TransIowaV13 Revisiting TIv9

Waking Friday morning, I found the temps had dropped a not insignificant amount. It was chilly, so after breakfast, I donned some thermal bibknicks, wool socks, and some wool DeFeet Kneekers to bridge the gap, some thermals up top, a vest and was ready to roll.

Using the pressures I found I was running the day before, I guessed as to how much more pressure I'd need and took a stab at 34 front and 38 rear, then rolled.

I had a recording of the TIv9 route from when I had attempted that, so I loaded it into the Garmin and went to where my riding on Thursday and it intersected to pick it up.

Wind, I was fighting with the wind and gusts for sure, and man were they cold. The roads though felt so different than my memories. But then, my memories of them are in pitchblackness, surrounded by dozens of other riders, and the exhilaration of my first TransIowa. Memories flood back to that first nighttime start. All the lights, the fear I'd be dropped in the first section of gravel, the shock of someone catching the road edge and going down so close in front of me, that I was afraid I was going to roll right over them. I recall that night being muggy (though I could be wrong), while today the wind and cold cut mercilessly.

Some of the roads are so well packed, I'm down in the aerobars hammering into the headwind like I'm on paved roads, others are deeper fresh gravel, and a few are rutted. There are no B-Roads today, as TIv9 didn't have any of those until after the first checkpoint, and I'll not get that far today, as I need to get back before too long and get clean before the Pre-Race Meat Up. On ones of the faster, flat roads, I pass a grader, and the road turns to marbles. It was just scraping enough to bring the larger pieces up to the surface and scatter them on top of the hard dry dirt. Blech.

Soon I begin to feel a few sprinkles of rain. I knew this was coming, so I continue on, and come to a wooden bridge. I flash back to riding across this bridge in TIv9. I was having a really nice conversation with the owner of Bikes To You, who I don't think was officially part of the race, just tagging along until he had to turn back to town to open up the shop.

A few miles further, as the rain started to pick up and hold at a steady drizzle, I stopped to consult my gps map to see if there was anything interesting coming up on the route, or to go ahead and turn around, a couple in a truck asks if I need directions. I assure them I have some idea where I'm going, and thank them. I decide there is no reason to not turn around where I was and head back the way I came.

I always find it odd how different roads are in the opposite direction, and wow that grader seems to have ruined all the smoother roads I had ridden on the way in. Also the bit of rain that had fallen had already started to change the roads. With a lot of rain expected to fall through the afternoon and evening, that could be bad. Really, really bad. But then I knew that before I even drove up here. Heck, that's why I'm here. Bring it.

The whole time, I'd been constantly making mental notes about how the tyres had been interacting with the surface. I thought I was really close on pressure, but perhaps a bit too high, and with the roads to soften, I took another guess and decided that I wouldn't touch them, and whatever air leakage occurred naturally overnight would probably be about right.

I'd also been making notes about my comfort level, or lack thereof. I was okay, but as the rain continued, I could see myself being miserable on a much longer ride. Headgear was inadequate. Gloves were sodden, hands too numb to shift by feel. I arrived back at the hotel, luckily the wet roads had cleaned much of the dust off the bike, and I took a big loop through the wet hotel lawn to give the tyres a good scrub and I was clean enough I didn't feel like I was going to cause a mess in the lobby.

42 miles. Perfect morning test ride.




I cleaned up, got in contact with my support person (thanks again for driving down from Milwaukee), then just rested until she arrived and it was time to go sign in, find dinner, back for the actual meeting, and off to bed. It really is a crush of things that happen really fast then you have to unwind to get to bed, because a 2am alarm is really early.

Trans Iowa v13 Bike Setup

Realizing that I didn't do a post on the bike (or race or anything else) back when I attempted TIv9, I knew I needed to document this time.

