March 2008 Ride Log
Ride style this year will be easy going since I need to nurse the rotator cuff.
Saturday March 29
Upper Paugussett State Forest - Newtown, Connecticut
Spent the morning attending the Upper Gussy Trails Workshop in the Newtown Town Hall. The very informative session included talks by various State of Connecticut officials regarding future trail plans and proper use of tools. More information regarding the days activities and pictures of the Upper Gussy trail building project can be found here.
A group from the trail work team decided to go for a ride to end the day. Chip, Don, John, Mark, Tren, and myself did a five mile, two hour ride through the Upper Paugussett State Forest. Lots of climbing was required but the down hills were quite nice. It will be really sweet once the trails have been defined and connected with the original trail system. Mark's blog has details, images, and video of our ride here.
I felt the biking that I did during the first three months of this year paid off with this ride. There were only a couple of times that I hiked the bike. Some of the sections were steeper than I'd like, but managed to dig in and make it up. It wasn't until the fun meter dipped that I stopped and walked. I'm glad I did because the next day I felt that I had strained a muscle behind my right knee.
This ride has me rethinking my decision to convert the bike to a 1x9er. I try to stay out of the granny gear but there were times I was glad that I had it. I'll have to have another go at it with a 11-34 cassette and see how that feels. I'm looking forward to getting back there and doing some more trail work and biking.
Friday March 28
Indian Ledge / Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
My son and I hiked from the lower Indian Ledge Park lot to the short boardwalk south of the Coyote Bridge crossing. The boardwalk still needed repairs so walkers would not put their foot through the open sections. A few new planks were needed and the job was done.
Wednesday March 26
Railroad Path / Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
I had planned to get into the valley this week to do repairs on a boardwalk just south of the upper bridge crossing on the blue trail. Tom and I thought that with such a nice day outside, that a bike ride was needed. This was the first time out on his new Ibex full suspension bike. We parked on Tait Road in Trumbull near the entrance to the old railroad bed. After riding about a mile in, we found the town has been working to bring in large amounts of dirt and gravel to grade the path. I hope they don't decide to pave this. I stopped to work on replacing some of the broken boardwalk slats and found one more had been broken since I was there on Saturday.
We continued to ride after the work was done and made it out to the open lake bed, circled around, and headed back along the same path. We did a little more than two hours.
Monday March 24
Indian Ledge Park / Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
Left work early to do a little trail maintenance where the tree had fallen over. The Hemlock (pictures below) had broken off about twenty feet above the ground. The rest came down on the white trail about a quarter mile south of the bridge crossing. Permission from the state came much quicker than I thought. My chainsaw needs a tune up and isn't quite ready. I wanted to at least open up the trail as people were creating a bypass around the tree. So I grabbed the bow saw from the garage, headed over to the lower parking lot at Indian Ledge and started out. It took about two hours but I managed to get most of the trail opened up. The limbs were tossed on the bypass to block it off. The rest of the main trunk will get finished off when the chain saw is ready.
Saturday March 22
Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
The weather was sunny and with temperatures near 50F, what else is there to do? Go riding of course! Parked at the commuter lot off Daniel's Farm Road Got to the trail head at the end of Park Street a little after 3:00pm. Took the white trail to the old dam. There I did something I've never done before. I rode the wavy rock to the dam, then took a hard right past the two old walkway supports to the base of the cliff. Rode the top of the spillway wall and around the north side of the dam. All without stopping.
Pedaled my way to the fire road and over to the "Picnic Tables". Down to the white trail and stopped to take pictures of the Hemlock tree that has blown down. I'd like to get permission to cut it up as people are now cutting a path around it. The pictures below are marked with white as the original trail and red for the bypass that is being created.
