Crash & Burn

Last night I took the time to finish putting my tracer back together after having rebuilt the front wheel. I put it on the car this morning and am planning on taking it out this evening after work. I’ve been riding a 29r hard tail so much lately that I’m really curious as to how it’s going to feel today. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a shock to the system. Now I just need to decide where to ride after work.

I’ve been battling a mystery creak on my niner for the past several weeks. The troubling thing is the niner is a hard tail. I’m used to bearings , pivots etc occasionally creaking on my squishy bikes but having the noise start up on the hard tail was alarming. I immediately thought the worst and went to looking for cracks. After I didn’t find anything on the frame after looking things over I started looking elsewhere. It took me a couple weeks but I finally narrowed it down the rear of the bike and I had a feeling it was seatpost or saddle related. First course of action was to pull the post grease everything and remove the saddle and lightly grease the rails. Unfortunately this didn’t yield any improvements. When the creaking was bad enough that I couldn’t completely cover it up with my ipod I started looking again. Still couldn’t find anything obvious after going over the frame. Finally I realized the seat posts on my niner and my intenses are the same. I pulled the post and saddle off my tracer through it in the niner and went for a spin. The resulting silence was a beautiful thing. The saddle currently on the niner is pretty work and has somehow developed a nasty creak when I move around on it. I guess it’s finally time to retire that saddle. At least I can finally stop worrying about the bike and go back to enjoying the silence the Hard Tail brings.

I really do hate these mystery noises that pop up now and again. Whenever they come up it takes me at least a couple weeks to isolate and correct and they worry me constantly until resolved. Considering I will be selling the medium emd frame to cover the replacement large I have in order, I am relieved that all is well with the frame. While on the subject, I now have a moondust large niner EMD on order. I also put in my order form for a new King Headset and Bottom Bracket. Next up I will have to work on getting the drive train moved over to Sram. Once that’s done between my Niner and my new Tracer I will have two very kick ass rides to cover about it anything I’d care to ride. Sadly I don’t think many of my other rides are going to see as much as these two will anytime soon.

Everyone has a favorite trail and on those trails we tend to have favorite routes. For one reason or another it seems we all have certain trails and routes we just come back to time and time again. For me my default trail is Schaefer Farms.

I think it goes back to the fact that I cut my mtb teeth riding those trails. Among my many firsts at Schaefer were my first night ride, first MORE ride, first ride on a full suspension bike, first good endo and many more. My buddy Bob (who was my first real riding buddy) and I spent many hours spinning around those trails, bouncing off logs and sometimes bouncing off the ground (when the logs didn’t go so well) chatting and just having fun. Back when Bob and I were riding there on a very regular basis we had a loop we just always came back to. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s ingrained into my memory to the point I could ride it blindfolded or maybe it’s all the great memories I can attribute to the route but I always come back to that loop time and time again. I still think of that as the Bob route. My buddy Pete likes to ride it in almost the exact opposite direction, which knowing and comparing those two just seems fitting. I always think of that reverse version as Pete’s loop or the why the hell are we riding the whoop-de-dos backwards loop.

The classic loop I always did with Bob was out on yellow, across the fields via blue to the main 4 way. Hook a right at the 4 way and do the loop out there counterclockwise through the field etc and back to the 4 way. When the weather had been iffy before the reroutes were in place we used to cut off the lower wet areas via the access road. Once back at the 4 way we hooked a right back to the yellow and then took all right hand turns until the yellow met the white trail. Once on white it was up the gravely utility line climb and around to the classic Whoop-De-Dos and back to the lot via the rest of the white trail. I kinda have always thought of this as the best of schaefer loop and it’s always the one I teach new riders there.

I seem to always think of and or associate the different trails and routes with different friends and memories. Whenever I ride Fairland for example I think of that as Austin’s trail. He practically built that trail and was the one to show me around it and I did my first trail work day there. When riding Seneca State park over by clopper lake I always think of my buddies Mike and Bart with whom I used to do that ride when first getting started with riding. I always think back to one little short steep climb that always gave me hell. Now when I go back I can’t believe it ever gave me trouble. I have many fond memories of Wakefield and Accoutink one of which including my Dad’s first real mtb ride. On that ride I think half the group though the old guy (aka my dad) was going to have a stroke before we finished). The list of memories and trails / routes just goes on and on.

I’ve been riding enough years that I’ve seen a bunch of changes and improvements to my favorite trails including Schaefer. There have been big reroutes to the yellow field areas, there’s a few new sections via the orange trail and various obstacles come and go as the seasons pass. Now there’s even talk of a new connector in the works. Logs that used to routinely toss me on my head have long been replaced with new ones that send my flying in new and exciting ways.

Today I’ve tweaked our classic loop to include a section of new trail out along the field loop. I also take the reverse direction now at the 4 way, opting to go clockwise. With all the changes comes the creation of a bunch of new great trail memories while still enjoying the old. It’s hard to ride by a single stretch of that trail that doesn’t hold some specific memory or meaning. Whether it’s a wreck or a bit of trailwork I did, every where I look there’s a great memory around every twist and turn.

Sometimes folks look at me like i’m crazy when i say Schaefer is my favorite trail. I get the “You live in Frederick and you drive to ride there instead of the shed?” line all the time. The thing is for a number of reasons Schaefer Farms more than any other trail in our area always puts a huge smile on my face. I can go from having a really crappy day to a great one in just the hour it takes to do my favorite loop. When I ride Schaefer I feel connected to the trail in so many ways. I feel like I’m flowing along and dancing with the trail rather than fighting against it, like I do at say Gambril or the Shed. So yeah it’s not the most technically challenging or exciting trail but for many reasons it’s my favorite local trail and probably always will be.

My current favorite route

Decided it was finally time to get back into gear and posting here on the blog again. Between the twins coming soon (scheduled for August 3rd), trying to get back into riding shape, raiding (it’s a wow thing) I should have plenty of material to post. I think I just fell into too much of a facebook rut these past few months. I was lazy and was posting and updating on facebook rather than here. Since there are only so many stupid quizzes or pokes I can handle I thought it might be time to focus some efforts back here. I also forgot what a motivating factor typing up ride and race reports was. It was a big part of getting me into shape and riding originally. Seems like a good idea to re-devote myself to it a bit as I try to get back to form.

I have a few bike projects going on. I’m trying to move over to a large niner EMD frame as my medium is just too short for me leg wise, I like the tt length but I have to much seat post showing. I also need to get the front wheel rebuilt for the new tracer so I can finally start racking up some miles on that baby. Sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to build your own wheels when doing so many for the shop. I’m definitely looking forward to riding both bikes alot more in the near future. I think I’m going to take the niner out for a quick spin around Schaefer on my way home tonight before running some errands this evening.

More soon.

Finally getting caught up on bike related stuff and getting ready for what I hope to be a great year of riding. Sunday after being stuck indoors on the trainer I managed to get out for a spin around Gambrill with Marco. Had a great ride and was reminded what a great ride Gambrill is. It worked me hard but I had a great time bouncing off the rocks. I was on the Tracer which I finally think I have dialed in closer to my style etc and it was so good on that trail that at times it felt like cheating. The Tracer just rolled through the rocks sucking up anything and everything i could throw at it.

Today I stopped by Kent Island Bike Doc to visit Paul and swap out forks on the Tracer. The negative air chamber was having some issues on the revelation when I first installed it and Sram/RockShox had sent me a replacement. After I had the fork a while the issues seemed to have “fixed” itself but I still swapped it out for the replacement to be safe.

While I was there at the shop I also picked up my new Specialized Berm riding glasses. While I’m not a huge fan of their mtb bikes (doesn’t suit my tastes) I love their road bikes and accessories. I’ve been riding with Oakley M frames for quit a while and using a variety of different lenses to suit whatever the riding conditions were, when I was down at Kent Island last time Paul lent me a set of the adaptive specialized glasses to try. In all honesty I didn’t expect to like them much but I decided to give them a an honest go. I quickly found that I not only liked them but I preferred them for riding than my Oakley M Frames or Flack Jackets. The adaptive lenses work so well so fast that I never have to worry about swapping lenses. The lenses also seem far more scratch resistant overall. I liked these glasses so much actually I’ve been using them at the range as well. The adaptive lenses and comfortable fit make them a great choice for both hobbies. I do like the frames and styling on the berms a bit more than the loaner pair I was wearing. The others were a bit bulkier and a shade of blue that I wasn’t crazy about.
The berms are a bit sleeker and are bronze. I’m looking forward to getting the tracer out this week while sporting the new glasses. I think a Patapsco ride is in the works for Dad and I as long as the weather stays good. Overall I’m feeling refreshed and ready to kick the riding up a notch in 09. Even toying with the idea of another sm100 run…