• About Me

Cycle Seattle

~ Posts on bikes

Cycle Seattle

Tag Archives: thunder burt

Oregon Outback 2015 – Day 4

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Antelope, Ashwood, bicycle, Big Bend, bike touring, Gosner Rd, Gravel Touring, Hunqapillar, McKay, Oregon Outback, Prineville, thunder burt, Trout Creek


This was a day of big breakfasts, big climbs, big miles, and some of the best riding and views of the trip.  My favorite day hands-down.

20 miles out of Big Bend campground, Prineville was the only “large” town we went through in our five days. We were drawn to the first diner we came to on Main St. My eyes were only a bit larger than my stomach.

Prineville Breakfast - Oregon Outback
– Yes, had to have the buckwheat pancakes, too!

BH-62.jpg
– Yummm!

BH-61.jpg
– 4 days in and still happy!

After eating our fill, we stopped at the grocery, and realized we still had plenty of food for dinner and lunch. I think we picked up more gorp, string cheese, and some Tylenol. I was starting to get a good picture of how over-packed we were.

The local bike shop was closed, so we couldn’t stop in for the legendary beer we heard about from other riders. Sad face…

Onward. Approaching the first big climb of the day around mile-25, the scenery was really turning out well.

BH-63.jpg
– Green Ranches

This climb was paved, but rose about 2200 feet over 17 miles.  Not too taxing – still early in the day, and at the top we rested with a few riders and compared tires and notes.

BH-65.jpg
– The beginning of FUN

The next 10 miles were amazing.  We were doing 25+ mph gravel switchbacks down Little McKay Rd.  Loads of fun – edge of control with loaded touring bikes.  At Trout Creek Rd, the route degraded to jeep road, more or less, and we ran into the creek crossing the road at least 5 times – sometimes 5-10″ deep, but at most 10-15 yds across.  The first time was a circus with a large group of 5-10 folks hanging out taking pics and refilling water bottles.  We did the same.  I did a quick song and dance for Sprockets Podcast (one of the riders had a mic and was doing impromptu interviews of OO riders).

BH-71.jpg
– Made it!

One of the riders in the crew was doing it on a Yuba carrying a hibachi grill. Awesome!

BH-72.jpg
– Long tail bike madness

The next crossing was deeper, and we hit it faster. My panniers managed to put up a blanket of water spray that soaked me thoroughly. In darker news, the rocks managed to kill my cameraman’s front Thunder Burt with enough of a pinch flat cut that the Stan’s sealant was of no use. Tube time.

BH-74.jpg
– Spray!

BH-75.jpg
– Made it!

The next guy through – a solo rider from Seattle – managed to double flat. This was after a single flat in the last crossing. We spent the next 45 minutes putting a tube in John’s front wheel, and helping the other rider out.

BH-76.jpg
– 3 flats in 3 minutes

Needless to say, we were more careful on the last few crossings, walking several. Hey – the shoes were already wet…

BH-77.jpg
– Care must be taken

The rest of the descent was uneventful, if not a bit roller-coastery. I later mused that this was my absolute favorite part of the ride. Remote and scenic.

BH-81.jpg

BH-82.jpg

BH-83.jpg

Nearing the bottom of the valley, we approached Ashwood through Fools Hollow and Slaughterhouse Gulch, (yes – look it up), what looked like a small town turned out to be about 5 houses, a short few hundred yards of pavement, and then a wall of a climb out of the valley on a gravel road just outside of “town”. Gosner road was a 500 foot climb with 8-12% grades, and it was fairly brutal after all that nice downhill progress. At some point, I tried hopping off and walking, but I quickly found that harder with a fully loaded bike than just sucking it up and pedaling in the easy gear.

BH-84.jpg
– John breaches the first rise out of Ashwood

Thus began our quest to get over the latter two 1000-foot climbs of today’s route. I kept thinking we must have done it, but we would just come to another rise. I started to view climbs in a different light. I found myself hoping that the next corner would just reveal more climbing instead of relief, as I wanted to get the vertical I knew we had coming. It turned almost meditative with me concentrating on nose breathing, and just pushing on. Really kind of peaceful.

BH-85.jpg
– Roads to somewhere

Again we rolled through some amazing western scenery. I think we saw 2 cars this whole stretch, and fewer riders. The terrain was continuously rolling and slightly brutal after the long day’s riding, but so pretty that it kept things interesting. We were constantly looking for trees now as it was our normal camp time, but alas, we were not finding much to hang a hammock on that was on the right side of the fences.

