Last night, a group of 4 of us hit up a local Thursday night road ride in Roswell, GA. This was the first time I had ever done this ride, but I was familiar with the route as I have ridden it once before. The route takes you through fantastic areas of Roswell as you follow the Chattahoochee River and end up riding straight through historic Roswell.

After a long downpour earlier that afternoon, the thick air was fog filled and the sun was bringing out some serious humidity. There is nothing quite like trying to breathe in thick air! The ride started out at a nice warm-up pace as everyone shuffled their way in line. Many of these riders do this ride on a weekly basis, so they knew where they needed to be. I was going to attempt to hang on to the A group for as long as possible.

As we turned the corner into areas of lesser traffic, the A riders put down the hammer and started climbing. Over the next couple of miles, they would continue to spread the distance between Joe and me as they continued to hammer out the small climbs. As we reached a really flowy downhill section, I saw it…Joe wanted to catch back up to the A group, but we were going to have to work hard at it. We started hammering the downhills trying to pick up time where we could. When we got to the flat, I watched as he started using the draft of slower riders to slowly pull us back up to the front. Use the draft…pass…use the draft…pass…and sure enough…the next light we were caught back up and tired as hell.

It was my mission from that point forward to keep with this A group for as long as I possibly could without falling off the back. I knew the only way this would happen is if I could ride closer to the center of the pack to stop from falling off the rear. Throughout the next sections of the ride, there are steep ups with fast downs throughout Roswell, GA. With calves burning, I continued to hold on for the climbs with encouraging words from Laurie…”head up!”.

As the A group continued to get smaller and smaller…I was still there attempting to not look as worn out as I really was. About mile 21 of the 26 mile ride, it happened. We started on a slight incline over a long distance and I fell off the back of the pack. Now by myself without a draft, I kept pushing as hard as I could to keep the riders in sight. Eventually, I hooked up with another rider and..whether he knew it or not…we were going to catch that A group again if I had to rip my legs off to do it.

As we reached the final stretch back to the car, I caught a huge break. As they were waiting on the final red light, I hit it when it turned green and passed most of the A group back to the car. I did it! I finished with the A group through a ton of hard work and a little bit of luck.

Hey…sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

Personal Thoughts from 198

The truth is…I am not an A group rider. There are a half dozen of those riders that were just out of a weekday ride and they could have done the entire ride over again at the same pace or dropped me like a bad habit during that ride. Still…it is extremely satisfying to finish with the front of the pack. There were multiple times that I wanted to just give up, but I kept on pushing.

I have found that I am much harder on myself than anyone else. As I was riding without a draft, I found my thoughts wandering to…”come on jackass…you own a mountain biking/cycling website and you are going to finish all the way back here…pick it up!” As much as I would like to think that everyone cares so much about my corner of the web, they could really care less where I finish this ride. Do most of those roadies at the front of the pack even know that I spend half my time sitting in front of a computer screen typing about riding a parts? Probably not…

When it comes to riding, I am my own worst critic in my quest to become a better rider, so when I post up the riding tips on Mountain Biking by 198, those are not skills that I have mastered…they are skills that I am personally working on as I write those articles. I am on a never ending quest to become a better rider so that I can enjoy the sport in new ways. To accomplish that goal, I have to keep pushing the limits of what I consider normal, and…hopefully…by sharing that information I can help others become better riders at the same time.

This site is not backed by huge corporate dollars or a print publication. It is just me (with the help of several others) trying to bring cycling, reviews and stoke to other riders throughout the web. As I finished the ride yesterday, all I could think about is how fortunate I am to have such great friends and blog readers that I consider friends.

So…thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this site and allowing me to experience the things I do. Mountain Biking by 198 would be nothing but code in cyberspace without you guys, and I am very grateful for the success this site has seen up to this point and beyond.

Stats from yesterdays ride. From the Garmin Edge 705 on GarminConnect.com

I was feeling great at the beginning of the session, but towards the end…the humidity started to get the best of me. I also think I burped the rear tire because the rear end seemed to be all over the place at the end of the ride. Chris Warren made an appearance even though he is nursing a separated shoulder injury. Next week I am going to bring the full face back and put the heavier tires back on. I end up spending the entire time in the FR area, so there is no need to keep the light stuff on.

