Thursday, November 17, 2005

Riding with the Dogs

Had to take the morning off of work today. Waiting for a check from my old 401K that we need for the closing costs. Since I was home figured I might as well go riding with the dogs! Sweet weather, not a cloud in the sky and was able to ride wearing a longs sleeve wool jersey and Carharts. Love riding in Carharts, and I don't know why. Got below freezing last night.

Not sure what I still think about this off-road fixed gear thing anymore. Wrecked three times getting caught behind the seat and over the bars after getting bucked on rocks while trying to peddle. Freewheels, what a technological concept to be embrased.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

GB Carp's House

Some of you may have seen some of these pics, some of you maybe haven't. Carp just sent me these. Pretty sick house and located in the rad Black Hills. That area has to be one of my most favorite places in the U.S. The climbing out there is sick and there is never a crowd at the cliffs. Laid back place and lots of space. Just avoid the tourists. Well Carp you are definately due for a visit one of these days. Do some fixed gear riding and chill on that deck of yours swilling brews.

Ever thought of trying to ride Needles Highway on a fixed gear? Would that be suicide? Probably, but its such a idiotic idea it'd be fun.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Climbing


Well, I was supposed to go to Enchanted Rock this weekend. Was pretty stoked to do some climbing on that coarse granite. No one that is going really climbs, but the bouldering out there is great, at least what I've done. I've only bouldered one little area for about an hour.

Nope, not going camping this weekend. gotta play some golf with my boss, his wife, and another co-worker. One of the labs we use is having a scramble tournament for their employees and clients. Should be fun, I guess.

An old picture on my hard drive of Tara climbing at Pinnacles National Monument. Last December I played hooky from the American Geophysical Union conference to climb with 3 of my homeboys from Cali!

http://www.pinnacles.org/

http://www.nps.gov/pinn/

http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/pin/

The place is really sweet. Used to climb there almost every weekend when I first started climbing. My roommate and I had to start climbing harder there cause we were ticking off all the climbs within our grade.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Downfalls of Fixed Gear

You can't lend your ride out when a buddy is in a jam. If only I hadn't bent that brake pin one last time Mike and I could be riding Walnut Creek tomorrow. Just don't mind that brake pad dragging, single speeding ain't hard enough!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Benefits of Dedicated Single Speed


There's been a lot of talk recently on the Lincoln Blog about the benefits of single speeds. Here's another one, but you need a way to tension the chain some other way than a der like gizmo and a fix/free hub. A pin on one of my rear break arms was always bending. I'd have to bend it back after each ride. Bent it the last time on Saterday's pre-ride prep. Luckily I could pop off one free wheel and thread on a track cog and lock ring. Plus with the Jones bars I could remove the break and lever without taking off grips. Not really wanting to buy a new break right now so I'll be riding fixed gear full time. Hit up Muleshoe that way. Gotta be the best trail in Austin area. Fast 7 mile loop, all tight technical single track with some nice rock gardens thrown in. Great place for laps. We did 3 Saturday.

Anyone know what might be causing this? Look at my bars, the tape keeps unwrapping from the ends. Never had it happen before. Removed the adhesive on the back of the tape, but that's never caused a problem before. Is it cause the ends point down?

Beer


Kegged a cream ale last night. Had a little tailgate safety meeting with myself prior to the work. Last time I kegged a beer I cut the hell out of my wrist when cleaning out the carboy. Did is safely though this time. Thank God for personal safety meetings and the regulations set forth by OSHA.
http://www.osha.gov/

Well since I knew I'd keg that night and have an empty carboy and had to leave work early to pick up a survey of my new home, figured I'd stop by Austin Homebrew Supply
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/

Brewed up a relatively heavy hopped Coffee Porter. 3oz. Fuggles, 1oz. Northern Brewer, and 1/4oz. Warrior. Steeped a 1/2 lb. of coffee in the brew as I was cooling. Two favorite drinks as one, the multi-task beer. Made a similar recipe last year using the Panache's Blue Haitian Voodoo Coffee. Man that was a good beer. Blue-black in color it looked like an oil slick. At first there was this overpowering smell of stale coffee so let it sit and finished off a steam beer that was ready to drink. After about 2 additional weeks in the bottle, the smell died and the flavor was great. Drunk and caffinated, what a better way to be. If you were lucky, I might have shared that beer with some of you.

Anyway, I have this offer. Anyone from Lincoln gets me a 1/2 lb of unground Blue Hatian Voodoo coffee, I'll send off a few bottles of beer it goes into.