Sometimes it seems as if everything that could possibly go wrong happens all at once. I know you all know what I mean.

Here’s a hypothetical but representational situation: that dude/chick you’ve been seeing/living with turns out to be a freakish stranger. Your dependable car of many years suddenly starts to drop pieces and make disturbing noises. Offensive noises that stop when someone else tries to hear them. Your “purpose” suddenly seems unfulfilling and questionable. It rains when its not supposed to. Your beloved animal ignores you. You smell funny. Your mom is pissed at you. You constantly lose stuff. Sometimes you’re lucky and it comes back. But still.

Which brings it all back to you; what’s wrong? What is life all about? What is truly important? What brings happiness? What do I want? Oh crap. Yeah, I’m talking about me. But I know you all know what I’m talking about, as I said above.

And I swear to whatever deity or high spirit you might ascribe or subscribe to, when this stuff (yah, “stuff” was the first word that came to my mind) hits, I do have a place I go that soothes my soul.

Outside. And please, this isn’t some trite lead in to pump up cycling or mountain biking in general, but let me have it. Sure, it may be an effort to actually get the gear on and my ass out (as opposed to throwing on some shoes and going running, which is fast and easy, but as my friend once said when she saw a runner, “Aw. They must not have a bike!), but once I’m out there in the woods…

I put my Ipod on and turn it up. It gets caught a lot as I twist and turn, and those stupid little pods just don’t jive with sweaty ears. I have to bandanna them keep them in. But, whatev.

All that negative karmic crap I mentioned above? It seems to melt away, if just for a time. And I find that goofy-ass singletrack grin plastered across my face.

I started working on a this a few days ago, spent a good bit of time with a write up on my Interbike experience. I finally gave on that last night, way too much info for one post , plus I got a bit overwhelmed once I started sorting through photos, notes and business cards. I’ll just pick one thing that stood out to me at the show and save the larger report for later.

The subject I keep returning to is wheels, as in wheel size, as in 26″, 650B(27.5″) and 29″. At Dirt Demo I rode bikes with all three sizes and came away surprised by what I found. I defiantly went in biased towards 29ers as I’ve been riding them almost exclusively for 2 years. By the end of day 2 I had to rethink my preconceived notions about wheels size.

More than anything else I realize that suspension and geometry have more to do with how much I enjoyed a bike. I rode 26″ bikes that were an absolute blast to ride and 29″ bikes that never really clicked with me. The only 650B bike I rode felt very similar to the Pacenti we tested last issue, like a bike. I rode it without thinking much about the wheels. It was a nice neutral ground between the snappiness and playfulness of 26″ and the terrain smoothing and rollablity of 29″.

I have enough personal interest in 650B to put together a wheel set for some experimentation here at Dirt Rag HQ. Kirk Pacenti, the man behind the 650B mountain tire looks at this wheel size as a middle ground that should come into its own on bikes with 5+ inches of travel. The one tire available now, the 2.3 Neo-Moto, is a great non-condition specific tread and should help to more things along a bit more quickly than the 29″ wheel in its infancy, which in my opimion was held back a bit my the Nanoraptor, which is a fine tire, but a bit more limited in its ablity to handle looser terrain.

There seems to already be some 650B naysayers out there, most seem to have a definite bias toward 29″ bikes. I’m not sure what to say to them, as it seems ironic that the people who are the most against this wheelsize where on the receiving end of similar behavior a short time ago themselves. There is plenty to go around folks, 650B won’t kill off 29″ bikes, much the same as 26″ aren’t going to be killed by 29″.

I’m pretty stoked to be involved in bikes right now, and you should be too, regardless of your wheelsize choice. For those interested in 650B I’ll give some updates as to my future findings here. In the meantime ride whatcha got and enjoy.

SSCXWC
The kids have been busy in the Beaver State. On the weekend of November 10-11th, the Portland Single Speed Collective (PSSC) will play host to SSCXWC— an event that’s billed as the Official UnOfficial World Championship event for singlespeed cyclocross racers. SSCXWC, which involves a time trial on Saturday and the Grand Boucle on Sunday, is a part of the River City Bicycles Cross Crusade race series (visit the Cross Crusade website for registration and directions to the event).

Mountain Bike Alaska
The Alaska state motto is: “North to the Future”. While the folks at Alaska Backcountry Bike Tours don’t promise time travel, they do offer guided bicycle tours of “The Last Frontier” – including their 5 day Singletrack Epic and 7 day Denali Road Tour. Both of these tours will be offered multiple times in 2008, throughout the short Alaskan summer (including special “Women Only” dates). The short summer means the tours fill up fast, so get crackin’ to the website for more information.

The First Annual Tour of America
Calling any bicycle event the “first annual” is a bit presumptuous. But when the event in question is a proposed ” yearly tour from the East Coast to the West Coast in the same vein of the Tour de France” – well, that takes some big, er… ideas. Judging from the following quote from the folks at Aqu Inc., the promoters of the proposed First Annual Tour of America, they have confidence and big ideas in abundance:

The event will be the largest spectator event in the history of U.S. sports, covering approximately 4,000 miles (more than 6,000 km) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, with 27 stages held during 30 days of competition. The event will invite twenty-five of the most elite cycling teams in the world and will boast a prize purse currently pegged at $11 million, the largest purse of any international cycling event.

