I know I may have shot myself in the foot by not posting my video sooner. I also know that as stated in the rules of Topeak – Ergon engagement, the amount of “likes” is only a consideration, but every little bit helps.

Don’t you want to see the video?

Then go here.

Then like it! Or don’t, but don’t think I’m not aware of how many hits this blog gets a day. If even half of you go like my video, I will be well up there in the popular running. Seriously, two clicks, here, then “like”.

Even if you don’t like my video, you should go like some Ergon grips. Certain blogger types have been late to the game in realizing just how good they actually are. I have been running them for years. Several different models actually. Unless you love, and will only use segmented foam grips, you can find an Ergon grip that will suit you.

For example:

My OG Jet 9, circa May 2008, featuring the GE-1

SSAZ09, Kermit, with GE-1

Kermit with GX-1

Kermit with GX-2 for SSWC09

Pale Horsie with GA-1

I mean, I could put any picture up of any bike I have spent time on over the last 3+ years, and you would probably see a set of Ergons on the bars.

Ergon grips work really well, and you should have some on your bike.

Go to Facebook, like my vid. Or go to B29, and get some Ergons.

Either way, you win. You either have happy hands, or you have a better blog to read.

Or maybe you have both….

So, on a Gravel Grinder reconnaissance ride this weekend, I had to rethink part of the route.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I have to rethink the entire route, as this section was a pretty important part of the ride I had in my head. The Grinder is less than 2 weeks away, and there is absolutely no indication that this little section will be snow free in time.

Meh.

The main roads themselves are actually not that bad right now. Soft for sure, but in 2 weeks, they ought to be in good shape, barring any large moisture events that Ma Nature might choose to throw at us. And hopefully the town wont decide to send the grader in before April 10th. Or on.

We are, however, getting close to the magical cutoff number. Less than 40 spots remain, and we do not take any day of registrations. Regardless of weather and road conditions, it is going to be fun. Remember, it’s for a good cause, all proceeds go to help maintain Waterbury’s stellar mountain bike trails.

Oh, and go here and like my video.

OK folks, it’s time. Do you remember last week when I told you that I was going to throw my hat into the ring for the spot on the Topeak-Ergon base Camp competition? Well, I finally finished my video, and have it up on Book Face.

Please go here to view it, and click on the “like” button. I will post the video up here at a later date, so if you are really interested in seeing my hard work, you’ll help me out.

Why?

Well, first of all, Dicky is entered too. Once I posted my video up, I got a long hateful email from him. It consisted of 2 words, but that is long for him. That can only mean that he watched it, and thinks I have a chance at winning.

Second of all, Sedona is a really beautiful place to ride. I went there once, about 10 years ago, and was taken by the red rocks and the velvety soil. I have sworn I’d always go back, but have yet to make it. this would be a good way for me to do it.

Third, you know that the blog content will only that much more interesting. You’d think that Dicky would have taken notice or something, but I managed to blog almost every day when I was out in AZ in February. I even took all my own photos. I took video.

Lastly, local boy M2 has also put his hat into the ring, but he went  out and hired some sort of a production company to do his video. It’s very well done, but is almost too polished. I’d be pissed most of all if he won, not because I’m a jerk, but because he can’t ride technical trails… and mostly because I’m a jerk.

So please, take time out of your day to help me help you have something more interesting to read on this page.

Click here, then like. That is all.

So I’ve been having a little fun with some of the wheel builds I’ve been building lately. Maybe it’s some creative mojo. Or maybe I have gone completely mad from this extended bout of cabin fever.

Either way, I think that these wheels look cool, as does T-Vo, who will be riding them this summer.

If all goes well, I might see some dirt this weekend. My fingers are crossed.

Two of my favorite things.

I’ve been building a fair amount of wheels these days, which has kept me pretty busy. Some of which, are for B29 team riders.

I just shipped out a set of wheels to Chris Muddiman, you might read his blog sometimes. He wanted a set of wheels for racing and general kicking about. We decided that the Bike29 I9/Arch wheelset was the way to go. And seeing as how Chris will be representing B29 this year, I decided to give his wheels a little extra sauce in the form of rally stripes. These wheels look really cool when they are spinning.

I’ve also received 2 new tires that I am anxious to try out.

First up is the Kenda Slant 6. This tire was listed in a lot of my distributors catalogs last year, but the tires never actually materialized. Finally, it arrives almost a full year later. Available in 2 sizes (2.2 and 2.0), this tire looks as if it would be a pretty decent all around XC tire. Think of it like a Small Block 8, but with bigger knobs. Six to be precise. These knobs have a different look to them, ramped for lower rolling resistance, but they are also stepped. There are a lot of leading edges on the knob blocks, which I would imagine makes them grab on to the ground a little more tenaciously. The tires are weighing in in the mid to high 600g range. Chris is going to be giving these a try, as he is a big fan of the SB8.

