Left, right, left, right... eh, makes sense.

Decided that getting in some running real soon now would be a good idea if I really want to do a sprint tri in a few weeks, since after all it has a run at the end of it.

Hit the trails at sunset tonight and it felt pretty good. Legs felt very fresh. 6 weeks of nothing but biking was nice for letting chronic wear and tear repair itself.

The poor dog is really out of shape though. It might not be a bad idea to have a separate user ID in rubiTrack for him and his workload.

Once you get a race on the calendar it all starts to come together.

The Scott Tinley Adventure Offroad traithlon looks like a good one. Still not sure which distance to choose, but will probably go for the one that ends in the 3 mile run instead of the 6 miler.

Hit the pool today and was comforted that I have not completely forgotten how to swim in the last couple of months.

They put those at the check-in desk. Most likely some people would be like "oooh that's cold" and some would think it hot. Seemed a bit warm to me.

It's a trap!

It started out as a plan to add a little more trail to the round trip to home from either Redwood/Joaquin or Lake Chabot parks. When returning from any of those I'd been using the (paved) Skyline Boulevard. Leona Canyon open space looked like it was a good way to get back down the hill on dirt instead of pavement.

Paying a little closer attention to the map might have helped me out in two ways. 1) It is pretty obvious Leona is in a bowl and you have to climb back out if you go in, and you might avoid a little pavement but you might also sweat an extra bucket. 2) The trail that looked most convenient to use as the exit point from the park is landlocked by recent private development. I got within about 50 feet of the exit to the road that was supposed to be the final leg home but had to double back and drop into and climb out of the canyon one more time. What's one more 300ft climb among friends?

The trailhead comes out onto a private drive behind a gate:

Here's the whole route:

Data graph showing pretty clearly how no matter which way you exit Leona, you are climbing out to about 900ft.

At least I saw the yellowjackets swarming in and out of a hole in the ground right at the junction of the Artemisia and Leona trails before they saw me.

Stung twice in one ride. Ow. Ow.

Not to mention the endo I did onto my face when the one wasp stung me just as I was dropping into a steep rut and I grabbed the front brake with my left hand because I was trying to get the wasp out of my shirt with my right hand.

Going to mount a super-soaker full of RAID on my bike before riding in Joaquin Miller again.

OK maybe not. Today's ride was to check out the few remaining trails there I hadn't sampled yet. Fun, but man there is some steep technical stuff there and out and backs seem to involve walking on the uphill legs.

Also

http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/2010-150mm-rockshox-revelation-settings-thread-591938.html

And apparently there are 22 clicks of rebound available, so the initial setting on mine of 12 off minimum was someone starting out pretty middle-ish.

Dual Air, and an alternate rebound knob.

After reading this I think I get it. [Most of my personal knowledge of suspension forks comes from motorcycles, so my context below may make more sense if you also understand said.]

http://www.pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=Tuning_Rock_Shox_Dual_Air_Forks

The "positive" air spring is analogous to a traditional coil spring. More pressure equals stiffer spring, and it takes more force to compress anywhere in the stroke versus lower pressure. Compression and rebound must be adjusted to suit.

The "negative" air spring is analogous to a preload spacer on top of the spring. It puts the positive spring under load and you have to exceed that load in order to initiate movement of the positive spring. Since it is a gas and not a solid thing, I think it will act a bit differently throughout the stroke, but that may be a good thing and make for a more progressive system.

And I don't need to replace the rebound adjuster that is missing on my bike. A 2.5mm allen (hex) key of sufficient length is all you need. The OEM knob is just a nice package job of an allen key. Until it falls off.

Conclusion:

Success. Now I have everything I need to make note of how my suspension was delivered, and which direction I should go to start using most of the travel on the forks instead of the 30-40% that's been used so far.

Dear Rockshox, Please make better user manuals.

This article does a great job explaining how the compression adjusters work on many of the Rockshox forks. The OEM user manual doesn't even identify which controls are which or what they adjust.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2010/08/20/tech-article-how-rockshox-motion-control-works/

Now if I can find articles that covers the dual air technology, and the rebound circuit, I'll be in control of my own fate.

China Camp

Whacked my head pretty good on this branch. 6' is too tall apparently.

Had two flats. Dang.

Good trip though. Nice scenery. Interesting variety of trails.

Joaquin Miller Park

The multi-use trails here are not off-leash legal for dogs, so I've never been in this park before. However, they have a variety of degrees of difficulty for bicycles so they were worth checking out.

Here's how I was trying to figure out where I actually went, after the fact.

This guy did a nice job taking pictures on the trails themselves. I'm glad to see he agrees that certain sections are too steep and rocky to climb and it is kind of surprising they are open to bikes.

bayarearides.com

The person who created that entry did it last year and in a few places things look worse now just a year later.

Full suspension is fun

Did a little exploring today and connected the regular park I ride to the one across the paved road. Good times.

Gonna have to do the Lake Chabot bike loop real soon now.