Tennessee Country Roads

Country Road
Originally uploaded by s3ll0ut

I've been sitting here at the computer waiting for my daughter to awaken from her much-longer-than-usual nap and thinking, I should really update this here blog. And luck would have it, that I have some thing to update it with... even with some photos poached from others.

(If you're not the text reading type, click the image to the left and flip through Parker's photos of the ride)

Thad, Parker, Eric and I all met up in the usual Natchez Trace parking lot for a morning full of hot, muggy gravel mixed with some hotter and muggy pavement. I've missed quite a few of these gravel rides recently so I was excited to get back out.

We quickly were on our way down the Trace to highway 7. Thad's gotten much better at routing us to gravel much quicker than some of the 60+ miles rides we rode last year near Fly, TN. 6 miles in and we were on some sweet gravel like in the pictures. The entire course was new to me this trip which made it fun. I always enjoy a fair bit of mystery in these longer rides. It's generally best I don't know what I'm in for. I tried my best to hold back my "how many more miles til...." questions. Though I'm sure at some point I let out a whine or two. But hey, coming off the couch, having not ridden more than 20 miles in a single month in over 3-4 months makes a 45 mile ride a bit tough. :)

Of course... it's time to tend to the baby.....

...to be continued...
_________________________________

Ok, back to it 7 hours later and Raleigh is back asleep again for the night. Where was I?

oh yea gravel

So the ride was great in all the right ways. Good company, great roads (or lack of), great creeks, great pain and the constant thought of "How will I make it back to the car?" Overall I was impressed with how my body held up. We seemed to miss some of the huge grueling climbs but we still had some painfully slow & long ones. Then there was the deep, loose gravel....though that was actually fun mainly because the sections weren't so long we were cursing.

We are so fortunate that we can drive 40 minutes south of town and be transported into such another world. It was the ultimate head clearing ride. We all also were fortunate to avoid any major mechanical issues. A couple flat tires were all the trouble we had and surprisingly non of them were Thad's tire.

I'll poach a few more photos and call it a night... til the next ride....


Photo cred: Parker

One of many creeks on the ride, probably the shallowest


Photo cred: Parker

This was the 1st store we found, which was closed, not just on Sunday, but closed everyday. We all had our hopes high for some liquid but we were saved a few miles later when we happened upon someone's spring and poached some crisp water. (as we tried our best to convince ourselves it was clean enough to drink....no issues yet!)



Photo cred: Parker

Thad showing us the newest in mid-ride recover drink technology

Photo cred: Eric

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Another creek crossing with some equestrian friends.

Beck....

Beck.....Can this man make a bad record? Even the ones I don't like will grow on me in a few years.

This new Record Club project he is doing is incredible. I've been sitting here listening to his INXS covers in headphones and loving it!


check it:

http://www.beck.com/recordclub/index.php/inxs-guns-in-the-sky-5


Record Club: INXS "Need You Tonight" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.



I also love videos in the recording studio. Though when I'm at work in the recording studio, I'm always scared of the day when they want to bring in the video crew.

1 step closer, I am, 1 step closer

I stopped by Nashville Bicycle Lounge yesterday morning and Dan quickly got to work with my new fork. New Hope 20mm end caps installed, steerer cut, new brake pads installed and fork installed. It looks goooooood. The white lowers came stickerless and I'm digging it.

I got to take it out for a parking lot test and well, as Dan put it, it rides like a suspension fork. :) Can't make any real judgement calls until I hit some real trail. First things though are to lower the 100mm setting to 80mm. Timing what it is and all I won't make it out for a ride for a few days so further testing will have to wait.

The crude "pick up the bike a few times" maneuver says the fork isn't adding much weight to the bike at all. The Maxle system looks super stiff and I think the remote lockout button is gonna just be sweet.

Off to think about other things for the next few days.

It's here...

and waiting for me: (at Nashville Bicycle Lounge)

waiting is hard to do

Still waiting on my elusive fork to come in. It's been a very busy week though so that's helping.

I used to have more trouble with motivation to write blog entries, now it's more finding time to sit at the computer for more than 10 minutes, when I also don't have something more pressing to do. I had intentions last night of writing up a nice update but the couch looked way more appealing so I slunk off and into a episode of Dexter.

I had to work yesterday out in Bellevue so I packed up all my, neglected, bike stuff and planned a solo Montgomery Bell ride. Life is hectic and my brain is never fully there so of course I got on 440 and realized I'd forgotten my helmet. Had to swing the long way around back to the house. Trying a u-turn on 440 it's not advised. Work went ultra-smooth and I was ready to ride by 2:30pm. Got the tires pumped and the new test-saddle adjusted and.... um, wait, did I leave my water bottles in the fridge at work? dope! Thankfully it was not a 100+ degree scorcher or I would of really had to improvise.



I just decided to brave it and ride for an hour or so, sans water. This ride had many purposes but one was to further tweak my new shoes and cleats and also to test out a new Fizik Alante test saddle from the newly re-opened Harpeth Bikes. I'll have to write up my thoughts on that later, one for lack of time before I head back to work this morning and two because I've not yet formulated my opinion. So far I'd say, it's not a terrible saddle but I'm not yet sure if it truly fits me like a glove. All this to say my ride had many stops for saddle adjustments and a couple cleat adjustments.

I ended up finding a half full water bottle in my car with some yummy 90 degree water in it. I finished that and then went back into the trail for just a little more before bailing and heading back home to be a parent. It felt great to be back in the quite woods on a bike, slightly frustrating to not have my bike dialed in currently but overall I felt great on the bike. I'm still really looking forward to how this new fork changing my riding.