Since I went for pretty much the whole summer without any posting, I felt that I owed it to both my readers to say what I've been up to:

The big news - On July 20, I was laid off. Another casualty of the downturn in the automotive industry. On the bright side, I had a month to spend with Brandy before she went back to work. I've been using the time to get caught up on projects, try to find other employment (jobs in Engineering are hard to come by these days), and of course riding a lot.

Lumberjack 100 came and went: I finished in just over 9 hours, shaving 18 minutes off my time from last year. My placing was 12th in the Singlespeed class. Overall I don't think I ran as solid as a race this year. Some inattention to my electrolytes had me showing some mild cramps about 40 miles in. By eating a couple bananas I was able to knock the cramps back... unfortunately the damage had been done and I was lacking any climbing power for the second half of the race.

PALM followed immediately on the heels of Lumberjack, as in Lumberjack was on June 20, and we started pedaling on PALM on June 21. This led to some logistical "fun" for me. On the 20th, Brandy and her brother Rocky took bikes and gear to the endpoint for PALM, and took the bus over to the start. This was consistant with what we typically do for PALM. I did Lumberjack, and afterwards drove myself and my friend Jon down to the start of PALM. Thankfully PALM started this year in Whitehall, which was just over an hour from Lumberjack.
Brandy and I rode our separate bikes for this, as she wanted to prove to herself that she could do the whole week (with not much training I might add). Also, last year we found that on the tandem, we'd quickly pull away from Rocky.
PALM also happened to be on the hottest week of the summer, with temperatures in the low-mid 90s.

I haven't been doing much racing this year. My races so far consist of one Lake Orion spring race, the adventure race, Lumberjack, Big M, the race at the Michigan Bike Festival, Pain Haven, and the Ithaca GP of Cyclocross.
At Big M, I pretty much came out flat. I think for that race I was not fully hydrated at the start. I decided to race against the expert gearies in my age group, finishing 7th of 9. The good news was that I got faster as the race went on.
The race at the Michigan Bike Festival was unique, utilizing the ski trails at Hartwick Pines, singletrack at Hanson Hills, and roughly 9 miles of bike path connecting them. I basically ran out of gas with less than a mile left (next time I need to listen to TMB and eat more than a Clif bar for breakfast). I didn't realize it at the time, but I let the eventual 4th and 5th place guys past me with < 1 mile left, giving me a 6th place finish out of 7.

Overall, the Michigan Bike Festival was a great time. Attendance was on the low side, but I knew a lot of the people there. Hopefully next year, more people from southern Michigan make the trek up to Grayling for this.

Over the past couple months I've been running more than ever before. No real reason why. I've also had a couple big mileage months on the bike.

Not much more to say. Next up is a couple Cyclocross races, followed by Iceman.

High Country Pathway

After a morning career fair in Marlette, I proceeded to drive north. My usual stop at Big Buck netted me a growler of IPA and a growler of Old Ale... alas, they were out of Docs ESB. Through the rain and drizzle I then drove on to Clear Lake State Park.
The drizzle let up enough for me to quickly set up camp. As nobody else was in the group site, I walked over to the modern campground where Rick and Chris were just setting up. I hung out with them for a while, before making my way back over to the group site. Tom and Joe had arrived, and Dan would arrive shortly later.
We had dinner, and sat around the fire sharing stories. We also elected to do the ride without spotting cars (everyone there was an HCP veteran), and also decided to put off riding until 11am (we usually get rolling by 10).

As usual, we caravaned up to Osmun Road, got ready, and did the group photo thing.

From Left: Joe, Chris, Dan, Myself, Rick, Al, Tom
*photo courtesy of Tom Landry

I was having fun riding the wet roots that greeted us right off the start. Quickly I found myself leading the pack, with Dan right on my wheel. We pulled ahead of the rest of the group; the pace was good but comfortably maintainable. After a bobble on a boardwalk, Dan took the lead. Dan and I both had the same thoughts: keep stops to a minimum so we wouldn't cool off and have our legs tighten up.
Things warmed up a bit, and at Pine Grove we stopped to shed our outer layers.
Boardwalks that would often be ridden (some even by me) were best walked in the wet conditions. Walking them was even trecherous: Dan "surfed" on his feet for a good few yards on one.
We stopped briefly at the DNR office to top off our water, and pushed on. Just past Tubbs Creek, it started to drizzle. We put on our raincoats, and rode on. A half hour later the rain stopped, and off came the raincoats. Things proceeded without incident until we were coming down off Rattlesnake Hill. Dan's rear brake went out! We (him carefully) rode to the road crossing at the base of Rattlesnake Hill. Here the problem was diagnosed as a broken cable. There was just enough cable where, with some adjustment of the pads, I was able to get him a little bit of rear stopping power. The alternative was to bail early onto dirt roads.
We rolled into the campground through the "Day Use" area, shaving 4 miles of trail off the ride (commonly done when riding the Fun 50). Our rolling time was 5 1/2 hours, with an extra 45 minutes worth of stops thrown in.

The rest of the crew had quite an adventure: an hour to fight with a flat tire, photo ops, and riding the last hour by moonlight. We picked up the cars from Osmun Road, and enjoyed a few beverages around the fire.

Newest Bike Build

Thanks goes to Ben for the frame, wheels, and fork.

Build is as follows:

Frame: Unknown make. Based on a few details such as the Esge brake bridge and the seatpost diameter, I’m guessing mid ‘70s European made (Germany or Austria) department store bike (Free Spirit was a common example). Tubing is likely gas-pipe.

