The Klunker is Done

Last night I finished up the Klunker build. At this point, it's ready for just about anything I can throw at it.

New Kenda K-Rad 2.3" tires will make for good street riding and dirt. Plenty of cushion when the pressure is low but at 80 psi they float across pavement really well. I loved them on the ride in this morning.

And the basket took some finagling to get right. With some grinding and filing, the struts are not completely bolted on. No zip ties anymore.

I'm super pleased with this build. In fact, I'm concerned that I may love this bike too much. The commute in today was a blast. It's fun to have a bike that is generalized enough to do just about anything well... and it's value is almost nothing.

Get out there.

Fall!

Fall is here! The face was covered this morning on the commute in.

And the sun is just rising above the horizon. It seems like it was just a couple weeks ago that the sun was high in the sky during my morning commutes. Welcome, New Season!

Get out there.

Sunday Cruisin'

Yesterday afternoon my family was in Louisville while I had to work in the morning. That meant that in the afternoon I was free to do a little ridin'. One quick text to Jason and he was up for an adventure as well.

We went back to Brumfield Lane in Jessamine County. This time we skirted past the "No Trespassing" fear to take a few photos of the view. Beautiful stuff.

This time the creek crossing was lower than before. What was knee deep on the last ride here was only ankle deep yesterday. We were a little surprised having had a lot of rain in the last couple days.

We didn't take a ton of photos but it's a really scenic road. I think it's about 22 miles to run this route from my house. Can't beat those views for that quick of a ride that's right in your back yard. I love me some Kentucky.

Get out there.

Man Time

This past weekend I headed out on the trails with my boys again. These guys love riding dirt.

The little man on the Mountain Train is just flat-out hilarious. Somehow, he's the one that gets injured more than any of us, though. He's having too much fun to pay attention, I think. On this ride, I said, "Are you on?" To which he replied, "Yes! Go!" I mashed the pedals only to learn that, in fact, he wasn't on the bike. He was leaning against it and fell hard to the ground. At four years old, he doesn't quite get the importance of communication. You can see in the photo above that dirty elbows and skinned knees won't squelch his enthusiasm.

The big guy hangs with me really well. It makes me a proud father. He works hard and sweats a lot. But he's always rewarded on the downhill. When we climb over a peak and start to zoom on the descent, he squeals and yells to express his joy. It's so much fun to hear.

It makes for a great time for us guys. They love being outside, sweating together and observing nature. I'm looking forward to them growing up as little mountain bikers.

Get out there.

Klunker

Wednesday night I spent the evening building up this beauty. I think it's a early 90's Trek 800. It spent some time as an Xtracycle, but I've recently wanted to mix it up a bit. Knobby tires, Nitto North Road bars and a basket make it a good all-around Klunker/Beater bike.

This came about for two reasons; I wanted a loaner MTB and I wanted a bike that could replace the LHT when I wanted something a bit more expendable. There's not a lot of bikes that would do both. But the build on this seems to play both sides of that field pretty well. I'd have no beef with locking this thing up for hours at a time. But I could also push its 1x6 gearing around the MTB park if I loaned the Troll to a friend.

It's comfy, beefy and stout. I'm excited for it to come into it's own.

Get out there.

Night Riders

Jason and I did a some dirt in the dark last night. Lot's of fun to ride familiar trails in a completely different way.

The air was a cool 50ish degrees and our headlamps were ablaze as we took on new routes and old ones. The fun thing about night riding is the critters. Critters are critting all over the place at night. Deer, rabbits, racoons, possums... oppossums... e-ppossums were everywhere. The rabbits were crazy. I saw at least 15 on the trail. It brought a new meaning to the term "bunny hop."

Our light situation was humorous. It was a combination of headlights, headlamps and more headlamps.

This photo above is a selfie shot. I had two headlamps on my helmet. Outside of the weight pulling down in the front, it was a great set-up. One lamp was pointed right down in front of me, the other was angled out towards the trail.

Nocturnal Troll leaning against a tank.

Jason was riding his Troll, too. He's got a new wheelset that makes this steed a semi-fat bike. 2.7" tires on super wide rims make for a great dirt cruiser. We weren't riding fast last night. We we just cruising in the dark. Thus making the Trolls very worthy of the call.

Get out there.

Exploration on the Bike

Sunday's weather offered up an opportunity to explore some new territory on the Cross Check. There was a road that I had snuck a short peek of last year but the ride was ultimately thwarted by snow. I remember thinking that this was a place I needed to go back to. But that day, snow had covered the road and the climbing made it too slip-slidey to go further. Today, though, I conquered those hills and rediscovered the route in a warmer season.

It's a great ride with incredible views. As much climbing as there is, it is totally worth it. I wish I could climb out onto these cliffs and snap a photo, but the few accessible views have many a trespassing sign to the tune of, "You trespass, I'll shoot." So I stand back and take my pics from the road.

Short little waterfall marks my first turn. From here it's up... up... and up.

There's pretty much fresh pavement up the entire climb. And there is horse crap everywhere. I even passed this group of horse-and-buggy commuters. I think the presence of horses is a good sign for cyclists. Cars here must be used to slow moving vehicles.

After gnarly climbs come crazy descents. You can kind of see in the photo above that I was crossing an empty, old, dried up creek bed. The road I had just come down crosses straight through it. I paused to notice that my fresh pavement was gone and water damage was the new theme on the road.

But shortly after I heard and saw this. My map showed that the road ended here and picked up on the other side. I halfway expected to see a crossing like this.

So I ditched the socks and shoes, strapped them to the bike and began my trek across the water. I'm so glad I had the Cross Check for this. The water was almost up to my waist so I carried the bike on my shoulder. The LHT weighs about 140 pounds more than the Cross Check. So this lighter ride felt a bit more comfy during the water crossing.

Footwear goes back on on the other side. The wool socks felt cozy after my chilly dip.

More horse evidence. This was after a fairly brutal climb. It was the only point in the day that I thought, "I may have to get off of this bike and push." But the tiny horse statues pep-talked me through it.

After my creek adventure, it was a pretty smooth ride all the way home. The Cross Check felt awesome, as usual. I'm amazed at how different it and the Long Haul Trucker actually are. Completely different bikes that seem almost identical at a glance. But these hills today felt like I was cruise control. I sailed right up with minimal effort. On the other hand, it feels more squirrelly than it's beefier LHT brother. So when you're hauling any significant weight, the LHT is the way to go.

It was a great ride and it's all outside my back door. I love that I live in Kentucky and I love that it offers such beautiful landscape!

Get out there.