Falling

The calendar says it is fall. Fall sure didn't happen this year in any sort of spectacular fashion. The golden and orange/red hues were hard to find. The weather: hot, rain then cold and storms. I guess it makes the moments of what we love about fall more precious when it is hard to find? Maybe, if we can manage to take or get the time to do so.

We have been slowly building a hearth for our wood stove while it is down. Getting closer with the base welded up. The floor of the heart is elevated above the regular floor and a heavy porcelain tile laid. The walls are field stone veneer starting on concrete board attached to the walls. The veneer in held in place with heavy tile thin set mortar. Tedious. We laid out the stoned before hand to get them to fit together. Like a puzzle that never fits together. Then, once on the wall the joints needs filled with pointing mortar. The first shot at this yielded a red clay colored mortar which I had to chisel out and start over since we were trying for buff. Did I mention that it was tedious?

Puzzle pieces

Finished. Or at least the stone work is finished.

Time to ride has been hard to find. Same story, work, weather, family. I did get an afternoon off from work and rode most of the trails at Lake Hope on my monocog. Some of the storms had left the trails littered with limbs and several large blow downs. A cool mix of sun and clouds still, a great day to be out.

A birthday blast under grey and cold skies.

The sun came out for soccer though.

A little more gold before it disappeared.

Found a cool bit of nostalgia when cleaning up the basement, a cycling cap from the Athens Brick Criterium. This may be from the same year I watched Greg LeMond race?

Bring back the Brick!

Ah, election day. That one day where we say "just go vote"! Well, I am a proponent of fulfilling your civil duty and voting. But, please do so as a well informed and educated voter. Don't just vote the party line. Don't just follow your gut. Get informed with real facts. Learn how government works and how things are funded. Be responsible. Have intelligent conversations with those whom you respect. Listen to those whom you disagree with. Share your perspective with thoughtfulness and humility. Let's have a resurrection of civility.

I drink good coffee and I vote.

Final thought: look for the art around you.

A rusted electrical box or art. All about perspective.

What's spinning: U2's Zooropa. Released in July 1993 and recently remastered and pressed on vinyl. One of my favorites and underrated albums.

Up for Air

Coming up for air for a quick post.

We had planned a trip to Davis WV for the weekend of the Revenge of the Rattlesnake. This is historically a XXC (ultra cross country) race and the collective had forgotten how hard the riding is there and decided to give it a go. Fives days before we leave the NWS predicts heavy rain due to hurricane Florence. Predictions were for four inches on race day with the rain starting as early as Friday. We scratched the trip. One, turns out the race is no longer a XXC, just a regular old XC and is now the series final/championship race. Two, who wants to camp for three days in the pouring rain.

The bright side was that it freed me up to "race" the Team Athens Tour of Athens Gravel Edition. (Sidebar, they solicited names but apparently didn't like my suggestion of "The Crusher Run"). This is the first year for what they plan to be an annual event. Low attendance this time though due to short notice, conflicts with other nearby and far away races, and cost of entry. Two distances were offered, 30 and 50 miles, with lots of unpaved roads and lots of climbing.



I jumped on the 50 miler, put my new Maxxis Pace 29x2.1 tires on my Redline d440 and headed to the Eclipse Co Store for the start. Low attendance meant that they were dropping the aid station, plus it was hot, in the mid-upper 80's and humid. No rain from Florence yet (more on that in a bit) but the humidity had made it in. I had two bottles, some food/gel/snacks and felt good.

On the first big climb after hitting the unpavement (and the first of the Strava segments of the day) the first group of four riders just disappeared in front of me. I rode to the 30/50 mile split with a fairly fast couple of guys until they turned left. Solo is no big deal for me and being self supported is nothing either. But my initial plan had been to refill bottles at the aid station. Instead, I rationed my water intake to make what I had last the entire 50 miles.

The d440 is a super comfortable and stable bike for riding back roads. Deep/graded stone and washboards are no big deal. But it comes at a price of being 10 pounds heavier than everyone else. After turning near Amesville and hitting another big climb, I started cramping in my hamstring and lost the air out of my front fork. I had to ease up to keep the muscle working and keep the bike going as the front had bottomed out and as a result also got passed dropping me to 6th place. I limped back to the finish, drank a thermos of chocolate milk, a pint of water with a nuun tablet and ordered my complementary burger from Eclipse.

