Tagged!

So apparently Eszter has tagged this blog, and now I have to write six random things about myself that most people don't know. Seeing that anything beats doing being in the shop when it's 8 degrees, here we go:

-I once had a huge beard and a semi-afro. Here I am looking at all the mail from colleges during my junior year of high school. No, I did not get a lot of dates.

I was, however, obviously ahead of my time, since I looked like a retro grouch even before I owned a decent biycle! Too bad about the mustache part, though...


-I am a high school dropout (I went for a little over 2 years, then quit). I actually had to take the GRE (when I was in graduate school!) to get a job at Los Alamos National Lab.

-My legal name is Justin - my nickname comes from 5th grade, when (due to a growth spurt that showed up early) I was dominating the schoolyard football league, mostly by dint of having 40 pounds on everyone else. My ego swelled to titanic proportions, causing my friends to start referring to me as "Walter Payton the Second". The name, while now shortened, has stuck.

It's worth noting that said growth spurt came to a sputtering halt shortly thereafter, and my 9th grade, I was the scrawniest beanpole you've ever seen (5'11" and 120 pounds, baby!) Joining the swim team added almost 40 pounds of muscle in under 2 years, though.

-I'm allergic to wool socks. Or, to be more accurate, every time I try to wear wool socks, my feet swell up and turn red and itch like crazy. Weirdly enough, I can wear wool pants or sweaters just fine.

-My great uncle is Robert A. Heinlein, the famous science fiction writer.

Ok, so I know this waste of time needs to spread further. I tag:
Redcoat
and
Steve G

The best ginger cookies ever

Sorry, I'm not going to follow up (or further defend myself from trumped-up charges of oldness or lameness) yesterday's post. That one has gotten the most comments of any post, ever, which I guess goes to show you that not much has changed since junior high: getting made fun of is my greatest skill.

Moreover, as punishment, I'm posting another recipe. A holiday themed one, of sorts. Take that, heartless bike geeks!

I call these "snaps" but they are very moist and soft, actually. Not snap-like at all. But really, really gingery and good. They are very popular at Avery as a post-ride snack, paired with a tall pint of Rascal or IPA. They are about as unhealthy and addictive as any food item could possibly be without being crack cocaine (erm, is crack considered food?), though.

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp dry ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
3 oz. fresh ginger, grated (you can use more if you want)

Combine all the dry ingredients, then all the wet ingredients. If the dough is too dry, add some more butter or oil.

Roll golf-ball sized balls of dough in sugar, place 4-5" apart on a baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 min at 350F.

The old man bike

Don't call it a hybrid!

That's right, I've officially given up on drop bars. My neck and my back thank me, and I get to upset all the roadies blowing by them up Sunshine (2000 foot climb up to almost 8k feet today - on December 2nd! Outrageous!)

In any case, I am now practicing what I preach (I've ranted about how great flat bar road bikes are before), I guess, in that I look goofy but I'm comfortable.

Black friday update

Some folks have pointed out that it might be considered unfair of me to have offered the "free fork" discount last friday, since there are folks on the waitlist who put their money down long ago and have been patiently waiting.

I think there's some merit to that point of view, and in order to make it up to everyone, I've decided to extend that offer, with a slight catch.

Until January 1, 2009, anyone who orders a frame (including folks already on the list) will get a free custom rigid fork, provided you also order a complete parts kit. By complete kit, I mean *everything* - pedals, saddle, tires, you name it. In other words, the fork is free if you order a complete bike from me. The actual parts choices, are, of course, up to you, but this offer doesn't apply to the "dirtbag" build kits.

If you're not the rigid fork type (sissies), you can instead take $100 off a suspension fork of your choice from my extensive selection.

Hopefully this is a bit more fair to everyone. Once again, my apologies if you were upset about the special offer.

Final analysis

House of Leaves is good. Really good. But enjoying it requires one of two things:
A) Ignore/skim a lot of the semi-relevant information and read only the two main storylines (if you pick this up, you'll know what I'm talking about right away)
or
B)Prepare to spend 2 weeks obsessing over every detail (read the Wikipedia page if you want to find out more about this - but be aware that it has a comprehensive plot summary with spoilers).

I can tell you right now that I went with A. And I enjoyed this book a lot. This is like David Foster Wallace combined with Stephen King, or the kind of book I imagine Stephen King would write if he'd spent too much time reading Sartre instead of too much time watching westerns as a kid. And that's a compliment, I think.

The story is your basic haunted house tale (interwoven with the story of Johnny Truant, the fellow who finds the manuscript and decides that editing it is his life's work) combined with a love story involving a professional photographer and his wife. There's also a lot of related material (mostly in the form of footnotes) relating to a short film created by the photographer about the experience. Various real and imagined literati provide their opinions on the fictional film and the characters - some of this stuff is really interesting, and some is dreadfully boring (and hence I skipped it). No ghosts, no possessed pets - it's an existential kind of horror story.

Apparently the Poe album "Haunted" was created as a companion piece for the novel (Mark Danielewski is Poe's brother). I'm not familiar with the music, but I'm actually interested to hear it now that I've read the book.

Bottom line: this is an extremely intimidating book in many ways, but it's surprisingly user-friendly if you can get past the initial hurdles of the layout, the extremely complicated narrative, and the large amounts of very tangential (bordering on irrelevant) material scattered throughout. I spent about 50 pages hating the book, and then the remaining 350 or so (many of these pages contain only a few words, so it's not as long as it sounds) really enjoying it. If you've got some free time to read this winter, check it out.

Black Friday!

Today only, folks (ok, for those of you not observing buy-nothing day):

Order a frame today (meaning, your $500 paypal deposit has to be here by midnight mountain time, or your check/cash/heroin has to be postmarked today's date) and I'll build you a custom fork for _free_.

Just don't trample me in your rush to the shop.

Need info on how to pay the deposit? Click here for the fit sheet and instructions

Long semi-rant

A (potential) customer came by the shop to see what happens and get some questions answered yesterday, and after asking lots of detailed questions about S&S couplers, sliding dropouts, Rohloff hubs, and all manner of other esoterica, he asked why he should buy one of my bikes, rather than a (insert name of well-known mass-produced bike here).

It's a fair question, and I think the answer I came up with is a pretty good one. Nobody *needs* a custom bike, with the exception of really big, small, or physiologically different (ie, long legs and short torso, missing an arm, fused vertebrae) folks. If all you want to do is ride, and you're Joe average, it's hard to make an argument that you'll get all that much from a custom bike - mass produced stuff is relatively cheap, available *right now* (no waiting), and fits and rides about right for easily 90% of the general public.

So why would you want to buy one?

