Wow... I posted this on Twitter as well, but wow... this is worth a look. Man I would love to go ride out west a few times!
It started pretty promising, I got lots of work done in the morning when my wife headed to RI to visit her Aunt. I finally finished putting the door knobs on my new closet and fixed the entry knob and deadbolt on the garage door.
I left for a nice bike ride on Soapstone around 1:00. It started nicely, but I was soon left in the dust by the three riders who were in better shape and then I started having trouble with the bike. It was really cold, and as we would break through some iced over puddles the water would freeze on the frame, chain and derailleurs. It was pretty nasty with all the rain over the last few days, but the worst part was when my shifting started to freeze up. The derailleurs were soon totally froze and I was left with a middle gear in the back and only the granny in the front. Then my pedal froze and I could no longer clip in.
Turned into a pretty nasty but entertaining ride. Unfortunately at some point I sprained my wrist pretty badly. I think it was just landing on a hard jump and all the weight coming on my wrist since my foot slipped off the pedal. It was so cold out that I think it stayed numb until later that evening, but even today I can't type without pain and my wrist is really sore. Sore enough that I'm going to have to skip volleyball tonight.
It may well be for the best since I can let my knee heal up completely as well and hopefully be back next week.
... is not a whole lot of fun, but better than nothing. I got out for a nice ride on Saturday afternoon, with plenty of time to get a good ride in, and then it started pouring. Still managed to get some good miles in, although with slick conditions it can get a little tricky. I slid out a few times, including up on top of the big rock where I posted the video from last week. The new knee pads work great by the way!
Racquetball tonight, only one more week before Volleyball starts. It looks like I have a good team from what I can see, and I finally got to be on my cousin's team for a change!
I drove up late Friday night to crash at my uncle's house in anticipation of mountain biking at Killington Ski Resort on Saturday. There was a big group on hand to spend the day bombing 
down the mountain and trying not to crash... at least trying not to crash too badly.
A few cousins, a second cousin, my dentist and a few other friends were all ready to go at 10 when the lift opened.
We did spend a bit of time before leaving the house lubing the bikes and lowering our seats. It's much easier to stay way back and not go over the handle bars if your seat as low and since we didn't foresee a lot of pedaling we decided it would be the best way to go. It was a beautiful day, so pretty much no matter how much riding we were going to get in it was going to be a great time.
Headed up the lift, and trying to plan our route. The first run was great, but we got a bit separated and turned around so that we had to do a bit of uphill backtracking. We decided on a bit tougher trail for the second run and ended up staying in the black diamond area for the rest of the day.
The trail was steep and twisty, mostly all single-track and a blast!
This was the play area... we spent a few minutes there in between runs while we were waiting for another group. It was kind of fun, hitting the seesaw and log ride in the middle... especially when Kevin wiped out waiting for the see saw to come down on the other side :)
Yeah... did I mention it was a beautiful day?? Most of the trails where in the woods, but you would occasionally head across the ski trails.
It was perfect shorts weather... although having some pants on would probably have protected my legs a bit better later in the day!
My cousin Kevin crossing one of the many bridges... this one he made it across. Later in the day he would skid off a bridge and end up covered in leaves and mud :)
Here's my crash site... I caught the pedal of my bike on a tree root while hauling down the trail. The root stopped my bike, but not me! If you look closely, you can see the root behind Bruce's shoulder (the guy standing in blue). I'm sitting about where I landed, so you can get an idea of how far I flew through the air.
I lay there for a while, pretty convinced I had broken my leg, but fortunately no permanent damage occurred, to me anyway. My knee swelled up pretty bad and I'm banged and scraped up on my left side. I also 
snapped the front derailleur off of my bike... oh well, more maintenance to learn :)
Overall, a fantastic time and beautiful day! I can't wait to do it again, unfortunately it will have to wait until next year as Killington is closed to bikes now as they get ready for ski season.
Killington was a blast!!
What a beautiful day, it was sunny and warm and we had a great time. We spent the whole day hitting fun trails that were steep and challenging but not impossible. Unfortunately, I ended up a bit bruised and battered by a freak crash but overall it was great. My buddy Shawn took a bunch of pictures and has promised to send them to me so I will post them when I get them.
In the meantime, here's a brief description of my crash since I'm sure that's all you guys care about :) I was headed down a relatively smooth section of trail and let the bike run. Although the trail was decently wide and smooth, there was a root across it which snagged on my pedal as I was going past. This of course, stopped my bike rather quickly, but it didn't help me stop at all. Before I knew what was happening I was airborne! Judging by how far from the root I was when I finally could sit up, I flew about 15-20 feet. I landed on my left side pretty hard and was sort of stunned. I lay there thinking my leg was broken, and being unable to even talk for a few minutes. Fortunately, nothing was broken although I do have some pretty good scrapes and my knee swelled up nicely. The crash also snapped off my front derailleur, so I had to disconnect the cable and ride in the small ring for the rest of the day. The good thing was it was close to the last run of the day, so it didn't affect me all that much.
We took one more easy run as a cool down and called it a day! I can't believe it took me this long to head up there and ride, I'll definitely be doing it again next year!
