Heading for the Hills

Ethan and I headed up towards Boone this weekend to do some mountain riding. He found this route and we decided that it would be a good ride for us since the distance was reasonable and it had some nice climbs. The first ten miles or so had a good amount of traffic but after that things died down and the route proved to be very enjoyable. There were three tough climbs and one more that was a little more gradual. Before this ride, my confidence on the bike was at an all time high. I have been riding singlespeed in the dirt for a couple of months, which automatically makes me better that people with gears, a strong showing when Ethan came to town, and being able to blow past the retirees at Umstead have fooled me into thinking that I am a pretty good climber despite my large climbing-unfriendly size (according to the BMI, my 6'-5" 215lb frame is 5 pounds overweight). Shortly after we hit the first climb on the way up Hwy 194, it was clear that my ability to conquer the Triangle area molehills means nothing for the seemingly never ending mountains that we were going to be riding. The ride up 194 was a nice long sustained climb that I was determined to do without stopping for a rest. I was able to make it to the top and prove to everyone that I am not just a man, but a man's man. We stopped at the top of this climb to catch our breath and down some gels before continuing.

Ethan at the bottom of Hwy. 194

Once we felt rested up we continued the ride through Banner Elk and started our ascent of Beech Mountain, the signature climb of the day. Beech Mountain is best known by cyclists as one of the Lance Armstrong's favorite climbs for training during his cancer comeback. On paper, the climb seems very similar to Old La Honda which I was able to do without much trouble at the beginning of the summer. Beech Mountain is approximately 1400 vertical feet of climbing over about 3.5 miles over compared to Old La Honda which is about 1300 feet over 3.4 miles or so. I was able to ascend Old La Honda in May when I didn't even have a road bike so I figured that now that I have been a roadie for almost a month I would be able to make this Mountain my Beech. I have never been more wrong in my life. Beech Mountain killed me. I had to stop several times on the way to rest and catch my breath. There were times when I could barely find the power to turn the pedals over despite being in my lowest gear and out of the saddle. I think that this is due to a couple of things; wearing myself out climbing 194 and the steeper gearing of the standard double crankset compared to the triple on the bike I rode in California. I also put a lot of the blame on Bush.

Ethan Along the Side of Beech Mtn.

One thing that I really enjoyed during this climb were the friendly motorists. Several cars passed me during the ascent and gave some shouts of encouragement as I limped to the top. I have had plenty of rednecks shout at me before but this was the first time anyone ever yelled something positive. Once I got to the top I regrouped with Ethan, who took off on his own on the way up, and we decided that a nice long rest with some lunch was in order. One of the reasons I think I struggled more than he did on the climb is the ~50lb difference in body weight. He already had the top of the mountain scouted out when I arrived and suggested that I eat a pizza when I arrived so he could maintain his advantage. We stopped at Brick Oven Pizzeria which was right at the top of the climb and split an awesome pizza. It would have been really good at any time but after that climb it tasted like it had been sent down from the heavens and really hit the spot. The staff at the restaurant was super friendly and didn't mind that we brought our bikes inside and walked around in our socks. Thanks guys.

Maddie at the Top of Beech Mtn.

After our mountain top feed session, we continued the ride with the descent of Beech Mountain. Earlier in the day the temperatures were perfect, but it was nearly 4:00 by the time we left the pizzeria and it had cooled down enough that we needed arm warmers. Once down the mountain we headed through Banner Elk and over to Hickory Nut Gap Road. This road is the gradual climb that I mentioned earlier and ended up being one of the more enjoyable stretches of the ride. It had some nice scenery and a decent bit of elevation change, but it was spread out enough that it didn't kill you on the way up. After this road, we headed past Linville and started the last climb of the day. It was another tough one that was about two miles long and some fairly steep grades. It was nothing like Beech Mtn. but provided a real challenge this late in the ride. We crested this climb at the entrance to Grandfather Mountain, which towers above all of the surrounding landscape. Once past this hill we finished the ride with a nice long stroll down Hwy. 221. This road was really pretty and had a lot of cool things like waterfalls and interesting rock formations by the side of the road. I would have liked to have stopped more for some photos but we were in a bit of a race against the clock to get back to the car before dark. Fortunately, this stretch of road was almost all descending or flat and we were able to outrun some of the cars behind us during the descents. We rolled back into Blowing Rock with only about half an hour of daylight left and a little over 60 miles for the day. Neither of us have the technology to track our climbing totals but I can believe that it was 6000 ft. like the cue sheet suggests.

