Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Bike Bear Lake - Gravel Road Cycling Retreat
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Monday, July 30, 2018
Pavement, Gravel, Rails-to-Trails in the Ashton Area
It is one of my favorite places in the world to ride a bike. Thanks to Tim and Kellen for the photos.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
Gallery: Taming the 2018 Crusher in the Tushar | VeloNews.com
Kelson bicycle-photo copyright Velonews.com
https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/gallery/gallery-taming-the-2018-crusher-in-the-tushar_472797
Saturday, July 21, 2018
From John Summers: The science of being seen | VeloNews.com
https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/sponsored/the-science-of-being-seen_472689
Bonus: Find the typo--"asses" in place of "assess"
Bonus: Find the typo--"asses" in place of "assess"
Friday, July 20, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
RPI Adds 20 Mile Tater Tot Ride
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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Sunday, July 15, 2018
It Was the Best of Times. It Was the Worst of Times. Crusher in the Tushar 2018.
Jeff was the first to quote Dickens to describe yesterday’s Crusher. Conditions were generally good for the early finishers with cool drizzly weather. Greg and Jeff both finished before the big storms hit. Chris and I were caught out in persistent heavy rain and hail that made finishing at all seem like a life and death struggle. The only Rexburg locals at the Crusher this year were me, Jeff, Greg Roach, and Chris Babb riding his first Crusher. Our old friend Robbie Stone, pictured in the yellow and white jersey, was there as well.
The personalized nameplate was my recognition for finishing my fifth Crusher last year. Jeff finished his fifth yesterday and will be rewarded with the same nameplate upon his next participation. Greg and I both took new bikes to the Crusher, Greg a brand new Kelson and me the Trek Boone that Joe built up earlier this spring. My new bike was pretty great. I was especially happy to have the disc brakes on the long gritty downhills. The first year that I rode the Crusher, my lowest gear was a 34:28. That was the first thing I updated before returning. Since then, I have been reasonably successful with a 1:1 gearing ratio (36:36 on the new bike), but I did not have the legs for a 1:1 ratio yesterday. Greg’s new Kelson is geared more like the newest generation of Crusher bikes with a single chainring drivetrain and a low gear something like 38:46.
Readers of the blog will know that I am a fan of Surly. Even though they would not be my first choice for a race bike, I was happy to see a purple Straggler and a pea-green Cross-Check among the customs and exotics at the Crusher yesterday. At every Crusher, the generosity and helpfulness of the race volunteers is unparalleled. That was especially true in the bad weather yesterday.
*Here is a little post-script: Since Joe got me the Garmin, I have been able to see the steepness of a slope in real time. I did not watch this screen all the way up the Col, but the steepest grade that I noticed was 14%. That was not a big surprise, but the thing that was unexpected was to find that the steepest sustained grades in the Sarlacc Pit are 10%. The Sarlacc Pit was reasonably consolidated yesterday, but it was still the hottest part of the course and the only part untouched by the rain which fell pretty steadily in Beaver and the Tushar Mountains for a couple of days.
*Here is a little post-script: Since Joe got me the Garmin, I have been able to see the steepness of a slope in real time. I did not watch this screen all the way up the Col, but the steepest grade that I noticed was 14%. That was not a big surprise, but the thing that was unexpected was to find that the steepest sustained grades in the Sarlacc Pit are 10%. The Sarlacc Pit was reasonably consolidated yesterday, but it was still the hottest part of the course and the only part untouched by the rain which fell pretty steadily in Beaver and the Tushar Mountains for a couple of days.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Monday, July 9, 2018
Things I Wish I Had Known About Sooner: Hitch Clamp
Credit Jeff with finding this thing. Like a lot of other cyclists, in recent years I have transitioned from mostly carrying bikes on the roof to mostly carrying bikes on hitch mounted tray-style racks. However, even good quality hitch racks can still be pretty sloppy in terms of unwanted movement. The Hitch Clamp device mostly eliminates that. https://www.hitchclamp.com/
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Big Hole Challenge and Duathlon July 7th
Grassroots. Super fun. Gather your team and come on out! This Saturday at the Horseshoe Canyon Trails! Sign up NOW HERE!
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Chick-a-Saw Ride
Saturday was a really great day of fun cycling topped by good training.
We started at the Sawtelle Resort parking lot and worked our way south through Island Park on the old Yellowstone Highway and then over to the old Yellowstone short line rail trail. Usually we'd go down the Old Chick Creek road from the USFS station but with all the rain and spring runoff, we thought it might be impossible to ford Chick Creek without soaking our feet. So the old rail trail provided a nice bridge to keep our toes dry, and plenty of skills work dodging trees, rocks and puddles that had formed during the heavy overnight rain. Once we reached Chick Creek road we headed east and eventually up switchbacks to the top of the Pitchstone Plateau.
Our little group all stayed together at conversation pace, and so I didn’t end up doing a SS interval then, but just enjoyed the verdant hills. After reaching the intersection with Fish Creek road we headed north along the eastern edge of the plateau, and then eventually descended back down to the forest floor until we met the road to Big Springs. We opted to take the tarmac to Big Springs and then looped over the water there to the north and then west again to head back to the Sawtelle Resort.
After a brief natural break and bottle refills we headed further west to the base of Sawtelle peak and the end of the pavement. There we all settled into our own paces and worked our way to the top. About one-quarter of the way up we ran into Greg Roach on his way back down. Earlier he'd told us his plan was to do back to back climbs (a double Sawtelle).
Eventually we all made it to the top, and though dark clouds had gathered earlier, we were happy to enjoy mostly sunny skies, and relatively little wind at the summit. The only mechanical of the day was a little air lost out of my rear tire on the descent, and was easily fixed with a little CO2. We topped off the day with a visit to 511 Main in Ashton, and seeing as we’ll be doing nearly twice the same about of climbing in two weeks it felt like a perfect day.
We started at the Sawtelle Resort parking lot and worked our way south through Island Park on the old Yellowstone Highway and then over to the old Yellowstone short line rail trail. Usually we'd go down the Old Chick Creek road from the USFS station but with all the rain and spring runoff, we thought it might be impossible to ford Chick Creek without soaking our feet. So the old rail trail provided a nice bridge to keep our toes dry, and plenty of skills work dodging trees, rocks and puddles that had formed during the heavy overnight rain. Once we reached Chick Creek road we headed east and eventually up switchbacks to the top of the Pitchstone Plateau.
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| Only Joe had the talent to pull of the "riding selfie" |
Our little group all stayed together at conversation pace, and so I didn’t end up doing a SS interval then, but just enjoyed the verdant hills. After reaching the intersection with Fish Creek road we headed north along the eastern edge of the plateau, and then eventually descended back down to the forest floor until we met the road to Big Springs. We opted to take the tarmac to Big Springs and then looped over the water there to the north and then west again to head back to the Sawtelle Resort.
After a brief natural break and bottle refills we headed further west to the base of Sawtelle peak and the end of the pavement. There we all settled into our own paces and worked our way to the top. About one-quarter of the way up we ran into Greg Roach on his way back down. Earlier he'd told us his plan was to do back to back climbs (a double Sawtelle).
Eventually we all made it to the top, and though dark clouds had gathered earlier, we were happy to enjoy mostly sunny skies, and relatively little wind at the summit. The only mechanical of the day was a little air lost out of my rear tire on the descent, and was easily fixed with a little CO2. We topped off the day with a visit to 511 Main in Ashton, and seeing as we’ll be doing nearly twice the same about of climbing in two weeks it felt like a perfect day.
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