Commuting Downtown to Evansdale

Recently, I got involved with the Campus Connector project which is a bike/walk path from Grant Ave and 8th up to the Green House/Watertown near Ag Sciences. It's a great idea, and seems to be moving forward, after nearly 10 years of planning. There were a lot of great reasons why, primary because there is no route that is both safe AND legal way to get from downtown to on top of the hill that is all the rest of WVU.
The primary routes one would take are Beechurst, University, Jones, 8th, 6th, Rail-trail/Arboretum, Stewart St.

• Beechurst-is the only one of these roads that I am aware of WVU Cyclists being hit by a car. Makes no sense as it has a wide shoulder (with a bit of debris), but traffic speeds are around 50mph


• Universtiy-This is most of the team's method, except we take the sidewalk. Yea sure it's illegal, but I'd rather be in jail than underground. Road is narrow, with a blind turn, bikes would go 8-10mph, while cars go 35.


• Jones-very low traffic, pretty steep hill. Usually glass everywhere. Bottom 1/3 is 1way, the wrong way.


• 8th- Probably the safest, legal way to get there. Long steep hill, minor traffic, very wide, very visible. It's not a direct route though, so takes much longer.


• 6th - Less traffic than 8th, but has a killer short kicker just before getting to Grand Central (Positive Spin). Then you go through a parking lot with another hill.


• RT/Arboretum-no car traffic until you cross US19. Much longer way around. Safe, and legal.


• Stewart St-A lot of traffic, but slightly wider roads and more visibility. Could ride the sidewalk. there are options to go through some side streets and come out at top of Jones.

So this new path would be great, you go down Grant, and up this path which won't exceed 8.3% grade, comparable to University Ave.

I post this because today, the University sidewalk was covered in ice and so I tried to take the lane on University coming up. And I just took the Traffic Skills 101 course. Even with low traffic today, I feared for my life and turned into Grand Central. If I could redo, I'd have gone up 8th street today.

Cross Training Shenanigans

A few weeks back, Zerbe had a brilliant idea and went into managerial mode. He recruited a group, primarily made up of WVU cyclists, to play in the Pro Performance coed soccer league. (That's association football for our European readers.) Unfortunately, Zerbe has spent more time in the hospital lately than on his bike, making him unable to participate. (get well soon, broski!) The soccer team, however, lives on in his honor.

Game 3 was tonight. With record low teammate turnout, we blew away the competition and secured our first win. In fact, our intimidating roster so thoroughly frightened the opposing team that the referee was forced to pull us aside before the match for a quick chat. With a weak wave toward the opposite, empty end of the pitch, the referee informed us the other team was not coming. Amid sighs of disappointment, Adam Schwarzweller made a few masculine grunts of victory, lightening the mood.

Through quick wits and fast talking, our group was able to recruit a few bystanders from a previous game to join us for a short 25 min scrimmage. It was great, informal fun, with rule changes made on the fly to accommodate everyones desires. 25 minutes later, we were all exhausted and happy some of the pre-paid facility time had not gone to waste.

2 games left. 2 victories on the horizon. Finals, then Christmas. Great way to end 2009.

More Shenanigans:

Dirty Dozen-WVU represented on the Podium

What started out as a whimsical idea by Bob Carey to go to Pittsburgh and do the Dirty Dozen led to a very painfully pleasing day for me. A bunch of the team members were excited about the idea of climbing hills like this




But when push came to shove, everyone had excuses and this cheese went alone.



I left early, knowing that I always get lost in Pittsburgh, but I did have my semi-trusty GPS. It got me into Pittsburgh just dandy, but then a parade blocked every route that poor little TomTom could imagine. After 20minutes of trying to figure out how to get around the rather large parade, or foot race or whatever it was, I finally got back on course and arrived 20minutes before the start. Luckily my previous WVU training kicked in and I was able to be ready in under 10minutes, and got registered. Although they had run out of t-shirts, but cut the cost from $15 to $5...shucks...


It was chilly, but I had my Cannondale super warm, and comfy bibs. I didn't want to wear half a kit, so I put my team shorts over top. That may have been a mistake, as the first hill 1)killed my lungs because it was cold 2)killed my legs because of too much compression (or not being warmed up) 3)sucked more because I couldn't stand because I had knocked my dearillure out of adjustment while hauling my bike. Got to the top of the hill, and chatted with Betsy (last name not needed) and nearly considered quitting, due to feeling so bad. Luckily I didn't because I warmed up and the air did too, and the rest of the ride was perfect for painful pleasures.


