OMBC Mohican Race Report

It's a first for me.  I've never done an OMBC race but decided to give it a go at Mohican, the second race of this year's series.  So far this year I have ridden at Mohican exactly zero times and only been on a mountain bike twice, for about 3 total laps at the Knob.  But on the positive side, I've been consistent on OCC rides and have felt pretty good. Trail riding, however, is a lot different than the road.

Trusty steed, except all those dropped chains.

Ten minutes after noon, when the expert riders rolled out, I lined up at the start line with the sport riders.  We were in for a full lap plus the trails/roads to get us to from the Mohican Adventures start line.  Shortly after leaving the start line we hit a gravel, steep uphill piece of singletrack and the bunch clogged up.  Off the bike and pushing but we were going again shortly.

Though I didn't want to go out too hard I think I may have.  I was passing riders in the first five miles only to later be passed by them.  Maybe do that different next time.  At the start line I had eaten two thirds of a Cliff Bar and I finished eating that five or six miles in.  On the downhills to the covered bridge I was feeling bold and was flying along pretty good.  I passed a couple guys on the downhill.

Crossing the covered bridge I sucked down half a GU and then started the climb. Maybe it was the aggressive downhill, but I didn't feel able to attack the climb like normal.  More likely, it's a lack of trail riding.  I felt like I really had to monitor my pace not to pop.

Coming into Trailhead B I felt pretty decent thanks to keeping it in check up the climb.  I refilled a bottle with some ice cold water.  It was the warmest day of the year so far and I was feeling it a little. I poured a bottle down my back and it took my breath away.  A handful of dried apricots and cashews gave me some good flavors.

From Trailhead B to the mile 19 crossing I was going pretty good. Unfortunately I dropped my chain about the second or third time of the day.  Something's up with my drivetrain as my 1x10 was doing quite well last year.  The Type 2 rear derailleur was doing it's thing but not today.  I dropped the chain at least four times.  The cost me five or so minutes I suppose, but I didn't get too rattled by it.

After mile 19 road crossing I sucked down another half GU and kept it truckin' best I could.  I felt like I was either going really fast or really slow, depending on terrain.  My bike handling was pretty good today.  I was keeping off the brakes and cornering well.  Some of the hills bogged me down a little.

Coming down to the campground I let a guy pass me just before a switchback only to see him crash right in front of me.  I cornered through on the inside line and he said "I'll follow you, I've never ridden here before."  Yeah, good idea.

As we crossed the bridge to campground my chain dropped again and rode away.  That one sucked as I would have liked to push to the finish with him.  After the section of trail along the campground I popped out at the start of the State Park loop.  Hmmm... I really had no idea how the race finished from here, but soon found out.

We went part way up the opening climb before branching off to the Mohican Adventure property.  There was a super punchy exit I was not at all prepared for and ended up hike-a-biking with several other guys.  Then there were a bunch of gravel roads, a sharp right I missed and had to circle back for, and some other varied gravel campground roads.  There was more racing in the campgrounds than what I expected but now I know.

I cranked down a gravel road to the finish line and crossed 2:40:XX after starting.  Cool!  My goal was to be less than 3 hours and I thought 2:45 would be a good challenge, though I had no idea how much the additional trail beyond the State Park loop would add.  I was mostly pleased with my effort and it was a perfect day for a mountain bike race!

Easter Dirt Ride

Easter weekend and we have a full schedule.  Fortunately I planned ahead and had my bike and gear ready to go for a trip to Mohican between a soccer game and birthday party.

Ready and waiting. 

There were a good number of cars in the parking lot.  I'm guessing there were more than a few Mohican 100 racers out on training rides.  The weather was just perfect, 55 degrees and sunny, as I rolled out.

I was not certain how much I was going to ride today, but I did a better job of packing food for this ride than the last.  About five miles in a downed a GU and was feeling good vibes about going for a full lap.  My handling seemed to be on today and I was enjoying front suspension.  The gears were nice too.

