Western NC Promises

I broke a promise I made to myself and just about anybody who asked me about this over the last thirteen years.  Here's how that happened.

What feels like a lifetime ago, I went to the '13 ORAMM with three goals; first place single speed, top ten overall on a rigid single speed (looked it up, I was still high-posting in 2013 *yuck*), and such and such fastest time for me.  While the fastest time thing didn't work out technically, the course had been changed enough that the winning times adjusted for course inflation meant I was close enough.  I felt like I'd done all I could do there, and nine times in ten years was enough to close the books IMHOMO.

Every year since then, I could feel it coming.  It almost always went hand-in hand with the end of the Tour de France, and watching three weeks straight of racing tended to get my competitive hackles up.  I mean, the Southeast calendar is devoid of endurance mountain bike racing pretty much from June till September, although the Old Fort 50k in August has stepped in to fill the void.  ORAMM gave me a sense of purpose from '04-'13 (skipping in '06 to compete in the first ever NUE series), and massive justification to push through the heat of the summer and keep doing longer rides.

My first time doing ORAMM was 2004, and that was a bananas year for me.  Back in 2001, I was focusing on 12/24 hour racing, but then The Pie and I went through a difficult separation (like there's an easy one).  After easing my way back into endurance racing, doing my first PMBAR in '04 on an Ellsworth ID made me realize I hated gears.  I sold off my geared mountain bike to fully commit to only having a single speed.  I caught the SS bug late in 2003, and it clicked with me way too hard to ignore.  I assumed I was done with endurance racing because I thought it was the realm of mystical beasts like Steve "Doom" Fassbinder who showed up to the 2000 edition of 24 Hour Solo Worlds with his crew of Mad Max extras looking absolutely resplendent and untouchable.  I was under the belief that I was not cut from that cloth, and it was just beyond me how to get in that club...

But then I did a local 12 hour race in June on my single speed and got fourth overall.  Huh.

Mebbe?

So, ORAMM.

It really became the race that made me think if I can do this, I can do just about anything I want.  Then there was La Ruta, and Trans Rockies, and BC Bike Race... and it was a long time before any other single speeders joined me in pursuing those endeavors.

ORAMM became a constant in my life, but I was getting burned out on chasing it down year after year.  At times, it seemed like a math/physics problem, with a certain amount of measurable pain tolerance, effort, and preparation.  Five 1sts, two 2nds, one 3rd, and a very memorable 7th place in 2010.  When your brain explodes inside your skull from the heat, you remember that.

The salad days of ORAMM.  2009... when the fields were stacked and deep, the payout for first place single speed was $200, the novelty checks were huge, and the beer flowed like a mountain stream.

But nine finishes.  That's a hateful number, because nine is not ten, and ten is a super tidy number.

The first few years, it was easy to let the end of July go by unnoticed like a fart in the wind.   That not-ten-but-just-nine finishes started to eat at me as the years went by.  I'd find myself looking at the course (it would change from time to time), the weather, the results... start thinking about the "what ifs?" 

Two things happened that I would guess pushed me over the edge.  The course changes due to Helene meant more single track and the familiar but "I've done it too many times" climb up Curtis Creek Road and the Parkway bit was off the table.  The course, advertised as 61.6 miles and 8,460 feet (I ended up with 65/9,325), was up this skinny guy's alley, so...

Then there was this:

ORAMM promoter Ryan started doing these buckles for '26.  Three X, five X, ten X, and fifteen X belt buckles.  I don't need another buckle, but it is a physical reminder that I'm sitting here at the sad number nine.  I'm thirteen years older than I was at my last ORAMM, and twenty two years older (is that a real number?) than my first one.  

*literally cues up Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days"*

I've added so many races to my "I've done this too many times" list over the years.  Honestly, PMBAR is the only race that continues to make the cut (since 2004?), and I don't foresee myself skipping it until I'm physically unable or can't find a willing victim... I mean "partner."  It's the least "time to make the donuts" race I've ever done.  

I've never left a race for anything close to this long and considered a comeback. 

