Friday Afternoon Grab Bag

Scale model depth charge attack.

Underwater view of attack.

Ride On.

Finally Dirt Riding

I’m off to points West this morning. I’m making the trek to Rapid City, SD to attend the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival. It’s been so long since I’ve ridden my mountain bike on dirt I’ll be surprised if I can remember how.

My game plan is to not pass “go,” but to get my carcass directly to M Hill. I’m going to try to jamb as much trail time in as I can during this fest. I’m taking the camera along to document all sorts of stuff. With our (our being Falls Area SingleTrack) Parks and Recreation Board hearing coming up, I want to see how others have handled certain challenges and have provided fun obstacles for the trails.


This picture has nothing to do with anything.

I’m looking forward to a few days off, meeting and riding with some friends, and exploring a venue I’ve not yet ridden. I think the weather is going to be cooperative. It should be a great time. I’ll recap the action next week.


Ride On.

Windy Weekend Riding

I’ve wanted to put some miles on the touring bike and also test gear and the new panniers. A plan was devised to bike camp this past weekend. Others were interested in doing the same. A reservation at Union Grove State Park was procured. The weather failed to cooperate.

The Saturday weather was for winds out of the south twenty five to thirty miles per hour (25 – 30 MPH) with gusts to forty miles per hour (40 MPH). Union Grove is straight south of here. OK, let’s bag that and go to plan “B.”

After an exhaustive five (5) minute internets search, it was determined campsites North of here were scarce. Bummer. In a last minute decision the plan was to roll North, using the rather strong tailwinds, to Brookings for an overnight camp in a City campsite.

Companion number one (#1) had mechanical issues and bowed out. Companion number two (#2) opted to stay here. But, here we go anyway.

The winds made for a quick sixty (60) mile jaunt. On the flats it was easy to maintain twenty five miles per hour (25 MPH). My top speed was thirty nine point eight miles per hour (39.8 MPH). Despite the nice tailwind conditions is was HOT. Upon arrival in Brookings I elected to go for the forty dollar per night ($40/night) hotel room.

A shower and a stroll to downtown were the ticket. At Cubbies burgers were ordered and consumed. Beer chased the burgers. A stroll to Jim’s Tap and more beer while lounging in the beer garden ended the evening.

Sunday, after some breakfast, the route down was reversed and biked back to Sioux Falls. Not only did the winds diminish, they switched direction to become quartering tailwinds for the ride back. Sweet!

As per my usual late spring / early summer, I neglected to put sunscreen on. Minor sunburn attained, farmer stripe as a bonus.

What I gathered from this little jaunt is the touring bike works really well. I rode pretty loaded. Even at thirty nine point eight miles per hour (39.8 MPH), it tracks straight and true. I gave the handlebar a shake to see if I could induce a wobble. No wobble. An introduction was made. Brooks saddle, meet my ass. My ass, meet Brooks saddle. With some laps around the bike trail and now this past weekend’s ride, the Brooks saddle is getting very close to being broke in.

Coming up later this week I’ve got some mountain biking action in the form of the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival. The weekend after that a herd of us departs here for the start of the Tour de Kota. More on those activities later.


Ride On.

Media Fail, Mayoral Candidate Fail

Last Friday was Bike To Work Day in my fair City. As I’d mentioned last week, that Crazy MinusCar fellow agreed to co-sponsor a Bike 2 Work Contest. In this contest I threw down a challenge to all mayoral candidates as well as all TV, radio, and local newspaper people.

Of the mayoral candidates none accepted the challenge. However, one (1) of the candidates, the dude that won the election, the new mayor, did ride his bike to Bike To Word Day and subsequently, work.

The media types, well, with the exception of one newspaper dude, no one showed. Old habits die hard, I guess. Or maybe it’s just lazy. In any regard there is no media division this year. You can call it lack of interest. Since balls don’t grow on trees, they grow on people, I’m calling it lack of balls.

The event itself was a great hit. I had more than fifty (50) sign up for the contest. Scores more came to have a free pancake breakfast. A big thank you goes out to all in the Bike to Work Day committee. Well done indeed!

Speaking of service, promotion, and the like, here’s a great blog post from the Adventure Cycling Association. You should consider doing this. Pass this along to others such that they might consider it, too. If teaching impressionables there’s a better way than driving is important to you, here’s a great way to do that.


Ride On.

Friday Afternoon Grab Bag

The coolest documentary of the year. I can’t wait for this movie to come out!

This is seven (7) minutes long, but very cool.

Ride On.

Bike To Work Day

In my fair city, today is Bike To Work Day. I like the concept, but am trying to push it harder and farther.

For the second (2nd) year in a row I’m conducting a Bike 2 Work Contest. This event, like last year, is co-sponsored by that crazy MinusCar fellow. And like last year, we are each tossing in hundreds of dollars for prize money.

