Weekend riding and golf?

With the weekend comes one of the few chances I have to ride anymore. In spite of the rain Saturday morning I managed to ride in it for about an hour and a half but stayed on the pavement.

Today was the four trail ride that some of us were planning on meeting up for. It takes in four of the local trails and the roads in between. Out regular riding group does rides similar to this all the time but this was an organized ride that was backed by the MMBA. I met Mark and Todd at 7:30 in the morning to ride to the start. There was a frost on the ground as the sun was starting to come up.

We ended up with a group of about six riders to be the first ones out of the start area and riding most of the route. once we got moving I was OK but freezing while waiting around. I have heard that they may have had as many as 100 riders out today.

Later in the day I met Mark, Todd, Chris, Jay, and his brother to play some golf in a scramble format. Out team didn't win but we had a good time. Afterward some of the guys came over to watch the 24 Solo movie and enjoy a few "refreshments".

More pictures of our grandchild

Jason has posted pictures of Oliver on his blog. Go here

It's official, I'm a grandpa!

We got the call this afternoon from Jason that Oliver Scott Kinley, weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz, had arrived into this world. Oliver, mom, and dad are all doing well. The baby was delivered underwater, a process I have seen on tv and is amazing to watch.

Congratulations to Emily and Jason. We are proud of you and love you all.

New ride

I have been riding and racing Cannondale bikes for several years now and have gotten rid most of my non-Cannondale mountain bikes, except one, a single speed. I have had several single speed bikes that were built from other manufacturer's frames but never a Cannondale. When they announced they were building a 29" frame SS specific bike for 2008 I immediately put it on my list for the next bike to build.

I had a frame on order since they first announced availability back in August. It sometimes takes longer to get a frame by itself, especially on hot sellers since they like to sell complete bikes. My frame finally arrived this past Thursday and I finished building it on Friday night. Saturday morning I gave it a shakedown ride and today I did 50 miles of my hill route to test the gearing I was thinking of using for Iceman.

I will probably run the SS but in my age class. The gearing I had on was a struggle on some of the hills but allowed for fast cruising on the flats. I may make the gearing a little easier, I'll have to think about it some more. The nice part about the bike is that it is identical in size to my other 29'er so fitting was relatively easy.

This week we are anxiously waiting for that phone call from Jason to tell us that he and Emily have had their baby. She is due on the 23rd so we should be getting the call any day now. I can then officially be called Grandpa! It doesn't seem that long ago that Jason was born.

Bulletin Board Biker Bash and group ride

I spent Saturday out at Lakeshore park in Novi manning the Hammer tent and helping out at the Cycletherapy booth. The event was the MMBA bulletin board Biker Bash, a fall get together of mountain bikers who spend the day socializing, riding, and playing bike games. Several shops bring out bikes for the demo and the Cycletherapy booth was pretty busy all day. I had free Hammer samples and advice for those who stopped by. I also had a kerosene heater going as it was a bit chilly during the day.

I got to the park in time for an 8:00 am ride with Ernie, the owner of Cycletherapy, and several others. It was only about 36 degrees when we started but it didn't take too long to warm up on the trail. I hadn't ridden this trail in a few years so it provided a nice change from what I usually ride.

Today I got out to ride a little after 8:00 in the morning and again it was about 36 degrees but it was supposed to warm up later. I started by heading north on the back roads to ride some of the bigger hills before heading over to Stony metropark and try out some reworked singletrack. Along the way I saw quite a few deer and the when cresting a hill there were two hot air balloon just taking off and floating over the road. I wish I had my camera to get a shot of them against the sky and reflecting the early sun.

After Stony I then headed out of the park and just a short ways down the road to where a group of riders were preparing to preride a route that they want to use for a large group ride in a few weeks. We still had 19 riders at the start. I ended up leading most of the ride as I took them on an alternate route to what they had planned.

Anytime you get a large group of riders you will have people who ride at different speeds. Because this was a no drop ride, we had to be certain that everyone caught up at the major turns or intersections. This was not really a problem with our group but I can imagine if they get the 40 or 50 riders they are looking for then there may be some problems.

We ended up riding up and doing Bald Mountain and Addison Oaks before heading back down the Paint Creek Trail to the cider and doughnut stop. I turned off when we got closer to my house as it was running late.

Over all it was a good weekend to be out on a bike.

Take a walk on the Wild Side

Regular readers of my blog (both of you) may recall that I have mentioned the 12 hour race we went to in April down in Tennessee. Prior to the race Robin and I were interviewed for a public TV show. In addition, I had a camera mounted on the bike for the first lap of the race.

We found out a while back that the show has finally aired but we didn't have a copy of it until a few weeks ago. In addition to a fair amount of footage of the team and some of me on the bike, our half hour interviews were whittled down to a few lines each by Robin and myself. Oh well, hopefully our sponsors appreciate the air time.

We have the video linked on our team website. You can see it here. Robin and I will be signing autographed copies at Iceman. :-)

What month is this?

Raking up my first batch of leaves was the only thing that reminded me it was fall. Temperatures in the upper 80's with high humidity made it feel like August.

I managed to get out for a few hours early Saturday morning on the back roads with some of my riding buddies. Most of them were on singlespeeds except for one. I am waiting for my Cannondale SS frame to come in and then I may join them on a SS as well. I haven't had the chance to ride much lately so it was good to get out for more than an hour.

Sunday morning I rode for a few hours again including taking in the C cyclocross race at Stony. I raced cyclocross a few years ago but I'm not sure I want to do it again. The race season is long enough as it is. Besides, all the close by races are over with this year until the last one in December. I may travel to a few more mtb races but not a 'cross race.

Next weekend I will be at the Bulletin Board Biker Bash, an end of the year bike fest that includes bike demos, games, and just getting together with other mountain bikers. Some of the bike shops set up displays so I will be working with Cycletherapy as well as distributing some Hammer products.

The following weekend I hope to get up north for a mtb race that is only in its second year but at a venue that used to hold mtb races many years ago. I think it will be the last race before the Iceman a few weeks after that. Once again I will be representing Hammer at the Iceman expo.