It was a fun event with potential. Be sure to watch for it next year.

About that rain. Florence was delayed and the rain held off in Davis until after we would have already been back home. We moved this trip to the following weekend. Drove down Friday morning with a packed van after breakfast at Casa and picking up donuts in Buckhannon. I took my Redline Monocog Flight on this trip. With the new fork (see Squishy-geometry) and a drop of gearing to 32-20 from 34 the bike seemed as dialed as a classic XC can be for riding in that type of terrain. We got a nice ride in on Friday afternoon in the old CVI area before Shelly and the boys got to town to have a burger at Tip Top in Thomas. Fed and tired we headed back to camp to watch lightning on the horizon.

It poured overnight.

We all stayed dry, E in the tent with the rest of us in my truck. The trails however did not. Most of the riding on Saturday felt like we were in a creek. It was still fantastic riding, albeit a bit sketchy.

After getting back to camp and cleaning up to go to Hellbender's for burritos and Blackwater Bikes for drooling I called it a day while a few others went back out for a another loop of trails. Shelly, B and I got some coffee and went to the Davis rock climbing park for a while. Really sweet little park with some various levels of difficulty walls. Brock climbed all over them. Even Shelly and I took a turn.

Meeting up back at camp and a check of the weather indicated that we would be in rain from about 2am Sunday morning until about Friday. The group decided to pull the plug and head home early. Stopped at Tip Top on the way out of town one last time and drove on.

Rushed trip. Didn't get all the riding I wanted. Brock and Shelly didn't get all the hiking they wanted. Brock didn't get to roast marshmallows. Still, it was good. Better than sitting in the office.

#gettuckered

Squishy geometry

I have mentioned that after riding my rigid singlespeed in the Blackwater Falls/Davis area of WV a few years ago I developed a ganglion cyst on my left wrist. After converting my monocog back to MTB duty this year I immediately irritated my wrist. While the cyst doesn't hurt in and of itself, it does cause stiffness and soreness due to the swelling. With that, I decided it was time to get a real suspension. I have an older White Bros Magic 29 (80 mm) fork, but have had some issues with it. A rebuild was going to be at least $125 if I shipped it in. I also wanted something with a bit more travel and the travel kits for this fork are no longer available.

The Redline Monocog Flight 29er has suspension corrected geometry for an 80 mm fork. The rigid fork has 47 mm offset and the frame has a 71 degree head tube angle. By installing a 100 mm fork with 51 mm offset it decreases the head angle to about 70 degrees with very little change in trail. The biggest problem? Finding a suspension fork for a non tapered head tube.

I searched for a used fork. Most were very used and required a rebuild. I searched for new but most of the straight 1-1/8" steerer forks were either low end or in the case of the MRP, really expensive. The only thing I could find that fit the budget and the level of spec I was looking for was the X-Fusion Slide RL2 29" fork. I picked one up for under $300 (significantly less than the $429 MSRP).

Installation was simple. I did peel about 3/4 of the stickers off of it though. Really, the thing was covered in stickers. I have one test ride on it thus far and can say that it was a lot easier on my wrist and arms. The decreased head angle will also (hopefully) add a little stability in more technical stuff like WV.

My back road bombing bike (Redline d440) also has a rigid fork, with a BMX style legs it is even stiffer that the Flight. So I rebuilt the White Bros fork myself. The seals and bushings seemed to be in great shape, just did a full service on both the air spring and damper leg. Then I moved the fork to my drop bar 29er.

It adds a little weight, but hey, the bike was no lightweight to begin with. Now it is ready to crush the rutted and washboarded back roads. The fork offset does decrease slightly which should add trail and make handling a tiny bit slower? But I doubt I can even tell. A little more stability on rutted up gravel descents would be welcomed.

Punches

June, the end of Q2 business wise. You aren't planning to take any time off in June were you? I guess not. It's OK I suppose. I am not anywhere ready to race the Hilly Billy come Saturday. The race distance is longer than the last month worth of riding.

I took out my rigid SS this week. I still love riding this bike, but it was hot and humid. I was sweating so much I could barely hold on to my grips. That and by the time I got done the ole Bible bump was back (see Ganglion Cyst). This developed a few years ago after riding in Davis WV for a few days. Now it is easy to irritate, kind of like me lately, easy to irritate.

