2008 Do-Dah Parade Columbus, Ohio

Some images I took from the parade or some participants lead by Ray George, who is head honcho over at Columbus Rides.

2008 Germain Tour De Grandview (Images)

I’m sorry that these images are almost 2 weeks over due, but other things have taken presidence, enjoy.

Don’t see this every day…

Sign on Alien Trail, Aztec New Mexico.

The True Price of Gas

I found this posted on the local Columbus website Consider Biking.Org and thought it was a hilarious representation of how people(ie drivers) see the current gas situation. It was posted at Consider Biking. Org by Meredith.

Ride Safe!

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew

Rain Delay: CemeScary Rally

The CemeScary Rally has been moved to this evening do to some insanely crazy weather yesterday evening. Today looks to be a bit better, but the storm clouds loom. All of the information is the same, meeting place, etc. just peep the previous post for the 411.

I unfortunately will not be able to attend the make up date due to a previous commitment, but I look forward to meeting up with the riders one day soon.

Ride Safe!

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew

Columbus: Friday The 13th CemeScary Ride

If you happen to be in the C-Bus this Friday come join the CemeScary ride. I’ll be partaking in this hootinnanny with my wife, and people I haven’t even met yet, except for a bit of a chat via email. The gentleman’s name is Ray George and he runs a blog called Columbus Rides….peep it. If you’re interested in joining, just follow the link below for a map and the 411. Hope to see you there.

FRIDAY THE 13TH CEMESCARY RALLY in COLUMBUS, OHIO

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew

A Tale of 2 Races Pt2: The 5th Annual Garrett Wonder Memorial Race

Sorry about the delay (I know, a friggin’ week) in getting this second article posted, life gets in there and muddles things, ya dig?

First a little back story about the race. This race was started by the family of Garrett Wonder, a cyclist who was struck by a car while on a training ride. His family started this non-profit race to raise money for the fund created to promote cycling safety and fund the OSU cycling scholarship they established.

We arrived just as the men’s 3-4 cat race was starting, the crowd turn out was amazing and the support from the community of Westerville, Ohio was nothing less than astounding, from local businesses and the police, to the people who live there. For this first race, my wife and I walked the course to get a feel for how the race would play out. I snapped some shots, and very poorly at that, though I will post them. The course was for the most part flat, but as we all know, flat is all relative. From the starting point the riders road up Main St. and took a left at the first corner, this was a slightly inclined street, just enough to get your legs feeling the burn Then at the next intersection they again made a left and there was a bit more to the incline, then it leveled off and it was flat all the way up to the next turn and around to to start/finish line. The start finish line was at about the half way mark after riders rounded the corner, so it made for some exciting finishes by all rider categories.

Each race was less than an hour, but the times varied from 5 minutes for the youth races to 60 minutes for the category 1-2 men’s.

We walked the course for pretty much all of that first race which was about 45 minutes. We got back to the S/F line with about 5 laps to go In the men’s 3-4 cat race, the leaders changed almost every laps, but it was the same five or six guys rotating around. A good race a decent finish.

Up next was the women’s race, and the women’s crits have been some of my favs since I started going to races back in 2003. The race started with a number of sponsored riders including the women’s national champion to a girl in bike shorts and a tee-shirt, very cool. We didn’t walk to course on this race, but I covered it from various spots on the main drag, but to be honest, it was mostly from the last turn onto the stretch that ran to the s/f line. As would be expected, the pros including the national champ were the real contenders, but I was cheering on a couple of riders that were riding just to finish. A few from Team Awsome/Jeni’s Ice Cream, Rasin Rack, and one rider from OSU, who always acknowledged the people cheering them on, which is a stark contrast to the guys, I dunno why, that’s just how it is. The womens races always rock, it’s all heart. The national champ won this race, which I guess shows just why she gets to wear the stars and stripes jersey.

After the women’s came the mens cat 1-2. Unlike the other races where the jerseys were as diverse as the riders, there were full teams in this one. They lined up to start and once they got going, well…damn it was fast. I don’t even know how fast the pace was, but it was like they were cutting down some alley taking a short cut. The race was 60 minutes and they kept up an insane pace. In this group were a former world champion and the current national champion, both riding for Team Inferno. I have to say, standing near one of the corners as the come by is such a rush, the noise the the gears changing, the sound of the riders, and the blast of air that hits you, amazing. The race finished with Team Inferno sweeping the podium, and the national champ taking top honors.

