20th Century

I busted out my 20th century for the year today. 

It was a Stony Creek, Addison, and Lakeshore Park loop today. 

The "SCALP".

My 2009 miles to date: 9164
My 2009 ride time to date: 639 hours 22 min

Another great day for a long ride. Capac ended up my turn around point today. Capac, it's a palindrome!

My 2009 miles to date: 9059
My 2009 ride time to date: 632 hours 44 min

Pontiac-Highland-Holdridge

Finished up the 4th of July holiday weekend with a great multi-trail ride. Pontiac, Highland, and Holdridge. :-)

My 2009 miles to date: 8772
My 2009 ride time to date: 614 hours 59 min

The Dirty Thirty

I rode Jeff Weinert's dirty 30 ride today. It was a nice ride and another good mileage day for me. Stopped at 107.

SUPER DEATH LOOP

I survived Simonster's Super Death Loop today and arrived home with 150 miles on the day. Whoa.

I busted out a nice solo hundo today. Explored some "new to me" sections of the polly ann trail up past Dryden and ended up as far north as I-69. That section of the trail up there is pretty rough. More like weed covered rocks than a trail.

Stony Marathon

It was a great race!! After I went for a nice cool down ride with Cullen to finish up the day with 103 miles. Perfect!!

My 2009 miles to date: 8203
My 2009 ride time to date: 577 hours 37 min

Lumberjack 100

That was interesting. First couple miles of the race went perfect and I was positioned in the top 15 as we hit the dirt, but then my seat-post clamp broke into pieces. I turned around and started back to the parking lot. Just happened to have a spare post in the car. It was pretty hilarious to be riding against traffic just after the start of the big mass-start hundo. Got a lot of sympathy from the racers when they saw me riding, saddle in hand, just 2.5 miles in. After a pretty quick seat-post and saddle swap I was off again. I’d lost some time, but so much worse was the 260 places. The first lap was ridiculous as I worked my way past about 231 riders, riding through the ferns off line and hoping I’d not crash into one of those hidden stumps that got me and busted my collarbone at the first lumberjack. I’d given up hope of a result and was feeling a bit grumpy during that first 25 mile lap. But knowing there was chip timing this year and lap times would be posted, I’d try and post a solid final 75 miles just to compare with my friend’s times. Long story short, the final 75 miles were really fun and I was simply amazed to end up top 10 on the day. As for my plan to compare lap times after the race, my final 75 miles placed 7th best in men’s open and my last lap was 5th best.

Special thanks to the hospitality and race support of Team O'Dea/Simonster. Thanks guys for an awesome weekend!!

Ruby....

Another awesome day for racing our bikes. After the race I rode over to Lakeport and back to give the superfly it's first view of the big lake. :-)

My 2009 miles to date: 7670
My 2009 ride time to date: 541 hours 32 min

Another great day of riding around on our bikes.

My 2009 miles to date: 7400
My 2009 ride time to date: 522 hours 16 min

4+4=101

Clikeman, Kuhncapie, Finkelstein, and me.
Bloomer, Stony, Addison, and Bald Mt.
4 guys + 4 trials = 101 miles.  :-)

My 2009 miles to date: 7317
My 2009 ride time to date: 516 hours 47 min

Brighton Stage Race (Day 2)

What a perfect day!! The Brighton XC was awesome! I decided to ride the Fuel EX again. I started out sluggish, but felt better each lap and was happy with my second half speed. The rest of the guys had great races, and Amanda picked up the women's Pro/Cat 1 win!!! After the race I busted out some nice month end miles. Finished up the day with 86, the month with 1452, and that brings my 2009 miles up to 7007. Oh yeah, it's a palindrome.

Brighton Stage Race (Day 1)

Ended up riding the Fuel EX for the torn shirt time trial today and I'm glad I did. I have really been loving the Superfly but when the trial gets twisty, like torn shirt, the Superfly wants to fly into the woods. It's not me, it's the bike.

Memorial Day Ride

The Dolppinator, The Clikeman and I did our First Annual Brighton/Island Lake Memorial Day Ride today. It was a perfect day!!

2009 miles to date: 6734
2009 ride time to date: 478 hours 30 min

Bloomer Park XC

It was really, really, fun until my freewheel imploded. After that it was just plain fun.

Conspicuous Consumption

Robby needed a new pair of shoes.

Another unexpected weekend off from racing with both Addison and Bloomer cancelled, and though the trails were muddy, the dirt roads were dialed, so I rode 100 miles yesterday and another 100 miles today! :-)

6000 mile ride

I crossed the 6000 mile mark for 2009 today while riding Cullen. :-)
It was the best ride ever...

0 hours of Addison

It was a bummer that the weather didn't cooperate for the Addison 12 hour. After we got the word on Addison, Bill, Tim, and I decided to go to the big bike demo at Island Lake. It was sunny and beautiful when we got to the demo so we jumped on our bikes and hit the trail, but the rain came and ended our day there too... Bah!

