Weekend rides

I got a text from SSK asking if Dawn and I were riding on Saturday, we settled on Crandalls. I put the word out on Facebook and emails, this has some variable returns, this time it worked out pretty well and we ended up with seven riders. I rarely do truly social rides, but this was one, we rode at a mellow pace, we stopped, we talked, we sessioned some stuff and generally had a good time.

I gotta say it was pretty cool riding through the woods on those twisty trails and seeing six other riders making their way. The train twisted and folded back on itself a few times - very cool to see.

I showed GI a new roller we cleaned off - I rolled up to it a few times on my Fatty, but I just couldn't roll off it, I haven't been back on my RIP to see if that makes it any easier looking. GI rolled up and over without really thinking about it. Such confidence, of course he made it look easy. 

 

I don't know if seeing him roll it like that made me feel better or worse, I'll only know for sure once I get out there on the RIP and see if I can do it. 

We played on the logs a bit, this was a challenge to get all four of us on the log at once: 

 

And then it was Sunday, the call was for Bear Den North - a place I rarely ride, but is really good riding, on mostly unridden singletrack. The weather guys were saying it was going to be cold, but I've ridden cold before - no big deal. What I didn't count on was how big an impact the wind would have on me. It was 18 degrees with 20-25MPH winds when we started, I don't think it got much above 20 for the entire ride. It was so cold. 

As is usual on rides like this we came up to an intersection and the ride leader said "long way or short way", in 25 years of riding I probably have opted for the short way three or four times, today was one of those days. I could see the relief in everyone's eyes as I made my opinion known. Sometimes that testosterone plays tricks on your mind, who's the toughest guy in the woods? I am! Not today, I am not the toughest guy in the woods, I want OUT now! We got out (obviously). That ride took a lot out of me though, I was really tired the rest of the day, which is highly unusual considering we only rode 9 miles or something. 

The cold also took out my Reverb post, or so I thought. I warmed it up and its holding air now, I guess I'll go to a rigid post for colder rides like that. I rode through last winter with it and didn't have any problems, but I probably didn't ride in weather as cold as that.   

Lucid dreaming

For whatever reason I've been interested in metaphysical subjects for long time - I remember taking a book out of the library in 5th grade about ESP. This interest is pretty variable, including the afterlife, the occult, alien life forms, UFOs and many other topics like that. I consider myself pretty pragmatic, so this interest is kind of counter to my standard mode of thinking. I guess I would classify it as curiosity and despite looking into these things for many years, I can't say I've ever witnessed or even read anything conclusive about ANYTHING metaphysical. With the lack of evidence, its hard to come to any conclusion other than that there isn't much here beyond the physical.

All that said, in college I read an article, then a book about lucid dreaming, which I guess you can consider a metaphysical thing. The basic idea of lucid dreaming is that you can become conscious that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. Essentially you become "awake" within your dream. Once you are awake and aware, you can control what is going on and do really whatever you want, the physical laws we live by in the real world don't apply. I probably become lucid in dreams a few times a month. Its a cool thing to do and you figure when you're sleeping, you're really not doing anything else anyway. One of my favorite things to do when I'm lucid is fly, once you master that its a pretty good incentive to try it again. Although a lot of times when you become lucid, you get so excited you wake yourself up, which can be frustrating.

The other interesting thing that can happen with lucid dreaming is fake awakening. As I said above often times in a lucid dream you wake yourself up, sometimes when this happens your "awakening" happens inside the dream. So you think you woke up, when in fact you are still in the dream. I'm telling you some weird stuff can happen when you think you're awake, but the dream is still going.

I won't go into the details of any my specific dreams I know other people's dreams are usually not very interesting to hear about.

More fatty love

Dawn and I went for a ride yesterday. I just got some new tires for the fatty, so I had little choice but to take that bike.

I did not know this before buying a fat bike, but there's this phenomenon called "self-steer" with fat bikes. On hard surfaces, where the tires get the most traction, the bike seems to have a mind of its own on where to go and it seems like you're fighting the handlebars to keep going straight. Since I don't really ride much on hard surfaces it really shouldn't be an issue for me, but it also shows up when you're riding rocks, of which there are many around here.

I've seen a few explanations for what causes it, I really don't know for sure what the real answer is, but the fatty with the original Vee Mission tires on it was almost dangerous when you came up on an off camber rock. The wheel would turn into the rock as you rolled up on it. I guess once you get used to it you can prepare yourself for what's going to happen.

