Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Ochocos - Round & Lookout Big Daddy Ride
Trevor and I rallied for a double whopper ride last weekend. I had done the Lookout loop of the trails that were up for grabs in the Ochocos but there was still the proverbial bee in my bonnet regarding unfinished business with Round. We decided to double up Round Mtn & Lookout Mtn and make for a nice long day with some gnarly climbing for extra spice.
We cruised through Prineville on our way to the parking area...on the way we second guessed our turn-off despite it feeling 'right'. The problem was there was no road signs so I had to go by memory which in and of itself os definitely not fool-proof, although you could argue the 'fool' part of that.
Soon enough we were parked and readying ourselves for the ride. I had borrowed the wife's bike since my bike was still en route from the Tour of the White Mtns in Arizona. Fortunately for me, she had a brand new toy to play with so I obliged and tried to put the bike under some stress.
Our ride started out along a long road climb which was a nice warm up for what was in store. Trevor and I kept commenting on all the hunting camps set up along the road as we made our way up the mountain. We heard a series of chainsaws along the way and figure this was probably enough of a deterrent for the hunters that they might be elsewhere.
We crested the first ridge at the top of the pavement and then the road turned to trail and the trail offered us a first glimpse of the mountain in front of us that we had to climb up. We made our way along the ridge line until the trail kicked up and got mean. We were able to ride the steep terrain and switchbacks until it got really mean towards the top. We were forced to take our bikes for a little hike as we worked our way up. Eventually, the angle eased back up and we were back on our bikes pedaling to the summit of Round Mtn. We took in the views and looked forward to the downhill that awaited.
I was still trying to get a feel for the bike as it was all new to me. The handling felt twitchy and I was just starting to understand what the bike could do going downhill...and that is a lot!
We bombed downhill (although the downhill included some punchy climbs) until we hit the paved road. At this point I knew we were connecting into the Lookout portion of the ride...Climb #2 coming up!
I remembered the climbing heading up Lookout as much more reasonable (via the Independent Mine trail) and I did not remember any hike a bike. It was a slow grind up as we crested and eventually reached a higher elevation than we had on Round. We took in the views and anxiously looked forward to the awesome descent that awaited!
I told Trevor lunch/dinner was on me if he could clean the whole descent. Lucky for me the most technical section of the trail was at the very top so I was let off the hook when we hit a really sharp and hard right turn. The next few miles were steep and had consequences in terms of wrecking on the trail onto a bunch of big sharp rocks, or going off-trail and stumbling down the steep sidehill. Fortunately we both made it through without consequences and we just kept gobbling up the trail that presented itself in front of us. The descent continued to provide miles and miles of satisfaction and I started to get an appreciation for what the bike was doing. It was amazing to not have to worry about picking good lines (as opposed to being on a hard tail single speed) and just bombing through stuff. The bike just kept handling everything with ease!
All too quickly we were back at the car and felt like it was a really good day in the saddle...albeit with some tired legs and big smiles.
ride details below:
We cruised through Prineville on our way to the parking area...on the way we second guessed our turn-off despite it feeling 'right'. The problem was there was no road signs so I had to go by memory which in and of itself os definitely not fool-proof, although you could argue the 'fool' part of that.
Soon enough we were parked and readying ourselves for the ride. I had borrowed the wife's bike since my bike was still en route from the Tour of the White Mtns in Arizona. Fortunately for me, she had a brand new toy to play with so I obliged and tried to put the bike under some stress.
Our ride started out along a long road climb which was a nice warm up for what was in store. Trevor and I kept commenting on all the hunting camps set up along the road as we made our way up the mountain. We heard a series of chainsaws along the way and figure this was probably enough of a deterrent for the hunters that they might be elsewhere.
We crested the first ridge at the top of the pavement and then the road turned to trail and the trail offered us a first glimpse of the mountain in front of us that we had to climb up. We made our way along the ridge line until the trail kicked up and got mean. We were able to ride the steep terrain and switchbacks until it got really mean towards the top. We were forced to take our bikes for a little hike as we worked our way up. Eventually, the angle eased back up and we were back on our bikes pedaling to the summit of Round Mtn. We took in the views and looked forward to the downhill that awaited.
