Big Mountain Riding

Words: Randy King

Photos: Greensboro Trek; Randy King; Sports Management Group; Mary-Whitt Jones

Here at Big Mountain Riding, we’re fans of a good challenge. And we’ve learned that a long-term riding goal encourages discipline and yields unexpected pay-offs. So, for 2011, I decided to challenge myself to logging an average of 25 off-road miles on the bike each week for the entire year.

Truthfully, that doesn’t sound like much, right? One good ride a week and I’d be good to go. Aha! This is where a long-term challenge presents its own hurdles. Winter’s early dusk and iffy weather meant nights when I had no desire to get suited up and out in the cold, dark rain. (It also meant evenings when my neighbors saw me dash out to my 4Runner in the cold rain and come back in the dark, drenched and mud-caked an hour or so later. And an average needs to be fed. So, a slow start to they year meant that I had to really pedal up the miles in the second half of the year to pass that 25 mile weekly average. I did it though, with the exception of the median weekly mileage, which ended up .3 less than 25 miles. I had hoped to get it to 25 as well.

The vital stats: 1,503.5 miles for the year, for an average of 28.9 miles per week. Median weekly mileage: 24.7. Highest weekly mileage: 48. Lowest weekly mileage: 2.

• Weeks of more than 40 miles: 9
• Weeks of 30-40 miles: 19
• Weeks of 25-30 miles: 9
• Weeks of 20-25 miles: 5
• Weeks of 10-20 miles: 7
• Weeks of less than 10 miles: 3

Challenges: The beauty of a long-term riding goal is the switch to a work-a-day cyclist mentality. However, that’s the biggest challenge too. There are many days – too hot, too cold, rainy, feeling sick, etc. – that I did not want to leave the comfort of home and the big couch to pedal a few miles by myself. But a work-a-day cyclist gets it done.

Other challenges were more mundane: the more one rides – especially in the rain and mud – the more mechanical damages one racks up. And a week at the shop is 25 miles not ridden. I found an easy solution: Get another bike! Logic, who can argue with it?

I opted for cheap and reliable. My Redline Monocog rigid 29-er single speed didn’t lose derailleurs to downed tree limbs. And I felt much less guilt about slogging it through the gritty wet sand on rainy rides.

Tracking the mileage also proved a small challenge. I relied on MS Excel and documenting my mileage the next morning at the latest. The few times I forgot to document several days’ rides immediately, I ended up struggling to remember mileages.

The bikes: 2011 Trek Fuel Ex 9, 2010 Redline Monocog, 2005 Gary Fisher Tassajara.

Not fast enough - a dead-last finish at the Greensboro Wednesday Time Trials

The damages: 1 XT rear derailleur, 1 Avid brake rotor, 1 Shimano press fit bottom bracket, 1 9-speed SRAM rear cogset, two new Shimano chain rings, 3 SRAM chains.

• 12th place in the Triad Wednesday night training series single speed class
• 2nd place in the Tuesday Night Time Trials in Danville, VA
• DNF’d the Wild 100 – a race I had rocked the year before.
• 1st Place SS class at the Southside Scramble Angler’s Ridge Race
• 3:30 for the Point to Point race at Warrior Creek

Trail Systems: Anglers Ridge in Danville, VA; Cedar Ridge in Martinsville, VA; Candler’s Mountain, Blackwater Creek and Peaks View Park in Lynchburg, VA;  Hobby Park, Northeast Park and Country Park around Greensboro, NC; Garin/Dry Creek Regional Park, Lake Chabot Regional Park in the East Bay area, CA; Slatyfork, WV; Oxford, NC – The wood work of Tar River trails; The woods roads and singletrack of my parents’ farm in MN.

A stable full of single speeds on race day in Greensboro, NC

The Pay-off / Lessons Learned:

