Category: MTB

Wickenburg Tour De Ranch 2020, Towing Ryken this year

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Last year I won an awesome belt buckle by coming in first in the Intermediate class.  This year the organizers created an all new course which was longer.  I wanted to race with my son Ryken so we entered the Expert class so I could do 2 laps, one towing him and one solo.  The race entries were doubled this year and the course was a lot of fun.  Ryken had a great time and everyone got a kick out of seeing him on the course.  I had the go pro camera pointed at him for the race and the entire lap with him is below in 3 video segments.  The end of the 3rd segment shows his smiling face when we see all the people at the finish line.

Ryken is getting heavy, if I want to keep racing with him I am going to need an e-bike soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Added suspension to Ryken’s WeeHoo kids trailer

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Ryken’s trailer broke on a ride recently, it had about 250 miles on it, most of them on dirt trails.  It appears that the weld on this main bar didn’t penetrate fully.  I don’t blame them, they have always been helpful.  
The trails near me can be rough so we took this opportunity to slap an old mountain bike shock on there to see if it would absorb bumps better.  We used old atv linkage bearings, shock mounts and hardware, way overbuilt for this purpose.  I had a 100mm fox shock laying around.  We eyeballed the geometry and welded it up and it works awesome.  It is much more compliant.  I am running a solid rear tube so the bike is pretty bouncy but with the shock its much more tame.

Here are some results videos:

 

The trailer broken on the trail

Welding in the shock

Adding a skidplate

A pic after a ride.

2019 Dawn to Dusk Ryken Fundraiser race results

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The goal of my entry into this year’s 12 hour race was to raise money for a therapy dog for my son Ryken and to raise awareness about his rare genetic disorder by donating some of the money to the Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation.  I would do one of the 17 mile laps towing Ryken in his trailer that would be decorated with information about him and his condition.  Heres a photo of us on a ride before the race:

Our group of friends had 4 teams of 4 men per team which made it a lot fun.  Overall the race had 47 teams in our class with hundreds of other riders in other classes.  Matt started the race for our team called “4 men and a baby” at 7am.  While I was waiting in the rider exchange area my cousin Rich who was riding for another of our 4 teams came in and someone said “You are up”  So I quickly put on my helmet and gloves and I took off.  Problem is, Rich is not on my team, I was supposed to wait for Matt.  Turns out Matt was 13 minutes behind Rich so I really started my lap way too soon which would throw off my laptime a lot.  I had a great ride and pushed hard, when I came in and everyone said I did a 55 minute lap I could not believe it.  My goal was to be in the 1 hour 12 minute mark which would be a 3 minute improvement over my time last year.  After we realized what I did I went and told the race organizers and the only solution was to delete my lap from the results.  Thankfully I left when Rich came in so figuring out my real lap time is not hard.  I did a 1:09:05 which is awesome.
  

Here’s a video that shows the start of the race to illustrate how many entrants there are.

Ryken and my wife JoLea arrived at noon and Ryken entertained himself by collecting rocks in the pits then we put him in the trailer and went to the start line.  The trailer was getting a lot of attention and to show how small the world is there was someone there taking pics of the trailer who has a friend who’s child has PMSF.  This condition is one in 5 million (2,000 known cases in the world) and we know all the families in AZ who have it.  Turns out her friend is also a friend of my wife.  SMALL WORLD.

Ryken does not talk and doesn’t make a ton of noise but when we ride together he laughs when it gets exciting, like if we hit a big bump or go down a hill.  On this ride he was chattering quite a bit and all of the other racers were very nice.  They saw his name on the back of the trailer so when they caught us they would say his name and talk to him, hopefully they did not get offended when he did not talk back to them.  He did wave a lot and make his noise for Hi a lot.  We also managed to pass quite a few people which surprised them.  At the last road crossing Ryken caught some air and the flag in his trailer flew out, I yelled back to the road crossing worker that we would come back for it.  My goal was to do a lap in under 1 hour 30 minutes and I honestly wasn’t sure I could do it because the first 8 miles of this course is a gradual uphill that wears you down and its hard towing 100 pounds of trailer and Ryken.