Coming up to the covered bridge I met two fisherman who looked to be having a good day.  I stopped and chatted for a couple minutes as I admired their catch.

Easter dinner?

After adding some more food to the tank I started up the climb and continued to feel good.  I reached the second trailhead and was excited to see the trail ahead was open.  At this point I figured I would ride down to mile 19 and see how I felt.

 Feeling good in the pine forest.

At 19 I crossed the road and stopped for my last bit of food.  May as well keep it going now.  Within a mile I was slowing down and felt some pending leg cramps.  After a little bit of slower riding I seemed to recover and felt a good push to the finish.

It was a much better ride than my last one at Mohican and I really enjoyed the day.  It was a nice time out in God's creation the day before celebrating our risen saviour!

Leaves Down

After a slow start to the morning I made it down to Mohican about 10.  As expected the fall colors were past and the trees were mostly barren of leaves.  When I pulled into the parking lot I saw one rider hitting the trail.and three other guys were gearing up and heading out.  I got my stuff together and started the chase.

Where's the trail?

This was my first ride on the Paragon in a couple months and it definitely felt different than the Karate Monkey.  Despite having gears at my disposal I rode a single gear all the way to the covered bridge.  I did some downshifting for Mount Doom.

Low sun before noon.

The leaves were disguising the trail pretty well.  Combine this with front suspension, that I have no ridden on in a while, and I was mostly just aiming straight ahead.  I didn't really feel any faster, just less thoughtful of how I would get where I was going.

I had never seen this particular view while climbing

Mount Doom.  Looks like a mountain over there.

I guess my head was always down huffin' and puffin'.

In the first 5 miles I had caught the guys ahead of me, which probably wasn't the best warm up.  I felt good through the second trail head after a pretty moderate climb up Mount Doom.  Through the fern forest and having fun. At the mile 19 I did a time check and decided to road it back.  Still much to be done today.

Paragon Maintenance

I've had the Paragon out of play for several weeks.  First, the headset had been creaking and driving me nuts.  Upon disassembly I found the lower bearing was pretty cruddy.  I had already disassembled this cartridge bearing and repacked it once, so this time I ordered a new one.

Ellen and her kittly slippers help with

headset bearing replacement.

Next up, my SRAM type 2 rear derailleur is one of the first ones made.  It was actually back ordered when I first tried to purchase.  Over recent months I've noticed it simply has way too much tension on the chain, making shift to larger cogs really chunky sounding.

I talked to the SRAM rep at Manatoc and he said there is a known issue with early production models.  Thanks to SRAM's excellent customer service they sent me new one.  Actually they did one better and sent me an X0 rear derailleur to replace my X9.  Upgrade!

 New rear derailleur installed.

In the process of working on the above mentioned items I thought about my tubeless wheels.  I'd never topped off the Stans sealant since first going tubeless. When I shook the wheels I could no longer hear it sloshing around.  Yep, time to top off.  I made a bit of a mess but it's all good.

The syringe should make it easier, now that

I know the technique to avoid a mess.

It has been quite fun riding the Karate Monkey while the Paragon has been in pieces.  Getting some front suspension again will be nice.  Interestingly, I've not missed gears too much.

 Ready to roll again.

Tubeless on the Paragon

For several years I have considered it and now, just a couple weeks before the Mohican 100, I have done it... no more tubes in the Paragon.  At lunch I went over to the shop and picked up Bontrager rim strips for my Mustang rims, Bontrager valve stems, and a bottle of Stan's NoTubes sealant.  Oh yeah, I splurged on an injector too.  Ryan had told me about the benefits of being able to inject sealant without breaking the bead on the tire.  He made a good sales pitch.

Ready to go tubeless.

I thought about taking some pictures of the process, but once I got started I just kept going to get it done.  I stripped my tires and tubes off the wheels and got to work stretching on the rim strip.  This took some effort but it went on solid.  And then... where are the valve stems?  Notice they are not in the picture above.  After looking everywhere I convinced myself I left them on my desk at work.  Doh, no finishing this project tonight.

