riding with dogs

my measly little Pisgah video

2012-01-24T19:23:00.004-05:00

Here is the Pisgah footage I shot a few months ago, alot of it didn't turn out due to a CamelBak straw flopping right in front of the camera. Don't ask what trails we rode because I have no idea. The only one I'm sure of was the Black Mountain trail and most of it was ruined by that stupid CamelBak straw. I'll admit the Black Mountain trail was a bit disappointing, I'll admit some of it had to do with my lack of downhill skills. I do need to step up my game in that dept. I feel like we climbed for a really long time only to go straight freaking down the mountain. It was steep, rutted, rooty and rocky as hell. I have nothing against trails that are over my head technically, I need the challenge. I'm not one of those pansy riders who won't ride certain trails because they're too hard.

I'm totally ready to go back and explore some more, that place is just too much fun.

some long awaited video and a different TYPE of post

2012-01-23T21:26:00.000-05:00

Today I writing my blog post from my "smarter than me" phone with my new handy dandy blogger app. I downloaded it but have yet to write with it until today. I have used it to add pics from my phone directly to my blog, something I've been struggling with on the iPhone but not anymore! The reason I'm writing with it today you ask? No I'm not globe trotting around the world. Our laptop here at the house bit the dust after 7+ years of service. I had just hit the save button on the video above when it went so the ending is a bit abrupt but what can you do. Luckily I've been backing up my stuff for a while so I don't think anything was lost, fingers crossed.
After alot of searching, review reading and penny counting I realized we couldn't afford a Mac so we opted for another PC but we did spring for an iPad, I'm calling it our early Valentines gift to each other.

So the video above, this was the triathlon I did last June, my first ever. Yes the turnout was low, mainly because of the nasty wet conditions, at least that's my story. Had the course been dry and free of rain I probably would have seen some stiffer competition and wouldn't have scored a 2nd place finish. I'll take it though, just showing up and running the race says something in my book, the guys who stayed at home while they might have been faster on dry ground are pansies in my mind. I'll be back this year for sure to tell them just that.

I apologize if my grammar is worse than normal, typing and editing is not that easy on my "smarter than me" phone.

non-riding post but yet still entertaining, I think

2012-01-20T15:43:00.004-05:00

I'm sure most have you might have heard this already but I will give the short version for those who don't and who might actually be interested. Last summer we hired a roofer, who came recommended, to replace our roof. He came over with a younger guy, we agreed on a price, signed a contract and wrote him a check as a deposit. We had a couple of date changes due to this and that but the 3rd date we set that they were supposed to do the job came and passed without a word from the roofer. After 3-4 weeks of harassing phone calls and him promising us he would get someone out to our house we'd finally had enough. Once we threatened to call the police that finally got his attention and he stated he no longer worked for the company.

Fast forward a couple of months and some nasty phone calls.

The Kingsport police arrested him, and his mug shot in the newspaper was the first time I'd seen his face since the initial contract signing. Fast forward a couple more month's we were in court yesterday for the second time, the first time he said he had a witness, who wasn't there, that could prove he gave the $$ to his boss, the judge gave him a 30 day recess.

Yesterday the roofer showed up without his witness and the funny thing is, there was never any mention of it, I think his public defender was a little irritated. His P.D. proceeded to badger me on the witness stand trying to prove that I never allowed him to finish the job. I simply stated that I did finally request a refund after nearly two months for a couple of reasons. 1. He and the actual owner of the company both told me they no longer worked for the company nor did they know who owned the company. 2. They had never showed up to do any work nor had any materials been delivered. I think that was reasonable on my part and I guess the P.D. really didn't have anything left to say as he left me alone after that. Yesterday was basically just a preliminary hearing to decide whether or not to send him to a criminal trial which he is and I'm calling that a win for us. It won't be until March before he's back in court so it will probably be a long time before we ever see any of our money back. I've got my fingers crossed and a strong will to fight, fight, fight!

The only thing that kept us from going crazy sitting in the court room for 6 hours when we could have been out riding was the entertainment. Everyone in that court room had some sort of ridiculous story or excuse. Both times we were in attendance we witnessed people being arrested for showing up high or drunk, they always use the same excuse, "I'm on anything I'm just tired." We sat and listened to idiots all around us laugh about their DUI's, shoplifting arrests and what not. I clearly remember hearing one girl state she didn't understand why she got a DUI, she only had 4 shots? It was true redneck entertainment.

Ok enough of that, my hopes to get in a ride or two the last couple of days didn't happen due to rain and court hearings. Tuesday it was just too wet to ride so I mixed things up a bit and went for a trail run at Bays Mountain. I normally run at Warriors when hitting the trail but I felt the need to try Bays and I liked it alot. There are less roots and rocks to deal with which lowers the twisted or broken ankle chances by a mile.

Wednesday was the same, too wet for riding but just dry enough to work on the trails, talk about a full body workout, wow! We are getting closer and closer to finishing the upper section of the Chestnut trail. This section is a bit more challenging than the lower section. It's still a cakewalk compared to Warriors but it's going to have some really sweet swooping turns, berms and jumps.

This berm was pretty much there naturally, Jay just helped it along a bit with some shaping.

One of the first berms in a nice "S" turn.

A jump smack dab in the middle of the "S" turn. There wasn't a plan to build a jump it just kinda evolved. There was a nasty stump in the trail that could've been dangerous due to it's natural camouflage. It was going to be a huge chore to remove it so I decided to cover it making it rideable. As I covered it with dirt a small jump began to form so I said what the heck and kept building. It's the first jump I've ever built so I'll accept a little constructive criticism, I just hope it flows well.

The second berm in the "S" turn.

It's going to be an awesome trail and hopefully we'll be riding it soon. I was hoping to be done with it by the end of this month but I don't think it gonna happen unless we have a huge turnout this weekend. I think we might build another jump or two, who knows.

jonesing

2012-01-15T19:40:00.003-05:00

All this cold wet weather is driving me crazy, I've only been able to ride once this year and with the new Bike "Bible" sitting around the house with all it's great photos of people riding doesn't help things.
Melinda and I visited the trails today with the dogs but we left the bikes at home, we do plan to ride tomorrow but it was pretty rough once we realized how nice a day for riding it was and how great of shape the trails were in.

The Whole Enchilada: Top to Bottom - Moab, Utah from Phil Shep on Vimeo.

Then I ran across this video of the "Whole Enchilada" in Moab Utah, a place we have made plans to go visit and ride but not until April. I think I might just explode soon. The video above I thought was really cool, 27 miles into an 11 minute video is pretty good, I'm sure they skipped alot of really good stuff but you can only show so much. I plan to find out for myself come April.

a review of the bike review

2012-01-14T18:41:00.002-05:00

I've still yet to figure out why everything from pics to text is posting up centered in my blog, it only does this when I add photos via my blogger app on my "smarter than me" phone. I played around with the settings on my phone but they were very limited. The only thing it would let me really do was adjust pic size and translate my text to Pirate language but that crap's so yesterday.

Saturday I finally received the Holy Grail of bike reviews, Bike's "Bible". I've been waiting impatiently for this jewel ever since I found out that all the testing was done just over the hill from me in Western NC. My go to, road trip destination source of many many sweet trailheads. I'm not gonna lie that after scanning through the list of trail worthy machines from every category I was a wee bit disappointed that there were no Niner's listed. I wasn't expecting to see the whole fleet or even two or three but I figured the JET RDO would have at least graced the pages. Something else that was lacking were the hardtails, very few of them were shown.

There were several 29er's but a majority of the rides were full squish 26er's. The only thing I didn't miss, hardtail 26er's, not a single one.

The best part about the "Bible" review was what the Bike crew had to say about the Western NC trails, Pisgah, Dupont and Beech Mtn. They showcased many of the local trails with plenty of good things to say and lots of pretty glossy photos. They even did a nice little piece on the town of Brevard and the two local bikes shops. Although the review was not as entertaining as I'd hoped I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the things on my Christmas wish list this year was a new Camelbak Mule. My old one was showing signs of wear, wreaking of stink and missing a few straps. The newish design in my opinion fits much nicer and stays in place better without that top heavy feel like my old one. I've been holding onto a Niner "Pedal Damnit" patch for several months just in case I scored a new pack and today I conned my Mom into sewing it one for me. Thanks Mom!

If it's been a while since you've ridden with us, Melinda and I, then you might wonder why I've been hawking all of Melinda's bike parts on Ebay. No she didn't give up riding, she finally pulled the trigger on a new Niner JET9. The wheelset she had on her BMC were the Mavic Crossmax SLR's, which came with two fancy canvas wheel bags. I never really understood the need for these bags. I understand their purpose but I seriously doubt that half of the folks who own these wheels ever used the bags. They layed around in our basement for several month's before Melinda found a use for them that blew away their original purpose by a mile. A couple of years ago Melinda bought a wreath bag to store the various wreaths we have that adorn our front and back door during the changing seasons/holidays. Not surprising we quickly ran out of room and the two Mavic wheel bags were brought into service. Held up side by side to the "wreath" bag, one might wonder if the idea of the bag was stolen? They are almost identical with the exception of color and the Mavic logos. Now we house all of our many, many wreaths securely in our basement, free from dust and bugs. I just hope the cat who bought the wheelset doesn't hit me up for the wheel bags, Melinda will definitely put up a fight.

re-evaluating my 2012 goals and some beer

2012-01-13T18:39:00.002-05:00

So I think I may have a change of plans in my New Year resolutions, originally I stated that my goal was to achieve 1500 miles on my mountain bike with a hopeful goal of 2000. Well, I've had some time to think this over and I realized that by trying to achieve this goal, it might leave little time for other types of workouts that I really need to focus on like core and weight lifting. Two of definitely my most weaker points in my over all fitness and it shows. I'm constantly plagued with lower back fatigue and strain because of my lack of upper body & core strength. I know this does not make for a very interesting read so I'll try to keep this short but I felt like I needed to address this so that maybe I'll do a better job at other workouts than just riding my bike. While my mileage goal might suffer my overall fitness should be better making me a stronger and better rider. So far I've gotten off to a great start, partly due to the really nasty wet weather we've had. I've been mainly focusing on strength training and core workouts the past two weeks.

I'm really jonesing for a good hard ride.

One of my weaknesses with the changing seasons is the ever changing selection of seasonal beers on display at my local grocer. With 3 different grocery stores within a 5 min. drive from my house, all with different selections, I've been bringing home waaay too many six packs of high calorie beers to try out.

It all started with this little jewel I found in Asheville a couple of weeks ago, New Belgium's Belgo. We can't get it in TN so I had to buy it before we crossed back into hillbilly land. It's hoppy, like a punch to the mounth on the first sip.

Then if that wasn't bad enough I was walking past the beer isle last week on my way to get a gallon of milk when this tasty selection jumped into my buggy. How could I put it back? Thunderstruck Coffee Porter? With a name like that I had to make it mine. It was delicious!

And then it happened again earlier this week, I've seen this jewel before but I'd always passed it by for some odd reason. After sampling a couple of these that will prove to be very difficult in the future.

When it comes to my mountain bike shoes I tend to wear a pair long past their intended life span, why I do this I'm not sure. I guess since I don't wear them anywhere but while I'm riding I feel like they should last longer. The last pair I bought were the Shimano M-182's, a bit more racier and stiff than I probably needed but a definite upgrade to my previous pair. In the past few months I've been dealing with more foot numbness and fatigue that normal. I tried numerous cleat positions to try and remedy this but nothing seemed to help. Then a week or so ago I wore my winter shoes for the first time this year. They are less worn and not as stiff and surprisingly I experienced less numbness and fatigue which lead me to believe it might have just been a need to buy new shoes.

This time around I opted for more in the way of comfort and less racey. I scored a pair of 2012 Shimano M-162's, yeah they're a bit flashy and WHITE but it seems like everything is going with this trend. After a bit of research everything I read about these shoes was great including the durability of the white. I've been running a white WTB saddle for over a year and its had all kinds of mud and clay ground into it and with the help of a little simple green it still shines almost a brightly as the first day I mounted it up.

There was one big difference in my new kicks, the lack of toe spikes. I've always ran them and while they're great for muddy hike a bikes they suck at just about everything else. There are pre-drilled holes for them if I decide to add them later but for now I've decided to see if I like them better without. I'm all about trying new things lately so why not.

Speaking of new things, a while back I mentioned that had had downloaded the Blogger app for my "smarter than me" phone in an effort to increase my blogging. Well that hasn't exactly happened BUT I did realize it makes for adding photos taken by my phone super easy to add to my blog posts, hence all the fancy pics. I haven't figured it out just yet so if things look screwy it's my lack of tech savy. Please be patient.

what I plan to do this year

2012-01-02T10:23:00.005-05:00

2011, what a great year it was! First off I would like to thank all of my sponsors who made this race season possible!

Oh wait, I don't have any sponsors? I'll put that on my list of things I need to get this year. I think I might have done a race or two? Did I? Yeah I'm pretty sure I did. I'm pretty sure a majority of them fell through the cracks due to other responsibilities and what not. Maybe better luck next year, I still call 2011 a win win.

Early in the beginning of the year I set the goal of 1000 mountain bike miles, I achieved it much faster than I anticipated and so I set another goal, 1500. I fell short of that one by 154.7 miles, meh. This year 1500 will be my minimum and I'll shoot to make 2000 and no I don't plan to be doing any hill repeats on gravel roads to boost my mileage.

As long as the Mayans are wrong 2012 should be even better. I try not too pay much attention to that crap, if they are correct I'll be ready. I know where I'm going to be. I think the Mayans just ran out of room when they made their calendar and December 2012 was just a coincidence.

Doesn't someone predict the end of the world every year? How's that working out so far?

This year Melinda and I will be heading out west for a much needed vacation. My Mom has graciously offered to come and dog sit for us while we're away. We rescued both our dogs from the pound and I can't bring myself to board them in a kennel. Thanks Mom, you're the greatest!

We plan to spend a few days riding in Colorado and a few days riding Utah with friends. I've been out west a few times but never to ride. I'm toying with the idea of buying a new GoPro HD for the trip but I can't decide if I want to spend the time and effort shooting video, editing and thinking about what would look cool rather than focusing on the "ride" itself. It's always cool to go back later, watch the footage and share it with friends but damn if it doesn't require alot of my free time. I'm struggling lately just to sit down and write something for this blog.

I don't think this year will be a year of weight loss goals or anything like that. My goal for 2012 will be to participate more in trail workdays with my local mountain bike club. That in itself should be a good fat burner. I'm not sure I'm going to set a specific number of days I want to attend, just that I plan to make an effort to attend more of them and hopefully encourage others to attend. I see alot of take and no give in our cycling community, it would be really cool to see some of that change.

Maybe I should set a goal for 2012 to be more bloggy bloggy? Hey yeah that sounds good. I did just download an app for my smarter than me phone so I can blog on the go. Hmm.....

Twofish

2011-12-24T09:13:00.003-05:00

Now that night riding season has finally descended on us, well for those of you who work regular work hours that is. I typically don't do much night riding since my schedule allows for riding during the daylight hours but I still enjoy a good night ride here and there. My last night ride was back in Sept. during our local club camping trip to Wilkesboro. We snuck in a late ride on Friday evening and I decided to try out one of my new CREE LED flashlights strapped to my helmet. I wanted to see if I could ride with it alone and nothing else. I had loaned out the rest of my riding lights anyway. The LED flashlights aren't quite as bright as say the Magicshines but at $9 a piece I couldn't resist picking up a couple just for kicks.

My test ride with them was on the famous Warrior Creek trails and with all the twists, turns and berms I knew it was best to be mounted to my helmet. The little flashlight worked great, not necessary the brightest but certainly bright enough. I wouldn't hesitate to race with it but my Magicshine would be my preferred light. The thing about my LED flashlight I like is it's small size and the internal battery. No cords to route or batteries to stash the only drawback was the lack of mounting hardware. I opted for the zip tie route which worked but I went a bit too low and found myself having to ride with my head at a bit of an awkward angle to see further down the trail, once in place I couldn't adjust.

Recently I was looking around for a suitable mount that might work for my flashlight and ran across this site, Twofish. At $6 a piece I ordered a lockblock and a bicycle block hoping one of the two might serve my purpose.

Small, lightweight, cheap and simple in design. They're small rubber blocks with a durable velcro that will allow me to attach them just about anywhere. The feet are somewhat flexible and they both seem to hold strong to a helmet and or handle bar.

The Lockblock

The Bikeblock

I've yet to try them out on the trail but plan to do so soon.

moustaches and mountain bikes

2011-12-18T23:00:00.002-05:00

Early in the year I set a goal for myself, 1000 off-road miles on my mountain bike. I achieved that earlier than I had anticipated so I set another goal, 1500 miles, which I have yet to meet. I don't think I will either but I think it could have been done had I really set my mind to it and had I not been off the bike for a solid 3 weeks during the shut-down we had at work. Starting January 1st, I plan to set my goal for a minimum of 1500 miles and try to reach 2000, I think it can be done. What really surprises me is the amount of miles I put on my full suspension vs. my hardtail. I never thought I would have put almost 100 miles more on the big squishy bike, it's just that much fun to ride and has made my backyard trails seem like a whole new playground to me this year.

I'm not sure I'll make much of an attempt to fix my road bike, at least not yet anyway. I don't really miss it but I'm not ready to part it out yet either. I think I'll let it just set as is until I get an itch I need to scratch. My plate is overflowing with trail building opportunities right in my own backyard and as long as that continues to be the case I don't see myself getting bored with riding local singletrack anytime soon. As it stands right now I'm struggling to find the time to make it to half the workdays we have scheduled and we've got another project up our sleeve that needs some scouting so that our new trail project looks good on paper to "the man".

A good month before Movember I grew out the trucker stache and let it get real thick and bushy before shaving it off and starting all over just before the first day of Movember. I decided to try a different style and even went as far as Googling "cool mustaches" on line for ideas. I saw some pretty interesting styles some that required much more than just a month to sculpt. I never really got a good photo of the Movember stache but it really wasn't that exciting. I ended up shaving it off a couple of weeks ago and now I'm thinking seriously about growing another.

I can't decide what I want so I'll probably stay clean shaven for a while longer and see if something speaks to me, Melinda seems to like me better clean shaven.

Sully

2011-12-12T21:02:00.005-05:00

I wanted to post this pic up of the AIR9 with it's new rubber but I had my phone tied up doing an update for what seemed like hours with iTunes when I wrote the last post. Better late than never I guess.

I've had a plan for some time now to get a Warriors gnome, the idea stolen from "Samford the Pisgah gnome"

I searched high and low for a gnome but had a hard time finding one since most places only stock them during the spring. I had given up until I ran across what I guess was leftovers from last year's stock at Hobby Lobby and grabbed one, now know as Sully the Warriors gnome, Samford's long lost cousin. But unlike Samford's golf club swinging, beer swilling ways, Sully likes to build trails, hence the shovel. Don't get me wrong Sully can drink his weight in beer, I've got a pile of empties to prove it at home.

Samford the Pisgah gnome has become quite popular, even partying with the likes of the Bike Magazine crew when they descended upon Pisgah for their annual "Bible" test review.

After seeing Sully's beer swilling ways, Moonshine told me this morning it was time for Sully to head to the trails to live. She said this house was only big enough for one of them. I think she really just wanted to get in a ride, can you blame her?

Everyone was really fired up to ride, dogs and gnomes alike.

Sully really likes riding in Camelbaks, he says it gives a cool perspective of the trails and keeps the wind and bugs out of his face.

He thought long and hard about this bird house.

After looking around inside he decided against it for fear of becoming a snack.

Moonshine & Jackson helped him look high and low for a place to hide.

Sully really digs rooty & rocky trails, he brought along a shovel to help maintain and build trails.

He finally decided on this spot to hide, he said it had one of the best views of the lake. I can't blame him it is a nice view. He also said from this spot he could watch me really lay it into the turns in the next section (hint hint).

If you're out at Warriors and find Sully, take him for a ride, document the experience with your camera and post it up here with clues as where he might be found. Sully really likes Warriors so keep him there.

some much needed downtime

2011-12-12T10:04:00.004-05:00

With the annual Christmas party behind us, Melinda and I finally had some down time yesterday and we opted for a ride. Actually the thought of down time and being lazy yesterday almost got the best of us. I was goofing around the house doing a whole lot of nothing trying to decide if I had made the right choice of skipping out on the big ride up on Iron Mountain when I realized we had almost waited too late to ride all together. We were about to miss our window of opportunity to hit Bays Mtn with the winter time schedule closing at 5:00 (one of the reasons I hate winter). I've been staring at my new GEAX tires for over a week wondering how well they were going to run and if they would bring back that smooth feeling I used to have on my hardtail that was lost with the introduction of racier tires. We did make it up to Bays in time to ride but just by a frog hair, we rolled out the gate at 5:00 on the money.

The conclusion? The tire felt great, so much smoother in fact I began to wonder if I was dreaming, then I started noticing a funny sound coming from what seemed to be the rear wheel. I stopped and had a look and I had lost a considerable amount of air from the rear tire, not good. I pulled out my mini pump and re inflated it only to have to do this again later down the trail. Upon further inspection this morning, the stem was leaking so I made sure to give the wheel a good shake and give the Stan's juice a chance to do it's thing. It's crap like this that makes me consider selling those Crossmax rims. For the 20 minutes or so that I had good air pressure the tires ran great, a much better improvement over the race tires so I guess I'm done with trying those for a while. With added traction and cush comes with added weight, I'm not sure how much but it is but probably around a half pound or more but I'm not too worried about that. I plan to upgrade the drivetrain with the XO parts off Melinda's BMC which will be much nicer than my aging mix of X7 and X9. Who knows I'll probably drop a few grams there to make up for the added rubber.

If you're asking to see Christmas Party pics I'm sorry, I was asked by all parties involved no Internet leaks. Oh yeah no pictures were taken as cameras were not allowed entry. After the party I started thinking how the vibe at the party was a bit more reserved that usual, I have a few thoughts on why this is but I'm not 100% sure which it was. Melinda and I went all out on decor, party favors and what not maybe our guests just didn't "bring it", maybe we're all just getting too old for really throwing down. Another thing that could've been the problem was a few key peeps weren't in attendance, some of the more colorful people you might say. Some might say they were saving themselves for the big Iron Mountain ride the next day but I'm not sure, that wouldn't be a legit excuse after the smack talk that went down via email, words I remember being used that rhymed with wussy. Not really a big deal I think we'll skip the Christmas shindig next year.

mud, tires, pizza and beer

2011-12-08T14:10:00.004-05:00

I hate that I've been slacking on the blogger front lately but things have been so busy that finding time to blog has taken a backseat. Finding time to ride has even become difficult, well that and rain. The bike room has even gotten a bit out of control, I've been meaning to put a bunch of stuff on eBay and I finally got around to posting it up today. Alot of changes have taken place, we're purging the bike room of the kids wheels slowly but surely. Now if I can just find time to get the new drivetrain on the JET, I'll been doing good.

After having a ton of fun down at the Fall Festival, riding the "Dirty South", we've been looking for a good excuse to venture back down that way and ride it again. Last Sunday, Melinda and I took a crew of folks who missed it the last time and showed them around, unfortunately it was a bit muddier than before but we still had a blast.

The day before we had been out at Warriors adding some berms to a new section of Boneyard where we had to re-route a monster downed tree. Not only did we add more trail but we upped the fun factor a couple of notches.

The trails were in perfect condition, not muddy at all. I was really surprised at the condition of the D.S. trails after being at Warriors, especially since we got the same amount of rain.

After the ride we ventured over to the Tomato Head, this place is quickly become a staple for our road trips, the pizza rocks and there is always something new to try in the way of beer.

I sampled a fine brew by Marble City Brewing, the amber, "Dad's Dime", an excellent brew.

The semi muddy conditions weren't kind to my drivetrain, I've still yet to put the new parts on and I'd ran out of my preferred lube, Pro Link, which I've come to realize is hard to find in my local bike shops. I did manage to snag a bottle along with the biggest bottle of Stan's juice available, but I forgot to lube my chain before heading out and so by the end of the ride my drivetrain was making all kinds of awful racket.

With the number of tubeless tires we have in the bike room not to mention they ARE ALL now 29 inches we go through the Stan's like crazy. I add at least 2 scoops per tire on the big hoops and with all the tire swapping I've been doing I should probably by stock in the company.

Speaking of tires, earlier this summer I obtained a non-tubeless version of the GEAX Saguaro by chance. I threw it on the rear wheel of the JET9 ghetto tubeless style and it's been an awesome tire. I've been a bit disappointed in the the last 2 sets of tires I've tried on the AIR9. Giving the skinnier, lower profile, light as a feather racey tire a chance has not been the best idea for me. They ride rough and can't handle the trail when it turns rough. The Bontragers left me walking when I sliced the rear on a fireroad and the Conti's were a pain in my ass since day one. I've never been much of a racer type, I don't waste money on a trainer and I only enter races that the fun factor is really high so I'm really not surprised at my disappointment with the tires. Having enjoyed the Saguaro, I threw down my dough on a set for the AIR9. This set was a bit different though, I didn't realize GEAX made a tubeless version but that's what I got and man are they heavy. I think I added a pound, maybe a pound and a half to the AIR9. As sturdy as they are they should be able to handle anything I throw at them. I plan to find out this weekend.

Have a good one, I plan to!

would you like a bag for that?

2011-11-21T22:18:00.003-05:00

These days almost everyone has a smart phone, they are hugely popular and very handy. I have one that I carry with me at all times. I can remember when I was first contemplating buying one, I was trying to figure out how to justify spending the extra cash. For over a year I couldn't see the necessity so I kept on just getting by with a regular old phone, one that makes calls and well, makes calls. I think it did have a camera but I couldn't upload pics to the internet. After a while I couldn't stand it anymore and I bought both Melinda and myself one. I had figured out a plan by cutting our minutes in half that we could justify the purchase. Now that I've had one for over 2 years I can't imagine not having one. They are so convenient and having the internet at your fingertips comes in very handy all the time. Not to mention the most important, posting everything we do from eating a sandwhich to riding a new trail on Facebook.

So as you can image, the accessories for these phone are everywhere, there are gadgets for your gadget and covers to protect your gadget and so on. Well the bike industry has finally tapped into this. There are all kinds of bike related apps you can download but what I'm talking about are the protectors for you phone. I always carry my phone while riding because not only would it be good in case of an emergency but who knows when I might catch a glimpse of Bigfoot and capture a pics for Facebook. Can you imagine the hits and comments your FB account would get if you posted up a Sasquatch photo?

