BLAWG!

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2011-06-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while. I'll make it up with a cute dog picture...

Welcome Home Ride

2011-04-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Early wake-up on Sunday morning to head out to the North Valley: Black Canyon City. Before I left for Army duties I was supposed to go ride the BCT trail system with a group, but for some reason didn't make it there. All I remembered was people telling me it was single speeder's heaven, and not very many technical obstacles. Perfect for a welcome home ride. Considering I had been off the bike for a year or so, and that I rode this first ride on a single speed fully rigid 29er, I did alright.

The trail starts off with a very rollercoastery section that is a lot of fun, which then descends into the little wash. There was some water running, it was hot out, and it was nice to get splashed riding through it. From here on starts a grueling climb, but the landscape is gorgeous. Switchback, climb, switchback, climb, switchback, climb, "are we there yet?", "nope", switchback, climb, switchback, climb, "how about now?", "nope", switchback, climb. And finally after being seemingly eye-level with the Bradshaw mountains (ouch!), is the saddle, and the descent begins. The trail goes down a few fun little rock piles, and twists and turns.

I realized that I hadn't adjusted my break levers after Mike rode my angry little animal a few times, and the downhill was rather sketchy, since I barely reached my levers with my last knuckles. With no front suspension, I was having a rather hard time staying in control with my fingers getting knocked off the levers continuously.

We were running low on water, and the loop seemed a lot bigger than we had expected so we had to turn around. Back up the darn mountain it was, and boy did I get fried on the way back. We made it back OK after taking a little break in the wash area where there was some shade and trees. So here's the riding pics, in no particular order:

steeeeeeep!

You know what this means…

2010-05-03T09:36:00.001-07:00

2010-04-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Choose One

2010-02-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

Superbowl Weekend = All Trails To Ourselves

2010-02-08T07:54:00.000-08:00

So we decided to do an 'epic' ride. But first we did some epic cleaning around the house, and made an epic decision that the carpet HAS TO GO. Carpets and dogs don't go together very well. So I guess instead of getting that sweet NorthShore bike rack to match my new car hitch will have to wait. So after doing some epic laundry, we quickly jumped on the bikes and took off. But not really, it didn't go that smooth. The plan was to ride from the house, jump on the canal to Red Mountain, ride the trails to Usery, do a lollipop around Pass Mountain, and then come back. So we weren't going to drive to the trailhead, and therefore our routine was a little messed up. I locked up the house, put a key in my camelback, rolled the bikes out of the garage, and Mike followed me out while shutting the garage door. But my camelback with the key in it was still in the garage. Epic Fail. Eventually I got it out of there, and we were able to finally start our epic ride, during which we had to beat not just sundown, but also the rain clouds. Not that a cloudy sky guarantees rain, but being from Holland, I felt rushed to make it to my destination before getting hit by a massive rainstorm. I think somewhere along the way I felt a few drops, but that might have been my imagination. The massive rains seemed to have stopped though, and all that is left is the remnants of a once violent gush of water:

So the Canal starts right at the end of the street, and is a true straight shot to the Red Mountain trailhead, it dumps at Power road, just a little bit down the hill from Pig Trail. Usually we park right across the street from there, and do a short little routine loop, Pig Trail, up Hawes, Disneyland to Saguaro Trail, down the switchbacks, and depending on time, Mine Trail, otherwise back to the four way and either take Pig Trail back or Ridge Trail. This time however, we felt it might be appropriate to save some energy, and just go up Ridge Trail to Saguaro, down the switchbacks, up Mine Trail, and catch Twisted Sister to Big Rock and Wild Horse. After the rains, the desert looks really green and lush, and some wild horses flocked to the normally bone dry area. Here is Mike on a collision course with one:

Shortly after this picture, my right hand pinky finger started cramping up, pulling to the left, crossing over my other fingers, and causing annoying discomfort, and ruining the sweet downhill that followed. When approaching the NRA Pit, the sky was getting awful dark, and there wouldn't be enough daylight left to make it around Pass Mountain. We democratically decided to make it the turn around point, and head back to the canal.

Once back on the canal I got some evil stink-eye from this baby cow from the Indian Res.

I'm pretty sure it cursed me, because shortly after that I noticed my handlebars being a little too close to my front tire. When I got off the bike and inspected it, I confirmed my suspicion that my brand new fork had just pooped out on me, and lost about half its travel. So today I will be getting on the phone with Marzocchi to get it fixed under warranty. That does mean that I have to slap a Nixon on there for the time being, which I'm not too happy about, but at least there's a spare and I can keep riding!

So all in all, we did about 25 miles, which is not bad, but I'm not sure if it's truly 'epic'.

Oranje boven!

2010-01-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

I finally picked up the new frame yesterday over lunch. I decided to go with a Transition Covert, because of the winning combo of a 67 deg head angle, and 6" of travel. Also I would much rather support a small, rider oriented company than a huge commercial cycling enterprise. Transition is also more focused on the more demanding riders, so I can be fairly sure that this bike is up to today's tasks, but also future tasks.

