iRide

As I mentioned before, I was chosen to be a volunteer at the AMGEN Tour of California. I was kind of having second thoughts in the days leading up to today, but I decided to go and I’m really glad I did. My official check-in time was 1:45, but I decided to go early. I checked in around 10:00 and hung out at the FINISH line for a little while.

Looking down the final sprint to the FINISH:

I then saw that the TV commentators were doing a pre-race segment recording by the FINISH, so I went in for a closer look. Phil, Paul and Craig:

Seeing cycling broadcast legends Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett up close was so cool!!

I then met up with fellow Dirt Treaders board poster Joe/Mudd and we walked through the Expo…

Keepin’ it gangsta’:

Saw some cool bikes at the booths..

Saw a Podium Girl, pre-race…

and watched the live feed of the race on the big screens…

When it was time, we headed off to our post assignments. I was set up on Escondido Blvd, in between Woodward and W Valley Pkwy, not far from the FINISH:

It got crowded quick!! This was taken shortly after the above pic, looking back on where I was standing when I took the above pic:

The other fans were cool and funny to talk to and hang out with:

I also met a guy who has been traveling with the Tour and he said he has over 300 pictures. I gave him my address and he said he’s going to mail me a CD. Here’s hoping!!

We didn’t have to wait long. Here they come:

Stage Leaders Frank Schleck and Vincenzo Nibali battle for the Stage win. They were FLYING!!! Frank Schleck would go on to win the Stage:

Chase 1 with the Tour Leaders 40 seconds later. Levi, Dave Z, Floyd, George Hincapie, Jens Voight and Lance were all in this group:

That’s Race Winner Levi Leipheimer in the Yellow Jersey, left side of the pic. Dave Zabriskie in front in white and yellow, right side of pic. Floyd Landis in white, red and black, nearest me just left of the middle of pic:

There’s Lance–next to last of the Chase 1 group, on the left:

Chase 2:

That’s 2009 Tour King of the Mountain winner Jason McCartney in the red Saxo Bank jersey, 7th rider from the front of the pic. Also, Christian Vandevelde in blue and orange, 4th rider back from the front:

Before long, the rest of the Peloton came through:

Chris Jones in blue and white, 4th rider up from the back, on the left:

After the race was over, I walked over to where some of the team buses were parked and was able to get some pics with some of the riders:

Saxo Bank rider and 4th Place finisher Jens Voigt!!!

Colavita/Sutter Home rider Tyler Wren:

Team Type 1 rider Christopher Jones–who was SUPER nice by the way

Up and coming Quick Step rider Jurgen Van De Walle:

I also got a closer look at the super bling Rock Racing Team car. Most teams use hatchbacks like Subarus or Mazdas. Rock Racing uses a Cadillac STS. How cool is that:

The shwag I got:

It was a tiring day, but so much fun!! I am so glad I went. I really hope the Tour comes back to San Diego next year. I will remember it for a long time!!

I’m teaching at Taekwondo Tuesday night and assisting Thursday night. Then Black Belt testing Saturday!! I can’t believe it’s already here. Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

I think there are some DH runs out here in my ‘hood. I think this because: 1) I have seen too many guys in my ‘hood riding home from a local ride aboard dedicated DH bikes. 2) A month or so ago, I saw a truck with 3 DH bikes in the back, leaving a house a couple streets away from my place and instead of heading out of the area, they headed for a dead-end street near here to ride. 3) I spoke to the owner of a new bike shop in town–one that specializes in DH/Freeride bikes mind you–that I thought there may be some good DH stuff in the hills out here. He sort of clammed up and would only say there was good trails but wouldn’t even get close to budging on where they were exactly. I didn’t expect him too, as there’s definitely a trend that states you don’t divulge the location of secret trails so they remain just that–a secret.

All that has made me want to do some exploring so I can find them for myself. When I do find them–not if, but when–I will post about it here for sure, but will absolutely keep the location a secret out of respect for whoever built the trail(s). I’ve been planning to do some exploring for the past month or so but my schedule and the weather has put a damper on that.

Since we’ve had a few days of dry weather, I figured today would be a good day. Evan joined me and we set out this afternoon. After much research on Google Earth, I had two seperate areas I wanted to check out. Evan and I had a good ride. New trail is always fun no matter what and today was no different. However, we didn’t find anything that could even remotely pass for a DH run. So far, the count is Trail = 1, me = 0. No worries. It’s a process of elimination. I brought my GPS today and mapped out all the trails and areas we covered. I can now mark them off the list and by process of elimination, I will find these hidden DH gems. I took a few pics. They aren’t of anything great, but I figure why not.

Evan hiking out to see if the trail we were on led anywhere. It didn’t. There was a whole lot of that today:

A really old dam. Ya, I was really desperate for anything interesting:

The Yeti up against the busted slabs of the dam:

A short finger trail we found. If only it were a few miles long instead of a few hundred yards it would’ve been really cool:

The day wasn’t a loss in my book though. We eliminated trails to be explored. We had no crashes or mechanicals. We knocked out 13.27 miles and 1,200′ of climbing, so we got a good ride in and at the end of the day–it’s still a good ride with good friends!!

