.:: DonnieNix.net ::.

Crappy weather has kept me off the bike for over a week. I’m going today for a lap at Blankets. Hopefully, I won’t have lost too much…

Casey and I swapped my pedals for his yesterday to see if my crappy Shimano pedals were the source of a popping and creaking. They are. Now I need to get some new pedals. Sealed bearing pedals are on my list now. I’m thinking some Crank Bros Candys…

I taught Josh to play the rhythm part of Wish You Were Here last week and I played the lead solo. It was pretty neat. He just started playing guitar a few weeks ago.

With gas prices going down, I’m thinking about a bike trip to North Carolina. And if they continue to go down, I’m thinking a Moab trip in April. Oh yeah.

Wow, this trail is tough with a capital T. It’s 3+ miles of torture. You start out with a brisk little climb that goes through several switchbacks and works it way up the hill. You have a few respites, as the trail teases you with a glimpse of some downhill runs and a few roller-coaster stretches, but mostly it is an uphill struggle. There aren’t any rocks or roots to climb over and for the most part the trail is buttery smooth, but it’s steep. I was passed by a lot of people that weren’t hardly breathing hard, and then again I passed a few guys that looked like they were having heart attacks. I was somewhere between there.

I have to say that I paused only about 4 times. The climbs seemed to go on forever, even though the trail is relatively short when compared to Yargo or Chicopee. So I found myself struggling in granny gear up this hills and then having to take a break to get my heart rate back under the alarm limit. Going the Wednesday direction, you take about 80% of the switchbacks uphill, so I managed to ride almost all of them. There’s a few downhill switchbacks that, if you blow the turn, you’ll end up having to climb back up a 100 ft embankment, or wait for the paramedics to find you. I skipped only two switchbacks because I was so whipped I could hardly see straight and I didn’t feel like having to explain another riding injury to the wife.

It’s indeed a HARD trial, but the downhills are a friggin HOOT. Think Greens Lick at Pisgah on a slightly smaller scale. I need to get back in better shape though so that I can say that the climbs are worth the payoff, because the way I am now, the climbs aren’t worth it. I’m not saying that I’m not going to ride this trail; in fact, I am going to ride it again this afternoon. I think I’ll take the camera this time though. That will at least give me an excuse to pull over and catch my breath.

Here’s a SORBA post from a pretty good photographer that shows some of the trail features. It’s a great trail and I’m looking forward to riding it again…regardless of what I said before.

I got a Thomson Elite Setback seatpost a few weeks ago. It has helped me get a little further back over the rear tire on descents, which was a problem for me with the short cockpit on the heckler and my short legs. I still feel like I am way overbalanced (center of gravity is too high because I’m a fatass), but this helps. It’s also made the whole bike a lot more comfortable. My hands don’t start hurting as fast as they used to, and I feel more in control. It has also helped with knee pain. The best $70 I have spent on this bike if you ask me.

Also, with my recent health issues, I bought a real nice Polar F11 heart rate monitor.
It has a feature to set up your exercise routine and keeps track of all your training and heart-related data. Plus it’s a pretty nifty sports watch too.

I’m riding the Van Michael trail at Blankets Creek this evening. It’ll be only the third time on this trail for me. It’s tough, but only because of the climbing and the sharp switchbacks. The climbs are steep but the descents are really nice. The switchbacks on the Monday direction go mostly uphill, so hopefully I won’t damage myself. It doesn’t have the technical features that the South Loop has but it is just as hard because you spend way more time climbing. And heck,if I can’t ride it, I’ll walk it. My ego is not so huge that I have to prove that I can ride every feature. I didn’t take my Garmin up there the first two times I rode it, so I’m interested in seeing what the real elevation profile looks like. I’ll take some photos tonight and post this stuff as soon as I can.

Been riding this week. Trying to regain the passion. I’ve had two decent rides this week. Sorba Woodstock finished the new Van Michael Trail at Blankets. It’s an advanced trail, so I am avoiding it until July. I think we all know why. The new reroutes on the Mosquito Bite trail are really nice.

