calibrating.

good ride yesterday, but something felt....off.
I've been riding well, but just didn't feel 100%
confident, thought it might be the slightly
raised bar, or different geometry w/ the newly
installed fork.

at issue was this unnerving sensation of riding
'blind'. the normally predictable, wasn't. think
about where these episodes occured..logs, short
techy ups where you need to bring on the power
there, there and there, while picking the oh so
right line, time the low pedal to avoid the high
points. just wasn't quite clicking.

thought some more...the gear? always feared
changing it. changing it on the fix means you're
changing the length of your stride, everywhere.
play with numbers, never really worked 'em out
with this in mind....

qwik google reveals ~91.1" circum for a 29er tire.
32:19 gear rolls out to 153" per turn of the pedal.
32:18 rolls out to 162"...

9" difference. hmm, that's enough to mess with
ya, heal now lands where ball of foot used to,
takes more of a shwerve to allign the timing into
logs, a bit bigger flick, and the move needs
to start from further out.

now that I got my head wrapped around it, time
to adapt, the ninja needs practice.

ready to get Stoopid?

a sunday ride.

yesterday, rolled a qwik 50, sorta.
qwik considering the climbs,
233-B'ville-233-King's Gap.
bang, bang, bang...bang.
Tight little out n back, testing,
building, perceiving, learning.

then the Salsa rebuild, today
was shakedown time. That fancy
new superfast $40 tire lasted all of
15minutes in the forest of Meeshow.
Tire not to blame, edge of that rock
woulda sliced any rubber to graze it
the way I did. Sharp, frustrating.
Boot it, questionable patched tube
out of the saddle bag, happy that
Keith had a pump along, I was
traveling light w/ CO2 and I'm
thinking I missed a tiny thorn
pinhole the way it kept feeling...

32:18 = $$$

gives about 2mph to the top end,
does take a bit more oomph here
and there, that was revealed up along
Rattlesnake. Then we jumped onto
the 'race loop'. Last night's shakedown
spin in the Gables w/ a peanut buttery
topcoat had me wondering how well
those small blocks would hook up....
Well, the damn thing works pretty
fuckin' good! Rode the Traverse over
to ColdSpring. Trail is rippin' despite
the race day conditions. mmmm,
tire benched loamy tread, sweetness.
Ran into Riceball and Gav out there,
always good to catch up on the trail.
Then a trip down Canyon, and once
again almost cleaned the thing on the
fix, one dab, grrrr. The edumacated
guess at where to cut the fork steerer
brought my hands up just a tad.
Me likey! Front end comes up soooo
much easier. Will take a bit more
adaptation, expected. Did clean all
of the clear cut portion, big slab entry,
those goofy smaller slabby drops, even
my up n over line into the crux move
and down into the Canyon proper, then
washed the front end just above the
stream crossing on a jumble of wet rocks.
Probably would've puckered & blinked
on the mini-slab before the pine tree
carwash tunnel anyways, waited to remount
until below that 10yd section. Rolled the
rest clean, new logs and all.
FlatTrail, wow is the greenery coming
on strong! That and the Canyon clearcut
need lopped back, lot's of blind face
slapping corners, riding on instinct and
10+yrs of memorized line to stay smoove.
Maybe get out there for a rainy evening hike..

Ended with a swim inn the always
refreshing Fuller Lake. Not a bad
day in sucky south central. ;-]
Now I've got a tube to change.
and a yard to mow, a bike
to spray down, dishes to clean
and a beer to drink, good times,
good times.

race trim.

big days are around the corner.
bought a map of Colorado today,
figure out the lay of the land.
starting to refine things.
get the form tuned up,
shake out some kinks
in the stable. le Stoopid
approaches, perfect way
to test a lot of things.
freshy fresh drivetrain,
bling bling! gonna give
the 32:18 a try, PC-68
keeps it all connected.
new pedals, to prevent
killing myself in a one
footed manner.
got the fork with the frame,
why not use it? rolling ghetto
tubeless for the new Race King,
tried and true Mtn King 2.4 on
the front.
she's light, probably at
least 2lbs lighter than the
JabberFixy, poundish due
to frame plus no tubes,
carpet fiber handlebar,
XTR cranks....she's got
SNAP!
my local round the corner
'skinny' test track, into
the woods tomorrow.

meh.

don't overthink it.
run what ya brung.

right?

maps, numbers.

having gearing thoughts for Breck.
'e' says 32:18, no problemo. They
can only build a road so steep, right?
And beyond a certain pitch, trails washout.