Punches. Watch the news and want to punch someone in the face. Almost get rear-ended on East State St while waiting to turn in to my office, with my signal on, with lots of space and time between me and the approaching offender, who started flashing his headlights before standing the car on its nose to keep from hitting me, and whom almost got rear ended himself but the truck behind ran off the road. Yeh, makes me want to punch negligent drivers too.

Try to get ahead at work only to be delayed by something I have no control over  while trying to hit that Q2 deadline mentioned before and I feel like I am punched in the gut. Then there is the drama surrounding our school levy (failed) and the cuts that have to be made. Oh, and it turns out meth is back on the rise, A New Wave Of Meth Overloads Communities Struggling With Opioids, just up the road in Vinton Co. And Athens was listed as the 8th poorest town in the US.

But at least the Punch Brothers have a new album dropping. That's the kind of Punch I can dig.

So long, October

I still plan to get to the log of summer time posts, but here is a quick one to close out October. I ended up with a bonus day (well actually, it was just that I forgot that Friday was parent teacher conferences and that Shelly had to work but the boys were out of school so I had to take the day off kind of bonus day). After Shelly finished up, I loaded the Monocog on the car to have lunch with the fam before heading out to find some back roads, fall foliage, and some dirt. Traffic was terrifically low being the middle of the afternoon, on secondary roads, and no school buses running. The wind was stiff (about 12 mph sustained out of the south) but warm in the low 70's. Along the way to the Zaleski State Forest and Lake Hope State Park, I road through the King Tunnel (old rail road tunnel). Once to the lake, I decided that single track would be more fun than the road around. I followed the lake trail around from the furnace to the beach. Just prior to exiting the trail I hit the ground hard while rolling across one of the wooden bridges. The bridge was wet and covered in leaves. I had to collect myself a bit before continuing on, knowing that I had at least 25 miles to go to get home and I didn't want to stiffen up. I took the Moonville Rail Trail in to Zaleski and up Atkinson Ridge before heading out of the state forest toward the horse camp. By the time I got to Albany, the traffic was picking up, I was unprotected from the steady head wind, and I was starting to hurt. I didn't make it all the way home before Shelly picked me up. Still, almost 50 miles with 4k feet of climbing on the singlespeed.

Somewhere in Vinton Co.

The King Tunnel

Along the lake trail at Lake Hope State Park

The crash left me bruised and with a few scrapes. It was nice to get out for a long ride so late in October. I finished the day with a trip back in to Athens with Ethan for a reception for one of the mechanics at Athens Bicycle. Along the way I passed the Albany PD who was sitting in the median of the highway (where he often does and this being the Athens block party weekend, I would have been surprised had he not been there). I looked down and I was tooling along at 62 (in the 60). I didn't think another thing of it. I had just been passed by about 3 vehicles between the Rt 50 interchange and where he was, as I often do. I noticed he pulled out after we went by. Then I saw lights. I honestly assumed he was pulling someone else over but ended up sticking on my bumper.  I stopped. The officer asked for my license, insurance, and registration which I handed to him. He then said that he was stopping me for going 79 mph in a 60! I almost laughed. I told him I found that very difficult to believe and even admitted to going 62. He let me off with a warning and told me to get my speedometer checked after admitting he thought it was a white SUV that he clocked (we were in a white Scion XB). Watch out as you drive through Albany.

Spun U2's October on the turntable. Seemed appropriate.

Singlespeeding

Over the weekend I got to work on the bikes. With the addition of the Redline d660 and switch over of my old d440 to full mountain bike mode for Ethan, I was left without a drop bar 29er and a 26er SS without bars. I pulled the Groovy Luv Handles from my Monocog Flight 29er, changed the stem to a 120mm and installed them on the 26er. I then pulled the Gevenalle shifter off the brake lever as I used it on the d440 and installed those on the Monocog 29er (along with a switch out of the 20T cog to a 16T). I now have a single speed back road - gravel rouser - bikepacking - XC bike with dirt drops. I even had the chance to take a short spin on it with melting snow and thawing mud.

Matching shades of blue.

