Whiskey Off Road

After last years experience of turning into an ass during the Whiskey Off Road 25 race. I resolved never to do the race again.

That did not keep me from pre-riding the course in a 3:10 (fast recreational pace) with Dan last weekend. My goals for today's race were to have fun, enjoy some time with the boys, and to cheer on Dan as much as possible as he went for the SS win.

All goals were achieved in spades.

At the last minute I borrowed a local's tandem bike and added on the Trail-a-Bike to make a 12 foot long train.





This was my first experience with riding a tandem, and I was pleasantly surprised. My plan was to ride up Copper Basin to the Prietta Overlook, then circle around and come down Thumb Butte road. This works out to around 15 miles or so, half of it climbing the couple thousand feet from downtown. My route roughly parallels the Whiskey 25 course although those riders hit a bunch of trails I was not about to ride with this big train. I was hoping to stop and cheer Dan on at multiple places on the way. In order to do this, we needed to get a jump on the racers since this thing climbs slowly and deliberately.



We started 1/2 hour before the racers and worked our way up Copper Basin as quickly as possible. After an hour of climbing, we made the first road crossing for the racers just in time. We cheered as Dan pulled through in fourth place 3 minutes behind the leader. Then it was time to remount and head for the overlook.



After another half hour or so of climbing, we merged with the race route and stopped for a rest at the apex of the ride, the aptly named Sierra Prieta Overlook:



Climbing the tandem was not nearly as taxing as I thought it would be (or I am in awesome shape right now....not!). It is slow and deliberate, but we pulled through some really steep sections without a lot of difficulty.

At the overlook, we waited about 15 minutes and Dan pulled up 7 minutes behind the leader in fourth. We cheered him on again as he started the descent back to town.

We then remounted, and I hoped we could descend the dirt road fast enough to catch him at the bottom of the trail section, and pace him on the paved section back to town. I need not have worried. This tandem is super fast, plush and stable downhill. The only thing slowing us down was worrying about the trail a bike on the stutter bumps. Luckily the brakes on this thing were awesome.

We got to the bottom where the trail paralleled the road about 3 minutes ahead of Dan. When he pulled by he said the leader flatted and he was currently in second. We paced him riding the road while he road the trail a couple hundred yards to our right in a ravine. Eventually the trail and road merge, and it is all roads back to town for the racers.

Once the tandem hit the paved streets, it really flew. I wanted to pull Dan along, but with the SS bike, I dropped him pretty easily. We sort of paced along with him to town, and then followed all the racers through the chute to the cheers of the crowd. The kids loved that.




All in all, we all had a great time, enjoyed spectating the race in the best possible way, and got a decent work out. Nearly everyone we ran into during the race cheered on this freakshow of a bike. I think we brought a lot of smiles to folks.

Total: around 15 miles with 2600 feet of climbing.

I am not nearly as wasted as I expected to be. Maybe next year I need to do the 25 tandem with Ethan? Or maybe not. I simply can't support this race financially after last year's experience.

Simon Bar at Play

I haven't much wanted to ride since the PMC, but today I got off early and tool Lil' E out for some play bike time. He wanted to ride the Dells, so who was I to stop him.

As a result, I had a photographer for some of my favorite moves in the Willow Dells.

I put the Simon Bar through it all, and it pretty much shrugged it off. After doing multiple drops and power climbs on a SS hardtail, rather than suspension, my back and knees are telling me about it just a little.

This is really the primary role for the Simon Bar in my mind: Play hardtail.

This roller always makes me pucker a little, but it was a non-issue.



This drop I have only done less than 10 times and it scares the crap out of me. This is the biggest I ever anticipate going with any bike. It is pretty uneventful on the Box, just muster courage and hit it. The Milk Money handles it pretty well also. I tried it once on the Rig and whipped my neck hard enough to say to myself I would not try it on a hardtail again. Well, I am stupid so I hit it twice on the SB today, and it went fine. The landing is hard, but very manageable, probably more so as my technique improves.



This is more typical of the little two foot stuff I enjoy and that is just fun on any bike. The SB could do this all day long.



This is probably more of the typical terrain I will use the bike for: singletrack intermixed with interesting rock gardens. I really enjoy riding this frame in this stuff.




Burst at the 3 foot wall and trust speed and momentum to carry you to the top.



Then come down and do it again.



Ride outcropping and hop off the end.









Sprint at wall and hope you have enough speed to carry to the top before you fall over.







Roll back down





The photographer felt he needed a few photos taken as well:













(A little Banshee love in the above photos)

So anyway, I am pretty tickled with the Simon Bar. I absolutely did not know what to expect when I bought the frame and am very pleased with it in every way. Time will tell how it holds up, but it will not be ignored, that is for sure.