The upshot of the contest is rollers fill out an entry form complete with their body weight (weighed in person by me). The contest starts on Bike To Work Day and ends in the middle of October. Participants keep a log of the days they’ve biked to work. They get a sign-off to keep them honest on a weekly basis.

At the end of the contest we reconvene. I take their weight again. The number of days they biked to work coupled with the number of pounds they’ve lost, multiplied by a mystery factor, gives an individual a score.

Last year we were able to give $600 for first, $400 for second, and $200 for third. This year the top three will again get cash. I’m thinking the amounts will be somewhat lower. In addition we’ll be giving prizes as rewards for effort. These have yet to be finalized and will remain a mystery until the last day. The concept is for participants to put forth some effort in the hopes they’ll bring home a nice reward for their efforts.

This year I’d mailed all the info to all the radio, TV, and our local newspaper to try to get a “media” division going. While general public types have zero for an entry fee, media types needed to come up with $100 each. The media types would be playing for a local charity. If a particular media type won their division, their charity would get 100% of the entry fees as a nice donation. I’ve not been contacted by any media types regarding this. Therefore my expectation for this division is zero participation.

While I know of at least a few people who work for the local newspaper, like this dude, that are avid bikers and bike commuters, the TV and radio types seemingly are not up to the challenge.

Next week I’ll have numbers. I’ll let you know how many of each division are participating. Rumour has it our new mayor will be attending Bike To Work Day. I handed him an entry form back when he was a candidate. I wonder if this will be a one day thing for him or a great way to lead by example.


Ride On.

Presto Change-O

Yesterday was supposed to be the FAST (Falls Area SingleTrack) Day of Reckoning with the Parks and Recreation Board. FAST was to have ten (10) minutes to state its case and the crabby geriatrics of the neighborhood were going to have ten (10) minutes to state theirs.

Recently our fair City had elections. As a result, we have a new mayor and some new city council types. Evidently the new mayor would like to meet with all city department heads to get up to speed on what’s going on in their respective worlds.


This picture has nothing to do with anything. It's just cool and I wanted to share.

What this means is our May hearing is now a (hopefully) June hearing and it could push back even farther yet. We should know in a few weeks as to what’s going on and when we’ll present.

For those not in the know, FAST is proposing to build and maintain singletrack trails within a virtually unused City park. We are doing this at no cost to the local (or any other) tax payers.

The nearest singletrack is near Ponca, Nebraska – which is quite a jaunt from here. Though we’ll only get a few miles of trail in this small park, it will be very nice to be able to ride bikes to a venue and get some riding in.


Ride On.

Weekend Class And Ride

Friday evening and Saturday morning to mid afternoon I was in class. Traffic riding class that is. That crazy MinusCar fellow, along with two (2) others, put on the League of American Bicyclists Traffic Skills 101 course.

We spend about one half (1/2) of the class in the classroom and the other one half (1/2) riding. Skills were practiced, techniques were discussed, and riding in traffic was done. It was an excellent class and also a prerequisite for becoming an instructor for the same class.

Sunday morning I was up very early for a 5:15 rendezvous with SD Pedal Power. He was planning to ride, loaded, to Pierre, SD for a Tuesday “Safe Routes to Schools” meeting. I wanted to get some miles on the new touring bike. I put all the panniers on, but some food and tools in some and magazines in others. I was riding sort of loaded.

We rolled west on SD Highway 42. About eighteen (18) miles into my portion of the ride, he blew a spoke. The combination of a heavy load and too small diameter (by the looks) spokes proved too much. We reversed course and made our way back to Sioux Falls.


Ride On.

Friday Afternoon Grab Bag

Not so crazy anymore, are they?

Psycho Potato.

Ride On.

Signed Up

I was not able to attend this year’s version of the Fruita Fat Tire Festival. I’m pleased that I’ll be attending this year’s version of the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival.



I plan to depart right after work on Wednesday May 26th Thursday morning May 27th, early -ish. I’ve got a place to stay and am looking forward to getting on some dirt. I haven’t yet this year. That sucks.

This weekend I’ll be getting the Ellsworth ready to roll. I need to get re-acquainted it’s been so long. I sure wish we had some singletrack here. Wait! We might have some coming!

FAST (Falls Area SingleTrack) has been invited to participate in a Parks and Recreation Board Hearing on this subject Tuesday May 18th. If you’re a supporter and can attend, please do so. Contact me for particulars if you don’t already have them.


Ride On.

Off Topic But On The Mark

I saw this on the internets with credit given to Mike Milken.

* In 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Richard Nixon said, “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.”

* In 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Gerald Ford said, “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

* In 1979 with 40.5% of oil from foreign sources, President Jimmy Carter said, “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never.”

* In 1981 with 43.6% of oil from foreign sources, President Ronald Reagan said, “While conservation is worthy in itself, the best answer is to try to make us independent of outside sources to the greatest extent possible for our energy.”

