Keep your shirt on...

Tonight we went to Nockamixon.  We had talked about going to Wiss, but Grace's concern about my ongoing issues with my left achilles' tendon had her decide Nox was better.  Sure... the place that I know so well that I almost always wind up hammering... the same place that I re-annoyed it on Monday.  Well, we figured we'd start out easy and figure how we felt.

Well, anyhow, we get there and are putting our bikes together and I hear a familiar voice.  I look over and see the EWR jersey and knew his majesty, the King of Nockamixon, Sir Bob of Eichlin, was just about ready to start a ride.  Grace sees him there and simply mutters "oh shit."

Ya see, Bob is fast.  Take a look at any of the Strava segments in Nockamixon, and you'll see Bob's name right up at the top, usually with a pervertedly large buffer over second place.  Bob's also a really cool guy and fun to ride with, when you can keep up.  So, our "let's start out easy and see how we feel" plan suddenly got scrapped for "let's hammer like crazy".  So, we meet Bob's buddy Jason, and the four of us head out.

Almost immediately I'm reminded of my lack of bike handling skills.  Don't get me wrong, I can do okay, but I immediately find myself in a cycle of braking for a corner that they didn't, then having to accelerate to catch up.  They're just zipping along and I'm already spending more than I should in the first mile or two of a ride.  I manage to settle in and catch back up to them, but am starting to realize that they are on a fast pace, and if I stick with it, my achilles will not be happy, so I make the decision to "do the smart thing" (aka preserve my sense of dignity with an excuse) and let them go.  I'm screwed when the tendon is all better, though.

With the evil rabbits out of sight, we settle into a good, enthusiastic pace.  I meter my efforts, keeping the stress off my heel, and manage to move up to third on two segments.  As usual, looking at it after the fact, I'm absolutely convinced that I can do better.  We did the south loop in both directions, with Grace in the lead.  I am firmly convinced that I ride better when chasing her through the twisty sections.  Hell, it was chasing her in Mercer all those years ago where I learned to do the tighter corners out of necessity.  Most importantly, I made it past the "stripper tree" twice and manage to avoid having my jersey torn from my back.  The 2009 EWR jersey lives to see another day.

We finish up with a reverse of the Cold Spot/Hammer loops, and I come to the conclusion that I much prefer the Hammer loop ridden that way.  It just seems to flow so much nicer.  I think it's the first time I've ridden it "backwards" since before it was actually open and we followed Kenny around it.

Running out of light -- and temperature -- we get back to the parking lot just after Bob and Jason, talk to them for a while, then head home for steaks and beer.  All in all, not a bad way to end the week. 

Great ride in Wissahickon

Tonight I got out of work and joined Grace, Amy, Ed, and Dmitri for a ride in Wissahickon. This will have to go down as the best MTB ride I've been on in over a year. We were all riding strong, and riding fast. Had we not lost light, we probably would have kept going, but since only Dmitri had a light, we bailed as it got harder and harder to see the trail.

My back started hurting a little bit at one point, but cleared up. This was also the first time that I felt the power I have on the road available to me on the mountain. Even at that, though, trying to keep up with Dmitri and Grace towards the end had me working, and working HARD. They've both gone and gotten seriously fast! (thank you, Amy!!) Towards the end of the ride, Ed was having problems with his back (oh how I can relate) but somehow still managed to be crazy fast.

Afterwards, Grace and I joined Ed and Amy at a bar in Glenside for beer and wings. Between the four of us, we ordered 100 wings and untold numbers of beers. Much fun was had, and although there were wings left over when we were all full, it wasn't as much as you might think! We all toasted to Amy and Grace... they've become good friends and have made each other far stronger than they had been before.

I just hope that ride is an indication of what's to come for me. Despite what Grace will make you think, I don't hate mountain biking -- when it's that good, I really, really love it!

New bike for Grace

While Grace is still riding and loving her Scott Scale hardtail, we were planning on rebuilding her Santa Cruz Juliana, arguably her first "race grade" bike -- and the bike on which she rode the 2005 and 2006 MTB racing seasons. When I went to assemble it, though, I found a crack in the rear swingarm. I contacted Santa Cruz, sent them the swingarm and some money, and had a replacement. When I mounted that, though, I discovered that there was a fitment problem and while working on that with Santa Cruz, we came to the conclusion that it would just be easier to upgrade to the new frame design, which is said to be lighter and stiffer.

