Moots!

MootoX 29'er

YBB...I think Tilford has sported one of these before.

Compact. Very racy, and nice looking with those deep dish wheels, don't you agree?

We were pretty happy today when we talked to the fine people at Moots cycles and worked out a plan to become a dealer. Lots of companies make titanium bikes, but this one has a place in my heart because during all the years I've been a mountian biker, they've remained true to form: fine, fine bikes, without the hype.

These days, they are still fairly hype-free, and they offer a bike for every type of riding, including custom versions of most everything as well. And, they still offer stems and seatposts, too.

Cheap, they are not. But if you have to have something that everyone else certainly doesn't have, Moots makes a fine machine.

Zipp cranks

These came to the store yesterday. I'm a crank fan. I like cool cranks. I'm always looking out for the newest cool crank, or checking out other people's bikes to see what they have.

My all time faves are:
8 speed Dura-Ace. Such beautiful sculpting, low-profile at it's best
First generation XTR. Again, beautiful sculpting.
CODA Tarantula cranks. I know, they rarely lasted, but mine did and I loved them in black 2x9.
Race Face Turbine, square taper or ISIS. I still have a pair of each.

These Zipp's are pretty close to making the list. Cost be damned, they are super light, low profile, have gorgeous chainrings, and come with an ultra-smooth Zipp ISIS bb. There aren't many cranks lighter. (egads, my weight weenie side is showing again!!)

what's the windchill?

after again showing my middle finger to my trainer, i took my show outside. yes, i rode this morning. not very long.

i put on the warmest stuff i had, and grabbed the homegrown for a ride. the Sharp outside temp gauge said 19 degrees. with 20mph winds, that's a decently ugly windchill. a windchill my face felt, a LOT. i could only bear it for 45 minutes. i wanted to ride longer, as my legs and body were not cold. but, my fingers were starting to get numb, my toes were cold, and the stinging in my cheeks told me to get home.

i'm off-roading thursday morning, and i may take the chubb challenge.

Post Your Rides!

group or individual, if you want company, post it

HERE

also, tell us about rides you've done, your favorite rides, rides you want to do, challenges you'd like others to take up, etc.

thanks! i'm just hoping to give people more ideas on where to go and what to do with their pedaling time.

poops at grandma's

my father-in-law sent us some pics of the little guy. here he is inspecting a rather small christmas tree with some glee.

here, grandpa catches poops under the table ripping paper, a favorite pass time he has. ain't he just the cutest thing?

the big 7

this is a pic of my gorgeous little girl at birthday party at her house. she turns 7 tomorrow. seems like just yesterday she was having her 3rd birthday party at the magic house. how time flies when you're having fun. happy birthday, banana!

Blurry Challenger

The Dodge Challenger concept is about as close to a production car as you can get from a concept. My guess is in less than 18 months, you'll be able to get yourself one of these. Actually, I don't think I could pull the trigger on any Mustang knowing one of these was down at the Dodge store.

Sorry about the blurry pics, all of my AutoShow pics came out like this. Probably just the camera man's fault...

the auto show

We asked poops to help us check out the Ford Freestyle at the AutoShow. He was giddy with excitement.

Oooooh, Mom, check out these leather seats! Comfy, too!

Oh, yes, lot's of foot room down here. Great carpet, too!

Ok, Dad, let's take 'er home! Who's ridin' shotgun??

Not many days like this

in january. i'm sure it will change by nightfall, though.

Lincoln

i have a soft spot for lincolns. like this early capri.

and definately this mark II.

another mark II.

it's hard not to like a continental with suicide doors.

it's easy to love a continental convertible.

the continental coupe is beautiful.

i love the mark III's.

another mark III.

hind view of a mark III. is there really a tire in that hump on the rump? i don't know, but i should. 460 v8, solid as rock.

'american style' is pretty elusive in today's automobiles. you can find it if you try. you didn't have to try with early lincoln's.

not a great ride

this morning, at least for me. 12 or 13 people showed. it was windy and quite cold, but tolerable in the group.

i don't like to just sit in, ever, so shawn o'neal and i pretty much rode at the front and pushed a bit. we got the stink eye from GC, so we slowed down, only to pick it back up again. i hit the hills hard, but once we started the gravy train on the way back, i was toast. i hung on in the final five until we turned onto centaur and threw in the towel. i hate to just give in like that, but i wasn't feeling good from the get-go.

maybe i hit the hills too hard on tuesday and thrusday. maybe it's just an off day. definately feel like i'm 40 today, 52 days short of my birthday.

warm and happy

poops was so happy yesterday when i buckled him into his car seat that i had to take a picture. he was just so warm and snuggly. i think if i had coveralls kind of like his doggy outfit, i could ride in any and all weather. i would even take one with the doggy ears.

