A Christmas Miracle

With all the raining in California over the last few weeks I felt very fortunate to get a bike ride in on Saturday. I was up near Oakland visiting my parents and for the first time I took my bike with me.

I researched the surrounding areas and found a place called Lake Chabot about 20 minutes from my parents place. I had talked to a bike store last year about the local mountain bike scene and the guys at the shop said it sucked. They said there wasn't anything nearby to ride at all. The fact that their shop had only two or three mountain bikes seemed to confirm that the biking around Oakland sucked.

I had very low expectations for Saturday. I hadn't been on the bike for a week and I was hoping the park wasn't closed due to wet conditions.

I was so happy to find that the park was open, free and most important, fun!

It's funny how childish I can be sometimes. Imagine a movie where a cowboy from the 1800's sails to China to help fight in some Chinese war. The cowboy fights alongside the Chinese and they all look at the cowboy in awe. He wraps his whip around the throats of other warriors, rides his horse in an unorthodox way and wears a cowboy hat. Yeah maybe both the Chinese fighters and the cowboy do the same basic thing ... kill people in cool ways ... but the cowboy does it differently.

Anyways, that was the mindset I had riding at Lake Chabot. I wondered if the northern California riders would instantly peg me as a southern California rider. The grotesque farmers tan maybe. Or maybe how awesome I am on the bike compared to them. "That guy can't be from around here. He is doing things I've only DREAMED about!"

As it turns out the only thing that really separated me from northern California riders (at least at Lake Chabot) was the fact that I was _NOT_ asian. That made me different. Oh, and I wasn't dressed like it was -30 degrees outside.

I started riding around the marina near the lake in search for trails. I had no map and no clue where I might find some good riding. Geoladders had a route that was about 17 miles so I figured I'd just hook into the trail network and figure it out from there.

I wandered around for a bit before seeing a group of guys finishing up a ride. One of them had a singlespeed so I guess norcal riders are more legit that I had originally thought. They tried to give me directions to a good loop, but I ended up taking the first wrong turn I could possibly take.

It started out so well too. It was a gorgeous rolling singletrack through a green meadow that lead me into some cool trees. I ended up on a very off cambre muddy singletrack and eventually dead ended. Turned around and hiked to another option.

The second option was fun for a while but quickly turned into a hyper technical downhill similar to Yeager Mesa. I slid down most of it because it was very steep and very muddy.

Suddenly I found myself on a _paved_ path near the lake. Stupid pavement. Right or left? I picked left and rolled around until I came across a group of maybe ten riders going the other way on the path. After riding up a little past them I found a map of the area. Awesome.

After reading the map I picked out a ride that I was hoping would eat up some time. My goal was to spend about 3 hours riding around. If I finished a loop in under 3 hours, I'd back track and keep spinning until I hit 3 hours.

Unfortunately I got lost after the first few miles. I couldn't remember the trail names and opted early in the ride for climbing. If there was a fork in the road I always took the trail that climbed instead of the one that went down or stayed flat.

I ended up riding to a dead end, which was a little bit of a bummer. The trail just ended at a park and the trail marker said "END". Haha. So I turned around and rode back to the first turn I could find and explored.

One good moment came on the way to the dead end ... I was riding along and got to a climb that seemed perfect for an attack. So I stood and started really going for it. There was a family hiking with their dog in the middle of the climb and as I went by the mother said, "Wow you have strong legs!" ... "You bet I do baby" was my mental response.

I tooled around for a few hours in the park exploring various areas and trying to maintain a good pace. I will admit that my endurance is not all that great right now.

I ended up riding down a long trail called Brandon and when I got to the bottom I decided to back track. I saw a few riders on the way down and wondered if I could catch them on the way back up. I caught two of them (women, so it wasn't that great), but the other one got away from me. I wish I could have gone harder, but I was fighting cramps so it was kind of an ugly ascent.

