It was a good ride.

So finally on Sunday I was able to pull the bike out and try and figure out what the hell was going on with my "ghost shifting" issue. Had to wash a good bit of mud off the bike. Wiped it down and inspecting the rear d I found the issue, the shift cable was about 3/4 frayed/snapped. Oy!

Over to TBL Springfield I went and the guys got me fixed up real quick. Though the shop guy did note my chain is getting close to warn out and that my rear gear set is pretty chewed up. Not unexpected. Fortunately I have a new rear gear set that I won at the MORE Winter party for 20-20-25 trail work. And it's a WAY nicer one that came with the bike. Tempted to also go ahead and replace the triple at that time, but I really would like to go to a 2x instead of the 3x but that requires a new front derailleur and shifter also in addition to the crankset and it's just not in the budget I guess.

So after getting the bike back to rideable I headed out for a quick tour of good ole Laurel Hill. Nice fun to zip around the place. Didn't feel great at first, couldn't generate power and was tired at the end. Argh, gotta ride more. The washouts were HUGE. The one at the big bridge on Giles was shocking as was the one in the field. The crossing at the bridge one sucked. The weather/temps were amazing. It was SOOOO nice. Though with some of the brambles I would have like to have had my enduro's on.

Hoping to hit Schaeffer tomorrow night but the weather is not looking super happy. With rain possibly tonight and then Thursday is looking like another non riding night. ugh. STOP IT MA NATURE!

GRilled up some steak and sausage when I got home and enjoyed a SixPoint Sweet Action, a tasty brew in can. Check em out.

Face of the World. It's where I fall off!

I fell of the face of the world I think with how crazy July has been at work. My work schedule has been bouncing around every other week and my schedule changes during the week with mid-day shift on Mon-Wed, mornings on Thursday, afternoons on Friday, and morning on Saturday. Last week was 57 hours, this week will be near the same. Ugh.

I have been riding a bit but really only once a week between other stuff going on also, exlcuding last Sunday when I led a ride up at Gambrill then snuck in a solo ride at the new pump track in Germantown. Fun! Ran into DKEG afterwards at G-town Cycles.

Bike needed some emergency work also this week. Realized when I had changed out the bottom bracket a few weeks ago I forgot a spacer on the drive side, no wonder I was having "Shifting Issues" D'OH! So cleaned it up and put it back in correctly, and shifting on the stand seems much better.

Also replaced the pads in my rear elixir's! DAMN EASY! Not sure how long I'll stay on the metal pads probably until next payday when I'll order a couple more sets of organic compound ones. Unless they are horribly noisy then who knows.

Final week and change of this left at work before my boss is back, but then other stuff will change too.

Big stuff coming up bike wise, we have the MORE summer picnic on July 30 at Rosaryville State Park, and then in mid August we have the first Rockburn Branch Skills park fundraiser!

Also registered for RCST Bash in September.

At whole foods last night enjoyed a very nice aged Old Curmudgeon from 09 on draft. Yum.

Press-fit is Silly.

Yep, thanks Trek and Gary Fisher and Shit-mano for introducing another semi-useless, more annoying technology to "improve" our bikes.

You call it BB90 with Press-fit bearings! I get how wider is better for bottom brackets. 2 Semesters of college physics plus tons of auto work as a kid helping my old man repack bearings during the summers when bored at his work. So I do get why this is a somewhat improvement. What I don't get is what MORON said hey lets put in non serviceable, not easily replace bearings that must be pressed in!

On my old bike with external bb I could pull the cranks and full clean each cup/cap set in about 30 minutes and re-install. If I had the interest with the right tools I could even open the bearings and re-grease them. (Or if pimped out with CK BB I could use the Fittings and do it very quickly).

