Totally Awesome Freeride God

I've been a mountain biker for the last 15 years and a roadie for the last eight. I've worn tight Lycra shorts and tight jerseys for most of that time. When I went to Moab earlier this year, I found that I was the only person in the entire state of Utah wearing Lycra. As long as I didn't hang out in the bike shops too much, it wasn't a problem. When I got home from Moab I had learned to be more aware of what the locals wear.

I remembered this when it was time to pack for my first biking trip to Snowshoe, WV. I wasn't sure how much of a problem it would be to wear Lycra, but I was pretty sure the locals in rural West Virginia would not be wearing tight cycling garb. I started having nightmares of being dropped by my riding buddies, found by some locals, and being forced to reenact scenes from Deliverance. Out came the credit card and I soon had a new biking outfit. By the time I got to Snowshoe I was sporting baggy shorts and a motocross jersey, and seemed to fit in just fine.

While I was there, I learned that freeriding/downhilling is best done with platform pedals (not clipless pedals, which I had). I also learned that a 6'5" guy doesn't fit well on the vanilla rental bikes. After returning home, I purchased a new bike (with platform pedals), and I am now trying to get used to riding unclipped. Of course flat pedals don't work with hard-bottomed cycling shoes, so new shoes were ordered. Not just any new shoes...skate shoes! Yes I'm 34 years old and I ride my freeride bike in baggy shorts, motocross jerseys, and skate shoes (with skulls on them, no less).

As much of a transition as this has been for me to get used to, I'm learning that it's a much harder transition for the Lycra-clad guys I ride with on my local trails. This last fact was brought to light during my ride this weekend. After the initial laughter subsided and the jokes about the "High School kid I robbed on the way to the ride" were finished, I thought the worst was behind me. But that's when the subtle digs started; the sly comments about getting back home before curfew, or referring to me as 'kid' at every opportunity.

Honestly, it doesn't really bug me. I understand that it's all part of the growing pains that my riding buddies are going through as I morph into a totally awesome freeriding god!

Shova at Harris Lake

My bff Pat and I hit Harris Lake trails today. It's mostly tight single track - not exactly the place to show off what the Shova can do, but we did find a small dropoff to play on.


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New Bike - Morewood Shova LT

So here it is. It's almost complete. As it stands now, it's right at 37 lbs. It'll be my (heavy) XC bike as well as my Snowshoe (lite Freeride) bike.

• 2007 Morewood Shova LT (Large with 7.6" travel)
• 2007 Marzocchi 66 SL1 ATA (140mm - 180mm travel)
• Avid Juicy Sevens with 200mm rotors front and rear
• Titec El Norte Bent Prolite seatpost
• Azonic Outlaw wheels (purchased, but not installed yet)
• WTB Velociraptors 26"x2.1 front and rear (purchased, but not installed yet)

No one would claim that it's a pure XC bike, but with the El Norte Bent seat post, a 100mm stem, and 2.1 tires, I can get enough room in the cockpit to make it work for XC. When it's time to go to Snowshoe, I'll put on a Thompson straight seatpost, a 70mm stem, some 2.5 dual-ply tires, and I'll be good to go.

Now I just need some ride time...

New Bike - Trek Session 7

I found a (tall) guy selling a really nice Trek Session 7 relatively close by. It has some upgraded parts, which will move over nicely when I buy my final frame. Although I know I'm not going to ride the Trek long (I want something lighter), it is bombproof and will hold up to my weight and size very well.

It weighed in at 44 lbs. when I bought it. I got it down to 41 lbs by putting some light XC tires on it. I made some more minor part swaps and it's now sitting at 40 lbs. even.

Oh yea, I bought a sweet fork for it, too. Marzocchi 66 SL1 ATA. Very nice. I can't wait until it's broken in a bit.

Snowshoe 2007

So I finally got to go mountain biking at Snowshoe. Wow!!! What a thrill! I've seen the light and it's name is Downhill Biking! We left Thursday morning and got there in exactly 6 hours (from my driveway to the top of Snowshoe). Rented the bikes, signed wavers, promised not to ride the DH courses since they were closed (fingers crossed, of course) and hit the slopes.

