Bike is back in gear..

As you may have noticed, I lost my dérailleur hanger during the hammerhead 100 ride.  That was a day I would like to forget, to be honest.  Im over it now, but it was very disappointing.  Im not sure if I mentioned it before, but the Small Block 8 tires really dont work well for out at Nayls at the higher speeds that I am trying to ride at.  Some of it may be my bike handling skills, and some of it is the fact that these tires just dont seem to hook up well in highspeed corners.

During the race, I found myself off the trail twice because it seemed the tires just weren't hooking up.  Around mile 20 a stick hopped up and got caught in my dérailleur.  I stopped, pulled the stick out, and continued on my way.  I noticed immediately that the chain was hopping a little.  I stopped again, checked the drivetrain and saw that the hanger was bent, and the dérailleur was pretty much jammed onto the hanger.  Ugh.  I tried by hand to bend the hanger back, but it snapped. Double Ugh.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a master link or a spare hanger.  Even if I did have a hanger - I couldn't get the dérailleur unstuck from the hanger.  I broke the chain and used one of the pins to try to make the bike a singlespeed.  It didnt work.  I walked back to the staging area and happened to get my pic taken a moment later.

Anyway, I got a new hanger, used a vice and got the dérailleur off the old, and put it on the new.  I got a new sram 991 chain with a 'PowerLink'.  (basically, its a masterlink - so I wont  have issues with a broken chain and having to walk to the car).  I also purchased some new road bike shoes.  They are on the way.  In the mean time, I used the mtb for commuting a few times after sticking some slicks on it and getting it back into riding shape.  The last 2 weeks since the race, I have gotten very little riding in, in fact - I have only ridden about 60 miles since the race. Mostly because I was waiting on the hanger.  Thats going to change very shortly though - now that the bike is back in order. Ill put the small blocks back on the bike until I eventually pick up some new tires, and head out to santos this weekend.  Yahoo!  The 8 hours of labor is coming up, and I would like to participate in the solo class.  Call me crazy, but Im really liking this endurance riding thing - even though I bonked in my first race, and broke the bike in the last race.. haha. try try try!

So..Hot.. Santos Shangri La Ride.

In preparation for next week's Hammerhead 100 race in Ocala, I headed to the Land Bridge trail head on Saturday.  I haven't been to Santos in a while and wanted to get back into the groove out there, and hopefully get all of my crashes out of the way this weekend instead of race weekend.

Oh, I crashed a couple of times.  Mostly it was just not managing my damn speed well enough.  My fitness has gotten better since I have been out there last, but apparently my bike handling has not gotten much better. My bike was feeling very squirrelly for most of the day, and if I even breathed on the rear brake it would lock, and the front wheel wasnt hooking up well at all.  I ran off the trail - I would say 3 times with the bike going straight even with me leaning over to turn.  Bummer.  My fitness is alot better from even a month ago, and I am going quite a bit faster on the bike, and trying to take turns at a quicker clip mostly resulted in the tires losing grip.  Maybe I just need to slow the hell down better for turns.. but I just feel I should be able to take the turns alot faster.  Ive read alot about a nevegal front tire with the SB8 on the rear.  I think I will try that, but probably not before the race.

Anyway, even with some off-trail adventures, I managed to finish the 25mile lap in two hours and 26 minutes..  That does not count the time that I was sitting on the trail grabbing my eyeball in pain.  Yes, I was STUNG IN THE EYE by a wasp.  Let me repeat.  STUNG IN THE EYE by a wasp.  I was just tooling along at a decent clip when zap! Some black thing is on my eye, and I am screaming like a girl and falling off the bike.  My eye was really hurting, but luckily I am not allergic at all to stings.  It didnt swell up at all, but my eye was in pain for the 11 miles back to the car.  Like a real trooper I finished up the ride.  So, with the 'lounge break' laying on the side of the trail - it took me close to two hours to finish the ride.  I didnt bother to go out for a second lap, since my eye was twitching like a crack addict.  Today its all better, except for being a little itchy.

2010 Squiggy Classic

This past Sunday was the make-up date for the Squiggy Classic. My goal for the day was to complete 5 laps and to not die.  I can tell you, I reached my goals. Both of them. Unfortunately, I am still left feeling disappointed.

I got to Morris Bridge park quite early.  It only took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there from my house.  Amazingly, there were a ton of people already there, and I had to park quite far away.  Getting signed up was no problem, I just told them my name and I got my 'race packet'

My 'Race packet' contained very little.  I got a hammer gel and some clif and larabar samples. No t-shirt.  Really?  No t-shirt? After getting the packet, I had to walk my cooler down to the staging area.  My cooler has no wheels.  That means, I would have had to struggle with my cooler from my car - which was a million miles away - had it  not been for Tony.  He helped me with the cooler when he saw me struggling with it

The Squiggy Classic has a LeMans type of start, meaning, I had to run a good 100 meters to get to my bike - in carbon shoes. That was a comfy way to start off the day. haha. Here's me just after getting on my bike and making my way through the crowd.

