Two Single Speeds are better than One

I am racing the 6 hours of Santos. But my Ti race bike still had gears since racing Swank.  Stripped the shifters, derailleurs and cassette off. I set a third handlebar with just brake levers, so both bikes can be SS at the same time.  If the rules allow, I will keep the Ferrous as a pit bike, in case the Lynskey gets a mechanical that would take too long to fix or for spare parts.

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Paisley Woods Kwik Stats

After three days of rain, where to go? Mark Huff, one of the local riders, told me that Paisley is actually better after rain, as it makes the sugar sand hold together.  The last time I rode Paisley was after a rain, albeit less, and it seemed a little faster, but my times say otherwise.  But, this time I did know the trails better and was making a concerted effort to get in some threshold work.

Get More out of Strava with Single Tracks .com

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http://www.singletracks.com/gps/tracker.php

San Felasco Hammock Preserve, Gainesville

Do you like riding for hours of curvy, natural feeling single track, in old growth pines with great visibility of what is coming around the next curve? Well I do.  Heck I even the first loop, Cellon Creek, had me grinning. With 8 miles,Tung Nuts is the anchor of the system. Need some hill repeats without repeating a hill? Then hit Conquistador.

If you're looking for gravity feed, feature rich, jumping and hard tech, look elsewhere.

Cruisin through an Endor like forest of tall pines, with hardly a palm frond or scrub to be block  your view around corners, really lets lets you open it up and let her rip.  Unlike most of Florida, where it is either flat or pit, there are enough hills to work climbing and use gravity to work your corners faster than pedaling speed.

My favorite was the Hidden hills Loop, I kept expecting a mountain to emerge from what seemed like foothills. But wait I am in Florida, right?!

Any downside? My personal compulsion to make everything a big loop is not possible here, most loops lollipop off of another.

Considering how well the far end of the park is marked, I had a little trouble following the core trail, Tung Nut.  I think that some of the signs need to be replaced. Particularly where feeder trails come in. Likewise, I kind of had to hunt and peck and look at the map intently, for the two feeders to Conquistador.

I believe they are working on a new map, as the current map looks kind of like a flow chart.  Which might be for the best as an exact rendering my might be hard to follow. See my Strava file below. The map does put loops in their relative location to each other, pretty well though.

I feel like this system is between Paisley and Santo (excluding the pits) in terms of ripping twisty trail. Paisley was more steady state, Santos was as twisty, but you can see others coming form the other way much better at San Felasco. Plus you got some non-pit hill climbing to boot.

A small note on flow. I really enjoyed the flow of these trails.  I have read reviews that said they did not. These trails have a very natural feel to them.  The trail builders really put these trails together well. You won't find a man made berm, although a couple natural berms have been incorporated into the system.  If you have read some of my other articles, you will know that I prefer more natural trails. Berms can be fun, but I had to unlearn how to take a corner, as the berm does the work for you. Being able to flow natural trails at blasting speed is where it is at. Learn to corner and fly.

I found out about San Felasco Hammock Preserve, Gainesville, in an article on Single Tracks.
http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/sanfalasco.html
http://www.sanfelasco.net/docs/SanFelascoBikeTrails11-2013.pdf
http://www.sanfelasco.net/index.shtml

Paisley Woods Florida

Santos is plenty fun, but I needed a change of venue, to switch things up for my long ride. Even the green trails at Santos are fairly twisty, which is more fun in general, but makes it harder to do sustained endurance riding, when you are accelerating out of turn after turn.  Most riders are not concerned with this. But if you are and would rather not get your long ride on the road, Paisley Woods certainly fits the bill. The main loop is about 19 miles with a half a mile feeder. There is a cut off to make a half loop.  I was running about hour and a half laps, so multiple laps are need to get the higher durations. The Paisley Woods trail has a different feel in each direction, so between that and the half loop you can put most any duration rides together without getting bored. Don't get me wrong this trail is like 90% flowy singletrack.
Wider tires, such as 2.35 or 2.4s work best in the occasional sugar sand. I got to try out a 2.35 Maxxis Ikon up front for the first time. I have had it for a while, but was waiting for a tire to wear out. I switched back to the 2.2 for the half lap at the end to compare. Even at the same 20 psi the 2.35 felt less harsh and I should be able to run even softer.

