Avoiding any Metallica references

My new fat bike is nearly done. It's a stock Sandman Gobi. 80mm rims and 135mm spaced rigid fork for snow. SC32 and tougher 47mm rims for the summer (no photos of that yet). I've yet to build the 80mm rear wheel but.

The ride is great. Steering is much more positive than the Pugsley. It's also almost 7lb lighter than the Pug but with added with gears. It's really noticeable on the climbs. It's amazing what you can ride up in the 20:34! I'm looking forward to getting out on it more.

More pictures on my Flickr page.

Thanks to Conrad at Sandman for sorting it out in double quick time.

My bike

I picked up a third hand Surly Pugsley from the STW classifieds. It’s a size smaller than I would have bought new, but it was a bargain and I like the colour. Thanks Jez, and Grant. Here’s how it was built up:
Frame: Surly Pugsley, with a set of bottle bosses added under the down tube so I could put my fuel bottle under there.
Fork: Surly 135mm offset
Wheels: Hope Pro II single speed hubs with low temperature grease. 65mm Surly Large Marge offset, Pugsley specific, rims (with 29mm hand drilled lightening holes). DT Comp spokes and brass Proloc nipples. The front and rear wheels are interchangeable in case a free-hub froze up.
Tyres: Surly Endomorphs
Sprockets: “rear” wheel 25t Endless cycles and 20t On-one. “Front” wheel 22 and 20t On-one. I used the 30:25 for the entire course other than The ‘Burn where I used 30:20. Thanks Brant.
Cranks: Surly Mr Whirly with 30t chainring
Chain: SRAM 8spd with Pedros Extra Dry lube
Pedals: Bontrager King Earl with upgraded bearings and low temperature grease- the stock bearings froze solid at around –20 Celsius, so wouldn’t have been much use. Extra long PowerGrips.
Headset: Chris King re-greased with low temperature grease and with a motivational “What would Stamstad do?” top cap.
Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite 110mm 7degrees rise.
Bar: Bontrager Earl With Bontrager bar ends wrapped in bar tape, Ergon grips, which I’m still not sure if I like. Epic Designs Pogies (which are awesome).
Brake levers: Very old XTRs wrapped in tape so they weren’t so cold to the touch.
Brake cables: Gore extra long
Brakes: Avid BB7
Seat Post: Bontrager Earl 400mm
Saddle: Bontrager Race Lite
Front rack: Scrap from Psyclewerx in Bristol.

Rohn

So what news to tell. No doubt you have all been following the race by looking at the latest news page. What a hardcore race it is turning out to be. If you haven't already, have a look at a news article in the Anchorage news, to help to get some sort of perspective of the conditions the racers are having to deal with.

The winner of the 350 mile race has never taken more than 5 days. In fact Pete Basinger did it a couple of years ago in just over 3 days. We have already passed the 5 day mark and none of the racers have yet made it to McGraph, the finish point of the 350 mile race.

From the leaderboard and the latest news from Kathi it looks like John has finally made it to Rohn. After, I should think, a good rest there he has the long barren route to Nikolai which is a painstaking 90 miles from Rohn.

I wonder how many of the 8 1100mile racers will continue on to Nome this year. They have already had the race of of their lives and the shorter race is not yet over.

A big hello to two of John's siblings Kirsty and Ali who have been following his progress from somewhere in the galapagos (is that right Kirsty?) and Australia.
Can't wait to see you guys at the wedding in May.

Fingerlake

John got into Fingerlake in the early hours of Tuesday morning (3.50am). He left at 11.17am for Puntilla and the Rainy Pass Lodge. See the latest news page for more info.

Jeff Oatley is seriously powering along 11 hours ahead of the next group of riders which include James Leavesley and Jay and Tracey Petervary. They are all now heading along Rainy Pass on their way to Rohn.

James took seven hours to get to Puntilla from Fingerlake so I would be expecting John to get into Puntilla late evening on Tuesday, depending on weather conditions.

It's also fantastic news that Jill's frostbite shouldn't require surgery. Rest up and get well soon Jill.

Keep on truckin'

John arrived at Skwentna Roadhouse at 11.50am yesterday and after a good break set off at 5.16pm for Fingerlake. I expect him to arrive there in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (I'm finding it difficult to write in Alaskan time seeing as we are 9 hours ahead here in the UK!).

James is flying along behind the leader Jeff Oatley who has already made it to Fingerlake.

A few riders have scratched including Geoff Roes and Jill Homer I hope they sort out their respective knee injury and frost bite and get well soon.

And they're off...

Got a call yesterday an hour before the racers were due to leave to get a bus to Knik lake from the hotel. John was excited but very nervous. They are now on their way to the first check point at Yentna River 57 miles in. Apparently due to fresh snow fall they are running a few miles behind the normal pace at this time, as they have to push the bikes. (Information and photos from Carl Hutchings...thanks Carl).

