I'm Off

I've been out of school for 1 day and already my bags are packed and I'm about to head out. In about an hour I'll be on the road for Kansas and the Border Raiders bike ride. It's a 500 mile, week long ride that makes a big circle up to Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and back to Kansas. Expect a full report when I return.

HORTON HILL

I climbed Horton Hill, last weekend, or almost all of it. The conditions were soft, but my new Swamp Thing tires never once slipped, the problem was that I was running out of steam to push them. I think the hill is about 3/4 of a mile long, at least, and its nothing but climbing, sometimes at a easy grade, sometimes at a very tough grade. The last 500 yards gets tough and I had to get off and push a bit to catch my breath. Once you reach the top its a fun somewhat technical rolling ride along the top of The mountian over to Eagle Mountain road, or you can go down at a couple other places, we took a messed up double track that was like some kind of crazy maze. The road is constantly splitting up and if you pick the wrong route it could lead into a 5 foot deep mudbog.

Proabably about 12 years ago I did this same ride on a fully ridged bike, I walked most of the hill then. My regular riding buddy did this ride about 12 years ago too. It pretty much turned him off of mountain biking for about ten years. I think its safe to say that climbing most of it on a 5 inch bike FS bike in the mud tells me I'm better now then I was then.

Mtn Bike tire reviews

I noticed just how many mountain bike tires I have laying around, I thought I would write down what I thought of each one.

Mythos XC Slick. 2.1 This tire looks like it really shouldn’t be worth a crap in anything but the most pristine trail conditions, but looks can be deceiving. I found this tire to perform exceptionally well in a variety of conditions when I used it on the front and back of my bike for awhile during the fall of last year. The Mythos Slick has minimal tread on the top of the tire, just a short arrow like pattern. On its sides it has taller knobs for turning. The tire rolls fast in all conditions, in fact it performed very well in all conditions except mud, and real loose soil. I tried on of these as a back tire for awhile and it did great, except in mud where it spins and slides. In loose conditions the tire falls short again, even though I think the side knobs will help some. It seems to do OK on rock but watch out for wood, I stalled out a few times going over deadfall when the rear tire spun out on top of a log. When the tire does break loose it seems to happen pretty fast. A little bonus: the Mythos slick also works pretty well on pavement too.

Ritchey Z-max 2.1 I have only used this tire on the rear. But I did use it forward and backward. It did better backward. It pulled pretty well, but seemed to spin out a little more then it should. The Z-max is a medium tire and is for front or rear. It has a unique Z shaped tread design, that looks cool and seems to work well. It has a lot of rubber on its center and becomes a good roller. . It seemed to have good side bite, and usually when it broke loose it was under big power in slick stuff going uphill. I wouldn’t mind trying one of these up front. I noticed that after what I would consider mild use the tire was starting too look rough and a few knobs had broke off.

Maxxis Kraken 1.9 I tried a set of these for awhile. They have a ramped tread and looked like they would be pretty fast. I thought they might be kind of like the Mythos slicks, but with a bit more bite. I was completely wrong. These tire really only work in hard pack. They have very little side bite, and in the wet you might as well forget it. I crashed several times with these guys. Also their slightly smaller carcass makes them rough.

WTB Veliocaraptor. 2.1 For a long time I ran these front and back. They are an older tire, but work as well today as they did ten years ago. The front has a diagonal tread which seems to give it awesome side bite. The rear has flat bars for maximum forward bite. These tires probably are the best I’ve used for a variety of conditions. They work well in loose, hard, soft, rock, wood. They are also tough and last for a good long time. Rolling resistance isn’t fantastic but is pretty good considering the more aggressive tread design.

Hutchinson Python air light 2.1 I got these tires on a bike. I took them off after a few rides. They were horrible. First there is almost no side bite. When these tires hit something soft you might as well just bail, because when they slide its like ice. They loose traction so fast its scary. I also had several flats with them. ON a side note they did roll well and were very light, but I had better traction with the Mythos slicks.

Maxxis Wet Scream 2.1 I got a set of these for 10 bucks. They are Maxxis’ most extreme mud tire, and are on a downhill carcass. They are a flat top tire with a very spaced out, very tall and skinny knobs made out of the softest rubber. They eat mud, and throw it up all over the place, along with slicks, leaves, or whatever else is on the trail. Going downhill I have never used a better tire. Their long knobs are like tentacles grabbing rocks and roots, digging into the mud and sand. They made downhills easy and seemed to have traction to spare. But of course the rolling resistance was too much for me. Perhaps on the back a harder tire would help out. I only used these guys a few times and the back tire was already looking a bit wore. I’d like to ware a set of these half way out and see how it does then.

Maxxis Swamp thing 2.35 I recently got a deal on set of these and thought I would try them out. They are a mud tire and are similar to the wet scream in some ways. They have bigger knobs and the center ones are ramped to improve rolling resistance. Ride is similar to the Wet Scream, they inspire tons of confidence and even in very muddy conditions just don’t slide. Like the screams they clean out real good and throw mud up. Rolling resistance is bad but not in the real of terribleness that the wet scream is in. On the back the tire never spun out. The wider width gives you tons more stability in rocks and they seem to float better in soft stuff. I think I am going to switch to something small in the back and leave one of these in the front.

