My Last Race

You know that Fall is coming when the Catamount season is drawing to a close. Last night was my last race of the season, as next week, I am supporting the actual last race of the season.
It was Nat's last race too, as he is scheduled to have kid #2 next week.

I brought out Red 5.1 for it's second ride, and first race. I pretty much guaranteed it would rain by mounting my WTB Weirwolf LTs, and switching over to my "crusher gear" 34-19. It's actually not that bad until you encounter steep hills of any length. I found that even standing and mashing as hard as I could, forward momentum was hard to keep. I don't know how I made it.

I'm glad I only did 2 laps, I developed a searing stitch on my right side in the middle of my first lap that didn't go away until the last downhill of the second lap. Ouch.
It started to sprinkle at the beginning of the second lap, but it held to that. I thought to myself "I just knew it......!"
I pretty much spent the race alone. I knew I had to be somewhere near the front, but couldn't catch the leaders. I ended up finishing my 2 in 29 minutes, coming 3rd in my age, 7th overall.
Not too bad.

Sandbagging?

At last night's Catamount Race, I opted to downgrade my race from 3 to 2 laps. It had been 4 weeks since my last Wednesday night race, and I have not been feeling too fit lately.

And boy was I ever surprised to get 2nd in my age category, and 7th overall! By far, this is the greatest performance I have ever had there. But when you break down the numbers, if I had gone 3 laps, I would have been at the back of the pack. My lap times were around 16:30, a 16 minute lap. 3 would have put me at 48 minutes if I were to maintain my pace.

So was I sandbagging? Or did I make a lateral performance move that just so happens to benefit my placement?

Another thing that was weird, is that I was racing a geared bike. Kermit is sporting 9 forward gears these days. I forgot that I was supposed to pedal on the downhills! Whoops.

So the fundraising total is now $205.

If you want to donate, but haven't yet, click this link to donate directly in my name, or you can contact me via email or phone. The Point to Point is on the 11th! Be generous!

A Night at the Races

Wednesday nights are for racin!


The Catamount race series, in it's second race of the summer, featured the race support of Five Hills Bikes and Bike 29. We got there early and set up the tent. Last week was the all inclusive support night, where all the participating shops had a tent set up. I was twiddling my thumbs most of the time, as the other shops are well established and folks knew the names.

"Five Hills? Where are you guys from?"

This time though, I was pretty busy, adjusting derailleurs, airing up shocks and lubing chains. I even had some of my own customers show up to race. It was also good to get the word out that there is another competent bike shop that is dedicated to mountain biking near by. I've already had one new customer step up into the world of big wheels because of our participation.
Waterbury is fast becoming synonymous with world class mountain biking. You have seen many pictures on this blog of the stuff we ride regularly on this blog.

"You're in Waterbury? Those trails are awesome!"

The most exciting thing for me though, was the debut of the Bike 29 Jersey. As you can see, they really stand out. Many folks commented on how good they looked, and you can easily pick them out from afar. I think that most shop jerseys are way too busy, and you don't really see any of the logos clearly until you get close.




There is no doubt about which shop is being represented here. See ya out there!

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!

A Pleasant Surprise

When I was putting my bike on the roof of my car in the pouring rain, I was thinking to myself at just how much fun this race was going to be. I mean, it was POURING! It had rained all night, and it didn't look like it was going to stop.

I picked up Nat, and we headed north and west to Catamount, where the race was being held. We were commenting on just how cold, muddy and miserable we were going to be. Well, wouldn't you know it, when we came out of the mountains, everything was dry! It hadn't rained at all. What a fantastic surprise. Needless to say, the weather greatly improved our outlook. On arrival, I found I had managed to forget my gloves, and glasses. Good thing I didn't need them.


There was no standing water on the course, the wooded sections were tacky, and the grass sections of which there were many were fantastically grippy.
So how do you do a tire comparison in near perfect conditions? Well, it isn't easy.

Bontrager Jones
My race rig was my Niner SIR9 (Kermit), set up as a rigid singlespeed. My wheels are Bike29 Royale Singlespeed, using Stan's Arch rims. I am running them tubeless, and had 35 psi in both tires. The ground is still pretty soft, even the slightest incline would sap all your strength, but it was not the tires. For being such a blocky tread pattern with a soft rubber compound, they roll fast on anything hard. They stuck to the dry grass like velcro. I was really able to lay it down in the turns. About the only time they made we nervous was when going over wet roots. I don't know any 29er tire out there that is good at that. Racing rigid was interesting too. I felt a little skittery in the rough stuff. I may rescind my weight weenie ways and put a fork on Kermit this summer, but I am going to give it a few races.

IRD Fire XC
Nat had his tires around 25 psi. I think this is way too low, but he likes the way they hook up at that low a pressure. We traded the lead over each other a few times over the race. Nat's EMD is set up with WTB Speed Disc Trail rims using tubes.

Kenda Karma
Jay had his tubeless Bike29 AYKM wheels on his AIR9, and had his tire pressure around 20. He really liked the tires. He commented on outstanding grip in the race conditions we had, and the ease at which the wheels could get up to speed. Not suprising for such a light weight wheel/tire combo.

