My Area 106

"Let's talk Practice"

First off, play this attached video and listen how a professional basketball player Allen Iverson thinks of practice.

I am privileged to have many awesome off road cyclists in "My Area 106". With this said, I am proud of the fact that I have "3" riders in "My Area" that are part of a large national team with Gary Fisher called the "29er Crew". Travis Saeler, TJ Platt and Amanda Sproat are all members of this select national 29er team.

I recently heard that the prior two (Travis is on the left, and TJ right) have been slacking on the "practice side", so I decided to do a spot inspection and show up at one of their scheduled "bike practice" sessions this past Wednesday at North Park (North Pittsburgh).

Big Wheel keep on Rollin....

I got to practice on the new Trek Top Fuel 69er the other night on my favorite trail, Mohican. I was rushed for time, so I knew I had to keep it to an 8 mile ride at most. Lately, we've had a good amount of rain for a few days straight, so I knew most trails would be wet and possibly closed but I had a good idea that Mohican would be fairly dry (this trail soaks up the water real well). Let's talk big wheel. The Fuel 69er of course has a 29" front wheel which I immediately thought "where have you been". I've been a Fisher 29er rider the past couple years and now remember just what difference having that larger front wheel makes.

If you are on the fence or have never ridden a 29" wheeled bike, you owe it to yourself to get on one and experience it for yourself. What I like about this Top Fuel is the traditionally 26" wheelbase (short and easy to maneuver), but quick acceleration (if you can call how I ride at times quick), the awesome ability to just roll over log piles and rocks, but above all the great contact with the trail on descents and ramming it into a tight bend.

Win Bob's SWAG #4 - Winner

Austin Powell (Austin Powers?). I'm sure Austin gets this all the time but I couldn't resist. Austin has to be one of the luckiest individuals. Heck Austin, you should go out and purchase a few lottery tickets with the luck you have. This marks the 2nd time Austin has won "Bob's Swag". Since I have NO rules against winning multiple times, the new team bag is on its way to Austin's home address.

My family gaming committee pulled Austin's name from all the eligible entry's out of our official "team hat", as my daughter Rachel did the honors of pulling out the winning piece of paper with Austin's name on it.

Austin wins the cool Trek/VW team bag!! Congrats Austin and thanks for sending me your photo's and participating in "Win Bob's Swag". Special thanks to all that participated and sent me some great action shots.

The next Win Bob's Swag should be within the next couple weeks.

Bob

Busy Weekend.....and a toast to all MOMS on "Mother's Day"

It rained pretty steady this past Friday night till about 11pm, but the weather forecast promised to be mostly sunny for all of Saturday. I had just finished putting together the finishing touches to the Fuel 69er and was anxious to get it on the trail. With all the rain of late, I knew the only trail that would be decent to ride would be Mohican, and my plan was to get a several miles on the Top Fuel before noon Saturday.

Along with a chance to ride here's a list of other events I planned to do this Saturday:

1. help arrange medium sized rocks along my wife's landscaping beds (I hate working in the yard)
2. pick up her mother's day gift(s)
3. take pictures of my eldest daughter Rachel and her prom date (Josh) before they set off for their big event (Prom Night)
4. Meet up with my PA buddy Travis Saeler and join the Ernie's crew for their evening Night Ride

I awoke at 7am Saturday morning to sunny skies and the hope the trails at Mohican where going to be nice and dry.

Looking down "Main Street" Loudonville, Ohio

Saturday, May 31st will find this same picture location here (looking down main street) loaded with racers as they begin the mass start of the Mohican 100 and 100k race event (which takes off this year in downtown Loudonville). The riders will head west out of town up a good road climb which will certainly break up the group prior to heading into the state forest trails.

I was in town to line up some hotel rooms for the upcoming event and of course I purposely chose this later time in the day so I could ride a few miles of the trail before heading home. The trail was so dry (as usual) as I parked in the lot which is just near the 7 mile mark of the trail.

I've developed my own 12 mile loop since I rarely have the time to devote to the entire 24 miles, as I  actually ride clockwise for the first few miles then access the short loop trail which drops me out at about the 22 mile mark of the main loop. I finish this then continue my ride at the actual trail start.

Area 106 well represented at the Maximus (Michaux)

Thought I would jump outside "Area 106" and share the race report from this past weekends Michaux Series kickout (Michaux Forest area near Gettysburg) by Steven Hoover (Trek East Coast Factory Team Manager/Wrench/Racer, heck jack of all trades). We had a few riders from the 106 participate with some very good results: TJ Platt (29er Crew - TOP) took 3rd in the Pro/Elite race just behind the two Trek riders (Eatough & Schalk), Travis Saeler (29er Crew - TOP) placed 2nd in his class, Chrissy Burkle (Pittsburgh rider) placed 3rd in the women's Pro/Expert field with Michelle Johnson (Trek Ohio) finishing strong in the top 10.

race report continued:

Building up a Top Fuel 69er

At last! A Top Fuel 69er arrived at the house this past Friday and I finally got a chance today to break open the box and begin to put it together. The bike was packaged extremely well to help aid against any potential shipping damage and just ridding the bike of all the packing material took several minutes.

Next, I called in my good friend and top notch mechanic "Pete" to help me complete this new ride. In no time at all Pete and I had this bike together which allowed us to sit back with our favorite adult beverage and admire our handy work. 

Bob

1110 feet of climbing bliss....

Location: Kanawha State Forest (just outside of Charleston, West Virginia).

1110 feet of climbing tonight. My Garmin also total 13.5 miles (8 mph average) and a total time of 1 hour and 40 minutes. The first 35 minutes I totaled 750 feet which was a long fire road climb that reminds me of the climb at the old 24 hours of Canaan  (Timberline) course (does anyone remember that great course at Canaan, especially 1993 with all the mud?).

The climbing was a lot for me. I confess, I tend to shy away from the big climbs but today welcomed it because once at the top I knew I was about to enjoy some awesome trails. The downhill portion helped push that average up to the 8 mph, but still I felt really good about the ride today.

Bike Practice... making up for some lost time

Vulture's Knob - "the Chute"

"Bike Practice". I stole this phrase from Jesse as he writes about his countless hours practicing on his bike. This works for me, except as he talks about "Fast Practice" I'm more like "Getting Up to Speed Practice". Ever since my riding was cut short late last summer (mountain bike accident) I've been trying to make up for some lost riding time this spring by trying to ride each day if possible.

I've been toting my Fuel EX along with me (on the back of my Element) while visiting my retailers with the goal of catching a trail ride at the end of the day. What makes it nice is that Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Charleston (WV) and Toledo all have outstanding trails nearby and in the direction of home.

Trek Session 88 Introduced at Sea Otter

Those of you that enjoy some extra travel and trips to parks such as Whistler, Snowshoe, and Seven Springs should set your sights on the new Session 88 that Trek introduced at the Sea Otter Classic this past week.

You may notice this new design has a similar look to the new EX and Remedy designs platform that were introduced earlier in the year. This new Session (DH and FR) share the full floater, Evo Link and ABP features with it's sister bikes. The head tube on the new Session uses the E2 (same as Remedy). Check out the full story at the link here: Trek Unveils new Session at Sea Otter.

Along with introducing this new Session, Trek also begin shipping to local retailers this week new 2008 Trek Remedy's (all models). If you've had the chance to demo a Fuel EX and have been wanting to see the Remedy give your local Trek retailer a call and see if they've brought one in.

Bob