Vamos pa' México hermano

Mumonkan said:
definitely hit bear as much as possible, the climbs out there are long and thats the longest thing we got in earshot (that i know of) maybe skyline dr and scope out the thread in the road forum for the climbs list

my buddy that did TD twice would go up bear every weekend fully loaded to prep, he said that was chumpstyle compared to some of the stuff on the route

pacing is key, youll probably blow up the first time just like most of us did going up there
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1sh0t1b33r said:
If I made Bear Mt. in one shot without stopping my first time, I have full confidence Segundo would demolish it! I mean it wasn't fast paced, but I made it. Maybe one of these days we can do Bear Mt. hill repeats together. By repeats I mean I'll do it once, and you can keep going.
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Bear Mt. sounds like the right place to train but I need to do this during the week (saving weekends for long rides) and getting there and back is ±3 hrs of travel. I just don't have that time on a weekday (when you factor in the ride too). CT is not ideal but it's 10 min from home. SP might not be ideal either but it's also 10 min from home.
 
1sh0t1b33r said:
If I made Bear Mt. in one shot without stopping my first time, I have full confidence Segundo would demolish it! I mean it wasn't fast paced, but I made it. Maybe one of these days we can do Bear Mt. hill repeats together. By repeats I mean I'll do it once, and you can keep going.
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do the whole climb next time, not just perkins dr 😉
 
9w sucks donkey balls. do the gravel paths i posted in the old thread, very minimal roads all the way up to bear from ft lee
 
yeah theyre like MUP crushed gravel paths, the only parts i would skip if i were worried about it (though you can still totally ride them) would be ruckman rd in alpine:
10_31_2015_dirt_audax-7.jpg

and the jones pt path right before the entrance to bear:
10_31_2015_dirt_audax-17.jpg
 
Pampa said:
Bear Mt. sounds like the right place to train but I need to do this during the week (saving weekends for long rides) and getting there and back is ±3 hrs of travel. I just don't have that time on a weekday (when you factor in the ride too). CT is not ideal but it's 10 min from home. SP might not be ideal either but it's also 10 min from home.
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High Point might be closer for you.
 
soundz said:
I've been wanting to check this out. But been afraid of what the terrain would be like and always skip it.
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initially its kindof like a washout, sandy soil with golfball-fist size rocks, then you cross thru that tree-gate and it goes into a wide dirt singletrack of undulating "hills" before it spits you back out on 9w. its super cool i just wish it was 10x longer, the views at the rocks are fantabulous

i and others ive been with have done it on road bikes, you dont need a mtb for it, the most fun would be on a cross size tire
 
Pampa said:
One thing that can change a bit my setup is the decision to run a dynamo or not. People seem to be divided 50/50 on this. Even the guy that won and set the record last year did w/o a dynamo (carrying batteries) but said he would seriously consider running one for the next time. I'll dig into this next week but I'm inclining to carry batteries just for simplicity and reliability.
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I was going to suggest maybe going the route of a small foldable solar panel to keep your phone and lights charged. Depending on size and power output, some of these panels weigh around 10 oz. So there is some weight penalty, but then again you won't be needing a dynamo so the weight may be a wash and you would not be using your own energy to power it.

If you're looking for a place with plenty of elevation gain and some mileage, I would consider Bear Mtn. as others have suggested. Since you're not far away from Columbia Trail, I assume it's easy for you to get to Rt. 80 so getting to Fort Lee should be easy. Park your car at Ross Dock area near GWB right by the Hudson river and ride out to Bear Mtn. There are ways to avoid parts of 9W. I think Mumonkan may have posted some information on that.

Another option maybe be getting some mileage at Delaware Water Gap starting at Kittatinny Visitor Center just before Rt. 80 crosses into PA and ride up to High Point monument. Most of DWG has very low traffic and some scenery to enjoy the ride.
 
adogg said:
I was going to suggest maybe going the route of a small foldable solar panel to keep your phone and lights charged. Depending on size and power output, some of these panels weigh around 10 oz. So there is some weight penalty, but then again you won't be needing a dynamo so the weight may be a wash and you would not be using your own energy to power it.

