First Ride of 08

Lately, I've been on sabbatical as far as riding bikes is concerned. The last time I threw a leg over a top tube with the intention of riding more than 10ft was late November of 07. This last year was a very busy year for me, lots of goals accomplished, but more than that was the overwhelming and compelling feeling that I had to ride. I could sense a burn out happening, and in my line of work, that is bad news.

One thing that I've learned from my past experiences, is that when I am over something, I am really over it. And by over it, I mean ready to check out.

Well, I won't go quietly. Snowboarding has been a great distraction. A few other projects that I am almost ready to divulge have also kept things fresh over the winter. I'm still horrendously busy, trying to balance a job, family, life, and still get some personal time to do the things I love to do, but some great things are going to happen this year.

And as I was looking forward to everything on the horizon, I realized, that if I didn't get my ass out on my bike and start riding again, I would be in very sorry shape once the snow finally does go away.


Yesterday, I just happened to have a free hour, and the late afternoon, above 30° temps were just warm enough for me to drag Red 5.1 out for a ride around the block. I also dragged my buddy Nat too, misery loves company...

I must say, that despite my prolonged absence from the saddle, I was able to attack Barnes Hill fairly easily. By fairly easily, I mean not throwing up or blacking out, which is typically what happens on the early rides. I was expecing to be in much more pain. I also missed Red 5.1.
What fun it is to ride bikes!

Even though, my toes instantly turned to ice, and the dirt(ice) road section was nothing more than an exercise in crisis management, followed by a blistering downhill on a paved road that was partially glare ice, it was fun, and the first of many fun rides coming up in 08.

Details: 8.74 miles, 870ft of elevation gain, 54 minutes, 1 gear.


Nice sticker placement Nat!

The First Event of 2008

Winter still has a firm grip here. This picture is a squall rolling over Camel's Hump at sunset. Beautiful.

Still, I am getting very fired up to ride my bike. In preparing myself for warmer climes, I looked at my calendar for this coming year, and I was left scratching my head as to how I was going to get it all done. I mean, we have some pretty LARGE events we plan on being a big part of...
Well, none of it is completely out of reach, but if we don't aim high, we may never make the mark.

There are many things that have not yet been finalized, but I can tell you about a very important one, the first event of 2008.

The Five Hills Ride -Gravel Grinder Spring Classic
25.5 miles, 2900 vertical feet of climbing, up and down the 5 hills of Waterbury. It goes off rain or shine on April 20th, leaving downtown Waterbury at 9:00am. The ride will take you on some paved, but mostly unpaved roads, with some serious climbing, but also some serious descending.


April can be extraordinarily unpredictable, so it could be really calm, really cold, raining, snowing, or 70° and sunny or all of the above. Price of admission is $23, you get a super cool T-shirt, fed, supported along the way, and anything left goes to the Stowe Mountain Bike Club, to help raise funds for the work that still needs to be done on Perry Hill. I can usually do this ride on my single speed in about 3 1/2 hours, and I'm not particularly fit. There will be a sag wagon at various points along the way, as well as water, snacks and "recovery" drinks.


Sign up through Active.com.

If you are coming in from out of town, please let us know, and we can help you find a good rate at a local B&B. This is MUD season after all, and rates will most likely be attractive.
I really hope to see you there... if you think you can hack it!

Jay Winter Challenge

Friday February 8th will mark the beginning of the 2nd annual Jay Winter Challenge. I attended the first race lace year, and it was a lot of fun. You have to have a certain amount of crazy in you to find stuff like this fun, but there you have it. I like it because it proves that with the right attitude, the human spirit can prevail in any conditions. It's in this spirit that Dan Des Rosiers created this race.

This year, the event is slightly different.
There has been the addition of n "ice criterium" on Friday night. Sounds fun, but the word "ice" makes me think that some of these will be absolutely necessary. I must admit, I'm tempted to join in the madness. We'll have to see when we get closer to the event. It consists of 20 laps around a 1/2 mile course in the dark. These are the sort of shenanigans I truck with.

Saturday the 9th features the main event as held last year, a 30 miler on groomed snowmobile trails over rolling hills, or a shorter 10 mile race that follows the final 10 miles of the course.


An important note to keep in mind, is that the course is on private land, and it is asked that no one pre-rides the course, or rides it after the event. There is a special arrangement with the local snowmobile club and local land owners that make this event possible. I don't even need to say that anyone disrespecting this arrangement could jeopardize the future of this event.
Lecture over.

Bike 29 will be there for the crit and the race the following day, offering tech support to anyone that needs it. I'll follow up with a full report on the event itself. I expect that turn out will be pretty good. Last year drew 50 or so riders, I imagine that number to double this year. Everyone had a blast, myself included.

Race info can be found on the race blog.
If you want to sign up, the info is on Active.com. You have until Feb 1 to register.

Up next, Spider update!

Long Time Coming - The Slingshot Farmboy Review

In mid summer, Slingshot saw fit to send me a frame to test. I am always grateful for the opportunity to try something new, but my dance card was pretty full this summer, so I asked them to send a medium frame size that I could get under more people.

People who may not get the opportunity to test many bikes.

People who haven't necessarily ridden everything under the sun.
Ordinary folks who just like to ride bikes.


Folks that had no idea that they were even riding a 29er.

Folks that pointed to it wondering "what the heck is that?" that got a chance to ride it, and still came away smiling.

Folks that knew what it was and came away smiling after a ride.

Here is an unedited first ride report from my friend Scott. For those of you who don't know him, he is an engineer for a prestigious "active sports" company, has won several industiral design awards, has a dog that eats the inside of cars, a man who loves Iron Maiden, beer and riding bikes.

He is also a pretty good bike rider, and has crashed enough to know what he is talking about.

***When I woke up Sunday morning, I was fighting a good-sized hangover from two straight nights of partying like I was still in college. At the ripe old age of 34, it takes me a bit more time to recover than it used to. So after I called George to confirm that our prearranged afternoon ride was still on, it was with a sense of mild apprehension and slight nausea that I headed out the door to meet up. As I drove bleary-eyed to the shop, little did I know I’d be adding to the fun by popping my 29er cherry too, by demoing the Slingshot Farmboy at George’s suggestion.