So now, we're shipping back the rest of the frame, and will be getting an all-white 2008 Superlight. Since the new frame is designed around a 100mm fork, not the 80mm fork of the old frame, I had to get her a longer fork, and wound up getting a good deal on a 100mm RockShox REBA. So she'll now have her choice between a lightweight hardtail with an 80mm SID or the Superlight with 100mm travel front and rear. Should be interesting to see what she thinks of riding the Superlight again.

Congratulations, Amy!

On Sunday, while we were bouncing off of rocks in Connecticut, Grace's favorite riding partner, Amy, sealed up the overall title of MASS Sport Women 2 by winning the final race at Bear Creek ski resort. This, despite flatting three times!

Great job, Amy, and congratulations!!

Good riding in CT

Monica and Rich, Grace's sister and her husband, moved to CT a few months ago. I was concerned when I heard they were moving, because there was some *good* mountain biking in Greensboro, NC... but after visiting this weekend, I found my concerns were unfounded. They live just off of the Shenipsit trail, which despite the name which begs for variations, (sheep s**t, snippy s**t, conniption, etc) is pretty awesome. It's very technical, littered with rocks, and you really have to work for it, but it's amazingly fun.

I have to also say that the back issue seems to be completely resolved. I rode yesterday and today, and rode hard enough that I was totally wiped out at the end, but my back was fine. My back hurt a little when I was off the bike Saturday night, but was fine by Sunday and didn't bug me at all on Sunday's ride. I'm VERY happy to be done with that chapter.

We came across several other cyclists, and while thinking about it later, I realized nobody was riding a twenty-niner. Considering the rocky terrain, I was pretty surprised about this. In Wissahickon, niners are just about everywhere and taking over... and the rockiest sections of Wissahickon aren't anywhere near as tough as the average rock gardens on Shenipsit. Mind you, we only saw about 10-12 other cyclists while we were out, but the same selection of riders in our area would have netted at three or more niners.

Speaking of riders we met, we met up with a couple on the trails who were out riding with their dog. We asked about the trails, and they offered for us to ride with them since it was easier to show the trails than describe them. We gladly accepted and rode with them for a while. At one point when we stopped to regroup (and recover) and they mentioned that they are the president and webmaster for a local club, Eastern Bloc. Stuart and Laura were really cool and told us next time we come back to get in touch and we'll meet up to ride again! Gotta love the awesome people you meet while mountain biking!

I also had another first on this ride... I failed to clear a technical climb for a reason I had never thought I would use -- my arms gave out! As strange as it sounds, I realized several times while muscling through the rough stuff, I was REALLY cranking on the bars. On this one climb, I was slightly out of the saddle to give the bike more room to move over the ground, and to keep my position as well as push on the pedals harder, I was pulling back on the bars good and hard. My legs were fine, my lungs were fine, everything seemed good, but I realized that my arms were fatiguing from the effort, and had to stop before I lost my grip! Not having my gloves contributed, no doubt... my hands had gotten sweaty and the ESI grips had started to get a little slick after we started riding with Stuart and Laura.

I also should mention that all the riding Grace has been doing with Amy has been paying off bigtime. Grace has been riding VERY strong, and even having a hardtail with a road cassette didn't slow her down through the gnarly rock gardens. Returning to the house on a road climb, she dropped me like a bad habit. Yes, she's strong, and yes, I'm psyched!

Funny story about that... while we were riding with the Jensens, we were doing a prolonged technical climb, and the day's riding was starting to catch up with me. Stuart was starting to gap me up ahead, and I heard one of the ladies catching up to me. I took a quick glance back, and saw a green jersey, and thought it was Laura. She sat on my wheel for a while as I climbed, and at one point I offered to let her by. She declined, but was stuck to my wheel. I was fading, and figured if I couldn't clear a technical section, I'd get in her way. I considered telling her that it was okay to pass me, I didn't mind being passed by a woman -- since I wouldn't be able to ride with Grace if I did! Didn't actually say it (was gasping for breath anyway) and a little while later realized it wasn't Laura after all, but Grace sitting back there and apparently not even breathing hard!

