A fine locale to start the Wednesday evening rides from. Gotta try to make as many of these as I can.

Pic from Don

Pump Track meeting

Double-post to cover both blogs.
Look here please

view from the top

Any ride with this cast is sure to entertain. The thick fog made it impossible to locate the real source of a problem.

yea, yea, I know, an ounce of prevention.............

Ya'll not living in glass houses may particularly enjoy this.

Once again, I have a seatpost stuck in a steel frame. From the late 80s and my Bridgestone, I've had problems with the prevention part.

This time, I searched out a MORE thread from the last time this happened to my IF, in 2005, where Nick offered this advice:

" Take out the bottom bracket, turn the bike upside down, pour bunches of ammonia (yes, ammonia) into the seat tube and let sit overnight. It should pop right out in the morning. I've done this several times."

This advice was seconded by RickyD, referring to the late great Sheldon Brown. The great one says:

"Aluminum seatposts frequently become stuck by corrosion also, and penetrating oil is almost useless against aluminum oxide. Fortunately, aluminum oxide can be dissolved like magic by using ammonia"

I removed the saddle and poured about 1/3 bottle of ammonia down into the post and into the seattube. I don't have a weep hole on the bottom of my BB shell, and the shell only has a tiny opening to the seattube. The BB was still in the frame. So, the ammonia sat on the BB and backed up all the way into the seatpost and seattube. I also sponged lots of ammonia around the interface of the post and outside the frame. I let this sit overnight and waited for the magic to happen.

Put the saddle back on the next day and began twisting and wrestling with no luck. No movement at all. No magic. OK then, what now? Back to the WD-40 and penetrating oil, which have worked for me in the past even though they shouldn't have.

Repeated the same 8-hour soaking routines, first with WD-40, and then with penetrating oil. No movement, no magic again. Jody was helping me by this time, and looked for a way to get more leverage. We came up with an extra handlebar clamped into the seatpost clamp as tight as we could get it (it buggered up the handlebar - no great loss).

Still no movement. Started thinking of ways to freeze the post to contract it, thought of dry ice, but the dry ice store 4 blocks away didn't open until morning. So we stuffed ice cubes into the post/seattube until we started seeing condensation on the outside of the post. Then quickly clamped the handlebar leverage device back into the post and started wrestling again.

FINALLY, movement. Enough movement to get a bit more lube into the interface, and then it worked it's way out.

So, what really worked?? The ammonia? WD-40/penetrating oil? The ice? Or, the leverage bar? I don't really know, but I know what Nick said "...keepin' it greasy so it'll go down easy... "

Kent churns 'em out.
from GearshiftTV

Was cool to get to meet some of the other crew of the Single Speed Outlaw Team

from Tony

Especially when they roll like this
from Baler

I had a couple interesting moments on the course, one I was witness to, and the other was almost my own undoing. I think it was on my second lap, in a fast line of 3 ripping thru the pines near the end of the lap. I'm 3rd wheel, my City Bikes friend Mike Scardaville is 2nd wheel. I can tell Mike wants to pass and I was gonna try to pass along behind him. We hit a straightaway section, Mike stands up and moves out of the draft of the lead rider, gets his first power stroke started, and then immediately grabs all of his front brake when he sees the 12" pine tree right in front of him. He was able to make the bike endo enough to slow down his impact with the tree. But, heavy impact it was, broken helmet, head & shoulder impact etc. It looked like he was going into shock, he was hyperventilating and it took me a while to get him to slow down his breathing while I checked the back of his jersey for any bones sticking out or growing red spots. His bike was fine, his legs were fine, and eventually we discovered that his upper body was good enough too and I got him to stand up and finish the lap. I think he may have skipped a lap or two, but he was able to finish the race.