-Knowledge. The info I gave the fellow I spoke with yesterday would have taken him hours and hours of research to come up with online - and it's solid info, not internet gibberish. I'm not some 14 year old BMX punk, or 300 pound dude in his parent's basement. I'm available on the phone or email or even in person almost anytime, and I've ridden and built about a zillion bikes in a wild variety of different configurations. Most other framebuilders have equivalent (or better) knowledge of the bike world, and I have no particular axe to grind regarding SRAM vs. Shimano, hydraulic vs. mechanical, etc. I'm not a shop rat working on commission, and I regularly give advice which costs me profits to make sure folks get the most for their money.

-Fit. I've fit a lot of people over the years. Most of them don't need a custom fit - but I can still tweak things to make sure that the way they fit over the wheels is optimized for the riding they want to do. You can "fit" on a 23" toptube with a 130mm stem - but if you're riding around Boulder, you're not going to be too happy. A 24" setup with a 110 or 105 stem is going to work *way* better. And of course, there are situations (Vermont?) that are the opposite. In other words, all fits aren't created equal.

-Handling. Once again, I've ridden and raced all over, and I know quite well exactly how to make a bike handle any way the customer wants. Yes, a Stumpjumper, or a Karate Monkey will ride ok everywhere - but if you're in BC, we can tweak things one way, and if you're in Tucson, we can do something else - bottom line, I can optimize *everything* about the bike to make it work the way the customer wants.

-Cost. It might amaze you to realize that for $3k, you can get a custom frame, full XT and bits of XTR thrown in, and custom built DT/Stan's wheels (that's just an example). Production bikes don't really end up being much cheaper, honestly. In fact, they're often *more* expensive, because to get them spec'd the way you want, you've gotta buy a lot of the parts for retail. Better yet, I can tell you where it makes sense to spend your money (hint, LX cranks are the same as XT - with steel chainring bolts).

-Intangibles. I love bikes, and I love to talk about them, and if you call me for new decals 5 years down the road, or to find out what will happen to the handling if you swap to a 46mm rake fork, or whatever, I'm around to answer the question, and I have all your original fit info in front of me (it's all on the computer) to pull up anytime I need it. I go riding with customers when they're in town, I take people on "tours" of the 600 sq. foot shop (these usually end up at the brewery down the road) and if you ride a lot in CO, chances are you'll see me on the trail someday. In other words, I like to think that buying a bike from me is like buying a bike from a friend - that's how I started this business (building a zillion bikes for my friends) and that's how I'd like to keep it.

Long story short, it's easy to plunk down a few hundred bucks for a frame made overseas. And for most people, that works out just fine. I'm pro-bicycle no matter what, and as long as people are riding, I'm happy. But it's worth considering where you want your money to go - and what you're getting for it, before you make any purchase.

Wednesday mash-up

A movie mash-up, that is. Reading House of Leaves has weirded me out enough (for those who are curious, I'm on about page 300, and I'm still not sure what I think) - so I really probably should have picked something else to watch. Imagine the worst aspects of Aliens, The Matrix, and Captain Planet - and add a lot of mud and grunting. Congratulations - you've ended up filming Eden Log.

So for those who can't read between the lines, I would have preferred a swift punch in the nuts.

No bloggage or work tomorrow, as it's some kind of holiday. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Funky stuff

Shot of Wayne's front triangle - set up for a C'dale lefty fork, complete with 1.5" head tube. IMO, the head tube looks pretty silly on a steel bike, but then again, I'm known for my terrible taste.

Honestly, I think the adapted 1 1/8" crown is the way to go here, but whatever.

Another weird little thing - David had Jen Green make him a badge with some gangsta bling - pretty neat. It would probably be cooler without the little round mount, but Jen says this is the only way the cubic zirc... I mean, 10 carat diamond will stay on there.

Waltworks ZERO

I posted this over on the MTBR framebuilder's forum (of which I am the moderator, for some reason). Thought people might like to see where it all began.



I built this as a birthday present for my wife, and it took more than 2 months to complete. I had NO idea what I was doing, but had access to a frame fixture and a TIG machine and free time on my hands.

My goals were:
-Safety. I built and broke a ton of practice joints before putting the bike together. The welds certainly don't look nice (in fact, they look like they were done by a 6 year old) but they have held up to a lot of abuse over the years.
-Durability. It's made from .049" straightgauge 4130 cromoly, and the frame alone weighs over 7 pounds!
-Relaxed townie style handling.

I had no interest in trying to make it light, or trick, or spending much money, because I figured it would basically suck, since it was my first attempt.

And while it didn't suck as bad as I had thought it would, it has some hilarious flaws.
-Alignment is (visibly) terrible. The bike, however, seems to ride in a straight line quite nicely.
-As I mentioned earlier, the welds look awful.
-Stays are very crudely bent and not symmetrical, chainring and tire *barely* clear.
-Brake bosses aren't aligned with the wheel, the frame, or each other (that's what you get when you eyeball the boss location)
-I didn't know how to braze, nor did I have a torch or any supplies, so the rear brake line is ziptied to the frame. Several cable stops met an untimely end when I tried to TIG them on.
-I doubt the dropouts made from 1/4" plate and stay "mitering" (ie smash flat with a vise, cut at an angle to match dropout) will be imitated anytime soon.

Out-DFW'd?

No, not Dallas Fort Worth. I'm reading a book that might be weirder and more parenthetical than Infinite Jest.

House of Leaves. Way out there. We'll see if I finish it or not - it's one of those books that you can tell from the first page is going to be either really good or really bad. But you won't know until about 3/4 of the way through.

I'm sure you're all waiting on on tenterhooksfor my full review. Sadly, I must build bikes. Perchance another day.

I am the champion...

...of the hotly contested race to Oscar Blues. In -1C temps, 95% humidity, and at night.

I had to wear two pairs of tights, 2 pairs of socks, and about 5 upper body layers, but it was a great time, except for some chubby kid on a fixed gear who kept bothering everyone (you know who you are...) Beer was consumed, bikes were haphazardly packed into a 50 year old bus that reeked of diesel fuel, and everyone returned to Boulder in one piece.

Happy birthday, RC.

The dark side

I'm tempted to stick a BSNYC "approve" sticker on this, along with the hipster fixie frame... yes, I have built a (kind of weird) road fork. For the full fixie stupidity, I guess I should probably put a canti boss on the dropout, and attach a downtube shifter to actuate the front brake. That would be sweet. Especially if Scott wore some tight jeans and an American Apparely t-shirt with something ironic written on it while riding.

