ProGold is awesome stuff!!

First off, I recently found myself being able to pick up a new set of wheels. I ended up getting a set of Sun Ringle Black Flag Pro. They seem like they will be a great set of wheels to roll on this year. They are by far the nicest mtb wheels I have ever owned. I normally just have what ever cheap set I can find or what comes stock on my bike (this too is not normally very expensive). The only other pair of wheels that I had this nice was a set of Profile hubs with Sun rims and Ti spokes on my BMX bike. These seem to be giving those a run for the money. Time will tell when I actually get them on the bike and ride them.

Sun Ringle - Bad Ass Metal Parts!

These wheels come with the Stan's technology in the rims. Sun Ringle actually make the Stan's rims. I mounted up a new set of Maxxis tires on them. I had a big problem getting one of the tires to go on the rim. I had to work pretty hard to get it on there. Other than being hard to get on, the other issue I had was if I used a tire lever it wanted to poke a hole in the rim tape. This was not a good thing. After a lot of work and some cussing, I finally got the stubborn tire on and seemed to seal up nice. Later I realize that I must have put another hole in the tape since I am leaking air out the nipple holes. This means I have to take the tire back off and start all over after I put some new tape in there. Grrrr!

As I was getting the new wheel set ready to put on the bike and transferring the rotors and cassette over, it was obvious that I have not taken very good care of my cassette. It looked nasty! There was no way that I was going to put that on those new wheels in that condition. I also didn't want to buy a new cassette just yet, so what does one do? Well, I know what I do now. I grab some of my ProGold blast off degreaser and clean it up. In the past that was never something I looked forward too. I still don't look forward to doing the job, but it is sure a whole lot easier now.

Cassette just as it came off of the bike

 

Cassette after using ProGold Blast-Off

 

With less than 5 min. of work, the cassette was looking like it was back to new. In the past I would have had to work a lot harder than that and still not get it this clean before giving up. So, once again I am amazed with one of the ProGold products and very happy to have had it available to use. They have several different products to help with different shop tasks. Make sure to check them out next time you are going to do some work on your bike.

The Niner is starting to look like a good race machine for the season. I might test it out next weekend in the DRT TT at Brown County State Park. If not, the DINO series is just around the corner. I just hope to put some final touches on my legs. I am going to try and race them in to shape starting this weekend.

Duffield Derby

This weekend is the first race of the Kentucky MTB series. Duffield is one of the old school trails that I have rode for years. It is far from being an easy place to ride with the elevation to be had and a few log crossings thrown in just to make it more fun. Well, maybe a few is not the correct word to use, but I'll let you decide if that word is close to the correct amount of logs to be had.

The word on the street and well the web is that there is a new trail layout for this years race and it is to be the funnest race course there yet! I will have to see just how "fun" I think the loop is when I am done. My SS legs are not as strong as I would like and I don't feel like putting an easier gear on the bike. I already have as easy of a gear that I want to put on there. I guess riding those gears have made me a little soft. I will find out this weekend just how soft. That is if the weather is not too bad. Here is a notice that was put out about the race this weekend.

Out of respect to the trails, your bike and your safety this year the Duffield Derby will not run in the event of rain or unfavorable trails conditions. Spring weather can be unpredictable, so be sure to check in for last minute trail reports. Trails were perfect last Sunday, more new faces and some riders from all over the state came back for more.

I really hope the weather holds off. Not only because I really want to ride my bike, it is also because the rain out date is the same weekend as the DINO Warsaw race and I need to head that way if at all possible. To keep up on the racing happenings you can follow the KY Points Series on Twitter by following @KYPointsSeries. You can also find out more on the series by checking out their web site KY Points Series.

Now, I know some people show up to read this every now and then. If you like what you find here, please take a second to click on the button on the right to follow me -------->

The more traffic I get and the more followers I have, the more motivation I have to update this blog more often. Life is busy and sometimes this can be the easiest thing to skip out on. So, help keep me more regular. Thanks!!

Edit: Since this post the rain out date has been changed and is no longer the same weekend as Warsaw.
 

Back on the road

After some warm weather and dry trails, a storm came rolling in and messed all that up. They may have been ride-able today, but I didn't really have time to get there. Saturday was busy, but made a plan to head out late in the day. We were limited on time, but still got in a nice 20 mile ride. I thought that would be my only time out for the weekend. Thanks to my great wife, I was able to sneak out Sunday with the group. I was on a time schedule, but they thought it would be fine. If not I was going to break off and head back to the car. I had another soccer game to get to, but at least this weekend it was in town.

I was not sure what the ride was going to entail, but after some discussion I knew it was not going to be that easy of a day. We were headed for some hills. I am by far the worst climber out of the group. But, this was actually just what I needed. I have a hard race next weekend and really hope some climbing legs show up. The more I ride with these guys, the fast I will be climbing. I normally don't have a huge problem climbing stuff, I just don't do it at the speeds that they ride. Maybe some day I will be able to hang.