Anyways, it must have been the longest half-day-at-work I've had so far. With the frame in the trunk of the car, sitting in the parking lot, all I wanted to do was to go home and assemble it. I'm surprised I still got some things done at work, nevertheless I sprinted out of the building at 5 o'clock sharp, anxious to get to the real work...

Of course, traffic wasn't moving as fast I would have liked, and everybody was getting in my way, and slowing me down, and it seemed like an eternity before I reached the garage+bike stand+tools. But before I could even touch the new frame, the parts have to come off of the old frame first. With a bright orange shiny thing calling my name in the corner of the garage I went to work.

First I took the chain off, then all the derailleur cables. I pitched the 'old' housing, which would make good spare, there's plenty of it. Removed the old shifter cables, which were still in good shape, but I just wanted a new start with the new frame, so in the spares bin they went. Then I went ahead and removed the brake calipers, and wrapped them around the handlebars. Since the handlebars were going to go on the new bike as-is, I didn't have to move anything around.

I took off the derailleurs and crank set, threw them in a crate, together with the chain, for some extensive cleaning and regreasing. While these parts were soaking in Foamy, I dismounted the bottom bracket (right side=reverse thread!!!), cleaned it off and put it in the corner with the new frame. Then I cleaned off the drive train parts that had been soaking, dried them, then lubed and greased them.

Sparkle, sparkle!

Next I removed the wheels, and the handlebars. Then took off the fork and stem. Took the crown race off of the fork, and zip tied it to the rest of the headset. I put the new race on from the new headset, greased it a little, and put it in the corner with the new frame. Now pretty much all the parts I need are off the old bike, so the old frame gets tossed in the corner, as soon as I feel like it, it will get cleaned, regreased and ready to be sold.

Now it's time to get the new frame ready. I start by pressing in the headset cups, and zip-tie the rest of the headset on there. Next I take the bottom bracket, squeeze some anti-seize on the threads and spindle, and mount it on there. Then slide the seatpost in, and clamp it in the 'bike stand'. Take the zip-tie off the headset, assemble it, and slide the fork in. I like to use innertube to protect the frame against chain slap, so I wrapped some of that on there:

So with all of that on there, it's just a matter of slapping all the parts on: crankset, derailleurs, stem, handlebars, housing, brakes, shifters, etc. etc. And then the real fun starts, meaning the initial bike setup and fine tuning. Or at least that's what I was hoping for. Everything seemed to go really smooth until I wanted to mount the rear derailleur. I could not for the life of me get the bolt started in the thread! Help was on its way, and by converting a crappy old derailleur into a useful tool, the derailleur hanger was fixed. Turns out the thread was tapped from the rear, and it wasn't tapped all the way through. Luckily the chain length didn't change, and all I had to do was adjust some limits here and there, and the B adjustment on the rear had to be radically adjusted. Drivetrain is ready to go, yay SRAM!

Then it was time to adjust cockpit & handling. I slapped the seat on there, and adjusted the seat height. I took it out for it's maiden voyage on the street to check drivetrain, suspension and cockpit. Drivetrain was extremely smooth as expected, had to let some air out the rear suspension, and add some to the front. Also, as expected, the stem was too long. I already saw this coming when I checked the geometry of the frame, the top tube was half an inch longer than my other frame, and since I like to sit back a little more rather than moving the seat forward, I had to swap stems with another bike. Then with some final tweaks, it was absolutely perfect! After some playing around in the street, I could already tell the much improved handling and smoothness. On Saturday morning I will take it on its first ride, and plan on typing up a ride report + review! Plans are to go all the way down Desert Classic, up Telegraph Pass, then down National, which is about a 20 mile gnar loop...

So here's the final setup:

Frame: 2008 Transition Covert - Transparent Blood Orange - Small (16.5")
Rear Shock: 2004 Progressive 5th Element Air, 7.5"x2.0"
Fork: 2009 Marzocchi 55, ATA, TST2, 120-160mm adjustable, 20mm QR - Black/Red
Headset: Cane Creek S-3, Sealed Bearings, 1-1/8" - Black
Stem: 2008 Azonic Baretta 40mm 10deg rise - Silver
Handlebars: 2009 Raceface Evolve DH Riser OS Bars - White
Grips: ODI Ruffian Lock-On Twist Length - Black/Red Clamps
Front wheel: 2009 DMR Revolver Supergun 20mm Front Thru Hub, 2008 DT Swiss X430 Rim, DT Swiss Champion 2.0 Silver Spokes, Red Nipples
Brakes: 2008 Avid Juicy 5 Hydraulic Disk Brakes, 165mm Rotors - Silver
Shifters: 2009 SRAM X0 Twist Shifters 9x3SPD - Black
Seatpost: 2009 31.6mm Ritchey Comp - Black
Seat: 2009 Nashbar Race Seat V1 - Black/Red
Front Derailleur: 2009 SRAM X7 34.9mm Low Clamp - Silver/Black
Rear Derailleur: 2007 SRAM X0 Long Cage - Silver/Black
Crankset: RaceFace Evolve XC, 22T, 32T, Bash, 170mm - Black
Rear Wheel: 2008 DT Swiss 370 QR Rear Hub, 2008 DT Swiss X430 Rim, DT Swiss Champion 2.0 Black Spokes, Black Nipples
Cassette: 2009 SRAM PG970, 9 SPD - Silver
Chain: SRAM PG971 9SPD w/ Powerlink - Silver
Front tire: Kenda Nevegal UST Tubeless 2.35
Rear tire: Maxxis Ignitor Tubeless 2.35
Pedals: Ritchey Logic - Black

The Death Metal Rooster

2010-01-27T06:33:00.001-08:00

Girl Power!

