What did I beak now?

I checked my bike over before the raccoon ride and found the source of the rattling. It seems my rear cassette had come loose. This is where the rattling was coming from. I decided to take it off to clean it and had a bit of difficulty getting the third gear off. I found the following when I got it off:

I put it back on and tightened it up and assumed it would be OK. Well, at the end of the ride at Raccoon it stated rattling again. Apparently it is going to keep coming loose, so I called up Cahaba and asked them to order me a new hub outer shell. I may need to get a new cassette also just to be on the safe side.

Since the BUMP n Grind race is this weeked, I am probably not going to get much riding in. I am going to try and make a short road ride tomorow morning (since i have plans for most of the day Satuday and Sunday is pretty much out also) so I can at least get a few miles in this weekend.

Raccoon with BUMP

I made a few calls last night in hopes I could find a ride to go on today. I was thinking I would be heading to Chief Ladaga to ride today. I was pleased to find out a few people were going to Raccoon Mountain. Mitch had expressed interest in riding today, so I called him last night and he was going to meet me to ride up there. We headed up and met Joe and Joel on the way. After a quick stop to get an early lunch at Wendys we met with everyone at the visitor’s center about 11:00. After we got ready we hit the trail and headed Counter Clockwise. This direction had us immediately go down a steep slope and climb back out. I was struggling at this point as I was not warmed up yet. Once we made it back up to the level section of the trail I started feeling much better.
We continued on and had some nice downhill down to the bottom of the dam. We stopped temporarily to jump off one of the dirt mounds there. There were a few sections that looked like they had been improved and the trail was in great shape. We came to the little one-way section and Monty managed to get a flat tire. While he fixed it, Joe jumped off of a nearby log. I goofed up the camera and all my pictures of this came out blurry. They had removed the gap jump, however that had a bridge that was half-built. Jay successfully rode the 4x4 skinny halfway across before riding over the bridge. I now had wished I had gone back and tried to do it again, or at least taken a picture of him riding it. There was a drop shortly after of about 2.5-3’ I decided I was going to ride it this time (As this is where I wrecked last time I was here). I once again somehow went over the handlebars after I landed. I managed to catch myself before going all the way over, but I got a little tangled in the bike. I got up and decided to try it again. I think I was heading too far to the right and getting in the soft dirt so this time I swerved far right and came back to the left. I managed to land it successfully this time, so we headed on. I should have given my camera to someone and you could be looking at great crash pictures instead of just reading about it, but I didn’t.
We rode on around and came to the Lower Chunky section. I didn’t want to miss either section so I suggested we ride around and come back up Chunky and then backtrack to we could get the best direction on both trails. We stopped to play on the log ride for a few seconds as we went around and then rode up through Chunky. It was pretty challenging and a LOT of fun. Joe and Joel decided to take the road back as he was worried about getting back in time to pick up his wife. We headed back through and I stopped briefly to jump off one of the rocks. I gave Jay my camera this time so we could have a picture. We rode on out and rode lower intestine in the reverse direction. Jay said it flowed better in this direction and I would have to agree. We scooted through here pretty quickly and at the overlook we rode down the rocks. It is relatively steep but not too difficult. Everyone rode down it and I got a few pictures. We rode the rest of the trail on out and after a bit of a climb, enjoyed the nice downhill back to the parking lot.
We headed back and stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I got the Fajita Steak Nachos and they were really good. Today was a great ride and I made it out with only a slight rash from something on my arms, legs, and neck. I think hitting all the foliage did something my skin didn’t like. Jay gave me some Benedryl and it seemed to clear it up, so I will assume it was nothing.

