We got up at the crack today to head up to Winter Park for a MTB race. I’m not exactly sure what the race is, but Vincent and Bill are racing. It starts at 10 am, so we’re leaving in just a few minutes, 6:30 ish. Trent Newcomer, the vet I took Bromont to up in Fort Collins, is also doing the race, so we’re just gonna meet him up there.
Today is also the Mt. Evans Hillclimb. My other team mate, Brian Jensen, is doing that. He just won a road race in Salida, CO last weekend. He and Bill are staying out here until Leadville in a couple weeks. Brian works for our sponsor, TradeWind Energy, and can work remotely from here. Also, it turns out, my friend Don Sutton, from La Jolla, flew out yesterday and is going to race Mt. Evans. Then he’s going to do a credit card tour up to Breckenridge, then over to Winter Park, over Trail Ridge (the highest continuous paved road in the United States), then to Estes Park and back to Idaho Springs. I think that is what he told me. I wish I could ride with him some, but I’m not hardly up to it.
Hopefully we’ll all meet up later this afternoon in Idaho Springs and get a chance to catch up.
I’ve ridden everyday since I got out here, but am not bringing a bike today. I plan to get an x-ray soon, probably Monday. I’ve been hobbling around the last couple days and my hip is aching pretty good at night. It would put my mind at ease just knowing everything is aligned correctly and healing properly.
Thursday we did a urban ride around Denver. It was pretty fun and just about the only ride I can do. We rode 50 miles, mainly on bike paths. I am having a new IMA battery built to put into my Honday Insight and wanted to check out the shop that is doing it. It’s just a little North of downtown, on York Street, it a pretty industrial area. The guy there, Eric, seemed nice enough and he took Vincent, Bill and I back to his battery assembling place to see what they do.
The new battery is going to be 8 amp/hours and much lesss resistance that the original battery. I sort of kicked around taking it apart myself and repairing it, but decided that I’m going to keep the car for a long while and might as well put in a much better and stronger battery. It is nice having a car to do errands in around town that gets close to 60 mpg. The original battery is completely dead and I still got 41 mpg coming out here, but the engine is only 1000 cc, so it lags pretty seriously without the electric assist.
We watched the 30 on 30 thing last night on the duel between LeMond and Hinault in ’85 and ’86. Slaying the Badger was its name. You can get it on Apple TV is you missed it last week. It was pretty good. I should probably do a post on it. I was just one degree of separation away from that whole mess. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time. A few weeks later, at the Coor’s Classic, it didn’t seem like LeMond had any trouble helping Bernard win.
Okay, I’m bikeless today. Hopefully my hip will quit hurting so badly. I plan to walk with a cane, all day, to take some pressure off of it. I’m getting pretty sick of the whole thing. I realize that it is going super fast for an injury like this, but it’s not nearly fast enough for my liking.
It’s been raining for an hour or so every night here in Arvada. Yesterday, this was the result. Super beautiful.
We rode over to Golden yesterday for coffee. Then headed up the bike path. Lots of people tubing and using the creek for recreation.
These guys stopped this girl for letting her dog walk into creek without its leash. There are signs everywhere, but the one ranger was super rude. I saw them approach here and the first thing he said to her before anything else was, “We are you going?” I’m sure she had no idea what they wanted. They they said they needed her ID. I didn’t like it at all.
Bill, Vincent and Trudi riding on Thursday.
Bike path by an amusement park somewhere near downtown Denver.
A Honday Insight battery at the shop.
We went over and drove some Sprinter vans in Westminister yesterday. Really quiet. Pretty exactly opposite of a Honda Insight. About 10X more than I paid for my Ford diesel van, but it is very much nicer.
So, if the dog was in the creek but on a leash, that would be “legal”??
What a complete waste of police man-power.
Needed her ID? For what?
On a different note, Sprinters are really nice but getting repairs is sketchy at best.
Lots of places want nothing to do with them.
Surprising because of the number of them out there.
Agreed on the Mercedes service. They kind of have you by the balls.
I have been looking at the new Ford Transit van sprinter clone. Not the connect, but the full size cargo vans. Looks like they come in 3 different roof heights and lengths. And a diesel V6 is optional. Would make a mighty fine camper van!
They were ticketing her. It was BS.
Wanted to know where she lives . . . to intimidate her. Jackass pseudo-cop.
“We got up at the crack today…”
Insert your own joke here.
I have lived in China for the last 12 years, and I have never been hassled or asked for my “papers” by the cops here. I have had occasion to be questioned by them a few times, but I just said I didn’t have them on me, and no problem. I am now getting ready to move back to America and the more I read the less I am looking forward to it. I am trying to prepare my wife for the trip and when I show her things like this, she gets afraid of American “authority” figures.
What is a credit card tour?
A credit card tour is a road bike, in Don’s case, racing bike, tour that involves carrying hardly anything. Probably a pair of sandals, foldable shorts, toothbrush and then a credit card. Light and flexible.
Sprint, don’t run away from the sprinter. Heard good stuff about the ford that’s coming
I hope your friend Don did his homework. Last I checked, sections of Trail Ridge road were closed indefinitely due to the 2013 floods. He might find himself doing a rough out-and-back…
I have a Sprinter and would not recommend it. They are a hassle to repair and the expertise to make those repairs is limited. You only know that a repair will be very expensive; not even that the repair will work.
I saw that documentary and would enjoy reading your perspective.
Never mind a Sprinter…Here is what you want:
http://www.nissancommercialvehicles.com/nv-passenger
Slaying the Badger:
Hey Steve,
Any idea where to find Slaying the Badger on AppleTV?
Agree with the comments on the Sprinters. Cool design, and bulletproof Benz diesel engine, but the bodies are like Japanese cars in the 1970’s. You see 6-7 year old ones in the northeast completely decimated by body cancer with holes in them, they appear to have zero corrosion resistance on the sheet metal, which is surprising given how long they have been around in Europe.
My Dads Benz diesel sprinter engine went bad at 80,000 miles and they wouldn’t work with him on warranty at all. He is meticulous about service and taking care of his stuff too.
ChrisC,
I just recenty rode Trail Ridge. It is definitely open.