I ended up riding fairly well after a little bit of a slow start. I even climbed some of the last hills better than the first ones. The pack moved pretty good overall. Not as fast as some of the more flatter rides, but that does not mean that we didn't have some sections that were moving pretty good. The wind was fairly strong at times too and that sure didn't help things. At least the sun came out and made the ride more enjoyable.


I did get some new tires put on the Misfit. I am looking forward to getting them on some dirt. I just hope my first ride is not a race. But I will deal with it if that does happen. They look like they will be great, so I am not  that worried about them not working, I just would rather test out the air pressure a little before then. Now if we can just get the weather to cooperate and make it a great race day. Hope to see everyone there.

Ferdinand Full Loop

I didn't get a ride in all weekend even though the weather was perfect for riding. I had too many other things going on and the one little window I could have rode, I was too tired and it would not have been worth it. With everything else going on all week, this means I did not ride since last Monday. This is not good considering that I plan on racing in 2 weeks. Not just racing, but racing the SS on a hilly course. Should be fun. I have not rode the SS much this spring.

The weather was looking great for Monday to get a ride in. The plan was not not help with baseball practice and get out to Ferdinand for a ride. I was going to ride as many laps as I could or until I fell over and could not move anymore. What ever came first. Last minute message telling me that practice is now a practice game. Dammit! I really hate to miss a game even if it is only a practice game. It is a better way to see how the kids are doing in the game environment. So, this put a wrench in to my plan. I left work a little early and busted out to the trails to put in a lap as fast as I could and still make it back in time to watch the game.

I made it to the trails early enough that I thought I should be good to get to the game. The bottom of Foxey had a tree down that I had to cross and as it started to turn up, I thought the SS might be difficult, but I ended up making it up fairly quick. I tried to keep the pace up for as long as I could. I didn't think it would last long, but I was still doing ok. I did see the heart rate up higher than I can normally sustain power at, so I figured I would hit a wall somewhere.

When I hit the fire tower road, I almost took the right like I would normally do, but with it being dry and I knew I really needed the climbing, I took the left toward Kyana. I was breathing hard from the climb, but still moving along. There was still a tree down at the bottom of the big climb on Kyana, so I had to get off to climb over. I tried to get started again, but it did not last long and unfortunately I had to push my way up.The rest of that section was mostly fast and fun. I did see a guy looking for some mushrooms, but he said he was not having any luck. The fire lane section was wet in spots and made some sections interesting.

There has been some trail work on the twin lakes section that has made it the best that I have seen it in a long time, well except for the section around the bridge. That section was on the wet and muddy side. The bench cut climb was not the easiest, but I did make it up only a little slower than I had hoped. I did take the dam crossing and not the trail section. One thing I did do that I have not done in a while is take the trail on the right at the start of Southridge. I normally take the fire lane around, but figured I could use the conditioning. That only worked for a little bit and I was pushing again on the steep section. That is ok, pushing is hard work too and something that does not hurt to be stronger at.

I busted out the rest of Southridge as strong as I could. I was really feeling the effort by now and was not sure about some of the climbs. Several sections started to go by slower than I wanted because of it. I was not sure if I would be able to make it up the last climb. As I started to go around the corner before the climb, I just dug in and picked up the speed. I gave it my all and cruised right up the hill. I think my eyes were popping out of my head when I got to the top, but I knew it was the last climb of the loop and I was home free. I picked up the pace near the end seeing that my time was fairly good for the loop.

I ended up with probably my fastest lap in a real long time. At least doing all of the sections. The other reason is that I normally don't try to go as hard as I can for a full loop. I just go what with the flow. I need to do that more often to help me get faster. It is hard to push myself that hard with out someone else there or have a reason to keep pushing. Normally when I push like that, I have some point when I just need to catch my breath and my legs are toast from over cooking them. The real crazy thing is that I was on my SS and put in a good time. I now wonder if I can put in a faster time on the geared bike or not.

I could really tell it has been a while since I have been on the SS. My lower back was really hurting. I just need to keep working on it in the next two weeks before I have to make the trip to Ft. Duffield for the Ky race. That place is not flat.

The wind is not your friend

My son was sick on Monday morning, so I did not go to work. It was killing me to look out side and see how nice the weather was, but not be able to go ride. I could no longer take it and when I was texted about someone riding after work, I knew I needed to figure out how to fit it in to my schedule. Eventually I figured it out and the ride was planned. It was supposed to be an easy ride and I figured I was in for what ever the plan was going to be.

What I didn't count on was just how hard the wind was blowing. It did not matter how hard we were riding, an easy ride was no longer a possibility.  We just pulled the best that we could with the head wind or cross wind. Overall it seemed that we were doing ok for the conditions, but it was not as fast as I would have liked. The problem is that I could not do any more no matter what I wanted the pace to be.

