Moon Shadows are Evil
- Thread starter stb222
- Start date
Fatbikes =~ "mainstream"
http://www.bicycling.com/blogs/fitchick/feeling-fat
Not race plug in the article. wonder if she'll get rusch to join in?
http://www.bicycling.com/blogs/fitchick/feeling-fat
Not race plug in the article. wonder if she'll get rusch to join in?
Last edited:
I am glad she didn't commit to selling all of her other bikes after a few rides and calls it a feat to ride it on single track. May be the first honest opinion written yet.
So when 29ers were gaining steam, people all said, "Oh 26ers are better, look the world champions all ride 26ers still."
Then someone won a world championship on a 29er. And they got more real then.
This moment is not going to happen with a fat bike. Nobody is going to win a world championship on a fat bike. They will never get over the same hump 29ers did, at least not like that. Maybe if George Dubbya rides around on 1 on his Texas ranch?
Then someone won a world championship on a 29er. And they got more real then.
This moment is not going to happen with a fat bike. Nobody is going to win a world championship on a fat bike. They will never get over the same hump 29ers did, at least not like that. Maybe if George Dubbya rides around on 1 on his Texas ranch?
Before the Ides
SO here we are, March and the start of the light at the end of the tunnel. A tunnel that is lined with sub freezing and below normal temps and nuisance, pain in the ass, annoying as storms and now today more snow crap. That being said, next week the forecast looks dry and normal temps and OMG, possibly temps in the 50s, which will seem like 70’s for those of us who have been riding outside. I really can’t complain much as I have been able to get on the bike around 5 days a week, albeit only for an hour but if you asked me 6 month ago how much I would be riding, I probably would have said less. My girls were 6 months a few weeks back and have just started being unpredictable again with their sleep schedules and the past few weeks have seen barely any morning rides and almost all lunchtime time rides during the week. While it is nice to be able to get out at lunch, the loops take me to the start of the hills so it has me missing the stuff I used to ride more often. I have started to introduce some different loops that I normally would not have done at lunch because they overlap my loops from home but since I haven’t been riding from my house as much, I can add those roads in. That makes things mildly more entertaining from a variety of roads perspective but I still have to deal with a few miles of beat roads to get to these different loops. Roads that MBM thinks I ride because they are good roads when they are simply ways to get me to the places I want to ride. Like Federal City Road south of 95 which he likes to ride, which is probably one of the worst roads in that area, but he is as green as they come and will learn in time, maybe. In any case, I am just lucky to get out and enjoy the time on the bike that much more because of that.
Actually, in a way, not riding has been a relief in some respects because it has snapped me out of the milestone phase to compile number of miles per year. For the past few years I kept inching up the miles and hours and topped out in 2013 with 9,150 miles and 503 hours and last year I had 7,700 miles and 430 hours which was a lot considering I rode a total of 90 hours between Sept and Dec where that would have been my normal 2 month total. So this year that pressure to beat the previous year isn’t there and as a result I have actually ridden my mtb 18 times this year. Sure, it was on the canal path and LHT, but still, gotta start somewhere. It has sparked some upgraditis with the MTB too (full 650b conversion along with, everything else) which may motivate me to ride more when the trail conditions are better. Mercer is within riding distance from my work so I will definitely be doing that. But numbers wise as of March 1st , I have 59 hours and 887 miles where last year was 93 hours and 1461 miles. Again, I will take what I can get and will note that those hours are 100 percent outside. I did actually buy rollers but damn, if I can continue to get an hour outside, I won’t be riding those things. If something changes with ride time, maybe, but not if I don’t have too.
So the question will be what has this difference in hours done to my form? Obviously have I no base above 1 hour but otherwise, it is a little too early to tell and I have started to up the intensity to get my ass in shape to not be completely reamed out at HOH. I had a small test with the Sourlands Semi Classic ride this past weekend but the road conditions at the end hampered my ability to see what I have climbing Zion around the 3 hour mark of a ride.
