off road assault on brian's patience

linus called me last night and convinced me it'd be a good idea to meet for a 7am mountain bike ride in umstead. riding that early typically isn't my style, but it sounded like a good idea because (1) it was supposed to reach 101 degrees today and (2) bryan had to work later in the day.

after a somewhat late start, linus caught a flat within about 5 minutes. about 5 minutes after that, i washed out my front wheel, got back up to remount my bike and found that my front wheel looked like a taco. maybe not a totally folded-over crunchy taco, but at least a wobbly and unridable soft-taco. in either case, when you start comparing your bicycle components to food items, you've got problems. fortunately, we had 3 of the durham mechanics with us. linus redeemed himself from his earlier flat by de-tacoing my wheel with two precision bashes against the ground (not recommended for real tacos). a little spoke re-tentioning and it was totally ridable--although i worried that the fix was only temporary and the wheel would turn into some other foodstuff at any given moment.

back up and rolling again, linus gets a second flat. to avoid a schleck-mechanical-controversy, we clearly indicated that brian should roll ahead so he can get back to work. after that, things went much more smoothly. however, we did run into calvin in the parking area who said that he cracked his frame after the last ride and had just received a replacement. that's fast turnaround, which is a helpful reminder of why it's nice to buy a bike from a company with a good warranty (specialized, in this case) and a good warranty department, as well as from a local shop who can help expedite the situation (the raleigh bicycle chain, in this case).

ride well and don't break shit.