Armadillo By Mornin'

Weekly morning trail ride.

It's been a week of great rides. Last week found me on the mountain bike 3 days in a row riding with several different folks and enjoying the heck out of prime trail conditions here in middle Tennessee. This week has had 2 highlight road rides, followed by a great early a.m. trail ride. If the trend continues I might have some sort of semblance of "fitness" in place before Kanza rolls around.

Tomorrow, if we can get out on time, should be another great road ride. Weather has been super cooperative lately and the longer daylight hours have made it more inviting for riding after work. 

King George sang it best.

Although it's not all been fun and games. Today's early mtb ride uncovered some sadness, the quiet death of an armored opossum, and the not so quiet death of my less-than-a-year-old XTR pedals. 

Cone cracked in 3 places.

I'm not sure which one saddens me more.

Without a Trace

Sunday's 17th Annual Chickasaw Trace Classic fell under perfect temps and clear skies this year. Typically this race will be the hottest day of the new year just after blistery cold weather so everyone wilts under the heat, or it rains like the dickens and is a muddy mess. We lucked out this year and had good weather and near perfect trail conditions. I've been attending this race since 2004 and it is one of my favorite local venues.

Photo credit: Carolyn Block

Every year is different. I remember small turnouts my first year, to nearly 500 the following year. The economy and a string of muddy years had the numbers wilt, but this years numbers picked back up, especially the Cat 1 fields. It is good to see a renewed interest in local XC racing.

Photo credit: Carolyn Block

I left the camera in the car this time. There were too many people to catch up with, friends to track down, juniors to prepare, JD needed some run time, and warm up for the race. The course was a little slick after Saturday afternoon's brief downpour, but mostly from the heavy dew the night/morning before. It left some of the turns a little greasy the first lap. After that, the track was perfectly tacky and riding well.

Two of my favorite things: Moots MX RSL and my "pig farmer" boots.

After the race, JD and I rode a lap and cooled off in the river before showing some of the Juniors the start and finish lines. Once they started, JD and I rode behind to sweep. We were able to jump ahead and watch the action unfold at several of the tech sections. I'm so proud of them all. They've really worked hard and are riding super strong right now. It won't be long until we won't be able to keep up with them.

Southeast Team MOOTS Ride

Corey "The Possum" Piscopo

Way too early Wednesday morning, I dragged Corey out of bed and out to one of our local trails to meet up with some of the Southeast Grassmoots team. Corey had been marathon driving from Steamboat Springs and being short on sleep plus having lost 2 hours to time and timezone changes, I figured it best not to bore him with another TN road ride. The weather had been fantastic and the trail was in primo condition. Time to re-acquaint Corey with rooty, twisty, and tight singletrack. Also it was a perfect way to introduce him to the members of the Southeast Grassmoots team, since we primarily play in the dirt.

The Dook, PTJ, and MJ ready to ride. 

We had a few hours to kill before work and demos started, so time was best to be spent beating up on one another in the woods vs sleeping. Jeffy, Jim, and Adam were some of the team around for the ride.

MOAB's Mark Dement showed up for the ride.

Tired of playing dead, the Possum drops the hammer.

Strava section.

It was a great way to start the day even though it left us feeling a bit wiped out by the end of the day. We closed up shop an hour and a half late, as we had several hanging around talking after the demos, before finally bidding Corey adieu and heading out for some pizza and brews downtown Franklin. It was a storybook day shared amongst good friends and lively conversation. I don't think it could have gone any better.

A Taste of the Rockies

MOOTS is coming to town! The Demo van will be hitting the shop Wednesday from 1-6PM. Be sure to swing out for a chance to check out their demo fleet (bikes and sizes listed below) and chat with MOOTS about bikes, Steamboat, and donuts. 

I'm hoping for Mother Nature to play nice and allow for a pre-work singletrack excursion Wednesday.  We'll see how the trails dry up and what the beginning of the week brings us. There's always night riding adventures to be had as well.  Stay tuned.

Coach

Got out today with a couple of our Junior racers. One is on Spring break, the other lives close to the trail and got out at 2:40pm. Thanks to the extra hour of daylight, we were able to get a couple laps in. This was Jameson's first trip to Chickasaw. Daniel considers it his "home" track. Sun was out and the 74 degree day made it feel like mid-spring. We were set for a good time in the woods.

The first part of lap 1,  Daniel or I led so Jameson could see the lines. We stopped at a few of the trickier spots and discussed line options, demonstrated lines, and let the boys try out different ones until they were comfortable with the particular tech section. Then we rolled on.

After that it was game on and the boys swapped places back and forth over the course of the next laps. It was a lot of fun seeing how much both boys have improved over the last few months. Daniel's endurance and climbing has improved greatly, and Jameson really stepped outside his comfort zone and lit up the second lap.

