The 14″of snow that fell on us was a bit of a slap in the face. It has to melt, which it has done quite well, but now the trails need to dry out, which just takes time. About 8″ fell down on the valley floor, so even Town Loops are off limits until Friday afternoon at the earliest.

Mandy is on her way to PMBAR. She’ll be meeting up with her teammate Emily Brock for what is sure to be an awesome time in the Pisgah. It literally took an entire day to make sure her bike was ready after SSAP, but I’d rather rule out any mechanical issue that would ruin the weekend she has ahead of her.

The rumor is, that the B29 Team kits will be hand delivered to Mandy in the Pisgah, so there may even be pictures of our riders rocking the trails at PMBAR to look forward to next week.

K-Dog and I are batching it this weekend. Weather dependent, we may go rock some dumbtrack on rigid singlespeeds on Saturday. I may even mow the lawn for the first time this year.

Think good thoughts for our riders down in NC this weekend, and have a great one yourself.

I think I’ve just stumbled upon why the weather has been so wacky lately. It’s those damn Stormtroopers again!

I fear that the Empire was working on some sort of device that could disrupt a planet’s weather system, causing misery and chaos amongst it’s inhabitants, allowing the evil Emperor Palpatine’s forces to more easily take control of the stricken world. It seems the rumors are true, and I found these little jerks rejoicing that they made it snow after a week long bingeing session.

Now it all makes sense. 80 degrees on Easter Sunday, raw cold and wet for the Grinder, rain for race day at SSAP, and now snow at the end of April. They look awfully proud of themselves don’t they? I guess the only good thing about Stormtroopers, is that they are weak minded, and have a severely tiny attention span. I really hope they find a new hobby soon.

I have a few finishing touches to add to my SSAP experience.

The most baffling thing, is how many people seem to read this blog. I was really taken aback at how many people knew about me, my bike, and the sorts of nonsense I’ve been up to. I met several folks that pointed at my muddy and almost unrecognizable bike and ask “Is that Mr Furley?”, and “which is the shaved leg?”. Crazy.

…and since we are on the subject  of my legs, lets see how we did shall we?

Well, as the temps were maybe in the low 40s by the time the race left, I felt it was important to keep my “bum” knee warm with my single knee warmer. That would be on my left and “hairy” leg. So not only did my smooth leg get to be very cold at first, it also got to be the muddiest. It actually wasn’t that bad, because once the mud totally covered the leg, it acted as an insulator of sorts.

The mud was of the penetrating variety though, and it soon worked it’s way into my clothing, shoes and socks. You could see where the vents on my shoes are on my feet when I took my socks off. When I took my shorts off, there was mud in a lot of places where there shouldn’t be. Dejay and I coined the term “shammie stamp”. There will be no pictures of that, just so you know.

So we’ve already determined that both legs get equally muddy. By the time I actually got into the shower, at home at 8:30pm, the mud was almost like coarse dusty film that coverd my entire body. Both legs required heavy scrubbing, but the smooth leg definitely took a little less time to clean. It was not pleasant to be that dirty for that long.

And to conclude, the coolest thing I saw at SSAP was this growler cage.

I’m sorry, but I forgot your name (Doug?). I am awful with names. My brain is filled up with so much useless information, that I will often have to forget something to retain new information. Like spoke lengths for various wheels, the name of my son etc… So I will call you Doug unless you correct me. Dude, that thing is cool, and I know you read the blog, and I want one of those. I will buy one from you!

Happy 29th everyone!

I’m having a hard time believing this is actually happening. Mother Nature woke us up this morning with a big helping of WTF.

It is not uncommon for snow in VT this late in the spring, but it doesn’t make it any easier to take. It is DUMPING outside, with several inches already accumulated on the ground. And the weather forecast is for it to be back in the 70s by the weekend. I’m pretty sure this is the craziest weather I’ve seen in quite some time.

I suppose now is a good a time as any to talk about my thoughts on the Michelin Wild Race’r.

