Going Long and Hard.

Ordered this from the China many moons ago and was pretty sure I’d never see it, but, here it is!! Not sure how back and forths there were about, yes, pink, yes all of it, yes I’m sure but it was definitely worth it 😂

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Think I’m reacclimated to the STR. Takes a couple rides and then the bike disappears under you and everything is good. Talked to a couple folks in my Category and seems like everyone is starting Sunday and riding past the cut-off instead of starting Saturday and doing it as an overnight. I might be the only one on Course at the opening start time (5pm Saturday). They’re going to place us after the event so everyone can kinda do whatever they want, not that I give AF about a place. Alternatively, if the people starting Sunday miss the cut-off they’ll get disqualified anyway so maybe I have a shot 😂

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I be in Pennsylvania. Scored a kinda cool Suite. Looks like the rain stops around Noon tomorrow so I’ll try to hit the go button somewhere around then. I think they moved me to ITT on Trackleaders, there’s only 8 in my field anyway. 1 girl and 1 non. 10 total 😂 somehow with 1,000 people here I’m gonna be alone for 2 days. Temps look pretty stellar. 45 degrees overnight so I won’t need a bag, which is good because I didn’t bring one. Actually I might freeze to ☠️ because I also didn’t bring a real bivy or pad either, hm. Maybe I’m riding straight through after all?

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Not sure why there’s a Trackleaders page, but there is.

UnPAved Big Lick 200 2023 live tracking app by trackleaders.com

Embeddable tracking application, live tracking event map for UnPAved Big Lick 200 2023, leaderboard coverage, including links to individual track history pages
trackleaders.com

I was supposed to leave at Noon but Halloween is on, and it’s the good Rob Zombie one so..,

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And…who had this on their Bingo Card?

Came apart on Trail3 descent, which is that cool singletrack climb in Iron Cross. Threaded it mostly back together by hand because who carries a 10mm wrench with them? Was hoping the general store at mile 50 would have something, they didn’t.

Thought it was good until the climb up to RB and it popped apart again fast, the threads just stripped out. Had no cell service so jumped on the road for 25 miles back to the start.

I’m selling all my bikes.
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Looking at the Tracking page, my pace was actually pretty good. The back of the pack took almost the 16 hour time limit to hit the 200k mark so my estimate of it being a 24 hour effort was in the right ballpark. Absolute beast of an event. That “difference” section has taken everyone longer than the full 120 route.
 
Steve Vai said:
And…who had this on their Bingo Card?

Came apart on Trail3 descent, which is that cool singletrack climb in Iron Cross. Threaded it mostly back together by hand because who carries a 10mm wrench with them? Was hoping the general store at mile 50 would have something, they didn’t.

Thought it was good until the climb up to RB and it popped apart again fast, the threads just stripped out. Had no cell service so jumped on the road for 25 miles back to the start.

I’m selling all my bikes.
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No drawbacks. Not a single one.
 
Cassinonorth said:
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No drawbacks. Not a single one.
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Wait, I think I know 1 😂

Definitely getting a second link to put in the SWAT bag. Along with a 🔧 The bike rides so damn good it’s worth whatever extra steps I have to take to make sure it isn’t an issue again. And your basic pumpkin spice bitch riding out in Bedminster will absolutely never break one in a million years.
 
Thursday Morning pre work laps to break in Pinky2. Track is closed for the season starting Monday so it’ll be basement sessions and Kissena when the weather is good to prep for Regionals in May.

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Friday with Pinky1 trying to decide which bike to bring to Dickerson Mine. Leaning heavy towards this bike because it’s so much more fun to ride and I’m generally faster on it than my Epic. I’ll go pre-ride the Course next weekend and make the call…

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Saturday I’m back out here in PA for Iron Cross. Got the STR back up and running. Stripped the bikepacking setup off and swapped the front wheel. Should be fun riding this course without the extra 20lbs. I did add one extra tool into my SWAT bag 😂

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Nice work yesterday! It was good seeing a familiar face out there during all the suffering. One of these years I may try the gravel bike for this event, but the MTB is just so much more fun on this stuff!
 
xc62701 said:
Nice work yesterday! It was good seeing a familiar face out there during all the suffering. One of these years I may try the gravel bike for this event, but the MTB is just so much more fun on this stuff!
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Agree. My favorite time out there was on my Timberjack, especially in the slidey singletrack section and first climb.
 
Easy recovery ride on the Aethos, have to log hours on this for my other job.

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I robbed a tendon for my STR off a stock bike to do Iron Cross while waiting for my stuff to come in. They sent me a couple, an upgraded shock, and a couple FP tubes so I can dial the bike in a little better when loaded. The FP4 I have in there now is rated to 209lbs, which is in the right range while loaded, but on rough terrain it’s a bit close. I didn’t think there’d be a day where we would be talking about dialing in rear suspension on a gravel bike, but, here we are…

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And I’m now 4 days into my Turbo Master Tech Certification. It’s a pretty brutal 2-week test that goes into absurd details on every Specialized e bike ever made. My brain is seriously fried already.


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