bike – Grasshopperking(0)

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020

Why i gave up on being fast.

Rippin' that singletrack

For years i’ve been obsessed with getting faster than i was the year before. Pushing myself. Looking for bigger climbs. Longer rides. Intervals. Sprints. on and on….

Riding became about meeting my training goals.

In the midst of all that riding bikes just stopped being any fun at all. My most common thought mid-ride was, “This sucks,” or “Why do i do this?”

That’s when i just accepted the facts: i’m never going to really be competitive. i’m creeping into my mid-40s, i have a small child to take care of, i have other hobbies, and i like food too much to maintain anything even remotely close to “cycling-weight”. So i stopped training! i stopped making every ride a piece of the plan to get faster. i just started riding my bike again! It was amazing: Trans-formative! i spent a year or so getting progressively slower as i embraced letting go of the need for 2-wheeled speed!

Riding bikes is fun for me, painful fun – but fun! i’d lost sight of that. i started stopping to take in the views. i stopped pedaling so hard on climbs that i’d get the “fat-kid-wheeze” and just started pacing myself. i started getting dropped more. i stopped setting a do-or-die weekly mileage goal. i started to love being on a bike again!

Fact is being fast costs quite a bit (and just to be transparent with you: riding a bike is fun, riding a bike fast is even more fun) and i’m just not willing to pay those costs any longer. i want to spend time with my family, i want to play D&D with my friends, i want to fly RC planes… i want to do other things. To be exceptional at a thing (which i’ve never been “exceptional” at cycling but i do know people who really are) that thing has to be your primary focus. i’m just not willing to focus that much on it any longer, call it cycling-ADD.

In the past year i’ve added some weekly goals back to my routine, but i’m not so hard on myself when i miss those goals. They are also more reasonable. i still love to climb mountains on a bike and it’s still my number one mental health activity. i’m still riding, still improving, and still setting PRs. BUT: those PRs are bonuses now, not goals for me.

August 29, 2018August 29, 2018

More bike than i needed… but the bike i wanted!

i picked up the 2019 Specialized Stumpjumer Comp Carbon 29er a few months back and have put 200 miles or so on it at the time i type this, so here are my thoughts:

It’s my first full-carbon mountain bike: She’s Carbon fiber from head tube to rear dropouts! Plus for 2019 Specialized only makes one carbon Stumpjumper frame. That means my Comp Carbon Stumpy has the same frame as the S-works stumpy… which is pretty amazing!

Back to full-squish: i’ve spent the last year riding a hard-tail mountain bike. My old bike was also a “sport” bike. A sport bike that i rode in non-sport conditions from time-to time. So getting by bum over a VERY capable full suspension bike has been amazing!

29er: Since one of my jobs is at a bike-shop i have access to demo bikes from time to time. Riding a decent spread of bikes has lead me to the conclusion that for me 29ers are faster, and more fun. i have nothing against 27.5″ bikes, they’re just not my preferred cup-of-tea right now.

Here’s what i love about my 2019 Stumpjumper:

