Doublehead: Round 2

Winter seems to have finally arrived in New England.  At least as far as snow cover goes.  We are now clear of #Blizzard2015 and another sleeper event a few days later that dropped a decent amount across NH.  As is usually the case after a few days like that Bill reached out looking to get into the BC somewhere.

We were both looking for somewhat of an easier shakedown tour.  We were both on new setups for the first time and also both looking at our first days skinning for the year.  Always nice to ease into it and we were looking at forecasts for some brutally cold temps and wind on the day.

We decided on getting the Doublehead ski trail, an old CCC trail we had both done together back in 2009 (has it really been that long?!). We were both pretty green in the backcountry game back then.  It is really fun to look back on that post to see what I packed and how silly of an endeavor that was compared to how easy and straight forward our second attempt was.

view of Washington from N. Doublehead

The snow was good albeit a bit tracked out. We got there pretty early but Doublehead is a popular spot being right in Jackson and being a somewhat easier run it caters to a wide range of folks.  We were probably 3rd or 4th up.  Skin up was nice.  Certainly way better than hauling all your gear with snowshoes.  New skins were great, lots of grab although I think my G3's had way better glide but that might have been partially due to the days snow conditions.  I'm not a huge fan of the tail clip.  I was worried about them after trimming the skins and I definitely had a fun time trying to get them off with cold hands on the transition at the top.  Not horrible but way trickier than my old G3's and on a day like yesterday a few extra mins struggling with a tail clip can mean you get pretty damn cold.

double fall line!

you'd think it was nice and warm. you'd be wrong.

Hi Mom!

I actually got the layering just about right and was able to regulate my temp by keeping my pace reasonable and shedding mittens and unzipping halfway up.  Other than the tail clips I was able to actually transition pretty quickly.  Somewhat surprising since I am usually pretty rusty first time around and bumble with my skins.  I guess crazy cold temps and wind can get you focused a bit on being quick and efficient.

Ski down was great.  Its a fun trail, uses the terrain well and is decently steep in spots.  Keeps things interesting and is just long enough to feel worth it and get a nice burn going.  Couldn't have asked for a better shakedown.  Just enough to test gear and fitness but not leave me shredded.  More snow in the forecast tonight into tomorrow. Looking good for more days like this one in the near future.

MLK Super Weekend

On the surface this past weekend sucked.  Weather in my area was horrible. Brutal cold Saturday followed by a big warmup and tons of rain Sunday afternoon / evening into Monday.  Thanks New England!  BUT there were windows of opportunity and with a bit of travel I was able to turn this weekend into a SUPER weekend.

I had to bail on a KT ride Saturday due to -19 degree temps with some silly wind chill values.  I really wanted to get a bit more time on the fat bike before my next race Thurs so when I woke up Sunday and temps were reasonable and the rain was still en route I decided to make a stab at FFD.

Luckily Franklin seems to have reached a critical mass of winter trail users that has been consistently getting at least a subset of the trails packed out and perfect for fat biking within a week or so of fresh snow.  I'm getting better at layering at different winter temps and some of my new winter riding gear is making a world of difference.

Gina got me some Bar Mitts for Christmas and I think I can safely say that they (or something similar) are a MUST for winter riding.  Its like night and day.  Keeping my fingers warm seemed to be that impossible task that no matter what you tried it never seemed to pan out.  Now with the bar mitts I can wear a light glove in just about any temp and be completely fine.  And it only took me about 1/4 of one ride to get used to getting my hands in and out on the fly.  Couldn't be happier with them.

this was from several weeks ago. lots more snow now.

I also have several rides in on my new winter shoes the Louis Garneau LS-100 0 degree's.  Also a great purchase that makes a HUGE difference.  Its nice being able to clip in and ride like I'm used to.  My first few rides on the flats were not as bad as I thought they'd be but clipping in is always better.  My only warning on the LS-100's is they run small.  Half size up.  Mine are going to work and I don't feel like dealing with returning etc. but if I did I would get a half size larger.

I got a great 9+ mile ride in before the freezing mist started and then I hunkered down for what I thought would be a lazy Sunday / Monday avoiding the crappy local weather.  Then late Sunday I got a text from Jake.  Day care was staying open for MLK and he had a hall pass and an extra voucher to Jay and was looking for a wing man.  SIGN ME UP.

Most forecasts had called for Jay to get mostly snow and be just about the best place to be for down mountain shredding.  I figured it'd be a great last second get but I had no idea how ideally the entire day would set up...

I will preface this recap by saying this was, to date, the best post-college ski day I've had.  I specify post-college because our college years were far too jam packed with big days, travel to Europe etc. responsibilities were low so we got just about every big day there was.  And I've gotten plenty of big days post college but as life responsibilities increase there is more that goes into a 'big day' and most big days come with a price.  Horrific travel, home owner duties...all that good stuff.

So nowadays when I'm talking about the BEST ski day I'm talking a balance between gnar conditions at the mountain and 0 gnar life conditions and Monday was all of that.  A perfect storm of perfect old man considerations.  A zero stress drive.  Roads were completely fine on the way up, not death defying in the slightest.  Jay had gotten 8-10in of lighter than expected snow.  Temps were right around freezing with reasonable wind and it snowed just about all day.  Crowds were non existent, didn't wait in one significant lift line all day with most lifts being ski-on all day.  Despite the snow during the day the only road that needed attention was the access road.  After that it was stress free smooth sailing all the way home.  And when I got home I didn't have to shovel or rake my roof or do anything home owner related.  AND I GOT FIRST TRACKS IN ARGUABLY THE BEST GLADED RUN IN NEW ENGLAND.

one of the best single runs of my snow riding career

Still don't know how it happened. We didn't rush over there in the slightest but we found ourselves breaking trail on the hike up and over.  Coverage was good and the snow was deep.  It was a bit surreal.  This was a forgiving, go as fast as you want, waist deep in the troughs, face shot snorkel fest.  We couldn't help but laugh the whole way down.

later in the day and still SUPER DUPER

 I tried real hard to get Jake to ride this tree but he has kids to think about now

So yeah, I'll stop rubbing it in. It was good. Real good. After this weekend I'm realizing my current winter recreation status means I can almost completely ignore the weather.  No matter what it does I'll be able to either fat bike in decent conditions or ski in decent conditions.  I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD.

