Jshort’s bike thread

RobW

Well-Known Member
Another Sunday in Spring, and another short track race. These races are really good at shocking the senses. I’m basically doing a cross race effort at a time of the year where my body wants to be doing something else. Like drinking beer and eating Doritos.

I could tell 20 minutes after I got out of bed that body didn’t want to cooperate. I hit the snooze button 15 times, the coffee wasn’t strong enough, and breakfast went down as smooth as that first Miller Lite before a Jets tailgate. Then to top it all off, the weather was looking like winter.


After a few warm up laps I came to the conclusion that I was not warmed up so I tried to squeeze in one more. @gtluke told me I did too many and I was wasting too much energy. Ha Ha funny guy.

I got back to the start / finish and realized I was too late…. I had to sneak in 3 or 4 rows back. This Sunday I will be camped out at 8:40AM to get a good spot.


@Norm says Go and we are off. (He needs to buy a gun or something for better starts… just saying “go” is pretty no frills and that was short track from a few years ago).


Here are some bullet points on the actual race.


· I spun out my 32t on the fireroad. I wasn’t catching anybody. Need a 34 this year.

· I counted about 170 guys in front of me before we went into the back loop/Singletrack. See first bullet

· There were way too many guys to pass . The guys I wanted to race with were out of reach.

· I raced the next 5 laps all alone.

· I don’t push when I’m all alone.

· That rock did not allow for a good launch and my pictures suffered.

· @Chris26er said I looked retarded on Instagram

· I had too much air in my tires because I forgot my pump and used @Utah. I rushed this process because I was cold.

· I had too much air in my fork and rear shock because I put in an extra 15 PSI the night before because... because stupid.

· I didn’t have my customary Gu and read bull 1 hour before the race and maybe its mental…. but I felt like I missed them.

· I still finished 8th.

· I am in much better shape than I was at this time last year.

· I can do better

· I need to get my pre-race routine dialed in during the next 2 weeks.

· First H2H race is in 3 weeks.


Till next week….

View attachment 32535
Great recap - i agree that these are a great prep for the rest of the year. The pre race routine is so important- lining up midpack I sort of feel the same, putting power down but nothing to show for it.

Fine tuning the suspension is annoying and enjoyable at the same time- Do you keep a log of settings for different race locations?
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Fine tuning the suspension is annoying and enjoyable at the same time- Do you keep a log of settings for different race locations?

No log. I just know ~150 in the back and ~105 in the front. I added a little more because I wanted to try a firmer setup for racing. The extra air in the suspension may not have been bad by itself. But the extra air in my tires combined was sucky.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I currently lease a whistle with an option to buy. Maybe I'll just pull the trigger on that.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I think @Chris26er called you corky...I lol'd

Nice work on that jump...I did the opposite and made an effort to not let my tires leave the ground.

Your WAY ahead of where you were last year.

Fine tuning the suspension is annoying and enjoyable at the same time- Do you keep a log of settings for different race locations?

I finally just replaced my old beat to death shock pump...problem is the gauges on these shock pumps are all fucking terrible...So they are hardly ever consistent from one pump to the next. My old pump I would run 125 in my lefty, this new one, 110-115....took a few rides to get that all figured out.
 

RobW

Well-Known Member
I think @Chris26er called you corky...I lol'd

Nice work on that jump...I did the opposite and made an effort to not let my tires leave the ground.

Your WAY ahead of where you were last year.



I finally just replaced my old beat to death shock pump...problem is the gauges on these shock pumps are all fucking terrible...So they are hardly ever consistent from one pump to the next. My old pump I would run 125 in my lefty, this new one, 110-115....took a few rides to get that all figured out.
On top of loosing 5psi each time connecting it!
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
enjoy your caps, and the bullets work from time to time. its awesome how big these fields are too. please do not stop the caps.

· I spun out my 32t on the fireroad. I wasn’t catching anybody. Need a 34 this year.
really? i've never wished for my gear that 32x11. i feel like even when i did, i just wasnt using it properly and could spin 32x11 harder.
32x11 @ 100RPM = 25mph according to sheldon brown.
maybe for about 10 seconds you would want it, but then youre just going to jam on your brakes to slow all that good rolling weight down.
or maybe im just having nightmares.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Short Track #3
  • The course was backwards which meant less flow and a little more tech. It seemed like the rocky sections were in places where you were already a little more gassed for whatever reason. Whereas the opposite direction, the rocky sections are in spots that you are carrying speed and can “float over”. There is still good flow in the lollipop section in the back, especially since the ground wasn’t 3 inches of Nutella.
  • I was finally able to execute my Pre-race ritual which is saying something considering it was daylight savings. I was up on time, didn’t have to rush breakfast or coffee. I got my redbull ready… I really nailed everything down this week except for the bike…
  • Speaking of the bike, sometime between the first and second short track race, my shifting went to hell. Down shifting works ok but up shifting is a mystery. I tried to sort things out on Friday and then Saturday night, but pretty sure my XX1 cassette is shot. This would be the 3rd or 4th season on it so it’s served admirably. SRAM says you can use a regular cassette tool to remove, but that’s BS. At least on some hub and axel combos it is. I have a replacement cassette, but couldn’t get the old one off. Frustrating, but it turned out to be a non issue. Only a handful of missed shifts during the race.


