The Heckle Report

This is a good post.

I love the pageantry of anything. Now, I am not going to ride/race/watch the 24 Hours of Lemons race but I think the prep & execution is admirable. I have recently realized a breaking point with cross, specifically the tire sidewall glue issue. But I still want my cross bike to look & work almost perfectly going into the season. If it rains for Nittany the bike will be a shit pile all year, until I find it at some point mid-winter with the cranks and headset completely seized. Once the season starts the pageantry stops a bit and you just smash shit. I think that is/was what attracted me to cross in the first place. Show up, smash shit, drink beers. I want to get back to that.

We're going to have a tent spot and the tent for Granogue. I invite you to share in that. Not sure who will be there but D and I along with Robin/Lance will be down there. I think we may stay down there and hit White Clay on Monday with mountain bikes if you want to join in that too.
 
Norm said:
We're going to have a tent spot and the tent for Granogue. I invite you to share in that. Not sure who will be there but D and I along with Robin/Lance will be down there.
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I haven't reg'd yet, but I'm 90% in for this as well.


That thing is coming!!!!!!
 
Norm said:
This is a good post.

I love the pageantry of anything. Now, I am not going to ride/race/watch the 24 Hours of Lemons race but I think the prep & execution is admirable. I have recently realized a breaking point with cross, specifically the tire sidewall glue issue. But I still want my cross bike to look & work almost perfectly going into the season. If it rains for Nittany the bike will be a shit pile all year, until I find it at some point mid-winter with the cranks and headset completely seized. Once the season starts the pageantry stops a bit and you just smash shit. I think that is/was what attracted me to cross in the first place. Show up, smash shit, drink beers. I want to get back to that.

We're going to have a tent spot and the tent for Granogue. I invite you to share in that. Not sure who will be there but D and I along with Robin/Lance will be down there. I think we may stay down there and hit White Clay on Monday with mountain bikes if you want to join in that too.
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I'm planning on racing and making it a long weekend with maybe some camping somewhere or something with the lady. SO I am hoping to join the tent come race day, thank you for the invitation.

As for glue on sidewalls - I ride disk and dont tape my rims and get a little glue on them and it doesn't matter. If I get glue on my rotors i'm in big trouble. I actually glued my carbon wheels really badly last year, pulled them off and gave them to my buddy to do. He basically just pulled the tire back and stuffed more glue in where it didn't adhere and they held up fine. If you look at my front wheel there is a lot of glue on the side walls from two "throw glue at it" attempts. Whatever. Looks fine from 15 feet.

I usually try and pay attention to the details but it's a race machine. You mentioned smash shit mode, for that reason I love steel frames, english threaded bbs, mechanical discs and cheap carbon rims. All of that crap are service points. Chances are I will never mount my Wraith and snap it in 4 places (@soulchild), if I do I had too many bagels and zucchini bread at the office and need to be put out of my misery. The rest is serviceable with basic tools. I do wish disc pads were half the cost.

I'm guilty of being lazy with my bikes post race and do about the minimum required maintenance between races. Mud days are usually the full tear down days. I'm lucky to have access to a degreaser setup when everything goes to hell.

It's tough to plan for maintenance with riding and trying to do non cycling stuff.

And since you asked its 1.5 bagels and 3.5 pieces of Zucchini bread today.
 
The Heckler said:
I'm planning on racing and making it a long weekend with maybe some camping somewhere or something with the lady. SO I am hoping to join the tent come race day, thank you for the invitation.

As for glue on sidewalls - I ride disk and dont tape my rims and get a little glue on them and it doesn't matter. If I get glue on my rotors i'm in big trouble. I actually glued my carbon wheels really badly last year, pulled them off and gave them to my buddy to do. He basically just pulled the tire back and stuffed more glue in where it didn't adhere and they held up fine. If you look at my front wheel there is a lot of glue on the side walls from two "throw glue at it" attempts. Whatever. Looks fine from 15 feet.

I usually try and pay attention to the details but it's a race machine. You mentioned smash shit mode, for that reason I love steel frames, english threaded bbs, mechanical discs and cheap carbon rims. All of that crap are service points. Chances are I will never mount my Wraith and snap it in 4 places (@soulchild), if I do I had too many bagels and zucchini bread at the office and need to be put out of my misery. The rest is serviceable with basic tools. I do wish disc pads were half the cost.

