Monday, October 24, 2016

Waltless

I decided to fill in some of the blanks from the last few months. Back in July I sold the old orange Waltworks.


The bike had pretty much outlived its usefulness to me. As I have mentioned previously, the steep angles and short fork made it a bike better made for someone else. I loaded it up with a bunch of parts I didn't want anymore, going with a silver theme where I could.


I pulled an old XT hub out of the archives and laced it to a new Salsa rim I had hanging in the garage.


I cleaned it really well and took some good pictures.


After a couple days on Craigslist an older guy bought it. He uses it as his pub crawler and he still sends me pictures of it parked in front of bars. Whatever.

For the first time since about 2004, I do not have a Waltworks. Hmmm, I wonder how long his waitlist is?

Later.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Lighter

I haven't posted anything in over three months. While I am pretty sure the Internet didn't miss me, the fact that I feel like posting something again is significant, at least to me.

I have been in a pretty dark place for a while. Without really realizing it, I let sadness creep in and it stayed. Sadness became a habit. I had simply forgotten what it was like to be happy.

I rode my bike during this time, but not with any joy. I'd go out for an hour, spin the pedals, and go home feeling pretty much the same.

Then a funny thing happened: I sold my Niner to my friend Javier.


This isn't really anything new; I sell a lot of bikes. However, I rarely sell them to friends. After all, I am typically trying to maximize returns so I can buy something new.

I took him out for a ride to get acquainted with his new bike, and our friend Preston joined us on his older GT. I had a good time and Javi's enthusiasm was fun to see.



Within a few days Preston had purchased a new Felt 29er. Then another work friend Johnathon bought a new Felt himself. Suddenly there were three new mountain bikers at work, which is very cool. They are stoked to enter into the cycling world, my world, one which I had taken for granted. Thanks, guys, for reminding me how cool it is.

Today, with a renewed energy, I decided to go beyond my typical neighborhood rides and bite off a big piece of hurt.

I rode for over three hours on mixed terrain with lots of climbing. The ride was quite a bit tougher than anything I had done in months. It hurt towards the end, but it felt good to suffer a little.

I don't feel like writing much more, so here is a chronological picture dump of the ride.

Later.