Push couldn't find this leak...

A couple posts ago, I mentioned the problems I've been having with the shock on my mountain bike. To quickly summarize, it started leaking, so I sent it to Push for service and to fix the leak. I got it back, and four rides later, it was leaking again, and I missed out on a ride with Grace and BVL. Well, I shipped it out to them, and a couple days later, they shipped it back. Didn't say anything in the email, just sent an invoice marked as $0. I didn't read the invoice in detail, but assumed that they fixed the problem and I was good to go.

So, Thursday I was planning on riding with Grace and BVL again (cue the foreshadowing) and when I went to double check the pressure in the shock, I was a little surprised to find out that there wasn't any. Oh... yay. So I pump it up to 175psi, and before I pull the pump off, I watch the gauge for a couple seconds... and can clearly see the needle dropping. Well, I've already missed a ride with Grace and BVL because of this, and it's now been months since I rode the MTB, so I decide, I'm gonna try to ride this. Thanks to a flexible hose on the pump, I can leave the pump attached to the shock, and ziptie the pump body to the frame, so all I have to do is stop, get off, and pump the shock back up. I even wrapped some electrical tape around the frame where the pump body touched so it wouldn't rub through the finish.

So, we headed off, and did most of a normal ride, but I have to say, it kinda sucked. The bike rode nicely for, oh, say, 30 seconds... at which point the rear end started getting too soft. Soon after that, the rear was noticably sagging, and if I let it go for long enough, I could start to feel the shock bottoming out. When the shock sags, it screws up every single frame dimension... the saddle drops, the pedals move forward compared to the saddle, the nose of the saddle points up (ouch) and the head tube angle slacks out, making the bike handle even more oddly. Still, I managed to get through the ride, and all in all, it was good to be back on the bike. I'd been having problems with my back on the MTB, and have to say that although I felt it was there, it was never a problem -- at least, not compared to the problems with the shock!

Luckily for Push, I did not have their phone number in my phone, nor did I have a signal. Grace was pretty much ready to give them a piece of her mind, since it was the second time we'd seen the same problem!

So, I get home, pull the shock back off, and bring it to the sink. My plan was to take a video of the leaking shock and send it to Push. I had done this before, but didn't bother to send it because I figured they'd be able to find it. I pressurized it, then put it in the full sink, and sure enough, a nice stream of big bubbles came out of it. I opened up the paid invoice from when I sent it back, and discovered that the tech said he couldn't find a leak. Well, I don't know, I managed to, check out this video and tell me if you can find it:

Can you see it? You have to look REALLY closely, or you might miss it. :|

The funniest part is after looking at it more closely, I discovered the leak wasn't from the rebound adjuster knob, as I thought, but from the pressure valve. I pulled it out, cleaned everything up and inspected the parts for problems, and found none. I applied a little bit of pipe dope to the threads and the O-ring, reinstalled it, and repressurized it. Guess what? NO LEAKS. This was all on Thursday. It's now Saturday evening and I checked the pressure an hour ago and it was still where it was supposed to be.

Yikes. This doesn't say good things for Push! I don't know how they didn't find the leak, but all I know is I did, and should be able to have a proper mountain bike ride for the first time in ... jeez, MONTHS.

Project... 17?

Just for grins, I got a pair of Kenda Klimax Lite tires for Grace's bike. While the Karmas are light at 450g, the Klimaxes are deep into ludicrous territory -- 345g each!! They're listed as a 2.0, and although I haven't measured, they look more like a 1.8, maybe a 1.7. They're SLIM. There's also a bare minimum of tread... they look more like cyclocross tires than MTB tires... and I think most cyclocross tires are even heavier.

So, with all this in mind, I tell Grace that I'm putting them on so she can try them, and we both more or less expect she won't like them. One time we tried Racing Ralphs, which are another light race tire, and she hated them, and wound up crashing. So, with that in mind, she set off on a ride today. (I actually tried to join her, but that's a story for another post... soon to come.)

