Roxbury Monster Cross

About 20 minutes from my house, in the next county over, are couple of rural communities that have a lot of dirt roads and an old rail bed from the Shepaug Rail Road that make for excellent Gravel Grinder Terrain.  I have ridden these roads in the past but this is the first time that I am using them to train for an upcoming race.    I also wanted to ride here in order to get some miles in preparation for Singlespeed-a-polooza.

These Oxen were in training, too, getting exercise by pulling these huge tractor tires around.  The ones in the front are the veterans and in the back are the newbies.

I picked this route as a warm up and see what gear ratio I should be riding in this terrain.  The Qball was geared 32:19t because of the the insane climb in the middle of the route.  But I think when I come back to do 20+ miles I might try running 32:18t on the Kona and I might just bypass the Shinar Mountain.  That was a bitch of a climb and I wasn't able to do it without stopping because my heart rate was in the red zone numerous times.

Looking north

 Rest top on Shinar Mountain

Looking south

My route includes Steep Rock Reservation.  The old rail road bed on the west side of the Shepaug River is off limits to bikes but not the east side, however, most if not all the single track trails are off limits to bikes.  Kind of a downer because from what I hear there are some great trails in there.  It's the net result of a few careless riders back in the day that got the majority of this area closed to mountain biking.

It's too bad there isn't a bridge across the river linking the east and west sides of the old rail road bed.

 

For a gravel grinder, the old rail road bed is awesome and you can actually ride through the old train tunnel

Next weekend I am coming back with the Kona and riding 20+ miles

Friday Night Bike Maintenance

I was all geared up to ride after work today, of course that is until one of my meetings went over and the one following went event longer.  I even thought ahead and wore my riding socks so I would have one less thing to worry about.  Oh well.  On the way home, I hit the Goodie Shop for some chains, 7-11 for a lottery ticket, and the Hawleyville Packy for some BBC, a six pack of 'Gany, and I picked two bottles of this Porter from Poland called Black Boss.

Glenn came over to pick up tools for a guy that has permission to build trails on about 600 acres of land in Eastern CT.  We ended up splitting a bottle of Steel Rail Pale Ale and talking bikes for an hour.  Tonight's activities included putting thinner tires on the Monster Cross, Kenda Klaw 29x1.95s, one of the new chains that I got at the Goodie Shop and a 19t Cog because I am going to start training on the dirt roads of Roxbury and Washington CT of Single Speed Appalooza.  We'll see how it works out but if it turns out to be too easy I will probably switch back to the 18t.

It's funny but when ever I look into my tool box with all my gears the Motley Crew song sounds in my head. I hope to my butt over to Stewart in the next week or two to see what the terrain will be like and what type of gearing I am going to be comfortable with but I still need to work on my cardio because it's not where it should be be after some recent health issues.

I decided to finally get an orange KMC SS chain for the Monster and now I am wondering whether or not to do orange bar tape and an orange saddle.  Orange pedals would be nice, too.  Devil's Gear in New Haven just got a bunch of new water bottles with orange tops.  Hopefully, they'll send me some soon.

Half a bomber of BBC, and a bottle of 'Gany later I was done.  Of course, I was hoping to get to some other bikes, too, but they will have to wait.  I almost broke out a bottle of the new porter but when I saw the alcohol content, 9.8%, I decided that was more of a post ride beer than work on bikes beer.  One thing I was pleased with was that I changed both tires wearing gloves.  I really don't want to risk a cut with meds I am taking so I taking as many extra precautions as possible.

The diSSent is back!

After almost two weeks in the shop, the diSSent is back! Shawn over at The Bicycle Center, in Brookfield, did an outstanding job on the tune up that I thought I botched.  It turns out that SRAM had a bad run in their 2011 X9 shifter line and that they were prone to stripping in the shifting mechanism.  When Shawn called last week after bringing the bike in and telling me the deal with SRAM and that they were going to warranty the shifter my confidence was restored and I came to the conclusion that I didn't screw anything up, afterall.  Still it was good getting the bike turned up, having the brakes checked and replacing the cables.

Once I got home I thought I had better take advantage of the stellar, winter weather we have been having by going for a test ride.  Even though it's staying lighter later I figured it would be best to bring along the Helmet Light just in case I misjudge when it really gets dark.  Good thing I did because I was 3/4s of the way down the Gussy Trail when I thought it would be prudent to turn on the light.

The diSSent was impeccable.  Compared to the ride I had on the Kona on Sunday, riding this bike was absolutely dreamy, largely in part due tot he Fox F29 fork upfront.  Everything that felt on Sunday was smooth as butter on the diSSent.  Although, I still have to get used to riding gears and remembering to downshift into the incline rather than when I am almost out of power (it's the single speed mentality) I had a pretty good ride.  I can still feel how out of shape I am because I hit my HR max quite a few times on this ride again.  Just have to keep riding to get back to the fitness level I was at prior to my knee surgery.

 

Finally, Single and Rigid again!

The diSSent is still in the shop with shifter problems and I over slept this morning so there was not enough time to ride Housatonic Rail Trail as I had planned to do.  Thinking it might be warmer Sunday afternoon I hit Upper Paugussett on the Kona.  It wasn't any warmer.  I figured, I have less than two months till Singlespeed Apaloosa I might as well start working out on the SSer.  Knee was feeling good and the blood thinner that I am doesn't have any side effects, so what the heck.  The only thing I noticed is that I am really out of shape!  One precaution I am taking, however, is that I am riding the knee/shin and elbow/forearm pads.  Should I fall, I was to minimize my bruising as much as possible while on the blood thinners.

The Poly Brody was business as usual, that is until I came across this tree blocking the trail!  Must have come down a week ago Friday or Saturday when it was really windy.  Hopefully, I can get someone else out to cut this before the state gets to it.  It will make a nice skinny.

To keep the flow, I found a way to ride around the obstruction and finding a low spot in the paralleling rock wall.  The flow works nicely if you are riding north on the Poly but it kind of sux in the other direction, at least on a Single Speed.

Shot a little video riding through it.

The Gussy was resplendent of course!

Riding the Kona with Carver Carbon Fiber fork was awesome and I was amazed at how smooth it handled and floated through the whole trail.   

Coming out on Sanford Road I found this six pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  Unfortunately it was empty but I decided since the rest of the way was dirt and pave home I could carry this home.  That's $0.30 in my pocket!

Another Nice Rack!

I picked up an older model Thule Revolver bike rack from Craigslist on Saturday.  Now, when I have to bring more than one bike somewhere, I move the bikes out of the way without having to take them off the rack and open my tailgate all the way.