2010-01-19T12:06:00.001-08:00

Transition Covert - Blood Orange...

2010-01-19T09:54:00.001-08:00

Hint.. hint...

Woohoo!

2010-01-17T10:50:00.001-08:00

Still riding!

On the fence

2010-01-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

I might have outgrown my bike... yep. Apparently what I do would be classified as All Mountain/Freeride/Enduro. My bike is borderline XC/All Mountain. How I came to this conclusion? I think I'm going to break the frame one of these days. The rear triangle needs to be tightened up every three rides, and the frame has a flaw in it from factory. When the rear shock totally bottoms out, the frame tubes will actually hit each other. For this reason I have not been jumping the bike too much, and I avoid hopping side ways as much as I can. This is stupid, because I really don't want to worry about my frame potentially breaking on me out on the trail. So I've been lurking at different frames. This is what I'm considering at this point:

Kona One20 - This one's awesome because it comes in a 14", but it's a 120mm travel bike, and I'm scared I'll outgrow it. I'm probably more interested in a 160mm travel bike. It's well built though, and looks like it could handle the abuse I will throw at it, it will be nice and light though. I'm mostly worried that it would feel just like the Spec Saphire that I demo'd a while ago, which I didn't like. Too much of an XC feel and handling, looking for that slacker head angle.

Kona Coilair - This is the All Mountain/Freeride bike. It's a 160mm travel bike, but I think the smallest size is probably 15" or 16", and obviously it will weigh a bunch more than the One20.

Transition Preston/Covert - Premium frames. If I can get my hands on one for a fair price I wouldn't hesitate. I'm worried about the standover on the Covert though, the top tube is actually curved UP. The Preston looks like it would be a good fit.

Ellsworth Truth - These can be had for a little cheaper, they're probably fairly heavy I'd imagine. I'm trying to stay in the 30lbs to 35lbs range...

For now I'll just try and make my frame work, make some adjustments to the rear triangle and see how it does. Throw the new fork on there, and hopefully it will actually make a huge difference. I'm pretty sure the 20mm front end will be nice.

Javelina Night Ride

2010-01-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

Last night was an extremely fun night ride on Javelina trail at South Mountain.

We rode from Pima Canyon up the jeep trail to the National/Mormon trailhead, then hanging a right onto Mormon, and then another right to the Javelina trailhead. The trail starts with some tricky switchbacks, and there used to be a straight way down that I took once, but it was blocked off with rocks. It was hard to spot another way through in the dark, so down the switchbacks I went. The left turn with the step-down/side drop off I still can't clean, it changes every time I'm out there too. It then dips into a small sand wash, and then comes the climb fest. The first couple of yards or not too bad, it's somewhat steep with some loose rock. The loose rock increases in size as you go up further, and in the middle is a very steep section where you basically have two choices in lines you can ride (that I could see in the dark). If you hang to the left, it's just more loose rock and it makes you spiral around a steep climb, to the right is a hardpack/slickrock very steep irregular climb, which I think is the easier way. Someday I will have the leg power to make it up that, not last night though. So I hike-a-biked up that, and jumped back on for the rest of the climb which is just sand over hardpack, somewhat steep. Once you've made it to the saddle, the fun starts. The trail is like a ridge trail, but the drop offs to the side are not that horrifying. It's very fast singeltrack alongside the mountain, with big chunky rocks and sharp turns. It's all fairly easily rideable, and a lot of fun in the dark.

The trail ends in a little parking lot behind the mountain, and from here there are a few trails, Beverly Canyon, East Loops, that loop back to the Pima Canyon parking lot. These trails aren't too exciting, some nasty technical climbs that are very challenging, but other than that no real obstacles. On this side of South Mountain there is an enormous contraption of trails though, I don't know them all by name, but I usually find my way back snaking through. Not last night though, I took a trail, dipped through a wash, and somehow ended up riding on the green of the neighboring golf course. No biggie, just played around on the little stair steps and mini climbs, then took the golf cart trail back to the parking lot. Those darn golf courses invading the desert.

Second Weekend Of January

2010-01-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

Another exciting weekend, mostly spent on two wheels. On Saturday we checked out the Lost Goldmine trail on the mountain bikes, out in Apache Junction, at the base of the Superstition Mountains (I will upload the riding pics later). On Sunday, yet another dirt bike day, out at Lower Sycamore Creek, brought the camera but didn't take a single picture :(.

Lost Goldmine trail (and connecting loops)

The trailhead is buried in a very nice AJ neighborhood, and in what seems to be the middle of nowhere is a big parking lot and trailhead. There are a lot of hikers here, but hardly any of them are here for the Lost Goldmine trail. There is a trail that branches off a few yards from the trailhead, climbing a ways up onto the mountain, that is the one most people take for hiking.

