I’d say so. In fact, the last day of 2012 was pretty darn good. The saying goes “out with the old, in with the new”, and this was the case for me in terms of my vehicular transportation. Face friends know that my car was backed into and dented pretty badly, enough for $1200 worth of repairs to the door. Well, the Saab was a good car, by far the best I’ve ever owned, but she was getting  a little long in the tooth. 8 years is a long time to have a car, I’d say I got  my money’s worth. With insurance check in hand, I decided it was the time to make my move. On Dec 31st, I bought a 2006 Toyota 4runner. I am stoked.

Also got my first good trundle of the year in. Mandy and I headed out on the VAST network near the old homestead, our goal to see how close to Middlesex Notch we could get in the amount of daylight we had to work with. Conditions were pretty good, a little soft, but manageable. The snowmobile tracks are definitely packed down enough, save for a few spots that required some walking. The terrain was rolling, with a few rotten fall line climbs, but hey, these trails aren’t designed with bicycles in mind.

cheers big ears

It was a pretty grueling slog on the way out, mostly uphill, but we stopped at a nice little clearing and hoisted a couple of PBRs that I had stashed min my jersey pockets. The trail kicked up pretty sharply just beyond, and with an hour of daylight left, we figured this was a good turn around point. As it was mostly up on the way out, it was mostly down on the way back. Riding the Trundleraptor fast is pretty exhilerating. You never really can be sure that you will have grip at any given time. The best practice is to have a good attitude, and be totally OK with ending up in a pile on the ground (I did).

dropping in

when I says woah, I mean woah!!!

All in all it was a good outing, and the ride definitely fueled some winter bike stoke in me. My brain got to thinking about some sort of ridiculous snow bike enduro… Oh yes… I’m hatching some sort of hair brained, night time, point to point race, involving bacon, booze and likely, fire. After all, you have to do something in VT in the winter to stay sane.



 

Change is good. I needed a little something different to do, so after work I hopped on my skinny wheeled bike and went for a road ride. I was kind of in a grumpy mood, but I didn’t feel like lugging the monster bike up any hills. I figured I’d do my standard “round the block” loop, but this time getting the climb over Duxbury Gap out of the way first so I could have a lice lazy spin next to the river all the way back to the shop.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, mid 70s, no humidity, and just a hint of a headwind. It totally reminded me of Switzerland. The miles were rolling by pretty quickly, and once I reached the intersection of 100B, I decided I’d ride into Waitsfield instead of heading back. It’s a nice rolling piece of road with good pavement. Then I had the bright notion that maybe I’d attempt the App Gap. But I was only going to do it if I could have a beer at the top. I popped into the grocery store in Waitsfield, and clip clopped around to the beer section which was in the far back corner. Of course, it was prime grocery shopping time in the quaint town of Waitsfield, and I felt like a tool awkwardly staggering around the linoleum isles in my slick soled shoes. But SUCCESS! Heady Topper cans in singles. A 4 pack would have been a really bad idea…

I stuffed the beer into my back pocket, now committed to make my attack on the summit. I’d been threatening to do the App Gap for years and years and years, but this is only the second time I have done it, the first time being last year. It isn’t as bad as I had cranked it up in my head, except for the last 5000m, which are conveniently marked on the side o the road, as this is part of the Green Mountain Stage Race. Also, all the Strava data will reveal that I am a fat sack of shit compared to the “fast guys” that fly up the mountain. Oh well, the downfall of being twice the man of these guys, literally. I was only passed by one person on the last 1000m. He made me look like I was standing still. Bastard. But I bet he didn’t have a nice cold beer in his pocket that was about to get enjoyed with a lovely view.

my own personal beer garden

Well, I had made it. Now I just had to get down without killing myself. Incidentally, I’m pleased to report that the Jet gloves passed the one handed tab pull. Victory!

I really enjoy road riding, but have yet to find a bike I really like, plus most of our roads locally are total crap. I like my Fisher/Trek Cronus, and all of it’s lightness, but the geometry is still too much of a race pedigree for me to feel comfortable, especially descending. The Heady Topper did take the edge off a bit, but I still had to keep the velocity reigned in. Some of the switchbacks come at you fast, and the steering on this bike gets downright twitchy at speed. Unfortunately, this is not a bike I ride enough to make any grand plans of replacement, although I do have my ideas….

I made it down unscathed, and the slight headwind out was now a gentle push from behind. I ended my ride in about 3 hours, twice as long as I had planned on being out, but I was in a much better mood than when I started. It’s good for me to occasionally do something out of the norm, I sometimes surprise myself.


 

 

This time, instead of naming my bike, you need to guess how many bottle caps are in here.

And just like last time, the person that guesses the closest number without going over will will one of these.

I’ll announce the winner next Friday.

Things are picking up in the shop. Lots of service work to be done, and a whole mess of wheels to be built. It’s starting to feel like spring in these parts! Before you know it we’ll be riding in the woods.

