Free Missy

if you're rollin' fast downhills in upstate new york, watch out. former world champion missy giove was arrested for rolling with 200 lbs of drugs. this actually appears to be a sad end to one of mountain biking's most colorful characters. while some professionals get me excited about riding my bike(s), i usually forget that most of them don't make much money and even if they do, they don't make that money for long. i guess one of the morals to the story is, stay in school, kids. another may be, enjoy cycling for fun and be glad you don't need to earn your living from it. finally, say no to drugs.

exclusive test ride footage

I found the following clip of Pirate demo riding the Giant Remedy (note plush, but heavy smoothness):



And on the full suspension Gary Fisher 29er:



Meanwhile, at the ACE speedway...

More Bounce to the Ounce

[formerly: 'Bouncin' on a Big Bike']

My rides have been few and far between this year, but last Saturday I got to head up the the SMBA trails in Saratoga Springs for their annual 'Mix-Up the Dirt' (aka 'MUD') festival, where beers, burgers, and bikes were in abundance.  It was really a great event, with well over a hundred people there, two or three different shops, representatives from the Luna Chix team, a couple of guys from the White Face downhill park, Sigma Systems accessories, plus the Trek/Gary Fisher demo truck.  I'm not sure how much schwag the different groups handed out, but there was a ton, including tires, pumps, lights, and even a complete bike.  Not bad at all.

The SMBA trails are tight, rocky, technical masterworks of trailbuilding, and the lingering moisture from the rain the night before had everything covered with a thin slime.  I don't know where beginners -- and even intermediates -- go to ride around the area, but they don't go here: SMBA serves up the beatdowns for anyone not on their game.

Before I hit the trail I wandered over to the Trek tent and pick me up a big helping of bounce: a full-XTR Trek Remedy with 6 inches of travel front and rear.  Even with this generous helping of rubble-eating goodness the bike with still under 30 pounds, and while that didn't make it Hollywood-approved, it still weighed a reasonable amount.

This is a lot of bike.  I haven't ridden with gears in quite some time, and I've never owned a full-suspension bike, so this thing took some getting used to, and I'm not sure that I ever got it.  Don't get me wrong, this is a great bike for someone, I'm just not sure that I'm that person.  I felt more like I was guiding a couch through the woods than mountain biking, and there was nothing about the thing that you could call 'flickable,' but it would be great fun on a wide-open, fast trail with lots of drops and rubble. On the tight, slow trails of SMBA it didn't exactly shine, for while it liked to eat up the rocks, it wasn't nearly as nimble as I would have liked.  SMBA has a lot of little-ring plodding through rock fields and quick changes of direction, and the Remedy would much rather have been eating up the high speed descents in Fruita than guiding me deeper into the forests of the Northeast.

That said, gears are nice.  Suspension is nice.  After returning the Remedy I got to spend some time on a Gary Fisher HiFi Pro 29er, a XC full-suspension rig.  Me likey.  Me likey a lot.  I don't know when my finances will allow me to have that kind of ride in my stable, but it was sure nice to be able to down shift when climbs got steep, or sit down through moderate rock gardens rather than stand and pump through.  

Feeding the desire for a new ride was the bike weighing contest hosted by EMS.  The idea was to guess the weight of your bike, and

 while I was pretty close on the ol' Ferrous, I was disappointed to find out that she tips the scale at well over 27 pounds: 27 pounds and 9 ounces, to be exact.  That was only an ounce less than a friend's new Stumpy, and even more than this kid's rad Astana-approved trike.  (Kidz these days, what with their trikes and their casts, I tells ya...)

The Stumpy seems like an ideal platform for the area, by the way, as it manages to balance significant travel (5 inches front and rear) with light weight and trail bike geometry.  (Well, it least the freewheelin' Gary didn't have any trouble flogging it around the trail.)

All-n-all not a bad day, truth be told.  I determined that a) bikes are fun, b) I like to mountain bike, c) I am out of shape, d) my bike is heavy, e) hot dogs taste good, even when burnt, f) trees hurt when you hit them, no matter how much suspension you have, g) rocks are hard, h) I need to stop making lists.  As I cruised back to Albany the skies opened up and the rest of the weekend was spent dodging rain, but this allowed me to lick my wounds and cruise the internet for the light parts that I now 'need.'

Finally, a take-away shot from the trails to give you an idea of what they're like.  Bob was happy to be rolling around on a long-travel Ellsworth.  The pic, isn't great, as I caught him just after he landed the drop, but hopefully it'll give you some flava.

How much do you love your bike?

Not as much as Hollywood, who incorporated his two-wheeled lova into his wedding:

Yep, you're seeing that right: that's our Denver operative riding up to his wedding on his fab cruiser bike in early April.  It was a blustery Colorado day, but Brian pulled it of nevertheless, and both he (and his bike) are now happily married.

Remember Brian, it's okay to love your bike, just don't luuuurrrvvvve your bike.

