Shake it like a polaroid picture

Hands downs,

it's total geek town,
was a shake down
that got totally shook down.

Shake-down Sunday with Reenie, Kerry, MTBTom and Christopher. A new build and a whole lot of geeky stuff bolted to my now geared and freshly painted Igleheart 29'er. The new paint color is called persimmon, in the root beer family, darker than the previous (known to Reenie as baby poop). I call the new build "Bring it on!"

The ability to carry loads of unnecessary gear 500 miles through the Colorado wilderness. I'll try to limit myself to the bare essentials on our Colorado Trail excursion. Yeah, right!

Riding the decked out tour bike was quite fun, she handles like a wonky mac truck with the back-heavy panniers loaded with camping gear. The equipment stayed in place through out the shake down, weaving and bobbing single track, rumbling over root bands and couldn't help but to air it out a couple times. (Photo, MtbTom)

The Stans Tubeless wheels were a big part of the shake down. I wasn't sure if the tubeless tires would burp under the added pressure, But had no problem taking the abuse.
My 70mm stem did pose an issue and needs to be swapped out for something a little longer. I spent an hour icing my knee last night after squarely smashing it into the left shifter. douh!

Thanks to Channing at Old Man Mountain for the racks, They are awesome. I spent an hour on the phone with Channing a few weeks ago. At the time, I was on the fence about going with front and rear racks and panniers, but after viewing the videos on his web site it all just looked like way too much fun to pass up. The models are Sherpa (front) and red rock (rear) and should provide a stable platform to carry and hang plenty of gear (and ample cookie stowage). Thanks Channing.

And the Panniers are Jandd, Fredrick hurricane series water proof roll top bags. The attachment system is pretty slick. Just a couple of clicks and the are attached/detached. And yes, it rained during our three hour cruiser, and yes they are indeed water proof.

As always, Thanks to Christopher Igleheart. With out you sir, none of this would be possible...or not nearly as much fun.