Ride stats:
Total Distance: 13.27 miles
Total Time: 2:12:45
Ascent: 1,199′

I also hit up La Costa after work with Mark yesterday. It would be the first ride on the Spot with the new air canister on the rear shock. We did 2 laps = up Switchbacks, down Vista Del Mar, up Switchbacks, down NASCAR. Mark rode strong as usual, hitting a couple of the hucks on NASCAR. The new air canister on the Spot’s rear shock worked awesome!! Just as I knew it would, it solved the “blowing through all the travel” problem. I did miss the Yeti’s Gravity Dropper seat post and longer travel fork though. They sure would’ve made the DH more fun.

As per my usual M.O., I forgot the camera in the car and didn’t get any pics. I got a couple of cell phone videos of Mark’s hucks, but they didn’t turn out very good.

La Costa ride stats:
Total Distance: 7.40 miles
Total Time: 2:04:01
Ascent: 1, 351′

Tomorrow, I’m slated to volunteer at the AMGEN Tour of California. I plan on taking a lot of pics and posting up a full report after. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

This afternoon, dad helped me swap the air sleeve/canister on the rear shock of my 5-Spot. It couldn’t have gone any smoother than it did. All in all, I think we had it done in less than 10 minutes!!

I took pics along the way. For some reason, the pic of the shock totally disassembled didn’t come out. Go figure.

Pulled the shock:

Since the pic I took didn’t come out, I took this pic off the PUSH Industries site to show what it looks like taken apart. They even use the same blue shop paper towels I do, LOL:

Pressing the new canister in:

Done and done:

And now, one too many side by side comparison shots:

Fin:

Between the shock swap and the Gravity Dropper repair, I’m starting to feel like….like….umm…..hmm. Well, I can’t think of any famous bike mechanics, but you get the idea. Just kidding. Seriously though, it is nice to be able to do this kind of stuff myself. I usually shy away from the non-standard repair stuff. But these last 2 jobs went pretty good. Now if only it wasn’t supposed to rain tomorrow I could actually take the Spot out and see how the new and improved shock rides. Oh well.

I watched all the NBA All-Star Game events this weekend. The Skills Challenge and 3-Point Shootout were OK. The Slam Dunk Contest was pretty sweet. I really like how the players now are getting creative with costumes and gimmicks to make it even more entertaining–from Nate Robinson’s Lex Luther to Dwight Howards’ Superman.

The highlight of the weekend though, has to be Shaquille O’Neal’s entrance. When announced, he came out and danced with the dance group The Jabbawockeez.

I don’t care who you are–that’s sweet!!

I’m slated to teach again at Taekwondo on Tuesday. We have a TKD Leadership meeting Wednesday and then I’m assisting Mrs. Neal on Thursday. Looks like another busy week. Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

It’s supposed to rain this weekend–AGAIN!! I know I’m lucky to live in an area that has 300+ ridable days a year–but I hate the rain. Oh well. At least I have a bike related project to keep me busy:

It’s a seal kit and new air can for the rear shock on the Spot. The Spot came spec’d with an oversized air canister. I’m still not 100% on the advantages of an oversized air can. All I know is that they don’t jive well with larger guys like me. I blow through the travel pretty easy, so I ordered a standard size air can from Fox and they were nice enough to throw in the seal kit for free. The Yeti has a standard air can, as did the Enduro, the Intense Tracer and the Jamis I had–so I know that’ll solve the “blowing through the travel” problem.

The Tech I spoke to at Fox when I ordered the new canister said that it’s a pretty easy repair and there’s detailed instructions on Fox’s website, so I’m going to attempt to do the swap myself. I’ll be sure to take pics and post up on how it went.

I had a good week at Taekwondo. I taught the last 2 nights. Tonight we had an condensed schedule for the holiday weekend, which meant I was the instructor for the high-rank class–my class. I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to come off as a “know it all” and made sure to explain why I was teaching my own class. As I expected, my fellow high-rank students were awesome. They gave me the respect they would have given one of the other instructors, they worked hard and the class went smoothly from what I could tell. I feel blessed to be involved with such a great school and to learn alongside some really cool people.

I even had a couple of my fellow Recommended Black Belts call me an offer to come in early to help out. I didn’t get the voicemail until after classes had ended but I was touched by the offer just the same–it was very thoughtful. THANK YOU Dean and Nita!!!!!! You guys are awesome!!!

Anyway, have a good weekend. Love, Peace and chain grease. I’ll see you on the other side. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

…I got my official Permission to Test Certificate for 1st Degree Black Belt tonight at Taekwondo!!! Testing will be on Saturday the 28th. I’m already nervous!!!

…when it comes to mountain biking and my pursuit of said activity. I was looking through the February post archives from previous years and this second month of the year usually leaves a whole lot to be desired. It started raining Thursday, has rained everyday since and isn’t supposed to let up for more than a week.