Since the shuttle wasn't running, we shuttled ourselves up and down. Nine guys, two cars. It takes about 15 minutes to bike down, load the bikes inthe cars at the bottom of the moutain, drive up and do it again.

At first, I felt beat-up and, in some cases, out of control. However, as I got the feel of the bike and the trails, I relaxed a bit, picked up more speed, and started glancing off the tops of the rocks instead of grabbing brakes and trying to ride over or in between them. Now we're cooking with gas!

Henry, John and I had "big bikes" and went off to do our own thing. Thanks to the 7 inches of travel (front and rear) plus a slack head angle, we really took to the flowing trails with jumps. Pete, Andrew, Drew, Paul, Richard and Rob each had XC bikes with a more up-right design and "only" 6 inches of travel. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it's like night and day.

The XC guys had to fight the bike to make it stay on the lines they wanted. They had to grab brakes the whole way down and stay slow. Any time I got trapped behind them, my hands would cramp from applying the brakes so much.

Just about the time I was beginning to figure things out, it was time to pack up and head home. However, now I'm addicted! The bike I rented was a bit too small for me (I'm 6'5" - no big surprise there), and any time the bike left the ground, I really struggled to keep from over-rotating backwards - not a good feeling.

Now I'm researching buying a new bike and hope to have enough saddle time before my next trip to understand how to jump correctly. I can't wait!

TdF - Stage 2

What a nasty crash at the end of Stage 2! CANCELLARA and RODRIGUEZ both appeared to be injured as they crawled across the finish line. Hopefully it's nothing serious. It looks like most of the sprinters made it through. That means the climbers and their domestics were involved in the crash. Let's hope none of the GC guys were seriously injured.

Even though most of my Fantasy Team were involved in the crash, I was still able to move up one notch - #312 out of 2616.

First Day of First Grade

Elise hopped the bus today for her first day of First Grade. We're all very excited for her!

TdF - Stage 1

Robbie McEwen pulled out another unbelievable career sprint. 10 miles before the finish, he was 150+ riders back after a crash a few K earlier. Out of nowhere he sprinted to the finish line ahead of everyone else. He's amazing. That's why I chose him on my Fantasy Cycling Team.

Now I'm #313 out of 2616 teams!

TdF - Prologue

The World Time Trial Champion showed exactly how he earned that title! He blew away 188 of the world fastest cyclists today in the 4.9 mile 2007 Tour de France Prologue. He completed the ride in 8:50, which puts him averaging 33+ mph...unbelievable.

He was my first pick on my Fantasy Cycling Team and earned me 55 points. That puts me 428 out of 2616 teams.

TdF - Fanasy Cycling Team

I received some mail today from Performance Bikes advertising their free Fancy Cycling Team. I spent some time this afternoon setting up my own team. We'll see how I do.

Announcement

We have an announcement. Can you guess what it is...

Moab - Day 5

After last night's disaster, Andrew and I proclaim that we are finished with Moab. We want this trip behind us. Drew is a bit disappointed, but that's because he has a never ending supply of energy and would be perfectly happy to bike back to North Carolina from Utah.

We return the rental bikes and drive back to Denver. It was another drive with stunning views. We make it back to Denver, grab a hotel for the night and catch our flight the next day.

All in all, we were none too impressed with Moab. For me, my expectations of Moab were way off. I was expecting long, fast downhills of single track and jeep trails. We never once rode anything that resembled that. Slickrock was impressive, but being 6'5" tall and renting a bike proved to suck the fun out of the trail. The bike was too small for me and I had a really hard time making the ultra-steep climbs without falling over backwards.

If I were to go again, I would spend more time researching bike rentals or maybe even take my own bike out there. The best thing for me would probably be to get a 29er full suspension bike. Oh, and I'd make sure to lower the saddle this time. For sure, my saddle was way too high for that type of steep riding - and I wasn't able to crouch low to lower my center of gravity.

Moab - Day 4 (part 2)

So we're stranded in the Utah desert and the local Sherriff has arrived to help. The Sherriff decides that he should take two of us back in his truck, and we'll drive the truck back to the cave and get the other guys and the bikes. Andrew and I volunteer to head back with the Sherriff. We quickly discern two things: 1) the Sherriff doesn't pay for his own vehicle, and 2) he knows these back roads very well. As we speed back to the parking area at 45 mph on very rough roads, I notice that Andrew still has his helmet on and is making no moves to take it off. Smart move.

