Tallboy feedback and scary Pflug stuff

First of all I thought I would mention this amazing interview with Gerry "The Pflug" Pflug I read last night.

What's so wonderful about this interview? Well it just so happens that the question asker (also known as "the interviewer") from Pittsburgh Racing asked Gerry the question we all want to ask him but we're afraid to even utter in his menacing presence:

Can you please state for the record that you in fact do not eat people?

To which Gerry replied (while wiping the drool from the corner of his human eating mouth):

"I will not confirm or deny this allegation."

Delving deeper into the mystery I read down to the comment section and saw this tidbit from Gary Bywaters, founder of the Month of Mud series (the only thing I miss about living in NE Ohio, well that and Blatz beer):

"I can not collaborate that Gerry eats people, but I have seen quite a few half eaten body parts strewn around many road, ATB and ‘cross courses . . . it makes one wonder, doesn’t it?"

Let's face it, there are too many coincidences to ignore here. Gerry "The Pflug" Pflug eats people.

"My Pfluglings and I will eat you first Pat Morita. Sorry Ralph, nobody here really likes you."

So anyways...

I rode the Tallboy Sunday morning, and it was good. What was so great about it? It just felt right from the start (other than smashing my pinkies into the trees what with having my knuckles 3/4" closer to the offending foliage). There was no getting used to it, and no adapting to the suspension when bunny hopping over logs or getting geek air over the many trail features at Sherman Branch. While I had a hell of a time getting the rear suspension on my Hell Ride Nomad to work for me the VPP of the Tallboy was easy schmeasy. 10PSI plus my diminutive body weight and a little playing with the rebound control and I wasn't even thinking about the rear suspension anymore.

Two wheel drifts were awesome, and even with two feet up it was predictable. I realize I have to give some credit to tire selection and a huge amount of rider skill, but the bike just railed. Maybe the handling has something to do with the short (for a full suspension frame) chainstay length. Dunno. I don't design frames. I just ride them and stuff. I aimed at every pile of rocks and every cluster of roots on the trail. This thing just soaked it all up AT SPEED and then some.

I am happy with my choice, and I'm looking forward to having an option when I grab a bike down off the wall (other than a road bike... bleeccchh). This is just what I needed to keep things fresh over the winter. I will no longer be living on bread alone. I've got cake now.

In an effort to preserve the happiness of my frame I bought some helicopter tape off eBay a few weeks ago since the local helicopter accessory store closed its doors when the recession hit.

I tried to be patient with the application (note the beer which is packed with empty carbs, bubbles, and patience), but I did get an air pocket or two under the tape.

I bought the matte tape, and I swear it's rather hard to see it unless you look really close. Supposedly this shit protects carbon fiber helicopter blades from impact, and since they fly around at like a billion RPM's perhaps it will do more than just hold tiny, annoying air pockets close to my frame.

I've also got one of these skidplates coming:

Some genius on MTBR realized that folks with a whole lotta linkages going on under the BB (re: Jet9, RIP9, Tallboy) might wanna protect that shit from careless riding over hunks of rocks. This does not mean that I doubt the strength of carbon fiber. I know you can hit it with a hammer and stuff, but that doesn't mean that I want to have a hammer fly up and directly hit my downtube if I go riding through one of Pisgah's many hammer gardens.

Tomorrow a little pre-Crank the Shield stuff...

Errmkay?