Still racing?

If you just wanna read about my new Vassago Optimus Ti and associated feelings, feedback, and niggles, I'm getting there.  Soon.  I promise.

I entered the first race of a new local series late on Friday evening, about thirteen hours before the actual start time.  Somewhat outta the desire to do something, but also to bolster the roster numbers a bit.  I can say I support local racing, or I can actually support local racing.

Some time ago, Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever gave me his perspective on other promoters in the Pisgah area.  I'm paraphrasing a bit (a lot but whatever), but he said if you wanna be a music town, you can't just have one giant, "ok" venue.  You need all kinds of terrific places with a variety of music to create a "scene."  So, if you want a region to be considered a mecca for mountain bike racing, you need more than just one mega-promoter putting on events, and it's in your best interest that the other promoters do well and help shine a positive light on the "scene" as a whole.

There were only three single speeders signed up, Jason, Shawn, and myself.  Jason and I took a warmup loop together to check out the "new" course, 1/3 gravel and pavement, 1/3 all-weather swoops and berms from the OG short track course, and 1/3 old school single track with all the roots, rocks, worn out jumps and ditches of a twenty plus year old trail system.

"Plenty of places to get a flat," Jason cheers out.

Hmmpph.  I'm 135 pounds soaking wet on 2.6/2.4 tires with a pool noodle out back and a squishy orange thing up front.  I ain't flatting.

Line up, "go," and the other two let me go into the woods first.  Jason stays on my six through the end of the first lap, and I try to let him go by me in the parking lot by swinging wide on the ninety degree turn.  He wasn't having it.  Dammit.  I went outside on a technical turn on the trail (where he'd already told me he goes inside), he comes around, hits the A-line climb while I take the B-line, he cleans it, and opens a huge gap.  Meh.

Despite my best efforts, the gap from me to Jason slowly grows with every lap.  I start feeling like I'm getting sloppy in the technical bits, and even come gracefully unclipped from my left pedal seconds before the rock drop.  I'm falling apart in less than thirty minutes of effort.

Jason wins (crushes), I get second, and Shawn fills out the podium.  As we stand around chatting right at the finish, I realize I'm sitting on a bike with a rear tire that is getting very flat.

I was surprised to be losing air with a pool noodle insert... but the last time I put sealant in my tires?  Did I refresh everything up before I went to Vermont or do I need to flash back four months ago to when I mounted the tires up long before getting the frame?  I was semi-relieved and semi-bummed with the small puncture I found.  I was going to ride out the winter on the well-worn but not worn-out Aspen 2.4 what with WNC closed and Charlotte's 24 hour rain rule in effect.  I was only going to be riding in dry conditions for the foreseeable future.  Now I had a reason to put on a fresh Aspen from my backups, but I'm saddened by the fact that I placed (what I thought was) my last order with Maxxis before reapplying for '25 sponsorship... that last order ironically being for a 2.6 DHF for my "Pisgah single speed."  Overcome by a feeling of frugality, I decided to plug the tire... but the hole was too small which means sealant shoulda taken care of it...

So put in a half dose of TruckerCo sealant and the hole sealed up instantly... meaning I'd ignored it too long.  That's the one thing I don't like about pool noodles in my tires.  I can't use my Park Tool turkey baster to easily check the sealant level.  I've considered running a hot poker through the noodle and hoping I can line it all up for full insertion of the baster, but obvs I've not done that.  Any better ideas?  Lemme know.

I'm really getting along marvelously with this new bike.  I'm still moving contact points around, but it's finding its home between my legs.

Am I done "racing" for '24, or am I gonna do the other two races in the series?  Dunno.

There's always this floating out there coming in December and scaring the beejeebus outta me:

6/12/24 hours of some super awesome trails at a time when nothing else in Pisgah will be open for who knows how long.  The deets, in a nut shell...

"The goal of this event is to raise awareness and funding for the Old Fort Strong Fund, which aims to put money directly into the hands of Old Fort residents and businesses as they rebuild their homes and repair their businesses affected by Hurricane Helene. Over 50 homes in Old Fort were either damaged or completely destroyed. Our goal is to raise a minimum of 2 million in donations for this fund to help provide relief, rebuild homes, and support local businesses that have suffered in Old Fort."