Salmon Lincoln?

I'll take it. Maybe it's my misplaced sense of style, but I love it.

Thursday's ride

I braved another cold morning and gave the trainer a swift kick. I wanted to ride in the same area as Tuesday's ride, but get out a bit farther.

I parked at the Wal-Mart parking lot on the I-44 outer road. Riding west, over Allenton and continuing on Fox Creek. What an awesome morning! I was cold, but not freezing. There was a bit of a headwind that way, but I knew I was going to be into the hills soon. When Fox Creek met Hwy 100, I crossed over (now the road is Old Manchester) and made an almost immediate right turn on Bouquet.

Bouquet is my single favorite road in our area. It is so European...narrow, single lane, sparcely populated, no cars, and HILLY. It T's into Melrose at it's end, and I took a right turn there. Melrose just rolls along until I again have to cross Hwy 100, a quick right turn, then quickly a left back onto Melrose. Past Allenton, then bombing down the undulating road until it meets Glencoe road and Hwy 109. I turned right on 109, which was not busy this time of the day. I really hate that it can be so busy because there are some great hills on 109. I only rode along with it for a mile or so, taking a right turn up Alt road. Alt is an awesome clilmb, exactly 1.1 miles from the base to the entrance to Hidden Valley. I bombed down the backside of Alt, narrowly missing a Ford Freestar that lost it's way into my lane. At the bottom of Alt, there is a quick left onto Forby, then a quick right onto Meramec Blvd, the steepest climb on the route. It's only 4/10's of a mile, but the grade is wicked. Once I topped that, I sped down the backside and back out to the outer road of I-44, and a few minutes later I was back at my car.

I know, it was only 21 miles. But it was a wonderful 21 miles, on some of my favorite roads.

Another view of Tuesday's 'berg ride

As told by my father-in-law:

Reading from the mapping with its 10 foot contours, the main part of Allenton is at elevation 510. The first hill on Wengler rises to 587 that drops to 465 at the intersection with Horneker. Horneker rises slowly to 480 before it starts the steep climb up 580 at the intersection with Sheerin. Highs and lows along Sheerin are 580, 520, 560, 450, and then 430 at the river. The first part of Hunter Ford goes from 430 up to 500 then climbs to 770 before it decends back to 550 in Allenton.

I attached the view from the air.

Dad Zim

Cool! I love this stuff. I love to check out on a map where some of our favorite rides go, the elevations and the positioning of the roads and intersections.

anxiously awaiting

I'm anxiously awaiting the Kaiser's Oiz build-up. I'm sure noone anticipated a plain-jane full suspension bike like my Oiz. Sure, he started off with the same frame as me. And the same Kaiser-built Sid fork. Even the Industry Nine/Stan's 355 wheelset. But, that's where the similarities end. He's picked and prodded and poked around, and while he hasn't filled me in on many details, it sounds like it's going to be another ultra-light flyer. I mean, he's searching for a lighter integrated headset, for crying out loud.

I've given up on the weight weenie battle. I never had a chance. I'm too fat, too cheap, too dumb, too rough, too ham-fisted...too "too" to be a weight weenie.

if you feel like it

rather than sift through the postings on the local message board, i figured i would create a more streamlined venue for people to post rides and ride information...not race inspired, not politically inspired, without attitude, religion, anger, animosity...none of it. i don't want to compete with stlbiking or any other site, just want a place to read about rides.

have fun, post your fun rides, your training rides, your favorite places to go, post it up. want some company on your regular training ride? want to see if someone can do your favorite ride faster? post it.

be adult. don't be mean, i'll just delete you.

thanks!

LET'S HEAR ABOUT YOUR RIDES!!

THANKS AGAIN!

Schmatzenberg Loop

Today's ride was just not going to happen indoors. Yes, it was cold, but the sun was out, and I do believe that I reached the USRDA for indoor riding a little while back.