As we rode from the parking lot to the trailhead, I noticed two things. First, that my cold-weather riding gear is woefully inadequate. And second, that the front derailleur was adjusted a little off, so I couldn’t get down into the small chainring. Unfamiliar equipment, cold limbs, no small chainring, and oh yeah, that hangover - things were adding up to make it a less-than-pleasurable ride. However, I’m here to tell you that the Slingshot put those worries to rest.


Like I said, this was my first ride on a 29er. I’ve been listening to George sing their praises for years now, and I have to say, after just one ride, I might finally be a convert. So I’m not exactly sure how much the following impressions were due to the Slingshot itself, and how much they’re due to the big wheels under it.

Anyway, here goes. It was a really fun ride. It climbed easily, even without access to the small chainring, and that’s saying something for me, because I hate climbing. Granted, the trails we were on don’t feature any of the extended brutal climbs that I’ve come to know and despise here in VT, but still, I had no problem getting up even the trickiest sections this ride had to offer. It felt solid when getting up out of the saddle, and was light enough to really make use of the big tires’ ability to roll over roots and rocks. In other words, it seemed to roll over stuff really easily. Not a huge difference from my normal ride (a 26”-wheeled Heckler), but enough to notice. It handled surprisingly nimbly. It adjusted course without any backtalk or fuss, and held onto a line nicely when I was on-track.


The bike really came into its own when descending through a series of slightly bermed switchbacks. It was then that the Slingshot really felt like... well, like a slingshot. The bike really felt like it was loading up into the turns and getting shot out of them. Good fun. Really the only issue I had on the ride was a couple of instances when riding over obstacles on flat terrain where it felt like I was about to go over the handlebars when I wouldn’t normally expect to. I felt like I could have used another inch or so of wheelbase towards the front of the bike. However, as mentioned before, this was a demo bike, so it certainly wasn’t set up optimally for my body geometry. A different stem or fork might have gone a long way to eliminate that issue.


Overall, it was really fun, and I have to say I enjoyed the ride a lot, even if there were a few moments where I thought I might have to hurl up all of the previous night’s vodka and wedding cake all over the trail. For a first time, the Slingshot sure was gentle on me.***

I value an unbiased opinion more than anything else. and the feedback I got from this frame was very interesting. It certainly is an odd duck, but that doesnt make it bad. In fact, the Farmboy could be the exact thing you are looking for.

5.5.1

So, here it is.

The finale.

It looks like this will unfortunately be the last time I get to ride this bike, as it needs to go back home so it can be ridden by those that created it. I will say though, I had a blast riding it. My first ride, definitely made me want more, and after I had made some necessary component switches to get the riding position I needed, I was a lot more in tune with what it was capable of.

The conditions today were near perfect. Overcast, but very warm at 38°, with about 3" of crunchy snow on the ground. No one had ridden bikes out on the trails in quite some time, and I was amazed that I was able to guess where the trail actually was. Freshies are always fun, even more so when you are riding your bike.

There were certain times when the big guessing game of "what exactly is under all this snow" got ugly, but the 5.5 seemed up to task. There were only a couple of times when I spun out. I was pretty impressed actually. For low speed technical handling, (with my stuff on it) I'd give this bike a 9. Some of the situations where my bars were crossed up, with no forward speed, that should put a person on the ground in a hurry, simply vanished with a quick stomp on the pedals. Good stuff.


One of the things about it that made me wonder what they were thinking though, was the integrated headset. In an effort to keep the front end down, they incorporated the headset into the headtube. They did it in a rather crafty way, but I was pretty disappointed to learn that I would not be able to change the frame geometry in my favor. To me, this could be a deal breaker. I would not want to use this integrated headset on my $2K+ frame, I'd want a King, or at the very least, the option to use one.

So, what are the big changes with all my junk installed? Well, not much. After I figured out that I couldn't raise the front end by adding the lower cup of a headset, or change the geometry enough by adding 5 mm of (working) fork travel, I pretty much tried to mimic the cockpit configuration I was most comfortable with. I ended up with about a mile of spacers under the stem, and then some above to make up the difference.


Now that my riding position was more familiar, I felt I could judge what this bike was capable of. I still kept smacking my heels into the swingarm though, and with the sag set where it needed to be, I actually smacked the pedals into the ground more than I did with my RIP. I will go so far to say, that with a few inches of snow on the ground, it becomes harder to think ahead in the pedalling department. You have no idea what lays under that cold white blanket.

Oh how I wish I could have gotten this bike in August!


Now the riding position felt pretty upright, even more so than with the RIP because of the 73/74° HT/ST angles. While it wasn't necessarily the best conditions to be objective about a bike, the way it handled spoke volumes. I was pretty pumped on how it did. Is my RIP too slack? A back to back shoot out on 6 Flags would be the only way to tell.

I never got to go very fast, but I did get to put it in some precarious positions. And it did well. Lateral stiffness seemed like it might be a problem on the trail, but it wasn't apparent during the ride. In fact, there were a couple of fast switchbacks that were executed with two wheel steering at speed. I knew where those wheels were at all times, and was able to count on them being there once I was used to the sensation. Just goes to show you, what you think on the sales floor, and how it works in the wild, can sometimes be two very different things. Think about the feeling when carving a powder turn on a snowboard or skis , I was there today on two wheels. Sweet!


Would I buy this bike? I think so. I'd love to ride it on Perry Hill in the middle of summer, but from what I have learned about it, in less than perfect conditions, it can certainly get the job done. We'll see how production frames differ from this prototype, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just about there. It made me smile today, and any time you walk away from a ride with a big grin, it's a good thing.

The Season of Poor Bike Riding

Locals have a saying about our climate up here. We have two seasons, winter, and the season of poor sledding. In that context, I choose to look at it as, the season of poor bike riding, and riding bikes in what ever mother nature throws at you. I finished swapping the parts from my RIP9 over to the 5.5, took some measurements, and have everything ready for my next opportunity to ride. Bikes that is.

Today, I rode my snowboard. Here are some shots of the local bump.


Despite our frosty disposition, I'll be logging a couple of miles on the 5.5 tomorrow.
It will be cold.

First Ride - Intense 5.5

After many weeks of waiting, I finally get to ride the bike that many folks are waiting for, the Intense 5.5 29er. While this bike is still in it's prototype phase, I would imagine that it is pretty close to production as is. Because Intense makes all their own bikes in house, small tweaks may be made, but we won't really know until the production bikes show up.