If you're looking for a place with plenty of elevation gain and some mileage, I would consider Bear Mtn. as others have suggested. Since you're not far away from Columbia Trail, I assume it's easy for you to get to Rt. 80 so getting to Fort Lee should be easy. Park your car at Ross Dock area near GWB right by the Hudson river and ride out to Bear Mtn. There are ways to avoid parts of 9W. I think Mumonkan may have posted some information on that.

Another option maybe be getting some mileage at Delaware Water Gap starting at Kittatinny Visitor Center just before Rt. 80 crosses into PA and ride up to High Point monument. Most of DWG has very low traffic and some scenery to enjoy the ride.
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Ha! You just hit on one of my main TBDs - batteries + solar panel or dynamo hub. I have a solar panel that I've used for backpacking that weighs 500 grs+ (just over a pound). It's a 10W panel so more power than most of the smaller/lighter ones. I haven't researched the dynamo hubs yet but I've heard the resistance is pretty minimal these days. Anyway, more to come on this. (@Mumonkan I saw your post on your setup and looks cool. Looking forward to see it action/ or for you to tell me more about it).

Thank you for the tip for climbing routes. Maybe I'll try that on a weekend. During the week I just don't have time. Today I found a good solution for climbing training during the week though. Just off my house I can get to a closed road where there's a half a mile climb (10% grade). I taped 21 lbs of weights to the bike and did repeats there. I felt it mimics better climbing on the road than going hard on flats. The intervals work out to about 5:30 climbing and 2:15 resting/descending. I'll try to work up the # of repeats over the next few weeks to get to 5,000 ft of climbing (today I got 2,600 ft).
 
Mumonkan said:
definitely hit bear as much as possible, the climbs out there are long and thats the longest thing we got in earshot (that i know of) maybe skyline dr and scope out the thread in the road forum for the climbs list

my buddy that did TD twice would go up bear every weekend fully loaded to prep, he said that was chumpstyle compared to some of the stuff on the route

pacing is key, youll probably blow up the first time just like most of us did going up there
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How long is the Bear Mtn climb more or less? I might try to do it during a weekend...
 
the low end hub i have on the bridgestone to test out the light i got has no noticeable drag whatsoever, i actually seem to go faster when i have stuff plugged into it. i timed the charging speed, and i was getting about 1%/min on my garmin 810 which is a hell of a lot faster than i get when i use a battery pack.

all this adds up to me never wanting a bike without a dynamo hub on it again, highly recommend. my buddy is trying out a solar panel in AZ so well see how they stack up against each other

like jim said, ride the bike loaded as much as possible as soon as possible since there is a difference, but you get used to it pretty quick. bonus to this is that when you ride a bike without a bunch of crap on it you feel like superman 🙂
 
Mumonkan said:
the low end hub i have on the bridgestone to test out the light i got has no noticeable drag whatsoever, i actually seem to go faster when i have stuff plugged into it. i timed the charging speed, and i was getting about 1%/min on my garmin 810 which is a hell of a lot faster than i get when i use a battery pack.

all this adds up to me never wanting a bike without a dynamo hub on it again, highly recommend. my buddy is trying out a solar panel in AZ so well see how they stack up against each other

like jim said, ride the bike loaded as much as possible as soon as possible since there is a difference, but you get used to it pretty quick. bonus to this is that when you ride a bike without a bunch of crap on it you feel like superman 🙂
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That seems pretty good. I didn't want to deal with the cabling, chargers and all that but I guess it's worth it. The panel I have is big and wasn't very fast at charging...
 
apparently my PR on bear is 35 mins

i was dreading the setup of the hub too, with the luxos u that i got its literally just "plug this end into the hub and neaten up the wire"
 
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