I wanted to do something different/unique/weird for Scott's fixie (it's set up for a long reach brake and fender), so I turned down some 1/4" thick x 1.5" 4130 pipe (in good conscience, I can't call it "tubing"), turned a crown race onto the top of it, slipped in a steerer, and welded on some fork blades that are mitered directly to the base of the steerer/crown. I think it looks kinda neat (the top caps aren't on the fork blades yet - I'm going to use CO quarters, I think). It was a pain to build, though, so I'll probably just use a lugged crown for any future road forks. Not that I expect a ton of interest in that - steel road forks are hardly a popular item these days.

A quick note: apologies for the slow responses to email lately - I am dealing with a family member's (not mine) financial crisis and it is taking up a significant amount of time and energy.

The coolest ride to a 'cross race ever

Nick is a god. I'm not sure how he did in the actual race, but he wins all the style points for how he got there.

WTF Saturday!

No, it's not a scooter. And yes, Greg, that's your snow bike fork that I've borrowed until I have one that's the right length. And yes, that's a piece of 1 1/4" 4130 that I'm using as a "handlebar" to test the geometry.

This is going to be a prototype hand bike, theoretically for my friend Ryan. We'll see if it's rideable first, however, with me doing the piloting.

Why? If you look around at the handcycles out there, most of them are little better than a 3-wheeled cart with a drivetrain (not to mention the fact that decent ones cost upwards of $5k!). I don't think 3 wheels are needed, if the geometry is right and the rider is skilled (we're talking folks without use of their legs here, in general). I even think I have a "handstand" (not a kickstand!) design worked out that should allow starting and stopping under control with no assistance.

Yes, it's missing the drivetrain, brakes, and seat right now. And yes, that's an old 26" rigid fork welded to the spine for a rear fork. This was a <2 hour project so far -just something fun to do on a lazy Saturday when it was too cold (at least to a sissy like me) to go for a ride. I anticipate doing the drivetrain in the next week or so, as well as rigging up some kind of brake(s). Then all I need is some kind of cheap plastic chair to bolt onto the spine and it'll be ready for a test ride...

Kung Fu Movie Review and Recipe Friday

That's KFMRRF, or "kamurffff!" First off, if you like pointless violence, and lots of it, performed by a 90 pound Thai woman in various ridiculous settings, then you'll love Chocolate, the new movie from the guy who did Ong Bak. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you don't know what you're missing. Very Jacky Chan-esque, or at least Jackie Chan when he wasn't 45 and arthritic. Sarah and I watched this movie last night and it made me want to knee someone in the face while flying out a window, or catch knives while blindfolded, or something. Luckily I just went to bed instead.

Humorously enough, some of the reviews online criticized the movie for being plotless, overly sentimental, and implausible. It's a good thing I read that, because, good lord, I could have *sworn* that an autistic 90 pound woman could kick the crap out of 80 or 90 katana wielding rowdies using only moves she learned from watching Bruce Lee movies!

Sheesh. Some people just gotta hate on everything. Who watches a Kung Fu movie for plot or acting?

We also ate quite a tasty dish to go with our sappy, badly acted chop socky:

Orange-chipotle tofu (don't worry, you don't have to use tofu)

Mix everything:
-1 cup orange juice (fresh or from concentrate, doesn't matter)
-2 tbsp rice or cider vinegar. White vinegar will work in a pinch
-Half a can (like, 5 or 6 peppers) chopped chipotle peppers, along with half the can's worth of adobo sauce. Use less if you're a sissy. Try not to rub your eyes.
-Dash of salt
-1/4 cup maple syrup (probably best to use the real stuff if you have it)

Now put the sauce in a pan and stick your tofu or chicken (probably the best meat to sub, IMO) in there. Cover it up and leave it in the fridge just as long as possible (overnight would be good). Fry or grill it up, basting it constantly with the sauce.

Serve over rice, soak everything with delicious sauce.

Grumpy retro grouch post of the week

Some of you who are bigger bike-tech geeks than I (and not surprisingly, that's a lot of you) have already read about this:
SRAM to launch 10 speed MTB group

Rant mode on...

-If you want something to be lighter, stronger, and more reliable, you generally avoid making it more complicated. Why not put 7 or 8 speeds on, with super thin lightweight cogs and chain, and reduce the width of the cassette, allowing us to build a stronger rear wheel at the same time?

-In the same vein, the system will apparently (according to CN.com, anyway) be a 2x10 setup. Now, if you want a lightweight drivetrain, which do you think would work better:
1. Subtract the granny gear (maybe 35g with bolts). Your lowest gear is now 29-30x34
OR
2. Keep the granny gear and use a ROAD CASSETTE AND (triple) DERAILLEUR. This will save a solid 150g, or more (depending on the exact cassette and derailleur), and provides a super tight gearing setup for those who want closely spaced gears. Best of all, you've got a 22x23/25/27, depending on the road cassette you pick. And less derailleur cage flopping around on the back, too.

-I've seen a decent number of bent large cogs and plenty of broken chains on 9 speed - I can't wait to see how an even thinner set of cogs and chain will hold up. Brilliant!

-Nothing like making the rear shifting even more finicky and susceptible to small cable tension probems.

-Did anyone really notice much when we went from 8 speed to 9 speed (or 9 to 10 on the road)? I certainly didn't start crushing my old record times or winning races... funny.

So to sum up: 10 speed is stupid. But people will probably buy it anyway, just like they'll buy the Campy 11 speed nonsense. Unless they can't afford a $4k grouppo on their streetcorner pencil-selling gig. Which is looking more and more likely as a career for lots of us these days...

Shout out to Steve...

A visual one, that is. Doing a hipster fixie for my old HS friend Scott, so I thought I'd spice it up with an external sleeve/lug on the seat tube. Pretty neat. I TIG the sleeve right over the top of the seat tube, which welds them to each other pretty nicely, and then I run a little silver into the top and bottom at the end of the build to keep everything extra secure. I've done this with some other frames in the past, but it looks so cool (and makes the seat tube so indestructible) that I might start doing them more.

In this shot, you can see how there wasn't *quite* enough material to totally soak up the heat at the point where the weld gets closest to the edge of the sleeve. Neat effect.

This sucks...

So, most of you know that I ship everything via DHL. Looks like that is going to be a thing of the past soon, as they're shutting down their US operations in January.

This really sucks, especially for my friend Sharrad, who is my DHL pickup guy. I have to assume he is going to be laid off.

I am *hoping* to minimize the difficulties this causes by transferring my shipments to UPS or Fedex over the next month or so (anyone have an opinion on which is better?) Nevertheless, I expect some problems of one kind or another, so please be patient if shipping takes longer than usual.

I don't know if this will change shipping costs significantly, but I don't think it will.

How to take care of your frame!

Jorah asked me about this, and I realized that there's nothing in the FAQ on the main site (which is being massively updated by my good friend Pete Roper, btw, and will look totally different soon) about caring for a steel frame. So here's the scoop. This applies to any steel frame, really, not just one of mine.

