Barry Roubaix Weather Watch Part II: UPDATED

UPDATE: Well, circumstances have changed. Apparently while I was finalizing this blog post earlier today, the BR race director was sending out an e-mail noting a reroute the Sager and Shaw Road section discussed below due to the ice situation. Added was some more purportedly maintained dirt roads and pavement. I would think this would make the race faster and therefore, puts to sleep any tire ambivalence. The one catch was a Facebook posting noting that the Hastings area received 5-7 inches of snow last night. There might still be an Epic in here even without the doubletrack of Sager and Shaw. Feel free to read on to my take on the situation prior to receiving the e-mail notice.

The following is an excerpt from the Michigan Mountain Bike Association’s forum discussion that I found last night regarding the upcoming Barry Roubaix. There has been much talk of weather and road conditions the day of the race. This posting is not terribly encouraging:

 "I rode the 36 mile route late this afternoon and thought I would share what I saw. The temps were just below freezing 30-32 and it was sunny I found out this is the worst possible combination. The sun was melting the snow and the water and mud was freezing on the bike. If conditions are like this on Saturday the winner will be the one with the least stops to fix their bike. I had to stop 15-20 times to fix mine and keep it rideable. after 10 miles the small ring was no longer usable as there was to much ice on the F der to get any shifting at all. I tried to break it free but was afraid I would break the Der if I tried any harder. The 2 smallest cogs also were iced over at about the same time. Around 15 miles in the R der had enough ice on it that I lost the two biggest cogs due to ice catching my spokes. Most of the stops were to break ice away from the breaks and stays that were stopping the wheels from turning. I also had to stop 3 times to break ice out of the middle cogs so the chain would catch the teeth and once to free up the ice on the crank arms that were hitting the frame. I did however finish and did not have to carry my bike."

A link to the page itself is here, and it includes photos of the poster’s CX bike following his adventure. Maybe the singlespeed would be better…

So….expectations for the race are slowly shifting into survival mode. Luckily everyone will be in the same boat. The two track section, Sager Rd and Shaw Rd, are both seasonal roads which are more akin to fire roads based on photos I have seen. It appears these two sections, which are uphill in addition to being difficult terrain, usually break people in good weather. This year they are looking to be nothing but ice, snow, and with some mud thrown in for good measure. In short, epic. Hopefully it will be an epic ride, not hike.

I was flirting with using my regular mountain tires, but in the end I have mounted up the 700 x 42 Continental Cyclocross tires I bought for the race. They are still fairly wide (1.65 inches) and have wide spaced knobs. Plus, at this point I don’t want to get into second guessing the equipment. However, these tires were terribly difficult to get on the rim. Never had a more difficult time with a tire and I punctured three tubes in the process. Blah.

This weekend I also disassembled and overhauled my bike, which included adding a new derailleur (X9 over the old X7) and some new grips. I meant to get everything zeroed in over the weekend, but the rebuild took longer than I thought (stupid tires) and I was having some issues getting the shifting just right. I’m going to take it out tonight for a test.