Tie and a win?

No, tay ina win.

Friday I got a box full of dilemma. A brown cardboard package from Bike 29 arrived while The Pie was available to sign the FedEx man's electronic clipboard, so when I got home I busted out the box cutter to get to its desirable contents. Inside were many items I'll mention later, but most importantly I got my warranty rear derailleur for the Superbeast and this little hunk of happy.

As anxious as I was to ride the Superbeast in a geared manner without the chain falling off constantly I decided to mount up the YESS ETR-D tensioner instead. It took me part of Friday night and some of Saturday morning to get it tuned in, but driveway testing assured me that I had it successfully mounted up. I will get into the whole mounting fiasco (self imposed) later, but this is, first and foremost, a race report of the first winter short track of the series.

Saturday morning I prepared the Meatplow for racing in case I failed to get this gizmo working. Although I would get zero trail time on the YESS tensioner to prove its worthiness I decided to race on it anyways. It's not called Bad Idea Racing for nothing. I left the house and rode the 9.something miles over to the venue without a hitch.

Why yes, today I am single.

Conditions were less than perfect on the course. A slow melt of the snow and ice had left the course covered in a gritty soup. I opted to not go out on the course and get any muddier than I had to before the start. I warmed up in the parking lot and lined up in the second row of a 20+ rider field.

Contrary to how I've ridden the short track in the past I decided to not jump in the woods with the lead group. I am slightly convinced that I may be going out too hard too early, so I held back and went into the woods watching the leaders pull away. Somehow I found myself behind the one guy who couldn't ride in mud, and the gap between the "us" and "them" formed in less than a minute.

On the first approach to the jump I worked so diligently on the week before I could see a crowd gathered to watch the racers go by. Stuck behind the slower rider I had to just roll over my lovely lady lump and wait for a later moment when I could get around him. When we hit the muddy climb I stood and went to make my move.

That was when it first happened. Just minutes into the first lap I found the ETR-D's weakness; mud. The chain jumped and skipped on the cog every time I put any power to the pedals. Twice per rotation on the climbs and even on the flat sections the chain would groan and click and pop and annoy. I passed the slower rider and tried to ignore all the racket my hard work had created.

I wanted to stick it out and finish the race. The trail sections that were downhill oriented were a blast in the mud. The enthusiasm bubbling down at the jump was a warm welcome deeper in the woods and sliding around the berms brought a smile to my mud dabbled face.

photo cred: Alexander Hawn

With about fifteen minutes to go the constantly skipping chain brought my knee to my stem. I saw another rider having issues with his Surly tensioner giving me some cause to be relieved knowing it wasn't just me, but certainly not bringing my annoyance level down. The crowd had left the jump, and worrying that my conveyance home was going to be missing a few teeth if I continued, I opted to head to the bike wash ten minutes early (to beat the rush). I was slightly ahead of my goal of mid-packing at the time, but whatever. Lose the battle, live to fight another day, save a $40 cog... whatever it is the sages say.

photo cred: Alexander Hawn

This guy was not a fan of the jump.

So the ETR-D was a failure IN THE MUD. Once I hosed it all down it was quiet the whole way home. I'm gonna leave it on for awhile, and when I get a chance I'm going to try it in the woods on a DRY TRAIL.

Oh yeah, fellow Bike 29 rider Chris Mudman was there too... doing something.

Tomorrow is my mom's surgery, so I'll be incommunicado until that's all sorted out. It will be at least Thursday before I can return to my abnormal routine, but I'm definitely gonna be busy until she's back home and totally settled in. Here's hoping for the best. When I get back there will be more about the contents of the box and a post about the experience of installing the ETR-D.