The (unofficial) Tour de Fat

Stop what your doing and go ride your bike now!!
Start temps 54* and 2 hrs later 57* what feels like zero point zero humidity. Not a bug to be found and in fact almost no web breaking to be had. Absolutely a stellar day to be on the bike. The dirt at stephens is Hero and everything about todays ride was perfect.
Well except I had to dismount for this bugger twice.
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I sent the text out to jorba stephens a few days ago but if another legal chainsaw guy wants the deets, its upper middle maze at the eact same spot where one fell a month ago.
I again climbed haley toe on the SS and again dabbed about 4x. To be fair I am doing this in darkness but I am gonna continue this until I am dab free. I take back the statement it is easier then burgers. I really enjoyed todays route as it was a good mix of tech and climbs.
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The SS has really kicked my ass into shape as I am feeling very fluid on the bike. I could be at the point as in the past to drop a tooth or 2 on the cog to man up some more but those days are gone. I am completely satisfied staying right here at the 32x20 gear ratio. What i need now is time to push some more hours and mileage, say a triple Parker. This maybe on my schedule for Saturday. I need a day where I can't walk up a flight of stairs after my ride. I been to comfortable sitting in the 8-15 mile range as its the time crunch i have available. Remember i started this mentality that this morning riding is my job commute that I no longer have. There was once upon a time I would wake up at 4 30 and go into NYC to work. Now I am substituting that for a ride in the woods. I must say I am happier every day for it :)
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I gotta big fat mama trying to break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime✌
 
Friday is for the men, a common phrase you would here on a union job site. Only problem was there was no day for the men, only for those union leaders who were out on a golf outing on our expense.
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Switched it up today and went over to Deer Park. As I mentioned previously I have been avoiding because it only brings anger to me.
Back history why Deer Park holds a spot for me. When i first got seriously into mountain biking back in the early 90s there were 2 parks i rode because i was a noob. Deer Park and Jacobsburg. I was living in Pa. On my first marriage and first set of kids. Like 2nd marriage I bought the whole family bikes and we were a biking family. These parks offered exactly what you want beginner riders to experience. The sport was booming and there was much enthusiasm to keep those parks well maintained. Yes i go back to trail days with Sarha Frost.

My apologies for this rant right at the beginning. The local jorba chapter leader here like his predecessor seem to give 2 shits about this park. This park should be priority number #1 to grow the sport and to support the beginner rider. I have refrained from trashing publicly but after today's ride my blood has boiled over. In the past years I have single handedly put multiple hours of into maintaince to just keep dead falls and brush back at bay. I have reached out no less then 4x to have this park with its own chapter which it should. As a willing volunteer to take that lead with support from 90% of other chapter leaders i was shot down by 1 person and then swept under the rug. I will be the first to admit my past on line persona was somewhat borderline douchebaggery, but in person I am a patient caring and encouraging ambassador of this great sport. I have also worked hard to change a lot of those past negative posts to positive ones today. This isn't about my online persona this is about one person having too much say and control and its hurting our community. So keep on picking up those rocks and putting them down because thats whats important to growing the sport to the new rider. And No! I will not be at any TM you have to offer, you already set tone from day one. Again my apologies to my few readers. Rant over!
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So I dropped my chain twice this morning and was like, ok you look a little droopy but what gives. Then as I was placing on the 2nd time I saw I had a broken spoke that was picking the chain off. Gave it a twist and never became an issue. Temps are just outstanding right now and almost wish I could bottle it for everyday. As mentioned almost every trail has deadfall in the park. Everyone is get off your bike or starting to go around developing. I will contact @Fat Trout To see if he wants to tackle some together because i can't just let this go undone.
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I havent decided yet if I am going to Creek tomorrow or pulling a triple parker but one of those 2 things should happen.

Have a great weekend everyone✌
 
Every tree removed , limb trimmed and mud puddle armoured helps others who will never know your name regardless of your status on paydirt.
Keeping doing the great things you do.
 