On my 3rd lap, I find myself surprisingly alone on the course as the crowd had already dispersed by then. So, I decided to play a little on some of the auxiliary rocks and alternate freeride lines that were built along the course, but not part of the course. I'd noticed this ladder-to-rock-to-ladder ramp on my other laps that looked interesting. I did not check the bottom on either of those laps. So, up I go onto the first ladder and onto the long flat rock, about 4' off the ground. Down the other ramp, and then I notice the bottom rung is broken. I can tell immediately that I can't just skip the last rung with some sort of wheely drop or other move. I also can't just ride off the side and bail since there's no safe zone around (is this IMBA approved?). I notice the stringer. The round fencepost stringer.

I also had the most interesting passing experience in my racing history. It's still daylight, I don't know what lap. I come up quickly on a guy in a pink well-known bike company jersey. When I reach his wheel, I coast, and my Chris King hub goes into it's attack whirrrrr sound. We pass a couple people at a campsite set up by itself in the middle of the course. I make a joke about them wanting wilderness and solitude. As I'm saying this, we hit a wide section and I creep up on his left, still talking. The following conversation ensued. Yes, you'll see that I could have ended it, but I couldn't resist, and kept feeding him:
He shouts: "I'll be the rider you're now passing"
he: "anything I can do to make your passing experience more enjoyable, let me know..."
me: "Dude, relax, I thought I let you know by talking and moving up slowly..." He then sees my class marking on my leg.
he: "Oh, you're in my class too, now I really hate you"
me: "Sorry man, go ahead, pass me back, I'm not racing you, or anybody"
he: "OK, sure, I forgive you. I'll forgive everybody...."
me: "..well, you pretty much have to forgive everybody, otherwise you're gonna be pissed off at everybody...."
Luckily then, I fall off the front and out of earshot.

I had another aggro pass made around me later on, by another member of the same jersey. Too funny.

Baker's Dozen

the Leesburg version of Shantytown.
SS Outlaw compound, with Quigley/Junkins and Pedalshop across the course, and the Bike Lane off to the right.

Props to Rob, Mike, and the Plum Grove shop for some fine singletrack and a good time. Curses and needles to the person who stole Rob's (yes, the promoter) Moots Moot-X YBB. He added his new personal bike to the demo fleet for any racer who wanted to try it. Someone is still trying it out.

Nice work Huber and Kent for the solo efforts.
Nick took another nasty facial, a concussion, and a trip to the ER.
Damn Barney! You go in hard!
Pictures at 11?

skinnies

yowcha

Did the happy Cupcake ride today and worked real hard on what shouldn't really have been too hard of a loop. We followed most of the Sport loop, though we added in some fun stuff like Grave Ridge and Community Service. We also did "My Favorite", but I think that's actually part of the Sport loop?
I used Mr. Miller's pump before the start, and I surmise that his pump must be a helluva lot better than mine. 40psi on his gauge felt a whole lot stiffer than 40psi on my pump. It beat the snot outta me and I was bouncing all over the place and working extra hard to keep it under control. After a couple stops to let air out, I was finally feeling more normal, though of course I probably let too much out since I felt the rear rim twice. My handling came back though, but I felt quite blown by the beating, and struggled to hang onto the back of the pack for the rest of the day.

We did about 24-26 miles in 4 hours. No one suggested climbing up Dead Woman, Woodrow, or Jake's. Going down to Tobacco Patch, Red's Trail, or Hogs Head was not even a question. Doing those, means 3 more bottom-to-top climbs. We did one of those today, and it seemed like plenty.

Looking back to my posts a year go, finds a similar whiny peice about pre-riding the fiddy. Hopefully I'll get it together by race time again.

Half Moon

Have any of you folks, particularly GWNF fans seen this? Not surprised if you haven't since it doesn't seem too well promoted. I think it is a cross country race in the Fort Valley. I also think they are saying there's a pump track in Strasburg. I think they've made something bike-related out of the Waterlick Grocery? Anyone know anything??

I would love to race on those trails. Hope it happens.

