Summer Riding

Image adapted from Pioneer F Plaque (NASA).

Look Out For Cyclist

Mileage

Between Frederick and MoCo trails, it was about 250 miles riding over the past month.

Bear Sighting

16 miles and 3 hours ride in the Watershed. Saw two black bears near Salamander Rock, one appeared to be quite bulky. We paused, discussed our options, waited a little till the bears were gone, and rode on.

The post ride hydration was great. Thanks Jack!

SS - Test Water in the Shed

Finally I tried it, on my Vicious SS 32x16. The climb wasn't as bad as I thought. The joy of the Death March descent, on the other hand, completely nullified by the rigid fork. At one point I almost wanted to pull my hands off the handlebars.

Week of Heat

Only got two rides in: Wednesday@Shed and Thursday@Schaeffer, 16 and 10 miles, respectively.

I'm thinking about bring the SS to the Shed and try on the long climbs, which should prep me for the SM100, or destroy me.

Online Shopping

Five hundred dollar order placed on Sunday night, new customer, online store in UK, credit card billing address in US, shipping address in China - sounds ordinary and innocent? Wrong! Well, at least the guys in Chainreactioncycles.com didn't think so.

Monday I got two emails from Gale in CRC:

Thank you for your order.

As you are a new customer to us, we must confirm that we are sending the order to the registered card holder. This is necessary due to the large numbers of fraudulent orders we have been receiving using stolen card details.

Can you Fax or e-mail an official document such as Passport, Driving Licence or ID card clearly showing your name and address. If they do not have the address shown, an electricity or phone bill would be ok.

Fax Number +44 2893 324868

We must ship your order to this address.

Once you have supplied these details we will immediately ship your order and will not require these details for any future orders.

We would like to apologise for the extra inconvenience to yourself but I'm sure you can understand we need to take steps to protect both yourself and us from potential card fraud.

If you have any question feel free to e-mail me or phone on ++ 44 2893 352976

Regards,

Gale

and

Hi ,

We have an order for you that is going to a different delivery name and address. What is the reason for this

Regards,

Gale

Me replied:

Hi, Gale,

I'm buying the stuff for my friend over there. It's so convenient that you guys ship directly to China. Thanks for double checking on this.

and then scanned a Pepco bill (which happened to be laying on the desk at that time.) and sent it to Gale, with a message says:

Hi, Gale,

Attached is my electricity bill.

It's OK to send the order to my address.

Thanks,

and today I sent another message to Gale (I want to save the time and shipping cost):

Hi, Gale,

I replied the other message from you as well with a scan of my electricity bill. I would still prefer to have the order shipped to my friend in China. Please let me know how I could help to make that happen.

However if it absolutely has to be shipped to my address, that's OK, too. I totally understand.

Regards,

Now I'm waiting to see what's going to happen. That was the first time I had to prove my identity to an online vendor. I guess it's a tough world out there now.

[Update 6/14/2008]: All resolved. The package is on the way to China.

Collective Seasons

Finally got the time to sit down and watch the movie recently came out. A typical Collective film, similar actions and cuts, a lot more talks. As a mountain bike video it's still quite entertaining though.

SM100 - Countdown Started

Registration: Shenandoah Mountain 100
Purchase Date: 06/02/08
Category: Early Registration

As I indicated in the last SM100 post, I didn't enter the SS category, . If I really feel like it, I guess I can always bring my singlespeed there and ride. Anyway, about three months to go.

Also confirmed: Chris C., Tim S., Denis C., Andy B..