mullerb's musings

With covid putting a crimp on international travel for late 2021, we opted for Plan B: spend the winter living on a boat. So we squeezed a year’s worth of boat buying into a couple of months and sailed off from Annapolis, Maryland on November 29 on SV Carina, a 2005 Island Packet 370. ( #sailingsvcarina ) She’s a beast for 37’ with a cutter rig and and a full keel. The motion of the ocean is where she’s happy and safe. We spent December and January heading south on the Intercoastal Waterway with a few coastal passages, getting aligned with Carina and getting her into cruising mode. By mid-February we replaced most of the aging equipment in need, added some solar and got our new foresails. A hop across the Gulf Stream brought us to Bimini and the Bahamas. We’ll keep working at refining this cruising lifestyle while exploring these islands this spring. Then back to Florida to put her on the hard for the summer and hurricane season while we go back to the mountains for some solid earth ad

Back in 2006, when I first started getting a bit more serious about biking, I bought an all carbon Giant TCR2 . That thing was soooo smooth and fast and light relative to anything I ever put under my butt. I enjoyed countless lunch rides and long Saturday loops up to the Peak to Peak. But then I discovered gravel riding back in 2012 and bought a steel Salsa Vaya for a trip to Patagonia. That Vaya changed how I wanted to spend my time building up lactic acid. Instead of fast and smooth pavement, I wanted bumpy and steep gravel paths and dirt roads. The TCR started spending way more time hanging from its front wheel in the back of the garage. For a couple of years, I don't think it even made it out once. It's still a great ride, though. And it did get some updated shifters and a cassette for the 2017 Ride the Rockies. But mostly, it's been neglected and sitting idle.  This past weekend, I did a nice loop up Sunshine Canyon to the Peak to Peak and Brainard Lake then down Left

Easy climbing machine. Nice and light. Decent downhill bomber. Should be awesome for exploring the trails around Durango. And makes for a decent bike packing platform.

The summer of covid, the summer of people avoidance. Thus we spent July riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) from Boulder to Helena, Montana. Here's the route we took: (view the route details on RideWithGPS) It was super fun to start from home and catch a bus up to Nederland to kick off the ride. From there, a big ride up Rollins Pass and a day of dirt roads heading west from Winter Park brought us to the GMBDR near Ute Pass. A mellow pace, 1,152 miles and 82,373ft of elevation gain got us to Helena over 28 days. We spotted bears, moose, golden and bald eagles, a couple of badgers and a couple dozen fellow GDMBR riders along the way (all heading the opposite direction, north to south). And loads of wildflowers everywhere! We're so very privileged to have so much open space and beautiful landscapes to explore - and the time and health to make it happen. Here's my gear list: Bike Salsa Fargo Apex 1, 2020 edition ( details ) 1x32 with 11-42 in rear for me and 1

With the world closed off by corona, it's a good year to stick to the Rocky Mountains and ride the Divide. So we bought a pair of matching Salsa Fargo's to handle the dirt riding. Should be a good replacement for the old Vaya for future world travels. Wish I would have had it for Patagonia.

Have I ever alluded to my need to always have a project going? I'm a lot like my recently deceased dad in that way: I go existential if I don't have something to obsess over. Sometimes that obsession isn't a project; it might be doing some research related to a new gizmo or the 'need' to update one of my bikes or ski gear... Well, the latest obsession has to do with vans. Rachel and I have been purveyors of VW Westfalias ever since we bought our first one back in 1987, a classic air-cooled, green 1978 Microbus. We took it on an awesome 3+ month road trip to climb and explore the Western states. So much fun! And probably the experience that sealed the deal for our monogamous life :-)  Of course, we had the essential ' How to Keep Your Volkswagon Alive (for the complete idiot) ' and we made good use of it. Somewhere in there, we had a short stint with another Type 2, '77 Microbus, just a regular one but with a huge, leaky sunroof - I just couldn

After 7 years it is finally time to retire the old Stumpy and get a more modern ride. After a bit of research and  deciding to go for something a bit less slack and more crosscountryish, I started looking for something along the lines of the Spark. And lo and behold, craigslist came through with a listing pretty much just as I started seriously searching. Here's the manufacturer's story: 2015 Scott catalogue, see page 46-47 And here's the Owner's Manual The drivetrain has been converted to 1x11: Raceface 32T on Shimano Deore XT 175mm cranks Shimano Deore XT CSM8000 11-42T Shimano Deore XT derailleur with long arm The wheelset is probably the first place I'll look to upgrade. It's currently running the stock wheels: Syncro XR2.5 27.5 made by DTSwiss on a rear axle 142-RWS12 Here she is after her maiden ride, Marshall Mesa, 13 Sept, 2017:  And the maiden ride on Strava :