Coming out of the parking lot, there is a short climb up onto the first hill, very loose rock, with some moderate switchbacks. Very fun, but can be a challenge when you're not really warmed up. The next couple of miles remind me a lot of the front side of Pass Mountain, the dips into the washes, with technical climbs out. In general, the trail is very rocky, and very loose, very chunky, very fun. After a couple of miles (say about 4 or 5), the singletrack ends, and you can take a jeep trail heading south. This double track is actually very fast, not technical, but large rocks and boulders. Like a non-technical downhill you can bomb down.

A couple hundred yards down there's a turn to the right (maybe more like a mile), and there's some more of this same kind of jeep trail. Then hidden in a turn, there's a rock canister, indicating the beginning of the single track that meanders back towards the parking lot. This is an extremely fun trail, fast, mostly hardpack desert. Very twisty, lots of switchbacks, little rock obstacles, even a large log. This trail basically takes you back to the fenceline of the neighborhood and turns back north towards the parking lot. This north heading section is pretty tricky at some spots, it's back to the loose rock.

I'm looking forward to riding this hidden gem again, let them South Mountain people keep fighting the crowds, I can have this single track all to myself. It has a little bit of everything: tough technical obstacles, fun downhill, fast singletrack with some jumping obstacles.

It will be even more fun, once I get this delivered:

Yeah baby! 160mm of enjoyment. I will rebuild my front wheel with a 20mm DMR Revolver hub and red/silver DT Swiss Spokes/Nipples. Hopefully I'll be able to ride my new setup next weekend!

The ROFL Copter

2010-01-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T07:49:00.000-08:00

Started the year with a brutal ride on T100, rode 1A counter clockwise, and branched off on a goat trail at the saddle. This was mostly unrideable hike-a-bike, but good excersize.

On Sunday finally took the dirt bikes out again. Rode around the lower sycamore area, sandwashes, some singletrack. Great way to start the new year. Sorry for the glare in the picture, it was sunny and warm....

Awesome Weather

2009-12-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

Sunny and mellow, and I'm finally able to open up all the windows and air the whole place out. If you have fur to keep you warm, you can even enjoy laying by the pool:

Commuter

2009-12-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Yep, I commuted to work today by bike! Did twenty miles in about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is not bad, but there's a lot of traffic lights.... The freshly finished single speed is working great, I'm still working on the ergonomics though, still have to decide on what needs to change to make it more comfortable. I don't think the seat is working for me, and I think I might want some gel gloves, my thumbs are cramping.

New additions to the stable!

2009-12-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

1983 GT Pro

'Sergeant'

Thanksgiving trip to Utah - Pt. 1

2009-11-29T19:57:00.001-08:00

Packed up and ready to roll

Thanksgiving day ride @ Little Creek

Miscellaneous Daily Pictures

2009-11-29T19:48:00.001-08:00

Sheriff's Chain Gang Detail Work

Lotus in front of me at the light

Having lunch @ Gateway looking out the window of the restaurant at a Navy Harrier

Sandstorm on the way to work

Sedona Ride Pics - Part 2

2009-11-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

So here are the pics off of the other camera.

Lately I have been night riding mostly, the days have become so short! It's hard to take pictures in the dark, but next time I'm out I will try...

Dust Devil Race #2

2009-11-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I rode the Estrella race. The course is a lot of fun, but not very race friendly.

I surprised myself with my time. I had to hurry in the morning, I was convinced I was going to be late. So I didn't really eat or drink what I had planned. So I rolled up to the start already feeling dehydrated and tired (didn't get much sleep), and decided I was just going to do my round and call it a day.

About ten minutes into the race I was feeling pretty good, I tackled some obstacles that I had trouble with during the practice, and seemed to remember my lines really well. There weren't a lot of people racing, so the course didn't get as clogged up as I thought it would at the technical areas, so I got a fair chance at almost everything.

The first practice round last weekend I did the entire course and did it in about 1:30:00, which is better than last year's best time, so I was happy. On Sunday, just the long loop, the time was 1:12:00, so I was very happy. I ended up in the race with a time of 1:14:00 for the entire thing, and did not expect that at all. It was good for first place.

Estrella Mountain Practice Run

2009-10-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a really nice weekend spent in Goodyear. Stayed at a friend's house close to the Estrella Mountain competitive loops. I miss living there, it's very spread out, and scenic, and way less ghetto than Mesa. The Estrella Mtn competitive loops are located right behind Phoenix International Raceway.

There were only a few people staging, maybe 8-10 cars tops. I was warned ahead of time about the trail conditions and technicality, they apparently do not maintain these loops very well, and they receive quite a bit of horse traffic. So I need to update the bike specs in the side bar, since I swapped out a whole bunch of parts between the bikes to make the full suspension bike race ready. This course would be hell on a hardtail.

I decided to practice the entire race course, which consists of one long loop, and one short loop. Starting out on the long loop, it's a short climb over the east end lower saddle of the mountain, somewhat fast, swoopy, though somewhat rocky. Once you get behind the mountain comes the motherload of chunky rocks and deep washes. This part of the trail I did not like very much, it doesn't flow very well, because there really isn't a line through the rockiness that won't bog you down as much as another one. The deep sand makes it really hard to commit to a line climbing out of the sandwash, and I can see this becoming a major deal in next weekend's race. With all the traffic that would be out there, these areas will most certainly be trashed.

