Finally got the body on!
Prepping new chassis for the body to go on.
Almost on, time for a posed picture of me and my bros.
First "test drive"
I think GB is as excited as I am to have the "Landy" back in commission.
The body is on (mostly).
Last night when we were getting ready to go to bed, Gina asked if I thought she could do Big Mountain... I answered by telling her that it would be hard, then I showed her what the profile looks like for that ride:
I was pretty excited when she said she wanted to try. Sure enough, we woke up this morning to a beautiful, cool summer morning with the sun shining and a steady stream of cyclists heading up Emigration Canyon. The wind was a bit strong at first, but didn't last long after we got into the canyon. Up we went. The pedals kept turning over and before we knew it we were at Little Mountain. Gina said she didn't even want to stop until we got to the Reservoir (look in the profile and it's the little dip on the way up). We stopped and ate a bit, drank some water and then it was back on the bike for the steep section. Gina cruised right up the switchbacks of Big Mountain and I think the top looked more beautiful than ever because she had worked so hard. Now for some pics at the top:
Gina taking a short break after a steep switchback section. (almost there!)
Ahhh, the top. (I keep forgetting my camera, so I have to use my crappy cell phone one)
As a follow up post to this one, I thought I'd post the only picture that I got from our ride of the Wasatch Loop, as I affectionately call it. It was a great ride, there were a few of us from the University of Utah Team (myself, Tyler, and Jon), and one "friend of the program," Trevor. It was great having you guys, we'll have to do some other long rides next time. Thanks for the 5-star lunch at Sundance Gina! It was a welcome pit stop.
Sorry for the camera phone pic, I forgot the camera :-(
This is just a post for me to put links to various bike (mostly road) routes. I'll update this as I discover more fun routes to ride. Check back often.
Salt Lake County
Faultline Ride (Interval workout)
SL Valley Ride 'o Round
Wasatch Mtn. Loop
The Big 5
Marina Run. Some of the flattest riding along the Wasatch Front.
Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah's own "Alpe d'Huez". Almost the same elevation gain and distance as the famous Tour de France climb.
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Traverse Ridge Rd. (Connect to Suncrest Rd. in Utah County)
Millcreek Canyon (note that half-way up the gate is closed until June and may have snow until then)
SLC to Park City (via Emigration Canyon)
Emigration Canyon (just to Little Mountain)
Emigration Canyon (all the way to Big Mountain)
Rocky Mountain Raceway (RMR) Criterium Course
DMV Criterium Course (course layout can vary from week to week)
Potential 2009 RMCCC Championship Crit Course
My commute to/from work (less ambitious version)
My commute to/from work (more ambitious version)
My commute to/from work (MOST ambitious version)
Tour of Utah Preview ride with Utah County friends
Utah County
Suncrest Rd. (Connect to Traverse Ridge Rd. in Salt Lake County)
Utah Lake Century
The Gauntlet
The Nebo Loop
Sundance Hill Climb Route
Alpine Loop
South Fork Provo Canyon
Squaw Peak
Juab County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 1 Route
Morgan County
East Canyon Road Race 2008
Summit County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 4 Route
Tour of Park City
Tooele County
Potential 2009 RMCCC Championship TTT Course
Weber County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 2 Route
Mt. Ogden Race Course
More to come!
As a follow up to that last post, here's a bit more info about the ride we're doing this Saturday. It's open to anyone that wants to. Meet at Hogle Zoo at 7:30am.
Map of the route: 
And here's an elevation plot to give you an idea of the "fun" we'll be having:
Unfortunately it's not every day that you find a company willing to help out a single user when it means making a global change to the product. In the case where that change will help other users, this becomes more common, but it is still rare for it to happen quickly. I came across a great service that did just that. TopoRoute is a route mapping software for runners and cyclists (and anybody else that needs to plot a route). The software works great and they've gone through some changes recently that have made it even better.
I was trying to plot a route that was 115 miles long with many curves (means the file size is relatively large). They apparently had a limit on the size of a file that could be created and I was over that limit. I emailed their contact and within the day, Martin (thanks Martin!) got back to me to tell me the problem and that he wanted to get it fixed. By the next day, he had doubled the size of file that could be created and my route worked perfectly. Here's the route (a ride that me and some friends are going to do this Saturday if anyone else wants to come!)
I thought that when I was done with school, things would slow down a bit. If anything they've been as busy as ever or busier!
Breakdown of what's happened:
1) Family trip back East - Philly, DC, and New York.
2) Started traveling with work a bit, been to St. Paul, MN
3) Prepping for the MS 150 bike ride (Please donate!)
4) Just got back from our annual 50 mile hike, this time in Southern Utah (pics to follow)
5) Taking pictures of friends
6) Working full-time
7) And last but certainly not least... I GOT A NEW BIKE!!
Now for some pics...
Cole and Tate:
Bike: 
Without a doubt, there are many gimmicks and suggestions for improving your fuel economy, more-so now than ever due to the recent increase in US fuel prices. Some of the gimmicks and suggestions work great, some work only marginally, and others don't work at all. One that is guaranteed to double your fuel economy is carpooling (when compared to driving alone).
Roughly 99% of the cars I see on the freeway or on the road in general have only one person in the car. If you put another person in the car, you double the efficiency of the car, thus doubling your fuel economy. For example, let's take your average Toyota Corolla. We'll pick that car because right now I'm sitting on the bus in the express lane passing one that only has one driver in it. (Yes, that's right, I'm posting this using the free wi-fi that's available on the bus). If you have one person in that Toyota Corolla, the car is getting around 30 p-mpg (passenger-miles per gallon). Meaning you have one passenger multiplied by the miles per gallon. If you put just one more person in that car, the fuel economy jumps to 60 p-mpg because you now have 2 people multiplied by the miles per gallon (2x30 = 60). Put a third person in the car and you get 90 p-mpg, and so forth. Carpooling is the best thing you can do right now to lighten your wallet when it comes to fuel costs. And it's guaranteed to work, no gimmicks or tricks.
Now on to the reason for this post. The reason is that I found this awesome website that connects you to people that are traveling your same commute so you can easily find them and start cutting your fuel costs in half. It's called eRideShare. Go to www.erideshare.com for more information. Best of all, it's free! Happy motoring.
ps, pics of our trip back east are coming soon!
I couldn't help but post this when I saw it on the news tonight. We've posted about the "bakfiets" (cargo bike) before: See here, and here. But this takes the cake because it's an Orem family doing it. They stopped driving their car for short errands and just take the bike instead... complete with child seats, seat belts, and a convertible roof for the rainy days! See here for the complete story.
They're a bit pricey, but Mad Dog Cycles in Orem can get them in apparently. Now I want one even more!
