Puppy

I never get any comments to my posts so I decided to post some pictures that will probably draw out some comments if anybody is reading this.









Nick and Jennifer's new puppy, Bailey.













Napping with Hank.

Carbon Wheels

I picked up a set of carbon wheels on ebay. The logos have been taken off but they're FSA RD 488s with Challenge Grifo tires. Used but in great shape. I'm thinking I might put my Dugasts on these rims and put these tires on my Velocity Deep V rims. The FSA wheels are not the lightest but they're tough. They are lighter than my Velocity wheels but about the same weight as my Reflex wheels with Flexus tires.




Well, I'm truly done with cyclocross for this year. The last race on my schedule is in Eugene tomorrow and I'm not going.

I've just finished this year's racing and I'm already excited about next year. I've decided I'm going to do some road races and time trials along with XC and CX races. I've been riding the road bike lately. I figured out what was causing the rear wheel to rub under power. The non-drive side spokes were too loose. I tightened them up and now I can hammer without any rubbing.

Psycho Cross

I think now I'm really done racing for the year. We hooked up the trailer Saturday and Susan and I drove to Eugene, Oregon for the third race of the Psycho Cross series. I don't think that I'm going to go back for the final race next weekend even though I think I'm in second place in Masters 50+. It's a four hour plus drive. The race this weekend was on Sunday so traveling on Saturday was okay. Next week it's on Saturday so I'd have to travel Friday afternoon. It was a fun race. There were only two in my age group so I got some good points. The other old guy has been winning everything lately. He won his age group both days last weekend at the USGP races in Portland.

The race was at a camp north of Eugene. They do conferences and retreats and have a pool, mini golf course, cabins and 6 RV spots. So we stayed in the trailer right on the race course. It was really great having the trailer there. It was cold. Cold by NW standards, not by Midwest standards. The high for the day was 37 degrees. It was probably about freezing when I raced at 9:30. I was able to ride to the trailer immediately after the race and take a shower to warm up. Just like the pro racers in Europe.



It was a great course. It had everything. Some pavement,














some smooth grass,













some bumpy grass,















a fast downhill leading to a













watercrossing,














some steps, that's me. Also some single track, barriers, a couple of runups and a sand pit. I robbed these pictures from the blog of one of the race directors.

They're going to race basically the same course next weekend. I'd like to go but I probably won't.

Cow Pasture

I guess I'm not done yet for the season. I raced in Arcata today. It was a really small race in a cow pasture. There was some single track. The course was rough and bumpy. It was fun though. I had an overall good time. Again, though, I felt like I just barely survived. I must get into better shape next year. They had a 30 minute and a 60 minute race. Naturally I raced the 30.

If you look carefully you can see the cow pies. You can also see all the cars that were there. I think there were only 25 or 30 racers.











It was a pretty setting for a race even if it was bumpy.












The after race activities included grilled hot dogs and beer provided by the race director. The raffle was great. This was his last race of the year and he wanted to get rid of everything. He gave a nice multi-tool to everyone who raced. I won one of the raffle items which consisted of two large containers of Heed powdered drink mix, a 26 serving Hammer Gel with flask and a hydration pack. It was worth the drive down.





The next two weekends are races in Eugene. I don't know if I'm going to do them. It's a long enough drive that I would have to spend the night before the race. The weather is getting shitty. It's supposed to snow in Portland this weekend for the USGP races.

End of Season?

I might just call it a season. I raced yesterday in Eugene and felt like I just barely survived. The course was almost all on grass. It was also very hilly, all up and down. It was cold but not raining. The course became muddy very quickly. Probably about one third of the course was off camber. The hilly course was not well suited to an old, out of shape guy like me. I suffered. It was so slick that I ran my tires as low as I felt comfortable with, 35 psi. I found out that I didn't do a very good job gluing the tires on. On one of the off camber sections my tire held well but the glue didn't. I rolled my rear tire off the rim. Not all the way off. I was able to push it back on and ride carefully to the pit. After changing the rear wheel I quickly learned that the Mud 2 tire at 40 psi was almost worthless. That did give me an excuse to walk the uphill sections though. I finished at the back of my age group but it was a small group so that was fourth place. The points will help me in the OBRA BAR rankings. I'm in third place in the Age Graded Masters Men 60-64 ranking. I don't think that I can overtake second place or be overtaken by fourth place. There's a race in Arcata next weekend and two more races in Eugene in December but I don't think I'll do them. I'm tired.