Humid day at Swayback

I found out Mitch was planning a trip to Swayback and called him to verify he was still going as it appeared there was not much interest. He said he was and I met YetiGuy (Scott) and Shane at the airport exit. We headed down to Swayback and got ready to ride. We headed out following the Black trail. We followed the trail around and the first part flowed pretty well. We continued on around and came out on the power line trail. I think Scott and Shane were not liking our pace, so we decided to split up. We continued on around and it was a nice ride until we got to the back corner near the swayback bridge. I don’t know what happened, but this section wiped me out a lot more than usual. I think the humidity was affecting me a lot. We finished on up and sat in the parking lot talking to the group from Pensicola while eating a snack and refilling our camelbacks. We headed out to ride the black trail backwards this time. We figured we would run into Scott and Shane this way to make sure they were ok. This first section had the most elevation change and I was once again panting. We finally made it through and somehow I was making the correct turns and we were successfully riding it backwards. Once we got a bit into it it eased up and we were moving at a good pace. I almost took a wrong turn off one of the power line trails but we figured it out and made it around successfully. I had intended to do 3 laps, but after 2 I was satisfied. I probably could have ridden one of the short loops, but I think a whole one would have been more than I should have done. As long as I get another ride in this weekend, I will be satisfied.

Granny Gear, Conyors GA 2008

I started off the trip by swinging by Cahaba Cycles to pick up the Titus. I was supprised to see they had put the 2008 stickers on it when they fixed it. Titus did an excellent job with the weld and it is impossible to tell it was repaired. I was a bit worried that there would be a giant weld over where the crack was, but it appears they cut off the piece and rewelded a new one on and it looks like new.

Anyway, I headed toward Atlanta and a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 5 hour drive. First I got stuck in traffic because of a wreck, then there were a couple of places where road construction narrowed the road to one lane. The worst part is that it was also rush hour. I was hoping to get to Conyors around 5:30-6, but it was a little after 7 when I finally got there. I really wanted to preride the course (the whole reason for leaving work early) so I got ready quickly and took off with Jay and Brendan. They had arrived a bit before me and Brendan had borrowed one of the Ellsworths to ride. We rode the first half of the course and I was pleasantly supprised. It was relatively fast and not very rooty. This part was a lot of fun but had one shorter uphill that was pretty steep and a second that was longer but not as steep. We got back to the campsite (it was very close to the midpoint of the ride) and Brendan decided to take the bike back as I think they told him he could only borrow it for 30 minutes today. Me and Jay continued on and I was amazed at the change of terrain by crossing the road. We immediately rode out on a huge slickrock section. There was a constant climb that kept getting more steep towards the top. I had to put it in granny near the top to make it without dabbing and I knew my legs would be hating this section during the race. The trail immediately turned down and after a quick descent down the rock, the trail went into the trees. This section of trail has a number of steep descents followed by relatively short but steep climbs. This finally came to a brutal climb that kept getting more and more steep and technical near the top. I had to walk the top bit of this even though we were doing a casual pace. This would definitely be a walk (hopefully a fast walk) during the race. After this, the trail was relatively level and fast through the woods. There were a few spots in the trail that would toss your bike in the air and I thought this would have been a great spot to get some cool pictures. The trail crossed back over onto the slickrock for a bit of technical rocky and rooty sections with some high speed bumpy descents before crossing the road and heading to the finish line.

We got back, changed and headed to get dinner. I was told we were going to go to a buffet and I was a bit uncomfortable when I saw it was a Golden Corral. I have not eaten at one in quite a few years as I generally try to avoid any place where the average person who eats there is very overweight. I know that this is a stupid reason, but I don’t eat at McDonalds or pretty much any buffet (Chinese and pizza are at the top of the list). Back to dinner: I started off with some steak, bourbon chicken, buffalo chicken, mashed potatoes and a few other items. I was pretty full after this plate, but watched everyone else finish 2 or 3. After a rest I got some fruit and Ice cream. I friggin love Ice cream! I think I ate the least out of everyone with Joe slightly edgeing out Brendan for the most. I was probably the only one who did not get my money’s worth. We swung by Walmart where I picked up some tent stakes and earplugs as I forgot to get them at home. Lastly we swung by Brown’s (similar to Green’s) before heading back to camp for the evening. I headed to bed as I wanted to get a decent nights sleep as I figured I wouldn’t get as much tomorrow night.


We got up and got ready for the race. Joel showed up and unloaded tons of food. He borrowed an Ellsworth and him and Brendan rode at least the second half of the course as Brendan did not get to the night before. We came up with our running order: Lee, Joe, Brendan, Me, and Jay.

