Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Rampage





Last weekend was the first Icup race down in San Jorge. Ash and I pulled in late Friday night and set up camp and went to bed. It was a windy night and we used the car to hold down our tarp while we set up the tent. The wind woke me up once around two and I had to get up and take a walk. Besides that I slept well as I usually do when camping. It was nice staying at the course because it gave us a lot of free time before the race. Ash raced first and did well, while I chatted with teammates and prepped for my race.


I had a good first lap and stayed in contention with the top 5. Stuart Goodwin showed up and he and I were passing each other for the first lap and a half. That was cool, Stuart's old bike (by now really old bike) was my first race bike about 8 years ago. I ran with his brothers in high school and they were fast, just like Stuart is on a bike. Racer passed me during the second lap and I grabbed his wheel. Racer's wheel is a good one to be on coz he always takes great lines. Kenny passed me on one of the river wash climbs.Kenny's bike has a belt drive that makes a slight humming noise, kind of like a UFO. Very cool. Probably the coolest sound I heard all race, and definitely the most distracting one. Bikes usually don't sound lik UFOs.

From here on it all went downhill. I flatted on the downhill portion of the second lap, Stan's spraying all over and then drenching my rear wheel after I put a tube in. I lost a bunch of places but passed a ton of people on the first half of the third lap. But then I flatted again, the front this time. With no tube I started hiking in. I took a short cut and just went back to the tent. I crossed the finish line walking the wrong way at about two hours.

I felt really good when I was riding. It was a lot of fun despite the mechanicals and now I'm super excited for the rest the season. Afterwards we went for a ride and Ash took these funny pictures that look like team photo profile shots. They totally belong on a rider profile page.

Good times in San Jorge. Can't wait for dry trails up here and more riding.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Classy

Maybe because it's the most observable part when riding a bike, but I think top-caps are one of the ugliest pieces on a bike. Finally, someone made it look good, by getting rid of it: Photo

Chris King Inset Headset

Chris King just announced that they're coming out with a headset for semi-integrated frames, which I believe means for the Cane Creek ZS standard. That means everyone with a G2 29er will be able to run a King headset, including me in my superfly!

The only question now is what color to get?

Good thing we'll have to June to decide!