Bricks Are Heavy - Phoenix Sun

And if you can call out the origin of this blog title, you are grunge master-savant, and I buy you a beer next ride.

Anyway; in the interest of keeping this blog ride-beer oriented...a few weeks ago Stacie and I are about stark raving mad at the weather; extended zero sun/ vitamin d drains the soul; time to book a sunny weekend getaway in Phoenix. The Hilton Tapatio Cliffs is nestled adjacent to the North Mountain Preserve; an urban paradise of trails criss-crossing major thoroughfares, easily accessed from multiple trailheads at various locations.

But before the riding, I had an important McGyver-esque discovery...we buy stellar (unavailable in KC) beers (Kona, Dogfish), and quickly realize "no bottle opener". Oh. Stacie breaks a bottle on the hotel cabinet handle; honest mistake; when I realize I brought gear to ride, including my own eggbeater MTB pedals. Guess what...

Presto

So now we're in business with some of the finest brews in the world. If you haven't sampled Dogfish Head Brewing this is the very definition of American extreme brewing; perhaps an overused descriptive term but it can't be emphasized enough that American brewing is bar none, the most creative, diverse, and high quality in the world and this is something we should be proud of. Dogfish is an example of doing a lot of very unique things as a matter of course. Our own locals such as Boulevard and Free State have been doing great things for a long time.

Now to the ride. I rent a pig alum hardtail from a nearby shop. Right price, but a real pig-sled for the 2 hour grunt I'm about to tackle.

Shaw Butte is a 1.2 mile 1,000 foot climb...I'm checking out the 11 - 20% grades on my GPS as hikers are yelling at me about climbing this grunt on a bike...yeah I'm spinning the granny and this about as steep as it gets staying ridable; worst I've done since Puke Hill going up to the Wasatch years ago, but in far better condition on a much worse bike so I feel pretty good about cleaning it with little repercussion sans screaming hammies. The view from the top is worth the pain.

The next phase of the ride on Trail 100 features typical desert loose rock over hardpack with some technical grunts and smoother flatter sections for an overall good hard ride over 2 hours. After that I don the running skids and reel off a couple miles of trail to test the Du sticks. Things feel good but I'm getting into some dehydration and fatigue so I call it quits knowing a pool, more sun, and cold beers await in an afternoon of blissful leisure. I could write an entire blog about Phoenix dining, but...lets stay focused.

Stacie and I hike 5 miles the next day on Trail 100 and its every bit as good as riding with some steep offshoots and a different viewpoint.

White is the Fastest Color

The last couple years I've purchased a new bike around this time; this year's austerity program dictated new shoes only, however the dream of white shoes was (finally) realized, along with some new MTB skids. I cracked the carbon sole on my old pair, cause yeah I generate soooo much force the shoe couldn't take it (you can quit laughing now). As a bike racer, you're thinking "duh, white is the fastest color", however you may not know that other recreational type "cyclists" and laymen don't know this. Nitin Pai would argue that yellow shoes are actually faster b/c they're so ugly your feet are trying to pedal away from/ out of them. Intuitively I would agree, but would like to see the KU Physics and Mechanical Engineering departments test this theory.

Another cool feature of the TriVents is the heat shield. I'll need this cause I generate so much wattage, power, and heat that the road needs protection from my feet. The shield looks pretty NASA-esque so I'm convinced it works.

Rye on Rye

This one is special.

I also recently attended a New Belgian beer tasting at Barley's Midland with The Schultzez, Richard Hu, and Nitin Pai. The opening monologue by the N.B. rep was okay, but as a serious beer geek I thought it a little elementary...let's get to the tasting. Out of five beers I'd say the Ranger IPA was good; seriously nuanced hops but not much of a body to it. The Dark Heather Saison was really special, a different take on Saison. Didn't really like the sour beer, wow it was sour.