Let me break down the race in non bullet format.

The race was completely different from last weeks. I lined up early and was front row. The only ones in front of me were Frank and Ben, and well.. they belong there. Although I’d love to see what would happen if they started in the last row and had to fight for positioning.

Norm finally got a respectable noise maker and we were off. I went into the single-track around 6th or 7th which was much better than last week. After following someone too close (nick, who podiums in most B cross races that he enters), got hung up in the rock garden on the second half and @pooriggy and @merritt zoom past me. Grrrrr….

At my first opportunity, I pass Nick and start chasing down my 2 orange and blue teammates. I catch up to them on the fire road going into the back section. There are 3 lines you can take and there a few boulders defining them, I make a move. They took the normal, middle line and I took the inside, hit the gas hard, and managed to get by them both.

In the back flow sections, I hit the gas hard and see a CCI guy in front of me. I manage to pass him on the next hill.

At this point I’m in 5th with about 25 minutes to go and feeling pretty content. I see @Delish in front of me, but he’s a ways up there. I take a few peeks back and see merrit equally far behind me. I try to settle in, but I feel merritt making ground. So I push a little and gain ground on delish. I go back and forth in between them for a couple of laps and almost catch delish a few times, but cant make the pass. Interestingly enough, he is better in the tech and I am making ground on the climbs which is the exact opposite of how I would have imagined a race between us going.

With 2 laps to go I know it’s now or never to make a move. There is a lot of lapped traffic and each rider we come upon is a possibility to gain or lose ground. The singletrack climb after the second fire road is the place to make a move, so I do the needful and reel him in. I get on his wheel and he lets me by but I can’t put too much space between us because I’m shot. I think I get lucky with a lapped rider and gain a little bit of ground before dumping onto the fire road towards the start/finish.

The last lap I feel him behind me the whole time. He is still faster in the rocks and I am faster on the climbs (just feel weird to type that). There is even more lapped traffic to work with and at times it gets tricky, but its adds a different dimension to the race. This is short track racing in march, and we all have to remember not to take it too serious. I’m not overly aggressive asking people to move over, I try to call out my passes and say thank you each time. Some guys are more corporative than others, but one way or another I get by.

I finish in 4th place with delish right behind me and Merritt is right behind him (I think). I’m so gassed at the end of these races that I can’t do anything but try not to puke or collapse. It was great to be racing instead of sitting in no man’s land. And this 4th place finish was a short track career best for me. If Delish actually trained and if Merritt didn’t do the Lebanon 52 the day before, it may have ended differently, but I’ll take what I can get. Looking forward to next week’s finale.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You had a great race. You'll get a call-up next week, along with UTAR and Ben. Frank will be in Florida.

And FWIW, this bullhorn siren sucks. I need something better.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Nice work yo! that was good...that first 10 min with a clean start and you can really get yourself away from the group in a hurry.

I def. thought there was less flow in this direction and that left turn by the rock were kirt was standing...holy shit at the start I had to spin up to probably 25+mph down that hill to get in front of wilson before the turn...(cci guy) I was certain i was going to clip it. I was saying to kirt, in time, we should make an entrance before the rocks.

At one point I saw you guys in the lollypop section with maybe 3 laps to go....I thought you were gaining on me...you might have been...not sure...but I thought you were...I made sure to not let up for a second until the end just in case...even though after 20min, Ben and frank left me.

Agree about @Delish, for someone who does like 3 mtb races a year, im always impressed how well he can ride that bike at race pace in the rocky stuff.
 

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
He is still faster in the rocks and I am faster on the climbs (just feel weird to type that).

Boy howdy! That was a shock to the system. Going into the day I sorta thought you would be my race. The couple times we rode together this winter I sensed that you were coming back into form in a big way. Nice job yesterday.

I knew whoever led at the top of that climb had the race in the bag, and I figured I might have been able to hold you off one more lap if I made you make a difficult pass on the climb but a) it's March, b) I'm not going to be a dick, c) letting you pass gave me a quick way to end the suffering. I thought I had a chance after you had to unclip in the last rocky bypass section but there isn't much opportunity to make a pass after that point.

I haven't been training much since the end of cx season but I have been riding the MTB every opportunity can, which has definitely helped with rocks.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
holy shit at the start I had to spin up to probably 25+mph down that hill to get in front of wilson before the turn...(cci guy)

Due to my shifting issues, I didn't have my highest gear. This is also why I was spinning out last week.
 

merritt

Well-Known Member
You had a great race. You'll get a call-up next week, along with UTAR and Ben. Frank will be in Florida.

And FWIW, this bullhorn siren sucks. I need something better.
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