Summit2Surf, STXC, Tahoe, oh my

Lots of things have been going on since my last post. In particular, I've done a few notable cycling events - Summit 2 Surf (a fund raiser for the American Diabetes Association), The last Short Track race of the season and a trip to Tahoe for my big sisters wedding (Congrats Barry & Michele!).

I'll followup with a separate post on the last short track race, but will mention a couple of the other events here. First and foremost, the the Summit 2 Surf (S2S). Megan and I rode on the WebMD 'team' which consisted of a coed group of hardy souls that opted to spend a beautiful Saturday going up and over Mt Hood from Welches to Hood River (a couple of us also extended the ride by going to Timberline Lodge (where the outside scenes of the first 'The Shining' was filmed. The one with Jack's famous line: 'Heeeeeeres Johnnnnnny').




Let me back up a bit though.

A week before S2S I did a ride with a visiting coworker from out Boston office. I took him on an early morning road ride in the hills above Portland. It rained HEAVILY. Anyway, my Paul cantilevers on my cross bike are usually bombproof, but on this particular ride they were just not working very well so I stopped periodically to adjust them. In the process, I managed to strip the cable holding bolt on my rear brake which forced me to remove it and bring the brake into Cyclepath. There, Bill did a helio coil fix (rethreading the threads) and I was back in business. 3 days before S2S, I had my bike up on the rack and I was putting the brake back on. I got it on and decided to oil my chain. Unfortunately, I had hung my bike on the rack via the top tube and when I adjusted the frame position I did the following...

uh oh

Total rookie maneuver... Note to self - in the future only clamp bike stand to seat post...

Any, return to story. I had just catastrophically damaged my bike in a single maneuver... I freaked out, went online and found out that others have had the same issue (I love the Internets). I went ahead and JB welded the piece back on, let it set for 24 hours, added more JB Weld, let that cure and then went on a test ride the day before S2S! SUCCESS!

I was very close to riding the 68 miles with 6200 feet of gain and 7K of decline on my fixed gear (I really need to get a 'real' road bike... anyone out there have any connections????). Although that would have been a great story, I think I would be needing knee surgery...

Anyway, back to the story. On Saturday July 28th a group of WebMD employees, spouses and friends earned some cash for the ADA. Good times, extremely well organized and well worth it.

Andrew & I starting off.

The more beautiful half of team Porter

On another note, as mentioned above, the family converged on Lake Tahoe for a combo 'Granny Camp'/ Wedding celebration. I managed to sneak in a few rides as well. One on Mr Toads Wild Ride (my favorite trail of all time), and one on the X-mas Valley Trail with Megan and "Grandpa' Dave. Another epic ride in the area of my folks cabin. Speaking of which, if anyone out there ever wants to vacation in South Lake Tahoe, my folks have a great rental property, and my step dad Dave is a great mtn bike tour guide.

Portland Short track #4

July 16, 2007
Portland International Raceway
Portland, OR

I'm tardy in publishing this race report as I've had a ton going on with a really busy work schedule, our kitchen remodel and of course the recent trip we (the Porter clan) just took to Disneyland!!! (tons of fun, but word to the wise - Thunder mountain railroad is not the most appropriate ride for a 3 & 6 year old. I think both kids may have almost had heart attacks and Megan & I had to build up their trust again for the next 2 days!)

The race as usual was great. I completed 7 quick laps along with the rest of the race leaders and managed to hang on for a series best of 8th place. One thing really exciting, is the number of riders from "Team Cyclepath" in the top 10!

Order Plate Name Team
1 90 Andy McKerrow Bike Gallery
2 141 Ryan Weaver (prime) River City Bicycles
3 30 Patrick Wilder Cyclepath
4 114 Martin Baker bicycleattorney.com
5 64 Jacob Furniss Eddy Merkin
6 11 Pete Zlatnik Bike Gallery
7 31 Nelson Snyder Cyclepath
8 13 Daniel Porter Cyclepath
9 353 Michael Gallagher River City Bicycles
10 240 Matt Hall Ira Ryan Cycles/Veloshop

34 single speeders started the race which was a decent sized group. The course was more like a cyclocross race than a mtn bike race, though it did not contain any dismounts.
I missed this past weeks race (July 23) as we were still traveling, but I am anxious for the series final on July 30th. Stay tuned!

