Tropical storm Nuri wrecked our riding

When I looked at the weather forecast and saw how strong Tropical Storm Nuri was going to be I knew we were in for trouble.

Big ass low pressure

The storm was a big one and since the tail end of it hit on Saturday it has been warm and melting all the snow we had and I do mean all the snow. Temperatures have been in the 40's (F) and not really decreasing overnight.
The worst part is that the storm was so big it affected the Jet streams so we are not only stuck with the tropical temperatures they will be hanging around for about two weeks.  Its really annoying seeing people getting nice cold snowy weather and we get the miserable stuff.
Here is a temperature plot which they are predicting for the next two weeks :(

Some purple in Alaska would be nice.

Given any sort of snow riding is now not happening anytime soon and the local in town trails are a mixture of ice and mud Kevin and I did something drastic for Epic Ride Wednesday (ERW) we hit the roads on road bikes, well I was on a road bike Kevin is riding his drop bar bike its almost but not quite  a cross bike.

We met at our normal starting point, Carrs on Huffman and I bought us a couple of donuts, I was running a little late (sorry Kevin) as I couldn't find my gloves.  Riding in temperatures around 35 to 40 is not something we are used to doing , especially on the road.  Its pretty cold on the road and both of us are still working on getting the right layering systems to stay warm.

Road biking in November!

We headed out and cruised bike paths over to Jewel lake where we met up with Jimmy, today he wasn't able to ride with us but maybe next time.  After chatting with him for a while we hit the bike paths again and rode out to Kincaid, this is where we found our first noticeable patches of ice.  We chose to ride the road through Kincaid park which was mostly ice free.

At the chalet we stopped for a picture. 

Snow free Kincaid park

Then we headed off down the trail, there were no real ice patches until we were out by Point Woronzof.  We stopped along the way to reminisce about the World Single Speed Championship which was held in Anchorage in July and check out the trail conditions, other trails we had seen on the way in looked icy and muddy however this section of middle earth looked good.

SSWC 2014

This part of middle Earth looked dry the rest not so much

Passing point Woronzof we stopped again so I could get a photo.

Denali is somewhere in the cloud, probably snow there!

Obviously we stopped at this.

Uranus!

We cruised on towards Westchester Lagoon, stopping to get a couple more photos.

Bubbles under the ice

Bald Eagle 

Next stop was Westchester Lagoon, normally at this time of year people would be expecting to be able to start skating this lagoon, right now its just the ducks who are skating. 

skating ducks at West Chester Lagoon

From Westchester we headed along the chester creek trail to the university area, this is where the trails started to deteriorate.

starting to get icy

It was about now I wished I had studded tyres on my bike or if I was Kevin wished I had not taken the studs out. 

not fun on a road bike

Luckily the trail conditions improved once past Lake Otis Parkway and we were able to knock of the remaining miles fairly quickly.

Ice on Campbell Creek

We finished the ride close to where we started at Paramount Cycles.  In total we rode around 40 miles with a moving time of around 3 hours, clearly not setting the world alight with that time but at least we got out on bikes and both saw things we had not seen before.

Route

With the way the weather pattern is set it looks like next week we will be road riding too.... :(

Take care all and stay safe.

Nick

Getting Amanda's bike prepared for winter

This year Amanda's bike is having a few make overs to enhance her fun whilst out riding.
I am doing three things.
1. Hydraulic Brakes, mainly as they have a carbon fibre lever so feel warmer. (Avid X0 Brakes)
2. Studding the tyres to ensure we can ride even if it is a little icy
3. Converting the bike to a 1x10 drive train with a range extender, this is happening so we can speed Amanda up a little on the climbs, as a bonus it will save a little weight.

This is the process for studding the tyre.
 - Buy studs, this is the most difficult part as they seem to go out of stock really quickly.  This year I was able to purchase 10 packs of 100 studs which will be good for 4 tyres.

