Monster Trucks & Hovercrafts...

You know the drill. last night was the first official Pirate Night Ride of Spring. Most of the usual suspects showed up in cool daylight conditions for a few hours of riding dirt. New to the game was CORE-bin, and for his second showing (this time with a group) was MaxiThad. All day I was watching the radar as storms moved towards and surrounded KC, yet a drop of rain never touched the dusty singletrack. We were all psyched for some riding. It was a bit strange to start our ride not-in-the-dark.

Farmer showed up early with my freshly rebuilt squishy fork, care of Billy The Kid, master of all things bike. I was more than excited to have the plush feeling back under the front of my steed. The Manimal, G-Wiz, Billy and Farmer Pit-Crew-styled the transition from my rigid to suspension fork in minutes as the rest of the posse (Squara, Justin, CORE-bin & I) prepped for the ride. Thanks for taking care of business fellas, you're the only jerks I almost trust with my bike.

Per the norm we rode in on some less than perfect rogue trail to rendezvous at the classic Beer Climb. I think G-Wiz put a bit too much power-down off-the-line, and his chain exploded off his cassette only to wedge itself handsomely between his hub and frame. This was our first ten minute break of the ride. Once again the team Pit-Crew'd G's Monster Truck back into riding shape like the pros they are. This gave the few of us not helping some time to watch and/or make multiple attempts at the infamous Beer Climb. Farmer, G-wiz, MaxiThad and The Manimal all cranked out the beast-of-a-hill in good fashion - MaxiThad rolling up on his Hovercraft (The Pugs).

We then rolled 99.9% of the SMP MTB trail system; the dust was flying. A little rain might have turned the trail into hero dirt, but we suffered through the cloud for a solid paced lap. As we huddled to plan out phase two of our ride, now in the moonlit night, a discovery is made that we're on the verge of multiple yet imminent light failures. At this point, part of the crew bailed, and the rest of us that were still good-to-go headed off to do a lap of The Darkness race course.

It's amazing how good the course was in considering it was built for a one-day race and had not been touch since December. I was reminded of the great time had by all at that race and enjoyed spinning around on the fun whoop-dee-do's and short yet challenging climbs.

Billy did a killer job rebuilding my fork (THANK YOU!). [It] combined with my new and properly sized Niner, meshed together perfectly to create the most excellent and dreamy riding bike I've ever laid my taint on. VERY psyched and lucky to have this machine to race for 2012.

It was a great night to be on the bike with a handful of pals who are always down for pretty much whatever happens. Hopefully what happens next Tuesday night will NOT be lights going out, chains sucking and folks bailing early - but hard and fun riding followed by shit talking and beer drinking around the fire. 

If you see this Robot, do not approach it. It is considered extremely dangerous and armed with overly effective Beer Hand-Up capabilities.