-Steel rusts, albeit very slowly. If you live in Colorado, or Utah, or NM, or somewhere dry, you probably don't have to spend much time worrying about this (I have ridden *unpainted* frames for multiple years at a time here in CO and all they got was some surface patina type rust). If, on the other hand, you live in San Diego next to the bay, and you leave your frame out on the porch in the salt mist...

-So that said, I put some rust preventing goop in the frame before I ship it out (note that this isn't always the case with other steel bikes - and it's possible for me to forget, so inspect the frame to make sure it's got rustproofing in it). I don't go totally crazy with it, but I do hit the major spots (seat tube/BB shell/chainstays) that are the most susceptible to rusting. The product I use is "Boeshield T-9", which was used for preventing rust on steel aircraft way back around the second world war. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about:

Note that their "odorless" claim is, er, a bit dubious, IMO.

You can get Boeshield at any decent hardware store. If you want to spend a bit more money, you can also use Weigle "Framesaver" (generally only available at bike shops or online) which is pretty close to the same thing but a bit more expensive. Here's a picture:


-To apply the chosen rustproofing, remove the seatpost and fork (the headset can stay). Spray liberal amounts of the goop into the vent holes from the head tube into the downtube and toptube, as well as into the seat tube. Move the frame all around to slosh the goop everywhere it needs to go. Note that you're going to get the stuff *everywhere* as part of this process, so do it outside or at least away from anything you want to stay clean. Do the same for the seatstays and chainstays, if they have vent holes (mine are generally sealed at the BB end, on most frames they vent into the BB shell). Swish, swirl, repeat. Leave the bike to drain or put it back together and live with small amounts of rustproofing getting everywhere for the next few days.

-Boeshield or Framesaver is good stuff, but it's not a magic bullet. If the frame gets wet and stays wet for too long, nothing will prevent it from rusting. So there are a few more steps you can take - keep bolts in the water bottle bosses, make sure you dry the frame off after washing it, and periodically remove the fork and seatpost (and, if you have the tools, the bottom bracket) to inspect for rust. If the bike gets *really* wet, allow the frame to drain and dry (often this just means pulling out the seatpost and leaving the bike upside down for a while, which will allow the seat tube, downtube, and stays to drain any water that has entered), then spray in some more of your chosen rustproofing.

-It's always a good idea to inspect the frame and fork (as well as other components) for damage every so often as well. Steel generally will give you a lot of both visual, auditory, and even tactile feedback that something is wrong, and it's much better to find out in the garage than on the trail.

Mini-Me

As per my standard policy, I only post framebuilding pictures when I have something unusual or interesting to talk about. This fits the bill - a road/touring/travel frame for my friend Casie. She's VERY small, so it's a 49.5cm toptube - probably the smallest skinny tire bike I've ever built!

Humorously enough, there are no butted tubes *short enough* to use as a toptube on this bike in combination with the couplers, so I had to use a straightgauge 4130 toptube - it's actually heavier than the downtube! Between the couplers (extra 300 grams or so) and the non-butted tube (probably 75g or so) it's quite a bit heavier than most frames this size - it'll end up a tad over 4 pounds with all the rack mounts and fiddly bits. Still, it's meant to be unkillable and capable of carrying a load if needed, so I'm not worried about it.

Building the fork for it today, and then I'll see if I can get ahold of her for a color choice. She's in Borneo right now, so that may or may not pan out.

What will happen to the old 29ers?

I've been thinking about the new geometry configurations for 29er suspension forks for a while (and been designing around them for the last 6 months or so). And I'm a little bummed that more isn't being done to keep the old-style forks in production.

Now don't get too upset - I think both of these companies are great, and their products work quite well. I'm just amazed that reverse compatibility has been thrown out the window. 44, 46, or 51mm rake forks will generally NOT work well with a 29er with, say, a 72 or 72.5 degree head tube angle, which is what the vast majority of the older frames out there have.

Is the new rake a step forward? In general, yes. 45mm or so of rake probably should have been the original standard, but it wasn't, and many people who bought a bike assuming they'd keep it for a long time, and be able to get replacement parts, now find themselves without much in the way of fork options. There are NOS forks from 2007 and earlier floating around, of course, and I think you can still buy 38mm rake lowers from RS if you're desperate, but basically, if you've got an "old" geometry frame, sooner or later you'll be SOL.

In a better world, we'd buy a product like a bike frame and then keep using it for a decade or so - but in reality, I think serious bike riders get a new bike every 18 months (this is a remembered statistic from BRAIN, and could easily be wrong). That means, I guess, that the fork companies really don't care much - all of those 2005 Fisher Paragons, and almost every other older 29er will be in the landfill, or gathering dust, so there's no need to keep making parts for them.

As an aside, I read a hilarious (well, sad) article on Bloomberg today about the poor economy/unemployment driving high sales at Walmart. Yeah, great - I lost my job, so I better go buy a bunch of disposable Chinese crap. I'm sure the economy will turn right around if we all do that...

Long story short, I'm now designing 29ers around the new ~45mm offset standard, which I think will have more staying power. I hope.

Misc for-sale post

No interesting content today, folks. I just want to dump random bike stuff without paying Ebay:

-SRAM Rival shift/brake levers. Used for about a month. I have learned that drop bars and I do not get along - hence I am swapping to flat bars and these gotta go. A smoking deal at $100 for the set, shipping included in the continental US!

-Easton EC70 44cm handlebar. Used about a month (just like the shifters) and in perfect shape - no scratches, dings, dents, crashes, etc. I'm going to the old man setup and running a flat bar. Yeah, I'm lame. $75 takes these, including shipping.

-DT Swiss EX200 rear shock. Brand new, never installed or ridden. 190 grams of propedal bliss! This is a 190mm eye to eye, 50mm stroke (2") shock. 2008 model. $200 or make me an offer!

-Ritchey WCS 4-axis stem. 100mm x 31.8 clamp. I'm going to a longer stem with my flat bar setup, so I don't need this sucker anymore. No scratches, marks, etc - perfect shape. $45 shipped.

-Thomson 100mm Elite stem. 25.4mm clamp, brand new. $50 takes it.

Email me (waltworks at gmail.com) with questions. Thanks!

Go vote!

I voted, like, 2 weeks ago. But y'all slackers who haven't, go get in line!

I am, as always, voting for Captain Morgan.

Just kidding. But I'm not telling you who I really voted for. All I can say is that hopefully this election will end with people *less* angry at each other. I'm not sure I see how that's possible though.

In other news:

Jorah wrote me a love letter this morning. Apparently he likes his new full-squish 29er...
"Hi Walt,

Here is some feedback for you regarding the bike.

