A Zoomed in View

by Abbey

My dad is at the bottom of the huge hill standing by his blue mountain bike while I am standing at the top deciding if I should ride or walk my bike down. I see him standing there, smiling, and waiting for me to ride down the hill. I try to convince myself that my father made it down the hill over the roots and bumps in various places. I know my dad is waiting for me so we can continue on our ride. I unfortunately am still standing here evaluating if I should ride down the hill. I watch him take a good, long drink. I decide to slowly let my bike roll down the hill. Then, suddenly I pull my feet up on the pedals and zoom down the rough hill on my bike. "Good job!" He says happily to me, still smiling at me. We start heading down the wide, sandy trail. Dad is riding right beside me as we swerve around trees and do wheelies over roots. We laugh and have an awesome time as we continue down the trail. I am so thrilled and proud that I was able to tackle the hill on my bike.

Forest Hills Time Trial

Today, for the maiden voyage of Cindy's Superlight, we held the first multi-annual Forest Hills Time Trial. The Forest Hills Natural Area is a little park on the edge of our neighborhood. One of our neighbors did a nice job with trail construction and put in some benches as a scout project a couple of years ago. Sometimes, when it's dry enough, we zip through the area on our bikes. I'd estimate the park to be between 1 and 2 acres, with perhaps 300 to 500 meters of flat, leaf-covered trails.

After finishing the Superlight build, we went out for a casual ride around the neighborhood on our mountain bike fleet (I rode the old Stumpy since my Rize has fallen). We pedaled through the park, and I stopped to take some pictures while the kids and Cindy rode laps. Suddenly, I was inspired to hold a contest!

Put your front tire here, ride around the loop as fast as you can, and we'll stop the timer when you cross this line! Around and around we went. I won, of course. My best time was 18 seconds. Quinn's best was 24. Cindy and Abbey held times somewhere in between. The timing was atrocious and quite irrelevant. It was silly fun.

Here's Quinn on his Scott:



Abbey's riding Heather's old mountain bike now. Chris took it apart and had it powdercoated (Abbey picked the color), rebuilt it, and sent it to us. It's actually a very nice ride, with older but high-end components. It's smooth and quiet, and the lightest mountain bike in the fleet at only 24 pounds. Sometime I'll have to post some nice pics of it, but this is it for now:



Momma on the Superlight:



And Quinn again:



This summer we'll be trying to get in a mix of tandem riding on roads and some mountain biking on singles. The tandeming is great fun and I certainly don't want that to end, but I also want the kids to have the chance to improve their skills and strength riding on their own. We had some good times riding local trails last fall, and we'll try to continue that this year.

The Superlight

This winter I've been taking an unplanned break from blogging. Now that spring is here, I'm going to try to get started again. We'll see how it goes.

This entry is about Cindy's new bicycle. One of my more enjoyable winter projects has been to build up a mountain bike for Cindy. What that really means, is that I bought the frame several weeks ago, and then wasted way too much time trying to figure out which parts I should buy for it. Eventually, I ordered the whole mess from Tree Fort Bikes, in Ypsilanti, MI. This weekend, I finished putting the bike together.

In the photos below, the build is complete, with exception of the wheelset. Currently it's wearing the wheels from my Cannondale mountain bike. Cindy's wheels aren't here yet, but mine were available. That is only becuase my Cannondale frame was apparently defective. With luck, Cannondale will eventually be sending me a new frame. Until then, the whole bicycle, sans frame and wheelset, sits in a box in our basement. However, this is not that story. This entry is about the Superlight.

Cindy's Superlight is a 2006ish model, size small. The fork is a Rock Shox Reba Race, that was apparently installed on a factory-built bike but was never sold or used. So it's a couple years old, but new. The rest of the stuff on it is new. Although the model name is Superlight, it's only moderately light: as you see it here, it's 28.0 pounds. It's likely that it will lose about another pound once we mount it's own wheels, as the wheels from my bike are pretty hefty. Who would buy a bike called "Moderatelylight??"

It seems to be a pretty good fit for Cindy. She doesn't have quite as much standover clearance as she has on her old Scott hardtail, but that is, in part, the nature of a dual suspension bike.







Cindy is already nursing her first injury from crashing on the Superlight. We were in the driveway, playing with the suspension and taking pictures, and somehow she and the bike fell onto her knee. I was useless: I stood two feet away and did nothing. I'm sorry, Cindy.

By the way, that little red strap on the down tube just below the head tube? That's to protect the frame from the knob on the right side of the fork crown. I was disappointed to discover that the knob will hit the frame when the wheel is turned 90 degrees right. The red strap is a temporary cusion. We'll need to come up with a more permanent solution to keep the fork from hitting and damaging the frame. It's probably going to be a small strap that gets tight when the wheel is turned about 80 degrees, and then a rubber bumper on the frame as backup to the strap. Any other suggestions?

Quinn's Awesome Leprechaun Trap

Quinn and I built a leprechaun trap. Watch it work:



We had great time building it together.