The Truth Is Out There

I took this picture of Jennifer and it gives me X-Files vibes.

Or maybe colonoscopy. Not sure.

Later.

Moby

We were riding along the canal today when something white caught my eye. Could it be the Great White Koi?

I turned around and went back, and there he was.

We haven't seen Moby in a few years. I had assumed he moved on or died, but there he was in his gigantic magnificence. There is his distinctive orange spot on his left side.

I should have known he was tougher than that. It was nice to see he's still out there doing koi things.

Later.

Monterey in March

We just returned from Monterey. While we were there something felt strange. We asked ourselves, have we ever been here in March? I combed through the many Monterey posts and it was true: we had never visited in March.

For the most part, the reasoning for this was simple. When the kids were young, there were many visits in April centered around Easter and spring break. When baseball became a central part of our lives, opening day was usually towards the beginning of March, and we played a couple games a week until the vacation window during spring break.

When the kids were older, Jennifer and I often went in January and February because the weather was often warmer in Monterey than at home. March is typically pretty nice in the Sacramento area, so we tend to enjoy the March weather at home.

Anyway, on the first day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive.

The weather was pretty damn perfect.

Afterwards we enjoyed a beer at Fieldwork, followed by an awesome meal at Alejandro's.

The next day we rode north with expectations of riding into Fort Ord. I knew the trail through Fort Ord Dunes State Park would be closed due to a campground project that will run through 2027. We would have to ride the less desirable trail along Highway 1 like last time and take the exit trail to 5th Street.

Unfortunately between visits they bulldozed the entire bike trail leading to 5th Street and were using it to truck in dirt.

<rant mode> This kind of shit has been happening for years. It really seems like municipalities will close off cycling infrastructure at the drop of a hat. Need to do road work? Close the bike lane! Want to organize a running race? Close the bike trail! Need to build a campground? Close the bike trail! Need to truck in dirt? Bulldoze the bike trail!

This isn't any new issue. I've been seeing the trend for a long time.

This past spring and summer I wanted to ride in Tahoe before we sold the condo. Then I saw that there were some trail closures due to a Marlette Lake dam repair, and I completely lost interest. These are some of my main trails up there.

The closures seem extremely excessive to me for one tiny little dam. But if you are a cyclist, you already know you are a meaningless blip. Anyway, back to our scheduled program. </rant mode>

We simply rode past the closure and continued to the north end of the trail. After turning around I had calmed down enough to start taking pictures again.

The weather was great and I told myself that things could be worse: I could be home working in the yard.

Afterwards we had a beer at Dustbowl and dinner somewhere that escapes me.

The next day we rode south again. I took some video. It's not my greatest work, but what can you do.

After that we packed up and headed home. It was a short but much-needed break from all the hard work we have been doing.

Later.

Exit the Dragon

Last night I sold the oldest bike in the garage.

I built the Jamis Dragon 29 way back in 2009. The bike served me well. We shared some great adventures and epic rides, but it was time to go.

The guy who bought it was super stoked to get it. I took great care of the bike and there's no reason he can't get many more years out of it.

Later.

Open for Business

The Folsom Dam Raise Project (FDRP) started back in 2024. The Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with raising the dams and eight dykes around Folsom Lake by 3.5 feet to enhance flood protection. Given my belief in climate change, this is probably very necessary.

Unfortunately, these dykes are in my riding areas.

The initial work on Dykes 1, 2 and 3 messed up my mountain bike rides. Some trails were closed and a couple nice pieces of singletrack were bulldozed. It was frustrating, but with reroutes and detours I could still complete a decent mountain bike ride. The work is ongoing.

RIP Singletrack

Then they started work on the Mormon Island Auxiliary Dam. This closed a main thoroughfare connecting all the Sacramento County trails with the ones in El Dorado County. I used this dirt road for countless commutes home from work. Using this stretch I could ride for over 30 miles without ever touching a road.

Then they started work on Dykes 4, 5 and 6. This closed most of the dirt road between Beals Point and Granite Bay. I rode this stretch all the time on my gravel bike.

The Mormon Island portion was supposed to be completed in the spring of 2025, but that date came and went. I would check every couple of months, but the fence would still be up.

Today I checked again. The fence and equipment were finally gone.

Nothing but smooth, flat gravel road along the water.

I was able to piece together some roads and trails that have been absent from my rides for years, which was nice. I completed a 27-mile mixed terrain ride, and I am looking forward to utilizing this stretch of road once again.

Later.

Pure

Our air hasn't been particularly great lately. As someone who is a little sensitive to particulate levels, I have to be careful, which has meant riding indoors a lot. Which sucks. This morning it looks like this:

Bad air in the winter is not something we deal with here. Yet here we are. I find myself saying "we've never" a lot lately when it comes to the weather and climate: We've never had rain like this. We've never seen wind speeds this high. We've never seen heat like this. On and on it goes. This time it's a high pressure system that is just sitting on top of us creating an inversion layer that does not allow particulates to escape. We've never seen this . . .

