™ Issue #5

SSO Archives

Christmas in July  //

Thursday - July 12, 2007

Verbage: As far as bikes and biking goes, it's been a pretty good week. With the great riding and all of the presents it's been like Christmas in July. On Thursday a trip to the bike shop yielded one Kelly RoShamBo 29er single speed that had been saved. Yes, the one I broke the seat post off in and could not be removed had been given a new lease on life. Tom's (shop owner) grandfather is a retired machinist and did not disappoint in his rescue mission to my beloved frame. He created a tool to perform the extraction, a combination of years of experience and a sharp mind to wrap around the problem were surely what got this job done. He turned down two pieces of metal on a lathe to fabricate an expansion wedge that also had some bite to the exterior surface. On the top end of this he built a slide hammer to generate the force needed to get things moving. See pictures below. Smart guy this Mr. Rinker. On Friday Mrs. Outlaw and I headed north to ride Michaux State Forest with Camp. He was playing hooky for half of the day, we were playing hooky all day. Got a couple of hours of riding in on the rocks and loamy goodness of that sweet forest near Old Forge and Mt. Alto. Hit some stuff Larry had taken me on earlier this year and also got to test a newer trail called Heaven or Hell. Lots of technical rock games to play, you need to keep your eye on the prize and make sure your skills are sharp for most of these features. Can't wait to go back and ride this one again. Had a few post ride brews from Lancaster Brewing courtesy of our host. A much better way to spend a Friday than at work that's for sure. Swung by the shop on our way home from Michaux and what do I find, but my new Q-ball frame showed up. Like I said, just like Christmas. Interesting conundrum though, I had ordered this to take the place of the Kelly. I though it would show up weeks ago and figured if the Kelly could be saved (and I was having my doubts) I'd ride it for a bit and then turn it around. If the Kelly couldn't be saved it would be my new 29er. Now that the Kelly was back, what to do? time to start collecting parts, looks like I'm going to build another bike. By Saturday noon I had the Kelly built back up so Stoner and I hit up a good ride at the Shed. Started way down at the bottom of the mountain by the Mountaindale Reservoir. Fun way to mix up our ride since we never start down there but it also means over 2 miles of climbing to start. Nice warm up thought. Got in a nice 18 miles in the heat wave that decided to return but not before Jason got body slammed on some rocks. Luckily it was near the end of the ride. I'm figuring he is healed up by now. Sunday the girls were riding the Shed so I headed up with Rickyd and JoeP to do our own loop. The temperature knob got turned up to 100 F and we knocked out a nice 21 miles with 3000 ft. of climbing. Sweating buckets and guzzling water. We saw two very big rattlesnakes, one that Joe almost stepped on that sent the snake's rattle into a frenzy. Hope he washed his chamois good after this ride. Slipped out solo last night, spinning fast and sort of smooth like some racer type, trying to beat the rain that was slated to hit. Just enjoying being back on the Kelly right now, that bike fits me well. Took a couple of pictures while flying down the trail in the corn rows but got going a bit too fast and ate shit. Don't try this at home kids. OK, 1903 Adventure ride on Saturday, can't wait. Gravel + skinny tires = fun. - riderx

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