Too cool for gloves and other miscellany

I understand and often embrace the benefits of riding bikes without gloves on.  It's easier to operate the shifters and brakes and the bars feel less mushy and disconnected.  It feels better in hot weather.  It seems to have started a couple seasons ago when some of the top US CX pros popularized it, although BMXers have been doing it for a long time.

It seems the fad is catching on, especially with the road pros.  Add it to the list of the essential Pro look.  But when it's cold enough to need a jacket, leg warmers and a neck gator, it's cold enough to wear gloves.  Silly roadies. 

from cyclingnews.com

I think once people start crashing on the road with no gloves on, the fad will fade a bit.  Although I predicted the Oakley Jawbone fad would also fade, but much to my chagrin it hasn't.  They are still among the ugliest and least practical sunglasses in cycling.  Just watch how many Oakley-sponsored pros start with the ever fashionable Jawbones, then mysteriously switch to the classic Radars soon after (J-Pow for example).  Whose idea was it to put the frames under the eyes?  The whole point of cycling sunglasses is to not have that.

As much as I dislike Jawbones, the sunglasses Saxo Bank and Lampre wear are certainly uglier. They are flipping huge. Don't get me started on the Specialized helmets, which have been ugly since they introduced them in like 2002 and left them unchanged since.  To be fair, if it's not a top-end Bell, Giro or Lazer I tend to think it's ugly.  Exception to that is the Giro Prolight.  Ugliest helmet ever, and it cost $200.  It occurs to me that Contador is always stuck with ugly helmets:   

from cyclingnews.com

Also, that new Team Type 1 kit above is the ugliest I've seen since the Footon-Servetto days. Skin-colored Lycra again?  It's just wrong.  If the UCI is going to do their usual over-regulation, they should regulate the use of that color.

Enough bike fashion policing.  In other news, I've decided to ride my road bike more this year, relative to last year's volume anyway.  In years past I did more of it and it seems to help.  Otherwise I wouldn't do it. 

To pique my interest in riding the road bike, I've ditched the SHAM Force/Rival and have made the reverse leap to Shimano Ultegra Di2.  I have ridden a lot of different groups and completely adopted SRAM drivetrains for a while.  But I went back to Shimano on the MTBs and am thrilled with it.  So, after SRAM did their completely lame and beyond-annoying Twitter mass-marketing of the "new" (but barely any different) 2013 Red details, I jumped ship completely and embraced the awesomeness that is Shimano (for the record, I still really like Rock Shox forks, but we can turn the other way and think of them as a separate company for convenience).

I have the Ultegra Di2 set up and really like it.  It's heavy but the shifting is great.  You can use any gear combo you want since the front derailleur moves with the rear automatically.  Plus it never needs to be adjusted.  While it will be nice on the road bike, it's going to be downright amazing on the CX bike.  If Shimano comes out with XTR Di2 my mind will be blown, and I will go bankrupt. 



   

Cold Bear Challenge #2

The second round of the winter MTB series at Hillside Park was today.  Conditions were similar to the last round two weeks ago, with the addition of about 1-2" of fluffy powder.  The ice that claimed me a couple times last race was still there, but more had shown up in other parts of the course too. As an added bonus it was all hidden under the snow, which didn't adhere to the ice at all.

The official pre-race conditions report from the organizers said "studs not necessary if you are a skilled rider," which I interpret to mean "studs are necessary if you want to corner with any confidence and stay attached to your bike the entire time."  I'm gaining proficiency in intrepreting race organizer conditions reports.  My all-time favorite was when the organizers of the infamous and apocalyptic mud-fest at Mt. Du Lac in 2010 said the trail was "tacky."  I had personally pre-rode the course when he reported that and it was basically like riding down a small and rapidly flowing creek with a clay bottom.  But I digress.

I rigged up the 9zero7 fat bike with 29er wheels and homemade studded tires, which offer Velcro-like traction on pretty much any surface.  It's uncanny how you can stand up and crank up hills without slipping.  People tend to shy away from studs unless they are going to be riding glare ice, but I like them even if it's not totally icy.  It's nice to not be tentative going into corners.  The disadvantage is the "rolling resistance" of studded tires.  The self-tapping screws that are the studs sink deep into the snow or dirt, and it's tough to make the wheels turn with that much bite.  It's noticeable, but after last week's debacle I didn't want to bang my knees off the ground anymore.

