Learning to love the whip.

There is an area of the local forest that is so seldom visited by bicyclists, that it is almost weird. I have never, ever, ever seen anyone else there that was not part of the group I was already with. But I am not complaining, mind you. We will just keep it between you and me, OK? OK. Today I rode with KT and Purple Pat.

It begins on an old, paved road with tons of history (see post


This is KT. Loyal readers may recall I mentioned him in previous blogs. He is still rebuilding his strength and fitness after a serious leg injury and his left leg is still about 2/3 the size of his right. KT did a road century yesterday...a pretty hard one...and then brought out his 29er Orbea SS and proceeded to spank me in the climb and really, the whole ride. Mercy. Here he is happy because he is unaware that I am considering pushing him over the culvert behind him.




Snacks at the top.



Soon we hit the singletrack and spent the next 2 hours winding up and down and around the shoulder of the mountain. The recent rains had packed down the sandy soil and green grass was just beginning to show. Dark and almost primeval feeling in parts, the trail stays under a canopy of old oaks for most of the ride, swooping and twisting and diving like a good trail should. It is not a cruise though and on the SS, it purt the hurt on us more than a few times. 3 hours of great stuff and a morning well spent with friends on bikes in a beautiful place.




The SS is such a cruel and tantalizing mistress. It promises to be simple and quiet and easy and whispers things like "I am all you need" in your ear. Then, once you get it out on the ride, it brings out the whip. I mean, why do I do that to myself? That is not really a terribly hard climb on a geared bike. Not at all. On the SS it is another thing altogether. Once at the top, the pain is forgotten and the challenge of finding the right line, less braking into the corners, sitting, standing, keeping momentum and attacking the trail all are such a part of the game on the SS. I am not really good at it yet, but I am working on it.

I still fear the whip, but I am getting to like the sound it makes when it cracks across my soul.

Next time you think YOU have skills...try this.



Amazing.

2008 highlights: GPS gizmos

I had long ago put aside any cycling computers, heart rate monitors, etc. I really did not care how far it was, how fast I went, etc. It was just me on the bike going riding. It took as long as it took and rides were measured in minutes/hours. It worked for me.

Then, completely unrelated to cycling, I bought a hand held GPS unit for family use and geocaching.

It was pretty cheap to buy and I enjoyed learning about how they worked and what you could do with them. In 2008, I began reading that many cyclists were bringing their GPS units with them on rides and downloading the data to web sites or software programs. It would spit out all kinds of numbers like distance, average speed, elevation gain/loss, heart rate (with the right GPS unit)and more and lay it out over maps like you would see on Google Earth. Now, THAT was cool. I love maps. I used to pour over old maps of the surrounding forest looking for old roads, trails, etc and planning rides.

Better than that, you could share the resulting files with others and everyone with a GPS could re-trace the rides you did. Excellent!

Unfortunately, I had chosen the wrong brand for this kind of stuff. Garmin is the king of the hill for athletic based GPS use and I had a Magellan. Many of the programs do not talk Magellan speaky. Then, I found Topofusion. A free download with option to upgrade for $, Topofusion was written by an endurance bike geek and fellow blogger and it totally rocks.

So now with Topofusion and my GPS, I am a fount of statistics and ride info. I can download a file from the net, pop it into my GPS and, along with some good maps, ride anywhere in the country with confidence. I now know how high, how far, how fast and I can lay it out on mapping software and check it all out.

Nifty.

I don't bring it on every ride. I still prefer to be pretty gadget free, but I always have the option of gathering all that info courtesy of billions of dollars of space hardware and a funny looking cell-phone-type thingy on the h-bars.

What a year it's been.

So, I figured I would take a few posts and highlight some of the highlights of 2008 as it draws to a close. There were some victories, some losses, some great new products, clothing etc, and some new friends and relationships that added up to a unique year as a mtn biker.

More to come, right now it is bedtime.

Goodnight.