Amazing Weather Fail

Yesterday's temps were in the 60s nearly the entire day. Mike and Jeff just got new (used) mountain bikes so the obvious choice was to hit up some dirt after work. Why wouldn't we take advantage of such great weather? Well, after staring out my office window at the bright sunshine all day, we loaded up our bikes and it began to rain. We had a blast, but it did cut the ride much shorter than I had hoped. I wasn't prepared for rain so I was pretty uncomfortable the entire time. The fellas did get a good handle on their new steeds, though.

This is Jeff on his new Haro Flightline Comp. He's walked away from his tried and true Trek Antelope of yesteryear. Now he's a big dog on his stealthy all black trail machine. I'm not at all familiar with Haro mountain bikes. But this thing looks to be well made.

Here's Mike on his Trek 3500. He got the deal of the century on this barely (if ever) used bike. He paid nearly nothing for it but he's now able to join us on trail rides and camping trips. I think it's a great entry level bike for what he paid. I love when someone can enter into the world of biking without investing much.

Sorry for the crappy pics. Like I said, it was raining and all I had was my iPhone... so I didn't want to keep it out of my pocket for long. Also, in the picture above, I was actually pedaling my bike behind Mike. Impressive, right? Now that I look at it, it doesn't seem like the best choice. That's a pretty good drop on sloppy mud with a hard left turn at the bottom. And if I hadn't made that turn with one hand, there's a creek right off that ledge that would have been bad. Things don't always seem as wise when you look back at the photo :)

And for the sake of full disclosure, I should confess that I went over my handlebars at the beginning of the ride. It was, literally, about 12 feet into the trail. My front wheel slid on a log and my instinct took over in a bad way. My left hand clinched the front brake lever and sent me flying. It didn't hurt and I got a great laugh. Jeff had a good laugh, too. He knows that I usually bite it early in a ride. My theory is that I have to establish my limits early on. After I wipeout, I know how far I can push it for the rest of the ride. It's been to long since I had an early wipeout. Yesterday brought me back to my roots.

Get out there.