Here are a couple more photos from the 12 hour.

Race promoter Mike Rossen is in the background doing his best to stay awake.  I wonder if he had a headache?

Myself and Adam Hoppe.  I’m so glad I had a recliner.

Lots of other good pics here and here and here.

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog.  Things have been super busy with the scene here in El Paso.  This past weekend’s 12 hour race confirmed that we have an awesome scene and it also helped further solidify my reasons for racing.  It’s all about helping to put our scene on the national radar.  Winning the Breck Epic was to legitimize the trails in El Paso as it was for my own personal goals.  The fans at both the Epic and this 12 hour were awesome and I got huge cheers during awards and throughout the event.  Mike, myself, and Brent have been putting in some serious time to make the mtb scene here in El Paso better for everyone.  I just wish more people would get involved with the grunt work or volunteering with trail building or race marshalling. 

I knew this weekend’s 12 hour race would be harder than most people thought it might be.  Yes, it’s in my backyard and I know the trails quite well.  I ran a 21 t on both bikes.  I was hoping everything would go well,  but damn…where that wind come from? 

The 12 hours of old el paso was a hit!  It’s gonna get big in couple more years.  It’s gonna be big next year.  This year’s event only cost $40 a person.  They had food, music, beer, and fireworks.  Lots of my buddies were out marshalling the course and the state park guys were making some laps to check everything out. 

Here’s how it went down for me.  Not wearing a costume…like Brent, I had settle for a longer run to the bike. 

The run wasn’t bad, but I definitely need to run more if I plan on doing more LeMann’s starts.  I started out on the FS with the YESS tensioner, 32×21, nanoraptors front and rear.  The first lap was a bit faster due to a bypass of the first section of single track.  I was sitting in about 5th or 6th and moved up to about 3rd or 4th at the end of the lap.  I rode the first 2 and half laps with eventual solo winner Adam Hoppe.  He was geared and had much more fun on the climbs than I did.  First lap was 38 minutes.  Second lap was just as fast considering the additional single track….42 minutes.  On the third lap, I switched to the hard tail so Jen could let some air out of my tires.   I pitted so fast she didn’t hear what I said and ended up adding air.   

The hardtail was a bit slower feeling with a 2.55 Weirwolf up front and a 2.3 Exiwolf in the back.  3/4 way through the third lap on the hardtail, I stopped to pee and started to feel some cramping.  4th lap I was back on the FS.  I was drinking 2 full bottles every lap.  About half way into the 4th lap, my legs cramped so bad I had to get off the bike, which made it worse.  I pitted a bit longer the next couple of times through and ate some solid food and took some more salt tabs and sportlegs.  Eventually I was taking one or two of either salt tabs, sportlegs, or ibuprofin from lap 5 and on.  My pits were still pretty quick with my longest at probably 5 minutes.  My lap times stayed around 50 -55 minutes. 

On my first “night” lap, I grabbed the hardtail with lights and a helmet with lights.  I didn’t want to sit around putting on lights when Jen could do it for me.  I ended up not needing the lights as I was able to finish it before it got too dark.  Back on the FS I was lit up and rollin’.  I love night riding and the laps seemed much faster though my fastest night lap was only 52 minutes.  I kept rolling laps as hard as possible and finally stopped cramping on the climbs at about lap 10.  Sometime in there I saw that Lenny, my challenger in the SS category, was done and hadn’t left his pit in a couple of laps.  I decided to go for 13 laps and finished at 9:30. 

My lap count was good for 2nd place solo overall.  I won the SS by 3 laps, 2 if you count Karen Rishel who rode well after the 10 pm ending to complete 11 laps.  She ran a huge gear on a sweet new Superfly.  Props to the solo field.  The sign in posters looked to have about 30 spots on them for all of us nutbags.

I had no flats and only came close to crashing once.  That was on lap 5 or 6 when I was feeling absolutely stupid with my legs cramping on the descents.  My pit spot was probably the best in the race and my pit bitch did a great job even though I rushed through way too many and could have slowed down just a little in order to think things through a bit more and communicate better.

