Category: cycling

6 & 12 Hours of Stony Creek

Published May 16, 2010

Today a bunch of the Trail’s Edge Racing folks^† and I did the 6 & 12 Hours of Stony Creek race. This was a rather convoluted route through the mountain bike trails at Stony Creek Metropark (warning, PDF) which was ~11 miles in length, with ~1000′ of climbing per lap. There were a couple of new and race-only pieces of trail used, with one of the newest pieces containing a particularly steep, unexpected climb. Even more difficult, the most challenging (long and grueling) climbs were at the end of the route.

Bob and I rode as a team, with me starting at 2:00 PM and us alternating laps relay-style until the cut-off of 7:30 PM. In this time I was able to get in three laps, with each taking right around one hour per lap. Unfortunately I returned from my third just minutes after the cut-off time so Bob didn’t get to go out on (was spared?) a third lap.

This was my first “real” race, and I think it went quite well. Everyone that either I passed (not very many people) or who passed me (a fair number of people) were nice and courteous, with all passing arrangements working out well and no observed conflicts. Then again I was likely riding at a relatively typical pace for those later in the day, with the result being that during my second and third laps I didn’t really encounter anyone else on the trail. During the first lap some confusion at the start resulted in me ending up in the first third group of people heading out, which meant that I then got passed by all the fast people.

Oh, and the Specialized Phenom that I tried out today? I think it’ll work well. I had a little sorness at a few points, but as the saddle is harder than my previous one it’s to be expected. I had absolutely none of the previously experienced numbness, which means that its likely doing its job.

^† Bob Costello, Nick & Marty Shue, Erik Silvassy, Kristi Heuvers, Tak Kakiuchi, and Bill Edgerton.

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Trying a Specialized Phenom Saddle

Published May 14, 2010

Back in December I traded the too-narrow saddle that came on my Titus Racer X 29er for a WTB Laser V. This has seemed okay, but I’ve found that I occasionally get numbness problems when on longer rides where I spend more time in the saddle (and less standing). I’d heard good things about the Specialized Phenom and just when I decided to try one someone posted one on the MMBA Forum at a quite-reasonable price as he’d tried it and it didn’t work out right for him.

It arrived today so I fitted it on the Titus Racer X 29er and took a quick mile-ish ride between puddles and over every curb and rough bit of pavement that I could find to try it out. It’s definitely a firmer saddle than my previous one, but it seems to be more supportive where it should be (under my sit bones) and not where it shouldn’t (under the perineum).

On Saturday I’m supposed to do a six hour bike race at Stony Creek with Bob (we’ll ride as a team, each person riding alternate laps) so I think I’ll give it a try there. I’ll bring the previous saddle just in case this one doesn’t work out so well, but thus far I think it’ll be all right. If not there are a few other people from the aforementioned forum will gladly take it off my hands.

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W. C. Wetzel State Recreation Area via Richmond

Published May 9, 2010

Being Mother’s Day I headed over to Richmond to visit my parents. Being a nice day I wanted to get in a bike ride as well, so I combined the two deciding on W. C. Wetzel State Recreation Area as my destination, as I’d never heard anything about it before and it supposedly has trails. I figured that I would ride there, check out the trails, then head back.

Save for the steady, strong winds out of the north/west and the disappointment of the rec area this was a fairly nice ride. It turns out that this is a quite small/flat area consisting mostly of grass and gravel trails surrounding a few ponds in a low-laying piece of typically flat southeast Michigan farmland.

This rec area has odd signs at the trail entrances, some indicating “No Wheeled Vehicles” and others saying “No Motorized Wheeled Vehicles”. I made a point of entering at the ‘motorized’ varient of the sign, did one casual lap of the trails (roughly a mile or two) then headed back to the roads to check out the radio controlled aircraft field further down the road at the park. This ended up being a quite nice place to visit, as it had super-clean portable toilets, nice benches to sit on, and a man to watch as he flew an RC helicopter.

After a brief break to eat a bit (I’d only had two bowls of cereal and two bananas to this point today) I headed back to Richmond, taking a slightly different route due to some dogs that I encountered^† on the outbound route. This slightly different route involved 30 Mile Road, one of the many east-west grid roads here in SE Michigan. This one, contrary to what Google has to say, actually is broken in two pieces with a supposedly-out bridge in the middle. It turns out that the bridge (located here) is this one from HistoricBridges.org and is very much passable, but only to foot and bicycle traffic. It’s an old wood surface bridge that I wish I’d spent more time looking at, as it supposedly has quite-rare stone abutments.

Not far beyond the nifty bridge I actually got stopped by a train (CN 8802) at a crossing. With the train traveling particularly slow (~25 MPH) I could have very safely crossed the tracks it if I went around the gates, but I thought it’d be neat to watch the train go by. Unfortunately this train took a bit more than five minutes to pass, so I spent quite a while just standing at a gate watching chemical tankers, wood haulers, car carriers, and steel coil cars pass by with cars stacking up behind me.

