shakedown

This is one of many pictures that I like, and no, not just because it's of me. Granted, that gives the shot extra depth from my viewpoint, since I know intimitely the point in time that it captures. This pic is from the upper reaches of Logsled, the finishing climb of spring Michaux, it was a beautiful day of racin' in a cold pissy rain. I like the distance of the shot, the riders somewhat insignificant, but detailed enough to read the body language, which says to me, suffering. This is the final kick, those final five minutes of head down, teeth clamped to the bars, million mile stare into the mud, just let this gawd damn climb be over so I can swill beer with my friends effort, which tops off a really really really fun day. I'm looking forward to many more days like this. Days where you ride the edge of catastrophic meltdown, and escape with merely a singed hair or two. Buck got a bunch of other good shots with my camera that day, check 'em out as we count down to that first big test of the year.....

Tonight I'm heading back out to shakedown the Dos a bit more, before I hopefully log some big mileage on her this Sunday. Had her out last Sunday, and that turned into what I kinda expected. Big group thang from Bendersville, Cupcakes in full effect, gentleman's pace tossed out the window. Not the best scenario for shaking down a new rig. My issues started with what I thought was a funky front derailleur cable issue, which turned into a crankset issue upon further inspection. So, I bailed after the first half hour, not wanting to ruin any gear and spun her back out the fireroad to the car. Boogied on home, jumped onto the road fixy and realized how tired I really was from Saturday's effort. Cut that ride short also.

Went down into the shop and tried to swap out the RaceFace crank for the XTR, couldn't remove the RF 'cuz the self extracting cap has gone missing, swell. Went ahead and started swapping around bars and stems. Trying to bring my hands back in and down a bit. Really felt behind the steering on the morning test run, which I suspected would happen with my position having me reach wayyyy out there, little inputs requiring big movement. Got back out around town on some of the urban singletrack stashes in the afternoon. The front end was easier to loft, and she felt much tighter, less loopy, in the turns. Snuck out again last night for a quickie, to reevaluate the changes from Sunday and dropped the stem a smidge more, now I think I'm getting close. Really chomping to get her back out onto the test track, gonna ride one of those favorite loops that you know oh so well, one that tosses everything at you in a neat little two hour package. Tonight should reveal a lot....