Tandeming to Heaven

After selling two bikes this morning and then running around in the midday heat doing errands by 4:30 it had just cooled off enough that was perfect for riding. I think I am part lizard because I like riding in the heat.  Anyway, I asked Katie, my daughter, if she wanted to check out the new Ice Cream Shop down in Sandy Hook called Heaven.  Of course she said yes and off we went.

Been awhile since we have ridden the tandem together.

She got the Mint Chocolate Chip

On the way home, it was all climbing

Sold: Soul Cycles Dillinger 29er Mountain Bike

Parts List

Soul Cycles Dillinger 29er Large Frame with Eccentric Bottom Bracket

can also be set up as a single speed

FSA Mega Exo Cranks with 32t Chain Ring and Bash Guard

SRAM X-5 shifter, X-9 Rear Derailleur,SRAM Cassette

Rock Shock Reba 100mm 29er Fork with lockout

Avid BB7 disc brakes, 180mm front and 160mm rear

Avid Speed Dial Levers

FSA Flat Bar & Stem

Ergon GX3 grips

Velocity Blunt Wheelset

Serfas Krest 29er tires

Easton Carbon Fiber Seatpost

Selle San Marco saddle

S-1 Cane Creek headset

A few scratches hear and there.  There is a dent on the down tube (pictured below) but it doesn't compromise the structural integrity of the frame.  Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

Ridden mostly as a single speed for races during the previous year.  Went to gears this year and found it's even better to ride.  Was planning on selling it earlier this year as a single speed but before doing so, I decided to try gears and found out it's really fun.  Unfortunately, I am out of room in my garage and it has to go.

Single and Stoopid ... Fun!

Waldo is definitely an SSer's treat.  Took a nice rip today at Waldo
No doubt about it, single speeding is still fun

Jury is still out on the geometry
But I am loving the swept back FUBars

The new bridge - I think it should have been placed somewhere else
It's way too close to the existing 8x8

Riding the bridge is stoopid easy now

Who is Rippin Ron?

Came across two guys and a gal, fully clothed, hanging out by the water
Didn't smell any wacky weed but that's not to say they might have been
doing something else

I think the kayaker prevented their intended perversions

Pequonnock River Valley Blues

A little compilation from Saturday's ride.

New Re-Route of the old Re-Route at P-Valley

Last year the Trumbull Trails coalition did a re-route on the Red Trail at Pequonnock River Valley that was approved by the state because of erosion problems on the trail, however, another user group didn't take to kindly to the work and dismantled almost all of the the trail improvements (illegally of course) which led to a big meeting in the Daniels Farm parking lot last fall for a meeting of the minds. This is the result of that meeting.

Prudence in the Pequonnock

I keep running into Prudence at Pequonnock River Valley so I finally intrdouced myself. She hikes here a lot with her dog Jake. Speaking of dogs, I was riding down the Blue Trail when this pitbull started following me and then tried to bite my hand. I turned around and rode back to where the dog's owner was and told her the dog almost bit me and she needed to put a leash on it.

I got out around 8:30 AM but in no time I was sweating profusely. There won't be a map for this ride becasue in Bastone I think my chain dropped and I must have hit my knee against the stop button on the Edge and didn't realize something was amiss until I was on the white trail so I lost a lot of good data. Still riding the Dillinger with gears was fun and I can't wait to do it again, that is in slightly cooler temperatures.

The Green Monster

This is so sad

29 and Single, again!

It's been almost a month since I last rode the diSSent, mainly because I have been having a lot of fun with my old, new bike (Geared 29er).  I even brought the bike on vacation last month with the intention to ride it at Rocky Neck SP but again, I was having too much fun on the Dillinger so the bike just sat.  It sat in my garage the week I was back while I rode the Dillinger all over the place on my home trails.  So, I took her out for a beat the heat, RbW (Ride before Work) at Upper Paugussett State Forest.

Besides not having gears the biggest difference in this bike and the Dillinger is the cockpit.  The Dillinger is business as usual, however, the bent top tube on the diSSent and the slack head tube, which makes my stem look really happy has me still dazed and confused on whether I like this geometry or not.  I suppose I should try flattening the stem or reversing it to see how that works.  

The Widow Maker on the Gussy finally came down and now there is a new one.  I am going to have to reroute around this, too.  This won't be too bad, more of an insta-rake production, and there are some nice rocks to huck and roll along the way, too!

The upper part of the trail is still blocked by the big oak tree that was felled by the Tornado that wasn't a Tornado and it seems people are now just cutting in front of it.  You can tell it's hikers because they follow the tree and then turn hard left.  I think I will put in a reroute there but arc it out a bit.  Time to pimp the Rogue Ho...e again.  Might try to do it on Sunday.  

29 and Geared at Wadsworth

Took the Dillinger to Wadsworth Tuesday for CT NEMBA's Chapter Meeting ride and had a great time.  One thing I noticed, though, is at 90 degrees and humid it's tough to breathe.  Al Tinti brought along his Monday Night Easy Does It crew because their ride got rained out the day before.  Everyone riding Tuesday evening was on a 29er!  Some fad.

Riding Neck'ed

Another Decapitation on the Trail

Horse Biscuits and Blood

You couldn't curb your horse?  Are you kidding me?

Went out for a little Ride before Work Wednesday morning at Upper Paugussett.  It has been awhile since I have been down the Gussy, in fact the last time is when I was on the trail doing to TM to open it back up after the Tornado that wasn't a Tornado ripped through the State Forest last month.  It was a great ride, especially on the Dillinger only I had one little mishap in which I climbed up the back side of the Blue Cross Roller with my front fork locked and hit the lip of the rock ledge causing the front wheel to shoot to the left and down I went, scraping my lower leg against the rock.  It's a nice, long gash but more of a deep scrape.  

