Heres another chance...

New trails are do not make themselves: We are planning another trail building session at Gamehaven on Friday at 6pm.  We meet in the boy scout parking lot and then drive to the build site as the lower path there is very flooded.   We had a good turnout last week and managed to rough clear most of the remaining trail.  This week we will focus on actual trail building.  Please bring a flexible yard rake if you have it.  We use those to basically scrape the organic (leaves, plants, sticks, and bark etc)  off of where the trail surface will be.  The reason for this is that as that organic stuff breaks down it can create soft spots in the soil that our tires tear right through.  So the plan will be to have some people raking ahead of others who are building.   Also please bring water, and work gloves.  If you have an axe those can be useful as well.  If you know anyone else that should be on this mailing list please forward this to them and have them get in touch with me as well. Thanks.   Matthew Kurke

Back to work

So yesterday marked my return to the bike shop as the wife was done with school. One goal this year is to ride more to work instead of thinking of bad excuses as to not or just resorting to laziness. Back at Frostbike I won this Timbuk 2 Medio commuting bag. I figured it was over kill. Day 2 back to work and I am stretching the limits with breakfast, lunch, nalgene, gear to teach Spinning in the morning, gear for the Tuesday night mountain bike hot lap, gear for work, u-lock, etc all stuffed neatly inside. Initially I didn't think it would hold much, but the bag kept expanding as I loaded the thing up. There are a ton of well sized and placed pockets all over this thing and the construction is far better than I would have guessed. Much of the bag seems waterproof and the thick shoulder straps almost feel better with all the weight (odd). I always thought these types of bags were hype, but I got to say this one is worth the price of admission from everything I can tell (for you as I got mine free sucker!).

What's Charly riding?

This, this is what I am riding.  If there is dirt trail, it is with Proto I sail.  Proto is my prototype 186mm rear end frame/fork that has done me so well all winter.  A shout out to 9:ZERO:7 as their framesets and hubs are "da bomb" as the kids say.  You saw my drivetrain set up a few posts down, but that Wolf Tooth chainring still refuses to cause me grief.  For summer I got me some Neon 47mm trials rims to round out the Knard tires (it certainly is noticed and nice).  So far they seem very stiff, built up well, and they "claimed" to be fairly light (I didn't bother weighing them).  I am planning on trying a ghetto tubeless set up, but the lack of bead lock so far has got me doubtful.  I've managed some success so far this year, and I am quite pleased with this set up.

Now, the often asked question is "how much does it weigh?".  Honestly I do not know.  I assume it is under 30 pounds, but I do not know by how much.  Either way, I am fully loving my warm weather riding with proto.

That being said, I have been spending time dreaming of winter adventures....

Sniffle, sniffle. I want more trails to ride in Rochester.

 It is common for those in Rochester to whine about the lack of trails(me included), wishing there was more than Eastwood.  Well, it doesn't happen by magic, but instead by putting boots on the ground.  Here is your opportunity to help.

From Matt Kurke:

I will be coordinating a trailwork session at Gamehaven this Friday evening. I know it’s not the best day for it but it was the only time that worked with my work schedule and didn’t look like rain this week. We will only work for about 2 hours. The work will mostly consist of completely clearing the trail that was rough cut last fall so that the ditch witch can be used in shaping. So we will be pulling out stumps and further clearing overhang and undergrowth. If you have a chain saw and know how to use it please bring it along. Otherwise axe’s and loppers will be the tools to use. I will have some tools with me as well. Meeting in the scout parking lot. Bring gloves and water with as well. Any questions please email me @ kurke.matthew@mayo.edu. If you know anyone interested please pass on this info and have them email me to be added to the contact list. Thanks.

A jem, flem, and when?

So as you may expect, I am inundated with requests by companies to ride their products or simply mention them in a blog post.  There is no way I can sift through all the offers, so that is why I have an agent.  Well, I have been a fan of the 1x10 gearing for awhile, but I have not been fond of the current crop of chain guide systems designed for XC use.  Then I see news of Wolf Tooth and their drop stop chainrings.  "Perfect" I thought, I should call my agent and work out a big sponsorship deal.  Well, before I could find my phone in the stacks of money from other sponsors, it started thumping my "My Humps" ringtone.  On the other end was my agent with the newest crop of anxious potential sponsors.  Lo and behold, Wolftooth was mentioned. 

I ride, my bike gets dirty.

Well, after the deposit of the usual amount to my Swiss bank account I got my chain ring and proceeded to thrash it as best I could to prove it was worthy of the Charly stamp of awesomeness.  I now have several races, plus hours and hours of bashing  including slamming the thing into downed logs as I got my trusty Proto up and over.  I have this to report...nothing.  With my X9 clutch derailleur I cannot get the chain to move off the chain ring unintentionally.  The product just plain works.  After many frustrating moments with my MRP and other systems, I am super happy that I cannot not only ride with confidence in my drive train, but I can now remodel my guest house with the checks that are now rolling in.  So, if you want a 1x system without shelling out the Sram XX1 costs, I highly recommend taking your business to Wolf Tooth.  Also, I am excited for their future products that are to come out, but we'll have to wait for those....


