Intermission....

We inturrupt your regularly scheduled bike nerd overload with this bit of hotness.


DG

Gear in review

So I've been doing a ton of research on the whole learning to survive snowbike adventures thing. What I've found is another complete bike culture. There's lots of info, but I'll try to sort some of it out here.

Starting with clothing.

There are a couple of basic things to remember:
There are four forms of heat loss; radiant, conductive, convective and evaporative.
Regulating your body temperature to control perspiration is critical to staying warm. The body's natural response to overheating is to increase evaporative cooling by perspiring.
Water has a thermal conductivity 23 times greater than air. If your insulating layers are soaked with sweat their conductive heat trasfer rate equals that of water, regardless of what the material is made of.
Convective heat tranfer can be controlled by proper venting of clothing and overlapping layers to prevent drafts. "Breathable" fabrics can not be considered proper venting.
As an example of breathable fabrics, Goretex blocks 97% of evaporative heat transfer, and they consider that breathable. Even that quickly becomes ineffective in below freezing temps as the water molecules quicky freeze and clog the open pores in the fabric.

There are two different clothing theories to look at. They both include a shell layer that blocks the wind and precip, a thermal layer, and a base layer. The difference comes with what you do with that base layer. You can either wick moisture away in an effort to stay dry and warm, or you can trap that moisture with a vapor barrier so it doesn't soak your insulating layer, thus slowing the evaporative heat transfer, and maintaining your conductive heat retention. Your insulating layers are most efficient when dry, therefore as you sweat and soak your insulating layer the insulating properties are slowly lost. So by trapping all that moisture inside your base layer you will stay warm indefinitely, no matter how much time you spend in your clothes their thermal properties stay the same. Therefore you should never get cold providing you have a thermal layer to match the conditions.
I should note, not everybody agrees on the use of vapor barriors. In order for a vapor barrior to be effective, and really one of it's main purposes, is to make you monitor your perspiration and keep it to a minimum. Some people simply produce too much heat to use a vapor barrior without excessive sweat pooling up. The risk then comes with the base layer freezing to the skin if proper thermal layers and levels are not maintained.
The trick with either system is trying to regulate the amount of body heat generated to keep the sweating to a minimum. Just by adding a vapor barrier you increase your thermal insulation quite a bit, its easy to overdress and end up standing in puddles. So far I've found it's gotta be below 20 deg for me to be able to wear a vapor barrier layer without sweating a ton. And unless it's below zero, I'd better not have much of a thermal layer on, even then. I guess I need some more practice adjusting my thermal layers and venting.

This picture shows my current complete clothing sytem for wet and dry weather, good for about temps 55deg down to about -15deg F. Realistically this system is only good for 3-4 hours and then all my thermal layers are soaked and need to be swapped out.

On top:
I use medium weight and lightweight Smartwool tops as my base/thermal layer. Wool is an extremely efficient insulator, and with these Smartwool tops the zipper allows venting, they dry very quickly, have very low pack weight and bulk.

I picked up a nice Nike Storm-Fit Jacket this year. It does a real nice job blocking the wind and precip, windproof/waterproof fabric, waterproof zippers, hi-vis orange w/reflective stripes, and adjustable venting too.

I've also got a light insulating pack coat for standing around while not on the bike, but I've yet to use it on a ride.

On bottom:
I start with a set of the old version Desoto five pocket bib shorts. They've got pockets to carry small stuff in during warmer conditions, and they've got a nice light fleece pad in them that keeps things dry and comfortable without getting in the way. Unfortunately they've went and "improved" these shorts with the standard "diaper butt" pad and doubled the price.

I picked up a set of Sporthill XC pants this year as well. Wind proof, water resistant, breathable, thermal, snug fit. Perfect by themselves down to -10.

For colder weather I'll put my Louis Garneau leg warmers under my pants.

Head:
Hind Drylete Balaclava : Superlight, versatile piece that I use as a hat or a balaclava. Windproof, water resistant. Good for taking the chill off brisk weather down to about 10 deg.

