Racin'

Well kidz, if you're into the racing scene there's a good one coming up in just over a week (April 30th) in the Redding area. Said race is called the Shast Lemurian Classic and I'm all for it. It contains the key elements that I look for in a bike race; the race takes place on dirt and has the word "classic" in the title. A quick look at the results from last year reveal that you're sure to see some familiar faces on the start line and that there will be pah-lenty of people in your class. Last years results had well over 80 riders listed in my class alone! If you come down the day before and take advantage of camping keep an eye out for our camp which should be easy to pick out in the way of dirty cars, frisbees, horseshoes and a beeramid marking our spot for the weekend.

(note: beeramid may vary slightly from this model)

Continuing on with the bike racing we're also getting close to the Sierra Cup Mountainbike Series. Formerly the "Nevada State Championships", this race series has grown from 4 to 7 races with some really good venues on the docket. I'll be coming out in an effort to defend my title while seeing how much snot and sweat I can accumulate on my top tube in the process. The first race is only a month out so get suffering people!

Sorry Kidz

FTR is gonna have to wait.

Too much snow.

The route, yet to be unveiled, is AWESOME and will be a "must do" for all you adventure seekers out there. Bring lots of food and water.... and some money 'cause the ride ends at a bar this year.

A quick look into the crystal ball (one of the good ones made in Germany) is suggesting that the ride will have to wait until May 20th but only time will tell.

Bummed. Yea, me too. Get yourself a bag of popcorn and reminisce with pics from last years ride.

The 1.5 Epic

Raced last night. Kind of an urban road style event. Bonus points for hopping curbs. Got off to a good start. Legs felt good. My bike handling skills weren't as good as I would've liked... but I don't think it made too big of a difference. It's been a while since I've been on the 'cross bike. Although I was sprinting up the hills and railing the corners my rival was marking my every move. I backed off my pace, only once, to put on another layer. At the finish it was almost dark. Hard to say who "took it" at the line. Without slowing down or showing any sort of "good race" camaraderie my rival just kept heading west towards its next race with the next guy with enough time to squeeze in a quick ride at the end of his day.

Pondering...

If you do intervals

and then come home

and drink 3 beers....

...is it still training

or just breaking even??

The Season Opener

The Napa Valley Dirt Classic is a race that's been on my radar for a while now and this year I would finally make it. Short-ish course but chocked full of excitement with alot of roller coaster style trail and tight-ish singletrack in the woods that kind of reminded me of something you would ride in Santa Cruz. Fun trail really. I'd like to get back there and check it out again sometime. Short races create some certainties with the most important (and painful) being a hard fast start. This would hold exceptionally true with this event as the course had about 1 minute of uphill paved road that leads into singletrack to get your day of suffering off and running. Ride like your life depends on it for the first minute and you'll be in the front-ish part of the pack with good riders. Lag, even for a second, at the start and you'll be sitting in a line of lycra clad dudes that will show you that even the most trivial of obstacles in the trail are cause for slowing, stopping, dismounting or some other strange lack of bike handling that makes you wonder if you signed up for the right class. Recap: Got into the singletrack at the start in about 10th. Course opened up a bit after a while and I could see a group of 4 about a minute out. Closed the gap but paid a hefty price in doing so. Started getting into these BIG roller coaster rollers on a rough-ish fire road repeating itself for a mile or so kinda like this: Short steep fast descent/"G-out" at the bottom/leg breaking lung busting climb up the other side/ repeat. After about 6 or 7 of these our group was wittled down to just me and some dude wearing one knee high pink sock on his left leg. Hmm? Interesting. After the rollers it was time to do some tight and twisty singletrack radness. I kept catching guys, which is always good, with Pink Sock Dude almost always in tow. I was guestimating that most of the riders I was catching were in the class that started in the group 2 minutes ahead of us which included pro & singlespeed. We were past the halfway point of the race I still had power in my legs and water in my bottles. Ffwd to the longish descent consisting of an overgrown fireroad/doubletrack. Fast. Scary fast! Although I had the smarts to scrub some speed and keep it together in the corners you just KNOW I couldn't resist that little kicker on the left side of the trail. It was perfect. Just a little hump on the outside of a fast sweeping right hander. It's one of those things where you don't really get too high off the ground but nonetheless you seem to float downhill FOREVER. Then... then you touch down. As my bike made contact with the earth I heard that oh so familiar KLANG of atomic #13 (my aluminum rim) making solid contact with a mass of hard consolidated matter (a rock) and for the next few seconds all I can do is keep riding and listen. Although I couldn't hear the oh so precious mix of 78% nitrogen 21% oxygen and 1% other substances escaping from my front tire it was clear that things were getting desperate on the very next corner when my tire nearly rolled off the rim sending me off the main line of the trail. Coincenetally this had me bouncing through rocks in high grass at race pace with the left side of my handlebars tick tick ticking through the overgrowing branches. Scary... sheeit! This was enough to make me realize that even if I was lucky enough to not crash I'd still be changing a tire. When it comes to flatting in races I'd be willing to bet that I'm in the running for having the most flats EVER. Having grown up riding and racing in the Appalachians (oh so rocky/technical) area of Pennsylvania I know a thing or two about fixing flats... fast. Being a full time bike mechanic doesn't hurt either. I've got my system for changing out a tube in a race situation and I'm not afraid to say; it's damn good. I figured that somewhere between 8-10 riders got by me while I performed my nascar style tire change. Of course I flatted at the bottom of one of the hardest climbs of the day. Legs... screaming. It seemed to take FOREVER to get back into a good pace again. I tried to keep count of the guys I was re-catching but can only guestimate that I got by 5ish riders. Once we topped out on the climb we were back in familiar territory and I knew we were within' two miles of the finish. I could see two riders up ahead. I caught them, but it took almost the rest of the course to do so. The finish of this race is Paris Roubaix style wherein you do a lap on a running track. As the three of us started around the track towards the finish the pace ramped up and it was ON! Well, it was on for the other two guys. My legs had no business for a sprint finish today and all I could do was watch those guys duking it out to the finish. A quick look at the results revealed a few things. First thing was that the racing was quite close with podium spots being filled in a minute and a half. Second thing was that Pink Sock Dude's name was Brian Buttler and he won his class (19-34 Expert). The third thing was that if the podium for my class (35-44 expert) had 5 steps instead of 3 I would've juuuussst squeaked onto the platform of victors instead of sitting in the grasses with the masses. Fourth and final thing; even though the raffle prizes were in abundance I would leave empty handed... like always. I suck at raffles.