Bill and I met up with the Simonster for a day of debauchery on the dirt roads of north Oakland county. I rolled into my driveway with 116 miles. It's coma time!!!

2009 miles to date: 5694
2009 ride time to date: 409 hours 14 min

PLRA TT

We had fun playing in the mud today!!! :-)

Take a Kid Mountain Biking

Alex, Bill, and I volunteered to help out at the MMBA's "Take a Kid Mountain Biking" event at Lakeshore today. Weather was perfect, well, until the storm front blew through.

I Quadrupled My 2009 Miles Today

Seriously!! Well, my trail ride miles anyway. I started the day with 10 and finished with 40. :-) Some fun hot laps at the PLRA with the Clikman, Freedinger, and Kuhncapi. Sunny and 77 degrees!! Could winter finally be over?? I rode my Superfly and my Fuel EX today, not at the same time. I fully expected the Fuel EX would be the bike for me at Pontiac, but surprise, surprise, I think I might race the Superfly at Pontiac. I lowered the tire pressure down to 20psi and that made the bike handle and feel great. Who'd a thunk it?

5000 Mile Ride

I crossed the 5000 mile mark for the year, tonight on a nice little ride with the Clikeman.

My bike statistics at the end of the day.
Total Miles: 5025
Total Time: 363 hours 0 min
Average Miles per day: 47.86
Average Time per day: 3:27:26
Days Ridden: 105 of 105

Whoa.

Wet and Cold

39 degrees and rain tonight. Yuck!!

Miles, Miles, Miles..

I set a new personal record today. 1748 miles in a 31 day period. Of course all the miles were knobby tire miles. :-)

The Superfly has been doing most of the work lately. I have had the bike for three weeks and it's already knocked out 1150 miles and has not been cleaned off once. 

2009 miles to date: 4957
2009 ride time to date: 358 hours 19 min

A Plethora of Climbing...

Another awesome day of riding! I met up with the Simonster for some serious climbing on the Monster Midget loop. Took the long way home and finished up the day with 115 miles. Nice!

2009 miles to date: 4848
2009 ride time to date: 350 hours 47 min

Good Friday

My first trail ride of the year today!! It had been over 5 months since I last rode on a trail. It's still fun!!! 

Hot Rod

Meredith popped into town for the weekend so we got the old gang back together for this perfect day..

2009 miles to date: 4113
2009 ride time to date: 302 hours 31 min

Super Fly

Added a new bike to the stable yesterday... On just the Superfly's second ride it got worked pretty hard, following the Simonster around for the day.. The pace was serious... Rolled in to my driveway with 106 miles... Noice!!!

2009 miles to date: 3747
2009 ride time to date: 278 hours 22 min

Winter, Day 90 of 90

I did it!! I rode every day this winter (December 21 thru March 20). Totaled 4004 miles in 299 hours and 44 min. That's 44.5 miles & 3:20 per day on average. Wow!!

Rainy weekend...

Not a very good weekend for riding my bike. I managed 2:03 today. Got caught in a soaking rain. Uhg! So far this year, 2 hours, is my self-imposed minimum, ride-time per-day. It's days like this that 2 hours seems like a lot. The graph below documents my ride-time per-day for the year so far. Just 2 weeks of Winter left till Spring is here!!! :-)

2009 miles to date: 2992
2009 ride time to date: 227 hours 42 min

Winter, Day 68 of 90

40 degrees and rain tonight and it really wasn't that bad. I think I have finally got the rain gear figured out.

2009 miles to date: 2552
2009 ride time to date: 196 hours 9 min

Winter, Day 63 of 90

Yes it's still winter kids... Recent mild weather even had me dreaming of spring but... well... the snow looks pretty anyway...

2009 miles to date: 2343
2009 ride time to date: 180 hours 16 min

Winter, Day 50 of 90

Simonster invited a few of the guys out for a nice ride in the country. As much as I ride and as well as I know area roads it's not often I end up somewhere I've never ridden. I love that feeling of not knowing where I am. It's kinda like a mini vacation. Simonster had promised a 90 mile loop from our designated meeting spot. I knew I was going to ride 32 miles to and from that spot. When I rolled into my driveway and came to a stop the 122 mile mark clicked over. 90 + 32 = 122. Mike had planned the ride out to the 100th of a mile!!!

2009 miles to date: 1761
2009 ride time to date: 136 hours 8 min

Winter, Day 46 of 90

Yep!!! Winter is better than half over, Kids!!! Still no problems encountered for me in reaching my goal of riding "outside" every day this winter. I have averaged 3:12 a day over the past 46 days and 4 hours a day if you count getting dressed and undressed for riding in these conditions. :-)

2009 miles to date: 1503
2009 ride time to date: 119 hours 19 min

Winter, Day 40 of 90

Major heat wave tonight! It was in the upper 20s. Seriously, that felt warm. Last night it was in the upper teens and we were all laughing that we remembered when 18 degrees seemed really cold. It's amazing how the body acclimates.

