Another week older...

Okay, so another week passes us by. What do you have to show for it?

Me?
Well, I have a few birthday presents some cash and promise of additional presents (in form of shopping with mom for some new bike gear). I have a bike that is currently in a minor state of dysfunction. I am trying to setup a 3 ring crankset that uses 22-32-38 gearing. The 38t is non-ramped dh purpose ring, but should do the trick. It is however going to take a bit of time and tinkering with the front derailleur to adjust it right. I might have the squeeling disc brakes tamed, but I am going to reserve patting myself on the back for a few more rides.

In addition to the 38t ring(that may turn out to be more of a hindrance than a gift) I also treated myself to a new front hub and a pair of mavic 823 rims (Universal has them on sale for less than wholesale). First time I have built up a Mavic UST rim. Kind of weird. It takes about twice as long to lace up a wheel since you first need to loctite all off the eyelets into the rim. Once the eyelets and nipples are in place it is kind of awkward lacing the spokes up (much faster when you can use a nipple driver from the backside(wow, sounds kind of dirty when I put it together like that)). The whole process despite being a bit more labor intensive went smoothly and I now have a new UST front wheel (Mavic EX823, Hadley 20mm hub, DT Champion spokes, brass nipples) at 1147g of sturdy trail riding beef. My first ride on the new tire/wheel was met by picking up 2 thumb tacs that some asshat had dumped on the road side. I laughed as I pulled out the tacs, spun my wheel, and watched the Stan's seal the holes in less than a second. This would have cost me about 10 minutes with a tubed setup. Gotta love tubeless.

Austin 5 on Wednesday, so he is officially a big boy. The house is still strewn with wrapping paper and streamers. I spent about an hour assembling his tricked out 16in bike. Not many kids are lucky enough to have bicycle obsessed parents. Austin is lucky and spoiled enough to get the Fuse 16 pit bike. Strong enough for me to ride, this is one kids bike that will be around for a while. Saturday is our Chucky Cheese party. That should be fun, several kids from his preschool and lots of games. Austin's birthday really had Erin and I feeling like that 5 years went by so fast. Hopefully we can catch our breath and enjoy the next 5 a bit more.

In news from abroad Chris and Flindie have a new baby boy. Logan Oliver Green was born on February 19th. Congratulations to the three of them!

Boggs 8hr Relay

BikeMonkey Site
March 31, 2007
Bogg's State Demo Forrest

8hr relay races are always a lot of fun. Bogg's is also a fantastic course. Not to be confused with the bumpy hillside of the Lake Sonoma Billy Cross course. The Bogg's course covers varied terrain, features great winding singletrack, downhill sections, and tackier dirt.

2005 051505 Boggs MTN

Napa Valley Dirt Classic

Not sure if I really want to punish myself again this year, but I am leaning towards yes. Call me sick, but climbing for over an hour up stupid steep hills sounds like some sort of fun. At the least I can feel like I did something with the day.

NVDC Site
April 22, 2007
Angwin California

2006 Napa Dirt Classic

CHDH 2007 Series by Ride SFO

(Race 1) April 20-22, 2007
(Race 2) June 9-10, 2007
(Race 3) Sep 8-9, 2007

Check the site for Details:
CHDH Racing

Sounds fun. Camping is probably the way to go here. I raced this a few years back and drove out for practice Saturday and returned to race Sunday. IMO it is worth the extra bit of planning to spend the night out there and save all the driving. Maybe we can schedule to ride one of these and borrow a couple of dirt bikes to check out Carnegie OHV Park

CCCX DH 2007 @ Toro Park

CCCX DH 2007 Series is off and running.

CCCX Site for details

2/17/07
3/11/07
4/1/07
5/20/07
6/24/07
7/1/07

Not sure what races I am interested in running yet. I kind of had a good fill of Toro Park in the 2006 series, but I may change my mind and hit a couple of the races in the Sport class.

SS Countyline Race

Okay, any of you feeling manly? Yeah, me either. But I will post this up anyways.

blogger

Details:
when: Saturday February 17th starts at about 12:00pm
where: From Waddell Creek to the Pajaro River
Ride: Whatever you want as long as it is only setup for one gear. This is a fairly brutal trek from the San Mateo county line to the end of Santa Cruz County at the Pajaro River. Roughly 43mi. Beer will be handed out by good citizens at rest stops. First 10-12mi are on road back to Davenport. Last 10-13mi are on the beach from La Selva. Everything in between is railroad tracks and back alleys. Good fun and a test of endurance rolled into one. Tires should be big to absorb railroad ties, roll well to go the distance, oh and they should be inpenetrable to thorns/glass.

2007.02.12

Downieville classic update
I got a letter in the mail from Yvonne confirming that she has updated our reservation to the race weekend. According to the site the race will be in the format of XC race Saturday and DH on Sunday. Not sure on the reason for swapping back to this order, but the odds of me doing both races just went down significantly.

FWIW Camp Yuba has a new web site.

So it looks like we are in on the 12th, out on the 15th, and that we can reserve additional nights if we want. I am thinking I might like to bank a couple of additional days and do some exploring or trails like Rattle Snake and Chimney Rock on Monday and Tuesday. Let me know if any of you are interested in staying and doing a day or 2 of casual riding after the race.

Well, let's just see how this blog thing works out...

Welcome to my blog. I will try to put something up on it that is entertaining as well as informational. As the blog title indicates this blog will be predominantly about bicycles. It may be me ranting about new parts, complaining about old ones, or describing my rides. Either way, if you are here you can suffer through it. Hope you enjoy!

Doug