Thanksgiving Day 2008

We started the day with a chilly ride out at Hall. I was riding a Safire demo which I've been dying to ride since Tuesday. I quickly found out that the bike's rear wheel loves to be on the ground, mainly because of the brain shock. It was pretty amazing! I also noticed how small the cockpit was compared to the 6.6, this helped with turning and tight switchbacks and just steering in general. I was able to ride through nasty rock gardens in my granny and still steer and not get bounced around the rocks like I've been experiencing on the 6.6. I haven't been able to use my granny gear in technical rock sections because the front end became so unstable mainly because the rear end was bouncing around so much! And climbing on the Safire was a breeze compared to the 30lb 6.6!

I cleaned everything except for the rock face....but I wasn't really trying. I was so impressed with the way the bike steered and kept it's rear tire on the ground! I even had better lines on the descent through the rock garden on this bike....granted it's not as plush as the 6.6 but I had way more control on the Safire.

After the ride, we cleaned up and headed over the Dan's brothers house for some turkey dinner. MMMMMM MMMMMMM good! And we didn't stuff ourselves into food coma like we usually do :)



-Kim

Looking for a new bike

So I finally admitted to Dan this weekend that the 6.6 is a little too much bike for me :( I'm still having problems climbing with the 30lb bike, problems that I've never had before and it's starting to make me sad. I love the way the bike handles the descents but the climbs are another story, it's really hard for me to get my front end up and over ledges and I'm totally sick of bashing my knee's on the top tube! Living where we do, the bike you ride MUST climb and I admit that I do not like having to walk up stuff I KNOW I can clean....so the search is on.

I'm going to demo a medium Specialized Safire (hopefully this weekend) and maybe a Trek and maybe a Yeti and maybe a Titus. I want to try something that doesn't use the VPP system.

Suggestions are welcome!

The bike must have 5" of travel and be under 30lbs and climb and descend effortlessly :)

No XC racer bikes....no spandex will EVER touch this bike!

-Kim

Moab Day 3 - Sovereign Valley

Our last day in Moab :( I had to rent a rear wheel because I broke my freehub body on Saturday and I quickly realized that I had almost no rear brake for this ride.

Oh well!



Thank you so much for inviting us Megan! We had an absolute blast!

-Kim

Moab Day 2 - Amasa Back

-Kim

Moab Day 1 - Moto's

-Kim

I'm such a dork

So, I run up to the grocery store at lunch to pick up a few things for home, including a 12 pack of pop.

I self checkout and pay for everything and get outside and put the pop on my rack. I put bungee cords around the 12 pack and tighten them down when all of a sudden pop is spewing everywhere! I punctured one of the cans with the bungee cord hook :0

All I could do was get on my bike with pop spewing out behind me....how embarrassing.

Worse yet, I know have sticky coke all over my rear wheel & chain...good thing it's a singlespeed :)

-Kim

Riding my singlespeed

Makes me homesick....all the fast, flowy trails in the woods....all the backwards night rides....all the short steep climbs....all the long widowmaker hills....all the hot humid days....


**sigh**

-Kim

The SSss Ride

The singlespeed striped socks ride :)

The girls hit up Centennial Cone for a easy going ride on Sunday, it was crowded and super windy....hurricane force windy. We had to either ride a singlespeed, wear striped socks or both.


(from left: me, Cynthia, Tracy, Megan & Carrie)

I dusted of the pretty girl for the first time this year.


Megan got bloody....sssshhhh....don't tell her doctor she's riding her bike yet ;)


Tracy battled the wind and being sore from Crossfit


Cynthia rocked the green shirt & matching striped socks


Carrie was too far ahead of me to get any pictures of her :) And she nailed all the switchbacks, including the ones with waterbars!

More pics here


This week we're getting ready to head out to Moab for a 3 day weekend for some fun in the desert on our moto's and mountain bikes! And to celebrate Megan's 30th bday!

-Kim

Saturday Night Out

With friends......

We hit up Tahona's and spent way too much money on food and drinks :)

(from left: Carey, Cynthia, Megan, Tracy, me & Dan)


(from left: Ryan & Craig)

-Kim

1st Snowy Commute

Today we got a dusting of snow in the am, nothing that stuck to the roads but it did stick to the grass and dirt and WOOD BRIDGES.

I have 4 wood bridges that I have to cross on the bike path, there's one that super short but on a turn and that usually gets me sliding when it's wet or slick. This morning all the bridges were covered in a layer of snow and on the first one I was sliding totally sideways down it...almost got my bars caught up in the side rails. That'll get your heart pumping!

I've been riding the old commuter in, only until Dan puts a flat bar (instead of the bull horns) and some hardcased treaded tires on the new commuter. I have slicks on the old commuter so that's part of the sliding problem...hopefully with the new treaded tires I won't be slipin' and slidin' my way across the bridges anymore....that is until it gets really cold and they're icy. Luckily the city plows the paths before they plow the streets...weird but they do!

TGIF!

-Kim

Screaming at me

My legs were screaming at me to STOP running this morning :( We ran up some steep stuff this morning and my legs wanted to be back in bed resting.

Guess I'm going to have to have a nice big steak tonight with a tall glass of beer to appease my legs....oh the sacrifices.

-Kim

Surprise!

Dan told me he had a surprise for us when I got home last night and that I would enjoy...I was hoping for food or wine or a new windshield on the truck (which we need!)