Up next is another tire I have been waiting for, the WTB Bronson 2.2. Named after Hollywood baddass Chuck Bronson. Think of a Wolverine with bigger knobs. The tread pattern is typical from what you’d expect from WTB (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), a directional chevron, with ramped center tread and triangular blocks that get deeper as they reach the edges of the tire. The casing is pretty round and high volume, but the tire profile is actually quite squareish. The side knobs are quite aggressive, and look like they’d dig right in when leaning hard into a turn. The weight is quite respectable too, at around 750g. These tires might find their way onto Shreddie for SSAP.

The new kits are coming. All of Bike 29′s Facefriends have seen the picture already, I received the first pre-production sample on Friday.

All of here at B29 HQ are pretty pleased with how they look, and we gave the go ahead for production to roll. With any luck, we might be rocking the new kits at SSAP, which is looming up at a horrifying rate. I have already sort of written off any chance that I will finish well, thanks mostly to the continuing winter conditions, but partly to my sloth, and inability to ride an indoor trainer.

At this time, I have picked Shreddie as my ride. I may as well have fun, and who knows, I might even do well. It will be interesting to battle test a full suspension singlespeed.

It is currently puking snow right now in central VT. All the progress we have made with the melting snowbanks has been reversed. The roads will be sloppy for just that much longer. Bogus.

At least I got a couple of good rides in this weekend. Although it was cold, it was sunny and the roads were dry. Saturday was windy. I joined Davey and Aaron for a repeat of Tuesday’s ride. I managed to fix my Garmin’s altitude errors, but found that the battery for my heart rate strap was kaput. Dave and Aaron both rode their CX bikes, I rode my yet-to-be-named orange bike. Yes, it probably was a bit foolish to chase a couple of geared hammer heads around the loop, but I figured I could use the cardio. It was sort of like a bicycle version of motor pacing. I kept them pretty close for the first third of the ride, but as we turned on to 100B, it was clear that the headwind was going to be a complete nuisance. I still feel pretty good about the effort though, 4 minutes faster than Tuesday.

Sunday was somewhat of a special ride.. I pulled out my new road bike. Yeah, it might be a bit excessive, but if Dicky can has crabon road bike, then so can I. And it isn’t as ridiculous as the one my Trek rep was trying to help me get. Thankfully I am not a Project One dealer, otherwise I would have would  up with a Madone.

It’s a Trek/Fisher Cronus, a pretty sweet rig. I’ve gotten a couple of hours on it inside over the winter, but that was about all I could handle. I have been itching to ride it, which sounds weird, as I am not known for my enthusiasm regarding road riding. I think, however, that this will need to change, as old man winter continues to hold us in his icy death grip. I have resigned myself to get to know this bike a little better while we wait for the trails to dry out.

Nat and I headed up and over Rt 100 towards Waitsfield, then back to Rt 2 and back to the shop. It was a nice spin, and I found myself with that same feeling of wanting to keep going and going, but 2 hours was all I had time for.

The snow was melting pretty quickly. This section of river was a huge ice jam on Tuesday.

This was a neat view of the dam in Middlesex. The spray from the dam had glazed the nearby trees, but it was quickly melting in the warm sunshine.

The roads weren’t 100% awesome, but not as bad as one might think. The potholes are massive though, and there are cracks that could swallow you whole if you weren’t paying attention. I was pretty pleased with the performance of the Cronus. It is set up a little more racy than my old Primero, but it was a pretty comfortable ride. I always forget how quick road bikes steer, and had a little moment when I reached down to grab a bottle and found myself in the other lane. This is gonna take a bit of getting used to…

This weekend I got to build an interesting set of wheels for my fiend and singlespeed superstar, Jake Kirkpatrick. About a week prior, he had called me and asked me what my thoughts were on a certain build combo for his NAHBS award winning Black Sheep. Jake like his bikes a certain way, and he is always dead on with his choices, so I was pretty stoked to even have him consider me building his wheels. It might have has something to do with B29 superstar Emily talking him into it at SSAZ, but I am flattered nonetheless.

So here they are. Stan’s Crest rims, DT Centerlock hubs (singlespeed rear), DT Aeorlite spokes and alloy nipples. The lacing pattern and color combo was Jake’s idea, and I have to say these wheels are sharp. The total weight of the wheelset is 1480g, putting them firmly in the Ridiculite category.

photo cred: bikeportland.org

They will be going on this bike. What’s with the racks? Oh, I might have forgotten to mention that Jake is doing the Tour Divide this year. On an awesome, one of a kind, show winning Black Sheep frame, and my wheels. Awesome.

