CX on singletrack, oh yeah!

I saw this video posted over on Facebook. I love it, especially since I ride my Iro Rob Roy over at Knoch Knolls a lot and have even taken it out to Palos a few times as well. I also like the quality of the video that the rider/videographer gets out of his camera. I think I need to add this camera to my want list.

Local trails ala cx from Andy Wardman on Vimeo.

Getting back to normal.

Man... What a couple of weeks it's been. I got back from AZ last night at midnight and got a couple of hours sleep before we all loaded up the car and drove town to Purdue so Savi could take a final for her current class. I was so tired on the way down, but made up for it with a power nap while she was taking her test. My mom-in-law was keeping the lil guy company as he played with his new Spongebob PSP game. [Note to self: get him some nicer headphones.]

We made it down there and back in record time so that both Savi and I could catch a power nap before she had to go to work, my nap was a little longer since she was long gone by the time I woke up. Savi's mom had taken a nice walk to enjoy this great weather and Eli was out playing with some neighbor kids so I grabbed the Iro & headed out to hit the MUP with Jason. I rolled out for a nice and easy 20 miles. It doesn't make up for missing out on the Desert Classic, but it'll have to do. No more rain on the immediate horizon might even mean I can hit some trails this weekend.

Hopeful.

It's cold...

Man, I haven't posted in forever. There have been a lot of rides since I last posted. The Poker ride, Kettle, a lot of KK and Springbrook, The klunker ride, etc. Good times.

I almost made it out tonight for a quick run at KK but got tied up at home. I might get to ride if it stays dry tomorrow. I'll probably have to bring out the lights too since it gets dark so early.

I've been on the 1x9 pretty much since a week after the Poker ride. I'm getting ready to hang the Monocog and JTS up from the ceiling, but I think the Rob Roy and the D460 will stay down and readily accessible.

Choices, it's all about choices.

Another good weekend

I got a pleasant surprise Friday afternoon. Mark gave me a call and wanted to know if I was up for a couple of laps around Springbrook. I gladly obliged. I jetted home from work and rode over to the MUP on the Rob Roy. We enjoyed a nice conversation and some fun riding. I brought my lights but didn't need them until I hit some asphalt. Nice.

Saturday started with a drive up Rt. 59 into Barrington so I could hit Beverly Lake with the rest of Team Slack. We rode a mix of grass trails, singletrack, a little asphalt, and more grass. The ride was actually the hardest 10 miles I've done all year, but it was good to ride with almost all of the original DG crew at one time again. We finished the day with talks of grand dreams for DG, BBQ, a swag giveaway, and we watched RR and GHGH catching air off of a ramp. Good times. I finally ended up putting on my 18t freewheel after the Beverly Lake ride.

Sunday was good too. Cgreg, YC, and I hit Palos. My front rotor was rubbing on the caliper and I wasn't sure what was going on. I ended up riding one of the noisiest bikes in the forest preserve that day. We started up Bullwhip/ML East up to the road where we rode Cemetery Hill, Post Hole, Stonehenge and the Yellow trail back to the Out & Back. It's strange to see that giant log pile gone. Anyway, we rolled on and Chris bailed in order to get home in time. YC and I rode on to Gravity Cavity and stopped at the bridge. We decided to head back up and go grab a bite to eat. On the way back we chatted it up with Steve, Ryan, and a few others in the Staging area. It was a short drive to this little hot dog stand that I hadn't been to before. We ended up seeing Steve there again just as we were about to head our separate ways.

I worked on my bike a little after I was done. It turns out that there was nothing wrong with the bike other than a slow leak and a front wheel that was improperly placed in the fork dropouts. User error. :( It was still a good mtn biking weekend overall.

Just another ride

It's getting dark much earlier nowadays. I'll need to start riding with lights all the time pretty soon.

Here are a couple of pics from my ride this evening:

It's a biking weekend!

I did the lightweight 20 miler With the Iro on Friday night, got to hang out and get dirt all over my brand new PBP tshirt on Saturday, then did another 20 on the JTS today. I'm all smiles. Thanks go out to Baudler for loaning me a ride since I left my bike at home on Saturday.

Well, mostly smiles, I've got a couple of bruises too.

I topped it off by watching Star Wars cartoons with the lil' guy tonight. I've got to get him off the training wheels and out to do the pump track.

Alaska looks pretty awesome

Awesome (def: inspiring awe) is the exact word to describe the images I saw in a MTBR thread this morning. A couple of guys took nearly three weeks to travel around the wilderness of Alaska via bikes and rafts. I'll probably never do anything like that trip. I'm really glad that the original poster in that thread decided to share his adventure with strangers on the internet.

I got home and played with the kid for a bit, then headed out to do a few loops out on the limestone again. I hear that Knoch Knolls is drying out pretty well. I'll probably get a chance to go out there sometime over the weekend. In fact, hitting dirt all weekend long seems like a fine idea.

Silver Springs State Park

I had the opportunity to lead a group ride from the office out to Silver Springs State Park. The park is just west of Rt. 47 in Yorkville. We left work around 5:15 or so. There are two lots there and I mistaken led us into the eastern lot first, we left there and did the loop on the west side, then got back to the parking lot at work a little bit after 6pm. 13 miles in about 50 minutes. It's really not bad since I had to stop along the way and fill up my rear tire. It developed a slow leak somewhere on the way back.

All on asphalt in case you were wondering.

These group rides are a lot of fun. It's cool to hang out with folks from the office in a different setting and chat with them on the ride. I'm looking forward to more after-work rides like this one or trails like the FRT or Virgil Gilman Trail. OK, maybe I'm looking forward to the ones away from motorized traffic a little bit more. ;)

Creaking

I've been riding the new Rob Roy around for 100 miles now and over the past few rides I've been noticing some creaking coming from the crank/bottom bracket area. I took it into the shop and had the guy who built it up for me take a quick gander. It turns out that the spiffy blue chainring bolts I used are trash. One sheared into two when he was taking it off. I'm now using steel bolts thanks to him pulling some out of his personal stash since the shop didn't have any single ring bolts on hand.

Here are a couple of pics of the bike right after it was built up. Not much has changed other than the addition of a cyclocomputer and the swap for mundane looking bolts.