Well I did it. I bought the ‘24 carbon Smuggler. Barney needs a few personal tweaks before I actually ride it but pretty sure it’s a major upgrade over my ‘18 aluminum Smuggs. I feel bad though, that one is still riding strong. Probably should find a new appreciative home… image0.jpegimage1.jpegimage2.jpeg

Gettin Fat(ter)

The latestaddition to my stable is a Borealis Crestone . Carbon frame made by pretty much the original fatbike company. 27.5 wheels with Hope hubs and Mulefut rims and 4.5" Maxxis Colossus tires. Mastodon 120 mm fork, Thudbuster LT post. Answer 20/20 carbon Alt bars. SRAM Hydraulics, 12 speed GX. Coming from a Pugsley, the only similarity would be the bars and seatpost. And that they both have a dark sparkly finish. I had demo'd a Flume from Doug at Aunt Betty a year or so go, and would have gone back for the Crestone, but I found this one at BikeBarn in Whitman and could not resist this 'Midnight Beast'! I love my pugsley too, with zippy 26" wheels. My first impression on the Crestone was that is was sluggish, and heavy up front with the suspension fork. The fork did add 3+ pounds, and I noticed that first. After the first 3 rides, I didn't notice it any more. The ability to bash through rock gardens and roots outweighed the extra weight. The bigger wheels and tires gave me thatt first sluggo impression, but found that once I got the bike in motion, it just wanted to go faster. The Thudbuster has been on almost every hardtail I've ever owned, but it really excels on this bike. Not sure why, but the sum of all these parts make it into a monster hardtail! This bike is the culmination of all my dreams of having larger volume tires on my bikes. I've never been a fan of any tire under 2.4 ( at least since 1992 ) on any mountainbike. Currently I run a Rekon 2.8 up front my Transition Smuggler, which won'y accept more than a 2.4 rear. Thats a fun bike. But I'm really loving the Borealis. It's been my main ride for awile now. I originally thought I'd just ride it in the messy 'shoulder seasons', but I rode it through the summer as much as I could. Now into winter, I'm really looking forward to some snow riding!

from one blog to another

Check out Green Mountain Trails for real New England riding

Always check your axle bolts

So, there I was, getting my Gnar on yesterday. Just Riding Along, on my Transition Smuggler, in Wompy. I heard a clunk as I descended from mad air coming down prospect hill in a cloud of dust as I GiddyUp’d and put the hamma down🔥🤪. Ok I exaggerate alittle. But my AVS did turn out to be the fastest this year for a 60yo with bruised ribs and shortened T11, nevermind all the other geezer aches and pains. I will however give credit where it’s due, to Jeff G, a BikeBarnRacing.com buddy of mine, who I came across about halfway through. We decided it would be more fun to ride together rather than solo, it always is, and yeah, it’s always inspiring to ride with someone else, especially someone faster and more technically adept. Younger too of course. So anyways, back to the clunk. We had just been talking about rear shocks and my Fox Evol RP3 HIJKLMNOP or whatever it is. I run it on the middle setting mostly, in the ‘hardtail’ setting when the trails are smoother and I wanna go fast. But just to clarify, it was in the middle this time. The reason I don’t use the plush setting is because I inevitably pedal strike everything, which more often than not, I get thrown off. So this was the subject of conversation. That maybe I should seek and install a ‘volume spacer’. So when I came off that tiny lip, and heard the clunk, I thought of that and figured, yeah! That’s what I need, then I can run the shock full bore like it should be. Of course, I heard the wheel go ‘ping’ at the same time, and maybe shoulda suspected something else. But I was having too much fun at maximum warp, and the bike seemed ok. Back in the parking lot, off the bike, something was wiggly. Not the usual dropper wiggliness. And all the sudden it wouldn’t shift or pedal. Grabbed the rear tire, gave it a squeeze and wiggle, sho ‘nuf that was it. The thru axle was loose, hanging by a thread! So I tightened it, mounted the bike in the truck and headed home. When I got home, I figured I’d wipe and lube things down. NOW, the rear is locked up like a fixie. WTH??!! Shit, I broke the wheel, too??!! Visions of having to shop for a new wheel, spending more cash on a stupid mistake, but still drooling over pictures of expensive new wheels an how much faster they’d make me go. So I take the wheel off, put it back on. Still jammed. So I took it off again and removed the Eagle. All looks fine.....cleaned it all up nice .... then I pulled off the XD driver, and all those little clickety bits fell out. Or at least a couple did. Apparently, there was so much play in the hub/frame interface, a couple of them got jammed between the hub and driver. Have it all a cursory wipe, put all back together, voila! That was it. My 3 year old wheelset is still rolling, and I’m happy with it. Stan’s Flow S1, neo hubs. Ironically, I usually take pretty good care of my bikes. This one just slipped by me. And Mark, at BikeBarnRacing.com will take care of that volume spacer next week.