The Dillinger rolled through everything the Gussy had to offer smoothly and I was amazed at how nice it is riding this trail with gears.  Unfortunately, the Gussy is still blocked before the wetspot.  DEP said they would take care of the big blow down but they haven't.  Looks like I will have to do the re-route afterall.

If it quacks like a duck is it still a duck?

Maybe it is but the new Daffy Duck trail at George C Waldo State Park is far from daffy! Headed over to Waldo Sunday morning to check out the new Daffy Duck Trail and the changes to the trail from the storm damage of a couple of weeks ago for the Tornado that wasn't. Before starting my ride I ran into a former co-worker of mine, Alison, who lives just up the road and was out walking her two, great big Samoyeds. These dogs were as big a polar bear cubs and stank like skunk because they chased one down and killed it.

If you read any of my earlier posts from the previous week you might notice that I haven't been riding my diSSent Single Speed because my friend Thom, who lives in Lyme, basically rebuilt my Soul Cycles Dillinger into a geared hard tail and I just can't get over how much fun it is to ride with gears again.  So now I am determined to ride everywhere I have ridden with my Singlespeeds over the past two years with the new bike to see what I have been missing.  The ride at Waldo was no exception because having gears let me zip up stuff that I would normally chug up only have one gear to pedal and power through the flat areas.

There was a new reroute along the part of the trail after my little up-and-over that I built so long, long ago because so many trees were down in this section made it impossible to clear. Too bad because this was a challenging section to ride.

So, you won't be hitting the up and over until something can be done to the downed trees.  Might be looking at a cool and challenging feature but that won't be until winter because it's too buggy to work in these woods right now.

This beech was opened enough to allow bikes, however, it appears that the upper part of this log isn't going anywhere along with part of a chain saw.

There was stench further down the trail that could only mean a dead animal.  Turns out there is a dead deer 5 feet off the trail.  You never see deer like this dead so deep in the woods so my guess is that it was poached but the poacher never caught up to it and here is where it died.  It would be cool when there are just bones to put it back together right off the trail.

The last blocked section is now open.

Now this is interesting, it looks like someone is getting ready to put in a new bridge.  Doubt there are any freeriders that would try to gap this.  I cleaned the thin bridge this morning.

Saturday Morning Eye Opener @ Rocky Neck

Map of today's ride (Blue) and last Sunday (Red)

My last hurrah on the Southeastern shore of Connecticut was an early morning ride with Thom, Steve, and Cory at Rocky Neck State Park.  Thom put it out on CTNEMBA.com forums that we were going to ride early on Saturday and both Cory and Steve, and one other guy who didn't show in the end, all said they would be riding with us.  Seeing that I had a 10 AM departure from the rental and with everyone having later plans for the holiday weekend, riding early was perfect.

From left to right:  Thom; Cory; Steve (r)

There was a mixed bag of equipment, from Thom's full suspension Voodoo Canzo 29er, Steve's full suspension Jamis 650b, Cory's silver hard tail Trek, and my Soul Cycles Dillinger hard tail 29er.  We did the standard stuff, the rollers from Balance Rock, Slick Rock Trail to the Cliff Side Trail.  These guys showed me how to ride the Little Nose Drop.  Then it was up to the Pavilion for admire the shore and then back to the cars.  Nice four mile jaunt.

Thom on the Little Nose Drop

Steve on the Little Nose Drop

3D Map of today's Ride (Blue) and Last Sunday (Red)

Thom and Steve

Cory

Left to right:  Steve; Cory, Me; Thom

The Bikes

Me and My Headset

I have been told that one of the most challenging places to ride in Southeastern Connecticut is Hartman Park in Lyme and it is indeed challenging!  Roots, rocks, and really nice singletrack for a town park where the trails were mostly laid out by walkers and not bikers.

Thom took me up to the highest point along the power lines to get the view.  From here you can see all the way to the Connecticut River, not the river itself but the ridge that runs along side of it.

Looking due West

Looking due East

Little cliff behind the rock I was standing on

Thom

Our bikes

Thom has been complaining about his sidewalls on the Conti Race and Mountain Kings and true to form he ripped a sidewall riding down from the power lines.

Since he was tubeless we got to see a bit of the gumming up material spew out but when I he though it was ready and put more air back in, he found another hole and that was it.  For the second time in which we have ridden together with him riding tubeless I have given him my sole tube.  I was a bit nervous doing so because I didn't have Serfas Krest 9ers on the Dillinger, rather the WTP Nanoraptors.  The Nano's are good, dry surface race tire but that's it.  The only reason I had them on was I thought I was going to sell the bike I figured I would get rid of these tires at the same time.

Later down the trail we rode some the bridges/boardwalks he built.  Thom builds the best boardwalks.  But on one particular crossing he stalled out and we for a little bath in the muck.  Wish I got that on video but I turned it off a while back because the trail was rooty and rocky that I figured I wouldn't be getting any good footage.

Just past this cave, pictured above, my headset started to massively creak.  We tried tightening it up but it didn't help.  After a second tightening we gave up and headed back to the car.  Turns out, everything on the headset was eff'ed, as well as the pinch bolts on the stem.  Thom did his magic and had it working again nicely by replacing the headset, add carbon fiber spacers, new bolts for the stem!  Wow, awesome job on the bike!  He is a wizard when it comes to bike repair.  Hate to say this but better than any LBS I have been to date!  He should really open his own shop!