I did my best to "service" the bb short of breaking out a chisel and investigating how REALLY dumb this design is. I wiped all the accumulated crap off the shell, the bearing faces the interior area's. I re-greased the back of the bearings that had some REALLY crappy grease. I couldn't find my high grade synthetic so I used good ole polypro from Park Tools. Re-ass-embled, and went out for a 40 minute test ride. No signs of creaking from the BB Area. Lots of bugs in my eyes though, gotta remember to wear glasses if going out anywhere near water near dark these days. UGH.

Hmmm might have to spend some money with Park Tools again in the near future

http://www.parktool.com/product/p/pressfit-bottom-bracket-bearing-tool-set-bbt-90-3

http://www.parktool.com/product/bearing-cup-press-hhp-2

Don't believe the Hype!

Clip and Ride and Walk

Did my good deed part 2 for April. After riding a fun lap at Laurel Hill yesterday I retrieved the trusty hand clippers and went out and clipped back the Giles Run trail from say Too Cool Hipster Length to more like slightly Shaggy Pretty Boy Length. Took a couple of hours, but when I re-rode it after wards it made a huge difference in not having to twist myself like a pretzel to avoid thorns, leaves, etc. Though I did see 2 spots that needed improved trimming. However I was done. 15.24 miles of Riding and probably 3 miles of walking with back and forth trimming on the trail.

Thursday was a good ride in Accotink land with a good pre-ride and a solid regular ride. 15.63 miles. So probably about 34/35 miles last week plus the clipping. I'm down with that.

Gonna have to sneak and peak rides in this week as we have lots of storms/rain. Thursday isn't looking good at all.

And taking the un-frickin believable award for the month? Dicky ate found shot blocks while riding down at Amelia Island. Scroll down about 2/3'rds of the way.
Dicky loves found food!

Beer fermentation has slowed to a couple of bubbles a minute from its rapid ferment Thursday. But it's still going.

Tonight I disassemble the cranks and see just how annoying these new press-fit bottom brackets are going to be. The guys at the bike lane (At least burke) haven't had to service one yet. Hopefully mine won't be first. But I'm not counting on it. Grrr. Best case scenario is that I can clean the grime/stuff out, re-grease the crankshaft and it will be G2G.

What a week

The last week's weather has been just on the high side of un-seasonably warm. And very very nice, caping out yesterday with near 70 at Laurel Hill.

I did 24 and change on the GPS. My calculations show there that it's only about 10% lossy on those trails, so about 26 miles. 2 Very nice 11 mile laps. Though on the last lap near the end I did a section of dairy farm trail loop I hadn't done in a while and got whacked by a damn thorn bush. 4 or 5 nice scratches. It's on my list for death now. Then in a fit of brilliance I decided to check out the overlook trail. Worse, tons of thorns and brambles and almost go through one face first. The pipeline work kept me from riding fully out to the overlook so I dismounted and walked over. Neat view, got a few camera phone pictures, we'll see how they turned out tonight.

On the way back I dropped the bike off for a service/checkup and Jay at TBL burke was all over me for not having both the front and rear skewers not tightened enough. Oops and that the rear wheel cups were loose, and I hadn't brought it in. Only needs a rebuild due to contamination. Also finally picked up a new 2.25 Ardent to swap on to replace the bulging AC-X junker in the rear. Should be done today but I dunno if I'm going to head out. Tuesday we are supposedly getting rain also. UGh. Depends on when I get done with work. Shit though I didn't charge the batteries so I don't think I'll be night riding tonight. ahhh well. While looking at stuff yesterday I also realized I'm right around 350 or so miles on the new bike in 2 months. Thats about half a years worth of riding or so normally.

Back In.

well The gear I tried to order 2 weeks ago turns out that I was too late and they didn't have as much in stock as they thought. I optioned to cancel the order for now. No biggie, as I still have no bike to put it on.