I’m ordering a new guitar tomorrow. Either an Ibanez GAX70 or an Agile AL-2000 Les Paul copy. See the picture in the post below for the Ibanez. Whichever I get, it will be a nice upgrade and should hold me over for a while, at least until I can afford a new Gibson ES335 Alex Lifeson Signature model for $3000. I played the Ibanez at Guitar Center yesterday and it had good action, a nice tone and felt really comfortable. The Agile gets rave reviews online though and is a very credible Les Paul copy. Decisions, descisions…

Me and Jake saw The Incredible Hulk yesterday. Huge huge improvement over the first Hulk movie. This Hulk was much more badass and not quite as emo. The fight scenes were great.

I’m looking forward to:

1. Vacation in Savannah over the July 4th holiday.
2. Rush at the Alpharetta Amphitheater July 22. Last show on their Snakes and Arrows tour. Oh hell yeah.
3. Getting my Digitech RP50 multi-effects processor delivered. I won this in an eBay auction. Basically, it will let me sound like David Gilmour, the Edge, or Billy Duffy even though I can’t play like them.
4. Riding Dupont in July

I got up Sunday morning at about 6:30 and dressed quietly in the closet. Grabbing my wallet, phone and keys, I slipped out the door a few minutes later. I loaded up the bike, stashed my Rubbermaid carton containing my helmet, shoes and bike gear in the hatch and headed out to Blankets Creek for an early ride. I didn’t really check the sky until I was on the road. I knew it was supposed to rain, but wasn’t sure when it was hitting. The sky looked fine for now, so I didn’t worry too much and quickly put it all out of my mind.

I started my first lap on the South Loop and rode pretty quickly. I felt strong so I cranked up the intensity. About midway through the lap I noticed that it had gotten pretty dark. I was wearing amber lenses so I think that was why I didn’t notice the abrupt change in the weather.

I stopped for a second and listened, and I heard a rumble of thunder way off in the distance. Eh, I still have time. I stowed my glasses and took off, thinking to myself that I still need to hammer this out and finish as quickly as possible in case the storm rolled in quicker than expected.

I completed the lap feeling very strong so I contemplated a lap of the Dwelling Loop. I can normally churn out a lap on this trail in a little over 20 minutes so I figured the storm was at least 30 minutes away, since I had not heard any thunder since I was on the South Loop.

I started down the trail, made a few climbs and assumed I was fully committed and then I saw the light just completely disappear . It looked like dusk and I thought to myself, “oh crap, I made a mistake here.”

Just as those thoughts formed in my head, a huge boom shook the trees and caused a few squirrels to scramble through the leaves. The storm was here, and it was closing on my position like a Navy warship hunting an Iranian gunboat.

I knew the trail had a few ATV cut-throughs (illegal, but still there) and so I pedaled a few hundred yards to the first ATV trail I came to. I lifted my bike over the logs blocking the trail and started down the hill. I didn’t ride because the ‘trail’ was pretty steep and covered with debris and leaves. I didn’t want to hit a rock and take a header. It only took about 5 minutes and then I was back on the trail. I made the last two climbs and then raced back to trail junction. I didn’t pause there, but shifted to a smaller cog and stood on the pedals. the storm was close. I could smell the rain in the air and feel the cool breeze kicking up.

I felt a drop and waited for the deluge but it didn’t come. Not yet. I made it back to the car, racked the bike, and then it came. Big, fat, heavy raindrops that smacked against my head and shoulders. In a matter of seconds, the time it took me to kick off my shoes, put on my sandles and stumble to the driver’s side door, I was drenched. I rolled out of the parking lot and headed home.

A mile down the rode, the rain stopped. It didn’t rain on me anymore on the way home. I got home and looked at the weather and saw the funniest thing.

The storm was tracking on a distinct path that would have taken it north of Blankets Creek. The time stamp on the radar images showed 5am, 5:30am, 6am, etc…When it got to 7am (the time I arrived at Blankets), you can see a definite off-shoot of the storm begin to dip down towards Holly Springs and Sixes Road (where BC is). As the images tick by, the little “appendage” of the storm cell turns red right on top of Blankets Creek.

