Reading Order

For the full effect - start reading at Bicycle Maintenance 911, then read Day 1, and finish on Day 2.

Grizvitational Day Two

Day Two was Bear Meadows/Tussey Mountain - Rothrock Classics

Getting our gear together for the ride. Jamie hones his Zen.This ride started near Bear Meadows and climbed up North Meadows Road to Gettis Ridge Road and then Bear Gap road to Wildcat, a memorable drop off the face of the earth. The view from North Meadows Road:Then up Laurel Run Road to the firetower and then down the Edge, another memorable drop. On my Garmin 305 the drops look like this: The first is Wildcat and the second is the Edge - they are both wicked steep. This is part of Wildcat: Karl was riding a sweet carbon Specialized unit to review for Dirt Rag Magazine. Rumor has it - he wants to keep it.
Regrouping at the bottom of the Edge and the beginning of Longaberger. Brother Griz, and Brother Nabil
Larry cranks it up a notch SS-style on a nice log ride near the end of Longaberger.

Keith proving that they ride big logs in Perry County too

Ray smooth as silk

Karl making it look easy
Nabil sneaks a peek at the landing prior to hitting the eject buttonWe looped back by the cars and dropped off a couple of riders then rode up the IMBA/NMBA constructed Tussey Ridge Trail to some new rocky alternative lines near the junction with Kettle. Click here for photos my brother, Nabil, took of this area: There were several other uber-technical alternate routes along the ridgeline; however, I pinch flatted three times and was playing catch up much of the time. This is a picture of the main trail:I did hear that the Dutch Eagle rode by far the most challenging of these puzzles; one I had stopped to marvel at back in April when I snapped this photo on a solo ride:It is a loose assemblage of log and stone that, if you use your imagination, roughly resembles a line. Word has it that Dean crashed in a spectacular fashion on his first attempt damaging both shoulders. The group then went to work reinforcing the logs to take the wobble out and spotted him for his second attempt. The Dutch Eagle nailed it on his second try - thus winning the coveted annual Hans Rey Trophy of Tremendous Riding (HRTTR). We hammered down the other Ridge extension to the gas line and as the raindrops began to fall we contemplated riding John Wirt in the rain. As the rain picked up, we decided to try to sit it out under a porch. John Wirt, the most technical trail of the weekend, is no bag of laughs when wet. Impatience got the best of us and we started out as the rain was still falling. About halfway in the rain did stop, but the rocks were already slicker than owl shit on a barn beam.Grizvitational Day Two
Total Time 5:00:03
Moving Time 3:38:25
Distance (mi ) 25.18
Moving Speed 6.93 avg. 25.4 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +3,352
Avg. Heart Rate 126 bpm Zone 2.8

Temperature (°F)
65°F avg. 68°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)
W 13.4 avg.
W 16.1 max. The riding in Rothrock is, how do you say? Unbelieveable.

Grizvitational Day One

Twice a summer, once early and once late, my friend Rob aka Griz organizes a fantastic weekend of singletrack riding somewhere in Pennsylvania. Rob has literally written the book on mountian biking in Pennsylvania. The spring location is usually based out of Penn Roosevelt State Park in the Rothrock State Forest due east of State College. Rob and I both graduated from Penn State and spent a fair amount of time cutting our mt biking teeth on the Tuscurora sandstone that makes these trails so memorable. Penn Roosevelt is especially well-suited for a weekend mt. bike getaway because it allows you to ride the newer trails of the Cooper's Gap section and the Rothrock classics on the Tussey Mountain and Bear Meadows sections. Coopers Gap is unique in that all the trails were put in by talented trail-builder from Lewistown and designed specifically for mt. biking. The Rothrock Classics include one of the most technical trails of the east, John Wirt (Read: you don't want to do this one in the rain), and some newer lines and extensions of standard trails.

Day one was Coopers Gap:
From a group of satellites high above the earth the ride looks like this: From my garmin 305 it looked like this:
Total Time 5:08:05
Moving Time3:14:03
Distance (mi ) 24.08
Moving Speed (mph) 7.4 avg. 36.3 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +3,889 / -3,940
Temperature (°F)
68.6°F avg.
69.8°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)
NW 14.9 avg.
NW 19.5 max.

Our motto is "safety first" and what a beautiful place to stop and check our helmets.
The trails were dry, fast, twisty, loaded with good flow and just enough rock to keep you honest. Dean and Rich climbing the stairway to heaven.
Pontzer riding the skinny
After 5 hours on the trail the Old Chub began to flow.

