Live Strong - "1400" T-Shirts

If you would like to help support Gerry in this epic journey, here are some cool t-shirts that are available to help support the cause.

All proceeds from the “1400″ shirt go to L.A.F. LiveSTRONG Foundation.


Order here.

Live Strong - One Rider's Journey from California to Texas

Everyone once and a while I come across someone that has an idea that is crazier than anything I've ever had. In this case, it's our good friend Gerry Cody (Don's Bikes team member).

Gerry has decided to take the Live Strong Challenge, except he has also decided to ride his bike all the way from Santa Monica, California to Austin, Texas. When he arrives, he will join up with Lance and all of the others to participate in the event.

People, including myself, do these kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, but in this case it's Gerry's personal vendetta; to try to raise money to fight cancer.

So hats off to Gerry for undertaking this huge jouney and we wish him the best of luck. He's probably on the road at this very time...

The whole team supports Gerry 100% in this effort, and if you would like to donate to help him reach his goal, you can do so here.



Feel free to follow along for Gerry's latest blog posts and twitter updates.

Good luck my friend!
AL

Mammoth Downhill Weekend

Here's some cool video from our DH weekend in Mammoth.

Riders: Rob, Al, Cy, Chris, Gerry and Danny



Special thanks to Chris for making a bunch of bad downhill riders look somewhat decent.

AL

www.donsbikesraceteam.com

Rim Nordic - On a Tandem

(posted by Jeff Stanners)

Lisa and I headed up to Rim Nordic on Sunday for their last race of the summer. It was a first for both of us....racing on our tandem. Months ago we toyed around the idea of buying a tandem and racing it. Most companies don't currently make a mountain bike tandem and the few that do charge a small fortune for them. A decent front suspension tandem costs at least $4000 while the higher end full suspension tandems are upwards of $7000. We decided to go cheap and test out a junker first.

About 3 months ago we found one on ebay. We got it for $150 plus $30 to have it delivered. The stoker bars were bent so we replaced them with some pink ones. We added chunky grips to both the front and back and they've helped tremendously (well...a little) to make up for a lack of suspension. The biggest and most important upgrade we made was switching from cantilever brakes to U brakes. With the cantilevers the best we could hope for on a downhill was to slow down. Now with the U brakes we can actually come to a stop if I squeeze hard enough. We also replaced the shifters and one of the cables.



















The bike weighs in at just a tad under 50 pounds. Our first ride we took it up to Crafton and rode on the fireroad a little. Next ride was again at Crafton but we pushed it a little more and had a slight test of our technical skills on it. Then ride #3 took us to the wash in Mentone. The wash is not at all steep, but it is singletrack and can get a little technical. That was the first real test for us and the first time we sort of beat the bike up.

Our plan all along was to race it at the State Championship race in Big Bear, but with the date change it doesn't look like we'll be able to make it. So with not much going on this past weekend we decided to try racing it at Rim Nordic.

They start the tandems with the cat 3's at 9:00am. We had no qualms about just doing 1 lap. Seemed like the perfect place for our first race, except that this is real mountain biking at Rim Nordic....with bridges, steep climbs, switchbacks, sandy turns, and lots of singletrack. Mostly things that make mountain biking great, but all things that make it tough on a tandem.

The race ended up being incredibly fun. The only close call we had was on our warm-up lap and we attempted to cross the first bridge. Our day was literally an inch or so away from being over. After that we decided we'd walk all the bridges on the course. We did, however, manage to make all the climbs except the couple that came immediately after switchbacks. Most satisfying was making it up the top sandy climb just before the Explosives Shed.













We finished in a satisfying 44:53. Certainly not blazing fast, but for that course it felt great. We both had a blast racing it. After over 20 races this year it was very fun to actually race together. Not sure when the next tandem race will be, but there's bound to be some more on occasion for us. We were the only tandem at Rim Nordic. It seems Sea Otter draws the biggest tandem fields so we have that penciled in for next season.

