Another boring post on consistency of the snow

While our brave blogging brother was getting ready to speak to truth to power on Saturday, I went mountain biking. I had to feed my parents' cat, so I was over the hill in Avon. I don't really have any fascinating insights, other than groomed cross country skiing/snow skating trails are a weird place to ride a bike. Or really, they're just generally a weird place to be.

I found that much of this Avon snow was compressed to the point of becoming sheets of ice. That's no fun without studs, as I was without them on Saturday. However, pine forests stay shady even in the winter, due to the whole evergreen thing, so the snow compacts into this cool styrofoam stuff instead of becoming ice.

some nice styrofoam snow

some more nice styrofoam snow

some wound-causing ice. (the bike is like that because I crashed)

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Problems

Since America has presidents, America has holidays for its presidents. I get those holiday days off from work. So, over the last six days, I had four of them off. When I have days off and Johanna has to work, I try to go mountain biking or at least hang out in the woods. (America also has trees and a holiday for them, but I don't get Arbor Day off. Too bad.)

On Lincoln's Birthday, I went off to Mt. Riga with my 'cross bike to climb CT's biggest hills. This was a totally failure as these are also CT's only seasonal roads (as far as I know). So, I took a long and snowy/rainy walk, pushing my bike through the highlands of Salisbury.

You cannot ride most bikes, but especially not a 'cross bike on hills that look like this (because of the snow, not the steepness):




On Saturday, I decided to use an actual mountain bike to ride in the snow and went to the reservoir. After about 1/4 mile of riding my chain broke. But, I came prepared. Well, sort of. In trying to fix the chain, the chain tool broke and I couldn't get pin all the way back. It was mostly back in, so I figured I'd probably be alright. I wasn't and the chain broke a 1 1/2 mile later and couldn't be fixed. This is the third cheap Lifu chain broke that I've had break. In fact, they generally are half broken after their first use. I bought a Park Tool now. It'll probably last until my fingers can't turn it.

On Sunday, I went for a road ride with three newly-met-by-me dudes, Ryan, Gabe, and Kyle from UHa. That was totally uneventful and a pleasant ride. I also now know what inland East Windsor looks like. Or, maybe it's inland South Windsor.

Yesterday, with another day off, I tried to ride at the reservoir again. I didn't fail per se, but thawing old snow requires an incredible amount of energy to ride through and has next to no reward.

I did get some cool rewards yesterday unrelated to a bike from my stove.

Home fries and tofu scramble:




Kimchi miso soba with tofu & bok choi:

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Camera

My trusty new cell phone, with a functioning camera (I'm not ready for a real one yet), and I rode around a bunch this weekend. As you may recall, the weather was wonderful and practically required the riding of a bicycle.

On Saturday, I rode around on the packed plains of the Wethersfield / Rocky Hill sod farms. I'm sorry I didn't go ride the Coffee Cat in New Haven, I couldn't find anyone to come with me. I'm not ready for the big city on my own.




On Sunday, Johanna and I did a loop down to Middletown and back.


I should really clean my gloves more often.

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Grossest commute ever!

At one point, I road through this!

I guess there weren't frogs falling from sky or wads of mucus, but today was undoubtedly the grossest commute ever. Everything was six inches of ice-water-slush. Ugh. I guess it could be worse if Hartford didn't have paved roads and there was a monsoon.

Anyone have a pleasant experience today? Read more!

State of the snow

This is not recent snow.

I'm a huge fan of Jill Homer's Up in Alaska blog. I think she's a terrific writer and an inspiring and talented athlete. She also reminds me that the winter in Connecticut is lame and manageable. So, when I think about driving to work, I remember that unless I carrying a large load or am injured, I've got it easy and should ride.




She spends much of her time riding around on the snow, because that's how it is in Alaska, so I also feel that I must continue mountain biking even when the ground is covered. I must admit that I'm totally baffled as to how she rides in deep snow. I went up to the reservoir yesterday and had a hell of time getting around. My singlespeed has 2.3"s and I was doing a lot of walking. This snow has had lots of time to compress and harden, but it's still pretty impassable. I suppose the Pugsley that Ms. Homer rides probably has those 3.7" Endomorphs. However, you'd think that lame Connecticut snow would be rideable with tires that are two thirds the size of Alaska-worthy tires.


So, anyway, that's the best I could do for a post today... How about the decriminalization of marijuana? Read more!

My last snowy post!

Here is my last post involving snow and ice for many months, my apologies on its tardiness, I’m on island time now!


Here I am on Krash’s back porch ready for a fun, slippery ride one cold night back in late December. Yep, that’s me, my bike and lots of snow encrusting my tires. yummy! The riding that night was mostly fun, except when there was a car on your ass on a narrowly plowed road with thoughts of getting run-overed trumping simple thoughts like just falling down. Away from the fright of immediate death due to cars and trucks on the slick streets, riding was actually a lot of fun, especially on a brakeless fixie. Fun indeed.


