Don't Mess With

A Guy On A Buffalo......

ok, totally, 100% off topic and has nothing to do with ANYTHING but sometimes you just come across stuff that makes you scratch your head. Somehow it piques your curiosity (or it did mine)....Episode 1:

oink oink

I finally got around to weighing the little piggie that is the phattie...and I was surprised (not pleasantly) at just how big boned phattie is.  The built up 9:zero:7 comes out to a fighting weight of 34.55 lbs!!!  That partially explains why it felt hard climbing up the hill the other day.  I have seen some phatties weigh in at sub 30 but those are usually Ti frames with super light wheelsets/tubes.

My guess is that most of the weight is coming from the wheelset and tubes.  The only way to lighten her up is to go with a lighter tube at some point.  The surly tubes are big and beefy but in the infamous words of Mr Zappa.....'You Are What You Is', or in this case, 'They Are What They Is'.

The upside is that it will be good training lugging around the little boat anchor - and it won't effect the fun factor so it is all just a matter of vanity and insecurity about her being a little on the heavy side.  What's a girl to do?

Comic Relief

Thanks Dan-O

Phattie Events

As the world of Phat starts to open itself to me, I realize that there are many many layers of Phat-ness.  Prior to having completed the build on the Kermit is Green with Envy phattie, the mind started to crank through the options of where to ride.

As it turns out, the crew down in Jackson and Victor have built up a great Phat community and I plan on leaning on them to try to flatten out the learning curve.  They have been on the fore-front of embracing this weird whacked out genre of biking...so much so that they have even recently been able to get the Grand Targhee resort to open up their trails to the Phatties!  Talk about progressive thinking and great strides!  Article for reference :http://xxcmag.com/archives/4318

The Jackson/Victor crew are also at the tip of the proverbial tipping point when it comes to events.  They currently have a couple of events scheduled that promote Phattieness!

Dave Byers will be hosting the 5th (yes, 5th!!!) annual Togwotee Winter Classic.  I have signed up and am not sure whether I will be doing the 25 mile or 35 mile flavor of phatness, but I wanna' play!

There is also going to be a Gran Fondo style event called West N Back.  This is either a 50 mile flavor or a 100 mile flavor.  The hundie is probably way bigger of a bite than I can chew right now - heck, it is off-season and the legs are nowhere close to crunching away on snow for 100 miles.  The fiddy might be an option but I need to log some snow miles first to see how to dial in the staying warm aspect.  The hundie is completely daunting considering it will be slower than a regular mountain bike hundie - and given the shortie daylight hrs in January, my thoughts are that it will be COLD, COLD, or really COLD!  I am also assuming there will be some night riding considering how many daylight hrs are available at that time of yr.

If you are truly not right in the head and are looking for a serious order of pain and suffering then look toward the grand-daddy of them all the Itidabike.  Think Itidirod but on either foot or bike - human powered craziness at its best!  There is a 350 mile option or the 1000 mile option...This is definitely way way way over my ability to even comprehend the extent of suffering on something like this, but big big BIG props to those who undertake something so inspiring.

There is plenty of food for thought to conceptually masticate, so time to start working the jaws!

What is amazing to me is that the TWC is on its 5th yr!  I thought I was an early adopter of this little niche market in the mountain biking world and I am starting to feel like that quote about how when I find out about a fad, it is about over....sorta' like stocks - by the time I hear it is a buy, people are selling!  Me thinks that me phattie is the first in the area but who knows?

I don't think phatt is a fad though - There is a strong and growing market for these bikes and given all the recent advancements in the land of Phat, it is barely scraping the surface of what these bikes and riders will be capable of.

Phattie's 1st Spin

The arctic air was moving in on Sunday so the best day to get out and play on the phattie was Saturday.  I layered up and headed from the house to Maude S Canyon  Phattie did surprisingly well once we got to Maude S.  I was blown away at just how well the bike did on the trail up to the summit.

It is a 1,200 ft ascent to the summit with a constant climb on trail up the canyon.  Most of the switchbacks were doable on the way up and there were only a couple of times where I had to dismount to get through a section, and that was probably mostly because of the line I took.

The descent was crazy fun and crazy surprising!  I was shocked at just how much traction I had bombing downhill.  The combo of having an aggressive tread on the front (Surly Nate) with the low psi and the disc brake stopping power really made it feel like the bike was under total control.  I was really able to pick lines and be aggressive on the trail....wow, wow, and holy SWEET nectar!  If this is the way it is going to hold up, then ohhhhh come to papa because it will be hard to get that ear to ear grin of me smug mug!

What goes down, must go up though....pedaling uphill was hard!  The combo big tires, heavier bike, and packed snow made for some hard work!  I was panting and grovelling and thinking how much harder it was than on a regular bike.  That would make lots of sense considering...DUH

My glass 1/2 full comment is that I hope the trails remain packed down enough to keep riding through the winter - even if it is just a couple of trails...yeehaa!

Some pix of the outing:

at the summit:

 looking towards Butte:

 Snow rolling in....

 now time to descend!

WHAM BAM Thank you Glam

Phattie gets her glamor shots.....still need to go in and weigh the beast.  The pedals are temporary until I figure out the better option between platform vs clipless,  For riding in the snow, I can definitely see pros and cons to either.

The clipless will be more efficient, but might be harder to get started in the snow...feet might also get colder thanks to the cold temps making the pedal cold and transferring that cold to the shoe.

The platform is not as efficient with pedal stroke but gives you more options in keep your feet warmer as you can wear warmer boots (most cycling shoes are not made for below freezing temps).

in the interim, below are phattie's poser shots;

 little piggy waiting to get taken out for a proper inaugural ride...perhaps this weekend....

 so fresh and so clean...

 curvalicious

 white cable housing for effect

 grip shifter action - going with a 1X9 set up for now...I have two chainrings which will give me the optino to decide to upgrade to 2X9 or just remove one of the chain rings if not needed.

 Even Moby is bowing to the big phattie:

 Moby dog says "whoa, this is a beast!"

MTB Guacamole Trail Video

Below is a GOPRO video of our excursion to Hurricane, Utah where we rode the Guacamole trail.  Good weather, great views, fun riding.

MTB Guacamole Hurricane from Tiago on Vimeo.

Mountain Biking in S Utah - Guacamole Trail outside of Hurricane/Zion

On another note, the phattie is built and ready for her glamor shots....updates to follow tomorrow.