This was a strangely satisfying accomplishment, finished today.
In order;
CX gravel vintage
Gravel gravel
CX gravel modern
Rain rando bike
Dropbar hardtail 1
Dropbar hardtail 2
I ride my main 3 bikes the most, because they’re the best and I use them for events. The others are in rotation as backup and as a change of pace if I get bored. Usually I’m good for 50-60 hours on the backup bikes.
This year I thought it would be interesting to try to get each bike to 1,000 miles for the year but I accomplished that in October so then I figured why not try for 100 hours on each, as well. I had things pretty balanced until the start of this month when I hit the hours for every bike except my not great CX bike and my rain bike. Looking at a month of no MTB was demotivating but then it turned out to be a pretty wet December so I only missed a day or two of MTBing.
Having this project always looming in the background all year was very motivating to keep up with maintenance and set-up changes I’d been neglecting. I upgraded tires and parts for some bikes that I had been putting off for years.
Finishing today feels like my year is over, I don’t think I’m going to ride again until next year.
Anybody else wrapped up already? Or accomplished whatever major goal(s) they had for the year?
I was aiming for 7200km for the year. I got to that a while ago so changed that to 9000, but won’t quite get there.
This is my biggest year on the bike, ever. Last few years have been around the 4-5k mark, so a big step up. Feels good man.
Racing:
I realized that I don’t actually like racing track that much. It’s three hours of sitting around for what ends up being at most 30min of riding time. I’ve decided next year to focus more on the fast weekly group rides & travel to a few single day events.
I think I’m gonna race all of CX next year too. This year went very well-- I podiumed most of my cat 3 and a good number of single speed races. I won the overall for the 3s and was 10 points off the single speed podium. Cat 2 now and I feel that if I work on my handling & braking consistency I can claw at the top 10 overall for C2 and still have a chance at the overall for single speed next year. A big goal but I think it’s possible.
Travel:
A definite highlight for bikes this year was house sitting for some friends in the East Bay and getting to ride something like [500 miles while out there.] Good god the east bay has some incredible road riding. I still think about climbing Diablo passing through the clouds and the Morgan Territory roads north of Diablo. Magical stuff. I need to make time to travel more.
Bike Spending:
I bought a new frame a few days ago ending my 18 month streak of no buying bikes. It’s mostly going to be a parts bin build, but I’m still anxious to get rid of the bikes it’s replacing. I hate owning bikes that don’t get ridden more than once a month, but racing has allowed me to justify keeping one or two bikes around that only get raced and therefore are more pristine than my others. Plus I sold some wheels and other parts that covered the entire cost of the new frame + shifters so thats nice and I surpassed my savings goals for the year so time for a treat. I still hate spending money on myself.
I appreciate the bump of last year’s thread. 2023 was a pretty bleak year of biking for me but I was optimistic I’d be able to turn it around in 2024. And I did!
Last year I made it less than 1200 miles and I’m betting better than half of those were on the e-bike. Yesterday I surpassed 2300 miles for 2024, which is the most miles I’ve recorded in a year that wasn’t 2020 or 2021. Less than 25% of those were on the e-bike. And I only rode like 150 miles in Q1, so I’m pretty pleased with the way I ramped up the miles and kept putting them down despite working full time job and raising a toddler.
With help from those miles I lost about 30 pounds and have started to lower my A1C without needing any medications (fingers crossed it stays that way).
Also started a bikes n beers club with some neighborhood dudes. There have been a couple of nights where I was the only biker (still met some cagers at the bar) and honestly I think I’m still pretty proud of that, I think it’s been good for the community.
Didn’t spend much money on bike stuff this year. Started putting more miles on my Black Mountain road bike which has been nice since I’m not bike commuting anymore and I can enjoy a bike without lights and fenders and racks and bags. I kinda want to replace my rusty old LHT but by gawd it keeps rolling and I can’t afford a new Black Mountain and daycare. Got to go on a good number of ride with my daughter and hoping to get her closer to riding herself this next year.
Not sure if I have any goals for 2025. I’d like to lose more weight but pretty much everything in my closet fits right now and I’ve actually got a lot of clothes that are too big now. I also don’t want to work too much harder at it so we’ll see lol. Maybe expand the Biker Boyz group a little more? I guess I just want to keep riding!
I had a couple bikes stolen, got a couple replacements, did some dirt jumping, got injured a couple times, came in last place in some races, and overall didn’t ride very much.
IDK, I’d much rather do a two hour race-pace road ride than sit around with cold legs waiting to race for less than seven minutes.
Plus, and I won’t bore with the details, people at my local track like to sit up while racing whereas the roadies actually pull through and cover attacks. It’s a lot more engaging.
2024 was not exactly the endurance year i apparently longed for in 2023, but it did start out that way.
my 2024 accomplishments:
did my first century since like 2016 i think. 100 miles of dirt and pavement, on 25s because the light road bike was what my body needed to save energy.
completed 1 bike packing trip, just 1 night. 107 miles and 6,600 ft in 2 days.
summitted mt blue sky. my 2nd trip up and first since they renamed the mountain. this is the highest paved road in north america. 66 miles and about 8,000 ft of climbing.
joined a women’s DH race development team. due to my own job coaching, however, i did not get to go to any of the coached training. i did get to do two races. i got 3rd in one and crashed in the other for a solid 5th (last place in my field). i did make some new friends that i have continued to ride with through this team.
but i get what you mean. you have to like the people for track, otherwise it kinda sucks. i struggled to get too into racing at BVV just because the community did not have the same vibe that alpenrose did and the connection was not as strong. never felt like i was part of the club. the racing was always fine though. i didn’t participate at the same level though and once i moved further away it just wasn’t worth the time expense.
Not a good year. I acquired too many bikes and parts and bags and didn’t actually finish enough projects or ride enough. But we had baby #2 in January so there is that excuse (he still doesn’t sleep through the night…)
Baby #2 is now cargo biking with us for daycare dropoffs so a lot more 1.5 mile trips coming up next year.
I hadn’t realized though that Washington has so little for lift access parks. It looks like there’s lift access at Stevens Pass resort and the Summit at Snoqualmie.
Yeah, I was surprised to learn that there’s only two, and Snoqualmie is new so it was just Steven’s Pass for a long time. I’m kinda tempted to close out my “2024 in bikes” with a GT Fury if they drop the price anymore but that would just be yet another bike to not ride…
Keep in mind that unless you’re hitting double blacks at the park, a trail bike will do ya just fine. In fact, if you’re riding blues or a mix of blues and blacks, it’s far preferable. A DH bike just isn’t fun unless you’re riding steep stuff (I say this as someone who’s never ridden one, but just from experience with friends riding theirs).
edit:
Also… if you want to get into DH, instead of investing in a DH bike, get a good full face helmet, goggles a chest protector, and good pads. There’s no reason to skimp on protecting gear from DH and it makes a HUGE difference when you inevitably misjudge something and crash. I’ve walked away from 25 mph impacts straight into the ground with only a bruise or two. You might already have a few of those things, but if they’re lighter trail versions, may as well get a burlier one for the rides where you don’t pedal. I don’t have like full DH level gear for everything, but at least enduro-level pads for knees and elbows, and some good mtb pants to wear on top.
I still hate spending money on myself.
