Making Progress

It is Friday morning at 11AM. So far I have been at it pretty straight, chipping away at the massive list of chores that need to get completed in order to keep this summer of fun on track.

My Reynolds 46mm carbon cyclocross front tubular wheel from my single-speed cross bike, which had massively corroded internal alloy nipples that had begun to break apart and fail, has been torn down, cleaned out and rebuilt with new nipples. I have also cleaned the glue track and have applied one coat of tubular cement to it.

The RockShox Reba from Cathy's single-speed mountain bike has been removed from the bike and received a new set of seals and oil. It still needs to be re-installed but in the meantime I have put my spare Fox F29, which received new seals yesterday, on the bike.

I have Tung Oiled the bike vault doors in the basement as they were raw fir and OSB and I have also finally added a coat of sealer to the front bench in the entry way at the front door. It has been in need for some while now.

In terms of the garden, I have weeded it and watered everything. I've also thinned out the Romaine lettuce to promote growth and tossed the unlucky leafs into the leftover salad from last evening. I also finally gave up on some of the seeds that we planted over a month back in a couple of freshly tilled beds to the back of the lot. As such I raked them over and flattened them and will throw some grass seed down. The reality is that they just didn't get enough sunlight I suspect. Either that or something got the seeds, pumpkin and squash.

The poop has also been scooped and I have contacted the real estate agent to make sure that we are on target for closing in a couple of weeks, less actually.

Yesterday I put together a mini-deck platform/stair for the shed in Maine. I needed a transition for the existing deck between the house and shed and the new part of the shed. I built a platform that is a right triangle whose legs are 54". It is framed with some of the last 2x8" PT leftover from the old deck I tore off the house years ago. For decking I used some of the scraps of composite decking left over from the deck and sun room we had put on a couple years ago. The thing weighs about 250# and took both Cathy and I to move. Should be a treat getting it into the truck to take up to Maine. I do love a challenge though.

All I need to do still is to go for a short easy ride to spin the fatigue from my weary legs. Two hard nights on the road bike spanked me pretty hard. I suspect that despite a couple days of relative downtime this week on the bike, I was still in the hole from the past couple of weeks. The big ride last week really took a toll combined with a back to back hit on the weekend. No surprise. Easy today and tomorrow then the first MTB race in a while on Sunday.

Weekly Whirlwind

BSBL 45+ Team

Wow, the past week has so has been crazy busy. We have a ton of stuff going on and between projects here and projects in Maine coupled with the normal chores of the summer, we have been flat out. The week, last week that is, started out with a road race.

Why a road race when neither Cathy nor I really dig road racing that much? Well, in case you haven't been keeping track of the weather of recent, the region has surpassed Seattle in terms of rainfall. Unless it stops raining all together for the remainder of the month, it is likely that we may set some all time records as well. In the past couple of weeks we have gotten nearly double digit inches of rain. Keeping up with the lawn is a challenge not to mention that we have two of them we are trying to wrangle. Anyhow, the road race was hard and as always I was amazed how fit people are. Ultimately, a slew of guys were fitter and faster up the final climb than I. That said, it was legit racing with a bunch of folks from the team, including Cathy, so that was good and my bike wasn't wrecked after the race requiring an hour of washing and a hundred dollars worth of parts to fix. Such was the case with the Scalpel after the last race I did on it. The PF30 BB was toast and needed to be replaced along with the brake pads.

Current state of the garden

The garden has also needed some tending, not much but a bit. The tomato are going nuts and taking everything over as are the peas for which I finally built a trellis for them to climb. Hopefully that takes them up rather than out. I also needed to thin out the beets, which are doing great. Planning to throw the greens into a salad and see what happens there. More than tending though was the addition to the garden that we put in last week. Basically, we doubled the number of raised beds which meant more lawn prep, more soil needed and of course, more beds needed to be constructed. Now with all of the rain, the new beds are basically floating. Hopefully the seed will germinate rather than rot.

Desk space in Maine

In addition to those projects I've also been going nuts trying to get the Maine based projects squared away. Last time that we were there we realized that Cathy really needed some desk space if she was going to work from home. Sitting on a stool at the bar didn't work for an extended period. Problem is that space was at a premium so I decided a wall mounted desk that mirrored the bar but was normal desk height would look OK and work fine. I built it the same as I built the bar, using hardwood flooring banded by maple and supported by 4x4 fir legs. It went in easy, looks fine and works great.

