John Henry vs Sea Otter

It has been a while (again since I did anything here (again) so here I go.

In January at a cross-country race I talked to a friend, Brendan Collier about a new offering he had in his line of bikes. Brendan owns Siren Bicycles, and makes beautiful mountain bike frames. Up until recently he only worked with aluminum. He now was offering a steel bike named after John Henry, the Steel Drivin’ Man. He also was working with a new top tube shape that included a constant radius arc. It looked really good. A few weeks later I talked to Brendan on the phone and worked out the details on the bike. His stock XL bike was almost identical size wise to the bike I was currently on, and it fit me well. We worked out the details on color, dropout options, and tubing.

I was still running a suspension fork up front, and planned to send the fork up to be powdercoated to match the frame. I never planned on putting gears on the bike, so we would set it up and singlespeed only. Brendan offered me a really good deal on the frame and asked only that I do a write up on it in return. Good deal.

I sent off a check as a deposit a month later and continued to ride. I realized the Sea Otter Classic was coming up in April, and I had always wanted to go. Sea Otter is at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey and is a combination mountain/road race series and bike product expo. There was also going to be a World Premiere of a Film Called “Follow Me”. I had already planned to show Follow Me in San Diego as a benefit for the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition so this would work out perfectly.

I began to train a lot, and started to get fit. I realized I would need to send the fork off to be powdercoated and borrowed a rigid steel fork from a friend so I could keep riding. This turned out to be very important. I really liked the rigid fork, and found I didn't have a need for the suspension fork. I ordered a Niner steel fork and sent it up along with the Reba fork to be painted to match the frame.

Just in time for Sea Otter I drove up to the shop in Hemet and met with Brendan and his wife Mary and son Alex. As soon as I saw the frame it was bike love at first sight. I have never had a frame made just for me, and was really stoked to have a locally made frame. We poked around the shop and talked about what was on the burner for Siren. I headed home and that night headed to my friend Ernesto’s house and built the bike. I moved up to a 2.55 wide tire in the front for some added cushion and traction. The Chris King mango bottom bracket, headset, and hubs looked great against the cream white paint with metallic flake clear coat. The bike looks amazing.

BTW, when I was pulling the parts off of the Specialized to go onto the Siren, I discovered the frame was cracked at the drive side chainstay/seatstay junction. This probably was the source of the creaking I could not silence...

The next day I headed out to one of my favorite local trails and took off. I must say I am glad to be back on steel. The slight weight penalty and somewhat more flexible rear end is definitely worth the benefits of a plush ride.

Over the next week I rode the bike almost every day and loved it more every ride.

The following Thursday I headed off to Sea Otter. My friend Everett (aka Erv) was also racing there, albeit on the road so he rode shotgun. We made good time, and arrived at Laguna Seca at about 4 PM. Some friends who work for VAS Entertainment were there and shared the campsite for the night. VAS is the dominant distributor of action sports videos in the US. I met them at Interbike last September. We hung out around the fire and had beers and sandwiches until ten or so. Erv had a race in the morning, so we kept it under control.

The next morning I headed out to Erv’s start to see him off. It was a circuit race on the Laguna Seca raceway, so I went to the corkscrew to get shots of him there. After a few laps I headed back to the finish and took a few more shots. Unfortunately there had been a breakaway in the race that Erv had missed and the six guys who got away stayed away until the finish.

I headed to the expo and noticed a lot of people noticing my bike. It looks very distinctive with the rigid fork and curved top tube. Several people asked me if it was a Sycip, which I took as a compliment as Sycip is commonly known as a highly sought after custom frame maker.

I met up with my friends Keven, who is working as a race mechanic for the Intense/ODI team and JD Swanguen, who races for the team. After that it was back to camp for some lunch and then out onto the trail for a course pre-ride. I switched to a slightly tougher gear on the bike and headed out. The fist bit of singletrack was amazing. There was a tricky corner at the bottom of the first fast stretch that had gravel in it, and I suspected that would cause problems for more than one rider. The gear I had chosen was difficult but I suspected it would be good for the race and would help me on the flatter sections.

I got back to camp and had a quick bit of dinner with Erv, then headed into town for the Premiere of Follow Me. I met up with the VAS crew. We were sporting wigs, and got more than one stare from the Monterey tourists.

The film was amazing, and afterward we headed to a local bar for the after party. I stayed until about midnight then headed back to camp for some much needed sleep.

The next day Erv had the road race. I again saw him off and headed back to the expo. I got some good shots of the dual slalom races and downhill practice. JD had made the finals in pump track, so I got some shots of him there.

Back to camp again then off to Brendan and Mary’s place they had rented for dinner and a screening of Ride the Divide, a documentary of the Tour Divide race, which is a self supported mountain bike race from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico on the border with Mexico. Mary is the only woman to complete the race, and it has only been completed by about 40 riders ever. The film producer Mike Dion was at the screening. Mike attempted the race the year it was filmed, but had to abandon.