Ahh how fresh I look.  This 'freshness' would only last about 3 laps. The course was nice, but had alot of sand. There were some really nice fast sections of singletrack a few ups and downs and a few rooty sections.  Right at about mile 8 started a section called 'heartbreak ridge'. This section sucked. At least, it sucked for a guy on an aluminum hardtail. I run around 30psi front and back with 29 inch wheels - usually roots dont bother me that much.  These roots were okay for the first couple of laps, however, after that they lived up to their name.

I rode 2 laps straight through without stopping.  I felt great after the 2nd lap, stopped and refilled my camelbak bladder, got another bottle of accellerade (I had prepared 3 bottles with the plan of drinking one bottle and one camelbak full every two hours or so) I was in the 'pit area' for only a couple of minutes.  My first laps were good, I averaged under 50 for the first and just over 50 for the second and third.  However, something weird  happened on my fourth lap.  I started feeling bonktastic.  I was on my second bottle of accellerade and second camelbak bladder. I had been hitting the gel or clif bloks every 30 or so minutes.  I tried to eat a clifbar, but it tasted like eating crackers in the desert. I was actually feeling a bit cold, even though it was in the 80s and I started to feel nauseous.  I was guessing I was getting dehydrated, or electrolyte depleted.  I stopped for a second and ate half a package of the margarita clif bloks and had a few swigs of water.  Was not feeling much better.  I struggled back to finish this lap.

Luckily, most mountain bikers are cool.  I got back and was feeling a little terrible.  The guys who were sitting next to me were riding as a team.  They had an extra folding chair that they let me use.  Thanks guys!  I laid there for about 40 minutes trying to recover.  Since I did pretty well for my first few laps, I had plenty of time to get out and finish up a 5th lap.  I gutted it out and finished a 5th lap with 40 minutes to spare.

Here I am after my 5th lap looking not so fresh.

Looking back, I should have had more electrolytes.  I had almost a full bottle of acellerade left after the race, and a good amount of water in my second camelbak bladder.  While riding, it really felt like I was keeping up on my drinking/eating.  However, now looking back - I wasnt drinking enough after the 3rd lap.  After the race, I went to the bathroom and my urine came out brown.  Thats a good sign that you didnt drink enough liquid.  The first 3 laps I seemed to be keeping up really well with the drinking, and must have just lost focus and paid the price.  That wont happen again, I hope.  If I would have kept up with my hydration and feeding I would have finished 6 laps with relative ease.  The garmin says - even with the last two laps of over an  hour - that I had a riding time of 4 hours and 20 minutes. The next day I weight myself, and came out 10 lbs under my every day weight.  Thats a hell of alot of water loss. I gained it all back by 9pm.

All in all, I am very happy with my performance.  I did what I set out to do, and then some.  50 miles in the woods at 4:20 is nothing to sneeze at. I have been mountain biking for five months and have come a long way. Next year I will get 6 laps without a problem.  Tomorrow is Santos for the prep for the Hammerhead 100.

Soldier Creek challenge.... again.

I went out to Soldier Creek yesterday again for the 10 lap challenge - even though I was still feeling a little residual effects from the stomach virus that left me bedridden monday. The guys have been doing great work on that place.  The areas that were mud-filled were no longer mud-filled since new drainage was added, a really terrible sandy area was re-built to flow better, and a new mile or so of trail was added. 

We started out and did one lap including the new bit of trail.  Its a little more tight and technical than the flowy part that we use as the 'challenge'.  There were some tight turns and thin bridges (one of which I nearly came off of) It was really a nice little section of trail - and I think I will go out that way this weekend to get a few laps in.

By the way, as you may or may not know, it gets hot in Florida.  Last week was cool, and I was able to grind through 10 laps using one 24oz bottle.  Not so this week.  After six laps I was done - I felt like I could not drink enough liquid.  I went through almost 2 bottles in 45 minutes. My stomach was groaning, and I guess being sick for a couple of days really dehydrated me.  I should have known better - since Tuesday I went out for about 30 miles at night (and it was pretty cool) and I drank almost an entire 100oz camelbak. I did manage some decent laps, though.  Each lap is about 1.3 miles and my best lap was 6:57.  I have to say much of the night was frustrating, as there were a lot of people just dicking around on the trail.  I got stopped by some dude just standing in the way at the top of a sandy climb, and I got stuck behind some guy and his dog going seriously slow on a couple laps.  So, I called it after 6.  There is always next week!

Oh, some of the bling for the bike has begun to come in.  I will post some pics this weekend after getting everything installed.