I was still trying to get a feel for the bike as it was all new to me. The handling felt twitchy and I was just starting to understand what the bike could do going downhill...and that is a lot!
We bombed downhill (although the downhill included some punchy climbs) until we hit the paved road. At this point I knew we were connecting into the Lookout portion of the ride...Climb #2 coming up!
I remembered the climbing heading up Lookout as much more reasonable (via the Independent Mine trail) and I did not remember any hike a bike. It was a slow grind up as we crested and eventually reached a higher elevation than we had on Round. We took in the views and anxiously looked forward to the awesome descent that awaited!
I told Trevor lunch/dinner was on me if he could clean the whole descent. Lucky for me the most technical section of the trail was at the very top so I was let off the hook when we hit a really sharp and hard right turn. The next few miles were steep and had consequences in terms of wrecking on the trail onto a bunch of big sharp rocks, or going off-trail and stumbling down the steep sidehill. Fortunately we both made it through without consequences and we just kept gobbling up the trail that presented itself in front of us. The descent continued to provide miles and miles of satisfaction and I started to get an appreciation for what the bike was doing. It was amazing to not have to worry about picking good lines (as opposed to being on a hard tail single speed) and just bombing through stuff. The bike just kept handling everything with ease!
All too quickly we were back at the car and felt like it was a really good day in the saddle...albeit with some tired legs and big smiles.
ride details below:
Friday, October 10, 2014
Tour of the White Mountains - 50 miler on the Single
I planned a biz trip down to Phoenix to synch up with the TOWM event in Pinetop, AZ. It is the same guys who do the Whiskey event in Prescott so the bar was set high.
I had sent my bike down via FedEx Ground and put it together the day before the race. We left Phoenix in brutally hot conditions and the good news was that we would be gaining a fair amount of elevation to get into the mountains and more importantly, cooler temps! Pinetop sits at around 7,000 ft so the temps were really pleasant once we got there.
We had a great crew who planned to ride. We were fortunate enough to lock down a cabin about a 1/2 mile from the race start/stop. This was super convenient as we could just roll up to the start without having to worry about driving, parking, loading, unloading, etc.
The obligatory race check-in was uneventful other than trying to figure out what the real elevation gain was going to be for the 50. I had absolutely no idea if I was geared appropriately for the race so all I could do was suck it up at this point. After picking up our packets, we had a beer and tried to learn whatever we could about what was in store the next day.
The race graphs were saying there was only 2,600 ft of climbing and for some reason I was not buying into this...50 miles is a long way to only gain that amount of climbing. I just wanted to make sure they had not erred on the side of a major mis-calculation to the upside of that elevation gain. Unfortunately answers remained elusive so it was time to put on the big boy pants and come to terms with the 32x17 ratio I had been riding for the last month.
I had no idea what to expect of the race. My race prep was minimal as we have been in cyclocross mode for the last month and it had been a long while since my last long ride. This was going to be interesting...and at elevation no less.
We headed over to some friends for a great dinner to carbo load and prep for the next day. I had to be up at around 6 so I could get my stuff together for the 7 a.m. start. It was difficult to figure out how to layer up for the day...the start was going to be cold (in the mid 40's) and it would then warm up, but just how much would it warm up??
Soon enough, the clothing logistics were under control and I was coasting down the hill to the start. We all shivered at the race start until the start. The start was pretty fast as it was either flat or slightly downhill on a road for a while. As usual, I got passed up by the geared crew and I tried settling into a comfortable, but brisk pace. Disaster was averted a few times as people were getting squirrely when they passed me and then darted right in front of me to lay on the brakes...not sure why people do that? It is a road with multiple lines...why they choose to try to pass right before an 'obstacle' where they then slam they brakes on, is beyond me...bear in mind these 'obstacles' were little puddles of water...or a drainage, etc...
We hit single track pretty quickly and it was time to settle into the pace of the conga line. People were still a little anxious and you could feel the conga line was a little nervous as people tried to sort out position.
