Hall Hall Hauler

I'm just now realizing this has been a really light year on posts...like almost half the usual.  How did this happen?  I'm gonna blame my wrist and recommit myself for a better 2014.  Also trying to decide if I should do more with this thang.  Now that I'm directing NEMBA Racing I'm thinking about maybe sharing more of the trials and tribulations of that or maybe getting into more in depth gear reviews maybe?  Who knows, hopefully I'll put my money where my mouth is.

But for now A PROJECT BIKE!  It's been for-EEEVER since I've done a restoration build. Maybe I should get back into dumpster diving as well?  Although I've heard most dumps aren't really cool with just anybody crawling around in their metal piles anymore.  LAME.

Before.

Ok. Back story. This ones got a good one. Many moons ago while still slinging cable in the telecom game I stumbled upon this ride resting on its kickstand in the middle of a large attic space in Samuel Reed Hall Hall at PSU.  Seemed like it was in decent shape and at the time I was worried it possibly belonged to one of the Res Life staffers in the building so I left it be.  Then less moons ago I was back in the attic assisting with the re-purposing of the campus webcam and low and behold it was still just sitting there.  Res Life staff rolls over pretty frequently so I was fairly certain that at this point it was not owned by anyone still around.  I wasn't in a place to take it right then so I left it and made a deal with the Telecom guys to let me know next time they were headed up there and I would tag along and snag it.

That time came not all that long after that day and of course we get there and its gone.  I had missed my opportunity...or had I? Yes I had. At least for awhile. On the way out we noticed that it had been moved down into the lobby of the building. I was ok with taking an obviously abandoned bike from an attic but I wasn't comfortable with taking it from the lobby when best guess is one of the current Res Life staff at the time had gone up there and found it and decided it was sweet and took it down to try and revive it.

There it sat for probably months? and every now and then the guys in Telecom would swing through and tell me that it was still just siting there.  Hall Hall was actually up for renovation and being repurposed for academic space and in its final days as a Res Hall the Telecom guys were over there going over specs with contractors and finally got the bike and the RD in the same room at the same time.  RD finally confirmed that no one was laying claim to it and BOOM...mine.

Now that we've got that out of the way lets get to some deets.  What we have here is your standard issue Columbia 3 speed straight out of Westfield, MA.  If I had to guess probably from the 60's right before the 10 speed boom in the 70's.  It wasn't in horrible shape but the front brake was broken and the rear hub had basically been reduced to a singlespeed thanks to years of gummed up grease.  I was hoping to just swap out the broken brake and front wheel with stuff from the parts bin, maybe some new/used rubber and some new cables.

Unfortunately I didn't have any brakes that were going to work which kind of derailed the whole project, you can get away with just one brake if its the front one but I didn't want to only have a rear brake.  It occurred to me that I had plenty of old V-brakes so I started scouring the interwebs for an old 1in threaded fork for 26in wheels that had canti studs and found a brand new one on ebay for about $40.  Seemed like a reasonable investment into this ride so I went for it.

posting this to make shop owners cringe.

wicked grips. dyude. guy.

Trimmed the fork to fit and it installed real nice.  Put some new levers and grips on and now it just needs some new cables and the rear wheel true'd up.  Also thinking about trying to install a huge wire basket that I have but I'm not sure if its going to fit yet.

Almost After.

Should hopefully have this thing completed soon and I'll post an official after pic once its ready to shred.

Singletrack Everywhere!

Last weekends romp around Saratoga kinda got me in the mood for more big XC rides.  Didn't have anything pressing at the house to take care of and I don't want to start raking the yard yet because there are still a decent amount of leaves still on the trees.  Soooo I got to trying to figure out some sort of linked epic I could check off my list.

I had several ideas but the temps stayed pretty cold today and there was a 40% chance of rain in some forecasts so being isolated a long way from home didn't seem like the smartest thing.  Originally I was thinking about trying to link Franklin Falls to Page Hill.  Which is totally doable, 8mi of pavement or there is even a dirt / class VI route that is possible but I haven't done it yet and cold weather isn't the best for constant navigation stops.  That one will happen next year for sure.

I've also been dying to check out Spaulding Woods, the new chunk of land that we are helping the Spaulding Youth Center develop into a riding destination.  They had already had some double track and had been slowly working on some singletrack.  We had a trail day there this Fall to build another new trail and do some cleanup and refinement of the other existing stuff.

