You shall not pass

Yesterday I drove all the way out to Schaeffer Farms, an hour away, to ride the blingle-speed on the lucious singletrack I've missed so much these past five years. Oh how I've longed for those zippy trails. And so it was with a smile on my face, a red bull in my lap, and coordinates punched into the GPS, that I backed out of the driveway and sped off to Germantown, MD. The whole way there I recounted excellent times had at this park. I remembered each loop and it's little nuggets of goodness (the evergreen sections, the half-pipe section, the cornfield perimeters... I remembered large group rides, changing in the parking lot, and waiting for the guy who was ALWAYS 20 minutes late. One thing I didn't remember was MORE's arguably over protective control over the park. I forgot that if it rains even remotely hard within a few days of when you plan on riding there, the park will most likely be closed to mountain bikers. And so when I pulled into that long familiar gravel entrance to the park, pleasantly surprised that “groove is in the heart” was just beginning to play on the radio, I was greeted by a locked gate which seemed to shout: “You shall not PASS!”

Buzz kill.

I sat in the truck for a full 5 minutes weighing the options. I could go to the Watershed in Frederick, but I brought my rigid singlespeed and I'd be miserable. I could just go home and take the road bike out, but I had an appetite for dirt today. Hmmm. I decided I'd head back to Baltimore and ride at Patapsco Park (Excellent singletrack). So I backed out of the entrance, popped the truck in drive and was on my way to my alternative riding spot. Until...

Above left: Dogfish Head Alehouse. Above right: A hut at Patapsco Park.

I passed a Dogfish Head Ale House. That's right. I'd never seen one before. So I pulled a U-ey and doubled back. It was lunch time anyway and I thought I'd finally be able to try out that 120 Minute IPA I've been reading about. And so I sat down at the bar, ordered a 120 minute IPA and the Ahi Tuna sandwich. I was talked out of the 120 after the bartender suggested I try a sample first. I tried it- it was sickeningly sweet and intensely strong at 18%. Yowza. So I ordered a 60 minute IPA. I was back on the road 30 minutes later and eager to hit the trails.

Above Left: Spring time in the forest. Above Right: The Singlespeed resting against an old oil tanker car.

When I pulled up to Patapsco and parked off of Rolling rd, I saw a bunch of riders leaving their cars and entering the woods. Awesome. I was stoked. I popped the 1X1 together and dove into the swooping decent that takes you down, down, down to a small creak which you crisscross a few times before being dumped out in a parking lot area. I shot across the parking lot, through a tunnel and into another zippy-fast trail that meandered along the Patapaso River. I searched out a familiar climb that was chock-full o' waterbars. I was huffin' & puffin' by the time I reached the top and though I was going to have a heart attach. I'm waaaaay out of shape! After recovering, I was really lovin' the purple trail. It was extremely fast and ideal for a singlespeed bike like mine. I did two small loops before I had to head back home. Excellent ride. Can't wait to get back in shape!

Above: An old oil tanker car beaten from it's roll down the train track embankment and several years of flood waters beating it to death, rests along the side of the Patapsco River.

Single Speeding in Allentown, PA.

One aspect of my job that I really enjoy is the traveling. Last week I had to travel to the middle of Pennsylvania. Since I had a rental car for last week's trip and a full day open for traveling/exploring, I packed a mountainbike and set off down the road. I got to Bear Creak Resort in Allentown, PA at around 1:30 and rode a single loop around the ski hills and lodge before calling it quits. I stopped often to shoot bits and pieces of footage with my iPhone to create the short video below. I was impressed with the trails, though I stuck to the main loop which traces the perimeter of the resort and measures only 5 miles. I was hard-pressed to make the climbs and keep my hands on the bars through the rock gardens on my rigid single speed machine but had a blast all the same. Snow flakes fluttered down through the leafless trees and snot froze in my mustache. It was 27°F and QUITE nippy! Overall I'm impressed with the video quality of the iPhone. Staying true to phattire low-budget production fashion, I used Windows Movie Maker to create this one.

