Bikes are born!

Rolled sleeveless on the commute yesterday and felt the sun's radiation like I was a cold piece of pizza being nuked in a microwave. 95 degrees and humid as a wet sock..summer riding rocks, with enough H2O on board that is.. I witnessed my pail left shoulder change to tan-brown while looking through my rear-view helmet mounted mirror (I know, way geeky). It was blazing hot, the baking asphalt melted the +'s and -'s off my kenda karma rear tire. Not kidding. No commute today. Powerful T-storms rolling through later. Got a good SS ride in w Kerry this morning. Pushing my commute gear through BP was fun stuff. Too lazy to change out for a more spin-friendly trail gear..42-17, gotta wind'er up and keep her going!

Getting ready for the 29'er SS..It's Born! As always Igleheart has done an incredibly detailed job with the frame. Adorn with loads of stainless bits and accessories like a cool hand hammered quick release seat binder, stainless head rings, star braze-ons, not to mention the welding, fit and craftsmanship is exemplary.

Excited to get'er back but won't be till the end of July. Boxed up & went to paint yesterday down to Vicious Cycles, they do an outstanding job with paint and they got a cool logo too. Of course We'll be flying the Igleheart flag on the downtube..and western cycle stickers on the seat tube! Thanks to Christopher and Jamie for setting me up with this new ride!Now who knows how to install wood floors?

just riding along

If practice makes perfect
I am out of practice..
my elbow hurts
but I wore my knee pads!
Had some laughs and a decent ride
with a stellar group
on a beautiful day.
It's always the way,
we call it JRA.

Kingdom Trails

Well, they lived up to the hype, the Kingdom trails rocked. Met up with Daren on Sunday to experience an epic day of twisty singletrack in Northeast Kingdom VT. The trails are extremely well marked and layed out, and fun as hell. Spontaneous hoots of joy, wide eyed and beaming smiles describe our day. Four hours into our ride the skies opened up and sheets of water blew across the hilly landscape, but the rain failed to foil our merriment, instead making the experience more epic.Looking back at Burke mountain I asked Daren, "did we climb that?" Not realizing we had. The rising switchbacks elevate gradually as you forget climbing, instead the trail continuity, flow and groove take hold & have a hypnotising effect. (Que the uncontrolled hoots of joy I spoke of last paragraph.)Kerry, you were right. Single speed was the perfect way to experience the Kingdom trails. One gear on longer climbs allowed me to develop my new 'dog breathing technique'. Tongue out, mouth wide open, panting like Gus my German short hair pointer - no joke. I let Daren know about D.B.T. (dog breathing technique) but he thought I was joking.
Gus (back right) next to his sisters Taz, and Blue with Tripp (his Mom) down front..all displaying D.B.T.

Sunday was also Father's day. Thanks for a big camp breakfast big Pete.
Six hours in the saddle barely scratched the surface..lets assemble the posse and plan a weekend.

Here's the song that was stuck in my head all day as we tore around NEK.

epic knee pain

Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe my knees don't recover from blunt trauma as quickly as in years past. Pads on every ride..kinda lame. Ice and heat treatment is more lame, but seems to be doing the job of relieving the pressure build up on my left knee. Maybe a veggi wrap will help?
Sunday's ride was epic. 6 hours of technical single track with Barry and Christopher...yes, Christopher came out for an all-day granny gear adventure..Lots of Cliff bars and water consumed, miles and Miles of trails covered.

Mohican '07

Jam them pockets full boys! it's gonna be a long day!

My stay with the IF mafia was a good one, as always. We occupied one of the corner dorms at camp Nuhop, near Funk Ohio! Imagine that, life in Funk. Anyway, thanks to Harvey for setting up the accommodations..they were piss'a. The race took on a different feel than I was accustomed to with almost everyone under one roof the night before the race. One big happy family...together we totally destroyed the bathrooms in no time flat!

Race morning was upon us, woke up a little late at 5:30am..wanted to wake at 4:30 to get some oats and eggs going but chose to lay in bed and waste that precious hour snoozing when I should have been digesting my breakfast. Spent the first hour of the race gasping for air as I burped up maple & brown sugar and banana oatmeal.