I got the crazy idea to do a loop that I haven't done in a while...the Schmatzenberg. It's a loop that takes about 30 minutes to do, has two killer hills in it, and is picturesque, especially this time of year.

The Schmatzenberg is on the south side of I-44, across from Six Flags. The road is actually called Wegman road. It climbs up just a bit from I-44, drops into a beautiful valley, then shoots skyward on the actual Schmatzenberg climb. The climb is only about a 1/4 mile long, but is very steep. After cresting, the road veers left, meanders downhill a bit, then flattens as it parallels the Meramec river. Then it hits the looong climb. This thing is ferocious, camel-backing 6 or 7 times, finally ending in an out-of-the-saddle, head-over-the-handlebars grunt to get over the top. A screaming descent follows, then you get to start over.

I parked at the Greensfelder visitors center and suited up. I rolled down Allenton road, eyes watering and getting a brain freeze straight away. On second thought, I should've ridden a bit before I attempted a 40mph downhill in 29 degree weather. No matter. I knew I would get warm on the loop.

No traffic to speak of, crisp morning, hrm and Power Tap alive and kicking. I saw between 500-550 watts on the 'berg. What a killer. I settled down and hit the second climb at 450-475 or so. By the time I hit the middle of the climb, I was suffering at 300 watts. Ug. After cresting, I decided to hit the loop again. I had a better plan. Feeling better and better, I hit the 'berg a little easier, this time keeping a steady 400-450 watts. Bingo, much better, and I was able to go over the top with some vigor. I did the same tempo towards the long hill, this time starting at 350 watts or so and maintaining that all the way to the final kick, where I had to stand. Much, much better. What did I prove? My own rule: hit the climb in such a way that you can finish it.

Crossing back under I-44, I wondered how hard Allenton was going to be. Normally, it's a tough climb if you hit it hard. After 2 laps of the 'berg loop, I was figuring it would be tough. It wasn't. The pitches on Allenton are just not bad compared to the ones I had already done.

All said and done, it was only an hour and a half. But an hour and a half of my life spent outside on a beautiful morning versus and hour and a half sitting still in a cold basement watching a small 15 year old television set with no cable? You be the judge.

mmm, that's good salad

yes, rudy has a salad bag stuck on his head.

i came home from taking poops to grandma's this morning, and had a huge mess in the kitchen. rocky has taken to knocking over the trashcan, and in a heroic example of teamwork, all the dogs share in the bounty. after running rosco and rocky out of the kitchen, i cleaned up, still yelling at the dogs. suddenly i realized rudy was nowhere to be found. i peaked around the corner into the dining room, and there was rudy, frozen with fear, head still stuck in the salad bag. he didn't even move when i went to grab the camera.

dogs. if i didn't love them so much, i make rocky into a nice coat and rudy and rosco into slippers.

in case you don't go there

this is a better picture of dan's bmc. i love the seattube juncture. wow.

Pair of Bosses

this pair of 1969 Boss mustangs went for half a million dollars at Barrett-Jackson. the car on the left is the 302 car, a lighter weight, racing-heritage boss. it's hybrid v8 was part cleveland/part windsor, with big port deep breathing heads atop a 4-bolt windsor 302 block. raced in scca racing for a few years with lots of wins, it's probably the most balanced of all the factory ford mustang race cars of old.

the 429 car was the car assembled by Car Kraft for ford, using the enormous Boss 429 engine. recognizable by any car freak, the engine features the semi-hemi heads. the 429 itself isn't very big, actually smaller physically than most DOHC engines today, but adding the wild Boss heads to it required Car Kraft to actually reposition the shock towers for it to fit. ultimately a better racing engine than a street engine, ford only needed to make so many of them to qualify the engine for racing, only to have it outlawed. ford lost money on every one of them.

snapshots from our weekend

hanna the preteen. this is a shot of her after showering and getting into her flanel jammies.

elijah is trying to sleep, and rocky is sticking his big fat head between mom's arm and poop's head. the dogs have it better than we do around here.

hanna and tyson talked me into making a snowman with them. i haven't made a snowman in years. maybe 30 years. it was fun. this guy has chocolate eggs for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose, and skittles for his mouth. i ate some skittles.

rosco is bridging the gap between the couch and the high chair. why? there are cheerios there of course. i helped him get a couple then gave him the boot.

