RocktoberFast 2010

Ed did a great job trailbossing our event this year.  We had a near-record turn out...around 100 riders.

All told, I think we did 4 preparatory rides to get the route together and verified.  That place is just relentless.  The route was designed with a few time-keeping sections for the fast guys and the usual extra Known at Erzberg to keep the C-riders in the game.

The weather on both Saturday for arrowing and Sunday were perfect.  Conditions were dry and fast.  Six of us did the arrowing on Saturday and it worked out fine.  Dinner at the sports bar in Lee on Sat night, Dave S. was nice enough to buy!

I didn't really get to see much of the event on Sunday.  I did my usual role of moving from point to point to make the course changes between the first and second loop.  There were five spots that needed to be changed and everything went without a hitch.

The BTR guys really came out big time and manned 2 check crews.  That was a huge help as well as helping with scoring.

One unfortunate thing was one rider with perhaps the nastiest head wound I've ever seen.  A 4"x2" flap cut out of his forehead with the skull visible.  He said that somehow he'd fallen forward and a sharp rock hit him between the helmet and goggles.  He got an ambulance ride to the hospital and is doing OK.

Parking was very tight.  We lost some space in the lot due to piles of earth and debris.

Check 10 caught a lot of the fast guys with a 1-minute burn.  That's exactly what that check was designed to do.  I hear the Erzberg Challenge was a big log jam and that Steve from STS has some good video of it.  The Long Way Home section was the undoing of a lot of the C-riders, but no one needed to be rescued.  All made it home.  Jim Senecal won with a ridiculous 9pts, including a burn....dropping just 1 point in the last section.

King Phillip Enduro

Had a blast today at the King Phillip Enduro.  Lots or rain overnight meant for slippery conditions.   They started us and finished us in the grass track this year.  Ed and I post-entered on row 20.  He got the holeshot and I used up a bunch of roll-offs trying to get by him in the first few corners in the muddy grass.  Corner speeds were low as traction was low.  I thought that if I could hang with him there I'd end up getting him in the trail section between the first and second grass tracks.  That's what happened as I got past him when he bobbled on some whoops.  Right away I was feeling the groove and feel like I rode as well as I could today.

The majority of the sections today were typical New England.  Lots of slimy rocks and a little bit of mud.  No stoppers, everything had a bottom.  The club did a good job of putting the sections together to have a mix of flowing and technical.  Arrowing was perfect and I didn't miss a single turn all day.  The only glitch was there not being enough reset after the first grass track.  Most of us pushed down the road and still checked in 3 minutes late to the next section.

I've decided that I'm not going to mess around trying any other tire combinations.  The Bridgestone M59 front and MT 16 rear were spot on and predictable all day.  So was the jetting.

In the section after gas, Ed got away from me for a while.  I had him reeled in at the tubes but he pulled away from me there and got me by half a minute in that section.  It was lucky for me that he just missed a flip so we ended up on the same minute.  That section went right into the A-B section with no break.  The check out of the tubes section was the check in to the A-B.  I was determined to reel him in and pushed as hard as I did all day.  Found him picking up his bike sideways on a hill about 1/2 mile before the check out and got him by just a few seconds.

At the Rhody, Ed beat me in almost every section.  Today was my turn.  I ended up 3rd B-Vet.  Gonna be fun riding this year.

Trials tire flop

After all the hype I've heard from a bunch of people about how good trials tires work in N.E. I decided to give it a try.  First ride was doing RocktoberFast mileages with Ed.  I really didn't like it at all.  The traction was marginally better, but the lack of braking, brake sliding, and the way it just sinks in mud were not worth the advantage to me.  It also felt like it upset the balance of the bike, putting too much weight on the front.  I don't really ever struggle with wheel spin so the traction gains were not that significant for me.

I decided to give it one more try this weekend at Beartown.  Another bust.  I hated the way the bike rode.  Some guys on NEDB and a few Pathfinders suggested going with lower PSI, more like 8 or 9.  I let a little air out on the trail and didn't feel much difference.  Got a flat a little bit later.  The trials tire is horrible when it's flat...a lot worse than a knobby.

So, I'll pull it off this weekend and check the damage.  If the bead is not too damaged, I'll keep it and put some car studs on it for frozen ground riding.  I'm going back to the good, ole trusty MT16.

EDIT:  Turns out that Shawn B. was right.  When I pulled off the trials tire to get ready for the King Phillip, I saw the the tube had ripped at the valve stem.  Too much traction.  They say you need 2 rim locks.  Anyway, after the great performance from the MT16 this weekend, I see no reason to experiment with the trials anymore.

Leyden Memorial Enduro

It's a crazy time at work right now so it's  taken me a while to get this update in. The Leyden enduro was two weeks ago and as usual, it continues to be one of the best organized and most fun enduros on the schedule.

Weather and trail conditions were perfect.  It was run in AMA rules, so 4 of us ran on the same line all day:  Rick B., Ed V., Scott F., and me.  We were on line 14 and the turnout was big for NETRA, probably about 130 riders.

As mentioned in a previous post, I think I've got the jetting knocked.  The bike ran great all day, no signs of overheating, no problems.  The suspension is still a little stiff, but in balance.  I'll probably have Gilles service the shock in a few weeks and I'll have him soften the valving the equivalent of 4-6 clicks of compression.

The trails were in awesome shape and the club had added lots of little sections of new singletrack.  Mostly this was in the form of small snippets that connected older pieces of trail.  I had a lot of fun chasing Rick and Ed for most of the day.  I got Ed in one of the sections, but he got me the rest of the day....including the last one.  In the last section, they opened up the flood gates turning the stream from the first section into a deluge.  It was a lot of fun.  The big shock was the small climb out of the stream in the first section was now a tough, off camber right turn.  I caught Ed just after this when I found him just looking at his bike on the ground, exhausted.  Not a quarter mile later I fell over and took a bath in a huge puddle.  Ed caught up and followed me through the grass track section before the end.  Crossing a log pile, I hesitated when the rider in front of me bobbled and Ed went straight over...beating me in the section.  It was a lot of fun and I almost caught back up to him.

As usual at this event, I had a ton of fun but my results were terrible...6th in the class I think.