Nothing but Bike Hickeys

You waitin' on me?

Every morning should start off with a mountain bike ride. I often dream about living and working in Grand Rivers KY or Monteagle TN. Somewhere where I can ride epic trails from home, before and after work without a long car ride. It'd be ideal to have a 32 mile singletrack ride as your work commute, wouldn't it? Too bad jobs in such locales are hard to come by, course McMansionvilles and busy unsafe streets would impose on the open lands.

A short break along Lake Sleestak, blue sky reflecting.

Though not quite 32 miles or an IMBA epic, I'm pretty content with the Monkey Pit. A couple weeks back when I started riding it in the mornings I was getting 6 laps in about 45 minutes. This morning I was able to rail 6 in 35 minutes. It was such a good workout even the Monkey returned to the barn with his tongue hanging out. Normally it seems to just wind him up more, but today I had him working to keep up on the downs and to keep from getting rolled over on the flats. Monkey Creek offers him a chance to hydrate each lap and the newer trail sections are starting to burn in nicely from our rides and several new runs have been marked for clearing. I cut a new ending to one downhill to add in a nice rock drop at the bottom and re-routed a sharp left hand turn to allow a better line up the mossy rocks into the cedars. The playground is coming along nicely.


Working on the MLM plan, I found the limit to the WWLT on one of the swoopy downhill turns in the damp leaf covered loam this morning. I let a psshhhhh psssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh of air out of it and never had an issue afterward (well there was an issue with way too much speed and a small sapling, but that arm scratch has kept me smiling all day, it's like a bike hickey). I'm still probably running ~30ish psi in it despite letting air out each ride, but it feels plenty soft while riding yet still keeps the sidewall from squirming, even on rather narrow rims. A real test for the tire will come this weekend. I can't wait.