Framed Minnesota 1.0 (YAY FAT BIKES!)

Ok so I guess its time to finally post my take on these wonderfully wide tire'd marvels of modern ingenuity.

I've got about 35mi on my new Framed Minnesota 1.0 and I'm a believer. Fat bikes have been the talk of the industry in a major way for probably the last two years or so.  Now that they have plowed through the gimmick phase more and more manufacturers are getting in on the game and offering tons and tons of options.

I had been waiting for the solid budget option seeing as much of my winter money goes towards skiing.  It very much seems like Framed has become the budget model of choice at least by what I can tell by chatter in New England.  Seems like I was hearing them talked about constantly this Fall and they certainly have figured out a pretty good formula with their Minnesota line.

I added more reflectors since this pic

Classic XC geometry, modest parts spec and super affordable.  Perfect stable bike if you ask me.  Get in cheap, make sure you like it and will use it regularly and then upgrade parts accordingly.  I prefer the trickle down approach so as I upgrade my race bike my fat bike also gets more awesome.  I feel like the Minnesota 1.0 is to fat bikes what the Redline Monocog was to SS when it was the stable bike everyone wanted to experiment with a few years ago.

So far the bike is holding up well.  I beat on it pretty well this past weekend.  Headset needed to be snugged up at about mile 20 of our ride but that's no big deal and very possibly could have come a bit loose from the factory.  I got my first pinch flat as well which was fun.  Dealing with fat bike tires/tubes trail side is hilarious.

I was running Central NH snow riding pressure not Southern NH dirt/rocks pressure and found a big rock and got the biggest snake bite I've ever seen.  I don't even own spare fat tubes yet so I had to patch a tube for the first time in years.  Luckily I was actually riding with my camelbak and had a patch kit.  I think I'm going to need to purchase a new trail pump for fat biking though.  My little crank brothers pump doesn't cut it.  I would probably still be out there pumping if I didn't get a pump from someone else.

The bike rides really well.  I feel at home on it like I did with my old Monocog.  That standard XC geometry just seems to work well for me.  Climbs a lot better than expected as well which is nice.  The only thing I need to get used to is the inertia of the wheels and the whole 'self steering' phenomenon.  Its a weird feeling that is hard to explain but suffice it to say there is a lot of rolling weight and sometimes it just kinda does what it wants.

I was commenting on it on this past ride and several of the more experienced fat bikers said tires can make a big difference with that so I might be looking into a new set based on their recommendations.  I also always seem to get better at offsetting it the longer I ride it.  Start out a bit shaky but within a few miles I'm good to go.

I can certainly see the appeal of these things.  They definitely bring back the adventure aspect of riding.  A little less emphasis on fitness and efficiency and more on FUN.  I think its the same reason gravel bikes are as big as they are right now.  Its the same concept but for roadies.  Cyclists are currently buying adventure and fun.  You can call the bike whatever you want but that's what we're buying right now.  The nice thing is while I'm having all this adventure and fun my legs are also hauling around a 35-40lb bike with a good portion of that weight being rotational. #secretworkout

Salomon Q-98's and BCA Magic Carpet's AKA my new AT Setup

New Toys!

After a few seasons of only a few AT excursions PSU students had to go and vote for Waterville Valley to receive the Student Senate Ski Package this year and dramatically heighten my need for a slightly more legit AT setup.  My old G3's served me well and were a great setup at a great price for my introduction to touring.

Now they are again the first setup for a freshman at Bowdoin and I met the guy to sell them at the exact same location I met the guy I bought them from.  Nice and poetic.

I was very fortunate to get a Salomon hookup through a coworkers wife who works at a nordic center.  Proform is a very niiiiiiiiiice.  I ended up going with the Q Series Q-98 in a 180.  I needed some convincing from Dustin that 180 was the length to go.  Felt long, but I've been a bit out of the ski tech game for a bit and these early rise tip/tail skis ride quite a bit shorter and Salomon even has a honeycomb tip structure that is super light and makes for low swing weight.

Also ended up finding a deal on some Tyrolia Adrenaline AT bindings through Promotive.com as well as the BCA skins making the whole setup downright affordable.

This past Thursday I got a great opportunity to get my first test run on the new boards in 4-6in of fresh powder that eventually turned into some heavier junk bumps mid day.  First few runs were magnificent.  Such a good ski for me.  Super well rounded.  Confidence inspiring at speed, great edge hold.  Floats well and is surprisingly quick.  Once the terrain turned a bit more variable is when they really shined, particularly compared to the K2s I've been on to date.  Super stable, weren't bothered by crud at all.  Held lines like a champ.

And can I just say hook free taper is GOING TO CHANGE MY LIFE.

Such a simple concept but I doubt I'll ever want to ride a ski without it ever again.  Basically the widest part of the sidecut is quite a bit farther from the tip than is traditionally the case.  Keeps the tips from hooking in rough snow as well as the tips of the skis from getting hung up on each other when getting knocked together.

I've always had a huge problem with that with my K2s because of those damn decorative rivets they insist on putting on skis.  NEVER AGAIN.

The only thing I didn't get to test is how they do in the really tight trees.  My guess is there will be a slight learning curve.  Because I have been on softer park-esque boards for so long I think my style in the trees has adopted a bit of a 'smear' vibe that will probably be harder to do on these skis.  But with them primarily being my AT setup that scenario probably won't be too common anyhow.

Skins arrived a few days ago and I trimmed them up today.  Kinda wanted to just get G3 skins again but was able to get a much better deal on the BCA's and the reviews were pretty good.  They do seem like a solid skin although I definitely like the tail clip from my old G3s better and I also really appreciated the trim tool with built in offset.

I actually ended up just running the skins right to the edge and skipped doing the offset all together because it was just that annoying.  I also found enough articles of people who actually don't do the offset either for various reasons so I figured what the hell.  I can always trim the offset in later if I have problems.

Very much looking forward to my first tour on these bad boys.

Macho Man beef'd up

Twitter keeps telling me that #cxiscoming.  Its also telling me #crossisdead.  WHICH ONE IS IRONIC?! Although I think my favorite is #crossisdad due to the fact that so many guys who race cross are middle aged fathers.

I'm officially reg'd for some races and I'm ready to get this experiment rolling but my bike was still in 'road mode' until yesterday.  Conversion to cx mode was incredibly easy and just reaffirmed my thoughts that this is the best build idea I've ever had.  So versatile and so orange.

Conversion really only consisted of new chainrings and tires and swapping pedals.  Thats it.  BOOM cross mode.  I also splurged on some bar tape.  Lizard Skins DSP 2.5mm, pricey but AMAZING.  Its a bit 'rubbery' for lack of a better term but the increase in shock absorption is awesome and its even got a bit of stickum to it.  If you can get over the price tag I Highly recommend it (with a capital H).

Swapped out the 50/34 compact road setup for a more cx friendly 46/36.  Its still an ok range of gears for general road riding so I probably could still put the 25c tires back on there if I wanted to do some longer road rides this fall.  Although I definitely missed the 34 on a couple of the steeper dirt roads back by the house on my test ride this morning.  I actually got away without needing to drop the FD a bit.  Shifting was fine on the stand and on the ride this morning but I'll probably drop it a bit before racing to make sure I'm not dropping the chain constantly.

For tires I went with the Clemente Crusade PDX.  Eric is all about the Clementes and they seem to make some great stuff.  Particularly in the gravel and cx arena.  They mounted up awesome.  Ever since #shittywrists became a thing I have a huge appreciation for tire manufacturers who size stuff correctly so you don't need to give yourself a hernia getting the tire on the rim.  Not going to run them tubeless this year.  I've had so many issues with tubeless on my MTB that I've just assumed that the Universe doesnt have that in the cards for me this year.  Plus I've heard some horror stories of tubeless setups not working well with cx at all but I guess we'll see.  They seem like a good all-round tire and traction was great on the jeep roads today.

I'll probably be modifying some of my lunch rides to have some cx practice mixed in.  Maybe ride Gyro and ride around in fields and run up embankments and the what not.  Maybe jump some barriers, who knows I don't know how this stuff works.

keep CX weird

Another Month Slips by...

You'd think by my silence here and with my continuing health issues that I'd be doing nothing and falling into a deep deep depression.  But you'd be wrong.  If anything I've been too busy to post and my wrists have been ping-ponging so much every time I think I have some progress worth reporting things relapse and I think I'm screwed once again.

But I'm happy to report that my wrists have trended well for long enough that I feel like updating on that front as well as all the other crap I've been up to.  Last really bad weekend I had was my bach'fest weekend.  I don't know if anyone noticed.  I've gotten pretty good at compartmentalizing the pain.  Not sure what I did but Saturday night into Sunday morning was less than awesome.  Luckily that weekend was 150% full blown awesome so it more than balanced things out.

Luckily I had a PT appointment shortly after that trip and we tried a new treatment called Graston Technique.  It's fairly brutal but I love it.  Basically involves a series of metal tools with different shapes / edges that get 'scraped' along muscles to break up adhesions.  Doc went to town on my right forearm and the next day was a complete 180 from that #shittywrist weekend.

There have been a few mini relapses since then but I've gotten a second Graston treatment and some new stretches to focus on the remaining aspects of my mobility that have improved the least since we started and they really seem to be helping.  Everyday I'm gaining more and more confidence that this isn't something nasty that is insurmountable.  I'm heading back in to see the Ortho in a week or so and I will be pressuring him hard to use his Doctor brain to posit some additional theories other than Rheumatoid.

In and among the ups and downs I've managed to stay pretty active this summer, albeit without any racing.  This ordeal has created a bit of a shake up in what I can and can't do for fun and fitness and some good has actually come from this.  Not only have I managed to stay fit but I think I'm probably climbing as well as I ever have on my road bike.  VAM numbers are consistently over 1,000 and I've even been flirting with road KOMs again.  Ideally I would love to be able to ride off road a bit more but road seems to work a bit better for me right now and being able to do gravel and dirt on the Macho Man has been awesome.  So many new loops and opportunities for really interesting rides.

For instance last week Eric and I rode out of the shop and in the span of 18mi got over 2,000ft of climbing taking in the access road up the back of Belknap Mountain.  Crazy steep dirt switchbacks, actually felt like a true alpine climb although it wasn't really all that long.  Then after the sketchy descent we cut through the woods on an old trial that was just a bit wider than singletrack.

My inability to get on a bike first thing in the morning due to wrist stiffness has also introduced the lunch ride into my arsenal.  I loved commuting but I think I might like consistent lunch rides better.  I think one of the big reasons my fitness is what it is right now has been these faster / harder 10mi loops on lunch.  Target a few segments and before you know it I've been accidentally training for CX for weeks.

Speaking of CX that should be hilarious.  I've got my USA Cycling license and I'm looking forward to showing up to my first Cat 5 race in a full on pink skinsuit.  I think CX could be my savior this year.  I can get my racing fix without a huge time commitment or as much risk for my wrists.

I'm interested to see what this will mean for me long term.  Assuming I get past this whole wrist thing I can't honestly say its likely I return to my full blown MTB race schedule of years past.  If CX works and I like it I see myself targeting 2-4 MTB races with the primary goal being the team and having fun then getting a few additional CX races in the Fall.  I know now I can get my fitness without racing a bike hard all the time.  Without the full race schedule this year I've gotten to spend more time with Gina which has been great.  Trips to the beach, getting up to Littleton.  I was able to snag a 4,000ft'er with Mike.  Racing is great, setting and reaching goals is great but ultimately meaningless when compared to the other stuff.  Don't forget to enjoy the view.

