Night Ride

I had the distinct pleasure to go on delicious night ride with Hosking and Mick from Bionicon Saturday night. We got in about two hours on various Thumb Butte Trails. They both rode their Bionicon Edisons, I still had no front wheel for the SS, so I took the Tractor.

Overall it was a delightful ride with great company. I had the distinct pleasure of cleaning several tough climbs that stumped both Bionicons...adjustable geometry and all. Chris got back at me on a less steep climb where he did the roadie thing and just took off until I "cracked." He is amazingly fast for his size. They schooled me on a tight uphill switchback on Garden Grove. Took me three tries and lowering the saddle an inch to get it right.

Bionicon's are really cool bikes, just the wrong wheel size. If I were in the 26" geary, FS, adjustable geometry market, I would be all over them. Very novel concept and seemingly bulletproof execution. Chris and I switched bikes for one descent, and aside from the moto style brakes, and inability to clip in to his Shimano pedals, I enjoyed the ride. Of course, I've never ridden downhill with a 66 degree HTA before. I would like to get his bike set up for me and ride it for a week. I pushed Mick to get them to come out with a 29er platform. I'm not holding my breath. The bike is literally groundbreaking. Chainstay length is a lot less important if you can move your COG relative to the BB as much as they allow for. The company seems to have their act together, and if Mick is any indication to the quality of their reps, they will soon be on the path of world domination.

Fun, fun ride, and I discovered that my lights, while adequate for my usual slow SS pace, are quickly over ridden at FS descending speeds, especially when your riding partners have lights as bright as the sun to make you night blind.

Afterwords, got home around 2330, and proceeded to tension, rimtape, Stans and air up the new front wheel for the Comandante. In bed at 0230....bad idea, I felt it on Sunday.

In other news, the F135 has nearly four hours since the seal change and has yet to leak. This fork has transformed my riding.