SSUSA was a hoot, but not without its penalties.

So much has happened, that I’ll have to break it up into two posts.

We arrived in Tucson on Thursday afternoon, after starting the day around 4am. Our trip consisted of a sketchy drive in blowing snow, 3 airports and a cab ride before we reached our final destination.

Tucson is a fantastic place.

We met up with Dejay and crew and headed out for dinner at a place called Martinez, where I had some of the best tacos I’ve had in a long time. I pretty much used a whole bottle of salsa, it was going well with the Fat Tire ale.

The next day we got our bikes built, but we had found that Mandy’s front brake line was badly kinked. We tried an emergency line shortening, but it wasn’t going to work. Luckily, Dejay had a spare front Magura Marta kicking around, which we put to use.

As I got the bikes dialed in, other folks started showing up, Dejay’s front yard was filling up with bikes and people. It was pretty cool getting to meet everyone as we hung out. Well, before we knew it, it was time for the malt liquor.

After a lunch stop, about 19 of us rallied to ride Starr Pass in Tucson Mountain Park. It is a pretty extensive network of trails on the west side of the city, rolly and fun.

Friday night’s shenanigans was spent at the Surly Wench. It’s a super cool place, and it served as the meeting spot for everyone regoistered for SSUSA. The highlight was the $2 Lagunitas IPA pints. Very tasty.

We left around midnight, it was time to rest up for SSUSA!

More to come, stay tuned…

Thursday will be spent getting from here to there.

This is what we have to look forward to on Saturday.

It’s the same ride we did last year at SSAZ09, which was a blast. This time though, we know what we are in for, and I’ve been riding (a bit). Physically, I’m better prepared, and the rumored tequila shots on La Milagrosa may help me be better mentally prepared for that last pitch down.

More later…

Thanks to that Facebook thing, we have visual proof that our bikes arrived in Tucson.

The boxes seem to be in good shape, so let’s hope the contents arrived ding free.

Pictured here is the madman behind this event, Mr Dejay Birtch. Besides driving a Surly Big Dummy, which is hauling a car’s load worth of bikes, he is modeling the t-shirts we made for SSUSA. They are really cool, and I’ll post a picture up later. It’s pretty sweet that he’s using a bike to haul bikes.

Gotta get myself packed now, we leave tomorrow!

There have been a couple of pictures of this bike on the blog, but no details on it. It is my second bike in the category of “awesome bikes that Salsa doesn’t make anymore”. The first is my Primero road bike. That one is red, very fast, and currently in the basement next to the trainer. This one is a La Cruz, which has also recently been discontinued.

I saw my first La Cruz during Frostbike at QBP headquarters about 2 years ago, it was owned by Jason Boucher, head honcho of all things bikie and spicy. His had Crossmax 29er wheels and big tires. It got my attention, but it would be a while before I could actually get my own.

I built mine up last fall, and have put quite a few miles on it, I brought it to PA for Xmas, and when the weather cooperates, I like to get out and spin the cobwebs off my legs with it.

Here is the build:

• Salsa LA Cruz, frame and fork
• Bike29 Royale wheelset, recycled from my old silver RIP9, re-recycled from when Kermit was geared, Mango hubs, silver spokes and nips, Arch rims
• Salsa Flip Off skewers
• King headset
• Thomson stem
• Salsa Bell Lap bars
• Easton EC70 seatppost
• WTB Vigo saddle, I use the little built in clippy thing for my Topeak seat bag
• SRAM Force group, 50-34 front, 11-27 rear, but I’m almost thinking about trying a XX 11-32 cassette for funsies
• Avid BB7 Road brakes with G3 cleansweep rotors
• Jagwire cables in Dirt Rag brown
• Lizard Skins synthetic bar tape. This stuff is actually really good, it’s tacky, and stays so in all weather conditions, wet or dry. It feels good under hand too, and I feel it is worth the lofty $35 MSRP
• WTB Mutanoraptor tires. 700×44. These things are huge, and they will only go about 45 mph before they stop going any faster. They barely fit in the frame, so there’s no room for fenders. I run them tubeless (of course) and range 25-35 psi depending on how hard its snowing or or how icy the roads are. Sadly, WTB doesn’t make these anymore

It’s a really fun and comfortable bike, and the fact that it is bright screaming orange helps with the whole being visible in the low light of winter thing.

