I Went For a Ride Today And You Didn't (Or Maybe You Did For All I Know)

After a long stretch of cold and rain the sun has finally returned and brung some warmth with it.  This meant that it was time to end my lengthy titanium Fredding streak and pivot back to the dirt.  And so this morning I donned my best jorts and headed out into the wilds of suburbia.

First I rode to Sprain Ridge Park, a.k.a "The Trails Behind The Mall," where I saw something that looked like an Instagram post, only it existed in three dimensions and was hanging on the gate:

Amazing how social media keeps evolving.  What will these tech companies think of next?

While my Jones SWB has become my default mixed-terrain rambler, today I felt like riding something lighter, and so I opted for my cherished artisanal singlespeed from Engin:

Like footwear, bikes are seasonal, and I tend to move back to the singlespeed around the time I start wearing flip-flops again.  And yes, you're goddamn right I wear flip-flops.  I mean, I wouldn't wear them to an office building in Midtown, but as a semi-professional bike blogger who's either at or in the vicinity of his home or else fucking off for a bike ride of some kind you're goddamn right I wear them whenever I can get away with it--and there's no more sublime pleasure than riding a bicycle in flip-flops.  (Unless you're using metal toe clips, of course.  Though I'm sure during Peak Fixie somebody got on their NJS special in flip-flops, attempted a skid, and learned the hard way to go back to their indoor soccer shoes.)

Anyway, my ride reminded me once again how fond I am of this particular bicycle, and how smart I was to move to my current neighborhood, from which I can access landscapes like this in a relatively short amount of time:

Frankly, there's no other place within the city limits from which you can attain such a favorable dirt-to-pavement ratio in the course of a 30-mile ride, and I sometimes lament the fact that I wasted some of the best cycling years of my life languishing in Brooklyn for so long.  (Though then again if I hadn't I'd have missed Peak Fixie and all those concomitant skidding mishaps, so I suppose it was all worth it.)

By the way, if you want to know #whatgearingyourunning, the answer is, "I have no idea."

It's been an eternity since I've bothered to change the cog, but I did service the rear hub a few years ago and it's probably a 32x20 or maybe even a 32x21.

As for #whatpressureyourunning, I'm at exactly three (3) stone per cubit.

Oh, and I DIDN'T WEAR A HELMET:

That was a fun visit.