BH-87.jpg

BH-89.jpg

BH-92.jpg

BH-94.jpg

As we broke through the long descent into Antelope, I looked longingly at the city park with its big cottonwoods (slightly too big to put a hammock on). We only saw a herd of deer – we could hear music playing in one of the local homes, but no people were out.

BH-95.jpg
– Nobody home?

BH-96.jpg
– More citizens

With about 10 miles to go before our Shaniko camping destination, we at last hit the final 1000-foot climb. It was paved at least, but just as steep as the hills before. We rolled into Shaniko after a final paceline drive into the darkening sky. The kind folks who got there before us had saved some community food donated by a women from the local post office. I had some wheat thins and Spam, and John had a PB&J. We tied our hammocks to the posts sheltered by an old “wagon house” structure, and slept soundly. At nearly 100 miles and 7300 feet of climbing, it was our toughest, but most rewarding day.

Route Map – Day 4

44.910682 -120.722817

Pushing Mammoth

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

chriscross, Clement, Hetres, Hunqapillar, mso, Oregon Outback, rivendell, schwalbe, Stan's, thunder burt, Toussaint, tubeless, wtb


After a thousand miles using the Clement MSO tires, and an unfortunate rim shredding with forgotten brake pads, it was time to rebuild my wheels.  I really like the Clements, so they will likely go back on after the Oregon Outback, but the bike is built for bigger tires, and  I have a couple bikes that are lighter and more roadish.  This is a mountain bike at heart.

I did a bit of research and decided to try out WTB ChrisCross rims.  They seemed to be a good combination of strength and weight, and had the requisite black look I was wanting for this bike.  They luckily happened to be the same ERD (604mm) as the outgoing Velocity Synergies, so I was able to try out the rim swap trick re-using the old, perfectly good spokes.

Rim swap – tape, loosen, and start switching rims!

As I’ve had good luck with tubeless Hetres on my Toussaint, and I definitely want to avoid flats with the bigger tires on the long trips, I built these up sans-tube.   I only had the thin Stans tape that just covered the spoke holes.  The tires I picked for these guys are the Schwalbe Thunder Burts.  They are tubeless-ready tires, but fit the rims rather loosely.  I knew I would need extra tape, but it took two additional layers.  I used one round of Gorilla tape on one rim, but I had to trim it to fit in the well.  I went over it with a round of vinyl tape that worked so well, I just used the vinyl twice round on the other wheel.

Finished Wheel

Once I had a few layers built up, the tires popped in with the air compressor, and I added Stans for a fully loaded tubeless wheel.  I had to re-adjust the fenders back out 10mm to take into account the expanded diameter of the new wheel. Until I got the tires on, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to run with fenders over these giant tires.  I’m still wary, as new knobbies tend to pick up lots of debris, but the first ride was uneventful.

Mammoth Mode

The new tires are definitely beefy.  Reminds me of that big off-road mountain bike feel I fell in love with in ’91 when I re-discovered off-road riding.  They appear to ride really smoothly on asphalt, and they soak up the bumps even better than the Hetres on my other bike.  In the tubeless config, they likely weigh in the same neighborhood, too!  Hetres: 412g + tube (150g) compared to Thunder Burts: 435g.

First ride with Burts

Now I just need a few more long dirt rides to sort this guy out.  The bars feel pretty far out – this guy has a long top-tube, and drops accentuate the reach.  Once I get it dialed in, the tape will go on and the mammoth will be ready for new adventure.

Flickr Photos

BH-19.jpgBH-18.jpgBH-17.jpgBH-16.jpgBH-15.jpgBH-14.jpgBH-13.jpgBH-12.jpgBH-11.jpgBH-10.jpg
More Photos

Archive

  • August 2020 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (2)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (2)
  • October 2014 (2)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • May 2014 (2)
  • April 2014 (5)
  • March 2014 (4)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (6)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (1)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • May 2013 (6)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (7)
  • December 2012 (5)
  • November 2012 (2)
  • October 2012 (2)
  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (3)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (4)
  • May 2012 (7)
  • April 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (4)
  • January 2012 (5)
  • December 2011 (6)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • February 2011 (4)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 95 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Cycle Seattle
    • Join 95 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Cycle Seattle
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar