The Pinnacle

I don't race much, but when I do it's typically longer stuff, 24 Hours of Great Glen, Hampshire 100, 12 Hours of Bradbury Mountain, etc. This past Sunday I tried something a bit shorter, one of the Eastern Fat Tire Association's New England Championship Series races: The Pinnacle XII (#4 on this year's calendar).

The race was held in scenic Newport NH, a town I'm familiar with mostly from my motorcycling days as it lies in the western part of the state which is short on traffic and police and long on twisty roads.

The sport class raced three laps for a total of 13.6 miles (per my Garmin Forerunner). The course was listed at 16 miles for sport, but apparently some adjustments were made from last year. Weather was off-the-charts perfect. Dry, sunny, breezy, and warm but not hot; a perfect day in the mountains.

The Sport Class Course

Among my regular crew of riders there were two others competing: My 24 Hours of Great Glen teammate Curt and first-time MTB racer Jeff. Jeff deserves credit for showing up since he's still saddled with a toy bike with those adorable little 26" wheels. (To his credit he has a Ti 29er on order). "Big" Chris showed up to provide support with his lawn chair and umbrella, and sadly also with his plaster cast encasing his repaired foot. Pretty sure he would have given those young guys in the Clydesdale class some competition had he been riding.

I had no idea what the course was like, particularly how much climbing there was. Curt had gathered a little info and was under the impression that there was a good deal of up right away. Since that was all I had to go on I figured I'd take it easy out of the gate.

That Sport and Novice riders started in waves at 9:30 on a grassy field at the Newport High School. The climbing started at about 9:31.

It's either up or down on this course: 1905' of climbing

The climb while not crippling steep, was almost all single track and fairly technical in few spots. Nothing you'd worry about during a fun ride, but when packed with over-eager racers and your blood is pumping it made for a few interesting moments as the rider at the head of the line spun out or tumbled and everyone behind came to a screeching halt. I made a few passes on the way up, but lost almost all I gained when the rider in front of me crashed and laid his bike out across the trail causing me to dismount. I figured discretion was the better part of valor at this point and just focused on getting to the top without any more incidents, though my caution meant just about everyone in the Vet II class passed me.

I was feeling I might have brought a bit too much bike with my Niner RIP 9, but those thoughts evaporated when the course turned down. The descent was almost all single track and featured numerous monstrous berms (monstrous for a XC race anyhow). I've never seen so many crashes in a race before. One rider flew off the top of a berm and into the trees (and I assume onto the rocks supporting the berm). Several overcooked the numerous tight turns and laid it down. A few pivoted violently around their front axles and drilled themselves into the dirt.

The descent ended with a plunge down a gravel slope onto a grass field. Sadly I can't find a decent picture of it, but the terror of it is clear in my mind's eye. Well maybe "terror" is an exaggeration, but you really wanted to be sure you were lined up straight when you hit it, because mid-course corrections on the way down were likely to result in a DNF.

The second and third laps were extended versions of the first (5 miles vs. 3.6 miles). At the start of the second lap the racers were thinned out so I started chasing down everybody I'd let by before. My legs felt good so I upped the pace a little bit and was soon passing quite a few folks (well maybe my pace stayed the same and they were wilting...same thing really). Most passing had to be done on the climbs, the downhills were just too fast and tight to squeeze by all but the slowest racers. Didn't matter much as I was more concerned with staying upright on the descents.

The remainder of the race was pretty uneventful until the very end. On the final descent I was in the 3 spot of a tightly packed group of 4 riders. I recognized one of them from the start of my class, so I had it in mind to pass him at the finish. The guy behind me wanted to pass, but we were flying along and that simply wasn't in the cards. I cursed myself for not climbing harder since I was constantly braking more than I wanted as the two in front of me slowed for corners. I'm no downhill guru, but a RIP 9 with 2.2" Nevegals can carry a lot of speed compared to the typical hardtail XC race bike. Didn't matter though because there was no way I was going to squeeze by. Then it really didn't matter as we crossed the last bridge and my back wheel clipped a root hard, kicking my back wheel into the air. I road a brief nose wheelie across the bridge before riding right off it. The guy behind me got his wish and passed, though he did ask if I was alright. The bike and I were unscathed from the crash, we landed upright and my pride was the most serious injury. I confess to being a bit irate and hauled myself out of the ditch and threw caution to the wind in an effort to catch back up. My bike was all over the place but I managed to catch them right was we came out onto the final stretch of double track and the clearing at the top of the final plunge. I was in an ok spot to make a move, but futzed the line on the plunge: Thinking I could go right and pass them on down slope, instead I found soft sand and lost speed and all three finished ahead of me.