Last Sunday–the 1st of the month, I got in a decent ride at Lake Hodges with J and his son, Dylan, Tom and a couple other friends. It was a fun ride — even though the handlebar remote for my Gravity Dropper sort of broke. One of the clamp bolts stripped, fell out and I had to rig it with a zip-tie to get me through the rest of the ride. When I got home, I found an email address for one of the head honchos at Gravity Dropper and told him what happened and asked if they sold just the clamp part. He emailed me back first thing Monday morning and said, “That is a warranty issue. Give me your address and I will promptly mail you a replacement clamp mechanism.” Wow!! Pretty sweet customer service. I emailed him the info he needed and I received the new clamp in the mail Thursday!!

I always get nervous doing any sort of non-standard repair of any kind, so I was going to take it to Tom, the mechanic at Bicycle Warehouse and have him install the new one. Then, last night I got bored and decided to take the old one apart and see what all installing the new one would entail. I pulled the little bolt on the cover:

I found that the remote lever clamps the cable with 2 tiny little bolts:

I pulled the bolts (after some shopping, more on that later), detached the cable from the lever and as easy as that the broken housing was separated:

I then threaded the cable through the new housing and back through the tiny little hole on the lever. It took more than a few tries, but I had it done soon enough.

I put the cover back on, installed the new clamp and voila — a “like new” handlebar remote!! As far as the shopping trip I had to make in the middle of the project: the 2 tiny little bolts that clamp the cable in the lever are hex wrench SAE size .050 or 1/20.

The smallest size my set had was 1/16. I figured if that was all that stood in my way, I’d just run out and buy one. Since we don’t have a Lowes or Home Depot or anything similar here in town, I ran into Kmart. All the sets they sold only had a small size of 1/16. I went to Kragen Auto Parts and all the sets they had were the same way. Then I saw an 84 piece tool set that had the size I needed on sale for $25!! I figured I needed a good set of tools to keep in my car anyway, so I bought the set, got back home and finished the repair.

Anyway, so I got in the ride on the 1st and a really fun solo ride the next morning. Dyl and I got in a short exploration ride Wednesday late afternoon. We found more hidden stuff– like an insanely high dirt jump as well as a mini-pump track. The camera’s batteries were dead so I didn’t get pics, but I’m going to start taking it on all these exploration rides. The stuff I’m finding out here is pretty crazy sometimes.

I’ve also heard rumors of DH runs near here with man-made stunts. I have an idea of the general area and I was planning on going on an exploration ride to find them this afternoon, but good ol’ Mother Nature rained on that parade. I was actually able to get a picture of the clouds moving in:

I ran across some pretty sweet gloves on Bike Nashbar. They’re roadie gloves so I’ll never use them, but thought they were pretty cool:

As I mentioned in a recent post, I am now on the schedule at Taekwondo as an instructor. I was put on 5 times for the month of February. Well, I got the March schedule today and I’m on it 8 times. It’s still a little daunting to try and wrap my head around it. It’s one of those things that you want so much, you work hard for, you have a time line in your head for when to expect it, then it comes a little bit earlier than you thought it would and BOOM–you’re in it. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain I suppose. It’s just that I take this so seriously and it’s such an honor, that I feel like it’s almost to good to be true.

I also got an informal permission to test when I was at class today. Mrs. Neal told me and 3 other Recommended Black Belt’s that she “has us on her list to test on the 28th.” We haven’t received the formal permission to test yet, but this is the first concrete thing she’s said to let me know it’s going to happen. I’ve been guessing I was going to get permission to test at the end of the month, but I’ve been trying to not just assume it’s a done deal and take anything for granted. It was nice to hear it straight up today though.

I’m not sure what the next week holds for riding with the rain and all. Here’s hoping I can squeak something in!!

I also just recently joined Facebook. I kinda-sorta did the MySpace thing a few years ago but I never really got into it. But, I’ve heard Facebook is much better, so I’ll give ‘er a go. If you’re reading this and you’re on Facebook–holla at ya boy and and we can both pad our “Friends” count. Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

I led a group ride of my local ‘hood loop yesterday with a bunch of people from a MTB message board I frequent. About 10 riders in all. Mark, Sean, Evan, Brent and James all made it. I had never ridden with the other 4 guys before and it was really cool to put faces to screen names and ride with new people.

I was slightly nervous that the loop would fail to entertain and make the people who made a long drive feel like they wasted their time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the trail though and I don’t think anyone was disappointed.

It was a really fun ride and a lot of good pics and vids were shot. I’ll be quiet now and let the pics and vids do the talking.

Gearing up:

On trail:

Rock Playground:

Vids:

Air Sladnas:

Thanks to all the guys who made the drive and made it out. Thanks to Sean for leading much of the ride. BIG thanks to Jose for most of the pics above and giving me permission to use them!!

I’m hoping to get in a solo ride tomorrow morning, as well as afternoon rides Wednesday and Friday. We’re supposed to get rain later in the week though, so we’ll see what happens. Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…