Our Race on Garmin Connect
Our Results
Rim Nordic Racing

New SoCal Mountain Bike Race: Over the Hump Series

Now that summer is winding down and we've all had some time off to take a vacation and enjoy the sunshine, it's time to start thinking about getting back in shape. What a better way than to start with a little mid-week racing!

Last week one of our team members, Jeff Stanners, participated in this new race in the OC called the Over the Hump Series. He had some great things to say about it and I think more of us will try to make it out to the next one.

Here's what he said:

Last week I did this race last week called Over the Hump Series. I thought I’d share this since it’s a new race and it was a lot of fun for a mid-week
race. It was on Wednesday evening at Irvine Lake in Orange County.
315 people showed up and raced on the 3.7 mile course. Expert’s did 4
laps, Sports did 3 laps. There were some good local pros there – Sid,
Manny, and Sean Donovan went 1-2-3. It’s about a 50 minute drive down
there from Redlands and best of all the race only cost $20. There next one
is on a Tuesday on September 15. They said they plan to have a summer
series of 6-8 races next year, all mid-week evening races.

It’s worth checking out if you’re looking for something fast to do during the
week.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Another thing that looks interesting is the class structure. There are basically three classes (beginner, sport and expert) and the age brackets are wide e.g. 30-39. This should keep things competitive and should prove to be pretty interesting, especially in the Expert-Pro class.

Race Information
Over The Hump Series
Classes
Map, Directions and Parking
Results

More Resources
Mountain Bike Action article on the Race
OC Register article on the Race

Here's some actual video coverage of the whole race. Looks fun!

http://www.donsbikesraceteam.com/

Mechanic's Corner: How to fix a broken front XTR derailleur

During my last race up in Canada, I managed to break my trusty XTR front derailleur. The front arm snapped off where the cage pivots. I still had two solid weeks of riding ahead of me, so I needed to do something. When I got back to my folks place, my dad and I went into the trusty garage and came up with a plan to fix it.

Here’s what we did.

1. Found a small ¼” x ½” 1/16 piece of flat metal.
2. Bent it into an “L” shape bracket and ground off the edges.
3. Clamped it into place on the inside of the broken derailleur.
4. Drilled two ¼” holes on each side of the derailleur and bracket.
5. Riveted the derailleur face and back-side.to stabilize the cage.
6. Ensured the bracket cleared the pivots and frame.

Voila!

I was a little concerned about the rivet on the inside face because I thought it would affect the chain when moving up to the bigger rings. After a quick test ride however, I could tell the chain could still hop from ring to ring just fine.

Anyhow, this little fix proved to get me through two weeks of riding just fine, and I’m actually thinking about just racing it as is. It’s works perfectly and seems stronger now than it was before.

So before you throw down $250 to replace that broken derailleur, don’t be afraid to give this a try.

AL
http://www.donsbikesraceteam.com/

A Random Epic Adventure: El Grande

The other day I heard that someone was organizing a ride from the very top of the mountains in Big Bear to the very bottom. The plan was to put together some of the best single track in SoCal to make one of the greatest descents around. In theory, it looked to be between 10,000-11,000 ft of descending.

So how could I resist, I'm always up for an adventure! Not knowing any of these guys, I sent an email out and asked if I could join in.

When I got in touch with the organizer Paul Romero, I knew I was in for something special. Paul edged me out at the last 12hr solo, so I knew he and I were on the same page when it came to "big" adventures.

He described the ride like this:

We'll be parking on the North Side of Sugarloaf Mountain....(Greenspot,
it's called...), HWY 38, and Hatchery Road.....From there we'd all ride up to the Summit... (maybe 1.5-2 hour climb). Then Begin the 6-8 hours of descent down to Mountain Village. Mostly all singletrack.

Here's a map and profile of the route.