it’s forgiving: Stray off-line, land a little crossed-up, get distracted & sloppy? Stumpy don’t care. Stumpy eats trail for breakfast. Stumpy eats trail however you throw it at the trail. Stumpy woke up hungry for trail… Stumpy ALWAYS hungry!
Big Squish! i know, it’s considered a “trail bike” it’s not like i’m shredding downhill on an enduro bike but for me 150mm up front and 140mm in the back is a LOT of travel! i’ve grown accustomed to 120mm up front and chain stay flex and creaky knees in the back. Rocky and rooty trails that i had started to avoid are now a pleasure to ride.
All that carbon fiber: My first carbon road bike made me a believer in carbon fiber bikes. rough choppy roads became buttery smooth, yet the bike felt like a rocket when i put the hammer down. Carbon fiber frames are engineered to be flexy where flexy is good and still where stiff is good. You just don’t get that sort of control from any other material currently.
S.W.A.T.: i really like the S.W.A.T. box on the bike. on shorter rides i’m notorious for taking nothing but a water bottle out there with me (tools, tubes, etc are in a camelbak that i typically only wear on longer rides). The S.W.A.T. box means that i have a place to stuff all that stuff without an unsightly bike-scrotum dangling from my saddle. The Multi-tool integrated onto the bottom of the bottle cage is equally nice!
Stability: My stumpy has proven to be maybe the most stable platform i’ve ever ridden (definitely the most stable platform i’ve ever ridden REGULARLY). Even when the trail gets loosey-goosey and the tires start sliding around the bike stays under me and goes where i point it. It actually makes those previously terrifying sections of trail super fun.
Position on the bike: It was a HUGE adjustment for me. i lean towards XC style bikes and the stumpy is a trail bike through and through. The Stumpy has me riding in a more upright and neutral position. I’m accustomed to getting my weight waaaaaay back on technical sections but on the Stumpy i find that i can just ride those sections and the bike loves it and eats it up. The more neutral position also means that at the end of a bigger ride when i’m beat my body doesn’t feel as generally beat-up as it used to.

Things i don’t love so much:

Climbing: i know, it’s not built to be a climber. i’m fully aware of that. But i enjoy the long slow suffering most days. If i don’t want to die on a bike at least once on a ride then it’s an “easy ride”. Don’t get me wrong: for a 150/140 travel bike it climbs pretty well. The rear shock stiffens up but doesn’t lock all the way out (which i wish it did). The fork will lock out but only on fire-roads or the rare hard-top connector do i ever lock the fork out. There’s some magic to the geometry that keeps the fork from feeling too bobby on climbs for me.
S.W.A.T. rattle: i LOVE the S.W.A.T. box… (see above). Love it! but no matter how i adjust the contents or how firm i pack stuff in there; stuff rattles when the trail gets gnarly. Given the nature of the S.W.A.T. box i don’t see how there’s anyway around this. Its a hollow part of the down-tube you can stick stuff in. Then you ride the bike, with the down tube stuffed with stuff, down rough stuff and stuff shakes around. This is a SUPER minor thing, but i mention it.

Conclusion: Yeah the Stumpjumper is really too much bike for me. I’m not out there shredding like those crazy kids! My ride style is much more XC-Fun. But i wanted a bike for once that leaned more to the Fun side, so i got one. The more i ride this bike the more i like it, and i liked it a lot on the first ride! My dislikes are really silly things, one is evident from the style of bike the other is price you pay for that convenience. My likes are all solid reasons to buy and ride the bike! Would i recommend the 2019 Stumpjumper? Hands down! With zero reservations! Loving this big ole squishy bike!

Now watch this ridiculous promo-video Specialized produced: Watch it and love it! Stumpjumper 2019 Promo

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018

Race Day (first one in a loooong time)

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It has been YEARS since i actually participated in a real race. So i decided to break the streak and sign up for one.

12 miles of pretty familiar trails in the Blue Ridge mountains. Since i work part-time (on my day off every week) at a local bike shop (Blackwater Bike Shop, in Lynchburg VA- an amazing bike shop that was my go-to shop long before i started fumbling with wrenches there) i felt it was appropriate to zip-tie a number on a bike, throw a jersey on, represent the shop on the local trail system, and ride my way to glory!

Ok, so not ride my way to glory! Here’s a summary: i didn’t ride in a way i am particularly proud of… but i didn’t ride myself into embarrassment either! i left myself room for improvement, and may have developed an itch… an itch for competition. There’s a spark kindled inside me that wants to get better, to get faster, to be more technically sound, to get faster, to build more endurance, to get faster… ok, i really want to get faster. Mountain biking is fun! Cycling in general is fun for me, and the faster i can do it the more fun it gets.