So after an insanely wet Thursday CCT ride 2 weeks ago I rebuilt the Giant the next weekend. While trying to install the new RearD, I realized that something was very wrong. The 2010 X9 is a POS! The cage is WAY to flexy/bendy I was suffering from chain jump in any outbound/inbound gearings (chain was coming off the bottom pulley) And I could never get the damn thing adjusted near a 6mm gap using the b-nuckle. I've installed 4 or 5 rearD over the last year or two for myself and friends and NEVER had problems like this. Hell my old x9's I"d just hold together and adjust to similar look and 10 minutes of fine tuning on the bike be done.

However I do think I have my best adjustment on shifting in a LONG time on the bike currently. Shifted great last night under load or normally.

Did 20 miles last night 9 by myself before of WF and Accotink then rode with Jackson's casual group for another 10. then did a final mile in the dark myself to break 20.

Wanted to ride into work today but I was way tired and didn't get up in time...Weak. Maybe friday. Tomorrow I have AC guy in the morning. ugh. but fixed AC is good.

The koolaid...

So while picking up some RnR Extreme for the bikes today at CB, I decided to give a try of a Surly Steamroller.

Nice. I can see the appeal of the SS a bit more now. The bars felt EMPTY! Of course it was setup actually fixie, with only the front brake. Definetely a bit of a learning curve with having to keep spinning at all times and muscling down speed versus coasting/braking etc. The ability to directly crank to speed is FUN though. I didn't take it far enough to try muscling up a real hill or anything so it was no real test, but at least flat landing it, it was fun! I can see myself picking up a nice basic SS/Fixie for around the area riding for sure.

Looked at a bunch of different ones but nothing jumps out. Yet.

Took the bike on a short intownie yesterday with the wife and let me say the new drivetrain was super smooth and quiet!!! We did 10 miles in about an hour though a lot of that was more casual speed once we got to bethesda due to monster crowds on the CapCrescent Trail. Next weekend we're planning on a longer ride down thru Rock Creek Park.

Go away RAIN!

The Big Moves.

Well, Saturday is the Big Moving Day in that we're schlepping our gear from the Bethesda location to the new Silver Spring location (EW Hwy near Beach).

If anyone out there in WebLand wants to come and help move I'll be supplying post move beer and grilled food. And it will be damn good beer for sure! :) I'm hoping to move my beer over tonight or tomorrow morning to the new house. Dale's, Founders Porter, some big IPA bombers, and a few Belgian Bombers also. If you want to help out for a bit drop me a post here.


The 2nd big move is that I FINALLY order the new drive train for the bike and it arrived last night. I almost had to bring the new cranks up to sleep with they are soooo sweet. And light I think. I'm going to do a comparison when I dis-assemble them either tonight or on Sunday. Depends on the state of the move.

Wet with a side of Wet.

Yesterday at wakefield ended up being a set of mixed results. We started out with better weather than expected in a beautiful mostly clear afternoon, though running about 8 degrees too warm. I got in a nice 8 miles of pre-riding Wakefield. Good Stuff. I ended up last night with a single rider in my Casual group, and we were SUPER casual over at accotink, the guy was making stuff I wasn't but every major hill set was killing him cardio wise. We trekked around Accotink for about an hour then we both noticed the sky was pretty dark. Low and behold about 3 minutes later the rain started. And it kept raining. Harder and harder. We got to the paved trail and decided to head back. Once we were on the lake trail it started raining even harder. Great. Back to the lot and soaking wet at about 8:10.

We then had a late birthday party for Ernesto with Cupcakes, Beer, Tequilla and misc snacks. It was good. And everyone liked my beer selection for the evening, Founders Porter. Damn good, nice and malty. At 9 we adjourned for normal post ride activities at Killroy's and had almost all the riders there, I'd say 15 people.

Ordering new drive train today hopefully, should get it Monday. I hope.

Ouch. The hammer of enlightenment.

Well today knowledge hit me in the head while I was working on my bike. Doing a pedal swap finally replacing my VERY warn out Time XE/Alium that the SingleSpeed Outlaw gave me last fall after one of my pedals blew up. Well the Alium's seals bit the dust recently and had developed about 3/4 an inch of play along the spindle. Well while loosening the damn thing I managed to get struck by knowledge I'd previously heard.

