Going Long and Hard.
- Thread starter Steve Vai
- Start date
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Wednesday C+ Ride. Sort of blew up the group without realizing it. Dick move. It went down Valley past Washington Rock which is how I ride home so I just rode like I was going home forgetting I was in a slower group…Anywho.
I’m off Friday now so I hit 6-Mile before the Holiday Weekend rush. Although the park was surprisingly packed this morning.
Cape May 200k pre-ride tomorrow with David. I was supposed to pre-ride the 600k but that 1st South Jersey 400k loop sucks so bad already, couldn’t even imagine doing it on a Holiday Weekend. Suicidal. Not because of the drivers, but because it’s so boring you’ll kill yourself 😂
I’m off Friday now so I hit 6-Mile before the Holiday Weekend rush. Although the park was surprisingly packed this morning.
Cape May 200k pre-ride tomorrow with David. I was supposed to pre-ride the 600k but that 1st South Jersey 400k loop sucks so bad already, couldn’t even imagine doing it on a Holiday Weekend. Suicidal. Not because of the drivers, but because it’s so boring you’ll kill yourself 😂
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Cape May 200k prelim.
Course is somewhat the Frenchtown 200k with a bit more time along RT29 so it’s a tad flatter.
Was surprisingly hot and I really went though some bottles. 2 full bottles between every Control which is very rare for me.
Anywho, I think today I have to work out a plan for my Warakin the the race in a few weeks. I thought my geared drops would just swap over, which they do, except the brake is post mount because they’re from my Arctodus. Either have to run an adapter or use an MTB caliper. I’ll dig around to figure that out. Or just stay SS and take an extra day off.
Course is somewhat the Frenchtown 200k with a bit more time along RT29 so it’s a tad flatter.
Was surprisingly hot and I really went though some bottles. 2 full bottles between every Control which is very rare for me.
Anywho, I think today I have to work out a plan for my Warakin the the race in a few weeks. I thought my geared drops would just swap over, which they do, except the brake is post mount because they’re from my Arctodus. Either have to run an adapter or use an MTB caliper. I’ll dig around to figure that out. Or just stay SS and take an extra day off.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I told him to go off the front for the 1st lap so I could get a pic but he got dropped so...
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Took a few days off last week and then Friday I rode out to PA to meet Lael.
Got about 5 miles from the shop and my tire blew off the rim and I crashed in the grass near Green Village. I was in a rush and used the shop compressor which has a bad gauge and overinflated the tire…
Got a tube in it and carried on. Coming down the backside of Schooley’s Mountain I got another flat. I ran over something.
Tried to patch it but it was gooey with Stan’s so I had to Uber to Marty’s in Hackettstown. Fixed it probably and bought a pile of tubes and continued on. Didn’t lose a ton of time.
Finally caught up to Lael in Portland, PA.
You know the rest of the story from the other thread.
Got about 5 miles from the shop and my tire blew off the rim and I crashed in the grass near Green Village. I was in a rush and used the shop compressor which has a bad gauge and overinflated the tire…
Got a tube in it and carried on. Coming down the backside of Schooley’s Mountain I got another flat. I ran over something.
Tried to patch it but it was gooey with Stan’s so I had to Uber to Marty’s in Hackettstown. Fixed it probably and bought a pile of tubes and continued on. Didn’t lose a ton of time.
Finally caught up to Lael in Portland, PA.
You know the rest of the story from the other thread.
Red Mosquito
Formerly RLB the Scrapple Boy
How many times has the word "flat" appeared in this thread?
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Started going through our Demo Fleet and stealing bikes to try out. We’ve somehow been getting stuck with stock from IBRs that have gone under or are no longer carrying Specialized. A lot of them were robbed for parts at the previous shop or were returned or something. Anywho, we’re supposed to be having some type of get rid of these things sale soon so I’m gonna ride them all first.
I started with the Epic WC that I was going to buy before the super nice company I work for cut our EP and Demo program. I had it all set up for me and ready to go and boom, you can’t buy that anymore. Lame? Yes. But now I’m just gonna ride it anyway so…
Bike was a lot of fun at Six Mile obviously. It’s a rocket. Would need a little more time on it to really push it through the corners but fast AF.
Not as much fun at Chimney Rock. The Epic EVO is the right bike for here but this could work with a beefier tire and a dropper. When it hits 80% off I’ll buy it and mod it just because of the color.
The little weirdo shock actually does ride as they claim. You wouldn’t know it has 75mm of travel, it feels exactly like an Epic EVO7 just with sketchy XC tires 😂
I stole a LevoSL that I was gonna ride this morning but it was raining so I’ll go to RV tomorrow probably.
I started with the Epic WC that I was going to buy before the super nice company I work for cut our EP and Demo program. I had it all set up for me and ready to go and boom, you can’t buy that anymore. Lame? Yes. But now I’m just gonna ride it anyway so…
Bike was a lot of fun at Six Mile obviously. It’s a rocket. Would need a little more time on it to really push it through the corners but fast AF.
Not as much fun at Chimney Rock. The Epic EVO is the right bike for here but this could work with a beefier tire and a dropper. When it hits 80% off I’ll buy it and mod it just because of the color.
The little weirdo shock actually does ride as they claim. You wouldn’t know it has 75mm of travel, it feels exactly like an Epic EVO7 just with sketchy XC tires 😂
I stole a LevoSL that I was gonna ride this morning but it was raining so I’ll go to RV tomorrow probably.
