A2Z Components 68mm Post Adapter

Ok. So now I will finally shed some light on the utter ridiculousness that has become of my partybike build.  This started off as a pretty ridiculous idea and then due to a slight oversight on my part it went to ludicrous speed.

I was already required to do some weird adapting in order to get disc brakes mounted in the rear.  I found a pretty sweet period correct Manitou fork in great shape, titanium springs etc. on eBay and was able to snag it.  I was pretty pumped at how things were coming together and then I got the fork, installed it on the bike and then went to mount the brakes on the post mounts...

Disc brake standards have bounced around a bit, and suffered from some experimentation.  Especially back in the late 90's early 00's.  I knew there was some weirdness back then but I had forgotten about Manitou's random decision to make 68mm post mounts for a few years instead of the now standard 74mm that all brake calipers are machined to.  Go to mount the brake...6mm off. #sadtrombone

MORE ADAPTERS!

After a bit of internet'ing I found an adapter to get from the asinine 68mm to 51mm IS and go figure it was machine by the same folks who made the rear adapter I was using.  Long story short they were actually out of stock so the folks I ordered it from apparently had the same adapter made by A2Z components and shipped that one instead.

I was on my own with this adapter, no real instructions or description about its intended setup and things got a bit crazy pretty fast.  I don't have any calipers that mount directly to 51mm IS so I had to bolt an adapter to the adapter.  I'm not sure this is necessarily intended to be used this way.  If it was it would have been nice for them to machine in a bit more clearance in a few spots because stuff got REAL tight.  So tight that I had to get really weird.  Dremel tool weird.

We don't need no stinking clearance!

So in order for me to get the bottom bolt through to mount my second adapter to the 68mm post adapter I had to (in no particular order):

- Find a bolt to mount the 68mm adapter to the fork with the lowest profile head I could find.  The head on the standard brake mounting hardware was too big and would not let the second adapter sit low enough.  Luckily I found one at the local hardware store that bought me 1-2mm.

- Add an extra washer to the caliper mounting bolt on that side.  The standard bolt threads through the adapter just a hare so adding the washer makes the bolt not stick out and bought me another 1mm or so.

- It was still just a bit off so I had to literally Dremel metal off the 51mm IS adapter until it would sit low enough to allow that second bolt to thread through without cross threading.

- I then had to find another special bolt that was shorter so that it wouldn't stick through too far and hit the rotor on the other side.

It took a lot of troubleshooting but it all technically "fits" and feels solid (for the most part).  This setup requires you to increase the rotor size to make up the room added by the adapter.  So I had to purchase a 180mm rotor as well.  I now wish they made a 182 or 183mm rotor.

I would feel a tad better if this was grabbing just a bit more of this rotor.  But I don't weigh that much and its a 180mm rotor so braking power should be fine right?....RIGHT?!

I might try and mess with some more of those washers to see if I can get some better spacing but the shed was so hot and I had already poured so much time (and sweat) into this that as soon as I rode it around the yard and got it to successfully stop me I called it good for now.

I'll be honest, the sound of this brake 'working' is horrible.  Hard to explain in print but I'm sure anyone who rides probably knows what a horrible disc brake sounds like.  While it does stop me (on flat ground in my yard) I'm sure that the first thing going through my head at speed on an actual trail will be "I wonder if I'm about to die."  Initial testing will have to be done gingerly.

But thats it.  You could ride this thing.  You might not survive but you can ride it, go forward and then 'stop'...maybe.  Partybike doesn't really care about details like that, its mostly about the party.

Rock 'N Roll

Carrabassett Backcountry Challenge 2013

Ah the daunting task of trying to accurately recap an endurance race, I should be getting better at this seeing as I now do them with a fair amount of frequency.  Here goes...

Took a half day Friday so that I could get all the way up to Carrabassett Valley (its way up there) and still have time to get settled before it got dark.  Shaun and I arrived at just about the same time, got our race packets and got our makeshift camp set up.  Camping was a bit weird with folks just instructed to grab some grass around the edges of the gravel parking lots.  It ended up working out ok though.

We had some cool neighbors with some sweet RV and trailer setups.  I always get jealous when I see stuff like that but then I remember how much gas costs.  Got things going early the next day, the sun comes up early that far north.  I didn't have the best night of sleep in the Fit but I felt ok and was ready to get at it.

