Thankfully, the rain has taken a break for now.

Thursday night is our standard shop ride, which has been thwarted over the last several weeks with torrential downpours, that always seem to start around 4pm. This time, it rained from 4 pm Wednesday until 7 am Thursday, and it rained hard, so we knew the trails were going to be mucky.

Well, I had this all figured out, and instead of doing the typical “Perry Hill” group ride, we’d do something a little different. I thought that this time, since I am on the rehab train, and also training for a couple of big rides in September, that we’d maybe open the bag of tricks a bit. I chose Honey Hollow as our ride. It is an evil stepped and very steep in spots climb, followed with some crashing though the underbrush and muddy singletrack, followed by a wicked fast double track descent.

Did I also happen to mention that the Honey Hollow road is a 7.5 mile ride from the shop? And that we’d be riding there?

Once DA found out that we were not playing local, he charged off to set the breakneck pace we’d try to keep for the rest of the ride. He had hockey at 8:30, and we had gotten a late start at 6:20. This was going to be tough. We were a fivesome, and Davey was way out in front. It took me a while, but I managed to reel him in after an extended sprint in 44-11. The Jet was flying tonight!

We reached the road pretty quickly, and I decided that I would check out and climb slowly.

There are some spectacular views in this state, and you have to know where to find them, and I would say that this is one of the good ones.

Looking north across the backbone of Vermont that is the Green Mountains.

When we finally got off the road, there was some adventure! One of our group (a customer and new guy to the Thursday scene) had an unfortunate incident involving his rear derailleur which pretty much rendered it useless. Right at the top. Bad timing. He managed to single speed it up, and limped back down to the main road, having worked so hard, only to be denied the “rewards” on the other side of the climb. I told him I’d pick him up on the other side, as it would be a terrible, long bike ride all the way back to the shop.

I say “rewards” with the slightest hint of sarcasm. There was a lot of pushing the bike through an overgrown meadow, some orienteering but a lot of chuckling between Aaron and myself. This was old school riding at its very best.

About halfway down, DA decided to get a flat, which was a good time to polish those trailside maintenance skills. Davey was getting anxious, as we were drawing close to hockey time. We ended up having to tube his rear wheel, and finished the descent back to the main road without further incident.

Then, the return to Waterbury, which was at a blistering pace. I think I was in the big ring almost the whole time. we had to get DA to hockey, and the wounded back to his car. We reached the shop at 8:15, I hopped in the car and met our new friend (who M2 hung with as we raced back) out on the road. Everyone got home safely, and no animals were harmed during the ride.

I’m not sure, but I think I heard Aaron accusing me of tearing his legs off on the flats on the way back in…

There is some other really cool stuff that happened today, that I can’t talk about for a little bit. Something arrived. It is not the same stuff that is arriving tomorrow, which I will be able to talk about, but believe me, you will definitely want to know about this stuff too.

And how!

Actually several things.

I know this because I have tracking #s.

The real trick is to have everything else finished before they show up, as all productivity in the shop will come to a screeching halt as soon as Brown Santa arrives on Friday.

Anyone care to guess what they might be?

Not just some catchy ad slogan, but also my “re-training” for SSWC09. The knee has been a terrible set back, and a sad reminder that I’m not getting any younger. Now I need to be a bit more serious about my physical health if I intend to ride bikes much longer.

I plan on starting out very slow until I get my strength back, and ramping up from there.

The short stints on the Rocky have been helpful in keeping my legs somewhat used to pedaling, but now it is time for the lungs to get to know the legs, on Kermit. With the weather cooperating for a change, Maggs, Aaron and myself took off to a seldom ridden and somewhat “misty” collection of trails after work, for some single speed fun.

The ride begins with a biggish pavement climb, Maggs not even breaking a sweat with his 34-19t gearing, Aaron is churning the cranks over on his 32-20, and I’m barely keeping up with Aaron who isn’t even breathing hard with my 35-21. But I’m keeping up with Aaron! It isn’t like you really have  a choice on the SS, you make it or you don’t. I was making it, despite feeling slightly hypoxic. Probably very similar to what I’ll be feeling in the thin air of south west Colorado.

