Wheelie Thankful

Thanks to a generous benefactor, I am now signed up for the Ryan Leech 30 Day Wheelie Challenge.


If you can remember back to last year, I had planned on (semi-)mastering the art of the wheelie some time ago.  My plan was derailed by multiple injuries and setbacks that kept me from practicing at the risk of slowing down the healing process.  Sucks because I bought flat pedals and everything.

Since then, I've sold the Saint flats because I realized I was never going to bother swapping pedals back and forth for practice and actual woods riding.  Also, these became a thing:

Unfortunately, as it seems is always the case, a Kickstarter thing didn't work out as planned, and theoretical ship dates for the Fly Pedals V2  have been pushed back... a month?  Maybe more?

Guess it doesn't really matter, because this is also currently a "thing."

I decided that the 150mm Pike fjork on the Stickel was just too long for... about anything I'm doing.  I'm having Jon Danger at Bike Source swap out the air shaft for a 120mm travel unit.  I know this is probably something I could do myself, but why bother?   I don't want to spend all that time learning and stuff.  Not to mention, the fjork has to be due for a rebuild at this point, so there's even more learning that would need to be done.  I can't remember the last time I had a fjork long enough to actually need a rebuild, so this is not a skill I want clogging some lobe in my brain just to be lost by the next time I might need it.

Once fully assembled, I will begin my "training."  I've already glanced over the first few lessons, which were oddly enough introductory and somewhat a waste of time.  "Somewhat," meaning that I just skimmed it looking for pertinent information until I saw this:

Which made me wonder if maybe I missed something, but I guess I'll know when I land on my head.  I'll try to be more absorbent from here on out.

I should have all the tools I need for success this time.  Gears will allow me to select something a little easier than a 32X20 for the sake of progress.  Short stem, short chain stays, and flat pedals to reduce the danger of "oh shit" moments.  All these things and perhaps something called "commitment."

All in order to learn a totally useless skill and perhaps the only actual learning that I'll have done in the past decade, because...

I realize how contradictory I'm being in saying "I don't wanna learn anything" and "I wanna learn something" all in the same blog post.  I'm also aware of the fact that I'm going to spend a lot of time learning something useless, time that could be used to educate myself to the point where I can rebuild my own fork whenever I want to...

but my neighbors won't be as impressed watching me reassemble a suspension fjork in my front yard as they will be when they see me pulling sweet wheelies down the street.

And I live to impress my neighbors.

Of course, the timing if perfect.  Yesterday, it was almost dark by the time I rode home.  That's not gonna get better any time soon, which means my "30 Day Wheelie Challenge" will be on weekends only.  Two days to progress.  Five to forget 90% of what I learned.

Success is pretty much guaranteed.