ITS ON THE WAY!!!!!!!!

I got antsy and called the Cactus Bike Shop in Phoenix where I ordered my bike, shockingly the owner was about to call me to tell me the bike was coming in soon. It sounds like the boat comes in this week and the shop should have it by next week. I am soon excited to get this thing up an rolling, I have some new Race Face Chester pedals I am looking forward to trying, they will be my first nylon composite pedal. Also need to get it going tubeless and I should be happily on my way down the trail, maybe by the weekend it will get it's first ride. I have realized how happy I am with my Trek Superfly, I love it for what it is, might I like another bike more, maybe but I am content. I am pretty sure I am done buying bikes for awhile since I feel pretty complete with my stable. I really am quite excited for this one!

Tacky monday

Rolled out on Monday with the kid going to school and all. I was excited to be back to my rigid machine and went on a hero sand/dirt ride. It rained pretty hard the night before and with it being so cool it didn't magically evaporate. So when I attacked the soil it was already prodded on by horses and lacked that groomed effect it gets after it rains. No big deal as I rolled in to do my normal loop. Rode thru a few puddles and had a casual ride. The desert doesn't offer Hero necessarily but it has it's own version, nowhere near the effect you get in the woods but take what you can get right.

Saturday Showdown

I have been wanting to go around the horn for a bit now, I knew it was a hike a bike over the mountain and I guess I put it off for some reason. So Saturday I had the big bike and rolled myself happily on over to Hawes on a cool cloudy afternoon to tackle this sucker. I hit Hawes a little after 12 and got moving. On the bike bike I was thrown off as usual, it felt her pedaling like my legs just could not do it but they warmed up as I went on. Then when it got to climbing up to twisted sister I remembered the greatness of gears as I stayed seated on the saddle my legs could push up anything with the traction and gearing. I will say for steep loose climbs I will take this bike any day, despite 160mm of travel and 30+ pounds it does it extremely well! As I was loving on my bike and thinking of how amazing these machines are compare to what they use to be I was happy I got a good one. In a few years I will want a newer bike but for now I am in the moment. Made my way into Twisted Sister and went thru it's technical bits before I could descend on a pretty fun but too short descent. From there it was onwards to Wild Horse, this trail I have ridden a few times and it was comforting as it's a straight forward mellow trail. It was then my crank arm was feeling funny, I continued on a 1/2 mile and found it worse, I knew the crank arm was loose. Flipped the bike over and got to looking at things, the crank arm was indeed very loose, I looked at it's locking nut and found that it was a huge allen key that I was not carrying. The other crank arm had a size that I had but it was of no use since it wasn't the one loosening. I managed to use my two tire levers to tighten it up but was far from tight. I was now 8 miles from the car and as it loosened again after a mile this was going to be an issue. I was pretty frustrated I could not tighten it fully and as I moved off Wild Horse and onto L'Alpe D'Huez it became a greater issue, loosening after a few minutes. Soon the trail became hike a bike, very steep at times as I went up the mountain, but I liked it! As I crested a part the trail narrowly loosely dropped and hugged the hillside. This part was sketchy but I had enough grip and skill to ride it. One last 200ft hike up Goat Trail and I was at the top. The view was pretty dang good, what I was looking at kind of scratched my head, I knew where it was but surprised to facing so South. I dropped into Cactus Garden and happy to be moving downhill without silly steep climbs. It was smooth sailing from then as I hit Hawes it became quite fun to rip down the trail. I never get going fast enough around here, this allowed me to let loose a little. I want to take this bike to the bike park so bad! Made my way easily back to the car and somehow the crank arm felt after the 10th time that it was going to be snug for the rest of the ride. That proved to be true as I got to the car stoked on that ride and crank arm in tact, now off to the bike shop!. It appears I lose a part of the tightening nut on the arm, apparently an allen within an allen, why Race Face...... makes sense to have a smaller allen so one could tighten with a normal multi tool in you pack, but allen within and allen, this I have to direct for it's reason.

Family Ride!

This has been so long over due, but the stars aligned and the family set off Usery. It was a busy Thanksgiving day but this was going down. Landon as pumped to hop on and off we went. At first the trail a bike took some getting used to on narrow trail, especially laced with cacti, my sons safety was in my hands. That sucker swaying behind me was not an easy task but as we got use to it soon he was hooting and hollering as we went up and down the little hills twists and turns. He absolutely loved it, what a great experience having a little passenger with such spirit. My wife really like the trail, she was happy and that made me happy. It was over too soon as we began the gradual climb I realized I could not climb much of a hill on this thing. Calves burning we got to the car and all happy we were. Great family outing!

Busy Skies

Monday came with some clouds, very very welcomed from the clear blue skies that I am use to around here. There was a chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon and as I drove I was picking where to ride based on the thunderstorm activity in the valley. The beauty of living in a big old valley I suppose, there were lots of activity and Usery was looking fairly safe and offered the biggest buffer form the big storms. Rolling into the trails it grew darker, the trail I was on was headed towards the thick of it, yet I remained under blue skies but right on the verge of some dark nasty clouds yet no thunder was heard as I continued. Then a few rain drops came down and man it was quite the scene to take in, absolutely stunning. As the clouds whirled the cell passed over the mountain and gray skies offered comforting shade and it was looking good for me. I sped around the park content. Still my stamina is lacking but I have shed some weight and feel like I am starting to gain ground just a little.

Somo Evening

MY wife has a long week and saturday, she was involved with a conference regarding a medical device she owns. She was gone A lot the last few days and when she came home Saturday she cold tell that I was worn out. She said I had two hours and off I went happily. I went for South Mountain since it's been awhile and might spice things up. I am glad I picked it, as the sun got behind some rare clouds and the evening was mine for an hour. It was quite nice out, I love the time of the day just before the sun goes down, the trail was rolling fast and it was really fun. I really enjoyed this one for the hour that it was, I felt a lot better.

half full

Thursday I went out with flat speedy riding in mind, I can say for the first time in a very long time I didn't even feel much like riding. I have not been feeling great lately and was not sure I was in mood for a ride. But with 2 hours I didn't see myself hanging out at home. So I was off at Usery and making my go around, feeling ok I got half way around and decided I would not do my normal spider web of trails and just kept it simple and as I grew to an end I noticed a jet engine sound over my headphones, as I looked above I found 4-5 RC jet engine rc airplanes flying around. It was neat so I watched them for a minute and then went along to the car and all was mercy.