Didn’t get this out on Friday, like I planned. But, here it is on Monday. Mountain bike Friday is back, er well Mountain Bike Monday.
Here are some that I have found this week.
I so want to ride this trail!
Another Danny McCaskil video.
This is crazy. There is no way…
A-line. Enough said.
Posted in Joe's blog
I know it’s totally lame to post without photos when you’re trying to share a cool experience but bear with me. I feel bad enough for not taking a single photo and I don’t need to be reminded that most people visit our blog only look to at the pictures.
Last Wednesday I met up with three of the professional downhill riders that Trek sponsors. They were in New York doing a few US national downhill events as well as doing a tire test with Trek engineers. It’s my job to know what’s up with the equipment Trek’s sponsored athletes ride so I took the opportunity to pay the riders a visit.
I wasn’t able to get to the tire test in time but I did manage to meet up with the riders when they first arrived at a race venue and were doing their course inspection. The pros take the time to walk the course top to bottom and do a pretty thorough job of looking at every rock, root, turn, jump and anything else that they will be riding down when its time for practice, qualifying and racing. It was good to walk with them and observe their thought process and watch their eyes as they mapped out possible lines and problem spots. It was similar to what Joe and I do when we walk or bike a lap at a hare scramble but the DH riders are far more particular with line choice. They quickly identified sections of the course that would be critical to get right and they spent several minutes walking up and down those sections thinking about how much speed they would need to carry and where the lines would develop and deteriorate and exactly where to put their tires while riding. It was cool to see them go through the motions like that.
The bigger personal experience I had was riding a Trek Session downhill bike while I was there. The race was held at Diablo Mountain in Vernon, NJ. Diablo has a developed trail system that offers up diverse trails all serviced by a chairlift. It’s just like skiing where you buy a lift ticket, jump on the lift and get yourself back to the bottom of the hill somehow.
It was my maiden voyage on this Session so it took a few runs to get it sorted out. The fork had come from Trek’s west coast test group and was set up for someone else. And the fork tube height has a huge range of adjustment but no ideal starting point that I was aware of. The rear shock needed the sag set and rebound messed with. After each run I’d make small adjustments until the bike felt more and more comfortable. Then I stopped tuning and tried to get my head around the DH experience.
Big DH bikes are just like motos yet radically different at the same time. They’re similar in that there are lots of adjustments that can be made and you have to trust that the suspension can do a ton of work for you (as long as you’ve taken the time to get it set up correctly). To get the most out of a DH bike you have to stand on it like a moto: be aggressive, look up, react quickly, pay attention and recognize that the consequences of falling will be dire.
But DH bikes are dissimilar, too. There’s no throttle to get you up and over something or out of trouble. You have to carry speed everywhere – not only to get over stuff but just to stay upright. And because there’s no propulsion when you aren’t pedaling, staying balanced on the bike is key. If you lose your balance you have to make corrections that totally kill your momentum. The mass and mass’ location are also very different. The rider is the majority of the mass on a bike, the bike is the mass on a moto. Because of this the geometry on a DH bike is super relaxed to help keep your center of gravity in the right place. The relaxed geometry has a massive affect on how the bike handles, especially at slow speeds where the bike becomes sluggish and heavy feeling.
Anyhow, once I got the suspension and geometry settings where I could comfortably ride them, I set out to explore the mountain. There were trails with 20 feet table top jumps that you could sail through a perfect ramp to ramp arc if you hit it just so. There were steep trails littered with bowling ball-sized rocks that forced you to hang off the back of the bike and try like mad to keep up your speed and not let the front wheel fall into any gaps. A few trails had skinny, manmade trellis bridges to ride across. If you lost your nerve in the middle of a few of those you’d fall 10 feet to a garden of rocks. Pretty sketchy but I signed the release and knew what I was getting into.
I did 11, ten minute runs before my rear brake crapped out and I had to call it quits. Air in the line didn’t make it out when I set the bike up, evidently. I was pretty beat afterwards but I could have done a few more runs. A Session weighs 38 lbs so it’s not easy to horse around for hours on end.
Again, I wish I had taken time to snap some photos, but I didn’t. Next time!
Posted in Scott's blog
I’m short on time this week because of a busy work schedule but here’s the gist of my race experience this past weekend:
• Pearson, WI is four hours north of where I live in WI. It’s pretty much the great wild north but not quite as far away. I felt like I was in the middle of Canada somewhere. Joe couldn’t make the trip because of his busy work schedule so it was up to me to wave the Vesrah Suzuki Offroad flag in Pearson.
• Actually, lots of Canada made its way to Pearson a long time ago by way of ice age glaciers. The bazillion of watermelon-sized rocks is debris dragged down from Canada.
