Time up

Well I'm out of test time. Heading for the Arrowhead today, mandatory gear check tomorrow, race starts Monday morning. Hoping this doesn't turn out to be another pushbike race. Hope to finish...and if that goes well, I hope to finish sometime early Tuesday morning.


A box of goodies from Epic Designs was on the counter when I got home from the Triple D. The frame bag here is going to be a year round fixture for all my adventures. 2 liters of water, spare tube, tire levers, patch kit, microtool, large pot and MSR Dragonfly for melting snow, 22oz of white gas, 4.8Ah LiPo battery stuffed in a beer coozie for my light system, super utility shears, a little room to spare, and a little pouch on the other side for small stuff. Really nice bag.

I also ordered a set of poagies, Super twinkie seat bag, gas tank, and handlebar harness. Pretty much kitted up.

The poagies are super deluxe, pouches top and bottom, anti sag staps inside, reflective stripes across the front, super duper warm. I've got my goggles stuffed in the bottom pocket on one side and my heavy fleece balaclava on the other side. Headlamp, sunscreen, and compass in the top pockets.
The gas tank is the logical place for food, behind the stem, easy one mitten operational double zip flap. I'm still fiddling with how exactly to organize food. I'm prolly carrying too much. I've also got my GPS backup battery in the gas tank, and a thermometer on the zip pull.
Super twinkie does indeed defy gravity, living up to its frameless seatbag claims. Super twinkie is the largest seatbag Eric makes, and yet it seemed a bit small compared to the original gear pile I had layed out. I've pared my pile down, simplified, and now still prolly have more than I need, but there is a little room in the bag. I've got three sets of ultralight polyester tops, three heavy weight microfleece bottoms, three sets of heavy fleece socks, and three sets of fleece hooded mitts in the main compartment bagged up in slide lock bags for easy base layer changes at the three checkpoints. I've got matches, small first aid supply, IB profin, four sets of toe warmers, fire tinder, zip ties, tp, and spare batteries all neatly packed in a ziplock and stuffed in the top pouch of the seat bag. Seat bag is 7lbs packed.
The handlebar harness was originally designed for summer roll use, but I had Eric make it with extra long straps for my winter roll. Unfortunately my huge sleep roll rubbed tire and there were too many buckles to mess with in the cold. I was also having issue with my headlight reflecting off the roll when mounted on bars.
The solution to all this was a superlight custom front rack/light mount/fender.

I also made a massive Tyvek rolltop duffel bag to tidy things up a little. Still looks huge, but it works really well. I've taken to throwing my down jacket and pants in there too so I don't have to fight stuffing them into the seat bag, and it simplifies my order of events and organization for bivying. Front roll contains a Stevens Warmlite bag in a Nemo GoGo 1person tent, down pillow, 2 peices of closed cell foam for hips and shoulders(if I'm in a hurry, if not I'll spend +20minutes airing up the down air mattress), Feather Friends down jacket, and Mountain Hardware compressor pants, all rolled up in a tyvek roll top duffel weighing in at 12.5lbs.


I'm using vapor barrior socks and a jacket, so my insulating layers won't get soaked, but I still wear a light baselayer as a rash gaurd on top. It'll be awfully nice to change out that baselayer during checkpoints. I'm using a lightweight waterproof shell pant over the heavyweight microfleece that should proove a little more versatile than my tights. I may keep the RBH insulated vapor barrior socks on for the duration of the event, but I wanted a backup with the fleece socks. My feet are my weak point, but I think I may have that solved with a two part solution:
A)Steger Mukeluks, 2 sizes big/doublewide(size 15 doublewide!), two 9mm felt insoles and a 9mm felt boot liner per boot. Inuit ninja boot these are.


B)MKS Grip king pedals with power grips. I've become accustomed to being able to spin and pull up on the pedals with clipless. It has become a big part of how I got started on barely rideable surfaces. Massive platform pedals allow me to keep my warm feet and Power Grips allow me to spin, brilliant.

