Had plans to do a ride at Patapsco this morning with Dad and Phil. Little man woke up sick so plans had to change to accomodate. Thus is the life of a Dad. I managed to get out and spin around the neighborhood trails before Karrie and Addison went out for a planned day of girls shopping. It was cold but it nice as the ground was frozen and what would have been a muddy mess with warmer weather turned out to be great conditions for riding. One thing I'm really liking about doing the Bike 180 thing is it helps get me out to ride even if just for a short spin or neighborhood ride.

Tonight for the first time I actually had to do a bit of maintenace on one of my King hubs. While I was out today I noticed my drive train needed some love. I did some basic tune up stuff, got the front der. tuned and I started noticing that when I back pedaled the chain would stutter and some times suck down. I pulled the chain looked for a stuck link and cleaned the hell out of it. Attacked my jockey wheels with a can of wd40 and a shop rag and just cleaned the hell out of everything. Nothing I did made a damn bit of difference the problem would not go away.

So in true Crash fashion I got iritated and sat down at the PC and priced out a 2x10 upgrade as the nuclear option for my Niner. After I saw the bottom line and realized I'd be scrapping a perfectlt good 3x9 X0 setup in the process I cam to my senses. Also knowing I have a fruita trip coming in the spring and some things I want to purchase before that trip also helped ground me in reality. So I grew determiend and went back to attack the problem.

After a bit I found the King hub in the rear felt stiff. It just wasn't rolling like it should. King stuff is normally so bomb proof and reisstant to my abuse it's always the last thing I would ever think to check. I don't have the full hub tool kit but I did manage to google some instructions on basic service and I managed to get it most of the way apart. It was kinda nasty in there. I flushed it out with my trust can of wd40 cleaned and dried everything. I also popped the seals on the bearings which were what was really feeling rough and managed to clean those and regrease them to the point they felt much much better. In the ened I was able to get it all back together and magically the chain issue wsa gone. Everything was smooth again. I think I'm going to go ahead and order a set of bearings and swap them out in the next few months to be safe. My buddy Phil has the tools to change them and they're not expensive. Might as well show the hubs the love they deserve and keep them running smooth. I'm also going to have to add some routine maintenance on my King stuff to my routine. They just work so damn well it's easy to forget/neglect them.

A bunch of my cycling friends have been doing Bike 180 for the past several years. The basic idea is to take a photo everyday you ride, keep track of everything and then add a photo for each days ride to a flicrk group. I always meant to participate in years past but never ended up doing it. This year I made it one of my resolutions to finally participate. I'm only 4 rides in but thus far I'm having a blast.

I'm finding bike 180 to be extremly motivational to help get me out there for my daily ride and photo. It even spurred me to start up my lunch time rides at work again around Rockville. It seemed like a great way to get some extra miles and photos in and it's helping me get the year off to a great start.My job and lifestyle don't faciliate bike commuting to work but I can ride at lunch time or even ride to lunch via bike from the office.

So far I've done a ride at Patapsco with Pete and Chris. Two lunch time spins around the multi use paved millenium trail in Rockville and an explatory ride on some trails in the neighborhood. This bike 180 thing has me feeling like I'm off to a better biking season than I have been in years.Going to be a great season.

Why can't an expensive pair of shoes like this last more than a couple of seasons. I love these shoes but I am tired of wasting money like this.

This is the second sample in an attempt to find wine karrie and I both will like. I liked the red velvet from cupcake vinyards karrie didnt. Both were recomendations for beginner wine drinkers from our local wine shop.

What started out with a seat post swap earlier turned into a full blown tuneup today for the Niner.

• Seat Post Swap
  
• Brakes Bled
• Cables Replaced
• Wheels Trued
• Fork cleaned up and tuned

I even did the front der which I normally HATE doing. Normally front derailleurs cause me more grief than any other component. Lucked out tonight and got it back into adjustment with little fuss.
I'm going to try and take it for a spin in the morning. This is the best tuned this bike has been in a little while. It's nice to have such a complete bike work shop at home.

The kids were down stairs with me helping. It made me smile to see the floor pump is taller is about as big as they are. They already love bikes :) I think they'll be getting their first bikes for this years birthday.

Since I've had my niner I've had a mystery creaking noise that would come and go. I cleaned everything I could, greased the post, saddle rails even swapped saddles to get rid of it but nothing ever worked. Yesterday I finally discovered the source of the mystery noise. My Thomson seat post had a vertical crack on the side running to the top of the post to to about half way down the Elite in the logo. That would certainly explain the damn mystery noise. I'm just glad I know what it is and it was nothing worse than a seat post. I have no idea what the warranty is with Thomson stuff bit I sent then the same photos I am posting here. Luckily I had an extra post in the right size stashed away. I really don't think I had the clamp over torqued or anything. I'm hoping Thomson takes care of me on this one. It will be nice to finally have a quiet ride, looking forward to getting out tomorrow and enjoying the quiet.

I'm happy to report that the combination of Kettlebells, Slow Cards and Some Riding is paying off very well. I'm down 10 pounds now since focusing and starting the slow carb thing. I'm also pretty sure I've put on some muscle with the kettlebells so the actually fat loss is most likely even better.

The diet was the last piece I really needed to get in place to start really seeing results. I'm actually loosing weight at a faster pace and I think in a more healthy way than the last time I dropped a bunch of weight. I'm actually not missing the bad for you carbs I cut out. I'm not hungry at all, my midnight snack cravings have gone away and my energy level has been through the roof. It's easy to stick to especially when I'm seeing these type of results.

Manged to get a ride in on the way home from work yesterday. When I was in the parking lot I started to hear distant thunder. I almost called it but I decided to risk it. It wouldn't have been the first time I had gotten caught on the trails in a T-storm. With the exception of a few trouble spots that seem to just suck up and hold water now the trails were in great shape. Dry but not dusty, fast and smooth. Great evening ride and I managed to stay dry.

I may try and start doing the Thurs. night ride but I'm still undecided. When I'm working my way back into shape I just have a really hard time enjoying group rides. Sad but true; I may just stick to the ipod as my riding buddy for a while longer.

Today was my first cheat day of the Four Hour Body slow card diet. It's been nice to treat myself to some of my favorites. I haven't gone crazy today but I have enjoyed a few things like some pizza that I can't do during the week. Overall results have been great so far on this plan. Adding the diet piece to my kettlebell work and increased riding is going to be the key to speeding up my efforts.

I also caught up on my biology homework today. It's actually really interesting to be taking this particular class as I try and get myself back into shape. Learning the behind the scenes science for how my body is processing foods etc is fascinating. Another example of how much more I'm enjoying school and just overall getting more out of it since coming back to it as an adult. I'm going to try and slip out early tomorrow morning and squeeze a loop around schaefer in.