Saturday, August 09, 2008

Saturday's HC Ride

The Hiawatha Cyclery ride went off road today. Not the kind of off-road riding seen in sports drink commercials with rock and roll playing. It was dirt path riding.

I hear some HC riders are a bit worried about riding off road, but they should feel comfortable with this route. It's so smooth a small child can sit comfortably in her bike seat and enjoy it.

We went to the Firefly cafe for coffee.

I mentioned to Mark, the HC mechanic, that I needed some mechanical disk brakes for my monster cross bike. He had a set of Avid Road BB7s ready to go. I bought them and some shoes, but couldn't bring them home, because I was riding a bike with no cargo carrying ability. Mark loaned me his Xtracycle. Very nice! I didn't notice much difference compared to any other mountain bike. I expected sluggishness due to the long wheelbase, but found it's just a bike that happens to haul four bags of groceries with no sweat.
The photos are from my new cell phone that has a bit better camera than the last one. Since it takes video also, prepare for those in upcoming posts.

6 comments:

red rabbit said...

You-all go on dirt, Jim throws another hissy-fit...conicidence?

Snakebite said...

So, is there an xtracycle in your future???

Jim Thill said...

It's no coincidence.

Snak Shak said...

Jim got worked up for a couple of reasons; we had a near-miss bike collision, we got blown off by a bum that was too good to ride with us, somebody on a cell phone caused an incident at an intersection and got free recommendations on driving skills from the group, dirt was involved, etc. When you run with a bunch of bike pirates like that, it's no surprise that things just... come out.

Scooter said...

Which trail is that?

rigtenzin said...

This is the Minnesota river valley trail starting from Mendota and going west to the airport area.