After awards, I crawled back to the camper with my cool trophy and a check for $100.  Hopefully this thing won’t rot away anytime soon.

The Catholic School girls (they’re really MILF’s in disquise) brought back memories of high school.

My pit area….you can barely see the trail between my 10×10 and the tent in the background.

I didn’t look nearly this good at 10 pm.

My dog had a field day checking out lots of new smells and being in her natural “race” environment.

As a 200 pounder, I am classified as a “seated climber”.  In other words, it is much more effecient for me to remain seated when climbing than it is to lug my giant arse out of the saddle to grunt my way up the hill…thus the need for some sort of rear suspension.  

Ever since I started single speeding, I’ve been using some sort of rear suspension.  My first SS foray was on a K2 Razorback, but I couldn’t get the tensioner/cog combo to work for me.  I gave it up quickly after a banged knee and a shot to the nuts from the top tube.

On my current hardtail SS, I use the Moxey Suspension Seatpost.  Since these posts don’t exist anymore and parts are unavailable, I don’t like to spend lots of time on it…..especially since the Cane Creek sucks crack. 

So I’ve begun my second foray into full suspension singledom.  With the generosity of Renny at YESS Labs, I now have a full suspension specific chain tensioner.  My second ride with it was the Horny Toad NMORS XC race which I crushed on a 32×17.  I had some skipping, but I’m pretty sure it was related to the slightly worn aluminum cog with a new chain.  I put on a steel 21 t for the weekend and rode over 6 hours with it.  I got no skipping or popping!  I also don’t have a front chain guide or tensioner other than the cateye chain watcher….which I probably don’t need as I’ve yet to throw the chain on it.  I did drop it during a night ride when rolling a 20 t after the Horny Toad, but I think my chain alignment was off as I was popping excessively in the rear.

Setup is tedious with this device as there are 5 points of adjustment.  The use of almost every allen size on your multi-tool is required.  Once set up correctly, it works really well.  I really like the fact that it works!  I never had luck with the rear deraileur as a tensioner and the stupid little “singulators” don’t work with the lower swingarm being in the way.  I have to use those as a push down tensioner which does not allow for any chain wrap on the cog.

The YESS ETR-D has a fixed upper bushing/roller/pulley/thingy that allows for maximum chain wrap.  The lower pulley is a standard pulley that is spring loaded with a cantilever brake spring.  I found that running the spring with max tension and as little chain as possible provides the best performance.  There is a bunch of leeway for adjustment in pulley position and spring tension, so set up may take a bit of time.

You’ve already heard me complain about set up a couple of times.  There are some other things that may bug you that kind of bug me.   I don’t think this device was originally designed for epic SS rides.  I think it was designed for dirt jumpers or park riders who want to forgo gears on their FS bikes.  I say this because the thing is noisy.  The upper pulley/bushing/roller/thingy is quite loud on the chain.  I don’t think it really adds that much friction to the system, but it is definitely more than a sram XO with ceramic bushings.  Not being able to remove the wheel hasn’t been a big issue as I’ve yet to flat while using it.  But if I were to flat at hour 5 of an 8 hour adventure, it may cause some problems if I space off and lose a skewer spring or nut.  I also have only done wheel changes on the work stand, so doing it off the stand may pose some additional challenges.  These are the only gripes I have.  I think that Renny has something pretty good here and if demand dictates it, some minor changes may help create a product that would work even better for us long haul SS’ers. 

This thing will get a ton of use this fall and winter and I’ll be keeping Renny updated.  If you are using one for SS XC use, let me and Renny know how it is treating you.  Maybe we can help develop one that is quiet and allows for easier wheel changes.

This year’s Horny Toad was as rowdy as years past as a really bad band decided to take the stage at 11 pm and played till 2.  They got worse as the night wore on and their bass player dropped out somewhere around midnight.

Here’s some shots from the chainless DH from which I have retired.