Riding in the middle of a massive snowstorm does have its advantages…like instant bike racks everywhere, just dismount your bike and put it in the deep snow! Krash and I chillin’ on the Founders Bridge a few minutes after midnight. I don’t think we were even that cold.


The view of the Connecticut River and its ice flows was absolutely beautiful. Traveling and exploring in a winter wonderland, whether high in the mountains of the backcountry or on the streets of the ‘beat, is always rewarding with fine views and excellent company.

Thank you Ken for all of our midnight rides and end of night sprints from Kenny’s to Columbia Street! Always a great time dude! Peace! Read more!

When is it not worth it?

I would definitely stop riding if I had to ride this thing.

The venerable Bikesnob NYC once queried about what would make a cyclist stop riding. He mostly wrote about what sorts of absurd bikes or outfits would stop you from riding. There are some doozies in there, but he doesn't write about the biggest riding-preventer out there: the weather.

Here is some bad Canadian weather.

It's really, really gross today. It iced all night and now it's raining. As I passed the Institute of Living, a place for reflection, I wondered what the hell I was doing. It was wet and gross and I was riding to work. I like my job ok, but it's still a job. And there was I, plodding along on the sidewalk in ice and slush looking like a fool. Why I was I putting myself through this? This begs the question: when is it too gross to ride a bike and when is a destination not worth a gross bike ride? Read more!

The New Year

I hate that Death Cab for Cutie song called "The New Year".

So, we're deep into 2009 and there hasn't been a post yet, so I guess I'll put something up. I haven't been doing much bike related lately. I put some studded Nokians on my Stumpjumper and rode it around in the snow some. The tires actually work pretty well on snowy things, though it seems that you can't ride in snow that's deeper than like 4" or 5". That seems pretty acceptable, though. The bike has rim brakes and they're pretty unacceptable in the snow.

I also have two bicycle related resolutions, or maybe they're goals.

1) Ride the D2R2.
I know that randoneuring is usually for people with helmet mirrors, but it also seems really difficult. So, I'm going to do the 108 mile edition of the D2R2.

2) Make a 'cross race happen in Hartford.
I put the bug in Ben Bare's ear for him to bring it up at the last Bike Everywhere and Jay and some others seem genuiely interested. I hope for Keney park, but most other people seem to want to do it at Riverside Park. Doesn't really matter to me as long as it happens.

Woodsy!

Anybody else got cool ideas and plans for 2009? Read more!

Favorite Ads: Alternative Fuels

Ride on, patriot.

Today's snow event makes this the ideal time to post this. If the ad embedded below isn't my most favorite commercial of all-time, it's certainly on the short list. The calm serenity and silence of the falling snow. The look of gruff, self-satisfied, determination on the face of our protagonist. The stark blue-gray colors of the scene. The tone of extreme masculine admiration by the voice-over. And of course, the constant tink-tink-tinking of the worthy cargo. This ad is wonderful.

Apparently this whole campaign for the Champagne of Beer was done by Errol Morris. I think it's a requirement whenever you blog about any of these ads to mention that, despite me not knowing exactly who that is. But his wikipedia page shows he's somebody impressive. Here's a page with links to all the other ads from that campaign.



Click here, if having your video embedded isn't your thing. Read more!

NORAD Tracking Santa

Ho ho ho!

As you may know, NORAD tracks Santa. I was watching their video of Santa flying and was surprised to see him take off from a small island that was entirely surrounded by water. Santa lives at the North Pole, isn't that supposed to be frozen in the winter? (or all year) I emailed them with my concerns and all I got was this:

Thank you for emailing NORAD.

All of us here at NORAD are programming our satellites, calibrating
our radar systems, testing our Santa Cams, and flying training
missions in our jet fighters in preparation for Santa's 2008 flight.
Unfortunately, that leaves us little time to answer emails personally.

Please email us again on December 24th when a NORAD Santa Tracker will
be available to respond.

Happy tracking!
--
Warm Regards,
The NORAD Tracks Santa Team

This is even more distressing! Everyone at NORAD is getting ready to track Santa? Our skies aren't safe! Read more!

Wool

This is Maine, but their snow is similar in composition to ours.

We got our first snowfall of the season this morning. The South End was looking pretty with its layer of frosting. After my breakfast of crabcake Benedict and homefries, I checked in with my friend Jacob to see if he still planned to go mountain biking with me today. Snow didn't deter him, so we headed up Hunter Drive and did a loop of the reservoir. Riding on an inch of powder is a rare joy. Hopefully this is what we keep getting in terms of snow fall this year. Although, I bet my snow shoes would like to get some use. Read more!