When the time changes I am going to really miss these rides. It is great having a guaranteed ride during the week to get your mind off of work or any other stresses. This weekly ride is also helping Jenn get into the sport. It forces her to ride at least once each week, and she sets goals for the next week. With this kind of process and regiment she is going to be outriding me in no time! I guess I need to start buying her some heavier tires.

For beginners, I would try to hook up with a group that is riding regularly and has a broad range of skill levels. It allows you to grow and advance with other riders in the group, and you get to see your progress first hand. This is a social sport for the most part, so you might as well jump in head first. Get on your local forum sites, introduce yourself and get riding. Our local board is SORBA.org if you are in the southeast.

Mama/Chocolate Girl shot some great pictures of the ride. You can see more on her blog along with some great ride reports.

The beginner clinic went great. Jenn got a lot of valuable information during the day that will really help her riding. The guys out there can attest, sometimes your better half does not listen to your advise like she would from and outsider. This beginners clinic was a perfect chance to get woman specific riding advise from one of the best. On the way home she was really excited about the way the ride went. She even had her first OTB! Her leg is going to be pretty bruised and she is limping around a little bit…but she’ll be ok…she’s tough! I did make the following comment though…

Remember all those times that you would hit me in bed to see what hurt?!

She quickly reminded me that it would probably not be a good idea to try that out. I think she is really going to get ahold of the whole mountain biking thing. I asked her in the car if she had fun and the answer was “yes” with a big smile on her face. That really is the most important part for a beginning rider. The endurance and skill sets will come, but you really need to enjoy what you are doing.

CONYERS Horse Park Mountain Bike Trail

Like I said before, I haven’t ridden this trail since sometime in 1996 when they opened the trail to the public. From what I understand, it has changed pretty drastically since then, but the topo and terrain is still the same. I really enjoyed the trail. With a mixture of granite and rooty, fast sections, the trail really kept you on your toes. You never knew when that fast downhill was going to take a turn to a steep up. I am looking forward to the next trip back, but I think next time I will take the 6″ bike. There are a lot of areas that you can have a lot of fun on with a little bit more burl.

Overall, a great day. I got to get some riding in and Jenn got to get another real taste for mountain biking. You can’t really ask for much better than that.

I was driving down I-20 in Atlanta on my way to our Tuesday night ride when I saw a truck so hideous that I had to take a picture. Seriously, what are people thinking?! As you can see by the picture, this Ford F350 crew cab dully has FAKE BLINGED OUT WHEELS attached to the regular ones! On top of that, they are smaller than the wheels they are attached to! What is the point? Someone actually paid good money to do this to a truck! I think I have now seen it all…

Only in HOT’LANTA would you find something this worthless and stupid. For the life of me, I can’t not even begin to understand why someone would do this. I went from shocked to laughing so hard that I was almost changing lanes. What a waste of a great truck. I wonder if it is over the legal width limit now…

Thank you for humoring me on my non-bike related post…hopefully you guys got as big of a laugh out of it as I did…

This week, all of the usual suspects showed up (Raja, Chocolate Girl, iride, Tweety, Concrete Blond, epojoe, Lonestar, Omega, D-Rock, RedRocker, Think1….the list goes on). I decided that it had been awhile since the full face had been brought out of the garage, so I slapped it on and stayed in the free-ride section of Big Creek for the entire night. These rides normally start in the xc section before making their way to the FR area for some brutal climbing anyway, so I knew everyone would be back making some gully runs eventually.

Long story short, I got my flow back. The Terremoto was perfect all night. By the end, I think I got somewhere close to 15 runs in or more. The freeride area has everything from rock gardens, drops, gully runs and jumps, and for some reason…I just started to get that flow feeling about half way through. It was perfect.

Having a huge group on the trail full of a bunch of riding buddies is a great way to spend a weekday night. A friend of mine out west, Bill Freeman, passes along stories of their huge riding clubs Wednesday rides, and I am starting to feel like we are getting something similar over here. A huge part of the mountain biking allure, for me, is the group of people that we get to ride with. With all of the different backgrounds and riding styles, everyone is still on the same page and having a great time.  You really can’t ask for more. It is also great to see some pure cross country riders get a taste of the dh/fr scene. The Big Creek FR area is a perfect place to get that introduction, and the smiles on their faces says it all.

Thank you goes out to Mama/Chocolate Girl/Laurie (she goes by many different names) for the pictures. They came out great as always, and if you want to see more, you can find them on her blog here.

Looking forward to next week!

