Mountain Fluids

Last night after work I went for a mountain bike ride with some co-workers. Great ride. I took the Bullit out to get some quality time in the saddle for the race. I haven’t been on the Bullit much lately, so I wanted to make sure I was comfortable on the bike before the race this weekend.

Mission accomplised. I felt really good. Maybe the riding to work is paying off little by little. My legs felt really strong, and my balance was good. I practiced short downhill sprinting sections, braking and leaning into corners, tight twisties at speed, and the occasional jump. I also rode with the saddle lower than normal to get used to that too.

I feel pretty good about the race, and it is still 2 days away. Tomorrow I will actually get out onto the course for a bit of practice there. There are a couple sections I don’t ride very often so I need to work the kinks out there. Also, the last DH race at the dump had a couple loops on Snakes and Ladders cut out. Not sure if they will be doing that again.

I do need to do a bit of work on the bullit today. Top up the fork fluids (bottomed out a few times yesterday), clean and lube everything up, and add a big ring. I will need that for the race. I may also need a fender. As of right now 80% chance of light rain for Sunday. I hate waiting at the top of the course in the rain. You get cold and wet. Shitty way to start a race where you go balls out, fast as you can down technical and challenging trails.

Cute Pets

Hotlinking Thieves

I was spending some geek time looking through my stats since I hadn’t done that in a very long time. I had to update my .htaccess according to the Dreamhost Drupal Docs so I could get access to the stats directory.

After doing this, and looking at the monthly stats I noticed that there were a *lot* of myspace referrals. Checking a few of the links I could see that tons of people were hotlinking one of my pictures.

Quick google search and I found this page: Preventing image hotlinking: An improved tutorial. In the comments there was the exact example of what I was looking for. Copy paste, upload the new .htaccess. Nothing like the taste of sweet success.

I double checked by reloading one of the myspace thieving posts, and there was a missing image. Perfect. Sometime I want to create an image to send to the thieves instead of the blankness they see.

Downhill Jitters

Friday at work I began to wonder about the upcoming Island Cup downhill racing season. Every year I do 1 or 2 races. Last year was the exception due to conflicts with stag parties, weddings, and the like. 🙂

After the usual Google search, I ended up at the Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club. Front page there is the advertsing poster. Much to my dismay/amazement I noticed that the first race is this weekend in Nanaimo. Damn. I was hoping to do that race this year.

Next weekend is Victoria. WTF? I am dumbfounded that I haven’t heard of this race yet. After seeing this race is next weekend I jumped over to the SIMBS page has no mention of the race. This is an organization that must approve of races in the park. This is the same organization that is supposed to be promoting riding and racing in Victoria. No big mention of the Victoria race in the SIMBS forums either.

In any event I am looking forward to the race next weekend. I called Oak Bay Bikes today and learned that the race is on the same course as the last DH race at the dump. This is good news for me. I don’t have enough spare time next weekend to do a full training day on a new course before race day. Knowing those trails the way I do I feel pretty good about being able to put in a good race. I just wish I had put in some real training for the season. Maybe my commuting the last few weeks will pay off in the fitness arena.

I am anticipating the race. In some weird way I really enjoy the pre race jitters. I enjoy riding the course in my head a million times before my race run. I love the felling of my heartbeat racing off as the race official counts down my start. I love the adrenaline rush as I take off from the start line. I definitely push myself way more when I race rather than a normal ride, and I love that feeling too. The burning sensation in my budy as I cross the finish line is something I will never forget. The heavy breathing, the acidic almost blood like taste in my mouth. All of it is an experience that really makes me feel alive.

More next weekend on the race though.

Approximating Investment

Riding home from work last night I saw the price of gas had risen to 101.9. This got me to thinking about the money I spent on the bike. I keep wondering if I spent too much, and if we could really afford it.

Approximating the price of the bike at $400 ($350 + taxes)
Set the gas price at $1.109

$400 will buy me approx 360 Litres of gas.

My truck has a 70 L tank. 360/70 will yield approx 5 full tanks of gas. If I drove the truck to work every day, I would fill up every 2 weeks (approx). This means that in 10 weeks (2.5 months) of riding I will have worked off the price of the bike if gas prices remained constant. This doesn’t take into account, what I would have to pay for parking. The spot we used to rent was $90 a month.

