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 Schwalbe Marathon Winter bicycle tire A few weeks ago, Pocatello, Idaho experienced a fairly heavy snowfall of about 6 inches or so. This was followed by temperatures ranging from -10 F to 15 F for several days after. None of the snow melted for an entire week, which made all the roads turn into snowy chocolate mousse (see this icebike.org page for a better description of this). I had recently purchased some better studded snow tires for my mountain bike in an attempt to improve my winter cycling experience. However, this turned out to be only one part of the formula for making it from point A to point B on snowy roads. The other part of the formula being practice, practice, practice. :-)
The Monday morning after the heavy snowfall weekend, I set on my studded tire mountain bike. Wobbling and slipping around in the thick, partially-packed snow for a few feet made me quickly re-think my decision. I wussed out, put my bike away, and began sweeping the snow off my car, feeling defeated.
The next few days of that week were terribly cold with morning temperatures regularly hovering around -10 F. After looking at the bus routes on the Pocatello Regional Transit web site, I found that there was a very convenient route within 5 minutes walking distance of both my house and my workplace. So I rode the bus the rest of the week. Driving your car to work is just wasteful, inconvenient, and bad for the environment. It’s also expensive if you work for Idaho State University, which charges employees for parking. :-(
 Merrily Cycling Through The Snow! A week later, temperatures were back up to normal levels, and so my buddy, Travis, and I decided to practice our winter cycling around town that weekend. Travis is a lot more confidant riding on snow and ice than I am, so I was really interested in taking note of his techniques. I was secretly hoping to see him wipe out, which might make me feel less like a goof. :-) Cycling to Travis’ house by myself was a bit nerve wracking, but after a while I was getting the hang of it. Travis joined me at his place and we headed out to Sacajawea Park near the West Bench area of Pocatello. This park trail had plenty off snow on it in several places which proved to be a pretty big challenge. This ride, and Travis’ coaching, taught me several things about bicycling on snow:
- You aren’t going to wipe out unless you do something stupid like turning sharply. Your body automatically corrects your balance as you slip around on uneven snow, chocolate mousse, etc.
- Cycling in fresh snow is a piece of cake. It is much easier than riding on trodden snow, which is the tricky part.
- Keep your gear low and spin. Take your time, there’s no rush.
- Keep your hand off the front brake. Use your rear brake, especially while descending a hill. Your front wheel needs to remain moving and as straight as possible.
After about 15 miles of riding around town in all kinds of different consistencies of snow, I was actually feeling good about riding in snow and enjoying myself. The next Monday, I got up, hopped on my bike, and cycled through the chocolate mousse with glee! I actually purposely plowed through some thicker snow just to put a little excitement into my ride since, by then, there was plenty of bare pavement to ride on.
Winter cycling isn’t for everyone. But if you’re looking for an alternative winter transportation method and some serious fun, buy a good pair of studded snow tires and get out there give it a shot! But, beware, it really does take some practice to get over your initial nerves, or at least it did for me! But after you get past that, you gain a lot of confidence and you get a feel for it. Several sources online claim that winter cycling improves your overall cycling stability and confidence on all kinds of terrain, and I can definitely see the truth in this.
Here are some useful and interesting winter cycling links!
 Korey the cyclo-cross fan. Ok, I’ve never competed in cyclo-cross, but I love watching cyclo-cross, so that counts for something! And yesterday I did some off-road hill-climbing, maneuvering tricky descents, and riding through mud and snow -laden trails on my touring bike. Ok, I never had to dismount and carry my bike, but I think this ride was adequately cyclo-crossish and it was a great workout. Additionally, I found the correct path between Trail Creek Road and Michaud Creek Road, whereas I failed before!
The forecast for Thanksgiving in Pocatello sounded awesome: 45 degrees and lots of sun! This was the perfect time to reattempt the route I had planned; namely going from Trail Creek to Michaud Creek road rather than the other way around. I was bound and determined to find the correct trail this time! Due to the recent snow and ice on the roads, I had put my studded snow tires on my mountain bike, so my trusty touring bike was my only option today. It really wasn’t a bad choice since this route requires about 50% on-road riding.