I’ve been running mine tubeless on Arch rims for about the last month. They aired up immediately, and held 30 psi overnight. Up until just recently I’ve ridden the tire in mostly dry conditions, which is where I thought the tire would excel. They certainly did not disappoint, they roll fast, and are sure footed on rocks and roots. On my SSAP practice lap on Saturday, I had about 20 psi, which was a bit low for the terrain. I bottomed out on the rim a few times, but they stayed on, and there were no burping issues. Thinking ahead, I pumped up the tires back to 30 for Sunday, which is when I found out how these tires did in the mud.

I should have left them at 20, but who knew? Anyway. These tires actually impressed me with  the way they handled the thick peanut buttery slop we were riding in on race day. They were very predictable in a muddy drift, not once did they seem fractious. Despite the overall lack of traction, I found these tires to be almost confidence inspiring.

For $34, I have to give it a solid 2 thumbs up. I’ll be keeping them on the bike for now. I guess I get to see how they handle the snow!

My Sunday began at 6 am with the soothing sound of raindrops that did little to sooth the groggy hangover, I knew full well that the morning ahead was not going to be anywhere near as fun as the night before. We had gone to dinner with Mike, Dejay and some of Mike’s friends, stayed up a bit late, and drank a couple too many beers, and then there was the Patron… but I don’t get to see these guys very often. You just sort of end up making up for lost time.

Race registration was at 8:30, so we had some time to pack up and forage for breakfast. The rain was coming down pretty steadily, neither Mandy or myself felt motivated to rush through our breakfast that we found at some corporate box patisserie. Once fed and caffined up, we set out for the venue. Not only was it raining, it was cold as well. I had remembered to bring just about every possible warm woolie thing I owned, except for one leg warmer that has gone missing.

We sat at the start line for what seemed like forever. Aaron had also come down to the race, and we were sitting there making jokes, picking on each other, and trying to keep the mood light. The rain had tapered off to a steady drizzle, which wasn’t much better. Once the go horn had sounded, there was an explosion of cleats snapping into their pedals and the squelch of soft wet gravel crunching under tires. It was on.

Our group had around 70 riders in it that started at the same time. The first part of the course was a slightly downhill forrest road. I couldn’t get up to speed as I would be bumping into the riders blocking the road ahead of me. I think I was somewhere mid pack when we turned in to the woods. I had to sit back and wait for my passing opportunities, which came sooner than I thought. Seems some folks freak out when it rains. Can’t blame them really, it isn’t much fun to ride in these conditions.

I managed to get by about 4 or 5 people in the first singletrack section mostly because they screwed up. Hey, I’ll take it. Once back out on the road, we had the big climb of the race. Not steep, but long and visually demoralizing (unless you ride stuff like the Grinder all the time). I got past a few others here. Then it was back into the woods, on a new section of trail that was just torn up from the previous heats that had left in front of us. This section was muddy, rocky, rooty and off camber. It was challenging to ride cleanly the day before when it was dry, and now it was downright sketchy and almost impossible to ride. I had to hop off the bike when I noticed that my Awesome Strap was no longer actually holding on to my spare tube and inflator. Meh.

Taken after the race

I managed to get past a few of them in this section before it opened up again, but got stuck again behind some slower and not so wet weather savvy riders. Davey passed me in a spot where I knew I should have been paying more attention to opportunity. At least now I had a rabbit to chase. Davey was riding well, so I tried to sit on his wheel from 3 riders back. Eventually we got back out to a forrest road, and I could spin that Rotor up. I passed everyone on my way up to Dave like they were standing still, and got the holeshot on him headed back onto the trail.

I think I had the most fun here, Dave and I formed a 2 car locomotive that powered past a lot of riders. It was in this part that one of the punchy technical climbs appeared where I think I may have secured my finish time ahead of Dave. We blazed to the top of the climb, passing a couple more riders, when I snagged my front wheel in the rock we were scaling and came to a dead stop. Dave ran into me and fell off his bike just shy of the summit. I remounted quickly, apologized and kept going. Rubbin is racin’ Davey! That was the last time I saw him until the end of the second lap.

