a sunday ride.

yesterday, rolled a qwik 50, sorta.
qwik considering the climbs,
233-B'ville-233-King's Gap.
bang, bang, bang...bang.
Tight little out n back, testing,
building, perceiving, learning.

then the Salsa rebuild, today
was shakedown time. That fancy
new superfast $40 tire lasted all of
15minutes in the forest of Meeshow.
Tire not to blame, edge of that rock
woulda sliced any rubber to graze it
the way I did. Sharp, frustrating.
Boot it, questionable patched tube
out of the saddle bag, happy that
Keith had a pump along, I was
traveling light w/ CO2 and I'm
thinking I missed a tiny thorn
pinhole the way it kept feeling...

32:18 = $$$

gives about 2mph to the top end,
does take a bit more oomph here
and there, that was revealed up along
Rattlesnake. Then we jumped onto
the 'race loop'. Last night's shakedown
spin in the Gables w/ a peanut buttery
topcoat had me wondering how well
those small blocks would hook up....
Well, the damn thing works pretty
fuckin' good! Rode the Traverse over
to ColdSpring. Trail is rippin' despite
the race day conditions. mmmm,
tire benched loamy tread, sweetness.
Ran into Riceball and Gav out there,
always good to catch up on the trail.
Then a trip down Canyon, and once
again almost cleaned the thing on the
fix, one dab, grrrr. The edumacated
guess at where to cut the fork steerer
brought my hands up just a tad.
Me likey! Front end comes up soooo
much easier. Will take a bit more
adaptation, expected. Did clean all
of the clear cut portion, big slab entry,
those goofy smaller slabby drops, even
my up n over line into the crux move
and down into the Canyon proper, then
washed the front end just above the
stream crossing on a jumble of wet rocks.
Probably would've puckered & blinked
on the mini-slab before the pine tree
carwash tunnel anyways, waited to remount
until below that 10yd section. Rolled the
rest clean, new logs and all.
FlatTrail, wow is the greenery coming
on strong! That and the Canyon clearcut
need lopped back, lot's of blind face
slapping corners, riding on instinct and
10+yrs of memorized line to stay smoove.
Maybe get out there for a rainy evening hike..

Ended with a swim inn the always
refreshing Fuller Lake. Not a bad
day in sucky south central. ;-]
Now I've got a tube to change.
and a yard to mow, a bike
to spray down, dishes to clean
and a beer to drink, good times,
good times.