As I was riding down the trail, I spotted a path to the right. Looking for something different, I took it. The trail turned into quite a climb back up to the top of the "Picnic Tables". Since I'm still not up to doing any stunts, I took a smooth decent down and over to the white trail. This diversion effectively created a loop. I rode the white trail past Indian Ledge Park to the end. Took the yellow trail along the river and past the bridge crossing. There is a large tree across the trail with a ramp made of logs. It always makes me nervous to ride up it but as long as I keep the momentum, the bike just rolls up and over. Now this is the start of the blue trail which bikes are not supposed to be on. I've rode it many times not knowing as there are no signs posted to that fact. Just past the log, there is a short boardwalk that needs repair. I measured the length of the replacement sections and made a note of it. I'll come back with a couple of pieces of wood and make it right again. Back over the big log and up to the white trail. I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the flooded areas at the south end of the open lake bed. The picture on the left is fairly shallow, but the area in the image on the right is much deeper and will get your feet wet. This section of the trail is made up of hard pack smooth rocks and is not muddy.
On to the dam and tried to repeat my previous successful ride around the dam, but this time in the other direction. I did pretty good in getting over the spillway and around but got stuck just short of the two walkway supports. After getting myself together, I continued on to arrive at the car around 3:15pm. It was a nice two hours of playing in the woods.
Brooksvale Park - CT-NEMBA TA Course - Hamden, Connecticut
Attended the Trail Ambassador orientation in the morning. There were about eight others from around the state. It's a great way to use my time on the trail to benefit others and CT-NEMBA.
Friday March 21
Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
Good Friday - The UPS man delivered my new Shimano M970 XTR skewers today from Jenson USA. They are a little pricey but a perfect complement for my new I9 wheels. The original Coda skewers were an open cam design and were intended for light XC duty, not the aggressive XC wheel bombing type trail riding that I've been doing. The M970 are a closed design, provide more clamping pressure, and have a thicker "stick". This should make my front end stiffer, but I doubt I'll feel the difference. Just knowing I have heavy duty skewers holding my wheels on will be enough.
The new caliper ships with a cotter pin holding the brake pad "fingers" in place. Earier model calipers had a screw. I checked my 2008 caliper and it had the threads to take a M4 metric screw. The cotter pin was not tight and would likely vibrate during riding. It was replaced with a stainless steel socket head cap screw and secured with blue loctite. It looks better and simplifies the tools needed to replace the pads.
Spent most of the morning looking into finding out why my new front brake was making so much noise yesterday. I loosened up the screws that secure the adapter to the IS mounts on my 2007 Fox Talas 32 RLC fork. When I tightened up the screw to the adapter, I could see a very small twisting movement. The head of the two button head cap screws was contacting the curved transition where the IS mount is formed into the fork tube. Tightening up the screw caused the caliper to not be parallel to the rotor. So off I went to the Nutty Company in Derby to pick up some stainless steel socket head cap screws. The socket style head was narrower than the button head and once these were used, the caliper looked much better and did not twist while being torqued down. I'd have to take it out onto the trail to make sure the new mounting screws fixed the noise issue.
The wind was really blowing today with gusts around 20mph. The temperature was a reasonable 45F but the wind chill was much lower. I got to the commuter lot off Daniel Farms Road in Trumbull around 4:00pm. Took the white trail to the red and eventually made it over to the fire road. From there continued on to the Picnic Tables where about six guys were doing the drops there. I rode on toward Indian Ledge Park, picked up the white trail and turned back onto the yellow trail west of the river near the first parking lot. Going past the bridge crossing, I kept the river to my right as I headed south. At one point I went under a tree that has fallen across the trail. It is about six to seven feet over the trail. Not a big deal but the branches are much lower. I stopped and used my portable chain saw to open up the area under the tree. Packed everything up and continued south, all the while keeping the river in view. Eventually I would take the white trail to the north end of the old lake bed. Past the October crash site where I saw the "Picnic Table" guys hanging out. As I peddled away towards the old dam, I could hear them yelling in enthusiasm at the jumps they must be doing.