• Satisfaction of exceeding a goal. It is rewarding to know that you are pushing toward something bigger. It definitely helps make a ride in the cold rain easier to cope with.
• Definite advancement in skills and the ability to see the bike’s potential. I rode the rocks and gnar-gnar of National Trail in Phoenix, AZ in Aug. 2010, riding on a Giant Trance X full-suss. In Feb. 2011, after the 25 for 52 challenge, I returned. Unable to rent a full sussy, I ended up on a 26″ hardtail. However, I rode more of the tech stuff and ledges than I had on the suspension bike. A year of frequent riding – and lots of time on a rigid SS – had upped my game. I realized that I know thought of stair sections, for example, in terms of the full length of the stairs not just each individual rock drop.
• Camaraderie of racing/riding buddies. Show up at the trail head more frequently and you will end up riding with more people. And a casual racing scene like Greensboro, NC’s Wednesday Night Time Trials forges friendship among riders as they see each other week after week and compete for total points in the series.
• Urge to ride more. Yes, I finished up the year with a 4-week push of more than 41 miles per week. Yes, I wound up wanting to ride my bike in the woods even more. Inspired by the 25 for 52 challenge, I started off 2012 strong, winning second place in the open category in a USA Cycling sanctioned race and earning an invitation to the National Championship Qualifiers, road-tripping to Cleveland to experience two days of Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, and checking out the sweet mountain bike park in Boone, NC.
• Desire for longer rides, uninterrupted. I did end up wishing for fewer, longer rides though. A long epic is at the heart of big mountain riding, and this challenge made me hanker for those 4-8 hour rides up and down mountains. Ah, that’s for another challenge, I guess.

© 2012 Big Mountain Riding

Review: Doug King

Photos: Lily Felgenhauer

If you live in the Inland NW and ride a mountain bike, there is only one place for you to spend your Memorial Day Weekend: Round and Round Production’s 24-hour mountain bike race at Riverside State Park in Spokane, WA.  2011 marked the 12^th running of the endurance mountain bike race with more than 850 riders.  Racers compete solo or in teams of 2, 5, or 10 members.  The race starts at noon on Saturday and riders can start their final lap at 11:59 a.m. on Sunday.

And They’re Off

Rain had made the course very soggy the week leading up to the race. However, it held off for the weekend, making a well compacted and very fast race course.  The approximately 15-mile course covers a good mix of technical rock garden infested single track, fast smooth single track, and fire roads with a ¾-mile section of pavement thrown-in to bypass the flooded “little Vietnam” section that the course normally runs on.

As the fatigue of lack of sleep and ever-increasing mileage built, riders began to fully understand the local names for different sections; Marakesh Express, Purple Haze, Devil’s Up, and Devil’s Down.

Let Not the Pain Stop

Due to the fact that there are so many categories and one has no idea what lap everyone else is on, competitions are pretty much internal or arbitrary.  I found myself in a top gear sprint to the finish at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, against a rider from EMDE Sports, a local development team.  I beat him to the line only to realize two disappointing facts: my team did not have another rider lined up for the final lap and if your team finishes before noon on Sunday you are marked down as a DNF.

“292 going out again” I gasped to the timing folks as I scanned my chip.  I darted off course to our tents and gulped down four partially empty water bottles that belonged to other team mates and the dog and got back on course for the final time.

It was eerily quiet on the final lap.  Giving encouragement to nearly unconscious solo riders was almost the only distraction from the numbness that was spreading up-limb from my toes and fingers.  Fatigue got the best of a Badlands Cycling Team member on the final section of pavement.  When I passed, medics had him back boarded and were sucking teeth out of his airway as he had eaten pavement while trying to grab a power gel before the last 5 miles.

Before the race I had asked my brother for any last minute advice.  He said to develop a mantra.  For most of the race, mine had been “keep pressing,” but it changed to “don’t crash” on that trying final lap.  I decided to stop and loosen my shoes lest I join the count of bodies next to the trail, because at that time I was numb up to my knees.

Parting Thoughts

Our team finished last in the Police, Fire, and Military category.  Yet it was our first year, and most of the team has already asked if we are going to do it again next year … and besides, we were only one lap down from the Olympia FD that won.  Like most endurance sports events, it was kind of fun, kind of painful, makes for great stories, and is very addicting.

Join us at Spokane’s Riverside State Park next year to find out for yourself!

For more info

www.roundandround.com

www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/may/29/geared-up-for-spin-cycle/

© 2011 Big Mountain Riding

Dr. Kevin Peterson is associate professor of mathematics and coordinator of Lynchburg College’s 2010-11 Year of Sustainability. He is also a work-a-day cyclist, pedaling 32-miles daily for his commute to and from work. I’ve had the chance to ride with him, and I’ve seen him on the trails around the Hill City.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Peterson possesses a significant amount of facts to make one consider our unsustainable national lifestyles. He shares them because they were what persuaded him to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, which along with commuting by bike, includes using solar power and eating local food.

Read the whole story here.

Review: Randy King
Photos: Courtesy of Redcloud Productions

The new mountain bike film, The Potential Inside, premiered in Lynchburg, Virginia on March 10, 2011. Liberty University’s Tower Theater hosted the premier of this inspirational film, and several hundred attended the red carpet event and the showing.

