VTBR Report: Weather Related Failure - Part 1

  Note: The first Turkey Burn Ride Report is from Guitar Ted. Others will follow after his report in the order they were received. 

 Pre-Burn:

Early last week the weather people started crowing about colder air coming and a big Winter storm after Thanksgiving. We had been seeing regular temperatures into the 50's, but this was to go away and our highs would be barely reaching the low 30's by the day after Thanksgiving. 

I scrapped my original plans for a recap of "Jacob's Ride" on gravel. It would be just way too cold for this and I wasn't acclimated to being out riding in near-zero wind chills and temperatures in teens and 20's. Additionally, any wind at all would be a big issue out in the open with zero ground cover now that the crops are out. 

So, I re-upped the tubeless sealant on the front wheel of my Ti Mukluk, (the rear wheel had been done some time ago now). I installed the 45NRTH pogies on it. I went over all the contents of the two bags on the bike and fitted water bottles so everything would be set up the way I'd need it after Thanksgiving. I test rode the bike on my test loop both Sunday and Monday. It pained me to think the 50 degree temperatures would be gone. Tuesday came along and the evening of Tuesday and into Wednesday we had high winds of up to 50mph. This would also end up affecting my ride on Friday. 

Friday after Thanksgiving in the Green Belt.

An Attempt Was Made:

My gut told me I was going to end up being in the same pickle I found myself in last year. The VTBR in 2024 saw me ducking into the Green Belt and other local bike paths to rack up short bits of mileage over three days.  

However; there was this pesky snow storm which was being hyped up over the days leading up to Thanksgiving. By Wednesday there were Winter Storm Warnings in effect for Saturday through Sunday with predictions varying from 8" to as high as 14" in our area. This meant I was going to have to pack in as much riding as I could on Friday, which fortunately was Sunny to start out with and would have gentle breezes instead of a stiff, cold wind.  

I made it out by 9;20am in the morning. When I awoke at 6;00am it was a bone-chilling 15°F. That was too cold for my tastes after living in 50 degree days for several weeks just prior to this. So, I had decided to wait for the Sun to get up a bit and the temperatures to begin to crawl upward.  

 

I started out on the nearby bike path

I got in a short bit of gravel road!

Then I ended up in the Green Belt for quite a long while.

One snafu before I left for the ride was my misplacing of my Wahoo GPS unit. Since I was in a hurry to get going and since I was using a similar route from last year to start out, I was fine with this. However; my plan would require my finding the confounded thing before the end of the day. 

Onward. My fear was I would run into a ton of dead falls due to the violent wind storm we went through Tuesday night into Wednesday. However; I did not immediately run into anything impassable. I did have to dismount and remove a 4" diameter branch which was right in the tread of the trail. Immediately after this I ran across a woman trail running who shouted out she had "cleared the trail for me". I responded I had also done so for her. She turned around and shouted something else after I had passed her, but I couldn't make it out. It did sound friendly, at least! 

I used little used spurs and branches of the trail to up the mileage. 

There ended up being several places where I had to get off and walk around big dead falls. 

The Green Belt ended up becoming a work of riding a fair distance, coming around a blind corner to have to jump on the binders to avoid crashing into a dead fall, and then either clearing the trail as best I could, or working around stuff which was too big to deal with. Not only was this time consuming, but I also had issues with the foam gaskets on the pogies where the handle bar and cables passed through the ends of the pogies. Those foam pieces were shifting and wanting to fall out. The Green Belt trails were rough, and the dirt was frozen and unforgiving. This ended up rattling out one of the gaskets, which I lost, and displacing the other. I ended up stopping to fix this issue. 

The Green Belt Lake

Rapids on Black Hawk Creek which I saw on my return leg.

All the stopping and starting was eating away at time. Eventually I was stopped about a mile from the end of the trails Southward by a giant mess of deadfalls and no good way to scoot around it. With time being so precious, and my being so close to the turnaround point, I just made a decision to head back the way I had come, well....mostly. 

