Oak Creek Pedal Jockeys

WOW that was fast

2009-04-25T08:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we decided it would be fun to see how aerodynamic we were by tackling the strong wind on our way back. On the way out we had the wind at our back and it helped us keep an incredible pace for 20 miles. Once we turned around, things really started to suck. We were pedaling like crazy just to keep a 13 mph pace. This route has some nice scenery, but 60% or the roads are really bumpy and have some big potholes. This was the hardest ride of the year thus far and looking at the summary from the HR monitor it appears that I was working in the right HR zones. Check out our ride here.

The Night We Lost a Rider

2009-04-23T19:42:00.003-05:00

Tonight was an interesting night. We biked down skinny hiking trails, bumpy roads and we lost a fellow rider. Overall it was a successful night. We found some extra trails to ride and the weather was pretty nice. It is amazing how much colder it is within a few blocks of the lake. Check out our ride.

Lakefront Ride

2009-04-17T23:16:00.004-05:00

What could be better than a half day Friday with almost 70 degree weather in April!! Not much! With the weather on our side, we decided to put down the cross bikes for a day and take a great road ride along Lake Michigan! The roads were great and with the exception of the last few minutes, the weather was great too. It got real cold, real fast towards the end!! If you want to see the details on the ride: Check out the Edge details

Thanks Pete for setting the ride up on Cant Wait To Ride and to Matt for dealing with our urge to chase cars!!! Great ride guys! ( I hope to see that average up in the 20's soon!)

Alpha Trail Claims Another Victim

2009-04-16T20:57:00.003-05:00

The Alpha Trail by Crystal Ridge claims another victim. As you can see from past pics, there has been some blood left on the trail. On Wednesday (my B-Day) we went for a ride and it was awesome as usual, but I took a digger! The trail was pretty dry and it was a great time!! Thanks to Matt and Pete for cruizing along with me!

Pictures from Alpha Trail Ride (Reverse Order)

2009-04-08T21:33:00.004-05:00

Best Ride Of The Season!

2009-04-08T20:35:00.004-05:00

The night got off to a slow start, but definitely redeemed itself about 5 minutes into the ride. The plan was to meet at 4:45 p.m. in the Crystal Ridge parking lot and start from there. First the time got moved back once, then again (hey we are working men, give us a break). No worries, there is a lot more daylight these days! Then the question came about, "where do we get on the trail?". Great question.... After chasing each other around for quite some time, we finally found each other and a place to unload and get going! After all the to-do we made our way to the Milwaukee County Park System's Alpha Mountain Bike Trail. Little did we know all the excitement that was ahead of us. I was a little worried when the first 500 ft of the trail was up and down, tight and full of tree roots. I was wondering why Pete was on a mission to kill me. Once I became a little more comfortable on my cross bike, I could finally quit staring down at the trail and pick up my head to look at the awesome scenery (easy to forget you are in a city). About 5 minutes into the ride we saw two deer less than 50 feet off the trail. They did not even run away as we stopped to watch and take pictures. They were not the only deer we saw on this ride. We saw about 10 in total, some close and some in the distance. Once we got down into the lower areas of the trail it was pretty wet, so we had to get off our bikes and take a shortcut through the woods to make sure we did not screw up the trails and cover ourselves in water and mud. Once we got back on dry land we made our way up the west side of the Crystal Ridge Ski Hill. WOW, what a climb. It really got the legs going. From there we had to do some searching to find where the trail went. We finally found a trail and hoped it would take us back to the car. It did!! I can't wait to get back to this trail once it dries out a bit! It has a little of everything for people of all abilities. There are tight technical areas and also more open fast areas. I would recommend it to people of all skill levels!

Review: 2008 Fuji Cross Comp

2009-04-05T19:12:00.005-05:00

I am going to piggy-back Pete's review with one of my own. I recently purchased a 2008 Fuji Cross Comp, size 54 (shown above). For info on specs click here because I am too lazy to list them all. I was looking for a mid-range, entry level bike to try out the cyclocross scene I was introduced to last year. Up until this spring, I have only been riding on the road with my 2007 Fuji Roubaix Pro, but I now have about 100 miles on the bike I am really enjoying it. Those 100 miles have included almost everything I would expect this bike to handle: nice city roads, crappy city roads, gravel trails, 5 inch deep mud trails and normal dirt trails. On my feet I have Forte CM410 MTB shoes connected to the same Time Atac pedals Pete reviewed and I completely agree with everything he has to say about them. My shoes are size 10us and I have my cleats set back a little bit and I do not have any overlap between my toes and the front tire (although it is pretty close).