Overall though I had a blast riding around for 3 hours by myself. It's rare that I ever ride for that long alone. I tried to work hard and push and I suppose I'm happy with the result considering the bad shape I'm in right now.

As it turns out there are _TONS_ of great trails in the area near my parents. Next time up I plan on hitting up Mount Diablo. I can't wait.

Venting

I need to vent. There are so many things bothering me in the realm of biking right now and I don't know where to start.

1. Bike Repairs

I am tired of paying so much money for bike repairs and parts. I asked Rock and Road to save my old parts after the most recent trip to the shop and when I got my old bottom bracket back I realized how simple it must be to install. I mean it's just a metal cylinder with threads on one side. I bet with the right tools it is close to trivial to install.

I need to do more bike work myself to save money.


2. Rock and Road

My relationship with Rock and Road (a bike shop) hasn't been all bad. There have been plenty of times where they've bailed me out or done something cool for me. But as of right now I'm pissed.

I took my bike in with a broken derailleur hanger and got a call saying the rear derailleur was shot. I wasn't sure if I could trust them, but what choice do I have? Just the idea that I would consider that they would lie to me and try to sell me something I don't need shows how fragile the relationship is.

Sure enough when I went to ride this past Saturday I noticed the rear derailleur was different than what I had asked for. Now I'll admit I didn't give them a very detailed model. They simply said they would replace it with the exact same derailleur and I said that would be fine.

Well the derailleur I got was not the same. It was a cheaper model and that makes me mad.

The other thing I learned was not to trust their schedule for repairs. If they say it'll be ready on a Thursday, that means they will _look at it_ on Thursday. If they need parts or have questions, then it will take even longer.

Finally despite all my attempts to communicate I realize it ultimately falls on deaf ears. I took my singlespeed wheel to them and asked if they could repair a broken spoke before looking at my full suspension bike. I mean if the big repairs were going to take a week, then fine. But can't you just replace a spoke while I wait?

I knew that asking was futile. They didn't even look at the wheel until a week after I had brought it in.

So even though The Path is way out of my way I am going to try going there from now on. I'm just tired of mediocre service and terrible prices at Rock and Road.


3. Broken Garmin

That's right. This morning at work I accidentally threw my GPS to the ground in the elevator. I was taking it out of my jacket pocket and in one motion it slipped out of my hand and flew to the ground.

When I picked it up it was rattling and the mode button wouldn't work.

Thank God Garmin is a great company and is taking the unit back and fixing it for free. Even though I told them it was my fault, they agreed to handle it.


4. Rain

I got sick for a few weeks and missed a handful of rides with my buddies. Saturday I was way off my game. I just suffered through three hours on the bike and left feeling a little discouraged.

Now that I'm feeling better I have another enemy to contend with. Rain. Ugh.

I just want to ride! Hahaha.



Anyways I'm hoping all this time _not_ riding won't kill me for Vision Quest. I have no goals this year other than to beat my time from last year. Shouldn't be hard since I laid an egg last year.

January and February better be amazing months for riding because I'm feeling very behind right now.

Stages of Grief

So I woke up Saturday morning with a problem. My cold had moved to my chest and I wasn't feeling good. I started to get ready for the morning ride, but decided to cancel it when I realized I would end up doing considerable damage by riding with a chest cold in the cold weather.

Last year I rode with a cold and when it got into my chest I was ruined. It took so incredibly long to get over.

I wish I could go back and trade the Thursday night Luge ride for the Saturday ride. Next time I'll wait until the cold is gone before doing a ride in the cold.

So all day Saturday I went through the stages of grief.

Denial

"I feel ok! I mean I'm not sick! *cough* *cough* *COUGH* *COOOOOOUGGGGGGHHH!*"

Anger

"I HATE MY LIFE! I HATE THE GUY AT WORK THAT GAVE ME THIS COLD! WHY DID I RIDE THE LUGE?!?!?! I HATE ALL THE GUYS I RIDE WITH BECAUSE THEY AREN'T SICK! I HATE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!"