Instead of Case Mountain... we're headed to Killington in Vermont!
I promise to take lots of pictures, this should be a blast! I've always wanted to go, but haven't yet had the chance.
http://www.killington.com/summer/events/mountain_biking/maps/Mountain_Bike_Map.pdf
Just getting around to posting this, but I had a great ride on Saturday with my uncle Eric and Sean, who happens to be my dentist!
Here's the gory details on my crash this past Sunday... fortunately I look better than my wheel does!
You can see on this picture that the rim itself snapped...
I went to see my buddy Dave at Tolland Bike, and he was quite impressed with my handiwork. Hoping to get a new wheel this week, and if I'm luck I won't need anything else. The new disc brake looked okay, and my fork seemed fine as well, so I'm thinking just the wheel at this point. I asked Dave if they had any titanium ones that I wouldn't be able to break, but he seemed dubious that I wouldn't be able to find a way to break whatever I got!
As I mentioned last week, I installed the disc brakes on my front wheel of my mountain bike this past weekend. My brother helped me with the job and it went fairly well. We had some fits and starts with trying to figure out all the adjustments but ultimately got it all set up.
We started by heading to Tolland Bike to get a new cable for the brake, the distance is longer and obviously I couldn't use the existing one. I got there pretty early and noticed that the bike shop was still closed, but I headed around to the side when I saw Dave the shop owner. He laughed at me for showing up so early, but ultimately took care of me. As a side plug, if you need any bike work go see Dave at Tolland Bike, he will take care of you and you'll get solid work for reasonable prices. We headed back to Matt's house, set the bike on his jury-rigged bike stand and got too work removing the old brake. The screw out pretty easy, and that part was pretty simple.
The directions included with the new brakes aren't great, the diagrams are a bit hard to read but we started by mounting the rotors on the wheel as directed. It's pretty hard to screw that part up!
Next we attached the caliper to the fork and here's where we had a little trouble. Dave at the bike shop mentioned that we should keep it a bit loose to allow adjust me, the squeeze the brakes and tighten the bolts with the brakes on which would keep the caliper centered while it was being attached. Our problem here was which bolts to tighten! In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that the mounting bolts we left loose were not the ones he meant. There are two bolts underneath that do the "macro" adjustment, then the red knobs let you do a "micro" adjustment after the brakes are set up. We tightened up the main bolts and discovered we had no clearance for the front of the disc, and the brakes didn't grab well. After fighting with it for a while it was clear we were missing something and finally 
discovered the right adjustment bolts. After figuring that out, it was a pretty simple matter of setting the right clearance and moving to the next step. Routing and mounting the cable is also easier than I expected, and we added a single wire tie to hold it in place.
As I suggested above, the only really difficult part was getting the adjustment right, and now that I know what bolts to use, I should have no problem when my rear wheel comes in this week and I can set that up.
I took a few more shots of the brake, it definitely looks much more cool than the rim brakes I had. The real test was a ride though, and I headed 
out Sunday AM excited to try it out. It was an ideal test, once again temps were in the teens, and it was wet and muddy. Shortly into the ride, my rear brake became fouled with ice and mostly useless, but the front stayed nice and crisp. Halfway through I got a bit of play in the cable, I suspect it either stretched a bit, or needs tightening but the good news is that since I installed it myself I'm confident in making adjustments. I also have to get used to the throw and how fast it grabs when you squeeze it hard! My v-brakes I could really yank on not have to work about them locking. This brake would have good touch on it, but also allow me to stop in a hurry if I grabbed it completely. I almost went over the front a couple times until I got used to it!
So far I'm loving them though, I'll post another review after I put the rear ones on as well.
I finally ordered the disc brakes that I've been looking at for a while. They are the Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes that should bolt on in place of my current v-brakes. The main consideration for me is inclement weather riding, when v-brake or rim brakes get cold and wet they don't stop very well. This weekend, I again lost brakes at a downhill and managed to get off the trail in a spot where I could stop without killing myself.
Upgrading to disc brakes requires a few changes, but I've already started the process. My new replacement frame has the tabs needed to mount the brake cylinders and pads on the rear, the previous frame didn't. My front fork will also support disc mounts and when I recently had to replace my front tire I got a hub that was dual-purpose so I could attach the disc brakes if I chose them. I suspect my one remaining issue will be the rear hub, I'm going to be doing a little research to try and find the most economical way to mount the rear discs on the wheel.
The mechanical disc brakes don't require new cables and levers like a hydraulic version one at the expense of some braking power. They are as good as v-brakes, just not the big stopping power of a hydraulic set. They're also a lot cheaper both to purchase and install, and I'm hoping to be able to do most of the work myself. I'll post some pictures of the new setup when I get it working.
rday morning, a good sized doe crossed our trail and the dogs went tearing after her. They didn't have much luck, and returned shortly only to get distracted a few minutes later by this. A fisher cat cut across the trail about 5o feet in front of Justin and I and once again one of the dogs went running after it. I tried to call it back since I don't think that it would really want to mess with the cat, but fortunately it didn't catch up anyway. There was some debate when my brother caught up about what it was, but seeing this picture now, it was definitely a fisher cat. It was a good ride overall, even with the muddy conditions. Hopefully it will continue to warm and we can get some better rides in.Starting tonight, I'm back in the volleyball game with an all new team. Things are looking pretty good on paper, we have a bunch of good players. My friend Greg is on the team as well as a bunch of players I've met over the last few months and I know most of them are good. It remains to be seen where the weaknesses will be however I'm sure it will be fun and we'll be good enough to get into the playoffs again. Let's hope for a better showing this time!
