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

Sometimes whilst riding you just get lucky

Recently I have been fortunate enough to find time to fit some longer rides into my schedule mainly due to Amanda taking care of Fiona.  My first big ride was the Anchorage Palmer Anchorage ride (See here)

Then we had family in town, we did a lot of sight seeing however we were able to get out and ride some of the local trails to a lunch stop, Fiona completed 15miles on the trail a bike, her longest ride to date and our guests got to experience some of the local trails, although we didn't see any big wildlife whilst riding we did have a nice lunch and the riding was good.

The following weekend I got the chance to ride with the Alaska Randonneurs again.  The ride this time took us down to Seward, this particular ride starts early, 4am I guess the thinking is lower traffic, less wind and the chance to take the train on the return if you are only riding the 200km route.
For the first 7miles the route was very windy, so windy that some of the riders decided it was more sensible to turn around and abandon the ride, the next 83miles we were mostly riding in the rain with only occasional periods of wind.  The last 40ish miles were completed in the sunshine albeit with a fairly strong head wind, on these long rides I'm still working on my nutrition, though I am getting better.  I completed the ride in less than 10hours again (mostly due to Brant letting me draft him for the last 20+miles).  Once in Seward I  got to hang out in Subway (where the ride finished) with some experienced long distance riders before my train ride home, all in all a great day out on the bike!

Photo bombing Brant in the rain at the first checkpoint

Fresh snow on the hills, top of Turnagain pass

Swollen rivers and great mud guards

And then the sun came out

Tuesday 3rd of June was first round of the XC series at Kincaid, it was fun to be back racing on dirt. The event had over 150 participants, which is their biggest turn out ever.  This year I have decided to ride in the single speed category, due to being busy I ended up racing my bike with the fat wheels rather than the 29+ setup I intended to ride originally (29+ wheels are lighter).  My race was going pretty well and I managed to pass a number of people, when I finished the race I thought I'd possibly got a top 3 place, it seems luck was on my side though.  The last person I passed on the penultimate section of Singletrack (who had dropped his chain),  ensured I got a 1st place in single speed category, this is the first time I have ever won a race, I think a number of people were surprised to see a singlespeed fat bike with pink tyres passing them, next time I will ride 29+ as i'm sure this will not shock as many people when/if I pass them....... Probably!

The bike rolls well but has the aerodynamic properties of a brick

Kicking up dust

Finishing

The 4th June was Anchorage bike to work day,  on this day there is a significant increase in the number of people who bike to work, the weather was fantastic for this years event which saw a real swell in numbers (From BCA facebook page "Bike to Work Day counts are in. We saw an increase of about 20% from 2012 (the last Bike to Work Day that was sunny - last year was a wet, snowy day that lead to lower numbers).").  

I took a 26mile ride with a couple of colleagues to visit some of the bike to work stations before heading to work, we had, sticky buns thanks to the Trek store,  bacon donuts with the police,   Blueberry muffins at the blueberry station and bacon at the BCA(Bike Commuters Anchorage) station.

Quiet part of the coastal trail.

Morning commute with friends

That is all from me for the time being, hope everyone is well and take care until next time.
Nick