Tour Divide 2012

I'm not out there riding, but I'm watching the Live Tracker and the forum discussion at Bikepacking.net. There's so much going on right now, with so many projects it'd be great to be out there riding like David Nice. This is the sixth time that he's hit the ride, I wish him the best of luck in finishing this year!

With all that's going on I'm not doing my 'Mock Tour Divide' ride this year, but I encourage anyone else to give it a shot. The idea is simple: ride every day that the riders are out on the divide. Ride with them in spirit. You might not do 100+ mile days under brutal conditions, but if they endure all of that how come it can be hard to get out each day on a bike when you're not faced with those conditions? That's my biggest problem. I'd like to ride the tour divide for real, but right now even pulling three to four weeks of riding every single day is a challenge.

2013 suddenly doesn't seem that far away and I've got so much to do before I could get ready for something like the tour divide. I just don't know if that's realistic given my multiple jobs and family life right now. But I don't want to push it out too far either. I'll see how everything goes. If it comes together, great. If not, well then maybe 2014 will be the year. Or some other year.

Spots Gathering for Tour Divide 2012

Day 12: 30 Days of Biking | Bears!

Earlier in the week I'd considered riding to work today, but I've got too much on my plate right now to spend three hours today riding. I still wanted to get out, so I went out a bit before sunrise this morning as it was getting light outside.

My first stop out was the post office, then out of town via the hill up past the bears.

Watch out, bears!

There was a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier from the hilltop, with the clouds and the sunrise, but too many trees obscuring the mountain to really even try to get a picture of it. Plus the phone doesn't do all that great at a distance like that.

Riding around via 133rd, though, coming back down there's another great view of the mountain so I couldn't resist giving it a shot. The picture doesn't come anywhere close to capturing the feeling of that massive mountain  rising up into the pink clouds.

Mt. Rainier

It looks small in the photo, but in person it is the most eye-catching feature around. I think I'd have to paint it to try and capture the detail necessary. Or get a better camera!

Nice ride, nice loop this morning!

29er Change

Trek Marlin

I have a new mountain bike! First real mountain bike I've owned and a huge change from riding the TerraTrike Path. I've been thinking about it, and then an email came from BikeTech about their summer sale. It seemed like a perfect time. I called over and Jim was nice enough to bring one down from the other store. He also called yesterday to make sure I knew they had the bike and it was ready to go. I was really looking forward checking the bike out. I got off work at 4:00 p.m. and headed out on a hot day to Olympia to take a look.

I had two thoughts when I saw it. One, it was green! I'd wanted that color, but hadn't asked. Not that it really matters, but I like green and black. My second thought, That's huge! I've been riding a trike that sits a couple inches off the ground. This thing stands tall and once I'm on it I felt like I was on stilts or something, way up in the air. Cool, but quite the change than what I'm used to. That's what I wanted. When I got there I walked around the outside where they had tons of bikes set up, saw one of these but it was the 19" size, too big, went to the next and it was 17.5" with my name literally on the tag. I talked to the guy, got on the saddle, and then grabbed my helmet and took it for a spin out down the neighborhood streets. I've been using a twist shift with an internal hub so it took me a bit to figure out how to shift. By the time I got back to the store I was sold. I also picked up a lock for work (I'll leave it there), a spare tube and a water bottle cage.

I've started making a few changes already. After removing the front tire to get the bike in to the back of my VW New Beetle (yes, I did manage to get it in with the back seat folded down), I noticed some brake rub on the front and back. It was a good opportunity to get the quick releases figured out and then I adjusted the calipers so that there was no rub on the brakes. That was good. I'm taking a few components from my trike, this like my bell and bike computer. I think I'll swap the pedals as well, and go clipless. I've gone back and forth thinking about it, but I'm used to clipping in on the trike. The difference will be doing it on two wheels.

timbuk2 freestyle

Carrying things is the challenge. What to carry? How to do it? I can stash some things at work, like a pair of shoes. I've got a timbuk2 freestyle bag on order, plus a seat bag and a small top bar bag. Enough to carry my iPad, keyboard, a few flat-fixing tools and some food. After I get some time to spend on the bike I'll figure out more details on what works. I'll get a photo up soon.

Since getting bit by the whole Tour Divide bug I've been itching to get on a 29er and start putting on miles. I think this is a good bike to get started with, it looks like fun!