One of Ten packets of studs

- Put a good movie on (and/or drink a nice beer, I was doing this before work so no beer for me).  Studding one tyre takes about 1.5 hours including removing all the debris, the movie helps relieve the boredom (I watched Batman Begins and the Dark Knight).
 - Using a small flat head screwdriver remove all debris from the stud pockets.

Debris from one tyre

 - Using the handy tool, insert stud into pocket, this tool can also be used to remove studs from the tyre.

Inserting stud into pocket

Half way there on this tyre

Once I had studded both tyres I started to install the range extender and given this is Amanda's bike a little bit of extra purple.

The range extender allows a 1x10 drivetrain to replicate the range of a 1x11 drivetrain.  This should leave Amanda and I on about equal gearing but only time will tell on that matter.

11-40t out back and 30t up front.

That is all from me for now. 

Until next time enjoy yourselves.
Nick

Wednesdays are becoming epic ride days....

Another Wednesday another epic ride!  I could get used to this :)

Owing to a great schedule at work and the fact that my riding buddy has his weekend on a Wednesday and Thursday I have been able to get some fantastic fat riding in on empty trails when most people are having to work.

Today was no exception.  I met Kevin at Carrs on Huffman at 07:30 just as regular work people are heading in to work and we started our drive down to the Kenai Peninsula with the intention to ride Resurrection Pass from Hope, at the turn off our plans changed a little due to looking at the weather. We guessed that riding from the other side (Cooper Landing) would make more sense as the weather was looking much better that way, we were not disappointed and once again managed to get super lucky with our trip.
This should show a nice image of where we rode, though possibly not if you have an apple device then you will need to click here


Here are some photos.

Riding up the first part of the the trail from Cooper Landing

Why not wheelie?

We saw a great waterfall which was partially frozen.

Waterfall

Waterfall with me

The forestry service completing some controlled burns, they were just about out on our way back down the trail.

Control burn

Riding Juneau lake, following in the tracks of some other riders who had tested the ice thickness we hope :)

Lake riding

When we were on the trail here, the weather was not looking favourable for us reaching the summit.

We didn't think we would make the top at this point

By the time we had reached the Devil's Pass cut off we had blue skies again.

Devils Pass cut off

Approximately 5 hours into our ride and we reached the summit of Resurrection Pass at 2800ft.

Resurrection Pass Summit 2800ft

Riding home we were chasing the sun all the way, it's amazing the difference just two tyre tracks made to rideability, most of the way back we rode, on the way up we spent a good proportion walking this section.

Racing the sun home

Taking in the view, enjoying a beer and listening to the lake, it was making some amazing sounds.

Admiring the view on a frozen lake

Bike Porn

Although we didn't beat the sun to the trail head it did mean we got to ride a fun descent in the dark, well I say dark both of us run a pretty bright light.

Good lights

Thanks once again to my amazing wife for letting me go ride.  She also cooked an amazing dinner for us when we returned home.  Until next time take care all.

Nick

There and back a biking tale

"You ever notice Kevin's rides on the Kenai NEVER involve a shuttle???" - Brant Grifka, 2014

My day started with meeting Kevin at Carrs on Huffman, donuts in hand we set of for the trail head where we would be meeting up with Roger to make a party of three.

On the way down to the peninsula we noticed that a Boretide was in progress, Kevin and I decided a hasty stop was in order since neither of us has seen one close up( I think that is what you said Kevin).

Snowy mountains and a bore tide 

Bore tide passing us

On reaching the trailhead where Roger was already waiting for us, we geared up and set off up the trail.

Johnson pass from the north side is a fairly undulating trail for the first five miles, then the climb gets a little steeper to the lakes at the summit which is approximately ten miles into the trail. Once at the summit the trail drops fairly steadily for the next three miles, followed by another short climb, then more descending down to Upper Trail lake. We turned around at mile twenty one to head back, even though the trail extends another 1.5 ish miles to the Seward highway. 

Kevin had already ridden the trail to Johnson lake just past the summit on the previous Sunday and had mentioned that the trail conditions were pretty awesome.  He was not wrong.
As can be seen in these photos, even my camera can't keep up with the speed my companions were climbing.