The start was a running start (I can’t spell Lem???) and Joe took off onto the trail. We headed back to our campsite to see him pass. He came flying by somewhere in the mid to low 20 minutes. At this point we didn’t know exactly how long it would take to finish from this point, but Lee was nearer the front of the pack. We headed back to see him finish and Joe head out on his lap. Lee managed a 50 minute lap even with the run. Joe took off and we slowly figured out we were pretty much exactly in the middle of the course (timewise). Brendan went next and of course I was getting nervous during this time. I don’t know why, but I am always nervous before my first lap. He finished up and I took off. The course was pretty brutal when racing, and I did a bit of walking but still finished with a mid 49 minute. When I got back to the tent, Joel had made some chicken kabobs and I grabbed one off the grill. We continued rotating out and I got my second lap that afternoon. I figured this would be my fastest lap, so I pushed myself a bit more than I should have and ended up with a 48 minute. Somewhere around this time we realized we were in 3rd place in our division. We were scooting away from the team in 4th, but the team in second was relatively close. Joel cooked some incredible steaks and I ate half after I had recovered for about 30 minutes after this lap. I think Jay finished right before dark and Lee got to do the first night lap. I decided to try to get a little sleep before my next lap, but at 8:00 it was too early and I could not sleep. My first night lap was at about 11:00. This is only the second time I have ridden at night, but I felt pretty good and it is so much fun in the dark. There was something pretty cool about coming out of the woods and being able to see by the light of the moon (it was close to a full moon) and the rock was slightly illuminated but swinging back into the trees it was like going into a tunnel, this course was really like a rollercoaster at night, and going a bit slower (due to the limited sight distance) I enjoyed this lap a lot. My bike started making a rattling noise from the rear near the end of the ride, but it seemed to be OK so I decided to check it once I got back. When I got back I checked out the rear suspension and could not find anything. I also checked the brake and shifter lines and couldn’t really find anything there either. I rode it around in the field and could not get it to duplicate the noise, so I thought it was either the chain slapping the chainstay or one of the brake lines bouncing against the frame. I prepared everything for my next lap and tried to get some sleep, but I only ended up getting about an hour before waking up for my next night lap. I had not planned for this as well as I should have and did not bring but one long sleeve jersey. This second lap I had to put on wet clothes and was pretty cold. It took me a bit longer than it should have to warm up and I could tell I was tired as I was riding a bit sloppy. I still managed to duplicate the time of my first night lap and it was really nice once I got warm. It was really quiet in the woods and I was finally learning the trail well enough to remember what the trail was about to do. My bike was making the rattling noise again, but I realized it was only doing this in the highest gears in the back. I assumed (my mistake) it was just chainslap since the chain had the most slack here. I once again tried to duplicate it when I got back but could not. I thought it must just be because the slickrock was so bumpy (this is where I noticed it most). I had some slight chainsuck but was able to deal with it as it was not bad. I was just going to oil my chain when I got back and figured it would go away. I got back to the tent somewhere around 4:00. Joel was awake and offered to make me some Miso Soup. I have not had any in a while and it was just what I needed to refuel. I went back to sleep and slept for an hour and a half before I woke up. I think I was worried about oversleeping and somehow woke up before I had to. I had decided to wait till light to work on my bike as it would be easier and hopefully would finally dry.
On my last lap I almost immediately was having trouble with the bike. I was having chainsuck every time I tried to downshift to quickly spin up the hills. This killed my momentum and by the time I backpeddled to unkink it I had come to a stop and then had to start from a stop. Also, all of a sudden the low gears in the back started popping between gears. I flipped the bike and tried to adjust the shifter, and it seemed to be lined up over the gears and work correctly, however as soon as I got on and put some weight on the pedals, it would pop and not stay in gear. I was pretty pissed and was trying to run up the hills when this happened and keep going as I did not want to stop in the woods since there was not much room to get off the trail. Right before the midpoint I flipped the bike again and realized the shifter was pulling to the side when I put some tension on the chain. I tried to bend it back straight and got it close. I jumped on again and headed on my way. At the top of the first climb (before going over the second street), I just bent it back as hard as I could (I was a bit gentle before as I didn’t want to break it). I think I finally got it pretty straight and the rest of the ride I only had minor chainsuck. I had intended this to be my fastest lap when I took off as I though I knew the trail well enough to make up for my diminished strength. However I ended up with about the same time as my night loops. I had really thought I would not be able to do another lap so I had a beer and ate a good bit of food to celebrate. Jay, then Lee ran good laps and we realized that if Joe could run his fastest lap of the day, we could send someone out on one more lap. There was not really a point to this as it would not change our standing, but it would give us the same number of laps as the Columbians (the second place team that we were barely holding off from lapping us). Joe said he was going to have a fun lap and actually enjoy the course, but I decided to wait before taking a shower just in case. Joe flew by the campsite right about 22 minutes. I had no idea if he was trying to make it or not, so I was going to be ready in case he did it. He was on pace for finishing right under the cutoff and I felt that if he killed himself to make it in time, I was going to be ready to do a last lap. We were all waiting on him at the finish and watching the clock count down. Right as the clock clicked to 12, we saw him off in the distance. He ended up only finishing a bit over a minute late. I was a bit relieved as I knew my last lap would have been terrible as beer and a lot of food do not improve my riding.

