My Super Sweet 3sixteen

Ahhh, another year.
While I didn't get a pony, or a shiny new all black FJ Cruiser, I did get a couple of great rides in over the weekend.

On Friday, I was able to escape from the shop to get my birthday ride in at Stowe (thank you Mandy). We parked in the Lower Village, and rode out to Sterling Valley via Tony's and Tamarack. Rain the previous night, and high humidity levels ensured the rocks were dangerously slick. It was kinds nice playing in the middle of the day, without having to rush off to pick up children, or race daylight.
We saw plenty of deer.

We rolled on up to Godstreet and Seamus, only to be torn to bits by wild bramble patches on the latter trail. The saying goes, it isn't a real ride unless someone bleeds. We finished our very real ride without further incident.

Sunday was an interesting day. Violent thunderstorms had swept the area on Saturday afternoon, and caused a lot of damage. We went up to East Burke to ride the Kingdom Trails. The weather was supposed to have moved out and replaced with cooler drier air. Well, it was drizzling. So much for that.


We stuck it out and rode anyway. It was kinda fun, a throwback to the days when we used to ride in the rain all the time, before we knew about trail erosion etc. Conditions were actually quite good. I had practically zero brakes, which made for some interesting moments on the trail. I had shortened the lines on the RIP, but had no time to bleed the brakes.
Sidewinder was pretty fun. Having no brakes actually helped.


We got off the trails muddy and wet and tired. It was a lot of fun.

My Last Race

You know that Fall is coming when the Catamount season is drawing to a close. Last night was my last race of the season, as next week, I am supporting the actual last race of the season.
It was Nat's last race too, as he is scheduled to have kid #2 next week.

I brought out Red 5.1 for it's second ride, and first race. I pretty much guaranteed it would rain by mounting my WTB Weirwolf LTs, and switching over to my "crusher gear" 34-19. It's actually not that bad until you encounter steep hills of any length. I found that even standing and mashing as hard as I could, forward momentum was hard to keep. I don't know how I made it.

I'm glad I only did 2 laps, I developed a searing stitch on my right side in the middle of my first lap that didn't go away until the last downhill of the second lap. Ouch.
It started to sprinkle at the beginning of the second lap, but it held to that. I thought to myself "I just knew it......!"
I pretty much spent the race alone. I knew I had to be somewhere near the front, but couldn't catch the leaders. I ended up finishing my 2 in 29 minutes, coming 3rd in my age, 7th overall.
Not too bad.

Pond Jump

This Sunday was the annual Stowe Mountain Bike Club Pond Jump Party. Held out in Sterling Valley in Stowe, the event is held to show appreciation to all those that help and maintain our local trails each year.

There are a lot of classic Stowe trails in the general area of Sterling Valley, Loren's Loop, Maple Run, Godstreet, Seamus, Tamarack, Tony's, you name it. most of the quintessential XC riding is found out here. It has been years since I have made my way up there to play.
Before we moved away to the west coast, we were making the big drive from Burlington at least once a week. Some really good memories. It was out there that I met and rode with one of the world's most influential snowboarders, Craig Kelly. Craig died in an avalanche 2003 in British Columbia, doing what he loved most.


The party was a ton of fun. There were a couple of brave souls who launched the big ramp into the pond. There was a massive Weber charcoal grill, and tons of burgers and dogs, a keg, dogs, bikes, kids, as well as club members. I saw a few folks that I haven't seen in a long time. I am more determined than ever to get out the the Valley and ride again.


We took the opportunity to ride back to town from the pond, hitting a couple of trail along the way. It was mostly downhill, so we were able to rip down with a great deal of speed. The light was perfect. Every growing thing is lush right now. The cooler weather we are having right now is the trigger for every tree and plant to grow as much as they can before it gets really cold for a long period of time. Some of the weaker maples have called it quits already. Fall is coming.
The sense of urgency to get as much riding in as possible is reaching a fever pitch.

I got a good ride in on the Fluid 110. I am really pleased with the overall feel and performance of the fork. I still have some fine fiddling around to do with the air pressure settings, but I am pretty close to having it dialed in. White states that it may take up to 10 or more hours for the fork to break in, but I detect no stiction on the legs whatsoever. I can't wait to get more time on it.

Thursday Night Rides

We had some crazy weather in Northern VT yesterday afternoon. Tornado warnings, black skies, howling winds, hail etc etc. Perfect weather for our planned Thursday night trail head camp out. It rained super hard for about 15 minutes, at which point, most folks opted to bail.

