Like a rocketship!

I've always been a slow rider. Not proud of it but that's just the way it is. Stop to take pics of nature, catch some video of friends on the trail, yeah, I'm that guy. I'm in no hurry to get from point A to B on the trail. Well after riding at Swanson with Cody on my day off, I realized that I need some suspension underneath my body! Cody was kicking my butt on the trail. He was rocking it and I couldn't keep up. The roots are just too rough to be riding a full fat rigid bike. Hmm...now if I only had a bike with suspension!

I finally found that jump and gap that is located at Swanson. Yup, no thanks!

Tried out the helmet mount for the GoPro that day. While it works, it really makes for a stiff neck!

Wait...I do. A full suspension Trek has been sitting in my living room for two months waiting to get a tire resealed. Note to those using tubeless tires, do not let them go flat! When they do, it breaks the seal from the sealant and you have to reapply the goop to make it set. Those of you with true tubeless tires and rims know how tight those sidewalls are on the tire and what a pain it is to get the tire on and off. Instead of taking the entire casing off the rim, I just inserted two tire levers and made a 1 inch wide gap with about 1 centimeter of an opening. I grabbed a scoop of Stan's and poured it in. Did some tire pumping with my massive arms and got it to set! Good to go! Next it was time to clean some of the bikes.

Time to do some spring cleaning on the bikes!

I've enjoyed the Mukluk a lot over the past six months. It's still my fun bike to ride and it rolls very easy. And it rolls over everything! My Trek on the other hand wasn't in the best of shape. Over the past year it seemed like a lot of effort to ride that bike. You spin the wheels and they just stop after a rotation or two. Brakes pads were rubbing, things needed adjusting and cleaning...part of the reason why the bike has been sitting around collecting dust. Alot of people have told me to just sell it. It was time to fix all that. I did a massive cleaning of the bike over the weekend. Turns out that I had tons of grass wound up in various parts of the bike. I'm not sure of the technical name, but the chain guides/wheels that keep the chain in place next to the rear derailleur weren't even spinning! There was so much grass and dirt stuck in there that they were practically stationary! Now that's pretty bad! Got the drivetrain all cleaned up, threw the wheels back on. Wow, they actually spin freely! Took it for a ride at Tranquility yesterday. Fast. It's just like everyone who rode with me over the winter said. I'm going to be fast once I go back to the "skinny" tired mtbs. And that I was! The suspension eats up the trail and you just float over it like you're relaxing in a lazyboy recliner. I was loving the ride yesterday! Fun on the fatty. Fun on the old full suspension. It's like a rejuvenation! See you guys on the trail!

It seems like there is always a post ride drink

Last Weekend: Out and about!

We played, we biked, we hit up the Summer Arts Festival, we saw some flooding at the casino. All in a good weekend! Not sure if it was my allergies, but I was having serious trouble catching my breath. Not only while biking, but even long afterwards. Anyway, riding out at Swanson was a good time. Awesome job THOR on the new entrance and exit. Thanks to Todd and Cody for waiting for me. I kept messing around with the settings on my Go Pro. If I were to have some input on designing the Go Pro, I would ask that they make each mode have a certain number of beeps. There are about 5 different modes when you hit the main button. Problem is that you can't tell what mode you are on unless you stop to look at the LCD front panel. So maybe one beep on video mode, two for the still camera mode, etc. With my old Canon Elph on top of my helmet, I knew exactly how to switch between camera and video without having to look.

 

These pictures of us at Fox and Hound are all from Kristen's camera 

With that said and out of the way, I STILL didn't get the desired angle with the Chesty Harness! Still pointed down too low, all I see are my legs pedaling and the tops of the handlebars in the videos. Next time I will get it right! Hopefully.

Ummm...no explanation needed for this!

After biking Swanson, Jena and I hit up The Summer Arts Festival downtown. Some pretty cool artwork, photographs, and sculptures. Definitely gave me some ideas, most of the styles would be pretty easy to do. Lots of pieces centered around bicycling.

