Just the Tip

I got ready for a road ride.
It was Saturday.
In my perfect world scenario you ride on the road to work during the week and your mountain bike on the weekend.

The wind was blowing (hard).
I had enough wind on Friday.

I was reluctant, but after walking around the expansive grounds of the CB2 compound I decided I would play "Just the Tip".
I would ride over to the Res and just go in a little. If it was firm, I'd go deeper. Soft and gooey, I'd just do hill repeats with the protection of the trees on the fireroads.

The trail along the brook feeding reservoir 1...good
East fence line...dry except for low-lying spots that will be wet until July (they always are)

so far so good...

Fireroad dividing the Antler Trail...soupy mess
Levee...pretty sloppy
But those are easily avoided and are roads

West-side...Freakin" Ideal!!!

Ideal except after a solid first half a month commuting on the fixed gear, that clacky device hanging off the back of my bike was getting pretty annoying.
So much for seeing what my potential as a rider is; singlespeed is just so much more fun.

With Winter tires (Ardent 2.25f, Nevegal 2.2r), set up single BlüSteel weighs 21 pounds, 11 ounces thanks to the Niner fork. That's lighter than any mountain bike I've ever raced; with racer boy tires it could be below 20.5 lbs.

With knowledge of the trail condition, avoiding all gooeyness and sticking to the awesome, I finally got test the Niner fork's mettle. You'd think by steepening the head angle it would be twitchy, but on the contrary, although quicker, the steering has a decidedly "moto" feel to it. I was really able to ratchet it up a notch on some of the descents (but that might have just been due to the enthusiasm of riding on glorious Windsor Sandy Loam). Maybe lowering the front end has more ideally distributed my weight, but I felt a confidence I haven't felt in quite some time (pre-thumb breaking). I felt fast (I wasn't), and fast is fun.

This was how I avoided the slop on Sunday

One of the greatest performance upgrades I've made this Winter is my new bell. Not as stylie, but form follows function...
Spring has sprung!

Mostly