• Pearson is famous around here for hosting a solid D16 Enduro event. The hare scramble I did on Saturday was all I had time for but there was an Enduro planned for Sunday. The parking lot had lots of vehicles I had never seen before and I caught lappers with license plates on their bikes. I assume they were the Enduro crowd I’ve never spent time with. Someday I will because Enduro racing looks like a good time.
• The trails in Pearson are narrow but have great flow. Somehow the tight spots aren’t slow there. My pre-race observation lap on my mountain bike had me thinking the race would be slow and frustrating but it was actually fast and lots of fun.
• I finally managed to get a good start and entered the first woods section behind series points leader Mat Herrington. This was the perfect scenario for me: watch, learn, make a plan. But it wasn’t 10 seconds into that woods section that I clipped a tree and landed sideways in the trail. My bike stalled and I had the remainder of the AA group passing me however they could just to get by. To be fair, the AA field at Pearson was thin and it was only Mat, John Strangfeld, Speedy Pete Laubmeier and me racing against each other. John and Pete take this racing stuff much lighter than Mat and me so there’s getting to be a bit of tension between the guys that are trying hard and the guys that are fast and skilled but racing for the fun of it.
• I chased John down pretty easily so I started looking for a place to get by but that was impossible. He’s fast and the trail was narrow and too new to me to try anything risky. I followed him for the entire first lap then got by right before we went back into the opening tight woods. Like a total squid, I clipped the same damn tree and stopped sideways in the trail AGAIN. I have to quit making such stupid mistakes if I want to get any sleep at night.
• I got going and planned to catch Pete at some point. I figured he would tire out. Mat was the one I was worried about. He’s been fast and has a lot of confidence from his GNCC racing and recent D16 results. If I wanted to win I needed Mat to have bad luck or I needed to ride mistake-free for the remainder of the race.
• The trail was 70% tight woods with lots of attention-grabbing stuff like trees at odd angles, wide trenches that would snag your feet and pegs, and round rocks that were covered with slippery dirt and moss. The remaining 30% of the loop was scary fast logging road with a single beat-in line that was whooped out. I increased the damping on my GPR-4 damper about half way through the race because the soft suspension I loved in the woods was dangerous in the 5th gear whooped out ruts.
• More on those rocks. They were round and buried in the dirt so you tend to deflect off of them. I found it was best to stay relaxed and let the bike bounce around a little rather than force the bike in a specific direction. This ride loose and hope technique worked pretty well for me and my speed and confidence gradually increased as the race went on.
• My RM-Z250 was awesome. The Factory Connection settings gave me loads of confidence on the slick rocks and flowy trail. The only issue I had was missing my jetting a little and I had a slight bog / hesitation when I whacked open the throttle too fast. It didn’t cost me any time but it was distracting.
• There was an open field just before the scoring tent where we zigzagged back and forth. I could see if I had made up time on Mat every time we entered that field. Some laps I had closed in on him and some laps he had stretched it out. More than once I felt like I had put in a stellar lap and would come to the field and see that Mat had put time on me. That was frustrating and it somehow made me try harder. I have always had a tough time with lappers because I don’t like to push them out of the way. It’s that I wasn’t getting by lappers fast enough that was costing me time, I think.
• Finally, late in the race I started to take time out of Mat. On what I thought was going to be our last lap I was seeing his dust on the trail and getting cheered on by spectators who were saying he was just in front of me. On a road section with a high speed chicane I carried a little too much speed and lost the rear end. I slid sideways down the trail and couldn’t get the bike back under me before lowsiding in a plume of dust. The bike was still running so I picked it up, revved it hard, dumped the clutch and spun the bike around the right direction. But when I leaped on to go it stalled. It was in 4th gear.
• I figured that was the end of my race and that 2nd place was as good as I would do. It took me a few minutes to get back up to speed and I knew I was losing time to Mat while I sorted my self out. I was kicking my self for making such a silly mistake when catching Mat was within my reach.
• When we came around we were told to do one more lap. Wow! A second chance. I put my head down and charged like mad. I strung together every fast bit of trail I could and then, halfway through the lap, I caught Mat. Unfortunately we had already ridden through most of the sections that allowed a safe pass so I was forced to ride behind him and hope for a mistake. We caught a lapper that let him by but not me and that was enough to let Mat get a gap before we got back to the grassy zigzags before the scoring tent. I finished 1 second behind Mat.
• Congrats to Mat on his results and solid race.
• I’m super stoked with my speed and endurance. My faster laps came at the end of the race. I need to work on my early race speed and consistency. No more dumb errors.
• Hixton is next. Woohoo!
