August Riding

[north woods gal]

Thanks, Crankin. Brings back some pleasant memories of commuting in my Chicago suburb days. Much of the year, it was in the dark, since I was one of the first into work. Very different, kind of peaceful world in busy urban and suburban areas that early in the morning. I remember seeing coyotes, fox, lots of deer, raccoons right along main street. Yeah, now and then I'd see other commuters on a bike, some even with no lights or any reflective clothing. Just crazy. I suspect some of these were commuting on a bike out of economic necessity and I felt their pain, but no light at all?

Been a good week for my riding. Most of it's been a daily combo ride of pavement, gravel and single track, averaging about 25 miles on the Krampus and the Krampus handled them all very well. Can't help but think the Krampus would have made a great commuting bike, back in the day, but that was just before the big tire craze hit the bike world. Standard 29ers were the radical new thing at the time. Thought I was going big at the time with those old 26x2" MTB wheels. Things sure have changed.

Still have my two 26" MTBs that I used for commuting, though, and still ride them. I think standard 26" MTBs still have their place for trail work and even some road riding. They got me through a couple of Chicago area winters and never let me down. I know the industry is making an all out effort to replace the 26" wheels with the 27.5" wheels as the industry standard, but I hope they don't forget the good old 26". Be a real shame.