Let’s take into account the parking spot price. Two months of driving would cost me $180 + $310 (4 tanks of gas), this totals $490. Less than 2 months of riding.

Not a bad investment.

What if I took the bus instead of driving? Bus passes are currently around $65 a month. It would take me around 6 months of riding to be cost effective.

Again, not bad. The bike is just as quick as the bus, and way more convenient. The math makes me feel a lot better about buying this bike.

Brithday Dad

Tis the birthday day for me. My first birthday as a dad. Cool.

Upkeep Homework

I read Canada.com regularly, sticking to the Victoria Times Colonist stories. One article from Mar 15 got me a little riled.

Hatley castle is a wonderful place to take pictures, and it sickens me that they want to erect a fence around the castle and the gardens so that they can charge an admission fee. I understand that they want to recoop their cost of upkeep, but surely Royal Roads did their homework when they took over the grounds? Didn’t they do financial forecasts to ensure they could afford this?

I really have no sympathy for them if they did no homework. That is a pet peeve of mine when this happens. Who has to pay? The public? How is that right? Those park grounds have been free for as long as I have lived in Victoria.

Like I said, I am sickened by this change. Yes I have a vested interest in keeping it free. I have gone on photo shoots there a couple times now, and would like to continue to keep shooting there. Not sure how likely I will be willing to pay to do this.

Ongoing Purchases

Last week I went to get some fenders for my new bike. The fenders I originally bought with the bike just didn’t fit, so I bought some replacements.

Setup was pretty easy, but very, very fiddly. Getting them aligned, but not rubbing is an ongoing process. I might take them off and start over. Yesterday I was able to actually test them out. I was pretty sceptical since they don’t cover very much of the tire, but after a few minutes on the wet roads I was suitably impressed. They kept the spray off my legs and off my butt. I arrived at work still relatively dry.

The other item I bought was a new pair of Mace riding shorts. I have worn them to work a few times, and on the weekend ride. Wow. Comfortable. Love them. I got them for a steal ($50 regular $85), but even at full price they would have been worth the price. Better than the Roach Indy shorts I have been wearing for years. The Mace shorts have a lining, zip crotch, tough button closure, and belt loops. Roach Indy shorts have a velcro closure that wears out after a while.

Anyway, 2 purchases that I am happy with. Gotta love that.

Bouncy Traction

Yesterday was a great ride. I haven’t been riding in a few months, so it was awesome to get out and stretch my legs. I rode the Bullit since it hasn’t seen any action in a very long time. Bouncy bikes are a lot of fun.

The group yesterday was a bunch of guys I haven’t ridden with in a while. Even Shane came out!

We generally took it easy, didn’t ride any high difficulty trails, but still had a great time. There were 6 of us riding, and 3 dogs. Perfect sized pack if you ask me. The dogs were really good and didn’t get in the way at all. Can’t say the same for some of the people though 😉 Just pulling your leg James.

Trail conditions were awesome too. Excellent traction, under clear blue skies, with crisp air. If I didn’t know the time of year I would have guessed it was a fall ride.

I was under a time limit, and had to be home around 3, so when time came to make a decision on what trail to ride, I chose one of my favorites out there: Snakes and Ladders. I railed the trail like I last rode it yesterday. The twists and turns came flooding back to me, and I just pedalled for what I was worth. Such a fun trail.

By this time Yoshi was getting pretty tired. He hasn’t had many long runs lately, and I think that mountain biking was pretty hard on him. He just wasn’t keeping up like he used to. On the way back to the truck I rode pretty slow down the hills so I wouldn’t get too far in front of him. He gets pretty frantic when he gets seperated from me. Not sure how much longer I will be able to take him riding. Maybe when Sox starts running again, and we can get Yoshi’s fitness level up. Makes me sad to think that a time will come when Yoshi just won’t be able to come out with me any more.

The other sad note was on the drive down Hartland Ave, I almost creamed a dog with my truck. This dog bolted out of a hedge lined yard straight towards the road. I have no idea how close it was, but I swerved violently around the dog. It continued across the street like nothing happened. That was a quick shot of adrenaline that I didn’t need.

muddylaces

Spreading mud since 1975.