W5 meets Gary Fisher @ Competitor's Film Festival

Will S, Joe Pusl, Ann Z, Tony B and I went to see Gary Fisher and the movie KlunkerZ.

Competitor Magazine and Bob Babbitt put on a great film festival with an assortment of cycling/multi-sport related films and end tonight with Breaking Away at the La Paloma. Plus, Dennis Christopher, the star of BREAKING AWAY, will be at the showing of that classic film that evening.

One of the films will be KLUNKERZ, was followed by a Q&A from Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly along with the movie producer Billy Savagedoing.

The big sound bite was that the first downhill Mtn Bike race was where the winner won a bag of pot and Gary Fisher won... Oh the '70s.....

Ann was the only one who got a good picture with Gary Fisher.

Observations of a 53 yr.old virgin 12 hr Mtn Biker

OK - I am back at my house, had a nice night's sleep in a comfortable bed. If you had ask me if you should start your your career in long distant Mtn Biking when you are over 50 I would have told you, only if you want to hear your back pop ever time you bend over at the end of the race and ask your younger racers to pack your car with the heavier stuff. But now that I have had almost 12 hours to recuperate I say HELL YES...

So with my first 12 hour race under my belt what are my observations...

Use Rock, Paper, Sissors to select who go, 2nd, 3rd, 4th

Make sure you have your proper belly dancing belt on so all those riders you come up upon know you are about to pass....

There were a lot of Gary Fisher Hard Tail 29ERs (Mostly Superflys, but some Paragons) in the race. This maybe because I was riding one, but I hope it is because I picked the right bike at least for 12 hours of Temecula.

For the first couple of laps I loved the Paragon (Hard Tail). As my legs got tired and the sun went down, I may have been better off with a Full Suspension Bike. My suspension legs that I used to good effect at first, sometimes did not work very well on my last lap. Maybe a Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL that Lance Armstrong and Jose Q rode to great results should be my pitch hitter bike.

Take the time to demo products from the vendors at the race. Troy from Cannondale gave John Abate a cool Cannondale Scalpel for the day, and he was shaving 2 minutes a lap after changing from his Specialized bike...


I need all the light I can get at night. I demo'd a Niterider Tri Newt for my bike and a cool dual beam CREE Q5 helmet light from AYUP for my two night laps. I was glad I had both. Light is so touchy for me that the first lap my Tri Newt was off center and did not work as well as my 2nd lap where it was pointed straight ahead.

Keep hydrated, but it may not be smart to drink a Coke just before your lap. My last lap had me wishing I would stop, pee and burp. But I just could not take the time....

Have a bunch of Swamis around in a great camp site and lots of Teams riding in the race. I think we had over 30 riders from Swamis or FOS. We were everywhere on the course and at the Start/Finish Line

If you want to see all the pictures I took with my crappy camera phone click here.

6:30pm it's dark and still 2 and a half hours of racing to go. It's crunch time! This is when they seperate the men from the boys. Come on you guys, I am sick of seeing us finish this race in second place.

Will

I don't know about doing Jose's last lap, but if your going to get naked and dance by the fire than I am there.

Will

Wow looks like the A team has a good chance with Skyler and Jose turning some fast laps. How did they get behind? Did John Abata crash? Half way through the race at this point, still a lot can happen. Hope everyone has working lights.

Will

Dave from the field

• I am back at the Vail office. Here is what I know.
  The conditions of the dirt is perfect. Everyone is talking about how great it is.
• 
  The long sandy road area has a series of boards so you can make the sandy sections as long as you stay on the 8-10 inch wide board.
  There are atleast 5 swamis teams.
• 
  The moms are wearing their belly dancing belts and they jingle as they go down the dirt.
• 
  Skyler had a faster second lap than his first
• 
  Jose is not talking much between laps, just texting some secret sweet heart.
  Great turnout for the race, I hear there are 600 people. I believe there are around 20 4 person team.
• 
  Swami A is in 2nd place - Swami BEES are second to last place. Swamis are the bookends of the 4 person teams.
• 
  Talked to Tory from Cannondale. He and Tori are going to be at the Park Tool training in Ontario and Troy wants to do another "W5" ride.
• 
  About 10 minutes ago, Mike Wiley came to our camp to finally be social. I didnot want to be social, so I left to blog....
  
  I will tweet the results next... Off to the start/finsh area

Dave in a bathing suit? Sounds like the beginning of the end for the Swami B team. Please no pictures.

Will

Dave I just read your twitter about Jose getting "puffed up". Remind him not to get his arms to "puffed up" His arms get tired out easily and he wont be able to ride.

