January 2008 - Posts - Carl Buchanan

Sled time

Nothing too exciting going on in the bicycle world for me lately, so I'll talk about other stuff today. Yesterday Amy said that she would like to take Rhea sledding since the temps were going to be in the 30s and I, crazy as my mind thinks, thought of a way that Rhea's sledding could pull double duty for all of us. Rhea could go sledding, which is a lot of fun for Amy and I too, Amy and I could get a nice hike in, and I could get some photographs of some train cars that I have wanted to do for a while. Consequently, we headed out to Ulrich park in Cedar Falls to take care of all of these at the same time. Temps were nice and there was no wind to speak of, not that it would really matter in the woods, and the sun was shining very brightly. Almost too bright. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight as it is but, when it's like it was here yesterday it gives me an instant headache if I am not wearing sunglasses. I cannot even step outside without them. So, Oakley Straight Jackets for me, Oakley Gascans for Amy, and Rhea put on her........uhhhhh, well we will see about some Oakleys in the future.

Rhea had her shades on to keep her eyes open and see what was coming at her.

We put in a couple of miles of hiking (and pulling the sled) through quite a few of the MTB trails that have been put in there over the last few years. Eventually we came to the end of those and had to cut a new trail to get to my destination. I have no idea how long these train cars have been back here but, I have always wanted to get some pictures of them. I need to make sure that I go back again in the spring when all of the snow is gone.

On the way back, we had a few hills to go down and Rhea had a blast with that. She's all of 15.5 months old and already an adrenaline junkie. What else could you want out of her?

Following along as she pushes the snow with her hands.

Going down the first steep hill. She giggled so much that we found a bigger hill later that we let her go down by herself. Needless to say, she was giggling the whole time....over and over and over again. She was actually upset when it came time to leave.

Posted Jan 28 2008, 07:17 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

no bricks

Okay, after talking with a few folks I have decided that the brick mailbox sounds cool but probably wouldn't be in the long run. The weeble-wooble idea though.........

Didn't get any real work done at the shop last night but rather spent the evening hanging out and talking with the Boss Man and Striker. Lots of good talk going both ways and getting my brain into overdrive. Mike is going to Leadville and you can see how excited he is about...again. Not that I am wanting to do Leadville but, the conversation did get me thinking about mountain bikes again. Problem is that me finances are pretty tight right now and I don't really know what I would want. I have some carbon fiber MTB wheels hanging in the basement that would be fun to use but they are of the 26" variety. Is that the way that I would want to go? I don't know. Talking with Mike last night and G-Ted on occasion kind of has the 29er bug in me. Should I go that route? I'll need to ride some of G-Ted's steeds to get a true idea. Maybe it's a good thing that I am strapped for cash right now.

Posted Jan 24 2008, 07:36 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Icy

We spent this past weekend in the Iowa metropolis of Des Moines to see some of Amy's family and hang out for a while. I was sure to make time to visit Rasmussen's to introduce myself to the owner, Greg, as well as get a feel for their shop. Definitely one of the nicest shops that I have ever been in. Sterling made sure to hand me a pair of these super cool socks, they are SockGuy socks too - sweet, that are pretty bada$$. Always be sure to check out the cool messages that are on the arch of the SockGuy socks too. Funny stuff.

We also took the time to go ice skating while we were there. I have been off of the skates for about three years now so it was a little weird getting back out. Makes me want to start playing hockey again. I still have my skates, gloves, and sticks but I would have to buy everything else again since I sold everything to my brother when he moved back here from Arizona. Hmmmmm......

As I was about to hop on the rollers last night, Amy yelled down at me that there was a car in the front yard. Joy. Apparently there are still some people out there that think they can continue to drive like normal even when the roads are 100% covered in snow and ice. I went out to check on the driver and then had to talk with the police officer and tow truck driver when each of them arrived. That put the ax on my rollers. Grrrrrr. Driver was okay, mailbox was destroyed, that's twice that we have lost a mailbox in the last 7 years in this house. I think it might be time to move, or maybe construct a nice brick mailbox.

Posted Jan 23 2008, 07:23 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Stoppage has arrived

Had a few toys show up at the shop yesterday including a Campagnolo cassette tool and the new brakes that will be pulling stopping duty aboard Project: X-Fire. I went with the TRP EuroX cantilever brakes in a nice shade of black. I went with the high profile style of brake for the massive mud clearance and of course the pimpin' Euro look. They are available in three different colors to fine tune your pimpin' level and are also available in carbon fiber for those of you with more money than me.

