Wednesday Off Road Trio

Perfect freakin' weather out there.  Trails in great shape and temps in the 60's.  Baler and Betsy sightings at Landing by RockBurn and then at Landing by Grovemont.

Three of us on geared bikes. KR testing newish wheels, W on his
Franken 69 BMC, me on the Fisti with new tires 700X45 front and 700X38 rear. 

6 at Landing. Took regular Morning Choice (not Log) for a change>Lewis and Clark (brief stop for
trail-side-channel-lock-derailleur-hanger-bend-back on W's rig)
>Cascade(but with a slight diversion up the hill Morning Choice and
then left back down the roots to Cascade)>roots and rockgarden cleaned
on fisti, but that was the end of my graceful riding>Dump Your
Girlfriend-steep eroded trail to bathrooms>Ridge(I went over the
handlebars in mini rock garden #2 in Baler bypass, then didn't clean
the rocks after the next creek crossing;-( )>Connector>Morning Choice
thru field and down to 4 way (pointed out what me and EJ call the
Dinosaur Trail to KR and W...just when you re-enter the woods from the
field there's all those saplings with the giant leaves!)>Rockburn
Branch right>Belmont Woods (once again I went ass over tea kettle when
I was too lazy to stop pedaling on my way over a log and foot strike
led to a superman over the bars...KR right on my tail seemed impressed
with my Buzz Lightyear falling with style flight;-)>Farm Field to
Landing and bade each other goodbye>U turn thru Farm Field back home
for me.

 

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/38703090

It's HOT!

Temp on our back deck.
BB

Sunday Early Bird Ride

First ride on the new Father's Day Surly 1X1 fork on the 69er
Groundhog.  Got 3 hours sleep;-(

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/38336675

Meet W and Madio at Landing at 6:20 (my usual 5 minutes late).
Log>Old Connector>Ridge (Baler Bypass;-)>Swinging Bridge>Up Lower
Santee Nun's Run>Bull Run loop (one dab on the big log rock buildup
before the steep, baby, and new trail construction switches back
straight up the hill after the creek crossing...I like it!  Usually
MORE stands for Making Our Rides Easier but not this time;-)>Soapston
parking lot helped a dude with a tube (exit W and Madio)>up the gravel
Soapstone>Vineyard alternate hiking-only (cleaned the double drop at
the bottom;-)>Gristmill (played around on some deer fisherman paths
near Lost Lake)>Swimming Prohibited>Waterbars>RBB down left>Belmont
Woods

SEG!!!

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Patch Fest with Abigail

Abby loves to work on bikes with Dad.
We patched 5 tubes together and had a great time;-)

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Howard County Avalon Trail Map Ride

Did this ride 11 months ago but I felt like posting it where I can
find it faster next time.

This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip <a href="http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/469735" mce_href="http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/469735">here</a> instead.

Friday Night Lights

Left the Tambeaux' at 8 and had a nice mellow at times and zippy at
times ride. Good conversation. Good mix of fixie and gearies. Good
mix of after ride beers.
Highlight for me was making it LHR on the fixie without leaving the saddle;-)

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/38213515

The Wire/Toy Story Mixup

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0RNhQaxUyw?wmode=transparent]

 

Hilarious!

White Clay Creek State Park

Me and YDT and Dennis made a Wednesday road trip to the state park at
the mark of the arc (the arc that is the border between PA and DE,
that is).

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Arrived and hit the trails a little after 9AM.  Night rain and morning dew made trail conditions tacky, fast, and perfect but low hanging brush and muggy humidity made for a moist and sweaty start.  This was YDT's born-again-virgin MTB ride since clavicle broke...awesome to have seen him back on the dirt where he belongs.  All 3 of us on SS, the only kinda MTB you'd want at White Clay (BTW Cyclocross bike would be a ball too).

Trails were well managed (overmanaged in spots).  Fast and flowing with lots of waterbar bumps and covered up roots to keep things fast.  Skills trail was moist and dangerous.  I hit all but the teeter-totter/swinging bridge section and enjoyed it.

