Treehuggers, look away!

Certain circumstances have come together this week to make a little bit of riding possible. I took advantage of this last night. I headed over to Tranquility at 8:45. Upon arriving, I began the process of assembling my bike (it rides in the trunk). I had to deal with a patch that came off from a pinch flat at Landahl, and reinflate. Hit the trail at about 9:05. The sun quickly disappeared, so it was time to find out just what this night riding is all about. I had the bar mounted light seen in the pictures below and a small head mounted light. The bar light has 3 LED's and runs on 2 AA's. It lit up my front tire and a very small patch on either side of it. The headlight has 1 LED and runs on 1 AA. It created a circle of light about 2 feet in diameter, depending on how far ahead I was looking. With this combination, I very easily achieved what I like to think of as "light speed." This is the speed at which I was riding beyond the capabilities of the lights I was using. I managed to avoid catastrophy for the first 15 minutes or so, but then, going through the nursery, I caught my right brake lever on a small tree. As I attempted to regain control, I hit this little guy dead on.

I appologized and gave it a hug, checked myself for injuries, reattached my visor to my helmet, and carried on, a little more cautiously.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I had to bail on the last climb because the rear tire was getting really squirmy. The tube just would not hold air and I had to stop and reinflate it a couple times.

Overall, it was a good ride. (any time I can get out on the trail is a good ride these days) Hopefully, I will have enough foresight to organize it with a couple other Goatheads next time.