Mantra

This year I've adopted a new mantra.

In the past my mantra had been much more vulgar and used in a variety of riding situations... whether it was directed at myself for sandbagging or trail features for besting me... and that was a classic "F U."

This year I'm focusing my energy to be a bit more constructive towards myself.  And my mantra is "stay on top."  That is in no reference to the podium (although that would be nice...) but instead staying on top of my pedaling, cadence, effort, etc.

It has become quite apparent that it is MUCH easier to conquer trail features and inclines if you just stay on top of your ride, keep up your momentum, and keep the damn cranks going!!  Push a little harder, feel that burn rather than sit back and drop a bunch of gears until you are spinning your brains out up a hill.

The moment you let doubt creep in your cranks slow, you grab too much brakes, and things just get harder.

I'm going to "stay on top" of the trail, eye scanning ahead, pedals moving (when applicable) and confidence high.  So, when it feels like I'm pulling my feet out of mud I remind myself to "stay on top" and instantly the focus of my pedaling shifts.  I'm quickly invigorated and my pedal strokes smooth out as I work circularly and efficiently.

This weekend I imagine I'll be reminding myself to "stay on top" lap after lap on the gravel road grind that ends each lap.  And, I will do so with a smile.

THE build(up)

Ok... so it's not there, but it's getting there.

Over the holidays I was able to acquire some more stuff for the One9.  Due to snow storms, and orders after Christmas it took a bit for everything (so far) to come in... it's in.  And I'm more excited than ever.

So, without further ado, enjoy the part show.

The first to come in:

Maggie was psyched to see what it was

32t stainless steel crank and ss bolts

Kermit green Reynolds rigid steel Niner fork

Yup, it's a match!

Next to arrive:

Fresh white grips and a carbon seatpost

with ridges - for her your pleasure

And then the wait......  

While I waited I did a little tinkering... and now that I just took a picture I might have to make an adjustment.

The "Surly" is at the top of the picture... with SRAM being upside down.  The anal perfectionist (which comes out at odd times) wants to take it off and put it back on so the Surly and SRAM can be read at the same time...  ugh!

And finally, Ritchey got it's ass in gear and I got:

The cockpit

4-axis comp stem (100)

Carbon WCS... insanely light (620mm)

And then this happened...

pretty snazzy

 So what's left?

Plan is:
Cane Creek 110 headset (black likely).
Avid Elixir 5 in white (although I've seen some great deals on the 7 in carbon...) (180 up front/160 in the rear)
Wheels...  I'm looking and thinking and weighing options, but likely will end up with Stan's Arch EX (white) with Stan's singlespeed hub.
Tires will be likely Ardent up front and Ignitor in the rear.
Then we got chain and cog (still have to figure out what size to start out with around here) and we should be good to go!

Saddle, I'll either grab the Selle Italia off the HiFi or use (for the time being) the take off from the HiFi.
Pedals will be off the 4300 - Shimano M540s
(Both os these items will be upgraded later as/if needed)

balls to business

Yesterday I noticed my post was getting a ridiculous (for me) number of hits.  Apparently I was getting huge traffic from www.ontimemarketing.biz.  Must have been the sack tear label I threw on the post... cause, nothing markets a new product better then a sack tear, right?

It's January and a race series starts this weekend... any other New Englanders wanna move to Charlotte yet?  I can't believe it... and the predicted weather for the weekend?

January suckers

I know, I know.  It's way to far away for any sort of accuracy, but DAMN!

I rode over to the short track today and did a few laps since there had been some maintenance done on the track this weekend.  They added two berms, smoothed out the creek crossing, and reinstituted a jump that had been downgraded to a speed hump.

I definitely appreciate the berms.  I hadn't noticed a need to do anything to the creek crossing, but then again, I'm riding a full suspension 29er.  So I'll take it with a smile.  The new jump... I actually liked the dilapidated state it was previously in as it didn't shoot you skyward but allowed for a full speed rollover and pump down the back side.  Now, it's either hit the go around to the left or grab air.  For such a short and fast race, I'm not sure hitting air is the way to go... but maybe, just maybe for the spectators I'll hit it during (at least) one of the laps.

