We Caught The Lake Monster Talking

Play this video with the volume way up to hear the lake monster.  The crunch as the end is where he almost broke through the ice to come get me!

Yeah, it was a nice morning on the lake (This is not the Lake Monster)

Obligatory Sunrise Picture

Unfortunately We're Off To Work

Disclaimer: This thread is still bicycling themed because I rode my bike to skate.

Early Morning Cyclist Inspiration

Moon And Planet Sighting

What is that? Venus?

Copycat

Some Like It Hot

Habanero Hot!

To say I hate my Surly Cross Check wouldn't be fair. When I got that bike I loved it.  It was the first drop bar, go anywhere bike I had.  I rode it exclusively for the first year and put about 6000 miles on it since I got it.  I raced it.  I went on adventures with it. I rode it to work. Then I got a "real" cross bike and realized that the Surly was sporting about 10 extra pounds.  Since then it has been demoted to a fender clad rain bike.  It weighs in at about 31lbs at the moment.  The brakes have always been a little finicky to adjust and it has always shifted like crap.  That could probably have been fixed with a new set of brakes and an actual road derailleur instead of the MTB one that is on there right now.  But that wouldn't justify a new bike now would it?  I also kind of dread riding this bike now and nobody should dread a ride, right?

I'd looked at titanium bikes a few times over the last few years as a possible replacement but always talked myself down since I only ride the Cross Check in the rain.  As I was swapping over the winter tires and adjusting the shifting and brakes for the umpteenth time I decided to take another look.

Exciting Boxes And Existing Wheels

I'd heard good things about Habanero bikes and hey, they are named after a hot pepper after all, how bad could they be?  So I made the decision to contact them and investigate the next step.  I don't think it would be a spoiler to say how that ended up.  I had decided to go with a non-disk bike since I have lots of relatively new road bike wheels laying around.  Mark Hickey, the owner of Habanero Cycles was extremely helpful.  They can supply anything from a raw frame to a complete bike.  Being as cheap as I am, I decided I would build the bike myself.  Actually I just wanted to do a bike build since I had never done it from scratch. The fully built bike from Habanero was probably only $100-200 more and I put in WAY more effort in labor than that.  But, hey, I'm in this for the adventure.

Smaller Exciting Boxes

Actually the prices on parts through Habanero were so competitive that I ended up ordering a lot of the bits and pieces along with the frame.  I ended up getting most of the groupset from Chain Reaction Cycles and filled in the rest from Tree Fort Bikes & Jenson USA.  Some of my favorite online bike parts dealers.  Not to mention Bike Nashbar, Bike Tires Direct, Backcountry, Competitive Cyclist, Amazon (of course) etcetera, and so on...The first step is admitting you have a problem.

We Don't Need The Box (Inside Joke)

Time to start building! So, I grabbed the bottom bracket, threaded it into the frame and grabbed the highly specialized 16 notch, Park BBT-9 bottom bracket tool to tighten it down.  Well, it turns out that there is another highly specialized 16 notch, Park BBT-59.2 tool that looks nearly identical but is just slightly smaller.  Luckily I realized that the "hand tool" in the box with the BB was also an adapter.  Moving on.

All Done Lacking Finishing Up

The overall shape of the bike too place quickly.  I got everything loosely clamped in place so I could try the size.  With a lot of encouragement, measuring and calculations Mark convinced me that the 57CM frame would be the right size for me even though I usually ride a 58CM or 60CM.  With the knowledge that the bike might be on the small side I am waiting until I ride it to cut the steerer tube.  Therein lies the problem.  I didn't buy that many headset spacers and I need A LOT.  If anybody has ever bought a headset spacer they know that this may very well be the most marked up item not only in bike parts but in the entire free market world.  I already had to go to the big city of Portland and have some credit at one of the bike shops, so I splurged.  Oh My God! Their website showed a bunch of options at reasonable prices but when I got there I found that those were online only.   I bought five 5mm slices of a tube for $20.  It almost killed me.  These are not high-tech in any way.  They are pieces of plastic, err, "carbon fiber".  When I got home and started installing them I realized that I really needed more.  OK, I'll have to wait.  I bought about 4x the stack height on Amazon for $8.95. 

Seriously, which bunch of spacers cost $20!

