Monday, October 05, 2009

Marty's Mojo Failed Me

Sunday turned out to be a spectacular day but I had to go to NYC for a family get together. I did get some good material for the next edition of the Friday Fix, so stay tuned for this coming Friday's post. NYC was a mad house. It seemed there were at least two bike races, a Polish Parade on 5th Ave, and all the subways were running pretty slow. We did, however, get home an hour early and there was just enough light to head out on the bike.

So I rode the Qball and I got 50 yards up my road when I realized that there was something wrong. When I shifted into the lower gears and put pressure on the cranks, the chain would come right off. The chain watcher I installed was worthless, but then again I don't think that is it's purpose. Rather I think the problem is that this crankset sucks and I am going to have to get another one.

With the light waning I made a command decision and jumped on the 'Horse and headed for the forest. I was still wearing my commuting shoes (old Mountain Bike shoes really) and no pads but I felt that my Bakugan Mojo would help.

Whether or not it boosted my confidence I had a great ride at Upper Paugussett. I climbed up the big hill without asking Granny for help and cleaned just about everything on the Gussy. Yesterday's rain and the leaves made things a bit sketchy is some places but trail drains really well.

You might recall the Salt Lick I found last spring. I always figured the hunter who put it there would position himself north and above the bait but I think found a makeshift blind that wasn't there last week. I wonder if the person who made this is the same person tying the pink engineer tape.


If you ride the Gussy Trail and are wondering where this is, it's about 30 yards south from the third stream crossing (if you were heading north on the trail). It was funny because I stopped at this corner contemplating whether or not to push the trail out so that when you come flying down the hill you can continue the bomb. Finished up the rest of the Gussy and headed back on the forest road.

I went back down the bushwack and 3/4s of the way down my Mojo failed me. My front wheel slipped out from under me on a wet log and wouldn't you know, I went down on my knee and of course I wasn't wearing any pads. This always happens. Fortunately the ground was really soft and my knee just got a little dirty.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hey mark

ed and i hit gussy on friday, and like you i wasn't wearing my shin/knee pads. there was some leaf cover on the short log ride and i went down hard on my knee. stung like crazy for about 5 minutes, but in the end it was just a bruise. we also saw that pickup truck with the cabela sticker. we made sure to be decked out in orange and make lots of noise. trail's looking great!

-rick
p.s. gonna be a roadie tomorrow. just picked up a 2001 cannondale r800. need to train a bit for a weekend road trip with my bros in the spring.