Category: cycling

This February’s bizarre weather has made for some really nice riding. After a hectic (but good) day working I was able to get out a little early and go for a ride. Trails are still too squishy to ride, but almost all of the pavement was dry, the sun was out, and the air was warm enough that I could wear knickers, toe covers, a base layer, and a light wind jacket.

During this ride I explored a few neighborhoods that I’d yet to pass through, finding a new (to me) connector to the MOT near 24 Mile and a route through an undeveloped neighborhood, up a small rock retaining wall, and into another neighborhood that I frequently pass through. While I didn’t venture into it (because of the aforementioned soft ground and my relatively skinny tires) I also came across a sane entrance to this path-filled yet apparently abandoned area which might be a nice place to take a break and eat. More and more of this area is starting to come together mentally, and I’m getting even more ideas for long path/residential/dirt road rides.

The full route / GPS data for the ride can be seen here if you’re interested.

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This afternoon, in lieu of a lengthy dirt road ride^†, a few folks and I met up at River Bends to ride some snow covered trails. This was quite a bit of fun and I managed to get in just under an hour and a half of moving time. Some of the trails were a bit iffy on the current tires on the Mukluk (particularly the Endomorph on the rear), but it was still a good time. I may want something a bit knobbier next year, but for now I’ll stick with what I have.

The photo above shows James (with the mohawk, who didn’t originally plan to meet up with us but just happened along as we were in the parking lot), Bob, and Nick as they are queued up to cross a stream in River Bends’ Seasonal Loops by walking on a very makeshift bridge. I’d already passed, as did Carlos who was standing a few feet behind me. This ended up being a pretty nice ride, and hopefully I’ll be able to get out for a few more rides this winter. Maybe tomorrow… We’ll see…

^† Mostly due to the 30MPH+ wind gusts and negative-digit-Fahrenheit wind chill.

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This morning I finished converting my single speed Salsa El Mariachi to a 1×9 (one chainring, normal 9-speed cassette) setup with a rigid fork which I think might be nice for springtime dirt road rides. Reusing the old (and relatively light) rear wheel from the Titus meant that this setup is essentially the same weight as when the bike was a single speed. There’s probably a couple more ounces now, but the scale shows it around 26 pounds before and after, so this is a nice treat.

To complete this build I used the following:

· Salsa Ring Dinger (Bash guard / chain guide.)
· N-Gear Jump Stop
· SRAM X9 Long Cage Rear Derailleur (2010)
· SRAM X9 Trigger Shifter (2010)
· DT Swiss X370 / X470 Wheel (old wheel from the Titus Racer X 29er)
· Generic Bottom Bracket Cable Guide
· Jagwire L3 Housing and Caps
· SRAM PC-991 Chain (Leftover / Spare)
· Shimano LX-level 11-34 Cassette

Of all these parts the only bits that I had to purchase were the Jump Stop, shifter, and cassette which were purchased from Amazon, the MMBA Forum, and the MMBA Expo (respectively). Pete helped me out with the bottom bracket cable guide, as he apparently has a stash of them. Everything else was laying around the house leftover from other projects or bikes. Total out of pocket cost for this project was less than $60.

Tomorrow’s plans are for dirt road riding, so to test everything out I set off from home and did a nice paved route up to Stony Creek and back, totaling just under 35 miles. I ended up stopping off twice to visit a friend who works at local fire stations; these (and in particular some of the tools there) were pretty nifty to see. The ride went well overall, and I was able to ride pleasantly fast (for me), regularly seeing 20MPH+ including a 36MPH+ downhill just outside of Stony Creek.

So far the bike is working out really well. With a 34t chainring I had a quite pleasant gearing, spinning out only when on longer/faster downhills. For most things that I did today it was a quite sufficient gearing, and something that I could also see myself enjoying on most local trails.

The knobby Racing Ralph is probably a bit more than needed as a front tire, but for now it’s what’s on the bike so I’ll leave it there. Perhaps I’ll switch to something a bit lower knob in a few days, but we’ll see (Kenda Slant Six, maybe?). For now I’m just hoping to enjoy riding dirt roads on a rigid geared bike with normal MTB-type tires. If we can’t have snow and/or frozen trails and/or properly dry trails dirt roads will have to do.

Here’s two more photos of the El Mariachi in its new 1×9 configuration:

· Sitting against a (unused this year, I presume) piece of snow plow equipment near some local condos.
· Detail of the 1×9 drivetrain.

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Here’s a photo from down in the Seasonal Loops at River Bends during today’s ride. The creek is wider than ever and wasn’t worth riding at these temperatures, so I carefully walked across the bridge that someone had fashioned from a few old logs using the bike to help balance myself. With the logs being a bit wobbly it was rather interesting; I probably should have just ridden through the water.

This ride at River Bends happened when I was on the way home (by car) from a ride up at Addison Oaks and Bald Mountain – North Unit with a friend. He and I met up at Oakview Middle School to be between the two parks, rode over to Addison (where he hadn’t been in 10+ years), did a lap there, then went over to Bald Mountain and rode a lap of the east part of the North Unit (red trail). The weather out there was absolutely fantastic, with sunny, blue skies, not much wind, and a nice line down most of the trails. While a little more snow may have been fun, it’s hard to ask for better winter riding weather.

If you’re interested, here’s the lot of the photos that I took today:

· Roger’s Vassago Jabberwocky at Addison Oaks after the last of the initial climbing.
· Looking at the flaky, asbestos-like snow on the trail at Addison Oaks.
· Roger walking up Fall Line Hill (Telemark Hill) at Addison Oaks.
· Roger standing in front of Prince Lake as we rode the top of the levee.
· Me (Steve) standing on the levee in front of Prince Lake at Bald Mountain State Recreation Area while out riding with Roger.
· Heavily rutted single track at River Bends, likely caused by people riding muddy trail just before it froze.
· Mukluk leaned on an impromptu bridge in the floodplane / seasonal loops at River Bends.

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With the unseasonably warm weather that we’ve been having in Michigan today was the first properly snowy ride that I’ve been able to go on. Jeremy Verbeke and I headed up to Stony Creek, parking at and heading in through the hole in the fence, and rode a full lap of the trail, including all of the single track and a bunch of two track in the southeast part of the park. Today’s 18°F, little wind, and slightly cloudy skies was as perfect of winter riding as one could ask for.

The trail conditions were perfect, with a good layer of firm, packing, tacky snow on almost everything and no mud. There were some notable frozen ruts throughout The Pines which were clearly the result of over-anxious riders during the last few weeks freeze/thaw cycles, but they weren’t anything that I can see being a problem long term. Most of the trail was in great shape.

Riding, while hard, was otherwise uneventful. Despite snowing riding (and Jeremy’s first time out properly riding in snow) neither of us fell, nor were there any close calls. This was a really nice ride.

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