I would definitely love to ride this bike more than I do.

Travis, or T-Vo as we sometimes call him, is one of our local riders. Not only does he have a naturally cool “mountain bike name”, he is also one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He’s a dyed in the wool singlespeeder, even though he has been spotted messing around on full suspension geared bikes from time to time.

By day, Travis is a coach for the National Guard Biathlon Team. For those that don’t know what that is, it’s a combination of Nordic skate skiing and rifle marksmanship. It’s somewhat of an obscure sport here in the states, but it’s as big as NASCAR in Europe. That is probably why they are so skinny… Besides that, Biathlon is not only a real sport, but an OLYMPIC sport, one that requires a great amount of fitness and discipline, and Travis has those in spades.

He is a regular at Wednesday Night Worlds, never too cool for school, and can always be found encouraging the younger riders to go for it in their races. His home turf is Saxon Hill, which is an amazingly fun area I have recently rediscovered. And while we didn’t have an “official” team last year, Travis (along with a few others) was always out there flying the B29 colors. We’re really happy to have him aboard again this year.

Look for Travis, racing singlespeed at the Root 66 Race Series this summer, or come by Catamount and do some hot laps with him on Wednesday nights!

Again with the Star Wars.

After the quasi failure of Ridiculite, once again I was hankering for a One 9. The thing that really sent me over the edge was Mandy’s new One 9. It gave me such a rotten case of bike envy…

I call Ridiculite a failure because I had absolutely no interest in the bike. I mean, it was stupid light and all, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I knew that I could have my cake and eat it too if I made some changes, and change it up I did. While it no longer qualifies as Ridiculite, this bike is exactly what I hoped it would be, and you know what, it ain’t all that heavy either.

It’s a lot to look at, but I like it.

Here’s the spec,

• Reba Race, 100mm, Pushloc, Enduro seals
• Cane Creek 110 headset (totally custom – another post coming on this next week)
• Thomson stem and seatpost clamp
• Easton EC70 Monkeylite XC low riser bars and EC90 seatpost
• Ergon GX-2 grips
• WTB Devo saddle
• Avid Elixir 5 brakes, 185mm rotor front, 160mm rear
• Industry 9 wheels, geared rear hub, enduro front, Stan’s Arch rims
• Endless Fibonacci spacer kit
• Boone Ti 20t cog
• King Ti lockring
• SRAM PC891 chain
• Truvative Noir cranks, Black Box Ceramic BB, Boone Ti 32t chainring
• DT Swiss RWS wheel skewers
• WTB Weirewolf LT tires, for “out west” riding

I managed a quick spin on it over the weekend before the heavy rains came to make sure it’s working, and now it’s in a box somewhere heading to SSUSA in Tucson. That first real ride is going to be fun!

That’s right, even though it’s January and is raining cats and dogs here in the north east, it is time to start thinking about riding bikes.I am talking about the third annual Gravel Grinder in Waterbury VT, which will take place on April 18th.  Even though we have expanded the number of spots available to 150 riders, this event sells out every year. Don’t procrastinate, get signed up! Click on the banner link to the right, or right here.

Our first year (2008), we weren’t exactly sure what to expect, so we had planned on 50 riders. Well, the week before the ride, everyone decided to sign up, and I estimate we turned 30-40 people away, and we still ended up with 60 or so on the course.

View Gravel Grinder in a larger map

Last year, we increased the number of riders to 100, and again, we were over full by ride time. We ended up rolling 120 or so.

This year, we are sticking to 150 riders. It does become a bit of a chore to manage things at this level, and we want to keep the quality high, so there will be absolutely no exceptions. Not signed up? Not riding. I hate telling folks no, but I have to draw the line someplace.

There will also be a few changes to the route this year. I haven’t completely ironed them out, but I want to add a little more “adventure” to the main loop. It will be optional for the faint of heart. Look for course details to come in the following weeks.

We will have a yet-to-be-confirmed post ride meal provider this year, I’ll provide details as that shakes out, but I am very happy that this is in the works. Last year, I ran the two grills, and it was a bit overwhelming at times.

Any way you slice it, it’s going to be a great time.

Friday was spent playing hookey from work, and honoring our general manliness. Last year we had a very rambunctious outing to Jay Peak. This year’s location, Sugarbush VT.