I did use other spurs and loops of the trail going back I had skipped going outbound. This added up mileage. I got home with a solid 25 miles in and I arrived at home just in time for lunch. I was hungry, so this was a good thing. The plan was to eat, change out some clothing, and head back out again in the afternoon to get in as much as possible. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 and the conclusion of my report tomorrow.  

Inspection Time

A Canadian goose glides along Black Hawk Creek.

Sunday the winds died down enough here that I was feeling okay about checking out the Green Belt and seeing how bad things were. We had a 70mph wind gust during all the storm madness of Friday/Saturday, so I figured on seeing a lot of downed tree carnage. 

I decided also to take the Ti Muk 2 as it would likely be muddy. I did not know if the frost had come out yet, but I figured it may have since it had gotten up to the lower 80's on Friday. 

It certainly wasn't anywhere near that on Sunday! The temperature when I left the house was 39°F, a full 42°F lower than the high on Friday. This is not unheard of here. March can be wildly variable. In fact, we expect to be in the seventies tomorrow and then get 3 - 6" of snow on Wednesday. 

Anyway, I was fine as far as all of that went, but I did have to wear gloves and a wool cycling hat. 

Those are not figures carved by some ancient civilization. They are the tell-tale marks of the Emerald Ash Borer found on this dead Ash tree. 

 

This tree was at handlebar height across the trail.

Amazingly, most of the trail was tacky to dry. Maybe the frost is out now? I did actually hear frogs croaking at one point during the ride. Those frogs might be reconsidering waking up from hibernation when the snow hits Wednesday! 

I took a lap around the lake.

Part of the new prairie "lollipop" trail which goes down to Martin Road and back.

I took things easy and started out down by Hope Martin Park. I made it across the drainage dip, which is not easy, and after that first little section I climbed the dike, crossed Ansborough, and rode the spine of the dike till I was able to enter the Green Belt trail. 

Like I said, it was surprisingly dry-ish. I was expecting much worse. I did find about a 20 yard section where it was so greasy the bike just took off sideways like it was on ice. But besides that, it was easy-peasy.

One example of three where Marky-Mark will require some saw work.

A grove of Cedar trees along the Green Belt Lake.

Marky-Mark will need some saw work, but it all was much cleaner than I had hoped for, which was refreshing to find. I feared it would be much worse. So, besides a bit of clearing out of dead falls, this Spring should be a great season for these trails.

Chasing Colors

Monday was the first "real" taste of Fall weather here. This past weekend we went from the 90's to it being 40°F when I stepped out the door to ride on Monday morning. The brisk Northwest wind made it really feel like the seasons had changed. 

It is about this time of year when I get that feeling that I need to do my "pilgrimage" ride. The ride through the Green Belt which I do every year to mark three things in my life. 

One is the recognition of my introduction to mountain bikes. The Green Belt is where I learned to off-road and it is where I took my first mountain bike to ride it in the late 1980's. 

The second reason I feel the need to do this ride is to enjoy the peak Fall colors. I don't always hit on the perfect time, but I try! I also very much enjoy riding single track in the Fall, so that tracks for me as well.

Finally, I use this ride to assess the condition of the Marky-Mark Trail, a single track connector trail I helped put in the Green Belt with an assist from another friend named Mark. While I did the bulk of the work, I didn't do all of it. Still, I consider this trail to be my work up until this day, 27 years after it was put in. The once or twice a year check is done just to make sure the trail is passable and still there. (Sometimes I do a Spring checkup on Marky-Mark also)

The colors weren't too impressive in the Green Belt until I started coming up on the maple grove.

A little better color here.

This year the maples are popping but everything else is kind of muted. I think the drier latter half of Summer and all of Fall has had a poor effect on some trees and therefore the colors have been negatively affected. Just a guess on my part there, but many trees have dried up leaves and they just are not getting much beyond a pale yellow or brown for color this Fall. 

