Skinny tires on the dirt are fun.
Two Sundays ago, we did a multi-surface ride with Fixie, KB and Lynda Wallenfells. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride the CX bike on a ride so perfectly designed for it. I got my skinny on by skidding down the steps on Dino Cliffs, cruising on the pavement and hammering the dirt roads.
We did a Fixie designed loop that consisted of all three of the above surfaces. We started at the Winkel Trailhead (or if you prefer the official name, Cottonwood) and headed out on Prospector. The only bike that is more fun than a singlespeed CX is a singlespeed 29’r. The skinny tires make things a bit more sketchy and you can gain some amazing speed on the smooth sections. Just don’t forget about the sudden turns. I don’t think you could have knocked the smile off my face.
From Prospector, we headed to the Dino Cliffs. I tend to ride the Cliffs on my way to Church Rocks, but riding it this direction is a hell of a lot more fun. Except of course, the sand hill. We hit the dirt road known as Grapevine and made our way to the Interstate over pass and bombed down to and across Telegraph where we hit the bike path that drops to the Virgin. We followed this for as far as we could and then did some “This Land is your Land, This Land is my Land” traversing to hit the dirt road that is the back way to Sand Hollow.
It had been some time since I had been over that way and the views were pretty awesome. The road was loose in a couple of spots but the skinnies did just fine. After the dirt road, we made it to the paved road into Sand Hollow which we followed back to the highway and made our way around to Quail Creek and to the bottom of Prospector in Red Cliffs. And you guessed it, we road the bottom section of Prospector back to the car.
All in all we did about 27 miles. It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all.
Getting back on the CX bike has kept with my whole trying not to be a pussy thing we discussed a few posts back. Long rides, rough terrain and skinny tires.
Yea, I like that combination.
Some Photo Evidence from a few rides that the Alliance has hit since the last post.
And yes I do use cheater brakes. After today’s ride, I realized that it may make them easier to use if I actually adjusted the lever so I could grab it. I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow.
Jumping to a completely different subject, This Friday will be this month’s Alley Cat. It is a New Year’s Eve Eve Alley Cat. You can read all about it here.
The Alliance has also been busy working the “advocacy” side of the table. If you haven’t checked it out yet, hop on over. DMBTA. There will be more content soon. I promise.
Anyone interested in doing a night ride tomorrow? Drop me a line. I may become interested if there is the right kind of persuasion.
Now a jam for Prattipuss.
I may be crazy but it seems that he once told me that he couldn’t stand to build houses for ass holes he would never meet and that never made an effort to say thanks. Great song.
Remember to get the skinnies out on the dirt and to keep it hard.
Peace. Love. And Revolution.