We finally make it back to the truck and the Sherriff starts to guide us back to the cave. He takes a "shortcut" and we promptly get our (much larger) truck stuck in the sand. The Sherriff decides to go around us and pull us out the way we came in. In doing so, he gets his truck stuck. So there we are - two panicking North Carolina boys stuck in the sand around 10:00 at night in the Utah desert next to the local Sherriff, who is also stuck. The Sherriff is very calm about all of this, grabs a shovel out of his truck and starts to dig himself out. We take turns digging, but before long, we hear another truck in the distance. As it gets closer, the Sherriff recognizes the sound of the truck as a local high school kid.

The kid, driving his huge F350, finds us, and he and the Sherriff exchange some friendly jabs about the Sherriff getting stuck. The kid and his truckload of friends pile out of their F350 and help the Sherriff dig out of the sand. It is at this moment that I become very aware that I'm standing their in full biking spandex.

After some discussion, they decide that the best measure is to have the F350 pull out the Sherriff's truck. Then they'll worry about our truck. At this time, the Sherriff is stuck in front of our truck, and the F350 is behind us. As the F350 backs up to attempt to pull around us, they too get stuck. Surprisingly, Andrew and I aren't too worried about this. By this time, we've come to understand that this is a normal Friday night out for these guys.

While they wrestle getting the F350 out of the sand, Andrew and I work on our truck. We manage to get our truck out and park it out of the way. After getting the F350 freed, stuck again and freed again; they finally got the Sherriff out, too.

Now we're all on our merry way back to the cave (the F350 is headed to their original destination, which I'm sure includes drinking and getting stuck in the sand). We make it to the cave, pick up the other guys and our bikes and head out. Thankfully, the Sherriff takes it much slower on the way out this time. We make it to the highway, bid our thanks to the Sherriff and head back to Moab in search of dinner. Of course, it's after 11:00pm and everything is closed except a gas station.

After a dinner of ho-ho's and honey buns we finally find our beds and crash for the night.

Moab - Day 4 (part 1)

Before bed last night, we called a half dozen shuttle companies looking for a shuttle for Porcupine Rim for today. It took a while, but we finally arranged pick up for Porcupine Rim at 10:00am today.

We had a leisurely morning and arrived early to hang out waiting for the shuttle to show up. We waited, and waited, and waited. While waiting, we found a plaque that told about two bikers that were killed while biking Porcupine Rim. Ok, so it took us a long time to find a shuttle company, the shuttle never arrived, and now we have the negative juju from reading this plaque. This is when we bag Porcupine Rim and decide to salvage the rest of the day.

[We rode a small trail at lunch time, which I can't recall now. I'll edit this later when I remember.]

After that trail, it was back to Moab for some grub. We pulled out the Rider Mel book and chose Behind the Rocks trail. This it the 24 hours of Moab course. The description said it was a challenging but fun course. Plus, they ride it day and night for the race, so how hard could it be?

We hit the trail around 3:00 and follow the books instructions and the "Behind the Rocks" trail markers. The trail is a wide jeep trail that goes through the desert. The jeep road is part bare rock, hard packed soil, and 3 inches deep sand, which made it nearly impossible to bike through. We passed grass fields, and rock formations. We bike for a while and compare the trail markers with the book's instructions. After the first hour, we determine that the book's instructions were too vague to follow, so we rely on the trail markers - assuming that as long as we're on the trail, we'll be fine.

As we continue on, the most notable land feature was Picture Frame Arch. As we passed by that arch, we noticed a shallow cave on the back side. We also noticed that the trail markers are continuing to direct us farther and farther away from the trailhead. Shouldn't the trail turn back toward the parking area soon??? We pull out the book gain, and determine it as useless as before. Let's stay on trail - that's the safe thing to do.

We kept going for another hour or so and stopped again. This time we were on a ledge with a 100 ft. drop below us. We could make out the trail as it winds down the ledge and continues on as far out in the distance as we can see. We certainly can't keep going on. We have about an hour of daylight left and we're a good 3 hours into the trail.

