Photo Contest!!!

I stumbled upon this a couple of weeks ago. It is hard, moist, and smooth. The correct answer gets $10,000 of TCM (Todd Created Money). I mimic banks so I create $10,000 out of thin air (that currently did not exist), put a 1 with 4 zeros after it on a ledger with your name on it, and then you just pay me back plus daily compounded interest. Trust me, this prize is not a scam. Banks do it all the time. Send this to everyone who wants to experience the pleasure of increased debt based on nothing.
Note: Winners do not have to accept prize package and can simply claim bragging rights.

36er: Death of the 29er?

For anyone who hasn't been following this lately, there have been several frame builders around the US who have been working on an even larger wheeled bike than the 29er; the 36er or 36 inch mountain bike. As you can see in the image above, even compared to a 29 inch wheeled bike, the wheels of the 36er are just massive!

For most, these are projects which simply push the edge of design; to see how far you can push the envelope before certain limiting factors don't allow you to build any bigger. I for one, will go out and say that while I think that 29ers are amazing bikes, I still see room for a larger wheeled big brother.

Will they be for everyone? No. Just like some short people will never find a 29er to suit their form (although we are now seeing many top female riders who are short riding the 29ers). However, once you do reach a certain threshold, smaller wheels, or in the case of the 36er, larger wheels might be the best answer.

Being tall at 190cm (6'3"), I am definitely on the larger wheeled side of things. I also have a strong upper body and long legs which give me a fairly high centre of gravity. While I find that the 29er is above and beyond and 26er, I still feel that I could go bigger.

One of the things I've noticed of all the 36ers built thus far is that they have all been built for an average height rider. Thus, I think the bikes do look a bit ridiculous due to the small frame, short seat tube, negative stems and bigger than life wheels. I can't help but thinking that wheels of this size built on a frame like mine, or someone way taller, would in effect, look.... well, normal.

Black Sheep Bikes makes some absolutely beautiful custom titanium bikes. Shown above is their 36er with a custom titanium truss fork, ti seatpost and bars. If I had the cash, I would definitely get them to build me up a ride (not necessarily a 36er).

There is no denying that these bikes look like an absolute blast to throw a leg over. Anyone who is lucky enough to ride one talks on about the perma-smile they get and how they feel like a kid all over again. Having wheels of this size obviously has design limitations especially on suspension. Thus, anyone who would actually want a bike with this wheel size would do so fully rigid. That being said, you would likely need no suspension whatsoever due to the super low angle of attack of the wheels. After all the years of suspsension, people would go back to full rigids. This would be similar to the fact that many people switching to 29ers are going back to hardtails after swearing off them forever once they got their first 26 inch full suspension bike. Those wheels must weigh a ton? You could never race on that thing! The current answer is that, yes, the wheels are extremely heavy and not practical at all for racing. There is a reason for this though

The only 36er rims and tires currently made are designed for unicycle use.

Thus, one wheel is designed to support the weight of the entire rider. The lightest rim and tire currently made are the following:
Nimbus Stealth Rim: 1116g
Nimbus Nightrider Tire: 1660g

In order to really get a 36er movement rolling fast, you would need rims and tires actually designed for mountain bike use. These would shave at least a third of the weight off the above setup. I would imagine that a good all-purpose aluminum disk-only rim with eyelets would be in the 700-800g range with a WTB Nano-wrapter 36er coming in around the 800g mark. These would be respectable weights; maybe not for the smooth XC race scene but for technical all-mountain riding where you keep the wheels on the ground... this just might be the next bike if your on the tall end of the spectrum.

Will the 36er actually take off as a viable option?
I think it actually will as now that we have the 29er, I think the taller riders out there see the advantages and would want an even larger wheel size. However, maybe the 36 inch wheel size is simply too large. Maybe a 32 inch wheel size would give the best reduction in endo factor, improved traction and rolling smoothness for most tall folk. Also, I have no scientific backing for this, but it seems to me that the taller (and generally heavier) you are, the more traction you require. Thus, a larger rider needs a larger volume tire, a grippier tire, needs to use lower pressure, or larger wheels in order to get the same wheel to the ground grip as someone smaller.

If the amount of grip I have is fine, why would I want larger wheels?
Well, going to a larger wheel size would allow you to run tires with less tread, run higher pressures and give you lower rolling resistance all the while giving you the same amount of traction. In the end, this may negate the effect of the additional weight (just as many 29ers claim over 26ers).