The 16T is a little steep for some of the climbs (including my driveway) but it is all I had. I should replace it with a 17T. (34:17). That will let me switch the 18T out on the 26er for the 16T (32:16). The old 26er has a tired Rock Shox Tora SL. Even though we did a full service on it last year, it is still sticky. Turns out that picking up a rigid 26er fork with a 423 mm axle to crown distance isn't all that easy. Everything today is suspension corrected for modern 100mm forks, not the old 80mm setups. (So if you happen to have an old Redline Monocog 26 or a Salsa Cro Moto with 423 A-C around, please drop me a message).

D

Soft

The birthday thing just happened. I decided to take a couple days off work and try to enjoy what was left of fall. The foliage was nearing peak and temperatures were in the 60's. With very little planning, over two days we managed some dual sport motorcycling, mountain biking, and a long ride on my Buell.

A pair of KTM 640's on some back "roads" of Vinton Co.

Stockport Mill and Dam as the sun was just starting to lift the fog off a cool start to the day.

Just out of Stockport along the Muskingum River. Site of  the Big Bottom Massacre of 1790. Lenape and Wyandot Indians surprised a European American settlement at the edge of the flood plain, or "bottom" land of the Muskingum River; they stormed the blockhouse and killed eleven men, one woman, and two children. Three settlers were captured while four others escaped into the woods. 

Big Muskie drag bucket. Big Muskie was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie model 4250-W dragline (the only one ever built) owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company (formerly a division of American Electric Power), weighing nearly 13,000 metric tons (13,000 long tons; 14,000 short tons) and standing nearly 22 stories tall. With a 220-cubic-yard (170 m3) bucket, it was the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created and one of the world's largest mobile earth-moving machines.  It operated in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1969 to 1991. I can still member driving past it sometime around 1990 while it was operating at night. A sight to see.

Amish corn harvesting in Morgan county.

I made it 40 years, but after trying to keep up with Ryan (on his Cannondale F29 carbon) and feeling the beating I decided it was time to rebuild and install the White Bros Magic 80mm fork on my single speed.

View from Carpenter Hill on a road bike ride.

Fall in South East Ohio.

Soft fork meant riding over them there rocks.

And with that, it started to rain as the remnants of hurricane Patricia went through. Thanks for checking in.

May the Fourth be with you.

"Riding a singlespeed is the closest to Jedi anyone can get on a bike." - Heather Irmiger (Women's Single Speed World Champ)

Yesterday was May the Fourth. All the Star Wars references seem appropriate with the above quote as I headed to Scioto Trails State Park to race with OMBC. I had not ridden here before but only heard that there were three large climbs and that the course was fairly non-technical. I thought to myself, great, this could lean towards my strengths. So, I packed up the truck and headed toward Chilicothe, arriving in time to register, change, and relax before the start. I did a short warm up after chatting with a gentleman and his 11 year old son who was riding in the junior class. I was going to ride over this log pile, but then I saw the painted sign (STAY OFF PILE).

Back to the start. Ryan asked how many expert single speed riders there were. Turns out, only two of us, so of course we got bumped into the open expert class (the fastest group of riders there). No big deal, I wasn't expecting to place, but rather was there as a warm up to the up coming Wayne Ultra in two weeks. He sent us off and down the dirt airport (logging) road to the start of the first single track section. This worked out well and the geared riders got through the first bottle neck so I was able to ride it with a clear trail. Other than pinning my heart rate a little higher than I wanted, the first single track section went well. The trail then crosses a creek and out into the open field followed by another creek crossing with a crazy steep drop into the creak bottom. From there we climbed. And climbed. And climbed up the forest access road. The grade isn't terrible but it was climbing for nearly 3 miles with about 3/4 mile at 6%. OK, even on my single speed, I can ride this three times I thought. Finally at the top and a very nice volunteer points me into the woods.

Straight down. From here until I drop out onto the airport road again the trail is either straight up or straight down except for a short section of road about mid way. Crazy steep, no, stupid steep if you are on a single speed, made even worse by the constant giant water bars and horse hoof beat trails. I hit the bottom, through the creek, and the second climb looks like it is about to fall over on me. One half mile at 12%. I am walking. A few of the riders are pedaling their way up, there must be something wrong with them though. Finally made it to the top with my calves burning (stiff XC shoes may be good for pedal efficiency, but not much for hiking). Some ridge top trail and more forest road follows until we are back in the woods for some more brake smoking, water bar hopping trail to another creek crossing and climb. Another half mile, 11% climb (walk) followed by a rolling ridge of water bars and another super steep down and onto some multi-use (horse) trail before popping out onto the road.