This last 10 days I have been extruding gallons of glop out of my nose and lungs.  I think I am dealing with allergies, and some days are definitely worse than others.  No matter, my rides have suffered.


Also, is it premature for me to hope that my name will be added to this list?  I mean, can I expect people to already be dropping out so that I am no longer wait listed?

Buck Hill #3

So I had fun this weekend on Proto (my super sweet prototype 9:ZERO:7 186 bike).  A...lot...of...fun.  Well, like a college frat boy downing beer bongs, I too had a wicked hangover.  Monday and Tuesday I woke up with an incredibly sore and swollen throat.  My body ached, I was exhausted, and had huge nasal pressure.  All thanks to a big hit from my allergies.  Wednesday was a bit better, and with Penn begging for more fat racers in the fat race I thought IF I were to head to Buck I would join the 3 lap fatties, not the 4 lap advanced.  My only disappointment would be knowing I wouldn't get my chance at Larry.  Well, just my luck he brought it to the fat race as well and it was game on. 

I'll tell you, the 20ish person start we had was SOOOOOO much nicer than the huge mess of the advanced start.  I led out and couldn't help but notice the 20 person line waiting to get in the singletrack STANDING at the top of the switchback climb as we hit the bottom.  The line cleared out just in time for us to start the process of picking through the back end of the advanced field that started 2 minutes ahead of us.  Hitting the the singletrack it was me in first, some advanced rider, and then Larry.  Not wanting to take advantage of the rider between us, I didn't try to move up until Larry got right on my wheel, then we started passing riders in the singletrack as they moved over to let us by.  At some point I heard some tangling behind me and realized Larry had some trouble.  Finished out the lap with Larry 10 seconds or so back.  After that it was a quagmire of riders that I would do my best to beat up the climb, coerce to let me by in the singletrack, and sprint by on the hill traverses.  I never saw Larry again, I rolled in for first, collecting beer vouchers in the process.  FYI, my breathing was not perfect, but quite a bit better.

And yes, I did go out for a 4th lap.   I did not race it as I was not racing, but I did keep pace with those around me.  The oddest thing was dabbing slightly in a corner towards the end and having my upper calf completely lock up for 10 seconds.  My calf is in a decent amount of pain still, I limp everywhere I go.  Such an odd thing to happen as I have not cramped since last year, much less in such a short race.

After the finish I think there is a new Tri Family tradition.  I roll through the parking lot cooling down with Abi my 4 year old on her Strider next to me, and me holding Seely in one arm.

Abi crushing it right at the start.  There were maybe 10 kids total, most out of view.

Abi would then go on to DOMINATE her kid's heat once again, finishing with second place out of view.  Brendan was a no show this week.  Probably because we had $5 riding on last weeks kid's race and my daughter whooped on his.  Will he hide from me all year trying to avoid paying me my money???

Day 2

Danky dank, explore logging road, rock lake, patsy lake, namekagon, rock lake, pavement back. Almost another 4 hours of Northwoods flow and chunk with just me and Proto.

Anti Epic

Hatchery Creek, Makwa, Seely Pass, New "Flow Trail", most of Ojibwe, pavement and dirt road home. Basically the Borah "epic" course plus more singletrack and road, BUT I did not pay $85 for the privilege. Seriously, $85 for a new 35 mile race? 35 miles is now epic? So confused.

Proto and I in a 4+ hour love fest.

Buck Hill #2

So far this year I have had real problems with my asthma twice, both at Buck.  Last week was about the worst I felt in a long, long time.  Our little Tuesday night hot lap had me feeling strong as I put in a time close to what I can do on a regular mountain bike, but with a tired body and fat wheels.  Buck time I got me a solid 90 second warm up.  My start was far from good, but better than last week.  I did almost get taken out by a few riders not accounting for the lead out terrain. By the top of the first switchbacks I was heavily gasping for air as my lungs tightened up and I went backwards.  I roughly maintained that position while gasping the first few laps and wishing in front of the wheels I had to follow in the singletrack.  It wasn't until lap 4 I could breath and off I went.  Last week I lost close to 2 minutes on the last lap as I suffered, this week I put a minute in to the closest rider on the 4th lap. Gun Show, give me at least 2 laps of proper breathing and you'll see what you saw in the Sandwich.  Yes, I used an emoticon.  Yes, Lance says grown men shouldn't use them.  However, I have 2 full sized testicles after years of drug free racing and Lance has one shrunken one.

Size matters?

Mtb, fat, and "holy crap" sized hubs. Building my second set of wheels with 9:zero:7 hubs. Bearing and freehub quality are second to none; highly recommend. Bearings spin for days (much better than the average high end hub) and have held up superbly. Freehub internals are much larger than average plus the pawl's give off that "not gonna bust me" loud clack/clack/clack. Tough, light, smoooooth.