A monster branch which probably blew down over the weekend.

I came across a branch which had busted off an old ,maple about 25feet up in the air and which had fallen across the trail. We had major gusty winds Sunday, so I am betting that this was felled by a nasty gust then. The tree it came off of had already been damaged previously, and by the looks of it, the tree wasn't well internally. I am no tree doctor, but I have slept in a Holiday Inn before! (IYKYK)

I bet that branch made a mighty crashing noise when it came down from the approximately 25feet high place on the tree where it broke off. Glad I was nowhere near when it did come down! 

The West end of Marky-Mark is looking swell here.

As is the East end of Marky-Mark!

Marky-Mark isn't the name I gave this bit of trail that might be what? A half a mile long, maybe? I don't know, as I've never measured it that I recall. Anyway, I did not name it. Another former resident of the area did that, and I have come to use that name as it fits the trail well, I think. 

I found the trail in remarkably great condition. I moved one small blow-down and there is another that is no big deal, but too big to move on my own. There is also one other place where a dead fall is hanging about ten feet above the trail that should be taken down. A half an hour and a saw would do wonders to clear that up. There are a few tiny branches that could use some trimming back, but honestly, I was surprised at how good everything looked! 

Fall colors on the shores of Green Belt Lake.

I ended up making a partial lap around the Green Belt Lake and then heading home. I may have to throw the axe and a nipper in the Big Dummy and go see about taking down that dead fall and doing a bit of clean-up in Marky-Mark, but I also have to get on some review work before it really gets cold and riding in the country is difficult or impossible. 

More soon....

Green Belt Ramble

Fall going into Winter. This is the time of year I've always been drawn to mountain biking. Part of the reason for that is because for the better part of two decades around here you just did not go in the woods from around mid-June until the first frost. That was because of the weeds and mosquitoes. 

But these days there is a soft trails group and the City of Waterloo does a lot better job maintaining the Green Belt. That makes Summer time mountain biking a possibility, and of course, this year it was so hot and dry that weeds and insects were almost nothing to bother about. 

So, the point here is that I usually could not scratch the MTB itch until late September at the earliest. Maybe that is why I feel the pull of the knobbies around this time to go for a ride into the Green Belt. That and the fact that I've had a steady dose of gravel for a long time and a change in scenery was overdue. Maybe.....

The weather went very chilly for several days and we had some high winds so that knocked down a majority of the leaves in the woods, but there was still some beauty and still some leaves in the trees yet. A thick carpet of leaves was found in many spots on the single track, but they were dry enough that slipping and sliding was of no concern.

Black Hawk Creek meanders amongst big sand bars now that it is so low.

You generally cannot see the rapids during times of normal river levels

Black Hawk Creek is sad. This drought has really hit the area hard and the water level of this creek is alarming. With the weather people calling for a strong El Niño Winter, it doesn't bode well for more water here.

But it is good for riding single track and there was not one hint of mud or slimy dirt, like there often is, out there on this particular afternoon.  Even the places where loose sandy patches exist were packed and easily ridden. 

These short days make for long shadows.

A moody sky shrouds the Sun over the Green Belt Lake.

This was a ride also to help me finish up with a couple of reviews I am doing on some components. (Coming to the blog here soon) So, it was nice to get that wrapped up as well. Besides that I was out for two hours and there wasn't another soul to be seen out there. Of course, it was Friday afternoon and maybe that had a little to do with it! 

I hope to roll more gravel soon, but the mountain biking retreat has been a nice change of pace of late.

The Inbred Returns

Escape Route: Alleys

You saw Saturday that I received a Wilde Bicycle Co. X Country Bar to test out. Well, you cannot do that testing without putting it on a bicycle. That seems obvious, but here at G-Ted Laboratories the choice of which bike to install it on is not quite as an obvious choice as you might think. 

