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!

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!

The Next Installment

The new kid on the block is the White Brothers Fluid 135, now adorning the RIP9. I'm pretty excited about this fork. I measured an actual travel of 128mm, which already eclipses the Maverick's 119. The penalty is about 1/2 lb though, but it's a compromise I'm willing to make. It weighs in at 4.6lbs. It also brings the front of the bike slightly higher. The at rest BB height is now a smidge over 13.5". Will it be enough? We'll see tonight, when the Maiden voyage is planned. Any local readers are encouraged to join in. Call the shop for details, we'll be on "The Hill" tonight.



There was a good turn out at last night's race at Catamount. I rode Kermit, which also was sporting a new shiny black fork, the White Brothers Magic 100. I have had a little experience with the fork last year, and once I learned that the course would be in the woods, I needed to shed the rigid fork. The Magic weighs in at 3.98lbs with an uncut steerer. From what I can tell, the handling was not compromised in any way. I rode as fast as my gearing would let me (35-21), and finished my three laps in just over 50 minutes. I was 28 out of 40 in my race.
Look for a detailed review on the Magic in the coming weeks. It's staying on the bike, and I'm changing my gears...

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!

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.