Fear and panic on the way to work

The other day I had one of the worst possible situations happen to a parent and a cyclist. The morning started usually. I was in charge of getting Kendall to camp and Megan is in charge of Simon. I asked both the kids in the morning "How do you want to get to camp today?". Kendall was tired and wanted to drive (some days we take the trail-a-bike) so I loaded up my bike into the car (I leave the car at her camp and ride the remaining part into work. Simon wanted to ride so I set up his trail-a-bike to Megan's bike and after breakfast, making lunch, getting the kids dressed we were out in front of the house ready to go.

Kendall saw Mom & Simon jump on her bike and decided that she too wanted to ride in. I was already running late, so I quickly grabbed the bike and connected her trail a bike to it. I locked up the house, closed the garage, got the two of us situated and we were off.

We made it about 3 blocks from the house when the worst possible scenario happened. I felt my bike suddenly lighten, I heard a scraping sound and looked behind me to see my poor sweet daughter skidding along he pavement tangled in her bike. I pulled to the side of the road, ran back to get her and pull her to the safety of my arms. I checked her out for broken bones and calmed her down. I cleaned her up and bandaided her scrapes as much as I could. She was a trooper and let me load her back on the bike to get her home where I did some more extensive first aid.

I eventually got her to camp (we drove) and she was ultimately ok (and I think she likes the attention she has gotten from all of her various bandaids). However I shudder to think how bad this could have been.

BTW: the trail a bike detached due to my error. In my haste, I didn't push the connector in far enough to get the pin to engage... I just hope I can get her to get back on the bike again..

Tabor #6

Mt Tabor Park
Portland, OR
July 11, 2007

It's funny writing race reports about a race that has the same course each week. I could really shorten the report by saying, that we went around and around a bunch of times, my heart and lungs almost exploded and I ended up in XYZ place... Thankfully, I hopefully can add a bit more spice to the report than that.

This was the last race of the series so I had a bit to prove. My previous results weren't as spectacular as I would have like, plus this race brought out the largest field of the series (22 freaks on fixed gear bikes!). As mentioned in previous reports, this is was the fixed gear category - We go around the circuit 4 times and the majority of the strategy surrounds the following elements:
1) Gearing choice (over the years I've settled on 42x15)
2) Strategy.

Like a normal crit, unless you are super strong, you don't want to totally take off from the gun. Instead, you want to go as fast as you can to tire out your opponents without totally blowing yourself up. There are always a few guys that try the break off the first lap and it is almost never successful - especially with a big field. I try to hang with the guys that I know will be tough to beat. In this particular race, there at least 2 guys that I knew I wouldn't be able to beat on a normal race (ie I've never beaten them before). When they took off I would chase, when they slowed down I'd slow down... In the end this strategy worked as well as I could have hoped. I took 4th - my best result of the series.

Now it's time to do some necessary maintenance on the bike.

Until next year.

Portland Short Track #3

Lucky # 13

I should have published this photo last week, as it was during last weeks race that I crashed, almost lost my front wheel (had to stop and tighten the skewer) and got off course requiring a reride of a section I already completed. I'm not a superstitious person, and this week the #13 worked just fine. I moved up 12 spots from last week to finish in the top 10 (10th place to be exact). The race was course was a little more technical and longer than the week before and although it was a hot night, we had a nice summer breeze that kept the temps in check.

Single speeders finished 6 laps in the 30 minute race. Each lap was about 1 mile long. I'll let you do the math on how fast that is. As mentioned earlier, the course was a bit more technical and quite a bit longer (though strangely we did the same number of laps). I managed to keep the rubber side down this week, however the same could not be said for everyone. Lots of guys were going down on the course. I removed the bar ends (that although I like) caused me problems in the last race. Also, I lowered my wheel pressure down a bit which gave me a tad more traction. Next week I might try making my gear ratio bigger (or is it smaller?) Anyway, easier.... Currently riding 36 x 18 which is a great forest park gear range. Not so great for slow flats where I need to have quick etup & go. I think.... If I have a 20 tooth rear cog I might try that instead.

