Fixation

Sometimes you want to ride without a plan, you want to jump on the bike without suiting up or loading a bike in the car. I rode the fixed gear around town for a few hrs last night and as always, thoroughly enjoyed the spin. The weather was perfect and some of the pave was still damp from our rain. After stopping to meet a guy who was selling a brand new WTB SS hub for cheap, I headed down south to check on the garden and to begin to string up the sweet peas. The garden was looking rather healthy and I thinned some of the greens for salad. 

Using my trusty rain jacket, I was able to transport the arugula, spinach, and salad greens back to Jessica's house for our first harvest feast accompanied by fresh ciabatta bread pizza. Wednesday afternoons at the farmers market is the place for the real artisan bread from Udi's bakery. With the price of all our food shooting through the roof, it is good to know that some people out there still do it right. Amedeo informed me that Jessica beat me there and that she had already picked up some bread for us, one less thing in the bag. I saw Donald there as well and chatted about the happenings at the Cure Organic Farm. They were selling some healthy organic heirloom tomato plants that had me wishing I had more room in my plots.

The scene from the garden plot was calm as the last of the rain showers rolled over town.

This is where the ride gets fun. I have been doing this particular commuter ride for yrs. Usually it involves a round or two of frisbee golf with Sam in south boulder and a beer or two but on this evening I skipped aforementioned activities as time was short and I wanted to spin for a couple more hrs on the fixed gear. 

Heading east from here on the bike trail is always nice. Rolling creek path, no cars, no time constraints, and great scenery. 

I introduced this ride to CM after he turned to the dark side this year and purchased his first Singlespeed bicycle, a redline 29er mono. He quickly gained an appreciation for these flowing rides on the outskirts of town. I must confess that I wear my Ipod on these rides. I am more or less an anti music guy on the trail and definitely anti music when road riding. Personally it takes away from the experience for me and can be very dangerous on the open road for obvious reasons. That being said, I do enjoy it while riding the creek path and commuting. 

I took this shot for him (chris) as I crossed over foothills pkwy for the second time. He likes this bridge and the setting sun gave the opportunity for a little highlight through the chain. If it were not for the mountain backdrop, you would think you were crossing the beltway in baltimore on this thing. All you would need is some graf and a 2in layer of broken glass.

I find that turning the cranks on a fixed gear is extremely meditative. I just get into a rhythm on the rolling trails and enjoy seeing the sites that you normally would be oblivious to in a car, like this lawn sculpture made of recycled parts.

Looking forward to many more rides like this one this summer.

Spring retention and short rant

The last two days have been very springlike here in CO. We have had cool temperatures and very steady rain. As tough as it is on the riding schedule, it is extremely nice to get a cool humid day with rain in CO. Few and far between these days are on the front range. We will be back in the 80's this weekend and riding through lush green landscapes thanks to this rain. 

We all want to ride our bikes but I seriously can not understand how so many people can be so disconnected with the cycles of life. I am talking about the people who have been complaining about rain and cool weather when this is what feeds our planet and ironically is a big piece of the cycle that keeps quality trails beneath our wheels. There has been two days of rain, get over it. 

Go to Whole Foods and shop with your Ipod on and remember, Phoenix is always an option. 

fruita may 08

The weather made a dramatic switch last weekend, sun and upper 80's! J and I were lucky enough to slip out of town from sat-mon and the western CO trails did not disappoint. 

We started with a Saturday afternoon and evening ride into the sunset. The weather was so incredible that we ended up sitting in the chairs in the parking lot and enjoying a beer under the full moon after riding the flowing singletrack under the same moon's pale light. 

The past two trips to Fruita have been the best since I have been going out there. We have had great weather and I have had great company both trips! It would be really nice to rally there next fall with a small group of people. The whole area was just made for SS riding and I think the only time I have ridden gears in Fruita was the first time. I honestly do not remember that trip but I do remember that I was hit head on by a drunk driver on 93 while driving home. 

Sunday was Loma side during the day and road 18 again that evening. Here is a nice shot from the middle of the U on the Handcuffs trail I believe off of Steve's loop. In my Flickr pics, I got a good shot of this trail from above if I am not mistaken


The scenery was beyond words.