In the meantime, there are two trail days scheduled for April 30 and May 1 for Perry Hill. Meet at the tunnel @ 9am, bring work gloves, sensible shoes and a snack. Tools will be provided. After a brutally long winter, there is sure to be a lot of deadfall to remove, drainage channels to unclog and lots of other things. Hope to see you out there!

With less than a week to go before my first “official race” of the season, I am stuck in a terrible quandary. Which bike to run? Well, it should be pretty obvious, as the event is none other than the legendary Singlespeed-a-palooza held by Dark Horse Cycles. That means I will be grabbing one of my 3 singles that are ready to ride.

Well, actually, the choice has been narrowed down to 2, as T-Hom is going to be rocking out with Shredward. He expressed an interest while he was up at the Grinder over the weekend, and well, it isn’t often that someone of his sort of speed and agility wants to ride one of my projects on what is essentially a dare.

So that leaves Rambo, and the yet-to-be-named orange bike. And here in lies the issue, it’s how I am going to run either that is causing me most strife. See, the weather is going to be not that awesome over the weekend. The possibility of rain is infinitely probable, which means it will be the same slick and slimy conditions as last year. Woohoo!

I’m not that concerned with tires, as anything I switch to will be a mistake. I ran on Michelin Wild Race’rs last year, and they actually did a surprisingly good job of handeling the muck. I know I’d hate the Nevegals, too heavy, so I’m just going to run what I brung. I know the AKAs on Rambo do alright in the snowy gritty mud of Albuquerque, and the Aspen did pretty good in the wet while I was visiting Bradbury, ME last year. The Ikon is the only unknown for me at this point. Whichever bike, will keep the tires it already has on it.

Gearing. Well, 34-19, or 34-21. It’s a flattish area, but it does have climbing. 21 would be too spinny for the flat road sections, which I have heard are numerous. 19 would be too churny for the mud. I’ll likely split the difference and try a 20.

The big debate in wether to race rigid or squishy. I don’t think I’ll be especially fast in the wet, although I can sometimes find my zone and get into a groove in foul weather. I have not spent a lot of time riding rigid, and I don’t know if 26 or so miles in April is the right time to find out if I can. But, that Stuart mud gets everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Past seals, into forks, bearings, frames etc, and I’m not sure I want to have to perform an overhaul on my Reba XX so soon in the year. I’ll have to do a total teardown of the bike after anyway.

It’s funny, because a week ago, I was going to do the race on a full suspension. Now I’m considering going full rigid. Oh well, I guess I still have some time to figure it out, and if I do get a chance to pre-ride on Saturday, I can alway make that call after a mellow lap. It will literally take me 3 minutes to put the squishy fork on either bike.

Regardless of how it all shakes out, I’m really excited to see George and Hawaiian Mike. And I know there will be a few other characters down there who I’m looking forward to seeing again too. Dark Horse and crew put on an amazing event, so good, that not even crappy weather will deter me from going.

 

Well, the previous evening’s weather teased us with the possibility of a little snow. Turns out it was less a threat than a promise. The Executor was covered in 3″ of snow when I woke up. It was still snowing, and it was about 20° without the wind. The interstates were all but shut down. We were not going riding today.

We did however set out for a hike on the Petroglyph National Monument on the mesa west of ABQ. For a little while it seemed like the sun wanted to break through the clouds, but it was not to be. The petroglyphs were hard to see as the snow and wet discolored the lava rocks that they were etched on, but every once in a while you caught a glimpse. Unfortunately, there were some more modern glyphs that were all too readable, but they were found mostly near the entrance of the park.

We walked for a while, through the sage and lava rocks along the base of the mesa looking up for glyphs. It was slightly magical being out there. It was cold and snowy, and you could hear the roaring wind overhead. We heard a coyote yipping and howling in the distance, saw a huge hawk, and we peaked the interest of a raven that flew above us for a short while.

When it was time to turn back, it was then that we realized that we had been blessed with a tail wind on the way out. The temperature was also dropping fairly quickly, and the wind was definitely picking up. We hustled back to the car in double time. Next up was lunch at Kelly’s Brewery near UNM. Not a bad place to eat at all. Across the street was an English style pub that we just had to go get our desert beer at.

The weather continued to deteriorate even more. Now it was 9° and blowing. It was then time to get ready for the rest of the day, which would be movies, lounging and beverages.

I awoke to a rather spectacular desert sunrise.

It felt good to be stationary for a little while. And it also felt pretty good to not have any sort of an agenda except to enjoy our new surroundings. The first order or business was to assemble the bikes and gather the stuff for a morning ride. I didn’t want to go tearing right in to the singletrack as my bum knee had decided it was mad at me for keeping it cooped up in the Executor for 2 days.

I remember building this bike about 4 years ago.

We took a cruise down the Bosque trail, a paved bike path that follows the Rio Grande. It was a nice flat spin, and just what I needed to get the leg moving again. We got in about 20 miles of high RPM spinning, and my knee loosened right up and felt as good as it has in a long long time.

There are all sorts of neat sculptures along the way.