We spent Thanksgiving in Portland and had a good time. I rode my road bike on Friday. It's pretty hilly where I rode. Maybe I should have rested up for the race the next day. I took some pictures while I was out.

This was taken from high up on Terwilliger Blvd. in SW Portland. Condo construction in the foreground, Mt. Hood in the rear.












This is downtown on the river, The Tom McCall Waterfront Park.













The other side of the river, The Eastbank Esplanade.













I ended up in Susan's brother's studio in SE Portland.













View from his roof.















View in the other direction.














I need to start a blogs of shame list. Brooks hasn't posted to his blog in over a month. I have to read Brian's blog to know what's going on in Wisconsin and I don't even know Brian.

Final Outlaw Cross Race

It was the final race in the series yesterday at Emigrant Lake near Ashland, Oregon. It had been raining so I expected a miserable, muddy mess. Didn't happen. The rain held off and there wasn't much mud. I had decided to push harder this week. Big mistake. I hurt badly and wanted to quit a lap before the race was over, maybe two laps. I was hurting so bad that I slowed way down those last two laps instead of picking off a couple of racers. I crashed once. Well, not really crashed. I fell over after not being able to make it out of a ditch.

This is my friend, Richard Hogan entering the ditch in the A race. Everybody I watched went through the ditch easily, without even pedaling up the other side. I need to work on my technique.















Again, the SWAG for the raffle was the high point of the day for me. I won a shower caddie filled with bath goodies. You can't see it in this picture. It's behind the suitcase.










They had a separate raffle for a custom De Salvo frame. Not this frame. I think extra cash would be required to get it. What a sweet frame, though. Titanium with a carbon rear triangle. Check out the etching in the titanium. If you enlarge this picture you can see the shower caddie I won. I didn't win the frame.







Next weekend I'm going to race in Eugene, Oregon on my way home from Thanksgiving in Portland.

Cross Crusade. Holy Shit.

I raced Saturday at Emigrant Lake, near Ashland, Oregon and Sunday at the Cross Crusade race at Estacada near Portland. My actual racing was hardly worthy of mention. My bike worked, it didn't break, my body worked, I finished without a great deal of pain, and my Dugast Rhinos performed admirably. The course at Emigrant Lake was jungle cross almost more suited to a mountain bike than a cross bike. I survived. The course at Estacada was fun. Mostly grass, some single track, some off camber, some mud, two muddy downhills with runups that the accomplished racers rode up and a little bit of pavement. The course was long, 2.4 miles. I probably rode too conservatively. I started easy to pace myself and never really pushed it. I felt tired at the end but not spent. They start the beginners and 50+ masters at 9:00 a.m. so I was there early. I got a parking spot right in the middle of all the action. When I finished I was amazed at everything that had been set up while I was racing. Cross Crusade is not just a race. It's an event. There were vendors and bike shops and manufacturers there with booths. There was food and beer. I found the beer tent right after I finished. It was PBR but it was FREE. That's right FREE BEER. I had two PBRs before I spotted a guy with a dark colored liquid in his cup. I asked him where he got it and he took me to the Cross Crusade motorhome where they had Pyramid Snow Cap Ale. Much better and also FREE. Do they have free beer at the cross races in Wisconsin?

I couldn't get a good picture that showed everything. If you enlarge the picture you can see Vanilla Bicycles, White Industries and Retrotec Bicycles.











I took this picture of parts of the course from near the beer tent. Standing there made me realized that, during the race, I have absolutely no idea where I am other than on the course. In the top left of the picture is an off camber section that kind of bothered me. I had no idea it was so close to this downhill section and runup.







There were lots of interesting people there. It was a little crazy at times. It was lots of fun and I left before noon. I bet it got a lot more fun. I don't think I'm exaggerating to say there were thousands of people there. There was more racing for the rest of the day. As I was driving away about every third car on the highway had bikes on top.







It was supposed to rain all weekend but it didn't rain during either of the days I raced. We drove home from Portland on Monday and it rained hard. It was scary on the Interstate. It frightens me enough just passing the big trucks but when they're throwing up so much water that, for a couple of seconds you can't see anything, it absolutely terrifies me. We made it though.

