Monday, July 28, 2008

Big/Small


Taryn's bike is one of the smallest I've ever done, with a <21" toptube. Redcoats is one of the biggest (well, toptube-wise, anyway) at almost 27". Here's a nice comparison shot taken at the end of the Goonies annual Rollins Pass booze cruise, which Sarah and I unfortunately missed out on this year. Next year, Eszter, I promise...

Friday, July 25, 2008

Fox F120 29er fork for sale


I'm selling my Fox 29er fork. Lightly used - I decided I just didn't like this fork after 2 or 3 rides. Still in perfect shape. 120mm travel (can be reduced to 100mm with included spacer), steerer cut to about 9", ready to rock and roll. $400. Photos (of the actual fork, that is) upon request.

A bad photo of a non-photogenic racer


Not the best picture, I know. The anonymous culprit has this to say:

I was up in WP for a bachelor party and we were up most of the night drinking and telling ridiculous stories around the camp fire. Did you know that if you drink a bottle and a half of Bailey's you get a heck of a buzz, but the sugar seems to keep you going and prevent a hangover pretty nicely.

It turned out to be quite a bit of fun to be out there and cheer and heckle you racers. There were numerous nicknames for the racers, like "Mullet dude" and "Fanny Pack Guy" and at least 3 marriage proposals. 3 or 4 people demanding water (they must have thought we were an aide station) so we threw water on them (never ask some random drunk guy for his water). All in all I think everyone had a good time and no one came back up later to chop us up into little pieces, so we assumed no one was super pissed.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Winter Park race report, Crested Butte trip

This is going to be a long one, folks. There will be some pictures from CB; I didn't get any of the race (I was a bit busy, but Jay says he has some he's going to forward over)

Saturday's Winter Park series race was the dreaded "Valley Point to Point" - a race that's short (19 miles, 1:15 for the pro men's winner, which was not me) and relatively flat (for Colorado) with only 1500 feet or so of climbing. Needless to say, since I'm a geeky climber, and I'm riding a singlespeed, the course is decidedly sub-optimal. And things went about like I thought they would - I led the field out up the first 400 foot climb, got passed by 3 people on the first bigring-speed downhill, and then fought back and forth with 2 or 3 of the same folks for the entire remainder of the race - I'd drop them on the climbs and steeper descents, and they'd crush me like a bug on the flat and moderately downhill sections. C'est la vie. Unfortunately for me, the race ends with about 1.5 miles of flattish/slightly downhill rocky singletrack - the perfect terrain for, say, a geared, full suspension bike. Which of course, I had the opposite of. When all was said and done, I ended up 8th, a full 2:30 behind the winner. Since my goal in every race is to end up in the top 10, I felt ok about that, but I'm hoping for some better showings in the remaining races of the year (the next course has a nice solid 2000' climb to start things off!)

Sarah had no energy for the climbs but apparently descended like a bat out of hell, and finished the race with nothing left in the tank. I think she was 5th in the expert women's field.


And that was it - mechanicals, illness, a birthday, the Evans hillclimb, and a trip to Maine sidelined the rest of the WW team, so Sarah and I were the only finishers. Here's a picture of Rusty's "excuse". Pathetic. Needless to say, the WW team is falling rapidly in the team standings...get off your duffs, you slackers!

The next day we both raced the new Super-D event (new for the WP series, that is). Things did not go well from the beginning - we arrived at the top of the lift at 9:20, which given that the course would take 25 minutes, and the lift ride back up would take 15, was not a lot of extra time for a practice run, since my race started at 10 sharp. The choice between 2 runs and doing poorly, or standing around for 45 minutes to do slightly less poorly seemed like an easy one, though. In the end, I only missed the start by about 5 seconds, so it was just fine.

Due to being talked into a ride after the race on Saturday by Rusty (worst of all, we got lost and ended up back on the bloody race course!), as well as consumption of a great deal of beer and pizza and icecream, I almost barfed on the 2 minute opening climb, and went into the singletrack dead last. But I managed to pass 4 people (and several people crashed or flatted) and I ended up a respectable 10th out of about 20 riders. Sarah raged the course in a smoking 24:17 and beat all but two of the women who came out to race - on a hardtail with a rigid fork, no less - she even beat a decent number of sport and expert men! Lots of fun, and I hope they do it again next year (heck, I'd do a super-D every weekend if they had one...)

