Back At It With More Man/Bike Love

Pushed on for a 3rd day of riding today. Hit Boyce after work with Mamasita for a 14.5 mile loop and some some dry twisty trails. Big thanks to the trail gnomes that cut back some of brush on the trails. Much appreciated. Put in a nice consistent effort and the legs felt good even after two days in a row of road riding.

I've been putting some nice mileage on the Mamasita in the last 3 weeks, and every ride I come away more impressed. So far the ONLY issue I can find with the frame is that using a 24 oz. water bottle on the seat tube cage can be snug and a tad awkward to access at speed.

Mamasita's sweet carbon ass area. Never thought I could think a flat ass was sexy.

My positioning on the frame feels so damn good. The longer top tube gives me a nice stretched out racy feel and the bike just handles super quick through the tighter single track trails that many of my local trails offer. Really has a great feel through corners. I feel really "connected" to the trail.

I do occasional notice the absence of the Dos Niner's Relish shock when I start to tire, get lazy and fail to let the boyz and bunz hover above the seat hard tail style. On certain climbs I think the one inch of travel that the Relish offers adds a bit of traction too, but the Mamasita is lighter and more "flickable" to maneuver, so it all sort of works out.

The only other issue I have with the bike is purely component oriented. As I've mentioned before the Kool Stop brake pads I'm using SSSSSSUCK. Long and hard. Gritty, grabby, howl like a cat in heat, type of sucking. I guess you get what you pay for. The pads retail for only about $15 and they're worth about $5.00.

OK, OK, enough bike love. Sorry. Once I get going it's hard to stop. I'll leave you with my fave pict from the Tour so far...

Classic. I've always wondered if after the race the riders mention some of the freaks they've seen through the day. I know they're concentrating, but damn, how do you ignore a freak like that??

Time to take a day off from riding tomorrow.

Later.