Riding Lesson

Picture this scenario;
You're making fast tracks down your favorite single track and you come up on the root or rock garden that always kicks your ass and slows you down. What do you do?

A) get off and walk
B) try to pick the smoothest line
C) plow straight over the top

Chances are, if you picked A or B that explains why you're constantly getting your ass kicked on this section and your ride times and energy levels will probably reflect this. The truth is, unless you're riding a big box store brand bike you're sporting at least 3 inches of travel which is more than enough to handle most root or rock gardens packed with baby heads.

The problem with trying to pick the smoothest line is that you invariably need to slow down, scan for the smooth route and then wind your way through it. This slower speed reduces the momentum required to easily traverse all but the smallest obstacles while at the same time reducing your stability. Tihs reduced momentum and stability makes it more difficult to hold any kind of line and will require a lot of standing pedaling effort to balance and push your way through.

On the other hand, assuming that you're up on your riding skills most modern valid bikes have the suspension to easily handle roots and rocks 6-8 inches above the trail as well as being able to negotiate 2 foot vertical drop-offs without having to "huck" your way off of them.

Your best bet is to approach the garden with a good speed that will carry you over most of the obstacles without pedaling, stand up and loosen your body and allow your bike to float under you. Pick a relatively straight path through the garden and let er rip! You paid big bucks for that 5" travel trail bike so quit being a sissy and put that suspension to work.

(Alays be aware of trail conditions and your own abilites and never attempt to ride above your abilities except under controlled conditions. It's always better to walk around than be carried out)
-Mike "kerbouchaud" Sullivan

Southshore Trail

Last weekend I was able to sneak off and take aim at the South Shore Trail in Palm Bay Florida.
This short little trail runs along a canal easement just off of I-95. From what I understand the trail itself is neither governed or sanctioned by any particular body, but is rather tolerated by the South Florida Water Management district.
The main part of the trail is only about 2.5 miles long, but what it lacks in distance it makes up in fun. There are quite a few steep decents, gapped drops, double-up jumps single jumps and short hill climbs packed into a really tight space. As well as the main trail, there are also smaller routes that can be used to bypass some of the more technical features.
One of the nicest parts about this trail is that because it is so short, you can do mulitple loops as well as double back to hit the cool stuff. This allows you maximum exposure to each trail element. In most places, to hit a really cool jump 5 times, you'd have to make 5 trips out there. Not so at Southshore, here you can do 3 laps of the trail in an hour, and then turn around and camp out at a certain feature and hit it over and over again.
This being said, I was able to get more jump and air time in during the 2.5 hours that I was there than I did all of the rest of the year total!
Anyway, awesome trail, awesome time.

Trail work....

Somehow, 7:30 yesterday morning found me unloading the chainsaw, weedeater, gas cans and a machete out of the back of my Kia. I had been asked to help out with a bit of trail work at our local bike park and figured why not, the kids are with the grandparents and I've got a little free time.
For some of you this may not seem like a big deal but for me it's huge. The reaon being is that I HATE that bike park and everyone in the club knows this. The park itself is the crowning acheivement of our club in that we even have a legal trail. But it's flat, and tiresome and poorly marked and full of mud.

Anyway, I headed out and put in 2 hours of weedeater time and screwed around on a few other projects for a few minutes and figured I'd done my good deed for the day. After I got back to the parking lot and changed uniforms I headed out on the bike. I was amazed by what I found. I was actually able to link the trails together and get in a 7 mile ride. I only got turned around once and didn't have to wade through any mud. It seems that while I've been sitting around hating, or heading out of town to ride, there have been a handfull of people that have been working their asses of to make Halpat a decent trail. The trails were pretty well marked, most of the overgrowth had been beaten back (I helped on that one) the trails had been re-routed around the mud where possible, and in other places literally tons of shellrock had been loaded in or really well made ladder bridges were installed. Color me impressed.

Halpat still isn't much of a destination for me because I have this strange addiction to hills and stuff. But it is turning into a really nice XC trail that can be ridden by amateurs and pro's alike.

Congrats to the Halpat crew, you've done a great job

Crowning achievement

I am so "the man" right now I can't get over myself! Actually I'm having trouble getting over much of anything with this everlasting cramp in my leg.

