Big Bikes

All The Umbrellas In London Couldn't Stop This Rain
(From Sucking Wicked Bad)

Two mouthfuls of gutter water, that's a good morning. I don't know how many years I've been commuting, how many times I've ridden in the rain...it still comes as a shock when you venture out on the first low-forties, rainy day of the year. I guess it's like expecting to get used to being kicked in the nuts, it probably just isn't going to happen. Like some weird, freakball fetishist you just have to learn to like it.

In a better, far less wetter time, my buddy Jason and I went out to to work on The Ice Weasels course. We decided to reverse the course so that we didn't have to call in The Army Core of Engineers to re-sculpt a gnarly embankment. The reversed course is approximately 25% more awesome. I have a gauge that measures such things.

Since we saved ourselves many manly hours of work, we decided to go ride out of the house and hit some of the trails in Wrentham State Forest. Most of these trails were made by motorcycles, they can be challenging on an XC bike. On a Six Inch travel bike, they are a rip-roaring good time. I clean-ded stuff I ain't never a-cleaned afore.

We finished up by climbing up the old, abandoned ski hill and then descending down the insanely steep, rutted out face. During the couple years this thing was open in the eighties I actually skied it. The J Bar must have been terrifying, the pitch it goes up is incredible, and it's right next to a massive precipice. I don't remember being scared, I wish I was still so brave...or ignorant of what kind of pain a body can be put through.

This here (the thing above) is an XT Disc hub converted to a bolt on Fixed Gear Hub with a Surly Fixxer for a project I'm working on - Miriam's Super-Commuter. More on that as it progresses.