So much for the neutral start at the damn. Was a repeat of last years rolling fiasco. Jeff said something before the race that proved to be true, "it'll all get sorted out". Meaning the race it self..It was obvious that the neutral start had been abandoned and the race was under way, the elbow throwing on the double track had subsided, I concentrated on getting into a groove and focused on the thin ribbon of flowing off-chamber Ohio buff single track that went on for 23 miles. Perfect for some middle ring spin action, the single speeders must have been in heaven on this stuff. We spent the better part of three hours on the twisting trails, small climbs were abundant.

I was having a good race now that I had digested my breakfast, so it was clearly time to eat more. The aid stations were stocked with race fuel and the food of choice for me was fruit and hammer gel. Each aid station I'd try to be polite as I rolled in like a tornado and grabbed bananas, orange half's and watermelon. The PB&J's just didn't appeal to me, maybe that's cause I'd eaten so many on the 12 hour journey to Mohican country the day before. Stuffing my shorts with three or four hammer gels every sag kept me spinning between stops and I was drinking massive amounts of water... had enough bonk last month in Tennessee, thanks.

Jeff had gotten a good start to the day, I hadn't seen him since the first hour of the race, maybe I'd bump into him at mile 90..maybe not. My strategy was to hang back and give it 80% and eat lots of food, and enjoy the ride. I didn't drive 12 hours to bonk. Jeff went on to give it 90%, eat lots of food and enjoy the ride. Good show coming in top ten bro, next up is top 5. Somewhere between Jeff and myself was Harvey, and five other guys. I knew Harvey was out there somewhere but couldn't catch him...good racing Harvey, he went on to grab 12th.

At mile 88, blasting through a camp I was almost a victim of certain blunt force trauma. As I approached a cpl good 'ol boys on the side of the road, one with a fishing rod takes a cast over the asphalt on front of me..? I'm thinking, wtf buddy..I just ride 88 miles with out a puncture and now I'll get a fishing hook in my tire? I swerve left (should have just applied the brakes) and look up to a full-dressed goldwing that's hurling toward me with two on board. The dude driving is NOT happy with my antics to avoid the fishing rod fool. No one hurt, no collision..I rolled on shaking my head.

I had saved extra energy for what was last year's final 11 miles, but this year's course avoided the technical and rolling single track and substituted the flat and muddy river trail in it's place. I met up with Jeff at the finish and congratulated him on his 8th place and realized that Harlan had torn that race apart! Way to go..6:35 off Eatough to grab 2nd place. good times.

results are up on cycling news

Carey Lowery , Dannielle Musto

Singlespeeder's - Tim Dougherty,Robert Elam,Dejay Birtch

Micheal Siumonson,Shawn Adams,Harlan Price,Chris Eatough

Drive time

Tapping the brakes in bumper to bumper traffic on the drive home with the AC on high. The feckless act of driving north instead of riding is bothering me slightly. My thoughts are I'm squandering a bright and beautiful afternoon stuck in traffic. I'd like to think that my legs could commute all week AND ride the Mohican! Oh, that's what Harlan means with his rant with Adam ant...

It's at this moment I need to evaluate what I'm doing with my cycling obsession. Like that's not apparent by the sight of my recently shaved legs. I don't know if shaved is the best way to describe them..Got a little carried away with the sheers last week. Anyway..Jeff and I will start our 12 hour driving adventure tomorrow night. Meeting up somewhere 'round Schenectady NY to get a head-start on our 775 mile journey to Columbus.
Is it really necessary to drive to Ohio to ride a hundred mile race?..of coarse not! This obsession can't be understood...Once again a fraternity of riders will converge from near and far on a field in the middle of nowhere to celebrate life with the ability to torture one's self.
It's the freedom and ability to attend that can't be taken lightly as I say goodbye to a good friend going off to war. Justin Ello is preparing to leave and go to a place of hell and death as we go and party for the weekend. You'll be on my mind for this week and all the weeks till you return bro.
Justin's competitive spirit and incredible strength as an athlete rubbed off on me as I supported him and Brad B in the sea to summit triathlon three years in a row. And later as I trained along side the same guys to run the Vermont 50...not to mention some good fun at the topsfield Highland Games!
Your the best Justin, come home safe. You'll be foremost in my mind when things get tough during this event and others that will follow till you return. Peace out bro.

felt like summer today

Out of work early Thursday for a coastal cruise from bean town to points north. 82 degrees with a cool and salty north easterly wind for 5 hours, sweet. Hugged the shore from Shirley point Winthrop to Nahant, Marblehead, and points north. Got in with some roadies somewhere in between and chatted it up with some strangers along the back roads of Mah'blehead. Turns out we knew some of the same people, small world shit.
May have even gotten some sun to cover up all the bruises on my sticks left from this week's batterings in Lynn with George, Nate and Jeff W. Good to see Jeff W on trail in not the most perfect of setting for his fully rigid rocket, but that brother rocked the house!