Scenes from town

secret mission

Took an old steel friend out for a ride. Left the house at 6:30 PM as an unexpected chance to pedal arose. Didn't take lights, didn't want to take lights. Only wanted to spin a little. I think last June was the last time I rode the road.

pics of others' fun

clik

photo swiped from Surfline

It's been hard enough getting my head away from skiing. Especially still seeing all those epic pics from New England on the Telemarktips east coast thread. Then I find this from last week on the Outer Banks.

Speaking of skiing. I gotta hand it to Buchness and Quigley for finally going for the Tuckerman's trip. Talked about for years, they're finally gonna get it next month. It's always hard to give up a bike weekend in early April, but when it looks like these recent ones from Teletips..... Are you kidding!

Chuck sessioning on the MBM ride

Ahhhhh
Got out for a shorty ride tonight. After being sick for a week, and not riding beyond town since the Punk Bike, I was startin' to get a little Travis Bickle like. Still not totally out of the sickhole it seems. Big ideas were quikly scuttled on Lower Buckets. I traded any idea of greater elevation for the easy way over to Turtle. Highly enjoyed the Fat flow of the fix down a trail I never seem to ride. Learned that sometimes, even from many pedal strokes out, you can see when you're getting ready to go down. I got to practice lookin' for a landin' a couple times. Shortest Meeslow ride ever, but worth it.

correction

From the man,
That video is not the first SM 100, but the second.
Made by Kevin Keane

the first SM 100

I found this gem while moving stuff off my old computer to a new one. I've been moving this file around to many computers since 1999. Figured, might as well let Blogger store it too.

This is from Oct 2, 1999. The original Labor Day date was flooded out from a hurricane. Extra points for anyone who can remember the hurricane name??

Director Sportif Carpenter made this video. It has a great account of the front of the race. Cool seeing the lead group of 4 familiar guys dwindle down to one. Chris actually raced the first race, and, crashed on cue for us. Amazing seeing Eatough charge into the FS 85 turn. That is certainly not how I feel at that spot. Enjoy!

Super Slab

My glamor shot from the weekend, taken at one of my favorite spots in the Shed. That bike looks small, it felt small, but it was fun to ride. Now I'm searching eBay for a 1" steerer, 29er rigid fork, so I can 69 it and fall off that side of the fence. I hope I don't find one.

thanks to Spearman for the photos and race logistics

MORE video

Try here for links to a MORE video that JoeP put together. Good stuff.

Some video of the Punk oughta pop up somewhere soon too.

2008 Punk Bike SS Enduro

Some drinking games in the woods with some mountain bike intervals in between.

trail conditions warranted a 4.0 front tire for Chris. he didn't pinch, but he did have some fun on the slanty rock

Captain Buck and Jim Casey. Casey hosts the summer version of the Punk at the Liberty Reservoir.

Tony didn't get the e-mail that said to bring a drinking vessel

was fun riding the Fatty fixy. Trying not to use front brake was fun, logs were fun, but those small wheels, I don't know about that again.

Cheryl & Lee bring home the Glasswear & the Cottonwear for their efforts.

King & Queen Punks for 2008

Kudos to Mr & Mrs Outlaw, Jason, Nate, RickyD, Darius, Spearman, Kegley and all who helped put this on. I'm newly motivated to train in the Punk Style. No use waiting for the end of the ride any more.

Nearly all photos stolen from someone in attendance.

Spruce Knob trails could be lost

I found this document on White Grass' site. Really sorry to see this there. Even sorrier to see it at all. Read it all, and not just the highlights. Note that Spruce Knob/Huckleberry, aka Seneca Creek isn't brought up at all. Except, at the end, from Gil.

***

PARKS: Bush admin supportive of W.Va. wilderness bill (02/27/2008)

Eric Bontrager, E&E Daily reporter

The Bush administration said yesterday it would support a bid by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) to designate 47,000 acres of national forest in West Virginia as wilderness.

Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System, told the House National Parks Subcommittee that the areas proposed in Rahall's H.R. 5151 contain "a special kind of wilderness" that warrants protection.

