Waltworks 27.5 (650b) hardtail

Second day of riding and I love it

The dropper post is a game changer

Don't want to lose these dimensions

I am sold on custom bikes.

My first custom bike was the Rock Lobster Euro Cross that I was built in 2011 and I love that bike. My only mistake was to get a fitting AFTER I got it built. Oops. This time around, I got fitted at Bike Effect and the measurements went to Walt over at Waltworks. I chose him because his focus is primarily mountain bikes, he is a one man shop, is flexible working with customers, makes great bikes but not show bikes and is affordable. I didn't want a bike so pretty that I feel bad when I crash or scratch it. I see bikes as functional art.

So the main reason for the new bike other wanting a new bike is that my Salsa Spearfish 29er has a front end that is too tall. Being 5'-6" with short arms and riding in mostly a XC position, the front end of a 29er was too much.  Going with the 27.5 and the Syntace stem brought it down to what I needed. My criteria was to get a bike that fit, improved handling (less reactive on downhills, better on switchbacks) and dropper post. He nailed it. The process was easy and he was a wealth of knowledge when I asked his opinion on frame geometry and components.  It was great to get that. On the geometry design, he did his first draft based on what I originally told him and he told me to call him. Then he explained why he did every design component and tweaked them all slightly.

The bike was designed for 27.5 wheels, 1x11, stealth dropper post and third bottle cage.  I went with 1x11 since I only lose 1/2 gear compared to the Salsa but have the simplicity of one derailleur. I also went with the gripshift to make the cockpit a little cleaner. The dropper post was key for me since I felt my cornering was my weak point and moving the saddle out of the way has been great. I wanted 3 bottle cages since I live in Southern California and like going a little more remote when I have the time.

So the components on the bike is a mix of Walt's Dream build and Smart Money build but closer to the dream build. I got Reba fork, XT brakes, X01 gripshift, X01 crankset with Stages power meter, Thomson dropper seatpost, Chris King headset, Easton EC70 bars, Syntace Flat Force stem, X1 rear derailleur and cassette. The wheels are Nox Teocalli with DT 240 hubs and Bontrager XR2 tubeless tires. The front wheels are 100mm thru axle and the rear are tried and true 135mm with DT RWS quick release. The saddle is a Selle Italia Max SLR gel 145 and Crank Brothers Candy 3 pedals.

From the time of deposit to having a bike I could ride, it took 5 months but was well worth it.

The ride is everything I wanted. There is no toe overlap. The bike feels better the faster you go and it loves singletracks. On turns, the bike feels much smaller than its size especially with the saddle out of the way. Pretty much every part of the bike has improved substantially since my last bike. The only thing that didn't change was going uphill at the same speed but even then the front wheel has less of a tendency to flop around so even had an improvement there.

Sullivan Canyon Trail

Hoffman's picture of us riding.  Yup, I holding the rear as usual

Rick and Hoffman.  Unfortunately we stopped where there were no fall leaves on the ground.

It was so pretty that we all had our phones out taking pictures

My favorite season is fall and one of the reasons are the fall colors.  Living in Southern California, it is very limited and I go through withdrawals after the years in Canada and Utah.

Today I rode with Hoffman and Rick on our cyclocross bikes in the Santa Monica mountains.  We started on dirt Mulholland and then went down Sullivan Canyon.  The trail is below the tree canopy with all the fall leaves on the ground.  It was so cool and made me realize that I really missed the fall leaves.  The connector trailhead (marked by 2 rocks) from the canyon floor to the ridge was steep and it was a hike-a-bike.  Short enough to not be a big deal but long enough to zap the legs. I will have to make this ride an annual event in the fall.

Cyclocross in the Santa Monica Mountain

Dirt Mulholland

Lookout from the Nike Missile site

San Fernando Valley

Now that summer is over, cyclocross season will be starting!  I've always loved the fall and this is yet another reason.  As part of training, Hoffman and I are riding on fireroads on our cyclocross bikes.  The dirt trail is smooth enough that I would ride on my road tires with it but there's no need so we have fun on these roads.  It is funny the looks we get from people as they say "look road bikes".  These rides always remind me how much I love my cross bike.  I can go anywhere with it.

The funny thing is that Hoffman has a new part on his bike each time I see him.  I don't think there are any parts to replace soon.

Santa Monica Mountains Almost Century

Almost to PCH when we hit this gate at Rambla Pacifica and had to climb back out

There was this boulder problem on route

90 miles and 10,810' of climbing.  I'd call that a good day.

At the end of the day we were still standing

90 miles, 10,800'
Strava details

I read about a guy in Europe that was going to ride all the cols in the Alps in one push.  That would be 300 miles and 17 mountain passes.  It was my inspiration when I came up with through the Santa Monica Mountains.  At first I was planning to do all the major climbs but realized that would be mostly an out and back route on all of them and be something like 20,000' of climbing.  I reeled it back in to 5 climbs and a better route.  Once the idea was there, I told Hoffman and he was in.  He's the only guy I know that's up for my hairbrain ideas.  That's why we're Team Dumb and Dumber.  We both get on board for whatever big idea each of us figures out.