* In 1992 with 47.2% of oil from foreign sources, President George Bush said, “When our administration developed our national energy strategy, three principles guided our policy: reducing our dependence on foreign oil…”

* In 1995 with 49.8% of oil from foreign sources, President Bill Clinton said, “The nation’s growing reliance on imports of oil…threatens the nation’s security…[we] will continue efforts to…enhance domestic energy production.”

* In 2006 with 65.5% of oil from foreign sources, President George W. Bush said, “Breakthroughs…will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”

* In 2009 with 66.2% of oil from foreign sources, President Barack Obama said, “It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”

Does the word “doomed” come to mind?



Ride On.

Locked And (Ready To Be) Loaded

As advertised by the fine folk at the Adventure Cycling Association, my panniers arrived on Monday. I went to work making fine adjustments such that I can go right to using them at first (1st) opportunity.

The one (1) drawback, if you even want to call it that, is the panniers are reddish in colour. My bike is Blue Velvet. And, since I’m pasty white, now I’m fricking patriotic! The red and the blue don’t go together so well. Oh well, not being a slave to fashion, there are a multitude of things I could give a shit about. This isn’t one (1).

Now that the bags are here, I’m itching to use them. Hopefully there is a bike camping excursion in my near future. Maybe weekend after this coming. We’ll see.


Ride On.

Is Today The Day

Due to some sort of glitch in shipping I’ve not received my fore and aft panniers yet. I contacted the Adventure Cycling Association and asked, “What’s up?” A day or so later I received a reply that they’d look into it. The original order was placed on April 21st.

The report came back that they could not find any record of the panniers being shipped. Therefore, to rectify the situation, they were going to ship them via UPS last week. Based on the date they said that, I’m expecting a package, via UPS, probably today and no later than Wednesday.

I’d like to get these things and get some bike camping in ahead of Tour de Kota and ahead of Roam 2010 – Faces to the Falls. If / when they get here, I’ll put them on the bike and take some pictures to post. I’m anxious to see what they look like mounted and what the bike will feel like riding loaded.


Ride On.

Saturday Short

Ride On.

Friday Afternoon Grab Bag

Built a plane.

This accessory is optional.

Ride On.

Prototype Design

This summer will be the second (2nd) annual installment of Bike-A-Palooza. This event is in celebration of all things bicycle. New Belgium Brewing is coming back. They’re bringing bikes to raffle off. The MAIN reason for this event is to buy and supple bikes for under privileged kids.

I am in charge of games. I’ve got three (3) kids games lined up. I’ve also got five (5) or six (6) adult games lined up. Back by popular demand will be bike jousting. For this event contestants will ride supplied BMX bikes and joust with supplied lances.

I’ve made the lances. They are made up of a ten foot (10’) section of PVC pipe with a boxing glove at one (1) end. We make the contestants wear some protective gear.



This year I’m adding chariot races. Think Ben Hur on bikes. Homemade chariots will be pulled by a bike. The chariot rider is not allowed to sit or kneel and is highly encouraged to bring a cardboard or plastic sword for competition bopping.

Here’s a quickie sketch of my chariot prototype.



If you are from my neck of the woods or can plan to be here, the last Saturday in June is when this all goes down. Let me know if you need more information. Everyone is welcome to come play.


Ride On.

The Long Run

It looks like game on for July 3rd and July 4th. Two (2) days, three-hundred (300) miles.



Let me know if you want in. The more the merrier. Unless you’re a whiner.


Ride On.

On Singletrack

For those interested in our local pending singletrack adventure, I wanted to provide you with a slightly vague update on the action, or lack there-of.

Supposedly, you can't even talk singletrack in this town without being forced to walk, or ride, a fine line. On the one (1) hand the community is overwhelming in support of having some dirt to ride on. On the other (2) hand, the geriatric neighborhood wants nothing to ever happen with “their” park. What’s a mother to do?

We, the fine folk of Falls Area SingleTrack (FAST), have coerced an expert trail builder to come have a look-see at what we’d like to do. Originally we’d thought of having a nice trail building kick off semi-party. Fate stepped in and we had to change the dates around.

That, coupled with angry old folk, makes prepping hairier and more challenging than it should be. We’ve got a hearing with the Parks and Recreation Board coming up in a couple (2) weeks. Not only is FAST going to present its case, but, the angries are going to present theirs.

In the interest of not stirring up neighborhood resistance our walk-through with the trail expert will be, how do I say this, slightly covert. In actuality, anyone can be in the park as it’s public. However, fire needs fuel to burn and we’re not about to give the fire that is the neighborhood group any.

Some of us are meeting tonight to discuss upcoming singletrack stuff. Once that is done, I’ll be shooting out an email “to the (local) masses” forthwith.

Stay tuned for more updates in this ongoing soap opera saga that is “Sioux Falls single track.” You’d think providing a unique recreational opportunity for the public to use in a very little used City Park FOR FREE would be an easy thing. Nope.


Ride On.

May Poem

Hooray, hooray,
The first of May
Sex outside
Is now OK

Ride on.