West Hartford Reservoir - 8/17/08

[bvibert]

Great ride today despite by busted ass bike. Things were a little slow going in the beginning uphill section mostly because of severally over brush hanging over the trails and a bunch of sketchy muddiness. To make things more fun the plant life hanging over the trails was still very wet from morning dew, I guess that was sort of refreshing in spots though. I also started having my dreaded chain suck problems while in the middle ring before too long. I still suspect it's due to a bent big chain ring, but we were unable to fix it so I was stuck using the small ring for the remainder of the ride. That didn't turn out to be too bad, though I did end up doing a lot of cross chaining which I generally avoid doing. Once on top of the ridge things shaped up nicely and we had a nice ride setting a fairly consistent pace with no more mechanical stops. We did session a couple of things shortly, but for the most part kept moving. I cleared or at least attempted several stunts that I didn't make or didn't even try last time through, including at the bottom of one of the fun downhills where there was a narrow bridge (more like several 2x8s laid across the rocks) across some water that was fairly long and had some turns on it. I made it across in one try which made my day. I'm not going to go into details about the exact route as it's pretty much the same one we did last time, and Greg will have the GPS track at some point. We did have to double back at one point due to severe flooding across the trail, but that was only a short detour and I think the trail we ended up on was pretty cool too.

Towards the end of the ride we ended up having a few BS sessions, we discussed the upcoming ski season, past and future MTB rides, and the meaning of life. We also did a bit more sessioning on some stunts including climbing up the little roller on the last part of the trail before it joins the paved path.

Unfortunately at some point I managed to tweak my rear wheel pretty good. I think it was when I attempted to bunny hop a small log and ended up landing my rear wheel right on it, thought it could have been from popping of the little mound at the end of the aforementioned roller. I didn't notice until Greg commented on it's wobbliness on the way back to the cars. It's bad enough to not turn freely past the brakes. In my attempt to see if it was fixable back at home I ended up breaking two nipples so now I'm going to be down until I can get to the bike shop and get some parts and advice. I definitely see a new, beefier wheel set in my future though.

[MR. evil]

Sorry you couldn't fix that wheel.....bummer. I will try to find where I saw those Rhino Lite wheels on sale.

It was fun riding with Brian and Greg today. At one point or another we all cleared a new obstical or 2 which was cool. In addition to clearing that sketchy bridge (2x8's) Brian mentioned, I was happiest riding down a gnarly rock face for the first time.....It was about 3 to 4 feet high and almost straight down. The first 2 times I tried I put my right foot down at the bottom for no reason exept I was scared. On the 3rd try I nailed it Overall I though we kept a pretty good pace even with the mechnical issues and sessioning. Fun ride!

By the time I got home all that mud was so caked on I though I was going to have to use a brillo pad in the shower to wash it off

[MR. evil]

This is a pretty good price...XT hubs too

http://wheelworld.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=1388


I am not sure if they will work with rim brakes

[bvibert]

Thanks Tim! I actually had already found those on that site through the MTBR Clydesdale forum.

I also found a set on Pricepoint that have LX hubs for $104.98, but they're not disc compatible hubs. That's not a big deal to me now, but if they last and I want to use them on a future bike it might be.

[MR. evil]

Originally Posted by bvibert

I also found a set on Pricepoint that have LX hubs for $104.98, but they're not disc compatible hubs. That's not a big deal to me now, but if they last and I want to use them on a future bike it might be.

I knew I saw them somewhere for around a $100 bucks with LX hubs. I just couldn't remember.

[bvibert]

$100 for a pair of wheels sounds like a pretty good deal to me, then again for an extra $50 it may be worth if for the XT hubs and the ability to upgrade to disc or use them on a future disc bike...

[MR. evil]

Originally Posted by bvibert

$100 for a pair of wheels sounds like a pretty good deal to me, then again for an extra $50 it may be worth if for the XT hubs and the ability to upgrade to disc or use them on a future disc bike...

I would probably spring the extra $50 for the XT hubs. I read somewhere in MTBT that most of the on-sale wheels with XT hubs at super low prices all have much older XT hubs. They are still good, just not as good as the current year.

[Greg]

Fun ride. I was really hating the first few miles, but once we got to the top of the ridge, all was right with the world. I cleared a lot more things than I did last time including climbing that rock face right before the small ~30" or so drop we sessioned last time. I also took that drop several times, all but one landing on both wheels evenly. I did the sketchy bridge talked about above despite having to grab a tree for balance at one point. I cleared that big log I skipped last time as well as that huge downed tree with all those logs leading up to it. I think I'm getting the bike dialed it and I was loving it today.

Great pace once we got to the ridge. We did 9.3 miles in less than 3 hours. Here's the Crankfire map:

http://www.crankfire.com/map/index.php?tid=2&t=454&w=0

So...nice change of pace from Nassahegan. Thanks guys for the great company and willingness to bump to start time back to 7:00 am.

[MR. evil]

Originally Posted by Greg

I did the sketchy bridge talked about above despite having to grab a tree for balance at one point.

I was right behind Greg on that bridge when he stopped and grabed the tree. Somehow I managed to stop on the bridge, track stand (balance not putting my feet down) and continued when Greg got moving.

[MR. evil]

Originally Posted by Greg

. Thanks guys for the great company and willingness to bump to start time back to 7:00 am.

I prefer early rides. Nice and cool out and I got home before noon. Managed to get alot done in the yard today.