Camp Clayetteville

Saturday brought out high 70's and sun along with around 12 volunteers (and gRant) for the CrudeXC/DSG SORBA work weekend. Trimming, clearing, and general trail clean up took much of the work time on Saturday along with gRant apparently rebuilding an incomplete but completed bridge. We finished up just as Mayor Clay was delivering the barBQ lunch and all gathered around the Barn (est. 2009) for some cold beverages and food while we shot shat and watched Chandler drink a 40 of Sparks.

Then is was time to ride. Followed by more fun in the barn. Sunday was more of the same with several trail re-routes added and downed trees removed. Except without the bonfire, cook out, and over night fun. A more perfect weekend for riding, camping, and being outdoors would be hard to find. Thanks to all who came out. Rather than prattle on about all the fun and shenaniganery, just enjoy photos, for the tales will have to be told by others, for what happens at Clayetteville...

ends up on the blog!

gRant was rebuilding this bridge. This was taken before he finished working for the day. I think it still looks like this.

El Jeffe rings the beer bell after Saturday's trail rides.

A stable of Moots'

Residue from Jeffy's sleeping 'buddy'.

Morning came and dehydration was the name of the game.

Breakfast entertainment: Master Hunter dreams of being Houdini. But Uncle Thad is proficient with duct tape.

And lil' Houdini's assistant Mable ran off with his "escape tool"

And promptly began to chew upon it.

Practicing Hostage Taking 101 for when Uncle Peter comes back.
(note: photo is staged. There is no way we'd allow Jeff to have a hot beverage around Buddy.)

Play time is over, time to get back to work. Where's this bridge beam going?

J5 Draw

less bitching, more benching

Misfit and The Big S united for the Mulesfit Psychos TT bike.

Caged bird JD and Mable shared a drink.

And a nap.

And a nuzzle.

Clayetteville-Roubaix

A little reroute patch OldGreg and I benched and cleaned up Sunday

Another great weekend at my favorite State of the Park. Price of admission: a few hours of trail work. The reward: two perfect spring days to ride the bestest, rockiest, rootiest, hilliest trail ever (between Mimosa Road / Lewisburg Highway and Lover's Lane / Highway 64 individual pricing and dealer financing applies, not valid in all states, see our website for rules and regulations, license number 645). I've yet to digest it all. In fact, it's sitting there like a gaseous nasea bubbly in my gullet as we speak (well as I type and you read). But I regress.

After unpacking the truck and bathing the ticks off of my persona non grata, I was invited upstairs of the stately manner to partake in beer steamed beef and Paris-Roubaix (compassionately dvr'd by the Slumlord himself). This would be my first ever same day viewing of Paris-Roubaix. I'd been outside the realm of the plugged in world since Friday night and had heard nothing about the race. Almost as good as seeing it live. I was stoked. Expectations set insanely high with dreams of an amazing, hard fought Hell of the North. Flanders and PR are my two favorite road races to watch. PR being the absolutely best idea in the road realm ever.

The coverage on VS was choppy, but better than nothing. We got to see most all of the cobble sections and some of the sprint finishes (what was the deal with nearly missing Boonen's finish with that non-audioed Cancellara interview-ish-ness crud going on? Fire the switcher). Boonen looked strong and hungry for the win. All the other "big names" were in the group with him but even early on one could see it was a race of Boonen and Cancellara. I liked seeing Boonen being out front, just riding his race, looking confident and calm over the cobbles. Just another ride in rough. Several attempts to break up the group and several more failed attempts to get anyone else to lend a hand on the front later, he retired to the back of the line of wheel leeches to eat and recover when Cancellara launched an impressive attack, both strategically and physically. Boonen got caught out but made moves to bring him back after his group failed to act and he had to make his way back up to the front. Then the wheel leeches latched back on. No one was offering help for fear now of using too much energy and losing their chance for 2nd but they sure as hell were happy to tag along at someone else's expense. What a crock.

Boonen tried to rally the troops, but no one wanted to help or risk anything. Hell, in a race like PR when you find yourself in the front group you owe it to yourself to give it a go, eh? I'll never be a classics racer or pro for that matter, but if I were there, in the front group I'd rather give it a go and fail than to sit back, stop racing, just to not lose the unrealistic chance for 2nd or 3rd? What's the point? I'd rather know I gave it everything I had for a chance at victory rather than calculate losing would be ok as long as I save energy for a finish I'll most likely not be able to beat the sprinters in. To go down man to man vs soft pedaling wheel leech. Such a huge disappointment in the "big names" of PR. Where was the grit and determination? The drive for the win? They could have easily worked together to bring back Cancellara, but everyone looked to Boonen, then just sat on his wheel. Pa-freakin-thetic.

Seriously, WTF? :

"Cancellara was unbelievable, he was on a different planet, and we realized we had to ride for second directly. So we started racing for second once he was on his own. I mean to get second and fourth is not bad really, if you take Cancellara out of the equation we got first and third.”

That's not what The Mark Lepper would do, now is it?