One set for each of the front and rear. Each brake is identical and all that needs to be done to make one of them go on the front is to swap the pads from Left to Right. They are clearly marked so that it is easy to figure out.

Lots of little parts but I feel that it is a very simple and effective design.

Still need to get some Ergo Shifters so that I can get the brakes hooked up and ready to go stop.

Each set even comes with an extra set of pads in case you are running carbon fiber rims. Now I just need someone to donate a set of ZIPPs and I will be set. :-)

Project: X-Fire is coming along pretty well. All that is remaining are the drivetrain parts, minus the crankset. Hopefully everything will fall into place in the next couple of months or so, not really crazy about riding in this 10F weather anyway so no real hurry.

Posted Jan 17 2008, 10:37 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Join the resistance

The roller session last night was a really good one. It was a resistance workout that makes you want to down shift, or even quit, as the workout continues on. After getting stretched out, warmed up on the bike, and getting into my groove...I started to shift through the gears and spend a few minutes riding at ~96rpm. A few minutes later I would kick it up a gear and then repeat that again a few minutes after that. Eventually maintaining 96rpm is no longer part of the equation but, maintaining an upright position on the rollers while keeping good form and controlling my breathing is. As I was getting towards the end of the cassette, I was no longer worried about what I was watching on the TV. I was totally into my ride, feeling the burn, and absolutely loving it. Once I arrived at the final gear on my cassette I began going back down in the same fashion. Those same gears that were just tearing me apart were now a relief coming back from the previous harder gear. My cadence quickly went back to around 96rpm and as I got closer to the bottom of the cassette, the gears actually began to get too easy to spin. It felt as if there was no resistance to them and 105rpm was easy to maintain. Workouts like this will get you to the entrance of your own pain cave and give just a taste of what hard work feels like. It's worth it when it's said and done though. I feel absolutely fantastic when I ever I step off the rollers after a resistance workout.

If you have not already done it, then join the resistance on your next workout.

Posted Jan 16 2008, 07:16 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Rearrangment

Well I finally hit my limit with the amount of "junk" that has collected in the basement and started to find a new home for the majority of it. I started off in my "bike" room and actually found a lot of boxes that had a few bicycle related items in them. I took each of those boxes and sorted through items so that I could divide them up into items that I will/can use, pitch to the garbage, and Ebay items. I regained a couple of square feet in that room which will make the rollers fit a little nicer but, I still need to clear out a few more things. All of the items that I slated for Ebay are fairly small so they didn't make a huge impact on the cleaning. Hopefully they will all make a slight impact on putting a little something in my wallet instead.

After that room is cleared out I am moving onto the TV room/storage are next to it. It slowly got taken over when we started getting Rhea's room ready about 18 months ago. It's to the point now that a lot of what is sitting in there is no longer used/needed and needs to go bye-bye. My plans are to make it into an exercise room with Amy's elliptical machine, my rollers, somw weights, and etc. That room will take a bit longer since some of the items in there will need to find a new home via a garage sale or donation to Goodwill.

I'm not a huge "let's clean" kind of guy but I am motivated by getting my rooms back to normal so ho[efully all will get done fairly soon.

Posted Jan 14 2008, 07:24 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

2008 Team Liquigas

By far my favorite team in the European Peloton, Liquigas is out and about on their new 2008 bikes in Bibone, Italy. Lots of white on the 2008 models....very nice. Of course, my SystemSix still makes me smile from ear to ear.

The 2008 Liquigas Cannondale Super Six
Photo ©: Fotoreporter Sirotti

Posted Jan 12 2008, 12:25 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

2008 Team

I am officially off of the market as an unattached racer.

Posted Jan 11 2008, 07:44 AM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Monday on Tuesday

Yes it's Tuesday but this video titled Monday is too cool to pass up. This video was brought to my attention yesterday by Mr. Bidwell. If you ride a bicycle you must watch it. If you don't ride a bicycle, you should and watch the video anyways. Next time you are having " a case of the Mondays"....just watch the video. All will be well again.

Posted Jan 08 2008, 05:50 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Time

Lots of relaxation the last couple of days around here. Spent some time on the rollers with the Six13 this past weekend and then spent a few hours sitting around doing nothing but watching the TV. It was actually quite enjoyable.

Hours have been cut back at the shop which is good and bad. Good because I have less time working and more playing but, bad because the income goes on the down low. Speaking of the shop, we are in the process of getting a new website and I got an up close look at it all tonight with a two hour training session. I'm pretty excited about what it will have available so far, just need to get some kinks worked out and get the new website up by the 1st of February.