Heading south, as the open lake bed gets narrower, there is a long hard pack section that had three or four larger areas of water covering them. The first two sections are very shallow and because of the hard pack underneath, is not muddy. I was able to cross that without getting wet, as long as I didn't pick up speed and splash. The next section is much larger but figured if I stayed closer to the edge, I would remain in shallow water. Boy was I wrong. Eventually the water got to just under my bottom bracket. By now my shoes filled up with ice cold water. However, it didn't take long for my feet to warm up a little as I rode on toward the old dam. Pedaled around the dam and stopped at the the spillway to rest. I then looped over to the wavy rock and rode that out to the base of the hill. The more technical blue trail called and I rode that to the end. Got to the car by 6:30pm.
The new front Magura's are much better now. They do make some noise after getting wet, but it doesn't take long for the rotor to dry out and all is quiet. The socket head cap screws did the trick.
Thursday March 20
Railroad Bed / Pequonnock River Valley - Trumbull, Connecticut
First Day of Spring - When I left work today at 4:15pm it seemed that there would be no hope of getting a ride in. I was looking forward to riding the Cannondale Uber V900 with it's new set of Magura Louise BAT brakes on the front. After doing a few things, I figured I could squeeze in a ride. The sun was due to set at 7:07pm and it was windy with a brief moment of frozen showers coming down as I drove to the trail head at 5:30. Temperatures were in the lower 40’s and a 8mph wind gust was blowing in from the west. The Saturn was parked at the end of Tait's Road near Trumbull Center. Got the wheels on the ground and headed onto the old railroad bed at 5:45pm.
I rode in and crossed the bridge about two miles down the rail trail and entered the valley. Soon after heading south on the white trail I was forced to go around a large hemlock that had blow down across the trail. Met a few guys resting on the other side of the first stream crossing. Continued on to the open area in the old lake bed and on to the dam. Rested there for a while and then rode south along the white trail. Rode up and over the hill south of the dam. This trail has been washed out quite a lot from the previous rains. After getting to the other side of the hill I took a right and rode north along the blue trail by the east side of the river. Managed to ride for the first time the wavy rock to the south side of the dam without stopping. The trick to this and other sections like it is to keep pedaling and took ahead at where you want to go. The rest just takes care of itself. The guys I met before came down off the dam and headed for the commuter lot.
The sun was getting low and it was getting darker as the ride progressed. I knew this was going to be the closest I've been to a night ride. Unfortunately I didn't have any lights. Soon after crossing the last stream crossing, a group of four white-tail deer were startled as they stood in the trail. They took off toward Indian Ledge Park. By the time I crossed the bridge, it was getting really dark. As I rode down the railroad bed, the moon was visible just over my left eye. The sunset along with the moonlight cast an orange glow over the valley and reflected off the stream below. It was a little eerie as I traveled down the path with the wind causing trees to creak and other noises coming from the woods. The sunset ride was a very enjoyable one that I would like to do again. I arrived back to the car at 7:38pm.
The new Magura Louise front brake worked great. There is a lot of braking power available to the front wheel. There were a few times where I had to remind myself to be careful when applying the front. The Fat Albert tires dig in as braking power is brought to bear. The only issue that came up was the brakes complained much longer than they should after getting wet. They would make noise even after drying out. The rotors did have some dust but that shouldn't matter. With Friday off from work, I'll have to check the alignment of the caliper. Looking forward to getting back on the trail this Easter weekend.
Sunday March 16
Home - Trumbull, Connecticut
I was so quick to get the brakes on the bike that I rode yesterday with the long hydraulic line still fitted from the pre-bled brake set. At least 24" had to be taken off. Following the instructions provided with the brake kit, I cut the line to length and installed the hose with a new olive and insert to the lever.
The brakes felt good without bleeding but I wanted to make sure I got the most from the brakes so I decided to bleed them. Using the Magura service kit, a reservoir was fitted to the lever and a syringe with mineral oil was fitted to the caliper. The syringe was used to push the oil up to the open reservoir. During that process a little air was seen bubbling from the lever into the reservoir. Then the oil was pulled back into the syringe. This was done for a few cycles until no air was seen in the upper reservoir.