Posted in Scott's blog
Flying home from the Tour of California right now. Rockin the inflite Wifi. I think I will start off this post, with the more interesting photos from the trip. They are in a gallery, so if you don’t want to look at them, just skip down. The good stuff is below, but hey – you stopped here at this blog, so get over it.
The Tour of California was good. The race was super fun. Ali digs bike racing, so it was fun to take her there. It has been a long time since I have been to a big bike race. I got to hang out with Ben Coates for a bunch (@trek_ben on Twitter) Actually, I am not really sure why you tune in here, but I guess it is kinda cool that you do. If I was to guess why, it is because you find my life a bit strange and comical. I know I do.
Lately, I have been finding that one of the funniest things that I do is fly on an airplane. Thank god eh, I do it enough.
Right now I am sitting in the exit row. No 1st class for me, no way. I am enjoying the buff leg room and the killer inflite peanuts and cookies. Oh ya. You are jealous. But, there is only one armrest. What is up with that? People with 2 arms require 2 armrests. Seems elementary. In fact, if you have only one arm – you shouldn’t be sitting in the exit row anyway. I mean that door weighs approximately 33 pounds. Says it right on it. What is the “approx.” part added for anyway? Am I going to complain if it weighs 34? “Nope, sorry people. We are not getting out through this door, because I have just discovered that this door weighs more than 33lbs” Give me a break people, if this plane crashes we are all dead, who are they kidding.
But, the real deal in humor is the inflite sky mall. Let me walk you through the pages.
- On the cover is somebody in a NY Yankees jersey, sitting in an “authentic” Yankee stadium seat. Boy, doesn’t that look comfortable. And, for just $1499, you can have these 2 cramped sticky floor hard wooden seats at your house as well. This just proves how stupid baseball is. I mean, anyone who would buy those seats is already flawed because they are baseball fans in the first place. I think that watching paint dry would actually be a better way to spend a Saturday.
- On page 11, are shoes with springs built in that are tagged “gravity defyer”. wow, who would have thought that someone would finally invent flubber for real.
- On page 13, there are 2 different products that purport to help men grow hair back. Now you might think that I would be a potential customer for these. Contrary to what you think, I have a realistic view about this. The first method is dye that “makes thin hair look thicker, in just 30 seconds” I think it is actually paint that you would paint on your scalp and it would try to hide the fact that your hair is thinning. The second is an X5 Hair Laser. The definition says that low level laser light has been shown as the most effective new treatment for thinning hair. REad that again people, “most effective new”. Wow, do you think people actually fall for that? Get over it people, your hair is thin. Knock it down.
- On page 16, there is a life size talking R2 D2. That is pretty cool, I have to admit.
- On page 17, there is an indoor dog restroom. What? it is a piece of carpet that looks like grass that you are supposed to let your dog pee on – in the house. Get this, you can buy this beauty for just $149. Wow, give me $150 dollars, and just let your dog pee on the carpet – it will smell just the same. How stupid are you, people?
- On page 20, there is a telekinetic obstacle course. This contraption you strap on to your head, and think really hard to move a ball through an obstacle course. The picture of the guy doing it, is either moving the ball or he is really constipated. I think this is the same one that was in Napoleon Dynamite.
- On page 24, there is an underwater pogo stick. I’m just sayin.
- On page 27, there is another indoor pet yard thing for your dog to poop or pee in the house. Do some comparison shopping people, this one looks like the bomb.
- On page 63, there is a solution to the misplaced cell phone. it is a wrist cell phone carrier. Your phone is always there and it allows you to flip it open in a flash. Holds your cell phone right by your hand so that you can get to it quickly when you need it. How cool and convenient is that?
- On page 82, a life size Anubis Statue “The Grand Ruler” It is an 8ft tall version of the dog head man Egyptian statue. I know that I need this.
- Holy Crap! on page 83 there is a life size statue of Bigfoot! You know that this is real down in Tennessee.
- On page 88, more mens hair loss treatment. I am telling you, shop around before you buy people.
- On page 104, there is a shoe with 2 springs in them, not just one like that shoe on one of the earlier pages. I see how this works, they get you hooked on the first pages and by the time you get to page 100 – you are in a buying frenzy.
- on page 105, there is a grip strength exercise device to help me with my golf swing. Funny, I never imagined how much golf strength I would need to swing a golf club. come on, if you have to work on your grip strength to swing a golf club you have bigger problems than worrying about your golf score.
- On page 137, there is a Slanket. It is just what it sounds like, a blanket with sleeves. This is clearly a rip off of the Snuggie. Anyone who buys this should be shot. There is a Snuggie right over at Walgreens near your house. If you buy this one, you are just stealing money from the inventor of the Snuggie. Rip off.
- On page 142, there is a shower head that lights up the water streams. You can pick your color. This is in case you cannot stand not seeing the under car lighting on your Honda Civic with the coffee can muffler, while you are in the shower. Plus, do you really think electricity to the shower head – while you are standing under it is a good idea?