Bicycle Maintenance 911

Having completely destroyed my bike at the recent Michaux 50 I had some work ahead of me in anticipation of the spring 2007 Grizvitational in Rothrock State Forest. What better time than the Friday night before a Saturday five hour ride to rebuild your bike? In the interest of full disclosure, during the intervening week, I drained my PayPal account ordering everything that could possibly be needed for the rebuild including: bottom bracket, cables & housing, grips, brake pads, pedals, lube, cleaners, and tubes - I even washed it.
So last Friday, the 18th, after arriving home late from work and seeing Michele, Thomas, and Henry off for a weekend with the Fisher family in Annapolis; I began the reassembly of my Moots. While many cyclists derive great enjoyment, even pleasure, from working on, building, fine-tuning, and tweaking their bikes - I am not one of them. For me, this is pure work and I put it off as long as possible.

Grips first, adjust the levers and shifters, so far so good; then, BLAM! I break off the aluminum screw that holds on my deraileur hanger. It broke off so there isn't anything to grab onto to remove the remaining piece stuck in the threads. I call my friend Chuck and pray that he is home. Chuck restores muscle cars, has a garage full of specialized tools, and is very adept mechanically. If he can't remove it - I hold little hope for others. After confirming that he is home, I throw the frame into my trunk and drive over to his house. He successfully removes the offending aluminum shard and after checking out his 'Cudas' I head back home.

As I turn onto King street, I can see my friend, Larry's Subaru wagon is parked in front of our house. This is a good sign, Larry is one of those riders who enjoys working on bikes and can help move things along. He is understandably a little nervous that it is pushing 10pm and my bike is still in pieces, but graciously agrees to help for a few minutes. We get the bottom bracket in, the new disc brake pads installed, drink a couple stouts, and agree on a departure time the next morning, 8:30am. I assure him that I will get some more work done after he leaves - I don't. As I go to install the non-drive side FSA carbon crankarm, it becomes apparent that it has delaminated and is totally shot. Hmmm, no other ISIS cranks in the house, my old Race Face square taper cranks use a 72mm BB shell and my Moots a 68mm, it appears that I am totally fooked. Wait! We have a late ride start in the morning because of turkey hunting season which ends at noon. My friend, Aaron, will be driving right by a bike shop on his way to the ride - there is still hope. I call Aaron and ask him if he would swing by and purchase a new set of carbon cranks on his way in - he says that he will try. After hitting that iceberg, my cruise liner was slowly sinking, the rescue boats had been notified, there was nothing left for me to do but clear the decks - so I packed up some junk and went to bed.

As you probably know, sleeping before any kind of big event is like trying to meditate during a Bob Hope telethon - always a struggle. Friday night, not knowing if I was going to be able to ride, it was especially tough. I awoke about an hour earlier than necessary so I went to the Butcher Shoppe to pick up some food, tanked up on gas, hit Starbucks, loaded the car, and waited for Larry to arrive. Larry pulled in on time and as we loaded his stuff into my car I broke the bad news about crankarm and explained my last ditch effort to salvage the weekend. He expressed amazement that none of my cables were even hooked up yet.

We drove to Rothrock on back roads through Huntingdon and Mifflin Counties. As we entered Big Valley (Amish Country) I received a call from Aaron. He was at Mt. Nittany Wheelworks in State College and they didn't have any high-end cranks in stock available for purchase. He put the owner, Frank, on and I explained the situation: FSA delamination, likely warranty issue, need cranks or at least a non-drive ISIS for a couple days. The reception was poor, breaking up, and alot of static; but as I hung up I was semi-confident that he understood the situation.

We stopped by an Amish roadside stand to purchase some moon pies, scallions, and Larry bought two whole pies. My goal had been to arrive at the Penn Roosevelt State Park at 11 am for a 12 noon ride start. Knowing that my bike needed some work and Aaron would be delayed by this bike shop diversion. R=D/T so T=D/R to decrease T one must increase R - so be it.

We pull into the parking lot at 11am. Folks are milling around, getting their gear together, and loading their bikes, their fully assembled bikes, onto their cars for the short shuttle to the Cooper's Gap ride start. It doesn't take long before they realize that Larry and I are somewhat distracted and that my bike is somewhat assembled. I explain the situation and that Aaron may be bringing the part I need. No-one is too annoyed, this is a resilient group of riders and we have all day to ride. Larry, Jamie, and I go to work on my bike setting the cables up. At this point, I am taking some good-natured ribbing for my lack of planning and maintenance ability, Jamie is working magic on my brake cables, and Larry has skillfully adjusted my rear deraileur. As he tighens the clamp on my front deraileur, he over torques it and breaks off the head of the screw. Again, the screw has broken off clean inside the threads, but this time Chuck is nowhere to be found.