Frame cold set to 126 mm spacing

Wheels: Front is a Richey, rear is a Campy rim with unknown hub

Fork: Shimano

Crankset: Old Raleigh in a spinneriffic 170 mm length; 42t chainring

Cog: 16t cheap BMX cog (need to get a 14t)

Brakes: Shimano 600

Homemade drop hanger for the rear brake. Front brake adjustment slots lengthened to get the pads low enough (only needed ~2mm on the front)

Levers: Old skool Weinmann – new Cane Creek hoods trimmed to fit

Tires: Cheep Serfas 700x25. I think there may be a TPI or 2 somewhere in them ;)

Tape: Bontrager (my first crack at taping road bars)

Saddle: Selle Italia (Ti rails even – it spent a couple seasons on the Q)

Seatpost: unknown

All Aboard the Pain Train - a full weekend of racing

After packing and loading up the car on Friday, I left early Saturday morning for Sanford MI. This was the site for the 30 Miles of Pain Haven race, a race which has been intriguing me for a year plus now. As the name states, this is a 30 mile mountain bike race, held at Pine Haven in Sanford. The start is a bit different than a typical race. You do a 1 mile time trial, and your time (relative to other riders) in the time trial determines which wave (of 2 or 3 riders) you start in. Each wave then starts 5 seconds apart. The primary reason for this is that the singletrack starts within 50 yards of the start, and it helps to cut down on bottlenecks going into the singletrack.
I had a mediocre time trial, and started about 5 waves back with Steve Kinley (a Masters rider). There were 3 others in the singlespeed class, 2 starting in the wave prior to me, and the last a few waves up.
I beat Steve to the singletrack, and grabbed ahold of the wheel of the singlespeed rider one wave ahead of me. Unfortunately, he quickly pulled away through the first couple miles of singletrack. When we hit the 2-track, Steve pulled around and took off.
I spent most of the race by myself, except for a bout of cat-and-mouse with a geared "age group" rider. Overall, it was a very enjoyable course, with a lot of doubletrack in the middle. There were a suprising number of hills in this doubletrack also. The twisty nature of the singletrack meant you were frequently seeing other riders, who were either a minute plus ahead of you or an equal distance behind you.
Late on the 3rd (and last) lap, I caught Steve. Afterwards I would find out he suffered a bout of crashes. I also pulled within site of another singlespeeder. unfortunately I was lacking in gas and time to fully reel him in.
I crossed the finish line at 2:19:24 for 4th of 4 in singlespeed. I was 10th of 20 overall (for the 30 mile racers, not counting the sport and beginner classes). All four of us in the singlespeed class were seperated by less than 3 minutes.

Unforutunately, I couldn't stick around for the awards, post-race food, or more than one beer. It was back in the car... next stop Ithaca... for the Ithaca Grand Prix of Cyclocross. Team Sandbag assisted in setting up the course for Sunday's race, and I had volunteered to help. I met up with the team, and we laid out the course. This was followed up with some pre-riding to learn the layout and work out the best lines on some of the corners. Afterwards, we had a nice pasta dinner and a good night sleep.

I had a bit of time before the singlespeed race, so I was able to watch all the other classes. My teammates Curt, Ben, and Lee rocked it out in the 30 minute "C" class race. Following that, I watched Todd and John in the 45 minute "B" class race. John had recovered from an early crash to work his way into the top 5. Unfortunately mid-race he suffered a flat and had to carry his bike ~2/3 of a lap to the pits. Grabbing his pit-bike, he was still able to at least finish.

At 1:15, after my warmup, I was lined up with Ben, John, and 12 others for the 45 minute singlespeed race. At the start, some of the riders made the dash for the cash Prime. John took off with this group: I think he was out for blood after his flat in the "B" race. I held back not wanting to blow myself up right away.
My start was mediocre, and I found myself back in 10th or 11th for the first couple laps. There were a few minor issues due to my jitters/inexperiences: tripping and almost falling on the ampitheater run-up, washing out on a hard left (luckily I recovered without hitting the ground), a few pedal strikes, some bad line choices.
Having worked out the opening jitters, and some of the "heavy legs" feeling that came from racing the day before, I was able to pick up the pace. My line choices became better, I used less brake going into some of the corners, and I was able to put the hammer down on the more open section mid-lap. Over the next 4 laps, I was able to work my way up to what I believed to be 6th or 7th place.
On the bell lap, noting that the next guy back was nowhere within striking distance, I backed off a bit. With one lap to go I didn't want to take any chances. Towards the end of the last lap, I noticed I was within 30 seconds or so of the rider in front of me. Unfortunately (as with Saturday's race) I was out of time to reel him in.
I crossed the line, and later was told that I finished 6th in the 15 person field. Not bad for my first ever cyclocross race. My teammate John rocked it to a 4th place finish.

Riding up the sled hill. We rode about 2/3 of the way up, made a hairpin left turn, and bombed right back down (hitting close to 25 mph). During set-up, it was suggested that we go all the way to the top. By my last lap I was thankful we didn't.


Hairpin left off of grass onto blacktop.


Running up the "Ampitheater of Pain"


Cresting a short climb.

New Crank Arm

The new crank arm arrived today. Big thumbs-up to White Industries customer service for being able to turn this around quickly.

ENO Update

I spoke to White Industries yesterday, and they are going to overnight a replacement crank arm to me. They just asked that I return the cracked arm to them, and I'll be paying the difference between overnight and standard shipping. The lady at White Industries was very nice to work with, and overall it's been a good experience so far.

I'll post up once I receive the replacement crank arm (should be this afternoon).

ENO on Crack

Found this today while washing the bike.





Hopefully I can get a replacement crank arm in time for Lumberjack. I left a message with White Industries, and I'll post an update later after I hear back from them.