Once you are done with the rockgardens, there are a few steep and loose dips into more sandwashes, with steep, loose and rocky climbs out of them (comparable to the front side of Pass Mtn). One of these I can't seem to clean, I gave it a few tries, and tried different lines, but no luck. After this part there is a fairly steep climb over the next saddle with some moderately tight switchbacks, and this is where the fun starts. On the back side of the climb there is a gnarly descent with rocks and boulders where there really isn't much room for error.

It gradually flattens out, but the big rocks stay, and there's a few more dips into washes with steep climbs out, then it becomes a little 'smoother'. The dips become shallower, and you actually gain some speed here, all the way to the foot of the climb up to the last saddle, where there is one more very large descent into a sandwash. This descent is a sandwash in itself, and once again I can see this area getting completely trashed after receiving some traffic from a race. From here on you start a steady gravelly climb up to the last saddle, this part is mostly doubletrack.

On top of the saddle you get a really good view of PIR:

From this point on it's an absolutely awesome downhill all the way back to the parking lot. Extremely fast with some spots to catch some big air.

There was some sort of practice going on at PIR as well, throughout the whole course I was accompanied by the sound of roaring V8's, which I don't really mind. I know there's some environmentalist mountainbikers out there who would probably bitch about the race cars, but they're just a bunch of hipsters who really are no better than anybody else. The kind that gives you stinkeye for driving a normal car, deep down inside they know how ridiculous they look in those weird style hybrids. I am convinced that those things really are not the answer, and in the end pollute as much as any other car. End of rant.

Sunday Sedona Ride Part 1

2009-10-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Stage at Bike & Bean at the trail head. Covered Bell Rock loops, Big Park loops, Llama loops, Little Horse trail, H.T. trail, and Templeton.

Hawes Luna Group Ride

2009-10-17T21:59:00.001-07:00

This morning a fun ride with the Luna group. We dropped in at Power road, took Pig Trail, then up Hawes Trail, to Disneyland (or Candyland, whatever you want to call it), to Hidden trail, then back to Ridge trail to the four way intersection, and back Pig trail.

Dust Devil Series Race #1

2009-10-11T09:16:00.001-07:00

What a weird race that was. I got to the McDowell Mountain Park fairly early, around 6:30ish, when my start time was not until 9:24AM. That gave me plenty of time to buy this year's year pass, and get all my stuff ready. It also gave me a chance to check out all the other racers, and their rides. I thought my choice of the hardrock was pretty cheesy already, but I was amazed at the range of bikes out there. People were riding everything from Wal-Mart bikes to this year's long travel Kona full squishes. The most interesting one would probably be a belt-driven single speed 29er.

As for the race, the bike performed outstanding, no chain falling off, the shifting was crisp, clean, and fast, and it held up great through the rockgardens. Didn't have any flats, or anything break on the bike. At 9:24AM the CAT3 women lined up for the start, and I took a good look at my competition, and wasn't really sure what to think. The girl behind me was on a Wal-Mart bike, so I was pretty sure she wasn't going to make it through the rockgardens. The other girl was a girl I rode with on a Luna ride, she rode with me in the expert group, so she was good competition. And there was some college girls that could or could not be serious competition. One of them had a fairly serious weight issue, and I felt bad for her that she had to pedal all of it around, up some serious nasty hills too.

The start-'horn' then sounded, and off we went. Somehow the big girl ended up in front of me, and bogged down on the first hill, right in the middle of the trail so I could barely pass her. Wasted a lot of energy spinning my back tire trying to get past her up a sandy uphill. Way to go. One of the college girls and the other one managed to stay in front and were gone, and I decided just to do my laps and call it good. The other girls I left behind, and never saw them again (literally).

Doing my laps I passed a lot of CAT3 guys, and actually, on the first lap I passed almost all of the 'rockcrusher' guys, that started about 15 minutes ahead of my category. Some of them seemed like total beginners, and I wonder if they had any idea what they had started, or if they had ever even rode the course.

The first lap went fairly easy, and was very fun. It was very swoopy and fast. The second lap I had to do the perimeter of the park, and it takes you through a neverending rock collection. It beat me up pretty bad on my hardtail with too rigid front suspension, and I lost the girls that were in front of me (who were both on full suspension bikes, darn!). Overall I felt pretty good throughout the race, and I could have pushed myself harder, but I was out there for my own entertainment and race experience. Overall I got a pretty good time of about 1:42:00 ish, the Dust Devil server is running overtime currently so I can't check right now. Anyway, it was good for 3rd place, YAY!

RD Cage Spring Repair Guide

2009-10-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yay! My chain tension problems are now officially a thing of the past. Hopefully. Anyway with the help of this website I figured out how to fix the cage spring tension in my SRAM XO derailleur. And all you need to fix it is a 2.5mm allen wrench, and if you plan on servicing the derailleur while you're at it, also have some cleaner and grease ready. I like using the cheap autozone engine degreaser for cleaning.