The hills were everything people exclaimed them to be. Some really steep, others really really steep. Some had cobbles, some light gravel, some with holes, some very smooth. People found any reason to fall over, boosting my ego and aiding me through the pain.

2009 Dirty Dozen on EveryTrail

At the top of all the hills we waited until everyone had summited and regained thier wind before lazily rolling on to the next hill. It was usually a 10min wait, but was fine once I knew what to expect.


Gunnar decided to race me, and told me before the 4th climb that was 3 to 1, his favor. Shortly it was 4 to 4, but then my legs ran out of steam and he took it 5 to 7.

Highlights

Betsy won the womens class, taking first on every hill except 1. And I beat Betsy on 4 hills, so thats makes me pretty good right?

JR Petsko broke the fattest to ever complete the ride, he did every hill.

Montana Miller is a badass (first Fixie to do the ride). I've never seen a 160cadence on a bike before...

A 13year old did the ride. Apparently had a badass sprint on one of the early hills.

Gunnar is old, and I beat him on 5 of the 12 hills. Forget the part about him having broken ribs..I smoked him royally on 2 of them.

If you take out the last few miles riding home after the last climb, it was 6100' in 42.1miles. Thats 2.6% average grade!. Total distance was right at 50miles, with 15 climbs.

Top (left to right) 3 women and Top 4 men with Danny Chew, the promoter in background.

Phat Weekend!

Click Here for Additional Post


Phat Weekend: (Ph-At We-ek-end): [Fat Wee-kin-d] - noun : An event which occurs in the Valley of the great land of Cannan traditionally in the fall season. It is a WVU cycling tradition. The event entails days filled with the riding and enjoyment of bicycluar machinery (most prominently of the fat tire variety) and evenings laced in debaucherous activity of questionable legality.

Phat weekend began for most on Friday night with a trip down to Canaan to stay with Ian and his friends. They can fill the details in on that. I was under a car.

Saturday brought beautiful skies and great racing for the first annual running of the Davis Cyclocross race. WVU had a solid presence at the race. Duncan Oliver brought home the Men's B race, with Ryan post chasing close behind. Emily Moy put up a solid performance in the womens race, and I decided to hop on and chase the Men's B race and A race just for fun. James Braswell and Robby Loehr rode strong in the singlespeed race with Robby bringing home the victory and then they both toughed it out to each do another race, with James in the Men's B and Roberto in the Men's A. The Men's A race turned into a drinking, chatting, and bike stealing party for most of the race, save 3 or 4 serious racers. Jake, Liew, Bala, Amber, and Ian brought home solid victories in the days bench race too! Way to go TEAM!








Once the race had concluded and some Hellbender's Burritos had been consumed we headed to Mountain State Brewing to fill the growlers and begin the evenings festivities. After being greeted by L.B. and Chris from the WV Nightclub in the form of fireworks being shot at our vehicles, we knew the evening could only head in the direction of awesome from there on out. Everyone Re-assembled at Sirianni's in Davis for some delicious dinner and then headed back to the Nightclub cabin for more festivities.

From this point on details of the weekend (specifically the hours of 7PM, Saturday, November 15th, the year of our lord, 2009, and 10AM Sunday, November 17th, still the year of our lord, 2009) cannot be discussed due to legalities and perhaps extreme intoxication with. I think there may have been some fire, explosions, and 80's ski jackets involved though. Them Nightclub boys aint' right.

Sunday greeted us with Mike Miller and LB cooking up a delicious morning feast to fuel us up for the days long ride we had planned. Mike and the Nightclubbers were awesome for letting us crash at their place and we owe them a huge thanks! So.. THANKS!!! You guys were awesome hosts!

We rolled out to Davis where our ride would start on Davis Trail to Canaan Loop Rd, Then to Pointy Knob trail, back to Canaan Loop, then Plantation Rd. back to Davis.



During a fast dirt road section we were using to connect between trails Liew found himself coming up on a large mudhole the width of the entire road with nowhere to go but straight through it. Unfortunately that didn't work out well for our good friend Liew and he ended up head on into a rock on the other side of the mudhole. After some recovery time on the ground and a fix of his glasses, Liew was just fine and back on the bike. He then proceeded to ride like a champ the rest of the day. Way to go Larry!!



