New Stuffs

There are a lot of new stuffs floating around my place. I finally managed to get the trail bike of my dreams. Of course next year's model is out and the frame has been redesigned for the better already, making mine seem like a big pile (thanks Kona!). Hopefully after a bit more riding, I'll even have a review of sorts. It has been moved to the quiver for now.

In other news, and in a category titled "What's been keeping me up at night", I have also gotten two new puppies. The plan was to get a single other dog, but in our

searching, a free dog arrived on my porch early one Saturday morning. As the rule of free puppies goes, once it has gotten inside the house, it probably isn't going back. And so, there came to be Mayhem.

Of course as it turns out, we had already visited a musher and picked out a pup who was only a week old at the time. So several weeks later when it was time for him to come home, there was also a Rukkus.

Last night was only the second night he finally slept all the way through, which believe me, has been a blessing. There is nothing like getting up with a whiny pup that doesn't want to sleep, hanging around outside (not that it is getting chilly at night). Then coming inside only to fall asleep on the couch and wake up to a steaming pile anyway. I think we were up to a full roll of paper towels day at one point. I guess all the maintenance with dogs is up front. At least I won't need to give them spring tune ups.

Tough Times

This morning’s drizzle on the way in was that kind of annoying weather that isn’t enough to actually ruin a ride, but is just the push to make it slightly less enjoyable. Similarly, through travels online, I have become aware of recent events in the “world of cycling” that make being a person who rides slightly less enjoyable. First and foremost, Floyd Landis pretty much snapped. The guy is a disgraced ex-Tour champion who most people will say is the prime example of what’s wrong with professional road racing. And that goes for the people that claim dopers are ruing things and the people that claim that the doping controls are out of control and we are catching clean athletes and ruining them. Landis now claims that despite his multiple protests of innocence that he has always been clean, a drawn out circus show of a appeal case, donations to his defense fund and a book, that he actually was doping. Also, everyone he knew and most of us know and love were also doping.

It’s a fairly sizable bombshell, and quite frankly I am not sure what to make of it. To tell the honest trust, I always believed Landis’ acertations of innocence. Now I am forced to either believe that he was lying then and that me and everyone else who believed him and supported him were total suckers, or that the man has been so broken by everything that happened that he has completely snapped and is simply trying to bring everyone else down to his level of misery. Neither is a pleasant prospect. Since there isn’t any new hard evidence, it will all boil down to a he said / he said debate. It may be enough for the French to ban anyone he lists for racing in the Tour, they have done it before. Although that may not matter much since Armstrong crashed today, dropped from the Amgen and was taken to the hospital for x-rays.

In other news, I learned that someone raced the Leadville under someone else’s name. They even proceeded to pick up prizes that they technically shouldn’t have won because the false identity placed them in a different age category. They now face felony charges.

Really I am not sure what to make of it. I have a group of friends that I ride with and bizarrely, we just like riding our bikes. I have recently strayed into the world of racing, but quite honestly it still felt more like a group ride with new friends. I think recreational cyclists tend identify with professional cyclists relatively easily. I ride a bike, they ride a bike. They just happen to train a bit more and be better at it. Maybe that’s not the case, because obviously the mindset is so different that it’s foreign to the rest of us.

Thoughts on Vacation

Vacation is different things to different people. To some it is a drunken jumble of clubs, others prefer their time on the beach. Some people like to "rough it" and spend a few days without electricity (or at least with only enough to run a flashlight, a cellphone and one other small entertainment device). The avid cyclist of course has a different idea of vacation. Mine looks something like this:All that being the same I took a trip last week to see my brother off into the bonds of matrimony. It was a nice ceremony and I got to see all of my family and some folks that were around back when I was growing up as well. We took a trip afterwards to Tahoe to hang out for a few days. I didn't notice I was missing my bike so much until we stopped in Auburn to eat and I noticed that someone was towing some nicely blinged Specializeds around. Then suddenly I remembered that Auburn was known locally for its trails and I was sadly without bike. I guess the next trip I'll take I remember that whatever effort it takes to get a bike there is worth not suffering that several hour mope of "I should have brought a bike".

Question Regarding Brakes

I recently received a question regarding brakes that went something like this:

Been winter commuting for the last five years on an old Norco mountain bike and it is time to get a new ride. My question is about disc and rim brakes. Have asked around and get mixed reviews. Thought that I would ask you since you seem to use disc brakes in the winter. What do you find the advantages are and what are the disadvantages.

Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

My response was as follows:

I don't see any disadvantages to disc brakes in the winter. During extremely cold weather (-25F and below) they don't modulate as well as they do in warmer weather, but other than that I have no complaints. I have heard that on extended snow rides, the calipers can become clogged with snow and start to drag, but haven't experienced this with the brands of brakes that I use (Formula). Again this is something that really seems like it would only be a problem in extremely colder weather. On the upside, the advantages are many. First and foremost, disc brakes just stop better. Second, disc brakes will continue to work in some conditions that rim brakes don't, like when you have a layer of ice and snow built up on your rim. Lastly, if you switch between summer and winter width rims on a commuter, you don't have to fiddle with disc brakes to make them work like you do rim brakes.

Anyone that doesn't think disc brakes are better than rim brakes raises some doubt in my mind. I have heard what I consider rational opinions against disc brakes that I don't agree with (mainly that disc brakes are somehow too complex to work on), however, I still haven't heard a good argument for claiming rim brakes were better than discs. They are less expensive, but you generally get what you pay for in any situation. I have a slightly angry rant on disc brakes that can be found here. To add an update to that post, I still have that set of brakes on the same bike and they still work. Four years of summer and winter riding, commuting and they still work great. They still have the original pads. And recently the rear got loaned out to do a 135 mile winter race in February in Minnesota. It worked so well that the loanee won the race and asked Formula to start sponsoring him.

My end statement is this: If you are riding in the snow, or doing technical mountain biking, then I think disc brakes are a must because their extra performance is necessary. If you are doing mellow/light trail riding and commuting only during the summer, or someplace where it doesn't snow, they they are a luxury that you need to decide if you can afford.

Thanks for the letter and I hope I have been some help.