The ride after this point was very uneventful, with me taking a quick trip through downtown Richmond then back to my parents house, where I found my mom having brushed and fed Roxie, who I’d brought along with me. We had pizza for dinner, talked a bunch, and then I headed back home right as my dad was laying down to sleep before a midnight shift at work.

^† Two Rottweilers who started running towards me and barking. I quickly sped up before they got anywhere close, and didn’t slow down until I could no longer hear them. Having no ready dog defense (OC or ammonia in a squirt gun) I took a different return route to avoid actually meeting the dogs.

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2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day

Published May 9, 2010

Today was the 2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day out at Michigan’s Island Lake Recreation Area. At this event a number of local shops and bicycle companies showed up with all manner of bikes to try out on a ~2 mile segment of relatively flat single track. Despite the on/off rain and mid-40s weather it ended up being a rather nice day as I was finally able to try out a number of different bikes and components that I’ve been curious about.

Specifically, I tried five bikes today; all 29ers:

· Mike Flack / Trail’s Edge‘s Pivot Mach 429 (Formula brakes, SRAM twist shifters)
· Marty’s Orange Vassago Jabberwocky (32:18 29er steel single speed, White Brothers Magic Fork)
· Niner S.I.R. 9 in A&W Rootbeer Brown (32:18 aluminum fully rigid single speed, Hope hubs)
· All Carbon Fiber Cannondale Flash (Lefty fork)
· Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper Carbon HT 29er (SRAM XX 2×10 drivetrain, Specialized Phenom saddle)

Out of all of these, the only bike I didn’t care for was the Specialized S-Works. Being a super-light race bike I think it was just a bit too stiff for me. Having a not-quite-right drivetrain didn’t help matters either as shifting wasn’t great in half the cassette but I imagine that’s just something that happens on demo bikes, especially towards the end of a demo day, which is when I tried it out.

I liked all of the other bikes that I tried. Each would have needed some minor adjusting to be something that I’d be able to ride frequently, but that’s just part and parcel of any new bike. I would have liked to try some road bikes, but the wet roads, cold weather, and on/off spray kept me away from it. It also would have been nice to try out a cyclocross bike, but there were very few of them present and I just didn’t really get around to it. After all of this I’m thinking that I might like to get a 29er single speed. However, that’ll have to wait for a bit, as I just recently picked up a new bike and I can’t actually justify one. Thankfully I may be able to borrow one from time to time.

This was also a nice day for hanging out with people, both those that I regularly see and others with whom I haven’t crossed paths in a while. I also happened to meet a few new people (including the frequent-replier-to-these-posts Ali B. and some other folks from the MMBA forum, including someone from whom I bought some tires and pedals.

Anyway, here’s two more photos from today:

· Erik on the Pivot Mach 429 as we headed down the pavement to the demo single track section.
· All of the Trail’s Edge demo bikes, tent, and work stand area fit in the back of Mike’s van. He packs very well.

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LOHS; Lots Of Hard Singletrack

Published April 27, 2010

Lake Orion High School (LOHS), site of the Dragon GAP Winter Race that I participated earlier in the year, was the site of today’s bike ride. I met up with someone from the MMBA Forum named Mike in the parking lot, then Mr. Steve Kinley, builder of all the great (and difficult^†) trails at LOHS. While I’d ridden the trails before, it was only during races so I only got to see bits and pieces of the single track. As he led today’s ride Steve clearly illustrated the route through all the single track, and a nice outer loop around the trails at Bald Mountain South Unit. I’d imagine that I won’t have a problem finding my way through the trails next time I’m out there.

Amusingly, while riding through Bald Mountain we came upon a group of ten or fifteen hikers / walkers, most with children, who were congretating at a particularly hidden intersection. As we slowed to make our way past / through where they were standing, most of the adults were commenting to the kids about us wearing helmets and using us as some sort of example. One kid piped up, rather amusingly “can we eat them?”. In retrospect it’s possible he was talking about some found berries or whatnot, but the timing was perfect.

^† Mr. Kinley is a very good rider, and I feel that he builds trails which are challenging to him. Therefore they are particularly challenging to normal people like me. In this case it’s just a solid overall workout, leaving both my legs and lungs feeling a bit worn out.

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Busy, busy, busy!

Published April 26, 2010

I haven’t posted anything in roughly 20 days, mostly because I’ve been busy traveling Europe and generally being busy with stuff. I arrived home today, and I’ll post more about that later after I’ve sorted through the photos. Instead I’ll just mention the brief things that my day held:

· Waking at 4:30am UK time to catch a flight. Thus I’ve been up almost 23 hours straight and traveled by a car (on the left and right side of the road), train, bus, and airplane.
· Replacing a hard drive in banstyle.nuxx.net on the way home, as my mom waited in the car. I was very thankful for this, as it kept me from having to drive back to Southfield during rush hour.
· Got a replacement SIM card to put in my replacement Nexus One. My other one was lost / stolen (I’m really not sure which) in the airport on the way to the UK.
· Finished setting up a rigid fork on my Specialized 26″ hard tail, getting it ready to be used as a commuter / light trail bike complete with rack and new rear blinky light.
· Went for a 20-ish mile test ride mixing single track, two track, and pavement. The fork works well and I like it, so I stopped for frozen custard at Custard Spot. I don’t know the distance because the bike doesn’t have a computer on it.
· Washed sheets and showered to remove mud from me, and started other laundry.
· Downloaded all the queued work email so I can begin reading it tomorrow morning.

