Don't be "sour" about your weekend.

Like I said yesterday....I've been keeping busy.  One of those busy items was a get together Saturday evening with one of our local home brewers from the Washoe Zephyr Zymergists brewing club.  Jason is a master brewer in our club, specializing in sour beers, barrel aged beers, and beers that can be aged for years.

He had just a few on tap for us!

This along with all his bottle aged beers represented over a decade of brewing and some of the beers were that old!  You don't see this type of brewing very often.  Jason is also in the midst of trying to start up a business here in Reno focused on brewing, home brew supply, and customer influenced beers.  Check out his promo video here:




P.S.  This is biking related because I rode my bike here.  I had to cue my bike up against the fence with 5 others.  More proof that beer and bikes just go together!

P.P.S.  You really missed out on this one Preacher!

So much going on lately....

Sorry there hasn't been anything new lately.  I've had clients in the office and it's just been busy.  Anyway there are several things that I wanted to post on so they're all going to be thrown together here this morning.  First up the fun stuff.  We had a pseudo rogue BPAC'esk (Bicycle and Ped Advisory Committee) get together over at Public House in Mid-town last Tuesday.  Officially it was a gathering to celebrate our RTC liaison stepping down from her position.  She has been a huge part of the improvements for bikes (and peds) here in Reno over the last decade and she will be missed.

A couple of panorama's of the crew.  It appears my (and many others) theories about the correlation of bicycles and beer is well founded!  However, the discussion was serious, ranging from how to try to get the right person to replace our friend at RTC, and the future directions that BPAC should be focused on.  We had a little round the table discussion/listing of our priorities for future work and it looked something like this:

Improvements on the Truckee River Bike Path
Better bike lanes on Longly
General Connectivity of our Bike Lane System
Build actual Bike Blvds.
Build some Green Lanes (Bike Lanes with Paint)
Encouraging Women's Biking
Get Company to Support Biking (companies support / promote cycling to work)
Build some Protected Bike Lanes
Work on the next Generation (Middle School Bike Programs)

As you can see....it ranges from very specific, to building for the future.  How we prioritize these is still up in the air, but it's definitely a good list to start with!

We also have received new bike lights (for the Bright Reno Lights Program) that will be distributed to people who need them (for free).  Prior to breaking up for the evening, we hit the bike racks to install a few!  I wonder if their new owners were happy to find they were now equipped for night riding!?

And no....not all the bikes were ours.  People actually ride around in mid-town!

The other big topic is the Keystone road diet.  This project has drawn large crowds at the public meetings (both for and against).  It has also been a bit of a political hot potato....since the city council (lead by Neoma Jardon) stopped the project from going forward as planned last fall. 

Sadly, a life was claimed on Keystone last week on this section of road.  You can get a very well thought out and well written article over at Reno-Rambler. 

My short version of the longer argument.....the road diet might have prevented this tragedy through decreased traffic speeds, altered traffic lane configurations, and decreased points of contact (how many lanes you cross and have chances to be hit).

Here's KTVN's story:



We can debate a particular accident and whether it would have been prevented with the complete street / road diet reconfiguration.  The fact is the road would be safer with the remake than it is without it.  And just possibly this type of accident and loss of life could have been avoided. 

An update on running tubeless tires.

A few months ago I was fed up with all the flats I was getting on the commute with the Salsa Fargo.  To be fair I didn't have tuffy tire liners in these tires, but I mean it's just a 6 mile commute each way and I was flatting on a pretty regular interval.  So instead of doing it the easy way and putting in tire liners, I decided to try switching over to a stan's no tube setup.  You can see the process here if you want.



Anyway, I thought I'd give you an update on how it's worked out since then.  To start with....I didn't do this with "new" tires.  I began with tires that had more than a few holes and gashes.  The Stan's solution sealed these up with relatively little problem (even a 1/4 gash with a bit of time).  However, on the initial ride I did get a puncture that really "bleed" a puddle of Stan's before sealing up.  I was not a happy camper and wondered if I'd wasted my time with the whole thing.

Apparently that was a one time deal.  I haven't had to do a thing (added air a few times) since then!!  So obviously I've been pretty happy with the system as a whole.  The first time I really even looked at my tires since that day was yesterday, when I had to add some real air (10 psi) before heading to work.  You'd think this would have caused me to look the tire over a bit more carefully, but hey I'm running Stan's, so I just blew it off thinking it would seal up on the ride.

On the commute in things seemed to be getting a bit squishy again......and upon arriving at work I did take the time to have a closer look.  I found 1 piece of wire, 2 massive (rose bush?) thorns, and 6 goat heads.  I confidently pulled the largest thorn out (commence serious hissing and air loss) and rotated the tire so the hole was to the bottom and waited for the Stan's sealant to do it's job.....and waited.....and waited.....  There was no white stuff present and the hissing continued.

Yep, I'd actually used up all the Stan's solution I put in over the last 3 months.  So I did what I could....jammed the thorn back in and stopped up the leak (it still amazes me this works).  It held well enough that I could ride it home that evening after just a bit of pumping!

When I got home I added more Stan's sealant and re-inflated.   They holes (all 9 of them) sealed up in a few seconds and I was good to go.



So all in all the system works great and I'd recommend it.  Just remember you do have to top off once in a while because you lose a little (or sometimes a lot) with each little puncture that you never know about!

Dry Pond Loop.

Part of the weekend riding was a bit of mountain biking.  I don't always manage to get in the car and drive to the trail head....so it was thanks to my friend Joel that I got out of the house Sunday afternoon and headed up to Timberline road for some Galena based fun.  We did a little out and back to the wilderness area boundary and then caught the connector over to dry pond.  Sorry there aren't any pictures of the ride.  I accidentally left my phone in the car when we headed out.

You might notice the average pace was a bit on the low side for this ride.  For the record, this shows just how tough Joel is.  Even when he called me about doing the ride, he knew he'd had a "big night" the evening before.  By the time we hit the trail head he was hurting!  To his credit he worked through it and did the whole ride even with the hangover.  And to show true commitment, he was even up for a "carrot" at the end of the ride.

"Carrot" located on the rail of the truck bed. 

What will you do tonight.....

I think I know where I'm headed!

 

 or....

Reno Tahoe Odyssey takes off.

Well on the ride in today the whitewater park was crawling with runners and support vehicles...so I'm guessing the Odyssey must be kicking off this morning.  Here's a few pics.

Sorry, this one was a camera quick draw while riding with no hands...just wanted to capture the outfits!

Support vehicles at the ready.

Gathering for the start.

Starting gate.

I've never done the Odyssey for the record.  I run quite a bit thanks to wifey, and even do organized 1/2 marathons.  The entry fee for the Odyssey is just a bit steep for my tastes.  Not to mention the cost of renting a support vehicle that can carry 12 people.  However, it is for a good cause so I'm glad it fills up. 

So if you want to see a little chaos this morning head down to the whitewater park and watch the start.  The runners will be organized....but the support vehicles trying to get out of downtown is always a bit crazy!

So just how do we pay for our roads?

Well, here's a little write up on it from Elle Blue from the local bike to work week literature (which I just found).  You might just be surprised on how few roads the gas tax covers!