Tweaks

I decided to take the Kite on a more "traditional" loop today. I started out with the first couple legs of my "cross" loop to make sure I got enough log jumpin' and bike liftin' practice, but then I headed up to the ridge.
Amazing how much rockier it seems with 32 mm tires.
Not only did the terrain slow me to a uselessly pedestrian pace, but it also knocked my headset out of adjustment, which I didn't think was even possible.
I was getting bummed out.
I was wishing I was on my Swift, but having a race on Saturday, I felt I could use all the time on the Kite I could get.
I decided to pull the plug.
But on the way back to my truck, things began to turn around for me. Riding on trails and fireroads more suitable to a cross bike was letting the Kite shine once again.
Horses for courses I guess or some such nonsense.
Turned out the starnut in the fork was slightly crooked, so after a few good whacks, the top-cap settled in. I added a spacer to hopefully prevent this.
I also swapped out my super sweet Raceface Turbines for my beat to hell FSA Energy cranks. Yes they are lighter, but the main reason was they are 170s (Turbines are 175s). I went through a 175 phase; the leverage is nice, but I think the shorter ones work better for me.


I've also decide to race my age group this weekend. Not only does the time work better for me, but I won't have to race 24 year olds with Pro MTB licenses (just guys my own age who are as fast as 24 year with pro mtb licenses).

Stratton Brook CX

I had a bunch of woulda coulda shouldas that I just deleted; no one wants to hear that.
So let's just get right to it shall we?

I was talking with James and Josh from 503 Cycleworx after they finished the Elite 123 race (4th and 7th respectively, great job guys!) when all of a sudden guys are lining up. I run back to my truck, loose my bottle and arm warmers and stage behind Kerry and his Biker's Edge posse.
Whistle blows and I'm off well, in the top 10, as we go over the first set of barriers, and into the weird tape curly Q they set up.
I'm feeling pretty good on the descent to the bike path, and pleased to be holding position on the flat, stone dust path.
But then as we start climbing the almost mountain bikie trail people start passing me.
Did they not get the memo? I'm supposed to be something of a climber!
We get around to the bitch, I mean the beach, and it just sucks. I make it half way around and have to run the second half. Right after the beach is the third set of barriers followed by one last power sapping little climb to the start finish. The barriers are wicked tall (unlike me), and all 3 sets are set up in triples.
Not cool.
Second lap I think I have a gap on Kerry but all of a sudden after the curly Q, he's on me like white on rice...and then he's around me.
He's riding strong and getting a gap.
Then he makes a wrong turn at the beach and I get around him and ride the sand.
The beach / barrier / hill combo is an ass kicker!
Third lap I'm holding my position, but Kerry is methodically reeling me in. Again I ride the beach.
Coming into the start / finish, I'm praying for the sweet relief of the bell lap.
Silence.
Shoot, two more!
Forth lap Kerry passes me before the sand, I tell him to stay to the right and stay on his wheel to the start / finish.
I begin to plot my last lap strategy.
Over the last 3 laps I've gotten pretty good at riding the sand. The plan is to keep Kerry close, and try and get around him before the beach; who ever gets through the sand first, will win our little battle.
But then in the singletrack, at the worst possible spot, Kerry drops his chain!
I get around him and begin to close in on a Paradise Racing rider.
On the bike path to the beach we pass a Colavita / Sutter Home rider, but the Paradise rider gets to the sand first.
I close the gap, and am right on his wheel having to soft pedal my gear staying on the one rideable line behind him.
James is there cheering me on like crazy, telling me to keep pushing and get around him.
I pass him in the barriers, and head for the last climb.
But he easily spins past me as I'm grinding my 36x16 out to the end.
14th out of 30something.

Notes:

• I felt good, but thinking maybe I should have used a 17. Would a 3" smaller gear make a difference? Maybe, maybe not.
• I was a little disappointed with my result. After finishing 7th out of 33 in my debut I was expecting more out of myself. But different course, different conditions (it wasn't freakishly warm), different racers. Gives me something to shoot for.
  
• On the other hand, my time would have put me into 5th place if I raced the 45+. Is it sandbaggy to race my age group?
  