Who knows maybe I had spent too much time leaning in one direction and this whole year has been the Universe helping me to balance things back out.  I would have preferred a less drastic approach but if I'm being honest with myself nothing short of this would have worked.

Linking Franklin Falls, Highland XC & Spaulding Woods

I've had this idea in my head for a bit now, maybe a year or so?  Highland and Spaulding have come a long way in a short time with their XC trails.  They don't have a ton of mileage per se but the quality of what is there now is really good and definitely worth checking out.

I was fairly certain that linking them all up via bike would certainly be possible but I wasn't sure if it would be more of a slog where you could say 'OK I did that but never again'.  I'm happy to report that not only is it not a slog at all but it is down right reasonable if not fully enjoyable.  That is if you like riding your bike for 4-6hrs.


I pitched the idea to Doug P. who certainly likes riding his bike for as long as possible and he signed right up. We started the day at FFD riding everything on offer there.  Its nice to be able to ride the first 10 or so miles there as a warm up without really needing to haul much gear because you can always stop at the car to grab extra gear before hitting the road.  Grabbed a few bottles and my camelbak and we set off down the road.

We took Babbitt Rd. off Rt.127 to Sanborn St.  Eventually Sanborn turns into dirt (at Calef Hill) road name might technically change as well but who knows really. After a short distance that dirt road veers right and probably turns into someones driveway but if you stay straight it turns into a logging / jeep road that Google calls Pest House Rd.

Pest House was actually a pleasant surprise.  It was interesting riding terrain, a bit like some of the stuff in NH100.  Rutted out double track with some boulders here and there  There was a small logging operation going and there was a sign that said 'Motion Cameras in Use' but I think that is probably more to deter the jeeps tearing everything up.  It was a nice little climb heading out and a really fun/fast descent coming back.

The rest of the way was pavement over to Highland.  A nice cruise into Tilton and then a bit of a climb up to Highland.  Highlands XC network was interesting.  Really well built trails but geared a bit more towards the dualie crowd if you ask me.  Don't get me wrong they are some sweet trails but if you are on a hardtail you had better stay attentive.  Lots of up and down (ski hill go figure).  Up the fireroad climb and pick a trail down...repeat.

Getting over to Spaulding Woods is incredibly easy.  Basically a straight shot on Keasor Rd. which turns into Reservoir and then you cross Bay Hill and get onto Spaulding Rd.  The School cut a nice access trail called Pat's Outback so that you can get to the trail system without cutting across the school trails/property.  After getting everything  at Spaulding its a nice easy cruise down into Tilton and a stop at a gas station for a refuel.

After that its a gentle climb back up to Pest House a fun rip down and back to FFD.  Around 40 miles with half of that being single track.  Not too shabby.  AND its some of the best flowy / fast single track in NH along with some great technical / enduro-ish stuff at Highland and a bit of a mix of everything at Spaulding.  Something for everyone.  Dare a say a perfect little endurance ride?  Good ratio of trail to connector. Places to stop for calories at good intervals not sure what else you would really need?

I'm looking forward to doing this one again as well as linking FFD and Page Hill and maybe one day linking them all.  I'm also trying to figure out linking Ahern to Ramblin Vewe on the other side of the lakes.  That should be another easy one and if I new Laconia a bit better that would be mostly singletrack but I don't know the sandpits well enough yet.  Maybe I can talk Eric into that one soon....BIKES!

Spot Rocker Wuss Mode Complete

As most of you know I've been slowly working my way to a modified ride that my new frail body can handle and actually ride consistently without crumbling under the stress.  And even though #kevinsfakingit I'm convinced now that I have made the right call and that I'll actually be able to ride this thing consistently in a way that will make me happy and allow me to keep riding it even on consecutive days.

Will I ever really be able to race it again? Maybe yes maybe no.  Thats where things get a bit weird and my answer to that changes constantly.  In the days leading up to today it would have been a certain yes but this morning I had a somewhat random bad day where riding (at least this morning) would have been totally out of the question.  If today had been lets say July 19th there is no way I could have started Carrabassett.  Never knowing when those days are going to happen makes it hard to drop $115 on race reg.

So in the mean time I'll just try to ride my bike a bunch.  #wussmode Engage!

#wussmode

This transformation happened somewhat piecemeal but here is the full change log:

Wuss cockpit: 10mm shorter stem to bring the bars back and shift more weight off my hands as well as some riser bars to bring my stance up.  Finished it off by going back to the GX-1 Ergon grips.  I think they do a great job of relieving pressure on the ulna side of the wrist which is my biggest trouble spot.  The pair I had before had stripped clamps but it feels like they've made some design tweaks since then and I don't think spinning or stripping will be an issue with these. I went with PRO white, which is always a mistake because they get gross looking eventually but for now they look SWEET.

Wuss drivetrain: 1 x 10! Its the new single speed! Literally everyone is doing it.  If I was healthy I would still be SS without a doubt but I actually really like this setup.  I actually surprisingly took right back to riding gears at NEMBAfest.  I really like the ability they give me to ride lots of miles and not get tired.  This setup makes the riding I like to do that much easier for me to pull off reasonably AND allows me to do those rides much more frequently without being utterly exhausted.  True, I'm not getting as strong as I would be doing that all single speed but I've become ok with that.  Like Jake said I've put in enough pain, its time to cash in.

Plus gears work so much better now than they did the last time I used them 8 years ago! Who would have thought that was even possible??? These new fangled wide-narrow rings are pretty simple and amazing.  Completely changes the game with these '1 by' setups.  And these clutch derailleurs are spot on, quiet, they come with a lockout for easier wheel changes and maintenance.  Just about everything I hated about gears has been addressed.  Nice work bike industry!

My Strava feed is going to be polluted with all kinds of rides like this one.  Look for me to be linking everything, all the time, worldwide.