After a little bit of thought the choice became clear. I resurrected the OG Inbred, again, after it had set in my spare repair stand for what? A year plus some? I think I tore it down sometime in 2021? 

At any rate, I had to do a bit of work to get it up and going. Back last time the Inbred was up and running it was set up with a drop bar and a dropper post. I had a 2 X 10 gear set up, which ironically had been straight-up pulled off my old Fargo Gen 2 bike and slapped onto the Inbred. That set up was originally put together in 2015! 

I had some head scratching time, thinking over how I wanted to accomplish the build with the X Country Bar. I had a flat bar on the Inbred already in an aborted attempt to resurrect it earlier and that had the front derailleur being operated by a SRAM TT shifter mounted to a Paul Components Thumbie. I had the other TT shifter as a bar end shifter and the other Paul Thumbie mount sitting in a bin. So, with the bike having a Shimano rear derailleur it presented a choice. Pull all the other stuff with the exception of the Shimano rear derailleur, and go Shimano, or use the SRAM stuff, find a SRAM 10spd rear derailleur, and use those Paul mounts which might be pretty cool with the X Country Bar.

The "maiden voyage" was in the Green Belt

Moderate to severe drought conditions all Summer have decimated Black Hawk Creek

Trouble was that I could not find a 10 speed SRAM derailleur that I thought I had. I asked N.Y. Roll if he had one and he did not, but he asked a mutual friend, Joe, if he had one. Joe didn't realize I was asking for an MTB rear derailleur and proffered up two road SRAM ten speed rear derailleurs. Bummer! 

But eventually I did find my errant 10 speed rear mech so the plan came back into focus. Saturday evening I slapped everything together. Now, yes- These are some tired old drive train parts, but if this sticks, meaning that "if I like the way it all shakes out", I will upgrade those bits then. At this point, everything is functional and works perfectly. 

The Inbred emerges from the shadows to live again!

History Time: The On One Inbred I have here has been around as long as this blog has been around. I found out that On One was trying to establish a US distribution partner in 2005. However; the partners didn't come to terms and a small amount of On One product was being off-loaded at pretty cheap prices. One of the things the rep had, who often visited the shop where I worked, was a list of things on close-out. On One Inbred frame and forks were listed but they did not have 20" frames, only 18's. I took a chance on the 18" frame and fork.

I built it up originally as a single speed. Because I used 180mm cranks the saddle to bar height wasn't too ridiculous. I rode the bike in the very first DK200 in 2006. Then I rode it as part of a team at a 12 hour event in Boone Iowa. My only 12/24hr MTB experience. Our team, all single speeders, won our category. Then the Inbred kind of fell out of favor as "the" bike as I got other bikes and time went on. 

By 2009 I had sold the bike to a co-worker named Craig. He rode it in that year's GTDRI. Then he gave it to his brother who rode it in Colorado and Kansas amongst other places. His brother eventually returned the bike to him. Then one day, my old co-worker, Craig, had remembered that I had asked for dibs on repurchasing this frame. He dropped the bike off at unawares to me. I found the bike, partially assembled, on my workbench in 2016, seven years after parting with it! 

Thick carpet of leaves here on the Green Belt trail.

It'll be awhile before we reach peak Fall colors, if we ever do.

So, after that the Inbred kind of was in various states of assemblage and although I ended up with the fork, it was broken. Fortunately I had an On One Carbon SuperLight fork to take the steel fork's place. So, that went on the bike, it went through that drop bar phase, and now we have it back again in a flat bar set up as a 2 X 10 geared, SRAM bike. 

Marky-Mark trail. True single track experience.

