my road riding season officially started and ended today

I stated earlier in the year that I planned to ride my road bike more this year and I was serious when I said that. I had a small itch to ride the road, very small. So small that I haven't scratched it until today. I had most of the day off today and I was trying to think of something easy to do to give my legs a rest but yet I didn't want to waste the day and not ride. I decided the time had come to take the road bike down off the wall and take it for a spin.

I have contemplated selling it a couple of times this summer but kept talking myself out of it thinking I would regret it. I knew I had to get out and ride it to see if I had been missing anything. I decided to do just a short ride and work some of the soreness out of my legs and try to just have fun. The thing about road riding for me is it's hard to free your mind and just ride, I'm constantly watching and listening for cars. In the woods I don't have to worry as much about this because if I come into contact with something it's my fault.

As I rolled out of the parking lot it and onto the road I went through a quick run down of all the shifty bits and brakes, everything worked smoothly and flawlessly. The good thing about road bikes is, the parts last so much longer and take much less abuse.

I wish I could say I fell in love with road riding all over again but I didn't, I didn't hate it but there was nothing there that made me want to ride more and more. I actually found myself thinking about my mountain bikes and some of the new upgrades I doing to the JET. I imagined my self slicing through the woods, leaning my bike into bermed turns, getting small amounts of effortless air off of rocks and natural dirt jumps and splashing through creeks. Yeah I'm truly a mountain biker at heart, if I was told I could only own one bike it would be one with fat knobby tires, no doubt about it.

As I pedaled along I tried to immerse myself in the road but the pavement never really changes like the trail does. There are no berms, roots, rocks or wooden structures. Occasionally you'll run across some rough or broken pavement, maybe a dead raccoon but riding on skinny tires pumped up to 110 psi really makes riding over anything but smooth pavement suck.

As I cruised back into the parking lot where I left my truck I decided one ride was not enough to give up and sell my bike. It would take some time to get back into the groove and get a feel for riding the road, then maybe I will enjoy it more.

As I lifted my bike up onto the bike rack I gazed across the frame admiring it's sleek lines when something caught my eye. I took a closer look at the top of the seat stay just above the area where the carbon meets the aluminum and wiped the road grime off the paint. I'll be damned if there wasn't a hairline crack all the way around the top half of the tube. I couldn't believe it, just when I thought I was going to re-open an old door it was slammed back into my face. Suddenly I felt that feeling of despair when you loose something special. Even though I've neglected my road bike for the past couple of years I still like to ride it and any thoughts of selling it to fund another mtn bike or some bling bling parts were washed away in an instance.

Now I'm left not knowing what to do with my situation, I really don't see myself spending any money on a new frame anytime soon. With all of the new upgrades to mine and Melinda's mountain bikes there is just no room in the budget. That and once the transformation of the JET is complete a new road frame would get passed up all summer and just collect dust on the wall.

I guess for now I'm just going to hang the broken bike on the wall until something speaks to me.