@mattybfat I can help.....I'm legal. Full disclosure, I haven't been in DP since the last time you and I rode together that early am. Obviously know the typical bad areas, but not sure if there are enough tree to warrant the saw vs. the hedge clippers.
 
@mattybfat I'm in....will ride and destroy. Identify and I can be your guy. Just not for the next week or so.....going upstate fishing the LOC derby tomorrow through next weekend ;) @Reggie we'll all coordinate and I welcome your guidance, assistance or company @ the pub. I still owe you one so.... Anyway, I have lots of anger coming from my work life that I would like to take out on inanimate objects lol. I don't have the DP history but in my more recent times I feel like its home. Fight club!
 
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Weekend rapper
Saturday was supposed to be either Creek or a triple parker. I was able to convince @Patrick And @soundz to a somewhat early start. Creek sounded too hot for mid day laps. In general I tend to ramp up DHing in September October and November months as i am not very active person in the heat of the day, hence why I wake and ride so damn early. Pat set tone with tire issues and the triple was looking pretty weak. With his tire issue it wasnt worth taking a chance to be far off from the cars. In all we did a fair amount of climbing and tipped about 14 miles total. I was prepared for more but jimmy had chicken of the wood on his brain.
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Later that day we sealed a deal on an XJ Cherokee that I had my eye on for my son Jason. This will make a great project for him and help motivate him to to earn some money. I have been looking for one for a bit and this happen to turn up locally. Its poor man's jeep and realitively inexpensive to mod out, bonus is these are easy to wrench on. So we found a 4 1/2" lift kit on market place and looks like Amazon has a deal on rims and tire combo. Under $800 for all is a good start.
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Sunday Patty and i got at mahlon from the park and ride. I have yet to put in the all the side trails and just rode what I knew. With all the new side trails we finally decided to take one which lead us down to neighborhood. Where we were greeted by a screaming "Karen" "this is a private road" "this is a private road" "your not allowed on it" "didnt you see the stick barracde" well i let Patty do the talking because i would have yelled wheres your fucking mask bitch! I digress. Either way it made for a horrible hike a bike out and trail forks was not help. We lost our enthusiasm got to rail trail where 500 fat people were walking dogs on a leash. Our dog obviously was not leashed. Turned around and bee lined out of the park. If I was on my own I would have plowed ahead but P just wasn't feeling it. The one up side we got to see a porcupine and thank goodness he had a head start up the tree before the dog got near.
Later I repaired 2 broken spokes but had a nightmare trying to get the tire to hold. It seemed to finally be holding air after 4 hours of shaking and positioning the stans at the troubled area. Spot was right by the bead so not really sure if maybe a tire thing or a rim thing.
Today
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Soundz you have competition on the mushrooms.
So saturday I climbed haley toe in the daylight and looked really good that I was about to make the full climb without a dab and then a easy section slip, f@#k! Today in pure darkness with just bar lights i dabbed 7 freaking times. So damn frustrating as i just want to make it once without a dab on this SS. Oh that tire was flat this morning, so filled at the house with fingers crossed. I was grooving well and worked my way across the top and rolled down the vistar trail to mulchpit trail where my tire was giving out. Well I figured that was pretty good, I'll give it a pump up and we should be good till the end. Well about 100' later it was flat again. FML moment, throw the hissy fit and happy i didnt have my dagger in the bag because I would have ended the life of that tire. So quick escape plan take the dirt road back and 8 stops in between to pump that garbage tire. Not gonna name the brand but I am running out of patience with this tire company.
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On a high note I did land a great contract job for a wedding venue. Their venue is a old barn that's super sweet but in order to be able to have weddings now because of covid they have to have 50% open air per their sq footage. So i am installing 30 windows throughout to meet that requirement. Looks like Matty is ordering a new steel frame sooner then anticipated. Business is bonkers right now between the real estate boom in our rural area and repeat clients that its been quite a juggling act to prioritize and line up week to week. All in all this is a good thing.
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Lucky I'm sane after all I've been through
(Everybody say I'm cool, he's cool)
I can't complain but sometimes I still do
Life's been good to me so far ✌
 
