30 Days of Riding: Day 02 Down To The Rail Trail And Back

Today I really wanted to make my way into the woods, but unfortunately mother nature wasn't allowing for it, so I took to the road and then hit a small local rail trail.  At this point I just wanted some dirt and there are some smaller sections on the "trail" that you can veer off and play on.  Some okay scenery was on hand and there were some Mallards at the end of the trail so thats always nice to know spring will soon be around.

I only got in around 5 miles but the climb home sucks, sure does, especially on the large air volume tires.  Thank God for compression lockout forks, and propedal Rp23 rear shocks.  It's on thee types of excursions that you become more aware of your bike, and the way it shifts.  I noticed today that I must have bent my hanger slightly when riding at Highland the last time, along with that damn flat.  So I will be taking care of that tonight.  

The road salt and general dirt has made me realize that the commuter will probably be getting some fenders, just to keep most of that off of me, and the bike (I want it to last forever).  I have been going between the thought of this for a while.  I really love the look of the PDW (Portland Design Works) Full Metal Fenders, but think that I will probably be going with some sort of other plastic version. 

-Edit-

I just emailed and already heard back from Dan over at PDW they have a larger fender coming out in the fall (I am on that).  

In the meantime I will be running the Planet Bike Cascadia Hybrid fenders.  They are super cheap, and don't look half bad.  

There was a little rad waterfall and some graffiti part of the way around the trail.  Sometime it is nice to go out for a bit of a cooldown ride and I did and was able to achieve my riding for the day.