Happiness is a new bike

The new bike! And yes, those are cows.

She's a 47cm 2008 Cannondale Cross XR6. (Or X6. Or Cyclocross 6, depending upon which website you look at.) Whatever you call her, she's awesome. Still, being the person that I am, I can't be happy if I don't have something to fix and fiddle with. I had been planning on upgrading the Tiagra drivetrain to Sram Rival from the start, but today's ride convinced me. Moving up to the big ring took some time and effort (compared to the snappy Sram X9 I'm used to on my mountain bike) and I definitely need more than 26 teeth back there for the Hadley hills. I wasn't forced to get off the bike and push at any point, but not being able to spin made it difficult and a little frustrating.

I now find myself with more 700c tires than I know what to do with. I already owned some slicks, and this bike came with a set of knobbies AND semi-slicks. I guess I'm set for all sorts of conditions now. I'm excited to start customizing; first order up is some new color-coordinating bar tape and bottle cages (I'm thinking yellow?!) and a set of eggbeaters. Expect to see a veritable garage sale of parts up for sale as I begin fine-tuning this bike into precisely what I want it to be. I already threw on my Specialized Ruby saddle, so first up is the saddle it came with, a black Selle San Marco Ponza. If you want it, make me an offer!

This little boat launch is about a quarter mile off the road and the view (complete with swans!) makes it one of my favorite places to stop and have a snack.

Today's 19 mile dirt road loop was fun. I found myself feeling confident taking fast turns on gravel roads, and even though I was taking it easy, I hit 38mph several times on the roller coaster ride that is Fox Lake Road. Climbing was a bit of a drag with the gearing, but due to the relative light weight of the bike compared to the 29er, I made it work. It was a good ride, and fairly uneventful.

Well, except for the turkey on Fox Lake Road. Normally during a ride on back roads you see all kinds of animals crossing the road. Squirrels, deer, any number of birds, even cats. But rarely do you see them using the road as a thoroughfare, which is precisely what this turkey did. My bike must've startled it, and it started running down the road in front of me. This was at the start of a downhill, so naturally I started chasing it, figuring it would move out of the way. But it didn't. It just kept running in front of me, until I'd get really close. Then it lifted off for a few seconds at a time, gaining ground over me. I was really surprised at how fast the turkey was! This comical process repeated several times, for over a mile and over several hills. I never did catch the damn turkey. I'm just glad there was nobody around to laugh at me chasing a giant bird down the road.

I've been kind of stressed lately and this ride brought me perspective, some levity to my attitude, and really cheered me up. Funny how bikes can do that.

This weekend I'm thinking about doing cyclocross in Waterford. But, I hear that the giant orange thing with steps and a slide will be there, and frankly, I'm not too sure about that. It kind of scares me. We'll see.