The start was pretty organized, they were taking lots of safety precautions and even marking our legs like a triathlon for easier identification.  I'm not sure I can think of another race where there are more course marshalls taking stock of when you go by than this race.  I felt like I was seeing them everywhere.  They let us go with the Elites and Experts at about 7:15am or so.  The start was a little frenetic but I had spotted just about our whole field mixed in with everyone.  The pace was a little quick right from the gun but manageable.

We even had the classic epic crash within the first 100yds with some dude exploding at the first turn, unfortunately I didn't get to witness it, just heard it and saw the aftermath.  Looked like it was probably pretty funny though.  After the initial shake out off the line I was sitting in 4th(ish) behind two guys I knew could probably beat me and one guy I didn't recognize.

The first sections of this course are AWESOME.  Tons of purpose built singletrack mixed in that is classic New England style riding.  Tight, twisty, rooty trails expertly built.  Lots of cross fall line stuff with great benching and ledge pack put in place.  Really a treat to ride.  Unfortunately its hard to hold yourself back on stuff like that especially when you are having so much fun.  I was definitely riding too hard but lucky for me I was reminded of this by taking a turn too hot and washing out on the edge of the trail and shredding my knee on said ledge pack.  That was a pretty good wake up call and I got back into a more consistent reasonable pace.

By this point Curtis L. had blown by me (saw this coming) and I also got caught by one of the local Rose Bikes guys.  Before too long though we started heading up the side of Sugarloaf for the first time.  Caught and passed the Rose Bikes guy back and got to suffering on the condo access road.  Almost caught the guy I didn't recognize from the start but missed the catch before the top and lost him on the fast washed out descent.  They had us traverse a bit and then head directly back up the mountain.  This was brutal and cruel.  There is nothing quite like turning a corner and seeing a long line of cyclists as far up a hill as you can see slowly death marching away.

look for the segment called 'Worlds Dumbest Race Route' for the climb from hell

This section made me very sad and hot.  I was starting to get worried about fluids because I was sweating a lot and starting to overheat a bit.  I also got caught by 'the guy in mesh shorts' which kind of made me more sad (but he was hiking really strong so good for him).  I had to keep reminding myself that I would probably see these guys again, just get past this and keep moving but I was starting to think that maybe I didn't quite have the same punch this time.  Luckily there was a small aid shortly after that fresh hell of a climb and I snagged a huge cup of cold water that helped a lot.

Then they sent us straight down a crazy washed out double track decent that was probably fine for anyone with suspension but had me assured that I was going to die and literally had my hands cramping about 3/4 of the way down.  I had to switch braking fingers to my middle finger because my index fingers had stopped working.  Just a bit after recovering from my near death hand cramps I was caught by another (different) Rose Bikes guy probably because he didn't have to descend in near death mode.  This really bummed me out because to that point I had spent most of my time getting caught by guys instead of the other way around.  I didn't feel like I was going all that slow but I was getting gobbled up left and right.  Mentally I was on the verge of cracking.  I was getting beat up pretty bad on the pretty consistently gnarly first 20miles and couldn't figure out why I couldn't even hang with a dude in mesh shorts.

I'm beginning to realize that for me the first 20 miles of these races is 'limit your losses' terrain.  Manage your effort, make sure you are setting yourself up for a good second half nutritionally but don't sweat those small gaps.  Easier said than done in the moment though.  Really hard to overcome that "THAT DUDE IS GETTING AWAY" feeling.  That's the trick I guess.  You just have to stay grounded and consistent and over power those thoughts as best you can.

Shortly after this we finally crossed the road and got over to the Bigelow Range side of the course.  Climbing up to the midway aid station I caught the dude in mesh shorts fixing either a flat or a chain.  Unfortunate for him but I'LL TAKE IT.  I'm back in this!  As funny as it seems that was actually a huge mental boost for me.  It immediately reminded me that this is going to be a long day and we're not even halfway yet.  TIME TO SWEEP SOME GUYS UP.

At the midway aid the 50K and 100K courses split.  I didn't know it at the time but Curtis L. had managed to accidentally get himself on the 50K course and ended his day a bit early.  One more spot in the overall, thanks Curtis!  Shortly after the aid at 29 miles we hit what I think for many was probably the make or break point.  A roughly 2 mile exposed logging access road with some sort of light colored gravely surface that was really good at reflecting heat.  I don't think anyone felt good on that thing but some definitely felt worse than others.  Topping out I caught the Rose Bikes guy who got me on the murder descent.  Luckily we turned off that road for a bit more sheltered climbing and shortly after I caught the guy I didn't recognize at the start and another guy I didn't even know was in front of me.