But wait, there is more.
- On page 144, there is a dog vacuum cleaner. You expect your dog to lay there while you vacuum the hair off of them. It’s a Pet Styling System people.
- also on page 144, there is a picture of a really embarrassed cat pooping in the human toilet. Priceless. Worth the price of getting to page 144.
I am sorry because I have to go, I have to find my credit card and load up one of those R2D2 guys for my garage.
Joe
Posted in Joe's blog
This week was one of those weeks when I realize how good my job is.
Liz and I went to Italy, with a group from work, and rode our bikes in Italy. Tuscany, to be exact. 4 days of riding, staying in a great location (www.spaltenna.it), and being taken care of by Trek Travel (www.trektravel.com).
Cold in Sienna!
We arrived in Florence on Wednesday May 12. It was raining, but who cares right? I mean we were in Florence and had the day to knock around. We dumped our bags in our rooms quickly after arrival and jumped the bus to the downtown area. There we drank espresso, looked at old stuff and ate gelato. It didn’t suck for an afternoon’s activity. That evening, we found our way to what Liz and I would say is the best restaurant in the world. Buca Mario it is called (www.???). Buca Mario is a restaurant that we found about 5 years ago on a previous Florence visit. Not sure how we found it that first time, but damn is it good. BM serves pretty standard Italian fare. Nothing really extravagant or fancy, but wow just out of this world flavors. Our traveling partners did not really know what to expect, but after a few hours and all the great stuff that came to the table, I think they all pretty much agreed with our assessment – yep, BM definitely kicks ass. Wow is all I can say.
Doesn't look like much from the outside, but wow!
We made it back to our rooms late that first night, downed some magic pills to help us sleep and then got up in the morning to a great looking day and a Trek Travel bus waiting to take us to the hills to do some riding.
The castel Spaltenna!
The view out of our window at the castel!
We arrived at Spaltenna in Gaiole in Chianti, and quickly got suited for a first ride. We did a nice little 35k ride to get bikes sorted and learn others pace etc… TT provides the bikes, we just had to bring our pedals. Unless of course, you are the dork that I am. I broke out my own pedals (understandable), saddle (still understandable, but not as logical as the pedals) and my own stem (super dork). Yammer, no comments from the peanut gallery. The ride had a medium level climb, of about 8km, fairly steady grade. Of course, that equals a super fun descent at some point in the ride also.
Dinner that night was set up for our group of about 25 under a tent. The food kept coming and coming. Too much was consumed, and of course I felt like a stuffed pig afterward. Funny how it all feels good while you are eating it, but like a lump in your gut afterward.
Next day we did a big ride of 105km. Started off in the morning with an 11km climb just out of town. I was struggling to climb, but came around and did not feel so bad, it has been a long time since I have gotten to do a climb like that and it shows in my cycling form. Yow.
Which way should we go?
The next days were more of the same. Ride your bike for a big chunk of the day, look at cool old stuff or do some sort of Italian culture thing and then eat until you feel like you might explode. Italy is just such a kick butt place. I know that it would not be like that if you lived there, I mean you would have to go to work and everything. But, I think I could get used to the place.
We did make it to Sienna for a rainy day. We toured around, had some coffee and pizza and generally acted like tourists. But, along the way we saw a bunch of college kids who had decorated their cars to celebrate their graduation. The cars were pretty sweetly decorated.
Yep, they are pretty much a bunch of inapropriate pictures. It was weird
Departure Adventure.
Started off with a bang, or maybe better a lack there of. Set my alarm for 4:30 the night before, anticipating a 5:15 taxi. Never heard the alarm. Yep, slept right through. Never done that, but I guess there is a first for everything. I should have known right there, that the day was not going to go well. Woke up to the phone ringing, but was in such a stupor I did not even pick it up. In my daze, I looked at the clock and my first reaction was – hmm, I do not recall asking for a wake up call – how sweet. Of course then I realized that we had puffed the wake up time and the taxi was waiting downstairs. Yikes! Liz pulled out all the stops, and we actually made it into the cab at 5:29.
To top off the cab adventure, the cabbie saw the angst we all had in getting to the airport on time, and absolutely raped me of a double fare. I swear that he charged us for the time he had to wait for us, plus some additional amount. The taxi fare to the airport turned out to be 42Euro on the screen. I knew that was high, but did not feel like arguing at the moment. You will see later down in the story, that I lost that inhibition eventually.
