No clever title here

extremedave

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Welcome to the 50 club !

Not quite into the AARP discount range yet, so you've got that to hold onto :D
55+ is the new 50, but fat is where it's at.

Catch you at WIldcat.

I think they sent me a flyer. It’s ten percent off places I have no intention of ever walking into.
 

Victor I

aka Ridgehog
Hey, look a blog I started. Ok, I suck.

So I turned 50, which I do not recommend. Avoid it at all costs. Existentially it’s been pretty tough to look back, then look forward and realize how much is behind me. I’m finding it hard to shake especially considering my usual “what me worry?” attitude. Plus with H2H changing classes there’s no 50 plus to stomp!

Speaking of racing I did Stewart since I missed SSAP. MTBNJ did a darn good job making an event out of it and I’ll be back. I rode fat bike open due the the Beargrease being my raciest whip. Out of 7 entries I was firmly behind the fast guys and solidly ahead of the rest.
My time would have been mid-lower cat2 so i could still jump into a race and not fail completely. The Epic was so good as a race bike I’m kinda spoiled. I’m not terribly into racing the Heckler and the BG is fun but limited. Brian Galetta won Cat2, he and I were frequently swapping spots a few years back so that was cool.

I demo’d a new Trance 29 which cycle craft built out of stock just for the demo day. Kudos for that. It was awfully capable and might be the solution to the gnar + XC bike. I’m not ready to drop that much cash right now although Brendan offered me a deal since it was now “used”. That was humorous. I liked it a lot but it needed some dialing in.
Before the demo Giant had a spring sale running and i almost pulled the trigger. Glad I didn’t as I would have ordered a medium and the large demo was perfect. I’m not gonna rant much, but the fact you can walk into a car dealership and drive around a $40,000 car but trying out a bicycle is an ordeal...it’s just nuts.

We started fostering again, which has been fun but hard on sleep sometimes. Our two dogs have a routine but add in another pup...one dog gets up, the other wakes up everybody, then we all gotta go pee. It’s better than cleaning up puddles but sleep is nice too, as this all happens rather early...


Ok fun stuff. For Father’s Day my wife got me Ifly, the new indoor skydiving place in Paramus, and Bury the Hatchet. I did a tandem jump years back and always wanted to solo but it’s $$$ and time consuming. Ifly was fun and challenging, I honestly did pretty well right off the bat as far as control.
Since they have a monopoly on the facility I fear progressing will also be costly. The instructors do a little demo after the group session and the moves they make are amazing. Very cool stuff. There’s not much on the web site regarding advanced levels and I couldn’t find any forums discussing it so far.

Hatchet throwing! All of our inner ten year olds want us to be badass super spy commandos with “a very specific set of skills”. There is something awfully satisfying about sinking a heavy axe into wood. It didn’t hurt that I got lucky on the timing right away and was scoring hits immediately. They sorted our group into teams and we played various scoring games which made it fun. It’s a cool party idea (the lane next to us was a big bachelor party) or just something to do. I’m thinking rig up a target in the back yard! Some wood and an axe...ain’t that hard.

Bikes. A steady diet of Wildcat is good for the skill set. My bike handling confidence is better than ever (grading on a curve of course). We rode Mahlon today and some of the stuff that used to be intimidating is now just challenging. If you have a riding buddy who’s really good, follow that shredder. I rode with Jairo today and the moves he busts out are awe inspiring. Ryan P and John Nicholson are also good examples. Bill is usallly too far ahead to see what the heck he’s doing, plus you shouldn’t follow him anyway.

Fin.
Happy Birthday Dave. Best way to stay young, keep riding!
 

extremedave

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Hey blog! Been a while. Ride stuff first I guess.
Since I have a front fender and 150mm fork, figured it was time to do my first enduro, bro. Made a super last minute, night before decision to race at Glen Park. BTW Thanks to @Ryan.P for some beta.

Apparently this was part of the mass series (or something @jmanic researched) and was kinda pricy. Got a cool number plate but almost ditched at registration. $100 with the extra ten for day of. @DanBrodeen said hey at the table and I joked that I would hold him to the “fun day” promise! He won his class, which does sound fun.

So I badgered anyone parked near me for information and course tips. I had ridden the park a couple weeks before, although I didn’t preride at least I had a clue how the place works. Guy parked next to me ended up on the podium in his class so pretty legit.

So they call up the start by category which made the old farts last out. I’m not sure I appreciated the insinuation but maybe they have a point. Anyway you roll up, they activate the timing chip and off you go. I was early and sought out loitering grey hairs. Turns out all the old guys I saw weren’t even old enough as they went off with 40-49 crew. All that was left was me and another 50+ who was a crit racer following his kid around. I’m thinking shoot, earned or not I’m getting a ribbon!

As they call up our group a half dozen grizzly dudes with Leatts and 170mm bikes appear from thin air. All obviously veterans who snooze in the car instead of impatiently jerking off like me. So much for the easy podium! Everyone shakes hands and we hit the transfer as a group. Funny, the course workers were downright deferential to the crew which was rather charming.

I’ve done plenty of XC races so the leisurely pace uphill was almost confusing. Aren’t we supposed to be dying right now? Bob (aka Bo) in our group complained the pace was unnecessarily hot while I felt like we were “slower traffic keep right”. At the end of the day I realized this was solid strategy and I probably would have burned myself out on my own.