The Bottle Ride - 2nd Annual Race

It's Monday morning and I find myself in the office feeling both sore and good, not unlike other Monday mornings. Recounting Saturday's race, I wash down a couple of Aleve with a sip of mediocre coffee from the kitchen here at work. In my cube, I shuffle my legs a bit to keep my slacks from sticking to the giant raspberry on my right leg. I loosen my tie in hopes of reliving a little tension from my shoulders. What an awesome race.

Above left: my left leg in 2010 after The Bottle Ride. Above right: my right leg in 2011 after The Bottle Ride.

Saturday morning I raced in the 2nd Annual Bottle Ride at Blue Mountain in Peekskill, NY (See last year's race report here). This time, I raced on my rigid single speed. Why? Because I love they way it rides: the flex of the steel, the direct connection to every impact that travels from the wheels up through the frame. Again this year, Georges's efforts in the race preparation, organization, and enthusiasm really paid off! Where else can you find a free race, comprised of a bunch of random cool cats, strong riders, prizes and on trails as brutally epic as the ones at Blue Mountain? Nowhere, mon frere. And so again, this year I raced.

So how did I do? Racers were sent off at 30 second intervals; the race followed the time trial format just as it did last year. Just, like last year, I started off aggressively, over excited and clumsily. I crashed hard, 50' into the race in almost the exact same spot as last year. The start of the course skirts off-camber, along the side of a steep hill and runs through a large rock garden. This is where I stalled, balanced for a moment, then slowly started to fall to the right, down hill. Looking downhill at my landing zone I saw nothing but boulders! And over I went, unable to disengage my cleat from my right pedal. I fell in an almost sitting position, still clipped in on the downhill side. Without a smidgeon of grace and with my arms flailing wildly, I plummeted downhill reaching out at the last second, bracing for impact. Luckily my upper body landed in a wonderful little soft patch of leaves while my hips and legs landed hard on the rocks. Adding insult to injury, my bike came to a stop on top of me.

Calm down.

While I scrambled back up the hill to the trail, I noticed my legs were scraped up but other that, they felt fine so I was eager to get pedaling as soon as possible. A race is no place for standing still you know. It's also not the place for hyped up, adrenaline fueled, clumsy riding. I had to calm myself down and ride smarter. A few minutes further down the trail and I had settled into a rhythm and started to feel very "on". My lines through the technical sections were precise and smooth as I lofted the bike over small rock patches, logs and slippery roots. I passed about 6 people in the first half of the race, and was able to stay ahead of the people behind me which was a really good feeling. My legs were loosened up and I was feeling great. So I began to push it. When I reached the long climb up Ned's Left Lung I just put my head down and chugged up the hill with a steady but ambitious cadence. I puked up a little coffee from earlier that morning, without loosing my focus and continued to turn the cranks.

Half way up Ned's Left Lung, I lost the ability to clip into my left pedal. The 2-year old wings in my Crank Brothers Candy pedals seemed to be stuck in the "open" position and would not close around the cleat in my shoe. I stopped half way up Ned's Left Lung, a grueling climb over loose baby-head sized rocks, grabbed a rock the size of a baseball and gave the pedal a few hard blows (TWSS). the wings snapped back in place and I was able to clip in for a few more feet before the pedal failed again. This time I just kept riding. Riding with only one foot clipped in is very aggravating. Every rock and log I hopped, had my left foot flying off the pedal, so I had to take them much slower than I usually would.

In the end, I think I did pretty well. The winner won with a time of 45:15. I suspect my time was probably somewhere around 60:00, but I won't know until Georges posts the times. Regardless of my time, I had a great time and even made a couple of friends who I plan on riding with. You can never have too many riding buds. Lastly, I want to thank Georges for all of the work he put into the second, Bottle Ride. Thanks G!

