Fall Rides and a New Toy

The fall weather has had its share of rain and cold, but I have been able to get out for some great fall rides.  I've been trying to get out during the week, but work has been very busy lately.  I was able to get over to Elm Creek for an after work ride.  It was cold and there was not much traffic on the trail.  There was good amount of deer activity, it is always fun see stuff out on a ride.

They both just sat there while I took out my phone to snap a picture.  I was about 20 feet from the bigger one.  Can you see the smaller one?

We did take advantage of a nice Sunday afternoon a week or so ago and we headed down to Lebanon Hills.  We have not ridden there in a long time, man has that trail changed.  I rode the Tallboy, it felt different compared to the fat bike, I took me bit to get used to it.

On Sunday I made it over to the Woolly Trails in St. Croix Falls, WI for a couple of laps.  I always forget how much climbing there is, it was a bit of a challenge on the fat bike.  It was cloudy but it was a great day for a ride.

Where did the trail go?

We pulled the trigger on a new to us camping rig.  We have been thinking of getting a travel trailer for a few years, but after we used my parent’s trailer for the Heck of the North we decided to get one of our own.  So after some looking we found one that we really liked and we took it home Halloween.  It is a smaller trailer but for the 2 of us it will be great!  We are really looking forward to using it!

Cuyuna Weekend

This past weekend we headed to the cabin for some riding at Cuyuna.  Fall is a great time to ride up there, when the leaves are at peak color it is beautiful.  We had hopes of riding Saturday but we woke up to rain and the forecast was not looking good for the whole day.  So we decided to head into Brainerd to look at some travel trailers.  We have been thinking of getting one and the rainy day was a good excuse to spend some time looking.

The weather on Sunday was great; we woke up to full sun and highs in the 50’s, perfect for fall riding.  Trail conditions were great!   I’m always surprised with how well Cuyuna can handle the wet weather, there were very few puddles on the trails.

Kyleen taking a break!

The view from the Hopper Hill overlook

Just before the fun downhill on Easy Street

I decided to take my fat bike up for the weekend.  It was a lot of fun to ride, I was really surprised how well it climbed and handled the rougher stuff.  I really liked how the bike made me feel the trail and the tires gave me just enough suspension to soften the ride.  I’m starting to really enjoy the fat bike ride.

The Fatty in it's natural environment 

Monday on the way home we stopped a rode the Yawkey side.  We only got a couple of laps around Bobsled and the rain started, so we headed back to the car before we got too wet.  It was a great weekend despite the rain.

This summer we bought a Yakima Hold Up 2 rack, it has been a great for us.  I was hoping that the fat bike would fit on it with out too much trouble, as you can see it works great.  I did have to let some air out of the front tire but it squeezed in just fine.  I have 4" On-One Floaters on the bike.  I did have to use a longer strap on the rear tire, the Yakima strap is too short.

All loaded up with some new red dirt on the tires

2013 Heck of the North

Since I was unable to ride Almanzo this year the Heck was my first 100 miler for the year.  I had heard that this ride was not a “normal” gravel grinder, the use of the snowmobile trails made it interesting.

Kyleen and I made it up to Two Harbors Friday around 5:30, we were using my parents travel trailer for the weekend, with the raining the forecast I was happy to have the trailer.

The rig for the weekend

Bright and early Saturday morning we got up and got going.  I was checking over things and I noticed that my front tire was flat, I had somehow cut my side wall, this was not how I want the morning to go!  Troy and I worked on the tire and I was back in business. 

Troy, Brett and I just before we lined up to start

We headed off to get checked in and to do a few last minute things.  The forecast called for rain and wind all day, but much to our liking it was not raining yet, at least we would get some dry miles in.  At about 8:30 we lined up and after a few words the field was off.  We headed off down a double track trail that was littered with rocks.  I have never seen so many flats in the starting miles of a race. At about mile 17 we turned off the dry gravel road and started down the snowmobile trail.  It was kind of fun to pass a bunch of people on the trail, I was riding my Tallboy with 2.1 inch tires, that was a good choice for this ride, the people with cyclocross bikes where having a hard time in the bog.  After a steep hill we were back on a dry trail for a bit then on to the road.  Things were going well for me, nothing exciting happened until the rain came at about mile 45 or so.  The next 4 or 5 hours I would be riding the rain.

