2023 By the Numbers

It was a pretty good year in many respects. We were very busy early in the year with renovating the old house, buying the new house and moving. We started settling in around June and you can see the results of "real life" slowing down and cycling life heating up.

Some statistics:

• 5917 miles is the most since I started keeping stats in 1995
• 914 miles more than last year
• Seventh straight year increasing annual mileage
• 261 total rides
• 22.67 miles per ride average
• The 214,000 feet of climbing was 50,000 less than last year

There is no doubt that riding down here in Folsom is easier than up in Shingle Springs, and the mileage numbers reflect that. The increase occurred organically, meaning I didn't intend to ride more this year; it just happened. In fact, I think I said last year that 5,000 miles was too much, and here I was flirting with 6,000.

In 2024 I don't expect anything to change. It's pretty easy to ride 500 miles a month here, so I expect to be around 6,000 miles again.

Later.

Take Two

My second ride on the Hightower yesterday was much, much better. I would go so far as to call it "fun" and "successful." I guess I can delete the draft of the Craigslist sales ad.

After this ride I didn't experience any of the crazy cramping or extreme soreness like after the first ride. I don't know if adaptation happens that quickly, but I think it certainly helped to give my body time to fully recover after the initial ride. I am still quite fatigued today, perhaps a bit more so than I would be on my hardtail, but not much.

My complaints about the seat tube angle started to fade. I climbed with more speed and power, and that was nice.

While I described my local terrain as "rolling" in the last post, I guess it's all relative. This ride totaled 2500 feet of climbing in 26 miles—about 100 feet per mile. Last summer I rode in Tahoe and did 15 miles and 1500 feet; also about 100 feet per mile.

I think it feels like more elevation gain in Tahoe because the climbs are extended in the mountains, but climbing is climbing. In fact, I would venture that I go harder on shorter, repeated climbs than I would on one long one.

A few years ago I did 31 miles and 3800 feet of gain in Tahoe, which seemed like a lot because the ride was mostly front-loaded with climbing with another big one in the middle. However, if I added another five-mile loop on my local ride, I think I would crack 3000 feet of climbing.

One thing I forgot to mention before was the rock strikes. I had five minor ones on my first ride. I know this is just the nature of long travel. You simply can't raise the bottom bracket 150mm to compensate for all the travel. The bike would feel ridiculous.

I dropped down to 170mm cranks (which is what the complete bike comes with) from my standard 175s. A little bird recommended 165s, but I just couldn't stomach that big a drop. Time will tell if ultimately go that route. Regardless, I only had one rock strike on the second ride. I think after four decades of mountain biking, your brain compensates quickly. I felt myself timing pedal strokes through rocky areas without being completely conscious of it. If that doesn't make sense to you, come back when you hit the 40-year mark.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the annoying clicking coming from the headset area. This is my first foray into the IS headset world. While the process of simply dropping the bearings into the frame without a headset press is kind of cool, it seems wrong. Logically, it seems like you would really need to nail the preload with this system.

A little research provided a possible fix. People have reported that the top dust cap often hits the frame before fully contacting the split ring, so proper preload cannot be achieved. I purchased some FSA .25mm microspacers, which are inserted between the split ring and dustcap, to see if that is the case.

Later.

Six Degrees of Separation

 I finally finished building the Hightower. Here it is:

Why, you may ask, did it take a month? A few reasons. One, I just don't love working on bikes that much anymore. And boy was this one a lot of work. Two, it was difficult to find time between riding and everything else I am responsible for. Sometimes those responsibilities involve swinging a sledgehammer or a pick or an axe and that leads to lack of enthusiasm towards standing in front of a bike stand.

However, the main reason for the month-long build was buyer's remorse as soon as I clicked the button to buy it. This isn't really the bike I need. I tend to ride where I live and very rarely drive to ride. I live in rolling hills and fairly mellow terrain. Even though my racing days are seemingly long behind me, I still like to ride fast. This is where and how I ride every day. A nice cross-country bike with more reasonable geometry would have been a much better choice. But here we are.

Five days ago I took it out for the first ride. It's different. Definitely different.

As I rolled out the door, the first thing that is abundantly clear is how steep the seat tube is. My Jones LWB is the bike I spend the most time on, and it has a seat tube angle of 71 degrees. Super slack and it always felt perfect to me. Now I am trying out 77 degrees and it felt weird right from the start, like the cranks were right under me as on a unicycle.

A couple miles from home I hit the first climb heading towards Beals Point. It's fairly steep in places and peppered with round river rock. I tried to power up it like I would on my hardtail, but the power simply wasn't there. I dropped down a gear and kept going. Then another gear. It was just really difficult to keep my momentum.

I poached all the trails heading towards Beals Point, mostly uphill, and it was fine. I even made it up a steep, technical section that I don't always clean on my hardtail. On the few downhill sections, I immediately noticed that a modern bike is ridden with a more forward bias; my hardtail "ass off the back" descending mentality would need some adjusting.