The Italian/European way of the world and how it would be to live there became a little more apparent. When we arrived at the Florence airport (I think it has about 5 gates and they are prepared for about 5 people to go through security at just about any one time.) Italians that live in Florence seem to be fine with that. It any city in North America that gets as much tourist traffic as Florence would have had to build a new shiny efficient glass covered high ceiling Starbuck serving McDonalds catering extravaganza to make sure the tourists keep coming back. Nope, this is Italy.
I did not have tickets on the 2nd flight, and had only less than an hour on my schedule to make it through the Amsterdam airport connection. The counter person was not fazed by my plight at all though. They did the European shrugged shoulder and Italian liaise faire attitude and shooed my on my way.
Once through security, we heard the announcement that the flight was being canceled because of the ???? volcano in Iceland. What the hey? That cannot even be a real place with a name like that. I bet no one outside of geologists in Iceland can even say the name of that volcano. And doesn’t a volcano existing in a place called Iceland just seem improbable in the first place? Who knew?
This is where the fun really began. We called the travel agent in the USA and they booked us on another flight that next day through Paris (apparently the ash cloud had the good manners to stay far north). But, the travel agent could not actually issue the ticket, they told us that the agent there would need to do that. So, we waited in the more than 1.5 hour long line to see the Italian agent. The agent took a cursory look at our passports, a brief look at the data on the screen, pronounced that she could not help us – handed us our passports, dismissed us and said “Next!”
What the????
In the end, the travel agent just had to buy us new tickets, we hope to get that all sorted out when we get home.
Most stories have a happy ending, or at least a happy middle. Our happy middle would be that we were able to go once more to Buca Mario. There, we had the 3rd best meal we have ever had (1st and 2nd also were at the hands of the chef at Buca Mario). We also got a great photo of our favorite waiter there. Check it.
Next day started out with a bizarre scene. Got down to the front desk – on time, mind you. And confirmed that they had a taxi coming at 5:15 for us. The counter guy, confirmed that. But, in our miscommunication, he must have thought that I needed a taxi and ordered a 2nd one. Both taxis showed up on time, and we only needed one. Chaos, lots of gesturing and raised voices ensued. If I was not worried about getting to our flight that I suspected was not going to go smoothly – the whole thing would have been comical.
We loaded into taxi #1, taxi driver #2 hops out of his car and blocks our departure. The guy behind the counter comes out and insists that we ordered 2 taxis. The counter guy and the taxi driver are insisting that I now owe the 2nd taxi driver 15Euro for the trouble. I insist that it is not my problem that the counter guy ordered 2 taxis. Taxi driver #2 again blocks our departure and plans to intimidate me into paying him 15Euro. At this point I have had enough. He invites me out of the car to come and talk with him and the guy behind the counter. I am pretty hot over this asshole and I think I was kinda hoping he would make a scene. He was also a bald middle aged dude, and I think he figured that I was not backing down. I ended up back in cab #1 where I urged the cabbie to get me out of there. Didn’t know if I was going to see cabbie solidarity from cabbie #1 or if he was going to put more value in the fare that we represented, in the end he went with the fare we represented. Capitalism at work.
Next, we bellied up to the airport check in counter, only to find out that I did not have a ticket. Liz did, I did not. Wow – things just keep getting better. After dealing with the agent as far as we could (this time a very nice lady who tried as hard as she could but could not help us as the ticket did not show at all on her computer) for over an hour, I ended up on the phone with a Delta agent back in the US. She put in the ticket for me, gave me an e-ticket number and the helpful agent was able to get us seats on the plane and book us through. Wow. I guess the lesson learned there is that you always want to have the e-ticket number.
Well, we are on the plane now and it looks like we will get back to the US after all.
Awesomely dorky in Florence!
Dig riding my bike in Italy or southern Europe, but I do not think I could deal with the pace. Plus, there really isn’t any offroad motorcycle racing in most of Europe – couldn’t deal with that. I do like the wine though.
Out.
Joe
Posted in Joe's blog
Did I ever mention how much I enjoy riding my motorcycle? Today was one of those days were the riding was about as good as it gets, all things considered. I played hooky from work, blasted Sirius XMU as loud as I could all the way to Dyracuse, signed in, suited up, lit the RM-Z250 and hit the trails. Ha!
They had .25″ of precip there yesterday so the sand was as good as it gets. The MX track has been groomed this morning so the moist sand was smooth and firm. It was 60 degrees and calm. All the quads in the parking lot were headed for the mud hole on the far side of the property so I had the trails and the track all to my self. It was dreamy. Like a beer commercial, really, but without the umbrella girls.
I brought my lap timer today and planned to experiment a little. I combined some of the single track trails to make a 6 minute 30 second lap. The loop had a few whooped sections, a rocky technical climb, a few 5th gear wide open straights, lots of right left right in the trees and tons, I mean TONS, of grip.
