A momentous day, two nightrides, and upcoming alleycat

photo: courtesy of Dan Smith

Last Tuesday we went for a night ride like most Tuesdays. The conditions at Hartland are unbelievable right now and everything is dry and tacky. This results in an even more enjoyable ride than usually. Partly because of the awesome conditions and partly because it was simply about f'in time, me and Shayne finally cleared Switchbacks. Double whammy, 2x10! A momentous day indeed... I couldn't help but exclaim: Yeahhh!!! I've finally slain you, you evil bitch of a climb! and Shayne said something like: "mumble mumble this thing is f'in awesome, it just wants to climb," as he sat down and looked at the Stumpjumper demo bike that we just built up. The Stumpjumper sat well with Shayne, apart from a slight miscalculation on the first drop of Small craft warning, which caused a bent wheel and a puncture. After we got that kind of straightened out, it was not an easy task to keep up with Shayne as he mashed the pedals on that stumpy and generally rode it like he stole it. Somebody has got to break it in right? I was calling him all sorts of evil names until finally settling on speedy stanchions, as a twist on his known nickname, dirty.
We had the privilege of riding with Dan Smith and his buddy for awhile, and Dan Showed us the correct way to attack the pizza drop. I told him that I might do that sometime after I grow up.
Mr. Smith is powered by an air/beer cooled nuclear reactor so he can't stop for too long at a time unless there is beer (this can be an inconvenience when riding with the Rider's Crew as we are all christians and puritans and don't touch alcohol, cough cough) so when Shayne was doing minor surgery on the stumpy, the Dan Crew took off and was not to be seen until after the ride. We also had a new rider with us that night, Lisa from Australia and she did well by her country. Our crew consisted of Me, Justin, Andrew (current RSC trophy holder) and Shayne. Justin tried a couple of times to take the crash trophy from Andrew but did not manage to crash in a spectacular enough manner. A valiant effort none the less. Justin has a special routine when crashing and it goes something like this: Uh oh (universal) ...CRASH!!! "Hahahahahha" sproing! back in saddle and ride. He is indestructible that little ninja, and fears nothing. "I believe in nazing Lebowski" (insert German accent).

Nic Nicholson and Lucy showed up just to barbecue our meat which was incredibly nice of them to do. Nic couldn't ride since he's looking for a new place to live, which takes priority over riding at this time.

If anyone knows of a three bedroom place for rent for young, soon to be parents from England. Shoot us an e-mail and we'll rely it to Nic and Lucy.

Last night we had another night ride to say farewell to our crew member Ryan "Lavadome" Wickham, who's moving to Campell River for a few months at least. It was a bare bones ride with just three riders: Me, Ryan and Jess who's visiting from Colorado.

Justin is ready for carnage.

In other news there will be a kick-ass alleycat tonight like we've mentioned before. Me and Justin will be riding and there will be a Bike art show afterwards, and fermented hops. Be there or be square.