Fixed Gear Mountain Biking in Pisgah

Today's ride: Trace Ridge solo and fixed starting at 6:30pm. I was back at the Jeep at 7:55. 85 minutes for Spencer->Trace is pretty good for me on any bike. Tonight's lesson? There IS a rear brake... and it is very effective. Oh, I did have one crash, while climbing Spencer I took a dive off the trail. I need to remember: concentrate. quiet the mind. don't space out. use the virtual coasterbrake. pedal harder....

2nd fixed ride ever

Fall is in the air and trees:
There were a few moments during the ride that made me whoop and yell and laugh out loud. One was when I full on powerslidskid towards and barely missed that damned tree in the lefty at the bottom of trace. The line between in and out of control on the fixed is razor thin.

Oh, I get it now.... It doesn't coast... ever!

I just got in from the Friday night Richmond Hill ride and this time I changed things up a bit. Maybe it was seeing Little E three or four years ago rocking a fixed Nishiki Alien down Trace. Maybe it was watching Rich rock Farlow/Daniel fixed a year or so after that. Maybe it was Jeremy's recent post bringing my attention to the fact that 'e' is still riding fixed and is as fast as ever... but no matter, I dialed up Rich the other day and asked to borrow a tomicog and tonight I tried the dark elixer for myself. No rear brake. No coasting. No suspension. My first ever fixed gear ride. On road or off. Without waxing poetic about being one with the machine and all that I'll just mention a few lessons I learned this evening:
1. *light incense* *ring bells* *meditate* no, seriously, you and the machine are directly attached. AS ONE...
2. 34x19 is F-A-S-T FAST!
3. If you can keep it all under control.
4. If you come into a twisty turny rooty mess way too fast: Don't cram on the front brakes. You'll highside. (Ask me how I figured that one out)
5. Try Try Try and Try again. I figured out the one and only rocky downhill switchback at Richmond Hill and nailed it 4 out of 7 times.
6. On rocky downhill switchbacks: breath deep. concentrate. DON'T put your butt behind your saddle or your nuts will be sucked into that space inbetween the seatstays and the rear tire. DO remain seated and crouch down.

OK, that's it. Fixed riding is challenging. Next up: Trace Ridge. Let's add some real speed into the mix.

Here's the fixed green Waltworks at the bridge over the South French Broad River, headed up to the Richmond Hill trails:


and at the rock switchback:

and one more. On the way home I found a gaggle of 50-100 gooses hanging out near the bike lane. Smokey Towtrucks, Railroad tracks, Fast traffic, and wildlife. River Road.

anywhere from easy going to f'ing rediculous...

S.Mills->Mullinax->Squirrel->S.Mills->BuckhornGap->BlackMtn.->TurkeyPen w/DjD


Thanks to everyone for the trailwork. Squirrel and Black are in AMAZING shape right now.

I was having a great climbing day today. The climb to Buckhorn Gap went by quickly, I cleaned more of the switchbacks up to Clawhammer Mountain than in a long while, and I was on my bike for all of Turkey Pen except for those two dreaded mountains. No, I don't have a powermeter or a training regiment or anything of the sort to tell me definitely that I was going faster or staying on my bike longer on the climbs, but I was just having a blast and enjoying the slow uphill battle that gears bring back to the ride experience. I was cleaning everything man!

Hey! It's John and Leanne!


Hey! It's the Youngblood's crew!
Holy shit! It's Scott from Indy!!!

Richmond Hill

Last night Mike B. and I went out for the Friday night Richmond Hill ride.... but it ended up just being the two of us. We rode the pavement to BioWheels then over to Richmond Hill. Mike didn't have a real light with him and the sun was going down quickly so we skipped the school trails and a couple of turns later were headed up the big paved hill to the parking lot. I'm not sure for how long or how many times we looped around and around in the woods out there but it was dark enough to fire-up my lights for the last 15 minutes or so of trail. Richmond Hill is a ton of fun. Tight, Twisty, did I mention fun?, and fast. Once all the trailnames are established, and signs are in place, it'll be a perfect city park trail network.

I feel like I'm getting a sneak-peek at Asheville's next big beginners/after-workers place to ride. In a few years, when the greenway and a few other additions are in place, you won't be able to say Asheville's infrastructure isn't cycling friendly. Next: figuring out how to make the non-cycling public more cycling friendly....

a mountainbiker's roadride

I just got in from another intense feeling roadbike ride. This time around it was more gravel road than pavement. The multibeast performed flawlessly. doyouwannaknowwhatsalotoffun? descending 1206 to NMRC in the 53 bigring on 25 skinnies. That's what's a lot of fun.