NOTE: I started my GPS a little late off the top, so you can easily add a couple hundred more feet and some mileage to the profile. See GPS info here.

The Gang
When I arrived I was greeted by Paul (our fearless and slightly insane leader), Billy (a crazy trainer on a psycotic 29er), Casey (a 15yr old biking prodigy that's as good on as any of us), and Clay, another local crazy man.

Since the ride was going to be mostly descending, I decided to take my big bike (Nomad). Good move right? Wrong! Most of the crew had XC and/or slightly beefed-up XC bikes. Woops!

The Climb
It was just a few minutes into the ride and we started the brutal ascent up Sugarloaf trail. No warm-up or anything, just straight up. Some parts were climbable, but it took absolute full-out efforts to get up most parts the trail. This turned into a bike-push-bike section.

We basically fought through the rocks and got our bikes up to the intersection with Wildhorse Trail. From there it was more of push-ride-push to the top.

In the end, it was about 3400ft of climbing. See GPS info here.

So where was the decending I was thinking to myself? And man, did I have the wrong bike!

Top of the World
Once we were at the top the views were epic. We took a few snapshots and started our 11,000 ft decent to the bottom.

The "Descent"
One thing I've learned about the single tracks in the San Bernardino mountains; where there's down, there's also a lot of up. The descent off the very top was knarly! There were lots of fist-sized boulders and technical switchbacks the whole way. It was fun however as you could jump and hop off sections to clear the nasty stuff. Good times.

The descent down Wild Horse was absolutely "wild". Not knowing the trail, I was in tow most of the way but had a ton of fun. Most of it was downhill but there were a few 10 min climbing sections along the way; just enough to remind you that this wasn't a trail for a DH bike.

The crew were all equally skilled and we kept the show going the whole way; minus a few flat tires and seizing brakes. The "little man" Casey was killing it. This guy is going to be a super star someday!

SART
We eventually made it down to Hwy 38 and turned left to climb up to the top of the SART - a section I had never ridden before, and now I know why. This was basically a horse-beaten, sandy section with quite a few climbs that was completely working us over.

After a little grumbling, we survived this section and refueled at South Fork.

From South Fork on, it was just a blast. Just miles of some of the best single track (SART) in SoCal. We were switching off positions leading and having the time of our lives. The only issues was I was having a ton of trouble with my bike because my free hub was locking up and by brakes were seizing badly. After a little surgery however, we managed to get bike semi-functional.

The last nasty section (for me anyways) was Middle Control Rd. I usually love this climb, but by this time, I was totally worked over. My big bike was killing me.

Anyhow, we made it to Angelus Oaks and rolled in for some food at "The Oaks" restaurant.

Decision Time
From there, we had two choices:

1) Finish off the last part of the SART by climbing to Thomas Hunting Grounds and then Morton's Peak; or

2) Blast down Old Hwy 38 (on dirt) and roll through the wash back to my place where there was cold beer and pool waiting.

We were all pretty wrecked so we unanimously picked option 2.

NOE: If you've never done the Old Hwy 38, it's actually a blast. You can ride down old Hwy 38 to the actual Hwy 38 and then catch a bunch of single track at the wash at the bottom, so that's what we did.

New Friends
We finally made it back to Redlands where my wife had cold beer waiting for us on ice and the pool was ready to go. We all jumped in and had a celebratory beverage. This was definitely one of the most "random epic adventures" I've ever done.

When you think about it, I didn't know any of these guys, but we all proved we could work together to overcome the elements including 5+ flat tires, siezing brakes and hubs, and the best of all, about 11,000ft of descending on some of the best single track in SoCal.

El Grande Totals
Climbing: 6200+ ft
Descending: 11,000+ ft
Distance: 53+ miles
Time: ~9:00 hrs

So the next time you have a chance to hook up with any of these guys, you have my word that you'll be in for an epic adventure.

Thanks again for the experience!
AL

http://www.donsbikesraceteam.com/