A look at Grease Monkey Wipes

Grease Monkey Wipes are single-use individually packaged moist degreasing wipes that actually work! The idea for the wipes came about because of a flat tire on a long road ride and the resulting greasy hands (well known to anyone who rides a bike) and have come to be the best (and only) all-natural portable wipe for anyone who gets dirty (and doesn't want to stay that way).
Personally, I have really enjoyed my Grease Monkey Wipes. They are convenient, easy to carry and they really work. I have found that even if I am in close proximity to a sink and soap (which I rarely am), a Grease Monkey Wipe actually works better to remove grease and bike gunk from my hands. So, not only are they great on the trail, but also if you do any kind of wrenching or tinkering on your own bike.
Here's an example of how well they remove road gunk (I know that's what the black stuff was because I had just changed a tire on my road bike). They work just as well on grease!

Pre Grease Monkey Wipe

Post Grease Monkey Wipe

Best ways to use them:

• Keep in your saddle bag or hydration pack for post-emergency trailside maintenance
• Keep in your toolbox to use after tinkering with your bike
• Keep in your car in case you have to change a car tire
• Keep in your purse/backpack in case you need to clean your hands and don't have a bathroom or instant hand sanitizer around (I never do)
• Use them as a chain degreaser - it actually works!

Finally, the thing that really seals the deal for me is how they smell. It's just like wiping an orange all over your hands. My only suggestion is to resist the temptation to walk around with your fingers in your nose. Most people don't realize what you're doing and you get some weird looks...

The First Yeti Build

Yesterday at 2:30 in the afternoon I pulled into 600 Corporate Circle, Golden, CO 80401 - the home of Yeti Cycles. After speaking with Bubba for a few moments I spent the next couple of minutes ogling the history of Yeti Cycles hanging in the lobby. Yeti has always made amazing bikes and in my opinion always will from their Downhill rock eaters to their stiff and compliant aluminum hard tails.

My new Yeti A.R.C. frame was handed off and I booked it back to Longmont for a headset install and then home for an afternoon of building. But first I weighed it with our sweet scale from Feedback Sports, a slight 3.76 lbs. This is not quite the uber light carbon fiber hard tail that many cross country racers ride, however, I have gone that route and have found that maybe it isn't the best.

Here are some pics from the build process:

Here is the weight with headset of the frame I replaced with the A.R.C.
And now the A.R.C. weight!Checkout the amazing attention to detail with a stamped Yeti on the replaceable derailleur hanger!


Though the weight is not quite what many racers are riding or even close to what I started my season out on, however, with some new components (handlebars, crankset, brakes, cassette) I can easily have it down to 21 or 22. Just need some time.

I still have not been able to set up my new set of Power Cordz as I am waiting for my trusted teammate to give me a hand on this process, since he has had experience doing it on his bike. Stay tuned for a ride report and race report as I break in this turquoise and white beauty.

Winter Park Series Race #3 Report

Yesterday was my second adventure at the low key and super fun Winter Park Race Series for this season. Like 2 weeks ago a few big names decided to show up and show us where it's at with Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski blasting to the win 2 minutes ahead of Michael Broderick. Those guys were cruising!

My race went amazingly well and I was surprised at the legs I had, especially during the first hour. The whole race I was blasting up the climbs and attacking riders on their dual suspensions as they bobbed up the mountains. The legs were light and all they wanted to do was rocket, it was working perfectly.

About half way through the race there is this amazingly fast fire road descent that is super sketchy, with monster jumps and one corner that is rutted out from rain water and four wheel drive vehicles coming up in the wet and muddy conditions. I took a huge digger on this corner and lost my position in a solid and strong group that would have carried me to finish inside the top 30.

After regrouping I was back on and hammering forward. Surprisingly my confidence wasn't shaken but sitting in no man's land I was having trouble pushing as hard as I needed to. Fortunately someone came around me and after a minute of riding his pace I got tired of it and just blasted by him on the next semi sustained climb (my playground). This continued for the remainder of the race. If the trail went up I was flying climbing many climbs in my big ring and attacking out of the saddle. I have honestly never felt so strong on my bike.

Unfortunately with my rear tire a little low from semi-burping it during my first crash I had to take it easy during the technical descents so as not to blow it off the rim. Every time I felt the rim hit I cringed. But I was able to ride smooth and not lose too much time on the best singletrack of the race.

Popped out of the bottom attacked up the next climb and just kept hammering. From the 1 hour 30 mark all the way until the finish at 1 hour 50 I rode my big ring no matter what it looked like. I felt like I was riding possessed! And then, I crashed again. Unfortunately I couldn't get up as fast this time as my right leg cramped up and I spent 2 minutes laying on the ground just trying stand up. It was brutal.

