"It's not that bicycling is so important, it is that everything else is equally unimportant."

Disc Brake Woes  
So I made it into City Bikes yesterday afternoon. Luckily Mike the manager was there as he is the disc brake tech guy for that store. He told me to bring the bike in and he started checking it out. After checking out the situation - front brake lever is slightly harder to pull and once it's pulled it doesn't spring back, you have to push the lever back with your hand manually. That's bad enough, but it turns out that when the pads close in on the rotor, they aren't fully retracting and they start dragging. The only way to reset this is to take the wheel off and push the pads back in. Next step was calling SRAM since they own Avid now. From the description they said that shouldn't be happening and to box it up and send it in for them to take a look at.

So great, now 3 days before I leave for Douthat, a weekend specifically for riding and not just riding, but major hills, I am now brakeless up front. I will preference this with saying I ride for City Bikes, but hell, even before I was on their team they treated me right. Anyway, Mike didn't hesitate to offer up his Hayes hydro disc brake from his Phil Wood singlespeed steed. He pulled it off and started putting it on the I.F. without any questions. So now I have a fully functioning front brake, woohoo!

More bad news though. Just for kicks we checked out the rear brake, which previously hadn't shown any symptoms, but now in the shop was showing that the lever wasn't fully returning, although it would return most of the way and the pads were retracting enough not to drag very much. Just my luck, but it looks like the rear is going to have the same issue. It still works well enough that I didn't bother taking it off for this weekend, but you can bet when I return it's getting sent to SRAM too.

Before I left the shop, I made sure to grab a couple of tubes and a new chain. Seeing as how I'm not the cleanest person with my bikes, Mike hooked me up with one of SRAM's Rust Buster chains...that should do the trick! He also had the shop guys pull out a box of new Specialized tubes and boy were they big...good for 2.3 - 2.5 tires! The box is huge and these things are massively wide.

So some good and some bad, but at least I'm ready to roll out on Friday and get my ride on.

DT

posted by DT at 1:40:38 PM
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Camping!  
Only a few more days until the MORE Fall Camping Trip at Douthat State Park. It will be good to get away for a weekend of riding. Finally a chance to put work to the side and ride myself silly. We got a one room cabin thats supposed to hold 4 people...lets do a headcount, shall we - Kristin, me, and Buster (don't think he really counts though, ha), Brian, Joe P., Gina, kid, and possibly an intern. So that's more like 6.5, maybe 7 including Buster. Should be fun figuring out who is staying where this weekend!

There's a lot to do to get ready. Still have to put together some camping meals and get beer, but the biggest thing is just getting my bike back to Douthat riding condition. The front Avid Juicy 7 hasn't been very good lately. It will close on the rotor, but it won't open back up and the lever doesn't come back to it's starting position. Hopefully it's just dirty pistons and it's something I can handle. Also I need to remember to pick up some more tubes before the weekend, preferably the Slime tubes. While they cost a little more and weigh a little more (no more than downhill tubes in both cases), I feel they are a much cleaner solution than tubeless tires. While I'm at it I'll probably go ahead and pick up a new chain. After that it's a simple matter of breaking down the bike, cleaning it real good, and throwing on the new stuff. Hopefully I can get all that done BEFORE getting to Douthat...

Gonna swing by City Bikes in Chevy Chase to see if they have any ideas for my still creaking cranks/bb interface and possibly any hints as to what might be wrong with the disc brake. Hopefully enlightenment will ensue.

DT

posted by DT at 9:50:42 AM
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Play It Again Sam  
Did the same ride last night that I did on Monday night with only a few differences. Instead of riding with Brian I rode with Lee. Instead of starting around 7pm, we started around 9:30pm.

Kristin had happy hour in DC, which was good cause Lee had dinner plans and wouldn't be able to ride until later, so the whole time thing worked out well. We started riding and make it down the first downhill before I realize I left my gloves in the car in my bag I used for BikeDC, so back up the hill we go. Just a good warmup right?

We rode at a good pace, faster than I went on Monday night and we were pretty much incident free. I say pretty much, because Lee just got a new Mountain Cycles dually and doesn't have a front derailleur for it and would occaisionally drop the chain up front. But we ended up getting to Carpers Farm Way in just over 25 minutes, including having to go back for my gloves and a small pee break.

