waterproof socks

My feet get cold easily. I probably have a medical condition. It's one of the many reasons why I can't imagine moving back to the Midwest, where I grew up. No amount of layers of socks made from cotton, synthetics, wool, baby seal or tauntaun guts (unless said tauntaun is really fresh, like warm saurkraut) can help me. I need an external heat source. The feeling of constantly-numb toes horrifies me so much that I would need to make a heavy investment in foot-warming apparatus before spending any significant amount of time up there again.

The only thing worse than cold feet is cold feet that are also wet. Since most of the cold water on might encounter while riding a bicycle is on the ground, it makes sense that keeping your feet dry would be important. Enter Dexshell socks. There are a few other makers of waterproof socks on the market but these are a little cheaper than the others and I got a pair for Christmas this year. I finally had the opportunity to put them to the test this weekend.

I joined some friends for an urban ramble on a foul Texas "winter" day of overcast skies, drizzily atmostphere, and frigid sub-50 temperatures! OK, it was not that cold, but cool enough to make getting wet miserable. We had planned to ride from a friend's east-side home to a park on the north side from town, then south through the city and back over to the house. I had time to do about half of that and learned that a rigid 29er with fat knobbies is not the worst road bike choice after all.

At one point, we made a point of going off-road, despite the soggy conditions and the fact that none of us was riding a bona fide mountain bike. We abandoned the world of pavement as soon as we could and followed a jeep road for a while, hoping it would eventually lead us back to civilization. Before we made our way back to pavement, we had to traverse a boggy area that resulted in wet shoes all around. Seeing the water, I realized that, given the misery that cold feet gives me, I would probably be scurrying home once I felt the water sloshing around in my shoes. So I took the plunge.

Cold? Yes! But dry. Dexshell socks held up to this first test. I learned that my toe covers and my shoes hold water well, and that cold water surrounding my feet for the next few hours certainly was not fun, but much better than being wet.

We kept riding and at one point I peeled off to head home. I stayed dry for most of the rest of the trip and lost feeling in my toes, as was expected. I learned that wet shoes are still cold shoes, so if you really want to keep feeling your toes, you need more than waterproof socks, but the socks are a good start.

[followed this concrete wall for a part of my journey. good message!]

Texas Chainring Massacre report

Half of the fun of mountain biking, for me at least, is exploring and just pedaling for as long as I can be out before life's obligations call me back. The other half is about technical challenges. Sometimes I want to focus on the latter, and I can find plenty of nearby trails to challenge me in that regard. The best way to do the former is a gravel grinder, a popular race/fun ride format that involves riding long courses on unpaved, rural roads.

I have done a few of these over the years, including The Holy Roller, Castelle Grind, and the Texas Chainring Massacre. Previously, I have ridden cyclocross-type bikes that I have owned (Pake C'mute, Salsa Vaya, Soma Double Cross Disc) and, while those bikes have been great for this kind of riding with 32-42mm knobby tires, I took the plunge a few months ago and sold my last CX bike and committed to making my Soma Juice hardtail 29er my only bike. With a little bit of adapting, a mountain bike makes a great gravel grinder. Most of the hundreds of other people riding around me (and past me!) were riding cyclcross/gravel-specific bikes for good reason, but I just wanted to do this for fun and finish these events strong with my bike.

In addition to riding what many will consider a sub-optimal bike for a gravel race, I chose to try this last event, the 2017 Texas Chainring Massacre 100k on a single-speed bike. To make my bike gravel-ready, I had to change a few things from my usual trail setup:

*replaced the 120mm suspension fork with a rigid Salsa Chromoto Grande fork. This fork has a tapered steerer tube like my squish fork, and a 15mm through axle, so I didn't need to do anything different with my front wheel.

[Salsa rigid fork]

*swapped my 60mm stem and 740mm riser bar for a 100mm stem and 640mm flat bar. I also put some bar ends and TOGS. Since most riders use a bike with a drop handlebar for additional hand positions, I felt that this was the next best thing, and I ended up using 3-4 hand positions over my hours on the road

*gearing- this was a tough call. I live in Austin and the event is held in north Texas. I had ridden CRM two years ago on a geared bike and did not remember the terrain well enough to know how much climbing would be involved. Knowing I would not have the options of shifting gears meant picking a gear that would cruise well on the flat sections and be easy enough to pedal up the hills. I went with a 38t front chainring and an 18t rear in place of the 32/20 combo that I usually use. As a bail-out option, I slid a 20t cog on next to the first cog, so that I could wrap my chain around it without too much drama and hobble to the finish on a slightly easier gear.

[big ol' KMC singlespeed chain actually didn't play nice with my Raceface narrow-wide ring, so I put an old 10-speed chain on instead]

*tires- this is, in my opinion, the thing that can make or break a gravel grind experience. I have ridden these events on 32mm Contintal Race Kings, 42mm Conti Speed Rides, and 35mm WTB Cross Boss tires. Every time I do one of these rides, I start to think "man, I wish I had bigger tires on my bike. next time I'll put some fatties on!"

While the Cross Boss has been my favorite "skinny" tire so far (partially due to the effortless tubeless application), I found a good deal on some Schwalbe Thunderburt tires in a 29x2.1 size and chose those over the Specialized Renegades that were competing for my attention. Thunderburts are light, supple, and fast on hardpack and on pavement, and the casing is big enough to roll at lower pressures. They seated easily on my WTB rims and have been grippy enough for some nimble singletrack riding.


The Chainring Massacre experience was my best gravel race yet. Kevin and the Spinistry team have upped their game this year with a much better-organized event than my last experience. There were hundreds of riders, timing chips, well-marked turns on the course for people riding different distances, and credit for free food/ liquor in the little town square at the end of the ride. The route took us through beautiful, remote farm roads and lots of challenging gravel, rolling hills, and folks willing to spin and chat once the group spread out enough.

As I mentioned, hand position options were a great idea for my mountain bike. I am having a harder and harder time making the case for myself that I should ever own a drop-bar bike again when I can ride narrow flat bars with ends and get the same effect (for my purposes, at least, YMMV). Tires were spectacular, I brought plenty of snacks and water, and I dressed warm enough for the ride that started just about freezing and ended in the low 50s. My toes quickly went numb and stayed that way for the duration of the ride, and I don't recall stopping to pee at any point. Pedaling and drinking water and not peeing for that period of time is probably not healthy.

I managed to finish in just over 5 hours and I was the 200th rider to complete the 100k distance. That is not impressive my any means, but I was riding against at least one Tour de France champion and handicapped myself with a relatively heavy bike with only one gear. I was perfectly pleased with my performance, though. I rode strong the whole time, only stopped once at the lone water station to refill, and didn't walk any of the hills, as much as my legs wanted me to.

Looking back, I would have geared down just a tiny bit to help with the hills (maybe a 19t cog instead of 20t) and shoved some warmers in my shoes to prevent the numbness that plagued me the whole way. Looking forward to next year. Before that, I have Castell, Holy Roller, and whatever urban rambles I can cobble together in the meantime.

[The Juice getting some well-earned R&R]