These Inuit ninja boots have really soft soles, hence you start to feel the pedal profile after a few hours.
Solution to this was custom carbon insole. Still enough flex to keep circulation in my feet, with a little help spreading the pressure a bit. Old school meets new school.


Ok...there's more...there's always more, but I'm in International Falls now and I really should get some sleep. Testing resumes... for the next two-ish days.

DG

Type 2 fun specialist

I guess that's it. Good at suffering. What a stupid skill.

This has been an interesting year already.
New years weekend I made the trip up to NE IA to pick up some vital Puglsey parts, visit friends, and play in the snow a bit. Ended up hiking all over Lee and Andrea's farm(s) looking for good boarding hills and just exploring.
They even have evidence:

That turned out to be the best run of the day. The problem with my current out of bounds boarding setup is twofold: A)not enough float in the nose of the board and B)local terrain is not deep enough to clear the saplings and brush. This leads to handstands without using my hands, hanging upside down from saplings unintentionally, excessive cursing, ect. And I managed to crack the step-in interface on my no-longer-supported-or-in-existence Burton step in boots.
Guess that means I'll be making the move to hardboots sooner than I thought. But that also ends this seasons boarding, as a hardboot setup is no small investment.
Other entertainment at the Venteicher house included watching a gamer addict horror movie that's gonna be hard to scrub from my mind, trying to burn their house down with my initial penny stove water boiling test, leaving the state for a fabulous dinner at Miami Springs, camping in their back yard in freezing rain, and drifting the pugsley to the Quick Trip for groceries.


This past weekend was the second running of the Triple D snowbike race. Last year was a real learning experience, working my ass off to go in a straight line while the Pugsleys floated away, and then freezing my feet in the dark of night to be one of four who finished. Sufferfests are so addictive. Lots of research and investment has gone into preparing for Triple D and Arrowhead this year. Lots of time out in the cold and wind on studded tires, cranking out miles. Learning how to stay warm in the coldest of conditions. A fair amount of time spent walking next to my bike, to be honest.

I stopped by the Heritage trail on the way home from Waukon the weekend before, and the trail was solid lumpy ice. Studded tires for sure. So I went home, did one hard ride on the Endomorphs just to get a feel for them(really fast for a big tire), then swapped the 2.4 Nokian studs onto the Large Marge rims. Went for a ride on the studs that Thursday, no way, studs on the Puglsey was just too damn slow. Hope for snow, swap the tires back.

I had decided to carpool with Tracy, and we were going to go preride some of the trail to help figure out the tire situation, so I was up at 4:30am to drive to Burlington. We figured this race should be a heck of alot faster than last year, no need to stay overnight. Driving conditions were slow with alot of fresh snow on the roads. We ended up in Dubuque without any preride time, just as well, lots of snow gives the advantage to fat tires anyways right?

Ride around the parking lot half a dozen times, letting air out of my tires till I think they're pretty low. Packed pretty light this year, maybe 12lbs of dry clothes, tools, spares on my back. Lots of food and 2 liters of water strapped to the frame and in the frame bag. Pretty soon its time for the race start. Lots of studded tires, lots of Pugsleys.

The neutral rollout through town is alot of hilarity as everyone tries to stay upright on the partially plowed streets. Then we hit the totally untouched pavetrail. Maybe 4-5inches of sugary powder snow, with patches of hidden ice. Following the narrow tracks of studded tires is less than entertaining on fat tires, throws me all over. Ice is hell, snow slipping on ice, cursing myself for leaving my YakTracks in the car, not the last time. Turn the corner up the long hill(1-2mile), Tracy powers by and I follow. We almost start the hike a bike directly after the climb, but end up riding the road till we start heading North out of town. Then the 2mph pushbike race starts.

