Back at it again.

New shoes and stoppers.

Found some pictures that I'd almost forgotten about, involving bike component upgrades. About the time I was switching the studded tires back off my mtb, I was doing some shopping around to replace these tired old Maxxis Ridgelines which came with the bike.

Went with an Ardent 2.25 front and Crossmark rear.

Then the next issue was brakes. In this case, too much braking - the front one was getting stuck on at maybe 10-20% force and once stuck, would stay that way the rest of a ride. It made for good training, but less fun. I would have just rebuilt the caliper but, when looking for parts online, discovered that the pistons in these low-end Avid brakes are some sort of bake-lite composite which absorbs the fluid over time, causing them to permanently swell. Incredibly craptastic I thought. Replace with something better then became the answer.

Something (hopefully) better arrived in the mail. These have aluminum pistons if nothing else.

Installed and fully bled, they work great. The new system has so much power that I may regret changing the rotor to a bigger size. It's so powerful now that I feel like a lot of modulation has been lost. It'll probably still be o.k. - just one of those things that requires getting used to.

Preparing preserves

My bourbon-cask stout is finally about six months old, so I bottled it up. I'm not sure why, but there seems to be no pictures after washing bottles. Oh well - the whole batch made 46 bottles after the neck popped off of one. It also became apparent that I can't cap the big clay Rogue bottles without a bench-top capper, which was a bummer. I need to make sure and use some regular bomber bottles next time. Time for some more cooking at any rate - all the carboys are empty!

Dry dirt at last!

Cody had been diligently calling the local state-park hotline to check trail conditions for who knows how long now. Finally the toasty warm weather took care of the trails and everything opened up. Not only were they open, but they were the driest I've ever seen them including the dead of summer, let alone spring. I think it was about 80° or so and clear most of the time. 

Getting hot out, plenty of water was downed.

Corrine's front tire fell victim to a locust tree attack. Thankfully the only one of the day which is pretty good considering the quantity of thorns we saw.

Stripped, tube replaced, rolling again. No problem, though it did make me want some Stans. 

Had to get a picture of Cody's new whip.

Only a memory

It almost seems impossible, having just put away a week of 70° days and a week-end at 80°+, but these pictures were taken at the end of February. It is now the middle of March - yeah, almost three weeks. I had them uploaded but forgot to make a post. 

It was a pretty neat snow- piling up on and sticking to everything. It didn't last long obviously, but was probably about the biggest single snow-"storm" we had this year. If that says anything about how the 2011/2012 winter has been.

Snow-bike!

The snow persisted today and, after a short trip to Oskaloosa, I got the MTB out for something that started as a joyride and ended as training punishment. It was similar to riding on rollers or a trainer the whole time but still a lot of fun. 

Just about ready to head home, it's warm enough that snow won't stay on the car. 

Picked up a little ice from the highway.

Geared-up and heading out. The flakes coming down were massive and soaked anything they came in contact with. I was pretty good on waterproof/windproof clothes except that I was wearing regular jeans. 

I'm really the only person who had this idea?

This gives you an idea of how much the snow stuck to everything. What you see on my helmet there collected in just a couple miles. My jacket is beading it off for the most part.

Found a small section of trail where the Army Corps had started plowing it. 

Most of the way, there was about 1" of slush with 2" of snow on top. Out in the foresty areas, there was a little more - it would go over my shoes when I stopped. This type of snow had some nice bonuses v/s super-cold weather snow. Mainly in that the front wheel doesn't throw a continuous stream of it at my legs and shoes while turning.

The above bridge is where I turned around. I could feel the wind now and then on the way out but it was brutal on the way back, leaving me spinning on the big end of the cassette while thinking about dropping the crank to its small ring, and that was on the flat. Wind plus snow-resistance also meant pedaling hard down hill. Good ride.

Weather data courtesy of Weather Underground