This past Saturday I headed down to Markham park with some buddies for my monthly out of town ride until you can't move session. We got to the park and hit the trails at about 10:00 in the am with 80 degree weather and not a cloud in the sky. The trails were pretty empty as much of South Florida was preparing for the "oh my god we're all gonna die" hurricane Ike. (who never bothered showing up for his own party but that's another story)

We banged out a few trails right off the bat, hitting the warm up loop, washing machine, lost ring and Area 51 topping out at about 5 miles and then headed for some R & R. Those of you who haven't ridden Markham park really have no idea how much 5 miles of trail will take out of you.

The trails take total concentration as there are sharp little rocks everywhere and there are also some short steep climbs that you can't really get set for. I'm sure that the local's are probably laughing at me right now, but I only ride once a month now since my home trail has been closed.

Anyway, after our break we headed straight for "gunrange" which get's it's name from the fact that there is literally a gun range on the other side of the hill. I can say with all certainty that this is the most difficult trail in all of South Florida, and one of the toughest in all of Florida. It has a lot of super steep climbs over loose rock, chunks of cement and tree roots. Also the way the trail is layed out it is difficult to get a good run-up especially if you are following someone. This trail is also covered with a lot of small obstacles that have to be hit nearly perfectly to keep from crashing as well as some long narrow ridges that drop off about 15 feet onto rocks and some insane terraced downhills that'll make your pooter pucker!.....Pretty much one of the coolest toughest trail around.

So why am I the man? (Ok, I'm a man, does that count?) I made it with only 2 dabs! For the non-bikers out there, a dab is when you put your foot down to steady yourself when riding. Again, the locals down there probably don't think that's too much of a big deal but for a fattie that only rides once a month that is a total accomplishment. I'm not going to say that I owned it, but I made it and that's the most important part for me.

The downside is that I put so much of myself into that trail I was so whupped that I ended up walking up the hills on "Jet Ski" (wouldn't miss those decents for the world) and finally bailed to the trail head while the rest of the crew did "Crime Scene" and "Deep dark forest."

Well, I guess every long and boring story has to have a moral, so here's mine.
Set a goal and throw yourself at it with everything that you have and then some. Even if you don't make it you'll either be amazed that you did as well as you did, or you'll be too tired battered and bruised to give a damn!

Here's a link to some Markham vids and pics. http://www.singletracks.com/php/trail.php?id=156
Some of the pics are kindof old but they give you the general idea.

Spandex :(

This is a post that I made on a bike club forum in response to the use of spandex

1. Spandex should never be worn by men after their family jewels have dropped....usually around 5-6 years old. The exception to this rule is that spandex may be worn by men with small "packages" when (and only when) competing in an actual sporting event. Individuals with large "packages" should refrain from wearing spandex in public at all times.
2. Women are welcome to wear spandex at all times up until the point that the back side of said spandex do not look like the face of a 16 year old male (dimpled)
3. No person should wear spandex that has become threadbare or overstretched to the point that skin tone is visable beneath.
4. The use of spandex that has been overused and has developed little fuzzballs is generally discouraged.
5. Use of Generic spandex is strictly prohibited as it will invariably lead to "wardrobe malfunctions".
Failure to follow these rules may result in a trail visit by an overweight hairy, middle ager wearing nuthin but a g-string and a smile

My New Bike, Finally

It's been a long time coming but I've finally done it! I bought a new Full Suspension Bike.
This story starts about a year and a half ago with my first trip out the the Fort Pierce Bike trail.
When I started my new business back in January of of 07 I decided to make a whole bunch of changes in my life at the same time. The biggest of these changes was getting my fat butt in shape. Since Business was a little slow to start off with I had a little bit of spare time so I hooked up with my Cousin Jefe' and started swimming at the college at lunch time. Turns out that I hated swimming so we left off with the swimming and switched to racquet ball instead. About the same time, one of my friends who happens to be 62 years old mentioned the bike trail and said we should check it out as it was a good way to get in shape. So the next day we went out there and decided to run the trail. I couldn't believe how bad off I was! we started out running and after about a hundred yards I gave up and started walking. My feet wouldn't let me do the running so I decided to get a BMX bike. I used to ride BMX in my early 20's and would ride on over and above anything I could find so I figured that I could do this no problem.....Yeah Right! My first ride on the trail was a nightmare with lots of going over the bars. I left the trail and immediately went to the LBS and picked out a barely used Mountain bike for $270.00. I figured that if I didn't like the sport I wouldn't be out a whole lot of money and wouldn't have a big money bike collecting dust in the garage.
Bottom line I started MTBing and fell in love instantly. From that day on, I kept upgrading parts as quickly as I could afford until I had pretty much maxed out my frame......Now what. I'm still riding a crappy hardtail frame with rockin components and I feel like I'm getting a little old to be banging around the trails on a hardtail.
I had been eying a couple of FS bikes at the LBS but every time I thought I was getting close to buying one, something would come up. Poor Chris at the bike shop endured hours of me stopping in and drooling over the FS bikes and asking tons of questions about all of the bikes usually starting with "how much" This last few weeks though I made quite a few breakthroughs at the office and had most all of our bills paid off so I finally had a chance to pick out my "dream bike"
My newest purchase is a Trek Fuel EX-8 and it is the first thing I've ever bought that actually works as advertised. It accelerates and climbs like a hardtail and rides the trail like you'd exect from a 5 inch travel bike. Now I just have to find a chance to go hook it up on some real trails!

