Trailwork

I'm kinda tired. I guess luggin that chainsaw up and over the hills will do that to ya. Which of you peckerheads will pony up and finish Corby South? 4 of us did the remaining 14 miles of trail over the last 3 days. With all the people I see on the trails, surely some of you can manage to groom South into shape. I've said it many times but it bears repeating...if'n you have the time to ride, you have time to help with the work. Remember, trailwork is the most fun you can have without a rental car or being nekkid! The tired trail hippie

RACE AT PERRY

From the Earthriders Forum.

Croc Rock NEW reschedule date. Augest 1st.
by Lyle Riedy on Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:50 pm

Aug. 1st is NEW reschedule date for Croc. Rock. You can tell I am a school teacher.
Do it over and over until it is done right. Aug. 1st is pretty open on the calender,
It is a DRY month, it is 2 weeks before RIM giving both riders and promoters a chance to recharge. After the rain out last week I went out on the trail. It was muddy,even if we ran in the mud riders would have had to carry hand saws. Many small branches and 2 full size trees down over the course. All good again. See you all Aug. 1.

Trail Report..

Has anyone seen how much damage is on Corby N&S and Grilscout?

I just got back from Krug and its a freggin disaster. Took nearly 2 hours to do 1 lap and you can't even tell I did anything. Going to need some chainsaw work out there.

Going to bring my hand saw next time i am out... You can get one at any hardware store.... Ace, Lowes, etc... Folds up nicely and will fit into your camelpack...

Just when your out riding, move as much stuff as you can.. With all of us riding we can get the trails cleared out in no time if were all doing it...

Not-so-radom cycle-babble...

Okay, I am getting a little depressed when I look at the race calender for July. We got completely spoiled with a race Evey weekend in June. With Perry being rained out, the next one is a Fat Tire Series in Springfield the 11th. Not sure I am going to be able to make that one either... Some folks are going to race nationals in CO which would be awesome. However for me, I am going to try, but with a baby coming in September, not sure taking a week off in July is going to work....

Sunday was not a total loss, got the Cross Check out and rode a (mostly) gravel grinder with Darrel..

It was a nice change of pace to get in 4 hours of steady riding. Rather than 1.5hours of go as fast as you can till you can't go fast no mo racing...

Which brought me to the conclusion that not doing the Diry Kanza could have been one of the best decisions I have ever made! After 4 hours (approx just under 50 miles)I was spent. There is no way in hell I could go out there and do that for 15+ hours!!!
All kinds of respect for those fools who do that!

Anyway, it was a good ride, but I am missing the trails something awful. This weather is pissing me off..
Next post I will explain my thoughts that anything more than 5 gears on your mountain bike is utter useless crap you don't need.... 27 gears!?!? Give me a break, you don't need that crap in the midwest... Need to change some thought processes about bikes/gear....

Race is Cancelled tomorrow...

This sucks! Aren't we supposed to be in a drought about now? Guess it was about to happen sooner or later...

If there is a bright side, you can have a couple more beers tonight than you would have normally had... Know I will...

Might still have to get a good ride in tomorrow one way or the other...

btw, I think BradBob is up to something with the post race brews!

Scandal at Castlewood/ Perry Lake

So, I am checking out some blogs from STL, checking out the MTB seen. There is some fuss over the guy who won our Cat 2 race. Apparently he started with the Cat 1's and he is not a "true" Cat 2 racer. I am not going to point fingers or bitch any myelf. All I have to say is; Dude, you used your state jearsy as a doorstop? I would be wearing that F-ing thing to work all week long had I won it!! Owe, and by chance if this means I get 3rd, you can send my shit to joetown... Click for Blog..

Here is a video of the tricky downhill at Castlewood. This is right from the start. You see the Experts, then SS, then Cat 2 with some marathon folks scattered in between. we are the thrid group to come by (cat 2), I am 4th coming down the hill (approx 3:38 into it). JP is at about 4:18 and hitting a tree!Can't miss it! Don't think he is going to like me very much for posting it, but I can't help it..

Also there is an awesome endo at about, 1:48, by a SS guy...

Click for Video

On another note, UFD has Crocodile Rock set for Perry lake this Sunday. I know Randy and C Hoppe will be back from vacation. Hell, even BradBob said he was going to make it....

MO State Championship Race, Castlewood

So close, yet so far away! What a suffer fest this one was! JP and I headed down to St. Louis this last weekend to try our luck at the MO State Championship mtb race. How nice would it have been to bring home one of these puppies! Nice!

