wd40

yeah, see, that's my problem with it all: the surprise one/no-footer move on jumps at speed during the learning process. I ain't got time for that, and I already spent a week in the hospital for putting a foot down. meanwhile, fuckers on eBay can't count stock, so I don't know when I'll get a new brake lever. swapped out the whole system with an old one I had around. those 4-piston brakes sure are nice, tho. on the upside, Kona sent me a whole new bushing kit (for $150). replaced the sloppy pivots this morning. ready to hit it.

in my experience, UPS>Fedex>>>USPS>>>>>>>>>>>>>Amazon Shitstains as automation increases in the Mfg, ag, and infrastructure sectors, erst while ditch diggers are being pushed into delivery jobs. USPS has a well-entrenched fuck-you-private-citizen culture, but the rapid growth of Amazon means they'll hire anything with a pulse, and it shows. most Amazon deliveries for me go to my neighbors. the bottom of the bottom feeders get hired there. they have the most advanced tracking and POD set up, and it's wasted on these idiots. sure, they'll take a picture of your package on A porch, but whose porch is it? no way to tell with Ansel Adams making the delivery. one time, I walked around the block to check the angle of the sun and types of trees casting shadows to figure out where it went. and they absolutely make it the most difficult to talk to a live person about their fuckups. they'd rather just attempt to ship a replacement, which doesn't work if you bought the last one on the shelf. fire the ovens.

California's great. it's just full of Californians. 😉

I tried this route, several years ago. even bought some shinguards to fully dork-out while attempting to do wheelies and bunny-hops in my yard. what I learned is that I lack the patience for the reps it will take for a mental midget like me to unlearn years of clipless habits. I wish I was badass enough to ride flats. I also learned the opposite lesson of Mom, which is that even though clicking out is pretty effortless and even intuitive for me most of the time, there is that fraction of a second disadvantage that changes my mental approach when making a technical move, and that is: I better fucking make it (whatever it is). so, for me, it enforces commitment. it's lack of commitment that's responsible for the vast majority of my crashes. so nowadays, I try to stay in tune with what my feet are doing when doing jumps and chunk (keeping my heels down, scooping the pedals with down and backward pressure, NOT lifting the bike with the tops of my shoes, etc.). I may one day learn how to properly preload and rotate the bike over in the air to keep from casing everything. but I'll probably never switch to flats. spent almost half of yesterday doing bike maintenance, most of it on the singlespeed. bled the brakes, changed the back tire and trued the rim (spent a full hour just peeling and goo-goning the old ghetto rim tape off). fun shakedown ride at St Ed's. it weighs half what my squishy does. probably less than that. makes you feel like a kid again.

seems like that might have happened there. certainly a ripe opportunity to snag your balls on your saddle. the transition is...abrupt. but for some reason, I recall something like that happening on that little side drop on Picnic (the trail twixt the big creek and the paved path). good times.

good work on Deception, esp that sharp g-out on the way to Dave's Ditch. I haven't made that one, in a while.

lol. always a travesty with you and your gopro, Mom. so, another reason to hate Covid: can't get bike parts. I tried harvesting a lever blade off an old set of XT brakes I kept around, but it's an RCH too thick. spent an hour scouring the internet, and ended up ordering one off Ebay. hope it fits. I guess in the meantime, I'll have to put an old brake back on. PITA. @KuЯdt, have you ever cleared the last jump on Recluse, the one they call a gap? seemed like it took me a long time to get comfortable with that trail, but I dig it, now---except that last jump. bucks my rear wheel every time; plus you're practically landing on the lower jeep road, head-on with traffic coming off Vipers and Tarantula.

so that pic above is from Cat Scratch Fever, taken on Wednesday. I'd only done that particular trail once before, and I couldn't remember where it went, so I took trail up to find it and learn it. after that, I did the main cat downhill line with the L drop and all that. they removed the red ramp, I guess because the L drop is so sketchy, it's difficult to get your shit together after landing it and make an IMMEDIATE hard right turn to hit that ramp with any speed to any better than just survive it. tbh, I always skipped that jump for that reason. the next two jumps are super fun, and I'm glad they left those in place. anyway, I took the gopro back there today for more of the same. the high ladder drop at the bottom haunts me. I know I can do it. figured with the camera I'd not chicken out again. however, somewhere near the top of the climb today, I noticed something was loose in my rear suspension. turns out a screw had fallen out, someplace. so much for any air shenanigans. did CSF and some fall-line trail I've never done before... tl;dr: total shitshow today. beat up rider, beat up bike. but the weather around here is perfect and the dirt is heroic, right now. get out and ride!

have fun, dude. fyi, shitload of pedaling on the greens. gets old real quick, esp after paying fiddy bucks to AVOID a bunch of pedaling. cool thing is you can mix/match trails, halfway down. start on a non-jump line (or a green), then when you hit the jeep road in the middle of the mountain, you can switch to the lower jump line, or whatever. however, I will say the lower half of the single-black is significantly sketchier than the upper part. upper part is really a blue, now. @KuЯdt's Rotor Smoke clip reminds me that videos are almost pointless for anyone who hasn't been on the subject trail. waay steeper than it looks. ex.

I think this is it.

yeah fuck that guy. all geeked up to use his fancy Sharper Image toy. Face Plant could have died waiting. props to Yellow Helmet guy for getting in there and doing what needed to get done.

was technically not parked at the time of this pic I took on my way out of the store, as she was sitting in her car, surfing the web on her phone. could have taken a pic on my way in that would have captured her farting around in the cargo area, but her 60+ year-old hail-damaged ass she deemed worthy of yoga pants would have distracted from the point of this thread: shitty parking. not the kind of junk in the trunk we're looking for.

after watching the video, and seeing it's in Washington state, I just assumed the cop's Birkenstock got caught on the floormat. fucking scary. has happened to me. only my cat-like reflexes prevented a tragic fender-bender. but just in case: fuck everybody involved. side note: you can probably react a little quicker and get out of the way if you're not so busy making another jittery, vertically oriented cellphone movie that's gonna change the world.

guy making life choices based on 'hype' is disappointed in the results. huh.

extra super-duper bonus points if actually "Ned".

took the opportunity to exercise the 4WD, this the last weekend of antlerless season. so fun.

G, when my kids where about that age, I dusted mine (HO) off, bought some loose track a King's, and set it up around the Christmas tree, a couple years in a row. they dug it. cats were a bit bewildered, which was fun, too.

not to mention "plorp"

my apparently fat cat

The Manager fucked up.