Beckie is running the Chicago marathon, which is the same weekend as the TOWM this year. I am bummed, but somewhat relieved to not be facing the whim of Mother Nature this year. The last 2 years its rained hard, and the mud up there is the nastiest most peanut buttery crap in world. 12 miles took 3 hrs and most of that time came on the 5 mile stretch when I was carrying my bike — the mud was so bad I couldn’t even push. Then last year, they re-routed the course so the 66 miler became a 100 mile fire road ride. It was fun, and amazingly not dull, but more a quiet and subdued mellow day.

So, like last year, I hung onto the hope for the potential of how awesome this route can be. But truth is I ain’t that upset about taking this year off. Maybe I will go ride the route soon to get out of the heat.

Some memories from the past races:

2005

Beckie: woohoo my race was so great! I think I did really well! how was yours?

Jason: mine fucking sucked, i hate myself, i hate my bike, shut your fucking pie-hole.

Beckie: Really? Our course was fast and tacky. Yours wasn’t good?

Jason: Did the phrase “fucking sucked” elude you, stupid bitch?

Beckie: I better wipe my bike down, this shouldn’t take long.

Jason: My fucking hands are raw, my bike is still encrusted, hurry your ass the fuck up and help me.

Beckie: Wow I think I placed!

Jason: Eat shit and die!

Beckie: Wow I think I won.

Jason: I wish I never met you, fucking sadistic whore.

Beckie: let’s stay for the awards, there are cookies.

Jason: mmm….cookies

2006

my new shoes for the Heckler arrived recently. Specialized Taho’s, nice combination of lightweight hikey shoe with a pretty stiff bottom. Not as light or stiff as my last few pairs, but this bike requires slightly more bipedal-oriented and less pedal-oriented footware. They also are said to work fine with some fat Time Z pedals. the shoes I never tried on, but my last mtb shoes and my roadies are Specialized and they are very consistent w. size, plus they make damn good shoes if you can avoid their premium prices. turns out Beckie actually had this same shoe, and liked it, and cause they don’t fit into Specialized’s all racey racer image they list for only $75. Got em for $73 incl shipping. The pedals are another story I have never run that style clip and its been ages since I ran flat-style pedals. I thought it would take serveral rides to get the feel of all that bidness. In fact, I mounted the pedals on the Blur and rode a few rides that way. The pedals were a minor change and took me 1.5 rides to get comfortable on, not quite there yet but after a ride on National and a couple spills I now believe I can drop the damn bike and get out just as fast as with the spds. Getting the cleats places right has taken some doing, and of course after one ride on National the pedals look as beat to shit as anything else. I didn’t feel much better with the flat style, didn’t seem like I could remount and ride off any faster. It is a steadier base unclipped, but I’m not sure how I will use that…hopefully riding with some better tech riders and seeing them in action will help.

Ironic that everyone always says shoes are so personal and you have to try them on. They were the last things I needed to pick out, and by then the whole damn bike was something I barely tried on. At least I knew the shoes would fit! Its totally metaphoric for this entire experience. In order to decide what in the hell I wanted to buy when nothing was available anywhere to test ride, I had to put a label on how I would ride this bike and the tools I wanted for it so that I could buy them amidst the myriad of possible combinations. And I didn’t get to actually see or touch any of em before-hand. So much like how I trust in the Specialized shoes, I have to trust in Santa Cruz and Adventure. Meanwhile, its been 4 weeks where is my bike tick tock tick tock.

Soon after, the fork arrived, followed by the hub and pedals, and eventually Xmas will continue with the arrival of my thru axel adapter for the rack. I took the fork out of the box and looked it all over, but didn’t want to disturb anything. Like what am I gonna hurt laying it out on the kitchen table, when its going to take me up and over South Mountain? Its like I’m scared of it cause I don’t know quite what it does, which is yet again ironic because I had to pick the entire thing out based on specs and message boards and things I did not know what they did! Somehow cause I’ve spent so much time and energy on all this stuff its seems like I shouldn’t fear holding it like a newborn, but it all doesn’t seem real yet and I’m sure if I hold it I will break something.

and since with my riding that is often the case, I feel safer hiding from it all!

