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Hey there Team Marty's. Share your cycling experiences here! Tell us stories about rides, races, tours, etc. Go ahead... it'll be fun!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Thanks and our Sunday morning ride from Randolph

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Thanksgiving Day ride yesterday. The weather was great and everyone had a good time. Don't forget, we do Sunday rides leaving at 10 a.m. from our Randolph store. Hopefully the weather will be just as nice. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and I hope to see you Sunday morning.

Thanks
Lou

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Thanksgiving Day ride from Randolph & the weather

This past Sunday the Randolph ride was canceled due to rain, snow, sleet you name it, it fell from the sky. Which brings us to our Thanksgiving Day ride. If we have the same type of weather, there will be no ride. If the ride is canceled, I will post it at 9 a.m. Remember, the ride leaves at 10 a.m., so this should give you plenty of warning if the ride is canceled. If I don't see you on Thanksgiving Day, have a great Thanksgiving and come out Sunday to burn off all those calories from your Thanksgiving feast.

Thanks
Lou

Blackburn Trakstand Ultra

I have finally succumbed to winter. My leaves have not even all fallen and there is snow on the ground. It is a very strange season. When you have to ride and you have no alternative-use a trainer. I decided to use the Blackburn Trakstand Ultra this year. Another strange thing happens seasonally. I could not find my trainer from last year. I guess this is what happens when your son works in the same business as you do.
The Blackburn trainer needs no assembly. That was nice. Good thing because the instruction manual included is terrible. No instruction cd included either. No video is included like Cycleops includes either.
So I unfolded the trainer and proceeded to try to put my bike on the trainer. It was not as intuitive as I had expected. The adjustment for the resistance unit was a little difficult to figure out-it probably was just me. Anyway, I figured it out and put the bike on the trainer.
That was pretty straight forward. Remember to air your tires!!
The coolest design of the trainer is the height adjustment. You just turn two knobs, one on each leg and your trainer is at the right height for your rear wheel to clear the floor. The best part is that you do not need a trainer block.
Once the resistance unit was adjusted for tension, I was ready to sweat.
The trainer is the quietest trainer I have ever used. I could watch TV without blasting the sound way up. The resistance was smooth and I encountered no problems. I rode for an hour and all was good. Not as good as outside but that is the way the season goes.
I was totally satisfied and highly recommend this trainer to everyone. The trainer costs $329.99 and if you are a Team Martys member-15% discount!! Remember to wear your jersey-you never know who is looking in your window.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thanksgiving Day road ride

We will be doing a Thanksgiving Day road ride at 10 a.m. from our Randolph store. It will be very similar to our Sunday rides as far as distance and pace. For those not familiar with the Sunday morning rides that means a distance of 30-40 miles and a nice casual, talk as you ride pace. Again, no one gets left behind. As with the Sunday rides, women are more than welcome. So far we have the following participants; Tim and maybe his sons, Ken and his son, Hector, Cathy, Ola and myself. That makes a solid 7 with the possibility of 9 if Tim's sons come. Let's see if we can bump it into double digits. Hope to see you there. I promise it will be a lot of fun.

Lou

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Sunday morning road rides from the Randolph store

As you may or may not know, we do Sunday morning rides from the Randolph store at 10 a.m. The pace is easy, no one really wants to hammer this time of year. 30-40 miles is the norm depending on the route we take. Women are welcome, and we don't leave anybody behind to fend for themselves. We will be going out as long as the weather holds up. Meaning if it's cold like this past Sunday, we are still going. If there is snow on the ground or it is raining, we're not that crazy and there will be no ride. This past Sunday the only ones to "man up" were Hector and myself. So get thee to Marty's for some fine winter clothing and join us on Sunday. You'll be glad you did.

Lou

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Baby, It's Cold Outside..But Don't Let That Stop You



Ah yes, we are deep into fall, and winter is right around the corner. A good many people use falling temperatures to put up the bikes for the season, but that seems like a waste of good riding opportunities, especially for mountain biking. While winter wind may make road riding less than pleasant, the trees on the woods break up a lot of that wind. As you can see from the picture Biker Bill is having a splendid time on his late fall ride. See how he is gritting his teeth in pleasure? As long as the trails are not covered in ice, get out and ride! Here are some recommendations:

For the rider
  • Dress in layers - This is key to controlling your heat levels. Get too warm, pull off a layer. Too cold, put a layer back on. Also, make you bottom layer a shirt that pulls moisture away from the body. I used to think I was clever by wearing a thermal long john shirt for a ride until Biker Bill explained to me the concept of hypothermia, and how I could get it.
  • Keep thy head warm - It seems a lot of heat will escape through your head if you don't keep it covered. Go figure.
  • Also the hands and feet - While were on the subject, your extremities seem to be vulnerable to cold as well. Good socks are a must, and shoe covers or winter shoes are recommended by many. Also, good weather proof gloves increase the riding pleasure for me, because before my fingers go mercifully numb, there is a long period of excruciating pain that is preferable to avoid. Weather proof gloves help break the induced wind, keeping your hands, if not toasty, at least tolerable.
  • Start the ride a little chilly - This may be a personal thing with me, but I find that if I am comfortable temperature wise when I set out, I get too hot PDQ.
  • Bring a change of clothes to the ride - Nothing can suck the fun out of a ride faster than an hour and a half car ride in cold, wet biking gear (been there, done that). Bring a change for that comfortable commute.
For the bike