The only reason that the 36 inch wheel size is even entering the mountain bike domain is simply this; because it was already available for another application. Thus, it seems most likely that if another large wheel size is standardized in the bike industry, it just might be the 36er. I definitely think there is a market and room for it in the industry. The main issue right now though is that no one produces a true mountain bike rim and tire for the 36er. However, I see this limitation as being less than the problem that 29ers had when they first entered the marketplace as there were no full-suspension models and limited fork options. With a 36er, no one will want front or read suspension. Thus, a basic chromoly fork (easily made by most custom shops and relatively cheap) and a carbon fork option would satisfy most riders.

So, Bontrager give me a RaceLite 36er rim and WTB, give me a nano wrapter 36 and I'll jump on the train. Till then, the guys at Black Sheep will have to wait to build up my next ride!

Think all of this is complete rubbish and that a 36 inch mountain bike is a completely ridiculous idea?
My bet is that you're shorter than me.

TNO

The Death of the 26 inch Hardtail

So, maybe you've heard about these 'new' 29ers or 29 inch mountain bikes. Maybe you know some people that ride them or better yet, maybe you've even had a chance to ride one. If you meet any of the above descriptions, you've likely been introduced, possibly quite fanatically, to the 29er revolution.

You see, people who ride these 'big wheeled bikes' not only love to ride them, but they love to tell all their fellow 'small wheeled bike riders' about how much better they climb, how much better traction they have, how you hold your momentem better through the rough stuff and so on.

I for one, am one of those people.

Being a strongly built tall guy, I finally retired my 26 inch wheeled 'circus bike' in 2008 and have not looked back. My level of riding instantly rose to another level as the 'endo' factor of my previous circus bike all but disappeared and I finally had the traction I needed for those tougher than tough climbs. I had read about all the praise before the conversion but was still utterly shocked at just how much better these big-wheeled bikes were.

Well, hold it right there, most people say. If these bikes are really so good, why are most people still riding 26ers and even more so, why are all the top XC riders still not using them? These are very valid questions indeed. For some answers to these questions, Richard Cunningham of Mountain Bike Action recently put out an article in the most recent edition to help shed some light on the situation and predicts, along with Chris Sugai of Niner Bikes, that the 26 inch wheeled hardtail will be dead on the cross-country sceen and the 29er is here to stay. It is funny now watching all of the major bike companies jumping on the train before they miss out like Santa Cruz who said that they would never ever build a 29 inch bike...

I would highly recommend giving the article a read which can be accessed from the Niner website, or following the direct link here.

There was also another interesting article posted on VeloNews that I would highly recommend.

Happy Reading!

TNO

Body Odour: How to control it WITHOUT deodorants OR anti-perspirants

Impossible?

I used to think so.

Being an already sweaty person that usually performs at least one form of physical exercise everyday is a recipe that used to kill me in the body odour department. No matter how many showers I took or what type of deodorant I tried, nothing seemed to work.

I tried the whole spectrum of deodorant options: wet roll-on, powder white stick, spray-on, and the some of the extreme liquid gel which contain super micro body odour destroying particles. I don't like the strong scents provided in some deodorants but was willing to try everything. The verdict? The strong scents seemed to work for a few minutes, but in a short time, my the body odour would overcome any deodorant that I threw at it.

I also tried many kinds of anti-perspirants despite the fact that they contain potentially harmful compounds like aluminum chlorohydrate and aluminum zirconium on top of the fact that they supposedly make you stop sweating. This protective layer just seemed to make me want to sweat more and gave me streaks of white anti-perspirant laden sweat running down my arms and body. I still perspired and body odour was still there.

It seemed like whatever I would put under my arms would actually make me sweat more and would never work. For awhile even the best method I found was not putting anything on at all and simply changing shirts frequently (yes, I would actually bring an extra shirt with me!).

This all changed when I tried out a product that has been used for centuries in different areas of the world. It is the cheapest body odour product that you can buy for the use and is very, very effective.

The solution I found is in a product made by Crystal; a simply mineral salt stick.

A salt stick to get rid of my never ending woes of body odour? Yes, I was skeptical at first but after over three years of constant use, I can tell you first hand that a salt crystal is simply the best body odour product that you can use, period.

So, how does a salt crystal do the job that no other extreme, high-tech, hyped-up product can do? It's simple; eliminate the bacteria. Make an environment in your armpit that bacteria don't like and they won't flourish.

