Monday, September 24, 2007

Anyone want to buy a 29er?

Just kidding, I would never sell my Qball but here is my new ride, an Iron Horse MKIII Comp.



Tim at EMS in Manchester, CT hooked me up with a 30% deal on what I think was the last XL COMP on the east coast. Picked it up at the Fall Fiesta on Sunday and subsequently put 16 miles on it and not once did I tire from riding it. It rides like buttah and fits like a glove. Bike came with Crank Brother Candy pedals which Tim said he liked better than Shimanos. So, I decided to try them out and I found that I really like them.

Ironically, I just purchased another pair of used Shimanos for $20 that I will probably sell now because I just ordered a pair of Crank Brother's Smartys, in red, for the Qball. When I get them on, I will post another picture. You have to see this bike with red Oury grips, red fork, and red pedals. Of course, the Redline chain tensioners I thought would be a little redder but they are not.

I climbed technical ups that I probably would have tanked on my 29er and that has squish now and rides handsomely. Here it is before I changed had the cranksets switched with the Fetish. No need for bash guard on a bike that I am turning into a commuter.



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Sunday, September 09, 2007

Last three rides at Bennetts

Here are my last three rides at Bennetts Pond in Ridgefield, CT.



The CT NEMBA Raw ride was an ill fated trip. Started out with one guy getting a flat. I give him my spare tube. He gets ten feet up the trail and that tube blows out like a gun going off. On the other side of the river we start climbing the Orange Trail towards Pine Mountain and I get a kink in my chain which causes the chain to keep popping off the front ring. Did this twice but the third time I wasn't so lucky because what I didn't notice was there was a kink in the chain which was causing this happen. So, the third time when I started the climb, the kink was past the front ring, hit the rear cage on the deraileur and just gutted it! Needles to say, the two mile walk back was not a lot of fun.

Got the Fixation running again after the RAW ride, only re-rigged as a single speed and took the orange trail up to Pine Mountain, which turned out to be a total hike-a-bike, however, it's worth it because the view from up there is spectacular. Did a loop on the Yellow Trail atop Pine Mountain and found the trail to be very technical yet really fun to ride.

Went back on September 9th because I wanted to try to ride the circumference of the Bennetts Pond/Hemlock Hills/Pine Mountain area, as well as try out my Qball with some squish for the first time. Riding the Qball with the Marzocchi 80/100mm fork was awesome. Also found a back way up to Pine Mountain that was a lot less hike-a-bike than coming up directly from Bennetts Pond. On the way down from Pine Mountain, I found a trail or old woods road that connected to the Woods road that Alex and I rode last fall which cuts out that one part of the Ives Trail that is unrideable.

If you haven't figured out it by now, the color coding of the text corresponds to the tracks.