After the race, we were hanging out with Mike from Niner, talking about this and that, and then he busted out the new extra small Niner EMD. I’ve had great success getting vertically challenged folks on small Niners, but this new frame size makes big wheels available to an even wider range of riders.

How small?

How about a 4ft tall 8 year old? I was so proud of him. He wanted to ride it as soon as he saw it, so we let him do some hot laps around the parking lot for a while, until I decided he needed to see what it felt like on trail. There was a small piece of singletrack that was part of the course not too far from where we were hanging out, so I took him down there to see what he really thought of the big wheels. We must have hit that section 10 times. Again dad! Again!

You can see the smile on his face in the video. He had the best time, and didn’t want to stop riding. Now what does that tell you about a product? And the funny thing is, that this XS EMD probably weighs about the same as the 20″ kids bike he’s currently riding. He had no problem controlling it, he just needed a little help getting on and off.

Now I’m not about to give an 8 year old a $2700 bike, but it sure was good to see him have fun rolling around on the big wheels. It definitely got me thinking about his next bike, and how it shouldn’t be a heavy unwieldy tank. I also happen to think that there might be a bunch of smaller 26″ bikes up for sale before too long…

It seems like the third time really is the charm. The weather couldn’t have been any more perfect, and course conditions were nothing short of awesome. We rallied at the shop on Saturday before caravanning down to Darkhorse Cycles. Dough had called to inform me that he was 45 miles into his ride, with 55 more to go. Dough is a silly person, and you can read about his adventure here. We had yet to leave the shop, and I bet him that he would beat us there (he did).

We made our various pit stops for bathrooms, lunch and beer, and we pulled in to Darkhorse around 4 or so. Mandy got suited up and headed out to pre-ride the course, leaving me to watch the boy, help drink the beer and hang out at the shop. Dough had beaten us there by about 15 minutes. It’s always great to see the DH crew. Once Mandy returned, it was my turn to see what the course was like. I can sum it up in one word. AWESOME.

It featured elements of last years, Palooza, and some of the 40, but run backwards. It was awesome. There were 3 big climbs, and a couple of sneaky left turns that made me glad I rode the whole course. The Conti X-Kings were exactly the right tire for the job. I was feeling good about my bike set up. After my lap, we went across the street to get grub as we always do, and checked in to our hotel.

The next morning came early. We rallied the troops and had breakfast at the Panera Bread in Newburg, then got some to go breakfast and coffee for Dough and Mike Stanley who had gotten in from a demo in Ohio late the previous night. Then it was all about getting ready to race! I had agreed to wear a chest mounted GoPro for the DH crew, there was some media going on, documenting how awesome this event is for the local biking community. I was interviewed pre race, and got a plug in for SSUSA. My my camera mounted, I was ready to go.

I was racing in the Open/Pro category, against all the really fast guys who have been riding hard for months longer than I have. I was quickly put in the way back third of the pack, which was fine by me. The camera was a bit restrictive, and I found that, in addition to my extremely race cut jersey, I wasn’t all that comfortable taking really deep breaths. The 4esque mile prolog kicked up an impressive dust cloud, and then fed us into the woods, where the first bottleneck had a bunch of these goons walking over an old stone wall. Walking!

wondering how that car got way back in there

photo cred GT Luke

The course was fun though, and once the field opened up a bit, I found myself riding mostly alone. My waterbottles were rattling around quite a bit, and I almost lost the one loaded into my side loader. I was able to grab it and stuff it into my jersey pocket before I lost it completely. I’d only brought 2 bottles for the race, so I’d be bummed if I lost one of them. I was beginning to have the first twinges of cramps about halfway through my first lap, so I was making a concerted effort to drink whenever possible. Another minor annoyance, was the blooming of the lilacs. Sure they are pretty and smell good, but they also cause my nose to run furiously, further adding to my discomfort. And then I thought I might have to poop too.

photo cred GT Luke

I got to the beer station in good time though, and was promptly handed 2 beers. It’s like they knew me. I thought I’d rest up a bit and wait to see if Nat was behind me. After a while, I thought he might have been in front of me, so I finished my beer and kept rolling. After a while, I found Ginger, who was all decked out in her B29 kit who was just riding around out on the trails. We said our hi’s and bye’s, and I kept on, and crossed the lap line, and found that Mandy had pulled out of the race with a hurt back. I kept on trucking, getting cheered on by K-Dog who was parked out near where I was to duck back into the woods.

