Mmmm…Bicycle Eye Candy

I want the red adonized Thomson bits for Frankenbike.  Or maybe I’d start a new bike with some new of the other colors.

Yeah…tasty.

There Will Be Mud!

And sand! And run ups! And barriers!

Running through the sand at the Georgia State Championship.

I have found a new love.  Cyclocross.  Now my road bike has even more reason to glare at me from its prison on the trainer.  My mountain bike is crying outside in the garage.  The cyclocross bike that I’m borrowing…she’s chomping at the bit to get ridden more.  (Sorry Kurt, but I’ve decided your bike is a girl.)

My first two races in the Georgia Cross series were done on  Frankenbike 2 after I pumped the tires a bit higher and played with the fork settings.  Here’s a quick clip of me running the barriers at my second race.

I love the advice from my friend who was filming.  ”Don’t fall.”  Yeah, right.

For the GA State Championship at Ft. Yargo, I got my hands on a true cyclocross bike.  I only had five days to get used to the lack of suspension.  My first ride was at night in rainy 38 degree weather.  I came home with frozen toes, frozen fingers, and a huge smile frozen on my face.  The day before the race I did a few laps of the local beginner mountain bike trails.  I was even able to keep up with several guys on full suspension 29rs.

The race course had telephone poles, two sets of barriers, and my first sand section.  I had a blast.  The CX4 racers got to do four laps.  I cleared the telephone poles twice and nearly crashed into them on the last lap.  I wasn’t able to ride through the sand on the first two laps, so the last two I didn’t even try.  The last lap I rode alone, trying to bridge about a 15 second gap to a group of four guys that I’ve been chasing at both of the other races I did this year, but it didn’t happen.  Oh well…there’s always next year.  Hopefully I’ll have more time dedicated to training specifically for CX on my own bike.  As it is, I can say that I am the 40th ranked CX4 racer in the state of Georgia.  For anyone who is interested, here is my ride on Strava (which is a great website).

The title for this post references a shirt design from an awesome design group Stomach of Anger.  You should get the t-shirt.

Been a While

It’s been almost a year since I last updated this blog.  In that time a lot of things have happened.  They are as follows, in no particular order:

My wife and I had a little girl.

Jane

I became the store manager at the shop where I work.

My car needed a repair that would have cost more than the car did originally.

I picked up a BMX bike.

I picked up some new shoes and Speedplay Zeros.

I picked up a new frame for my wife.

I stabbed my leg with an XT brake lever during a Pivot demo.

I raced the RAGNAR Miami to Key West race with my entire immediate family (and a few other people).

Team Much Dutch

I raced the RAMBO 4 Ways in a Day race again this year and placed 6^th in my division…out of 6.

On the big bike.

I stopped riding my road bike in favor of my mountain bike.

I rode my mountain bike while Atlanta was shut down because of snow and ice.

I continued to switch between clipless and flats on the mountain bike.

I was featured in two online newspaper articles.

I ran my mountain bike into the roof of my garage.  Twice.

I rode one of the most expensive mountain bikes I’ve ever put a leg over.

Nickel. Full SRAM XO 3x10, Easton Haven wheels, 130mm Rock Shox Revelation fork with carbon steerer tube, Rock Shox Monarch RT3 shock, Truvativ stem, bar and seatpost. Maxxis tubeless tires, ODI lock on grips

I participated in a trail day or two.

My plan is to start contribute to this blog more often.  Since my leg injury healed I’ve been getting outside more and that’s a positive change.

It’s alive…IT’S ALIVE!

Meet the Frankenbike. Well, technically it’s Frankenbike 2.  My old GT (now designated Frankenbike 1) has seen better days.  Most of the parts on it were already trades or donated from guys at the shop and some of the regulars that have gotten to know me.  After blowing up the second shock on that frame, I decided to swap everything over to a hardtail.  One of the guys at work gave me a ’05 Trek 4300 frame to build up, but I wasn’t too happy with the condition of the paint on it.  A few sanding blocks and one can of matte black spray paint later, Frankenbike 2 emerged.  Changing only the frame and the wheelset from my GT, the new iteration of the Frankenbike dropped about seven pounds…mostly from the frame.  Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the components.

After the first ride around my local trails, it because obvious that the FS frame was allowing me to cheat my way through some sections without a very good set of bike handling skills.  It accelerates a ton faster than the GT, but I feel like I’m slowed down by any obstacle over 2 inches tall.  I clear my front wheel just fine but don’t get the back wheel up and over as well as I previously thought I was the the GT.  Someone suggested running flat pedals would work on my technique.  So that idea, coupled with the new pump track at Big Creek has me running the bike in skate shoes, something I thought I’d never do.  Anyone else have any suggestions?

