Having ordered the Dinnote 200L to upgrade my primary bike light it was time to evaluate my secondary light. Was it worth it, throwing time and money to improve an already good light? Technology has moved very fast in the LED field in the years since I got my light. Searched the web and what do you know an illustrated step by step how-to upgrade the Princeton Tec EOS swapping the LED with a new more powerful/

So it was time again to start thinking about lights for night riding, commute, off and on road. I've been hearing about the relatively new Dinotte 200L (4 AA batteries) for a while so I decided to check prices. It turned out Dinotte has a bare light, just the light (which they call the "engine") without the charger, batteries and helmet mount for $105. They also offered old "engine" upgrade to 200L (lumens) for $75. At first I thought I would simply send my old and trusted 3W (140 lumens) light to get the upgrade but after chatting a bit with the smart wife I decided it was probably better for me to just order the bare light for extra $30 and have the chance to :

I ussualy don't like to re-post stuff somebody has written/posted somewhere else; that is, a short summary of somebody else's blog, don't see the usefulness to that plus I try to keep this site with as much "original" content as possible. However here is a piece I can't pass as it touches my roots.


Back in September 2006 Monica and I did an overnight bicycle tour to Point Reyes. On the way back to San Francisco we meet Randy and Nancy, who were cycling from Alaska to Patagonia. Being Colombian I asked them if they were planing on riding through the country and they said said they had considered it but it seem it was to dangerous and probably would fly from Panama to Ecuador like most people do to avoid what in the US is known as "one of the most dangerous countries in the world".

I told them there was to much misinformation about Colombia and that they probably would be safe. However like with any foreign land just use common sense. I know I would not like to be caught in some San Francisco (my adopted hometown that I love) neighborhoods at night, same principle different country.

I remember receiving  email from them early this year (2008) letting Monica and I know they had decided to ride in Colombia, I gave them the contact of a friend in Bogota but it seems they did not go to Bogota (IMO, a huge cosmopolitan metropolis in the true sense of the word.) Just today I came across one of their old emails and decided to visit their website and find out how the Colombia segment went. They have plenty to write about their experience in Colombia. For those whith short attention span here is Nancy's summary of their experience in Colombia. Their writings describe very close the country I know and how people behave. Believe me interesting writing not just of my home country but of all other places they've been.

"This is a perfect route for you. It is only 60 miles and the weather should be nice." I was trying to talk my wife into doing the Santa Rosa Cycling Club (SRCC) 100k Populaire.

We will be going on vacation soon and as in most recent years it will be a bicycle tour of foreign lands. More on that when we return. The 100k route on rural Sonoma and Napa valley roads seemed like a nice opportunity to do some training.

I personaly don't like driving to do a ride, unless the ride is part of a weekend somewhere or there is a good reason for using gas. This time the upcoming touring vacation and the fact Bob, SRCC's new Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA), needed to have a couple of succesfuly run events before he was fully "approved" by RUSA to offer a new Brevet series in 2009, justified spending some gas and time driving north a little over an hour to ride.

Wasn't sure if the body (mostly the left leg) would be up to the task, and I had not made arrangements to share a ride to the start of the SFR 200k Russian River brevet. This event was a little special as this weekend all over the country, clubs were organizing brevets to conmmemorate RUSA's 10th anniversary. I wanted to get the 10th anniversary medal for a top secret project/idea I have.

Anyhow, the night before I made the decision that I was going to do the event, my usual short distance brevet "tank" was in pieces and its wheels where installed on the other bike, my Habanero MTB (mixed terrain bike, i guess) I prepare the clothes and gear and made sure the alarm was set correctly, twice.

6:04 I woke up, no alarm. oh s&#t with all that alarm setting I end up not enableing it! I told my half asleep wife that I was not gonna make it. She replied, "You are going, get ready and I will take you!" Yes sir I meam mom.

At the start a lot of familiar faces came to say hi while I prepared my bike, Willie N., Veronica T., Rob H. and others were there.  At 7:00 am Rob let us go. I would try to ride the event without pushing it. With our yearly bicycle touring vacation approaching I did not want to injure the left leg more than what it is.

After the trail dust settles this ride would become one of my best rides ever, my best ride so far this year and definitely one of the most epic I have ever done. Yes I have completed several 200k, 300k and a 400k brevets but on those events I rode most of the time in the company of others on smooth paved roads and for the most part I never started on any of those events with an injury that would slowed me down. This route traverses nice country with great views and never takes the rider more than 20 miles from a metropolitan area. It feels you are out in the boonies but at the same time you know there are so many places, that in a weak moment one can use to cut the ride short. A good exercise of discipline and commitment. Not a ride for everyone but those who do it will surely remember it for a while. I am already planning my next run at it. But will not do it as long as the leg is not healthy.

At the end of the ride the weekend before Greg had asked me if I was going to ride my own scheduled La Ruta Loca Randonnee (LRLR). My first reaction was no. I could not imagine doing a 200k with so much climbing in the condition my left leg was. The last couple of weekends I had done two good mixed terrain rides but the leg still was bothering me a little. I could climb but it had to do it in 1-3 gears lower than I would otherwise normally do.

However midweek when Greg sent the email announcing he and Robbins were going to start I could not helped but feel bad and jealous at the same time. This whole thing was my idea, I had pushed for a while now the concept of having a 200k brevet done in mixed terrain. As crazy as it sound (thus the Ruta Loca moniker) it was a goal of mine to complete the route within the 13.5 hours time limit that is imposed on the regular 200k (paved only) events.

I committed myself to start and created a strategy of how to complete the route in the allocated time with a body that was not 100%. Rocket science was not, climb slow descend fast and keep stops to a minimum. I would need luck and determination to finish.

Summer ridding is canceled. At least most real long rides for now. I've have not been able to do a decent ride in months. I get this dull pain in the upper left leg area that tells me I need to slow down or stop all together. Dr. prescribed an anti-inflammatory that I took for two weeks, that did not help much, then I had x-rays and then an MRI. The verdict, it seems there is some small damage that a cortisone injection right in the joint between cartilage and bone should fix, not sure about that.

A big deal for me, not because of the actual injection but more because of the potential to have a problem that can cut my recreational riding "career" short.

What would you do if you could not do the type of riding you enjoy anymore? What about life without epic rides, brevets and touring anymore? I mean I've been doing these very low intensity/