Did my first group mountain bike ride, um, probably more than a month ago now. 5 of us took to the PR to do our part in breaking in the trail after a fresh snow. Good group of guys and girls and I had a lot of fun. Hope to do some more rides with them, especially as we warm up here. I also got in a TNS, while it was on a Monday and it was a solo effort, I’ll still call it a TNS for now. Basically rode out to the bike path and over to the dirt BCT extension and out to Concord. Made it out to Main Streets Cafe, where I had a Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale before hopping back on the bike and riding home. The ride was good and the classic American Brown ale was the topping on the cake.

One of my recent night rides with Hog turned out to be an eye opening experience. My lights for biking are old. How old? Old enough that the batteries no longer hold a charge longer than an hour and if the moon is bright I wonder if my lights are actually on or not. So on this night, I just didn’t bring my lights figuring we would ride until dark and then I would get myself out to the road and slum it home. Hog had other ideas and whipped out a NiteRider Minewt X2. This thing is small and bright! An LED light that also comes in around $160 street price and lasts for up to 7 hours…yea, thats a long time, ha. So when it comes time to replace my aging (dying) lights, the Minewt is definitely on the short list.

As most of you know, it’s been a pretty cold and snowy winter. One night Mike and I were taking advantage of a current snowstorm and using our season passes at the mountain and go figure, the mountain has one night a year where they are open for a full 24 hours and that was the night. We stayed out on the snow until about 2:30 AM, riding some uber soft smooth closed trails. Best snowboarding night…ever.

Oh and the beer! I’ve been having some issues with my mash tun lately, so Mike and built a new one out of a 52qt cooler. Figured if we were going to go all out, we should go big time. Just for anyone wondering, a 52qt cooler can hold 33 pounds of grain and around 12 gallons of water…and it’s f’n heavy! We brewed up two IPAs from the one giant mash and seperate smaller mash was used to do up a Belgian Dubbel. 3 batches in a day, not too shabby.

But the biggest announcement on the blog, has to be this:

That’s right damnit, it’s official…

A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. March 2, at the First Unitarian Society in Newton, in West Newton.

Might be an excellent time for a memorial ride to show support for Harriet, George, and Tova…

Memorial ride tonight…

The little inline maps are created using a nice little plugin called XML-Google-Maps.  All you do is create a link to your *.gpx file and the plugin sees the link, takes the file and creates a Google Map out of it.  Then it also strips out the information to create an elevation chart below the map.  Pretty slick stuff.  It has a bunch of options that I haven’t really started messing around with yet.

Previously I’ve used GPS Visualizer to create maps from *.gpx files.  The site is an awesome resource for the mapping community or GPS users.  The ability to add overlays to maps is great.  It’s always nice to be able to see your tracks on Google Maps, but it’s even nicer to be able to see those tracks with a topographic or USGS overlay.  I’ll still use this site, as it’s so customizable and so much more full featured than the little plugin, but the plugin does the basics well enough.

Anyway, have fun.

Stolen from the 2 Skinnee J’s myspace page:

Dear 2SJ peeps…

Over the holidays, a golden light shone down from above and it was shaped like Stumpy… I picked up the phone and called an old friend… who called another old friend… who called another. One call led to another and before we all knew it, we were back together fighting over ketchup and eggs in NYC (ok, it was just me and Lance fighting over the ketchup). We all are a little older, larger, and definitely wiser (I hear AJS has exceeded omniscient).

Next summer is the 5 year anni since the last show with the full line up. 10 years since $upermercado. The time for the full fledged renunion has come. To make things complete we even got Action back on drums (B is on sabitical selling his ball swing - no, Eddie didn’t help).

August 6 - 11 2008

DC, Norfolk, NYC and two others TBA.

Put the request in for time off and book your flights now. Convert your 401Ks into small bills for Stump. And most of all, get ready to ROKK!!!

Aight, so it’s back to the drawing board…who else is up for some space suit action!

First up is the Mock-T. It’s black, so of course I look dead sexy in that sausage still in it’s casing kind of way. It’s tight, yet it doesn’t shorten up on you while you’re riding, avoiding the dreaded chilly air draft up the back. Tuck it in your pants or leave it out, it does a good job of staying put. The added neck portion at the top seems to be good for keeping a little extra warmth in, but not tall enough to be annoying if you forgot to shave that morning.

Next up are the bottoms, also in dead sexy black. Like the top, they are good at protecting against the cold air, only this time it’s the dreaded crusty ice crack… The bottoms are tight, but loose enough in all the right places. Most importantly, like a set of long johns, you can whiz without having to pull them down, big bonus, especially when riding in the woods. The only problem I have so far with the bottoms are the ankle cuffs being really tight, so it takes a little extra umph to get them on/off, but that might just be due to my fat metal cankles.

Couple of things both the top and bottoms that has impressed me so far:

• X-Static Technology - oh yea! My biggest complaint about using normal long johns is the static. Maybe it’s just me, but I can practically light up a room with the static I generate just putting clothes on and taking them off. Not only do these things keep from generating static, they actually seem to absorb the static generated by my other layers.
• Again, X-Static Technology, only this time I’m talking about the silver coated textile that they weave into the fabric. It’s main purpose is anti-odor and I’ll be damned, it works great. It’s been a month and I’m just getting around to washing them and not because they smelled, because they were just dirty from riding in the slushy, salty, wet road grime.