Here’s hoping they pull it off.

…pain. There is pleasure in pain, right? I must be a masochist at heart because bringing pain to myself seems to be my style. Anyone who is willing to ride their bicycle for 24 hours solo seems to fall into that category, and I am one of many.
There is a day that we label as “Labor Day” and it is supposed to be a day off in celebration of all the hard work that we do. In my eyes there needs to be a day that is called “Labor Day” that would be a day where we all work as hard as we possibly can. Well, that will probably never happen so I took it upon myself to make my own day of labor. And on this weekend that we call “Labor Day weekend” I went out and did some physical labor on my mountain bike at Seven Springs Resort in PA. This was the weekend of the 24-hour race and thanks to Lupine I had my name in one of the solo women’s slots. Last race of the season and I was excited.
Last year was my first 24-hour solo race at Seven Springs. I have a good friend Karl who has also done a fair share of 24-hour races. He knows the ropes and liked my idea of doing it solo and volunteered himself to be my support, hence the word friend. We cruised up to the race and ended up not having the best conditions due to a little thing that we call a hurricane. It hit the night before the race and it turned into a mud fest. I had fun, did well and was just getting started with my solo-racing career. So I just hoped that 2007 was going to be a little dryer then 2006, and yes it was. As a matter of fact the conditions could not have been better. The weather was dry and cool, perfect. They change the course every year to keep it interesting and that is always appreciated.
Friday started out with Karl and I cruising up to set up camp. We got prime placement right on the course. We reserved a few spots because my friends and folks were on the way up. Chris, Larry, my mom and Glenn were going to join Karl and I for the weekend. That is a fine group of people to keep the smiles coming. The registration opened and I went up to find out that I had four ladies joining me in the solo category. So now it was excitement mixed with nerves for a good sensation. Evening hours rolled in and so did the stars. We had some stars and fireworks to complete the evening and it was time to catch some z’s before the race.
Saturday finally made it and it was time to fuel up. In addition to the cross-country event this year they were running the lift so that people could ride the newly-built jumps. That was a nice addition that Chris, Larry and many other people were going to take advantage of. Everything was up and running and at noon the gun was fired. It started with a nice long run around the lake on the hunt for our bikes. Sure enough there they were in the racks, right where we left them. Off we went and for the next 24 hours I was going to be pedaling my bike. That is the plan. Thanks to my support and music everything worked out smoothly. Like I always say and it is so true, I couldn’t do it without them. Every lap was pretty consistent and I just kept on cruising. My competition didn’t have that many roadblocks either which kept the event interesting.
Sunday I managed to jump into second place for a moment but that did not last. With ten laps I ended up taking third. Not too shabby. Second place had 11 laps and first place had 12. Strong women. My dad came on Sunday as well with a grill, some brats and fruit. That was just what I needed. It was a great event thanks to Hoss, Dirt Rag, Lupine, Thick and my parents.

Dirt Rag Blog Take One.

Vegas Baby. And Interbike. When I first started working at Dirt Rag back in June, the whispering of the plans for Interbike 2007 was just beginning. I had naively assumed that the new girl would stay behind and mind the store. As it turns out, everyone goes to Interbike. I admit that I was feeling nervous about the whole experience. In my career as a graphic artist, I had often prepared materials and merchandise for office personnel going to conferences, but I had never been a representative at one. Rumors about Vegas alone are enough to make a person twitchy.

Looking back at the first two days I’d have to say I didn’t try nearly enough bikes out at the Outdoor Demo. One of the ones I did get an opportunity to hop on was a Spot singlespeed featuring the new belt drive. You can read plenty of technical information concerning the pros and cons of this system, but I find that most of the cons are related to it being new technology and that as it’s further developed, these issues will fall by the wayside. I hope that’s the case, because I was really surprised by the efficiency of this system. I admit to being skeptical about hopping on a singlespeed to work my way up the grade to the trailhead, but I have to say that I did as well as on my geared bike (which surprised me to no end).

We really lucked out with the weather this year. The sun and sky were incredibly clear and crisp, but an unlooked-for breeze kept temperatures in the tolerable level for both days of Outdoor Demo. This is also my first trip to the desert. (I was born in Flagstaff, AZ, but we moved to Denver when I was two.) I would have dearly loved to spend more time there just looking around. Vegetation was sparse and even bugs seemed in modest quantities, but I think this emptiness and bareness of red rock and chalky tan boulders against the empty sky is beautiful. The vastness even seemed to muffle the frantic pace of Dirt Demo (or maybe that was the excessive dust).

Returning to Vegas proper was a decent from the ruggedness and bleak beauty of the desert that mountain bikers love to the urban sprawl that has chewed up and converted the desert into green lawns, astro turf and palms. What a strange little town Vegas is. The streets are so clean it’s disturbing. The gross underbelly lurks in the porn stands and casinos.

