Another frosty morning, but the temps are supposed to crack the 60s today. Seventies tomorrow. Fat city. I’ve gotten out the past couple of days for short cyclo-cross spins and hope to squeeze in a few more before the iceman cometh.
Toward that end, I’ve been upgrading the fleet. The red Steelman Eurocross now has a new-used Ritchey crankset and bottom bracket, a new chain and a new cassette, thanks to the fine folks at Old Town Bike Shop, and thus no longer sounds like a broken chainsaw. It also has a rear flat — goddamn goatheads — so I have a little work to do before today’s ride.
The Voodoo Wazoo has a fresh pair of 700×28 Conti Ultra Gatorskins and will soon sport a pair of Planet Bike fenders for evil weather. Mounting the fenders will be problematic as the Wazoo lacks both chainstay bridge and a drilled seatstay bridge; zip ties will be involved. How did the world ever get along before zip ties and duct tape?
Meanwhile, Andy Bohlmann’s Carmichael Training Systems Sand Creek Fall Classic is on today at Palmer Park. I might pop by for a look-see, as I haven’t been to a race all year. I know these trails the way Glenn Beck’s head knows his colon, and there will be amusement a-plenty if a guy stations himself in the right spot. I like to think of it as putting the “fall” in fall. Nothing like human suffering to brighten up an already-cheery autumn morning.
And don’t forget today’s ground-breaking at Boulder’s Valmont Bike Park. The festivities include an ACA ’cross race, and if it were a 10-minute ride away from the DogHaus the way Palmer Park is, why, I’d be there, too.
Mad Blog Media 
Depending on what trails they use a cross race at Palmer could be very entertaining. It’s one of the few urban parks where you can see FreeRide Types 30 feet away from a little old lady walking her dog.
Hey, Rush,
We did a ‘cross race at Palmer Park years ago; very early 1990s, if I recall correctly. We used some of the same trails today’s Sand Creek race is using, and one that is no longer in existence for a run-up.
We didn’t exactly do a stellar job of design, and the course had way too much single-track and fast downhill (past the Marvin Urban pavilion to just south of Lazy Land). Now, if a guy could get the southeast portion of the main park road closed for a day, or use marshals to control auto traffic, he could lay out a nice, fast course based at the Maizeland-Academy parking lot and using the hills around Council Grounds with a sandy U-turn around the dog park and an uphill finish on the asphalt.
Maybe I’ll propose this to Andy B. if his mountain-bike race goes well.
The park photo is beautiful. I looked at the map of the course – 3+ miles per lap! – that is huge! No running to and fro to see different vantage points as we can at many races in NYS and New England. Sounds like you know the best spot to watch, though.
Glad to see you are experiencing an Indian Summer. We’ve had our frost/freeze – maybe we’ll get an Indian Summer, too.
Hey, Libby,
It’s a beautiful park — 730-some-odd acres with more than 25 miles of trails. I lived practically next door to Palmer Park in junior high and high school, circa 1967-71, and then again when I turned free-lancer in 1991. I’m about a half-hour away by foot now, maybe half that by bike, so I go there a couple days a week to ride, run or just walk. It’s not unusual to see coyotes and mule deer in the more secluded corners.
Thank God the developers never got their greasy paws on it. You should see what they’ve done to the countryside just east of there in the past four decades. Appalling doesn’t begin to describe it.
Hoseclamps work too, as long as you protect the frame paint from damage. I don’t have a chainstay bridge on the Redline, so I clamped the bottom fitting on the back fender to the seat tube right above the bottom bracket with a stainless hose clamp with a piece of inner tube wrapped around the frame to protect the paint. A couple mini hose clamps held the fender stays to my rear rack in convenient places.
Speaking of the Redline, I pulled it off the bike hanger in the garage, put on an old rack from the spares bin, and rode it to work yesterday, promptly breaking an ancient derailleur cable on the way to the Bomb Factory. Got to ride most of the day in the small chainring. The Redline is lighter, stiffer, and quicker than the Salsa, but the Salsa still is a nicer bike to ride. Have a hankering to keep both, in spite of warnings from the spouse that the garage looks like a bike warehouse.
Zip ties are great but wonder about their fatigue and UV resistance. Good luck winging it, Patrick. A nice cross bike with impromptu fittings is a proud thing to ride.
Hey, K,
I have some pre-rubberized hose-clamp-style deals from an old bicycle rack floating around the garage somewhere. I’ll give them a whack.
Meanwhile, if you need a Get Out of Velo-Jail Free Card, I’ll be happy to send you and the spousal unit a shot of what’s hanging from the ceiling in our garage: six cyclo-cross bikes, two road bikes, two mountain bikes and one time-trial bike. The Vespa squats on the floor, ’cause I’m too fragile to hoist the fat Eyetie sumbitch.
Mind you, this doesn’t count the old Team Crest Pinarello Prologo TT frameset and a seventh ‘cross frameset, a custom Nobilette, both of which could be built up pretty quickly out of various boxes full of parts if I weren’t so fussy about style points.
I’m still kicking myself in my not-inconsiderable ass for somehow misplacing the pantographed Pinarello downtube shifters that came with the Prologo TT, which still sports various vintage Campy goodies — headset, brakes and crankset/bottom bracket. I could retire on what yuppie swine would pay for that noise on eBay.
Palmer Park was my back yard in the mid-’60s, when I was in late elementary school and just starting to spread my wings a bit. We spent a lot of time up there just farting around, climbing rocks and crawling into caves. These days I wonder what the hell was wrong with my parents — I don’t think they ever even mentioned the word “rattlesnake” to me. Maybe they didn’t know how I was spending my summer afternoons.
Still remember a couple of the names we gave to various caves. “Gunsight,” “Spider Web” and the notorious “Big Boner Cave.”
It’d probably seem small to me now…
Y’know, as much time as I’ve spent in PP, I’ve never seen a single buzzworm there. And it looks like ideal buzzworm habitat, too. I know the slithery little bastards are around — they’ve been seen in Ute Valley and a couple other places — but never in PP. Go figure.
Maybe they all moved down south to Weirdcliffe. My cyclo-cross course there was stiff with ’em. Didn’t even need barriers — just dismount and jump over the rattler.