From 2012_09 Misc Oh la la! Another bike! This one is a very sweet hybrid cyclocross touring beast. Chromoly steel 56cm frame, 20 speed SRAM Apex/X-9 deraillers with a wide ranging spread of 34-48 on the compact road double SRAM Apex crank paired to a mnt. 10 speed cassette 11-36, Avid BB7 cabled disk brakes, DT Swiss X470 29er rims, Clement USH 700x40 tires. Sweet set up for dirt, easy single track, and road. And braze ons for all sorts of racks and fenders. Nice! Took it for its first ride today, from work up around the reservoir, mixing up some dirt, gravel, single track, and pavement. Handles really nice on all three and still manages to kick in around 20mph with this semi knobbly tires. From 2012_09 Misc The corporate spiel: Vaya 2 The Vaya is our touring and road adventure bike, designed to handle any ‘road’ surface, from pavement to gravel. The Classico CroMoly tubeset is carefully selected to provide an excellent ride quality with a full touring load, yet i

Picked up a pair of Salomon Scream Hot 10's at PlayItAgain for $125. Nice! Mogul machines: 110 - 75 - 100. Nice a skinny for quick turns and the right amount of soft in the right places to keep me happy. From 2012 Mobile Pics and vids

Got a new mnt bike ride after seling my old Trek Fuel 80. This thing is awesome! Quite the upgrade after the Fuel 80. https://www.specialized.com/us/en/bike-archive/2010/stumpjumperfsr/stumpjumperfsrcomp/22936

I decided to by a used JP Excite 120l demo board from SHQ ( http://www.shq.com.au/ ). I also picked up a North 430 30% carbon mast and a boom. Andrew is kindly supplying me with a nice 6.0m, 5.3m, and a 4.2m set of sails. So I'm set to take advantage of the water here. I also bought a trolley for A$25 at the Homedepot knock off, Bunnings. I can strap all the gear to the trolley. Andrew has a spot next to his house where I can leave it and it's only a short 5 minute stroll to the nearest launch site. No complaints so far. I've only been out on it a few times with winds under 18 kt but it seems to do well for me. I haven't been out in strong enough winds to consistently nail a water start, but I'll get there...

Got an itch to get into boating a bit again this year. Picked up a used "modern" boat with a planing bottom but still plenty of volume for us wimps. Got for $375 with a decent spray skirt. Took her down Lower Mish, PoudrePark, and Bridges on the Poudre River last week. Fun!! Such a steady solid feel compared to the old Crossfire. Off to Boulder Creek this PM to play in the park, flowing around 320cfs this PM.

Smooth, silky, solid. After testing 12 or 14 beasts, settled on this mid-level, all carbon ride for $1800. I was leaning pretty heavily towards a Cannondale Six13 Pro2 for a bit more cash but it really is a race machine and not as smooth for the longer rides that I like to do. This Giant seems to be a better balance of $$$/features. I'll most likely swap the crankset out for a compact double 50/36 to gain a few more gears on the low end; again, for comfort on those longer mountain rides. More than you wanna know: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/030.000.000/030.000.006.asp?model=11255 frame: fomulaOne Composite, Compact Road Design fork: fomulaOne Full Composite, 1 1/8" w/alloy steerer handlebar: Easton EA50, 31.8 stem: Easton EA50, 31.8 seatpost: Giant Composite w/ micro adjust, 27.2mm saddle: Fi'zi:k Aliante Sport, Ti rails pedals: SpeedPlay shifters: Shimano Ultegra STI, 10 speed derailleur: Front: Shimano Ultegra, Rear: Shimano Ultegra brakes: Shimano 105 SLR Dual Pivo

On a whim, I posted my bike on Craigslist for $750. I bought it last May, 2500 miles ago for $870. It sold the next day. Now, off to find a new bike! With the OK from Rachel! Wonders never cease... This 21lb beast featured a Shimano 105 groupo on a very stiff aluminum frame with a cheap carbon fork. It was an amazing upgrade from the 20+ year old Trek that Rachel kept and I very rarely rode. It served me well! I bought it on the hopes that I would get motivated to do those occassional lunch rides with Heidi and Kay and folks at work. I didn't want to spend too much in case the habit didn't stick. At least I would stil have a decent commuter bike. But it did stick! And now on to the next ride...

Bought this in 2005 after finally getting sick of trying to find a replacement fork for my old hard tail. http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2004/archive/fuel80