So, the final build here is the aforementioned SRAM TT shifters on Paul Components Thumbie mounts, a SRAM x9 rear derailleur, a SRAM front derailleur, a 10 speed cassette 11 - 36T, the 2X Origin 8 crankset with a 44T X 29T combination, and that turns a SRAM PC-950 9 speed chain (not a typo). The brakes are Avid BB-7's pulled by Deore levers. I used a Cane Creek Thudbuster post because my Redshift Sports ShockStop seat post wasn't long enough. (Darn it!) That is topped off by an older WTB Laser V saddle. The Wilde bar, of course, and Salsa lock-on grips. The wheels are WTB Team i23 laced to American Classic hubs. Those are set up with tubeless Hutchinson Kraken tires. 

I've never seen this pond, along Marky-Mark, totally dry.

"True" single track. Again, on Marky-Mark.

The big test ride was going to be a two-pronged goal for me. First, I wanted to see how far along the Fall colors were. Second, I needed to do my bi-annual inspection of Marky-Mark, the trail I helped to install in 1996 in the Green Belt. It is essentially a cut-off trail which bridges the two forks of the Green Belt Trail along Ridgeway Avenue. 

A sandy section of trail on the Green Belt Lake loop.

A little clearer look at the Inbred.

The Green Belt is in a pretty highly stressed state. The usual lush green strip along the Black Hawk Creek has been stunted and browned to a crisp in several areas. The creek itself is about as low as I've ever seen it before and I've been going through this area since the mid-1980's. 

I checked out Marky-Mark last Spring and it needed a lot of work. Two or three dead-falls were too big to ride over and were in need of removal. I don't have that sort of tool,or tools necessary to accomplish a removal of a tree like that, so when I went through Sunday morning I was not hopeful that it would be clear. 

The Green Belt Lake is alarmingly low as well.

The other bit of "true" single track in the Green Belt is this cut-off from the lake to the main trail.

Surprisingly, Marky-Mark was 100% rideable! I was a bit surprised, but pleased, by that. Obviously someone else has taken some "ownership" in the bit of trail. Whatever the case may be, the trail is all there and in outstanding shape, given the dry, hot weather we've had. 

The bike and the handle bar? Yes, they did well. I was pretty pleased with the successful initial test ride. Of course, I'll have to put more time in, and some gravel and dirt miles to come, before I can say anything more about this handle bar.

Test Run For The Bikepacking Set-Up

Tuesday I was recording the latest "Guitar Ted Podcast" with N.Y. Roll and afterward he mentioned the plans for a sub-24 overnighter saying, "We've gotta plan a date for this camping trip!". His sense of urgency spurred me into deeper thought about my set up. Also, I needed to test it out!

So Wednesday I got out to test the bikepacking set up. No big ride, just a cruise through a bit of the Green Belt, a few ascents and descents of the dike along the Black Hawk Creek, and a bit of rough fields and gravel thrown in for good measure. 

The day was another great one with plenty of Sun and hardly any wind in the morning. I had to do a few chores before heading out the door. I also had to properly load up everything on the bike to get a good read on where, if anywhere, my set-up was lacking. So clothes, five full bottles of water, and food were onboard along with my tent and sleep system. Check the air pressure,(set at 20psi front/rear with the 29" X 2.8" Coronados), and I threw on a couple of Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bags to hold a tube, pump, tire levers, and my camera. 

The tube, pump, and levers may have been a redundancy, but better to be safe than sorry! I will have to inventory everything again before I go on a trip to make sure I know what I have for sure. 

Green Belt single track during peak "jungle conditions".

A lone kayaker glides across the Green Belt Lake.

The bike loaded as it is now is front-heavy. I suppose that's okay since when I mount up and ride the bike that should evenly distribute the loads. I think it worked out that way by the feel of things. The bike isn't so heavy that I cannot lift it up the steep basement stairs going down to the Lab, it's just that with all that weight flopping the fork around, the bike gets a bit much to handle due to the awkwardness of that weight distribution when I am not on the bike. 

Stretches of sand like this were no match for the Coronado tires.

I was treated to the full bikepacking experience when I had to portage over these fallen tree limbs.