I'm feeling ok about the race.  Certainly not in race condition at this point, but this will be what I need to get back on it.  Looking at my garmin data my lap times are respectable when compared to last years results.  Although, I didn't run a full 8 laps in a row... but still.  I feel ok out there.  I just hope I can contain the adrenaline off the start and not blow up, or kill myself, early on in the race.

I also enjoyed riding out to the trail.  Gave me a ton more miles than I could have gotten riding there - without loosing my mind on repeat cycle to gain miles.  So I think this will be a permanent commutable trail for me.  On the ride over and back the sound of my knobbies humming on the pavement really brought me back to being a kid again, it was kinda neat.

Now for the big question... will sack tear bring on a repeat performance of site visits?  Sack tear, sack tear, sack tear.

Uwharrie

Impressions of Uwharrie:

When it's singletrack, it's SWEET!

When it's not... why can't there be more singletrack here??

Could certainly use (and easily provide) more miles.  Sure you can just do multiple laps, but that's the point of driving away from Charlotte, get to forests that will allow for longer rides without riding in circles again and again.

Funny/awesome thing is that a survey was just posted up (after my ride) on the local forums regarding Uwharrie's trail use.  It appears plans are in the works to add more mountain bike accessible trails there.  It's like someone read my mind!!  My vote?  Yes, of course!

Crazy thing about Uwharrie is the trails were so packed it was like riding on slick rock the whole time.

Break down of my ride/route.  I basically followed the suggested (via many intranet sites) that one should ride Keyauwee counterclockwise and Supertree clockwise.

So, from the parking area at the Wood Run trailhead I rode the forest road a short bit until you come up on the singletrack connector.  Great little intro to the area.  Some fast singletrack with the occassional rock groupings thrown in and an optional big rock section.  This is where the "fun" happened on the way back to the pterodactyl, but I'll get into that later.  The connector dumps out into the Wood Run Camp area, which consists of primitive sites and a glorified port-a-potty.  From here you can access Keyauwee, Supertree, or continue on Wood Run (which is a gravel fire road).

In order to ride Keyauwee counterclockwise and Supertree clockwise I had to first ride up Wood Run to start each trail at the "top."  So up Wood Run I went, and busted a left onto Keyauwee.  Apparently the tread here had recently been plowed (as in plowing a field, plowed) and you could tell.  It wasn't as bad as the complaints when it first happened, but there were certainly grooves in the trail.  But over time it was packed enough to not be soft or super annoying.  Once I got through that section the singletrack came around and boy was it fun!!  After the entire run I wasn't 100% sold that it was best to ride the trail in a counterclockwise fashion.  Sure, there may have been slightly more downhill in this way, it seemed to me like anything I had to climb would be just as fun in the opposite direction.  So, plan for next time is to ride Keyauwee clockwise from Wood Run Camp, take Supertree clockwise back to camp, and then up Wood Run to hit Keyauwee counterclockwise.  Basically, I'm thinking that whichever way you hit Keyauwee will be a blast.

So, back up Wood Run I rode to hit up Supertree clockwise.  Supertree was MUCH less exciting.  Very short stint of quality singletrack.  Mostly fire road that had been pared down to one visible trail, but in the clockwise direction it was fast and mostly pointing down.  In all reality, it may be part of the system out there that eventually gets ignored on future visits.

After both loops I wanted more miles and my sense of adventure was back.  I LOVE being able to "choose your own adventure" on mountain bike rides, something I get little of on the local trails here.  So it was time to continue the ride up Wood Run and see where it went.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I passed a section that was apparently set aside for Vampires.

If you watch True Blood, you'd know.