Downtown Urban Ride

Met up with a bunch of folks downtown to ride through downtown and winter park on mountain bikes.  I rode my bike from home to downtown for the meet up.  Unfortunately, I had to be home by around 9:45, so that cut my ride short. I was hoping to get in 40 miles, but I only rode about an hour with the group and then had to head back home. All together I got 30 miles in. Next time I will make sure to leave time time open that I can do the whole ride and hang out with the group afterwards. 

It was a huge group of mountain bikers though.  I would say about 20 people showed up to ride.  Im kinda glad I had to leave early though, since my headlight died before I got home, and I lost my tail light on some random stair or curb jump.  Arg!  I need good lights if I want to ride at night, for sure.  Oh - and I bought more stuff for the bike: 

Salsa skewers
Easton Monkeylite lo-rise bars
Easton EC70 Seatpost.

The skewers that came with the bike are complete crap, and have let go several times during rides - once this past wednesday at the E-Center ride.  That is something that is super dangerous and either a> destroy your wheels and/or b> send you off the bike.

E-Center challenge is on again tonight after work.  I am hoping to beat the 1:19 of last week, but I was sick for a couple of days Sunday/Monday. I feel mostly better, but last night after riding I felt a little sick.

Soldier Creek 10 Lap Challenge/Santos Ride

I never did post about my Santos ride from last weekend.  I will keep this part short:

I went to Santos to ride the 23 or so miles of landbridge out and back.  I was feeling awesome and keeping a nice pace of around 9.5 mph.  At about the 15 mile point I was coming down a whooptie-doo and at the bottom of the whooptie do was a pool of sand.  Of course my front wheel came to a halt, and tossed me off the bike.  The front wheel was bent so bad it was hitting each side of the fork when spenning.  So, using man-muscle, I bent the rim back into semi-ridable shape and made it back to the car.  20 Bucks and 40 minutes later my rim was truer than when I got the bike in the first place. Big ol' bummer though, since that really wrecked my rhythm and I didnt get back out for another lap of Nayls.  The new shoes worked great, however I wasnt wearing the proper socks, and they seemed to bunch up at the toes and bug me a little.

Every Wednesday a local meetup group does what they call the 10 lap challenge out at the 1.4 mile loop at Soldier Field near the Environmental center off 419 in the Longwood area.  This last Wednesday was my first time out there to give it a try.  It doesnt sound very difficult, but it is alot harder than it sounds.  The terrain is pretty fast and flowing with numerous little bridges over the creek(s).  I started off really slow and worked my way up to a pretty good rhythm and completed 10 laps in an hour and 19 minutes.  Unfortunately, I did not set my lap timer correctly and I didnt get my lap times down.  My feet felt great, but I know for a fact now that the garmin 500 without the speed sensor is absolutely not measuring distance correctly.

For example:  The Greenway map shows the ride from landbridge to 484 and back to the landbridge trailhead is right around 22.3 miles.  My ride over the weekend displayed it as only being 19 miles.  The 10 laps out at the E-center showed up as being 12.2 miles, when a guy out there who was using the 705 was coming up with 13.5 miles.  That kinda screws my average speed/etc up. Lets calculate this.

According to the Edge 500 I did 19.5 miles in 2:08 moving time with an average speed of 9.1 mph.  When in actuality I did 22.3 miles (according to the OMBA epic map) in 2:08 which would be 10.4 mph.  That is an enormous difference, and considering the last 8 miles were ridden on a rim that looked similar to a potato chip - I think I could have done a lot better. Im going to keep working on getting my landbridge lap down under two hours and the 10 lap challenge down closer to an hour.

Squiggy Classic on for April

The Squiggy Classic was rescheduled for the 25th of April.  This is pretty decent news, since it gives me plenty of time to train for longer times in the saddle.  Now that the time has changed, after work rides on the road bike will be a piece of cake. There is a meetup group that I joined that hosts a couple of 'urban' mountain bike rides during the week on Tuesdays and Thursdays downtown and in winter park.  That will be nice to ride in a group. Although, from what I have heard its a little dangerous and some of the guys are a bit reckless.

This week I am going to do a couple loops of nayl's trail in Santos.. I know the Hammerhead 100 is coming up in May (I think) and I would like to try for the 50 miler. This will get me more familiar with that route as well as getting my ass, legs, and lungs ready for the 6 hour ride. Definitely not upfor a hundred miles on the mtb any time soon.  The solo 6 hour will be the real test.

'Little' Max is growing like a weed, he is going on 10 weeks and he is doing pretty well as far as potty training - but I am getting pretty sick of waking up at 3 to take him out, and then again at 7 to take him out.  I guess 7 isnt that bad since I usually get up at 7:15 to start getting ready for work. His habit of leaving 'surprises' around the house has lessened a whole lot.  Only one accident all of yesterday morning, and one this morning.  I swear, its like having a baby.