The trail slowly worked its way uphill and things seemed to somewhat sort themselves out after about 45 minutes. Soon enough, we were into the alpine where some of the shaded spots still had frost on them. The terrain was awesome and the trail just as good.
At about mile 24, a bunch of us missed a turn...there was a hard right turn at a junction that was really easy to miss. The obvious line was to go straight and the 1 (yes, ONE) flag was behind a tree what could not be seen very easily. Suffice it to say, I rode until I saw a bunch of folks coming back...all saying, turn around, we are going the wrong way. We re-traced our steps and found the trail we were supposed to be on. I added on a couple of extra miles but the biggest pain was that we were now bunched back up again! It was a bit of a cluster again and people were getting their freak on a little as they felt like they wanted to try to pass a bunch of people to regain 'their spot'.
Eventually, things returned to some semblance of normalcy as the field got spread out again. I blew by the first couple of aid stations but opted to stop at the 3rd one to re-fill my water bottles. I had been battling cramps since about mile 15 and tried ignoring them thinking they might go away. At about mile 30, I relented and swallowed a handful of electrolytes but all it did was keep the cramps from getting worse. I backed off the pace for a little bit and tried to let the race come back to me before I completely seized up. Coming out of that aid station, the course got mean!
Four miles after that aid station, we hit 'the wall'. It consisted of an incredibly steep section where everyone was grunting and groaning their way up a steep trail as they took their bike on a stroll through the woods! We all just snail paced our way up the trail until it finally relented and I was able to ride again. Everyone was happy to get back on their bikes but the hike a bike always seems to zap it out of me. At this point, I knew the climbing was behind us so it was just keeping it together enough to finish up.
Soon enough, we linked back into trail that was being shared by the other race distances and things got busier again. You had to stay aggressive to pass people but for the most part, people were great in letting you by if you said something.
The last few miles seemed to drag on forever but somehow that seems to always be the case regardless of what race you are doing and what length it is. The last few miles were a little bumpy and it was good to hit the road but unfortunately that meant the geared guys were able to reel me in! That is just how the cookie crumbles in single speed land...
Overall, I thought it was a great event on some incredible trail. One of the things I enjoyed about the race was how much of it was on trail. There was little dirt road so it felt like you had to be mentally engaged or else there were consequences to zoning out.
Post race, we all hung out and drank free beer provided by Sierra Nevada. Somehow I even managed to place 5th in the SS category so I got a little trophy for my efforts and suffering for a little over 5 hours.
We celebrated our collective finishes with some great Mexican food and a hearty margarita followed up with more beers...
I had sent my bike down via FedEx Ground and put it together the day before the race. We left Phoenix in brutally hot conditions and the good news was that we would be gaining a fair amount of elevation to get into the mountains and more importantly, cooler temps! Pinetop sits at around 7,000 ft so the temps were really pleasant once we got there.
We had a great crew who planned to ride. We were fortunate enough to lock down a cabin about a 1/2 mile from the race start/stop. This was super convenient as we could just roll up to the start without having to worry about driving, parking, loading, unloading, etc.
The obligatory race check-in was uneventful other than trying to figure out what the real elevation gain was going to be for the 50. I had absolutely no idea if I was geared appropriately for the race so all I could do was suck it up at this point. After picking up our packets, we had a beer and tried to learn whatever we could about what was in store the next day.
The race graphs were saying there was only 2,600 ft of climbing and for some reason I was not buying into this...50 miles is a long way to only gain that amount of climbing. I just wanted to make sure they had not erred on the side of a major mis-calculation to the upside of that elevation gain. Unfortunately answers remained elusive so it was time to put on the big boy pants and come to terms with the 32x17 ratio I had been riding for the last month.
I had no idea what to expect of the race. My race prep was minimal as we have been in cyclocross mode for the last month and it had been a long while since my last long ride. This was going to be interesting...and at elevation no less.