 Near the top of Trail Creek Road. This route begins at the bottom of Trail Creek Road on the southwest end of Pocatello (commonly referred to as the West Bench area). The steady climb up this road is a great warm-up. The pavement ends after a few miles and you’re on a well maintained trail after crossing a cattle guard. It was at this point that I had to take my gloves and windbreaker off since I was roasting to death after this long climb! And then the climbing just goes on and on until you can see most of Pocatello in the distance behind you. The sun was so brilliant, the wind was still, and I could feel the warmth of the suns rays and hear the distant sound of shots fired from people practicing for hunting season. Aaah, Pocatello is a rather nice place.
Soon, I was at the top and I recognized the trail intersection here from what I had seen on mapmyride.com. After some looking around, I found the trail that must be the path to Michaud Creek Road; it was on the other side of the ridge and didn’t look like much at first since it was less maintained and skinnier than the other trails. And this is where the sloppy cyclo-crossing fun began! This trail was cut rather deeply into the hill, so it was plenty snowy and muddy. After a few near-spills, I got the hang of where to put my front tire to keep from slipping out. It was quite fun practicing this slippery decent in such nice weather with no traffic around! I highly recommend it!
 View from the south side. The decent on the south side of the ridge is very gradual, with fields of tall grass, junipers, and sage brush all around you. In the distance, you can see the Arbon Valley and the American Falls Reservoir. My tires were soon coated in thick mud and I was glad for my fenders. I came upon a BLM Trail Management sign and a gate, and carried my bike around the gate. Oh, hey, I guess I did have to carry my bike! I wouldn’t recommend running around the gate with your bike, however, since it was rather hard to get through and there was a cattle guard you had to walk across on the other side of the sign. Cattle guards are very slippery when your shoes are wet, so be careful :-)
 Wheee! After a few more miles, the trail ended at Michaud Creek Road. On this end of the trail, there is an ancient-looking, rusty no-trespassing sign, but I really don’t think it has been applicable for a few decades since this was the only no-trespassing sign I saw on the entire journey and there was a BLM information map a few miles back. Trespassing shmespassing!
I think I will try this route again from the other way on my mountain bike in the spring!
The above map shows my intended route for my Saturday afternoon ride. However, I went too far up Michaud Creek Road and ended up performing a hike-a-bike over a very craggy, rock-strewn, god forsaken mountain top trail, then trail riding down City Creek trail (runs parallel to Trail Creek Road about a mile or so to the east). Yeah, I didn’t see that coming.
The ride started along the Frontage Road highway towards American Falls. I had never cycled on Michaud Creek Road, so I was riding my touring bike in case I had to do some unimproved road riding. Later in this story, you will see that this was the understatement of the week. I turned left onto an unmarked road that I assumed was Michaud Creek Road since it was right where it was supposed to be (just east of the Pocatello Airport). I keep looking for a road sign on the way up the road but never saw one. It turned out to be a pretty nice road. It was scenic, I saw 3 pheasants, and the road is sheltered on both sides by hills, so Pocatello and the Simplot factory disappears from sight. You also can’t smell Simplot from Michaud since the wind blows from the west!
I cycled past some cows that were wandering loose at the side of the road and after quite a few miles of constant uphill cycling I started to wonder when the heck this road would turn to dirt; but it just kept on going. Eventually the road turned north and the pavement started looked pretty old and weathered, and the grade increased too. Then I was in my lowest gear and crawling up the steep grade. The mountains near Kinport peak looked quite close and the surrounding hills looked very familiar to me as those I’ve seen around the City Creek area, so I knew I was nearing the top. Also, the wind is blocked in the Michaud Creek Valley, but now that I was above the valley I was feeling the cold October wind.
Finally the pavement ended at the top of the ridge and I saw a small pond nearby, which was quite a surprise. It must be a low point between the mountains where run-off collects. I got off my bike like an old man with arthritis and walked up to the highest nearby point to take a look around. I tried to get an idea as to where I was. I could see the blinking towers on top of Howard Mountain. Kinport peak was blocked from view by some foot hills. I could see Holt Arena directly to the North. I must have been very close to Trail Creek Road, but I could not see any clearly defined trail. I walked up another hill to take a better look, but I could only guess the direction I should be going. My better judgement told me just to go back from where I came, especially since it was downhill all the way back to Frontage Road, and then the west wind would blow me back to Pocatello. But my adventurous side won the battle and I began hiking my bike up the most likely looking trail. As soon as the trail leveled out a little, I hopped on my bike and rode a ways. Then I hopped back off, cursed the rugged, rocky, steep trail and hiked some more. I kept reminding myself of the past experiences I’ve had that told me what a glutton for punishment I must be. Had I been riding my mountain bike instead of my touring bike, I might have rode more and hiked less. But, really, I’m kind of a wuss when it comes to traversing rocky, steep, technical trails. I’m an explorer, not an adrenaline junkie.