Step 1:
Disassemble the cage by removing the two pulley screws. Make sure you keep all the bearing parts of the pulley together. At this point you can clean and regrease the pulley bearings.

Step 2:
Remove the little stopper screw (the one that the cage rests against when not in use, it prevents it from rotating back too far).

Step 3:
Let the cage rotate all the way back, it is pressed on, with a little wiggling at some point it will come off. When it pops off, make sure you don't lose the cage spring. This is a good point to clean the inside out and regrease.

Step 4:
Now you need to determine what the spring tension needs to be. Take a look at the below picture:

There are three holes, the one located on the far counterclockwise end in the picture will create the most spring tension, the middle one is the default/stock hole the spring is inserted in, the one on the far clockwise end will decrease spring tension.

At first I inserted the spring in the far counterclockwise to up the tension in the cage spring. I reassembled the derailleur and the tension still was very weak. So then I disassembled it again, insterted the spring in the weakest spring tension hole, and assembled it by rotating the cage an extra rotation before popping it back in place, essentially adding an extra rotation to the spring. Keep reading for assembly instructions.

Step 5:
The spring fits into a slot on the derailleur side, wiggle the cage into position, making sure the spring is inserted into the right slot/hole, then rotating until the D-fitting on the stub snaps in place. If you want to add the extra rotation, rotate the cage when the spring is snapped in place, but before the D-fitting snaps in place. Press the cage firmly back on.

Step 6:
Rotate the cage past the stopper point, and put the stopper back on.

Step 7:
Re-assemble the rest of the cage and pulleys.

DONE

Test Ride

2009-10-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

I finished putting together the 'race' rig. I was a little concerned about the chain tension, since the cage spring of the rear derailleur is pretty weak, but it works awesome. As can be seen in the pictures, it sags a little bit. I did a test ride / time trial out at MMP, and the drive train performs really good: shifting is fast, smooth, and precise. The only thing I noticed was that it is very noisy on rough terrain. Other than that I timed myself on the S-T-L loop at McDowell Mountain Park, with getting bucked off the bike once (shame on me), the chain falling off twice, accidentally getting unclipped once, and pulling over a few times to stretch my back (not used to riding the hardtail anymore), I came out at about an hour. Not sure what to think of that really, it's not superfast, and it's not superslow. I just hope the race will be less eventful.

Canal Ride

2009-10-05T09:41:00.001-07:00

This morning I just did a training ride along the canal. I had the whole road to myself :)

Went past the 'monkey farm', really didn't see anything exciting, just hammered along in a taller gear than comfortable. I rode for about an hour.

Today I will get the rest of my parts in to finish building up the race bike, I certainly hope it was worth it. Very excited about trying the new drivetrain.....

SoMo - Mormon/National/Telegraph/DC

2009-10-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

What was going to be a fun, gnar, and technical Saturday morning ride turned into an epic adventure as usual. We met up with one of the Luna girls at South Mountain, who was going to show us some lines on National. Instead of our usual 'up Mormon - down National', we went 'up Mormon - up National', meaning at the intersection we went to the right instead of left.

This part of National was new to me, and I have been missing out big time!!! What a fun trail, and the obstacles are challenging but most of them are within my skills range. Obviously we had to walk up the waterfall, and I'm not sure if I can even ride down it, it would definately take some sessioning. We took a break up on the middle section of the waterfall, and ended up hanging with some people from the MTBR group.

It was a shame that I wasn't riding too well that morning, I wish I was a little more balanced, I would have wanted to try and session some of the obstacles.

We ended up riding to the Buena Vista parking lot, where we were blinded by a brand spanking new, bright orange 2010 El Guapo. Extremely nice bike, but I was kind of disappointed with the weight: 33-36 lbs range, even though it was only about a 5" travel bike.

So from there we kept on going on National, and went past the towers. This is where the trail gets extremely fun! Mucho exposure, stair steps, rocks, boulders, and very loose conditions! Even though some of it was way over my head, I had a lot of fun riding what I was able to ride. After that comes a section called the 'catwalk', which is a somewhat narrow trail that runs along a ridge, elevated high along the road. Which meant on your right there was a very steep, and rocky cliff with the road right next to it, you would probably fall to your death, or at least get badly hurt if you happen to crash over the edge.

The catwalk ends with some fairly extreme switchbacks, leading you to the Telegraph Pass trailhead. From that point we hike-a-biked down Telegraph Pass, mostly due to extreme conditions of monster step downs and crowds of hikers. We reached the intersection with Desert Classic, and rode Desert Classic back to the Pima Canyon parking lot. It was after noon at this point, and it started heating up, and what saved us was probably that there was somewhat of a cool breeze. I did not have fun on that stretch of Desert Classic, especially not after that section of National. It seemed extremely boring to me, and it didn't help that I was all geared up with armor and a full face. I pulled over at some point and took the armor and helmet off to strap it to the camelback. My heavy built black stallion is not built for speeding through light XC singletrack, and I wasn't too excited about pedaling along a set of knobby and balloony tires on a flat trail. Yes, I consider Desert Classic 'flat'.

