Cyklopath

10.25ozs!!!!!!!!

2012-01-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

Yup, I'm still a weight weenie, even though I'm not lightweight, I like my bikes to be (I used to be a flyweight rider)

So, to add to my previous post....

The new (Old) wheelset saves a total of 10.25ozs over the clincher wheelset it replaced.

Really a pretty interesting difference given that I went backwards about 10 years in the vintage of the wheels, and up by 4 spokes per wheel. Finally, the tires on both sets were Vittorias - Rubino clinchers and Evo Tubulars!

The end result is that the Colnago is now 19.25 lbs without pedals! Not half bad for a bike older than half the pros I watch on Versus!

Magic Shoes......

2012-01-17T16:46:00.000-08:00

So a few posts back, I mentioned that I got my hands on some new vintage wheels for my Colnago. Some internet search proved a provenance and date of Shimano 7200, approximately 85 vintage. Just right in era for my Colnago (if not in country of manufacture)

I also recently scored a pair of NOS Vittoria tubulars. Got 'em for less than the price of a pair of innertubes. No they did not fall of the back of a truck!

So after stretching the tires on the wheels all last week - they were very tight at first - I started building up a few layers of glue on both the wheels and the tires.

Finally last night, I was ready to glue them up. It all went fine, and the glue job did not get messy. Everything was/is very clean. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

As a bonus, the front wheel cut a quarter of a pound off the bike when compared with the old clincher. I can't wait to compare the rear as well.

I've ridden tubular CX tires, but never any tubular road tires/wheels. I'm definitely looking forward to it and will post a report of how it goes when the weather is good enough to try them!

So now my Colnago has new 'Magic Shoes'

Tour De Cross 2012 Race #2

2012-01-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well, my wife surprised me this weekend. She asked if I had seen anything lately on Facebook.... My answer was that I was reading about my team members heading out to the Tour De Cross #2. She commented "You did not ask to go to it?" I replied that I hadn't because I thought I needed to be home with her and our new son.

My wife is a wonderful person, and not just because she told me, "Go ahead, we'll be here when you get here". A little cleaning around the house before I left ensured some good karma and put a small deposit in the domestic homefront bank.

So I headed out to the race. I decided to drive my Triumph to the race with the bike on the back. Unfortunately, it was cold (sub freezing) and so the car backfired a bit. I got there fine though and surprised my teammates (they thought I was in poopy diaper land)

The course was pretty doggone good. Aside from being somewhat poorly marked in a few areas, it really made the most of the land the organizer had to run the course on.

I started out great and got a substantial holeshot on everyone. Unfortunately that only lasted about half a lap and I blew a bit. I managed to hang in about 5th position for a while and then took a wrong turn on the course and literally got lost....

Two people passed me and I figured out where I was supposed to be. I decided to follow one of them for the rest of the lap to make sure I did not get lost again....

Finally, after figuring out the course, I made up a couple positions and held there until the end. I actually finished fairly strong considering how long I've been off the bike.

New - Old Wheels... For the vintage Colnago!

2012-01-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

So the same friend that hooked me up with the vintage Colnago called me this past weekend and offered me a set of wheels.

The wheels are Dura Ace hubs (36 hole) laced to mid-80's Matrix Iso tubular rims. Also included was a nice 6sp Shimano 600 freewheel. 13-21 gearing. Pretty tough for my fat old legs.

I have a set of nice Vittoria Evo Tubular tires (NOS) that I may glue up to these rims and set up for riding.

The question now is to sell them and lace up the Campag Super Record hubs I have stashed away for this project. Putting Shimmy hubs on this beautiful Italian bike seems like heresy!

Cordova Cross 2011

2011-12-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

Well, this was likely my last cross race for the 2011-12 season due to the impending birth of my first son (second child).

I went out Friday night to help Anthony get the course right. I spent a couple hours with him trying to get the course right and get it marked right. In the end, it was an effort well spent because the course got a lot of good comments. FWIW, I had to leave after a couple hours. Dylan and Anthony then worked until 11pm finishing the course.

Anthony did a good job with the race. It was well promoted and had 27 entrants. The course design was good as well. I think next year, some more work on the 'administration' of the race will make it run more smoothly.

As for me, I sucked wind pitifully. I could tell I laid on my back during most of the month of November. I was pretty pitiful. The course was killer because of the mud, the soft boggy areas we had to slog through and all the elevation changes.

All told, it was the kind of course that kills me and that was just fine. It was fun and hard work!

More Downtime.....

2011-11-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well, Cyclocross season is slipping away from me. The tonsillectomy surgery I had has definitely affected me more than I would have thought.....

The good news is that I've lost 10 lbs since the surgery 1 month ago.

The bad news is that I've lost a lot of fitness.

I've now had a handful of rides back on the bike thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. A MTB ride at Herbs, a CX ride on the WRT and then a road ride. None were stellar rides though!

I hope I can get back on the fitness wagon soon.

Winter Weather Riding

2011-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well, sad to say, but winter is here. Ok, technically its still fall, but the weather is now cold enough to warrant getting set up correctly for winter. The temp is now dropping regularly below 60 degrees, and that is plenty cold enough for most.

I decided a couple years ago however to not stop riding when it got cold. Simliar to when I was a kid, I did not want to stop just because it was freezing outside. Indoor trainers just don't get me going like I would like either.

So what to do?

First off, you must be dressed for success. First layers need to be insulating layers which do a good job of wicking. For that, I use some Nike Cold Gear that my brother-in-law got me for Christmas. I follow that up with a set of insulated Sugoi tights (again a Christmas present, this time from my father). Over the top of all of that is a Nimblewear wind jacket. The jacket fits well and cuts the wind back very effectively. I really like the Nimblewear stuff!

To cap all that off, I like to wear a cycling cap under my helmet, as well as some Sugoi full-finger gloves and some Woolie Boolie merino wool socks under my shoes.

Next in line is getting the bike right. A lot of people would just hop on and go. Thats really not the way to go though. So, first off, I go with good tires for winter. Wide tires. More comfort. No issues. Next up, I don't ride my steel bike during winter. Why chance rusting out a vintage Colnago and all those beautiful components. I stick with my carbon bike for winter. Finally, I use only components with sealed bearings. Why leave any of that to chance.

One other great little thing I added to the bike a couple years ago was a fender set. I use the Crud RoadRacer fenders. Still relatively new, but very effective. Light and easy to install. I can't say enough great things about these fenders. I will likely put a little more reflective tape on them at the ends to give some more visibility.

Last thing on the bike is a blinky light. It is inevitable that you will get stuck out after dark on a winter ride. Why chance getting hit because they can't see you?

Cyclocross Magazine - Pre Race Inspection Article.

2011-11-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

I wrote this up for the folks at Cyclocross Magazine.

http://www.cxmagazine.com/cyclocross-prerace-inspection

Nothing earth shattering or anything terribly new, but this is always good advice.

Give it a read!

Downtime!

2011-11-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

Well, this is not the time that I wanted downtime, but this is the time I got it.

I'd been having troubles with coughing, constant nasal drip and some large growths sticking out of my tonsils into my airway/throat. Not a lot of fun. The doctor said the tonsils had to come out.

I'd heard all the stories about how this was 'much worse for adults' and how much longer it would take me to heal.

Everything I heard so far has been true and then some.

I've now depleted the vanilla ice cream population in my town, and unfortunately, I've not been on a bike in a couple weeks.

The good news is that I'm now 191 lbs. Lighter than I've been in a very long time! Now if I can keep the weight off and keep my strength up, I'll be OK. Unfortunately, I cannot manage to do anything at all stressful. You'd never believe how much strain it puts on your throat to do stressful things!

Spooky Cross 2011

2011-11-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

For me, this is one of my 'home races'. I live 5 mins from the course and ride out there regularly. The event is also put on by a bunch of friends and attended by most of my friends, so it makes for a great event!

The course this year was similar to last year's excepting the run-up the stairs in the ampitheatre. They had some renaissance festival going on in there supposedly so we could not use it....

Day one had a very large CX4 field (large for Memphis standards) with over 2 dozen riders. They also ran the SS'ers with us to make the group bigger.. I got to the line late so lined up mid-pack. The start involved a straight that eventually dove into some pretty tight singletrack. I knew getting into the woods would be crucial and edged up a bit from mid-pack to hit the woods in the first 1/3 of the group. I came out of the woods in pretty good position, but quickly started going backwards..... By the end of the race, I managed to beat a couple of racers I knew I wanted to be in front of, but was pretty much behind everyone else....

Day two had half the field of the previous day. They also reversed the course and moved some of the barriers to reposition them on run-ups. I felt better on the start even though I did not hit the woods in the best position. After a while, I started going back and forth with a couple non-locals and we had a race going. I'd beat them in the barriers and woods, they'd pull me back and pass on the flats and on the paved sections. In the end, I was able to make a large dig and make it stick. Unfortunately, I was still back of the pack at the finish.

I did not get completely skunked however - they had a 'bike handling' competition right before the awards ceremony. They did the 'circle drill' where all the riders are put in a circle and then the circle is gradually tightened up. Dab and out. I made it to the end and won. The prize was something my results say I definitely need - one month full service coaching from a USAC certified pro coach.

Cyclocrunk 2011 #3

2011-10-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

So because of a 84 hour work week last week, I missed Cyclocrunk #2 - and I got sick.

None of that bode well for getting out there during Cyclocrunk #3....

Again, since the race was sanctioned and required a license, all of the 'freds' stayed home. That basically meant that there was no one for me to race against for the most part.

My buddy Bobby showed up. He is an incredibly strong runner and was my partner during the Wolfman Duathlon this year (we took 2nd in Men's team). I took him around the course to show him how it ran, and gave him some of the lowdown on how 'cross goes. With that, we were ready to ride.

I guess I was sorta ready to ride. I was absolutely whooped still from the previous week. With that, I was racing with the 'start slow and taper off' strategy.

The course was fast and dry, and because of a kickball league that infiltrated the park during the race, they cut the race to 30 mins. On the last lap, I saw my buddy Bobby ahead of me by about 200-300 yards and I decided to catch him. Amazingly enough, I caught him half way through the lap and extended it to the finish. Of that, I was kinda proud.

Hopefully, I'll feel healthier and have more legs and lungs for this weekend!

6 Hours of Herb Parsons 2011

2011-10-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I hit my favorite MTB race of the year. I started racing MTB back in 1991 or so at Herb Parsons, so it was good to be racing there. I love the trail. I love seeing all my friends and I love the way the race is run.

So fast forward to a few days before the race, I kicked in a registration for a solo ride. I knew this would not yield me a potential placing, but that was Ok. This would not provide any chance for a place on the podium because at this race, they run age groups only. With that, I was racing against the likes of Hart Robinson and all the other fast guys in the area.

Based on my lap times from last year, I planned on running somewhere around 50 minute laps for the duration of the race. Good plan.

For pitting, I had my pit area set up with my cooler at one corner with water, gels and PB&J to eat on each lap. Turned out to be a pretty good plan as well.

After the LeMans start, it was all I could do to not latch on to the fast guy's wheels and hang with them. I know I can hang for 1 lap with some of them, but not for 6, so I stayed as patient as possible and hung back. Eventually, I settled in on my Bill G's wheel and started rolling along well. That first lap was 47 minutes, which was a bit faster than I planned, so I slowed a bit for the second and hit a 50.

For my third, cramps started setting in so I downed some GuBrew in the pits and went back at it. Legs were feeling better pretty quickly.

Eventually, during lap 5, I must have burped a tire and ended up having to stop to pump it back up. That lap time was quite a bit slower than the previous as I had to stop for a while as I pumped up with that slow little pump.

Finally, a few miles from the finish, I heard Dennis G's cow bell ringing on his camelback and we rode in together to the finish.

6 laps
58 miles
4 PB&J's
2 flasks of Gu
Whole lotta fun!!!!!!!

Oh yeah.... I finished 11th out of 20 in my group. I also finished 1 place behind my buddy and sponsor, Chad (who I beat last year, so 2012 will have to be a matchup)

Cyclocrunk 2011 #1

2011-10-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

After waiting for too long, cyclocross season is finally here. The first race of the year for me was Cyclocrunk. This is a USAC training race put on by some local friends. Its grown pretty big through the years and so this year it even had sanctioning (never did previously).

This race promised to be a fast one as it had not rained in a month. The ground was dry and hot. We expected some serious fast racing on what was esentially the previous course with a few modifications.

