collideous

Minus Fourteen Lake Loop

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:15:48 +0100

After yesterday’s ride up to Magglingen showed that singletrails were in no condition to be easily ridden uphill, I opted to ride a loop I almost never do - riding around Lake Biel. The lake has nothing interesting to offer for a mountain bike and on a road bike the loop is about as exciting as riding a home trainer. So in the past, this has never been a ride I ever considered doing. The current Siberian temperatures however, added a challenging element to the loop and on the cyclocrosser I was able to stay off the roads for a big part of the ride. I crossed Biel and headed straight to the lake, then followed the lake along the south side all the way to Lüscherz. Here, despite the law requiring public lakeshore access, no trail follows the water. The straight stretch of road to Vinelz was too boring to take, so I climbed up to the Hofmannsfluh and found some real fun singletrack. Once in Vinelz, I followed the marked bike route to the harbor in Erlach. At St. Johannsen I had to jump on the road to cross the canal, where I turned right to ride through the old town of Le Landeron and to La Neuveville. Here, I got back to following the marked hiking trails through the vineyards. Ligerz approached quickly. The climb to its famous little church proved to be too steep on today’s icy patches. Past the church it was an easy ride to the entrance of the Twannbachschlucht, though occasional ice required to take the speed down a notch. I was happy that the last leg to Tüscherz and Vingelz included a few more short climbs. My toes were frozen to the point of falling off and each climb pumped some warm blood back into them. Those minus fourteen degrees added a good portion of challenge to the forty-two something kilometers. Despite the fact that I could barely walk the four floors upstairs at home, I would not want to miss out on such a small adventure.

Lunchtime Ride Today, I set the timer on my iPhone to 35 minutes...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:08:11 +0100

Lunchtime Ride

Today, I set the timer on my iPhone to 35 minutes and took off from the office riding a trail from Pieterlen up to the Bözingenberg. I had no idea how far I’d make it in the snow, gave myself 35 minutes to climb, which would give me enough time to return to the office, get out of my gazillion layers of bike clothes and change back into office attire (jeans and sweater). When the alarm of my iPhone beeped through the back pocket of my Specialized winter jacket, I stopped, took this photo and went back down the way I came from. An hour lunchbreak isn’t quite enough to reach the top of the hill - at least not on a snowy fire road.

Adding Speedy Weaponry

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:10 +0100

As January ended with lots of bad weather, time was better spent working on the bikes rather than riding them. The cyclocrosser had suffered the past few months and the last couple of rides in the wet and in the snow ultimately killed the last bit of shifting smoothness. As a singlespeeder, I have forgotten how shifter cables don’t like mud and water. The cyclocrosser painfully reminded me of that fact. One reason my mountain bikes don’t and won’t run geared drivetrains. Anyhow, this week two packages arrived with some speedy weaponry by Zipp. A seat post came via Ebay from Cycle Club Sport and a handlebar was acquired somewhat locally from the good folks at bikespeed.ch. The carbon seat post replaced the stock aluminum post on the Mares CX and the handlebar was going to trade places with another Zipp bar on the Alize. The old bar joined a Service Course SL stem to form an all Zipp cockpit on the Mares CX. While swapping bars, I tossed all the brake and shifter housings and cables and replaced them with new ones. Smooth shifting again. A butt-friendly Antares was bolted to the new post and some deliciously red bar tape wrapped the drops. The crosser’s ready for action again. A bit of cable work went into the road bike as well as its new VukaSprint bar runs brake and shifter cables internally. Here, I was able to re-use the black Specialized bar tape and only wrapped the drops ending the tape shortly behind the hoods. The bike’s ready to fly. Will the weather get good enough for take-off?

Doing The Ebay Thing

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:29:04 +0100

Stem:	Silver Thomson Elite, 1 1/8”, 5 deg. 120mm, 25.4mm
Fork:	Pace RC31 C-Type, 420mm AC, 7 3/4” steerer, 1” dia.

