Fort St. Gravel Ride

January 18th, 2009 was a good day for a gravel road ride. Temps were in the 30's with a light west wind. This would also be my first ride on my professionally tuned Marin - East Peak since Bike Masters finished tuning it back in December. I took Doug's advice and rode west on fort street today. I didn't want to fight any traffic with ice and snow on the road sides so I loaded the bike up on the back of the truck and drove west to about 170th. I parked in a residential area close to were the gravel starts. The traffic was light. After riding for about an hour I realized only about half a dozen cars went by. I passed one runner but didn't see any others on bikes. The light wind gave me a bit of a push home. Fort St. past 196th has some nice hills. I enjoyed the climbs and the gravel was solid enough for some fast descents. I was up out of the saddle on the climbs without any bike trouble. Back in November I would have been worried about climbing hard because of a drivetrain problem (cracked derailleur hanger). My brake performance was a big improvment too. They were very quiet and worked great. Thanks Bike Masters!

I was expecting to have a mad dog come running out of some farm along the way. Fortunately that didn't happen.
Good Ride!

Good Game - Great Halftime Show

No. 5 Omaha Central took down top-ranked Omaha Bryan 22-8 last night. It was a good close game where in the final five minutes Central came from behind for a 68-56 win. At halftime the Eagles trailed by 10 points. The great halftime show contributed to Central's awesome comeback. Nice job Central Pom Squad!!!

Bent and Cracked

A half a foot of ice and snow on the ground and the wind chill is 20 below but I got my bike back from Bike Masters yesterday. Geoff says the derailleur hanger was not just bent but cracked to. They replaced this broken part. Can't wait to get out and try a ride with it. Might be a while.

Merry Christmas!

Low Maintenance

Being low maintenance might be a compliment. Some may take it as an insult. My bike has been rebelling against my low maintenance. It has been giving me shifting issues intermittently. I got some dmars advice and changed my rear shift cable and went to full length cable housing. I really appreciated that advice because seemed to solve my issues. However, on my next ride out my bike was possessed, shifting at random times as I tried to climb. My issues needed professional help. Last Wednesday I went to Tim at Bike Masters. In about 6 minutes of evaluation he found 1) Bent Derailleur Hanger 2) Loose cassette 3) Dry chain. When he asked what kind of lube I used I couldn't remember. I think Tim took that as I'm low maintenance. :)

My New Years Resolution - Be "High Maintenance".

Looking forward to climbing a hill without worries.
- Paul

Pre-Thanksgiving

Emma has been frying her eggs for the past couple weeks. Today she got it right!

We took a little trip to Bellevue today. We parked at the cemetery by Jewell and found some geocache sites. Cali and I have been Geocaching twice before. This was Emma's first time and she proved herself a worthy geocacher by finding three of the four we searched for.



Geocaching made us hungry so we headed north to Downtown Omaha...
...Ummmm Spaghetti Works!

Happy Cranksgiving!

It wasn't much above freezing yesterday but the turnout for Cranksgiving 2008 was good. There were piles of groceries for the food bank and volunteers making things run smooth.


There was also soup, chili and prizes for the riders. Dale, Bob, Ben (Bob's son) and I rode together to pickup our list of ten items for the food bank. We stopped to take a break at HyVee on 156th and Maple to warm up with some coffee.


Find out more about Cranksgiving Omaha...
Cranksgiving Omaha
The Video

Tranquility North Hill Descent Reroute

The Tranquility Trail Council met today at 1PM to decide on a reroute for the "North Hill Descent". The goal was to add more grade reversals and make the descent more sustainable. Once we flagged the new path it was amazing how fast the five of us were able to cut the grass down. We did some riding so we could test out the flow. Chris, Dave, Dale, Greg and myself rode it several times to get a feel for the new route. Good team work!




Here's a picture of a 1X9 that Chris built. This looks like the way to go for riding Tranquility.

Chili, Hot Dogs and Huskers

Oct. 25, 2008 - My Mom and Dad drove up from Lincoln for Chili, Hot Dogs and Husker football on TV. The weather was great for late October. At half time we walked down to Tranquility to survey the trails.


After watching the 32-20 win against Baylor we drove downtown to checkout the new pedestrian bridge.


Nice Day!