How does this happen!??!?!? One day, I’m out enjoying a ride with my dog, the next day I am customizing a ridiculously expensive bike and picking out ulta specific parts and contrivances with interlaced interworking feelozometers to give me exactly the something I am desperately trying to get. But now, through no forethought of my own, I can appreciate the positive rebound of a VPP, the lateral stiffness of cross laced zircon spokes, and the effect a head tube angle might have on my facilitation of a rock garden, either ascending or descending.

I bought a car the other day with 1 hr of research and 2 hrs of shopping. I’ve spent about 6 work weeks researching and building a new bike; countless posts and post reviews; minutes and hours from many people have been burned in thought, dialog and consultation. I spent about an hour on the Yeti site picking my way through a review in French to see if the thru axle performed well on moderate climbs vs. a qrv axle. I spent an hour on kia, hundai, toyota, honda web sites combined and bought a car.

Upon the arrival of my new car, what discrepancies and remedies did I feel were in order for my two existing cars: Acura: deep clean and buff $250, Truck: new stereo and vacuum out the dog hair $150. My Blur desperately needs and cannot live without: new shock, wheels, disc breaks, and seat for over $1000.

How did this happen?!?!?

i was recently reviewing my training regime, which mostly sucks and is without structure. I try to ride 3-4 days a week, totalling 6-8 hrs, on whatever is fun for me at the time. since i usually go hard, its a good workout. i shoot for a 4hr ride at least once a month. other than that, i typically do another 6 or so hrs a week of weights, yoga, hiking etc. etc.

good for overall fitness, but sloppy as hell for serious cycling. hey what do I know, I basically replaced practices and tournaments with rides and kept all the cross training. i also have very much avoided structure and regimen in riding because i just want to have fun; no pressure, no losers and winners, just a good day on the bike. its probably got a lot to do with why i switch rides and styles so often: road, mtb, tech, XC, climbs, social. its also a bit of a cop-out, no matter how you spell it I am not competing or forcefully holding myself up to a standard.

beckie and I were comparing what you get in with what you get out. her marathon training hrs would be comparable to my cycle hrs, or what seems to be comparable to a Cat4 racer; Beckie said pro marathoners run 15-20 hrs a week, which is much closer to the sort of hrs good teams do. Pro riders are like 25 hrs a week?

We concluded that we are near the top of the bottom of the pack in our respective sports. YES!!!  

errr…

SHIT.

woe, the training of the all-mountain rider.

I bought a new 2007 Santa Cruz Heckler on recently (July 13…long wait!) Liquid Blue. It should be ready in a couple weeks. The shopping was agonizing as I found it impossible to know what I wanted when I’ve never ridden a 6/6 bike before, and no shops seemed to have anything available that I could ride. seriously!!! Adventure, Cactus, Rage, SMC, Pig — inventory was hard to find. It came down based on just reading and specs to the Heckler, a Turner RFX and a Yeti 575. Bill at Adventure finally got a medium Heckler in for me since I nagged him so much, and I liked what I saw. Its stout and simple, but can do a full turn inside a parking space just like my Blur, and is in a comfortable price range for me for a 2nd mtb. Though partly I just caved and went with something I knew would be good, and in my price range, cause after 2 months and countless hours of reading it was all just academic without a test ride on a trail, and I wanted a d@mn bike! Motherfuck I fucking wanted a fucking bike!!!! Its a Santa Cruz, its a tried-and-true rugged design, and I have a good relationship with the shop — I’m sure it will be good to me. And I wanted a fucking bike.

I went with the All Mountain X9 kit, and upgraded the fork and front wheel to a 20 mm thru axle. I’ve never customized a bike before so this was new territory and a little intimidating for me — the cheapest thing to do was buy my own fork (Pike 454 Air) and front hub (Hope Pro 2), then sell off the parts from the kit (Fox Float 140mm RLC, Swiss DT 340 front hub QR) and have the wheel re-strung with my hub. I did a lot of research on ebay and the discount dealers, and it looks like the customizations will cost me about $200 when its all said and done if I can unload the fork for about $450 and the hub for $60 — not too bad to upgrade to something beefier. Should be just about 30lb when done and after I Stan’s the wheels.

