Bottom of the Barrel

I hit the bottom of the barrel hard last weekend at the Long Pine Classic. Didn't even finish the race. I've been excited by this race for a year now; it's my "home" course, it has classic trails, it's raw, just like racing in Michaux should be. I really love this course, and Michaux in general, so needless to say I was a bit disappointed that I didn't finish the race.

How didn't I finish the race you ask? Well, coming down the descent after the last Beginner/Sport split (on Ridge Rd.) about half way through the steep, rocky ATV-width trail, I hit something (no I wasn't riding the front brake) and ended up catapulting off my bike. I landed perfectly with my head tucked, on my shoulder and right palm and rolled over my shoulder right to my feet. My bike was six or seven feet behind me. I think that's the furthest I've ever flown. So, time to assess the damage. Little cut on my knee, brush burns on my shoulder, right palm swollen a lot. Can I move my fingers without pain? Yes. Can I move my wrist without pain? Yes. Good. Not really any worse for the wear, I went to get back on my bike, which as usual had a bent dérailleur hanger. As soon as my right hand touched my bars I knew my race was over. There was no way I could put any pressure on my hand. Cringing, I made it down the rest of the descent and onto the long road climb to the last checkpoint. Pickle caught me on the climb after flatting before, and he rode with me until the checkpoint. When we got there, some adrenaline had kicked in and I could put a little weight on my hand, so I decided to continue for the last 2.5 miles of the race. As soon as I hit the singletrack after the power line, I knew I was not getting back in a reasonable amount of time, so I turned back to the checkpoint, hitched a ride back, and began icing my swollen hand.

Since I crashed pretty hard, I spent today pulling every single part off my bike to check for cracks.

Stripped Flash 29er frame... ~3 lbs of awesome (includes BB and headeset bearings, dérailleur hanger, front dérailleur and some stickers)

And to perform some Lefty maintenance.  I think I was only running about 1.5" of my 3" of travel at the race (bearing reset time!)

A fully extended, reset Lefty.  Exactly 140 mm of travel.  Switch the damper out and you could put this on a RZ140 and I think that's pretty cool

So.  My Lefty's back in tip top shape.  I'm going to do some experimenting with the travel to see if I can squeeze another 10 mm out of it.  90 mm of cush up front instead of 80 mm could be cool.  I also picked up some new wheels (No Tubes 355 29er's with American Classic hubs) from a very nice person in Boalsburg (thank you very nice person) so now I have a set of race-only wheels to make my bike the proper weight!  I'll post more pictures of my bike once I have it built up again in a few days.  It's going to be shiny as hell, just so I can get it dirty again!