Rock on

Last Sunday I ripped around Sprain Ridge Park for a few hours on my singlespeed. Trail conditions were a little moist from the rain we received earlier in the week giving them a tacky/grippy feel. As usual it felt fantastic to turn the cranks and dip & dive through the woods. Riding a singlespeed through a damp forest can be quite surreal in that it is a very quiet experience. Twigs didn't snap beneath my tires and wet leaves helped to muffle my roll. I played around on this boulder for a few minutes before moving on. I wish I had the skills I used to have; I was once so smooth!

Yesterday's Blue Mountain blues

Yesterday's ride at Blue Mountain was short & sweet. I had envisioned a long day on the trails but several factors worked against that vision. For starters, I'm still sick. I have had this false notion that I'm fine, despite my constant hacking (this cough won't leave me). So when I got out there and started the first long climb I was feeling completely drained and barely got my singlespeed up the hills. My pace was slow; that's for sure.

The other factor that worked against us was Marc's bike. He had sent me an email the night before saying that he was having problems with his brakes. I thought to myself, no problem, I'll get him rolling at the tail head. Having spent several years as a wrench in bike shops I was positive that I could fix whatever was wrong with his ride. Unfortunately Marc, not knowing any better, had sprayed an obscene amount of WD-40 on his brake calipers to try to "free things up". I was able to adjust his calipers so that they weren't rubbing so badly on his disk rotors but the oil on his brake pads make the brakes pretty much non existent. The other issue with his bike was that the cones in his hubs (both hubs) were loose. They must have been loose for some time because when I tightened them down, by hand, the bearings were super gritty. (Marc I highly recommend you pick up this book!)

We rode for about an hour before we called it quits. I was OK with that. I loved being out in the woods as it was beautiful. The drought we're experiencing has definitely taken it's toll on the forest. Several of the swamps we rode past were completely dried up leaving black leaves and dried out moss where swamp water once was (see pics below). This area sure could use some rain.

As per standard operating procedure we swung in to Peekskill Brewery before catching the train back into the city. I enjoyed a couple of their IPA's (my favorite type of ale) and we all talked about riding, work, life and exchanged ridiculous stories of times gone by. The brewery is a great place to end a ride.

A lapse of time

Tomorrow is Saturday. This means I'll be taking the train out of the city, up to Peekskill, NY to ride at Blue Mountain Reservation. I'll be riding with a mellow crowd of guys and taking it easy. The weather is supposed to be perfect and I know the trails will be absolutely sublime. I'm anxious to see how my new Tioga tires grip the earth. They have really stiff, tall nubs and I'm not sure how they'll hold, although online reviews say they're great. I swapped out my flat pedals for another set of Crank Brothers Candy pedals that I had laying around. These ones came on my Cannondale and I never used them because I had a pair of Eggbeaters in store for that bike. For fun, I set up my camera on the tripod exposing one frame every two seconds. I then dumped the images into Quicktime Pro at a rate of ten frames per second to end up with the time lapse video below. It's late; I've got to get some shut eye.

Knobular

The singlespeed with new knobular rubber.

I'm looking forward to tearing up some singletrack at Blue Mountain on Saturday morning (T minus 3 days and counting). I haven't taken the singlespeed out in quite a while so I gave her some TLC this evening. Aside from throwing my egg beaters back on Saturday morning; she's tip top. I still have flat pedals on this bike from when I loaned it to my friend John a while back. I must say, the knobby tires I picked up at Tread Bike Shop after work today are quite malicious looking. A big change from the Kenda Small Block 8's I had on there. (see?) They ought to make a world of difference, although I'll be sure to let you know with a nice picture-heavy ride report on Saturday.

The stable

To a non-biker, having four bikes seems a bit excessive. But to me, I think it's completely within reason. I use these bikes equally and often. It's not that hard to understand, but I'll break it down for you anyway.