Oh well, I can't care too much, caring too much about your mid-pack finishing order means you are either racing elite class or you need to relax.

The Overall Sport Class Men's Results (6 DNFs)

While I was mildly disappointed with my finish, Curt did very well, finishing first in his class and 5th overall. Jeff did well too, finishing with a comfortable lead in the Novice Vet II class.

* This first place puzzles me. This racer finished the 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd in the first three NECS races...in the Novice class. Suddenly he's putting 15 minutes on the next closest sport racer, over a 13.6 mile course?! Bad data? Sandbagger? Most improved rider ever? Anybody know the deal?

Calling Tech Support

People often ask how I like working at home or skip the question and go right on to expressing their envy. All-in-all it's quite nice and certainly any pro/con analysis is heavily weighted to the pro side of the ledger. One of the few drawbacks is that you are your own tech support. Most of the time this isn't a big deal: install some software, setup a simple home network, update your OS.

Today though was one of those days where it all went to $#!t...

Keeping my Cisco Linksys E3000 from cooking itself

XTerra Upgrade

I've kept my 2008 Nissan XTerra Off Road pretty much stock. It's as capable off-road as I'll ever need so I've never been tempted by the long list of dirt toys like those from ShrockWorks (though I'd be lying if I said a winch bumper hasn't tempted me; there's been many a time I would have liked to have one).

I also got my truck with pretty much every factory installed option. The Rockford Fosgate head unit, amp, speakers, and sub, while not perfect, is good enough that I was never tempted to upgrade anything. iPod integration is so cumbersome as to be pointless without a passenger to do it, but at least it's there (and addressing that would require a new head unit).

The one thing that has bugged me though is the lack of a factory installed nav unit. I'm quite happy with my little Garmin Nuvi 260w, but I'm not found of the ugly window mount and the power cord with constantly gets tangled and obscures the head unit. I am also paranoid about leaving it in the cradle while I leave the truck; it's a tempting smash-and-grab item.

Now you see me.

Now you don't.

While researching new nav head units I discovered that Nissan offers a dealer installed GPS housing. It's nothing very fancy, just a flip-up clam shell holder for a Garmin 7xx series. The nice part is that it's (obviously) a lot cheaper than something like this. And given my disinclination to mess with the rest of the system, it was a no-brainer. Finding the old style model (for the 2005-2008 dash) proved quite difficult though. I finally found one at mynismo.com.

Installation took about 1 hour, though it would take significantly less if you already know your way under the dash. The wiring harness included a tap for the head unit's power wire, which was nice, but the tap itself is very fragile and dropping it into the bowels of the dash is a real possibility.

My old Nuvi doesn't work with the cradle so I needed to pick up a new Nuvi 765T. Haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, but I applaud Garmin for not changing the UI too much simply to give the appearance of improvement.

The only real problem in the install was that when I disconnected the battery, the VDC system "resets" (i.e. is disabled). The reset procedure is to simply drive straight for a while over 10 m.p.h., but so far that hasn't worked. I have to give Nissan an F on that one, a vehicle like this desperately needs stability control, and making the reset procedure require driving seems an odd choice.

Basketball Jones[1]

Uh-oh

About five or six years ago I hung up my sneakers for good.

Or so I thought.

I had "retired" once before, after a crushing elbow to the face in the late 90's. It was the wise choice I thought. My left ankle was, and continues to be, a non-flexible mass of bone chips, scar tissue, duct tape, and gravel. My fingers had been jammed and hyper-extended more times than I could remember. It was time to be an adult, time to pursue adult sports like tennis and golf.

During that first hiatus I already considered myself primarily a mountain biker, runner, and skier. Individual, outdoor sports. They were better suited to my stengths. Hoops? I had long arms. That was the complete list of my roundball assets. I lacked explosive speed, my hands are on the left side of the dwarf->Rondo continuum, and the days of getting up to the rim were gone by the time I was 25.