It was a balmy 30°, brilliant blue skies, with a few inches of freshly fallen snow. And the ride was fun.

Really fun. It was the type of ride that made you wish it wasn't Sunday, so you cold go out and do it all over again tomorrow.

Our location was Stowe's Town Loops, always the first place I like to take a new bike. I know this area very well, so I figure it's the best place to see what a new steed can do. It features a little of everything, without going to extremes (unless you know where to go) and is a good place to figure out if you forgot to tighten something.


So here are the numbers. I'm sure there are many that are waiting for this comparison. I'll give the numbers of the 5.5 followed by my own personal RIP9

Head Angle: 73°, 70°
Seat Angle: 74°, 70°
Effective Top Tube: 24.25"
Stand Over: 33.5", 34"
Wheelbase: 44.5"

From a numbers standpoint, you can see that for the most part, the bikes are pretty evenly matched, except for the frame angles. As I stated previously, it seems like Intense has gone out of it's way to keep the front end low on this bike. Why, I'm not quite sure. With a normal headset, the angles would be slacker. My RIP has a Fluid 135 on the front, the 5.5 has a coil sprung Fluid 130, again dropping the front end.
The bike set up has XC racer written all over it, but why would you race a 29lb 5" travel bike?

Yay!
The construction is top rate.
No noticeable feedback from the pedals at all.
I was able to ride things my partners in crime weren't able to.

Nay!
Low front end. I felt like I could go over the bars at any time, and often did.
Rapid Rise shifting, it is so counter intuitive, that I only stayed in a couple of gears.Who uses this stuff? So I only had a couple of gears I could use without skipping the chain all over the place. This is after all, a demo bike, and it came complete and beat. Even though the Rapid Rise deraillieur made me want to shift less, there were only a couple of gears that I could actually use. So maybe this is a positive. I didn't shift very much.
I think the fork was beat. There was no rebound adjustment, and no matter how much air I put in it, it always seemed to react the same way - like a pogo stick.
I kept clubbing my heels on the rear swingarm.

Say!
If I were to buy a bike like this, I certainly wouldn't build it up this way. But, based on this ride, if I were in the market for a long travel full suspension 29er, it could be a serious contender.
It did pedal very well in fact. Despite the goofy XC set up, I enjoyed the bike tremendously.
What seemed like an ungodly amount of flex in the rear end around the wheel's axle, it didn't come through in the ride. It tracked true.
I didn't notice the steeper angles so much as the lack of elevation at the bars. Still, it was responsive, and made last minute course corrections without any twitchy oversteer.
The "Works" finish is very cool, and all of the machined bits are anodized black to give it an air of seriousness.
I had to put my body weight in the rear shock to get the correct sag. Don't ask, it's a lot. I am willing to bet that my shock pump may not be that accurate, but it seemed excessive to get the recommended 20-30% sag.
Also falling under an anti-Shimano rant, are the XTR brakes. The 160mm rotors did an average job of slowing me down, but bigger rotors would be more apropos on a bike such as this, especially if you are in the Clydesdale range. Also the modulation seemed to vary throughout the ride.

The next step, is for me to pull all the XC components off of it, and replace them with bits more becoming of a 5" travel trail machine from my RIP. Then we'll see how it really shines in a true apples to apples comparison...

Stay tuned!

BTW
The tires I opted for today were the Bontrager Jones ACX TLR. I ran about 32 psi (with tubes - not my wheels) and found plenty of grip in the wet, leaf strewn, semi frozen ground beneath the snow. I figured the Crossmarks that came with the bike may not have performed as well.

Fox F-29...First Impressions

I'd be a liar if I told you I thought this fork was going to be "the answer". I've managed to survive this 29er world with everything we've had on the market all this time. I liked the Reba. The White came up as a serious contender. In fact, I really wanted to HATE this fork. I was almost desperate for it to fail, it is late to the party, and so expensive. I was hoping it would flop.

The truth, is that it is a really good fork. Really good? Yes. Really.

Stiff, plush and responsive. It's shiny and white. It has cool red and blue anodized bits just like an astronaut does. Astronauts are cool. Lots of folks will make the leap to 29erism just because of this fork.


While it works well, mine only got 85mm of travel. For a "100mm" fork, this is a little dissappointing. Despite the fact that in those 85mm, I did not notice the fork at all.
Am I that concerned? I would be if I had the fork mounted to something I was expecting the full 100 out of. But, performance is performance. I am willing to concede that it may not have been functioning as it should. It was a balmy 37° (that was in the sun). The ground was frozen. I've known Fox forks to not behave their best in the cold.

I figured, if a part were to misbehave, it would do so on a singlespeed, so I opted not to use the lockout, and still found the fork to do an adequate job. Despite my every attempt to stymie the fork, it was there, doing it's job. Went where pointed, sucked up every bump.

Of course this was only the first ride...


Speaking of first rides, Keller got a taste of 29erism, care of the Slingshot. Look for a review from him very soon.

A Good Weekend Ride

Before I get started on the ride subject, I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for those in San Diego (German for a whale's......). I used to live in North County, am very familiar with the area, have some very good friends that are now on the run, and some that are still in harm's way. Be safe guys, I'm thinking good thoughts for you.


The original title of this post was going to be "The Evil Leaf Strewn Rock Gardens of Pennsylvania".
We spent the weekend in PA, visiting family. As always, we brought our bikes. I'd heard of some trails that we hadn't ridden yet, and it was there that we decided to look for some of PA's
secret gems. We have been exploring Jim Thorpe for a couple of years, but have yet to stumble across anything noteworthy. Mostly fire roads, with a couple of technical sections here and there, but nothing "exciting". Don't get me wrong, we always have a good time, but I'll be honest, it ain't Vermont.

If anyone reading disagrees with me, I invite you, no, challenge you to prove me wrong about Jim Thorpe! There just has to be some awesome singletrack out there. We just haven't found it yet.

I'd heard of some trails in Salisbury from a customer. After some diligent web surfing, we'd gotten directions and some sort of ride plan.
We started on top of a hill just north of South Mountain, in a sketchy park, with absolutely no indication that mountain biking was nearby. As I was pumping up the tires on Red 5.1, I notice just how dirty the parking lot was. Yuck.





Once we got into the woods though, we were able to navigate the trails with the well placed yellow, orange, red and blue blazes that took us on our 2 hour ride. I'm pretty sure we rode everything out there.

