The Grinch pays a visit!

A quick Christmas Eve ride with Rick at Upper Paugussett State Forest, perfect lighting and temps.  We headed out on the Poly Brody and I was feeling really good after yesterday's ride at Pequonnock River Valley.  Temperatures are still below 32 degrees but still no snow.  Ice over the forest road in one section still makes it sketchy but we got off our bikes and walked around it.  I attacked the big hill and went right up it.  At the Gussy trail head we stopped for break.

Perfect day and time to be riding.  The days will start getting longer and longer which means more afternoon rides.  Rick took off leading the way and every pedal stroke just felt better and better.  I did struggle up the rock ridge but I shrugged it off and we started moving quicker.  Hit the two up-and-overs going into funnel with ease.

Hit the up-and-over coming out of the funnel nicely and then into the quick technical descent as I always do, only this time a little faster and at the bottom I discovered a new hole, or rock or both because I stopped short, went over the bars but rolled into it with practiced ease.  Picked up the bike and started to move forward but felt something rubbing the wheels.  Thinking it might be a stick but couldn't find anything and then I noticed my front wheel!  Taco'd.  Merry effing Christmas.  Tried to flatten it out so I could at least ride out but that didn't work.

I told Rick to finish his ride and that I would hoof it out.  I told him to meet me on Hanover Road but I figured I would be halfway home before we met up again.  I bushwhacked over to the blue trail and took that down to the Brody and onto Hanover Rd.  Someone driving a pickup stopped and asked if I needed a lift but I told him I lived nearby.  I met up with Rick just past Bramble Trail.  

Well the great ride Christmas Eve ride ended with a little visit from the Grinch.  Oh well, good thing I have another wheelset to fall back on!

Merry effing Christmas!

Pequonnock Monster Cross

I knew the Pequonnock River Valley would be excellent Monster Cross terrain and I had a most awesome ride today.  Granted, it was a little cold and snow squalls from time to time but nothing really sticking.  Trails were really good and dry.  A few frost heaves here and there but otherwise perfect.  Riding the Qball was excellent, the all steel frame absorbed the vibrations of the rough trail running the 2.3 x 2.25 tire combination and the steel frame did the rest.  It's funny, after almost six years of riding this bike and over 1000 miles the best ride comes in the configuration when I first started out.  Granted, I must admit that back then I didn't know the difference but now I do!

I was surprised to see this up-and-over ruined.  The main section was cut into two pieces and rolled down the hill!  If anything, cut it and make a skinny!  This was perfect skinny wood and it was ruined!  It was such a shock to see this wanton stupidity, I felt like Bluto when the movers dropped the case of scotch on the ground   

Below is a picture I took last August when I found this blow down with rocks already piled on both sides to create a real nice up-and-over.  Sometimes I just don't understand people.  You could have cut it on one end and maybe on the other and pivoted it so it would be perpendicular to the trail and you would have a really nice feature.

You mean, you couldn't police up your own coffee cup?  Are you kidding me?  Ban the hikers, I say!

I put the cup in my bottle cage and rode the rest of the way with it.  Later down the white trail, some dog walker put two their business cards into a stump in the middle of the trail.  C'mon, put your cards at the Kiosk near Whitney Avenue but not in the middle of the trail.  They went into the cup, too, and into the trash bin at the Daniels Farm Commuter lot.

At Coyote Crossing this guy rolls across this Darwin Award Recipient rolled across the bridge.  He was riding like he had something else in mind.  As he road by me, it looked like he was wearing handy man dungarees and he had some sort of tool sticking out of his thigh pocket, perhaps an electric screwdriver?  I wonder if he is one of those illegal ramp builders.  If you can't build something fun with natural materials don't build it all.

I think the guy above is John Wilkins.  There were four guys riding up the red trail as I was coming down the yellow but it wasn't until I looked at this picture closer that I think I recognize the guy above.

The Qball Monster Cross

Trumbull Slick Rock takes on a whole new meaning when your tires have ice on them.  The bike slipped out from under me riding through the wave rock.  It was a really weird.

Great Video of Riding Huntington

You will see some nice riding on the NEMBA Rock & Roll Trail, South Pond Single Track, and The Big Burn.  Also some really good 29er action.

Origin 8 Cutler on West End Ave - Fauxie

Fauxie's (Faux Fixie) seem to be the rage these days in the City and here is a perfect example of one from Origin 8.  The Cutler, is touted as a new breed of bicycle for the urban jungle but it's not marketed as a fixed gear, although this bike appears to have a flip flop hub.  On the Cutler page, it's not specifically stated that it has a flip flop but it looks like it has one.  The component description states that the rear wheel is for a free wheel but the hub description is cut off so it's hard to tell.

Flip Flop?  Looks that way

The cockpit is pretty simple and it uses in-line Promax levers which seem kind of cheezy.  I think a BMX lever or an Avid would be better suited but seeing that the brakes are Promax, Origin 8 went the bargain basement route.  If you recall, the Mongoose Deception uses Lee Chi brakes, which are also made by Promax.  I guess that's what you get for an under $300 single speed commuter.

The kick stand and chain guard I get, it's an urban single speed, but one piece cranks?  THE HORROR!

Flop and Chops at River Run Playground, 83rd Street, NYC

Any chance I get to go to NYC, it's always an adventure for me to see what kind of cornucopia of bikes I will see because it's a much easier form of transportation and the adaptations to bikes, especially those used by delivery people tend to be extremely interesting.  While visiting relatives this past Sunday on the Upper West Side, which is extremely residential, the selection of bikes were mostly family oriented.  After brunch we took the kids over to the River Run Playground at the end of 83rd Street and while the kids were running a muck I took the opportunity to snap a few pix of this interesting, rattle canned City bike with a Ghetto cockpit.  Of course, the owner looked at me taking pictures of his bike as some kind of kook but while our kids ended up playing together I got a chance to chat and put him at ease that I wasn't planning on steeling his bike.

Our conversation was more about the kid trailer and that he rides his kid to school, uses it for grocery shopping and general exercise.  Clearly, it's an older model, steel lugged bike, rattle can black, to make it less enticing to a would be bicycle thief but with a Shimano 105 group.

What struck me as interesting however was the cockpit.  Flop and chops with Cross levers instead of aero levers.  Side mounted Cateye - why not mounted correctly?  I don't see why it couldn't be mounted correctly in combination with the aero extension bars, in fact given arm positioning the Cateye in that position would only serve as an alternative to an arm rest.

Nice Soma saddle.  A very interesting cockpit adaptation that I will remember for my next Old Crappy Ten Speed Conversion project, which by the way reminds me, I haven't done one in over a year now.  I have quite a few frames to play with, too.