I would post more pictures of him, but my digital camera is having issues.  I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ5. The lens has stuck open and wont focus and leaves me with a 'turn off the camera and try again' message whenever I turn it on.  grr.  I will be jiggling it this evening to see if it can be fixed, and will post pix of 'Little' Max.

Endura Humvee 3/4 shorts and a muddy ride.

Last week I pulled the trigger on some Endura Humvee 3/4 shorts (knickers ?)  These are the 'shorts' that go all the way down to your calf.  I wanted something that would cover my knees and assist with keeping them warm, as well as something that I could wear on casual rides without looking like a spandex warrior.

These are lightweight shorts that come with an internal snap in liner short made entirely in Great Brittain. The liner short is a pretty nice spandex short with a full chamois.

 

They have 4 points where there are 3 little snappy-do's that hook to your outside short.

The material for the interior short is just like any other lycra cycling short you have worn, really.  The exterior short is made of a lightweight ripstop fabric and seems to be double and triple stiched everywhere.  There are articulated knees, meshy fabric behind the knee/calf, and little velcro tabs that let you tighten the cuffs to fit nicely around your calves.

  

There are a bunch of pockets.  There are two back pockets with velcro tabs that are very low on the butt to keep from interfering with the saddle.  This seems to work really well.  I rode with my wallet in one of the pockets and it didnt bug me at all.  Theres a little 'cell phone' pocket with a velcro tab closure, a couple of zippered front pockets and a 'cargo' pocket that you could maybe fit a couple of clif bars in.  Theres also 2 zippered vent pockets and a keyring.

Cellphone Pocket

Key clip

I rode these for about 3.5 hours in a pouring rain on saturday.  They are extremely comfortable.   The inner short is very nice and feels just like a good pair of cross country/road bike lycra shorts (it even has a little endura logo, in case you want to ride with just the inner short).  The pad is substantial, and quite comfortable.  Im thinking that someone who is not used to riding with a chamois would think it is weird, especially since this pad is quite thick.  The articulated knees worked well along with the cuff closures to keep the calves from ballooning out and becoming weird.  

All in all, my ride in Santos was a fairly miserable one.  It was just barely raining for the first hour.  The skies opened and began dumping buckets after that.  I was riding through a good 6 inches of mud and water for most of the way.  

Check out those nasty shorts.  Totally and absolutely soaked, muddy, and pure disgusting.  Hey, they washed up okay.  All of the clean pics from above are from after the ride, and a wash.  I washed them in the washing machine, but would recommend against that.  I noticed some threads loosening already.. (after one wash!)  So - wash them by hand.  I would highly recommend these shorts.  They are comfortable and relatively cheap by comparison.  They can be yours for the low low price of 89.00 from amazon.

Oh and - support me for the Tour de Cure.  Im only riding the 60 mile course, but I need to raise 150 bucks in less than 3 weeks.. Donate!

Sponsor me in the Tour de Cure

Very busy few weeks

Im sure my many admirers (three readers?) have noticed I have not posted in a while.  Things have been very hectic and I have been under the weather.  On top of that, this last weekend I flipped over my handlebars not so gently and roughed up my shoulder.

Saturday I was starting to feel the onset of yucky stomach, but really wanted to get out for a ride since the weather was great. It was supposed to rain all day Sunday (which it did) and I knew I had things to do that day.  My plan was to go to Santos, however feeling a little under the weather I just headed over to Snowhill rd.  While getting geared up in the parking lot I saw my boss just coming back from a ride.  His leg was a bit bloody. I said 'hi'. He seemed to be fine: there was alot of blood from a very little scratch. After riding the first little bit of the trail, and making it to the river portion - I realized "I left my phone on my car".  So I headed back to pick it up.  Luckily it was still there. iPhones are expensive and non-insurable.  At this point a realization should have struck me: "These are signs that I should go home."


There is a funny thing about crashing.  It seems to happen somewhere that you have ridden a million times and have not thought twice about.  About an hour in, I was going down a steep sandy bit that has a little switchback at the bottom. Its not that difficult - you just have to watch your speed coming down. Right at the bottom my front tire dug into the sand, stopped, and sent me head over heels  over the handlebars.  Of course, the natural reaction is to put your hand out to stop from faceplanting.  I did. Afterwords my shoulder hurt like hell. I checked the ol bones to make sure my collarbone was in a single pice, and all seemed to be ok.  Luckily I wasnt too far from the car, so I just rode back and headed home.  For a couple of days I wasnt able to lift my arm up over my head at all and is just now starting to feel like I can get on the bike again. My guts are feeling better and tomorrow might be the perfect time for a 'sick-day'.  The weather has been gorgeous and I feel like a schmuck letting it go to waste sitting in this stupid office.

Econ trail sunday..

Posting from my iphone -while taking a break on the trail. It's a Nice day and the trail is in great shape.







Overlooking a cliff into the river. I switched out the seatpost for an old one I had laying around. I needed another inch or so but, the ritchey was not long enough. This seapost sucks: it's heavy and the clamp barely works.