I am trying to adjust to the idea of riding two five hour rides on a 1X9 as Aaron pulls in, and like mana from the gods, unveils a beautiful non-drive side Bontrager ISIS crankarm - I am saved. The 1x9 is no problem, I am in business now, screw it in, test drive, and I'm off to the Grizvitational.

Many kudos to Frank and the gang at Mt. Nittany Wheelworks in State College, they apparently took a crankarm off a bike in their shop to save my weekend. This is a great bike shop run by a great bunch of folks - well worth a visit anytime you are in State College.

All work and no play

76 miles, 4,855 feet of climbing solo yesterday. It was a little on the hot side, but nice to be out there.

Lab Rat

One of my riding partners is a sports physiology professor at a local liberal arts college. He is doing a research project on the reliability of a new bicycle ergonometer and was looking for test subjects. Most of the test subjects know each other from either local shop rides or from the local racing scene. I decided to join the fray.

Each of the four sessions would be conducted in the college's Integrative Physiology Laboratory and would consist of a quick fit adjustment, a 15 minute warm-up, then an 8 mile uphill time trial (w/VO2 checks at 10 and 20 minutes), followed by a cool down.

They will be monitoring our heart rate (HR), cadence (rpm), power output (watts), speed, time, and VO2. The first three sessions are on the same exact course the final session is a VO2max test. This is where you exercise until failure which is not particularly enjoyable.

Round One: It was harder than I expected. I didn't feel great coming into it today and I brought my family along - so it was like a three-ring circus in the lab and hard to concentrate.

Stats: 35:29, Averaged 316 Watts, 99 rpm cadence, and 176 HR.

Round Two: The circus was in North Carolina this week, so I was better prepared and more able to focus. I improved over round one with a faster time, higher power output, higher cadence all at a lower average HR.
Stats: 34:10, averaged 332 watts, 102 rpm cadence, and 172 HR.

Round Three As you can see I wore my Easter best for this test - theory being that pink is the fastest color. This time I focused on Watts rather than cadence, trying to stay above 340 Watts at all times. Definitely didn't feel as good as round two, but managed to power through with a slightly faster time - 8 seconds faster to be exact.
Stats: 34:02, averaged 334 watts, ? cadence, ? average HR

Only the bod pod and the VO2max testing remains......... next week.

Winter Training Camp

This winter I attended a training camp to log base miles in better weather better than you typically find in Pennsylvania during February. After some searching and weighing the options, I selected Robert Panzera's Training Camp in California. The camp was from February 19th - 23rd in Fallbrook about 40 minutes north of San Diego. I had a couple weeks off before starting with State Farm Insurance, a frequent flier ticket with USAir, an understanding spouse, the camp was reasonably priced, and I would share a hotel room with another camper - so the timing was perfect.

Saturday: My friend Mike had a Going to California dinner party for me at the Boulevard Grill in Johnstown with friends from LHORBA. Later, we went to an after hours party in an old Victorian mansion. I stayed late enough that so that I could get to the Pittsburgh airport in time for my 7:15 flight, but late enough that I wouldn't need a hotel. Despite driving through a heavy snowstorm, I arrived at the airport at 5:30 am.

Sunday: Sunny skies in San Diego, I was picked up at the airport by Robert Panzera, the camp director, and then driven to our base hotel in Fallbrook. I was anxious to meet my roommate for the week, Matt - having a roommate is a little like a blind date - you never know what your in for and there may be no graceful exit. As it turns out, Matt is a mathematics and philosophy major at the University of New Mexico and a NCAA collegiate cyclist. I knew things would be ok after we had settled into channel surfing only to find that we were both were digging the Food Network shows - this was the week that Anne Nichole's child was abducted by aliens so the TV options were a little slim. We later decided that the guy from Take Home Chef on TLC has the best job on the planet for a single male: picking up attractive women in supermarkets, buying them stuff, going back to their house, and cooking them a gourmet meal.

Former pro mountain biker racer, Jimena Florit, was joining us for the camp as a coach and trainer. Jimena is a two-time Olympian, four-time NORBA XC Champion, and full-time nice person.

Monday: Day one things were a little wet, we had a quick camp meeting, introductions, and then soldiered on for a 43 mile cold ride. About an hour after we finished it cleared up and the sun came out.

Tuesday: Our biggest day: 96 miles, 8 hours, and 10,063 feet of climbing. A small group of us climbed up Mt. Palomar in cold, foggy, and wet conditions which made for an interesting 30 minute descent.