XOXOX

2009-10-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

I was so tired of the below mentioned drivetrain, that I went shopping for replacements same day. Score! Ordered an X7 front derailleur, 11-26 9spd cassette, and picked up XO shifters + rear derailleur. Now I just need to go get a chain, and I need to figure out what I'm going to do about housing. Right now it is set up for full housing, but I'm having some issues with routing it all, I can't accomplish a nice radius everywhere, which might cause some trouble with shifting. I am really trying to get it all done in time, and working right. I am also putting the third chainring back on there, though I am worried about running the longer chain for that. I hope it doesn't affect the tension or shifting performance.

Other than that I am looking forward to tomorrow morning's ride. Another girl is going to show me some tips and tricks on riding UP National trail at SoMo.

Battery Died

2009-10-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pictures of this morning's ride. There wasn't much time, so we rode out at Usery, and did a short loop of the Levee trail, Moon Rock Trail, Blevins, the front side of Pass Mtn, Cat's Peak and then back. I hate to say that I didn't really have a good time, I went to bed too late the night before, was unprepared, dehydrated before I even started, and had a massive headache. About 90% of the trails are fast and flowy, nothing technical, and most important I got to test ride my race setup. Conclusion: it sucks balls.

Now I'm scavenging for parts like mad, I hate the Shimano drivetrain with a passion. Why can't they just make products that are 'plug and play'??? Even their high end components need weekly adjusting, and the crappy parts that I'm running right now don't work at all. Ghost shifting, and the front derailleur doesn't know what to think of my two-speed front setup. Most of all, it is SLOW. You click, and the gears change a few seconds later, TOO LATE. Aarrggh!!!

Worst case scenario I will temporarily switch the parts off of the trail bike to the race bike. The Sram components from that bike have been on there for forever, and I have only had to adjust the rear derailleur twice, and never touched the front after installing. It was well worth my money (bought brand new), and still paid a lot less than what I would have paid for XT/XTR bullcrap. Take that Shimano....

Getting ready....

2009-09-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

So last night I prepped my race bike. Too bad the race is already in two weeks, I really want to try ghetto tubeless. Going tubeless will definitely save a lot of $$$ in tubes, and I wonder what it does to the handling of the bike, since the tire will be shaped differently. I will probably wait 'till I wear out these tires, and then try it with a brand new set. I've been eyeballing a few tires out there, I like the Panaracer Fire XC Pro, and the WTB Weirwolf Race tires, maybe even the Kenda Kinetics combo. I just so hope I won't get a flat during the race, I wonder if it would be weird if you race with full equipment (i.e. camelback with tools).

Also did a quick and dirty run along the canal, trying to beat sundown.

I seriously hope my other bike will be ready before Saturday, there will be a Luna Chix ride at SoMo, very much looking forward to that! I am also very curious to see how my brakes will behave, somehow I don't think they were 100% coming out of the box :(

Sand Bagger!

2009-09-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

Yup, just signed up for my very first race. I will be racing October 10th, the first race in the Dust Devil series at McDowell Mountain Park, in the Female CAT3 category. Wish me luck!!

Sticky Piston

2009-09-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

So I replaced my brake pads last night, preparing for another early morning adventure. Put the new pads in place, popped the wheel back in, and..... the front is messed up! The lever went seriously squishy and the front won't lock. Damnit! So dropped the bike off at Cactus this morning, they're swamped so I'm stuck with the other bike for a few days. Apparently it might be a sticky piston. I don't have time to mess with that myself right now, I just want to ride :(

Last weekend of September

2009-09-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a little different than usual. On Saturday (in the afternoon, hot!), I went for a ride along the canals, and went wandering around by the riverside. It's amazing the things you see and find in the desert. In the middle of nowhere I saw the remainder of what once was someone's porch, and halfway buried in the sand an old Ford pick up truck. I was watching the last movie in the Resident Evil series last night, Extinction, I'm pretty sure they used this as their decor.

A ways out there I got company from this AH-64A, flying pretty low. They were probably wondering what on earth would make a person ride their bike into the desert in the middle of a hot afternoon .

On Sunday I hooked up with a girl from the Luna Chix group to go ride at Red Mountain. We met up at Walgreens, 7AM, while I usually stage at the river and take that little trail that drops you onto mine trail. So now I know where most of the other mountain bikers usually stage, though I'm not too crazy about that ride up the road to the trailhead. Besides, sometimes it's nice to have a little variety and stage at different spots, so sometimes I stage at the NRA pit, sometimes Wild Horse, then Mine Trail etc. etc.

This was a nice and easy girly ride for a change, and we had a ball. The trails we took were Pig Trail, Story Trail, a taste of Disneyland, and then onto the Hidden Trail, down Saguaro Trail, and back up Pig Trail. The Hidden Trail, together with Twisted Sister and Wild Horse, would probably be my favorite trail of all in the Valley. Where my bike is a little sketchy on monster downhills, it handles buttery smooth on tight, narrow singletrack, with steep switchbacks, boulders, and cholla.

I am really excited about the weather cooling off, it is so nice out in the morning, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to go riding. I really have no trouble at all getting out of bed early to enjoy the beauty of the desert on a nice early morning ride. In fact, when I post these postings, I look at the pictures I took, and realize how lucky I am that I live in this area and get to ride this pretty much year round.....

