Woke up for an early morning ride with my wife. It was noticeably colder today. In the lower 30's. It was a good test for the winter riding gear. Everything felt good except the hands. By the end of the ride they were again completely frozen. I'll have to find better gloves. The ones I have work great but not for anything colder than the 40-50 degree range.

We rode up above Herriman Lake, if you can call it a lake, (Really it's just a small, man-made pond) up to where the roads end in the foothills, then down, and up again to Rose Canyon and back. Not a long ride, just about 16 miles but it does have a bit of climbing. I think as the weather gets colder and colder we'll have to shorten the length of our rides in the morning. This one seems like a pretty good distance for the future. Besides, I hope to get regular rides in during lunches.

Here is the view from above Herriman Pond or whatever you want to call it.

As you can see, (or maybe better, "can't see") it's dark up there.

Riding in the Dark

Being October it' dark in the mornings. Very dark. You have to prepare for this. Cars are dangerous enough in daylight but in the dark they become extra scary. I think of the times I've ridden in the past while it was dark outside and man, that was crazy.

I don't think I would every go again without at least a front white light and a back red light. You may not know this but there are a lot of options when it comes to lights for bikes. When I first looked into it I had no idea. The question you must ask yourself is "do I want to actually see with this light or do I only need to be seen with this light?" Turns out there is a huge difference between the two. I first went with the cheaper option and got a light just to be seen. My wife got the other option and bought a more pricey front light that is bright enough that it actually helps you see with it. After borrowing hers while on a solo ride I realized I had made a big mistake. It seems crazy expensive but if you do a lot of riding in the dark I've learned it's well worth it.

This is the NiteRider MiNewt 350. It's not terribly heavy and at 350 lumens it's pretty bright. It's all self contained in one unit so there is no battery pack to worry about. At the highest power the battery lasts about 2 hrs and the recharges using a USB cable. It mounts easily to your handle bars and has a quick release that makes it easy to switch to other bikes.

This is the backlight I wear. It's cheap and easy but works just fine.

I wear a reflective vest that's not a full vest but more just straps that you wear like a vest. It's easily adjustable for when you have a jacket on or not. I had a hard time finding one like this. I could only find it at a running shop near my office.

My New Bike

I bought an entry level road bike earlier this year. This was done for a number of purposes in mind but the reason I went with an entry level bike was because I really didn't know if I would enjoy the sport or not. I wasn't willing to make too big of an investment without knowing how committed I would be. And at the time, I was blown away at how expensive even entry level bikes were.

Now, after a summer of being completely addicted I've come to realize that I need(or at least, really, really want) a better bike. So this is what I got. Nothing too expensive but a good bike all the same. Here is the breakdown and review:

So this is the Focus Izalco Pro 3. It's a full carbon frame with Ultegra 6700 build. The frame has a BB30 bottom braket with oversized chain stays and thin seat stays. The headtube is tapered from a 1 1/8" to a 1 1/2". I got the compact 50/34 crankset with the SL-K hollow carbon cranks. It has a 3T Fonda Pro carbon fork and the cockpit is SL-K with a fi'zi:k arione saddle. The only thing that is less than stellar about the build on this bike are the wheels. They are Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels that do just fine in training but they are heavy when compared to the carbon wheels out there. I will have to upgrade somewhere down the line.

As currently built it weights just over 16 lbs. That's supper light when compared to my older bike. I've been on this ride for a little over 3 weeks now and I couldn't be happier. The first thing you notice when you get on and start to pedal is that it wants to go. With every stroke you feel like you are being flung forward. There seems to be very little energy loss between your legs and the bike. The next thing you notice is how quiet the bike is. The only sound is the rubber on the pavement. It's so quite that I can hear the leather on my shoes squeak as I pedal.

Shifting with the Ultegra components is smooth and solid. Being light, the bike is fun going uphill but it is downhill that you really notice how this bike wants to go fast. It seems to go top speed within seconds of letting it. Handling the bike takes a bit of getting used to. With the tapered headtube you need only make the most subtle movements to steer. It has a very short wheel base but you get used to that soon enough. After riding for about a week and a half I went in to get fitted and we switched the stem for a longer one and changed some other minor settings on the bike. Not that the original setup was bad but it feels even better now. I haven't been on any super long rides on it yet so I'm not sure how it will feel after 75 or 100 miles but I will know soon enough. That is where the carbon frame is suppose to come into play. It's suppose to make the ride much more smooth especially over longer distances. I'll give my review on that part later on.

As for my wife's bike; it's a Cannondale SuperSix with similar features. She went with SRAM components on hers and she seems to be happy with it. I'll let her review it here if she wants to.

This upcoming week we are suprising our kids with a trip to Disneyland over UEA weekend so I'm trying to get all the riding I can before we go. It should be fun.

