Well, I was on a roll...

Life was going on very much same same as before, ever since the boomie booms fell.  Work at my job (very little), work on trails (slightly more), ride bikes (a lot).

Wednesday was a big sunshine-filled productive window.

(re)Build this shitty jump, cover it up so nobody rides it until it has time to harden up...

 Build this shitty jump to an even shitttier hip transfer...

Head back to the house, working hooman meal...

Head out for a quick solo ride to check out the work I done just did and also get in some bonus miles before a social distance ride with dem boys.  Of course, run into Andy and Adam and Leaf and Courtney and less riding gets done did than expected.  Rolled up to jump #1 to discover that someone had taken the initiative to uncover it and also ride it. 

Dammit.

I send it, it does what it's supposed to do now, and then I covered it back up with the same sticks and sundrious shit as before.

Head around... hit jump #2.  As the great reviewer of all things Watts would say, "It was fine.  Just fine."  For a shit trail in garbage woods, that would be high praise.

Back to the house, meat up with dem boys, head back out into the same woods.   Less than two miles in, and I try to get shreddy for a dumb "reason," and I fall over.  Somehow, I landed on my entire right side, but I managed to lose a few health points on my left hand.  It's stiff, it's owee... and I mebbe rode another two or three miles before realizing that since I'm five minutes from home anywhere in the Backyard, the smartest thing I could do is go home and ice and ibuprofen.

Perfect timing.  Thursday it's gonna rain.  Backyard probably won't dry out and open on Friday, and then rain Saturday and a repeat of the whole process ad infinitum.

Time to finally get the new Industry Nine Hydra wheels ready for business.

I had everything in hand, and with only one decent hand to get 'er done, I done did.

A couple new Forekaster 2.35 tires finally showed up (they'd been unavailable for months) and fresh rotors to boot.  My tire portfolio is now deeply invested in the Forekaster.  Don't like it?  I don't care.  They fucking roost.

Why did I get new Hydras when my set of 24 spoke Hydras with 310c Enduro™ rims were just about one year old?

New wheels top, old wheels lower.  That's a 200 gram difference if you don't wanna do the math.  .44 pounds, so lets just call it a half pound.  A half pound of rotating weight at the furthest point from the center of the wheel (tires excluded).

Backlit photo because nobody pays me to take photos.  Then again, nobody pays me to write either (obvs).

These are the rims I woulda wanted if they existed at the time when I got the last set.  I think the inner width of I9's XC offering was in the low 20mm range then, but the new Ultralite 280c 24 spoke wheels are... you guessed it, 28mm inner width.  So, 3mm less than what I was running and more apropos to my rear tire selection (2.25-2.35) whilst pushing things a bit with my usual 2.6 front.

Wanna know a bit more?

Sleepy Jacob from Industry Nine does the talking head thing here on Bike Rumor's "Remote Otter."

So what am I looking forward to the most?

Jacob says the wheels have more "compliance," that bike industry buzz word that's right up there with "long, low and slack," and also "essential business."  I'll always argue that tire selection and pressure/volume makes a bigger difference, but I'd like to be proven wrong.

Also, weight.  Two hundred grams saved on a set of wheels is HUGE.  Granted... climbing.  It's not something I'm getting a lot of lately.  There are no mountains in Charlotte.  I can't wait to unleash these bad Larrys (or is it Larries?), but I guess I'm gonna have to... until?

Who knows?

Once my hand heals up enough for some rigid bike cycle riding, I might just give into the temptation and break these wheels in... because if you only wear your church clothes to church, are you even living your best life?

No.  No, you are not.