I didn't start thinking seriously about doing it until three weeks ago.  My legs were feeling fit (for a Methuselah-aged man) from a solid amount of riding this year, the 32" wheeled Vassago Maximus felt great on the trails out there on a ride with Bill Nye (albeit I flatted on Heckle Rock), but I wasn't ready to commit.  So, I booked a fine room (first floor and three pillows per bed?!?) at the Super 8 in Black Mountain that had a gracious cancelation policy that gave me a go/no-go date of Thursday at midnight.

Sitting on the couch, knowing that Bill Nye was going to be in town because he was doing the Jerdon Challenge on Saturday and was willing to do some support on Sunday (and important pre-race hang time the night before that actually makes "racing" sometimes worth it), and with the weather looking decent for Sunday, I let the reservation stay in place.

Time to break a promise. 

Summer Steamer '26

We were thirty minutes into the drive to Knoxville when I realized I left my wallet (ok, actually a binder clip that contains what we olds call "cash," my Real ID, insurance card, and debit card in a 30 year old Tyvek Nations Bank card protector) at home.

Poop.

As a grown ass man who grew into adulthood going out into the wild with nothing in my pockets but small hopes and dashed dreams, I generally don't leave the house without my wallet and phone in the year 2026.

But here I am.

It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but when I got carded at Señor Taco for my grande-sized Dos Equis, I had to scramble.  Out to the car to grab my expired license from my Tülbag (for body identification purposes), come back, show it to the server, the manager gets involved...

No cerveza for Dicky to wash down his 8:00pm burrito.

Two things I don't like:

Eating a big meal at eight o'clock at night.

No beer with my burrito.

Türd and I were present when TVB Scott had to make the hard call to swap from the Steamer long course to the "rain route," AKA the Long Wet Hot American Steamer (unmarked, navigation required).  Suffice to say, the rain that dumped on Knoxville around 4:00pm on Friday kinda pushed the moisture past reasonable limits.  The local trails vary from loamy good-good to clay and limestones that turn into Teflon is you bat a moist eye six feet from their exposed surface.

Other than sorting out Türd's dead SRAM battery that he killed by driving his new bike around for thousands of miles not knowing that kinda sucks its life juice because nobody told him and bleep bloops are new to him and also not cracking my first beer until almost 9:00pm, everything went according to plan the night before.

We schemed on sorta sticking together for the purposes of shared navigation, but I was definitely too lazy to swap my 30X20 (on a 32" wheel) for something more suited to the updated, less-climby, long route.  As we rolled out of the start, I'd wanted to stay with the fastest locals like I did last year to keep personal navigation minimal, but I couldn't maintain pace with the five or so riders that rode away from us.  Now Türd and I are at the front of the not-so-select group, and after a coupla wrong turns with everyone following us (why?), we made it to Sharp Ridge.

New bike fever musta hit Türd in his grey matter because he dropped me like a small hot potato, and I found myself on my own... until somehow I caught up to him and a couple others... and just following along once again... I took a wrong turn.  By the time my Wahoo data acquisition device started bleeping at me, and I had time to pull over and sort it all out, Türd and his two new buddies were outta earshot.  

I'm alone.  Again.

Meh.

One of my favorite parts about the Steamer last year was falling into a crew of riders and spending the day together (while our numbers slowly dwindled).  Where are my little frands now?

I pop out at the first aid station, and there's a whole mess of people up there... including Türd.

"People are coming from every direction."

Reunited with Türd, but a little confused as to how to continue, I tell him I'm going to dip into the woods and see if I can find the start of the next trail.  I locate the top of Sharp Shin, remember it from a ride here last year, and go back to tell Türd I'll see him at the bottom (he's way faster on descents).  The sequence of events from there didn't make much sense then, but somehow we find each other going opposite directions...

Türd tells me that he and his two new homies are going back to hit Push Trail (which is just that) that they had missed so they could do the Knightfall DH trail... which also means they're also going to probably nab the Independence Trail that they'd missed earlier.

"Wanna come with us?"

Despite my desire to have frands, I didn't relish the idea of another push up Push or repeating three to four miles of trail on a long, humid day, so I just kept going and dropped out of the Sharp Ridge portion of the day by myself.

