Category: cycling

Wickwerks Chainrings

Published June 24, 2011

Having worn out the chainrings on the Titus I took time to tear down the bike, check torque on all fasteners, bleed and change the fluid in the brakes, and generally give it a mid-year cleaning. I also fitted the Wickwerks chainrings seen above, a Mountain XC Compact set acquired in this bundle. (The cranks were used on the Salsa El Mariachi.)

Erik and Nick are both using these rings, and I’d heard nothing but great things about them, including how (incredibly) quickly they shift. Having fitted them and gone for a test ride, I’m very impressed. The specially ramped rings quickly lift the chain, making shifts happen much faster than traditional rings where a pin or two will lift the chain. Whether or not high performance front shifting is really that important is definitely debatable, but with the rings being a good price (in the bundle) I’m considering them worth it.

What’s particularly interesting is something that Erik pointed out. When on the bike stand the front chainrings seem to shift just about as well as any other set. However, once on the bike and under load they shift much, much faster.

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Time For New Chainrings

Published June 20, 2011

While riding this past week I had a few occurrences of what seemed like a bit of chain suck which quickly corrected itself. I’ve also been having a problem with the chain dropping into the smallest chainring up front, telling me that it’s time to look at (and readjust) my drivetrain. Looking over the rings this evening I found this large burr on the middle ring, along with a whole bunch of wear^†, which means that it’s time to replace the middle chainring. I also got to looking at the cassette, and it’s likely due for replacement too, with small burrs forming on the more commonly used cogs. The chain is fine, with Park Tool’s CC-3 indicating less than .75% stretch, and thus safe to continue using.

When I built up the Salsa El Mariachi I used a Race Face Deus crankset purchased on a deal from Wickwerks which got me the crankset and a triple set of Wickwerks rings for just under $200. With the crankset now fitted with a Surly ring I have the Wickwerks rings left over and ready to go on the Titus. While the smallest and largest rings aren’t worn enough to replace I think I’ll replace them anyway so that I’ve got a matching Wickwerks set along with it’s high performance shifting.

I’ll probably do this all sometime later in the week, as tonight’s going to involve going to bed early. In the mean time I’ve got two other excellent bikes to ride.

^† Photo of worn, almost hooked middle chainring from the Titus’ original crankset.

Lumberjack 100, NCT, etc.

Published June 20, 2011

This past weekend was the Lumberjack 100 (LJ) race up north, and I headed up with Erik, Kristi, Nick, and Marty to both volunteer for the race and watch Nick and Erik finish. We stayed in a nice (and rather remote-feeling) cabin, everything went according to plan, and I was able to get in a bunch of nice riding on both the North Country Trail and at Midland’s City Forest. It was a very nice weekend.

On Thursday after work I headed up north, meeting Erik and Kristi at Shay Station, a very nice coffee shop / restaurant place in Cadillac. We headed to the cabin, met up with Nick and Marty, then had a lazy evening and Friday which mostly involved final bike maintenance, eating good food (thanks, Kristi!), and relaxing. Then, Saturday morning was Lumberjack.

I woke at 4am, as I had to be at the trailhead at 5:30am to work my first volunteer shift in the parking lot. Just after this wrapped up the 337-strong pack of racers passed me (pic · pic) and the race was on, so it was time for me to head to the aid station for the first shift there. This was a great place to be, as it allowed me to see all the leaders come through on their first lap and then help out any of those who stopped and needed assistance. Working at the aid station mostly involved filling up people’s hydration packs and bottles, getting them food, and just generally helping them out if the needed anything. It was quite nice, and something really fun to do as opposed to sitting back in a tent and waiting for people to finish.

After the aid station shift I took a short break, then spent some time handing out patches. Everyone who finishes LJ gets a dated patch commemorating their completion of the race just as the cross the finish line, and this was also a great (albeit slightly hectic) time since I got to see quite a few people I know crossing. After a few hours of this (and being able to give Erik his patch) I turned the job over to someone else and hung out back in the Trail’s Edge team tent. Not long after Nick came across the finish line (pic) for his first LJ finish. That evening we celebrated with beer and bratwurst (Garlic/Kraut and Jalapeno) from The Dublin General Store, but due to the long day (albeit not nearly as long as Nick and Erik’s) I soundly fell asleep pretty early.

The next day after we all packed up and parted ways, and I headed off towards the Timber Creek Trailhead to ride some of the North Country Trail (NCT). Not knowing much about the area in which I was riding I ended up heading north for 45 minutes, then turning back towards the trail head. After reaching the trail head I wanted to ride some more, and a quick look on the map showed a river access not far away, so I headed south down the NCT to the Upper Branch Bridge River Access and spent some time wading around in the water before returning to the car.

