After completing a very long haul for work, I had to cover Noah’s winter break. There’s only so many days Lisa can take off after all. And while watching Noah can be tiring (he doesn’t stop moving), it’s also an enormous joy that I do not partake of enough. Every day I make a choice… sometimes many times a day, to finish up something for work, or play with him, to take care of a chore or read him a story, etc. I do not always make the right choice. I try to, but I fail. But this day I could do right, and while the baby sitter was an option, I really wasn’t interested in missing this opportunity to take care of some chores that would wait for some other time.

Noah was sitting in the snow fort we built. Snow fort building followed sledding, which followed snowman construction, and inscribing a heart on the base of the snowman for mommy when she got home from work.

There was also the requisite snow ball fight, and general rolling around in the copious piles of snow.

Everything was awesome until in one blinding second I realized I had lost my wedding ring. This was not one of those where did I leave it deals. I *knew* it was gone the minute looked at my hand. I ran back outside, but saw it nowhere, and there where no telltale holes or indications as to where it might have gone. It was very upsetting.

I’m not so foolish as to believe that the ring is anything more than symbol. Lisa is equally clear about this. The rings change nothing. I didn’t even get married with this ring. I purchased rings for Lisa (with her, I guess I should say), and my family passed on a wedding band from Mother’s mother to her. I received a similar gift of a wedding band from her family. But we put off buying me a ring. I don’t recall why. Expense? Sure. Uncertain of what I wanted? Nah. I knew exactly what I wanted. I don’t recall, but clearly the time wasn’t right, and waiting would fill. It always does. It is the pattern of our lives together.

Roughly two years later we stopped into a jeweler to have something fixed, and there it was. The ring I desired, in my size, and on clearance (I never knew this happened to things like wedding bands, but I guess even the timeless styles have their moments.) I had my ring. More recently, we’ve considering what to do since I’ve lost quiet a bit of weight and the ring is now loose most of the time. Especially in the cold. And a glove can pull it right off. See another pattern developing?

I had pulled my gloves off a bunch of times while playing with Noah. I’m usually fairly aware of my ring during these “transitional” moments. But one of those times, I had clearly missed my ring pulling loose. And now it was gone—lost in three foot piles of snow.

I looked a few more times but found nothing. All that was left besides moping around was telling Lisa, who said “Don’t worry. We’ll find it.” I thought she was trying to make me feel better, but having looked fairly carefully by that point I was confident that it was gone. It would melt into the ground and then get flung by the gardeners to heaven knows where with the mowers and blowers.

A coworker of Lisa’s owns a metal detector. Lisa arranged to borrow it and went to fetch it today. We place her ring on the driveway to get some sense of what it would sound like, and I hoped that there wouldn’t be too many screws and nails swept off the driveway to make this a silly quest. I started where I thought it had fallen and got a quick hit. I dug up the snow down to the grass and went through it finding nothing. This could be a long day. I checked another long section around the snowman, and a place where I know I had put my gloves. Nada. I couldn’t believe I would have lost it further along by the fort, because I built the fort with my gloves on (as I recall. Who knows at this point). The lack of false positives made me more hopeful. So I continued. And there in the front of the fort on the inside was a chirp. I needed sharper shovel especially if I was going to get down to the grass, the fort had frozen fairly solid in the last two days.

I got the gardening shovel out of the garage, and with Lisa spotting grabbed the whole section down to the grass and spread it out on the now snow free driveway. I went through a bunch of clumps without finding anything, and I was beginning to be very wary of finding anything. But I was going to go through every clump… I broke open another clump and there it was! Yes! Some things are meant to be.

alentines day is not much of a deal around here. Lots of reasons, but if nothing else I don’t need the retail and card industries telling me when to appreciate my wife, nor how. Still, it makes a nice story… Ya remember back in 2010 when I… You can almost see my most doddering old self from here. Frankly, it’s not that far away.

On an entirely different topic… my latest bike build has started. It’s been taking a while since figuring out the parts took longer than I expected and some parts are still being anodized. But a few parts have made it to the bike including the 36-11 SRAM XX cassette, rear der. and the BB7 brakes. It’s going to be fairly spectacular… if it works. Time will tell. Prolly be another week or so.

In a book we’re reading to Noah the characters get blown in a balloon to an arctic town called Frosthaven. It’s become a metaphor for my winter riding. The residents of Frosthaven are most proud of their ice sculptures. ‘Round here, where proud to not let the winter prevent us from enjoying the outdoors, though it takes some preparation. Long live the Frosthaven Winter’s Day rides.