  • Use a dry graphite lube - When you hit the low 30's or 20's, some lubes can freeze up on you. Dry graphite seems to be the lube of choice for the winter.
  • Check tire pressure - When the bike moves from a 60 degree environment to a 40 degree environment, loss of tire pressure is likely. So don't forget your pump.
  • Clean the bike - After a cold,muddy ride, cleaning and drying the bike will prevent problems on your next ride. After all, you're going to clean up (I hope), so do the same for the bike. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, storing it in a dry and reasonably warm place does a lot in the way of prevention.
This are some of my tips for better winter riding. If you have some of your own (other than stay inside by the fire and ride your trainer), please comment so that we will all know them too.

My next ride!

So as many of you already know, I've begun a long conquest in search of my next off-road demon...So far, I've previewed the new stumpjumper with rear brain up at split rock and it blew my mind...similar to my first experience in a high pursuit chase when I was 19 and some jokers with bright flashing lights kept trying to slow me down...I just put my head down, closed my eyes and let the bike do the work. Needless to say, I was seriously impressed with the stumpjumper. However, for trails such as split-rock, I have an '05 Enduro which, though fairly heavy, is a monster on highly technical trails. That being said, I really don't see the need for another bike with gobs of suspension. This brings me to my next option, the bike of all bikes, an "Epic". It seems silly to even consider anything else, but I would like to see if any of you feel that I should look into any other rides before I make my final decision...Thoughts??

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Better than HID?!?


The new NiteRider TriNewt lighting systems have finally arrived! We have been messing around with this new system over here at Marty's of Morristown and we are pretty impressed! Niterider had been advertising this system as the brightest system they have ever made and all we kept saying was "brighter than HID???"

We did a little hands-on comparison here at the store, and found that the TriNewt is brighter! How could an LED system be brigher than the famed HID system? We don't know. All we know is that this thing is bright.

Not only is it bright, but it also has a more adjustable mounting system that works well on your handlebar or your helmet, it is less expensive than most HID systems out there($399), the battery is relatively small and light weight, it burns for 3.5 hours on the brightest setting, it charges quickly, the casing on the headlamp and the battery seem really sturdy, and its super cool looking! Wow, that's a lot of good stuff.

The only downside we have discovered thus far is that the headlamp weighs slightly more than an HID headlamp. It's not a large difference, but it is noticeable. This shouldn't be too much of a problem since the new helmet mount positions the lamp closer to the center of the helmet instead of it sticking out the front, so the helmet is not pulled forward.

Check out this link for purchasing info: http://martysreliable.com/itemdetails.cfm?catalogId=39&id=6630 or, come in and check it out!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Trek Demo Day

Today, Jesse, Nick, Artie, John and I hopped on the bus and headed to Lewis Morris with the goal of testing out some new Trek bikes. The two bikes we were most intersted in were the new Fuel Ex and the new Madone. The new Fuel EX is quite different from past models, and all of us were hoping it would be a drastic improvement.

The Fuel didn't let us down! All of us who rode it felt that it was "friggin fast!" The bike was actually not particularly light weight for a bike that has lot of XTR and a carbon frame,(26.3 lbs) but it FELT very light while riding it. Trek's new Full Floater linkage design seems to do everything Trek wants it to do. It feels plush. You don't feel the shock topping out like you did on older Fuel EX models and on some other full suspension bikes. It feels like you are always floating somewhere in the middle of the travel. Now, normally, a bike that feels that plush would feel innefficient, but not this one! The Fuel felt just as light and nimble on the climbs as on the downhills. The rear shock was certainly working on the ascents, but you didn't feel it bobbing around at all. This made for smooth fast climbing (much faster climbing than we expected).

Descending was at least as much fun as climbing. Traction became a non-issue on the new Fuel EX. The bike gripped the ground so tightly, I kept pedaling to get more speed even on relatively steep dowhills. This bike begs to go fast!


The new Madone also seemed to achieve all Trek's goals for overhauling their high end road line. I tested a Madone 5.2 which is made of OCLV Black carbon. Black is the intermediate quality level of OCLV. White is entry level and Red is the high end.

I immediately noticed the bike's rigidity in the bottom bracket area. The bike just felt really solid. I stood up and pushed up a steep hill, and I still couldn't feel the bike flexing. The front of the bike also felt really stable. The new large lower headset cup seems to make a big difference.

I was very happy with the bike overall. It felt smooth, but extremely stable. I suspect that riding a higher end model with OCLV Red carbon would have giving the bike a silkier ride. I also would have preferred a wider handlebar, but that could obviously be switched. (the 54 cm test bike had a 42 cm bar on it)

Trek took some huge steps for 2008. I think they are going to be a much bigger player in the mountain bike scene this year.