see? they can be friends if they feel like it. they were both huddled away from the vacuum cleaner.

thanks, todd!

my old friend todd came through for our little circus by getting us tickets for the seasame street show down at the savis center. (is it still called the savis center?)

at first, hanna and tyson were convinced that seasame street was too young for them. so we told them that it was for pooper. wouldn't you know, they ended up enjoying it, a LOT!

poops was awestruck. his eyes were wide open, and he was checking out everything....the show, the other kids, the stadium. he and mommy were jammin' to the music and the beat. i really think that deanna enjoyed it just as much as poops. the older kids? yeah, they were rockin' along, and they were really jazzed when burt was dancing to the hustle. guess it didn't turn out to be too young after all.

how bad can a show be when we leave with blue tongues??

trainer ride

having the kids and a full plate of activities planned for them, i had little time to ride today. of course, that had to be on the trainer.

i still have possesion of dan's powertap, and have been using that in conjunction with my hrm. information overload is my middle name these days. i warmed up for 20 minutes, then hit some 3 minute intervals. they weren't all that. i started the first one trying to maintain 350-360 watts, and that was hard. my heart rate climbed into the 170's, and that wasn't the name of the game today. the second 3 minute interval, i targeted 330-350 watts, and that worked. (i have to give myself the 20 watt spread because the powertap is so sensitive that it's too hard to have a smaller window.) the third 3 minute was the same, but for some reason i climbed up to 350 and held it for the duration, albeit at 175 or so. i topped those off with some 20-on, 40-off intervals at 525 watts at 120rpms. 5 of those, and it was to the showers.

there was lots more to be had in terms of output, but i see no reason to put forth that much effort right now. i would love to be able to put in 3-4 hours, but my limit on the trainer is only 75 minutes, and the weather is not cooperating.

hanna's here

hanna is with us again, and she is filling us in on all the high school musical and hannah montana gossip and information. here, she is showing off a few of her dance moves.

buy this, go fast

galloping horse

dan's new bike

dan sent me this shot of his new bmc. it seems that today was the first time he threw a leg over it and did 4 hours at the training camp. yikes. go, dan.

super cool hot rod

this 1926 packard is, uh, not quite restored to stock. it's had some...modifications.

in case you didn't catch it in the first photo, that's a viper v10 under the bonnet. 2007 Barrett-Jackson show, photos courtesy of Autoblog.com.

You need a new HOUSE

BUY ME! BUY ME! BUY ME!

Consumer Reports

Read This

for 20 years i have shaken my head when confronted by the brainwashed hyperbole spouted by the "Consumer Reports" zombie. you know the type. whenever anyone mentions a product they just bought or are thinking of buying, the zombie parrots CR's spewed babble. no thought, no passion, just regurgitation of CR's opinion, without questioning the results or how the results might differ from personal experience.

while there may be no monetary incentive for CR to get results from advertisers, there is personal bias which exists in every human being, even the the holier than thou CR writers. and i'm sure the occasional uproar over an important safety device like a baby seat doesn't hurt circulation or subscriptions, either.

don't be a zombie. use YOUR brain, not someone else's, particularly not CR's.

guess i'm gettin' old

well, the last of the hot rod parts came off of the mustang this morning. it only took 55 minutes to remove the exhaust that i had put on less than 3 weeks ago. last week, i took off the throttle body and plenum. and, i never even installed the gears. most of the stuff is already sold to the locals from stlmustangs.com.

so what happened?

i can't stand the cramped car anymore. i can't stand the noise. i can't stand the buckboard ride. i need better milage, and even though it averages 20mpg, that's not enough. it just isn't any fun anymore.

when the top was down, all of that went away. the problems were still there, but having the top down just made them unimportant. now that the top is up full-time, and probably will be for another 3 months, the fun isn't worth the pain.

i'm getting old, i'm getting practical, i'm getting soft. whatever. these things wouldn't be so bothersome if the car was a weekend car, or a third car for the family. but getting pooper in and out with the car seat, or shoving hanna and tyson in the back, is just torture.

so what will it be? a station wagon? an suv? nah. i still have to have something with a sporting bone in it's body. but it has to be an automatic. it has to be relatively quiet. it has to have a good ride....and we KNOW it won't be a honda or a toyota, don't we?

you need these

MULLET HEADS link to craigslist posting....

what will they think of next?

aaaaaaaaaaa! aaaaaaaaaaaa! oooooooooh!!

american idol is absolutely the most agonizing show on television. i guess the first part is supposed to be. but, we all know the first stages involve lots of goofs. i don't like to watch it, i don't like to hear it. but deanna watches it, so being in the room means i'm watching it.

i could put in ear plugs.

this is one of those photos

that, when he gets to be 12 or so, is going to wish we didn't have.

give a 5 year old a camera...

and this is what you get.