Well, winter is nearing the half way point and historical average temps are already on the rise. Yay!!

2009 miles to date: 1207
2009 ride time to date: 96 hours 53 min

Winter, Day 33 of 90

Wow. My daily ride time average is at 3:19 so far for 2009. It's taken some late nights on the bike. Seems like I'm getting home at about 10 PM every night now. I'm so sleepy...

2009 miles to date: 904
2009 ride time to date: 72 hours 58 min

Winter, Day 29 of 90

Bah!!  Some more bike wrestling and white knuckle riding this weekend. My hands seriously ached from griping the bars so tightly, yesterday afternoon, while we were receiving our latest 7 inch dump of snow. I suppose it's my 2005 ankle fracture that makes me feel so anxious. I sure don't want to go through that again. 

I've posted a few of these icebike sculptures just recently. My bike has looked similar to this at the end of just about every day's ride this year. I think it's cool.

2009 miles to date: 755
2009 ride time to date: 60 hours 51 min

Negative Tempreture

AccuWeather.com says the wind chill was minus 20 while I was out riding tonight. Yikes!!  To add to the fun.. I flatted!! Fortunately I was just a mile and a half from home so I decided to ride the flat/walk home. I wasn't about to change a tire in these temps. My hands would fall off.  The flat tire cut my ride short so I ended up going  back out for a midnight ride to finish up my day. Besides missing out on some sleep midnight is an awesome time to ride!!

Brain Freeze

My coldest ride of the year tonight. 1 degree (wind chill of -17).  2 hours and 56 min. was enough. Uhg! This cold snap is really making me earn my pay.

2009 miles to date: 628
2009 ride time to date: 49 hours 46 min

Winter, Day 21 of 90

Wow!! I have averaged 44.9 miles and 3:27 per day for the first 10 days of 2009. That' a new personal record.. I checked the archives. Today's WRCS ride was fun with a serious bike wrestling bout over the final 15 miles. I was all like, Greco-Roman style and my bike is all like, WWE SmackDown on me. Uhg!

Winter, Day 20 of 90

Night Rides

I have averaged 918 hours of biking over the last 7 years.

YEAR	MILES	HOURS
2002	15051	1009:47
2003	16161	1088:03
2004	15351	1060:44
2005	11311	778:15
2006	14041	977:13
2007	12321	832:58
2008	10201	710:56

Nearly 200 hours each year will be ridden at night.

S p o o k y ! ! !

Peculiar crotchal region ice build-up tonight...

Winter, Day 15 of 90

Hey!!  We have made it a sixth of the way through winter already!! I've averaged 273 miles a week so far this winter, which I'm pretty happy with given some not so friendly weather around here...

Today's goofy pre-ride group photo...  

Winter, Day 13 of 90

I plan to ride my bike everyday this winter. I've done it a few times before. I rode everyday of winter in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. It's a great way to start the year.

2008 miles per bike report

2008 Trek 69er
3297 miles (91 rides)

2007 Trek EX9.5 

2307 miles (63 rides)

2008 Trek EX9.5 

1384 miles (33 rides)

1997 LiteSpeed Ocoee

868 miles (28 rides)

2007 Trek XO2

809 miles (22 rides)

2006 Trek Elite 9.9

700 miles (25 rides)

2003 Trek 5900

253 miles (4 rides)

1994 Barracuda A2V

247 miles (8 rides)

2006 Trek Top Fuel 110

174 miles (7 rides)

2007 Trek XO2

118 miles (6 rides)

2005 Felt RXC Team

8 miles (1 ride)

Cannondale 3.0

0 miles (0 rides)

2001 Trek 5700

0 miles (0 rides)

Robert's 2008 Miles

Total Mountain Bike 

8985 Miles 

634 hours, 21 min. 

(14.2 avg. mph) 
250 rides 

Total Cross Bike 

927 Miles 

63 hours, 14 min. 

(14.7 avg. mph) 
28 rides 

Total Road Bike 

253 Miles 

10 hours, 51 min. 

(23.3 avg. mph) 
4 rides 

*Total Bike Trainer 

36 Miles 

2 hours, 30 min. 

(14.5 avg. mph) 
2 rides 

Grand Total Bike 

10201 Miles 

710 hours, 56 min. 

(14.3 avg. mph) 
282 days 

2052 Single-Speed Miles.

84 days off the bike this year.

*I'm including bike trainer miles from two rides back in February while I was taking some time off the bike and doing physical therapy for my low back. Herriman rules allow a rider to count bike trainer "only" during an injury.

Happy New Year!!

I don't plan to ride my bike again until next year...

I finished up 2008 with 10201 miles in 710 hours and 56 min.

It's not a good ride...

Unless there's some blood... :-)

Nothing all that spectacular to report... I had a bloody nose on my ride today... Yuck.

3G Network?