Lots of challenging rocks, some fun stunt type stuff, and very well constructed, benched in singletrack. Absolutely no standing water on the trails whatsoever, despite the massive deluge of rain we had the previous day. Kudos to the Lehigh Valley MTB Club for all their hard work. What fun! I'm pretty excited to go back and poke around some more now.

It was rough on my body though. I have sat the last 2 weeks out for some self imposed recovery, and my IT bands were screaming again after just one hour of relentless PA rocks on the singlespeed. Also weird, was the constant noise of trains, and who-knows-what-the-heck they were doing on the valley floor. It sounded like they were dumping huge boulders onto hollow steel decks with massive machinery. There was a constant racket, punctuated with the occasional low flying helicopter. I guess I've never been mountain biking in an urban setting such as this before.


The cool thing is, is that those trails are there, and a total hoot to ride.
Now go get some.

Seasons Change

Lately, most of us here in VT have been feeling like we have been getting away with something.
Well, we have. Unseasonably summer like conditions have given way to the weather we should have been having all along. Last eek, we were in the high 70s, wish perfect cloudless blue skies. The trails were bone dry. The turning foliage vivid and bright.
Now it's back to our normal program, cold rain, and muddy trails. We all knew it was coming. I even went and changed the tires on my RIP to Kenda Nevegals, a big meaty tire with lots of tread and grip. They have proven themselves to be a really good tire, hooking up in just about any scenario.

This weekend was the last hurrah. A bunch of us headed up to the Kingdon Trails in East Burke and met up with a crew from Maine, the same crew that was kind enough to show us the goods over at Bradbury Mountain. We were glad to reciprocate. It poured hard the day before making trail conditions very wet in spots, but still tons of fun. The sandy nature of the soil out there certainly helped in keeping most of the trails in good shape, with only the muddiest of mud holes being a problem.
Sadly, we were too busy riding to take any good pictures, but boy, there were a couple of times when I wish the camera had caught some of the hijinx on the trail. Like the time that DA and I boosted out of Sidewinder. No one was more surprised than we were. DA was ahead of me, and overshot the turn on the biggest transition on the trail. Shot right off the trail. I was on DA's tail, and managed to grab enough brake to avoid T-boning him. Nothing like two handfuls of brakes going uphill in a panic stop.

The ride was awesome, and it made me a little sad that these days will be few and far between in these coming months. Oh well, I like snowboarding too...
The guys from Maine were all super cool, and I hope that we'll all be able to ride together again soon.


The IMBA Trail Crew popped into the shop today, to hang, and chat about some of the upcoming projects we have in the region for next year. Lots of cool stuff in the works. There is nothing better to do on a rainy day, than to go hang out at you local bike shop and BS about bikes and riding bikes.

I have some other cool things to report on in the coming days. No riding for me though, my IT bands are killing me, and I think that I'll give myself a little time to relax and recover. Like the Stone's say "What a drag it is getting old".
(they would know)

A Long Day in the Saddle

What a weekend.
Sunday was the VT 50, an almost entirely off road race, with about 8000ft of climbing in beautiful southern VT. Nat, DA, JayPro and myself were representing the big wheels.
Our day started at 4am, so we could get all fueled up, and jettison the garbage before making the jump to lightspeed. We stayed at Nat's parent's house which meant we only had a 40 minute drive, vs a 2hr drive from home. It made life so much easier.

Jay's group left at 5:45, the rest of us at 6:25. Fortunately for us, it was starting to get light. I can't imagine how it was when Jay's group left in pitch pre dawn black. It was cold. It was about 40 degrees before the sun crept up. We had been on the bike for about 4 hours before the morning fog burned off.

There was a lot of climbing. Straight up sometimes. One of my major gripe, was the "noobie" factor. And I don't want to sound like an elitist snob, but if you can't handle a trail, get off to the side so that those that can, can pass without getting hung up. I was amazed at what people were loosing traction on. Maybe it was Kermit's big wheels.
I had to ditch the jacket early but kept my arm and leg warmers on for pretty much the whole ride. I love wool.

Then I had a massive chain suck, which surprised me. First time ever on Kermit. It took me about 10 minutes to dig the chain out. I was worried that if I wasn't careful, the chain would let go on me when I was far from help. It hung tight for the rest of the ride.

By this time DA and Nat were long gone. I rode the next 30 miles by myself, chit chatting with other riders along the way.

I found Nat later on at an aid station with cramps. I helped him out with some nutritional advice, and stuck with him for the rest of the ride. DA was ahead. When you get in the groove, you got to keep it going. I was lucky, my left hammy cramped on me around mile 10, but was quiet for the rest of the ride. I'd say that was a first for me.

The rest of the ride went off without incident, but I have to tell you, the last 3 miles were the hardest. Holy cow! There was quite a bit of stuff thrown in there that was pretty technical, in an almost Waterbury-esque sense. Big penalty for failure. I almost rode off a bridge because I was gawking at the dry waterfall and river bed it spanned. Only about 6 feet or so, but it would have hurt landing on all that river rock. The way in and out of the dry river bed was a bench cut that featured protruding rocks, where one mis-timed pedal stroke would have meant a trip to the bottom. Fun, but could have been done when riders were fresher, or left out completely.
I was ready to be done, but managed to find it within myself to hit the last mile with all I had left.

Nat and I finished, go tour medals, found DA, and got ourselves fed and we left. We had to make a stop at the Harpoon Brewery (it was on the way) and pick up some supplies (umm, beer). An hour and a half later, the extreme lethargy had set in. Movement was painful.
My IT bands were killing me, after the abuse they took from two days of trade show, followed by 50 miles of riding. Left knee, right ankle, ow! Lower back, ow! Shoulders and neck, ow!
There was much vitamin I and stretching before my very early bedtime.

I'm feeling better this morning, but the stress from the last week has caught up with me, and now I am sick. I'm hoping to be back to my regular self in a day or so.

I probably would not do that again on a hard tail. Kermit was a good bike, and took everything in stride, but it became increasingly more difficult for my ragged body to deal with.
I was also surprised at the overall lack of 29ers out there. I saw maybe 3 that folks I didn't know were riding. Oh well. I had a good time on mine.
.

Goings on

This little corner of the blogosphere has been quiet for the last week. I have actually been keeping pretty busy. September has been cranking right along for us at a ridiculous pace.
The weather has been amazing too, beautiful blue skies during the day, but chilly at night. Fall is here, and winter is not too far away.