Finally, the trail turned a lot easier so I hopped on my bike and made some time. The trail eventually turned onto City Creek trail to my utmost glee. I was so happy to see a trail that was familiar to me. I met a hiker and another guy driving up in his truck. I hadn’t been away from civilization very long, but I was really happy to see another human being after being alone and lost for the past hour or so. Riding down the trail on my touring bike wasn’t very fun. No shocks, no upright position, and cantilever brakes that required me to grip them as hard as I could to get any stopping power. Yeah, I’ve read before that the mountain bike brake lever position and V-brakes were designed with stopping power in mind and I have personally discovered that to be the truth. You can get better stopping power with cantilever brakes if your hands are in the drops, but you don’t want your hands in the drops when your descending a bumpy trail. Yeah, remember folks, for best results, use a mountain bike for mountain biking. Just a tip :-)
I got home about 3.5 hours after I started my journey, and I drank plenty of beer to ease my frazzled nerves, my sore hands, and several other overly used muscles groups. Next time I will probably cycle up Trail Creek Road and see the situation from a different angle. I’m anxious to figure out where I went astray.
 Want a body like mine? Yes you do (ok, maybe)! What’s my secret? Eating a sensible diet (most of the time), eating junk food occasionally, drinking loads of beer, and cycling to work everyday! :-) Just look at that sculpted arm from years of lifting heavy mugs of beer! Just look at that not-too-big beer gut! Look at those cyclist legs! This is the diet breakthrough of the century, folks.
But, anyway, on to today’s story. I didn’t have time to bring lunch to work today, so I took glee in the opportunity to cycle on over to a nearby McDonald’s and get a few McDouble Cheeseburgers and McChicken Sandwiches! Mmm! Having McDonald’s too often would get pretty boring, but once every few weeks is a treat.
After riding into the parking lot, I noticed they had placed a bright yellow bike rack on the sidewalk. Wow, I guess they got tired of me and the other cyclists chaining our bikes to the kiddie playground fence! I was elated! It’s also a very nice bike rack that holds your front wheel and makes it easy to fasten both your front wheel and frame to the rack. Way to go McDonald’s!
I walked in and got a slight grin from the girl at the counter who tried to hide her expression as she looked at my Velcro straps around my pant legs. Ok, I guess I did look a little geeky with my plaid button-up shirt and dress pants with straps. Ah, well, cyclists do their thing and we don’t care how we look, mmkay? ;-)
After taking my order, I said, “Wow, it’s nice that you guys put a bike rack outside, I’m lovin’ it!” Then I quickly grimaced in pain and said, “Umm, sorry I said that. I hate that slogan. Gah.” They snickered and handed me my order.
Do you want to be a hardcore bicycle commuter? Do you want the ability to cycle to work in comfort no matter what the weather is like outside? This can be quite a tough challenge to meet, but with the right equipment and clothing, it can be done, and all for under $100 bucks (assuming you have a touring, commuter, or mountain bike already)!
Here is the equipment and clothing list that I’ve used in my 3 years of bicycle commuting experience.
Clothing
- Beanie – This is a thin, thermal layer of synthetic material that fits under your helmet for temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or so. Without it, you’ll get brain freeze!
- Windbreaker – Cycling generates a lot of body heat. A windbreaker is the only protection you’ll need in temperatures above 10 degrees F and can be bought online for around $20. If you’re wearing a sweater underneath it, you’ll sweat to death, even on most winter days. Be sure and buy a cycling specific windbreaker since they zip up closer around your neck better than the average windbreaker and are tapered so they don’t act like a parachute.