I finally headed over and took a shower. My shower door did not latch very well and a big wind gust blew my clothes off the side as well as the door open. I was torn between picking up the clothes that were now getting wet and closing the door back. I decided to shut the door and ended up with slightly wet “drawers” but it was all good. It felt good to finally get clean. I left my shirt off while packing trying to lessen my farmer (I think I shall refer to it as a biker from the jersey) tan. We packed up and headed over to the awards ceremony. They had a great pasta dinner with meatballs before the ceremony. We won 3rd place in the 5-Man team and all got a medal and each won a set of tires. This was a nice surprise as I didn’t think we would get anything.

One last thing to mention: If you are going to do one of these races, it makes a world of difference having someone as a pit crew. Joel volunteered to do this for us and kept the whole team fed (with better food than I usually eat at home during the week). I believe this had a lot to do with our results as we were able to spend more time relaxing between laps than worrying about which energy bar we were going to eat (As I would have survived off of energy bars and bananas only if he was not there). A big thanks to him.

Here is a link to the results of the race. Our team name was BUMP n Uglies.

http://www.grannygear.com/realtime/public/class.php?display_standings_flag=1&class=5M

Here is the link to my pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/grundcm/GrannyGearConyersGA2008

12 Hours of Dirt, Sweat, and Gears

We all met after work Friday at Brookwood all to head up to Tennessee to camp out before the race. We took a slight detour to get some dinner and it ended up being a pretty good BBQ. We went on and got there a bit late. We set up the tents and had a beer before going to sleep. It began raining at about 3AM and rained until about 7:30AM



The next morning we got up and got ready for the race. It started at 9:00AM and went until 9:00pm. I got registered and was the 3rd in line after Lee and Corb so I grabbed my camera and tried to get a few shots of the start.



Lee took off and we all went back to the campsite as the tail went right past. As all the racers started going by we kept looking for Lee. After about 1:45 hours we started worrying that he had had a wreck. The trail was really sloppy and we saw at least 7-8 broken derailleurs and everyone was caked in mud. Everyone else went to go check to see if there had been any injuries and I stayed at the trail. He finally showed up carrying his bike because the chain had sucked into the spokes on the rear wheel and would not even roll. I offered to swap bikes so he could ride the rest of the way out, but he declined and kept on going. I don't think he realized how far he still had to go. He finally finished it up and Corb took off. He told us he had broken a bit before the halfway point so he had carried the bike 6 miles.



Corb had also had to deal with some mud on the trail, but managed to come out without breaking. I was getting a bit nervous while waiting for him and took off to the start without my gloves. I had time and ran back to get them.