This was an absolutely wonderful segment of trail to ride. Very beautiful but with nice rolling hills and great views. I’d really like to do it again, but next time riding straight through from one of the other trail heads. That’d put it at roughly a 40 mile ride, so there’d be a need to stage cars for this.

After leaving the NCT I stopped off at Midland City Forest on the way home, just for a bit more riding. The trail was much drier than the last time I was there and it was a bit more fun to ride, even though I was quite tired and got turned around (read: lost) a few times.

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Whoops!

Published June 10, 2011

It seems I forgot how to ride single track in the dark. These scrapes and dent on my old helmet are from failing to account for a lack of depth perception (or shadows) when riding with only a helmet light, hitting a small downed tree at the very beginning of the River Bends trails, and falling on my shoulder and the back/side of my head. I also smacked the inside of my thigh with the top tube and that’s a bit sore.

I’m fine, but it sure was a quality fall and yet another reminder of why one should wear a helmet while riding in the woods. It also did a fine job of reminding me that obstacles disappear when your only light source is on your head. Oh well!

1up USA Quick-Rack

Published June 9, 2011

My new bike rack, a 1up USA Quick-Rack arrived today. I’ve had my eye on these for a while because they are well-engineered, well-made, simple, US-made, all aluminum and stainless steel racks that hold both wheels at once. Ever since getting my first real mountain bike at the beginning of 2008 I’ve used this Thule 917 T2 rack. While it works sufficiently, I didn’t like how it held just one wheel, it’s inability to fit in the trunk without folding down the seats, it obscuring my license place when folded up, and the amount of work required to fit two bikes on it without the bars and seats hitting each other. After Erik picked up one of these 1up USA racks for his new car I got to seeing how nice it is and I decided to finally get one for myself.

Along with the one-bike rack I picked up an add-on to allow a second bike to be carried. Because of how the arms work the bike’s position isn’t fixed side to side, and coupled with the second rack being slightly taller than the first it’s trivial to fit two bikes. This photo shows my single speed and the Titus easily fitting on the rack together, something which would require unbolting and adjusting the bars on the Thule, or turning the bars so they didn’t hit the other bike’s seat. This rack also folds up small enough that I could put it on the floor of the back seat behind one seat if needed.

The biggest downside to this rack is that there’s no built-in system for locking up bikes. The Thule had locks on the tire-holding arms, and while these are easily defeated^† I can’t help but think the presence of a lock provides a slight deterrence. As such I’ll likely be getting a U lock and cable so that, if needed, I can easily lock the rack to the hitch and then string the cable through the bikes. While I wouldn’t drive with this setup (for fear of cable rub wearing needlessly on paint) it’d be sufficient to keep the bikes from walking away while parked. Even just a simple cable through the rack, bikes, and tow chain loops may be sufficient as well.

If you’d like to see more photos of this rack, including the packaging it came in, please look in this album: 1up USA Quick-Rack

^† To remove a bike from one of these racks, simply deflate the front tire slightly and the arm will be free. It is also often possible to remove the front skewer, lift the rest of the bike off the rack, then pull the arm down over the tire.

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The Bicycle Shop Saves The Day

Published June 5, 2011

This weekend was a Fun Promotions cross country race at Hanson Hills. Since I was going to be up north this weekend anyway for some family business and passing within miles of the race around my class’ start time, I planned on doing it. Unfortunately, while riding the Vasa Pathway the evening before I broke a spoke. Since it was too late to find an open shop to fix it I showed up at the race anyway hoping that the shop providing neutral race support could help me out. Within a couple minutes of walking over to the tent of Grayling’s The Bicycle Shop one of the shop guys took my wheel, ran over to his truck, hopped in, and headed towards the shop. Roughly 30 minutes later he was back with my wheel fixed and true. As seen glinting here on the rear wheel the replacement spoke is silver and not butted, but I could care less as it got my wheel working right again. I took a rather lowly 11th (out of 12) in the race, but it was fun, and that’s more of what I’m interested in.

Saturday was PA‘s burial up north, and the timing worked out so that on Sunday I would have been able to ride in the Hanson Hills XC race on the way home. While this was the only biking planned for the weekend, Danielle’s want for a nap on Saturday afternoon gave me some time to ride up to the Vasa pathway which was only ~3 miles by bicycle from the hotel. Once at the trail while taking a break to clean my glasses I ended up talking to a guy named Ryan who showed me around the trail route, including how it connects with the Vasa Singletrack. While riding along the single track I heard a slight ping sound, followed by what I thought was a stick in my spokes. Stopping for a bit showed it to be a broken spoke, so wrapped it around another spoke then carefully made my way out to the two track and began heading back to the hotel. Along the way I saw signs for Timber Ridge, finish line for Iceman, and called Danielle then headed there hoping for a ride to a bike shop to fix my wheel.