It’s tough on our dog here in the desert.  She’s a swimmer!  She loves hitting the creeks and ponds on our summer travels.  At the end of every summer the Mary Tobin Pool, not far from our house, opens up to dogs!  $2 and your dog can swim in the pool.  We took Luna down on Saturday for well over an hour of hard swimming.  Once she figured out the ramp, it was non-stop fetch time.  They even had a swim race.  Luna raced 5 other dogs.  It went a full 25 yards, but Luna couldn’t figure out how to jump in.  While all the other dogs were swimming away, I finally threw her in.  It took her a second to figure out what was going on, but with Jen on the other side calling her, she straightened out and started throwing a wake.  She caught all but 2 dogs to finish 3rd.  She got a cool little trophy and stuck around for the podium with the winner Peaches…who was owned by one of the skankiest lookin’ chics I’ve seen in a long time.

Today we went back down, but only had 10 minutes left to swim.  She showed every dog there how it’s done.  Jen threw the log out to the middle of the pool almost every time and she hauled butt fetching it back.  She continued to buffalo her way around on the ramp with little regard for other users.  We can’t wait for next year.

Dog Swim from David Wilson on Vimeo.

We’ve been getting some much needed rain.  It’s getting the critters out.  Jen and I saw a nice size diamond back cruising across Sotol, but I didn’t have my camera.  It didn’t make a sound.  Nice set of rattles too.

I went out by myself last monday and saw this fat horny toad.

Then I saw this creeper.  I saw some more not long after, but I wanted to keep the pace on.

Have fun out there and respect the wildlife.

Gonna have to figure out how to configure the camper for a crib.

I’ve been wanting one of these the first day I started teaching.  High schoolers come up with the best excuses.  Of course, at my school, they are pretty heavy duty.  Examples from last year:  My baby was in the hospital…for 15 days. I couldn’t afford diapers for my baby and the courts just gave me custody of my little brother because my mother got thrown in jail and my 24 year old boyfriend lost his job.

Okay. Those are pretty good excuses even though there are a multitude of services for kids like that, but they sometimes don’t know or it takes a while to get things rolling…like a year.

But for the kids that are always whining and crying about stupid stuff, I’ve always told them that I’d be happy to call a wambulance for them.  I found one.

This week is going to be fun!

I’ve been wanting to pull off something brutal and fun this fall and I think I’ve got it.  Am I a masochist?

Check it out here.

http://nmes.wordpress.com/6-%e2%80%93-el-paso-enduro-poker-ride/

The course is going to be pretty sick. 

I doubt it will include the new northern pass trail, but we’ll see.  The current configuration goes over Mundy’s twice….once in each direction.  This will be a good preview for the shorter Puzzler which takes place in January.

I just joined Facebook last week.  I’m limiting myself on it as it is definitely a time vacuum.  I still have a Myspace account that I set up when I was at the university.  I couldn’t stand all the adds and stupid backgrounds that people would set up.  I really hated going onto someone’s page and having some really bad song blare out of my computer.  I’m sure people thought the same of my page.  So I haven’t visited there much over the years.

Facebook is kind of cool and I’ve found several friends that I’ve lost touch with over the years.  I think that is a good thing.  I’ve alsways been real bad about staying in touch with old friends.  I pretty much completely ignored my high school friends after I moved west.  I got an email about my 20th reunion, but I pretty much ignored it.  I mainly hope that facebook keeps me in touch with all my mtb friends and reconnects me with old mtb friends.  I have no desire to get back in touch with any army friends…..if I ever really could call them friends to begin with.

I have a twitter account but I don’t know how to use it.  It seems kind of pointless to me.  

My blog gets regular viewers, but I don’t really care.  I hope that I’m able to post some info every now and then that will be helpful to others…friends or otherwise.  I like reading other people’s blogs as long as there isn’t too much data and data analyses present in the content.  If I see a screen shot of someone’s power profile, I immediately go to someone else’s blog instead.  It doesn’t mean that I never go to that person’s blog again, but I’d much rather look at cool pictures and hear inside stories about races, rides, and bike builds.

Anyway.  I’m on facebook now.