There is no "I" in the "r" word (not a capital I anyways)

Saturday, wake up to (predicted) rain.  Go about my (predicted morning).

Ikon 2.35 comes off, Ardent 2.4 back on.  It is the PISGAH Mountain Bike Adventure Race, after all.  Also make great Fendür™ because preparing for "r" word is the best way to keep "r" word away.

Look outside.  Still raining.  I have a largely family-free day ahead.  No need to go out just yet.  Kill time, but wisely.

Continue to monitor precipitation, sticking my head outside the back door every fifteen minutes or so.  The rain stops, I grab the tarck bike and make a run for it.  Local loop, Booty Loop, stop at Bike Source for water...

photo cred: Jon Danger

Back out, down the Light Rail Trail and back, the rain starts coming down before I get to The Spoke Easy.  One beer... still raining, two beers... still raining.  Window closing, head home.

Breaking Rule #7 but realize that in doing so I'm Rule #5'ing and Rule #9'ing.  People have pointed these rules out to me many times in the past, and I see people refer to them so often that I think at some point I'm gonna have to do a series of posts about all these rules.  I've never read through them all, either because I lose interest after the "no sleeveless/no cycling caps" early on, or I just don't have the attention span to read 90+ "rules."

Sunday, so many possible plans become the one and only plan.   URE (pronounced Uwharrie) with Jon Danger... because that's where Charlotte goes when Charlotte is closed.  On the drive over, we talk of many things... pumps being one of them.  I tell Jon about the pump I keep in the car for people who like to wait until they get to the trail to air up their tires as opposed to doing it before they leave the house.

Jon is silent.

We get there, he gets out of the car, he pumps up his 3.0 tire with a mini-pump, so as not to become one of those guys who has to borrow my full-size pump.

I ride my Vertigo Meatplow V.7 in full PMBAR regalia .  I hate it.  I despise all the things that were not necessary to make great bike ride.

Toobs for days.

Such a beautiful bike to be burdened with such silliness.  The additional weight is minimal, but its negative impact on my mental is maximal.

The Fendür™ worked, and when I sell the fjork, I will keep the Fendür™ for the other bike... if only so I can refer to that bike from that day on as FUCKING BIKE.

I complain about the Brain fjork until I remember I like a little Brain and with the slight turn of a knob my ride sucks 3X less than it did before the knob fiddling.  Jon's Krampus is making a noise that is disconcerting a week out from his second PMBAR.

Being a bike mechanic, he stopped and shook his bike violently while chanting incantations trying to cast out the demons.

That failing, we stopped again and then he tried some mechanic type stuff.

More riding, all the trails, most of the directions.  A moment alone, I attempted more half-assed timer selfies... because I didn't learn the first time how pointless they truly are.

Four attempts to get that, which seemed pointless until I woke up this morning to see that Paw fixed it for me.

Amazing what you can do with a little lighting adjustment.

Four days till PMBAR.