13 June 2010
A promise to update more regularly
This is just a short post to appologize for not posting in a while. My Mac has bit the dust again and I currently do not have internet at home. My grandparents just gave me their old laptop which should get me back into posting on a regular basis soon. This plus the ability to access wireless at work durring lunch should let me becom an online-socialite again. I hope everyone's summer is going as well as mine. Enjoy.
27 May 2010
A day off is a horrible think to waste
Today was a much needed day off. Not that my new job is horrible. Just three uber crazy days in a row can drain you. So I looked forward to sleeping in, riding my bike, and relaxing. I only accomplished one of these tasks.
At 6 this morning I woke up on my own accord. And again at 7. And yet again at 9. At this point I just lay there until 10 when I figured out I might as well roll out of bed. Not horrible, not great. Sometime after a quick breakfast I realized I should get my trusty old Mac to the Apple store to get it repaired. One and half hour wait. No big deal. 2 hours later I finally get to sit at the genius bar. An hour and half later I was informed that my 7 month hard drive was dead. Yipee.
So I made my way back to the house to get ready for my bike rides. I had planned to hit some local trails to get back into the flow of mountain biking. Then I was scheduled to lead the no-drop ride from the shop at 6:30. I got kitted up and drove the the trail head only to be greeted by a beautiful bolt of lightning as I put my front wheel on. Quick storm. No problem. I headed to the shop to make sure the group ride was still on and fix my broken chain. Once I arrived around 4 we checked out the radar. Without blinking we canceled the ride. Storm cells scatted for miles to the west of Cincy. Awesome.
The upside of the day was that I watch 5 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". My Team Twin Six kit also showed up which might have been the high point of the day. This leads me to the conclusion that from here on out I will ride first and then take care of business on my days off.
At 6 this morning I woke up on my own accord. And again at 7. And yet again at 9. At this point I just lay there until 10 when I figured out I might as well roll out of bed. Not horrible, not great. Sometime after a quick breakfast I realized I should get my trusty old Mac to the Apple store to get it repaired. One and half hour wait. No big deal. 2 hours later I finally get to sit at the genius bar. An hour and half later I was informed that my 7 month hard drive was dead. Yipee.
So I made my way back to the house to get ready for my bike rides. I had planned to hit some local trails to get back into the flow of mountain biking. Then I was scheduled to lead the no-drop ride from the shop at 6:30. I got kitted up and drove the the trail head only to be greeted by a beautiful bolt of lightning as I put my front wheel on. Quick storm. No problem. I headed to the shop to make sure the group ride was still on and fix my broken chain. Once I arrived around 4 we checked out the radar. Without blinking we canceled the ride. Storm cells scatted for miles to the west of Cincy. Awesome.
The upside of the day was that I watch 5 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". My Team Twin Six kit also showed up which might have been the high point of the day. This leads me to the conclusion that from here on out I will ride first and then take care of business on my days off.
23 May 2010
New Places
I'm sorry for the lack of post in a while. I have been busy making some drastic changes with my life. Two weeks ago I made the drive out to Cincinnati, OH to begin working at Trek of Cincinnati. In order to cover a lot of ground I am going to be brief with each aspect of this new segment of my life.
New job: I love my new job. The guys (and girls) I work with are great. The shop is well stocked. I get to build and work on everything from entry level hybrids (cringe) to 5 and 6 series Madones and TTXs. Sometimes I even get to deal with customers. And ever great once in a while I deal with a phone call. Dream job: yes. The only down side to my new job is the constant harassment I receive for riding a S-Works Tarmac to a Trek store (Specialized is one of Treks biggest rivals).
New city: Amazing. Though so far I have only frequented places that I already knew, I am already finding new places that I want to eat, play, and be entertained at.
New apartment: I just put a deposit down on a one bedroom apartment in a decent area of town that is halfway between the original Trek of Cincinnati and the new location that I will work at most of the time. I'll have about a 5 mile bike commute to both with is just about perfect.
I will try and update more often once I get my Mac up and running again.