Mother Nature is out to get me.

Well, after my little accident in the leaves at Dauset, I replaced my rear dérailleur with a new Shimano XT Shadow dérailleur and it worked great for a while.

I was at Blankets Creek one day in early Feb and broke my chain going up the first big hill on the South Loop. I repaired it and finished the ride, but while I was riding the next day it broke again.

I ordered a new chain and a new cassette and it took almost 2 weeks to get it! I don’t know why it was so slow coming from JensenUSA. Usually they are much quicker shipping things. Anyway, I got the chain and cassette installed and took it for a test ride around my neighborhood. Something was wrong.

The rear dérailleur was kind of jumping around and chattering. The chain wasn’t slipping on the cogs, but it was acting real funky. I took the bike to Outspokin Bikes and had it checked out. After about 30 minutes of messing with the bike, the wrench came to the conclusion that the rear hanger was bent. He hooked up some tool to it and showed me that it was bent in a few millimeters which was throwing everything off.

Okay, fine. I ordered a new hanger from Santa Cruz and it got here about 8 days later.

I put the hanger on, and it didn’t fix the problem. Alright, must be the dérailleur. I figured that when the chain broke, it must have done something to the dérailleur. I pulled it off and sent it back to Performance Bike for an exchange.

About 10 days later, I had a new dérailleur. I put it on, and took it back to Outspokin for adjustments. $10 later, I took it for a test spin around the parking lot. No change….it still chattered and jumped!!!

Well, I wasn’t going to take it back to Outspokin. I think that everything they did was wrong, and cost me more money than I needed to spend. I figured I’d try and figure it out on my own or take it someplace else.

After I got home I started messing around with the adjustments but couldn’t get anywhere. One thing that hit me like a bolt of lightning: I had not tried it on the small chainring. As soon as I shifted, the problem went away.

So…I come to the conclusion that my crankset is the culprit, specifically the 32T chainring. So, no I am waiting for the 32T chainring to arrive from Performance. Hopefully this will fix the problem and I can stop worrying about it.

I’ve been trying to ride the SS, but with the weather and other things, I haven’t been able to get out much. Plus, my level of fitness has fallen way off so riding the SS is really really hard right now. It’s been probably 1.5 months since I’ve ridden, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there.

I was riding out at Dauset Nature Trails Saturday. I came around a curve, dodged by a tree, and accidently swerved off the trail about a foot.

I didn’t see the 2 foot deep hole, filled with leaves, that my front wheel was headed towards. It was a friggin’ pit filled to the brim with leaves, so it looked like the ground surrounding it.

My tired dropped down into the hole, the bike stopped, and I started over the bars. It seemed to be happening in slow motion, so I calmly unclipped, stepped down, let the bike continue coming over and stepped over the handlebars when they got low enough. The seat popped me in the back a little, but no damage was done. Or so I thought.

As we rode on, I noticed that my shifting was getting a little clunky. Well, the bike DID fall over on that side, so maybe the derailleur got smacked. Perfect!

Sunday morning I noticed a bruise on my knee, and I figure that I must have hit the handlebars as I was stepping out of the wreck. Ah well.

I had a good ride Saturday other than this. I didn’t get hurt at least, but I think I will have to start looking for a new derailleur.

I guess this is one of the dangers of Fall riding in Georgia. There are so many leaves on the ground that obstacles are easily hidden.

I went for a ride this morning. It was about 38 degrees.

I have a good bit of decent cold-weather gear. I bought a baselayer shirt yesterday that’s made of the thin material that let’s moisture out but keeps warmth inside. It worked pretty well. I was impressed. I also have Pearl Izumi leg warmers and Sugoi arm warmers that are made of lycra and fleece. Those things work very well. I wore two Dri-Fit shirts and a bike-specific wind breaker and my torso was nice and warm. No problems there.

Oops, one problem is that there’s about a two-inch gap between my socks and the leg warmers. So that part of my legs froze.