75mm of travel. Make it a SingleSpeed.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I gave it back already. I have a LevoSL now.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Got the band back together to ride the free Highlands Fondo Loop, because who wants to pay $200 to get buzzed by Hillbillys all day long 😂 (people do, IG was filled with pics)
Anywho. Our loop had a detour up to the Monument.
Somewhere after coming back into NJ towards the end I got dropped on the last big climb. Breaking in some new shoes and they started to hurt at like mile 80something. Same happened during Lael’s ride so I have to do some footbeds like my other shoes.
Anyway, when I got up to the top no one was around so I figured I’d catch them on the descent because they’re roadies. That didn’t happen. I figured Line had to be home and they left me for dead? I stopped at a Deli to grab some soda and had a bunch of missed calls. They were stopped on the route at the top of that climb but I never went past them.
Turns out, the 3 of us found different versions of the loop on RWGPS and none of us thought to see if we had the same one 😂
They got turned around somewhere and ended up doing a section backwards and by this point I was back at the car.
Then we had Mexican and went home.
CBR is in a few days so I’m gonna let my legs and butt recover a bit because that has a lot of climbs and hike-a-bike. I swapped my entry to an ITT because I think I’m gonna start Thursday and sleep on the trail instead of staying in a hotel Thursday night and starting with the group Friday. I don’t feel there’s an advantage starting with the group and I can save a couple hundred bucks.
Following week I’m doing the Montreal ride with MTNJCC and that’s a bit spendy with fancy hotels and dinners for a few days.
Anywho. Our loop had a detour up to the Monument.
Somewhere after coming back into NJ towards the end I got dropped on the last big climb. Breaking in some new shoes and they started to hurt at like mile 80something. Same happened during Lael’s ride so I have to do some footbeds like my other shoes.
Anyway, when I got up to the top no one was around so I figured I’d catch them on the descent because they’re roadies. That didn’t happen. I figured Line had to be home and they left me for dead? I stopped at a Deli to grab some soda and had a bunch of missed calls. They were stopped on the route at the top of that climb but I never went past them.
Turns out, the 3 of us found different versions of the loop on RWGPS and none of us thought to see if we had the same one 😂
They got turned around somewhere and ended up doing a section backwards and by this point I was back at the car.
Then we had Mexican and went home.
CBR is in a few days so I’m gonna let my legs and butt recover a bit because that has a lot of climbs and hike-a-bike. I swapped my entry to an ITT because I think I’m gonna start Thursday and sleep on the trail instead of staying in a hotel Thursday night and starting with the group Friday. I don’t feel there’s an advantage starting with the group and I can save a couple hundred bucks.
Following week I’m doing the Montreal ride with MTNJCC and that’s a bit spendy with fancy hotels and dinners for a few days.
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Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Catskills Bikepacking Route.
Planned on leaving with Scott Thursday at some point. I wanted to start pretty late and ride into the night but he really wanted to start early. Normally not an issue but someone was out in Brooklyn until the wee hours at a Death Metal show…
Anywho. Woke up after a few hours of sleep pretty dehydrated and started pounding liquids. Drove up to the start and actually felt pretty good.
We hit the trail at like 12:30
By the time we hit New Paltz I was out of water and definitely feeling the dead legs of dehydration.
Back on course after the 1st stop my legs basically decided they no longer wanted to work. My stomach started to turn south and the first stages of having a bad time started to show. Randomly went by a gas station and I stopped for a soda and electrolytes.
Told Scott I needed to back it off and go through the next set of climbs at a backed off pace to recover.
My plan was to stop at the lean to at mile 80 and get some rest and fluids before morning.
Heading into the fire road climb I went to adjust my light down and the bracket snapped. Sat on the side of the trail trying to cobble it something with some Velcro and the string from my bag but it was bouncing like crazy and I could see shit.
Rode back down the hill into Woodstock in search of a quickie mart but it was after 10pm and everything was closed. It was fine on the road where it was smooth so I rode farther downhill into Shokan where I hit a quickie mart like 2 minutes before they closed. They didn’t have shit though.
At that point I was pretty far off course and feeling bad so I just rode the 35 miles back to the start.
Got back to the car at 2am and drove home. 2 late nights so I’m a little beat this afternoon.
Reminder to buy a 2nd bracket.
Planned on leaving with Scott Thursday at some point. I wanted to start pretty late and ride into the night but he really wanted to start early. Normally not an issue but someone was out in Brooklyn until the wee hours at a Death Metal show…
Anywho. Woke up after a few hours of sleep pretty dehydrated and started pounding liquids. Drove up to the start and actually felt pretty good.
We hit the trail at like 12:30
By the time we hit New Paltz I was out of water and definitely feeling the dead legs of dehydration.
Back on course after the 1st stop my legs basically decided they no longer wanted to work. My stomach started to turn south and the first stages of having a bad time started to show. Randomly went by a gas station and I stopped for a soda and electrolytes.
Told Scott I needed to back it off and go through the next set of climbs at a backed off pace to recover.
My plan was to stop at the lean to at mile 80 and get some rest and fluids before morning.
Heading into the fire road climb I went to adjust my light down and the bracket snapped. Sat on the side of the trail trying to cobble it something with some Velcro and the string from my bag but it was bouncing like crazy and I could see shit.
Rode back down the hill into Woodstock in search of a quickie mart but it was after 10pm and everything was closed. It was fine on the road where it was smooth so I rode farther downhill into Shokan where I hit a quickie mart like 2 minutes before they closed. They didn’t have shit though.
At that point I was pretty far off course and feeling bad so I just rode the 35 miles back to the start.
Got back to the car at 2am and drove home. 2 late nights so I’m a little beat this afternoon.
Reminder to buy a 2nd bracket.
So, just a quick double century today?