B
Bill Wheeler
Guest
I went out for a great ride Sunday. It was fairly warm, mid to upper 30's. I donned the lightweight
gear and some thermal tights and hit the trails with my SS.
I rode to the trail head instead of driving this time, no need to drive in this weather. Very few
people at the Landing Road entrance. As I get down into the woods the first part of the trails were
somewhat hard packed by other hikers and bikers. All the tricksy roots are covered as long as you
can keep the bike in the middle of the snow packed single track.
It was going pretty easy......until I decided to take a trail that hadn't be ridden yet. It was a
simple cross cut from the Morning Choice trail to the Ridge trail. The old x-cut had been closed
some time ago and the new one isn't traveled that much. There was one set of tracks, hiking tracks,
no bikes have made there way yet.
There was still a good 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow. It didn't look too bad. I was wrong, by the time
I got through the cross cut from Morning Choice to the Ridge Trail I was sweating and breathing
pretty damn hard. I'm glad I knew the trail 'cause it was very hard to see the small 6 to 8 inch
diameter logs that crisscross cross the trail. They kind of just look like small humps in the snow.
As long as you lift the front and hop the back up they present no real problem, you just have to
know they're there.
It WAS completely quiet, not a sound of another biker or squirrel rustling the now covered dry
leaves....until the Avids start howling. At first it was just a little squeak then it progressed to
a full blown wail. This happened once before after crossing some icy streams during a very frigid
ride. Nothing I could do but easy off for a while....More on that later.
I took the Ridge Trail up to the Rockburn Branch loop. This trail had been a ridden and hiked on and
was well packed. It's a great loop to ride if you just want to relax a bit. By this time I was
actually burning up I had to take off the glove and ride bare handed. Next time I'll bring my
lighter pair along as well as my cold weather gloves. As long as I stayed upright it shouldn't be a
problem...and I did, and it wasn't.
On the way back out on the Morning Choice trail I come upon two fellow bikers. They obviously heard
me coming and decided to let me pass. I needed a rest so I stopped and chatted a bit. One was having
problem with his Times he couldn't seem to get clipped in. The other was just flat out tired. He
said something about the trail being unridable. What? You must be kidding. "Y'all have a good ride"
I took the SS up and out with minor problems. I looked back about 10 minutes later and they were
nowhere to be seen.
All in all it was one of my best rides. Normally this route will take me just about an hour to
complete. This time it took me 2 hours. It was one of the best workouts I've had in a long time.
On the way home my fronts were still wailing. I began to wonder if it's just because of the moisture
and coldness. I live near the bottom of a fairly large hill, so on the way down I'm riding the front
brakes just enough to make a slight squeal, as the squeal goes away I give a little more pressure.
I'm still picking up speed as the brakes heat up/dry out. Finally I can't apply full pressure with
no annoying squeal. It was as if I re-seated the pads or just dried them out. To see if they'd
squeal after they cooled I took another lap to the top of the street after about 5 minutes to see
what would happen....No squeal....very interesting.
BTW the brakes felt a LOT smoother after I heated them up.
Love those brakes, love that bike,
Bill(No MTB Season)Wheeler
The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the mind should give
an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
:-]
gear and some thermal tights and hit the trails with my SS.
I rode to the trail head instead of driving this time, no need to drive in this weather. Very few
people at the Landing Road entrance. As I get down into the woods the first part of the trails were
somewhat hard packed by other hikers and bikers. All the tricksy roots are covered as long as you
can keep the bike in the middle of the snow packed single track.
It was going pretty easy......until I decided to take a trail that hadn't be ridden yet. It was a
simple cross cut from the Morning Choice trail to the Ridge trail. The old x-cut had been closed
some time ago and the new one isn't traveled that much. There was one set of tracks, hiking tracks,
no bikes have made there way yet.
There was still a good 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow. It didn't look too bad. I was wrong, by the time
I got through the cross cut from Morning Choice to the Ridge Trail I was sweating and breathing
pretty damn hard. I'm glad I knew the trail 'cause it was very hard to see the small 6 to 8 inch
diameter logs that crisscross cross the trail. They kind of just look like small humps in the snow.
As long as you lift the front and hop the back up they present no real problem, you just have to
know they're there.
It WAS completely quiet, not a sound of another biker or squirrel rustling the now covered dry
leaves....until the Avids start howling. At first it was just a little squeak then it progressed to
a full blown wail. This happened once before after crossing some icy streams during a very frigid
ride. Nothing I could do but easy off for a while....More on that later.
I took the Ridge Trail up to the Rockburn Branch loop. This trail had been a ridden and hiked on and
was well packed. It's a great loop to ride if you just want to relax a bit. By this time I was
actually burning up I had to take off the glove and ride bare handed. Next time I'll bring my
lighter pair along as well as my cold weather gloves. As long as I stayed upright it shouldn't be a
problem...and I did, and it wasn't.
On the way back out on the Morning Choice trail I come upon two fellow bikers. They obviously heard
me coming and decided to let me pass. I needed a rest so I stopped and chatted a bit. One was having
problem with his Times he couldn't seem to get clipped in. The other was just flat out tired. He
said something about the trail being unridable. What? You must be kidding. "Y'all have a good ride"
I took the SS up and out with minor problems. I looked back about 10 minutes later and they were
nowhere to be seen.
All in all it was one of my best rides. Normally this route will take me just about an hour to
complete. This time it took me 2 hours. It was one of the best workouts I've had in a long time.
On the way home my fronts were still wailing. I began to wonder if it's just because of the moisture
and coldness. I live near the bottom of a fairly large hill, so on the way down I'm riding the front
brakes just enough to make a slight squeal, as the squeal goes away I give a little more pressure.
I'm still picking up speed as the brakes heat up/dry out. Finally I can't apply full pressure with
no annoying squeal. It was as if I re-seated the pads or just dried them out. To see if they'd
squeal after they cooled I took another lap to the top of the street after about 5 minutes to see
what would happen....No squeal....very interesting.
BTW the brakes felt a LOT smoother after I heated them up.
Love those brakes, love that bike,
Bill(No MTB Season)Wheeler
The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the mind should give
an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
:-]