My jumper sucked; I was a 6' 175 lb. guy who played in the post and never met a drive he didn't like. But after getting hammered for too long in the paint I decided it was time to quit.

Retirement #1 didn't stick of course. Once I moved to NH and was in grad school I started up again. It was basically free entertainment, an important consideration for a grad student. I hadn't quit mountain biking, but was only a casual participant, my first real racing was a couple of years off. The trail running bug hadn't bit. It was good exercise.

But the teens and 20-somethings at the playground were getting so much faster and stronger (though I realize now, of course, that I was getting slower and weaker). The injuries took even longer to heal.

Why go on with a young man's game?

So I hung em up once again. Stopped checking the weather to see if it was raining at the playground, stopped working on that spin and lefty scoop shot move, stopped nursing a laundry list of nagging injuries. It was hard to let go, but I didn't t want to be that creepy old guy at the gym with googles and white socks.

So when the Bride recently brought me news of an old-guy's game in a nearby town, I should have said, "Interesting, but those days are behind me." Instead the UPS man brought me a new ankle brace and some shiny new kicks today. It might be a bad idea, but time to see if anything is left in the tank.

[1] For you youngsters, but be warned it's from 1974 and isn't very PC.

365 Songs: №. 22

365 Songs lives!

Barely.

It's more undead than actually alive. I'm changing the tagline from "Day X" to "№ X" because obviously I've failed miserably at providing a daily entry.

Anyhow, I do have enough time for song 22. After a less-then-stellar day at work I was wallowing in a bit of self-pity. I came upstairs in a foul mood. Then I remembered what time of year it is and broke out Capitol Record's 2004 compilation "Christmas Classics". I went right for track 2, Dean Martin's perfect 1959 version of Frank Loesser's "Baby It's Cold Outside":



Now that improved my mood considerably! Time to listen to the rest of it.

Thanks

The KRA auction was a great success last night. There are a lot of people to thank, but this note is to our friends who are not part of the organization:

First a very special thanks to two who went above and beyond: Bruce Cobb, our auctioneer and Paul Vaillancourt, our DJ and MC for the raffle. Without these pros at the microphone this event doesn't get pulled off, plain and simple.

Josée Dupont, who not only donated to the auction but bid up a storm. She showed how it's done at a charity auction -- it's not about finding a deal, it's about supporting a cause, and it's about making bids, not sitting on your hands.

Who are you going to call when you want a reliable and enthusiastic attendee to your event? Kelly Giard, that's who. She's the kind of person a bystander on the street sees going into an event and thinks, "Hey, where is she going? It looks like it might be fun".

What do you call a person who secured passage from Spain this week, without a passport or any money, after getting robbed, while on vacation, just so she could attend this event? You call that person a friend of the highest quality or Francesca LaSala Cobb.

Kevin and Stephanie Hirnak, where to start with these two? Whether paying the optional $50 donor ticket price or throwing around some of the biggest bids of the night, they just plain got it done.

Pat Terry for securing a Crotched Mountain season pass for the live auction. That's the kind of item that generates bids.

Matt Waitkins and Tracey Bowman, whose schedule didn't permit them to attend, but made sure the check really was in the mail.

To paraphrase Harry Bailey, we feel like the richest folks in town.

Moving Pictures

While I've owned a high definition camcorder for a long time I've never used it much. Too fragile for first person use while skiing or mountain biking. I recently acquired a GoPro HD Hero helmet camera. Now this is more like it. Tiny and robust. Cheap enough that in the unlikely event I completely destroy it, I'll only cry for 20 minutes.

Still getting my feet wet with the camera's features and taking the tiniest of baby steps with editing, but I'm having fun.

FOMBA Hemlock Loop Trail from pburba on Vimeo.

This was my first video, it's too long and consists of only one scene. Only singletrack junkies are likely to find it enjoyable. Critical lessons learned:

• The seatpost is the place to mount the camera for smooth video, especially if you stay seated.

• The strap-on helmet mount produced nothing by jiggly footage that will have you reaching for the Dramamine.

Bear Brook from pburba on Vimeo.

This is my second video. Actually have several different scenes and it is slightly less boring. Switched from Adobe Premier Elements to TrakAxPC Pro, which is half the cost and twice as good.

Project 29er: Latest Tweaks

Latest refinements before taking a Friday afternoon ride at FOMBA.

