Big Bikes

Otis, My Man!

I'm going to try out Speed-Blogging here. Expect more mistakes and less attempts at cleverness. The idea is that I need to find more time in my life somewhere. The ride time is going up, so is the work time, but the writing time has remained constant. As a result we've seen major cutbacks in the sleep department. This may have lead to a decline in quality on the blogging front as well. For one thing, I try not to talk about blogging when I'm...blogging and here I am doing it.

The World's Foremost Authority on Otis was away. I believe he was being brought before an International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague to address charges he utilized Cross Top Levers during the 2007 Cyclocross season. Irre-re-regardless of that fact M and I loaded up the car with friend Jane and my new IBC teammate Kevin and drove down to Bourne for a 10AM start time.

Above: Precious Thing's first ride in/on the car. It thought we were goin' a-racin' and got all excited. It'll have to wait just a few weeks for that. Yikes. Big Dan Barry at the meeting spot. Supah-Dupah-Fly. Weird photo of normal trees or normal photo of weird trees?

The crew was huge, fourteen people. I love watching a group that big snaking through the trees on twisty singeltrack. It was my first real ride on The Superfly. The 34 X 17 I was running for a gear made much of the ride feel like weight lifting. Like something was going to go "Pop!". Hopefully I'll be stronger for it later on.

Above: Top and bottom left; Tom Greene was our fearless (seriously, try holding his wheel, he is a Ninja) ride leader. He did a great job showing us all around Otis on this refreshingly warm and sunny day. Top right; Andy shows The Stoke. Bottom Right; Will ripping on his rigid SS.

I had this misconception, that I believe, I share with many others that Otis is a place you ride when there is nothing else available due to snow or ice cover. This place should be a destination. I imagined the terrain was predominantly flat, buff, and sandy. Not true. Miles of high-speed, swooping singletrack, punctuated with areas of round rocks, small drops and enough punchy uphills to remind you that it is still early season and your lungs are still hanging out back in September somewhere. The curves become hypnotic. You get so many chances to dial it in, to lay it down just far enough...or just a bit too far. You get the feeling that if you clipped your bar on a tree you might end up in the hospital. Everything becomes technical at speed.

Above: Me and M. She was out for her first ride on her New Bike. Great place for a late in the ride snack stop. Post ride ihop hooked it up. Mountains of horribly excellent food. Good night and good legs.