However, Mother Nature showed her hand about 2 hours before the race and dropped a downpour on us. Perfect for a cyclocross race!!!! The rain really hit us hard and the result was a lot of mucky areas, along with standing water everywhere and lots of peanut buttery mud to slip around on.

I managed to get an OK start and was in the first 10 or so into the first barrier. Unfortunately, I must have been racing with the 'Start slow and taper off' strategy. I managed to stay on the lead lap for approx 3 laps and then the Cat 2's came around hard and fast. That being said, I did lap a few people myself and held with a couple racers for a pretty good period before they finally pulled away on a straight.

As usual, I made up time on the barriers and lost time on the bike. Seems wierd to me as I'm a terrible runner. I guess I get on and off faster.

Now if I can just get some legs back for the rest of the season!

New Wheels For Kurt

2011-10-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

My buddy Kurt has been increasing his skills, and rewarded himself for that with a nice set of wheels. Unfortunately, while the King hubs are tough as nails, the Mavic rims that were on the wheels are less than tough, and were not up to his abuse.....

So, he decided to have them rebuilt. The rebuild job came to my garage for lacing.

I started by tearing down the old wheelset and polishing up the hubs. Getting the cassette off was pretty tough as it was a lower end SRAM and had cut into the alu freehub body. Judicious tapping in the right direction with a brass hammer dislodged it and allowed me to wiggle it off. He'll be replacing it with a higher end cassette that has an alu spider.

The new hoops are Stans and really look good. He picked DTSwiss double butted black spokes along with black annodized nipples. I used spoke lube from Alchemy bicycle works on the threads and laced them up. Lacing went fine, and tensioning up and truing was quick as well. Overall, a very good wheelbuild.

They look to me like they will hold up really well and their tubeless capability will take some weight off his bike.

Cyclcross Practice and Feeling Out The Bike

2011-09-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

So last night, my buddy Billy hollered and wanted to see if I wanted to go do some cyclocross practice drills. I headed over to his place and we took off down the road. We warmed up with a 4 or so mile warmup down the road to a local park which looked like it was built to be a 'cross course.

When we got there, we tooled around the paths for a minute looking for a good place to do some drills. We found some fallen branches and set up a makeshift barrier. After that, we started doing dismount/remount drills going both uphill and downhill.

Next, we tried some runups and around a big stump followed by an immediate downhill. That was interesting.

After a few drills, we stopped for a bit and watched each other to give each other some suggestions on how to make improvements. I won't say either of us came away with any changes, but it was interesting to hear someone critique my technique, as well as interesting to watch someone elses.

Time to get ready to race (still 2 wks away)

Painting the CX Bike - Part 8 Completed

2011-09-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, she's done. I'm pretty pleased with the result. I know several mistakes I made, but also how to fix them, as well as how to not make those mistakes next time. The end result is pretty doggone good, and most people will never know of, realize or see the mistakes either.

I need to finish assembly so I can get to practicing the dismounts/remounts, but should be able to do that tomorrow.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 7 - Final Clear

2011-09-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

So last night, I checked the weather to see what time would be the magic time to put the final clear on the frame. By the weather, it looked like 10am would be the magic time.

I hit the garage this morning at 8:30 and sanded down the frame with some 600 grit and fresh soapy water. I knocked down the rough spots, and the edges of the decals. Everything was nice and smooth.

Then I mixed up a cup of clear and started spraying it. It laid down nicely and the gloss was looking really good. Then, lo and behold, it started to rain!!!!!! Only a few drops hit the frame, but they make a wierd little blemish that has to be buffed out.

I waited 15 mins and hit it with the final really wet coat. This time, the frame really shined. I'm happy with the way it turned out in total.

I'll sand down some of the blems tomorrow and hit it with the buffing compound. That will really make the bike look good.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 6 - Decals and Clear

2011-09-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

With the color on the frame, I checked over everything and it looked pretty good. I pulled out the extra decal set that came with the frame when I bought it. I then trimmed the edges of the decals to get rid of some fuzz they picked up and pulled out the measurements I had done of the frame before I stripped it.

I took my time installing the decals and they still came out a little crooked. Measure twice and stick once is the rule here!

Stickers in place, its time to mix up some clear and shoot it. As you can see from the pics, I shot the bike outside. Clear is dangerous nasty stuff. I did not want the fumes anywhere near myself or my family. I shot one misty coat and followed it shortly with a wet coat. I followed that with a wet coat 15 mins later.

The results are pretty doggone good. The clear laid down well and the finish is nice.

There a few too many places with an eggshell look to them, so I'll wetsand this down with 1000 grit paper to knock off the highspots and then spray it with 2 more wet coats. The results of that will be a glassy finish.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 5 - Color

2011-09-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

After all that prep work, it was time for some color. This is when the paint job starts to look like a paint job!

I shot the white of the main tubes first. I used the touchup gun to lay the color and it went on very well with 40psi and approx 10% reducer.

Masking for the blue was the next task. Intially, I masked with standard green masking tape and used an Exacto to cut the shorelines. The result was terrible. I was beyond dissappointed with my results......

So I started over. This time I used 1/8" blue polyurethane 3M masking tape. This tape pulls and stretches around the shorelines very well. I then put the green tape around the ends of the tubes and cut the tape back from the blue tape. This gave a nice masked line. Finally, I sprayed a line of white AutoAir around the blue tape to seal its edges. This ensures the next color does not bleed under the tape.

Finally, I sprayed blue on the frame to finish the color. I used the touch up gun for the main body of work, and followed up with the airbrush for the shoreline areas.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 4 - Preparation

2011-09-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

One of the things my uncle taught me was that a paint job is 95% prep work, and 5% spraying the paint.

So I started sanding down the frame. I started with 220 grit wet/dry paper. A tub of hot water with a little Dawn dishwashing soap to wet the paper in kept the paper from gumming up and becoming useless.

I hit the entire frame and spent extra time on all the problem areas. Wherever there was rust, I went all the way to bare metal.

This is a lot of work, especially on a bicycle frame. Cars are much easier in this respect.

The goal of this process is the level the surface and fix any chips or rusty spots.

After smoothing the frame and taking it down to a leveled surface, I shot a coat of primer.

At this point, I found a ton of flaws that had not been addressed the first time. So I sanded it down again to level and smooth those flaws. Then I primed again. Three more times this process flowed until I had a nice smooth surface to lay color on.

The final step of this section of the process was to lay the Auto Air Sealer. This is part of the Auto Air product and makes sure that the color base coat will adhere correctly to the frame. It comes in different shades, so I stuck with white to match the white coat of paint.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 3 Picking Paint

2011-09-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

The next detail I had to deal with was/is that I needed to pick some paint for the bike. Specifically, I needed to pick a brand and type to shoot.

I painted bicycles, motorcycles and cars when I was younger. I was lucky enough to learn to paint from my uncles. They are farmers and have made money painting cars, motorcycles and farm equipment for people during the winter after harvest. I was lucky enough to learn the process from them.

Things have changed since then though. When I learned, we used single stage paint. That is, you shot it, it was shiny and had the color. When it hardened, you polished it and it was shinier. Good stuff, but not great. These days, people shoot bicycles with urethane 2 stage paints. Paint a base coat of color and then lay down a shiny clear on top of it. The beauty of this is that the clear will seal down the stickers on the frame! The clear is also tough.

As I looked for products, my problem quite literally was volume. Paint vendors sell qty's to paint cars. Bicycles use very small volumes. Eventually I found TCP global. They sell small volumes to motorcycle customizers. Next up, I found Auto Air. This is a waterbased urethane airbrush paint that can be used for higher volume applications like motorcycle tanks and bicycle frames. Finally, I found their Kustom Klear. Shoots easily and mixes well in small volumes.

I decided to shoot the paint in a touch-up gun, and to use my trusty double action airbrush for touch up work. I've shot a lot with the airbrush and it works well. I've also shot a lot with large siphon automotive guns, but they don't do small volumes well, so I went with a gravity fed touch-up gun.

So there ya go. There is my paint and my equipment. I ended up using a standard primer, sanding papers as well as typical tapes of different types to mask the bike when ready.

My repair stand was also invaluble during the process.

Painting the CX Bike, Part 2

2011-09-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

So I posted below what the final product should look like When completed in the prevous post.

Here is what the bike looked like to start.

The bike did not look terrible before, but there were some issues with the original paint.

1. There were several rust spots on the frame where the paint had been rubbed away or chipped and rust had started to form. Not good on a CX bike, and something that is hard to stop once started.

2. The transfers on the frame were all coming off and looked pretty worn. 80's stickers were not the best quality.

3. I did not love the color of the frame, and it had a pearl clear coat on it which was peeling off in sheets in different places.

New Paint For the Cyclocross Bike

2011-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided a couple years ago that I wanted to re-paint my cyclocross bike. I'm now well into the process, but I thought I'd show some of the process here....

To start, I had to decide what I wanted the bike to look like. I pulled up BikeCad and had a go at putting together the paint scheme.

Here is the result......

Next up, I'll show some detail of the actual work......

177 Miles On A Vintage Bike

2011-09-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the annual Rock N Roll MS150 bicycle ride. The event goes from the Memphis, TN area to the Tunica MS casinos via a nice winding route. This was my 10th year participating in the event, and I've been lucky to be part of the ride committee for the past two years (not much participation on that team this year though).

My company sponsors our team, and even pays for jerseys for us to ride in. Pretty sweet deal! I also enjoy getting out and just riding for a whole weekend. Not training, Not racing, just riding.

So the weather for the weekend could not have been better. The temperature was perfect, the clouds were just enough to keep us from getting burnt, and the wind was pretty nice to us most of the time.

For this year, I elected to ride the Colnago Super I built this summer. At the beginning of the ride, I got a lot of looks from folks on carbon bikes. Their eyes said 'what is he doing out here with that old thing?'. Later in the ride, I started getting all sorts of comments from folks who really appreciated seeing a well maintained vintage bike. Over and over again, I told the story of finding it and the build. People were amazed that I had no trouble keeping up on a bike that was older than them.

The best compliment came when I pulled up along one of the LBS shop owners. As I rode up, he eyed the bike for a few hundred yards and said 'now that is a bike with class and character'. That made me feel real good.

One other fun detail of the weekend was day 1. On day one, they had an option for riding a century. I've never ridden a century in all my years riding (20+). Countless metric centuries, but never a regular Century. The weather was so good, I just had to go do it. I finished with a comfortable (not fast) time and headed to the banquet hall for some good food.

Day 2 was just as nice, but we only had a 75 mile option.

In the end, I rode 177 miles in two days. Definitely a personal record and one I'd like to duplicate next year.

CX Magazine

2011-09-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I've written pieces for other hobbies I've been part of. I like to pass on what I've learned over time and through experience. It can be really fun to pass these things on.

To that end, I got an opportunity to write for CX Magazine. Fun gig. I've had several small snippets published, and just had my first longer piece published.

Give it a read. I hope you like it!

Click here -->CX Magazine Ridley Article

Legend of Stanky Creek 2011

2011-08-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

So going into this one, I had high hopes. In 2010, I got on the podium, and my fitness this year is significantly better. I hoped that things would go well and I might get on the podium again.

Like last year, my plan was to get into the woods first and hold that until the woods tightened up and made it much harder to pass. To that end, I succeeded. I did end up letting Kiran (teammate) past about 1/2mile into the woods, He was just jumping behind me to pass and I know he's a lot stronger, so I let him by.

I stayed there in third for another 5 mins. Then I hit the same damn root which bit me last year. I hit the root and went down between two trees. Instantly 2-3 guys jumped past me in the woods and I never saw them again.

After getting back up and getting under way again, I hit it hard and rocked the big ring. I was doing well until about mile 7. I was going through some gravity cavities and trying not to catch air coming out the backside. Unfortunately, I misjudged one badly and overcooked the far side. I came out in the air and had not planned to. Needless to say, the landing was terrible. 3 more guys got past me as I caught my wind and straightened out the bike.

At that point, I remembered the admonishment my better half had given me "We're going on vacation next week, don't you dare go out there and get hurt!!!!". I figured I was now in 11th place and just rode the rest of the way in. I still passed several people from other categories, but was 11th in my cat.

The time sheet was interesting - I was 5 minutes faster than last year and could have been as much as 8 mins faster if I had not hit the dirt!