The pack doesn't split up much when we're all pushing bikes, you can still hear everybody is basically still here. There's a few more rideable spots for the studded folks, so I have to run to keep up. I run myself up to second place. Cory is riding well in the lead. Good thing the pugs floats, at least it's easier to push. One last section of gravel, surf through 8" of fresh powder on the level B, and drop down onto the Heritage trail, which is unfortunately untracked and unrideable. Back to the hike a bike line. Hike through the frozen creekbeds at several washed out bridge sites, look over to see riders riding the gravel road next to the trail, crap, missed a re-route. Hike over to the gravel, ride 500ft, turn, hike back to the trail, fall on my face trying to get onto the trail bed.

Keep pushing, still not rideable. Finally we cross onto the open portion of trail where there has been maybe two snowmobiles down the trail since the new snow fell. Still can't ride. Pramann is walking right behind me, he says this shit would never happen in Minnesota. Drop the pressure till it sounds like the air stopped coming out. Try again, ride a little, break through, ride a little, break through. Stupid skinny tracks throwing me all over, and they're not even riding. Finally push ahead enough to get ahead of everyone. Try riding. Holy shit, it's working! I'm gong 4mph instead of 2, but it's working! 10 minutes later there's a paceline of three Pugsleys and one skinny tire rider and nobody else is in sight. Lance, Pramann, Tom, and myself. We take turns making a trail to follow, except Tom who pretty much has to follow to ride at all with the skinny tires.

It's brutal work trying to stay smooth, stay in a straight line, stay upright. Following is so much easier. We come to another bridge out and the snowmobile tracks go out through the field. Follow the possibly rideable tracks or hike a bike down the trail? Lance and I follow the tracks, Pramann and Tom hike on. We end up hiking up the mother of all hills for the day just to get back to the trail. Dave and Tom waited briefly, and then split as soon as they saw us coming down the hill. I manage to bend the seat rails on my saddle coming out of the ditch and twist my Ergons down when I about lose it on the icy gravel. Wrench the seat back up, good steel rails. Now Dave and Tom have a good gap on us. I manage to reel Tom in pretty fast, but Pramann is floating away.

We get to the crossroad for Farley and the sled tracks improve greatly, so I up the tempo. I seem to have lost my followers, but I'm gaining on Dave. The windswept plains give me a break with a couple of gravel patches peaking out for a boost in speed. I pass Dave a little less than halfway between Farley and Dyersville and keep hammering. Deflated Endomorphs feel terrible on hard surfaces. Make it to Dyersville at 6:21pm in time to snatch the only burger at the gas station. Wait around to see what the plan is, are we really gonna ride back through all that? Who's left anyways? Anyone? The pace is already slower than last year, at this rate I wouldn't make it back till after midnight! Not sure I have a ride home at that time. Dave pulls in and bags it. Lance shows up saying something about getting water out of the creek? Tom shows up and bags it. I've about had enough fun myself. Lance pulls out his dry socks which are wet, and puts them on. Crap, I'm not done yet. Put my dry stuff on. We agree to ride back to Farley. Anything past that is gonna suck. Cory shows up just as we're leaving. Hammer back to Farley, feeling pretty good. Discuss the options, more "fun" or ride into Farley and save it for another day. Ride into Farley. Call Tracy for retrieval, eat another burger, and drive home(after a stop at Dairy Queen). The end.

Congrats to Cory for playing the game well and beating me out of first by pushing that extra two miles. You earned it.

Thanks to Lance for putting together an event for nutcases to gather.

Thanks to Tracy for retrieving me.

Full results to be found here.

DG

Issues

DG

That time of year

Yup.



Living in the weakest backcountry scene....




.... but dreaming of the best.


Talkeetna Glacier - Climbing and Skiing from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.



I really need to do something about this....

DG

CX Nationals 08

I managed to miss my race start, but there was plenty of spectating to be done. Highlights included Amanda Miller pulling off a 2nd place finish in womens collegiate D1, the weather doing a 180flip in in about five seconds as the womens collegiate races were waiting to start, and a pack of sharks chasing the pack.