Ok Dave the teams should each have at least 3 laps done maybe 4 so how about some hard data. How many 4 man teams are competing? What are the laps times like? How about the conditions? Did the rain make the dirt perfect? And what about those single speeders is it hard for them to push their bikes in these kind of conditions?

Will

Check out Dave's tweets on the right side of the blogg

Hopefully Will S. is blogging so you will not see this at the top of the blog soon. If not check out all the "tweets" on the right side. Ann Hall and I are taking lots of pictures.
We have a huge group of people racing today.
Skylar B just won the parade lap ahead of Tinker J.

Follow my tweets at:
I will put you on the list only if you:

Follow me on twitter and our blog.
http://twitter.com/swamiscycling

I am leaving the Vail Lake Office now to get back to the race.
Dave

Predictions for the 12 hours of Temecula

As a now veteran of two 12 hour races at Temecula and having ridden the course for the upcoming race this Saturday I thought it might be fun to give my predictions.
First the Swami A team. I feel they have a good chance to win the 4 person open. Historically the January race has had fewer entrant's so the odds are with them. When we raced last November there were 24 four man teams. Last January only 6 teams signed up for the event. The event has been gaining popularity though so maybe this weekends race will see more four man teams than last year.
I rode the upcoming course last weekend with two of the riders from the Swami A team, Skyler and Jose and let me say they both are very strong. I predict Skyler to do a sub 40 min lap and perhaps even have one of the fastest laps of the day. Jose on the other hand has come a long way on the mountain bike. If his arms or (guns) as he calls them hold up he should be able to turn very respectable lap times as well. I have also had the opportunity to ride with both John Abate and Bob Winston and both of them can ride a mountain bike and should be able to turn sub 50 min lap times on this course. With a little luck I see this team taking home the first place medals.
Second is the Swami B team or Bee team as Dave Callender is calling them. Here is a team that has some experience, but they also have Dave. I predict that Dave will drive them all nuts with his rambling about blogging and twitter (you know I love ya Dave) or perhaps Jose will sabotage Dave's bike after the comments Dave made about Jose being the team mechanic to everyone and ultimately the team will implode before the 12 hours are up. Sorry guys 12 hours is a long time to hang out together.
Third up is the "fun loving" team of Ann, Mike, Mark Yap and Fred Muir. I think Ann has enough experience and grace to hold this team together long enough to end up on the podium. I know Mike Martin and Mark Yap are fit enough to compete so if they can keep out of trouble I see them in the top three.
The IBR team is an unknown for me and who cares about the single speed idiots. As for the people going solo, more power to ya, my back hurts just thinking about it. Good luck you guys. I look forward to following the race this Saturday.

Will

26 and counting people racing at 12 hours of Temecula

Saturday is the day of the race and we have a huge contingent going to the race. Many have gone to the course in the past few weeks, many of us have no expectations (except we all expect Swami A to kick butt). Here are the team as of today....

Teams
Ann's Team: Ann Hall, Mike Martin, Fred Muir, Marc Yap
IBR: Mike & Lisa Jennings, Peter Plaisance, Darrel Divine
Ridgid 29er SS: Tony Breunig, David See, Mike Wiley
Sub5 FOS: Andy Green, Mark Budds, Rob Moffit, Scott Klotzback
Swami A: John Abate, Jose Quintero, Bob Winston, Skylar Bishop
Swami Bees: Jack Guenther, Ann Zevely, Dave Callender, Dave ?
Solo Riders: Carrie "Mom" Hammond, Shelly "Mom" Spnani, Tony Barghini, Tim Duncan

If you want to keep up with the minute to minute go to SwamisCycling on Twitter and get the complete moment to moment feed...

What would a couch potatoe ride?

I guess when the weather gets cold bike builders get silly....



What do you think?

Lance's new ride - Trek Madone 6.9 unveiled

Just saw this on Google Alerts.

.....In contrast to the blue and white rigs piloted by the rest of his teammates, Armstrong’s bike is a decidedly more somber black and grey punctuated by a bright yellow ‘Livestrong’ logo and band on the top tube.

Littered throughout the graphics are a number of “hidden messages” though we’ll have to wait until the rest of the bike is unveiled in Australia to see exactly what they are. According to Trek road bike marketing manager Scott Daubert, lying beneath the custom finish is a fully standard 58cm Madone 6.9 frame pulled directly off the production line..

Click Here for the complete article

I am finally here

Dave has tried to sabotage me both on Get Dirty and on this blog. But after hours of effort I am here. Listen to me roar...