This is not encouraging me to visit my LBS.  Actually, my   LBS probably would have given them to me even though I hardly ever shop there due to a conflict of business hours.  In fact he has given me one, custom made even! I've talked about headset spacers way too long.



At this point the bike is nearly built except for shifters and brakes.  The shifters weren't that bad to install once I learned where all the secret hidden compartments were for the clamp bolt and all the cables.  The brake cable is hidden under a cover with the smallest screw in the universe.  I was paranoid about loosing it.  Probably justified since I had set down much larger parts and lost them many times during the build.

As it turns out, I just hate adjusting brakes.  Or anything to do with brakes.  Problems included bolts that bottomed out in the studs that needed to be cut.  No way to adjust cable tension and no quick release on the Techto Mini-V brakes.  At least not without an inline cable adjuster which I didn't realize I needed to buy. And brake pads that didn't really reach the rims very well at maximum adjustment.   Screw it, I'll get them close enough because I really want a test ride.

Really Really Almost Done

The bike is finished except wrapping the bars and cutting the steerer tube.  Those are waiting for the last 2 parts and a few test rides to dial in the sizing. 

Test Ride Time!

Some Skating Recon Along With The Ride

After a few quick adjustments I went for a quick lap around the block.  Around here around the block is about 10 miles.  Other than feeling a hair small the bike rode like a dream.  I'm used to riding bigger bike but I think this one actually fits me.  I chose to keep the decals to a minimum to keep it a secret weapon.

New Bike Clean

I Like the Simple Pepper Logo

Nice Clean Lines

Who Needs Bar Tape?

I'm going to call it a total success.  As it stands the build weight is 21lbs.  Not feather light but I think the tires might have self sealing tubes in them.  I'm a little worried about fitting fenders on it since the brakes and I seem to disagree.  I might have to buy some nice upscale fenders to match the rest of the bike. I kinda hate to get it dirty.

For Sale: Surly Cross Check, Size 60CM, Lightly Loved.

I'm still not over the headset spacers.

Good Morning Sunshine

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3

 

The Lake Is Frozen!

Really Frozen.  I think this is the earliest freeze I can remember.  But then again my memory is crap.  I'm sure it is earlier than the last 2 years.   It is also the hardest ice I remember.  Working together with the 516 studs in my tires I dumped the bike as soon as I started to put my foot down and  my weight wasn't perpendicular to the ice.  Starting on the lake was just as difficult because there wasn't enough pressure on the rear wheel to get traction.  Going in a straight line was just fine.

Smooth as a baby's ass - but colder.

Clear as a Window - But Stronger

Crisp as a Winter Morning - But Fall

Ice Art - From Yesterday's Recon

Someday I Will Realize...

that riding through a foot of snow to get to work isn't as fun or romantic as it seems.  Seriously, it took me 45 minutes to ride the 7 miles to get to the trails.  Once I got there I found between 4-12" of soft snow on them.  The rest of the trip was 4 miles of hard peddling to average 3.4MPH.  Yup, that is about an hour and 20 minutes to ride 4 miles with a total commute time of over 2 hours.

Well That Was Ridiculous

Winter "wonder" land.  I wonder if this is fun.

I spend the whole ride wondering if I am crazy.  Who would do this on purpose anyway?

These trees make for slow going,

The front tire washes out for the 100th time and I'm walking up another hill.   By the time I get to work my bike weighs an extra 10 lbs and so do my clothes.

Abominable Snow Bike

Then I realize that I'm in the middle of nature.  I've seen some deer and eagles on my ride.  The only thing I am worrying about is how I'm going to maneuver the next rut or hill.  By 8:00 I've got more exercise than most people get in a week or possibly a month.   Maybe I'll never learn.  But I do think I will be looking for a ride home tonight.  I think I've had my fill for today.

Bike Zion

Well, not exactly.  There isn't any mountain biking allowed in Zion National Park but that's OK because there is some fine mountain biking just down the road in Virgin and Hurricane.  You might have heard of a little event held in Virgin Utah called Red Bull Rampage.  More on that later. But not much more.

