Erik Voldengen

42 Days?

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:54:30 -0700

Oh crap. 42 days until Cross and here I am sitting around doing nothing. I hope there's still time!

There's going to be a race out at Krugers Farm next weekend. It's more of a crit than anything, but I think I'll try to do it.

I had bad luck last year, but maybe I can get closer to the previous result this time around. I'm certainly not holding my breath!

Even though it's hot and dusty (and I truly hate hot and dusty cyclocross), I'd say it might be better than the crap we had in November.

I've got wheels to build and my bike is in pieces!

Time for more EVerLube

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:48:00 -0700

I finally ran out of my big batch of home brewed bike lube. It worked great, so I made another batch. Here's another run-through:

Start out with a gallon of Odorless Mineral Spirits and a quart of synthetic oil. The weight of the oil matters not:

Pour out a quart of the mineral spirits and save for later. Pour in the quart of oil:

You can see here that the mixture needs to be shaken up a bit to combine your two ingredients:

Shake to mix the bottle of lube, and you're done! Refill all those empty 3oz lube bottles you have lying around.

Application:
Put it on thick, spin the pedals about 30 times and then wipe off with a rag. If you do that before every ride, your chain will stay pretty clean. The spirits help clean the chain and thin the oil. This lets the oil get in to the rollers of your chain. The spirits evaporate, leaving the oil where you want it. Wipe and go!

Be Like Hans

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:47:31 -0700

It's never too late to learn something from your dad. As I grew up, I learned some very important lessons from watching my father.

My dad would help out just about anyone with zero hesitation. Stranger on the side of the road with a flat tire? No problem. In a bind and need some help with the kids? Of course, bring them over. No schedule checking or getting back to you. You name it, he would do it, no big whoop.

He would just give or help whenever someone needed it. And the kicker is he would never expect anything in return. No matter what, you never "owed him one" in his book. And that, my friends, is amazing. The number one thing we could all learn from and try to emulate.

Want to make the world a better place? Be more like Hans.

Happy Fathers Day. Now go tell your pop you love him.

Sad day for bike racers in PDX

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:09:28 -0700

Sad news today after one of our own passed away right after finishing the Tuesday night PIR.

Crossed the line, coasted, collapsed, passed away.

I wish I'd known him better. I'm sad for his friends and his family.

I know we're not machines, but sometimes I pretend to forget. I've pushed myself so hard that I fought to stay conscious for half a minute. Is this what happened to him? Except he didn't recover.

What a bummer. Very tragic news here in Portland.

Rest in peace, brother.

The house is up

Thu, 27 May 2010 11:28:37 -0700

The house is up! Lots more to do, but mostly on the inside now. Supposed to be done by August:

Too early?

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:54:00 -0700

Is it too early to start getting pumped for cyclocross? I know it is but I am having a weak moment.

I've been listening to CTodd's little number this morning:

House update

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:35:24 -0700

The house is coming along, though slowly.

The foundation is done, and they brought in a LOT of rock. The basement floors are being poured early next week and then the framers come in. The workers have been very slow and sporadic to show up these past few weeks, so we are now a couple weeks behind on the schedule.

Mentos Fun

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:24:00 -0700

We did a little experiment today.

Plop seven mentos into two liters of soda, and you get a fizzy little geyser of fun. Ah, but which fountain would spout higher between Sprite, Coke and Diet Coke? Let's find out:

To measure the geyser height, we used good ol' math. The white board behind the bottle has two blue lines on it. The distance between said two lines is 50cm. So we took the photos, counted vertical pixel span between the blue lines, and used that number to translate the geyser height in pixels to centimeters. I could have used feet and inches, but F that. Metric people. Metric!

Anyway, after all the pixel counting was over, Diet Coke is the champion!

The left over amounts are not quite accurate, as the kids drank some when I wasn't looking.

We were going to go to the store to get more soda for experimentation, but then someone ran over our test rig. Oh well.