So just like that I went from feeling down and out to broom wagon status and at the time I figured I was now probably riding in 4th or so and feeling strong.  Unfortunately we had some more brutal (for me) chattery high speed descending and the Rose Bikes guy got back to me.  We rode together for a bit and I took the next short little climb as an opportunity to try and get away again.  I got a gap pretty fast and lucky for me there was a long false flat fast single track section that went on for miles with perfect little short punchy ups I could use to balloon that gap a bit.

He stayed close though and was coming into aid 4 as I was leaving.  Maybe 1-2 mins gap at best.  I then saw him again on the short out and back road they sent us on and knew he was still within striking distance.  He knew it too and I knew I needed some out of sight out of mind assistance to finally be clear.  We hit some pretty awesome gnarly terrain around mile 50ish.  Luckily it was mostly flat but you needed technical skills for sure and surprisingly I was able to ride just about all of it clean.  I was hoping maybe he had a few dabs, if you can't keep it consistent in terrain like that it can really take the wind out of your sails.

I was still feeling pretty good and the mileage was starting to tick off and I knew I was getting close to the final feed and that after that it was a carriage road drag up along a river.  I was fairly certain if I could get there with even a slight gap I should be able to hold it.  Got a quick swig of Gatorade and went head down for the next 6 miles.  I was still feeling good, pace felt good.  We even got a bit more purpose built singletrack at the finish that was great, including an awesome switchback climb up to the finish.

Crossed the line and got the sweet sound of the computerized voice telling me my class place was 3rd (Official Results). Say whaaaaaat?!  This is when I saw Curtis in street clothes and found out about his navigational problems.  Needless to say I was pleased.  I managed my race well, overcame some early mental issues and finished strong.  Can't ask for much more.  I'm still trying to decide if this was my favorite 100K course.  As a sum of its parts I think it probably is.  I think there was more consistently fun and interesting terrain in this course than any of the other 100Ks I've done.

I'm sad to report that there was either a communication error or just a goof on my part and I missed out on my podium pic and medal.  I had been sticking around (and even kept my kit on to appease the Bully) but as we got to awards they did a round of the overall classes for mens and womens 50 and 100K and then some awards for the oldest and youngest riders etc. but then they moved on to a raffle.  I thought that was it for awards and they weren't gonna do any more.  So we stuck around for most of the raffle (Shaun won some beer and I got a nice floor pump) but decided to hit the road because it was getting later in the day and we wanted to get down to Portland to hang with Pog and eat a lot of food and drink beer.

Then the next morning I see Team Bikeman tweet the singlespeed podium without me on it.  ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH.  I emailed the promoter seeing if there was any chance I could get my medal shipped out.  Not holding my breath though.  Oh well guess I'll just have to come back and try to do it again.  Hell I'd come back just for the views.

B&S Brake Adapter

The partybike is back in the stand well on its way to v3.0! I figured I would break the build into a few posts so I could focus on a bit of the weird that is going on this time around.  But before we get into specifics I suppose I'll cover the thought process behind v3.

There was nothing wrong with v2, in fact the 69er version of the party bike worked much better than I could have imagined.  After taking my lashing at the Pinnacle (and dealing with some chronic joint issues this season) I was forced to meditate a bit on what I'm doing to myself.  I ping-ponged back and forth a bit on what I thought I should do moving forward but eventually landed on using my fast/light/rigid bike for my 'important' races which I have now decided are the longer format races I've been doing lately and that I needed a friendlier bike to race the slightly more brutal EFTA courses.

Thats where v3 comes in.  If I was going to race the partybike it was going to need to be a bit more 'normal'.  The 69er worked better than I thought it would but it was still pretty weird to sit on and kind of ridiculous to climb.  So I decided if I was going to race it I wanted to find an adapter to convert the old Trek 22mm direct mount to the more standard IS so I could run disc brakes, I would need disc ready wheels and a decent 26er fork.

The adapter was going to be the tricky part but after a bunch of research I settled on the B&S Brake Adapter.  This thing isn't exactly mainstream, feels more like something a hobbyist made for their own purposes and then a few friends liked the idea and wanted one as well and it gained enough steam after that that maybe they did some sort of limited run of them.