Paying homage 

We retraced our steps the following day for a second serving of Loma side. Mary's loop, Lions loop, and Troy Built. It got hot this day and as the temps were rising, my seatpost kept falling. Something was going on and my seat would drop a centimeter or so every few miles. I am hoping this issue has been corrected. I took Ryan's advice and pulled out the post and cleaned everything out. I re-greased with some gritty carbon aluminum specific grease. I also cleaned the clamp bolt and lightly greased it with some Phil Wood grease. I am hoping this solves the issue.

These guys hang around on Troy Built loop, pretty cool


Another enjoyable yet short mtb trip in the books. Things are warming up and snow is melting up high. Trail options are increasing daily and the garden is showing signs of early production. Summer is just around the switchback.

Here is a link to some pics of the trip on flickr until next time ws

the salad days

I just saw this link and had to share. Anybody who was into bmx knew what these were. If you didn't have them when they were hot, you would have given a sibling's right arm for a pair. A set of Tuff 2s back in the day were all you needed to think you would make the landing off that ridiculous contraption of a ramp or dirt jump. I had no idea you could still get these! If memory serves, a pair of the purple Tuff 2s that used to be on my friend Dan's bike, should be in my mom's shed along with my ACS Stoker hubs laced to blue Z rims. 

I clearly remember when I got my Z rims for Xmas, I wanted those wheels more than anything that year. I never actually owned Tuff2 wheels. By the time I was worthy of nicer bike parts like Tuffs, laced rims were taking over. I remember the owner of Wheel Power bike shop, who rocked a sweet cop like stache, built my wheels.

Since we are on the subject, check this guys photo collection. The laid back seat posts and gyros sure bring back memories. I never had the same intense color coordination as shown here but I loved my bike.

Steel frames and 1 gear, some things never change.

spring in colorado

Here we go again. Cold front after cold front seems to be the theme for the past few weeks. I was happy to awake this morning and see wet green grass and not a wet blanket of snow. It looks like we will have some decent riding weather after this front moves out though so no harm done right? Yeah, tell that to everyone's vegetable plants that took several days in a row of cold weather and most certainly died unless covered properly. We are 2 days away from the date when we should be safe to plant and still we are getting hammered with cold frosty nights. 

Oh well, at least I was able to squeeze in a couple of rides the last two days. One mtn ride solo and one death march on the road with BK. 

Hall (small) Ranch in Lyons was fun on Sunday night. I hit it late and fast and had a great time. The rocky technical section was fun up and down and the loop at the top was covered by a herd of deer that consisted of almost 100 animals. I rode right through the middle of the herd on both laps and although they all seemed aware of my presence, most seemed less than interested in me and more in their grazing. While passing through them, I imagined how easy living must be for a mountain lion in these parts this time of year. I imagined myself lying in the grass between the trees looking out at Rocky Mountain National Park over a fresh warm kill. I'm not sure if I was having a Jeremiah Johnson connected to nature moment or just bitter at the deer that ran directly into the side of my car last year...Either way, deer tastes good. 

                                                                              

The lighting was not great on this shot but the view was stellar.



Monday afternoon was a different story. With a nasty windy wet cold front charging down on boulder valley, Bob K. and I decided to take matters into our own hands and headed out into the wind like a couple of fisherman on the Deadliest Catch. We headed into a cold hard wind for about 20 miles before looping back to town via 36. With the dark low clouds creeping in attempting to cut off our position, we hammered a fast pace back only getting hit with a light sprinkle right at the end. At one point I looked down and we were rolling 30mph balancing our average speed that had been crippled by the rabbit mtn climb into gale force winds. We managed to pull out a 40 mile ride with just under a 20mph average speed. Bob actually logged more than 40 as he lives a little further from our start point. BK and I always seem to find ourselves flipping off mother nature when her attitude turns turbulent and going out anyway. When all is said and done, I am always glad we rode though one day we may die trying. Probably a good thing we are not fisherman on the Bering Sea.

Heres to swimmin with bowlegged women    Cheers! 

what is that creaking...

is that my knee making that annoying noise? no, it's not crunchy enough. the question lingers for a couple rides. The usual creaks of my surly were all but silenced by this new evil cry from parts unknown. I finally dug into it and upon close inspection, I realized that my isis Raceface cranks that have served me so well for so many years, had seen their last trail. I do believe the Outlaw had a similar break on his RF cranks a couple yrs back.

