I slap the bacon out ya mouth, dance upon ya sarnie

[Mr. Cleetus]

Sounds like a great weekend! especially for feeling like a sack of shit...

[bob_summers]

This is my first crack at a MTB video
In my defence, I hadn't ridden a HT for ages, and the fork is knackered

(the film was cobbled together from the cutting room floor after helping a mate film some stuff for his website)

[Alistar]

I suppose its time for all those change of season colds as it cools down
Ouch about the crashes! Not nice having a cold or healing wounds but sucks having both.

What an incredible view from top of that mt!

Hey like your vid. Did your mate shoot it, or did you set up the shots yourself? What a trail. That coast is amazing
Still reckon you need a Yeti chasing you down the mountain for added effect though.
Either that or you should have stood up the top, looked at your watch and gone "Shit!I'm late for work!" before jumping on your trusty steed.
Nice save at 39secs btw

[bob_summers]

Cheers Al, yeah this guy shoots his vids mostly solo with a little flexible tripod. Pretty exhausting, you have to set it up, go back up the hill, ride the section, then go get the camera again! Has to be done to get the publicity, you can see his version of the same trail here.

Mon 31/10
AIA loop via N634 and Muro de Aia
58km, 2h

Short on time again, so did the shortest route possible before it's kinda not worth going out (2hrs is my minimum cutoff where the benefits don't outweigh getting changed, washing the shorts etc!). Didn't even take water.

Still warm, 20 odd degrees on Hallowe'en with a fierce south wind. Rode up The Wall for a bit of variety.

The Wall from Tour of the Basque Country '10.


http://ridewithgps.com/trips/436734

[bob_summers]

Thur 3/11
GOIZUETA OnB
2h40 @ slow

Caught a couple of guys from the club on the way out and rode with them, real slow as they were staying below 125bpm in winter training mode
Quite amusing as they were arguing for and against doing this, and the more they argued the harder it was to keep the bpm down!
Had a coffee with them then did the return leg faster to get back in time for a class.

Woke up with a stabbing pain in my left side, the side I bashed up in the fall the other day. The lowest rib is sore to touch... not sure if it's related to the crash or not. If so, odd that it's only really started to hurt now. Looks like a trip to the doc if it's no better tomorrow

[Alistar]

Wow! "The Wall" looks nearly as steep as our local Glenstrae Rd!
But seriously...Holy shit! Those poor bastards! Good work getting to the top without getting off and walking Bob

Been pretty blustery down here too, but with strong Nth winds just to balance things out
Doesn't sound good with the stabbing pains in your side. Hope its nothing serious and just muscle spasms rather than torn cartillage or a rib fracture.

[bob_summers]

Is Glenstrae rd the steepest street in the world? I find steepness limited by my grip on the bars. I can't do 'The Wall' without gloves, otherwise the sweat makes it impossible to hold on! It's horrible enough after just 35km of riding, I don't know if I'd get up it after 230kms at race pace!
My GPS says 33% max, not sure how accurate that is, and comes after about 1km of 20-25%.

This is from 2010 as well. It's just as hard to walk up in cleats as it is to ride!

[bob_summers]

Friday 4/11
ASTEASU Loop
67km x 880m

Nice and tranquil, so as not to upset my ribs!

It's going to be a disgusting weekend weatherwise. I'm mainly rebuilding forks, bleeding brakes, and justifying not riding with my tickly cough!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/438757

[Mr. Cleetus]

Cool mtb video, thanks for posting that.

[Alistar]

Is Glenstrae rd the steepest street in the world?...

No its much more local than that, and is probably is only 20percent

Love seeing the pros unable to get up a ridculous hill! Makes them seem almost human

Was interesting seeing some of the SRM files etc from the just completed Tour of Southland in NZ. Like clockwork a big Southerly comes along and the week they have it in its always blowing a gale and has hail sleet and snow. Anyway for 1 stage they ride 160km in that and it finishes up Bluff Hill. Was won by the NZ champ(big guy) followed 10secs later by the Le Race champ(little guy). What was interesting was that the NZ champ got down to a cadence of 39rpms while putting out an average of 513 Watts up the climb so not like "the wall" etc but must be bloody steep in places! Another more average rider got down to 15rpm's! Reckon he would have been faster walking

[bob_summers]

My back aches just thinking of 15rpm!

