A frozen river and lots of wind

Last week I managed to get to two ASS (Abominable Snow Series) races.

The first event (ASS #4) was on Wednesday night  (Yes another night race Pam) at the local trails to my house, some might say this would give me a local advantage though I have definitely not been riding there enough for that to have an affect yet. Fiona and I picked Amanda up from work and then dashed to the races, we were running a little late as Fiona need to pee at Amanda's work, why is it little ones always need to pee when you are in a rush.

We got to the race and I got ready as quickly as possible before rushing to sign on.  The race was a one lap ride for me and I did really well, I managed to finish 5th in my class or possibly 6th depending on if they got the timing right. results are here The course was fun and took in the multi use and single track trails at Hillside area.  Since it had been snowing that day there was about 3-5inches of fresh snow on parts of the course which lead to some very interesting racing.  I am pretty sure I had too much air in my tyres as people were riding and I was pushing, once again I am still learning a lot about riding on snow.

As it was a race I didn't stop to get any photos but Amanda did get this snap of me getting ready.

Getting ready

The next race I got to go to was ASS #5.  This was being held at the Friends of Eagle River Nature Center which is in the Chugach State Park.  Biking is not allowed in the State park and for this race the organisers had to apply for special permission to ride.  The course was a 10mile loop however 2/3 of the race was on the frozen Eagle River.  As if riding on ice was not hard enough nature was playing its part with some really strong winds, how strong, a couple of points I had to walk/run as the wind had blown me off my bike.  It was also balmy warm 42F or 5.5C which meant that the snow was soft and the river was not quite fully frozen :-0

Riding a frozen river

The race was really good fun and I learnt a few more things about snow riding, mainly don't have a frame bag on when it is that windy as it turns your bike into a sail.  Thanks again to Amanda and Fiona for being my personal cheering squad.  Nothing makes you pedal harder than having people you know cheering for you, well maybe being chased by Zombies but I've not encountered that yet.  Here are the results  Finished a lowly 19th but at least I can say I was there, I even managed to do two laps and I know some riders dropped out after one. 

Here is a great shot Amanda took of me as I finished the race, I was completely shattered at this point.

A very tired Nick

Garmin files of the two races

Bike trailer modification

Amanda and I want to bike and run together, this means Fiona needs to come along too.  Since I refuse to carry her when running and her little legs will take her only so far it means we end up using our trailer for this.  Although the trailer is good, snow is not it's forte.  This meant that we needed to get some skis for the trailer. Although Chariot do make a good set of ski's and frame for pulling the trailer whilst skiing this was not really what we were currently looking for as we are not skiing at the moment and we have just paid for some new fatbikes, (see here) it also costs $275! which is not really in our budget at the moment.

After searching the internet I found a solution, this is my version of the idea I found here.  

Skis

I found an old pair of skis on Craigslist, after removing the binding's this is what I was left with.  Initially I was planning on using the pre existing bolts but in the end this turned out to be a royal PITA so I ended up drilling through the ski's and bolting straight through with a bolt.

skis attached to wheels

Ok maybe not one bolt, 6 bolts per ski.  Wheel trays are Thule trays and straps are some I had available I may have to change the straps not to sure yet.

attached to the bike

All looks good from the garage setup, will try it out this weekend with Amanda hopefully.

running setup

If Fiona agree's we will go and test this out tomorrow, forecast is for 2-3" overnight so we shall see. 

Cat play area

The condo we are currently renting would be described by an estate agent as cosy, this has lead us to try and make the most of all the available space we have.  One of the dead spaces is the area above the kitchen.
Amanda came up with an idea for letting the cats use the area as we have no way of getting up there and anything we do put up there will just need dusting all the time anyway.

Since we know cats like to climb we utilised the height of their cat tree and a couple of shelves to allow access to the dead space.

The cats love it, and seem to take great pleasure in looking down on the rest of the family.  Overall this project was a huge success.

Here is the finished result.

Exploring the new area

Susan enjoying freedom 

Nick went to the races....

If you have read this blog before you may know I occasionally do a bit of cycling amongst other things.  Amanda and I were lucky enough to get new bikes last weekend which we ordered before Christmas.  The bikes are fat tyre bikes (previous post about them).  These bikes are great fun to ride, from what I have read on all sorts of trails however at the moment the trails here are snowy which is where these bike excel.

The shop we bought the bikes from run a series of races throughout the winter (Abominable Snow Series)  on the local trails weather permitting (if it is below -4F the race may be cancelled or if it is to warm/trails ruined due to the weather).  When I saw the third round of the series was coming up I convinced Amanda that I really "needed" to race it.  It turned out that this round was a time trial just me against the clock, man and machine, the race of truth.... ok enough of that it was like any other race, set off and go as fast as you can and try not to blow up in the first half of the course, tricky when you don't know the course and are riding at night.  If any of you have never done any night riding it is a blast and can transform local trails in a good way.  On the other hand if you don't know the trails, sharp corners and steep rises really catch up with you.

The race started at 6pm ish, I turned up at around 17:45 and signed on.  After a short briefing I realised that I would probably not be starting for another 30min so headed back to the car to keep warm (it was 0F or -17C or rather nippy)

I was watching the starters (from the car) and got really lucky with my timing, I took a chance and got ready to ride and headed over to the start and almost immediately my name was called to start.  Then I was off and into the dark dark dark woods, I caught the guy ahead of me then another guy, great I though at which point I was promptly passed by the mechanic who put my bike together :-(  I was however having a great time.  Continuing on I was passed by another guy then I was pretty much on my own for the rest of the course, I passed one more rider and that was all I saw on my way to the finish apart from some other lights of riders as we looped through the forest.

The trails we were riding are really well maintained with bermed corners, dips and jumps if you are going fast enough, (I was not)  and I am really looking forward to riding them again especially in the summer when hopefully it will be a little bit lighter.

Here is my Garmin track of the race.  I finished and had a really good time, there is no way on earth I will be anywhere close to a podium in this series......this year but in the future who knows.

Getting things organised

One of the problems with renting is that places never feel like your own.  So far our new place feels much more like home than any of the previous places we have rented, perhaps it is all in the mind but previously we feel like we have been living on rather than in our flats/houses.

Our personal items should be arriving on Monday the (28th January) which I am sure will make things feel even more like home.  Other things that really helped is that we now have little things like a garage with tool board :)

yey tool storage

I also took some time to make some stands for the new bikes we have bought (see here for info on the new bikes).  The design I used was this one https://nuxx.net/blog/2011/11/28/low-cost-fat-bike-stand/ and I think they turned out really well.

Daddy's little "helper"

Almost done

Completed

The next projects will be the ski project for Fiona's trailer and some shelves to make life more interesting for the cats.  We are planning to use the dead space above the kitchen to allow them some height and hopefully fitting the cat's with dusters will enable us to not have to dust up there, access from cat tree to above fridge in the picture below....

Shelves on this wall

Amanda and I also had our trainers studded so we can go running in the snow, well more if we hit ice we don't end up on the floor nursing broken bones.  We have both still to test them out but maybe tonight or tomorrow morning will be the time, I will do a follow up report once we have tested them.

That is all from me, until next time take care all.
Nick