- Rain jacket and pants – This is only necessary on rainy days. They work great, even if you do look silly. The whole outfit can be had for around $25 if you shop around online. I recently got my rain jacket from Nashbar.com for only $9.99 and it works very well at keeping me warm and dry during a shower.
- Pant leg Velcro straps – These wrap around the bottoms of your pant legs and keep them from catching in your drive train or on a water bottle cage. They are $2 a pair.
- Gloves – During cool weather, I use cheap gloves I bought from Wal-Mart ($8). During cold weather, I use more expensive ski gloves I bought from Fred Meyer ($15 on sale).
Bicycle Equipment
- Fenders – Fenders are used so that you don’t get sprayed with water and mud kicked up by your tires. I commute to work in semi-formal clothing, so this is a must. I use some SKS brand mountain bike fenders that I bought online for about $25. If your bicycle doesn’t have eyelet mounts for fenders, you can go to your hardware store and buy p-clamps (sometimes they go by other names) and fasten your fenders to the clamps which go around your fork or seat-stays. The only department I found these in at Lowes was the electrical department. They are used in electrical work for holding wiring to walls or something. They come with rubber strips, which are useful for mounting to skinnier frame tubing.
- Studded tires – These are only necessary if you plan on winter commuting. Ice is really the only surface you can’t cycle on with regular tires. Trust me, I’ve crashed several times attempting to riding on ice with regular tires :-) Studded tires can range anywhere from $35 to $70, so shop around and see what works for your budget. Last year, I used the low-end Innova tires which were about $35 a tire, but I’ve noticed that the steel studs are starting to show some wear after only one season. A friend of mine bought Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires for a bit more money, and they feature carbide studs which last much longer and feel sharper than regular steel studs.
Anyway, there is the list of things that has worked well for me in all kinds of weather. I’ve left out some general equipment, such as racks, baskets, lunch boxes and such, but I hope this list gives you an idea of what you need and why you need it!
 My cycling buddy, tlp, and I were planning to do a ride which hadn’t turned out so well for us two years earlier (see tlp’s blog about it here). But this year, we were in better shape and had more cycling experience, so we felt ready for riding from Pocatello to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, via Smith Canyon Road.
On Memorial Day Weekend, we loaded our bikes up with camping gear and set out on Highway 91. I was riding my new Windsor Tourist touring bicycle and tlp was riding his trusty Surly Long Haul Trucker. About 10 miles out of town or so, I heard a loud “tink” sound all of the sudden that came from the rear end of my bike. Tlp recognized it as the sound of a broken spoke, since he had suffered from the same problem several times on his Raleigh One-Way fixed gear bicycle. After inspecting the rear wheel spokes, we found that tlp was right. We slowly cycled home silently, depressed about this set back. I had the spoke replaced by a bike shop later that day. At the bike shop, I purchased a universal spoke tool and 3 extra spokes, just in case this happened again miles from home.
 We still had 3 days left of our extended weekend, so we set out again the following day. And this time about 3 miles into our journey, I snapped another spoke. It was on the drive side of the wheel, and so we couldn’t see a way of replacing it since the cog-set was in the way of threading a spoke through the hub. We couldn’t afford to waste another day, so I decided to cycle home, transfer all my gear onto my mountain bike, and head out again. Tlp agreed and we quickly cycled back to my place and made the swap. My mountain bike had some old worn studded tires that I was getting the rest of their usefulness out of, but I didn’t have time to be picky! I inflated the tires up to 70 psi and we set off again!
Cycling on the road all the way to Arimo wasn’t too bad, especially since my tire pressure was so high. It was a nice day with a few clouds passing by and we enjoyed ourselves. As we came to the entrance of Smith Canyon road, we took some snapshots and cycled on. Soon, the road turned to gravel and I shifted down to my granny gear to take it slow and save energy. Memories of this same spot two years earlier were in my mind and I knew I had better take it easy or I might suffer the same exhaustion that I had before. Then again, it was only about 80 degrees at the very worst on this day, and the trip two years earlier had temperatures of over 100 in the sun. I paused every few miles to pour some water onto my Sweat-Vac beanie under my helmet and this made the slow climbing up this trail easier.
