098: Great Valley and Bontrage...

My 5 favorite words:

Tenacious
Juxtaposition
Melancholy
Amicable
Moxy

Co-mingle always is nice to hear too.

When I first started riding 29ers way back in 2003, tire selection was slim. My Karate Monkey was one of the first KM to hit the shores of the US. I loved that bike. I mention that so you know I’m totally old school, and not some bandwagon jumper because that is totally the punk rock hipster thing to do, to let you know I’ve been down for a long time.

But I digress, at that time there were very few tires to choose from. Maybe 3-4. I ended up with some sweet Bontrager tires. I always loved those tires, the rubber was soft, the tread rolled well, and also it had enough tread so that you could stick it hard in the corners. For some reason, I gravitated away from those tires…
Last Month, I found myself fixated. No, fixated is not strong enough, lusting , yup that’s the right word, lusting after another set of Bontrager tires. You know I absolutely love the tires. They roll fast, stick well in the corners. I remember just last week saying to myself, that man I love this Bontrager moutainbike tire. I went as far to say to a friend, “you know I love these tires. I used to run Bontrager tires in the past, and I loved them then, I wonder why a went away from them?” Was it the Hutchinson Python that hit the market? Was it some new Ignitor that stole my affection?
Then Sunday, I remembered why I went away from Bontrager tires. As Jeffy and I were busy juicing my tires, and Stan’s goo shot out of the side wall and all over me. Bontrager sidewalls suck. They are paper thin, and even in a town like mine that doesn’t have more than 6 rocks in the entire trail system, and I know where each of them lie, I cut the sidewall. The tire is less than 2 months old. Not even 20 rides on them….

DAMN YOU KEITH BONTRAGER AND YOUR DAMN THIN SIDEWALLS !!!
Slipped up to the Great Valley Training Ride/Crit tonight. 30 one mile laps. Fast, fun, I am completely sure that at one point during the ride that there was blood shooting out of my eyes.
the blood doesn't show in this picture, but trust me it's there...

The highlight for me was about 12 laps in I came around Kincaid to take a pull at the front. Kincaid, who is one of those guys that pulls the community together, and is fast as balls, and is an all around great guy in my book, Says to me, "nice work Fatmarc, keep it up." Pretty much made my night. Sure I took a few more pulls, and suffered to the finish.

Reality is that I could have pulled up, and gone home after that point and I would have still been stoked. It was a good night.
I'm guessing it was the same satisfaction the babe, you know the pig, felt when the at the end of the herding competition the kind farmer said, "that'll do pig, that'll do"

Great to see this guy too:
Legs kinda hurt now.

thanks for reading.

respect
fatmarc