Keeping track of lap times does a few things for me: it forces me to try hard all the way around the lap (time is ticking and I can see how I performed the second I break the beam), it shows if I’m consistent or not, it can tell if a section or line is faster or slower, and it gives me a feel for how much time a mistake can cost.
It's just a thick layer of sand under there. It will come off easy as.
I rode well today and my lap times improved with each pass. I could feel that happening because I was using parts of the trail that were outside my normal lines (carrying speed out of a turn, for instance, and needing to use up a little more real estate than I did the lap before) and I was making some good ruts in the turns I really had wired. It’s in the back of my head that when I can hit the same line lap after lap and dig a more pronounced rut with each pass, I’m doing something right. Think of the rutted turns that develop on a National outdoor track and you might see it like I do.
My bike was a little off today but it didn’t dampen the fun factor. I had to go to my backup forks because my “A” forks need new bushings. Who knows if there is a distinguishable difference between the two but something was amiss for the first few minutes of the ride then I must had gotten used to it. Jetting was a little rich but I didn’t mind.
After feeling good about the woods laps I headed over to the motocross track for some engine abuse. The long, sandy climbs and deep sand turns must play havoc with the longevity of moto engines. I was somewhat careful but it sure was easy to try to go fast and to do that you had to wring it out. When the track is as firm and smooth as it was today, you can ride the entire lap without using your brakes. My method was to shift down a gear as I approached a soft turn, look where I wanted to end up and then drop the bike on it side and crack open the throttle. The front end would dig into the sand to slow me down and the rear end would search for traction and swing around in a lovely arc. I did a dozen laps and finally pulled it over thinking that I should save the engine for another day!
Pearson is the next D16 hare scramble. If I can ride there like I did today I should have a good time and do well. Here’s to hoping!
I bought that FMF Q pipe from Joe. It has made the bike so much easier to tolerate for 2 hours in the woods. Occasionally the tip hits my butt when I'm trying hard in the whoops. No biggie tho.
Posted in Scott's blog
Tagged D16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, Harescrambles, Honey Stinger, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, moose racing, offroad, OMA, RM-Z250, Scott Daubert, Trek, Vesrah Suzuki, Victory Circle Graphix, WIXC
In Taiwan this week for work.
Good meetings, and of course I got out for a good bike ride. Another really nice time in the mountains on the Island of Taiwan. Found a new climb and kick butt decent. Didn’t get rained on, and was able to climb really hard and count it as a fitness effort day.
But, that is not what you came here to see.
On Thursday night in Taiwan, I went out to dinner with a bunch of guys that I work with from a factory that builds bikes for us.
So a little bit of background is necessary before you look at the video. Taiwan guys LOVE to drink. They really feel it is their duty to drink way too much on a given day. In fact, they feel they are duty bound to get you to drink with them. They have contests with drinking and many rituals that go along with the drinking. Here are some of the things that I have noticed that go along with this.
- Dinner tables are always large and always boisterous. I think they make them large, because everyone is going to be drunk and yelling no matter what, so they might as well be large to justify the yelling. Plus, if they are large you can fit even more people around the table and drink even more. If there are not a ton of people, then the large table works out so that people do not spill beer all over you.
- There is a lot of random toasting that goes on. So that you almost cannot get a bite of food in because someone is trying to toast you from across the table. That is usually ok, because the food isn’t normally that great anyway. Sometimes it is, and you just want to eat…
- Within a company, it is a big deal to be the best drinker at the table. But, no one would admit to being the best and would always defer to someone else as being the best. “oh… Bob is a good drinker…me not so much!”
- There is always a server girl who keeps the glasses on the table well filled. But, no one would actually fill their own glass. It is a high honor to fill everyone else’s glass, so people are constantly jumping up trying to fill each others glass, then they yell at the server girl to get more. (yes it is always a server girl, not a server guy – it’s Asia)
- Kampei is Chinese for bottoms up. Of course the real objective of all of this is to get stupid drunk. So, just as you are about to accept a toast from someone and take a sip of your drink someone screams out “Kampei” and that is the signal that you are to drain your glass. Happens a lot.
- Taiwan guys will Kampei with whatever is in front of them. Whiskey, Beer, Red Wine… Doesn’t matter. (Yes, that does say red wine!)
Take a look at this guy from our dinner table. I started filming this halfway through dinner when I realized that this was going to be good. I know I missed at least 3-4 Kampei efforts before these.
Yes, it was that stupid.
Joe
Posted in Joe's blog
Here is a huge gallery of photos from Aztalan and Sugar Maple this past weekend. I loaded up the lot on Flikr. Click up the link below and you will get to view them all.