Having finished racing, we hopped in the car and drove to Crested Butte to meet up with our friends Erik and Natalie (aloha!) We arrived over Cottonwood pass in time to sneak in a ride on the Upper/Upper Upper loop, which was a rocky, rooty good time. I didn't take any pictures of this ride, as the light was fading and the bugs were pretty atrocious. We walked around in the little bouldering area on Upper as well, just near Tony's, but we didn't see much that we thought we could do - there was a lot of V10 looking craziness, but not much in the way of moderates. We'll have to check more carefully another time, though - we certainly didn't search exhaustively.

The next day (Monday) was the semi-epic. We rode up Gothic road to Snodgrass, across Snodgrass to Washington Gulch, up to 403, across 403, and then rode 401 and back down Gothic road into town. A solid 4.5 hours in the saddle (plus picture taking and snacking time) which finished with the mother of all hailstorms coming back on Gothic road. I was almost entirely coated in ice at once point, and we all narrowly avoided hypothermia, I think. But a hot shower and 4 beers cured my ailments. Here are some pictures from that ride:

Here's the crew on Snodgrass. This was a trail I'd never bothered to ride due to the description in books ("easy beginner cruise") but it proved to be a super fun classic!

Erik looks like the Crested Butte terminator, at least to me. Gotta love aspens!


Here's Sarah, with a view of the mountains to the west on the start of the 403. This is at about 11,000 feet - very nice temperatures, though there's not much O2 for breathing.


Looking south from the 403, Erik, Natalie, and yours truly.


Another shot looking south. This is about the highest point on the 403, from here it drops about 1,500' into the Gothic campground site.


We had to tackle a few small snowdrifts - it's good that we didn't come a week earlier. Apparently Crested Butte had a record snowpack this year, and some trails up high are *still* not dry!


Here's the descent into Gothic CG - yes, it's very steep. The wildflowers were overgrowing the trail so much that it was hard to even see where it went in some places!


Sarah heated up her brake rotor quite nicely on the descent, and then made a bit of a tactical blunder. Can anyone guess what rotor it was?

Looking south from near the top of the climb on Teocali. At this point we had been riding (with no rest days) for something like 10 days, including 3 races, so the steep Teocali climb was quite a sufferfest.


Here's Sarah, looking north from the start of the descent on Teocali. We were told that Teocali is VERY technical and challenging, and while I'd agree that it's not a beginner trail, we weren't too impressed with the difficulty of the descent - it was pretty steep, yes, but without much in the way of difficult drops or loose soil or what have you. Still very fun, though.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Vacation time!


I'm headed out of town to Crested Butte, to return sometime in the middle of next week. Folks who are waiting on stuff: I will be shipping a PILE of things next Thursday. I'll also be in Vermont from August 4th-13th, so don't expect any work to get done during that time period.

I will be out of email and phone contact for most of the time on both trips, so don't expect quick responses.

Here are some pictures from the short track to make this post a little more interesting. Well, maybe.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Some random junk for sale

Email me with questions, or for a picture. If you're outside the US, you'll have to pay for shipping, otherwise it's included in all prices.

-Nearly new (2 rides) Sidi Toscana women's mountain bike shoes. Size 41. Silver/yellow/black color. Very nice shoes, but they hurt Sarah's feet. I think retail is about $200, I'll take $100, including shipping.

-Brand new Shimano XTR "shadow" SGS (long cage) rear derailleur. Sanford needed a medium cage, and they sent a long cage. Easier to sell it off than return it - $130, shipping included.

-Kenda Nevegal 29x2.2 tires (brand new). I have one pair of these sitting here, they're great for aggro XC or moderate freeride use. $65 including shipping for the pair.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Another east coast race report!

From C$:

Hey Everyone,

I thought I would give a quick update from the East Coast. Today I did my fourth race of the season. The previous two races I didn't report on, namely because they were both so freaking hot that my brain melted in my skull and my memory of the events have been erased forever. I'm serious, so hot, that even when you go downhill, it feels like someone is blasting the air from a furnace in your face. But in truth, the trails are still really cool and the races really well-run. The people out here are super nice. I'd like to really thank the visitPa.com team for hosting me in an in-laws RV and for being super cool in general.