I'm guilty of being lazy with my bikes post race and do about the minimum required maintenance between races. Mud days are usually the full tear down days. I'm lucky to have access to a degreaser setup when everything goes to hell.

It's tough to plan for maintenance with riding and trying to do non cycling stuff.

And since you asked its 1.5 bagels and 3.5 pieces of Zucchini bread today.
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ever eat sautéed red onion and zucchini with scrambled eggs? omgerrrd
 
The Heckler said:
Hopefully the lightning holds off today, I'm looking forward to my first skillz sesh of the year. @MadisonDan who I'm voting for as leading the CX stoke competition this year has a great work out lined up. Dan is followed closely by @Mountain Bike Mike holding a solid second place in the stoke competition. Also honorable mention to @Delish and I don't know if I'm allowed to vote for myself but I think I'm in the mixes somewhere.
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Could be my only leading position of the season! 😀

Super stoked for this year for several reasons.... Last year went INTO the season with a slightly torn meniscus. Had it scoped right after Supercross, so that's all fixed. Coming into this year in better shape too, it's amazing what dropping 13 pounds will do for you on the bike. 'specially the hills. Moved to Cat 4, so I got that goin for me, which is nice, although I could be stuck here forever. Lastly, adding in two BIG road trips this year. All my non-CX family/friends think I'm nuts (it's possible). Gloucester and Providence are on the calendar for me & teammate/friend Harry. Registered, hotels booked, cleared with wife (at least until it's time to pack and leave), and the two Friday's off work. The rest of the season will be the remaining NJ races, HPCX, and Supercross. I may throw in Limestone also, since last time I was there two years ago there were 6 inches of snow on the ground. Seemed like it could be a sweet race. That's it.
 
Flaubert said:
ever eat sautéed red onion and zucchini with scrambled eggs? omgerrrd
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not the zucchini part. The zuke has to make that pretty watery, no?
MadisonDan said:
Registered, hotels booked, cleared with wife (at least until it's time to pack and leave), and the two Friday's off work.
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Try and get up to Providence earlyish on Friday. The SS race is super fun to watch and you are allowed to pre-ride the course early in the day! Also, the builder's ball is really cool. They had a bike valet last year so we all just rode over from across the park. Food trucks so you can eat there.
 
The Heckler said:
not the zucchini part. The zuke has to make that pretty watery, no?


Try and get up to Providence earlyish on Friday. The SS race is super fun to watch and you are allowed to pre-ride the course early in the day! Also, the builder's ball is really cool. They had a bike valet last year so we all just rode over from across the park. Food trucks so you can eat there.
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not as bad as you think. key is not to overcook the zooks
 
The Heckler said:
Try and get up to Providence earlyish on Friday. The SS race is super fun to watch and you are allowed to pre-ride the course early in the day! Also, the builder's ball is really cool. They had a bike valet last year so we all just rode over from across the park. Food trucks so you can eat there.
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As long as Harry is good to go, we'll leave in the morning to get there in time for the festivities. Course opens at 2 for preview laps. Shouldn't be a problem.
 
The Stoke. Good post @The Heckler

The season resonates with me for me exactly for the reasons it does not with others, the build-up especially. Prepping bikes, wheels, backups is a real time consuming pain in the ass, especially when you have to do it 2x times for 2x racers, but at this point it's ritual and I love it. Call it Mastik Stockholm Syndrome. The details of bike and tire preparation along with technique and other crap matter great deal and because these details matter it gives us an excuse to obsess over them.

@Norm Show up and smash all the shit you want but luck favors the prepared. You still fretting over glue on the sidewalls? What are you using to clean them, baby wipes?
 
man, i dont feel ready. i still need to find the carbon brake pads lou gave me.

I have one more tire to glue up to complete 4 wheelsets. think tomorrow im going to test the first set of wheelzzzz

im also thinking of granogue as the dress rehearsal, but curious what starting 60th would actual do for me 😛
 
pearl said:
man, i dont feel ready. i still need to find the carbon brake pads lou gave me.

I have one more tire to glue up to complete 4 wheelsets. think tomorrow im going to test the first set of wheelzzzz

im also thinking of granogue as the dress rehearsal, but curious what starting 60th would actual do for me 😛
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Wtf do you have 4 wheelsets for?
 
Granogue is on my birthday so I expect gifts. I'm going to be vacationing that entire week prior eating canadian disco fries so I'm sure that race is going to suck.

Anyone figure out best options for places to stay?
 
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