We clearly can't make it out before sunset, so we decide to head for the shallow cave near Picture Frame Arch. As we head back there, we periodically stop and check for a cell phone signal. Never getting a signal, we finally make it to the cave with about 30 minutes of twilight left. We each break into survival mode. We gather firewood, continue to search for a cell phone signal, and try to start a fire with no matches or lighter.

After 45 minutes of MacGyver-like ingenuity, Drew gets a fire started with a video camera battery pack, and some brake cable strands (no lie - it was very impressive to watch). Around that same time, Andrew gets through to 911 and is eventually connected to the Sherriff who says he'll come get us in about an hour.

Sure enough, and hour later, we see headlights bouncing down a dirt road getting closer to us. The Sherriff decides to take two of us back to our rental truck and we can drive in to get the rest of the crew and all our bikes.

Moab - Day 3

Today we rode Slickrock! [Check out the photos and description on this site.]

But first, it's time to find a bike that fits. After three hours of phone calls, test riding, and waiting for tune-ups, I finally find a bike that fits (well, close enough). This time, it's a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR (in FloRed).

While waiting for the new rental bike to be readied, I drop off the other guys at the Slickrock trailhead so they can start their ride. The plan is for me to secure a new bike and start riding the trail in the opposite direction. So, that's exactly what I did. They had a 90 minute head start on me by the time I got the bike and drove back to the trailhead. I caught them about 90 minutes into my ride (counter-clockwise) at Shrimp Rock.

This bike feels a lot better than the first. It's still not a perfect fit and I don't feel confident biking up the really steep climbs, which most of the climbs are really steep. But I'm having fun again, and the ankle is slowly starting to feel better. Oh, and I bought elbow/arm pads while waiting around for the rental bike, so I feel more secure as well. I did a lot of hike-a-bike while watching the other guys ride off into the distance, but I know it's better to be safe than injured.

We finished Slickrock - hi-5's all around - and head for lunch. As we sat there eating our lunch, I realized that I wasn't very satisfied with the Slickrock trail. I had envisioned the Moab biking to be longer climbs with longer descents. Slickrock was the exact opposite. There were steep, 10-20 ft. climbs; 20-50 ft. of flat/gentle rollers; and then steep, 10-20 ft. drops. Rarely was there a significant downhill where one could let go of the brakes and get some good speed.

Oh well, I shook it off and started looking forward to the next ride - the one that'll meet my expectations (I hoped). We chose Baby Steps.

Baby Steps is a 7.5 mile out-and-back ride. It's listed as almost all uphill on the way out, so the way back should be the sweet downhill I was waiting for. As it turned out, I really didn't like this trail. It was 70% single-track, 10% slickrock and 20% dirt road.

A lot of the dirt road was covered in sand making it exhausting to bike through. Going out, the slickrock was all uphill (as promised) but was a very rough surface and proved to be hard to follow the trail (marked by 12 inch tall cairns). That meant when going at speed on the way back, it was easy to miss the trail markers; thus forcing you to ride slower than you would otherwise prefer.

The single-track I found to be unforgiving. There was a 10 inch wide "sweet spot" that, if you kept your tires there, would prove to be compacted and easy to ride. Just two inches off that sweet spot in either direction and you find yourself in very soft "soil." Well, soil isn't quite the right word. It's a bed of sand that has been baked over many years to have a hard-ish crust layer on top. The bike tires easily penetrate the crust layer to find the sand below. This depletes all momentum you had while trying to climb a hill and makes it easy to lose control when trying to descend on the way back.

For the record, Drew and Andrew loved this trail (Pete sat this one out to rest his legs). As you can tell from my description above, I was not fond of it.

With the first full day of riding behind us, we have safely and successfully navigated two Moab trails. I'm still in search of the long, fun, exhilarating downhill rides that I had imagined would await me at Moab. Maybe we'll find it tomorrow.

Moab - Day 2

After a good night's sleep, I woke up around 5:00am Mountain Time (7:00 back home) and started my day. After we all got dressed, we made our way to the SAS PharmaSUG conference for the catered breakfast. We made sure there wasn't anything work-related that the other guys needed to take care of before departing for Utah. The morning was quiet so we hit the road.