Point Knob trail was unlike anything I had ever ridden. Non stop technical for about 6 miles or so. Everyone really showed their skills and ability working their way through the tough terrain. Super props to James for being on a singlespeed rigid for the whole ride. You wanted you recognition for being a badass, well here it is! On the way down from the 4200ft peak of the Pointy Knob trail, I found a muddy crossing that looked like it was so much fun that I wanted to play in it... face first. So I did. My form and grace used to go over the handlebars was of Olypmic proportions, and I'm quite sad nobody witnessed it first hand.



A few creek crossings and we were back on Canaan Loop. I headed back to the cabin to clean up and warm back up with Ian's buddy Peter while the others trucked on through Plantation and back to Davis. About 25 miles or so total... perhaps the slowest and toughest continuous miles I'd ever done.



Phat Weekend: Complete Success.

Morgantown Cyclo-cross

This morning dawned at something like 75degrees as I awoke earlier than I ever do for class to get ready for some CX action. I was burning up in my t-shirt at 8am on the rail-trail ride to Marilla Park, no need for hoodies or rain jackets.

The first race was Womens,Masters and Single speeds and had the biggest variety of skill levels I've ever seen on the same course. Steve Rowand took the lead early, and just kept enlarging the gap on his SS, lapping some of the "never raced before gals"-which was awesome that they were there...smiling like all women do when they race. Then right at the end of the race, came the rain and with it, a 15degree temperature drop.

I left my post at the scoring line to race in the Mens B, on the nicely watered course...and got beat by Gunnar and Betsy, but thats OK, because it was 2v1 and I stayed with 'em for the first 3 laps before my asthma...ya asthma, sure. Really, I don't think the grass needed watered, it was wet enough already...but someone insisted. We prepped the course as best we could in our 45min of racing for the Mens A...

I think you need only see some photos of that race to know what happened there.

JR Petsko, Natures Essence Photography

 

Mr. President rollin' fast!

 

More fall riding awesomeness!

Today Jimmy and I set out to explore some roads we had both never been on and do some nicely paced long distance. The weather was absolutely perfect in every way and the fall colors were as striking as ever.



My original plan was to go over Cooper's on Quarry Run the take a left in Bruceton and another left onto Wharton Furnace/Clifton Mills Rd. to Rt. 40, then take a left and another left onto Skyline drive, down Mud Pike, and back into town some way. I had never done any of the stated roads past Bruceton, so it was going to surely be an adventure.

Wharton Furnace road turned out to be a real treat. Amazing new pavement that rolled through farmland and open valleys. Perfect scenery and perfect pavement abounded. We ended up taking a left much before Rt. 40 onto Wirsing Rd. After about a mile or two the road turned into gravel, cut through a corn field, descended into a very narrow valley. The road turned into dirt/gravel/some mud/then back to gravel but was all still ridable (by WVU cycling standards at least). I did flat on a large rock though. Bummer.





Kept on cranking on the dirt road for about 4/5 miles until we hit a large climb upto Skyline Dr. We then headed left to descend Mud Pike, peaking out at 2,700ft max elevation. The views were amazing as was the road.



We cautiously descended Mud Pike and stopped at the bottom for a sandwich at some gas station. Mmmmm. We were about 50 miles or so into the ride at this point and at about 5,500ft of elevation gain, so we were both getting quite parched.



We went South on 857 and then across Rt 43 (the abandoned, but not so abandoned at that end, highway). Then to 119 and Pt Marion where we bailed back on the rail trail. The rail trail bailing was at my request. I recently dropped my stem way down and I'm still getting used to it. I carried too much weight on my shoulders today (literally) and was feeling the other 70 miler I had done on Sunday. No Bakers Ridge climb for us!

Hopefully everyone's enjoying the nice weathers' last big push for awhile. Go ride and explore. Go some place you haven't been before and take roads you haven't heard of. It pays off.

Ride GPS

Fall Post Season Riding

I think everyone on the team is certainly enjoying some downtime after a long and hard fought race season. Rest, rest, and more rest has been the theme of the past two weeks (and catching up with all the school stuff we've pushed aside in order to be kick ass mountain bikers).

Today I finally decided to head out and get some chamois time in. 6 hours of it, actually. The fall colors are truly spectacular in and around town, with most saying that the leaves will be peaking throughout the week. My time left in the mountains in short, and I want to take advantage of it the best that I can.