In Front of Grandfather Mountian

The ride ended up being a ton of fun and I am excited about a return trip sometime in the future. It was a tough ride with some brutal sections but well worth the trip. I am looking forward to training some more and going back to dominate (or at least ride without stopping to rest) these mountains in the future. A lot of thanks go out to the guys at cyclecarolina.com for the route and to Brick Oven Pizzeria in Beech Mountain for their hospitality. Here are some additional photos from the trip.

A nice view along Hickory Nut Gap Rd.


I smoked this guy up Hwy. 194.


Ethan enjoying some pizza.


The View from a Beech Mountain Switchback.


Ethan in Front of Grandfather Mountain.


Descending Beech Mountain.


Cruising Down a Nice Country Road.


Apparently I Need Longer Armwarmers


The Two of Us at the Continental Divide.


Trying My Best To Smile at the End.
(Also, today proved that the Speedy on my chest is meant sarcastically.)

Maddie's First Accidental Almost Metric

I went home this weekend to visit the parents and celebrate Ethan's birthday. On Saturday, I decided to go out for a ride with Madeline, who was taking her first trip out of town. I looked at the Anson County bike route map and pieced together a couple of routes that made a loop that went near our house. I used one of the loops marked and the map to judge the distance of my route and decided that it was about 40 miles which is right at the length that I wanted. It turs out that either I am horrible at judging distances or that map was drawn by someone with the cartography skills of Buster Bluth. I ended up riding 60 miles before I finally gave up and called Ethan to come pick me up since I was still near Morven and had at least 10 more miles before I got home. My time for the ride was still pretty good, a 17.6 mph average, but I only brought two bottles of water and didn't have anything to eat. This would have been fine for the 40 miles that I was anticipating but not nearly enough for what I ended up riding. I guess I should plan my routes here in the future so I can get a better idea of the mileage that I am riding.

The past couple of weeks I have been doing a Sunday morning group ride from the newly opened Apex branch of the Bicycle Chain. On last weeks ride I was able to set a new personal best top speed of 47.0 mph on one of the rides longer downhills.

My weekly Friday afternoon ride with Mikey got rained out this week so hopefully I can get her out to the trails sometime this week. I will probably leave Maddie at home for the week since Ethan and I are heading up to the mountains this weekend to do some climbing and I don't want to wear out my legs before that trip.

"I've Made A Huge Mistake"

After closer inspection of the Madone I decided that the chip on the frame is purely cosmetic and not worth worrying about for the moment. I probably should have waited a little while before posting instead of writing about it in panic mode. I guess that I just expect the worse now since I seem to break all things bike that I touch, although there are people out there who break way more than I do. For those of you who didn't realize that the title for the previous post was a quote from Arrested Development, I apologize for misleading you. I was not trying to insinuate that the bike was definitely going to be returned. The only way I am going to go through Trek's warranty process again this soon is if they offered me a 2008 Madone 6.9 with Lance's autograph etched into the top tube using one of the syringes from his historic 7th Tour de France victory. If you also didn't realize that the title for this post was a quote from Arrested Development, then shame on you. You should watch more good TV.

The weather here has been really good lately. Yesterday morning I took out the 1x1 (this is a SS blog, right) and went to Garner for a ride. It was actually fairly cool when I left with temperatures in the mid sixties. That may not seem like a big deal to some of my west coast readers, but it is a welcome break from the heat around here. That cool fall weather is great for mountain biking and I look forward to the upcoming autumn months for more of these rides.