Paris Roubaix 2010 - Weak Sauce

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:13:00 -0700

Well I was sure pumped to see this race, but I was really disappointed in how it played out.

Here you go:

The man is a machine. Wow. Everyone but Boonen was more than happy to race for second, and Boonen did not seem have his head in the game.

The highlight for me was seeing Thor SMOKE Flecha in the sprint for second place. But then Flecha came over the line clapping his hands, perfectly happy having raced for a podium spot. Next year, let there be RAIN. Please.

Flanders Attack

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:28:01 -0700

Wow. Here's the defining moment (I skipped ahead a bit to get to the good part):

He's gone! How did he do that? Amazing.

Half or Triple Plus One

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:16:17 -0700

Start with any number.

If it's even, divide by 2.

If it's odd, multiple by 3 and add 1.

1n 1937, Collatz proposed you ALWAYS end at 1, but nobody can prove or disprove it.

Spring Classics

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:39:00 -0700

I love the Spring Cobbled Classics. They are freakin' hard races. Bikes break. People break. Guys with meat on their bones win, not those skinny mountain climbers you see in the Tour. I think Frank Schleck's arms would break in half if he raced Flanders.

These are one day races. Everything is left on the road. No day-to-day tallies. No calculated time gaps. No politics. No racers sitting on the ground protesting an unsafe course. Cobblestones and road bikes: No wimps allowed.

Watching the final kilometers of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix is every bit exciting as a decisive mountain-top finish stage in the Tour de France. For me, it's even better.

The two best races are coming up soon. Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) is on April 4th. Paris-Roubaix is one week later, April 11th. These races illustrate pretty much everything I love about bike racing. Watch them.

Final Kilometers from E3 Prijs 2010

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:16:39 -0700

My legs still burn just watching it:

The house is coming

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:43:45 -0700

They've made some progress on the house addition. I'll take photos from the same viewpoint every week.

#1 - Fully excavated, concrete forms are in place:

#2 - Footing in place, foundation wall forms in place:

More to come.

Update as winter dwindles down

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:08:00 -0700

Winter is almost over. Flowers are starting to bloom, leaves starting to grow, and the weather is getting hella nice out there. We're not out of the woods yet, but soon it will be Spring. Sweet, sweet spring.

Here's an update on a few things:

Bike Stuff:
Cyclocross was fun, and I want to do much better in 2010. I am training. I now know what LT is. And SST. And zones. I think it will help.

I have little motivation to do any spring races. A big pile-up in what would have been my race at the Banana Belt has done nothing but confirm that. There's plenty of time to race. For now I just want to ride, get my work stuff organized, and hang out with the family. Not super exciting, I know, but I'll post some more interesting bike stuff soon.

House:
We have been planning a smallish two story addition for a long time now. There'll be one bedroom upstairs, two downstairs (for the girls). Our living room will be expanded so there is more space to play and hang out. Should be really nice.

Work has just started on this project. The first step is to dig out some dirt and put in a retaining wall/foundation. It's going to take a lot of concrete, but it will be very robust.

More news and photos will follow soon, but for now, all I have to show is dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.

Olympics:
Did you watch the Olympics? We watched some of it.

Best event: short track skating

Worst event: ice dancing

What were your choices?

Kids:
The girls are awesome and doing well. We have three now, as we took in a foster child just before Christmas.

Mette just turned 8 and had a fun ice-skating birthday party at Lloyd Center. She's had really rotten luck for her birthdays in the past. I think twice she had to have surgery or was recovering from surgery. Another time, we moved to our current house and had a ton of work to do. This year, she celebrated three times, and thoroughly enjoyed it. She's getting pony lessons for her gift, so that should start Monday.

Annelis is going to be playing spring soccer. I'll be coaching her team...well, helping coach. We're pulling in as many resources as possible. Should be fun.

Dogs:
We're watching my mom's dogs for the week while she is on vacation. These animals are horribly dangerous, as you can see here: