A Knobbied Sunday 40

Gosh-darn-son-of-a-buck! Today was to be 40 miles on the road out at my Dad's house, and it WAS, but not how I planned. This morning I readied my bottles and installed my new Cateye computer on the Campeon. Then I pumped up the tires. Something caught my eye as I pumped the rear tire. Grrrrrrr! It's tire threads! Eph!

Yep, wore the Maxxis Re-Fuse down to the threads. I'm sure if I wouldn't have noticed the ride would have been just fine, but KNOWING that threads were showing on a tire pumped to 110 p.s.i., that may see speeds of 40+ mph would have me a little nervous through the ride, so I aborted the ride on the Campeon and grabbed the Mamasita which is sporting the fast rolling Maxxis Cross Marks.

To tell you the truth I really like riding the Mamasita on the road. I used to hate riding a 26" wheeled mountain bike on the road. I felt like I was on a toy bike and just felt slow and goofy. But on the Mamasita I feel very comfortable. Also since I run compact gearing on the Campeon with a 50/34 - 12/25 the 44/32/22 - 11/34 of the Mamasita'sXT crank allows me to come close to matching some similar gearing, so it's not too bad. It is slower, no doubt, my 40 mile loop took me 2:35 to complete on the Campeon it takes me about 2:20. But I felt great and really enjoyed riding it on the road. Plus Western PA roads are one step away from gravel anyway, so the added tire width and cush was nice.

I'm one that if I had to have one bike I could get away with a 29er hard tail for sure. Lock out the Reba, put on some fast rubber, and roll on. A lot of road riding via a mountain bike is mental with me. I need to get in the zone, and enjoy the ride knowing that I'm on the same sort of bike that I would race. I've NEVER raced a road bike on trails, but I have done mountain bike races where I've ridden on the road. So why not train on the bike you race?? This is at least what I tell myself of until I get some new rubber from Bikeman.com World HQ. All in all a good ride. Thanks for bailing me out Mamasita!

Rural Dive Bar #2...

This pic does not do this place justice. You need to see the busted out signs and garbage on the sides of the place to really get a feel for it. I hope this one isn't like the last one I posted. Can you believe I found out that a fellow enduro freak's uncle owns the Mark I?? Speedgoat Bill assures me that I would be safe wearing Lycra inside the Mark I as long as I mentioned I know him! HA! He also said that the place used to be a school house years ago and is pretty cool inside. I STILL can't imagine me fitting in all that well, but I'll take Bill's word. Now the place above advertises all sorts of food specials. I have to say that I don't care how good the food could be I will never eat there. By the way if you see a smudge on the above photo, it's Power Gel. Nice eh?

I'm feeling good about another double digit training week. I need to look and see if I should chill this week or next as I prep for the Champion Challenge which is about 5 weeks away. Hope you all had a great weekend. I look forward to reading some Wilderness 101 reports this week. Now it's time to make a salad, grill some burgers and have some sub par Hefe Weizen.

Later.