Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Big Trip

My fall big bike trip happened this previous weekend to the Rothrock State Forest in PA.

WOW. That is some CRAZY riding to a guy who mostly flatland/stream valley rides in N.Va and Southern/Central MD. I CLREALY need to go ride a lot more up in Gambril/The Shed area. My rock riding probably did improve a LOT during the ride Saturday but damn I was slow. By mile 15 or so I was already feeling light twinges of pre cramps. By early 20's I knew i was in trouble and opted to road ride back to the final fire road climb. Though there was 1 big pipeline climb I had to do that almost broke me. I barely stand my legs were cramping so badly, I had to get back on and spin for a while to loosen up enough to walk it the rest of the way to the top. The climb back up the final fireroad to camp was hell and it was dark by the time we got back. Fully Dark.

Not to say that the ride sucked, in fact, it was frickin awesome and I'm already excited for a spring version of that trip and hopefully doing both days next time. The guys were awesome to ride with, definetly inspiring to ride with guys who are better, it makes me want to be better and stronger. I think my line choice did improve also even during the ride.

The camp itself was great and all the guys were cool to hangout with, drink beer, and cook insane huge meals. I'm gonna try and link up some photo's later today or this week.

Back to work now.

But here's the summary -
7H 18M Total Time with an in Motion Time of 5H 8M with a moving pace of 6.5 mph. Not bad when I consider how uber hard the terrain is. 33.7 Miles.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7011644

Friday, October 10, 2008

Flying like Super Something

Tuesday I took the rig up to CJ after work again and got 14 miles total between there and back. Nice ride and the shake down went very well.

Yesterday I arrived at Wake nice and early after picking up an order at REI and RickyD hauled me out to the top of the berms for an impromptu jumping/filming session. Unfortunetely his camera mount wouldn't hold the camera up so he probably didn't get a lot of good video.

The annoying thing there that i noticed was I was burping my rear tire on the landings. I guess I was maybe dropping 3 feet or something max. Didn't seem very far, but I know I wish I had a smoother touch on landings. Just haven't done enough of them yet. Had to re inflate after the 2 sets of 2 jumps I did, both times the tire was down to like 20 PSI.

The tire rub issue continues to worry me enough that I'm probably gonna by 2 new tires to replace my current one with on Payday. Probably try a Specialized Captain Control in 2.1 or 2.2 if I can find it or a Crossmark UST again in the 2.1.....grrrr. Unless I can find a Mutano Raptor UST in 2.1/2.2

Got another 14 miles in. Gotta see if the wife is gonna let me try the MoCo epic on Sunday. I really want to as a test for some big riding the weekend after. I figure if I can hang pretty well on 40-50 miles of moco I can do 30-35 miles of Penn or WV.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Bloody Knuckles

Thats about how I felt yesterday after fighting with trying to change the pads on the rear J7's. I was about to pulp the damn thing then bash my hands against the wall. I ended up shoving the old pads back in for a quick ride down into Bethesda for a late brunch with the WYF.

Today I re-attempted the task and after about 30 minutes of fumbling, spreading, playing the the contact adjuster knob I got the bloody things to pop right on it!!! I think part of it was the angle I was trying to use. So after, that I felt brave and boled and decided to replace my Rear D, hanger and the cable. Yep at the same time. Even as a computer guy I should remember the first maxim.

Only replace 1 major componet-eth at one time moron!

Well the rear d I did some minor adjustments on the high and low with the cable and chain off to match the originals settings. The other adjustment wasn't far off. The cable was the biggest pain as I did a shitty job cutting it. So it frayed a bit as I tried to thread it. After some lubing, pulling the housings apart to feed it through very carefully. A quick set of the cable in the rear d and a test. Hmmmm adjustmet is a bit off can't hit 2 gears, re-pull the cable. A few more adjustments of the Hi/Lo and viola. I recleaned the disc and set out for some quick runs to work in the brakes. The new pads, from Jagwire seem to be good, and maybe even offer a slightly softer touch. We'll see. I replaced my front skeewer with one we got free at the MORE winter party this year.

Cleaned the rear wheel/cogset fully and fully degrimed, degreased, and cleaned the the chain. Then I gave it a good spray of tri-flow to get out the water and solvents. Then I applied my usual coat of my regular lube, and then shook it down and wiped off all the excess. Butter!

The damn thing shifts great so far, expect to need a tune up in a week or two.

In crappy news I realized that yes my fat 2.25 in back is rubbing a bit so for now I taped it up with a few layers of electrical tape to judge the wear over the next few rides. Probably gotta find a narrow 2.25 or a wide 2.10 to replace the crossmark with. Not sure if I want to try the 2.1 CM.

Ahhh beer and chili for dinner. Now thats the way to wrap up a day off.

Also did a bit of window shopping for a new bib set.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Cold and Crisp

WOW! By the end of last nights ride it was cold and crisp, I think it was down into the mid 50's. Oops motionbased says it was actually 50'ish! Wow! Though not crisp either with a 90% humidity! Weird. All i know is i was wishing for slightly warmer socks and a bit warmer jersey.

Knocked out a bit over 22 miles with my preride and the main ride split at about 12 and 10 respectively. Found a bunch of new to me trails over in Accotink, I need to go ride that a LOT more. Next week I hope to spend a full hour and half or so over there not just 45-50 minutes. Lots of good steep/rooty climbs to murder myself on.

Would love to ride again today but I doubt I can do more than hit cabin john, gotta talk to the wyf and find out her plans for the night.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Bounce to the Moon!

Well the exciting bit of news from yesterday is the Wyf has upgraded jobs and accepted a new Civil Servant position at



She had been a Post Doc at NASA Ames and Goddard, on grant from NSF/NASA. This week she had just started the switch to being a contractor when, then yesterday afternoon she got the call offering her the job she had applied for last month. Big upgrade for her in that it provides nice bennies, her pay finally exceeds mine, and no more TAX hell next year. This year will still suck but oh well.

Hopefully leading tonights casual wakefield night ride assuming the trails are dry enough.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Bounce Bounce

Wow, I'm excited with a small tidbit of news. Hopefully I will be able to elaborate more tonight or tomorrow.