From there, I picked up the pace a little bit hoping to find some frands ahead of me.  I almost successfully navigated Fort Dickerson Quarry trails... or mebbe I actually did because I'm finally learning how to stop and restart routes on my Wahoo data acquisition device... except for the hitting the "resume" button to keep the ride going.

Da doi..

My proof that I made it to the overlook while my ride was paused but my route was running (again).  Way back there... that's Sharp Ridge, where I was ten miles ago.  Sigh... 

I hate being old.  

I did manage to snag the out-and-back to the secret swimming hole AKA homeless laundry facility before leaving out of the area, collecting all the spider webs on my way down.

I ended up having more navigational issues that required pulling out my phone and figuring out how to get into Ride With GPS with sweaty fingers, nose, elbows... and more course stopping and restarting the route and finally I roll into the second aid station solo.

"You're the first one here."

Well, my plan did not pan out. 

Knowing that I wasn't gonna find any frands ahead but no idea how far frands would be behind, I worked my way through the William Hastie Natural Area (neato history there) with only two u-turns, through Baker Creek Preserve (zero u-turns), over to the gnar gnar of Marie Meyers (so many u-turns)... to finally have a new/old frand Bob catch up to me whilst wet fingering my phone and restarting the route (again).  I thought we'd finish together until who knows what happened and Bob went from on my back wheel to ghost status.

The sign Bob missed that I'm assuming he couldn't see because he had as much sweat in his eyes as I did on my lens.

Figured my way out of the re-routed for reasons portion of Meads Quarry, and rode the rail-trail back to the finish and beer and hot dog and good hangs and war (but not real war like the one we're in) stories.

Gawdam I love Knoxville and Steaming and good times... and it was a different experience than last time but still all the buenos.  Here's hoping to a less moist return in 2027 (we're still doing 2027 and calendars and crossing state borders next year, right?)

Clik clik, boom

Sticking a pin in this, so I know when this experiment started.

I've been Clik valve curious since it came out back in 2024.  I've tried multiple "no-clog" Presta valve stems since I started running tubeless almost a quarter of a century ago, but they almost always disappoint... and it's mostly the valve core to blame. 

Yeth, the impossible to fully clean but only $.50 each on Amazon so just consider them disposable leftover technology from a Presta tube that was never meant to have a clogging liquid specifically meant to seal holes splashed and squirted near or past it.

Before I start getting hints regarding proper Presta valve care, here's what I do currently:

When mounting a new tire or swapping out, I pour the sealant into the tire before setting the bead.

When refreshing my sealant, I use the Park Tool TSI-1 sealant injector which passes all the way through (most) Presta valve stems sans core.

Any time anything is going in or out of the valve (sealant or air), the valve stem is clocked at/near three or nine.  

Any time the valve core is removed, I always give the stem a proper reaming with the Topeak Tubi Valve Cleaner.

That said, I still have valve cores inexplicably clog up way too early sometimes.  I'll discover it when the tire becomes hard to inflate... and sadly, this does not bode well with things like the Topeak E-Booster Digital Mini or any other mini compressor where you preset the desired pressure.  The compressor tries to work against the clog, reads the pressure as all good, and turns off prematurely.  I'm left setting the pressure way higher, and just guessing my way to close enough.  This also means less than optimal airflow when using a CO2 in a race emergency to reinflate after plugging a hole AND/OR a really fun time with a mini-pump.

I'm aware of other costly and probably better options like the Reserve Fillmore and MucOff, but with four bikes set up tubeless in the house (and at least three of them I care about), I'd rather go back to the disposable core option than spend $150 (make that $100 since they won't work on my deep garvel wheels).  Granted, the disposable core option doesn't solve the whole finding out you have a semi-clogged core in a race flat scenario. 

Another issue is the lack of a decent, low pressure gauge that's Clik compatible or being able to use one of the two or three gauges I already own.  I was hoping the Clik adapter would function with one of them.  It did not.  Clik has one digital option coming $oon, and Schwalbe makes (or made?) one that is somewhat available but has no bleed button.  Arrghh.

Rigid single speeder likes accurate low pressures.

Two ways to enter the Clik world; head first or a dipping of the toe, the former being the cheaper option if you end up fully converting.  Despite my tendency to cannonball my way into something new (ahem, 32" wheels), I went with the starter kit.  Two valves, one adapter.

