Baby Blue

Sunday's Fair Hill beat down was loaded with great numbers.  Eleven riders, mid-forty temps, 2.5+ hours of riding, 9.5mph average moving speed.  The list goes on.

But the highlight was when Andy busted a seat rail about a mile from the cars and we rode back to get a replacement from Rob's car.  A fetching baby blue one.  Yes he took quite a bit of good-natured abuse in the parking lot.

Now the big question is whether he'll still have that seat next time we ride.

He better!

Chris

"We all get it in the end"
     -- unknown

Detour

Cleared the second step.  This picture
shows about 25% of the skinny.

Seven locals and two "Jersey Girls" (Stephanie and Sheryl) turned out today for a Saturday morning romp around White Clay.

Kirk brought his new Daisy Rocket Sled with big wheels and 42x19 gearing (that is not a typo).  There was some head scratching in the parking lot, but I only saw him throw it over his shoulder once during the entire ride.  Pretty impressive.

Also impressive was the detour we took because of a partial park closure for hunting ("violators will be arrested").  The detour included some impressive new skinnies including one mid-air masterpiece with a gnarly entrance and some serious steps, drops, and gaps along the way.  Tom, Scott, and Steve all took serious runs at it, two of them eventually succeeded to much applause and fist pumping (and expletives which I can't put in this blog).

Chris


“A bicycle does get you there and more And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun.”

     -- unknown

The Terminator

 The Beer Tree at Night

According to Wikipedia, The Terminator is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body.

FHHR has been on the illuminated side of that terminator since last spring.  Thanks to last weekend's switch to standard time, this week's FHHR was on the other side of the terminator.  But it turns out it was not the wrong side.

The Terminator Passes
The Overlook

I arrived at The Overlook a few minutes early.  I thought I might hide and surprise Mike and Mark as they bombed the trail to The Overlook, but then thought better of it (bikes speeding through the woods at night, somebody would get hurt for sure).

Once they arrived, we cracked our beers and enjoyed our first Happy Hour on this side of The Terminator.  The feeling of standing in the woods, at night, drinking beer, conjured some distant memories.

It felt like we were getting away with something.

It felt good.

Chris

"It’s opener, out there, in the wide open air"
     -- Dr Seuss

A Little Bit Frightening

Friday Happy Hour was "a little bit frightening" with Mark leading the charge on his new Karate Monkey single speed.  That "cat was as fast as lightning" and even "had expert timing" ... except for that one spot on The Bonus Loop where it was not so expert.  Not a a reset of the crash counter but definitely honorable mention.

Fortune Cookies and an iPod playing "Kung Foo Fighting" rounded out the christening and festivities for four of us at The Overlook.  And that can of Oskar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA (10%) didn't hurt either.

Chris

P.S. Here's one more for the old timers.

Raystown Romp

The Big Ride

Who ever thought nipple-ripping could be so much fun?  Not me, no sir.  At least not until last weekend when we headed to the hills of central PA for three days of singletrack.  The basic outline:

• 20 Downingtown area riders 
• 2 cabins on Raystown Lake
• 40 miles of top-shelf singletrack
• Food and beer for 40
• Enough firewood to build an ark (that's $12 in local currency)

Steve airs it out on The Hydro Loop

First let's explore the riding.  The reason we came.  The tie that binds us.

• On Friday Mike, Mike, and I ditched our bags at The Chalet and went straight to the trail head.  We had driven 3.5 hours for a weekend of riding.  We'd been dreaming of the Hydro Loop for 12 months.
  
  Tangent: Hydro is an enigma of a trail.  It is straight out of a M.C. Escher illustration.  A quick two mile loop the returns to it's origin but is downhill the entire way.
  