I opted to go for a ride I had never done before. Morgantown->Bruceton->Albright->Kingwood->Reevsville-> back into town. Jimmy lead a ride on this route in reverse last year but I bailed along with Liew on the climb up Summers School, citing various reasons and excuses. Ride distance was about 70 miles total, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, Quarry Run Road especially.





Also on the way into town the cloud cover that plagued the day broke just slightly on the horizon, giving way to the best sunset I've ever seen in this town. Cars were pulling off on the sides of Summers School Rd. to take photos of the colorful sunset as I descended. The bright orange/red glow lit up the colorful trees and washed the mountains in color as if they were on fire. It was truly amazing.

Hope everyone is enjoying their rest time and getting ready for some cyclocross, which is already in full swing. I plan on racing the Morgantown race and helping out, so I'll see everyone there! Also, don't forget about the Motown Throwdown that evening sponsored by Pathfinder... should be quite the show!

Ride GPS

10 times ACCC D1 Conference Champs!!!

 

 

 

d

Great job this weekend everyone! The competition was stiff, and everyone came out and put in a great effort to achieve this win.

Tuesday MTB at White Park

Ian, Bala, Liew, Emily, Shawn, Zerbe, and myself had a rad time cruising around through White Park.

I broke another pedal....gah!

NCSU

Just back in from the NC State weekend, I'm tired, hungry, and still pretty wired from the car ride back...

I'm pretty sure Bala is in the other room taking pictures of his wounds from the weekend...maybe they will be up here later.

Amber, Bala, Liew, and I headed on down Thursday night to Lemma's house because we had some extra time, and Amber wanted to be there for Friday evening with some of her family in town. This allowed up some extra time Friday for some fun-ride time! Lemma took us out to Crabtree park near her house for a couple hours of riding around. Much to our dismay upon our arrival, the trails were closed! No! But, we decided to just walk around for a while and check out the lake. After about 20 minutes a park official rode by and we flagged him down to ask about riding since trails seemed in pretty good condition...and to our luck he was pleased to tell us they were about to open them! Needless to say we were stoked...

We even made a friend...

Liew showing off in the skills area...

This was my first weekend of racing since getting back on my bike from my broken hand hiatus. It was quite eerie to be riding along during the XC race and pass a VT rider who, during the race, had an accident ending in the exact same break that I had.

I had a rough spell during the XC as I was dropping my chain every couple of minutes, irritating, but nothing major, just a malfunctioning singulator. I made it to the finish...Chad had some bad luck ending in some injuries keeping him form any further racing on the day, so I borrowed his ride for the ST. Thanks for the bike Chad, glad you are OK!

 

The ST went much better for me, as I managed one of the better starts of my career, and was able to hold a good pace, and work my way past a few guys to finish 3rd in the B field. The rain, mud, slick roots, and cheering team mates made it a really fun race for me. Short track is fun because you end up having friends all along the course to cheer you on.

Brock and Liew were a blur....

Congrats to all of my team mates on their great finishes. Before I left, I set my facebook status to "Dominate" - and that is what we did...We had a great showing, and now we look forward to a solid finish as we host Conference Champs next weekend. The run for 10 is on!


- Hopefully tomorrow, some others chime in and add to this post!

WVU team at WVMBA Champs

The WVMBA series championship race was this past Sunday at Coop's and look who ended up on the podium!

Good riding guys!

While not racing, Liew and I, and recent WVU cycling alum Lemma were on hands to help out with the race, pointing the racers where to go.

The WVMBA series is over, and it is cross season locally now. We've got two more collegiate weekends comin, NCSU, and our weekend. I think I should be in good shape to enter our home race weekend!

Black Cat

On the way home, the decision was made to stop and eat at a place called “Black Cat”. They served burritos and beer. You walked up and ordered, then sat wherever and they also used toys to denote who ordered what. They had free oval shaped stickers with their name on it. There was local art on the walls, and had local bands come in.
However, they apparently cook their vegetarian food on the same grill as the meat. Appalling!
So I just wonder…how many other Black [Animal] restaurants there are?

