Friday, January 31, 2020

Thankful for QCBC Wrench Series



How to work on your bike in good company? Attend a weekly Queen City Bike Club Maintenance Night! New this winter, when it's too cold or snowy to hold the usual club ride and later gathering at Zero Gravity, you can attend an open session at Old Spokes Home to address any bike issues. Guided by a lady staff mechanic, I showed up to clean my Trek Antelope's drive train, popping the chain into an ultrasonic cleaner, plus replaced the right shifting cable and housing. The next session is in another week or so and with scarily soft brakes, that's the next item on my agenda.

It's great to have dedicated time to get some much needed maintenance done.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Dirt Jumper 2.0


Late 2018, after breaking his quasi dirt jumper, our youngest son bought a new and appropriate  frame to handle the stress of all his antics. The above photo was his first attempt, namely transferring components, Since then he's added disc brakes, a strong rear wheel, blue pedals, and recently some purple bling to his handle bars. He's put his bicycle through the ringer in the past year, going with friends to a public jumps course, made new friends there, and I unfortunately had to take him to ER with bloody face once - and hopefully only once - because he had a concussion.

His passion lately has been being a member of all three seasons of running sports in high school. It's been great to watch him grow comfortable within this group as he entered his senior year. I've noticed that he hangs out with both sets of friends who often overlap. As a parent, who's known since he was an infant, that he was a mover, and in his toddler/elementary school years we paid him to run laps outside around our house - in the snow also - until he took to doing it without payment as a personal challenge and part of his daily routine. It's funny how children's personalities can develop at a very young age. His current thing is wanting to go to bike school after graduation.

Because of watching our youngest son grow, create, experiment, his enthusiasm for dirt jumping, attending fat bike demo days with me, renting downhill bikes with friends, has influenced/introduced me to dirt riding. And I think the comfort of riding Kingdom Trails last summer has sealed the deal.

I must have my own off-road machine.