When we got back, it was lunch time. We went to Sadie’s. I had deer in the headlights syndrome when I looked at the menu. So many delicious things to eat. I wanted all of it. I eventually settled on enchiladas, one beef one chicken. It was smothered in chili sauce, which I opted to get Christmas style.

You know… Chistmas?

Basically there are two types of chili sauce, red or green. Christmas means both. And I had a boozy lunch drink too. We finished up with sopapillas and honey. Outstanding.

The weather was beginning to deteriorate as the day went on. We were going to try and get a ride in the Foothills later in the afternoon, but the sky grew darker and darker. You could see the dark curtain of rainfall across the valley, and the smell of impending thunderstorm was thick in the air. None of the pictures I took came out very good, so sorry about that.

We did check out the Sandia Ariel Tramway, which is pretty impressive. By the time we got back to Di & Slick’s house, it was snowing. No more riding today, but we did get a large selection of local beers to try out. More on those tomorrow.

…and maybe a little not so cool stuff. Let’s just get the unpleasant complaining about my stupid helmet cam out of the way. For whatever reason, I simply can not get mine to work as it should. It makes all the beeps and boops it’s supposed to, it just doesnt take the movies. I think I’ve tried just about everything, except calling the company, which I will be doing today.

The lamest part about it, is that I thought that I was capturing some really good footage from Saturday’s ride out in Town Loops. JayPro (aka Shatner), Shaun (aka Shackleton), M2, E-Dog and myself hit the Town Loops for a chilly spin on the trails. It was cold and windy, and the trails were a little slick, but we had a great time chasing each other through the woods. Shaun had an amazing wipeout right in front of me that would have been so fabulous to share, it was low speed, and took forever. It wasn’t so much catastrophic as it was bumbling. Oh well, it just motivated me that much more to get this whole camera thing sorted.

And on to the good stuff.

I love the west. I like it here just fine, but there are so many things I miss about being out there. Big mountains, big sky, and more importantly, the beer and the food. Sometimes the planets align and the west comes to me – thank you Shaun!

Ska Brewing Company. My first hangover at SSWC09 was served to me in Durango at the brewery. It’s an impressive building, with an impressive array of beers, which are also available in cans outside of town. My favorite, the Modus Hoperandi.

New Belgium Brewing. Sure, you can get this in just about every other state except VT, but it is still awesome. My favorite, the Ranger IPA. Mandy hates it, which is great because it means it’s all mine!

And food. I love the food of the southwest. Iron Mike brought back a string of dried red chilies from Santa Fe when he was out there this fall, and I managed  to get my hands on a few.

It’s really fueling my stoke to get out to Tucson. The riding will be awesome, as will the company, and best of all, it will be WARM!

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!

Beverage essentials.

Thing 6 – bottle opener.

No bike is complete without one really. Especially a singlespeed. I’m surprised I didn’t get one of these sooner. This particular model, the Wise-Cracker, is made by Ahrens. Look for a story to develop on this little item in the coming weeks…

Thing 7 – bottle cap

Niner’s YAWYD is probably one of the least necessary components on any given bike, but it is definitely the most fun. I have one on every bike I own. I also have a little drawer of bottle caps at the shop so I can change my cap whenever I want. It’s like a piece of flair that’s actually cool.

Thing 8 – 2nd bottle cage

Taken from a conversation in Durango…

Dicky “So why do you only have one bottle cage on your bike, when you have mounts for two?”

Me “uh… because I ride with a pack?”

Well, any time I have to answer a semi-legit question with a dumb question, it gets me thinking. I don’t always ride with a pack. I should maybe put the other bottle cage on there, just in case I want to go on a really long ride and want to travel light, or in case I get extra thirsty. After all, it is important to stay well hydrated.

… and two is for the show, why can I not seem to be able to get ready to go go go!

After a nice relaxing weekend, it is time to start getting things in order for my prolonged absence from the shop. Aaron is the man in charge, and I know he is up to snuff. I’ll still have full email and internets access throughout the trip. This means, that short of a few hiccups, I can still do business in a practically seamless fashion. It will be like I’ve never left. Technology is cool.

The relaxing weekend in question was our annual Burke mountain biking weekend. Now in it’s tenth year, attendance is at an all time high. It started with a small group of friends, which grew to a few more good friends, and then everyone started having kids. It is a logistical nightmare to plan for such an event, but it is so worth it.

Picture 3 days of riding bikes all day, then having a big feast with family and friends who are practically family, and maybe a few to several cocktails. And a keg of Switchback. Let us not forget Shaun’s margaritas.

Mandy even had fun

JayPro pretty much sums it up.

Joey on the way up to J-bar

G-train on the J-bar

Now its crunch time. There is unpacking and packing still to be done. What clothes to bring? What am I forgetting? What will my costume for the race be? I hate packing for trips. Especially far away trips that require me to bring lots of stuff. I forgot to pack my underwheres for SSAZ, which I didn’t find out until too late. Thank goodness for Target.

While making sure that I have remembered to bring absolutely everything, you can rest assured that our beverages will stay cool!

And if you are really lucky, you might get one of these

Does anyone recognize the ship on the shirt?