The Fisher and Bob

Wow, this is getting bad. I'm writing on Thursday about our Sunday ride.

We were meeting Robert at Granite at 7:30. We were a little late. It was hectic trying to get out of the house that morning for some reason. We were very unorganized. I had unpacked Zach's jersey from the Element, so we had to go back and get one for him, and I was riding a new bike. The front rotor was rubbing the brake and we needed to grab the right tools so we could fix it at the trail.

We finally made it Williamson Valley Trailhead and met young Ian (the 21 year old) who was joining the ride also. Didn't know what to make of him, he was in a cotton t-shirt with a Top Fuel. The ride was fun, not super hard, I was glad. I was recovering from the Skull Valley Loop ride from the day before. We stopped alot and chatted. Ian was struggling up the long climb on the way out. Turns out Ian is coaching track at one of the Prescott High Schools and is working on his Physical Education degree! He has been running, but bought the Fuel this summer in hopes of getting back into biking.

This ride was especially exciting for a few reasons. Number 1: I have had the Procaliber for 2 months now. Before we moved, Zach became obsessed with getting me a full suspension race bike. He figured I would get more use out of a second full suspension bike in Arizona, versus keeping 2 steel hard tails. He wanted me to get rid of the salsa to come up with the cash for the new bike (I would have preferred keeping the salsa and getting a new bike, but that wasn't in the cards). So we did it; he found a buyer and ordered the Procaliber. It arrived at Sumbaum's just a few days before we left, so we left it in the box for the move out. Zach built it up in the first few days we were here, but I wanted to get used to the riding out here before taking it out. Plus they forgot to pack the little metal crank arm end protector things. With the way the rest of my crank arms look, I wasn't going to ride it until I picked up a set of those.

The point of all of this is that I had not realized what a freaking awesome bike I had, sitting there waiting for me. The fit is great and the components are incredible!! Check it out. I haven't been this excited over a bike since the Sycip. There are a few minor adjustments I need to make. The pressure in both shocks is too high, and my shrimpy thumb has a hard time reaching the lockout. I think I just need to slide the shifters and the lockout towards the grips a little. Wow, what a bike.

The second cool thing about this ride was that we met a few new people and saw the California group (Peggy, Pete - the 65 yr old, and Jim) at the trailhead. It was neat to run into people that we have met before. Towards the end of the ride, Robert and Zach took the more technical way back to the parking lot (the trail where I smacked my knee cap) and Ian and I took the more tame, haul-ass way back. A rider that Zach and I had spotted on two other occasions followed Ian and I. His name is Bob Berry. You can tell by looking at Bob that he rides a ton. He's on a carbon Trek hardtail that is just beat to crap. I don't know how it's still ridable. He just moved here from Tahoe (Mike, his remarks mirrored yours - loved it out there, but his job didn't work out). Bob was finishing up a 35 mile off road loop. Not too bad for a Sunday morning before getting back to his family. After talking to him for a few minutes, I'm thinking - this is the guy that Zach has too hook up with to ride. Zach has had a hard time finding someone that his looking for the same.....abuse... that he is. We may have found a good suffer partner in Bob.