This is a Mud Puddle

I thought I would post a pic of a fine specimen of a mud puddle for all you So Cal readers. Chances are you have forgotten what they look like since we have had so little rain as of late. Despite the clear evidence of tracks in this puddle, showing a history of bicycle use, I do expect to have Barbara Boxer and the green patrol of California seek to make this puddle a Wild and Scenic waterway with a suitable boundary of wilderness as a buffer. So, ya better hurry if you want to see it on your bike.

Be that as it may, the rain we had this weekend was pretty amazing and the thunderstorm absolutely delightful. BIIIIGG thunder, lightning, heavy rain. Very unlike my neck of the woods, but nothing that the plains states do not see all the time. "Yawn!" Yeah, I know, but I thought it was very cool.

So today I grabbed the SS Monkey and headed out to get a ride in once the rain stopped falling. I also wanted to try the Eskar tires in some sloppy conditions. Around here, we have tons of clay in the soil. What is not clay is sand. Pretty much no loam or sloppy, slushy mud. The clay gets to be absolutely unrideable and it will pack up the tire and frame worse than a retirement home out of breakfast bran muffins. You don't want that. This climb was not too bad, having had overnight to drain a bit.



The singletrack was awesome under the damp conditions and the Eskars ate it up. Fun stuff, and the Monkey is great in the mud with all the tire clearance. SS is the ticket for this kind of ride...much less stuff to corrupt with the goo.




A mud ride is very childlike and playful in the way it feels to the soul. I had a bit of mud fly off of a spinning knobby and go directly into a nostril, not once, but twice. I mean what are the odds of that? Ya gotta laugh.