The Weekend That Didn't Happen, Nov. 3-4, 2007

[Slade]

I had big plans this weekend. Funny how things don't always work out.

Saturday was going to be a day spent riding with a few of the Alatrail gang at Lake Lurleen. Game day traffic wasn't accounted for and everyone bailed out after spending time stuck on 59. I knew the back roads and had no trouble getting to Tuscaloosa.

Not liking to ride Lurleen solo but not willing to give up on a ride I went to Sokol and did some riding. Unfortunatly my trip was cut short. I had ridden Mars, Swingset, Dela Reyes, Enchanted Forest, Antique Creek, Sokol Main, Rock Hill and finally ended up on Transformer. It was here where things went bad. I cross the boggy little creek area and am doing a nice clip when my back wheel stops. Looks like I have a big stick worked up into my gears and derailur. I clear the stick and check out my derailur, all seems good so I start riding again. I get back to Sokol Main, hit Troll, Board Hill, then go to Lower Psycho to Five Bridges, I clear these trails and run up Shangri La to Cemetary. All the time I am hearing a clicking and think it has to do with by derailur. I stop and check things out again and what do I find. Broken Spokes. I bend them out of the way hit Brutality and run into Michael right before the bridge crossing. We talk a minute and he sugests I run over to VeloCity and get the spoke repaired before the Lurleen group ride the next day.

I take his suggestion to heart I pound on out of the trails and to my car, hateing that I missed Creek, Dead Armadillo, Upper Creek, and Death by Concrete (curses on Death by Concrete). I load up my bike, change shoes and head over to VeloCity hoping they can do a quick repair. To my dismay they closed at 3 and I arrived at 3:15. So no go on the repair and no go on the group ride on Sunday.

I spent the evening Saturday eating shrimp, watching football and then going to see the new Steve Corell movie. Sunday was spent sleeping and watching Nascar. I would have rather been Mountain Biking.

See you all on the trails soon. Bike is going to Bike Link on Monday and they are always fast on my repairs.

[theprocon]

Man that sounds similar to what we ended up with. I found out a few hours after bailing out of traffic that the interstate was closed....CLOSED between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa for nearly an hour. That on top of the game traffic......it was not what we signed up for.

So, after sitting in traffic for over an hour and clearing no more than 6 miles, we decided to ride out at Tannehill since we were in the area. It was a fun trip....lots of fast downhill, and very scenic. We crossed some crazy swinging bridge that lead out into the Cahaba National Wildlife refuge, and got some really tough but good riding in. Not more than 10 miles total and we hadn't scratched the surface......but it did spawn the idea of a two day ride with a light camping rig attached. Details to follow.....

[Richard]

Slade, you should have come to Lurleen anyway. I had two full suspension bikes with me and would have loaned you one. I tried out a cheap bar mounted video camera. Worked quite well but the files are Huge! One was 1.5 GIGS! Have to experiment with it. Using it on the night ride tonight.

[Slade]

Riding a full suspension would have been nice but I feel a little funny riding another bike. I'm afraid mine would get mad and throw me when I got back on her. Bikelink was kind enough to fix her while I waited tonight.

Thanks for the kind offer anyway.

Good luck with the video. Hope you post some so we may see what it looks like.