'14 NE thread

[schuss]

Ha, I agree with you PearlJam. Did a 10 mile road ride with a mild headwind and I am a hunk of fat and slowness.

[strawjack]

Flying bugs still not out thankfully. Almost finished the new trail yesterday. Thank goodness for cordless sawzalls. If I put this many hours into my yard it would prolly look pretty good...but who gives a shit about that!

[east or bust]

Had a nice session at Saxon today. Always like seeing the pickup loaded up with bikes.

Trails were in pretty good shape other than a couple spots.

[PearlJam09]

Doing my first race ever on Sunday. Fat tire classic in the root 66 series. Anyone have tips? What should I bring (aside from the obvious)? Do racers commonly wear hydration packs for a 10 mile race, or go with water bottle for the weight savings?

[Anospa]

If you can stay hydrated and carry everything you need on your person, I would totally go without a pack. I've been doing most of my rides this year without a pack so far, and it feels amazing.

Drink like 300 L of water the day before the race so you're fully hydrated and you'll hopefully not need to be sucking on your hydration bladder the whole time.

Most importantly, throw mean elbows, hammer off the gate, and fall going for the hole shot!

(But seriously, have fun! XC races are hard, I'm trying to do the 16 mile route for the Gnarweasles in a month. Hard, but super fun!)

[PearlJam09]

I'm doing beginner class. I have great cv fitness from running (did a track workout Tuesday, 2x1600 in 5:41 and 6:03), just never raced bikes before. So go for the hole shot and try to maintain?

[Anospa]

Yeah, if you can get it and keep yourself even long enough to keep your lead, you'll be way better off.

I base this off the one XC race I've done, where I got the hole shot and kept out in front for the first 2 miles then came to terms that I couldn't hold that pace and let 2 people past.

[Ksyrium]

if you've got water bottle mounts, id go with water bottles. bring stuff to fix a flat.

have fun. push as hard as you can, but go your own pace, lots of guys push too hard and blow up before the end.

[PearlJam09]

Didn't hammer out of the start. It was staggered by age group, and with only 8, I didn't see the need to. When I'm running, I like playing cat and mouse. Was anywhere from 2nd to 5th. Ended up 3rd in my age group. Not bad for 2 crashes, a dropped chain, and a wrong turn that dropped me from 2nd to 4th. Was down on 1st by about a minute and 2nd by 4 seconds...

[PlayItLeo]

First ride of the year today, holy pain cave. It was actually a lot like skinning - walking the ups and raging the downs.

[gravitylover]

My kid on the podium - third place today but currently ranked first in NY State Freshman/Sophomore girls



She rode the last half mile on a rear flat or would have certainly been second. The second place finisher was only 25 seconds ahead of her

[Tuckerman]

Franklin Falls is good to go.

[Anospa]

Didn't hammer out of the start. It was staggered by age group, and with only 8, I didn't see the need to. When I'm running, I like playing cat and mouse. Was anywhere from 2nd to 5th. Ended up 3rd in my age group. Not bad for 2 crashes, a dropped chain, and a wrong turn that dropped me from 2nd to 4th. Was down on 1st by about a minute and 2nd by 4 seconds...

Nice job dude!

[chatton18]

Who's up at highland today?? Get us some pics.

Rain today is setting up for tacky dirt at Mtn Creek opening day this weekend instead of last years epic dust fest. Trail crew has been paving the shit out of a lot of trails there, complete revamped upper dominion extending a bunch of the jumps.

[hball]

Trails are still drying out in Northern Vt. Been doing clean up in Stowe. Soon for the lower elevation stuff...

In other news, selling my new unbuilt Santa Cruz Bronson Carbon frame. Size large, never built. Fressshhh!

[hball]

Another photo of above mentioned frame for sale...

[Anospa]

I'm planning on Highland Friday, hopefully it doesn't get absolutely destroyed today and tomorrow haha.

[east or bust]

Rain today is setting up for tacky dirt at Mtn Creek opening day this weekend instead of last years epic dust fest. Trail crew has been paving the shit out of a lot of trails there, complete revamped upper dominion extending a bunch of the jumps.

Good to hear. Been awhile since I've ridden there but if I'm living at home this summer I'll have no excuse not to make the 40 min drive a couple times.

[chatton18]

Check out their facebook page, looks like total pave jobs on greenhorn, breakout, dominion and alpine which is cool, but they'll still have the rocks and roots.

Let me know if you're headed up, I'm there most weekends

[Tuckerman]

Red Hill, I have been running it for years but yesterday I tried to ride it and other then the 1.5 mile hike a bike it was awesome. Kind of scary steep and fast but so much fun.

[east or bust]

Check out their facebook page, looks like total pave jobs on greenhorn, breakout, dominion and alpine which is cool, but they'll still have the rocks and roots.

Let me know if you're headed up, I'm there most weekends

Wow you weren't joking. That is some huge improvement since the last time I was there.

Teaser

[strawjack]

So good to be back and still cold after a week being gone. FINISHED the trail today with no bugs! Woohoo!

A whopping .28 miles done! Ha! Felt like 10 miles building it MIN altitude 56' and MAX 165'...epic But a couple rock wall crossings, pruning, multiple downed trees that I built little log ramps to get over them...and the whole thing is raked clean! We should be close to 4 miles of all dirt now with very little duplication. Pretty stoked to have that for a lunchtime ride.

Time to ride!

[Vt-Freeheel]

First ride on the "backyard trails" last night. Super fun and really dry although it is raining sideways now. Hopefully we get some dry weather next week.

[chatton18]

Wow you weren't joking. That is some huge improvement since the last time I was there.

Teaser

Yeah - they rebuilt alpine midway through last season. And overall its sick, and super fast, but I'm not a huge fan of that little section, it was 3 tight berms last season (although it looks like they made them less tight. I think it'd be better to just rail it straight into the other wall ride with a little step down. That said, my friend gapped it from where Ant (the guy in the red) is standing to the third berm and it was sick. I'm too much of a pussy to try that.

[Tuckerman]

Anyone been to Gyro in Plymouth? I want to go after work but not if its a mud pit.