Activities other than visiting are permitted after 4 P.M., just don't get out of hand. A singletrack shortcut North America
ARRRRGH, no auto-play videos on forums, PLEASE. that announcers voice came across my speakers LOUD, every time I load this page.
I the opportunity this weekend to test ride a Scott 18 lb 29er HT belonging to a local dealer, and compare it to my 26 lb 29er FS on the same trail. I was most intrigued by what the Stans Ztr Crest 29er wheels would do for me, as I'd considered them as a potential upgrade. The FS 29er belonged to the owner of a local shop. We did at one time compare the difference in weight between my stock rims and the Crests. I was a little disappointed to find that the Stans only weighed about 1/2 lb less per wheel on his electronic scale, which I didn't think would translate into a noticeable performance improvement -- or at least not enough of one to justify the purchase price. But the unanimous opinion of everyone I asked, including those in this thread, was that they would. So after I'd done one loop around the trail on my bike, I climbed aboard the HT and did the same. It's owner and I are almost exactly the same size and weight, so his setup worked perfectly for me. My impressions are as follows: The HT weighed 6 lbs less on the scale than my Trek Superfly 100 Pro, but that considerable difference wasn't evident once I got the bike rolling. The climbs weren't noticeably easier on the HT as I'd expected they would be, and I wasn't any less fatigued after completing one loop than I was on my bike. That could be attributed to the fact that I had to remain off the seat for much longer. The amount of shock transmitted to my spine thanks to the lack of a rear shock was awful, and made standing on the pedals mandatory on any rough parts of the trail. What did really impress me was how quickly the HT turned. It was effortless, almost to the point where I had to expend more effort to keep the front wheel straight than to initiate turns. When I mentioned this, all the other riders attributed that to the lighter Stans wheels (both bikes were equipped with the identical tubeless tires). When the shop owner offered to let me borrow the Stans wheels for my trip to Santos on Saturday, I eagerly accepted. My usual riding partner Dave, came with me. Dave is a former BMX racer and has many more years of experience riding mountain bikes than I do. On previous rides, I could never outpace him, even on fast straights where rider skill wasn't a factor. For our test run, I picked 'Twister', which is a very fast trail, and one of the longest ones at Santos. I'd noticed that all the fast riders from my area were higher than me on the Strava leaderboard on Twister, so I wanted to correct that error. I started off cautiously, but after a few minutes I was really into it. The bike was doing an amazing job with those Stans wheels on it. Accelerating and turning felt just as easy as it had on the much lighter HT, but the front end was much more stable, so I just kept increasing my speed until I reached the limits of my comfort zone. I fully expected Dave to be right behind me, but on one long 180 degree turn, I saw that he was trailing me by about 50 yards. :huh I pressed even harder at that point and managed to increase my lead on the easier sections. I kept glancing down at my GPS, trying to see how fast I was going, but had a hard time reading the numbers. Unfortunately I focussed on the GPS a bit too long at one point, and wound up running right off the trail into deep sand. That mistake allowed Dave to close the distance a bit, and he maintained it all the way to the end. He was out of breath though, which I've never seen before. Neither of us had timed the run, so I had no idea whether my impressions would be certified by Strava's record until I uploaded the data. Yep, I not only beat the times of all the local fast guys, but did so by a considerable margin. Needless to say, those Stans wheels are staying on my bike.
