2024 By the Numbers

Well, after our ride today the mileage year is in the books. As I predicted last year, I hit the 6,000 mile mark in 2024. Spending our first full year in Folsom made that figure relatively easy to attain. Still, there were a few obstacles.

We went on quite a few trips this year, so I had to make up mileage by going on longer rides. Riding 1.5 miles farther may not seem like much, but it adds up when you ride over 250 times.

The statistics:

• 6187 miles is the most since I started keeping stats in 1995
• 269 miles more than last year
• Eighth straight year increasing annual mileage
• 256 total rides was 5 fewer than last year
• 24.17 miles per ride average, up from 22.67 last year
• The 201,000 feet of climbing was 13,000 less than last year

I am not sure if I will increase the mileage again next year, or even if I want to. Right now it feels like I rode too much in the past year. Time will tell.

Later.

Cozumel Project Dos

You may remember when we took our bikes to Mexico. You can read about that here. I documented the whole build process, and you can read about that part here. 

Unfortunately, that was the only time we ever took the bikes anywhere on an airplane. There were many reasons for this, mostly due to the many other facets of life taking on more importance. Another reason was disassembling, reassembling and again disassembling two bikes that just barely fit in the boxes was a huge pain in the ass.

I still have vivid memories of the Mexican airport security agents opening the cases, rifling through the contents, and simply leaving the lids open because they couldn't get everything back in. A long line of tired and irritable tourists behind me grumbled as I struggled to rearrange the contents. It felt like trying to quickly solve a Rubik's cube with a gun to my head.

Fast forward almost a dozen years later and we are older, wiser and less flexible. Jenn still fits her bike fairly well, especially with the recent addition of 2.5" rise Jones bars (not pictured). That's the advantage of her frame being four inches smaller than mine, which puts her bars well above her saddle height.

Mine are way below my saddle.

After riding my Jones bikes for a number of years, being hunched over like this just isn't appealing. In fact, at my current age and flexibility, riding 40 miles around the island might very well kill me.

I am experimenting with some handlebar alternatives. First I tried Jones bars with a 2.5" rise. They were too low and just didn't feel right.

Then I tried my Surly Sunrise bars. They were better but still not high enough.

I am currently trying the Surly Sunset bars, which add another inch of rise. The height is great. Unfortunately they have a weird 14 degree BMX-inspired upsweep, and it feels pretty horrible.

Again, after many years on Jones bars, which tilt DOWN, having the bars tilt up feels awkward.

In the end, even if I reach a place where I am comfortable, I am left with a much bigger handlebar to somehow squeeze into an already cramped suitcase.

I tried to find a new fork so I could leave more steerer tube to get the bars higher, but finding a decent 26" fork with rim brakes these days is tough. Those are two dying standards. The alternative is a disc brake fork and new front wheel. More money, and I can't even be sure I would be happy with the outcome.

That got me thinking. I have been intrigued with mini velos since 2019 when Velo Orange introduced their Neutrino, but strictly from an N+1, "hey that would be neat to have" perspective. I never truly entertained having one.

In the last six years they have exploded in popularity with many other companies jumping on the mini velo bandwagon. They are marketed as a compact bike for apartment dwellers, urban commuters and travelers due to their smaller 20" wheel size. However, many people simply claim they are fun to ride.

In the last six months, Jenn has mentioned a return trip to Cozumel with the bikes many times. I would love to do it, but my bike fit and the hassle are some definite obstacles.

Then it occurred to me that swapping out 26" wheels for 20" wheels would greatly ease the packing space in the travel cases. Would mini velos be the answer?

The first step would be buying one. As luck would have it, Velo Orange was blowing out size small Neutrinos for 40% off. As an added bonus, last year's color was salmon. We're still in the pink zone, baby!

It should arrive in the next few days. It will take me a while to gather the parts, but hopefully it will be running by spring.

Jenn has wanted a bike for running errands, so that will be its main job. I'll outfit it with sensible parts and a rack.

After that, who knows? If it proves to be a capable bike for "real" riding, maybe we look at cutting it in half for air travel.

Later.

Floored

Part of the slider installation project included removing the little pony wall to the right of the old door. This was essentially the cat's wall, and he wasn't thrilled about losing it.

This left a hole in the flooring, so tonight I tackled that. Luckily the previous owners left a few planks of flooring in the attic.

The flooring on the left side still had the tongue intact, so that would be easy. However, the cuts on the near end and right side were jagged and uneven.

The first row was pretty simple.

After that it took many cuts, sanding and fine tuning to fit the new flooring in properly.

After cleaning up the old paint and applying a little stain to the edges of the cuts where the natural wood showed, it looked pretty good.

It's not perfect, but this flooring is semi-temporary, so it will do for now.

Later.

The Forgettable Fire

When we purchased the house it had a fireplace that we would never use surrounded by a hideous mantle we hated.

We decided to go with an electric fireplace that would provide a little heat and some ambiance. First we yanked off the mantle to see what we were dealing with, and what we were dealing with was a real mess. At some point the tile went up the wall and around the fireplace, so there would be some thinset cleanup involved.

