Work Free Wednesday

I've been trying to take a three day weekend for a few weeks now, but things always kept popping up at work until I last I ended up taking Wednesday off this week. So instead of a three day weekend, I only have to deal with a pair of two day work weeks--not a bad trade! In the end, Wednesday was a great day to head out riding.

I started my day off with some pre-breakfast comparo riding between the Surly:

and ye Olde Trek:

My intention was to do four laps of my Avery Park extended loop, two miles each, alternating between bikes. My hope was that it would help me decide which of these two very similar bikes I liked better. But that wasn't quite what happened.

Three Bikes On and Off the Bubble

I'm up to six bikes now, which is about twice my comfort zone. Of course, this has me thinking and scheming about how to rearrange my bike fleet. I'll explain this through three rides on three different bikes:

1) Last weekend, I took my spare parts build Cross Check for a quick spin to the library. I actually had the CC posted for sale, but I set my price on the high side, perhaps subconsciously knowing I didn't really want to sell it. That, and I'm really enjoying the way it rolls on the supple Racing Ralph tires. Those supple tires, though, didn't help when I couldn't bunny hop over the sharp edge where the road had been ground down, pinch flatting my rear tire (I can't bunny hop worth a darn if I'm not clipped in). I got a little nervous when I opened my tool bag to only find a 26 x 2" tube. Luckily, I also had my patch kit, AND the glue hadn't dried, so I successfully patched the tube and carried on.

With only a mini pump to use, my tire didn't have as much air as I normally like. Finally, I had a legitimate use for the public bike work stand near the rec center. I started to pump, only to realize there was no resistance. Maybe this was why:

I carried on, soft tire and all, and had a nice afternoon ride.

So with my Camargue having a solid grip on the utility duties, the CC and ye Olde Trek are left to duke it out for sporty bike duties.

Kate's First S24O

Last fall, I took both boys on an S24O to Alum Creek (though we didn't end up there). In the six months since then, Kate's been regularly reminding me that the next time I take multiple kids on an overnight trip, it was her turn. This Memorial Day weekend, the forecast was absolutely perfect for an overnighter: days in the 70s, nights in the 50s. If you don't make an effort to camp during weather like this, just crawl back inside to the couch and big screen TV and give up.

I planned to go to my favorite (and so far, only, but it will be hard to top) "stealth camping" spot. Henry and Kate and I left after dinner, about 6:30 or so. We stopped again at the dam so Kate could see it:

She was impressed! Next time, we'll have to stop on the west side so we can walk down to the water. But we had our camp site to get to, so we rolled on.

Ice Cream, You Scream... and Stonefield Park

We celebrated Mother's day, the sequel, with Jodi's mom today. We met up with her and Jodi's sister Ginger at the Velvet Ice Cream factory in Utica, Ohio.

Henry and Sam goofed around while we waited for everyone to show up:

 

I got all four big kids to pose by the old mill wheel:

and then we fed some ducks and possibly the largest goose I've ever seen:

Family Metro Park Ride, Fleet Update

We set off last night to go to a new playground I'd spotted up near Glacier Ridge Elementary. It was a special ride because the whole family was there. Jodi started off pulling Kate:

Fixed in the Fog

With the boys at my parents and Kate likely to sleep in, I was looking forward to slipping out this morning for a nice road ride. Unfortunately, I woke up to dense fog, so I skipped the road and just did my loop through the Metro Park. I was on ye Old Trek 620:

Day 30: Success and Fame in Blogging

Thirty straight days of biking and blogging. They said it couldn't be done. I thought it couldn't be done. But as I write this post, ride done for the day, Wild Turkey close at hand, I'll have biked and blogged for every day in April. I rolled up a somewhat meager 120 miles for the month, which works out to an average of four miles per day.

That's the "success" bit.

Before I talk about the "fame" bit, let's go over tonight's ride. It was another of my famed head-to-head matchups, this time the venerable Cross Check up against the even more venerable Trek 620:

Four laps around Avery Park, two miles each, alternating bikes each lap.

Day 15: A Chilly Crosscheck Run, and Selle AnAtomica Notes

Two pairs of pants, long sleeve shirt, two jackets, balaclava, and my warmest winter gloves... this for a ride in mid April. I started out with my second warmest gloves, but turned back after a few hundred yards to get the warmer pair. What happened to our nice weather?

A little patch of snow was left over from this morning's snowfall, up against the blooming daffodils:

 

Ways to Build a Surly Cross Check

My Surly Cross Check is the longest serving bike in my fleet, coming in at almost five years old--that's ancient in my skewed world. I'd been looking at getting a CC for quite a while, and finally gave up on waiting for some miracle deal and paid full pop ($420) from Speedgoat.com (RIP). Through the years, I've been consistently impressed with the design that went into the CC. Some may complain that it's too heavy, or that the tubing is too stiff (or flexy), or something, but the smartly designed flexibility is something that I've really grown to appreciate as other pretenders to the Cross Check throne have come and gone from my garage.

