203: tabula rasa

This if from the 2 man TT Zayne and I did last summer. That's right we rocked it like Eddie would have bitches. okay we got our asses handed to us, but we look cool. Check out the matching white booties... Nothing says pimp like a fatguy in white booties... Zayne's tan was at full force this weekend...

The carbon fork on the bastard son was a great improvement. The karate monkey fork is a good tool, it works, it gets the job done, but immediately you can feel the difference with the switch blade. Using The karate monkey fork is much like an archeologist using a snow shovel to uncover some ancient civilization. Oh, it will work, but the likely scenario is that you just smash your way through, versus being able to pick clean, sexy, smooth lines.

Feedback with the monkey fork is abrupt, while the switch blade just seems to smooth things out a bit. As much as a rigid fork can, it delivers grace in times of friction. The monkey fork is more likely to settle an agrument swinging a 2x4 with "peace maker" written on it, where as the switch blade would make a joke out of the issue and laugh about the entire thing over a beer.

It’s like the difference between buying a fine guitar or picking up something for the kids at old farmers market.

The bastard son is a bike that I am coming to like. I can’t say that I think I’ll ever be in love with the bike the way I loved my old bikes, but it has been very fun learning to ride gears again. The switchblade fork certain accentuates the bike, and helps the handling issues, which I am learning to compensate for. The bike reminds me a lot of my first long term girlfriend. A little heavy, with a personality that I don’t really love. I recognize that clearly it’s not the love of my life. But still, she lets me get to third base pretty easily, and damn I can appreciate a girl that can be obnoxious, and a little dirty. Nope, clearly not the love of a lifetime, but for right now, a hell of a lot of fun.

Rode with Todd (ex-prez but number one in your hearts) on Wednesday night. I spent the better part of the last 12 years chasing Todd around our trail systems. In a group ride, Todd goes the front and hurts people. Someone is gonna get dropped. For a long time that someone was me. It’s no secret that in the past couple of years some of the boys and I have enjoyed turning the screws on Todd once in a while. But Thursday was just Todd and I. Riding one on one with Todd is a different game, a lot of smack talk, talk about the world, and really fun. I enjoyed watching Todd’s lines as we picked our way through the leave covered trails of Iron Hill and a small section of Rittenhouse. My legs felt a little empty, they aren’t quite used to riding consistently yet. My brain and soul are loving it, the legs, well they are still warming up a bit. Todd put together a couple of really solid loops at Iron Hill. It was an awesome time.

respect.

faticus