I don't seem to be alone when both of the people I have ridden this trail with this week have expressed the pleasure of riding through a particular section. Lee calls it the canopy. It's my favorite section. It's like riding into a forest and expecting to see Jack Skellington standing amidst all the holiday trees.



Anyway, we basically finish almost the entire ride, literally have about 10 more feet of singletrack before crossing a kids soccer field and arriving at the W&OD. There are some boards laying down on the ground, which are in a spot that gets muddy so I stuck to the boards. Well there must have been a nail or something because the next thing I hear is the whiz of air coming from my tire. I stop to confirm its my tire going flat, then ride hard to the W&OD hoping to get to the paved path before it runs out of air. I make it and Lee is close behind. We then pull up to Hunters Mill Rd. and decide to stop and fix it.

Turns out my dumbass grabbed the wrong tube since I had a couple left over from BikeDC and on top of that I totally forgot to grab my pump. Luckily Lee has the right tube and a CO2 cartridge. New tube is in and he goes to put in the air and nothing...turns out his son was probably playing with it and now the air is all gone and neither of us has a pump. So I take out his tube and put in my old flat tube and try to blow it up myself since its a presta valve tube. Get some air in it and reinstall it, but it's not enough. I try rolling on, but the rim is gonna take some nasty damage if I keep going. Lee offers to ride ahead and come pick me up in the car. About 10 minutes into waiting a guy on a recumbent cruises up and says he has a tube and pump if I need it, but I decline since Lee should already be at the car now. Thanks to hm for at least offering though and not whizzing on by.

Lee shows up with the car 10 mintues later and we roll back to my car. We were on pace to do an hour and 5 minute lap, before the flat. Oh well, at least we finished the dirt part of the ride and it wasn't anything major. When it was all said and done I got home around 11:45pm. Not a bad way to get your rides in, just don't forget to charge your lights. Of course if you have a NiteRider light it doesn't matter if its fully charged or not...it still won't work...I'm not bitter!

DT

posted by DT at 1:38:03 PM
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More Pics  
Here are some more pics of our trail maintenance day at Colt's Neck. Mostly bridge building, but also cleaning up and clearing trail.

DT

posted by DT at 10:47:04 AM
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Catching Up  
Actually working in McLean this morning as I had to login to my office computer so they could do backups and whatnot, but I'll be heading out to Annapolis Junction in a few. A couple nights back I started reading through my new book - Trail Solutions: IMBA's Guide to Building Sweet Singletrack. It's great! Well thought out, good pics, and a true resource to the everyday joe or hardcore trail builder. MORE evidently is giving this book as a thank you to all their trail liaisons, which is a cool move.

If your into night riding, this is the week to do it. The weather is supposed to be perfect all week long. If you don't have lights or can't get out at night, then take off a couple hours from work and ride during the day. Autumn starts today and it's bringing 60 degree mornings/evenings, 80 degree afternoons, and hopefully a little reprieve from the rain of late. Not too much longer before the leaves will be changing colors.

*Breaking Single Speed News*

From:Eric Roman
Promoter of the largest Single Speed Party in 2005

SSWC 2005 Headquarters
Sept. 16, 2004
State College, PA

The Single Speed World Championships for 2005 will beheld in State College, PA on August 20th & 21st. Thisyear will mark the first ever visit to the East for the SSWC and promises to offer a challenging course in the East Coast tradition. Racers can expect challenging climbs, rock strewn ridges, and fast, tricky descents.

As usual, the event will focus around the main event(25+ mile single loop) designed by local singlespeeders to highlight the finest trails available. Back from past years will be the Derby to help decidethe location for 2006- be ready to throw down. Men’sand women’s titles will be decided on the now infamous Go-Cart track (from the East Coast Single Speed Championship of the Universe)- racers will have to qualify for the opportunity to battle in the cars, eliminating “Pro” racers from an easy day of it.

We would also like to offer any professional bike racer under suspension for illegal drugs by the UCI free entrance into the event. Yup, we know your pain and would like to offer the rare chance to attain a World Title while under suspension. In fact, let usknow your favorite drugs and we just might be able to have some waiting. Also, Jan Ulrich - patron saint ofsingle speeding. With that grinding single speedclimbing style, watching you push those gears brings a tear to our eyes...free beer for you, my friend. You are our hero and a true single speeder at heart.