Yesterday, though, I caught a break and had some clean(er) air and blue(r) skies. I took the new Wolverine out for a mixed surface ride.

All told it was 24 miles and a little over half of it was on dirt.

I wore my new Duff Beer cycling cap for the first time. Sexy. As is the cap.

Hopefully this weird inversion layer situation lets up soon.

Later.

Moving On: The Final Chapter

An era ended today. Finally.

We closed escrow on our Incline Village condo earlier today. It was a very long and stressful 11-month ordeal. It's amazing to me that I posted about this decision almost a year ago. And so ends our 15-year run in Tahoe.

I am mostly happy it's over, but at the same time a little sad. I wish we could have kept the condo, but the world has changed. Taxes, insurance and HOA dues are spiraling out of control in Tahoe. It isn't sustainable. Not for us, at least.

It also severs our relationship with our property management company, one that lasted a dozen years. All my Goldfish keychains went into the trash.

Hopefully we still get up there on occasion.

Later.

Trading Places

The full suspension experiment with the Santa Cruz Hightower was sort of a disaster. I guess I should have known better since the first two forays into full suspension weren't exactly successful either. I hated the first one in 1994, again in 2003, and now this one. After over 40 years of riding mostly rigid and hardtail bikes, I must conclude that I just don't like full suspension.

Anyway, I listed this damn thing on Craigslist months ago:

Other than a couple lowball offers and a Nigerian prince scam, it generated little interest. It sat in my office collecting dust. This was not unexpected. Times are tough.

I decided to edit the post stating that I was open to a trade for a gravel frame or bike. A guy contacted me and asked if I would be interested in a Soma Wolverine. When I said "possibly," he sent me a pic:

Good enough. We met and made the exchange.

He was taller than me and expressed his concern that a 58cm might be too big for me. I hopped on and the saddle was actually much too low. All good there. I have long legs and arms.

Unlike my pristine Hightower frame, this bike has really been ridden. It has some scratches, cable rub and chainslap marks. It has a little character for sure.

Today I went through the bike (never trust other people's mechanical skills) and made a few adjustments. I flipped the stem over to get the bars a bit higher, raised the saddle and topped off the tubeless sealant.

This evening I took it out for a short spin since I already rode this morning.

It's definitely bigger than my other bike. The extra stack is great, but the extra reach is not. Compared to my other bike, the 27mm longer top tube is mostly negated by the 20mm shorter stem. However, the Easton bars have 12mm more reach than the Salsa bars on my other bike, so all told it's still 19mm longer. Because of the higher bar position, I rode much of the time in the drops whereas on my other bike I spend more time on the hoods.

Shifting is handled by 11-speed GRX. Although I was a Shimano guy for many, many years, I have been using DoubleTap for quite a while now. I shifted the wrong way many times, which was frustrating. If I keep both bikes I will have to convert this one to SRAM so I don't lose my mind.

Cornering was weird. My other bike is running 700x43 tires and this one is 650x55. I can't put my finger on what exactly I am feeling, but this bike does not carve corners like my old bike.

Anyway, I rid myself of a frame I didn't want that was just gathering dust, and I acquired a new toy without spending any money. So much winning.

Later.

Commissioning a Symphony in C

Today I was trucking along on a quiet, smooth road when there was a loud bang and orange tire sealant spewing everywhere like a pinwheel firework.

I stopped and found a large, C-shaped cut in my rear tire.

There was no fixing it. I mean, I could have installed my spare tube if I had to, but I certainly didn't want to. It's a messy situation.

Jenn was about 30 minutes away at a yoga class. Luckily my son was still a few days from migrating back to SoCal for school, so he was available to come get me.

It's a bummer because the Panaracer GravelKing tire was very new. You can still see the nubs on the center tread. I have no idea what I hit, but it must have been something very sharp and cylindrical to make that cut. This is only the third tubeless failure in well over 10 years of tubeless use, so I can't be too mad.

Time to shop for a new tire. I will not get another GravelKing because they were not easy to seat due to the very loose bead. Hopefully there is a Maxxis tire that fits the bill because I like mounting those.

Later.

2025 By the Numbers

Well, after my indoor ride today the 2025 mileage year is in the books. Once again I hit the 6,000 mile mark in 2025.

We went on a couple long trips this year, those being Cabo in January and spring training in March. I also missed 25 riding days due to the condo remodel in Tahoe, which we finished in late May. Consequently I missed a lot of riding opportunities in the early part of the year. I had to really ramp up the miles during the summer to catch up.