The film is well produced, and shows off the Blue Ridge Mountains and Central Virginia’s trails and twisty mountain roads. For a local rider who built my riding skills in these hills, it was a joy to see how good The Potential Inside made this area look on the big screen.

The film has a strong faith-based message, and is a Christian film as much as it is a mountain bike film. Director Scotty Curlee, who also wrote the script and stars in the film, does a good job of showing (not telling), and the serious messages conveyed in the movie are not meted out with a heavy hand. I’d summarize it as being a movie about the challenges and ups and downs of both cycling and life, and how we can overcome.

Most who have spent a significant time aboard bikes know that there is a spiritual component to our pursuit – it’s one of the elements that warrant our obsession. The lessons learned striving for hard-to-achieve goals, suffering setbacks and overcoming trials mirror life and our spiritual journeys.

The Potential Inside is also a cycling film, and features mountain and road riding, with extensive race scenes and in-depth physical performance testing with Hunter Allen.

The dynamic between Jake (Michael Cuddire), who is not young although he is a racing rookie, and Chris (Scotty Curlee), the veteran who is at a loss in how to handle a deep personal loss, is what makes this film standout. As Chris shares from his expertise to help Jake realize his full potential as a mountain bike racer, Jake is able to help Chris come to terms with his deep loss and move forward with his life. Jake’s age – which almost made Chris refuse to coach him – is what makes him believable as someone who has experienced and overcome tragedy in his own life. The dynamic is a well-executed example of Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

I enjoyed watching The Potential Inside. While some of my enjoyment stemmed from seeing someone from my earliest days of mountain biking succeed in achieving their vision (Scotty Curlee was instrumental in LU’s mountain bike club when I attended), and from seeing the trails I know and love on the big screen, I also enjoyed The Potential Inside for its quality storytelling, production and mountain bike scenes. I’ll be picking up several copies of the film for those on my gift list when it goes on sale on April 19, 2011.

© 2011 Big Mountain Riding

FROM BIKE198:

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Several years in the making, a film by one of our own about the sport we love and what drives us, premiers in Lynchburg, VA on Thursday, March 10 at 6 p.m. on Liberty University’s north campus, at the new Tower Theater. Filmed in part in Lynchburg, The Potential Inside features the terrain that define East Coast cycling – whether off-road or on.

The plot is one familiar in sports stories. A veteran, out of the sport, is brought back to the competition by personal tragedy and a budding rookie. A rocky coaching relationship follows.

Using cutting edge technology and scientific training methods, the retired racer Chris transforms Jake, the young prodigy, into a top contending cyclist; however, he struggles to teach Jake the most important lesson prominent in all champions, finding the true POTENTIAL INSIDE. The movie also features a big mountain riding star – Jeremiah Bishop.

Put on your red carpet duds, get a chauffeur to pilot the tandem and drop you off curbside, it’s Hollywood time in our little hill town. Learn more about the film, the premier and how to get tickets by visiting the premier site on Facebook. For those who cannot make it to the event, Big Mountain Riding will post a review following the premier. Read the review!

© 2011 Big Mountain Riding

Introducing Unsafe Ace (USA)

Dumb Decisions, Unforgettable Memories

Unsafe Ace is back to regale us all with harrowing tales of two-wheeled stupidity.  Another reason to love Unsafe Ace: the dumbest decisions often lead to unforgettable memories. Example: 127 hours

On our second trip to Moab,  my brother Dig and I decided to put on the lights and ride the slickrock trail at night. Brilliant!

The pale sandstone gleamed in the moonlight, and we had the world-famous Slickrock Trail all to ourselves. We tooled along on silvery ribbons of rock, between inkwells of pitch black that might have been mere hollows in the rock or could be the 200-foot deep Colorado River gorge.

The falling temperatures turned us around eventually, and we headed back for the Sand Flats parking area.

Between where the practice loop branches off and the main trail turns into a loop is a technical section with a steep climb and a side hill off-camber section. In my memory it skirted a 30-foot deep canyon. As we approached its depths were obscured by darkness.

I lost too much momentum on the climb up to the side hill section, and I had to pedal to cross it. My bulky Shimano DH pedals clipped the high side, pushing my bike out toward the abyss. Fear spiked through my frozen brain. Was this it? Surely THIS could not be IT?

The bike and I pitched over, falling toward the inkwell below. I came down on top of my bike, and immediately slammed every part of my body I could against the steep stone. My helmet, hands, forearms, feet, knees, etc. all pressed against the rock, over and around the frame and wheels of my bike. I could feel myself sliding. I dug in with my helmet visor and finger tips.