Social DisDancing

here we are what about 7 weeks into our Covid 19 Virus/Small Business Closure/Social Distancing/Economic 'Downturn', whatever the label, this staying home and not working, mask-wearing, social shaming, unemployment collecting, and most importantly, the deadly consequences of infection, WHEN'S IT GONNA STOP! Nobody seems to know, and I'm fine with that, as long as I'm collecting my hard earned tax dollars and can stay solvent. I've accomplished a few projects around the house, my family doesn't mind me cooking for them all day, and, I GET TO RIDE MY BIKE ANYTIME AS MUCH AS I WANT! I wanna retire someday, soo I guess in a twisted way, this is part of my RIT program ( Retiree In Training ) that I've been chuckling about the past few years. I'll be 60 in September, so I have a few more years to go, and a few more years for my mutual funds to bounce back before I really need.... So, yeah, over 100 miles/week now, at least 1/2 on trails. A couple of the Blue Hills roads are closed to cars for now, and they happen to contain most of the good climbs in the park. It's been a WET spring, and trails are suffering from the deluge of newly-found outdoorspeople who are traipsing ( and riding )around all the puddles and wet spots and blowing them out. Nobody likes their new running shoes to get wet and muddy, and there are still alot of riders who JUST DON'T GET IT! The good thing about BLue Hills, is that most of the trails are actually old carriage paths, built of hardened gravel and rock. So I have choices> Clean but boring solo road ride, or potentially ass-soaking trail ride. The Hills has some drainage problems, so much of this time of year, water is flowing on those hardened trails. The aforementioned mud spots, in defense of those who prefer to go 'round, are much a part of the drainage problems, and need to be remedied. But the Blue Hills despite its wild feel, is an 'urban park', and the DCR has many roads running through it, so ALL of their maintenance goes into paved roads and gates and stuff. ( somehow I got distracted and never finished this, so, "it is what it is" )

Good Pain

Finally doing PT, with Scott Taylor at New England Baptist Hospital in Dedham. Being a cyclist as well, he’s setting me on a good track to get back on it. Starting with stretches last week, already into some weight training to help me regain the core muscles that went to shit from underuse when I had to wear the chair back brace. So I’m already feeling a lot less stress in my core, and less pain!

Back Update

Got my 3 month CT scan, doc says the vertebra is 'capping'on the outside, and that the softer inside will heal slower. Lucky I had no nerve or disc damage, or leg pain or weakness. Real lucky. I've lost about a half inch of height, and this injury didn't really help my sclerosis(?) and probably made it worse. The doctor will probably have me wean myself off the brace next few weeks, and start some PT, most of which I can do myself...I'm starting a spin program for myself, at the Y, easy spin for now, but intend to ramp up slowly throughout the winter and get back into dancing on the pedals, so when Spring comes, I can get back to it with some fitness. Still intend to go easy on the tech stuff and the taking chances thing. Maybe afford a gravel bike. It'll probably be a year or more before I can safely fall off my bike again....but, I'll be Back!