It seems solidly machined, definitely has some heft to it (weight weenies beware).  But I would imagine you'd want this to be solid with the types of braking forces it will be dealing with.

speed holes!

I went with this adapter because many of the other options would have you mounting the brake between the chain and seat stays and many of them required you to do some weird stuff like using a front brake caliper on the rear as well as using a slightly bigger rotor to make up that difference.  Some people also claimed that certain frames just don't have enough room for that to work at all.

This design extends beyond the seat stay and has you mounting the brake where most modern frames have them situated.  They don't guarantee that this works with all frames either but based on pics online I thought I had a pretty good chance.

I wonder why this 22mm design didn't last? Its so conveniently located and easy to work with...

It doesn't come with mounting hardware but I have been wrenching long enough that I have amassed all kinds of extra/spare stuff and I ended up having some bolts that were pretty much perfect.  It took a little bit of time to get things all lined up.  Clearances are a bit tight but it all came together.

I still need to get myself some real hardware for mounting the brake itself.  Right now I am just using some presta valve nuts that ended up being the exact size of brake bolts, go figure.  That was good enough to get things situated and prove that it would work.  I'll hit the hardware store tomorrow for something more substantial.  I'm very interested to get it cabled up to see how solid it feels.  I don't want to jinx it but I think its going to work just fine.

Slapped the rear end all back together and scoured the parts bin to see if I could re-gear a bit bigger.  32x18 was just a tad small for me in general on a 26in bike, more like a climbing gear but the easy change to 32x16  is a little tall for me to stay on top of.  I think I'm at my best/most efficient somewhere in the 48-49 gear inches range.  Unfortunately with the parts I had I couldn't land there with any 'normal' gear configs.  But I did have a 38t ring and my 20t cog that I use for the Pinnacle laying around which gets me just a hair over 49 gear inches.  And it looks kinda funny, which is good.

I'll cover some of my other new parts in the follow up post when I finish the build hopefully later this week.  New fork should arrive by Wednesday I believe.  Good chance I could be racing this at Moody next weekend.

NEMBAfest 2013

I survived.

Always nice heading into a huge riding weekend not knowing if various body parts are going to make it through to the other side.  Even though this is only the second year NEMBAfest has been up at KT we already have a fairly dialed routine.  Shaun and I get up to Burke late morning Friday, get camp set up.  The Dbones arrive shortly after and we get some afternoon shred in.

Shaun and I rolled over to the open field camping area and it was already looking almost as full as it did mid-fest last year.  Good sign.

Friday we did our now 'usual' climb up to Dead Moose, head over to Moose Alley cross to White School and down into town ride.  Somehow I got top 10 on Dead Moose Alley on a fully rigid bike.  For shame, freeriders, for shame.  Moose Alley beat me up good but hands, wrist and shoulder were hanging in there and I was having a blast.  The new stuff over in the White School area is fantastic.  Farm Junk, Sky Dive, Swan Dive all excellent additions.

We rode back up to the expo area and decided to try out the new climbing trail The Shire to get back up to the campground.  There really is no good way to climb that middle section of the mountain and this new trail is no exception.  Fresh grassy fields with a weird incredibly tight technical section thrown in.  We decided to bail before the switchback section and just take the road back up to camp.  Who knows maybe the switch back section is awesome but the first part was infuriating, which grassy fields usually are.

Saturday got off to a non-forecasted drizzle'y start and stayed that way pretty much all day off an on.  Never really rained that hard at any time but by the end of the day things were pretty greasy.  Early on my shoulder and wrist were a bit perturbed and the hands were tender.  But eventually I won out and things stopped hurting.  Body must have given up and just pumped endorphins out.  We did a nice loop courtesy of Mark T's local knowledge.

We were pretty beat Saturday night and the rain started to pick up a bit so cooking around the fire wasn't really an option.  We decided to head back into Lyndon (with probably the rest of the entire 'fest) and grab some grub there.  We found a China Buffet that ended up being perfect.  The hostess/waitress Amy was so incredibly happy and pumped about everything that you couldn't help but smile and have a good time.  They actually have a pretty impressive web presence for a Chinese Restaurant in northern VT (that Amy kept telling us to check out).  We had a blast and the food is good so if you are shredding KT check out the Lyndon Buffet (right across from the Trout River brewery in Lyndonville).

just look at how happy Dustin is...c'mon

I decided to pack it in Sunday and rest the shoulder.  I was concerned with the rain overnight that trails would be pretty slick and my shoulder doesn't handle quick jerky hail mary recovery movements so much right now.  Looks like some pretty big T-storms rolled through there that afternoon and if I had gotten caught in one of those I would have been pretty sad.