Three Geeks Network...

10,000 Miles

I hit the "10,000 miles of bike riding" mark, for 2008, today.
A birthday/christmas present to myself.
It's just what I wanted!!!

Clichés

On tonight's ride I heard a few classic "shout outs" from the people..

"Aren't you cold?"
"Get on the sidewalk!"
"I give you a lot of credit."
"You are hardcore Dude"
"Go Lance!"

Winter, Day One

Today's ride had us in temps in the single digits with wind-chills at a minus 15. Riding around for 3:12 in these conditions was the perfect recipe for another day of interesting down-tube ice build up..

Stalagmite or Stalagtite?

Owed to the Snow Plow

I rolled 45 miles with the Dolppinator today. I was skeptical that we could successfully pedal our bikes today after the area got slammed with 6 to 12 inches of snow yesterday, but thanks to the local Department of Public Services snow removal dudes, the riding was awesome!!! Alex and I even worked some structure into our ride today with some hill repeats on Cranbrook hill. Ouch!

Fall Color Tour

Ha! They say it's still Fall for a couple more days but come on...  I weighed my bike after tonight's ride to see how much snow and ice had accumulated on it..  6 lbs worth..  Funny!

These are the days...

April's bike races are so far away...
Nothing to do but ride our bikes all day... :-)

double-v-inter

The wind chill during last nights ride was 6 degrees... That's full on, double-v-inter challenge territory... No surprise, the classic, fingers and toes were the limiting factors.. I even busted out for chemical warmers in my mittens but my thumbs felt soooo left out...  

Today the wind chills were in the upper teens and  what a difference 10 degrees makes...  I rolled around for nearly 4 hours today with Danny and the Finkelstein and I was loving life in the double-v-inter double-v-onderland...

sick

Uhg! 10 days off the bike with sinus and ear infections, fever, chills, headache, severe soar throat, cough, ear aches, congestion, body aches, exhaustion, upset stomach, etc., etc... Knock on wood, I'm rarely sick at all and I don't think I have been "down with the sickness" this bad over the last 20 years. On the bright-side I guess it's a ok time of year to lie in bed for a couple weeks, besides maybe missing out on the last couple cross races...

The drop in miles are visible from space and rival the legendary bone fractures...

Thanksgiving Morning ride at Pontiac Lake

Hey kids....
Here is your official 2008 Thanksgiving Morning ride at Pontiac Lake group photo...

Photo by Finkelstein...

Thanksgiving Morning Ride at Pontiac

Hey kids...

Thanksgiving Morning...
Pontiac Lake
Group Photo and Ride at 9:30 AM.

2007






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1999

Rainy days

Rain, 35 degrees, and windy is about as bad as it gets...    Still, I decided to try and put together the right mix of clothing for a ride today..  I managed 40 miles in 2:42 and was comfortable for the first 2 hours...  That last 42 min, not so much...

Voting for change!!

Yes we voted for a change today. Well, at least a change for me. Because today, for the first time ever, I rode the Gruber's Grinder trail. Sunny and 70 degrees in November?? Yeah it was an awesome day.

What the Hail?

Another fun weekend of riding. 74 miles yesterday and 62 miles today. We were trying to ride to Lakeshore from Royal Oak today, but we got caught in a hail storm just a couple miles short and decided the trail would be a mess. It had been quite a while since I saw that much hail around here. On our ride home it was kinda like riding through snow...

Riding our bicycles...

After a lap of Bloomer Park Kuhncapie led us thru his infamous River Bends Park  /  South Clinton River Park  /  Dodge Brothers State Park  loop...  What a perfect day...

Mammoth Fallout Ride

Some pics from today's Mammoth Fallout Ride...

Stony Creek Cross Race

I'd kinda been dreading cyclo-cross. Of all the disciplines of bike racing cyclo-cross seems to require the most suffering. I guess that's common knowledge. And still I'm compelled to do it. It's kinda weird. With that said, I had a really fun race today. Bill and I ended up riding together again and were able to pull away from a group of 4 guys with about a third of the race to go. Then we worked together to build that gap. In the final lap started to close on a guy. Just as we were about to catch, I slammed head and shoulder into a wooden sign in the beach-sand section. I'd gotten just a little squirrely in the deep sand and way too close to the sign. Ouch! Bill ended up getting past the guy we were closing on and I rolled in behind the 2 of them, 15th. I'm really happy with my finish and super happy my skeletal structure was able to plow into that stationary object without damage..  :-)

The sign I ran into, dent in my helmet, and the "mark" on my shoulder...

Big Big Ride...

Met the guys saturday morning to bust out a big big multi-trial ride... Rolled into my driveway with 121 miles.. Perfect!!

Clinton River Trail
Bloomer Park Trails
Macomb Orchard Trail
Stony Creek Trails
Bear Creek Nature Park Trails
Addison Oaks Trails
Bald Mountain Trails
Orion Oaks Trails

Addison Oaks XC

That was a fun one. Bill and I rode the entire race together today. That really helped us stay motivated to keep pushing. We rolled across the finish line in a photo finish for 4th and 5th. Awesome!

