Duathalon of sorts

Sunday we had the Cranmore Race Team end of the year cookout at Cranmore Mountain. Got to race a pro-style slalom course which was a lot of fun. Spring skiing was great but the warm temps of the last couple of weeks had taken it's toll on the mountain. After skiing with the family, and both my wife and oldest son winning their respective race categories we headed home.

On the drive home I was thinking about going for a ride. A friend had sent me a text about a mountain bike ride they took the day before and that the trails were in pretty nice shape. So I dug out the SS and headed out to Sticks & Stones which was in fine shape.




After a lap there I decided to go see what the Sidehill trail looked like. I anticipated some Ice on the climb up which was there but not that much for mid March. I walked those sections and when it was gone the trail was dry. Once I turned onto Sidehill I was surprised at how good it was. The ground wasn't spongy or soft at all.




I crossed the bridge without issue and then proceeded down the rest of the trail. Aside from a couple of blowdowns the trails were nice. I was amazed to be riding in mid 50's on dirt in March. Don't think I can recall doing that ever in NH. It has been raining since then so maybe it was a very small window of riding, but I was happy to shake the rust off this early.

Hard to beat a day of skiing and mountain biking. My kind of duathalon.

JJ

early miles

With surgery looming at the end of April and knowing that I won't be able to ride for quite some time after that I have been trying to get some riding in. The nice thing is that the weather for March has been very cooperative so far and very un-March like. Yesterday it was pushing 65 with a light breeze. The early morning ride was in the 20's so still a bit chilly. I was underdressed for my morning commute and overdressed for the ride home.

On the ride home something happened to me that I have never had happen before. I was rolling along as a State Trooper cruises past me. As I watch it pass it pulls to the side in front of me, I start to think "Is he pulling me over?" "I'm on a bike." I know it's St. Patty's day and all but I'm on a bike. Maybe he had informant in the bar I was in at lunch time.

I pulled up to his window and looked in to see that I knew the Trooper. I asked him if he was pulling me over, he laughed and said "Ya, on your bike" It was funny but he thought I was someone else. Either way we each went on our respective ways after a little laugh. I think it might have been funny trying to do field sobriety tests in road shoes in lycra. Its odd what runs through your mind when these sorts of goofy things happen.

JJ

I felt that

Snuck out for a lunchtime spin yesterday, it turned into a ride that lasted for a weeks worth of lunches, but that was ok. Took the Chilli out as the roads are still in rough shape, that and I still haven't swapped out the stem on the Primero (stripped bolt on the face plate- three probably are enough but why risk it).

I ended up riding a route I've never ridden before, heading out around the big side of Moose Pond. The route had some awesome views, and much more climbing than I had thought it would have. Ended up with almost 1700 feet of climbing. Not that that is a lot, but at this point in the season I am not looking to climb!

I'm hoping that they do some work on the Mountain Road as the loop is nice, just not one I think I would want to run 23cc tires on. With that said I've been thinking about trying to find a pair of 27 or 28cc tires to run as my standard road tire. There are just too many crappy roads around here that 23's just seem a foolish choice. Plus I'm getting old and am looking for comfort!

On the Big Mama front, it's built and seems to fit. I need to dial in the boinging parts and I'm going to swap out the bars for a riser and then get a set of Ergon's for the love of my hands. I'm anxious to give it a go. It feels sluggish riding around, but that may be the fact I've been on a fully rigid bike now for a few years- any bit of give when riding around on pavement or grass feels sluggish- so I won't know until we go railing into some nice singletrack- soooooon!

That is it for now. Ride safe.

DEA

Build underway

Made the trip to Team Bikeman.com World HQ on Saturday to pick up a very large box. It was very large, requiring a bit of finagling in the ManVan AKA The Toy Box. I had not expected such a large box, but big wheeled bikes of the dual squishy kind require a fair amount of cardboard to cover them up.


In addition to picking up a new bike for me we also stopped at NAPA to pick up some new colors for Emma's bike. She'd been bugging me to paint her bike for awhile so we made it a date to get it done this weekend. Let me say that it took me a lot more time than I had anticipated and it didn't come out quite the way I had hopped, but it Emma was happy with it so she's off and digging her new color scheme (which reminds me an awful lot of the Cannondale road bike that is now hanging as a bare frame in JJ's basement).

With all the painting and stuff going on in the garage I didn't really dive into the build of the Big Mama until last night. I have to say builds these days aren't as much "fun" as so much of the build is done at the factory. Instead it's rechecking their work and making sure things are torques and greased, so more of a un-build then build. The exciting part is cutting all the giant zip ties and pulling off all the packing foam to reveal the bike. She sure is purrrrty.

It is strange looking at all the squishy and shifty parts on a mountain bike again. It's been a couple of years since I've spent any quality time on a mountain bike with gears and suspension, I hope I like it!

What will be interesting is to see the rotation in the fleet, what do I put the most time on? Hmmm, hard tellin' not knowin'.

A possible shakedown cruz this afternoon, we'll keep you posted.
DEA