Day: December 13, 2008

Parktastic!

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Trips to the park are becoming genuinely interesting, and fun. Thank gawd…they friggin take long enough! Half an attempt to tire her out, half an attempt to keep her from sitting on her ass watching TV, its almost a given on the days i pick her up.

Monday: Pink Park -> Tues: Green Park ->   Wed: it was time for Kila’s Park, and the first time ever she spotted this:

She saw Kila, she saw Daddy, she said “where’s Genevieve?”

The next night, scissors in hand,   i told her i had a surprise, and back we went to remedy the situation.

The infield became ice skating. This video sucks, i beat on it for almost an hour trying to make it look better…if you follow the narrative and the blinky blink shoes, its kinda funny.

She needed pom poms, so i broke off some branches for her. She used them to skate on. I think we do not see eye-to-eye on what a pompom is. Then she got trapped in the Net House (soccer goals) and crawled through a hole in the net for a secret passage. She likes to dig for treasure in the sand, flailing her hands doglike as she digs and imitates Dora. She wants to swing from a vine, and suddenly i am Daddy Monkey, and then after explicitly requesting to be hung from a mesquite limb, whines about how it chafes her tinyPalms. *sigh* – i tried to warn her.

Really, it just a good as cable.

East Mesa Epic, revisited

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12-6

Its been almost 2 years since I’ve done this ride, which to those who do not live out here seems shocking.   The problem with this ride is that whichever bike you are on, its the wrong one.   The Heckler is a slow, gas-guzzling Hummer on Hawes.   And like most Hummers anywhere near a 4WD road, totally underutilized.   This afternoon i rode the Blur with Alex and with confidence on the gnarliest Hawes has to offer:   up Mine trail in reverse, up the cliff, up all the rock lines including the new one at the base of Upper Mudflaps, up Upper Mudflaps, to Alex’s new line called The Elevator down into a granite face near the Las Sendas fence, then down the Las Sendas straircase.   Conversely, I’ve ridden the Heckler exclusively on the last 10 Pass Mountain rides.   It makes Pass Mountain a fun ride where bleeding has become an exception to the rule, something I never said the 50 times I’d ridden Pass Mountain on the Blur.   When you ride both trails all the time, on the right bike close to home, combining them seems just plain stupid.

But a few enduro pals were planning on the big epic for Saturday, and the logistics of my weekend were lining that up to be my only chance for a big ride.   Everyone else bailed, so I did laundry and dishes and a few household chores and set off with a clear conscience at 11 by myself to enjoy the prime of the day at my own pace and get some headspace, after a stressful week presenting my new product idea to our CEO among many other heavy end-of-year work meetings.

Going solo let me dictate the route, and skipping National this week left me craving gnar.   So it was going to be the Heckler, with a stop in NRA for some jumps, and the return down the Tower trail dropin.   Other than 5 or so miles of pure XC on Hawes, the route favored the strengths of the Heckler.   Except for the flats in the beginning.   And the climb out of the pit and up the wash to Pass Mountain.   And the road climb to the Tower dropin.   And the flats to get home.   Come to think of it, i was still on the wrong bike for half the ride, and strapping and shedding my pads along with raising and lowering my seat left me craving a Gravity Dropper.

I moved steadily, and finished in 5 hrs.   My mind wandered and relaxed.   Few revelations came from the ride, but a soothing aeration prevailed.   One project during the ride was to create a route to tack on Bulldog Canyon and make this a truly huge day, as well as decide if that would be a Heckler or Blur ride.   I was blown at 4.5 hours, the epic would be about 7: advantage -Blur.   4 hours of the ride would be the chunk of Pass Mountain and Bulldog: advantage Heckler.   I drank a lot of Jack two nights before, and didn’t really prepare my body, which was worth at least an hour of fatigue.   I think it will be a Heckler ride – going slow beats bleeding.

Another memorable stretch of the ride came leaving the NRA pit and heading up the brand new connector trail to the road.   It gets you about another mile up the road, and its nothing special, much like Big Rock and Wildhorse.   But it was so new, with only flags and a few tracks to mark it, i immensely enjoyed the natural and holistic way the trail unfolded for me over the terrain.   It was indeed well-plotted.   How awesome to grab that experience before it is gone!!!

Pass Mountain, the road climb rolled off me solid and steady.   The Tower dropin still felt scary and new, and i got all that i did before and chickened out on the one slot that i did before.   Its all good, now i know there is only one thing to fear, and hopefully next time i will approach it with more enough poise to hit it.

I missed this ride.

Bike Shootout

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Little Tikes Bike

The Performance Trike

At first glance, The Little Tikes is a beautiful ride featuring bright colors, graceful lines, and the safety of training wheels and tread-rich tires. The basket is an outstanding complement, holding tools, stuffed animals, snacks, or whatever else suits your t.Human’s fancy. The geometry has a steep head angle for an upright ride, enhanced by the long cockpit that encourages a forward, aggressive position. Unfortunately, this puts pressure on the front end, leading to sluggish steering and slippage of the headset. The geometry seems to fight the rider’s pedalstroke, driving the power down onto the wheel instead of into it. While the Little Tikes comes with offroad tires, our test riders found they lacked balance or bite, and offered too much rolling resistance. Each time we would expect the wheels to hook up, they slid out in disappointing fashion. Coupled with the steep geometry, the ride was imprecise and unforgiving. The construction was also disappointing, with bolt-on hubs that always felt too tight or too noodly. As much as we wanted to, our test riders just could not like Little Trikes

The Performance Trike offers a totally different ride, with a slack but highly stable geometry. Coupled with a smaller cockpit, this led to much better power transfer to the pedals. The bike leaped under our tester, and the thin, low-tread urethane wheels accentuated the bike’s acceleration. It may look like a cruiser, but it spun like a race car. Performance’s design team again surprised us with the wider but shorter wheelbase, offering a balanced ride with true steering. Where the Little Tike’s training wheels failed to provide balance, the Performance Trike simply designs away from that flaw. Elegant lines, cool gender-neutrual electric blue powdercoat, and a scooter step make this steed the clear winner.

Coming to your house this Holiday Season.