I stopped sliding. Unbelievable but true.

Dig had to help me back up, pulling the bike and me back up the hill. It turned out that the canyon was only about 15-feet deep, and not the 30-feet I had thought. I didn’t care. Unsafe Ace had lived to do more dumb things, trumping the theory of survival of the fittest yet again …

©2010 Big Mountain Riding

Howdy, everybody. I’d like to sake a tecond to introduce myself. Folks call me Unsafe Ace. You may remember me from such informative encounters as your bicycle or ATV or hunter safety class. I’m the kid that’s always blowing his own foot off or flipping his four-wheeler into a fireball showing off for girls or crashing without a helmet. This blog is gonna be a catchall, for the dumb things people do on bikes, for the dumb stuff I do on my bikes, and the dumb stuff we all wish we could do on our bikes. Yepper.

Several things inspired the creation of this blog:

1. I was one of those kids who secretly thought Unsafe Ace was kinda cool. I mean, he has “Ace” in his name, right? And it is kind of funny when it happens to somebody else. Unsafe Ace is the Wiley Coyote of safety courses. Sometimes you cheer for him.

2. Danville, VA – my new town – had a poster of this kid who had crashed on pavement without a helmet. It reminded me of those long-ago safety courses. Photo coming soon.

3. My new town has a very visible representation of Unsafe Ace archetypal characters.

It was as I pedaled down the greenway and saw two old men riding toward me on cruiser bikes that the inspiration struck. They were both a bit paunchy,  dressed in blue jeans and unbuttoned short sleeve shirts and mesh-backed trucker hats.  The one guy was lighting his cigarette from the glowing end of his previous smoke – while wobbling his bike along the bike path. Ah yes, Unsafe Ace trumps the theory of survival of the fittest yet again …

© 2010 Big Mountain Riding

Blue skies and a lapse in the wind as we drove north of town for Bartlett’s Wash, a huge mesa of Entrada slickrock. We had rode it on Moab Adventure 2007, but had not been too impressed, and had been crunched for time to get back to town to meet a friend. So this time we had nothing on the agenda. We found many ledges to drop off, and surfed a few sandstone gullies. Got some great photos, a few videos and a sunburn. Definitely a better time this go around. We exited on the super steep sandstone ramp into the wash.

On the way out, after several hours of hopping and hucking (Dig dropped a few 6-8 footers), I suggested we tag Baby Steps loop. It was only a few miles from Bartlett’s, at the Klondike Bluffs trailhead. We reserved a Porcupine Rim shuttle for the next day and headed back into the scrub on another dirt road. Dig was feeling fatigued from the many jumps and heart-pumping slickrock climbs at Bartlett’s … however, he was a good sport and went along on the second ride. He came to regret that later, after two crashes that left no one more surprised than he. I missed seeing his massive endo on a six inch gap in the rocks. I only heard the clash of metal and the dull thud of a side of beef hitting the rock.

Baby Steps loop is the new Moab singletrack style, more contour lines and twitchy weaving through loose rocks and under obstacles, with small (for this area) exposure on many turns. A fun advanced intermediate tech trail.

Day 2, slept in to recover from 1,000 miles of driving and 3 hours of sleep topped off with two rides on our first day. Headed north of town to try out the newer M-O-A-B brand trails. If you go, drive past the first parking lot and down to the parking lot at the end of the dirt road. Saves you a mile or so of gravel road riding.

Bar M proved disappointing, a fireroad, mostly. Rockin’ A was weavy but easy. We rode the O on Circle O, a tight 25 foot diameter clay banked circle. Bar B has a fun first half. It climbs up a small hill and then winds down through the rocky and sandy desert. Along with lots of rock riding, it features a sidehill countour line trail too. We rested at the entry of the Killer B to have a Clif Bar.

The rest of Bar B was another fire road and boring. After breaking a chain and fixing it, we rode the rest of Bar B and back on the first leg of it again back to Killer B.

Killer B is gnarly. It drops 650 feet in less than a mile. The trail is very narrow and has its share of exposure. Rock stair steps drop into tight switchbacks edged by 30-foot deep rock choked canyons. We managed most of it … though I did hug a rock and send the bike down the trail. Killer B got the heart going with several of sketchy descents into switchbacks.

The ride back ended on a paved bike path. With the exception of the first 1/2 of Bar B and Killer B, these trails are blase. If I was Moab, I’d want my name back.