ShimSramNolo

2011-08-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at the Colnago and trying to figure out the gearing.... Every time I rode with my group, I was repeatedtly asking them to check what kind of speed we were holding. From their answers and what I could tell my cadence was, I knew something was not quite right.

I checked the cassette, which I thought was a 11-23 7sp and found it was actually a 13-23 7sp. If you plug those numbers into a gear calculator, the difference is quite large. Also the 13-52 that I was running when spun out is quite a bit short of the 11-50 I was spinning out on my plastic fantastic.

So I started digging in my stash of parts and managed to find a new SRAM 11-23 9sp cassette. This gave me the 11 I was looking for, and gives me a tighter range between ratios. Since I'm putting this on a 8-9-10 cassette body, it fits fine. The shifter just barely has enough cable pull to make it through the entire cassette, but it works.

This thing really needs a 9sp chain, so I'll be trying to lay my hands on one this week and hopefully it will work fine.

So I now have Campagnolo crank, rings, derailleurs and brakes running with Shimano hubs and chain and a SRAM cassette... ShimSramNolo!

Bare Legs.......

2011-08-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

I finally did it...... I started riding in '91. I started riding road about that time. That makes for around 20 years of riding the road, but.......... I've never shaved my legs. Until now.

Finally, this weekend, I broke down and did it. I got out the electric razor and buzzed off the majority. I then hit the shower and got out the razor and like that. It was done.

Feels wierd. Definitely not anything I'm used to.

Great Riding Bike!!!

2011-07-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Well, last week, I took the Colnago to my usual group ride out in Collierville. The usual suspects were there and they were ready to roll out hard. This group has been steadily getting up to about 20 to 21 mph and that pace is pretty hard for me....

The new bike definitely attracted attention. People were pretty impressed with its condition, and also with the fact I was going to ride it on the group ride.

We took off and I had no issues keeping up. My buddy Paul had warned me (from on board his Cervelo) that the downtube shifters would be an issue. They weren't. Frankly, I never once had an issue with shifting. I got 'the feel' of it quickly and had no issues whatsoever.

In the end, the thing that caused me the most trouble was the single bottle cage and its location. Its much lower than my other ride, so while reaching for my bottle, I managed to drop a bottle a mile from the finish and that kept me from finishing with the group.

Who says vintage bikes can't keep up with modern equipment!!!

Colnago Saronni completed!

2011-07-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

I finished up the ride this weekend. I finally received the NOS 3ttt handlebars and promptly installed them. Of course mating the 3ttt stem to the bars of the same vintage meant that it all went together really well. I elected for modern Deda bar wrap instead of going with something like Benotto cellotape, but I'm glad I did as its pretty comfortable.

Setting up the brakes did not take much work as they were pretty much ready to go, and setting up the levers went well as well.

I'm a lifelong weight weenie, so I had to put it on the scale. Complete weight, ready to ride is 20.5lbs exactly. Not at all bad for a piece of vintage iron! And this is significantly lighter than any of the downtube shifter bikes I rode back in the day.

As soon as the bike was finished, a friend stopped by and we went out for a ride. The ride was initially cut short as I had not tightened the rear quick release enough and the wheel shifted on a short climb while under power. 1/2 mile later, the drive side BB cup started backing out, so we headed back to the shop to re-tighten that and locktite the cup in place. I knew better and should have done that during the initial build...

After correcting those minor problems we took off again on a quick 30 mile ride. The ride is everything I expected. Stiffer than the bikes that I rode when I was younger, but still much more comfort than the alu and carbon bikes I've ridden for the past 10 years. It climbs well and the gearing is fine for our local roads. I purposely made the cockpit 1cm shorter than my modern bike and that is plenty comfortable.

This is my first Campag equipped bike and I really do love it. Everything is so solid and smooth. I've not ridden a downtube shifter equipped bike since the mid-90's, but I adapted very quickly and had no problems with the shifts.

The only two negatives involve the brakes.... I expected the brakes would have very little power, and I definitely got what I expected. I'm going to order some modern blocks to fit the holders and keep enjoying it. The other issue is the hoods and non-aero levers. I'll get used to them, but the cable housings definitely throw me off....

No doubt, she's a keeper!

Colnago Saronni Super

2011-07-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Closer to done now.

This weekend, I finished all the component polishing and detailing. For every part, I've completely disassembled the part, cleaned it completely, polished it with mag polish and then rebuilt with appropriate grease.

The result is very nice. I strung up the bike and got the shifters working nicely. Everything shifts beautifully, and I really can't wait to ride it. All I lack now is a set of handlebars. I managed to snag a set of NOS 3TTT bars for the bike to go with the 3TTT stem I have already on the bike. With some white tape, I think it will look pretty good.

One other interesting detail is that this really is a replica bike. Colnago built this as a replica of Giuseppe Saronni's winning bike. He was a two time Giro winner, as well as winner of the World Championships.

A friend on RoadBikeReview.com sent me this link with pictures of Saronni's actual bike.....

http://i-vol.com/bikes/83_colnago_super-saronni/saronni_colnago_83.jpg

Milestones........

2011-07-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've been in cycling a long time. 20 yrs of serious riding this year. I started on a lugged steel mtb with no suspension fork and suntour topmount index shifters.... My first time around, I got to be a pretty good mtb racer, and a reasonably good time trialist on the road.

I loved the sport and then walked away. Married life, new job, etc all got in the way. Many of us have gone through that.

When I got back on the bike seriously again 4 years ago, I went back to the group ride at my old shop. When I left the ride, I was leading the A group. When I came back, I could barely ride half the distance the A group rode, and at half the speed.......

This year, I've finally begun finishing with the A group again. Not every time, but many times. And last night, I hit a milestone of sorts in finishing the ride at 20.8mph average. I know that won't even get me through a cat5 race, but it was a great feeling. I hung with the fast guys on our group ride and felt great afterward. In spite of being dropped on a climb or two, I managed to ride myself back on to the group each time.

Last night was a great ride!

Bottom Brackets and the Wonders of the Internet......

2011-07-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

So, the only part missing from my group on my Super Record group was the bottom bracket. I've been watching Ebay to see what pops up, but the prices for a Super Record BB are pretty high.

I remembered that I grew up working with the local Campag dealer when I was a shop mechanic. He had closed his shop by then, but during the 80's and the Lemond era, he was the go to guy in my town for anything Italian. I called him to see if he had a BB, and after looking in his parts bin, he found one. He provided 3/16 bearings in the original Campag grease for the set as well. Perfect!

Well, not quite perfect. I installed the BB and there was absolutely no way it was going to be adjusted correctly. When the BB was tightened appropriately, it looked like it would fit a 64mm BB shell instead of the 70 that any Italian threaded bike would.

Enter http://www.velobase.com/ What do I find there, but the different BB's Campag sold over time, plus the bearing size used by each. Turns out many of them used 1/4" bearings instead of 3/16. That made for quite an easy fix. Now I just have to go find some 1/4 bearings.....

More Vintage Colnago Work.... and Quality

2011-07-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

This Saronni Colnago is my first true Italian bike. I owned a Bianchi as my first road bike, but that little beauty was actually built in Taiwan....... My new/old Colnago was definitely built by someone name like Giacomo or Giuseppe and it looks like it was. The brazing is perfect. The lugs are thin at the edges, but the edges are square and sharp.

The same thoughts apply to the Campagnolo Super Record Grouppo. I've owned Suntour, Shimano and Sram. All good products, but truly nothing compares to the quality of these Campagnolo parts. Everything is easy do disassemble, but strong and solid while assembled. The quality of the castings is absolutely flawless. There is also something about the design that portrays more art than engineering. The curves are not only functional, but beautiful at the same time.

To say I'm impressed with this bike so far is a pretty gross understatement.

As for progress on the bike, I have gotten some touchup paint which is a pretty close match to the red. I used it to touch up every nick in the frame. More to keep rust at bay than to make it look perfect. I also did the same with the frame transfers. I also pulled out some House Of Kolor paint and began painting in the cutouts in the fork crown. With those details cleaned up, it looks really nice.

I'll do the same tomorrow with cutouts in the frame lugs.

As for componentry, I pulled apart the front brake completely. After disassembly, I polished every part of chrome and alu and reassembled with fresh grease (very light film). The rebuilt caliper is definitely a thing of beauty!

Vintage Colnago Super

2011-07-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Months ago, I noticed a lonely red bike in a friends bike shop. I quickly recognized it as a mid-eighties Colnago but my friend was not selling. Unfortunately, his shop was not long lived, and he later moved on to work in another shop.

Sunday we met for a mtb ride at the local trail and I saw the frame in the back of his station wagon. I made a ridiculous(low) offer and amazingly he accepted.

Later that evening, I got a txt from him that he had a '74 Super Record group he was willing to sell. Another offer and he accepted again. The group is only missing the bottom bracket, freewheel and the top nut for the headset.

Searching the net and this forum for the past few days appears to say that the bike is an early/mid eighties Colnago Super. Pantographed chainstays, spool chainstay bridge, clover in the bottom bracket. Chainstays are chromed, but the headtube lugs are not.

Paint and decals are in good enough shape that I'm not going to paint it for now.

I have a few appropriate cockpit parts like a SanMarco saddle, campag post and proper 3ttt stem.

First Cyclocross Race Of 2011

2011-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

So today, I raced in the Tour De Cross Race 1 2011.

It was a really fun race, and a big improvement over their races last year. More entrants, and a significantly better course. While the course was/is not my kind of course, it was an excellent 'cross course. They extended it to .9miles and reduced the number of barriers a bit.

I was still in the back half of the field, but we had a good time. More of my Journeymen team showed up as well as a few other clubs.

The other cool thing about the race is that it was the first race for my ridin' buddy Jacob. He's been riding MTB with us for a couple years now and has improved significantly in that time. He's wanted to do a race all that time, and this was his first. As the winner, Brad, stated 'he picked a damn tough race as his first bicycle race. Good job Jacob!

My 2010 Season Summary

2011-01-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

So 3 years ago, I wanted to get back on the bike for some fitness. I needed to lose 60lbs+ and did all of that.

Then I decided to hit a race or two last year.... Oh boy....

So here is the rundown:

Tour de Cross 1 - Third
Tour de Cross 2 - Third
Tour de Cross 3 - Fourth
Tour de Cross 4 - Fourth
Tour De Wolf - Bottom half of 150 people.....
Syllamo's Revenge - Cut at the halfway point (25 of 50miles)
Legend of Stanky Creek - 2nd in Age Group, Top 5 in Beginner
6 Hours of Herb Parsons - 8th in Team (great partner, Ken Graham)
Cyclocrunk 1 - Middle of 80 or so riders
Cyclocrunk 2 - DNF
Cyclocrunk 3 - Middle of 80 or so riders
SpookyCross 1 - 4th from last
SpookyCross 2 - 6th from last
OutDoors Inc CX Champs - 2nd in age group, 5th in Masters
Cross The Way - 5th from last

Looking back on these, there is a pattern for me. Faster smoother courses are definitely more my forte. The OICX race and Herbs were probably my best performances of the year, (along with Stanky). Those courses are generally faster and smoother though still technical. They also did not have much in the way of hills.

The courses I did really poorly on had either significant hills or a lot of extreme speed changes....

So for the MTB this year, I'm going with Disc brakes, and I've got a goal of losing more weight to help with the climbs. Those two things should be good.

2010 was an agressive year for me. Much more agressive than I anticipated, but it was fun!

15 races in 2010 - How many in 2011

Cross The Way #4

2010-12-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

So Amy and I headed to Nashville for the weekend. We shopped all day, ate dinner at Pucketts and saw some great live music.

The next morning, we awoke to 14 degree weather and snow blowing everywhere.

The race was in Galatin, north of Nashvegas and was out on Lock 4 state park. I raced there years ago on a mountainbike and did really well there. Unfortunately, things have changed..... LOL

The race itself was out on the peninsula which makes up Lock 4. Amazingly enough the actual peninsula is really hilly. The course itself was up and down the ridge that makes the peninsula, and had a bunch of seriously off camber hills and turns to take. Amazingly I made it through all of them even though I did not get to pre-ride the course.

Unfortunately toward the end, I was really draggin.... Wrong dinner the night before, tired and too doggone cold!!! Top that off with the fact that it was not my kind of course, and it made for a rough race. At the end, I noticed that my rear wheel was really dragging. It was completely clogged with frozen mud and leaves and the rear wheel was not really turning at all.

I had a great time and will go do this race again, but I'll be better prepared next time too!!!