Enjoy the Summer.
New job: I love my new job. The guys (and girls) I work with are great. The shop is well stocked. I get to build and work on everything from entry level hybrids (cringe) to 5 and 6 series Madones and TTXs. Sometimes I even get to deal with customers. And ever great once in a while I deal with a phone call. Dream job: yes. The only down side to my new job is the constant harassment I receive for riding a S-Works Tarmac to a Trek store (Specialized is one of Treks biggest rivals).
New city: Amazing. Though so far I have only frequented places that I already knew, I am already finding new places that I want to eat, play, and be entertained at.
New apartment: I just put a deposit down on a one bedroom apartment in a decent area of town that is halfway between the original Trek of Cincinnati and the new location that I will work at most of the time. I'll have about a 5 mile bike commute to both with is just about perfect.
I will try and update more often once I get my Mac up and running again.
Enjoy the Summer.
05 May 2010
Two days, two events, a heck of a lot of fun
This past weekend I had the pleasure of competing in two very different events. On Friday I headed to Blacksburg with Lindsey to compete and help out with Ride Hard: With a Vengeance! Sprinks and Dan put on a heck of an event with everything ranging from sprints to an all-out alley cat. I only competed in two events in order to save my legs for the race on Saturday. On Saturday I drove up to Wintergreen Ski Resort to compete in the Wintergreen Ascent Hill Climb State Championships. This is a little more my event, so I gave it an all-out effort and posted my second fastest time up the mountain at 45 min 2 sec which put me into 5th place in the Cat 5 group. Can't wait to come back next year and give both of these events another go. Check out full reports on both races at Team Twin Six.
20 April 2010
26 v 29:The Debate
I've been riding mountain bikes in a serious fashion for 5 years now. Up to this point all of my riding has been on 26 inch wheeled bikes: a Giant Iguana SE, a Cannondale Rush 600, a C'dale F1, and a C'dale Scalpel Carbon 2 (RIP). Even last fall I still believed that 26 inch wheels were the way to go for mountain bikers, at for least cross country racers like myself.
This winter some things changed. Several articles were published comparing 26 inch wheels to 29 inch wheels. New 29er components have come out making the weight gain negligible and gearing a more manageable. Then this Spring a riding buddy bought a 29er Cannondale much like the 26er F1 that I currently ride. Last Thursday I took his F29er and my F1 down to Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport, TN.
Let me first describe the rigs.
My F1: Aluminum hardtail, Lefty Speed Carbon SL (the lightest available), DT Swiss wheels (light and fast), 2x9 gearing with 24x36 crankset and 11x34 cassette, Specialized Captain 2.0 front tire and Fast Trak 2.0 rear tire, Thomson Elite seatpost, and Ritchey WCS flat and narrow bar
Est Weight: 22 lbs
F29er: Aluminum hardtail w/ ecentric bottom bracket (little bit heavier), Lefty Speed DLR2 (light), WTB wheels (little on the heavy side), 1x9 gearing with 23 crankset and 11x34 cassette, WTB NanoRaptor 2.1 tires front and rear, ControlTech high and wide bar
Est Weight: 25 lbs
I decided to use Darwin's Revenge as my standard lap to test the two bikes against each other. For those of you who have never ridden Warriors, Darwin's Revenge starts with a series of rooted switch backs and a short ride through some rock gardens, followed by a fast and flowing rollick with the occasional banked turn and switchback to keep it interesting. Then it hits some tight, twisty, cut-through-the trees before some more technical rock gardens and finally a short climb back out of the valley.
I took the F29er out for a lap of Darwin's Revenge, White Tail, and Magic Carpet Ride to get a feel for it. At first I hated it. It was harsh and hard to maneuver and really difficult to accelerate. After a few miles I adjusted the tire pressure (more than took care of the harsh ride and maneuverability) and started to get into the flow with the bike. Then I put in a flying lap on Darwin's Revenge. I had one forced dismount on a a switchback that I normally ride and rode over two sections which I normally dismount on. I was able to stay seated for more of the lap than normal (I am much more efficient when seated), though did have to slow up a bit when cutting through trees (wider bars than I am used to).