My initial build is still one of my favorites:

Drop Bars on the Cross Check

So after flirting with Soma Oxford bars for a while (both upside down and right side up), yesterday I changed my Surly Cross Check back to a drop bar, geared machine:

Kiwanis Riverway Park by Surly Cross Check

About a week ago, I drove around with Henry to try to find the parking area for the #32 Dublin Kiwanis Riverway park. We finally gave up that day and ended up going to the Toy Barn to look at exotic cars (this was Henry's request, I was so proud again!) When I got home, I studied the map and realized we should have turned into the River Quarry development off Riverside Dr. Early Saturday morning, I headed out on my fixed gear Cross Check to check this park off. Even early in the morning, I don't want to bring the kids in a bike along Riverside Dr, so this was a solo trip.

Near the Dublin Rec, I noticed something new along the bike path:

 

Soma Double Cross vs. Surly Cross Check Comparison

This summer, I ended up with a Soma Double Cross and a Surly Cross Check at the same time. Many people shop these two against each other, so I thought I would put up some thoughts between them.

Here's how they were built when I took my comparo photos:

Darree Fields (and some notes on the Soma Oxford bar)

We finally got a break in the rain this afternoon, so after dinner the twins and I headed out to knock off another playground. Our destination for the evening was #16 Darree Fields, tucked away on the far western side of Dublin.

Darree has two playgrounds, so we stopped at the northern one first:

 

Frantz Park (Field of Corn), Llewellyn Farms, Llewellyn Farms South, Smiley Park

We had a lot of parks planned for today. Henry was at my parents' place, but I invited my buddy Brian to come along with his two boys. Brian and I used to spend our weekends taking all day motorcycle or mountain bike rides down to Hocking Hills, now we pull our kids around town to playgrounds. Funny how things change. Brian was riding his vintage Cannondale from those halycon days:

 

Our first stop was #40 Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, better known as Field of Corn or Cornhenge. Pre-kids, I used to mock this public artwork, but now it's really a place our kids enjoy running around in.

Gideon seemed to like it as well:

The corn is bordered by a hedgerow of Osage orange trees that provide some shade:

Sam found an Osage orange:

They're supposed to act as natural bug repellants, so Brian cut one apart to see what's inside:

It didn't smell THAT bad, but it wasn't something you would use to freshen up a room:

I put some new Soma Oxford bars on my Surly Cross Check while it takes over trailer pulling duties:

I'm really enjoying them so far. Compared to the On One Mary or Surly Open Bar that I had been using, the key advantage of the Oxford is that is uses a bar end shifter. This allows use of pretty much the entire bar as a hand resting spot, giving the rider lots of options. They run quite a bit narrower than either of the aforementioned bars, but this is OK for me after I got used to it.

After the field of corn, we hit the road for #33 Llewellyn Farms Park. The thing I liked best about this playground was that it was shady, a nice feature on a hot morning!

Sam showed off his balance skills:

Kate, Gids and Walter all hit the swings:

Then Walter showed off his acrobatic prowess:

After this, we rode around for a while trying to find #34 Llewellyn Farms South Park. Later, I determined it was just a big patch of grass that we rode past. Sorry, but this gets the award for the worst park we've seen to date.

Disappointed, we promised the kids a playground at the next park, #46 Smiley Park. We found these odd pillars on the way there:

No one wanted to walk between them--maybe they would get zapped off to another dimension or something.

Safely past the Pillars Of Doom, we found Smiley Park, but we weren't smiling:

Just a few picnic tables and some grass that needs mowing. Disappointed again, we took the kids through #13 Coffman Park so they could get another playground in. After that, we were ready for some A/C and a big lunch at Cici's pizza!

Four down, 20 to go.

Rainy Cross Check Ride

It's been a very wet spring in Central Ohio, making it tough to find trail time or dry playgrounds. We had a baby sitter for Saturday morning, so I figured I might as well use that time for a longish road ride. I had planned to take my Rawland Nordavinden, but it didn't have fenders--not a good thing with wet streets and drizzle still coming down. So the Cross Check it would be.

The CC is in kind of a weird state right now. I started setting it up to be my child puller, but only got about half way done before this ride. So it has the (heavy) Burley rack and the (heavy) dyno hub, but it's still set up as a fixed gear. Good enough.

My basic route was north to Bellepont, the west along Mills road to Ostrander road. Mill creek was running pretty high:

I was looking forward to a junk food snack at the store in Ostrander, but I got there 45 minutes before they opened. Disappointed, I turned south for home. Into a headwind. And road construction:

At least the drizzle kept me cool. But it was a long grind home.

I wasn't really feeling the love for my CC on this ride. The slight vibration from the dyno hub bothered me after a while. On my bars, there was a big step between the end of my grip and the bar end, which I didn't like either. And I swear I could feel the weight of the rack dragging me down every time I stood to climb a hill. I'd really like to find a magical bike that combines the best attributes of the CC and the Rawland:

- fat tire clearance, V brakes, and single speed-ability from the CC

- low trail, light tubing, and a low bottom bracket from the Rawland.

But I can't think of anything that fits this, short of a custom. Any ideas?