As with any new bike, it's not long before the upgrades start. Now I know what you are thinking, "Uh, but wasn't your latest bike a no expense spared money pit?" Well, yes and no. It was a money pit, but "no expense spared?" To borrow a phrase from Han Solo, I can imagine quite a bit*, but I didn't spend that much.

First on the agenda were new pedals. I cursed myself a few months back when I said my old Shimano 959s would last forever. On my second ride the left one started spinning like it was full of rocks (a rebuild not helping) and the other wouldn't release in anything approaching a predictable manner. I decided to take a chance on a set of XPedo's Ti-spindled M-Force pedals. They work with standard Shimano cleats, are feathery light at 230g, and even at my heaviest I easily clear the 185 lb. rider weight limit.

I'm still getting familiar with the slightly different entry, though this probably has as much to do with a recent cleat position change. As far as release goes they are great. I am using them with Shimano's SM-SH56 mutli-release cleat and when I want out I'm out. Can't ask for much more.


The second tweak was a a straight seatpost. The old Thomson layback model I had shimmed in and the old RaceFace XY that replaced it both had too much setback. I went with a Thomson Masterpiece, which rivals carbon posts for weight and is unmatched for beauty. I've slowly been moving the seat forward 1mm every couple of rides, trying to find the optimal position; I'm still coming to grips with the fact that this bike actually fits me and I don't need to have the seat slammed back to have enough room.


The last changes were wrought by a branch at Massabesic last Monday which snapped by rear XTR derailleur in half. The stout Niner replaceable hanger didn't budge...Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

I've also had some problems with the chain getting bounced off the middle ring, getting hooked by the big ring and then getting pulled between the gap between the big ring and the chain stay. This is a one-way trip, there is no pulling the chain back by hand, you need to break the chain. Possibly during suspension compression the gap opens enough to let the chain slip by?

At any rate this is my biggest complaint about the RIP9. At first I thought I was engaging in ill-advised shifts, but then it happened while I was JRA in the rough.

The solution for now is a 2x9 setup. I replaced the 44 tooth big ring with a Truvativ Noir carbon rock ring, which fit/looked perfect with the RaceFace cranks. With less chain wrap I went with a medium cage XTR Shadow derailleur. These shadow variants have a much lower profile to trail debris than Shimano's traditional derailleurs. The shorter cage obviously helps too. The obvious problem with all this is the loss of the high gears. Right now I have a 22/32 x 12-24. This is fine for riding Massabesic and anything else technical, but for fireroads, rail trails, and the inevitable tarmac, it is woefully undergeared. Still, single speeders get by without it, so maybe I can too.

If not, then I'm hoping somebody will eventually make a 11-36 9-speed cassette that is friendly to aluminum drive shells (so no thanks SLX HG61). Then I can switch to a 24/36 in front and probably be ok.

Inside Joke

GENERAL MADINE: "We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship, and using a secret Imperial code, a strike team will land on the moon and reimplement merge tracking from scratch."

The assembly begins to mumble among themselves.

THREEPIO: "Sounds dangerous."

LEIA (to Han): "I wonder who they found to pull that off."

GENERAL MADINE: "General Solo, is your merge team assembled?"

Leia, startled, looks up at Han, surprise changing to admiration.

HAN: "Uh, my team's ready. I don't have a command crew for the shuttle."

Chewbacca raises his hairy paw and volunteers. Han looks up at him.

HAN: "Well, it's gonna be rough, pal. I didn't want to speak for you."

Chewie waves that off with a huge GROWL.

365 Songs: Day 21

Disclaimer: I'm lame and not posting every day, so this is going to take more than a year. You get what you pay for.

The Lovely Hope Sandoval.
I don't think she had much trouble getting dates.

I've never been sure what to call Mazzy Star. Wikipedia lists no fewer than 9 genres for them. My favorite is "shoegaze". Why don't we just call them "good"?

Artist: Mazzy Star
Song: Five String Serenade
Album: So Tonight That I Might See (1993)

I could have picked almost any song off this album, I love the whole thing and always listen to it in its entirety. I did resist picking the much better known Fade Into You, which is what passes for a hit for this band, but really you can't go wrong with any of it. It's all just so damn trippy, dreamy, peaceful, etc..