she has been...

christened. sunday was a great day for a ride. edmund and i headed out to the knob is wooster. the weather was overcast, but no worries on our part.

on our way down we saw someone else heading down. bikes on the back. going the same way. the thought pops in our head; is there a race today? we will find out. one of the bikes on the back was a single speed. nice. rigid fork. now that will be punishment.

not too many people there. edmund and i are the same. we take our time getting ready. no hurry.

we hit the trail. a hard mud welcomed us. some puddles. not too bad. as we enter the trail i can tell i'm in trouble. gearing way too high. but i thought i'd give it a try any way. edmund will not care. thirty two sixteen. too much. but i was quick on the flats.

down into the rock beds, and up and out over and down the planks. she handled great. quick and nimble. just the way i like my single speed. a lot to get used to with the hard tail. as the ride went on i got into the groove.

a short stop to shed some layers...


the monolith at rest (looks good). down hill ahead...



in the immortal words of mr. big ring..."never be afraid to bust out the walk." and that i did. to this point...



and then up some more...



we ran into some trouble after this. there is one section that is a tight switchback, where there is no good line to take. it's all rocks. you have the choice of going wide and hitting a lot of rocks. or going tight and hitting one big one. i do best trying to go wide. edmund took the latter. it becomes a fine balance of making the turn with enough momentum of going over the rock. well, that balance he didn't find. as he went down he bent his rotor. so we had a small mechanical moment. one rider went by, and asked if everything was o.k. other than having a spare rotor, we were fine. he also asked if we were racing that day. crap. the thought then came that we better get out of here before the race starts. worst case...we would get out during the race and then people would think that we were in first. after bending the rotor back into a rideable position...we were off.
this was my triumph of the day...



i beat edmund up the hill. he laughs at me saying "one out of ten." hey, a journey of a thousand steps begins with one.
the rest of the ride was great.

i love the monolith. she will see many more riding days.

"greed, hatred and delusion are unskillful. whatever the greedy, hating or deluded person does with body, speech or mind that is unskillful, also. whatever one overwhelmed by greed, hatred or delusion, with mind uncontrolled, does to another, unjustly causing him suffering through punishment, imprisonment, fine, abuse, banishment, or on the grounds that 'might is right'- all that is unskillful, too."

peace...