BB Service

Imagine if you will that you are a set of bottom bracket bearings in your bicycle. Sounds like a simple job really. You'll get to go on some killer rides with your only responsibility being that of spinning in circles while supporting your good friend and neighbor... the crankset. You'll get to ride all the killer trails, probably travel to exotic locations and maybe... just maybe help your rider stand atop the podium at the local mountain bike race. Ahh, I can smell victory from here!!!

After some time at this "life" you'll probably start to realize that it's not all buff singletrack and long warm summer days. The first of the "rough days" might start with a trip to Downieville early in the season with multiple stream crossings followed by a ride atop a car at 80mph in the rain. The next ride might be an all day epic in the late summer with a group of buds where you'll be stuck behind other riders for most of the day eating more dust than you imagined ever possible. Then there's winter. Don't tell me you've never ridden in the snow. Oh... did I mention that you're "owner" might be a 200lb gorilla of a rider with a propensity for riding 5 days a week, thinks that all bikes make grinding noises from the bottom bracket and has a riding style that's described by his riding partners as ANYTHING but smooth.

Bottom bracket bearings have changed drastically over the years and will probably continue to do so as the industry strives to build a better mousetrap. The bottom bracket bearings live between the crankarms of your bike and take quite the beating during a typical day of riding regardless of rider weight, strength and/or technique. Although many variations exist, it's the "external bottom bracket" that we're going to hone in on this time around. External BB's have been widely accepted by all the "players" in the industry and regardless of the name on your crankset there's a good chance that it has external bearings which can and will fail at some point in their/your life. Fortunately for you and your bike there's a fix for the creaking, squeaking or whatever else might be going on in there and it comes in the form of aftermarket bearings. Mighty Mobile put some bearings on several riders bikes to see how they stood the test of time and after a year of positive results we started placing orders for the bearing kits in the masses. I won't bore you with too much technical mumbo jumbo and simplify things by saying that the aftermarket bearings come with a larger diameter bearings and a secondary seal (most of the time) that will keep your steed running smooth for longer than the stock bearings. But wait - just like buying something off of late night TV - THERE'S MORE!!! Things get even better (most of the time) when it comes to paying the bill. When you replace the bearings and reuse the existing bearing cups you'll be saving yourself some hard earned $$!!

First, out with the old.Close up shot of the bearing without the crankset. Dirty huh.

It's a nasty environment down there. Notice the grime on the spindle.

This is what your bottom bracket (half of it anyhow) looks like out of the bike. The silver part is the bearing cup and the black piece is a seal.

Inside the frame. Yep, that's water in there. With these tools...

... we can go in here. Muwhaahaaa. (to be said sinisterly... like Dracula)

The bearing has already been pressed out of the cup. With the inside of cups that look like this.... .... it's no wonder that your bearings probably look like this. So, at this point you can either buy a complete bottom bracket or just replace the bearings with a new set. How'z 'bout saving yourself some hard earned $$ and just press new bearings in the existing cups. The cups typically clean up just fine. See.

Tahdah! New bearings. I can almost feel the smoothness from here.

Let's clean up some more stuff like the spindle and the inside of the frame. Look Ma... no more grime!

Almost back together. Damn that bearing looks good doesn't it!

Wait. We're not done yet. How about another seal. Yeah... let's hear it for another seal!!!

You feeling warm and tingly yet? Me too!! Mighty Mobile carries bearing upgrades for most popular makes and models. Ceramic and ceramic hybrids also available. And just like everything we do, it's done at your house, on your terms and done right the first time. Call anytime to schedule an appointment.

Training

With the mourning of Darlas' death behind me it's off the bigger and better things. I'm sure alot of you are wondering how the fastest mountain biker in the whole state of Nevada is preparing for the 2011 racing season. Some riders are out packing in the base miles. Others are hitting the gym for strength training. I know guys/gals that swear by intervals. But me.... I like to think outside the box and I'm going to let you in on my patented training technique that has worked for me year after year and is especially handy in a snowy environment with no trails and sloppy roads. This technique seems to work well on events ranging from short xc races to 100 milers with almost NO modification. I should warn you though, embarking on any new fitness program should only be done AFTER talking to your doctor to see if you're ready for such a rigorous training program. Once you have the "OK" from your doctor get yourself well hydrated, set up your stationary trainer and click here.

See you at the races!