oh,

HELLZ YEAH!!!


thanks Eric.

sweetness

bits of kit in transit,
it's all in the system,
somewhere. Will have a
decision to make later
in the week, see what
sort of sensations the
legs produce...yesterday
was a pleasant surprise.

quandry

racin'?

so there's the final race of the year
next wknd. got correspondence
that my touring bags are on the way.
rest of the fresh gear (stove, tent)
should also arrive next week.

so, do I throw down for another
mediocre race performance?
or get out and shake it down?
or combine the two....anybody
wanna drive me home from
Teaberry next wknd?

why I get so quiet.

while pedaling,
it's not suffering,
it's meditation.

this one goes to 11

a classique bit from the eMpTyBeeR forums:

The Ten Phases of Singlespeeding

1. Build your first singlespeed -- inspired by others riding SS, you either convert an old bike or buy an entry level SS to get the flavor.. Ride it, bitch about how hard it is getting up the hills, think about where to ride next. Lather, rinse and repeat...

2. Upgrade madness -- the weight weenie / blinglespeed side takes over and you suddenly develop a need to upgrade. A combination of an empty bank account, an upset significant other or a weight weenie part failure ensues. You have parts shipped to work, so the wife won't see the bike parts you ordered. You start looking for ideas (like the MTBR SS forum) to further your obsession of the perfect SS.

3. Gear ratios - your brain becomes obsessed with determining the optimum gear ratio for the upcoming race or given terrain. You temporarily lose focus on just riding and being one with your bike. Your library of forks, chain rings and cogs/cassettes starts to rival the selection at Supergo or Webcyclery.

4. Realization - the entry level SS no longer is good enough. You convince yourself you need a better bike -- custom, SS specific, whatever..

5. Purism - you realize that you're almost exclusively riding your SS. Your other bikes are collecting dust. Under your breath, you sometimes mock others riding gears and work your butt off to one-up them. You use your SS as a tool to brag or as an excuse / handicap (I geared too stiff for the course...) Start hating RockShox and Shimano just on principle, and start thinking rigid forks and DH tires are the better setup.

6. Laziness - you go out and upgrade to a "proper" SS. Now that you it, the upgrade and gear ratio obsessions are fulfilled. You get lazy, and start trashing your bike without taking care of it. You forget about checking tire pressures, chain tension, broken teeth and don't even consider about the consequences. A wonderful delusion, until the bike leaves you stranded 5 miles from your car, and your cell phone has no signal deep in the woods...

7. Heresy - ride your SS so much, that when you ride your geared bike, you miss your SS. You take it one step further and actually sell off the geared bike(s) that you previously couldn't live without.

8. Fight club - start putting beer in your water bottles, grow some unusual facial hair (for the men), dress like a freak, and acquire the attitude that you don't give a shit about racing or beating the gearies. Riding a pink colored bike frame or wearing orange socks with your Birkenstocks to a bar after the ride doesn't even click to you as being strange.

9 (optional) Scorching - as if SS'ing isn't fringe enough, start thinking http://www.63xc.com is an interesting alternative. Give it a go, maybe even get hooked.

10. Approach martyrdom - actually leave the clique by riding so much that few buddies can keep up with you. You become one with your bike. You simultaneously learn a level of humbleness and let your results speak for themselves

check,meh,sorta,check,check (w/o the hate),
check,check,check,check, half-check
(there's that humbleness thing)

so what's next?
this thing has to go to 11.

The hundie gave me fresh perspective for the effort.
It was tough, sub-ten to get around that loop was
more of an effort than I recalled or anticipated.
Lot's of experience relied upon, patience to work thru
the typical 2-3hr slum. Then crash thru into the quiet
place and stay there. Not the cakewalk I'd hoped for,
and not the type of effort I'm looking to experience
again for a while. Well, physically, yeah, I'll go there
again, no denying that. But I think the inspirations
will be different, find better answers for "why?"
Time to play another game, where minutes and
seconds aren't determining factors.

Where the challenge is due as much
to raw discovery as it is to getting
from A to B as quick as you can.

Bit of a refocus on the horizon, it's
just a natural progression, at least
from where I'm pedaling..