Shed progression

The other big Maine based project is the shed conversion. I managed to get a bunch of work done on it even though I am slightly behind where I'd hoped to be. The project is getting rid of a bunch of junk I had lying around though such as an old exterior door and vinyl window. Hopefully I can finish the final end up easily during the next trip. It is all framed and I just need to side it but first need to finishing rebuilding the shed doors that I'm reusing off the other part of the shed. They need to be slightly re-sized to fit the size limitations of the end. Getting those doors meant tearing them out of their previous home in the end of the old shed, re-framing that hole and then re-siding that end with the materials I'd removed from the back side of the shed, which will now be the inside wall of the new portion of the shed.

Before the ride, all smiles

Along with the work I also took a day off and did a monster ride with Kyle and Ben, who came up Wednesday evening and stayed over. I planned out a few different loops but decided on one that did many aspects of loops we had done in the past, taking us out Intervale Road to RT232 and then to Rumford, up bu Black Mountain which is a nasty little climb, then to RT120 and over Roxbury Notch. Though I'd climbed it a bunch of times in the past, this time it hurt. We were hauling. I blame it on Strava. From there we went into Andover and up over East B Hill Road into Grafton Notch. That was the killer. Those climbs just did me in. From the notch we headed to Errol on RT26, which had more rollers to add. From Errol we headed back RT16 to Gorham and to RT2 to North Road and back to Bethel.

View from atop East B Hill Rd

On paper the loop was big, but not all that terribly bad. The truth would reveal a slightly different composition than evidenced by the map, the elevation plot, or my experience. Of course we also moved along pretty well and hit the climbs, which in some cases were pretty brutal, with some vigor. By the time we were half way in I could tell the second half was going to hurt. By the time we hit 90 miles I was digging for answers to the simple question of how I was going to finish the next nearly 40 miles. Fortunately, I wasn't alone. Kyle who had remained strong and sure all day was starting to wear and starting to go for the granny as well as make some interesting noises. Meanwhile, Ben who had hung back all day and gone a bit easier was starting to perk up a bit. Of course we ended up making it home safe and sound but we were all pretty tired, well, except for Ben who won the hill sprint back to the house uncontested.

Friday was a work day so I got after the shed work and the only ride that we did was a short local loop. Unfortunately, the big news Friday was a tragic accident just outside of Bethel on RT2 where a young man from Watertown, MA taking part in the Trek Across Maine was struck and killed by a transport truck. It put a really sad note on the day and in all honesty, really hit me pretty hard given that we both ride those same roads all the time. Our hearts go out to the friends, family and loved ones. who it turns out, we actually know some of. The cycling community really is a small family.

Ascending Kirby Mtn Rd

Saturday Cathy and I planned a sampling of some of the dirt roads in VT from my folks place, many of which we had ridden in the past. We also coordinated this with checking out some property in the area. Our ride included some stellar roads with great views, a Thanksgiving sandwich for lunch from the East Burke general store and some stout climbs as well as a wonderful gently flowing downhill from Victory to North Concord through the heart of the bog and the wildlife preservation area. We dug into some new sections not only in East Burke but in East Haven, Granby and Victory which we'd never done before. As a result we took a few wrong turns, mostly thanks to the infinite optimism of the Google maps road recognition algorithm. It seemed to think that there were connector roads in a number of places where said roads did not actually exist, or were in fact old snowmobile trails.

Ridge Rd in Kirby

This was most evident after starting the climb to the old radar base in East Haven. The reality is that the public roadway does not go through to Victory. We discovered this after exhausting all of the possible alternatives. We also found a few sweet dead ends near the tail of the ride, in North Concord. Other than that though a great day on the cross bikes. For most of the ride we were above the coveted 100 feet of elevation gain per mile mark, a mark used as a quality of legitimacy gauge for a ride by at least some of our friends. I was feeling remarkably good so was OK with it but Cathy wasn't as fond of the ratio.

We rode the Cannondale SuperX disc bikes with clincher wheels and file tread cross tires for the first time outside of a cross race. Excellent, excellent choice as they rolled well but still stood up to some of the rocky, rutted gravel roads of the depths of the Northeast Kingdom. I'm thinking that they may become a staple bike for us for this type of riding, of which I'd really like to start doing more of. Will see how that property turns out as it may be an enabler.

