Me Sick, Wife Rides

No ride today because I'm home with a cold. My wife took advantage of the opportunity and went for a ride with Kendra while I held down the fort (from bed). I would have done the same and I'm glad she got to ride, but still it's a bit of salt in the wound.

On the way up American Fork Canyon they stopped to say hello to Elden (FatCyclist) who was riding up the road - wearing the new 2009 FatCyclist jersey and probably on his new dingle-speed. Sorry, Elden. I reprimanded her for stopping you on the climb and she has been sentenced to deliver you a home-made dessert of your choosing (I suggest the chocolate chip cookies) - I hope you are appeased by this judgment and my promise that this will not happen again. OK, just kidding around here, but the dessert offer still stands.

They rode the classic Timpooneke loop and enjoyed the ride (Kendra's report). Here are some photos, because I enjoy torturing myself:

My favorite picture.


Snow in the peaks with Fall colors down lower (worth seeing larger, click on the picture).


The joy I could have had - curse this cold!


We're both fans of orange-tinted sunglasses, finding it to be the best balance of light attenuation and detail enhancement. Here's what autumn leaves look like with the sunglasses:


... and without:


I'm hoping I get well soon as I'm anxious to ride before the next storm hits this weekend - just in time to make things miserable at 24 Hours of Moab (sorry guys).

Bike Stickers

The last two days I've gone for road rides at lunch. It's been a little cooler, but still sunny and pleasant. It felt good to get out, but my legs feel like they've lost some punch - the dreaded end of season taper.

Tonight I did something impulsive. I'm not big on stickers, but I put two new ones on my car bringing the total to three. I've had this Moab sticker in the rear window for a few years.



I added this TwinSix BIKE NERD sticker to the other corner. Elden handed these out at his TriathAlon this year and it's been sitting in my glove box. The BIKE NERD phrase first hit me as silly. Later I wondered if it was demeaning to cyclists. But lately I've embraced the idea. Stereotypically nerds are guys way into computers. But in the broader sense a nerd is someone who is deep into anything. And while I don't eat, sleep and breathe cycling, I'm really into it so I might as well testify (and it matches my car's paint).



And finally I added this Cannondale sticker to the upper center, in front of the middle brake light (is that a sticker faux paux?). I'm not a Cannondale fan like some people are Ford zealots, but my last two bikes have been C'dales and they fit me well and ride good, so why not proclaim my enthusiasm with a little sticker love?.



Tomorrow I'm taking the mountain bike for a ride after work - probably with the Bike Peddler group up Hog Hollow, but I may use the lights for an evening ride up American Fork Canyon instead.

Media Center TV Pack

For months (maybe more than a year) Microsoft has been working on an update of Media Center codenamed Fiji. The Media Center community was excited about rumored new features. The update was released last month as the TV Pack, but in a strange move Microsoft only released it to OEMs (companies who build PCs). The community, expecting a service pack or some other easy upgrade, was confused and angry. Of course nothing like this can be kept off the Internet and presently with a little searching you can find and download TV Pack.

My Media Center PC has been running fine, but I've been tempted by the new features of TV Pack. The most annoying thing about my current Media Center is no support of digital broadcast TV. Hello, Microsoft, analog TV is scheduled to go away February 2009. The TV Pack adds digital broadcast TV (ATSC) and program guide support along with a slew of other TV signal types (folks in the US are most excited about Clear QAM which allows reception of all unencrypted channels on cable, but many Media Center users fumed over no support for DirectTV and other satellite systems).

With two digital TV tuners in my Media Center PC, I finally couldn't stand the messed up program guide and took the plunge and installed TV Pack (following these instructions). The install went fine. The only extra thing I did was install beta drivers for my tuner cards that were reported to work better under TV Pack. Now I have program guide info for all the digital channels and a slick way to organize and group the channels to eliminate duplicates.



As long as I don't have any crashes or other problems, I'm happy with the upgrade.

Early October Snow

The storm that rained all day Saturday put a pile of snow on the mountains. I took this picture of Mount Timpanogos looking up Dry Canyon this evening.



The forecast is for 60s and 70s this week some hopefully the trails will dry out enough for another night ride. If not I'll have to make due with road rides.