OK, now on to other stuff. Some of you may read Dicky’s blog. It is pretty amusing, so you should definitely check it out. However, I will tell you that he and I are shortly going to be in competition. You see, I too am going to be submitting my own entry into the Team Topeak-Ergon Training Camp contest. The winner will be treated to an all expenses paid trip to Sedona to have their ass handed to them by the likes of Jeff Kerkove, the O’Dea’s, Sonya Looney, Dave Weins and Yuki Ikeda. I am counting on everyone’s support on this one, as I think I should be the guy that goes. I will give you details on how you can help me when the video is ready. Dicky has a pretty good lead on me at the moment, but I think I have what it takes to secure the win.

Tuesday, I finally got the break in the weather I was looking for. A warm, sunny day when I had a small window in my schedule to sneak out for that first ride I’d been dreaming of since my return to VT. Well, I guess that is a little over dramatic, as I don’t exactly dream of boring road miles, but hey, I’ll take that over the trainer any day.

I’m not 100% sure that my Garmin was recording things as they should have been, I swear that I saw my heartrate on the display, but it apparently didn’t record. Also, it said my staring altitude was 0. I guess I’m going to have to do that loop again.

I was dying to ride the orange bike. I know I promised I would name it once I rode it, but I’m not sure that a road ride is what should be the decider. There may be dirt in it’s future soon though.

So the route was south on Rt 2 into Middlesex, then right on Rt 100B through Moretown, then right again up and over Duxbury “gap” on 100 north. It’s a big lollipop loop, somewhere between 20-25 miles. I managed it in about 1.5 hrs. Not too shabby for a fat guy on a bike with 1 gear. I am making a concerted effort to get out there and ride whatever, whenever possible. I learned my lesson the hard way this last fall, not taking the opportunity when it arises is less than, and definitely not equal to awesome. It’s all about striving for awesome this year.

I will say this though, 34-19 is not my happy gear. It was fast, but it was not happy. I know my legs are also not used to pedaling right now either, but I remember when I ran that gear on Red 5. The hills went by quickly, but I often went inside out halfway up them. This is the reason why I set the bike up this way though, so hopefully with a little more time, I’ll be right side out more often.

The snowbanks were retreating from the road sides at  a pretty good clip, revealing their alluvial detritus. There was a lot of silt, grit and potholes all over the shoulder. It’s still going to be a while before they are clean, but it seems as if the weather is trending towards temps above freezing this week, and a couple of days of rain. It will likely snow up high still, but that’s OK with me. It can stay up there.

The river’s are almost flowing again. Right here it isn’t and the ice jam is pretty spectacular.

It felt really good to get out there and feel the wind in my face. I managed to pick the route that had the headwind in both directions, so I’m glad I enjoyed it. As I rode into Moretown, I started to get a bit hungry, so I stopped to have some space food. I stopped at my turn to go back to Waterbury, and looked at the sign.

Besides having important things to do that afternoon, i.e. picking the boy up from school etc, I was feeling a strong urge to just keep on going. While I was ingesting a delicious Gu packet, my mind wandered further south on Rt 100. It is a pretty road, one that I never ever ride my bike on. I think that may have to change this year. The shoulders are nice and wide, and it’s only about a 20 or so minute ride from town…

But, I was running out of time, choked down the rest of my Gu, washed it down with Nuun water, and made the climb up and over into DuxMoreBury. I was pretty amazed at my pace going up. It isn’t that steep, so you can maintain a pretty good cadence, and even the steep parts are not that steep. I had the feeling of flying, and once the pavement pointed down, this feeling increased. I hit almost 40 mph.

As I rolled back into town, I was greeted by a rather nice view of the Worcester Range. The hump with the snow all over it is the summit of Mt Hunger, where I was standing only a couple of weeks ago. It’s a very pretty range, and one of my favorites.

For those that are fortunate to not live in New England right now, you might not know that almost 3 feet of heavy wet snow fell out of the sky on Monday. While snow of this magnitude is not unheard of in VT in March, it certainly isn’t the sort of thing I am excited about. First of all, the roads are now back in nasty slushy winter mode, the shoulders are obscured, and covered in salt and potholes that will swallow your wheel. Second of all, this pushes the buying season back a few weeks. People don’t want to think about riding bicycles in this crap, and who can blame them? It’s going to be a late start to the season for sure.

The Gravel Grinder is only 4 weeks away, SSAP 5 and I have not touched a bike since my trip out west. This is going to be a painful spring.

And all of my out west Face Friends were rubbing my face in the fact that it is nice and warm and dry out there, but at least they were doing it with open arms. I was propositioned by many folk to just come back out there and hang until the snow is gone for good.

I don’t know. Should I? Tempting… very tempting…

Especially when I could be riding this