After a Friday late night bike repair (yes, alcohol was involved) we rallied for early Saturday Morning Beat Down at Fair Hill. We hit all the highlights including the Fox Pen and the crowd favorite Crackhead Bob. Our two newest riders turned in an inspiring performance, notably the one who showed up on a 20 year old Trek all rigid complete with school book carrier and bungee attached water bottles. For those who were interested, I checked the blog and estimate the ride was around 15 miles which does not sound like much - if you were on this ride you now know why measuring mountain bike rides in miles is a pretty useless measure of level of difficulty or fun factor.Hoping we see those smiling sweaty NooB faces on future rides. Speaking of future rides -- we discussed the merits of moving ride times up to help beat the heat and leave more of the day intact for family related activities...so we're going to try the following modified schedule:
- Tuesday morning 6:00am
- Thursday evening 8:30pm (no change)
- Sunday morning 8:00 am
Chris
"I find that climbing singlespeed is like eating really spicy food -- it's OK until you stop, and then it starts to burn and you feel like you're going to puke"
-- Anonymous single speeder and spicy food eater
Great fun, my shirt is still not dry and hands are still sore!
ReplyDeleteWho do I owe a tube to? I don't even know what to buy, so please advice before I spend $125 on a tube (MR - that's what your buddy in D'Town said it would cost me). I presume I should buy 2 + a kit for just such occassion.
Wouldn't it be easier to just hire someone to bike behind us within earshot to handle of all this? I know Ahern would concur with my outsourced services approach. Hey, my core incompetency (and hopefully soon competency) is riding, not servicing on the single-track... KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS!!! (Bob, seriously, thanks for the First-Class First-Aid!!!)
ChrisD - Mark mentioned getting you your tire back, perhaps I could facilitate all of this at once? Also, nice canary yellow shirt. Interesting that you took pot-shots at streeters when wearing that cloth. You may as well put a Polly Pocket on your seat stem...
Wow, interesting how invigorating it is to publish these raves. This is incentive to ride guys!
J
Don't worry about the tube but here's a quick lesson that stuff. Size was 26 x 1.9-2.125 with a Presta (not Shrader) valve. FYI 26 is the tube diameter 26 being the most common. All of us (you are us now) are currently riding 26ers. Think of 1.9-2.125 as the "girth" of the tube (no snickering) expressed as a range. My tires are 2.1s which falls inside that range. I think Mark was running 1.9s which would also fall in that range. You get the idea. Regarding valves, Presta are better at holding air than Shrader so most of us use Presta. Tubes cost about $4 and apparently my "buddy" at D'Town knows a sucker when he sees one.
ReplyDeleteBut yes it is probably time for you to invest in "the kit" (your new hobby has just started to drain you wallet, you ain't seen nothing yet):
* Portable pump. About the size of a really big cigar $10;
* Multi-tool. Has allen wrenches, pliers, spoke wrench, etc $20;
* Spare tube (now that you're an expert I will not elaborate) $4;
* Tube patch kit $2;
* Personally not a big fan of tire "irons" (plastic or otherwise) but some tire/rim combos are a real pain so what the heck $5;
* One of those emergency chain link doo-hickies. Comes in handy when you bust a chain 10 miles from the car $2;
* Saddle bag to carry all this crap $20.
Your idea of the support team bringing up the rear is very timely and perceptive. That is actually the role of the newest rider since they are usually in the back anyway. That's the bad news. The good news is that now you can recruit Joey because that would make him the NooB and he would have to lug your crap around. This is how we ensure a steady influx of new riders.
Thanks for the props on the shirt. I like hi-visibility colors because of our "leave'm for dead" credo (that's the other thing I forgot to tell you). I figure it increases my odds of an open casket funeral when my time comes.
Regarding the rants - you are correct they are at least 19% of the fun. The remainder is 92% riding, 42% watching other guys fly over the handlebars, 34% apres ride drinking, and 13% buying new stuff which comes to 200% which means this is 2x as much fun as whatever else you were doing on Sunday mornings before the biking bug bit you...