Single Speed Worlds... WOW!

So... MASSIVE PROPS TO CURTIS INGLIS!!!

the event curtis inglis of retrotec bikes/inglis cycles put on, the SSWC'08 was FANTASTIC!

i took the team up for the day and i've got to tell you, it was one of the most well run, well planned events i've been to in a long time. way to go curtis!

the ever fabulous sheila moon rocked the whole event in the newest skinsuit design and it looked like it needed a battery pack to be that bright. it was so bright, that when she rode by, sunshine seemed to follow her. barb howe was hot on the men's leaders heels in her new kit too. way to go barb and sheila!

we had a couple of other racers entered- johnny b and jason. those guys crushed it too. great job. i had to sit on the sidelines and heckle due to a lingering injury, but not to be bummed out, we kept heckeling the racers in a difficut technical section. my cameras memory card went haywire, so sadly i don't have any video to show this time. i'll get that fixed ASAP.

Pine Mountain first impressions

We recently received our Marin Pine Mountain singlespeed 29ers. The main portion of mountain bike season is pretty much over, so it's kind of a little late, but there was an, um, unofficial race in one of the local parks last week, so I figured it would be a good chance to give the bike a try.


In the spirit of preparation, I got my hands on the bike for the first time ever at roughly
5:50 for a race that was supposed to start at 6. I threw on my Candys, got the seat pretty much right, and called it ready to go.

And waited around for half an hour or so.

Once the race got started, I paid for my (lack of) preparation. I managed to end the Le Mans start in the top third of riders, only to have the bars come loose within the first two minutes of hard riding. Once I fixed that problem (being extra careful not to over tighten the carbon bars), I spent the rest of the race riding around, picking off the stragglers and trying to get a feel for the bike.

Let me say that at 5'5", I think even the smallest Pine Mountain may be too big for me. Once I am on it and going, it rides pretty well (although it's maybe a bit horsey), but getting started on a bike with basically no standover clearance and a highish bottom bracket takes some doing.

The bike will ride over anything, though. I rode with the shock half locked out, and pretty much just rode over things. Big logs, steep banks, large steps: none of that fazed the bike much.

The jury, for me, is still pretty much out. I am excited, though, to do some more testing.

last night i was wandering around in thefog in golden gate park. i heard a terrible rukus and it sounded like it was coming my way! i whipped out my trusty pocket camera and took cover in the bush. what did i see?


soil saloon first lap - barrier from daten on Vimeo.

Good race, bad result

Howell Mountain's a well-run race on pretty good trails. It's well-supported and marked. I had a new bike that was pretty well-wired in.

None of those things helped me on Sunday.

I'd been feeling sick all week, and it turned out that any time I went over 80% I could not recover. Which makes it hard to race mountain bikes. I even managed to crash, and bruised my ribs pretty badly, which made it pretty hard to maneuver the bike through the twisties.

Once I resigned myself to not having any top end, I had some fun riding the course. I stopped and helped one guy whose pump was broken, I got out of the way of people who were trying to pass me, and generally acted like a good citizen.

I guess that everybody has a day like this--what they call "un jour sans" in the Tour--but I've never had one before. And I hope not to have one again.

notes from the howell mountain challenge

this weekend the sheila moon / big swinging' cycles MTB team went to the howell mountain challenge in angwin california. it's the same place as the napa valley dirt classic, with a slightly different route.

i'm still on the DL with a seperated shouler, so i hiked it out to the middle of the course where the three big ravienes are. i scoped the three of them out and decided that the middle one was the best to shoot a few short videos from. i'm using a point and shoot camera, not an actual video cam so don't get too excieted.

in no particular order here are some of the better ones:


SASHA X from daten on Vimeo.

LUKE!!! from daten on Vimeo.

the Pink Lidded Wonder from daten on Vimeo.

some vids of peeps not on our team:

Leader - has on a WTB jersey... from daten on Vimeo.

Menso first and ? from daten on Vimeo.

MO! fast in, fast out! from daten on Vimeo.

megan lets go of the brakes at the top and rolls from daten on Vimeo.

i'll put more up later.

Riding for fun

It's kind of a dead time between races, so a few of us went on a casual ride from Sheila Moon world headquarters to Oakland's Chabot Park and back. There were about a dozen team members and friends.
Team members: me, Kathryn, Arena and Jason


Friend of the team Kelleigh and our eponymous leader Sheila Moon.