A few lucky members of the Founder's Ale team gathered yesterday afternoon to ride some secret trail. The weather was great, sunny but not too warm or humid. The trail was in great condition. There were six of us: Martin, Scott, Jason, Rick, Tim, and me. Two fully-rigid singlespeeds, two hardtails and two full suspention bikes. We managed to have one flat, three chain drops (two were mine), and a couple crashes. No bodies or bikes were damaged beyond repair on this ride.
I won't say too much about the trail, since you can't ride it anyway! :) I have driven past this trail many times, and never knew it was there. A small group of riders have put alot of time into keeping this trail in top shape. I'm glad I made the time to join this ride.
After a couple of hours of riding, we headed back to Martin's place for some brats and homebrew beer. Marin is a master of both the grill and the brewery. Rick also brought some of his homebrew--On the Founder's team, we take out beer quite seriously. Several teammates that couldn't make the ride joined us for dinner. Good times were had by all.
I had two bike issues on this ride. I let the chain get slack, and eventually it fell off. I put it back on and it lasted for another hour before I had to snug it up. I think I have solved the bulk of my chain issues; of course, I have thought I had this problem beat before.
The second problem I had was with my camelback. As I was riding along, I felt a little drip of liquid on my backside. The little drip developed into a stream and then into a geyser! The drinking tube had pulled away from the bladder, and about a liter of Gu20 spilled down my back! My socks and shoes were filled with it. This was not ideal. We only had about 30 minutes to ride, so I toughed it out.
After the ride, I took a short spin on a cannondale rush. Going from a fully-rigid bike to a full-suspention bike with 4 inches of travel at each end is...quite an experience! The bike was not set up for me; the seat was too high and I can't believe I would run it quite so plush. But I am interested in giving it another try at some point. It was so comfortable, I couldn't believe it. I wonder how it goes up-hill. I also wonder how it would feel after 16 or so hours in the saddle.
This week has the team ride on Tuesday and some trail riding later in the week at the new and improved Cannonsburg Ski Area.
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3 comments:
The Rush is a great bike once you get it set up for you. I like mine even more now with the Fox Terralogic Lefty up front. Sort of an auto-lockout feature. Saves me from having to remember to lock or unlock it and it reacts instantly.
Oi, I had the same problem with my Camelbak at the Iowa 24 Race. To add a bit of a twist it happened during a thunderstorm so I didn't notice right away. The rest of the race was like riding with a wet diaper (not that I'd know). Worst saddlesores ever.
Oi, I had the same problem with my Camelbak at the Iowa 24 Race. To add a bit of a twist it happened during a thunderstorm so I didn't notice right away. The rest of the race was like riding with a wet diaper (not that I'd know). Worst saddlesores ever.
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