Bargaining

"I would give my Trek 6700 to get rid of this cold. Maybe I can trade one day of riding for a week of being sick? That's a good trade!"

Depression

"Matt called me a pussy this morning. That's so true. *cry* I am sitting around eating and getting fat while my friends are riding and having fun. *cry*"

Acceptance

"It's ok. Nothing I can do now. Best to focus on the next ride."


At least the rain buys me some time to get better. I'm still coughing and can't seem to shake it. I just want to get healthy and get back on the bike.

For the last month or so I can't help but feel like I haven't been riding enough. I always feel like I'm playing catch up. Maybe a new year will help fix that mentality.

Troy Lee, Sick, Luge

Troy Lee

I went to do a ride last Saturday that I had been looking forward to for a long time. A few of us were going to drop down a trail called Skinsuit, which apparently is a part of a network of trails collectively called the "Troy Lee" trails.

Whatever. Troy Lee sounds better than stupid Skinsuit, so I'll just call it Troy Lee.

About half a mile down Troy Lee I heard a loud noise and my pedals felt jammed. I stopped and looked down to see my rear derailleur detached from the bike. Great. This meant I had to hike back up to Main Divide and ride/coast/scoot back to my car.

I think what happened was that some branch or stick got stuck in my chain on the way down and it pulled on the chain which caused things to break.

It was a nightmare to ride down and see so many other people climbing up Blackstar. I saw a ton of riders I recognized and it hurt to know I wasn't able to put in the miles that I wanted to put in. So frustrating.

Unfortunately the repairs are going to be very costly. My bottom bracket had quite a bit of play in it and the drive train was wearing thin, so this just added to those other repairs.

All in all this is what I've had to buy to get it fixed:

- New rear derailleur (I thought it was ok, but the shop says it's toast)
- New bottom brackt
- New rings in front
- New cassette
- New chain
- New derailleur hanger

Also to add insult to injury I had to have a spoke or two replaced on my rear SS wheel and then get it trued. More money. =(


Sick

In other news I got sick earlier this week and I'm almost recovered now. A guy showed up to work last Friday obviously sick, but that is how our company works. Sick? No problem! Come in!


Luge

Last night I did three Luge laps on singlespeed bikes (two on mine, one on Matt's). I was pretty happy to have done it. A few short years ago, doing two Luge laps would have seemed to be a daunting task. Luge at night? Forget it. Luge on a singlespeed? No way. Luge on a rigid singlespeed? No even in the realm of possibilities.

So I'm happy that I've gotten to the point where passing people on the Luge at night isn't exciting anymore and that doing three Luge laps on a singlespeed is not a big accomplishment. It's just business as usual.


Just happy to be riding more ...

Second String Riding

Yesterday I realized I have at least two of everything needed to mountain bike. I'm happy to always have a backup ready when something breaks, but sometimes everything breaks at once.

My full suspension bike needs some work and my main night riding light died so I've been riding my singlespeed and my backup light.

Fortunately the replacement battery for my main light has arrived and I am almost done fixing the full suspension bike.

In the meantime I've done two Old Camp-Luge laps on the singlespeed - one on Saturday and one on Tuesday night.

Not too much to say about the rides. I did notice that on Tuesday night I suffered quite a bit more. We didn't stop very often and so I was having a hard time recovering after a hard climbing effort. I only barely finished the final climb after the flag going towards Old Camp.

Also I realized that in the daylight my hands and arms aren't stressed as much. At night I ride more defensively on the singlespeed and so I'm constantly on the brakes. It really wears me out.

I'm happy to add another loop to the "conquered" list for the singlespeed.

Unfortunately the singlespeed now needs some work though. I broke a spoke at Old Camp and it wrapped itself tight around my rear rotor. I guess riding without suspension will put quite a strain on the wheels.

Looking forward to getting back to normal with my main light and bike.