Once we got to the single track, things lightened up a bit. I was warmed up, still frightfully out of breath, but otherwise ready to go. Mandy, Keiran and Seamus met us up there so we could hopefully get some good riding pictures while the light was good.

Seamus was a happy dog as he got to tear about the place like some sort of wild beast. He was in his element.

For those that don’t know, it has been raining non stop since Memorial Day. The trails we usually ride are pretty much trashed, and will take a long time to dry out. I’m doing my best at staying off them, but I need to ride, and I need to ride on trails. This secret stash is great, because only a few people know about it. The rocks are still deadly slick with moss and condensation, and the trails are very primitive compared to what we have on Perry Hill. DA had twisted his ankle up here a couple of years ago, and ripped the head tube badge off his SIR9 during the same incident, and it was dry then.

I consider it a great way to get my skills sharp, much like Rocky did in Rocky IV. Time to get serious, without all the BS like gears and suspension that make riding “easy”…

We got a few pictures taken before the light was pretty much gone. Then we rode around and explored for a bit, but by then, the ole’ trick knee started actin’ up, and we decided to hit the road and go back to my house. I had burped a tire because I let out a whole bunch of air. Racing Ralphs are no good on mossy rocks unless you run them at 22 psi. You can’t catch air with 22 psi in your tires if you are a big kid like me…

It felt really good to get out and ride, but I have a long way to go.

… well, not a whole lot…

But I have been spending as much saddle time as I can get on the Rocky Mountain Altitude 29er. Such an interesting bike.

I managed to sneak away to the Kingdom Trails on Sunday to do some extended riding. I felt that a few hours of Kingdom singletrack would be a good test of the Altitude’s mettle.  I conned Aaron into coming with, and even got E-Dog to rally.

We met up at the parking lot by the Den, ran into DA and he told us that Maggs and posse were not far behind. We hung out for a bit, but the parking lot scene was starting to drag on to a point where I could no longer take it. We were there to ride, not hang out, and I had other places to be that day, so Aaron, Ian and I set off up Darling Hill and we ducked into Harp and worked our way onto Fenceline, Coronary etc.

Man, it is difficult to keep up with Aaron. He is insanely fast, and it was an exercise in patience and temperance to ride with him. My knee is still not quite 100%, and riding a new bike on terrain I don’t know like the back of my hand made things dicey at times. I’m convinced that there is no dry trail in VT at this point.

I found the “Straight Up” geometry of the Altitude difficult to deal with at times. I have had a few rides in familiar territory on the bike before this “big” ride, and am starting to get the hang of the forward bias ride of the bike, but the trail conditions, my fitness level and a new bike made for a less than stellar ride. I am feeling like I am being a bit unfair to the Rocky, so I am going to stick it out and see if my opinion changes over the next few weeks.

It’s been very difficult to gauge how I’ve been riding these last few outings. I have not had the opportunity to ride with the folks I regularly ride with. I normally can get a good sense of how quickly I ride certain sections of trail when I compare results with my peers, but my schedule has only allowed me to ride with Seamus, who is always fast, and on Sunday, Aaron, who is also always fast. I’m willing to bet my perception is off base here.

The notorious Sidewinder Trail took a lot of thought to ride. I managed to get in front of Aaron on the lead in to the trail, and Ian filmed most of the good parts. The bike felt stable until you had to turn it. The bike handled the G-outs very well, a testament to what 5.5″ of travel AND big wheels can do for you. The Reba was remarkably stiff and exhibited no shortfalls in performance. The low speed turn signature of this bike is very twitchy though, and I’m still not used to it.

But now, with a few more rides on Perry Hill’s lower trails I feel like I am getting to know the bike a better. As my knee slowly improves, and my fitness even more slowly improves, I am slowly dialing in the bike. There are things I love about the bike, and some things I hate. Oddly enough, I have yet to take this bike into the Town Loops, which is odd, as the TLs are my proving ground for every bike to date.