I am sick of seeing trails built for the lowest common denominator. Not every local trail in the Atlanta area has to be a beginner trail. We have the ability and technology these days to build trails very quickly with the use of machine cutting. This gets more trails built in a lot faster time period which is great all around. Unfortunately, when you machine cut trail, it becomes a paved highway. To make machine cut trails more advanced, the trail features have to be built back into the trail.

Here in lies the problem. When the trail is a super groomed highway, beginners are able to ride it pretty easily. When you start to add back in features, or even talk about doing it, the local boards go crazy. On local trail systems there should be a balance. You do not have to be able to ride every trail at a particular trail head. It is ok to have something to work up to. I do not hear anyone complaining about the presence of black diamond slopes at ski resorts, so why are mountain biking trails held to a different standard? I want to have technical trails at my local trail heads, but I also want to have beginner and intermediate trails for riders to improve their skills on.

If you can’t already tell, I am referring to Blankets Creek in Woodstock, GA. The new loop (Van Michael/North/Area 51) has turned out to be an incredible ride. Right now the trail is “super groomed” as I was alluding to before, and the original intent of this trail was to add features back in once it was open and ridable. Other riders are already asking them not to include these features when they already have 3 very groomed trails in that system (Dwelling, Mosquito Flats and Mosquito Bite). I want technical trails in our local Atlanta area! I have never heard of anyone taking out features in North Carolina or anywhere else for that matter. For some reason, in Georgia, there are a lot of riders who do not like riding over rocks and other TTF’s.

I say bring on the technical features. The same riders that are telling you not to do it now are going to be bragging to their riding buddies about how they cleared it later. I just wish the peanut gallery would stay quiet while they did it. There is a lot of hard work that goes into building trails that we get the benefit of riding…quit the complaining and start enjoying it. Who knows…you might end up being an even better rider because of it! Maybe one day, you will actually try another trail too!

That was my soapbox rant of the day. What are your thoughts?

For those of you that know nothing about Blankets Creek in Woodstock, GA, it is a 3 loop trail system that now totals over 12 miles of singletrack about 3 miles from my house. The entire trail system at Blankets shoulders Lake Allatoona.

THE 3 TRAILS

1. Dwelling – Super groomed race track that just begs you to keep pedaling.
2. South – hand cut rooty, rocky and technical loop that was designed for more experienced riders.
3. Van Michael (North or Area 51) – The new section has the most elevation change and potential for some serious tech sections.

There are also beginner trails (Mosquito Bite and Mosquito Flats) that interconnect in the beginning sections of the trail. The Woodstock SORBA chapter handles all of the land/trail maintenance for this system.

THE VAN MICHAEL LOOP

First, how did the Van Michael Loop get it’s name? One of the local businesses in the area, Van Michael Salon, donated $10,000 towards the construction of this new loop for Blankets Creek. Personally, I have absolutely zero problem with naming the trail after them. One, they are supposedly avid mountain bikers, so they are supporting the sport they love. Two, anyone that is willing to donate that much money towards a mountain biking trail deserves recognition in some way. It is incredibly hard to get funding for new trails. I could care less if they put a huge banner at the entrance of the trail if it meant more funding for trails in the area. That is the end of my first rant.

Now my second rant before I get to the ride. The VMT had to be temporarily shut down because a horse rider complained about erosion. Now, this horse rider is illegally riding on this land and he was upset because the approved trail goes through the area that he once used. Luckily, the army corp and local government really likes Blankets Creek and the work that Woodstock SORBA does, so the reroutes were done very quickly and the new trail was reopened after two work parties. I don’t think that this will be the last we heard of our horse riding friend, but for now everything is good. He did leave a nice present on the trail for us though…

The loop is incredible. A group of us headed out on Sunday morning to get a good ride in on the reroutes. To my surprise, my favorite sections of the trail were still there! There was one switchback that didn’t make the cut, but that didn’t change the character of the trail at all. We now have a destination trail system in Woodstock, and the best part is that it’s only 3 miles from my house. My favorite section is the tight rocky singletrack next to the lake. There is no room for error because you have a wall on one side and a drop off on the other. When climbing this section, I am repeatedly hitting my bars on the first tree. Having cleared this section multiple times before, I can not figure out why I keep doing it now.

RIDING FRIENDS

I do have to take a second to share how fortunate I am to have the chance to share these rides with the people I do. I had a great time riding with Raja, Mama, Speedy, Clogger, Al., Robin and all of the others Sunday morning. Thank you to all of the people that I ride with for making all of these rides just that much better. After two fast VMT’s and a Dwelling, I was cooked and it was time to go home.