OUCH!!!

This one is a little late, but I figured it would be nice to have a little more on my page than just the typical hey how ya doing sort of stuff.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a road trip for some biking. For some of you this may not seem like too big of a deal but for me, these trips are few and far between. Our local bike trail is closed due to some legalities and the only place left to ride within an hour sucks! So I load up the gear; bike, extra tires and tubes, a couple of jugs of gatorade, helmet, riding shoes, body armor and a hefty stack of energy bars and hit the road for Ft. Lauderdale leaving about 9:00 in the AM. I'm planning on meeting some friends down there so luckily I won't be riding alone.
Turns out, Markham park has just instituted a new rule that you have to sit through a really dull video (about 5 minutes long) and then sign a release of liability and get an ID card to ride the trails there now. So after 2 hours on the road, I spend another 20 minutes in the park office an fulfill my obligations. Time to hit the trails! After all, this is what I came here for.....right?

I hook up with Mike and Cindy (who just finished the video) and we head to the trail-head and gear up. As intelligent and health concious individuals we do a quick warm up lap on a fairly windy but completely flat trail to get our cardio up and running and then head for the big stuff. Our first "real" trail is called washing machine and gets it's name because if you run it fast it's like getting thrown around in a washing machine....lots o fun! We get about half way through the trail (about 2 miles) and I'm riding through a transition area where there is literally nothing going on, pretty harmless flat terrain, and I stand up to pedal and WHAM! my back goes out. I don't mean like I had a little pinch, I mean it went OUT! I started screaming like a little girl who just lost her barbie doll and wrapped my body around my handle bars. Mike and Cindy come racing up thinking I just racked my man parts on my bike. After much cussing and screaming they get me off the bike and on the ground....bad idea..... I ended up spending about an hour and a half laying in the dirt beside the trail trying to figure out how in the hell to get out of there. Mike ran off to get some help while Cindy held an ice pack on my back and fielded questions from everyone that had to stop and see if there was any blood. Usually when someone is lying in the dirt at Markham they are bleeding profusely and of course everyone wants to stop and see the carnage. "what happened""he threw out his back""oh....nothing to see here guys lets go" Jerks! Actually a few stopped and asked if they could help but there wasn't much to do. Eventually Mike get's back with help and they inform me that I might want to get carried out on a spine board...I don't like this idea but concede that it may be the only way until they inform me that EMS is the only people that can make that happen. ARGH! not on this trip they aint. After much pushing, pulling and screaming (rumor has it folks though Ned Beaty was in the woods) they manage to get me back on my bike and roll me the mile or so back to the trail head. After a quick lunch consisting of part of a sub and half a bottle of advil they get me in the car and send me packing.

I have to give a quick shout out to my sister who talked to me on the phone the whole way home, without her help I'm not sure I would have made it. After getting home I had to crawl into the house all the while hoping nobody would see me, and collapsed on the floor. Luckily the older 2 were with the grandparents, and Danielle and Nati were out shopping I really didn't want to be seen like this.

Bottom line is that I took about a week with a few Chrio visits to get up and going again and now I'm trying to figure out when I can get back to Markham to finish where I left off.....Funny thing is that despite being in excrutiating pain, I was and still am more upset about wasting a whole day than about the back thing.

Let's hope the next trip turns out better.