6 and 12 hours of Santos

As I sit here in Florida, in what feels like the New Jersey winter weather I most despised, 32 to 50 degrees, damp and rainy, I may have caught a bug and not that flu that my wife and everyone else seems to have. No I am talking about the Racing Bug. I was thinking about doing either the 6 hours on a geared bike or the 12 on a Single Speed. I didn't see a 6 hour class for SS class listed on the website, but both the online registration and the downloadable form has a SS class listed for the 6 hour event.

Conversely, the website listed a 12 hour SS class.

That is fine by me. I really wanted to race my SS, but not for 12 hours.

In order to use Vortex, the split it in two. From the Strava files I have seen, it looks like one part is ran in reverse order. As Vortex is a one way only trail, that presents problems for pre riding. As it turned out, it was quite empty before noon on Tuesday. So I snuck in 3 laps, of my best guess of the reverse portion was, before riders started to hit the trail.

I rode with Jim Matthews at Tussey ridge, near State College, PA last May. On Facebook he asked me about SS gear selection after my Santos Post. Here they are: "The 34x22 was crazy low. My log must have been wrong. 20t is good in the Vortex pit and tolerable on the yellow and just fine on Twister." and "The 19 seemed heavy on Twister and the outer green was not faster today realy, than with the 20t. The first lap was 19 seconds faster on the 19t, than the 20. But the 20t had a couple Vortex laps first. Laps 2, 3 and 4 were very similar to the 20t lap"

I like to gear lighter than heavier on a ride of this length, I think the 34x20t will be my gear, if I do this race.

Here are those two Strava Files:

34x22t and 34x20t

34x19t

Santos Map

http://sadlebred.com/2014-races/

http://goneriding.com/index.php/events/2014-events/ccs/13-12hrsantos

12 hour 2014 Flyer

http://omba.org/maps/OMBA_Bike_Trails_Map_Jan_2012.gif

https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/halpata.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/OcalaMtBikeAssn/

OMBA Trailheads

OMBA Epic

http://ocalabicyclecenter.com/map.cfm?ID=1

Darn Tough Socks

I am particularly hard on socks, I mean really, really hard on socks.

I used to have socks with Kevlar toes and heels even, I thought I needed bulletproof socks. The cuffs wore out, but I still kept wearing them. I took some ribbing for that, for sure.

I found that the Pearl Izumi socks were padded well enough, You see I am a masher. I used the black socks, cause I am a mountain biker and mountain biking is dirty.

I would were the heels out on the Pearls and a few toe holes. Pearl Discontinued them and I snatched up some remaining white ones.

I became aware of Darn Tough socks last year in South Dakota after the Tatanka 100.

The Life Time Guarantee particularly interested me, you can understand why.

I am on a very restricted budget and the last of my Pearls were wearing thin. So I picked up a pair of made in Vermont USA, Darn Tough socks in Duluth Minnesota, back in July, to see if they would hold up.  They did not have cycling socks, so I got a pair of cushioned 1/4 hiking socks in black of course.  I used them for just about every hard ride. 3 to 4 rides a week 2 to 12 hours each. Leaving the Pearls for recovery rides, or if the the Darn Tough socks were in the wash. Which was not often, my kit would go in the washer in the RV as I got in the shower. Three months of hard riding and they they were holding up great. So good I got a warmer pair, when the stay in Brevard NC, got extended  into chillier end of November. I was really feelin the Darn Tough love, so I reached out to them, to see if they were into doing the partnership thing and they said yes.

The cycling socks have a more breathable top. I got them with the cushion as well. Masher remember.

Still Looks great after months of intensive use.

Darn Tough,

Great Stuff,

No Guff! 

 Made In Vermont USA