By Tim | 10/03/08 | 3:53 PM
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Lucky to be clear of head as the season rolls into barriers and cold temps. Damp and frosty, not the beer yet, too early for that. Clinchers of another sort, the dirt-kind are keeping me grounded, in a good way that the fall allows. Carving trail on freshly moistened loamy, sandy soil lucky to have made the choices, secure in the heavy pack making me work. I have never felt better than this season, not the wins, better than that, comfortable in all that’s done and happy about the work to be done. There’s always more, never enough, enough.
By James | 10/03/08 | 2:32 PM
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September has seen the XC draw to a close and the Cyclocross begin in earnest over here in the UK. Being British, with the obsession with the weather that that entails, the big news was a long spell of high pressure, bringing sunshine and dry trails to my local hunting ground of Cannock Chase. That’s not how the month started though… More »
By Dan | 10/02/08 | 10:53 PM
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A few questions to Fisher/Trek owners about their bike . Proof you as bike riders don’t have to work in a bike store to get people involved in riding.
From: Heidi E Grunwald [mailto:grunwald@temple.edu]
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 7:06 PM
To: dan k
Subject: RE: about your bike
-Name: Heidi E. Grunwald
-What the hell do you do for a living? Assistant Vice President for Research, Temple University… (much too hard to explain).
-Region you lay your head nightly? Philadelphia, PA, 1/4 mile from the Wissahickon, 20 miles of KILLER mtb trails right here in the city. More »
By Tj | 10/02/08 | 3:44 PM
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Michaux. You need to be serious.
On to the next Rig-Job. Well, not really a “rig”, but more a “finding.” A thing I like to call “brake-shifting.” Or, I’ll do my best to explain this, shift into a lower gear to prepare for acceleration out of a corner while braking hard into the corner. Keep in mind this may not be useful to you depending on what part of the country you live in. PA, ohh yeah, it is useful. I came up with the thought of how useful this action would be while racing at Michaux, as well as some other ideas such as the 7″ front brake rotor. So, I brake with my index fingers and shift with my thumbs, either direction on the cassette. I also like to shift with my index fingers while not in a braking situation. With my previous set-up, Grip shift, I couldn’t shift fast enough at the end of a corner after braking to get it into a lower gear fast and clean enough. I had to “jam” it in. No problem, Sram can take it. With this new set up, Shimano Dual-Release shifters, I can flick the cable release paddle with my thumb while braking heavily in a corner or a rocky downhill. That will throw it into a easier gear right? Wrong. Sort of. With a standard Rear Der it would place the chain on a smaller, harder cog. Not what I’m looking to do. But, Shimano makes a selection of Rapid-Rise or Low-Normal rear deraileurs. This combo, Dual-Release/Rapid-Rise, accomplishes the ability to easily downshift slighty before the downshift is needed. More or less shifting when I WANT to, more often, rather than shift when I NEED to. It is convenient and I shift twice as much as I would have before. Not that that is important, but convenience is much appreciated. It would really suck to not be able to shift when I wanted to and only shift when i have to.
Back to Michaux.
I’ll give the brief recap on it. It is about 5000-6000 feet of climbing, per race. 45-49 Miles long per race. 6 miles or less of dirt road per race. All rocks.
By Geoff | 9/30/08 | 8:22 PM
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I am finally back to racing in the dirt. My knee is all healed up and the SS doesn’t bug it on long or hard rides so I figured what better way to get back into the swing of things than throttle myself at Pando Ski Area. I like the course as it is has a fair amount of punchy little climbs in a 4+ mile loop. I cruised a few laps on Saturday and decided to race in the expert geared category to get in 2 extra laps, and if everything went well there was always the singlespeed class for a few extra miles. After taking the hole shot and leading a good deal of the first lap I realized that being slightly over geared wasn’t allowing for recovery so I sat up to let a few chasers latch on and traded pulls. During the 3rd lap we were riding hard and making our way through the back end of the elite pack. I was cutting it a little close on one of the rooted corners and managed a pretty sweet fall that quickly took me off the train and out of contention. After getting my wind back I chased hard for a lap but wasn’t able to close the gap down and just cruised it in for 4th, and a result I am happy with. My legs felt decent and few cross races and a couple big rides should be just what I need to get ready for the big one. It was good to hang out after the race and got to meet fellow 29er crew member Dan K. who should be providing a pic. or two, including one of the always entertaining Adam York. It’s good to be back at it!
GBK
By Erik | 9/30/08 | 9:15 AM
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A Turn in the Wrong Direction (The Black Bear Rampage)
The day began with a dreaded 3:30 AM wakeup call. (If you know me at all you will know I am not a morning person. In fact I am more likely to be going to sleep rather than waking up at this time.) It took a minute to drag my lazy butt out of bed, but it was worth it to find my girlfriend making me waffles. By 4:30 my friend Z and I were loaded and ready to start the 2 and a half hour journey.
We arrived, registered, changed, and began to warm-up. During the warm-up I noticed the man himself, Gary Fisher, getting ready as well. He was rocking the Hifi Pro 29er and appeared to have his game face on. Soon we all lined up for the start. More »
By Kyle | 9/25/08 | 8:53 AM
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Plenty of granite awaits this Sunday as I prepare to embark on the BIG NUT. MassaNUTten mountain that is. Harrisonburg Va to almost Front Royal Va. Its gonna be another amazing ALL DAY adventure on the bike. Only done this one once before and it took it OUT of me. But that was a few years ago when I wasn’t quite as proficent on the rocks. ONLY 65 miles and 9000 feet of climbing BUT SLOOOWW ridge riding boogey. With GNAR and ROCKS! Rock Crawlin’ goodness. Its gonna be a trip. Check out The Massanutten range from OUTER SPACE. and some of the Ridge ridin’ that awaits. It’s gonna be an amazin’ day in the mountains. Try not to be too jealous.
And how about this economic bailout? hey the free market is workin right? No corporate big wigs want government involvement until they F-up. otherwise it might impeed upon their quest for riches. So free market sorts everything out and those companies that make unsound decisions must pay the consequences. Think of it as Social Darwinism for Corporations, you mess up and you fail…Cynicism is the word of the week
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By James | 9/25/08 | 6:51 AM
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With the 2008 XC season winding down, me and (Trek/xcracer.com rider) Nadine have been busy plotting and planning for next years Midlands XC series. Our latest recon. mission took us out to Hopton Woods in the Shropshire Hills on the England / Wales border. Scene of national xc races in the past and popular with downhillers (at one time the downhill national points series was nicknamed the Shropshire Downhill series) we were keen to see what trails were hidden in the trees. More »
