Cleaning up for a beat down

Saturday I finally cleaned up the Ventana from PMBAR. The bike was destroyed, it needed new brake pads, cables, and bottom bracket. I had to rebuild the shock and the fork. I disassembled and lubed anything I could. The bright side is I finally tuned the fork to the performance level I had hoped for. I basically revalved the fork for a super clydesdale but I ran a lighter weight oil in the dampener. This gave me all the compression dampening I had wanted virtually eliminating brake dive while still having reasonable rebound and a plush initial stroke. The I9’s came back with new spokes. The look like they have the right spoke length now, I’ll give them a shot but I’m apprehensive these wheels will ever hold up.

Sunday was a trip to the Pinhoti trail system outside of Dalton Georgia. For those that mountainbikers that don’t know the Pinhoti yet you need to check it out. It is currently my favorite ride. It’s a shuttled 34 mile one way ride that is always a beat down. Over all, it’s more technical than most anything in Pisgah so much so it’s as much an upper body work out as a leg burner. Of the 34 miles only 3-4 are fireroad the rest is all singletrack. The climbs are tough and the descents are on a scale of fun all their own. We had a good group, Jeff, Thomas, Eric, Shawn, and myself. It was Eric’s first trip to the trail and Thomas and Shawn had only ridden the full trail at the race held in the winter, which rides the trail in the least desirable direction. Thomas had some drivetrain issues that had lingered since PMBAR so he had no granny ring and took quite a beating because of it. We all had a great time though.

Jeff waiting out shuttle georgia style:

Jeff crussing one of the tamest sections of the entire trail:

5 people and six flats that day:


Noah had a doctor’s visit this week and got his first immunizations. Tara has done a ton of research on immunizations and they sound almost as bad as the diseases they are supposed to protect us from. He weighed in just shy of 13 pounds at nine weeks. He started standing up this week, well maybe I should call it holding his weight up with his legs since he hast to be held to keep from falling over. He gets more expressive every day. Ill get some new Noah pictures up this weekend.

Wednesday Fixy ride with Jeff 1:30
Thursday 5/17 missed the bus :20
Friday 5/18 commute to work, 1:30
Saturday 5/19 ElCaptain restoration shake down ride, 1:30
Sunday 5/20 aforementioned Pinhoti ride, 6:00
Tuesday 5/22 was group road ride night we started out on a section of greenway and it just got weirder from there. 2:00

20 weeks into the year and I’m averaging 9 hours a week on the bike.