Back on the bike and a minute of spinning and I was back to being possessed. Ripping past people and making on final move to finish 44th out of 55 riders only 20 minutes down.

Maybe not my best race on paper, but based on how I was feeling and riding I know I could have been close to 15 places higher and almost 5 minutes faster without the crashes.

One thing that I was exceptionally impressed with this weekend was how awesome wide riser bars are for control and for climbing. For the past 2 years I have been a narrow flat bar rider with a 1 inch drop from saddle to bars. After some thought on my strengths and weaknesses as a rider I convinced myself that some wide riser bars were the way to go. Just this week I put on a set of Easton low rise bars that are 685 mm wide. They are awesome! Sweet leverage when climbing, lungs are held open for comfortable breathing, and so much better for cornering. I think I am a convert and will be riding the wide riser bars even on my race hard tail.

A good solid weekend of training and now to rest up for Nationals. That race is going to be brutal, but fortunately suits me with it's alpine course nature (long climb, long descent, rinse repeat).

Look for a build report of my Yeti A.R.C. in the coming days. I will be picking the frame up at the Yeti Factory in Golden early this week and then spending time to get it dialed for awesomeness at Sol Vista Ski Basin.

Squirt Lube Skinsuits

We received skinsuits from Squirt Lube a while ago (just after Crested Butte). I'd never worn a skinsuit, so I had to try it on and take some pictures. What do you think? They're pretty sweet, huh?????


We've also been working on our OWN kits! Finally. They should be pretty sweet, but I don't want to give away too many details because we want to surprise everyone when we finally get to wear them. Many thanks to Dave Griebling (our Rooly guy) and Pioneer S&M for helping us get the kits going and for having such a good turn-around time (just over 2 weeks).
That's all for now, just getting ready for National Championships so I can get my auto-qualification for World Championships. Wish me luck!

Yeti

We're proud to introduce our newest sponsor: Yeti Cycles!
We are planning to get our frames soon, so look for us to be riding the Yeti ARC in the very near future.

If you've never checked out Yeti's bikes, give then a good look. They have some really cool technologies (notice the rear triangle of the ARC above) and you can't help but ogle the Carbon ASR (check out the integrated seat post).
More updates soon!

BigAir, Squirt lube, and a little rain

This past Saturday was Mt. Crested Butte's annual mountain bike race, the Wildflower Rush. In my seven years of racing, I have raced it 5 times (the only one I've raced more is the Angel Fire Chile Challenge, which I have raced EVERY single year, for a total of 7). Back in 2004, this was the race that my coaches guessed would get me hooked, or get me to quit mountain bike racing. As you may have noticed, it got me hooked.
I raced it as my second ever mountain bike race, and I had just moved from Junior Beginner to Junior Expert (there was no Junior Sport at the time). For those of you who have raced this race in years past, you probably remember the course: 10 miles with 1800 or so feet of climbing per lap. And I had to ride 3 laps (the same number of laps I later rode as a Pro). And I had barely ridden and had only raced one other race. I survived it. That's about all I can say. That, and that I finished 3rd, only because I was one of the few racers who didn't quit.

The race start

Now that you know my history with this race, let me tell you a bit about this year's race. First of all, they completely changed the course. And I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Of the new 7.5 mile course, only 0.5 miles were the same as the old course, and quite a bit of it was brand-new singletrack. As much as I enjoy new singletrack, it is important to note that it is rarely smooth. It takes hundreds of riders riding it for it to get buffed out and I could very easily tell that hundreds of riders HAD NOT ridden it yet. Fortunately, the Cat 1s, 2s, and 3s all raced before the Pros, so they smoothed it out quite nicely for us.
The race started off fast. I was able to get myself a front row start (finally) so I was in the mix right from the gun. After about 10 minutes, I had moved into 2nd place behind Andy Schultz, and was jockeying for position with Cameron Brenneman. When we hit the descent, I was able to put some time on Cameron, but then I hit a rock and partially rolled my front tire. Luckily, it had not punctured, so I was able to pull it back onto the wheel and inflate it with a BigAir, but I lost 3 places in the process. I caught back up to the guys who had passed me, but had to stop at the tech zone to get a now CO2 (I thought that I had used most of the BigAir) and to close my valve (I had forgotten to in the frenzy of re-inflating my tire). At that point, I was starting my 2nd lap of 3 and was in 5th place.
I remember very little of the 2nd lap except that it started raining and I was able to catch up to a few of the guys ahead of me on the muddy descent. As we started our last lap, I had moved up 2 spots (into 3rd) and was in a group with Jay Henry, Travis (not sure of his last name), and Cameron Brenneman, working to catch Andy Schultz, the race leader.
Jay Henry passed me part way through the third lap and put a bit of a gap on me, but once we hit the descent, I was able to catch him, and together we caught Andy.
The rest of the descent reminded me more of a cyclocross race than a mountain bike race. The descent was so muddy that all three of us had to run with our bikes on certain sections and ended up completely coated in mud. Fortunately, my Squirt lube held up beautifully in the inclement weather and my shifting stayed for the whole race.