Now I think it’s time for bed. It was a really excellent trip filled with good friends and lots of nice people, but I must admit that I’m a bit glad to be home.

Sleep will be needed, because I suspect work is going to get quite busy as soon as I return tomorrow morning.

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Stupid Thorns

Published March 31, 2010

This morning when I went to leave for work, my bike (which was on the back of the car) had a flat tire. I opened it up, ran my hand carefully around the inside of the tire to check for anything poking through, and found nothing. The old tube still seemed to hold pressure, and after a new was fitted things were fine. Tonight’s ~22 mile ride had no problems, but after eating at Rochester Mills I found my front tire low again.

It turns out that the thorn seen above was hiding under some mud, relatively dull, and slowly poking at the tube. Oh well, at least I can patch them and be ready for riding on Friday, and it’s not something weird like rim tape shifting, bad seams in the tube, or a defective valve.

(Yes, I know that’s a terrible photo… It was a very long exposure and I think the tire deflated some while it was sitting there, moving the subject.)

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New Crabon Fibre Breaks

Published March 27, 2010

After coming across a rather good deal for a barely used (installed, but removed before the bike was built up) set of 2009 Avid Elixir CR disc brakes with black carbon fiber levers (blades) I got them installed last night. While they felt soft at first, the brief ride that Danielle and I took around Stony Creek’s Trolley Trails got them about 50% bedded in. Even using a smaller rotor in the front than I’d previously had (160mm vs. 185mm) they seem to be quite sufficient stopping my heavy person on big 29er wheels.

Since I had to disassemble things a bit to fit the new rotors and such, I ended up swapping out the 2.2″ Kenda Nevegals that came with the bike for some 2″ Specialized The Captain Control tires that I’d picked up in the MMBA annual meeting fundraiser auction for $40. These are simply a larger version of the tire I’ve had on my 26″ bike since July 2008, and a tire that I rather like.

I also swapped out the NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for my old Cateye Strada Wireless, which despite having a large and somewhat fiddly speed sensor is much more readable and usable. The NiteRider Rebel 1.0 had two problems that I couldn’t get over. The first is the angle of the display coupled with my stem mounting and the stem angle, leading to the LCD being hard to read when leaning right over it or standing over the bike. The second is a lot of latency between button pushes (up to 1.5 seconds while moving) making it hard to switch modes and check things while en route. It would be hard to tell if a button press was not registering or simply being slow^†. Both of these were irritating enough to make me simply go back to the old computer.

With all of this working out it looks like I might have a pair of BB7s and a NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for sale soon. I might even consider selling off the Nevegals, although having some 2.2″ tires hanging around could be nice come winter, or if I’m heading anywhere sandy.

^†I suspect the device uses an interrupt on change for the wheel sensor then just polls the button, and has a few opportunities for user input to be slowly read. Perhaps their higher end computers are better.

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Early Spring 2010 Moblog Photos

Published March 23, 2010

Here, have some new photos posted to my moblog:

· I rolled up the rim and did not win.
· My Specialized is now lacking a fork, as the Fox is being sold and the new rigid fork has not yet arrived.
· UPS RMA label for sending back the damaged Belleville 700 boots received from Botach Tactical.
· Six bottles of Blenheim Ginger Ale in the fridge.
· Garlic and sesame bagel, part of my breakfast before going to work on the trails at Addison Oaks.
· The urinal at Pei Wei in Rochester, MI is rather close to the ground. It would be good for urinal pooping.
· Sending my census form in. This makes me feel like an adult.
· Ice and snow around a drain pipe on the Paint Creek behind Rochester library. Seen while wandering around before an MMBA marketing meeting.
· Forlorn bag of salt in the parking lot at work, with a bit more context.
· A cut open bag of salt left leaning against a curb at work. I imagine it was caught in a plowed pile of snow.

I should set up a more automated method of posting these than simple manual uploads.

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Battery Charging Paranoia

Published March 23, 2010

This is my setup for the first charge of the Li-Poly battery used in the a Bicycle Video Recorder. I had the battery sitting in a partially covered ammo can, my multimeter and thermocouple monitoring the battery’s temperature, and the charger connected to a Kill-A-Watt to show current flow. While charging occurred I’d periodically check in on this to be sure the temp isn’t way up, current draw isn’t unexpectedly high, or the battery hadn’t exploded. Not pictured is the fire extinguisher which was located ten feet away from this setup towards the stairs.

As the green light on the charger shows, the battery is now charged, and everything sitting in place without a coating of extinguisher dust shows that nothing exploded. Now it’s time to grab an 8GB or 16GB SD card and do a runtime test. That sounds like a job for tomorrow, though.

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