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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Seems I put myself on a bicycle as much as I can,


Been riding as much as I can, did a night ride with lights on trails that primarily serve as Snow Mobile trails, was lotz of fun. I have a very bright 900 lumen lighting system, I rounded a corner and surprised a mama, and her baby deer, they froze with my bright lights. 10 feet away, they just stared at me, I tried to slowly get my camera out and I spooked the baby and she jumped one way, and mama went to the other way hoping to draw me away from the most important thing in her life.



Rode through some serious hot spells a bit back, my legs were starting to feel like I had 20 lb weights attached to my ankles, exhausted, and full of lactic acid. Been riding allot, heat and humidity were taking its toll on me. So I took a day off the bike, hoping to drain the lactic acid  and soak up some energy. I took vacation day the next day, to explore all the flood damaged trails thinking I would be ready to ride all day. Woke up  and my legs still felt like they had 10 lb weights attached to them. But I had the day off, I didn't want to 'waste' it. Spent the day riding the back roads and trails that were damaged from last weeks 15 inches of rain, and severe flooding. Riding in and out of ruts, on closed roads, was a blast.


Been working on my FatBike. Put drop bars, STI shifters and brake levers, aero bars on her, and it is working great. I power better and ride more comfortably with this set up. Aero bars give my shoulder and hands a break if the path requires little maneuvering. The wide flair of the Salsa Woodchipper bars give control in the ruts. 
There is nothing like riding 4 inch tires through ruts, weeds, creeks, fields, sand,  and wash outs. The extra weight and big tires slowly grinds on you. Fattire riders know you ride with great zip at first, and as time goes on the extra weight and rolling resistance comes after you in the form of fatigue. But on the other side of this is the fact you are riding where no other bike could.

Worked 13 hours today proving our method of measuring cubic feet of air exhausted from a boiler stack was accurate and to satisfy the EPA and DNR strict requirements. Now that just seems crazy to me. Need a day on the bike, on a dirt trails, and I think I will just do that after I finish up testing tomorrow. :-)

OK gotz ta go, things to do yet and a body that want to crash.
Thanks for the visit.
Dave


4 comments:

Craig said...

Right on, a night ride sounds like a good idea. Gonna have to do a few of those soon.

Clive Chapman said...

Welcome back feller! Missed your write ups, glad to see your absence was bike related!

Cheers

Clive

Anonymous said...

Nice fatbike setup! Glad you're riding again without the leg weights;)
Marla

Harry Legge's Cycling Blog said...

Where else is there?