Anyway, when I bought my first "smartphone" I realized just shoving it in my jersey pocket was not going to work. This was a delicate and expensive piece of equipment. I thought long and hard about how to protect my investment from sweat, rain, mud, impacts and Sasquatch incounters. Stashing it in my camelbak is the best protection but I only carry a pack on long hot rides so I needed something small that fit in my jersey pocket.

I've noticed several new wallets or bags made just for this.

Probably one of my favorites by Lezyne but very pricey @ $40. It holds alot more than just your phone but I think by the time I get my phone out of this contraption I would have missed my chance to snap a photo of Bigfoot.

This one is a little cheaper @ $30 but carries alot less. I really don't have a need for credit cards and cash in the woods but it would be handy on the road. Not to mention the canvas would get pretty stinky soaking up all the sweat.

This one it pretty plain and simple for only $20.

I've looked at many different versions but I've yet to spring for any because of this one.

The good ole zip lock bag, a box of 50-100 for $2-$3. It's a no brainer, they also work well for maps, cameras and well just about anything no bigger than a ham sandwich.

This rain is about to ruin the really nice temperatures we've been having, I totally planned to ride tomorrow but with a 70% chance of rain it's not looking good and with Thanksgiving and work this weekend I may be off the bike until next week. Melinda and I were just discussing that we should start a Thanksgiving ride tradition. I'm hoping we can start the tradition this year.

Man's Best Friend - Watch MoreFunny Videos

I thought this was a pretty cool video, that dogs is crazy fast!

Fall Festival cont.

2011-11-18T19:11:00.004-05:00

After the ride we headed back to our vehicles and opted for warmer clothing and began the search for some refueling and adult beverages. It wasn't hard to acquire a beverage, did I mention that it was free? Thanks to New Belgium & local brewery, Underground Brewing for providing some great brew. After a couple of beers we all began to wonder if we should head out in search of dinner because all that they had was popcorn, Little Debbie's & granola bars. Not really wanting to leave I ate my weight in Rice Krispy Treats only to find out a gourmet dinner spread was on it's way, and gourmet it was. It was one of the best meals I've eaten in a long time, and did I mention it was free?

I ran across a few pics on the Facebox of a couple of the new bridges.

This was the one that took out the first rider of the day. Melinda made a point to tell me she rode it twice.

After the sun went down the lights came on, prizes were handed out and a few bands played well into the night.

Stolen Sheep, John Baker, aka (Mr. Hill of Truth) on drums.

Big Bad Oven

The Wild Gifts

Stuff was burned

This one was new on me but impressive, old water heaters used as fire pits. Very cool

After few adult beverages, Rick decided it was time to ride again and he grabbed someone else's bike. A monster bike built from 2 Wal-Mart specials. One frame was a full squish, put on backwards and used as the fork. Needless to say it was tough to get moving and steer, but that could have been the Fat Tire talking.

I hate to say it but we missed most of the late night shenanigans, we called it an early night. We had about a 20 minute drive to the hotel and I didn't want to get into trouble on the way. Unfortunately the only hotel or should I say motel in Knoxville that doesn't discriminate against larger dogs, wasn't the nicest of places. Since when do bigger dogs cause more problems than small dogs? Just because we don't carry our dogs in Melinda's purse doesn't mean we can't stay in a nicer place.

I think we were the minority but most were pretty friendly. The clerk at the front desk advised against leaving any valuables in the car, I took that as our bikes and rolled them into the room, mud and all. Melinda made the comment that we should have camped. How many women do you know that say stuff like that? Next year we probably will.

the Fall Festival and the Dirty South

2011-11-17T19:25:00.005-05:00

The Fall Festival has come and gone and I'm really glad we made the trip. The guys in the AMBC really know how to do it up big and right. Being situated in a much bigger city definitely has it's advantages. Sponsors, bikes shops that really get involved, members with deep pockets, members with good connections, and of course a ton of volunteer help. We rolled into town early to try and score a good parking spot near the action. We had both dogs with us and we didn't want to leave them in the truck the whole time at a different location. We got lucky and scored a good spot in a field so Moonshine and Jackson could run around a bit. In true, "I'm the queen bee badass" fashion, Moonshine picked 2 fights with other dogs right off the bat. I don't understand why she does it but she's feisty and unfortunately cannot run loose when other dogs are around.

As soon as we got kitted up we headed over to where the mischief was and I could tell by the spread that they meant business. The first thing that caught my eye was the beer trailer with 4 taps. Some of the bike shops showed up with a fleet of demo bikes and I'm pretty sure one of our own got hooked on the 29" wagon wheels when he left his kids bike at the car and scored a Kona 29er with full squish.

We had a huge crew roll in with us, probably close to 15 or more so even if we didn't know anyone we were sure to have a good time. Josh the "Discerning Hobo" had heard how cool it was going to be and traveled all the way down from the northern regions to join us on the ride. Check out his take on the day here. There were 4 different guided rides throughout the "Dirty South" trail system. Me and about half of our crew opted for the big ride, 30 miles. I had a feeling 30 miles might be rough with my lack of saddle time but I went for it thinking I could get myself back if I had to bail.

Just as they called for the 30 miler to started I realized I'd forgotten to put any food in my pack. I raced back to the truck, grabbed a bar and rode as fast as I could to catch up with the HUGE group that was taking off for the 30 miler. I swear there were at least 25 or 30 people in our group, waaaay too many for such a long ride. I knew it would only be a matter of time before things went south. I had a map in my pocket, much much better than the map we had last time so I felt ok about getting split up.

The ride was pretty slow going at first, we would get moving and start rolling fast and then all of the sudden stop at a slightly technical spot. I guess some were in a bit over their head when they picked this ride. I was in the middle of my friends riding so I didn't care, we were having fun. We came upon a newly built section of wooden bridges. This is where things turned ugly, as we approached one of the slightly more difficult bridges, the people who had just crossed it stopped causing the guy who was in the middle of the bridge to stall which was bad, very bad. In what seemed like slow motion he flew off the bridge head first still clipped in. People went running when he didn't get up and luckily for him there was a doctor in the house. We sat there for a good 15 minutes while the doc checked him out and helped him out of the ditch. He came up bloody but conscience and walking on his own. Unfortunately for him his bike was trashed and unrideable. As we got back moving we realized that our group leader didn't realized we stopped and kept going leaving us unguided. I'm not really sure what happened to the people who were behind us but we were officially lost, again. After riding around in circles and taking a few wrong turns we found the sweep guy who we nominated to be our new ride guide. He agreed and we were off like a bat out of hell riding race pace. I should have known better to follow a shop guy on a singlespeed. Luckily for us he didn't leave us to get lost again.

The longer we rode the more of our group we ran across and picked up. Some people we found were just out in the woods drinking beer, not sure if they were originally part of our ride but they were happy to ride with us just the same. Even though the pace was ridiculously fast we did stop alot and for long periods of time. The faster you were the longer you got to rest as we waited on the group to re-group. I'm not sure how it happened but we got hooked up with the guys from the TVB bike shop who could ride, ride fast! One guy in the group was rocking a CX bike and riding all the techy stuff.

At every stop, beers were pulled out of packs and consumed. I had a feeling this might happen and I planned ahead not wanting to be the out of towners mooching free beer. I pulled a pint of the kickin' chicken out of my pack and instantly made a whole slew of new friends. Even some of the kids I ride with who normally pass turned up the bottle. Not wanting to blow chunks knowing the race pace would continue I took it easy.

Beer stop #2, only 4 miles into the ride..... nice.

As we rolled on we hit alot of stuff Anthony, Shane and I missed the first time and some stuff that had just been built. Some really cool bermed stuff, rollers and and an awesome section built almost completely with bridges and elevated structures. It was so much cooler than before and I walked away totally impressed the first time.

We even rode some trails that were not trails yet, just ideas for trails. The corridor had not even been cleared, the only thing we had to follow were the orange pin flags. It was an interesting ride indeed. Some rode it, some tried and crashed and some just walked.

If you missed my last post about the Dirty South ride, let me give you a short run down. The trail system is actually 4 trail systems connected by neighborhood streets and greenways. The first time we rode in and out of trails at respectable trailheads, this time we cut through people driveways and backyards to get there. I'm not sure why we did this but the locals didn't seem to think anything about it and no-one came out of the houses chasing us with shotguns so either it was ok or they weren't home.

I apologize for the lack of good trail photos but the time spent on the trails were spent riding as fast as I could and I didn't have time to get my camera out.

I guess due to the amount of time we spent getting lost, drinking beer and doing whatever, we ran out of daylight before we hit the 30 mile mark. Honestly I wasn't sure if there was really 30 miles to hit without doing some backtracking but we managed to squeeze in somewhere around the 20 mile mark and I was plenty happy with that.

I held onto my new updated "Dirty South" trail map for future rides which I'm totally ready to go back now. Hopefully we'll get down sooner than later and I'll remember my way around and not have to rely on the map so much.

More to come, stay tuned..................

trying to turn it around

2011-11-09T09:56:00.003-05:00

It felt good to be off for a couple of days last weekend for a change but I still felt really run down from a combination of too much work, a head cold and sleep deprivation. After my 3 weeks of hell I had one day off then I transitioned right into nightshifts through Thursday evening. When I woke up Friday around noon I knew my body was telling me I've pushed it too far. The thing is, usually when this happens, it's a result of too much riding and not enough rest but I had only ridden once in 3 weeks so you can imagine how bad I was jonesing for a ride. I struggled a bit getting moving but with enough coffee and some fuel in the form of pb&j I made it out the door with my bike, headed in the direction of Bays Mountain.

On the drive over I knew from the way I was feeling that this wasn't going to be one of my better rides and physically I just wasn't up for a big climb so I opted to just stick near the bottom and enjoy the newer singletrack. I was correct on my assumption that it wasn't going to be good, I felt like crap and my riding performance was terrible. So bad if fact that I left the mountain feeling depressed at my state of fitness. I knew deep down inside that I wasn't as bad as I felt but it was still something that bothered me.

Slowly but surely I'm feeling better, I skipped riding on Saturday in favor of trailbuilding. Melinda is still in the healing process so I knew taking the day off was the best decision. On the bright side we made some HUGE progress on the Chestnut trail at Bays Mountain. A new entrance was added as well as a bunch of new trail on the upper section. The new entrance is currently open but does still need some work. I've not ridden it yet but I hope to get out this weekend and see how it rolls.

This coming Saturday is when the real shenanigans will take place, a crew of the local kids are heading down south to Knoxville to join the AMBC for their Fall Festival and hit the Dirty South Ride again. This time we should have a good map plus a tour guide so we can focus more on getting rad rather than getting lost. All kinds of fun is going to be had, I've heard talk of short trackin', beer, live bands, more beer, scavenger hunts on bikes, beer again and even some stuff that can't be mentioned. I guess if you want to know what that is then you'll have to show up and find out for yourself. There have been some improvements made to the trails since we rode them earlier this summer that include wooden structures, I've seen a few pics on the Facebox. Should be a good time so if you're not already too busy washing your hair come on out.

ride, stop, put chain back on, repeat

2011-11-02T20:45:00.005-04:00

A few months ago I had the opportunity to buy a complete, slightly used 10 speed drivetrain at a pretty good price. Technically I didn't need it but it sure has made riding the JET more enjoyable. I've been a 1x9 or singlespeed rider for many years and having a front derailuer on my bike has never been something I've entertained. I like the simplicity of the 1x9 system and once set up properly with a good chain deflector works pretty damn good.

Enter the new JET9 last year, complete with big squishy parts on both the front and back, also something I've not ridden in a long time. The 1x9 system, no so much fun with all this new extra travel that I'm not used to, especially on the big climbs. Once I threw the 2x10 system on the JET it made riding it much more enjoyable. At first I was afraid it was going to make me soft especially with all the extra squish but riding it has become so much fun I can't bring myself to change anything on it. This might have something to do with my craving for another singlespeed, maybe to even me out and feel tougher.

For the past couple of months I've noticed my front derailuer on the JET has been acting a bit screwy. Screwy as in throwing the chain both to the inside and outside of the crank during shifting. No biggie I thought, just needs a bit of a limit screw adjustment. I let it slide for longer than most partly because it really didn't happen that often and partly because whenever I try to do derailuer adjustments they usually get worse resulting in a bad ride for Greg. Over the past couple of weeks it seems to have gotten a little worse and even throwing the chain off the chainrings when riding through rock gardens without any shifting involved.

I finally took the JET to the experts at my local bike shop to address the issues thinking maybe not only am I having shifting issues but maybe the shifty bits were getting worn. The first thing the guys at the shop noticed was my front deraileur and shifter were not the 2x10 system I thought they were. I felt dumb, they were 3x, set up to run just 2 chainrings. Not 100% sure this was the cause of my problems, they went ahead and made some much need adjustments and put some new chainrings and a chain on order.

Now as I said before I'm used to SS and 1x9 systems so the only chainrings I've bought in a long time were Surly singlespeed steel chainrings @ $25 - $30 a piece, they work perfectly for both systems. I never gave much thought to how much the chain rings for a 2x10 system would cost me. Today I heard that price and was blown away! Ouch, don't get me wrong I wasn't being cheated by my LBS, those guys are my friends and would never pull the wool over my eyes. I knew 2x10 stuff was more expensive but I guess I just wasn't expecting it. Once I replace these parts I hope my problems go away and I don't need to invest in a new front derailleur and shifter.

I can't believe I just wrote 5 paragraphs on drive train issues, I'm sorry for that.

I've noticed quite a few local peeps on the Facebox expressing they're grief in missing out on getting into the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek next April. You would have though more folks would have been on the ball, there were Tweets, blog posts, emails and smoke signals announcing when registration opened and with how fast it sold out the last 2 years if I were racing I would have been online the minute it opened.

This year I'm taking a break from the 6WC to head out west to Moab. I've done the 6WC race the past 3 years in a row and it's one of the best races on one of the best courses I've ever done hands down. The fine folks at the BMCC do a heck of a job at putting on one helluva race. I do however hope to visit their hood next Halloween for the 2nd Annual Escape From Dark Mountain. A point to point race consisting of all 3 trailheads, Dark Mtn, The OVT and Warriors Creek. How awesome of a race would that be? This year was the first year they ran it and I hate I missed it. I got an email from the promoter a few weeks prior asking that I help spread the word through our local club with I obviously obliged.

Enough rambling for one night, maybe I'll have something in the way of viewing pleasure after this weekends festivities.

The dirt is calling my name.

back at it

2011-11-01T18:52:00.005-04:00

Oh man does it feel good to get things back to half way normal. The past 3 weeks have sucked like none other. Once every fours years at work we have a big shutdown and do a ton of cleaning/maintenance/repair/improvements. You see I work at a plant that runs 24/7, 365 days a year and this is the only time we have to do alot of the big projects so we really pack a lot into a small amount of time. Every workday was a 12 hour shift spent outside. Week one was a 77 hour week, 2 & 3 were 84 hour weeks. I had 1 day off in that time period. The only plus that comes from this is I get paid by the hour so overtime was good for my paycheck. It would've been cool to have a GoPro strapped to my hardhat, I spent alot of time climbing up and down 200+ foot columns and all over pipe racks. There were some really high crane basket rides as well that had me traversing over onto the columns, talk about exciting.

Yesterday was really my 1st official day off after the madness and I had plans to go for a ride but I developed a nasty head cold a week or so ago and couple that with a bit of exhaustion I just couldn't pull it together. I felt that bad pretty much all day. Today was a better day and even though I'm back at work tonight I made it out to the trails for a ride today and man did it feel good.

I hit Warriors Path with the JET9 and other than a little bit of fitness loss I felt really good. I cleaned everything and felt only a little off in my rhythm. The trails were in perfect shape, almost too good. The local trail gnomes have been hard at it already this fall fixing problem areas and re-routing some sections with huge downed trees. Thank you guys, your efforts are very much appreciated. As I rolled into the parking lot I noticed I was the only one there, it would have made for an excellent day for riding in the buff, not that I did.

I was really expecting the leaves to be really thick on the trail making navigating tough but I was surprised to find they been packed down very nicely throughout the entire trail system and not just the more popular trails. The trails at WPSP have become very popular in the past couple of years and we're seeing a huge boost in mountain biking in our area.

This weekend I hope to get a couple more rides in with Melinda as long as her hip is up to it. She is one tough lady, she's been riding with a torn tendon in her hip for months now without really knowing what's been causing her pain.

Saturday I'll be putting in my hours doing some trailwork out at Bays. We've officially begun the process of building the upper section of Chestnut and there has already been one workday. I hear that the trail gnomes will be at it tomorrow, I wish I could join them. That's enough for now, my head hurts.

off the grid

2011-10-12T13:59:00.003-04:00

I thought about starting off this post talking about my lack of blogging but that's kinda boring and I think I talked about that in my last post a couple of weeks ago so I'll try and think of something a bit more entertaining..................................

Ummm................... I can't really think of much.

I've tried to ramp up my riding as much as possible in the last couple of weeks in order to get the most out of my fall season. Starting Sunday I'll be off the bike for a little over 2 weeks. I won't be laying around on the couch that's for sure. I'll be working 12 hour days, outside standing on concrete and climbing stuff. By the time I get off work and get home I should be pretty much worthless and won't feel like doing much of anything that doesn't involve sitting on the couch or sleeping. If I seem distant and don't return phone calls and emails it's not because I'm mad at you I promise. I should be back on the grid by the first of November.

All the pre-hell at work riding took it's toll on me. I might have pushed it a bit far and wore myself down but it was fun. Most of the rides I did last week, I started out sore. My legs are starting to come back around but my lower back is still a bit tight.

Hopefully once November rolls around the weather will be cooperative and I can't get out on the trails and achieve my goal of 1500 dirt miles for the year. Next year my minimum goal will be 1500 with 2000 on my mind.

I tried to get the rest of my video footage edited but it just didn't happen, time constraints got in the way so I'll hold onto it and hopefully get it finished once the weather turns colder.

Unfortunately it doesn't look good for me and CX this year, as always I talk a big game with plans to attend a few races but never make it out. I just checked the schedule and realized there will be only one race left after my hell at work shift is over. I guess it's a good thing I never bought the Surly.

Earlier this year a couple of us decided to sign up for a cruise, yep big fancy boat and all. I've never been a fan of cruises, they just didn't seem exciting enough to me. Until I saw an ad in Bike Magazine where they would be hosting a Caribbean cruise with guided mountain biking on 3 different islands. Now that sounded like my kind of cruise! We signed up, paid our deposit and started planning. A couple months later we got a call that our cruise which was supposed to be in January got bumped back to March by the cruise line. No explanation as to why but they did refund us our entire deposit. We waited a while unsure what to do but after a couple of weeks we decided to sign back up. Well that never actually happened, we started thinking about other better mountain biking destinations. Now a plan to head out west this spring is in the works. I still would like to go on the cruise but I have a feeling going out west will produce a better singletrack experience without having to put on a coat & tie just to go to dinner.

This will probably be my last post for the month of October, hopefully by November I'll have a renewed sense for blogging.

a Saturday at work

2011-10-01T13:54:00.001-04:00

LOTEK/GARRETT REEVES from Lotek on Vimeo.

Hmmm... If I could learn to ride like this I might not have to work a real job.

finally a new video

2011-09-26T23:33:00.005-04:00

Finally! I got around to editing some of the GoPro footage that I've had stored in my hard drive. I actually just shot this footage last week at my back yard trails, Warriors Path State Park.

I've been playing around with a few new mounting points and I acquired a new mount that allows me to attach the camera to the downtube of my bike. I set out with the intention of riding the entire trail system setting up different shots using 2 separate cameras and multiple different mounting positions on the bike and me. After I got through the first 2 trails I had spent pretty much all the time I had to ride. I was also sick of setting up shots so I called it a day. I'm glad I quit when I did because I had more than enough footage for a good video. Alot of the footage found it's way to the editing room floor and will never be seen so no loss.

As much time as I spent filming this and the amount of stuff I had to carry with me on the bike I doubt if I'll ever shoot with that many angles again. Anyway I hope you enjoy the video as I really worked hard on it. If I had a crew of people things would go much faster and smoothly but I'm the camera man, star, make-up artist and lighting guy all in one.

Enjoy!

sick day

2011-09-23T19:03:00.004-04:00

Wow what a week, a good week it was. A week full of riding and every destination was different. While most of them were in my hillbilly neighborhood, half of them were new to me rides and that's what matters.

I'll skip all the stuff that's local and get right to the good stuff. Probably not new to most who read this blog but the land of Pisgah singletrack is something I've not really ever ventured into. I've ridden Pisgah in some form or another a few times over the years but not the cool back country stuff I've been reading about.

I'd gotten an email from a buddy of mine who conned a couple of other to burn a sick day in favor of riding but no destination had been determined. I suggested hitting Pisgah and over the next couple of days a plan came together.

We all piled into a friend of mines Honda Element stacked way too much gear and bikes in along with us and tried to hang on while he practiced at driving like a NASCAR driver who has nothing to lose.

Of course we got lost, rode trails we weren't supposed to to find our way back, crashed a couple of times, got wet and looked at the map waaay too many times. It had rained the day before and as we we climbing some slick rooty singletrack I began to wonder if we had made the right decision in riding here. That thought didn't last too long as the sun fianlly peaked out and everything dried up nicely. The climbing yesterday was awful mostly because my legs felt like they had bricks strapped to them and I suffered all day but the downhills were well worth it. I had so much fun I'm already trying to figure out when I can go back again. There is so much to explore it's going to drive me crazy.

The only thing that sucked about the whole day is that I forgot my wallet. I hate being a bum but I had no other choice. My breakfast, lunch and beer were all paid for thanks to my friends. Wait a minute, that didn't suck.

I did take along the GoPro and shot some video but after viewing some of it today I found that a portion of it was ruined thanks to a Camelbak strap flapping in front of the lens on one of the nastiest descents we did yesterday. Don't worry there is still plenty of footage to make a short video but it's still disappointing none the less. That makes three rides worth of footage I have saved on my hard drive waiting to be edited into a video, I'm really slacking.

Since I did alot of taking this week and really all summer I decided to take the day off today and give a little back. The dogs were in serious need of some exercise so I killed two birds with one stone and took them along with me for a little bench cutting on the Chestnut trail at Bays Mountain. It felt good to get out and do some trail work, I wanted to stay all day and start working on the new section but I had some chores to do at home. It was an excellent day to be out in the woods working on the trail, not too hot and there were no bugs buzzing my face.

dusting off the blogwebs

2011-09-19T08:28:00.003-04:00

With nothing really substantial to say I decided to log into my blog and dust off the cobwebs. I've been lacking lately and as usual it's been more of a lack of time than anything. Even when I don't have a great story to tell, (great in my own mind) I can usually make something out of nothing just by starting to type.

Work is about to get really nasty in a couple of weeks for me, actually it's been nasty but starting Oct. 10th I will do very little in the way of bike riding or blogging. I plan to make every free day count in the way of riding so if you have a sick day or two to burn hollar, I'll be riding. For those of you who are in the mileage contest with me this is a good time to play catch up. I need a good challenge so get off the couch. Speaking of mileage I'm well over 1000 miles on my mountain bike for the year with a new goal of hitting 1500 before Dec 31st. There is no sense in discussing road miles since I've only done one road ride for the entire year after which I realized my frame was cracked. I've still yet to get any urge to buy a new frame, for a while I seriously considered buying a Surly Cross Check not really for CX racing but more of just cruising on but that has been put on the back burner for more important purchases.

I thought I might do a bit more CX racing this year since the introduction of the fat tire class, but with no points or prizes I guess riding for free in the woods was a bit more appealing for some crazy reason than riding for $10 in the grass with people shouting obscenities in your face and ringing cowbells in your ear. Doesn't sound like fun? Trust me it is, every time I do venture onto the race course and get past that feeling of, "I might vomit at any moment" I think to myself I should do this more often. I totally plan to get out there but since I'm not racing for points skipping the first two or four surely won't hurt me in the standings.

Melinda and I did manage to get in some good quality rides this weekend, the first being the newish Pinnacle fire tower trail on Buffalo Mtn. I've ridden a portion of the trail a couple of times hooking in to the end of the trail from the other side of the mountain for the final push to the top. Saturday we rode from the Unicoi side and did the entire trail from top to bottom for the first time. It was better than I had expected or had heard, yes there are a couple of steep but short sections that were not wisely built but it's better than nothing. Maybe one day they'll extend the trail making it a loop rather than an out and back, now that would be cool.

Yesterday we ventured over to Bays for the usual Sunday ride. Unfortunately I couldn't con anyone to ride with me so I went out for a solo ride with a new route in mind. My pace was a bit faster than I usually do but I was racing against the clock as Melinda was riding with the girls and I wanted to be done when they were. My plan was to hit all the singletrack on the front side as well as some on the back. After passing the fire tower I rolled to over the top via Indian Pipes and all the way down to the bottom bypassing Bear Run. I skipped Kinear Hollow and made it back to the car in record time catching up with the ladies on Chinquapin. For a change of pace I rode the JET9 and had an absolute blast, the more I ride that bike the more I love it. I haven't looked but I'm pretty sure I've put more miles on it than my hardtail this year, something I thought I would never do. It has officially become my new favorite bike.

to me the Fall season has nothing to do with football

2011-09-06T22:05:00.004-04:00

I sent out a couple of emails this weekend to see where we, (GRT) stood on racing this fall and all I really got was uhhh, I think we're gonna do Halloween stuff this year. If I remember correctly I got this same answer from every single one of them. Kinda weird, makes me wonder if there is a big Halloween bash going on somewhere and I didn't get invited. Maybe I did get invited but my invite got lost in the mail. Nah, nobody sends out invitations via the mail anymore.

For the past 5 years in a row GRT has raced the 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth in Knoxville on Halloween weekend. This year it looked as if I was going to have to bow out due to a big shut down at work that's basically going to consume the entire month of October. The official schedule came out a week ago and technically it will be over before Halloween weekend possibly allowing me to race. I'm not going to lie, I'm really not that disappointed in the fact that no one seems interested in going. I want to race but I agree that we need a break.

I was also looking forward to the 3rd and final race of the TN Cup Series, the Ocho Reverse, but it seems as if no one has any interest in doing that one either. I am kinda bummed out about missing this one, especially since we missed the 2nd race due to a last minute date change.