Inauguration Festivities on January 20

Saw this this morning - For all you guys who do the Tues/Thurs ride we can go from the ride to the Inauguration at La Costa UltraStar...

Ultra Star Theaters will broadcast ABC's coverage of the Inauguration Festivities on January 20. FREE

UltraStar Theaters will officially announce today, (Jan. 15) that its theaters in Oceanside…Poway….La Costa….Hazard Center in Mission Valley and Chula Vista will Broadcast ABC's Inauguration coverage all day including the Ceremony, the parade and the entire day's events from 7am until 2pm on Tuesday, January 20 2009. Information and instruction for obtaining tickets will be at http://www.ultrastarmovies.com/ The picture and sound in High Definition/ Pure Digital format should be exquisite on the big screen. It will be free and open to the public but tickets are required and limited. Doors will open at 6:30am.

..29ERs Suck?

I think we found our Arch Enemy for the 29ER
Posted by FoxyMtnBiker

.....First, 29ers degrade your ride. Not the individual "ride and feel" associated with a bike, but rather your riding experience. 29ers make it more difficult for a large cycling group to benefit from common components......
..... Additionally, 29ers are horrible for the environment. Sound a bit extreme? It's not. When Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, and pals decided to use what was available, not only was this the best decision for the need to share common parts on the "Repack Downhill" .....
....Bike shops are going to financially hurt from the added complexity of another wheel diameter and product type......

For the complete rave from our new Arch Enemy - Protest the 29er!

Can you do this?

We feel lucky living in this great weather we have had for the past few days, but after looking at this video of riding rollers, maybe we should go indoors to learn better bike handling

Will Mountain Biking ever catch up with Sailing?

Not sure if all you know, but I may ride bikes, but I am really a Sailor that Bikes. My background is racing sail boats. I have not done it for a while, but my daughter Melissa is a club racer at UCSB
I put a google alert together for 29ER and the first thing that pops up is 29ER for boats. I have been on 29ERs and 49ERs. They are the sport cars of dinghy racing. Here is a video of a 29ER on the water. They can reach speeds over 20mph. I can tell you that that is plenty fast when you are 6 inches of the water....

So the question is will Mtn Biking ever reach 49ERS?

Lance is Serious about 12 Hr. Mtn Bike Races

Velonews race coverage of the 12 Hours of Snowmass by Jason Sumner

“Any doubts about the seriousness of Lance Armstrong’s recently announced comeback were likely put to rest Sunday, as the recently un-retired seven-time Tour de France champion claimed his latest victory, pairing with two local Colorado pros to win the three-man division of the 12 Hours of Snowmass mountain bike race.”

Epic Mountain Bike Rides

Epic mountain bike rides. That's the subject of today's post. I define an epic ride as one lasting at least 3 hours and having lots of climbing and beautiful scenery. A truly epic ride is one where you get in trouble with your significant other for not being home on time and you also have no energy left to do the things you promised them the night before. I had just such a ride this past Sunday on the San Juan Trail in Orange County. San Juan trail is off the Ortega highway about 45 minutes north of my home in San Marcos. It is currently my favorite ride. The loop I do is about 18 miles and has about 3K feet of climbing. My partners for the day were fellow ECBS guys Jose Quintero and Ernie Escobar.

Jose is trying to become a mountain biker, or at least trying to compliment his road miles with some off road training. For both Jose and Ernie it would be their first "epic" mountain bike ride. It was fun for me to be the veteran ATB rider taking the guys out for their first big ride. I warned them to bring enough food and water and come well rested with a good breakfast. It was a perfect day, sunny skies with cool air and the conditions were perfect. The recent rain storms and the sunny cool air combined to make what mountain bikers refer to as "hero dirt". For those of you who haven't heard the expression, hero dirt makes everything you do on the bike perfect. You can carve turns better, you can brake harder, and you can climb pitches that were impossible before, in short your a "hero". It was the perfect "epic" mountain bike ride.

29ER lore @ ECBS - Where did it all start?

Wow how lucky were we to have a garage full of 29er demo bikes for the month of January. If you have not had a chance to do a real off road ride on a "big wheel" mountain bike than now is your chance. This whole demo thing has got me thinking about 29ers and my own experience with them. Those who know me know I go through a lot of bikes. I do that for two reasons first because I can, and second because I enjoy experimenting. Every now and then I sell a bike only to realize months later that I really miss it.

