The next step is to pick up the 40s and set them up tubeless.
I switched the Pretty Hate Machine to these Gravel King SKs and they rock.
“They got gators” however on this particular ride, the rabbits were more dangerous.
I’d been wanting to ride at Fort Polk for a while now, but timing and transportation just hadn’t worked out until this last trip. My friend Patrick was there for a few weeks and he had brought his cross bike (a Trek Boone). He has been riding daily, and texted me to let me know he found a few cool gravel trails, and some fire roads that would be suitable for a good time, so I prepped up Zoe (my Kona). I had some really good Continental Cross Speeds on the bike all winter and they were getting a bit bare, so I swapped on the Gravel King SKs I’ve been sitting on for a few months (more on those later…), cleaned her up some, and changed out the mount for my ELEMNT to the “Out Front”.
We kicked off right in front of the billeting Patrick is staying in, so we were on pavement for the first few miles, then we picked up the gravel path that runs the length of post. There were some seriously fun swooping sections, switchbacks, a rail crossing, a couple of ponds, and plenty of shade to make the oppressive Louisiana humidity bearable. I broke off down a couple of the dirt roads, and I wish I had more time to ride those, they were really nice, smooth, hard pack, and fast. Overall it was a cool ride, though short. Next time I do it I’ll build in more time for the side roads, and a spin around the airfield to get some legit miles in. See the Strava page here.
As far as the Gravel Kings go, they are fantastic tires. All the supple side wall I had read about, and really good traction. Even on the asphalt, there was no buzz or hum, and they just felt like good road tires. I ran them at 40 psi with standard cross tubes in them (that I didn’t powder for whatever reason), though I’m looking forward to setting them up tubeless. I think honestly that once setup tubeless, they will make the bike almost perfect for the kind of random riding I do most.
Tour of California Time
Taking in the Amgen Tour of California from the palatial comfort offered by my bike cave.
Hard work, work…harrdd work, hard work, work, HAAAARRRRRDDDD work.
We used today to make some much needed improvements to the back yard. We’ve really let a criminal amount of neglect occur here, to the point where it wasn’t even suitable to relax after a ride. We moved a metric ton of leaf and branch debit out of there, and cleaned the patio fully. Tomorrow we’re having dinner at the outdoor table. From a workout point of view, were treating it as a cross training day, we did a lot of heavy lifting and moving, so there’s that.
Mission success.
Tonight on my ride, I found a whole hole.
Mother Nature dropped the ban hammer on us last night
We got all of the rain. And the wind. And the lightning.
#tbt for my youngest little man Aidan. We took a little trip to Fort Worth and hung out for a few days.
Life isn’t all cycling, especially when you’re lucky enough to have a wonderful family.
Intervals…UGH
This was the first Interval workout I’ve done in a long time. I was feeling strong, and I managed over 140 RPM on each spin, but man am I feeling it today. It will be worth it…By the way, I’m really losing faith in Strava’s ability to calculate calories burned, and effort. I suppose it would be more accurate if I bit the bullet and bought a new power meter, but damn.
I had a fantastic ride at Cameron Park Monday.
I haven’t been riding the MTB much lately (like AT ALL), so Monday I had to be in Waco for work, I threw it in the truck, hoping to have a few minutes to escape and knock out a few miles. Fortune favored my foolish self, and I finished up with 3 hours to play. I have never ridden there at all so I swung by the most recommended bike shop by guys on bikemojo, its called “The Bear Mountain“. I can’t recommend the shop enough. The staff was awesome, took some time to talk to me about the trails, where to park (where NOT to park) and even how to beat traffic getting from there to the trail-head. They had maps of the local trails, which not a single shop in Austin offers, (are you listening ATX??) and literally everyone in the shop had a little input about good lines and segments. They also had President George W Bush’s old Trek, which was cool to see. Apparently he has his bike maintained there. If you’re in Waco and you aren’t a member of their cycling club, you’re wrong. These guys do it right.
So, I set up at Pecan Bottoms, which they explained to me is basically the “low ground” (hence the name “bottoms” I guess) as I like to make my climbs on the way out rather than when I’m crushed on the way home, especially when I’m unfamiliar with the trails in general. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, there was a lot of climbing, the difficulty of which Strava leaves out, as its only 100 feet or so at a time, but at a 12-15% grade. I got in about 10 miles total and I was good and smoked at the end. I was really happy that I saved half my sandwich from “Schmaltz’s” to eat when I got back to the truck, because I was starving.
**Some Trail Notes-
1. The maps show water points along the trail, however none of the ones I found on the trail were functional.
2. The trail markings are very good when they are present, however they are missing or incomplete in many areas, which in their defense, look to be pretty new and perhaps not marked yet. (even the bad ones are marked better than any in the ATX)
3. Most of the trails showed up in the maps on my ELEMNT, even the newer ones, which l assume is due to open street maps.
K-Edge and Wahoo
I bought this stem cap mount from K-Edge originally for my cross bike. If you’re not familiar with K-edge, they are a small company that makes all sorts of billet aluminum mounts and chain catchers commonly used in the pro peloton.
So I thought it would be great to have it right on top of my stem as I like the location of the stem mount that came with the ELEMNT but not the fact that it was held on with zip-ties. You can see from the pic that it replaces the thin spacer you’re supposed to have above your stem to prevent crushing (you’re all doing that right??), and it projects forward a little more than half way down my 100mm stem. I put it on the Kona and the whole ride I felt like I was looking back at my stomach. It only sits a centimeter or so further back, but it’s slightly angled up, and that just straight didn’t work.
Yesterday I took the Niner out for the first time in a while and I installed the stem cap mount on it just to see, my thinking being that since I’m more upright on the MTB, it might be ok, and it was perfect. K-Edge makes some fine bits of kit, and that thing didn’t move a millimeter. It’s positioned perfectly above the stem. Now I just need to order the “out front” mount for my road bike from them and I’ll put the stock plastic out front mount on my cross bike.