The race today would have been great for any colorado racer. The climbs were short, but the trails were super smooth with only a few roots and rocks. Stevens would have liked it because, as I found out, it was perfect to "fake" your true fitness. The soil was nice and tacky, the temperature was manageable as long as you dumped some water over your head every so often. The ride was super fast too, we did 27 miles in just over 2 hours. As per usual, no license was necessary, the entry fee was day-of only and was $40 (the most expensive fee I have paid so far), and there were aid stations every 5 miles with iced water bottles awaiting you. Pretty much paradise for a bike racer. I finally had a decent race, and a fun one with 6 of us being right together nearly the entire 2 hour race, making for some fun and strategically stimulating racing.

At the end of it all I was fourth and I received a paper certificate saying how good I did (unlike Colorado this one had a dollar sign and a bank account attached to it). I saw that other categories got some really good schwag. It's cool to see how people know which races will pay out the best and in turn they come out and support the race. Each race here is put on by a different club/team so I think there is some good business competition that keeps the races fun and well supported. Granted, I miss the views, climbs, buff singletrack, dry and cool air of Colorado, but from a racer's standpoint, you can't beat it here.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fillet brazing fun and a *job opening*

First off, no, the job opening isn't working for me. If anything, it's cooler - Avery is looking for a beer-geek lady to run the tasting room. You need to be friendly and knowledgeable about beer, and probably also able to fend off a lot of annoying beer geek guys (or not fend them off, it's up to you, I guess). Email me and I'll put you in touch with the relevant folks if you're interested. Sorry, guys, they're looking specifically for a woman.



Next up, a few random pictures of fillet brazing. I'm getting better at it (since the only things I ever fillet braze are brake bosses and bridges, it's not something I get a ton of practice with) and I was pretty happy with this set of bosses - really minimal filing required to make them nice and smooth. The second picture is after maybe 30 seconds of filing - I'll do a little more to smooth out the tiny pits and it'll be good to go.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Short track race report



I'm hoping to have pictures later today (edit: here you go). I'm told I got some sweet air off of a jump. I'll believe it when I see it.

Finally healthy, so I rolled over to the research park to inhale some dust and try not to get lapped by Jeremy.

Taryn managed to avert her eyes from a horrific crash (broken handlebar) in the women's B race. I'm told it was *really* bad, and that the person left in an ambulance, which I think is a first for the short track series.

In the men's Bs, Boardman and Ian looked to be rocking it, but I don't know how they did. Boardman had a bad start, which is unusual for him, but he reports that he still managed his traditional midrace blowup. Nice work, B!

Women's A was stacked, with Del Starr, Heather Irmiger, Ann Trombley, and a host of other big names lined up. Probably 20-25 racers! Eszter rocked it and battled it out with Ann for the whole race and was finally 6th or so.

Men's A was a smallish field of 35 or so (I think) with all the local big guns out there - JHK, Brady Kappius, Fuentes, Colby Pierce, Ward Baker, and Brian Alders, among others. Probably a solid 10 real pros, and then a host of wannabe pros and semipros to fill things out. The start was a little crazy - I nearly crashed in the first corner, as we went into it about 3 riders abreast, with loose cobbles flying under people's wheels. But I managed not to go down and settled into about 15th place, which is an above average start for me.



This is by far the best picture ever taken of me trying to catch a grape in my mouth while going off a jump. Oh, wait, I just have my mouth hanging open for no reason...rad. Anyone who suggests I'm screaming in terror and/or about to crap my pants (this is just the takeoff...) doesn't know what they're talking about. Seriously.

The course was fantastic, with lots of twisty singletrack, jumps, and loose offcamber turns. A real mountain biker's course. I could see Yuki about 5 riders ahead of me and managed to get up to him about halfway through the race. We actually took turns pulling and were reeling people in pretty nicely - with 3 or 4 laps to go, we were 7th/8th. Unfortunately, something put a nice slash in the sidewall of my rear tire, and I was reduced to *crawling* through all the corners (and crashing hard in one of them) to try to keep enough air in to finish the race. With 1 to go, I finally couldn't ride the bike anymore and ran into the pits to pump it up. Of course, I lost about 10 places while doing that, but the tire held air long enough for me to finish my last lap and make it home afterwards. All in all, a great race and a fun evening. I'm still coughing up dust this morning, but that's bike racing for you!

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Brief Firecracker wrapup


Sarah was sick, so we didn't race.
Fuentes and Megan won the duo, Nick and Shannon were 3rd.
Miguel was 2nd in Maverick men.
Eszter was 5th in Pro women and got to stand on the podium!
Ian finished, but suffered like a dog.
Taryn elected to call it a day after about 35 miles, and vows to return as part of a duo team next year.
Yuki flatted 3 times and finally dropped out.