I miss the Bike :( Loving the time with my son though!

been a week off the bike, felt good to get some blood pumping clearing the entire driveway. This was just the begining

One heck of a nice day on Thursday, I managed to get out for 90 minutes of trail bliss. Initially I was headed for Case but few minutes into my ride I said nawww Crandalls is still new and fun and different. I was armed with the Rigid SS and a fluffy dog. Temperature was up in the 40s and it felt nice to back in shorts and T-shirt jersey pedaling around the woods. I decided to repeat the loop John took me on a week ago and going to keep that as his loop in his name. As I pedaled up, 34/21 gearing never felt worse, I felt like I was pulling a wagon full of bricks. I tightened the chain tension the night before so maybe it had slightly something to do with it, or so I am imagining. Regardless I was riding, got up most and had to work especially hard despite legs feeling heartless. Always in good company with my loyal pooch. He is such a good trail dog, apparently Crandalls doesn't tire him much like Case, makes sense since Case is faster with 3-5 more miles in the same amount of time. All in all it was a great day to ride, looking forward to more as the weather cooperates, thank goodness for it.

Crandall 5th

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Chain Reaction Cycles

Pulled it off pinkbike, put me in the christmas spirit loving it!

Friday Monin

Well Crandall has been fun so I went back to it on Friday at 10am and this time rode with a trail boss and got shown a couple trails I missed so far. Crandall still proves to be a mother to get miles out of but it's probably cause all that time spent climbing. After 90 minutes of fast pedaling, I was certainly getting a good workout trying to keep up. One trail I was clueless about opens up some more riding options, another switchback trail. I am still really liking the riding here, I don't have much more exploring to do here, but certainly still many loop options. My legs felt pretty out of shape after 4 hours spent there this week but it was time to put a hurting into them since rides are few and far between. Not sure what riding is to come, looks like it will be wet early in the week, I'll just keep cracking at it as I can ride.

Crandall 4th

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Da Goods

Wednesday morning, I am beat, baby sounds his feeding with little cries, it's 6:30am, go warm the bottle in the fridge, feed him. Done feeding, put him down. I look outside, it's a bit gray and I feel hurt, do I really want to ride today. I look out the window a few more times, question to ride or not to ride. I say to myself, later on today if the sun is out you will regret that you did not ride. A minute later, ok it's go time, crap need my bike shorts in his room. Door creaks open, then I open the cabinet, his eyes open and I scoot out of the room. Check the monitor, he is moving about and ready for action. Delay my ride plans since I told my wife fairly I will ride when Landon goes back down to sleep after his feed. I bounce him, I rock him, I can't make him go back to sleep. I come down into my workplace and do my work and wait it out. It's 8:15 he's asleep! As I stepped outside I felt how bitter and stiff the air was, it was freezing. I came this far so i carried on and headed for a ride at Crandalls. It was 31F when I arrived, I questioned my ambition but pedaled on and decided to ride counter clockwise what I did the other day and to add more trail. Mid way into my ride, I did make my way to that trail that climbed higher in between where I have been and it lead me to a split with trail names! It read Zig on one tree and Zag on the other. Being righty, I went onto Zig and pedaled on a nice flat run of trail that twisted and meandered every which way. I nearly got dizzy as I squiggled around and around but loving every second of it. I was so happy to find this great piece of trail, it was a nice break and offered a mellow pedal session. Is anything really better than finding some really good trail at a new ride location, heck no man. Soon I hit a intersection, one trail looked like ti shot down the hillside, the other was what I imagined was the start of Zag and I happened to be correct. I Zagged my way for another huge session of mellow twisties. With the same amount of trail as I put under the tire on Zig I was back at the intersection of Zig & Zag with a tired set of legs and pointed it down red and enjoyed a good downhill. The Tanuki feels so good, I have mostly to thank my suspension since it is new it just does the job right soaking up everything. What a great ride, going to try to repeat it and find out where that trail goes where Zig turns into Zag. Loving riding right now, how lucky am I it's December! Next week will be a rude awakening, get your rides in while you can!