Todd and Cody coming out of the north side prarie loop of Swanson 

I hear the chirping of a bird... 

Love the green plush prarie with the singletrack trail built into it! 

Then we cruised on past the Santa Lucia Festival, crossed the pedestrian bridge, and made our way over to Harrah's. The flooding is a sight to see over there. Nothing like the aerial photographs that I've seen floating around on the emails, but bad enough.

Some pics from downtown and Harrah's:

Click the picture and check out this guys' artwork. All photographs, manipulated to look like paintings. He said he's a big fan of biking and his artwork shows it!

Kinda freaky looking

 The trail was closed north of the pedestrian bridge. Kind of by the waterfront condos.

 Hmm...I need to pull an old picture and see where the old water level was on the bridge. This is the June 2011.

This picture I scrounged up from 2008. Not exactly the same view, but you get the picture. In the 2011 picture, the water covers the ground at the far end. Click and compare the two. Quite a difference!

The wildlife was having a good time!

Harrah's parking lot. 

I had heard that they took out the glass on this side of the building. Yup, glass gone! 

Remember when we took this route through Harrah's parking garage in the wintertime?

I keep on bumping into this guy 

Today's interesting ride

I hope that everyone got a chance to get some pedaling in this weekend. With temps in the 60s and 70s, we may not see this weather until next spring! I had quite the interesting ride today.

Leaves everywhere at Jewell, makes it hard to climb in areas 

Decided to torture myself and get some riding in at Jewell, just for the fun of it I had thought. Man that place hates me. Can't breathe, can't climb, not sure why I bothered. I wasn't even five minutes into the lap when I stopped under a tree. Hmmm...sunny out. Sometimes my camelback leaks a little bit of water out and it drips onto my legs. But why did it feel like raindrops were falling on my head. And I'm talking BIG raindrops.

The bird said howdy DOODY to me today  

Carry on I said after trying to help a rider. Something isn't right. So I stopped and took off my helmet. Yellow shi*t all over my helmet, complete with seeds. Blech. You know how when you shop for a helmet, you pay more for the ones with the bigger and more air vents? Well, one disadvantage the helmet companies don't tell you. More bird shi*t goes through and onto your hair. Yeah. After cleaning my helmet off with the abundance of leaves on the ground, I go to wipe the sweat out of my hair. Not all sweat came off in my hand. Included were more seeds and yellow poo. Digusting.

Two deer on the right, at least four on the left 

Finished my lap at Jewell and decided to pack it up pack in. Might as well hit up Swanson for a lap. Why not? Weather nice, sun still out. Swanson was more forgiving, I would like to credit the warm-up lap at Jewell, but I think Swanson is just much easier in general. Lots of deer, lots of riders (some riding backwards on the trail)...AND...A motorcyclist was on the trail with his bike going backwards on the trail!!! WTF!!!! I almost hit him head on coming around the corner at the top of the prarie section. What a f*kin dumb*ss!!! I was too much in awe to even say anything to him. He just kept going and didn't look back.

Double dose of trails, double dose of bird crap, motorcycle nearly hits me head on, and a ton of wildlife. All in a day's ride!

The idiot on a motorcycle, going the wrong direction to make it worse 

Private property to the right, don't even think about it. 

98 degrees

Mulhall's doesn't lie. Actually while getting my camera out it said 99. That's hot! Six of my friends are forecasters, working for various companies and even the National Weather Service. With that in mind, WHY do we always end up biking when it is the hottest out? We need to rethink our strategy boys! Got three laps in at Swanson today, about 12 miles in total. Not too shabby for a Saturday afternoon with gym time beforehand! Managed to get Cody, Cory, and Todd out for the ride. Roll on!

Cody and I taking a break during the first lap 

 

Todd, you should fill the Bomber's tires with Nitrogen!