August 19, 2019. JRA at D Acres, Dorchester, NH Coming off a slick bridge, rear wheel slipped out and spun me around, my ass hitting the nicely hardened machine made trail T11 fractured. Been out of work for 7 days, it’s been 9 day since it happened. Saw Dr Stephen Johnson today. He’s a very well-known spine surgeon and a fellow moutainbiker. He said to let pain be my guide, that I didn’t need the brace , only for comfort. Since it causes me more pain than comfort, it’s off. 8-10 weeks I should be healed and pain free!

Arrowing a simple ride loop

Once around the castle and once over the stump

New Segment

off old 128 and along new 128 to Exit 3, an exciting new route. Don't fall into the drainage ditches and culverts!

Madness!!

It was a beautiful 70 degree Sunday in Plymouth, VT. My wife and daughter agreed to drive me up and back from home in Quincy, MA, to some crazy ride in the woods. Not a race, Pavé Madness was, in fact, Madness. 23 miles of Vermont Class 4 'roads', unmaintained washed out skid roads, and river riding. Yep, actual riding down and across  river beds at least a dozen times. Some of the aforementioned roads were in fact rivers as well. One road had even been flooded by a beaver dam--but it was part of the course! The only way to get to the other side, was yep, ride through the flooded dam. The first section was ok, relatively easy ride through thigh-deep water, just keep pedaling, never mind what's at the bottom, it was abit mushy, but rideable through. The second part was more like chest high. Peter Vollers, the ride promoter himself, was at the entrance of it all, giving us all the options and encouragement we needed to get through the dam without life preservers or a kayak... So the chest high section options were: you could wade through and risk losing a shoe in the muck, all while holding your bike over your head, take your shoes off and carry them and your bike overhead, or to carry your bike while walking/balancing on the spongy edge of the beaver dam, trying not to fall over into the deeper water. I opted for the latter, and actually made it over to the other side without falling in! As it turned out, the submergement of the legs in the tepid water was very refreshing. This was the wettest section of the ride, but there was also the mud. Ankle deep good ol Vermont mud. Just ride through and hope it's not too deep...Lots and lots of muddy, puddly/muddy sections, followed by rocks. Lots of slippery rocks.Just hurl yourself down them and hope for the best. I think the best word to describe the state of the route was 'unmaintained'....but I will say, there was nary a deadfall across the trail, and the foliage on the sides of the path was cutback at some time of the year, to allow for Jeep and LandRover travel. Even for the motorized, this terrain was not easy. Vermont Overland, the ride entity, had several strategically placed LandRovers in case of emergency, and/or to make sure we didn't make a wrong turn....I'm assuming that this particular course was designed only with this event in mind, not someone's daily loop. But those Vermonters are a tough breed.... In the days preceding the ride, emails were sent out to those registered that this would be a 'full suspension recommended' ride. since I don't own one of those, I was among only a handful of people riding a hardtail. Like I always say, "if the wheels go 'round, ride what ya got!" A kid named 'Ansel', obviously a local and renowned for his skillz, was purported to have ridden the course on a Cannondale Slate, basically a gravel bike with drop bars. Rumor was that he finished in just over 2 hours. Did I say he's a kid? Pretty young anyways. They said in the promo that everything was 'rideable' by somebody. Fairly sure they were referring to this young stud. The rideable sections were rideable. I did a lot of walking/slogging through the mud and slippery rocks. Probably 20% off the bike. My motivations to keep going were that nice clear river at basecamp, where I was gonna strip naked and jump in, fresh brewed beer from River Roost Brewery in White River Jct, and to finally reunite with some of my fellow riders and share stories... Then there were the hills. The first 2/3 of the ride was uphill. The last third was mostly downhill, except for the long, grinding ups. Nothing flat or dry about the ride, except maybe a few 30 foot grassy meadowy sections, where I imagined a bear may cross my path looking for the blackberries on either side, and some old overgrown ponds/reedy deadhead bogs where I was on the lookout for Moose... No speedy wide-open ballsy downhills. Not until the very end, where the route spilled out onto a real maintained Vermont gravel road for a couple of miles which took us back to the start/finish at Vermont Overland's basecamp (house). VO did a great job of support, especially with the sag stop at about 14 miles. They said to stop there, not to blow by it, we would NEED this stop. They weren't lying. It was at the bottom of a nice downhill section, at 'Five Corners', apparently a ghost town intersection. the stop came also just after 'The Crack', an old road so badly washed out that the reroute around it was 30 feet above it. "Don't look down", Peter had cautioned us at the start, as well as warned us that the edge of the runaround could be spongy and unsafe. It actually was not the worst part of the ride, and probably the driest and softest part of the entire beatdown. But only maybe fifty yards long. At the sag stop , Peter's wife and family welcomed us with fresh water, SkratchLabs powder, bananas, peanut butter and oatmeal rollups, and homemade dark chocolate bars with dried cranberries and nuts....I thoroughly enjoyed the stop, caught up with a few riders who I met in the first few miles... Then it was time to slog on. Like one of the support riders said, the last 1/3 of the ride was downhill. I didn't believe him even though he was totally serious. There was still a lot of climbing.Maybe I'm just a Flatlander, but I finally leg cramped up near the top of one of the last hills. I was able to stretch it out fairly quick and soldier on. To be fair, as I mentioned, the last 2-3 miles WERE downhill, with that last screamer back to basecamp. Glad there were no cars, I hit close to 40, swinging wide turns all over the road. The beer and food was great, and so was the river. I had accomplished what I intended to: exhausted myself but made it through, mud-covered yet relatively unscathed. Luckily I had that ride back home, and all day Monday to recover.....I'd say I got my 45 dollars worth! Checkout my google photos album...