For colder weather I put my Louis Garneau Power Cap on over my balaclava or switch to my heavier neoprene/brushed fleece balaclava. I might have to try JP's "headband over the nose" sytem to see if I can reduce some fogging.

I've had mixed results using my vented Oakley M frames and vented Oakley snowboard goggles. In calm conditions they both fog/frost up, so I end up riding with no eye protection. In temps below 20 deg I find I have to thaw the condensation off my eyelashes every few minutes becuase they freeze together when I blink. In light windy conditions above 20 degrees the M frames work well, anything colder or windier and I use the the goggles.

All that goes under an oversized helmet cause I'm not less likely to fall in the winter and I don't slow down unless I can't go faster. It also keeps my hats from blowing off and makes a handy spot to attach lights.

Hands:
Cheapie bar mitts I bought back when I still owned a snowmobile. These things are the bomb, single most effective winter use item I own. Windproof, waterproof, insulated. Ride with no gloves down to 25 degrees, light gloves down to 0, shell mitt takes you wherever you want to go.

$8 knitted wool glove/mitt from Orchelin's farm supply. You know the ones that the mitt part flips back so you can work with your fingers. Preferably long cuff to eliminate drafts. These work great, all sorts of options for venting/temp control. They can be super warm, yet you can get your fingers out quick to open wrapers/zippers/ect. Lots of nose wiping surface. Only downfall is they can absorb alot of water.

$8 shell mitten from Menards. Another good deal, super warm, powder skirt, dumby cord, lightweight, waterproof/windproof. Only downfalls being no removable liner and no nose wiping cloth.

I've tried my $65 snowbarding gloves, lobster mitts, ect. None of that comes close to working as well as the bar mitts and light glove/mitt combo. I might upgrade to a set of Epic Eric's poagies, and maybe a little nicer light glove liner/shell mitt combo, but otherwise my hands are happy.

Feet:
Last years model Lake MX301 winter cycling boot, one full metric size larger than my standard cycling shoe, studded with sheet metal screws for ice. The standard by which all winter cycling shoes are based and about as good as it gets if you want to keep your clipless petals during winter cycling. Good down to 35 degrees with thin wool socks, 25 degrees with thick wool or polarfleece 300 thermal socks, below that your gonna need toe warmers or something additional to stay warm for more than an hour or two.

I use either Bridgedale heavyweight wool socks or a Polarfleece 300 thermal sock/Fox river wicking sock liner combo. If its below 20 degrees I've been using a grocery bag as a vapor barrier between my liner sock and thermal sock, and Grabber MyCoal adhesive toe warmers. I've been toying with plastic bags as vapor barriors, which is effective, but prone to tearing easily. For prolonged use I think I'll be looking for something a little nicer.

I've tried Hottronics electric footbeds, but the batteries are always dead, the cable's an uncomfortable PITA, and they just never seemed to work all that well. Plus they're heavy.
I also tried some off brand insole warmers, but they wouldn't stay under my toes, and they didn't get all that warm. In the long run you can get a whole winter's worth of Grabber adhesive toe warmers for less than half the price of a set of Hottronics, they stay put, they're easy to pack, you don't have to worry about batteries, and they work. The toe warmers also fit perfectly in a mitten.

Ok, so thats what I'm using currently. For the most part I'm pretty happy with this system. It's all pretty versatile, lightweght, and low bulk. For longer cold exposure all I need to do is add some insulated vapor barrior base layers to the mix like this, or this, to contol the evaporative heat transfer and maintain my clothing's conductive insulation properties. And add another shell/insulating layer over my boots somehow to boost their temp range, like this, with somthing like this, or this.


More to come.
DG

Intro to snowbike racing

I competed in the Triple D snowbike "adventure" race this past Saturday. It was just like any other mtb race I do. The adventure part comes with numerous mechanical issues, a couple physical aillments, and top it off by getting lost. There would have been pictures, but I was pretty busy trying to ride in a straight line and keep from freezing.

