The Thoughts and Random Musings of The Solo Rider

Mixing things up.

Dan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:00:34 +0000

Mixing things up once in awhile is a good thing. I had originally planned on doing another road ride today, but I wasn’t feeling it when I woke up this morning. Despite the weather, I felt like doing a street session on the mtb instead of a road ride. Wound up being well worth the risk, there was an addition to the line that I’ve been eying up and sure enough the run in and run out was clear. Took a practice approach to find the best line into it, on the second attempt I went for it and stuck it first attempt.

The new part was a ledge drop that had to be hit on an angle in order to have any chance of a good run off. Luckily where this was situated was sheltered from the wind, if was not I probably wouldn’t have gone for it.

Forgot to mention this earlier….

Dan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:41:23 +0000

Experienced something I never experienced before. Early on in the ride, I could not hear anything for 5 minutes. No road noises, not the sound of the VW that was pulled to the side of the road with the engine running(smoke was coming out the exhaust and the engine bay). Couldn’t hear the county highway that was an eighth of a mile away, no road noise from the tires either. All I could hear for those 5 minutes was this huge flock of birds. Not sure what type of bird they were, but there were literally well over 100 of them. Every single one of them squawking away frantically. That was definitely a surreal moment.

Another day, another ride.

Dan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:14:09 +0000

Today, metric century number 4 of the year has been logged. If the body holds up, I’m going to have a really good 2012. Kind of funny that I used to be tooled to the shorter, faster ride up until 2010. Something clicked then, my average speed has plateaued but the distances are increasing in place of that. Always been a strong rider, and usually I tend to stick to my ways.

The only change I can point out is switching to bibs compared to the conventional bike shorts. I know it probably doesn’t have much to do with anything, but I have the feeling that I breathe better in the bibs.

Anyways, in regards to today’s effort, was relatively warm for the time of the year and was damp. Wouldn’t say it was raining but a full on mist all day today. Actually did not get completely drenched, and feel like I got the layers correct for the conditions, didn’t freeze and didn’t roast. At times, a few sections were a bit tricky, mainly because of exposed cold, wet tar. Nothing that a careful line selection couldn’t fix. Things did start getting a bit sketchy right at the end as the schools were letting out and could tell that there was some fog rolling in.

Tomorrow will be fun, will be dealing with flurries on tomorrow’s ride.

What is a Sunset to Some is a Sunrise to Others….

Dan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:13:53 +0000

All ends have a beginning, and all beginnings have an end. In some cases it’s just an endless loop. I’m one of those cases, I’ve never bought into this riding season thing. Would rather freeze my rear off and get some quality miles in than sit around warm in front of a television. Granted I’m done with pumptracks and dirt jumps until March/April, but the street aspect is still there and road riding is always available. So season over? Nope.

I know some people that just will not road ride and would rather sit around during the winter and wait for spring to arrive instead of getting something to get some road miles in even if it is cold out. Once spring comes they complain that their endurance is out of whack. In a ways the season aspect of things in cycling has a deep mental effect on a person’s reasoning. Where in snow skiing, yes there is indeed a season, but one can always ride a bike regardless of the season.

If one is willing to accept all forms of cycling, then one can mature as a cyclist.

A little over a year passes…

Dan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:53:03 +0000

That little pumptrack I posted about last year has gotten much much bigger and better. Last August/September, the track underwent an expansion to add a couple of more advanced lines. One of said lines consists of a step down that I have taken a real liking to. The center has been retooled and is now manageable. This spring a dedicated jumpline was put in. It’s going to be interesting in the near future to see where things are taken there. Since the track is due to have a total redoing, things will get more progressive with any luck.

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Now playing: Rammstein – Reise, Reise
via FoxyTunes

Guess I should clarify my entry from yesterday.

Dan — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:01:12 +0000

Didn’t really mean to bag on the mtb as I did, was just a bit aggravated with a few things with it, one with the mtb itself and the other was just a really bad day riding it. The issue with the mtb itself was in regards to the rear wheel, which wound up being a very simple fix. All is good there now.

Now with the bad riding day, I was just really off my game yesterday and just could not find foot placement on the right pedal. That said, I guess I just need to step away from the mtb when I’m feeling aggravated with it and take a day or two on the fixed gear. It generally clears my head and allows me to refocus.

The new mtb, yes it is 7 months old and looks like it has been through the ringer.

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Now playing: Spineshank – Asthmatic
via FoxyTunes

Simplicity, I need more of it.

