Wicked Ride of the East

Sunday was the big autumn ride of the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA). I haven't done one of these before, but after learning some friends were going, I decided to try it. This idea soon started unravelling, as I learned they were planning over double the distance I've ever ridden, and I couldn't line up our start times. I decided to go anyway.

Rain overnight made for a slippery start, over wet roots which tossed all of the group I found myself in. The start was crowded, and it reminded me strongly of a road century ride, so I tried to pass people when possible, to move up toward what I hoped would be a less crowded area. (Like day 2 of the PMC, this start was staggered over time and with random abilities, and I learned on those rides to move up as quickly as reasonable.) But passing opportunities were rare on slippery singletrack. I did see groups stopped at intersections, and moved up in those places. After a mile or two, the trail sped up a bit and the riders did thin out. I found myself riding in front of someone I took to be younger, and I called out some encouragement after he rode over some logs. We parted a little later, but then came an unmarked intersection where I couldn't decide whether to go left or right. At first I followed some folks to the left, but when it started to sound like they didn't know where they were going, I turned around, went past the T and found my log acquaintance looking for the next segment. I saw a sign then and we were back on the trails. (After the ride I learned that I'd gone the wrong way, probably at this intersection, and really rode the second half of the trail instead of the first.)

Harold Parker is a rocky place, mostly a continuous rock garden mixed with rolling short climbs and descents. It's a bad place to get tired because it takes a bunch of power to get up those climbs, even in low gear. If I put a foot down, it was hard to get back on, and efficiency fell way off. I got hot after a couple more miles of this, then wound up riding more conservatively.

Then I found myself at the top of a house-sized steep descent down the side of a huge solid rock. If I'd had more time to look this over I would probably not have dared to ride it, but I was already rolling into it by the time this occurred to me. The back of the saddle grazed my belly as I rode the brakes and tried to keep the front wheel out of any dip - fearing that would easily trigger an endo. Then I realized I had two different signs to read on the way down to stay on the trail! An extra set of eyes would have been handy.

The course was laid out in roughly a figure eight, with the start and end in the middle. I was feeling pretty tired on the approach to the middle and toyed with the idea of skipping the second half. When I realized I was out of water, the decision was made. In total I rode 12.6mi, which is still the longest MTB ride I've done at pace. My friends rode 22, and I'm glad I didn't try that.

At the end I enjoyed the rest of the event: various foods, a booth from a lighting manufacturer and another by Sinister Bikes. At the latter I saw a demo bike with a suspension design so familiar I almost exclaimed "it's a copy of the Heckler!" [by Santa Cruz]. I think the Sinister dudes would not have appreciated that.

It was a good ride and I'd like to try it again. I'll need to train more, though, and preferably on these trails.

Flight of the Monarch

Bumblebee came with a Monarch 3.3 rear shock, made by RockShox like my favorite forks. Last week I noticed it was leaking air, plus it had smeared out the anodized sag markings, so I contacted the bike shop. At first my sales guy played Mr. Hyde, saying up to 20PSI lost overnight is normal. Then he offered to sell me seals, take a class, or pay them to fix it. After arguing that it's not normal and pointing out it should be under warranty, then reminding him it's a Monarch rather than the more common Fox shock, he became Dr. Jekyll and ordered a free replacement and offering free labor in the shop to swap it. The new one is an upgrade to the Monarch 4.2 (shown above), and it's excellent.

I had thought this was just an air leak issue, and I should fix it to avoid the hassle of refilling the shock before each ride. But it turned out to be far more important. I'd taken the smeared sag marks to be grease shot through the seal, but now I believe it was rub damage from a seal assembled without any grease! (On the internet I've seen others had this problem.) Not only was the shock self-destructing, but the drag was wrecking the suspension action. The bike feels much better with the new shock, giving substantially better traction and a smoother ride. All is well - except now I need to start over learning the feel of the bike.

(Also, I finally cut down the handlebars, so they fit my narrow shoulders!)