The race itself was pretty well run for a first go around of it. Just a couple spots could have used better marking, otherwise it was all good. Well done Lance Andre.

This was a 60mile race from Dubuque to Dyersville and back. It started out on a plowed bike path through town where I drafted the pugsley paceline. That lead to a badly foot traffic-ed section that had refroze into a minefield for all who tried to ride it. This is where I had to stop the first time to air up my front tire, it took me awhile to figure out I was riding on the rim on the icy potholed snowpack. Pumping it up cost me a good 10 places, I was in third.

After the pothole hell we turned off the trail onto another plowed path that did nothing but go up. At this point I started noticing this funky frozen red red stuff on my top tube, and my jacket, and my gloves....crap, nosebleed. Anyway, I was being distracted from my leaking fluids by the fact that with every petal stroke it felt like my crank arms were falling off. Oh... well it's just my bottom bracket cups loose in the eccentric. Seems I forgot to pack my crank extractor and bb tools so there's not much I could do about this. Spinning more helps, spin more. Then came some cross town snowmobile trail that was entertaining and partially ride-able. I stopped again to air up my front tire just before heading out of town. Had I been thinking I should had stopped at Free Flight and fixed my mechanicals, but what fun would that be?

From there was a whole load of climbing on pavement. I found I prefer snow to pavement when I running ~20psi in my Weirwolves, it just sucks riding 7mph on pavement. By this point the race leader were well out of sight, but not for long. As I rolled up to the end of the pavement, with no obvious clue as to which way to go, I spotted the whole group of Pugseys, Ben Shockey, and Cully coming back out of the field. They did a little side trip. Turns out we were supposed to go straight down an unmarked, and untracked level B, which we then did. No-one was certain this was the right way, but I remembered Lance mentioning a level B that he had not pre-ridden, and that we might have to push. This turned out to be correct, and soon enough we were back to the Heritage trail where the rest of the distance would be ridden.

The heritage trail was snowpacked and lightly tracked by snowmobiles. As long as I stayed in the middle of the track it went fairly well. I was cranking along on the front and looked back to see no-one other than Ben, and I was riding away from him as well. Eventually he disappeared too. Then I had to stop and air up my tire again. Ben passed and rode away, Pugsleys passed, Cully stopped and asked where he was. I think he may have come to his senses and turned around somewhere near here.

I caught and passed the Pugsleys once more only to have my tire go flat again and be repassed. This time I had to swap a tube in. Stans apparently doesn't work at -7deg. My pump was starting to give me fits as I believe the seals were frozen, I had to alot of pumping to get that tube aired up. This stop cost me a ton of time and I was a major factor in the impeding doom I was facing.

I pressed on and tried to make up time, but my extremeties just kept getting colder. The section from outside Farley to Dyersville was really wide open and straight into the wind. Temp with windchill was estimated to be around negative 32deg. I stopped on the trail and put in chemical warmer footbeds and glove warmers. My hands felt better, but my feet were still numb. I got into Dyersville in time to see Ben rolling back out, the Pugsleys were still at the gas station. I checked into the halfway point at about 4:30, twenty minutes behind Ben. I warmed up a bit, added a dry baselayer, socks and vaporbarrier(though I reused my liner socks, didn't have a spare pair. Strike#2), swapped into dry gloves, thicker balava, goggles, lights, new chemical warmers. I should have packed liner socks and stayed to warm up longer here. For the first half of the ride I ended up riding without glasses because they fogged/frosted up too much, I should have used goggled on the way up. As it was I spent a fair bit of time thawing condensation off my eyelashes so they wouldn't freeze together when I blinked.

On the way back I ended up drafting one of the Pugsleys. Josh, for some time. Staying in his tracks made riding pretty easy and he was keeping a good pace. He let me by at the Farley intersection and I kept cranking. Eventually I caught up to another Pugsley. This one was going a bit slower, but I drafted it awhile anyway. Since I was riding by moonlight to conserve my headlamp he didn't notice I was behind him till I blew my nose. It turned out to be Bruce Grell. He had turned around at Farley. I rode along with Bruce till we got to Graf, where the rest of the Pugsley group had stopped. Bruce and one other Puglsey continued on with me.

