Career Reflections

From a hand surgeon of 20 years experience. Emphasis mine:

"A computer printout of my case mix shows that 52% of my hand cases in private practice consists of the “simple stuff”. By this I mean carpal tunnel releases, trigger fingers, ganglion excisions, hardware removal, simple fasciectomies and so forth. Society over here requires these services; we provide them.

Now consider the lecture by Graham Gumley at the 2001 ASSH meeting in Baltimore. For those who missed the meeting (it was shortly after 9/11) it was a most tantalizing talk by a man who had spent six years as a hand surgeon in Cambodia. It was an eye opener as well as a tearjerker. What struck me most was his statement that in six years he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of carpal tunnels and other minor cases that he had done “ not because they are not there, but because they don’t reach the level of importance to take them to the doctor” (not verbatim but close). Just imagine that! Over half of what I do here for a living is considered, by humanity elsewhere on the planet, to be trivial.

Needless to say this revelation has disturbed and obsessed me for all the obvious reasons. My one career regret is that I never followed the example of many of my colleagues and volunteer for regular short overseas service of say one or two weeks a year."

Those thoughts again make me ponder the richness of our lives in this country. What is our responsibility to the rest of mankind with the skills and riches we have each been entrusted with? Are we to waste our lives seeking pleasure? I certainly do this, but I am entirely double minded about it.

Heb 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you."

Lunchbox: Good!

Still gushing in love with this bike.

Today I rode it to work, then to Taco Bell, then up, up Iron Springs to 37, up to 40, down to 49, up, around and out to Katahn road, then roads home. Descending 40 was dream like. Nothing could touch me. Climbing 37 was a no brainer.

The handling is amazingly intuitive. It flies through the air with the greatest of ease. It feels much smaller than it is. Dare I say flickable? I am hitting stuff off the side of the trail I never considered riding before, just lift the front, pull up the rear, fly over and it takes care of you. Bunny hops are back. Wheelies are back. Instant manual drops at speed are back. Woo Hoo!

After 12 hours on the thing, I can find no bad habits. It has not burned me once. I can not really find one downside to the shorter stays.

I have heard there are only six or so out there. That is way, way too few, and I feel privileged to be riding one. I imagine, but don't know, that the handling on the short CS Behemoth would be nearly identical.

This is the standard I will judge all future bikes by, and In My Opinion, pretty much every other manufacturer is playing catch up.

Yeah, I like it. I'm not getting any more bikew with stays longer than 17.5"

Thoughts on flex

Yesterday while descending Smith Ravine, I thought I noticed the rear end of the Lunchbox flexing when I was pushing it. Just a vague sort of feeling that the rear was wandering a little bit. Reminiscent of a tire that was a little low.

I was concerned it was frame flex and I was going to have to live with it.

I pulled off the rear wheel today to fix the out of dish problem. Checked spoke tension...BINGO.

Tension was in the 80 lb range and needs to be up towards 120. I put 1.5 turns into the spokes, tightened everything up, re-dished, and hopefully this will cure the flex I felt. I'm nearly certain it will.

In some ways it sucks to be that sensitive to how a bike rides. Maybe I shouldn't be so demanding of professional builds, but I have not generally been over impressed with the wheel building skills of many folks. I don't blame them because it is time consuming to do it right, and if you get paid $20 for the build why take massive amounts of time? Why check tension accurately with and instrument, rather than your fingers? Proves my point about many, but not all mechanics...trust no one. Do it yourself. This applies to your car as well.

Descending Smith ravine is by far the best test around these parts of a bikes handling characteristics by the way. It exposes any flaws that are present.

I have one more issue of headset creaking and I fear it may the the known problem of King incompatibility with big forks. I fiddled with it tonight, and if this doesn't cure it, will need to pop in an FSA or Cane Creek.

Otherwise this bike is dialed.

I can actually ride a very nice wheelie on this thing to impress the kiddos.

Lunch on the Long Loop

Or how the long loop ate my lunch.

Had a nice long afternoon before the long non-riding upcoming weekend. I had not yet tested the Box on the Ranch trail climb, and the Smith Ravine Descent, so I went for it.

Before I started I knew I was in for it. Just too hot and exposed on this trail. Even left off the leg armor for the climb. The trail is torn up badly from the rain.

Hard to evaluate the bike since I did such a poor job pushing it. Between the heat, smoke, and my general lack of intense climbing work outs, I walked a lot. When I did ride, it performed admirably. At no time did I need to step off due to a flaw in the equipment.

The descent down Smith and 305 was fun. I took it relatively easy, and just enjoyed how easy this thinkg is to loft, jump, and bunny hop. No drama at all. The burned out part of Smith now has a beautiful green weedy ground cover that I had not noticed before. Worth a visit if you haven't been up there in a while.

I need to face facts and realize I really love this bike. I may tweak it a bit here and there but it has no bad points. El Comandante is getting lonely. I am selling the Curtlo.

