chubbin'

so finally, after many months of bike swappin' like some men swap wives, i've come upon the duo that will take me forward. the aging 2000 homegrown can no longer serve as the hardtail race bike, so it's been replaced by the caffeine. it's a 2x9 bike, with sram and a headshock. curiously, the ultimate race bike, the scalpel 1, is actually lighter. it's a carbon model, complete with lefty and si carbon cranks and xtr this and that. although not identical, the ride between the two is close enough, fit wise, so as to be pretty seamless. i don't think they can reach the marty weaver/dave breslin levels of bling, but they should serve me well. a side note: the hardtail will serve as the beautiful mrs k's bike as well, since it slopes so much and our reach is not incredibly different.

on to the story....

after my long day in the road saddle yesterday (60 miles), today HAD to be an off road ride. after an initially sunny morning turned dark and gray, i hurried out to chubb to beat the rain. ahhh, chubb. it's so beautifully technical, so wonderfully rough. the scalpel eats that stuff for lunch, too. i was having a banner day in the technical stuff. i say that, although i astutely chose to walk down the steps as usual. and who else should witness that act but the venerable john twist and wild man kyle bova? it seems they were stopped there yakking it up with a friend. i made them promise not to tell anyone that i walk down the steps, but i didn't trust them to keep my secret so i'm telling you now. i followed the twister down the rest of the way to the bottom, where he pinch flatted. ug. at least the weather was nice for flat fixing. i bid the boys good bye and headed back up. my technical climbing was even good. save for some get-offs to let hikers pass, i pretty much cleaned the switchbacks. i ran into the twister/bova crew again going up flint quarry, as john was fixing another flat. i hate those double flat days!!!

i got to the car and loaded up just in time for a bit of rain. i'm very glad i got out when i did, lord only knows when the next dry trail day will come.