  We were full of piss and vinegar.  So we chose Osprey for our pilgrimage to The Hydro Loop since is was the most direct route.  Top to bottom in about 10 minutes.  Railing turns and popping ears, we rolled right into Hydro.  Midway through the Loop, Mike spied a beer bottle delicately perched on a tree.  It was Friday and it spoke to us.  Without a word we dropped our bikes and popped open the beers that happened to be in our backpacks.  Friday Happy Hour was secure for another week.

• Saturday was of course THE BIG RIDE.  Twenty bikers snaking through the forest, down Doe and Fawn to Eagle on our pilgrimage to the Hydro Loop .  It's hard to describe the sensation of riding with a group that big.  The energy is palpable.  The banter is endless.  The pace is fast.  And with that many riders, you never quite know what you will find around the next corner...like when Jim washed out at high speed, bloodying an arm and ripping off a nipple.  Luckily with 19 fellow riders to administer first aid and help with the bike we were back on our way in minutes.



Kicking back at The Chalet

• Sunday was more of a recovery ride. Twelve miles of single track on the south side of the park.  A little rockier, a little rawer.  More variable terrain.  Some great views and a smokin' downhill back to the Visitor's Center.

Bikes with properly adjusted seat posts
hiding in laundry room at The Chalet

FOOD of course is a HUGE part of any serious biking weekend.  And at the Chalet, the food theme started with "PO" and ended with "RK".

• Saturday breakfast included three pounds of bacon.  Saturday lunch was pulled pork sliders.  Sunday breakfast included ham and bacon.  Saturday lunch was grilled pork sausage.  Tough 
• Boxers Cafe on Friday night.  Bikes hanging from the ceiling and college co-eds sitting in the seats.  A great menu and draft microbrews.  Home made mixed-berry pie.  
• Sunday morning we discovered Oreos and sour cream.  Calories any way you can get them.
• The Root.  It's always there, on the rides, around the campfire, and in the center console.  Like an old friend.

And finally the people, the ingredient that really makes the weekend.  Whether you are riding with them, eating with them, passing a bottle around the campfire, or lowering their seat posts, it's the people that make the mojo and the memories.  For example:

• Kevin and Jason (Chalet Black Ops team) who snuck over to The Cabin in the wee hours of Saturday morning to lower ten seat posts by about an inch.  The next morning at the trail head was priceless and set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
• The First Floor Queen at The Cottage.  This weekend wouldn't happen without The Queen.  The First Floor one.
• Suzy.  She brought a touch of class to The Chalet.  She ensured we sat together at the table for meals.  She taught us how to Farkle.  She rode some mean single track.  And she made me laugh and snort beer out of my nose when she sarcastically uttered "is he talking?" as Mike was pontificating around the campfire.
• The zombies patrolling the dirt road.



Eric performs tubeless stress test at the Visitor's
Center.  Click and zoom in on that rear tire to see the
displacement.  With tubes that is a pinch flat for sure.

• Martin, who rode a unicycle - on a rutted pothole infested dirt road - IN THE DARK - to Friday's campfire at The Chalet.  And then home again when a freak weather microburst sent The Cabin scurrying.

Chris

"Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood."
     -- Vincent (Pulp Fiction)

"Word"
     --  Possumrider

Perfecto

Statistics for this week's Happy Hour at The Overlook:

• Low 70s, sunny, and dry 
• Nine riders 
• Two walkons (Kim and "St Pete's" Jim) 
• One foam-padded bike with Specialized carbon frame 
• One video shoot with multiple bloopers and out-takes 
• and more additions to the beer tree (still no repeats) 

By my calculation, that totals up to a perfect 10.

Chris

"Every Ride Has A Story"
-- unknown

Destiny Meets Her Match

Mark wins for most thematic lunch

Where would I be without my bike friends? Probably stuck somewhere in the woods north of Sinking Spring PA.  Or worse, at work drowning in mountain of emails. Let me elaborate...

It started early in the week with idle banter of playing "hooky" to ride Blue Marsh on a Friday. It was an entertaining thought but when a couple of Friday meetings cancelled, it became a real possibility. By Thursday night we had six responsible dads shifting gears into full delinquent mode.