I kept forging ahead, picking off riders one by one. I was definitely in some sort of a zone. While I wasn’t using headphones, I had some good music stuck in my head, parts of Dio’s Holy Diver, random parts of random Maiden songs mixed in with commercials for POWERTHIRST! Weird I know, but it keeps me amused. By this point, the traffic was much thinner, and passing was a little easier. I have a nasty habbit of tailgating riders ahead of me, but I can relax and sit on their wheel and recover. Some people are OK with this, others freak out and crash. I’m sorry if I made anyone reading this crash (except Dave).

It went like that for the rest of the race. My first lap was my best. I’m bummed I didn’t bring my Garmin, because I’d have loved to see the splits. Course conditions vs traffic and all that jazz. I saw very few people on lap 2, but the damage to the course was taking it’s toll on me. My bike was weighing probably 50 pounds at times with all the mud stuck to it. I felt every incline. I had no food. My legs felt like lead. I was cold. I had to pee. The ipod in my head was playing music not suitable for ruling wet muddy singletrack on my bike.

I traded places with a couple of folks in the woods until I finally beat them out on the flat roads, when I was able to get the spin on and pull away. These were also the only times I could get to my bottles. First they had to be cleaned of mud, then opened, then held away from my mouth because they weren’t clean, and then hope I could get my NUUN water blend (cola and lemon/lime) into my mouth and not all over my face. I barley drank one bottle the whole race.

I was happy to cross the finish line, but did not have my finish line “act” together. I wanted to proudly hold high my invisible sword before slowly replacing it in it’s invisible hilt, like that Russian figure skating chick from the Olympics. I was too cold, too tired, and letting go of the handlebars would have led to a very embarrassing DNF.

There was a pretty solid crew from VT that came down to the race the ‘Palooza.

Here are the results of those rockin the B29 jersey:

Travis Voyer, 15th Open Men

Mike Maggs, 23rd Open Men

Me, 19th Sport Men

Dave Anderson, 21st Sport Men

and clinching the W for Sport Women is Mandy, who came home with a cool trophy and a ton of swag.

Again, I have to thank George and Mike from Dark Horse. They put on a hell of an event. There was lots of beer thanks to Niner Mike and Terrapin, hot dogs cooked up by the Dark Horse crew, and a party atmosphere that more than made up for the rain and the mud. I’m thinking I might have to return for the Dark Horse 40!

Happy Monday everyone. How was your weekend? From what I understand the weather in VT was quite delightful, except we were not in VT. We were in NY, where only the first half of the weekend was delightful. The second half, well, can only be described with one word: singlespeedapalooza.

Saturday afternoon, Mandy and I drove down to Montgomery NY, home of Orange County Cycles, and more importantly Dark Horse Cycles. Dark Horse was throwing it’s second annual singlespeed only race, which Niner happened to be a sponsor of. Super rep Mike Stanley was going to be there with his demo bikes, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go harrass him in person. And it also turned out that Mr Dejay Birtch was also going to be attending. How could we not go?

We rolled into town a little before 6, and got a chance to check out the course. The 12.5 mile course was as dry as a bone, it was fast, fun and had some very challenging technical punchy uphills. This was going to be a good race!

The course had some fun elements, like going through a spooky Blair Witch – esque abandoned warehouse

and a random flight of stains that doesn’t seem to have any purpose

Well, then it rained all night Saturday. And it rained duringg a good portion of the race, turning the course into a churned up mudfest that had the consistency of just about to set cement. Two laps were a bit painful on a 50 lb bike
I Still managed to have a good race, I came in 19th out of 62 in my heat, and Mandy won the women’s sport class.

I’ll put up a full race report tomorrow, and by then maybe I’ll have gotten all the mud from under my eyelids.

A big thanks goes to the Dark Horse guys, they put on a fantastic event.

The

I had someone ask me the other day what was wrong with the chainring on Mr. Furley. See, I switched it from the sexy Boone Ti 32 tooth ring to something a little different. It was a gift from Mr Dejay Birtch. Another Fuzzy person told me that with this magical chainring I could go up a tooth in the front, and down one in the back, but it would still “feel” the same at the pedals. This means I can go from 32-20 to 33-19. What do these numbers mean? Well, 32-20 has a development of 145″, meaning for every revolution of the cranks (on level ground, perfect weather, no Stormtroopers etc), I travel a little over 12 feet. 33-19 has a development of 157″, which is over a foot  more. See where this is going?

