18 December 2012 - 0:20Oh Look! A Blog Post!

Yeah, I know. I’ve been busy. For those that don’t know, I’m currently working 2 jobs right now. I’m still doing a little bit of Bike29, and doing a little bit of Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles. Yes, that is what my sudden trips to the west coast have been all about, although I wish I could say it was because I won the lottery and have been taking lavish mini vacations. I guess in a way, I have, because I did get to do a couple of cool things on this last trip besides learn a new operating system and drink lots of really awesome tequila.

I flew to San Diego (German for a…) just before Thanksgiving. My mission, to pick up a bunch of bikes and a big assed truck, and drive back east. It seems that every time I fly these days, there is some form of unplanned and unappreciated delay, and my last flight out was no different. Thanks to a certain airline, I missed my connecting flight and had to spent a bonus night in Philly. The plus side, the bar staff and patrons of the near airport hotel bar were extremely entertaining.

After finally getting to San Diego, I ended up getting delayed again due to the truck needing a couple of things fixed, and a cap installed. It wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be, but hanging out in South Town for about 4 hours was not that much fun. Once I was finished up, it was time to load on up and head out. Driving. In this.

Kitty!

It’s awesome. His name is Moby (after the great white whale) but I call him Big Kitty. His diesel motor purrs, and like a kitty, if he decides to do his own thing, you gotta pay attention to get him back on track. I like him. Its fun peering down into the cabs of other full size trucks as you pass them…

my bike has those too!

So my first stop was Tucson. Damn. I hate that town. I took a little time out of my day to ride Fantasy Island after a dealer visit. I decided to ride a 26″ bike just for hahas. I took out the Moment, a 160mm travel all mountain sort of a bike. The bike was a medium, so I was sort of all over the place, but it was the only bike I had with me that was already built up. It felt weird to ride a small wheeled bike on terrain I was so used to riding a 29er singlespeed on, but I figured why not. It reminded me that I really like 29″ wheels for a reason. Its been super dry in Tucson, and the trails were very loose, I got bogged down by the sandy conditions where big wheels would normally carry me through (maybe…). Fantasy Island is the sort of place where you dont need all that suspension, it’s kinda flat and not technical at all. But it is super fun, and it requires ninja like maneuvers to ride quickly lest you have a run in with the cholla. The Moment was fun in that it was very agreeable to sudden direction changes. Actually, the bike is very playful despite the huge amount of travel on both ends of the bike. One day I’ll ride one my size on more appropriate terrain. I spent almost 2 hours tooling about the place, avoiding cows and learning where all the sweet spots were on setting up the suspension. I also managed to avoid any run ins with the local vegetation.

a peaceful Moment in Tucson

The next day was Thanksgiving, and I spent 7 hrs driving east to Albuquerque, but I’ll tell you more about that next time.