Since we left off, I've picked up a new Fisher Presidio CX bike, ridden it halfway up a small mountain, raced it in the Southern California Prestige Series #13 at Glendale, gone on a hilly 11 mile trail run, tore the derailleur off the new bike, mangling the dropout almost beyond recognition, blacksmithed the thing back into service, got held up on the road for the filming of an Audi commercial, and ridden a four hour ride in where everyone else had a dualie. Other than that, things have been pretty relaxing, with sunny skies, temps in the 70's, a few cold beers, and burritos stuffed with all sorts of fresh stuff from the ground.
The Bike
Fits fine, rides nice. My first time on SRAM. Took about ten minutes to get used to it. From the drops, it's better than STI, at least on upshifts. From the hoods it's about the same or slightly better for upshifts, but I'd take STI for downshifting. The jury is still out on the shape of the hoods, but the setup is working fine for me here. This bike has some form or Avid brakes. They can actually slow the bike down, and even stop it; this is a big change from my old bike with froglegs, which are merely decorative. Of course, it's dry as a bone here, so YMMV, as will mine when the going gets muddy. But for now I'm Dusty. The same might be said for the tires. The Bontrager Jones clinchers hook up quite nicely on the cement-like baked clay that makes up much of the tundra out here. They are good in the loose dust/sand too. On the road, well, they are CX tires, but I'm surviving. All in all, the new bike fit right in and I haven't thought about it much, which is a good thing. Except for one or two little issues.
Glendale - Solo goes Valley Boy
Home of like, the Galleria. Yes, THE Galleria. And Stop in the Name of Love, there is Atlantic Records. This race was well attended, with a few hundred riders, and held in a big park. Upon arriving we parked in a swank hillside neighborhood and jumped on the course for a quick pre-ride. The layout was similar to life back east, course tape and some tight 180s. The surface was... dusty hardpack. And some mulchy shit. Someone left a course stake in it, which found my front spokes, and over the bars I went. I was wearing my good glasses too, as I needed to be able to see to register. They escaped unscathed while I launched a verbal tirade on everyone nearby. The volunteers sheepishly apologized and cleared out the offending debris, at least some of it. You see, since they don't have mud or snow or any "real" cross stuff out here, they make do by running the courses through ankle deep mulch. Welcome to Socal.
After some more twists and turns the course went up a steep incline of packed dirt. Most people were running, but you could make it if you carried enough speed and pedaled like a bastard. That lead down a fast trail, through a sandy chicane, and then a downward plunge with a 180 at the bottom into some homemade stairs, just like Providence. A fast downhill remount led to another 180 plunge, and then a long, fast, flat power section with several high speed sweepers. Some tighter stuff led onto the pavement, up over a curb, through some more grass power sections and 180s before going back onto the pavement and the start/finish, which was only 40 meters or so past the last corner. One thing they do a lot better than us though is the curb hops. These were robust concrete curbs, and there was one at the end of the long front straightaway, which would also be the start holeshot. But it was fine because they lined the transition with plastic sandbags. These worked much better than the loose lumber they use in New England. Even if you totally botched the curb hop you'd be OK. Most people barely slowed down.
Registration was a cluster. Welcome back to 1992. I guess we have it good in New England. The race had a nice expo though. We warmed up on the maze of cul de sacs nearby. There are many more classes here and most races have several groups on the course at the same time. They have not one, not two, but three classes of singlespeeds. Paul did the Cat 3/4 singles, and I did not know this, so I missed him. Then they had a masters and a 1/2/3 SS as well. And all were well attended. My race had 25 guys starting in the 45+. About an equal number of 55+ started behind them, and then the 3/4 and master women, all on the course at the same time. It was around an eight minute lap and the officials were scoring without the help of a camera...
The top four were seeded on the front row. I was second row, but as usual botched the clip in and went backward on the pavement, but only a few spots. Over the curb and on the grass I got chopped, but then held on. There was a long grass section leading to a tight 180, and then another wide power section on grass. Here I turned it on and moved up about six spots all at once before jumping a few more sandbagged curbs and heading into the tighter stuff. I was a little shaky in a few spots on the first lap but mostly held my spot or moved up. After a lap I had the course dialed in better. Each lap on the longer straights I caught a wheel to follow before going around. One guy kept attacking me hard and then when we got near the narrow part he started complaining that I should work with him. So I went around and never saw him again...