DG

Visiting old friends

I was hoping to get out for another century this weekend, but my Garmin was dead(I think the battery is failing). So I decided to make a trail ride/gear test day out of it. I was testing my frame mounted winter hydration system, vaper barrior clothing, and my first real attempt to ride platform pedals in about 15years.

Started out at Dehns in Burlington. Unfortunately the trail is already an ice holed, hiker rutted, bumpy mess. And apparently the fourwheelers came back for Thanksgiving, as there's a whole new batch of wheeler ruts. Damn, I was hoping maybe it would stay smooth for the winter, but I think Shimek's equestrian trails are smoother right now.


So I did a lap, loaded up, and headed for Spring Lake in Macomb. I haven't ridden over there in a year or so, so I wasn't sure what I'd find.


Freakin sweet trail, as always, is what I found. Perfect conditions, minus the slightly icy bridges.


Woo!

Hoo!

I chickened out on this one and took the hill next to it. The spiral bridge above the drop way pretty slick, and that drop ramp has paint on it under that snow. That thing is slick when it's dry.

So the results of my testing:
Frame mounted hydration system: works sort of. The hose is still the weak point, gotta be real sure you get all the water to drain back into the bottle.

Vapor barrior clothing: Also works sort of. The vapor barrior did indeed keep my insulating layers dry. All I need to do now is find some XL long cuff nitril gloves to keep my cuffs from getting soaked, and wear my RBH Next to Skin shirt next to my skin instead of leaving a base to soak underneath, and find some insulation layers with pit zips so I can adjust my venting before sweating out in the first place.

Platforms: Umm. I don't think I lose anything climbing as I can still granny spin and mash my way up everything. I do feel like I'm losing a little control on the tech stuff though. Place where I would normally be able to put the bike where I want it are a little harder to ride. It's been awhile, more rides should improve that. For really cold winter riding I may not have a choice, as they really are warmer than clipless.

On a somber note, cycling legend of Burlington, Dan Ring, passed away last week. Dan was a botany professor at SouthEastern Community College, daily bicycle commuter and advocate, and a super nice guy. The kind of guy that always had a nice thing to say and a smile on his face. I regretfully missed the ride to his funeral services last weekend. He died at a wisened age of a heart attack while riding his bike. I suppose there are worse ways to go. He was fit and functioning till the end, and died doing something he loved. I hope I am so lucky. I wish I would have known him better. Dan, you will be missed.


DG

Welcome to CX weather

Got some miles in Thursday: 40 in the forest on the newly rigid Monkey and 60 on gravel on the SS CX.


Rode from home up to IA City for Jingle CX on Friday. Nice little 9 hour bikepacking practice day, 15lb pack with all my gear for three days on my back. Saturdays' race was alright, though I could definitely feel Thursday and Friday in my legs. Course was slimy in spots, but mostly frozen.

Sunday was much, much more entertaining. Inch or two of snow and rain made the course worthy of true CX racing, much drifting, sliping, and laughing ensued.
Amanda Miller rocked the womens elite field with her mad mud skillz taking the win.


Syd took a well earned third.

A few more pics of the weekend here.

Geoff's crash.


and another view of that:

Good times.

DG

Jumping bandwagon

Yup I'm posting it too, it's just that friggen cool.


Red Fang

And here's my new wagon. Needs some streamers yet.


With spikes.


And the second revision of my doublestand.


Works both ways even.


Here's the jumping.


This should be in every library: Chicago Ten




Off to Farm CX


Oh, and there's another new batch of crap on my yard sale blog, too: Map cases, map cases, handlebar bag, stem bag, rims, ect.

Weekend Update

Lots of stuff to report: the Hawkeye Downs HPV race, laps on the IA speedway and Nuvinci testing, Downfalls of my current hybrid design and the improvements in progress, redesigning my doublestand to fit the Big Dummy, Pugsley and Big Dummy builds, gathering gear for the upcoming snowbike season, adventure racing, and next years touring.


