The Second Half

My little softball lovin’ sweetie spent another evening on the field. This time, they had more of a ‘game type’ practice and got to get into some situational instruction. Tonight it’s a full on 9 inning game, and a ½ game against the little league boys. They beat the boys in some catching/running drills last night, so the game tonight should be pretty fun to watch.

Once again, I snuck off into the woods for 1.5 hours of bike practice and had a blast trying to find the right balance between rolling a tire off my front and rear rims versus achieving the highest speed possible in the curves. I never completely rolled one off, but I definitely burped air trying. First at 24 psi, and finally down to around 18 before I came damn close to losing too much air, and – GASP! – having to stop and pump up a tire! Oh the problems middle age white guys have sometimes. I do love testing the limits of shocks, wheels, tires, etc….the occasional crash is well worth knowing what works and what doesn’t. A few days back I rolled up on some shuttlers (you know, guys who get a ride to the top, and bomb down on true downhill bikes). They were gathered at a large jump over a gap with a quick banked turn heading left and one of the guys, after much discussion, took off towards the jump – launched it, did a 90 degree turn mid-air, and landed at an angle smack into a banked turn stopping on a dime. The compression used every millimeter of his suspension. I can’t imagine what his back felt like. But the frame didn’t break. I’ll leave that kind of testing to him. Me like my frame, and me don’t want to buy a new one, or a new back for that matter.
"Dad! We beat the boys!"
She was pretty excited....