'tis the season

and I love it.

another fine gathering of the clan.
celebrating bike passion induced
suffering and glee. how is it that
we find so much joy in so much
self inflection?

five twenty mile rides, that's all it is.
break it down into chewable pieces.
no real 'goals' for this one, other than
finish in a respectable sub-10. Figured
that if the legs showed up, would take
advantage for sure. otherwise, steady
gun flow it and try to enjoy the day.

The start is hectic douchebag gap squeezers
until we get across the bridge. Really people,
chill the fuck out, the sun's not even up. Warm
up tempo spinnin' along the tarmac, definitely
not hamster wheel chasin' like Dicky and the
contenders, zoom zoom zoom the clusters go
by. Up the early rollers w/ Bucky, then separation
when I get stuck behind a group of less skilled
cornering types. It's just sand....effin' roadies.

Narrowback was crowded, but not too bad.
Felt comfortable at speed in the dryness,
steering, not carving, making good time.
Spy Buck on Tillman, the unexpanded gap
is reassuring, then I get dropped directly
while eating and drinking along the gravel
to the Lynn hike up. Get into a decent group
for the vertical assault, retake some places
lost on the road, and reel in a few more
bombing down Wolf. Try to rebend a loose
grasping bottle cage, snap the 6yr old relic,
shit. Headset double check in the pines,
then sit and spin and relax along the road to #2.
2:45-3ish and departing the cp after a cage
swap w/ Hoy. thanks man!

Dr Evil droppped me on the road in, Pedro
caught me, but doesn't sound super fresh
after being bitten by a horsefly. I'm itching
to keep the steady flow rolling, so back to it
and on to Dowell's, the next carrot. The climb,
plugged in some music and went to work, let
the breathing take over. The down, stayed on
it over the summity knob, kept the focus and
took full advantage of a clear path. r.i.p.p.i.n.g.
Until running up against a paceline of five
that are not quite rolling at my pace. We're near
the bottom, sit in and relax for a bit.

CP3, splash n go bottle fill, slummy ride up 250
to Mtn House. Sure wish it had more pitch, always
undergeared for that section and always take a sit
down break along the shoulder. Get the head
straight, enjoy some baked goods. The climb out
of Ramsey's gets off to an ominous start, right cleat
suddenly won't release, shit. Sit down off trail and
dick around with it. Bolts still tight, looks ok, pedal
is ok, it's just getting old I guess. Keep that in mind
and work to ration the dismounts. Shrug off the
wasted time and settle in for the 20minute effort to
the top of Braley's. Reach the rollover, then rock n roll
time. Amazed at the amount of carnage along the
downhill run. Saw two down in the shrubbery, at
least two others picking themselves up after errant
tree ricochets. Ring the bell and keep a clear sightline,
excusssee me.

Hoot n hollerin' good time by the bottom, try to stay
on it. Fearing the ganked cleat, skip the traditional
recovery steps that are sometimes hiked on those
short rollers right before rolling into 4. Pedal 'em all,
and surprised by somewhat decent sensations from
the legs, hmmm.

Qwik splash n go thru 4, out onto the road, chit
chat w/ J. Potts for a bit, then plug in 2hrs of live
Radiohead for the purported 'Death Climb.' Don't
know where that name comes from, I usually have
a decent enough time pedaling up it, must be the
various handups I've received over the years.
Thanks to the film crew for the Coors refresher!
The handful of fellas I departed the aide with drop
me on the false flat prelude, theme for the day, but
stay within sight. Once it tilts in my favor, time to
munch carrots like Bugs Bunny. Retreat deep into
my quiet place, and yes the quiet place is quiet.
Me, my rythmns and moving forward, conversation
is valuable breath, I don't mean to be rude, gotta
keep moving forward.

Reluctantly stop at five for a qwik bottle fill, didn't
wanna stop at all, but better safe than sorry, and only
unclipped one foot, it was a pretty snappy pit stop.
Beat it out of there and luckily had no hangers on,
back into the carrot patch. Munch, Munch, munch.
Finally catch another one speeder, Mr Chad from
Ball'moore, he's feeling. slummy. Grunted pleasantries
and it's quiet again. Huffing and puffing and rubber
on dirt, just pedal. Also make contact with Dr Evil
once more, hope he can latch on, but not really
waiting though. steady. gunnin'.