My second lap was less spectacular than my first. My knee was acting up a bit, and the whole not being able to breathe thing was getting to me. I decided that I would just throttle back and ride the rest of the race, I mean, you couldn’t have asked for better conditions or terrain, and I was already out there. My efforts were good enough for 59th out of 70 that started. Could I have done better if I was unfettered with technology and allergies? Maybe. Or had not stopped for beers, um no. Stopping for beers is mandatory at singlespeed races.

We’ll see how the video turns out, I’m supposed to get a copy of the footage I shot, plus my interview, so you may be in for some SSAP moving pictures on a future post. But the best part of the day was what happened after the race. Tune in tomorrow to find out what it was.

thoroughly conked out

Is I type this, it is snowing in VT. Why am I not surprised? It is after all April, probably the weirdest weather month we have in New England. I’m policing all my stuff together for our trip to Montgomery NY, for my third Singlespeed-apalooza. Waterbury is going to represent this year, as well as Mandy and myself, JayPro, Nat, Joe and Ian are rolling south for the 4th running of SSAP. This is a seriously fun event, put on by our friends at Darkhorse Cycles. You know if is fun if it keeps you coming back after:

one leg frozen in carbonite

Year 1, super buff and dusty dry trails right up until the night before and it dumps rain all night and all day during the race.

shockingly cold

Year 2,  4-10″ deep, 38° standing water, cold and blustery.

Not to mention that the regional mud is the variety that destroys brake pads and gets into every bearing. At least we know what we are getting into.

Clotheswise, I’m bringing everything I got, because if I pack for warm and dry, it will be cold and wet, and if I pack for cold and wet, I will be hot and grumpy.  I’ll also be packing a couple 4pks of Heady Topper to distribute amongst our friends at Darkhorse and of course, Niner super rep Mike Stanley.

See you on the other side.

Some of you know of my penchant for spaghetti westerns, I love them. No matter how cheesy they are. There is something about the way they are shot, that has me hooked. Plus the deliciously analog quality of the film is something that younger generations will just not get to experience. And that the music is an integral part of the story. Hmm kinda like the original trilogy… but that is another story.

Not only is the title of this blog one of my favorite movies besides Star Wars, it also happens to be good not-necessarily-bike-related blog fodder.

The Good

so true

Monday after arriving at the shop to deal with the melee of post Grinder wreckage, I found this at the door. The beer fairy had paid me a visit. Yay! No one has yet to own up to this, thus reinforcing my belief that there is actually a Beer Fairy. Thank you Beer Fairy!

my new whiskey glass

And today, there was this! I got a care package from Team29 rider The Mutt. Thanks buddy!

The Bad

I did a pretty terrible job of making my bike work properly after installing the SID, partly because of the proximity of the Grinder and the workload in the shop, but mostly because of laziness. I did manage a mostly dry training ride, my first since last Friday, which featured badly dragging brakes and weather that was…

UGLY

water in several states of matter, frozen to liquid

Yeah, this is what we’ve had lately for weather, and it isn’t going to change before we head to NY. Slightly warmer and wetter than Gravel Grinder conditions, and definitely not that enticing for bike riding. BUT, having SSAP looming this weekend, I pulled on my big boy tights and found my winter boots and rode a new loop which actually felt pretty good (despite the dragging brakes). I didn’t bother to bring any electronics, figuring they would probably not like getting wet. I’ll Strava it another time.

