On Alleycats, birthdays and Pro Riders taking on Iceland

Shayne rocking the Jordan

Mitch hates riding his bike

Justin's tri-suit comes in handy once again. Andrew in background

Group Shot at King George Terrace

We watched Macaframa at the shop after the race.

A group of us went out for an alleycat/birthday party on Friday. The Alleycat started from Capital City Cycles where the birthday boy works as well as owning the shop. Me, Justin, Mitch, Shayne(still recovering from injuries) and Andrew (still recovering from injuries) showed up for the race. We decided to race as a team and enjoy each others company while riding between points and so off we went. The race was a lot of fun as always, and just about the right length. It took us about 48min to ride the course if memory serves me right, and we came in 8th place as a group. Which is alright I suppose, especially given the broken wings on the team, not that they had much trouble keeping up, but it's an excuse anyway. Here's a rough map of the course, although we took a slightly different course. View Larger Map Also Check out Matt Hunter's Blog, he's been riding in Iceland lately with, Andrew Shandro, Joe Schwartz, photographer Sterling Lorence, and writer Mitchell Scott. Their Guide in Iceland is an acquaintance of mine Magne Kvam. I've been seeing Facebook updates from him and he seems super stoked on the riding they've been getting in. http://www.i-am-specialized.com/gravity/rider/matt-hunter/398/#/blog

Tuesday nights, and alleycats

Mitch on Switchbacks

Rigid singlespeeds make things interesting

Not much of a challenge for Nic

We had a good group ride on Tuesday. I've been riding solo for much of the summer on the supposed group rides since people are busy and have other engagements. This is to be expected in the summertime and not an issue at all. However, I will be out there every Tuesday as long as I'm healthy, and in town. So if you ever feel like going for a ride or get introduced to the Dump, I'll be there at 7pm. Last Tuesday, Mitch, Justin, Colin and myself showed up for the ride, along with Nic and Mitch's better half, Claire. That's the biggest ride we've had in a long time and it was good to have more people out. We Picked up Al from Cycle BC, on the trails and did a pretty standard loop. We rode to the top of Twister via Switchbacks and then came down Old payoff and Snakes and ladders. No spectacular crashes although Justin had another battle with his rockgarden nemesis on Little Face, and Colin took a bit of a spill on old payoff. Neiter one was fantastic enough to take the crash trophy but in all honesty I can't remember who is the current trophy holder. Andrews crash on his road bike was pretty fantastic though so I have to say that he must still clench the trophy with his one good arm. In other news... there is an alleycat tomorrow in Victoria. Meet at the Chain 7:30pm, mash the pedals and empty the cans.

Warriors race vs. MXC

Check this out:

The Warriors Race from morehartfilms on Vimeo.

The race is on Labour day weekend, sat. September 5. The day after there is a MXC race in Campell River (50 k and I've heard its a point to point) in the Island Cup so I'm contemplating doing that in stead. It would be fun to see hundreds of racers and fixed gear fiends on the streets of Vancouver though. So I'm a little torn about this issue. Sure, I'll die if I try the 50k MXC, but I think that the race in Vancouver would require much consumption of beers which would be equally bad for me, and slightly worse for the budget. So we shall have to wait and see...

Street sprints

Street sprints tonight! Meet at Capitol City Bikes@ 7:30. Talk of a new venue and some fantastic racing for sure. Sweet! I'll post photos tomorrow. The unofficial street sprint series in Victoria, have definitely put their mark on the summer in this town. The idea is to hold those races every two weeks or so, and everyone is welcome to race. Although most seem to prefer fixed singlespeeds, everyone is welcome to race whatever bike they want. The sprints are so short that you won't really have time to shift anyway, so those running geared bikes seem to usually choose a gear and stick with it.

Singlespeed mtb, and housing

I sent my shock off for servicing last week. But since I can hardly go a week without mountain biking (or I'll risk my mental health, which is unstable to begin with) I had to ponder my options. Sure I could borrow some of the demo bikes we have at the shop, but I've been riding those for quite a bit and I wanted to try something different. So, out from hibernation came the Cannondale that I've had since 1998. This bike (a rigid M400 mountain bike) has gone through many transformations over the years and has served me well. The last incarnation was a singlespeed version that I used for a cyclocross race last year and for commuting in the snow last winter. I was running a 34x16 gear on it for that purpose but decided to lower that a bit, so I threw on a 32t chainring and headed for the dump. I've ridden this bike as a singlespeed, ever since the original drive train finally gave up the ghost a few years ago, but I've never ridden it on mountain bike trails as a singlespeed. Although in it's early years it saw a lot of action on the mountain.
The trails at the dump are not friendly for heavy gearing as I soon found out. I managed to ride up most of the trails that were not to steep, but once I got into technical and steep climbs, things got a little rough. This resulted in much sweat and many stops. I immediately decided I should lower the gearing a bit but I must say that I was blown away by how much fun this was. Every little thing is a challenge on that rig, even just riding on the fire roads. I enjoyed being forced to ride smoothly, or I would pay for it. I rode up to the top of Twister and that's where I discovered a bit of a problem. My fancy pink "brake" housing was splitting on me..."Now why was this happening," I thought and then realized my rookie mistake. I had been so mesmerized by the colour that I didn't check if the housing was a brake or a shifter cable when I installed it after salvaging it from the garbage can at work. Using a shifter housing for a brake cable is not a smart idea, since shifter housing is designed to have as little friction as possible and for that it sacrifices strength. there was a good story on this in Urban Velo a while back: Brake VS Shifter Housing
But I digress. I temporarily fixed the brake issue by switching the housing around, back to front, which provided me with enough stopping power to get down the hill. The day after I rummaged around in the parts bin and found an old 18t cog and some yellow (!) brake housing and went out again, after work. That gearing is much better, but since the cog was out of a cassette, it was not quite as wide as the singlespeed cog that was in there before. I did not realie this until I was on the trails and kept throwing my chain off. I solved that problem, by sacrificing an inner tube and having my chain tensioner pulling up instead of down, thus engaging more teeth on the cog and getting rid of the annoying chain throwing issues. That configuration worked well, and the hills were a little easier, so I'll keep that setup for now.

