Fat Boy Deluxe

Last night we took the TNS ride back to the dirt. With the random weather of this winter we have had quite a few warm evenings, but the warm nights came on the heels of rainy days or snowy weather. This always makes for bad trail conditions as the freeze/thaw cycle really takes a toll. Well last night we got out and rode and the trails were dry and fast! For some, it was the first real dirt ride of 2006.

I tried to get the TNS crew to take a trip to Colt’s Neck having ridden the trails there a few days prior and knowing they were incredibly mud free, but the vote went to Wakefield. I see positives and negatives of both, so it’s a tough choice. You can go to Wakefield and ride with a ton of people (if they aren’t riding *with* you, you are still passing them out on the trail a lot) - that can be a positive and a negative in itself. More people usually means you can have seperate groups riding at different speeds, but it also comes with the possibility of more mechanicals. Wakefield is also probably a little closer than Colt’s Neck. Now Colt’s Neck is an actual loop, so you don’t end up riding the same trails over and over as we do at Wakefield, so I see that as a positive for Colt’s Neck. There’s also a lot less trail traffic in general at Colt’s Neck, and like I said before, both positive and negative…more in the positive range for me. Anyway, when there’s a choice between Wakefield and anywhere else for dirt, we have routinely gone to Wakefield, mostly I think, because there are going to be other people there, like the Rickster for example. I’m not complaining, I just like a little variation. Riding with people like Ricky makes me ride faster than I would by myself, so it’s not hurting me at all…with the exception of lungs.

So back to Wakefield, we hooked up with Braun and headed out in our own little group. Eventually Ricky found us and started leading us around. We covered the newer race trails about 5 times before heading over to the Bowl and doing the trails over there. At some point I managed to fall on my side and my phone fell out of my jacket. Ended up finding it right where I thought it would be after our ride was over, so that’s good. Stoner bailed early, citing a bad lunch that might be coming up sooner rather than later. We continued on and ended up with a little under 10 miles. The biggest thing on the night for me was riding a 29er the entire night. Not so long story to be put in another post along with my impressions of how it rode.

DT