Window of Opportunity

Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip. We set
a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the bottom fell
out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I wasn't sure if
Mike would show but he did just as the rain had subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east toward
Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good mix of up and
down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing areas. The trail was
heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with a lot of the line completely
washed away. We headed back and were about 3 miles from my house when I
heard thunder. We stopped at the top of the last climb and looked back to
see a another dark cloud closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food and I
waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another down pour
that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary

--
Nothing equals the joy of silently rolling forward under my own power, no
matter how fast I go. You can't enjoy the descent without earning the climb.
I ride because I can.

-Evan MacKenzie, Hillsboro, Oregon

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 17:03:32 -0700, GeeDubb wrote:

Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip. We set
a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the bottom fell
out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I wasn't sure if
Mike would show but he did just as the rain had subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east toward
Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good mix of up and
down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing areas. The trail was
heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with a lot of the line completely
washed away. We headed back and were about 3 miles from my house when I
heard thunder. We stopped at the top of the last climb and looked back to
see a another dark cloud closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food and I
waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another down pour
that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary


It looked like you guys up North were getting pounded. I bought
my new bike around 12:30, ish..... Loaded it into my pickup,
and got home before the next down burst.

Pretty wild about Phx. getting all this rain eh? Cool though,
we really need it. Glad to hear you could squeeze in a ride.

At the moment, I've got no problem riding my old Trek 820 in
the mud and rain. My new Trek 6500 is sitting in the entry
way. Don't dare to take it outside to get wet.... :-)
Heck, it's only hour's old to me. I'm treating it like a new
car. Afraid to go outside, or get that first "ding". Does
that sound silly???? (of course, me and 6500 are gonna hit
it hard first thing tomorrow). It's just that a new bike looks
so pretty....

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

Gregg wrote:
On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 17:03:32 -0700, GeeDubb wrote:


Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip. We set
a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the bottom fell
out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I wasn't sure if
Mike would show but he did just as the rain had subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east toward
Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good mix of up and
down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing areas. The trail was
heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with a lot of the line completely
washed away. We headed back and were about 3 miles from my house when I
heard thunder. We stopped at the top of the last climb and looked back to
see a another dark cloud closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food and I
waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another down pour
that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary



It looked like you guys up North were getting pounded. I bought
my new bike around 12:30, ish..... Loaded it into my pickup,
and got home before the next down burst.

Pretty wild about Phx. getting all this rain eh? Cool though,
we really need it. Glad to hear you could squeeze in a ride.

At the moment, I've got no problem riding my old Trek 820 in
the mud and rain. My new Trek 6500 is sitting in the entry
way. Don't dare to take it outside to get wet.... :-)
Heck, it's only hour's old to me. I'm treating it like a new
car. Afraid to go outside, or get that first "ding". Does
that sound silly???? (of course, me and 6500 are gonna hit
it hard first thing tomorrow). It's just that a new bike looks
so pretty....

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

GeeDubb wrote:
Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip.
We set a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the
bottom fell out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I
wasn't sure if Mike would show but he did just as the rain had
subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east
toward Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good
mix of up and down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing
areas. The trail was heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with
a lot of the line completely washed away. We headed back and were
about 3 miles from my house when I heard thunder. We stopped at the
top of the last climb and looked back to see a another dark cloud
closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food
and I waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another
down pour that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary

That's one heck of a backyard you have there Gary! Thanks for the guide
service, I don't think I could've found my way through the maze of trails in
some of those areas. It was an excellent ride. The serenade from the
coyotes at the start was pretty cool. What Gary failed to mention is my
legs started cramping up by the time we got to Dreamy Draw and we took the
easy way back along the canal path. I hated missing more desert trail, but
it was just as well I guess as the "window" might have slammed shut on us.

Here's a pic of the green desert that I snapped yesterday...
http://www4.pbase.com/mrdart/image/39150656 Too wet to carry the camera
today.

Looking forward to McDowell tomorrow if my legs hold up. I may just have to
spin around while Gary puts the hammer down since it's his peak race season.
At least I can't get lost there. ;^)

It's also nice having my own bike with me here and not a rental. I just put
a new Fox Talas RLC on it and today was it's first real ride. Awesome fork.