So a bit pushed for time recently, been out regularly but haven't been able to get near a computer much... while this thread's been falling off the page my cold seems to have moved on and the ribs (doc said just bruised, though they hurt even more after he'd shoved his finger in there nice and firmly) are slowly starting to feel a bit better.

Tues 8th
Aia Loop via Igeldo x2
55km, 1080m, 2h10

Bizarre weather, 25º in mid November
Did the regular run, no 33% hills today, keeping it steady so as not to aggravate the ribs.

Thurs 10th
Aizarnazabal loop via N634 x2
80km, 800m, 2h35 (30.3kmh)

Strong south wind, a hoot on the way back.

Fri 11th
MTB Jaizkibel
42km, 900m, 3h

Went out with a mate, him on a Ransom with supertackies and a Hammerschmidt, me on singlespeed, so we were slooooow on the climbs. I'm really enjoying the whippy but relaxed steel frame, If I was slower on the descent than on my Yeti then it was only because I was taking it easy on the lightweight wheels, the bike wasn't holding me back except where I normally drop the seat. The wheels are Stan's Crest with bladed spokes - you can't just smash it over the rocks! Undid all the hard work by drinking a litre of wheatbeer in the bar afterwards

Sun 13th
MTB ZUMAIA-DEBA-LASTUR-ITZIAR-PRESALDE-N634-ZUMAIA
42km, 1200m, 3h30 (although over 6hrs total)

Further exploring of what is comfortable on singlespeed. I would put this firmly in the uncomfortable category!
Went out with some riding buddies to check out some signposted trails with some natural stuff thrown in to link up various bits. I had done much of it before, but not in a single loop. As usual we ended up climbing a lot of stuff that would make better descents, but found some great stuff including a covered water canal which feeds the hydroelectric power stations. That's the dead flat bit in the route profile which looks like the GPS was off! Nice mix in the end of coastal paths, techy limestone sections and moist forest singletrack. Still with the mad 25º weather.
The usual stop n chats meant we were out of daylight too early and had to cut the last section out and took the main road back to town, the worst bit was the pigeon shooters though, saw a few birds blasted out of the sky and even got rained on by the shot. Roll on January

The SS doesn't really work on group rides where you need to attack hills as sitting back and winching isn't an option. So you end up being unsociable by riding off while everyone is spinning and chatting, or on narrow trails where you can't pass, you have to walk the climbs as there's no way to sustain such a low cadence behind someone spinning in their 22:36. It is surprising what you can get up and over though.


descent into Deba


Won't be seeing this very often for the next 6 months!

[Mr. Cleetus]

I like that descent pic! What is your SS frame? Have I missed that somewhere?

[bob_summers]

Pay attention at the back there

I bought it last winter, theory being that it would soon pay for itself in drivetrain savings when the weather got bad (the mud here has a lot of sand in it); I doubt it has! But it saves me a lot of washing
SS is a PITA most of the time here but there are a handful of routes I do all the time which are SSable, for anything else I use the Yeti.

It's a Dialled Love/Hate. Designed for 100mm fork or rigid, has an EBB, no provision for a mech but maybe one day I'll look at Alfines. Skinny Reynolds 520 tubes, weighs about 10.5 as seen here. Other than a headset and chain/sprocket/ring, I didn't buy any components to build it. I just swap them over from another bike at the end of summer.

[Mr. Cleetus]

aha, looks nice! How have you found the EBB? I really struggled with creaking in the one in my Gryphon for ages, but that seems to have stopped for some reason. err, hope its not rusted solid! How wide are those bars?

SS is the same here, I think it just doesnt make sense. The tracks are all either steep up or down, so there is no way to have reasonable gearing for it.

[bob_summers]

One good thing with SS is the fleeting excitement you get when you find yourself in the perfect gear! I actually like riding the thing, even though it's ridiculous...
Considering going out Sunday on it, proposed ride goes over a 1300m mountain...
No probs with the BB so far, although I'm not keen on the way it tightens (two pointed pinch bolts rather than a clamping BB shell), no creaking anyway.
660mm bars 'borrowed' off Yeti

Tues 15/11
Aia loop, Igeldo x2
2h5m

Thurs 17/11
Aritxulegi-Lesaka-Bera-Irun-Lezo
2h53m

The last 22km of this route follows the Behobia Half-marathon that was at the weekend. The winner finished in 1h04 (it's a hilly course), I did it in 40m which when you think about it isn't that much faster
Considering I'm doing nearly 40kmh on the flat and 60 downhill, they must fly up the hills, prob faster than me.