Eventually Josh caught back up and I followed him for awhile till I eventually passed and pulled away again. Somewhere along the line I passed another Puglsey, but Ben was nowhere in sight. My feet were past cold. For once in my life the neon signs of a trailside bar we actually appealing, I stopped to warm up. The contents of said bar were beyond happy hour, but kind and well meaning. A couple minutes passed and the two Pugseys pulled in. Josh ordered a sandwhich and I figured that was a good idea and followed suit, only to find they didn't take credit cards. Thankfully Josh loaned me a ten, thanks buddy! Unfortunately ordering food made for a bad tactical move. They were both on the trail a good five minutes before my food was out. I swapped socks and chemical warmers while I was waiting.

They rest of the ride back into town was lonely and cold. My feet felt like blocks of ice. The ride back through pothole hell was somehow easier, yet more painful. It's a good thing I saved my headlamp for the last leg of the ride as it was already low. I rode back down the plowed path and took a wrong turn somewhere. I'm not sure where the arrows were, but I sure didn't see any. I ended up riding across a bridge and finding myself on hwy 20. I rode that back to hwy 151 and rode back up and across again, finally finishing up the ride at about 9:30.

I finished in fourth place and was the last person to finish the whole course. At the start no-one was expected to finish the whole course in these conditions. Ben Shockey finished about an hour ahead of me I believe, on a single speed mtb to boot. Joel and Josh finished up 2nd and 3rd on Pugsleys. Arrowhead racers.


As I was sitting there warming up I started to have some pain in my right foot. Turns out I've got frost bite on my big toe and frost nip on the rest of my right toes. They're tingley, numb, swollen, and painfull at the moment. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get a professional opinion and make sure I don't need antibiotics or further attention. Not much I can do otherwise. Grin and bear it. Spd sandals and trainer work on the Bacchetta will be this week's riding. Not sure I'll be up for next weekend's hundy, we'll see how my recovery goes and what the weather does.

Final impressions: great race, I hope Lance puts this on again next year. You should keep the atv trails and level b in, 60 miles of Heritage trail would be kinda monatonous. I want a snowbike now. I might have to build one. I have to figure out a better way to keep my feet warm, but I think I've got the rest down pretty good. Aside from the frostbite this was really fun.

DG

Slowmobile

Well the holidays have gone and so has winter, and then it came again, but now it is once again gone.... sort of. Lucky for me I've invested in even more technology in the quest to make myself slower and even more unstopable, studded tires. Just in time for all the ice and snow to melt away, leaving two inch deep gumbo clay/soup gravel roads and high humidity 40degree headwinds to remind me it's still winter-ish. Riding outside in these conditions almost garauntees that I'll get to spend as much time maintaining my drivetrains as I do riding. Almost makes me want to ride the trainer, which I am anyways, sometimes.

Riding outside today at my standard 40-70rpm on my studded tire clad, Rohloff equipped, fourty pound battle axe my friend Steve says I should have this tattoed on myself somewhere to remind me of my true nature: "Single Speeds are all about being under prepared and drinking beer. The less technology and effort the better. I don't remember Vikings having Thrust and Blow Meters on their battle axes. SS'ing is pain, regret, poor gear choice, hangover-laden excuses, facial hair, negligence, piss-poor maintenance, death, and mad skilz that most certainly pay the bilz"--- Rich "Dicky" Dillan Problems being: I was riding gears, I don't drink, I'm usually overprepared, I do have a Thrust and Blow meter on my battle axe, I cut the excess hair off long ago, and my bike skilz don't pay much of anything. Guess all I'm left with is a disrespect for shifting and the "retarded monkey riding style" The good news is I think I've figured out how to set the Powertap up fixed gear....
nevermind.