First, you nailed the geometry. The bike fits me like a glove. The only thing that could have been a little different is a bit longer seat tube of all things; I have a carbon seatpost that is positioned exactly at its limit. But that is the only thing and it's a tiny one. Other than that, it's perfect.

Second, and perhaps due to the wonderful geometry, the bike rides better than any bike I've ever owned or ridden. I can ride up steep stuff that I would never have made it up in the past and the traction is fantastic. For whatever reason, I feel a ton more confident behind the saddle on decents as well. Handling is great (point and go but not sluggish at all), especially at slow speeds. Even when I am manhandling the bike while I creep over dicey stuff, it never feels unstable and the steering always seems to snap back when I am hauling the front wheel around. I have yet to go super fast on it, but I am not really a super fast rider.

Third, I am surprised how much of a difference the propedal makes. The suspension is super supple with propedal off (it's like riding a comfortable mattress) and feels very plush going down hills. However, there is some noticeable bob, probably due to the natural position of the chain at high rohloff gears as well as the big unsprung mass. However, with propedal, the suspension stiffens up and climbs without bob while
still being confortable. The traction, as I said before, is awesome. I can tell that I am definitely going to switch back and forth depending on conditions, something I NEVER did with my old bike. By the way, the Reba Team is a great fork with a nice lockout adjustment. However, a tiny bit of me misses the 140mm of vanilla travel (but only a tiny bit; I wouldn't want to give up the improvement in handling).

So in closing, I'd just like to say thanks! I don't regret for a second the money or the wait for this bike; it's everything I had hoped for. I think I am going to give up road biking for a while...

Cheers,

Jorah

PS, I still hope to get you a picture once it gets sunny here."

Happy birthday to me

Well, as usual, I forgot the camera for the Fruita trip, so there aren't any pictures of that stuff, but I will say:
-18 road and the bookcliffs have become a total zoo on the weekends. Good lord. Who in their right mind wants to ride *up* Zippety?
-Son of Middle Creek in Vail is a lame ride. Nice views of I-70, though...
-East Eagle/Boneyard in Eagle are some of the funnest trails I've ridden in a LONG time. Thanks to the anonymous Mafia Racing dude who helped up find the best stuff.
-I really suck at riding full suspension bikes. I think my wrist has healed up enough to bust the singlespeed back out, thank god.

In any case, we rode in Ned on Sunday and then partied to celebrate my 32 years on the planet. Everyone showed up on bikes (you can only see some of them in this shot, there must have been 20 in the entryway)


It was quite a fun time, and there's enough beer in the keg still to lubricate the election night party coming up tomorrow. Sweet.

Happy birthday to me, or "out of town"

I'm 32 on Sunday, and will be out of town starting, um, now (Friday) until Monday. Don't expect answers to emails or phone calls until then. Pictures when I return, maybe.

-Walt

Congrats Eszter!

Not too shabby - 3rd XC, 3rd STXC, 6th DH, and 11th in dual slalom - not to mention 2nd for the overall omnium. For those not in the loop, I'm referring to the 2008 USAC Collegiate National Championships. The last vestiges of the butt end of the tail end of the mountain bike season.

Now I think it's time for skis...

DIY geekery

Check out the link:
Homemade carbonation system (warning, extremely nerdy content)

And yes, I am posting this because I just constructed such a device and am quite pleased with myself. Pictures tomorrow, maybe, though mine isn't nearly as trick as the setup shown.

Custom rack?!?

Don't even ask - this was a favor for a friend, and I have no plans to build anything similar anytime soon. Thought I admit it was fun to build.

It's a handlebar bag rack - essentially a shield to keep the bar bag from hitting the front tire on a snow bike from the fine folks at Speedway cycles. Pretty neat. 135mm spacing, 5" of tire clearance (yes, you heard right) and a neato custom rack. It ended up pretty light - 400 grams. And it's probably strong enough to hold 25 pounds or so, though in this case it probably will never hold close to that much. .028"x3/8" 4130 cromoly, with a "spine" made from .125"x1" plate, bolted to a star nut installed in the bottom of the steerer.

Fun stuff, as I said, but I spent WAY more time on this than I wanted to.

Also note the immaculate condition of the shop floor. I don't know when I dropped that screwdriver, and I really should clean up the oil from converting Joel's 120mm Reba (as an aside, those things are freakin' RAD). C'est la shoppe, though.

A visit from Tashi

I'll let the picture speak for itself. How cool is the full period built Ultimate? Pretty damn cool. And not even the coolest bike he owns.

A silly bike swap

Amazing stuff - Redcoat and I are within 1/2" of the same height. Check out the photos of us swapping bikes...

For those who are curious:
Redcoat: 27" toptube, 120mm stem
Walt: 24" toptube, 90mm stem

Yes, I am all legs, with a stumpy little torso and no arms. And Redcoat is like the AntiWalt - stubby little legs on an enormous torso and long arms.

Goes to show, I guess, that picking a bike based purely on your height is always pretty dumb.

What a weekend...

First off, a couple of pictures of Margo's completed FS 29er. Very girly, I must say!

My sprained wrist/broken hand situation has healed enough for me to ride my 4" travel full suspension bike, on relatively easy terrain, so I've been trying to make up for lost time before the snow flies (apologies to everyone whose emails I've been so slow in answering!)

Long story short, my week went something like this:
Monday: 3 hour/40 mile cross bike ride. 2k climbing.
Tuesday: 2 hour/30 mile road ride. 1.5k climbing. Boring, but tiring. Decide to try riding the mountain bike next time.
Wednesday: 30 mile ride on the plains - Marshall Mesa to Cowdry to Coalton to High Plains. 3 hours, 1.5k climbing.
Thursday: Betasso with Chris - 2 hour sufferfest. Chris (and I) clean the connector for the first time ever! 22 miles, 2k climbing.
Friday: 4 hours of riding from Boulder to Lyons on 80% singletrack. Pretty cool that you can now do this with the Picture rock trail complete! 33 miles, 3.5k climbing.
Saturday: 4 hours at Buffalo Creek. Feldy, Sarah, and I ride pretty fast and don't stop much, but we pick all the steepest stuff and only end up going 32 miles. 4k feet of climbing.
Sunday: 3 hours in Ned with the Goonies. Sarah, Chris, and I bonk badly and retire to the brewery while Eszter, Mason, and Redcoat ride for an extra 2 hours. Good god. 25 miles, 4k climbing.

At this rate, I'll actually be in shape, just in time for, um... wait. Nothing. If the snow doesn't fly soon, I'll burn out by freakin' January!

A few more shots of David's bike

First, let me say that I love Paragon machine works. Nobody else does anything close to as cool as they do when it comes to bicycle frame parts. Period.