And well I hit myself in the head with the damn pedal wrench when it slipped off. Nice mark on the tip of my head. That will look real nice while we have the a bunch of C-level salad in the office (CTO, CSO, etc).

I applied rubber mallet to the wrench. hahaha. Went with the TIME Roc standard's I got Saturday from REI with the last of my dividend. I also changed out my cleats on my shoes. DAMN they are TIGHT now, I foresee a fall or two in the future before I remember that they are probably 75 to 100% tighter.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do about fixing the drive train.

Sigh..............

Had a nice ride out at WF last night, I led a small WF only group of 3 other guys around and we racked up near 11 miles. One of my other leaders led a LARGE casual group out to Accotink with 10 riders total. The chillness of my ride was pretty damn nice.

Upon arriving home and starting to clean my bike I noticed that I had a broken spoke on the rear wheel. I remember hearing something while in the bowl last night, but it wasn't like I was even riding crazy there when it happened.

So I've gotta run outa work today for lunch and drop it somewhere for at least 1 spoke replacement, maybe 2 or 3 as there are a few slightly chewed up spokes on the drive side. Hopefully either Spokes or TBL can get it done by end of work tomorrow for me. I REALLY don't have time to do it myself and re-true the wheel.

Curse of Dark Hollow on Sunday. Just have to decide if I'm only going for the race or if I'm going to do some camping and ride a few other places.

Maintenance Success

Well I got some of the maintenance I wanted to done on the bike this week. However it has made several things very clear. The bottom bracket is DIEING. Over the last 2 months its gone from say maybe 1/16 inch in play to nearly 1/4. I may have to break down and do an emergency upgrade over the next month, though I'd prefer to avoid that with the upcoming moving/housing expenses. ugh.

I did tear down and re-grease my headset and it seems smoother and better adjusted...I think. Also did swapped out the jockey pulleys on the rear d with newly greased slightly less used ones.

And I finally found a successful method to changing out the pads on my J7's. Unfortunetely while removing the rear brake at WF last week apparently I forgot to put 1 set of the shims/washers/cupcone doo-dads into the plastic baggy and need to pickup a set tonight if possible so I can have rear brake again. It was a bit hairy for sure last week riding without them in the slightly damp conditions. Really made me get back off the saddle for sure!

Looking forward to riding a good bit tonight. Also picked up the Sierra Nevada Kellerweisse - an open fermented wheat beer that was REALLY damn good with my chili-potato last night.

Lots of Folks

Also ran into the LogPosse out at WF last night. It's been damn good to see a bunch of people I usually don't see in the last week including Arne, Nicky, (uh steve was it?), Yueqing, Chris, Denis, and Jason last Thursday.

I also realized the bike maintenance list is growing to super stupid lengths.
Chain for Wife's Bike to be installed.
New Crankset/bb, Chain, and Cogset, and pulley wheels on my bike
Relube the headset
New Pedals.
Re-true the primary wheelset and finish the old/spare wheel.
New brake pads on rear.
Change wife's stem (Shorter and with a slightly higher rise.
New Grips
New Seatbag for my bike so I don't ALWAYS have to carry the Camelback. I hate stuff tons of shit in my jersey.

PR +2

Today was a pretty good day, even after dealing with brake issues this morning. I hit FH at around 4:30 and by 4:45 was ready to go. I was stoked and took off. The lap felt a bit rough, as it's been since like maybe the FALL since I rode there, I couldn't remember all the best lines for the runs, and climbs, though suprisingly off the bat I made 2 climbs that have kicked my ass usually. Yah! I was stoked. I still couldn't beat woodpecker. And I still won't ride down shock-a-billy. I need to watch some peeps do it who I trust. But other than that good first lap, and I turned in a new lower time for me. 1:14 Riding, about 1:20 total! Yah that was pretty sweet. And so I went nuts from there and did something I've never done.