We persevered. The heaviest weather was far off to the north, and we just had a small but intense cell roll through, dumping over an inch of rain very quickly. But just as soon as it came, it passed, and the sun was out.

We went for a short ride in the lower or "yellow" loops, which drain very well due to the sandy soil.
We had two small groups, the guys, led by yours truly, and the gals led by Mandy. The roots were very slick, which ups the ante when riding some of the more technical sections. Frequent wheel slippage makes things interesting. I thought to myself just how lucky we have been with a dry spring and summer this year. We (or at least I) haven't had to ride in poor conditions this year. No one died, everyone was muddy and only one member of each group crashed.

Once we all regrouped at the bottom, we fired up the grill, and had some dogs and recovery drinks. A good time was had by all.

This little nugget of info came into my inbox this morning. I will say I am not surprised.

Red 5.1

Since the retirement of the original Red 5, I have lamented it's absence. It was such a fun and responsive bike. It was my very first Niner, which replaced the Karate Monkey as the resident singlespeed. I owned it for several months, but ultimately retired it because it was a first generation One 9, and it lacked the appropriate tire clearance.

For a while, Kermit was a good stand in, but has since taken on other roles in the stable.
I was without a singlespeed in the line up for about 3 months when the golden opportunity to replace Red 5 came about.


And when Red 5.1 came, it brought it's pimp stick.

As with any "x".1, upgrades from the original were made. This time, instead of Delgados, we have the Stan's Arch rims, run with Bontrager ACX Tubeless tires, the White Bros Magic 100, Avid Juicy Carbon brakes, an Easton EC90 seatpost, and Easton EC70 Monkeylite bars. All told, with pedals and signature carbon bottle cage (that's right Jay, carbon...), Red 5.1 weighs 22.94 lbs, a full pound and a half lighter than it's predecessor.


You'll note, the Rogue bottle cap on my YAWYD. Red 5 is Luke Skywalker's call sign in his X-Wing, and he flies in Rogue Squadron. I am such a NERD!

No go out and Pedal Dammit!

The Longest Ride

Saturday August 11th marks the day I rode 115 miles on my bike. It's the longest bike ride I have ever been on distance wise. The weather was picture perfect, blue skies, sunny, not too hot.


We started out at Catamount Family Center in Williston. There were about 50 or so riders leaving for the big ride, and we were to meet up with more along the way. at 50 and 25 miles from the finish at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor.

We had a visit and pep speech form our very own Governor Douglas, and we were off at 8 am.
I've never been a such a large pack of riders before, but somehow I managed to get my way to the back of the first pack and hang on during the very familiar stretch of road that is Route 2 between Williston and Waterbury. Things were rolling smoothly, when my compadre Bruno suffered a flat tire just outside of Waterbury.
What a place to get a flat, not 2 miles from home.
We lost our position behind the lead pack of crushers, which included very fit individuals, and collegiate cyclists, but I guess it was for the better. I certainly couldn't have made it at that pace.


After the first water stop, the ride turned down Route 12, where I have never ridden my bike. It is a beautiful stretch of road that winds along a river valley. There was a gentle climb for a few miles, and we were then rewarded with a screaming descent though a mountain valley next to a mountain stream. We were hauling! It exhilarating winding down the road at 40 mph in dappled sunlight.
We caught most of the lead group again at our second water stop.


The third water stop, around mile 75, was halfway up this hill that would never end, and had a beautiful lake which was tempting many riders to hop in. I would have been done in if I had taken a dip. The cramps were beginning to raise their ugly head, and I'm sure that my legs would have turned into pretzles in the cool water.

Once we crested the hill, the reward was another long downhill, where I got my "roadie" name, the G-Train. Hop aboard, we're going fast.
(Hey, it's better than fat ass)
It's about the only time I can pull people with me, I lack the fitness to pull on climbs, but I can do really well on downhills and flats.


Bruno had another flat halfway down, which was actually pretty good, because I needed to stretch my legs out a bit. Right about mile 85 is when my legs cried anarchy. The ride then became about cramp management, and I had to back way down on my speed.


At mile 95, there was another waterstop where I pounded salty peanuts and grabbed a couple bags of Cliff Shot Blocks. The flavor choice was "Margarita - with Sodium".
Those things are pretty amazing. Very easy to eat and they don't sit in your stomach like a lump. And energy delivery at this point in the ride was almost instantaneous. We call the term "Blocking Up" now, and we have decided that a serving size is one packet, not the two per packet as stated on the label. The engine was burning everything that went into the tank at this point. Bruno pointed out that right after I Blocked Up, I had a tendency to fire the booster rockets. Kinda makes you wonder how the hard stuff like EPO works...

woo hoo!