Ethan came to town on Saturday and showed me around some of his old road routes around North Raleigh. I was happy that I was able to keep up with him since he has been riding road for so much longer than me. I think that I surprised him a little bit with my climbing abilities, which I attribute to riding single on the trails. I think if I really try he may be my first SS convert..

Speaking of singlespeed induced climbing ability, Alta bikes has a series of pictures on their website showing the effects of riding their urban singlespeed bikes. Since I've got this fancy Mac, I decided to do some photo editing and show everyone that hasn't seen me in a while a glimpse of my current build.

Taking this recent photo of myself...

...and this Alta ad...

...gives you me after riding SS for a month and a half.
Also, I apparently got a tattoo and moved into an apartment with no funiture.

I was under the impression that singlespeeding is not that uncommon anymore but I may be a little off on that one. As I was leaving the parking lot for a ride a few weeks ago the guy parked next to me struck up a conversation about me riding single and rigid. Besides the usual chit chat, he asked if I knew Team Dicky, who is apparently a bit of a SS celebrity hailing from Charlotte. I have seen the name a couple of places around the internet but I have never met the guy and don't know of any reason that I should. The question just seemed a little weird to me;

That Guy: Hey, you're riding single and rigid.
Me: Yep
That Guy: I know another guy in this state that does that. Do you know him?
Me: Umm, what?

Maybe it is uncommon enough that we should all know each other or it could be that I am just missing out on the awesomeness of this guy and he was just trying to clue me in. Maybe he mistook me for someone who was actually a good rider and would have met all the other singlespeeders at various rides and races. I don't know but I definitely left the conversation a little confused.

"Take a Good Look, Because Its the Last Time You'll Be Seeing These"

I got to take the Madone out for a quick spin today after work. I only road for about 15 miles because I don't really know any good road routes and I am planning to do a lot of riding the next couple of days. I really like the bike. It handles well and is a comfortable ride. It is also really stiff and can accelerate about like Ethan's Tarmac, which I like. I am not going to go on too much about the bike because I am kind of disappointed at the moment. Upon arriving home, I went to put the away and noticed a chip in the back of the seat tube. The finish is chipped completely off but I can not tell if there is any damage to the carbon that would compromise the integrity of the frame. I am planning to take it in tomorrow and have a mechanic look at it. I don't know much about carbon frames so it may be fine but it certainly doesn't inspire confidence. Needless to say, I am kind of bummed. Hopefully the only damage is cosmetic. I am not sure what would have caused the chip. It isn't really in a good spot to have a rock kicked up from the tire (unless I was going backwards, which I don't remember doing) and I wasn't riding any really rough roads. For those curious, I did two loops around the bike route that goes by Kent Road which shouldn't have caused any problems. I guess I will see what the deal is tomorrow. Anyway here are some pictures of the bike.

The bike.

Also made in God's Country.

How exotic.

The good stuff, I guess.

An attempt to photograph the damage.

I feel worse than this guy. At least he got a cookie.

Going to the Darkside

So after a couple of years of riding nothing but mountain bikes I am finally going to pull the trigger on a new road bike (It is debatable whether or not Ann is actually a bike and you don't really ride her, just get on and survive). I am looking to get the Trek Madone 5.0 that I spotted in CSH last week. I went and test rode it this past weekend and it is a pretty sweet ride and a killer deal. I think that the original MSRP is about $2700 and it is currently selling for an even 2k. I know that the rest of the family rides Specialized but I want something a little more unusual and unique, so I am going to go with the Trek. Another big plus is that they have a 62cm in stock so I can be riding by this weekend. I ordered a pair of road shoes yesterday from Specialized and I am going to wait until those come in before I go get the bike. I want to have them when I get the bike so I can get the cleats set up correctly when they fit me to the bike. My current Specialized mtb shoes fit nicely so I am going to stick with the big S for my road shoes because I hate trying to find shoes that fit my wide feet. Fortunately, they only make one model of road shoes in my size (49) so it was an easy decision. They should be here in the next day or two and then I will be off to get the bike.