Yeth, the newer Industry Nine valve stems are on the stubby side on my 32" wheels, which makes me wonder if valve stem length comes into play, being that the really, really long stems on my garvel bike have shown little to no signs of clogging yet at just over two months in.

Either I'll remember to post some kinda update in a few months, or you'll just see Clik valves on my two 32" single speeds and my garvel bike... or you'll see a giant bag of valve cores hanging on my pegboard.  

What I can say as of now:

I like the pump interface, especially when using the Topeak E-Booster Digital Mini.  I'll be depending on it for inflation and what not when I head to Girona in less than two months for Garvel-cation.

It plays okay with a normal pump head.

I've got no idea if/when it will clog up, or when I'd know that this is the way forward.

I'm guessing before I race this setup, I'm going to go ahead and waste a CO2 to confirm for myself that it's all the buenos.

So there's all that.

Hold me now...

I've only really got one actual "race" left that's solidly on the calendar (pen not pencil) for the '26 "season."  The Old Fort Fifty is just a month away, so let's just let that be my current raison d'être.  This past weekend was in a bit of flux going into it, as I'm still trying to get past that strange high heart rate thing that happened a week ago.  

I did the longest, flattest, saddest dad ride on my TKO that I could think of on Friday.  So.  Hot.  Outside.

Inside too tho.

Things fell together late Friday night, and being that the Old Fort Fifty is the next thing of concern, I woke up at 5:00am to get out to refamiliarize myself with the area and test the legs (and heart).

Pushed up Star Gap pretty early on and decided to take a couple runs at Heckle Rock on the 32".

First time down, slow.  Methodical.  It's been reworked (again) since the last time I came down it.

Second time, let off the brakes after getting past the first rock line and...

Puncture.

Doh.  

That said, once again, TruckerCo Cream II did it's job.  I took the time to break out my tire plugger before getting Bill Nye's mini-compressor fired up, but I ended up putting it away unused.  The hole had already sealed up, so once again, it gets my...

SEAL OF SEMI-APPROVAL

I guess just "semi" because they still generously include a syringe with every half and full liter bottle, so I have a billionty syringes now after being a loyal user since 2015.  This stuff works better than any other sealant I've tried (or witnessed not working on other's bikes), it's inexpensive, and I won't not sing its praises every time it saves my ass.

Although (true) Lower Heartbreak Ridge is not part of the Old Fort Fifty, I passed on my first chance to ride it when pre-riding sections of the race back in '24, because I figured I'd see it eventually... and then Helene happened.   They finally got it reopened a few months ago, so I really wanted to see it this time.

It didn't disappoint.

FWIW: 32" wheels rule the roost on switchbacks, up and down.  Mebbe it's just mine?  Dunno.  It railed them coming down Star Gap, Lower Heartbreak Ridge, Bernard, and Kitsuma AND was super confident going up the ones on Kitsuma... and I cleared the zig-zag switchbacks going up on Bernard that I never even bothered to try on a 29" single speed (I don't think, anyways). 
 

3-D printing these bad Larrys and putting them on my Etsy store.

I got a whole lotta riding in over the weekend, and I think mebbe I'm over whatever hump I found a week ago.  

Oh, the Aspen AT 32" is worth the wait.

Once I get a squish fork 32," I'm not seeing anything holding me back other than me.

Full Assillymilation

Communication with Vassago Tom has begun this past Monday to get moving on a squishy 32" single speed faster than earlier anticipated.

A ride in Wilson Creek a couple weeks ago on my 29er got the wheels turning to buy a 32" suspension correct frame to be ready for the coming Fox fork as soon as it comes out.  This last ride in DuPont has me pushing all the chips to the middle of the table.

I was feeling like absolute dog shit.  All day long, my heart rate was just too high for the effort I was making, and I found myself looking for short cuts from the group ride and potential bailout points.  My head didn't feel all that right coming down Hickory Top, and I had to kinda check up a bit most of the day.  Things started to feel slightly better for me heading over to the final climb up Cedar, and then we finished with a descent down Big Rock.