The other good news is my VW Jetta turbo diesel has risen from the ashes like a good pheonix should, and I am now on the path of +45mpg -65mph driving again.
The other bad news is I melted my other my other pheonix down on a snow drifted road and now I get to rebuid it again. Oh well, it came apart alot faster this time. Too bad its going to take so much more time to put it back together$$$$. Maybe I can keep my licence if I promise only to drive cars under 100hp for the next four months.

DG

-10 mile New years day ride(s)

Short but good.

DG

Steady state

Saturday's gravel ride: 3 hours, 30 miles. and half of that was pavement. Gotta love headwinds and mud. I'm happy to see snow and ice again.


Subaru is in the break in period. Only a couple of minor leaks. I think I've got them all dried up. Gauges are en route.

The next project is almost together already.

The moon is out bright, beautiful night for a ride. Time to go burn off some cookies.

Happy Holidays,
DG

Off to Nationals we go

The Subaru is oh so close to being back together, should be back on the road next week. I should have the fuel pump back in the Fox and be well under way on the Jetta rebuild then too. Then all I'll have left to do is fix the carb problem and brakes on the Microbus and start on the Syncro project. It's always good to have a money pit or five...

CX Nationals is this week. I'll be heading down for the SS race Sunday. Conditions look to be just super. I had also signed up for the U29 race Thusday, but my late season financial and pysical status didn't permit any of that nonsense. The good news is I've been off the bike for two weeks, so I should be super fresh....

DG

Gearhead

Yee haa, we're havin' fun now! One more paycheck and I should be cookin again.

Want a tour of what the internals of a WRX looks like? Pics here.


In other news:

Jingle Cross was a blast. Great course, great fans, super cool humble elite racers both local and not so local. Thanks to all who help put it together, and thanks to John Meehan for starting it in the first place. We'll miss you're enthusiasm John.
It was great seeing a slew of friends I've not seen in awhile. Thanks to Kyle and Robin(or is it Robin and Kyle?)Williams for hosting me. Good times.

The midwest winter training weather has officially arrived. Ice and rain, 30-40degrees, 15-35mph winds, perfect.

DG

P0303

So much for my travel budget.



P0303 is the Subaru WRX check engine code for a #3 cylinder misfire.
217,300 miles, 5 years trouble free outside of scheduled maintainence. The rest of the motor is suprisingly wear free. Really an impressive little car. I can rebuilt you WRX...you'll be stronger....faster.....stupid gearhead....

DG

Fall rides and Scheduled Maintainence

Due to a discrepancy in finances and time management I've missed a few races. Here's what I've been doing to cope.


DG

Radiolab. Stumbled across this cool little radio program awhile back, kinda like This American Life meets Science Friday. I really dig it.


Here's another bit I ran across recently on risk management. Well done.

http://view.break.com/381084 - Watch more free videos

Ah, yes and as Squirrel said this is just too damn funny not to read. I particularly enjoy the the descriptions of the 24hour racer and the CXer's.

DG

Funk

CX season is here. My fitness, not so much. Back to the grind stone.


DG

Useful objects

Some neat stuff I've come across lately: Aixro XR 50 rotory 30lbs/50HP perfect motor for your daily driver....streamliner.


And if you insist on owning a car, at least make it a streamlined one: Loremo

OLPC A good cause and an innovative tool. Perfect self contained bike tour tool for the tech nerd....so long as you don't mind Linux. Quarq Another powermeter, only this one is actually being built with data management and compatability in mind. Pricy, maybe I should ask for a sponsorship now. And please make one for the Rotor RS4X thank you.


Dark Roasted Blend
Not exactly a recent find for me, but if you don't know about this site you should check it out. Hours of entertaining and interesting stuff. Best collection of art and car chases I know of.

DG

Oh yea, last weekend was the second set of IA CX races. Saturday was a plague of off camber, walnut covered, endless switchbacks and I finished well and felt strong. Sunday was a wide open mostly simple smooth course. I started with nothing in the tank, fell on my ass, dropped a chain, and finished poorly. Both days were fun and painfull. Can't wait till the next one. Hopefully I recover by then.