The statistics:

• 6260 miles is the most since I started keeping stats in 1995
• 73 miles more than last year
• Ninth straight year increasing annual mileage
• Set mileage records in June, August, September, October and November
• 259 total rides was 3 more than last year
• 24.26 miles per ride average, up from 24.17 last year
• The 202,000 feet of climbing was 1,000 more than last year

Even with all those missed days, I really feel like I am reaching the upper limits of what I can do. I COULD ride more miles, but I'm not sure I WANT to ride more miles. We'll see.

Later.

Trainer Time

I managed to make it all the way through the fall before I resorted to riding indoors today, which is coincidently the first day of winter. For about four weeks we have seen nothing but fog and below average temperatures. Miserable. I rode quite a few times on cold, wet days with temps in the low 40s.

Today the rain finally came, so I broke out the trainer. I saved the newest season of Unchained for just such an occasion.

I love this show. Now in season three, every first episode draws you in and hooks you. So good. I watched two episodes and the time flew by. I rode 21 miles and kept a pretty steady pace, but it was hard to not speed up during the exciting parts of the show.

I was hot and soaking wet. A definite departure from the last month of riding outdoors.

After taking a shower my body felt great. Loose and pain free. Another departure from the tightness and aches that come with spending a couple hours in the cold.

We have more rain coming, so I'll be back out there in the garage occasionally when necessary.

Later.

Week in Review

 I had a pretty good week on the bike.

Nothing outrageous, just seven rides between 20 and 31 miles. A couple mountain bike rides, a gravel ride, and four rides with Jennifer.

I am a little tired, so I will take tomorrow off. Perhaps I will hit the weights and work on these skinny arms.

Later.

Breakdown

Yesterday I sold my travel bike. Finally.

It definitely took a while. Five months, to be exact. It has never taken me so long to sell a bike.

There was a time when a 26-inch wheeled single speed with S&S Couplers would have been a hot commodity, but those days have passed. We are also dealing with unprecedented issues with the economy and consumer confidence that have slowed the sales of nearly everything.

It took a number if iterations and price reductions to finally get the job done. When I first put it up for sale in May, it looked like this:

This saddle height is about 3-4 inches lower than I rode with.

New tubeless wheels and tires, a little titanium, colorful anodized parts. It looked good, but there was little interest.

Then I thought maybe the world wanted gears, so I put an XT 11-speed drivetrain on it. I sold the wheels separately and lowered the price with the old wheels. No dice.

Then I dumbed down the parts even further, again as a single speed.

Finally at $500 I made the sale.

There was a mix of relief and sadness as the new owner rode away. I have owned many, many bikes. I have sold many, many bikes. This bike was definitely special. Looking back, it was a lot of fun to plan and execute this bike for a specific purpose.

I first conceived the plot to ride bikes in Cozumel 12 years ago, a time when I was much younger and had fewer issues with my body, specifically my neck. Riding something like this with the bars so far below the saddle was no big deal.

This is how high I actually needed the saddle.

I was young and strong.

But these days riding around hunched over on a tiny 26-inch bike isn't appealing. I tried a number of different bar and stem combinations, but finding something high and comfortable that would still fit in the very tight travel case was nearly impossible. With rise comes size, and there simply wasn't room for it.

An upright position that provides neck relief is the main reason I started riding Jones bikes. My bars on the Jones are now are almost a foot higher than the travel bike.

We will always have the pictures and the memories. Of course, we would love to do it again, but we aren't getting any younger. Even back then, 41 miles in the heat and extreme humidity was tough.

With any luck we will find another option that allows us to explore the world on bikes again that is more convenient and comfortable.

Later.

Get Shorty

As I advance in years, I am starting to think about ways to keep my body from falling apart. For the most part I feel pretty good when I ride mountain bikes, but the gravel bike does cause me to experience some minor hip issues. I attribute this to the more acute hip angle in the aero position. One way to increase this angle is with shorter cranks.

Over the years I have read many articles and studies related to crank length and how it applies to ergonomics, power and efficiency. For the most part the takeaway for power is this: It doesn't matter much. Power output stays pretty uniform except on the far ends of the spectrum, like with 120mm or 210mm cranks. Any lack of leverage with shorter cranks is made up by higher cadence, and vice versa.

As for efficiency, it depends. Tadej Pogačar started using 165mm cranks this year with the intent to spin more and stay seated more when climbing. We do know seated climbing is more efficient because it utilizes far fewer muscle groups, requiring less fuel and oxygen. I think maybe it worked for him. At the very least it didn't hinder him. Still, I saw Tadej attack many times this year out of the saddle, so I think this simply proves that shorter isn't necessarily better or worse, just different.

That's all great, but the facet I am most interested in is the ergonomic side. To me it makes sense that decreasing the movement in the knee and hip joints with a shorter crank could be beneficial. This of course comes with a price—more crank revolutions. Given that I have produced millions and millions of pedal revolutions in my life, I don't think a few more per ride will hurt me, especially if each of those comes with less joint movement.

