Words. You may have noticed the content around here listing heavily toward the obfuscatory. What can I say? What can I say? What can I say?
Some of the rides that we do or plan are not for public consumption. I'd rather be under the radar than under the thumb. But, I am strangely compelled to scribble about these bicycle jaunts and so there are the blank spaces, the redactions, here. Just know that if it's unclear it was so much _____er than you imagine.
In this vein, __d_ and I rode the cyclocross bikes t'other day. I haven't been riding my super custom Black Cat cyclocross bicycle because I've got issues with the rear wheel. The drive-side spokes are pulling through the shitty Salsa Delgado box sucktion rims, and I've been too lazy and there are too many other accessible bikes to ride to do anything about it. This day, I'd decided to do something about it...say "fuck it, the spokes aren't going to fail catastrophically" and ride it anyway. It worked out great.
We started with a plan, but it changed on account of the above was just coming off the couch and illness (and still put the screws to me?! Dang.). Since the original plan had involved a bunch of road and then a bunch of singletrack and then a bunch more road, I'd (cleverly) decided to make my compromise on the trail section, it being nominally shorter, and have everything available to me on the (longer) road section(s). With the change in plan this was no longer the genius selection it had been. At the end of a day spent riding I had a big smile on my face.
At several stages during that day though, I had a big pucker going. At one point I was bound to the slidey, sandy, off-camber-to-the-outside Earth solely by a combination of willpower and ass-clenching. It was exciting! I will allow that the dirt was perfect. Perfect. Tacky, firmly set-up goodness. It was rarely the slick 37mm tyres holding me back as we climbed and climbed and descended and climbed, swooping the while. A new trail in Santa Cruz? Yes, and it is good up and down.
Whatever mushrooms the forests up there hold, they are safe from me. The singletrack will not be denied. It is February, if you are unsure, and we were laying down the Radness all day. Sometimes this California ish is OK.
Halfway stop:
...just up the street from the Bigfoot Museum. I have yet to have less than a Good Time there. We have shown up in all kinds of states and frequently in full body-hugging lycra and never even had the hint of a bad attitude. Classy as it gets.
The knee brace worked out pretty well. It is adjustable in several ways, and is open at the back to allow for easy flexion with minimum binding. It did catch on my frame pump (you damn right, frame pump), and of course it chafed and bound a little. However, there were 2 distinct instances when I felt it save me from some gapping at the joint- so, worth using for certain. Just like the slick tyres, everything is a trade-off somewheres. There might be a lesson in that.
Some of the rides that we do or plan are not for public consumption. I'd rather be under the radar than under the thumb. But, I am strangely compelled to scribble about these bicycle jaunts and so there are the blank spaces, the redactions, here. Just know that if it's unclear it was so much _____er than you imagine.
In this vein, __d_ and I rode the cyclocross bikes t'other day. I haven't been riding my super custom Black Cat cyclocross bicycle because I've got issues with the rear wheel. The drive-side spokes are pulling through the shitty Salsa Delgado box sucktion rims, and I've been too lazy and there are too many other accessible bikes to ride to do anything about it. This day, I'd decided to do something about it...say "fuck it, the spokes aren't going to fail catastrophically" and ride it anyway. It worked out great.
We started with a plan, but it changed on account of the above was just coming off the couch and illness (and still put the screws to me?! Dang.). Since the original plan had involved a bunch of road and then a bunch of singletrack and then a bunch more road, I'd (cleverly) decided to make my compromise on the trail section, it being nominally shorter, and have everything available to me on the (longer) road section(s). With the change in plan this was no longer the genius selection it had been. At the end of a day spent riding I had a big smile on my face.
At several stages during that day though, I had a big pucker going. At one point I was bound to the slidey, sandy, off-camber-to-the-outside Earth solely by a combination of willpower and ass-clenching. It was exciting! I will allow that the dirt was perfect. Perfect. Tacky, firmly set-up goodness. It was rarely the slick 37mm tyres holding me back as we climbed and climbed and descended and climbed, swooping the while. A new trail in Santa Cruz? Yes, and it is good up and down.
Whatever mushrooms the forests up there hold, they are safe from me. The singletrack will not be denied. It is February, if you are unsure, and we were laying down the Radness all day. Sometimes this California ish is OK.
Halfway stop:
...just up the street from the Bigfoot Museum. I have yet to have less than a Good Time there. We have shown up in all kinds of states and frequently in full body-hugging lycra and never even had the hint of a bad attitude. Classy as it gets.
The knee brace worked out pretty well. It is adjustable in several ways, and is open at the back to allow for easy flexion with minimum binding. It did catch on my frame pump (you damn right, frame pump), and of course it chafed and bound a little. However, there were 2 distinct instances when I felt it save me from some gapping at the joint- so, worth using for certain. Just like the slick tyres, everything is a trade-off somewheres. There might be a lesson in that.
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