I guess the racing season for me has officially ended, kinda sucks but I'm ok with it. I love to race but it doesn't consume me to the point that I actually put together a training plan. Sure I make a point to get out and ride as much as possible in order to perform well but I hate using the word training. If I ever start riding just to train I'm afraid I'll get sick of it.

In all reality I do have the chance to do a few races this fall with the local cyclocross scene. It's fun for about an hour but that's it. The races are short, in grassy fields and there's no camping but it satisfies the competitive side of me somewhat so I'll take it. I've been thinking hard about buying a Surly Cross Check to replace my broken road frame but I really have no interest in racing an actual CX bike. While slower than a true CX bike, I enjoy racing my mtn bike at the CX races much more. Now with the all new fat tire class I can do so and be a tad bit more competitive.

I have no fear that this fall will be anything close to boring with all the trail building opportunities on the horizon so I guess no more racing for the year is a good thing. Really I'm more excited about building singletrack than anything. It's funny how taking a big ownership in a single trail project has really gotten me fired up about trailbuilding. I've always enjoyed it but this year something has changed. I got really involved in building a new trail this spring, organizing workdays, working on my own during the middle of the week, something I've never down before. I think I might have only missed 2 maybe 3 scheduled work days with the Chestnut project and I've been thinking of going ahead earlier than projected and getting back to work before Fall actually kicks in.

Some people look forward to the Fall season because it means cooler weather and football. I look toward Fall because it means trail building season is upon us!

a little exploration

2011-09-04T12:22:00.003-04:00

Knowing I would be stuck at work all Labor Day weekend I snuck in as many rides as I could find the time for last week. I got in two at Warrior's Tues. and Wed. and one at Bays Mountain on Thursday. I've been want to explore Bays Ridge for some time now but just really didn't want to go it alone. Something about exploring back country trails alone that are not well marked has always kinda freaked me out somewhat.

I conned Richard into heading out with me, packing plenty of water, snacks and a trail map we set off to see what was what and what was not in the further reaches of the park.

We started out on double track that climbed, climbed and then climbed some more before switching over to singletrack and more climbing. The singletrack was super tight and littered with down trees really killing any momentum we ever built up. It had the potential for being a fun trail if it was clear but park maintenance while short staffed doesn't seem to interested in clearing if it can't be reached via ATV.

Bays Ridge was a very fitting name for the trail as we rode across the ridge for a long time. At one point we were directly over a shooting rage than was in full use. We couldn't see the range below and knowing they couldn't see us I was a bit leary of a stray bullet or two making it's way up the mountain. I was prepared to take cover if I heard anything buzzing by my head or even remotely close.

After checking the map a few times we realized we were pretty close to the end of the park's borders and I knew the trail was supposed to end at the bottom of the valley, several hundred feet below us. The further we rode without descending I had a sneaking suspicion that the decent was going to be short and power sliding steep. We came upon a right hand turn looked down and realized my guess was correct. I rode as far as I could under control but a couple more downed trees forced us to dismount and the the pitch got too steep for riding much less for hiking. I really wonder what was going through the minds of the trail builders back when this trail was constructed. Probably something along the lines of "Let's just hurry up and get this over with, I'm sick of building trails."

We did manage to get back on our bikes and finish the decent the rest of the way to the bottom. Once at the end we began the search for the connector trail that was supposed to take us up and over the next ridge so we could ride singletrack our rather than old jeep roads. We looked and looked and looked but never found the trail. I'm sure it existed at one time but no doubt was grown up with weeds and or covered with downed trees.

Needless to say we never found it and wound up riding the jeep road back into the main area of the park. The ride out was quite an adventure in it's self. Not having rain in nearly two weeks you would think everything would be dry but this was not the case. Being deep in a valley with not much in the way of sunshine coming through the thick foliage the huge pits created by illegal access from off road vehicles were still a wet muddy mess. By the time we reached the end of the road we were covered in mud and had picked up and extra 5 or 6 lbs. on our tires.

Having ventured to the end of the Bays Ridge trail I have pretty much covered most of the park's trails and land with the exception of that one connector trail that was hidden or non-existent. I don't regret exploring the Bays Ridge trail, it was fun and a learning experience but it will probably will be a while before I venture back there again.

getting dirty a bit further down south cont.

2011-08-28T20:29:00.004-04:00

Feeling a bit refreshed from snack time and and after checking my water supply I was feeling a little bit better about not running out too early. We hit the pavement once again just after checking the map ride side up and headed down the road in search of a school, not sure the name of the school but we were fairly positive it was an elementary school. It didn't take us long to find it and thinking back to the directions we were given before we left I recalled our guide telling us to skirt right, around the school and the trail started just behind it. We immediately found a road that skirted right around the school so we followed it assuming we would see the trailhead with ease. Well that wasn't the case but we did see some very interesting yard art. Several cars, some old, some European, some homemade and an old Hamburgular statue from a MacDonald's playground, you remember, from the good ole days. Anyway we didn't see a trail head so we turned around and headed back to the school thinking we might have missed it with all the interesting yard art to gawk at. Once we reached the school it was evident there was no trailhead but there was an abandoned house directly behind the school. Since it was apparent there was no one living there I decided to ride through the yard and circle around behind the house in search of the hidden trailhead. As I cruised through the backyard not really expecting to see anything I found a hole in the shrubs and low and behold there was a trail running behind the property. I wasn't exactly sure we were in the right place but it definitely looked like singletrack so we decided to ride it and see where it went. Worse case scenario we would be riding the wrong singletrack but it was still singletrack so what the hay.

We cruised along wondering aloud whether we were on the right trail or not, but judging from the trail conditions we were, it was in too good of shape and flowed too well not have been built by mountain bikers for mountain bikes.

We stumbled across a downed tree of rather large proportions and knowing it was too large to clear I opted to walk it. Shane decided it was rideable and well.... just watch the video.

I will have to give Shane credit, he did attempt it again and cleared it as did Anthony.

Another mile or so we started noticing some really cool trail markers with a cool chain ring logo of sorts printed on them. We knew then that we were on the right trail just not to sure if we started in the right spot. I just can't imagine a trailhead being located in someone's back yard or at least what used to be someone's backyard. A little further we found a couple of maps attached to trees along the trail which helped us navigate the system a little better.

The 3rd trail system from what I can tell is all on private land owned by the head honcho of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, evidently he has access to some mechanized equipment, that paired with a nice piece of land has created his own little mountain bike haven that he shares with the public. The wooden structure pictured above was located just a couple hundred yards from his house which thoroughly impressed me. Note to Melinda, I don't care what our next house looks like as long as we have a couple of acres to build our own trails on. Once we had ridden our fair share of the 3rd trail system we decided it might be a good idea to head back before we were out of water and with the amount of wrong turns we had made there was a good chance of a couple more.

We rolled down a gravel road which dumped us onto a paved road all of which were not marked and then Shane announced we were to turn left back onto another graveled road. After a few minutes of this I began to question him since nothing was marked and how was he so sure about this specific turn. Shane rambled on in a way that only Shane can and he did make a very convincing point but before he could finish the road ended. I laughed nervously as Shane added another beer to the first one he promised to buy me for leading us astray. As we back tracked he found another turn and decided to follow it. Anthony and I decided to wait as it didn't look like much but surprisingly he found singletrack. Still no markings but it was singletrack so we rode it, how Shane found it and figured out which way to go I'll never know. It was either shear luck or maybe my guardian angle was whispering in his ear.

This singletrack was obviously not built by mountain bikers as it went straight up and down the steepest sections of the hills but we found the river we that was pictured on our map so knew we were headed in the right direction and we finally ran into another rider who confirmed we were on the right path. About another mile of billygoat style singletrack and we dumped out onto a paved greenbelt and simultaneously my Camelbak ran dry. I was never so glad to see a paved path while riding my mountain bike. Out of water and legs made of toast I was ready to find the car and refuel.

Shane announced that he felt he had redeemed himself and took back one of the beers he promised me, I agreed and looked for a tow rope to attach to his handlebars. Anthony and I were ready to get back to some water but Shane felt the need to keep stopping for stretching, gels and bird watching.

Once we finally reached the car I grabbed my extra water bottle I had left in the car, hot water never tasted so good. We made our way home but not without stopped for beer and pizza, I highly recommend the Tomato Head and it has nothing to do with the fact that there is a Marble Slab Creamery right next door.

getting dirty a bit further south

2011-08-26T19:43:00.003-04:00

As promised, I finally had a little time to squeeze together this short video of the slip n slide. It was a blast!

Earlier this week Anthony, Shane and myself hit Knoxville early one morning to attend a grant workshop. Writing grants is something we know little about but something we plan to take advantage of, especially if we want to get into the wonderful world of mechanized trail building.

We weren't about to drive all the way to Knoxville just to attend a boring meeting, Anthony put in a call to the local mountain bike club and asked if we could get a fully guided tour of Knoxville's "Dirty South Ride".

The Dirty South Ride is a group of 3 trail systems all connected by residential roads, green ways and older trail networks built with the hiker state of mind, straight up and straight down. After the grant workshop we hooked up with our guide only to find out he had to bail on us. Luckily another fellow from the club volunteered to escort us to the trailhead, loan us a map and point us in the right direction.

Our map was somewhat sketchy and falling apart but we weren't about to let that deter us from riding. We were riding within the city limits so how lost could we really get?

The first trail system started right out of the parking lot we were parked at and it lead us right past an old rock quarry which was interesting enough for us to stop and snap a few pictures. The trails were tight, twisting and fast. Feeling fresh and rested we probably rode them a bit too hard not realizing we needed to conserve energy for the extra and unnecessary miles we were about to ride. Once we covered all of the trails we popped out into a neighborhood. Shane was manning the map and pointing us in the direction of our next destination. After about 2.5 miles of pavement we realized we had missed our turn somewhere and ended up back tracking all the way to where we started. Shane realized he was looking at the map upside down and we went left where we should have gone right. He acknowledged his mistake and stated he owed us a beer at lunch.

Once back on track we found our next trail system quickly. This trail system was better than the first with a bit more rocks to keep things interesting. The heat and extra mileage was starting to take it's toll on us, it was then that I began kicking myself for not filling my Camebak completely full. The semi weight weenie inside of me hates lugging a full Camelbak around and the JET only has one water bottle cage which I stupidly decided not to use. What was I thinking?

I really enjoyed the 2nd system but not to it's full potential. Once we finished we opted to take a break, measure our water levels and have a snack. So far both trail systems had detailed maps at the trailhead, something our pocket map lacked. Once we felt rested and somewhat rehydrated we saddled up and hit the pavement in search of the 3rd trail system.

too be continued..........

NTMBA goes camping

2011-08-25T19:33:00.002-04:00

So I guess I've been slacking again, I've been very busy even though I've been off all week. Meetings the past 3 days in a row, but luckily for me and you they have all been mountain bike trail related. More trails are coming to our area and we are working hard to see this done. Unfortunately it takes paperwork and meeting before tools or machines can hit the dirt but we'll do what it takes.

On the home front I've been dealing with a couple of jack asses who think they can get away with taking my money and not doing the work they were paid for. Evidently there are several of these people in our area and I'm taking steps to see the fools who thought they could pull the wool over my eyes won't do it again to me or anyone.

Even though all of this has been going on and taking up a great deal of my time I have managed to get in some great rides. A little over a week ago our local club hit Wilkesboro NC for a weekend of camping and singletrack action. The weather last year was a washout but this year we had near perfect weather.

Friday night started off with a bang, a group night ride on the Warrior Creek trails. Those trails are a blast during the day but riding them at night put a whole new perspective on things. I opted to go with one of my new LED flashlights zip tied to my helmet as my only light for the ride. It worked pretty well even though I mounted it a bit too low. It was plenty bright but not quite as bright as my Magicshine.

Saturday we hit Dark Mountain for a change of pace and ran into a couple of the BMCC guys who were kind enough to show us some of their favorite loops. I pretty much rode the JET9 the entire weekend, that thing is so much fun to ride I'm afraid all the squish is making me soft. Near the end of the ride we hit the downhill section and I was able to stay off the brakes a bit more than normal but I doubt I'll ever see big air. It was so much fun some of us pedaled back to the top for another run. Did I mention the JET pedals uphill almost as well as down?

After Dark Mtn we broke for lunch, refueled and then broke out the Big Mtn Slip N Slide to cool off a bit before heading back into the woods. With almost 80 foot of plastic and 5 bottles of baby shampoo to make things good and slick, all paired with a really long hill, we had a ridiculously fast slip n slide. It was so fast there was no stopping you once you ran out of plastic. Everyone who wasn't chicken and dared to give it a run hit the grass at high speed at the end leaving you with a grassy assy. Some walked away grassy, some muddy and even a little bloody but everyone had a smile on their face. Video footage to come soon.

Even Jackson enjoyed himself, he really wanted to hit it but I was afraid his claws would rip the plastic.

After everyone had there fill of the slip n slide we headed back out into the woods for another round of the Warrior Creek trails. The weatherman was calling for rain on Sunday so we didn't want to waste a chance to ride.

Saturday night we had a cookout of record proportions, I've not seen or eaten that much food in a long time.

The weekend seemed a bit too short with all the fun we had, I almost cried when it was time to go home but a stop at the new Mellow Mushroom in Boone made everything a little better.

nada

2011-08-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

10 Things I have learned about Mountainbiking from Filme von Draussen on Vimeo.

A nice little video I ran across cause I got nuthin' to say, too busy preparing for an epic weekend railing some sweet singletrack.

all the cool kids are doing it

2011-08-07T14:57:00.004-04:00

A little bored the other day and I was cruising the internet and I ventured over to mtbr.com. I rarely read the forums unless I've got nothing better to do. Usually there are a bunch of folks doing nothing but arguing about what is better than what and a bit of trash talk. I was looking down through the 29er forum when a kid asked the question, "Why is EVERY manufacturer moving their line-ups over to 29er?" This of course sparked the huge debate over which is better the 29" or 26" wheel. The thread being 2 weeks old really left nothing for me to say, not that I was going to argue for the sake of 29er's. I'm pretty neutral on this issue. If you want to ride a 26er be my guest, if you think they handle better in the tight stuff that's great. I really don't care, I've had both and my preference is the 29er. Usually when a new rider asks me for advice on what type of bike to buy I give them this suggestion. Shop around, and do it at your local bike shops, haggle a bit, then pick the nicest bike for your money.

I didn't read the entire thread, because it got a little ridiculous but I did see something of interest on the 26' hardtail. Someone stated it seems as if the high end 26' hardtail is starting to be phased out. I honestly haven't noticed this and yes I'm sure there are plenty of manufacturers who still make them but I'd say this is starting to be the case. Not because one is better than the other but because the high end 26" hardtail isn't really selling anymore. I know of a couple of folks who still ride them but most have switched to 29. You can still find plenty of 26' hardtails in the lower end models and I doubt that will change anytime soon. Honestly if I ever went back to a 26" it would be an FS, I can't imagine ever riding a XC 26er hardtail again.

I've always liked being a little different, kinda going against the flow and while the Niner brand was popular when I bought mine not many people had them in our area. None of the LBS's carried Niner but once one of them had the opportunity to I jumped at the chance, I really don't like buying bike frames online. Now with a local dealer, Niner's popularity in my hood has really taken off and I'm no longer one of the few. It kinda sucks but I'm not about to sell my Niner's just to be different.

Speaking of different and cool things, I was looking for something like this but couldn't find it until now.

I was having trouble finding a bashguard for my 2x10 system and I ended up ordering an MRP taco but had this little jewel came out a couple week earlier I would have bought it instead. I will admit I'm a bit curious how well the duel sprocket chain guide works but it sure looks cool.

the future is so bright I gotta wear shades

2011-08-03T08:09:00.002-04:00

Actually the future looks like hard work, sore muscles and a sore back, blistered hands, sweat maybe a little blood and a whole lotta dirt and fun.

Last night I attended the the meeting of the minds, the minds that make our local mtn bike club the well oiled machine that it is. There were many topics on the agenda last night, one topic that was not but always seems to creep unexpectantly into our conversations was that of trails, new and old. It seemed that almost everyone in attendance has one or two projects up their sleeve. I have a good feeling it's going to be a very busy fall/winter/spring.

I have my eye on finishing the Chestnut trail at Bays Mountain as soon as the temperatures allow. That and adding some new features to existing trails and fixing some water drainage issues. I also would like to see another trail extended to make it sooo much more fun to ride and eliminating a nasty rutted fireroad.

Fat Tony is on the ball getting us in on the grant writing scene so maybe one day we can incorporate some heavy machinery to take some of the work load off our over burdened shoulders. He also has his sights set on a new downhill trail at Sugar Hallow park. Evidently a group of riders took it upon themselves to create their own trail without asking the park's permission. What they created had good intentions but didn't workout so well. The park found out about the illegal trail and has asked us to go in and create something along the same lines but more sustainable. We obviously have no experience in building a downhill trail and so far our cries for help has yet to awaken the gravity crowd.

Then there is also the land adjacent to Warriors Path, on the other side of the interstate. All we really lack to begin building is permission to access it via the land under the bridge/interstate which connects the two pieces of land. We've been waiting patiently for some time but it looks as if the ball might be rolling again.

All this and a couple of other small projects are looking like a super busy year for the small trail building crew that shows up consistently at the workdays. If only I had a magic wand to wave over the hundreds of riders in this area that take our cities trails for granted but never lend a hand and give back. Many have no idea what goes on and many do but just don't seem to care. I lie awake at night and dream of what could really happen if we could get these folks on board and coming out to workdays. Oh the trails we could build!

more Tsali but of the whitewater type

2011-07-30T18:42:00.004-04:00

In all honesty the price for a guided trip down the Nantahala was a bit more pricey than I really wanted to pay, $38 per person and for $23 you could go it alone with all the gear and a ride to the top. Like I said before, the Nantahala is considered one of the more tame rivers for big monster truck rafts like what we had so we figured our lack of skill in the rapids might bring a little more excitement to the table.

They had us watch some silly movie, showed us how to properly fall out of the raft and of course how to wear a life jacket but I was more concerned about losing my sunglasses than going for a swim. The bus ride up was pretty entertaining or I guess our bus driver was entertaining. Jose Paco Sanchez Julio was his name or so he said and his personality was just as large. We had a few laughs on the way up, in hindsight he might have been working for tips but we didn't tip him.

As we loaded into our raft Andy and I argued over who was going to be the raft leader, you know the person in back doing the least amount of paddling, all the steering and the guy who gets to bark orders at everyone else. We decided to arm wrestle for it but after 15 minutes of neither of us pinning the other we settled on sharing the job which worked out good.

The river was packed full of rafts, some guided, some not and a bunch of kayakers. It wasn't hard to tell which way to go as everyone was taking the same line and the pre-trip video show us in detail which line to take in both of the big rapids. In all reality it's hard to screw up bad, those rafts are huge and will pretty much roll right through anything. Just point them straight and paddle, worse case scenario someone goes swimming or you get hung up on a rock.

With both Andy and I in the back, the raft sat a little lower in the rear, maybe it was designed to do that, I'm not sure but we were ankle deep in ice cold water which made my feet go numb. Walking around with numb feet is harder than you would think and I'm sure pretty funny looking. Being that the river was so crowded with rafts we tried to give ourselves plenty of room as we went through the rapids. At one point we back paddled trying to let the boats in front of us get though and two boats behind us came up beside of us one on each side of us. They both just kind of looked at us funny and then all of the sudden started splashing us from both side with the cold river water. It was pretty funny and really we couldn't get away so we just fought back as best we could. One of the rafts in particular, a group of young guys, seemed to be the ring leaders and were doing the same to other unsuspecting rafts.

A little later on down the river we came across a stranded guy alone in the river, his raft of campadres a couple hundred yards down the river. He had obviously gotten tossed from his boat and they were having a hard time trying to get him back due to the current. Being the nice people that we are we scooped him up and carried him downstream to his raft. As we bussed him down I recognized him from the group of guys who had splashed us earlier. We thought about tossing him out but decided against it with a better idea. As we approached his raft we picked up a little speed maneuvering through some light rapids. Rather than back paddle before reaching his boat we rammed it at full speed. Funny thing was, the guy jumped from our raft into his perfectly just as we hit. The impact shoved their raft up on some rocks hanging them up and we bounced off of them and continued downstream laughing as we watched them trying to get off the rocks.

The rest of the trip went well, we maneuvered the rapids good enough that no one went swimming. We did bounce off a couple rocks here and there, some sideways. The very end just before the take out was where the biggest rapids were consisting of what they called a 4 foot waterfall. I'm not sure it was really a waterfall but it was rougher than anything I've ever done un-guided. There was a take-out point just before the falls for anyone who wanted to scope out the run or for any chicken who just didn't feel up to the run but after some debate we opted to run it blind just in case looking at it scared us into taking the chicken line. It was a little scary, I will admit and for a second I thought we were going to run it sideways, my side first. I actually almost came out but somehow we pulled it out and made it safely to the end.

I probably could ramble on about the weekend some more but I'll save you from the boredom.

more Tsali weekend adventures

2011-07-29T19:31:00.003-04:00

Normally my big weekend adventure posts that span across a day or two usually include a bunch of photos but for some reason we didn't take any pics last weekend. Why we didn't I'm not sure, we had cameras on hand. I guess we were just having too much fun and forgot, sorry. I do have some to share that I forgot about from the previous weekend but I'll get to those later.

So where was I.... oh yeah, Tsali, I ain't gonna lie we didn't put in a bunch of miles on the bike Saturday, after riding Thompson and Mouse Branch we opted for a shower and lunch/beers on the river banks of the Nantahala river. The NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center), if you've never been there is like a small village in itself all centered around the river and whitewater. We've grown attached to the two funky little restaurants that sit on the river banks. The have pretty good food but the local brews they have on tap and the kayak action going on just a few feet from your table is what really draws our attention. We ran back to camp, swapped out sweaty, stinky lycra, grabbed the dogs and headed over to the NOC. Moonshine and Jackson love to play in the water even though it's ice cold. While Melinda stood in line geating lunch I took the dogs into the water to play. There were a couple of kids collecting rocks off the bottom and stacking them up on a larger rock just off the waters edge. Moonshine, who has a thing for rocks was watching the two kids very closely. Before I knew it she started snatching their rocks they were laying out to the side. After a minute the kids realized what was going on and gave me the stink eye.

While we were having lunch on the banks of the river with the dogs a group of guys practicing swift water rescue for the local rescue squad caught our attention. They were pretty cool to watch, especially their techniques for pulling someone out of the water in class 2 and 3 rapids. I noticed all of them were wearing helmets with their names or nicknames written on duct tape on the front of their helmets. In one particular rescue they had their biggest guy, probably pushing 300 lbs., with the nickname "ham sandwich" or "hamburger" stand facing up stream while the rest of the guys ducked in behind him in two lines. Ham Sandwich was wide enough that the rest of the guys could stand behind him and stay out of the current. They all kind of leaned into him to keep him upright against the flow and walked sideways out into the river to the person who they were rescuing. They grabbed the kid up tucked him in behind Ham Sandwich and carried him back to shore all as one unit, Ham Sandwich diverting the rapids around the group.

Sunday morning after we ate our weight in free pancakes we loaded up and headed back to the NOC for an appointment with some whitewater. It's been a long time since I rafted the Nantahala so I really couldn't remember the difficulty but everyone said it was pretty tame so we opted to go unguided. If things got slow on the river we figured our lack of experience might make it a bit more entertaining.

more later..........

trip to Tsali

2011-07-28T19:04:00.004-04:00

I probably should have broken my last post up into 2 or 3 but I honestly didn't think I would write that much. The more I wrote the more the details started coming back to me. I hope it wasn't too boring and full of a bunch of grammatical errors. Usually Melinda will let me know if there is and will make me fix them.

Last weekend we took a short camping trip down to Tsali for a bit of singletrack action with our local mtn bike club. About half of the group made a weekend out of it camping at Tumbling Waters Campground and the other half drove down for the day on Saturday.

We usually opt for the Tsali campground which is located right at the trailhead but the last time we were there it seemed that the campground was in need of some maintenance. The bath houses were in bad shape as were the campsites and it was difficult to drive through the place with out dragging roof mounted bikes through the low hanging trees. Since we've had such a hot summer we decided to stay at Tumbling Waters for a little something different, that and the full hookups in each site for only a couple of dollars more. We've stayed there once before but it's been a while and back then we were still tent camping as were most of the rest of the crowd that weekend. This last weekend the place was packed full with large campers. They squeezed us and our little 16 foot ECO in between two, 25+ footers. The campsites were alot smaller than we are used to, putting our neighbors sewer hookup right next to our picnic table.

The close proximity was really my only complaint, Tumbling Waters and it's owners are great. The campground and bathrooms are clean, shaded and there is a nice stream running along one side of the campground. We really weren't bothered by our neighbors noise with the sound of the stream just a few feet from our site. Another nice thing about Tumbling Waters is that the owners cook breakfast Sat and Sunday morning free of charge for their guests. I would definitely go back but I might request a different spot, I could give up the stream for a little more room especially with two large dogs laying around.

Saturday after breakfast we loaded up the bikes and drove over to the trailhead and met up with the rest of the group who were day tripping it. We opted for Mouse Branch and Thompson Loop since the right and left are usually what we ride when racing there. The trails seem to be in a little bit better shape since the formation of a local SORBA club.

The ride was a nice casual pace for the most of the day and everyone seemed to be enjoying the trails and just having fun. I can't remember what sparked it, probably me, but a little smack talk started up towards the end of Thompson Loop. Before I knew it someone said something about a race to the end, probably Mr Dillow and of course I obliged. We cruised along for a bit until someone said go and we were off. Of course the prize for the winner, a cold beer paid for by the loser at lunch. Things started off kinda slow at first, I'm not sure if everyone as taking it too seriously until Andy stood up and stomped on the pedals leaving us all in the dust. That right there sparked a full on race and it wasn't long before Abby joined in on the trash talking. As we tried to chase Andy down Abby pulled ahead really digging deep as we flew along the singletrack. I jumped on her rear tire wondering how long she could keep her pace knowing the trail was getting ready to point up hill. I decided to wait and see before I made a move not wanting to waste all of my energy on the climb. I was aboard the JET which isn't an awesome climber but I knew we had a nice, long and rough downhill at the end. That's where I hoped to catch Andy. As we turned a corner and the hill revealed itself I guess Abby wasn't expecting it and she blew up allowing me to get by her with only Andy to chase down. By then he had put a sizable gap on us and I had a feeling it would be hard to reel him in.