As these kids get stronger, they are going to be hard to keep in our sites. Daniel has pure-out-of-the-gate speed but starts to lag a bit towards the end (Our weekly road rides are helping with that though). Whereas Jameson is a diesel like me, the longer he goes, the better he runs, but we don't start very fast. He would really benefit from a 2-lap race, but for now we'll just have to make him ride a lap before the race.

Little Tristan led us for a few miles. He gave it everything he had to stay out front. Tough little nugget, that one.

After the ride we worked a bit in the skills area. Riding skinnies, hopping logs, hopping from one log to another, etc... It was a great time and just the fun in the sun I needed.

Sawing Chicks

Two days of great weather following the 2" of rain we got Thursday left the trails in perfect shape for riding on Sunday. Mid 60 degree temps, sun, and a bit of wind made for a great day to be in the woods. JD and I headed out to Chickasaw after a late spring ahead morning waffle breakfast with H.

The parking lot was full, but traffic was light on the trail. JD and I pretty much had it to ourselves as we raced around the course. The bike, the soil, the tire pressure, all was feeling perfectly in tune and it was all ear to ear grin out on the trail. For once flow was there from the get go and it felt great to be out.

We ran into friends several times along the trail loop. JD is much more famous than I and he had shout outs coming from all around as we wound our way around the park. We even stopped and shared some of JD's easy drink doggy water bottle water with Sierra, who was out running the trail with her daddy, Tagz.

Friends.

Rocks.

Whoops.

Bamboo.

The Salsa fork is riding amazingly well. It really feels good on the Rigormootis. No chatter, no brake rub, just a solid feeling and buttery smooth through the rough. The slight change of rake and 3mm higher A/C was evident on Thursday morning's first ride, but today it felt oh-so-right and perfectly dialed. Human adaption or good geo-numbers is up for the internet debaters, for me, it felt balanced and fun.

Once home from Chickasaw, it was time to saw for chicks. We cleared out a section of the dog field of tree branches and saplings in preparation for our chickens. We opened up the old red shed and are turning it into a coop for chickens. By fall we should be eating fresh eggs daily. I can't wait. Plus the chicks should help keep the tick population in check.

We have the option of getting a pair of ducks at TSC when the chicks come in too. And I'd love to have a pair for the back pond but don't know anything about raising ducks. Will they stay? Will the alligator snappers back there eat them? Who knows. Any duck experts out there wanna weigh in?

Forked Up

A friend of mine is getting married this weekend. It's a pretty exciting time for him and his new bride to be. Talking to him about some of the minor setbacks their plans have taken brought back some reminders of the dark times that shadowed mine a few years back. To keep from crawling back into the dark, I thought back to all the good things that came despite the bad (job loss, car loss, dog loss, etc... etc..). One such memory that still stands out is achieving second place at my first PMBAR and winning a White Bros. RockSolid fork. Exactly what I needed for my Moots as my old Vicious Cycles fork was too short to work appropriately, but due to the lack of income I couldn't afford to replace.

It was very fortunate timing during a very unfortunate time period.

Fast forward to today, or more aptly last Saturday, unfortunate timing during a fortunate time. A click had developed on my Rigor and before heading out for a little urban trail riding after work, I took a look into it. First suspect was the headset, but it's a Cane Creek 100 (also won from a PMBAR) not a non-grip nutted King. It was quiet and functioning perfectly. Working down the front it became apparent it was the fork. The right fork leg to be exact. The bonding has come loose from the top crown and creaking when flexed. Damn. I needed to get it up and running for a dirt ride planned for Thursday and in time for the kickoff local XC race.

Quickly searching my options all weekend I slowly weaned the list of all suspension options. Cost and maintenance being the main reasons for expulsion. Well, cost mostly followed by laziness (aka maintenance). I then turned to rigid options. I really, really, really, really want an Inglis fork, but time and money prevent ordering one at this time. But I really, really, really want.

The list quickly diminished to 2: The Salsa CroMoto Grande and the Salsa Enabler. Being big on gravel, adventure rides, and bike-packing adventures the Enabler was hard to pass up, but having to build a special front wheel for it added to the cost and out it went. The Salsa Fargo V2 fork momentarily took it's place due to it's many water bottle/Anything Cage mounts, but I eventually decided upon the CroMoto for weight savings and it was in stock. Life is timing, right?

And in another fortunate timing during an unfortunate time, the fork made it to me in time to install, test, and pack up for an early 6am shakedown ride in the woods this morning. It's been a little over 4 years since I've ridden a non-carbon rigid fork and I must say I missed steel. And having the bike out of commission on my day off, left me with plenty of time to pull concreted poles out of the back lot and stack them in a pile with the tractor. Farm machinery kicks ass.

Limbo