But man, do their steel hooded dropouts look silly. They're clearly a duplicate (in steel) of the ti dropouts, which of course need to be pretty huge, since ti seatstays and chainstays tend to be really big. But for steel... well... you be the judge:


In this case, David *really* wanted a removeable derailleur hanger (puntera desmontable!) so my usual Breezers weren't an option. And after some work with the mill:

Things looked much better (and they were a few grams lighter, to boot):

Dude, I actually *like* that plan...

I saw one of those now-ubiquitous political ads today - this is a shirt you can buy which is ostensibly making fun of Barack Obama, but which I think a lot of bike geeks might view as a bit of a compliment, regardless of their political leanings. I think it would have made more sense to put a pair or worn-out sneakers on there, or a person on a treadmill. Bikes are, um, actually a good part of a smart energy policy, dudes.

Sunday recipe!

It's been too long since I've done a recipe on the blog. And this is a pretty easy, and freakin' awesome one. Sarah's mom made this cake (it's apparently a family tradition) for our wedding. Now we make it anytime we can find an excuse.

Sarah's Awesome Carrot Cake

3c flour
2c sugar
1c shredded coconut
2c shredded carrot
2ts vanilla
2.5ts cinnamon
2ts baking soda
1ts salt
1.25c oil
3 eggs
1 small can mandarin oranges (fruit & juice)

Mix everything and pour into 13” x 9”, bake at 350° for ~50min until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. No need to pre-grease the pan.

Frosting

8oz Cream cheese (softened)
3c powdered sugar
1ts vanilla
2tbl melted butter

Mix 'em all together. Smear all over cake. Consume with gusto.

Friday afternoon bloggage/what I'm doing right now

I *think* I'm sick again, though I'm attempting to drown the bugs in sugar and alcohol. It's Avery's big "all the idiotic/crazy/awesome brews we made a few gallons of because we're weird" week, so Sarah and I have been sampling like mad, but I think all the late nights and fun have taken their toll.

In any case, I'm sure everyone wants to hear me whine. On the plus side, I've *finally* got Margo's FS 29er back from the powdercoater. Here's a picture for her and Jay - of course, the distributor somehow managed to leave the front derailleur and stem out of the parts box, so she's not going to be able to ride until next week - ie, after our nasty winter storm wrecks the high country trails for the rest of the year. Doh!

Next up, I'm about 50% done with David's frame. David is from Spain, and speaks English about as well as I speak Spanish (ie, not really fluently), so figuring out the geometry was a pretty drawn-out and humorous process. The best part was trying to describe to him what "endo" meant - I think my description (in Spanish, of course) read something like "Endo is for to make encounter obstacle, and then from bicycle fly until you encounter the ground again." I probably sounded like a Spanish version of Borat, but it was fun to practice (I haven't spoken Spanish in years). David was very patient with my nigh-incoherent emails, and I learned a lot of bike-specific words. A Waltworks, se habla Espanol! Sort of.

In any case, I'm doing internal brake routing for him, and as always, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it looks wicked cool, but on the other hand, it offends my functional sensibilities, since it's way heavy (the tube plus the beefy toptube that I feel ok drilling big holes in probably add 80-100 grams) and it means that if you want to change or install a brake line (especially on a hydraulic setup) you've gotta pull everything apart. Bleh. But darn does it look spiffy...

I'm off to drink more tea. Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Team jerseys for sale!

Another chapter in the "crap we found" saga - I've got three brand new Waltworks team jerseys in blue/white, size men's large (fits very similarly to the Twinsix stuff) to sell off to benefit a good cause - namely the team potluck beer fund.

These are super, super nice. They are made by Champ-Sys, who have been doing the team clothing for years. Very stretchy, breathable fabric, nice and cool, and even fairly resistant to picking up odors over the course of the season (trust me, I should know). I'm asking $50 each, shipping included. First come, first served.

For those who are curious, we are planning to do more TwinSix/WW jerseys. Hopefully soon, if Brent ever gets caught up.

Climbing and bikes

It always amazes me to see climbers driving into Eldorado Canyon, or to Flagstaff - it's easy and fun to ride a bike to both of those places (well, ok, not *that* easy, but hey, it's good cross training, right?)

In any case, I thought that This episode of the dirtbag diaries was pretty cool. Check it out.

Thanks to Ruben for the pic from the Sierras.

More belt drive thoughts

A fun weekend is almost behind us - I am finally not sick, and (kinda) not broken, so I was actually able to bandage up my bum wrist and go for a road ride both Saturday and Sunday. Sweet! It's not improving as quickly as I'd hoped, so I think mountain biking is done for the year, but if I can get out on the road at least, I can keep my sanity.

Spent some time this morning playing with belt drive parts and plotting. After looking at the info from Spot, and mounting up the drive cog/chainring on an LX crankset (ie, 50mm chainline) to do some real-world visualization, it appears to me that I can, with some tubing manipulation and trickery, manage to build a singlespeed 29er with 445mm (or about 17.5") chainstays, clearance (just barely) for a 2.1" tire, and clearance (again, by the skin of my teeth) for the chainring thing. It's not anything like what's doable with a chain, of course (you could probably get the stays down into the 425mm range pretty easily) but I'm a big guy and really prefer the stays in the 440-450mm range as it is.

This is a good sign, because last I looked at it (without actually mounting anything up) it really appeared to me that there was no practical way to get any kind of mountain bike tire onto a belt driven bike without making the chainstays super duper long (this is the solution that Spot seems to be using - 18.5"+ chainstays) or doing something really weird with elevated chainstays (barf).

I'm cautiously optimistic that it's doable - but it'll require several tweaks:
-2mm spacers between the crank spider and the chainring/cog to offset the beltline outboard and make extra room. Yes, this is a little bit sketchy as it puts all the force on the bolts instead directly onto the spider, but I think it'll be fine.
-Fairly significantly crimp some S-bend stays for tire clearance (this will get me another 2mm or so on each side of the tire). I do this anyway on a lot of bikes, but never bothered with my current singlespeed, because I don't personally want super short stays or huge rear tires.
-Narrow the tire clearance (at the widest point on the knobs) to somewhere around 60mm. This of course leaves very limited room for anything bigger than a ~2.1" tire (no Weirwolves on the rear of this bad boy) but since I hate using big tires on the rear anyway, it shouldn't be much of an issue. I just better hope there's no mud...

In any case, it's looking like I might actually start this project in the next few days, so stay tuned if you're interested in this sort of thing. I'm also attempting to do a seat tube that will take a 30.9 (Speedball!) seatpost, as well as a few other fancy bits. My loss (wrist injury) is your gain (more framebuilding posts), loyal blog readers!

And yes, I'm aware that this is several consecutive posts with no pictures. Sorry. I'll try to do better.