Got home in time to register for the VT50! yeah yeah! This race sells out in mere minutes every damn year and for the past few I've missed the cut...not this year. I registered at 7:01 and by 7:25 the race was filled. 800 mtb'ers at their computers punching the keys for 25 minutes...so that works out to someone registering every 1.8 seconds for 25 minutes to fill the race...Undoubtedly New England's most popular race. Maybe I'll be pushing one gear by then...

(this from Harvey)-

According to Clarke, Americans who participated in Bike to Work Day last Friday . . .

---saved more than 56 tanker trucks of gasoline
---saved $5.7 million in driving costs
---prevented 4,580 tons of carbon dioxide and 230 tons of carbon monoxide from entering the atmosphere
---burned 410 million calories

You did it for real-does it count that I was biking while I was supposed to be working?

(I'm sure you were thinking about work!)

Got to pedal to work, Later!

Heavy breathing with Dr Fib

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday in the weather dept. and the rocks were slick in Lynn. Keep it straight, feather that brake - and no twitching on the line or suffer the smack down! The conditions kept us honest and there was no way of disguising botched maneuvers. As Barry said it best, "Greasy as a butcher's _____." <- fill in the blank with the appropriate noun.
This is George and I near the end of the ride, tempting fate one last time. In dry conditions this would be a walk in the park...I almost passed on this one till Dr fibrillator showed me up. Walking down would have been near imposable anyway.

45 and rainy...yup this is spring.

What little hair I've got on my lower legs was standing on end as I rolled from Howard street earlier this morning. Goose bumps galore and smatterings of mud and filth covered much of me as I ripped solo 'round the local loop. Got charged on three espresso shots and a few cookies before I left. I didn't touch the two bottles of H20 on board my steel rocket, the air was soaked with 98% humidity, the simple act of breathing provided all the water I needed for a short 1 hour jaunt over the hills of BP.
It's going to be a 3 shower day, in my bathroom I mean. I took one to wake up, one after the morning loop and now I'm contemplating going back for another helping of mud. Lesli is at the gym, I should nap on the couch (which sounds great about now) but think I'll go and enjoy getting filthy again.
I met Reenie and Tom at Igleheart's shop this afternoon for a fit session for Reenie's La Ruta bike!! Hats off to Reenie and Tom for taking on the challenge of three days from hell in Costa Rica. You guys rock. After Reenie was squared away with her fit session I had one of my own. A 29 SS is in my near future. Chris and I played with some angles and measurements on the calfee sizecycle and came up with a winner. 72 degree ht, 73.5 seatangle and a 23.5 effective tt should do me just right. Thanks Christopher - You 'da man.

postponed ?

Not enough support or planning for the Montreal-Boston Tour and it's been Postponed till '08?

I was looking forward to that event, would have been a blast to group ride to Boston and watch the pros circle the metro area all day long. Just not enough support and planning this year. Rubbish!

A bikes best friend...

Anti seize lubricant!

Lots of biking leads to LOTS of bike maintenance, of which I have preformed Nada. My road bike had a rhythmic tapping noise that has grown to a loud crack emitting from the BB and the rear brake cable hasn't retracted for a few weeks. I have ignored the problems for a while but need to address them soon before I'm walking home from work. A sampling of noises my Remedy produces are; Creaking, cracking, rubbing, squeaking, thumping, and Scraping. I bent the rear rotor last weekend, and the pivots need a turn of the wrench, nothing too serious. My new bikes from early season are now the beat-up bikes that need some lov'in but the Igleheart hard tail is still running strong and quiet.

in the zone

Bill speaking body english

time suck

Lesli and I have been wrapped up with small town politics this week.. We thought it would be a good idea to attend the annual town meeting, vote on the school override and be there to hear the "hot button" debate that has everyones panties in a bunch...weather to allow senior housing in Hamilton! OMG! Not that. Well, worry not people of Hamilton...No affordable senior housing in our fair neighborhood. Let'm retire somewhere else.
I should have got a clip of the debate and youtubed it.. Tempers flared when the amendment needed a 2/3rds vote to pass. 118 to 190 was the count. The nay's had the vote. Things almost got interesting when a selectman called for a vote to reconsider AFTER 50 people left the high school auditorium. Police were on hand, people shouting, some good old excitement for sure.