Road signals

"Point in the direction you want to go" , that's always been my method. The old horse and buggy signals don't work anymore.

FIRST, I stick my arm out and wave it up and down, to make sure the drivers see me.

Then I POINT, with my pointy finger, first with my arm fully extended, then flexing my elbow with my finger still pointing that direction, several times or until I need to grab the bars again. 

Even with that, I don't ride on roads much anymore. Trees and rocks won't usually run me over. Here's someone who agrees with me.

.https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/adventure/red-line/bike-hand-signals-are-confusing-heres-a-better-simpler-solution/article23969732/?ref=https://www.theglobeandmail.com&&service=mobile#_=_

 

It is what it is

Wayne spent two nights at the hospital, under observation and waiting for a CAT scan and two MRI. 

They found broken L2 and strained neck ligaments front and rear, and possible compression damage in his cervical discs. Now he is home, waiting and healing, with the neck brace on for one month. No work, no driving. Then he sees a surgeon to evaluate his neck. He's upbeat about all this, and still maintains "it is what it is" ....

 

Man Down!

So this morning was like so many others, a 'perfect day for a ride'. That's how it started. At Cutler Park. So it was aptly renamed the 'Cutler Chuckler' by some of the partly reunited 'Team Chuck', 3 of whom were in attendance today, Upchuck, TacoChuck, and FlatChuck ( As of Snowpachuck I have been honorarily inducted as ChiliChuck, but that's a different story for a different day....). We also had Ralph the lawyer, Michael Hurley the Chicken Farmer, John'Reff', and Wompatuck Wayne. We also started with a few young-uns from the Natick Landrys' store, but they opted to do their own shorter ride so they wouldn't be late for work at the shop on a busy Sunday. So we started with eight of us 50-something knuckleheads, rolling the fun single track ditches and berms on that fine sunny day. Something wasn't right about the next drainage ditch 'jump'/roller, followed by a quick steep up. We saw it from below, but all agreed to give it a roll. Most of us opted to hug the ground but that was difficult, by design. The cry of 'MAN DOWN!' is never good. Wayne had cartwheeled off his bike onto his head, cracked his helmet in two places, and was obviously hurt. He was conscious, asking about his bike and his little green alien, but we were very concerned about the mid-back pain he related to us. We were very close to the parking lot and he wanted to get up and ride back, so we got him to his truck, and Upchuck got him to South Shore Urgent Care in Weymouth. They transferred him to South Shore Hospital for observation, Catscan and MRI. He's still there awaiting results. I visited him at about 6pm, and they finally gave the hungry man a sandwich!. He's in a lot of pain, still has all his faculties but he's suffering. Stay tuned for updates on his condition.( as of 11:30, still awaiting results) Keep Wayne in your thoughts, and ride safe.

