Burning calories and riding bikes

First off, if you are a local and want to travel to Pittsburgh this weekend for the Dirt Rag Punk Bike Enduro, get a hold of me so we can fantasize and plan and stuff.

And now we return to our regular scheduled program...

Four days off... what to do?

I'll hangdog onto other people's rides. That's what I'll do.

When a guy looks like this and his middle name is "Danger," you want to make sure you go attend his ride... or else.

It was announced as a pleasure pace ride, so I hopped on the fixed gear/cross tired Thylacine and decided to ride out to the trail to maximize caloric expenditure. Although it was chilly, I was glad I was on my bike at dawn and not here pushing up plastic daisies.

Oddly enough, the route to the trail was very similar to the route I started on when I tried (and failed) to ride to the beach on a Thanksgiving morning many years ago. So much nicer to not be riding in 20° temps at 4:00AM with 225 miles to go to my destination.

The group in the lot was not who I expected. Ilan and his crew were there for the ride, but when the expected party was not there on time, Bicycle Sport group headed out on the trail. I followed. That's the first time I've ridden mountain bikes with Ilan since the 90's... seriously.

I rode a little piece of trail, cut out early, got back to the lot, and waited for Zac et al to arrive. Once our group was assembled, the pleasure pace started.

Faster Mustache team meeting.

I only overcooked a corner and hit a tree once, and I did manage to clip a pedal multiple times without killing myself. Not too shabby for not having ridden the fixed gear off-road in a long time. Zac managed to hang quite well with his self-made urban cross death machine as well.

Celebrations back in the lot.

Kurt decided to join the Shirtless Club for Men.

And then I was left with the lonely ride home.

I forgot that it can be a bit taxing on the hamstrings riding brakeless off-road. I was sore as shit that night. At least I felt as if I earned the right to tax my gastrointestinal system later.

F me? FU 2.

The next day, I was in for a "grand tour" over at Poston. Too far to ride to from my house, I drove over and met up with some other folks I don't get to ride with very often.

And then we rode...

well, at least some of us rode.

We saw the sites, stopped and BS'ed,

photo cred: Tiles

rode to and fro, and stopped more to BS.

There's some climbing out at Poston, and leaving my 32X18 gear on my bike was probably not a smart idea. My hammy was screaming, but I had fun nevertheless. Once again, a beautiful day to be out on a bike amongst friends. These guys built these trails, and it's easy to see the source of their pride.

I also got to see the 1,000 lumen, $80, self contained, and lightweight Shart Lite™ (SL2K) back in the parking lot.

The NO GAS logo is not going to be an optional finish on the Shart Lite™. Here's what it looks like on the bars and when you know how to take a decent photo.

photo cred: Tiles

Two awesome days of Fall riding, and I ended up on the trail with fifteen different people.

Weird. Happy holiday indeed.

Would I get to pull the trifecta? Three rides in three days?

More tomorrow.