2015 Singular Gryphon
Size Large
Lynskey Ti Seatpost
Thomson 90mm x 10deg stem
Salsa Cowchipper bars 42cm
Brooks Cambium C17
Deda Jaguar Green tape (double wrapped)
Shimano 5700 brifters
Shimano SLX crankset w/ Speciaties TA 42/28 rings
Shimano SLX front derailleur
Shimano XT 9sp rear derailleur
SRAM 1070 12-36 10sp cassette
Profile Grabber GT aerobars
DTSwiss DT350 CL hubs
Sapim Race spokes 32H
Velocity Blunt SS rims
TRP Spyre calipers
Shimano brake pads
Shimano XTR RT99 rotors
Shimano A600 pedals
Tacx Deva bottle cages
Tacx Shanti bottles
WTB Riddler 45

Jandd Tire Bag contains
2 spare tubes
Tyre boots
Tubeless patch kit
Regular patch kit
Glueless patch kit (see a theme)
CO2 cartridges
Quick links
Spare cleats
Multitool
Lyzyne pump (gold to match the headset, stem faceplate, seatcollar, and spacers. ;)  )
Chainlube

Rogue Panda Rincon contains
USB cache battery in case phone goes dead
A couple more quicklinks
a short section of chain
spare derailleur hanger
spare new rear derailleur !!! (R.O.U.S.s Races Of Unusual Sloppiness require a bit of over-preparedness)

Light: Cateye Omni 5, there will be a second on my Camelbak

Rogue Panda Alamo is almost entirely food. one long allen key to adjust the TRP Spyre brakes inside pad, and a spare battery for my secondary headlight

AndrewTheMaker ATMHandmade Snack Sack contains more food/gels, has spare AA for my main light and will also hold my phone/wallet/spare gps

View from the saddle

Banjo Brothers Map Case
Garmin Etrex Touch 35 (special TIv13 mode created with no mapping, just performance metrics, mileage and the like)

look at all the mud clearance in the fork!

Front view

Here you can see my two headlights.

At the fork crown is a B&M Ixon IQ, while at 40lux it's not anywhere near as bright as their newer models, it still has great battery life (around 20 hours on low/ 5 on high) and beam pattern.

Secondary light, under the aerobar is a Cygolite Expilion 400.

I have spare derailleur and hanger with me!

I'll also have a Camelbak on me, an older Lobo model designed to hold a 3L bladder, I'm only running a 2L bladder, so it has room for a rain jacket and pants, a few more snack bars, dry socks and wool glove liners.

The New Bike

Hundreds of people just keep bugging me to fill them in on the details of my new ride. The speculation in the blogosphere and newsstand rags has become unbearable, so I thought I'd write a bit to help calm down the hysteria.

First off, it's a Origin-8 700CX frame. This is a steel monstercross frameset marketed by J&B Importers. 4130 Cromoly, triple-butted tubing, with room for 52c tires, disc or canti, fixed or geared, removable cable guides everywhere. There aren't a whole lot of bikes that are similar, many trend more towards rigid 29er frames or don't have the clearance for tires quite that large, or they're not disc compatible. Headset: Origin-8 as well.

I'll just go ahead and skip over the shoddy workmanship (workkidship?) of the frame, and the shoddier customer service that never resulted in a satisfactory fix.

Drivetrain: 2x9. Mountain double, Origin-8 Ultim-8 Sub Compact 175mm 40x28T. Integrated BB, single bolt. A whole lot nicer than you'd expect for the price. Running two different cassettes depending on conditions: 12-36 Shimano and 11-28 SRAM. If need be I can go down to a 22 on the inner ring, or up to a 44 on the outer.

Switchgear: Shimano Sora Brifters moving Deore RD-M592 and SLX FD-M661 derailleurs. Despite Shimano Road and Mountain shifters pulling different amounts of cable on the front derailleurs, it's close enough that with careful adjustment you can get a double to work. A triple would be way off.

Anchors: Avid BB5 brakes. Saves a few bucks over the BB7. Works.

Wheelset: WTB FX28/Shimano M629 with 32 spokes. A fairly inexpensive wheelset, that's way overbuilt for my uses. More all mountain than gravel. I figure sooner or later I'll build up a nicer set and consdier these my training set.