The Ride:

So, the bike handled pretty well, actually. I was a bit dismayed that maybe I did not get into rough enough territory with the set up, but even a grassy field felt smooth. I am thinking the combination of fat, poofy tires, steel frame, and the load I had on made everything work to smooth out the terrain I was riding over. 

The drive train performed excellently. I had to use the granny twice to scale the dike along Black Hawk Creek and was able to do so easily, which means about anything else I come up against shouldn't be a big deal. The dikes have a very steep pitch to them, so if I can scale that, any gravel road will be a piece of cake, as long as I have the legs. 

I was concerned about my sleeping pad twisting on the rack deck, but that could easily be rectified. However; I am now thinking about putting that into the handle bar bag and putting the sleeping bag in there on the rack deck. I'll play around with that a bit. I have time as N.Y. Roll is going on RAGBRAI next week.

Other than doing an inventory of the stuff to make sure I am carrying what I should, and after possibly changing the front rack load, I am all ready to go now. This bike will stay as is, for the most part, until the sub-24 overnighter happens.

Test Run For The Bikepacking Set-Up

Tuesday I was recording the latest "Guitar Ted Podcast" with N.Y. Roll and afterward he mentioned the plans for a sub-24 overnighter saying, "We've gotta plan a date for this camping trip!". His sense of urgency spurred me into deeper thought about my set up. Also, I needed to test it out!

So Wednesday I got out to test the bikepacking set up. No big ride, just a cruise through a bit of the Green Belt, a few ascents and descents of the dike along the Black Hawk Creek, and a bit of rough fields and gravel thrown in for good measure. 

The day was another great one with plenty of Sun and hardly any wind in the morning. I had to do a few chores before heading out the door. I also had to properly load up everything on the bike to get a good read on where, if anywhere, my set-up was lacking. So clothes, five full bottles of water, and food were onboard along with my tent and sleep system. Check the air pressure,(set at 20psi front/rear with the 29" X 2.8" Coronados), and I threw on a couple of Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bags to hold a tube, pump, tire levers, and my camera. 

The tube, pump, and levers may have been a redundancy, but better to be safe than sorry! I will have to inventory everything again before I go on a trip to make sure I know what I have for sure. 

Green Belt single track during peak "jungle conditions".

A lone kayaker glides across the Green Belt Lake.

The bike loaded as it is now is front-heavy. I suppose that's okay since when I mount up and ride the bike that should evenly distribute the loads. I think it worked out that way by the feel of things. The bike isn't so heavy that I cannot lift it up the steep basement stairs going down to the Lab, it's just that with all that weight flopping the fork around, the bike gets a bit much to handle due to the awkwardness of that weight distribution when I am not on the bike. 

Stretches of sand like this were no match for the Coronado tires.

I was treated to the full bikepacking experience when I had to portage over these fallen tree limbs.

The Ride:

So, the bike handled pretty well, actually. I was a bit dismayed that maybe I did not get into rough enough territory with the set up, but even a grassy field felt smooth. I am thinking the combination of fat, poofy tires, steel frame, and the load I had on made everything work to smooth out the terrain I was riding over. 

The drive train performed excellently. I had to use the granny twice to scale the dike along Black Hawk Creek and was able to do so easily, which means about anything else I come up against shouldn't be a big deal. The dikes have a very steep pitch to them, so if I can scale that, any gravel road will be a piece of cake, as long as I have the legs. 

I was concerned about my sleeping pad twisting on the rack deck, but that could easily be rectified. However; I am now thinking about putting that into the handle bar bag and putting the sleeping bag in there on the rack deck. I'll play around with that a bit. I have time as N.Y. Roll is going on RAGBRAI next week.

Other than doing an inventory of the stuff to make sure I am carrying what I should, and after possibly changing the front rack load, I am all ready to go now. This bike will stay as is, for the most part, until the sub-24 overnighter happens.