And there you have it. A weak assed blog post.

It became pretty apparent that my blog post dated April 1 2012 was a little too convincing. I did not close the shop to be the front man of a Foo Fighters cover band. I must have had about 10 people ask me about it during the Grinder. It has been a difficult challenge to top the great April Fool’s prank of 2010, maybe I shouldn’t try so hard.

not really me

No, the shop is very much where I’m at, building wheels, shipping orders, tuning bikes and working on projects. But I have also been working towards playing music with some friends. Having a kid a dog, a business, and any hope of riding a bike, makes free time scarce. l’d have to give up at least two of the aforementioned things to have time to practice the guitar before I could even sound remotely good.

The weather this week is going to be utter crap, which will make it tough for me to practice my bike. Singlespeed-apalooza is this weekend! I’m not so sure I’m ready…

assembling the roll out

Sunday marked the 5th annual running of the Gravel Grinder. Once again, we were lucky with the weather, in that it had poured hard all Saturday night, but let up for the day during the event. A big nasty weather system has moved into the region for the next few days. While it was far from sunny and warm, we did have a nice window of non rain. It was chilly, with a yucky north wind, but it was a good temp for cranking up steep hills on bikes!

flying up Perry Hill

We rolled about 150 riders this year, by the far the most we’ve had. It’s really encouraging to see folks brave the less than stellar riding conditions. I saw lots of familiar faces, all of them with smiles on them. This really was a fun event, and I don’t know if it was because we’ve been putting it on for all these years or what, but set up and take down went off like a well oiled machine.

tailgating

I ran the aid station once again this year, and this time even remembered water. The offerings this year were pretzels, bananas, gummie bears, twizzlers, 5 kinds of booze, meatbars, cheese, bread and bacon. Regular and boozy chocolate covered.
That’s how we roll.

mmmm bacon

The fast guys came cruising in about an hour after start, which is what I was expecting. I’m actually pretty happy with my course mapping time of 2:32, the fast guys, and they are seriously fast, got in at just over 2 hours. They of course did not stop for chocolate covered bacon and attitude adjustments, instead they flew by, but shortly thereafter more riders began trickling in, and before I knew it, we had a full blown party!

lead group

Most everyone had made it to the aid station after about 2 hours from start, so it was time to break it down and head back to base for tacos and beer. It was great to have so many folks this year, all of them stoked. And they should be, they rode a tough course in less than perfect weather, not to mention that this is the first ride that a lot of these folks have done this season. My hat is off to everyone that participated this year.

the place to be

There are some people who are integral to the machinery of this ride. We had a lot of additional help this year that made this the best Grinder to date. A big thank you has to go out to Ryan at MTBVT, who designed the art for this year’s shirt and made some sponsor connections for us. Cris at Factotum always does a killer job, and screening 150+ shirts to perfection is no easy task. Nat Fish is always there with the muscle to help move the heaviest tables in the universe, and the truck to haul everything around, and without his help, it would have taken Dough, Ginger and I a lot longer to mark the course in the rain the night prior. The post ride meal provided by Frida’s is clearly the highlight of everyone’s day. But the one person that makes this event what is, is Mandy. She gets it done. She’s the one that organizes everything and brings it all together. Without her, this event would be a comical farce. If you are reading this and appreciate all the work she has done this year, feel free to thank her in whiskey. She likes the really peaty stuff.

So please forgive me if you are not on the following list, a lot of hands went into making this Grinder the awesome good time it was. Aaron, Tab, Barb and Carrie helped made set up and registration a breeze. Meg and Keller made the best cookies ever. Frida’s, VT Smoke and Cure, Cabot, Elmore Mountain Bread kept our bellies full, Green Mountain Distillers and Long Trail helped to wash it all down. KP let me set up the mobile party wagon in her front yard. The Pilgrim Partnership gave us the parking lot to make this happen, the Town of Waterbury did a bang up job of grooming the gravel portions of our ride. Thanks to Zack, who swept the course and pulled the course markings, BY BIKE!

