fellowshipofthechainring.org

Full suspension includes your legs

Don’t forget that the most sophisticated shock system is your legs. You have full control over the range and tension of your natural shocks. When navigating rocky or bumpy paths (this is mainly on descents), get off of your saddle, even up your pedals so they are of equal height, and use your knees to absorb the bumps. What’s great is the shocks can be as loose or as stiff as you want them.

I know I mentioned your legs, but I should add that your arms also help as shock absorbers. In fact, the biggest thing I noticed when I exchanged the Lumbering Rhino for Little Joe was that my arms weren’t as sore. It’s because the shocks in my forks absorbed much of the vibrations. That just goes to show that your arms are part of that natural shock system as well.

Stay tuned for the sixth and final lesson from the Deschutes River Trail . . .

El Cap and 5 other guys donated their arms and gave their backs away to help me redo our roof last Saturday. Sure it’s not cycling related, but El Cap helped, and the sacrifice of all the guys is to be extolled as honorable and right. It took us 2 nail guns, 3 pizzas, 8 guys, 12 hours, 24 squares of shingles, 36 Krispy Kreme donuts, and 2200 square feet to do it.
You can view the flickr.com pictures if you like.

If finding a line is too complicated,
just go over the objects.

The reality is that most objects don’t pose much of a threat. In your attempts to find a line around objects, you might be tempted to think that all objects are bad and must be avoided. I know I did that. However, after about 8 miles or so into the ride, I finally realized two things. One, I had shocks, and two, most objects are not so big that they will hit your chainring. That’s the real danger: a large object that can knock a few teeth out of your chainring or toss you off the bike. If the object can’t get to your chainring, then it almost has no danger of knocking you off the bike.

Once I realized that, I began seeing all of the objects that I could just ride over, and I stopped worrying about the little things. Once I stopped worrying about the little things, I found I could better focus on the big things, like not riding off of a cliff or sizing up that log that lay across the path or not hitting that hiker or cyclist coming my way.

The bottom line is this: if you don’t want to hit that three-inch rock, maybe you should just stick to the road.

Stay tuned for part 5…

I just wanted ye all to know. Tuesday, September 19th be “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” So swab the poop deck, ye scurvy dogs!

Part Three: Find a line and stick to it

I first learned to find a line when learning to ski moguls. The concept is basically to draw an imaginary line around the various obstacles in your path. You generally keep to a straight line with back and forth curves around the objects.

What you do is take a quick scan of the trail in front, identify any large objects that you’d rather not run into and decide if you’re going to the left or right of it. You don’t have much time, so you do the best you can, but you don’t waste time on wondering if you made the right choice.

That’s the key: sticking to your decision. If you second guess yourself, you either stare at the object and run into it (see previous advice), or you stop paying attention to the next obstacle and run the risk of running into that possibly more dangerous object.

Stay tuned to lesson four…

Part Two: Stop Staring at that Obstacle

This is part two of the six-part series titled, Lessons from the Deschutes River Trail

If you’re trying to avoid a rock (or tree or log), stop staring at it. If you worry too much about the obstacle, the natural tendency is to stare at it until, low and behold, you ride right into it. One of El Cap’s little sprockets learned that lesson the hard way when at Tahoe. I find that this is more likely to happen if you’re nervous while riding, so the main advice is relax.

Another thing you can do if you find yourself staring at the boulder (it’s probably more like a rock), look ahead and ignore it. You already saw it; you know it’s there, so let your subconscious navigator move you the right way, and work on finding your line. How do you find your line? you ask.

Well, we’ll save that for part three of Lessons from the Deschutes River Trail.

Once again, the Deschutes River Trail was a hit. The total miles of the trail, from Sunriver to the Meadow Picnic Trailhead, is about 13 miles. The trail is rated as easy, but like classifying a river, the rating is for the overall trail. I liken it to a class 3 river, where you can still have a few class 4 rapids.

El Cap gave us some great advice, and I even learned a thing or two on my own. I have decided to pass these tips on to you in a six-part series titled, “Lessons from the Deschutes River Trail.” I’ve listed the six lessons below, but I’ll post each installment every few days, to make it look like I’m writing a little every day (one of those tricks of the trade). The lessons are as follows:

1. Momentum is your friend
2. Stop Staring at that Obstacle
3. Find a line and stick to it
4. If finding a line is too complicated, just go over everything
5. Legs Make Great Shocks
6. Shift your body back on the downhills

Let’s go ahead and get started with our first rule of thumb, and that is momentum is your friend.

Momentum is Your Friend

Momentum helps you both on the downhills and the uphills. When descending a hill, especially one with rocks and small roots or logs, it’s important to get enough momentum to just roll over the obstacles. This is even more important with clipless pedals, since you always run the risk of falling if you stop. Several times, I was a little nervous on a downhill, but I found that getting a little speed helped keep me steady.

Momentum is key to the uphills as well for obvious reasons. I don’t think I need to explain why, but I will add one piece of advice to help you get that momentum. That is, keep your shifting in mind when approaching an uphill. I began learning to shift to a higher gear before every uphill, and then, just as I would approach the hill, I would begin shifting down. It’s nice to have a low gear ready to power up the last section.

Another important rule I learned by experience is to give the rider in front of you extra space. We let Neal take the lead since he had contacts, and I tended to ride in the back, so I wouldn’t feel bad about slowing anyone down. I’m guessing that at least four times, I had to stop before cresting a hill because I followed a rider too close, and when that rider had to stop, I had little choice but to do the same.

Stay tuned for part two: Stop Staring at that Obstacle . . .