We headed over to some friends for a great dinner to carbo load and prep for the next day. I had to be up at around 6 so I could get my stuff together for the 7 a.m. start. It was difficult to figure out how to layer up for the day...the start was going to be cold (in the mid 40's) and it would then warm up, but just how much would it warm up??
Soon enough, the clothing logistics were under control and I was coasting down the hill to the start. We all shivered at the race start until the start. The start was pretty fast as it was either flat or slightly downhill on a road for a while. As usual, I got passed up by the geared crew and I tried settling into a comfortable, but brisk pace. Disaster was averted a few times as people were getting squirrely when they passed me and then darted right in front of me to lay on the brakes...not sure why people do that? It is a road with multiple lines...why they choose to try to pass right before an 'obstacle' where they then slam they brakes on, is beyond me...bear in mind these 'obstacles' were little puddles of water...or a drainage, etc...
We hit single track pretty quickly and it was time to settle into the pace of the conga line. People were still a little anxious and you could feel the conga line was a little nervous as people tried to sort out position.
The trail slowly worked its way uphill and things seemed to somewhat sort themselves out after about 45 minutes. Soon enough, we were into the alpine where some of the shaded spots still had frost on them. The terrain was awesome and the trail just as good.
At about mile 24, a bunch of us missed a turn...there was a hard right turn at a junction that was really easy to miss. The obvious line was to go straight and the 1 (yes, ONE) flag was behind a tree what could not be seen very easily. Suffice it to say, I rode until I saw a bunch of folks coming back...all saying, turn around, we are going the wrong way. We re-traced our steps and found the trail we were supposed to be on. I added on a couple of extra miles but the biggest pain was that we were now bunched back up again! It was a bit of a cluster again and people were getting their freak on a little as they felt like they wanted to try to pass a bunch of people to regain 'their spot'.
Eventually, things returned to some semblance of normalcy as the field got spread out again. I blew by the first couple of aid stations but opted to stop at the 3rd one to re-fill my water bottles. I had been battling cramps since about mile 15 and tried ignoring them thinking they might go away. At about mile 30, I relented and swallowed a handful of electrolytes but all it did was keep the cramps from getting worse. I backed off the pace for a little bit and tried to let the race come back to me before I completely seized up. Coming out of that aid station, the course got mean!
Four miles after that aid station, we hit 'the wall'. It consisted of an incredibly steep section where everyone was grunting and groaning their way up a steep trail as they took their bike on a stroll through the woods! We all just snail paced our way up the trail until it finally relented and I was able to ride again. Everyone was happy to get back on their bikes but the hike a bike always seems to zap it out of me. At this point, I knew the climbing was behind us so it was just keeping it together enough to finish up.
Soon enough, we linked back into trail that was being shared by the other race distances and things got busier again. You had to stay aggressive to pass people but for the most part, people were great in letting you by if you said something.
The last few miles seemed to drag on forever but somehow that seems to always be the case regardless of what race you are doing and what length it is. The last few miles were a little bumpy and it was good to hit the road but unfortunately that meant the geared guys were able to reel me in! That is just how the cookie crumbles in single speed land...
Overall, I thought it was a great event on some incredible trail. One of the things I enjoyed about the race was how much of it was on trail. There was little dirt road so it felt like you had to be mentally engaged or else there were consequences to zoning out.
Post race, we all hung out and drank free beer provided by Sierra Nevada. Somehow I even managed to place 5th in the SS category so I got a little trophy for my efforts and suffering for a little over 5 hours.
We celebrated our collective finishes with some great Mexican food and a hearty margarita followed up with more beers...
Friday, October 3, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
CX Thrilla
October is here which means that the local Thrilla' Cyclocross series just wrapped up. It was a series of 5 races held each Wed evening and it was a great taster of getting the heart-rate pinned for 45 minutes.
CX is great training for me since I am usually on long rides where I try to keep the heart rate lower and keeping me from going anaerobic. CX is the complete opposite...it gets you redlined right off the bat! The first few races are always a rude awakening as it takes a while to try to ride into CX shape.
This year was no different. The first couple of races really really hurt...gasping for breath and inhaling dust along the way.