Dual Conference Domination

XC

This weekend was hosted by Appalachian State University, who partnered with their neighboring school, Lees McRae to put on a dual conference with ACCC and SECCC.
The weekend started out with the cross country. They ran a shortened version of the Collegiate Nationals course from the previous 2 years, and just like then, recent rain had the course muddy. Mens C and Womens B started first, and we noticed that while there was a large MC squad, it was mostly racers from VT, and not many from the SECCC. They did 2 laps.
While they were racing, a few of us went to the dual slalom course with Zerbe to try and get some tips to knock off some time. The course was muddy and very slick. On Chad’s second run, he wiped out re-taco’ing his front wheel. Back at the cars Ian had a spare for him. I decided to steal Chad’s Maxxis Ignitor tire and swap out my CrossMark front, and added more Stan’s. Thanks Ian!
The 2nd session of racing started with a huge field of Mens A numbering close to 50, more than half were from SECCC. The womens A field had about 20, dominated by SECCC. And starting 3rd was Mens B pretty evenly mixed.
The fields started 2minutes apart. Within 10minutes of starting half of the WA field was caught by the lead MB riders lead by a very fast ASU rider with Ryan Post sitting in 2nd. The course was extremely muddy and favored WVU riders immensely. Having that Ignitor tire was crucial as I was able to control my steering, while the CrossMark rear was able to slide very well around turns, but still provided plenty of climbing traction while I sat and spun up hills that most of the SECCC riders were pushing.
The course was never flat, constantly climbing or descending with many turns and dips. Roots abound, with 2 narrow wooden bridges. The cherry on top was a long rocky descent through a creek with spectators cheering you on from high on a bank every lap.
I was fighting an unmarked jersey and Martin from ASU for the first 2 laps, but Martin picked up a large nail in his tire, and the unmarked jersey tired near the end of the 3rd lap. After the descent on the 3rd lap, I attemped to hop a hole, but while my head said jump, my legs said “what?”. I noticed my tire was flat as I made my turn at the bottom of the hill. A quick CO2 pop, while Ian passed me, and I saw the unmarked jersey (3rd place). I quickly passed him again and continued the last lap, passing many MA riders (especially Univ of Florida) who were walking up hills. I was also being passed by some seriously fast MA riders from the SECCC, Lees McRae and Warren Wilson most notably.
Lots of riders DNF’d. I’d guess probably 1/3 of them.
On the last run of the descent, I again blasted the big hole, and again flatted. Although I had another CO2, I opted to ride out the 1/2mi of gravel road to finish on a flat. I wasn’t passed but David Henry of VT came in about a minute behind me carrying his bike with his chain magically wrapped around his wheel in such a way it was pinned between spokes and was lacerating his tire.
Results aren’t yet posted, but Ian was likely around 7th/50, Ryan 2nd/38, Chad top 15/38. Emily thought she resprained her ankle, but still finished.

DS

The next event was Dual Slalom, and the course had dried up from the morning slip and slide. Riders were now able to launch 10’ into the air, but WVU opted to keep their wheels firmly on the ground. There isn’t much to say about DS, except that it started at 2:30, and wasn’t over before darkness fell.
There were 56 A riders who did a qualifying run. None of our As qualified in the top 32. Zerbe was seriously bummed. The highlight on our team was a new C rider, Mike, who won his first bracket and took 5th, we think. David Henry, the Legend, out done only by Chuck Norris himself, qualified 4th in MB, wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots. He did roll up his right pant leg at the suggestion from a WVU rider. For sure, the highlight of the ACCC, as we all got smoked by those SECCC acrobatisists.

That Night

I can’t say, Emily and I fell asleep on the couch at like 9:30, despite Beer Pong, Football, random people (including girls), and a drum set.

Next Morning

I woke up, and decided to try to get some homework done while everyone else slept. Zerbe got up, asked when things started, to which I informed him , “30min ago”. He got up, grabbed Tyler, and they headed to the DH. The rest of us had pretty much given up after the slaughter on the DS course by the SECCC. After a slow packup, we headed out, only to have Zerbe call us and tell us the DH was canceled. (We were pretty happy). Headed to a café to kill 4hours before the Short Track. We got to the course and hung out under VT’s tent, chatted and talked trash on each other. (They had far more riders to back their ‘trash’ up.)

Short Track

The short track was a variation of the Nationals ST course, and we hoped the mud would fare well for us again like it did on the XC. We had hoped that schools would tuck tail and head home after the DH was canceled, but sadly…there were like 40 on the Mens A starting line. The start was ridiculously fast, lead by a bunch of SECCC. Ian was mid pack, and the fastest VT rider, who may be the fastest in the conference, near the very end as the course narrowed. Ian managed to move up into the top 10.
The Woman’s A field had about 20 racers, and was actually kind of exciting for the first lap before I had to get ready for my race.
The Mens B field was about 25 strong with 20 or so from the ACCC. We considered running the “Fun train” but after yesterday, all bets were off. I managed to quickly take the lead, taking advantage of my lockout, but forgetting about it as I tried to jump across the road at nearly 25mph, put me nose diving into the other back with 1 foot unclipped. The crowd cheered as I barely kept the bike up, but I lost momentum and dropped back to around 6th. While I was able to make up some ground on people who couldn’t ride mud, Chuck Norris’s illegitimate son, David Henry, lit a fire in the mud and burned us all. I got 4th.
Mike pulled a 2nd in the MC field.

