Andrea

For Sale: Truvativ Stylo Singlespeed 180mm Crank- $50

Just to update anyone who is searching for other stuff that I’ve recently posted for sale:

-The Niner fork and BH  CX bike are sold/traded
-The SRM will hopefully sell on Ebay today.
-Next round of stuff will be up this week if I can get it done before I leave for training camp 2012 at Syllamo.

First of the next round is a Truvativ Stylo singlespeed crank. It’s a tried & true piece of equipment perfect for a budget/no frills singlespeed build or 1x conversion. The length of the crankarms is 180mm. It’s in great working condition, but it does have the usual cosmetic blemishes you’d expect on a used crank. Price does NOT include bottom bracket, but if you’re local and looking to purchase, I can arrange a good deal on one if you need it.

Email me if you’re interested: andrea @ brickhouseracing.com

 

Andrea

Initial Review: Maxxis Radiale Tire

Being road training time again, I figured I’d take a look at what road tires Maxxis had to offer (I’ve been riding their mountain tires for a while now with great success, but had never tried them for road). I found the Radiale on their site and was very interested to see what a true radial road tire would feel like.

Yesterday, I had my first chance to take them out for a longer ride. First impression once I was on the road? Holy sh*t these are smooth… like “Maxxis added Paula Deen-esque quantities of butter to molten rubber and molded these tires” smooth. If you’ve ever ridden a 25c or 28c tire with reasonably low pressure, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you’ve never ridden a 25 or 28c tire at low pressure, think of riding on an old chip seal road, only to have it feel like very recently paved asphalt. Nice thing is, at 230g, they weigh less than most 25c tires. I hit a couple of very short patches of gravel during my ride, and they felt as expected- soft, smooth, and very nice. I’m looking forward to finding some sketchier stuff on Sunday when I go out for a little century action.

I can’t totally attest to their durability right now since I’ve only ridden them once. However, the tread feels very substantial when you pinch the unmounted tire between your fingers (unlike the “tube condom” feeling of an Ultremo or other similar rubber). I’m looking forward to getting them out again for sure.

 

Andrea

Gray’s Creek

I’ve been on a bit of a Gray’s Creek kick lately. It’s a 4-ish mile 4-wheeler trail that most people ride as an out & back along the Wolf River from Germantown Parkway towards Houston Levee Rd. Most people turn around at Gray’s Creek (hence the name of the trail). However, the 4-wheeler tracks continue down the sand bar creek bank a ways and across to the other side. The trail continues another mile to Houston Levee, but was rumored to be grown over. Yesterday, my curiosity got the best of me, and I decided I’d give it a go.

Lucky for me, the worst part about the trek was the hike upstream to the crossing, then further upstream to where the 4-wheeler tracks turned off into the woods. After that, the trail was a little rough and a little muddy, but totally passable. I did take one (unplanned) detour where the trail took an abrupt turn towards the river and dead ended at someone’s campsite:

 

I turned around and found the trail that continued on towards the road. It wasn’t much further before I reached the end:

The route from creek crossing to road looked something like this:

 

Once I was out on the main road, I turned and headed north back towards home. I took another detour (planned this time) through the woods behind Briarcrest private school, where I found a slightly creepy shrine to God and John Deere tractors:

 

I eventually ended up back on Macon Rd, where I took to the unfinished greenline, which, in its current state, is just an abandoned, slightly overgrown rail bed. The rocks are extra fun on the singlespeed. The entire thing was about 20 miles.

 

I’m happy to be back at it. Tomorrow- 3.5 hours. This weekend? Weekend Worlds and 5 hours on Sunday. W00t!

Andrea

The End

…of recovery weeks.

After a very relaxing/refreshing two weeks of doing prettymuch “whatever,” I’ve grown restless, and will resume pre-season training this week. It’s been nice. Yesterday, I tried yoga for the first time. It felt good. I’m highly likely to go back. Otherwise, I’ve generally been drinking beer and riding occasionally for an hour or two whenever I get the inkling.

Today, Ryan and I rode 4-wheeler trails out to Gray’s Creek. It was my first singlespeed ride since Thanksgiving, and turned out to be perfect inspiration to get back into the swing of race-season prep.

I love singlespeed.

Sometimes, when I haven’t ridden singlespeed in a while, I sort of forget just how awesome it is. Geared = look at an obstacle, think about shifting, think about navigating, blah, blah, blah… Singlespeed? look at an obstacle, fucking pedal. Grab the bar ends and hammer. I love bar ends…

Andrea

Still not training

I’m still in a brief recovery period- I haven’t been totally off of the bike, but I’m generally just going out and screwing around whenever I feel the urge. While I’m incredibly excited to start training and racing my 2012 season, I haven’t quite reached the throes of recovery where I’m restlessly checking my training schedule in hopes that Coach has decided that it’s time to get back to work. It will happen soon, though. I’ve got a lot of work to do before Southern Cross in less than a month.

Yes, though I was questioning as to whether or not I’d race it this year because of the race’s close proximity to Worlds, I feel as though I’ve got a bit of pent up frustration due to the amount of work put in to gain fitness for the race followed by the anticlimactic nature of mechanicaling myself out of the lead group in the first lap. Southern Cross will be more than the usual suspects this year since it’s part of a larger “ultra cross” series comprised of mostly East-Coast gravel grinders. I’m not expecting to win, though I do plan on using Selene Yeager’s wheel to destroy every fiber of my being.

Before that, I’ve got training camp 2012 at Syllamo. Given the amount of volume I haven’t done this winter and the all-day nature of training at the cabin, it will be both painful and rewarding.