Speaking of, a brief recap of that ride:
The ride itself was cancelled but I already had that time blocked out so thought I could beat the snow and get the loop in. About 20-30 people set out to do the ride, which I started behind by 10-15 min. Shortly after the start, I found a roadie and a guy on a MTB and rode with them for awhile and the MTB dude was really strong. But the roadie guy left him for dead the first time the road went up and ofcourse I did too. I knew the first 10 miles of the loop even though my garmin wasn’t telling me the turns, nor was the other guy’s so I was helping navigate. The guy was strong and we were just cruising along trying to see if anyone was ahead. On rileyville road, I saw a large pack turning onto Wertsville Road and I knew we would catch them soon. On Wertsville, the guy I was with comes around me and hammers away. I am not sure what he was doing because we were obviously going to catch the group. Apparently the group I saw split in two, some following the route for the SSC and others were turning onto Lindbergh. I saw maybe 3 bike lengths behind this guy and he follows the group turning onto Lindbergh. I yell to him that is the wrong group but he doesn’t hear me and I am not chasing him to tell him that, so I turn to follow the SSC route. I catch the other group and by the time we are on Werstville again, I am leaving them behind. Around this same time it starts to snow. Really fine snow but still snow. I catch some other peeps at the 202 light and follow them into Ringoes. When we get on 579, I am on the front and just ride away, not sure if they were debating riding any further or what but after a half mile they were completely out of sight. Whatever. Follow the route, pass some people pulled over with a flat, ask them if they need anything, No, and keep on my way. A few miles later, the roads are now wet, but fine. I am obviously by myself at this point so just start to hammer out the flats. The chip seal roads are a little splattery and not exactly confidence inspiring and shadows now have snow covered areas. I see 2-4 tires tracks and push on to try and catch whoever it is. I am not going to say these are my kinda of conditions but I surely don’t suck in these conditions. When I hit zion road the road is barely covered with snow and standing up on a hill results in slipping wheels so I keep my ass firmly planted all the way up. I still managed 17 mph on the flat top of zion, but conditions were rapidly going downhill. I find the 4 guys ahead of me having a rest at Zion and Long Hill. Exchange pleasantries and just want to finish the ride at this point and not stand around and talk, so I start off alone. Long Hill was bad and the variability of the road surface was suckage with 1” of snow so it was slow goings and my rear wheel slipped once causing some butt clinchage. In hindsight, I should have dropped down on Hollow Road but I stuck with the course, which was dumb, very dumb. Descending Lindbergh was fine but Amwell Road, which is typically has a 40 mph section was death on a bike. I was full on brakes and was still going 20 MPH. My rear wheel completely fishtailed back and forth and I was thought I was going down and off the road but somehow hung on. I actually screamed “fuck” at the bottom. Finished the loop proper and made it back to the car for a snowy selfie.
Lou's Tape Job
I was actually glad I didn’t ride my all city with fenders because without fenders my synapse was clogging with snow under the fork crown and behind the BB, so fenders would have possibly made the bike unrideable after be jammed with snow. In any case, I may have been the only one to ride the whole loop, which means I won a ride, that was not a race, that was cancelled. My prize was a pistachio crusted chocolate croissant at Brick House, the most hipster market outside of Brooklyn. It was damn good.
The good thing was that I felt good the entire ride but didn’t get to test myself on Zion because of conditions.
2015 KOM’s
OK, we know peeps be hating on strava, whatever, not your thing but it also isn’t single handedly taking down cycling as many make it out to be. But while the year KOM thing was always there if you wanted to query for it, the addition of showing the 2015 KOM’s is on the silly side. I mean pretty much any segment I have ridden for the first time this year, whether I was going for it or not, I have the 2015 KOM, which is stupid considering the real KOM’s has much, much faster. Nothing against MBM, but taking my 2015 KOM doesn’t mean you have the real KOM. That being said, it is fun to bury his time with a late winter form attempt regardless of if it actually means anything compared to the real KOM. The only thing the 2015 KOM is good for it to see if you have improving your times but come summer, it will mean nothing as you will be trying for actually KOMs.
So HOH in two weeks. I feel good now but that is a doozie of a loop for 82 miles and if the dirt roads are a mess, going to hurt bad. Whatever conditions, the beginning will be a MTBJ meet and greet party and I am looking forwards to riding with the likes of Pat, Rick, Dustin and Lou up to Hollow Road (the first low climb) and everyone else after that 😀. So until then….