The bleed kit was removed from the caliper and lever. Any oil that got on the components was cleaned up. All the screws were checked for proper torque. The brake lever was adjusted closer to the hand grip. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to get a ride in.
Saturday March 15
Old Mine Park - Trumbull, Connecticut
I went to Smart Cycles in Norwalk to pick up the Magura Louise BAT brakes along with the Venti-disc rotor. These are for the fork on my Cannondale "Uber" V 900 to replace my older Louise brake set. I had ordered a 180mm disc but when I got there discovered a 203mm disc had come in. This rotor is designed for use on a downhill bike because the larger surface area provides better heat dissipation. Although the brake pads are the same size, the mounting of the caliper is a little further from the axle. This works like a lever and gives more mechanical advantage during braking. The larger disc does weight a little more but since I've been installing components for an aggressive XC bike, I decided to keep them.
Installation was easy and it didn't take long before I was at Old Mine Park to bed in the pads. It was sunny and a little cool as I took the bike off the roof rack. The ride up the center trail was the usual grind. Previous rains have washed out even more of the trail. On the downhill section to the right, I braked hard to bed in the brakes. Went back up to the top and took the downhill on the other side. A large tree had fallen across the trail but that just gave me a chance to brake again. The Magura brakes continue to improve as they burn in.
Monday March 10
Home - Trumbull, Connecticut
The Industry Nine wheels have been nothing short of spectacular. They are strong and can handle the worst riding conditions that can be thrown at them. When I fitted the I9 front wheel back in January, I found that the front disc rotor did not line up properly with the older caliper. I didn't realize until recently that in 2001 the hub standards changed to a slightly wider hub, moving the rotor closer to the left fork post. The caliper couldn't mount to the fork without binding up the disc. Alex at Smart Cycles in Norwalk, Connecticut helped to get it all working with my original caliper but he recommended that it only be temporary.
Now is the time to address the problem before the riding season kicks off. The 1999 model Magura Louise brakes have been great but are dated in terms of engineering. The original hydraulic brakes use one piston that presses a pad against the rotor. A fixed pad on the other side of the rotor then serves to complete the pressure point. The rotor actually flexes during braking as the single piston presses the rotor against the fixed pad. It was a great disc brake system at the time but Magura has improved the brakes quite a bit since then.
The 2008 model Magura Louise BAT is a 6th generation Louise brake system that uses two pistons with self-adjusting pads and other enhancements. The BAT designation stands for Bite Adjust Technology and features a bite adjuster knob integrated in an aluminum lever blade. The bleeding procedure also is much easier than before and still uses mineral oil for the hydraulic system. The compact brake lever can be removed and reinstalled without removing the handle bar grips. Pad wear can be checked without removing from the caliper.
The original rotor on the front of my Cannondale is 160mm but my braking style can be demanding. I've also learned to use the front brake for most of my braking and as a result rarely lock up the rear wheel. While no problem exists with the 160mm size, a larger rotor for an aggressive style seems like the way to go; something on the order of 180mm. The larger 203mm rotor is also possible but too large for my XC riding. Magura has two models of rotors for the Louise BAT brakes, Venti-disc or the standard wave SL. The Venti-disc is a two part rotor that uses steel for the braking surface and aluminum for the spider. The six bolt center uses a fan effect to move air through the rotor assembly. The manufacturer claims a 15% improvement in cooling. I don't know how well it will work but it can't hurt. The rotor also has some bling factor as well.
Sunday March 9
Home - Trumbull, Connecticut
The past two weekends have not been good for off-road riding. First we get about six inches of snow then it rains like no tomorrow this past weekend. The trails are just too muddy to even consider riding on although Old Mine Park is possible if one sticks to the already washed out center up hill grind. The Suzuki LT-4WD ATV needed new oil seals for the rear axle so that seemed like a good thing to do. Did some other work and got it running. Sunday was sunny and not raining and it was fine to ride ATV around the backyard. It didn't take long to create some muddy sections but nothing a little grass seed can't fix.