Great weekend for mountain biking, the weather got a little warmer and the rain got rid of most of the remaining snow. There was some ice left, which played an interesting role in my ride but ultimately the conditions were great! 
I went out Saturday and Sunday morning for a couple hours each time. Matt and I founds some nice trails to play on Saturday where there were a few different lines you could take depending on how adventurous you wanted to be. 
I ended up falling quite a bit since the icy spots would come without warning and tip you over. Ultimately it wasn't too bad until on the way back I hit a bad spot while descending at speed and landed pretty hard. My neck is still pretty sore and I wacked my head pretty good. Fortunately I had my helmet on, so the damage wasn't too bad. I did destroy my front wheel though, snapping a few spokes on impact. Limping out after that, more and more spokes would pop out as I went. I had to squeeze the rim brakes the whole time to help keep the wheel aligned and straight. I was getting nervous that the wheel would collapse at any moment. I forgot to take a picture, but there weren't many spokes left on one side by the time we got to the truck.
I went for a nice mountain bike ride up on Soapstone with my brother this Saturday, and it was a wee bit chilly! 
The thermometer in my truck read 14 degrees as I drove to the Hopkins road parking spot, and the the worse part was that most of my cold weather gear was still up in Vermont where I had forgotten it after skiing over Christmas. I had to wear some old ski gloves, and I didn't have my balaclava to keep my head warm. It turned out that staying warm wasn't an issue, as there was just enough snow to make it really tough to pedal.
There were some spots where a jeep had gone through, and riding in the tracks where the snow was packed was a little tricky. 
It was much more icy and slick, and definitely a lot of work to stay upright. 
Then we hit the trail where there weren't tracks and it got MUCH harder. I would say there were about 3 inches of snow with a crust on it that we would break through and have to continuously spin the tires out of its grip. It was like riding in really sticky thick mud, a lot of effort without a lot of movement.
We headed over the the Home Depot trail since I wanted to show my brother a couple fun lines over the ridge in the trail. After taking a couple runs over this rock, we decided to turn around as our legs were just about shot at this point. All of the uphill lines were pretty much impossible to ride since it was tough to get any momentum.
This was close to where I had crashed pretty hard the week before, but with the snow it was way to difficult to ride fast enough to get hurt! Even heading down steep inclines we had to pedal to keep moving as the snow would suck in your wheel and slow you down. It was a great workout, 2 hours of constant pedaling without the ability to coast at all keeps the legs and lungs burning. Good times!!
It was really nice to get out on the mountain bike again this past weekend! We went on Saturday afternoon, hoping to get a few hours of riding before we get a bunch of snow again which would make it tough to ride.
There were four of us heading out, and I was the only one that seemed under dressed, scorning pants for just shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I did remember my gloves however, and ultimately I wasn't cold at all unless we stopped for a while. We decided to try and head for the "Home Depot" (No, I don't know why it's called that) trail over towards Porter Road. After a miscue or two in trying to find it, we ended up just where I had been a few weeks ago and had really enjoyed. It's a pretty windy trail with a lot of lines through, around and over rocks.
One particularly fun section involves riding over two rocky ridges that are somewhat connected by a deep trough that you need a lot of speed to get down and back up the other side. Shawn was a bit farther ahead of me and had stopped when he missed the line and was checking it out. I saw him, and just decided to go for it without thinking. This was a great idea as I made it all the way through both sections and the guy behind me just followed me right through. Sometimes it's best to just go for it, instead of spending too much time thinking about it. It was a lot of fun and the other guys wanted to try it. Unfortunately, on the way through Josh got a pinch flat and spent some time fixed that instead of riding. This gave us plenty of time to try riding the ridge in both directions, and I cleared it a few more times, but never quite so good as the first time.
After we got the flat fixed, we headed on and then looped around to head back to the house. Just ahead of me, I saw Josh to a wheelie drop off a pretty big stone, probably about a 2 foot drop. I just followed him right off it with one problem. As I pedaled hard to bring the front end up, my wheel spun and instead of lifting the front wheel and staying back over the drop my momentum stalled and the front wheel dropped! Not a good position to land on the ground in, as I went over the bars and slammed into a few rocks. I ended up with a pretty bruised thigh and knee, and it's still bothering me today.
That was pretty much the end of the adventure, we were mostly back at this point with one detour as we tried to avoid some flooded trails. All in all, a really good time and I'm glad we went as it's snowing now, and it will probably be a few weeks before the trails are rideable again.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
© Blogger templates Psi by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP
