Project: Mary A

I've had this Mary since way long time back. I've ridden it, abused it, and generally treated it like any bike should be treated. Not these last couple years though. Its been languishing on a hook in the garage, awaiting parts.

A sale popped up that I thought could give new life to Mary. A complete Alfine wheel was offered at a great price, so I bit. All the necessary bits were purchased, including a few to increase its usefulness in its intended goal. Trail building macheen.

But first, its gotta be tested, right? And that I did this am. We got about a .5" of rain last night. Enough to make everything slippery and fun. And oddly ridable, but considering the sand we have here, its ok. fwiw, the Kenda Karma's [I]suck[/I] in the mud, but we all knew that already, right?







Initial set up was a bit tricky because there were no instructions, and no additional parts included with the wheel purchase. A bit of fumbling around got me the parts I needed, and asking a pointed question on MTBR got me shifting right.

The first ride was good. Everything worked and shifted like it should. Once things dry out a bit more, I'll take it out again for a longer ride up at Yellow River. Should be fun!

Listening to: Plans and conspiring and goals.

Sunday, May 3 trail building session.

Over here in Pdc land, we've got a new trail building toy. One of the local riders/builders runs a small CSA farm, and he likes euro stuff. This combination gets him some really cool euro toys to play with. the tractor is a two wheeled BCS with a diesel conversion. The attachment is an Italian flail mower. The result is a much more capable DR trimmer. You'd be surprised what this thing will go over. And through.





The result is a perfect width trail. about 36" or so wide. All thats left to do is rake and ride in most cases. Yes, trimming the edges needs to be done to get ride of prikker stuff.


Yesterday, in about 4.5 hours we mowed in roughly 2.5 miles of trail.


I'll be going out later today to finish up trimming the corridor, and get a few passes in.

Listening to: KDEC 100.5. Broadcasting online, finally!

Decorah Time Trials = Fun!

Cranko Flow from Marty Larson on Vimeo.

So last weekend was the Decorah Time Trials. Its always a fun time. The crew in Decorah has built an awesome set of trails through the hills, in town! This is the first of two video's that I have composed. Ryan, Eric and I all took our Pugsleys over to through through the trails. There were certainly a lot of looks and sideways glances at the start line. We could almost hear the comments.

"what are these guys thinking!? Haven't they seen the mud?" "Don't they know its rained?" Those tires have NO tread!".

And to tell the truth, I kinda though that too.

Then I rode. And it was simply awesome. I love my Pugsley.

Listening to: The Noise Downstairs. //WIfes Band. It was awesome.