My Backyard and some other drifiting

I live in the foothills next to the mountains.  My home is 8300 feet in elevation, but here it’s more dry than snow much of the winter. My local, out the front door, riding areas consist of 4x4 roads, doubletrack, ATV track, singletrack, no track, bike paths, gravel and rarely a bit of pave.

My personal temperature cutoff is 40 deg F.  Above 40 I am always up for a ride, below 40 and it’s a big maybe.  IE: below 40 deg and I have to break out true winter clothing.  But anything at or above 40 and I can just add knee or leg warmers, arm warmers or a long sleeve jersey and carry in my pockets a thin balaclava, wind breaker and maybe shoe covers.  So during daylight I can ride almost year round with very minor accommodations.  I like riding at night but in the winter I rarely do, rather I go to the fitness center and spin for an hour.   

I think I might do a winter overnight'er here, cant you just picture the fire and reflected heat?

So in my backyard it would be pretty easy to get in some extended/focused training.  If I actually had a 9-5 job, but as I spend about 100+ nights per year in hotel rooms there is nothing focused about my training.  A main training stable is to pretend to train on beat up, ½ broke hotel exercise bikes.  Ha, but I am not going to let that stop me from hitting my body weight target for 2015 TDR!

And speaking of weight my bike is 33lbs (as shown) with my old bags, most of my old gear and suspension fork.  I can now see my 30 pound bike target is going to happen (give or take 1 pound).

Saddle Testing:

I have spent about 9 hours and 3 rides so far on the new Spiderflex. To soon to make a definitive decision but to summarize my three test rides:

Ride 1) 2 hrs, Stop and adjust, stop and adjust over and over.  No comfort, no power, as awkward as could be.

Ride 2) 3 hrs, Adjust 1 time, Some comfort some power in certain gears/grades, aero bars, one hand riding to eat and drink all very awkward. Very sore in new places, like one’s 1^st ride.  Side bar—Ha, I was trashed talked by a 77 year old—he laughed at how slow I was going.  We chatted for a bit, he rides 12 mile loops around town, had a new hip put in 2 years ago—I told him I hope to be a fit as he is when I hit 77.  He said to never stop and I will be.

Ride 3) 4 hrs, Adjust 1 time, Starting to feel like I might be getting the hang of this saddle.  Today I rode and rode hard and fast.  Adjusted a cleat position which I was not willing to do till I saw some overall progress.  Some things I really liked (aero position fell into a happy place big time), some not so much, but a bit more yay than nay today.  And I am even more sore, but over all I am encouraged, at least enough to want to continue testing.  More when I get back from overseas.

 

Yah we have rednecks in my backyard. ( I do not drink, but if I did this Fireball Whisky has just got to be the cure for a sore bum?)

 

Sometimes life’s a beach (or at least some tide pools)

Got in some sun & fun down in San Diego with family.  And got word today that my vacation will be approved, so barring unexpected work or personal issues I am in for 2015.

The other day I stumbled across Scott’s review of his Spiderflex saddle.  http://www.bikepacking.net/reviews/spiderflex-noseless-saddle/

Scott mentioned that Kurt Sandiforth used one for his Triple Crown (Kurt is the TC record holder bty) rides. http://www.bikegreaseandcoffee.com/2013/01/the-ctr-and-crown-of-three.html

My interest was perked so I ordered one for trial.  Went for my 1^st ride today, spent a lot of time fine tuning its position. 

To be honest I have no clue how to really set it up properly.  It’s really different.  Anyway I will do some rides/hours before I comment yea or nay.  

Also got a new $80 ebay carbon handlebar that has just enough mounting real estate for my $14 ebay aero bars but still offers rise. 

Perfect fit for aero bars, ideal overall width & rise—ding ding I seem to have an ebay winner!! 
Also ordered up a $90 carbon fork.  Waiting for a spare race crown and then testing will commence on it. 

Sort of scary testing an off brand but I suspect it’s the same manufacture as the $400 ones.

All in all, my TDR bike is coming along quite nicely.  I will keep chipping away at it over the winter, testing this and that item, GPS mount, bear spray storage location, cable routing etc etc.  But the only major items left are a set of light weight bags.  I will most likely go custom front to back as I have some specific ideas that I want to incorporate for my small daily items, tools, electronics and water bladder etc.

Should I or Shouldn’t I?

22.8 as shown

 

I have been slowly piecing together my 2015 TDR ride. Almost done with a few parts yet on order, carbon fork, bars and tires being the main items.  Current weight (as shown with suspension fork and aero bars) is 22.8lbs.  Projected/final weight of bike (minus bags, lights etc) will be right at 20lbs, +/- a few oz’s.

Saved a little weight with some road SPD pedals.  I can see where I might miss the double side ease of clipping in here and there but considering the non-technical nature of the TDR route they should be fine. Plus all the contact area will help minimize hot spots on the ol feet.

Anyway just counting the unencumbered bike, in 2015 looks like I can be running 4 lbs less than 2010, .  My goal is to have total weight (minus food/water and daily clothing) at or just under 30lbs. 

So with a bike that weighs in at 20lbs I will have 10lbs for everything else.

