Weekend odds and ends.

I typically do not do bike shop group rides, mostly because I do not really have a particular relationship with any shop in town. But a LBS was having a celebratory bike ride and festival on this last Sat and it seemed like a reasonable idea to attend. The word had gone out on the inner-web, forums, and the shop website and KT was going to be there so at least I would know someone.

There were to be three rides, a road ride and a mtn bike ride that would meet up at one point and a family ride. So, I loaded up the Giant XTC 29er 1 (figured I would give it a bit of group exposure and see if anyone wanted to try it out) and headed into town. It was a bit of gasoline to get there and the ride was beginning rather late for the temps we have been seeing lately. Still, I was ready for a fun group ride.

So, to my puzzlement and dismay, I rolled up and saw only road bike riders, all pretty much dressed in the pretty ugly 'club' jerseys (some with color scheme matching bikes). Finding one other rider I knew that was on a mtn bike I asked about the lack of knobby tired folks. Well, apparently there was a change of plans and there was no mtn bike ride. OK. Never mind the website info, never mind that the forum posts had the wrong details in them.....etc.

My friend had been the one to do the website update as a favor to the shop owner. He was actually complained to for putting up the wrong info...info given him by the shop owner. So, no explanations, no apologies for the riders that showed up on mtn bikes (all four of us). Sigh.

I passed on the group photo. On top of that, I felt like death on the ride we actually did do. It was hot and the hillclimb seemed like a huge burden...no legs, nada.

Sunday I had another ride planned with Ed the Tall...our weapons, singlespeeds at 20 paces...and some semi local singletrack riding. That fell through due to Ed's daughter needed some medical attention. No issue with that. Some things (lots of things actually) are more important than a bike ride and family is right up there. But for me, it meant a weekend of riding that was not at all what I planned.

I did get out on the SS Jabber. After riding the Giant XTC with the significantly lower handlebar height, I jumped on the Jabber and it felt like a hybrid comfort bike. Well, that will not do. I had no real good options in a lesser rise bar and for a while I was stumped. I hated to off the carbon XC Monkey Bar on there. Then I realized I could flip the stem over. Duuuh. It is a bit odd looking, but it lowered the bar quite a bit. During the ride later that day I was feeling better about the height, but I was noticing the tiller like affect of the longer 100mm stem. Hmmm. Careful measuring showed I could bring the bar closer to me and be about where the GiantXTC 29er 1 cockpit placed me. I grabbed a 90mm stem and put that on, flipped as before. That does feel much better and the next ride will be interesting. Funny how you think things are optimized until you try something new and then there is perspective. I always thought I would like a longer TT and a shorter stem. I guess I should have tried it earlier.

On top of that, I think there are some nutritional issues I need to sort out. I have been off the pace lately. Some of that is the heat. As I have gotten older, I have become less tolerant of that. But a week after the Paunsagaunt Enduro I still feel like I have not recovered. I have had a past issue with anemia as a child and lately I had a pretty involved blood work-up that showed a tendency to that again. I do not eat much red meat at all. Maybe I need to cook more in iron skillets or something, but I think I do need to add a regular dose of vitamin C into my supplements. I was doing that for a while and I keep reading about a ton of good bennies out of high doses of C. That and a good multivitamin will be a start. I am lousy about taking regular supplements.

Now then, where did I put that can of spinach? Popeye always seemed to be peppy.