Posted in Joe's blog
Up early. Not sleeping well. Might be an age thing, but also might be food or might be nerves or… Any way you slice it, I am up and I do not need to be. I’ve made a couple of PBJ sandwiches, packed waterbottles, bananas and I am ready to go. I made the biggest pot of oatmeal you have ever seen. I am eating it now, and starting my blog entry for the week.
We are going racing today. New spot, close to Madison. Sugar Maple is what it is called. I rode there last fall as they we trying to get this place off the ground. It had an immature, but good outdoor style MX track, but no trails yet to speak of. Brian Terry and others have been there trying to put down enough trail to hold this Harescrambles race. Today will be the day that tells that tail.
Brian told me yesterday that he thinks there will be a really good crowd. He has been getting emails from people all across the midwest saying they were coming. Could be good.
The Race
So we got there at pretty much 10am on the money, maybe a few minutes before hand. We were all set up at 10:10 and ready to tour the new course. There was a fantastic MX track with a couple of huge table tops and a couple of nice doubles and 2 really fun step ups. One section of woods was super technical and difficult. Lots of embedded rocks and downed trees. One section of woods was really nice and flowing. And finally, there was a really fast cornfield section that was wide open 5th gear.
Lots of little log section like these that required doubling across.
Much of the trail in the woods was virgin trail that was just marked on the trees.
I got the start of starts. 1st off the line, first onto the MX track and 1st into the woods. It was great. I had a really good 1st 2 laps, but then on the 3rd lap I had trouble on one of the uphills and really struggled. I stalled the motor and because of where I was sitting had to go back down the hill and try over. On that lap I went form 1st to 4th. I then had my work cut out for me.
The course was not that long, about 3.5 miles around. There was a really good crowd turnout, about 16 people on my line, 12 on the AA, 12 on the A, 20+ on the B, and 20+ on the C line. That makes for a lot of racers to get by when trying to move through the field.
I rode hard for the whole of the race. I caught John with about 10 minutes to go in the race and got by. He got back by me half way through the last lap, then we entered the last woods section with him just in front of me. But, just as we entered the last flowing woods section, he muscled his way around another rider. I was forced to do the same on a really sketchy holed out down hill. Then, at the base of that hill he slid out around the turn and as I was avoiding him, I also fell over. But, my bike did not stall and his did. We were like Ryan Dungey and Ryan Villipoto at the end of the St. Louis SX race. But this time the yellow bike got up first. I rode away and made good time through the rest of the last woods. That was my favorite woods section, and I made it stick. We entered the last of the MX sections, and I railed the last berm and launched all the way over the table top to get into the timing tent 5 seconds ahead of John. 1st place.
There was one creek crossing that became like a GNCC mud section. The mud got deeper and deeper through the race, and longer and longer. That was the only mud section of the race, but look at the results.
After the race.
I should tell you now, that we had a guest with us that made the day all that much more fun. Matt Pickersgill, a friend from the UK was visiting and experiencing his very first Harescrambles race. “Brilliant”! I find that English guys say things like “Brilliant” and “Proper” a lot. Brilliant isn’t just how you would describe a bright light in their version of the english language. It is how you would describe something that is just really cool. Proper is not just how you should act at the dinner table, but is a modifier word that would be added to the front of something else. For example, “You would have to have proper fitness to do this sport” or “This is proper soft dirt”. Here is a list of words that I heard from Matt over the weekend, and my attempt at definition.
Brilliant – see above
Proper – see above
Faffing – futzing about, normally it seems to be when someone has to wait for another person whilst they faff around with something.
Chuffed – happy about something
Mate – friend
Knackered – really tired
Get a crack on – get moving, stop dilly dallying
Minging – really smelly and gross
Tar it all with the same brush – stereotype of a group of people being
all the same.
Jogg on – stop messing around and get a move on, not as severe as crack on
Bollox – monkeys nuts (specific spelling with an x on the end)
Bollocks – dammit
Slapper – really loose Doris (women) slap slap slap, a bit of a whore really
Swish swosh – prosperous walk. Walking like you’ve got a lot of money in your pocket, which maybe you do.
giffer – a cap wearing cross between a git and a duffer (specifically spelled with a lower case g)
Giffer – orgy seeking drunk middle age woman
Duffer – a pratt
Pratt – bit of an idiot
Git – a bit of a sod
Sod – (suttly different than git) kind of an idiot
Twat – agressive reference to a bit of a bastard, also female anatomy so be careful with this one
Dog and bone – the phone
Cream crackered – knackered
I don’t Adam and Eve it – I don’t believe it.
of course it goes on and on. A week with Matt can give you a whole new look at the english language.
Out
Joe
Posted in Joe's blog
Tagged D16, Enduro, factory conneciton, gncc, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, moose racing, offroad, OMA, pirelli, RM-Z250, Scott Daubert, Sugar Maple, Vesrah Suzuki
Our camp. I'm prepping my Oakley goggles in the shade of the van.