I had a slow leak in front for the last 4 miles and stubbornly made it a mission to keep my weight back and finish the ride without stopping to infllate.  Finished up with about 7 psi in the tire;-)  We clicked about 22 miles and were good and hungry for burgers and beer at Iron Hill brewery in Newark.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/37988932

White-Clay-Creek-State-Park-Map.pdf
Download this file

Surly 1X1 changed to Surly 1X3

This may give you some ideas too, Dave.

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Surly 1X1 Cyclocross Setup

Dave,
Maybe the full housing routing in these shots will give you some ideas.

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Father's Day Forking

In addition to all the beautiful krafty kards from the kids, I got forked on Father's Day!
This new-ish Surly 1X1 fork is just what the Groundhog needs to get a little more 29er tire clearance, Clarence!

It's cicada season!

hear the buzzzzzz
BB

Saturday Early Big Group Ride

Met up at Landing.  Big group:  XX, W, KR, MC, Trevor, Seibold, Tim, Timmy, Mike, Ebae, McNeely, was that it??  Most of us on single speeds save for a few.

Renegade>Nacho>Belmont Woods>Rockburn Branch up the right>Ridge>Valley View (enter Tracy)>Swimming Prohibited>Vineyard>CCBC (exit Tracy)>Santee (James yard saled in the skunk cabbage rock garden)>Old Skool Charcoal>Sawmill>Hilltop broke into 3 factions for the downhill (me, Jon, and Mike did Drugs)

Jon had no side effects from the Drugs, but Mike had a busted der hanger and I got a front flat;-(

I changed my flat on Gristmill and told the group to push onward.  Then I took Gristmill>Swimming Prohibited>Levering>Lawyers so I could make it home in time for gurlz to ride;-)

Sorry kids!  No map today...Garmin battery was dead;-( 

I was sporting the newest reincarnation of the Groundhog 2X8 with a shorter fork than the last experimental ride.  Fork came off a Bianchi Sass and has just about 3mm of clearance for my Maxxis Ignitor 29X2.1 tire.  The fork has still got a too-short steerer but the compression plug has a better purchase on this setup.  Stem/headset still nice and tight after the ride.  The bike rode real nice and proved a good log-hopper/climber/descender.

2 eggs for new nest now

BB

Zippy Clockwise Loop

Me, XX, and Baler did a quick clockwise SS loop.  Impressive pace for XX who just did Stoopid 50 on Sunday.  Trails were perfect and real fast.  Baler was right about the 10 year old line near the gazebo being different than I remembered;-0  Me and XX finished up with some Nachoes.  Good to have beat the rain to the punch!

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/37073414

Hot and Sultry Sunday Surly Loop

Me and Norm hit a counterclockwise loop.  Man, was it hot!

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/37073423

Here we go again robin!

One egg.
BB

True Blood

Season 3 Starts Tonight!

My love affair with Sookie Stackhouse continues.  I missed you, Sookie!

Early Surly HoCo Repeats Ride

Was planning to ride the Fisti but when I got to the stable she had a rear flat.  So I grabbed the 1X1 for the first ride since Deep Creek.  I'm not sure why I've been straying from the Surly as of late.  She really is the perfect bike for Avalon.  Nothing rides nicer over roots, rocks, and logs like a rigid ninety-sixer.

Anyway, conditions could not have been better.  Trails are awesome.  I put it at Belmont Woods>RockBurnBranch ^v^>straight up Morning Choice at 4 way>Connector>Valley View alternate>Ridge

Ridge Trail work report: 
THANKS:  I love the new Baler Bypass trail work.  3 mini rock gardens is schweet.  I wish there was a straighter line from/into the rocky dip creek crossing though cuz I never take the bridge, cuz! 
NO THANKS:  <sarcasm> I also like the re-route after the gazebo.  I was tired of trying to clean that technical root rock section and am very glad that I can now ride my road bike up that hill.  </sarcasm>

Big Steep to bathrooms>new Cascade put in by upper lot>waterfall>Cascade

Cascade Trail work report: 
THANKS:  The new footbridge over the swamp by the rusty pipe spring is a nice touch.  Also the removal of the tree down in the creek crossing helps.