Wednesday: The entire group of 13 climbs Mt. Palomar! Climbing this mountain for anyone is a serious accomplishment for some it is the pinnacle of difficulty - a 12 mile continuous climb, average grade of 7%, topping out over 5,400 feet. Floyd Landis (2006 Tour de France winner?) is famously quoted as saying: "Palomar is more Alpe de Huez than Alpe de Huez". Matt and I shave a couple of minutes off of our times from the previous day's climb. A detachment of riders continues on up Mesa Grande and down to the town of St. Julien - home of a pie factory. This day is amazing - perfect weather, lots of climbing, technical descents, great company, and home-made pie.

Thursday: A rest day. We take a bike path down to Oceanside on the Pacific Coast and have lunch at The Longboarder. On our rest day we still log 43 miles and over 2,600 feet of climbing. Dinner tonight is at the Stone Brewery and it is good.

Friday: Our final day of camp. We lose a couple of campers who want to fly out before a snow storm closes their destination airports. We do a repeat of day one in reverse. There is some breakaway fun and it ends up being a pretty hard day. Somehow there is alot more climbing in this direction. It goes without saying that this camp has been great!

Saturday: The bonus day. Jimena is leading a century training ride for a Trek Superstore that she is sponsored by. Robert invites us to tag along. Jimena and her husband, John, graciously allow me to stay at their place Friday night and entertain me in San Diego after the ride. This ride is a West Coast standard, the Great Western, used as a training loop by pros and amateurs alike it sports sustained climbs, mountainous vistas, hair-ball descents, and very little traffic.

Here something strange happens: Feeling great and inspired by the situation I go off the front on the first climb. One rider passes me and I tell myself that he is just inexperienced and is going to blow up. He gets a gap and then we kinda settle into the same pace. I try to reel him in near the top, but just can't close it all the way. He pulls off onto a side road and stops so I do the same. The following conversation ensues:
rider: "Nice climbing" me: (gasp)"yeah, you too" rider: "are you from San Diego?" me: "no, Pennsylvania" rider: "have you ridden this route before" me: "nope, but I've heard alot about it" rider: "what brings you to San Diego?" me: "I just finished Robert Panzera's training camp" rider: "are you dariusmark?" me: (astonished)"yes" rider: "I'm chorus mann from Velonews Forums"
Holy crap, what are the odds? This is a guy who I knew through a bike forum where I had posted that I was going to the Panzera training camp. Brad and I hooked up with another local rider, an extraordinarily fit children's book illustrator named Michael and finished the ride together. We stopped at the general store and got some water then hammered the twisty turny downhills back toward San Diego. Clearly, one of the best road bike rides of my life and my second with a VN forumite.

Jimena and John gave me a tour of San Diego, taught me how to roast my own coffee beans, we had a Vietnamese dinner together, and then they dropped me off at the airport.

Sunday: Another snowstorm in Pennsylvania. It takes me three hours longer than normal to get home and I see seven crashes. Get home at 3pm and leave for a week of State Farm training in Charlottesville, VA at 9pm.

Totals: 6 days, 26 hours of saddle time, 348 miles, and over 30,000 feet of climbing.

HERE IS THE VIDEO:

IMBA Day

Today was a trail work day at the new Raystown Lake trail project. The nested loop trail system is a collaborative effort between the US Army Corps of Engineers, IMBA, local bike clubs (RMBA, NMBA, LHORBA, and MBM), as well as other stakeholders (Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission, Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau, and Juniata College). The project encompasses multiuse trails of varying levels of difficulty for mountain biking, cross country skiing, trail running, and hiking.

The goal for the day was to use handheld GPS devices, clinometers, and topographical maps to ribbon the trail corridor as it had been previously laid out by IMBA trail professionals. The trail corridors had been designed on a computer and the GPS cooridinates, or waypoints, were downloaded into the handheld units. We would use these to keep us on the right "track". The clinometers were used to "shoot" the grade. They optically measure the % grade between two points. IMBA recommends keeping trail gradients below 15% up or down; however, the local soil composition assessment indicated that the soil may not support grades in excess of 10%. So we would attempt to stay below 10% in this area (making singlespeeders around the state rejoice).