Zackalicious

But most of all, thanks to all the hardy souls that braved the weather and came out and rode. We hope to see you all next year!

 

Oh the amazingness of social media. Last night I watcehd this short film on our friend’s site, Girl Bike Love. It’s a short, but very powerful film, that just about had me in tears before it was even halfway through.

Having a boy of my own, it stopped me in my tracks and made me think about a great many things. We only get one trip around this velodrome, better make it count.

I’ve decided that linear blog posting is for the birds. I’m going to talk about my ride on Saturday, because you sure as hell do not want to know about the ride I took today. It was terrible. The one thing about Strava that I don’t like, is that it tells me when I am being a pussy. On top of a shitty day at work, I’m still tired from my “grinder” ride on Sunday, my legs felt dead, and I experienced a massive headwind on my way out. It all added up to suckitude. I felt the same today as I did Sunday when I bonked. I should probably take some more time off the bike…

But Saturday I did this!

Last fall I had heard about some trails in the Green Mountain National Forest. These trails were constructed over the last few years by VMBA, and were finally completed at the end of last season. I hadn’t had the opportunity to go check them out until this last weekend, and boy, I can’t wait to go back.

I had gotten directions to an obscure trailhead from Team29 rider Matt Germon, a local to these parts, but I had the hardest time finding it. I bailed on plan A and went to the trailhead I knew down by Lake Dunmore. Seamus and I finally started riding around 5pm.

The first part of this trail is a multiuse doubletrack trail that climbs up to Silver Lake from Lake Dunmore. I brought Weapon X, and scrintched the TALAS down to 110mm of travel and got in my easiest gear and grunted my way up. Once I reached Silver Lake, I ran into some folks I knew, also locals to the area, and got the beta on which way to hit the trail system, which I was encouraged to ride counter clockwise.. The trails were built as an out and back beyond and around the lake, so I aimed my front tire at the Chandler Ridge trail and started going.

Not 5 minutes in, I ran into Matt. We chatted a while before pressing on our separate ways. He’d said I had about 2 hours of riding ahead of me. On I went,  the trail wound its way up the ridge. there were some switchbacks for relief, but there was definitely some rugged climbing. There were many false summits and a couple of big trees across the trail that took some time to negotiate, but I kept pressing on.

overlooking Dunmore

I stopped to take a picture of Lake Dunmore with Lake Champlain lying beyond. I noticed that the sun was getting pretty low in the sky. Having not been on these trails before, I had no idea what was ahead of me, or how long it would take to get back. I felt like I had to make a pretty serious decision pretty darn quick. Do I push on, into the unknown? Do I turn tail and go back the way I came? How much daylight did I have left? Do I really want to be stuck in these woods after dark?  I’m not a fan of being stuck in the woods after dark unless I have planned accordingly. I had enough food, arm warmers and a wind vest in my Camelbak, and I was pretty sure I was going to have enough time to get out before pitch black. Plus Seamus could run off any bears or moose that might decide to terrorize me in the waning daylight. Still, I was out of my comfort zone.

Not long after the decision to keep riding was made, the trail turned downward, and a huge grin replaced the worry that must have been written all over my face. The trails are definitely more “old school” . They are rugged, and punctuated with rocks and sudden detours around or over bigger rocks. The WFO ate it up. I was so pleased with my bike choice. I had spent a little while earlier that day messing with the rear shock settings, and was finding it more to my liking. Still have some fine tuning to do, but I’m otherwise very stoked on that bike.

who put this rock here?