I haven’t been here in a very long time. I used to go there a lot when I was learning to snowboard, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. It is very spread out, and almost “out west” like, partly due to the fact that there is so much terrain, and you have to take a lift to get to the lift where you want to play. There are basically two ski areas, North and South, and they are connected by an intermountain chairlift.

For some of us, it was the first time out on skis or snowboard this year, so we did a few warm up runs on the South resort before heading into the backcountry. We headed into the woods shortly before lunch, our destination, Slidebrook. It’s an area that separates the North and South resorts, basically a big valley. It put us out on German Flats Rd, which connects the two resorts. Will, our tour guide, had stashed a little pre lunch snack in the woods near the road. We then hopped the bus to the North resort and ate lunch and drank PBRs!

After lunch, we played around at the North resort before ducking back into the woods. We went back into the Slidebrook watershed, and found some of the most incredible snow I’ve been on in recent memory. We all had a great time, and a big shout out goes to Shaun for making it all happen, and a big shout out to Will for hooking us up with tickets, beer, and serving as our personal resort guide.

My third One 9, yes third. How amazing is it that we live in a society where we can obtain and replace things so easily…

Seeing as how I already had a “fun” singlespeed, I thought I might try a “serious” one. One that pulled no punches. The whole concept of this bike was for it to be as light as possible, while still maintaining enough durability to hold up under my girth. Something I could “race to win” on, had I the fitness and stamina for such folly.

There really isn’t much on there that is suspect, and there isn’t much on there I wouldn’t or don’t already use on any given bike.

A perfect storm of lightness if you will. The result was a pretty stunning sub 18lb bike.

And yet I didn’t like it. It wasn’t Red 5 or even Red 5.1, in fact, it wasn’t even anything I wanted to ride. I got rid of it almost as soon as I built it. I had a handful of serious rides on it, and felt that it was just too light for me. It’s a preference thing, I like light, but I don’t have to have the lightest anything.

The real problem was that I didn’t actually build it the way I wanted. It’s not as dumb as it sounds, despite the fact that I selected every single part on that thing. Everything was a compromise on this bike. I wanted the Atomic Blue frame, but went with Raw as it was something like 30g lighter (apparently blue paint is heavy). I wanted a suspension fork but went rigid for the weight savings. I wanted Avid brakes but chose the lighter Formulas. I wanted I9s, but the Kings were 10g lighter, and so on and so forth.

Was this a case of Strike 3, I’m out?

I was going to prattle on about bikes today, but now I’m not.

Over the last few months, I have had a little more free time to cruise other people’s blogs. One of those new blogs I have started haunting every day, is the very amusing blog of Thom Parsons. Thom is a spry young feller I met for the first time halfway up the ridiculous climb up to Raider Ridge in Durango at SSWC09. He had just woken up from a mid hike siesta, and had spied some of our crew in the B29 colors.

He perked up and asked if George was around. Apparently he had seen this blog before, and knew of our awesome 29er prowess. Well, wasn’t he embarrassed when he saw me. I arrived on the scene about 20 minutes later, where someone took this awful picture. Sadly, I was recovering from a very uncomfortable Trundle-ectomy, and wasn’t in my best shape. Unless you count Homer Simpson as a shape.

I, on the other hand, was horrified that there was not in fact ” a Cure” waiting for me just around the corner. They lied to me!

Well, we made nice and all, and eventually Thom rode away from us with the grace of one of those gazelle like things you see on the Discovery Channel. Or maybe the grace of a Unicorn, not sure, I was still looking for the Cure.

Well, now it’s late January. Thom has professed to a temporary lifestyle of sloth and hibernation. It’s a New England thing. I get it. I live here too, and it sucks sometimes. But fat you are not my friend, and I’d be willing to bet, that you could still kick my ass in a race to a freshly opened box of DuDos Munchkins.

My little glimmer of hope got a little bit better when Thom announced he was headed out to SSUSA in Tucson. SWEET! Someone else I can gripe about the crappy New England weather and getting fat with. He has also since decided to add 19 gears to his bike, which is something I applaud him for, because now his “singlespeed cred” has dropped down one level closer to mine.

And hopefully he’ll bring his singlespeed to Arizona, and not his new XX equipped steed (which I hear he has named Pegasus). Either way, I’ll be looking forward to crossing paths with him again.