From Bent Creek Gap->Blue Ridge Parkway->NC276->FS1206->FS5000.


Just under 33 miles, 5500' climbing, 15 miles pavement, 18 miles gravel, 2:40 time out. F Yeah!

There were a number of moments when I thought 'The roadbike is the best tool for this job':
1. Climbing the parkway from Bent Creek Gap to Wagon Road Gap.
2. Descending NC276.
3. The flatish sections of FS1206 to Bradley Creek.
4. Any time the gravel roads were going up.

and.... there were two moments when I thought 'am I crazy?':

1. Descending to Bradley. It felt like I was holding an aluminum baseball bat and it was being hit by 10,000 hammers in some sort of demonic-anti-rhythm.
2. Descending 1206 at God knows how fast and I hit a long stretch of brake stutter bumps around a corner. My vision blurred out, my front wheel was floating from side to side and it felt like I was on ice in an out of control sled. Yeah.

and now for something completely different:

Last night I got out for an intense evening/night road ride. 44 miles, 4300' climbing, 3:20 on the bike. I know that might not sound fast but I'll tell you but I felt like I was hauling ass. It was my first road ride since Alex @ ProBikes brazed a new dropout into the fork so.... it had been over a year since I've been on the road? My route: From West Asheville->Riverside->Monticello->Hamburg Mountain->Reems Creek->Ox Creek->BRP->Biltmore Forest->Meadow->Amboy->State. I was on the bike at 6PM on the dot with lights front and rear, no camelbak, and no real plan. The ultimate route ended up being one of my favorite rides, one I had even done when I lived in Charlotte, but backwards. Long Plunge backwards at night? Sounds like a great idea to me.

click to make BIG:
yes, Ox Creek is a steep climb 2 mile climb.


The first 22 miles took me two hours, the second took one hour twenty. The sunset was spectacular with unbelievably vivid orange and pink clouds exploding in the sky. Once I was on the parkway for the descent into Asheville the skies opened up and a heavy rain and darkness accompanied the entire second half of the ride. I stopped twice: In Weaverville for a snickers and water refill and at the entrance to BF for a gel. Oh, and there was another rider out there that I passed on the climb but then he held my wheel down the parkway descent. Great descending out-after-dark-in-the-rain-rider-dude.

Here's a shot of my long neglected mid/late '90's Torelli cyclocross/road bike. Made in Italy, lugged steel, brooks saddle and bar tape (no gloves? no problem.), xtr canti brakes, 9sp 105/Ultegra mix, Velocity/dt Rev./Ultegra wheels, Switchback 1 light...

Slow in Low....

I got out this afternoon with Wode for a couple hours of Bent Creek.
From the new parking lot->up to Boyd Branch Rd->Ingles Field connector->Ingles Field->Tony Michaels->Greens Lick->Sidehill->Little Hickory->Ingles Field->Hardtimes connector->Homestead->Deerfield->Pinetree->Campground->back to the Jeep

Wode arrived at my house at about 11am and we were on the bikes right about noon at Bent Creek. I had gone out and watched one of my favorite local bands the night before so the late start and slow pace were exactly what the dr ordered. Wode took the lead all the way to five points. I took over from there though and pulled Wode up to Greens Lick. I had changed my bike cockpit configuration the night before so the high speed descent was rather interesting. My stem was far too short so the bike was under me in a weird way and by the time we made it to the bottom Wode had not lost sight of me the entire way and I wondered if it was time to head home.... Well, without conversation regarding such we went right into Sidehill to Hickory to five points. I was also trying out the Cane Creek ST Thudbuster for the first time ever so seated climbing was different also. By the end of the ride the thud had disappeared under me, a very good sign. There was a ton of traffic on the trails so descending to Rice Pinnacle was slower than usual but the last thing I wanted was a head on collision with another trail user. We took Hardtimes connector over to the other side and continued riding for a few more miles. Once we were over at the continue-on-Pinetree-or-head-over-to-Explorer intersection Wode called it, he was done, so we heade back to the parking lot.
Thanks for getting out there Wode! That was exactly the ride I was looking for.

oh, it was also an electronics-free ride today. No camera, No ipod, no GPS... well, I did have my phone on me and actually took a call. It was Rich saying no mountains for the CLT crew on Sunday. Poop.