NEMBAfest 2014

Sweet Jesus.  There is no way I'm going to be able to adequately put into words how awesome this event is.  If you ride a bike in New England (or beyond) and you somehow come up with some reason to not attend you are probably a bit mental.  Sure there are some legit excuses but all attempts should be made to experience the awesome of a full weekend of killer everything bike related.

My weekend went about as well as I could have hoped for.  I had some reservations as to how my body was going to hold up.  This was my first time back on dirt in weeks and I was going to be testing out all of my bike modifications for the first time.  All of which it turns out were good decisions for me, at least for right now.

Cockpit changes are definitely a lot more comfortable and the gears allow me to sit and grind heading up so I don't have to rip the front end back and forth.  I was certain I was going to ride a geared bike all wrong but surprisingly I remembered to actually use the gears in most cases and even remembered to shift before the drivetrain was under a lot of load.  Hard to say if I was truly any faster over all.  I wasn't exactly hammering and I was certainly climbing certain sections slower but I can tell you without doubt I was riding similarly fast MUCH more efficiently.  Riding gears is so easy.  I kept waiting to get really tired and it never really happened.  All told I got 50+ miles on dirt this weekend.

It felt really good to be riding a bit like myself again.  I still get some pain when the speeds get high and the terrain gets a bit chattery or chunky but for the most part I was riding about how I would have.  I was even accused by Mick of faking this entire time.

I was still waking up with quite a bit of stiffness and soreness but some painkillers and stretching got me back on terms by mid morning to the point that I felt ok to ride again with help from my braces.  Didn't really seem to get any worse day to day so there was no real cumulative effect.  So I guess the order is keep working at the PT and feel free to mix dirt back into the mix.

The only thing I'm worried about is that now that I'm close enough to "full health" I'll just go back in full bore and I'll never make it past this point so I'll need to be careful / smart.  I'm already itching to do bigger rides on the MTB now and I was even starting to think about Carrabassett being a reality for me.  I'm going to try and be good though and go at this in a very calculated way.

Weekend didn't go ALL good though.  The biggest tragedy was snapping the rail on my beloved SDG Bel-Air that I have been riding probably for at least the last 10 years.  It finally gave up on my night ride Friday but like a true gladiator it somehow remained solid even with one completely sheared rail and got me home just fine.  Luckily I was able to get a saddle at the expo the next day.  My best option was a WTB Silverado Slimline that I actually kinda like now after riding it 30+miles Saturday and Sunday.  If you are going to break something do it at a giant festival, you'll be covered no problem.

I was also really pleased with the team presence at the event.  It really seems like at least a subset of the team is really 'gel'ing' well.  I have high hopes for the future.

Check 1, 2

Oh man has it really been a month since my last post?

So many things movin' and shakin'.  PT has begun and progress is being made.  I still can't really rule out there isn't some nasty underlying issue causing all this but it definitely seems like I'm going to be able to get myself to a better place doing these various stretches and exercises regularly.  I've got all kinds of cool PT toys now and I'm doing things like the 'reverse waiter' and 'the chipmunk game'.

I'm also crashing my cross bike and getting covered in road rash.  Does that count as therapy?  I didn't put my hands out to break my fall so no setbacks in that department.  Just a bunch of annoying scabs on my elbow and knee.  This was the first time I've crashed on a 'road' ride since I got pinched out of a B2B ride peloton into a parked car.  It was a pretty classic dirt road goof on my part.  Too much speed into a 90 degree turn and choose the wrong rut to commit to.


I was probably only 2 miles from home at the end of a 55+ mile ride.  I was pretty gas'd and just trying to limp back in.  I had a few options on how to get home and I choose the one with a bigger early descent instead of finishing off a bigger climb.  Whoops.  That steep descent led to the turn in question.  Dove into the turn and the dirt just disintegrated and my wheel dug in.  Luckily it sloughed a bit and I didn't endo and explode.  I tried quickly to muscle through but I was just too tired and flopped into the ditch.  It was relatively "controlled" but it doesn't take much for that gravely dirt to shred all your skin off.

I am thoroughly digging these mixed dirt/road rides I've been focusing on lately.  Getting in some new routes and locations that I've been missing out on all these years.  Dirt roads around here seem to be guaranteed hilly and many of these rides have been chock full of vert.

On the MTB front the mods continue.  Finally got around to installing my new cockpit setup.  Shorter stem, riser bars and (although not in this pic) I re-found my Ergon grips that I ran a year or two ago.  I had totally forgot I had them and remembered that the only reason I stopped running them was because I couldn't get them to grip my carbon bars and they would spin under higher SS torque.  Bar is aluminum now and there will also be less torque due to my second mod decision which is GEARS.

I know. Blasphemy.  It was a hard decision to make.  But I think it was the right one.  At least for awhile.  Sitting and spinning at times will be much easier for my wrists and gears will actually allow me to do some of the longer format rides I like to do a bit easier and more time efficient by being able to actually pedal the flats etc.

Bike is at Chainline now, parts are ordered for the 1x10 conversion.  Just waiting on a new dropout with a hanger from Spot and hopefully I'll have it converted and ready to ride for NEMBAfest.  That will be my first time back on dirt in weeks.  Cautiously optimistic.

Plans and Mods

The battle continues...

Lately I feel like I'm making a bit of ground. Emphasis on bit.  I'm laying off the MTB for now and lately I've really been trying to avoid pronation and supination (rotational wrist movements) as much as possible.  Lately it seems like that is causing me 80-90% of my pain and avoiding it and making modifications to my day to day dealings at work and at home seems to be working.

I met with my ortho this morning and he is still pretty hell bent on me having inflammatory arthritis and RA specifically.  He was ready to refer me to a rheumatologist and put me on steroids but I told him to chill out and that I wanted to try PT and continue with pain management and activity modification first to see how far I could get.  So I've got a referral to an upper extremity specialist and I start in just under two weeks.  I'm hoping they are so booked because they are really good.

