Beefcakes Bike Blog

Typical view from my stay in Mongolia The Mongolia Bike Challenge 2017 Tired, heavy eyed, suddenly sitting in my office chair but my brain and body are traveling at Boeing 777 speed over the Pacific with the hum of jet engines in an unconscious area of my mind. I sit and try to get ready for the upcoming work week but the afterglow of a twenty day vacation as far away from home as possible is flashing a slow motion slide show of landscapes and feelings experienced while gone.   Prior to arriving in Mongolia I had little knowledge of the terrain.   I only knew what I found online and what one local professional racer was willing to share (not much at all). I composed this post to answer questions for those who are interested in the Mongolia Bike Challenge so they feel more informed than I did. Tamir Wellness Ger Camp I've wanted to visit Mongolia  since seeing pictures of it in a geography class in high school. Green is all i remember and green is what...

Trans-Sylvania Epic 2014 Day 5 On or before day 5 of a stage race i typically decide that i am home where ever my bike is and thus want the vacation to go on and on (like the rambling of my posts here). My body starts to adjust to the difficulty of the racing, i start getting faster and the negativity of the world subsides in my mind allowing me to relax, read books, type blog posts and just really enjoy being me. It's funny how something so difficult can give you such a sense of peace. I've forgotten about work (almost), the problems in Russia/Ukraine, and what ever else was in the news the week prior to our trip. Right now it's only Pennsylvania trail, my wife and other crazy bikers. Today started in R. B. Winter State Park. This place is a gem. Lush green ferns, dark Pennsylvania forests, moss, more rocks and Amish or Mennonites hanging out at the park. Today's stage was 31ish miles with about half of that being single or double track including a brand new sectio...

Trans-Sylvania Epic 2014 - Day 4 He's not heavy. He's my brother. But my bike is heavy. Real heavy. It seems as everybody has grown an affinity for carpet fiber or carbon fiber or fiber crabon, what ever it is, i decided to grow an affinity to a heavier material...steel. Steel is real so they say. It's also heavy. It breaks less than carbon fiber when your weight is around 215#. I stopped weighing my bike once it crossed the 30lb milestone. Than i added a dropper post, heavier fork, boo bar and a super thick rear tire made from hippopotamus hide or something very similar. Any way, I'm riding a tank.  So today i woke after a good night of sleep to rain tap tap tapping on the camper roof. This is not what you dream of as a mountain biker. I don't recall ever exclaiming "yay" I'm going mountain biking in the mud and rain. Oh boy! Maybe we'll have some summer hail or tornado or a giant lightning storm. Luckily we did not. The rain stopped 5 minutes...

Tran-Sylvania Epic 2014 Day 3 - Enduro Day Finally. A chance to thank Pisgah for her lessons regarding navigation of high speed, hand numbing, mind blowing descents. The trails here in PA are tough. The rocks turn a smooth pedal stroke into something more similar to a swift kick in the but. It really feels like you are getting kicked in the butt, over and over and over and over again. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I do ride a hard tail so maybe some of it is my fault. I just can't let go of the interaction with the trail that comes from riding a well built, super fun, steel hard tail 29er. It's a Transition Trans Am. Plug.  transitionbikes.com . This bike rocks. It's the best 29er I've owned, hands down. The only other bike that is similar was my custom titanium 26er by Steve Potts. Plug.  stevepottsbicycles.com . Steve Potts makes awesome bikes and I'm building up my first custom ti Steve Potts 29er soon. Anyway, today was super fun to me since the race was five sma...

Trans-Sylvania Epic 2014 - Day 2 Bad. Long. Hot. Never under estimate the difficulty of 40 miles of Pennsylvania rocks, hills and more rocks. We have rocks in Western North Carolina but they are typically small and usually move. In PA they are big and reach up from the earth to grab tires as you roll by. Upon completion of day one i knew that a podium spot in my age group was very unlikely. I knew that coming into this race. The Enduro aspect is still in my sights. Unfortunately there is only one winner in the Enduro category and it's winner take all. No second place losers. Long story short, I bonked around 25 miles in, went through two 3 liter camelbaks, 2 water bottles, 2 flat tires and 2 naps trail side. Distinction between reality and la la land was a fine line of which i was straddling over. A kind biker and two young riders stopped to ask if i was ok and if i needed help. All i could say was nothing at all. Then finally i lied and said i was ok. She read my answer and pre...

Trans-Sylvania Epic 2014, Day 1 review It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you. As Eric B would say. 2014 and here i sit broken hearted. Tried to .......woops wrong saying. I find myself at the 2014 Trans-Sylvania Epic for the third time. It's all new and improved but i am two years older. Some things changed. Some didn't. I still like to race. I still like to ride, even though I tried to walk away from it for a bit. Racing gets in your blood like a bad virus you don't want. There have been times that i didn't want it, but around it comes and here i am in the middle of Pennsylvania, in a camper, with my wife, my tired legs, a belly full of food and nervous energy about the next 6 days. The new to me change is this thing called Enduro. It's like a race within a race in which your down hill segments are timed and the rider with the lowest overall time is crowned the Enduro champion. I'm older and don't want to keep up with the fast kids so...

