Poison Oak, Old Rigs and New Rigs

For the last week and a half I have not been riding as I had gotten myself a mighty fine batch of Poison Oak.    I had it in enough strategic places that riding a bike would not be fun.  I’m still dealing with some of it, but I’m beyond the worst of it.   This past Wednesday Matt came by Casa Del Bill with a whole bunch of bike goodies to rebuild and spice up his current bike. 

The first order of buisness was to get out all of the proper “tools” for this project.

New wheelset, cassette, chain, headset, shifters, crankset, brakes, seat, and seatpost made for quite a revamp for this bike.

It did not take long before all the bits starting coming together.  As usual, I found getting the front derailuer aligned properly to be a pain in the rear.   Here is Matt trimming the brake lines.

This overall ended up going smoothy as a three-beer job and before you know it was ready to hit the trail.  Matt ended up taking out first thing the following morning.

So Friday rolls around, and my various bits are are feeling up to try some saddle time so I swing by Matts place in Del Dios for a spin through Lake Hodges.   He has just picked up a new singlespeed and needed to get it out on its maiden voyage.   He had not been out to Raptor Ridge before so that was the destination.  On the way out there we scoped out the Pedestrian – Bike Bridge across the Lake which is nearing completion.

After a lot of boring dirt roads being passed off as trails we reached the Raptor Ridge singletrack.  It is a nice climb up to a ridge with some good views of the San Pasquel Valley.  Matt got a good taste of singlespeed grindng on this climb.   I was quite I had been off the bike for a bit as well.

After some chilling at the top we headed back the way we came.  It was a fun descent that was over far too quickly.  

 I have been trying to think of something nice to say about the section between the I-15 and Raptor Ridge and while there is some scenery, it is mostly a low-quality yawner of a route on manicured dirt roads.