Bummer

Floyd, say it ain't so! That's all I've got to say on that subject.

Did a road ride on Tuesday with the team. Well, a few members of the team. Only five people started the ride, and one bailed out along the way. Seems he needed to rest up for this weekend. Good luck, Mark.

The four remaining riders enjoyed the heat. Many sprints were contested, and I took my fair share. Not as many as Nate, but enough to feel like I earned the beer and mini-burrito afterward.

Speaking of hot, I will be riding this weekend. I don't know when or where, but it should involve knobby tires. I'll drink a cool glass of water out of respect to all the riders at Nationals. Then I will go to sleep and enjoy the AC and eight hours of rest.

Suckers!

Super Secret Trail Ride

A few lucky members of the Founder's Ale team gathered yesterday afternoon to ride some secret trail. The weather was great, sunny but not too warm or humid. The trail was in great condition. There were six of us: Martin, Scott, Jason, Rick, Tim, and me. Two fully-rigid singlespeeds, two hardtails and two full suspention bikes. We managed to have one flat, three chain drops (two were mine), and a couple crashes. No bodies or bikes were damaged beyond repair on this ride.

I won't say too much about the trail, since you can't ride it anyway! :) I have driven past this trail many times, and never knew it was there. A small group of riders have put alot of time into keeping this trail in top shape. I'm glad I made the time to join this ride.

After a couple of hours of riding, we headed back to Martin's place for some brats and homebrew beer. Marin is a master of both the grill and the brewery. Rick also brought some of his homebrew--On the Founder's team, we take out beer quite seriously. Several teammates that couldn't make the ride joined us for dinner. Good times were had by all.

I had two bike issues on this ride. I let the chain get slack, and eventually it fell off. I put it back on and it lasted for another hour before I had to snug it up. I think I have solved the bulk of my chain issues; of course, I have thought I had this problem beat before.

The second problem I had was with my camelback. As I was riding along, I felt a little drip of liquid on my backside. The little drip developed into a stream and then into a geyser! The drinking tube had pulled away from the bladder, and about a liter of Gu20 spilled down my back! My socks and shoes were filled with it. This was not ideal. We only had about 30 minutes to ride, so I toughed it out.

After the ride, I took a short spin on a cannondale rush. Going from a fully-rigid bike to a full-suspention bike with 4 inches of travel at each end is...quite an experience! The bike was not set up for me; the seat was too high and I can't believe I would run it quite so plush. But I am interested in giving it another try at some point. It was so comfortable, I couldn't believe it. I wonder how it goes up-hill. I also wonder how it would feel after 16 or so hours in the saddle.

This week has the team ride on Tuesday and some trail riding later in the week at the new and improved Cannonsburg Ski Area.

Good Week

It's been a good week on the bike. I did the team road ride on Tuesday. It was fun; I haven't ridden fast on the road in quite a while. The pace was not excessively fast and the climbing was limited. We did have some nice sprints and I was able to win my share.

I took the ss out on the road tonight for some climbing. It was a good time; the weather cooled off a bit and I was able to put in some good efforts. I passed someone on a geared bike on the second climb of the ride. He caught me on the flat section of road on the way to the third climb. Well, can't have that. I got into TT mode and chased him down. I was spinning like crazy to get the 40x17 to hit 22 MPH, but I caught him. He peeled off shortly after that, and I finished up my climbing and headed home. Had to watch the tour recap--How about that Floyd?

Team secret trail ride on Saturday followed by some road riding on Sunday. Running when I'm not riding to get ready for psychocross season. No need to taper for Nine Mile, since I won't be there...

Parts Test and 100k

Rode the new parts on Thursday. It was on the road, but I hammered a few hills. the chain stayed on without any problems. I plan to take it off-road tomorrow and see how things go there. I have to say that the 44t-sized bash guard makes the bike look tough! Now if I can just get my legs to back it up...

Becky and I did 100k today on road bikes. That is the longest ride she has ever done, and she did great! We planned to avereage 15 MPH, and ended up doing 16. I turned it up a little near the end, getting up around 20-21 MPH for most of the last hour. She sat on my wheel like a pro--I kept waiting for her to blow by me on the left! :)

Anyway, it was a good ride. Looking forward to the dirt tomorrow and a report on chain retention.

Gear Update

I installed the rest of the new parts. A bashguard and 40t ring join the Jumpstop in the never-ending quest to keep my chain from falling off.

It is raining tonight, so I won't get to test the new setup. Tomorrow or Thursday I should have a report.

Surprise Workout

The Jumpstop arrived on Thursday, so I installed it at lunch and went out for a test ride. I dropped chain three times in the first seven mile lap, which pissed me off. I tightened up the ENO in the parking lot, thinking that I would do one more lap.

As I was crossing the road to enter the trail, who do I see but Dan and Nate. You may remember Dan and Nate from my Arkansas trip earlier this year. They convinced me to ride with them for a while.

We did Dan's training loop. It consists of pretty much all the hills in and around Cannonsburg and Egypt Valley. We rode the ski hill (three versions), some dirt road climbs, some secret trails and some not so secret trails.

Riding with those guys is great! They are so much faster than me that is just isn't funny. It reminds me of how fast it is possible to go. I could most keep up with them, but only because they were taking it pretty easy. And they smoked me on all the hills. All the hills, every time.

And here is the kicker--My chain didn't drop once while riding with those guys! We rode for over two hours, with lots of climbing and hard efforts. The chain didn't even think about dropping. I just don't get it.

Revelation?

While cleaning my main bike in anticipation of parts arriving later this week, I noticed that the master link was loose. Could this have been the cause of my chain trouble at Lumberjack?

Hmmmm....

Two Rides, no chain drop

I was able to ride a bit yesterday with Becky. The pace was moderate, but we still had a good ride. My bike worked fine, at least from the perspective of chain drop. However, the bike did have a awful 'creak' that just would not go away. I think it is the seat/seatpost interface. Anyway, I need to get that fixed. It nearly drove Becky and me crazy!

I got a status update on the new bike parts--they won't be here until Thursday or Friday. I want to give the main bike a workout this weekend, so I hope there isn't any delay in the arrival of those bits.