Next day.

Walk into work, walk up to desk... no stems.  I decided they had to be in pants pocket from the previous day, even though I checked last night.  The suspense was killing me so I ran home for lunch, found the stems in the bottom, folded over tip of my pants pocket, and finished the job.

The beads on my Maxxis Ardent tires have always been tough to seat.  I used multiple application of dish soap water, my air compressor, and 70psi of force before having the bead fully seated all the way around.  "Ping!" as the bead seated.

Soap bubbles were popping around the whole circumference of the rim and maybe a little through the sidewall.  Was this really a good idea?  Per Stan's video instructions on the web site, I rotated and sloshed the tire.  I left each one sitting horizontally before going back to work.

Home from work, I found a couple places the beads were still not seated.  More soapy water, air out and air back in... "ping!"  Fully seated.  It also seemed no more air was leaking.  Tomorrow will be the first ride, hopefully they hold pressure over night!

Rack Attached

KT and the kids are gone for an overnight, so with the place to myself I got to work attaching the new roof rack system.

All the pieces and part laid out.

Attachment was very easy thanks to the factory mounting points on the roof of my Mazda 3.  Set the cross bars with Landing Pads loosely attached onto the roof, adjust for proper width and even bar stick out on both ends, then bolt it down.  It's solid.

Tightening the cross bars.

As previously mentioned in another post, I found a great seller on Craigslist.  He really took care of everything and included all the pieces, parts, and manuals.  In addition he gave me some advice about waxing the roof before installing the parts.  On his car this prevented any unwanted marks when the rack was removed.  I took his advice and laid down a coat of Meguiars NXT wax before installation.  You can see a reflection of the garage door opener on the ceiling in the pic above!

Of course I had to test it out with a bike carrier, so I threw one up there and lifted my bike into place.  The load and unload is very easy but may be challenging on top of my car unless you are 6' or taller.  Daniel is going to need to grow a little before throwing his bike up there.

Bike on the upper level.

Mohican Mud Cleanup

We surprisingly received several inches of snow last night.  (What did I say about spring weather on the way in my post less than 24 hours ago?)  My helpers bundled up and were in attendance for the bike cleanup.

Daniel must have been expecting some overspray.

Ellen is about the same height as a 29er wheel.

Mohican Mud

Our schedules and weather aligned.  Ryan and I headed down to Mohican for an off-road ride.

The bikes had not seen each other in a while.

The weather had been a little warmer but I did not expect to find the mud spots we encountered.  It was still a fine afternoon for a ride through the woods.  The temperature was in the upper 30's and I added a vest layer atop my wool jersey for some extra warmth.

No leaves or under story to block the views.

I tried to eat more often to keep some energy going.  At the covered bridge I ate up a homemade energy bar and we got to business on Mount Doom.

Doing some climbin'.

We cut the loop short at about mile 21 and headed back to the car via road.  This gave some opportunity to fling mud of the bikes.  They were still quite dirty upon return to the parking lot.

Wash me!

It was a good early season ride.  My forearms seemed to get as much workout as anything, just holding onto the bars.  Maybe some spring weather will show up for the next ride!

Heading home.

Fall Fell at Mohican

It's been a long dry streak of spinning the cranks on a bike.  A stomach flu that came and went and came and went and came and went has had me out of action.  Today's agenda was to get down to Mohican before the deer gun season lights up and blow out some cobwebs.

Where does the trail go?

The leaves were disguising the trail making for interesting riding.  It was not possible to pick through the terrain, just roll and go.  The air was crisp but it was warm for mid November, just above 40 degrees.  It sure felt good to be out in the woods.

Just before turn around.

I rode out about 6 or 7 miles before turning around.  At this point I was content to get some mild exercise and hopeful to not trigger a relapse of illness.  Just before turning around I came upon a squirrel hunter.  It was the first time I had talked to a squirrel hunter out at Mohican.  We talked about how crazy deer gun season is down here and both agreed it was best to avoid the woods.

