Scrap Book: Rob Vandermark Racing Circa 1988

Here’s an old picture for the scrap book:

When:  I’m fairly certain this is summer 1988.

Where:  Temple Mountain Race or possibly Mount Snow National Series Race – both races in New Hampshire.

Why:  ‘Cause I thought I’d be a good racer.

What:  I’m racing a prototype Merlin bike – extra stiff for its day.  Koski chromed fork.  I have a partially inflated tube in my back pocket – that’s the way we used to do it; it’d save about 20+ seconds in changing a flat.  Yes, that’s a Protec helmet.  They used to have a mesh cover – super dangerous in retrospect but not so bad for mountain biking.  I think those are JT shades.  And I’m using toe clips and straps

It looks like I was rolling around in the mud a lot that day.  Not sure how I ended up with tire marks on my thigh.

Random memory:  Way back in the day I experimented with running two tubes in a tire – for mountain bike racing.  One inflated, and one with about 5 lbs in it.  I drilled the rims to have two valve stem holes.  The idea was that if I got a flat I could just inflate the other tube; this would save about a minute or so of flat changing time.  Ultimately I ditched this because the added grams – about 150? – would slow me down more than a minute over a 3+ hour race.  Fun experiment.