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Haynes Mansfield

Haynes Mansfield

Class:
Sport
Race Bike:

Specialized Comp 29
Favorite Bike:
Specialized Comp 29

(she's the only one I've got)
Favorite Ride:
Anything but Concha pass

(bit my knee)
Favorite Course:

Food:
A refined training diet of

Wendys, frozen pizza and

boiled peanuts.
Drink:

Yep

Don't Call it "Carolina"
& Don't Ask Me What a "Grit" is.

Here's a little background....in 2001 I started working as a video boater here on the New and Gauley rivers. My days were Everyday was spent paddling some of the greatest whitewater in the country and video taping the escapades of the river community. My nights.....well, no need to get into that. I loved every minute of the river life. Meanwhile my legs atrophied into little twizzlers as they spent there waking hours contorted in the bottom of the smallest kayak I could cram them in.

Fast forward several years. I waved goodbye to my palatial Harvester bus mansion and moved on to a brief stint in retail ( Water Stone Outdoors ...woot) Within a couple years I found myself at WELD working as a graphic designer. WELD is a great bunch of people who work as hard as the play. For the past few years I've had the "work" part down...as for the play, well. Let's put it this way, my twizzler legs, now introduced to the office chair.....evolved in to a sweet pair of ramen noodles! ( And I mean Ramen Pride, not the new fancy giant white worm ramen)

Enter team WELD-NRB. If you can work together you can play together. I haven't ridden a mountain bike since college so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm hoping that my other adventure sports ( I won't use the term "EXTREME" sports...just won't) will transfer in some way to biking. So far, it's as fun as surfing big water, and as scary as some of my moments on lead. ( lead climbing, not OD-ing on paint chips. Can you do that?)

Other then the above weirdness I am a North Cackalackin', southern bread, lexington barbeque eatin', tinkerin', designin', non-word wastin', slightly off (but fully aware) kind of guy. If I can do this, we all can.

Haynes Mansfield

Crash Course in Mountain Biking

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 00:00

Mountain biking 101 has been a heck of an experience for me. Let me bring you up to speed on my journey thus far:

Joined the team, got a really nice bike.
Somehow determined that climbing and boating experience would directly translate to the mountain bike.
Had a great ride with the team
Went for another ride.
Realized Mountain Biking can be really freaking hard (see photo), and has pretty much nothing to do with climbing or kayaking. Or snowboarding. Or graphic design. Who knew?
Nine stitches courtesy of Doctor Love ( Seriously, his name was Dr Love. When he worked as an OBGYN he introduced himself as "Dr Love, at your cervix. Seriously)
Waited a week or so, pulled out some stitches, and got back in the game.
Noticed that when I scratch the right side of my knee I feel it on the left side. ( I'm haven't yet determined a use for this new special skill)
Spent some time convinced that every rock had my name on it.
This past weekend I finally got on the race course. I'll tell the story in my next post.

Like I said, mountain biking has been an adventure so far. But, I haven't had this much fun since I surfed my first wave on the river. If you're slightly interested in the sport, get out there and try it. Worst case scenario you'll have the opportunity to become way too "up close and personal" with your tendons. Most likely you'll just have a blast.

Where are the training wheels?

Thursday, 05 March 2009 00:00

Alright. I've got a blog.......I just got a bike.....
Now I'm on a mountain biking team?

Jess and I met Andy at New River Bikes to crack the boxes open containing our piping hot Stumpjumpers. I figured, at my ability level, there would be 4 wheels....the 29's and a pair of Super Swamper training wheels. Nope, just two wheels. Maybe I can build the prototype. I guess that would pretty much be a pedal powered ATV. Could be a hit in WV, but not WVMBA legal.

We tried to help Andy put the bikes together. By "help" it mean mostly helping myself to a beer and holding wrenches while Andy did his magic. Thanks Andy, in a huge way. Believe me, we couldn't do this without you.

I have to say, these bikes are ridiculous. They have hydraulic disk brakes. This blows my mind. And that is just one component. My first and only mountain bike was a Gary Fisher Mambe purchased in '96. So moving from that to a Specialized Stumpjumper was basically like finding out the keys to your Daewoo suddenly fit in the ignition of a Boxer. Thank you Specialized for supporting Team WELD-NRB.

So what comes next? We test ride tomorrow at 5. Stay tuned for a beginners take on a pimp new bike. (That thins is way to shiny right now)