"Breaking" News

Another mountain bike rider
cheats death as his MRDBS
maintained ride disintegrates
beneath him.

Another Local Mountain Biker Cheats Death on MRDBS Maintained Bicycle!

You know the story. Bike needs some work. Mike offers to help. He's an avid rider, talks a good game, and has a really nice workshop. Surely he knows what he's doing. "That would be great, I'll drop it off tonight with a six pack."


And everything looks right once he's finished. The crank arm is connected to the spindle. The fork goes up and down. The bike has a seat. "Thanks Mike."

It might be a day, a week, or a month later when it happens. But it generally happens. The crank arm comes off during an uphill grind. The fork starts spewing oil while riding up the sole trail. You're driving down route 30 at 70mph a bike wheel flies off the top of car. Or your seat simply falls apart mid-ride.

This could be painful, but it wasn't.
It's just funny.

You can't get your money back, and the beer is long gone (it was gone before a wrench even touched the bike).  And you can't get mad. Why would you? This is the stuff that legends are made of, and it's why you'll see a discrete sign out on the Bonus Loop marking the beginning of MRDBS' ascent into immortality.


You can't make this stuff up! 

Bonkers

Other than the bonk and the bike parts littering route 30, it was a spectacular day of riding at Fair Hill. An overnight spritzer kept the dust down on the trails. The clouds parted 5 minutes before we arrived at the Appleton parking lot and we were treated to a mostly sunny morning on fast trails - we logged about 16 miles of single track in 3 hours.

Regarding the bonk...the nauseating mixture of Gatorade, rum, and stale beer sloshing around in my stomach may have been a contributing factor, but really I think it was just a garden-variety-early-season BONK. What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger.

Oh and the bike parts littering route 30 had something to do with Riley's fancy-schmanzy new bike rack. Luckily only cosmetic damage was sustained (minor miracle thanks to light traffic).

Hopefully this will be the last blog post for a while regarding bonking or bike parts littering the highway.

Chris

MRDBS Strikes Again

MRDBS strikes again! But first, a quick recap from tonight's ride.

Nine riders! Not too shabby for a weekday night ride. The team of Rob&Bob kept the pace lively (and yes they were on single speeds). One mechanical (fatal) inbound on the Sole - down to 8 riders. Nice night for a walk home though, and a bed check at 10:30 confirmed that he (or at least his bike) made it home ok.

Ok so back to MRDBS, which provided a suspension fork to one of oiur riders this last week. Even installed it for him! Except the dang thing blew up outbound on the Sole. Yes, oil spraying out, bits of metal flopping around, klunking sounds, your basic total breakdown. Did I mention that MRDBS provided this fork? And MRDBS installed it as well? As if that's not enough, MRDBS also returned a loaner light to one of the riders for tonight's ride. Did the light have the helmet mount? No. Did the light have an adequate charge? Ask the owner. Apparently MRDBS has plenty of beer (we already know that), but maybe a shortage of electricity? At any rate, MRDBS was not available tonight to take this punishment in person, so it has to be a public flogging via email. Not sure if we should blame the "R" or the "D" in MRDBS, but the legend is alive and well...

Sunday ride 10am Upper Lyndenwood.

Chris

MRDBS Breaks Out

Sunday ride was super sloppy. I'd estimate maybe 10 miles on the map, but our wheels spun at least twice that! 9 riders including first timer Mike Young. Kirk treated us to a new wardrobe - took a page from DM's fleshtone unitard book. Mike demonstrated his bike shop prowess on DM's bike (and as a result we christened a new trail, the "MRDBS"). If you missed the ride then you have to ask about MRDBS next time, fabulous story that will be with us FOREVER. Finally we benefitted from some capital improvements to the Sole trail.