Chickleta - My SBRing and other Adventures

You like mountain biking marathons, cross country rides, spending long hours on the saddle. But you don't like the feeling of numbness in your fingers or the hand fatigue? So here is a small solution that will not break the bank. It is called TOGS.   What's TOGS - the theory Unlike road bike handlebars, where you can change your hand position based on the terrain to maximize efficiency, change your body position to relieve pressure from your upper back and shoulders and prevent your hands from getting numb. Mountain bikers, do not have this luxury. They are locked into one position and only one point of contact with the handlebar. The TOGS, Thumb Over Grip System, is a simple and genius solution, to creating an additional hand position, with a minimal weight penalty. What does it mean? The TOGS allows you to change the position of your thumb and thus hand by gripping the TOG. This will change your wrist angle and will allow more blood flow and relief to the w...

As I am writing these words, BC dust still covers my bike. No, it's not just because I am lazy or that unlike at BC Bike Race ("BCBR") I don't have a bike vale at home. It's mostly because, it's still hard to say goodbye to this adventure and the adrenaline is still flowing in my veins. Before we jump to my race story, I have to start by explaining how I got myself into this "mess" Power River - Day 2. 52 km (32 miles) and 1080 m (3,553 ft) of climbing Photo: Todd Weselake  Every Ending Is A New Begging  The end of my triathlon "career" (at least for now), happened unexpectedly. It all started and ended in an innocent conversation with Yarnin, another BikePanel writer at the magazine meeting in Samar (read about the riding there here ). After riding Samartathon race course together, he proposed: "let's ride BC Bike Race together". What? me? BCBR? hmmm I don't know if I am good enough for that one" This wa...

I was contemplating how to start this blog post about my Austin Rattler race that took place last Saturday, when I got the periodical email from Carrie Cheadle with her latest blog post and this quote caught my eyes: “Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.” Charles R. Swindoll Yes, that was exactly it; basically sums up my race experience and now all I have to do is explain why. But first - let's start at the beginning and the why. Reflections - Rocky Hill Ranch Austin What? If you are reading this and have no idea what the Austin Rattler is(well I didn’t know until a year ago so I don’t blame you), here is the short explanation. Austin Rattler is a 100k mountain bike race taking place on a mountain bike farm (yes you read correctly, more about that to come) in Smithville, Texas, or for y'all people not from Texas - it’s about 45 min drive east of Austin, Texas. Yes, I had to look it up too. It is part of the Leadville Race Series...