The Hawkeye Downs race weekend was a small but fun affair this year. I lucked out with some of the best weather October in IA has to offer. Minimal mishaps and hangups running the event, mostly due to the help of a few volunteers keeping things moving. Many thanks to Warren Beauchamp, Rick Gritters, Ted Wheeler, and my parents.

Lots of velomobiles at the race, most of them were Garrie Hills', at least at some point. I managed to trick Tracy Thompson into racing one, and then he ended up taking it home for next season's use. This is going to be interesting.
I had Garries' WAW for a couple of days before I could get it over to Tracy's. I've come to the conclusion that pretty much all Velomobiles are made for people under 5'8" and I still don't like three wheels or u-bar-ish steering. I got some good pics for further study and comparison though. Maybe I'll build a quad velomobile with tiller steering someday.

The weekend after my HPV race I hauled the Cuda over to Des Moines for the Track and Back charity ride. As suspected the route was to follow F70 from Des Moines to Monroe, same as I did on the loaded longtail two weeks proir during my Tour to race. This was concerning, as those are some really monsterous rollers on F70. This was afterall test number two for the Nuvinci, hills were on the menu for a reason. Turns out, climbing Grand Ave from Squirrels' house was a harder climb than anything I found on F70. There was no momentum to be had cranking up Grand and the Nuvinci obviously didn't have the low range I was needing. I almost fell over on my first climb of the day. Then I rode bike path from Ashworth park over to the El Bait Shop. On the corner under the tracks by Science center, I found a pair of unleashed dogs, one of which I missed, the other, not so much. Then I did fall over. Neither of us were injured, just annoyed, so I continued on. Did I mention it was super foggy? Cause it was. Somehow I managed to get to the start on time, only did a couple laps lost in the stadium parking lot. There were a good three donut holes left for breakfast. Within fifteen minutes we rolled out with police escort and soon enough we were clear of town. I glided off the front of the group towards the first climb, Blackford caught back up by the time I cranked to the top, then I bombed the next hill and I was on my own till I stopped in Monroe. The rollers on F70 were mostly defeated by the momentum of streamlining, though the recent road construction/speed bumps before the bridges were less than appreciated. Makes me rethink the need for full suspension again. A few miles further and I make it to the IA Speedway. I'm met by a flock of kids from the Central IA Boy and Girls Club. The spaceship has landed. They all seem to be really interested in the bike, I talked a bit with them, and with any luck we may see them build something of their own. A few more people start showing up and get out on the track, so I go out for a few laps. The track is smooth and flat, the corners are large enough that g forces at 36mph are not noticable at all. This would be a really nice track for an HPV race. The ride back was faster without the fog and I only fell over once.

I was hoping the Nuvinci would be the solution to my gearing woes on the streamliner, but it's not to be. There is just too much drag for race use and it's too hard to gauge your efforts without shift detents. It is nearly indestructable and a great bargain for utility uses, but I'll stick with gears and chains for the race liner.



Speaking of the Nuvinci in the utility bike role, the one on the Xtracycle has been working flawlessly. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the drivetrain, but they don't call it research and development for nothin. I've gone through two primary drive chains, two sets of idler bearings one set of jackshaft bearings, and four motor drive freewheels, an now the jackshaft is in for repair/redesign. Basically what I've learned is that when you add a 1hp(746watts continuous)motor plus one semi-fit human(150-350watts continuous) through one primary drive chain, plus gravel dust, equals lots and lots of chain streach. To the point of streaching 1/8" chains in half actually. Keeping all three chains taught and in working order has become a weekly chore, to the point that I've decided to rethink my drivetrain. I've also learned there is no such thing as a sealed skate bearing, I don't like 1/8" industrial chain(they don't twist at all and behave even worse than bicyle chain in dust), and all freewheels used on the motor drive box will unscrew their innards if you do not peen the threads. Anyways, the redesign involves putting two freewheels on the hub via the adapter shown in the pic above. Turns out Dicta and Shimano 1/8 freewheels have threads that run all the way through, makes it easy to just turn out a super long threaded freehub adaptor. I'll end up with two chains instead of three, one going from the motor to the hub, and another going from the pedals to the hub. Almost normal. Actually, just like this:
Just need a little idler on the slack side of the pedal chain to keep it off the frame, a tension bar in line between the motor and rear axle, and an idleron the slack side of the motor chain to keep it of the frame a little better. Worked out way easier than I would have guessed. Now if I can get the Dummy setup to work even better.


