2015 Coffeeneuring Challenge 3/7

Combining CicLAvia with Coffeeneuring, what could be better?

Pics from the day, showing a good time had by all: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclotourist/albums/72157659629669808

By three in the afternoon, starting to get a bit tired after all those miles. And what should we find at Grand Central Market? G&B coffee purveyors! Small, unassuming stand, but some great coffee. Located at the west end of the market, right off the Hill St. entrance.



The barista at G&B was really kind and accommodating, filling up five ice waters for us when I asked for the direction of a fountain. Have to recommend!

Ended up covering about 13 miles over four and a half hours, ate sliders, Thrifty ice cream, great coffee, finishing the day at In N Out. Success!!!

Details:
1. G&B Coffee
2. 10/18/15
3. Macchiato
4. 12 whole miles over 4.5 hours!
5. Better look at the specifics of it: https://www.strava.com/activities/415865553

Thanks L.A., it was a great day!!!

2015 Coffeeneuring Challenge 2/7

Twenty three miles for some coffee!

Dirty mountain bike ride over the hills and through the woods.

Ended up back in Redlands and went to Augie's Coffee. One of the most delicious macchiatos I have ever had!

Drank it down the alley at the Bike BBQ, where fun is always to be found!

Living the life

A photo posted by @bikebbq on Oct 10, 2015 at 12:33pm PDT

So, to get the details in one place...

1. Went to Augie's Coffee, 
2. Oct 10, 2015 
3. Best macchiato ever! 
4. Augie's is about a mile from my house, and a lot of local rides start there. I instead ended there after riding the back way through Mentone and up the backside of Crafton Hills. 
5. 23 mile total there and back again.

2015 Coffeeneuring Challenge 1/7

THIS!
Something always got in the way previous years, but I have high expectations for this year! Week number one involved a 20 mile RT ride up to Yucaipa to the White Rabbit for some Kona blend. Yummy stuff!
Ended up being too much to drink in the middle of a ride, and had to toss half of it though :-( Better stick to espressos from now on!

The details:

1. White Rabbit Coffee, Yucaipa http://www.yelp.com/biz/white-rabbit-coffee-co-yucaipa
2. 10/3/15
3. Kona blend coffee
4. About 12 miles to get here. Steady climb up. Decently bike friendly. No actual racks, but plenty of railing to lean against.
5. Stats: https://www.strava.com/activities/405603736

WD-40 to the rescue!

My new to me bike is very well used, more than I thought at initial inspection. In addition to a good-sized dent on the downtube, the Shimano 6600 Ultegra brifters on it were working poorly if at all. I could sweep the main lever to raise to a larger-sized cog or ring, but the release lever barely worked. If I held it in just the right spot, it would drop down some of the time, and then only one (front) or four to six (back) gears. Really frustrated as my great purchase was starting to look like it was going to cost me some $$$

So I researched the repair options for sticking Shimano brifters, and the advice I came across in various forums said to douse them in kerosene or spray with WD-40. I chose the latter, and after spraying about 1/4 of the large bottle in them, am happy to report back it's shifting great, all except the 10th and final speed. I oriented the derailer so that it pulls up to the largest cog, but doesn't reach all the way to the smallest 12T cog.

Thanks interwebs!!!



Here's a good video showing the process, although I didn't take them off the bike:

Stolen Salsa La Cruz Cyclocross 57cm Bike

My awesome-fantastic Salsa was stolen this spring. No sights or sounds, I'm checking ebay daily, Craigslist both locally and nationally. Stolen Bike Registry, Bike Index, bike shops, pawn shops, coffee shops. So far no luck, although I'm holding out hope still!!! This is the posting on CL which summarizes the bike and built pretty well: http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/bik/4693740777.html

The serial # is LA57 M8091181. If anyone comes across it, please email me through this post, and contact Redlands Police Dept at (909)798-7681

How To NOT Be Challenged By Challenge Tires

Now with pictures (I hope)!

I am incredibly happy with the Challenge Eroicas I purchased last year. Great rolling tires and no punctures or defects to date. That's high praise for any such top shelf tire which often seem to skate the thin line between performance and durability.

I did have a HUGE problem mounting them. It ended up taking me several days, using successively larger tubes to form the tires.

Apparently there is a much better procedure, that was sent to me from Chris from Challenge. It follows below:

Due to the construction of our handmade open tubulars, they tend to lay flat and tight on the rim. Once installed and a tube inflated, they take their shape and stretch a little making future removal and installation easier. It’s that first installation that can be a real pain depending on the rim.

Working with the folks in our factory we found another method for installing these tires. Rather than pushing everything on from one side, as is traditional, follow these steps:

1)      Place the rim in the center of the tire

2)      Center the rest of the tire over the rim

3)      Install one side of the tire

4)      Install the tube from the other side

5)      Install the remaining side of the tire

We’ve found this to help immensely with tighter fitting tires like our handmade open tubular tires.

Doing it that way should help you hurry up and get out the door in order to start doing some of this:

Schwalbe Thunder Burts... I like 'em!

Schwalbe Thunder Burts have become my favorite tire!

They float over soft stuff

Perfect on hard-pack (Strada Rossa there, people!)

And they roll great on asphalt!

Although labeled 2.10", the 27.5"/650b/584 tires measure 49 mm wide at casing, and 50 mm at knobs on 28mm wide Velocity Blunt rims. So more like a 2.0" tire."

These are the dual-compound tires, not the EVO tires. I bought them a German retailer as they met my needs perfectly. EVO line would be nice to run tubeless, but that's the only downside to the dual compound in my opinion.

These are perfect all-around tires for my dry conditions. I ride about five miles to the trail heads on streets, so want something that does good on the road. But then I need it to dig in good in the dirt. I have been running Kenda Slant Six tires on my 29er, but will probably switch to these there as well!!!