Maybe tomorrow AM if it isn’t raining…

Bike29 is on the front page of the local paper. Snapped during the Vermont Mountain Bike Festival last weekend.

(That’s me riding the Altitude 29er up front)

I am one lucky guy. Rocky Mountain has chosen me to be a test monkey for their upcoming Altitude 29er frame. Apparently they thought I knew a thing or two about big wheeled bikes…

The Altitude is aimed at the “epic XC” set, which I would quantify as one who rides all day. I so wish I was that guy… but I digress.

I was able to finally assemble the Rocky Mountain Altitude 29er after a couple of days. It was a painfully long process, but I shouldn’t really complain, I’m the first person outside of the company to even build the very first large prototype frame. The paint was practically still wet! I still managed to find every road block though, but potential buyers of this bike will never have to worry about any of them, as this bike will only be available as a complete. Hopefully my observations will help streamline their process, and they will be able to offer a pretty amazing bike. I feel very privileged to be part of this process.

Did I mention she was a good lookin’ bike too?

The complete bike weighs in at a touch under 28.5 lbs. The build is a Bike 29 Royale wheelset with Stan’s Arch rims, Bontrager Jones ACX front tire and WTB Prowler rear, Thomson stem and seatpost, WTB Devo saddle, Easton Monkey Lite lo-rise carbon bars, Ergon Enduro grips, Avid Elixir front brake, and a Formula K24 rear (the only brake I had laying around that had a long enough housing) SLX cranks and shifters, XT mid cage rear derailleur with XT direct mount front. The front fork is a Reba Team set at 120mm. Due to unforseen circumstances, I was unable to use my Fox F29 with the tapered steerer.

Here are some numbers:

HA 70.5°, SA 74°, 13.25″ BB height (unsagged) and 46.5″ wheelbase.

The Altitude features Rocky’s “Straight Up” geometry. The seat angle is intentionally steep, with the thought that once the rear end is sagged, the bike will assume angles that are becoming of an all day epic bike.

I managed to get a quick ride in during the Vermont Mountain Bike Festival that was held this weekend.

It climbs like a rocket. For those that don’t already know, the main way in to Perry Hill features a nasty climb right out of the gate. The steep seat angle, coupled with the short(ish) 17.5″ stays really helps keep your weight directly over the rear wheel, and amazingly enough, the front end stayed down. I was actually very impressed with the way the bike was able to handle such a steep climb, even with little saddle time to really feel the bike out.

Steering is very quick.

I felt as if I was over the front wheel a lot of the time though, and manualing into hollows in the trail was very difficult, and casual drop offs took a little more work than usual. I attribute this to shock set up, even though I was at “factory spec” I felt it could have been softer. I have some more fiddling to do for sure, but I am positive I can get it to feel exactly the way I want. I never once used the Pro Pedal setting on the RP23 rear shock, I left it all the way open, and it exceeded my expectations as far as pedaling efficiency goes. With a little less air, and maybe a low Pro Pedal setting, it will be right on the money.

This bike flies.

SRAM was awesome enough to find and ship me a rare Elixir brake line, so my next ride will not be marred by what, in my opinion, is a sub standard brake. The lever on my Oro (rear brake) kept sticking “on”, which was a massive pain in the ass, and was really starting to affect my ride experience.

My overall first ride impression, is that this bike has a ton of potential.

Now that my knee is able to deal with more effort, I plan on riding the ever living crap out of this thing.

Brown Santa brought me a little somethin’ special today…

Yep.

That right there is something I’ve been waiting for since October…

Rocky Mountain has been playing this particular hand very close to the chest, but right out of the box, it seems like they know what is up.

Here’s a couple of teaser pics

Frame weight, 7 lbs for a “large” frame.

This is a pre-production sample, so I will spare you all but the most important details, starting with the following:

The front of this bike utilizes a zero stack tapered headset. I’m waiting for the necessary goodies to mount my tapered Fox fork to this beast.

It uses a direct mount front derailleur.

It has a dead sexy flat and soft touch black paint. oooh!!!