As for Vegas, I can make two observations: Each morning I walked down the strip to the Sands Expo and marveled at all the gaudy fakeness that oozed from the institutions. They reminded me of cleverly disguised traps luring the passersby in. More than once I found myself humming the refrain to Hotel California. I do have to admit that a secret part of me thought it was all kind of fun. The trappings and the make believe can really be a great escape. But I am also obligated to point out the one bleak part of this whole trip. On this same street, that in the day was fun and games, in the evening I saw a pretty young woman staggering down the street, hardly able to stay upright. Her state of mind was in total contrast with her lovely white dress and dolled-up makeup and hair. As our van drove by I noticed nobody acknowledged her presence. I can’t imagine the ending was good. I think that this image lingered with me even as I got down to business and the fun of Interbike.

My mission for the rest of the week was simple: walk every inch of the Sands Expo and look at as many bikes as possible. Since coming on board Dirt Rag, I’ve started contemplating my next bike purchase which, as it turns out, will also be and my first mountain bike. (Currently, I borrow what happens to be lying around here at the office.) With so many options to choose from, after awhile I feel my eyes glazing over. Of some options I’d seen online doing research, a number were on display at InterBike. Kona’s Lana’i? Raleigh’s Mojave 4.5? Fisher Tarpon? Or a Specialized Rockhopper to match my husband’s? Or one of those cool Mykas in spanky red finish, engineered specifically for women riders?

Another great part of these final days of the week was the steady stream of new faces and people I met. So many readers stopped by the booth to say hello it certainly made me feel proud of this company I’m a part of. As my gang of well-entrenched Dirt Rag colleagues introduced me to friends and contacts, I was struck by the richness of this industry. Coming from a tense frantic ugly corporate world, it was refreshing and invigorating to meet such honest and real people including Robert Studdiford (part of the TWOFISH clan) and Bruce Gordon from Bruce Gordon Cycles. Bruce graciously and without complaint crawled/squished into the back of the Dirt Rag van and accompanied us to a sushi dinner Friday evening.

Before dinner on Friday, Thanita introduced me to folks at the Outdoor Industries Women’s Collation at their 2007 Pioneering Woman and First Ascent Award ceremony in the lower room of the Sands. It’s somewhat overwhelming to see so many avenues and opportunities to express and grow. It’s exciting too and I can’t wait to see how things progress in the coming year.

Cheers!

Addiction is a strong word, so now that I have your attention, I’ll change my wording from addict to fanatic. What is it that I’m so hung up on? Rearview mirrors! I must confess, I never pictured myself as a mirror-wearing cyclist. Now that I’ve started down the mirror road, I can’t imagine turning back (pun intended). I know many of you think having a mirror on your person, or bicycle, is the pinnacle of bicycle dorkdom. I’m ok with that, being a slave to all-things-cool hasn’t ever had much appeal to me. Consider this: responsible driving practices, in an automobile or on a motorcycle, dictate a regular check of your mirrors so you know what is happening on the roadway behind you. Why should riding a bicycle on the road be any different, particularly when you’re the slowest traffic?

While I’m making confessions, I might as well include the primary motivating factor behind this whole mirror thing; I recently acquired my first motor vehicle in about 6 years. Now, I’ve been riding all sorts of motorized vehicles from a very young age, so procuring a dual sport motorcycle felt like a bit of a homecoming – as well as a guilty pleasure. I’ve always been a compulsive mirror checker, car or motorbike, and soon found myself attempting to check my mirrors while pedaling to work. Enter a commuting helmet with integrated mirror. What a wonderful idea! I’m totally hooked. I had grown used to being without a way to see the road behind, and truly didn’t realize what I was missing. It took me a little while to get accustomed to using the mirror, but after a week or so it became second nature. After a few months of riding with a mirror, I feel totally naked, and vulnerable without one while on the road.

Reflecting on my cycling past, I’m realizing there are a lot of things I have begun doing that I would have never pictured – mirrors being just one example. In the past I commuted on a fender-less track bike, hauling all my crap around in a messenger bag, fun while it lasted, but in retrospect harder on the body than need be. I’ve since moved on to much more comfortable commuting machines: ‘cross bike and a 29er/hybrid both with very relaxed riding positions, full fenders, racks, panniers, lots of lights, and a helmet with a mirror – gasp! Commuting without a bag on your back is pretty wonderful, I highly recommend it – your bicycle carries weight with comparative ease.

On a somewhat related rant, I’ve been noticing a wonderful increase in bike traffic around the city, some portion of which I attribute the increasing popularity of track bikes and the hip style that’s part of the scene. As this fixed gear, hipster craze progresses I’m becoming increasingly disconcerted by the “you’re not riding a track bike (and yikes you’re wearing a mirror!), therefore you aren’t hip, and I’m going to pretend you don’t exist” posturing. Come on now, there’s no need for attitude; we’re all in it together. I’d like to persuade everyone to acknowledge other cyclists with a wave and friendly greeting whenever possible. We’re all experiencing the same joy, why not come down off your high horse, say hello, and build some solidarity.