My plans for a linked ride were foiled...but not if I linked them via car!  Plan was to check out SW first then drive over to FFD and then around to Page Hill.  20-25mi depending on what you ride at each spot, not that much driving and protected in case the weather turned on me, perfecto!

Spaulding Woods was as good as some of the rumors I had been hearing.  Not a lot of mileage yet but great terrain and some really fun trails that are easy to lap.  Most of the place is built into a hill so you can get a decent workout heading back up again and again to take a few more stabs at the down mountain trails.  Already some great berms and other features in place as well.  The trails need some wheels to buff out some of the chatter but once they ride in its going to be a really great spot in a great location.

Riding Franklin was nice, folks have been staying on top of leaf blowing and things were riding great.  Even scored a KOM and missed another by 1 sec.  Page Hill on the other hand was covered in about a foot of leaves.  Felt like riding through 6in of snow.  Getting really hard to navigate there unless you have either built the trails or ride them frequently, luckily I have done both.

I kind of like the linked by car format.  Lets you take breathers, warm up (if its cold), get some calories.  I'm thinking a full Central NH Tour de Force might be in order, although it would be a pretty big undertaking to do all the more well established ride spots.  A clockwise loop would be pretty reasonable as far as driving goes.  You'd need a full day, starting early.  Mid summer max daylight would help.

Ride Ahern first - 6-8mi
Then Ramblin Vewe Farm - 6-8mi
Then Spaulding Woods - 5mi
Then Highland XC Loops - 6-8mi
Then Franklin Falls - 8-10mi
Then Page Hill - 8mi

Solid 40(ish) miles of basically all singletrack.  Actually, as I'm writing this I'm thinking ending at Page Hill might be a bit brutal...counter-clockwise might be smarter then you could end the ride with a swim in Winnisquam at Ahern.  Hmmmm...Who wants in?

2013. Shoulders and Wrists Maximus...Shoulders and Wrists!

We mortals are but shoulders and wrists.

I usually do one of these season recaps every year so here we go....2013.  Dominated by nagging shoulder and wrist issues but I still managed to have a decent year racing my bike.  Things went sideways back in late April / early May.  I was having a great run up getting more miles in March / April than I have in a long time.  At some point in April, not really all that sure when, something happened with the shoulder.  Not sure if it was rotator cuff or a minor AC separation but it had me laid up off and on for much of the early season.  As I dealt with the shoulder an old wrist injury cropped back up as well which my best guess is a damaged sheath that keeps the Ulnar nerve where it is supposed to be.

I then did my best to not let either of those injuries heal all year.

This made my riding patterns very sporadic and ended with the norm becoming long rides followed by down time trying to get pain under wraps and then once it was bearable back on the bike for a long ride.  Whatever I could manage really with races taking priority.  Fun fact: over half (55%) of my miles on dirt this year were race miles, almost 300mi of racing on dirt.  Luckily that pattern worked fairly well for my race plans for this year.  I decided to take another stab at more endurance formats.  I had tried this once before back in '08 or '09 but I don't think I was quite ready back then and returned to the XC summer series races the following years.  As I've made incremental gains over the years I have noticed that my endurance is right up there with really fast guys and my ability to suffer through long hours in the saddle is top tier as well but when it came to those really sharp VO2max, anaerobic type efforts I wasn't on the same level.

Even with all of my health issues this year I managed to surprise myself a few times at my longer races this year.  My win in the 100K at the Wildcat was a pleasant surprise and my finishing time was also a PR for me at that distance (although that was a fast course) and that was with early season fitness.  A podium at Carrabassett was also unexpected and again my time was the same as my Wildcat time on a much harder course.  Top 5 at NH100 with an all time personal best on that course and my fastest ever 100K time.  Not too shabby.  My luck ran out after that though and my last two endurance go-rounds saw me beat to a pulp with some of my wrist issues really catching up to me.

With my results this year I am fairly certain that I am an endurance type rider and I will continue to work on that type of fitness and that type of racing going forward.  100K and 100mi races are becoming more and more popular and we are getting more options in New England every year.  I think I need one more year racing these distances consistently before I jump into a 100 miler but that is probably the eventual goal here.  I'm certain I could probably finish one but I think with a bit more work I could be fairly competitive, not with the top SS guys they are beyond ridiculous, but I think I could be one of the better regional riders for sure.

