Halle-fuckin-lujah!
Life was conspiring to keep me off the trails, but I persevered, and had one kick ass ride tonight.
The one night I needed to get my ass out of work exactly on time, I got stuck on a phone call that kept me about 10 minutes late. No bother, it was a simple matter of braking just about every traffic law on the books to get to PLRA before Alden, Andy and Erin ditched me.
Got dresses, got the bike set up, took two peddle stokes, and *snap*.... Brands spankin' new chain breaks! Fuck!
Luckily, I had a spare power link... too small for my bmx chain!!! DAMNITALLTOHELL!!!
Andy to the rescue with an 8 speed chain, just the right length.... now that's more like it.
So by now it's just about completely dark, so the lights come on pretty early in the ride. I'm finding quickly that 36x17 was much too ambitious a gear for my first real single speed ride at PLRA. Not to mention my first real rigid trail ride in about 10 years. And all in the dark, no less. wtf is wrong with me?
the two mile climb was a bitch. I would have cleared the whole thing, but we stacked a bit on the rocky right hand 180, had to grab a tree. By the top I was pretty cashed, and glad the rest stopped to wait.
I cleared the few rutty, bumpy downhills that I was a little anxious about, rigid and all.. used a little too much brake, but I'll learn..
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, until the armored climb after the switchback whoops. I was pretty sure I wouldn't even make that climb in this gear mid season, but I was determined to give it a run.. I peddled hard into it, with the intention of hitting it on the left, then working my way toward the right to avoid the bigger rocks and stay toward the uphill side. "holy shit, I'm gonna make it!!" I thought... WRONG. I get half way, spin my rear wheel on a rock and stall. Unfortunately I hadn't worked my way over to the right like I wanted, and when I stalled, my weight was on my left. What wasn't on my left was a place to set my foot. About 25-30 feet, and several "FUCK"s later, I came to a rest at the bottom of the hill below the trail. That shit is scary when you can't see what's coming. Fortunately, the worst part of the whole thing was I have nothing to show for it. just a small scrape on the leg. =[ where's the gravel in the skin??
The rest of the ride went smooth. We rapped it up, said our goodbyes, and called it a night.. work tomorrow after all.. =[
Besides picking the wrong gear, it was a perfect first ride a Pontiac. I had a blast, and I'm psyched for that first warm sunny daytime ride when I can start to rip it up (relatively speaking, of course.. ;) )
Hope you got out and rode today!
The one night I needed to get my ass out of work exactly on time, I got stuck on a phone call that kept me about 10 minutes late. No bother, it was a simple matter of braking just about every traffic law on the books to get to PLRA before Alden, Andy and Erin ditched me.
Got dresses, got the bike set up, took two peddle stokes, and *snap*.... Brands spankin' new chain breaks! Fuck!
Luckily, I had a spare power link... too small for my bmx chain!!! DAMNITALLTOHELL!!!
Andy to the rescue with an 8 speed chain, just the right length.... now that's more like it.
So by now it's just about completely dark, so the lights come on pretty early in the ride. I'm finding quickly that 36x17 was much too ambitious a gear for my first real single speed ride at PLRA. Not to mention my first real rigid trail ride in about 10 years. And all in the dark, no less. wtf is wrong with me?
the two mile climb was a bitch. I would have cleared the whole thing, but we stacked a bit on the rocky right hand 180, had to grab a tree. By the top I was pretty cashed, and glad the rest stopped to wait.
I cleared the few rutty, bumpy downhills that I was a little anxious about, rigid and all.. used a little too much brake, but I'll learn..
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, until the armored climb after the switchback whoops. I was pretty sure I wouldn't even make that climb in this gear mid season, but I was determined to give it a run.. I peddled hard into it, with the intention of hitting it on the left, then working my way toward the right to avoid the bigger rocks and stay toward the uphill side. "holy shit, I'm gonna make it!!" I thought... WRONG. I get half way, spin my rear wheel on a rock and stall. Unfortunately I hadn't worked my way over to the right like I wanted, and when I stalled, my weight was on my left. What wasn't on my left was a place to set my foot. About 25-30 feet, and several "FUCK"s later, I came to a rest at the bottom of the hill below the trail. That shit is scary when you can't see what's coming. Fortunately, the worst part of the whole thing was I have nothing to show for it. just a small scrape on the leg. =[ where's the gravel in the skin??
The rest of the ride went smooth. We rapped it up, said our goodbyes, and called it a night.. work tomorrow after all.. =[
Besides picking the wrong gear, it was a perfect first ride a Pontiac. I had a blast, and I'm psyched for that first warm sunny daytime ride when I can start to rip it up (relatively speaking, of course.. ;) )
Hope you got out and rode today!
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