Results

Shenandoah Mountain 100

I survived!!!

Went down for the Shenandoah Mountain 100 with Simonster and Michele for the labor day holiday weekend. The night before the race at about 7:00 pm Simonster drugged me up so I could get to sleep unusually early. Lights out at 8:00 pm. I think I fell asleep right away but I woke up at 12:30 am. I’m anxious about the race. Mike and I did a pre-ride on Saturday and I realized why I decided a couple years ago that I should not attempt this race. The insane gnarly singletrack. I don’t really sleep at all for the rest of the night. Alarm goes off at 4:00 am. Peanut butter and bagel, pack up the car and get to the start line. Somehow, Simonster and I, cut it pretty close. We got ready just off site and when we finally ride in and line up we were racing about 90 seconds later. Go! Insanity ensues as 500 people funnel around the stalled lead moto. First climb goes ok. I consciously tried to position myself about 50th, I knew when we hit the gnarly rocky stuff the fast guys would be happier with me behind them. In between each climb and decent there’s some fire road stuff that I try and make up ground on. That was fun. Second climb is gnarly singletrack and goes on forever. It’s steep and narrow with rocks and roots and most everybody is pushing, and pushing, and pushing. Probably 75% of this climb are done on our feet. Another crazy descent. I pull over and let fast guys go by every few hundred feet. Uhg! Aid station 2, I get my 2nd camelbak from Liz. The third climb is all fire road and it’s and steep enough that I start to feel like I’m mashing in my middle ring. Then the dreaded off camber decent. I stopped a couple times on the way down this time just to try and relax my nerves. 4th climb was a long technical singletrack. I was starting to take it easy as I realized I was not going to have much of a result on the day, so it was all about not crashing, but still finishing quick enough to not keep Simonster waiting too long. An hour later I get my 3rd Camelbak from Mich and I start the 5th climb of the day “the soul crusher”. At least that’s what a guy called it as I was starting up it. This climb, of course, is my favorite part. It’s just a dirt road climb. Dang, give me 100 miles of this any day, please!! It was awesome. At the aid station at the top of this climb I had fig bar and a coke. Yum! Then more gnarly descending. Not happy. I was off the bike walking down some of the hills. It reminded me of the very first time I ever went mountain biking in my life, with Danny Klein, at Pontiac Lake. Bah! Then I see a guy that I think maybe has a compound tibia fracture or something. His leg is all bloody, duct taped together and he’s trying to ride down the trail with one leg… Yikes! Another reminder of my goal for the day! Finish in one piece! I make it to the last aid station. Liz hands me my final camelbak. 1 climb to go. It’s another nice fire road climb and the final decent is the easiest trial of the day. Yea! Finish line! 44th overall in 9:12. The 2008 SM100 was my 9th ever hundred miler. First time I didn’t finish under 9:00 hours and first time I fell out of the top 20 overall. But I kinda thought, going in, that those stats were gona change. A quick finisher’s beer and burger and then it’s the final leg of the shenandoah 24 hour marathon day. The 10 hour drive home… Home, showered, and in bed by 4:00 am. :-)

Found some nice 2008 SM100 race pics here..

Pontiac XC

Today's race at Pontiac was my first ride at the trail this year, but since it was the 205th time I've ridden there over the past 15 years, I wasn't too concerned about not knowing the trail... Yes, I like to keep track of stuff.



A pretty fun race.. Funny to look around at the start and basically see the same guys you train with every week as the entire elite field was Detroit metro area riders.

Last year when I did the saturday maybury xc / sunday pontiac xc weekend I had nothing left on sunday.. It was officially my worst race ever... Well, this year, Maybury was 2 hours and 14 minutes shorter in duration for me... :-)

Today's race went great except for a couple stops in lap 2 to adjust my saddle. The seat clamp slipped and my saddle went nose up at about 45 degrees. That was the first time that seat-post slipped like that. Guess I'll keep my eye on that, now...

Maybury Time Trial

Had a pretty clean lap except for when my pedal caught a root late in the race and my foot pulled out of my shoe... Seriously... I never had that happen before... My shoe stayed clipped in to the pedal, so I was able to just slip my foot back in the shoe. I ended up 2nd to Bill by 4.5 seconds... Yep 2nd again... 3 years in a row.. That's kinda cool...

Yikes!!!

Ft Custer TT

Ft Custer Time Trial this morning. Bill and I did my typical Ft Custer visit.. Pre-ride Saturday, race on Sunday.. It was a perfect way to spend the weekend. It had been 3 years since I did my last time trial at the fort. Kinda funny that my finish time was so similar.. I bettered my 2005 time by 1.52 seconds... :-)















Bill brought home some cash and some hardware.. 5th on the day and 2nd overall in the TT Series. In true "Clikeman" fashion he had no idea he might be getting a series award today.

