Sometimes, I can't get a song out of my head.  So, I'm going to start popping them up here on this site.  I don't know if this will work or not, so this is an experiment.

Big changes in pro bike racing sponsorship continued this week with several announcements of equipment sponsors.  Gerolsteiner will probably not be back next year.  Saunier Duval has already jumped ship, too.  Here it is; I drew you a picture:

What luck.  First DB Cooper, and now this?  I can't believe they caught this on film!  I believe this was filmed in Georgia.

I'm not sure if this is real or not, but I believe I've just seen DB Cooper steal a cyclocross bike. This is amazing footage.

I'm getting a wee bit excited about cyclocross.  I haven't done anything to prepare for it yet, but it's always a good time.

I can't believe the schedule we've got stacked up out here in Portland.  Seriously - we will have a cross (or cross-ish) race scheduled for just about EVERY weekend from now until December.  It's just HUGE out here. 

Personally, I enjoy a cyclical cycling pattern.  It keeps things fun and interesting.  If I do the same thing with the same focus for too long, I get bored.  Quickly.  Here's my thing:

• January-March: 100% fixed gear rides in the rain.
• March-May: Break out the road bike, start going fast.
• May-August: Roadie Season.  PIR, Crits, whatever I can fit in.
• September: Hang up the road bike, break out the cyclocross gear.
• October-November: Cyclocross...almost every weekend (sorry, family).
• December - take a break, break out the fixed gear, locate all my winter clothing.

I do not like the fact that cyclocross is edging into the summer months.  The Olympic games are special because they take place every four years.  Your birthday is special because it takes place once a year.  Cyclocross is special because it takes place when it gets cold and wet (unless you're one of those soCal guys). 

The sport is hot right now, so I guess this is to be expected.  And of course, just because the races are offered, that doesn't mean everyone has to attend them.  Will the sport collapse in a huge ball of fire, the result of a collective burn-out of hundreds of cyclocross maniacs?  Who knows.

For me, cyclocross is a short, intense season.  My family can deal with me being a little nuts for a couple months, but not much longer than that.  So I'm probably going to stick with plan A.

I found this photo this morning.  I don't know where it came from, but I made into my PC's wallpaper (it's double wide because I've got two monitors).  To me, this is the essence of cyclocross.  This is what I am yearning for:

And you?  What do you think?

I was reading a little write-up on Shimano's upcoming 7900 Dura-Ace.  I wish I could find it now, but I can't seem to locate it anymore.

Anyway, the new brakes caught my attention.  Apparently, the new levers pull more cable!  I don't know if it's as much as a v-brake lever, but this could be good. 

I assume this is also a feature of the upcoming electronic Dura-Ace levers.  Though I doubt I'll ever shell out the cash for an electronic group, I would love to try it out for cyclocross! 

I try to set my bike up for maximum reliability.  I don't have the support required to repeatedly switch bikes during a race, so I decided last year that my goal should be configuring a bike that can last an entire 60 minutes in nasty conditions. 

One big barrier for a 60 minute bike is the rear shifting performance.  You can tweak things to help keep out the elements, like string one big length of shift cable instead of breaking it down into segments.  You can adjust things to better deal with the elements, like using an 8 speed drivetrain.  But the fact remains that the elements can still prevail and mess up your shifting. 

But what if no shift cable was involved?  The derailleur knows how far it has to move, and it moves just the right amount, no matter what.  I assume that means even with increased resistance due to mud, grass, whatever, you'll still pop into gear without any troubles.  Wouldn't that be nice?

I don't know if this would catch on with the PRO scene, since most of them probably wouldn't want to ride the same bike from start to finish, if just for the issue of added weight of all the mud they're collecting.  However, I'd certainly like to give it a whirl!

Ever since some friends of mine got iPhones, and my wife and I got Blackberries, we've been doing a lot more text messaging than before.  It's easy, convenient, and a good way to communicate in a not-so-interruptive manner. 

A text message is actually called a SMS (short message service) Message.  It was originally designed for user alerts (e.g. you have a new voicemail).  A SMS message has a maximum size of 140 bytes.  Given a 7 bit character set, that means the maximum length of an SMS message is 160 characters.  If your message is longer than 160 characters, you'll get dinged for two.

SMS has become a great revenue builder for wireless phone service providers.  .20 per message?  You can spend a couple bucks just figuring out where you want to eat dinner tonight.  With the number of messages surpassing 2 trillion, that's a lot of money to be made off of us suckers.  Good thing we have a package plan. 

Text messages are convenient, but I think they're overpriced.  Think about it.  160 bytes, max.  So for .20 per message, you're being charged at least $1,310 per megabyte by your service provider!  That's ridiculous. 

The solution, at least for internet-enabled phones (e.g. iPhone, Blackberry) is IM!  If you're already paying for internet service, why should you have to pay for text messages, too? 

My Blackberry came with several IM clients, which I use often.  However, I can't use them with my iPhone friends, because their iPhones didn't come with an IM client.  True, they could get a third party app, but I doubt any of them will do it.

I just find it a little irritating, that's all.

I'm back! 

Time to release that pressure!

Woo boy I am just getting back to normal here.  Took a week's worth of vacation last week at the coast.  It was nice, but what I thought would be some minor final preparations for the hill climb yielded some seriously stressful times.  I won't go into details, but the stress level was high, and the vacation time was low.  Since the weather at the coast was pretty horrible early in the week, it didn't hurt so much to be on the computer and phone all day.  By Thursday, things were mostly squared away and the sun came out.

The hill climb went well.  Very well.  We had plenty of people to help out, and it was going so well, I was even able to skip out and ride the course myself.  I was extremely stressed over this race going over without any problems, so it's nice to be done until next year.

If you've an OBRA-ite and never done this race before, you should really give it a try next year.  The course is just awesome. 

School starts next week!  Yahoo!  It will be nice having the girls in school so I can get a little more work done. 

This weekend, we visited my parents at their new place by Depoe Bay.  We hung out with them, as well as my sister Kristen and her two younglings, Brooklyn and Jackson: 

Next time, Uncle Erik will bring a couple extra helmets for them...

On Sunday, the plan was to head north to Nedonna beach, where we'll be staying for the week.  But first, the kids got in a few games of Uno with Grandma V:

Donna and the kids drove the family truckster to Nedonna, while I was able to ride my bike.  I wasn't super pumped about the thunderstorms floating around, but the weather was pretty great - 60s, very light rain, and cloudy.  My favorite. 

The route was a lot more hilly than I expected, but it was a great workout.  There was a ton of traffic on Highway 101.  I got buzzed a few times by big trucks towing camping trailers, but 99.9% of the drivers were just fine.  There was a lot of debris on the shoulder of the road, and I ended up stopping to fix a flat, and once more to buy superglue to plug a hole left in my tire by a chunk of glass.  Donna caught up with me with about 35 miles to go, and gave me another tube to carry along the way.  Luckily, I didn't need it!

I hardly ever saw the ocean on my way north, but there sure was some nice scenery along the way.  The scene still stuck in my mind is of thick white clouds merged with lush green hillsides.  It was a refreshing change from the 100 degree weather we'd been having in Portland.