Big admiration out to Cancellara and Boonen for two fantastic races the past 7 days. Outstanding. Also to Popo and Hincapie for giving it what they could despite not having the legs needed for the day, at least you gave it all you had. To Stuart O'Grady for blowing up most of the group on the cobbles and being a strong teammate for as long as he could. To Pozotto for digging deep and crawling back despite dangling off the back for much of the finale. Way to not give up and fight all the way to the finish. Congrats also to the 74 riders who stuck through it to finish and the 34 who stuck through it but finished outside the time limit (85 riders abandoned). Impressive. To the wheel leeches, meh, go enjoy not walking up stairs or standing for fear of tiring out your legs. Thanks for making one of the most eagerly anticipating races a major snooze fest by not sacking up and actually racing to win. Thanks for playing it safe. We're all winners. Now where's the line for the participant medals again?

OK, enough ranting. Here are a few glimpses from the camera phone of the weekend that remind me that despite PR not being as exciting as I'd hoped it to be, the weekend far exceeded expectations. Moral of the story, it is always better to get out and ride than to sit and watch someone else do it on TV.

Mean to the Joe with no more chain drop woe.

El Jeffe is ready to go.

Old Man Rocker Chandler Sparks

Saturday night lights. Burning the old bridge bonfire.

Don't forget about CrudeXC next weekend!

Uptoon Billy

Tick Tock if only it had a large clock.

Last Thursday whilst riding my homeward bound stay alive (A Billy Fehr Registered Trademark) a mere two days after having awoke to see the lights turn on in the Queen's City from the safety of the kitchen table over coffee and Cheerios I never dreamed a cosmic transference of time and place was about to take place. The Nashvegas Uptoon (or is it Downtoon?)(Another Billy Fehr Registered Trademark) was about to feel the vibrant energy and force felt daily in the Queen's City.

Heading through 'toon (Again, a Billy Fehr Registered Trademark) traffic was much heavier than normal. A sign that riding the bike in was the better decision. I passed car after car waiting in stressed out, cell phone yammering, non-moving lines. Cars blocking intersections and the griddiest of griddy gridlock. I've not seen it this bad in a long time. What on Earth is causing the massive backup in traffic?

The interstates weren't moving and the secondaries through toon were even worse. A horn honking, finger flipping, cursing filled sea of non-moving impatience as far as the eye could see. As I waited with traffic sirens came from behind. Both lanes of travel were blocked, it was going to be interesting to see how they made it through.


I decided to bail on the street and took to the sidewalks (the emergency vehicles did too) and try to make my way up to the river. Plus it was getting deadly in the lane with traffic as their tempers flared and erratic accelerations were cropping up like steam from the sewer grates.

As I made it over to 5th avenue the cause of my road's lack of movement became apparent, as did why the other directions were also blocked. The entire block from 5th to 4th, Church to Union Street was surrounded by firetrucks, ambulances, and cop cars. Emergency personnel was running about performing their tasks but crowd control and traffic direction were left by the wayside.


I pulled out my camera and started to snap photos. I rode over to a group of businessmen onlookers and began conversing. Fire? No. Bomb threat? Yes. Ah.

I didn't stick around too much longer. There wasn't much to see and I was looking forward to my ride home and took advantage of the non-traffic moving situation to cut across the river without fear of death by speeding car. Riding away I thought "Billy would have photographed the people". I considered turning back but figured no one would remember the incident in a few hours anyway. As a matter of fact, I've not heard or found anything about it since I rolled off, leading me to believe it was just a wave of energy transferred from Billy's world to my world. Completing the random juxtapositions of life experiences sent forth from the cosmos to keyboard.

Hope I didn't let you down Billy.

Got Handled?

Moots Box, Moots box!

Friday I put the order in and chatted with Corey@Moots a bit. They were getting snow, I was rubbing in the gorgeous 80 degree spring weather we were enjoying. I didn't figure he'd actually mail out the bar after that, but what the hell. He's in Colorado, I'm in TN, I needed to brag about something right?

mmm ti

I wasn't expecting to receive the package until next week, so imagine the surprise and excitement when H. texted me at work that a package had been delivered. Just in time for the DSG/CrudeXC work weekend. I'll now be able to test out the dampening qualities of the ti bars over my 31.8 stiff aluminum beat me ups.

Springy ze deutsch?

salt stick

Aside from comfort, I'm hopeful the ti bars don't corrode from sweat as the aluminum bars did. No matter how often I cleaned them, they seemed to corrode faster and faster. I've also gotten a little over 3/4 of an inch wider bar too so my recent sans bar-end riding might feel a little less awkward on the climbs. Even if I go back to using the bar-ends I'll still benefit from a wider grip position, which will be nice. I'll just have to watch my knuckles a bit whenever I'm out at Chickasaw.

Prying open my third eye.

While I had everything apart I swapped out my aging Oury grips for newer ones Cooper had given me last year. New rubber for a new year. So the cockpit is updated and almost completely new. The SL levers are soon to be swapped out with some Ultimates I'm buying off of Meanjoe and I can't wait. The SL's are the rattliest levers out there. I much prefer the heavier single digits to the SL's, but beggars can't be choosers, and SL users are losers.

