Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Inaugural Ride - May 15

I had a busy long weekend and was out of town for bit. Therefore, I didn't have a chance to post the pics from the 13th edition of the Inauguaral Ride.

We had an absolutely perfect day for the ride - sunshine, blue skies, temps around 18C. Playing hookie from work were Big Ringers Tobin (Coco), Dr Peter, and myself and we were joined by friends Martin and Joe. The ride took us from Relais Plein Air in Hull, up the 15 to Kingsmere and onto the #1 to the Champlain Lookout where we did another loop through Western and #26 and made out way back - it was just over 4okms, I think.

We did not take a lot of pics as the mosquitoes and black flies were in abundance. Although, no one lost a body part to the bugs!

Joe riding by the swamp on the #15

Martin, Dr. Peter and Coco - No he didn't take his helmet off for the picture, he forgot it!

In 13 years I have only missed one Inaugural ride. I believe Tobin has made all of them.

It was my first ride on the big rigg. It definitely rolls over anything! My forks were not quite set as I want them and the ride was at bit harsh at times. I need to play with the settings. I may set the forks to 100mm from 80mm.

Dr. Peter and Joe enjoying post ride refreshments at the Chelsea Pub...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHAT?!?! You mean you aren't running it at 100mm?
Tsk tsk tsk . . . silly 29'er newbie. Let that monster roll!!!

fritZman said...

Gilles,

Mama said she likes only 80mm. Otherwise she'll feel heavy and like to flop in slow/tight turns. Also, reviews/forums have documented that Rebas tend to feel a lot stiffer at 80mm compared to 100mm.

I'll bet you're running kiddie wheel (as in 26") tire pressures. Due to the substantial increase in tire volume with 29", you need to really drop the tire pressures... like down to 30 psi, not 39psi as in 'thirties', but literally down to three-zero.

I can guarantee you that I'm a chunk heavier that you and even when I ran tubes in SMHL, I still got away with 27-28psi w/o flats. In Gats, I'd be down to 25 psi.

Papa G said...

Thanks Fritz, I'll give the lower tire pressure a shot. I'm going to Fortune on the weekend; so, we'll see how she performs.
g.

LennyG said...

Gilles, I like the colors in your seat... bike seat that is. The yellow ties into the frame nicely!

Is there a break in period for your fork also?

Matt Spak said...

nice new toy Gilles. As for your teammate forgetting his helmet. HMMMMM Is age kicking in?!

Kark said...

I think Coco just wanted to show off his stylin' coiffe!

..and fair play to im' as some of us are better off just bringing the helmet.

the original big ring said...

you know what they say, "the bigger the hair, the closer to God"