The cool thing about the JET, especially after the recent upgrades is it has really boosted my confidence on the downhills, something I really needed. I really opened it up once the trail pointed downhill and tried my best to catch Andy. I made up alot of ground on him and reeled him him pretty close but ran out of trail and took 2nd. They always say races are won on the climbs and I'd say that's true. That's why the JET is my fun bike and the AIR9 is for racing, what little I do. Lately the JET has become my go to bike, I've had a ton of fun riding it.

Since I've already written more than I thought I would I'll stop for now so not to bore anyone to death and save the rest for later.

triathlon re-cap

2011-07-25T20:05:00.012-04:00

What can I say other than I'm a slacker, well not really. I totally meant to write a lengthy post reflecting on my first adventure in a triathlon last week but my work week decided otherwise for me. Last week was one of those weeks that makes you think seriously about whether you chose the right career path or not. I'm not going into details about what went down but I'll just say I definitely earned my money for the month of July.

So the triathlon, well it's been so long since it happened I've pretty much lost interest in telling the story but I feel I owe it to somebody who might have read my last post and actually came back the next day in hopes of finding a recap so here goes.

A group of us met up to pre-ride the race course Friday night just to get a feel of what exactly we were getting ourselves into the next morning and I'm really glad we did. It was raining when we pulled into the p-lot and I told everyone else they were welcome to skip the pre-ride in favor of a more dry environment at the local mexi joint but no one backed out. The course was all off road, slick, rooty and included about 5-6 bridge crossings that were moss covered and slicker than penguin doo-doo. Most of them were also positioned in the middle of a turn which required you to dismount, tip-toe carefully to the other side, and make absolutely, positively sure your rear tire was clear of the end before either foot touched a pedal.

The course consisted of a 3.5 mile trail run, a kayak portion that circled the lake which was small before returning back to the short but nasty slick trails for 2 more laps on the bike.

Saturday morning the race started off in the rain and thankfully my pre ride in the rain the previous night paid off so I kind of knew what was expected. I toed up on the line, checked the GoPro, it was working, and waited for the start. For some reason a majority of the racers opted to start a bit further back and I wasn't sure why because I knew I had showered that morning. I stuck to my spot because I knew once we hit the woods, passing would be tough and I would rather be in someone else's way than trying to pass a slower runner in treacherous conditions.

When the flag dropped I took off at a bit faster pace than I knew I could handle. My goal was to be in the top 5 when we hit the tree line and I think I was close. Once in the woods I settled into the pace I knew I could sustain and tried not to think about the guys in front of me who were shrinking in the distance. As we ran along I focused on staying up right over speed, I didn't want to take myself out of the race too early with a fall.

About 2 miles in a guy came up behind me quick and breathing hard. I waited for him to ask me to pass but the question never came. I waited some more and then offered to let him by as he was really on my heels. When no answer came I turned, looked, and saw he was plugged into his IPod. Stupid, I figured if he really wanted by me he was going to have to unplug and talk to me so I ran on at my pace not bothering to give him any room.

After a couple of minutes of breathing down my neck he fell back almost as quick as he came on. I'm still not sure what happened to him but he proceeded to repeat this ridiculous performance three more times. After the 3rd time he fell back I didn't see him again until we passed each other on the lake, he was still plugged in.

The kayak portion of the Tri was probably the most boring portion of the race. I didn't gain or loose any positions, my boat was not the slowest but it's far from a race boat. When I reached the first turn around point I realized the buoy was a milk jug. At first I wasn't sure if that was my destination or just a piece of trash some redneck had left behind from a fishing trip but I saw nothing else so I circled it and headed to the other side laughing a bit to my self.

Even though the kayak portion wasn't my favorite section it did allow me to take an inventory of who and what I was up against. The duo folks skipped the kayak portion and the way the paddle section was set up I had to pass everyone who was in front of me which to my surprise was only 2 people putting me nicely in 3rd.

As I circled the second buoy I watched 2nd place finish his paddle, 1st long gone. As 2nd place climbed out of his boat he made the mistake of just standing there watching two older guys pull his boat from the water. I smiled because I knew I had just a gained a few seconds on him. When I pulled in, I jumped out of my boat, threw off my life jacket, handed off my paddle and took off running all in one swift very uncoordinated motion. I may have looked like an idiot but I was moving and not standing watching. My legs felt like 2 dead weights, I guess the run had done them in and after sitting still in the boat they figured their job was done for the day. Fortunately the run to my bike was short but just long enough to get them awake for the ride.

I felt pretty good considering what I had already achieved and felt I had saved myself for what was my strongest portion of the race. The mountain bike portion of the course was the same as the trail run but 2 laps. It was a short ride but with all obstacles, 7.5 miles was all I had energy for. Within the first mile of lap 1, I passed 2nd place, he was dismounting for a bridge crossing and rather than wait on him I opted to ride across right in front of him adding a bit of salt to the wound I had just opened. After that I never saw him again.

By the end of my 1st lap I felt the cramps setting in on my calves. Every time I tried to jump back on my bike and throw down the power one of my calves would lock up. I was drinking as much water as I could but trying to stay upright on that course and drink at the same time was a chore. In hind sight, I should have put a water bottle in my boat.

I pretty much knew my chances of catching 1st place were slim so I just concentrated on being consistent and having fun. The second lap went by smoothly and was pretty much ridden entirely in the rain.

I held onto my 2nd place finish and was just as happy for the podium spot as I was with myself for finishing.

short post

2011-07-19T11:03:00.004-04:00

A short post today, I have alot to say but sooo little time to say it all. This week and next are ridiculously busy for Melinda and myself. We spent the entire weekend in VA. courtesy of Andy and Abby, thanks for the hospitality guys!

Saturday I entered my first ever Triathlon which turned out to be a huge success for me personally. The weather was a total washout and if I had to guess the rain scared off some of my competition allowing me to squeeze in a 2nd place finish. The race was a 3.5 mile trail run, kayak and 7.5 mile mountain bike ride, the longest and most technically difficult portion was the mountain bike section which was my strongest suit, win win for me! The course was wet slick and kinda reminded me of a cyclocross race with all the dismounting and running I did. Staying upright on the bike was a challenge.

I actually filmed the entire race with my GoPro but haven't a had a chance to view any footage, hopefully the wet conditions didn't ruin it but we'll see. It may be next week or the week after before I get to have a look at it.

Sunday I was really feeling the effects of the run and ride in my legs, I actually had a hard time with stairs. I wasn't thinking about the Bays race and how sore I might be after the Tri and I had a feeling on Sunday my chances of making the race were doomed, that and throw in a full workday/workweek to the mix. I hoped for the best but my workday yesterday was not as low key as I had hoped, I decided last minute to skip the Bays race and rest. I did the same last year and regretted it but it meant burning vacation to do the event and I just couldn't afford it. Once again I'm regretting not going but sometimes you can't be everywhere and do everything. Maybe next year

More to come on the triathlon as I find time.....

I might be crazy for not running the Crazy

2011-07-14T21:54:00.002-04:00

Decision made, the Crazy 8's race will go paid for and un-run for me. I hear rumors that this year the race shirt will be of the Dri-Fit variety so I may swing by and grab mine since I paid for it. The rumor might be a lie or in true Crazy 8's t-shirt fashion it might be a Dri-Fit with a ridiculously ugly picture on the front ruining it but I'll take that chance.

The Crazy 8's race is cool and dumb all at the same time, cool because it's freaking huge 3000+ runners, at night, streets lined with water hose armed fans cheering you on the whole way for who knows what reason. Dumb because it's so huge it draws crazy fast Kenyans and runners from all over the country who get their trip paid for just because they're stupid fast. They make us hillbillies look like a bunch of just off the couch fat kids.

So tomorrow I'm loading up the fat tire bikes, kayaks and my trail running shoes in favor of the Bark Camp Triathlon, part of the Mountain Empire Challenge series. My first ever triathlon and race in the kayak I don't expect to be anywhere near the podium but I do think it will be a ton of fun. Neither the run or kayak portion will be my strong point but hopefully I'll make up a couple places I might have lost during the first two phases in the mountain bike ride. Luckily for me my strongest point of the race comes at the end and is the longest.

After planting the seed over a couple of beers last weekend Andy went ahead and took it a step further to enticing me into this mess by planning a whole weekend of shenanigans. Friday we'll pre-ride the race course, race Saturday then stick around to take advantage of the rest of the trails and the lake. That evening he's firing up the grill while we down some canned refreshments, cans because the BB guns will be running HOT.

Sunday the plan is to head up to the Breaks Interstate Park for some more singletrack action. I've never ridden there but I'm always game for exploring new trails and the blackberries are in season so trailside snacks might be abundant.

decisions, decisions

2011-07-09T14:53:00.002-04:00

A few months ago Melinda bought me a cool sticker pack from Niner. It had a ridiculous amount of "Pedal Damn it" and Niner logo stickers. I stuck them on everything I thought would look cool and still had several left over. I put the left overs in the bike room sticker bin and every once in a while when I have a good idea I use one. I have several bike bells laying around the house so I cut one of the Pedal Damn it stickers to fit the inside circle of the bell and it looked great, almost like I had purchased them from Niner. Of course I posted a pic or two on the blog and Facebox and it caught the attention of my friend from down under, Iain. He was very interested in one and asked where he could obtain one. I told him I had made it and unfortunately weren't available through Niner.

Every once in a while Iain purchases one of the t-shirts I create through our local mtb club and with the steep shipping costs I figured the least I could do was make him one and stick it in with his t-shirt. I sent him a note and told him the only thing I required for the bell was some pics of the bell adorning his Niner out on some Aussie singletrack. He obliged and every now and then he sends me a few which I thought I would share.

They're a bit small as I'm still trying to work out the tech features of the iPhone. More to come as I learn how to use this thing.

It seems there may be a shake up in this weekend's shenanigans. I've been alternating my rides with runs in an effort to build somewhat of a running base so I don't totally suck at the Crazy 8's 8k taking place next weekend. Last night at Stir Fry over a couple of beers, Andy of all people talked me into a triathlon that same day. I've never done a triathlon but I've wanted to since my attempt at the Steele Creek duathlon. The thing that peaked my intrest about this one is this one is completely off-road. It begins with a 5k trail run, a kayak portion on the lake and finishes with a 10 mile mountain bike ride. I have been doing all three this summer so I think this could be doable for me. The only issue is that this race conflicts with the Crazy 8's 8k which I paid up for. I'm really leaning hard toward the triathlon since my Crazy 8's registration is lumped into a package deal with two other races. Skipping the 8k won't really hurt me financially since the group rate saved me alot of cash.

Doing both races in one day is out of the question for me. I have all week to think on the issue as there is no pre-registration for the triathlon that I know of. One cool thing would be if I wore the Hero cam during the race. Catching footage of the run, paddle & bike would make for a pretty cool video, something I've been lacking this year.

putting the new bling to the test

2011-07-08T13:52:00.003-04:00

Not having ridden the JET since our trip to FATS I was pretty anxious to get out to Warriors and put the new fork and wheelset to the real test. I'm talking the sweet rooty & rocky mess that we call home at Warriors Path trails. FATS was great fun but I knew to get a real feel for how well the new bling worked I needed to really put it to the test and Warriors has just about everything I needed for just that.

I posted up just about everywhere I could think of, Facebox, NTMBA forum and shot out emails trying to round up a few fools who might be interested in riding with me. I got a couple of bites and when I rolled into the parking lot I was excited to see it was packed.Unfortunately they weren't there to ride, it was packed with a bunch of trail runners trying to take over.
As we descended Darwin's down to the lake we hit some of the better rock sections full of small drops, tight turns and plenty of knar to keep me on my toes. I think if the fork did anything for me it boosted my confidence and I found myself pushing the bike a little harder than normal. It soaked up the bumps and held it's line well.

Not only was I testing out a new fork and wheelset, I was running a new set of tires. I shredded one of the Bontragers at FATS and I knew they had seen their better days. I've recently acquired more 29 tires than I have wheels to mount to them to so I decided to pull a couple from the stash downstairs in the bomb shelter. I mounted up a Geax Saguaro on the rear and a Bontrager Jones XR on the front and have no complaints about either one. They both performed great.

I snapped a few pics of the JET and the tires last night after I got home but I can't upload them yet or at least don't know how to yet. My Android phone had seen it's better days with a nice spider crack across the entire screen. I finally broke down and scored an iPhone but I've used Google's Picasa photo storage for so long I'm not sure what to use for online photo storage with the new phone.

FATS Part 2: the picture essay

2011-07-04T19:08:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the delay for those of you who were waiting patiently for more FATS details. This one is picture heavy.

I think this trip was one of Melinda's better rides, she rode for 5 days straight without much of a complaint. Having the summer off has really helped her fitness. I rarely had to wait on her as she was riding like a champ all week.

We didn't take a whole lot of pics of the trails mainly because they weren't very scenic. Everything looked pretty much the same but we didn't really go for the scenery and there was plenty of that at our campsite. I think this shot was from the Great Wall trail which was one of my more favorites, mainly because it had the most rocks.

The sunset views from our campsite were amazing, we sat at the edge of our site just about every night thankful that the temperatures were going down with the sun.

We had a pretty nice section on the beach all to ourselves, for a lake beach I was really impressed.

Evidence that there were some pretty good sized catfish to be caught in the lake. This one is for you Dustin.

We usually waited until after sundown to grill our dinner. It was really too hot to do it any other way. Melinda came up with some really awesome meals that week.

If you haven't noticed I was a bit lazy and these pics are in particular order. This trail was named Big Rock, and this small section of "big rocks" were the only rocks on the trail.

We saw several of these big guys, or should I say girls, along the trail on our last day. They were laying eggs and why they picked such a close proximity to the trail I'll never know.

Brown Wave sign, the local club did an excellent job of pointing riders in the right direction. The maps sucked but really weren't necessary due to the excellent sign system.

We found this cool firetower on the "Tower trail", there was no access to the stairs so we couldn't climb it but there was a burnt out couch sitting underneath it.

Since I couldn't climb to the top I did the next best thing I could think of, hang upside down from the perimeter fence meant to keep people out. I guess somebody didn't like that as there was a huge hole in the fence. Maybe the folks who cut open the fence were the same people who brought in the couch, kind of as a middle finger to "the man".

Moonshine has always been the swimmer of the kids, Jackson will do nothing more that wade around.

Moonshine, for a while has had an affection for fetching rocks. Since I forgot the tennis balls we opted for throwing rocks for her.

She may not have always retrieved the same rock I threw but she almost always pulled something off the bottom.

A few time I threw the rocks in water too deep for her to touch and at first it frustrated her.

But then she figured out she could dive down and retrieve them. I've never seen a dog dive from a stationary position especially not Moonshine but she got pretty good at it and entertained us for quite a while.

I might have some more in a couple of days or maybe I'll find something else to ramble on about.

FATS: part 1

2011-07-01T20:57:00.005-04:00

Melinda and I just returned from a 6 day trip to FATS in South Carolina. FATS (Forks Area Trail System) is an awesome trail system that is about 20 minutes north of Augusta GA. The campground we stayed at was actually in GA but only a 10 minute drive from the trailhead in SC. We left last Saturday with plans to stay through Thursday but we ended up staying an extra day because we were enjoying ourselves a little too much. We rolled into our drive 2 hours before I had to be at work this afternoon so I didn't have time to sort through any photos for your viewing pleasure.

First up I got the JET rolling with all of it's new bling the Friday before we left.

The new Fox fork was finally mounted once the wheels came in, all in white. Stan's ZTR Arch rims with Sram X9 hubs. I also scored a new to me drivetrain, not that it needed it but the deal was too good to pass up. With the new fork, wheelset and drivetrain the JET felt like a totally different bike. I had so much fun riding it that the only time I rode the AIR9 was to run the trash to the dumpster. I put somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 singletrack miles on the JET and it felt awesome!. It's amazing what a tapered steer tube and thru axel can do for a bike, not to mention a wheelset that's not bent all to hell. It's been a while since I've had a bike with a granny gear and I'll admit I'm scared it might make me a little soft. The only thing I'm disappointed in is the fact that the new chain guide system I installed a while back had to come off but the alternative is worth it.

So about the trails, FATS is like a giant roller coaster or pump track I guess you could say. I'm pretty sure it's mostly machine built with very little in the way of roots and rocks. There isn't much in the way of big climbs either, it's all about big swooping fun. Even though the trails are smooth enough for a beginner to ride with ease it would still be easy to get yourself into trouble by flying off the trail with too much speed.

One of the more popular trails, "the Brown Wave", properly named for the feeling of surfing on the bike. This was one of our favorites and one of only two that we rode more than once. I had read several articles on this trail and it held up to all of the hype and praise, I wish we had a Brown Wave nearby.

The only thing FATS lacked were technical sections, after 2 or 3 days of riding I started wishing for more rocks and roots. Although FATS was a total blast to ride I could see myself getting bored after a while if I was a local. I cleaned every trail in it's entirety at FATS the first time I rode it. I can't say that about some of my local trails. The one thing that does make riding FATS tough is the heat, it wore us down faster than a 6 mile climb. You couldn't escape it, Melinda and I were both carrying water bottles specifically just for pouring on our heads during the ride by the end of our trip.

Our campsite was one of the nicest I've stayed at in a while, we scored a sweet spot with plenty of room right on the lake. We could of easily fit two tents and two more cars in with our camper and they had much bigger sites. Our entire week consisted of getting up early, eating breakfast and then heading straight to the trails to beat the heat. When we were too tired or hot to ride anymore we would retreat back to camp, eat lunch and then head to the lake with a cooler of beer and the dogs to recharge. The dogs absolutely loved it, probably one of their favorite trips we've been on.

Unfortunately I didn't get any footage with the GoPro, I decided to wait until I got a better feel for the trail system the first couple of days before filming. Once I knew my way around and what was worth shooting I ran into a dead battery problem. I'm not sure what happened, I charged them all before I left so it's a mystery. I'm sure we'll be back for more later this year or next so I'll give it another shot then.

too be continued......

random

2011-06-24T09:41:00.002-04:00

Been busy lately hence the lack of posts, although I didn't get any quality riding in this week I did get down to Asheville last weekend for a Bent Creek ride with some people I don't get to ride with often. Most of my usual riding crew was outta town, doing other important stuff or sitting through weddings that had no juice.

Luckily for us the threatening rain and thunder held off until right up until the very end. Had I not lead a small group down the wrong trail which dead ended into a fence we probably wouldn't have gotten wet. We were the last ones off the trail but also the cleanest riders in our group to leave. Probably the last 3 miles of our backtracking, trying to find the right turn was in a heavy down pour. It was actually pretty nice as both me and my bike were clean by the end of the ride. So clean in fact that I forgot to take a shower that evening once we got home and it wasn't until Melinda insisted the next afternoon that I did so.

On the way home Rick conned Olga and Melinda into stopping at the nearest grocery to hunt for some beer that we can't get in TN. I scored big with 3 different New Belgiums and an Abita I've never seen. They didn't have the mix-a-six program like most stores but I got lucky and found a pre-mixed pack allowing me to get 4 different kinds of my choosing in 2 packs.

I'm off to the LBS this morning to pick up the JET with it's new facelift. This bike is going to be super pimp with a lot of white bling. Alan said something along the lines of me looking like Frosty the Snowman. The wheels finally came in and the fork is on. Unfortunately I probably won't have time to ride it today due to getting it all dialed in but we have a trip to FATS coming up where I'm sure it will see much more action than the AIR9.

FATS in the heat of the summer? Yes, having a camper with AC does make taking trips like this a bit more doable no matter what the weather. This trip is just Melinda and I with the dogs, we didn't really take a vacation alone last year so we're getting one in this year but skipping the beach in favor of singletrack.

I plan to take the Go Pro and shoot plenty of video of the riding, it's been a while since my last video.

words of wisdom from the guys @ Surly bikes

2011-06-16T22:29:00.002-04:00

Every once in a while the guys from Surly write a blog post that really makes me smile, today this one was one of those posts and I thought I would share.

Enjoy

If you think your bike looks good, it does.

If you like the way your bike rides, it’s an awesome bike.

You don’t need to spend a million dollars to have a great bike, but if you do spend a million dollars and know what you want you’ll probably also have a great bike.

Yes, you can tour on your bike – whatever it is.

Yes, you can race on your bike – whatever it is.

Yes, you can commute on your bike – whatever it is.

26” wheels or 29” or 650b or 700c or 24” or 20” or whatever – yes, that wheel size is rad and you’ll probably get where you’re going.

Disc brakes, cantis, v-brakes, and road calipers all do a great job of stopping a bike when they’re working and adjusted.

No paint job makes everyone happy.

Yes, you can put a rack on that. Get some p-clamps if there are no mounts.

Steel is a great material for making bike frames - so is aluminum, carbon fiber, and titanium.

You can have your saddle at whatever angle makes you happy.

Your handlebars can be lower than your saddle, even with your saddle, or higher than your saddle. Whichever way you like it is right.

Being shuttled up a downhill run does not make you a weak person, nor does choosing not to fly off of a 10 foot drop.

Bike frames made overseas can be super cool. Bike frames made in the USA can be super cool.

Hey, tattooed and pierced long shorts wearin flat brim hat red bull drinkin white Oakley sportin rad person on your full suspension big hit bike – nice work out there.

Hey, little round glasses pocket protector collared shirt skid lid rear view mirror sandal wearing schwalbe marathon running pletscher two-leg kickstand tourist – good job.

Hey, shaved leg skinny as hell super duper tan line hear rate monitor checking power tap train in the basement all winter super loud lycra kit million dollar wheels racer – keep it up.

The more you ride your bike, the less your ass will hurt.

The following short answers are good answers, but not the only ones for the question asked – 29”, Brooks, lugged, disc brake, steel, Campagnolo, helmet, custom, Rohloff, NJS, carbon, 31.8, clipless, porteur.

No bike does everything perfectly. In fact, no bike does anything until someone gets on it to ride.
Sometimes, recumbent bikes are ok.

Your bikeshop is not trying to screw you. They’re trying to stay open.

Buying things off of the internet is great, except when it sucks.

Some people know more about bikes than you do. Other people know less.

Maybe the person you waved at while you were out riding didn’t see you wave at them.

It sucks to be harassed by assholes in cars while you’re on a bike. It also sucks to drive behind assholes on bikes.

Did you build that yourself? Awesome. Did you buy that? Cool.

Wheelies are the best trick ever invented. That’s just a fact.

Which is better, riding long miles, or hanging out under a bridge doing tricks? Yes.

Yes, you can break your collar bone riding a bike like that.

Stopping at stop signs is probably a good idea.

Driving with your bikes on top of your car to get to a dirt trail isn’t ideal, but for most people it’s necessary.

If your bike has couplers, or if you have a spendy bike case, or if you pay a shop to pack your bike, or if you have a folding bike, shipping a bike is still a pain in the ass for everyone involved.

That dent in your frame is probably ok, but maybe it’s not. You should get it looked at.

Touch up paint always looks like shit. Often it looks worse than the scratch.

A pristine bike free of dirt, scratches, and wear marks makes me sort of sad.

A bike that’s been chained to the same tree for three years caked with rust and missing parts makes me sad too.

Bikes purchased at Wal-mart, Target, Costco, or K-mart are generally not the best bang for your buck.

Toe overlap is not the end of the world, unless you crash and die – then it is.

Sometimes parts break. Sometimes you crash. Sometimes it’s your fault.

Yes, you can buy a bike without riding it first. It would be nice to ride it first, but it’s not a deal breaker not to.

Ownership of a truing stand does not a wheel builder make.

32 spokes, 48 spokes, 24 spokes, three spokes? Sure.

Single speed bikes are rad. Bikes with derailleurs and cassettes are sexy. Belt drive internal gear bikes work great too.

Columbus, TruTemper, Reynolds, Ishiwata, or no brand? I’d ride it.

Tubeless tires are pretty cool. So are tubes.

The moral of RAGBRAI is that families and drunken boobs can have fun on the same route, just maybe at different times of day.

Riding by yourself kicks ass. You might also try riding with a group.

Really fast people are frustrating, but they make you faster. When you get faster, you might frustrate someone else.

Stopping can be as much fun as riding.

Lots of people worked their asses off to build whatever you’re riding on. You should thank them.

dancing the bike room jig

2011-06-15T22:50:00.004-04:00

There has been alot of moving and shaking going on at "riding with dogs" headquarters. When I say moving and shaking I'm referring to bike frames and parts. With the acquisition of not 1 but 2 Niners this past year for me, Melinda has been long over due for a new bike or frame or whatever. I've been on her to find something new but in a mostly male dominated sport there just aren't alot of choices out there for women. Half of them are spec'd low or have foo foo paint jobs and Melinda just doesn't like foo foo color schemes. After much discussion and an attempt on a demo Niner she decided to stick with the BMC but this years model. Rather than buy the whole bike, she just went for the frame and swapped over all the parts. She's been upgrading parts and really has her bike decked out. It's easily the nicest spec'd bike in the bike room.

After a couple of days of riding the new frame she complained about smacking her pedals on roots and rocks she had not previously hit. After a bit of over due research we realized there was a bit of a geometry change in the frames. Her new bike was set up to run a 120mm fork and her old frame a 100mm. I made another call to the LBS and she now has a new Rock Shox SID on the way, wow!

I spoke of moving and shaking and it's not all been on Melinda's side of the room. The JET is in the process of a facelift as well. I did a bit of researched, asked alot of questions, thought about it and then re-asked some questions and then made the call to replace the current Reba SL fork with a new 2012 Fox F29 RLC 15mm thru axel fork with the Kashima coating, I love saying that word, Kashima, it just rolls off the tongue. Anyway the part in question was my Mavic wheelset, I wasn't sure if it would convert to a thru axel but after many questions I was told it would. Well, the fork came in and I immediately went to work trying to convert the front wheel to accept the thru axel but it was a no go. I'm not placing blame anywhere so don't anyone get huffy, I should have done my homework a little better and I wanted and needed a new wheelset anyway so what the hay.

After much debating and pricing I finally placed an order, then today I changed that order to something slightly different but I'm gonna wait until the wheels get here before letting the cat out of the bag as to what.

Until then the fancy Kashima will have to reside here on the couch.