Post-race mud (and COLD)

As we neared the bottom, Andy was able to put a slight gap on Jay Henry and myself, and I realized that I would be fighting Jay for 2nd place. As we popped out of the singletrack onto the final dirt road climb to the finish, Jay went to clip back in (he'd been using his foot for stability on the muddy singletrack) and missed his pedal. I was able to take advantage of his minor slip up and attacked with 100 feet to the finish and beat him in the sprint! It was a great finish to a miserably fun race.

Poor bike!

Post-race shower

The Many Different Applications of Squirt Lube

Since our trip out to Sea Otter I have been hooked on Squirt Lube. For the western dry conditions I live in it is amazing. Handles the dust amazingly well, deals with water from snow melt on the trails well, and man is a quite chain wonderful. I have also absolutely noticed the difference between my chain dry and my chain with a fresh coating of Squirt Lube in shifting performance.

But it has always seemed to me that a chain lube or bicycle lube ought to be multi-functional. In the past I have been a proud supporter of Pro Link due to it's consistent lubrication, great use in deseizing various parts of a bicycle, as well as a good use when trying to get the most mileage out of one's shifting.

My teammate, Macky, has already shown his views on Squirt here: http://uncoiled.blogspot.com/2008/12/squirt-lube-lube-of-legends.html and in so doing presented a second good use for the product.

Just this week I found a 3rd use beyond the typical chain and quick release applications. In your derailleur housing. This is a common trick for many chain lubes when your housing tends to get a little sticky and often makes the shifting performance feel better, but still not as good as say brand new cables and housing. Well after my wet and slightly, but not particularly, muddy ride this past weekend I lost my rear shifting. The derailleur was not seized, it was quite happy to move freely, but the cable was getting stuck in the last section of housing before the derailleur. I proceeded to take the cable out and carefully inject Squirt into the housing, hoping it would at least lubricate the system somewhat. This took a lot of care due to Squirt's thickness, but after some finesse (one drop at a time and then softly blowing air into the housing ends) I was able to get this done. Then I headed out for my ride.

I have often used tricks like this to save the life of my cables and housing and most of the time I would say it feels good but not great afterwards, doesn't have that same feel you really are looking for. Well the wax based formula of Squirt gives it that feel. In fact prior to resetting my cables I felt the resistance difference between the final piece of housing and the first piece of housing and man was the final piece (where I placed Squirt) smoother.

Since then I have put in roughly 15 hours on the bike and my shifting has felt great the whole time. Smooth and seamless.

This weekend is a huge training weekend with 7 hours of saddle time 4+ of which will be on a grand expedition from the Rock Creek Trail head of the Colorado Trail all the way to Breckenridge, so check back for the forthcoming reports.

How to use ActionWipes

If you haven't heard of ActionWipes, you're missing out. According to the ActionWipes website, ActionWipes are "Natural, full body wet wipes for rinse free bathing". And they work amazingly. I began using ActionWipes about 2 months ago and now I am not sure how I got along without them. Unless every single ride you take finishes at your house, you'll love ActionWipes. Instead of having to sit and stew in your post-ride filth until you get a shower, you can wipe yourself off and run some errands. They smell nice, they don't leave a sticky residue, they're all natural, and they help prevent saddle sores.
Okay, that's all I'm going to say to try to convince you. Instead, I'm going to show you HOW to use ActionWipes:

1. Go ride your bike and got good and dirty. This is me after the 2009 Sea Otter Classic XC race.
   
   


2. Wipe off your face. Really well. (Don't forget your lips).
   
   


3. Turn your ActionWipe over.


4. Wipe off your bum (this helps prevent saddle sores).
   
   


5. Get another ActionWipe.


6. Wipe off your arms (including your armpits).
   
   


7. Turn your ActionWipe over.


8. Wipe off your legs.
   
   


9. Throw your ActionWipe in the laundry, wash it, and then REUSE it (stay tuned for ideas of how to reuse your ActionWipes).