"What's that bike doing in the house?"
a shrill exclamation shot across the kitchen.

I grasped for low hanging defensive fruit and shot back
"what's a dinner dish doing in our bedroom?"

Neither here nor there, but expedited my passage to the basement.
(a duh, it's coming in the house so I can work on it, but I'm in slides so I didn't want to walk across the lawn to the hatchway).

What do do when the Governor has struck the fear of god into all around you?
Convert your bike back to singlespeed of course.

Venting

It's time to rebuild my new Rockshox.
It has 10 rides on it.
That 10 rides includes one on the bike path, and Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.

10!

Is that how it's supposed to be?

I chose RS over Manitou based on price and other peoples' opinion and not my own experience, and now I'm regretting it.

After 10 rides.

Going back to rigid and monster truck tires for awhile.

Maybe it's the Moon?

But it's not nearly full?
Maybe it's the warm nights?
Maybe it's the proximity to Halloween?

Last night a gentleman felt such concern for my safety as to suggest I ride my bicycle on the sidewalk.

Other than this being illegal, and the sidewalk ending in about a 1/4 mile, thanks for the advise.
/sarcasm


Pete had a similar experience last night.

Coincidence?

Backlash from the whole LA shitstorm?

My commute is usually pretty event free; it seems drivers in the Farmington Valley are fairly accepting of sharing the road (i.e. obeying the law).

I've noticed the first nice day of Spring usually brings out the yahoos, but things quickly return to normal.

Maybe it's an anomaly.

I'm glad I was too tired to even think about getting riled up last night.

Choppers

Looking back at race pictures one thing is evident;
a grimace.

as the year went on it softened

but is quite a contrast to the past

Is it because I'm more intense this year?  More serious?  Focused?

No.

 It's because I've been living with two broken teeth that needed root canals for the past 2 years and finally(!!!) had them taken care of.

The process started in February with a cleaning and exam.  Then Dr. Stephanie repaired some work my last dentist screwed up while we waited for insurance approval for the root canals and crowns.
The heavy work started in June and finally was completed on Friday.

The first thing I did was a buy big bag of nuts.

Now if only I can remember I can chew on both sides of my mouth.

Silence on Blue Mountain

For James' Birthday we headed West to Blue Mountain in Peekskill NY.

Fun  was had by all.

(at least until Frank and Greg each broke their derailleur hangers)

Neal brought "birthday cakes"

and no one said a word.

Nothing was implied.
No allegations or denials.

We just rode.

Again!!

You've got to be kidding me?!

I've dropped my chain three times in 10 miles, all on short steep hills!!

What the Fük!!

That's it.  When I get home the WI cranks are coming the fük off!

Uh...maybe your chain is falling off because the quick link is broken.

Looking in my man purse it turned out I only had 1/2 a 8 speed quick link.  But half  8 plus half a 9 (8.5?) held until I got home so.

Really bad timing though.
Quite a buzz kill for me to play with my new toy.

Like running with scissors under a ladder in front of a black cat, I put a shock on my Dirty Little Whore.  A shock with two sides no less.

A Lefty would have meant building a new front wheel.

15mm Thru Axle would have been nice too, but again, the whole build a new wheel thing.
(for the record I love building wheels, I just don't like spending money)

So how does it ride?
Pretty good.
I was a little spent from yesterday's ride, so a couple extra pounds and some squishy-squishy was noticed
But on the descents...

Some days you wish all the trails went down hill.
What a hoot.

It still needs some dialing.
I just need to get it to a Citroën bottomless pit off plushness, that somehow doesn't bob on climbs feel I'm after (is that asking too much?).

Road Ride w/ Alex

Alex has a penchant for climbing.
He also has developed a love of, let's just say, more "rustic" roads.

So when no one wanted to go mountain biking with me on my squishy fork's maiden voyage it was only natural to join him, James and Josh on a tour of rural NW CT, and SW MA.

I knew the roads would be "unimproved".  I knew what I was getting into, but buddy...

this is not a road

neither is this

okay this is

I thought I had the perfect tool for the job,

my Swift set up with 35mm CX tires

but after the Monterey General Store, I couldn't hold a wheel to save my life.  Every time the road angled up Josh would stretch the elastic and I would be off the back.

Was it the bike?
The tires?
Me?

(probably the latter)

I was getting dropped on every climb...and I thought I felt pretty good too.

Tried standing...

tried sitting...

but the distance continued to grow.

At one point I thought I was matching Alex's cadence,  in a bigger gear, and I was still falling back?!

Anyhoo, tomorrow I'll test out Aspasia's new toy.