As part of this process I also made a few purchases this week to change up my riding position a bit on some of my bikes.  Shorter stems for my road/cx and MTB to bring the bars in and put a bit more weight back and off my hands.  Gel pads for under the bar tape and some road gloves full of gel as well (SO MUCH GEL).  Also got some riser bars for the MTB to bring the hands up and back even more.  I'm also going to try double wrapping my MTB bars in padded gel bar tape instead of grips to see how that works.

I have high hopes for the PT.  I'm trying to be optimistic but I really do think that I could get to a much better place if I was doing the right stretches and strengthening exercises regularly.  I'm hoping that between a stronger joint and some ride position modifications I can at least ride pain free if not quite as intensely as I'm used to.  I think I can eventually let go of the drive to become a faster racer/rider.  What I really need at this point is to be able to ride (on and off road) and not be completely wrecked in the following days.

But seriously, who wants to ride some Gran Fondos? June 14th. VT. Be there.

Rollercoaster of PAIN

Peaks and troughs. Loopty-loops. Zero gravity. This ride has it all.

Here's your monthly? weekly? I forget how often I've posted about my well being already. Dementia must be setting in.  We'll go with 'periodic' health update.

By now you all know that TVR went pretty bad.  Even taped and braced TVR was just too much.  Set me back a bit but I got back on top of things in time for a little road ride Wed.  That ride felt pretty good.  Fitness is maybe a bit behind but still within my normal range for this time of year.  Wrists held up fine and I even noticed on one of the climbs that rocking the bike back and forth and using my wrist flexor muscles actually alleviated some pressure in my wrists.  I continued with some very light exercises later that night and the next morning that really seemed to help.

Further confirming a theory I've had of late that not all of the acute pain I'm dealing with now is arthritis.  I think there is also a muscular / tendon issue in there as well.  A while back I randomly realized that putting some pressure at certain spots on my flexors or extensors actually provided a bit of relief.  As funny as it sounds a tennis elbow strap actually seems to provide me a small amount of pressure release as well as a small increase in range of motion.

I think I may have developed some kind of muscle imbalance that might be snowballing on me a bit.  Riding off road seems to be getting a bit harder/worse for me lately than it was even a few weeks ago.  I rode Franklin last night which is in no way anywhere near TVR and by many accounts is probably one of the buffest places you can ride in New England and it was still way more painful than I would have liked.  I was able to get around at a decent pace but it hurt and I've definitely got some swelling and even during riding I was starting to feel some fatigue and pain in my forearm muscles further confirming my thought about some sort of developing muscle issue.  It seems like the issue I'm having now is more with grip strength and pain created by compression in the joint while griping/holding the bars and my EVS braces can't really guard against any of that.


I go back to the orthopedist next Wednesday and the plan is to try and get setup with a PT hopefully who specializes in upper extremities.  My gut is telling me there is a good chance that if I can figure out the puzzle of which muscle(s)/tendon(s) is tight/loose/aggravated I can get to a much better place.  In the meantime I think I need to steer clear of the MTB.  Its not working right now and I feel like every time I ride it its setting me back.  Road still seems to be fine so I will be racking up the miles in the meantime.  Maybe this year I'll just do Gran Fondo's and Dirt Road Randonee's.

But to be honest, who the hell knows.  I think at this point I've changed my outlook and plans 300 times in the last 6 weeks.  So this weekend I'll head to Willowdale for the team and to volunteer but I'll be chalking up a DNS unfortunately.

Who wants to ride some road?

NEMBA Racing Kick-Off

Well I can't say it went off without a hitch but it was pretty close.  We did have one rider fall off the pace a bit and we didn't manage regroups well enough early and he ended up calling it a day within the first few miles.  I feel bad about it and I learned some lessons in how to try and manage that better, I guess that's all you can hope for.

I'm very excited about this year though.  We've got a good group of people that all look pretty motivated and ready to go.  I've even finally got two riders who are committed to riding/racing a bunch of Enduro this year and are willing to help me lay the groundwork for a full Enduro team as part of the program next year.

Meet and Greet was part of the agenda and the other part for me was additional testing of body and gear under trail riding conditions.  Believe it or not this was my first time back on dirt and I had no idea how wrists would behave under actual off road riding conditions.  My EVS WB01 wrists braces and my new X-Fusion Slide29 fork were getting their first go-round of paceline decently paced riding.  Make or break time.

I've already had a pretty good idea that the braces were going to work pretty well based on my initial commuting and road experiments.  And they are geared more towards an MTB riding hand position so I was fairly certain they were going to work great as far as support.  What I wasn't sure about was comfort deeper into a longer/bumpier ride.  Happy to report I didn't have any issues with hotspots or circulation getting cut off.  They stayed put and support on the axis they were designed for was great.

One thing I did notice was I'm still a bit vulnerable side to side with those little wiggle moves you have to do sometimes in fast twisty stuff.  I had a bit of pain and weakness at times that bumped me from my line or had me adjusting speed to make sure I didn't lose control.  Not sure there is going to be much I can do about that, just one of the concessions I'm going to need to make.  Good thing is tight and twisty is one of my fortes so even at 3/4 I'm just as fast/good as a lot of other riders.  And interestingly enough about 6-7mi into the ride things started to loosen up a bit (probably just due to adrenaline and endorphins) and that pain/weakness went away and I was shredding at just about full speed without issue.

Going along hand in hand with my ability to shred is my new fork. WHICH I LOVE.  In all aspects.  I was probably most surprised with the steering accuracy.  Absolutely no issues holding true lines.  The action was incredibly smooth, forgot it was there for a majority of the ride.  Their suggested 70psi seems to be ideal for my weight and with the rebound set at about halfway I couldn't be happier with its trail qualities.  The lockout behaved great, although I didn't need it much.  Pretty amazed I could get a fork this good for just north of $300.

So long story short my body and gear held up surprisingly well and I would say 6-7mi into the ride I was riding just as fast as a 'pre all these issues' me would have been riding this time of year.  Lots of enjoyment was had.  BUT...

