February 2016 Blog Posts (6)

The grasshopper races are awesome. Really tough, but a great atmosphere, nice people, beautiful roads, etc..

I thought I had a great bike setup, trek/fisher paragon 29er alum hartail w/ salsa cromoto rigid fork on stans crests w/ 1.9's. And it was, the start climb went well and the descent down Willow was fun until I hit a drainage rut that I didn't see AT ALL and dented my rear wheel and it turns out cracked a rail on my saddle and broke the plastic body in half.

That rattled…

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Here is what I learned: A ride/race with this much pavement is best done on a cross bike. I have one but was not feeling it on the off road down hill( I will come back to this) so I went with a hard tail 29er. With much help and many thanks Jim at Acme set me up with some fast rolling light weight tires and my mountain bike was faster than it has ever been. I lined up with my two friends and teammates Mark I and Mark B ( or Buell when out with both) about mid-pack( 200 +/- deep). A minute or… Continue

50+ miles of mostly road and some dirt, gravel, mud and a river crossing. If I'd actually prepared myself for this event, I would have known about the river crossing before the start. Fortunately, that one detail was not nearly as much of a hold back as the bike I rode. Old Caz, despite it's blazing fast descents on loose trails, is clearly cyclocross territory. Not having one of those half-breed rigs, I joined the ranks of mountain bike riders ready (or not) to endure pavement on heavier…

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Just heard about this race “Old Caz Grasshopper” from Jim a few weeks ago. I was psyched for the race because I knew two buddies doing the race (Mark I, Greg), the website indicated beer at the finish line, and I was riding my bike really well.

As race day approached, I got a decent sinus infection that kept me off the bike for 10 days or so outside of a ride with my little 7-year old Luke. The sinus infection never got too bad and I wondered maybe this will just leave me well rested…

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So I decided to get off my dh kick and try some real racing this year. With A LOT of help from Jim I participated in my first Grasshopper event and mixed racing challenge yesterday. I really had no idea what to expect, as I've never even really ridden on the road, let alone with 400 other people in race mode. Strategy? What strategy? My strategy was to not fail. I must finish.



That being said, I had the time of my life! My morning started as Jim and I did some road warm ups. I…

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This is my first post since last year's Old Caz' 'Hopper.  Team Acme Bikes will be on the race scene this year, with a new team and new energy.  Expect to see race reports after the good local mountain bike races.

It was a beautiful day for the Old Caz' "adventure ride".  Though we have been getting a lot of rain this winter, it was 70 degrees and sunny, with good dirt conditions.  Once again, this early season mixed dirt/pavement ride sold out at 400 people;  the usual mix of…

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