*End Transmission*

DT

posted by DT at 9:58:29 AM
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Night Riding  
Managed to make it out for my first night ride in weeks last night. About half the ride was in the waining light and the other half was ridden in the moonlight and with some ambient light coming from the light I lent Brian.

I was going to ride with the MORE group at Wakefield, but that's getting a little old so I tried to strum up some interest in a Colt's Neck ride to ride the whole loop including the section we did maintenance to on Sunday. Gary had the kid so he was out and Matt would be working late, couldn't really get in touch with anyone else. Brian made the last minute decision to meet me out at the ice rink. I was late as usual, but we got started around 7:00pm. The light was already fading, but I thought we could still do without lights.

We had plenty of fading light to get us to the Cricket field and over to Hunter Mills Rd. Once we crossed the road and back into the woods, there was a noticeable difference in how much light was making it through the canopy. We cleared all the singletrack and made it to the doubletrack that leads to a small quick section of singletrack that spits you out onto Carpers Farm Way (which is the neighborhood road name for Colvins Run). I pulled slowly to a stop with the intention of setting up our lights, just as Brian remarked "so you think we should pull out the lights". I contemplated keeping the lights in the camelback just to make him nervous, but it was pitch black out by this point and we were heading into the more dense section of forrest. I gave him my Performance helmet mount and mounted my NiteRider bar light. Got him all hooked up and everything ran great. Plugged my battery to my light and it comes on at full power and then just dies out. I've had this happen a lot with the light where it's fully charged yet the battery is telling the digital light there isn't any juice. Usualy I disconnect and reconnect and after a few times it comes back saying its full. Not this time, after a couple of connects/disconnects it stopped displaying energy levels at all. Decided what the hell and headed into the woods with Brian not far behind me.

The weird part was my light kept jolting on for a brief second here and there so it might be a connection problem. Either way I'm done with NiteRider forever! I've always had issues with their lights and I've heard a lot of problems from other people. The theory is they try to make these super duper do everything lights, but end up complicating a really simple application to the point it doesn't work right. All I want is a light that works - I don't care if it has 18 light settings and can take pictures of deer as I ride, I just want to be able to somewhat see.

Anyway, we cut into the woods with Brian not far behind me. This part of the trail definitely had some muddy spots, but they are spots that probably aren't going away. Luckily the trail isn't getting wider because there are thorns on each side, but the holes are getting deeper. The trail is really twisty so for the most part I was riding by moonlight and just following the glow of the trail against the stark black background. It was very motivating to do a lot more late night night riding. We went through my favorite section of woods, the very Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, only there isn't any holiday trees. Eventually we pop out to a gravel road that runs between some neighborhoods and dead ends into Browns Mill Rd. Jump the guard and cross the street and get onto the Fairfax CCT paved path. Try to keep a little quiet as people's backyards push right up against the path. Finally hit the dirt section of CCT and head up to the Toll Rd. underpass. Just before we reach the Toll Rd. Brian screams and I stop to turn around as he sinks 3 feet deep. Just then a deer goes sprinting across the trail and through the high grass, missed me by maybe 2 feet, can only imagine if Brian hadn't called me back.

We rode on and were finally at the section of dirt we worked on for trail maintenance. The trail was dry and in great shape. The old alternate trails were now covered and blended in perfectly with its surroundings. We continued on and Brian asked why we routed the trail away from the creek until he realized the new (really an old section of trail reclaimed) trail led right to the new bridge and it worked great. It was marvelous, we stopped and checked it out and then headed down the trail a little further and crossed the dam.

We did another creek crossing and a lot more singletrack before being spit out into a field and taking the trail up to the W&OD. After a nice spin back to the cars, it looks like we did about an 1:30 of riding. Not bad, a great ride in 60 degree weather, the perfect temperature for a night ride. The moon was out enough to give plenty of light and I had a couple of beers in the car nice and chilled for some PRB action - SNPA and Sam Adams Oktoberfest...mmm...