Unfortunately, as it was near bike shop closing time in TC no shops were able to help me, so Danielle and I instead headed off to Short’s Brewery in Bellaire where we tried some wonderful beers and had a particularly tasty dinner. Following this (and once back in TC) we stopped by Right Brain Brewery where (with the help of some responses on the MMBA Forum) we decided that the best plan would be to show up at the race anyway and see if someone would be able to help me out.

Over this weekend we also ate at quite a number of places, all of which were good. On the way up north we stopped by Bill Thomas’ Halo Burger in Birch Run, and this place both has tasty burgers, a classic (and enjoyable) fast food atmosphere, and uses its apostrophes correctly. Then there was Mabel’s Restaurant in Traverse City for an enjoyable breakfast on Saturday before PA’s burial, G’s Pizzaria in Kalkaska with family for lunch, Short’s for dinner, and Right Brain for a sort-of snack. On Sunday after the race we stopped in Spike’s Keg ‘O’ Nails for more tasty burgers (I had a patty melt) before heading home down I-75.

Here’s a bunch of photos from this weekend:

· Titus next to the car after a race at Hanson Hills after it’d fallen and lightly dented the fender. Note the shiny silver spoke which The Bicycle Shop of Grayling, MI fixed for me just before the start of the race.
· Waiting outside of Timber Ridge for a ride to hurridly get my wheel fixed.
· Broken spoke which unexpectedly let go while riding the Vasa single track.
· More of the tight tree area on the Vasa, this time looking down from above.
· Tight tree area on some uphill switchbacks on the Vasa trail.
· Deep fried pretzels from Spike’s Keg O Nails.
· Looking towards the bar area in Right Brain Brewery.
· No Marking sign at the Traverse City Fish Wier.
· No LARPing sign at the Traverse City Fish Wier.
· Stage and lower seating area at Short’s Brewing Company’s pub..
· Looking towards the bar at Short’s Brewing Company’s pub.
· Japanese Cowboy, a Vietnamese-style sandwich, at Short’s Brewing Company’s pub. This was very, very tasty.
· Danielle at Short’s Brewing Company with her beer sampler.
· Menu board at Short’s Brewing Company’s pub in Bellaire, MI.
· Waiting in the parking lot of Timber Ridge for Danielle to come pick me up after I broke a spoke.
· Deep fried apple pie at Bill Thomas’ Halo Burger in Birch Run, MI.
· Food for Danielle and I at Halo Burger in Birch Run, MI. I would definitely eat here again.
· Penis-shaped candy munched on in the car while stuck in traffic.

While focused around something outwardly sad, this weekend turned out to be really nice and I think that’s what PA would have wanted. Thinking back, I’m quite certain that a good part of my interest in being outdoors and poking around places comes from time spent with him. When I was little he and I would head up north and drive around seasonal roads in his white Izuzu P’up, exploring all manner of places where a vehicle like that shouldn’t really go. Whenever I see a seasonal road I think of that; and these are exactly the sort of things I think of when I head off on my bike just wanting to wander around and just see whats there.

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Ragley Carnegie’s Bar on Salsa El Mariachi

Published June 1, 2011

Yesterday I fitted my new-ish single speed, the Salsa El Mariachi with a Ragley Carnegie’s Bar; the same handle bar that’s on the Titus. After tonight’s ride at Stony Creek with it I’m very, very happy with this as a single speed bar. At 80mm wider than the previous carbon fiber bar I had in place it’s a lot easier to rock the bike side to side while standing and pedaling, and the different hand position is much more comfortable to me.

I’m really starting to like how this bike feels, and even as a single speed it felt extremely fast to ride today. I think I’m going to enjoy riding this bike this year.

(I just have a few small quirks left to work out. Namely, there’s a small ticking noise that I think is coming from the stem/bar area, and the seatpost is slipping a little. The computer also isn’t working right, alternately logging way too fast of speeds or no data at all.)

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Download Maps via QR Codes

Published June 1, 2011

While working up some revisions to the River Bends trail map for the trail head kiosk and I realized that having a QR code on it which links solely to a PDF of the same map might be a good idea. This would allow one to scan the code and download the map to a phone and keep an offline copy; exactly how one would want an electronic copy while out and about.