Totally unrelated to bike racing, but just curious if you know what stress is. Here is a picture of stress:

My Kitchen
(actually, sheetrock was installed today, so it looks a bit better)

Actually, it does have something to do with bikes & bike racing. Kitchen remodels are stressful. They are expensive (this one is costing us 50% of what we paid for our first house!), you have to eat out a lot or devise creative ways to cook with a skillet and a microwave and if you have kids, you have to keep them from playing with/eating/etc. the insulation. The list goes on and on. Anyway, riding my bike and racing my bike seems to melt that stress away. Try it, I promise, you'll like it.

Ergon Grips Gear Review

A friend of mine recently loaned me some Ergon R2 Magnesium grips to try out. I put them on my 29er Single Speed (Soma Juice). The bike has a rigid fork, so I thought that the Ergonomic shape of the grips would provide a bit of padding on my hands. Also, although I don't like bar ends, there is something to be said about them for their hand positions - especially when you are climbing a fireroad on a single speed.


In the past month that I've had them installed, I've ridden them on quite a few rides - mostly in Forest Park and I really like them as they did help pad my hands - providing just enough to take the edge off as well as take away unnecessary pressure.

The exception to this, is I had them on my bike for the first Short Track Race. If you read that report, you'll notice that it really wasn't my best showing. I kind of blame the crash on the grips. At the start I was neck and neck with the front of the pack. The bar ends seemed to have gotten caught a couple of times on other riders and I think ultimately resulted in me losing control.

So, in summary, these are great grips, just don't to a tight fast race with them.

Portland Short Track #2

Portland Short Track Series
Race #2
July 2nd, 2007
Portland International Raceway (PIR)

Picture courtesy of bikeportland.org

Like the Mount Tabor Series, Portland Short Track is another week day (after work) racing series that happens every year here in Portland.

I missed the first one as it happened to land on my wife's birthday, so I was quite anxious at the start of this weeks race.

I rode out to Portland International Raceway (about a 6-7 mile ride from downtown) to revel in the whoops, turns and twists of the popular MTB Short Track course. (200+ racers showed up this week (for all categories).

The gun went off, I tore into the first turn hot, and bam next thing I knew, I was on the ground along with a couple of other guys. I picked myself and my bike out of the dirt and jump back on the saddle. Unfortunately, the damage was done and I lost my chance at a good placing. I played the rest of the race trying to catch up. I had a few more problems over the next 6 laps - my front skewer was loose (due to the crash) and I opted to stop and fix it over the chance of losing teeth in the event of my front wheel coming off. Then, I got lost on the course (how does one get lost on a STX course?).

Not to complain. The race was great fun and well run as always. Plus, you need to have bad races to appreciate the good ones. I ended up in 22nd place out of about 40 single speeders. We all did 6 laps on a beautiful summer evening. How bad can it be?

Mount Tabor #5

Mount Tabor Park
Portland Oregon
June 27, 2007

By Daniel Porter

I missed Tabor 2,3 & 4 for a variety of reasons (injury, work, etc.), but was back in the saddle on June 27th for the 5th and second to last race in the 2007 'Velo on the Volcano' series.

Started out a bit nervous as I had basically been off the bike for 3-4 weeks. I rode hard on Monday and Tuesday (the 25th & 26th) to try to get back into shape.
The racers were basically the same cast of characters as previous weeks with only a couple notable exceptions (JV?, Jackson?). Still a good turn out of 15 riders (which is pretty high for a fixed gear ride.

The first lap was pretty mellow with no one wanting to attack to soon. The group stayed pretty much bunched up making it feel like a real race. SUbsequent laps got progressively faster and faster with different guys trading off at the front (me included) until the final lap where a few guys attacked and took off from the front. I tried to get on the wheel of the top guys and only remotely did so coming out of the flat (prior to the climbing finish) in 6th place. On the climb, I dug a little deeper and passed a guy resulting in a 5th place finish. Yippee, I'm number 5, I'm number 5...

Actually, it was a good race and it proved that I didn't 'fall out of shape' as fast or as hard as I had thought.

Next & final Tabor is on July 11th.

BTW: I absolutely love the Rush. It is a truly great bike with a really nice feel. Funny thing - there was another guy with an identical red frame as I in the race. (I beat him)

You Know How Certain Things Make You Feel Old?

This is one of those things...

http://www.digg.com/music/The_baby_on_Nirvana_s_Nevermind_album_is_17_Pic

Old, damn old...

My wife says I have problem

Do I have a problem? I don't have a problem, do you?

(note, this doesn't include my 4 camel backs)

Seriously, I don't have a problem.

