Riding in the MS-150

Lance, JB, and I with the great guys from Team Journey

This year, I'll be riding in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's MS-150 City-to-Shore bike ride. I did it last year, and had a bunch of fun riding with friends, and making some new friends in the guys from Team Journey. The ride benefits a worthy cause, and if you feel like contributing to my fundraising efforts, feel free to visit my personal page to donate!

A shift in priority...

Back in 1995, I purchased my first brand new car, a shiny red Acura Integra GS-R. That car became my pride and joy. I washed it carefully, and often. I kept it clean. I drove it hard. I loved it, and even made a website which at the time was pretty popular, with well over 1000 hits a day. I've met many folks who said they got into Integras because of my website. My 15 minutes, I guess. :)

Even back then, though, I knew that I would be keeping the car for a good long time, and most likely running it until it fell apart. Unfortunately, I gave it some assistance in that in the form of several accidents, most of which (I'm not too proud to say) were my fault. (me and those damned deer)

So, now, going on 13 years down the road, that same car has over 208,000 miles, most of the "go-fast" parts I put on it have been removed, and with me taking the SEPTA train to work, it barely even gets driven anymore. That's probably good, too, since as I mentioned in a previous post, it recently failed inspection for some rust holes. Back in the day, I might have brought it to a body shop -- if I even let the rust happen in the first place -- but now, I used whatever materials I had on hand to slap together a repair so that it would pass inspection and that would be that.

In some ways, it's sad to see how my priorities have shifted away from the car which used to be such a valuable thing for me. In other ways, though, I've owned no car for longer, and considering how I treated this car, the fact that it has MADE it to over 200k miles and to an age where it could be the neglected beater car is very telling as to the car's durability and quality. Matter of fact, when it looked like it might be time to start looking for our next car, to replace this one, one of the first searches I did was for another Integra in the same year range. I'd lose the sunroof (tall guy needs his headroom) and wouldn't bother with the VTEC engine, but the Integra just works so well for us... our next car very likely could be another Integra.

Rode the Monkey

My Karate Monkey is currently set up as a commuter, and with the weather getting nice, I'm wanting to get back into doing the 33 mile commute once or twice a week, so yesterday I pulled it down and took it for a ride. Not much of a ride, just out and around Lake Galena, probably about 10-12 miles total.

Interestingly enough, even though this was a road ride, my back was killing me. I didn't double check my setup on the bike, but the saddle felt like it could have been higher, and as you can see from the picture, the handlebars are significantly higher than I have on the Giant road bike. (because of the riser stem sourced from Dmitri's old Trek MTB) I guess that geometry is contributing to the problem.

This doesn't solve any problems, but it is an interesting datapoint. Interesting to me, at least. The unfortunate downside is I won't be commuting in -- at least on that bike -- for the foreseeable future. I haven't ruled out riding the Giant in, instead.

Speaking of the Giant, I've heard the saying "steel is real" which speaks to the wonderful ride of a steel bike over all others. The Karate Monkey is steel, and I couldn't help but notice how, even with fatter tires, I could feel far more surface irregularities on the road than I could with my carbon fiber Giant with skinnier tires.


In the meantime, I've been pop-riveting flashing onto my car to close up a rust hole so the car can pass inspection. I'll have to post some pictures of that mess when it's done. Kinda funny, how this car was bought new and was my pride and joy at the time... now it's just something to carry bikes around in. When I bought the car, I was pretty sure I would be the first and last owner, and I would get every last bit of usefulness out of it before I was done... and that prediction seems to be coming true!

Progress at the Rally!

The PMBA Rally in the Valley was yesterday, and goes down as the best ride I've had on the mountain bike in probably a year, year and a half.

Grace and I rode the full "advanced" loop, which starts with the ballbuster climb just after Bell's Mill Road, and I actually felt pretty good. Mind you, I took it slowly, used every last tooth of that granny gear, and didn't push too hard, but I got up in a respectable time, and didn't have to walk it. In fact, I cleared all the climbs without walking except a handful on the Indian trail at the end.

My back was NO problem for the first 15 minutes at least, and when it started to hurt it was just a little fatigue, nothing debilitating. A little fatigue is understandable, considering this was my third ride in three days -- road Thursday, Wiss with Grace on Friday, and then the Rally.

This also marks the first time I started feeling some of the power that I have no problem finding when I'm riding on the road. Not much of it, not enough to do anything useful with, but it was there... and this is very good news for me, since it means I'm improving on the mountain bike.