Little Cottonwood

Yesterday at noon I hopped on my bike for my lunchtime ride. The original plan was to drive up to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and from there ride up to the top and back. As it got time to go work got crazy, so I thought that maybe it would be better if I just left from my office, did a short ride and came back to the office. So off I went heading east. As I rode I thought I'll go just a little further and then turn around. Soon I found myself at the mouth of the canyon. "I'll just go up a little further and turn around." It was such a beautiful ride that I couldn't get myself to turn around. Finally I thought "To heck with this, I'm going to the top." As soon as I made up my mind to go all the way I began to suffer. My legs didn't seem to want to go anymore. Despite the supposed cool temps I was dying of heat and my water was running low. I was hungry too. I had one GU gel with me but that didn't seem to help much. At least there is water at the top I thought. I can refill there. I really struggled but after what felt like forever I made it to the top. There I found that they had removed the benches and the water fountain for the winter season. I had no water left and I was a long way from my office, but at least it was mostly downhill from here. I took some quick pics of the recent early fall snow and down I went. Even though I was dying of heat on the way up I could now feel the cool air coming down and it got a bit chilly. Good thing for arm warmers. I made it back but boy was I thirsty. It took a while to be feeling better but my legs are still sore. I will go for an easier ride at lunch today. One thing of note; I've run out of my HEED Hammer energy drink so yesterday I had only plain water and I got thinking, perhaps that is why I suffered so much. Maybe it does make that much of a difference? Entirely possible. The above pics are slopes at the top with the recent snow. I can't wait to be skiing these slopes!

Suncrest Ride

Yesterday I took my bike to work with the plan of riding during lunch. I thought I would just head up to the Draper LDS temple and back but by the time I got there I still had plenty of time before I had to be back in the office so I kept going. I ended up going up the north side of South Mountain up to the top of Suncrest. I was surprised at how tough it was. I have climbed up to the top several times but always on the south side. The north side felt much steeper and even longer as well. It was a good ride. I came back to work with my mind cleared and ready to go. I think this might be the answer to my winter riding schedule. It stays dark so late and gets dark so soon that I've been trying to figure out how I can ride in the light. This might work.

I still ride in early morning. It's very dark but that is the only time my wife can go with me. We have good lights and we are decked out in reflective material but still riding during the day is much more comfortable. Today for example, we rode Rose canyon in the early morning but I've brought my bike to work again and I think I'll try to get up Little Cottonwood canyon during lunch. I'll post how it goes.

My Interests....

I've always wondered what it would be like to blog. So, I decided to give it a try. Why blog? Well, because it'll give me a chance to talk about what I like. My hobbies and adventures at least. I always seem to get new hobbies. My wife says that I tend to become obsessed with my latest hobby but I claim that I'm just passionate. As a teenager I was all about sports. Football in particular. Later I fell in love with music. Not just listening, but playing it as well. I learned guitar and joined a band and had a lot of fun. I still love to play with the band every chance I get (which seems to not be near enough).

About 7 years ago I discovered skiing. It blew my mind that here I lived in Utah and only went once when I was a kid. Now I tend to dream about it often and when I'm not dreaming about it I'm actually there on the mountain.

A few years ago my wife gave me as a birthday present a telescope. I've always enjoyed astronomy and I did really well in my college astronomy classes but it wasn't until I first saw Saturn with my own eye(s) in this telescope that I realized, "holy crap, I've got to show people how amazing this is." Since then I've loved learning and looking at the universe.

The latest thing I've discovered is a passion for is cycling. Road cycling in particular. Last year, as a way to save money, maybe lose some unwanted pounds and perhaps save the earth, I bought a townie bike to ride to work on. I road about every other day on my upright cruiser to work and back (about 10 miles each way) but I suffered most of the time. It was hot, the bike was heavy, and traffic was scary. Plus, to top it off I actually got a ticket while riding this bike. (long story.) This past May, while debating if I wanted to ride to work or not I decided I wanted to get a real road bike. Maybe I would not suffer as much on my way to work.

It was all a spur of the moment thing. I came home, told my wife what I wanted to do and by that weekend we had both bought entry level road bikes. She thought I was crazy, but she thought that if I was going to get one then she should get one too. It turned out to be a good thing because I quickly became addicted. I wanted to go for longer and longer rides and soon it became all about the journey and less about the destination. I even stopped riding to work (which was the original purpose of the bike) because it was too short of a ride and I enjoyed getting up early and riding the roads I wanted to ride. The amount of time we spent on the bike became more and more but I am very grateful that it was something we did together, much like skiing. The only down side is that when I began looking at getting a much better road bike, I knew I would have to get her one too. But I was more than happy to do it if it meant that she would still ride with me. This time was different though. We spent much more time researching and comparing before we finally decided to buy. Also, buying at the end of the season made things a little bit more affordable. Maybe I'll do a post about what I learned in searching for a good road bike. It deserves it's own post.

So anyway, this is what I've decided to make my blog about. My hobbies. I'm sure I'll inject my opinions on other things too but mostly my hobbies. We'll see how it goes.....