Ride with Mike

Ok so I know I'm out of shape, my Crank the Kanc time showed that. But last night was rather eye opening.

Michelin Mike and I headed out for a ride after work- me on the Mamasita and him on his Pugsly. Let's talk about the Pugsly first- damn that is a crazy looking bike. The wheels are so huge and the dish on the wheels is just nuts, that and the width of the BB is just crazy.

Rolling it makes a noise that sounds like a large truck rolling up on you, and in the woods it spooked me a couple times (of course there were only a couple times I was in front- but more on that in a minute). So we rolled out on the pavement and I'm looking at this beast of a bike and I was pretty comfortable with the idea of having to wait for him on a regular basis. Then of course we rolled onto the trail and I quickly starting falling behind- oh and then there was a bridge- so I walked.

Soon we were rolling along and I was getting pissed that I couldn't easily keep up. We then hit sticks and stones and he just started riding away. Of course he's just chatting away and I've got my heart in my throat and can't come close to speaking. I was trying to figure out why I was slow- so I kept looking down at my bike trying to see if something was rubbing, or if the brakes were engaged- or something- to no avail. Then I realized we were actually riding quite fast and it was just that he was hauling (at least in my view).

It was great to get out and hammer for a bit. We then rode the Pudding Pond trail and there are a number of new bridges- kudos to those who did the work. After that we rode the backside of Sticks and Stones and then jammed the traverse (the climb was the only place I actually was able to stay ahead of Mike- I think the 30 lbs difference in bike weight had something to do with that!)

After that we parted ways and I rode home, exploring the trails off of Stritch road and then the trails between Mudgett and Mill Street. In all almost two hours of riding after work combined with the 40 minutes in the morning- gotta love "commuting".

later,

DEA