Fellow 50+ racers Bo and Craig were super chill and helped me out throughout the day. We hit the top and waited in a ludicrous line for stage one, just as the veterans predicted. I’m looking around at a sea of 2.6 Minions compared to my well worn teensy high rollers. Tire envy.

I had two goals; have fun and don’t hurt myself. Definitely could have gone faster, plus no preride. However I felt I wasn’t losing ground to guys when we hit the bottom of the hill and thought maybe I could pull off a decent finish.

The riding was interesting. You go from waiting in line to full shred, instantly. Takes some getting used to. Even though the stages weren’t long I was dealing with arm pump and other issues being in full attack mode for that long. I looked forward to the pedally bits which in enduro is doing it wrong.

Glen park is fun with a lot of twisty turns and loose over hard. A buddy noticed my max speed on Strava was 35 mph so apparently its plenty steep. I had enough bike but maybe not enough tire. The last stage was the longest and I wasn’t exactly killing it, using the flat and uphill to rest before the next down. Generally my whole biking program is fast on the downs so it was a gut check losing time there.

End result? I was sixth out of ten. I beat the crit guy and a guy on a Cannondale Raven (google one to see what that dude was dealing with). I was pretty bummed at first to kill a day and a Benjamin for that finish. Eventually I talked myself off the ledge, ordered some meaty rubber for next time and admired my rad number plate. It was fun, very well run, and a unique experience that I want to try again.
Cheers!

PS-almost forgot. At some point a disgruntled hick rolled up with a AK47 to complain about all the damn bikers. Because Pennsylvania.

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serviceguy

Well-Known Member
Probably a stupid question, would you say that enduro racing could be a way into racing for a not-so-fit (fat), over 50 dude ? BTW, I already have 2.6 minions so there's that...
 

extremedave

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Probably a stupid question, would you say that enduro racing could be a way into racing for a not-so-fit (fat), over 50 dude ? BTW, I already have 2.6 minions so there's that...

Yes absolutely. Some of the courses are more gnarly than others. Glen is probably a good intro. One dude in my class had a 22 for a front ring and still walked up quite a bit.
 

extremedave

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Kingdom trails-a kind of mini review.

So we bought the hype and scheduled a trip up. Sadly the only weekend that worked for both @Blk06CompIRL and myself clashed with Jorbafest. Sorry gang. I’ve done ski trips but this would be a bike first. Pretty stoked just to get away.

We only had the weekend so this was a guerrilla style operation. We contemplated driving up Friday night but settled on leaving early Saturday to save hotel costs and not mess up sleep schedule too much. Plans changed when a coworker offered their place around Brattleboro as a waypoint. So we charged up Friday night then jumped off early Saturday am.

I’m not as great with my constellations as I wish but man, if you have a clear night there make sure you look up. The Milky Way is prominent and all the stars appear double bright. Pretty amazing.

Fall colors were on point and got more peak as we went north. I’ve always loved the outdoors so everything was bonus so far. When we hit town there was some sort of fall festival going on so it was pure chaos. We decided to park at our inn and ride from there.

If you are planning a trip be sure to get something in or near town. There’s a fair amount of access points that you can ride from. Our place was across from a trailhead, had indoor bike storage, a bike wash, and a heated outdoor shower.

Town is maybe the best part of the place. Obviously you go for the trails but the vibe and party atmosphere make it awesome. There are hundreds of bikes and riders everywhere. Around here you’ll see the occasional higher end bike on a rack but in town every car is laden with top notch bikes. Or the corral by the bar is packed. Or the bike shop across the street. You get the idea.

Everyone is there to have a good time and peeps are super helpful. It’s hilarious how you’ll be at the bar and guys you’d expect to hear talking about 401k’s or the Mets are comparing their fave drops and jumps. Everyone rides. It’s cool. As a bonus we ran into Jeff (Mr. Sarcaro) and Jason who we rambled around with the next day.

Time for the trails themselves. My expectations were miles of berms and flow through the forest. This was true, but not all in a row. I’ll explain.

I felt Kingdom works more like Glen Park, which is a near ideal place to run an Enduro. You climb up, rail down, then repeat. By comparison there’s Mooch, where you disappear into the woods and either the bears win or you limp back to the car hours later. Kingdom has a feel where you’re either headed to a trail, or on the trail, but those are two different things.

The fun trails are indeed fun. We hit most of the recommended stuff and even pedaled back up to run black bear again. But again, you ride TO those trails and the stuff in between may not be that exciting. The 3T area “up” trail was a grinding switchback that served its purpose but that’s it. The downhills were great but the climb is costly.

On the plus side, there’s all kinds of good stuff. I can’t recall, maybe Troll Stroll? had a recurring root-drop-into-berm pattern that was a blast. Kitchell has giant berms that were just buffed the day before and I rode them multiple times. Many of the trails wind through fragrant pine stands and we even found a north shore style wooden bridge trail. You’ll find stuff that you’d only normally see in a bike park.

Disclaimer. This is one mans opinion. We didn’t make it to the DH stuff at Burke, it rained pretty hard on us Saturday, and we were limited on time. And I would definitely go back. I don’t know of any place besides (I assume) maybe whistler that’s really all about the bike.

So if you’re planning a bike trip, it’s a blast and I recommend it wholeheartedly. But maybe we should take a second to appreciate what we have here, cause it’s pretty good.
 

Blk06CompIRL

Active Member
Luckily on day 2 you guys had the best tour guide and brought on a great MTB adventure that, dare i say, will be a topic of conversation for the days ahead ???.
 
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