3 Stage 2012

This morning I headed over to 3 stage to go for a quick ride. It was already 25C at 8:30 AM and quite humid and it wasn't going to get any cooler so the morning was a good time to ride. I also took the smart phone along so I could map the ride with Strava just for the heck of it. I rode many of the trails up top and worked up a hell of a sweat in the 1:24.44 that I was riding. I covered 16.1 kms at an average of 11.4kph. There were some new downed trees and because I don't ride there near as often anymore some technical sections seem to have different lines, due to erosion and in some cases people removing rocks to make things easier. There are also some sections that have been deliberately bypassed which really pisses me off because some pussies are too lazy or lack the guts to try something difficult for once in their life. My favourite mountain bike saying is "ride like you've got pair". Sadly not all riders adhere to this.
I had some technical problems on the ride as well. One thing that bugged me for most of the ride was my right nut kept leaving the nest and twice got caught in a squeeze play between my seat and my leg. Ouch! I am hoping this is not the start of early onset old man nuts, a condition which all guys who have ever been in a change room with some 80 year old men walking around naked are familiar with. Scary.
The other technical problem I had was with my bike. Some days I like this Gary Fisher Hifi and sometimes I hate it. I didn't like it today. In previous rides I was lifting the front end on tough technical climbs and therefore losing my steering so I tried to move my weight forward by sliding the seat ahead 1/2 inch and rolling my bars forward a bit. This worked well for the climbs but had some other not so pleasant effects such as making it easier to go over the handlebars. The back end of the bike seemed to be bouncing me around more as well. I ride normally with my rear shock on Pro-pedal which limits travel but I eventually gave in and and switched it to use all the rear travel. Frustrating. The front end was a bit like a pogo stick again so I checked the air pressure on the fork and it was at the low end of my weight range so I pumped another 15 lbs in it and that helped a bit. This Rock Shox Recon fork is a little too pressure sensitive for my liking although if I rode more I suppose I would pay more attention to it.
I have to say once again that without a doubt the Gary Fisher Sugar is a much better bicycle than the Hifi.