It is simple really. Since underarm body odour is caused by the combination of both bacteria and sweat, if you eliminate one of them, then your problem is solved. We've already seen that if you try to control or eliminate sweat, it is simply a losing battle. Deodorants and anti-perspirants are like the United States War on Drugs; you can try to mask the problem or try to shut down imports but regardless of what you do, people still sweat.

While the Crystal product is actually labelled as a deodorant stick, it technically doesn't deodorize anything. From the Crystal website,

"we believe our products are actually un-odorants, preventing odor, rather than deodorants which just cover it up."

While there are other companies that produce a similar mineral salt stick, this is simply the one that has been made available to me. Crystal makes several different models such as the solid rock salt, a roll-on, and a spray on in un-scented and scented formats. All of the products simply use mineral salts as their base; either as a rock or dissolved in water. The best bang-for-the-buck is easily the solid rock salt (as shown in the photo above). I've tried the roll-on, which works well, but it only lasts for several months. Even with mulitple use everyday, I think you could easily get five years out of the rock salt which makes it the most economical body odour product out there.

This product just simply works. I put it on everytime after I have a shower or bath whether it be in the morning or evening. This keeps a constant layer of protection that is never irritating and allows me to sweat freely when doing exercise. In fact, I never really know it's even there except for the fact that even after exercise, my armpits do NOT smell! This is quite the feeling after years of having issues and embarassing moments due to body odour.

So, if you suffer from underarm body odour or simply want to get away from anti-perspirants or the masking properties of deodorant products out there, you should seriously consider going for the salt stick. In fact, don't consider it, just do it!

TNO

If anyone else out there disagrees with me or has had a similar experience, give me some feedback in the comments.

Rain, Clouds, Wind and My Big Toe

In the past two weeks or so, the weather has unfortunately been less than par. We have had some rain and lots and lots of cloudy cold windy days. The summer is just not coming. Everyone who lives here assures us that this is not normal. Regardless, I can't wait for some nice weather again (especially with the gorgeous weather that the west coast of BC has been getting!).

Despite the weather, I've still managed to get in a good amount of biking although it is not always easy to make my way out the door. This week, I've also managed to get in two short runs. What I have neglected to say in the past few months is that I have still been recovering from a big toe injury that happended way back in December in the Stewart Mountain XC race. After having some good manipulation physio done, things started to feel better but I could tell that it still needed some good time to heal. I may have waited a bit longer than I needed but all I knew was that I had tried to run a couple of times since I have been here in Trondheim and both times I had toe pain following the run. However, this week was to see no pain after the runs and everything felt good (expect that my legs were wondering why they weren't spinning in their regular circle on top of a bicycle).

Despite taking my first run on the slow and short side, I definitely felt the effects for a good two days afterwards. Should be less so after this last run. Maybe I'll actually get to do some orienteering while I'm over here!

Kim's also been having some injury troubles with an inflammed achilles which she is now seeing a physio for. Unfortunately, it has cut into what we have been able to do a bit (for bike rides and tours) but on the otherhand, the weather hasn't cooperated much either. Hopefully she'll be in good shape in a couple of weeks when we want to do a bike trip around the Lofoten Islands (one of the absolute highlights in Norway). More on this soon...

TNO

MOMAR Squamish Afterthoughts

Looks like the first MOMAR of the year went off well and ended up topping the 'hardest MOMAR race to date' from last years Squamish course. I think you outdid yourself again Seggs! From what I've heard, the course was mountain bike heavy with some gruelling trails and the repel off the Cheif was supposed to be unreal. Can't believe I missed it! Must have been super hard as just looking at the times, you can see that the mid pack was taking 6 1/2 hours with a winning time close to 5.

Congrats to Bart Jarmula who took his first overall win and of course, to Gary Robbins and Shane Ruljancich for taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. Seems like Gary had some tough times with the Nav but didn't give up and winded up pushing hard to the line to move up to 2nd. Team Helly Hansen/Vancouver Island must have been screeming out there to pull off 5th overall.

Looks like my pre-race picks were pretty close to the mark. :)

TNO

Italy Trip Into a Four Day Bike Trip and... MOMAR THIS Weekend!

Kim and I just got back from an amazing trip to Italy which included the island of Ischia, a visit to Pompei, and then to Roma. There are many, many great pics and they can all be found here.

