Summer Arrives!

After a relatively mild spring, summer arrived in full-swing this past weekend here in Phoenix. Tom and I started early (about 6am) but not nearly early enough. We started up Javelina Trail, then joined Mormon and climbed up. The slight morning breeze was cool at the passes, but the temps were climbing quickly. I'd not been on the bike in about a month, so I was sucking badly.. :(

Turned it around at the junction of Mormon/National and headed back down. A quick video after the jump.

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Later that day, I took Jaden to the last day of his 3-day Cub Scout Day Camp. I was back at South Mountain for the second time that day.
Lots of sunscreen, water and fun was the order of the day.

From Cub Scout Day Camp - 2010

From Cub Scout Day Camp - 2010

As residents of the valley, we often forget what a great resource we have in South Mountain Park

Hawes Night Ride Ninjas!

You Tube (if you're not on FB)

Trail 100 and Greg's inagural Turner DW 5 Spot Ride

When Gregs' 6 year old Specialized FSR bit the dust a few weeks ago, we finally got together for our own version of a bike 'demo' ride.

We hit Trail 100 at night and I loaned him my 2009 Turner DW Link 5 Spot. One ride and he was sold!

After some back and forth on the 'make vs buy' decision, he ordered up the frame direct from Turner Bikes (in California) and it showed up the next day.

Then we spent the next few days emailing back and forth over parts. I also left my 2005 Titus Motolite with him so he had something to ride while waiting for the new frame to arrive, and to get an idea of another mfgrs frame for comparison.

Got the bike built up last Thursday evening:


Hit the trails on Saturday for a shakedown ride on Trail 100 in Phoenix:

Trail 100 Turner DW 5 Spot Ride

A great video of the 5 Spot from pinkebike.com

Cave Creek Mtn. Bike Ride

Great ride today from a friends house near New River,
down to Cave Creek / Carefree AZ.

Approx. 13mi over an hour and a half with just under 1000ft
of climbing.

Thanks Mike for putting this together!

Garmin Connect GPS info is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21270374

Jan the Stunt Man!

First on Vimeo:
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Jan the Stunt Man! from tim schneider on Vimeo.

Let's see how it looks on Flickr:
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A New Kodak Camera - Z980 wide angle with *crazy* zoom (24X)

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I'll post an in-depth review hopefully this week. For right now you can feast your eyes on the shots below, and the whole background story!

Get the full-sized versions of the photos below by heading over to

my flickr photostream

In the film days it was a Mamiya and Pentax SLR and for my adventures a Yashica T4 with Kodak 64 or Fuji Velvia. In the digital age it seemed that Canon and Nikon were at the top of the heap, although the first digicams and pro digital SLR's came from Kodak. I've liked the idea behind the Powershot G series from Canon. With the exception of a few stray models, they kept the same general form factor, buttons on the outside etc: Optical 'rangefinder' like viewfinder, plenty of manual modes and the like. The S400 Digital ELPH is a little tank.. keeps going and going and takes wonderful photos. I've been a Canon fanboy for a while now. But lately I'm starting to like Kodak? Huh? you mean those guys that used to make film?

Yes!

This all started a year or so ago. I noticed that some of the new Kodak line of point and shoot cameras were starting to incorporate HD Video. The V1273 came out, I bought one a few weeks after it hit the shelves and I've been pleasantly suprised with the quality of photos and having the ability to shoot HD Video in a compact package. Likes? The Schneider optics (maybe it's the name?), the image quality, the 720p video. Dislikes? the touch-screen 'ipod' like LCD and lack of buttons / viewfinder. The camera is nearly impossible to use in the sunshine but with a good hat as a shade, and peering over your sunglasses you can make it work!

Here are V1273 photos from last weekends mountain bike ride.

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Having HD Video capability in your digicam is cool! With a bit of effort, you can turn a static story into something that helps people *really* see and feel what it was like to be there! Check out this fun HD video from an undisclosed location in San Diego :)

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So when I received an email coupon from Kodak for St. Patricks day, I dove in and started reading about their latest offering the Kodak Easyshare Z980.....

(to be continued..)







Get the full-sized versions of the above photos by heading over to

my flickr photostream

If you like what you see, let me know! I'll post up the rest of my review soon. In the meantime, here is a link to the specs on dpreview.com and a brief writeup I posted there.

Goat Camp Out and Back Ride

Sam pinged me on Facebook the other day and asked if I wanted to tag along for a run out to ride the 'Goat Camp' trail in the White Tanks. Greg and I had already made plans for a dual climb/bike day on Sunday, but when that fell through, I switched plans and met up with Sam at 6:30am for the trek out to the westside.

It's starting to get hot here in Phoenix again. This means early early starts, and lots of sunscreen and water. Today, the breeze out of the northwest saved us. It would have been much hotter without it!

Legs started cramping on the way back down and I ran out of water right at the end of the ride, good workout, but getting warm!

I posted up a few photos from the day over on Flickr, and the Garmin 405 data is here:



As promised.. here is the embed of Sam's video which is excellent!
Even got to close out the video.. witness my weeak manual
attempt at 5:51 or so ;-)



Tossed together this quick video using Quicktime Pro

Click to play

Arizona Spring Fling 2009 Sedona

Sorry for the length.. just too much fun stuff/footage to cut here. This is from the Sat. MTBR ride this past March, 2009 in Sedona. Part of the whole 'Spring Fling' series of rides which happens every year around spring break time. Great day to be out riding, party at the Bike & Bean followed. Stay tuned for some fun/hillarity at the end of the vid. The music is from the SXSW 2008 festival, you can catch Artist/Track info in the ending credits... Enjoy! :)

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Az. Spring Fling 2009 - Sedona Ride from tim schneider on Vimeo.