Bars: Salsa Cowbell 3. Most awesome purchase ever.

Tires: Currently running Kenda Kozmik Lite IIs. Seem reasonable. Pretty lightweight, carcass seems quite subtle. Pretty narrowly focused, near zero traction when it gets slick. Need to figure out the optimum pressure to run them. Have some Kenda Happy Medium 40mm on order, nearly 100gram lighter and 10mm narrower. Looking forward to giving those a try as well.

Time will tell how well it all works.

Events

I thought I'd put together a list of events I'd really like to do. All in one spot with dates, mileages and locations and any fees.


I'm already signed up for:
11-26-11 Gravel Grovel, 62m, Nashville, IN $35

Thinking about:
2/25 Southern Cross, 50+m, Delonega, GA $80
3/10 Sub-9 Death March,  50+m, Nashville, IN $??
3/24 Barry-Roubaix, 65m, Middleville, MI $50?
3/31 The Lowell 50, 50m, Lowell, MI $32.50
4/14 Ragnarok 105, 111m, Red Wing, MN $Free
4/28-29 B.A.L.L.S, 165m, Barnevel, WI $30
5/12, Almanzo 100, 100m, Spring Valley, Mn, $Free
5/27 HAC NCC Gravel Metric, 62m, DeKalb, IL, $10
6/2 Dirty Kanza, 200m, Emporia, KS, $???
6/9? West Side Dirty Benjamin, 100m, Carver County, MN, $Free.
6/16? TransWisconsin, 420m, ?WI, $???
6/23 Hilly Billy Roubaix, 70m, Morgantown,WV, $???
6/28-29 Trans Iowa V8, 340m, Grinnell, IA, $Free
9/22 Ronde-Van Stony, 40m, Shelby Township, MI, $50+5
9/23? Gentlemen's Ride, 100? MN? $Free
9/25? Three Peaks USA, 47m, Beach Mountain, NC, $60
10/9 Iron Cross, 62m, Michaux State Forest, PA, $???
10/06 Heck of the North, 100m, Duluth, MN, $Free.
10/27 Dirt Bag, 86m, Clearwater, MN $Free


19 events/races.

So what's in there? The entire Almanzo Gravel Road Series (AGRS), the entire American UltraCross Championship Series, and various others. It's more a wish list than a start list. I'd like to do at least one event each in WI, MN, MI. The 300+m events are highly unlikely. B.A.L.L.S is unlikely as it's Bourbon Sampler/Derby Mini/Dark Lord weekend (and probably several other events I'd love to make). Dirt Bag is Bourbon Chase weekend, I believe, so also unlikely.

If I can ride even 4 of those events I'll be happy.

Oops, forgot some:
8/18? , D2R2 Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee. 100k,115k, 180k Shelburne Falls, MA, $80ish
4/14-15 Tour of the Battenkill, 64m, Cambridge, NY, $???

Choices

I've always had problems with choices. Trying to figure out which of many options is the best use of my time or money or whatever. I can't have or do it all, nor do I want to. I'd like to not screw up and have to spend more of my time/money/whatever correcting the choice I've made.

Now is a time of many choices, which need to be finalized. It is race entry time. In the next month or so I need to go through a list of events for next year and decide which I'd like to do, can afford to do, and do without killing myself. I then need to figure out when entry for those events is, how to enter, etc.

Even after I go through all that, then comes this reality: I've never competed in these events, and many give preference to veterans. I could very likely get wait-listed and not get to enter my preferred choices. That means I should possibly try to enter more than I can possibly begin to afford to enter/complete/travel to.

There's one event I'd love to do one day, but I don't feel like I'm ready to tackle it yet, however every year the odds of getting a spot at the start get worse. Should I even think about trying to enter, when I know I'll chicken out? What about events on conflicting/consecutive weekends? Knowing I won't likely get into every event (or most for that matter), should I really load the deck that way?

Many of the paid events I have a better shot of getting into, but once paid, I'd hate to have to drop out due to lack of funding for the trip.