Mmm this water looks delicious.Ok, I have a few more miles to ride.

Long Santos Ride...

I made it to santos for the second weekend in a row.  This time I was able to complete the entire epic ride, and then some. Trek was out for some demo rides,  the time limit on riding was around 30 minutes.  I was guessing that I would be out for 5 hours so I didnt bother. It was quite chilly for florida- 45 degrees or so around 10am.

Like last time, I started out at the Santos trailhead and followed the 'epic' ride west signs.  I really love riding out here, as it just feels like there are mile after mile of uninterrupted singletrack. Well, there are.  Within only a few minutes I was already out of the highly trafficked Santos section and into the Spider Kingdom section.  I have yet to see a spider out there, however, since it has been cold both times I have been out there.  This section is very brushy, and not very technical.  In fact, there arent very many 'technical' sections except for out to Nayl's trail and in the Santos section.  I hooked up with a group of riders right after the Landbridge trailhead, and followed them a little ways.  It was a group of about 5, I would say.  They were also doing the 'Epic' Ride.  I would see them off and on throughout the day.

Right after the landbridge section there are a few portions of open farmland, and singletrack through some thin pine trees.

This pic was taken from my digital camera last weekend, and it doesnt show off the bright blue sky of this weekend. I only had my iPhone on me for this ride.  It was a gorgeous day, even though it was very cold.  Once past this portion a little way farther and you come to a short climb to the landbridge.  There were quite a few people milling about on the bridge - tooling slowly up the climb.  I just zipped up it and stopped for a minute to take a pic from the overpass with the iPhone.

Really pretty amazing that you can barely tell you are on a bridge except for this little opening that you can look out of.  It really just seems like a limestone hill. I really sped down the other side, and almost wiped out on a ditch opened up by water drainage. After the bridge I followed the doubletrack for about three miles, after missing my right turn.

After a few minutes I was getting a little confused, and found a turn off that was pointing me to the Trailhead.  This was the 49th street trailhead that I found - and asked a couple of guys how to find Nayl's trail.  I had to go back out to the doubletrack and follow it for only a few more hundred yards go under a little bridge and take the singletrack.

Nay'ls trail was really sweet singletrack.  There were a few points where I lost the trail - since it was heavily covered in pine needles.  There were a ton of ups and downs, riding on ridges, and even a pretty lengthy and steep climb for Florida. (ok, not much.. but at least it was longer than 45 seconds of climbing)  after about 5 miles or so I came to a road - a few folks were sitting and relaxing eating sandwiches next to their bikes.  MMmm.. a sandwich would have been nice.  All I brought with me was 3 packages of clif bloks, 2 clif bars, a bottle of accellerade, and 3 liters of water. I followed a couple guys across the road just to look at the trails (this was out past 484 and no longer on the 'epic' trail)  I only road it for about a mile and turned around.  At this point I still felt great - 2.5 hours into the ride.

I cruised back over Nayl's trail and the Landbridge following the green 'East' epic signs and took a break just after the Landbridge trailhead.

I was beginning to feel a little nauseated around hour 4 after finishing up the last clif bar.  No cramps though, but my legs were beginning to feel it.  The margarita clif blok had done it's job - even though it tasted like a sweet salt lick.  After about 4.5 hours, I was starting to feel pretty miserable: tired, hungry, and generally wanted to lay down and take a nap.  However, I made it back to the parking lot at right about 5 hours. (not sure of the exact time or distance, since my iPhone battery died while using the iMapMyRide GPS app.  grr.  The last time I had looked at it - it read 38 miles.  Looking at the map - that was about 4 miles from the parking lot.  The GPS isnt very accurate as far as distance, but I am going to guess that I did about 43 miles.  All in all, it was a stellar day.  I ate all my food, and drank 2 liters of water, and 24 oz of acellerade.  During the summer, Im going to need to refill the bladder at the Landbridge trailhead, me thinks.

Im pretty stoked about this day - my longest day in the mtb saddle so far at around 5 hours.  The Fantom rode very well, shifted great, handled technical stuff very well, and I absolutely flew up any climbs.  I wasnt sure I would like the WTB saddle for the long haul- but it is quite comfortable, and the cromo rails really do soak up alot of bumps along with the big tires.  I can absolutely stay seated over some pretty irregular trails without the feeling of being jackhammered.

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 is great for everyone! Off to santos tomorrow for a nice ride. I promise to take some pics. I hope.

Finally.. made it to Santos.

On Sunday I made it out to the Santos trail finally. I rode a total of just under 30 miles in about 3 and a half hours including a couple of breaks.  Using the 'iMapMyRide' on my iPhone is beginning to annoy me.  I know the mileage isnt reporting correctly and it will not stop recording if you stop for a minute or two. So I have to reach into my camekbak - pull out the phone, and pause it.  annoying!  It was very chilly - so I had a base underarmour thermal layer along with jersey and leg warmers. By about 3:30 I needed another layer.