• About those barriers: They were like 15" tall; is that normal? Must have been comical watching me get over them. I know it was a hoot watching the kids in the kid's race lifting their bikes up, throwing them over the barrier, and then scaling the "walls".
• Kerry was definitely stronger than me today; without the wrong turn, or dropped chain he probably would have placed a couple places ahead of me.
• My Mom and Dad came out and the curse has been broken; no mechanicals (I haven't had good luck when they've come to watch me race)!
• The Singular Kite performed admirably. Balanced, neutral handling on a course that would favor a mountain bike. Being 2 pounds lighter than my Swift in race trim was definitely a plus every time I had to summit a set of walls.
  

The Eagle, err, Kite has landed!

After an extend tour of the of the mid-west, a box of goodies arrived from SW England.
A cap, a jersey, a skinsuit and a prototype Singular Kite frameset!
Sam also included some of those fancy Euro cantis that all the cool kids are running.
I'd have to steal the brifters from my Cannondale, or the levers from the Fun Machine, use some crappy old Diacompes from the bin, or heaven forbid spend money on levers.
Or I could just be uncool and run v-brakes with the long pull levers I have for disc brakes.
Well, I didn't want to cannibalize any bikes, or run gears (maybe some day), so v- brakes it is.
Turns out I had to steal the Fun Machine's wheels anyways since even though a giant box can make it's way across the Atlantic in a couple of days, a couple of tires can't get from Indiana to Connecticut in a week.
After a couple of weeks of foul weather, and a migrating cold (started in my head, went South to my chest and hopefully will be flushed out by the weekend) I've got some work to do to do this gem and the accompanying supersuit justice.
My kinda work!
Had no idea I was color coordinating my pedals with the decals
Not Euro cool, but they work
Classy as always

Singular Sock Contest!

On Sunday I was able to activate my electric toothbrush with my injured thumb. Later that day, for a while at least if I concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, echo, echo, echo, hello, hello, hello, now batting clean up for the Boston Red Sox, Charlie B...
Oops, where was I, oh yeah, if I concentrated I could activate the thumb shifter on my road bike from the drops. This only lasted about 40 minutes, and I really had to think about what I was doing to make it happen, but I was excited.
So to commemorate this auspicious occasion I thought I'd have a little contest.

Marty at The Prairie Peddler sent me a pair of Singular socks. Marty made the mistake of thinking just because I ride a grown-up size bike I would have grown up sized feet. I don't. So up for grabs is a beautifully stylish pair of Sock Guy Singular socks in size L/XL.


But here's the rub; you need to have the correct answer to the following:
What kind of hub and rim are on the rear of my Cannondale?
I want specifics.




They are Campagnolo, the hub was made in the time right before carbon became the material du jour. The rim in some ways commemorates Fabio Casartelli.
If you asked me I just made this real fucking easy.

Post your answer here, or better yet e.mail it to me at charlieridesabike at gmail dot com so you can include your mailing address.
First correct answer wins.
Please have big feet.

