[ChampionTier]

@akbald01 171688 wrote:

The DoOchoooooooooooNuts

…has my vote

[ChampionTier]

@akbald01 171688 wrote:

Clermont

aka “The Dirty Name”!

I roll through your neck of the woods on the way to and from work when I bike in (I start at Rose Hill shopping center). I don’t know why but Clermont hill followed by Upland feels like a beast sometimes!

[ChampionTier]

@awitt 171597 wrote:

The Ochoooooo is good too.

Double checked the spelling and it looks like it’s closer to “Ochooooooooooo.”

Seriously, I’m good with whatever though.
//
LSG: Idiotism. Can I be the Swaggering Idiot?
//
awitt: Welcome to BAFS! Glad you’re on the mend and able to join us!
//
kwarkentien: Thanks for ponying up to be our Skipper! (I assume it’s okay to use the words “captain” and “skipper” interchangeably)
//
Dachs6: I wonder if we could turn an Arlington loop into a game for you in your absence? Like where we’d take pictures of stuff along the way and you have to guess where along the route it is…something to keep you connected to the area, I suppose.

[ChampionTier]

@Harry Meatmotor 171641 wrote:

….the bike is something with which to be engaged. You don’t work ON a bike, you work WITH a bike.

Your post reminds me of a quote from Rollins (which I think was borrowed from Aristotle, I get confused)…”That which you work against will always work against you. That which you work with you will come to resemble”.

[ChampionTier]

Hello team, my name is Phil and I’m super excited to start my 2nd year of BAFS.

As far as riding goes, I live out in Burke and try to bike commute onto Ft McNair at least 3 times a week (which is most of my miles lately) if my schedule allows. I enjoy racing during cross season and am a fan of the Crystal City Wednesday Night Spins (I’m not very fast, don’t let “ChampionTier” lead you astray) but would like to start doing more gravel rides.

My schedule is notoriously batty, but I will do my best to join up on the group rides and log as many miles as I can. I really look forward to meeting and riding with you all!

Speaking of group rides, I’m going to reach out to the Vulcan Materials folks out in Lorton to see if they’ll permit a group ride to the bottom of the mine out there. If you’re interested, please let me know and I’ll let you know how the request works out.

Oh, and team name suggestion: The Ochoooooo (yes, with that many O’s)

Cheers,
CT

[ChampionTier]

@gswim18 170966 wrote:

I have deleted my posts. Don’t want to cause any trouble or give any bad advice.

Just a non-bike related editorial…

For the past month or so I’ve been on a social media diet sticking mainly to Reddit, this forum, and little else. What keeps me coming back to the WABA forum — and what sets it apart from other SM — is the sense of community that I see here. Sure there’s the occasional squabble (I’m looking at you, e-bike discussion people) but as a whole, I think this is what I hoped social media would do: bring ideas together, hash ’em out with a little debate, and unite folks.

Gswim18: you weren’t causing any trouble, IMO. Instead, you are an example of social media gone good. This thread, its contributors and what I’ve learned in my ~1.5 years of lurking here are exemplary of the promises that this still (relatively) new tech holds for us.

Cheers,
CT

P.S. T minus 3 days until my bar mitts arrive!

[ChampionTier]

Whether I commute in by bike or not is a function of what’s happening in my afternoon. With an open calendar I was excited about facing the cold and getting some FS 2K18 miles on the warmest day of the year so far.

Head, chest, arms, legs, and feet were golden. I left my parking area confident in my lobster gloves but made it about 1.5 miles before my thumbs started barking at me. I turned around sensing that, with 12 miles to go, I might be courting nerve damage.

Until this morning I had always considered bar mitts a superfluous accessory; I’m beginning to wonder if my opinion was prematurely formed and that they’re worth a shot.

[ChampionTier]

@PeteD 169937 wrote:

Had two goals this year:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15937[/ATTACH]
Climb all three sides up Mont Ventoux in one ride.

and…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15938[/ATTACH]
.

That is very bad ass! Congrats!

[ChampionTier]

2017:
– 3K miles –> 3499.1 (pretty sure I’ll top 3.5k at this rate)
– C&O again –> SWEET bikepacking trip again!
– bi-monthly century –> yes, but the ride was broken up over several days.
– meet more people –> Finally made it to a coffee club AND rode with AFHokie, Emm, Judd, Reji and a bunch of other cool folks to Annapolis
– commute at least 2x a week –> Done.
– Can’t race Dirty Kanza…any suggestions??? –> DK200 will forever be the white whale of my schedule. We’ll see how 2019 looks….

