Beginning final preparations

So first congrats to my friend Todd on his new Specialized Epic Comp 29er. An easy choice in my book for him. I think he is going to love that bike and won't be joking about cutting significant time off of his Chequamegon times. I'll be excited to hit some gravel and then trails with him and hear how he is enjoying making the switch to the big wheeled side of things. I am really happy with how the 29ers have been selling in the shop lately. I just built one today in the morning and it sold in the afternoon. Even better is that this guy came in looking for a 29er and was aware of the benefits and drawbacks and I was more than happy to reinforce the positives and help dispel or counter the typical down-side ideas. A customer the other day innocently asked Aaron and I about the benefits of going tubeless. He was met with an onslaught of pros, and various benefits much more numerous than I think he expected. I joked with Geoff afterward that asking us about the benefit of tubeless opens just slightly less of a floodgate than asking about the benefits of a 29er. It makes me happy that people are coming in thinking that they like the idea of a 29er and that I can help point out the benefits of what I think is a superior wheel size choice for an ever growing majority of people, especially around here.

Big wheeled bikes take up more space though, so I needed a way to haul our stuff to these races. I got myself a new Thule roof rack system and cargo box. I wanted to keep the bikes inside if at all possible, and I think that we can fit three people and three bikes in the car pretty easily. I like being able to store the bikes indoors while we camp and if we run into nasty weather on a road trip. I will install that this week and use it heading down to Ouachita...hopefully.

Another super awesome happening is Karen's arrival on Thursday. It makes life much easier, allows me to keep focus, and Karen helps keep me on track. She helps with Agent and other stuff. "I am excited for her arrival"= quite an understatement.

Ouachita is bearing down on me now. I am headed to Sylvan Island tomorrow with Aaron and Brett. It will be really nice to get on some actual dirt and push the bike in new ways. I'll update tomorrow with a ride report, and hopefully replicate a race there, maybe five or six laps. Besides tomorrow I have one good intense ride and one long ride next week and just casually ride the rest of the days.