Another thanks goes out to Ham…if it wasn’t for you…I wouldn’t be on a different bike for every ride! Thanks for letting me get them dirty. The Mojo was flawless.

For more pictures and another write-up of Sunday…check out Mama’s blog.

What is a Grind?  For me, it’s one of those days that you hit the trail with every intention of working your heart rate to death.  These are those rides that really help your fitness out in the long run, and make your destination rides that much better.

The Components of a Grind

• Fast Paced Riding
• Minimal Breaks
• Long Mileage

Even if you have smaller local trails like we do here in Atlanta, it just means you will be doing more laps at a faster, constant pace than your typical social ride.
Yesterday, I headed out to Blankets Creek to get in a grind before the summer heat hits at about noon. Normally I would take the 38 pound bike for a ride like this to add to the heart rate extravaganza, but the Moots that I still haven’t given back was begging to go.  Starting from the parking lot, I got my pace going pretty quick and heading straight into the Dwelling Loop.  The entire loop is only about 3.5 miles long and is pretty easy to navigate.  This equals fast paced tree dodging for the more experienced riders.  At the end of the first Dwelling Lap, I headed straight into South Loop without stopping.  South Loop is a hand cut 4 mile loop that is done at a much slower pace by design (rocks and elevation change).

After that loop was done, I bombed down a connector and met up with Kevin.  Kevin, even at his “advanced” age, whipped me into shape for another 2 Dwellings and another South.  Overall mileage at the end of the ride came out to around 22 miles in a very short amount of time.  I was home before the real heat set in for the day.

With gas at 4 dollars a gallon and time constraints from family duties, it is great to get a really rewarding ride in at the local trailhead.  Days like this keep my fitness level where it needs to be without having to travel to the mountains for entire day and a tank of gas.

To start the night, we stopped by OutSpokin’ Bikes in downtown Woodstock to pick up some shorts and chain lube. After we had all of the necessary gear, we loaded up and headed to the trail. Luckily, due to my need to try something new all the time, we already had a Camel Bak Mule and a Bell Sweep XC that fit her perfectly.

We started out on Mosquito Flats and to my surprise, she started off extremely well. The only real reason I say surprised is because this was her first time mountain biking…ever! I knew she was going to have a pretty good feel for the bike, but I didn’t realize it was going to be this good. In this first run, you have to climb the roller that you see in the picture and she made it look easy. After that we rode around the trails hitting creek crossings, climbs and rooty descents. She handled every thing perfectly and even seemed to be having some fun in the process. After we were done, I loaded up her bike and set off for some hot laps around the Dwelling Loop.

I really think she would have been able to ride longer with a better saddle. That was really her only complaint during the entire ride. Honestly, I don’t blame her. That Felt branded saddle didn’t look very comfortable, but luckily, I have a WTB Rocket V ti in the garage that should fix that problem completely. She even said, “I think I could have ridden a lot longer if it wasn’t for that seat.” I don’t think it will be very long until she is on clipless and riding the entire trail system. I have a weird feeling that in 3 months I will be telling her to wait on me at the next intersection. One of the harder things to get used to for a first time rider is the endurance and muscle usage. It really is different riding a mountain bike on the trails than on the road or running. Once she gets used to that feeling and gets her endurance up, she will be a force to be reckoned with.

I think this quote off of our local board by Tweety (Mr. Tracey).

Jenn: Wow this is really fun.
Me: Wanna go to a really cool mountain bike park?
Jenn: Why not?
In Whistler
Me: Weeeeee!
Jenn: Weeeee!
Me: Wooooooaahhh!
Jenn: Woooooaahhh!
Me: YahooooOOOOOOsh!t!!!!!
Jenn: Shake it off 198, it wasn’t that bad…
Intermission…
Jenn: Wow babe, that was great, you almost made it. Some Hope brakes and I9 wheels will help prevent that!
Me: Dammit, I’m not sure how I feel about my girl out riding me. Guess I better talk to Tweety and see how he handles it…

I am incredibly happy with how the night went, and I am looking forward to more great rides with “my better half.” I am really lucky to have a woman who wants to share this side of my life with me and before long she’ll be the expert in the family.

Now I just have to try to keep her away from those killer pink Industry Nine‘s!