The past week has been FILLED with quality rides. The ride with Daren and Christopher started it off last Thursday. George rolled up from town and joined Barry and I for a solid 4.5 hour technical singletrack blast on Saturday. Then Bev trekked down from the north with his Salsa 29'er on Sunday and we were out till our legs nearly exploded.
Good stuff people! Hoping to get out with Glenn and Jeff later today...Man I hope the ride schedule stays like this all summer.

Stay tuned for a small video. Creating it has sucked hours of my time and crashed my computer more times than I can remember.

bring it on home

sleep is soo overrated

I didn't think that I'd ever say there are benefits to working the 4am shift, but...
1, there's no traffic on rt1 south at the butt crack of dawn so it's a breeze getting here.
(there is a down side...) I don't have the guts to RIDE to work at 3 am. Probably too many drunks still on the road in Lynn and Saugus at that time of the morning.
2, I've got plenty of time AFTER work to ride! Got a good one in yesterday with Daren and Christopher. Fast loop around BP. Started on the full rigid Igle bike, as did Chris. Daren on my dually, half way into the ride Big D decided to try out the hardtial and didn't give it back for the remainder of our ride. He kept saying, "this thing lets you lay down the power!"
Yes it does, on those trails anyhow...gotz ta respect the rigid fork when on technical terrain but for cross country ya can't beat it!
I find myself drinking entirely too much coffee when waking up at 3am though...just got back from another trip to the men's room.
I should mention that I got my ass handed to me on the ccb wed night smack down. Not exactly the impression that I wanted to leave with Mr Pete Smith but what can ya do...was delivered a large slice of humble pie. I think it's beneficial to get pummeled, i mean humbled once in a while.
Gotz some work to do in the smack down dept. Got to find a way to avoid oxygen deprivation with a heart rate of 191...is that possible? Had to shut down the engine when I almost blacked out...That was a better option than going down at 30 mph.

chris' loop

Following a man that's near double my age on a fixed gear road cycle is quite amusing. This guys has been riding fixies since I was two years old and it's apparent.
I mimic his ride style of simplicity and constant velocity until we encroach traffic, then I chicken out. Christopher rolls slowly into the intersection and makes eye contact with the person belted in what is essentially a steel cage. Hesitation leaves me in the intersection as Christopher makes a move with all his weight on the front pedal. He is through, I'm waiting while freewheeling backward. If I were on the fixey I would have certainly dabbed.
The sun had sunk below the trees and still 20 minutes from home. This ride had started out to be an hour spin but now we were working close to two. I with no blinky light or reflective clothing. Christopher had a blinky (and all black clothing) so he was behind acting as the warning light for on coming cars as we rolled along rt133 in Essex. On a long downhill we caught a couple of 20 year old guys on downhill bikes with dual crown forks. They were on the side walk and we were on the street. They were give'in it their all to keep with us, their 7 inch travel dual squishies bouncing and weaving, we exchanged greetings and all had a good laugh. They stayed with us for a minute laughing the entire time.
This week has been a non structured bike week in terms of training. I haven't kept a log of miles, just a casual hour or two a day. My thinking is the next three weeks are going to be sheer pain.