SO here we are, March and the start of the light at the end of the tunnel. A tunnel that is lined with sub freezing and below normal temps and nuisance, pain in the ass, annoying as storms and now today more snow crap. That being said, next week the forecast looks dry and normal temps and OMG, possibly temps in the 50s, which will seem like 70’s for those of us who have been riding outside. I really can’t complain much as I have been able to get on the bike around 5 days a week, albeit only for an hour but if you asked me 6 month ago how much I would be riding, I probably would have said less. My girls were 6 months a few weeks back and have just started being unpredictable again with their sleep schedules and the past few weeks have seen barely any morning rides and almost all lunchtime time rides during the week. While it is nice to be able to get out at lunch, the loops take me to the start of the hills so it has me missing the stuff I used to ride more often. I have started to introduce some different loops that I normally would not have done at lunch because they overlap my loops from home but since I haven’t been riding from my house as much, I can add those roads in. That makes things mildly more entertaining from a variety of roads perspective but I still have to deal with a few miles of beat roads to get to these different loops. Roads that MBM thinks I ride because they are good roads when they are simply ways to get me to the places I want to ride. Like Federal City Road south of 95 which he likes to ride, which is probably one of the worst roads in that area, but he is as green as they come and will learn in time, maybe. In any case, I am just lucky to get out and enjoy the time on the bike that much more because of that.
Actually, in a way, not riding has been a relief in some respects because it has snapped me out of the milestone phase to compile number of miles per year. For the past few years I kept inching up the miles and hours and topped out in 2013 with 9,150 miles and 503 hours and last year I had 7,700 miles and 430 hours which was a lot considering I rode a total of 90 hours between Sept and Dec where that would have been my normal 2 month total. So this year that pressure to beat the previous year isn’t there and as a result I have actually ridden my mtb 18 times this year. Sure, it was on the canal path and LHT, but still, gotta start somewhere. It has sparked some upgraditis with the MTB too (full 650b conversion along with, everything else) which may motivate me to ride more when the trail conditions are better. Mercer is within riding distance from my work so I will definitely be doing that. But numbers wise as of March 1st , I have 59 hours and 887 miles where last year was 93 hours and 1461 miles. Again, I will take what I can get and will note that those hours are 100 percent outside. I did actually buy rollers but damn, if I can continue to get an hour outside, I won’t be riding those things. If something changes with ride time, maybe, but not if I don’t have too.
So the question will be what has this difference in hours done to my form? Obviously have I no base above 1 hour but otherwise, it is a little too early to tell and I have started to up the intensity to get my ass in shape to not be completely reamed out at HOH. I had a small test with the Sourlands Semi Classic ride this past weekend but the road conditions at the end hampered my ability to see what I have climbing Zion around the 3 hour mark of a ride.
Speaking of, a brief recap of that ride:
The ride itself was cancelled but I already had that time blocked out so thought I could beat the snow and get the loop in. About 20-30 people set out to do the ride, which I started behind by 10-15 min. Shortly after the start, I found a roadie and a guy on a MTB and rode with them for awhile and the MTB dude was really strong. But the roadie guy left him for dead the first time the road went up and ofcourse I did too. I knew the first 10 miles of the loop even though my garmin wasn’t telling me the turns, nor was the other guy’s so I was helping navigate. The guy was strong and we were just cruising along trying to see if anyone was ahead. On rileyville road, I saw a large pack turning onto Wertsville Road and I knew we would catch them soon. On Wertsville, the guy I was with comes around me and hammers away. I am not sure what he was doing because we were obviously going to catch the group. Apparently the group I saw split in two, some following the route for the SSC and others were turning onto Lindbergh. I saw maybe 3 bike lengths behind this guy and he follows the group turning onto Lindbergh. I yell to him that is the wrong group but he doesn’t hear me and I am not chasing him to tell him that, so I turn to follow the SSC route. I catch the other group and by the time we are on Werstville again, I am leaving them behind. Around this same time it starts to snow. Really fine snow but still snow. I catch some other peeps at the 202 light and follow them into Ringoes. When we get on 579, I am on the front and just