What the Q?

I've been selling off as many parts as I can. My garage is getting cluttered, and I need to recover something from this money pit of a sport. However, sometimes there are items for sale that make you pull out the credit card, whatever the circumstance. Last week, I pulled the trigger on some used Rotor Q Rings. My brother has raved about them, but I've found their $260 price tag ridiculous. I found a set of used rings on mtbr.com. It didn't include the big ring, but I don't really spend much time in the big ring. At a huge discount, I had to just try them out...

... and they feel amazing. I installed the Q rings on the Orbea and headed out to Peters Canyon. The difference in the 2nd gear was immediate. I felt smoother and faster from the get go. The granny felt a bit jerky for me, but I'll give it time to smooth out. For the first time ever, I cleared the reservoir climb, and for the second time ever, I cleared Big Red. Two monstrous climbs in one ride! I know these climbs are just normal training rides for you athletic types, but I'm not the athletic type =). Anyways, the Q rotors will prove to be a big help when trying to catch Mark at the Over the Hump races.

Anything You Can Do

In lieu of the Tuesday Over the Hump race, Mark and I decided to do a little training at Whiting Ranch.

A Little Background...
Two weeks ago, I rode Whiting on my 26" Zaskar. It was the first time I could clear the Mustard climb on 1-2. I kind of cheated by using an 11-34 cassette instead of 11-32, so my gearing was kind of 1-1.5. Whatever. Big win for me. In my mind, clearing Mustard on 1-2 with the Zasky showcased the improvement in my physical fitness. If I can do it on 1-2, I surely can granny it on my 29er. I need to do it on my 29er. I need to validate buying the Orbea 29er. Today's the day the Orbea meets Whiting.

Oh The Pain...
Even before the ride, I sensed some pain in my future. It all started with a quippy, "Let's do Whiting twice" comment from Mark. To understand the gravity of the comment, we have to rewind to last Thursday, when I decided it would be a good idea to do some resistance exercises at the gym. I think I dislocated my shoulder when bracing my body to do some standing leg lifts. Since then, my shoulder has been popping in and out of the socket resulting in sharp, blinding pains. So doing Whiting twice didn't really appeal to me. Still, we ride on.

Anything You Can Do...
The ride starts out as well as can be. High 60s, very light rain in the morning packing down the loose sand. Borrego doesn't pose that much of a problem, and my shoulder is in good condition. I just have to take pressure off the bars. Then we hit Mustard. I start out in 1-2 thinking I'll shift down when I hit the really steep stuff. To my surprise, I started climbing Mustard in 1-2! All throughout the climb, I had a mental musical playing in my head. It went kind of like this:

Orbea 29:
Anything you can do, I can do better.
I can do anything better than you.

Zasky 26:
No you can't.

Orbea 29:
Yes I can.
Anything you can climb I can climb better.
Sooner or later, I'm climbing better than you.

I can smash a steep incline,
without the resulting supine.

I can roll through a rut,
with out much fuss.

Zasky 26:
=(.


Ok, so I'm not the best lyricist, but the music kept me going. I ended up killing mustard on 1-2. A very proud day for me and my 29er. On the second go around, I did Mustard in 1-1, but I still didn't stop. All said and done, the 29er felt faster on the climbs, felt less like I was going to flip backwards, and navigate through sand like nothing. On my Zaskar, I did mustard in 15:38. Orbea 29er did it in 13:03 and 13:56. Not exactly the same bike or the same test, but a very marked difference.

On another note, there was a downed tree on Serrano. It kind of sneaks up on you if you're the type to push it.


The big branch is a bit under eye level when I'm on the bike, so it required quite a bit of squatting to get under it.

Over the Hump #6

So Over the Hump race series is in its mid season break. Today's race was on my new-to-me Orbea Alma 29er. In truth, I've had this bike for about two weeks, but I didn't make any mention of it. I wasn't sure if the 29er thing is for me, but I am pretty convinced. I am fat (and riding), so I do feel the pain on some of the climbs in granny gear, but it's not as different as I thought. Solution: Get stronger.

Onto the race report...
Unlike last week, I started in the first two rows. Man, the pace is ridiculously fast up front. It was disheartening to see so many B1s and B2s pass me up, but I felt pretty strong up the climbs. The downhill to right turn still makes me pause. Fear of falling again, not looking through the turn, or just plain obstinacy. I finished 14th of 25 with a time of 50:39. Goal for the second half of the series is to finally break the top 50% and stay there. Maybe break top 30% once to get a friggin pint glass.

Final thoughts: I really need to control my warm up. I tend to have just two modes - stationary, and pushing hard. My trusty Garmin 305 logged a heart rate of 170+ during my warm up lap, so I made an effort to keep it under 140 this week. I felt better today, but my time wouldn't show it.

Over the Hump #5

So mere days after going OTB at Chumash, I had a bit of a spill at Orange County's only mid-week mountain bike race, Over the Hump. I ended up 14th of 23, which isn't terrible, but I expected so much more this week.