Earlier in the day when I was telling the organizers about my stupidity starting my first lap too early I also reminded them about why I was riding and Ryken’s fund raiser.  So when we came to the finish line the announcer talked about PMSF  and everyone cheered.  Ryken was clapping too which was great.  He had a great time and we finished our lap in 1:23:54 which surpassed my expectations by a lot.  Ryken and JoLea stayed for a little while after our lap before leaving and on the way out the picked up the flag from the course worker.

Finish Line Video

The race continued until 7pm and we all ate way too many cheesesteaks and brick oven pizza from the food trucks that were there.  Most of us also got a very good sports massage from the on site therapy tables.  Racing with friends is a ton of fun and everyone made Ryken feel very special.  Thanks to all my friends for coming out and racing and making a great day.  The image below shows how our 4 teams finished along with each persons lap times.

My friend Bill made the banners and the frame to hold the banners to the trailer and they really transform the look of the trailer and spread the word about PMS.  We raised enough money to pay for Ryken’s dog and some training.  There will be enough to donate approximately $1,000 to the PMSF.  I am going to keep taking donations until the end of the year before sending the money.  We pickup the dog on January 4th.
Thank you very much to everyone who donated, it means more than I can adequately express.  I kept track of everyone who provided contact info and we plan to send out a thank you card once we get some good event photos and dog photos.

 

First Mountain Bike Race, December 2018. McDowell Mountains Dawn to Dusk Team Race

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or the past year and a half I have been pedaling my mountain bike (MTB) pretty regularly at about 20 miles of dirt per week.  Of course I really miss racing so it seemed like a great idea to enter a pedal bike race.  Back when I started racing quads I had been riding a quad for about a year so the timeline is similar.  We entered the Dawn to Dusk 12 hour race at the McDowell Mountains near Fountain Hills.  It is a really simple 16.5 mile loop with about 1000 foot of elevation gain and we did the 4 man team class.  We had enough guys for 2 teams which made it a lot of fun hanging out in the pits.

I figured everyone on the team would get 2 laps which would be more miles than I have ever done in a day.  Up until this point the most I had done was 27 miles in one ride with plenty of stops for chit chat.  Our two teams were neck and neck all day although we were sitting close to last in our class at about 36th out of 39 teams.  In total there were over 700 riders registered. 

Lap 1 went ok, I was not happy with my time but I had a blast and the traffic was not nearly as bad as I expected.  Active Body Worx had a free massage tent which really helped loosen up my back.  Then I had an enormous Philly Cheesesteak from the east coast cheesesteaks food truck that was so tasty.  Everyone said I would regret it but I proved those suckers wrong.   Lap 2 felt a lot better and I set a good time 7 minutes better than lap 1 but my calves did start cramping.  One of the guys on the team did not want to do his second lap so I begrudgingly went out and did a 3rd lap making a total of 50 miles on the day.  The last lap was pretty rough, I did not cramp up but it felt like I was missing about half my power.  I managed a respectable time compared to my other 2 laps so I am very happy.  Having a professional massage during an awful race like the Cinders would have been awesome!
My best lap was 1 hour and 14 minutes and of the 450ish people who recorded laps on Strava that day my lap was about 225th so I am exactly mediocre!  It does suck knowing you will never be as good at this new thing as your old thing but it beats sitting on the couch.

Some pics from my google photos site

Here’s my random thoughts comparing this to 10 years of off road racing.

·         MTB racers are WAY more courteous than motorized racers, you come up behind someone, say “on your left” and 95% of the time they say “ok go ahead” and you zoom by.  The other 5% don’t say anything probably because they are too tired but they still move over, NOBODY blocks you.
·         When faster people catch you they go by without any drama, if anything I heard nice encouraging statements from the super-fast guys. 
·         Passing people and chatting with them or hearing words of encouragement is cool.
·         The course was marked better than some off road race courses.
·         You can fit WAYYYYY more MTB racers in a parking lot than off road nerds.  J
·         I definitely miss the Casey Folks no dog rule.  I stepped in multiple piles of dog doo in the staging area.
·         Most of the bikes there cost as much or more than a Quad and I saw zero “jalopies”.  At a typical off road race you see several machines that are pretty questionable as to whether they will finish or not, that was not the case here. Everyone had fancy bikes.
·         The race course does not really “evolve” throughout the day.  722 racers doing god knows how many laps has about as much effect on the dirt as 3 motorized racers.
·         These people are perverts J, some memorable team names:  Taint Nothin, 9 inch Males, he cranks til I finish, Chub Scouts, Flyin naked apes, Suck our Cogs, Pedalphiles
·         I am hardly sore at all, after a hard quad race I would be walking like a weirdo for a few days but I feel fine today (2 days later)   I am not sure if that is due to the massages or just dumb luck.
·         Suffering in near silence on the bike at a piddly 10-15mph is different than suffering on the quad.  The quad requires so much attention that it does distract from the pain and the throttle can save you in a lot of situations.  On the bike if you push too hard you might cramp
up and end up having to walk so you do end up holding back some.
·         Not coughing up dust for a few days has been nice!
·         The racing is cheaper, but still not as cheap as you would hope.  The entry fees are roughly the same as a local off road race and the bike maintenance like suspension service, tires, chains etc does add up.  I am getting about 400 miles out of a rear tire at $70ish a pop.
·         It’s still impossible to look cool in a bike helmet.