The locals have begun the yearly winter gravel grinding sessions, although I do not have a gravel ready bike at this time so I will be sticking to the rollers. I did see J. Fry, Doug E., and Super Saul coming back into Cedar Falls on Saturday. They all looked to be having a dandy ol' time getting dirty.

I'm hoping to get Project X-Fire done in the next month or so and possibly join in the gravel grinding festivities a little bit but, we shall see if I can get it all together. All in due time.

Posted Jan 07 2008, 10:05 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

2008 Part 2

To celebrate the New Year of 2008, we spent some time with a couple of friends just hanging out watching some TV, playing some games, and drinking a little beer. The beer was non other than the two bottles of New Belgium that the great J. Fry had dropped off to me a couple of weeks ago. The 1554 is a Brussels Style Black Ale that has a very rich taste to it and it pours out with a very frothy head. Overall I like the 1554 although I probably could not handle more than a bottle or two of it before it kicked my butt. The Mothership Wit was very different and in my opinion it was different in a good way. Mothership Wit is an organic wheat beer that contains orange peel spicing and I could definitely taste that little bit of citrus. The flavor is not quite as bold as the 1554 and that actually fits me just a little bit better. Pretty smooth with great flavor, Mothership Wit ranks close to the Fat Tire Ale (my favorite) but, not quite equal to it. All three beers are very tasty though.

In other news, I have been sporting the old style Oakley Straight Jackets that I pulled out of my "Optics Case" downstairs the last couple of days. Pretty happy to be wearing them again actually even of they do have flames on them...that's cool. The new Straight Jackets definitely have a more aggressive look to them. More to come from Oakley at a later date.

Posted Jan 02 2008, 10:46 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

2008

Well a new year has arrived and with that comes a new racing season...or a few racing seasons to be specific. The 2008 season is looking to be much different from all of my previous seasons in terms that I do not currently own a mountain bike and I have decided to focus on making cyclocross season the season that I am gearing up for. This means that I will be using the spring and summer to get my fitness where I need it so that I can focus on peaking later in the year for cyclocross. Plans are still there to race the mountain bike season but, it will be different fro the past.

As the different race directors start posting up the information about their races, I will be updating my schedule to keep track of where I plan on being. Unfortunately I have already come across a couple of conflicts and some races that I really had a blast at in 2007 will not be able to be repeated in 2008. Although, there are also some great races that I will also be competing in for the first time. There is always balance in the Force.

The road season in 2007 was absolutely fantastic and 2008 will be a blast with bicycle duties being handled by my Cannondale Six13 that I have spent the last 1.5 years on as well as the Cannondale SystemSix that I acquired late in the 2007 season. The Six13 has taken on the "training day" duties and the SystemSix will be considered my "race bike" but, that does not mean it will only be used for racing. It will probably log just as many miles as the Six13 as the summer months allow me to train for the CX season.

Cannondale aluiminum plus Cannondale carbon...times two...does it get any sweeter? No way.

Mountain bike season looks to be pretty interesting as at the time that I am typing this. As I stated last September, I am no longer going to contest the 12 and 24 hour solo races and will return to racing XC although I may look at getting a team together to challenge for the 24 Hours of Iowa in September of 2008. I am currently without ownership of a mountain bike with the majority of my focus going to finishing up my CX bike. Once it is finished then I will probably begin the search for a new mountainbike. Guitar Ted has graciously offered me the use of one of his 29ers for the season if I choose and I am actually excited to do so. Maybe something else will come up too but, as of right now mountain bike racing will be aboard a G-Ted 29er......sweet.

Then there will be cyclocross season where Project X-Fire will be ready for some fun. Plans are to participate in all of the races in Iowa as well as make an attempt at going to Nationals. I would also like to find a race weekend in Minnesota that will fit into my schedule to get a little more cowbell racing in. Jinglecross will also be on the schedule, definitely one of the best race courses that I have had the pleasure of riding on.

A few things will be changing for me for the 2008 season too as you may have noticed on my "2008 Sidekicks" on the right side of my blog. I am extremely happy to say that I will be sporting Oakley Eyewear in 2008. Totally digging their products and I am super pumped to be working with "Oakley Rob" during my 2008 adventures. I may have to grab myself a pair of goggles real soon so that I can get some snowboard time in here too.

There are a few other things that I am still working out some details on but I hope to announce those very soon also.

I hope that everyone has a great season and look forward to riding and racing with a few of you again in 2008.

Posted Jan 01 2008, 11:00 PM by Official Website of Carl Buchanan

Carl Buchanan - Mountain Bike Racer