Much of Sunday was spent working on the shed again but later in the day we tried to salvage a shorter ride. I'd been thinking of dirt roads in Maine and the reality is, there really aren't as many as in VT. I did know of some that we could try for my days of snowmobile trail grooming, located in Milton Township. Most folks probably haven't heard of Milton, for good reason. Not much (anything) there save a couple of ponds, Concord and Shagg. So again we headed out Intervale to RT232 but took a new road to get to Milton. It was paved for a long time but then turned to dirt. Almost as soon as it turned to dirt, the threatening skies gave way to rain. I toyed with turning back but pressed on.

I'd never been on this route and was heading to places that I'd never been at all, save dirt biking years before. It was raining with a chance of thunder and there were no short cuts home. I was a little anxious. Actually, I was a lot anxious. When I get anxious on the bike, I tend to go faster like that will somehow fix things. So from there Cathy and I basically hammered for what seemed like an eternity on roads we hoped connected to where Google maps said they connected and would eventually lead us home. The rain got harder, the roads we often excellent but often really poor. I misjudged multiple segments which turned out to be longer than expected but eventually we made it to know territory. In the end it was a good ride, though stressful in more ways than one.

It also seems to have fried my Garmin Edge 500 which recorded just fine but would no longer communicate with my PC. No incarnation of fix helped it but the nice folks at Garmin offered me a warranty replacement, which is on the way. Many thanks.

Another excellent adventure and another great week. This could be the best summer ever. Actually, I'm pretty sure that it already is.

Weekend Roundup

A fish's view

Actually, it is more of a long weekend roundup which includes the start of the week and the end of last week as well as the weekend proper. What the weekend did not include was any racing. No, we decided to forgo the race scene in favor of some fun rides and some much needed house work based from our northern office in Bethel, Maine.

We haven't really spent all that much time in Maine since we got heavily into bike racing really. Between that and work, which for the past few years for both Cathy and I has meant traveling to and from an official office moist every day, it has been tough to find the time, or make it. Doing the whole weekend commute and fighting traffic to and fro to get to and then from the vacation home is a huge drag. Add in the racing, most of which is not near Maine anyhow and there you have it, the house sits vacant far too often. Regardless, with each visit we are reminded why we bought the place to begin with and why we have not sold it. We love the place. Bethel is a really great town with some really nice folks.

Sunday River in the distance

With Cathy working 100% from home and me "working" 100% on the homes, the time was ripe so we packed the cats and a van full of junk and headed north last Wednesday evening. My big project for this trip was to get a good start on the first of the two part shed renovation I have planned. I checked much of that work off Thursday and Friday. Next on the list was some weekend fun including a trip to KT for some MTB adventures.

What we didn't count on, despite the weather forecast, was just how oppressive 94 degrees and humid is when earlier than same week you were shivering while wearing your down jacket. I literally was melting down. I'm usually pretty good in the heat but not this time. It wrecked me. The manual work outside all day Thursday followed by the hard Gorman->Bartlett->Gorham Pinkham Notch effort that night had me reeling Friday. It was all that we could do to muster the energy to ride to Frenchman's Hole up in Newry and go wading.

Recurring theme of the weekend

Saturday was not much better and the heat was cooking my noggin and sapping my ambition, even though we were riding KT. We fought through and got in about three and a half hours and just over 30 miles but it hurt a whole lot despite not going all that hard. The one bright spot was the short interval I did go hard on; a climb out from the river on the far side of Darling Hill on the River Walk trail netted a Strava KOM. Possibly an indicator that the fitness was starting to come back around, I hoped?

Sweltering @ KT

Sunday we once again had 90 plus degree temperatures, humidity and wind so we naturally decided to go for a road ride. I planned a route that would take us south then west to Freyburg then north through Evans Notch and back. We had done this 75 or so mile route a few times in the past, but never in that direction. After fighting the headwind out Vernon Street then going into the wind and baking sun up the Hunts Corner climb and turning onto RT118 and then RT35 we decided to cut bait on the long loop at the famous world points sign. Instead we headed back via RT35 onto the Forest Service Road, a sweet gravel road that connects to the Flat Road. Something about riding gravel on my road bike encourages, no, commands me to drill it. We flew up the rise and just after the top I promptly smacked a rock and pinch flatted the front tire. Dumbass! From there we came back Grover Hill Road, which we rode as a TT from start to finish. Solid effort and a great road which is now immortalized in a Strava segment.

Cathy finishing the Jordan sufferfest

Monday was back to work, both for Cathy officially making money and for me, officially spending money. That money was squandered on PT 4x4's and 84' linear feet of ship-lap. Most of the day was spent again working on the shed improvement. The bonus was that with the huge front and rain that moved through Sunday evening, the temperature and humidity subsided. The weather by Monday mid day was fantastic.