Top of Chestnut, wanted to see 8:00 on the moving
clock, based on time of day, it looks like I have 30
minutes of stoppage time so far..shooting for 8 gives
me and hour thirty to finsih this thing, that's managable.
Hit the final clearing, clock reads high 7:40's, cool. Rip
down Chestnut w/ self preservation in mind, then blast
by the final aide, get dropped by Dr Evil on the road to
Hanky and then gearing selections reverse the roles,
hope he can hold on up the last pitch. Settle in for one
more effort and get lost in the pedals. Get caught and
dropped by some Fisher ss dude, slightly demoralizing
but no need to answer, racing demons by this point.
Up over Hanky, and one more superfuntime downhill
ripper into the campground to punch the clock.

9:40ish according to the results sheet, 25th singlespeed.
25th? Sub ten is now only good for 25th singlespeed?
I remember my first sub ten being good for a top 40
overall at this race....times they are a changing.

thinkin', tinkerin'

finally, that last tour is mostly soaked up by the weary bones. the blowed up achilles thing wasn't tooo bad. gimped around on it for a few, then finally turned some road bike pedals on Saturday. Mild tenderness, but felt better in the evening, improved in the morning and was fine for mixing it up in the cupcake batter on Sunday. Good to ride w/ ya Buddy! Too bad for Elk, having to ride Thorpe instead...

So, w/ the big party approaching, I actually rode the road bike some more this week, can you spell s-l-u-g-g-i-s-h-? Yeah, funny to see my name in print for the S&M100 race brief. If Chris only knew...or maybe he does know. Maybe the 13-18-13.5hr tour set me up for something big? Maybe a light spin tonight after the bike tune and chainring work w/ show me something other than blah...or maybe I really am done for the year w/ regards to clock challenging efforts.

And with an eye to the future, and big(ger) routes on my mind (mwuhuhuhaaahhh, who needs to go out West?) I started refining the tour gear in my mind, kicking around some thoughts..first, shelter. To date I've been very lucky and have not had to withstand anything other than an infrequent windblown pitterpat while in the bivy sack. I have somehow managed to avoid being stuck in camp when the weather blows in. On the last TuscTour, boogying home directly meant I was sitting in the Pub instead of on some rock in Michaux when that gnarly gully washer blew in at about the time I'd be making camp. And during the recent HiT, that Monday night shower I rolled thru on the SMT woulda been fucking miserable to be stuck in if bedded down...so, today I ordered one of these:

With the pole and stakes, 17ish oz, tyvek ground sheet is 4-5oz, actual shelter at <1.5lb. So, gain a few oz's, decide to try and trim some elsewhere, look at the cook kit. That fuel canister, clunky, wasteful. Chad showed me his alcohol kit at the 101, pretty neat, compact, light, simple. I went hi brow and ordered this unit, custom tuned to my current Ti kettle.

Added in the Ti Esbit stand, what the hell, may as well tinker with that too. Curious how it'll pack into the soft bags though. So, eliminate the weight of the raw fuel canister, 3-4oz, lighten the stove unit itself, an ounce or so, fuel remains the same, guessin' it'll probably be a wash in the overall vs the gain from the enhanced shelter. Which is good, especially when I've got one of these bouncing around my head as an option.

That'll add 3ish lbs over my current WI hub/FW setup, but I'll be losing the weight of the rear rack, hmmm. The internal will allow me to keep that tight, quiet, direct, reliable chainline of the single, but will mean much less hiking of the loaded sled on those bits that go just that extra pitch. That pitch which is rollable on the tarmac, but mix in the trail clutter and a 13ish lb load and you just can't quite keep that gear turning. Might help prevent gimping myself on day three...add on a six bolt adapter to the centerlock disc, throw a 19t cog in the pack and there's your way home if the internals can't handle it. Going w/ a rear der setup adds about a pound-pound and a halfish and that nagging feeling that you're this close to ripping that fucker off when it gets rocky gnar tight or 'shwacky. And the noise, the chainslap and clackity clunkss, bleh. The bike is already loaded, so not too concerned about it affecting the balance of the ride. Sounds like I just need to pull the trigger...

Wonder if this'll all come together in time for a fall tour?
Bag delivery vs open wknds is the equation....