New muscle soreness

Pics here

DG

Random points of interest

Inspirations


Means


Timing


Ride


DG

Cross season starts now.

Phew

So last weekend was my second year of promoting the Hawkeye Downs HPRA race weekend. It went well. Participation was up from last year, good competition in all categories, great weather, and almost but not really ran on schedule.



My sprints this year were a little better than last year. The faired 50 lap race was way faster for me, real close to 40mph avg(why go all the way to AZ again?). My increase in speed in this event from last year is due to running with the top on the Cuda (I was still a greenhorn to this bike at this time last year), and it didn't hurt that Warren was on my tail the whole time. I just couldn't get rid of him this year, good work Warren! I need a faster bike.....and better training. At least I've got enough time in the bike to have the handling down. I scraped the bottom on the corners more than a few times during the 50 lap race, nothing like tempting a slidout at 40mph. My stock race performance was less than stellar. Granted I still averaged 27mph or so, not bad considering how hard the 50lap race was directly beforehand, but Sean smoked me. Seans had a great year, setting the unfaired recumbent world hour record twice, and winning every race he's entered this year. So now I have a new benchmark to train for.



Sydney and her son Eric, and his friend Eric came over. They were a little late for the sprints Saturday morning, but with much help from Rick Gritters we got them set up on bikes, fixed a few problems(but not enough of them)on Syd's lowracer, and got them into the shortened hour race. Eric Brown did great, everytime I went to pass him I kept thinking "damn, shouldn't I be catching him quicker?". And that was with him racing in jeans, on a bike new to him, after learning to ride recumbents three days beforehand. He's gonna be real fast with a little more time on the bike. His friend Eric struggled a bit, but by the end of the weekend he was getting it down.
Sydney Stuggled a bit on Saturday as well, her lowracer had a rough week of learning to ride and was subsequently falling apart. Thankfully Rick Gritters made many pit stops to help her out with fixing the many mechanical issues. I don't know what I would have done without Rick, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Somewhere in the rush of Saturday's happenings I managed to misplace my debit card, yay. So I spent a little time digging through my car, clothes, trash cans, and generaly searching everywhere to no avail. Luckily Sean Costin graciously offered to share a motel room with me so I didn't have to do my race tabulations and prize divying by headlamp. Saturday night's dinner gathering was entertaining and informative as usual, just hearing about Aaron Stiles adventures with offroad inline skating made it worth the while.



Sunday morning I overslept, waking up a 8:15 when I wanted to be at the track by 7:00 to work on Syd's lowracer and take care of the rest of my race director duties.
Turns out this is still a recumbent race and not too many people noticed. So I did a bit more maintainence to Syd's lowaracer and she lit it up. What a difference the details make. She laid down the second fastest ufaired 3/4mile tt time of the day (only seven and a half seconds slower than me) and then went on to win the womens lap race, nearly working her way into second overall till she had a small bout with dropping her chain multiple times(due to the missing chaingaurd that fell off the day before). Needless to say Sydney is also going to be very fast with a little more time on the bike(if she can get it away from Eric ;)).



The Hour faired race. Well, I was pretty tired from the day before. I think we went faster this year than last. Warren was stuck to my tail the whole time, but he was getting better at hiding from my mirrors. Rick found some leftover stock car shrapnell on the track(as did a few people) and flatted.


Oh yea, and I almost forgot to mention the Rose Hulman kids came out and made a good showing. A couple of U of IA kids came out Saturday as well. I hope to see more of that next year. Gary Toy did a better job sticking to Sean's wheel Saturday than I did, put a hurt on the Superstock race Sunday, and did a fine job entertaining my parents. Hope to see you(and Wendy) here again next year.

Many, many thanks to my parents for helping out with everything and especially to my mother(Mary) for providing the baked goods(the real draw for this event). Thanks to Luke and Warren for providing the timing. Thanks to Don for running the flags and lapcounting.

Race Pics and Results

DG


PS:Thank you to Garrie Hill for bringing the Kett out for my parents to play with, it's amazing how many people in my family have been riding that thing lately. I would have never guessed.