Since my discovery of the crack in my road frame yesterday I've given some thought to what to do in my predicament. I'm not making any decisions yet mainly because there is too much going on in the way of upgrades to the fat tire bikes right now but I have had my eye on a certain steel frame made by Surly for a loooong time.

I've had a soft spot in my heart for the Cross Check for sometime but due to my lack of CX racing and commuting I've never pulled the trigger on one. Maybe later in the summer if I pull a couple of overtime shifts I might be able to acquire one of these bad boys and swap over the parts from my road bike. I know it's not a true road bike but I'm not a true roadie either. I don't race on the road nor do I do metrics or centuries or anything like that. A frame like this for me could be a road bike, a commuter, and a singlespeed/geared CX bike.

I'm not making any decisions, I can't afford to right now but who know what the future holds, I'm just thinking out loud. Man that Robin Egg blue looks weird and cool all wrapped up in one big ball of steel. I like weird and cool.

my road riding season officially started and ended today

2011-06-14T20:59:00.004-04:00

I stated earlier in the year that I planned to ride my road bike more this year and I was serious when I said that. I had a small itch to ride the road, very small. So small that I haven't scratched it until today. I had most of the day off today and I was trying to think of something easy to do to give my legs a rest but yet I didn't want to waste the day and not ride. I decided the time had come to take the road bike down off the wall and take it for a spin.

I have contemplated selling it a couple of times this summer but kept talking myself out of it thinking I would regret it. I knew I had to get out and ride it to see if I had been missing anything. I decided to do just a short ride and work some of the soreness out of my legs and try to just have fun. The thing about road riding for me is it's hard to free your mind and just ride, I'm constantly watching and listening for cars. In the woods I don't have to worry as much about this because if I come into contact with something it's my fault.

As I rolled out of the parking lot it and onto the road I went through a quick run down of all the shifty bits and brakes, everything worked smoothly and flawlessly. The good thing about road bikes is, the parts last so much longer and take much less abuse.

I wish I could say I fell in love with road riding all over again but I didn't, I didn't hate it but there was nothing there that made me want to ride more and more. I actually found myself thinking about my mountain bikes and some of the new upgrades I doing to the JET. I imagined my self slicing through the woods, leaning my bike into bermed turns, getting small amounts of effortless air off of rocks and natural dirt jumps and splashing through creeks. Yeah I'm truly a mountain biker at heart, if I was told I could only own one bike it would be one with fat knobby tires, no doubt about it.

As I pedaled along I tried to immerse myself in the road but the pavement never really changes like the trail does. There are no berms, roots, rocks or wooden structures. Occasionally you'll run across some rough or broken pavement, maybe a dead raccoon but riding on skinny tires pumped up to 110 psi really makes riding over anything but smooth pavement suck.

As I cruised back into the parking lot where I left my truck I decided one ride was not enough to give up and sell my bike. It would take some time to get back into the groove and get a feel for riding the road, then maybe I will enjoy it more.

As I lifted my bike up onto the bike rack I gazed across the frame admiring it's sleek lines when something caught my eye. I took a closer look at the top of the seat stay just above the area where the carbon meets the aluminum and wiped the road grime off the paint. I'll be damned if there wasn't a hairline crack all the way around the top half of the tube. I couldn't believe it, just when I thought I was going to re-open an old door it was slammed back into my face. Suddenly I felt that feeling of despair when you loose something special. Even though I've neglected my road bike for the past couple of years I still like to ride it and any thoughts of selling it to fund another mtn bike or some bling bling parts were washed away in an instance.

Now I'm left not knowing what to do with my situation, I really don't see myself spending any money on a new frame anytime soon. With all of the new upgrades to mine and Melinda's mountain bikes there is just no room in the budget. That and once the transformation of the JET is complete a new road frame would get passed up all summer and just collect dust on the wall.

I guess for now I'm just going to hang the broken bike on the wall until something speaks to me.

tough as iron and skull fragments

2011-06-10T10:12:00.006-04:00

Every once in a while a group gets together and does a backcountry ride in the mountains of VA. Iron Mountain they call it and the name is fitting. It's a tough place to ride up and down. This year I've managed to make it twice which is really unusual for me. A majority of the time the ride dates are set on days I work and with the limited amount of vacation I usually have to pass.

I'm supposed to be racing the H8R in Knoxville this weekend but after a date change by the promoter AGAIN, B-Rad my teammate had to bail due to work. I hope this trend does not continue, I would like to step on the podium again and maybe for the overall. I tried rounding up a fill in for B-Rad but that didn't work so I decided to pull out myself and do the Iron Mtn ride with all of the crew.

Watching the thread on my local forum the rider number kept growing and growing. After it was all said and done I added one more and we maxed out the shuttle at 13.

Shuttle? Yep, I had a co-worker looking over my shoulder as I was uploading pics and he asked if I was shuttled to the top of the Creeper. What? This definitely was no Creeper ride!

We had a good crew rolling with us with a wide variety of skill levels making for a fun day on the mountain and no big push to hammer the whole way. We took plenty of stops, took pics, ate PB&J's, talked to horseback riders and had a good laugh at Chris's mismatched kit.

Our first attempt at this ride earlier this year was cut short due to 6 inches of ice covering the fire road ascent to Skull's Gap. There is nothing like a long steep fire road climb straight off the shuttle with no warm-up to get you moving. As we reached the top and waited for all of the crew to regroup we noticed Fat Tony and Sean were missing. Rick announced they were just a 100 yards down the road working on Sean's brakes. Andy and I decided to ride back down and see if we could be of assistance. 1000 yards later we still didn't see any sign of them and almost turned around until they rounded the corner brakes squealing. Andy layed hands on Sean's brakes and commanded them to be quiet and they did. Once he was rolling smoothly and quiet again we climbed back to the top and began the singletrack descent. As we descended I realized why it was named Skull's Gap, it was because of all the skull fragments littering the trail from previous riders who's skill wasn't up to par. The trail was rough, rocky and demanded your full attention or you might find yourself going head first over the bars adding to the collection of skull fragments.

The first, fast smooth fire road descent I noticed just how bad my rear wheel has gotten. My plan was to ride it until it bit the dust before rebuilding it. As the rear end of my bike developed a slight shimmy I decided that time had come.

On Iron Mountain the climbing while not really that long can be rough and steep forcing you to dismount and hike-a-bike often. The descents are worth it but I found myself working almost as hard going down as I did going up. Just staying on my bike and keeping my line became tough. Some descents my arms and hands ached from the beating they took and the constant braking. I'm sure my brake pads are toast now.

At the beginning of the ride I packed as much water as I could hold in my Camel Bak and in water bottles not knowing halfway through the ride we would have a water stop. Next time I'll drop about 5 lbs and only bring what I need.

About 3/4 of the way through the ride I was thinking about how lucky we had been with such a large group and no mechanicals and then it happened. A stick grabbed ahold of Andy's derailleur and decided to go for a ride into his rear wheel. Fortunately the only thing that was destroyed was his derailleur hanger. After some serious trail side work that included trying to straighten his hanger with a rock, Andy finally converted his bike to a 2x1 and rode what he could and walked the rest.

With just a little over 4 miles to go we reached an intersection that split us up. Once choice was to turn left, descend Beech Grove to the Creeper trail and ride the remaining 4 miles into town or go right, climb for about a mile and then descend singletrack into town. Chris and a couple others decided to go left while the rest of us stayed right. As we stood at the intersection trying to figure out who was going where Chris and I started trash talking about which way was the better route. It was finally decided that we would each take our respective trails and race to the cars back in town, the loser had to buy the winner a beer at dinner.

The green flag was dropped and so was the hammer, me climbing him descending. Anthony told me before we started that he thought our route was faster but I wasn't too sure. My legs were toast from all the climbing, hiking and descending but I dug deep and cleaned it. The trail followed the ridge for a while on some of the smoothest singletrack we had ridden all day. I pushed as hard as my legs would allow enjoying every inch of the trail knowing I had chosen the best route no matter if I won or lost. As the trail began to drop off the mountain it the smooth trail turned ugly. The faster I went the more I bounced around, by the time I reached the bottom my arms and legs were screaming. There were several creek crossings near the bottom which I crashed through splashing water all over me. It felt nice and helped wash some of the mud off that I had accumulated over the ride. I popped out of the woods onto the asphalt, locked out the squish, ran through the gears and put the hammer down pointing the JET in the direction of town. The JET is not really known for it's speed especially on asphalt but the only cars that passed me were the ones going the opposite way.

As I rounded the corner I stood up trying to scan the parking lot for any signs of Chris. At first I didn't see anyone but the closer I got there he stood with a big smile on his face. He pulled in 30 seconds before me and as promised I bought his first beer.

let the summer begin

2011-06-04T19:34:00.002-04:00

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post. So much going on, on the home front there hasn't been much time for blogging. One adventure with Melinda after another and 2 weeks have flown by. Normally this time of year we are in the middle of some big project on the house but this year we lucked out with a decent tax return and some insurance $$ from the recent storms so we've called in some hired help. These are projects out of my league anyway, roof, gutters and driveway, my skills are only so limited.

Slowly but surely Melinda's back has allowed her to do more and more although she's been careful not to push it too far. She's been putting in some miles at the trails on and off the bike.

Our last trip to Warriors we almost stepped on this guy. I don't know how we got so close without seeing him because he was pretty big and moving our way. I had to run him off with a stick just so Melinda could get into the truck.

Last Wednesday B-Rad, Wondergem, the Beast, Jesse and myself all ascended on Buffalo Mountain for a late evening ride to the firetower. It was a punishing pace to the top trying to keep up with those hammerheads but I managed. One on top we climbed the newly reconstructed firetower and took in the view and setting sun. Well, we didn't actually wait for the sun to set but it was close. Ben was without lights so we made for a hasty decent. I'm not sure how he managed but he lead the whole group down the mountain without lights in the dark. I guess he really knows that place well. Once we rolled back into town we pulled into B-Rad's pad for some post ride refreshments, Sam Adams & PBR, what a great combination. I think I may owe Brad a couple now.

Thursday Melinda and I switched gears and headed for the Holston River for some paddling. This was Melinda's first whitewater experience and she loved it. I'm not sure I will be able to get her back out on the lake after that. The Holston doesn't really offer alot in the way of rough whitewater but it was plenty for two kids in rec boats and no spray skirts. Once we were through the first set of rapids we had to stop and empty out our boats. Melinda had taken on several gallons of water and was sitting waist deep in her boat. I guess it may be time to invest in some skirts especially if we keep this up.

I've been moving some blog links around on the right, several of the local blogs have really gathered dust, I can't say much for mine but several were 3-6 months old so I deleted a couple, moved a couple down the list and added another to the list of folks I don't know but like to read. It's seems like they are my only real source of entertainment anymore. I don't know how some of these people have the time or the subject matter to blog 5 days a week and keep it entertaining but they do. I could never pull it off.

On the race front it appears as if GRT Racing will be a no show at the H8R. Due to a last minute date change by the promoter again, B-Rad had to pull out unable to get off work. I looked for a replacement but couldn't get anything nailed down so I'm opting to use my time off for a big fun group ride with all the homies up on Iron Mountain. I'll probably get in close to the same amount of miles as this ride won't be cut short due to icy conditions. With a crew rolling 15 deep this could be very interesting.

No Hero cam this time I think I'll probably just shoot some normal pics. I've been there and done that with the video, that and I won't have time to get my gear ready to roll before we head out.

more 12 Hours of Tsali

2011-05-26T11:12:00.005-04:00

Normally GRT Racing does most of it's movement in the field of teams later in the race. We try to focus on consistency and racing right up to the very end. It's the last 2 or 3 hours that some teams find the hardest. Either they can't handle the endurance part of the race or they went too fast too early and have nothing left in the tank once the sun goes down. Several times when Mother Nature has not played nice we kept moving even though the conditions were less than desirable while the other teams threw in the towel in favor of dry clothes and a beer.
At Tsali the course was perfect, fast and almost too easy. If you have never ridden Tsali's trails you should, it's probably some of the smoothest singletrack I ever raced on. We did move from 10th to 9th as the day turned to night but one position was all we got. The thought of calling it an early race did float through our camp but we stomped that idea quickly and continued on knowing we would regret it the next morning. Quitting early in the race has never been something I've liked. The last time I raced Tsali I went solo and although I didn't make it to the end I rode until my saddle sores said no more. It was my first ever solo 12 hr attempt and just signing up for it was a huge acheivement for me. I guess my no quitting attitude comes from the way my parents raised me. I tried every sport offered growing up as a kid and not all of them I enjoyed or was very good at but no matter what happened I was not allowed to quit until the season was over and that has stuck with me through my adulthood.

The one thing I did skip out on this year was the spaghetti, I really had no choice. Maybe the local Gone Riding admirers ratted me out because the food was not brought out until I was lining up for my 3rd lap. It was all gone by the time I pulled back into the pits, well except for the spaghetti sauce which must have been watered down since it stretched farther than the noodles. It always happens the other way around at my house. As I rolled back to my campsite I noticed an entire plate of noodles and sauce that had been dumped on the ground not far from the table it was served from. Either a mass horde of people ran over the person who was carrying that plate or they weren't impressed with the watered down sauce either.

Melinda has finished with school for the summer so we are looking forward to more road trips and more riding together. Her back pain has backed off to some degree as long as she takes it easy but that has not been easy for her. I'm looking forward to this summer and the riding plans we have, FATS is on our riding agenda somewher, not sure on the dates yet but it will happen.

At some point I really need to get some running miles in or I'm going to take a serious beating at the road races I have planned and when I say road races I mean running, not the skinny tires.

12 Hours of Tsali - the race report

2011-05-25T10:05:00.005-04:00

The 12 Hours of Tsali has officially come and gone and being that the course was super fast and not very technical I had an excellent time. GRT Racing held strong throughout the entire race keeping our lap times right around the 1 hour mark all day. We had no mistakes or mechanicals and everything flowed very smoothly.

The team unanimously nominated me as the lead man in the race taking the reins and running in the Le Mans start. I kinda wanted to lead us out normally leaving those duties to B-Rad but he was busy in Chattanooga laying waste to other runners on Raccoon Mountain. Two weeks leading up to the race I was pondering on my strategy on what to do. My plan of attack was to start out the run which I considered short, as fast as I could, place my bike as close to the start as allowed and ride by any runners who might have been faster than me.

As we lined up for the start I tried to get as close to the front as possible but ended up 3 rows back packed in with everyone like sardines. As soon as the race started I took off hoping to weave through traffic and get closer to the front. I got hung up behind a couple of slower guys before working my way around to the outside and moved up along side the front pack as fast as possible. I did fairly well with staying up front but several of the runners were faster than I had expected.

Yes I am completely off the ground, it's how I run.

Once I got to my bike it was a cluster of runners trying to pass and riders trying to get moving and not run over anyone. Once moving I jumped on some guy's rear wheel as we weaved through the swarm of people. Once free of traffic I stomped on the gas.

Mark kept telling me he's not a runner and would be walking but obviously that was not true.

One thing I forgot was the length of fireroad we had to ride before hitting the singletrack. I had over exerted myself during the run and paid for it on the fireroad accents. I got passed left and right. It was until we hit the singletrack that I was able to get my breathing under some what of control. Just before the race I had downed a chocolate gel which was trying to fight it's way back out.

I had to back off a bit while I got my stomach under control and once that happened I was able to get back on the gas and work my way around some of the slower riders. The longer we raced the better I felt, I hoped I was not pushing myself too hard as I didn't want to blow up before it was over but I couldn't allow myself to back down with three or four riders in front and behind me. I held my pace and hoped for the best. Once in the pits I checked my time which showed 51.47, I though surely I had brought us back in at least in the top 5, that wasn't the case.

Going into the race I wondered if racing the sport class was the right thing to do. Some believe that if you have been on the podium you should move up to the next class. I think that if you win you should definitely move up the following year if you return to that same race. My pondering on whether we were sandbagging being in the sport class was put to rest as soon as the first round of laps were posted. Even though we were running fast and consistent laps we were in 10th place.

As I stood there examining lap times something caught my eye in the beginner category. The top 5 or 6 teams were posting sub 50 minute laps, faster than at least half of the sport field. Not only were the top beginner class riders running faster laps but the field was 3 times as big. I went from wondering if we belonged in the expert class to wondering if we belonged in the beginner class. The Gone Riding races obviously draw alot better riders from a larger spectrum than the races I'm used to but I have no doubt that a large portion of the beginner class did not belong there. I really wished there had been a co-ed class but I felt fine with our placement and settled into the race and concentrated on having fun.

Finally I was able to call on the JET to race knowing the course was really better suited for the hardtail bikes but I went ahead with it especially since I had seen several other JET9s and even a RIP9 on the first lap. I worried about being a bit slower on the JET but it was not by much. My second lap I turned in at 55 minutes 35 seconds. Unfortunately the entire lap was plagued by a creaking headset which I think was loose. I actually haven't taken the time to check since my Fox F29 is due in at any time.

For lap three I went back to the AIR9 to get a better feel of lap times since my first lap on it included the running portion. My third lap I felt awesome, the AIR9 felt like a rocketship. When I stomped on the pedals it immediately responded. My 3rd lap while not any faster than the second was only 6 seconds slower.

I never really thought the JET would be faster but I was pleasantly surprised at how fast it was. I plan to take it along with the AIR9 to the H8R race in Haw Ridge next month where it will be more at home with all the roots and rocks.

too be continued..............

no more water and the crossroads

2011-05-18T21:46:00.005-04:00

I have officially lost interest in my strict training regimen, that and a busted water line down the road from my house today putting an end to my watering down the spaghetti in preparation for this weekend. Actually my dinner plans are looking like fajitas on the ECO's grill. How can I pass that up? I grew up in the great state of Texas and good Mexican food was a staple in my diet. I've never been a huge Italian fan so it's a no brainer for me.

In other bike related news I took the chainguide off the new MRP contraption to file down the insides a bit to alleviate some of the chain rub and managed to misplace it. After about an hour of panicking, thinking racing the JET along side the AIR9 just wasn't in the cards this weekend I finally found it in my hard hat at work. Yeah????

Both of the Niners are prepped and race ready, at least one half of this party will be. Me? I'm not too sure about being ready but I'll give it my all and concentrate of the fun aspect as usual.

From The Inside Out - First Look from SecondBase Films on Vimeo.

I wish I could ride like that.

While browsing the BR site I ran across these two videos, the Red Bull Crossroads. Kinda like CMT Crossroads where the take two different types of musicians and get them to play together. Red Bull has taken a freerider and a cyclocross racer and gotten them to ride together.

Interesting.........

the watered down spaghetti, complaint free blog post

2011-05-17T19:57:00.006-04:00

With the forecast for today looking grim at a 70% chance of rain and a couple of nightshifts coming up I decided Monday would be my best day to get a ride in and lay off the bike until the weekend. I was really wanting to get over to Warriors, the land of roots, rocks and all the fun techy stuff to put the new drivetrain on the JET9 to the test but it's rained almost everyday for the last couple of days and there are several trees down so I headed to Bays Mountain instead.

Bays Mountain is quite a bit different type of terrain compared to Warriors, much more climbing and alot less technical stuff. I hear alot of people who ride Bays on a regular basis say they don't like riding Warriors because it's too hard, I really don't understand this. Warriors is a really fun place to ride alot more fun than Bays, well for now. You see Bays has alot of fireroads that you must ride in order to connect the good singletrack. The potential for singletrack at Bays is HUGE and we're building as fast as we can and the as fast as the park will allow but it's going to take some time.

The newest trail which is currently under construction is the Chestnut trail, right now it's rideable and about 60% complete so in an effort to put the JET to the test I began there before climbing to the top.

The new MRP chainguide/bashguard worked well, there was a bit of chain rub but I'll be taking care of that with a grinder tonight.

I posted up a picture of the MRP on Facebox when in came in and I got a comment from a fellow rider about one of the other designs that just has the chain guide, no bashguard. I run a bashguard and always will, I'll never understand why some people don't. Well I guess if you don't ride in places that have alot of rocks and tech stuff to cross there is no need. I just don't like the idea of bashing my chainring and chain on the rocks especially since I have only one up front.

I made this little gem a couple of weeks ago when I was still planning to go the singlespeed route. I always ran a bell on the Karate Monkey so I figured I would do the same on my new SS. Since the SS is out of the picture for now I decided to go ahead and put the bell on the JET9. The JET is my fun bike, the bike I like to play around on and try not to be too serious with.

A few days ago I was bombing down Bear Run at Bays Mountain when I came across this hole in the trail and had to slam on the brakes. The picture really does not do it justice but I don't think I could ride across it.

The tree that took away the section of my trail, it's root ball is easily the size of a small car.

Again this picture does not do it justice, I thought about propping my bike up against it to have a reference point on the size. It's freaking huge.

Other than the chain rub that occurred when I was in my granny gears the new drivetrain ran smoothly. It will definitely see some action this weekend at the 12 Hours of Tsali.

Speaking of Tsali I've been having some fun lately at the expense of Gone Riding and evidently there are some local folks who have taken it a bit personally. It's not the first time I've poked fun at them nor the first time someone has taken offense to it. The fun I've been poking is about the spaghetti they served at the last race Gone Riding race I attended, the 12 Hours of Tsali, two years ago. It was cheap, watered down and all we got for our hefty entry fee. Most races at least give you a t-shirt or pint glass, we got watered down spaghetti. Now if I was really that upset about this I would simply just not attend anymore of their events but I'm not, I'm just having some fun at their expense. This year we are getting a t-shirt with our entry fee so who knows maybe this year is different. So AC, in honor of you I will not complain about the watered down spaghetti the folks at Gone Riding served us and I would like to dedicate this blog post to you. I shall title it, "the watered down spaghetti, complaint free blog post".

Speaking of Aaron Casey and Gone Riding, he did podium at the most recent SERC race, so congrats to you little buddy. Job well done!

Well since I promised no talk of watered down spaghetti I guess that's all I have to say.

Tomorrow, I'll be back to talking about watered down spaghetti as I continue my quest in training to prepare myself if watered down spaghetti is served again this year at the 12 Hours of Tsali.

Oh yeah I did manage to get the Bike @ Bays footage together and edited.

Enjoy

Bike @ Bays and GRT Racing takes on Tsali

2011-05-15T13:41:00.005-04:00

After some serious planning organizing and fretting all the small details, the 3rd Annual Bike @ Bays was a great success and the day rolled on flawlessly. NTMBA's annual picnic that originally started out as a 12 hour race for it's members evolved into a 6 hr race and then finally just a picnic with nothing but fun riding. As the year went by people stopped taking the racing so seriously and were having more fun just hanging out and riding with friends. A decision was made as the race attendance dwindled to concentrate just on having fun and boosting mountain bike awareness in our area.

Three years ago we took it to the next level and invited the local bikes shops to come out and bring their demo fleet. No one likes to test ride a bike they are interested in buying in the bike shop parking lot, the trails are the best way to know which bike is best for you.

This year we decided to bring the competition back in a small dose to up the excitement level and give some of the more experienced riders something to look forward to. This year we created the Chainless Bike Race, an all gravity race down the Azalea trail where riders were unable to gain momentum with the use of their drivetrain. Congrats to Ben Appleby who took home the winnings.

If you missed this year's Bike @ Bays I feel sorry for you it was a ton of fun and hopefully next year you'll make it out. We had a huge turnout and everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I shot a ton of video footage and plan to put a re-cap video together so maybe it will make you feel like you were there somewhat, either that or make you more jealous. I chose not to participate in the Chainless Bike Race in favor of helping run the event and getting some great footage of riders as they bombed down Azalea. I did give my Go Pro cam to one of ETSU's finest downhillers Thomas to shoot footage of the race from the riders prospective. I think his footage will be much more interesting than mine would have. He's a bit faster downhill than I will ever think about being.

I did get a chance to get out and do some riding yesterday on two different bikes, both full squish 29er's. First I hopped aboard the Giant Anthem X and wow was I impressed. It handled, climbed and descended nicely. There were only two things I can think of that I didn't care for about the bike. One was the tires, it was sporting Maxxis tires, Aspens I think, and in the wet I felt them loosing traction in the corners and climbing in spots, the other complaint was the amount of time I got stopped to answer questions about the bike I was riding. Despite some of the negative comments I read about the Giant's looks I thought it was a good looking bike and so did everyone I passed. I could easily see myself riding the Anthem X.

The other steed I tried out was the Niner RIP9, Hampton brought one out but everytime I tried to ride it someone else was riding off on it. Mark graciously allowed me to hop aboard his brand new all black anodized RIP with a bit nicer spec'd components. I was expecting the RIP to be a slug climbing especially on the fireroads from some of the locals reviews of it but needless to say I was impressed with it. I didn't really get to rip up the downhills with it like I wanted to because the duties of running the show yesterday took priority. From what I did get to ride I have no doubt Mark will really enjoy his RIP, it was one of the sweeter looking bikes at the picnic. He spared no expense in building his bike.

Coming up this weekend is the 12 Hours of Tsali, GRT Racing is bring a 4 man team to the fight this weekend, or should I say a 3 man 1 women team this year. Andy, Abby, Anthony and I will be giving the other Sport class riders a run for their money. Maybe I should change my name to something that starts with an "A" like the rest of my team, Adam, Archie, Abe, Arnold?

All week this week I will be training for the race. Train the week before a race? Yep, every night I will be eating watered down spaghetti to prepare myself for the stuff the Gone Riding folks will be serving up. There actually might be a chance they won't have spaghetti this year because we are getting race t-shirts but I don't want to be taken by surprise if they do so I am planning to be fully prepared. We'll see if they are truly giving a little back or just trading one for the other.

Which bike will I race now that the JET9 is sporting a better drivetrain set-up? Probably both, I'd say I'll do my first lap on the AIR9 and then breakout the JET and compare lap times. I have a feeling they will be close. Speaking of drivetrains both of the bikes I demo'd yesterday at Bike @ Bays, were sporting the new 10 speed drivetrains. Talk about easy climbing, I think I could climb all day with a 10 speed cassette. Maybe next year I'll upgrade to the 10 speed stuff.