The next race was the Community Fat Tire Race. anyone could register and only fat tire bikes could be used, sadly only two people signed up (next year my wife and I are riding), a sponsored pro and just a guy from the community. Three laps, and they were racing for a new mountain bike. Now who do you think one, come on guess…go on…guess. Did you say the pro? Well, you would be absolutely correct. The other guy pushed through and finished his three laps. It was for a good cause, which is why I was surprised more people didn’t partake.

The last race was the youth groups. They all started from the same point, but each age group had a different finish line. It was nothing but fun for all involved. Peep the pics below to see some of the pint size racers.

It was a good race to get back involved with the racing/bike scene here in the C-Bus. Look for more race reports, the next being the Germain Tour De Grandview at the end if this month.

Peep all of my images from the race below:

Do to the amount of photos they’re being posted as thumbs, cool? Click ‘em why don’t ya!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew

A Tale of 2 Bike Races Pt 1: Mohican 100 Mile MTB Race

This may be a long post it may not, it all depends on my power of recollection.

*DISCLAIMER OF SORTS : ALL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE MOHICAN 100 MTB RACE IS SECOND HAND AS TOLD TO ME BY MY FRIEND TONY BALL WHO PARTICIPATED. I AM MERELY RELAYING WHAT HE TOLD ME OVER THE PHONE*

First up the Mohican 100 MTB Race. I was originally planning to cover this race, but I couldn’t get on to their website to find out course details, what time the race started, parking etc. The info I am relaying here comes from a friend, Tony Ball,  who participated in the 60 mile race on a f-ing singlespeed. From what he told me, he was way late in starting, way late as in the field already left. His info told him the race was going to start at 7:30am, but it went off at 7am. He took off on is bike, gloves in his mouth and his Camel-Bak barely on, not even buckled up yet. He was off and racing, or at that point playing catch up with the rest of the field.  He was actually not too far behind. He saw the rear police escort car disappear around the bend, when Tony finally got to that bend the police escort had stopped to block the fireroad from traffic. Tony asked him how far ahead the riders were, and the officer told him they just went around the other bend. “You better hurry up if you expect to catch ‘em” said the officer. Tony was hauling ass, and managed to finally catch the field. Tony said he managed to pass about 20+ people. He was also caught on camera passing several(geared) riders on a climb.

I haven’t done any singlespeed mountain bike riding yet, but I will. The mentality of the SS rider is, from what I’m told, one of momentum…period, especially when it comes to any sort of climbing, Tony said that he had to yell at a few geared riders do to their switching gears and slowing down on one of the climbs, not so much yell as just give a bit of a good natured ribbing.  He had to break hard to the right and bunny-hop a log to pass them so as to keep his momentum for the climb. He said he was smiling all the way. All in all he accomplished 38 of his 60 miles, he ended up dropping out do to leg cramps. When he got back to where his friends were, he asked what time it was, and his friend Kurt asked him what time he thought it was, and Tony replied , 10 or 10:30. Kurt laughed and told him it was 2:30.  Good times.

From what I understand Floyd Landis was there racing, but ended up dropping out at 20 miles. Tony’s friend Kurt bailed pretty hard in a rock garden, he pulled an endo and banged up his chin on the rocks, good for him all he got was banged up. He dropped out after that incident. Tony also got to meet some fellow SS riders. He said he got to meet a guy who races in the SS World Championships, and this guy was more than happy to give advice and pointers. He told Tony and friends about proper race gearing. Tony said he was a real down to earth guy, as were all of the other SS he meet.

Below is info from the official results: I included both Tony and Kurt

Ball 643 M 38 Columbus OH 100 kilo Single Speed DNF
Kurt Huebeck 601 M 35 Columbus OH 100 kilo Single Speed DNF

When all is said and done, he’s hooked, and looks forward to his next race. Maybe next time, I can get him to write something. Hell maybe I can get Kurt to contribute, he’s a new found bike addict. I’ll try and talk to him.

You can check the full results from NUE in PDF here> MOHICAN 100 RESULTS

You can also peep out an article and photos at Cyclingnews.com here > MOHICAN 100 @ Cyclingnews.com

Thanks to Tony for the recap and to all those who stop by to read.

Ride Safe!

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew

*Pt 2 will be my personal coverage of the 5th Annual Garret Wonder Memorial Race. Look for that this evening.

Iron Horse Weekend

…And other Durango Happenings.

A mobile stable of bikes waits for another day.

