School's mostly done for the time being (though I keep wondering why I have all of these meetings if school's done until summer semester) and I've started to settle into a more regular ride routine-something between 40 and 45 miles per day with one longer excursion per week and a couple of shorter recovery rides.
Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a long time; I rode on the dirt. It's been maybe 6 months since I went out to Dauset Trails and rode the Stumpjumper. I love this bike. It was my first bike that was truly a competition level machine. I hadn't intended to buy something that high end when I went in but Nate and my wife sort of convinced me that I didn't want to buy a bike I would spend a bunch of money having to upgrade later. They were so right. When Nate built the bike up in 2002 it was the lightest MTB they had built up to that point at Bike Tech and it really was the perfect MTB for me. It was light and stiff with a great front shcok at the time and it handles great for me. When I have the right tires on it, there's little I can't handle terrainwise as long as there's not too much mud. I've won a lot of races on the bike and a couple of championships.
Beyond that, it is just a really pretty bike to look at. The triangles are still there (which is getting harder and harder to see on MTBs) and the lines are really clean. The tube manipulation processes where just starting to make their way into the mass production bikes and the Stump has a bunch but it's all really subtle.
So why haven't I ridden it more? Time mostly. For me to get to the trail, I have to drive 35 minutes out and 35 minutes back. That's an hour I could put on a road bike since I can leave straight from home. Add to the time the fact that we are a one car family and the scheduling juggling that has to take place, it gets hard to get out to the trail. So with school done and a bit more free time there's a chance to get out. With unseasonably warm weather and higher winds from the tropical storm that's not really a tropical storm that's sitting off the coast, it seemed good to head out.
The bike was pretty good, though I found that I can probably use a little shock maintainance. Even with that and a serious deterioration of my skills I was still able to turn a couple of laps that were faster than I expected. I never felt like I was going all that fast and I felt like a baubbled a lot of things but I still turned a lap that I've generally ridden in 75 minutes in 79 so I guess it wasn't too bad. I'm not ready to race or anything, but I didn't leave the trial feeling like a dork or that I should sell the Stump so that's good.
I'm looking forward riding out there a little more often.
Thanks for reading.