One thing I have always done going back to pre-suspension days, and maybe even BMX days, is loft my front wheel over everything. I don't even realize I am doing it. Maybe this came from necessity when we had rigid forks or maybe it's just because it's fun. I don't know. But the first time I did it on the Hightower the wheel started to come up, but the saddle hit my legs. This happened over and over again and it was frustrating. I am cool with having the dropper there when I NEED it, but I don't want it to be a requirement every single time the trail points down for a few feet.

As the ride continued I was continually surprised that I needed to drop down a gear or two on the climbs. I realize this bike isn't made to hit the cross-country World Cup circuit, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

Downhills and fast sections were admittedly fun. Once I started getting the hang of positioning, it was clear you can go fast on this type of bike. With 210 millimeters of dropper post travel I could get pretty low, and the traction is amazing.

I hit pretty much every boulder feature, even the one I always go around on my hardtail, and it was all ridiculously easy. That was fun.

I climbed up to the water tower, which is on a steep fire road, and had to drop into my 42T cog, a gear that I never use (let alone the 50T). Again, frustrating.

The singletrack downhill on the other side is steep (for this area) and a rutted out mess. The bike handled it without issue, but the lack experience on the bike kept the pilot from pushing too hard.

I arrived home and headed upstairs to take a shower. Even though my ride was only 25 miles, to my legs it felt like 50. I was really tired.

That night my legs started cramping and spasming like crazy—hamstrings, groin and hips. I have occasional cramping issues, but NOTHING like this. 

The next morning I was walking around like an old bow-legged cowboy. Unbelievably sore, especially my hips. I went for a ride in an effort to loosen up, which helped, but I was so tired.

I took the next day off followed by two mixed terrain rides on my Jones bikes, and the hip discomfort started to fade. Today, five days later, I finally feel like myself again.

The human body is both prone to specialization and remarkably adaptable. Ride in the same position for a while and that will be the only position your body likes. But given time, you can also adapt to a completely new position. Six degrees isn't much in some ways (it's only 1.6% of a circle), but to your body it's a massive change.

Time for this old cowboy to get back on that horse and try again.

Later.

Shifting Priorities

Lots of stuff going on. New appliances showing up. Passports that needed to be renewed. Daily bike rides. Weight lifting. Losing my checkbook and having to get new bank account numbers. Fixing numerous electronic fund transfers with the new account number. Errands. Shopping. Cooking meals. You know, life stuff.

My modest goal for the weekend was to get the shifting set up. Mission accomplished.

As I mentioned before, everything is Eagle GX except the cassette. Because these are older Deore XT hubs, I had to go NX for the cassette because of the HG cassette body.

I have been a Shimano guy for decades, which means there are numerous wheels floating around on my bikes with HG cassette bodies. I prefer Shimano, and I would have been cool with using XT 11-speed forever, but Shimano is making it tougher to get now. When Shimano moved to Micro Spline cassette bodies for their 12-speed offerings, that kind of sealed their fate. Ironically I moved to SRAM because I have so many Shimano wheels and they at least provide a pathway to 12-speed while still use HG bodies.

Nothing earth shattering about the GX Eagle setup save for a couple new wrinkles introduced by full suspension. The chain length needed to be calculated when the chainstays are longest, which for this bike (and most others) is when the shock is fully compressed. The B gap needs to be adjusted at sag. This is really a two-person job, so with all the air out of the shock I estimated sag. Close enough.

The routing on my aluminum Salsa Timberjack really soured me on internal cable routing. Wide open spaces that you had to fish around in and sharp edges on the entries and exits made it difficult. In the end my cables look like a cat chewed on them.

The routing on the Hightower is fully tunneled and easy. Mark one in the "pro" column for carbon fiber on this one.

Hopefully I get out there again this week and finish this damn thing up.

Later.

Shaping Up

 A little closer. But not much. Time is at a premium it seems.

Now comes the task of feeding various cables through holes, which I absolutely abhor. It looks like Santa Cruz did a good job with this, but we will see.

Later.

Hanging

 I finally hung a few parts in the Hightower today. Easy stuff, though.

It gets a little harder from here.

Later.

Rolling

 I found the time to get the wheelset together for my Hightower.

The wheels feature the same Deore XT hubs and ARC35 rims that I have been using successfully for many years. This particular set was built about seven years ago for a Kona Honzo build that I never started. They have been sitting in my office unused ever since. In fact, they are so old that the rear rim is the Easton version that predates the Race Face acquisition.

The tires are obviously Maxxis. The front is a new 29x2.6 Rekon. I could probably use a more aggressive tire up front, but I had three of these sitting in a box, so I'll see how they are. In the rear is a lightly used 29x2.4 Ardent. Again, I have two of these so they need to be used on something.

Unlike the WTB tires that I set up a couple months ago, which were frustratingly difficult to seat, these seated easily with a floor pump as Maxxis tires generally do for me.

Rotors are lightly used 180mm Deore XT front and rear. I should probably have a 203mm in front, but these are what I had in the archives.

The cassette is a basic Eagle NX 11-50 to eventually pair up with an otherwise GX drivetrain.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start hanging some parts on the frame.

Later.