A few pictures

I don't have much to say lately. But I've taken some pics.

Glen and I hung out at the 24 hour race last night and I took a bunch of pictures. There are also a few low-light pumptrack pics in here. And some other random bikey pics from the last week or so.

Like we need a reason

Until today, Maddie didn't have a bike for the pump track.

Thanks to Craigslist, now she does. And so does any other kid that shows up at Pat's. This bike will primarily live at Pat and Patti's to serve as the official kid pump tracker.

It's silly light. It's an Intense Mini XL, which is an American-made, aluminum BMX race bike. Way too much bike for what we need here.

I hope it gets a ton of use.

Maddie was a bit afraid of it at first. So we brought the saddle up and rode up and down the block a few times. She got the hang of it and is looking forward to trying out the pump track when it dries out a bit.

Pump track bliss

Glen ripping it up on the 24" cruiser.

The pump track is ridable. Last weekend, Joe and Jeff helped out. Patty and Pat have been working pretty much non-stop on the track for about 2 weeks now. And tonight a crew of folks came over for the opening of the track and did some more work. With a huge pile of clean dirt and a bunch of hands, it's amazing how quickly the track got dialed in from a pretty-ok-state to a slightly-better-than-mediocre state.

That tool is called a tamper.
And it sucks the life out of you.
Worse than cigarettes.

Clearly, there's more work to be done. But it's fun as shit to ride now. What's great is having a bunch of different bikes there to try riding it on. I rode it tonight on Pat's fancy new 26"-wheeled rigid dirt jump bike, Jake's 26" front-sus dirt jump bike, a bitchin' 24"-wheeled cruiser that Glen brought over, and my MB-2, which I stripped down to nothing (removed fenders, bag, rack, lights, squishy seat post, etc) and to which I swapped out the Pasalas for some super bitchin tires. Each bike ruled in its own way.

The track is just so much fun I can't stand it. But it kills me. I'm still on the mend with my stupid lung bronchitis-never-ending-sickness, but even if I were 100%, this track is an aerobic event. Man. I just want to ride it all day. But I can only do about 3 laps before I start to blow up.

Polish sausage and home-brew from Joe.

Typical session: ride 3 laps. Gasp on the side of the track. Drink a beer. Gasp. Repeat.

Good solid fun.

I barely got any pictures.

Liza stopped by on her way to a friend's house.
She's smiling like there's no tomorrow!

I'll try to do better next time by bringing my beat up camera -- which tends to get used more as it's in my pocket.

Sweet air

Warning. Very tenuous bike content.

Maddie and her buddy made a little ramp jumper thing. I was surprised by how much vertical she got with it.

Oh. She's so ripe for a pump track. (Or just track-track, I guess).

No pressure. Just sayin'.

Like I said, pretty tenuous bikewise.