkier Crankbrothers mini tool along with a compact pump. But after experiencing exactly one puncture over the last 14 months of road riding out here, I decided to go with a CO2 system and not worry about carrying the pump for back-up.
Side benefit - 178g in weight savings...
Ahh, that's better.
My cyclocross rig is using an identical kit. Next step in un-dorkification - a new frame/fork and fresh drivetrain. Send $$$$$...

Loss of Boss Sauce

As the cliché states, "all good things must come to an end" - and tonight saw the end of the bottle of unholy deliciousness as the last few succulent sweet drops of Captain Curt's Boss Sauce trickled out of the vessel that my brother sent me back over the summer and onto a couple of plump Foster Farms chicken breasts, sizzling on the Weber.

my grrrls rightfully laughed at me for taking a photo of an empty BBQ sauce bottle

The bombastic blend of (among others) water, high fructose corn syrup, tomato paste, cider vinegar, hickory smoke, MSG, sodium benzoate (preservative), proprietary herbs and spices is all but a memory, having been a central part of many summer BBQs. And since it's not widely-distributed outside of the Chicago area, I guess it's time to have my mom mail out a bottle. Because what is Thanksgiving dinner without healthy side of heaven?

The sauce was indeed boss.

EDIT - Crisis averted, mom emailed this morning, letting me know that two precious bottles are in the mail. Thanks ma!

Down on the Street

Riding over to my friend Graham's house on Sunday, i spied this rugged chunk o' American iron in his neighborhood.
It's a Willys Jeep Wagon, arguably the first sport utility model produced. Designed by industrial design master Brooks Stevens and in production from 1946 - 1965, the Jeep Wagon (like the IH Scout posted a couple of weeks back) is a great example of a truck that is simply a truck. No soccer-mom "crossover" baubles like carpeting and, uh, windshield wipers. This is a man's truck.
Simple and sturdy. Bend a tie rod? Just bend it back, alignment-be-damned.

The fabric rear window is great for hauling longboards around. Just pop six snaps and throw your board in.
And just check out these minimal taillights:
Getting the job done for 45+ years. What more do you need?