The Jungle Arises

Wednesday was an incredibly busy day for me. I had errands, surprises, and a task I wanted to complete facing me that had me running until the sun went down.

First up was the hitch I had ordered for the upcoming trip to Texas. It was scheduled for 9:00am. What possessed me to think it was 9:30am, I don't know, but when I pulled out the appointment card to confirm I was right about 9:30am, there it was. In ink. 9:am sharp.

Whoops!

I was 15 minutes late, and the proprietor of the establishment where I had it installed was gracious. No problem, he said, and he had me out of there with my 2" receiver hitch installed in an hour.  That was great, but the hurried tone was to continue throughout the day. I no sooner got home than I found out Rock Shox had announced the 2012 29"er fork line and I needed to hustle the info online to get the story out.

And speaking of the Rock Shox announcement, they are getting flak already for this Revelation 29 model, which is a longer travel (120-140) fork that many are "underwhelmed" by. It seems once you've whetted the appetite with the old Reba 140mm fork, you need to actually "up the ante", raise the bar", or "step forward", as it were. It just seems to many riders that Rock Shox revamped the old Reba 140mm and didn't really take that next step up.

Now, keep in mind that the technologies in this fork make the older Reba 140 seem archaic in comparison. New damper spring design, new rebound circuit, and Dual Air climbing mode are all nice things, but where folks wanted Rock Shox to go was something burlier, something longer.

Say...........like a Rock Shox Lyrik 26 inch fork in 29"er size, maybe? Yes. Exactly.

And add backwards compatibility with older suspension bikes in as another carrot riders want to catch. I'm not sure that is wise, but, there ya go. I guess it's good if you have that older frame and want to be able to use it some more with a newer fork.

Well, that will have to wait for another day to get figured out. And who knows? We haven't seen all the 2012 cards played yet.

Now, I wanted to get something else taken care of too, and get a ride in on Wednesday. So, I was still running after posting the long piece on Rock Shox.

The Velocity Blunt SL wheel set in Comp Flavor had hit the door step and needed to be set up. I had prototype Specialized Ground Control tires to mount on them, and a bike just waiting to slap them on, but that assembly takes time. Fortunately, I had gone ahead on Tuesday and set up the Blunt SL's with Velocity's Velotape and the job was expedited on Wednesday by doing so.

The ride I usually take on "new" set ups, (just in case of failure, ya know?), is in the Green Belt, and honestly, that was all I had time for anyway. I went through to find that there were some really tacky, slippery, gooey mud spots. I had to stop to jump a small rivulet that had cut a three to four foot gash across the trail, only to find my weight bearing foot starting to slide into the water. At the last possible second, I made a leap to the other side, whether I wanted to or no. It was that, or fall into muddy water and get my shoes sucked off, most likely!

Then after a stop for some image grabbing, I saw them. Mosquitoes! They finally hatched and were cruising for blood. Fortunately, the bright sunshine and heat were confusing their sensors, or I'd have been getting poked for certain. Off I went before I had tempted fate too long.

The paths are beginning to get overgrown, and soon, the "jungle-like" green will rule all in the Green Belt. Since I am going on vacation, that was likely my last attempt at those trails till Fall. Until the jungle falls asleep again, and allows passage of my two wheeled transport.