First things first though; I need to get healthy.  I'm getting there.  I think I'm clear of the shoulder.  Pain is minimal and when it crops up from time to time the recovery is faster and faster and I think I can focus on strengthening it again now.  The wrist is still nagging but two weeks off the bike recently got me over a hump of sorts and I think I'm much closer to being back on track.  Much of my early work in the gym this Fall will probably be PT in nature.  I have gotten away with being hard on my body in the past but I think those days are over.  Gotta smarten up a bit or I will crumble to bits in no time I'm sure.

Next step will be to stay healthy next year.  Starting that quest with beating myself up less.  Yes, its (pretty much) official.  My days of riding fully rigid have come to an end.  There are things I really like about riding rigid and a part of me has liked the added challenge (in a way) as well as the respect you get for being silly enough to actually do it.  But the beating is no longer worth it to me and I've got nothing to prove.  I have really enjoyed my time on the party bike so far this Fall and it has also reminded me that I am a pretty damn good technical rider and descender when I'm not getting rattled into oblivion.

More than likely I will be getting some sort of fork for the Spot and possibly even going back to running the Thudbuster full time.  Even with the added weight and slight loss of efficiency I'm guess I'm going to be going real fast next year.  The drive is already there even now.  I'm excited for a healthy go at some long races.

Double Rye Bacon Whiskey Stout

Yup. You read that right.

This batch was slated to be a pretty standard but most likely delicious Rye Stout, kinda like an oatmeal stout but a bit spicier due to the character of the Rye.  Then I got to thinking about how I added Rye whiskey to my last Rye ale to great affect.  Then I got to thinking about how a Thanksgiving or so ago my cousin and I made some bacon infused bourbon.  Then I got to thinking I wouldn't mind having to eat an entire package of bacon just so I could use the grease.  And so was born the Double Rye Bacon Whiskey Stout.

I tweeted my intentions before brew day and Pog made absolutely sure thats what I wanted to do.  No 'yes' men in the Blue Zoo, we call it how it is.  Pog could not overcome my dedication to bacon though so I powered forth.  Can't wait for the first taste to see who was more wise this time around.  I'm a bit concerned...Pog's palette is renowned, but so is my homebrew track record.  Hashtag Thunderdome.

I think this one's going to be real smooth.  On the malty side with only 1oz of mellow Warrior hops to balance things out.  Early fermentation was energetic.  Luckily I got up early today to meet dad for 9-holes and caught things just starting to get into the airlock and clog things up.  Had to quickly make some sanitizer and get a blow-off set up before I left.  Hopefully it wasn't too hasty and I got things cleaned up enough.

Saturday evening I decided I might as well also make the whiskey even though I won't need it for a week or so.  Pretty easy to make, just cook up a full package of bacon to ensure you get a good amount of the grease/fat.  Once its all cooked up, let the grease cool a bit and then add it to the whiskey.  Give it a few hours, periodically swirling it around so that it mixes up otherwise it separates pretty quickly and you don't get as much actual 'infusion'.

Then you put it in the freezer overnight so the grease solidifies/freezes while the whiskey stays liquid.  Then all you need to do is strain the whiskey back into a container.  I usually just use a coffee filter.  Its slow going but works the best I think.

This one will probably be ready mid/late Fall and depending on the timing I may just hold off on it and bottle it for Thanxmas since we'll be in Hawaii for half of November anyway.  Aloha.

2013 Bradbury 12

GOOD. LORD. AGAIN.

What a rip roarin' end to the season I'm having.  It's becoming apparent I'm dipping a bit too deep and its time to take a step back, dial it down, etc. and just enjoy the rest of the Fall riding season and finally get completely joint healthy.  And apparently in order for me to come to these realizations I need two pretty serious sufferfests in a row.

The Bradbury 12 is a great event.  One of my favorite courses, well organized, just a grand ole time all around.  Shaun and I planned on running our Double-Single team back again but life happened and I was without teammate trying to come up with a plan.  I had toyed with eventually trying something like this solo for a bit and figured this was as good a time as any.  I offered the support crew chief position to my dad, which he graciously accepted and we were a go.

I rolled into town Friday afternoon at about 1pm and scored the very last campsite available.  Complete dumb luck.  5mins later and I would probably have missed it.  And go figure the site was right next to the couple Shaun and I camped next to at Carrabassett.  We spent a few minutes trying to figure out who was stalking who then I set up camp and went out for a preride.  Course was actually still pretty wet in spots from a huge storm that apparently blew through earlier in the week.  It was only here and there though, the rest was pretty dry and fast.  I had decided last second to throw the 20t cog on the Spot to help me pace myself early and be easier to turn over late.  It was definitely the right call.  My low effort preride got me a time of about 50mins which was right around where I wanted to be.