I passed the 100 mile mark with Mt Ascutney in full view. This is where the VT 50 will take place in September.
There was one more long uphill followed by the smoothest and swoopyest downhill before we finally finished at the Brewery. I was ready to be done, but once I Blocked Up, and the road went down, it was time to hop on the G Train more time. I finished the last section in a ludicrously short amount of time. This is where I got my top speed of 45 mph plus some.


I was expecting to feel a lot worse than I did. Don't get me wrong, I was beat, but I thought I'd be a lot closer to death than I was. The post ride beers helped I'm sure.

I was also very surprised to find that the ride itself took Bruno and I only 6 hours and 10 minutes. I had a total elapsed time of 7:15 on my Garmin, but that included all the rest stops. Bruno had paused his computer during the breaks, but not during the flat changing. I was pretty impressed at our time.
All in all, the event was very organised and supported. The route took us through some quintessential Vermont towns. And the weather was amazing. You couldn't ask for a better day.
And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The Primero was a star. It did everything I asked, felt super comfortable and stable at any speed. I got to know it very well. In fact, as I write this, I'm contemplating hopping on it for a quick recovery ride.....but have made the choice to stay put on the couch, drink some beer, and watch some baseball.

Tomorrow, it's the return of an old friend.

Give me a Brake

Since the installation of the Fluid 135 on my RIP9, my riding style has changed. I've become a little more daring, riding faster, taking slightly more difficult lines. Which is great, except for when you need to make tight turns or need to suddenly scrub speed.

The Avid Juicy Carbons, which function perfectly on my other bikes, seemed to be letting me down on the RIP. And it all seemed to coincide with the new fork.

So, I took the opportunity to try out Avid's new Code brakeset, a burly looking 4 piston brake aimed at the freeride and DH market. I was pleasantly surprised that the front brake weighed only 42g more than the Carbon. They look heavy, but are under 400g a wheel (rotors and hardware not included). The levers pivot on big cartridge bearings, and have very smooth actuation. I did not swap my older Roundagon rotors for the new G2 Clean Sweeps, but after last night's ride, I think I might.

I was expecting the brakes to need a break-in ride, and I am willing to concede that last night's ride might not have been enough to get them good and grabby. I'm interested to see if changing the rotors have any affect on the stopping power. The housing also needs to be shortened.

The RIP is now weighing in at 29.75lbs, and I'm very pleased with the new performance these upgrades have afforded me.

I have my big road ride tomorrow, so I'll be laying low for the weekend, but I do have some other exciting news, the return of Red 5!

Stay tuned.

Fluid Dynamics

Sunday marked the last big ride before setting out for my 110 mile charity ride this Saturday. I needed to see if the booty could handle a long day in the saddle. The ride took us around Mt Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak (4393 ft), a total distance of 65 miles, with 4300 ft of elevation gain, 2300 of it in the first 16 miles. The Primero handled it with aplomb.

Me? I'm still a little sore, but I attribute that with the ride, plus about 10 hours of installing wood floors in the house. Most of yesterday was spent on my hands and knees pounding nails into the floor.

Despite the rainy weather and hard manual labor, a bright ray of sunshine shone through the clouds in the form of this:


It's the new White Brothers Fluid 110. Oh yeah, that's right, 110mm of handmade in the USA suspension.

It's the same damper assembly that has gotten me all giggly as the Fluid 135 that's on my RIP, but in an All Mountain/XC friendly format with quick release lowers.
Out of the box, the fork weighs a respectable 3.97lbs, and has an axle to crown length of 510mm.

You can bet that a performance review will be coming shortly...

Sandbagging?

At last night's Catamount Race, I opted to downgrade my race from 3 to 2 laps. It had been 4 weeks since my last Wednesday night race, and I have not been feeling too fit lately.

And boy was I ever surprised to get 2nd in my age category, and 7th overall! By far, this is the greatest performance I have ever had there. But when you break down the numbers, if I had gone 3 laps, I would have been at the back of the pack. My lap times were around 16:30, a 16 minute lap. 3 would have put me at 48 minutes if I were to maintain my pace.

So was I sandbagging? Or did I make a lateral performance move that just so happens to benefit my placement?

Another thing that was weird, is that I was racing a geared bike. Kermit is sporting 9 forward gears these days. I forgot that I was supposed to pedal on the downhills! Whoops.

So the fundraising total is now $205.

If you want to donate, but haven't yet, click this link to donate directly in my name, or you can contact me via email or phone. The Point to Point is on the 11th! Be generous!