Finally "Black" in Business

Finally "Black" in Business

With bad weather clearly visible on the radar, and humidity buildup clouds forming, Gordo and I held out in the hopes that our erstwhile ride partner C-Rock might be able to join after a 2 hr postponement. Last cell-phone check from the van — maybe we'd ride from Haypath up the Greenbelt to Jericho from C-Rock's place, or meet at Stillwell. No dice, Corey, unfortunately, was stuck for the duration. The bikes fit in nicely in the back of the van -- room for three across, if needed, or two adult bikes and two small kids bikes, same as before. NOW WHAT? So, the question was, how much would we bite off this time. How much of the black. Gordo answered that question at every turn he wanted the go in the black direction. With this the hottest day we'd ridden since August, it was a sweatfest. HARDTAIL I was kind of interested to ride Robby's Hardtail today, though I never guessed I'd miss my own ride as much as I did. (In the shop being fixed.) You feel most every bump much more so than with the rear shock. For guys with well-sed backs, that's a big deal. Also, when you ride someone else's bike, you underestimate how much you are used to the rebound of the shock, the grip of the tires in the sandy gravel, and most importantly the modulation of the brakes. Super-sensitive, grip these a fraction too hard and you are locking up - dangerous on tight fast ledge-drop gravelly hairpins - or going over the handlebars. They need some work. I was also not liking the grip of the stock Nokian NBT 2.0's. We ended up climbing down a couple of small cliff-ledge, like drops that I swear we rode the other week — or did we? One I know we climbed up, while going the wrong way the night we got lost. That was pretty obvious, it was clearly unrideable in the "up" direction, by anyone other than spidergoat. But at least the gears worked, so no excuses there. In fact the 8-speed setup worked very reliably, including on climbs under a little pressure. Talk about coincidences; today on the trail we stopped for a while near the train tracks to say hi to Rosario M. and his friend (a colleague from work out doing some hardcore hiking up from Jericho Tpk.) It really was the most unlikely place to meet, in the sense that they were emerging from the woods just where the bike trail met the hike trail. FULL MONTY We rode the entire loop today, pretty much soup to nuts, including the nasty yet amazing rooty switchback course by the railroad tracks. Have to admit at one point there, breathing at max capacity already and facing a hellacious long climb out, I said screw it and walked up the boring-looking straight gravel path. Next time! For some reason it seemed drier and more slippery in the gravel than ever before. Or maybe it was the lack of traction. Conti Vertical Pro 2.3 > Nokian NBT 2.0, there's no doubt. With so much unfamiliar territory we allowed ourselves to be knocked back down to a 4.7 moving average. Gordo though rode like a champ. His climbing pace is way ahead of mine — he wasn't out of breath for a moment. Whereas I was close to 90%.

NOPIX! Woulda Shoulda Coulda taken some good photos today — almost perfect weather, perfect lighting, but we were too intent on the course and getting through it, to remember to take the cellie out. Only time it came out was when I was on the verge of calling emergency services for a rider down. We heard them crash badly on a big drop on the trail behind us, and went back to check.

One of them was fine, the other was writhing in pain. They told us they would be OK, and as a new rider came round the drop, the injured bloke sprang to his feet and got to the side. We stayed with them until we were sure they were OK. Just goes to show you you can't be too careful with these courses. Neither was wearing a helmet — God knows what they were thinking. One nearly ended his life right then and there in the wilderness, a long way from any possible help, save a GPS coordinated medevac maybe.