Got home and iced things a bit.  Immediately after icing my shoulder it felt horrible.  Worst it has felt in weeks easily.  Then I went to bed and woke up with it feeling the best it has felt in weeks.  No idea what is happening in there.

The brake adapter arrived over the weekend to bring the party bike into the current centuries tech.  I'll be picking up the new wheels this coming Saturday morning.  Guy selling the fork is being weird so hopefully I can figure that out soon.  Either way be on the lookout for a build post coming soon as work begins.

The Pinnacle EFTA NECS 2013

Two words.  Rude.  Awakening.

Talk about 0-60mph.  Jumping into 3 laps at the Pinnacle with hardly any time on dirt let alone race efforts is a stiff drink for sure.  For those that don't know I've been dealing with an angry shoulder for several weeks now and I've just gotten things a bit more stable and I felt like I was good to ride/race with things taped up tight.

Due to the shoulder issue I have been trying to stay off dirt and stay quiet to recover, doing mostly commuting and some road miles to keep the fitness from completely falling off.  My fitness isn't horrible right now but I found out pretty quick that my top end is a bit dull and the rest of me hasn't been 'trail hardened' yet.

We had a decent sized SS field and unfortunately for me it was pretty stacked.  The start was pretty fast and I was positioned fairly well for maybe the first 300yds or so then as the first few pitches punch you square in the gut I could feel that the legs were a bit sluggish.  Each pitch the lead group inched away and I wasn't making up any ground in the singletrack.  But I was probably still sitting about 5th-6th of 10 or so.  I was all over the place on the first lap.  Functioning while redlining is one of those things that you also need to build into and my decision making and line accuracy was lacking at first.

The shoulder was holding up and I was starting to settle in.  I got passed on the last fire road climb right before topping out but I was able to pass him back once we started heading back down.  Shortly after that Bully came up behind me like clockwork right before the sustained descending started.  We have a routine where he catches me about there and then I show him how to crash at high speeds in spectacular fashion.  Not sure what he was thinking but he passed me a bit too early and he missed my crash this year.

We were in a pretty good pace line probably about halfway down ripping through a few quick S turns and I came out just a bit wide on the last one and my front wheel got out into the sluff and I took a dive.  Happened so fast I didn't even really let go of the handlebars, just high sided pretty hard and flipped over and rolled down the embankment a bit.  Luckily it was nice soft loam.

Finished up the lap without getting passed back and got back to slogging back up.  Second lap I was riding much cleaner and getting into more of a groove.  Was still feeling pretty sluggish though, no real punch.  By the time I got into the second descent I was starting to get pretty thrashed.  If riding steel is rigid, riding carbon up front is rigid+.  Without a doubt this fork is much more harsh than the Sanko steel Redline fork I was on last year.  But to its credit it may beat the crap out of you but when you point it it locks in and it shreds.  I'm going to have to do some heavy pondering though.  Steel is still pretty accurate when it comes to steering and compared to this fork is down right comfortable.  I'm going to have to decide if the accuracy and weight is worth the punishment.  I'm not making any decisions yet but short term I've got a line on Bully's old red Salsa fork and long term I might need to actually think about suspension...maybe.  Don't hold your breath.

The other thing I sort of took for granted was the callouses that I usually have pretty well built up by this time of year.  No time on dirt means no callouses, combine that with a much more brutal front end and you have a recipe for this.

gwoss.

Luckily adrenaline kept me from really feeling this during the race.  I could feel things getting a bit squishy and I was fairly certain what I was in for when I crossed the line.  And sure enough two big blood stains on the palms of my gloves.  I got right to trying to gross everyone out in the finish area.  I got a lot of "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU" and "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WILL YOU JUST BUY SOME SUSPENSION"

Held my position for 6th of 10 starters (with one DNF).  My time was about on par with what I usually do on this course although I do think I probably lost more time of the descents than I usually do.  And even with all these issues I still beat an ok percentage of the geared Expert field.  So all in all it was an ok day and the shoulder is holding up well today so I'm gonna chalk it up as a win.  A raw, bloody, squishy WIN.