The riding has been great too. Here is a little video of yours truly tackling the "Wall" on 6 Flags.

The RIP 9 is riding really well right now. I'm trying to get out as much as I can, training for the impending Vermont 50. I'm not riding the RIP, and sadly, I will not be riding a JET9 either. The race bike will be Kermit, and I have some decisions to make on the final race spec, tire choice giving me the most trouble. I really want to try the Bontrager Dry X, but you can't exactly get those just yet.

Oh well...

What a Weekend!!!

Three exclamation points for a few reasons...



Let me tell you about a 23 year old rookie pitcher making his 2nd Major League start. Clay Buchholz threw a no hitter on Sept 1 2007 against the Baltimor Orioles. Mandy and I were there to witness it with and some good friends. How often do you get to see that happen? Not often.


Keller and I may have had something to do with it. We decided around the 7th inning to start making clucking chicken noises as Clay wound up. We would then scream "Buchholz!" on the release. Needles to say, it worked. We may be doing it for the rest of the season.

I count myself very lucky, not many folks get to be at the ballpark for a no hitter.

During the remainder of the weekend we connected with a new and now good friend out at Bradbury Mountain in Maine. He showed us some phenomenal trails. We had a short ride window, but he made sure every second was action packed. DA hooked up with us for the fun.





Thanks for the ride of Funness Escalation Kevin! We owe you one!

To sum up, Bradbury is a really fun place to ride. While we barely made a dent in the trails available, what we did get to ride made us yearn for more.

We'll be back.... and you can count on it!

My Super Sweet 3sixteen

Ahhh, another year.
While I didn't get a pony, or a shiny new all black FJ Cruiser, I did get a couple of great rides in over the weekend.

On Friday, I was able to escape from the shop to get my birthday ride in at Stowe (thank you Mandy). We parked in the Lower Village, and rode out to Sterling Valley via Tony's and Tamarack. Rain the previous night, and high humidity levels ensured the rocks were dangerously slick. It was kinds nice playing in the middle of the day, without having to rush off to pick up children, or race daylight.
We saw plenty of deer.

We rolled on up to Godstreet and Seamus, only to be torn to bits by wild bramble patches on the latter trail. The saying goes, it isn't a real ride unless someone bleeds. We finished our very real ride without further incident.

Sunday was an interesting day. Violent thunderstorms had swept the area on Saturday afternoon, and caused a lot of damage. We went up to East Burke to ride the Kingdom Trails. The weather was supposed to have moved out and replaced with cooler drier air. Well, it was drizzling. So much for that.


We stuck it out and rode anyway. It was kinda fun, a throwback to the days when we used to ride in the rain all the time, before we knew about trail erosion etc. Conditions were actually quite good. I had practically zero brakes, which made for some interesting moments on the trail. I had shortened the lines on the RIP, but had no time to bleed the brakes.
Sidewinder was pretty fun. Having no brakes actually helped.


We got off the trails muddy and wet and tired. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday Night Rides

We had some crazy weather in Northern VT yesterday afternoon. Tornado warnings, black skies, howling winds, hail etc etc. Perfect weather for our planned Thursday night trail head camp out. It rained super hard for about 15 minutes, at which point, most folks opted to bail.

We persevered. The heaviest weather was far off to the north, and we just had a small but intense cell roll through, dumping over an inch of rain very quickly. But just as soon as it came, it passed, and the sun was out.

We went for a short ride in the lower or "yellow" loops, which drain very well due to the sandy soil.
We had two small groups, the guys, led by yours truly, and the gals led by Mandy. The roots were very slick, which ups the ante when riding some of the more technical sections. Frequent wheel slippage makes things interesting. I thought to myself just how lucky we have been with a dry spring and summer this year. We (or at least I) haven't had to ride in poor conditions this year. No one died, everyone was muddy and only one member of each group crashed.

Once we all regrouped at the bottom, we fired up the grill, and had some dogs and recovery drinks. A good time was had by all.

This little nugget of info came into my inbox this morning. I will say I am not surprised.

Ryan in the House!

What a day.
Mondays are typically hectic here, as not only do the weekend orders need to be dealt with, the giant mess I make on the previous Saturday needs to be cleaned up. And when you have a busy Saturday, the shop can be quite messy.
Ryan from Niner made a guest appearance, travelling in the area, and with a day free, took us up on some of our local finest. I love showing folks around on our trails. Having a somewhat decent personal Niner arsenal to choose from, Ryan picked Kermit, leaving me with the RIP.
He tried really hard to not completely blow Davey and I out of the water on the big climb up Perry Hill.
We had a short time to fit a lot of trail in, so we stuck to the ones we knew would delight. Bloody, 6 and Joe's.
A trifecta of the best of what Waterbury has to offer.

Check out Ryan on "Stitch".
He is fast.

We have another angle of The Wall on 6 Flags.

We managed to get our ride in about 10 minutes before the skies opened up and dumped some much needed rain on us. While the trails are really dry, it was never meant to be that way. What is noramally tacky loamy soil, is fine powder. The trails are so dusty that the soil is pushing away from the highly traveled areas. We battle wet erosion with bridges and drainage work, but what can you do with dust?

We followed it all up with a nice dinner at the Alchemist with some of Waterbury's finest ales to wash the dirt down with.
Hopefully, we'll see Ryan again soon. We all had a blast.

Ride Report - Virginia IMBA Mountain Bike Festival

(Guest blogging - yet again ) Last weekend, while George kept a handle on things at the shop in VT, and our little boy enjoyed some quality time with the grandparents, I had the distinct pleasure of a road trip weekend. All the way from central VT to Harrisonburg for the Virginia IMBA Mountain Bike Festival.

I'm blessed to have a cousin who lives there, loves to mountain bike and is really involved in the local clubs - so it was easy to pop down for the weekend and fit right in. After I arrived I checked out some newer in-town trails for a short run and followed that up with some (definitely not available in Vermont) tasty vegetarian Vietnamese food and I was ready for my first day of riding in the George Washington National Forest.

We headed out of town and started our ride by climbing 9 miles up to Reddish Knob and a spectacular view of the mountains and West Virginia. Then, as the saying goes, it was all downhill, except for the uphill parts. One major rock garden on the way down (see first photo) and then loads and loads of swoopy smooth descending and more than a few embedded babyheads.