The first collision was in the very beginning. After the initial paved climb, there's a singletrack where a lot of bottlenecks happen. One individual came bombing through and got through "on your le--" before he smacked into my bars. Since I am significantly bigger, I barely moved off course and the rider went down. I stopped to ask how he was doing, but then a flurry of riders rushed past me.

The second collision was entirely my fault. There is a short, but steep, downhill that transitions to a right turn. On the last lap, the course marshal was screaming "it's just dirt." My mind focused immediately on the dirt at the apex of the turn and I low sided. Not too bad, but I did take off some skin.



So the first order of business was dinner at Shik Do Rak, and then I patched myself up with second skin.

All in all, I like the new course. I can't seem to manage some of the downhills, but it's just a matter of a skill.

Chumash Kicks My Ass

So for this father's day weekend, I went home to the San Fernando Valley to grab dinner with my family. I always use opportunities like this to go riding with my brother. So the day begins with the car ride to the trail head. Conversation goes something like this:

Brother: You'll like Chumash. I've been riding it for the last few weeks, even during the week day.
Me: Oh yeah? It's not too intense, is it?
Brother: It's 3 miles.
Me: and?
Brother: 1,000 feet of climbing.
Me: Doesn't seem like I can do it.
Brother: It's very flowy, and very doable.
Me: ... (expecting some pain)

So the trail has been split up into three one-mile segments.

Mile 1 (Climb)
The first mile is not so technical, and requires a decent amount of climbing. I dismounted once, but it was a lapse in concentration on a short, but steep, uphill. The last part of the mile consisted of a single/double track climb my brother calls "breathless agony."

Mile 2 (Climb)
The second mile had more of an uphill/flat flow to it. I was told to keep in granny and use the flats to recover. Good advice. The trail did get a bit more technical, and there was one uphill that I sessioned 5+ times with no success.

Mile 3 (Climb)
Holy crap. Lots of rocks, very technical climbing. I walked probably 75% of this.

Mile 4 (Mile 3 descent)
I had a few dismounting moments on the downhill. They typically came on rock switchbacks with the cliff side in my view. I get scared of the cliff and the unknown, and I'm terrible at switchbacks (uphill or downhill).

Mile 5 (Mile 2 descent)
This was a lot of fun, until I rounded a switchback too tight, hit a big rock, endo'd for a split second, stared down the side of a cliff on my front wheel, and then supermanned to the mountain for safety. I banged up my palms and my legs a bit, but no skin bleeding and hopefully no bones cracked.

Mile 6 (Mile 1 descent)
With my confidence shaken, I didn't attack the downhills. Probably a good idea since I was totally unfamiliar with the trail. This is when my brother lost control of his bike and ended up wiping out into the bushes. He had some skin scrapes on his forearms and smacked his shoulder up pretty good. We ended up finishing the ride in good order, but not without some battle injuries.

Weight Weenie Clyde?

So I am a self-admitted weight weenie. I am also well within the clyde range at 5'10", 255+lbs. So how do the two mix? I've prowled countless forum threads where cyclist bash "fatasses" for buying and rockin' carbon, or concerning themselves about bike weight. The final argument tends to be a statement about how weight savings would be negated by the rider losing some lbs, or that the durability is always worth the extra grams. While both arguments are indeed true individually, neither really address the issue of why someone is a weight weenie.

I hate being the last in a group ride. I've been on many rides where I'm stuck in the back with an irked and frustrated sweeper. Isn't the only functional reason to be a weight weenie is to be faster? So since most clydes tend to be on the slower side, why wouldn't we want to lighten up our bike? I'm not discounting the weight limits of certain parts, but lightweight materials like carbon, scandium, and titanium can drastically improve speed, and maybe keep us clydes involved in the sport. Perhaps we won't be clydes for much longer.

So all in all, a weight weenie is good for the sport, whether clyde or not. It keeps our interest in the sport alive and well, stimulates the economy, and creates demand for lighter, stronger parts.

This blog will eventually evaluate weight-weenie-for-a-clyde products. Probably won't be the lightest products, but certain items can be clyde worthy, and "clyderized" for big boy use.

Hope Pro II Freehub Failure

I've been loving my Hope Pro II wheelset. Laced to Mavic EN521s with double butted spokes, my wheelset has seen probably a thousand miles. On my second time servicing my freehub, I noticed a crack running alongside the splines.



The crack had gone through the spring cavity as well and shown on the inner face of the freehub.


Though disappointed, I somewhat expected such from an aluminum freehub that gouges from cassettes with individual cogs.

I emailed Hope on Thursday, received a response on Friday, and received a new steel freehub on Monday. Big thanks to Hope for keeping me rolling. The freehub was just on time for the Over the Hump race #4.


The only gripe is about the weight. The steel freehub comes in around 168 grams, about 90 grams heavier than its aluminum counterpart (79g). That puts my wheelset at around 2150g without skewers. Hardly race worthy, but the Hope Pro II/Mavic EN521 is my trail/AM, everyday workhorse wheelset.