Ultra Midwest 24hour

More fun in the streamliner.
465 miles, 1st overall.
Forgot to swap the 12-27 back to the 11-34. 53x28 for a low gear is not kind. Had to stop every two laps to try to keep from bruising my feet. At least it wasn't the old course, that would have killed me.
Too much pre-race fatigue added up to me taking a nap at about 2am, no good for me during a road ultra. Spent three solid laps sleep riding after that, ping pong off the lines.
I've regressed on my fueling. 465 miles on half the Sustained/Heed mix I should have consumed, half pound of grapes, and a small tin of caffinated breath mints(who knew?).

I should have finished well over 500miles, but I just didn't play it right for that.

Well run event as all Ultra Midwest events are. Lots of fellow Bacchetta and ultradistance friends present. And for once a decent number of under 40yo folks. Even a 13yo in the six hour!

Next up: Hawkeye Downs HPRA September 15-16th
DG

6 Hour bean bag champion

Yea, thats right. Bean bag champ. I'm thinking about following the pro bean bag toss circuit. Pays better than racing. Well, it did two weeks ago anyways.
I think I'm going to include something like this in my race on the 15th and 16th, not sure what exactly, but it's gonna be fun.

The Manchester Medly HPRA races in North Manchester, IN were a blast as usual. It's not the fastest course, but it is a really cool little town and the people are great fun. Just watching my friend Reena bounce off the walls is worth the drive :) It's too bad the second day got rained out, but thats how it goes.

The drive out was my first expereience using my Tom Tom navigation system's "shortest route" feature, that was entertaining. Definitely saw some backroads I wouldn't have seen otherwise.....





Well, that was two weeks ago. I spent the last week burning a whole bunch of midnight oil finishing up Syd's new lowracer, which I then delivered Friday night. It came together pretty well considering this is my first attempt at a two part frame, and it is by far the most adjustable bike I have built thus far. I should have spent a little more time smoothing out my fillets and prepping before throwing paint at it, but I was pretty happy to have it all together by 3:30pm Friday. Didn't even have to breath drying paint fumes on the way out. I'm pretty excited to see what she can do with it, after she figures out the basics of course.


So, Saturday morning we loaded up the Suburu with three Badgers, a KM, two Browns and a Grelk, and headed for Doug Palen's farm for the Cruise the Blues six hour mtb race near Tipton KS. I kept hoping to see dry soil as we got closer, but it just wasn't happening. As a matter of fact I learned another lesson with the Tom Tom. When the nice lady tells you turn in KS, you'd best turn. The next road might be more path than road. Good thing this car is rally car inspired.

Sydney's mom, Nancy, was set to compete in her first mtb race ever, in the mud, at a a six hour. How's that for a cool mom? Well, I'm coming to expect it from the Brown Family, but thats still pretty damn cool.

There were over 150 participants this year with over 30 in the solo Glory six hour division. I saw a few familiar faces, but I didn't really know who was racing team and who was racing solo. I planned to race the 29er for the first lap to make sure there weren't any CX flat inducing sections on the course(no preriding a muddy course) and then switch to the CX bike and finally get some ride time in on that thing. Well that first lap was plagued with a about three derailments(one on the start line), which led to a whole bunch of time stuck in the mid-pack bottleneck(did get to see a guy fly off a bridge though). And with my recent upgrade to the wider Stan's Flow rims (hence making my mud clearance disappear, duh) I burnt a bunch of watts peeling mud off the tires with the chainstays. But hey, those wheel are noticibly stiffer now.

Lap two: switched to the cross bike. Man this thing flies, sticks to the corners, accelerates great, even handles the slimy stuff with confidence. The only spots that felt slow this lap were the loamy dirt sections along the fields where I could feel my 32c Speedmaxs sinking in.