Blue Marsh is one of the bigger rides in this area. It's a respectable 23 miles with a lot of ups, downs, and stream crossings. And it's lake loop so there is no bail out option, you have to be "all in." This and the fact you're doing it with five buddies gives the ride a mildly epic feel. Mere mention of the word epic brings out the seven year old in any red-blooded mountain biker, and as we know seven year olds don't always exhibit the best judgement when they get over-excited.

My lack of judgement shifted onto the big ring Thursday night as I was checking out the bike (tire pressures, chain lube, etc) and I noticed the rear brake dragging just a little. The thought of even a little brake drag for a 23 mile loop was disconcerting so I did what you never do before a big ride. I started fiddling around with the bike (in this case adjusting the calipers). And I went to bed and then I got up and I started fiddling with the bike again, this time cycling the hydraulic brake pistons while the bike was upside down. I should have known better but obviously two espressos had not cut the fog enough to bring out my better judgement, and now I had hydraulic brakes with air in them and rear brake power was severely compromised.

But now it was time to leave so I did what any self respecting seven year old would do with defective equipment on the morning of an epic. I loaded up the bike and I eagerly headed off for my 23 mile appointment with Destiny.

Destiny plays her third card

Well it turns out that Destiny is a crafty and patient lady. She had 23 miles to work with so she cradled me gently in her arms for nearly an hour. She did this so that I would feel safe and confident. She did it for 10 miles so I would be fully committed. And then she played her cards, three of them, in rapid succession...

First she bent my derailleur hanger and let me limp along with grinding gears for a couple miles. Then she loosened the bearing assembly in the rear hub just a tiny bit. She thought I would not notice, but I did. With some fiddling I fixed the hub and got the derailleur barely functional. But Destiny was not finished with me, oh no. At mile 11 Destiny sucked the rear brake spreader-spring into my brake rotor. The wheel ground to a halt with the horrible screech of metal on metal.

The trailside scene at mile 11 was a highlight of the ride. Imagine three guys (that's six hands) in there fiddling with the bike, disassembling the brake, bending springs, examining pads, and reassembling it again. My 51 year old eyes were struggling with the close-in detail work. Mike asked if we had a forty-year-old in the group, and Andy chimed in with "I had Lasik surgery!" Somehow with Andy's sharp eyes and Mark's technical know-how we got it back together with only one part left over (the spreader spring) and we were off.  Now the nearly useless rear brake would be totally useless with 12 miles of swooping downhills and waterbars to go.

Tangent: A waterbar is an abrupt 1-2' drop partway down a steep downhill trail. It forces water off to the side of the trail to reduce erosion. The last thing you want to do when going downhill over a waterbar is to use your front brake...which of course was the only brake I had thanks to Lady Destiny.

I became a better rider during the last 12 miles. I had to. I learned to shift my weight back and to generally use less brake. I learned to let'r fly. I made a mental note to add spare pads and some readers to my camelback before the next ride. And I managed to find "my happy place" (a skill I learned from D2M) on some of those long uphill grinds and the short punch-you-in-the-gut steeps.

Somehow I finished the ride without going over the handlebars. We rolled into the parking lot exhausted and triumphant. We headed to Ganly's Pub for well deserved beers and California Chicken Cheesesteaks and arrived home just in time to saddle up again for the Friday Happy Hour Ride. That my friends is commitment!

Our second ride of the day was mercifully short and not as painful as I expected, and our commitment was rewarded in spades when Don made his second annual pilgrimage from southern Vermont to join the Friday Happy Hour Ride and Jesse rolled in on her Spot Longboard with a batch of fresh baked vegan wheat germ muffins. This truly was a day packed full of bike rides, bike friends, bike food, and bike stories.

Destiny had met her match!

Chris

"I just like stuff that works"
     -- BobG comment during trailside bike component discussion