Goat Camp - White Tank Mountains

Met up with some MTBR doods to day for a Halloween throw-down on Goat Camp.

It was a most excellent day, except the lower hike-a-bike was actually kinda warm. I'm in the process of kicking a cold, so my fitness really took a noes dive the past few weeks. My sniffles were mostly gone, but I was pretty much dragging butt the whole ride.

I gotta say I got chewed up and spit out on the gnar. I had one minor over-the-bars crash near the beginning of the decent, so I pretty much took it easy after that.

There was some pretty talented riders with us, and they made the trail look easy, but it aint. This is my second look at it, and I think I need another crack at it soon.

Here's a vid of the day:

Canyon Lake Paddle

What better way of celebrating the Columbus Day holiday, but with a little voyage. I rolled outta my driveway at 5:30 am, an hour later I was at the Acacia Picnic Site. After dinking around with my camera, I was on the water at 7:00 am.

Like anybody I else, I prefer this lake with no traffic, but unfortunately this wasn't going to happen today. Boats were already buzzing around, when I launched. Not bad for most of the day, but my return was a little choppy.

This was my second play day in row, so didn't make it to the end of the lake. I ended up turning around a little ways past Blue Tank Cove. This filming stuff takes lotsa time, so my tour ended up taking about 5 hours.

I saw a pair of eagles moments after I launched, but never saw them after that. I was kind of tripped out though, cuz I swear I saw a roadrunner flying between a small gap of rocks. I tried to film her, but I was just too slow.

Other than the activity on the lake, it was a great paddle.

Here's a vid of my paddle:

Here's a one minute Google Earth Tour of my route:

Black Canyon Trail - Black Canyon City, AZ

I need a longish ride, so I ended up rolling with some peeps over on MTBR on the Black Canyon Trail.

It was a perfect day to ride, as we met up on at 7:00 at the Black Canyon City Trailhead, and we were on the trail before 7:30. The temps were down right comfy, and pretty much stayed that way. The clouds shaded us when we needed it, and when they weren't there, a gentle breezed offered a helping hand

The pace was excellent, not to punishing neither to fast, nor not to much waiting. Pretty nice for the group of 10 or so riders that did the full meal deal.

Here's vid of the ride:

Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09 - McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Last night Tim, Tom and I did the final night ride of the season, out on Pemberton last night at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. They usually host these rides about once a month, and this was the first on I participated in.

We rolled into the Trailhead Staging Area around 7:30; it had just gotten dark. The lost was about 3/4 full of eager riders. We hit the trail about 8:15 and the 15 mile loop took us about 2 hours.

My new Princeton Tec Switchback 3 headlamp worked really well. I've been using it in the morning for the rides, but this was the first group ride with it, and it was reassuring it had the stamina to keep bright for an extended period of time. It is kinda heavy, and not quite as bright as an HID, it flooded the trail with tons of light. Not bad for $182 shipped to my door (via chainlove).

I've only riden Pemberton twice, and was never really thrilled with the trail, due to the lack of fun hills and sand, but it is pretty neat trail to ride at night. The creatures were out, as I spotted four tarantulas, a little toad, and big phat diamondback rattlesnake.

Here's a thread on MTBR that talks about the ride: Last Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09.

Here's a couple of short vids of the creatures crawling about:

Ebike (electric bike)

Okay, so I imagine I will be shunned by some in the biking community for getting into my latest venture; an electric bike.

What? an electric bike? Well, I took an ordinary commuter bike, threw a big battery on the back and brushless motor hub up front. It has a solid state (electronic) controller that goes between the battery and the motor, and Cycle Analyst to meter my usage (speed, amp hours used, watts, voltage, etc).

Why in the world would I do this??? Well, I've been taking the bus into work everyday for the past three years, and I usually spend about two hours a day going back and forth. My goal was to get my on way commute on this bike down to under a half hour, and my best time yet is 27 minutes. By going back and for on this bike I just and hour of my life back everyday. Not bad. I'm a rather strong biker, but I don't have shower facilities at work and I'd rather save my legs for the trail instead of the road.

What's it like? It isn't super torqueeee, but it is pretty dang powerful. When I take off from an intersection, I usually start of pedaling (not necessary)and I blow the cars away. On flat ground I've topped out at 34 mph, and the range is around 25 miles.

I spent several weeks researching what I wanted out of a bike on www.endless-sphere.com, and purchased my kit from www.comcycle-usa.com.

What do I have wrapped up in this beast? I spent $450 for the bike (REI - Novara Buzz - with chromoly fork and disk brakes), $900 for the 600W BMC electric motor hub and controller w/ thumb throttle, $900 for the 48v 15 ah LiFePO4 battery, and $145 for the Cycle Analyst (stand alone). Sure I coulda got a motorcycle/scooter, but I at the traffic signals I got to the head of the class because I cruise down the bike lane.

Here's video of my project:

NRA Jumping: Mesa, AZ

Went up with the crew out at NRA to see how jumping is done.

My skilz are very impressive, in fact I actually ate it on my first drop. Baby steps, but everybody else were flying. Super spectacular was put on by Kenny B. and C&L.

Anycow, here's a vid of the day:

Chongoman's Annual Ride: Geronimo - SoMo (Phoenix, AZ)

The bikers started showing up this morning at 5:30 Chongoman's Annual ride, and what a ride it was. I think our crew totaled about 15, as we suffered up Javelina, Mormon Loop, National to ride down Geronimo.

The heat was on, and on it was, but perhaps a tad bit cooler than last year. No owies and the only mechanicals were simultaneous flats. And I was one of 'em.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Chongoman for hosting us.

Here's a vid of the day:

Click to play

And a Hi-res Quicktime version can be found here: Chongoman's Annual Ride