My friend Swoo and I decided to hit the fall bike show which turned out to be a crowded mass of people practically shoving each other for a chance at the best deals. I managed to pick up a pair of cycling shoes to replace my over-sized old ones for $50. Then I managed to get the hell out.
Since the day was so beautiful, we decided to make up for that horrible episode with a trail ride in the Don Valley. I have to say, riding with Swoo is totally different from riding with the Don Rats. Firstly, his fixed gear free-style bike provides some...limitations to the ride speed. The upshot of that is that we spent more time enjoying some of the features in the valley that I usually skip in a mad attempt to catch my riders. We also had time to take some pictures:
The second difference is Swoo rides with a video camera and loves to make edits of his rides. Thus, we came out with a souvenir:
Except for a stupid mechanical where the horseshoe spring on my brakes somehow caught the rotor and made my front brake unusable and one flat, this was a perfect ride. Not too fast, beautiful day in the beautiful Don that reminds me why I love fall on the east coast.
Whoosh squeeeeeeal. There are 2 spots in the Don Valley that I cannot ride at full speed for some reason. No matter how much I talk myself up to it or yell at myself after, it just doesn't happen. One is above. It is pretty at that angle, but there's a short drop followed by a quick left turn that offers a view of your impending crash if you don't make the turn. That crash will be down a nearly vertical hillside. It doesn't help when some pot-smoking high-schoolers tell you "You can't ride that? Yeah, you'll probably die if you fuck up."
*Get out of your head, Ilan*
The second spot is a super steep, albeit banked, turn (see item one of the list in my second post if you see a pattern here). I come in from the side and don't have enough speed to take the bank, and I'm of accelerating in the turn.
One of these days I'll accidentally do one of these and from then on it will be okay. But I think I will need to be riding with someone else for that to happen...
Anyway, enough self-pity.
Last Sunday, I took my good friend, Swoo, riding on the flat trail of the Don. On his fixie. He is a member of the All City fixed gear freestyle team and has a fairly wicked edit out of his riding, which you should check out:
He really wanted to give off-road riding a try and I was ecstatic to take him. Despite his fixed-gear and brakeless handicap and as a testament to his skills, he stayed upright and on my rear wheel the whole time. He even embarrassed me by riding some features that I was far too nervous to attempt. The only mishap happened when he got off his bike to go through a puddle and hit his head then stepped in the mud. And obviously he had so much fun that he wants to go again. He may even set up a spare frame with a freewheel and brakes so that he can do it with less fear of death. Mountain biking wins again.