Notes

It was so nice that LMC had hoses and showers for us to use. Even though there were girls in the guys locker room.
And remember kids, reset those Lefty needle bearings. And grease them too!

On your left! CRASH

Justin, Elliott, and I headed out Saturday to do something EPIC. After doing Break Iron, Justin split to go be a good Med school student...while Elliott and I headed towards Aaron's Creek. At this point, with only 25 miles or so clocked, we were not nearly satisfied...so we decided to head to the PA state line and do a little exploring. It's at times like this you realize WV is a beautiful state. You just have to take the time to enjoy it.

At about mile 30, it happened. Elliott and I were cruising on the rail trail...having a good ol' time. Then, almost in sync with Elliott yelling, "On your left", a runner, who was using an ipod, cut in front of the both of us. CRASH. Actually, it was the wimpiest crash I've ever experienced. Elliott bounced off the runner and landed in a tree/some bushes. I bounced off Elliott and fell over. Everyone was ok. No scratches or scrapes, except maybe a few slight ones to our pride and bicycles. Oh, and both Elliott and I had our front wheels knocked out of true. Daaanngit. Thankfully we were only about a mile from pathfinder, where Andy and his crew saved the day.

After getting everything fixed at P, Elliott and I went home. Mostly we went home to eat because we were starving, but also to cuddle up close with our bicycles and ask for forgiveness for crashing them. Unfortunately, the epic ride turned out to be not so epic. Fun though, nonetheless.

Break Iron + Aaron's Creek GPS

William and Mary

We headed to W&M, 14 strong. VT had about 20, with VT upgrading a bunch of riders to A, ouch. W&M had some confusion with USAC about officials, but we were able to work it out for the weekend. The courses were VERY twisty, with lots of roots and tight gaps between trees.
We took 1st through 4th and 6th in the TT in Mens A. Sunday’s XC was won by a VT rider who had been sandbagging in B all season. 2nd through 5th of the MA places were taken by WVU riders. In typical fashion, I exploded off the start taking the lead into the single track, with a WM rider right on my wheel, and a few VT riders in tow. I suck at twisty trail, but no one challenged me, thus began a 1.5lap “fun train” while I lead around 5 guys until I let David Henry pass me when he was able to ride a 2’ log. The fun train apparently derailed after that, but I wasn’t fast enough to see it. Liew ended up 4th and I got 5th in Mens B.

The harvest is in!

Winter is coming, (eventually) - better start collecting those nuts all you squirrels out there...

Liew, Bala, and I here are way ahead of all of you...

........well, we were until we ate them all.



Near the president's house there are three chestnut trees and one has begun to drop its bounty!

Get em fast! - actually don't they belong to us!!!

Good luck on another weekend of racing in my home state of VA!

The crew before a parade over the summer

Bike Van Maintenance

For the trip to VT, since Robbie was going, we were able to use the van from the awesomest bike shop in town, Pathfinder. We noticed some vibration on the way down, figuring it was a low pressure tire. After putting air in it in Flatwoods, that didn’t solve the issue. We then thought it might be an unbalanced tire. Not much we could do there.
On the way back, after stopping at a mexican buffet, Robbie noted the vibration was very cyclical, and decided to drive around the parking lot while people looked for a cause. Chad at first thought it was a loose tie rod, but that didn’t make sense. A little further he noticed the front left tire was buldging. The tread had separated. We decided it would be better if we changed the tire in the safety of a parking lot than possibly on the side of the interstate.
Robbie located the tools, and someone manned the jack while the lugs were loosened. We had some trouble figuring out how to get to the spare tire, but with a quick look into the owners manual we found out we needed a torx driver to get a safty plate out. Lucky for us, the Cannondale headtool has one, normally used for brake rotor bolts that fit perfectly!
Within 15min, we had the tire changed and were loaded up and looking around for air. Ever try and pump a large tire to 70psi with a floor pump? Ask Bala what might happen.