Threatdown
Took the new setup (see below) out Buck Creek Road loop, towards Huntley Butte north of Absarokee. About halfway, heading down Buck Creek West Road right next to the old Homestead, I saw two green dots reflecting my light back to me. It was about 10:30 pm, and Kip was with me, so for a minute I though somehow he had gotten ahead of me.Then the eyes rose up; it was a big black bear, who stood up on hind legs to look at me. I stopped the bike, turned around; Kip was still nowhere to be seen, behind me on the long downhill. Took out my bearspray and removed the safety clip.
The bear teetered, staring at me. My music kept blaring out into the darkness. I'm not sure the bear would have responded so cautiously, nor that I would have seen it so soon, and stayed so far away, without the music.
It seemed forever, but was probably only a few seconds. Then the bear got scared and ran the other way. I waited to make sure there weren't any followers. Big enough to be a mom, I was worried there may be kids nearby.
The bear went out of sight down the road. No choice but to follow. Kip caught up. We rolled slowly. When we intersected the bear's path, Kip perked up, caught the scent and gave chase. He stopped when I gave a loud "Leave it!!" and came back.
We followed cautiously. From time to time the bear would peer back from about 100 meters ahead and then keep running. After a few hundred meters the bear took off uphill, off the road, over a downed section of fence, off into the night.
Then we saw a skunk down the road, and a few owls. Great wildlife ride.
Radness
I was out at night because it was a crazy homeschool day yesterday. I spent a lot of one on on, way more than I planned, and so I was hours behind on other stuff. Need to ride though because I have a big race this weekend, and I also was eager to test a new drivetrain.Installed my Rad Cage from OneUp Components yesterday, and took it out for a test ride last night. It's a replacement derailleur cage for mid cage Shimano XT / XTR derailleurs. I'm running a pretty new XT Shadow +. Installation was easy, using their Youtube instructions. I got the green one. Looks great on Shrek, who's pretty disgustingly matchy matchy black & green at this point.
The point of the Rad Cage is to realign the derailleur pulley during its travel, so that it stays close to the cassette in both the low and high gears. It's an idea similar to one in my patent from years ago, and again it's so cool to see these ideas we've been working on for years show up in the market.
The result: really nice crisp shifting. It's on par with the best 10 speed shifting I've ever had. It's the third best shifting bike I've ever ridden now, after my old 8 spd XC Pro shifter XT derailleur setup, and the second prototype version of my prototype derailleur.
The shifting is crisp, instant. Lever action is smooth and light. Running an unusual cable setup: it's the GORE Ride On system, now licensed by SRAM and packaged in full SRAM fashion with only a small badge reflecting the GORE legacy, from the shifter to the frame; then internal with the GORE sleeve; the internal routing for the TREK Farley stops there though, and there wasn't enough GORE 5mm to bridge the gap. I had to take my old NOKON aluminum segment housing, and use it for the derailleur loop, and then I stuck it into a hollow writing pen, and joined it to the GORE 5mm housing. It's a funky setup, but it seems to work really well.
The cassette is still the stock one, with the 42T adapter out back. Swapped to the Gold KMC chain, and it is really nice. Love the look, and it runs nice and smooth.
Lookout Spearfish: Shrek is running like a bat out of hell!