DT

posted by DT at 9:13:42 AM
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Trail Maintenance Pics  
Thanks to Lee for taking a bunch of pics during the trail maintenance at Colt's Neck. We had 10 people show up for a good days work.

DT

posted by DT at 9:09:43 AM
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Bridge Building 101  
Just finished our trail maintenance day at Colt's Neck. We didn't actually work within Lake Fairfax Park or its umanaged sections, but on a section of the Fairfax CCT. They have their own trail maintenance days, but they are usually reserved for things like building whole new sections of trail, so one bridge isn't likely to get built anytime soon. We decided to build the bridge because it needed to be built and it helps make up a nice loop that is part of Colt's Neck as a whole.

My week was really busy at work, but I managed to talk with a few people who gave great ideas and input into the bride building process. Colin and John from one of the bike listserves I'm on offered some invaluable assistance. With the plans in hand and money from MORE, I set out this morning to Gary's house and then over to the Home Depot. We picked out our wood and had them cut the pieces we needed cut. Then headed across the street to Dunkin Donuts for a dozen donuts and a box of Joe. With all that taken care of we headed to meet the crew at Lake Fairfax Park. Everyone was on time of course except for me...imagine that.

First things first, introductions and then get everyones name for the MORE list. Then we put assigned numbers and picked out of a cup for the $200 or so of swag that City Bikes gave for the event. There were jerseys, OnGuard U-Locks, floor pumps, travel pumps, water bottles, and a ton of other stuff. It's amazing how generous they were. All 10 people who showed up left with some kind of swag, which I'm pretty sure is unprecendented for a trail maintenance.

Then most of the crew drove over to the neighborhood street where we would be parking and carrying in the wood. A few of us stayed behind to cut a few more pieces of wood that we hadn't thought of earlier. Once the wood was cut we met up with everyone else and carried it to the location. The bridge building process was definitely a chore. We had a couple of people holding the wood in place while a couple more people nailed it together. Scud left to buy another piece of wood that we would use to anchor the bridge to the ground. Evidently when he popped out of the woods to go to his car there were a couple of Fairfax's finest ready to question him. Lucky for us it was him as he IS the president of MORE. Evidently someone had seen us hiking all the stuff in and called the cops. No big deal, we were scheduled to be there and everything was cool. They said no problem and left and Scud went and got the wood. When he got back we finished building the bridge and putting it into place.

While we were waiting a few people closed off alternate routes that had sprung up and then took care of the muddy spots on the trails people were supposed to be using. All in all completing several sections of trail and the overall improvement is easily noticed.

Once the bridge was anchored we nailed the planks down and filled in the surrounding dirt. Several families walking their kids/dogs walked by and commended us for a good job, makes it all worth it. Once the bridge was done we all headed back to the park and disbanded. A couple went to ride the trails and I hope to hear back a good report!

DT

posted by DT at 7:38:46 PM
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Rain  
I did the BikeDC on Saturday. Registration went as planned and was actually pretty slow. I think we had about 40 people or so helping out so things went quick. I sat on the preregistered side. Basically all I had to do was take people's confirmation letters, give them a number and a map, or have them fill out a form if they didn't bring their confirmation letter. I sat with Ricky and his wife Jo, so I had some good company.

After that I was going to meet up with Ricky and ride the whole ride as a roving mechanic, but first I had to change into my bike clothes and switch the pedals from my mountain bike onto the Pista. While doing this, Joel found me. He waited for me to finish getting ready then we swung by the City Bikes tent to put some air in my tires and grab some tubes and stuff. Then we headed back to where I was supposed to meet Ricky, but he had already left.

We started out doing the Family ride which was supposed to be 12 miles, 6 out and 6 back. Pretty cool because they close off roads that a bike would never ride on, think Clara Barton Parkway and the like. When we hit the end there were a lot of people at the food station. Joel introduced me to SuperDave and another guy he used to messenger with, but I can't remember his name. We grabbed some cookies and an apple with peanut butter and walked up the enbankment and tried to look at the canal. Water was barely visible through the trees, so we walked back down and hopped back on the bikes and rode back to the start. This relatively flat easy course gave us time to talk about a ton of things like his deck permit, kids, Boise, Idaho, and a ton of other stuff. At the end of the family ride we kept pedaling into the City ride.