Lap time: 15 min 33 sec Avg Speed: 7.5 mph
Before running my F1 I took about 10 min to catch my breath and spin around. Then I re-entered Darwin's and started gunning it. The ride was very twitchy compared to the 29er (to be expected) and I wound up standing much more to absorb the shock of roots and rocks. I didn't have to dismount anywhere outside of where I normally shoulder my bike, but did try and ride a rock section I had cleared on the F29er and went down with the bike. All in all if felt like a fairly decent lap.
Lap time: 15 min 30 sec Avg Speed: 7.1 mph (GPS was only method of measuring distance and so was off a little between laps)
My overall impression is that while the F1 feels faster in the corners, the F29er actually handles and rolls better. By switching to a narrower bar the F29er would better suit my riding style and would probably be faster over any given course than the F1. The wight difference between the two bikes was at least 3 lbs which could easily be lost on the F29er. The difference should also be taken into note when looking at the lap times as that was 3 lbs of mostly rotating mass that I was having to accelerate out of the corners.
My conclusion is that 29ers are faster and easier to ride than 26ers for people who are my size and ride in the same style as I. That said, my next race bike will be a 29er hardtail. Anyone want to buy my F1?
This winter some things changed. Several articles were published comparing 26 inch wheels to 29 inch wheels. New 29er components have come out making the weight gain negligible and gearing a more manageable. Then this Spring a riding buddy bought a 29er Cannondale much like the 26er F1 that I currently ride. Last Thursday I took his F29er and my F1 down to Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport, TN.
Let me first describe the rigs.
Est Weight: 22 lbs
Est Weight: 25 lbs
I decided to use Darwin's Revenge as my standard lap to test the two bikes against each other. For those of you who have never ridden Warriors, Darwin's Revenge starts with a series of rooted switch backs and a short ride through some rock gardens, followed by a fast and flowing rollick with the occasional banked turn and switchback to keep it interesting. Then it hits some tight, twisty, cut-through-the trees before some more technical rock gardens and finally a short climb back out of the valley.
I took the F29er out for a lap of Darwin's Revenge, White Tail, and Magic Carpet Ride to get a feel for it. At first I hated it. It was harsh and hard to maneuver and really difficult to accelerate. After a few miles I adjusted the tire pressure (more than took care of the harsh ride and maneuverability) and started to get into the flow with the bike. Then I put in a flying lap on Darwin's Revenge. I had one forced dismount on a a switchback that I normally ride and rode over two sections which I normally dismount on. I was able to stay seated for more of the lap than normal (I am much more efficient when seated), though did have to slow up a bit when cutting through trees (wider bars than I am used to).
Lap time: 15 min 33 sec Avg Speed: 7.5 mph
Before running my F1 I took about 10 min to catch my breath and spin around. Then I re-entered Darwin's and started gunning it. The ride was very twitchy compared to the 29er (to be expected) and I wound up standing much more to absorb the shock of roots and rocks. I didn't have to dismount anywhere outside of where I normally shoulder my bike, but did try and ride a rock section I had cleared on the F29er and went down with the bike. All in all if felt like a fairly decent lap.
Lap time: 15 min 30 sec Avg Speed: 7.1 mph (GPS was only method of measuring distance and so was off a little between laps)
My overall impression is that while the F1 feels faster in the corners, the F29er actually handles and rolls better. By switching to a narrower bar the F29er would better suit my riding style and would probably be faster over any given course than the F1. The wight difference between the two bikes was at least 3 lbs which could easily be lost on the F29er. The difference should also be taken into note when looking at the lap times as that was 3 lbs of mostly rotating mass that I was having to accelerate out of the corners.
My conclusion is that 29ers are faster and easier to ride than 26ers for people who are my size and ride in the same style as I. That said, my next race bike will be a 29er hardtail. Anyone want to buy my F1?
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