2nd Lap. I blasted away at first maintaining a avg pace of 6.7-7 on and off. Well I should fueled up more at the car and I knew I wasn't drinking enough and low and behold by mile 5 the cramps were showing up. Damn it! I actually had to stop at shock-a-billy and eat and take some potassium supplements and drink a ton of water to finish out but I was already cooked and had to push a few hillier sections. I made the last half of the final climb out. Ugh, but still a pretty fast time for me. !:17 moving. Though time was was my more normal 1:35'ish.

Not blazingly fast but a HUGE step up for me. I made all the climbs but Woodpecker. And had a damn good time even when my legs were protesting. I had a huge smile all the way home.

Wish the GPS was working it would be nice to have a track of both laps. Alas it's dead Jim and needs a reman/replace. Should run $100 through garmin but it's just not on my list now. Especially considering when I got home, put the bike in the stand and looked at the rear d and noticed the high gear adjustment screw was gone! WTF??!?!? I know it wasn't that loose. And the black plastic clip that holds it in/bolts to it was gone! UGh. Stripped one off and old X9 and tried getting it in...no dice. Gonna calll TBL tomorrow and see what they think. Probably gonna have to replace it. FURK! Oh well. I gotta a PILE of shit that I need to do on the bike really. Brake Pads front and rear, bottom bracket - Temp fix till new BB/Cogset/Chain can be replaced. Now a new D. And add in a few other things like the garmin. My L&M light needs some love also, the battery is getting wimpy. Argh. Maybe I can ifnd a surplus NIMH battery only.

But it was a damn good day to ride!

Extra Special. Really.

So this morning, as I was preparing to leave for work and riding after work, I decided to take a quick spin on the re-tuned bike, I noticed a HORRIBLE clicking from the rear whenever breaking. Insta-Panic. Check the rear roter, triangle....No breakage. Retry brakes...hmmm only happens when my weight is on the bike and breaking. I knew the pads were a bit close to worn out.

Off comes the caliper. Jackpot. One side is nearly truly gone and the other is almost fully gone. The organic pads are real nice most of the time but they seem to wear a bit quicker. Quick Time Check 6:25...shit.

Old pads out...Yep bad....And 1 side of the retainer spring is bent. Set aside. Try putting in set of new standard avid pads. Ugh...no way. Adjust out pad contact point....try again. Nope. Old pads back in. Apply screwdriver to spread/push in the damn pistons back in. This never seems to work...argh. Try again. Argh. Alright pull out the old original pads, they have a bit of life left. Cleam em with some rubbing alcohol, use the old spring from the organics. Ahhh and back in.

Put the junk back together....Argh 1 missing adjustment washer. 5 minutes later found it and it's all back on. Time check 6:48. Damn late late late. Quick test after adjusting. Better, braking is a bit off but no real noise/click. Take 15 minutes at lunch today to re-break in the brakes.

New pads on Friday I think I'm going to stick with the Organics.

The drive train readjustment was pretty easy excluding the cabling on the front. I assume it's due to the mix of Shimano Derailuer, and SRAM shifter. The front D is soon for replacement, its definitely a bit worn out on inspection of springs/etc.

Trail Building School

Had a good trail building/maintenance class at Wakefield for MORE trail liaisons on Saturday. Lots of good info for sure. Got to do some fun field work, play with Cannycom mechinized wheelbarrow/dump system. I'm now certified to borrow it for use on my trail work days. We also got to play clinometer's to measure the grade of slopes and to try our hand at planning good trail. I learned the 3 big rules, the 15% rule (trail grade). the half rule (of which your trail grade should be half what your actual grade is). And the 10% rule for the averaging of your trail grade over all.

After wards we did a ride of Wakefield, but i had to bail after 40 mins due to a late start on the ride. But got in about 6.5 miles anyways. We were flying, I was wondering why I was dieing. We avg'd out like 9.7 mph. On main trails at wake I usually run fro 7-8 depending on if I'm leading the casual rider group.