At any rate - the ride was fantastic. I started out at the Santos trailhead.  I didnt get there till 12:30 - so I knew I probably would not get the entire 'Epic' ride in. For nutrition, I had 2 clif bars, one 'clif block' package, and a flask of hammer gel. Mmmm espresso. Unfortunately, the stupid little flask's top wasnt on all the way and it leaked out all over my car's center console. So I only really had 2 full servings.  bah.  Not a great way to start the day. I really could have used those electrolytes later in the day.

Santos is very well marked.  The entire 'epic ride' portion is marked off by little round green signs telling you which way to go.  "Epic Ride - West" on the way out, and "Epic Ride - East" on the way in.  Almost all of the singletrack is nice and sweeping curves. with a few short florida climbs. I did not follow the exact Epic Ride portion until I got past 25th st.  I basically went down Pine Tree trial till I got to Bunny Trail, crossed 25th street and went around twister twice. (I sort of got off track - obviously)  Twister is great, though.  Fast twists and turns, and is over 3 miles long - and it seems to go on forever.  It was after riding twister twice that I saw the Epic Ride signs - and chose to follow them. Even though I had a map, I was too stupid to figure out that the little green signs were what I needed to follow.

This took me south west amd through the brushy 'spider kingdom' and to the landbridge trailhead.  It was going on 2:00 or so - and I wanted to be sure to get back before sundown. So, I only rode on to the landbridge, then turned around and followed the Epic Ride - East signs all the way back to santos. I got back to the Santos area in about an hour or so.  I took a quick break and checked the phone - and it said 26 miles.  So, I rode the Dr. Ruth trail, and hopped on a red trail to see how hard it was. Supposedly its the easiest one - called Sinkhole.  Well, it wasnt easy at all. This trail was really tight and winding - in several sections I was going litterally 2 miles an hour.  I only had to walk up one portion. I was coming around a corner and up to a rocky climb section. As soon as I tried to get some momentum I hit a big stone which stopped the bike cold - and (in what seemed like slow motion) endoed me.  I tweaked my neck a little, and bruised my thigh from the stem hitting me. But otherwise, was fine.

After walking up the rest of that climb I got back on the bike and finished out that trail.  My left leg began cramping bad - and I was completely out of any electrolytes.  My day was done - so I went back to the parking lot and headed home.  I brought the digital camera with me - but I always seem to be too into riding to want to stop and take a pic.  I took a couple, and will post those later.

Next weekend I hope to do all 42 miles.  If I make sure to not spill my hammer gel, and bring a bottle of accelerade along with my camelbak - I wont cramp up.

Palmy trail

Pretty trail...

Worst.Lube.Ever.

I went out for a three hour ride today out at Little Big Econ.  Was going to hit Santos - but I have a concert to go to tonight, and tomorrow there is a race out there. There is always next weekend.

I cleaned my drivetrain today before going out for a ride.  Unfortunately, I was out of my White Lightning Lube.

I always use that stuff on my chain, and I use 'Finish Line WET Lube' on pivot points on the dérailleurs and on the exposed cables. White Lightning works great. Bummer! Ive never tried the Finish Line on my chain - but it does say 'for Extreme Conditions'!

Oh, marketing.

Within 2 minutes of riding in the dirt my chain was grinding whenever I put any power to the drivetrain.  I thought there was something stuck in the dérailleur.  Wrong.  The chain was COATED in dirt and leaves.  The rear pulleys were covered with gobs and gobs of goey dirt/mud.  I couldnt believe it!  With white lighting - nothing.. I mean nothing, sticks to the chain. I dunked the friggin drivetrain in mud last week and within 2 minutes it was clean and grind free.  Now - for an entire 3 hours my drivetrain sounded like an old lady chattering her false teeth.  Whatever you do: Stay away from Finish Line Wet Lubricant if you are going to ride anywhere NEAR dirt. For extreme conditions indeed.

Lesson:  Make sure to have the right lube for your chain before cleaning it.

Living up to your potential

For anyone who lives in the Central Florida area this should not come as news.  It rains here.  In fact, it has been raining off and on for a week.  Luckily all of the rain has coincided with the end of the year which even luckier is when I get all of my vacation time.

Yesterday, however, was a nice day.  So I went out and rode for a couple of hours at Snowhill.  Im sure everyone is pretty bored with hearing about my rides at the Snowhill trails (or rather, Little Big Econ State Park) so I will keep a ride report 'short'.  Needless to say, my bicycle finally lived to this blog's illustrious name.

