SMALL ENGINE BASICS

I was glad to see the sunshine today! After a wet week (that we desperately needed) I was happy to see the sun come up this morning. I wasn't able to get hardly anything done this week so today I tried to get things in order. I'm wanting to get ALOT of riding in this weekend. I came home after getting off work early and tore my lawnmower's carb apart. It was nasty. It stopped running last week. The yard was desperately needing attention. Got it all back together and first crank it started! Wow that was awesome.

Its nice that all those years of racing MX whereI was tuning, tearing down and rebuilding motocross bike carbs came in handy. I proceeded to cut the grass and get things done around the house. I was hoping to get a TNR route ride in before dusk but no chance, so I went for a run instead. I suck at running but I like it! I keep pushing myself and I'm slowly but surely shaving seconds off my 5K times.

Tomorrow Austin's first Cross Country meet is at Holston Dam. After that I'm coming home and hitting the road on the S-Works Tarmac. I have Erwin in my sights. Knock that out and then I will see what kind of ride I can get in at ETSU. Probably wont be more than two laps I'm guessing after the road ride. Sunday I'm either heading to climb Kitsuma and Curtis Creek rd or its going to be Bent Creek,not sure yet haven't made up my mind. Monday will be Warriors early then something on the road to finish it out so I can be done when Angie gets back from Indiana. My window for the road is 75+ miles and MTB is 40+miles. I would like more but that will keep me satisfied. I also installed another front gear on my geared 29er. I was running a 1X9 setup (32 X 12-34). There has been a couple of times (curtis creek) I would have liked a little more low gear this year. But the 22 "granny" that most bikes have is stupid easy and wastes alot of aerobic energy. One can walk faster than one can pedal in this gearing ratio. I opted for a 26 inner. This weekend I will see how it works. If all is well I'm thinking about going form a 32 middle to a 36. A 26-36 would cover most ratios I need with a bash guard doing duties as the outer ring. So we will see this weekend.

Later G.................................................