Rideable, Not Rideable? Part I

I'm planning to do a series on here called what the title of this post is, "Rideable, Not Rideable?" It'll be spotty, but hopefully updated about once a week until we run out of things to try to ride (not likely). The point is to help educate people about what trail obstacles can and can not be ridden. Now, I know this is a pretty tall order and different people can ride different things. Hans Rey could probably ride everything I try to put up here in his sleep.

But that's kind of the point. I wouldn't want to ruin Hans Rey's fun.

We've seen well-intentioned people in the woods lately that have been removing or modifying obstacles that they have deemed "unrideable". The point of this exercise is to show that some obstacles that may be considered unrideable by some people are, in fact, rideable, and add a nice challenge to the trails.

Just because one person can't ride something, doesn't mean it can't be ridden by someone else. And if it can be ridden by someone else, it should be pretty much left alone. Rider skills can grow to meet the challenges, but it's a disservice to the sport and to the heritage of Michaux (or any riding area) to make everyone ride the same anesthetized trails. This applies to log ramp building, cutting logs, turning logs perpindicular to the trail, stacking rocks, putting in cheater lines around rocks, around logs, or to cut off those oh-so-difficult tight switchbacky turns and weaves of the trail flow with stupid cheater lines. God, I hate cheater lines. Turn the freaking handlebars.

Don't get me wrong, in certain cases, it may make sense to modify or remove something to make it rideable. What I'm trying to illustrate here is that many more minor obstacles are completely rideable as-is and shouldn't be screwed with.

Oh yeah, don't post comments asking, "What trail is that?" or, "Where is that cool thing?" If you don't know, you may not know enough trails to be screwing with obstacles in the first place. And no, I don't know every trail in Michaux. But I do know a bunch. And I always respect the ones that were there before me.

Anyway, on to the point. I've rambled enough.

The obstacle for this week is pretty minor in the scope of things. Slightly elevated log with a low side height of 12" and a high side height of 16". It is not built up. No ramps to and fro. On to the pics.

Low side height--12-13", depending on line. Low side ride next 3 pics.

High side height--about 16". High side ride, next three pics.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Yes, these are both 29ers. But, the bike doesn't matter and can not be used as an excuse. If *A* rider on *A* bike can clear something, it should become a goal for someone else to ride, not a reason to get on the short bus.

Stay tuned for more installments--some obstacles will be challenging, some will be typical. Not trying to prove any particular person's riding mettle. Just trying to educate the masses.

Can't wait to see the comments on this one! It'll be kudos or damnation, I'm sure.

Connecting and Reconnecting

We took our nephew, Owen, orienteering this weekend. Good kid, and bright. King's Gap had their orienteering for beginners program hosted by SVO so we thought we'd see if he liked to romp around in the woods with a map and compass. He picked it up pretty quick, both working the compass and the map together and reading the map to figure out that a couple trails might be faster than a straight line bushwhack. He didn't even get us lost and we skipped the easiest White course to opt for the more difficult Yellow course. I hope he had as much fun as we did.

Then, Saturday evening, we had four of my friends (and their better halves) over from Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, school, college, etc. This was the first time a couple of us had seen each other since high school. It was a really nice. Need to do it more often than once every 17 years.

bling

Why does it seem some of the best bike bling is in the world of single speeding? It is because all the pieces are so simple, it's easier to make them pop?

Case in point: White Industries ENO freewheel. Mmmm, yummy. And in a new, easier to pedal tooth count.

GD, TGIFF

Damn, lookin' forward to a few brews
and building wheels tonight.


Lots of crap in the online world this week.


Pimpin' ain't easy.

Michaux Mashin' in March

The CycleSports/Fast Forward crew was at the house again this weekend to get a little training in and put on the Michaux Mash. Very busy, very good weekend. I didn't even race and I'm beat this morning!

Don, Jenny, Lauri, Zach, Gunnar, and Jacob

Zach rolling rocks

An rare pic of the elusive Don, who usually hides on the other side of the camera.