July 3, 2011 - First Annual (hopefuly) Brevard, NC Alley Cat Race. What a blast! Thirty some odd people (i use odd loosely) including kids, adults, adults who are still kids and in-betweens. This was my first participation in an Alley Cat Race. Typical alley cat format is basically no format at all. This race consisted of 10 or so check points, each worth a certain amount of points based upon their distance from the starting point. Also in the mix were a number of local landmarks, people and combinations of both that were each worth an additional 3 points each. Who ever has the most points and returns to the designated finishing area by the cut-off time wins. My buddy and official H8R, aka ZB, decided he just wanted to follow me for the race since he doesn't know Brevard all that well. Together we sped through Brevard and its outskirts, collected pictures, signed sign in sheets, danced, busted some rhymes, begged, consumed liquid refreshment, obeyed all and any traffic laws, improv...

TSE Day 7 – the final day “I think we worked perty well together”, a quote straight from Cissy. Yeah. We finished. We’re bad. Oh yeah! 7 days! We made it. What an accomplishment. I feel great and I don’t want it to end. It was painful during the entire process but now I want it to continue. I want to have to wake early in the AM and hop on the bike on my sore arse and ride 40+ miles of difficult trails and spend 4 hours suffering. I want to do it again. What in my genetic make up makes me crave such suffering. Why do I enjoy punishing myself? What aspect of suffering gives me pleasure? Don’t know. Uncertain. I do know that I’m in Pennsylvania and they sell beer from the bar in 6 packs and 12 packs and I have a 12 pack of Pennsylvania brewed Yuengling sitting here beside me that probably won’t make it through the night (well at least 6 of them). I just returned from the bar (beer store) with said 12 pack which is extremely celebratory and now my wonderful woman is cooking macaroni and...

TSE Day 6 It was actually cold this morning as opposed to the 93 degree heat on Monday. The race start began about 4 miles from the race headquarters base camp. All racers left the base camp and did a slow ride to the start. The race director said “go” and we went. Cissy and I stayed on the wheels of our only competitors for the first hour and twenty minutes then they pulled away from us on a long downhill. We saw them at the end of the race. Only one of them had taken off their helmet, so we weren’t far behind. Actually, we were only 10 minutes behind…so not too shabby! The trails today were mostly rocks and some rocks and then a few more rocks. After the first trail of rocks, there were more rocks. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the rocks? The rocks were rideable though and it took fierce concentration to navigate the smoothest line. We started on a gravel road and quickly entered a forest service road which evolved into double track then single track and finally hike a bike. The h...

TSE - Day 5 Today was four short xc style races formatted in a rolling ride. All racers rolled out of the staging area at a slow pace until we got to the start then each group raced a short race to the next finish. After all the racers finished, we rode together to the next start and did it all again. Four little races in one large rolling group. Total miles were only 28 or so. It was a very relaxed stage and most of the lead riders sorta took it easy. Since the individual races were so short, most leaders didn't have to worry about losing much time in the overall standings. It was a fun format. Cissy and i did our best in the rocky terrain, passing a lot of people who obviously don't ride Pisgah or Pennsylvania often enough to scurry over the rocks quickly. Cissy saw a huge rattlesnake on the side of the gravel road in between two race stages. We started and finished at R. B. Winter State Park. It seemed like a nice place. Lake, beach, pavilions, camping sites etc. Not much mo...

TSE Hump Day – Day 4. It was day 4 of 7 today so only 3 stages remaining. Once again, as predicted, we gained on our sole competitors. Our course today consisted of Tsali like trails mostly on contour following the edge of Raystown Lake. We had two twenty ish mile laps to complete. Today we gained 6500’ in 42 miles. Yesterday we gained less but it hurt more because the climbs were continuous. Today we had 42 miles of fun rolling-dip-grade, side hill bench cut, machine made trails much similar in fashion to the trails at Dupont State Forest and that worn out place known as Tsali. This course made us smile. We laughed and had a lot of fun. The race started with a controlled start from a paved road at lakes edge. We had to pedal about ½ mile up an 8-10% grade then into the single track. Cissy and I started a little too hard and had to back up off of it for just a tad. We shortly got into a good rhythm and started to gain on who ever we saw ahead of us. There was only one aid station today...