 Soon, we encountered an intersection in the road which marked the place where the road became oiled gravel, and this made the cycling easier. Also, clouds had darkened and it began to sprinkle, which was very welcome. The road became an ascending roller coaster ride as we pedalled over the hills, and then it became more uphill. After what seemed a very long time, we apexed the 1800 foot climb and we smiled and laughed as we knew what lay before us. We drank some water and sped down the 1800 foot, 4 mile paved decent into Lava Hot Springs. After a good 10 minutes of going somewhere close to 40 miles per hour downhill, we cycled the rest of the way to Smith’s Trout Haven and setup camp.
The campground was more like a village of RVs, with a tent here and there. Our nearby neighbor who was living in a camper with his family greeted us while drinking a beer and said, “hope you don’t mind living next to us, we get a little noisy!” “Great.”, I thought. I was hoping for a bit more secluded campground, but we were so tired we didn’t care.
We cycled back to town, bought some beer and delicatessen food, went back to camp, ate, and fell asleep.
The next day, we planned to drink beer and just relax. We cycled to town, ate at a small restaurant, leisurely cycled around the scenic, old fashioned town, then picked up more food and beer at the local grocery store and cycled back to camp. We then proceeded to drink and jovially talk while sitting in front of our tent. That afternoon, low lying clouds began to crawl over the tops of the nearby mountains and it began to look like a real Memorial Day weekend. In southeast Idaho, it rains without fail every Memorial Day weekend. The next thing I knew, tlp and I were sitting in the tent eating our lunch while rain hammered the tent hard. Puddles began forming in the tent from the water dribbling in from the seams while I took refuge on my inflated air mattress and tlp soaked the invading water up with a towel. We were both pretty drunk so we laughed, ate some more and enjoyed the excitement.
 After the rain stopped, we surfaced from our tent. At this point, I had consumed quite a bit of alcohol, so I stumbled over to the neighbors camp with a couple of beers and began chatting with a guy who was about 20 years old or so. Tlp joined us with his beer and soon we were chatting up a storm. The guy we were chatting with was drinking from a bottle of Jagermeister and he offered me a drink of it. After this, everything about this particular evening gets a little fuzzy. But I do remember being half asleep in my sleeping bag in the tent, then quickly unzipping the tent door and tossing my cookies. Note to self: stay away from the damned Jagermeister. It is deceivingly tasty! Oh, and to the right you can see an amazing discovery of mine: the bicycle wheel beer holder! ;-)
The next morning, I got up, stepped outside, noticed my pile of puke, and went to the port-a-potty. I came back and tlp didn’t look very happy. He was complaining that I snored a lot last night, and he looked tired and expressionless. I think we both just wanted to go home and recuperate from this expedition.
After I ate some leftover bread and cheese, we took down the tent, packed up, and started our journey back home at about 9 am. Our spirits picked up as we cycled on up Dempsey Creek. This part of the journey was very steep and felt about like 14% grade or so in some areas. This was the reason why the trip down this side of the path was done at such break-neck speeds. After grinding slowly up the steep road, it turned to the oiled gravel surface, and soon we reached the apex. This direction was much easier than the other way since the climbing section is first, whereas in the opposite direction it requires a 40 mile ride to Arimo before the climb. Next, we rode the awesome, but chilly, decent towards Arimo in the distance. Pedaling home on the flat Highway 91 was easy and refreshing, and we made it home around 2:00 pm.
If you would like to read tlp’s version of this story, see his article!
Update, July 9, 2009 – Travis Poppe, my cycling partner and the Webmaster at Blue Ribbon Coalition submitted a story about this ride and we got published!
 I haven’t had the time to ride every weekend lately, and this chilly spring hasn’t helped get me out the door either. But this weekend was fabulous and I was ready to go on an adventurous ride that would make up for lost time. Click the map on the left to see where I went! (courtesy, mapmyride.com).
I had driven through the Garden Gap coming from Robin, Idaho before, but I had never really ventured far beyond the gap. After studying the map of the area, I found the route that will take you through the gap from the opposite direction. This turned out to be a very interesting ride, and a ride in which I was glad that I had purchased a fat-tired touring bike beforehand.
