Two Wheel Blogs

I figured that the trails would be less than stellar today, so I headed out to the club (road) ride again. Today, the schedule was to meet at Red Wheel Bike Shop at 9 and roll out with the crew.

I rode to the ride early and met up with a bunch of riders that I used to see daily, but I have not seen many of them in a few years (during my MTB hiatus from the road). I have really missed some of these people...I have not been a very good friend I guess.

It was really a great time to see the guys, and a bunch of new faces. The road scene here seems to be blooming nicely.

After about 3 hours of yapping and spinning with these guys (new friends and old), the ride ended, but my desire to ride sure hasn't.

Alas, just another boring entry about riding my bike today. Nothing exciting going on here like cutting tubes and welding and such. Just good old plain turning the cranks and racking up miles and mega-joules.

Yeah, mega-joules. I discovered that my PCV (for the non-SRM set, that's PowerControl V) keeps track of mega-joules. Do I really need to know how many millions of joules of work I've done? I don't even know if it's measuring from the last recharge, the last month, the beginning of the year... maybe since the beginning of time?

Moments after swapping out tires I came to some startling revelations...

Here are the tires, and some stats (Go to Shiggy's site for a whole lot more tire info)....I took the Nevegals off the front and rear, and installed the Small Block 8 on the front and a Crow on the rear:

Nevegals are heavy at 806 grams, wide at 2.2 inches(reported size), they have very high rolling resistance, great stopping power, and great hook up for taking off from a stop.

Small Block 8's are about 180 grams lighter, a bit narrower (it is a 2.1), and has very low Rolling resistance.

The Crow is 330 grams lighter than the Nevegal, its a 2.0, and behaves like a slick tire when it comes to rolling resistance.

Plans are taking shape for the weekend. Packing up the Karate Monkey and plenty of kit - enough for a full weekend of trail riding.

Packing up the bug spray. I think I've already passed last year's mark for bug bites and it's only May. Can't wait until the little blood suckers really get it in gear.

Got the lights a-charging. Dozens of electrons all stored up for my own personal use, to light the way in the dark of night.

Now if the weather will only cooperate, we'll have three whole days of over the river and through the woods single speed bliss to enjoy.

Have a great holiday everyone.

Man what a day for a ride. Temperature, humidity and even the wind were just about perfect here. You could hardly order up a better day for a ride. The boys and girls who turned out for the Castlewood race had near perfect conditions too, I'm sure. Those trails are pretty resilient. No doubt some spots still had enough moisture to get the bikes dirty but for the most part I imagine even the racers are toasting a great day's racing.

I wish I'd been there too. When I woke up this morning I knew it wasn't going to happen though. The fun and excitement of racing might have overcome the stiffness and soreness from my work the other day but all I could really envision for myself this morning was something a lot longer and a lot less intense.

Video: 

I will try to keep this short and sweet.

I went out for a solo ride today, to just have a little fun (I needed some fun after this morning). I started to prep for the ride this morning and discovered my rear tire was completely flat...that was fast! That also made my mind up that these light tires were coming off to be replaced by the trusted Nev's. (that is 2 tire changes for those counting).

Anyway, the day was nearly perfect. Trails were nice, weather was great, and I had the place to myself basically.