Fat Boy Deluxe

Guess it’s official now. I’ve been leading a ride out in Reston for MORE/City Bikes for the last few weeks. Why is it for MORE and City Bikes? Well because MORE has ride leader insurance and City Bikes is a MORE sponsor, of which I’m on their team. This year City Bikes is trying a new approach to the team and part of that is having team members lead City Bikes rides. Road rides will need to leave from the shop, but dirt rides start at the trailhead…just trying to do my part you know. I’m hoping to get an MOU signed with the park so we can have official night riding, you know, with lights and everything. Right now it’s light enough that we can do one loop and still be back at the cars before sundown, but that translates only into about an hour or so of riding. As of right now there is only legal night riding on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and all of it is contained in one park, Wakefield. I’d like to see the night riding in Fairfax County expanded since we have done so well at Wakefield and there is so many other places to ride in the area. This would give the Wakefield trails a breather and hopefully turn riders on to other area trails.

I gotta say, there’s nothing like real night riding. Ripping it hard, having your light racing to keep up with your bike, brain shutting down and letting the the body’s pure reactions take control…it’s a little slice of heaven. When it’s all said and done it makes you a much better rider for having to stay on top of things, riding fast yet keeping the bike in control, even when you’re not sure what’s around the corner. It’s exhilarating and nerve racking, all at the same time. It’s made all the better when you know the trail well and you have the opportunity to ride under a full moon. Cut the lights, push the limits, let your brain make all the connections and do all the work…just pedal.
Well this Wednesday night we added a few new people to the ride group and lost a few that usually make it out. All the numbers evened out and we still fit into the mechanical free number range. I’ve found that usually with less than 10 people on a ride there is a much greater chance that you will have a mechanical free ride…well it’s worked so far. The max we have had on this ride is 10 and we usually sit around 7. Last night 7 was the magic number.

Now Colt’s Neck is a trail I’ve ridden many a times, but so have a lot of people on the ride. All the same, it feels good to have people comment on the specific lines you take, one of the many benefits of riding my particular bike. We also had a couple of people who hadn’t ridden the extra piece to the loop that allows you to ride more dirt and less pavement. I think we are down to about 4 blocks of pavement, but if we took the carriage trail that could become pretty close to nil. I think I’ll go that route next week.

It was a good ride, but I didn’t take any pics. I didn’t even bring the camera along this time…I know the blog is majorly lacking pics lately. I’ll see what I can dig up.

DT