Melinda and I are going to hit Tsali a day earlier than the rest of the crew in an effort to get the nicest spot in the campground and take advantage of a bit more time camping. The ECO hasn't been called into action since the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek so I think we are ready for a few days of roughing it. Yeah I said roughing it.

riding with 2 old friends and the infamous "Trixie" crew

2011-05-12T08:39:00.000-04:00

Yesterday after some back breaking trailwork I loaded up the two white squishy bikes for some singletrack fun at Warriors with Melinda. Upon our arrival I notice all the Trixie riders gearing up for a spin through the woods. So rather than ride with the ladies I opted to ride with the guys so they could talk all girly and stuff.

Mike T. aka the "Local Cult Hero" had texted me earlier, something along the lines of "Rodney Warriors 6". Infamous for his one liners that take a few minutes to decipher I pondered a minute or two and then forgot about it. Upon our arrival at the trail head I realized he meant "Riding Warriors at 6, come out if you think you can hang".

As we suited up and the normal trash talking began, I noticed not only were all the Trixie riders in attendance but a couple of old friends of mine were there as well. One of which I used to hang out with alot. We spent countless hours at Warriors together cursing singing and making others look like chumps on a couple of occasions. Speaking of Trixie riders, Mike I want a Trixie t-shirt dammit! All the good deals I've given you on my old bikes and the $20 you shorted me on the Karate Monkey sale, it's the least you can do.

It took me a second to recognize the Monkey with it's new fancy wheelset. The white rims, wow very nice! It almost made me throw down an offer to buy it back. I'm still pondering that offer Dirty so hollar at me if you decide to sell.

Although we didn't spend a whole lot of trail time together the Mary did hang out in my bike room for a year or so until the Local Cult Hero finally conned me into selling it to him for a ridiculously low price. Both bikes were in good shape and made me proud to see them run again.

Kind of like it's time with me the Mary doesn't see much trail time either, I'm not saying the LCH doesn't ride much... well yes I am but even if he did, he has so many freaking bikes he could ride a new one everyday for two months before any of them see a second ride. I would say he easily has more bikes in his basement than some of the local bike shops.

The new NTMBA T-shirts are finally in, no funky colors this time. Get one while you can, $15. Here today, gone tomorrow.

Today is the day that the Lord has made, it's also the day where I will make the JET9 pedal like a dream. Easier? Heck no, Smoother? Yes! Hopefully there will be alot less chain droppage as well.

Bike @ Bays this weekend, hopefully we won't see any rain but if it does I'll still ride. Those trails with their sand based composition drain better than any in the area. Yesterday while working on the new Chestnut trail I was amazed at how well it held up just after two big storms, no mud.

Chainless bike race? You better bring it!

giving a little back and a greasy chain

2011-05-10T00:36:00.005-04:00

Things have been slacking around the blogosphere not just here but everywhere. I guess people are spending more time outdoors rather than blogging about being outdoors. It's 12:41 am and I'm stuck at work so I'll take a minute to see if I can come up with anything entertaining to say.

Rather than spend a bunch of time putting in miles on the mountain bike in an effort to boost my summer racing I've pushed alot of my focus to giving back instead of always taking. What I'm trying to say is I've been doing some much needed trail work. In the past 2 years my commitment to doing trailwork has been kinda slim, mainly due to my work schedule but I've finally found a way to work around this. I've been doing most of my trail work during the week and I've even found a few other folks with odd ball schedules to help out.

Trailbuilding can really be enlightening and fun, especially when you get to reap the rewards of your hardwork.

We've really made alot of progress with the new trail that's being built at Bays Mountain. Even though the volunteer turnout has sucked the excellent soil conditions have made thing flow smooth and very efficient.

Not only does trailbuilding make me feel good it's an excellent workout. It's not quite as fun as mountain biking but it is free and the reward for your work will last for many many years.

I can really only think of one negative thing about trailbuilding and that is the lack of help we get. With the HUGE potential that we have here in NE Tennessee for building trails and the large mountain biking population it's really sad to see how little others give back. We have a ton of opportunity for new trails right here in our backyard but we are moving at a snails pace taking advantage of it because the few who do show up can only do so much.

I can think of 3 separate projects that need our attention just at Bays Mountain that we could be doing but will have to sit on the back burner for a while. Just the other day I had to turn down a request for help building a totally new trail system because I knew we are to understaffed to do the work. I don't want to promise anything I can't follow through with and I knew it couldn't be done and I felt bad for saying no but it had to be done.

Enough of the negativity, this weekend should be a good one to stick around town for. Bike @ Bays is back again and this year will probably be the biggest yet. Really it gets bigger and better every year but this year we've gotten even more support from the local bike shops than we have in the past and we've added a new event, the Chainless Bike Race. A gravity fed race down Azalea where riders see who can get down the mountain the farthest without the aid of pedaling. Costumes have been encouraged so the spectator's view should be entertaining. I think a video recap will be a must for sure this year.

There has officially been a change in the tide in my bike room. A official attempt to sell the JET was made and the out come has been declared a failure. Some will say it was because my asking price was too high and that may have been the case but it was probably for the better. After 2 weeks on Ebay and a few decent offers one which I almost took I decided to pull the plug and keep the JET. I never disliked the JET in any shape or form, it's a great bike I just had a yearning for the singlespeed life again but I think those days may be past for me or at least on hiatus. With past back issues and Melinda's recent back injury it has gotten me thinking maybe the singlespeed gig just isn't what I need right now. The JET is a ton of fun and some of my reasons for trying to sell it where due to some drivetrain issues its had. I finally put in an order for a new rear derailleur and a chain guide to remedy any and all of the drivetrain issues I had. Another thing that kept me from truly falling in love with the JET was the lack of a proper fork, one that was meant to be on that bike. The JET is sporting a tapered head tube but since it's birth in my bike room it's been running a regular straight 1 1/8" fork. Today I officially ordered a new fork with a tapered steer tube and I went ahead and went for the thru axel. Why not go full bore and make this one bad ass bike. No more half ass building here. Vanna White is officially going to be sporting nothing but the finest duds I can afford.

I've always been a Rock Shox kind of guy but this time I went with Fox, I've heard good things about them and rather than buy a new wheelset to accommodate the 20mm Reba I'm keeping the Mavics and converting the hub to a 15mm which is what the Fox fork uses.

I looked around trying to find a good chain guide since I refuse to be normal and use a front derailleur. I run all of my bikes 1x9's which tends to hurt more on big climbs but makes me look tougher when I clean them. I gotta do something to be a little different.

The complexity of the JET9's frame due to a rear shock mount makes it difficult to run a simple chain deflector so I went with some a bit more fancy with the bottom bracket mounted MRP G2 mini. They come in a wide variety of cool colors but I decided to stick with black since I like my chains greasy.

cool video from the guys at 29nSGNL

2011-05-05T22:04:00.001-04:00

THE OPENER from Rob Doerre on Vimeo.

things are getting a bit racy

2011-04-26T10:03:00.003-04:00

It seems to be a trend lately, a lack of fitness that is. I've been hearing that lately and it actually makes me feel a bit better. I'm in the same boat, life in general has caused my riding to take a bit of a backseat. I am finally getting caught back up on some of the work that's been pending at our house for some time. I hope this weekend things will turn around and I'll get back out on the bike. I really need to that's for sure especially with 2 more races just around the corner.

Next on tap for GRT Racing is the 12 Hours of Tsali, I missed this one last year due to the Night Owl race which I placed a respective 3rd place in my class. Originally I planned another solo attempt for Tsali but Andy and Abby were looking to put together a 4 man team so Anthony and I decided to go for it. The entry fee this year seems to be a bit cheaper than I remember @ $40 and that includes a t-shirt surprisingly. I wonder if the folks from Gone Riding realized they needed to give a little back in order to keep racers coming back.

The cool thing about doing the 4 man team is I'll have more time to hang out with Melinda and the dogs during the race and I won't be as physically spent the following day. Due to my lack of riding in the past couple of weeks this may be a good thing, I'm not sure I'm ready for a 12 hour solo attempt.

Also on tap, the H8R, the 2nd race in the TN Cup Endurance racing series. Coming up in June B-Rad and I will be heading to Haw Ridge in Knoxville for this one. We're not strangers to this course nor podium finishes there either so hopefully we can continue with good finishes and stay on top.

Speaking of good finishes I was looking over the lap times for the Ocho and I realized that we did out run the 2nd place Open Team which consisted of 4 racers. That may have been what we heard at the award ceremony. Mine and B-Rad's time were pretty close during the entire race just dropping a minute or two after each lap but we consistently stayed around the 1 hour mark. Brad's last lap was one of his best times during the race, right before he went out for his fourth lap he asked me if I thought we could get 8 laps. I told him to haul ass because I expected to get in a 4th as well and he did just that.

the before and after

2011-04-20T00:20:00.005-04:00

The other day my Dad posted up a couple of pictures on Facebox of the transformation of "Brownie" into the "Ghost of Brownie". I never really took a good before and after pic which I should have and when I saw these it was really cool to look back at the old version and compare the differences.

Brownie

The Ghost of Brownie

Don't let the before picture fool you, that photo made Brownie look alot better than she did in person. The tires were in such bad shape I'm not sure how they didn't blow out on my Dad. I was a little afraid to ride on them.

After the disappointing award ceremony at the Ocho I guess Brad had heard enough of my complaining. He volunteered to contact the promoter and ask if we should stay in the Sport catagory or move up to Open. I guess it depends on if our points will transfer, not that we would really stand a chance against the other Open teams but who knows. Some teams may only show for one or two races giving us a better shot at the overall.
I had originally thought we did more laps than the Open class 2nd place team. After looking at the posted results I realized that was not the case. I think the promoter had tapped into the post race beverages a little too early when he began calling out the winners and their acheivements.

The past couple of months I've been riding in some pretty nasty weather, mud, rain more mud and.... oh yeah, two races with muddy laps. Why do you ask am I talking about this again? Well I never got around to purchasing one of those BackCountry Awesome Straps like I had planned. I did run across a seatbag, a brand who's name I cannot recall right now but it's design was almost identical to the old seatbag I used for so many years without fail. I've been swapping it back and forth between the JET and AIR9, really putting the velcro to the test. The brand is not one I am that familar with so I really didn't expect it to live through this spring's nasty weather. I've been proven wrong so far, this new, no name seatbag has taken quite a beating and is still hanging in there without the slightest bit of a slip. I'm really surprised at how well it has performed and am curious to see what else it can take.

Speaking of gear and accesories, I've been on a bit of a tire purchasing spree. Ever since Bontrager did away with the Jones ACX I have been on the hunt for a suitable replacement. After the recent Conti trial I ordered the Bontrager 29-4's which proved to be a bit more beefy than I wanted on my hardtail so I ordered another set, the 29-2's, which I've yet to receive. While waiting on them to return I ran across another deal on a set of the XDX's that I could not pass up. Now I have more tires than I know what to do with but plenty of options to keep me entertained for the summer. Hopefully I won't spend more time mounting up tubeless tires than riding.

the 8 hours of lake Ocho

2011-04-18T08:49:00.008-04:00

The week leading up to the Ocho, the 1st race of the TN Cup Endurance series, we had plans to camp for the weekend. Mother Nature had other plans and we decided rather than camp in the rain we stayed home, saved precious vacation days and made it a daytrip on Sunday since the drive was just barely over an hour.

As soon as we arrived Sunday morning I knew we had made the right choice. Despite the sunny skies and warm weather in middle of the field where we were supposed to camp was a swamp of standing water. It was kind of hard to tell at first because of the grass but as soon as I felt the rear tires give way I threw in it four wheel drive rather than tear up anything. We roamed aimlessly around the field in search of a place to set up our pit until we finally headed for higher ground and dry land.

Unfortunately the start/finish line as well as the course leading in and out took you right through the middle of lake Ocho. For the next hour while we set up we were entertained as several two wheeled drive vehicles attempted to cross the flooded area, slinging brown water all over the sides of their cars.

Originally I had planned to do this one solo but got an offer from B-Rad to join him in a duo attack so I took him up on the offer knowing he would lead us through the first lap strong arming weaker riders off the trail as he charged through the field.

I wasn't counting the number of riders that came through the pits after the first lap, I think because we were more worried about the fact that half of them had lost their # plates all together or had something resembling a # plate just barely hanging on. The promoter handed us a brown marker ironically and Eric D. and I took turns writing our #'s on our legs. When Eric wrote mine on my leg what was supposed to be 69 turned into 62 but I didn't realize it until several hours later. Luckily my # plate made it through the entire race but just barely.

When Brad came in off his first lap he was earlier than I expected somewhere in the top 10. Excited at our chances I took off determined not to get passed by any other team riders on my lap.

The course for the most part was dry as a bone all except for one section. The most technical section on the entire course, so technical in fact that bridges had to be built a few years ago just to make it rideable. It was like a night and day difference once I hit the mud, it was nasty slick and an energy sucking vampire, just to stay upright and moving forward took alot of time and skill. Several places I found my self riding somewhat sideways as my rear tire found some traction and started coming around as my front tire just slid around aimlessly. I rode as smooth as I could which wasn't long until I hit the rock garden. It didn't take long before my bike slide out from under me and rather than waste energy and take the chance of a nasty crash and ruining the race for myself I opted to just run it out. Running through the mud was definitely more efficient and made my chances of finishing the lap unscathed much better. Not expecting to catch any rider being so far up in the field I was surprised when I caught a glimpse of two riders ahead through the trees. I stomped on the gas hoping to improve our standings only to realize it was two off-road unicyclists still on their first lap. I'm amazed at what those guys did on their unicycles finishing two laps without a scratch.

My goal for the race was 4 laps a piece for Brad and I, 8 laps in 8 hours. The cut off for the last lap was at 4:15 with the finish time of 5:00. I knew as long as we kept our lap times right at the hour mark we would have a good chance of pulling it off. Our first lap Brad and I both came in at just under an hour. After that I added a minute or two to each lap as fatigue and the pain set in.

Race fuel???

Throughout the course I would stay fairly clean and dry but as soon as I would enter the pit area and cross lake Ocho, it was all over. As the day wore on it got worse and worse. Coming off a fast decent into the finish our tires were slinging brown water everywhere. By lap 3 and 4 the brown water turned into mud. The shiny silver polished finish of my AIR9 was converted to a nice shade of brown.

As Brad went out for his fourth lap I told him to finish strong and hurry up, I had plans for a 4th as well and as long as his lap went smoothly we should be good for me to go out before the cut off. As I waited for Brad to return I tried not to pay much attention to the teams all around us that had called it a day, tempted by the free flowing beer. To make matters worse the promoters rolled in was a massive pile of pizza. I lined up on the line waiting for Brad and joked around with the other racers who were stuffing they're faces to save me some.

My last lap went well, I felt surprisingly stronger than the previous lap. The nasty section that had challenged me all day while still nasty in spots looked a bit drier. Not wanting to have been a pansy and run it every lap I gave it my best effort and rode the entire section with only a couple of slips.

I finished my last lap strong and headed straight for the beer and pizza. I grabbed a cup off the keg properly chosen for the occasion, Red Hook's "Mud Slinger" and a couple cold bottles of Yazoo's finest, Pale Ale.

As we waited for the final racers to come in Brad and I learned that we had victoriously finished 1st in the Sport division but because of the low numbers across the team categories we had been grouped together with the Open guys. Our overall placing was still good in 6th finishing with 8 laps only one lap shy of the team with the most overall.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony hoping to receive some sort of prize for our efforts. In the Open category 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams all received swag bags, for 1st place in the Sport division Brad and I each received a bottle of champagne from some local winery. I was kind of disappointed in the winnings but the swag we received just for showing up helped some. Every racer received a t-shirt, pint glass and water bottle not to mention post race pizza and all the free beer you could drink. I made sure I got my money's worth and came home with a cooler full of Yazoo. It was the least I could do so the promoters weren't over burdened by a bunch of stuff to haul home.

I'm not sure if I'll actually get around to drinking this stuff or not, maybe I'll hold onto to it until B-Rad and I get together for the 2nd race, the H8R in Knoxville at Haw Ridge.

bringing the pain......... on myself

2011-04-11T20:01:00.003-04:00

Man am I tired, I feel like I've been riding hard everyday since the 6HWC but actually I've only been on the bike twice. Our local club has taken on the task of building another trail at Bays Mountain in an effort to make the park more mountain biker friendly. When I first started riding there it was all fireroads and well fireroads. I take that back there was one doubletrack trail that also serves double duty as a small creek during rain storms but now it's starting to take shape of a mini version of the Grand Canyon. I think I've put in close to 15 hours this week of trail work which is huge for me. Normally I miss most workdays due to my job but I finally decided I'm going to just go out on my own and work by myself if I want to show any support. Trails are an awesome thing and I can't stop thinking about how cool it's going to be when this one is done I should have been resting this week because this weekend is the 1st race of the TN Cup Endurance series, The Ocho, at Panther Creek State Park is one of three 8 hour races B-Rad and I are competing in this summer as a duo. I have never competed in a series before so I'm pretty excited. I just hope that I can keep up with the terror B-Rad is going to lay down on the race course. I'm afraid all of my efforts off the bike might be leaving me feeling a little used up this weekend when the flag drops. In an effort to re-energize I'm only going to put in only one workday this week at Bays, I shouldn't but I can't help myself, I'm a bit obsessed with building this trail for some reason right now. I'm sorry there is no new videos to watch, I've yet to look at any of the footage from the 6HWC race last weekend, maybe next week. I did finally mount up my new tires today, the Bontrager 29-4's, they're a little on the beefy side of things but I'm going to give them a whirl this weekend and maybe order another more racier set for the summer. All the tubeless tire swapping I've done lately has improved my skills a bit and maybe having two different sets of tires to run is doable for me. So I'm at the crossroads of what to do about the JET9 again. I rode a lap at Warrior Creek with Melinda and had an absolute blast on it. The sections that chattered my teeth on the AIR9 Saturday disappeared underneath all of that squish. It is still up for sale but I ain't letting it go cheap, like I said before I'm in no hurry to sell it.

yes more 6HWC but also the Ghost of Brownie and some rogue hoes

2011-04-06T07:59:00.004-04:00

I guess apparently there is something wrong with blogger, my last two posts have been posted as one giant freaking paragraph and that's not the way I originally constructed them. I've tried several things to remedy the situation but nothing seems to help so far. There has always been some sort of spacing issue with blogger especially when it comes to posting photos. You never really know if there will be spaces between your text and the photos uploaded. I usually put at least 2 spaces between each and sometimes I get none, 2, 3 or 6, I guess it all just depends on what kind of mood blogger is in that particular day. Do I still have more to talk about from the 6HWC? Why yes I do, have you heard enough about it? Of course you haven't! When I learned that this year the after party/awards/swag give away was going to be at the Warrior Creek campground and we didn't have to drive down the road I was pumped. What I didn't think about was the fact that alcohol is not allowed so there would be no free beer served with the post race meal. I didn't say there were no post race beverages consumed or there were no last lap beer hand-ups and I'm pretty sure no one almost spilled their beer hand up on one of the race organizers. There just wasn't a Boone Brewing beer truck there this year. I have to say having the post race festivities in the same location of the race was indeed nice but the lack of free libation did suck but I'm still on the fence as to which was better. The post race meal was still the best I have ever had at ANY race I've attended, BBQ pork, chicken, beans, slaw, pasta & cornbread, it was awesome. The swag give away was also one of the best I've ever seen, for 3 years in a row I've walked away with swag. Not the cheap crap you get in a swag bag for registering, stuff you can actually use. I hate swag bags that are nothing but advertisements for crap I'll never use. This year I walked away with a Bell Slant helmet and I actually got to pick my size, very nice indeed! I have to hand it to the BMCC folks they put on one of the best races, if you've missed this one or chose to do the Knobscorcher for some reason, wise up folks and put the 6HWC on your calendar for next year. I can tell you from personal experience, this race out ranks the SERC crap any day. If your a Facebox friend of mine you may have noticed the pics of Brownie I posted the other day upon it's final completion. The parts have been in for a while I was just finally able to go and picked them up Monday. Speaking of "Brownie" a buddy of mine came up with what I think is an excellent name for the new ride, "The Ghost of Brownie". With all the white going on I think the name fits it well. I think now that it's finally finished it looks better and more complete, the white grips are definitely something that's going to bug me, especially when it comes to getting them dirty but they should clean up easily. I went ahead and replaced the black seat with a white one I had in my bin of old seats and I think the white one looks much better. Probably one of my favorite additions is the Topeak Alien head blinky. Short post today, I've got a date with a rogue hoe up at Bays Mountain, we're going to build some trail together.

6 Hours of Warrior Creek re-cap: part 2

2011-04-05T12:49:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry about the jumbled mess that was my post yesterday for some reason blogger refused to cooperate with me and everything posted as one large paragraph. Not sure what happened or why but everything I tried was a failure, maybe today blogger will cooperate maybe it won't. Anyway, once we finally got moving Saturday morning the sun came out and started warming things up. I really wasn't too worried about the rain the night before, I've ridden Warrior Creek in the rain and while it was slick in spots everything held up well. Andy, Chris and a few others left early that morning to secure us a spot while I hung back at the campsite with Melinda and the dogs. We rolled into our pits around 9am with plenty of time to get everything squared away and get in line. This year the start finish line was situated on the other side of the pit area for what reason I'm not sure. I'm sure they explained why in the racer's meeting but I was too busy fiddling with my Go Pro to pay attention. As usual most of the NTMBA/GRT crew line up close to the back of the pack, we never really get too carried away with the start, it's usually a cluster anyway. This year the start was worse than I had ever seen it. The normal road section at first did it's job of spreading the pack out somewhat but when we rounded the corner 200 yards before the entrance to the woods there was a line of racers standing........ yes standing, waiting to go in. I was really surprised and confused at what had us held up. As we walked closer to the beginning of the trail it became clear as to what the hold up was, mud, slick and nasty. I couldn't believe it was so bad already. In the first 50 feet there was a climb and the traffic was bad, one person spinning out was causing everyone to dismount and walk. We were off walking or standing more than riding the first 20 minutes of the race. I got irritated quickly and lost my patience, once we started rolling I just couldn't bring myself to stop again. Unfortunately the line came to a halt again but my impatience took over and I rolled past 5 or so people on the side of the trail which of course got me fussed at. The people I passed were not too pleased with me. I realized how stupid that was and immediately apologized. I felt bad for about a half a minute and then thought to myself hey this is a race not a line at the amusement park. As things rolled on the group thinned out and passing became easier. Someone would go down in front, two or three would pile up behind them and I would pass on the outside. I don't know how I managed to stay up right the entire first lap but I did. The whole course was slick and nasty and never got any better. The whole time I was thinking if this gets any worse I'll be lucky to get two laps in. I finally settled into a groove with a couple of guys for a while until someone would slide out and get passed. I lost count of how many corners I came through Dukes of Hazard style but after a while it seemed to be the norm. The first lap I ran the Go Pro but no matter how much I tried I kept missing all of the good wipe outs. Everytime I would think it was about to get boring and switched off the camera, someone would eat it hard. I should have just left it running the entire lap. I thought it was never going to end and I lost site of all my crew as I worked my way through the field but I knew we would re group in the pits. It took over an hour and a half to finish the first lap, most folk's second lap was their fastest. When we rolled into the pits I immediately began working on my bike trying to free up the drive train from mud, everything was a mess and just before we arrived a water line had busted leaving us with no spare water to use, all I had was what was in my bottles. After refueling a bit and getting my bike running properly we regrouped and went out for a second lap. Immediately we noticed the conditions were vastly different on the trail. Everything was drying up faster than I had every seen it. It was as if the NASCAR track drying trucks had gone out after us and dried off the course. I kept thinking things would get bad again but they didn't, they just kept getting better and better. My second lap was much faster and smoother than the first. After rolling in the pits again I chilled out for a bit stretching out my back and neck. I felt really stiff but refused to sit down for long afraid that I might not get back up. As we hung out I noticed Chris never once sat down or changed he just stood under the EZ-UP and looked as if he was hurting. I think he was playing possum because once I sat down and asked him what his plan was he announced he was going back out now to get it over with. I really wasn't ready but I got up and moving anyway. I started looking for my water as Chris rode off and I realized I had left my last bottle back in the truck. I searched around until I found one of Melinda's and dumped it into my mud covered bottle. By the time I got ready Chris had probably a 10 - 15 minute head start and I figured there was no way of catching him. I asked around to see who else was ready to go and got the same answer all around, they were done for the day. Damn, I guess I'm on my own for the rest of the race. Not really thinking there was enough time for a fourth lap I just sat back and tried to enjoy the ride. I stopped every once in a while to stretch and let the faster guys pass convinced I would not see Chris until the finish line. What amazed me was the amount of 29ers out on the course, I swear 70% or more of the bikes in this race were 29er's and Niner seemed to be the most popular. Another thing I noticed was how fresh so many of the fast guys looked. Several of them had clean bikes and kits as if this was their first lap and I went ahead and let myself believe it to be the case since they were so much faster than me, they had to be on fresh legs. My bike and kit looked as if we had run through a gauntlet of people throwing buckets of mud at us. About 3/4 of the way through the course the wind really picked up. I had already seen some downed trees but had never felt in any danger. At one point the wind was roaring with such force behind me I keep waiting to be engulfed by a twister. Tree limbs were being snapped off left and right and flying through the air all around me. I really was surprised a tree didn't come down right in front of me. At mile 12 probably the section with the most climbing I saw a red and black bike ahead with a rider wearing a green jersey, I couldn't believe it but it was Chris. Seeing him actually lifted my spirits a bit and gave me enough gas to finish out the lap a little stronger. I gave him a friendly yell startling him a bit I think as I passed and spent the rest of what I had left in the tank putting a gap on him just in case he was playing possum. I rolled into the pit area and crossed the finish line relieved to be done and happy with my finish, not only did I achieve my goal of three laps but I had a clear head the entire time. Had I been in fifteen minutes earlier I would have pondered going out and suffering through another lap but I was more than satisfied with my performance. This year I think I redeemed myself for my porr performance last year. I did get some Go Pro footage but as usual I've yet to look at it. More to come and hopefully a video in the next few days.