1. Fixed Gear: Used for grocery runs, spins downtown with the camera, bar crawling with friends and commuting to work.
2. Road bike: Used for long training rides out in NJ.
3. Single Speed Mt bike: Used primarily at Cunningham Park & Sprain Ridge when I need my back-to-basics nature fix.
4. Geared Mt bike: This is my woodland blaster, used for pure adrenaline on all trails.

Being a married cyclist, it's important that your spouse fully understand the necessity of several bikes. Especially when a new one may be joining the family. I got a reply from Mike Flanigan at ANT Bikes. Turns out that a Truss Frame Bike like the one I saw at the Museum of Art & Design will run me close to $4K. (yowza!) I'm going to see where I we can cut some corners on cost. He had some helpful ideas for shaving the cost down while still retaining the perfection that is, his work. Stay tuned...

El cheapo light system

I'm itching to get back into night riding. By the time I get home from work it's dark and the only time I have to ride is on weekends. (and they fly by entirely too fast) Being broke as usual, I rigged up a simple system that ought to work somewhat OK. I picked up this LED light from Target for $30. It's 160 Lumens, runs for 5 hours on three AAA batteries and even indicates when its batteries have 20% of their juice left. It weighs half a pound and is made of aluminum. I'll let you know how it works as soon as I get a chance to try it.

Rigging it up was simple. A couple of hose clamps from the tool crib at work, and a piece of a kicked road tube holds it right in place. I only see two negatives to this system. 1) obviously it's not too bright. I see that Nite Rider makes systems which operate at 200, 400, 600, 900 & 1200 Lumens. Mine's only 160. 2) It requires a screwdriver to adjust the angle of the beam. No biggie there; my multi-tool has a flat blade to adjust the hose clamps.

Saturday at Cunningham

I thought it would be a great idea to ride on the coldest day so far this year. It was a great idea. 27 degrees meant frozen dirt and iced over puddles which crunched under our tires as we ripped through the singletrack at Cunningham Park. For being so cold, we all kept pretty warm. My toes were the only thing that were a little chilly, but they warmed up when I was off the bike, walking around.

Met a rider at the trail head as we were about to leave the park and he was nice enough to let me try out his 29er. I'm still not convinced that 29ers are where it's at but it did feel radically different and my interest is peaked.

MTB in NYC

Stashing locks has become step 1 when arriving at trails here in NY. It's new to me (bringing a lock mountain biking) and I think it's unique to the NY MTB scene. Maybe it's more unique to the "Car-less NY MTB" scene. At any rate, a lock is 100% necessary and comes into play when you need to run into a store or fend off crazies on the train. The other side of bringing a lock is remembering to pick it up when you leave.

Highbridge Park

Well, this morning I met Dave over at Highbridge Park for a very light ride. We took our DSLR's with us and didn't do a whole lot of riding at all. Didn't do much photographing either actually. Evidently, Sprain Ridge had kicked both of our asses quite thoroughly yesterday. It was nice to be out in the woods though. One thing I will say: Highbridge is seriously neglected. It's in dire need of trail maintenance. I might just buy a rake and head over there next weekend. Someones gotta do it. The last time I was riding there, I came around a bend in the trail and almost ran over a make-shift tent, smack dab in the middle of the trail. I don't mind the litter on these trails. I expect it. I mean, hell it's right in the middle of the city; that shits going to be there. I just don't dig the condition of the trails. Serious love is going to be given soon; by me.

I must say that I love being able to hit at least some sort of singletrack just 7 blocks from my door. I love NY.

Photo by: Dave

Sprain Ridge Park - Yonkers, NY

What an awesome day of riding at Sprain Ridge Park in Yonkers. Dave, Alex and I rode for a few hours on some excellent singletrack. I loved all the drops and steep roll-downs. Got a real good work out on the hills as well. The end of North Brother's Loop totally kicked my ass! I can't wait to hit this place again when I get my new Cannondale. (Gears & suspension baby!) I'm thoroughly exhausted from the ride. A good night's rest will do me good.