Fork for sale

So Jason messed up and gave me the wrong numbers for the fork he ordered, and as such, he wants to try to sell it:
450mm axle to crown
45mm offset
1 1/8" steerer
disk brake tab

It's a tapering blade fork built for a 155 pound rider. Appropriate for a 100mm suspension corrected 26" bike, an 80mm 650b setup, or a non-suspension corrected 29er. He's asking $150 plus shipping. The fork is currently not painted, but can be powdercoated for a few extra bucks if you so choose.

If you're interested, email me and I'll put you in touch with him.

Buried treasure!

Whilst digging through the box of clothing that is sitting in my office today, I found a *brand new* still bagged XL size TwinSix/Waltworks jersey. $50 (shipping included) takes it - first to email me gets it. I only have one.

There's one size small left as well, but nothing else. Hopefully Brent will get around to ordering another run sometime soon!

In other news, I think I broke my hand at Sol Vista yesterday. It hurts a lot. Crap.

9/29 Edit: The XL jersey is spoken for. Small is still available (for $30!) to anyone that wants it.

2 posts in one day! $84 tires?!?

Some of you have heard about this new tire from Schwalbe. I find their bombast to be quite entertaining, and furthermore I have a prediction about that tire: nobody who starts a race on it will finish said race. Unless it's a course consisting entirely of grass, or (smooth) pavement, or everything has been covered with a 6" layer of felt and astroturf.

Heck, my fat 150# self can flat a 600g Ignitor at the Boulder short track (very smooth) by punching holes in the casing - I can't even imagine the kind of damage you'd do to this thing. It's almost 200g lighter than tires that I consider hilariously unreliable (Stan's Crow, Kenda Karma, etc).

They probably should call it the "Hillclimb Harry" or "Puncturing Phil".

Every Schwalbe tire I've ever used has sucked unbelieveably. I imagine this will be no exception. They'll sell a ton ($83.55 for ONE TIRE?!?) to the sport-class weightweenies, though.

Also probably to Nick, who is an honorary sport class weightweenie and also has to have at least one pair of every knobby tire ever made.

Picture Rock Trail photos

I only took a couple - this was just before I got really sick (as I still am). Had that start-of-a-sore-throat feeling during the ride and figured I was in trouble...

In any case, the trail is very fun and a good connector to Lyons. Kudos to BMA and everyone else involved.

650b snapshot and musings on trail design

First off, just to grab everyone's attention, here's Martin's 650b full-squish bike. 4" travel front and rear (don't tell Fox, but the tire *just barely* clears that crown!), super fun. He loves it, especially now that the tires are running tubeless.

Now, excuse the clumsy segue, please:

Millertime, Wu-J, and I rode a new trail out towards the Magnolia universe yesterday. The ride itself wasn't bad - lots of shit-talking (er, I mean "comraderie") directed at Wu by myself and Miller, lots of getting lost, some sweet singletrack, and finally a brand new trail that allows a HUGE descent to a destination we really wanted to arrive at.

I should note here that I'm being deliberately vague, as the trail is of course hugely illegal. And no, for the few folks who know what I'm talking about, I have no idea who built it.

So the trail is a typical illegal DH rider trail, basically - starts at the top of an easy spot to shuttle to, takes the fall line, has some super-ghetto homemade jumps and illogical lines allowing you to fall off 10 foot drops, etc. Sort of a fun trail, even on the rigid bikes. But there were a few problems - I'll do my usual bullet-point whining:

1. No effort has been made to hide the trail. Without giving anything away, it would be VERY easy to find it by accident. Finding it with even the slightest bit of information as to its location is a breeze. Nice work, guys - I'm sure nobody will throw a fit about *that* anytime soon. Is it so hard to carry your bikes 50 feet?

2. The trail doesn't have much in the way of turns. Turns are fun. Even for DH guys. Make 'em sweepers if you want to go fast, make 'em tighter if you want to wrestle the bike through some corners, but make the trail *turn*, damnit! Sliding straight downhill through loose dirt isn't much fun for anyone. If you don't know how to build a good trail, either learn how (go ride at Sol Vista and see what Wentz has done for starters) or DON'T BUILD IT.

3. The end of the trail is a half mile hike-a-bike (yes, even if you have a downhill bike) that ends in someone's back yard. Literally. I'm assuming this was chosen as a route because it allows the easy crossing of a body of water, but it's also a virtual guarantee that the trail will piss off the neighbors and get shut down. Wading won't kill you, guys.

4. The first rainstorm will turn this into a giant rut. Some of you may remember another pirate trail named for a javascript:void(0)desert plant that took the fall line without much deviation. Seems pretty fun for a month or two, but once the rains come...

Bottom line, the folks that built this trail did a crap job. And it's a bummer, because the topography and location are *perfect*. Maybe at some point some nice person will reroute some of it this fall, who knows.

Fox fork for sale and a rant about racing

First off, I ordered the wrong fork for my neighbor Martin and I'm selling the one that I ordered by mistake:
Fox F120 RLC (26" wheel!) fork. Brand new, steerer uncut. There are a couple of marks at the top of the crown where my tool slipped (doh) when removing a crown race (the fork was installed on a bike but never ridden). ISO disc tab and (removable) v-brake mounts. $450 takes it, shipping included. Picture above. Feel free to ask questions.

Second, some of you may have heard about this. In essence, USAC is moving from a "beginner/sport/expert/semipro/pro" setup to "Cat3, Cat2, Cat1, Pro". They've changed the names of the amateur categories and eliminated semipro. All in all, not that big of a deal. But the *reasons* they cite are hilarious. Let's go point by point:

"The new categories, which closely resemble those used in other disciplines of competitive cycling, have been created to offer USA Cycling mountain bike members a more competitive racing environment."
Translation: "Nobody races mountain bikes anymore, so we're combining some categories to keep the field sizes up."

"The terms ‘Beginner’, ‘Sport’ and ‘Expert’ carry little relevance outside of the mountain bike community, which makes it difficult for sponsors and the public to relate."
Translation:"For some reason nobody wants to watch a group of really skinny people dressed in brightly colored garments ride uphill (as well as, approximately 10% of the time, downhill, albeit not much faster) for 2 hours at 4.5 mph. We're confident that these new category names will get us an invite to the X games!"

“Our pro fields are tiny compared to our European counterparts. We have the numbers in terms of ridership, but we’ve been referring to them as Semi-Pros.”
Translation:"US mountain bikers suck. Really, we need better dope, but in lieu of that, we're hoping throwing a bunch of fresh-faced semipros to the sharks will somehow make our molasses-slow top pros go faster. They'll, like, spend more energy lapping people, and stuff like that. Or something. Pass that bourbon over here."

"Semi-Pro members will be offered an automatic upgrade to Pro throughout the 2009 licensing period"
Translation:"Dude, we can charge all those sucker semipros $160 for a UCI license. Erm, I mean, help develop them as professional riders within a proper competitive environment."