Unfortunately there is more to do. So much more. i had to go to the shop and ask about the other parts I needed, if they could provide them or if they were cool with me bringing them in. Bill totally understands about inventory and mail order and whether or not its worth it to him, but the way of doing it all respectfully is giving me a goddamn headache. I wound up talking to Brad and everything except the bash guard they just didn’t carry, so I think all the politics and what not will fall into place. Plus I want to buy a shop jersey! I’m hoping when its all ready I can help build it up, take some vacation time and learn a ton in one day.

I decided finally to go with some flat pedals that will accept spd-style clips, and some hike-oriented sohes. I also finally decided to go with the wide-chamber air shock which should be plush and light. Riding Alta a few weeks ago was great cause it gave me a sense of what I will really use this bike for, and I got to check out everyone else’s gear — man I was like an annoying 4 year old on Saturday with the questions “why are your pedals flat? why do you have a coil shock? why is my bum so sweaty? why did DurtGurl roll down the cliff?” Going for the shock for the Fox RP23 for the shock instead of the DHX 5 coil, since even on the gnarliest things I’m not doing anything big or hard, so might as well save the weight.

now…its like that scene from the gun-control episode of the Simpsons. “but I’m angry now!” tick-tock tick-tock the waiting is the hardest part.

nah its all good the waiting will make me enjoy it more. for now, this is the picture that I take to bed each night:

---

And here is what a geek nerd does to track all his decisions.Blur $1000

1. shock
   1. http://www.santacruzbicycles.com/
2. wheels
   1. http://www.oddsandendos.com
   2. colorado cyclist
3. disc brake upgrade
4. seat

Heckler

1. heckler will be about 2800, or 3k w. 32mm fork setup for thru axel
2. A beefier bike is really worth it to me
   1. Fox Pike 454 or 426 for 200

		454	426/409
Coil	95-140mm	2281 g (5.0 lbs)	2435 g (5.4 lbs)
Dual Air	140mm	2023 g (4.5 lbs)	2177 g (4.9 lbs	call SC and find out if 7.5 inches will work for fork
Air U turn	110-140mm	2113 g (4.7 lbs)	2267 g (5.1 lbs)

shock	weight	cost
dhx5	+1 lb	+112
rp23	–	+89

fork	weight	weight	cost	todo
409 dual air	4.9	+1.2	+112	see mtbr, ebay has 2 for 500 and 400
talas 36 rlc
float 32 rlc		—

buying a fork for 400 and selling the other for 450 still leaves me with some
install and the need for a thru axel hub

45 grams= .10 lb

the one Adventure proposes swapping is likely the Bontrager Rhythm comp. the
hub is probably $50 vs $100, 28 holes on bontrager vs 32 in dt swiss

trading – downgrading hub by $50, downgrading fork by $50. adding $200 to cost.
net loss $300

doing it self – hub for 80 + fork for 500 = $600 in, get back 500. plus 100
labor. same cost, .5 lb less on fork.

or

buy and use or buy\resell wheels, and fork. still can lose 200. fork will fetch 4-450 tops, wheels maybe 350

dt swiss 5.1 w. 340 hubs	500 g x 2 + 238 (thru) F or 196 + 372 — probably be 1950 grams	ebay
dt swiss 4.2d w 240 hubs	400 g x 2 154 + 273 1593 grams	ebay $520, CO cyclist 535
dt swiss 4.2d w 340 hubs	400 g x 2 196 +372 1811 grams	ebay $400
hope pro2	pricepoint	80

shimano rear was 370, and the mavic 819 rim was 465

Heckler or Turner

1. any bike I get is going to ride differently. i will surely enjoy any of them.
2. want a durable stout bike
   1. heckler
   2. turner
   3. yeti
3. there is no discount to buying offseason, so should i wait for selection in a few months? no
4. New
   1. Heckler – 3k w. thru axel
   2. Turner – 4k
   3. price estimate from Adventure – 3k w. tax for thru axel
      price estimae from Pig – na
   4. speedgoat.com – na
   5. colorado cyclist -na
5. Used
   1. Turner
      1. http://classifieds.mtbr.com/showproduct.php?product=7443
      1. http://classifieds.mtbr.com/showproduct.php?product=7346&cat=3
      1. eric at slippery pig
   2. Heckler
      1. http://classifieds.mtbr.com/showproduct.php?product=7307&cat=3