Bikes and Canyons

We rented our bikes at Bike Zion.  I don't want to go to negative here but I have to be at least a little honest.  They claim to be "A Full Service Bike Shop" and we were just trying to get 2 functional bikes

• The first bike had a flat.
• The second bike had a shock pumped up so hard it was a hard tail.
• The third bike had a shock that took 3 seconds to rebound
• They couldn't find a spare tube right away
• They couldn't find a patch kit, I went behind the counter and found it for them.
• Nobody was available to adjust the bikes.
• I ended up with a bike with a pretty wobbly front wheel.

They let me use the one shock pump that they finally found and I got 2 bikes working for our trip.  The odd part was that nobody seemed concerned that half the bikes in the fleet were non-operational and they would just stay that way forever.  Anyway, not going too negative...The guys at the shop were all nice and helped work through the issues.  They let us pay for a 1/2 day rental and if we went over we would just pay the difference. They also turned my on to MTB Project which was a great way to find the trailhead and know if we were on the right trails all day.  I'd recommend the app for any mountain bikers.

And we're off

We found the trail head with no problems.  I had planned a route called Hurricane Rim Loop which was about 24 miles of riding and seemed good for the day.  I didn't realize that the rim trail was mostly technical rocky riding and 24 miles would be a LOT.  Add to that the rim nature of the trail.  My wife is not a fan of precipices and needed to walk by a lot of spots.  Actually, I'm not a fan of riding trails where a small bobble that would normally be nothing could easily send you to your death either...so we re-routed. 

Not the furthest drop if you make a mistake but still not good. The rim trails was a lot like this.

We found a trail map of the area that doesn't seem to exist anywhere but on the trail head so I'll post it here.

Plenty of Options

The riding away from the canyon was better.  We picked intermediate trails which were mostly easy with some technical spots.  The toughest sections had re-routes around the tricky spots for those who were not inclined  For the most part it was just a lot of good flowing riding.

Fast Fun Flowy Desert Trails

The one thing that you always get in Utah is a decent view.  Just 10 miles from Zion National park the scenery is totally different but still "Spectacular"

The View

We made our way to the opposite side of the plain and got back into the hills.  There was a little more rim riding over there but not quite as deadly.

This is as close to the edge as she got.

One of our favorite trails was Dead Ringer.  The name sounds more ominous that it is.  It was named after a dead cow that was found while building the trail with an old cowbell still around its neck.

More Cowbell

This whole trail system was great.  The trails were nicely built and well marked.  It may not be as epic as Moab but we had a good taste of riding in Utah.  We returned the bikes a few hours after our half day rental was over.  In this case the laid back attitude at the shop was on our side because they didn't charge any extra.  I don't think pot is legal in Utah but I think some residents may use it.

We ended up riding 20 miles around this trails system which was plenty to satisfy my mountain biking itch.  Did I mention I was sick.  That probably kept me from needing to do more.

Click It

That is a NO-GO on exploring the Rampage site.

We just happened to be in the exact spot for Red Bull Rampage on the exact day they were riding it but it was sold out well before we knew we would be there.  We were hoping the area would be open before the event so we could see practice runs and the like. Nope.

Dempsey Challenge 2018

Year number 10 and also a new coastal route.  At first I was grieving the loss of the old nostalgic Dempsey Challenge route. After all, I had done if ever year so far.  A couple of things led up to how I chose to ride this year.  Mostly the Thursday before the event my other 3 road bikes were all out of commission.  Don't worry, they are fine.  I fixed them all.  But it gave me a chance to ride my 30+ year old Viva Sport.  I decided that with the new route I would take the ride relatively easy and ride with my wife.  Riding a bike that was about 1/3 heavier with 1/2 the gears and less gearing range than modern bikes would keep me from wanting to catch the speedy riders.  Incidentally I had done the old route on this bike back in 2010 but I've become a little more "Performance Oriented" since then.

Nice start to the day

While we were waiting for the start we got to see a hot air balloon do a touch and go on the surface of the Androscoggin River. He was descending pretty fast so it must take some skill to time it just right not to submerge.

I missed the touchdown.

The ride got underway and all the fast riders sailed passed us.  I gave a quick chase to try to say hi to some friends.  After a few miles I decided it wasn't worth toasting my legs at the start of a 100 mile ride.  So I eased up and was very quickly caught by my wife.  The first 45 miles to Bailey Island we did with a group at a pretty quick pace.