Sunday was the day of the big Shenandoah Mountain Trail Ride. Over 50 people joined this ride along the ridge of the great big Shenandoah Mountain. After a big, long fire road climb there's something like 16 or 17 miles of singletrack along the ridge. It's not particularly technical by VT standards, but the climbing is very respectable and the rocks and other hazards on the trail add a level of difficulty. If something happens to you in the middle of this ride - you are a long way from help.

Speaking of things happening. About two miles into the singletrack portion, I had a bit of a run in with a stick. In case you're wondering, stick vs. SRAM X0 -- stick wins and Mandy walks/coasts/carefully pedals back to the car while trying to figure out how to explain to her husband the demise of a particularly expensive piece of machinery.

Though I didn't get to experience the full epic ride - I've got a score to settle with the SMT and I'll be back and next time I'm bringing reinforcements.

Everyone that I met down there was super friendly and welcoming. The size and involvement of the cycling community is very impressive. There were tons of mountain and road bikers and they seemed to really identify themselves with the clubs and organisations supporting cycling. Even more impressive was the wealth of rides available in the George Washington National Forest and surrounding area. It's hard to tell when you're just visiting for a couple of days, but there seems to be enough to keep a rider busy for weeks. Thanks to Sue and Matthew for a fantastic weekend!

Project Bandersnatch

The Bike
I was lucky enough to get three solid rides in this weekend, and still make good on my promises to complete my appointed chores.

My weapon of choice was the Vassago Bandersnatch. I originally built the bike up and got the initial ride in a few weeks ago, but I needed to make some component changes before feeling really comfortable on it.

The major change came with the wheelset. I had originally taken a disc only Bike 29 Foundation Wheelset from my Karate Monkey to build the bike. These are WTB Speed Disc rims laced to Shimano XT hubs. While this is a great wheelset, it is pretty basic.The XT hubs do not even come close to cutting it when you require instantaneous drivetrain engagement. I found myself in need of power more than a few times and having my legs move wildly until the Shimano pawl system caught up to drive the wheel. For my personal off road riding style, they simply do not work in our technical terrain. I replaced them with a mango and silver Bike 29 Royale Wheelset. Some may call this excessive, but once you ride on a set, you'll have a hard time riding anything else.

I changed the saddle after I found that my old white leather/red velour SDG was bent. I was pretty sad about that, it was my very first bit of free industry swag. It was replaced with a WTB Devo saddle. My aluminum bottle cage was replaced with a Bontrager Race X Lite carbon one. There is your excess.

After all was said and done, the bike went from 27.75 lbs to 26.6. Pretty respectable for a trail bike. Gearing is 1x9, a 32 front with an 11-32 rear. Tires are the IRD Fire XC Pro, run tubeless on Stan's Arch rims.


The Ride
I got a brief shakedown ride in on our Thursday night group ride. I had managed to overlook a couple of things during the build that really frustrated me. I had forgotten to tighten the plastic cable guide under the bottom bracket, which slipped, allowing the tire to rub against the derailleur cable. That just about drove me nuts trying to figure out what was making that weird grinding metal sound every time I put the power down.
When I finally found the problem, it was an easy fix, and the sound did not come back.

Now that the bike was in tip top mechanical shape, I was able to get down to some serious business. Even on my descent out of our local trails I found that I was riding tight and twisty sections that normally gave me trouble at speed. Not so with the Bandersnatch. This is one of the many great symptoms of Wet Cat Geometry. It was not my foul state of mind that powered me through the turns, it was by design.

Wet Cat
Anyone who has seen a cat on the tweak knows just how maneuverable they can be. The Bandersnatch is no exception. The basic gist of Wet Cat is an extended wheelbase, slack head and seat tube, low and forward BB. This all coalesces to put you "in" the bike rather than on top of it. It also has a very unique look, and even when standing still, you get the impression that there is something going on.

Cornering prowess is unexpected. The longer wheelbase keeps everything stable at speed, and mid-course correction is worry free.

The lower center of gravity minimizes the feeling of rolling off the back on steep climbs. This allowed me clean some pretty ridiculous stuff. My typical test etiquette is to pick the stupidest line possible without going overboard to see what the bike is capable of. The Bandersnatch always answered the call with a "Oh yeah? OK. What's next?"

I did have a couple of pedal stike issues, but these were mostly due to my poor timing. Because the BB is a little lower, I paid extra special attention to my pedal location when going over teh rough stuff.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the bike. For the entry level price tag of the frame of $359, there is nothing entry level about the performance. Custom powder coated finishes are available too, making this frame one of the hottest things going.

It's a keeper for sure.

A Weekend of Riding

Saturday's ride to Hyde Park was pretty fun. We included 4 trail systems in the 30 mile trip.
The first was Bear Claw, a trail that used to see a lot of use, but has since faded away over time. This is such a shame, as it is one of the more technical shorter rides we have around here. We found the tail to have a few large trees fallen in inappropriate places. After that, the trail became hard to read. Hopefully, the trail will get raked out this year.
We decided that in the best interest of getting the ride done in a reasonable amount of time, we would bail out of Bear Claw.
The next trail system was the perfectly manicured Stowe Town Loops. Always a great time.
Next up was two trails I haven't ridden in a few years, Tony's and Tamarack. They are best ridden the other way, but we decided to climb them. Tony's features some really excellent twisty and technical singletrack through pine and hardwood forest, and Tamarack takes you though hardwoods and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.
The Bandersnatch handled it with aplomb.
Then there was a lot of road riding with a stiff headwind. we made the trip in just under 3 1/2 hours.


Sunday morning was spent at the Kingdom Trails in East Burke VT. We did a spectacular loop on the Darling Hill side, and rode Poundcake, Fenceline, Webbs, Toadies, Sidewinder, Old Webbs, Worth It and Kitchell. We really had to boogie as rain was threatening. By the time we got to Worth It, it was full on pelting down, even under the canopy. We couldn't of had the timing any more perfect. The ground hadn't yet become slick, we were on that fine balance of tacky and sloppy. It was pretty amazing, we definitely stole the best part of the day.


The best part of this weekend, is the time I've spent on the Bandersnatch.
Holy Cow! I really love the way this bike handles. Wet Cat geometry is for real.
I'll divulge more in the next post, which will be a detailed review of this frumious beast.