Mud.  Oodles of it.  This doesnt really look like much, as I didnt get a picture DURING my ride and before alot of it fell off.  The trails off Snowhill can get really wet after a few rains.  I did one small 'river' crossing going through the swampy area. The other 'river' crossing I did was alot deeper than I thought it was.  There was about a five foot wide area that was pretty wet at the bottom of an embankment.  I assumed it wasnt very deep.  I was wrong.  It was deep enough to soak my feet pretty well - and make my drivetrain sound like it was grinding for a few minutes.  For those of you who dont know - when a drivetrain gets wet and muddy, it can sound like hell for a while.  The tires were absolutely slick with mud until it flung off.  My legs were also absolutely slick with mud.

The waitresses at Tijuana Flats asked me 'what were you doing to get so muddy??'  Im not sure what they must think of me when I go in there after a ride - shorts and a t-shirt with bib tops dangling out, and the most atrocious helmet hair ever.

Anyway - the bike is absolutely a dream to ride.  I zipped by some dude on the trail yesterday and he shouted after me : "How do you like that 29er?"  I can honestly say - I love the frigging thing.  I have put about 120 miles of single track on it over the last month. All of the kinks have been worked out: The brakes have bedded in and do not rub at all.  They squeal when soaked - what brakes don't - but will stop you on a dime. It flies through gears with no problem.  There have been zero ghost shifts on any of my rides after adjusting cable tension.  The saddle is comfy enough for 2+ hours straight in the saddle.  I do need a few things, however.  I could use another half inch of seatpost to get optimum leg extension.  A slightly shorter stem would be nice as well, and the front wheel is slightly out of true.

El Nino says 'Rock on!'

Suffering with a smile..

Yesterday was the first time I got out on the bike, or rather any bike other than the motorcycle, in a week. The whole Thanksgiving, family, and a bit of rain got in the way. I also did some work on the motorcycle and on the car - cleaning both of their K&N air filters, and re-oiling them.  I had to put the SV on the battery tender for a couple of hours to get it started - then went for a nice ride on saturday for a couple of hours.

Oil, oil filter, and spark plugs need to be changed next weekend.. I do all of my own maintenance and I hadnt ridden the motorcycle for about a month. Mainly I havent been riding it much because I need to check and possibly adjust the valves - Im about 6K miles over the suggested check mileage. (Im at about 20k miles on a 2006 SV650) I do know, however, that I probably wont have to adjust them till 30k miles. But - I also know it will be a pain in the ass. For a while I was riding it almost every day to work, and on the weekends for fun.

Anyway, back to the bicycle...On previous rides the squishiness of the Reba front shock was very apparent. It was obviously under pressurized.  So, before going for a ride on Sunday I picked up a shock pump from Orange Cycle Orlando. It is a 'Buzzys Pollinator' Pump. Yes. That is what its called:  Buzzy's Pollinator.

To be honest, I dont care what it is called, as long as it works.  And this works, and was around 30 bucks.  According to recommendations the pressure I should run is 130 positive and negative.  So, I got to pumping the shock up.  It was very easy.  On the Reba, the positive chamber is located on top, and the negative is on bottom.  As shown in the pics below:

These photos are kinda dark, but you get the picture.  The air chambers are on the left side of the fork.  When I screwed the pump in, it was reading a very low 80lbs pressure.  No wonder I bottomed out a few times.

Sunday, I went for a 2.5 hour ride and covered about 20 miles out on the Snowhill trails.  I averaged almost 9 miles an hour - which includes about a 5 minute rest stop.  Thats not bad for Snowhill and its switchback laden trails.  Thats about a mile an hour faster than any previous ride out there, and I didnt fall off the bike. The shock made a difference, for sure, but it may have also had to do with the fact that it rained alot last week and the sand was packed down.  The shock was not squishy at all, it soaked up bumps but didnt bottom out and jolt me.  Much more plush than the 'wet-noodle' feeling that I had before, and I didnt have to struggle through gobs of powdery sand. I really pushed myself through alot of this ride.. I had a group of guys that looked like they were pretty experienced mtb riders on my tail for a bit of the ride - and I managed to keep them out of sight and behind me until I took a different trail than they did.  I could hear them yelling at the blind corners.  Thats a pretty good idea out there - considering I almost had a head-on collision with somebody when I was coming around a blind corner.  Off work again today, and may get out for a ride...

No Pain, Some Pain.

Since I wasnt able to go ride yesterday, I wanted to get out for a nice long ride today.  It got cut short a little, but otherwise it was a great ride.  The Fantom really is a blast to ride.  First things first:

Ergon GX1. Not hype.

These grips work.  I rode longer today than I have any day previously, yet experienced dramatically less hand fatigue and zero hand pain.  I really like the way they feel.  The flat spot is perfect for resting your palms, but its not so big that you cant really grab on when going through technical sections.  My left hand got a little numb for less than a minute, and I just changed hand positions, and it went away.  There may be a little too much pressure on my hands, so I may try to adjust with a slightly shorter stem.  I definitely could have gone out for another lap, however.  The lizardskin chainstay protector stayed on all day, but it moved around a little.  Im going to use some zipties to get it tight.

