cyclecross

Yesterday I decided to go for a ride after work. Since my road bike is at the shop getting tuned up for bike and build, i was left with my 'cross bike. Given the limited amount of time (approx 1hr) before sunset, I decided to take my cyclocross bike in the woods behind my house for some singletrack action.
I thought this would be a good idea because
1. I was interested in trying out my Mavic Kysrium SL's as 'cross wheels (I'm using my cyclocross wheelset for bike and build because they use normal spokes and have a high spoke count, and I actually want the weight penalty of a heavier wheelset)
2. Theres not alot of riding that can be done in an hour and considered a good workout, unless I was doing high intensity intervals. An hour in the trails (at least for me) is a much more challenging ride.
3. I bought what has amounted to another expensive toy this past November as part of the Upenn Team deal (in the hopes of racing 'cross next fall) and had taken my cross bike out all of five or six times for the entire year. I wanted to see what this thing could handle, and what I could handle, as I've never spent any time mountain biking, even though I have one of the best trails directly behind my house.

I had a lot of fun sloshing through puddles, running up hills, and having one of those great moments where you just feel like its just you, your bike and the path in front of you. In many instances, it is those moments you feel the most detached from the rest of the world that you feel the most connected to it.

As much of a spiritual experience this ride became, (today may have been the first time where I really enjoyed riding off-road), I can still say it was probably a bad idea.
1. apparently my kysrium SL's are not as bomb proof as I thought, and I sent the front one out of true-- this only further reinforces my belief that my original cross set was the right choice for bike and build.
2. Stillwell is one of the most overused trails in the county, and as a result has become a bike shop's best friend as alot of the dirt has been replaced by sand and traction is tricky at best.
3. my lack of experience led me to fall over and crash several times and I slightly twisted my ankle- this is not what I should be doing before leaving for a 9 week bike trip that I will never have opportunity to do again if I dont do it this summer. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, thankfully I was alrite and I can say that falling on dirt is alot softer and safer than crashing on pavement and speeds are much slower.
4. With nightfall fast approaching, I wound up getting quite lost and only by pure luck wound up making it out of the woods before it became dark.
5. Cleaning a 'cross bike is a royal pain, and I did a half-ass job at best.

Although this ride gets chalked up in the bad idea column (i've been doing that plenty lately it seems), I still was glad to have done it, as its the first time this summer I've gotten in a ride after work.

powercranks

My powercranks finally arrived today! I was able to pick up a used pair in the adjustable length style on ebay, and was able to get the model 5 which is a lot less prone to breaking.

What are powercranks you ask? Most bicycle cranks are connected to each other, so that one crank turns the other crank. It's the standard setup that everyone knows and loves. PowerCranks replace that lovely connection with a one way clutch, making the cranks independent. Have you ever tried riding a bicycle with only one foot clipped in? It's hard. Well, riding with PowerCranks is like doing the one-footed drill, with both feet at the same time, all the time. For more information and videos of these interesting tools of torture, check out http://www.powercranks.com/

They are definately heavier and bulkier than i expected for such expensive cranks. I'm planning on putting these on my cannondale r700 (my bike and build bike) after this summer trip and the Tobay triathalon the week after bike and build ends. I've had a mixed bag of opinions on them so far. Our group leader Jose swears by them, and said hes seen marked improvement in his performance because of them. Doug, my LBS owner, says they are a waste of time and money. With time we'll see

Six13- Alan receives his new bike

So for Robert's high school graduation, I wanted to do something really nice, and offered to buy him a bike up to $1000. After steering him away from the "fitness bike" genre, I bought him a 2007 Rocky Mountain solo 30, a Canadian made aluminum bike with carbon fork and seatstays and 10 speed 105. Rocky Mountain has a solid reputation in the mountain biking industry, and supposedly made nice road bikes as well. (I hear the biggest knock on RM bikes are their frames are a little on the heavier side, but I'd trade ride feel for a little extra weight any day of the week.)

I won't say that Robert has ridden it a ton, but for those few rides we went on together, it made all those hours working at Greenbergfarrow worth it. Hopefully next year takes the bike up to Yale, regardless of how little space he claims to have in his dorm, and maybe he'll even find the adrenaline rush and camaderie of racing in the ECCC. Even if he never races, he'll always have a solid bike to zip around on, and hopefully he finds at least half the benefits that I've gotten as a result of biking.

