Skinnies on Dirt

Everyone knows how much I like road bike riding (yawn), but when there's an adventure involved I seem to fore go my perceived boredom of skinny wheels. Over the last week I seemed to have peaked to any all time high with a few fun road rides. The first was riding the Whitebird grade down and back from Grangeville. The Whitebird Grade is a fun, narrow, twisty road to ride.

Going down...


Climbing up...


In between the grade I managed some Roubaix-style dirt road riding (yes on the road bike with skinnies on).


I have never realized how much fun skinny road tires could be on the dirt...or how fast.


My sister, Megan, was along on one of my mountain bikes for part of the trip.

The next trip was also from Grangeville...I had to drop off my Grampa's Jeep (yes he still drives at the age of 97) after my sister used it to get to the airport in Spokane. Since I had no way home I decided that I would ride home on the old highways through Nez Perce, Craigmont, and Winchester. It was a nice day with a few sprinkles here and there, but the trip was scenic along the way and I enjoyed the adventure of riding a new route (for me). So after 5-hrs, 20-min of riding time I rolled into my driveway with 107-miles on, at which time I was beyond ready to be off the bike. I think I may ride this route in reverse another time.

Racing the Think Pink Rigid

The performance of the Think Pink SS Rigid had me all giddy before, during, and after the Devil's Slide MTB Race.

(In the Hunt...Photo credit: Doug Goodenough)

This SS bike was not the ideal choice to run in this event this year due to some long, long, looong, flat sections, but somehow I was holding my own and held off many of the geared bikes until the end of the first lap on these ultra long flats...Single Speeds Rule!!!

(Photo credit: Scott Trost)

I ended up taking 2nd (still not sure how), but that doesn't mean too much since the race had a small showing this year. It was super fun to do the race on the Think Pink SS.

(Photo credit: Scott Trost)

In the tradition of cancer support I wore my pink and black Fatty jersey with matching socks to support Fatty's wife, Susan, who is struggling with metastatic breast cancer.

Think Pink Goes Rigid

Yep, that's right, once again I am messing around with bike setups. People that know me well enough understand I have an obsessive behaviour that involves changing up things on my bikes on a regular basis just to try something new.

Recently I had my Fisher Ferrous SS 29er set up rigid and rode it on back-roads mostly. I really liked the setup, but on the trails I did not think it was so great...in fact it downright sucked.

Then on one of my trail rides I had a "duh" moment (or maybe it was a "Doh!" moment) and realized that the fully rigid bike may ride better over the rough stuff with a bigger volume front tire for a bit of suspension effect. But after running through the mental inventory catalogue I found that I did not have a 29er tire larger than a 2.1 in my stock of "stuff". So that led to another inspiring moment within milliseconds...after which I raced home where there was instantly a flurry of activity in the bicycle laboratory. Within minutes the Think Pink Gunnar was transformed into a fully rigid, ultra trim, single-speed.

With the Pacenti Neo-Moto 650Bx2.3 tire up front I headed out to prove it was a worthy ride. Out at Hells Gate State Park I was a tad disappointed at first since the ride was nicer than on the 29er, but still a tad stiff and "boingy" over the rocks. So I let some more air out, then even more, and more, and...until the desired effect was achieved. The end result was an air pressure of 18psi in the front tire...at this pressure the bike was a smokin fun ride. The Pacenti tire is a true 2.3 and appears larger in volume...I never pinch flatted or even came close and my entire body is thankful and I seem to smile a lot while riding it...of course the normal, gentle thrash testing will continue.

One more thing has been brewing in the background here for some time now...his name is Jeremiah, soon to be adopted by Donna and I unless some weird unforeseen thing happens.

Who Turned up the Thermostat?

It seems that Someone turned up the thermostat over the weekend - we went from cold, snow/rain to the 70's in what seemed to be one day's time. My bare skin is now seeing sunlight and I instantly noticed that vehicles were avoiding me a tad more...it took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I realized it was the bright flashes of light blinding them, a.k.a. the sun's reflection off my ultra bright-white sheen of pure energy pounding along at high speed (good thing I wear dark sunglasses or my legs would probably blind me too).

The riding is great except that now I'm getting dehydrated much easier, but who cares because the riding is spectacular. Nothing like a little sun and warmth to bring the attitude back a spiking high. I could not get enough of the great weather it seems and rode myself into a state of pure, blissful exhaustion each day.

The power of the sun also brings some of my most favorite things in this world...Spring Flowers! I found these at the edge of the lower snow level...


Ahhh..I feel better just looking at pics of these little beauties, don't you?