Mike

Michael Dart wrote:
GeeDubb wrote:

Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip.
We set a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the
bottom fell out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I
wasn't sure if Mike would show but he did just as the rain had
subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east
toward Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good
mix of up and down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing
areas. The trail was heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with
a lot of the line completely washed away. We headed back and were
about 3 miles from my house when I heard thunder. We stopped at the
top of the last climb and looked back to see a another dark cloud
closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food
and I waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another
down pour that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary


That's one heck of a backyard you have there Gary! Thanks for the guide
service, I don't think I could've found my way through the maze of trails in
some of those areas. It was an excellent ride. The serenade from the
coyotes at the start was pretty cool. What Gary failed to mention is my
legs started cramping up by the time we got to Dreamy Draw and we took the
easy way back along the canal path. I hated missing more desert trail, but
it was just as well I guess as the "window" might have slammed shut on us.

Here's a pic of the green desert that I snapped yesterday...
http://www4.pbase.com/mrdart/image/39150656 Too wet to carry the camera
today.

Looking forward to McDowell tomorrow if my legs hold up. I may just have to
spin around while Gary puts the hammer down since it's his peak race season.
At least I can't get lost there. ;^)

It's also nice having my own bike with me here and not a rental. I just put
a new Fox Talas RLC on it and today was it's first real ride. Awesome fork.

Mike



The pic didn't work. Watch out for Gary, he can hammer. Funny thing,
he got me tired too. Hmm... I sense a pattern here.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

"Ride-A-Lot" wrote in message
...

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.


Now I understand the bike tours. Metrosexual.

GT
--
"I know what I know
I do what I do
You don't like my coat
**** you" - Johnny Dowd

G.T. wrote:
"Ride-A-Lot" wrote in message
...

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.



Now I understand the bike tours. Metrosexual.

GT

Well, kind of. Ya just can't take the city out of a city guy. Don't
get me wrong, I get my bikes good and dirty. I've just found that all
the parts last longer and give me less problems when they are clean.

Well, at least I don't bring my laptop with me on a camping trip.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

Gregg wrote:


How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

I never clean my bike. I never worry about scratches unless they are in an
area prone to high stress but even if it is, there's not much you can do
about it.. I found that over maintaining a bike causes them to decay early
g. For example, I had nearly 3 years of riding on my Marathon Bomber w/o
any maintenance and one of the air seals finally wore out. Nothing else was
wrong with the shock until I took it off and put a big nick in one of the
tubes....after it was off the bike.

I lube the chain with a dry lube after each ride (white lightening) but this
year I've started using a wet lube due to the damp riding conditions. As
long as the cables don't feel like they're binding I don't touch them.

This works for me but may not for anybody else.

Gary (looking like a good day to ride-a-lot g)

GeeDubb wrote:
Gregg wrote:


How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

I never clean my bike. I never worry about scratches unless they are
in an area prone to high stress but even if it is, there's not much
you can do about it.. I found that over maintaining a bike causes
them to decay early g. For example, I had nearly 3 years of riding
on my Marathon Bomber w/o any maintenance and one of the air seals
finally wore out. Nothing else was wrong with the shock until I took
it off and put a big nick in one of the tubes....after it was off the
bike.

I lube the chain with a dry lube after each ride (white lightening)
but this year I've started using a wet lube due to the damp riding
conditions. As long as the cables don't feel like they're binding I
don't touch them.

This works for me but may not for anybody else.

Gary (looking like a good day to ride-a-lot g)

You might have had to clean it today. After my ride at McDowell my bike was
covered with clay with bits of stone embedded in it. (Think extra-crunchy
p-butter). I had to chuckle to myself at a couple locals complaining of the
mud. It was an awesome day out there. My legs were still heavy from the
ride yesterday but the race loops out there just beg for speed. I want to
take those trails home with me!

Mike

Michael Dart wrote

You might have had to clean it today. After my ride at McDowell my
bike was covered with clay with bits of stone embedded in it. (Think
extra-crunchy p-butter). I had to chuckle to myself at a couple
locals complaining of the mud. It was an awesome day out there. My
legs were still heavy from the ride yesterday but the race loops out
there just beg for speed. I want to take those trails home with me!

Mike

I'm kind of lazy when it comes to bike maintenance. I wouldn't have cleaned
my bike! I did manage to wipe the crud off my chain and chain rings
yesterday since the chain was sucking on our ride Saturday but I left all
that mud on it.

Glad you had a good day of riding. My hike with the family was good as
well.

Gary