Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Feeling Good.

I don't know why, but I am feeling good. I got a good race shakedown, and as I thought, we are headed the direction on the Womble which I thought we were. That is a good thing. It has a pretty good climb early, but otherwise descends for a while. Then some ups and downs, then some flat, then some more ups and downs. After that I am unfamiliar. I am really questioning the 32-20 and I think I could handle something larger, but I really want to finish.

The other thing I had been worried about is whether or not the climbs on the Ouachita Trail would be punishing. I found out that they will, but that they are borderline unridable with even a standard triple/9 speed setup. I heard there was much hiking going on in that section last year. The only other thing I am hoping for is that I can switch my registration to the 80 mile SS class. If not whatever. Either way I'll be timed and know where I finished overall.

I need to do some planning and preping. I'm going to pick up a tent tonight and have a beer or two. I probably won't be back til after Ouachita so wish me good luck.

Up and up.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Screw Gears

So I put gears on the Superfly SS. It was a good idea in theory, but a pain in the end. I snapped the head of my crank extractor bolt trying to take the cranks off. The first removal and it failed. Thin aluminum. I used some snap ring pliers to get the stupid threaded portion out of the arm. Then I tried to put on a Jump-Stop. The seat tube flares at the BB high enough to stop that from working. I could use a road FD I have but I hate that. Doesn't work well.

I got everything rigged up at home, then took it to the shop for finishing touches. It feels fast, but scares me that there is nothing to prevent the chain from falling off the chainring. F**k it. I'm riding Ouachita SS baby! Screw that s**t. I'm doing it. I hope I don't die. I'm slapping on the Fox fork and am going to ride a 32-20. It is going to feel like an easy gear at times in the beginning, but I'm banking on the fact that by the end, it'll feel imposible. Just the way it should. It's my first enduro so I just want to finish.

I'm also slapping on the Fox Fork. I don't want to have to swap my tubeless setup and the XDX tire I'm running on the front is large enough, especially if I have some squish. It has a lockout and compression damping. I'm getting everything setup tomorrow. I'm returning the XT cassette. I'm also going to be selling the Monster Truck. After much internal debate, there will be a new frame and fork coming along to take care of me. It just does not, I repeat does not work for my hip. I don't know what it is, but it didn't and still isn't working.

Those are my ramblings. The relief and fear are setting in. I'm relieved that I'm not riding gears in some ways. Then I think about the climbs on the Womble and think about how I rode them in a 34-32 on my 26 and how a 32-20 on my SSuperfly is going to be interesting.

I'm dreaming of rocks and singletrack.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Climb, Climbs, Climbing

You ever look at that word? It's a weird word. Mega weird. Well that's how I spent yesterday. Hitting all the nastier rides in the area. I hit each of them around 3 times. I got in some off road action as well. I hit up the golf course trails as well as the east side mountain bike spot. Everything was a little moist but not terrible. Most of the ride was kind of forced. Temps were 35F and a little windy. As well as gray. Not rain gray but cold and crappy gray. I spent another Wednesday on the Superfly. I think all the work on it built as a single speed will be good prep for slapping some gears on for the climbfest that will be the 80 mile version of the Ouachita Challenge.

Even after a day of rain, I was surprised to find most of the trails in dryish conditions. Most low lying areas even after the flashflooding were in decent shape. There is a lot of rutting from the melt off though. And hikers. Oh man don't get me started. Where as most of the time I try and ride around muddy areas to avoid rutting, they decide it is a great idea to just plow through and leave 4-5 inch deep foot prints. I know that riding around creates a wider trail, but so do downed trees and other things and situations like flooding that cause reroutes. It's not that bad. Intentional damage is still intentional damage.

Anyways it was a good day. The sun came out around 4:30 or so. About an hour after my ride was done. I got 4 hours in the saddle which is about half of what I'll be doing in around a week. Gears while a cop-out, are going to be a welcome addition. I don't even remotely care. It'll be nice to have a 32-34 to ride at about mile 70. If I am even still riding then.