When Corb came in, I took off on my lap. I think I got really lucky as the trail was finally getting dry. For some reason I thought the big climb was near the middle of the trail, but it ended up being near the beginning and I realized I had pushed a bit too hard because I didn't have it in me to make it up without shifting down to granny. I realized this was a mistake in the mud because I ended up spinning the back tire and then I had to walk it because there was no way to get back started again as it was really slick. This happened a couple times and I was getting a bit mad. It really bothers me when I have to walk something. It is a huge sign that I am not in good enough shape. About halfway through I finally started feeling better as the hills were more "rolling" and I was able to keep my speed and enjoy the trail. It was actually a pretty nice trail through this part with a few rocky sections and some short, but nice downhills. I came out on the trail by the campsites and didn't see anyone at our tent as I rode by. I knew the last section was not too long, so I pushed to tr to finish with everything I had. Things were going well until I got to Lucy's trail. This little rocky climb beat me and I had to walk up it as I had no energy for a technical climb at this point. I finally made it to the top and it was a nice ride through the field back to the finish. I made it and thought I had run a high 1:08 according to the Garmin. (I later found it was a 1:10). I was feeling a little nauseous and went back and sat under the tent to recover.



Brannon took off next and ran his lap. I knew we shouldn't have invited a single speed guy as they are so freaking slow. Pokey pokerson finally finished with an annoyingly slow time of 1:05 (this happened to be the best lap for our team). At this point I was almost feeling like standing up again ad getting something to drink and eat.



Mitch was next and after his ride we realized we were in 4th place. Lee ran his second lap and cut his time by over 1/2. I guess it helps to ride the bike instead of carry it. Corb took off on his second lap and I stated getting ready to ride. I knew he would be finishing right about dark, so I was getting my light mounted and ready.



I was pretty excited as this was going to be my first night ride. Corb finished right at about 7:30 so I knew I had 1:30 to finish. I didn't know how much the dark would slow me down but I was pretty sure I could make it. I set off and made it to the trees before having to turn on the light. I just left it on high as I saw no reason to dim it. There was a bit of light at first but I noticed thee were small reflectors on the trees (which was pretty cool). I paced myself much better and saved my energy to take 911 Hill. I made it up and looked at my Garmin and saw the mileage was 3.something. I thought this odd as I thought I was closer to 5, but just kept going. It was pretty dark at this point and I was learning to look with my whole head instead of just my eyes and also to just let the bike handle the trail as some of the roots and rocks were a bit larger than the appeared. I adjusted my light a few times and finally got it where I liked it. I could see other riders off in the woods with their lights which was a little strange, but night riding was pretty relaxing. As I got near the back of the trail and couldn't hear the announcer, It was really quiet and the cool air was feeling nice. One thing a little strange was the intensity of the light as I looked out on the descents. Bouncing down the rocks, the light seemed to be changing intensity as I was looking down the trail. I got back to the trail b the camping and looked at my mileage. It was still 3.something. I must have hit the stop button by accident, so I started it again. I was a bit mad as I lost most of this lap, but I at least have one good map of the trail. I saw the time was about 8:27 so I pushed it a bit as I realized I was on almost the same pace as last time. I once again hit Lucy's loop and I decided Lucy is not my favorite person as once again the hill beat me. I had a bit of energy left and tried to jog up the hill this time. I finished up around 8:40 and felt pretty good this time.



Mitch also rode a night lap. His lap didn't count, but he wanted to get in a night lap since he had also never ridden at night. When he finished, we went ad grabbed some dinner (BBQ) and got ready for the awards ceremony. and Swag giveaway Lee won something right off (I think it was a gift certificate of some sort).



We won 3rd place in the "Here for the Beer" category. We got cool little awards and a bag of a few goodies. We stood around and they gave away a lot of nice stuff. Finally they just stated throwing stuff into the crowd. I caught a jersey and will check it out later (it is a bit dark out). We grabbed a few beers and went to sit by the fire and relax before bed. We were trying to decide where to go ride tomorrow and didn't really make a decision before we went to bed.

Here is a link to the Website for the race:
http://www.dirtsweatandgears.com/

And here is a link to the results, you can click on our name ("BUMP" under the Here for the beer category) to see the lap times:
http://mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=790350

Also my laptop crashed (motherboard failure) so I am going to have to get the pictures on here later.