Next Saturday is the final race of the Outlaw Cyclocross series, again, at Emigrant Lake. Sunday is the final Cross Crusade race in Portland but I don't think I'll go. We're going to Portland for Thanksgiving and driving there three weekends in a row is too much. I'm going to race in Eugene Saturday on the way home after Thanksgiving.

Flexus ride

I rode this afternoon at Cadra Ranch. The Tufo Flexus tire that I sealed with Stan's held up. I pumped it up to 50 psi and took off. I rode hard. I hit all the bumps. It held. Maybe I'll race with it again. Not this week though. It's going to be muddy at the Cross Crusade race on Sunday. I'll race the Dugasts. I ordered a pair of Michelin Mud 2s for my clincher rims. They will be my pit wheels.
This is the other side of the view from the picture I posted this morning. I don't know if you can see what I'm talking about from the pictures if you don't know what to look for. The picture looking west from the ridge shows the ocean and some water just before the ocean. This is the water, Lake Earl. This picture shows the mountains where the other picture was taken from. Right in the middle of the photo, at the very back.

If any of Brooks' and Mary's friends are reading these posts you might get an idea of why they stayed here as long as they did. It's really beautiful here.

Another Race and a Sunday Drive

I raced in Grants Pass again on Saturday. The only thing successful about the race was that I didn't flat. I rode the Dugast Rhinos. They performed well but were probably overkill for the course. There were about 40 riders in my race again this week. They started the race on a long paved section, about a half mile. The actual race course zig zagged along both sides of the road but they wanted to spread everybody out at the start. It worked. By the time I turned off the pavement onto the trail I was near the rear of the pack. I only passed three riders during the race and finished at the back of my age group. There were six in the B 50+ which is where I race. I felt good during the race though and my bike worked perfectly.

I'm going to train this week on the sealed up Flexus tires and see if they hold up. I really like those wheels if they just wouldn't flat. I'm racing at Emigrant Lake near Ashland, OR next Saturday and then I'm going to drive to Portland to race the Cross Crusade race on Sunday. Also that day in Portland they're having the Oregon Handmade Bike show.

Sunday we went for a drive with Frank and Sally into the hills of Del Norte County. It was a gorgeous day especially considering that it's now November. It must have been 75 degrees. We stopped on a ridge top for a picnic lunch. We could see the ocean including Lake Earl and Castle Rock. The view the other direction was into the Siskiyous.
This is the view to the west.













This is the view to the east into the mountains.













Our beagle, Buddy, wandered off while we were there and I thought we might have to send out a search party. I marked the lat, lon with my GPS. You can put it into Google Earth and see where we were. 41°47'53"N, 123°52'05"W, elev 4562 ft. He wandered back after about 45 minutes.

Flexus followup

I got some Stan's sealant and put it into my flat Tufo Flexus tire. I put in 1 ounce. When I pumped it up quite a bit came out before it sealed. I let it sit overnight and then pumped it up again. Only a little came out this time. I let it sit all day and then, this afternoon, went for a ride on a gravel road. I took a frame pump along. I lost pressure pretty quickly and pumped it up. I eventually lost pressure and pumped it up a couple more times. One time it went completely flat. I came home, put in another ounce of Stan's and pumped it up to 40 psi. A tiny amount came out and it seems to be holding. I don't think I'll trust it to race this weekend though. I'll race on the Dugast Rhinos. They're mounted on Velocity Deep Vee Elite rims. I built them for use in mud but, I guess I'll use them for dry conditions too. My clincher wheels with Geax Blade tires will be my pit wheels. Should I put some Stan's in my Dugasts in case I puncture them?

In my last post I mentioned an old guy from Portland who had come down to race in Grants Pass. I looked him up on the OBRA site and found that he is the BAR points leader in the masters category. His wife is the leader in the BAR female masters. Kick Ass couple. He has raced 57 times this year.

Tufo Flexus Tires Suck

I raced today in Grants Pass. I used my wheels with Mavic Reflex rims and Tufo Flexus tires. This is the second time this year that I've raced on these wheels. For the second time I flatted. I hit a rock but I was running 40 psi and the tires should have been able to handle the hit. Now I have $190 worth of brand new tires that are worthless. They can't be repaired. I ordered some Stan's sealant to see if that will fix the leak. I'll let you know if it works.

The race was fun, though. I ran about a quarter of a mile to the pit and switched to my other wheel so I was able to finish the race. There was a fast old guy from Portland and a guy from Yreka who has beaten me in the past in mountain bike races. So I probably would have been third in my age group without flatting. Maybe next week will be better.