Prescott Monstercross

Just some random thoughts from the day. I am glad I did it.

Neutral start was fun, buzzing down Prescott Lakes Pkwy at 40+ mph with a bunch of like minded folks. I was very pleased to outroll Dan at max velocity:)





We headed down Peavine to the Lakeshore trail where Dan took off, Scott, Chad, and I followed. I passed Chad in short order and pinned it through the Dells where local knowledge rules. Scott hung on to my wheel and cleaned on-sight pretty much everything, including some amazingly tough climbs. I've said it before, but he is the best tech climber I have ever ridden with, and he proved it again yesterday.



I led down the ubertech descent of over-the-hill trail since Dan had gotten off course somehow in the heat of racing. Dan and Scott passed me at the we started the hike a bike out of the ravine.









Chad and Aaron from Flag caught me on the Hike a bike, then we hung together on the ride to Willow Dells.



Scott joined us after going briefly off course and Dan was off the front. We rode through the Willow Dells together and that whole group took off from me never to be seen again.

I rode pretty much alone until the middle of the Granite Basin loop where Becker and Nino caught me in Mint wash. They did not seem as excited about the first hour of tech riding as the rest of the leaders:) It literally took them two hours to gain back the time I put on them in the Dells.

The Dells are a great start if you want to suffer because they force you to make power moves at the beginning of a long day. Let me tell you: I did suffer. I felt like dog meat all through Granite Basin. I ran into Scott who was quitting due to a sprained ankle in the Dells. Jeff from Scottsdale passed me and slowly pulled away up 332. I stopped at Iron Springs to refill water at a cache. This is 3-4 hours in and I honestly felt pretty bad. I was very slow on any climb and felt utterly spent from the way to fast start. I rode the next five hours alone and did not see any of the racers before or behind me.

I made my way across the Thumb Butte area at a snail's pace, and finally got to Copper Basin Rd where I stopped to inspect a creak in my drivetrain. It turned out to be a broken chainring bolt. I had a spare in my pack, but it would not fit this bike with the thick chainguard. I almost abandoned (it was sooooo tempting) until I was able to put the inner part of the bolt in. Since this carries the majority of the load, I just zip tied it in place, and trusted my perfectly straight chain line. I tested the set up while climbing Quartz mountain, and it was working fine, so I descended Quartz and started up 396.

At this point I knew I was going to finish, just dreading the Spruce road climb. 396 went okay if slow, and I was on to Spruce. Amazingly, I was able to dig deep and clean the Spruce road climb. This was my proudest moment, 45 minutes of steady, barely moving, upward progress. I could see Dan's tracks squirming back and forth up the road so that inspired me a bit.

Then it was down Smith Ravine. At this point, the down were hurting more than the ups if they were fast. I crashed and skinned a knee half way down. 305 was fine, but the lower half was a total mind game. I just wanted to be done.

I rolled in to Scott, Chad and Jeff and a fresh pizza! Thankfully they shared, and it was the best piece of pizza I've ever had!

As it turns out, my 9:13 was good for fifth place or DFL, but....I don't feel too bad because seven of 13 starters abandoned or got lost.

Final stats are 59 miles and around 9-10k of climbing.

Thanks to Chad for organizing this!

The only take a way I have from it is this: Sometimes if you feel really, really bad, keep going because eventually you will feel better. That was a new experience for me, and I am glad I didn't quit the many, many times I wanted to.

PS: The Sinister is a stellar bike....for a two hour ride. Full suspension is the way to go for something this long.

New Frame

I have been going crazy with a new build and trying to get it all done prior to tomorrow's Prescott Monstercross.

Ever since I tried a hardtail with a big fork, I have been hooked. The Rig was very old and beat up and likely to break on me in the near future, so I started looking in the classifieds.

I found a Simon Bar Frame used at a great price.





These look cool, but are a total PIA to adjust. I hope I never change gearing again. I can't see breaking or slipping them. I filed off about 1-2mm on the front of the slider itself to get the chainstay to 16.85 for 32X21 gearing. The yolk fit a 2.25 Nevegal fine, but began to rub with a 2.25 Bontrager 29-3. Soooooo, I had to modify the yolk itself some. The Black line is about where it started.



Do you think Frank will mind that I filed off part of this yolk? The more important question is: will it fail here? The thing is pretty beefy so I doubt it.




Raw finish is a bit on the grungy side.




BB 12.9" with 120mm fork.

HTA around 68-69.

ETT 23.5

First ride tomorrow is attempted 60 mile epic, so I hope I have it set up correctly.

In other news, I cracked the Milk Money main frame, so that is off for repair. Hopefully I will get another year of two out of it prior to replacement.