I got myself a pair of On One Floater tires. These are the tires that were on the Pugsley I borrowed from MojoK. I noticed self-steer on that bike, but I only had a few rides on it and it was the first fat bike I had ridden, so I wasn't sure how they really compared to my current tires.

First ride on the new tires was fantastic, huge improvement over the Missions. Yes there is still a little self-steer, but nothing like the old tires. Traction on the dry leaves yesterday was pretty darn good. If you think wet leaves are slippery, you should try bone dry oak leaves, its almost like ice. So great ride and the weather was fantastic.

These next two shots are of a little roller we cleared out. It looks pretty lame in these pictures, but it took a bit of thinking to get my head around rolling off it. There was another roller we cleared out, I can see that its doable, but I just couldn't get the roll going. Maybe it will look better on my RIP9, but I doubt it. 

Off to Switzerland for a 3 day trip, right after I get a ride in this morning. 

More random thoughts

I usually have some theme or particular topic to write about, today's blog entry is a mishmash of stuff that's happening.

On the music front Anger Buddy finished recording the tracks for Moron, its a song that I wrote with Version Larry many years ago. I don't remember the exact genesis of this song, but I'm pretty sure it was a collaborative effort among the Version Larry. This is the first time we're using John's electronic drum set instead of recording his acoustic set live. Its a bit of a disjointed process starting with us recording live, then John taking that home and recording his drum parts over again (essentially starting over) then the rest of us playing our parts over his. I was concerned that we would lose that "live" sound, but so far I am very happy with it. Drums are absolutely the hardest instrument to record, there is a lot of overlap in the mics, there are phasing issues, just all kinds of headaches to deal with. We should have the mix done and have the song published on Soundcloud soon.

I had big plans to make a guitar/bass combo instrument and its getting around to build time, being that the weather and darkness have come upon us. I am having second thoughts about it, I just don't think I'd use the instrument that much and learning how to play it will take me a long time. I don't mean to be lazy, but trying to be realistic about whether its worth my time making an instrument that I probably won't play. Right now I'm considering making a five string fretted bass instead. The first bass I made was a five string fretted, but the electronics in it are really bad and honestly, it being the first one I built, the craftsmanship is not all that great. We'll see, there's no final decision yet.

I went riding this weekend with Al Tinti and his group. Al is an older guy who still rocks it on the mountain bike. Its so inspirational to ride with him and his older(!) brother. I hope I can remain as active as these guys are as I age. We did a great ride with the high point (literally) being a climb up Peaked Mountain in Monson, MA. The view from up top is incredible, I see on the topo its about 1200', which is about the highest point around here. That's Al's brother Joe in the middle.

I ordered new tires for my fatty, they should be here in a week or so. The tires that came with my bike will serve as back up tires, I had two concerns with them. First the knobs are not very big on this tire, I suspect they wouldn't be very good in snow. Second (and probably more importantly) they have pretty severe "self-steer" tendencies. There's this weird thing with fat bikes where when you are riding on pavement or even large rocks the contact patch is so large that the bike feels like its steering itself. This can be especially unsettling when you roll off an off camber rock, the handlebars pull against the way you want to steer. Its not a huge thing, but I think these On One Floaters will be better in both respects. I love the bike and have taken it out a few times, including a cranker yesterday with the Sunday group. 

That's all for now. Hopefully some new pictures soon. 

A little fatty foto

I did another excellent ride this morning on the RIP9, but I had some free time and a jones to get a ride in on the fatty, so after doing leaves I headed out to Crandalls. I decided this would be a photo shoot kinda ride.

Lots of rock crawling today:

And of course log rides:

And just some regular riding:

Playing with a little color:

First ride on the Fatty

I went on a nice ride on the Fatty today. It rained a bit this last night and this morning and it was very windy, that meant a ton of slippery wet leaves all over the place. Despite that it was a good time and a good test ride for the new bike. I have a little tweaking to do, but I'm about 90% there with the fit. I started with about 9.5PSI in the tires and kept letting air out until they felt good, I hit the rim once on a sharp rock, but I think I'm at a good spot. I'll check it with a gauge and keep that as a reference point.

I'm really happy with the bike, its a ton of fun and I'm sure I'll use it more than I would use my Kona Big Unit.

A couple of pictures:
On the log ride (again):

And on a little roller, normally I would say "steeper than it looks", but its really not that steep - its about right in the picture.