Lewis and Clark>Morning Choice-Old Track repeats>Log repeats>Nacho three-peats (CBC brother, Geoff, sighting)  The Garmin site's player view, http://connect.garmin.com/player/36567936, shows the repeats best

Nice bird bath in pool after ride always feels great;-)

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/36567936

Brainteasers

Where do you think these cropped photos came from?!?!?!?!

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Get your mind outta the gutter.  It's just my scraggly beard, yo!

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Fire flies

0610102046.3g2
Watch on Posterous

World record catch. must be 3 dozen in there.
BB

Surly Steamroller 56 Chris King Campagnolo Mavic fixed fixie track MKS

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/bik/1774708464.html
This guy kills me.  He's been trying to sell his Creamroller for $1200, $1100, and now $1000 on baltimore CL.
Granted, his wheels and headset are nicer than OEM, but Creamroller retails for $720 and comes with a brake.  
It's like the CocaCola Bike all over again but not as interesting.

New Sneakers

Fresh new WTB Stout 2.3s on Jen's hard tail. Combine that with the
recent retro Bomber fork upgrade and Jen's got toatally new look and
feel.

New robins moved into the same old spot

From the looks of the plastic trash bag foundation, these birds may be more street smart than the last nest full:-)  I just hope they are no too loud and can keep their dogs on a leash.
BB

Groundhog Sixtynine Experiment

Abstract

Next time I sixty-nine a Groundhog I'll use a shorter fork.

Introduction

Ride-eve wrenching was in order due to the arrival of the Nashbar
compression plug in the post yesterday. Installed it on the Groundhog
and it fit pretty snug...but when tightening the top cap for bearing
preload the plug slipped up a bit....grrr!

Hypothesis

So I bartered the FSA Conix compression plug from the Fisticuff for
the new Nashbar plug. The Conix has got a much deeper engagement and
chompier teefers. It felt better and didn't slip when snugging
everything up.  I was confident that it'd hold.

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Data

Left the stable at 5:40 for a 5:55 meet with W at the Morning Choice &
Log intersection. I knew by then that the Groundhog steers like a
Lincoln Continental. Log>MC>(stop to tighten the Groundhog's
headset...errrr???) Lewis and Clark>Cascade>alternate Cascade
climb>new secret trail--left into the woods not far past the rebar
chicane)....

Secret trail was kinda cool. Down initially and then through a dry
creek bed (rocky) then straight up a hike a bike deer path. Then she
levels out and it's 45-degree-off-camber log and tall-boy log hopping heaven. Then
straight down again to a creek and the trail disappears. We walked
the creek toward the river until we noticed the Bike Buster trail up
the hill from us. Rode the last two drops on Bike Buster (the one the
lets you out near the dam).

...new Cascade put-in by the big parking lot>hike a bike up the
waterfall (stop to remove W's rear brake pads which had worn so bad
that the spring clip was pulling against the rotor...enter 2 dudes on
rigid Karate Monkeys that I'd seen on a solo DP a couple weeks back,
can't remember their names but W and I shared themorningride info with
them. They park at Rowanberry and ride at 6 about
2X/week)>Ridge>Connector>Morning Choice>hairpin right up bamboo forest
trail>Morning Choice (exit W at top of Cascade)>back Morning
Choice>counterclockwise Old Track>Morning Choice>Farm Field>Belmont

Results of Sixty-nining a Groundhog

1. Steering is poor because head angle way too slack. Suspension
corrected (for 100mm) rigid 26er fork with 29er tire jacks that front
end up way too high. When climbing steeps it's hard to hold a line if
any adjustment is necessary. On the other hand descending ass-tucker
steeps is fun and getting over giant logs is a breeze with slack front
and high BB.

2. Headset loosened 2X on this ride. Maybe I didn't torque down the
compression plug enough. Stem interface didn't inspire confidence.

3. Shifting was good;-)

Conclusion

Groundhog will go back to the laboratory for a shorter fork that
requires less compression plug steerer tube lengthening. 

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/36144367