FiveFinger Run

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:34:00 +0100

After having spent the last three days on the saddle, twice on the cyclocross bike and once on the singlespeed, Sunday was a day to take it down a notch, do some laundry, vacuum and let my MacBook Pro process the video I stitched together with Saturday’s footage of the mountain bike ride to the top of the Chasseral. The laundry machine spit out the clothes in no time, the vacuum choked on several weeks worth of cat hair without going up in flames and the kitchen clock had only moved to an early afternoon. The Mac was humming “Don’t touch me”, so I spontaneously decided to add another workout to the weekend. The legs felt great and the sun was out. I grabbed my FiveFingers, which I’ve only used once so far on my old running trail in Shiloh, eager to test them on home soil. After my first run in California, I had ended up with sore calves for a week. My muscles were not used to striking forefoot first. Years of running with traditional running shoes have programmed them to touch down heel first. I easily adapted to running on my forefeet, but I totally ignored Vibram’s recommendation to only run 10% of my normal running distance. Well, I paid for that mistake. Today’s run was only my second wearing FiveFingers and it went really well. I chose the trail through the Taubenloch gorge and jogged at an easy pace. I focused on learning that new athletic skill of running with a forefoot strike and had lots of fun reading the trail. Interestingly, my mind found no time to wander off in thoughts as it was busily paying attention to what my legs and feet were doing while scanning the trail for the best landing spots at the same time. I’m hooked. For now I’m not running as fast as in the past, but I’m engaging muscles more, strengthen my feet, run smarter and probably safer as well.

Distance:	7.8km (4.8 miles)
Elevation:	320m (1’050 feet)
Time:	54:01

DIY Replay XD1080 Camera Mount

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:40:52 +0100

Back in December 2010 I started looking around for an handy action cam mount. I found some rubber velcro mounts that are sold as flashlight holder for bikes. They work great to attach the Replay XD cam to a bike’s handlebar and seat tube. Velcro is the right thing as I want to be able to quickly change the cam on the trail without needing tools, but those simple mounts weren’t quite enough. I needed something that would allow more frame attachment points. I spent hours browsing the web for ideas, found a really neat camera mount for hang-gliders, continued to kick around other ideas, then sacrificed a lunch break to wander through aisle after aisle at a local hardware store. I left empty-handed.

At home, I grabbed one of those velcro mounts and disappeared into the basement to dig through boxes filled with all sorts of odd bits and pieces. Hidden far in the back of a drawer, I found an old, blue DT Hügi box with an ancient hub body and a couple of steerer tube cut-offs. The moment I pulled out a 4 inch long piece of a 1 inch titanium steerer tube and held it in my hand, I had my adjustable camera mount. All that was needed was to shorten the thing. The tube was taken to work the next morning and another lunch went without food. Instead of eating chips I was making some (of the titanium kind). After cutting, chamfering and polishing the mount was done. It extends the mounting possibilities to the seat tube, the seat post, along the fork legs, stem and handlebar allowing to point the camera in any angle desired. A couple more rubber velcro mounts are on the way, this time type “same direction”. These will be handy for under-the-chainstay camera positions. The newly built adjustable mount weighs 70 grams. Obviously, it could be built a whole lot lighter using a plastic or carbon tube, but nothing would look as classy as a piece of brushed titanium. Stay tuned for some life-action video footage or keep an eye on my Youtube channel.

California Trip 2011

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:37:00 +0100

A couple of vacation photos taken mostly by Geo.

First Ride Of The Year

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:04:00 +0100

Christmas and New Year was spent in Sonoma County, a region I called home for a period of 10 years, to visit friends, shop and eat out a lot, go wine tasting, hang out and simply take a break from work together with my wife. It also happened to be a short break from cycling and this blog. Not entirely though, as I decided to rent a road bike for the last weekend and head out to revisit an old time favorite climb of mine - Pine Flat Road. An old riding buddy and I started in Healdsburg to hit this quiet out and back climb into the Mayacmas Mountains northwest of Mount St. Helena. A deep blue sky, miles of earthquake cracked pavement, a charred forest midway, a huge buck in the middle of the road while descending and two old guys rejoined for a ride after four years made this a day to remember.

Distance:	54.8km (34.0 miles)
Elevation:	1’126m (3’694 feet)
Time:	02:26:22
Speed (avg/max):	22.5/62.5 kph (14.0/38.8 mph)

Velcro Camera Mounts

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:27:20 +0100

When I bought a ReplayXD1080 action cam, I got a few high-quality mounts from Replay as well. While extremely well made, these mounts weren’t versatile enough to easily mount the cam to various locations on the bike nor to do it quickly out on the trail. Thanks to the Replay’s cylindrical shape - a form factor superior to any other cam on the market - suitable mounts were easy to find. I ordered some rubber velcro mounts from DealExtreme that are primarily designed to attach a flashlight to handlebars. These super practical mounts cost two bucks a piece so I purchased three. Quick test on the bike showed that the ReplayXD can quickly be mounted to the handlebar, the fork and the side of the seat tube pointing forward or looking to the back. At less than 20 grams the mount including velcros weighs next to nothing. Tests on the bike to follow.