SoMo - Javelina/Beverly Canyon

2009-09-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me start with my drive from work yesterday evening. What on earth was this guy doing dancing on the fence? This is not Guadalupe, this is Tempe. Anybody notice it getting busier on the streets too? Maybe snow bird season has started, the schools are in session again also, that creates a lot of traffic. Lately I've actually been going up and down Price Rd instead of the L101, simply because it's faster and less stressful.

On to today's ride report. Today's ride was fun, but a whole different animal than National-Mormon loop. We decided (or I decided) to do the Javelina-Beverly Canyon loop, which is not as technical as National-Mormon, but still quite challenging. When the trail branches off of Mormon, there's a tricky switchback with a drop-off that almost bucked me off the side. I found a better way that takes you straight through it, just stay left and go over the rocks, straight into the wash. It's not that much easier, I just happen to be somewhat switchback-impaired. Especially if it involves an extremely sharp turn, followed by some fairly tall and rocky step downs. There are some sections like that on the Red Mountain Mine Trail downhill, that I actually used to clear on my hardtail, but now for some reason get stopped up on everytime. I'm getting there though, I think I hit a plateau, and am slowly starting to step it up a little.

This loop should not really be underestimated, just because it is not National, Geronimo, Holbert or any of those trails. The technicality in this trail is the many different climbs, and very loose rock. At this point I am not quite clearing all of them yet, but there is definately progress there. I am not sure whether it is skills or leg power that I need to work on more, but both areas will get lots of attention this season. I haven't really set any goals yet (which I should, so I can work towards something), but I'm doing more group rides, and riding with different people. That has made a big difference so far.

Luckily it wasn't as crowded this morning, we only came across a few hikers, which were all friendly. I took it easy, trying to not get frustrated over my own riding. The challenges out there this morning were all doable, I'm just not there yet. I would like to go out and session some of the features I am having trouble with, but now I'm thinking I might be overdoing it. Been riding every morning since Saturday, except for Wednesday, and was feeling a little tired this morning. It also took me a while to warm up and get started, I am less energetic and don't really give a 100% trying to clear things. Wondering if I should back off a little bit, or just keep hammering on and get with the program...

Early Morning South Mountain

2009-09-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning feeling a nice breeze coming through the window. Perfect weather for a ride! Me and Mike met up at the Pima Canyon parking lot at 6AM for the 'hairball-before-work' loop, AKA Mormon-National. The last time we did this one was probably in March or April this year, and I remember it being a lot of fun with a few really nasty spots. Wow, I must have been in awesome shape! I just tell myself that it is the beginning of the season, and that the summer night riding really doesn't prepare you for climbing Mormon. We should have incorporated it into our night rides, even though drops in the dark can be grueling. Oh well, now we'll know what to do next summer...

Starting up the jeep trail is a nice warm up ride, though extremely boring. Oh, and you gotta love those groups of hikers that just spread out over the entire width of the road, emphasizing their right of way. They saw me coming from a mile away, but didn't bother to make a little room. So no "Good morning, how y'all doing" from me there, I just gave them stink eye.

Riding from the trailhead, I couldn't remember the lines that used to work for me on the trail, then when I also lost my momentum in the sandwash, I got stopped up on the very first obstacle. Which really isn't much of an obstacle, shame on me. From there on that was pretty much how the ride went: the climb up mormon wasn't even close to smooth, and I had to stop quite a few times to take a breather, and to decide on my climbing strategy (I seemed to pick the right line, but my leg power is letting me down).

I'll just have to keep trying and trying until this trail stops kicking my butt. I am probably going to practice the technical climbs, descends, and obstacles on the Pass Mtn trail though, less hikers stopping you up. Generally the hikers at Pass Mtn seem to be a little more respectful towards mountain bikers also, most the time even stopping for some small talk.

And again, I didn't get to see Mike's crash, he always manages to crash out of my eye sight. No crashes for me this morning (knock on wood), some close calls though.

We managed to only spend about an hour out there, even with stopping and sessioning a few spots. Sometime I need to come out there with my full face and armor, and try getting up the stairs (see picture). I saw somebody do it this morning, and make it look easy. The world's not fair...

NRA Pit this morning

2009-09-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

After a day of doing absolutely nothing I felt plenty energetic this morning at 5AM to hit the trail. For a change it was actually nice and cool outside, so I decided to gear up and go up and down the NRA pit a few times. I'm not so sure about the big jumps, so I usually just go and have a ball on the 'pee wee'-track that runs parallel to the monster jumps. Someday I should really get my guts together and give them a try, I'm sure they'll be a lot nicer for my bike than the little ones. I tend to over jump the smaller ones, and I beat up my bike quite a bit on the flat landings.

After doing the run about two times, I noticed a guy on a horse, standing on the hill top, watching me go. That was the only other person, I saw out there. Apart from all the roadies on Usery Pass Rd. They should really get themselves a real bike ;)

That reminds me of a group of girls I saw on road bikes by a gas station in Hurricane, UT. They rode into the parking lot, yakked for a little bit, and took off again. As one of the girls rode off of the sidewalk getting out of the gas station, she did a big old face plant. I tried real hard not to crack up. Poor girl, I'm pretty evil.