I have a Nike/Trek balaclava (full head cover with a slot for your eyes) that is made of a thin dri-fit materia, but it kept my head fairly warm. The only problem is that when you breath through the material, some of your breathing is routed up out of the slot and across your sunglasses, which fogs them up. So you can either ride without sunglasses, or stop breathing. I think I chose correctly.

My feet froze. My bike shoes have on the top part of your foot, so wind just blows right in. I have some Pearl Izumi shoe covers. I’ll wear them next time.

My hands froze. I wore my Fox full finger gloves, but those are made for warmer weather and let a lot of air through to your fingers. I need some good cold-weather gloves.

I had a decent ride. After I got warmed up, I didn’t notice my cold fingers or feet anymore, but noticed how bulky the arm warmers and jacket were together. I need to do something different with the jacket. Maybe get a better one.

So I need a good moisture-wicking fleece-y jacket that is warm and flexible; I need leg warmers that go all the way down to the shoes; I need some ant-fog stuff for my sunglasses. That’s pretty much it. I’d like to ditch the windbreaker for normal rides because the sweat goes through the dri-fit stuff and just stops at the inside of the jacket. When I take the jacket off, the inside is soaked.

Well, enough of this palaver…..

Me and Creamsicle (I named my bike Creamsicle because it’s the same shade of orange…yeah, I know) drove up to Waleska to check out the newest trails in Cherokee County. I wasn’t expecting much but was still disappointed. I guess I should have taken it as a bad omen when I pulled up to the trailhead, and there were NO cars at all. On a Sunday where there is not a cloud in the sky and 75 degrees, you’d think every trail would be covered with humans. I drove by Blankets Creek before coming up here and there was no parking at all. That’s why I decided to check out these trails. I figured that I’d be bouncing off of people all around BC, so why not go ahead and take the opportunity to try the new trail.

When I first got there, I thought, cool, I’ll be the only one out there, that’ll be neat. Ha. Boy, did I read the signs wrong.

First of all you start off on a steep as hell gravel road that takes you to some really crappy jeep road. This is the trail. Ninety percent jeep road. There’s a few trails running off the jeep road that wind around and connect back up with it. These are labeled as advanced trails. I would have to say that whoever designed and laid out these trails were not mountain bikers. None of the trails have any flow whatsoever and some of the zig-zags are so tight, you can’t maneuver a bike through them without hooking a tree. One section had a 3 ft deep dip right after a blind curve, that followed two consective ultra-tight turns, so by the time you hit the dip, your speed was killed so much that you could not roll it.

One other section had a steep uphill, rolling into a 90 degree switchback with a log laid across the apex of the turn. I tried this twice and both times got hung on the log because the steep climb up to it and then the sharp turn wouldn’t allow me to have any speed to pop over the log. It was totally out of place.

I feel bad about trashing the trails around here, because I know the people who worked them tried, but man did they miss out. It’s a pretty big expanse of forest that they had to work with, and instead of winding the trail through the woods and making the most of the space, a’la Big Creek, Chicopee, and Blankets, they made all the little connector trails a “shortest line between point A and point B” type of design. Instead of making 6 nice switchbacks going down that hill, they made one steep, narrow, brake-burning, slide down the hill.

They could have jammed 6 or 7 miles of trails in there, instead, it’s only about 3 miles of tedious up and down. For a mountain bike trail, it makes a great running trail.

One of the cool things about mountain biking is getting out where you are by yourself and seeing things you can’t see while cruising past in a car at 60mph.

Yesterday, out at  Blankets Creek, I was on the backside of the trail near the lake and heard a bunch of stomping in the leaves on both sides of me. I figured it was deer because they are all over the place out there of late. I took a quick glance around and noticed a rather large doe standing right beside the trail about 30 feet ahead.

I slowed down to a crawl and coasted up to the deer and stopped right in front of her, about 2 feet away. She didn’t move, just stared at me.

I stood as still as I could, so that she wouldn’t bolt, and we looked at each other without moving for about 3 minutes.

She was a pretty animal and I didn’t want to spook her, but it was inevitible. I moved a little, just shifting my weight, and she bolted down the hill.

I continued on down the trail, a little lighter in spirit.