The bill would increase the amount of wilderness in the Monongahela National Forest through expansions of the Dolly Sods, Cranberry and Otter Creek wilderness areas as well as protecting four new wilderness areas across the forest.

A wilderness designation generally prohibits motorized activity, timber harvests or natural resource development. The areas are popular destinations for outdoor activities like mountain biking, hunting and hiking.

"There are some people who say a wilderness designation precludes multiple use," said subcommittee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). "Wilderness is a multiple-use resource."

Potential wilderness areas include "Big Draft," a 5,200-acre parcel near White Sulphur Springs and the Greenbrier Resort; "Cheat Mountain," an 8,000-acre parcel that is home to the Cheat Mountain salamander and West Virginia northern flying squirrel; and a 12,000-acre expansion of the Cranberry Wilderness, which would help create the largest area of nonmotorized recreational opportunity in the state.

A spokeswoman for Rahall, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said the bill reflects the Forest Service recommendations in its 2006 forest management plan. In the plan, the Forest Service recommended four of the areas be studied for wilderness designation, while the other three areas -- Big Draft, Spice Run and the Dolly Sods Expansion -- were made semi-primitive non-motorized areas, which permit low-impact uses like mountain biking.

Holtrop said there are some minor boundary issues for the wilderness areas that may need to be resolved before the bill is enacted, including adjusting for some mapping errors and adding offsets for power lines and other artificial features.

Most of the witnesses representing West Virginia's public, economic, environmental and religious interests lauded the proposal, claiming the wilderness designations will not only preserve the region's natural resources but also bring a boost for the local economy.

"Protecting wilderness helps diversify and stabilize economies by attracting and retaining business, residents and a local workforce in addition to generating travel and tourism, one of the fastest growing sections of West Virginia's economy," said Michael Price of West Virginia AFL-CIO.

Two witnesses, however, expressed concern that the bill does not include other areas for wilderness designation, including Seneca Creek and East Fork of the Greenbrier.

"Like the other special places included in the legislation, these areas represent some of the last truly wild places in the east and they deserve protection," said Gil Willis, owner and operator of the Elk River Inn and Restaurant.

Since 2004, a coalition of hunters, fishers, businesses, lawmakers and religious leaders in the state have supported a citizen initiative calling for more wilderness, but the Rahall bill falls short of the citizens' wilderness proposal, which included more than 143,000 acres in 15 areas.

***

The year before we did the TransRockies, Steve Viers and I did a 4-day tour from Spruce Knob to Snowshoe and back. Most of the trail we used is now in the 2 areas that Gil suggested become Wilderness. Ironically, that creek there, the East Fork Greenbriar, is so foul that we were warned from many sources not to drink the water. We filtered it, then we added iodine. And we boiled it. Then we heated our ramen noodles with it and filled our camelbacks for the next day. The source of the foulness? A place known as "Pigs Ear", near the head of the creek. A grazing area for cows. Do you think that will change under a Wilderness designation? That singletrack, which to Steve and me looked like it hadn't seen a visitor of any sort in years, would now be posted illegal for biking. It was so overgrown, under the blazes, that it was clear even the wildlife weren't using the trail.

Judy Springs. Is there any trail like this in your neighborhood?

What can be done?
This Bill gets "written up" on April 1st.
The Congresswoman (Capito) whose district Spruce Knob is in, is unhappy about the late insertion of Seneca Creek into the Bill without her knowledge. It was a backdoor deal between Gov. Manchin and the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition. Her office got the phones and e-mails pounded the other day by bikers after Chris got the word out. So much that she's deflected all the calls now to our own district reps (who probably don't care much about this issue). The only hope is that she stands her ground and gets Seneca Creek removed. The support of anyone living in her district is critical. Her district is shown below. If you know anyone who lives in her district, get their help.

some eye candy from the Quigley-Buchness trip

Since these guys actually spend more time riding and skiing, than messing on a computer, herewith some of their bounty. One of them is getting ready to score big again with a trip to the Adks this weekend. It's looking like all time conditions there right now.

