Rigid and Frigid in the Blizzard

Accumulations of snow were not that much but with the high winds and blowing snow there some white outs here and there. Got a call last night that there were a few rides taking place at Trumbull this morning starting around 11 AM, so I headed to the commuter lot off of Daniels Farm Rd in Trumbull. Upon arrival, didn't recognize anyone and didn't want to stand around waiting so I took off.

Seeing that today was about 10 degrees colder than it was last Tuesday I opted for another layer this being my fleece snowboard shorts along with my Army PFU pants and spandex shorts for padding. Up top, wicking shirt, long sleeve wicking shirt, thermal top and my blaze orange, wind stopper fleece. Started riding with lobsters and over booties but when my hands started to sweat I replaced them with gloves.

I decided to ride the Dillinger again because it feels so good in the snow and I just love riding single speed and rigid now that I wonder if I should even bother with a squishy for the bike. Besides, the 'Horse needs a shakedown ride at Upper Paugussett before I think I can take it out elsewhere. Ironically it was at Trumbull where I got a serious case of chain suck in the spokes, a bent hanger and a bent brake rotor.

I rode to the start point of the yellow and red trails, which is further north of the first cut off that everyone takes. I was hoping there might be a different way up but it's all rock drop offs. Then I tried to stay on the yellow as much as possible because I was looking for the section that Rich and I missed during our last ride. I found it and also found how the reroute will connect nicely to Mullholland Drive. Below is where this reroute would go through, from left to right.

Further north, after finding some more new trails up along the ridge I was coming down one descent when my front wheel washed out in the snow and I went OTB. It was a yard sale. Getting up, I discovered that one of the clips that held my brake cable onto the frame flipped off and my brake like cracked. The loose cable was bothersome but I was able to ride with it, that is until I had another problem where the other clip snapped off as well.

I was in the process of trying to reroute the cable somehow so that it wouldn't be a nuisance when I encountered these three guys riding north on the blue trail. The guy on the left is Bill and the guy on the right, holding the W.F.O. Niner is Rich who hooked me up with his last zip tie which helped me out a tremendously. Apparently this was the other group that was riding today but arrived late and didn't get started until 11:30.

Got back to the car in 2 hours and 30 minutes and had ridden only 7 miles! As you can see in the picture below my jury rigged rear brake cable.

In the picture below you can see the cracked brake line. Good thing these aren't hydraulic brakes. Despite the brake issue, the bike performed superbly. The new tires have so much grip to them and I can't get over how nimble the bike is in this configuration.

Happy New Year!

A new year has begun and hopefully more riding opportunities will avail themselves. Some riding goals for this year include riding in more Gravel Grinders like the 2010 Spring Classic Dirt Road Ride - April 18 in Waterbury, Vermont; D2R2 - Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee 2010, Deerfield, MA, Saturday, August 21, 2010 (Registration starts January 11th); and of course theTour de Roxbury, hopefully I will be able to keep up with the pack better this time around. I will probably do a few more Route 66 races this year but that largely depends on family obligations, the ability to train (or I should say push myself to train) and my larger responsibilities to the Connecticut Mountain Biking scene as President of the CT Chapter of New England Mountain Bike Association.

On top of that, I want to get my 9 year old daughter riding trails with me and get my two sons off training wheels! I did, however, get my wife on two wheels so I can foresee more family bike rides in the future.

Looking back at 2009, it was a great year for me on a bike. I achieved my goal last year of riding a 1000 miles, half of which were trail miles. My commuting miles in 2009 were almost cut in half from 2008, largely due to increased job responsibilities, rainy weather in the spring and summer (I have to maintain my fair weather commuting status, ya know), and the extra burden of needing to transport my laptop to and from the office every night.

For 2010 I am setting a commuting goal of 1000 miles (riding fixed of course)! While on the subject of setting goals I also want to try and break 1000 trail miles this year. The key will be to push myself more to ride before work.

Not sure if there will be any bike changes this year. I am working on a new fixed gear bike for riding to work with. I am still on the fence with what to do with the 'Horse. With it being down so long and riding just the Dillinger I am finding that I prefer riding single speed and rigid a lot more than before. It's not the bike but I think the configuration of the bike that makes me want to ride it more. The pure simplicity of a rigid single speed bike on the ueber technical trails of New England seems to be an ongoing challenge that I want to master. Like my cars, I will probably just ride it into the ground.

If I can swing it, however, I want to get a Cannondale SLK Cross bike with a headshok. That would be the best Gravel Grinder bike/Rail Trail bike.

Snowy Rigid and Frigid Ride

My last ride of this decade was fantastic. Two inches of fresh powdery snow had already fallen by the time I got to the Upper Dodgingtown lot at Huntington State Park in Bethel. Met up with some friends from CT NEMBA and off we went. The combination of all the rain and then frigid temps earlier this week created some really tricky spots while riding down the closed section of Old Dodgingtown Road toward the Big Burn but once in the Singletrack all those fears melted away.

Six people started out, Paula (not pictured), and from left to right: Heather, Brendan, Glenn, and Dexter. I posted the ride on the CT forum for NEMBA at the last minute to see if any other members wanted to join and that's how Dexter found out about it.

There was another single speed, rigid, 29er on this ride, a redline D440 ridden by Glenn (in orange). Everyone else were riding full suspension bikes. Here and there traction was sketchy but I was able to climb just about everything, there were a few times, however, where lower gears would have been nicer. I was riding the Dillinger in order to break 100 trail miles on it on this ride and that was accomplished. The new tires are really grippy, especially in the snow.

I know I look a little chubby in the picture below but that's because I had a extra pair of gloves and my over booties stuff into my jacket. The booties kept coming off because I didn't have them on tight enough and my feet were plenty warm, anyway. At first I was wishing I had brought the lobster gloves because my hands were freezing for the first 5 minutes of the ride but then they warmed up when we got into the single track of the big burn.

Here is a little clip of my riding the Dillinger across one of the earthen dams at Huntington. Afterwards I headed up to the Rock and Roll Trail head and then headed south into the woods to start scouting a new trail that I have permission to start marking. I plan on extending the Rock and Roll to hook up with the South Pond Trail and also connect with single track on the east side of South Pond.

Check out the CT NEMBA blog for more pictures of today's ride

Broken Promises: Selling a Bike on Craigslist

Broken Pinky Promise

My Two Snow Bunnies

Went back to Ski Sundown today with my wife and daughter. They skied and I snow boarded. Much warmer today. We had a blast.