ride away, not sure if they were debating riding any further or what but after a half mile they were completely out of sight. Whatever. Follow the route, pass some people pulled over with a flat, ask them if they need anything, No, and keep on my way. A few miles later, the roads are now wet, but fine. I am obviously by myself at this point so just start to hammer out the flats. The chip seal roads are a little splattery and not exactly confidence inspiring and shadows now have snow covered areas. I see 2-4 tires tracks and push on to try and catch whoever it is. I am not going to say these are my kinda of conditions but I surely don’t suck in these conditions. When I hit zion road the road is barely covered with snow and standing up on a hill results in slipping wheels so I keep my ass firmly planted all the way up. I still managed 17 mph on the flat top of zion, but conditions were rapidly going downhill. I find the 4 guys ahead of me having a rest at Zion and Long Hill. Exchange pleasantries and just want to finish the ride at this point and not stand around and talk, so I start off alone. Long Hill was bad and the variability of the road surface was suckage with 1” of snow so it was slow goings and my rear wheel slipped once causing some butt clinchage. In hindsight, I should have dropped down on Hollow Road but I stuck with the course, which was dumb, very dumb. Descending Lindbergh was fine but Amwell Road, which is typically has a 40 mph section was death on a bike. I was full on brakes and was still going 20 MPH. My rear wheel completely fishtailed back and forth and I was thought I was going down and off the road but somehow hung on. I actually screamed “fuck” at the bottom. Finished the loop proper and made it back to the car for a snowy selfie.
Lou's Tape Job
I was actually glad I didn’t ride my all city with fenders because without fenders my synapse was clogging with snow under the fork crown and behind the BB, so fenders would have possibly made the bike unrideable after be jammed with snow. In any case, I may have been the only one to ride the whole loop, which means I won a ride, that was not a race, that was cancelled. My prize was a pistachio crusted chocolate croissant at Brick House, the most hipster market outside of Brooklyn. It was damn good.
The good thing was that I felt good the entire ride but didn’t get to test myself on Zion because of conditions.
2015 KOM’s
OK, we know peeps be hating on strava, whatever, not your thing but it also isn’t single handedly taking down cycling as many make it out to be. But while the year KOM thing was always there if you wanted to query for it, the addition of showing the 2015 KOM’s is on the silly side. I mean pretty much any segment I have ridden for the first time this year, whether I was going for it or not, I have the 2015 KOM, which is stupid considering the real KOM’s has much, much faster. Nothing against MBM, but taking my 2015 KOM doesn’t mean you have the real KOM. That being said, it is fun to bury his time with a late winter form attempt regardless of if it actually means anything compared to the real KOM. The only thing the 2015 KOM is good for it to see if you have improving your times but come summer, it will mean nothing as you will be trying for actually KOMs.
So HOH in two weeks. I feel good now but that is a doozie of a loop for 82 miles and if the dirt roads are a mess, going to hurt bad. Whatever conditions, the beginning will be a MTBJ meet and greet party and I am looking forwards to riding with the likes of Pat, Rick, Dustin and Lou up to Hollow Road (the first low climb) and everyone else after that 😀. So until then….
rick81721
Lothar
rick81721
Lothar
Same here - don't forget Dave (Clarkenstein). I hope the guys don't bail on me - I ride alone alot but 80+ miles will be a long one
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
Damn dude - I'm dis'd twice in one post... Can I have a little lube next time?
rick81721
Lothar
i am not bailing on the ride, but pacing will be interesting. i have no idea how i'm gonna do. not sure how the trainer is going to translate. probably not too well. better than nothing i guess?
rick81721
Lothar
This will be my longest ride ever so I don't plan on going very fast either. We just drop Kev first then we can slow down
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
No worries - I suck but at least I can admit it and am working on it. Freshman / Rookie hazing is expected.
rick81721
Lothar
Hey Mike I revel in my suckness. Even more so on the mountain bike. I'm old too (your long lost dad) so I don't see it getting much better. But it's still fun and a great workout
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
are you doing it on the singlespeed? you sick, sick man you
That I am. Nice way to open the season right? If Jim V sees a lung on the side of the road it's most likely mine.
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
WOW, just WOW!
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
cant we donate you some gears? at least a 1x or something? you hurt me