We picked an open calendar day and were planning for it.  It was planning and no additional training on my part.  With cyclocross season soon, I've been working on short, hard efforts and CX skills.  Not exactly the endurance training that I need.  Hoffman rides more and is always in better shape but was sick the previous week so that didn't help him but all the endurance miles from the beginning of this year was still there.  In reality him recovering from being sick just put him closer to my level which is "off the couch" fitness.

We started at 7 am and on the first climb it was already starting to feel hot.  The past week has been hot and humid so I knew it was going to be bad but 7am and feeling hot didn't help.  That was pretty much sums up the day.  Here are the highlights:

• First climb: Las Flores. Our steepest climb and good thing it was first before it really heated up.
• Second climb: Piuma.  Good climb and wide roads.
• Took wrong turn on Rambla Pacifica to a gated community and had to climb back out.
• Third climb: Latigo.  It was 109 degrees going to the first summit and I was getting heat exhaustion. The road was recently repaved so normally I like the smooth, black road but the black asphalt was reflecting all the heat back on us along with no wind. I usually ride in the mornings so I am not accustomed to being in the heat and Hoffman was much better in it.  We found some shade and I rested for 20 minutes trying to cool off.  Going to the second summit, the temp got up to 111 degrees. I was dying and was silent.  I didn't have any energy to talk.
• Hoffman brought some small size cokes and it was a lifesaver.
• Finally some wind came through on PCH and cooled us down in between the climb.  Adjusted our plan with the goal of still doing 10,000'.
• Fourth climb: Yerba Buena.  The wind lasted about 1/4 mile into the climb and it was back to non-moving hot air.  It was 104 degrees.  I was searching for shade and doing 1 minute stops to try and cool off.
• We reached Circle X Ranch and refilled with water.  The temperature gauge at the ranch read 94 degrees in the shade.
• Seeing the bike computer register over 10,000' of ascent (our goal of the day).
• No real cramping.  Had a twinge and new to back off.  Since getting the power meter, I haven't cramped since and it's not like I've been taking it easy.
• Endurolytes are great and helped stave off cramping.
• Food was rice cakes with egg, salami, salt and soy sauce.  Salami was in the house but may want to get some bacon or something else next time.
• Total riding time was 8:10 and total time was 10:18.  We could have done better but the heat killed me.  I had to take big breaks and spent most of my time in the granny gear.  On a cool day, I think we could have done this in 8:00 total.
• Next time we do a ride with heat forecasted over 80 degrees, we need to do an alpine start.  I have my generator wheel so no problem for me.  Anything to reduce the amount of time in the heat.

Even with the heat, it was still a great day out.

Big Bear Endurance almost 50 miler

Sunday was the US Cup Big Bear Endurance 50 miler.  I wasn't planning on riding this but Hoffman was thinking about it and antsy boy wanted someone else in the car with him on the drive.  That was really all I needed to get me to commit.  A couple weeks before the race, I bought a power meter (I had to get one so I could train smarter since I needed to use my limited time more effectively to keep up with Hoffman) and I realized that I've been racing (and riding) way too hard.  It made sense that I always end up cramping and bonking.  So the plan for this ride was to go in Zone 2/3 the entire time.  My idea was that by going slower, I wouldn't need to stop as much (I stopped for 1:30 in Julian due to cramping and bonking) so my time should be better.  When the race started I put myself in the back of the pack right away with my Zone 2 pace.  I was actually getting dropped on the neutral start but the pacing was going according to plan.

During the race I was feeling good and this is done in two laps.  When I got to the end of the first lap it was 3:30 when I started my second lap.  I remember thinking why I do this but put my head down and went with the fact that I was half done.  I was going slow and getting tired but I wasn't too bad at altitude and the pacing worked out.  Unfortunately I was last since the three people I knew were behind me must have dropped out.  When I came to this 4 mile loop for the long course, the volunteer told me that I had to take the medium course.  I just followed directions but after the race I was getting pretty tweaked by it.  I paid for the race and I want to ride the entire course.  This was made worse since I was going slower on purpose and I didn't cramp or bonk.  I could have picked up my pace if I had known there was a time limit which there isn't.  The volunteers and race director wanted to be done and do their sweep before it got too late.  Of course, it was only 4:30 which is a 50 mile race is not late in my book but I'm not responsible for riders on the course.

In the end, I'm happy with how things turned out.  My total time was 6:27 and my moving time was 6:13 which meant I only stopped a total of 14 minutes for water stops and peeing which is awesome.  I didn't cramp or bonk.  My nutrition was good and I had no intestinal issues.  The best part was the scenery.  The only thing that could have been better would to be do the entire course.  I emailed the race director about my experience so hopefully a time limit clause will show up on the next race.

Julian Death March 64 miler

Hoffman before the race

Just started cramping on the singletrack in this section

The best pepsi ever

Finishing the 64 miler!

Yes, I was feeling that bad

About mile 62 after climbing the Banner grade, I unclipped right and fell left.