And of the Dummy, I've got it together too....sort of. It still needs it's own freeloaders, fenders, and tires. The Gazzalodis just don't roll all that well, and I keep getting flats with the rear one(and its a freakin doublewall tire!). I think I'll get another dynohub to replace the totally out of place blue King front hub.
.
The super tall stack and Nitto North Road bar make for the least aero position I've ever ridden. Feels kinda like riding an old cruiser, only this one climbs better. The bars are really a little straighter than I'd hoped for. They really do work well when standing and climbing though.

As far as adding an assist to this one goes, I think I'll go the modified GEBE route this time around. I kinda want to keep the derailer to see how it compares to the Nuvinci when fully loaded. Finding or making a syncronous belt cog in the large-ish size turned out to be way more expensive than I'm willing to bother with, but then I remembered GEBEs' 148t ring. Add to that the cost of ordering another EH035 and clutch housing from Staton and I may as well just buy a whole kit from GEBE and modify it.


I'm well on my way to having a couple doublestands made for some Big Dummies. Who knew that oval boom tube would cause so much trouble in my original design? The new attaching bracket is completely different, and quite frankly, entirely too much time was involved making these. I'm gonna have to simplify the process of making that thing somehow if ever want to make them for anything but a loss.


The Super Puglsley Adventure Machine is a crankset away from being rideable. Damnit Phil and White Ind. Hurry up already!


Epic Eric is gonna build me some Epic luggage to haul all the essentials.


My Warmlite bag showed up yesterday. Holy crap that thing is awsome. Makes my TNF Cats Meow look like a baby sleeping bag. Good for 4 seasons and down to -65F. Vapor barrior and down air mattress built in. Cushy.


Luxerylite cot showed up last week. Also cushy. This thing is gonna be the bomb for summer camping. The DOM in the Warmlite makes it pretty unnecessary for winter camping, but I'm thinking the light top off the Warmlite used as a quilt plus the cot should be perfect for summer camp weather.


And my RBH vapor barrior socks and cap showed up, as well as the PsolarX facemask, and Forty below bottle boots. All I need now is some weather to test all this stuff in cause it's way the heck too warm for any of it yet. I bet this'll be the year it'll be in the 50s all winter long now isn't it? Being well prepared for a snowbike season is akin to owning a set of CX ski's or a snowmobile. No better way to garauntee a mild winter.

DG

Like minds

I've been finding alot of inspiring reading lately. Really cool folks living right and thinking left. Maybe someday I'll run into a few of them.

Andrei Codrescu. It's like he's reading my mind, and recently, forcasting my future.

Kent Peterson. Bike druid. I only wish I could get my thoughts out on the page as eliquently as he does: "Wiser men than us have noted that you don't have adventures by sticking to the main roads and staying at the Holiday Inn. Our planes and automobiles have made it possible for us to go anywhere and see nothing, but our simpler, slower means of conveyance, our feet and our bicycles and wind-powered boats, still connect us to this earth that is not ours to master, but to treasure." See what I mean?

Micheal and Emilie. Living simply, simply living. Awsome. I've already got the vanagon...

Ward and Jacky Budweg. Fellow Iowans. I knew they were on tour for a couple of years, I didn't realize they sold their house and everything, and went..... everywhere!

Eric Parsons is always doing fun stuff and building interesting equipement.