Shaky Shots

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:44:15 +0100

If I’d ride another brand’s cyclocross bike, I could have titled these pictures Shakin’ Stevens, but the four photos should be testament enough that my Focus Mares treats its rider to just as a shaky ride. These photos were the result of my ReplayXD1080 action cam accidentally being set to shoot photos instead of filming. First a bit upset about that silly mistake, it suddenly seemed like a pretty cool way to effortlessly document one’s bike ride.

fancyBox Update

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:39:24 +0100

Updated fancyBox to the latest, completely rewritten version 2. Integrated, extendable, responsive. With new transitions and pretty rounded corners and shadows thanks to CSS3. One heck of a fancyApp!

Uf Em Chass Today’s view from the Chasseral.

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:39:00 +0100

Uf Em Chass

Today’s view from the Chasseral.

US Road Fatalities 2001-2009

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:19:24 +0100

By UK based transport information specialists ITO World.

One Man's Trash Is The Same Man's Goldmine

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:45:00 +0100

A few months ago, I converted my old Litespeed Ultimate to a singlespeed road bike to be used as commuter to work. Having only one gear, it added more fun to the daily commute through the city. The Shimano gruppo went on Ebay and some light and inexpensive Cane-Creek brake levers went on the handlebar. Converting my Fulcrum Racing 1 rear wheel was not as simple as slamming a King cog on it. This older generation Fulcrum wheel was equipped with a 10-speed only aluminum freewheel body for Shimano cassettes. A singlespeed cog wouldn’t fit, so I ordered a SRAM/Shimano compatible steel freewheel from an online shop.

In the old days I would have gotten this part from my local bike shop who might have given me 5 bucks for the old aluminum freewheel. Such a take-off part would have ended up in a parts bin and a few years from now in all likelihood in a recycling bin never to be used again. Now that our world is one global village, such a perfectly good part doesn’t have to go to waste. Do the environment a favor, put it up on Ebay and have a big smile when it sells for a whopping 68 dollars. Beats the 5 bucks from the old days!

Weekend Ride Report

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:23:00 +0100

Taking advantage of the fantastic fall weather currently coddling Switzerland, the past weekend turned out to be a busy cycling weekend where I managed to spend over 180 kilometers in the saddle.

Friday afternoon, I took all my gear to work to take off on a night ride right from the office. I climbed the paved road up to the Montagne de Romont for the first time as it was getting dark, then crossed over to the Stierenberg in complete darkness. I found my way without getting lost, then rode down the north side to reach Péry. Bad idea. Coming out of the forest the road in front of me was covered with a sparkling layer of frost and temperatures were several degrees lower than than on the south side I climbed. With no cellular network, this cold, deserted valley all of a sudden didn’t seem like a good place to find yourself at such a time. Once in Péry, I cut my ride short and hopped onto the highway back to Biel.

Saturday morning, the sun was already poking through the hazy sky early, so I left for a cyclocross ride to the Chasseral.

Sunday morning I met with two friends for a mountain bike loop to the Chasseral. It was the first time back on the Niner. We met around 9AM and took off under a sunny sky. It was a chilly morning but only until we jumped into the first climb. From Biel we headed west in the forest above the lake and zig-zagged our way up to Magglingen, then crossed over to the Twannberg. As we dropped into Lamboing, we had a clear view of the Chasseral towering far above us. The tall striped antenna was our goal. We went around the westside of the Mont Sujet and peacefully approached the Métairie de Prêles. At times we enjoyed a few sun rays while crossing open pastures but often we rode over already frozen ground in the dark shadow of the Mont Sujet. From the Métairie we took the easier and paved climb to the Place Centrale and continued to the Métairie du Bois Raiguel. We were looking for a place to have a small bite. This usually busy restaurant seemed abandoned for the winter. Instead of making a U-turn, we crossed an open gate to the left that leads to a sweet single trail parallel to the boring, wide gravel road. Playtime, the narrow trail offered mud holes, roots and sharply-cut, wheel-killing branches. Fun and too short. It dropped us out onto the gravel road at its end, which we immediately left to navigate straight to the Métairie du Milieu de Bienne. These guys welcomed guests with a sign apologizing that they’ll only be open Saturdays and Sundays through the winter. We got a table outside, had a beverage and plum pie to re-energize our bodies for the last few hundred meters of elevation we had to climb. With did those no problem. The way back home took us along the crest back to the Place Centrale and further to the Cabane du Jura. There, we descended to Les Près d’Orvin where we shot across the street to land at the old launch pad into the Spaghetti Trail. Jorat and Evilard were the last two control points on our way back into Biel. We had an awesome day out on the trails. Trails that I, as the local guy, can call the fastest trails of all year. Never throughout the whole year have the trails up in the Jura been as grippy and as fast. If we don’t get any rain or snow, November might well end as the month with the sweetest trails.

