My 2013 Cycling Summary

Yearly Cycling Summary

2013 was a big year for me as you can see in the chart above.  This past year I doubled my commuting miles and started riding roads.  Mountain biking suffered somewhat but I was still able to ride at least 500 miles.  I would like to see if I can hit 1000 miles on the trail in 2014.

Total Mountain Biking Miles per Year

Here is my 2013 breakout by activity, the lighter green being Mountain Biking, black is commuting and the darker green road cycling.  

In terms of numbers for year, distance is in miles:

Mountain Biking	514	17%
Commuting	1175	38%
Road	1390	45%

The above graphs and numbers come from my SportsTracks software that I have been using since 2005 to track my activities.  Based on these numbers, I guess you could say that I have turned into a roadie who likes to sometimes ride a mountain bike!

Overall 2013 Stats from the Strava Annual Summary, which by the way is an insanely great tool:

Total Rides	166
Total Distance (mi)	3,089
Total Time (hrs)	266:34:18
Average Speed	11.60 mi/hr
Total Elevation (ft)	244,284
Total Segments	686
Longest Ride (mi)	78

The Annual Summary tool also lets you look at mileage on your bikes for the year.  Here is what I did on mine:

Bike	Miles
Cannondale XS800	1,114
Cannondale XS800 (Commute)	656
Surly Cross Check	26
Kona Unit 29er Singlespeed	340
Qball Singlespeed	199
Qball Singlespeed (Commute)	468
Qball Singlespeed (Trainer)	9
SpotBrand Longboard 9	246
Trek 720 (Commute)	21
Trek 720 (Trainer)	10
Total	3,089

Finally, here is a heat map of all the places I have ridden 2013 that I found using the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper Tool:

Mostly Connecticut

Cape Cod

Commuting to work and road riding

Stewart State Forest, Newburg, NY

D2R2 and Vermont

Sunday and Single: The Upper Gussy Trifecta

Keeping in tune with my new obsession to compete with myself and others, Strava lets you do that without getting dirty (actually racing) - I will have to load my GPS tracks from when I did race and see how they compare to others on the same courses, I went back to Upper Paugussett to see how I could do on the same course only this time on the single speed.  Well, I came in second.  In the competitive sense it was a good measure of my single speed endurance over geared and gives me something to shoot for now.  Now I am going to have to do the same for Waldo.

Today's ride was was also a test to see what's up with my wheelset but trying another on the same bike and lo and behold I think I need to have the blunts looked at.  Could be the hubs, the spokes or both but they are making a creaking sound that I doesn't sound good and it's time to get it looked at.  Also, during the entire ride I was debating what I should do with this bike since I have the Raleigh waiting in the wings.  All I need is a rear brake caliper, but the true question is whether I cannibalize the Kona (for some other parts, too) and make the Raleigh my primary single speed or stick to the plan and keep them separate so that I can compare the two?

Poly Brody's Frontside is now completely open.  I forwarded my trail report to the State and it appears they came in sometime between Friday and Saturday and cut the tree.  They must have taken the wood.  Too bad, because it would have made a nice skinny.  I would really like to see this in Orange.  Looks like the 2013 Units will be grey with orange lettering and the drive side drop will be separable in order to run a belt drive.  Is that the future of Single speed, belt drives?  With the way I roll, I probably wouldn't find a 2012 Unit and end up getting another frame to try and keep the cycle moving.

Did a little trail clearing Sunday from blow downs.  Still thinking about doing two additional reroutes on the Gussy, one would be completely new which would be a big zig zag turn in that flat area between the big sweeping turn I did with Paula last winter and I think I need to fix the cleavage reroute, too.  When riding south, the turn is just too sharp for the amount of speed you pick up and it would be nicer if you could use that speed to roll out further and widen that turn.  Keep the Cleavage Drop as an alternative feature would be good too.

 

Ride before Work: Long time no Gussy

Headed out to Upper Paugussett Tuesday morning for a quick loop and to set some Strava segments now that I am getting into this whole Strava thing.  I created two new segments, Poly Brody's Front Side and the Upper Gussy Loop, on top of the one I also created, The Mulikin.  For those that don't know what a segment is, it's Strava's way of Socializing portions of your route and compare it to others who have ridden that same section.  Strava is Social Media for bike geeks like myself that track every ride and every mile using a GPS.

The Mulikin Segment is the climb that includes Al's and the Mulikin Trail to the top of the highest point at Upper Paugussett.  Poly Brody's Frontside Segment runs from the gate at the Echo Valley lot to the entrance to the Gussy.  The Upper Gussy Loop segment is the Upper Gussy and Poly Brody Loop.  I still want to add Poly Brody's Backside, which is the climb up the fire road up to the highest point from Silver City and Hanover Road and Upper Gussy in Reverse, which is climbing the entire Gussy Trail.  Still on the fence about whether to purchase a membership though.  It might be a good way to upgrade my GPS and go to a Garmin 500 but I think I want the 800.

Seems there are some new developments at Upper Pauggussett that I wrote up in my NEMBA Trail Ambassador report that needs higher authority to address.  There's still dumping at the Echo Valley Lot and a big blowdown on the Poly Brody.  Motos are still going but they seem to be containing their activity to the fire road.  Fine with me as long as they stay off the singletrack.  There is a little blowdown on the Gussy that I will take care of later this week, too.  Otherwise the Gussy is bone dry and riding nice.  No new braids or off shoots, either.