Now, in all seriousness, what the heck are they thinking down in Colorado Springs? Is anyone out there under the impression that the existing pros and semipros are going to become magically faster by combining the categories? I mean, most of the pro and semipro riders I know (with, um, yours truly as a bit of an exception) train pretty hard already. You've gotta develop new talent from the ground up, and *participation* is what can make racing popular (and maybe even lucrative).

So here are my suggestions for USAC.
-Keep the existing category names. Mountain bikers don't *want* to feel like roadies, mostly.
-Throw out semipro if you want, but offer a cheaper NON-UCI pro license for domestic pros who aren't serious enough to go to a World Cup or need to be drug tested (ie, the folks who will show up for local races, but never a UCI-level event).
-Make junior and collegiate licenses free. Encourage promoters to make entry fees free for juniors as well.
-Offer beginner licenses free for the first year to encourage people to try mountain biking.

Here's the bottom line: Cycling needs to learn a lesson from triathalon (you have no idea how hard it was for me to type that): ours is a participation sport, not a spectator sport. Nobody in their right mind will stand around at the start/finish of some godforsaken trail loop to wait to see their favorite racers once every 45 minutes, no matter how much the category naming system has changed. On the other hand, cycling is great exercise, very social, and (relatively) inexpensive to do. If you want to offer big prize money and see Americans on top of World Cup podiums, make sure a *lot* of kids and their parents get psyched about bike racing.

Congratulations Yuki!!!

No race report yet, but Yuki just WON the solo men's division of the 12 hours of Snowmass! Check out the photo (there's an article too, but all it talks about is Lance).

In other race news, Eszter and Sarah had a great collegiate race at Sol Vista, finishing 1st/1st/4th, and 5th/5th/7th, respectively, in the competitive women's A category for XC, STXC, and DH. Nice work, ladies! I should have a pic or two to add later in the day.

-Walt

Breakin' the law!

That's right. A first for the Waltworks blog. A video. My computer is smoking and making a terrible moaning noise, but I think I've successfully uploaded it.

And no, none of this has anything to do with bicycles. Sorry. But it does involve sneaking blackberries through the fence of the golf course. Which is pretty sweet.

Epic weekend...

This'll be brief, because I really need to get out to the shop and get some work done, but the weekend wrapup was:
Friday: Ride over Rollins Pass to Winter Park. 50 miles, 8k feet of climbing. Follow with copious amounts of Sierra Nevada anniversary ale.

Saturday: Ride 5 hours with the Goonie crew on some of the finest singletrack in the valley. Follow with copious amounts of 90shilling. Chris (see picture) impales self on tree but gamely continues.

Sunday: Ride 3 or 4 four hours, sometimes really slowly and painfully, and discover even more excellent unmapped singletrack. Consume pizza and more beer. Beg a ride back to Boulder.

Random bicycle stuff for sale

Come one, come all! No reasonable offer refused! First come, first served! Shipping is free in the continental US, all others pay me actual cost.

-Avid Shorty 6 brakes (one wheel worth). Brand new, in the box. $20.
-XTR M970 front disc brake. Brand new, includes lever and hose (prebled) but no rotor. $130.
-Shimano 105 front derailleur (braze-on) with 31.8mm clamp adapter. $30.

Email me if you have questions. Thanks dudes.

I'm famous again

Check it out, My name is in Velonews again... Too bad I didn't have a better race - those U23 kids are fast!

The last race report of 2008...probably

I'm sure everyone has been just, well, riveted by my race reports ("So, I was riding 5 mph up the hill for 45 minutes, but this guy in front of me was riding 5.02mph - it was really exciting...") Fear not, this will almost certainly be the last race report of 2008, because the Winter Park series concluded on Saturday with the always-fun Tipperary Creek race.

Tipperary is a great course, but there are a few bits I don't like - specifically, the long flat dirt road sections at the start and finish, and the Flume trail, which is flat or slightly downhill, 8 feet wide, and covered with rocks and roots. Just about the worst possible place to be trying to spin the 34x20, in other words.

The start of the race, as always, was pretty mellow. I think the pro field loses a minute or so to a lot of the expert (and maybe even sport) categories because everyone knows they're not going to win the race on the initial 3.5 miles of flat dirt road, so we all just sit in and chat until we hit the Tipperary climb. In any case, I ran my trusty 2x2 drivetrain (38/34 in front, 16/20 in the rear) which allowed me to stay with the pack for the flat section, then I got off and swapped to the 34x20 for the remainder of the race. Some folks once tried to give me a hard time about this setup, claiming I wasn't being a "true" singlespeeder (since I don't have any facial hair or tattoos, and I don't like cheap beer, I probably don't qualify anyway). But I'm not racing the singlespeed race, nor do I care - it's a setup I enjoy riding, and it lets me hang on for those first 3.5 miles and still race with my friends the rest of the way.

So, as usual, I was dead last onto the climb, and I spent the whole climb chasing and passing people - I think I was up to about 5th at the top, but hadn't managed to catch Paco, who is usually my rabbit for the starts of races. That was a bad sign - the legs didn't really have any snap, and I was having a lot of trouble just keeping my head up to look ahead on the trail. I rode terribly on the descent and Mike West (who I had dropped by about 30 seconds on the climb) caught me and passed me easily towards the bottom. Then Flume started, and I started going backwards - Nick caught me and blew by me with about a 5mph closing speed on his 3" travel 29er, and I think about 7 or 8 others passed me too.

That set the tone for the rest of the race. I would catch and pass Nick and several other people on every smoothish climb, then get absolutely crushed on the flat bits and descents as I desperately tried to keep my head (and motivation) up. I finally caught Nick for the final time about 2 miles from the finish, and he gamely put me on his wheel and pulled my sorry ass past one last rider before the finish line (thanks Nick!) as I was aiming for the series podium and every point was important. Alas, it wasn't enough - I finished 11th (of 42 finishers) and was 4th overall for the series, just 4 points off the podium. C'est la vie. Next year, next year. I was happy to take 2.5 minutes off my time from last year, at least.

The ladies had a better race and did quite well - Sarah raged the first half in front of some of the pros before blowing up (she raced on only a couple hours of sleep and forgot her camelback) but still took 7 minutes off her time from last year to finish 3rd in expert and win the overall for the series. Eszter also rode well and finished 2nd in the pro race, and snuck onto the podium in 3rd for the series.

In any case, a great season, even if I did miss my goal of making the final podium. I think if I'd managed to race the 2nd race (I was ill) I would have done it. Not getting hammered the night before the SuperD would have helped as well, of course. But I have no regrets - I went for it, and I had some great races as well as some very poor ones.