Burt's Bees Conquers Wicked Wissahickon

Sunday's ride in, on, and around the gorge at Wissahickon left our tanks bone dry and our wives (at least mine) relieved that there were no major mishaps. The trails were dry and dusty, littered with bowling ball size rocks, and always seemed to be going straight up or straight down, so needless to say after riding both sides of the gorge we were toasted.

Karen Campayo's brother Ricky joined for his second ride with us. Thanks to Sebastian for the loaner of Orange and Kudos to Rickey for banging out that ride on a hard tail with elastomer fork. Actually Ricky's only stumble was during the ride down when he diverted us to Wawa to pickup...some...err...lip gloss. Needless to say he took some verbal abuse for this but at least didn't try to cover it up as a coffee or gatorade purchase, and hopefully Mike can forward this to Ricky so we can't be accused of further abusing him behind his back.

Tubby joined us as well and absolutely crushed some of those mother hills that had the rest of us stymied (we walked more than one).

The three hour ride did include a pathetic attempt at fixing a pinch flat. Three tubes, two patches, and about 45 minutes later we were back on the bikes having weathered a fair amount of abuse from passing bikers and hikers including a generous offer of a "tuneup" (we can elaborate on the "tuneup" comment later, but not in this email).

In summary a great physical ride with loads of laughs as always.

With kids returning back to school, I wanted to poll the group to see if we should adjust the weekeday ride schedule. I know the current ride times don't work for some but I am pretty flexible so let me know what adjustments might work better for you. We'll try to keep at least one morning ride until temperatures and daylight become an issue. This week will still be the standard summer schedule:

• Tuesday morning 6:30am
• Thursday evening 7:30pm

Chris

"RIDE HARD, live easy"
Relive our (mis)adventures at mo7s.blogspot.com

Answers

Knees are kind of important when riding a bike. I understand knee pain may be keeping a couple geriatrics off the trails so I thought I would provide some free advice (that, and $7 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks):

• Bag the road biking and focus on mountain instead. Road is more repetitive, same body position for long periods. Mountain involves more shifting of weight, different positions which is easier on joints. Also roadies are kinda limp wristed, chicks dig mountain bikers more.
• Stretch. I know your issue is bone on bone, but I found that stretching resulted in better joint alignment and a lot less joint pain. Might make a difference for you.
• Use the easy gears. Spinning fast puts lots less strain on the joints. Big gears are for dopes.
• Jump on the weekday rides - shorter duration - to build up. We like to crush roadies which results on lots of wear and tear on man and machine.
• A couple Advil, an aspirin, and 3 glucosomines washed down with a shot and a beer will take the edge off. Works for me, and I'm not even Irish.

That's all the free advice I can spare right now. Hope that helps.

Chris

Roadie Redemption?

Speaking of roadies, here's one that oughta strike a cord for many of you: Blue Marsh.

Blue Marsh was our first (everyone remembers their first don't they?) and by all accounts it was a real marathon but with the proverbial happy ending. But this was a marathon by middle school standards - you have to remember that we were literally "roadie virgins" at the time (December '06). We're all grown up now, have sold our Huffy bikes, and learned a thing or two about changing tires in the field (anyone remember the 15mm wrench episode?).

Treat yourself to our ride report from Blue Marsh - it will bring back fond memories for many of you and should spark that fighting spirit in everyone. Food for thought anyway...

Chris