Outdoors Inc Cyclocross Championships 2010

2010-11-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

Another race I look forward to every year. I did this race for the first time probably 16+yrs ago.

So this year, I was excited, but not sure how I'd fare. I showed up this morning and proceded to do a couple warm up laps to feel out the course. Fast as usual for this event. The course was/is on Mud Island and sits right on the Mississippi riverfront. There was one hill which I was able to ride up, but most people were running it. After that, there was a stair runup, a set of two standard barriers on a short hill, and 3 large river driftwood logs on the main straightaway to cut the speed down a bit.

When I went to register, I started to register CX4 as I had earlier this year. The registration people asked if I'd rather ride in Masters Men 35+? I told them I was not old enough for Masters and they quickly set me straight that I was...... great, I'm officially getting old per USAC. So Masters it was. The other bonus was that prizes went fairly deep in Masters.

Lining up on the start line, I recognized all but one of the Masters racers. We hit the course and I actually got a pretty good start. CX4, all Masters and SS started together as part of the B race. Big crowd, but most of the CX4's pulled away pretty quickly. I continued on and had the lead in Masters for approx half a lap. Then the unknown person pulled ahead followed by a guy who beat me here last year.

After that, I held my position and actually started to pull back a number of the CX4's. My dismounts and runs were really going well and I was flying through the barriers faster than I thought I could. I even rode the steep hill on the last lap that everyone else (mostly) was running.

I ended up 3rd in Masters 35+, and beat all but one of the Masters 45+ guys, as well as maybe 1/4th of the CX4 field. To top all of that, Boomer only lapped me once..... (he lapped me 3 times 3 years ago!!)

Was a really fun race and I look forward to next year.

Next on the calendar is the Lock4 Cross-The-Way race in December. I don't think I can make it to the Jonesboro race the last weekend in November.

SpookyCross Race #1

2010-11-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Spooky Cross 2010

2010-11-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

This race was/is a great addition to the Mid-South cyclocross racing scene.

It took place in the Shelby Farms Ampitheather. The venue is a natural ampitheater in the nation's largest urban park. The course had a brutal runup through the ampitheater, followed by a nice singletrack ride, a gravel road, a paved path, and finally into a taped off grass field with some painful climbing involved.

That grassy area with the climbing is definitely not my kind of course... LOL

Day one opened with warm breezes and a hard packed course. No mud to be seen anywhere. I arrived early and pre-rode the course a few times. Very easy to figure out once on it. The organizers made a few areas even a bit more clear after I gave them some feedback.

The CX4 race was grouped in with the Masters, SS and Women riders. Made for a big group! One heckuva mass start.

The race progressed, and I slowly fell back from the field. I just was not feeling it in the legs. They were stiff and had no snap. Thats pretty much how the race finished for me.

The big positive for this race was that my wife and daughter were there. This is the first race my little girl has seen me in, and having her there with my wife clanging away with the cowbells I bought them made it an awesome day!

Day two started very cold. Mid-40's were the name of the game, and the course was the same with only a few of the barriers moved for variety. Something was definitely clicking more precisely, as I was really getting my dismounts under control and getting some pretty good speed on the runs.

In the end, I finished pretty much the same Sunday as Saturday. I did feel a lot better though!

I already look forward to this race next year. I know it will be a good time again. Kudos to the organizers - they did a really good job!

Cyclocrunk 2010 #3 - Mud

2010-10-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, rain fell in Memphis like it had not done in 3-4 months. That guaranteed a muddy and wet race for Tuesday night.

I ate mud hard in the first 180 turn corner when I washed my front wheel. That let a bunch of people past me that I really would have liked to stay with. After getting up, straightening my bars and putting the chain back on, I got moving again.

By the end of the race, I was getting pretty drained but I had reeled in a few people that I had hoped to.

I crossed the line dizzy from the effort and absolutely covered in mud. It was a great night!!!!

A huge thanks to Joel, Robert and Mike for putting on a great series. I look forward to this every year, and it lived up to expectations this year like the rest.

Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance.....

2010-10-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

Managed to get some maintenance in today....

First up, I pulled the broken spoke from my Sugar's rear wheel (broke at the 6hrs of Herbs) and headed to Bike World. My luck, they had just the right spoke length in the right grade and it was even in black!

Back home in the shop, I pulled the cassette, weaved the spoke in and threaded up the nipple. Managed to get the wheel trued and back in good shape without even pulling the tire (its tubeless and I did not want to make a big mess.....)

Next up, I cleaned up the CX bike from the last race. I ran the wrong chain lub considering the sand that was on the course, and needed to clean the thing completely. Once clean, I decided to cut the glue globs from the rear tire. Cleaned up really nice. At least it doesn't look as bad as it did look.

While I was working on the CX bike, I put a cassette on my backup wheels in the hope that I can use them tomorrow to take my daughter for a trailer ride.

Finally came my road bike. On my last ride, the bottom bracket had started to make some noise. Its a Token Ti spindle bottom bracket... with several thousand miles on it. It was pretty difficult to remove and that worried me a bit.... When I went to reinstall it, it was extremely hard to install. Eventually, it would not turn at all. I soaked it in some thread penetrant and began pulling it out. The threads on the cup holder were stripped almost half way out...... luckily only one thread on the bike was rounded off.

I looked in my junk box and found an older FSA bb that matched and still felt like it had good bearings. Luckily it went right back in after cleaning out the threads in the bike with solvent and a brush. I reinstalled the cranks and tightened the chainrings while I was at it.

Lotsa work, but they are all in good shape again and ready to ride.

Cyclocrunk 2010 #2.....

2010-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I just was not 'crunk' Tuesday night.

Great evening. Rained just enough during the day to drop the temp comfortably, and to knock down the dust.

The course was the same except they double the distance of the runs on the barriers, and they doubled the length of the sand pit.

I left work very late and pulled up to the race with just enough time to dress and ride a couple practice laps. Alas, it was not to be. I had some pretty good dismounts going, but I just plain could not run. Felt like I had lead in my shoes, so every dismount just knocked me flat.

After 5 laps, I pulled off the course and took my helmet off to watch. To my amazement, as I rolled up to one of the spectator areas, I was standing there with 5 other riders who had pulled out. I guess I was not the only one who DNF'ed......

Next week will be better.

6 Hours of Herb 2010

2010-10-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the 6 Hours of Herbs out at Herb Parsons Lake in Fisherville, TN. I grew up riding at Herb Parsons, and racing there from 1991 on. I love that trail, and I know it like the back of my hand.

In 2009, I missed the race because I was in Singapore. Long transit to make it to a race......

This year, I was ready. I made plans early to make sure there were no conflicts of any kind and then started practicing at Herbs. The race when finally announced was set to run clockwise around the lake. This is backwards of what most of us ride the trail, so we started practicing that way. After 2 months of clockwise riding, it was announced (the week before the race) that it would be run counter clockwise!!!! Surprise surprise!!!!

Somewhere in there, my buddy Ken mentioned he wanted a teammate. We're pretty evenly matched, and he's a great guy, so we had a team.

Race day arrived, and it was 43 degrees at the racecourse. Myself and the rest of my Journeymen Racing Team hit the site and managed to set up camp with a great pit area right by the start/finish line.

Ken and I decided to flip for the first lap and he won. That was good news for me, because I'm not a runner, and this race had a 100 yard run to a Lemans style start!

Ken rocked the first lap, and we had a great start.

I jumped hard at the start line and took off on my first lap. In that lap, I passed approx 15 people as I pushed hard around the course. Everything went perfectly for that lap. Kens 2nd and my 2nd were also great laps as we were consistently putting up fast lap times. We were also pushing the other Journeymen 2 man team of Zach/Kurt and leading them by approx 5 mins.

Ken's third lap went well, and the handoff was fast, so I sailed into my 3rd lap with a lot of confidence........ and a full bladder. I listened behind me for any other riders and there was no one near me, so I slid to a stop, unclicked one foot and watered the trail.... Phil Ligget would call that a Natural Break I guess.

2 Miles later, everything started to come undone. I heard some tinking from my back wheel and felt the bike jump a couple times under me. I stopped immediately and thought a stick would be in my spokes. 3 or 4 people passed me that I had just passed and I felt like an idiot. Then I saw the trouble... One broken drive-side spoke. To make matters worse, the stub of that spoke jammed into the back of the cassette and made my bike a fixed gear!

I finished the 2nd half of that 9 mile lap in fixed gear mode. When I got done with the lap, we still held a 4-5 gap on the next two teams. I'm glad I did not give up. Once in the pits, I found that the rear wheel was taco'ed enough to make the rear brakes rub a lot. No wonder my legs were burnt up.

With the Sugar out of commission, I pulled the cyclocross bike from the truck and aired up the tires. I had thrown the bike in the back as an afterthought. Turned out to be a good thought!

Unfortunately, I was not paying attention and Ken came flying into the pits early. He turned a great lap and I was not ready. As he hit the finish line, I managed to get my helmet on and the bike out of the repair stand. As I ripped onto the course, I could hear someone say 'Is he riding a road bike?'. I got a good laugh out of that.

In my hurry to get on the course, I did not get on my jersey, nor did I get my gloves on. However, that was all negated by the ability to freewheel! I rode the course just like I did all last summer on the cross bike and enjoyed everyminute of it. Zach and Darren from the two other teams were right there ready to start when I left for this lap, so I kept looking over my shoulder continually to see if they'd appear out of no where.

All my shoulder looking was no use though, as I rode into the finish with a hard sprint. When I got back to the finish line, a bunch of the fast racers asked if I had ridden that thing in the race and I told them I had. I think they were a little surprised.

In the end, Ken and I did not win, but we had a good time and I think we were in the top half of the teams in the race, maybe even the top 5.

'Til next year!

Cyclocrunk 2010 -1

2010-10-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Cyclocrunk 2010 -1 First CX Race Of The Year

2010-10-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Cyclocrunk is always fun. It is raw energy, it is fast, it is dark, it is dusty.......... You get the image.

For this year, I really worked on my fitness and my technique. I think I succeeded somewhat on both. At the race last night, we had approx 80 riders there. All cats were run together, and no placing was given. The only way to know how you do is to watch the other riders around you.

On the start, I made out pretty well. I was probably the 15th into the first section of barriers. Halfway through the first lap, most of the CX1 and CX2's I know had pulled past me and I settled into a group made up of friends that I know were CX3 and CX4. I continued on and rolled as hard as I could.

Through the barrier and sand sections, I made time on a lot of people. There were people that would gap me on the bike and I would pull them back on the barriers. That makes me think my skills practice was worth it late this past summer. I also did lightyears better on the bike this year than in past years. I'm not saying I'm Sven Nys or anything, but I'm definitely faster than I was in past years.
My new wheels also were the bomb! They were stiff and absolutely rocked on the off camber stuff. The Grifo and Fango gripped well, and I'm getting comfortable with the feel of the tubies through different terrain.

I know it sounds cliche, but I had a good time, and thats really what matters......

Ready to Race!!

2010-10-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe not quite ready, but it looks like its ready......

Time to get out the tubular glue....

New Wheels!!!!!!

2010-09-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, I've finished my new wheels. Wayyyy too much time to get these things built, but finally they are done.

They are 50mm deep carbon rims laced to OffTheFront Racing hubs via Sapim spokes and nipples. They were/are my first deep dish rims, my first carbon rims, and my first tubular wheels.

As built, the set weighs 1290 grams. With them shod with Challenge Fango and Grifo, my CX ride now weighs in at just over 18.7 lbs. Thats a drop of almost 2lbs off my shoulder during the races, and gives me mucho better traction.

The project started with a 'group buy' on the Weight Weenies website. I ended up buying the 50mm tubulars from the vendor in Taiwan. Unfortunately, they took absolutely forever to get here. Apparent quality issues at the manufacturer prevented them from shipping. However, they did get here, and the quality is great.

Next issue was spokes. I had trouble finding them, but eventually settled on Sapim Laser for the front spokes and Sapim Race for the rear. Sapim alu nipples anodized red tie everything together.

My wheelbuilding friend Chris suggested that I build the wheels with nipple washers to spread the load inside the rimbed. That proved to be a bit of a problem. Because I used Sapim spokes and nipples, I decided to use Sapim Nipple Washers. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they were obviously not going to fit....... Wayyy too big. I looked at several opportunities to use locally available 'hardware store' washers, but none would fit..... They also were not really the right 'conical' shape that I needed.