Ride for Clive Images

Praise for The Professor

From a classified advertising the sale of square-tapered RaceFace cranks sent to one of the local listserves this morning, recognition of Professorial Style in an imagined dialogue:

"But Tom (re: in a hypothetical complaint to the seller), square taper is from the bronze age." No, it's not. Press-fit is the best way. Unless you're real big, square taper is fine. Old-skool RF cranks are almost cool enough to put you in the style league of Chris O."

More weekend notes

As Ben mentioned, there was great turnout for the Ride For Clive last weekend. It was great to see so many cyclist out on the American Tobacco Trail, ranging from little kids to dudes on racing bikes to dudes on rusted old cruisers to a dude on a bike from Duke's bike borrowing program. The latter aforementioned dude was Ali, pictured below holding court behind his comically oversized Amsterdam bike.

Also pictured are Jay, Rachel, K-Law, Ben, and the Notorious L.O-.G. (aka Loggie Smalls). The photo has not been doctored; Ali's bike's handlebars are as high as his chest, Ben is twice as tall as the Suntrust building, and Linus is wearing cutoff jeanshorts. After the ride, Linus confirmed that cutoff jeanshorts do not get the Bull City Cycling seal of approval for a non-cycling specific product recommended for cycling. I actually didn't take any pictures during the ride because I was helping to direct traffic and didn't want to actually cause anyone to run off the trail.

But back to the ride. I don't really know what to say except for thanks to everyone who helped out. Thanks to all of Clive's coworkers at the McKinney-Silver marketing firm, who did so much to turn this from simply a big group ride into a fitting memorial and celebration for a fallen friend and cyclist. And thanks to the bicycling community of Durham, who were so kind out on the trail and appeared to be having a great time. Please keep fighting the good fight, riding your bike safely and confidently while enjoying all it has to offer. 

Quite a weekend!

Before I forget, I wanted to give a big Congratulations to McKinney and Silver for putting together such an amazing event on Saturday. Jay and Ali put in countless hours of planning and running around on the Bull City side of things. The result was 100+ people in attendance.

If you did not make it, it was really special. All day on Saturday, I felt like we had accomplished what we had set out to do when we started this team over a year ago. We truly had an impact on the community. I am very thankful to be a part of this team and I am proud of my teammates. Great Job guys!

Riding the high from Saturday's event, Chris, The Professor, Oishi; Daniel, Chef Caesar, Schurr; JD, the leg breaker and I rolled out for a MTB ride. The temps reached the 80's I would guess, probably hotter in the forest.

It was a great ride with everyone taking strong pulls. My legs are torched today but it was well worth the effort.

Next weekend is Carolina North, we are planning on pre-riding it on Saturday to get a feel for the flow of the trails. Hope to see you out there.

riding out the storms

east coast is getting pelted with rain.


only the east coast. but this too shall pass in time for awesome weather for the Ride for Clive. see you tomorrow!

JD the Hammerhead

It's funny....seems like just when you think you are starting to feel good and gaining some confidence in your riding someone comes along and lets you know what being fit is all about. Or maybe it's just me.

I headed out with Daniel and JD yesterday for an evening ride and from the gun JD was straight killing it. Daniel and I were joking about JD's single speed being fast as hell...The bad news for me is that is wasn't a joke.

I found myself hanging on for dear life for most of the 2+ hours of riding. To make matters worse, as we slowed the pace a little bit on a flatter section some guy passed us like we were standing still!

So what did I learn from yesterdays lesson:

1. I have a long way to go until I am in shape again.
2. The nice guys are the ones to watch out for, they will rip your legs off
3. Be humble, there are a bunch of fast guys around here
4. Getting turned inside out on a ride is better than sitting at home on the couch any day of the week.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Rushmore

Off topic, but the Times' A.O. Scott reminds us how great Rushmore is. Amen.

saturday

back on the road with Jay, Linus, and Ali (L to R).

Did a nice 85 miler down to Saxapahaw, driven by Jay's super strong pace setting, Linus' super fast county line sprints, and Ali's super quick wit. I set a new personal record for nature breaks (it's starting to get warm and I'm still getting my hydration figured out). We also stopped at a convenience store and chatted with a local dude who was looking forward into converting an old road bike into a brakeless fixed gear to ride on the rural roads to Carrboro. While I found this idea strange, both due to the ubiquitous trendiness of fixies and the ubiquitous impractical application of fixies, I can only tip my helmet to folks who want to ride bikes.

Also of note, the awesomeness of the Snow Hill area of the piedmont. Snow was nowhere to be seen, but we rode a long stretch of BASS Mountain Road. Some people pronounce "bass" like the fish or like Gossip Girl character Chuck Bass. 

However, given the fact that the funky-fresh M.C. Broom's church is on this road, I'm quite certain that the mountain is made up of subwoofers, kicking out that sweet, low-frequency bass. Unfortunately, I didn't hear any of this bass, which is too bad because it would have made a nice beat with the clicking sound that my bottom bracket was producing. Match that with some of Pirate's dope rhymes and we'd be ready to take the show on the road.