Any sage advice? Or does anyone know of any events they are thinking about doing, so perhaps travel expenses can be split?

Training Ride

Met up with Tim and David of River City Cycling Society fame for a little gravel training route that they had put together. I put Beast back into gravel form, reflipping the bars, removing fenders, rack and remounting the knobby clad wheelset.

We left out of New Castle, KY and headed East. Our first stretch of gravel came within a mile or so of starting lazily grinding past cow pasture and alongside a creek. This was good gravel, well packed, not washed out or potholed. That lasted for about 3 miles.

Then the road ended in the creek.

After exploring options and consulting GPSes, we made the decition to follow the course, remove shoes and wade across. This is followed by much bushwhacking and hike-a-biking.After about an hour of this we finally emerge at the bottom of a pretty steep and long gravel road. We pull the weeds out of our machines and start climbing....soon we're all walking again, as we either ran out of traction, gears or umph.

We ride along some of the rolling paved roads on our way to the next section of gravel, wondering if there's going to be more of the same, or if we'll get rideable sections.

Shortly we find out, as we hit section number 2 and it's chunky. embedded baby-head rocks, mud holes and more. I figure there are two ways to ride a road like this: balls out or slow. I go with the former and go for it. Beast is in its element, huge tires absorbing the terrain and floating over everything. Strong frame never for a second letting you know it was anything but willing and able to take whatever you're willing to. Sprung Brooks allowing for comfortable and smooth seated climbing. A paved watercrossing brings the chunky stuff to an end and it smooths out to fast and slightly soft gravel.

We emerge in Lockport and ride through, stopping to check out the old lock on the Kentucky River. We continue on and cross over to Gratz, hoping for some lunch. No such luck, we start climbing a steady 3-5% for the next 5 miles it seems until we hit Monterey and pausing to ask a local where we can find food, finally get to some lunch. Best chili cheese dogs I've had.

Coming back in we intend to hit a section of gravel, but it seems to have been rerouted, long ago. We see where the bridge is, but not were the road is. Figuring it's still there, as we can see a house on the other side of the creek, we circle around until we find it. This is a nice section of gravel, pretty flat, well tended, with only a few mud holes to move left or right or center to avoid. Somewhere along he I seem to have punctured. A pinhole it takes me several miles of having trouble keeping up to realize. I add some air hoping it won't leak out too fast, but stop to change the tube as we pass back through Lockport.

We then backtrack the smoother gravel section of the road we'd ridden to ride into Lockport, and then turn onto a section we'd not traveled yet. The first two miles of it was probably the most technical of our riding all day, with not many workable lines to get through, massive mud holes that couldn't be ridden around. Somewhere in here my chain swallowed a rock. I spent the next 3-4 miles with a bike that would skip or shift every 3rd pedal stroke.

When we arrive at the main road, and knowing that it was paved the whole way back, I stop to fix the chain, finding the busted link and removing it and replacing with a quicklink. I drink the last of my water as we roll out knowing that I have 8-10 miles left and not being thrilled about it. The extended distances of riding with mechanical difficulties have worn me out, as has the overly aggressive position I've been in for over 7 hours at this point.

This was by far the most epic ride I've done on Beast, and exactly the kind of riding it's been set up for. It's really too slow for more civilized gravel and a bit too aggressive for much longer rides. A different set of bars may correct the aggressiveness of the positioning, but not much can be done to get the gearing any higher or the ride more compliant. The new bike will be better for those rides.

Perfectly affordable gravel bike

It's always fun to spend time dreaming about bikes you can't afford, combing over the details and thinking of the changes you'd make to the factory spec.

A bike like the new for 2012 Co-Motion Divide is a prime example. It nearly perfectly fits what I'd like as a gravel grinder bike. Cross/touring geometry, full brazeons, steel, discs, room for true 29er rubber. It's a true work of art, with all the custom paint options you could ask for. Looking at the stock build spec, I can't think of many changes I'd make. I'm undecided on the whole triple crank thing. If I was doing the Great Divide Race, I'd probably go for it, but as a gravel grinder, it seems a bit much. Bars would be switched out for Salsa Cowbells. Tires would be more like the Bontrager XR1. Build spec says bar ends, but the bike in the pic is briftered. I'd go with the brifters. The BB7 brakes, while well-respected and typically thought of the the better brake, are simply more adjustable, which all the extra movement actually degrades performance, so BB5s would be my choice.