 
Well, anyway, Wood Run goes nowhere special really.  Eventually it peters out into old forest roads that had been reclaimed by the forest.  I did come across the oddest thing towards the end of the trail... plowed fields...

So, remember the "fun" I promised in the beginning?  Well, I was on the way back to the trailhead zipping along on the connector singletrack and I was coming up on the optional rock section, of course I was hitting it again.  I aptly tackled the first section but poor line selection had me running directly into the tallest, steepest section of the next rock... I didn't feel I was going to clear it cleanly so I stopped.  Here comes the fun!

What I MEANT to do was lean to my right, the uphill side of things.  Instead, gravity won and pulled me to the left, downhill... so my unclipped foot had nothing to do except hangout as my brain understood what was coming next.  I was falling over at a complete stop.  Next is a blur of trying to deny this was happening, stopping the inevitable fall, acceptance of the fall, and engagement of catlike reflexes in an attempt to diminish the injuries to follow.  In the thick cover of leaves it was hard to see exactly how rocky the ground would be, except on giant jutting rock headed towards my hip/thigh region.  

There was nothing I could do except shift focus to ensure no head injuries would follow... so BLAM I took a rock to my meaty ass.  Pain coursed through but all I could do was to thank my lucky stars that it wasn't my hip making contact with the rock (and appreciating the fact that I do have one meaty ass to absorb such a blow).  I forgot to mention that it was colder than I had expected on my ride (and little creek crossings and puddle hopping left me a bit colder than I would have liked....  the cold also left me wondering if I had torn my sack on the spill.  I know, crude and odd, but I swear it felt like I had torn my sack.  I was too scared to check on the trail - what would I do at that point anyway??  I figured my bibs were holding (fingers crossed) everything together.  So I waited until I got to the trailhead to peek.  SIGH - the boys were fine.

In the long run, I came out pretty good; just one, very large, very nasty, bruise in a place I will not share here.  Although, as I was loading up my gear I noticed I was missing my trail pump.  I walked/ran back up the connector to the site of the "crash" but couldn't find my pump anywhere.  No idea where I lost it, and I'm kinda bummed because it was a good little pump (although I never had to use it out on the trail, so who knows, maybe it sucked?)

Forest!

Media Fridays

We'll post videos or photos that will hopefully inspire trail shredding weekends.

This video solidified resolve to get in a trip to Uwharrie last week.  I'll let you enjoy the video today and share my experiences next week.  

Oh, and you'll even learn some factoids thanks to Sir Bikes A Lot.  Enjoy, and have a ride filled weekend! 

Uwharrie National Forest - Mountain Bike Ride from Sir Bikes on Vimeo.

13

It's a new year.

A lot of people have/are doing year in review deals.

I'm not.
 
I've also noticed that a lot of people on the facebook have done "2012 had it's ups and downs but looking forward to 2013" type updates.

What's up with that?

2012 was a big year in a lot of ways - not necessarily in the bike realm for me.

But, there is no time to look back, considering my first race of 2013 is in two weeks A WEEK!!  See, it's already sneaking up on me!  Having a winter series to race also means that this will be my biggest year racing yet (as determined by number of races... hopefully in performance as well, but we shall see).  So I'm "excited."  Not thrilled with where I am physically for the races, but hey, it will be a kick in the pants to get my training on I suppose.

I'm excited to race this year.  I'm also excited because the One9 is slowly coming together.  That's right, I've acquired some bits for the build.  I'm still waiting on one more package, so details will likely be leaked next week.  I won't have it running for the winter series probably, at least the start... and thus, won't likely race it even if it is up and running during the series.

Anyway, new year, odometer is reset, time to start grinding away those miles!

Eve

Holy cow, it's already Christmas Eve!!!

So, that means everyone needs to get out and ride... it might be the last time you ride your current set up as tomorrow might bring new and shiny bits for your ride!!

I may be out for the next week or so, so don't drink too much egg nog!

Happy New Year and all that, and I'll see you with a picture filled update on the progress of the One9

YAY!