Happy Memorial Day 2011

Daniel's Park looking west.

I happened upon this scene around 6am this morning riding out to do some intervals. I guess Mother Nature finds some sort of intrinsic joy in putting these works of art together regardless of who is around to see them. I was lucky enough to be there today bright and early.

Cannondale Lefty PBR Service and Needle Bearing Reset

Cannondale Lefty PBR carbon converted to 29er

I swapped out my stock Fox fork that came on my 2011 Superfly 100 Elite with a Cannondale Lefty PBR  earlier this year.  It is an amazing ride even when converted to a reduced travel (90mm) for my circus wheels.  I have thoroughly enjoyed riding the rough Colorado trails with this amazing headshock. It rides smooth even in very rough terrain - a huge improvement over the Fox forks I have been riding over the years.  As with all new love affairs, there can be some rough spots in the relationship.  Mine came a few weeks ago when my PBR started to make some noise at the top of travel.  I tried a few air pressure adjustments, made sure everything was tightened up good and had limited success fixing this issue.  I even solicited the opinion of a few people who race Cannondale bikes (Bryan and Alex) for some insight into what might be going on.  It turns out Leftys need a little TLC in the form of a needle bearing realignment on occasion.  Thankfully I was pointed to the equivalent of a how to for dummies on the process from Mountain Bike Action.  So I will pay it forward to everyone interested as it is pretty easy to do.

How To Service Cannondale's Lefty Fork

Return to Indian Creek

Made it out to one of my favorite places to ride this week. 

Daniel's Park

An iPhone shot of Daniel's Park near the golf course.  I take the kids up here often usually on Sunday Afternoons.  A fire scorched the area in June 2007. A few black trees are still visible. It's amazing to me how fast things get put back together.

Daniel's Park Panorama (click to enlarge).

Wet SS Reunion

Reunited and it feels so good. I've missed having my bike curse at me.

It's been a wet one here in Colorado for the better part of two weeks. After my plans to race STXC in Boulder yesterday fell through, due to rain, I had enough and decided to see how the local trails were holding up in the weather.  I put my Niner One9 back together early in the morning with the plan to race but it turned out to be a perfect tool for the weather.  The trails around Highlands Ranch continue to get better and yesterday they were tacky, fast,  and holding up well.

The plan to ride for 30-40 min turned into 1:45. I was just having too much fun. There is something about riding a SS for me that is liberating.  It might just be the simplicity of it all, or perhaps the tooling around "should I run a 32x19 or a 42x11?".  Whatever it is, I was drinking heartily riding around in the rain... on a 32x18.

So I took a Kerkovian-style (or Handian-style) photo of myself.

One more glamour shot of the reincarnated SS.