New Weapons and Races

The local mountain bike community has been awaiting this announcement from Eddie for quite some time. So here it is a new hundy festival within two hours of the house. He had to tease me though as this race is two weeks before the SM-100. That settles it then, I will be riding my bike 200 race miles in two weeks. Let’s get it on!

In other news I was able to make my circuit out at Paris last night. I was trying out some new weapons. I recently received some Nevegals that I installed for the first time last night. Here they are in all their fatness:

Now you must first understand something when I tell you about these tires. While I was riding my suspension bikes I never really took the time to research tire options. I just kind of ran whatever. Now with the Drunken Monkey I pay very close attention to these things.

The Nevegals inspired a new confidence in me. I have seriously never ran a tire with this aggressive of a tread pattern and volume. Wow is all I can say. I could even feel sand and dirt flying off the tire onto my legs around corners. There were two times last night were I was really testing the tire and my own limits when I would hit a root and send the front tire through the air. I would un-weight the front end and get ready for disaster but the tire just hooked right back up. AWESOME!

My other new weapon is shown here:
Yup I got some “adventure racing” shoes. I figure most of my rides involve hike-a-bike so why not get something more suitable to this design. The soles aren’t as stiff as I would like but that is the trade off for being able to actually hike over rocks with some sense of safety.

The shoes are definitely comfortable and the first ride I had with them was over 40 miles so I am confident in them already. It is weird to look down and see a normal looking shoe though. It doesn’t seem right.

I got back to the top of Sulphur Springs just in time to see the sunset. I was able to snap this one after I stopped gasping for air.