Dropping fast.

The sun had dropped below the tree tops but not yet below the hillsides.  I knew It was going to get dark quickly in the woods so I rode steady back to the start glad to have been rolling on two wheels again.

Carbon Control

It's been long enough with the Bontrager Big Sweep bars that came stock on my Trek Paragon.  These are abnormal bars with 17 degrees of sweep.  They were awkward at first, I sort of got used to them, and this summer I've come to blame them for the mild wrist pains I've had the past year.

The Big Sweep.

I upgraded to a carbon Bontrager bar with "only" 9 degrees of sweep.  This matches the setup of the Race Face bars on my Karate Monkey which have treated me well.  Now what to do with the boomerang?

An expensive carbon fiber tube and some cheap grips.

Paragon Maintenance

My brand new Paragon needs some work... wait, how old is it?  Well thanks to my blogful ramblings, I see it's almost been a year and a half since I bought the bike.  I guess time flies when piloting a mountain bike.

Anyhow, I've noticed an increasing amount of oily crud accumulating on the fork stanchions after rides.  I've always been pretty diligent about wiping the stanchions and wiper seals down after rides, but I guess it's time to do some maintenance work.  Good news is I have the tools and know-how from the work with just did with Ryan's fork.  Now I need to get a seal kit and oil for my fork.

Fox F29 off the bike and on the bench.

In the process of removing the fork I had a look at the front brake and pads.  Whoa, pad life has been exhausted!  I thought it was getting close as I've been experiencing long brake lever throw the past couple rides, which makes sense now that I see how worn the pads are and how extended the pistons are.  Now I need to get some new brake pads.

Avid Elixir 5 front brake off the bike.

Alright, I have some pieces, parts, and supplies to procure.  The Karate Monkey is going to get some playing time until I get the work done.  I'm thankful to have two mountain bikes for my riding pleasure.

Aid Station 3

Some pics from aid station 3 at the Mohican 100, courtesy of Ryan.

Mohican: my first double

While I have not registered for the Mohican 100 it's still in my mind to tackle it this year.  Last night some motivation kicked in and I planned a long mountain bike ride for this morning.  The thought was I better prove to myself I can ride a mountain bike for a longer distance without breaking.

At 6:05 this morning my alarm sounded and I set my plan into action.  Start the coffee maker, put on clothes I set out last night, grab food from fridge, pour coffee, and out the door at 6:20.  My bike and gear were already in the car.

Morning light in the parking lot at Mohican.

The plan was a loop at Mohican followed by... more.  How much more?  That was the question.  I wanted to ride two loops but was not sure if that was doable, having never ridden more than a single loop.  After eating two eggs, a banana, and finishing my coffee I hit the trail at 7:02.

I love riding in the woods in the morning.  The low angle light and damp forest have a great effect.  It was 45 degrees when I left the car with arm warmers installed.  I eased into the ride thinking this was the first of two opening climbs today.

At the first road crossing I stopped for an Espresso Love Gu.  I continued to drink regularly as I rode onward.  At the covered bridge I stopped for some almond and cranberry trail mix I had packed along and it was then time to climb.  I rode steady up Mount Doom and soon reached trailhead 2 where it was time to lose the arm warmers.   In about 2:50 I finished the first loop feeling a bit fresher than usual.  Conserving where needed, attention to food and drink, and back stretching seemed to work well.

Throughout the ride I snapped quick pics for time

markers, none of them particularly interesting.

At this point I knew I was headed out for some more.  Back to the car for a Cliff bar and refill of my hydration pack.  And here was a mistake, I only had water for the refill and not enough to fill my hydration pack.  I drank 70oz of diluted Gatoraide on the first lap.  I'm guessing I only had 40oz on my back as I started the second lap.

A met a couple other guys who were out riding laps in prep for the 100 miler.  Chris and I started our second laps about the same time.  While I was hoping to ride at least through Mount Doom, Christ was planning to ride "3 or 4" laps today.  That's tough.