So beyond being in THE ROCKIES, up in
the thin air with a lack of dank loamy
forest surrounding you, what's the worry?

32:19 works everywhere, and works great.
but....dropping a tooth, gives me a bit higher
top end, which might be handy for loooong
rippin' big mtn descents. (Did fix le Tour with
2:1 in '07, hmmmm) When I first rolled
the big wheels, did notice a subtle extra
oomph to get things rolling from dead spots.
It's not noticable anymore, but memories
have me leary of going to a taller gear, I like
the snap getting in/out of corners with the
smaller gear, not a fan of getting bogged down.
But the top end.....

And the climbing, how gnarly are those long mtn
climbs compared to local? What's the pitch like?
Well, got onto Map My Ride today, and tinkered
a bit, gathered data on all the local climbs I've
done, especially interested in the terrain that was
toured over couple weeks ago.

Breck Prologue, beta tells me 3015ft over 9miles,
but profile shows it at 7.6 mile...works out to either
335 or 396 feet per mile.

Here's a local sample:
New Germantown Rd: 1089 in 2.62 (415)
Reeds Gap/BlackLog: 1060 in 2.33 (455) paved
Wagoner's Gap: 948 in 2.3 (412) paved
Elk Hill: 833 in 1.8 (462)
Three Square: 1319 in 3.26 (404)
Ridge Rd from Mt Holly: 837 in 2.08 (402)
Woodrow Rd from 233: 673 in 1.70 (395)

So, looks like you can only build it so steep.
Was climbing those roads decent enough w/
the loaded rack on the 19....lose the extra 20lbs
of gear, drop a tooth and see how it rolls, fix
should give me a bit back thru the mo, so the
18 will probably 'feel' like a coasty 18.5. I wonder
how it'll be in the gnar, after bogging down...ez
to get back on top?

only one way to find out.

edit to add...Reed's Gap/BlackLog,
the top part, that I walked the last
couple minutes of, 492ft in .87miles.
ouch.

20.

almost got there, almost. taking it
back to basics, have only worn the
HR gizmo once this year, annoying,
hassle. So, relying on benchmarks,
perceptions of output, sensations.

Find a loop you like, a decent
loop w/ small challenges, ride
around it at an honest early season
'tempo' pace, look at the numbers.
first time 'round, 44mile w/ a 17.1avg
following week, roll around it again,
18.3avg.

remember the basic ways, recall
the old benchmarks. There was a
loop I use to ride when I lived in
Franklintown, 40miles on the button.
The mark was getting around it in 2hrs
or less, 20avg. Solid solo tempo work.

That was with a geared coasty bike.
Don't have one of those anymore, but
do still have the same motor. Haven't
hit this year's benchmark loop in a
few weeks, got out on it last night.
Not excited about the typical secenery,
so focus on something else, really
focus and pedal. Keep the revs high,
do the work on the small ups, qwik
recover on the backsides, then keep
the 40:15 spinning 20+ everywhere else.

Feel smooth, feel powerful, feel the wind,
feel the rain, feel the chill, stoke the
engine to keep it firing. Get lost in the
music, lost in the rhytmn, lost in the
sensations. Drink & pedal, head down focus
on the white line. Make it round the loop,
sit up for a cool down 10minute spin back into
town. Check the numbers....40.7 in 2:05.

19.6avg, w/ warmup (19.2 full pull)...
take away the first & last ten minutes,
does it nudge up to 20? So close.

Can you feel it?

yay!

so, as ya'll know, or did know,
until the short term got wiped.

I'm going to the BreckEpic to
'race' the fixy. Part of the deal
was that I spam the shit out of all
ya'll, then you vote, then I write
and race for 'free.'

Well, I've been writing, and even a
bit of proof reading, and now these
articles are begining to appear...

First here: My BreckEpic Page

Then they'll move, hopefully soon,
over onto my host site, Bike Magazine.
BikeMag.com, neat, huh?