I have been suffering from a little East-Coast withdrawal. In particular I enjoyed the ride reports from 12 hours of Lodi and of course I miss all the East Coast riders I used to try and chase like I was a rabid dog...
So I am excited tonight to have booked my flight for SSWC09. I cannot wait to see some old friends again and chase some of you down. I also signed up for half of 24-9, the Wisconsin leg of the 24hour endurance series. My goal is to get 100 fixie miles in the 12 hours. Wish me luck?
So I got to go to TREK land today. I have been hoping to go for a long-time. It is just up the road from me in Waterloo Wisconsin, about an hours drive or so away. I was not sure what to expect. I guess I don’t really appreciate the whole Lance thing and somehow I still think of the TREK of the ‘90s making worthy but boring bikes (I lived with a guy who got to review and then keep a 930 back in the day, perhaps 95. It was really very nice, but so understated that I cold not imagine who would buy it.) Or bikes on the edge of good taste and usefulness… (Y-bike, Y-foil and early suspension designs that are hard to imagine being a good idea). Remember these?
Besides what kind of mountain bikes can get designed and made in flat Wisconsin? Without some world class trails to test and develop on how can a company make world class bikes?
So driving up to TREK and Waterloo is a tiny town and the TREK building is understated. You would not know it was “that TREK” without seeing cars with lots of bike stickers and racks in the lot. We entered in a side door and immediately there is a bike room. But the kind of bike room I have not seen the likes of before. Lots of Madones and full suspension bikes a Burley tandem, lots of hotness and lots of bikes that look well used. The bike room has an area for bike photography. Today seemed to be the day to photograph the pink girls bikes replete with handlebar streamers. My buddy picks up a prototype full suspension 29er (Damn! It is lighter than my fixie ferrous) to ride for the day. I was allowed a teaser pic:
We sign the disclaimer and get the wristbands and ride off the short distance to the trailhead.
The fixie MTB is a dog on the road, spinning along and getting no-where. We get to the trails and are greeted by a nice looking four-cross track complete with big jumps and massive berms to rail. Luckily everything is roll-able and it is great fun to crawl down safely. I did wonder what it would be like to watch the Outlaw hit some of the doubles.
I guess I have never ridden private trails before and did not know what to expect. A lot of local trails here are pretty dumbed down and not much of a challenge, these were not those kind of trails. As soon as we start we a re greeted by a couple of big rock piles and tight tricky turns. “Nice!” and my buddy replies “I did that!”. This is new trail and still a bit rough and lumpy in spots, not totally ridden in yet, but it is full of little humps perfectly suited for getting mini-air. I am a wheels on the ground kind of rider, but it was so much fun flowing along and watching the rest of our group style it up. As we get further into the trails there begin a series of wooden -obstacles , rock piles and jumps. I was not feeling brave today. I rode a couple of the easy ladders and enjoyed mopping up some rock sections that reminded me of the East-Coast loveliness I miss so much. These trails are some of the most fun I have ridden and could have supplied a challenge for any rider and bike. We rode for a couple of hours or so and did most of the loops twice, so there is definitely not endless single-track, but what there is just awesome. No wonder the mountain bikes are now world-beaters.
We head back to TREK and while some of our party get a shower in TREKS locker rooms (complete with TREK shower curtains), I get a mini tour of some of the facility. What is immediately striking is there are bikes everywhere, all kind of bikes wherever you look. It is amazing the diversity and coolness of it all. Four all XTR carbon full suspension wonders are stacked in the wall of one corridor, head past the paint room and there are some Madones with flashy custom paint jobs. From peoples work-stations you can tell the employees love bikes. I see lots of cool stuff everywhere I look. A carbon fibre bottom bracket shell desk organizer…. A picture of a bike with “my other bike is your mom stenciled on the down-tube. A southpaw fixie with narrow bars….. You get the idea?
Heading back by the paint room I noticed a bunch frames for paint, 2010 madones in there nude glory. I pick one up and it is lighter than any fork I have ever owned. One of those as a fixie might be some fun. Then I spot a rack of my favorite welded on site product, the Ferrous. I really like mine and I am glad it was made here by someone local.
I think I have become a TREK fan. I’ll cheer for Lance on the tape-delayed col de tourmalet on the T.V. in a few minutes.
How far do you go? I don't mean how far you go to end up with 200lbs of drugs: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifMoaUbKGuxS55TAJ11h1lZ8f4nAD98TB57O0
I mean how far can you ride? Some crazies do the C&O canal in a day and rack up 180 miles or so. I'd like to give it a shot, but the stars never aligned for me. I did do 130 miles of it one day, but it rained so hard for the last four hours that I got sand in my shorts and mangina and it has taken me a while to remember the experience fondly.
This weekend I did get my best two day total. I am pretty sure of this because whenever I have done a century previously the next day I have sat around and "recovered". So I thought it sounded like a good idea to do TOMRV. http://www.qcbc.org/tomrv/route.html Its 106 miles day one and 89 miles day 2. I rode the fixie:
But its all I have. I thought I was making things hard for myself, but one guy was riding on some sort of BMX without a saddle or seatpost.
The first day was fun, I tried to take it easy and we even had a beer stop in Galena.
Surprisingly I felt great the second day. Well I felt great for 50 miles or so attacking the climbs and passing other riders like they were standing still. The last 30 were more of a struggle. I couldn't seem to ride quicker than really very slow. One of my buddys caught me and his computer (which is always over optimistic) said 14 miles an hour. It was fun in a way being humbled by riders who if you looked at them you would really not imagine then making 200 miles a weekend (or possibly a year)
So another challenge ride crossed off. I wonder what the next challenge will be? I better get some miles and fitness before SSWC09.....
We done got 'er done again: Team Fixed Not Brokentakes 2nd Place in the Single/Rigid Open category at the 2009 24 Hours of Big Bear. Oh, and 1st Place in the chimerical Fixed/Rigid Open category.
One of my hardware vendors constantly sends me classic photo post cards. This one arrived today. I thought it was worth sharing.
The back of the post card reads "Perilous ride down Capitol Building steps, Washington DC c. 1910. Photographer unidentified". So I assume it's in the public domain.
At the beginning of the year, I announced that I was going to try to keep track of how many days I spent on the bike this year. My goal is 180. Almost half the year done, and I've wrapped up half the rides. Numero 90:
Still a ways to go. It's not always easy to motivate yourself to buckle up the shoes, throw on the lid and don a pair of green Lycra shorts... then have a butterfly land on your crotch. Anyways, for those of you doing the Bike 180 thing yourself, stay safe, and take some good ones.
My buddy B1umboy sent me a link to a geometry calculator toy so I can while away the day wondering how my bike will handle if I raked out my fork to ridiculous proportions:
Sorry for the crappy pic - a photographer I am not. But if you look carefully, you should be able to make out the crack just to the left of the gusset (you are look at a picture of the underside of the downtube on my Redline Monocog 29er).
I found it on a ride at Patapsco Tuesday as I was riding the "lollipop" portion of the Rockburn Branch trail. The telltale noises that I didn't want to believe were my frame sounded out in the night as I traversed the root infested trail. I had hoped they were from my rear wheel, which I had found a few broken spokes from a previous wreck, but I've never heard a wheel make noise like that!
The group stopped at the 4-way intersection at the top of the waterbar trail, so I took the time to flip the bike and take a look. As I was inspecting the frame, Eric pulled up behind me and pronounced, "I know what you're looking for!". Apparently, he heard the telltale sounds too.
It took a little while to find the crack, but we did find it, thus sigaling the end of a fantastic run of trail rides on my first 29er. I never thought I'd break this bike.
I was ready to just start schleping back to the car, but the crack was only 1/3 the way round, so with the vocal support of the rest of the riders, I stuck out the ride and finished with my bike still in one piece and all my teeth (sorry DKeg). The crack is now about 2/3 the way round the tube and my bike handles pretty funny.
Phew it has been quiet here recently. I guess Winter has resulted in a bunch of riding the couch and not a lot of crazy epic rides or anything crazy at all.
I guess if I complain too much about the lack of updates I'll just get called a hypocrite. The difference is I have a good excuse for not posting. I have wanted to post, but it just did not seem like a good idea saying too much before settling up getting hit by a car last summer, remember my last post?
Well the big check finally cleared into my account today and the pink cast(s) are a distant memory. I guess I learned a lot of things about getting hit by a car that I wanted to share.
It hurts, even at slow speed. Then again I did cause $1,400 damage to the car. I am pretty sure I got really lucky that there were no other cars in direct vicinity to roll over me whilst I was on the ground. I was also lucky to agree to have a ride in an ambulance. I think that made the police take it seriously. That in turn meant they ticketed the driver which in turn forced him to admitting liability. With all that in place I could handle the whole thing without a lawyer, I just kept rejecting the insurance companies offers till they stopped increasing the amount. Probably not the best strategy, but I ended up with much more than expected. I got $2,700 for my beater bike alone. All those cool vintage parts cost a lot to replace, I guess. Anyway I the upside is a got a big check and that has to be good "in todays uncertain times", but boy is it burning a hole in my pocket.
I have no need for a new bike or any parts even. I have five bikes, I already got a new beater, and crashed it.... Still I went to the NAHMBS and bike lust kicked into over-drive.
Some of the bikes were just spectacular, totally beautiful works of rolling art. After a while, sometime after examining the 257th lugged seat-tube cluster the whole thing just got too much for me and I started to come to conclusion that it might just all be a bit wanky. All the extra adornment and attention to detail probably does not count for much when your rolling along (or getting nailed by a car). The voice of reason echoes in my head, "I'm not into $400 paint jobs" (thanks Chris), perhaps I am jaded, but I think I am just trying to talk myself out of it.
I do actually really like this, but I cannot imagine riding it.
That is probably the downside of getting hit by a car. It is behind me now but the first few months of riding again were rather nerve-wracking and I am somewhat reluctant to get emotionally attached to a bike. Oh, and I still am not at full strength, my wife has to open the pickle jars in this household.
So should I get a new bike? Or be happy with what I have got? Scratch the Pugsley itch, or get a Superfly? Custom has been calling for a while and a Monster Cross dropped bar 29er would be something new and Vulture cycles has started building again and Dom's bike and fixie skills always impressed me. Or maybe I should save for a rainy day. I guess it is nice to have options.
We done got 'er done again: Team Fixed Not Broken takes 2nd Place in the Single/Rigid Open category at the 2009 24 Hours of Big Bear. Oh, and 1st Place in the chimerical Fixed/Rigid Open category.
http://bikegeo.muha.cc/