After climbing the never-ending Mink Creek Road (~1500 ft. climb from Pocatello), you fly down the windy south side of the mountains while admiring the vast Arbon Valley and the snow capped mountain range on the other side of the valley (sorry, no pictures this time… I’ll take some shots next time, I promise!) According to the map, it appears that the biggest mountain you can see on the other side of the valley is Deep Creek Peak. After descending about 8 miles, you hang a left onto Upper Rattlesnake Road which is mostly an oiled dirt road (quite decent to ride on) which starts out pretty flat, then becomes a hilly roller coaster ride, and eventually ascends up to the gap.
Finally, you see the rocky gap in the distance and you do a 40 mph, winding decent through the 1000 foot rock walled gap, which is one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve had in quite some time. It is a truly euphoric experience. The creek the runs alongside the road really perfects the whole scene, too. It is a magical story-book area of Idaho.
After that, is the long, tiring ride home. I was pretty pooped by the time I got to Inkom. Then I got home, and guzzled my favorite recovery drink, Hamm’s beer. Next, I looked with horror at my sunburnt arms in the mirror. Hmm, yeah, I might use some sunscreen next time. :-)
 I have recently purchased an addition to my fleet of bikesdirect.com bicycles: the Windsor Tourist. This is a touring style bicycle that currently sells for $599.99 at bikesdirect.com, however I hear that price will be going up soon. Compared to other touring bicycles (Jamis Aurora, Surly Long Haul Trucker, Raleigh Sojourn, etc.) this bike is hundreds of dollars cheaper, but still features good quality parts and frame.
The reason I bought this bike was to have a bike I could take anywhere, yet was fast enough to get me where I wanted to go in good time on the road. I already own a couple of road bikes, but those do poorly on dirt and gravel trails. And the mountain bike that I own just won’t keep up with a touring bike on road ways. Thus, the touring bicycle is the perfect solution. The tires and rims are medium width, it has drop bars for a more aerodynamic riding position, and it has tire/frame clearance for fenders to keep yourself from getting mucked up.
After I assembled the bike, I put on some mountain bike sized fenders (60 mm x 26″, SKS brand) that I stole from a different bike of mine and they seemed to fit fine. I had trimmed the stays of the front fender to fit my mountain bike which was too short to reach the fork on this bike. As you can see in the photos, I used a bit of hardware to make this reach (I know, I’m such a cheap-o). Next, I put on some SPD/flat combination pedals, which I think are perfect for a touring bike since I want SPD for road riding, but I don’t want to be clipped in on rugged trails.
I have ridden this bike for about 2 months now, mostly as a commuter bike. Here’s my review so far:
 Pros
- Very comfy ride. Fat tires and the 4130 steel frame is nice and soft. Speeding right over railroad tracks is pleasant.
- Pretty fast bike. Much faster than a mountain bike, but not as fast as a roadie.
- The Tiagra STI shifters are very nice and effortless to use.
- The forest green paint on mine is quite handsome. :-)
- The easy-to-turn derailleur adjusters on the cables near the handlebars are nifty and come in handy when you’re hearing derailleur or chain noise that you want to fix while riding. It’s a feature you don’t find on many bicycles nowadays.
Cons
- The rear derailleur adjustments took a bit of tweaking to get it to stop making noise. This was probably due to my own incompetance.
- The seat was pretty uncomfortable for the first couple of rides, but now it feels like it has “broken in”.
- This bike could use a bit more clearance on the fork and seat stay for tires and fenders. I’m used to seeing more clearance on some other touring bikes I’ve seen (especially the Surly LHT).
- You can’t adjust cantilever brakes after you’ve had a few beers. ;-) They can be tricky, but this is the case for all cantilever brakes.
- The chain-stays could stand to be longer. My heels brush against my saddle bags a bit. Of course, I wear size 12 shoes, too. I’ll probably rig my saddle bags so that they hang back further.
 Overall, this is a good purchase, especially if you aren’t looking to spend $1000 on a touring bike. I will be riding this bike on a 100 mile round trip, partially off-road cycle-camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. I’ll be sure to post the results of that expedition here! Stay tuned!