For those that don't ride DuPont all that much, Big Rock is known for it's slabby granite slickrock sections, interspersed with little pockets of rooty chutes and ledges and whatnot.  About 2/3 of the way down, there's a ditch that I'm pretty sure was created by Helene that now has a big rock move (big for an XC guy) that I haven't done since the erosion happened.  I was on Bill Nye's capable wheel coming into it, and I thought, "Fuck it.  These wheels got this."

And they did.  There was a little butt scrub on the back wheel, but honestly, that's about the steepest roll down I'd be willing to do on a short travel hard tail... and I was on a rigid bike... so...

No photo evidence, but Bill Nye can confirm the shouting (mebbe screams?) he heard behind him, and I didn't lose his wheel (and I set a PR on the lower DH section).

The only things holding this bike back is the front tire (that will be fixed this week), and the lack of squishy bits up front.  I decided that just as I didn't want to wait for 32" bikes to be a readily available thing so I just sorta made it happen (thanks, Tom), I don't wanna wait on the new Fox fork for another damn minute.  My body is too old to do rigid all the time in the places I wanna go, and while I keep hearing the Fox fork will be here "this fall," that's anywhere between late September and early December.  I got so much riding I wanna do before then, so full send.

Due to some constraints of the design of the Wren fork, I'm only going to have 80mm of travel, but that's plenty for now.  The big wheels take some of the edge off, but a little relief will go a long way.  I'm assuming when I do get the Fox, I'll only be running 100-110 mebbe.  This fork has lockout, a floating piston instead of tokens, keyed stanchions to keep the legs from getting twisty, it's 160mm rotor native for a tiny man like me, and it has a quick release?

Huh?

Hopefully soon enough, it will make my everyday riding that much better.  I've been limiting my "off the ground" time in order to save my hands from landing in a pile of unseen garbage, and I'm missing the feels of a having some air under my wheels.  

I'm still not saying this is everyone's cup of tea.  Since I started riding and racing single speeds back in 2004, I've wanted what so many other mountain bikers want in a bike.  Higher speeds, more confidence, more control, more traction, more... more... more of all the things that make it so good.  Try being a single speeder hoping for single speed specific innovations in one hand while shitting in the other and see which one fills first.  Most of the things people say these wheels can't do, they totally can.

I'm still a stupid single speeder.  I still like hard tails.  This is exactly my cup of tea.

There's always room for Jell-O® (Cosby-free, obvs)

Waddup?

Personally, I'm just purging shoes that were worn a few dozen times past the point of practicality and some helmets that are no longer in their prime and mebbe damaged enough to be considered unsafe.

Mebbe a little thinking?

I'm already moving slightly away from some of my early comments about 32" wheels in that Bike Rumor interview from late January.

"I'm heavily considering a mullet for my personal “Pisgah bike” once forks are available, although it would be nice to keep a bike that fits in a travel case without removing the tires." ~ me

I've already proved to myself that I can indeed fit a 32" into my EVOC travel bag.  Score one point against tiny wheels.

The "Pisgah bike" thing tho?

I've already reached out to Tom at Vassago to see about getting a small suspension-corrected frame in my hands before Fox releases their 32" fork so I can be set to go on day one.  The more I ride my 32" bike, the less I wanna ride my 29".  I'll be repurposing whatever parts I can from the Optimus... and if things go as planned, I'll be selling my last remaining 29" single speed, what's left of it at least.

Yeth.  For me, it's that good.  YRMV.

32" wheel in an old Park Tool truing stand.  Another myth dispelled.  FTW

And then there's what I had to say about garvel'ing bikes. 

"It will happen, but I have no idea how small the frame can get before you have toe overlap. I’m nowhere close to it on my 32” mountain bike, but my 700c gravel bike is already pretty tight, and I have friends that I ride with who just ‘deal with it." ~ me

I just got my new TKO dream build, and sure... I'm wondering what it would be like with big wheels.  Most of the garvel racing I've done was on single speed mountain bikes, and my 32" felt faster in every way... except when compared to being on my 40cm noodle bars tucked away like a bullet as opposed to sitting bolt upright holding onto the 780mm bars eating wind like it was a party size bag of Peanut M&M's. 