News and Goings on

With a good stretch of great weather, things at the shop have been flying right along. For a while I was maxed out, but things have settled down to a nice tempo. Albeit, a high speed high volume tempo, but manageable. I haven't had time to blog, but there are some cool things happening and coming up.

The Wednesday night races at Catamount start this week. This is the longest running race series in New England, with something like 200+ racers every week. Look for the Bike29mobile, and our new tent.

DA, Nat and myself were some of the lucky fools to have gotten signed up for the Vermont 50. This is a legendary race held in late September in southern VT. Registration for the allotted 800 riders was opened and closed in a record breaking 25 minutes. I believe Jay Pro got in too, but I haven't had a chance to find out.

Jerseys are hung up in customs. BOOOOOOO!

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer, riding and BBQs. Today, we'll have a little of all of that and more. Some friends are having a BBQ up in Hyde Park, about 25 miles from the shop. DA and I are going to get our first training ride in, hitting 4 trail systems on our way there. Should be fun.
Sunday will feature a trip up to East Burke to ride the Kingdom Trails. Always a good time to be had up there. Anyone local readers thinking about going should meet us at 10am in the parking lot behind the KT office. We'd love to ride with you.
Monday (weather permitting) will feature a trip to Barre to ride the Millstone Trails. I love that place, and it is pretty convenient to get to if you want to change it up from your local trails.

There are lots of cool products to talk about, but I am going to save those for some upcoming posts. Project Bandersnatch is in effect, and will be my ride today and tomorrow. All I can say is that Wet Cat geometry is fantastic.

Look for exciting updates coming up!

BOOM!

Well. I had my first blow out today. We were riding out in Jericho, and had just completed a pretty technical loop, filled with all sorts of fun rock outcroppings, logs and roots. I had let some air out of the tires to get a little more "cush" and traction in the technical sections, and had no issues whatsoever.

Then we got out to a big wide open meadow, where I let it go. I guess I came into a turn pretty hard and then BANG! I blew the tire right off the rim. My thoughts are that the pressure was simply too low to be railing a high G turn, an that the large round profile of the tire was just too much and it popped right off. It happened right at the apex of the turn, and we were able to deduce what happened from all the marks I made in the ground. It's a good thing it was the rear wheel and not the front.

The good thing, is now I am forced to change the tires to the ones I am going to be racing on. I was putting it off because the conditions have been so dry, that the high volume and fast rolling characteristics of the Weirwolf LT have made riding my rigid singlespeed so much more fun. I'll be replacing them with the Bontrager Jones ACX. Still a relatively big tire, but with knobs, so that you will actually have grip in the wet and mucky. This dry stuff isn't going to be around for much longer.

Note to self, more air!

Trails are OPEN

With the current stretch of fantastic weather stretching on and on, the ground has quickly become dry enough to ride bikes on. This is such great news. Most of the trail work we did last fall paid off, there is just a few fallen branches to clear up. Ponte, DA and Patrick Kell from VMBA have done a lion's share of cleaning up the big stuff. There were a lot of fallen trees over knocked down over the winter, we'd had some serious wind storms. Their work with the chainsaw is most appreciated.

Not to be out done by DA, here I am rolling down he Wall on 6 Flags. The picture I took last year, found its way to all sorts of websites and articles, most recently the NEMBA Singletrack Magazine article on 29ers. Ironically, I took this picture of DA exactly 1 year ago yesterday.


The Perry Hill trail system now features 3 well marked loops, all of which are open. There is a trail day scheduled for this Sunday at 10am, so anyone local that would like to chip in some time, please show up at the parking lot by the tunnel. Bring work gloves, food and plenty of water.

Maverick Ride Report

This winter, I upgraded the front end of my Niner RIP9 from a Rock Shox Reba, to a Maverick DUC 32.
I was looking for something with a little more travel than my Reba, and something that was a little more tuneable. Over the last few days, I've been riding the RIP and trying to get a feel for the new hardware. So far, I've been extremely happy. The first few rides were my usual shake down trip out to the Stowe Town Loops.

Today, we visited Snake Mountain in Addison VT. Anyone that has ever ridden there knows that any equipment will show it's soft underbelly under the duress of the trails up there.

So far the only thing I want to change about the fork, is the high speed compression setting. It tends to dive hard under braking, but holy cow does this thing go where you point it! I used the travel reducer for the brutal climb up to the top of the mountain (it's a little over 1.7 miles with an elevation gain of about 900ft).


Everywhere else, the fork performed flawlessly. Not once did I feel it bind up or twist. There were lots of loose pointy rocks, steep roll downs and tight switchbacks on this ride. There were even a few spots where I chose to walk, and spots where I should have walked. There were even a few spots where I got lucky.

Treachery aside, the mountain itself is beautiful. You get to ride through hardwood stands, deer yards, giant exposed stretches of granite, cliff bands, pine stands, beaver ponds, streams and mud holes. I'm looking forward to riding down there a lot more this summer.


The most notable thing, was the post ride feeling. Or should I say lack of feeling. It's been a few years since we rode there, but normally a trip to Snake leaves you feeling like you've been through a meat grinder. Not so today. It was also the first time we had ridden there on 29ers.

Coincidence?

Yay! Dirt!

So today was pretty awesome. I received word from a friend that one of our local trail systems was dry, and quite rideable. This proved to be absolutely true. With the exceptions of a few large dead falls blocking the way, the conditions were nothing short of spectacular. It doesn't get any dryer mid-summer.


So I took the opportunity to get to know the Bandersnatch a bit. I was really impressed at how well mannered it is in the tight and technical. It is a long bike, the wheelbase is a hair over 45", and it certainly feels long. However, it was able to thread the needle through the tightest technical switchbacks with the greatest of ease. I attribute that to the low center of gravity provided by Wet Cat Geometry. It is a charmer for sure.

Climbing was excellent. I was able to stay seated an power up rough climbs easily, the front end did not lift unless I asked it to. Since the frame is designed to work best with an 80mm fork, I felt the front end to be a touch low, but not twitchy. There was only 1 instance where I though I was going to roll off the front of the bike in a high speed berm , an that was purely related to my riding position.

Everything else about the way the bike handled was great. My only real gripes were component related, and those will be fixed as quickly as possible. As the bike sit right now, it weighs in at 27.45lbs with pedals. I will be updating the blog with every upgrade.

