How to kill a bike in a single ride

Here's how: Ride it through a downpour, complete with hail, in terrain that is composed prediominately with clay. Water and dry clay turn into something that will destroy parts of it within about 4 miles. Results guaranteed.
OK, I have to be a smart -a$$ because I'm really bummed, to say the least, about the condition of the Siren at the moment. After about 4-6 miles of riding in rain and some mucky conditinos, the rear tire side wall is bare to the threads. I have no idea how it did not totally give during the last few miles of the race. The rims (Stans 355) are worn clear through the anodized coating and down through the rest of the rim to the wear indicators. Of course brake pads are toast, but that is a cheap and simple fix. And there is a gritty sound that after hours of cleaning I have yet to locate, so I have to break the bottom bracket down, and try to check the hubs more closely. The bike, parts and all, has 56 miles on it.... that's it. Oh, and it's a singlespeed, so you would think there would be little to get jacked up in a ride in the rain and mud.

It's complete - well sort of

The Siren is complete - sort of. It weight in at 19.3 lbs - which means it's as twitchy as Tweak. I'll put a Mary Bar on it the coming week, and I may need to get a longer stem, because once I got the seat adjusted I was too crunched up. Not sure I can go back to V-brakes, so I think the disc brakes may go on, which would add weight, which may help the bike stabalize. I put 20 miles on it today in really familiar territory. It may have just been me today, but it felt like it just would not climb. I felt like the brakes were always on. I'm going out Wednesday to see if a different day changes the feel - we have to keep in mind some days my body does not cooperate and I cannot always tell when I'm having a "bad" day. She corners very nicely, although both uphil and downhill I kept loosing the rear end. I'll change tire pressure and make a few other adjustments and see if I can't get her more dialed in, possibly go a little wider tire. I think this bike will rock Tucson in the Spring. Pics available here.

It's coming along

The new Siren Single Speed is 90% built. I was missing rear v-brake bosses, so production halted Monday night just shy of a complete bike. Bosses have been rummaged and brakes are now on. I just need to run the cable and housing, which will require a titch of ingenuity as the bike has v-brake bosses but does not really have v-brake cabeling mounts... so I have to run a full length of cable and find one of those v-brake cable guides that were made for putting v-brakes on old mountain bikes that originally had canti brakes. Yeah, I know, I should have just gone with the disc brakes. And I may still do so, but we'll run it this way this winter and decide whether to upgrade (have a set of mechanical disc brakes in the shop on stnadby) before Tucson.
I also decided after I say upon the mostly complete bike that I really do prefer the Mary BAr, so I will eventuially have to swap out bars. But I'll post pics for all waiting as soon as I have the brakes cables ran. Check back Friday. Saturday I'll put her on dirt at the La Madera trail opening celebration.

State Championships

This past weekend was the New Mexico State XC and Super-D Championships. I raced in both events. The Super-D was quite fun, but definately not a downhill event. It started with loose rocky hairpin switchbacks and then turned into a moderate climb for the last 1.75+ of the 2.3 mile course. I took second in that event.
Sunday was the XC event. I rode hard and felt good for the first 13-14 miles of the 19.5 mile course. I kept the third place rider in my category in sight through the first 7-8 miles and watching her knew I could get a pass in dropping the last decent to the half-way mark. Indeed I did pass her there and kept in front of her for a few miles. She passed me about a mile and a half into the final half - an 8 mile climb up loose rocky, rutted 2 track that has turned more into a drainage ditch than anything. I stayed on her rear wheel until I took a small spill. This caused a mechanical and put me about 5 minutes behind her. I tried too hard to catch her, and glimpsed her in the trees about 15 minutes later, however, the last 2-3 miles of climbing ate me up and I dropped back even further, dashing my hopes of placing in the championships. I did everything I could to have enough calories in me, and to build my stores in the days before the race - but to no avail. Until I able to bring my metabolism rate down to a "normal" level this is going to be an issue for me. Or until I do not make mistakes, like the spill I took.
However,if my calculations are correct, this event will put me in the top 5 of the points series. I will be racing 2 of the last three events in the series over the next 3 weeks. My hopes are to end up in the top 3 of my Sport category after only 5 races in the 13 event series.