The Gary Fisher X-Caliber was just such a bike. It was about 3 years ago that I owned it and it was my first 29er bike. The X-Cal was an aluminum hardtail with SRAM x-9 level components and an 80mm Rock Shox Reba fork. At the time I also owned a Titus Racer-X 4 inch travel full suspension bike. I still remember when I discovered the wonder of the big wheels. It was on a ride at Flight Line in Carlsbad (which is now closed those bastards). There was one particular rocky down hill section that I had ridden once before on my Titus, but it was quite difficult and scarey enough that I was hesitant to ride it again. I decided to try it on the X-Cal and to my suprise I found it easier. At first it didn't make sense, the Titus was a 4 inch travel bike front and rear and had a better fork, brakes, wheels and everything else. But what the Titus didn't have was 29" wheels. Thats right the 29" wheels made all the difference through the technical rock garden. I have since sold the Titus and the X-Cal, but I am sold on the 29" wheels. I will talk more about my current rides in another post.

El Camino Bike Shop supports trail building at La Costa Hills with Richard Julien

If you do not know Richard, anyone that walks/rides trails in San Diego should support Richard’s efforts. He is creating and maintaining trails and open spaces across the county. Come out Sat and do a little work.

ECBS will be providing Swag for the event.
Where: Near my house – Corte Romero & Camino Junipero, Carlsbad, CA
When: 8am Saturday Jan 10th
Details below:
From: richard julien
Date: December 21, 2008 9:28:43 AM PST
Subject: La Costa Trail Day
Dear Trail Volunteers
Jan. 10th we are meeting at 8:00 am for four hours of much needed trail maintenance on the very heavily used Switchbacks.
Our job will be to
1) Eliminate as many of the social trails as we can. The idea is show the mountain as small a footprint as possible.
We will attempt to replant native cacti, repair fence and other methods to discourage social (trail cutting) trails.
2) Fill in brake ruts that have broken trail tread encourage erosion and fill with water.
3) Create water bars , grade dips,& nicks. The trail was built long ago with very little water management incorporated.
Today the lack of water management is the trails worst enemy.
4) Repair the many in slope turns ( berms ) due to water damage. See above.
5) Repair sections of the trail that have been blown out and the trail has severely widened.
Work crews will be created so you will be with someone that has an idea of what strategy is best suited for the job.

12 hrs of Temecula - 3 teams and growing

Teams are building for the Jan 24 12 hours of Temecula. We have 3 complete teams of 4 (Swamis 1&2 and IBR), 1 team of 3 (29ER SS) and two solo riders that I am aware of… Very cool – we could have 5 teams and a few solo riders.

Ann Hall & Mike Martin are looking for two more people to have a casual team. Both Ann and Mike claim that they are “out of shape” and what to have a “Fun Ha Ha day” . Anyone interested in riding with Ann & Mike?

A couple of us are going to meet at Vail lake around 8am on Sat Jan 17 to check out the course. Email me if you want to come.

It should be a fun time – We will set up tents and have support for all riders. I am hoping that Tori from Trek Demo will also be there…

Below are the teams as I know them.

• Team 1 - John Abate /Jose Quintero /Bob Winston/ Skylar Bishop
• Team 2 -Jack Guenther/ Dave Callender / Jasper Mallard / Dave (Jack’s Friend)
• Team 3 - Ann Hall / Mike Martin-Needs two more riders
• TeamIBR - Mike Jennings / Lisa Jennings / Peter Plaisance / Darrel Divine
• Ridgid 29er SS - Tony B. / David See /Mike W
• Solo - Tony Barghini & Andy Green

12 hrs of Temecula has momentum

Teams are building for the Jan 24 12 hours of Temecula. We have 3 complete teams of 4 (Swamis 1&2 and IBR), 1 team of 3 (29ER SS) and two solo riders that I am aware of… Very cool – we could have 5 teams and a few solo riders.

Ann Hall & Mike Martin are looking for two more people to have a casual team. Both Ann and Mike claim that they are “out of shape” and what to have a “Fun Ha Ha day” . Anyone interested in riding with Ann & Mike?

A couple of us are going to meet at Vail lake around 8am on Sat Jan 17 to check out the course. Email me if you want to come.

It should be a fun time – We will set up tents and have support for all riders. I am hoping that Tori from Trek Demo will also be there…

Below are the teams as I know them.

Team 1 - John Abate /Jose Quintero /Bob Winston/ Skylar Bishop

Team 2 -Jack Guenther/ Dave Callender / Jasper Mallard / Dave (Jack’s Friend)

Team 3 - Ann Hall / Mike Martin-Needs two more riders

TeamIBR - Mike Jennings / Lisa Jennings / Peter Plaisance / Darrel Divine

Ridgid 29er SS - Tony B. / David See /Mike W

Solo - Tony Barghini & Andy Green