The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
Chris and I went on a quick ride up Dimple Hill. Our original goal was Mc Cullock but my bike’s issues made us have a late start. The front tire had gone flat the last time we had gone for a ride. Three attempts at patching the tube failed when the tube exploded as we were getting ready to reinstall the wheel. Luckily I had some old tubes in my old wheelset.
The whole ride was about 16 or 17 miles.
Yesterday I picked up my freshly updated mountain bike. I had been riding on the same original bike that I bought back in 2002. Needless to say, there were parts that needed replacing. I put a Marzocchi Bomber fork (10 Marzocchi 44 TST2 Air 140mm) on the front to replace a destroyed Sid Race fork. The wheelsets were changed out for XTR WTB Trail Lazerdisk rear and XT WTB Trail Lazerdisk front. New 2.3″ Continental Vertical (made in Germany!) tires. Juicy 3.5 disk brakes to replace the old vees that ate through the last set of rims. The upgrades weren’t substantial and the fork could actually be seen as a downgrade but the handling and performance of the bike was GREATLY improved.
Jordan and I went out for a short mountain bike ride up the back side of Dimple Hill on Lower and Upper Horse Trails. I was almost able to keep up with him on the descents. Still getting the feel of being able to go fast and take turns hard. One thing I did notice is that it’s more difficult to pedal the bike uphill. Must be the extra couple of pounds of weight and the larger mass at the outside of the rims.
The mountain bike ride was about 10 miles long. We turned around at the end of Horse Trail because Jordan had to be at work in a little while. The bomber run down the trails was great!
After I got home I decided to do a little road bike ride to try and keep the break-in process going for my new Felt 95. The weather looked ominous but I figured I could beat the rain. Just as I got to the base of Bald Hill the rain hit in full force. I raced back to my apartment just in front of the storm. The road bike ride was 5.5 miles and I did it in about 20ish minutes. Rain is a big motivator!
Today Brenton and I went out on a little mountain bike ride in Mac Forest. We rode from in town out Highland Drive, up Crescent Valley Road, and then up to the Jackson Creek parking area. From there, we took one of the 600 roads up and around to Upper Horse trail, onto another road, and up onto the 650 and the top of Dimple Hill. On the way back we bombed down Dan’s Trail and tied into the Timber Hill housing project to get back into town. In total the ride was around 16 miles of muddy fun.