The drive was uneventful; however the scenery was stunning. It took about six hours to get from Denver to Moab. We drove West to the Rockies, climbed up and over them, down the other side and followed the Colorado River into Utah. 350 miles in all. We passed through Vail and the White River National Forest. The most memorable part of the drive was going through Glenwood Canyon on the viaduct of I-70. Stunning.

We arrived in Moab around 4:30pm. The bike stores didn't close until 6:00, so we had time to pick up the bikes this evening. After getting the bikes, we headed over to the Slickrock Practice Loop to put a few miles in on the bikes before dark. This allowed us to make sure the bikes fit and were working well.

I quickly learned that my bike fit left a lot to be desired. Although the frame was an XL (Santa Cruz Blur LT), I felt like I was riding a bike two sizes too small. The small bike did not work well on the insanely steep climbs and descents.

On one of the first climbs, I was unable to keep the front wheel in contact with terra firma and started to fall backwards. I caught myself in time and put my foot down. Unfortunately, there is no shoe traction when on a 60° inclined solid rock surface (with metal spikes on the front of the shoes) and began sliding down the rock. First on my feet, then fell to my left knee and elbow and finally flat on my thighs and hands - continuing to slide down the rock. I had gloves on, so my hands were fine. My thighs were rubbed slightly raw (felt like sunburn), but my knee and elbow were skinned bad enough to draw blood. The worst part was how I stopped the uncontrolled decent - my left foot found a small ledge and the metal spikes grabbed hold. The halt was abrupt and wrenched my ankle. That caused a significant sprain of a ligament which almost ruined all chances of riding for the entire trip.

I gingerly completed the rest of the ride and declared that bike not worthy of riding again.

The bed was a welcome sight after showering, tending to my wounds and getting some dinner.

Moab - Day 1

Today, I flew out to Denver, CO, to meet up with Andrew Fagan, Pete Villiers, and Drew Foglia to go mountain biking in Moab, Utah. The three of them were in Denver on business and had decided to hit Moab while they were out West. When I heard of their plans back in April, I asked if they wanted another warm body to come along with them. They said yes.

So today, I flew out to Denver. While waiting for my connecting flight in Chicago, I noticed that an earlier flight to Denver was boarding. I registered to fly standby on that flight on the hopes that I could get to Denver a little early. It paid off - I arrived in Denver 90 minutes earlier than I had planned. Unfortunately, my luggage was not so lucky.

The airport was a 30 minute drive from the hotel and we were hoping to drive to Utah first thing in the morning, so I had no choice but to spend the next 90 minutes waiting in the Denver airport for the luggage to arrive. There was a nice (for airport dining) BBQ restaurant in the airport, so I was able to have a relaxing meal while I waited.

After the luggage arrived I took a shuttle to the hotel where the other guys were staying. Since the other guys were still out enjoying the Denver night life with the SAS/Denmark folks, I went to bed early. Drew was nice enough to let me crash that night in his room, so that spared me the cost of room and board the first night.

All in all, the first day of the trip went well. No delays at the airports, and both flights were actually a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Bunk Bed Project

In late Spring this year, I completed my first significant woodworking project. Last Fall I started work on building a bunk bed for Elise. The idea started as a simple loft bed so we can make use of the vertical space in her room. However, it eventually evolved into what you see below. Here are some highlights:

• Headboard and footboards are one peice (I can cut them down to two seperate bunks in the future if I really want to.)
• The main horizontal rails use the Woodcraft bed rail fastners (so the bed comes apart).
• The upper bunk is accessed by the bookshelf/stairs on the reading loft.
• The reading loft has 5 "hidden" storage compartments for larger toys/stuffed animals. 4 of the compartments comprise the reading loft floor. The fifth compartment is the square, bottom stair for the stairs leading to the upper bunk.
• The trap doors are not hinged. You open them by pulling on the rope handles.
• The upper bunk is currently a play loft (no mattress). Hence the house facade and white fence.

First post

I've had some musing to share with friends lately and decided it was time to create a blog instead of pass around email. So here's the home of the new blog. Check back soon for an update on things in my life - family, biking, woodworking, etc...