Ping..........SCRAPE...PING

It was another wonderful January day with temps 10 degrees above normal. Can't pass a day like today to get the BMC Race Master out again. I met Jason and the local cult hero for an easy spin through the country at 2 pm. The lot was still pretty full from classes still going on. I like this getting out at noon and not having to attend all day.



A couple of days ago our local cult hero spewed out a pretty coarse blog. I don't want to sound conceded or anything or seem like I'm paranoid but I somehow felt the angle of his sharp ball point pen (computer mouse) was pointed in my general direction. I have known Mike along time (20 yrs) and we can say just about anything to one another. After riding on Monday I made sure that he got the message that we were riding Tuesday. He ponied up and confirmed via modern technology that he would be attending this ride at 2pm. Captain Dingo was wanting to ride with us but time scheduling conflicts and other insanely important events that keep the local mountain biking community functioning would keep him from sharing his valuable time with us today. FOOTNOTE: he's the VP of a very powerful organization here in the mountains of East Tennessee. Anwho back to the story, LCH showed up at the house, we rode down and met Jason. After we decided what route we were taking we sat off on an easy pace not killing it like some want to right off the bat. We were over near Greenwood dr. and I stated the fact that it was beginning to smell like spring with all the cow farms in the area. Jason swung his head around to comment and drifted out, I was already along side Mike half way deep into his rear wheel but not close at all. Well this orchestrated set of events were set into play...... Jason drifts out, Mike steers left, I'm up beside Mike, his rear skewer starts picking my front Mavic SL spokes like a banjo dueling a guitar at a 24hr Bluegrass festival. Maybe it was picking my spokes like this or this or possibly this. My elbows locked up full tilt on the bars waiting to be slammed into the asphalt after the second spoke spewed the high pitched sound of ***%^&%$$%^#%&^#&%%$$%%$^&%$***. I didn't crash or even come close but it scared the whiz outta me. I looked down and yea, the wobble was there in the front wheel, glad they weren't NEW wheels. Everybody was apologizing left and right but it was no one's fault just a bad thing happened, I'm glad no one or nothing was hurt as bad as it could have. I adjusted everything as good as possible and we continued on although I rode the brakes quite a bit off the hills very leery of the front wheel's integrity. I made it home and snapped a picture of the "twang" that took place today. 2 spokes please, there's a box full at Hampton I will fix it Friday. It's going to be raining here for the next few days, time to tinker!

On a good note: it didn't get the "KSYRIUM" labeled spoke!

LAter G.................................