Easter Sunday reflections

It's Easter Sunday and it was 75F today. Some Easters it snows three feet, some are just cold and wet. Today was a picture-perfect shorts and tshirt-wearin kindof day. But it was nice. Not much riding but had the usual mid-day feast--why mid-day? That's stupid.

Conditions are about the same, today.....abit cooler yet

just got in from 10 miles of sloppy marsh/squantum ride. Everything is 'slick as snot' in the profound words of Bob Roll . Even just rolling along, the trail has that squishy squirmy effect that loads up the knobbies
That wooden bridge out at the Hummock took me down quick, no damage done though.
Looks to be wet for awhile now....
50F feels more like 39F,

KT NEMBAFest ( still cleaning out my draft folder )

Whatta weekend! Last weekend, June 22-24, was historical. It marked the FIRST EVER Mountain Bike Festival at Kingdom Trails, in East Burke, Vermont. The Northeast Kingdom, as Vermonters have long and affectionately called this corner of their state, is exceptional. Not only for the fantastic mountain farm views of Peacham, or the cheese of Cabot, or the famous Lake Willoughby, but now for the mountain bike scene in East Burke. Many refer to the area as a mountain bike 'mecca', a place that every rider worth his or her knobbies needs to experience at least once, if not many more times..... I got there in good time, about 3.5 hours from Quincy.No speeding,no traffic jams... Just in time to start my volunteer shift, I found my way up to the Mid-Burke Lodge, where I was assigned to work registration, which was opening at 12:00. 41 mph downhill into East Burke Darling Hill Trolls's Stroll Tap 'n Die Sidewinder, River Run Chapel East Branch Cafe in the Pines below the webs Kitchel Burnham Down Dead Moose Alley Beer at the condo sunset Will. Gap windfarm 30 miles Falls on Saturday Dip in the river burger at Lilli's (I think)

Bike Lust ( New Old Draft ) Not sure why it was still a draft but here were my thoughts 2 years ago...

Once again it's that time of year when I start lusting over new bikes. This year it started with the search for a slacker 29er steel hardtail--I came up with the Transition TransAm29, which is a sweet 'looking' bike. I say that because I haven't yet the chance to ride one, as noone within 200mi has a demo...but the skyblue paintjob on a steel frame with a ride that has been described as 'damp' by those who have had chance to ride one, and with the slackness and capability of a longer-travel fork, just has me by the balls.
Worth mentioning is that  Transition is based in the Seattle area, one of my favorite geographical areas....Lived there for a halfa year once, biked all over the area but wasn't yet but on the cusp of my mountain biking lifestyle.
And the dealer is at Chuck's Bikes, in Vermont , of course my all-time favorite place to be. The frame goes for 650, which wouldn't be too outta line if I stripped my Redline for it. Full bike with Fox 120, 2400....plus Thudbuster...

Moving on to more local offerings, Canton Velo let medemo a Niner Sir9 with gears. Truly a rigid 853 singlespeed, this one was built up with a Reba and SRAM drivetrain. Weighing a  pound or two less than my current steed, and sporting lighter, less knobby Conti Race Kings run on tubeless Stans Crest rims, it did feel nicer. I used my Thudbuster as a control point. It was fast but not that much faster, and I was more over the bars than I like. The ECC BB would come in handy if I really wanted to go SS, but even if I did, I don't really like an ECC , as opposed to sliding drops. Not at all an engineer, but I 'think'  the larger shell stiffens and weights up the frame too much.

Next I took out the Jet9 demo, also with a Reba, Stans more standard rim and SRAM X7 build including hubs, same tires as the Sir9. Wow, whatta difference! All my energy moved the bike forward. Very efficient design, and about the same weight or maybe even less than the Sir9! I had fun on it and brought it back, reluctantly, but the weather turning to rain and snow just wasn't conducive to riding for a few days.
Both Niners were for sale around the same price(2400-2500)....

So, when I got thinking about it and sliding the idea by the wife and kids, all that speed and efficiency didn't mean a thing, since I don't have any money to spend on a new bike. And all it would do would be to create more bike envy  from my son, who apparently wears the same jeans(genes..), and that will only result in more 13 yo angst than I can handle right now.....

But, next chance I get, I'm doing a midnight run up to Morrisville to see about that Transition demo....

It's summer...( or was when I first wrote this 4 years ago, but these old drafts bring back memories )

the air is warm, the sun's shining, no need for toe warmers and extra layers, and the kidds are outta school. That means we get to ride together much more often.

Other Typical Winter Morning Scenery from a few years ago

Off The Bike, but still all about the bike...

OK Where the heck are we? (Harold Parker Hike w/M.Lee)

same place, same question...

SS Hike on a nice January Sunday(actually it was SuperBowl Sunday) with L. Toma

St Moritz (Afternoon)

M. Ramponi and D. Belknap atop Chickatawbut

1st Day Rattlesnake Hike

Snowshoeing, it's what saved us from certain muscle

Old post but still relevant

One last thing to report before I crash. The gizmo in the pics is the most valuable piece of equipment so far. A Jump-Stop, made by N-Gear. I've been having trouble with the chain dropping on the inside. The chain is as tight as it can be. It's become apparent to me that the secondary purpose of a front derailleur is to keep the chain from falling off...Originally I thought it was a design flaw i.e. bad chainline, because bike came stock with a little plastic hook(see pic in last post) that doesn't do a thing, and an outer bash guard . But I've finally come to realize that the chain popping off when coasting over bumpy terrain is an everyday occurrence--but not noticeable with the front derailleur hugging the chain/chainring interface. Think about it, you're bouncing through some rockgarden in your middle 'ring , you'll remember hearing that clank-a-clank going on down there....Or, better yet, in your granny, the same thing happens, but if your limiter screw's not quite right, your chain winds up on the bb shell. In which case, you start pedalling lightly , while gingerly shifting up until the chain engages again. This isn't possible with a single ring. You have to get off, finger it back on while manually rotating the crank and your friends sigh impatiently, wanting to get on with the ride...

This product is cheap, and it works!