scary light

Whoa! A carbon fiber Niner, that thing is pretty sweet looking. I doubt I will ever be able to afford a carbon fiber mtn bike and even if I could I'm not sure I would want to spend that kind of money on one. Well... yeah I probably would. White seems to really be making it's stamp in the mountain biking world. First it was the WTB seats and then the stems and bars, now wheels. I think I read that thing weighed in at 20 lbs. with gears. I'm really digging those American Classic wheels, pretty sweet. They might look good on the Monkey but only if I got rid of the pink cages which I'm not too sure about anyway.

The folks at Niner really know how to work that b&w color scheme, nicely done.

All this carbon fiber and feather light craziness has got me thinking about what I could do to lighten my own ride. Mainly I'm thinking about the Mamasita since I ride it the most. After checking some specs on various parts I came to the conclusion that my wheelset is pretty light and I might lose another 1/2 lb by upgrading but I'll spend a ton more. I looked around at some of the new carbon cranks and well they're really not all that much lighter than my current middle of the road crankset. A few grams is all I might lose but I'm not giving up on that idea. I can do several little things here and there to drop some weight. I've quit carrying my seat bag except for on longer rides that would see me walking for an hour or so if I got into trouble. With the new tubeless set-up I really don't need to carry a tube, 2 tire levers & a CO2 cartridge. All that plus my multi tool adds 2 or 3 lbs to my bike easily. In the past I would carry 2 full water bottles in my cages during races and I might only drink half of one if the course was under 15 miles or I was racing with a team. I don't see the sense in carrying all that extra water. I guess it might come in handy if I ran across a small fire.

This weekend is our trip to Big South Fork and I'm looking forward to it. It appears as if my younger sister Beth has been reading my blog and saw my crack on her and my other sister's lack of interest in camping. She left me a nice little comment which I deserved. Yes Beth, two kids in a tent without proper toilet training wouldn't be much fun. BUT staying in someone else's house while easier does not make for the better memories. I know I don't have a clue about how hard it is to raise kids so I won't say anything else about it today. Tomorrow is another story. On a serious note it will be fun to get the whole family together, something we haven't done in a while. It's always fun to teach other people's kids bad habits, I can't wait. See you this weekend Emma.