Once I get this bike I should have a pretty sweet set up and will be able to sit back and actually save some of my money. I had three big purchases in mind when I graduated that I was going to use to purge the student life from my system. After all, why waste away my youth in a cubicle if I can't at least buy the happiness that I deserve? This should be the final addition of those three things, which were a SS mountain bike, new computer, and a road bike. I have actually been able to stay right on my predicted budget for these purchases so I feel pretty good about that. There was some slight worry from others that I may have inherited the QVC gene and continue this spending spree but I don't foresee that being a problem.

The addition of a new bike also means that my other bikes will not get to be ridden as often. The 1x1 is way too much fun to just sit around all of the time and I will definately still ride that one a lot. It looks like the odd man out right now is the Fisher. I don't really have a desire to go back to gears on the trails and the 1x1 is going to be my go to mountain bike for a long time. I have been thinking that instead of leaving it sitting around that I should turn it into my commuter. The ride to work is a fairly easy 11 miles with no real climbs and a good bit of it being on nice quiet roads. I hope to try it out sometime in the next week or so and start making it a habit if it isn't too unbearable. I am not worried about the ride being tough but it will add at least 30 minutes to my commute each way and I already struggle to get in at 7:30. If I can manage to get up and going that early in the morning then it should be a pretty pleasant change from dealing with the traffic on the beltline.

A new road bike also means that I am almost guaranteed to ride this years Discover Anson ride back in the old stomping grounds. It is on November 3rd so save the date. Now I just need to decide whether to do the 30, 50, or 70 mile ride. I am game for whatever but I will see what everyone else wants to do. It is only twenty bucks if you register before mid October so let me know if you want to ride.

As I have been buying things the last couple of months, I have been getting things that end up leaving me with eggs on my face. After years of laughing at my Apple-fanboy friends and their Steve Jobs mancrushes I go out and buy a Mac. Then I decide to get a Trek after not really looking at them because everybody and their brother has one. Not only am I getting a Trek but I am getting it from the shop that I practically swore off just last week, although most of that was just frustration fueled ranting. I have been really pleased with the computer and most of the people at CSH are pretty cool so I am not disappointed with these decisions, it just leaves me looking like a bit of an idiot. Just in case the trend continues I have decided to put a few more things on record and hopefully the result will be the same. Here goes:

1) Pro cyclists are all spoiled cheaters and I would never accept large sums of money to travel the world and ride my ridiculously nice bike around.
2) The only occupation worse than pro cyclist would be designing the bikes for them. I would never move to California to accept a job with Specialized, especially if they gave me a significant pay increase.
3) Hills are boring and I will never make regular trips to the mountains just to go ride even if I get offered a free place to crash.
4) I love the cold. I sure do hope that this winter is long, cold, and rainy.

Wish me luck.

Anticipation

Sitting and waiting on my frame and parts to arrive is starting to wear on me. I am so anxious to get back on the bike that I find myself checking the UPS tracker several times a day even though I know that the stuff won't be here until Monday. On the good side, I know that everything is going to come in the next couple of days and that I should be riding by the end of the week at least. My Speedgoat order is scheduled to arrive on Monday afternoon so I am planning on treating it with Framesaver on Monday afternoon and letting it sit over night. Hopefully I can find some time on Tuesday afternoon to go by one of the shops and have the headset cups pressed in. It is tempting to do this myself with a cheap homemade press like this one but this headset isn't cheap and I don't want to screw it up. If I can get that done Tuesday then I should have time to assemble the rest of the bike on Wednesday afternoon. It is possible that I can get it built in time for a quick trip to the trail on Wednesday evening but even if I don't I should be back in the woods by Thursday afternoon. I went by the shop today and got Gennie for the afternoon so I could steal some parts. Now that I have those, all that I need are the handlebars and the stuff from the Speedgoat order. I can't wait to have this thing up and rolling. It has been almost six weeks since I have been on a mountain bike ride which is way to long to be off the bike. The guys at Cycling Spoken Here this morning said that Trek had lost my paperwork and that they had to resubmit the claim so who knows how long that is going to take. Fortunately, I don't have to wait on them any longer.

