South Side Ride

Today was a beautiful sunny day, with light winds and temps in the 40s.  I rode one of my favorite routes - the South Mpls Loop, as I call it.  It's my usual route if I'm looking to get on the bike for a quick ride.  It has the river, the creek, the lakes, and the Midtown Greenway... all of which make for a fun ride with interesting people and great scenery.

Overall the trails weren't as wet as I expected, and the fenders did a good job of keeping me dry whenever I came across puddles.  There's still a fair amount of snow left to melt so it might be a little while before things are dry enough for me to ditch the fenders.

The route takes me across the Sabo Bridge, which is one of the cooler bridges in the area.  It is a single tower cable suspension bridge that takes Midtown Greenway users over Hiawatha Ave and the Light Rail line.  If I'm not in a hurry I usually spend a couple minutes checking out the view while I'm up there.

One last pic of just the suspension cables of the bridge and the power lines.  I kinda like this one...

I'm hoping for more warm, dry days in the near future.  One thing was obvious from today's ride... I need to get more miles in because I'm really out of shape.

A Long Winter

It's been a long winter, and spring has been slow in taking over.  This winter was definitely an unusual one... but last year was also unusual. Spring came early in 2010.  Here are some pics from this week last year:

Last year at this time the local unofficial trails were rideable...

And Battle Creek was opening...

Battle Creek in St. Paul is often the first to open for the year... mostly due to its sandy soils.  This year I'm hoping the trails will be rideable mid-April.  The probability is good, as long as our unusually snowy winter doesn't become an unusually rainy spring...

Fender Season

It's fender season here in Minnesota... rain, melting snow, and tons of puddles make fenders a requirement for me this time of year.  Throw in the fact that the snow on the local singletrack is too soft to ride (or if the snow is actually gone, the dirt is too soft), and that means my only riding option is pavement.

With all the sand and water, this is also the time of year that my poor weather/errand bike will see its most miles.  The pic below is from a quick ride out to Fort Snelling last weekend.  Since this pic was taken we got another 4-5 inches of wet snow.  This winter is now the 5th snowiest on record!  Hopefully the strong March sun and some mild temps will make quick work of the new snow.  Regardless, it looks like this bike will continue to get some use...

I've always liked the performance of full coverage fenders, but after loading a fully-fendered bike into the back of my car a couple years ago I'm no longer a fan of fenders that aren't easily removed.

So here is my solution:

The front and the rear fenders can be removed in seconds and provide a fair amount of coverage.  The biggest drawback of most clip-on fenders is the lack of protection between the seatstays and chainstays... and my legs and feet end up getting wet because of it.  To solve this problem, I've made a crudcatcher for the rear wheel:

The DIY rear crudcatcher is a section of the rear fender that came with the front clip-on fender (it's a set of Planet Bike 26" ATB fenders).  I cut the rear fender to length and mounted it to the chainstay bridge and the seat tube.  It runs from below the chainstays to the seatstay bridge and prevents rear wheel spray from getting to my legs and feet.  It's tucked out of the way and isn't going to cause any problems if I have to slide the rear wheel out of the frame.  

As you can see, there is a gap between the crudcatcher and seatpost mounted fender.  On one hand this is good since there are no issues with the v-brake and cable, but on the other hand it allows some water through.  There are some seatpost mounted fenders available that extend forward from the mount and should give enough coverage to close the gap.  If it becomes an issue I'll just buy one of those.  The only other issue was some minor spray on my back since the rear fender isn't quite long enough to block the entire 29er tire. 

All in all it has worked out to be a good compromise of coverage and ease of removal.

Fat Front Fargo

With the cables run and fork installed it was time for a test ride...

After just a couple hundred yards I could tell I was going to like this bike a lot... it fits really well.  The riding position is much more comfortable than my old Fat Front Fisher.  The handling didn't seem awkward or clumsy, but with all the trails covered in soft snow I couldn't really test it's off-road handling.  It steered surprisingly normal on the pavement.  I was running the front tire at a relatively high pressure so it'll be interesting to see how the handling is effected by tire pressure.