6 Hours of Warrior Creek re-cap: part 1

2011-04-04T13:43:00.001-04:00

Oh man what an awesome weekend, not only did the weather cooperate with us, so did my allergies. I felt great all weekend and not once did I feel like dead people were trying to communicate. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't feeling that positive about the weather when we left Friday morning for the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek, not only did we get a weather warning call from the weather Mama but as soon as we rolled into Boone we hit snow. Luckily I was dressed for the occasion in shorts and a t-shirt. As we rolled down the mountain into Wilkesboro the snowed stopped, the sun came out and the temps began to rise. It wasn't really warm or cold but as long as the sun was shining I was happy. Not wanting to get burned by an unsuspecting rain shower like last weekend, Melinda and I decided to hit the trail early. Andy rolled into camp fresh from the Niner demo at the Warrior Creek trails and reported back that there were no SIR9's in attendance so we opted to hit the OVT which started just up the road from our campsite. The OVT was in great shape, smooth fast and bermy, Melinda's skills have really began to improve as she is riding over stuff she walked last year and she is really beginning to pick up the pace. Back at camp more and more peeps rolled in, the campfire was lit and beverages began being comsumed. I never really realized how sneaky Chris Dillow can be when it comes to racing. While we were preparing dinner he walked up to me and handed me a brown bag, the kind you only get from a liquor store and said Happy Birthday. All night he talked and talked about drinking Jim Beam but he never poured one drop he just sipped his beer with a funny smile on his face that I sear looked like he was holding back an evil laugh. Brad has been telling me for a while about his newest hobby, playing the ukulele but I had yet to see him perform. As we were all relaxing around the campfire he broke it out and handed me the lyrics sheet and asked me to sing. I'm not much of a singer but pour a little Jim Beam in my cup and I'll sing all night. I've yet to review the Flip cam footage of our campfire concert but I'd say it will be entertaining. We sang a little Johnny Cash, Coldplay and some Old Crow Medicine Show. It was good times indeed, maybe if we practice enough we can take our show on the road and make enough to pay for our race fees. If you missed this one the next show will be April 16th at Panther Creek. Not wanting to ruin a good day of racing and realizing Chris was up to something I swapped out my drink for water and I swear Chris's evil grin turned into a frown. As expected a rain storm did show up but only after we called it a night and were in bed. It was brief but was followed by another just before dawn waking me up early. Just coming off of my early day shift schedule at work I never went back to sleep. I tossed and turned for about 2 hours thinking about what the conditions would be for the race while trying to remain positive. Enough for now I've got a ton of things to do today around the house including an interview with one of the local newspapers about mountain biking in Northeast TN. To be continued......

a little air guitar, air piano, dancing and of course smack talk

2011-03-31T08:54:00.004-04:00

I'm running a bit behind as far as packing goes for this weekend. I've been working 12 hr shifts and most of my time after work has been spent tinkering with my bikes and camera equipment. Melinda unfortunately pulled a muscle in her back last night working out. I think she got a little carried away lifting weights. I came home to find her laid out on the living room floor with ice packs and pain reliever. She's pretty bummed out about being on the injured list this weekend, we were hoping to get down early Friday to take advantage of the Niner demo day put on by Luna Cycles. I'm not sure if she will be riding but hopefully she'll be in a lot better shape by Friday. Yesterday on the Facebox, Chris left me a message, something to the effect of, "Was I going down to Wilkesboro this weekend to race or shoot a freaking movie?" My reply, something along the lines of making sure at one point during the race I would point the camera behind me and as long as he could keep me in his sights on the trail he might just make it into the "movie". If he is unable to do so I'll get a shot of him with the Flip cam as he crosses the line, well that is if the line at the beer wagon is not too long. Good luck Mr. Dillow, I'm glad you didn't pansy out like so many of the others we know. I stated earlier in the week I was going to give the Conti Mountain King a shot this weekend at Warrior Creek but for some reason it didn't hold it's air all weekend. I think it was contributed to the rim strip getting a bit out of whack and since it's officially up for sale and I'll be swapping it out for a new set of Bontrager 29-4's. I went ahead and put the old ACX back on, it's still in good enough shape to last a bit longer.

Earlier this week I mentioned the plan "B" we resorted to on Sat night while camping near Dupont. Rather that sit out side in the cold rain with no campfire Melinda and I converted the ECO into the party zone for a couple of hours.

Although the dance floor was a bit small for one person alone, Fat Tony did not let that stop him from getting down and cutting a rug.

Then he proceeded to entertain us with his air guitar skillz or should I say beer bottle guitar skillz.

Really long guitar solo.

Once things calmed down I played a soothing air piano piece to soften the mood for Andy. The new beard is started to look really good in my opinion.

getting ready for the big show no matter what they say

2011-03-30T10:54:00.003-04:00

Rain, yeah that what we've got, good for people who like rain bad for me. The weather forecast for this weekend is up in the air right now if you ask me. Last year I would have said, "It's gonna be awesome! Just check the forecast." Right now the call is for rain today and tomorrow for sure no doubt about it. Fri it's a 30% chance and Sat and Sun it's nothing but clouds and sunny skies. I have several pessimistic friends who like to tell me just before we leave, "It looks like rain for you all weekend." Don't you just love those people. Never the less I'm paid up for the race and my campsite so I will be racing unless they cancel it which probably won't happen. Being an optimist I look at it this way, if it does rain there is a better chance for me to get closer to the podium because no doubt there will be some pansies who will stay home. Another good thing about all this rain is it knocks down the pollen count, yay for me and my allergies.

If you haven't been paying attention lately this weekend is the first big race of the year for me, The 6 Hours of Warrior Creek. I'm pumped, excited, and giddy like a little school girl. Melinda and I were planning to head down Thursday after work until we realized Friday is the first official day of the season for Bandit's Roost campground. So instead of making a late night of it and camping out in Wilkesboro's WalMart parking lot we're opting to leave early Friday morning. Luna Cycles is setting up shop with a whole fleet of sweet Niner demo bikes at the trailhead and we plan to be there to sample the goods. Fingers crossed there might just be a SIR9 in attendance.

If you haven't been over to Warrior Creek in a while there is some new trail that's been added, the section shown above is one of my favorites. Just around the corner, over the bridge is a really cool rope swing. You can see it in action here along with what it's like to ride the trails there when wet.

Speaking of SIR9's, I called my LBS and Niner has a couple in stock in my size and color. So on a whim I threw up a couple of pics of the JET9 on my local club forum to see if I would get any bites. If you're interested in a 2010 Jet9 give me a shout.

It's in perfect condition with less than 100 miles on it. I'm selling it frame only with the headset, seat collar, and Thompson seatpost. I might let the Reba go with it for the right price. I'm in no rush to sell nor do I need the money so any low ball offers will be ignored. Shoot me an email if you're interested and we'll talk prices.

Race-ready 29er full suspension, updated for 2010

3" of CVA™ suspension

custom valved Fox RP23 shock

Compatible with 80-100mm forks

Tapered headtube technology

Hydroformed tube construction

Custom forging throughout

The headset is an FSA that comes with an adapter if you don't have a fork with the tapered steer tube.

I spent a good portion of the evening sorting through my GoPro stuff, charging the batteries for it and my Flip cam. I also spent some time thinking about new angles to shoot from and such so anticipate a new video coming down the pipe in the next week.

setting my goals too high

2011-03-29T09:29:00.005-04:00

The first race of my season is coming up this weekend, The 6 Hours of Warriors Creek. This year so far my allergies have not been bothering me even with camping all last weekend. Fingers crossed I'm hoping this is a good sign of things to come for the weekend. I totally plan to ride this race until I can take it no more. My plan is to complete 4 laps minimum, in fact unless I get injured or break both bikes I will finish 4 laps come hell or high water. If I have any gas left in the tank after 4 and there is still time left which I doubt both will happen I'll attempt a 5th. As of right now the weather man says it will be dry but I'm sure that will change. I've ridden Warrior Creek in the rain and it's actually not that bad, the trail sheds water pretty well but it will also shed you if you push it too hard in the turns, banked or not. I've seen that happen first hand with more than one rider. I know there are alot of IF's going on but I'll just be happy with a clear head and a decent race this year. Maybe I've set my goals a bit high this year but I'm feeling good and there is nothing wrong with a little trash talking. The Go Pro will be in full effect as will my Flip cam, which finally made it's filming debut in the IMBA TCC video.

I did get around to uploading our pics from last weekend so here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

The water was pretty high at all of the crossings and still too cold to be riding through, especially at the beginning of the ride.

I took the JET9 out on Saturday and had an absolute blast on it. Just when I think I've made up my mind on which bike I want something happens and I start second guessing my decision.

We forgot to pack our Park Tool bottle opener but thankfully Jackson and Moonshine are both sporting the Cycle Dog collars these days. I got to put them to use Friday night sitting around the campfire.

We had an unusually large amount of dogs running around the campground Friday, seven to be exact.

Saturday night we put the ECO to good use and stayed out of the rain. Some might say owning a camper is not real camping but it does allow you to stay no matter the weather while others are packing up soggy gear and heading home. The reason we originally bought the ECO was not because we're getting soft, I actually miss tent camping sometimes, but when we're out on a 3 or 4 hour ride in July we can't leave the dogs behind in the tent, and no campground will allow you to leave them tied to a tree unattended.

The stereo was really rocking between 3 different Ipod's, it was interesting to see all the different genres of music we had between Fat Tony, Andy and myself.

the back-up plan

2011-03-28T08:44:00.009-04:00

How many more camping trips are going get rained out before we get a dry one? After this weekend we are well past due for a dry weekend. Melinda and I left home early on Thursday in route to Dupont/Pisgah hoping to get in some extra trail time in before the rest of the crew rolled into town on Friday. Our anniversary was Friday and there is nothing more romantic than a mountain bike themed camping trip.

The weather forecast when we left town was showing a 40% chance of rain for Saturday and nothing else. I knew I would be in SORBA meetings for a large portion of the day Saturday so I wasn't too disappointed but things changed rapidly. I checked the forecast again later that evening and the percentage shot up to 70%, not looking good.

We made the most of the dry weather and headed out for the trail head as soon as we got things situated. Moonshine and Jackson made they're first trip up Cedar Rock and I think they were impressed with the views.

Friday Melinda and I hit the trails again realizing there was a good chance it might be our last chance to ride for the weekend. The weather was almost perfect and the trails were in awesome shape.

Saturday as expected we woke up to the rain. Anthony, Andy, Rick and myself got up early before the ladies and drove into town to register for the days events. This whole trip was centered around the SORBA, Southern Mountain Bike Summit. Anthony and I have been in the process for a few months now to get our local club, NTMBA affiliated into the vast network of clubs that make up SORBA. This weekend at the board of directors meeting we were to be voted in making that the last step in the process.

We showed up late, checked in and grabbed a couple of danishes and bagels off the breakfast table and snuck out the back door before the morning classes started. A majority of the the morning's material was stuff that we had already experienced so we were just there for the important stuff like free breakfast.

By the look of the skies it appeared as if the rain was there to stay so rather than hang around a soggy campground we rounded up the ladies and headed to the local coffee shop for breakfast #2 and hung out until time for our meeting with SORBA.

As luck would have it we made it to the meeting just in time to score a free lunch and grab some seats in the back row in case the meeting was slow and I fell asleep. Since I'm the president of the club I was expected to stand up introduce the club and give a brief introduction. Of course Melinda suggested earlier in the week that I sit down and write out my speech on paper but I opted to wait until the last minute to throw something together. My rough version was drafted in my head on Friday in the truck as Melinda and I drove home from the trailhead and the final touches were applied as I sat on the throne Saturday morning after multiple cups of coffee. Yeah I guess you can say I was slacking a bit but when it comes to speaking in front of a big crowd I always get nervous and end up saying whatever comes off the top of my head anyway. A month or so ago when Anthony and I went on Channel 5 news, Anthony kept trying to get me to throw in the word jellybeans somewhere randomly which I did not. So when I was called upon during the board of directors meeting to speak for our club I did manage to throw in a NASCAR mention but nothing about jelly beans and it did get a few laughs and we did get voted in so no harm done.

After the meeting was over it was still raining but just barely, I was wanting to ride so I mentioned to Andy and Anthony that we should go anyway but unfortunately all of Anthony's riding gear was in his car, in Asheville with the girls who were shopping. I don't think he believed me either when I told him he would be fine riding in jeans.

Since we could not ride and the girls were gone shopping we decided to do the next best thing. Drink beer at the local bike shop.

Yes, The Hub in Brevard serves beer, not just any old beer but local craft beers. We rolled into the Hub joined the required private membership, which was free and spent the afternoon the best way we could think of considering our situation.

Slowly as time went by more and more folks from the summit trickled in, I guess we weren't the only one's with the same idea. A bike shop that serves beer is an awesome thing and a bad thing all at the same time. It's cool for obvious reasons but also bad in the sense that too many Pisgah Stouts almost caused me to walk out with a sweet set of Industry 9 wheels priced at a little over $1000. Yeah that would not have been good.

We did take a bunch of pics but I haven't had time to sort though them much less upload any but hopefully tomorrow.

tire delimma

2011-03-22T22:12:00.004-04:00

I finally went out and bought a new set of tires for the AIR9 yesterday. When I built it up last summer I just moved the Bontragers off the Mamasita and over to the AIR9. They have been great tires and I got a good deal on them when I bought them but Bontrager has discontinued them so I've been on the hunt for a replacement for a while. In my search I've learned one thing, 29" tubeless tires are not only hard to find but they are also freaking expensive, almost as expensive as tires for my truck. I've been shopping around, getting quotes here and there but not really finding much, that I could afford anyway. The tread on my rear tire was really starting to get low and lose traction so this week I decided I needed to make a move especially with two big, back to back weekend trips, one being the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek.

Yesterday I decided on a set of Continental Mountain Kings. They were reasonably priced and had a good looking tread in my opinion. Really my opinion on tread is really not something I would base a purchase on because I'm clueless when it comes to tires and tread. I listen here and there to conversations about tire tread for as long as my attention span will alow (5 min max) then I go out shop around throw all my good info out the window and buy on what I think looks good for the best price. Sounds like a good way to pick a tire huh.

I bought the Mountain Kings, took them home and began the ridiculously long, painful, irritating and messy process of mounting up a set of tubeless tires. Normally I make a mess of epic proportions, cuss and fight the tire for 2 hrs before giving up and running down to the local bike shop for help. You see I have no air compressor which makes this process alot easier but I'm always putting off the purchase of one because the only time I need one is when mounting up tubeless tires.

Last night as usual I spent alot of time trying to mount them with my floor pump and as usual I made a mess and got no where. I finally gave up and waited until this morning when I could get access to an air compressor.

Once I did I got them seated only to find out one of the tires had a slice in the side wall. I was forced to return home and swap it back out for the better of the two Bontragers and make the drive to the air compressor again. Finally after wasting too much time with my tires I was ready to go but something wrong. The Bontrager was alot bigger than the Conti. They were both supposed to be 2.2's but I guess it's that whole European skinny tires are better crap that screws everything up and running it on the back made it look even weirder. I was already late for a ride so I said screw it and decided to swap them around later.

After the ride I finally broke down and bought an air compressor so I could swap the tires around before heading out for the weekend. Now that I have two totally different tires and two obviously different sizes I'm going to go crazy worrying about the whole vanity thing. I mean you have to look fast and good too right? Anyway the AIR9 is a hardtail and a skinny European girly tire just won't do when it comes to smashing my way through nasty rock gardens. Since I have already paid for and ridden the tire I guess I will keep it a give it a shot. Obviously the cut tire went back to the shop for a return but I'm pretty much stuck with the other one.

bikes more bikes and a flashlight

2011-03-14T18:20:00.005-04:00

Our bike room at home is full, of bikes that is. The norm for our bike room is 7 bikes but we've added 2 extra in the past week. Moonshine loves bikes almost as much as I do but she was complaining the other day that she was running out of room for her bed on the floor. Really only one bike is permanent, for now, Brownie is back to stay and I'll be damned if I can't think of another name for it and for some reason keeping it "Brownie" when it's no longer brown kinda sounds fun to me. The other addition, while temporary for now is another 29er. No we're not flipping bikes these days, it's a demo Niner Air9 that Melinda is currently putting the screws to at Bays Mountain as I type this. She's been pondering the big hoops for a while but I never thought we could find a size to fit her much less a demo for her to ride before throwing down the cash on one.

Not the prettiest looking bike I've ever seen, Kermit green, gold and red kinda hurts the eyes but it's hard to come by demos, especially in a size small. Having this bike in the house does help me make up my mind whenever it comes to whether I would like the Kermit green color or not. It would be hard to find parts that flowed with this color and you would really be limited to all black.

On the subject of new bikes I'm still on the fence on what to do with my full squish frame, I like it but yet I feel like it's not me. It's fun on the downhills but in my hood you have to do alot of climbing to get there and I'm not 100% sure I'm really that much faster going downhill with the full suspension vs a hardtail. I had serious thoughts of selling the JET9 for a SIR9, Niner's steel hardtail that can be run geared or SS. I almost talked myself out of it but now it's creeping it's way back into my head again. This year they've got the SIR9 in the sweet Moondust grey color and to tell you the truth I think I might just enjoy riding a singlespeed more than the squish. It's simple, fun and challenging not to mention the feel of steel on the trail is like non other. The deraileur/gears on my JET9 has been nothing but a pain in the ass the whole time I've had it, some of that has to do with the fact it's a 1x9. The debate continues inside my head.

LED's are getting brighter and brighter and coupled with a Lithium Ion battery you can have one small, lightweight light that lasts longer and is super bright. Melinda says I have an addiction to flashlights, blinkies and other lighting systems and she's probably right. I ordered 2 high powered LED flashlights a couple of weeks ago from China and they finally came in the mail the other day. These things are super bright, brighter than any flashlight I own. They are almost if not as bright as my LED headlamp I run while night riding. They each came with 2 small Lithium Ion rechargable batteries and a charger. I only paid $10 for the light, 2 batteries and a charger. I've seen several similar flashlights you can order that are about half the lumens of these at 10x the price. With a little bit of engineering I could strap them to my helmet for riding and I might try it soon. Some of my older LED's won't even hit the back of my yard at night but I have to be careful where I point these things cause they'll light up my neighbor's house 2 houses down. I'm scared what I might see if I accidentally shine the light into the windows down the road.

Spring is looking up, I'm seeing the trees starting to bud and green stuff sprouting up in my garden and so far my head and allergies are doing good. I'm really hoping the new allergy meds are going to make this spring clearer for me. I'm determined to silence the ridiculousness that goes on in my head and straighten out whatever distorts my thought process. I'm convinced it's congestion effecting my inner ear or something of that nature. I've talked myself till I'm blue in the face to several doctor's but they all look at me like I'm an idiot. I've researched this on the webMD sites for those people who think they're internet doctor's and some tried to tell me I'm paranoid but that's crap. Why can one minute I feel normal then the next have trouble processing thoughts or sentences. I've thought about telling my doctor I see dead people just to mess with him so maybe he would take me seriously but Melinda doesn't think it's funny when I say things like that.
I'm really hoping to redeam myself this year at the 6WC coming up in two weeks, the past two years really sucked last year being the worst. It's the first and only time I've bailed on a race like that. I busted out two rides at Warriors in the past two days and felt great, no allergy side effects or weird feelings in my head.
Last night I met up with Fat Tony at 6:30 to squeeze in a lap after work. I thought for sure we would need lights near the end of the ride but we were able to finish out the lap with enough light to still pin it in the corners coming down MCR.

If you haven't already seen the IMBA Trail Care Crew re-cap video check it out.

It took a little longer than expected to finish it. I had to wait a few days for the rain to quit before I could get out and shoot a ride on the new section of the Big Oak re-route and it rides great. It may not be as fast as the old section but it's 500 feet longer, no longer has a creek running down it and it's rideable going up hill when wet. Give it a couple more weeks to get properly ridden in and I think it will continue to get faster. If you're still pissy about the change you can still go bomb down the creek called Azalea trail that keeps getting wider and more rutted out everyday.

brownie makes a comeback

2011-03-12T20:33:00.003-05:00

Friday after my ride on Buffalo with B-Rad and Ben the Applebeast I headed over to Norris Bicycles to check on the progress of Brownie. I was told over a week ago it would be ready on Friday but I was trying not to get my hopes up. Technically it wasn't ready, it still need brakes and a few other minor accessories but once the brakes were installed it was ready to go home with me. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, better than I expected. I probably should have waited to post up any pics until every last detail was taken care of but my excitement over the project was too great to wait.

The old Brownie

The new Brownie

The majority of the bike was kept original, all the drivetrain and the hubs were overhauled. The brown paint was changed to a very clean white powder coat. The original handlebars and stem were missing when I got ahold of the bike but Dave replaced the heavy four bolt stem with an antique Schwinn stem that looked good and suited the style I was looking for much better. The bmx style handlebar went away and was replaced with a Soma Fabrications Noah's Arc bar.

The brake levers were also replaced as they just didn't fit the new style as well. There are new white Oury grips on order as well.

Of course Brownie got new cables, housing, chain, tires and brake pads. I have new pedals on order to replace the current bent ones.

I plan to put the chain guard back on but Dave hadn't got around to painting it or the fenders yet so it will probably be another week or so. The fenders will stay off but I'll be holding onto them in case I change my mind. The saddle and seatpost were replaced as well but the saddle on it right now is just temporary, I've yet to decide what will go on it permanently. Hopefully by next week the new pedals and grips will be in so she will be ready to roll. CRAWL season is just around the corner and I'm ready to roll in style.

Friday when I was out riding Buffalo we stopped for a bit of refueling and B-Rad pulled out a small pouch of peanut butter & chocolate by The Peanut Butter & Co.

The pouch was perfect for carrying in a jersey pocket and perfect for a trailside snack. I had tried their peanut butter several times before and was impressed but I had not seen the small pouches. Today while I was at the store I grabbed a few to give it a try, they pack quite a punch in the way of refueling and with dark choc. and peanut butter it has to be good.

IMBA TCC photo re-cap and Buffalo Mtn. monkey business

2011-03-11T21:17:00.011-05:00

Last weekend Melinda and I hosted the IMBA Trail Care Crew at our house for the weekend. Who the heck are they you ask? Go here to learn a little bit about who they are and what they do. We had Steve and Morgan Lommele, a really cool couple that we had alot of fun hanging out with.

I've already written a re-cap of the entire weekend for the NTMBA site so if you want to know more of the details about what went down go here. I didn't see any reason to repeat everything I've already said and what alot of you have already probably read. Steve and Morgan have their perspective of the weekend reported here.
So anyway what I've got for you are some other little tidbits that maybe weren't as important or might have left the NTMBA report a bit lengthy and of course alot more pics.

It wasn't all lectures and workshops, there was alot of hanging out shooting the bull, drinking a few brews and of course a bit of riding.

The section of trail we worked on last weekend was basically built all wrong, during heavy rains it had a small creek running down the middle of it as you can see above.

Friday afternoon several of us accompanied Steve and Morgan into the woods to watch their flagging process.

I basically took a bunch of random shots and video, scouted the other new trail across the creek that is the Azalea Trail and goofed off.

It crazy some of the stuff you can find in the woods when your just standing around in the same spot for a couple of hours. Steve and Morgan went back and forth in one section of trail flagging, reflagging and then reflagging some more. Finally they came to a mutual agreement and we headed back to the cars to go ride.

Since they had already ridden Bays the day before we took them over to Warriors Path to show off one of our crown jewels.

Both Friday and Saturday we started the day off with workshops fueled with coffee and donuts. Yes I ate more donuts that weekend than I have in a long time but I'm pretty sure I earned the calories.

We had a good sized crew show up for Saturday's workshop despite the threat of rain. We actually got pretty lucky the entire time we were in the woods because I really don't recall getting rained on at all.

The photo above is #1 in a series of 4 all taken in the same spot. The trail you see to the right is the old section of Big Oak just above where the problem area begins. Look closely on the left and you will see the orange pin flags marking where the new trail will begin.

#2 This photo is at the very beginning of the workday as the volunteers are just beginning to clear away the leaves on the new trail.

#3 The digging or benching of the new trail (left) has officially begun. On the right the old trail is being prepared to return it back to nature and make it disappear so it will look like the old trail never existed.

#4 Again this photo was taken in the exact same position as the previous three. The new trail is officially completed and the old section no longer exists. It was amazing to look back and try and figure out where the old trail used to be.

Later that evening Melinda and I host a social event at our house in celebration of the new section of trail we built. Unfortunately the weather did not hold out for the party but I took necessary precautions and set up the EZ-UP out on the deck for crowd gathered around the uh... um... adult beverage dispenser.
I shot quite a bit of video from the weekend, some riding, some trailwork and just some random stuff. As soon as the trails dry up, hopefully tomorrow, I plan to head up to Bays and ride the new section, completing the footage I need to make a video. It will probably be next week before I get a chance to put it all together so stay tuned.

Pretty much all week I've been stuck indoors except for Tues when Melinda and I spent the entire day digging ditches. Today B-Rad, the Applebeast and I went for a ride on Buffalo Mountian. I kinda figured we would get rained out when I went running yesterday but B-Rad said we were on and that we were riding the roads from his house to the trailhead getting in about 8 extra miles. We saw a little bit of everything as far as conditions go. Sun, strong winds, clouds, snow, and small streams where there are not usually small streams.

It seems that everytime I ride Buffalo Mountain the weather is either rain or snow, never sunny and nice. I'm not sure why that is but I aim to change that this summer. I always wonder how B-Rad got to be such a strong rider, the ride we did today is his normal route and it hurt. I think I need to joining him more often especially if we're going to be competing together in the TN Cup series together.

We ascended up to the firetower which is currently being restored, somewhere I haven't been in a while. We really only rode around 2 miles of the new Pinnacle Firetower trail which was nice from what I could tell but it was completely covered with snow.

A view form atop the firetower, the views weren't the best with all the clouds in the way but it was too freaking cold to be up there for very long anyway.
I was probably a bit under prepared, riding up I was sweating alot and once we started back down I got really cold. Cold enough that it took me a few hours to warm my core back up. At one point in the decent I lost feeling in my toes which made me nervous until B-Rad told me it would take a while before I did any damage. Every once in a while I would have to stop and warm up my hands, they would get so cold I was having trouble shifting gears and braking.

Once we rolled back into B-Rad's driveway I think we logged close to 24 miles, not bad considering the conditions we dealt with.

After I left B-Rad I headed over to Norris Schwinn to pick up the bike formally know as Brownie. Dave finally finished her and I have to see she looks awesome. I still have a few things to do to her before I'll call it done but it shouldn't be too much longer, at least I brought her home. I really didn't have time before work to snap any good pics but I will tomorrow and I'll give a full run down on the restoration job.

playing in the dirt but not for fun

2011-03-10T10:01:00.005-05:00

It's Thursday, I've been off work all week and I haven't got to ride since last Saturday, I think you know why, it's raining sideways right now. When will it stop? Probably about the time I go back to work.