Doubletrack

So I got out on a 'recovery ride', the day after Mother's Day. Those of you who know, know that Mother's Day is the biggest Day of the year in the restaurant business. The week leading up to it was hell, trying to make sure we had enough prep done ....then the weekend itself adding up to 42 hours just Friday Saturday and Sunday... add to that the running lack of help in the kitchen ....So by Monday I was burnt toast. I couldn't think about riding in the morning. I had yet to finish my chapter update, which kept me inside on the computer until noon. I lay about half the afternoon. Finally I dragged myself and my bike to BlueHills and started feeling better. "Didn't break any speed limits", as I reported in Strava, got 12 miles in and was glad I got out! 

So I needed new rear brakes. I looked into internet prices, with shipping , w/o shipping...
I found that most hydraulic disc brakes are pre-bled. Meaning that any monkey like myself can install them in a few minutes. Then I measured the hoses on my bike. They're like 200mm shorter than the hoses provided with a new kit. That means that the slack of the new hoses either will be flopping around in front of me or they'll need to be cut down to the correct size. Which means, the pre-bled kit hose need to be re-bled after cutting the hose, which I don't know much about.
Enter the LBS. Seems that just a couple of years ago there were only a couple of shops around that employed a mechanic who knew anything about brake bleeding --now they're all smartenin up....not many riders have the patience, and/or time to learn this relatively simple process. Some specialized tools are needed also( a bleed kit ) I've bled my Avid Elixir 3's a number of times, with my smart, good  friend Wayne's help. He had a bleed kit.
To shorten the saga abit, every time I wanted to change the brake pads, I had to bleed the system. And still the brakes kinda sucked. Not much modulation and too much lever pull just to make them work, I was getting tired of it. This past June, up at NEMBAFEST, one of our local shops, Landry's, was setup in the expo, offering free bike maintenance. I took them up on the offer, told Jared and Brandon my sob story that I just told you. They bled everything and the brakes were cherry for a few weeks. Then back to the way they were. So, when I finally said "enough!", I looked them up again, back at their Braintree store. As I mentioned, I did some internet research, decided on Shimano, and sure, I could buy the pre-bled rear kit for almost 20 dollars less, but there was that issue of the hose needing cut .....
Now onto my real problem with brakes. They don't make me faster, they only slow me down!

One of my favorite new videos

Highland - A Progression Story (Alan Watts) from Highland Mountain Bike Park on Vimeo.

On the road again

Out on the road bike for the first time in abouta year....
My @1993 Specialized Epic Carbon. Yep, that name that has since been re-branded as their popular high-end FSR rig, was originally a carbon and aluminum road bike. Carbon fiber tubing glued into aluminum lugs.
I bought it at Belmont Wheelworks in 1994. Not sure if it's a '94, or if it was NOS from a previous year , but I got it for a sweet 700 clams. At any rate, the salesman told me that in previous versions of the frame , the interface(glue) of the tubes and lugs was prone to react with the materials, breaking down and causing them to separate....but this particular model year they had painted the surfaces first so this chemical reaction would not happen. I believed him, and couldn't pas up on this fully-105- equipped, light weight machine. I test rode it and loved it. And to this day, ( knock on carbon fiber) , no sign of anything separating....
I once or twice tried to sell this beast back in the day of internet bb's, then decided  I wanted to keep it, and for years after kept getting emails about the original posting. One guy insisted on giving me exactly what I paid for it but at that point I had realized how much I loved the ride and that carbon fiber bikes were getting really expensive....
I've really never ridden another road bike ( except for the Reynolds steel bianchi-styled St Etienne with Campy-copy components that I bought in 1975) , so I don't have much point of reference, but the Epic rode like a dream. And still does.
On a warming pre-spring day when the trails were still soaked from 36 hours of rain,  a rare ride on the road was Epic.