Just kidding I was way off on gradient. 2.9 miles at 8.1% average grade, 1280 ft elevation gain, and 20% kickers thrown in. I'm at 21 minutes right now, so I think 20 min is very achievable.

I guess short is relative. For you 2.9 miles is short relative to Hamilton. 1290 ft in 2.9 miles is a lot though.

Good luck. I hope you do it but don't forget to enjoy yourself.

Home and back out on country roads instead of terrible S. Florida highways to hell.

.2 mi into my commute this AM

Well ****!

From this past weekend in the Black Hills.

Hit the track this morning. Too beautiful a day to pass up riding home.

From this afternoon. Local bike path and lake...oh and always try to drink local...

^SD represent.

Took on some beginner single track stuff today. Had to do hike-a-bike on a few sections where I didn't carry enough speed going into the climb.


I also happened upon a free range living room:

[MENTION=410155]SCK[/MENTION] take that thing to 6 mile or allaire, you can totally rip in there

[MENTION=303015]Mumonkan[/MENTION] I'll have to look into it. I'm down here in south Jersey. This was in Rancocas woods which is super close to home, so it's easy to come home from work, grab the bike, and head over. I'm still trying to get used to ripping around in the woods, it's super fun but new to me. I hit a bunch of sandy spots that really sapped speed, too. By the end of my ride I was feeling more confident.

allaire is south-ish, its near point pleasant

sounds like youre close to wharton which has a good flat 20 mile loop with no crazy ****. i havent been there myself but it sounds like it would be great on the cross bike, and being similar to allaire in terrain it should be a blast

[MENTION=303015]Mumonkan[/MENTION] I'll look into it for sure. Wharton State Forest is pretty close to me (like 30 mins or so). I really should look into a proper MTB, but this will suffice for now.

you can get away with a hell of a lot on a cross bike, any knobs help tremendously. i rode my local singletrack for a year on a straight up road bike with slick 28s.

"character building"
"skills training"

these are terms i used to explain what i was doing to people on mtbs, lol.

Haha. I enjoyed all the slip'n slide action in the sand. Now that I know what the trails are like, I'm more inclined to give them hell on the next go. I rode the work frame fixed with 23s on some light duty single track stuff in Mercer County Park. I crashed once, mainly because the dust that was hiding that slick mud was deceiving.

Haha, my buddy would take his cross bike out with us before he got his mtb. Everyone on the mountain was like, "what the f' are you doing?!?!"

Guy on the left with the All City Macho Man...he used to be big into bmx when he was younger. He rode that thing through some pretty gnarly singletrack, some stuff that I even opted to walk on my full suspension at the time.

Guys riding street bikes and CX in the dirt might want to check out Gravel Cyclist, especially some of the videos.

Jom who runs the site posts in the Gravel forum here at BF, super nice guy. These guys are running some sick machines.

Sample...


If I wasn't budget constrained right now I'd have a CAADX with American Classic disk MTB wheels and be right there with them, in the senior citizens category LOL.


-Tim-

the woods on the east coast seem scary.

@SpeshulEd, thats awesome. @TimothyH, I'll give it a watch. It's fun to do stuff on bikes that aren't necessarily "right" for the job.
Well, we have the Jersey Devil -- so yeah. Also I'm not sure how people got the free-range living room that deep into the woods.

our woods are just filled with a bunch of crackheads and pit bulls that chase you.

Every place has its charms, right?

the woods on the east coast are scary. at least thats what keeps the normies away, and id prefer to keep it that way

Woods. I hope to see them at some point this summer.

just drive a couple hrs north! the forests we saw up there put most of the stuff we have over here to shame