The race gave me an honest assessment of where i stand as a rider. Hopefully my next race will give me another glimpse into the single-track-mirror and i’ll find that i’ve improved. Maybe i’ll let you know… (unless i do really poorly, then we shall never speak of it!)

FYI: i rode the race on a Demo Bike from the shop. Specialized Epic: the more i ride the bike the more i like The Brain. The shop is currently rolling over the demo fleet so if you’re interested in an Aluminum Epic: look up the shop and reach out to us, it’s definitely for sale!

October 3, 2017October 2, 2017

A bad day on the bike…

Set out Sunday morning to bag an epic climb here in central Virginia: Thunder Ridge!

i’ve done it many times before… on my road bike. Sunday was the day to make it happen on two fat tires! The off-road climb to the top of the longest continuous climb on the Blue Ridge Parkway in The Old Dominion!

i met up with some friends, unloaded my bike and noticed… the rear wheel was out of true! What the heck? How have i not noticed this before. i started checking spoke-tension and found to my dismay: a broken spoke! This went from inconvenient and annoying to an actual problem!

It’s mostly gravel, fire-roads, and double-track so i figured i’d roll the dice and make the ride. My compatriots, who were serving as guides as i didn’t know the route, assured me that the only serious section of single-track was on the way back down. Risk was now solidly in the acceptable zone for me! We loaded up and rolled out.

The weather was perfect. The route proved to be gorgeous. Conversation was entertaining. Oh, and my allergies were kicking my asthma! i’d meant to take a couple of hits off the ole inhaler before leaving, maybe taking it with me but i remembered all of this a couple of miles in… Oh well, cost-effective altitude training maybe?

Soon we were up an over the first climb of the day (the smaller one) and my rear brake started acting up. It wasn’t long before it was really compromised. i stopped on a long gravel road descent and did some trail-side adjustments. Not long after that we rolled onto the foot of the big climb for the day. 3000+feet of elevation gain to go! (after bagging about 1400 feet already)

i like climbing. The rhythmic suffering of it. It’s very “blue-collar”, just keep spinning the pedals, just keep sweating, find that edge you can push yourself to and keep chunking the coal into the burner to keep yourself there. This was the moment i had been looking forward to for days!

This epic climb started out alright. The grades felt a little steeper than they looked, but sometimes that’s just cycling! Just keep pedaling… Just keep spinning… chunk the coal in that internal motor…

But i was fading. Fading hard. It wasn’t until we were about 3/4 of the way up this miles-long climb that i started to get suspicious. We hit a little down-hill and everyone else zipped away as i had to dig hard just to keep my speed up. i stopped, hopped off my machine, and gave the rear wheel a spin. It made about a revolution and a half and slowed to a stop… The rear brake was dragging. After some fiddling drastic measures were taken. i removed the rear brake and started pedaling, i was a free man! i could climb again!

Well, i could climb again for about 10 minutes, then the fatigue from riding with a sticky brake for the majority of this massive climb really set in. i was toast. My legs were done. But there i was in the wilderness, no idea where trails go. My friends had their own aspirations for a great day on their bikes just like i had when i awoke that morning. So i sucked it up and limped up the mountain. Made it to the top of Apple Orchard (leg cramps and all).

Shortly after we had a pow-wow and i had to admit (tail tucked and shame-faced) that i was cooked… i felt like i had let them down. One of them kindly volunteered to serve as my guide back down the unfamiliar trails and to the cars. i’ll be in his debt for quite some time.

So here’s the thing that really cheeses me the most: It was ALL MY FAULT! i had not properly maintained my bike and it had cost not just me, but friends of mine as well.

Lessons learned? Take care of my crap (this is a lesson i keep “re-learning” in life). My inactions didn’t just affect me, they had an effect on my friends (who had graciously extended the invitation to roll out on this epic route with them).

On a positive note: it was still time on the bike. Bad rides are better than no rides! And the views i saw, the trails i experienced, and the graciousness of my friends were all things that were beautiful in their own ways.