Lap three: ok, I'm on a cross bike, the soft trail is drying, and I'm starting to fatique a bit. Lower back is kinda complaining. I think I'm gonna switch back to the 29er next lap. Then I hear this perky voice behind me say "Hey, is that a Badger on your ass?" Hello, Sydney. Well thats cool, at least the first person to pass me is my team mate. Damn she's strong. I let her go and roll on in only to find her sitting in the pits with a bag of ice on her toes. Sit and chat, eat, swap the race number plate back to the 29er.


Lap four: Roll out a little faster, new goal, stay ahead of Syd. The 29er definitely feels faster on the loamy stuff. Try to spin more and mash less. Roll throught the pits fast.

Lap five: Crap, I'm getting a little bonky now. Keep spinning. No sign of Syd yet through the halfway point. Maybe she slowed down. Then out on the final two mile streach on the switchbacks in the pasture, I look back and there she is, kicking my ass up the climb. So I crank it up, two mile dirt tt. Finish up my fifth lap at 5:47 in 5th overall with Syd coming in at about 5:48 1st place woman and 6th overall.

Nancy finished up two laps on the Joy course for second place in the womens +51 category. Badger teamates Cameron Chambers and Josh Patterson took first in Glory team overall.

A great weekend with great folks and well run event.

Now it's time to try and recover before the Labor day weekend's fun, the Ultra Midwest's 24hour RAAM qualifier(no I'm not doing RAAM)

DG

State chimp

Things I haven't updated on:

State Road Race:
Goal
Don't get dropped from the 1/2/3 pack.
Reality
Confused the state road race with the state time trial, rode 20 miles off the front, and then promptly shot out the back after mile 35. Dumbass.

Metamora 4x50:
Goal
Sub 7 hour double century in the streamliner.
Reality
Foggy first lap kept me from closing the canopy and building any real speed, not to mention the endless turns and stop signs that turn this event into an acceleration fest in a 70lb bike, 27.2mph avg by the the 85mile mark where I cut the sidewall of my front tire. Hot enough already that the pavement is melting. Changed the tube and limped it in the rest of the second lap, find I have no spare tire for the streamliner, swap to the lowracer. Ride one lap on the lowracer in which I learn that it's not much cooler on the unfaired bike, my headrest is definitely not adequate, and the lowracer doesn't handle loose gravel anywhere near as nicely as the streamliner. Spend alot of time in food coma on this lap since I have no way of carrying food or much of anything on the lowracer, and the added stress of holding my head up doesn't help my avg speed either. Wonder why no one has caught me yet, sure would be nice to have someone to draft about now. Stop in the pits once more, boot the tire on the streamliner and hope it holds for the last 50 miles. Temps outside in the mid nineties, highs inside the streamliner somewhere around a good broil. Holy crap my feet are hot! Tire blows out half a mile from the finish, ride it in. Finish up the 200 in 9:11, a little faster than last year, but it should have been oh so much faster. At least I didn't do any extra miles this year.

State Time Trial:
Goal
Sub 40 40K in the streamliner.
Reality
Since I cut the sidewall of the only front tire I have for the streamliner yesterday, I'm forced to race the lowracer. Yay, pain is my Friend. I'm Paul Deninger's minute man, yay. I didn't charge the battery on my gps so I have no speed reference, yay. Paul catches me at the turn around, I keep him in sight all the way back, but I'm still feeling the effects of yesterdays dehydration fest. Lost a couple of minutes, finished with a 56:20.

Damn, I'm so weak this year. I want my fitness back. I'm slowly getting my base back, my weekly miles are coming back up now that I've been off the fifty hour weeks for a month or so, but I've still got alot of work ahead of me. I need to get the Powertap setup in a lowracer before this winter, and I need to be working with a Training Peaks program before then. I'm just now getting enough info built up to get a hang of where my current power range is. Makes me wonder how strong I used to be.

Cx season is coming.

Beauty. A few more sneak peeks in here. I'm still tweeking fit and waiting for a couple choice components. Should look pretty slick when I'm finished. Tire clearance is awsome, I think I could almost run Nanos on this thing. Awsome work Rob. Oh, and yes I have been busy in the workshop.

DG

Dog days

For more reasons as to why my blog posts have been few lately look here.

DG