Finally, I elected to order Pillar nipple washers from BDOP cycling in Taiwan. Do all bike parts now originate in Taiwan? They arrived, and they fit perfectly.

The wheels laced up very nicely and tensioned up well. I got them within approx .012" of true right off the bat and same for roundness.

With all that done, the tires are now stretching on the rims with the hope of gluing them up this weekend. I guess its time to get sticky.....

More 'Cross Season Preparation

2010-09-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday, I went out after work and got in an hour of practice. I did dismount/remount repetitions in a local school yard for half an hour, then I did 15 mins of intervals. Was good fun and felt good to be throwing my leg over the bike again. Unfortunately, I have that derned stutter step again that I had finally gotten rid of. I guess more practice is necessary.

Then today, I put in 28 miles at Herb Parsons on the full-susser and tried to get myself ready for the 6 hours of Herb MTB race. Good fun and I felt really good ripping the course.

Finally, I came home and washed all my rides. After washing them, I pulled the headset out of the Labadie CX, cleaned it and re-installed it with extra grease. Nice and quiet now. After finishing that, I pulled all the brakes and greased all the posts. Finally, I waxed the whole bike and shined it up. Now if I can only get the wheels built and the tires glued on, I'll be truly ready.......

More Cyclocross Bike Prep.....

2010-09-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

When I built my current CX bike, I built it with parts I had on hand and parts I could get a bargain on. To that end, I had some crappy old Shimano psuedo aero levers for braking and some cheap KORE bars I got for a song off Ebay.

Unfortunately, this cheap setup had some serious drawbacks.... Number one, the bars were reverse radius ergo bars, and they were extremely deep drop. Frankly, at my age, deep drop bars are useless, and I just could not get into the drops comfortably. Number two, I hate ergo bars... they just suck.

The levers were another problem. The interface between the bars and the levers created a deep 'saddle'. This saddle basically caused me to hang from my thumbs when on the hoods. It was/is painful. On top of that, the hoods were old and coming apart.

Luck struck today out of the blue... While riding with my buddy Bill, he mentioned he had some stuff he wanted to sell and was about to put a bunch on the local cycling website. When we got back, he had a set of used Cane Creek singlespeed aero levers. These are the Campag copies and have a great shape to them. He also had a set of classic bend, shallow drop no-name bars. I got all of that for a twenty.

The new bars coupled with the new left brake lever (right is a DA9) makes for a much better position and much more comfortable hand positions. I have no idea of weight, but they are so much more comfortable, I'm not sure weight matters. Now for some new bar tape!!!

MS150 2010

2010-09-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

This year was my 8th time to participate in the MS150. I've enjoyed every one of them, but all for different reasons.

My ride this year was good because I had some friends that stayed with me the entire time. I'm by no means slow, I always finish the ride in the front 20% or so. However, most of my friends are very fast, in fact my buddy JR was the 5th person to finish 2 years ago (out of 600+ riders)

So this year, JR had an injury, and he thought it was a good idea to hold back and ride with me. That worked out well for both of us.

Day 1 was excellent in the morning, but rained the last 45 mins or so. I had planned to do the century on day 1, but with the rain and JR's injury, we decided to save some for Sunday. We maintained a good pace and finished before 1 o'clock.

Day 2 started with a little wind, but it was mostly at our back for the first 2 hours. We had one section where we were averaging 23mph with little effort in the group. Unfortunately, I lost contact with the group approx 2 miles from 'the Wall'. When I hit the Wall, it hurt, but I made it up in pretty good fashion.

We carried on from there, and at lunch, I was ready to roll, but the rest were not. I told them they'd surely catch me really quickly, so I set out on my own. I quickly got in a small group and rolled along at around 22mph for quite a while. When we got back into the hills, I slowed again, but kept on.

I stayed away for well over an hour. When they finally caught me, Adam stayed with me and JR rode on to the finish with a faster group.

We finished at a good time in the afternoon and ate a good meal of BBQ while listening to a rock band that was wayyyyyyyyyyyy too loud.

All in all, it was a great time. I look forward to next year

Time to get ready for Cross Season!!!!!

2010-09-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

For this year, I've decided to put my all into Cross season. I lost most of the MTB season to my injury, and did not even get to do many road rides because of my injuries.

Now with everything healing well, I'm ready for the leaves to change and the course to muddy up.

Equipment-wise, I'm running my Labadie Cyclocross bike. No need for anything new as it works well. I think it has character as well. I'm also going to stick to geared 1x9 for a while. The setup I have on there shifts better than any other bike I own. Its really good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Wheel and tires however, I'm stepping up, and I'm stepping up big time!!! Its finally time to go tubular!!!!

I'm building up a set of 50mm carbon tubular rims on OffTheFront hubs and shoe-ing them with a Challenge Fango on the front and a Grifo in the rear.

This setup should chew 31ounces (almost 2 whole pounds) from my current clincher setup, while also providing significant improvements in handling from the lower tire pressures that are possible with tubulars....

These wheels really appeal to the gearhead and weightweenie inside of me. The lacing you see is just a temporary lacing of the wheels, as I am still short the rim washers necesary to build these things right. They should be here by early October, hopefully in time for me to build them up and have them ready for the first or second race.

Oh yeah..... one other detail - I'm building these for 1/5 the cost of a set of Zipps......

Legened of Stanky Creek

2010-08-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

This race has been approaching in my mind, and one I really wanted to do well at. My Journeymen Racing team has been planning to hit this race in force, and we did just that.

I missed the TT on day one, but the team hit it and podium'ed in pretty much every class. It was a hot day for all involved, especially my friends in the lower classes. Because of the volume of riders, the start times kept getting pushed back later and later, and so everyone just sat there in the heat.

Sunday arrived, and I was ready to rock. Someone forgot to turn off the heat though. The result was the hottest weekend in Memphis in a very long time.

Part of the reason I'd been thinking so much about this race was my result last year of DFL!!!!!! I did not want to do that again. The other reason was that the race would be my 2nd ride on a mountain bike since my road wreck back in May. However, I felt pretty good, so I was hopeful.

My cat was down on numbers because several of the guys had moved to cat2. Out of that group, Brad broke a chain, Bill ate it hard in a corner and retired, and Billy kicked but and finished on the podium. Unfortunately, in the process, Billy broke a custom titanium 29'er frame at the bottom bracket!!!!

The race started and I hit the woods in 2nd place. 1st place rapidly dissappeared off the front and down the trail. By 1 mile in, I could not even see him further up the course - time to cat up bro!! 3rd place was on my wheel hard by 2 miles in, and I decided to give him the trail. I kept on, thinking I was still on the podium, but down a place.... It felt bad. Then, at mile 4, I saw 2nd place standing in the middle of the trail fussing with his bike.

I stopped and asked what was up (makin sure he was not hurt) and found his seat falling off the post. I offered him my mini-tool and watched him start to fix his bike, then all of a sudden it hit me- I did not have to stay there. So I said "Ya know what, I'm gonna ride on to the finish. C ya there!" I took off. That gave me a significant boost.

At mile 6, Ken caught me. He was in the age group above me, so I really did not want him to beat me!!!! I rode his wheel for a while until the fire road. When we hit the fire road, he stopped at the water station and I flew by. Within 10 mins, I had pulled almost a mile on him. I was burning up the trail and going as hard as possible.

At the finish, I pulled out a wild sprint and came across the line with dust flying everywhere... Of course, no one was around me...... LOL. It was fun though.

I came home with my first podium in a race in over 12 years. I even have a medal to show for my efforts.........

Le Tour De France

2010-07-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

In the eighties, Greg Lemond began his meteoric rise in popularity in the cycling world and in the US in general. He popularized cycling in a country which ignored any sport which did not involve a ball. Instantly, the feuds, the drama, the pain and the suffering of cycling filled the radar screens of many Americans including myself.

Over the next few years, I became addicted. I began to ride and even race. I watched the Tour as it came on television each July. Velonews and other cycling magazines sat well worn in piles all over my room. Within a few years, I was a mechanic in a shop and was racing in road, mtn and cyclocross.

I was in highschool during this time, and was making important decisions about my future. Though I did not know how important those decisions were at the time, I think they had a very profound effect on my future.

One of the decisions I was faced with was what language to take in school. As a huge cycling fan, I opted for French. I decided that one day in the future, I would go to France to see Le Tour in person. I figured learning French would make the trip more enjoyable and more comfortable.

In my first French class, a cute blue-eyed brunette caught my eye. Now 18 years later, she is my wife, my best friend and mother of my beautiful daughter.

I love to look back and find the decisions that brought me to where I am in my life. I love to dig back in my own thoughts and find the point where my life took the turn that made life what it is for me now.

Cycling has improved my health, my spirit, and my relationships. It is an integral part of my life and will always have a place in my heart. Most importantly, it has given me my best friend!

Back In The Saddle

2010-07-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back on the bike finally. Was just short of 6 weeks ago that I broke my wrist (right), collarbone (left) and dislocated my shoulder (left).

In total, the left shoulder is fine. I feel the collarbone on occasion, and cannot lift anything heavy, but overall, its getting better. I guess I just have a new barometer!

Right wrist has been the problem. Pain from the break, as well as stiffness from it being immobilized. I definitely have less mobility with the joint now, so I guess the question is how much will I get back over time.

I think I'm going to wrap my bars with some seriously thick bar tape as well as putting a gel base under it. That should help with the wrist.

So what goals do I have for the late summer and fall?

6 Hours of Herb Parsons
Stanky Creek TT and CC
Tour De Cross 4 race cross series
Mud Island Cyclocross champs

Should be a fun time!

Back in the Saddle Again!

2010-07-18T14:49:00.001-07:00

MRI's

2010-06-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

I spent today having a very large needle stuck into my shoulder. Injections of contrast dye into the joint capsule are no fun. Then as the radiologist is putting the needle in, he comments "did you know your collarbone is broken?"

Kinda like the punchline to a bad joke.

Broken Wrist
Dislocated Shoulder
Broken Collarbone

Injuries Stink Continued

2010-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally home from the doctors office.

The first doctor said that I'd definitely dislocated my left shoulder, but was in pretty good shape other than that. He referred me to an orthopaedic specialist.

The ortho had worse news. I definitely dislocated my left shoulder, but my right wrist is also broken! On top of that, I have to come back in for an MRI on my shoulder to see what I really damaged.

Minimum of 4 weeks off the bike. Can't take a bath (cast can't get wet). Can't pick up my daughter!!!

Injuries really do stink.

Injuries Stink

2010-06-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

So, I decide that I've not spent enough time on the road bike as of late. I've had a lot of fun on the MTB and really gotten pretty fast on it. Unfortunately my road riding has suffered and I'm just not as fast as I want on the road right now.

I decided to hit my weekly haunt from the previous summer and do the Bike World ride. The ride really has become a bunch of tri-guys hammering out there, but its still a reasonably fast ride to hit and I have a few friends on it.

As we took off, I felt great and was actually leading for a bit. I soon dropped back as I'd overdone it a bit. I hid mid-pack to catch my breath and hope to have an opportunity to stay with the group. Not much later, I managed to blip the bars a bit and went off roading at 26mph. The rough Mississippi road shoulder gravel threatened to throw me, but I managed to stay upright!!! One victory, but it would be short lived.

The group gathered up at a stop sign and a few friends commented on how my cyclocross skills must have helped me. We took off again and headed for the house at a good clip. We were maintaining around 25mph but the group was getting a bit squirrelly.

Then, in an instant, everything went black. The black I was seeing was the pavement. The rider in front of me hit is brakes or slowed a bit, and I overlapped his wheel. It was my fault for following someone I did not know that closely.

I hit my head hard (helmet on of course) then hit my shoulder and my right hand. My back is covered in road rash and my bike looks like shit.

When I hit the ground, I was avg'ing 20mph for the ride - I guess I was going better than I thought!!!!!

Jolly Ole England....

2010-05-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

My job takes me to some interesting places.....

So this week was Jolly Ole England, particularly the 'Midlands'.

I love this bike rack I found......

13th Century church that was across the street from my hotel.

More of that same beautiful church.

I will get back there sometime soon - I hope.

More Velodrome Madness!!!!!

2010-05-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

So today, I got a new job!!!!! This new job is the reason I was in Minnesota. Cool thing is that my new workplace is 4 miles down the road from the National Sports Center Velodrome. I hope this fact gives me some opportunities to get some track time.