The Long Road North. Awsome site, can't wait to see the film. Here's the trailer:


Erin and Higs Another awsome site. Erin just blew my mind with her last post. One little detail that really changes a big part of their trip. Congrats to them.


Some of the News, Most of the time. I hate political crap, but this is my new political news source.

And just in case you give a crap about the financial fiasco, heres a good explaination:


DG

Yard sale is still growing strong, more stuff found, check it out. Free shipping to Hawkeye Downs this weekend if you contact me... now.

Fall HPV race season

Well my HPV race at Hawkeye Downs is coming up in about a week. Man, I hope somebody shows up, track rates went up and I'm playing Russian roulet with the the weather even more here in October. But the track's in good shape, the bikes are prepped, the goodies are baking.

I'll be testing a Nuvinci hub in the Cuda for my upcoming streamliner build. I've been pretty happy with the performance of the one I've got on my assisted longtail, it's definitely held up to some abuse. Now it's time to see how efficient it really is in the race bike. If it passes the test it will allow me to build a much needed much wider gear range on the next liner for some of the more difficult events I have planned. I've got a plan for the new liner worked out, and I'm in the process of gathering components before the build starts. I'm hoping to have the bike part finished out before the end of November, and have a good bit of progress on the fairing plug before the end of the year.


In other liner testing/impromptu race news I'm thinking about doing the Track and Back charity ride in the liner as a way of getting on the IA Speedway for a few laps and possibly finding some contacts for a chance at organizing an HPV race there. 7/8's mile NASCAR track with a road course inside it, that would make a sweet HPRA venue. In the mean time, anybody else wanna show up in DsM Oct 18th and do a little impromptu 100mile ultra race with some hot laps on the track in the middle? There's food at the track and sag stops along the way. The route out to Newton and back will be plenty challenging I'm guessing. I rode through that area last weekend and there are some killer hills out there.

DG

I'm still setting on a pile of stuff, check it out.

Tour to race

Click for pics

Three days, 369miles, 41,149 feet of elevation change, 2 races, 2 flats, 1 win, 1 broken chain, $7 in fuel. Nice ride. I see a trend starting.

Data

DG

Yard sale is still going, check it out.

Yard Sale

If you haven't noticed yet, I've got a bit of a virtual yard sale going on. The link is also in the sidebar under my profile. Less is more, help me out here. And check back often, I keep finding more crap.

DG

Seasons heatings

I've always had a thing for architecture and well planned/utilized space. One of these days I'm gonna get myself organized enough and reduce the clutter enough to simplify my house. As it is I've got more crap than I can remember where I put it, and more space than I need or want containing that crap. At least all that crap and the container it's in is payed for, I guess.

I ran across this little write-up today. Lots of cool design features.

I really like the dish dryer/storage system here.

Something about those little sleeping lofts are so appealing, yet the thought of having to get up there somehow (or even worse, back down) after an ultra distance race makes me think I'd need another way up there besides stairs. Maybe a 3/4 ground house with an egress window in the loft so you could use it as an upstairs outside door.

Here's another interesting link, though most of these are simply too small. If there isn't enough room for two people to live, cook, and dance, there isn't enough room to live. And there would have to be a bike room/shop of equal proportions. But in general 1000sq foot living quarters with a loft would be plenty if designed carefully, I think.

A couple more interesting sites:
Bottleworld "Like dogs on speed" this site is great.
Resources for Life from IA City, no less.

Incentive to pare down my collection of crap to the essentials. Maybe I should start a yard sale blog.....anybody need any size 46.5 bike shoes, Camelbacks, or VW parts? Or how about a good cheap car?

In another recent thought pattern I found shackletoncentenary.org which is packed with extreme cold weather knowledge and noteworthy causes.

DG

Seasons change

Can you feel it? Focus is changing. Time to start gearing up.


DG

(time to get that fairing done for the commuter too, it's getting brisk and windy too!)