October rides: put a little color into it.

[north woods gal]

Drizzle or even light rain I can take - if i dress for it and if I'm in the mood. Of course, I have the luxury of staying close to home and doing all the biking I want, so I can deal with rain a bit easier than most. Today was a good example. Woke up to a light rain, mist and fog, but it stopped mid-morning, so hubby and I did our neighborhood ride, then I did a full 5 miles of laps on our wet trails, then followed that up with a couple hours of hard work on the trails, clearing roots and rocks off the trails that might be a safety issue when riding the standard tire MTBs. Grueling work, but I get a smoother and safer trail doing it.

With our wet trails the last couple days, I've been riding the Krampus with its "low fat" (3") tires. Have rekindled an appreciation for this bike, now that I've put those wider tires to good use on our wet trails (now covered with wet leaves in places). The Krampus is no race bike, but it is solid, stable and, especially, safe when conditions aren't the best. I did get the gearing right on this one, too, for my trails. It can be a little tricky matching the gear combo on a single speed to where you plan to ride the bike. All in all, the Krampus is a very useful single speed in my growing collection of single sped bikes.

Nasty storms with heavy rain and a lot of lightning moved in, this afternoon, just as I finished with the trail work. More to come, tonight and tomorrow, so the Krampus will probably be put to work, again. Could ride one of the regular fat bikes, too, but I'm kind of hooked on riding single speed.