The race went okay.  My sole criteria for that assessment is that I didn't fall down.  I started too hard, which is typical when my brain thinks like it's summer but my legs quickly find out it's not.  These races are not for killing myself trying to get a result, so after feeling like barfing after the first 15 minutes I settled into a pace that was more reasonable.  Obviously racing is more fun when I have fitness, but it doesn't make any sense for me to be in shape now, so racing at this time of year takes more effort.  That's the irony of sport: it's more fun when you put in more time, but if you put in too much time it's not fun anymore. It just takes measured expectations and a temporarily lax attitude. Fortunately I can do both with ease!      

Crashing the Cold Bear Challenge

Since the CX season ended, I've been following the advice of Sam Elliott's character in the Big Lebowski and taking 'er easy dude.  I took 1-2 weeks completely off, but I'm not one to take months off from doing anything so I've been working out when I feel like it, and riding the bike outside in the amazing weather we've had this winter. Seems like every weekend I've been able to get out on the mountain bike and/or dirt jumping bike. 

Basically I ride or work out when it sounds like a fun thing to do, not because I have to or should. You could say that's true all year 'round for me, though.  It's never a chore, it's part of my life.  I haven't had any races to train for but I still enjoy the feeling of being tired out.

Today's Cold Bear Challenge winter mountain bike at Hillside Park was my first race of 2012.  We are fortunate this year to have 3 series of winter MTB races in the Twin Cities: Hillside, Murphy Hanrehan, and Carver Lake.  It's great because by the time the summer racing season starts, I'll have some good racing in without having to resort to road, crits, TT's or similar unappealing activities.  Obviously one doesn't want to be burnt out by March, but these races are fun and keep the skills sharp without getting repetitive.  The conditions can change from day to day or even lap to lap, so they are always interesting.

Today's race was mostly on dirt, with some packed snow and unfortunately for me, some small ice sections.  The temp was an unbelievable 40°+, feeling downright hot in the sunny start/finish area.  I love racing in the winter.  The air is so clean and fresh and dry, no bugs, the woods are open and not full of undesirable plants, and the aforementioned unpredictable course conditions are fun to ride in.

After some deliberation about which bike to ride, fat or skinny, I went with skinny.  Although I have a shiny black 9zero7 fat bike that is pretty cool, if it's not really snowy there's no reason to ride the thing.  So I rode the hardtail, which I had originally put away for the winter sometime around Thanksgiving but had taken back out when it was clear that winter was delaying its arrival.  The hardtail is not the ideal choice for the rough and rugged Hillside but the full suspension bike(s) are not in working order currently.

I entered the 2 lap race for skinny tires, where we had 13 entries.  Most people that were doing 2 laps entered the fat bike class, apparently trying to get as much use out of their expensive, purpose-built steeds as possible.  The race started fine, although at this time of year I wouldn't care if it didn't.  I was just riding faster than normal with about 80 other people at the same trail at the same time.  I finished the first lap without issue, somewhere around 47 minutes and in the top 5 in my class, although I could see a couple guys pretty close in front of me.

My warm up was not very hard so the first lap was kind of my warm up.  I decided to up the pace and try to race hard for the second lap. This aspiration ended abruptly.

I came around a corner a little too hot.  There happened to be someone at that very corner filming the race on video camera.  I may have been hot dogging for camera, and stuffed my front wheel into the end of a log.  I flew at least 6 feet down the trail in a superman impersonation.  I actually had to walk back up the trail to get to my bike.  It was one of those crashes that is embarrassing at first but later seems pretty funny.  It didn't cause any harm to myself or bike and it sort of gets the crashing out the way.  But not today. 

Shortly after, I came to the twisty downhill limestone stair case. Normally it isn't a problem other than being bumpy.  As I came toward the stairs I heard a guy saying "Corner is slippery."  The problem with this is that he was far away.  I barely heard him say it, and was wondering which corner he was referring to.  There are plenty of corners in any one spot at Hillside. Then I saw him at the next corner so I assumed he was talking about the corner he was standing at.  Bad assumption apparently.  As I came almost the end of the curve in the stairs the front tire came out from under me and down I went.  Luckily I was moving forward at decent speed so my knees hit the limestone with forward momentum and came away with some scrapes and soreness but nothing more.  

It took about 20 minutes of pedaling for my knees to stop hurting but at least they eventually settled down.  Feeling my luck had run out, I was more cautious the rest of the race. Normally I'm good at not crashing if nothing else, but sometimes feel that's simply a consequence of going slow.  So it's good to crash now and again to show that boundaries are being approached.  Usually it's preferable to do it somewhere other than on top of limestone slabs though.

I managed to catch the people who passed me while I was on the ground or pulling my bike out of the brush.  I finished in 5th place. Really it was just fun to race the bike again.  It's only been about 6 weeks since the last CX race, but that's plenty.

I'm really looking forward to this season and it's great to get things started.