The second lap was off to a good start.  I stopped again at the first road crossing for another Gu and seemed to be slowing in pace.  Chris caught up to me shortly after this and gave me some good hollerin' to keep working.  It helped as I picked up the speed until the covered bridge where I realized I was about out of water.  Uh-oh.

I hung back on the climb wondering how this would play out.  The temperature had risen, a good climb was coming, and I had no water.  I decided to ride very conservatively up the climb and either bail out at the next road crossing or hope to find someone else with water to spare.

At the first road crossing I was doing okay, though the temperature was noticeably warmer.  I continued on and reached the second trailhead.  Fortunately I found water and decided at this point to continue on, at least to the road crossing at mile 19.  I ate a hanful of dried apricots and clipped in.

By mile 19 I was feeling rough.  My legs were starting to cramp, probably from the prior dry stretch.  I made the choice to ride it out and complete the lap even if pedaling in low gear, and this I did frequently.

 My legs were far from fresh the last five miles,

but thankfully not this far gone.

Back to car I was a little ragged but not broken.  The car indicated 86 degrees outside, that's 41 degrees warmer than it was 6 hours and 15 minutes ago when I first left the car.  Full blast A/C, a chocolate shake, and foot long sub cooled me off and put me on a good path to recovery.  I came home and ran through the sprinkler with Daniel.  Well, he did the running and I just stood in front of it.

I was pretty satisfied with the effort.  Of course I wish I would have planned better with fluids on the second lap.  It was a good learning experience and memorable first 50 mile mountain bike ride.  I'm curious to see how the next couple weeks go.

Dodged the weather at the Knob

It seems everyone else head back to work after the Easter weekend, but I seized the opportunity to extend the weekend another day.  This morning we went for a family hike at Wooster Memorial beneath sunny skies.  The Trillium were on display.

After lunch I decided to head to the Knob.  Driving north the clouds on the horizon had me wondering if I should call KT and ask for a lookup on the weather forecast and radar status.  I declined to do so and pulled into the parking lot, the only car there on a Monday afternoon.

Two days ago I got in a lap and found the rearranged beginning a bit of a surprise.  Ryan had told me about it, but it took me a little bit of head turning to understand what had been done.  I think I liked it better before but I'm sure the old route will be forgotten before long.

The overpass is now in play.

A couple days ago I felt really good and thought I was handling the bike well.  It seems I had a slower start today but I got the feel back.  I'm still liking the new tire on the rear, though I did had one chain drop with the new Jump Stop today.

They don't call it Junk Hill for nothin'.

I came out of the woods into the Furnace and was greeted by some threatening skies.  Back to the car?  No, I'll ride until it rains.  I finished out the lap dry.  Try for another?  Oh yeah.  The second time around I was feeling good and the view up the Furnace was starkly calmer.  Nice day for a ride.

Lap 1... not looking good.

 Lap 2... no worries.

On the way home I called KT.  "How wet are you?" was her first question.  Apparently there was a torrential downpour or two at home.  She had looked at the radar map and was certain I was drenched.  Thankfully not!  At least not this time.

Mohican During the Week

To celebrate Ryan's spring break I took the afternoon off work and we headed to Mohican for a lap.  The weather was very agreeable, around 50 and sunny.  I expected good trail conditions based on recent weather.

We were greeted by a new kiosk sign with map

in the main MTB parking lot.  It looks nice.

Let's just say my Paragon has been neglected of late, mostly due to the Karate Monkey getting all the attention.  I dropped my chain twice in the first several miles before using a chunk of wood to smack my inner chain guide into proper position.  Ryan said, "Wow, I'm suprised to see you beating on your bike."  At least it worked, no more chain drops.

Maybe a couple miles later I realized I'd ridden the first three or four miles with my fork locked out.  Nice.  All I can say is my previous Mohican ride was on the rigid Monkey and, by comparison, my locked out fork felt plusher as it does have some compliance when locked.

Headin' up.