It's been a crazy busy past 2 weeks and I'm totally ready for some sunshine and for the momentum to slow down. Monday of last week the rain came down extremely hard and it wasn't a quick storm either, it lasted for a long time. I had a feeling when I got home from work that I would have some water puddles in my basement which sometimes is the norm but not really a big deal. As soon as I got home I went downstairs to check and see if the dehumidifier was full. Not only was it full but everything in one section of my basement was floating. We had close to 4" of standing water in what we call the bomb shelter, a small concrete bunker located under our house. We have never seen this before and I'll admit I freaked out a little bit. In the frantic period that followed this discovery as I was trying to figure out what to do I dropped my Andriod phone and cracked the screen, luckily it still works fine but still needs to be replaced. Last week I was working 12 hour days and we were scheduled to host the IMBA Trail crew at our house for the weekend. I made a few quick calls and scored a small pond pump from Melinda's uncle Joe. By midnight I had most of the water pumped out but I still had to burn a vacation day the next day in order to clean up the mess and haul away all of the debris that had been stored in the bomb shelter. What sucked was I had plans to dig some drainage lines around that side of the house the following week but I was a little too late.

Fast forward a couple of days to Tuesday, the only day that was good for riding and I spent the entire day in the dirt. I'm not talking dirt as in singletrack dirt, I mean digging in the dirt. I knew I didn't have time to dig the drainage ditches by hand as there was another storm approaching us the following day. I visited my local rental shop and plunked down the cash for a mini track hoe rental and trailer to speed things along. What would have taken me a week to dig by hand took me around 3 hours with this little monster.

I returned the machine by 1:30 and began the process of installing the pipe in the ground and covering it back up. Melinda and I worked for the remainder of the day and well into the dark with the help of Joe and Olga desperately trying to finish the job before more rain set in. We were able to get the system functioning but we still have a big mess outside that is now nothing but mud. I still have alot of smoothing and tamping to do to get the yard back to normal and sow some grass seed but the rain has to let up before I can finish the job.

I'm hoping that after today things will dry up and I will be able to get back outside and finish the job and maybe squeeze in a little bike action. Sometime after lunch there is supposed to be a break in the rain/snow so I may take advantage of this window and go for a run.

I've not been on a run since the War party 10k, after that race we saw spring time temps and mountain biking took all of my attention. A couple of weeks ago we were enjoying a few beverages with some friends when the subject of my time at the 10k was brought up my Mrs. Dillow, an avid runner. She boasted that even though she did not participate in that race she would have killed it and me. I tried not to return the smack talk as she is definetly more of a runner than I am but I do recall waiting at the finish line at this year's Turkey Trot 5k for a few minutes before she crossed the line. When asked what my next race plan was I replied probably the Crazy 8's 8k in July. She smirked and said something along the lines of beating me on my home turf. I took this as a challenge but no actual bet was made other than gloating.

I guess if I don't want to get my ass handed to me by a trash talking runner in pink I had better step up my game.

pancakes and dirt for breakfast

2011-02-28T14:43:00.005-05:00

Earlier in the week I was afraid that this weekend was going to be a washout. With standing water in the yard earlier in the week I thought even if the rains subside by Friday the trails would be a mess. Fortunately the skies did clear by Friday morning and Melinda and I rounded up the dogs to scout out the mud factor. We were not surprised to find everything saturated. I hoped for a semi dry day by Saturday at Bays so I could at least get some riding in.

Saturday morning I got fueled up with pancakes at the ETSU cycling's fundraiser breakfast. Actually I gorged myself on a ridiculous amount of pancakes and enjoyed the company of some the crew.
Determined to ride, we made a plan to meet at Bays Mountain and I wasn't surprised when only two other hardy souls showed up. Eric, Sean and myself did our best to pedal up Azeala which at the time looked more like a river rather than a trail. If you ever want to know how not to build a trail, look no further. The only thing that kept Azeala from being any worse was it's sand based soil.
Once we trudged up through the flowing creek we finally came out onto dry land. The rest was a great ride, the single track was almost perfectly tacky. There was of course the usual mud holes that are located at the bottom of the fireroads but we're used to that. This is mountain biking and to me if you're a true mountain biker you ride all the time, not just when the trails are dry, the skies are blue and the birds are chirping. If you can't handle getting your bike dirty every once in a while maybe you should stick to the pavement or find another sport.

Thursday was Melinda's birthday and when I asked her what she wanted to do for the weekend her answer was, take me mountain biking. Although the weather was crap in the Tri-Cities a few of us snuck over the mountain to Asheville and were awarded near perfect weather and riding conditions. I'm a firm believer that you should get out and ride when you can, you never know what the conditions will be. We drove through an absolute downpour coming over the mountain only to find beautiful weather on the other side. Mother nature was smiling down on us Sunday.

Although I'll probably never own a downhill rig, I love seeing things like this pop up. Trek is obviously testing prototype 29" downhill bikes. I've always heard there will never be a 29er downhill bike. I say that's crap, I love it when the old school none believers are proved wrong.

Don't forget this weekend the IMBA Trail Care Crew will be rolling in town to put on a trail building workshop at Bays Mountain. I'm stoked about the opportunity although it has been alot of work on the officers at NTMBA. I think it's well worth the effort, there will never be enough trails.

Go Pro product review

2011-02-24T20:21:00.005-05:00

About once a month or so I get a question about what camera do I use when filming outdoors, mostly on the bike. This week alone I was asked about it by 3 separate people two of whom are thinking seriously about making the purchase. Not everyone I talk to realized which camera I use. I decided maybe it's time for me to do a product review on the Go Pro, my camera of choice. I've only done one or two product reviews before and I tend to steer clear of them mainly because I don't enjoy getting all technical about things especially when I don't feel 100% confident that I know what I'm talking about. I don't know much about the mechanics of bikes, I can't describe why I like the way a bike rides, I can't talk about the different types of tire treads and I sure as heck can't tell you the pros and cons of suspension designs. So that's why I tend to steer clear of this subject.

I do know a little about the Go Pro cameras, mainly from trial and error in the 2+ years I've owned one. Actually I'm on my 3rd camera, I guess you could say I'm rough on them. Don't get me wrong they are tough little cameras but I really use them, in all conditions. I tear up our normal point and shoot cameras on almost a yearly basis.

So with that said here's what I know, like and dislike about the Go Pro.

First off I will start off with what I own. I don't have the HD version, mine is the standard wide lens version that uses 2 AAA batteries. I love the wide angle lens as it allows me to mount the camera in various positions where determining if the view will work or not isn't always an option. With the wide lens you almost always have a good shot because the lens can capture so much more area. I wish mine had the rechargeable Lithium Ion battery pack but having extra AAA's in my pocket on longer rides has been a plus on several occasions. I bought the energizer NiMH batteries with a charger from Wal-Mart and they work pretty good but tend to fade faster in the cold temps. I'm satisfied with the non HD version as I think about it this way. The HD version costs almost double the price for a little bit crisper image. I will probably buy an HD version sooner or later but I'll wait till the price drops a bit. I have 3 flat screen 1080 dpi TV's in my house but I refuse to pay the extra $10 per TV just so I can watch in HD. Call me crazy but I just don't feel it's worth the extra dough.

Ok back to the Go Pro cameras, what I will spend my $$$ on is accessories, I have almost all of them and I've even started browsing Go Pro user forums looking for ideas on how to make homemade mounts. The unlimited mounting positions of the Go Pro is what I really like about the camera. Why limit just mounting it to your helmet?

My camera came with several mounts when I bought it.

The headstrap which basically just goes on your head but for non-helmet activities. This one probably sees the least use. I'm trying to think of other activities to use it for but I'm having a hard time staying off the bike.

These mounts are basically adhesive mounts, some are curved, some are flat. I've really only used a couple. I've got one on my kayak and one on my truck. I should really use them more but I tend to forget about them.

This little guy is the helmet strap, it works really well and gives a cool perspective on the trail but like tools in my jersey pocket the extra weight on my head bugs me. I do have a new idea for this guy but I've yet to test it out but I will soon I promise.

This mount was the first one I bought that didn't come with my camera. It will mount to all kinds of stuff, handlebars, seatposts, chainstays with a little help, rigid forks, the roof racks on my truck etc. I've used this one a ton and I'm actually kinda burned out on it but it does work well. One note I did have to add a washer as a spacer to the mounting screw that attaches it to the camera to get it a little extra tight. The camera would not always stay in place when the trail turned rough.

This mount, the chest harness is probably one of my favorites. The point of view is awesome as long as you wear it tight and keep it positioned high on your chest. From this point of view you can see the trail, bike and rider movements. I've even mounted it backwards to film the rider behind me. The only bad part about this was I had to have someone else turn it off and on.

This mount will probably be my next purchase. It's very similar in design to the handlebar mount but in a much larger scale. The handle bar mount is limited in how big of diameter of object you can mount it too. This mount would allow me to put it on the downtube of my frame and who knows where else.

There are a ton of different things I could tell you about this camera that I like. It's tough, it's small, it's waterproof and it's simple to turn off and on when mounted to your helmet. I could go on and on but I did say I would tell you my dislikes as well. Other than the spacer I had to add to the attachment screw there is really only one other thing I can think of. The one bad fault I've found with the Go Pro is that they tend to lock up on occasion. The only way to remedy this is to remove the batteries and reboot the camera. My first one did this from time to time and finally quit working all together. It was over a year old and out of warranty but I talked to Go Pro and they hooked me up with a 20% off coupon on another. My second cam started doing the same thing within a couple of months and I sent it back, Go Pro sent me another free of charge within a week. I've had this camera for a few months now and it just started locking up on me again. I've yet to contact Go Pro about the issue and I may do so but I think I've figured out what is causing the problem. I think as the batteries start to fade or get old this is what causes the problem. My trip to Iron Mountain I began experiencing this problem after about 2 hours, I swapped out the batteries and the problem went away. I'm not 100% sure that was the cause but I'm hopeful. Even though this has been an issue Go Pro has excellent customer service. A year ago I snapped a mounting bracket off the waterproof housing during a race and Go Pro sent me a new one, no questions asked.

As far as software to edit my videos, I've been using the free version of MS movie maker that came with my computer. No fancy editing software is necessary but then again I'm no pro when it comes to making movies.

Oh wait I do have one other complaint, probably my biggest gripe of all but it's not with Go Pro, it's with my fellow Go Pro users who I know several. I can count at least 10 people I know personally that own Go Pro cameras some even have the HD version and other than Alan I have not ever seen one single video. This I don't understand, why buy a camera especially an HD camera if you never put it into video form and share. I've been told that I have set the bar too high but I call BS on that. I've seen a ton of videos online that make mine look like a chump. Looking back over my first videos they lacked sound (music), creativity and editing. Over time I learned what looked cool and what doesn't, it takes practice. I'm currently trying to learn that the longer the video is not always the better. Short and sweet Greg, short and sweet.

I hope that this was not too boring and maybe halfway informative for those who are thinking about taking the plunge. For those who could care less you've probably already stopped reading and moved on to something more entertaining, sorry.

If you've not seen them all my videos are posted to the right of my blog enjoy!

taking the week off

2011-02-23T19:27:00.004-05:00

I'm taking the week off this week, actually I'm just taking Tues through Friday off. I got out and rode Bays Mountain on Monday and later that afternoon when Melinda came home we hit Warrior's. She's really been on a roll lately wanting to ride Warrior's, something she wasn't really feeling last year so of course I went out and did a second ride just to see her get out and run a lap. I can tell she's already getting stronger and it's still early in the year. It should be impressive to see how far she takes it once she's off for the summer. Maybe I'll talk her into racing once this summer.

Anyway after Monday's 20+ miles on the dirt I was feeling a little toasty so I decided to take a couple days off and save my legs for this weekend. Saturday after we gorge ourselves at the ETSU Pancake breakfast we're heading over to the ETSU trails for a ride. If you've got nothing going on Saturday morning head over to Texas Roadhouse in Johnson City and from 8 - 10 you can eat all the pancakes you can stuff down your pie hole for a measly $5. The proceeds go to helping out the ETSU cycling team.

Sunday I'm taking Melinda riding for her birthday, probably back to Bent Creek in Asheville, it's one of her favorite places. I think she really wanting to hit the Tupelo Honey Cafe afterwards for some grub.

I've still yet to solve my tool carrying dilemma for this year. With all the races and trips coming up I need to do something soon. I think I'm done with trying seatbags. I've torn up countless bags and had all of them fail me in one form or another. I don't know why none of them have worked for me, I guess I'm just too hard on them.

I've been looking really hard at the Awesome Straps by Backcountry Research. I'm all about carrying as little as possible which is why I think this might work for me. I really hate carrying a bunch of stuff in my jersey pockets and unless it's a really long all day ride I'm not gonna carry a Camelbak. One thing I like about the Awesome Strap is that it will work anywhere on your frame not just the seatpost. That could come in handy with light batteries and maybe GoPro cameras and who knows what else.

The really cool thing about these straps is all the colors and designs they come in.

Who doesn't like cool colors and designs?

I might wait until these baby's come out before I order anything. I kinda like this idea of mounting everything under my seat. The only thing that worries me about the strap idea is how well do they work without a tube in there? I don't normally carry a tube anymore, maybe I should but like I said I hate to carry much. Normally on a short ride under 10 miles I'll only take water, no tools, maybe a small pump but that's it.

If your not busy on Friday afternoon tune into WCYB's noon news show. Fat Tony and I will be on promoting the IMBA Trail Care Crew workshop that NTMBA is putting on at Bay's Mountain March the 5th. Get all the details and register here. You don't have to be a mountain biker to benefit from this workshop. We all use trails at one point in our life so why not give a little back. There are never enough trails whether your a hiker, biker or trail runner. Trails rock and they don't build themselves.

3rd time is a charm

2011-02-18T11:41:00.004-05:00

I tried twice before to put a road trip together to Wilkesboro, NC to hit the Warrior Creek trails and the first two times the plans fell through for various reasons but yesterday all the stars finally aligned. I guess good things come to those who wait. The crew, 8 large descended on Wilkesboro yesterday morning and the weather couldn't have been better. It wasn't hot or cold, the trails were dry and hardpacked. The pace was a bit fast all day but it just couldn't be helped as good as it felt. At Warrior Creek the faster you ride the more fun the course is so it's hard to hold back and save gas for later in the day.
Fat Tony and his older bro Keith rolled over to my house early yesterday morning and we blew outta town as fast as we could to meet up with the rest of the crew. Our plan was to ride the Warrior Creek trails and in the back of my head I was hoping we would have time to squeeze in a run on the OVT to get in some extra miles.
Over the past few weeks I've been riding the JET9 but my last run at Warrior's Path it had me worried. My chain line is a bit off causing derailleur issues that have been plaguing me for a while. I decided too give it a rest until I had time to remedy the situation. I called upon the trusty AIR9 which would be better suited for the fast and flowing Warrior Creek trails. Riding the AIR9 yesterday reminded me how fast that bike is, it felt like an absolute rocket ship. If only I would have had a little more gas in the tank to keep up my end of the bargain. After mile 20 or so my legs were starting to feel the effects of the pace we had been keeping. It also let me know how much riding I need to do in order to be prepared for the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek.
After we finished the Warrior Creek trails a couple of the guys decided they were done for the day and volunteered to drop us off at one end of the O.V.T. and meet us at the other end for pick up. We knocked out another 7+ miles before calling it a day.
Once everyone rolled in and loaded up we headed back towards Boone for some Black Cat Burrito action. Definitely a good way to end the ride.

If you've never ventured over to the Warrior Creek trails I suggest you do so. If you conquer that, hit the O.V.T. or the Dark Mountain Trails, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

I sensed a bit of nervousness the other day in my readings, it appears as if more and more folks are riding and building 29ers. I wonder what the ratio of carbon 26ers vs. 29ers coming out of China is? Actually the 26" numbers might be starting to fall as more and more people make the switch. Pretty soon a 26" wheeled bike will be in the same category as cantilever brakes or a purple anodized handlebar with matching bar ends, "the older guys who can't let go club".

all week long son

2011-02-15T12:28:00.003-05:00

Quick post today, I felt like I've been slacking but the weather is perfect, well for Febuary anyway and there is just too much riding to be done for me to be wasting my time sitting at my computer.
So Alan has been talking up this whole Bikeapalooza thing for a couple of days and it caught my attention. I kept waiting for an annoucement of a big road trip with multiple trailhead stops and rides of epic preportions. I checked his blog once I saw the post and went in search of a big trip post but all I saw was a few miles at our local trail system and a road ride. I was kinda let down when I saw this but I guess two rides in one weekend in Feburary, one being on the road is pretty nice considering it is still technically winter. Then I re-read the title and it was Bike Palooza not Bikeapalooza so I guess there is a difference.

Anyway in the spirit of Bike Palooza I am going to head out to the trails and ride today. My own little Bike Palooza has been in full effect all weekend despite being on graveyard. Saturady I was able to catch up with the crew at Warriors and get in some dirt miles and Sunday, Melinda and I had the first part of our Valentine's Day date with brunch followed by a ride at Bay's mtn.

Wednesday, Melinda and I are heading to Asheville NC for the 2nd half of our Valentine's Day date/ride and hit some singletrack followed by a nice dinner.

Thurday, the daytrips continue with Fat Tony, Andy "I'll punch you in your freakin' face" Mullins and a few other fellow crazies as we head off to Wilkesboro NC for a little Warrior Creek action.

Bike Palooza or Bikeapoolza, whatever you want to call it, there will be some riding going down that's for sure. So much riding that I almost feel bad for the other cats in this mileage contest as no skinny tires will be involved.

do I take the red pill or the blue one?

2011-02-12T01:20:00.002-05:00

There's a whole lot of planning going on, mainly in my head. Alot of it will probably never actually happen mostly because all the things I want to do greatly out weigh the time in which I have to do them. If only I didn't have to work for a living. Then again if I was handed everything I would probably be a lazy turd, isn't that how it usually works?

I was just looking over my schedule this afternoon and I realized that we do not have a free weekend between now and sometime late in April. I'm surprise at how fast our calendar filled up but I'm also glad that other than work it's all fun stuff and camping trips. I can remember when Melinda and I first got married, before we became heavily involved in the local mountain bike scene and how there were weekends where we would sit around trying to think of something fun to do because we were bored. To think back on those days seems odd, I guess that's why the days of watching entire NASCAR races on a Sunday afternoon are long gone. Now I can't imagine sitting on the couch all day watching TV when the sun is shining and there is so much fun to be had outdoors.

The other day Alan and Anthony made the trip up to Hungry Mother State Park to aid in the return of the Night Owl race. It almost slipped through the cracks this year and didn't happen at but but luckily the park agreed to give it another shot. Last year was it's first year and while the park is not new to putting on races they don't really seem to grasp what it takes to really draw a crowd. To me a good race doesn't have to have great prizes as long as the entry fee is low and the Night Owl definitely has got that going for them. Probably the most important thing for me personally is the people who are going. I race to have fun and that's all, if our friends aren't there with us then there is no sense in racing. Last year we had a huge crew show up for the Night Owl, in fact I was friends with 3/4 or more of the field in all categories. The only thing that hurt the Night Owl in my opinion was the race course, it was short and consisted of mostly doubletrack.
I had plans to return this year just because I enjoyed the time we had there last year and I like supporting the "little guy" events.

This year there is a dilemma, GRT Racing has somewhat of a plan in attempting to race in the TN Cup series. Those dates have been on my calendar in the "I hope to do these section" for a while. Last night the powers that be decided on a date for the Night Owl and as my luck would have it these two conflict each other.

Last year I ran into this same dilemma with the Night Owl and the 12 Hours of Tsali. Although I wanted to race Tsali it really was a no brainer, do the Night Owl. This year it's different, the plans to race the TN Cup were already being put in place, it's also a small local promoter and while the entry fee is bigger, the swag and after party benefits are better than most races I've been to. The big thing that's drawing me toward the TN Cup is the race courses, all singletrack.

Tomorrow I plan to ride the trails with some of the GRT crew so hopefully we can discuss the details and maybe come to some sort of a conclusion or at least bounce a few pros and cons off each other. If nothing else we'll at least get to ride trails, well everyone except Chris who for some reason is planning on doing laps around the parking lot. For some reason he thinks he can win the mileage contest that way. Mileage contest? I'll tell that story another time, it's generating some really good smack talk and I think Alan is close to tears already.

Just kidding Alan, see you tomorrow.

lucky you

2011-02-08T09:40:00.003-05:00

Today I had to cancel my day trip ride plans, sucks for me but good for you, that is if you enjoy reading this blog. Semi sketchy weather, sick kids and tire issues forced all of my compadres to bail on me over the course of the last 12 hours so I instead of riding I will take this time to blog a bit. Fear not the ride will happened, not today but Thursday.

Slowly but surely my riding has started to pick back up. Not all of the trails are ready to roll on but the temps have risen a bit and the snow has stopped for the time being. It is still winter but I'll take it.
Saturday, Fat Tony put a ride on Iron Mtn together and luckily I was able to make this one. It's been a couple of years since my last ride on Iron so I was really pumped. I called on the JET9 for this trip as Iron is not a well groomed trail. It's a back country trail that doesn't see regular maintenance. Baby head rocks, downed trees, steep ups and downs, creek crossings and unpredictable weather are all part of a ride on Iron.
We shuttled up to Skulls Gap with the intention of riding somewhere around 20+ miles. Our first couple of miles were a very icy fireroad. After realizing we were going to be walking very slowly up the 2 miles of fireroad rather than riding we opted to cut a 5 mile section out and skip straight over to the Iron Mtn trail.
I was really surprised at the large crew that we had in tow, several newbies to Iron Mtn, were in attendance and I think once the trail pointed downhill they were hooked. Surprisingly the ride went mechanical free until the last mile when Fat Tony sliced the sidewall of a brand new tire. No matter what he tried the Stan's juice was just not up to the task of sealing this one forcing him to walk it out. I'd hate to think what he would have had to do had it been early on in the ride. For some odd reason I'm not sure we packed any tubes.

Since the War Party 10k run, the back of my knee has been bothering me a bit. It's been tight and the first couple of days it was swollen so I've not been running since. Thankfully it doesn't effect my riding or I might have gone off the deep end. Not really worrying much about personal records on runs I felt like the War Party 10k was a good run for me. I finished around the 55 minute mark and I felt surprisingly good. I'll probably give my knee a rest for another week or so before I try hitting the pavement again. Until then I guess I will have to suffer through riding my bike. Whoa is me.

Iron Mountain - the video

2011-02-07T13:14:00.002-05:00

Yeah I know is been a while since I posted something but you know what, I ain't gonna apologize for that. You see it's not that I haven't had anything cool to write about or that I've been taking kids to soccer practice, nope. I've been out doing stuff that makes for good videos. So crank up the volume and check this out.

I would love to tell you some funny stories about that ride on Iron Mountain but I've got a date with my AIR9 on Bays Mountain so maybe another time.

See ya

The 2011 ECO World Tour

2011-01-26T20:29:00.006-05:00

It's that time of year when I attempt to start planning my vacations, trips, rides, races and other various functions Melinda and I like to attend during the year. At work we're not really forced to let them know all of our vacation plans at the beginning of the year but the longer you wait to schedule your time the more likely you'll run into a date someone else has already picked. I have a calendar at home with my work schedule for the year and as I hear of dates that peak my interest I write them down whether I think I can make it work or not. Usually we end up making about 3/4 of the events we write down and several get added later in the year as there are always spontaneous trips popping up.

This year there are already several dates writtten down on our calendar but really only two have been set in stone. The first trip this year will see us heading to Brevard for the SORBA mtn bike summit. NTMBA is scheduled to be voted into IMBA/SORBA this year and we must be in attendance to do so. There is a whole weekend of events scheduled including a couple of big group rides so we decided to make a four day weekend out of it and celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary camping near Dupont State Forest.

Our second trip which happens to fall the very next weekend. The 3rd annual 6 Hrs. of Warriors Creek race in Wilkesboro NC. It also happens to be my birthday that weekend and peak allergy season. We will probably just leave the ECO packed in between trips and just restock the food and beverage supplies.

We usually try to work in a new destination every year for something different and this year our goal is to hit F.A.T.S., a very popular mtn bike destination near Augusta GA. We've yet to nail down the official date but I hope to get it scheduled soon.

As far as races go for me and the GRT Racing crew, we have several events pending. The semi local Tennesse Cup Mountain Bike Series has peaked our interest. It's three 8 hour races all within a 2 hour drive. I'm not sure if I will be able to make all three races but I hope to make at least two. Speaking of GRT Racing, we have finally started looking into getting our own team kits. Fat Tony has been hard at work on the design and from what I've seen so far they are going to look pretty sweet.

The 12 Hours of Tsali is also on my radar this year as it looks like the Night Owl isn't going to happen. This one is also a big maybe but definetly something I would like to attempt. It's been a while since we visited Tsali.

I feel like our calendar is filling up faster than normal this year but the good side of that is at least we won't be bored. The only dark spot on our calendar so far is the last weekend in October. We usually hit the 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth in Knoxville but unfortunately I have a work conflict. I knew one day something would prevent me from going, breaking my streak. I guess it's a good thing though, maybe it's time to move on and try new events and other things.

Melinda and I have never really been big on taking large extravegant vacations. I guess we could but really we would have to save all year and it would probably be the only trip we would get to take for the year. The last couple of trips to the beach we've made have left us wishing we were in the mountains somewhere camping with friends.

With the purchase of the ECO a couple of years ago it has really opened alot of doors for us and trips. Granted most of our trips involve camping, the ECO is hardly roughing it.

I'm very thankful Melinda is a camping type of girl, I couldn't imagine not spending half the summer camping with her and the dogs in the ECO. Both of our parents raised us taking camping trips when we were younger. Camping to me is a part of life and to hear some people talk about camping like it's the most horrible thing ever is like nails on a chalkboard. There is nothing like sitting around a campfire at night sipping on a brew with Melinda after a long day riding singletrack. I don't need fancy resturants, room service or beaches to satisfy me. Don't get me wrong I can enjoy it just as much as the next guy but I would rather go on 6 or 7 camping trips a year over one trip to the beach anyday.

Just talking about the trips we have planned is getting me pumped about this year. I'm so ready for this winter weather to be over and for things to dry out and warm up.