Was not a lot of "West" side of the state folks down there for this race. Ethos crew as down there, Travis, Garet & Steve. Saw Tim from smithville and some others, but that was about it.
It was a hot & humid race and the start was insane! They had us go up this gravel double track about 1/4 mile. That was pretty gnarly, good for me on the SS, I hit the top of the hill 3 back... Then proceeded to lose ground bit by bit until the finish!
The course was pretty fun, considering I am not a big fan of rocks, I would like to hit it up sometime when I can slow down and appreciate it a bit more.
After the initial climb at the start there were two other significant climbs in the race, other than that it was smooth single track.(I'm the second one with the chicken legs) my race went as follows: Pass guys climbing in there granny gear up the climbs, they catch up at the end of the decent and pass me on the open grass section and repeat! For all three laps! It was a little frustrating but what can you do. 2 of the 3 guys I was playing leapfrog with ended up getting the better of me. I ended up 8th overall and 4th for the Cat 2 30-39. After looking at the results, I was about 6 min shy of 3rd and 20 F-ing min out from 1st. Yes, 20 MIN!!!
JP had a good showing, he pulled a 9th place on his first ride back from trying to injure himself. Also good considering he had some mechanicals along the way.

I am pretty sure that the only guy from our area to Potium was Garet from Ethos Racing. He killed it...
All in all I am very happy I went, but let me tell ya, it was a painful one. Hard course, the field was stacked with good riders, I loved it!
Here are some other points of view from guys who did much better than I did:
Dan Miller - won SS State
Johathan Schottler - Won Cat 1 State

Out with the old, In with the new!

Well, you can't even call it old.. Got a new SS Kona Unit frame over the winter, had my mechanic (Hippy) put it together and 3 months later this happens.. 2 days after the Krug race...

Just as well, I was having a hell of a time keeping the sliding rear dropouts from moving on me. I am not sure I think any thing other than a EBB (Eccentric Bottom Bracket)is going to work very well for a single speed. More on that later...
Called up Bikeman.com where I got the frame and they were refreshingly easy to work with. Long story short I ended up with what I should have got in the first place. Surly baby!

Now, I love this bike, however it does have horizontal dropouts. Which brings a new set of headaches of its own. My fancy Stans wheelset that I just had to get wont alow me to bolt it on, I have to use quck releases. So I had to get some tugnut tensioners. Which come to find out, apparently give a little. The drive side repedadly pulls the wheel out of center. So with my mechanic (hippy) we put another bolt onto it to help out..

Even with the added bolts, I still have trouble keeping the wheel centered through a couple laps at Krug. I even threw a chain a couple of times when it gets too lose. We Put some chain guides on the rear cog to stop the chain from slipping off. Which was a life saver with all the rocks at the Down and Dirty. I would have thrown that thing every half mile!
Any one else had problems like this? Any suggestions?

Owe, also heading down with JP for the Missouri State Championship race at Castlewood. Wish us luck, probably going to need it...

Down and Dirty

Just like we like it, down and dirty!
Craig, Darrel and I got up at the crack of dawn (literally) to head down to Warsaw to race. Got there about 9ish, Darrel was doing the marathon class so we needed to get there early.
Craig and I did a pre lap and let me tell you, this course was about the exact opposite of Krug. Rocky and flat(ish). There were some climbs but none that wiped you out. The off camber rocky stuff gave me fits though. The rocks were not Landahl/Swope Park rocks but smaller like smithville, just tons of them. Corning was a little difficult since we are all used to hardpacked single track. I noticed that LOTS of people had flats they had to deal with. I have to say that switching over to tubless is the best decision I have made yet.
Lots of folks were going down also, talented riders too, I saw many with cuts on there legs from going down. Personally I was not going fast enough to lose control. Our very own, Mr. Hoppe managed to hit the same tree all three laps! You would think that earned him some points or something.
Craig kicked major ass like usual, took 3rd over all in the expert badd ass cat 1. And 1st for his age group.


I did not fare as well as the machine and took 3rd in the Cat 2. 30-39. Not happy with that, but it'll have to do..


I think Darrel had a good time, he has not raced in a long time. Brad had a good time too, he was sitting on his ass at home instead of racing that new bike of his. (yes this is the first official call out till you race!)

The more I ride other trail systems the more I realize how spoiled we are here. I love our trails!!!

The race was put on pretty well I would say, could have used some weedaters out there, but what can you do. They all can't have Trail Hippy's!

weedeating girlscout sat morn?

I'll be out there at the brownie split at 7 amm straight up maybe a couple of us can finish brownie and a couple start girl scout. The trail hippie