I nervously awaited her return from the ride, to find out what she thought of the tires, fully expecting something along the line of "get these $%&#ing things off my bike"... but when I see her, she's SMILING. Ask her how the ride was -- it was REALLY GOOD! The tires? She loves them. Had some problems on steep, loose climbs with insufficient traction (not surprising!) but beyond that, they were FAST and they accelerated like nobody's business.

So, it's all good, surprisingly. We won't leave them on for daily riding, but they'll be great for hardpack events like Fair Hill.

Oh, and with those tires on ... 18.06lb!

Problems can be opportunities!

Grace has found a new riding buddy in the form of another woman mountain bike racer, and they've been riding like crazy! They're getting along great, and having a bunch of fun. Just the other day, they went out and rode High Rocks (aka Ralph Stover) and found some new, technical trails. Riding some of these trails, Grace breaks a spoke in her rear wheel. When she tells me about this, I'm a little worried that she's getting into freeriding, something you don't necessarily want to do on an 18lb bike!

Well, turns out the broken spoke wasn't caused by her abuse, but instead by a mistake of mine... when we first got the wheels, her chain overshifted the big cog and wound up between the cassette and the spokes, which chewed up the spokes. The spoke that broke was one of those, and broke at the spot where the chain had chewed it up. So that's good news. Looking at the spokes, I realize I could just replace the damaged spokes, but what's the fun in that?

A little bit of research later, and an email to Larry at Bike Tools Etc., and I decided on the Sapim CX-Ray aero spokes. Aero spokes are ovalized to help them slice through the air, but on a mountain bike, the speeds aren't high enough for that to really be a benefit. No, the real reason for using the CX-Rays is that they are supposed to be incredibly strong, despite being among the lightest spokes out there. I guess the forming process which turns them into an aero spoke strengthens the metal. Either way, they've got a great rep, and will save almost 90 grams over the spokes I pulled out of the wheel!

When I rebuild the wheel, I'm also going to replace the Stan's rubber NoTubes strip with a valve stem and 3M Kapton tape, which should save about 50 grams. I also have a pair of new Kenda Klimax tires ready to go, which I fully expect won't get the Grace seal of approval, as they're only 345g and really have no real tread to speak of. Still, that's another 100g and it's at least worth a try!

With those changes, if I were to do them to the front wheel as well... we're nearing sub 18lbs on her bike... and aside from the Klimax tires, it should still be perfectly usable and reliable, not just a scale queen.

Project 18 - adjustment...

I may have been a little hasty in my initial numbers on Grace's Scale, and I have to adjust the claimed weight of the bike.

I realized that the thick neoprene chainstay guard was still in place, and there was quite a bit of dried mud on the frame. Okay, so that's getting a little crazy -- but after pulling off the chainstay guard and giving the bike a good wash, the weight is now 18.52lbs.

Yeah, I fully realize that I'm taking it a bit too far, but let's be honest, to get it this light, you really kinda have to. I'm enjoying myself and Grace is happy with the results, so no problem!!

Project 18 - success!

Back in March, I mentioned my plans to get Grace's mountain bike down to the 18lb range. While a fully rideable and reliable mountain bike weighing in under 19lbs sounds like an impossibility, it's been done. Of course, she's riding a road cassette and dérailleur, and the front dérailleur has been pulled off and replaced by a very minimalist chain guide -- you can't get to 18lbs without making some compromises (or massive investments) -- but we've succeeded. I still have some work to do and some more parts I'd like to order. Unfortunately we're into the realm of diminishing returns, and to see a sub 18lb weight, we're going to be looking at those massive investments.

At some point I'll detail the work I've done to get the bike down this low. In the meantime, Grace has been absolutely LOVING the bike!

The typical response of the non-weight weenie to the investment of time and money required to accomplish a bike this light is "why not just lose 5lbs from yourself". Sure, that can be done ( and she's been doing that, too) but if you've ever ridden a bike that's 5lbs lighter, you'll know it rides TOTALLY different, and if it's been done right, it's different in a fantastically good way. Ask Grace, she'll attest to it.

What's really sad about this success is that Grace's 18.65lb bike is still equivalent to a 32.6 -- that's thirty two point six -- pound bike for me, based on body weight percentage!! To draw even with the 26.6lb weight of my Santa Cruz, we'll have to get her bike down to 15.2lbs!

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.

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.

