Ola'
HJ, Scooby and I met up for a ride at West Hartford and had an adventure worth
sharing and at least one new addition for the bike graveyard. 4PM-The ride
started out pretty typical out of main lot to singletrack along the fence line.
We both ride the big log but HJ exits of with a bit more grace. Long climb to
the top
of the power lines via single track and Scooby only cuts Buda off two or three
times. Into the woods and I can see Buda has a few more tricks in his bag. In
addition to some textbook wheelie drops he is doing some bunnyhop move over some
lying logs. We both Wheelie the 2.5 footer and found two new rock
drops(3'&4') and hit them both and finally hucked that weird double ledge/drop
but passed on the big rock, Buda rolled it and "I'll be back". After some
"hucking around" and what started out as a really fun ride everything was
stopped short just before the logride when we both flatted simultaneously. Buda
had no tube
but thankfully I had a tube for myself and a patch kit with 10 new patches(pay
attention, this is foreshadowing). Buda needed two for what turned out to be a
classic snakebite. Buda rides the log wheelie off the end and I endo onto the
rocks but go back to complete stunt. We get back into a nice rhythm and I had
just shown HJ this cool wheelie drop rock when he flats again. This time after
fixing the first snakebite and starting to inflate his tire he finds another,
that's 4 more patches, inflate again and the tire is still leaking, HJ
rips off one of the patches thinking it's the culprit and realizes his mistake,
yes, another puncture. At
this point at least 15 people have asked "are we allright" and this time and
tell this guy "were not and does he have a tube". He graciously gives us his
only tube and were back in business. I jump on my steed and realize that I
flatted on the same rock. Two patches for his first flat, two more snakebites
makes four
more, one ripped off and two more patches makes two,four....Eight! well, I have
no more tubes and locate the puncture. My tire fails to inflate and I find the
other puncture, snakebite two hundred fifty..what the %$#@! Two more patches
makes ten! I get the tire seated and we are off. 50 yards down the trail and my
tire rolls the rim, tube explodes and I am Downhilling on my Mavic 317. Wait a
minute! we still have Buda's snakebitten tube with..seven patches. I get the
tube set, by this time HJ and I can patch a flat, have the tire back on the rim
and seated in under 30 seconds. We make the mistake of setting up shop in the
middle of a downhill and are nearly runover by a troop of like 20 riders.
Scooby's running between bikes, there's dust everywhere, another round of "are
we allright" and most of the humor of the situation is lost. I begin
inflating my tire and the tube as well as my SIDEWALL explode. We hike-a-bike
with Buda
carrying my tire and rim my Bullit over my shoulder and Scooby under foot. 8PM
We Finally hit the lot and asked to leave over megaphone by some chick in a
security vehicle. My wife still thinks we went to Cahoots. I think Buda may keep
the tube for posterity sake. He tells me its the first and only tube that tire
has seen. I suppose the ride deserves a rating.
Rating: 10 partially used condoms/patches. One extraordinary large pubic hair
you find in your ham and cheese sandwich after biting into something crunchy
and realizing there is nothing crunchy about ham and cheese.