It was little hard for me as I held the stripped frame of the Curtlo in my hands. It has lots of nicks and scratches put there on many great rides. I just never loved it. I liked it all right. It really has no use here although I dream that I might build it up as some sort of loaner. It needs to go to someone who can love it for what it is.

Ad here.

Dave, since you name stuff all the time, come up with some name options for the Box for me. I have a hard enough time naming my kids.

Burnout

No, I mean burnout!



From my buddy John. Thanks for the laugh.

I miss the Mustang sometimes for just such reasons.

This is about as redneck as it gets.

Lunchbox update

Let's be clear. This is the best bike I have ever owned or ridden. Period.

Today proved it. Techy Little Granite trail to trail 39 to trail 38 and back up and down Little Granite.
After eight hours on this thing, it clearly outperforms the Curtlo in every way I can measure and evaluate. It's handling is instinctive, with a minimal learning curve.

It bashes through rock gardens with authority, but can still finesse lines as needed.

Why I like high BB's:

My one concern regarding the Box's ability to tech/loose/steep climb was alleviated today. I was climbing stuff I know I have never climbed before on any bike, and this stuff is tough. What it took mainly, was moving the saddle from all the way back (Curtlo setting) to all the way forward on its rails, a difference of roughly 1.5 inches. This one little move puts me in the perfect position to weight the front and rear wheels sliding back and forth as necessary. The beauty of the short stays, however is that when I need to I can give a little standing mojo without totally losing traction to the rear. Nice.

I like long chainstays, but I like these more. They give me options. I can adapt to shortish chainstays by moving the saddle position. You really can't adapt position wise to the longer stays. I suppose you can slacken the STA, and shorten the TT to maintain position, but you will end up quite cramped on the bike if you ever stand up. As soon as you stand, you are still confronted with your weight distribution through the bars and pedals.

Standing with the shorter stays is a joy. I can lift the front at will, pop it over obstacles climbing, I bunny hop way, way better, I can unweight the front in chunky stuff.

I am usually quite nervous about riding these trails alone. Today was no exception. I can usually count on at least 1-2 trips over the bars at slow speed.

Today was totally undramatic. Amazing competence on a bike that seems like it reads my thoughts.

It is a keeper. I would change nothing except a little more braking power. Maybe it's time for new pad compound or a 200 rotor for the front. Probably some Hope M4's eventually, but not now.

Owen Meany

This was my first Irving book. I'm not too enthused to read any more. Very creative and engaging characters, great symbolism, too many words to tell the story.

The book fascinated me, and bored me alternately. Probably one of the best opening lines I've read in a long time:

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

Overall, I couldn't recommend it except to Lit. majors who will love it.

PS: The narrator is not a Christian in any sense that I understand the word.

A Good Ride

Two weeks ago I started to get flashing lights in my left eye . After putting up with it for a week, I did a little research and became concerned and this can be a sign of retinal detachment....which rapidly leads to blindness in that eye if untreated. So it was not something optional to get checked out.

I got an appointment with the ophthalmologist next day after a 1/2 day at work. Rode this bike to work and appointment:
Note bitchen looking new road wheels courtesy of a trade with Dan.

Ophtho says everything is okay and that I suffer from Posterior Vitreous Detachment which is normal with ,ahem, aging. It is also usually no big deal. I had the rest of the afternoon off, so I figures a celebratory ride was in order.

With my eyes looking like this:

I headed out up Iron Springs in full commuter garb and one water bottle turned off into Granite Basin at the top of the climb on trail 332. From there it was all trails on the CX bike for the next 1.5 hours. 332-349-351-348-347-341, and out Katahn to the street, all streets home.

I had a ball. I didn't know skinny tires could be so fun off road. Don't need suspension because the tires won't really let you go fast enough downhill to need it. Climbing feels weightless compared to the usual huge meats. I think I actually enjoyed riding the narrow tires rigid more than MTB rigid because I really didn't have any choice but to slow down in the nasty bits. The larger volume tires give one unwarranted courage. Don't need disc brakes because you never really need a lot of braking power and the narrow tires wouldn't put it to the ground if you had it anyway.

The only downer was the nasty toe overlap I get from my fender.

On the streets, the narrower tires blow away the larger one's for sure. Nice to get home in a hurry.

Moral: Pretty much all bikes are fun nearly all the time.

PS: I found the limits of the little tires on this weeks road/dirt foray from home, up Copper Basin, to the Prietta overlook and down. I thought the CX bike would be perfect for the road/dirt road combo. It sorta was for the climb; No pack, light wheels and tires, very nice. Descending was another matter. The dirt road portion beat the tar out of me. The visibility and straightish, widish dirt road were too inviting, and I very badly out rode the limits of the tires, bashing over everything, hardly in control, and yes, I was wishing for more brakes. I can't remember the last time I was wishing for a descent to be over!

The moral here is that I lack the self control to slow it down descending if I think I can get away with it. I liked the skinny tires much more on the trail where I was less tempted to let 'er go.

I hope to get some Lunchbox stuff up some time, but no time to blog. Suffice to say that I love it, and am now a Lenz zealot. More info in this thread.