Saturday saw a trail ride in the morning, followed by a whole lot of race prep in the afternoon. We were feeding all the racers so we made 8 gallons of vegetarian chili, 5 gallons of fruit salad, and sliced 50 pounds of potatoes into french fries. Donna, Lauri, Nicole, Jenny, Megan, and Jake's Mom all pitched in to help cut, slice, chop, and cook on Saturday. In addition to all this, we grilled up 3 monster boxes of burgers and 4 monster packs of dogs on Sunday, and cooked the fries on a turkey fryer.

I was in charge of the kitchen and Larry was kind enough to offer to help me out. But honestly, we could not have done it without the help of a bunch of other people that just asked what they could do to help--Jody, Sheena, Nicole, Jenny, Megan, and Buck (someone had to keep the cooks supplied with brew). Big thanks to everyone who helped prep a pile of food on Saturday and then feed the masses on Sunday!

Master of ceremonies preaching to the choir before the start

Donna raced her Nugget and pulled off 3 laps on the 29er SS--she really, really likes that bike! And she had a cool number plate and custom fabbed Troegs earrings. And a sweet skirt.

My honey, waiting to get goin'.

Dan "Pickle", now riding for EWR, at the start line

Zach pulled off a great first-time event with close to twice the number of racers he originally anticipated. He even had to deal with lost (and stuck) Porta-jon delivery monkeys, closed fire roads due to the soft spring conditions, lost racers, and making sure DCNR stayed happy.

And, gotta extend a really deserving and special thanks to Dick Mansberger for marking most of the singletrack at 6:00 on Sunday morning, then course marshalling a corner for the whole race, and then helping to demark the course. He still is the One Man Army.

From what I heard from my post by the grills, it seemed that everyone liked the course and thought the food was great. Can't ask for more than that. Chris Eatough showed up, housed the field, and said he liked the course. Good stuff.

First Wed Night Ride of DST

Strange starting out in daylight, let alone getting more than half the ride in before needing lights. Saw the Woodrow climb in glorious sunshine for the first time on a Wednesday night since last fall. It just makes things cheerier, somehow. For Stacy, this was the first time she saw some of the trails in light other than from a helmet. Good ride, a little chilly, I'm still not 100%.

See everyone at the Mash this Sunday. If the current forecast holds out, should be pretty good conditions for Michaux in March.

Back in the Saddle?

So, it's been awhile. I was pretty laid-up sick for the past two weeks and had no real ambition to do much of anything. Hit me like a freight train, it did. Haven't been that sick in years. Lost 7 pounds in a week and a half...no appetite, no nuthin'. Lotso sleep.

Anyway, Zackie's team had an Elite Weekend at Das Berg Haus the weekend of Feb. 20. Donna headed out to the Dirt Rag/Ray's MTB Women's Weekend in Cleveland and I had to cope with a bunch of young, fast flyweights all weekend. Three solid days of hard rides for a fat old bastard, coupled with not enough sleep, set me up for disaster. Gee, that almost rhymed. Got to work Tuesday morning feelin' fine but by 8:00 had a raging fever going on and my brain was shutting down. That fever lasted almost a full day. Bad news... Ended up taking a total of almost 3 days off work in a week and a half, which I never do because of illness. Finally got my appetite back last Thursday, but definitely still not on top, as shown by this weekend.

Decided to ride both days, see how things were working. Saturday was another preride of the Mash course, just 9 miles, but that was more than enough for me. I designed the course and it is definitely challenging. Good flow, but challenging. Four hours on that puppy should be interesting. Go freaking register. Went home and lazed around all afternoon. Nothing else accomplished. Sunday was the DST Ride, surprised by the number of people that showed. I was expecting Zach and Jim but 3 more appeared out of the woodwork. It was my first ride on the SS since I put a rigid fork on the front--I hated my Reba and the $50 I got for it made me happier than the fork ever did. However, I quickly learned that a two-week illness, a ride the previous day, a new rigid SS bike, and very soft conditions make for one very difficult ride. By about 3/4 of the way through, I was shelled. Walked stuff I never walk. Oh well. Live and learn.

Think I'm going to take a page from Camp's playbook and swap up to 21 teeth on the back wheel. At least for the early season. Hell, maybe for the whole season.