I may not be ready for the competition, but my bike will be.

At least I'll be ready for the short track events

At least I'll be ready for the short track events thanks to another morning spent in the Monkey Pit.

The days are just steamrolling by. CrudeXC, Cohutta, PMBAR, and DSG are all right around the corner and I've only begun to ride for fitness in March. It seems the season is starting off like that for most folks: pros, the so-pros, and the rest of us. Not only am I behind in the training, I'm behind in the blogging. I still have a Bill adventure to post up from last Thursday, a surprise at the house, and I just got a text about the delivery of a long box waiting for me at home. Hopefully the rain will hold off and I can get out for a test in the morning (and maybe some photos for the blog).

I guess after a canceled race plagued pre-season, the season is ready to move on whether or not I'm ready. Bring it on I say, as the next month of racing is all in preparation for the big event in June.

Don't forget about the trail work weekend coming up. It should be a perfect spring weekend for camping and riding.

Non-shifting Into Emergency Gear

Last year after searching every store in the vicinity of the 2nd check point in Kanza for a needle and thread/dental floss to sew my sliced (vertically down the center of the tread) tire closed so the rocks would stay out and stop trashing my quickly diminishing supply of tubes, I had to withdraw from the race and make the long trek back on hot barren blacktop. It was a long grinding ride back to the hotel made even longer by no available services for water, food, shade or needle & thread. The whole ride I was berating myself with my inner monologue for my stupidity in not packing a needle and dental floss. "You idiot! Remember when Sharp showed you how he fixed his sidewall on the Squirrely with dental floss years ago? You knew then you'd eventually need to use that bit of info. WHY WEREN'T YOU PREPARED?!! You SAW THIS COMING!!!"

This is how my brain works. Which is why my friends tease me about all the stuff I haul around on long rides. I like to be prepared, but to a point. I don't want to be a Craftsman Toolbox carrying Monster McConnell (no offense Scotty!), but I'd also prefer to ride out if at all possible.

This past weekend on the gravel grinder when we thought my hub was slowly coming apart as we rode further and further from the inhabited world, I started kicking myself all over again. "You idiot! You SAW THIS COMING!! What were you thinking NOT HAVING A SOLID EXIT STRATEGY??!!"

Self, I've got your exit strategy right here.

While riding waiting for the hub to completely fail at any moment, I was thinking "Self, why don't you carry a Tomicog with you? Not only could it help you avoid a walking disaster, it could also save a friend." So today I ordered a Tomicog. For those not familiar, a Tomicog is a fixed gear cog designed to bolt onto the disc rotor mount on disc hubs. If my freehub fails all I'll have to do is remove the rotor, install the Tomicog, and pedal coast free back to the car, or finish line. Simple and elegant solution.

pic swiped from the Tomicog site

What wasn't so simple was deciding which size Tomicog to order. A 16t (the smallest) would offer a gearing closest to my gravel grinding setup, but it would suck to push 35x16 out in Pisgah. A 19t would be great for Pisgah, but suck for Kanza. Buying two would be great for Tomi, but not so frugal for me, as I don't plan on riding it all that often. In the end I settled for a 17t cog. It'll be bearable on the gravel/road and doable on most singletrack in the event of an emergency drive train repair and also offer a fun around town fixie setup.

Now if I'd only remember to find a needle and floss...

DSG/Crude XC Trail Work Weekend

"It" begins

Another weekend of outdoor fun in the sun, trail work, trail riding, and hoedownin' at the Barn (Officer Mike's not attending) is on the calendar. Come on down and get some time in on the trail. I know there is some trail work needing to be done, but also a lot of trail riding too to get it burned in nice and fast. Bring a tent, bike, a pair of work gloves and make it a weekend.

(stolen announcement text from here)

DSG Trail Work W/E - Time to Make it Happen

---

Come work and ride DSG/Cottonmill Preserve this weekend, April 10th-11th. (check below for details) For those of you racing Dirt Sweat & Gears AssBackwards 2010 May 15th or even the Crude XC race on April 18th, you gotta come get a leg up on your competition. You will embrace the trail like and get a glimpse of the “new stuff”. If you’re not racing, you will have a great time learning more about trail maintenance and get a chance to take some laps at this piece of MTB Heaven in Fayetteville, TN.

Saturday and Sunday Afternoon rides, but only for the VIP's that volunteer for trail work!
Don’t miss out…..cuz we need your help to get the trail ready as we prep for this year’s IMBA-SORBA fund raising at DSG.

Opportunities to do more….
Join Team IMBA- DSG and raise money for our trails….and….
Chance to Win a Moots Hand Made Titanium mountain bike frame while contributing to our trail mission!

When: Saturday 9am-3pm & Sunday 10am-2pm
Where: Cotton Mill Preservce, Fayetteville, TN
What: Volunteer Trail Work & Group Rides
We will provide Lunch both days and offer camping on site Saturday night near the barn. Rumer has the legendary post work/ride social on Saturday night will delight.

Let us(them) know if you plan to attend! trails@sorbamidtn.org

Beware, the Assman cometh.