On this day in Robert history...

On August 15, 2004 I hit the 10,000 mile mark for that year. That stands as my earliest 10K. All you need to do is ride 43.86 miles each day starting Jan 1 and you too could claim this personal accomplishment. Funny, when I brake it down like that it really does sound pretty easy. Anyway, this subject is of some interest as the front runners close on this mark in Shawn's Ten Thousand Mile Challenge.

Did a solo S.C.A.B. last night (Stony Creek, Addison, Bloomer). Got back to my car just after sunset. Time to start thinking about lights I guess..

Big M

My 2008 Big M race??? I finished!! Race was going great until a branch hopped up into my drivetrain and tore my rear deraillure off at about mile 4.5 of 30.0... In an instant I knew just finishing would be the days challenge... Back very early in this hobby of mt biking I learned to stop pedaling and stop the bike, asap, when you hear the sound of something in the drivetrain, but this was one of those that it was all over by the time the sound reached my ears... When I looked to see the carnage there was a piece of a branch in my spokes and the rear deraillure was half way between the cassette and cranks... Hmmm... I have this "thing" about never quiting a race... I have only DNFed once in my life and that was with a broken collarbone at mile 42 during the 2005 lumberjack 100... So, I removed the chain, deraillure, the remaining chunk of the hanger, cable and housings... And decided to "scooter/push/coast" the bike back to the start area where I'd try and make the bike a singlespeed... I didn't even consider at the time, but making a singlespeed out of my full suspension bike makes the chain carry the load instead of the rear shock... Yikes!! That and I kinda goofed on the gear.. I thought without a deraillure the chain would want to fall to the smallest cog so that is how I tried to set it up.. I now know that the chain will find the straightest chainline... Anyway the rest of my ride.. 24 miles worth, I rode just to finish, walking lots of the hills not to bust the chain, and easy on the descents as I was also concerned with the rear wheel holding in the frame after removing the hanger... It was kinda cool, as people realized my struggle to finish, each time I rolled through the start finish area I'd get some nice cheers of support!!! :-)

..and if you look close I also lost a chainring bolt along the way..

Stony Time Trial

Bugs

I was sick this week.. Some kinda "bug".. I had a fever and everything.. Took a little time off work, and, yes, the bike too. Knock on wood.. I never get sick. So that was kinda eventful for me.. And speaking of bugs and events... I believe for only the second time in my life.. I was a stung by a bee this week.. About 35 years ago I stepped on a bee and was stung.. This week I was riding the trails at Stony, and was stung on the tongue.. Hey that rhymes! Ouch!! Guess I'm not allergic or anything as my tongue didn't swell up and only hurt for a short while... Hopefully that's it for getting bugged this week.. :-)

Stony Time Trial History

I posted up similar archival results for the pontiac lake time trial earlier this year and it was pretty popular so... I believe this weekend's stony time trial will be tailwind's 9th annual running of the event. I've participated in all but 2001, I didn't race at all that year. Well, obviously, I like looking at results...

Ruby....

I've still never been to Ruby Campground... It's a beautiful morning as I type this, camelbak is filled, bike and everything I need to race is loaded in the car, etc.... But I just pulled the plug. The weather radar makes me think rain will arrive just as I get there to do my pre-ride lap and from what everyone says, a pre-ride lap at Ruby would be kinda important to my well being... Of course, it will probably end up a glorious day... Oh well... At least my perfect record of never riding the trails there is still intact...

Bloomer Intervals

Met up with the guys to do an almost structured workout at Bloomer tonight... We did several hard intervals, repeating short sections of trail, with some good rest between the efforts... It was my idea to try and get ready for Ruby this Sunday... I've never ridden the trails at Ruby but from what I hear Bloomer is probably the best substitute around here.. Greg suggested we climb the big switch backs as there are some steep climbs at Ruby... That was surprisingly tough.. I hope you guys enjoyed the workout. I sure did...

5K

I crossed the 5000 mile mark for 2008 today. Except for 2005, the year I broke my ankle, that's thousands of miles down for the year. Uhg! Oh well, stuff happens. Maybe next year will be another big year...

Miles on this day in Robert history...
July 15, 2008 - 5012 miles
July 15, 2007 - 7044 miles
July 15, 2006 - 7334 miles
July 15, 2005 - 4913 miles
July 15, 2004 - 8805 miles
July 15, 2003 - 8286 miles
July 15, 2002 - 8074 miles

OK a quiz..
What is the name of the wild grass that's seed head is stuck in my handelbar's end plug in this photo?? I don't know the answer. I just like when those things get wedged in there like that. Kinda like little natural streamers... They're cool...

Kids Boyne Marathon

Brent turned the kid's race into a mini marathon. They did a timed 30 minute race. They all did awesome!!!

Boyne Marathon Weekend

After a week of silly stressing over the bike the weekend turned out awesome!!!