Now, we are off for a four day bike trip starting tomorrow. I just realized a coupld of days ago that the first MOMAR of the year is already here! I just had a quick glance over the registered racers and here's my take:

Best Team Name: Forever Chasing Gary and Todd
Love this one from Martin Middleton and Tom Roozendaal but you'll only be chasing Gary during this one!

Don't see Team HH/Vancouver Island signed up there. They would have been my pick for team of 4 coed. Maybe they are late comers?!

I assume 'Renegades of Gunk' was a last minute name? :)

Sarah Seeds will once again rock the female podium.

I think the overall win for this one will be fought by the solo males with favourites going to John Markez, Bart Jarmula, Shane Ruljanchich and superman Gary Robbins. Depending on the complexity of the navigation, and where it is placed throughout the race, the better navigators such as Markez and Jarmula might shine through. If I had to put my money on it though, I think I'd go for Robbins and he'll be fast on his feet and knows how to completely suffer to the line (since he hasn't been on the bike much). Just don't forget about the map!

Looking forward to seeing the results!

Todd

I'M MOVING TO NORWAY!!!

Ok, so I havne't been on the blog train lately and with good reason... I found out recently that Kim and I are moving to Trondheim, Norway!

Kim applied for a job that had opened up with the Norwegian Government due to a maternity leave. They were impressed with her resume, flew her over for an interview, and offered her the job shortly thereafter! So, we have both been busy trying to work this all out as Kim leaves within the next two weeks and I'm going to be leaving in February! This was just such a good opportunity that we simply could not pass it up.

Trondheim is located in mid Norway on the west coast in a protected fiord.

Trondheim is an old historic Viking city that is full of culture and history.

Did I mention that Trondheim is an orienteering mecca with elite clubs, world champions, more maps than you could use in a year, and is holding the world orienteering championships in 2010? Yeah, it's that good. Despite being at a similar latitude of Iqaluit, Nunavut, Trondheim is relatively mild with winter temps hovering around -7 Celcius making it a cross country skiing mecca as well. I bet they have over 500 km of trails within a 30km radius of the city centre. Ok, that's a total guess but the above map is of a big area and it is literally covered in trails. I'm still not sure what the mountain bike situation is like there but I'm sure it will be decent.

I think I could get used to this!

These photos were all a random assortment from the Google Images directory. It looks like I can go see 'W.A.S.P.' rockn out with all there skeleton paraphenalia.

I'll try to give more updates as they come. Just writing this has got me really psyched. Can't wait!!!

TNO

Winter Wonderland

Well, right after the Stewart Mountain race, the skies started to dump the white stuff until we had a winter wonderland in Victoria and all around the island and coastal mainland. While this isn't extremely uncommon, it's not very common to have so much as once and also to have it last so long. With all the snow, the city half shut down with the small number of snowplows trying to do there thing. At first the snow wasn't too bad and I was able to still ride into work on the ice and snow filled lochside trail with my studded ice tires but eventually, this became too much. The ice became like a skating rink on parts of the road that forced me to move to Cordova Bay road which was now narrower and scarey with all the Victoria drivers with my life in there hands (trust me, this is not a good thing and no one knows what to do when it snows).

You can complain about the snow if you want (and most people do) but you can't argue that it's not pretty and it also brightens up the winter where were used to dark and dreary conditions for months.

Lochside road filled with snow. I tried to bike in to work but turned around after a couple of blocks. The snow was just too deep to keep the bike straight. It would have been some effort to just keep it at a normal walking speed. I worked from home that day!

Cordova Bay with snow filled islands in the distance.

The first signs of snow still didn't stop the Thursday Night winter solstice ride!

Meeting up with the crew for some fresh handmade eggnog

Kim and I spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day up at Jeff Reimer and Kristen Magnusens' place up in Parksville. We spent the two days out on the snowshoes with there three german shepards who kept us all company. It was so nice to spend some good time with them and enjoy some the winter snow.

Big Bear stuck on the bridge

Unfortunately, we couldn't make the lookout that we wanted to as our progress was slow due to the deep white stuff. It was still worth it though.

Cameron Lake

Snowshoeing out in Englishman River Conservation Area

Jeff and Kristen took us to a pretty cool steep eroded bank on the river.

After we left Parksville, Kim and I took the ferry over to visit Gary and Jackie in North Van for the annual Robbins Christmas bash. It was great to see lots of people I haven't seen in ages. Yes, I drank a lot but not quite as much as Robbins who hugged the toilet for a bit the next morning... er, afternoon. We still managed to walk around downtown Van, watched the Polar Express in 3D at the Imax, and built a snowman on the beach in Stanely park. It was a great long weekend and I'm looking forward to some additional downtime over new years and the days following.