Above is not a graphic of my speed (sadly), but the wind speed. Ouch. But it was a bright sunny day to be enjoyed as much as possible. We were lucky and the snow storm that covered the mid atlantic states in 2 feet of snow stayed south of us and here it’s sunny and bright. So despite the 18 degree temps it was a day to ride. And because it’s been fairly dry around here, I thought heck, I’d take the carbon rocket out for its first spin with its new parts.

I picked a route with the maximum amount of uphill for the distance (climbing equals warmth) and pulled on a merino base layer, two mid layers, a winter jersey, and a jacket. On my head was a windblocking beanie, the hood from the top midlayer, and a winter collar that I could pull up. Long winter bibs were covered by winter tights. Not a bad mix considering the conditions.

First new part was the Revl carbon brakes by theHive. They turned out to be really nice. They’re light but feel solid and produced well modulated stops. They look spiffy too. Look how nice and salted up I got them already! (Oy, where’s that rag…).

And key here is that they fit nicely on the wide rims of the Hed Ardennes.

I predicted that wide rims would rule the minute I rode them. Now, besides the wide rims made for mountain bikes, and of course the four levels of wheel from Hed (Ardennes, Bastogne, Kermess, and the top of the line Flamme Rouge version of the Ardennes with ceramic bearings, titanium spokes etc.) Velocity is testing the A23 wide rim, and some new hubs to go with. Looking forward to trying those out. Zipp has widened a number of their rims as well. I tell you what, them wide rims sure ride purty right there. Truly they do.

Another change was the front fork to an Edge 1.0. It’s wonderfully smooth and plenty stiff enough, and of course more than light enough. I like the flat look and quiet graphics, something I wish the industry as a whole would embrace. Imagine if everyone drove around in cars that looked like they’re Nascar equivalents. Essentially, that’s what many of us are forced to do. (I know some do it by choice, that’s fine, but I’d rather not.)

The hill pain was acceptable, the ride shorter than I had wanted because the wind was pushing me all over the road. On one laughingly sad uphill section the wind forced me out of the saddle because the road was already at 11 percent, it basically blew me to a stop, and had it lasted any longer would’ve forced me to dismount. That blast changed my mind about continuing, and took the first exit off the mountain and headed home glad I got out for over an hour.

That’s my opinion of the weather. Gray, wet, cold… nasty. Upside of getting out? I chatted with a nice guy on Richard Sachs road bike. Classic Sachs color and “atmo”. The guy passed me pleasantly enough, but I called out “Richard Sachs? You bastard!” with a big smile on my face. It caused him to slow up, and we chatted for a few miles until I turned around. Nice. I also saw a Waltworks the other day. The new Niner carbon fork, fronting some nice black painted steel. Super clean build. Midwinter riding is bringing out some people and stuff. I’m still my old self however, because I got the name of neither fellow.

I did have some biker trash fun today though. One of the set of wheels I got with the frame (that I *still* have not built) was a pair of Zipp 505 clincher rims laced to a set of ISO disc DT Swiss 240 mountain hubs. Since they don’t have discs on them yet, I had no issue throwing them on the ‘Roll for fun. I got the usual biker snob looks of disdain running aero Zipps in midwinter on a steel bike, but that sort of thing just makes me smile. Some folks don’t know how little style they have.

Lack of cooperation displayed below… sigh. Allez!

• Date Jan 24, 2010
• Time 10:34 AM
• Total Distance 17.30 mi.
• Weather Conditions light rain mist
• Temperature 32.0 ℉

…cause the weather looks like this:

But I managed before it started sleeting/frozen raining. I try and do some sort of epic ride every year around my birthday. I used to try and do it on my birthday, but that’s almost never possible somehow. But it doesn’t matter because it seems like no matter what day works out, the weather does not cooperate. It has been extremely cold, sleeting, snowing, or some combination of all three. So the epic part has been less about miles and more about just getting out there in this nastiness. So today, by going early I traded cold for frozen rain. Feels like a fair trade. It was about freezing when I went, all layered up. Since I has just put a new seatpost and saddle on the Salsa I took it around the corner to make sure things were good. Saddle was good, but I adjusted a cleat and added a layer. Uphill was fine, but downhill was leaking through.

Suitably protected

[On top, Merino wool base, mid weight poly, waffle weave jersey, Rapha Winter Jersey and Lightweight Softshell (I could really use the regular one, but alas, I can’t afford it) and a Pearl Izumi jacket over that. I had a winter wool cap on, and a Winter Collar to pull up over my mouth and nose on the downhills. Half lobster gloves. On the bottom was Mad Alchemy embro and a single winter weight long bibs. Lake winter boots, no special socks (well, they’re cool white with red polka dots, but not winter weight and you couldn’t see them anyway. I went with circulation over insulation in the warm Lake boots.]