Cohutta report

The first 100 mile race is in the books for '07 and I am satisfied with the experience but it has left me with yearning to return to correct a few missteps. That's what hundie's are all about..making decisions and seeing how they play out while you torture yourself for half a day. Coming into this I knew the pro field would be untouchable, guys like Tinker, Eatough, Hendershot and Price would slip away from the start leaving us quasi-pro's (all due respect) to duke it out for top twenty...and that's what I was satisfied with..some good competition.
After the first hour of low winding single track, which was incredible! (nothing like it here in the northeast) the course broke onto jeep roads that pitched upward and we got some views of the Tennessee/Georgia boarder. Rolling with a solid crew. Chatting with Jeff W (who was showing his race experience, looking strong and pulling the group every chance he got) Garth P was there, that guy is a crackup..Colin Izzard was looking comfortable in the train and the solo goat was there too, along with Eddie O (who would soon make a wise decision to take it down a notch & leave us).
For a time I was happy. We were 30-35 miles into the race at a heightened but comfortable pace, friendly conversation was in the air, team work among virtual strangers. This is what I was there to do. Ride with some guys I had mad respect for and see how it played out...Wham! I was down in a corner, skipping across the gravel at skin abrading speed. Fuck! Before I could remove my hands from the bars my shoulder contacted the ground along with my helmet. The train of guys slowed for an instant to avoid colliding with my jettison body as I heard Garth say.."I thought we talked about this" referring to a previous conversation of how it would suck to go down on the gravel road. Jeff dropped back from the group and slowed for a sec hoping I'd jump back and latch on..but I was busy straightening my seat and assessing the urgency of fluids escaping my body. I was OK. Time to roll but never to bridge up to the train. I was now in no man's land.
At aid 4 Harvey and I spoke briefly while urinating behind the sag. I ate a cpl things but was slowly heading to bonkville. Harvey left fired up to catch Eddie O who was only minutes off into the flat section. I could not get fired up or head out with Mr Minton. That stupid fall really kicked me in the junk but if I only knew what a hellish fall Thom P suffered I might have just shook it off.
Between Aid 4 and 5 I was in the doldrums of lethargy. No will to power the climbs, spinning to survive, if the sag wagon came along I'd happily collapse inside. God damn it why did I go out so hard. There are no do-overs. Got to take this one as a lesson and comeback.
I rolled into 5 and a hush fell over the support crew as I nearly fell off my bike reaching for a banana. I ate everything in my drop bag and more. My aim was now to rally remembering (from last year) the final single track climb after aid 6 forced me to eat and eat and eat.
I was rejuvenated at last and finished strong, holding on to my precious 24th place and beating my last year's time by over 30 minutes. Congrats to everyone that did this one, I'll never say that this race was an easy day in the saddle again.

cohutta 100

The short version:

Good people, good times, spectacular single track to start the race, Weather could not have been better, raced with some quality people, got beat by 23 of them, 1 high speed crash (but nothing like Thom's), 1 prolonged bonk, 1 comeback from the depths of the pain cave, 1 large smile crossing the finish line, 1 totally awful hamburger post race, 4 trips to the hot tub before leaving the cabin.
1 large lesson learned, when going into a 100 mile race with golden legs don't peg the HR at 171 for 50 miles and expect to hold on.
I'll be back to apply what I've learned at the Mohican. Thanks to Jeff W, Eddie and Nam 'O, Harlan, Mark E, Lauren & Harvey. A longer version of my meltdown and some cool pictures tomorrow.

Convergence

Main Entry: assemblage
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: gathering

First race this Saturday. Looking forward to getting back on the bike after some nasty rain and cold conditions up here in New England. Good week to rest up due to the crap weather but I miss riding already! LETS GET IT ON! so we can all ride all day! That's what I tell myself before a big race to avoid nervousness, "we get to ride all day!"
With all the bad happenings of the world it's a fine thing to be a seemingly simple mountain biker with one goal...to beat my last year's time at the Cohutta 100.
Looks like temperatures will be near 70 degrees & sunny for the race and I'll be bearing my pale legs (with out the shielding aid of spandex) for the first time in '07. Get ready to see some pasty ashen legs Tennessee!
I won't venture to guess who will be in the top ten...going to interesting to find out. I'm just looking to survive with a smile and celebrate life with a bunch of endurance junkies. See y'all on the trail.

break away

If I grow old and retire...
I'd like to travel long distances with a break away bike
outfitted with racks and bags and carry all that I require to be comfortable.
Time and money would be no object and the biggest concern would be
where to get the next bite to eat.

Igleheart's newest creation
equiped with stainless sliders
and built around the rohloff speed hub.
Heading down to D.C.
for lucky (and tall!) Mr. Line
to enjoy and ride.