We headed back to camp and I was able to get a solid six hours’ sleep before begging up for my race. My start was at 8 AM. I tend to get pretty warm so I braved the chilly weather with a sleeveless jersey. I ride up and down the climb to the corkscrew a few times and was able to get good and warm. All the Cat 3 racers were starting in waves, with my group rolling out first. The collegiate riders followed us. I knew I would want to get onto the dirt as quickly as possible to have a good shot to get onto the dirt with empty trail in front of me.

Our race started and we had to ride about two thirds of the racetrack before we got onto the dirt. I sat in on two fast guys at the front and drafted them around the track. I was able to get onto the dirt in about tenth, as some of the collegiate guys went past us pretty quickly. As I suspected, a rider who was having trouble on the singletrack held me up with three other guys. We got up onto a fire road and I began to hammer. I was feeling pretty good, and charged down the next downhill section, which was a very loose and sandy section. The sand was taking its toll on the younger riders and I managed to get through without being taken out by any of them as the panicked and hit their brakes.

The next climb was a really tough one and hurt quite a bit. I managed to get to the top without being passed by any singlespeeders. The first road climb arrived and I was indeed passed by the guy I had drafted on the track. I knew for certain he had been in front of me so I asked him how I had gotten in front of him. He had gone down hard on the gravel corner I had been concerned about. I then saw that his left hip, elbow, and knee were all pretty torn up. I was a strong rider and made good time up the hill. As he took off he told me I was in fourth.

I began to hear a loud noise that I was pretty sure was a broken spoke on my rear wheel. I stopped and checked, and sure enough fund the broken spoke I suspected. I wrapped it around its neighbors and continued on. On the next downhill I passed the guy who had crashed. He had gotten unnerved by his crash and was having trouble descending. I was treated a few minutes later by one of the collegiate riders attempting to ride through a giant mud bog as I went around it. (Note to racers: Always pre ride the course so you know about impassable hazards ahead of time) The kid went down hard, resulting in a very satisfying splash of mud and water. He got up covered with mud and a big smile. Gotta love kids. I kept riding and never saw him after that.

BTW, another side note. I saw a lot of guys roll up to the start on bikes covered in mud, and a lot of guys having shifting issues on their bikes. Why don’t people take a few minutes to prep their bikes before races? Granted I was racing the beginner class, but geez.....

I got to the last fire road climb and began to follow another singlespeeder. After about five minutes I saw his pedaling become more and more labored. I took a shot and made a pass. As I did, he asked me if I had anything for cramping. I told him no, and to drink as much water as possible. I hammered and dropped him. As I got to the top of the climb I realized I was done. I got back onto the track, looked back and saw no one. I rode the half mile down the hill to the finish hands off the bars and glad to be done. As I crossed the finish I heard the announcer call “Here’s your singlespeed winner all the way from San Diego, number 335 Scott Armstrong!” What??? Did I hear that right?

I stopped and was still wondering what had happed when another dude on a singlespeed asked me how I had done. I told him they announced me as the winner, but I was pretty sure he had beaten me. He agreed, and then the rest of the singlespeed flock began to arrive. He joked about for a few, and then I headed back to camp. I had a congratulatory shot of Jameson and a beer, and then got out of my race kit. Siren hadn’t had time to get race kits ordered so IU had ridden in a plain jersey with a Siren logo I sewed onto the back. I called Brendan and asked him if he was going to be able to get me a podium shirt. He said “definitely”, then asked, “you are on the podium?” “Yep. Second.” I then heard him tell Mary, “Scott got second!”

They made it to the venue in record time and I met them there with some beers. I shared beers with the rest of the singlespeed podium, and we sorted out the results. As it turned out, the guy who won had been registered in the wrong category. He filed a protest, which of course I agreed with. I want about to win on a technicality.

We were called back stage, and our group was second to receive our medals so there were a lot of folks out there watching. As it turned out I had the most vocal following as is fitting for San Diego mountain bikers. If we don’t win the race we win the party.

We headed out to watch some more downhill. I got some good photos then headed back to break down camp. It had been a long day, so I had Erv drive the last stretch after we stopped for some well-deserved In N Out.

Naturally, the next day it was back to being busy and I had a lot of work to do for the premiere of Follow Me. I was able to round up a lot of donations to the Bicycle Coalition in the form of raffle prizes and cash. Saturday night arrived and we had a really good turnout of about 140 people.

Not bad for a midnight showing in a town like San Diego where there are always about ten fun things to do on any given night.

Now that Sea Otter and the Follow Me premiere are done with I can get back to my usual schedule and plan the next event.

I just got a call from the local Rocky Mountain dealer that they will have an Altitude 29 demo bike for me Friday. Ahhh, bikes. It’s gonna be a good weekend.