No pictures because it sucked out. Off to ride the Litespeed for a while before work. I need to work the kinks out of my legs.

Monday, March 23, 2009

BikeCAD Musings


Well after learning of the possibility of an early production run, I might have the chance to yet again score another rather ground breaking frame. I can't let the who's go or the when's but I have steel on the brain. Don't get me wrong, for an aluminum bike I love my Dillinger, but I just have a hankering for anything not aluminum. Specifically nice steel. Oh and Titanium. But that is for when I make a ton of money. Which will never happen. I'm a bike mechanic. I'll have to build my own Ti frames for a living to even think about making myself one. I own one, but it doesn't count. At all.

Anyways, I found a little program known as BikeCAD. Probably the most fun and f*cking coolest thing I've played with in a while. Just seeing what angles and lengths can be used to make a frame is awesome. Just seeing the different tricks used to get various chainstay length's is crazy. I am currently a little obsessed with trail figures. The SuperflySS is built around an interesting set of numbers. I of course haven't even ridden it with the suspension fork it came with so it handles a little slower than what I expect. Once I get dialed to the ride though it'll be nice.

I have had a hankering for a while to order a custom steel frame. I just know what works for me, what I like, and how I would like it built. The only thing I would like to know is what butting profiles I'd like to run. The hookup option for the custom frame would have me picking the butting profiles. Kind of yikes. I have a pretty good idea though of what I'd do where and why. I've been keeping my eyes open when reading articles. I especially dig Merlin's philosophy on Top Tube butting profiles and their affect on ride quality.

The second option would be a little more guided. I really dig the geometry setup I've picked. It is around an inch shorter wheelbase, half inch shorter top tube, built around a ti offset seatpost (mmmm comfortable flex) and purple. I am getting some purple ano stuff for this build. The second option also custom builds forks as well. I am almost leaning this way as he is very experienced. Also if the first option is any more than $700 it's not going down. I just don't want to pay someone a ton of money building me a mountain bike who had never really built more than a couple before mine. I don't care how many frames you built before, switching to a completely new frame style with as many caveats and attentions to geometric detail I have in mind, I just don't want to pay for the screw ups. Cause they are going to happen.

Nothing is going to be even crazy bent or anything. I don't like Jeff Jones style monster bend bikes. The cruiser retro-ish 29er thing hasn't really caught my fancy. Except for Steve Garro of Coconino Cycles. He builds some clean frames. And I wouldn't call them cruisers so much as upward curving top tube sweet machines. Similar to Black Sheep except steel. I like classic double diamond frames. Maybe the would never be as vertically compliant, but I think it is more than possible.

I don't even know if Builder No.1 would understand some of the ideas I have concerning the build. Oh well screw it. It's a crazy idea anyways. I am just going to have some money to invest soon and well with the market the way it is, I'd rather invest it into a end of the world, zombie apocalypse style build. Not a ridiculously heavy frame, just custom fit to me with no carbon. My SuperflySS just seems to fragile in my brain. Maybe I'm just a slut for new bikes.



Play with BikeCAD and build your Dream!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

A week it was...

Yeah I know a week and no updates. Well things got crazy around here. Actually mostly in my head. I had a hard enough time waiting for the week countdown to the Shortcake's birthday. I had quite a gift in mind, and I just couldn't focus on anything. Planning, family cordination for the party, trying to keep the secret under raps. I'm talking about popping the question by the way.

I had the job switch as well which threw off my work day schedule, but luckily Mr.Price worked the last half of the day for me. I got to come home and get the black refried beans ready (home made of course) and chop up two baskets of strawberries. All while knowing I had to pop the question when she came home. Talk about pressure. I almost chopped my finger off more than once.