Thanks to Dave for the awesome photos!

Holy Broken Elbows!

I'll be typing for Mike for a while... He's got TWO broken elbows.

After a great day of mountain biking with Alex at Blue Mountain Reservation (where he cleaned most of the gnarly sections) he almost had a collision with another cyclist 20 feet from our front steps. Avoiding the other cyclist meant stopping short after coming down a hill at high speed and flying over the handle bars (only to break his fall by putting his hands out in front of him). He got right up and carried his bike up all five flights of stairs to our apartment (the other cyclist didn't even stop!). He called me at work and assured me that he just had a bad sprain but...

When I got home from work he had already packed a bag to go to the ER and off we went.

Serious kudos to the people at the Columbia Presbyterian ER on Broadway...We were in and out in two hours flat.

Here's the prognosis: He has almost identical breaks in the tips of his radius bones, just at the top where they meet the humerus bone at the elbow. He doesn't have either arm in a cast because with this type of break it is important to keep his joints moving. He's doing alright but it's gonna be a while before he can ride again.

We'll report more when we pick up the digital x-rays we requested from the hospital.

-Mike's wife

Blue Mountain Reservation

Today I rode the singlespeed at Blue Mountain Reservation, which is about 40 miles north of New York City in the city of Peekskill, NY. [Trail Information here] After weeks of riding Cunningham Park in Queens, this was a breath of fresh air. The landscape and scenery are completely different.

I spent about 45 minutes on a Metro North Train to get up to Peekskill and then pedaled for about 2 miles to reach the park entrance. Once I got there I wasn't able to find any trail maps so I just set off into the woods. Wow, what an extensive system of singletrack!

Ten minutes into the ride the sky turned purple; shortly thereafter the clouds let loose with a storm of biblical proportions. Thunder cracked loudly above me and the rain came down in sheets. Leafy branches fluttered and sagged low. Rocks became slicker than snot. I huddled under a young sapling for a moment assessing the situation. While becoming soaked to the bone, crouched beneath a pitiful shelter from the storm, I decided I'd be just as wet swinging my way down through the trails, so I set the cranks in motion again.

The beautifully blazed 18” wide trail wound through dark, lush, pine forest cutting it's way though loamy soil, large fern beds and over large amounts of exposed rock. Logs, build-ups and rock roll-downs littered the trail nearly every 20 feet. There wasn't much in the way of elevation changes although it is much more hilly than Cunningham Park. At one point I stopped to let several PSI out of my tires to get better traction and I was happy for the suspension that it provided. While pedaling and exploring, a couple lines from a Robert Frost poem came to mind:

"The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."

I rode for about two hours before making my way back into town and over to the Train Station. A quick bike wash in the Hudson River cleaned the majority of mud off my ride and I caught an express train back to Manhattan.

Can't wait to head back there on Thursday after the trails have dried out!

More trail images here:

• Blue Mountain Reservation Pictures
  

Cunningham Park - Jamaica, Queens

I was up and at em' this morning to met a buddy in Jamaica at 8:45. Only took me 1:15 from phattire headquarters in uptown Manhattan. Lots of transfers (A Train to the D; to the E; to the F) but the pay off was incredible. I devoured the tastiest singletrack I've ridden in over 5 years.

Cunningham consists two main loops divided by the Clearview Expressway. Each loop has technical off-shoots of varying difficulty throughout; all aptly named like “Thrilla”, “Ankle Biter” and “Viper”. My friend Alex and I hit every trail at least twice including a few sessions at the dirt jumps which are insanely fun. Download a map of Cunningham here.

The weather was perfect. A few sprinkles here and there, but the overcast sky kept the sun from frying us. Couldn't have asked for better conditions really. The moisture softened the earth and gave it a tacky feel, although roots and rocks became a touch slippery.