Riders making their way up the hill out of the bog

I made my way to the halfway check point and at some food and drank a red bull.  Before the check point was tired, hungry and ready to call it.  I did know that I would feel better after I ate something, so I know that I was not really going to quit.  When I was leaving the check point I saw Kyleen sitting there in the truck, it was great to see her.  That always lifts my spirits during these races.   I rode for about 10 miles and I needed some more food, so I stopped and ate some more.

At about mile 80 I noticed a few cars parked on the side of there were I need to make the turn towards the finish.  There were a bunch of people hanging out with a fire, food, coke and beer.  This was also a little pick me up, I slammed a coke and headed off.  The wind was finally at my back and I was making some good time up until mile 90, when we turned back on to the snowmobile trail and it was muddy!  The last 15 miles felt like they took forever.   When I made it to the road I saw Kyleen standing waiting for me, it was nice to be done!  I finished the 104 miles in 10:05, which for a muddy rainy ride was not too bad for me.

Glad to be done, but I was feeling good.

My poor drivetrain!

All cleaned and ready to roll.

Rolling Darryl's on a diet

When I built up my fat bike, I had the intention of saving some money and drilling out the rims myself.  I had some spare time so I decided to take on the project.

I started by marking the rim for the holes and then drilling 1/16” and 1/8” pilot holes in each location.   I made a fixture to hold the wheel while drilling, it made holding the wheel easier.

Once all of the pilot holes were drilled I started with the 1 3/8” holes, I was committed to this once I drilled the first hole.  Some people relocate the valve stem hole to the seam weld on the rim and then they drill out the old location to the larger size, I did not do this.  I marked the valve stem hole and weld to make sure that I would not drill.  I also used some electrical tape to protect the edge of the rim from the metal shavings. Each wheel took about an hour to drill.  

Once all the holes were drilled I deburred them and installed the Surly rim strips.  I think that the blue strips are a nice touch.  The deburring process takes a while, but you really need to make sure there are no sharp edges.

In total the drilling removed 230 grams or ½ pound off of each wheel.  I had a pile of aluminum when I was done.

The bike feels a bit snappier and it looks cool too!  My bike is down to 31 lbs, which is not to bad.  My biggest advice to anyone that is going to do this to take your time, it took me about 4 hours over a couple of days.

Recent Fun

Recent Fun Catch-Up

We have been busy lately and I have not had much time to get stuff posted up on here.  So I thought that I would just do a quick update with what we had going on.

Over the Fourth of July Kyleen and I headed to the cabin for some riding at Cuyuna.  The weather was great and the riding was awesome.  We love to get out and ride up there, so much so that we headed back up the next weekend and rode again.  This time it was a family outing, we were joined by Troy, Terry, Kat and Paul.  It is always a blast.

Hopper Hill Overlook, I think that every Cuyuna rider has this picture.

We earned some good beer!

Kinley was enjoying the deck and keeping a watch eye on the yard.

We closed out the 4th with a nice fire and some fireworks across the lake.

I really wanted to get out on my 9ZERO7, I really have not rode it since I finished building it.  It was a blast to ride.  I took it over to Elm Creek and ride the single track on the fatty was a lot of fun.  There are few things that I’m going to change on the bike, but I really like the way it rides.

Kyleen competed in the Annandale Tri, this was her second race of the year.  She did awesome!  She finished 2^nd in her age group and this was her first podium finish.  I’m very proud of her and happy to see that all of her hard work is paying off.  This was here first race on her QR Tri bike, she was really excited to see what improvements she made over last year. 

Up next for me is the 2013 Rusty Ride 50 miler.  This will be my first long distance mountain bike race, I was going to do the Cheq metric 100, but that was a rain out.  Kyleen is going to be doing the YWCA Women's Tri, she did this one last year and it is a great race.

Building a Fatty...

My Fat Bike Build.

With the popularity of fat biking over the last couple of years the thought of getting on has been on my mind.  Then in December I borrowed Troy’s Surly pugsley for a couple of days, that was a mistake!  I took his bike on a couple of trail rides down our local snowmobile trails and it was a blast.  I was amazed on how well the bike floated over the snow packed trail.  I enjoyed the bike and thought that I would like to get one at some point, but I had just got a full suspension 29er last September and another new bike was not in the cards. 