On the way home I grabbed the ring, the 23 long stem white roses, and then carefully drove home. I took my time so I didn't run into anything. I was having a hard time focusing. I also couldn't eat and had a crazy ringing going on in my ears. I don't know why I was so nervous, but I was. I got all the food ready and bided my time patiently.

Waiting for her to show up the last half an hour was the worst. She finally pulled up in the driveway and I got staged. Flowers in hand and ring box sitting on the table right inside the door. I didn't want to give her a second to react, think, do anything. I just wanted to hit her with it immediately. She walked in, I gave her the flowers, took her purse and jacket, sat them down, and got down on one knee. Then the question ( I was going to say some things before hand, but my heart was racing so fast that I just had to get it out.)

I pulled the ring out of the box to put it on and she tackles me! She didn't even let me put the ring on before she mauled me with kisses and I love you's. No crying went down, but tears were in the eyes. The next hour before heading to her parents house for dinner with the families was spent running around with huge smiles, completely speachless and dumbfounded actions, and kisses and hugs.

I know it sounds all girly and all but it truly was special. I was pretty shaken up throughout the afternoon as well as into the evening. Nothing a couple beers and a load of Mexican food couldn't solve. I hadn't eaten since 10am so one beer went down with the effect of three, and the food actually went down like it was half the amount.

Thank you everyone who knew and didn't say anything. Oh wait. That was just me. Her father was so excited that he "leaked" the info to his son (I'll give him that one, it's hard to keep things like that back) but then told one of Emily's sister. My mom went and snuck a peak at the ring two weeks before I popped the question. Pretty much Emily was the last to know. Oh well. The important thing was that she was the last to know.

Much Love. I'm out to ride the Superfly SS today. Time to start getting used to the ride of that mama-jama.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

CIRREM Race Report

Well CIRREM went down without a hiccup. It was cold, windy, rainy, snowy, you name it. 62 miles of balling up your hand in a fist to squish the water out of it. Awesomeness. I ended up in the lead group after about 5-6 miles or so. Kent had an unfortunate breakdown with his freehub. Which was later found out to have been fixed on a farm. Now that is Iowa for you.

The lead group was formed with Jed Gammel, Jared Osterlough, Sean Walker and myself. The gravel conditions kept things rolling well. It would have been slow, but Madison County seems to have some solid pack underneath it's gravel. Considering we had rain 48 hours previous to the race and the day of, the roads couldn't have been in better shape.

Once it started raining, any hopes of myself feeling good went out the window. I just couldn't get warm. The climbs on the course were the only place where I would get warmed back up again. My legs didn't want to respond on the flats. They just couldn't handle a very long pull into the head wind sections. So needless to say Jed and Sean did a lot of work, with Jared working by himself just off the back to avoid getting caked in sand.

Jared is definitely a strong rider. He put in a crazy two days with a gravel road race (rode out and back to the race) and then threw down on CIRREM. At about mile 48-50 my legs decided to give out. I couldn't keep the pace of the other leaders. I had let my "nutrition" regiment slide, which for me equals light top heavy bonkage. Luckily this day it meant light. I slammed two Powergels with caffeine and was ready to rock about 20 minutes later.

The climbing in the race was kind of broken up. Rolling gravel roads followed by a turn onto another road into the heavens. It was kind of crazy. You would be stomping the rollers one after the other only to forget that Kent Carlson put the race on and that it was going to have some elevation gain. Luckly the last major leg killer was in the 45-46 mile range. That is what killed off the last remaining fuel in my system.

Anyways Sean ended up hanging back and finishing the course off with me. If he hadn't I would have had to navigate and it would have been a brutal ride into Cummings. Which was another kick in the pants on this cold windy day. To hit the 100k mark, Kent had to bring us in just north of town and then run us back out two miles and back in. It was a mind f*ck and a half.