Black & White Fulcrum Racing Zero Wheels

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:19:00 +0100

One item where Focus saved to keep the price of the Ultegra equipped Mares CX 2.0 low, are the inexpensive Fulcrum Racing 7 CX wheels. These wheels are sturdy, reliable wheels but at 1850 grams awfully weighty. When I bought the bike I knew that these would have to be replaced with a wheel set of the caliper of this racy cross bike. Initially, the idea was to ride the Racing 7 wheels through the winter and get a lighter wheel set some time next spring. But things never quite happen that way, do they? I ran across a deal on black & white Fulcrum Racing Zero wheels at Bike-Components.de which I just couldn’t pass up. Just like another few goodies, the wheels arrived via DHL this week. These are the wheels that truly belong onto a black & white Mares. They feature USB ceramic bearings, Fulcrum’s legendary 2:1 spoke pattern, triple milled rims, aluminum spokes and nipples, over-sized aluminum axles and a carbon hub body. Claimed weight is 1430 grams, so over 400 grams saved against the Racing 7 wheels.

Yahoo Pipe For Strava

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:21:00 +0100

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I never used to keep track of my riding because it was too much work and essentially wasted time for no real value. That changed however when I discovered Strava. With my one-button GPS tracker, recording rides just requires a push of button at the start of a ride and switching it back off at the end of the ride. At home, I hook the little thingy up to my trusty MacBook Pro, transfer the data to my hard-drive and upload it to Strava. From here on, Strava does the rest. I can but don’t have to rename the ride, add a comment and select the bike I used. Quick, easy and done in no time.

One of the features currently still missing at Strava are RSS feeds and I’m short-circuited to hundreds of feeds 24/7, machine-tweet via Twitterfeed and distribute various content through FeedBurner. Google Newsreader sits in a Chrome tab at all times. Strava has API though, with methods to send and receive data. As a PHP-coder in my previous career I could have whipped up a script to extract the necessary Strava data and output it back to a valid RSS feed. But why bother if I can more easily push the desired Strava data through a Yahoo Pipe?

P.S. The pipe can be run with any Strava Athlete ID.

TwentyNiner.CH Jersey Submission #2

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:25:15 +0100

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Version #2 with a friendly message to the folks on baby-wheels.

TwentyNiner.CH Jersey Design Contest

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:09:58 +0100

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Lazy day. Ironed clothes, went grocery shopping, then designed a bike jersey for the TwentyNiner Jersey Design Contest while listening to Blue Stahli.

Black "Hogger" Down

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:03:30 +0100

We’re back into the time of the year where one has to mount bright, powerful light beams in order to enjoy a few hours on the saddle after office hours. Other than weekends, daylight will be something I’ll only see through my office window during the next couple of months. Time on the bike will be greatly reduced, but with a decent hill in my backyard (like every Swiss has to have) my monthly training mileage won’t dwindle down to nil. I certainly won’t let that happen. Now that I have a Focus Mares, the climb and descent from my backyard “hogger” got a tad safer than last winter on the Trek. Skinny road tires, leafs, moist and sometimes icy roads just don’t mix together well. Two Magicshine beamers on the handlebar also provide a bunch more visibility, so rides during this dark season should be plentiful. The backyard stats:

Distance:	13.6km (8.4 miles)
Elevation:	790m (2’590 feet)
Time:	44:34
Speed (avg/max):	18.4/67.8 kph (11.4/42.1 mph)