Just as we were finishing our last jaunt through the “Iguana” trail, Alex landed a jump a little wonky and crashed into the underbrush. Turns out; he snapped his carbon fiber seat post. (Bummer!) Despite the broken seat post, the entire day was a blast. We rode for 4 hours and I'm looking forward to riding those trails again as soon as possible.

More riding.

I can't get enough of my new mountain bike. After putting it (and myself) through some serious abuse at Highbridge Park yesterday, I decided to ride it to work today.

I set out at 6:25 this morning which is the time I usually leave my house to catch the bus to the train to Yonkers. I arrived at work a couple of minutes before 7:00; my usual arrival time.

The ride was fantastic. The weather was beautiful; perfect for a commute from upper Manhattan through the Bronx and into Yonkers. I rode at a leisurely pace and enjoyed the sites, sounds and smells of NYC in the morning. Traveling north on Broadway, I crossed the Harlem Canal watching and listening to my knobby tires hum atop the metal grates. Below I watched the canal flowing by while bright morning sunlight pelted me on my entrance to Marble Hill. Continuing up Broadway I rode under the 1 Train. The loud rumble of train cars above me gave cause for some serious introspection about where I am in life and what I'm doing. I love my job, I love my wife, family & friends and I love being able to ride as much as I do. Life is good my friends.

Highbridge... again

What an awesome ride I had at Highbridge Park today. I met a guy who led me down some new trails which were super great. The riding reminded me a lot of the huckle I used to ride at the Watershed in Frederick, MD.

I floundered my way through the first few technical downhill sections but by the end of the ride I was feeling very much in the zone and was able to flow pretty well.

I'm super happy that my wrist is holding up so well. That's my biggest fear in re-entering the mountain biking scene. I don't have the mobility that I used to have and it's been getting quite a work out when I pull on the bars for leverage on those steep climbs. I think I'll tape it up for the next ride.

Life is good, life is good!

Highbridge Park

I rushed home from work today, slapped my spuds on the new GT and spun 7 blocks down to Highbridge Park. I got about 25 minutes of riding in before the rain really came down. The trails were wet but not so wet that I was damaging them so I explored as much as I could. it was fantastic to be rolling through twisty singletrack with a cityscape popping out above the treetops and the sound of the 1 Train and traffic in the background. I think I discovered another hidden gem in this great city.

My skills have definitely degraded during the several years spent away from knobby tired bikes. i had a hell of time hopping up some steep sections and was barely clearing obstacles I jumped. I'm not worried, it'll come.

I can't wait for the Hustle & Flow Race on Saturday. I'll be using the GT and the Nikon.

New wheels

I'm giddy. That's right; Giddy damn it! My new wheels came in the mail today. It's a GT Peace. Most people don't know that my cycling roots are in dirt (pun intended). Though the last 7 years or so I haven't ridden any huckle and have had a diet of strict asphalt and a couple seasons of cyclocross racing. The bike is spec'd out pretty well, although I see a suspension fork in my future. I was stoked to build it up and take it out for a quick first ride in the rapidly fading evening light of upper Manhattan. It's not the lightest bike, but it isn't super heavy either.

I got it out on the street and pulled a wheelie that I was able to ride for a very surprisingly long time, turning the bars and rolling my feet around the sides of the pedals to keep my balance. (shocked to have even that little bit of skill left in me) I pumped north under then 1 Train and cut west into Inwood Park. I spun up into the woods and hung out under the Henry Hudson Bridge catching my breath and grinning at thoughts of a super sweet summer at Highbridge Park. Descending down a small section of singletrack in almost total darkness I shocked myself when I cleared a twisting stair section built into the side of a hill. Getting back behind the saddle and rolling down the steps was a big rush. Then out onto the smooth pavement of the Park I rolled and up the hill I pumped to Broadway.

Wahoooo!