I won a pedal bike race, Inaugural Wickenburg Tour de Ranch

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I entered my first solo mountain bike race this weekend. I always said I would not do solo races since I’m afraid I will take them too seriously and suck the fun out of my only hobby. So that’s why I just do the laid back team races. But this race was in my hometown and it was the first ever running of it so I had to go. A week before the race I hurt my foot jumping off a building like an idiot, I never got an x ray but it sure feels like something is broken, but we have plenty of bones in our feet, surely we don’t need all of them. The pain is all in the heel so it doesn’t hurt much when pedaling.

I signed up for intermediate because I am far from an expert, I don’t even own any Lycra! A few days before the race they announced the course was changed and intermediates would do two, 5 mile laps which was fine by me with my foot but they also announced a quarter mile run “le mans” start which was not going to be fun for my foot.

The course was extremely sandy which added to the challenge, it was at least 3 times as sandy as any trail I have ever ridden. It was not very climby but all the climb was in one spot which made it pretty hard, I never saw anyone clean that climb. I enjoyed it but I was glad I only had to do 2 laps. I raced a steady pace and kept a smile on the whole time and I ended up winning my class and I am very pleased with that. After the race I met some great people and the BBQ lunch was very tasty.

The Wickenburg Parks and Recreation people ran an awesome race. The signups were super easy, the professionals they hired to do the timing and scoring were awesome and they had the great sense to get Kaolin Cosmo Cummens out to MC the event and he is the man, he is a mobile party. The prizes are VERY nice. The flying E ranch were great hosts and all the volunteers on course were a huge help. Next year they want the race to triple in size and that is definitely possibly but they need to get a better loop built with less sand in order to attract more mountain bikers. Setting up a trail head with year round access would help too. I’d hire Kaoiln to go out there and setup some trails!

I also received a PMSF(Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation) banner for Ryken’s fundraiser / bike race next month, photo below, still lots of time left to donate to our fundraiser! 

 

Ryken’s PMSF Fundraiser

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Ryken’s Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation Fundraiser

 

On December 14th 2019 I am doing a 12 hour team mountain bike race in the McDowell Mountains. I am going to do one of the 16.5 mile laps while towing my 6 year old son Ryken. He loves going on mountain bike rides. Ryken has a rare genetic disorder called Phelan McDermid Syndrome, there are about 1400 reported cases in the world. https://www.pmsf.org/about_pms/

My plan was to donate 100% of the funds to the PMSF.org foundation which conducts research into this rare condition. But we recently started researching therapy dogs for Ryken because he does so well around dogs. A fully trained therapy dog costs $24,000-$32,000 and to make it more complicated I am allergic to dogs so we need to find one who is hypoallergenic. We have found a dog from a local breeder and placed a deposit on it.

My current plan is to start with this hypoallergenic pure breed dog and pay for several training courses out of pocket rather than trying to come up with $24,000 all at once. All remaining money from the fundraiser after paying for the dog and some training will go directly to the Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation. https://www.pmsf.org/research/

The event:
https://ziarides.com/event/dawn-to-dusk-az/

How to Donate:
Paypal: trelken@gmail.com (please send as a friend/family payment so they don’t take a cut)
Zelle, Cash App, Venmo: 602-550-5171 or trelken@gmail.com
Paypal messenger: Trent Kendall