Crandall 3rds

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2nd Rip At Crandalls

I am kicking myself.... I forgot about a little place called Crandalls down the road that is off limits to hunters. I have been detouring to Case Mountain for way too long now and this was a good change of pace. I have been here once before a few months ago, a biking friend of mine started bringing it up on the forums so I checked it out and liked it. It is only 10 minutes from my house with the route I took today which is obviously sweet. There are organized marked trails is here and there are unmarked very good mountain biker built single track as well. The map of this place is small, it pretty much utilizes a steep hillside that will make you work for every crank. The red trail up to the top is downright mean, with the leaves moist from the last few days traction was an absolute joke for me but I made it up more than the last trip so I felt somewhat good about that. The  single track trails are pretty untamed, these trails see few tires so  at times it got silly and questioned my route. I missed some switchbacks that I knew were close, but it looked like after the last storm it was just too unclear. I carried on down a nice downhill and then took a left where I made a right last time. That was the best decision I made since it lead me to some really twisty climbing switchbacks, I love this kind of stuff. Came to a tough decision as I had to choose to continue ahead to climb the rest of the ridge or take some more trail just right of me. I went right, rode a lot more good trail and then with little choice I was back on the popular wide stuff. Some more trail to the car and it was only an hour ride but I was in dire need to get out and certainly got my fix. Tomorrow morning is the plan to ride early. The baby has been so great, he sleeps by midnight and wakes for a morning feed and goes back to sleep to 11ish. Good news, I tightened the front hub and apparently it did the trick since it performed perfect for me. How tight it is too tight? I tightened what I thought was minimal enough that it would not loosen again.....hope it works.

Crandalls 2nd rip

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Good

Got out for the Thursday night ride, was more pumped than ever to ride, not so unusual. I grabbed the dog since he needed to get out and headed for Hale. Bentley stormed everyone with excessive friendliness and then we were off! Since the bolt stripped on the seat post collar I was on the newish bike with gears and stuff. Set off on fly by night, pretty standard, all was going well in the dark. I must say damn those Maxis Ardents I hate them in the corners, trails were firm and freezing in the temperatures and I could not put any confidence in these tires since I bought them. Time to try those infamous Kenda Nevegals. The front end started to feel funny so I flipped the bike over and found slop in the axle, shart............ hand tighten best I could and continue to ride hesitantly knowing bike is not 100% I Feel it slopping again, go to tighten and won't tighten but sloppy, at this point I can bail or just finish the rest of the ride being only halfway in or so. Screw it, I came to ride it's once a week now, all or nothing. Crossed the stream, and water almost instantly froze anywhere on the bike it touched. Apparently quite a bit got into my brakes because when I went to use them I got maybe 10% of braking power on both brakes and that was a rude awakening. My mind was busy as I was riding realizing this wheelset had always felt flexy before the axle issue this evening and may not be good in the long run. The thought of having to buy wheels made my mind sore, since I am always behing on the dawg limping but needing wheels and a fork. The ride was mighty good it really was, rarely do I have a mechanical issue and I was thankful this was not a ride ender. Have not gotten down into the workshop to poke around with it yet, I really don't have much experience with wheelsets since they always just work for me so let's see what happens. I got about 400$ put aside, not crazy about using it for parts but I need to invest soon, might as well go 20mm front wheels and forks on both bikes........ 400$ will not be enough.........booooo

Jet Lites A-51

This has been a great buy! Two years ago I completed my research and purchased a Jet Lites A-51. It offered 500 lumens and three hours burn time on high. With always being on a budget I say I got a great bang for the buck! I know magic shines are wildly popular and cheap as can be but when it comes down to it with all the gripe and problems I have seen with them, I am glad I have a set it and forget it every ride. Now on it's third season I have yet to push it past two hours of lighting but the battery is still holding perfect for me. All chargers and connections and all involved have been flawless and pleasant. A time will come where I will need to buy another light and I will without question buy another from this company in my future. I would love to add a second light to my setup and the next one might be wireless but certainly brighter! The light market is flooded out there and I am not familiar with many,but like all bike products, some stick and some don't.

Bout All I got

Haven't rode in a week, tonight will be the night and hopefully I can get one more in before the end of the weekend. Little man is doing good, waiting day by day for him to get bigger!

Night Snow

I was surprised when the local Thursday night ride was on but I was pumped when it was and LuAnn ok'd the ride. We got a good 3 inches a few days before and we are the only place in the state still with it. The temperatures dropped into freezing so trail conditions could be anywhere from snow to no snow to ice. The parking lot had a good coat on it as you can see and I really did not know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised when we hit trail and the trail was perfectly dry with snow on the side. It was perfect, it was like someone went out there with a torch and dried it perfectly leaving the snow on the side. These are just the greatest rides, when the conditions are so variable, it's winter, a full moon and these crazy bikers are out in the woods in the dark riding. It was great fun right up until we neared the car and my light put me in the dark. I didn't know if I charged it after last ride and unfortunately made that guess 90 minutes before the ride when I remembered to charge it. It could not have gone out at a better time since I was just a minute from the car. I could not continue further on the the ride which sucked but I got a good hour in. Mighty good stuff, good weather coming Monday Tuesday hope to ride!!!!!!!!!

Snowy Hale

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