A guy installed the electric unit and tacked in some new drywall.

I wasn't thrilled with the quality of his drywall work, but I thought I could fix it.

After taping, a lot of mud and sanding, texture, paint and trim it came out pretty well.

I still need to patch the holes, touch up the paint and caulk, but otherwise it's done. The awful tile will eventually come out, but that's down the road.

Later.

Short Coast

We took a short trip to Monterey. Three nights is probably our shortest stay in many years, but it was just fine.

We only went on two rides which was also unusual. The first day we rode south on 17 Mile Drive. The roads were very quiet and it was a peaceful, contemplative ride.

The next day we rode north on the coastal trail with a loop through Fort Ord.

We saw a few people on gravel bikes as we first entered Fort Ord. After that we were all alone except for the occasional wild animal, like the coyote below.

I really can't get enough of this place. It's so cool to link together rides on car-free roads, and you also have gravel and singletrack options.

The climb up to Laguna Seca is tough, but Jenn did great and even pretended to like it.

Once we reached the racetrack (1000 feet), it was mostly downhill back to the hotel (barely above sea level).

All told we clocked 28 miles with 2000 feet of climbing.

After a shower and a snack, we had a great Russian Imperial Stout at Dustbowl.

One of the unusual things about this visit was the smell. It was . . . not great. This was caused by an unusually large presence of anchovies in the bay. This leads to more predation in the bay, attracting larger fish, sea lions and birds. These predators produce a lot of organic waste matter, and the process of breaking down all that waste creates a hypoxic environment, meaning there isn't enough oxygen to support all the fish. The anchovies are dying off because of it. Most of the dead are consumed by predators anyway, but basically the whole chain reaction results in a bad smell that we could never totally get away from. I could smell it in our hotel room even with the windows closed.

We have seen large numbers of sea lions before, but in different places. This is Sister City Park and I don't think any of the benches or tables will be salvageable.

Nobody likes a crowd:

Pictures will never do justice to just how many birds there were. We have visited Monterey more times than I can count and there were easily 20 times as many birds as I have ever seen.

Anyway, other than gagging on a few occasions as we passed sea lion central, it was a good trip.

Later.

Hidden Falls

For a while now Roger and I have been trying to get together for a ride out at Hidden Falls, but one thing or another prevented it. Last time we had a date set Roger caught Covid. The time before that Jenn had a conflicting appointment, and since we are currently sharing one car (my Camry now lives in Los Angeles with the kid), I had to postpone.

Today the planets finally aligned and we got it done.

I took a look at the map to familiarize myself with the area, but I didn't learn much except there were many trails and they ranged from easy to difficult.

Hidden Falls Regional Park is about eight miles north-west of Auburn. It took me about 50 minutes to drive there from Folsom on winding country roads. I arrived a little high on nostalgia because these roads were part of our vast training grounds when we were younger. The flashbacks were vivid and frequent. Every twist and turn brought a new "this is where" memory, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The roads and countryside have changed very little except for one important facet: The traffic. Back in the 1980s we could ride 30 minutes between cars passing. Now we would be lucky to get 30 seconds.

I arrived at the parking lot to find the temperature was 12 degrees colder than at my home in Folsom. I forgot about the elevation change, and I was horribly underdressed for 46 degrees.

We took off and started on a long downhill and I was very cold. After a long summer of heat it was shocking. We probably could have started later and at least let the sun come up a bit more.

The trails are mostly smooth and fast, with just enough turning to make it fun.

Hey, look, sunshine!

We took a side trip to the namesake falls, and I was surprised there was any water flowing at all considering the time of year.

Towards the end of the ride I was starting to blow up, and we had only gone 12 miles. Roger was on his eBike and I felt compelled to peg it on every climb so I wouldn't slow him down. I was in a heart rate zone I hadn't visited in a while, and it cost me. I usually ride about 25 miles on my mountain bike rides, and I always climb at a good pace, but not like this.

I opted out of a longer ride and made the last climb back up to the parking lot.

In the end we only did 14 miles but with a solid 1700 feet of climbing. Again, this is significantly less than the 2500 feet I do on my local ride, but not at race pace.

We had a nice lunch at a drive-in burger place in Lincoln after the ride.

It was a great introduction to a new trail system and I look forward to doing it again and not killing myself to prove I am just as fast as an eBike.

Later.

Feeling the Crunch

I took the gravel bike out for a ride today. How could I not? After yesterday's epic gravel stage in the Tour de France, I was jonesing to feel the crunch of gravel beneath my own tires.

Much like the Tour stage, I have to get my gravel in short sectors. We don't have long gravel roads around my home.

Here is a one mile stretch near the river:

A half mile near Lake Natoma:

The gravel road between Beals Point and Granite Bay:

I still love to get out there and haul ass on the dirt with drop bars. I don't think the old cyclocross racer hidden somewhere deep within my soul will ever die.

Later.