reunion ride in The 'Shed

Pooch organized a Gambrill/Shed ride from Ghana over the past few weeks. He was back in town for a bit, preparing for a soft return later this summer, just before the SM100. Pooch finally missed a Shenandoah last year. No direct flights from Accra to Harrisonburg I guess was his excuse.

here he is on a surface just like the sandy beaches of Ghana

his ride for the day. left the price tag on all day

they call him Quigfoot, coming off a long road trip to Colorado, 15 straight days of skiing which included these quotes: "....powder in Aspen for 5 days straight. Powder in Summit County 3 out of 4 days, and great weather for the Hut trip.... "

"...yo-yo'd the 3K' of vert off the gangadubie all day in a dump, and got tons of freshies everywhere. The tree skiing in Aspen and Snowmass is a lot nicer than I expected. Lots of nicely spaced aspen groves and hardly anybody seems to ski Ajax mountain..."

And treated to the local hookup by expat Virginia mountain bikers now living in Aspen and Salida.

Yes, this post is useless without pictures...

as good as Whitetail gets?

Between a couple of night shifts for snow duty this week, I had a few hours of daylight to play with. I wanted to do a ride, some snowy ridge trails, maybe on the fixy, but I felt I should ski since I'll be jonesin' in July. It was about 18 degrees this morning, no wind, with a dusting of au naturale and some man-made overnight.

Whitetail *was good*. White, soft, quiet. Except for the hum of the blowers, which I tended to ski as close to as possible for that extra powdah effect.

It also got noisy when the heli whisked the well-healed guests to the top. When did they start heli-skiing?

I ran into my friend and neighbor Tim (of the enduro trail). He was working his regular Thursday shift on the Mountain Safety crew. Tim has had this thing for many years where he tries to ski 1,000,000 vertical feet in the season. Most of that is done at Whitetail. One recent Thursday, he did 44 runs there.

So, I skied with my boots totally unbuckled again. I've done this the past 6 or 7 times out this season. Two of those times were icy boilerplate, and the rest have been pretty soft including that powder day at Blue Knob. I do this sort of thing, like skiing without poles, as training. Going without poles has actually been useful when with Oliver so I can help him onto the lift. Skiing with unbuckled boots was pretty hard the first few runs, then I got used it. I definitely see how it forces you to get up front on the balls of your feet and stay in an aggressive position, something I know I need work on for moguls and trees. It also makes you really feel that back ski. After a few sessions of this and feeling really good with it, I decided to lightly buckle the bottom 2 straps for a run. Man, I felt like Frankenstein. It was work to get up front and stay there. So I went right back to the loose boots, and have stayed that way, yesterday trying the last run with a barely buckled bottom strap. It's making me wonder why I'd ever want to tighten them again, much less ski a heavier stiffer boot?? I'm skiing better loose because it's forcing me to stay out of the back seat, and use all of the ski edges. My transition between turns is smoother, and I'm controlling my speed on the steeper runs easier than before.

mid-A powdah

clicky to see buttery goodness

Schools were out so I took Oliver and cousin Tiffany to Blue Knob. Was about 15 degrees, blowin' and snowin' all day. The snow was great, the crowds were typical Blue Knob - nil, and it was cool getting the kids out in soft deep snow for their first time. The driving sukked however, snowing on the way, and somehow, raining on the way home even though it was 22 degrees. When we got home to 5 inches of nice dry snow here in Chambersburg, I wished we'd just gone to Whitetail. I thought it would turn to rain earlier here than the always frosty Blue Knob.

Tussey Mountain

From pro lensman Nabil Mark (Darius' bro). Looks like it was at about the time that the cold air met up with the warm air yesterday. I didn't move far enough north...

Rocky Knob

We can't ride this trail, at least Oliver can ski it.
It seems like ya really gotta work to get any use out of x-c ski gear in this new PA climate. Snowy windows lasting only a few hours.