Bike From Scratch

Finishing (thanks to Chel Stewart for taking the photo)

There really is something to these DIY gravel races. On Saturday I rode the first (of many I hope) Westside Dirty Benjamin. We set out from Chaska MN around eight in the morning with a hundred and ten or so riders. The weather was fantastic, low seventies with cloud cover in the morning. There was a bit of wind, gusting up to around twenty.

The first half of the race was more or less into the wind. We zig zaged back and forth into the wind and then back out of it. We headed out of town on some ATV/snowmobile trails. Everyone was bunched up in a rather large single file line. While crowded I think we were all having a good time. During the ATV trail was the only tactical move I’ve ever made on a bike, and I seem to have come out okay. There was a muddy section that I was able to coast through (others went around) and pass a few people. This added a giggle to my morning. The pack made it through the trail and back out onto the roads more or less intact. When we hit the first stretch of gravel I saw the lead group and the group behind them go. It was fun to see them take off. I more or less settled into my pace and tried to make up my mind if I was going to bust my ass all day or wait for my friends and take a more leisurely pace.

I ended up hooking up with a few other riders from miles 5 to 25 or so, my pace matched well with one in particular and we rode most of the first half of the race together chit chatting. During this time my buddy Shaun caught up and we pulled in a few more riders. I was enjoying our little band of riders quite a bit when we picked up another guy. For whatever reason this other guy decided he needed to talk a lot and criticize my shoes (no one messes with chuck taylor, no one). I wasn’t really in the mood for it and figured if you’re going to talk trash, at least get you and your S-Works Tri Cross (which is a darn nice bike in person) up in front of me. I left the group and expected him to follow. He didn’t and I was glad for the silence. I rode the rest of the first half alone and into the checkpoint in watertown. Most of this was the same back and forth into the wind, the roads were very nice, smooth gravel. At times a bit loose but nothing to get concerned about. To my recollection there weren’t any hills in the first half of the race besides coming off the ATV trail.

At the checkpoint I said hello to some folks that were there before me, filled bottles and had a snack. I stuck around for maybe ten min and saw the guys I was riding with earlier come in. By all indications they were going to hang out at the check point awhile and I was feeling good so I took off solo.

For the most part I was alone for the second half of the race. The wind seemed to mellow out a bit, and at times it was a tail wind. We did about 6 miles on the Luce Line trail and this was really the only time I remember the wind being in my face. The clouds cleared out a bit and the weather warmed up some. Nothing terrible, but I did start to notice the heat later on in the day. I believe the scenery in the second half of the day was superior to the first half. After leaving the checkpoint I increased my speed quite a bit. I passed four or five more riders on the road, and chatted with a few. Ran into one fellow who remembered my name from when we had passed each other before, that was neat and drives home the point that I need to figure out a way to remember peoples names.

There was only one hill on the second half that was any real trouble. A short affair that had a steep grade and I was in a lull when I hit it. After cresting this I was home free for the last ten miles. The last 5 or so miles were on nicely paved roads and the last two miles appeared to be all down hill. It was a great time to be able to roll down to the finish above twenty and not really working for it.

I’d like to say thanks to the folks who put this on. It was just a top notch event and I had a fantastic time. To top things off when we got to the end of the race there were pulled pork sliders and copious amounts of swag from the sponsors. Thanks everyone!

I rode the Hillborne again for this ride and it performed well. I’ve been thinking a lot about these events and I believe I’ll start riding a cross bike in them next year. The Hillborne pulls commuter duty and I don’t take the bags off, or add clipless pedals for these races. I’d like to try one where I’m all the way in the “racing” mindset and see how that works out. For me that means leaving the Riv at home and riding the cross bike I’m building (more on that later). One thing I really have noticed is that my Hillborne is really squirly on gravel descents. I think this is a combination of things: The first being that the top tube plus the stem is really quite long (70cm), and the second being the slack head angle. I find that I have problems keeping enough weight over the front end to keep the wheel from bouncing around (length). When the front end bounces, I have to work hard to correct the steering and stay on my line (head tube angle). None of this is a huge deal on pavement, and I really like the long top tube for comfort. It’s a great bike for tooling around, and its quite comfortable, but I think when I want to go fast I’ll choose another bike.

All that said about the bike, I’m very very happy with how I finished and don’t think I would have finished a ton faster on any other bike. The official list has not come out yet, but I believe I finished in the low 40′s and my bike computer said I was just a hair over seven hours of ride time. My goals were to finish in the top 50, and under seven hours. I’m one for two, but I’ll take it. All and all a fantastic day. Thank you very much to the race organizers and volunteers, you guys really did a fantastic job!