Endurance races, ski trips, musings, and adventures on the East Coast.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

What A Summer

What a stretch of summer it's been in Vermont. Reminds me why I don't live anywhere else. Day after day of sunny weather in the 70's and 80's, cool nights, and low humidity.

Well, that plus lot's of great riding, racing, sprinting to the line a few times for the podium, heading out on a long string of bike tours, hiking to waterfalls, swimming, watching Nina snag win after win, catching a few sunrises and watching the moon over Lake Champlain.

Pretty awesome stuff. Here are a few shots from the last few weeks of fun. Enjoy.


Moss Glen Falls, Stowe

Sprinting at the Wildcat Epic












Bikes in the Morning
                                       

Nina wins the Hampshire 100K!

Waking up Early-ish

Touring in Quebec




Tuesday, August 14, 2012

My Version of the Ultimate Trail Bike

Yeah, yeah, everyone thinks they have the ultimate trail bike. And, admittedly, mines a bit of an odd duck. It's shortish travel, but still has a slack head angle, dropper post, 120mm fork, and big disc rotors.  It's a bike I can race XC and Endurance races with, and still feel good on at an Enduro. Basically, it's the one bike I can race anything with Plus, it's super fun to ride - which, ultimately, is the most important part.

Things start off with the Zaboo frame. It's a 100mm travel bike with a tapered head tube and a press fit BB. All pretty good stuff. I'd say the linkage is on the stiffer side, tuned towards XC racing. It's one of those bikes that you never feel working, but when you look down at the little o-ring you can see that you've used all the travel. Super efficient climber, and when was the last time a 4 and 4 29er couldn't rally downhill?

Except it's not really a 4 and 4 29er. I've been spending a lot of time on big bikes, and that's influencing my style quite a bit. So, with a nod to that, ordered up a White Brothers Loop 120mm fork with a tapered steerer and 15mm thru axle. Pretty sweet stuff there. I thought I was taking a chance with it, but it's done pretty well so far. Then there's the dropper post. Dropper post on a race bike? Up, all the time. Why, because it's more fun, you can go fast downhill, and it gives you room for error after 50 miles on the bike. Maybe it's a bit overkill for some NE courses, but in NC or out west it's super clutch.
 It's also got some sweet other goodies like an ENVE flat bar (super, super stiff....this thing improves front end handling for sure), a thompson stem, XO brakes with 180 mm rotors (seriously, they're not much heavier), and a whole lot of XT stuff, which is awesome and super solid for a lot less money than XTR.

I did concede with the XTR plus rear deraileur though. Of course, now it's trickled down. But I had to have it. The clutch is awesome. You won't go back. Some other goodies include the ZTR Gold Wheels (I train on Crests with Conti X-Kings), Ergon Grips etc.All in all, it climbs well, rips on flat, fast stuff, and descends like a champ. Haven't weighed it yet, but I'd say it's around 26.5 give or take. Pretty crazy how far bike technology has come.


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Home Shop


Like most bike nerds out there, I've been dreaming about having a bike shop at my house for a long time. Really, to this point, the closest I've come is having both a bed and all of my bike tools in my car at the same time. In other words, not that close. But I'm digging into Vermont these days and so clearly that needed to change.

We have a shed at our house, which to this point had been serving as our shed. But it only had a partial floor, making the work space awkward. Plus we lost more than a few bolts and torque wrench bits down through the slats in the old floor, or in the dirt area near the wood.

Enter a rest week without a ton of riding planned and.....


 
.........it happened. Now we have a real wood floor (no more lost
bolts), pegboard, shelving, etc. So sweet to have all the tools organized, the truing stand out, and on and on. Basically to have a well lit, organized, functional space. 


It also means the tool box has lots of room and is therefor way more organized than it was before. Anything that doesn't fit well on a hook goes in in here. By the way, if you don't have a torque wrench, they're pretty awesome and well worth the investment. It should come in handy when I get around to installing those new ENVE bars soon.

All in all a pretty productive way to spend a week if you ask me.

The 12 Hours of Millstone Race Report

The 12 Hours of Millstone was a blast. Great course, well promoted, and a good crew of folks. Always nice to see when promoters do all they can to create a good vibe for an event, and when they're willing to shell out some cash for podium finishers, folks earn it, especially when you race solo for 12 hours.

Nina and I weren't so psyched on the solo thing, but we rocked the Coed Duo class, which was super fun. Riding a couple of laps at a time was perfect. Definitely feels good to notch a win, and we came away with a new light and a bike from Cannondale. For real? Yup. We felt a little bit guilty, but I guess we just lucked out. Here's a link to my MTBRacenews.com report where you can get all the race details: http://mtbracenews.com/news/12-hours-of-millstone-2012-race-report.

We'll be back next year.