Apparently completely unforecasted rain is like a thing in Pownal, ME because for the second year in a row I woke up to rain drops.  Nothing too crazy but enough to slicken everything up and make the wet spots worse.  I set up my stuff in the support area, Dad showed up and got situated and then we lined up for the start.  All us solo singlespeeders got acquainted and at the gun we filtered into our own little group towards the back of the first wave.

I was leading things into the woods and we all stayed pretty close for the first mile or so.  I let it run a bit in the tight stuff and David H. stayed with me, by the time we got to the first fire road climb I snuck a peak back and it was just the two of us the rest were out of view.  Towards the end of the first lap I all of a sudden starting hearing some really weird clunky sounds coming from the rear of the bike after a fast rough section.  It was bad enough that I stopped to take a closer look and its a good thing I did because my skewer had worked its way loose and when I picked the back end of the bike up to look the wheel fell right out.  Must have spaced locking it down real tight after changing my gearing.

For some reason it was being a real bitch to get back in, David H rode away and I was caught by Kaj and Jesse while I was trying to fix it.  I was able to get back going and catch back on to Jesse and Kaj and lapped through with them.  Got going on my second lap and almost ran right into an enormous porcupine.  Yes, thats right.  Rounded a corner and there it was right in the middle of the trail.  If I hadn't been paying attention I would have gotten to see if Stan's sealant can handle 50 quill punctures.  It eventually lumbered off the trail and I was back on my way.

Second lap was good. Traffic had worked itself out and I was trying to keep the pace reasonable.  Stopped for a feed at the end of 2 and I think Kaj snuck by me so I was into 3rd with David H still holding the gap he got while I was fixing my wheel.  3rd and 4th laps were ok but the course was starting to wear on me more than I had hoped it would.  I don't remember it being that bad the year prior but the breaks in between must have been just enough to recover from the beating.

I was concerned I was wasting a lot of energy (and time) in the rough stuff and I believe on lap 5 I was caught by Kevin M. early on and he just rode away through the bumpy stuff and I just couldn't quite stay with him.  This led to me making the (in hindsight poor/incorrect) decision of switching to the Party Bike early to try and make up some time and conserve energy through all the rooty sections.  I was getting antsy about loosing a minute here and there at not even the halfway point of a 12hr race.  Rookie mistake.  My lap times were still in the mid 50's or so and if I had continued on the Spot and switched much later like planned I think I could have ridden to 3rd or even 2nd but no point going too far down the what-if road.

Called for the bike change lapping through from 5 to 6.  Dad helped with the quick pit change and I got out on course looking to party.  And for awhile things were going well.  It was definitely faster in the rough stuff and I felt like it was easier to keep momentum.   I was trying to open it up in the tight stuff and take full advantage of the sections of the course that suited me.  Course conditions had been deteriorating all day, getting more and more greasy as mud got tracked around onto bridges and roots.  My poor decision making and risk taking came to a head about 2/3 into the lap...it all happened pretty fast so I won't be able to paint the best picture but its a pretty standard mix of high speed wash-out and getting jammed up going through some off camber roots and before I knew it I was flying off the bike to my left.

(guitar wailing)

As luck would have it I instinctively put my hands out to break my fall, which worked (I am excellent at crashing) but my bum left wrist took a doozy of a hit.  Surprisingly, right after things seemed ok and after I got sorted I continued on my way albeit a bit more cautiously.  As I finished up lap 6 I was starting to feel pressure on the tape around my left wrist...here comes the swelling!  I wasn't feeling awesome at this point but I was still on pace for 12 laps even with all my issues so I got my bearings and went out for 7.  The shallow false flat early in the lap went well enough but as soon as I got to some shorter little power sections I realized that my left hand didn't really have the strength to hold/pull up on the bars.  The more I tried to just deal with it (SHUT UP WRIST) the worse it got.

I was forced to eventually walk a bunch of sections which was pretty demoralizing with a good 5-6hrs to go.  I finally finished up 7 with a time of about 1hr6mins for the lap, which to be honest really isn't all that bad but I have been getting more and more concerned about the levels of stupidity I have been dumping into my wrist the last few months.  So I made another lame/wise decision to pull the plug.

I still had a pretty decent amount of fun and it was cool having my dad there giving me all kinds of race intel each lap.  Not sure if I would ever do this format solo again.  These races seem much more tailor made and fun for a team.  So for now I'm gonna recover then throw a real small gear on the Party Bike and do Fall at 3/4 speed.