Today's ride was out at the Little Big Econ trail - otherwise known as Snowhill.  Its a nice ride, but there are sections that are super sandy.  Today, I did not get lost right off the bat.  I made it back to the river section without getting turned around at all.  The river section is really nice, and has alot of ups and downs, and great scenery.

Part of the lower section of the trail along the river.  Elevation changes alot here, and in some sections the river is a good 50 feet below you.  Doesnt that water look delicious? Drink up!

Past the river section there are lots of uphill rooty sections like this. There are no real challenging climbs - this is florida, remember. There was a section that appears to be used more for coming down - not up.  I made it up with some difficulty as the rear wheel spun a few times in the sandy soil.  Way out in the back part of the trail, there is some nice open singletrack in a field of grass and palmetto. It was very nice to get up some speed. 

I had to talk to someone out there to get them to tell me which way to go to make it to the back-side of the trail - and then to the parking lot. I was planning on doing another loop, but on the way back in I turfed it pretty hard.  Some really simple singletrack had a branch that lept out and grabbed my handlebar sending me slamming into the dirt.  I didn't think it was that bad, but it was really sore when I made it to the parking lot.  Of COURSE - the parking lot was only another 100 yards or so away.  My knee got a little bloody as well, but nothing serious. I'd take a picture of my injuries, but I dont think anyone wants to see my white butt with a big bruise on it.


Other than falling over, I had a great ride.  I feel that I was really huffing it through most of the less-technical singletrack areas. I dont have a computer or HRM anymore since my edge broke.  However, I am a pretty good judge of effort.  I can say that it was a good workout.  According to the iphone GPS it says I went 10 miles, but I rember the GPS was about 2.5 miles short of my buddy's cyclecomputer last weekend.  Another lap would have been great, but theres always next time.

Dirt ride report - Snowhill

Saturday morning I went out to the Little Big Econ state park over off Snow hill road to meet a co-worker for a little trail riding. Of course, I forgot my gloves. This would turn out to make the last bit of the ride quite unpleasant. I hadn't been out here in a while, but this will be my regular weekend dirt ride, Im sure. Out of the parking lot of Snow hill there is about a mile of fairly sandy and tight singletrack that leads to some nice ups and downs right next to the river. My bike is pictured below leaned over onto a tree with a 20 foot drop into the river just behind.






The riding is pretty nice right there next to the river. There are quite a few short climbs and logpile roll-overs. These big wheels do seem to roll over obstacles very well. The only problem was that the front tire seemed to wash out very easily on the loose stuff. This seems to be the consensus about the small-block 8 tires. A couple of times the bike would just not go where I pointed it in the middle of a quick switchback. The front shock really absorbed all of the roots and ruts easily, and surprisingly the rear didn't jostle me around too much over roots. I could actually remain seated over small stuff without feeling like I was being butt-punched. Im running at 40 psi in both front and rear.

There is a dry swamp area out there that is somewhat rooty, but quite hard-packed with fast sweeping switchbacks. Now that part was super fun. My co-worker, Jim, let me lead for a while. I noticed after a couple of minutes of riding in the 'swamp' area that Jim was wayy behind me... actually out of sight. I stopped and he caught up a minute later.. I thought I was pretty hot stuff, but it turns out he had a little 'incident' running off trail. After riding for about an hour, my hands started to really throb with pain. The grips felt like bricks, and one grip I had to continually smack back into place. These wtbs have got to go. I'm sure one problem with the pain was that I had a bit of a death-grip on the handlebars. I'm not really used to riding in the rough stuff yet, so my fitness level is way above my off-road bike handling confidence right now. So, when really pushing it, I would grab the hell out of the handlebars.

Sunday's ride was much the same, but I had gloves and a lot more confidence - and was able to climb almost every obstacle without dabbing. I think I only had one forced dab in an hour. I was out by myself, and kinda got lost - fun anyway. Hands were sore after 45 minutes, and my lower back started to get a little sore after an hour or so. May need a shorter stem to lessen the stretch to the bars, but probably just need to work on doing a bunch of sit-ups for strengthening my gut-area.

So after my first ride(s) here is what I have to say:

Seat: WTB Rocket V was very comfortable.
Grips: These are crap - even riding with gloves the next day my hands hurt after only 45 minutes.
Tires: Roll really fast through the hard stuff - but feel slick through any sort of sandy or loose terrain.
Drivetrain: Very slick shifting. I was having a few issues with ghost-shifting in certain gears. I will need to figure that out.
Brakes: Grip better than any brake I have ever used. Rear brake is dragging a little. From doing some research, it may be overfilled with fluid.

I have to say that I am really pleased with my purchase. The botched frame sticker bums me out, but the way this thing rides more than makes up for it. The sticker could say 'ButtPuncher' for all I care, the thing rides great.