I woke up this morning to some pretty thrashed wrists.  I think I could have avoided this a bit with a better more aggressive post ride ice routine instead I went straight to beer and burgers.  I'm going to have to experiment with just how far and diligent I need to be about that but I think I'm going to have to do what it takes to always have access to copious amounts of ice post ride no matter what.  I need to develop a full post ride anti-inflammation attack plan and implement it with extreme prejudice.

What Have I Learned This Week

Bunch of stuff.

1. Cortisone shots can hurt pretty good but that is one hell of a drug.
2. On One Midge bars aren't great if you have #shittywrists (at least that is my experience)
3. EVS makes some sweet wrist braces
4. My new 'road' bike is seriously kick ass
5. I won't be able to shred singletrack with complete abandon but I will be able to shred

Saw the foot Doc this past Wed.  He was a bit confused as to the amount of swelling I still had around the joints in question.  I told him about some of my other diagnoses I had received and he explained that it could be arthritis and that rheumatoid can very frequently present in the small toe joints.  He wanted me to get tested for the full slew of auto-immune stuff again that I already got and tested negative for.  So its still a guessing game.  Symptoms say one thing, tests say the other.  Somebody get me Dr. House.

I did end up getting a cortisone shot in the foot to deal with the symptoms and man do those things hurt.  It wasn't all that bad in the grand scheme but for some reason I was expecting no worse than a tetanus shot so it snuck up on me a bit.  But once that stuff kicked in...Magic.  We'll see how long it holds.

Tried commuting on Friday.  Ended up being a bit colder in the morning than forecast and I didn't layer all that well so that was awesome.  I also realized fairly quickly that my wrists didn't really like any of my available hand positions with the Midge bars.  Something about the flare and the brake levers being slightly off axis just doesn't work.  The reach to the levers was always a bit far and now with reduced grip strength my braking power isn't awesome.  Throw in numb fingers and you've got yourself an exciting ride.

I think I'm going to need to make some changes, first to the bars and possible even to a set of brifters.  The bar end shifters were a bit hard to work with at the angle they are at and they aren't indexed which also makes them a bit harder to work with when you don't have the best dexterity.  Gonna swap the bars to a pair of standard road drops I have in the parts bin to see what I get and go from there.

Got my first experience with the EVS wrist braces this weekend both with my road bike and on a quick MTB shakedown ride down the road.  I'm going to save the official review for a bit more ride time but so far I am very pleased and its looking like my ability to continue riding is all but assured.

Speaking of my 'road' bike I love it a real lot.  Did a nice little mixed 70/30 pavement/dirt ride around the neighborhood and while my fitness is god awful right now I really enjoyed being able to just go wherever I want and have a bike that is more than capable.  I am sticking by the Macho Man being one of my best build decisions ever.

Also had a few minutes to kill Sunday and I really wanted to see how my fork rides and the braces feel on the MTB before the team meet and greet ride this coming Sunday so I threw on my shoes, helmet and braces and took off down the road.  Granted it was a half mile down the road but Sanbornton roads are not buff by any means so I got to see the fork in action and I'm liking what I see.  Action was smooth, didn't even know it was there in most cases and the lockout worked great on the climb back up.

Braces held strong and the pain was minimal.  I was particularly pleased with the lack of pain while pulling up on the bars.  I was worried that was going to be my downfall but I think its going to work out ok.  That said I took a few more jarring jolts and I definitely feel it up through my wrists so I'm going to have to ride clean.  Luckily years of riding rigid has cleaned up my line selection pretty well.

I'm far less concerned about the season (and the rest of my riding career) than I was a few weeks ago.  But if there is one thing I've learned about arthritis, things can change hour to hour so I've got to stay diligent and be smart.

Where's My Health At?

It's official.  I made a new category of 'Health' here at Manarea because mine is probably going to become something I get to deal with from here on out.  I'll probably be learning a lot about whatever it is I actually have and I'll probably need to vent from time to time.  Your welcome.

So here's where I'm at currently:

Wrists - Just finally wrapped up my diagnosis with the Ortho Doc this past week.  After some X-Rays and MRIs his take is I am suffering from some sort of arthritis.  My carpal bones are all very upset, more so in the left than the right.  This was both good and really bad news.  Good in that all my other soft tissue appears to be intact so I don't have to worry about doing any permanent damage to anything in that realm with any activity that I want to do.  Really bad in that the damage has already been done and I'm probably looking at a life sentence of dealing with my #shittywrists.

So right now there are three main possibilities:

Osteoarthritis - This is just the 'wear and tear' form of arthritis and is more common to appear when you are older after a 'lifetime of use'. But if you jam a lifetime of use into 1/3 of a lifetime...voila!  This is what I'm hoping it is because that would limit my issue to just my wrists.

Rheumatoid Arthritis - This is the auto-immune kind.  I was tested for this last summer when I was all messed up and it felt like every joint in my body was off the rails.  That has since calmed down and my blood tests were negative but the ortho Doc told me about 'seronegative' forms of RA that don't show up on tests.  So that is still in play and I'm going to have to wait a bit to see what my symptoms do.

Lyme - One of the most common symptoms of Lyme is joint pain that mimics arthritis.  I was also tested for this (twice) and both times it came back negative.  But both times they did the most common Lyme titer blood test which I've read is basically crap and very commonly gives false negatives so that is also still technically in play.  Again, going to have to wait to see what my symptoms do.

So its into pain management mode.  Therapeutic dose of Advil basically around the clock.  Lots of ice.  Recently did some research on wrist support specifically made for riding and luckily motocross and DH has all kinds of options that don't limit the range of motion you need for riding but provide a good amount of support.  I went with the EVS WB01 due to stellar reviews on MTBR.

They have rigid foam pads you can mix and match to get just the amount of support you want and people seem to love them.  They seem a bit bulky but they are designed so you can still wear gloves and grip bars without issue.  Should have them in about a week.  Fingers crossed they work well for me.  Review post coming after some use...


