catching up... socially

Last night was our weekly social ride at Col. FB.  My plan was to get to the trail early so I could switch out my cog (finally) to a respectable number of teeth.  Traffic said otherwise.

I arrived in the lot about 10 minutes prior to start time.  I assessed the "social paceness" of the group and decided to let them go ahead of me as I switched things out - I would catch up.  As the group was pulling out I was getting my rear wheel back on - oh, I'm super close, it won't take me long to catch them... oops - now i have to adjust the EBB.  I first rotate it with the cranks up - nope, I wan't them down.  Play with the chain tension (I think I was running it too tight as the cranks weren't rotating super freely when I'd throw them back by hand) until I get something that isn't restricting the cranks and doesn't have a ton of play in the line.

As soon as the EBB was cranked down I hop on the Glow Worm and take off after the group.  Damnit.  I didn't adjust the seat height... that's ok, I'll do it when I catch them.  As I'm flying through the trail the 18 feels oh so good!!  I'd been lazy and stayed with the 20 for way too long.  Plus, with the overtightened chainline I think the 20 was feeling harder than it was supposed to anyway... if that is at all possible?

Damnit, I forgot to put air in the tires... on a couple roots felt like things felt pretty damn squishy in the back... it's ok, I should be catching them soon.  I did my best to stay light on the bike, getting off the seat (and rear) whenever I was getting through the GNAR.  There has been some recent work done over at Beatty - which was mostly good.  A couple bridges were built up in areas that held moisture - that was good.  A lot of roots were removed and the trail was smoother (and probably faster) than before - that was good for me trying to catch up and stay off my rear wheel... but not good in that they didn't need to be removed...

Halfway through the trail I started catching glimpses of the group as the trail winded back around itself... how close are they really??  I worked to catch them and as the trail spills out to the road before it's final pop back into the woods and back to the start I come up on the group stopping to talk.  Took me about 30 minutes of pedaling to catch them.  But it was nice to have to push, especially with the Southern Singlespeed Championships coming up this weekend.  The brakes on the Glow Worm are all fixed and magical!  It was a very strange experience to feel the brake engage right away and not have to pull all the way down to get any stopping power - actually took a little getting used to!  But getting through the trail at speed got me back in the mindset of flicking the Glow Worm around... I'm excited for this weekend.  I kinda wonder if 18 is enough for the trail down there?  It's all I got, so I'll run it.