W is for Winsted

Sunday was Winsted Woods and my day was not starting well.
I left my pre & post race sandwiches on the counter, only filled my energy drinks half full, got caught behind every Sunday driver in CT after getting a late start due to getting sucked into a History Channel show, and to top it off there was no TP in the Porto-lets!
Lining up we had 7 riders in the Cat1 SS class. Not the record setting class sizes we had the beginning of the year, but considering there were competing races in both MA, and NY, a decent showing.
The whistle blows and after a little clickity clackity trying to get clipped into my pedals, I'm off. I usually have a pretty good start, and with this one being up hill, it played to my strengths and I got to the front.
I lead the first climb, but Kerry Robair passed me in the singletrack before the first gravel descent. Winsted Woods essentially climbs for 26 minutes, and descends for 2 (at least on the first two laps). In the climbing part there are downhill sections, and flatter parts, but essentially they lead you to the top of the hill to a Sound of Music like field with views of a lake in the valley below. Buena vista indeed. Then there is a fast descent to the Start / Finish area.
In the winding up the hill, before the second major climb, I felt I could ride a little faster pace than Kerry was setting so I went to the front.
In years past, there used to be a long, rocky fireroad climb about half way through the lap. This year they cut a singletrack parallel to the bottom half of the fireroad, cutting back to it on a flatter section before the steep "rock" near it's summit. If the singletrack was clear it was rideable, but if there was traffic, you'd be running the end of it (there was a large log to hop, and a rocky section near the end of it that was getting pretty greasy). First lap, with Kerry on my wheel I ran the log, and rode the top as to not take a chance at getting hung up and passed.
I'm hearing Kerry behind me the whole climb, but after we summit, and pass the water station, I chance a glance and see I have a little gap. With twists and turns of the singletrack, if I can stretch that, I'll be out of sight, taking away the carrot for Kerry to chase. So I put my head down and try and push it through the remaining singletrack to the final descent.
Into the second lap, I'm starting to catch the 30-39 year olds. After the first gravel descent I catch Alex. He's been watching me coming, and give me an easy pass (thanks buddy!).
There is traffic in the new singletrack on this and the following laps so I have to run the log and the top before exiting to the fireroad.
Once I get to the singletrack after the summit, 40-49 y/o leader Brian Cantele catches and passes me. I ask him how far back Kerry is, and he says "not very". Great. Right before Brian passed me another rider passed me who I thought was the leader of the 40-49 class. As he's dueling with the rider, he's yelling back encouragement to me, which seems odd that he'd be wasting the energy in such a hotly contested battle. It turns out it was a 30-39 rider I had passed passing me back. On the last climb I passed him back.
The last two laps were a lot of the same. Realing in 30-39 y/0's and 19-29 y/o's, not looking behind me in fear of seeing Kerry closing the gap. I also had to run the "rock" at the end of the fireroad climb on the last two laps. My right knee was hurting for this, probably due to riding my geared road bike Saturday (I gots the Giro Fever).
When I get to the final climb of the day, and I dare to take a peak back. Just the last 30-39 y/o I passed.
It's just 2 minutes down the hill and I've won. I let the 30-39 y/o pass me on the descent, and roll in for the victory.
Kerry rolls in about 2 minute back. Followed by Andy Caputo.
If I had raced my age group like I did last year, I would have finished second to Brian (I was the fifth fastest Cat1), about 5:45 back. I gave him crap for not even beating me by 6 minutes.
In the shameless plug department, after the race there were a lot of complaints about how the course beat up riders (to be clear no one was complaining about the course). Some from guys riding rigids, some hardtails, and even full suspension. I felt tired, but my arms, back, and hands were fine. There is always the temptation to swap my Swift's steel fork out for a lighter carbon fork, but the way it handle the descents, why mess with a good thing? Last year I'd need to take the day after a race off, but today I feel great, and will be hitting the trails.

Shout out to my peeps:
503 Cyclworx kicked some ass with Brian Cantele scorching the Cat1 40-49 class for the win and the second fastest Cat1 time, Alex Combes getting 4th in only his second Cat1 race in the 30-39 class (after I passed him he didn't let the lap grow to more than a minute as he found his groove and started climbing through the field). Finally in the Pro/Open class James Harmon claimed 4th in a hugely competitive field, with Josh Wilcox holding on for a very respectable 7th after damaging his rear derailleur housing and having ghost-shifting issues for most of the race (maybe time to succumb to the allure of the singlespeed?).

It looks different to me

After racing for 23 miles without a front brake I decided to go back to good old reliable BB7's and FR5 levers. I love the way those calipers and levers feel together.
I never really liked my Juicy 5's. I think there was something wrong with the front from day 1. It was always a pain in the butt to set up, whereas the rear always went easy. Ironically, the rear's lever has been broken since about the second week I owned them, and still works fine with the temporary rubber band repair I made to them. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I was trying to un-freeze the front's pistons and blew fluid past the seal shooting one of the pistons out of the caliper. The other piston still ain't moving.
So anywho...I swapped the brakes, and somehow the bike looks "cleaner". Maybe it's my cable routing, or the simpler levers, but it seems somewhat Spartan.
I like that.
But I did have to go and swap the rotors for these crazy Gusset ripsaw looking things to offset the weight of the mechanicals.


I hope they don't suck, but if they do, I'll happily take the extra 2 ounces and go back to the centerlocks, and the reliability they provided.
I'm quickly relearning the lesson I learned last year; reliability trumps light weight seven ways to Sunday.

before
after


Other than better exposure, does it look any different to you?