1:35 in the spring-like weather we're having in the DC area. It has to be darn near 70deg right now. Tossing the training plan out the winder for a few days and soaking up the rays. Wore a 'thick-ish' base layer, jersey, shorts, and some arm warmers and was overdressed. Tomorrow I'm headed to Bull Run Mtn. Ride some dirt, then ride home. I'm debating between riding from home or driving to Haymarket M
so I got my park tools 'wall stand' and lag bolted it to the telephone pole thats right next to my outdoor workbench. freekin awesome. http://www.parktool.com/product/professional-wall-mount-stand-prs-4w-2 that clamp rocks. and when I remove the bike clamp assembly from the base, the lock lever lifts out of the base too, so I don't need to leave that outdoors, just the black panted base piece. this new style clamp is really easy to use, too, will hold odd shaped and large diameter tubes easily. totally overkill for my back-og-the-shed bike wrenching :)
A word about Competitve Cyclist. I ordered some gear from them-- some shorts, some socks, you know. I also ordered a mat to go under the bike/rollers and a sweat catcher along with a headwind unit for my Kreitlers. Well, for some reason Comp. Cyclist split my order up in to 5 shipments. 3 showed up Thursday-- the more expensive items-- and 2 more boxes scheduled for Friday. Friday came and I received an email notice that my packages were delivered at 4:10 PM and left on the porch, just like the others were. Wait a minute, I was home at 4:10 PM. No packages. I circumambulated the house and then called UPS. They told me to call Comp. Cyclist. Comp. Cyclist told me they would send out a replacement shipment Monday. And they did, Monday morning it was already on its way. Guess what showed up on my porch this afternoon? The 'supposedly' delivered packages from Friday. I think someone from UPS was monkeying around. In any case, UPS wasn't great, but Competitve Cyclist was great. PS I have spent more than 700 USD at my (tiny) LBS this year. Porbably would have bought a new machine from them if there best brand wasn't Felt.
I get that on occasion from UPS. My guess is that the driver is scanning the item as delivered to make his stats look better. What's the old saying, "You get what you measure'?
Found out a week ago I'm stationed here in the valley of the blue-hairs until April. I'm bringing a bike this weekend when I drive back. Maybe even lights. We'll see how much crap I can cram in the trunk of a new Maxima. My back is semi-good. It hurt like hell over the weekend I spent flying to and from Iowa. Dancing all evening at the wedding reception didn't help, but the wine did mask the activity a bit. I have enough room to keep my bike in the hotel suite, I just need to clean it up and gather my tools and gear. I'm going to be forced to begin looking at shoes too.
Thanks for posting the video. That looks like loads of fun!! The bikes all seemed to have drop bars. Are those road bikes? Looks like a mountain bike might work well on that run.
To get your feet wet, a mtn bike (without barends) works great. A 29er works even better. Typically the courses aren't rough enough to need suspension, so a road-ish bike with knobbies works fine. I raced my first half a season on my mtn bike with the fork locked out. If you search for 'cyclocross' on youtube, there'll be a LOT of fun videos. Speaking of cross bikes, I just got from 3:40 on my Crosshairs. Over to Busthead Rd then up and over Bull Run Mtn road, then up and over Busthead (another section) to Waterfall. Instead of coming back the way I went out, I went up and over Waterfall to Antioch and back thru Haymarket. Total distance was the same, just one less big hill in the way. Bull Run Mtn Rd was all kinds of gravelly. Last time I was there it was pretty smoothed out. This time? Not so much. Made for a MUCH slower descent! Conversely, Busthead was smoother. ...which is good cause there's one pitch (appx 50m long) that's a steep SOB. Up till this time up, there was a really soft spot about halfway thru the steep pitch that really sucked the energy out of your legs. Was out in shorts, light base layer, and a summer weight jersey. ...and I got to pay for all that fun with a headwind the whole way home. Screw the training schedule! I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to work on my tan lines s'more! M
cyclocross is an hour or 90 minute timed race around a short course loop with obstacles, you often have to do a lot of dismount and carry, he who does hte most laps wins. the pace is a mad sprint. beginner classes use hardtail mountain bikes, the expert classes use drop bar purpose-built cyclocross bikes. around here, its done in the winter, so its often raining and muddy.
Some fine-tuning: beginners are typically 30min long. Intermediates (everyone but the elite race) is typically 45min long. Elites = 60min. ...and just like a 'regular' race, the one that crosses the finish line at the end of the race is the winner. For example: one of the Elite Haymarket riders was on the front of the race for the entire hour Sun. Got pipped at the line by the guy that was sucking wheel 4th in line the whole race. Sucks to be the Haymarket guy, but he raced stupidly. Cross is a fall/winter sport. Season starts in Sept and ends with the Worlds in Feb. Around these parts, the last race of the season is 16Dec. Can't wait! I need a break. M