We ended up with a nice ride with plenty of climbing and I was still blown apart before I was back home. I guess we pushed it a little harder than I thought we would, but that is really not a surprise. Even though I could have used a nice and easy ride, I am happy with what we did ride. My legs were blown up, but I still got a good ride in. A little less wind would have been nice, but I will take a warm day no matter what the wind is doing. I am running out of time before the first race of the year and still have a lot of training to do. I just hope to get to a place that I am happy with. There is nothing like a few 13 degree climbs at the end of the ride to keep you on your toes.

Ferdinand Fix

With a busy weekend in the schedule and the weather way better than I want it to be when I have no time, I figured I needed to figure out a way to get on the bike. Trails have been dry and it was supposed to be windy on Saturday, I figured it was time to get in a Ferdinand ride that I have really needed.

I am still waiting on some new tires, so the Niner still has the small tread shoes. I have currently listed a few of the tires that I do have online and some have sold. This leaves the Misfit currently with out any shoes. I could dig up some old tires to put on the SS, but then I would have to do a lot of work that I just don't feel like doing. So, this leaves me with riding the Niner if I plan on getting off road at all. I was just hoping that it was as dry as everyone was saying.

I packed up my gear the night before since it was going to be an early ride and I was not sure what time I was going to get to bed. It was hard to pack the gear. The time we were going to ride, it was not going to be as warm as the day was supposed to get. still, I wanted to get out and was not going to let a the weather stop me. That morning it was even colder than I thought it would be, but still warmer than a lot of other rides I have done this winter.

This ride had two things going for it that was bound to make it not as good of a ride as it could have been. First it was early in the morning and I am not always a good morning rider. Next the ride was starting at Foxey Hollow. I know that is where most people park, but it sure does not give my legs enough time to warm up especially when it is a morning ride.

I was not surprised when the legs were feeling heavy on the way up Foxey, but I managed to climb good enough. We went for a full lap and didn't do the short cut that I normally do by skipping Kayana. There was a couple of trees down that we needed to climb over. One was in a real bad location for starting the steep climb. I managed to get started fairly close to the tree and climbed the rest of the way up. That hill has always been difficult.

The rest of the loop went as usual and when we got back to the car I still had some time left. We headed out for a half loop but skipped Southridge. This got us back just in time for me to hit the road. I was a few minutes late for the soccer game and got there just in time to see the second goal. Good thing too since we didn't get another one. The did end up winning, so it was a great start of the season.

Even for feeling like I was not riding too strong I did seem to make ok time for the lap. With the extra sectino it was just under a 15 mile ride and over 2000 ft. of elevation gain. I really need to make a lot more trips out there to try and get my climbing legs under me before the Ft. Duffield race at the end of the month. The season is drawing close and I am running out of time to get in the shape that I want to be in before the season starts. I just hope the rain does not mess things up and I can have some time to get out there with all the things going on. I just may have to charge up the lights.

Not so recovery ride

Saturday the weather was going to be good and I had heard that some trails were going to be dry. There was also talk about Ft. Duffield getting some work put in and the race course marked. I was thinking about how good it would be to get back in the woods and how nice it would be to get a glimpse of the course before the upcoming race. It was a good plan, but like most plans, there are always issues.

My first problem is that the Niner still has the small knobbies on for gravel. They would do the job in the middle of summer, but with it being the first dry weekend in a while, I would say they are probably not the idea tires. My solution was to take the Misfit down there. It has more than enough tread on it for any kind of trail condition. It is even geared down for some weak legs or lots of climbing. So, for a day or so I was trying to figure out logistics on making this happen.

Then the Thursday night ride came and blew up my legs. It was a great ride, but it took quite a toll on me. I was exhausted and then tried to stay up to watch the IU game. If the game would have been good, I would have missed it anyway. The next day my legs were telling me it was a silly idea to drive 2 hours each way only to put in a mediocre ride. I really want to make a trip down there before the race, but I still have a few weeks to try and squeeze that in. Maybe I can get a few rides in at Ferdinand to build up my SS legs again before I go.

So, when I heard about a more casual group ride on Saturday with less hills, I knew that was the correct answer. It was not as warm as I had hoped it would be when we started, but I still didn't have to put on as many layers as I have been. I was a little cool when I started, but overall was just about right for the whole ride. The sun was great, but the wind was cool and oh what a wind it was. I have no idea how strong the wind was, but it sure put a hurting on us for some sections.

The idea of going for a flatter ride was correct as we went about 500 ft. of elevation less than Thursday's ride, but the plan of going easy only lasted for about 20 min. I think the problem was that we had a rider join us that did not attend the Thursday hammer fest. This put the pace way higher than we thought it was going to be. This teamed up with the strong winds and the pace everyone climbs each hill, it was a very hard ride. In face the consensus was that it just might have been a harder ride than Thursday. I am not sure if it was really that hard or the fact that our legs were tired from the other ride, but it hurt. The scary thing for an easy ride is that we had a faster moving pace than Thursday and rolled along at 20 mph. We ended up with a little less average overall with some stops at the end. Another great day on the bike!! I can just hope for many more.