The IRD Fire XC Pro tires were exceptional. Not once did I break traction, and I managed o put them on just about every surface I could find. Roots, rocks, wooden bridges, pine needles, some mud, a couple of damp rocks, sticks, gravel, pavement, you name it. It was confidence inspiring.
Of course, the real test will be time, but man was the first real mountain bike ride of the year ever fun!

Weekend Washout

I was hopeful that the weather would cooperate long enough to get a good ride in off road, but alas. I was really excited to get a leg over the Bandersnatch, and to get a feel for those IRD Fire XC Pro tires.

Last week, we had made arrangements to go for a good long ride on Sunday. We didn't back down. We dodged rain drops for the first Five Hills Ride of the year. The 5HR is a silly local dirt road ride, with lots of climbing. The ride is centered around the store, and takes us up Barnes Hill, Gregg Hill, Loomis Hill, Perry Hill and Blush Hill in order, the five hills of Waterbury (and then some). You don't ever really get more than 5 or 6 miles away from the store at any given point in the ride, which makes it convenient to peel off in the event you don't feel like riding all five. Most of the winter and early spring, I'd do at least one or two of the hills to keep the legs and lungs in shape. I've been punishing myself on my singlespeed, and decided that yesterday would be a good day for Kermit and I to attempt all five in a row.

It wasn't even really raining, it was more like a hard mist. The temps were in the low to mid 50s made clothing choice interesting. It didn't really warrant full rain wear. I chose to wear my Endura Halcyon wool jersey and Endura HumVee knickers. (I also wore wool Argyle sox to complete the whole package)

I chose wisely!

I was not cold, nor was I too hot. Wool is good like that, keeping you warm against the elements while allowing your body to breathe.
I give two very hearty thumbs up to Endura.
Incidentally, Endura is a Scottish company, and as the saying goes, if it isn't Scottish, it's crap.

Well, if the weather is crap, then I'm wearing Scottish clothes!

April's Fools

Today we did another long ride, and although the mileage was less, there was a LOT more climbing involved. You can see the new loop we rode here.
We started the ride from Davey's house, and started rolling out on River Road towards Jonesville. We were a foursome today, Ian (back for more....good kid), Nat, Dave and myself. Dave and I started pulling away on the road, and we thought it might be fun to take a little detour and let Ian and Nat pass us.


We took a little side jaunt to the old Bolton dam. It's a very cool place. It's about 40 feet high, and you can really feel the power of the water.

We even found the end of the rainbow, but alas, no pot of gold.







Dave and I caught Ian and Nat near Jonesvillle, and instead of cranking over to Huntington again as we did last week, we turned right and started cranking up a very long hill. The road took us up to West Bolton, where we then turned into Bolton Notch. Still more climbing, and when we eventually flattened out, we discovered a strong headwind, that would come back to haunt us later in the ride.


There are a lot of really big cliffs up there. It is a popular spot for climbers, although we saw none today. It's a really cool spot.
Once the road pointed down, we had a screaming 1.5 mile descent. I thought that there was no possible way my bike could go any faster, yet it kept accelerating faster and faster over every roller. I must have hit 50 mph!

The bottom of the hill put us out on Route 2, on the other side of the river from where we came, and it was a long grind back on the road with a stiff headwind. Route 2 is notorious for it.
Here's a nice shot of "The Hump" form where we had to stop and take a rest from the relentless wind.


All in all, I'd say it was about a 30 or so mile ride, which we did in about 3 hours. We were moving this time. It was blue bird and in the low 30s when we started, when we got to the Notch, the high cirrus clouds were beginning to gather, and it had warmed up to about 55°.

Ian had his first taste of 29erism today too. He even said the bigger wheels definitely made a difference.

Meat-up II (Electric Boogaloo)

Last fall, Bike 29 and a handful of other 29er riders gathered at the Kingdom Trails in North Eastern VT for a 29er festival of sorts. We called it the Meat-up, and it was a hoot. Some folks though it was such a good idea, that they decided to threw an event of thier own. The folks at the Crooked Cog Network is having the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo in the Midwest in late June (of which I am a proud sponsor).

Lots of folks have asked if there will be another one, and I'm proud to say that there is.
While the final details still need to be worked out, the date of Meat-up II is July 21st 2007. The venue will be Catamount Family Center in Williston VT. There will be on site camping available, but for those without tents, the proximity to Burlington will be helpful.
But here is what is different this year.

In addition to the Meat-up, The weekend will include the inagural New England Single Speed Champion Chips. A real race held at Catamount on Sunday July 22nd.
The race will be open to all singlespeeders, on any size wheels. More details on the whole weekend to follow in the coming weeks.

All in all, it promises to be a weekend of fun. Mark your calenders!

Grinder

This morning started off grey, cold and blustery. I had already made plans to ride a loop that I had planned in my head today. I was not feeling happy about it, but I was going to ride even if it killed me. I knew I had Dave in, he is always good for a punishing ride, but I was pretty surprised when Ian called and asked to join.

There is an old saying here, that if'n you don't like the weather here in Vermont, wait 5 minutes. Well by the time we gathered and pushed off on our ride, it was blue bird, and warming up well into the 40s.

The route took us from Waterbury along the Winooski River to Jonesville, where we turned and went up and over the mountain (403 ft in .8miles) into Huntington. The loop we did was about 11 miles, and put us back on the Winooski, where we headed back the way we came. We had a decent head wind on our way out, but once we made the big climb the sun was beating down on us, and thankfully, we had a good tail wind on the way back. We managed to dodge a grader on the way back. There is nothing worse than pedalling on freshly graded road in mud season. It's like riding in wet cement.

It ended up being about a 32 mile ride. You can see a close approxiamtion of the ride here.

Here are some shots of the ride.
Enjoy!

Mt. Mansfield from the south west.

Gillen Pond.

Sugaring in Huntington. Obscured by clouds on the left is Camel's Hump.

Huntigton Gorge. It seems like someone dies here every year. The currents that shoot through this chute pin unsuspecting bathers underwater. Often, the bodies are never recovered. Amazingly people still choose to swim here.

Ian getting chased down by a hungry grader. Apparently, it had a hankering for some 26" wheels. Davey and I were able to roll away with ease on our large wheels.

The last waterfall before we got back to town.

I have some cool updates to let you all in on tomorrow, so stay tuned!