The City ride was a lot tougher for me as it was 22 miles, I hadn't been on the bike in 3 weeks, and there were a lot more hills! It seemed like we did a ton of climbing. THis part of the ride was super nice though because I had Joel who has lived in DC for awhile to point out exactly what we were riding by at that moment. I think the ride would have been good, but much more boring without Joel giving the commentary.

About half way, we took a block detour and hit up Armands for a couple slices of pizza and it hit the spot. Only took a few minutes, then hopped back on the bikes and cranked out some more miles. At some point on a downhill I had to lay the bike down. About 20 feet from a stop sign the marshal gave me the stop sign so I figured a car was coming and put the bike into a slide. Problem was it had rained all morning and there was a lot of wind. So now we have a wet street with leaves and small twigs. I hit something and the rear went out. I managed to get my right foot out and slid for a few feet before laying the bike on its side and just sliding it out. No one was hurt and except for some loose bar tape, the bike was fine. As I get up and look around, I see no cars, except the ones that are STOPPED at the stop light...oh well. Back on the bike and ride more. Joel continues to tell me where we are, give me tidbits about what we are passing, and finally the lowdown on all the singletrack in the area (30 feet here, 1 mile there). Finally we hit another aid station where Robbie and Eric Welp were doing their mechanical duties under a tent. Turns out there was this psycho squirrel that kept running after people, pretty crazy.

More miles to go and finally we catch up to the big group of marshals, all riding together, ha. Got a piece of tape for my bar grips and kept on riding. Joel saw an old guy walking his bike with a flat rear tire and stopped to help him. Said "this guy rides BikeDC everyday", which is true. Who really needs that $3 tube more? Joel changed out the tube and aired it up, then grabbed some lube from a passing Scott Scudamore and lubed the chain. With everything in order the guy was on his way. We finished the ride a few minutes later, had some more pizza provided by Dominoes, got a Volunteer t-shirt, chatted it up for a bit with City Bikes manager Mike, then it was time to head home.

A good day of riding and it there was only torrential downpour in the morning before the ride. I'm sure there was a lot more, but I'll have to post as it comes to me.

DT

posted by DT at 7:03:29 PM
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BikeDC  
Tomorrow is BikeDC, being put on by WABA and one of the sponsors is City Bikes. As a part of their mountain bike race team I will be volunteering for the event. If your in the registration tent anytime from 5:30-9:00am, look for me and say hi.

After I'm done at registration I plan on packing a bag with tools, tubes, and other gear, and riding the 32 mile route as a roving mechanic to help out anyone having issues. As of right now it's supposed to pour down from Ivan, but hopefully we get spared a little and it hits later in the evening or skirts around DC.

DT

posted by DT at 1:58:35 PM
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Trail Maintenance  
MORE Colt's Neck Trail Maintenance

It's that time again, time to give back to the trails that give you so much. Coffee, donuts will be there, as well as MORE provided Clif Bars. Swag courtesy of City Bikes - including a lock that can't be defeated by a Bic pen!

Here's the details:

WHO: Anyone and everyone
WHEN: Sunday, September 19, 2004 @ 9:30am
WHERE: Meet in Lake Fairfax Park at the bathrooms next to the picnic pavilion.
WHAT: This work day will be a building day. We will be building a bridge to make a steep creek crossing eaiser to traverse.
CONTACT: DT - 703.899.7466 - dtnewsgroup@yahoo.com

Tools will be provided by MORE, but feel free to bring post diggers, hammers, nails, rakes, or your favorite tool. Coffee and donuts will be provided as well as Clif Bars. City Bikes is donating plenty of fun swag for volunteers. Rain or shine. Please contact me if you can volunteer wood or other materials.

Colt's Neck is known by many names, but is known to most as the trail that starts behind the reston ice rink, heads through Lake Fairfax Park, with the option of crossing Rt.7 to Difficult Run or heading over Colvin's Run and hooking up with the Fairfax CCT and looping out to the W&OD. This is a highly used trail and it would be great to have as many people as possible!

DT

posted by DT at 11:13:38 AM
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Bike Forums  
It looks like the Bike Forums thread won't come up, not sure why, but maybe too many people checking it out. Either way, I zipped up all the videos (5) and put them on the server here. It's a little over 5mb.