To celebrate, I decided to go out and catch 'Thursday Night Lights'.

The racing was really fun to watch. They had everyone from Cat 1's to 5's, and they did a wide variety of the different kinds of races. I really enjoyed watching the 'miss and out's'.

Velodrome Madness!!!!

2010-05-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

I found out a while back that I'd be tavelling to MN a fair bit in the coming months.

When I got there, a buddy showed me something I did not even realize was there - A Velodrome!!!!

I made plans immediately to go and give it a try. I scheduled my flight so I could head straight to the 'drome as soon as I landed. Things worked out perfectly, and by 4pm, I was getting basic velodrome training from the track manager.

By the end of the evening, I was ripping around the velodrome on a rented GT track bike. To say it was incredibly fun is a gross understatement.

Syllamo's Revenge Update

2010-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Simple update, but it is sure something that made me feel better.

The race had 350 entrants. The field was limited to that size.

I expected that many people would drop out based on the difficulty of the race. In the end, 45% of the entrants dropped out of the race. Basically, I was 1 of 162 people who dropped out of the race.

Syllamo's Revenge 2010

2010-05-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Syllamo's Revenge 2010

Wow.... what can I say? The trail is rated by IMBA as one of the 5 'epic' trails in the US. It definitely lived up to expectations on that scale.

Getting ready for the weekend had been very difficult. The Sunday before the race, the rear triangle on my Sugar began to crack (see previous post). I found it on a pre-race hill climbing adventure with Bill and Adam from the team. Needless to say I freaked out. In the end, I got very lucky and was able to get the bike rideable again.

Moving forward to Friday, Bill and Brad picked me up at the house and we hustled to Syllamo. Brad made a few navigational mistakes and that caused us to take an hour longer to get there than it should have, but I got to see parts of AR that I've not seen in a few years.

When we arrived, Charles and Shawn were already at the cabin, enjoying the stream down below. The cabin belongs to a friend of ours and we rent it for a very agreeable fee. It sits on a hillside overlooking a beautiful rocky creekside bluff. Needless to say, it was a helluva lot nicer than staying in a tent!

After checkin' the place out, we headed out to the trailhead to take on the first 5 miles of the racecourse as a pre-ride. The first climb of the race is extremely tough fire-road riding about a mile long. I rode it but was absolutely dying when I got to the top! We bombed on through the rest of what is effectively the blue trail. Rock garden after rock garden passed and made for extremely slick and technical riding.

At one point, I came up on Billy and Shawn standing in the trail. The were hurling rocks off the trail at something and yelling to stand back. Shawn had ridden up on a 6ft rattlesnake sunning itself on the course!!!!!! Definitely an interesting experience. The rest of the ride was fun but extremely technical and was brutal in the way it pounded us.

When we finished the pre-ride, we headed back to the cabin where I worked on Charles and my bikes and Brad cooked us a killer pasta dinner. That was definitely one of the better pre-race meals I've ever had.

After dinner, heavy weather rolled in and rocked the cabin with rain and heavy winds. Tornado warnings rattled off the staticky radio, but we did not know which county we were actually in, so we were unsure if the tornados were near or far. Regardless of their location, we all ended up sleeping in one room in the hopes that the room was safer than the room above.

We fell asleep listening to the rain and wind, and predicting how scary the course was going to be.
We awoke to sun and warm temps. It was muggy, but I figure that area is always muggy in the mornings during this time of year.

At the park, we started getting everything ready for the race. Numbers on the bikes, food in the pockets and full camelbacks.

Amazingly, after the start gun fired, I made it to the fire road climb in really good position. Unfortunately, I threw most of that away on the climb as people passed me by. I rolled on into the singletrack, but was repeatedly held up on descents as less skill riders made their way down. Basically, I got caught in a pack of people with OK climbing skills and poor descending skills, which is the opposite of myself. I can go downhill quickly, but climb like a homesick rock.

To say the course was technical and tough was/is a gross understatement. Rock gardens came every couple hundred yards and a large number of them were totally unrideable for all but the pros. I walked as much as I rode in many cases. By the time I got to these sections, the rocks were covered with the slime and mud from 200 riders feet and tires and turned them into greasy limestone plates with broken edges just waiting to rip our skin open.....

By mile 12 or so, I was out of water and starting to really drag. So many people had passed me that I really did not know where I was. I heard from one guy who passed me that the sweepers were not far behind me and that really crushed my spirits. Soon enough, I hit the first aid station (which really was wayyyy into the course) and promptly turned onto the green loop. At the top of the green loop, you are given the chance that not many people have had in seeing a wonderful view of the White river and the valley through which it flows.

Unfortunately, when I finished the green, no one was there. The whole aid station had been packed up and there was no food, no water, not even a sign telling you where to go. IMO, that completely sucks. They saw me and 10 others enter the green course and they just pulled out and left!!! I waited there for a while and eventually caught a pick-up truck ride back to the campground. With no water or food, it would have been foolish to continue on and ride.

I'm dissappointed in myself for quitting. It may not have been a bad decision in retrospect, as I know I would have missed the last cutoff by almost an hour. I guess there is just something about DNF'ing a race that gets to me mentally.

Next year, if things work out right, I'll be there again and will do my best to complete the entire course.

DNF'ing aside, I enjoyed the trip. It was good to get out with the team and shoot the bull.

Broken Sugar

2010-04-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well, its the week before Syllamo, and my bike is broken.... seriously broken. I cracked my rear triangle and have a real mess on my hands....

Thankfully, I called around and by a stroke of luck, my buddy Aaron at Outdoors has a rear triangle for my bike........

After bringing it home, it fits perfectly and everything works like it should. I'm back on the horse.......

Stealth Bike

2010-03-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

Had a good looking bike in my shop this evening. A Cervelo Soloist in anodized black. Whole thing is either anodized alu black or 3k carbon.

This black beauty belongs to my buddy JR. He's a top level amateur triathlete in my area, and a good friend.

So this evening I took some time to trim the steerer down. I also trued up his wheels and adjusted the brakes........ Last year, I installed some KCNC brakes, a KCNC cassette and the Neuvation tubular carbon wheels. A very nice setup.

Anyway, I think its a good lookin ride.....

A Double Competition Day....

2010-03-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

I started racing in 1991. First on mountainbikes, then on the road, and finally cyclocross as well. I even did some duathlons back then, but usually I stuck to the riding portion and let someone else cover the run. When it really comes down to it, I hate running.

I understand why people enjoy it. They get the same feeling from it that a cyclist gets from riding his or her bike. However, I don't personally get that feeling when running - really I usually only feel pain.

So this weekend, I did two events, and amazingly they both include both running and cycling - The 2010 Wolfman Duathlon and the Tour De Cross #4.

For the Wolfman, my goal was to beat my run time from last year. While I really did poorly in the event, I did manage to beat last year's run time of 36 mins. I'm guessing I ran it in approx 31 mins. I really enjoyed the finish, as the entire team ran on to the course to finish with me. Very cool.

I was really proud of the team as we won approx 25% of the hardware - 3 category wins and one 2nd place for the mixed pair trophy.

After going home, getting some lunch and some dry clothes, I headed to Olive Branch for the last race of the Tour De Cross Cyclocross series.

I was tired when I got there, but I really did not realize how tired I was. Spectators told me that both myself and Billy W. (the other guy who did both events) went from blazing fast at the start to an absolute crawl at the first barrier. I finished the race and only managed to go over the bars one time.......

The series was really enjoyable! I hope more people come out to race it in the future editions. My dismount and remount skills increased substantially. My fitness increased somewhat. Mostly I had a good time.

Tour De Cross Race #3 - Real Cross Weather!

2010-03-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

The Tour De Cross #3 Cyclocross race was today. This race series has been at an unusual time of the year for cyclocross, and as a result, we've had some unusual cyclocross weather.......

First race was warm and dry. Warm might not go far enough.... Rarely have I had sweat pour from my brain bucket after a cross race, but at that one, I did......

Second race was relatively warm, and only a little muddy. Kinda like an early season race.

Third race was real cyclocross racing..... We took the start line with the rain having just stopped. The temperature was a whopping 40 degrees..... and the course was an absolute swamp!

This really seemed more like a classic cyclocross race. Corners were sketchy, water standing all over the place. On the first lap (right after this picture was taken), I managed to take that little near 180 turn and lay it down. The following roll in the mud, or maybe it was a slide, really took the piss out of me. At that point, I realized quickly I'd take nothing but DFL, so I backed it down one notch and simply finished the race.

Is there anything wrong with that? Yeah, I did not kill myself out there. But then again, there were 5 people in the race, and I was in fifth. Maybe that really was not the way 'cross should be ridden, but today I guess I did not have much more than that in me.

I started the race without any 'cross in my tank, and very little cyclo. By the end, I was empty on both counts.

Next week is going to be a real tough one - a duathlon in the morning and a 'cross race in the afternoon.

Tour De Cross Race # 2

2010-03-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

What amazes me more about European cyclocross races is not that they race in the conditions they race, it is that the fans come out in those conditions. Frankly, 'cross is about mud and cold for the riders. But the fans standing in the mud and the cold still blows me away.

Today, we took on the wet and the rain and the mud in the Tour De Cross race #2. Brian the organizer had re-organized the course to be even more interesting than last time. Lap times during the first race were in the 3 minute range, whereas the laps in this race were in the 5 minute range to start, and came down to the 4 minute range by the end.

For me, I found that I'm really starting to get my mounts/dismounts down. I'm no Nys or Stybar, but I definitely have improved my technique significantly. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my fitness.... I'm still an overweight backmarker.....

Again, this race was really a lot of fun. I stink at cross, but I love it all the same.

I'm looking forward to next week's race!

Tour De Cross Race #1

2010-03-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I missed most of the 09-10 cyclocross season...... All my intents and preparations (which were not really that much) were swept away last fall as I headed to work overseas for a long work trip. My hope was/is that the trip would be good for my career. That remains to be seen, but I know I benefitted from it.....

Back to cyclocross, I really wanted to get in a few races this season. The truth is that I'm a pretty bad cyclocross racer. While I was a 'cross a holic way before it was something popular in the US, I'm still an overweight, undertrained rider.

While I felt like my mounts/dismounts were finally starting to come around at the Mid-South championships, I still took nearly DFL.....

Fast forward to today, and I finally got to get out and race some 'cross. A good guy named Brian is putting on a full 4 race series this spring and the first race was a lot of fun. Five riders made up the entire field, but the course was certainly challenging, if a little unusual.

The course itself was 1/2 mile long and involved countless 180's, and eleven barriers --- ELEVEN Barriers!!!!!!

I got a killer start and beat everyone pretty strongly out of the gate, but that was extremely short lived.... I continued on and dismounted for every barrier. Soon thereafter, someone knocked the cross-tie barriers 90 degrees over, which made them just low enough to hop instead of dismount. OK, it made four of the eleven hoppable.

With hopping the barriers, I began to pull away again a little from my buddy Matt who was about to lap me on his first ever bike race - Someone please remind me to get my less in-shape friends involved in cycling instead of the thin muscled friends with 40 bpm resting heart rates.

In the end, I put on 16 or so laps and had a lot of fun. I took 4th place and lapped the 5th place rider 3 times.

Wet Weather Preparation

2010-02-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well, winter is in full swing, so cold is the norm, and wet is the flavor.

As I ride more and more, my plan is to hit the trails as often as possible. With Syllamo just 2 months away, there is no way around it.

However, the reality is that spring is the time of rain. Something has to thaw the ground and convince the lillies to pop. Unfortunately, my conscience is too powerful to allow me to tear up my favorite trails after every ride. I just can't do that and sleep well at night.

Because of that, my mind turns to the road. I still want to spend time spinning over the legs. But when the trails are wet, generally the road is too. I can handle the typical sketchy corner with aplomb, but no one likes a wet backside, or a brown stripe up their back. We look stupid enough out in the cold in skin tight clothing, (Ok, I look stupid in skin tight clothing in any weather).

We only need to look to the Brits to understand how to handle this situation appropriately. In a country where rain is as central to life as tea, they know how to deal with wetness. After a little research, I turned up absolutely no US vendors for the fenders I wanted, so I surfed across the pond and picked them up from a shop in the UK.

Mounted them up this evening, and I'm pretty impressed with them. Innovative design, lightweight, and very quick and easy to mount on the bike.

Maybe this weekend, I'll find out how well they work.......

