Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Virgin Raleigh

The sixth ride of two-ought-eleven was full of surprises.
Councilman's attendance is almost a surprise these days, but unremarkable compared to the sight of B on a clean new ride. You saw it here first, B and his fully rigid, belt drive, niner.
He rode it straight from The Spoke. And, since it had only been assembled a few hours prior, it needed a little attention. NoHandle gleefully inserted three tools at once to adjust the position of the asymmetrical bottom bracket.
While some wrenched, others hydrated.
Xteric assumed the role of ride leader. He carefully assumed the mantle of power by declaring, "If I'm ride leader then we're going the wrong way."
He brought innovation to the task and dished out the following route, description courtesy of NoHandle.

Headed out the first section of the qualifier until it drops back down to the camping road. From there

Rock Garden 1A – In reverse to Rock Garden proper.

Once back on pavement he took up as if we were to climb Barnes Back, but then at the last minute dropped down to the bridge on the lake loop.

We took the lake loop a short distance counter clockwise to the horse trail.

Horse trail around the lake (O! the traction!) and popped out at the upper parking lot. Climbed the dirt road to the horse camp “Fee Area” crossed MET and dropped the Flemming fire road to get the upper half of the Flemming decent towards Palin’s Plunge.

After the plunge, we climbed out and took a left towards the spillway and did a final climb up the spillway switchbacks to the road and then to a very special party.

A few words about trail conditions. To answer Safety First's question: no snow remained on any of the trails that we rode. What we found instead was tread-holding, fast-rolling soil. Every rider experienced epiphanies on the steep climbs as legs gave way before traction.

Downed trees were strewn across the horse trail. Obviously, the equestrians won't get off their high horses, leaving the dirty work to civic minded FT3 riders.

The "very special party" mentioned by NoHandle was the next big surprise of the evening. A birthday party was being held at the KnotHole and they had prepared a table full of delectables that they couldn't finish eating. For once, tacos weren't the only thing on the menu. So, besides Councilman's offering of a new and special sauce, we had homemade guacamole, salsa, jalapenos and sour cream to add to our tacos, and , the star of the show, ChickenBake. We were compelled to finish the whole pan of this creamy, spicy chicken dip.

So, B, How did your new bike handle the trails last night?

7 comments:

  1. Nice work on the post gents. It is great when a new steed enters the FT3 family. Such a circumstance is viewed with great awe and respectful admiration by other riders. We can only hope the belt can withstand the abuses B can lash out. The frame should be solid. Is a carbon rigid fork in the future, B?

    It should be noted here that NoHandle should be recognized as FT3's top 'on trail' mechanic, as it appears he came through once again.

    B, thanks for the horn shout out this morning, FT3 is everywhere.

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  2. Having not been present to take part in last night's chickenbake, the only chickenbake I have to reference is that which is available at Costco for less than $3. That particular chickenbake may have ruined chickenbake for me permanently.

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  3. Nocar, what a great write up! Thanks for the update on the trail conditions. The pictures add a great touch to the post. I won't make it out for sure next Tuesday but look forward to following rides.

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  4. Looks like B is leading out a solo attack on the hidden comment field with Cappy attempting a chase. Nice work. It has to be repeated that the chickenbake was off the hook as were the trail conditions. Even more repeatable is the giddiness of Xterric, he was really beside himself with happiness on his "best FT3 ever". I have to say, that I was still pretty fired up on Wed morning and I didn't even have a new bike.

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  5. I had chicken enchiladas from Trader Joes.

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  6. My best FT3 was my last FT3. It will always be that way. A bit like the Navy Seals statement that, "the only easy day was yesterday."

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  7. My only regret is that I made NoHandle bring two bikes for no reason.

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