Two Wheel Blogs

Anyone out there enjoy watching or riding Trials (Observed Trials Riding)?

Even during my earliest days of riding, I was into Trials riding...I did not know it at the time, but I was. If you take everything that looks cool and can be done on a bike...there is a pretty good chance that it is common place in a cycling niche known as "observed trials" or "Trials Riding". The bunny hop, the track stand, the pivot, the rock walk, the drop, the lurch, the manual, the nose wheelie....just about every "trick" either came from or ended up as a staple in Trials riding.

Recently I posted up a how-to for adding a layer of protection to your favorite MTB tire.

I thought that perhaps I should give a bit of follow-up on performance of this abomination....

First ride, I noticed that the necessary air pressure in these "upgraded" tires was a few p.s.i. less than when run in a more conventional manner. I also felt like poo during this first ride and gave a great deal of consideration to the possibility that the additional weight in the tires REALLY effected my ability to go fast in a more negative manner than I had anticipated.

The G-wiz and I hit up the local trails today for a little slow riding and obstacle negotiation. G was on rippen it up on the new Monkey (that frame rocks!).

So we are out there acting like idiots riding in the boulder gardens trying to make it from one end to the other (the leaves posed an additional level of difficulty), and who rides up? It was Mark one of the LBS owners and builder of my wheels. He took a look at where we were riding and asked if I had broken a wheel yet. I was happy to report that they were still as straight as the moment he finished them.

It is almost done! (It still need a rear caliper).

Today I took the family out to the pumpkin festival and had a lot of fun. Basically my wife and I wore the kids out with October fun. When we got home, the kids took a rest and I headed to the garage to build.

It was a good thing I did too, because my bikes were in need of some maintenance. The front brakes on my MTB were SHOT! I installed a new set of pads and got started on re-building the bike that made me passionate about MTB riding.

I managed to get on the bike for a bit today. I went to the usual place for some single track and some tech riding.

I had no idea that it *would* have been a good idea to put on some sun block. Turns out that our 90+ degree weather has some UV rays attached...go figure. Perhaps there is something to this global warming?

I went out for a solo ride today...as usual. This time I did something a little different.

Instead of riding fast like I have been doing pretty much every ride since getting my new bike, I rode slow...really slow. I searched out every tough line and invented (rather "discovered") a few new trails. Perhaps a better term would be "trials" instead of "trails".

I know it may sound silly to be doing trials on a 29er, but hell the bike is nimble, and flickable, so why not.

I was thinking while doing this ride that if I were going down grad instead of up, some might call this type of riding free riding.