I had a good time and the legs are still hurting. On other fronts, I started my new job on Monday. I am working at a shop in downtown IC now. Working for the corp just wasn't working out. Hard to believe after that many years things would go down. Oh well. I have a new home and a group of people that feel like family. I had that before, except instead of having a positive owner figure, there was a douche eye in the sky. I love all the people I have worked with except a few who I will live on without in happiness. Here is to new beginnings ( I know, I know I keep saying that, but it is that time in my life.)

I am taking a true day off. My legs still need a little more recovery before I hit them again.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

CIRREM

CIRREM is going to be brutal this weekend. I'm not even going to look at the forecast. All I know is I found out I might have a wheel to suck for a while tomorrow. Or to not suck considering that wheel is going to be spewing crap all over me. So that'll be a terrible idea. I'm shooting for a finish time somewhere in the 6 hour range. It's going to be nasty with a capital every letter that spells nasty. I hope I made the right bike decision for the weekend. Skinny's with big knobs. It'll throw crap around, but knowing KC he'll be throwing some of his own tricks around the course.

I wish everyone luck tomorrow. I forgot to grab my flask of intestinal fortitude aka my flask full of Jame-O for the ride. It would actually be more like a mental relief. Oh well. Good hard miles are what I am in need of anyways. This will also be my first race reppin' under a different shop. That's right I made a move. It sucks and is good all at the same time. I'm going to make some other big changes in my life real soon. I'm looking forward to the future.

Race (suffer) On!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Things go around...

Well I'm going to have a couple of days off before starting a new job. Crazy as it sounds I sit here a little relieved. I definitely apologize to those I've left behind, but man, are things going to be a little more mellow. There won't be as much free change floating around, but I've got a pretty nice stash laying around and in the garage. I am excited about the new beginning. New beginnings. Emphasis on the plural. Things go on as planned.

I tried to shore up my options immediately. That went ok, so we'll see. As for the rest of the details, I have a couple of days off. Weather today is going to be 60F. Oh shame. Then about the same tomorrow. Again. A shame. I'll edit up later with some details of the ride.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Gravel Nothing

Temps this weekend stayed nice and chilly. I swore that I was hearing things last night on the radio. They said a high near 50F. It is currently 22F under cloudy skies (generated Weather Channel voice) and now your local Doppler Radar. That sucks too. The forecast for the weekend looks promising though. I am hoping to head to CIRREM on Sunday AM. The ShortCake is heading to MN to get her sister packed up to head to Brazil. Permanently. Crazy I know.

I am trying to bring myself to motivate and go ride outdoors. The hips is a little sensitive from riding the Fixie for the past couple of days. I haven't been off the bike for a while and am feeling really good. Last Tuesday was just such a nice day. I suppose I should get on a bike. I have people to pay, people to get registration from, people to ask questions. I really want to ride the Superfly. I just don't want to get the damn thing dirty! I'll just have to ride the Fixie, hip be damned. I don't want to put new tires on my cross bike and it's needs them terribly bad.

I suppose I should get that sucker all tuned up. It is going to be that bike or the Litespeed. This March is supposed to be spent with me being on a SS the entire month except when I puss out and ride gears on the trainer. I really want to give Ouachita a go on a SS seeing as I have a pretty awesome SS to ride. It would be a shame to try and strap gears on the thing. Oh well.

Who will win? Outdoors and the Superfly? Outdoors and the Fixie? The trainer? Or maybe a little of both. A nice cold cruise outdoors, pay up, reg up, then throw down mid-afternoon on the trainer. I think I'll go crazy if I ride the trainer too long, so I'm heading outdoors. I'll take the camera along to play with.

Inside Out! Out InSide!

Edit- I definitely hit all the above requirements besides riding indoors. That was a dumb idea anyways. I made it 3 hours in the saddle in strong 15mph SE winds. All on the Fixie. That bike is always a joy to ride, but after 3 hours and loads of climbing, my legs feel a little shot. Nothing that some wings ribs and one large Fat Tire couldn't take care of. The Fat Tire was to ease the nerves for one of the above requirements. More on that later. PEACE!