Milking an old Schwable
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Cut hole at 3 o clock position

Place cup under hole and turn to 6 o clock
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Yes I still missed :) but after yesterday's debacle with tire sidewalls sticking together an such and then trying to reuse the old hag i just went down the hill and bought a tire at Martys. Stock was pretty sad with very expensive Ikons, wire bead XR2's and 3's. I ended up with a continental crossking. I can't even remember last time i had a conti mtb tire. Either way todays ride was nice to not have issues.

Dragon Day
The day started with every bit of everything just dragging. Getting out of bed, getting my stuff together, leaving my house, and getting out of my van at the trailhead. I didn't get to the trailhead till 6:15 where I sat for another good 10 minutes, then a familiar truck pulls up. Its Stanhope Ken. Well now I need to move to show I'm not as lame as I feel. Ken instantly seems happy to see me or not, he's hard to judge. I dont know if he genuinely likes riding with me or if I am torture for him :) He does the polite thing and invites me along with him and his buddy as they don't know deer park well. I told them I kinda know it 😏 so we knock a quick 7 miles as everybody had to be somewhere at a certain time. Always good to ride with others. Ken's friend Al lives in Hope and is a life long moto guy so if course we talked of people and places in the moto world. Of course he knows Hayes well and bunch of my Btown moto guys. Good dude all around. Once I got pedaling my Dragon ass flew away and I feel cleansed.
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Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honali✌
 
Pearl said:
curious, what did you end up selling the civic for?
Click to expand...
$5200 IIRC I didn't budge is all I remember. He want to make a deal then I showed him the text from a dude who said he would give $500 extra then whatever was offered.
 
I finally made it back up to Stephens this past weekend with @jdog and two other like-minded knuckleheads. I was impressed with the amount of trail building that's been done since I was there last (August 2018 for Cranks). We did a climb with many, many switchbacks that had to be a ton of work to build; I didn't catch the name of the trail. First time down Tally Ho as well.

Much fun on those trails. I need to get up there more.
 
yeah @ChrisG stephens has become a pretty special park. Steve had 2 TMs i am aware of and partaked in, haley toe which i am sure you were referring to. The rest was done on him. I'm sure he had some help here and there but he puts in the tireless work in that park.

Today was another lazy start and lazy I was. Took some time started in daylight with wonderful temps. Another deer park as i am taking inventory of what needs to be done. Some point I took a left on a path, not a trail that looks like more traffic then ever usual. Looking to see if some rougness maybe going down. As i came to a stop, I looked around for anything suspicious. Then movement downhill caught my eye. Ah its yearling bear, but wait is he playing around?
Then realizing he is going in circles he was trapped. This sent me into rage. I then approached closer to observe more and noticed 2 other spots with the circles of death, with 2 more traps set. Thats where i became firm with Ollie to stay close. I couldn't get close enough to see type of trap used. I tried calling wildlife and game with zero luck, stupid state of NJ can't make anything easy. So I called State Police because allamuchy has no cops. I also knew they had direct access to the right people. Met the cop and as we walked in he got the call this was a legit. Turns out these are set to keep inventory of bear count. Snares are humane and the bears are tagged and released. I am thankful it wasnt what I assumed it to be and was for conservation purposes. Be clear I am not anti bear hunt tree hugging hippie, just a hippie who cares for responsible bear quelling and conservation. Super happy that it turned out well, with wildlife management dude showing up and explaining all the details. No trap goes unchecked over any given 24 hours.
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Ponder the power in the paw
Shiver at the strength built in the jaw
What is it like to pulse at winter sleep?
To fall in a dream a million miles deep?
Black bear
Black bear✌
 