After the days labor we decided to do a short ride with one interval, a climb up to the Jordan Grand at Sunday River. In all my years riding the area I'd never done that climb. Cathy did years ago but not me. Don't know why. I researched the climb on the Strava and found it was a solid Cat3 gaining 1500' in under 4 miles. Top times were just around 20 minutes so I knew that it was a good solid interval for sure. We fought brutal headwind over and brutal head and crosswind up. The climb was horrific, steep enough that the 39x25 was arduous once the legs loaded and crushing in the one really steep section, which also had really bad pavement. At the top it flattens to maybe four or five percent for the last quarter mile, fooling you into thinking you should be going faster than possible. Finally at the top is the hotel and relief, which was short lived once the black flies found you. Cathy soon emerged and finished and we made our way precariously back down the slope, fighting the winds and gravity all the way to remain in control.

The shed project continues

Yesterday we planned to head back home in order to do some chores there but also had some tree work done in Maine. This involved removing two huge and nasty pine trees in front of our house. These trees just made a mess and blocked the sun from reaching that section of the house. The result was lots of mildew and pine needles everywhere. Watching the removal was impressive and though it was expensive, I think that it will make a huge difference. It will also let some of the other trees fill in and grow a little better. Once the tree work was done most of the day was as well.

Int'l flair in ME

I'd planned to ride toward home and have Cathy pick me up on the way somewhere. Optimistically I'd though of riding all the way home but we'll save that stretch goal for another day. I settled on leaving an hour before Cathy and riding Vernon Street to RT35 south to RT302 east toward Portland. These are all secondary roads with posted speed limits from 30 - 50 mph, traveling by numerous lakes and ponds. On the map it was basically a straight shot. I started out and quickly noted the favorable cross/tail winds, so treated Vernon Street, which used to be one of the Maine TT series courses, as a TT. I was working really hard but moving really fast. This continued all the way along Vernon and onto RT35 where I was moving well on mostly flat terrain. Suddenly as RT118 forked off and RT35 veered right it also pitched up for what looked like a good climb. Having never traveled it before I had no idea how long it was but with legs loaded for effort I nearly came to a stop. A little over two miles later I finally crested the top and rolled quickly down the back side. That hurt. The rest of RT35 was scenic roller coaster of gentle grades and quaint lakeside communities.

Not happy being rescued on Vernon Street

My realistic goal for the ride was to make it two hours before Cathy caught me, which would mean it took her an hour to do so in the van on the same roads. I'd hoped that I could make it to RT302, which was just about 40 miles. What I hadn't counted on was the favorable conditions allowing me to go faster than I'd expected. I treated the first hour as a TT and told myself I'd ease off after that but because I was moving so well, I continued working pretty hard this far into the second hour as well. I soon found myself at RT302 well before the two hour mark.

Two moose on RT2 Concord, VT

Once onto RT302 I was blessed with wide open road, a HUGE shoulder lane and a pure tail wind. Long stretches of 30 mph just cranking the pedals over. Before I knew it I was at 47 miles. Around this point I started to wonder if maybe I could make it the whole way and beat Cathy to Portland. There were only 15 miles left to go and at the speeds I was going, maybe I could.

Timber

Shortly there after I hit Raymond and a myriad of endless traffic lights. The up side was that there was still a shoulder and I could actually go faster than traffic. The down side was it was really, really dangerous. It wouldn't matter as literally within a mile Cathy caught me. I told her I needed another mile to make the 50 mark, which I did and then willingly got in the van, satisfied and tired. Secretly, I think that she may have been speeding trying to catch me though.

All in all a great trip, a great weekend and a great block of rides. I'm thinking more time will be spent there in the near future. Much more time in fact. After all, I still have a whole list of projects that I need to work on there and with the time spent at the house, the list just seems to get longer.

Pick it up and Put it Down

Yesterday saw lots of work on tap. For years I'd wanted to take our shed, which has a nice canted, overhanging roof with an open section, and close the open section off. My ultimate goal is to be able to take the shed proper, which is actually built less like a shed and more like a small camp, and finish it off as a guest room. Even more years back, I'd planned to build another shed all together. Using the some of the leftover PT lumber from the deck that we tore off of our house when we put an addition on, I'd gotten so far as to build the deck for the new shed.