I think this would nicely augment the standard large map placed at the trail head and the typical paper map distribution box. One would just have to ensure that the link stays live for the life of the map. It might be a better idea to have the QR code on a separate smaller poster that just says “Scan Me to Download The Trail Map”, as it’d be cheaper / easier to update should the need arise.

This is probably the first productive use I’ve had for a QR code.

(The image above is a draft / mockup and links here to the current [but soon to be out of date] version of the map. Final implementation will definitely need more polish.)

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Weekend of Biking

Published May 31, 2011

For this past holiday weekend some friends (Nick, Marty, Erik, Kristi) and I all headed up north to Pine Creek Lodge, a nice, basic, and affordable campground in Wellston right near Big M Ski Area, home to Lumberjack 100. The intention of the weekend was to pre-ride the Lumberjack course do a fair bit of mountain biking around the area. While much of our riding ended up being cut short from original plans, it was still a great weekend spent outdoors.

The trail tally for the weekend was as follows:

· Big M: Rode most of the outer trails as part of the LJ100 route. After some mechanical issues and as the afternoon rolled on we opted to cut our ride short and go eat dinner.
· North Country Trail, Segment B: Only rode from Udell trail head to Steinberg road and back. Super-fun segment, but rain set in and radar showed it to be a big storm so we headed back and went to visit Tippy Dam instead.
· Arcadia Dunes: This is an incredible IMBA-designed trail in a land preserve. Rolling, flowing, fun climbs and downhills here are great. If it wasn’t so hot I would probably have done a second lap.
· Midland City Forest: Rode this by myself on the way home, as I wanted a break from driving. Apparently I missed a traffic backup by stopping here. Interesting, tight trail with some very sketchy areas, yet fun to ride. Needs a bit of work in some places, but otherwise good. Met a guy named Mark Mutton here who explained the basic trail layout and showed me around a bit; this was very helpful and appreciated.

Coupled with a whole bunch of great food and coffee, sleeping in, and generally nice weather, this was a great weekend. The biggest downside was cutting the back of my right calf on my chainring while failing to make it up an iffy armored climb at Midland City Forest. I stumbled, and in keeping myself from falling I caught my leg on the chain ring and put this gash in it. Once cleaned up it doesn’t look too bad, but I’m still having a bit of pain from it whenever that muscle tenses and the skin there stretches. (Tomorrow’s planned single speed ride should prove to be interesting.)

We also ate quite well, with much of our food coming from either the Dublin General Store (home to lots of great meat products) or simply stuff cooked up on the fire or in Tak and Jon’s cabin. (They came up as well, but rode, stayed, and traveled separately.)

This was a really great weekend.

Here’s all the photos taken this weekend:

· Marty, Erik, Kristi, and Nick at the top of a random climb in Big M.
· Nick riding along a fun, fast, flat piece of trail in Big M along the Lumberjack course.
· Erik, Nick, Kristi, and Marty as we all took a brief rest somewhere along the Lumberjack route in Big M.
· Erik’s Pivot Mach 429 and my Titus Racer X 29er at the top of one of the harder climbs in Big M along the Lumberjack route.
· Bratwurst from Dublin General Store grilling on a rack at our camp site at Pine Creek Lodge in Wellston, MI.
· Looking down at the water at Tippy Dam as Kristi stands on the rocks.
· Erik, Nick, Kristi, and Marty while we took a trip to the Tippy Dam on the Manistee River.
· My bike in front of the sign for Arcadia Dunes, a mountain bike trail designed by IMBA and located in the C. S. Mott Nature Preserve.
· My bike in front of the Midland City Trails kiosk showing a map, trail rules, etc.
· Pet cemetary found along the Frog Hollow loop of the Midland City Trails.
· Chainring cut and grease mark after stumbling on a steep armored climb.
· Chainring wound acquired at Midland City Forest, cleaned with water and with antiseptic ointment applied.
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First Fall of the Year: Tree Farm Pump Track

Published May 26, 2011

Tuesday’s wonderful weather prompted me to head out to the Tree Farm (aka Novi’s Lakeshore Park) for a ride on the El Mariachi. It was a great ride, and I’m finding that I really like the Specialized Comp shoes (as shown above). Now that the top of the tongue and area around the heel has slightly broken in they Just Fit, and seem to have a better overall feel than my previous (and likely very worn) old SIDIs.

I was quite happy that I was able to hang on with the faster group of folks at the front, especially when riding a completely rigid single speed. At one point while riding the pump track (and doing what I thought was a good job) I waffled on whether to exit the track or keep riding, and in doing so washed out my front wheel and fell. Save for some scrapes on my arm and knee I wasn’t hurt at all, so there’s my first fall of the year. I guess it’s a good way to start.