getting caught up and some serious bike love

definitely got in some awesome ride time in the last week. tuesday night's group ride turned out to be just trevor, jeff and i and we completely hammered some raging fast snowmobile trails. the rain has frozen over the surface of the snow and we were riding on top just crushing it. friday brought a mid-day mission with jeff. i can honestly say i watched a unicorn ride a pugsley and it has absolutely nothing to do with a new sub-culture of sexual deviancy. we actually rode a good deal of our singletrack as it was in the same condition as the snowmobile trails. he was on his new pug and i was pushing my jabber with a 32x16 gear and actually climbed in the rollercoaster and up the rocky road without a dab. that's a bigger gear than i ride in the summer and i still cleaned it. through pines east then down gunnar and out onto the road. took the gravel uphill then rode the snowmobile trails all the way back around town before calling it a day. the jabber in triple d mode was a champ in these conditions. yesterday brought what might be the last day of these conditions as the snow is falling right now and they'll probably soften up a bit. which is perfect timing with tomorrow's Operation Fatty McFat-Fat Metric with adam and aaron. pretty much just an excuse to pick up my new pugsley wheelset which means wednesday will finish the build in time to ride the now-softer snowmobile trails.

today brought the first serious day of bike love in a LONG time. the winter months had taken their toll on both the jabber and the fisty. geared fisty donated pedals to ss/fixie fisty which donated pedals to pugsley while jabber lost its pedals to lots of miles and a questionable one-year warranty policy form xpedo (new pedals for jabber should have arrived this afternoon...not xpedo). jabber got its low-tread speed tires (nano/weirwolf) back since the pugsley will handle snow duties from now on and a 17t boone cog as i'm planning to try to push 32x17 around decorah this year instead of last year's 18t. the boone was donated from fisty which got a 16t to match the 16t fixed tomicog so no more messing with the brakes everytime i flip the wheel. jabber also got its bottle cages back and gave up the flask cage to the pug. both bikes got much needed baths and the fisty got set up for tomorrow's mission as well as the expectation that cirrem will suck ass weather-wise again. it got its seat pack back, a feed bag, light, moose mitts and is now rocking a 42c rear tire and a full 2.1 nano up front. 3 hours of sideways hail and peanut butter conditions watching the mtbs ride away at cirrem last year won't be an issue this year. that and choosing to ride it with brother adam this year means riding fixed and comfortable rather than trying to force it into race-mode. took it out on gravels today with the new tire set up and a 37x16 freewheel gearing...absolutely loved it. oh, and it got a new bottom bracket since i trashed yet another one of those with winter gravel riding. travis even had a custom ano'd blue one sitting around and i no longer feel like i'm pulling a sled from the drag in the bearings.

feels good to have the bikes dialed again. probably a result of getting the new race schedule put together. clean bikes are happy bikes and happy bikes make me want to ride them more. lots and lots of training on the agenda for the next few months.

fisty's new monster truck look...whole lot of fun