After ripping downhill for a while, I came to a trail intersection, which gave me a bit of relief. I turned of the Chandler Ridge trail in hopes that I’d soon reach the return trail of Leicester Hollow. And just as randomly as I had seen Matt, I ran into Mandy and her riding partner. She has ridden down here before, and she assured me that I was in fact going the right way, and that I was almost done.

looking back on Leicester Hollow

Leicester Hollow features some pretty amazing rock work, it was hard not to stop and gawk. Really impressive stuff, and very fun to ride. I’d can’t wait to go back when I have more daylight to play with. The return trail was slightly uphill (go figure), but was easily ridden quickly. Before I knew it, I was back at the Silver Lake campground, and I passed the trailhead that Matt had tried to get me to. With the setting sun in front of me, all that was left to do was hurtle down the doubletrack to the car. Man, that WFO can really fly when you can let it run.

All in all, a pretty awesome ride. Despite getting turned around and lost a bit on the way there, and having my little fret fest on the trail, I’d have to call this one of my best days on the bike this year. This proves the point that those motivational posters say, that the magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Couldn’t agree more.

 

before

I guess we shall see right? I mean… I’ve been riding, “training“, making a dilligent effort to not suck on my bike. I’ve even upped the ante and made a few changes to Rambo’s set up for Singlespeedapalooza/summer. Let’s call it updating. Gone are the OG white Arch rims, they have been replaced with the new Stan’s Arch EX in black (lighter, 510g vs 450g each rim). This means 120g less rotational weight, which I don’t have to remind you means that it will pedal a POUND lighter (rotational weight =x4). And the rims are wider. My tires seem really big now, will follow up with the measurement after they sit overnight. Result, leaner machine.

lighter, wider, faster?

And also I have removed the rigid crabon fjork, and have replaced it with a new SID XX. I opted not to go with the World Cup edition, I heard that the crabon crown was a bit flexy under 200lb+ fat asses like me, and let’s face it, I could skip a meal if I was that concerned with such a paltry weight savings. I sold my last bump taker, a Reba XX at the end of last year, and have been without since. My time on the Spot Brand Rocker enlightened me that having a QR15 in addition to something that takes bumps makes things more amazerful. Stiffness, precision, all super good things. And now I have a SID XX bump taker, and in it’s uncut form, weighed a mere 3.7lbs, .2 lighter than the Reba it replaced. It’s actually my very first SID. I’m actually tearing up a bit as I type this… Right out of the box, this thing feels fantastic. Seems preposterous that such a flyweight piece of equipment can work for a lardass like me, but initial parking lot tomfoolery points to good results. I havent been able to glean any additional gems about this fork, but the stanchions are a different color than the Reba. It almost reminds me of the old Slippery Silver coating the SIDs used to have in the days of yore. There is no doubt that secret sauce is standard equipment in this new fork. It is plush, feels bottomless, and the remote lock out really locks out. Holy crap! I’m happy.

less ounce for the bounce

I still have a little bit of time to get used to the new machine, but I’m not taking it on my local trails. I’m worried about screwing my knee up before SSAP, for reasons I’ll talk about after. I am not changing the gearing, it stays 34/19 for those that are counting. I’ll get some more base miles on it in it’s new form, and hopefully get it in the woods for a turn or two before having to take it into battle. But, here it is, 22.3 as pictured. Not too shabby.

after

We are sold out! Registration is closed. A big thanks to everyone who got signed up early. I can’t believe that this will be the 5th running of this event, and it promises to be the most challenging course yet. There is more mileage, more climbing, and even a haunted bridge. The shirts this year are amazing. I still have a bunch of last minute details to flush out, with less that a week to go, but I will remember to bring water to the aid station this year. It’s on my to do list.

The route is confirmed, which I rode again yesterday, and surprisingly took almost 10 minutes from my last time. Which is pretty amazing, considering I bonked really hard on Gregg Hill. I almost quit, but somehow found it within myself to keep going. The roads are in fantastic shape.

I put the ride up as a segment on Strava, that way any folks that are so inclined can see how they stack up. I’ve been using this app quite a bit, it works pretty well with my iphone, and best of all, it’s free. Although lately I’ve been considering upgrading to the premium membership. Some folks may choose to “race” it, but I recommend riding. The scenery is killer.