That deck has been sitting there for years unused and unloved. A few years back it occurred to me that if I wasn't going to build a new shed, I could modify that deck which was 8x12' to fit under the overhang of the existing shed, which had no floor. The deck was made of 2x8' PT with 5/4" PT decking. It would need to move about 30' in one direction and about 10' in the other direction. How hard can that be?

So I started off yesterday with some prep work. That included first mowing the lawn with the antique and dilapidated $89 push mower that we bought at Walmart when we got the house. After that there was the matter of temporarily relocating a wood pile. Pick it up and put it down. Finally I was at a point where I could start doing some of the work that I intended to do.

My plan of attack was simple. Throw down some boards and skid the deck along into place with a set of come-alongs. I knew that it would work as I'd skidded numerous rocks and cars up unbelievable grades with this simple hand winch. I screwed a hook into the deck so that I'd have something to attach to, drove an iron prybar into the ground a few feet and then hooked onto it at the ground and started winching. It was by no means easy but steady progress was made despite a fair amount of plowing of the Earth underneath. Pick it up and put it down.

Eventually once I had the deck closer to the shed, I had to cut the excess from the side in order to meet the finish width of the opening into which it was going. This involved skinning a few rows of decking off the joist framework so that I could cut each of the joist. Pulling rusty nails embedded into wet and old PT is loads of fun. Once that was done I measured twice and started with the cuts. First I used a circular saw, which worked OK on the ends but not on the internal joist. Then I tried the sawzall which didn't work well at all and eventually chose the right tool for this and in honesty, most jobs; the chainsaw. Perfectly square cuts were easily made and no limbs were lost.

Next I had to add on a new outside PT header to tie the joist back together. I needed new as the header had to be longer, in order to tie into my 4x4" uprights that support the roof overhang. They are spaced 14' in total length where as my deck is only 12' long. That gives me a foot on each end of extra roof overhand that won't have as much snow collecting at the door. The result will be that the new closed in section will be slightly shorter than the old shed, which will help visually break up the total width and look better as well. It will also make it easier to tie back into the shed for framing up the ends and bottom line, I had a 12' long deck sitting there already that cost me almost nothing to use. Recycle.

For hooking the deck platform into the existing shed I wanted to hang it down a bit from the bottom of the shed in order to maximize head room in the new part. My idea was to use metal plates lagged into the deck header and then lag then into the header of the shed. I bought the hardware and got everything into place, re-centered my hook started dragging it into place. A bit of twisting, turning and wedging and it slid right into place. I then braced in up on the shed side and tied it into the shed header permanently. Then I moved to the outside, leveled it and lagged the overhanging ears from the outside header plate into the upright outside 4x4" posts. For the center upright I had to skin some decking off in order to get in and lag through the header to the 4x4".

The end result was rock solid, had good head clearance, reused something that I already had and was much better than what I had before. Still lots of work left on the first stage in order to sheath the side, frame and sheath the ends and then move the various doors from one shed to the other. That said, it is still forward progress and that feels good.

After the day of fun outside Cathy and I decided to go for a little bike ride. We headed to Gorham with plans of doing Pinkham Notch to Bartlett and then back. It had gotten quite warm and the wind had picked up a bit as well. We struggled mightily up the shallow flank knowing that if the easy part was this tough, the hard part would be brutal. Pick it up and put it down. Sure enough, it was. I usually hate out and back rides but for some reason this one doesn't seem that bad. The terrain and views make it worth while and frankly, you are too busy suffering to notice.

Another great day and many more to come. I'm not sure how ambitious the ride will be today though. I must admit that I'm pretty beat from yesterday.

Nice Night for a Ride

With the weather that we have over the course of the bulk of this week, it is safe to say that any night that doesn't involve rain is a nice night for a ride. It seems that after having incredible drought for most of the spring thus far, the faucet has been turned on and we are now in a pattern of rain, at least for this week that is.

It was just last week in fact that I was lamenting having absolutely no collected rain water in my new rain barrel, meaning I had to use tap water for irrigation of the crops, aka our three small raised beds. Feast or famine it seems and for now my rain barrel runneth over. In fact it nearly flooded the walkout with its runoff. I guess that I should have paid more attention to the overflow downspout placement.

