Gamehaven Trailwork Friday 6/28 6 pm

After last weeks rain out we will hopefully be back on track and at least slightly dried out for this Friday.   Same deal as the other weeks, we will meet in the cub scout parking lot off of CR 1.  I will have most of the tools with me, but bring a plastic yard rake if you have it, work gloves, and water.  It's also a good idea to have pants, long sleeves, and bug spray as we've found out the last few times.  We will be leaving the parking lot promptly at 6pm so get there a few minutes early.  Similar to last time we will be focusing on building actual trail as opposed to just clearing.  Any questions let me know.  And please pass this note on to anyone interested.  Thanks.

 

Matt Kurke

 

kurke.matthew@mayo.edu

Chequamegon 100 cancelled.

From Tim Krueger Race Director:

Lots of questions coming in, there has been over 3 inches of rain in 24 hours, and we have decided to cancel the race. We will still be doing a 50 mile gentleman's ride on the less impacted trails, still finishing with a great party at The Rivers Eatery. The full event will be rescheduled for a time TBD in September. Feel free to still come up and join us! Thanks! Tim, Joe and Ben.

Uff.

Wife convinced me to hit Buck last night as I was on the fence.  I've won the last 3 fat races there.  Go to bed late, family wakes up really early to thunder.  Good thing I wouldn't be riding my bike for 100 miles tomorrow on Chequamegon's awesome but tough trails as I sleep has already been in short supply this week.  Wait...oh crap.  Maybe I can go to bed really early.

Looks like we may get wet.  Fun times!

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?