Thirsty Thursday and I get up to the alarm clock. My problem lately is getting to bed early, lately its been 11 to 11:30 pm. That needs to change. But I was up sipping my coffee when all of a sudden the skies opened up with some booms. Great, ok readjust my mental state to i am gonna be getting wet.
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I wanted to get back to deer park to take inventory of of deadfalls. Cameras on route show where the dead falls are. Yup I am sucked into what I told myself I wouldn't do. I just can't let this park fall to crap because the lack of leadership. I was able to tackle some of the falls yesterday that were creating new go arounds but one good solid morning session will get the park free of these trees. The appropriate contacts with state sawman papers were contacted and informed. Hopefully we can get together. I swear you could have a weekly session just to keep the trails pristine and it probably still wouldn't be enough, at least in the beginning.

So the ride was more of scouting some of the trails I havent ridden and some I knew where there were so i had a map to give the saw boys. Trails were firm just like any other late summertime so I wasn't worried because of the rain. I sat out the doppler as I saw the boomers were fast moving. Saddled up and headed out. Very chilled ride, didn't really put anything down as i woke up with a wonky knee. This happens to be the good knee though the bad knee has been a non issue. Although the good knee did not bother me on the bike it did still feel wonky after the ride. Maybe throw some ice tonight if its still an issue. Can't remember if I did something yesterday to it but will be monitoring it.
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Its super cool to see so many getting SS curious again. Its pretty much you either love it or hate it, like I said before you need to have that missing chromosome to be a knucklehead SS junkie. I am that person and i think of the bonding I had with other knuckleheads like me. There is a kinship to being part of the SS club. And one of SS stars in my life that brought me much joy who I considered a close friend and SS homie then @Schilling
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I truly miss you my man and think of you often, and I know your looking down at us with that smile of yours!

#SINGLESPEED4SCHILLING✌
 
I'm gonna just chalk this week up as a lazy man's week. Once again up till 12 and set alarm for 5am. Mustard enough to be on the trail by 6ish, plan was to hit trails i hadnt hit in deer park for inventory purposes. This meant start from school lot and make my way over to Rouge. I dont know if this is what you would consider the dogs days of summer or maybe I have approached a slight burn out. Either way I'm always glad I'm out riding even though sometimes its like dragging a stubborn mule to get there.
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This is an odd thing to share as its a bit personal but maybe others deal with these same issues. Because i ride solo often i sometimes can have these panic attacks while out on the trail. Seems the more deeper i get from the car or the bigger the effort on a climb will send me into a mind meld. I think about it it will happen. Its been obviously much less since I dealt with my alcoholism and drug use but it still lingers. Rouge trail for whatever reason seems to trip this thinking. I tell myself if this is where i die at least I was enjoying the ride :) yes thats where i go before full on panic attack hits. I am gonna die of a heart attack alone in the woods, this for whatever reason is something I've dealt with now close to 20 years. I was not always like this but something hit me. Truth be told its also why I commuted into the city by bike. The bus into the tunnel and the subways became a trigger also. Honestly this all happened to my recollection since 9/11. I was in the city that day, fortunately uptown but I witnessed way to much throughout the day. I watched the 2nd plane fly over and hit as we were all fixated on the news and looking out the windows. Buildings closing down and masses of people on the street. Having absolutely no way out of the city to get to the car and seeing people ghost from the dust of the collapse. Its a chilling memory and yet I was not even near the disaster but in some sense it has left an impression in me. I'm sure I could use some psychological help as I have had enough baggage even before 9/11 to get at the root of these panic attacks, but not loading myself with mind altering substances has been a real good start, and some form of therapy does need to be addressed along with practicing doing the next right thing in life.
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Have a Great Weekend everyone!

"My daddy was a Gibson
My momma was a Fender
That's why they call me,
Mindbender, Mindbender
That's my name, my name" ✌
 
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