Seaside Photo Opp

It turns out the new course was spectacular. I'd say it was a definite upgrade and a good draw to people that don't usually get to cycle by the ocean.  I should have taken some more pictures. I'd previously done a solo century to Harpswell and wasn't that impressed. This side of the island seemed to be more scenic and I enjoyed the ride more. The ride back was just the 2 of us at a slower pace and we were wearing down a little.  Overall I was feeling pretty good at the end of my first 100 mile ride of the year.

Round ???

Once we got back and changed we found the rest of our Dempsey team and it was time for drinking beer.  Each participant gets ONE free beer ticket.  Luckily our captain and his friends know a lot of people.   There were plenty of spare tickets and there was no reason to pay for beer.  I don't feel bad about that.  This year my wife and I raised over $1000.  I think it is a fair trade.  Thanks to all that donated.

Click here to see where we went.

Dempsey Challenge 2018 Flyover

I did learn that "The Big Boys" turned in a century time of  a little over 4:40.  Maybe next year.  Although I've also got this idea of doing the 100 on the fatbike.  I think either might be just as demanding.

Metallak Race 2018

"Up and Down"
"High Gear/Low Gear"
"Burning Quads or Burning Brakes"
"1.7 million bumps"

I was coming up with a lot of names for this ride while I was on it.  But the real name was "Metallak: A North Country Endurance Adventure".  This blog is a little wordy but 6 hours in the woods mostly along is a long time to think of stories.

The biggest challenge for me in this race was picking the right bike. And not because I have 11 bikes and just couldn't choose.  I just didn't have the right bike for this race.  In fact, there is no right bike for this race.  Which although frustrating also makes it unique.  I had already come to terms with the fact that there are 5 miles of running and 3.5 miles of hiking in this race and even though I'm not a runner I could get through it.

First I ran some tests with the cross bike:


Then and then with the mountain bike:


And I determined that the mountain bike was faster...So I took the cross bike.  Hey, I had reasons.  The cross bike was 18lbs vs 32lbs and there was a lot of climbing/hike-a-bike and the cross bike would be faster on the gravel and tar.  I was thinking it was mostly gravel with a few miles of trails.  In actuality it was about 50% gravel "Roads" 40% jeep trails and 10% trail.  Rough Rough. I had my tires at about 80PSI because I am excellent at pinch flatting and I felt every one of the 1.7M bumps on the trail. I realized on the first downhill that a good part of my energy going uphill was being used to heat up my brake rotors.  The extra energy used to pedal a heavy bike uphill gets stored as kinetic energy but riding the brakes down a bumpy trail doesn't win races.  I've already started shopping for the non-existent right bike for this race.  That's all I'm going to say about bike choice because I know most of you are bored and have skipped ahead to the very limited number of pictures.

OK, Pre-race.  We planned on camping and making a long weekend of it which was nice.  The race venue was Mohawk Falls which was a  great space for the race festivities.  The owner was busying around greeting people.  The race organizers were no different, welcoming everybody and thanking them for coming.

Home Sweet Home Away from Home

The Namesake of Mohawk Falls

I attended the mandatory pre-race meeting to learn which right turn I was supposed to miss during the race.  It worked, it missed it.

GO!

The race start was the typical mix of nerves, excitement and optimism that: "This is going to be my day".  GO! We were off and I decided I would stick with the leaders as long as I could.  That was about 1.6 miles into the race when my seat pack ejected off the back from bump number 8.  Not a great start.  I retrieved the bag.. (OK, I'll pause here for a note: I came into possession of this seat bag during a triathlon I was spectating. Where?  In the middle of the f-ing road. Duh.  Don't put anything heavier than a tube in it or duct tape it in place) ..and shoved it into my jersey pocket.  I had worked hard to keep anything bike related attached to the bike so it would stay with the bike while I was running, oh well.  Luckily, I was able to catch back up with the leaders.  I held on to second right behind the leader until he started pulling away up the first 9 mile climbing section.  Not because of the bike but because he was friggin' strong.  Once the road tilted back down I got passed by some mountain bikes.