The second race of the AMA District 16 hare scramble series is in the bag. Joe and I drove an hour west of Madison this past Sunday to compete in a super fun event held on a private farm in the rolling hills of south-central Wisconsin. Friday rains and farmed soil made for hero dirt conditions and the sunny 70 degree weather topped it off.
It's true. We think we are bad to the bone. And Moose gear is the shizzle.
After my rookie-like scramble at last week’s series opener I was determined to pull it back together and race like I know I can. My wife (who’s a former world-class athlete) and I spoke over dinner one night last week about my mental state during the opening race. I was trying too hard and therefore forcing things to happen rather than watching for and lining up opportunities. It’s complicated but the gist is that I needed to let the race come to me in the opening laps.
This diddy had a rider trapped every time I came through. Half the trees on the far side of it had been knocked down by race end.
I’ve had a tough time with my clutch lately so I opted to start the bike in neutral rather than kick a dozen times while the rest of the AA line blasted off to turn one. This meant that my bike would surely start but I would need to slam it into gear once it lit. That cost me time but it was well worth it.
The 12 AA riders on the line were most the who’s who of the fast guys within 5 hours drive of here. I was a little nervous as the race approached because from what I had seen of the lap on my sighting walk, this was my kind of course. And knowing I’m fit and riding well made me sweat more.
At this point I'm pretty sure I can beat that quad to the first turn. There's Joe on the 40+ line in the background.
I got a slow start, which I expected, then avoided a two rider, mid air collision over the first jump, sped up to the back of the AA group and waded my way through some scary fast dust. The mx track we started on had sweeping turns with multiple ruts from entry to exit. They were fun but you had to be committed to keep up with other riders. The jumps were more than enough for the off-road racers in the group and the A class mx guys were making me feel wimpy. The story reversed as soon as we got into the woods. I started making my way through the group.
Here's one of the slower rocky downhills we saw. Pretty challenging late in the race but still loads of fun.
The 8+ minute lap had a few open field sections where I wished I had a taller gear or a bigger engine. And the woods sections might have been easier on a trials bike. Two tricky hills eliminated sloppy or timid riders from the rest of us on those opening laps. On one early lap I had to weave between stopped riders to get to the top of the hill. At the very top I finally lost my balance and leaned against another rider. He had to push me back up right and in the process my right boot got caught on something and it opened up all four buckles. I got my act in gear and continued on only to have to stop a few turns later to do up the top two buckles. I couldn’t feel the rear brake with how loose the boot was and I couldn’t afford to do up all four so I only did the top two. The loose boot bugged me for the rest of the race. But at least I didn’t get stuck on that hill because looking back at the lap times, it appears it stopped a lot of riders that would have normally been in the mix for the win.
We entered this section after a fast grassy field crossing. The grass had awesome grip so you could really get on the brakes just before hit the single track. I like how settled the bike looks in this shot.
My race was 15 laps total. I made my way up to 4th somewhere in the middle of the race. I didn’t know who was in front of me so there was a time when I thought 4th was as good as I could do; the riders I saw on the line were reputably fast. When I came around and saw I was in 2nd on lap 12, I was reborn. I had been catching glimpses of Matt Herrington for a few laps and only when I saw the marquee say that I was in second did it dawn on me that Matt was leading and he was definitely within my reach.
I put my head down and chased. The lappers were cooperative and I was lucky. I caught Matt several times in the closing laps but would bobble or take a line that was just slower than Matt’s and have to remount a chase. I’m pretty stoked that some of my fastest laps were late in the race but they were not fast enough to over take Matt. Congrats to Matt on the win!
This is BIG air for a woods guy like me. I might not had hit this as fast as I did if I had seen this photo before the race.
I crossed the finish line in 2nd just eight seconds behind Matt. I only stalled one time all race and only hit the ground once. I’m calling that a successful turn of events compared to last weekend’s freshman outing.
In between rides and races I’ve been tinkering with the suspension linkage on my RM-Z250. I’ve learned that keeping it clean and fresh makes a perceivable difference in how well the bike works in gnarly terrain. The acceleration and braking grip is so much better and the trail chop is far less fatiguing when the rear of the bike is quiet. And thanks to Factory Connection for the killer valving!
Hero dirt.
A big thanks to Matt Pickersgill for taking all these photos!
The next race is said to have a very long lap that’s filled with rocky single track. I’d better get on my Gas Gas trials bike between now and then to hone some of my throttle and clutch skills! Hope to see you there!
I was really comfy in this section of woods. It was a lot like Homann's farm where I've been practicing. Tight and rutted.
Joe’s Vimeo Video Account