I spent much of yesterday afternoon putting together the new single speed MTB. Really, it is just a new Kona Big Unit frame that Brian and the folks at JRA Cycles hooked me up with. Additionally I bought a new Fox Float RL 29er fork and Cane Creek headset with the remaining parts coming from the old and slightly tired Soul Cycles Dillinger. I've really enjoyed the Dillinger and have spent many many hours aboard it on the trails. The SS MTB is by far the MTB most often ridden by me and it even saw some limited race action this year.Anyhow, the Dillinger was always a little on the short side and has also started to develop a crack at the back of the slot for the seatpost clamp on the seat tube. Common problem that has happened to nearly every hardtail MTB I've ever owned.

It always amazes me at how slightly dissimilar bicycle parts are and just how many standards there are, or are not depending on how you look at it. Take for example the new Fox Float RL I just got. First, when the heck did forks get so expensive? I realize that I haven't purchased a new suspension for in some time but wow are they expensive. I found a "deal" on this Float, which had the desired tapered steerer tube so went for it. I was running a F29 RLC on the Dillinger, both of which were 100mm travel and both of which had 32mm stantions so I figured I'd just swamp the damper out and upgrade my new shock.

Wrong, though the thread pitch on the cartridge cap that threads into the stantion is the same the diameter is 15/1000" different between the two with the new fork stantion ID being slightly narrower. Of course I figured that out after I'd put the old F29 RLC completely back together with the RL cartridge, which fit fine because the stantion was slightly bigger than the cap. I'd also gotten the new fork together with the old cartridge, which I'd made sure did start to thread in a turn, including the oil. Anyhow, lots shock oil and swearing flew everywhere as I tried and tried to get it to work before breaking out the caliper to measure.

I gave up and swapped back to the stock fork, cleaning all of the messes as I went. From there the rest was pretty straight forward. The tires I used, which are not tubeless specific, didn't want to hold air all that well and still don't, but that is par for the course using tubeless. Enough sealant and maybe some glitter and I should be set. The headset is a pretty nice annodized red Cane Creek Frustrum XX Z-3 zero stack inset which I scored off Ebay for $25 shipped. The sealed bearings are junk but unless you buy a Chris King, they all are from my experience. regardless, it went in smooth and seems good for now. The tapered steerer combined with a 15mm through axle makes for a nice stiff front end, perfect for the rigors of the SS.

So, more on the important part, the frame. It's a new Kona Big Unit which is a Scandium single speed  specific 29er that uses sliding dropouts in the rear to provide chain tension. This was the biggest draw to the frame, the sliding dropouts. I've used lots of different designs and these seem like the best bet by far, if of course they stay in place. The interface seems really beefy and it uses set bolts as well to held the dropouts in place. I bolted my Shimano XT crank/BB across from the Dillinger and threw on a set of Mavic Crossmax 29er wheels that had been on Cathy's SS but I stole for their 15mm axle interchangeability. In exchange my beloved Shimano 29er wheel system went to her bike along with the mounted Specialized Sworks Captain tires all set up tubeless, which I also liked greatly.

The result was a darn nice bike that while not a flyweight is no pig either. The bike exudes an air of beefiness though with the oversized tubing ovalized here and hydro-formed there. The head tube is massive as well as the longest 29er head tube I've seen. That coupled with the fact that I had a new fork with long steerer tube meant that I could run a stack of headset spacers and get away with a zero rise stem and flat bars. For the bars I used the Truvativ Noir carbon flat bars that came on my Scalpel and the old staple Thompson 120mm x zero rise stem that I've had since 2008. The post is a matching Thompson Elite layback with a Sella Italia Flite atop it. For gearing I'm still running the 32 x 18 with a Surly SS ring and Gussett steel cog with spacer kit, though I have a 34 tooth Surly on order which I plan to pair with a 19 tooth ring. This should yield some better ratios with the various cogs that I have in the stash.

Getting to the point of this post, last night wasn't raining, yet, so Cathy and I went out for a nice easy spin on the SS MTBs. This is a rest week, a legit rest week, the first that I have taken since I can't even remember when. That means nothing but short easy rides with no load and no stress. We started on the rail trail, then spun into Lexington on the bike path, then hit some connector trails and conservation lands. On the way back I decided to cut through the PR and see how the bike felt. Cathy led and we meandered around the woods taking things nice and easy. It was a great ride and the trails were in very good conditions. The bike worked perfectly and felt very comfortable. The short chainstays, steep head angle and stiff front end made for a very quick and responsive ride. I like it a lot and suspect that the more I ride the bike, the more that I will appreciate it.

Thank you for the excellent ride Cathy and thank you Brian for the help with the frame. I really appreciate it.