Tom had to remind me that as much as 32" mountain bikes might be slightly still up in the air in terms of hub standards and geometry, garvel bikes are closer to being up in the exosphere.  I took a big leap with my big wheeled MTB, and I'm 99.9% still digging on the new bike vibes of the TKO, so mebbe I'll let someone else test those waters for me.  At the time that I said what I said about garvel bikes and toe overlap, I hadn't even thought about the increased bottom bracket drop on 32" wheeled bike putting your toes lower under the wheel... and also had no idea that garvel bikes have even more bottom bracket drop so...

What do I know?

"...but I know enough about gravel bike geometry to fill my navel and leave enough room for an elephant to run around." ~ me 

Soon enough, I'll have my hands on a new Aspen AT 2.4.

That's good news number two.  These tires give me hope.

Numbers three and four?

Alessandra Keller put a 32" bike on a UCI podium.

Only third place in the XCC, but keep in mind, first place (Savillia Blunk) went from dead last on lap one after taking a decent spill and fought her way back to 5th two weeks ago in the XCO race.  Dare I say that Savillia is on a bit of a tear.  Mebbe I'm being sensitive, but they showed her wreck (and a bobble in a tech section that stymied many on Sunday) enough times that I feel like they knew what kinda hate stew they'd be stirring.  Her fight back through the field afterwards was something else tho.

Oh, and Jorden Wakeley took first in the NUE Lumberjack 100 over the weekend too... aboard his Vassago Maximus.

I followed his 32"  journey on Facebook.  From his first rides in early April, to winning the Arcadia Grit and Gravel on a steel 32" and announcing that he was selling all his 29ers, to getting his hands on a Maximus and taking the W at LJ100.

Anyways, Pink Bike commenters need to work on some new 32" material.  Just saying.

Next up, the Summer Steamer in Knoxville on July 18th.  

Good to know I've got a hot three day weekend coming up to acclimate beforehand.  Super stoked to see TN peeps and ride all the trails there are to ride* (at least most of them, anyways).

* on my 32er, natch

LATE EDIT, but don't that look like a Rock Shox fork on a Trek 32" just hanging out in the background?

It's a convection oven out there

Thorry.  The wheels came off the bus last week.  That don't mean I'm not getting any riding in...

But it does mean that I'm waaaaaay off the back on the launch of HandUp's new kit... like tight roadie/gravel kit(s).

Yup.  From the folks that are mostly associated with making casual cycle sport performance wardrobe comes some truly sweet kit that I've been riding around in for a couple weeks.

Obviously, if you order one of their jerseys, it will come with the optional sleeves still attached.

I'm mega-stoked on the reasonably priced cargo bibs.  Let me remind you that I wanted cargo bibs to exist a long, long time ago, showed some stoke when SWAT bibs came out in 2013, but still lamented for many more years that all the cargo bibs being made were intended for use with baggies.  Now I don't even know how I lived without them or pulled off packless PMBAR way back in 2013 without the extra five pockets.

And if I'm mega-stoked on the bibs, imagine how I feel about HandUp finally making tiny hats!

I'd been begging for these ever since they stopped being just a glove company.  Although, when they sent me an email to alert me of their coming, I was worried that they had made the fatal tiny hat error of using stretchy jersey-like material.  That's my last choice in tiny hat selection.  Fortunately, the material is thin like my Specialized Deflect tiny hats, but with a ventilated center panel and a bill that's long enough to be useful.  

Okay, outside of all that...

I'm busy thinking about everything I wanna do between now and September 5th when I leave for Spain with Bill Nye, Dr Mike, and Burke Burkenson.  I decided to join them in doing something that I thought would be saved for my "later years," so I'll be sticking my gravel bike in a travel bag and going on a specific "Gravel-cation."  I'm truly so smitten with my Vassago TKO that, dare I say, I'm excite?  I look forward to long days in the saddle, incredible scenery, and saying "buenos" way too much.

I swear to gob I'm not becoming a gravel dad lord.  I swear.

Oh, it's my 57th birthday today.  Seems crazy that it was just yesterday or seven years ago since my 50th party/ride.  Mebbe I am "Gravel-cation" years old?