Foot - Been in 'The Boot' now for almost 3 weeks.  Made a bunch of progress so far.  Swelling on the top of the foot is down and I am basically pain free.  I had always thought this came about due to walking on the ball of my foot a lot due to urchin spines but I guess now there is an off chance that the issues with my metatarsal joints is also arthritic in nature so I'm going to have to keep an eye on this as well.  WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

So it looks like my joke from last year that 80% is the new 100% is now permanent.  Which sucks but I can at least work with that.  I'll eventually figure this out and get to making my 80% as good as my 100% used to be.  Onward and Upward.

Macho Man Disc: Initial Ride and Review

Filth Prophylactics!

Ok this ride was a tad forced and very messy and it probably would have been a way nicer day to go skiing but I was REALLY wanting to ride a bike and this one in particular and getting my foot into a bike shoe is currently way easier than getting it into a ski boot and cycling is way less impact on my foot as well.

This was a full fledged shakedown ride on just about every front.  New bike build, questionable wrists and foot.  Legs that have been completely dormant for a month and for good measure just coming off a stomach bug.  BIKES!

I was lucky enough to remember that years ago I had bought some clip on fenders for one of my early commuter builds back when we lived in Ashland.  I somehow managed to find them in the shed and slapped them on.  They didn't work as well as full fenders but it was a good thing I put them on or things would have been ridiculous.

I tried to time the ride so that it warmed up a bit so it was a bit more comfortable on the bike but not too much so that our road got soft.  I did an ok job, heading out wasn't too bad but it was getting pretty soft trying to climb back up to the house (which was awesome).

This initial dirt section of the ride was a big part of the test.  To date if I have wanted to ride road I would drive down to Tony's place and park and ride from there on all pavement.  I've really wanted to just be able to leave from the house and do longer rides but never really had an ideal bike for that...UNTIL NOW.  The 25c tires did just fine and the bike handles beautifully.  Stable and comfy even on Sanbornton's 'finest roadways'.

I think I nailed the fit just about perfectly.  Nothing felt out of place and I felt like I had ridden the bike 100 times before.  It felt pretty responsive climbing although I could feel the extra weight (or was that just my horrible legs? hard tellin').  There was a bit more racket from the discs than I would have liked but I think that was due mostly to all the mud and grit early in the ride.

I had no other qualms with the ride.  I've always been a big believer and lover of steel's ride quality and this frame is no different.  Stable but lively.  I really hope I get completely clear of my various joint issues because I really want to ride this bike a lot this year.

2014 Race Bike Prep: X-Fusion Slide RL2+

OMG It's March.

Spring just became a bit more real and I also just got really worried about my body still not working with the first summer series races coming down the pipe in 2 months time.  Before we get into race bikes I'll give a quick rundown / update on my current health (bullshit) profile:

I've had all kinds of weird issues going on a year now.  I was actually tested for all kinds of stuff (mostly in the rheumatoid family as well as lyme)  this past summer due to all kinds of joint issues/pain and other random weirdness.  Basically I went from being a picture of health to a picture of epic dysfunction in a short period of time.  I battled through much of last year and I was able to get clear of some stuff but other issues have persisted through the winter and I'm still feeling 'off'.  To date my biggest two issues are my #shittywrists which are probably some combination of ulnar nerve issues (impingement along Guyon's Canal is my best guess) and maybe some chronic bursitis thrown in for good measure.  As well as a sweet Morton's neuroma in my left foot, most likely due to having to walk on my forefoot for a few weeks due to urchin spines in my heel from my gnar surfing incident.

I used to heal somewhat decently but that has been out the window recently and it seems like any little issue I run into turns into something much worse that seemingly never heals.  Just recently I've gotten myself a bunch of referrals and I'm headed to all kinds of specialists to get all this crap figured out.  Podiatrist, Orthopedic, gonna get tested for Lyme again because early tests are very typically negative even if you do have it.  Then if western medicine fails I'm going to stick myself with needles (acupuncture not heroin) and get hooked up with some Voodoo priests through Jomo.

Ok enough of my boo-hoo whining...to the race whip!

Due to my continued wrist issues I decided this off season I had to get suspension.  No way around it.  So the research began.  I had somewhat resigned myself to having to spend a bunch of money to get something worthy of the amount I ride and the demands I was going to put on it even though I don't really like dropping ridiculous $$ on things like a fork.  But as I poked around I kept hearing little rumors about this 'up and comer' and the farther I dug the more good things I heard.

In fact I had a hard time finding one bad word about what these guys were up to.  And not only that, their models were priced more like budget stuff but by all forum and shop talk accounts the value was more in line with some of the best stuff out there.  Built simple and tough.  All metal internals, no plastic.  Good customer service.  Only thing they are missing is a name that everyone knows.  I'm thinking that might change in the not too distant future.

X-Fusion. (you heard it here probably 4th or 5th by this point I'm guessing)

I think this is one of those scenarios where a few of the top engineers from one of the big companies (Fox in this case, I think) left and joined a smaller company with less of an 'overlord' presence.  I'm hoping the forums don't lie and its as good as everyone is saying.  I'm liking what I see so far anyway but ride time will be the true test.

Front end in wuss mode.

The action is real smooth.  According to their chart I should run it at 70psi at my weight.  I'm gonna try that but it wouldn't surprise me if I ride it a tad stiffer for steering accuracy.  Lots of fine tune rebound adjustment.  The knob has 38 total clicks, I went with the halfway point for now because I have no frame of reference really for what kind of rebound speed I would prefer.  Its got a simple cable actuated remote lockout.  Came with an inline barrel adjuster which I thought was a nice touch.  The actual remote seems a bit on the chinsy side and I'm questioning its durability but we'll see how it goes.

The additional clutter on the bars kind of annoys me, but I can think of just a few too many times this will come in handy so I'm gonna deal with it.

I wasn't a huge fan of their decals. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it was that I didn't like.  I guess they were just kind of bland(?).  I pulled them off and I much prefer the fully clean look, I think it complements the frame better.  We really need to come up with a white equivalent term for 'murdered out' though.  That's gonna bother me a bit until I can get that figured out.  Fresh and Clean'd? Whiteout?  I'll keep thinking...

Squishy Spot

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

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.