2018:
PLAN A (Not moving this summer)
– 5K miles.
– Get a dedicated commuter bike.
– Get on a team.
– Continue 2-3x a week bike commute.
– 2-night bikepack on the C&O.
– NOVA Ring Route x4.
– CC Wed Night Spins!
– Write about this stuff more…
PLAN B (Moving this summer)
– 4K miles.
– Get a dedicated commuter bike.
– Find the gravel.
– Bikepack somewhere…anywhere.
– Find the cross races. If they don’t exist at the new place then make one.
– Write about this stuff more…

[ChampionTier]

@Raychelgee 169600 wrote:

Any suggestions on the best tires, shoes, pedals, and or other tips so I am able to have more success in muddy cyclocross races? I usually can’t clip my shoes in and am pretty much slipping all over the place.

I know there’s a lot of folks out there with way more experience than me but here are a couple of observations I took from BCX last weekend (after which, the process of cleaning my bike took longer than the actual race did). I’ve seen mud before but…DEEAAM!

Long tail on a small kite follows (please note that I often fail to take my own advice)…

Pedals: I currently run Shimano SPDs but on my second lap I began to envy the folks who had flat pedals. Maybe Crank Bros Candy might have been okay, but I think the mud sticking around the cleats of my shoes would’ve made clipping in just as troublesome.
* I would have shelled out a few clams for Harry Meatmotor’s spikes!

Tires: I’ve always been partial to Clement and ran MXP on my front and back for pretty much every race this and last season, but in hindsight Clement PDX might have fared better last weekend.

Other tips: Honestly there were some descents that I was impressed to have stayed upright on. I’ve just now gotten comfortable letting my back end do its thing so long as I can keep my front wheel going where I need it to knowing that if I break traction in the rear I can always stick a foot out. Fishtailin’ is Racin’.

Transitioning from the flats to the climbs (e.g. the starboard scramble) was an exercise in momentum and I only made it to the top of some of the climbs sans walking a handful of times (never the SS). Building speed is one thing, but it’s difficult to maintain on the ascent if there’s someone else ahead of you who likes your line as much as you do. Otherwise I found whatever patch of green I could — no matter how small — to get some grip. Too often it wasn’t enough.

I think there was a good section on http://www.reddit.com/r/cyclocross in their “Explain like I’m Cat 5” section that covered how to negotiate sand. I think some of the same thinking applies, especially when it comes to keeping momentum going….

I sympathize with you, though. It was an incredibly slippery course. I look at those races as less of a quest for speed than a triumph of bike handling ability. That’s just one more reason to love cross: it’s a humbling sport where every race has a way of accentuating different aspects of bike riding (and the bikes themselves).

Cheers,
CT

Edit: To, too, two

[ChampionTier]

@Steve O 169505 wrote:

Agreed! It was totally fun. And hard. This was my first ever bike race of any kind….

Don’t forget, Crystal City Wednesday Night Spins are just around the corner!

[ChampionTier]

@Emm 169492 wrote:

It was a really fun day–thanks Sunyata and everyone else on team Bikenetic for hosting a great event!

Reading this made me think that I’ve yet to meet someone who has either raced or spectated a Cross event who didn’t enjoy it (unless they got injured or broke their bike). Last year was my first season in cross and I ended my season in Norfolk. My mom, dad (in their 70s), and sister were able to watch. It was cloudy, windy, and damn cold but they stood in the central part of the course with the best view and had a blast! They have since purchased a megaphone and a cowbell…my sis is planning out her hand-ups for this weekend’s Rustbucket Races.

This is a long way of saying that Sunday’s BCX was a perfect example of what makes Cross such a great sport: it’s accessible, it’s fun, and at my meager level the participants don’t take themselves too seriously. I could go on and on….

[ChampionTier]

Great end to the season! Thanks Bikenetic folks — what a fun team!

[ChampionTier]

@Judd 169394 wrote:

You shouldn’t roller blade in a bike lane Jeanne.

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Would this be okay?

[ChampionTier]

@trailrunner 169365 wrote:

Burke Lake, Monday afternoon.

Love that place! Not too far from my house and one of my favorite things to do is hit the trail at night (though I haven’t gone as much as I’d like to). All the hikers are pretty much gone and it’s you, some deer, and some foxes out there.

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