But now I have a minor dilemma.  I have been running the Fox fork, and well I don’t want to give it up.  It has been so fun to bomb down some modest rocky sections, flow over the small drops etc etc.  Not that I am going to be doing much if any of that in the TDR.  On the other hand there is a lot of high speed descending where 100mm would speed things up.   And also there are some sections, like Lima to Red Mountain Pass, that literally beat beat beat you to death. 

Ah, so do I go full rigid or lug around 2 additional lbs but luxuriate in 100mm of squishy goodness?

 

I have some other “Should I or Shouldn’t I” questions.  The biggest so far is South Bound or North Bound.  Some days I am all set to do a NB attempt, but then I truly question if I wouldn’t be more motivated chasing the pack with a SB run.  Really got to think about this one………………..lots and lots of thinking on this one....

Weight Control Program

 

 

I have always put on to much weight thru the winter.  Other than securing vacation authorization the most important factor to my 2015 TDR attempt is to NOT gain excess weight this winter. 

 

The following photo dump shows how I have been fighting back. 

 

Still waiting for the ‘real’ snow to show up, in the mean time I have been crunching my share of fallen aspen leaves as often and in as many locations as I can..

 

Fall in the Rockies

he he--- so much fun when the dirt is damp from day-before-rain

I seem to keep sneaking in one more fall ride—but soon it will just be hotel cardio workouts and the occasional warm finger glove ride

Woke up to fresh snow on Pikes Peak.  

But the lower elevations were perfect for 3 hrs on the KTM followed by 3 more on the new 29er. 

Last big ride before snow & rain

Tidied up some Friday type work stuff and then rode away at 5pm, pushed hard till 11:30pm.  Set the alarm for 4:30 in anticipation of a TDR type day/effort. Rode steady all of 2nd day and camped up at 10:30. Slept in till dawn and rolled home around 9am

 

So--my last big ride of the year went something like this:

Warm to cool to cold.   Sun and blue blue sky to mountains against fading silver horizons to a sliver of moon and black all-around with bright stars.  Elk bugling in the distant dark.  Sunrise creeping up on me along a remote, lonely dirt road. 

Colorful balloons breaking free in the crisp morning air.

 

Strangers at resupply points telling me what a perfect day for a ride, wishing they were out with me.  Huge flock of wild turkeys scampering out of my path. 

 

 

Softly who hooting owls and shiny scary eyes in the dark sharing my camp.

 

  Frosty breath, crunchy yellow leaves and crackling ice in some puddles.  

Moving Forward

Dropping out itself doesn’t bother me per say, it was the right call given the circumstances. However not accomplishing my 2014 goals has been a huge and ongoing mental burden.  I have lost most of my interest in what other TDR racers did in 2014 and what 2015 racers are currently doing to preparer.  (I did finally find the time to read through the bikepacking.net 2014 race thread and sort of get caught up on our little ultra-race world.  Quite interesting to read TDR's Matthew Lee finally come clean on all the behind the scenes crap he has had to deal with over the years.  Mat's one of the few multi-day guys who almost always gets it right....he truly has found some balance in the wacko underground race world we all thrive in...... )

 

Anyway, rest assured I am working along at a low, simmering boil preparing for 2015.  Pacing my training and bike/gear prep efforts and obsessions so as not to burn out, yet do all I can to meet my 2015 goals………..

As soon as I scratched, literally the next day, I was planning my re-do. And before the dust had fully settled I decided I needed to consider a new frame.  My Ti Carver frame is close to perfect but when I ordered it back in 2009 I spec’ed it with a BB30 BB.  Well the non-MTB style BB30 design finally caught up with me in 2014.  The BB deep water crossings on day 2 washed out all the bearing grease and by Helena the bearings were trashed, by Wise River the crank was toast.

The solution you ask?  Well nothing is guaranteed during a TDR.  But for 2015 I will be rocking a Carbon 29er Scott Scale HT with a wide & stiff BB92 bottom bracket with a press fit Sram GXP.  Is this the best, most reliable BB combo?  Heck I don’t know but it’s got to be better than the BB30 set up.  I don’t plan on doing any submarine rides to test its reliability but I can attest to its stiffness.  During ‘stand & pound the pedals’ climbing the carbon Scott frame with its BB92 seems much stiffer and more efficient.  I can also attest to how flattened seat stays smooth out the washboards and small rocks.  Like butter on a biscuit …….

I have not decided on a rear wheel/hub combo just yet.  I was extremely disappointed in my 240 DT Swiss bearing failure. I suspect it was the new/rebuild bearings more than the hub. Still thinking about it but leaning towards a light carbon rim with DT style hub internals--

So, sense I am spending all that money on a new frame/build I guess its time to happily play that bike racer's favorite "weight weenie game". 

It’s been years sense I truly played the weight weenie game but what the heck, why not….when finished I anticipate a sub 20 lbs naked bike and a sub 30 lb TDR ride.

Will the lighter weight approach solve all my 2014 “issues”?  Ha, not hardly, but losing about 10-14 lbs in bike and body weight should help alleviate a bit of stress and effort.  And besides, I really need the mental distraction………………..