The Waltworks fork looks awesome on there...

Now it's just a matter of time.  Hopefully by this time next month I'll be able to test it out on some singletrack!

Seuss-Cycle

The last component for my Fargo MTB arrived this week.  Here is a pic taken pre-powdercoat.  It's a custom Waltworks fork... clearance to fit a Larry/Large Marge front wheel, 100mm hub spacing, non-suspension corrected (a-c length and offset are same as stock Fargo fork), and a crazy long steerer tube.  As Walt put it, "Dr. Seuss meets Fatbike."

I should be able to get a test ride (and pics) this weekend.

Spring Forward

The advancing of the clocks today is just one more sign that spring is on it's way... the problem is the weather isn't cooperating.  It still feels like winter, and I'm so over winter.  That might be partially due to the fact that I wasn't very good about getting out on my bike this season.  Between putting in more hours at work and succumbing to general laziness, I didn't get as much time in the saddle as I would have liked.  The fact that we had an unusually snowy winter (with very few thaws) didn't help any either.  As of today we've had the 7th snowiest season on record.  A lot of time and energy was spent clearing the sidewalk and driveway this year.

One of my favorite winter rides is cruising along the frozen creek... in winter the creek turns into a quiet, flat, tree-lined trail through south Minneapolis. It wasn't a very good year for riding the frozen creek though.  I think it was a combination of high water levels from a wet autumn, a lot of snow to insulate the ground, and the large amounts of salt that were used on the local roads this year.  Whatever the cause, there were always long sections of open water this year.  There were definitely sections that were rideable, but not for the distances possible the last couple winters.  

With the exception of Theo and the River Bottoms, I didn't make the trek out to any of the local singletrack trails.  Looking back I wish I would have made the drive down to Lebanon Hills and Murphy-Hanrehan, but both trails were in unrideable condition for a significant number of days this year.

Oh well.  There is always next winter.

I'm really looking forward to some warmer temps, and it looks as though we might be getting them later this week (along with some rain to eat the snow).  I picked up fenders for my errand bike and some new bike shorts, and I'm itching to put 'em to use.  I also cabled up the Fargo MTB this weekend... should have the project completed by next weekend.

Knowing this is just a couple months away keeps me going...

One for the Trails

As mentioned in my last post, I am building up a bike for riding the local singletrack...

It's a Salsa Fargo, but with a more MTB-orientated set up than most Fargo builds.  The Fargo is an off-road touring bike, so it's not your typical mountain bike frame.  It is designed for drop handlebars and can carry a multitude of cargo on racks front and back.  I needed to compensate for the Fargo's short top tube by running a long stem and sliding the seat back a bit in the rails, but I'm more leg than torso so that's alright.

The key reason I chose the Fargo was the tall front end.  There aren't many mountain bikes out there that allow me to put the handlebars at my preferred height.  Sure I could get a Karate Monkey and probably find an aftermarket fork with an extra long steerer, but then I'd need a TON of spacers.  Even with the Fargo frame and its long head tube I have a fair number of spacers below the stem.    

It was a nice sunny day today, and (relatively) warm so I took it out for a short test ride.  I rode pretty slow since I still need to run cables to the derailleur and the rear brake.  So far the fit feels great.  The bike will have a simple 1x9 drivetrain.  Some component highlights include 180mm Truvativ Stylo cranks, On-One Fleegle handlebars with Ergon grips, and a Thudbuster LT seatpost.  There will be one more cool addition to this bike in the next couple weeks...

This bike will be the replacement for my Fisher GED, which has been turned into a singlespeed beater bike.  I'll post some pics of it in the next couple weeks.  The GED may still get some use on rougher trails since it's the only bike I own that will fit my suspension fork.