Ghetto Tubeless

I bought a set of Racing Ralph CX clinchers a couple of weeks ago. I was going to put them on my single speed mountain bike and try it for cyclocross. I decided against that and, late last week, mounted them on my cross training wheels. I mounted them ghetto tubeless on Mavic Open 4 rims. They are predecessors to the Open Pro rims. I used Stan's yellow tape and a cut up 26" tube with Stan's sealant. They aired up and sealed easily. I raced them yesterday in the second Klamath Falls race. It was a perfect test for them. Lillian, the race promoter, had told me that the course would be flat and fast. It was neither. It was rocky and hard dirt with a lot of loose sand on the surface. There was one section that was about 20 yards of big, loose rocks. Rocks 4 or 5 inches in diameter. It scared me but I figured out just go pretty fast and hang on. There were a lot of barriers. Some of them led to slightly uphill sections with loose dirt. It was a physically demanding course. I ran the tires at 40 psi. They survived the banging through the rock section and provided traction in the loose sections. And they held air the whole race. A lot of people flatted on tires with tubes.
Oh, by the way, I put the hurt on Vern.

Vern

Here's a picture of me chasing Vern up the stairs at the first Klamath Falls race. In a previous post I said he was my nemesis. That's not true. The definition of nemesis is "an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome". I can best or overcome Vern once in a while, about half the time. I think I need to change my strategy to improve my record against him.

Wa-hoo!

I'm torn. I'm tickled to pull this page up and see my name in the number one position but I feel bad for the guy who is now number two. I worked real hard just to finish these races and I raced a lot of times but, other than Verne a couple of times, I've never beaten anybody. I raced with the now number two guy at Return on the Jedi and he lapped me, twice. Do I really deserve number one?

KFCX #1

I raced my first cyclocross race of the season today in Klamath Falls. I didn't take any pictures and my Garmin charts aren't very interesting so I took a picture of my bike as I raced it. I didn't know anything about the course so I didn't know which wheels to take. I decided to take the coolest wheels, the FSA carbon wheels with Dugast Rhinos. They were totally inappropriate but were the coolest wheels there. That counts for something doesn't it? It was a fun race. They are all fun when they're over. This one was fun during the race too. My nemesis, Verne, was there. Actually we are good friends and each of us races harder when the other is there. It was a 45 minute race so I wanted to conserve energy. The course started on an asphalt path then there were two short sets of stairs then grass, uphill for a while and level for a while then a barrier with short runup leading to an uphill section of asphalt road which leveled out to a long stair section then downhill on an asphalt road which led to a short dirt transition to a grass off camber section then downhill on grass back to the asphalt path. I just hung on Verne's wheel most of the race. He would get ahead of me on the downhill section leading to the grass. I was almost airborne a couple of times on the dirt transition which scared me. Then I would catch him on the uphill sections. On the last lap I passed him on the uphill section and screamed downhill to the off camber grass section where he caught and passed me to nip me at the finish line. It was fun. I'm going back next week. I didn't sign up for the whole series because it's such a long drive but now I'll probably do all four races.

Pistis STXC

That's my trophy from the Pistis STXC series. 1st place, single speed. The final race was, again, uneventful. I was the only single speeder. It was hot. I didn't have Susan's Volvo and my truck doesn't have a thermometer so I don't know how hot, but I think it was the hottest of the races this year. I felt bad during the race and was sweating like a hog at the awards afterwards. I won a saddle in the raffle. A Serfas Stinger RS. I put it on my road bike. I think I'm going to like it.
Next Sunday is the first of the Klamath Falls Cyclocross series. I'm going but I haven't signed up for the series. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive each way. I'll do the first race and then decide if I want to do the rest of the series.

Check it out!

I know it's bogus because I participate in races with only 2 or 3 competitors, or even sometimes only me, and the other guys participate in actual races, but it's still cool to see. It's for the whole state of Oregon, all ages.

Mountain biking and STXC

I've been riding my mountain bike lately with a couple of guys I've ridden with in the past. The first ride was in what is know as the Mill Creek Acquisition. It is 25,000 acres that was purchased by the Save the Redwoods League from the Miller Rellim Timber Company and given to the State Parks system. The State has no budget to manage it so it is only open to the public on weekends. It's a huge piece of property that was actively logged so it contains a confusing system of old gravel roads. This is a picture from the high point on our 16 mile ride that day. You can see Lake Earl in the background.

The next weekend we rode the Little Bald Hills trail. It starts out on the South Fork of the Smith River and ends up in the Redwoods on Howland Hill Road. We shuttled to the trail head and started up the hill. The first mile is a steep trail with switch backs up to the top of the ridge. We walked that portion. It is too steep to ride unless you are an animal. The trail climbs gently for the next 4 or 5 miles to the high point shown in this picture. It is mostly old jeep road at this point.




Once the trail starts downhill it becomes a sweet single track that enters the forest. A long section of the trail is new with gravel surface about three feet wide.
















The trail ends in the Redwoods. It is spectacular.


















Sunday evening I raced STXC in Grants Pass again. It was pretty uneventful. It was hot but I survived. I was the only racer in the single speed class. There was another guy riding his single speed but he raced in the regular Sport class. He beat me but not by very much. Next week is the last race in the series. The following week will be my first cross race of the season. I'm racing a four race series in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Then it's the Southern Oregon Outlaw Cyclocross series. It's a really fun series with great raffle prizes including a Desalvo frame raffled at the last race. You can see the bike that was built from the raffle frame on the Plus One Lap blog. There's a link to the right.