John with James Leavesley

Don't forget to check out the podcasts and the other racers blogs for more info. Jill Homer's should be interesting as she is carrying a SPOT.

Final post before the start?

The last week has been really manic and today was horrible. I phoned my credit card company to tell them I was travelling and they told me the card had been canceled because of suspected fraud (probably a surge of payments to hotels and bike shops in Alaska...). I don't have another card that works in the US. It took a long time but it seems to be sorted now! After that stress and too much to finalise at work I got car-doored on the way home. Thankfully the Merc came of worse than me. Phew. Anyway, I'm now packed and I hope everything is done! It's typical that after months of planning I'm still up a couple of hours before I have to leave. Such is life...

On a brighter note, some highlights of the week:

My new, improved Alpkit frame bag and EPIC bivy bag are here.
My pedals no longer freeze up and they have some Power Grips added.
Gore cables have been fitted.
Some lovely Giro glasses have been added to the kit list.

I have a few bits to pick up in Alaska- new tyres, pogies and some food but then I think I’m good to go. The kit list isn’t 100% finalised but it’s just a matter of deciding what I don’t want to carry, rather than finding new things.

I’m a bit nervous now, but I think it’s healthy manner. I just want to get out there!

Speedway Cycles are having a party on Friday so I’m looking forward to meeting all the other racers just in time to join me for a birthday drink.

Quite a few people have asked me about updates. The Iditarod Invitational news page is going to be updated twice daily and (click, click, click) MTBcast (is on the air) is hosting podcasts again.
The MTBR Alaska and Endurance racing forums might be worth checking as well. Mel has the keys to this account so when she hears from me she’ll let you all know.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who called, emailed or texted me best wishes. It is much appreciated. Also Phil the Horse, Anya, Jon, James and Gareth deserve a big thanks for surprising me with a bottle of Whisky older than me. I look forward to a dram when I get back, hopefully it wont all be gone before I see you all.

Take care, I will :-)

Getting there...

Apologies for the lack of posts. I’ve been super busy. Here’s some of what’s been going on:

Packed drop bags (more on that later).
Mr Whirly Cranks and lower gears have been added to the Pug.
The hubs and bb have been degreased and re-greased with low temperature grease.
I’ve replaced the old AC headset with a Chris King. It’s probably just as old but lasting much better. It also got the winterisation treatment.
Dismantled the pedals but couldn’t get the bearings apart. Hopefully they’ll be OK with normal grease.
Got some new clothing from Endura.

Still lots to sot out but getting there!

Testing times

It’s snowed here for the last couple of days. That’s pretty unusual. I’ve commuted on the Pug, gone the long ways, and played in the parks. Great fun. Anyway, that’s why I haven’t written anything about the weekend yet!

Sometimes the weekend flies by. Straight after work on Thursday I was off to the airport. A couple of hours later I landed in Edinburgh and met Jim and Angus. Jim drove us up to Aviemore where we found the Old Bridge Inn was shut so, after playing with a big bag of Mountain Equipment gloves, we headed to bed.

Friday morning I rebuilt the bike and loaded it up as close to the set-up I’m intending to use in Alaska as possible. The plan for the weekend was for me to get some decent practice using the fully loaded bike and fine-tune a few items of kit. Angus was along to film me for the Trad Film competition.

We headed up to Cairngorm Ski Centre- the highest area around. Heather, the Ranger on duty gave us some suggestions of where to find the best snow, without annoying too many skiers and Snowboarders. The winds were pretty strong (80mph?) and the push up the hill was pretty strenuous, but just as I’d anticipated. It was pretty much a white-out so the filming will hopefully make me look tough. Although it’s more likely it was just un-usable… After several hours of pushing, only broken up by small sections I could ride, we ran out of time. The descent was great though! I even overtook a couple of snowboarders!

We then shot down the hill to meet Carl, the mountain bike guide at Glenmore Lodge. He had a play on the Pug and gave us some good tips on places to ride, as well as planting the seed for a new adventure… We also tried to get in touch with the local dog sled centre as one of them is heading out to run the Iditarod (dog race) next year, so would have been interesting to talk to. Unfortunately they weren’t answering their phone.