Black Canyon Trail (BCT)

Mike emailed me the other night, said that his neighbor Rick and he were planning on riding the BCT loop, which is not far from his place up in New River. I wanted to see how the new bike would do on something more cross-country in nature, so I dialed down the shock and tossed it into the Honda Element and met them Sunday morning.

About 10mins into the ride, I was following Rick down a kinda fast section of trail when my front tire washed out. Murphy's Law was in full effect! I landed on the *only* bed of Cholla Cactus balls in that section of trail. That sucker was hidden from view, like a speed trap near the Mogollon Rim, just waiting for a lamer like me to happen by. Thanks to Mikes flat nosed pliers, I was able to remove the bulk of the spines. The other thing that I was thankful for, was the scrape down lower on my leg? huh? I'd kept re-injuring the same spot, so I wore the kyle strait knee pads and shin wraps for this ride, despite it being total overkill. My knee and lower leg was saved the nasty fate that my upper leg (thigh) suffered.

Caught the incident on video: (low res YouTube and blip.tv versions)

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Other than the cacti encounter, the rest of the ride was really nice! Saw lots of other folks out on the trail enjoying the cool, breezey day. Pretty soon, we'll be getting up at O'Dark Thirty for these rides! Harbor Freight Tools and Walgreens have all the supplies you need to deal with cacti! :-)

GPS Data for the ride here

Hawes Loop Trail - Sat

Weather has just been really really nice around here the past few weeks. Greg and I took some time on Sat. for an afternoon jaunt around the Hawes Loops in NE. Mesa.

Strapped on the Helmet Cam for a bit of video.. the first run down the Saddle Trail was lost due to no memory card in the camera.. DOH! After that was sorted, we rode back up and did another run down.. it's so fast and flowy, just a fun ride! Link to the Garmin Connect data here:

Hawes from tim schneider on Vimeo.

AZSF 09 is here! T-100 Ride/Vid

Got out for a Wed. afternoon ride with Greg (MTBR handle 'steelmonkey') on Trail 100. The idea was to do a loop, then head over to Aunt Chiledas. Ended up getting over there before the rest of the MTBR crowd showed, and ended up havng to head home due to time constraints. Did meet up with Jeff and SuLing and some of the others for a quick hello and some cheap El Salvadorian beers! (thanks Jeff!) before heading home.

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AZSF 09 T100 Phx. AZ from tim schneider on Vimeo.

Above is a short video of part of the ride.. still getting the latest 'toy' dialed in. Kinda cool, but this GoPro video camera really eats the batteries! I picked up some 1000mah AAA rechargeables to see how they work. I really hope I dont have to buy the Energizer lithiums for this sucker. They are expensive!

Garmin connect data here:

The new 5 Spot first ride..

This new bike rocks. Very balanced, smooth and nimble. Pedals well uphill also. The DW link shines on the gravelly uphills out at Hawes. Still getting the front fork dialed in. ATA is a nice thing to have for 'cardiac' hill! Nice mellow 8mi or so, stopped and took time to mess around with the bike a bit and snap some photos. Link to the Garmin data here:

The desert is coming into full on bloom. No snakes out today, but it's starting to warm up pretty good. This is likely the last coolish weekend. Forecast is for 90's by weeks end.. what happened to Spring!? :-)



Props to chollaball and other MTBer's that got out and shored up some of the trail. Could see the results of their handywork, as well as the signage to try and dissuade others from hacking up the water bars.

Stopped to hack together a panoramic view looking off towards Red Mountain and the Salt River. Clicking the link will take you to the full size version on Flickr.

I spot a Green 5 Spot

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IMG_1704
Originally uploaded by honemastert.

Got the bike built last night/morning late.. uuugh. The desert is starting to really green up around here. Beautiful weather today

IMG_1701
Originally uploaded by honemastert.

One more shot from the other angle/side

I spot a 'Green' 5 Spot!

The new bike frame showed last night! I'll have most of the other parts soon, and can begin putting it together shortly! "Fragile.. Must Be Italian?" Nope.. made in the USA!

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I tried to get all the differing angles so you could see the latest 'state of the art' in rear suspension Mtb. design. The key is the 'DW' link which is really simple at first glance, almost one of those.. 'why didnt I think of that' sort of things. In reality, it does wonders for reducing the amount of 'pedal bob' (where the rear end flexes, while pedaling the bike uphill?) This means, less wasted energy in moving the rear shock up and down, and more power transmitted to the back wheel. If you head over to the USTPO (US Trade and Patent Office Patent) you can check out the technical info and also read all the gory details here as well :) The guy that came up with this has licensed the design to several bike mfgs, Turner Bikes being one of them. I've ridden many different bikes and designs from a dozen or so mfgs. This was the first one, that really blew me away as far as pedalability uphill, and plushness on the downhills! Thanks to my SNPS coworker Shaun Evans for introducing me to Turner bikes on our weekly rides last year in San Diego!