More Visual Motivators

The last post talked about my visual motivator while on the trail.  But I find visual motivators at home as well.  Think back to being a kid and plastering the walls of your room with pictures of whatever you were totally into at the time.  I’m sure it still happens – that growing collection of cycling magazines I have is kept primarily for the pictures, not the articles.  When was the last time you heard that excuse?  But these days, riders are just as likely to scour the internet for an inspiring desktop background or sweet video.  I’ve been on a documentary kick lately and stumbled across a trailer for Pedal Driven, a “bike-umentary” about the future of trail building,  often done illegally on public land.  The conflict between freeride trail builders and the US Forest Service results from differing ideas of how the US population ought to be able to enjoy public land.  Since Pedal Driven is still in production, I only have the trailer to go on, but I am definitely looking forward to the finished product.  What are your thoughts?

Visual Motivation

On the trail I play a game with myself called The Rabbit and The Fox.  No one knows I play this game but me.  I see a rider on the trail ahead and immediately I’m the Fox and they’re the Rabbit.   You’d think I would have called the game Fox and Hound or Greyhound and Rabbit, but no – Rabbit and Fox has always been what I’ve called it in my head.  I try to keep the rider in view, gaining ground slowly until I can pass them and the roles are reversed.  You know, ” the hunter becomes the hunted” or some other clichéd phrase.  Though as satisfying as overtaking my target can be, I much prefer to be the Fox.  Having that visual motivator in front of me as the Fox enables me to turn the pedals a little faster on the flats or push a little harder to get up a hill or let off the brakes a bit more while descending.  As the Rabbit, you scramble for every inch of separation you can get, often with the tiniest sound of chain slap as your only warning before the Fox overtakes you.  So watch out for the Fox behind you – you might not even know that you’re riding for your life.

Is It the Engine or the Equipment?

So I crashed on my mountain bike a few weeks ago and the damage to my knee totally took me out of the game (both physically and here on the blog).  No running, no riding, and with the slump in activity, even my swimming felt the hit.  But I’ve started PT and hope to fix my knee for good.  And then this situation came up and I felt it was certainly worth sharing…what do you think?

Lately I’ve started coming to the realization that it’s not always about the equipment but more about the engine behind it (i.e. me and you).  It’s interesting to me, because I’m coming at it from the perspective of someone who works with the newest cycling technology every day.  My job is to convince people that the newest cycling technology will make them better riders.  And I believe it will.  Mountain biking went from rigid clunkers to carbon full-suspension 29rs to DH bikes with more than 10″ of travel.  Road bikes started about as steel and since then have been made from aluminium, scandium, carbon fiber, heck even bamboo!

But the other day I got to ride a tricked out version of the aforementioned Santa Cruz Tallboy 29r owned by one of our regular customers.  This sub-25lb. bike had everything: Edge (now called  Enve) composite wheels, SRAM XX 2×10 drivetrain, carbon handlebars and a Rock Shox XX Sid fork.  Everything, that is, except clipless pedals.  That’s right; the guy who owned this bike worth over $5k (and that’s just at dealer cost) didn’t even clip in.  After years of riding, he’d just never gotten the hang of it.  But that didn’t stop him.  His regular circuit at Big Creek would turn my legs and lungs into a lump of jelly.

A few weeks ago, pre injury, I raced in the Big Creek Time Trial Series.  I felt alright about the time, it was slower than my 4 Ways time, but told myself that it could be better if I had a newer, lighter bike.  This was confirmed when a friend picked up my bike and called over to the officials, telling them to knock a few minutes off my time because of how heavy it is for a XC bike.  Later that same week, I was talking with one of the regular customers at our shop, mentioning my plans for a new bike.  He asked what my recent lap time was and looked at me in disbelief.  Even with his new bike that weighs four to five pounds less than mine, my slow time was two full minutes faster than his best lap time.

This caused my focus to change a bit.  Instead of worrying out when I’m finally going to scrape together enough cash for my new mountain bike, I’m going to focus on improving my body using the equipment currently in my possession.  Feeling sorry that I own a 35lb. XC bike – think of it as resistance training.  Still have a granny gear on my road bike – just means I need to hit up steeper hills.  Bum knee – more time to get back into swimming and rock climbing and build my upper body while I rehab the knee.