And for your viewing pleasure, here is a photo gallery of this bicycle. As you can see, I didn’t have time to clean the bike before hand. Ah, well, all the dirt spots make it look more like a well-used bicycle. :-)
Update, June 21, 2009 - I have encountered my first problem with this bicycle. When I loaded it up with about 25 pounds of camping gear for a 100 mile cycle camp, I broke a spoke on the rear wheel. After the spoke was replaced by a professional bike shop, I loaded the bike up again and broke another spoke on the same wheel. Evidently, this was a machine built wheel and was not tensioned properly or something. I am going to have the wheel completely rebuilt with new spokes by a wheel builder friend of mine. Also note that this is a very common thing among many brands of bicycles and most often happens on the rear wheel. Most bicycles nowadays come stock with machine built wheels and may require a wheel rebuild if a wheel wasn’t properly put together.
Update, July 20, 2009 – My rear wheel has been rebuilt (all new Wheelsmith spokes) by a bike mechanic friend of mine. As I was attempting to put the rear wheel back into place, I noticed it just wouldn’t go in. This has always been a tight spot on this bike. I had drank a few beers beforehand, so I began beating on the tire like a caveman and making ape-like shrieks in an attempt to seat the wheel into the dropouts (not recommended). Then it dawned on me that if I just pull the chain-stays outward a little (the frame is chromoly steel and very supple), the wheel might go in. With just a little pulling on chain-stays, the wheel fell right into place. Ah, well, I hope this tip helps some of your Windsor Tourist owners. Oh, and next weekend, I will load up this bike with my camping gear and give it a good 20 mile test. Stay tuned.
Update, August 20, 2009 – Yesterday, I grabbed the chance to test out my newly rebuilt rear wheel. I loaded my panniers up with canned food to simulate the weight of the water and camping supplies that usually occupy the panniers. Then I strapped on my mattress, tent, mattress pump, and sleeping bag, and off I cycled with my friend and bicycle mechanic, John Bickelhaupt, on an approximately 20 mile ride. I went with John because he wanted to get out on a medium sized ride on this fine Saturday, and I wanted him along since I had previously broken 2 spokes on my rear wheel. Not that I was doubting his wheel building skills or anything. ;-) As you’ve read earlier in this article, a spoke breaks in my rear wheel at around the 10 to 15 mile mark in the previous 2 rides to this one; however, this ride was perfect with no problems at all except for a pinch flat (folks, make sure your tires are properly inflated before you ride!). I did some hard torquing, some bouncing around, sharps turns, and some offroading on a rocky trail and the rear wheel was fine under the approximately 25 pounds of luggage and my 200 pound ass. Success! Thanks to John Bickelhaupt! By the way, John is interested in doing some part time bike repair work, so we’ll be putting up a web site for him soon. Stay tuned for all those looking for a “personal bike mechanic” like I have! :-)
 This spring, as any Idahoan could tell you, has been cold and miserable. Everyone has been waiting for 70 degrees, but it is having a really tough time getting here. As I write this, it is 1:00 pm on May 11, and the current temperature is 68 degrees. Sigh.
On March 30, tlp and I did our usual weekend ride, attempting to reach Robin, Idaho. But we soon succumbed to the cold, dark, gloominess and turned around at McCammon. On the way there, I took a few shots of the brown grass, dead bushes, and the clouds hanging around the snow covered mountains. The Shire was looking much more like Mordor.
 Tlp and I did this ride on Saturday, March 21, and it was a blast in two different ways: it was really fun and windy as hell!
We took Bannock Highway out of Pocatello which does a slow, steady climb of about 1500 feet on Mink Creek Road. This was a pretty slow grind, especially with all the wind coming from the south. However, it was very scenic with aspen trees, mountains, and snow all around. After it seemed the climb would never end, the decent appeared. Again, the cycling was slowed by the winds, which I estimate were around 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph. I’d love to try this section again on a less windy day!
The area between the Mink Creek area and the little farming community known as Pauline is rolling hills with some flat parts. Very scenic (sort of a big valley between snowy mountain ranges) and you get the feeling that you are really out in the middle of nowhere. You get a feeling of peace and exhilaration at the same time. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. ;-)
After Pauline, the ride turns back northwest towards Pocatello. It was at that point that the wind turned from drudgery into a ton of fun! Yep, top gear, the whole way back! Woo hoo!
This ride took about 4.5 hours and was about 65 miles. I’d like to try it the other way around the loop sometime.
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