Lap one done. 61 minutes.

Over the next lap, I intentionally slowed. I was already at the back of the expert field and had a few of the sport class rides catch me. I knew what was coming and that I needed to make three laps. I was able to get some GU gel down, but the electrolyte mix in my Osprey pack wasn't going down well. Thankfully, the course worker had some bottled water which I pounded as I started down toward climb 3.

Lap two done. 69 minutes.

Two laps equal to 2 hours, 10 minutes. Just happens to be the time of the first place open expert rider. That's right, he finished all three laps in the time I spent on two. I made my turn in the trail for my final lap and it got lonely. Like, I could die out here and they wouldn't find me lonely. The third trip up the forest road climb was hard, but nothing compared to what was about to happen with climb #2. As soon as I hit the first water bar, major cramp in my left calf. I am talking, toes pointing down, how do I get off this bike, yelled out loud painful cramp. Cramp worked out, now I have to carry myself and bike up this crazy hill. It got real slow from here. I couldn't climb anything without that painful twinge in my muscle. I did my best to get all the fluids I could down, though I was not feeling dehydrated. I can also say that if John Lefelhocz had been on the back side of the trail selling a full suspension geared bike, he may very well have sold it. Climb three was a slow walk trying to keep the cramps away. Finally the top came and down the front side for the final time.

Lap three done. 76 minutes. Total race time, 3 hours, 26 minutes even. 28.8 miles, over 4200 feet of climbing. Near as I can tell I was the last to finish the men's expert field. Though, once we left the airstrip road, I never saw the other singlespeed rider. So, I guess that means I got first (Men's Expert SS), and last (Men's Open Expert).

This is one of those races that you only enjoy the day after. Not sure I would race it again on my singlespeed. But, that's racing I guess.

So, why race? This is a legitimate question I have started asking myself. Not sure I have found the answer yet though. For the prestige? It is an amateur racing series with little to gain from finishing at the top. Not that I could. With kids, jobs, family, church obligations, there is little time to effectively train to be a top contender. For the fun? Yesterday was not fun, it was pain. I certainly enjoy pushing myself, yesterday was beyond the line. For the comradery? I drove up by myself, rode by myself, watched the podiums by myself, then drove home by myself. Race myself? Yes, I can see this. I do enjoy pushing it but really can only race myself and race days always push me harder than I would on my own. Now I have to decide what to do with the Wayne Ultra.

Happy Riding you will.

MTB Davis 2013

Made our now annual trip to WVa to mountain bike last weekend.  Great weather, gorgeous views of fall in the mountains, good company, great (though tough) trails.  And just to prove it could all be done, I rode it on my rigid steel single speed.  Here are a few of the photos from the trip, more at the link  below.  Only downer was Shelly wasn't able to come along.  Worth the drive and ready to go back.

Truck loaded and ready to roll!

No river front campsite this year.  Our favorite spot was squatted by a camper that has been there at least the last two months.

Hey look, some rocks.

Delicious hamburger dinner at the Tip Top in Thomas. 

Sunrise.

Pano of CVI trails.

Ladies hammering the trails too.

More CVI land.

Moon Rocks!

Pano at the top of Moon Rocks.

The group minus the cameraman.

Hi Jamie.

Hi Ryan.

Hellbender's for lunch.

You can own this house lot overlooking the Canaan Valley wildlife refuge area.

Ski runs in the distance.

Relaxing in camp as the sun goes down.  Ryan and the gang put together a great dutch oven roast and veggie dinner cooked in the fire.

Cool mornings, the dogs didn't mind.

No river at camp, but we got rocks.

Fall in the mountains.

Rigid on Plantation trail.

Jamie with full suspension on Plantation trail.

Ryan got a flat on Sunday, the only mechanical of the weekend.

Pizza at Sirianni's in Davis.

Brock put the boats to use when I got home.

Ryan takes on moon rocks.

Jamie takes on moon rocks.

Link to Google+ album.