At first, the work was slow going as Clark Fisher of Laurel Highlands Off-Road Bicycling Association (LHORBA) patiently showed us how to interpret the maps and use the equipment. Soon enough though, we were rolling along quite well. In order to work more efficiently, we split into two groups and started on a loop from both ends.
Each group had at least one person reading the trail cooridinates from the GPS unit, one person shooting grades with a clinometer, and two people wrapping ribbon around trees in appropriate locations.Aaron Hofelt from Nittany Mountain Biking Association in State College with a clinometer. Aaron organized the trail day today in an effort to get some work days in at Raystown before his local trails in Rothrock State Forest reopen and need maintenance.

Shannon Dolte (l) from the Raystown Mountain Bikers Assocation (RMBA) and Clark Fisher (r)from LHORBA - two seasoned trail builders.

In all, we flagged over 4.5 miles of trail in about four hours - taking a big chunk out of the trail sections remaining to be flagged. The next step for this section is to have a professional trail building team, like the IMBA Trail Crew, come in and build the trail using mechanized equipment. Funds have already been allocated for this stage. The entire trail system needs to be flagged by the end of March and there are still a few miles to go. Please post a comment if you would like to help out.

Clark's vehicle is proof that they are using way too much salt on the roads in PA this winter.









Of course Larry and I got a quick ride in after all the trail work was complete.

We are looking forward to riding here:
Provided we can secure adequate supervision.

Ötzi & The Ice Ride

Yesterday, February 7th, it was around 8pm when Larry and I pulled into a parking spot off of Ridge Road. It was dark and cold - 9 degrees would be the high. At 9 degrees the snow has a squeaky crunch, the air stings your nostrils, your lungs don't ever seem to adjust, and all things rubber and plastic begin their slow transition into brittle solids.

Larry had been kind enough to lend me one of his lighting systems - which is a huge upgrade over the LED Petzl Tikka light I had duct-taped to my helmet. We had done a night ride in Caledonia last Tuesday with John Heisler and a couple of his friends but that was at a balmy 28 degrees, closer to civilization, and with a larger group. Two of us, here, at 9 degrees was a different story. As we got prepared for the ride, we both commented that mechanicals would be a bad thing; getting lost, worse; and an injury, well we would be like that man and his dog in Jack London's To Build A Fire which is to say: Totally Fooked.

Here is Larry preparing for counter-terrorist winter training at an undisclosed location deep in the Michaux State Forest.

Larry wanted to show me a new ride start higher up on the ridge in order to keep the ride a little flatter. We had been burning in Connector Trail in Caledonia for weeks so a change was welcome.

The trails were riding really nice. This is one of the Ditch trails coming down off of Ridge Road.

Uh Larry, I have some bad news.....

Yes, it happened. A flat, a thorn puncture to be precise. I channeled some of the old DC bike courier mojo to change a flat quickly. I had to resort to bare hands and pulling a thorn out with my teeth. My CO2 inflator didn't fill the tire all the way so I topped it off with Larry's fancy bike pump.

The pump with the plastic stand and rubber hose. Note in the next picture of his pump that fancy plastic stand is missing - all things plastic....break.

We rode up Lollipop - backwards and then over to Camp Trail (Heisler's name for it). Larry says that his front tire is also feeling spongy, but that he is going to ride it till the bitter end.

Here is a picture of the bitter end.

Yes, that is me in the front trying to thaw out my toes and Larry in the back changing his flat. I do have a really nice pair of neoprene booties; however, they were back at my house. I'm saving them in case I ever go on a really cold ride. My toes were stiff, long past the cold and painful stage and just into they don't hurt anymore but they don't move either stage. In my infinite wisdom, I had removed the insoles from my shoes so that I could wear two pairs of socks. What that really did was remove the only insulator between my feet, my metal cleats, and the icy cold air/ground.

After the second flat was repaired and my foot had thawed out a bit, we got back into the flow and had a great time finishing up Camp Trail. Larry rippin it up single speed style. We poked around a couple of more places, the Camp Trail Extension, rode a big rock, and then we spun back up the car on fire roads. In all, over two hours outside in single digit temperatures without windchill cutting fresh tracks on trails.

Our training program calls for very specific recovery drinks: lucky for us they were still in a liquid state.

As we were driving home I thought of that mummified man they found in the Tyrolean Alps back in 1991, Otzi. In 3300 BC he had wandered up to a pass and froze to death. Today, through the use of modern science and creative imagination, folks have written books about his life, his final days, where he lived, what was doing there, what he ate for his last meal. These books and stories are largely based on an analysis of the contents of his stomach and the few artifacts he had with him. Had Larry and I not fared so well, what would they write about us in 5000 years? Sure, the athletic musculature aside, they would assume we lived on fermented grain juice, were out on a winter hunt, poaching on our metal machines - and they would be correct.

Time goes by but so little changes.