Joe Lee and I rolled up in my Charger Friday morning... A fun pre-ride lap of Boyne with Favata and then we were off to the Red Mesa Grill in Boyne City. Seems like there's always something going on in that little city. They had the streets blocked off with some off shore boats on display, a few bands set up jamming, and gymnasts in the park.

Race morning looked nice till it started sprinkling. Forecasts for thunderstorms had a few people pass on the race. Well it only sprinkled long enough to make the pavement shiny and then about 20 min before our race it stopped and by mid race we were bakeing in the sun. It was a bit of a bummer there was such a poor turnout. I thought with the Michigan road scene having nothing on it's calendar this month we might get a bunch of those guys. Guess the price at the pump is really having an impact. So 5 guys started my race. Hmmm... Just finish and I'm in the money. :-) The race was fun. It's hard to beat Boyne with it's fast flowing downhill runs. One interesting course change was the final loose gravel downhill from the past couple years was replace by a golf cart path downhill. That was pretty cool.

Brent even did a marathon for the kids race.. They rode a timed 30 min race...

And after the awards Joe and I were off to the LumberJack.. Yummm...

Stressing the little stuff

Uhg!!! I would like a "do over" on last 4 days.... It all started on Monday when I finally broke down and took a night off the bike to build my new 2008 fuel ex... I have been putting this off for several months.. I did the work up at the bike shop so I could get a few tips on some things I didn't know how to do... I don't like working on bikes... I just like riding them... Probably why there are so many in my basement.. Just grab a second bike if something doesn't work on the first... Anyway, Monday night was spent ripping down the 2007 fuel.. The bike shop would build up the 2008 on Tuesday.. I get to the shop on Tuesday at closing time and they were swamped all day with business and well, Wednesday will be fine... I go to the shop after work on Wednesday and there's a problem. The 2007 Fox Float shock does not fit in the 2008 frame. I contacted Fox and they confirmed the air valve assembly was redesigned and the 2007 shock and wont work in the 2008 frame... OK I'll just grab another bike... My 2006 top fuel should work perfect... But it's been a year since it's been on a trail... I zip home and give the bike a little TLC and take it for a short ride and I start to feel kinda anxious about racing it in a couple days... The setup, components, geometry, etc.. is all just different enough that I don't feel comfortable... Wednesday night and Thursday morning are spent considering rebuilding the old bike... And so on Thursday I spend about 5 hours on the old bike and I'm back where I was on Monday... And my bike miles for the 4 days??? A measly 66... Bah! I feel like I wasted 3 days of my life and accomplished nothing... Still it was worth getting the old fuel ex going again... I love that bike... Thanks to the guys at the shop for putting up with me for the week... Oh and the gash in my forehead from the bike stand is healing up fine... I should never be allowed to work on bikes...

Today I met up with the Dolppinator and Joe Lee for another perfect day of riding... A little bit of Bloomer trails and then the Stony Trails... We also finally checked out the "skills" stuff at Stony... I say we.. Well... the Dolppinator was doing some of the stuff.. We also found lil pony doing multiple laps of the stunts on his road bike??? Some kinda cross training thing I guess... I was willing to stop at 92 miles today as that gave me exactly 400 miles for the week.. :-)

DEATH LOOP

A nice ride today chasing Simonster and Randy around on Simonster's DEATH LOOP (I had my attorney get my will in order before the ride just in case). The weather was just perfect with a nice light breeze and clear blue skies.. It was a good day to die, but some how I survived. When I finally staggered home I was at 90 miles. Another 10 to get the hundo? Of course.

Monday Night Ride..

the obligatory monthly group photo...

OD 2 the TT

I met the Clikeman, the Finkelstein, and the Dolppinator at 5:45 am in downtown Royal Oak this morning... I know!! I didn't think I could get up that early either. We volunteered to help out at the state road tt race in Dearborn and the idea to ride there made the event something to look forward to.. Early in the week talking with Cullen on the route there, he said "Outer Drive Dude!" Sunrise on our way down was spectacular...

Stony Marathon

Just enough guys had even worse days than I did today, to allow me a spot in the money. Even though I went pretty slow I thought it was impressive the consistency of my last three laps.. Within 5 seconds of each other..

Oh, yeah... Today was kind of a mudfest...

Here's the Post Race Cruise.

And me, photo by Bizkit.

Saturday's ride was so fun I did the S.C.A.B. 100 again today... The double century weekend gave me my biggest week of the year... Yay!!

The Dolppinator and I rolled out this morning from Royal Oak. 

Hit up Stony Creek, Addison, and Bald mountain. 

Back home at the end of the day with 100 miles.  Perfect!

 

Web Logs..

I spent some time wandering around the interweb looking for Lumberjack 100 race reports this week... It's kind of the reason I started my own weblog, was that I enjoyed reading others thoughts on their races. One of my best buddies in the world dissed the blogs as "self promotion" but I just think it's a great way to share stories and to preserve memories. I already look back and reminisce after only 2 years of weblogging...