Modernization Of The Fleet

2010-02-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

I began riding in 1991. At that time, top mount shifters were de rigeur, and I ran Suntour on my bike. My frame was lugged steel, and suspension forks were still something the downhill racers rode.

My roadbike was lugged steel, with indestructible box section rims in the wheels. I had downtube shifters to ease the effort on hills, and a 7sp cassette provided all the ratios I thought I could ever need!

For clothing, I regularly rode in cut off bluejeans, and t-shirts stolen from my father' closet covered my back the best. My helmet looked mostly like a glorified beer cooler, and my gloves were mesh backed workout gloves that I used in the weight room in the highschool football stadium.

Those were the days.

Fast forward almost 20 years later.

I'm now riding a plastic fantastic 15lbs road bike. With full Dura-Ace, light wheels and an incredibly light weight, this thing is truly fantastic!

I've even updated my cross bike (still lugged steel) to have a carbon fork, ultra lightweight wheels and Dura Ace brifters. It sure makes it easier to shoulder over the barriers.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, my mountainbike was just not cutting the mustard. The bumpy parts of courses left me behind. Over and over again, I'd pull up to my riding buddy's back wheel only to be shucked off again like so much refuse.

Enter the Sugar 1 from my earlier posts. I finally pushed myself to purchase a modern (Ok, semi modern) full suspension bike. Now I get on their wheel and stay there. Actually, I'm finding myself nearly crashing into their rear triangle on every turn.

One of the few things left to update was my fork. The Manitou FS I was running is not at all a bad fork, however it is old tech and performs somewhat poorly. It was also heavy. While feathery by 1990's tech, it is rather tank-like these days.

I decided to get myself a Rockshox Sid. The first one I got was the generous hand-me-down of a riding friend. Unfortunately, it was just plain worn out. Stantions were worn through, damping blown and seals all bad to the point it would not hold air. None of that changes the generosity of my buddy Chris.

A week later, I managed to get my hands on a 2007 Race model. All I can say is wow!!!!! Everything works extremely well, and it performs admirably. Now the wheel tracks the ground like a cat tracking a mouse. Its truly light as well, having taken over half a pound off my bike!

So goes the modernization of my fleet. It now runs in a fashion that allows me to keep up with my friends. Parts are only a phone call away, and I could actually get it serviced at my local shop in the event that I could not handle it myself. (Not likely to happen).

Memphis Weather SUCKS!!!!

2010-02-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

There is no way around it.... Memphis weather just plain sucks!

As was noted on the MSTA forum, this is absolutely the worst winter for riding in a very long time. The trails are completely saturated, to the point that riding them is near impossible. Its also a bad idea from a trail maintenance staindpoint.

To make matters worse, its too cold to ride the road as well. I have warm clothes, but they don't nearly do the job when the temp is below 35f. I guess the windchill is just too much to deal with....

Without an opportunity to ride, I've managed to wax all my bikes, tune every one of them up, and make some good upgrades to them. Hopefully I'll actually get to enjoy them at some point.

Snow/Ice Days!!! Cyclocross Worlds

2010-01-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm frozen in here...... I would normally say that sucks, but really its been pretty fun. I'd normally be out on the trails or the road, but this weekend, I spent the day watching cyclocross videos and checking the results from the worlds in the Czech Republic.

Looks like Stybar put in a killer ride and kicked some but. The Belgians have been dethroned and the results are in. Stybar in Gold. Looks like the Belgians were dethroned in the other classes as well, like the U23 race where the Poles kicked some butt.

Dissappointing however were the results from the red white and blue. Johnson, page, et al just did not have what it took to pull it off. Huge dissappointment also from the Compton camp. Leg cramps are tough, but I think I'd be at the Dr's office finding out exactly what the heck was wrong with me if it took me out of contention as it did here.

Back to the frozen in part, I'm aching to get out on the road or the trail again. While stuck here, I managed to get all my bikes waxed and cleaned and tuned...... Nothing else to do, so I might as well make sure everything is perfectly tuned and clean. Yee-haw.

Well, with a little luck, we'll have some drying this week and I can get out and ride next weekend!

Better picture of the new bike!!!!!

2010-01-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I got a chance to get out and turn the gears on the new ride. Boy is she SWEET!!!!!!

I'm happy as can be with this thing right now. One ride and she was/is already much faster than my previous. The handling is much different, and the traction is phenomonal!

Finished as she sits right now, she's just at 25lbs. A new seatpost next week will make her down to sub 25.

I really cannot wait to race her now.

New Bike.... First Full Suspension, and A New Goal......

2010-01-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

Well, lets start with the goal.....

Every year, all my friends head to Arkansas' Syllamo Trails for Syllamo's Revenge. It is a 50 mile cross country mountain bike race. It turns into a real all day effort for everyone.

Last year, I had planned to race the late season (fall) races, but work got in the way and I was unable to participate. So this year, I decided to try some earlier races.... Syllamo is one of the first I could hit, so I thought why not. Then at the last minute, sanity took hold and I backed out.

The following morning, I decided to see if registration was still open. Registration for this race is very limited, and it sells out quickly. I checked the registration the morning after it started and sure enough, I got in........ Ohhhhh boy......

Then reality set in. Yes, I used to be a pretty fast racer. Yes, I used to do well. Unfortunately, that was many years and many pounds ago. I'm a lot bigger, a lot older and a lot slower. However, the entry fee is now paid, and I have a cabin already with a bunch of fellow racers, so there is no backing out now.

That evening, I went for a night ride with my team, and we were really flying. I was handling the trail really well and was pretty proud of myself. However, I noticed that when we got the bumpy stuff, I was not able to keep up. I was getting banged around and they were floating through the stuff (stuff that I used to handle extremely well).

I looked at the difference between all of us and quickly noticed that everyone else was either on a 29'er, or a full suspension bike. My mind immediately started jumping and thinking of all of the videos I'd seen of the Syllamo trail and of my past experiences racing in Arkansas, and I quickly realized that Syllamo was gonna beat me senseless on my old hardtail bike.

Digging in my mental memory banks I started thinking of the good full-sussers that were around when I was a bike shop geek and building and tuning bikes for folks. The Gary Fisher Sugar 1 came to mind really quickly.

Amazingly enough, within a week or so, an OK lookin Sugar 1 popped up on ebay for sale. I figured I'd never get it, but why not try. The bidding ended, and I was the owner of the frame (which included fork, seatpost, headset and stem)

As I waited for the bike to arrive, I was getting worried. I have the worse cases of buyer's remorse of anyone I know. I began looking at the size and wondering if it would fit me. I wondered if it would be worn out.

All my worries were for naught. The bike arrived today and after a couple hours with a polishing rag, it looked pretty doggone sweet! The wife was not home, so I decided to start building it and decided to just take it as far as I could during the evening. Amazingly enough, I was done in about 1 1/2 hours!!!!

In all, she went together very smoothly and it looks great. Everything works well, and it feels good riding in the street. I still need to learn to tune the suspension, but I'll figure that out quickly. The rear derailleur hanger is bent, but a replacement is not too expensive.

All in all, I'm pretty happy. : ) (Please excuse the crappy picture....)

Riding light update.

2010-01-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

Last fall, I resurrected an old lightset given to me by a fellow rider. Details on the set are in the post below.

After my first rides, I was a little worried that I'd under-specc'ed the battery for the setup. When I would get to the end of a ride, the handlebar light (10w, 3000mah) would go out before we hit the parking lot..... The helmet light never wavered.

Good news however is that on the most recent rides, I finished with pretty good numbers going back into the batteries, and both lights still bright at the end. The helmet light only burnt 64% of its capacity, and the handlebar light 86%. That is pretty usable capacity for the rides we normally do (around 2 hours). Unfortunately, that setup would not get me through a 12 hour race, but then again, that's not what I was expecting or planning for.

I'm glad I built the lights, as they've been really fun and definitely expanded my riding opportunities during the cold winter months with less sunlight!

New 'Cross ride for Carter

2009-12-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Well, my plans to ride every day during my two weeks off at Christmas are rapidly falling to pieces. Rain keeps us off the trails and off the road. Either way, I'm getting cabin fever fast. There are two more races in the TN Cyclocross season, and I wanted to be ready for them...... Now I don't know if I'll even get to go.

On to the new bike. Carter is a student at my Alma Mater, and decided to re-start the cycling team that existed at the university when I was a student there. He's successfully gotten it going, and I'm impressed by that. The team has approx a dozen members, and a faculty advisor. I signed on as an alumnis member.

When I signed on, I had no idea what I could offer. I have little time for my own riding usually and I'm not sure I know many people that would help with sponsorship. I did work as a wrench for too many years however, and I figured when I could sneak in a lesson on bike maintenance for the members, I would do that.

Carter had just the perfect opportunity. He bought a Ridley supercross used from a member of our local Trails Association, and a $100 Ultegra group from another. After piecing the rest of the parts together, he called and asked if we could build it up.

I basically did a total frame up build for him while showing him how and why things go together the specific way they did. We finished it off with a good looking bar wrapping job and a ride to dial in the fit somewhat.

I'm really impressed with how it finished out. It needs proper 'cross gearing, but its a nice build overall. With some lighter wheels, it will finish out at a nice finished weight, and the gearing will make it just right for the local races.

With a little luck, we'll get to do a 'cross race in Columbia, TN.

Let There Be Light!!!!!!

2009-12-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my buddy FastBilly, I have a new lightset for my bike. Now I can hit the trails at night and have fun with my buddies that already are doing regular night rides.

Setup includes a 10w and 15w light unit paired to a 3000mah and a 4800mah Lithium Ion battery packs. I dropped almost 2lbs from the original NiMH setup with the Lithiums. Conveniently enough, I rigged the whole setup to run with my airplane battery chargers.

The 10w head unit mounts to my handlebars and the 15w to my helmet. : )

Herbs on the Cross Bike

2009-11-25T16:50:00.001-08:00

Well, vacation days are meant for riding.

After getting the errands out of the way, it was time to head out to Herb Parsons Lake for a few laps. I did two laps and started a third. A portion of the way into the third, I was feeling really cold, so I turned around.

Its always good to get out and spin the legs at Herbs!

New Bar Tape for the Cross Bike...

2009-11-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Well, enough of my friends complained that the red bar tape on my cross bike did not suit it..... Sheesh.

The red was recycled from my roadbike, so I decided I might as well put on some fresh new tape. I used Deda this time. I've not used tape like that in a while, so it took a couple tries to get it right, but the results are good.

Somehow the yellow in the bar tape matches the frame decals perfectly. I feel like a hipster : )

33 Miles of SingleTrack On The Cross Bike

2009-11-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning, I hit Herb Parsons with Jacob. We cranked out 4 8.3mile laps around the course. Two of the 4 were sub 1 hour laps, so I'm pretty happy with that. The guys at the 6 hour race there were turning sub 1 hour laps on mountain bikes, so turning that time on the cross bike felt pretty good.

2009 Outdoors Inc Cyclocross

2009-11-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

Well, this race is in the books. Definitely a lot of fun, but I do wish I had felt better for my first Cross race of the year.....

The upper portion of the course was soggy and slow, with lots of hills to either ride or run-up. I ended up shouldering my bike every time for one of the hills. That area was followed by a severe off camber portion and more sogginess.... I think this might have been worse than other mud, because the soggy sod was more like riding on a waterbed.... you never found the bottom!

Next up was a set of s turns, followed by a stairway run up. The hills that followed were rough but plenty rideable. Only one traditional set of barriers on this section.

The bottom half of the course was hardpacked and straight. I drafted on that section when I could, while trying to pull out in front before the one barrier section on that portion of the course so I could make some time. That set of barriers was made from river driftwood. LOL.

I think I placed 9th out of 13 (there were supposed to be 13 starters in my class, and I showed to be in 9th...) so it could have been worse, but I really felt like crap today and just did not have the legs......

I am proud of one thing... I finally got my remount down. By the end of the race, something had finally clicked, and I was doing re-mounts like I should. I've worked on that for a lot of years, and finally have something for it.

All in all, it was a great race, and I encourage anyone and everyone to come out and race it next year!

After the race, I headed with a bunch of my team to Herb Parson's and did a lap of the trail there. Even got my new jersey from the team. I actually don't look terrible in it...... Not good, but not terrible.

Outdoors Inc Cyclocross Champs - Pre Ride

2009-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

Its nice having a race in your own hometown!

I had the opportunity to get out to the racecourse today and pre-ride the thing. There are some really fast parts, a few tough climbs, and 3 sets of barriers.