So there you have it. If you’re looking for some base layer action, this top/bottom set gets a winter thumbs up.

Couple of basic differences:

• the comments link is now located at the top of the post (not sure I’m down with that, seems counter intuitive, but I’ll give it a shot.
• there is more AJAX type of stuff - so things refresh live, rather than having to hit refresh, ie. when using the search function or when leaving a comment.

Hopefully it all comes together and I can figure it all out. Seems pretty easy once you figure out which files deal with which part of the puzzle. In fact, if you only read this site through your feed reader, you’ll probably never notice a difference…

Looks like REI raised the price of the pack since I bought it, from just under $30 to almost $45! Must have been a small rush of people to buy this thing. I know I told some people, who told some people, which resulted in a few buys…right Arleigh. Anyway, just picked up the bag last night and it’s pretty spiffy. I’ve owned one, count it one hydration pack in all of my biking days. It’s a circa 2001, 100 oz. Camelbak MULE. It’s seen it’s fair share of ground crushing wrecks, tree scrapes, and rock rubbing, and it’s lasted a good 7 years. At this point the zippers are broken, holes in the fabric are getting to the point I might actually lose things, and I have to date never cleaned the water holder… Yes, it was time for a new pack. So when I saw the DaKine Drafter (2006 model) for uber cheap, it looked like a good solution.

A few of my requirements:

• Can hold at least 70 oz. of water (I didn’t fill the 100 oz. full very often)
• An outer mesh pocket (so the GPS can get a good signal, while bing protected)
• Compressions straps (handy not only for compressing, but holding things on the back)
• An airflow system to ward off SBS (Sweaty Back Syndrome)

This pack met all those requirements and upon further inspection, it has a lot of extra things I didn’t think about that will come in handy. Instead of having one large deep pocket to throw things in (like the MULE), it has a long deep pocket with a few small mesh pockets inside to sort gear, which is a godsend when you need something fast. I think a couple of these pockets could also be used for holding 12 oz. bottles securely inside the pack, if you know what I mean. One pocket has a key holder clip, which is also a nice touch.

There’s also a pocket on the outside that is lined with fleece, specifically for sunglasses. The fleece gives you a good way to clean off the glasses if you have the need and at the same time keeps them from getting scratched up while being stored and tossed around. Another outside touch is a removable piece that expands the back of the bag to hold a regular XC or full face helmet. They’ve included a little zip pouch at the bottom just to store this extra piece of bag, so you always know where it is.

The hydration part of this pack is pretty slick too. I believe DaKine uses Nalgene water bags and Nalgene has put in some thought into their hydration design features that will make this pack even more useful. The water in port at the top is covered by a huge screw on lid, so it’s easy to screw on/off and easy to fill with the large hole access. The water tube itself has a quick release, so it can be cleaned by itself or the bag can be stored full without the hose attached. To get water out, there is a bite valve with a lock that looks a lot more secure than my old MULE, which had a simple slit in the end and tended to drip on you when not in use.

All this adds up to what I hope will be a great hydration pack for at least the next 7 years…hoping to push 10 out of this one. Once I’ve taken it out for some good rolling fun, I’ll report back to see if the features are actually useful or all just a show.

Sounds like everyone had a good time, no road rash, no punches, and no car dodging. Seems like they ended a little early, quiting around 10:00 PM, but then again, those 2:00 AM nights made Wednesday work pretty hard. I think Gary may have had to call in sick before, ha.

Anyway, here’s to you TNS Crew! Cheers, hope you keep it up, since we know the TNS spawned from the Winter blues and the need to put in some long cold miles with a burning reward in the middle…

I spent Tuesday preparing for my own future TNNS rides…Tuesday Night Northern Swill. I picked up a new hydration pack (non-riding review to come shortly) and also swapped my CO2 tank for a filled one. Less than $12 a fill is sweet! In homebrewing, just like bikes, there’s always an upgrade…and I’m eying that 20 pound CO2 tank, ha. One day…

So get outside, get active, and reward yourself. Your body and mind will thank you.

They’ll be heading out tonight and hopefully they’ll be drinking one for me, sounds like Butch is already on it, ha. They should be hitting Dremo’s at some point during the night, since it will be shutdown as of the end of this month. Try to get a pitcher of Chocolate Donut or Anderson Valley Winter Solstice (I think they used less vanilla this year).

I miss our rides into the city to visit Thor at Paradiso. From what I understand, our bike parking tree is no longer there and Thor has been replaced by Greg.

photo by Spearman

Yet they continue to ride…and drink…and ride…the vicious cycle it is.

photo by Gary

So keep it up you all. I hope to bring the TNS to the northerners here soon. The bikes are ready and the liver is willing. Although I might have to trade out the bikes for some skis or snowshoes here for the next couple of months and pack along the goods. Here’s to you all, may your bikes be swift and your beer be tasty…oh and make sure you do DT’s Hill at least twice - even better if somebody throws up doing hill sprints!