Back in the saddle again

or Why I hate running.

I rode my bike to work today for the first time in over a week. In the process I missed 2 Tabor races and lots of training rides. That being said, the ride in this morning was relatively uneventful (ie no nagging pain). There is still some lingering 'uncomfort', however for the most part I am (almost) good as new.

For whatever reason, the only thing that hurt was riding, so I opted to stay in shape by running. There is very little to like about running. It's slow, it hurts, and my legs hurt for days after each run. On the plus side, my office backs up to Forest Park, so I was able to run in the woods on Trails I'm not allowed to ride on. Also, one can get a quick workout in and still get a workout in.

I'm going to be taking it easy for the next week (I'll be in Vegas for a conference) and I'll probably miss the first Short Track race (It occurs on my wife's Birthday), but I should be good to go for Tabor #5! (and hopefully 6).

peace.

Look how young and cute we were

9 years ago today!

Happy Anniversary Love!

2007 Cross Crusade Schedule Posted!

Summer hasn't even officially begun and the 2007 cross crusade schedule has been posted!

http://www.crosscrusade.com/schedule/2007/index.html

looks like a great mix of old and new venues.

Yippee!

Taking a break is ok, right?

Mt Tabor #2 is happening tonight. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it.

I somehow hurt myself last Thursday while on a night mountain bike ride (at least that is where I noticed it). I won't go into the details, but the pain is in a sensitive 'guy' area. Although I have been trying to ride since the incident (still not sure what it is that I did), I don't think I can concentrate on both racing hard and on the weird way I need to sit to avoid the pain. I can see catastrophic results. I have an appt with a doc tomorrow to see what is going on.

I'm bummed. I love Tabor and I looked forward to improving my result this week. Also, next week is my anniversary (9 years!) of marriage to my wonderful wife thus I am unsure of whether I can race then or not and the following weekend I'll be in Lost Wages, NV for a conference at work.

I keep thinking that I should be able to just tough it out, but is it really worth the pain?

Mount Tabor #1: 2007 Mt Tabor Series

Shortest Race Report Ever...

Mt Tabor Park: Portland OR
May 30th 2007
Circuit Race
Category: Fixed Gear

The stats:
17 riders
Temp: about a gazillion degrees
4 laps
4th place!

First Tabor race of the year. Turnout in the fixed gear category (the sideshow) was the biggest ever. We took off, raced around the park multiple times and I was beat by a 15 year old... (he then raced again and one the men's cat 3 race, so I *think* he'll be someone to watch) Made me feel old.

This was my first race on the Soma Rush, though I have been riding it alot since I built it up. The ride performed as expected. I absolutely love the bike. I also received a few compliments on "my fancy new bike" from the usual suspects.

I am going to try to race again this wednesday, unfortunately I pulled something the next evening on a mountain bike ride and may be out of commission. :(

peace

And why is there such a lack of singletrack in Portland?

From cyclingnews.com

____________

New York City gets more trails

New York City and mountain biking are two words not often occurring in the same sentence, but New Yorkers will soon have a new place to practice dirt jumping at Inwood on Manhattan, a new three-mile trail system.

"On the face of it, it sounds preposterous," admitted city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to the New York Daily News. "But we really do have it, and it takes advantage of the terrain that was always there. It's probably the only mountain-bike course in the country you can get to by subway."

The trails are result of 18 months of work and a US$100,000 state grant. They are aimed at BMX jumpers, casual riders, and hard-core experts. The Parks Department was looking for an area appropriate for cyclists.

"It's pretty impressive for mountain biking in the middle of New York City," said Jamie Bogner of the New York City Mountain Bike Association to the New York Daily News. The club helped plan and build the paths and will host a cross-country race Sunday after the trails open Saturday. "We look for the longest way from point A to point B, with every technical obstacle we can find."

The Fort George Hill Trails twist and turn through a section of Highbridge Park once considered unsafe by park goers and littered with stolen cars.

New York City Parks Department officials are also looking at trail opportunities at Cunningham Park in Queens and at capped landfills in the Bronx's Pelham Bay and Staten Island's Fresh Kills.