Kevin enjoying the climb

Roger enjoying the climb, not as much as Kevin

perfect trail conditions

Due to the sheltered north facing slopes not getting a lot of sun at this time of the year the hoar frost was spectacular.

Hoar frost

Big mountains surrounding us

After around two hours of riding we arrived at this...

Bench Lake

 And then continued on to Johnson Lake just past the summit of the pass.

Looking back down the trail at Johnson Lake

After passing Johnson lake we were breaking trail and the conditions were a little soft in places.  Luckily fatbikes work pretty well and we were at least able to ride most of the trail.  We continued our descent with the snow becoming more infrequent as we got lower down the pass.

Fun descending from here

We continued moving for another couple of hours until we reached Upper Trail Lake which was our turn around point, food was eaten, beer drank and we took a moment to take in the view.

Upper Trail Lake

We started heading back up the pass, by this point I think it is fair to say that Roger and I were pretty tired, Kevin seemed to be sucking all of our energy from us as he bounded up the trail, I think his definition of a mellow climb needs to be revisited!

After about 2hours and 40 min of climbing we were treated to a spectacular golden hour at the top of the pass.

Johnson Lake on way home

We checked lights put on jackets and started our descent back to the trail head.  I stopped at the pass summit sign for a photo since we had missed out on the way up.

Johnson Summit Sign

I then proceeded to try and catch the less tired riders in front of me.

Chilling out and waiting for me

Trail by river

After this photo was taken It became a little to dark for photography and besides which we all wanted back to trail head.  We arrived back a little over ten hours after we had left.  Tired but happy with the day's riding.   Thanks again guys for an AWESOME ride.

Garmin plot of where we went

"........we shuttled to the trailhead........" -Kevin Murphy, 2014

Daddy bought a new bike and this one is carbon.......

It's been a while since I have posted anything here, this is the brief update of what has been happening in the Blades household.  I managed to fluke a 1st place over all in the MTB series single speed category, I also managed a 2nd place overall for the road hill climb series intermediate category.
Amanda has a new bike

New bike for Amanda

We have been re arranging the garage.

Garage improvements

 Fiona has turned four already and is growing up faster than I can believe.

my not so little girl anymore :)

Most importantly I have to say thankyou to my amazing wife for staying with me for four years.... I really am pretty obsessed with bikes and she puts up with an awful lot of my riding and talking about bikes all the time, Love you Amanda.

10-10-10 first dance

We are now well into October I can safely say Summer and Autumn have passed at this latitude. Well Autumn may make a come back but its looking unlikely as we have received our first snowfall.  The official measurement was 1.5 inches however that is over by the airport, where we live it was between 3-4 inches and on the hills between 6-8 inches which was a lot of fun.  Hopefully the snow will stick on the hills. Though as I still haven't gotten around to fitting studded tyres to the car, snow melting from the roads is not really an issue for me.

Back to the title of this post, yes I bought another bike.  Although my old fat bike has found a new home and hopefully the second wheelset I built will too.

Why a new bike?
A couple of reasons, the main ones were as follows;
It was getting pretty embarrassing parking the competitions bike outside of work, especially as the competition is across the road from where I work,
I really wanted a lighter bike that could take bigger tyres (Old bike could pretty much only take a 4" tyre).

What did I get?
I bought a Borealis Yampa X01 build  but added carbon cranks to the stock package and bought some carbon rims direct from china.  I also purchased some custom orange items to brighten up the bike.... thanks to Becker gear for the great frame bag

Bike Build in progress

Carbon rims

Frame bag

What does it weigh?
My bike weighs under 25# with Specialized Ground Control tyres (4.6"), If I put on the Dillingers I have from last year I think I should be sub 24# which is 6# lighter than my 9:Zero:7 from last season.

What am I planning to ride this season?
My goals are to build mileage and get comfortable riding longer distances and overnights in winter conditions.

And that is pretty much it well apart from some nice photos of the bike out in the snow right :)
More posts when I get around to it.

Fresh snow

Blue sky day riding with Kevin