I went for a trail ride today. Yes, that's right, I was trail riding. In Michigan. In January.
Anyway, Dan Jansen and I went to Yankee Springs. Dan was on his Karate Monkey set up as a mountain bike. I was on my Trans-Iowa rig. The trail was in great shape. Better, in fact, than it is most of the summer.
The first lap was at a moderate pace. The second lap was at a bit faster pace. We caught another singlespeed, and I wanted to make the pass stick. As a result, I pushed the pace on a slick downhill. Next thing I know, I'm staring up at the sky. My knee scraped on the ground, so I got to donate some blood to the trail. It's good to get the first crash of the season out of the way.
I got to ride the Karate Monkey for a bit. The 29" wheels were...Interesting. They smoothed out the trail, but they were hard to get up to speed. Climbing was a chore. I'd be interested to try one on a longer ride, more in the 8 to 12 hour range. It was not love at first ride, but I'm open to trying again under different circumstances.
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6 comments:
What were you telling my mom??? She was giving me hell about not registering for trans Iowa. And I couldn't tell her the real reason about why I couldn't make it to the computer to register :-)
Ha! I just told her it would be a great race. She said that you should do it, as long as I promise to ride with you. I guess people think you could get lost riding around the block... :)
It's one thing getting lost around the block. It's another thing getting lost around an entire state :-)
And I'll have everyone know that I was following someone when I got lost-so there!!!!
Dallas,
I'd be very hesitant to take a new bike out for TI; 29er or 26er. I was looking at a couple different frames for this year, but I couldn't close a deal by January 1. My thought is that I don't want to ride a bike at TI that I don't have 3000+ miles on.
But that's just me... :)
Joe,
this is Dallas we're talking about...this is normal..god(or other) bless him!
Dallas,
S'all good. I'm very conservative when it comes to bike setup for long events. Other people can switch out parts w/o trouble. Not me.
That being said, I'd try a 29'er at a shorter/less important event than TI if I got the change. My problem is that I have become used to ti bikes, and I don't want to change. I'm having trouble finding someone that wants to part with a race-ready ti 29'er in my size. If you stumble across one, let me know.... :)
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