Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why Share?

Posted on by
Reply

So there are some out there who might think that the world really is about to end, nothing to do with Mayans, nuclear war, or even social deprivation. The only clue being that I have become a Facebook-er. I can’t say the world isn’t about to pop, but have no fear I am simply following up on a thought I have had floating around in my head for a while. Sharing.

Sometimes those of us living in the mountains forget that our lives are not so ordinary, sure we  don’t always have fun in the sun, we have to deal with working, making ends meet, families, dogs and all that stresses us modern humans out. But what we do the rest of the time is pretty interesting stuff. I get so much inspiration from my fellow Gunnison Valley residents, the adventures, the races, the tenacity to face challenges and overcome them. It makes me get up and get out the door, to seek out my own vision of adventure and to challenge myself without excuses, without regrets, knowing damn well that we are all capable of more incredible things than we let ourselves believe. 

So that is the basis for this, a format to express the irreplaceable feeling I get doing the things I do. I don’t always feel great, don’t always pull off what I want or envision myself doing, I haven’t always been able to shrug off discomfort or the mental blunderings of “what am I doing with my life.” But the fact of the matter is getting outside and experiencing the world makes living so worth while, dwelling on reasons not to is a dead end. I know, I have sat staring at the walls wondering why this, why that, why me, far more than is healthy. We all need time for some sort of introspection, but don’t get stuck, get out. It doesn’t need to be much, break the rut, go out and have what we call a ‘Day Changer’, just enough hard breathing, heart beating, to make all the BS seem small. Life is too short to sit out for long.

So I got a hand me down computer, got it working, just bought another cheap camera and I am gonna try my hardest to get out there, take pictures and replay it here in attempt to share that incredible feeling that comes from having incredible experiences. Hope I can deliver.    

XX1 first ride

Posted on by
Reply

I was once a die hard Single Speeder. I wouldn’t buy a bike unless I could make it go down to one gear. It began when I became so frustrated with how sensitive 9 speed Shimano was to imperfections. As a bike mechanic I dealt with bent derailleurs, sticky cables and housing, beat up derailleurs all just left me with no patience for dealing with it on my own bikes. I tried the Rohloff Hub and it was good at some things and not so great in some ways, wanted to like it, just never fell in love with it. I was back to one gear, it worked out, I did ok in a bunch of long hard races. It was simple, light, cheaper and I just learned to deal with walking sometimes and spinning like mad and still getting dropped. When 10 speed came out I just laughed and resigned to giving up being a wrench, I mean 9 speed was sensitive enough, right? But then I jumped into the new age and got a carbon bike with 2×10 Sram XO, 20 speeds? Had I lost my mind? Well I loved it. Rode practically all of 2012 with that set up, I even won the Colorado Trail Race with those lovely gears. It was that race where I first saw 11 speed.

Jesse Jakomait was rocking the XX1 set up for the CTR. I thought this is crazy, silly, maybe dumb? But after the race I got to talk to him a bit about it and he said it worked flawlessly. 500 miles of Colorado, rough trails, rain, mud, dinosaurs and all. Hmm? Got me to thinking. My right hand you see contains a few misplaced bones, bone fragments, and just isn’t all that happy much of the time. With the use of twist shifting I could use a 1x drivetrain and put all the shifting on the left so my crunched up hand just has to brake and hold on, no shifting too. I tried 1×9, 1×10 and it worked but more range would be more better.

So broke down sold a bike and got me some XX1. So far just one ride on it, but it works, works well. The twist shifter can drop or gain almost the whole range of gears in one motion, I used every gear in that cassette, but so far didn’t look for more. Quiet, smooth, kind of like my single speeds, except less walking. Of course time will tell on these questions; durability, wear life, is it enough range, high and low, how will it handle mud, grime, lack of maintenance? I plan on finding my own answers as I hope to ride the crap out of this system this season. 

Hartmans Opening Weekend

Posted on by
1

One of those super charged magic moments in the Gunnison Valley, the opening of Hartman’s Rocks. Jim Lovelace of the BLM came into Rock N Roll to deliver the news, even though we were working on other folks bikes, still it made us giddy for the rest of the day.

I made it out for my first ride with BDills, aka Bryan Dillion, 9:am Saturday morning. The air still held a chill, the humidity was high, thus the world had not seized the chance to get in some early miles and we hardly saw another rider. Riding much of my favorite trails, Jacks, Talipipe, Ridgeline, Top O the World, Gateway, Josies, Skyline, Rocky Ridge, Becks, Collerbone puts a silly smile on your face.The sort of smile that only comes from carving turns through the sage and hoping up and off the bits of rock, it just feels so good.

My body, on the other hand, didn’t like being thrown into powering through singletrack and all the short burst climbs that dot the trails at Hartmans. While I had been riding the road a bit, even doing a few intervals on the trainer, I had not done enough not to feel the lead in my legs and the tight grip of out of balanced muscles in my back. Plus I was riding with Bryan who is young, fast and had been riding a bunch more than me, he was looking casual while I was breathing hard. I got a lot of work to do….