Regardless, it's not in the budget.

But it turns out there is a frameset that is similar, if of lower quality materials and craftsmanship, and is well within my pricerange. Origin-8 CX700 Steel Cross! I don't recall exactly how I ran across this, but it seems to fit all my needs for a gravel bike. Sure lowrider mounts would be nice to have as an option, but I don't currently plan to use a front rack and panniers for the gravel events I hope to pursue. Retail on it is around $250! It has room for 2.1" tires, which is pretty awesome. Chainstay mounted discs mean no having to unbolt the calipers to fix a flat. (which I've heard is a problem with the Karate Monkey).

Problems? Well, I've heard the quality control and shipping practices leave a lot to be desired and frames can be kinda bent up upon arrival. Also, the 200g lighter, 2011, black model is out of stock.

If I don't find another route to go, I could reasonably justify getting this frame in short order.

New rides?

It's that time of the year, all the new 2012 bikes are getting introed and making me drool. Could this year be a new bike year?

I currently own three bikes: 2008 Jamis Coda 19.5", 1999 Trek 930 19.5" and 2009 Motobecane Fantom CX 58cm. All are really a bit small (if you follow Riv's sizing guidelines) and I'd like to correct that. Riv says I should be on a 60-62 for road bike sizing. I'd also like to have disc brakes on all of them. The main advantage of the Coda, is that it has full braze-ons for racks and fenders. If the Fantom CX had those I'd not need the Coda. So finding a CX or relaxed geometry road bike with discs and full braze-ons means I could replace two bikes with one. I've found a few bikes that would meet those requirement (and could be considered affordable)

Specialized Tricross Elite Disc Apex Compact. The priciest of the bunch, and Aluminum. Highest standover, shortest toptube and longest stays. Steeper headtube and more rake make it the lowest trail of the bunch, which combined with the long stays could make it the slowest steering as well. The rear caliper hanging back behind the seat stays could cause rack issues. It's probably a pass.

Raleigh Roper. Missing lowrider braze-ons. Shortest stays. Lowest standover and shortest headtube. Probably the sportiest of the group. Not impossible to consider.

Redline Metro Classic. The only triple in the group, which doesn't thrill me. But otherwise the best gearing for my riding style. and Avid BB5's are well respected. The color and styling are great. This is the new front runner.

Soma Double Cross DC. Only available as a frameset. Tange Prestige tubing is the best of the steelies. best known clearance for wider tires, but still only 38s, which just isn't enough for serious gravel grinding. No lowrider mounts on the DC fork. Building from a frameset is probably the most expensive option, unless I were to run cantis/v's and switch over everything from the Fantom CX.

As mentioned none of these has the kind of tire clearance required for serious gravel grinding. Which means I need another bike! I'd considered another 26er frame and switching everything over from the Trek, but if I want discs that means a new wheelset, brakes and levers and at that point it may just make sense to go 29er.

Bikes in the running:

Surly Karate Monkey. Pretty much a classic. Track ends aren't my favorite. Only available built as a SS, but frameset is reasonable and if I'm ditching the Fantom, I can scavenge the brifters from there.

On One Inbred. Lighter tubeset than the KM. Carbon fork. Switchable dropouts with many options available (including Alfine!) Built bike is pricey, but frameset reasonable, and similar scavenging can be done as the KM.

Origin 8 Paladin 29. In a dream world where I was light enough to think that carbon was a good idea, and I needed a light bike to win, this could become a serious option. Fully Rigid, carbon 29er. Could be built very light and should (if all I hear about carbon is true) be very comfy on gravel with big soft meaty tires.

Much to think about and numbers to be run, but as we get to the "off season" it means plenty of time to plan out the road map.