Dan — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:46:39 +0000

After another day of feeling unsatisfied with the mtb, I jumped on the fixed gear and had a short, but much more satisfying ride than I did with the mtb. I am getting a feeling that this isn’t a simple case of burnout here either, I am feeling a genuine distaste of the mtb. Starting to find it to be way too complicated for my tastes. This is what I love about my 930 is that it is really simple all I have to do is top the tires off and ride. No suspension fork to check over, no deraillieurs to adjust or worry about snagging. Don’t have to drive to get to where I want to ride, I can just simply start my ride from my driveway and just go. It’s gotten to the point now that I want to build up a fixed cruiser/path bike when I don’t feel like going for a road ride or take that dumb mtb for a ride.

The goals I set for myself in the last post have all been blown all to pieces. The first week of March, I spent in the hospital with a bloodclot in my right leg and that alone screwed my goals up for 2011 up. I have also retired the Pista.

Back to training.

Dan — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 04:29:50 +0000

Starting my training for the next season up early, I want to make 2011 my best year cycling wise and do have some goals I want to achieve. The main reason I want to start this early is that I want to take a try at the hour record. I’ve always been fascinated with the hour record and I figure that next year will the year to go for it. My mtb obligations are pretty much done for the year. Was a good season on the mountain bike, one of my better season’s in the past 4 years.

With that being said have a couple more planned big sessions with the mountain bike, then use of it will get more sporadic and the pista will start seeing more regular use, with some road rides mixed in.

My goals for the remainder of 2010 and 2011.

Work on sprinting, while my sprint is good, I want to take it to the next level.
Work on strategy.
Staying relatively healthy.
Improve on pursuit skills
Get hooked on match sprints
Find a new bar handlebar combo for the pista.
Have a blast at what I’m doing.
Hour Record

Will be updating my goals as I come across them.

Lessons Learned.

Dan — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:04:32 +0000

That every once in awhile one will make the mistake of letting someone use something that is important to you and they then proceed to go and break it. This has happened to me this week again.

This week I let someone I know borrow my bike at the pump track. The fork on the mtb is a fox f100x, which I take really good care of. So guess what happens, he goes tries the same line that I usually take and lands the bike hard on the front and messes the internals up. So I had to get new internals for it, needless to say I got an oem fork to take the internals from and put those into my fork.

Today, went and took the dmr out for a shake down ride. First few passes everything seems to be fine, then I start hearing an unusually huge amount of creaking. Get off the pump track to check it out and notice that the fork legs are drenched with oil. Didn’t overfill and followed Fox’s instructions to the T, so now I get to go and tear the fork apart again to see what’s going on with it, at the same time I find that the front brake is screwed up again, so off that goes again. While putting the bike up onto the rack and about to undue the rear skewer, I notice a ton of slop in the rear hub.

Initially thought that the hub just simply went out of adjustment. Nope, removed wheel out came half the axle. So now I have to go switch forks, and replace a broken axle. Anyways got it all taken care of and get back to the pump track. At this point I am completely fuming over the events of that day so far. Get back on track and had completely forgotten how plush the marzocchi fork I have is and that it handles the pump track better than the fox has so far.

To get to the point you would guess the lesson learned is for me to never let anyone try my bike out. It isn’t the guy didn’t know that was going to happen. Should he have taken the less aggressive approach into the track; yes. Also broken gear happens. The true lesson learned is that sometimes something you put aside as a back up is actually better than you initially thought it was. Let’s face it, if the fork didn’t fail on me, I would still be riding that Fox fork and the Marzocchi would still be sitting in my garage, collecting dust.

Initial Review Alexandria Pump Track

Dan — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:04:27 +0000

Back on June 5th in Alexandria, New Jersey’s first public pump track was opened. Wasn’t able to get there for the first few days because of circumstances out of my circumstances. But have since spent significant riding time at his location. The track is going to be expanded, so this will not be a full review and will hold back heavily on my final findings.

First impression of the track was that it was rather mild for what I’ve been on. But after spending more time on it, there are definite ways to keep it interesting. Would still say that it’s a bit on the mild side. The center section needs major improvement it’s near impossible to keep any momentum up there.

The recent weather has made things a “bit” on the dusty side, don’t go there planning on keeping said bike clean. It will be dust covered.

Overall, it needs improvement, but it’s on the right path and it’s better than nothing.

Also the updated bike:

Siu, 143.