Trek Rig-Like I needed another bike

Well, as if I needed another bike. Yes, I added a Rig to my collection. Of course I built it from the ground up-is there another way? I have never had an aluminum SS, and one with that crazy new fangled shock absorber! It comes with new FCC hub. For those of you not in the know, that is the Fisher Control Column. Simply put, it has wider flanges to reduce flex in the front wheel. I havent ridden it as of yet, but the bearings are super smooth. I do have to say, though-the paint is as bad as it looks. I dont know what Trek was thinking on this one, but someone fell asleep at the design table, for sure. Mine is getting stripped down and painted Ballet Slipper Pink! Yes pink. I will give more info later, but as of now it weighs 23.3 lbs. Not sure about the whole shock thing, but I will give it a try.

My Quest to become the greatest monocogger ever...eh maybe not

So, right now I am in phase 2 of my training. Yes, that's right; intervals. For those of you not well versed in the interval arts, these are what we call %#@! and bleep bleep and bleeping nescessary evils of cycling. Let's put it this way, I would rather ride the Tilt-a-Whirl 15 times in a row than spending an hour doing these-although, there are no real benefits from riding the Tilt-a-Hurl other than losing a few pounds at your feet after exiting the stupid ride. 

These are the painful intervals. 3 minutes of all out, watching the clock seem to slow down after every minute efforts. I just like the way my HR graph bears an uncanny resemblance to Jughead's hat.

Anyway, these are painful, but intervals are THE best way to increase speed and lactate tolerance.

Trek Fisher Collection Superfly Elite HT

Well, its finally together and something is definitely wrong with this bike. First off; it is way too heavy, 20.2 lbs in a large carbon frame! This is unacceptable. Who every heard of a 29er HT weighing in at 20 lbs. 20 lbs...hmmmm. What can I do to make it even heavier? I will have to work on that. Secondly: it has all of these, these dangly gear changer thingies and all of these round things on the wheel with teeth-I guess they help with easier pedaling-dont know. I must have not have followed the directions correctly or something. I thought this thing was supposed to be a single speed, but it sure doesnt look like one. I will have to go back and re-read to see if I missed something. Thirdly...what on earth will I do with a geared bike? How will this effect my social life? Will people view me differently? What kind of names will they call me? Maybe like " Hey look, isnt that the geared moron who used to be the singlespeed moron?" or "He really is a moron, he doesnt know the difference between a SS and a geared rig-moron." 

The stuff: FSA 2x9 Crank (44/29), Bontrager RXL Wheels, Stem, Post, Grips, Bar, Bontrager Evoke 3 Ti saddle, Avid Juicy Ultimate Brakes, Sram XO Shifters and Rear Derailleur, Sram Hollow pin chain, Shimano Dura Ace 11-25 Ti cassette, Shimano XT front derailleur, Fox F32 Fork, Bontrager XDX Tires, Egg beater pedals .

Bakers Dozen and Frustration!

I love rocks

Well, it was time yet again for another 13 hour race; Bakers Dozen. I was asked by my friend Auggie to do a duo this time around. To be honest, at first, I was not real excited about this one. It was cold, very muddy and damp.

It's fun to play in the mud, isnt it?

They added another mile of technical portions to the lap this year which brought the laps to 9 miles. The course is is riddled with large rocks and very claustrophobic rock pillars; good time to put those 750mm bars on! Anyway, I was SSing all the way again. 


Auggie went geared. I was feeling really good all day-with the exception of the $5 tuna that was finger food at best for a child. That lap I was getting some cramping, but went away about 7 miles in. My times were consistent and pretty quick. I got faster as the day went on, which was a great sign…for me anyway. 


My laps where a 50:21, 49:08, 48:47, 48:38, 46:52 and 47:58. There was a timing chip discrepancy early on which saw us go from 8th to 15th. It was fixed, but after that our individual times where way off-they just pick some random times to equal the time discrepancy. It is a team effort, but on paper, it is good to compare times against the teams you are going up against to see how much time you either lost or gained on a particular rider. Good thing for Mr. Garmin. I rode the Ferrous and Superfly this year with 32/18 gearing. The Superfly was the bike to have in the mud. It was quick and stuck every line.

Racing on the Velcro

Things were looking pretty good. We moved up from 13th to 8th. I turned in a double lap to help Auggie get some rest. We were 3 minutes from 7th and 11 minutes from 6th. The top 3 teams were a mix of elite riders and top experts, so our placement was a bit skewed. I came in from my 6th lap and I was greeted with Auggie slumped in the chair. “Come on man, get up and ride!”. He said he couldnt turn the pedals anymore. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, so freikin’ close! I badgered him for a good 10 minutes to go out, but no go. So we had to call it quits at 7:30. I was pretty bummed. We could have moved into 6th with some output and you never know in these races what could happen. We did end up in 15th out of 40 teams, with 10:27:31 of riding. 

So personally, I did really well. My training has been a success and hopefully will continue as such. None of that matter, thoughs if the team overall isnt. Next race is 12 hours of Lodi Farms in may.