May 23-26 marked the 37th annual Iron Horse Classic bike race/tour. A fifty-something mile jaunt through two mountain passes, beginning in Durango, and winding up in the old mining town of Silverton, Colorado. The race is not the for the light-hearted - the course climbs several thousand feet, and covers two mountain passes over 10,000 feet. Every year, nearly 2,500 riders descend upon Durango to take place in the grueling spectacle.

And of course, since I was all ready to photograph the start of the race - for the first time in 37 years, the race was called due to weather:

“Iron Horse Bicycle Classic is canceled

6:45 a.m.

By Ted Holteen

For the first time in its 37-year history, the Iron Horse Bicycle
Classic was canceled due to heavy snow in the San Juan Mountains north
of Durango.

Race director Gaige Sippy said the Colorado State Patrol made the
decision to cancel the race at 6 a.m. Sippy said five inches of snow
fell at Durango Mountain Resort overnight, and Silverton received a
foot of snow.”

A group of riders packs it in during a May slushstorm. This was the scene throughout downtown Durango the morning of the Iron Horse.

Main Street.

After a quick stroll around town snapping pics, I picked up a Mexican Mocha and headed back home to install some parts I picked up at the Velo Swap the previous day.

Magura Louise Hydraulic Disc Brakes - Picked up these for the front, and another set of Magura Juilie’s for the back. Velo Swap total - $40.00. Also picked up a pair of Manitou Mars forks in mint condition for $20.00, and a Thompson 110mm stem for $20.

After the install I took a spin out to the trail to make sure everything worked. Came home and cleaned up the bike, got it ready for Sunday’s ride out at Phil’s World - a fast rolling desert singletrack in Cortez, Colorado. I had never been there before, but have heard keen things about it. This was also my inaugural ride with the now nationwide riding group known as the Spoke Junkies (check for a link in the sidebar). Fingers were crossed for the rain to end and hopefully the trails would be dry on Sunday.

The battle with the smoking thing continues, and continues to drive me batty any time I have a spare blink of an eye. If I’m occupied, I’m cool as can be. But what really makes this difficult is that smoking was such an ingrained part of my creative process, for so long, now it is close to impossible to do anything where I sit down at the computer. This includes blog entries like this… these are painfully difficult to create for me, the concentration factor is something I cannot even explain. So, I’ll refrain from going on about it. So far, I’ve been a good boy, and have remained on the wagon for the entire 2.5 weeks now.

Sunday morning, I woke, and got everything situated for the day’s ride, and Ben showed up at about 9:45. This was the first time I had met Ben. We had set up details on line through the Spoke Junkies forum, but the whole thing was just funny. Funny strange, and funny ha-ha.

I’m not usually a very loquacious person unless I know you, or you are less than 3 steps of separation away from anyone in my “circle”, and I think maybe I throw a lot of people because of this. Anyhow, Ben and I got along well, and on the down to Cortez, we learned that we shared an interest and history with the whole bmx/freestyle scene that evolved in to todays free riding stuff (loosely). We got so involved in conversation that we drove past the trail head and had to double back.

We were fashionably late, Moab and the rest of the riders had already taken off on the trail. Ben and myself got geared up, and while I was checking over my bike, I noticed that I left my camelback at home on the porch. And camera. And tools. And helmet. No, Ben didn’t have an extra either. I opted to ride nicely without one, and endure the scorn of all those that are happily following the rules of trail safety. I promised myself I wouldn’t go too crazy. umm hmmmm.

Phil’s World is classic desert cruising. Mostly slick rock, loose pack, junipers and other spikey flora. Not a lot of climbing, maybe a 1,000 feet or so. But nothing too steep or undoable. The trail sort of undulates as you go along, which is a nice change from the UP then DOWN nature of things around town. Some nice technical stuff, tricky rock placements, ledges, and some of the stranger ones have a run outs in case you’d rather just not test your skills at that particular time. On the second half of the trail it gets a little more interesting. It becomes more like a roller coaster than a mountain bike trail - closest thing I can compare it to is Bearclaw Poppy out in St. George, though I think this trail is a little more gritty, not quite a smooth, but every bit as fun - up and down, little kickers, and banked turns all over the place. And we still had not reached the “Rib Cage”, which was loosely the goal/reward portion of the trail, and was supposed to be even more like a roller coaster.