A sun burnt Hoffman taking a picture for his peeps

If there is a ride with the word "death" in it, I get a little intrigued so when I heard about it about a year ago I knew I had to do it.  They have three distances: 50 miles with 7000' of climbing, 64 miles with 9000' of climbing and 86 miles with 11,000' of climbing.  A couple months ago I signed up and as usual figured I would be riding alone.  Turns out that Hoffman thinks the same and wanted to do it too.

The week before Hoffman completed Vision Quest which is 55 miles with 10,500' of climbing race and I doubted that he would join me on this.  Apparently he didn't want to hear about my ride knowing that he could have gone so he signed up too.  After emailing the race director, we found out that you can pick your distance during the ride.  For most people that would mean you can bail out earlier.  For Hoffman and I, we started debating about doing the 86 miler as long as we were within the time limits, weren't cramping or bonking.  At a minimum we would do the 50 miler.

On Friday night after dinner, I left home to pick up Hoffman at his friend's house in LA and we were on our way for our 2:30 drive to the campground.  Luckily the campground is 5 miles from the start and it was very quiet.  I slept in the van on a slope and Hoffman was in a tent.  We were going to wake up at 6:00 and get over to the start.  Turns out that Hoffman was awake since 4:00 and was just waiting for daylight to get going.

Once we got there, it was a very laid back group and we got registered.  Even at 7:00 it was getting warm and ideas of wearing arm warmers and a vest changed.  It wasn't scorching hot but hot enough to still overheat on the long climbs.

Once we got going, we quickly realized that Hoffman's in better form than me especially since he's been training for VQ versus my 3 hours a week of exercise.  He recovered from last week's ride better than he thought and had to lower his pace for me to keep up.  Even then I still started cramping at mile 30 but I still was able to keep going albeit more cautiously.  By the time we hit the fork around mile 42 for the 50 miler versus the 64 miler, it was my call for which to do.  According to our requirement, we were still within the time limit.  1 out of 3 but that was enough to go.  At the end of the loop was Oriflame: a steep, technical hike-a-bike portion and Hoffman and I both bonked.  Luckily at the top of Oriflame was a volunteer and we had the best pepsi and the sugar and caffeine helped a ton.  It was also at that time that I was able to check voicemail (there was actually a signal on most of the ride since Hoffman was getting messages and texts the entire ride) from Nancy and found out that Megan has pneumonia and got some antibiotics.  At that point if there was a direct way to the car, I would have quit the ride but there was none and considering we were still 3 hours away, we finished the ride.  I spent the rest of the ride thinking about Megan and wanting to be home.  The last climb before the finish was Banner grade which is an old toll road and it was steep but at least it was rideable.  By the time we made it back to the start, we were 30 minutes past the time limit to go for the 86 miler so that was lucky.  Knowing us if we were within the limit, we would have tried it.

In all the race was good.  For doing things off the couch, I'm not surprised to cramp or bonk, it's actually expected.  The things I loved about the ride was the remoteness and beauty.  It helped that it was spring and some wildflowers were out but I loved that at places we couldn't see any other signs of civilization.  It was great.

In terms of food, my brown rice and bacon rice cakes with skratch mix worked perfectly.  I had no digestive issues during or after the race.  To keep fueled, I drank about 2 bottles and ate 2 rice cakes in first 1.5 hours, then a bottle and rice cake an hour.  I still bonked but that is due to lack of fitness and not fueling issues I think.  Only problem though is eating rice cakes while mountain biking is hard.  Although I don't like using a backpack bladder, it is the way to go for mountain biking.  I was able to keep hydrated and drink through technical sections instead of waiting for mellow spots to reach for a bottle.  Using the Geigerrig is great too with the pressurized system squirting water instead of having to suck water from the bladder.

Now the next question is what's the next adventure?

Backbone Trail

Topanga Fire Road overlook with Hoffman

Someone put up two hammocks for people to enjoy.  It was awesome!

On Sunday I did a ride with Hoffman in the Santa Monica mountains.  It started right out of Santa Monica on a 2100' fire road climb and descended on the Backbone trail to Will Rogers park.  It was one of the best singletracks I've been on.  Amazing time.

I met Hoffman many years ago through our mutual rock climbing friends.  We never climbed together but have run into each other at random places.  I ran into him years ago surfing at Trestles the one time I was there but I don't even think we even surfed together.  I think I was going in as he was coming out.  Then we ran into each other at a cyclocross race a couple months ago and found out that he's been mountain biking for a while.  We made some plans and this is our second ride together and realize that I relate to fellow climbers the best. We both realized that climbers tend to give it a go more often than others.  I've found out that Hoffman's signed up for Vision Quest in a couple of months (80+ mile mountain bike ride with 12,000' of climbing) and I wanted to do that too.  He's also done the Everest Challenge which I want to do.  I've done several double centuries and he wants to do some.  My hairbrain mountain bike ideas that I tell co-workers which get eye rolls gets accepted by him.  I guess rock climbing does attract a certain personality type and also has taught us that we can push our limits.