Introducing the Carver Gnarvester

Something about me; I'm a terrible procrastinater. I got this frame way back in November. It's now February and I finally have a working bike. My terrible mechanic skills didn't help much (thankfully Adam Schwarcz is one of the best mechanics out there and now this bike rides so fresh). Now I can finally take this bike out. I won't get exactly as many miles to get comfortable on this bike as I had on the Cross-Check (which was near 10,000 miles probably BEFORE the Trans Am), but I am already feeling I made the right choice in a bike for Tour Divide, endurance MTB racing, and everything else. So here it is:

 

The Carver Gnarvester. A titanium 29+ trail eating machine. I debated between carbon fiber and titanium for a little while, carbon fiber because it tended to be cheaper (especially used), titanium because it could last forever, plus the dampening effects of ti would be nice for future touring over racing (where I think I could take some beating from carbon). In the end I figured I'd get titanium first, as strong as carbon fiber has become it still can fail from time to time, while titanium is more durable.

 

 

The cockpit is a mix and match of Ritchey, WTB, and Thomson. The seatpost is carbon Ritchey, because I figured people with carbon frames get flexy ti seatposts, so those with flexy ti frames get stiff carbon posts, right? The saddle is a Silverado I had used in cross, it may change, but I'm definitely over my Brooks love. Besides the whole animal rights thing, I've come to find that traditional saddles can be just as comfortable as Brooks, it's just finding the right one and getting it dialed in. The stem and bars are aluminum, the stem being of the Thomson variety and the bars of the Ritchey variety. Long stem and narrow bars, because that will come back in style when people realize they are destroying their shoulders.

 

The drivetrain is of course Shimano. SRAM is probably cool and all, but I know Shimano can take a beating to no end. One of the thing's that worries me a touch about this frame is that the wide rubber prevent me from running a front deraulleur which sort of sucks for bikepack racing, as it's about endurance, not necessarily speed, and having those tiny spinny gears at one point and not spinning out at others seems like it's necessary. Because of the lack of front deraulleur I tried to take as many shortcuts as I could. I added the Wolf Tooth Components 42 tooth megacog in the rear and in the front I got an ovalized chainring from Absolute Black. The 42 tooth is definitely necessary, I've used it and like it, the ovalized chainring I'm not sure if I really notice the benefits, I do think that my knees feel it helping.

Three inch rubber was on my list of wants for a MTB frame, not really expecting to get everything I wanted. There are not many 29+ bikes out there right now, but after searching for a ti or carbon bike that would clear these mondo tires I came across Carver, who also ticked my other boxes of replaceable sliding dropouts, 142 thru axle rear spacing, and a tapered headtube. Salsa's El Mariachi Ti came close, but missed the high volume tires. Vee Trax Fatties get the first run for 3 inch tires (like em so far). I am running a Whiskey Carbon No. 5 fork for it's tire clearance. The tires are sitting on Blunt 35s which are laced to Shimano SLX hubs; not my forever wheelset, but they work for now.

 

When it comes to stopping power, again Shimano wins. SLX hydros means easy oil replacement, oh and mineral oil no nasty DOT fluid. I matched these with Ice Tech rotors. I debated for half a second about mechanical for the ease of replacing, but I think mechanicals are probably more likely to fail than hydros anyway.

 

So there it is. This is the bike I expect to run Tour Divide on. I have only done some local riding and it really rips down firetrail, my skills on the techy stuff is lacking, so it's hard to say, but it definitely does exude confidence. Now I just need to get bags and everything else for the Tour!

I'm Not Dead

I promise I'm not dead. I've just been extremely busy which is why I haven't updated this in forever. Since I last wrote I had a cast on, that's long gone. I went back to NY, which was pretty alright, but more time off the bike. I came back and jumped right back into cyclocross racing, getting in three races in one weekend. Sac cross and then two races at Fort Ord to close out the season (near the back at Sac and DFL'd both races at Fort Ord, fun either way). I took some photos of the Sac race, but lately I haven't been feeling too much on the photography side, putting all my attention on a 2015 Tour Divide run. But I've snapped a few, here are some things I've been up to.

Broakland at Sac Cross.

My girlfriend said the Old Sac course reminded her of a Mario Kart course, weaving in and out of Old West style train depots and railroad tracks.

Some wet made the grass corners a challenge.

Port Sprints came back to Oakland.

Oakland has some tight camping spots right up the hill from the city.

And what is camping without copious amounts of alcohol.