For the time being, these tires will be camped out on the bikes. I'll be able to nit pick the tires a little better when there is more opportunity for on trail drama. There were folks running Nanoraptors, and even they had no problems.

The race results were not posted at the time of this post, but as usual, Jay won in his category. Nice job! There were also a suprising number of 29ers out there. The summer race season begins on May 30th.

Pimp my Ride

A special thanks to Chris at Factotum for the vinyl treatment on my car's fairing. It now stands out in what seems like a sea of silver Saabs. I also took delivery of my EZ-Up tent. The canopy will be going out for logos this coming week. Chris does great work.

Tomorrow is the first race of the season for me at Catamount. In keeping with the "pimp my ride" theme, I have rounded up some "race worthy" tires, influenced by Rick's comments on Back in the Saddle.

Changing a tire is a great and inexpensive way to change how your bike rides. I'd even consider it to be the most important things on a bike, seeing as ithey are the only thing keeping the bike and rider on the trail. The selection of tires below, are tires that I know will be raced on tomorrow. I'm sure there are more, but these ones are easiest for me to keep track of.

The Race

Traditionally, this race has been a mudfest. Weather here can be extraordinarily unpredictable. Rain is in the forecast, which means, it can either be really nice, or snowing sideways. Regardless, it will be a great arena for a tire comparison. Three riders, three ability levels, and three different set ups.

The Tires

Bontrager Jones ACX 2.2 Tubeless Ready
These are the tires adorning my ride. I'm looking forward to see how they do. I have one ride on them so far, and so far, so good. I rode out in Hinesburg Town Forrest last week, and was amazed at how well they rolled for such a knobby tire. Sticky too.

IRD Fire XC Pro 2.1
Daddy Nat is going to be rolling on these tomorrow. I have a couple of rides in on mine, and I like the way they hook up in the dry conditions we've been spoiled with. Once mother nature decides how she will treat us tomorrow, we'll get Nat's opinion.

Kenda Karma 1.9
Jay Pro has these on his new svelte 22.25lb AIR9 racer. This is one probably one of the most raced 29er tires out there, but they will be a first for Jay. Jay has also traditionally won this race over the last few years. Hopefully, he will crush again this year.

I'll have the results tomorrow.

The Frumious Bandersnatch

It was a project I was putting off for a while, mostly due to the lack of hours in any given day, but it is almost done. I say almost because there will be upgrades along the way. The Bandersnatch will be my new test piggie for all sorts of cool bits and pieces.

I had to decommission the Karate Monkey to build this beast, but I'm sure that the Monkey will rise again (it always does). I had a terrible time getting it together, most of the parts on the KM had been there all it's life, and did not come quietly. I had to reduce the travel on my Reba from 100mm to 80, and so it was also a good time to give a little love to the fork. It needed it.

The headtube on the Vassago is considerably longer than any of the bikes I've had the Reba on before, but fortunately, there was enough room for a Thomson stem, and nothing else. Amazingly, the cockpit proportions are almost identical to my other bikes, so it should be an easy time learning the ins and outs of the new bike. I'm looking forward to experiencing "Wet Cat" geometry first hand. I will be getting the Bandersnatch dirty on the trail this weekend weather permitting.

This weekend is the opening weekend for Catamount, where I delivered the first two of the demo 29ers that will live there this summer. I'll have some more details on that in a future post. In a nutshell, anyone who wants to try a 29er in the woods, will have access to a full size run of Gary Fisher 29ers.

Bike 29 News

With biking season coming close, I figured I can let a few cats out of the bag to help get people fired up to ride.

The biggest cat, is in fact Catamount. Five Hills Bikes will be a proud sponsor of their ongoing summer training races. What does this mean? Well, myself, and a few other Burlington area shops will be lending a hand every Wednesday night this summer to the racers who gather at Catamount Family Center. Besides moral and tech support, we will no doubt be throwing down for some post race BBQ and "recovery" drinks.
As part of our agreement, we'll be providing demo bikes for Catamount's patrons to check out.
That means if anyone interested in demoing a 29er off road, in real mountain biking scenarios, has access. There will be more details as to what bikes will be available in the coming weeks.

There are the beginning rumblings of the soon to be legendary Bike 29 Meat-up. Details are still being flushed out, but the official venue and schedule of events promise to be one to write home about. Hang on to your hats boys and girls, this will be an event to remember.
I expect firm details of the Meat-up to be available early next week.

Bike 29 is also a proud sponsor of Crooked Cog's Big Wheeled Ballyhoo. Although they "borrowed" the idea from my Meat-up, they have certainly raised the bar. The event will be held in Decorah Iowa. With any luck, I'll be able to attend. I've never ridden in the Midwest, and I think it will be a ton of fun.

In product news, Niner has a new bike that will be unveiled at Sea Otter. I can hardly wait, and I am bursting at the seams about this bike. Needless to say, there will be one in my quiver. Optomism points to a June release, but we'll have to see. The RIP was supposed to be out in June last year, and widespread availability is only just now being realized.

More news as it happens...