Chainstays are 17.5″.

I’m waiting for some of the more “hard to get” items to finish the build, but I’m almost positive I’ll have a ride report within the next 24 hrs…

So the time has come to think about how, what, why and when we re going to get to SSWC09.

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Durango is less than convenient to get to unless you have a spaceship or a transporter. Nestled in the southwest corner of Colorado, with hundreds of miles between the nearest interstate and town limits, and even more hundreds of miles from rural Vermont.
I’d be happy to hear from anyone on the subject.

This whole rain thing has gone beyond a joke.

It seems as if we have gotten a monsoon season over the last few years. Long range predictions look promising for the end of the week and weekend, which is a good thing. The Vermont Mountain Bike Festival is coming right up, and it would be nice if the trails were somewhat dry…

Aaron has most of the parts for his new RIP9. He is very excited, and will hopefully have it built for when the weather finally improves.

After a very wet 4th of July, we experienced something that has been a long time coming. SUN!

Sunday was about as picture perfect as could be, bright blue sky, temps in the low 70s. Nat and I went for an easy spin down River Road.

On the way back, I wanted to go check out this cool flume that is up and off the road a bit. It is a very nice spot, and to give you an idea of the scale of things, the cliff on the right is about 25 feet above the  water. It’s a long way down, and there is a lot of water flowing through there. The sound is deafening.

The knee was actually feeling pretty good on the ride. I was concentrating very hard on not pushing it. It seems that I am now able to do some pain free rehab rides, and as long as I  keep the efforts to a minimum, do my exercises and stretches, maybe I’ll be back in the swing of things by August. Which gives me very little time to get ready for SSWC!

Miraculously, the internet connection seems to have reset itself at home, so we can likely still be charged a fee for having a technician come out and tell us nothing is wrong with our equipment. Oh well, at least it’s working now.

Here’s what’s been happening since the last real post.

We just put together a fresh Niner RIP 9. This is a small raw frame, with the Fox tapered steerer tube fork. Wheelset is a new offering from us, Industry 9 classic hubs (purple!), this time laced to white Stan’s Arch rims with black DT Comps and DT purple alloy nips, Race Face cranks, also purple, SRAM X9 drivetrain with twisters and Avid Juicy 5 brakes. The color scheme really came together on this one, I’m almost jealous it isn’t mine.

My knee is still not right. I attempted a flat spin last week. I rode my Fisticuff from the shop to Jonesville and back along River Road, a mostly flat and rolling dirt road. The flats were OK, the down hills were fast and furious, but any incline reduced my forward momentum to a crawl. The was no way I could stand or put any pressure on the left knee without feeling the twinge. It’s very frustrating. I’m not even close to 50% better.

I attempted a ride on Sunday, and got about 10 feet in when I decided that it would be foolish of me to keep going. On my way back to the car I found this in the road, partially embedded in the dirt:

I have named him “My Little Po’Knee” after my poor little knee.

The good news, or bad news if you are not me, is that the weather is going to be total shiite for the whole week. I am going to sit yet another week out.

The 2010 Rock Shox Rebas are starting to arrive. The only real difference is the decals have changed from red to silver. A lot of folks complained about the red decals, although I thought they were kinda sharp.

Also just in are these Bontrager 29.3 EXP tires. They are reportedly specifically designed around the stresses of a 29er tire, and come in 2.2 or 2.0 sizes. The packaging indicates the target eights of 650g and 580g respectively. Out of the packaging, the 2.2 weighs in at a whopping 940g, and it appears to have a similar size and volume as a Nevegal. The sidewall feels remarkably stiff as well, which is where I am guessing most of the weight is coming from. The 2.0 is closer to the claimed weight at 600g, but it seems as if the tire is much smaller than it should be. Both tires are also TLR (TubeLess Ready) and retail for $50.

Look for a review on the 2.0 coming soon, as I am going to chuck a set on Mandy’s Jabberwocky. Obviously I am not riding… but, I am intrigued about the 2.2 tire despite it’s heft. Maybe it could be a good WFO tire…?