Commuting in again!

The sleeping Rhino awakes

The Hunter is back in action today with tubeless Hutchie Pythons, the Moots Tailgator, and the MooseMitts (not shown). At 6:30am it was more or less sunny, then started snowing, then got windy as all hell. The temp was about 17F then, but then dropped to around 14 when I left at 7:30. A bit icy, wish I had brought out the studded Nokians for a test ride...but all went well and stayed upright just fine. The ride was direct to work, but amazing. Since my broken foot, this was only my second commute into work by bike...and I have definitely missed it! I have some Planet Bike 29er Cascadian fenders in the shop ready to attach, and then the Hunter will be the perfect winter commuter no matter what the conditions.

Then Friday (today) was my Birthday. Happy Birthday to me! I'm now 35. Don't feel much different. I went for a very nice short hike with my girl and Monk and Basie in the hood before heading out to work on the bike. Today I decided to use the Nokian wheelset since some new snow had fallen and the road was pretty slick most the way down - dirt to pavement.

I cannot say how cool these tires are for grip on ice. I had no fear about sliding out...i felt like i was on rails around the turns and didn't slide out once even on the sheet-ice bike path. Although i think this was a bit too rough of a ride as i lost two studs in my front tire on the FIRST RIDE on these tires....maybe the commute isn't the best for these tires...or they just suck. But they're Nokians! Those Norwegians who make great winter auto tires with studs...so that can't be it!?... Can it? I'm writing them either way to bitch about it anyways. They're slightly SLOW on the pavement too...see those knobs? Very widely spaced and HUGE...and heavy. May have to stash another wheelset in the bushes in town somewhere for the 6-mile ride out to the office like GuitarHero suggested. The studs are really great though for the 3K drop from the homestead to town.

The trail leading to work. Holy crap it was windy...but looks nice and sunny, eh? I think i'd much rather have it be cold than so windy. The Chinooks can go away anytime and I'd be just fine with it!

For my birthday I got a new guitar! Simple, clean lines, great look and sound for cheap! And it's a PRS! The SE Singlecut in black. It's way cool. You should see it. Ok, here it is.

It's been over 10 years since i've had an electric guitar...the last one was a G&L ASAT telecaster which I sold to help buy a race MTB i think. I've had an acoustic that I rarely played, and with inspiration to play from GuitarHero, it was time to start playing more. It's never too late to start playing the guitar, again.

(ps- the Pilot added some photos to the Fowler-Hilliard hut trip photo album - the link)