We wrapped up our last race last night and the legs started to feel like they were rounding into shape. It still feels like I could get more fitness gains for CX but the progress feels good. It felt good to be able to push the body a little more over the past couple of weeks. There is still a ton to tweak as I feel like my technique has miles of improvement ahead of it...I have yet to unlock the secret beta for mastering turning on those skinny wheels!
This is supposed to be a taper week for me since I am signed up for a 50 mile mtb race this weekend so hopefully I did not do too much damage last night.
As usual, the scene at the races was awesome...lots of camaraderie and harassing! and of course a little beer drinking after the race!
CX is great training for me since I am usually on long rides where I try to keep the heart rate lower and keeping me from going anaerobic. CX is the complete opposite...it gets you redlined right off the bat! The first few races are always a rude awakening as it takes a while to try to ride into CX shape.
This year was no different. The first couple of races really really hurt...gasping for breath and inhaling dust along the way.
We wrapped up our last race last night and the legs started to feel like they were rounding into shape. It still feels like I could get more fitness gains for CX but the progress feels good. It felt good to be able to push the body a little more over the past couple of weeks. There is still a ton to tweak as I feel like my technique has miles of improvement ahead of it...I have yet to unlock the secret beta for mastering turning on those skinny wheels!
This is supposed to be a taper week for me since I am signed up for a 50 mile mtb race this weekend so hopefully I did not do too much damage last night.
As usual, the scene at the races was awesome...lots of camaraderie and harassing! and of course a little beer drinking after the race!
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Shipping Bikes 101
I learned something new on Monday....the local pack and ship stores mark up shipping rates through the roof!!!
I went to the local package store to ship my bike to Phoenix. The bike was already packaged in a nice hard shell bike box so the store did not have to pack anything. They put the box on the scale, took the dimensions and gave me a price.... $197!!!!!! shipping a bike ONE way GROUND from Bend to Phoenix!! So it would be another $197 to ship it back. After I picked my jaw off the ground I asked them why prices had tripled since the last time I shipped a bike. They gave me a blank stare and had no reason. I quickly pulled a 180 out of that store and hustled over to the local FedEx facility thinking it might be a little cheaper. I thought there would be a markup at the package shop and I figured it would not hurt to get a 2nd price.
The folks at the FedEx facility were super helpful and a lot nicer to deal with. When they gave me a price of $67, my jaw again dropped to the ground! Same shipper, same package, same destination and it was 1/3 of the price. Sign me up!!!
Lesson learned - if you want to ship a bike, take it to the local FedEx facility where they won't triple the price all in the good name of markup!
Unfortunately this might change at the start of the new year as I believe FedEx will be going to a 'volume' pricing model where big bulky boxes (regardless of how heavy or light they are) will have to pay more...hmmm, sounds an awful lot like a bike box to me! doh! It might be time to start considering bike rentals if prices go up too much.
I went to the local package store to ship my bike to Phoenix. The bike was already packaged in a nice hard shell bike box so the store did not have to pack anything. They put the box on the scale, took the dimensions and gave me a price.... $197!!!!!! shipping a bike ONE way GROUND from Bend to Phoenix!! So it would be another $197 to ship it back. After I picked my jaw off the ground I asked them why prices had tripled since the last time I shipped a bike. They gave me a blank stare and had no reason. I quickly pulled a 180 out of that store and hustled over to the local FedEx facility thinking it might be a little cheaper. I thought there would be a markup at the package shop and I figured it would not hurt to get a 2nd price.
The folks at the FedEx facility were super helpful and a lot nicer to deal with. When they gave me a price of $67, my jaw again dropped to the ground! Same shipper, same package, same destination and it was 1/3 of the price. Sign me up!!!
Lesson learned - if you want to ship a bike, take it to the local FedEx facility where they won't triple the price all in the good name of markup!
Unfortunately this might change at the start of the new year as I believe FedEx will be going to a 'volume' pricing model where big bulky boxes (regardless of how heavy or light they are) will have to pay more...hmmm, sounds an awful lot like a bike box to me! doh! It might be time to start considering bike rentals if prices go up too much.
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