Now, lest you think this was some sort of record-breaking ride, it wasn't -- I was really getting fatigued by the end, and that's when we wound up on the Indian trail, which is probably the hardest in the park! I wound up walking a couple of climbs, and without the usual return on Forbidden Drive, my average speed was a abysmal 7.4mph. Still, I felt far better than I had on any previous ride, so I'm not upset about that average at all. We'll see what happens next time we do a standard loop, bailing out at Valley Green Inn.

Let me just wrap up by saying DZ and the gang of PMBA volunteers did an awesome job organizing and running the Rally. If you ride in the Philly area, definitely consider joining PMBA so your money can help them keep up the good work.

A step in the right direction

Today I left work early and Grace and I hit Wissahickon. After yesterday's great road ride, I was a little concerned about how things would go. Well, it wasn't bad. I used ALL the gears and rode slowly and deliberately, but managed to keep my back from becoming too much of a problem. I also discovered that my leg strength allows me to ride through some really rocky sections at lower than walking pace... I just keep the pedals turning and roll over stuff.

The flipside was that I wound up having the slowest ride in Wissahickon in a while, with an average speed of only 8.2 mph. Grace, on the other hand, ran rabbit and disappeared up the trail, until she decided it was time to wait for me to catch up!

The Rally in the Valley is tomorrow, I figure I'll take the same approach of riding slowly and see how it goes.

I just don't understand!

I like bikes. I like road bikes, and I like mountain bikes. The problem is, for a while now, mountain bikes don't like me back. When I ride the mountain, I usually have trouble with my lower back hurting me, to the point where it adversely affects my ride. I can still ride, but I've got no power, and the enjoyment goes down. In the Utah trip, I was almost always at the back of the line, with the exception of a handful of times when my back didn't bother me and I was able to ride well for a little while. I can still enjoy a ride, but it gets frustrating.

What makes it even more frustrating is just how different life is on the road. Tonight I got home and hopped on my road bike for a quick ride. It's staying lighter later and the weather was just perfect, and without having to pack the bike in the car and drive somewhere, a road ride is a perfect way to get in a ride in a short time frame. Today, just like back on March 26th, I had a great ride... I felt strong, I was able to ride fast and for a while, with no problems. Towards the end of the ride, my back did start to get a little sore, but unlike the mountain bike, I was able to keep riding without the pain slowing me down any. The fatigue set in after an hour and ten minutes of riding, versus within the first five or so minutes as I get on the mountain bike.

I even decided to ride Tohickon Hill Road, (a long hill with three sections of up to 15% grade) which, the last time I rode it, nearly killed me. Now, I might not have been fast, but I felt good the whole way up and at the top was up-shifting as it leveled off -- I didn't need any easy recovery. For the rest of the ride, I kept pushing the pace and really, really enjoying myself.

As a quick aside -- I've got to give a quick nod to the drivers who were so considerate, but for several of them, the mountain bikes on their roof racks kinda gave me a clue as to why they were so nice -- they were bikers too! (High Rocks/Ralph Stover state park is about a mile from Tohickon Hill Rd)

So I ride the road bike, and feel like a rock star... then I'm on the mountain bike and I ride weak like a kitten. I've checked my position between the two bikes, and it's very similar, especially when looking at saddle-to-bottom-bracket positioning and saddle height, which I would think should be the biggest controls of why my back hurts. It's not even specific to one bike, either. I had problems like this (although not quite as bad) with my Santa Cruz in the '05 racing season. This year I'm getting it on the Scott Scale hardtail... but when I demo'ed the Gary Fisher HiFi at Fair Hills, I got it on that bike as well, although a little later.

My theory is my back just isn't as strong as it needs to be, especially compared to my legs. Thankfully, Grace is a personal trainer and knows her stuff, so we've been working on this problem together, although so far without much luck. I'm certain that with her help, we'll get this figured out, but for the foreseeable future, I'm going to be enjoying road rides a whole bunch more.

Pictures from the Fair Hill race posted

Grace made her return to mountain bike racing this past weekend at Fair Hills in Maryland. There was a huge turnout, with womens' class sizes which were closer to what you'd expect in the Senior and Vet men classes. There were 26 women in her class alone, and for her first race in nearly two years, she finished a very respectable 10th out of 23 finishers. While she wasn't unhappy with that performance, it's safe to say that she wasn't necessarily happy with it either... she was wishing that she finished top five! Coming back into racing with no specific preparation, I still think that was pretty darn good!