So how does this relate to Alan, who just finished 10th grade? Alan has always been the most athletic in the family, (by far I might add), and has always shown interest in biking. Even though he has seemed to be more interested in mountain biking, as this is what his friends do, I know he's been interested in road biking as well, which would play into his strengths as a track and xc star.

I'm still not quite sure how he pulled this off, but somehow he convinced me to extend the same 1k road bike high school graduation gift to him...two years early! In reality though, it made sense to me, as he'll get much more use out of it now, as well as he has a better chance of really getting into the sport if he starts now. In addition, all of the bike and build discounts that we were getting served as really good leverage on getting a good bike at a decent price.

After originally deciding he wanted a specialized allez elite in the gerolsteiner color, I was able make him see the light, and eventually he came around to seeing the 2008 Cannondale Six13 5 in black. I'm not knocking the specialed allez elite as a beginner road bike, for all those bike and builders reading this blog, as itll work fine, but for a little more, the six13 5 is in a league of its own (and happens to be the winner of Bicycling Magazine's Best Enthusiast Road Bike, so you dont have to take my word for it.)

The bike is equipped with 105 10 speed drivetrain, ultegra brakes, mavic aksium wheels, and cannondale's carbon tubes, aluminum lugged bike, which 3 years ago was their top of the line frameset raced by the pros. Alan's new bike is actually alot nicer than my Cannondale caad7 when i bought it, which is nice, as it will be hard for Alan to outgrow the bike anytime soon.





Another happy cutomer at Bike Junkie ( http://www.bikejunkie.com/ ) If you live on LI, you'll never find a better bike shop out there.

Katie's Graduation

I was at Katie’s Graduation this week. It felt like only yesterday that I was the freshmen boy who lived down the hall from the girls of 907. It’s really hard to believe that next year I’ll be done with college as well, and forced to deal with the real world, or escape to grad school for 2-3 more years of academia.

I went up with Katie’s full family and had a great time. While I was extremely proud of Katie, part of me was understandably sad as well, as graduation marked the passing of a chapter of our lives where we got to spend the better part of every day with each other. While I have no doubt that we’ll work things out next year and in the future, I’ll miss her constant companionship and friendship next year.

I don’t think I’ve seen Katie so happy in a really long time. Maybe it had to do with being done with all the roommate nonsense she put up with all year, (read: never live with all girls..it’s a disaster waiting to happen), or maybe it had to do with landing her dream job for a year before medical school, or perhaps the second semester in a row where she has rocked in the grades department. Whatever the case might be, I can only hope to be so happy at the end of my four years at Penn.

I have very much enjoyed my time at Penn. I’ve gotten to meet some really fantastic people and have felt I’ve grown in all facets of my life- It’s probably the closest I’ve ever been to having a well rounded life.

I also think my love of Penn has been closely related to by infatuation with the city of Philadelphia. Yes, the city of Brotherly Love where more than a person a day is murdered, the city where there are only 2 subway lines, the city that hasn’t won a sports title in 40 years, and a city whose schools are some of the worst in the nation. For all of its problems, Philadelphia has a lot more going for it than people give it credit.
1st- cost. In Philadelphia, I can get 3 eggs with cheese on a hoagie for $1.75- in NYC 2 eggs & cheese on a roll will cost you at least $2.50. Nice apartments in Philadelphia can be found for less than $800 while its hard to find anything in NYC for under $1,000.
2nd- Philadelphia is built at a more human scale than NYC. I often feel swallowed up in the machine organism of the city- both the sheer size and scale of the city is overpowering at times.
3rd- Climate- Philadelphia is typically 5 degrees warmer than NYC, which is sometimes the difference between riding outside and riding my trainer
Lastly- while both my LBS and Katie are originally from Long Island, it wasnt until Philly that i discovered Katie or biking, two of the best things to ever happen to me.

riding on Long Island

LI is one of the best places to ride- there are plenty of good routes to choose from although its difficult to find long sustained hills
http://www.bicyclelongisland.org/index.htm
this site has links to all the bike clubs on long island- unlike philadelphia which is primarily a race town full of uscf cat 3/4s, long island is mostly club riders and there are many more rides geared towards peole of all abilities.

ive ridden with the massapequa bike club before, as well as the huntington bike club in the past- both are goodhttp://www.bicyclelongisland.org/libcfram.htm here are many good cue sheets to chose from