U Lock Video Files

DT

posted by DT at 3:38:36 PM
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Warning!  
If you haven't already seen this, check it out - Ulocks can be opened with a Bic pen -

There are plenty of videos for proof and I haven't heard anything back from Kryptonite yet. But basically you can jam a Bic pen into the round lock cylinder of your ulock, twist and shake, and the next thing you know your lock is open. Not good with BikeDC coming up this weekend! I'm volunteering to do registration this year from 5:30am-9:00am, gotta keep the bike close I guess.

DT

posted by DT at 9:07:48 AM
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Another Crazy Weekend  
Well it was another bachelor party weekend, this time we headed out Friday afternoon to Harpers Ferry, WV. Yahoo Maps proved to be wrong again and tried to take us down a gravel road onto private property, pretty shady. Friday night we headed into downtown Harpers Ferry, which much to my friends surprise was only two streets and most everything was closed. We tried to have dinner at the Amory, but we were told it was closed (nevermind the 30 Civil War reinactors chugging down their beer). We eventually ended up going to a sports bar in Charlestown, just a few miles down the road. I was driving so only had one drink, but the others got pretty lit, enough for karaoke. Back at the campground, the guys managed to put down something like 90 beers (however much beer was brought down for the weekend) and move onto the Elija Criag small batch bourbon.

With a few exceptions, everyone was up early on Saturday and a few of us went for breakfast at the Country Cafe. Then we gathered our stuff and headed to BRO, ate lunch and got our rafting on. A good time for all, not real hard or stressful. After rafting, more beer was purchased and then we went to dinner at the Anvil. Good food! Back to the cabins for some more fun.

Sunday we all headed home. It was great to see everyone and I wish we could have hung out a little longer, but everyone needed to get on the road, plane, or in my case, needed to pick up the dog from Dogma as Kristin was in Philly this weekend.

I did manage to ride my bike for about one minute while in Harpers Ferry, but it was a damage test. Just before our rafting trip we were throwing the football. Then we were kicking it, and since I used to kick in high school, why not. To say the least I haven't kicked a football in a few years...the ball probably only went 30 yards and I felt a mean ripple go through my quad. Initially I thought I just pulled it, but it looks like I may have torn some muscle fibers. When I got on the bike there was definite pain at the highest point in my rotation, but then again I can barely bring my heel up towards my butt. It's healing fast as I can walk today without a limp, but it's still painful and this could mean more time off the bike, which sucks...

DT

posted by DT at 8:54:24 AM
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Links  
Been meaning to update my links, it's amazing how many more you need to keep when you have a website. Posting them here just makes it easier for me to remember to put them over on the side later, hopefully with a new format or something, time permitting...

Disco Cowboy: Stoner's new site. Well maybe not new, but he just started putting stuff on it. Check it out for a little bit of everything - biking, partying, photography, and everything iMac.

Joe Foley: This is Joe Foley's blog, started mostly as a way to do live updates while he raced the SM100 - 100 miles of mountain bike racing down in Harrisonburg, VA, home of JMU.

1x8 of Hate: This is Chance's blog. Man rides more than your mother and isn't afraid to try new things. Also check out some of his music reviews, good stuff.

Fearless Gearless: Wonder Weazel keeping the fixie movement alive in Vancouver. Always traveling and putting in the big miles, great ride reports.

Crashmore: Jason Ashmore's website, very well done. Got a little of everything. Should be a total inspiration to all the fattys out there - he's lost about 100lbs. from eating better and riding his bike - and he eats a ton of carbs ass!

DC Street: This is for all you urban freaks. Don't miss the Thurban rides - Thursday Urban - and maybe you can catch Cory flip off a tree...

Now for the non-local sites that everyone probably already knows, but I want them for quick access.

Singlespeed Outlaw: Our good friend SSO ripping up the web almost as good as he does his Surly 1x1. While it's really local - he's got more of the international flavor, ha.

Cars-R-Coffins: Hurl and crew telling how it is - keep up the good job guys.

Off Camber: Home of the Intergalactic Single Speed NIMBY Federation - must I say anymore?

That should keep you busy for awhile. No posts this weekend as I'm leaving for Harpers Ferry, WV in a few hours and won't be back until Sunday. The non-riding streak continues...