This race also marked the first time we were to a race with my Nikon digital SLR camera, with the fancy image stabilized zoom lens... and I used it to great effect. I took about 460 pictures during the day, and most of the race, I was test riding a Fisher 29er full suspension bike! Check out the pictures of Grace at her gallery, and some of the pictures of other folks that I got while playing with the camera.

Gary Fisher HiFi 29er test ride

Out in Utah, I came to the conclusion that no matter how much Grace might like the hardtail, it's just not for me. I got sick of being bounced around, and didn't really feel like it was all that much more efficient than my Superlight. However, I have always thought the Superlight was a bit too flexible for me, (and my weight) so after seeing how well Aaron and Mark did on their Marin Mount Vision trail bikes, I decided it might be time for me to get a trailbike.

Grace was checking the MASS schedule, and saw that there was a race at Fair Hills this past weekend. She's been wanting to get back into the racing, so we decided to go. Then, I found out that Trek and Gary Fisher would be bringing demo bikes... score! One of the bikes I've looked at recently is the Fisher HiFi 29er -- a full suspension bike with 100mm of travel front and rear *and* big 29" wheels. Although I wasn't that impressed with the big wheels on my Karate Monkey, I still see the merits, and DZ is a huge proponent and keeps talking about them.

So, I left my bike at home (still packed up in the box) and brought my helmet, shoes, and gloves. When I got there, all they had was a large HiFi 29er, not the XL, but I figured I was more interested in the ride, and a large should be close enough. Sign the waiver, hand over my driver's license, they set up the suspension for my weight, popped on some eggbeater pedals, and I was good to go.

I'm not very familiar with Fair Hills, so I set out to find some singletrack. If I could stay off the race course, that would be great, and if I could find some bumpy, rocky sections, that would be golden. Well, I followed some fire road which lead me to the race course, but just off of that, I found some singletrack which wasn't part of the course. It was nice and swoopy, with climbs and descents, and good turns with which to get a feel for the handling of the bike. Unfortunately, it was pretty darn smooth -- I'm pretty sure I could have cleared it on my road bike.

One of the first things I noticed was that the bike handled well. It turned around some of the tighter corners pretty darn well, which was very impressive for a big bike with big wheels. In fact, it handled the turns about as well as my Scott Scale hardtail, which I thought was pretty good. Then again, I was still getting used to it, so I didn't really ask it for THAT much, but I did notice that it steered like a very light bike. I also couldn't help but notice that on the hardpack and road sections I rode it, the suspension felt very efficient... not too much suspension movement, very little sensation of wasted energy. Even out of the saddle on short steep climbs, the suspension didn't seem to be a hindrance at all. It was certainly a bunch smoother than my hardtail, that's for sure.

And now... for the bad. First and foremost, this was definitely a demo bike. Standing for a short hill in the middle of the cassette, the chain started jumping ... either the chain or the cassette was significantly worn, and not worn together. I was able to ride skip free in either end of the cassette; either low gears or high. That wasn't too bad until the front dérailleur stopped working altogether. I had dropped to the granny on a longer climb to test the seated climbing (which was good) and thankfully got back to the middle ring, but later when I tried to use the big ring... nothing. It wouldn't drop down to the granny, either. So I was left with about four or five usable gears, with a BIG gap between them.

None of that is really a fault of the bike design though, just a function of it being a demo bike. As for the bike design, when I tried to lift the front end on a climb with a step-up over a large root, I discovered that the 29" wheels are significantly heavier I'm used to. I barely got the wheel off the ground, and it felt like there was a cinder block attached to the bars. Surprising for a bike which handled like it was so light. The good part is the big wheels handled the roots with no problem at all.

All in all, I really enjoyed the bike. It rode and handled well, and impressed with its efficient suspension. I might want to do something about the heavy front end with some lighter wheels, but I could definitely see this being a bike that I could live with.

Back from Utah...

We're back from Utah. Internet connection at the hotel was crappy so no updates while I was out there. Had fun although I could have ridden WAY better. Spent most of the time at the back, thanks to my back. Also decided it's time to give a trailbike a try. The hardtail just wasn't working for me.

Still, Utah is freakin' beautiful and the trails were great, even if I wasn't. Would definitely go back, although this time with some suspension travel. ;)