One night Kyleen mentioned to me that she was surprised that I did not want a fat bike right away.  Well, that started my planning on how I could get one sooner than later.  Before I bought my 29er I was planning on building one, so I had a bunch of parts that I had gathered, most of which I could use on a fat bike.  So I made a list of components and I got an idea of what the cost would be.  I thought that I could build one up for a reasonable amount using eBay and some used parts.  So I started selling some stuff to fund my bike build.  I sold some archery stuff that I have not used in years along with some bike parts.  I sold my old Rockhopper to a co-worker and some other stuff just in time for the Twin Cities bike swap.  At the swap I picked up a Salsa enabler fat fork and some Avid BB7 brakes for my build.  The rest of the parts I found on eBay or from Fatbikes.com.  Kyleen even chipped in and funded the remainder of my frame as my birthday gift, Thank You!!

I ended up going with a 2012 9zero7, Fatbikes.com had a great price on the frame so that was the deciding factor on my selection.  After a few months of buying and selling I had everything I need to start the build.  With the busy spring that I had planned I did not think that I would get the build completed until the late summer, but with all the snow and cold weather I had some spare time and I completed the build in early May.





This showed up at the door one day!





 I pressed in the headset, this is my first complete bike build so I was unsure of how the headset was going to go.  I installed the Salsa fork that I got at the bike swap along with a Raceface stem that I had.





Raceface DH bottom bracket and SLX derailleur installed. 



Installed the handlebars, brakes, brake levers, shifters, cables and housing.  It just needs some wheels and tires now.



I looked around for a good deal on wheels for a long time, in the end I decided to order a wheelset from Fatbikes.com.  Surly Rolling Darryl's with 9zero7 hubs.  I am planning on drilling out the rims at some point this summer.

I looked at my different tire options.  I was unsure of what would be a good all around tire for the riding that I had planned.  I ended up getting a set of On-One Floaters, they are from the UK.  I'm looking forward to getting some miles on these.  The price of the tires shipped was about $128, which for a pair of 120 tpi tires is a great deal.

Everything mounted and ready to go on the bike.

Once the wheels were ready I installed the chain and I was ready to ride.  I think that overall the build went as planned and I would do it again.  The bike ended up weighing about 32lbs, I hope to get it down to about 30lbs after drilling the rims and maybe a few lighter components, until then I'm just going to ride it.

Sunset test ride!

Build Specs.

Frame - 2012 9zero7 170mm medium

Fork - Salsa Enabler

Bottom Bracket - Raceface DH 100mm

Crankset - Raceface Ride Fatbike

Front Derailleur - Shimano SLX e-type

Rear Derailleur - Shimano XT M772

Cassette - Shimano Deore 11-36 10 speed

Chain - Shimano 10 speed

Shifters - Shimano SLX 10 speed

Brakes - Avid BB7 w/160mm rotors

Brake Levers - Avid FR-5

Seatpost - Easton EA30 30.9 X 350mm

Seat - WTB Volt

Handle Bars - Stylo T20 Riser Bar

Stem - Raceface Evolve XC 90mm

Grips - Lizzardskin

Cables - Jagwire Teflon coated

Wheelset - Suryl Rolling Darryls w/ 9zero7 hubs

Tires - On-One Floaters

No Almanzo 100 for me.

So last year I completed my first Almanzo 100, it was a very hot and windy ride.  My time was not what I had hoped for but I did finish so that was a huge for me.  A few days after that race I knew that I wanted to ride in the 2013 race.  I had been training as much as I could this spring and I was feeling OK, with all the rain it was hard to get out and ride.  The week before Almanzo I was on a MTB ride and crashed hard.  I ended up with a separated shoulder.  No Almanzo for me!

Since Troy, Brett and Jose were riding and I already paid for a camp site Kyleen and I headed down to do some cheering and provide some support if needed.  It was a great day to be on the bike, I'll be back next year!

This was the largest starting field for an Almanzo, it is a great race and Chris and the Almanzo crew do an awesome job with getting everything in order.

Troy and Brett getting ready to roll out.

Due to some road work the riders had to do a couple of water crossings.  This was the one outside of Preston.  The second water crossing was too dangerous so the course was rerouted.

The last climb of the race, Kyleen and I stood at the top and cheered the riders on.  Troy, Brett and Jose all finished and it was a great day for riding!