Planning stages of a 3 day hiking trip at the Grand Canyon, slated for Spring Break 11'.

Holiday Riding and the Grand Canyon?!!!

I've been able to get out on a couple rides, one on Christmas Eve and one this morning. The bike definitely has more stiffness to it. It is carving lines much better than before. Most noticeable in the technical stuff, rocks, ruts, etc. I do have a little movement at the headset. I will snug it up before my next ride, but I think it's contributing to a little noise I'm hearing (low rattle).

The only place I've been able to ride is Ted Williams, as it's trails are mostly on the East face, so they've had plenty of sun and are dry enough to ride. Once you get on an trail with too much cover, it's pretty wet. The rains last week were amazing, I think we had six days of rain, which is unheard of in these parts. It's sunny now, just a little soggy. Got that nice road bike staring at me, but haven't taken it out. Wanted to, but just not gonna do it. I'm sure that sometime in the future, my desire to ride will outweigh the "perceived" safety issue with the traffic.

Anyway, hoping to do some good rides with Eric in the next couple weeks out in East County. For years I've focused on getting in better shape through riding, but I really want to start riding for the enjoyment as well. I usually ride alone, but really want to go do some "epic" rides with friends and enjoy the scenery, friendships, etc.

Also, I'm planning a Spring Break camping trip to the Grand Canyon. It's for Inna, Daniel and I. Daniel has his nomination to the Air Force Academy (not accepted yet) and this will be our last opportunity to go on a family camping trip for quite awhile. We've been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon about 7 years ago in the RV, but we will be backpacking for a few days on this trip. Backpacking is something that we all enjoy, but haven't done in quite a few years. We've made trips to the Sierras and Idylwil in the past and really had some great times (read adventures). Although having an RV is great for group camping, nothing beats backpacking for the solitude and time away from "everything". Really looking forward to it. I've got a couple books that I'll be posting up with all the details of our trip. Tailwinds.....

IMG00366-20101224-1611.jpg

Happy bike geek!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

IMG00363-20101224-1607.jpg

First ride out. Ted Williams of course. Awesome as ways, the bike and the trail. Seven weeks off the bike comes to an end!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

IMG00361-20101219-1656.jpg

Before/After

Broken Seat Tube











Built up my Flux frame over the weekend. Used all of my parts off of it prior to the frame breaking. Raining for the past few days and supposed to continue for the next few, so I'll have to wait to shake it down, but I've always wanted an orange bike, but always ended up buying whatever the good deal was at the time. :)

Got my Flux back from Turner today!

Drove up and picked it up at Turner in Murrieta. Small shop with lots a frames hangin around. Great people and they did a helluva job on my frame. Looks like brand new. I will need to get a new seatpost, as the new seat tube requires a 28.6, as opposed to the old 27.2. So far I've got almost everything back on except the drivetrain. Just went and got new housing and cables to day. Hopefully, I can pick up a seat post tomorrow at Black Mountain Bicycles. They seem to be the only bike shop around that has a big selection of seat posts in stock. Anyway, it's been raining on and off for a couple days and supposed to tomorrow and Monday as well. I should be done with putting it back together tomorrow sometime and take it out for a spin if it's not raining. It's Orange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting for my MTB Frame from Turner

It's been six weeks since my Turner Flux broke the seat tube in half on a normal ride at Sycamore Canyon. Luckily it broke on a flat section of trail, just before I was ready to drop down a "reasonably technical" trail. It broke all the way around, just below the upper shock mount.

I bought this bike back in 06' from Beyond Bikes (now out of business) as a year old demo in great shape. I kept it in great shape, but eventually the downtube gave out. Apparently, this early design for the Flux had this problem. I've never used this bike for much technical riding, more xc and climbing than anything, but I guess it's time had come and gone

I called Turner and realized that my warranty was only 2 years and it had been 4 years. They said they would replace the downtube with a thicker inner diameter and powdercoat the frame any color in their inventory or give me $1200 credit towards a newer, dw link style, frame. I really don't have any complaints about my bike, so I chose to just have the downtube replaced and get a free powdercoat to boot.

I've been waiting 5 weeks so far and hopefully I can go pick it up tomorrow or Friday and get started putting everything back together.

I've been working on getting back in shape since I August, but my weight is up considerably since my 185# days in January and February earlier this year. I've built a pretty good base of fitness during the last 4 months, but I really think the only way to keep the weight off is the road bike. I haven't been on it more than 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months, but it's time to get back on........

IMG00330-20101103-0912.jpg

Broken seat tube on the Turner Flux.