Hoping to hit gambrills tomorrow. I redid both derailer's cables this weekend and it needs a bit of tweaking in the morning on the rear d. Gotta pack the stand and cable adjustment tools I guess.

Finally moved Snow Day IPA to secondary. Tastes pretty good so far. Hopefully bottle at the end of next week or so. Rock Bottom beer isn't bad, the stout is got a good bit of coffee'ness and the brown is pretty good. Didn't try anything else.

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.

Does this tire make me look fat?

Does this tire make me look fat?

Last night I finally picked up some more Stans so I could finally swap on the new tire for the rear of my bike. I've replaced my old MAxxis LUST Ignitor with a Maxxis LUST Crossmark. Following some people's suggestions I went from a 2.1 to the 2.25.

HOLY COW the damn this BARELY fits. As in I have to deflate it a bit to install the wheel! The CM is a massive tire. The old Ignitor went 1.5 lbs, the new Crossmark goes 1.9!!! Test riding in my basement it seemed not to rub but I'll have to get it actually out on trails. I think with this tire I'll be able to comfortable run at say 35 psi and get a nice cushy ride out of it. Damn it was a biatch to get on, feels like a much stronger wire bead in this one.

Now I just have to figure out my new front in the next month or so.

And I'm sick as heck since Sunday, I got a cough that started mid last week and by sunday I was misserable (Saturday wasn't bad). Monday I was off fortunetly and layed around all day. Had a backache from hell thats just now really getting fully better.
MY cough is a bit better today but now the damn thing moved up into my head. hu?? Thats frickin backwards! aARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

Also had to do a full lube/pm on the bike yesterday. I'd washed it on friday and didn't dry it or spray the moving components with the teflon/lube/dryer and it was BAD!

August, where are you going?

Where are you going this August?

Myself, I've already gone to Dewey Beach and had a semi-relaxing 4 days of Beach Time(tm). One of my favorite parts now is that my wife and i did a round of Out Run 2 and almost finished the whole first stage, which i've never gotten that close. It was a hard fought race with both of us making some good passes and driving. We also took one long ride out to Lewes and a bunch of short rides. Unfortunetly on the way back from Lewes, the wyf, in a fit of not paying attention attacked my rear d, and bent it pretty good, my 2 big cogs in the back are currently unreachable. Gotta do some creative bending tonight to see if I can get it better or if it's time to order a new rear d next week on payday.

Monday I'm going for a ride anyways but I guess I'll have to limit myself, and maybe go for a pile of mileage out at somewhere like Wakefield or maybe I can survive schaeffer.

Also on the repair/replace docket is my rear tire. It's got a TON of tiny gashes that aren't sealing well and a few rips. It's amazing how well it's held up. But I'm kinda pissed as those tires only have about 600 miles of my own on them and maybe 50 or so from the original owner. Oh well.

Also I need to get the damn garmin in for repairs, I want it fully fixed for the fall, I'm going to push hard to break 1k off road miles this year.

Wow!

Wow, I was out for a ride at Wakefield today after work and was SHOCKED at how many more people are out and out on bikes now that the weather has cleared, there musta been 30 or so riders all out in different size groups. The weather was awesome, out under the powerlines there was an nice breeze. Down near the creek the bugs were out pretty bad, no glasses is going to have to change soon I think, I kept getting the buggers in my eyes. I did a nice solid 14.1 miles and averages out a solid 9 mph and I did the hell climb 3 times and rode the back side of the bowl 3 times to in addition.

But it was great to see so many riders out enjoying the trails and all of em were pretty cool, no real churlish behavior though one guy did insist on riding up the berms while a bunch of us were waiting at the top. Oh well, we all kinda laughed about it as he made his way up.

The bike is in need of some tuning on the shifters the rear is starting to get a bit balky. I guess I should go pull the rear wheel, clean the chainset, and full clean the chain but it looks like its gonna rain for a few days, so no real hurry.