I’ve been commuting everyday in the 90 deg. weather, but I had not ridden any trails since Colorado. I took the M2 out to Rock Bridge with Eric (on his Pisgah). Everything was going as well as it could considering the temperature and misbehaving front and rear derailleurs. On a climb about twenty minutes into the ride my chain broke, and I hit the ground. Luckily, my back tire and a large rock broke my fall. One of the chainlinks exploded (not the PowerLink), the crankset (not just the chainrings) is bent, and the rear wheel is a lot bent. To be fair, the crankset was already a little tweaked. To top things off the SID is acting up. So lets see what needs to be repaired/replaced:

• Rear Wheel (very bent)
• Rear Tire (cut sidewall)
• Chain (busted)
• Crankset (bent)
• Fork (dead)

On the bright side, I replaced the Kool Stop pads with XTR pads and the incessant squealing is completely gone.

So I acquired another bike today. This time it was* a late ’80s Trek 400. This behemoth measures in with a towering 64 cm frame. Those are 700c wheels, and that head tube is about 8″ long. The bright red paint is in pretty nice shape, and the bike is in excellent condition overall. The drive train consists of full Suntour Edge, with Biopace like chainrings. But, the Trek 400 has already been passed off to Klunk. As much as I want to ride a 64 cm frame, I had to pass it along.

Other news:
I decided the saddle on the singlespeed really needed to be tan, camel actually. The natural cork bar tape really clashed with the black vinyl saddle, but no more. In case you were wondering how I came to this decision: after a few shots of Turkish coffee, some regular coffee, and finally a little homemade thirteen year old Slovak pear brandy (we had some friends over for dinner), I had a shocking and profound epiphany. The thought of a tan/brown seat had crossed my mind earlier, but I really didn’t want to sacrifice a nice Brooks saddle (or the requisite cash) to the elements and sitting in the rain all day. So, after the brandy I realized I still have a stash of SEM Camel vinyl paint left over from my old ’61 VW bus. I quickly unbolted the saddle, removed the faux carbon fiber bits, slapped up a quick masking job, and turned my Terry Fly CrMo saddle into this beauty:

Better-late-than-never update — 19.2 miles of fun:

Date: 2006.07.08
Time: 3:30 PM
Conditions: 85° F, a little warm
Mileage: 19.2
Time: 1:04
Average Speed: 18.0 MPH

I’ve been busy. A weekend in Ohio, a few days in DC, back to Missouri for a day, and now I’m in Colorado. I missed the last week and a half of riding in June, but July is off to a good start.

June Summary
Total distance (June): 183.07 miles
Total distance (Cumulative): 685.43 miles
Total time (Cumulative): 57 hours, 31 minutes

Eric and I have ridden the last three days on several trails around Denver, CO. Some of the trails we have ridden so far have been the Colorado Trail (via Waterton Canyon), the Bear Creek Trail, and a few laps on the Betasso Preserve Loop. We may ride tomorrow (the 4th), but we’ll see. The total for this trip is about 43 miles and four and a half hours.

For a more entertaining account of the trip check out Eric’s blog.