The highlight of the day was that I won this gift basket in the raffle. I would have preferred the Garmin Edge GPS but Susan was happy with what I won.










Overall it was a very pleasant day. The weather was beautiful, especially for southern Oregon in late October. That reminds me. It rained like hell one day last week and the river came up 17 feet in 8 hours. Amazing.

Big Race Weekend

I picked up a cool jersey this weekend. Yeah, that's right, I'm the Short Track Cross Country Male Beginner State Champion. Before you send congratulations, I have to confess that I didn't have to beat anybody for the title. Just show up and race. I do deserve something though. STXC is brutal. Especially for an old, out of shape, overweight guy who doesn't train and has limited technical skills. I raced STXC four times in Northern California and four times in Southern Oregon. Isn't it cool? Champion of the whole state of California. That's way better than champion of someplace like, say, Wisconsin.







I hooked up my trailer Friday afternoon, loaded my bikes and stuff with one dog, Jake, and headed for Yreka. I almost didn't go because there had been a wind advisory for 80 mph gusts on Siskiyou summit in the morning. By mid afternoon there was only light winds so I took off. I stayed in an RV park in Yreka and was ready early to race cyclocross, my first race of the season. It was a good race. Nice course in a park. Some grass, some single track, some mud and some shitty, rocky stuff that was totally unnecessary, some barriers and a couple of steep runups. They only have A and B races in this series so I race as a B 50+. There were 37 racers in my race. I lined up near the rear so I would be out of the way of the young, fast guys. It was really slow at the start and I thought "this feels pretty good". I was the only 50+ so I decided I didn't need to push it. I just took it easy. I passed a few people who tried to ride what I considered a run up early in the race and then, late in the race, I started passing people who had run out of steam. I passed a guy on the last lap that I have never beaten before. I felt good at the end. Maybe next race I'll try harder.
It was muddy in spots.













After the race was over and the raffle was done I headed for Weaverville on Hwy 3 through Scott Valley and over the Marble Mountains. It was very scenic, lots of color. I passed a sign at one point that said "Steep curvy road 7 miles ahead autos with trailers not advised". I figured since I had a truck, not an auto, I'd be okay. I was. I just took it easy going down the other side of the mountain.











I stayed in another RV park in Weaverville. Not as nice as the one in Yreka, lousy cable TV and no Wifi.











The STXC race was uneventful once I realized that I was the winner by default. The course was pretty boring. A muddy, rutted road, a long rutted, muddy uphill section, and then a steep downhill drop in to the finish. Four laps for us beginners. Hardly worth the effort except that now I'm the State Champion.

Next weekend is in Grants Pass. It's the second race of the Outlaw Cyclocross series. I'll be there since I'm the points leader in the B 50+. Maybe I'll have some actual competition.

Sunday Morning Ride

I rode this morning up the South Fork of the Smith River from Hwy 199 to Big Flat. Went with Susan Roberts, Don Olsen, Michael Saberr, Gordon Pfeffer, and Tom and Nan Latimer on their tandem. 33.2 miles lots of hills. It's beautiful this time of year.






















Here's the beautiful South Fork of the Smith River.






































Somethings wrong with my road bike. When I pedal hard it sounds like something rubs. Tom thinks the hub is slipping. Chris King hubs are supposed to be bullet proof. I'm going to have to figure it out. It's been bugging me for a long time.

My first post

I've finally decided to try this. I don't know how long this will last but, I guess we'll find out. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about. I guess it will just be what I'm doing. I'll just jump in.

I just got back from riding my cross bike. My first race of the season is next weekend Oct. 20 in Yreka. Then on Sunday I'm racing the last of the STXC Norcal series in Weaverville. I have the Northern California Beginner Over 40 title locked up. I'm hoping that nobody in the Beginner Over 40 class show up for this race. If so I could be the State Champion. I've been riding out at the Cadra Ranch lately for cross training. I'll try to figure out how to post some pictures.
This is how the ride starts out. Gravel road.















Then it changes to two ruts. Is that called double track. It's so pretty that, when you're actually there you don't notice the power lines.

The trail goes out to a point next to Lakes Earl and Tolowa.













This is the trail coming back from the point.

















Then it loops back a different route to a Spruce forest.














It finishes through the forest. I usually do two laps.

Okay. That's my first post. I'll try to learn how to improve.