Saturday we drove to the Lecht ski area and headed up to the plateau at the top of the hill. Compared to the previous day it was quite a bit brighter but the snow was deeper. I did a load of loops and played about in the drifts and trying to wall ride the frozen banks. Loads of fun. After a late lunch Angus interviewed me a bit then we sorted ourselves out and headed out. We parked in a forestry car park, ignoring the “no over night parking” sign and all the mobile homes, grabbed our bikes and headed out in to the dark. After a couple of miles ride in to the forest we headed off in to the brush in the vague direction of a secret bothy spot. It took us a while to find but when we finally spotted it we were pleasantly surprised. Once inside we did a little more filming, enjoyed a couple of beers and played some Pass the Pigs (an Alpkit favourite). Jim and Angus slept inside but I slept outside in my new hot pink prototype bivy bag and –40 rated Devkit sleeping bag. Both preformed exactly as predicted: The sleeping bag was far too warm and the bivy bag was not breathable enough! The sleeping bag system is awesome. Basically, there is an inner down bag and an outer synthetic layer which means the bag will be a lot warmer when it’s damp and the dew-point will be outside the down so it should stay dryer anyway. The next bivy bag is going to be made out of Event fabric so the breathability will be sorted. It’s good and light and the ideal size to fit around the sleeping bag allowing the down to fully loft but not to big in order to minimise weight.

In the morning we woke up and immediately realised just how obvious the bothy was… Oh well. We rode back to the van and headed up to Cairngorm again. We did a different loop this time, the ground was really icy and it was really windy again but it was a fun ride. After that there was just time pack up and head of to our respective homes. I got back at about 11:30.

From my point of view the weekend was a great success: everything worked as expected, I felt fine carting the bike around, and, well, it was fun! Hopefully the film turns out well!

As an aside: Since I’ve had it the Pug as been a big conversation piece. It gets weird looks and everyone is fascinated by it. The funny thing this weekend was that a lot of people “got it”, I guess, the weather up in Aviemore is sufficient for it to make a practical bike, while down here it only comes in to it’s own a couple of days a year (including today…). On that note I’m going to get it built up again and go and play in the snow!

It's all about the bike...

The Pug is finally back in one piece. It’s not quite done yet but I’ve built new wheels, replaced the tired parts and fitted racks. The rear rack will be coming off once I get my Super Twinkie through from Epic Designs. The Bontrager post I got was too short, so I had to fit a Thomson from another bike. It’s silver. Oh, the humanity.
Cranks will be changing to Surly Mr Whirlys and I have an XT bottom bracket and a King headset packed with low temperature grease. Gore cables will be fitted, but I want to keep them as clean as possible. I’m undecided about whether I should fit Powergrips or not.
The first test ride took me all the way up the hill to the Off-licence. Nothing fell off, which was reassuring. The Alpkit frame bag did a grand job of carrying the beer home. The second test ride was, deliberately, more of a push than a ride. Mel and I went out for a couple of hours in the local woods. She walked and I pushed the Pug up and down the steepest hills we could find. I get the feeling I’ll be pushing for a long way so I’d better get used to it!
This Thursday I’m off up to Glenmore Lodge with Jim from Alpkit and Angus to do a bit of filming for the Trad film competition. More importantly it’s a great chance to get some practice in on proper snow and to test out the majority of my kit. I’m looking forward to it.

Trench hand

Pictures of just after the finish by Brian MacLeod. Thanks!

Back in to work today then more sorting for Alaska. Collected some Aerospace grade grease that should be good down to -55degrees! I also got the prototype Alpkit frame bag through. Picture tomorrow, with a bit of luck.

I also spoke to Chipps. Turns out Stamstad has written a bit about bonking for the next Singletrack mag. He gave me a sneek peak. It's very good!

Surprise bike!

I popped in to Mud Dock to wish the guys a happy new year. Handsome Rob says, "We've got a bike for you here." I answered with a blank look. "perhaps its for me then" he replied.

Turned out my 2009 Trek 69er Singlespeed had turned up, but no-one at Trek had let me know!

Anyway, the first impression is good- it's the same frame as the old one so should be rad!

This weekend I'll build it up with a load of old parts so Strathpuffer doesn't kill all the new stuff!

Cheers Griff!

I got a package from Uncle Griff at Trek. Thet's a big pile of Bontrager bits I need for the build kit.

Earl Crow bars, 25mm rise
King Earl post, 330mm
Race X Lite Stem, 110mm 7 Degree
Race X Lite grips
Bar ends
Inform RL saddle
26x2.20-2.50 tubes (lets see if they work!)
Trek Angel cage

A rare sighting

...Bristol at least

Sad Pug

Before

The Pugsley is looking rather sad today. Sam from Singular Cycles borrowed the Paul levers for a show bike so it seemed a good chance to strip the wheels: I'm re-using the rims. However I don't have the new spokes or correct size holesaw I need before I can re-build them. A lot of the other parts have to come off as well. The bars are the wrong shape, the saddle is worn out, the pedals are plain rubbish... One thing at a time.

After

Seeing double

Going to re-build my wheels. Here's the first step- Hope Pro II single speed hubs. Cheers for getting them Gooner.