Falls City Firecracker presented by Cyclepath

'Mountain Biking'
Sung to the tune of 'Kung Fu Fighting'

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

There was lots of single track in this built up ewok town
They were riding it up and they were riding it down
It's an ancient Marin art and everybody knew their part
From a hucking a gap, and sprinting from the start

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

There was spandex clad dudes and baggy shorts too
The downhill singletrack came round, smoking fast, cool
We took a jump and made a stand, started sliding down the trail
The sudden motion made me skip now we're on a downhill rail

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

(repeat)..make sure you have expert styling
Mountain Biking, had to be fast as lightning

Falls City Firecracker Presented by Cyclepath

The stats:

• May 20th, 2007
• Falls City, Oregon - Black Rock Freeride area
• First Race of the year
• My First Mountain bike race in over 5 years(excluding Short track)
• 2nd place finish (Sport class)

This past weekends race took place at the Black Rock Freeride 'park' - Basically an area outside of Salem, OR (Falls City) owned by the Oregon Department of Forestry that has been designated as a recreation area. The Black Rock Mountain Biking Association has been busy building up a really nice freeride area there (lots of ladders, jumps, skinnies, gaps, drops, as well as lots of trails) for the past couple of years. The course itself was a multi-lap format where each lap was about 4.5 miles with 1000 feet of elevation gain per lap. Basically, each lap consisted of a prolonged uphill grind up a combo fire road & single track and then a bombing single track & fire road descent. The promoter of the race did incorporate some routes that had ladders and drops into the course which did add to the excitement and made me glad I was riding my 5 inch travel full suspension Titus Motolite. (The Motolite was probably the least cross country oriented bike to make a showing though).

Cyclepath has been the title sponsor of the race for the past couple of years. I missed it last year, so I made a point to race it this year even though I had really low expectations. My main goal was to be there to support the shop as they have been so great for me. The race itself was good fun and the Cyclepath team was out in force (A Cyclepath rider took 1st in the SS), though it was quite wet and muddy which did make some of the ladders slippery. I did admittedly race pretty conservatively though.

The race start & finish was midway up the fire road climb which resulted in both the start and the finish being on a hill (nice...). At the starting gun, I took off with the pack and proceeded to pick off a few riders here and there, about .5 miles into the climb I was at the front with 2 other guys (on Single Speeds!). 2 other guys - another SSer and another geared rider were close on my tail.

By the top of the climb, I was still hanging in with the top 5 guys (3 single speeders and the one guy in my class). I managed to stick with them for the descent and much of the start of the 2nd lap, however at that point they began to pull away (a bit) and we basically stayed in this position until the end of the race. I pretty much raced solo for the remainder of the race, lapping the occasional slow rider here and there. I finished about 1 minute behind the leader and at least 3-4 minutes ahead of #3.

Sorry, no pictures this time as my photog had prior commitments with the family.

Training Log 5/18

Here's how it went down this week. We'll see how much progress is made at this weekends firecracker race.

Monday - Lunch time Fairmont Loop road ride
Tuesday - Gym at lunch, evening mountain bike ride (night)
Wednesday - Gym at lunch
Thursday - Lunch time Flat road Fixed Gear out to Sauvies Island from work
Friday - AM Forest Park ride


Love the spring.

Training log 05/13/07

In the spirit of my blogs new name, I wanted to share this past weeks training log.

Monday - Lunch time road ride
Tuesday - Lunch time SS mtn ride in FP
Wednesday - Gym
Thursday - Fixed gear - up Lovejoy to Skyline to the Cemetary and back
Friday - AM SS mtn ride in FP prior to work.

good times.

Firecracker is next weekend.

New Title

Taking a page from my friend, teammate and fellow blogger, I've decided to rename my blog (for the 3rd time) to something a bit more "me".

I still like the name "Axles of Evil". I thought of it soon after the infamous Axis of Evil speech by our "fearless" leader. Unfortunately, alot of others also thought about it, including a bike polo team here in Portland.

I then changed the name to "Two Wheels Only" (or TWO). I liked it, but it never really fit.

"The Lunch Time Grind" came to me on a lunch time ride this afternoon. As a full time working parent I do most of my training rides in during the week - My regular commute to and from work, lunch time rides and either long rides in or long rides home. Weekend rides are few and far between, so they are a luxury (Especially mtn bike rides!). I do however get out with the family (trail-a-bike in tow) on a regular basis, so I can't complain about that.

I *think* some people might be interested in a working dads racing and riding experiences, right?

peace