The Original Snow [Patapsco] Valley Ride

Greetings all, Today the MTB team banded together once more and made a terrible, windy, cold and brutal day into a very very solid ride opportunity.

After arriving at the CCBC tennis courts on my cross bike, the Raleigh RX1.0, I tried hard to tell myself the pain was just weakness leaving the body. After standing in the cold, we rolled and thankfully, gracious Mike did not take us on the technical loop right off. The technical stuff isn't a problem for me on my normal bike, but on a road bike, a little much.

After a few hard, hard diggers, I finally got into a rhythm. This is basically how the ride would go:

First the fat tire boys would fly down the hills like they were supposed to. The snow that was on the ground didn't seem to slow Kidd or anyone else down. I would find myself off the back, yes off the back of a mountain bike group.

Typacially I made great time on the climbs, even the technical ones and was actually clearing stuff on the 700x32's (in the snow) that I have trouble occasionally with on a nice day with my 29x2.2's. At one point on the ridge trail I was just tearing it up the side of the hill till my admittedly worn-out rear tire finally just refused to grab the earth any longer. I'm almost certin that I climbed better because this bike weighs 21 lbs, and my monocog flight 29er (SS I might add) weighs 27 on a good day.

Logs were of little problem for the RX1, the reasons I hate this bike on the road, were the very reasons it took so well to the dirt. Namely its very high bottom bracket gave mondo clearence over stupid stuff and the forward position made bunny hopping easy.

Biggest tip for riding a cyclocross bike at Patapsco-Avalon, THORN RESISTANT TUBES. Yes my cross bike has clinchers, cause I tend to break nice stuff. These tubes are 10x the thickness of what most recognize as a road tube, making it **Impossible** to pinchflat. I was actually bottoming out on my rims a few times (at 45psi) and still no problems. The one drawback is weight, they are very heavy but I noticed this less in the woods then I did in a cross race or on road.

Last point, cross bikes are slow as a turtle going down. Its their nature unless you're Jeremiah Bishop. Because of the carbon fork, high pressure tires and narrow contact with the ground (on a muddy snowy day) you have to just deal with it. The benefit, center pull brakes were the original anti-lock devices and I never skidded out, at all.

My wrists, forearms and neck all hurt from going over the bars about twice, crashing into a tree once. However I would certainly try riding out in the woods on my X bike again, let me just true my wheels up again first.

or

You Decide.

ABRT Mt Bike Ride 11/9

On Sunday, 9 members of ABRT showed for a great mt bike ride on a beautiful day at Patapsco. It was a spirited but not-too-hard pace for me and easy pace for the experts. It was pretty cool to be sportin' the team kits in mass as we came across a fair amount of on-coming bikers and hikers! The woods sure afforded some nice protection from what seemed like a windy day everywhere else. I may be missing someone, but those in attendance included Mike Cunningham, Kidd Manville, Sean Sullivan, Dennis Scanlon, Dee (Mike’s wife), Dave Bradshaw, Tom Mackay, Rick P, myself, Jonathon Seibold (from Family Bike shop), and Jim McNeely from Coppi. Kidd, Sean, Jonathan, and Jim had already been out with some others for an hour or so before we joined forces along the way.

The woods were beautiful with bright fallen leaves everywhere; they added to the challenge because they were hiding some sneaky ruts and obstacles here and there. We crossed several small streams that were *COLD* but refreshing enough on my toes (that is, if you splashed too much as you were attempting to get across). It was a great workout for me, especially since my mt bike muscles have atrophied over the past few months...that and my brake was rubbing, among a few other mechanical excuses (not to mention that I am slower than everyone else, of course). I was busy bitching about my gears not shifting down when I needed them to, yet there were several others on freakin' single speeds sans a single complaint. There were a few logs that I didn’t bother to ride over- but I did ok on some of the smaller uphill logs that I would typically have avoided. It's always fun to watch Young Tom and all the others who are more technically savvy out there! I felt pretty good w/ the occasional rock garden and seemed fine with my rear shock locked out.

Mishaps along the way included Rick w/ a flat pretty early on the ride. He was straddling his brand new Cannondale 29'er with tubeless tires- so probably just squeezed some air out on one of the more significant rock edges (but I am not sure)- he managed to get air back into it without a long wait or incident. Later however, Dave broke his derailleur! This was followed by his having to convert his machine to a single-speed, using my trusty chain tool. I think I have loaned out that tool to at least 4 or 5 folks in the past... never actually having to learn how to use it myself. I had one spectacular endo- but of course it is not spectacular unless there are witnesses. Thank goodness I was in the back, so no one else saw me (blush)! I still have no idea what reached out and grabbed my front wheel. It was fast and silent. I slammed my diaphragm on my bars hard enough to painfully knock all the wind out of me. I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to squeeze out even a feeble attempt at “help”! All that I accomplished was a comical whimper and faint whisper- I might have done just as well to have thought the words instead. So I laid there and thought real hard as I watched the rest of the group ride off up the trail ahead without me. Eventually I was breathing again and back on my bike wondering when they would figure out that they had one less rider. But it wasn't but a few minutes later that I encountered Mike coming back to look for me. This as Dennis went off on an adjacent trail thinking I had simply made a wrong turn (very likely since I have no clue where I am out there). But I was fine and ready for another hour or so and off we went. Shortly before the finish, Rick went down somewhere and lost his pump. So he doubled back to find it. Rick is apparently getting used to the way his shiny new 29'er handles out there...(whereas I'm getting used to the way a bike actually handles out there...). I noticed Rick had some slightly skinned knees peeking through some newly "vented" tights. But it was all in a day's fun on the trail and I think everyone had a good time or workout. Let's do it again and again! And remind me to bring my helmet cam along next time...

Not sure how long or far we went exactly, but it was just enough for me.

SuePer