Big Bikes

Epic Thursday

Last season I had Sundays and Mondays off from work. Which was great, it allowed me to do a race or a hard ride on Sunday, then basically sit on my ass all day Monday and recover. This season I've had Sundays and Thursdays off, allowing me to race or do a long ride Sunday and do an epic mountain bike ride Thursday.

Recover when you're dead I always say. Or when you're broke, busted, and burnt out.

The Fells opened last Wednesday, so I wanted to get in there. I also wanted to get up to Lynn Woods and check out all the craziness the kids have been building there. And I wanted to ride the Remedy. The Remedy is not a fast and light XC bike, it drags on the road, but it is really, really fun once you are in the woods.


Riding out my front door and down the stairs is not how I generally start my rides on The Superfly...or the road bike. Right off the bat, the ante is upped. Another difference between the Superfly and The Remedy is the tinkering, the adjusting. I hadn't ridden the bike since late last season, so a good portion of the beginning of the ride was spent playing with air pressure in the fork and shock. It's worth the trouble. The second I got into to The Fells I was pulling off stuff I wouldn't even dream of doing on my other bikes. The 60mm stem and 67° head angle say "Go jump off that shit". And I say "OK - Aah!".

I rode up through just about every section of The Fells to the tip top and hopped on the road over to Breakheart Reservation. I was looking for a cut through over to Lynn. All I found was some pretty thankless powerlines and a paved bike path. I guess it beat riding on The Lynn/Fells Parkway or whatever, but it dumped me out well south of where I usually hit Lynn Woods, causing me to have to ride up Route 1 through a series of parking lots until I got to the overpass which takes you to Walden St.. I couldn't resist a last minute stop at a Starbucks for a little liquid motivation before I hit the dirt.


When I got into the woods I was standing there, looking at my map trying to figure out where I was going to go. I don't actually know Lynn that well. I haven't been up there in about four years, and when I did go it was more to do Trials type stuff up on the now developed Bow Ridge. Serendipitously enough two dudes, I think their names were Nick and Joel, I suck with names, so it could have been Nort and Jubsy, anyway they rolled up, asked if I needed help, then offered to show me around. So much better to just follow someone seamlessly through a place without having to stop and figure out where you're going. Of course you end up no wiser for it really. I couldn't retrace the ride we did if you told me I could have free Butternut Donuts (and I do mean "Donuts" ) for life.


We never did find the "Crazy Crap" but we did ride miles of super-rocky, technical terrain for about an hour and a half. Lots of steep ups and roll ins, no eight foot drops or anything, but enough excitement for an XC Dork like myself.

With about and hour of daylight left and the hunger knock firmly setting in, I began the rumbling grind home on my 2.35 tires jacked up to 28Psi. Back in the, as we say, day I wouldn't have had the juice left after four and a half hours on the mountain bike to hit up more trail on the way home but I guess the boring road miles have paid off. I ripped through every section of The Fells on the way back as well and didn't come home drooling and draped over my bars, spinning my granny gear on flat ground.

It was a good week for the riding of the mountain bicycles. Got out on Wednesday night as well. We'll be out there this Wednesday, 5:45PM, at The Shop.