Cranks in 175mm length have been my standard since BMX days, and I never felt the need to change. In 2021 when I bought the Jones LWB, it showed up with 170mm cranks. Jeff Jones specs shorter cranks because he likes lower bottom brackets, so for him it wasn't an ergonomic choice. My first instinct was to immediately replace the cranks, but I decided to try them. I felt the length difference immediately, but after a few rides I forgot they were any shorter. The LWB is by far the bike I ride the most, so you could say that I have mostly converted to 170mm cranks.

When I built the Santa Cruz Hightower in 2023, I used 170mm cranks because that's what the complete build used. Long travel means the bottom bracket will be low. Even with 170s, I experienced a lot of rock strikes, so I dropped down to 165mm cranks. I pretty much hated them. Combined with the ridiculously steep seat tube angle, the short cranks made me feel like I was directly over the bottom bracket, the sensation not completely unlike riding a unicycle.

There are many calculations floating around out there to determine your optimum crank length based on height, inseam or tibia length. I have seen mine as short as 162 and as long as 177, but most calculations put me around 167mm.

Even though my first experience with 165s was not great, I was willing to try them on my gravel bike in the name of science. I replaced my Shimano Ultegra setup with SRAM Apex.

Before even riding the bike they looked stubby to the naked eye.

I have to say, I like the Dub interface more and more as I use it.

I raised my saddle exactly 10mm to compensate for the cranks and headed out for a ride.

Some people are not very sensitive to fit changes. Some are. I fall into the latter category. Aside from the huge reduction in crank length, which I think any cyclist would notice, I immediately felt the saddle height change. It really felt like the bars were dropped a couple inches, not only one measly centimeter. I could also feel the change in saddle setback. Again, this crank length change pushes the knee forward in relation to the pedal spindle a full centimeter. I resisted the urge to make any other changes except the saddle height until I ride the bike a few times.

The first ride was just OK. The cranks definitely feel short. Sitting in the saddle on the flats felt fine, but when I stood to get over small rises the power wasn't there. On sustained climbs, my normal cadence felt slow. I had to drop down a gear and spin more to feel like I was going the same speed. My saddle also felt a little low, but it's hard to tell if it really is. Perhaps the smaller pedaling circle only made it feel that way.

This was a big change and one ride will not provide all the answers. In fact, it was such a big change that I am a little sore today. I'll keep riding this new setup to see if shorter cranks are part of my future. If I don't stick with them, perhaps Tadej Pogačar will be interested in buying them.

Later.

Not the GOAT (Yet)

At this point, I think we can safely say Tadej Pogačar has entered the conversation as one of the greats. Today he completed yet another long solo breakaway to win his second consecutive world championship.

There are plenty of people who have already crowned him the GOAT, but that is crazy. Merckx racked up an astounding 525 wins, exactly five times as many as Pogačar's 105. This recency bias is pretty normal, though.

In baseball, players from more recent times are often celebrated as better than the old timers even if the numbers don't support it. I have heard baseball pundits say, "Ruth played against farmers and plumbers." Sure, the game was different in Ruth's time, which makes direct comparisons difficult, but he absolutely dominated his era and literally changed the way the game was played. In 1920, when Ruth hit 54 home runs, he was the first player in MLB history to reach THIRTY home runs. The next best player that year was George Sisler with only 19 home runs.

Many say Ruth couldn't hit in this era. Maybe. To be truthful, few players can hit in this era. Pitching has never been better. However, if you insist on making this comparison, you have to acknowledge that Ruth rolled out of bed, often hung over (or still drunk) from the night before, and still dominated. Because he could. Why live like a monk when you can eat and drink whatever you want, stay out all night, yet still be great?

In this era the expectations would require Ruth to be in the weight room, eating sensibly and making curfew. And I have little doubt given these modern requirements of the game, he would compete and perhaps even be a dominant force in this era.

Which brings us to the ridiculous notion that Merckx could not compete in this era. Similar views as with Ruth have been voiced: "Eddy raced against farmers and plumbers." Again, give him modern training and nutrition practices, and a carbon fiber super bike, and Eddy would be just fine. Those 525 wins didn't happen by accident.

Even though Pogačar just turned 27, he will never come close to matching Merckx's win total. I think even reaching 200 wins is a stretch. Because today you MUST live like a monk to compete with all the other monks. Eventually this will become too much for him, and I believe he will likely retire quite young.

When he does retire, and the dust settles, maybe we can return to this GOAT talk. For now I will simply appreciate Pogačar, and marvel at the beauty and audaciousness of his long attacks. Like many things in life, like my own individual cycling mortality, I will enjoy it now while it lasts.

Later.