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Durian Cup

There's a fun event coming up tonight at the Dump. Dave Shishcoff of organicathelete.com has organised 4 races in cooperation with SIMBS. The first of the 4 race weekly series is on tonight. Signup starts at 6:30 and racing starts at 7:00. The race fee is a meager $3 if you have a Cycling BC insurance. If not you can buy a day licence for $40. http://www.organicathlete.org/blog/durian-cup. Unfortunately I don't think any of the Shop staff will make it out tonight, but I'm sure we'll be there next week. This is a nice develoment. There have not been a lot of races at the dump for awhile, but after the first super d there last year and the second one this year there seems to be an increased interest for putting on races at Hartland and this will train the Capital Regional District in being more accepting of such events. It's a constant struggle to keep the little land we have for riding in the CRD and events like these, that show that there is a big group of energetic people using the trails might help in developing more land for mountain biking. What seems to elude the CRD is how much is to be gained from having a nice network of trails within the city limits. CRD tends to focus on liability issues, but forgets to think about how much mountain bikers contribute to the local economy...Somehow this goes unnoticed. BC is a Mecca for mountain biking and there are thousands of people that come here (BC) specificly to ride our trails, and if the city of Victoria is interested in keeping a healthy tourist population they should expand the riding in the region, not limit it. Mountain biking adds to a list of nice sustainable things to do in Victoria and it would be great if those that travel here would have more options in trail systems to ride. but that's a whole different story...Go out there and race the Durian Cup... It should be great fun and I'm sure there will be some beers afterwards...

On beer, with bikes on the label

How can any self respecting cyclist resist this sort of packaging? I don't think you can, if you are indeed self-respecting, a cyclist and over the age of 13. I sure as hell can't, but I have a bit of an edge on anyone not familiar with Phillips Brewing Company. I've been drinking their product from when Blue Buck was still Blue Truck. They are a great local company brewed within 10 min from my home here in Victoria, and they only use top notch ingredients (also check out their history section on the website, its very entertaining). Slipstream Cream Ale is quickly becoming my favorite beer, not only because I like looking at the label, and believe me I do...but also because it is an excellent beer, not too dark, not too blonde and with a nice strong malty flavor...mmmm a perfect, post ride beer. But then again I did not have to stray to far from my former favorite, The Blue Buck. Ahh life is good, how can you complain after a 2 hour nightride and then getting to sit down and have a beer and ramble on about beer and bicycles on some blog. Not bad, all things considered. Now I just need to figure out how to make money doing this. Damn elusive money.

On locks, bike security and Polo

The cut in the lock... the replacement...Kryptonite evolution

Victoria is notorious for bicycle theft. I have not been affected by this yet (knock on wood). But as the above photo illustrates, I've come close. I did not notice the half-assed cut in the lock right away, but one day when I arrived at work I realized there was a huge dent in the down tube of my Cannondale M400. At first I thought somebody was throwing it around in the storage locker, but when I finally noticed the cut in the lock I realized that whoever was trying to steal my bike, probably managed to dent the frame while hacking away at the lock. The lock held up however, and I'm glad about that. It's has since been replaced by a u-lock. The bike is not really safe to ride in any sort of serious way, so I think it's racing days are over. So what do I do with that bike? Well, I've always wanted to try Bike-Polo and the Cannondale seems like a perfect candidate for a polo bike...So here's the plan with that one: Replace the flat-bar with the risers that came on my Bianchi, retain the hot pink Ouries. Scavange the shop for a decent v-brake, and replace the Cantis with v's, no brake up front/rear brake on left side of handlebars (I need the right for the mallet). Replace the Jones XC tires with my old trusty Tioga City Slicker slicks, these are hefty but I have never had a flat on them in over 3 years. Perhaps replace the 34t ring up front with a 32t but for now I think I'll keep the 34t (CX gearing) and see how it works out. This will be the fifth incarnation of the Cannondale. First it was my mountain bike, then my commuter, then my singlespeed commuter (once the shifters wore out), CX machine and now...Voila! here's a Polo bike. Now I'll just have to show up at the polo rink and make some friends...should be interesting. I'll post some photo's of this morphing soon.

A very lovely bike...

I fell in love yesterday... I mean, would you look at that thing. It's gorgeous, looks fast standing still. Traditionally I'm not a huge track bike guy but this bike sort of changes that all for me. Aero tubing, deep section rims and a beautiful color scheme...who can resist gloss red on gloss black? I know I sure as hell can't. If I had a Check it out here.

Color for Sturmey

So the date for the SunRace-Sturmey Archer new 3sx three-speed fixed hub has been pushed back once again, apparently because of a redesigned driver. They're now going for March as the unofficial and vague release date. But for us that are waiting for the hub, there is something to feast our eyes on, since they've released what color options will be available: That red one looks tasty.