The Sette single speed frame performed perfectly, and newly added hydraulic discs were a nice touch on the trail too. The Hutchison Barracuda tires gripped fair - but had a tendency to slide out in the looser stuff. About how you’d expect a high knobbed tire to behave in desert trail conditions. For the most part, I grooved in to the trail pretty well, the way it is laid out, you sort of get in to a rhythm and can keep a flow going pretty well. That is, until your freewheel explodes.

I have never broken a freewheel before. Not in all my bmx/freestyle years, and not since I started mountain biking. Of course, it had to fail two-thirds of the way through this trail, grrrr. Ben was cool enough to walk with me back to the vehicle, and besides, by that point we had gone about 12 miles or so, and I had not drank a drop of anything or eaten a powergel or anything… still disappointing.

After I got home, I was able to fix the bike - I had another rear disc wheel to put on, but it doesn’t have black spokes - grrr.. but it works. Anyhow, Phil’s World - for sure an all thumbs-up ride. Great trail for sure, perhaps the most fun within 40 minutes of Durango. Out of 5 stars, I give it 4, only because I didn’t get to ride the whole thing. And, it was cool to meet and ride with Ben, hopefully we’ll be able to hook up more for future rides.

When we got back from the ride, I walked down town to get some Chinese food - and was rewarded with the Woman’s stage of Morehart Subaru Criterium. A sort of figure-eight style road course set up through downtown here. I did have to pause to watch for a few minutes, as the woman’s class always seems a bit more energetic than the guys. I snapped off a few shots but decided eating and fixing the bike was more important. I don’t know who won, sorry. Also, there was a time trial today as well, but I had to get out and ride some more. By the time I was done, the trial was over.

Speed weekend!

So, that was my Iron Horse weekend. I’m seriously considering doing the ride next year, if I can pick up a cyclocross bike sometime this year. Don’t think I want to tackle that one on the fixie. Hope you all had a great Memorial Day experience, and have a great week!

Enjoy the ride,
Hazard - SSD Rogue Reporter

Bike + Art = Show (Review)

My Bike 2 Work Week was cut short do to my injury (if you read my previous post you know what I’m talking about) I’m still off the bike, but my neck seems to be getting better, it’s tough not being able to ride, but healing is paramount.

Enough about my sorry ass. My wife and I were out and about today enjoying the beautiful weather and doing some garage sale hopping in German Village. Lots of folks on their bikes there, all ages and all styles of bikes. Good stuff. When we were finished there we made our way to BIKE + ART = SHOW in Grandview at  Junctionview Studios. When we arrived a few bikes were locked up outside, but there was a complimentary lock up inside with someone watching the bikes, a small donation was all they were asking, very cool. When we got inside there were arts and crafts, as you should already know, all pertaining to bikes. Some keen art work was to be seen. I took pics and only a handful of them turned out (operator error), sorry. The ones that did turn out are posted here (I need to learn to take more photos). I dug alot of what I saw. Some keen photos from Giles Clement, who’s recent series turns his lens on the cyclists of Columbus and their rides. Cool stuff, peep his website here> Illumiquest There were some cool cycling inspired clothing from Robotic Werewolf (They don’t have a website yet), which is too bad, I wish I had taken some pictures of their gear. We saw some fresh cycling caps made right here in Columbus by a company called Octopus Incorporated. Their hats are made from reclaimed/recycled fabrics and feature a cash/card pocket inside, too cool. Then we found a table with someone selling some of the coolest messenger bags. At this table we met Ryan, one of the designers from Bindle Bags (the link takes you to their MySpace page, the official website is under construction), which is based right here in good ol’ Columbus. Ryan was super cool and more than happy to give us the low down on his bags. My wife has now put one of their fresh bags on her wish list. The Bindle bags are made from recycled fabrics, generally out of old suits (pants & jacket), so each one of them is unique and one of a kind. they come in a variety of sizes and Bindle can even custom make one for you. The coolest thing is that they’ll fix any defects for a long as you own the bag, pretty cool huh? Thanks for the info Ryan. We cruised around a bit more checking out the people and other art, picked up a copy of the Ohio bicycle laws (peep this link for more info> Bike Ohio), then slipped out. Peep the images below.

The bag above has pants pockets under the flap..cool.

Above is the bag my wife is coveting.

A fresh screenprint by artist Jason Cleveland

Again, sorry for the lack of images, I’ll try not to let it happen again.

I am glad we went, we saw some cool gear to add to out wish/want list, and it made me want to get back on my bike, but all in good time, when I’m healed.

Thanks for reading.

Peace, Patrick - SSD Crew