Other random, impending happenings? Looks like I’m going to take up yoga starting this weekend.

 

Andrea

For Sale: Wired SRAM SRM and Powercontrol V- $1000

This is an SRM powermeter (172.5mm crank arm length) that I purchased around the beginning of 2009. Earlier this year, I sent it to SRM for a “refurb”- new batteries in the PCV and SRM along with a thorough cleaning of the internals of the powermeter. It works beautifully, but I’ve since gone wireless. Price doesn’t include a GXP bottom bracket, but if you’re interested, I could work out a deal on a new one for you.

Andrea

For Sale: BH Carbon Cross- $1200

Next up in the garage sale- my “old’ cyclocross bike.

This is a 2008 BH Carbon Cross- size 51cm with SRAM Force components (FSA carbon crank and Avid Shorty brakes). I raced it for 2 seasons before getting my Scott. It was an excellent bike, but just a hair too small for me.

Important Stuff:
-The guy who owned it before me disassembled the front shifter and converted it to 1×10. I mostly raced it that way, but added a bar-end shifter and slightly chipped SRAM Red front derailleur for chain retention and the option to use a 2x setup.
-The front chainring is a 40t with a bash guard
-The wheels are Velomax with Kenda Small Block Eight tires
-Handlebars are FSA Wing Pro Compact- size 42 (they’re 40cm c-c at the hoods and 42cm c-c at the drops)
-I recently overhauled the bike, and in the process, installed new brakes (Avid Shorty 6s) and Cane Creek Stainless Steel Headset Bearings
-Here’s a geo chart:

Here are some photos. As always, if you have any questions, email andrea @ brickhouseracing.com or message me on facebook.

Andrea

For Sale: Niner Carbon Fork- Vanna White

Here’s the first of what is going to be a large amount of housecleaning with mine & Ryan’s bike stuff… keep checking back for more this week. What doesn’t get any bites from you, my loyal readers, will go to EBay where non-loyal non-readers can purchase it. Email (andrea @ brickhouseracing.com) or contact me through Facebook if you’re interested

First item- my first rigid fork. I love rigid. So much so, that I procured the RDO thru-axle fork late last year. So, now my quick release style fork is for sale. Here’s the rundown:

-Used for ~1year, has a couple of small scratches, but otherwise excellent shape
-Steertube is tapered and 152.5mm in length
-Carbon-safe compression plug installed
-Fork info on Niner’s site: Niner Taper Steerer Rigid Carbon Fork
-$200

 

 

Andrea

Bailout Privileges

This morning, I exercised one of the most divine recovery period privileges on the list of recovery period privileges.

First, rewind a little…

Hard training is hard. It sounds redundant, but it’s true. It’s not just the intensity, fatigue, or any of the obvious stuff. It’s that, if you want to win (or, maybe even more importantly, to at least know that, if you don’t win, you did EVERYTHING in your power to train to win), you have to train religiously. All weather, all the time, never missing a hard day, whether you want to or not.

It’s what separates the podium from the pack fill.

I trained hard for Worlds.

Back to this morning. I’d been hankering all week to go on a wiley Saturday group road ride and even gained permission to join in on a 4hr Marx-Bensdorf team hammer ride. Matt (who rides with BPC, the M-B farm team) joined me, and we bundled up and headed out to the meet-up spot. It was cloudy, cold, damp, and windy. We were running a couple of minutes late, so I tempo-rode the two of us the half hour there.

Once we arrived, the group chatted then rolled out within a couple of minutes. The testosterone was strong straight from the parking lot- one of the guys sat on the front and pulled straight into the North headwind at what was likely a 300 watt effort on his part. Matt vocalized what no one else would say when he explained how much the cold and effort sucked. He was exactly right. I told him he should HTFU and grind out the remaining 3.5 hours.

I turned off and went home.

Part of recovery (at least for me) is letting the HTFU part of your brain take a break for a minute. It’s sort of a “return to being normal for a minute” thing. Now I’m warm, cozy, and giddy with the thought of having the privilege to go home when my hands and feet are frozen solid while the out-of-the-lot pace is faster than the tempo I was riding when we were running late. Maybe I’ll go really crazy and have a beer with lunch. There’s no telling.

Andrea

This is what happens when I don’t ride for a few days…

(Warning, this is about to sound a lot like a pseudo-philosophical rant that your one “stoner” friend might tell you an hour or so after eating a “special” brownie…)

In light of the giant, heat-producing contusion on my right thigh, I haven’t done any riding since I arrived home from Louisville on Sunday. I decided yesterday that I’d venture to the mall in search of a pair of jeans. However, rather than actually go into stores and try things on, I ended up wandering around pondering the meaning of life instead.

I mean, the entire contents of the vast expanse of building seemed incredibly useless to me. On the flipside, there are individuals who would feel that their well-being would be compromised if that building burnt down tomorrow.  Which led me to think, Why?
What I figured out was that the average individual needs this stuff because they dress up/down/out/etc to do things. Those things that they do add interest to their everyday life. The clothing defines you and what you do. I’m not judging or saying this is bad at all- quite the opposite…

I find those things useless because I don’t do anything.

All those things that all of those people are doing in order to need to dress up/down/out/etc. don’t exist here. Most people would think that, from the outside, that sounds incredibly boring- a large portion of my everyday existence is dedicated to being able to ride a bike faster than everyone else. Outside of that, I work on bikes, and many of my friends are bike people. I’m not saying this is bad at all, either, just that I briefly noticed the stark contrast between my reality and that of the general public.

It’s not for everyone, but I love it.
(Thank you, mall, for provoking my deep thought of the day. )