dirty latina!

hehe...did that get your attention? well, decided to take the Salsa Caballero out for a change. Being a fiery latina makes her a bit possessive when it comes to riding time, and I was wary of her acting up (aka endo-ing face-planting, or having a mechanical). As you may have noticed, I've been riding the Tingle exclusively for more than a month! So going back to gears AND front/rear suspension will be something "new" to me, and she needed some good old loving and attention on my part. Suffice to say the ride with Eric (Ellsworth dude) and Polly (on his brand-new Turner 5-spot aka "Tina") started well, and we hooked up with a group of 9 riders on the way up. The second hillclimb has become quite rutted and technical thanks to the rains, and dropping her down to the granny gear allowed me to clear it no problem! If I was on the Tingle, I'd probably end up walking up. Unfortunately, Polly had some problems with his Crank Brothers Mallet pedal, which somehow worked itself out of the crankarm! Not good. We were able to re-attach it to the crank-arm but the pedal itself refused to stay on the spindle. Suffice to say Polly and I had to turn back halfway into the ride, and take a shorter route back home, with Polly pedaling on the spindle of what used to be his left pedal.

Lots of mud (as you can see) but our singletrack experience was brought to a halt by a little kitten on the trail. The little rascal was meowing away, and Polly and I agreed to take it to a safe place. We dropped the kitty (nice pussy) off at one of the local resident's farmhouses (the Mom said they already have 3 kittens, and I told her, well here, have a 4th! hehe). Certainly a better place than sitting on the middle of the trail!

We bombed the fire-road descent, clocking close to 50 km/h when the Cab decided to have a fit. As I leaned hard ona right hand turn I felt the rear end wallow and started to hear the unmistakable flappety-flap of a tire that's lost all its air. A quick inspection of the tire and tubes revealed a nice cut, no doubt caused by the tube getting pinned against the rim, possibly by a rock or square-edged bump. My Mavic Crosslinks suffered some minor damage, as you can see.



Nothing major, thankfully. As a new wheelset is something I am not ready to spend for hehe. A swap of inner tubes and we limp our way back to the parking lot.

So is it back to gears and squish? Well, Yes and NO. That's the best thing I like about alternating between these two bikes- you get to appreciate the one while riding the other!

On the Tingle, you can ride "quietly", no shifting and suspension issues to worry about, BUT you must pick your lines carefully.

On the Salsa, well, the suspension and tranny keeps you fresh and comfortable on all-day rides.

They actually complement each other. Now if I can only get the two of them to get along! hehe

Of course, once we reached home, it was shower time!