Project Saturday

I thought about heading up to the Draper Cyclocross race today, but it didn't happen. Too bad, sounds like it would have been a good one for me and my heavy old full-suspension mountain bike. With all the rain the 'cross fans had plenty of slop to play in.

It was project day for me.

I operated on my bike rack in the garage and added one more slot making it a five-banger. I also added put some screw eyes into the wall and attached a couple of cables so I can lock up the bikes. I had a bike stolen out of my garage on a sunny Summer Wednesday afternoon a few years back, and plenty of others have had the same problem. Tall Steve recommended locking up bikes in the garage - a good idea that I'm finally getting around to implementing.

Our rickety backyard gate has annoyed me for years and today was the day I finally did something about it. The previous owner who built the gate did an OK job, but he made a few mistakes that doomed the gate to always sag. I tried to shore it up a few years back, but it only lasted a year or so. Today I did a major overhaul. I striped all of the 2x4s off the back and bolted on new, beefy hinges. The old hinge system was a pipe set in a pipe in the ground with tabs that bolted to the gate. It was sturdy, but it would freeze up in the winter. The new hinges shouldn't have that problem - they bolt onto the cinder-block post. It took some work, but I think the gate will work well for years now.

I received the final shipment of my night riding supplies Friday and today I tinkered with the new parts.

The new flashlight looks like the others, but it is two-mode: High and Low. I like the simple two-mode operation and I believe it will work well on the trail.

I tried out some 5 degree optics and it looks to be the perfect beam angle for riding so I jury-rigged the optics into the flashlight. I removed the dimpled reflector and installed the optics (after a minor tweak). But the LED itself didn't seem able to support the optics, especially with the vibration of trail riding. So I cut a washer out of an old window blind slat, added some foam spacers and it's all snug. I'm excited to try this light on my next night ride. If it works well I'll do a full report so other DIYers can buy a cheap mountain bike light system.



I also tweaked some trail maps and played around on the computer. It's rained all day - and while I'd rather have gone for a ride, it was kind of nice to have a down day.

Update: Beam shot comparisons between my 3 lights:

This is the single-mode flashlight that is on my helmet now. It's the one I tweaked to have a wider beam by adding a spacer to move the reflector a few millimeters farther away from the LED.


This is the 5-mode flashlight that is on my bars. It's stock (I haven't made any modifications) but for some reason it came with a pretty wide beam. It's the dimmest of the 3 lights.


This is the new 2-mode flashlight with the 5 degree optics I installed (see above). I like the look of this beam - good size for trails and soft edges. I'll try it on the bars and helmet and see where it works best.

New And Improved Night Ride

I'd been wanting to go for a night ride (especially since Rick mentioned he's been night riding) and finally made it out tonight.

I had ordered some more night riding supplies a few weeks ago and one item arrived yesterday - a handlebar mount. So I put it on the mountain bike and loaded it with my other super bright LED flashlight.



I also put the red light Frog on the seatpost since I'd be riding a few blocks on city streets to get to the trail head.

Finally I mounted the original super bright LED flashlight to my helmet and set off at 10 PM.

I used only the handlebar light for the streets. I switched on the helmet light when I reached the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) trail head above the Orem Cemetery. The helmet light is enough to ride by, but I was impressed that adding the handlebar light was even better. The recent modification to the helmet light to widen the beam helped, as did the spring for the positive contact - the light was always solid with no flickering.

It was warm and I didn't need to wear anything more than jersey and shorts. But rain sprinkled for 5 minutes at the start of the single-track.

It still feels a bit odd riding at night - a little unnerving but also exciting. After only 5-10 minutes on the trail I realized I was smiling big and really enjoying the ride. Maybe just because I'm new to night riding, but riding at night has a different vibe and I usually find myself pushing harder at night.

No animal sightings, but I did see a deer hunter in the Dry Canyon parking lot - I think he was dressing his kill.

I only had one technical issue. I hadn't yet added a spring to the positive contact of the handlebar flashlight so the bumps of the trail caused it to flicker. Worse, this flashlight has several modes that are activated by flicking the switch. It was OK when it switched between hi, medium and low light, but the fast and slow flashing modes were annoying - like a disco strobe. (When I got home I added the spring which should solve the problem.)