We enjoyed pretty much perfect trail conditions with only the occasional grease spot.  Ryan put his new front tire to good use and was ripping up the trail.  All was good until we reached the covered bridge and expected to do some climbing.  "Trail Closed."  The sign said something about forest clearing for a gas pipeline installation.  So we resigned ourselves to the road which was also a good climb, but less entertaining.

Thankful it's just temporary.

We stopped for some food at the second trailhead.  I had made some rice cakes with egg and bacon in them, so we gave them a try.  Pretty good, I'd make them again.

Victim, i mean recipient, of my cooking.

The next couple miles were okay but somewhere around mile 22 I stood to pedal up a rise and was shut down with cramps in both my quads.  Perfect, first the bike then me.  I was reduced to spinning cadence for the remainder of the trail, but still enjoyed the ride.

The last incident of the day was a mud splash Ryan took to the eye in the last quarter mile of trail.  One removed and subsequently lost contact later, we were on our way back home satisfied with our spring break ride.  It didn't feel like Tuesday on the drive home... I wonder if tomorrow will feel like Monday at work?  Whoo-hoo, short week!

Monday vacation day = Mohican ride

I took the day off work while Katie and the kids were out of town.  The plan was to head down to Mohican to ride the loop. 

The past three days in a row I got in rides while the family was gone:  a short road ride after work on Friday, a longer road ride on Saturday with Ryan, and a partial loop at Mohican Sunday.

Unfortunately the forecast was not looking good at all for today with a chance of rain.  It didn’t help when I left the house a little later than expected in the morning and was greeted by rain drops on the windshield while driving south.  Oh well, it’s my day off and I would rather ride in a drizzle than not at all.

Damp in the woods.

I parked at the Discovery Forest parking lot and started the loop from there.  I rode about 15 miles beneath dry but threatening clouds.  The trail was damp but not too wet to ride.  It felt good to be out in the woods instead of at a desk on a Monday morning.

A slight but steady rain started about a mile before reaching the campground.  I had a slippery encounter with some rocks in a corner but no harm done.  As much as I wanted to ride the full loop I made the call to skip the first 4 miles and take the short loop connector backwards.

 Hitch-hikin' leaf.

The final five or so miles were wet but I was still having fun.  I made it a point to walk the bridge at about mile 5.  Good thing too, it was slick as I walked across it.

Back to the car I was wet but not drenched.  A wet day in the woods was better than a dry day in the office!

New four wheeler

In the week previous to Ellen's arrival we were test driving cars and planning a swap of the truck for something more fuel efficient and fun to drive.  Of course a prerequisite for the vehicle was the ability to fit a bike inside and the ability to add a hitch for a bike rack. 

The first pick, and the car that started the whole idea, was the Honda Fit.  The cargo versatility in this small car is the selling point but unfortunately the tiny, underpowered engine offsets the cargo carrying prowess.  If this car had another 30 horsepower under the hood it would be in my garage right now.

At KT's suggestion we went to see our friend at Park Mazda and test drove the Mazda3 hatchback.  Now this is a fun car to drive with nimble handling and adequate power without sacrificing too much fuel economy.  Plus the styling, interior and out, trumps the Fit in our eyes.  The cockpit of the Mazda3 is exciting and useful.  The cockpit of the Fit... not so much.

 Mazda3 hatchback.

The first project with the car was a hitch for use with the bike rack.  The install went very smooth and I'm happy with how sturdy the attachment is on this car.  I've installed hitches on five different vehicles now and this is the most solid mounting I've seen on a car.

My helper with the instructions.

Not having the truck is going to be a disadvantage at times, but I know I'm always welcome to borrow dad's truck.  When it comes down to it, I only used the truck as truck about once a month and probably not every month.  Most of the time it was hauling bikes, which the car can do.  When it comes time to buy lumber or transport firewood I'll take dad up on his offer to borrow the truck.

I like hatchbacks.

 

 Side view.  My large Paragon 29er uses up the

whole hatch area lengthwise.