Japanese engineering saves the day

I got a call yesterday from Chris "Mr. Clean" Cooper....

Cooper: You riding tomorrow? Me: Not sure Cooper: Wanna? Me: Maybe Cooper: We're heading to Sewanee Me: hmmm I'll get back to you

I checked my schedule and asked Coop if he thought it would be an all-day excursion, like our last LBL trip, or would we get back at a sane hour so my whole day wasn't shot. I'd already basically decided I was in, but I was hoping I'd be back to Nashville at a decent time.

I met Corey and Coop at the Cracker Barrel in Murfreesboro. (no not that one on exit 78B, the one on exit 81B, MBoro likes Cracker Barrel). After we all ate the exact same meal, minus some bacon from Canadia, we all loaded up in Corey's GMC truck and hit to road to meet Ivory at the perimeter trail at Sewanee. 9 miles later we notice the truck is reving really high. We're going 60mph and the truck is at 4000 RPMs. Ummm Corey, do you have a 'performance package' on this truck? Transmission issues....in a quality American made auto with less than 40,000 miles. So back to Cracker Barrel we go. Coop and I offer to drive our Japanese Engineered trucks and in no time we're back on the road.

30 minutes lost but we made it to the trail head, after a lot of GMC bashing and Toyota lovin' and found Ivory was waiting on us. It was to be another day of singlespeed riders with a Vassage, Redline, Quiring and Ivory's new trick EWR 29er.

We told Ivory we wanted a totally new Sewanee experience so he played tour guide for the day and lead us out on the loop backwards. The trail was dry and dusty and very loose. Rocks, twigs and rear tires were flyin' everywhere. Where's the flow? The first 1/3rd of the loop in reverse is quite bumpy. You start with a few miles of fireroads but then it's twisty trail with short climbs and lots of baby heads and no real decernable (unless you're Ivory) lines.

The trail was enjoyable in reverse but it was eye opening. I haven't ridden Sewanee in quite a while and it showed. We all had a blast though, even if Corey did pull a Jeffy and ride the last 4 miles off the front. The heat was not quite as bad as last weeks ride but it still felt like 100% humidity and we were all soaked by the end. We were done by 12:30pm and home by 2:30...not bad for some slackers!

I had a slightly frustrating day bike setup wise. My Oury grips started spinning on my bars right at the start of the ride. I guess the deluge of rain we drove through coming back from LBL loosened up my hairspray adhesive. My hands were getting sore after only 5 miles trying to keep control of my bike and brake, all with my grips spinning around. I know I know, they make things called Lock-on grips. meh what a cop out way to fix the issue. And the lock-on parts hurt my hands. This is only the second time since November I've had issues with the grips and when they stay put, they rock. I cleaned them and re-installed them when I got back with some true spray adhesive so we'll see how that works.

Other than that the bike worked great as is becoming par for the course. I was lazy and kept my 32x20 gearing on from our North South trail ride. I worried it would be too easy but it turned out to be a great gearing. Ivory and I were both riding 32x20, Cooper was on 32x19 and Corey/Masher was on 32x18 and we were all smiles at the end so gearing aint that important. (right Kanza participants?)

Tomorrow I will be one year older. I'll officially be into my 30's. Nothing much on the agenda other than spending quality time with Beth and with the bartenders at the Yazoo Tap Room. Hope to see a lot of my friends out!