TSE Day 3 – Gravel, gravel, gravel. We rode a lot of gravel if you didn’t infer that by the title of today’s review. Our plan was to start slow and maintain a good pace then go faster if we could. Again, I was the weak link, but not as bad as yesterday. The heat is beating me down. I poured every third bottle of water on my head and neck to try and keep my temperature down. It helped a bunch. Bla. What we saw today came straight out of an issue of National Geographic. Green everywhere. Solitude in the forest is what we witnessed as we climbed for a total of 5300’ in 49 miles. It was hard to imagine how some of the climbs kept going. We’d round a turn and think we were at the top but the next turn revealed more up. It seemed to never stop. Most of the climbs were along mountain streams. We also had quite a bit of shade (thank God). Some of the streams were misting upwards towards the road bed and you would occasionally get a cool treat from the water. The route took us through Coburn, P...

TSE Day 2 - Welcome to PA’s finest. Today hurt. 43 miles, aw shucks - that’s not so far! Well heck, I can ride that far at the drop of a hat... but not on rocky Pennsylvania single track. For those familiar with the rock garden near bottom of Pilot Rock Trail, Pisgah National Forest N.C., – take that and spread it out on 15-20 miles of single track. The rocks weren’t as big and loose as on Pilot, but they seemed constant. Most all of the trail was rideable but throw in the 90 degree heat, steep gravel climbs and 15 extra pounds around the midsection and you have a prime candidate for the sag wagon. Oh yeah, I’m teamed up with Cynthia T. Fowler. I didn’t realize that the “T” stands for tenacious and there was no pity party for me on the trail today. I wanted to stop several times but I was provoked by a cheerful voice that kept reminding me of earlier days, when I was actually in shape and actually prepared for a ride like this. She never let me stop. I am thankful for that. I went thr...

Pre prologue. Tired. Heavy legs. Nervous. Why? Don’t know. What you scared of? Don’t know. Actually not much unless I’m nervous. Belly full of nerves. Here for fun. This isn’t fun. This is nerve racking. Soaking up all my energy. Instead of into the pedals it’s into my head. Want to be here until I’m here. Then it’s easy to be somewhere else in my mind, but not physically. I need to be here now. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. For me. For Cissy. It’s dangerous not to be here. I’ve checked out. Gotta check back in by 2:30, when the race starts. Then we have 1:30 minutes before Cissy and I start our prologue. I’m racing against nobody but my head. Basket case. I’ve raced 100’s of times. Nothing on the line. This is supposed to be relaxed and easy. I’m so nervous I almost wish I was working. Gotta break through this nervous energy before it consumes all my good calories and mental energy for the prologue. This is what we do. Why? I guess it’s what we know. I’ve raced in this area twice...

3/5/11 Snake Creek Gap #3 33.18 miles/Max speed 43/3.55 time/8.5 avg Race review *Big props to Austin Parsons for keeping my mountain bike in top notch shape! Not one occasion of chain suck in 34 miles of sticky, all encompassing, North Georgia chocolate. Thanks Austin! My hopes and dreams of Pinhoti trail in pristine form washed away thanks to 12 hours of pre-race rain. Muddy was the trail but not soggy as one month prior. In February’s race the snow and ice melt had settled into the first few inches of soil creating a spongy type surface…much like wet sand. In yesterday’s race there was only an inch of slop atop a solid base of Northwest GA soil. The conditions, although undesirable, were not quite as miserable as a month ago. My goal for this race was to knock 30 minutes off my previous time. That may seem like a lofty goal but considering my lack of training for the first race it was obtainable. With four semi-dedicated weeks between races, there was enough time to shed a few poun...

Snake Gap Creek time trial – race 2, Feb. 5, 2011 First race of the season, and I hurt. It’s been a long comfortatble winter……on the sofa. “On the sofa” can be used like “between the sheets” in fortune cookie lingo but it’s not a good phrase to describe your fitness. This race made me feel as if I were “just off the sofa”. At least I’m headed in the right direction. Snake Gap Creek is run on the PInhoti trail in Northwest Georgia. Being from GA I’ve ridden most of the trails, but not the Pinhoti. It opened up after I fled for WNC (Western North Carolina) in 2004. The route was a 34 mile point to point race with about 4,000 feet of climbing, per some unknown rider on the bus who seemed to know what he was talking about with exception of the rocky section of trail near races end. As a self designated “seasoned racer” I leave my mind open to all trail suggestions, hints, pointers, etc. however, I put those pointers in the back of my head until I get to the spot referenced then I make my ...

Day 5 It’s the day after day 5, so I’ve been sleeping, eating, celebrating, socializing and basically enjoying the company of other similarly weird masocylcists (a new word combining masochism and cycling used to describe a cycling endurance competitor). The last day. There’s a podium spot on the line for me (since the race directors podium has two more spots than most) so I have to give it my all. Day three was my rest and relaxation day. I’m not sure why it ended up like that but sometimes things don’t always work out like we planned, like a career path or a marriage. So now I have no excuses for slow pedaling with a self-defeating attitude. We had a 6 mile paved road start then some technical climbing, followed by gravel climbing, more technical climbing, a super technical downhill, gravel, more technical up and down then gravel up and one last hurrah of a technical down. Overall, today’s course was on par with the four prior days but slightly leaning towards the technical side of t...