Snow Ride - WOW!

Riding through the snow,

on a rigid singlespeed,

can't get my feet clipped in,

frozen spd's

having lots of fun

whole world is so bright

Oh what fun it is to ride,

on a night ride with no lights!


Chorus



Oh...

Single speed, single speed,

Singling all the way,

got no shock

just 2.3s totake the bumps away - HEY!







Yeah the ride the other night was so good I had to sing! Good rides have been a bit on the thin side lately, and nightr riding a complete wash for several weeks. So last week given that Doug was a definate "in" it was going to take more than a poxy 3 - 4 inches of snow to stop me. After checking conditions all day, and for much of the day things were not looking good, with the less than one inch of accumulation forecast slowly crept up over the inch, then to two with no sign of abating! MLW was less than enthusiastic about the ride proceeding - something about "breaking my bloody neck" was part of the reason, but I must admit I wasn't really listening.







By 5:30 the final decsion was made - with much phone tag - and it was a go! Yip-bloody-pee! The roads heading to Patapsco were pretty treacherous and with the snow still coming down Doug and I were pretty confident we would have a cold and lonely ride, just the two of us being foolish enough to attempt riding. Oh how wrong could we have been!!





At the carpark are six (count them .... SIX!) other guys just about to hit the snowy trails. A quick chat and it is soon realized that we met (and indeed shared a camping spot) with these guys at 12 h of Lodi Farm (http://www.rotorsport2.com/lodifarm/) this year. Small world. We join forces to form a "massive" peleton of eight and hit the trails, most of us on SSers of some description. Less than 5 minutes into the ride and we grind to a halt as someone up front (I'm skirting the back of the group so I can judge the line in the snow) has fallen, the first of many. As we regroup the decision is made that lights are not needed. So...... off with the lights and for the first time ever I ride in the snow, at night and with no lights!!!!!





The snow (still falling) does such a great job of reflecting the moonlight that visibility is really exceptional and the fresh fallen snow whilst a bit greasy is not as slippery as I would have thought. No heroics tonight, just keeping things moving in a straight line, downhills are fun - just a matter of trying to stay in some kind of control, uphills are a waste of time (just get off and walk). Stream crossings are adrenaline fueled with the realization that a fall will relegate you to riding in wet gear in below freezing point temperatures. Several stream crossings are encountered and no victims to report! There are several victims on the downhills, "Yours Truly" included, but no injuries and everyone spends the whole ride wearing big goofy smiles - it's like being kids again. Spend a good deal of the ride spinning and talking to a guy called Jim who happens to be riding another Monocog 29er! This is only his second ride on the beast but he is aready in love! Both of us are suffering though with our pedals - both riding spd's and afyter the first 5 minutes neither f us can clip in as both pedals and cleats are frozen solid - HO HUM! makes control over logs interesting, but I am still amazed how much stuff was traversable.





After about 90 min (and one very close encounter with deer, who presumably didn't see us coming without lights) we head back to the cars, tired, happy and remarkably warm! Most fun I've had on a bike for a long while - a ride I will remember probably forever. Loved the ride and learned a couple of things - need to uopgrade my pedals (Time Attac or Crank Bros I think) and it's time to take the leap and progress to disc brakes. The latter is in hand as I bought myself some Avid BB7's as a birthday present (from MLW to me) and have them installed as I type (though not tested out yet).





My next ride will be a biggie - first with discs on the Monocog and first as a Master, as the birthday has taken me into my fifth decade and well and truly into middle age. Bring it on!





Dogzbollux

Be Careful What You Wish For!!

Back around the time I was starting blogging (i.e. just before the summer) I had been playing with the idea of trying to get an informal weekend ride going. With MLW FINALLY succumbing to the MTB bug and a few more friends converting from their sedentary ways I finally have a group ride that I can (after a fashion) call my own. Each weekend the names and numbers my change but the Sunday (sometimes Saturday) ride has become a Bollux-household tradition. So I'm happy right? Well yeah, most of the time! I have people to ride with, MLW has become a MTB zealot meaning I can spend more time/money on my bikes and riding has become an integral part of our family life. What else could a guy ask for!



But I'm a miserable ungrateful Bastard at heart, so of course there is always something I can moan about.



I kind of miss my lonely long solo rides that used to be a hard won part of my weekends. Before the birth of the "group ride" my Sunday morning ride was always a topic of some friction in the Bollux-home. To ensure I was back home before the children had driven MLW to the edge of homicidal mania (the object of which would have been me not the children) I had to hit the trails at absurd times in the morning. And to make sure I did not wake the children when I got up various hoops had to be jumped through - normally resulting in me sleeping downstairs on the couch, waking well before sunrise, getting dressed in my garage, washing/teeth brushing at the outside spigot and eating breakfast in the car at the trail head. None of which was particularly pleasant!



But....... When I finally hit the trails I was free! I could go as hard as I liked, take whatever trails my mojo took me on, and within reason go as far as my legs could carry me. Close to 20 miles was a regular ride! Yes it was lonely sometimes and I craved company sometimes, but mostly (once I was actually on the trail) I was golden.



Leading a ride adds company but it also adds constraints. Distance and speed are the first casualties with a group ride, being an inclusive rather than exclusive ride we always stick together and no-one gets left behind (we are the Marine Corp of group rides!) And the trail selection is limited by the "group-mentality". I find I spend most of my Friday evening planning various route combinations to keep things interesting/mix things up, but hopefully not kill anyone (no fatalities yet though we've had some pretty nasty falls)

And this Sunday morning I had the perfect storm in terms of "group-riding". One of the crew was dragging a friend along so needed to borrow a bike (yeah I've got a loner I can bring), and due to time constraints we had to be home at 10:30, so a launch time of 8am sharp was set. Result? Me sleeping on the soddin sofa again so I can drag my sorry arse up at 6am on Sunday morning, tiptoe around the house to avoid waking the sprogs. Then an hour outside (temperature in the 20's) changing pedals on MLW bike and the loner, lubing chains and loading 3 bikes on the Bollux-mobile. Feeling responsible for the "overall joy" of the group I also dig out all the long-finger gloves I can and fill extra water bottles so no one is cold/thirsty!

8 am we are at the trail ready to go when the cell rings and one of the crowd is late cos they have lost their pedals! How the b'jesus do you loose your pedals? (I keep mine at the end of my crank arms!). Result.... the planned route is abandoned and we do a short loop to hit Landing again after 15 min so we can attach the prodigal pedals to the aforesaid bike and as a whole group hit the trail again. Did a fun but short ride, and should be grateful that (i) I rode at all (ii) I actually have a group of friends that'll put up with me and (iii) I have MLW who is willing to discover for herself the joys of Mtbing. Yeah, but like I said "I'm a miserable basterd!"

Bah Humbug

DogzBollux