Monday Night Ride

I'd say 98% of the old Tranquility loop was dry. Of the other 2%, most of the wet spots could be avoided.

It was a nice night out! Thanks to the lone worker who was working on the drainage channels!

Sunday with Lumpy and A.B.

It's Thursday

Nobody saw that, right?

Did a quick 1.5 laps at Tranquility yesterday afternoon. Ate it real hard at the end of the first lap along the creek. Started pedaling right before a small dirt hump, right pedal was at 6 o'clock when it hit, transmitted all my forward momentum into upward force through the bike, throwing my weight forward and the bike over my head, and twisting my ankle in the process. Felt fine finishing the other half lap, but today I can hardly walk.
I have a work trip to Denver tomorrow through Friday, and was thinking about making a call to T-rev to see about hooking up for a quick ride. Probably not going to happen now. :(
Now, I'm just hoping it'll heal soon. I'm going to need all the time I can get to be in shape for Crested Butte. (is squishy a shape?)

First Dirt!

Took my oldest son out to Tranquility yesterday.
We rode one lap and then three more times around the creek.
He had a lot of fun, said his legs were reeealllly tired afterwards.
He hung with on all the climbs, only had to walk one spot because of being in the wrong gear. After breaks, when I asked if he was ready, he just mounted up and shook his head yes.

We bumped into Dale working in the trees. He suggested ice cream post ride. I'm a sucker for ice cream.

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.

Randomness...

Tagged along with J.A. for his warm up lap at Tranquility on Sunday. Conditions were sweet. Turns out I'm still fat and not riding much isn't helping things. New berm is cool. No good pictures to share other than a phone picture of "the man" between laps.

Went on a walk at lunch yesterday. On my way out the door, I ran into James. I've known him for a couple of years now. He's a super cool guy. Rides bikes all the time. He is also known as "Spoke Daddy" and has this business called Spokiz. They are glasses (sunglasses, prescription, anything) that are modified by drilling the frame and using some kind of plastic tubes and bicycle spokes to replace the earpieces. He said that they are super-duper light, adjustable, and don't fall off your face. Good idea.

Then I walked over to the new pedestrian bridge. They recently connected the two halves.

Great! Now I can't just drive my lazy butt to Council Bluffs to ride, the rest of these crazy Goatheads are going to make me ride there!

And finally, I saw this online today. Pretty neat since the Apple earbuds fall out of my ears if I so much as blink.

Just don't throw it in the washer.

Un-Tranquil Tranquility I

I think the Bike Masters group increased the incline on the Tranquility climb this year. It couldn't possibly be that I'm out of shape.


The Bike Masters guys were out working the trail today - thanks for all your hard work guys! We owe you some labor time on some upcoming trail days if you want it.