Holiday Happenings....Fenders, Bike Rides, Maintenance, Xmas lights, and more!

Four day weekends freakin' rule!  You have time to recover from the week, be lazy, go out with friends, ride bikes, and just get things done that have been hanging.  Now if only they occurred more regularly!  So anyway, here's a bunch of bikey things that happened over my four days off.

Wasting no time at all, Wednesday night kicked off at Craft for drinks.  It was pleasantly busy which usually means wifey and I would know someone....but since we didn't, we migrated over to the Reno Home Brewer where we hung out with friends until they kicked us out. 

Thursday morning was a bit hazy and slow....until I remembered I had a phone call the previous night from a Cycle Oregon buddy telling me there was an "Outlaw" cyclocross race some time this morning.  After a quick check of email, it was determined the race was in about 15 minutes and I was still in PJ's.  A mad dash ensued and I made it to the race.  You can read about it in the previous post.

The rest of Thursday wifey cooked up a fabulous meal.  Turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potates, squash, etc. There was much gluttony and laziness!

Friday morning it was time to pay for the previous days sins.  So a 5-6 mile run was set in motion with wifey and a friend.  Afterwards it was time for some bike maintenance and some long overdue fender installations.

You've seen this configuration on the Salsa for a while.  However, after another cyclocross race at Clayton, the rear tire is hosting a goat head party.

Standard steps are required here.  1) Get a beer. 2) Remove wheel.

3) Remove tube.  4) Find all the goat heads still stuck in the tire.  5) Use up all your patches to fix the tube.

Next up.  I had some absolutely gorgeous custom fenders made up for the Salsa....about 6 months ago and they've been just sitting.  Mostly because I miss measured and they were a little wide for the rear mount....meaning I had to custom cut them to get the perfect fit.  And...they were just so pretty I didn't want to rush it and mess them up.....so they sat. 

Required tools and mounting hardware....check.

After finally daring to cut them this is the preliminary mount.  Oh, yeah....the other delay on my end.  I had to drill a hole in my "newish" frame.  Something I also was nervous about.

Add the support stays.

The final mount for the rear.

And...finally, add the front fender. 

You can love or hate fenders....but they don't get much nicer looking than this.

 Ok, where does that leave us.  With this much time off, the days just start to run together.  At some point we decided we hadn't had enough social interaction, so friends were called and plans for visiting Public house for beer and Wild Garlic for pizza were made.

Beer and friends....these guys screen names are still evolving....right now I'm thinking Smiley (this one is a no brainer) and the Sasquatch.

He's huge and the eyes are kinda creepy...hence the Sasquatch (and that's what the preacher called you so deal with it).

Cold nights require two things for riding.  Layers and lights.  The xtra was sporting it's new Christmas light configuration.

Good lord.  This post is getting long.  However, we're not done.  The next morning I decided it was time to get motivated again.  So there was mountain biking.  Sasquatch was supposed to join me....but as the discovery channel has taught us, Sasquatch's aren't morning creatures, so I was on my own.

The plan was just to ride up Evan's canyon and then around the downhill course.....it evolved.

Some newer banked turns of the downhill course....they aren't as fun when you're going up.

We need a storm with some winds...the smog is building.

A view back on a steep section leading into the banked corners.

Bridge over an abandoned mine shaft....only on a Reno bike ride!

A view back on some of the climbing involved on the Halo.

Ok, so that's that.  I didn't take a lot more pictures because the Halo gets really rocky and I was tired.  And just to prove that the weekend totally kicked ass....here was what Monday morning gave up for the bike commute in.

How much better can you get than riding in to work under this sunrise / Sierra wave cloud delight. And with that I'm done with this ridiculously long post.