....and this, too.

getting sleepy. soooo sleepy...

i'm a mess. i've got lasagna all over my face, cheerios on the table here, and apple juice all over my face. i'm sooo thirsty, but i'm sooo tired, too. dad? a little help?

ahhh. very nice, dad. now, i'm just going to shut my eyes a little while you hold that bottle for me...ahhh.....seriously....

slurp. zzzzz. slurp. zzzzz. slurp. zzzzz.

uh, poops?

that's NOT where that goes....

all trainer, all the time

not being the type of guy that goes out no matter what the weather, i spent my riding time this weekend on the trainer. saturday i repeated a power workout that dan and i have talked about and again it hurts the decrepit left knee. it's so hard for me to go outside the normal 75-110rpm range. any lower or higher and it hurts the knee. mostly lower cadence with higher gears...ouch.

i'll talk to dan and find out alternatives.

sunday was the same ol' indoor extravaganza. this time, i was watching a football game which, ironically, didn't make the time go by any faster at all. it didn't help that i was just doing a "ride" with no purpose but to keep the heartrate up. it didn't help that the bears and the other team, which escapes me, were playing pretty poor football. maybe they were playing really good football, and that's why neither team could get much done.

an hour of that was all i could stands, i couldn't stands no more!

getting totally buff

deanna and i worked out together on saturday. we have a membership at the heights for the whole family, but we never go together. as luck would have it, our babysitter could start early enough in the afternoon that we were thinking of bike riding before date night...but the rain and cold put the kaibosh on that. so we went to the gym.

it was actually crowded. i didn't think there would be many people there on a saturday, but then again, i've never been on saturday. deanna and i did some things together, then she went to the cardio machines. i don't really need that kind of cardio, so i just kept with the weights. i've been growning stronger, albeit slowly since i average 1.5 workouts a week. deanna gets to the gym twice a week, and has a really good grip on the exercises that work best for her. getting to ride with me is all extra for her.

i haven't done bench presses in years, but since deanna was going to be a little while, i said what the heck. 100lbs. isn't much, so i started with that. pretty easy. then, 135lbs. that seemed better, and looked better on the bar, since that's a big plate on each side. resisting the urge to look like a real man, i added two more 10's and at 155, it felt heavy. i did 8-8-5 for reps. hmmm, no shoulder pain. looks like i can add the bench to my workout.

but no max attempts. that would be so 80's.

new brakes

when i put mrs k's new OIZ together, i used most of the parts from the rush, including the hope mono mini disc brakes.

i love the hope's. they have such a nice lever feel and look so trick. but i must say they require a LOT of love when setting them up. i got a little spoiled by the avid ulitmates that i put on my own OIZ. so, i ebayed the hope brakes (why did an english guy pay good money for brakes made in england from a guy in the US??) and bought some juicy 7's for her bike. now we share lots of things in common: frames, forks, sram shifting, avid brakes. my ultimates came with a 140mm rear rotor, her juicy's came with 160's, but that's a small detail. it's nice to have the commonality in our bikes so that at any given time it's only a short swap over to make a ride happen when disaster strikes.

the only thing is, the more i look at her '07, the more i like it. mine is an '06 with the orbea team colors. the blue on her bike (and the kaiser's) is just stunning. i'd have to say that she's lucky her's is a 17", or she may be a victim of a secret swap..."no honey, you're bike has ALWAYS been that color, really. MY BIKE has always been blue".........

poops has learned to wave!

it's so cute watching them learn little things like waving and patty cake. he hasn't quite gotten the hang of rocking back and forth on this stylish little rocking horse, but that could be next.

he's also grown pretty fond of grown up food. tonight was a bit of lasagna, last night it was a bit of broccoli soup. and cheerios. he eats up cheerios like nobody's business. so did hanna and tyson. i have some paper photos of hanna with a dozen cheerios stuck to her face.