Mountain Bike and Cycling Resources

DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES FOR RACING AND MAINTENANCE:

Basic and Advanced Bike Maintenance for Commuters
This is two-part class for bike commuters that covers basic home care, rescue maintenance, and drivetrain, brake, and wheel adjustments. This was prepared for a 4/20/2011 clinic I taught at NPR. (This contains much of the same content as MTB/AR clinic I taught for years.) Workshop handout (PDF).

Endurance Racing Clinic Notes:
Eddie O'Dea, Namrita Kumar, Jennifer Wills, and I held a clinic on 4/17/06 on how to prepare for your first endurance mountain bike race, whether that be a team race, or a 6, 12, or 24 hour solo race. Here are the notes (PDF).

Mountain Bike and Adventure Race Maintenace Clinic:
I've taught this clinic several times on behalf of Atlanta Cycling, the Atlanta Trailblazers Adventure Racing Club, and SORBA. This is a great primer on maintenance with a special emphasis on rescue bike maintenance, prepping for races, and how to be a great support mechnanic for an adventure race team. Printable Handout (PDF).

Sample Packing List for a 24 Hour Race (Courtesy of Charles "Hulk" Myrick):
This is a great list that Charles puts together to help manage gear and fees for team or solo races. Make your gear list and then delegate items to each team member

Charles is a pro at packing for these things. Preparation is so key at these races. You can't bring all the amenities you'd like, but the better you prepare, the less borrowing you'll have to do at the race. Keep your pit nice and neat. Printable Worksheet (XLS).

Sample Rider Log for 24 Hour Racing:
Here's a rider log with some sample data. If you haven't read the endurance clinic notes above, read those first. Your support crew will get just as punchy as the riders do, so it's good to take notes. You can use a log like this or make your own. Sometimes, I've forgotten to bring one, so I simply had my crew jot my lap times, food, equipment, batteries, etc. down on a piece of scrap paper.

Log your times in and out of the pits so that you know when to expect the next rider. Keep track of food/drink, caffeine, bike maintenance, and especially keep track of when you change your BATTERIES. This is indispensable for logistics during the race. You can also review this log after your race to see where you could've improved. Printable Worksheet (XLS).


LOCAL RIDES, CLUBS, AND TRAILS:

Sadlebred.com: Trish Albert's Southeastern Cycling Site. Here you'll find updated list of all sorts of races and events (Road, MTB, X-cross, downhill, you name it) across the Southeast. She also has group ride calendars and ride maps for some of the best rides in the area.

SORBA.ORG: Forums, Trail Updates, News. SORBA, the Southeast Off-Road Bicyle Association, is the reason we have trails to ride. They do volunteer maintenance and hold mountain biking clinics for beginners. This is a great way to get into the sport. They also have a terrific forum for racing, events, and chatter with local riders. They often post trail conditions and closures, so check it out before you pack the car.

MTBR.com: Mountain Bike Review: Forums, Gear Reviews, Trail Reviews. Riders from all over North America rate gear and post their favorite trails. Excellent forums for all topics.

Road Bike Review: Forums, Gear Reviews. Riders from all over North America rate gear. Like MTBR.com but for roadies.

Aaron's/ L5Flyers Cycling: The Southeast's top club and a model for a new cycling club based on a grassroots model. I'm very proud to be one of the founders. Recognized as a top clube by USA Cycling and with over 130 members, they are firmly committed to safe cycling, community service, and the progression of their members.


RACE PROMOTERS:

24 Hours of Adrenalin: One of the big national 24 Hour series and host of the World Solo Championships.

Granny Gear Productions: Granny Gear's owner, Laird Knight, is the founder of 24 Hour racing. He hosts memorable annual races such as the 24 Hours of Big Bear and 24 Hours of Moab.

Gone Riding: Southeast Promoter and host of NORBA series races as well as the 12 Hours of Tsali and 12 Hours of Razorback.

55Nine: Races and Bike Tuning: 55Nine Owner Eddie O'Dea is a top national endurance racer and organizes the Burn 24 Hour Challenge as well as the Fool's Gold 100. He is also provides wobble naught laser precision bike fits.

Shenandoah Mountain Touring: Promoter of the Shenandoah 100 and Wilderness 101, two of the top 100s on the East Coast.


RACE NOTES:

24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships: October 16-17, 2006

Holy smokes what a race! I told the promoter that for me that was like playing in a Super Bowl. Chris Eatough, the six-time world champion, and Craig Gordon, the Aussie national champion, went at each other for 25 hours straight. Had the race been a few hours longer, Eatough would have outlasted Gordon. VeloNews correctly describes how Craig literally almost buried himself to win the race. He spent his post-win week in the hospital undergoing dialysis to remove the accumulated toxins that caused one of his kidneys to shut down.

Results and full recap of the duel at 2006 World Solo's at Cycling News.

Trish Albert snapped this photo of me, which my parents thought was neat.


24 Hours of Adrenalin: October 16-17, 2005; Georgia International Horse Park, Conyers, Georgia
Last year, Mark Hendershot (finished 5th at World's) came out to give all the local boys a run. This year, Ernesto Marenchin, who finished 2nd at the World Championships by a mere 20 minutes, came down to Georgia.

Eddie O'Dea drove the pace hard at the beginning to try to crack Ernesto. Eddie ended up burying several riders with a vicious pace. Ultimately, Ernesto was too strong for any of us on that day.

Jen entered her second 24 hour race and took second to regional star Sandra Tomlinson!

Conyers 2005 Results


BURN 24 Hour Challenge: May 28-29, 2005; Wilkesboro, NC
Blaine Riley and I went up together. It was his first solo and my second. Blaine had an unbelievable first race, which of course I expected.

We were quickly buried by other riders during the day, but we outrode them at night and both finished top 10.

BURN Results


24 Hours of Adrenalin: Conyers, GA October 16-17 2004
So I just did my first 24 hour solo mountain bike race -- obviously I had to break out the bee costume for such an important occasion. It was trying at times, but I was really lucky to have a bunch of close friends egging me on.

Special thanks to Scott Beam, Jeff Bonasso, Kelby Kessler, and Dave Schmitt for volunteering in my pit area, Josh Zito, Jeff Cumbes and Blaine Riley for coming out to cheer, and to my teammates Andrew Gilchrist and Mike Harris for motivating me with their riding. Most of all, I'd like to thank Jennifer Wills, who not only worked all day and night to support me, but for believing in me and encouraging me from the very beginning; it was her idea for me to race, and she was my inspiration to keep going.

Here are the first few pics from the race, courtesy of Jennifer and Scott . Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of the photographers themselves! Not to worry, more pictures are coming in soon, and we'll have more of Jennifer and Scott.

The captions suck because I did these at 4 am when I couldn't sleep and wasn't feeling too witty.

Album 1: L5Flyers team photo gallery. Solo riders Andrew Gilchrist, Javaun Moradi, and Mike Harris, all-female category rider Dayna Cotter, and two-person team rider Mike Smith. (22 pictures)

Album 2: Pictures of solo riders and solo pit crew. Photos by Jennifer Wills. (15 pictures )

Album 3: Pictures of Team Menstrual Cycles. (19 pictures)

24 Hours of Adrenalin: Official Website
www.twenty4sports.com: schedules, history, results, and more.



Copyright © 2006 Javaun Moradi. All rights reserved.