Riding with a old friend.

I bought this bike in 1996. A Trek 1220, a mediocre Aluminium road bike. I was riding with the bike club back then. Pavement was what we rode. Mileage added up, met many riding souls, that I am still friends with today. I pretty much wore this bike out, it had a 6 geared freewheel and a 3 geared granny gear in front. It needed too many parts to practically restore. So I just upgraded, bought a new street machine, and let this bike sit in the garage.

In 1998 I started a change in riding style. I heard about dirt centuries and the "cup-o-dirt quest. My mind set was not to ride a "good bike" on gravel. So I took this old girl, put a few parts on her, modified the brake clearance, to add 38 cc tires and rode 12 dirt centuries.

That style of riding became my primary quest. I went out and bought Trek XO2, and rode and rode lots of trail and gravel.

Well time to get the old girl out, and give her some attention. So she rode well today, 62 miles on Heritage Trail, rails to trail. My ride was good today. Stood on the pedals and pushed the pace a lot of the time, weather was cool which gave energy, I'm thinking I'll do it again tomorrow.

DAVE TO THE RESCUE

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS

Now what you are about to hear next is true. The names will not be changed to protect the Innocent. I ran into two ladies pushing their bikes, one had a flat, and they had a long walk back to their car. They were riding city tires on the trail. Slicks like that usually flat with all the sharp rocks and thorns and things. I removed the rear tire, pulled out the tube, chatted, replaced with 'new' tube, installed tires and tried to inflate. The tire would not inflate, I was wondering if my tire pump was not working. I then tried to pump up the 'flat' tube laying on the ground. That tube inflated. Hmmmm, wasn't that tube the one with the flat. You don't suppose??? Yeap, somehow in our mutual confusion, the tube with the hole in it was put back in. OMGosh. Well after re-removing rear tire and putting the new tube in, it all worked. They were so grateful, I was offered lunch and/or margaritas, I wanted to pedal and thanked them anyways, I rode on, they were somewhere behind me. They both work for the same business my brother Al, does in another town from where I live. They are going to tell on me they said. Small world. Here we have Char and Angie, with no flats.

So I leave you this last picture, to remind us all $#it happens, and when that happens what we need to do is saddle up, clip in and move on.
I'm hoping for 4 dirt metric centures in 5 days, I hope all my body parts take heed, and come along and support.

Thanks for stopping.
RideOn,
DAve.