Hope you're all having a great time off to visit friends and family.

Happy Holidays!

Todd & Kim

The Past Six Weeks

Yes, I have fallen off the blog train again but for good cause. I have been busy on a number of fronts including work, training, racing and travel. Here is mostly a photo log of my past weeks.

Mountain Biking Mt. Quimper with Doug

Doug Doyle and I headed out to Sooke to explore some of the Harbourview trails. It was quite the grind at times due to riding old access roads and riding (trying to ride) the hiking trail (the old main road) up to the summit of Mt. Quimper. We definitely had a gorgeous day!

The summit of Mt. Quimper

Taking a break at the summit before a bad trail decision for the descent.

Biking and Hiking up Mt. Whymper

This was a great trip organized by some local Prairie Inn Harriers running friends, Andrew and Sarah. Kim and I and Garth and Lara all hooked up and did the drive up to the Cowichan Valley to the base of the summit. There is a lot of logging in the area (it is still active) so you are able to cycle up some good elevation before you begin the hike. So, we all brought our bikes and went to it.

The Bike was pretty grueling but the views were well worth the effort.

Starting the climb up Mt. Whymper

The summit just ahead.

Sarah and Kim making their way up the climb

A good food break at the summit.

All Smiles!

On the way down.

Old spruce skeleton.

Ready for the fast descent down!

Sarah letting go of the brakes; sometimes ;)

Pumpkin Pull Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

The last couple of years I have started to play some Ultimate on and off and decided to finally commit this year and play in a Tuesday night league at the University of Victoria. It has been loads of fun and a great fast twitch workout that I normally to otherwise get much of. I also play after a speed interval workout with the Prairie Inn Harriers so by the end of the night, I'm pretty much played out.

So, along with the Tuesday night league, I joined some fellow teammates to make up a team for the Pumpkin Pull tournament. This is heaps of fun as the tournament coincides with Halloween and every team is dressed up in a theme. Some teams of note were Caddyshack (all wearing golf gear and cardigans), a DnD team consisting of a wizard and other crazy characters, and GoesInTight... Our teams theme was Cabaret and we definitely had some good costumes going on.

One of eight games over the weekend. Here we are playing Caddyshack.

Yeah!

Hovan and Christine looking all ready to take on the town.

Leon found this awesome sequined top.

Team Photo.

Halloween

On top of Pumpkin Pull, Kim and I dressed up in 70s gear and rocked out at Kim's dance Halloween Party and also as Paul's place (from Ultimate).

Keeping the 70s alive and kickn!

Rippn up the rock band (70s music only) at Paul's place.

Stratford Visit

For the last 10 days, I've been visiting family and friends in and around my hometown of Stratford, ON. I've been having a great time and have been getting in some great recovery but soaking up in my brother's hot tub on a daily basis followed by working out some knots in the legs with the foam roller. I've been working lots as well as I made the visit a working holiday but have still managed to have some good fun including some disk golf (of which my brother is currently obsessed).

After Scott picked me up from the airport, we headed over to a disk gold course for a short 9 hole game. Ah, the nice deciduous trees of the east. As you can see, the weather last week was just fantastic. 15 degrees and one day it went up to 20. I definitely came at the right time!

Scott letting a rocket go off the tee box.

Checking out the next hole.

Scott, Shanon (Scott's wife), and Jason (Shanon's brother) check out the lay of the land on Tee #3 at the Woodstock disk golf course.

Jason letting go of a strong left-handed flick.

We played best ball (best disk) in teams to make things go a little smoother and add some camraderie.

During my visit, I hooked up with Chris Piller for some mountain biking at Kelso and orineteering at Mt. Nemo to sharpen up the skills before Raid the Hammer (I'll cover this race soon; I promise!).

On top of Kelso, through a field of wildness.

Another nice day!

On top of the escarpment and top of the ski hill. Yes, there are some hills here but not much.


Today, I got out for a nice 18km run on some trails I have yet to be on. I started off on the avon river running by the now finished festival (for the season).

I kept following the avon up stream until I hit the Avon trail which then took me back on some country roads back to my brother place.

Winter has now officially arrived as temps have dipped down to freezing and I've gone from shorts and a shirt to tights, a long sleeve, vest, touque and gloves. No complaints here though. It was still a nice day.