Twenty years??

March 25th, 1988. Junior Formal dance for Lakeland Regional High School.

Coming up to the dance, I was trying to figure out who I would take as my date. I wasn't seeing anyone at the time, and couldn't figure out who to take. I heard from a friend that this one girl, Dena, wanted me to ask her. She was nice, and very cute, but not quite my type... but I was at a loss for anyone to ask, so I asked her one afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, the very next day I was in Drama Club and there was that totally classy girl, Grace, who had broken up with her long-time boyfriend a couple months earlier. I always got along with her really well, but never considered her since she was just plain way too classy for me. But, she was a really good friend, and I thought that she would be a bunch more fun at the dance -- but I'd already asked Dena! *argh* My wretched timing!!

That afternoon, Dena asked me if I was just joking when I asked her to the dance. In a move that I'm not proud of, I took the opportunity presented to me, and said I was. She took it well, I guess, I really don't remember. I felt kinda guilty, but started screwing up my courage to ask Grace to go with me.

Was it the next day, or a couple days later? I don't know. I do know it was in the afternoon, after rehearsal for the school play. (I had met Grace through Drama Club the summer before, when I showed up to be a stage hand and wound up being Li'l Abner instead.) I still remember the outfit Grace was wearing, and trying to wait until she was away from anyone else so I could ask her without witnesses. When the opportunity presented itself, I walked up to her, and struck up a conversation. I remember being pretty direct about it, but no doubt I hemmed and hawed for a little while before getting around to the question.

When I finally did ask her if she'd go with me to the Formal, she didn't even pause, and just said "Yes". Well, I was now at a loss for words, since I might not have been expecting to be flat out rejected, but I expected there would be some type of waiting period for consideration before I got the answer -- during which I could retreat to safety and wonder what the hell I just did. But instead, she answers "yes" without even pausing? I was totally thrown off guard. Don't remember quite what I said, maybe she does... but it was probably something to the effect of "uhmmm... great! uhhhh... well I'll see you later!" at which point I probably ran like hell.

As for the dance itself, it was your basic high school dance, and we had fun. I remember being really mad at my folks... at the time we had two cars, a nice, shiny, SAAB 900, and a nasty, slow, beat-up old '78 Ford Grenada. Obviously I wanted to take the SAAB... but they wouldn't let me, and I had to take the Grenada. I was pretty steamed about that.

I don't remember much of the dance itself except at one point when I got up enough courage to give her a kiss... the kiss we still refer to as the "military strike kiss". I swooped in, gave her a quick kiss, and retreated to a point of safety before any defenses could be raised. Apparently, the reaction (beyond that of "what the heck was that?" shock) was good... and twenty years later, we're still together, going on 14 years of marraige! Sometimes I try to think about what life would have been like if I didn't stay with Grace, or didn't ask her to the dance... and I just can't imagine it.

She's the best thing that's ever happened to me, no matter how cliche that might be! Even if she kicks my ass on the bike. :)

Like a bucket of grapes...

Okay, that's it, no more making Grace's bike lighter and faster. Screw project 18, it's time for project fill-the-damned-seat-tube-with-lead-shot. We rode on Friday with BVL and Lance, where I was happy to discover that I wasn't the slowest of the group-- Lance hasn't been riding at all and had him a good suffer fest on his singlespeed... on the other hand, Grace did really well, passing me on several occasions.

Then, Saturday, I took the opportunity to swap her tires for the Kenda Karmas, and we got out last night to ride. This time it was just me and her, and she stomped me like a bucket of grapes at the winery. Stomped me like a bug. She just stormed right up the hills, she took off on the flats, and she even rocked the downhills. We didn't have much light, thanks to a late start, so had to bail out early and ride back on Forbidden, and towards the end, I couldn't even hang onto her wheel. The sprint at the end was utterly out of the question.

So she was getting fast before, and now she's officially there. She loves the tires, said she could feel a real difference on the climbs, and I felt a real difference trying to keep up with her on Forbidden. She didn't even notice that I had swapped out her 11-34 cassette for a 11-32, saving over 40g in the process.

So am I bitter? Will I stop making her bike lighter and faster? Hell no! I'm just gonna have to step it up and see what I can do about catching her. :)