Of course just click on the riders name for their report...

Harlan Price 7:11:36
Christian Tanguy 7:28:41
Gerry Pflug 7:48:18
Mike Simonson 7:52:23
John Myline 7:58:17
John Meyers 8:05:29
Greg Kuhn 8:12:17
Jason Lummis 8:16:22
Chris Strout 8:20:46
Robert Herriman 8:29:08
Brad Hranch 9:18:57
Tom Greene 9:39:24
Chad Schut 9:40:14
Danielle Musto 9:43:19
Justin Lund 10:08:44
Todd Powers 10:10:32
Craig Morris 11:18:47
Noreen Greene 11:23:56
Ed McCalley 11:40:53
Eric Cook 11:56:18
Kerry Combs 12:47:45
Dan Frayer DNF
Lindsay Rodkey DNF
Scott Cole DNF
Steve Kinley DNF
Mike Clark DNF
Nametra O'Dea DNS
Andrea Davis

Last Ride

7 months ago (nov 07) I noticed a little horizontal crack in the seat tube of my 2007 Trek Fuel EX 9.5.. Trek was really quick to send me a new 2008 Fuel EX 9.5 frame, but I have been really slow to build it up. But I have promised Tanguy I'll do it this week... So looks like Lumberjack will be the last ride on the 07...

R.I.P., 3847 miles... My all time favorite bike...

Lumberjack 100

I now have a set of 4 lumberjack pint glasses.... :-)

I finished 17th overall... in 8:29:08... Told friends I'd be happy with a top 20 this year and I am.. I felt pretty good in the first 50 miles and the last 50 I was just feeling tired, but I was not in misery.. Camped with Christian and Linda on Friday Night. Slept pretty well but had the typical wake up every hour and look at the clock. I don't know if it's being anxious for the race or for waking up at 4:45 am, I'm not morning person.. I had not even cleaned the mud off the bike from Brighton... The bike worked fine a week ago it should be ok, right? As we rolled off the start line at 7:10 am, I positioned myself about 20th and ended up rolling around with Dan K and a new friend Will for the first half of the race. Guess this will be the year we all remember the swamp section.. They had some kind of storm of the century just a day before the race and it flooded a part of the trail turning it into knee deep muck. They had lifeguards stationed at the swamp. No kidding... Marty was my support again this year. Thanks MARTY!!! She's supported me several times now and I like her style... After the race I was treated to a real nice time at Camp Simonster.. I rolled up to the race solo this year, which with the fuel prices was maybe not ideal but the alone time was pretty relaxing, and the Charger averaged 30 mpg for the trip. Seriously!!

My lumberjack history..
2005 Lumberjack 100 - DNF (Broken collarbone at mile 42)
2006 Lumberjack 100 - 6th overall in 8:03
2007 Lumberjack 100 - 8th overall in 7:34
2008 Lumberjack 100 - 17th overall in 8:29

Will, Dan, and I... 99 miles to go...

Brighton Stage Race (Day 3)

DAY THREE???

Can I stop now???

Oh man, that was a tough one...

I was so bummed out over my performance, that when I rolled into the finish yesterday, I think I started to cry. Seriously! I had the whole lower lip quiver thing going on and tears welling up in my eyes. I know, I know, pretty pathetic. I'm all better now and maybe it was just delirium caused by fluid/electrolyte disturbances (I looked that up on the Interweb).

My race was a nightmare. My body totally refused to cooperate. I had no power, low back pain, hip flexor pain, knee pain, blisters on my hands, mid race a stick or something got into my shoe and was stabbing my foot, sweltering heat, and the greasy trails. Uhg! I was in a world of hurt. I did some quick math after that first lap and realized the misery was going to last over 3 hours. Bah!

Well, At least I have a couple days here to recover before the Lumberjack 100. Ahhh!!!

Rolling off the line for the Time Trial..

Brighton Stage Race (Day 2)

Elite Results

Cross Country Race


Overall Stage Race Results


The Podium

Brighton Stage Race (Day 1)

Elite Results from Day One...

Time Trial



Short Track

Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart

I went down to The Fillmore in Detroit tonight to see the Stone Temple Pilots. They were awesome! Also took a half day vacation, from work, so I could get a nice little 40 mile ride in before the show. When the concert ended we all stepped out into downtown Detroit celebrating the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup!!! It was a good day...

Rock Star, Scott Weiland...

Hanson Hills

It was a pretty fast elite group today and I didn't have the legs to do the pace the guys were riding on that first climb... So I tried to settle in, have fun the rest of the way, and maybe someone would come back to me, but the motivation was low rolling around, almost last. On the final lap I saw Dan K which was a little motivation for me and I rode a bit harder to catch him. Dan didn't put up a fight and just waved me around. At the end I was just a minute behind Bill but we were both pretty far off the fast guys. Still, always fun.

Elite results...