Monumentally Afflicted

Tried out my new Seirus Stormsocks and Garmin Forerunner 305 today. Did about 4 miles in the snow with temps in the teens. The socks worked very well. No coldness during the entire ride/hike. I'll definitely be putting these to use for winter riding. The Garmin 305 is incredible. A GPS and heart rate monitor in watch form. Amazing features and functionality in a small package. I mounted it to my handlebar and occasionally glanced down to see my heart rate, which went up to 171 at one point. The Garmin Connect website has a pretty good breakdown of the ride/hike. This gadget would have been an incredible tool back when I was serious about training for track and cross country. It will be very neat to use for my riding nowadays, recording tracks/routes, heart rate info, mileage, etc. I ended up hiking at the end of the ride today. My Nexus hub finally seems to have bit the dust. I've abused it fairly substantially and this older Nexus hub does not have good sealing,

Got out for 7 miles of riding in the freshies. Not a ton of new snow, but enough to make it interesting/difficult. Very few fresh tracks, since I didn't get out til after noon, but I did have the pleasure of passing through Nordby's crash site. :-) Lesson of the day: tire pressure can seriously affect traction in winter conditions. Started at a supposed 20/20psi, ended up at 16 rear and 12 front. Way, way more traction with lower pressures. This is with Nokian 2.1" studded tires (I think Extreme 294's or something like that). I was all over the place with the higher pressure. Once I dropped things down, performance drastically improved for both climbing and descending. Oh yeah, temps were cold (17F), but I was very toasty due to effort level and complete lack of wind.

Met up with 11 other mtbr.com members last night for a winter solstice night ride. Thanks go out to Kristian for getting the ride set up. Lots of fun, super warm temps, and good local trails. Black Pearl and Flying Dog were especially fun descents with my two Magicshines lighting the way. The sidehill snow sections on BP were pretty sketchy, but I don't think we had one 'real' crash all night. I did miss a few corners and blow through the scrub oak. Oops! Only one mechanical, also. Nordby managed to break his chain, coast home, get a replacement bike and still beat most people back to the trailhead for a couple beers. Not that that should be surprising. ;-) Sorta weird, but I've met more local riders in the last 2 weekends than the last 2 years! Of course, I probably won't recognize anyone from last night's ride, since it was dark from start to finish. It's also a bit weird to meet mtbr.com members, since people's online names often don'

It's been a while... I'd say the knee is almost 100%, but wouldn't wanna hex myself. :-) I've managed to get out for the occasional ride the past 6 weeks or so. Most of my biking focus has been building up the new kid hauler / cargo bike. The Yuba Mundo V3. Nearly fully sorted, just need to come up w/ something for the kids feet. I installed a carbon fiber stoker bar with matching grips...stylin'. I've had the bike out for a few test rides, including a 19 mile, sub-zero night ride on trails. Worked fairly well. Some chain length issues to sort out and disc brake tuning, but otherwise...smooooooth. Riding on the back deck while hanging onto the bars is fun. :-) Specs: Mundo V3 frame - blue Mundo V3 fork (threaded) Shimano STX headset (threaded) Nitto Albatross handlebars Kalloy adjustable stem Oury Mtn grips - blue Shimano LX M581 brake/shift levers Avid BB7 185/160 disc brakes Deore/Ditchwitch wheels w/ 14mm adapters 2.4" Mutano Raptor tires XT sha