The only thing I have done to the bike so far is flip the handlebar stem for a more aggressive riding position. I like this position a bit better for less technical trail rides and commuting, but when it comes closer to race season, I think I will flip it back over because I feel a bit more comfortable on technical rides with the handlebars a bit closer and higher. Future plans include replacing the seat (so far it hasn't been a bother) and removing the extra brake levers (they are annoying, extra weight and I don't use them).

Pros & Cons:
Pros: Stiff frame, good components, riding position, price, handles well in the mud, style.
Cons: The wheels are already out of true, tires seem more like road than dirt tires.

All and all I would suggest this bike to anyone who would like to get into cyclocross or is looking for a good commuter bike.

I will keep updating the site as I continue to break in this bike. I will end as Pete did, with a video. This time about cyclocross.

Review: Time ATAC Alium Pedal

2009-04-04T20:22:00.005-05:00

After studying the reviews of Eggbeaters and these Time ATAC Alium pedals, I decided to give the Time's a try to see what the mechanism feels like. I picked these up at TreeFortBikes.com for $54.95 which is about the same as the basic Eggbeater or SPD mountain bike pedals.

Out of the box, my first impression was that these are pretty beefy (heavy) when compared to my Speedplay road pedals and even the basic SPD's. For CX and Mountain riding, I'm not too worried about weight, more so durability and a good mechanism for dirt and mud.

So I threw these on my new GT Zaskar and hit the trails.

Bottom line - these pedals took some getting used to. Most of my serious riding has been with my Speedplays on the road, and SPDs offroad and I feel that the action and position needed to clip in on both the Speedplays and SPDs is pretty similar - I can feel where the cleat and pedal begin to line up, and the I put my weight on the ball of my foot and step straight down. The Time ATACs were difficult to figure out because I had no feel for where the cleat and pedal lined up, and I definitely could not clip in using the same straight-down motion I was used to.

Out on the muddy trails, I had to unclip a few times, and each time I got going again, I would have to ride 50 yards or so fishing around with my unclipped foot to try and find the sweet spot. This leads me to one feature of the Time ATACs that the basic Eggbeaters don't have - a platform. Coming from road riding, and especially from the Speedplay world and stiff carbon soles, I couldn't imagine why someone would put up with the extra weight in order to have a semi-platform pedal, but it sure proved its worth out on the trails. Whether I stayed unclipped out of necessity to put my foot down on some of the more technical sections, or I just simply couldn't get clipped in, having a platform allowed me to keep pedaling and keep my speed up. I can't imaging being able to do this on a Speedplay or Eggbeater pedal where all there is to the pedal is the mechanism itself. Thumbs-up to the Time ATACs.

Back to my clip-in struggles, I did eventually discover the proper motion for clipping into these pedals, which is more like toe-up, sliding the shoe across the top of the pedal from toe to heel. These seem to engage farther back on my foot than other pedals, even though I mount my cleats as far forward as possible. Once I got the hang of clipping in, let me say, the mechanism proved to be fantastic. Getting in and out was direct and sure, and there was never a moment I felt I would unclip when I wasn't trying to. The sound is great too - a nice THUNK to let you know you're in. I even stomped through some wet clay mud to simulate a CX dismount type of situation, and I didn't have a single problem clipping back in. Two thumbs-up to the Time ATACs.

Bottom line: Two thumbs up.

Pros: Mechanism, platform, price

Cons: Weight, clip-in motion takes some getting used to

Some Inspiration

2009-04-04T20:00:00.003-05:00

First a little time trial inspiration, then a bit of off-road inspiration:

2009-04-02T20:56:00.003-05:00

Seeing as this is my first post, I think it would be a good start to kick it off with some links on how to fit your bike. Making sure your bike and gear is fit properly to you will make your rides are a million times more enjoyable that if you have things setup wrong. Check out the links below to make sure you are all setup before the season begins.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

http://bicycling.about.com/od/howtoride/ss/Frame_size.htm

http://bicycleuniverse.info/eqp/fit.html

http://www.bhsi.org/fit.htm