Where's me pot 0 gold

Last Sunday, May 14th there was a vibrant rainbow over Harrisburg, Luckily me and Shauna were just getting home from town when it started raining. It was a strange rain, almost like a mist, and the sun was shinning very bright. I large rainbow formed almost immediatly. I ran in and got my camera and started shooting pictures of it. For a short time it turned into a double rainbow. I have seen rainbows before several times, but usually they are nowhere near as complete or bright as this one.

Lance Armstrong's War

This book is over a year old, but I just got around to reading it. I have read both of Lance's autobiographies and found them to feel, well kind of cheesy. They were good books, with lots of information, but I just felt like Lance was telling about a 1/4th of the story. Lance Armstrong's War is really what I wanted to read when I was reading Lance's books.

Lance Armstrong's War is a much more objective look at the powerhouse of American cycling. Daniel Coyle moved to Europe to write this book and must have been a constant fixture during the races that built up to the tour. He definitly did his homework and painted a complete picture of Lance Armstrong's 2004 season, but not only that he covered Lance's main rivals, Lance's trainer, the doping question and the sport of bicycle racing its self.

I would say that by now most people know about Lance's incredible story; Wild Texas rider gets cancer, fights death, comes back to become the greatest Tour rider of all time winning 7 tours, becomes a secular saint and sales millions of yellow braclets. In the Tour's over 100 year history, 5 guys had won 5 Tours, I believe it will be a very long time before anyone gets close to taking Lance's throne. Anyway most people probably just don't realize how hard it is to make it through a Tour, let alone actually win it, they also probably don't understand just how much of a control freak and jerk Lance can be.

I guess the highlight of this book for me, was finding out just how close Michele Ferrari is to Armstong. For those who don't know Michele Ferrari is an Italian sports doctor, who has been working exclusively with Armstrong since he recovered from cancer. Without Ferrari I don't think Armstrong would have won a single Tour. See I've always thought that Chis Carmichael was the key to Armstrong's sucess. Carmichael is Lance's coach and has the popular Carmichael Training Systems company. It seems obvious that Carmichael, at least now, doesn't have that much to do with Armstrong's career, other to appear together in ads.

You can't bring up Ferrari without talking about doping. Doping is the process of using drugs to enhance performance, steriods to build muscle and blood thickeners to help bring oxygen to those muscles. Cycling is infested with doping or at least has been for most of existence. (what profesional sport isn't infested with doping, and don't say golf, its not a sport just a waste of time) It seems like they have been testing the hell out of these guys now and are trying to get it under control. I guess you could say that Ferrari is a pioneer in modern doping having discovered how modern drugs could improve rider's performance, and once saying that there was nothing wrong with doing this. He claims he was misquoted, but if so it was a big misquote.

Once a non-rider started talking to me about how the snotty European's keep accusing Lance of doping and how they were jealous about him kicking their butts. I started talking about EPO and how it can only be picked up in tests a few days after being taken, and how many cyclists could take this without being caught, and how Lance worked with a guy who pioneered doing this. They just replied, "well, that may be so but Lance didn't cheat."

Lance has never tested positive, but that doesn't mean he never doped, I of course don't know if he did or not. I tend to think that what he did was awesome whether he doped or not. If he did, it probably put him on the same playing field as everyone else, if he didn't then he truely is amazing.

Anyway getting back to the book review, Coyle keeps the doping discussion as objective as possible. He kees his personal feelings out and just reports the facts about the case. Probably a good career move, since Lance loves a good law suit.

Thinking back over this book I just can't recomend it enough, if you have the slightest interest in either bike racing or Lance Armstrong you should read this book. Its 308 pages, which isn't very long, but at the end, I really didn't want it to stop. After reading this book I think its safe to say that, at least in bike racing, Nice guys may get second place, but they don't finish first.

Saul Raisin, cool name, super rider, brain damage

So I started getting into bike riding again last year and with that came a renewed interest in bike racing. I've read many articles about promising new American talent and a name that popped up several times was Saul Raisin. One day I decided to check out Saul and found out that he had just had a crash and broke a collar bone and rib. Riders seem to be constantly breaking collar bones. It seems that the force of hitting the ground at 25+ miles an hour must be just the right amount to break that bone, in the 03 Tour de France Tyler Hamilton rode the whole thing with a broken Collar bone.

Anyway Saul got bashed up in a wreck but it wasn't anything to out of the normal, until it was discovered he had a Hematoma which is a blood clot between the brain and skull. The hematoma burst and he had a brain hemorage. He is lucky to be alive and recovering. Check out his blog to see how he is doing now and again. I wish him the speediest recovery possible.

Bicycling racing is a tough sport. Especially in Europe, where it is more like boxing. Just about every bike wreck I have ever had has come when I was trying to outride someone, just for fun. I have never had a wreck by myself. Saul's story makes me start thinking about wearing a helmet.

May 4th

283 Thats todays lucky number. Would like to see this down to 279 soon.

Rode with my brother Mike the other night, I think he was trying to kill me. I don't understand how I could ride all winter and accumulate 3000 miles last year and he can ride every now and again and always be strong. Out of 8 hills he topped 6 before me, but my mind is always thinking up "mad strats" So when we hit 3 hills in a row I let him take the first two then I stormed up the third and blasted away from him.

May Day

289

Guess what that number is and you get a cookie

Oh and here's a hint, it just went up when I ate a big plate of Taquitos.

Fracking food.