Maybe some day I'll get back into a rhythm of updating this regularly. But for now it will be few and far between posts. About one month til the Stagecoach 400 which I just got confirmed for! Should be an exciting beginning to bikepack racing in 2015. Then Tour Divide and then a summer on the road. Maybe one of these days I'll feel like I have my life together. Don't really count on it though.
    

Looking Backwards; Looking Forwards

Here's to another year of riding bikes far places. Here are some of my favorite photos from the year gone by.

My first trip of the year was up to Washington with a close friend. I rode through Capitol Forest solo. I love the greenery, I was just getting used to my new camera and really had fun with it.

I got more involved with the San Francisco Randonneurs last year

In May I won the Medusa's Revenge Alleycat, the first big race I ever won.

Before I left for Trans Am I got one last Manny ride in. Haven't been on one since, which sucks since Manny rides are never a bad time.

Then of course, the highlight of the year, finishing tenth in the Trans Am in 22 days. I could have just posted all photos of this, thanks to everyone who supported me on this ride, seriously, to know that my friends and family had my back was awesome.

Then I went on bike tour, breaking my camera and losing my photos from my replacement camera. I finally got out to the Adirondacks, a place I feel I took for granted growing up in NY.

Once I got back to the Bay I raced in the first Trans Northern California, I raced the wrong bike and pushed hard.

This was my first year racing cyclocross. I'm already looking forward to focusing more on CX next year.

2014 was a great year, now I'm going into 2015 with a slew of adventure races coming up, here's the rough breakdown of what I have coming up;

• April 3rd: Stagecoach 400 (date may change)
• April 10th: Tour de los Padres
• May 22: Oregon Outback 360 (I may skip this one)
• June 15th: Tour Divide
• September 10th: Fire and Ice

Before that I have some late season CX racing, early season MTB racing, and the Grasshopper Series coming up, plus maybe some Gravel Gauntlet rides in the South Bay. Should be a good one, hope to see you out there.

Cadence Dope League Race

Yesterday, Cadence put together another race in the hills of Oakland, this time throwing in a little dirt to mix things up. The rain held off, but the previous week's rain definitely caused a damper on some people's caliper brakes, but the addition of cantilevers were not enough for road bikes to take the top 5 spots of the race. Thanks to stupidity a few weeks ago I didn't get to race again, so I decided to take some photos and hang out. There were real photographers there, but this is the best I got. Cast comes off tomorrow and I'll be back out there, just in time to brave the NY winter for some road riding.

Dan showing up fashionably late, yet still snagging bib number 420.

Rule #80.

Here's why I didn't race; because I was too busy playing with my phone (the cast may have something to do with it too).

Get in that holiday spirit.

This little guy led the pack! (Click for higher res on Flickr).

Nat leading the way.

Eventual race winner, Riley.

Dan was truly suffering.

 

 

Surf City Finale

This past weekend was the finale for the Surf City CX series at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds. It had been raining a whole bunch the week before and sure enough the day of, we saw some rain. It rained quite heavy during the Men's B's, so I didn't get many shots of them (and oh, yeah, I'm not racing, did I mention I broke my wrist riding with no hands like an idiot? Yeah...), but for the rest of the day I tried to get some good shots and try to capture how truly sloppy it was.

Look at how clean those kits are at the holeshot; not for long.

For once in a Bay Area CX race there was a lot of this.

No seriously, a lot of this.

Best bike for the mud, Carbon Gates Drove SS, yessir.

Belt drive closeup. I really need to try to get some more bike shots, since the Santa Cruz races are chock full of glorious frame builders like this Rock Lobster, Castelli, and Hunter.

Mr. Red Jacket was heckling hella hard. Don't expect to run this without some fierce tonguelash from this guy.

Through the swine farm!

At least they added a nice dry section for the race (wish I knew about this during the B's to shoot all my friends, oh well).

Even places where crowds weren't watching for wipeouts there was a lot of mud.

Obligatory tape shot. It was hard to capture the beauty of the clouds rolling in over the SC Mountains, so this is the best you get.

This bike started out white.

Watchout! Tree! This wasn't far from the holeshot and really caused a bottleneck in the bigger races.

Leah CRUSHED the Women's B's. Jortz! Jortz! Jortz!

The runup before this had people really reaching for breath.

The technical downhill and this courses Heckle Hill.

A lot of people didn't come out clean.

But mud is fun right?

The butt cowbell; yes!

More shouldering.

Enter the pig farm.

All in all, I had a lot of fun, despite not racing. The course looked like a whole lot of fun, maybe next year. Unfortunately for me, there's only a few races left and I'll miss most of them. Oh well, next year I'll try to make more of a commitment to the season.