Fat Boy Deluxe

Finally back on the bike after a little break. The weather in the DC metro area has been so messed up lately, I think it’s causing mood swings. One day it’s 65° and the next it’s 30°. This in turn leads to a huge freeze/thaw cycle that is only made worse by the impending riders who decide that a 65° day is just too nice to pass up a day of riding. The wild shifts in temperatures have also made the sky open up and dump a good amount of rain on us, which then ends up getting caught in the same freeze/thaw cycle that helped to produce it. The end result is no dirt love for me. On this past Saturday we got another 65° day and with the nice temps, bright sun, and blue sky, I made a small pilgrimage over to Wakefield.

Strapped with the Bianchi Pista I headed for the dirt roads. The park was busy with people taking advantage of the day. People playing tennis, working out, running, mountain biking, even saw a guy with his 4 kids out on the trails. As I passed a few spots where the trail spits out to the gravel road, I walked onto the singletrack to find the horror that is a rutted muddy mess. It’s a sad sight, but I know the good volunteers at M.O.R.E will work to fix any trail damage that comes from this winter. If those volunteers could spend as much time building new trail as they do repairing damaged trail, we would have a hell of a lot of trail! For this reason alone, I wish we had more dirt roads in the area. It’s just something you don’t find a lot of in such an urbanized area. Muddy conditions on the roads is just more of a workout… Anyway, after walking up to the trails to scope out the damage, I grabbed the Pista and rocked out a few more miles on the gravel/dirt/paved path that is the Fairfax CCT (Cross County Trail). It was my first chance to stretch the legs in quite a bit and damn it felt good! If it wasn’t for the lack of mud clearance on the Pista, it would be a really great offroad animal. But I’m now back to the conclusion I made just before the end of last year…the Pista will remain on the road, at least until the trails are super dry, which won’t be happening for a couple more months. I’m hoping that once I’m finished putting together the touring bike I’m building up from crap in my shed, that it will have a good amount of clearance.

All those old 70’s road frames seem to have pretty good clearance being they used 27″ wheels, which end up being slightly bigger than 700c. Not to mention, most road bikes these days are tweaked more for a racing lifestyle, not an everyday riding lifestyle. Once I buy the special tool needed to pull the old crankset/bb out, I’ll be on my way. The only thing I have to buy (other than the crankset tool) is a new threaded stem, preferably something with a removable face plate and I should then be able to put her all together. I’ll try to remember to take pics of the build process, should be pretty easy.

DT