One more week

The time has been flying now that I have a mtn bike here in Tucson. The riding opportunities are endless....I need to stay longer! We have 6 more days in Tucson and are going to try to cram in as much time on the bikes as possible. Last week I ended up with over 18 hours on the bike! I wasn't even trying....just out riding and having fun. I'm hurting today though....

This morning was 46 and raining and I spent most of the morning in bed drinking coffee and surfing the net....I'm close to finishing a really good book called Of Tigers and Men; Entering the Age of Extinction. As soon as the rain clears up we are off to the park to play with Rosco. He has had the week off with a thorn in his paw that he won't really let us pull out. Yesterday we finally got it....now he is feeling frisky again!

I spent the majority of the weekend on the mtn bike, testing out the new XX, and riding the new trails on the west side of Tucson. Saturday after a 3 hour ride on the road with Andrea I hopped on the Fuel and went to explore some new trails off of Sweetwater Rd. I could hardly wipe the smile off of my face.....perfect desert singletrack, beautiful scenery, and just technical enough to keep you on your toes.

Sunday I went out for another 3 hours on the Fuel w. TJ and Chloe. This time we headed over to Star Pass, but quickly cruised over to the other side of Ajo Hwy(Tucson Mtn???) The trails here were quite a bit more technical. One loop in particular was really good, but wasn't finished so it was an out an back...TJ had recently run into the trail builder whose goal was to only have 10 guys in the area clean the trail! The Fuel and Trav's new Superfly 100 were able to clear everything except 1 tricky uphill turn with a huge boulder in the middle. With a little practice we both could have done it.....

As far as the XX goes...I'm liking it...last years Fuel was spec'd with XTR and an FSA carbon crankset.....the front shifting never seemed quite right....the XX is perfect and the gearing seems really good(42-28)(11-36). In the big, big the chain line is the best I've ever ridden. The testing will continue this week....I'm still trying to dial in Fox's RP23 with 'pro-pedal'....I really liked the carbon DT rear shock on last years fuel that made the bike feel like a hardtail. The new FOX F1 seems to stack up pretty good against last years Rock Shox World Cup, but I was really wanting to try that new hydraullic lock out. More trail riding to come and more testing is in the really near future! Until then I'm hiding from the rain...