I made my way to the hills and started climbing. I love the quiet that days like this have. It’s Sunday, it’s early, the weather looks threatening, most sane people are pulling covers over their heads. Who’s out? Some folks running in loose sweats, a pack of cyclists going in the other direction with their clear rain capes on (they looked cold…) and couple of people looking miserable while walking their dogs.

So yeah, it was quiet. And I love that. You can hear all the forest land interactions. Skittering of little things collecting food. Birds dropping portions of whatever from the trees. The occasional snap of a twig under a hoof. And the superbly quiet whirring of a tuned drivetrain.

I rolled up past this one incredibly sized mansion. Past the closed summer camp perched on the side of the hill. Up the final steep pitch and past a group of guys who looked like they were about to go hiking and were in the middle of the pre hike joshin’ and jokin’ around. Finally deeper in the park and the quiet is near complete. The lakes were frozen and the gravel roads frozen and fun to ride.

I didn’t feel like rolling all the way around, the back half of this ride is less pretty, so rode out to the Church in the Woods and turned around. What a lovely ride to start the year.

This bike has been with me for a while but in a few incarnations. I’ve used it as a commuter built as a single speed on the mean streets of the City. Recently when I rebuilt my “summer” bike I moved the old parts here. I’ve been using it on the trainer and rollers, and for some of these messy rides. It bears the brunt of the worst weather, my most tired riding, and the indignity of the rollers… all with a bike like smile. It’s smooth, and more than stiff enough, comfortable, and pleasant. It complains about nothing except… when I really step on it going uphill I can wrench the rear tire askew in the dropouts. No matter how I clamp the wheel I seem to be able to do it, and since it happens at the worst possible moment (going up a steep uphill is not the time for what feels like a some serious braking with a preceding rise in gear if I don’t do it all at once.) I’ll have to work on that problem. All else is really lovely.

The frozen lake, although I wouldn’t walk out there at the moment.

The previous snow is almost gone.

The Salsa Casseroll does yeoman’s duty during the wet winter months. I normally have fatter tires on there, but I was too lazy this morning to change out the wheels. Besides, these guys have been getting the brunt of the roller sessions. I feel like I owed them some fresh air and gravel.

Haven’t used 3T stuff before. This stem is not too expensive, not heavy. (6 degree, 100)

I got a Bontrager seatpost with the Moots Monster Cross. I had this Fizik Antares saddle waiting in the wings for the Moots, but I dropped the combo on here because Aliantes have been less comfortable than they once were. I wouldn’t mind a smidge more padding, but the Antares are working better, and the post saddle combo was lighter to boot. I’ll Ebay stuff this week.

The Old Church in the Woods which never seems that active but is clearly getting fresh new slates and copper flashing. Shows what I know. Slate roofs look amazing, and cared for, can last 100 years or so. My kind of conservation.

This story starts 2 years ago in early February. A person (to be named later) was posting pictures (the pic above is his as well) about a newly built bike. I had some questions, wrote to him, and learned a few things. Several months and a bike sale later, I was looking to build something similar adjusted for my situation. But the bike business is a tweaky one at times, and my LBS couldn’t easily become a dealer, and paying retail (which my LBS would have done for me) seemed wrong, and at that point paying retail directly to the company (an option) seemed wrong too. I really think it’s important to support local businesses.

So I took my thoughts in a slightly different direction and built the Jones 3D Spaceframe bike. That took the rest of 2008. Saving money, making decisions, finally ordering, waiting for it to be crafted, then the build itself. And it’s been awesome. But it wasn’t a replacement for the previous idea, and I hoped to one day get back to it…

A few weeks ago the original frame that started all of this was put up for sale. Actually a “rolling chassis” as the industry says, with wheels (2 sets actually) a fork, custom stem, Bontrager seat post, and King bottle cages… all for about the money I had saved. I considered for a few moments, but knew that if I wanted a chance I had to move. So I called Lisa, sent an email to the owner, and was first in line. I checked size, looked over pictures and drawings (it is a custom frame) — things looked good. And here we are with a chassis to build up. It’s based on the MootoX YBB, and after dropping a few parts on for test, it seems very close in the one measurement I was concerned with to the bike I ride the most. Sweet.

My LBS is closed for vacation so I can’t order the build until they’re back. Since I wait, you wait. The next installment will provide some more back story about the guy I got this from and his exploits, and then more about what makes this bike unique, and then we’ll finish up with the build. Allez!