One dismount is a set of stairs to a paved section where the remount will be important. The next is a traditional set of double barriers on an up hil.

The final mandatory is a set of 3 huge logs laying out on the riverbank. There is a shicane right before this set of logs, so slowing is not a problem. I did my dismount/remount pretty fast in that section. The others, I was stinkin it up today....

Final area is a tough hill that I'm not sure I can climb. its pretty huge, so I will likely dismount and run up it.....

Rest of the course is either bumpy sodded areas, or fast trampled down trail areas.

Wish me luck......

Wolf River Night Ride

2009-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

I was dying to get out and ride, but the doggone time change has made that nearly impossible.

The guys from the Journeyman Race team shot me a message and mentioned that they were going out for a Tuesday night ride at the Wolf River trails. I thought it looked like a great opportunity to get out and turn the pedals over....

Bad news was that I don't have any good lights. In the end, I rode with an old set that put out approximately 15 lumens. This was in comparison to my buddies who were riding with combineds sets of 700-1000 lumens!!!!!!! Needless to say, I outran my lights pretty quickly.

The ride was really fun though. Fun enough for me to go buy some new lights! Charles and Shawn were fast as ever, Same for Billy until he ate it hard and bruised a rib or something, so he slowed a bit. Kurt was ripping along pretty good until some wierd shifting problems slowed him a bit.

All in all, it was a kickass ride, and my first ride on the trails with lights since I was in college!

2009 Outdoors Inc Cyclocross

2009-11-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well, this will be my first 'cross race of the year. I'm excited like you can't believe.

I know I'm gonna stink it up, but at least I'll be out there.

With a little luck, I won't get pulled, and I might even have a picture of the disaster :)

Back Riding in the States

2009-10-29T18:40:00.001-07:00

Went for a road ride Sunday morning with my buddy Matt. I did better than I figured I would with that long of a layoff and being sick.... I rode a few times in Singapore, but not many considering I was there 5 weeks.

Anyway, while we were out there, we were rolling along and passed a big cotton field. Matt commented that it looked like the sunflowers from the Tour De France, but the 'redneck version' instead. Not sure why, but that was terribly funny to me at the time....

Updating the Cross Bike.... : )

2009-10-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

While I was out of the country, I managed to snag an Alpha Q CX fork for my bike. I had an extra Chris King headset and a stem that was a perfect match for it as well.

Mounted everything up this morning and I'm pretty pleased with it! Knocked 1.3 lbs off the bike in total. Definitely very pleased.

Now, I just need an opportunity to race the dern thing!!!!!

Cycling in Singapore part 3

2009-10-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, my business trip to Singapore is almost done. I've had a genuinely good time here, but I'm definitely also ready to come home. I miss my girls.

Today however, I had to burn out a few more miles before I left. I had the opportunity to hit the road with my buddy Marc. Marc and I rode together alot a few years ago, up until he transfered here to Singapore. When I got here, I knew we had to get out and hit the road a few times. Each ride, he or his wife cooked a great pasta dinner to get us ready and we headed out.

We rode the Changi/Airport end of the country again and it was HOT!!!!! I'm guessing it was 30 degrees warmer this time. Hotter than Memphis for sure. The heat really took its toll on me too... But it was a good ride anyway.

For the second half of the ride, we rode the beach path along the southern coast. I could not believe the people traffic. Chinese and Malaysians everywhere.... None of them knew how to ride a bike, but every one of them was trying (or falling down on rollerblades!) We dodged people traffic for quite a while, but eventually decided to hit the service road and ride back. Made much better time without all the Chinese adults on bike with training wheels around (thats not an exaggeration!

I'm glad I came. I'm glad I made it a goal to ride. (I rode over 1oo miles while on the island!)

Embarassed......

2009-10-04T05:35:00.000-07:00

As I was putting up a post a moment ago, I saw that people had commented on previous posts done months ago...... I really did not think anyone actually read this thing...... I need to keep an eye on that in the future!

Cycling In Singapore Part 2

2009-10-04T05:13:00.001-07:00

Well, this weekend, I had the opportunity to ride for the second time in Singapore. The offer came from a co-worker on the island. Seems he's not had anyone to ride with since he moved here 2 years ago and has not gotten out as much as he would like.

I was more than happy to accompany him out on the road. Since I rode the entire western portion of the island last time, we decided to ride the eastern portion. This section that we rode runs between the airport and the ocean, then heads into the hills and runs through the eastern portion of the city/country/state, whatever you want to call it. Finally, it drops down to the airport again.

While I did not see any monkeys in the road on this trip, it was no less spectactular. Riding with 747 jetwash hitting you is no small thing! The sounds at the airport are incredible. The views out to the ocean were wonderful as well.

Unfortunately, weather got foul during our ride and we rode in a near constant downpour. I'm not one to shy away from the rain though, so we soldiered on.

Through the hills, I fully expected my friend to stomp me into the ground as he had the last time we rode together back in the states, but that was not the case. Frankly, I was able to ride away from him. I genuinely could not believe that...... I thought he was letting me drop him, but that was not the case. I guess a little more fitness on my part and an absence of time in the saddle for my friend set the game where it lay. He's still a killer on the bike though, I know after a few rides he'll stomp me handily.

BTW, before we rode, he and his beautiful wife cooked up one of the best meals I've had in a very long time. Pasta with pesto and chicken! Absolutely awesome. I did not realize he was a dern good cook too.

Well, with any luck, we'll head out next weekend again. Hopefully we'll put a few more miles in too!!!!!

Cycling In Singapore

2009-09-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, I rode the ANZA 'SteadySteady Kranji' ride preceded by the Rats Corner Warmup ride. Great ride.

A very helpful lady named Julie helped myself and a Japanese girl named Karo find our way through the ride. We rode all the way from the southern side of the country to the northern coast.

Along the way, we saw Malaysia, the Singaporean countryside and several portions of the country. We also saw monkeys out in the road. How often do you see monkeys on your road ride?

We rode approx 80km's. Lotsa hills here..... Climbed the longest road climb I think I've ever climbed before.

Cyclocross Goodness!!!

2009-09-14T16:34:00.001-07:00

Well, even though I won't get to ride it for a while, I have gotten my cyclocross bike ready for the season.

Using some parts from the stash, as well as some parts from ebay, I made a change to the bike that will hopefully be for the better.

When I originally built the bike, I built it as a singlespeed. Unfortunately, the only guys racing SS are super strong around these parts. As I had my bike geared, I could make the climbs, but would spin out massively on any fast section.

I decided to take a Dura Ace 9sp shifter and cassette and gear the bike. I also had a chain without much use. I added a 42 tooth QBP ring and bashguard to the setup, and an NGear jumpstop to keep the chain on.

I really don't want to know how much weight I added, but on the few brief spins around the neighborhood I've gotten, it feels geared right for our races.

Hopefully it will suit me well!!!

2009 MS150 Completed!!!

2009-09-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, the 2009 MS150 bike ride is over. I feel a little like a kid at Christmas. You look forward to it all year and anticipate it like crazy. Then it happens, and its great, but you really wish it was not over.

I've done this for 7 years now. 6 times I've ridden it. During that time, my team has raised over $30k for the charity. I'm proud of that.

When I first started this, I was significantly overweight - Try over 100lbs over my racing weight when I was in college. I tried every year to complete the ride and succeeded the past couple. I also tried every year to ride 'The Wall'. This year, I did it!!! It took me too many times, but I did it this time!!!!

Day one, I really did not feel that great. I finished in a fine time, but did not really feel great as I did it. Probably too much left over pain in my legs from hiking the previous weekend.

We spent Saturday afternoon hangin out in the casino and eating overpriced cheeseburgers. (have not had a cheeseburger in a long time)

Sunday opened with rain. And that set the stage for the entire day. I elected to stick my raincoat in my pocket, but never took it out. We rolled the first 30 miles rapidly and headed for the wall. To my amazement, I went right up it!!!!!

The rest of the day, I rolled along with Patrick and Adam. They made good riding partners for as long as I could keep up with them. At the finish, the BBQ was as good as it gets!!!!

In the end, I had an awesome time, and I truly cannot wait until next year!!!!

MS150 2009

2009-09-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

I really cannot wait. I look forward every year to this ride.

The truth is that this is a 150 mile long party on the road. This year will be my 7th year to be involved with it, and I've enjoyed it every time.

For this year, I have a new bike, and a new body to push it. Sub 200lbs for the first time this year!!!! : )

I've always hated the number plates flapping around on the front of my bike and the zip ties scratching the frame. So this year, I decided to make something a little special for the bike.

Using some sheet stock, I cut, drilled and bent up a little bracket for the back of my bike. It is a blatant copy of the number plate brackets found on the pro's bikes. Maybe it adds a little to my bike.... If nothing else, I don't have to listen to that number flapping in the wind the whole time : )

Fun riding at Herbs and some numbers.......

2009-08-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend, I get the hall pass from the wife, and its time to head out to Herbs.

First lap around, I was all by myself and I was absolutely flying. I was carrying speed through that course like I've not done since I was in college. I also did the entire course without a single stop and felt strong enough to easily do many more.

Then I ran into Jacob. We've tried to get together to ride so many times, when the opportunity came up, I could not pass it up. Jacob was riding very strong that day. Compared to last winter, he's made a huge improvement in his strength and his fitness. In all, we did 2 laps. (He had already done one lap also). For him, that was his longest ride ever (over 25miles) I'm glad I was able to be part of that!!

When I got home, I pulled out the cross bike and headed out around the neighborhood to see if there was anywhere I could build a 'cross course. No beans though and the wife called me home....

What about the numbers? Well, I found a cool website, www.bicyclecalculator.com, which gives watt numbers based on other inputs you fill in. So what did it say? Well, according to the calculator, it says that on my last group road ride, I averaged 223 watts for the ride. Interestingly enough it also said that during the 'shake n bake' sprint, I was cranking out over 500 watts for approx 2 mins. That my friends is some serious power!!!!

All good fun!

Milestones and Upgrades!

2009-08-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

This past week was full of killer riding, and hitting milestones.

First off, I'm finally down to 195lbs - no longer a clydesdale!!!!!

Next up, I rode a total of 126 miles last week. Highest mileage in quite a while! Started with doing the BikeWorld group ride on Tuesday night. We kept up a blistering pace and I almost stayed with the A group.

A 22 mile ride from the house the following Thurs felt great and encouraged me along.

Saturday, I did the LifeTime Metric Century, and we averaged just under 20mph. That was a good ride.

Then Sunday, I went out with the guys and we hit Herbs hard. I rode my SSCX while everyone else was on suspended, geared 29'ers. I held my own though!

Finally, last night, I hit the Tuesday night BikeWorld Ride. To my amazement, I finished with the A group. That included two signpost sprints that went over 33mph, and we finished the ride at 20.3mph!!!!!! This is the first time I've stayed with the A group on the ride. It feels good!!!

With my weight what it is, and finally staying with the A Group, I upgraded my bike a bit. I added a DA7800 Rear Shifter, along with a SRAM 1090 chain, and a SRAM Red 11-26 cassette. That cut the weight down, and lessened the gap between cogs : )

This has been a fun couple of weeks. I hope the MS150 goes as good as I intend!!!

Legend of Stanky Creek!!!!

2009-08-17T08:41:00.001-07:00

Awesome race this weekend!!!!!

When I got there, I walked a few parts of the course to check out the best way to ride them. Frankly, I was scared of this course - really. There were a couple sections that were simply hard.

At the start, I knew I had to get a jump on everyone to get into the woods fast. Succeeded big time on that. Managed to get a jump on everyone in the start line sprint and entered the woods first!!!! Yee haw

As soon as we entered the woods, I turned up hill and promptly detonated at the top........ I guess I put too much into that sprint.

Later on, after the tougher blue section, I started to open it up a bit and find my groove. I was really pretty happy with how fast I was able to get moving. Then I started catching some people from my group and other groups and started rolling as hard as I could.

In the end, I took 8th place in my age group. I'm excited, and looking forward to the next race! (6 hours of Herb in October)

Legend of Stanky Creek this weekend.....

2009-08-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Can't wait, Legend Of Stanky Creek mtb race is this weekend.

I'm gonna leave work early today and go pre-ride the course so I don't have any surprises.

This will be the first MTB race I've competed in in about 8-9 years. My only goals are to not get hurt, ride fast and have fun!