DT

posted by DT at 9:58:30 AM
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Life Changes  
Well my plan to ride last Thursday was a bust. As it turns out, when I walked into the office Thursday morning I would be needed at a project in Annapolis Junction. I left as soon as I got in touch with the appropriate people and got home pretty late. As it turns out this is my new ongoing project and I'll probably be working up here from now on. So I basically went from riding my bike to work everyday and actually having to ride away from work to get a longer commute in, to having a morning car ride on 495W and 95N to end up 40 miles from my house...twice a day. The only good thing about working way up here is I might finally get a chance to ride Avalon and Patapsco, since they are in the Columbia, MD area. Hopefully SSO can give me the hook up. Problem is right now, when I leave work I have to head straight home to let the dog out, which kind of puts the kabash on riding up here until I figure out a solution. Before this week I would just ride home for lunch, let the dog out and feed him, not so much anymore.

The party this past weekend went really well. Nothing got broken, people had fun, beer was almost finished, the ice luge was a hit as usual (although someone did walk away with an almost full bottle of Absolut), burgers and dogs were scarfed up, the printer pinata was smashed, and I only lost one rear fixie wheel in the derby. Got to catch up with a ton of people I hadn't seen throughout the year. Life has been busy and it was good to slow it down a little and hang with friends. Pics of the party to come.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent with Kristin's friends who flew into town for the weekend and left on Monday/Tuesday night. Six women at full force + one bathroom = trouble for DT. On Monday morning I went with a friend over to the new skate park in Arlington. He used to be a big skater before getting hurt. Now he is back on the boards, but had a 4 month hietus due to another injury. He gave me a pair of skate shoes to use and had me switch some trucks/wheels off a broken board and onto another board he also gave me to use. We walked over to the park and started to tool around. Helmets were required and I didn't have one so we had to switch off. It's been atleast 10 years since I skateboarded, probably closer to 12. It took a long time just to be able to get my balance back and feel comfortable just gliding around. Eventually I moved on to riding some of the smaller hills that go around the giant pool. Then I moved over to the slanted grade into the concrete park area that is more trapezoidal than anything. Took me a couple of times to get used to the speed and keeping my balance once I'm off the hill. Finally I was ready to try my luck at the bowl - a giant pool with some nice coping and several deep wells. I was totally nervous and botched the drop in. I had the drop good, but just lost it rolling out into the flats. No big deal, just picked up the board and got out of the way so the next person could drop in. Didn't get a chance to drop in again, but I'll be back, need to practice the drop in more. Good times. Link for a CAD drawing of the park and link for an actual construction picture of what I was dropping into at the bottom of the page.

DT

posted by DT at 11:11:20 AM
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Last Week / This Week  
So this week is the opposite of last week. Last week I rode 5 days out of the week and the weather was great, only a little high on the humidity charts. I wish I could have more weeks like that. This week I was ready to head out for the Monday night MORE ride, but with the humidity rising and the rain that started to fall just as I was leaving work, I decided to pass on the ride. I would have gone if it wasn't raining, but excuses excuses. Yesterday was the perfect weather for riding, but the party pretty much has me booked all this week. Last night it was putting the patio furniture together my Dad brought over to the house along with some plastic chairs. Tonight will be to finish going through the last two boxes in the house so the computer/craft room will finally be clean and open, which means no riding tonight. Kristin and I also need to hit the ABC store to pick up some more liquor. Tomorrow night I'm hitting the trails though. Gonna show up for the intermediate level MORE Thursday night ride at Wakefield (well as long as I finish up things tonight).

The good thing is that the major stuff for the party is done. Got the kegs reserved (Widmer Hefeweizen and Dominion Lager) from Vienna Inn and the ice luge is reserved from Metro Ice. Gary has the printer in the back of his truck, Kristin got a ton of flair and a box of leis from the party store, plus a ton of background stuff going on. A lot of work has been done, but there's more to do. It will all get done by Saturday afternoon though and then it's time to cut loose.

So yea, not a lot of riding this week (sometimes it's just like that), but looking to break out tomorrow night and bike off some steam.

DT

posted by DT at 10:13:50 AM
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