The 1x1 fixed setup has been out of commission for a few weeks. I finally ordered a set of stylos and hope to be back in business this week. Looking for used cranks is a joke and after all is said and done, these will not be overly expensive. I have been missing this bike recently and will be happy to spin some fixed mtn again soon. 

I decided not to go RF this time. I just put a pair on my if29er last fall but figured it was time to try something different. i heartss Tdub gave his Stylos two thumbs up so I figured what the hell, try the truvativ. Since ordering these, I have heard both good and bad reviews so I hope they hold up. 

I just received two new sizes of Tomicogs as well so the fixed gear future is looking bright. I am still throwing around the idea of building a set of 650b wheels to stuff in the Surly as well, call me crazy. We will see what shakes out.  

Maharaja Lovers Unite!

This was just brought to my attention. Tomorrow at Avery Brewery starting around 4pm, is the Maharaja release party. It sounds like I can tap into my backstock from the winter batch and re-up on the next batch! Avery's Maharaja Imperial IPA is one of my favorite beers right now. There is so much flavor packed into every bottle, it just stuns the taste buds. They actually started brewing it twice a year now. Jessica and I were lucky enough to get tickets to a dry hopped tasting at Avery a couple months back and it was a great learning experience. The Avery boys know how to tip a glass and they sure as hell know how to brew beer. Kegs were dry hopped especially for the last event and it was truly a delightful experience for those who attended. Looks like a great lineup of beers again for tomorrows release party. One thing is for certain, you will not leave disappointed but quite possibly a little buzzed. Be there or drink pbr.   b 

in the beginning

Welcome to my blog. I have been wanting to start this up to document things for quite a while. Finally after years of reading my friends blogs and websites, I am making the effort to share my experiences and interests as well. I really enjoy taking in the details of other's adventures and appreciate the effort they put into writing and posting the details of events or rides with friends. Hopefully somebody finds the same satisfaction in my stories. 

Back it up yo, my name is William Schiano but most call my billy, will or bill. William is also popular and billy skee if you're the Avalonious Monk. Last name is Italian and is actually pronounced Skee-ano but She-ano seems to be the american substitute. I'm a II, hence the segundo. I have been riding mountian bikes since the early 90's. A black Diamond Back Apex was my first "mountain" bicycle. Things took off from there like they did for many of us. I have loved riding bicycles all my life and still to this day, have fond memories of how this passion was kindled. 

After returning from a snowboard trip to CO over a winter break, I was unable to resist being pulled back to the mtns so I took a break from school and I moved to Durango for a while in the mid 90's. Mtn town life was good and I was having an incredible time but headed back to the east coast to be with the family during a time of need. I knew I would be back out here eventually though. After a couple of years, I was packing a truck and pointing it west. I settled on Boulder for more reasons than one (when I can make a living in Durango or Salida, I/we will blow this pop stand.) Until then, as much as those try to hate on it, boulder is a pretty nice place to live. Until you visit, don't form your opinion. Not all of us drive allroad Audi's and live in $2 million spec homes. Many of us still make a living the old fashion way, waiting for the whistle to blow and that door to open to the foothills of the Rocky Mtns. I have been here just about 10 years now. 

I have been riding bicycles for as long as I can remember. My sister Gina taught me to ride a singlespeed Huffy when I was in elementary school and since then I have been hooked on bicycles. From there, I naturally got into BMX riding. Our unconstrained minds built dirt tracks, ramp to ramp jumps, jumps with river landings, and even a quarter pipe. The suburban ruralish area we were raised in sprang up around us and quickly became a playground of dirt and new developments that would give rise to many a fun features. I loved being in the woods but I had no idea at the time that the trails we rode and walked on to get to our little utopias was a precursor to what would eventually become a great passion.  

I am rather slack when it comes to keeping up with friends and family so hopefully this will offer a little insight into what I have been up to when the times between our calls can be measured in full moons rather than days. All too often, this is a reality. 

If you stuck through this disorganized and slightly boring introduction, thanks and happy trails. ws