I walked in the door and saw a new bike in the corner of the room, thought it was Dan's new fixie but he said no....and I got mad. I don't need anymore bikes, I'm trying to get rid of the bikes I don't ride anymore and I just got rid of my CX bike that I NEVER rode. He said it'll be a good winter commuter because we can put tires with tread on it, I said I could just ride my mountain bike to work on snowy days or my singlespeed for that matter....the bike paths are cleared before the roads. I love my Bianchi flat bar commuter, it's comfortable and ugly and I don't have to care about it. I HATE people spending money on me and surprising me with things like that, I don't deserve any of it....give me a bottle of wine or a cookie or a cute pair of socks and I'm the happiest girl in the world!

But as it sat there in the corner staring at me...I wanted to ride it, the color is so cool! So we put my pedals on it this morning and I rode it to work......and I love it! I was so excited to ride it this morning that I walked out the door without my helmet :(

It's a Redline 925 CX singlespeed commuter...maybe eventually we'll turn it into a fixie but for now I'll be switching over to this bike for my daily commute to work. The rack & panniers will fit nicely on it and the full wrap fenders will keep my behind clean and my teeth free of grit. I'm going to swap out the bull horn bars and put a flat bar on it and put some hardcased tires on it but that's probably it.

I'm sorry I got mad for the nice surprise. Next time, just pick me up a cheap bottle of wine ;)

-Kim

The play it by ear weekend

I didn't feel like making plans for anything this weekend so we just played it by ear. Friday we me up with Jen & Jesper, Dave & Cynthia and Tracy for dinner and drinks at the Rio before Tracy met Jason for a showing of Seasons...needless to say Dan & I drank a little too much and stumbled and fumbled our way home and promptly passed out (I love the Agave Martini's and had 3 :0 and I think Dan had the maximum marg limit at 3 as well!)

We were able to sleep in a little on Saturday before heading out to do some long overdue errands. Tracy texted me while we were out that her and Jason were going to ride and wanted to know if we were able to go but there was no way we'd be able to make it...bummer:(

We were planning on riding Heil after our errands but by the time we got home, we really didn't feel like driving anywhere for a ride so we decided to go out for a long run. We left from our house, ran up the Sanitas Valley trail to the East Ridge trail that goes to the summit of the Sanitas Trail and ran down the Sanitas trail...awesome technical trail run that took us just under an hour! It's so amazing being able to run technical trails like this right from our doorstep.

After we cleaned up a bit we decided to go out to dinner rather than cooking because we were lazy...we walked down to the Hungry Toad for some steaks and meatloaf.....yummy! I got a call from Jen while we were eating inviting me on a ride they were doing tomorrow at Devil's Backbone, which was perfect because Dan had to work! Yay for friends that invite you on their rides :)




So Sunday morning I got up early to walk the dog and then headed out to meet Jen & Jesper for a day of riding. What an incredible day to be out! The weather was perfect, the riding partners were perfect and all in all it was an absolutely perfect day! Jen & Jesper were on their singlespeeds but I decided in morning that I wanted to be lazy and ride my geared bike....I'm glad I did because my legs were feeling it!

Jen & Jesper were killin' it on their singlespeeds!




We all even cleaned this ledge.


Jen cleaning it (photo credit Jesper)


Me cleaning it (photo credit Jesper)


Check out my cheeks (photo credit Jen)


Thanks guys for an awesome day on the bikes!

More pics here


-Kim

West Mag Lazy Sunday Ride

Cynthia, Jason, Tracy & myself met at 10am to go ride this morning but upon everyone's arrival it was very clear that we were lacking motivation. We were supposed to drive out to Indian Creek (which is an hour away) and then ride for a few hours but no one wanted to commit to the drive or the ride and we wanted to watch the Pro men at the Boulder Cup CX race. So with a little debate and almost a coin toss we packed up Jason's truck with all of our gear and headed out to West Mag.

It was a good choice, the climbs weren't that tough and we didn't have to ride for very long to feel satisfied with at least getting out.




More pics here


We also made it down to the CX race just after the Pro men went off.


After that we hit the Southern Sun for some beers and food. A good cap off to an another great weekend spent with friends!

Next week we may even get the singlespeeds out for a ride :)

-Kim

Lefthand Canyon Moto Ride

OMG! We rode some really really tough stuff today!

We hit up Lefthand Canyon today first with my co-worker Allen and then with Tracy & Jason. Unfortunately, Allen found out that his dog had gotten out and tried to follow him down from his house up Lee Hill Road and his wife Miranda was desperately trying to find her. She was waiting for us when we came back to the trailhead to meet Tracy & Jason. Needless to say, he left to go try and find his dog...hopefully they found her!

Back on the trail with Tracy & Jason, we made our way back to point where we turned around with Allen. It was a tough ride with steeps, loose rocks, ledges and tricky descents. I'm exhausted and sore and I ended up with my bike on top of me at one point and took many many crashes on the descents but I still had so much fun! I learned a lot and can't wait to get back there to try again and put what I learned into play. I'm so happy that I found my rear brake and was able to practice using it! Dan saw a bunch of singletrack that was open to dirt bikes and he can't wait to ride it....I think I may need a little more time before trying any tight singletrack :)

Here are the pics


-Kim

Avoiding the kiddies

(photo credit Tracy) (from left: Cynthia, Tracy, myself & Megan)

We spent Halloween at our friend's Tracy & Jason's house avoiding the Boulder kiddies. Luckily she didn't have that many kids so we got to eat a lot of candy and drink lots 'o wine. The boys worked on Dan's moto and the girls gabbed....we ended the evening around the fire pit :)


(photo credit Tracy) (from left: Dave, Dan, Jason & Ryan)

What a wonderful evening!

-Kim