The new voodoo ring is none other than a Rotor. Notice how the chainring is not round. This is where the majick happens.

The shape of this ring is designed to keep your power on while you are in the transitional part of your pedal stroke, ie the “dead” spot, or, that split second before someone with good form goes from pulling to pushing on the pedals. The shape of the ring acts like a cam of sorts, with the teeth engaging the most amount of chain during the transition zone, thus keeping the power flowing to the rear wheel.

Poppycock you say? Hogwash? BS?

Well, I have become a believer. I’ve been riding this ring for a couple of weeks, and have been lucky enough to do some actual mountain bike riding to test this newfangled technology out. It works. I definitely feel the constant power at the pedals, almost like riding a fixie. It took me a while a while to get used to the feeling, as a single speed rider you sort of get accustomed to that dead spot and plan accordingly. I’m also feeling the extra gear, Fuzzy tricked me! But I have to say that in low speed super tech sections that require moves with pedal power, I was able to clean sections that would have otherwise stymied me, some of it was having a big assed gear, but a lot of it was having power no matter where my crank arms are.

Now wait, what’s this? Oval chainrings have been done before?

taken in my shop on a circa 198? Cannondale

True, but not like the Rotor ring. Some of you will remember Bio-Pace. This is not the same thing. The offset of the ring is almost the exact opposite of the Rotor, designed to pull the least amount of teeth so that the chain could shift from one chainring to the next. This was back in the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth, and there were no shift gates, or profiled chainrings, or other such technological marvels that increased shifting performance.

The Rotor thing is awesome, and I’ll be trying it out at Single-speed-apalooza in downstate NY this weekend. I’ll have a full report on the performance of this device next week. I’m also seriously considering running the new Michelin tires for the race, but I may switch out to the WTB Nanoraptor, still trying to figure that one out. Either way, there will be some good reading next week, when I will try to regain a normal posting schedule.

Have a great weekend and go RIDE!

..I shaved one leg?

Yeah, I remember, and so does Mandy much to her chagrin.

I’m still not certain what the parameters of this experiment are, so I’m going to let it develop on its own.

Here are my findings thus far:

80% of the people that know me and read the blog think it’s business as usual

19% of the remainder question my motives

1% are horrified

So this is what I have found so far.

Shaving my leg makes it feel sexy (to me) and smooth, much like the front fender of a 1976 Corvette. And just like the fender of said ‘Vette, the leg means business.

The hairy leg is just hairy, and doesn’t feel sexy at all.

In terms of mountain biking, both legs get equally dirty. I don’t feel as if one leg gets dirtier than the other. But I do spend more time washing the muck out  of the hairy leg than t’other. Then there is the aftershave.

Look, I don’t want “chicken skin”, so I make sure to take the necessary precautionary measures to make sure my shaven leg is as smooth as can be. I use Nivea(esque) creme to make sure I am touchably awesome. Hairy leg though, has responded by making my natural leg hairs as soft as a unicorn’s… well, you can imagine that it’s pretty soft…

Sorry this post is late, but I was riding my bike this morning.

Pictures taken by Richard Mahoney

All in all, we had about 125 attendees riding bikes on Sunday. I can’t fault the 25 no-shows, the weather wasn’t great, but it was totally their loss. Take a look at those pictures. Most of those folks are having a good time. The guy grimacing on the DH bike even had a good time, although he had to work the hardest going up those hills.

It was really cool to see everyone’s set-ups for the ride. Some rode CX bikes, others on full squish mountain bikes, a couple of old beaters, single speeds you name it, it was there. It’s also cool to see what everyone brought with them. 30 miles is a long way for a lot of folks, hence the pit stop. I liked the folks that had full on expedition gear on their bikes, or huge back packs. It was certainly an adventure.