Once this project is complete, I guess I will have to start waiting on the '08 road bikes to come out. They had a new Madone at the shop this morning that was a really sexy bike. I haven't really been that interested in Trek but that bike definitely caught my interest. Then I saw the $3500 price tag. So it looks like a Specialized, Orbea, or maybe a Felt. Or it could be something totally different. Specialized and Orbea are my favorites right now. Specialized makes a good bike and they are definitely popular, but I am not a big fan of the giant corporation or having a bike just like everybody elses. Also, it looks like Specialized prices are going up in 2008. Then new Roubaix Comp is up to $2400 from $2200 last year. It looks like the only difference in the bikes is the paint color. I guess I will wait and see what they do with the Tarmacs. It is hard to beat the support of the smaller companies like Orbea where you can call them with a question have someone actually answer the phone and talk to you. Not that Orbea is that small but they are compared to Specialized. I am trying to support the small guys with this SS project and it is nice to not get lost in the crowd (see Treks warranty process). On the other hand, Orbea bikes are not as common and it is going to be hard to find one to test ride. The spesh is a relatively known commodity having ridden both Tarmacs and Roubaixs, although neither in my size. Hopefully one of the two will come out with a really sweet bike that blows the other out of the water so my decision will be easy.

It begins

So I have been thinking lately of building up a killer singlespeed to replace the geared bikes that seem to stay broken. It seems that when you get to my size that most bikes just don't seem to hold up. After breaking both of the wheels on my Fisher on consecutive rides I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a more durable set. Unfortunately, I only got a handful of rides on these wheels until I cracked the frame. With the bike in the shop getting fixed under warranty for the past three weeks, I got so desperate that I set up Ethan's old road bike, Emaline, and went out for a road ride with him. That bike lasted me about 1.5 rides and 25 miles before I snapped the chain and was left stranded in Cary. So I am hoping that if I get a beefy steel frame and ditch all of the unnecessary components, like the shifters and derailleurs, that I can ride a bike for a full year without it completely blowing up. Anyway here are the planned specs for my new ride:

Frame/Fork: Surly 1x1 22" Lemon Lime Green
Headset: Chris King in mango
Stem: Easton EA70
Handlebars: Easton Monkeylite Carbon Risers
Grips: Oury in orange
Levers: Avid Speed Dial Ti
Cables/Housing: Jagwire Ripcord in Maxxis Orange
Brakes: Avid BB7
Crank: Truvativ Stylo SS
Front Wheel: Shimano XT disc hub mated to a Mavic XC717 rim
Rear Wheel: Surly New Disc Hub mated to a Salsa Delgado rim
Freewheel: 18t ACS Claws
Tires: Panaracer Fire XC Pro
Seatpost: Whatever I can get cheap
Saddle: Fizik Aliante
Pedals: Time Atac
Cages: Alloy cages in orange


This bike is going to sweet looking with the green frame and orange accessories. I have been searching Ebay for the last couple of weeks for some good parts for cheap and so far I have the rear wheel, stem, cages and saddle. The brakes and front wheel are definitely coming off of the current bike. I am planning on buying the frame/fork, headset, tires, and cranks new and I may get some of the smaller stuff new while I am at it (How much will I really save by getting grips off of Ebay?). If I steal some temporary parts from the Fisher the only thing I really need to get is a good set of carbon bars and maybe a seatpost. Hopefully I can get some pics up later of the things I already have but until then enjoy the riding.