With one to go a guy came by me from behind so fast that for a second I thought I was being lapped or something. I didn't know where he came from, and he opened up five or ten seconds on me before I rallied to get back to his wheel, just before a steep little clay hill. I'd been riding it every lap, but he dismounted and I went by at the top as he got back on. I attacked hard, slid through the sandy chicane, diving down to the 180 into the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a hardpack remount with severe off camber. If you jumped on the seat too hard, you'd slide the back wheel down the off camber. So I tried to smoothly slip on, but... The new bike came with a Bontrager Race saddle, the newer style with sort of a split rear end that has two prominent points sticking out the back... which I managed to get my skinsuit stuck on, wedgie style. Careening down the off camber, and way up the opposite banking, still unclipped, legs askew, I frantically tried to unhitch myself before the next steep plunge over a mulchy, rooted cliff with a tight turn at the bottom. My opponent hesitated for a second, probably fearing that I was going to crash and take him with me, before sneaking by and dropping onto the downhill. By then I recovered and got right on his wheel, feeling pretty confident on the fast sweepers leading toward the last few 180s and the sprint. But by now we were in some lap traffic (3/4 women and 55+ men share the course with the 45+ out here). I probably should have stuffed the guy in the final 180 that was on grass, but instead I sat on until we hit the pavement, which was much too short for me to come around. So he beat me, and I ended up 8th/24 starters, around 2:00 down on the winner. 5th and 6th turned out to be within ten seconds ahead of us. Oh well. I passed on doing a second race, even though it was only $5. Probably should have done it but my throat was parched from the heat and dust and I figured that leaving for home in one piece was a good option anyway.
S.O.L.obreak
A few days later, on Wednesday, we headed across town to a park for cross practice with big shots Mark Noble and his son Chance. Mission Oaks park's terrain is very similar to the Glendale course, with steep clay climbs and some mulchy stuff. The Nobles alternate between easy trips around the entire park, and "hot laps" on a shorter circuit. After about three of each it was getting dark, and Mark flatted, ending his night. Chance started one more hot lap and I decided to join. Of course he was light years ahead of me after only a minute. At the end of my lap, I attacked the last mulchy runup by trying to ride as far as possible before dismounting. Sprinting, I cringed as the pedals locked up and the sounds of crunching metal rang through the air. Right away I knew this wasn't good. The chain must have inhaled a big stick or piece of wood. The back wheel fell right out. The derailleur was sticking straight up into the sky, and the right side axle hanger was ripped wide open. Things did not look good for the rest of your hero's trip.
After swearing and pissing and moaning for a few minutes, we packed up and headed straight to TBOV. Marty and I got right to work, failing to take a picture of the carnage. Armed with dropout aligners, a giant crescent wrench, a Park hanger tool, a dummy axle, and several hammers, we somehow managed to bring the frame and dropout back to their original shape. Sigh of relief; this is why I chose steel, right? No SRAM rear changers were in stock though, except for a Red over at the sister shop, too pricey for CX. Reluctantly we headed across town to the Brand X outlet shop where I scored a silver Rival RD for just $60. And there was much rejoicing. Everything was back the way it was and working, with no missed training days.
Who needs a dualie?
Friday I went solo down to the beach and Sycamore Canyon. This area and Point Mugu State Park are sort of a mecca for coast area mountain bikers. I wasn't so sure about what was doable on a cross bike, but we'd tried a little bit of it a day prior with no big issues. The area was dry as a bone, and has very few rocks. The surface is mostly baked clay, which can be extremely rutted and lumpy. Some of it is covered in powdery dust. There is a bit of sand here and there. All great traction really, especially with the Bontrager CX tires. So long as you check your speed on the fast downhills the only real issue was gearing. 38x27? Most riders I saw were running a 22x32 type of deal on their dualy freeriders. Hey, it's training. Some of the trails were mostly flat, except for the gullies where they cross dry stream beds. There's even a fair amount of pavement on some old ranch roads within the park. My gears were not skipping at all, shifting was perfect. I was back in business.
After crisscrossing the park once, and heading all the way up to the Thousands Oaks entrance side, I headed back down into the valley and down Wood Canyon. I had been riding around two hours at that point, and decided to see if I could make it up the Guadalasco Trail on this bike. A guy at Glendale told me he'd made it on a single speed MTB, so that gave me hope. It's been at least seven years or so since I'd been up it. The bottom was severely rutted as always, but there was not much loose stuff and tractions was superb. Much of Guady is single track in the purest sense of the word, about a foot wide, with rattlesnakes hiding in the grass on each side. Except they don't come out much at this time of year. The CX bike was actually an advantage on some of the super tight switchbacks, although coming out of them there's some rough stuff caused by riders locking it up on the way down. With a lot of standing, before I knew it I'd made the top, which is close to 1000 feet of climbing up. I went down Overlook Road, which is a 1200 foot drop. The road has been graded out wider in the past few years, and was reasonably smooth, but not nearly as much fun on this bike as on an MTB. At the bottom I refueld and then turned back in and up Overlook. I was pretty cooked by now and it wasn't exactly pleasant, but the weather was perfect and with views of the Pacific on one side and the valley on the other, riding the ridge is about as good as it gets to me. I thought about riding down the backbone trail, but if my memory is correct it's not at all suitable for a CX bike, so instead I went straight down Hell Hill. A rider coming up the other way laughed at my dropped bars and said "I was wondering who was making those tracks." Back at the car I had four hours and called it a day. When I left, the Highway Patrol had the road blocked off at Mugu Rock. Audi was filming a commercial and had an R8 driving with the camera cars in the opposite lane. No scantily-clad models for this one though, bummer.
More to come, including my race report from the Adam's Ave CX at the San Diego Velodrome, and of course the upcoming trip to Bend. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm enjoying a few weeks not being tehtered to a keyboard. Thanks for reading.
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