The "edgy", exposed sections of the trail are both easier and more uncomfortable at night. Easier because the lights focus your eyes on the trail so you aren't distracted by the steep drop off to the left. But harder because the lights make the trail look flat and depth perception can be tricky. But I know this trail very well and that made it easier. However, heading down toward Battlecreek I had one surprise: I had forgotten about a sharp left turn behind a bush that I didn't see and had to slam on the breaks to avoid crashing into the hillside.

I thought about going back on the trail once I reached Battlecreek, but the wind had kicked up and I needed to get home so I just took the streets. I could tell by the way some drivers drove that they couldn't figure out what I was from the fairly stationary light on the bars and the moving light on my helmet. Kinda funny.

Overall it was a 10 mile ride lasting 1 hour ride. I had a blast. I'll be doing more night rides for sure. And maybe Jolene will go with me when the third light arrives today.

Summer Reading

I read in spurts, and this Summer I read several books. The kick-off was reading dug's favorite books post, and the associated comments.

Today I added a list of recent books to the sidebar. Here are my reviews.

Elden recommends this book a lot and so far everyone has liked it. Sure enough, I liked this book too - really liked it. The story is intriguing, different and smart without being pretentious. The writing is very good. The characters are quirky, real and interesting. The historical backdrop (1920's Oakland, California) added depth and flavor. This book delivers.
(Sorry, Elden, I started reading Lucky Jim but just couldn't get into it - good writing, but the humor was too sly and the pace was glacial.)

For the first 50 pages I was enthralled, but then my enthusiasm faded as the story continued. A few events along the way got my interest and the end was pretty good, but just not enough to justify 976 pages. I liked the (fairly historically accurate) medieval setting, and the story was pretty good, but the characters lacked depth (seemed like caricatures), the romantic encounters felt pulpy, and the dialog was solid but lacked spark. This book should have been epic and grand, but left more of a soap opera after taste. Lot's of people loved this book so maybe I'm just being too picky, but I still stand by my review.

Some call Abbey the Thoreau of the west so I had high expectations that I'd be reading something classic. I really enjoyed Abbey's style of writing - staccato and picturesque. Having visited several of the places featured in the book I found his descriptions not only spot-on but amazingly rich. Sadly I found the story to be only mildly compelling, and Hayduke's profanity was so over the top it turned me off. The four disparate characters provided different views of the issues and the interplay between them was entertaining. A good book, but I was expecting something deeper and more profound - maybe it's just me.

I enjoyed Into Thin Air so I felt comfortable that I'd like this book too. It was pretty good, but the unresolved real-life story left me feeling unsettled and unfulfilled. That isn't all bad because it leaves room for you to draw your own meaning and conclusions from the events. Krakauer's writing was a bit too pretentious for me, but overall he did a skillful job of gathering the facts into a flowing timeline.

This book (and the Honor Harrington series) is a favorite of my friend Scott. The publisher makes a selection of books available for free download so I downloaded the Microsoft Reader and the eText and started reading. I enjoyed some facets of the book, but overall it didn't work for me. Some of the science fiction elements are refreshingly well thought out and feel solid. Also the fictional world (galaxy) is believable (for fiction, you know what I mean). But the dialog is clunky and there is too much of it. The story moves too slowly for most of the book - my patience ran thin. Sadly excessive exposition detracts from the few shining points of intrigue and depth. This book would have flowed better if it had been condensed down to 2/3, or maybe even 1/2, it's 464 pages.

I'll admit upfront this is the first Grisham book I've read, and I've seen all the movies based on his books. This book is not a legal thriller. It's a different novel, not what I expected. It tells the story (through the eyes of a 7-year-old boy) of one summer on an Arkansas cotton farm in the 1950s. Although the story features a few exciting events, mostly it's about day-to-day life. This book should have bored me, but I found it a pleasant read, mostly due to the skilled writing (it just flows). I'd call it comfort reading (like Italian is comfort food).

I'm reading this book now (half way) and like it so far. It's about an unofficial competition among birders (elite bird watchers) where they trying to spot as many birds as they can in one year in North America. I enjoy learning about a niche I've never heard of and this book does a good job bringing together background, history, travelogue and characters into a good narrative. So far so good.
Update: I finished this book (only 288 pages) and liked it. A good, quick, fun read.