After some position jockeying I got to the first transition in 2nd place.  About 1/2 way into the first run I got passed LIKE I WAS STANDING STILL. That's what 32 miles total of run training for the entire year will get you and I totally expected it.  The gap between me and 2nd widened even further in the kayak and I knew I was racing for 3rd.  I never came close to 2nd place again.

The next section was one of the few times I was enjoying my light bike, when I was carrying it on my back. After that was a downhill on an ATV trail that was sketchy as hell.  I fully believe I could have gone twice as fast on a mountain bike. This is when I was so intent on not cracking my skull that I missed the well marked right turn.  No big deal, the course was marked well enough that I realized that the markers has stopped.  I only lost 3 minutes. The run around mud pond was uneventful.  I alternated trotting and walking.  I used walking as an excuse to get in as much nutrition and water as possible while my hands were free.

After an easy ride downhill I got to the second paddle.  The "Boats" were inflatable whitewater kayaks and handled like a queen sized air mattress. That was fine because "Everybody was in the same boat" so to speak.  At this point the "4 hour" racers had done about 20 miles of biking and the "8 hour" racers had done 32 miles of biking, 5.5 miles of running and 3 miles of paddling.  The next step it to climb up here:

It's steeper than it looks.

And then hike back down to a valley and then go back up to the top of Sanguinary (Translation: never ever ending) Ridge.  Actually I just looked that up and it really means: involving or causing much bloodshed. OK, that fits too.

The view from the top taken the next day - Yes, we really hiked it again. This is one of the lakes we paddled.

I got up the first steep climb in good shape but my legs have this uncanny ability to know when they are almost done and they give up just a little before that.  Like when you ignore the urge to pee for 2 hours on a road trip and almost piss your pants pulling into the driveway.  Bodies are weird.  Cramps were followed by cramps.  A guy from one of the relay teams bounded by me like a deer running through the woods but assured me it was because he was fresher.  Probably at least half true. At the top of never ending ridge I got passed and moved into 3rd place.  Dammit, 3rd for 7/8 of the race and passed; quickly, I might add.  I decided that 4th was a great place and podium was overrated.  Amazingly, he was still in transition when I got to the bottom and I had a much better bike for the mostly paved stretch to the finish.  I jumped on my bike ready to chase him down and BAM my legs cramped in a way that I have never seen before.  Both ankles were stuck and I was peddling with the sides of my feet.  OK, 4th place is fine. But things did loosen up and I was able to catch him going up the last climb.  Once again, it was my race to loose at this point.  So I was pushing hard down a very steep golf course trail and realized there is a hard left ahead.  And I'm not going to make it.  Wheels locked up and into the woods I went. Not a lot but  certainly enough for a story.  Long story short (not really) I managed to cross the line for 3rd!

The 4 hour race had started 4 hours later than the 8 hour course except I finished the 8 in 6 so I had quite a bit of time to wait for my wife to finish.  Oh, did I forget to mention she was racing too? My blog, my story, sorry honey.  I'm getting to your AWESOME finish.  I didn't' have to wait too long because she was the 3rd 4-hour racer over the line and the first woman!  Woot!  She was riding the polar opposite of my bike, a fatbike.

Team Edwards Takes a Podium Sweep

Official Results

Overall the race was very well organized all thanks to a very hard working race director (and she baked us cookies). And for some strange reason I plan to do it again.  I'm fully expecting my legs to be almost back to normal by then.  I'm no spring chicken after all.  It will also give me a year to cultivate the perfect bike which will be both light and stable.  All of my mountain bike options are full squish and don't fall into the light category.

I obsessed over this race a lot.  What bike to use, was I going to stay on course, what would my time be.  I made a spreadsheet with all the legs and transitions and estimated my speed/time/pace for each.  I broke it down by on-road, off-road, climbing, running, hiking off-road, kayaking and transitions.

My estimated time was: 6:04:15.6.
My actual time was: 6:04:19
That is either some top notch estimating or some dumb luck. Probably more of the latter.

No adventure race ride blog would be complete without the relive flyover

Relive 'Morning Ride'

  We hiked back up the next day to actually enjoy the views we had earned.

That is as close to the edge as she would get.

Probably Smart

Prelude to Angles Landing Trail Next Month

Life Is Good (Camera Zoom, she was 1/4 mile away from the edge at this point)