We’ve gotten a few really nice thank you emails from folks,which is always appreciated. We are glad everyone had a good time. We’ve worked hard to keep this a good event, and we are always trying to find a way to make it better.

Thanks again to everyone who was a part of this event. We hope to see you again next year!

This will be a Dicky-esque post. So much went on for the Gravel Grinder, that I can easily milk more than one post out of it. And, if anyone has any pictures they would like to share, please send them to me at georgew at bike29 dot com. I’ll put them up in a separate post.

What promised to be a soaking, wind swept crap-fest, actually turned out to be a pretty awesome event. The weather forecast was not looking good for the whole weekend. 100% chance of rain on Saturday (true) and a 60 % chance of rain on Sunday, which in VT means it will rain 60% of the day.

Fortunately, the 40% window worked in our favor (mostly).

I had capped the ride at 150 folks this year, and gosh darn it if most of these people actually showed up to ride. I was very happy to see the all the riders at the start line, all with smiles, and all ready to go out and have a good time.

Because we were down a couple of our regular volunteers, and Mandy was out riding the course, I was wound up a bit tight to begin with, not knowing what to expect, do or otherwise. I ended up running the aid station, which was to be passed twice during the ride. This meant I got to borrow Nat’s big assed truck, and Kerian, Seamus and myself brought up a whole bunch of snacks and party favors to the coldest spot in VT. This is the view we were blessed with.

Almost like clockwork, the fast guys came blazing through 45 minutes into the ride. These guys were either out for blood, or had better things to do than ride bikes in crappy weather. One of the fast guys came through and stopped to take advantage of the delicious canned beer selection I had brought up. Keiran jumped out of the truck and yelled “Hey Dada! That’s Thom Parsons!”

Of course, the usual suspects were there to assert the socialness of the ride.

All told, the ride lasted 2-3:30 hrs for most folks, climbed 3100ft over 29 or so miles. The after ride feast was provided my Frida’s, which is seriously some of the best food I have eaten. If you are ever in Stowe, go there.

The best part? We were all cleaned up and packed away by 1:30!

A big thank you to everyone who helped, all of our participants, every one of our illustrious volunteers, Meegan for running the registration like a well oiled machine, Nat for riding sweep, Richard for taking pictures (you’ll see those tomorrow), Factotum for yet another first class  t-shirt, Frida’s Taqueria for the outstanding food, and the kind folks at the Pilgrim Partnership for letting us throw a party in their parking lot.

Tomorrow, more of the details…

OK, I admit that my posts have been a little off the wall lately. But you know what? It’s all about having fun. Bikes are, after all, nothing but toys.

Here are some of the awesome toys that we built over the end of last week that have gone home to make their new owners very happy.

The first is a small ano Milk Dud RIP9. It’s built up with a tapered steerer tubed Fox, SLX/X9 drivetrain, gold Hope hubs laced to white Arch rims, and Avid merchanical brakes (hence the pimpy white housing). This is by far one of the most blingiest RIPs I have put together (next to mine), and I happen to know that the bike’s new owner deserves the extra flashiness. She definitely has the skills to back it up.

Next is a medium RIP, Fox fork, Royale wheels, and a mixture of XTR (cranks) and X9 shifters and derailleurs. This bike is set up as a 2×9.

The weather here has been a bit weird. I mean, it’s still very dry for April, but it has definitely stayed on the cooler side, despite the mid 70s tease of last week. My leg shaving experiment has not really done anything of merit because when I do actually get a chance to ride, it’s too cold for exposed legs. Plus there is the fact that I haven’t really defined the parameters of the experiment either.

Once it gets a little warmer, I’ll start to gather some actual data, and we’ll be able to figure this thing out together.

I did get another ride out on Kermit with the Michelin tires. I like them a lot. Very good performance for the money. I’m still using the rigid fork, and despite my whinings about how hard it is to ride a rigid fork, I will continue to use this bike in the rigid configuration.I had a great ride on it out in the Town Loops on Wednesday. Despite being only 35°, the trails were dry, the roots were not slick and I seemed to have some power in my legs. Sort of confidence inspiring really…