Rolling Along (and the Privateer)

The big news in our neck of the woods is that our kids will get redistricted next year, changing up their elementary school. Under the current plan, they would go to Wyandot Elementary, so a few weekends ago, I took the kids there on a playground familiarization trip:

I was riding my Camargue, which is handily squashing my idea to have the New Albion Privateer take over its role. Better tire clearance, longer chainstays, and I like the handling better. It's too bad the NAP is a little handier to pedal.

Bloggers Get Together with Fatbikes, no Beer is Drunk

A few weeks back, fellow Buckeye bike blogger Cody posted up on mtbr.com looking for other fatbikers to ride in the Cincy area, or maybe up to Caesar's Creek. Since Caesar's is roughly between Columbus and Cincinnati, I said I'd be there for a ride at Caesar's. This weekend, our schedules were both clear for a ride, so we set a rendezvous at 8:30 at Caesar's.

The theme for this ride turned out to be "old school." Caesar's Creek is one of the oldest mountain bike trails in Ohio, and it still has some fall line trails and tight. bumpy corners to keep us on our toes. Further, between our fat tires, abundant leaf cover, and relatively dry trails, we were able to do some bushwhacking, beach riding, and exploring:

New Albion Privateer

Sometimes my bike builds are occasioned by my parts bin. In this case, I have had a somewhat rare Soma Champs Elysees low trail fork sitting above my work bench for some months. These forks are rare because Soma has (so far) only made one batch of them, which turned out a bit longer than spec (about 10mm off, from what I've read). I've had my VO for sale for some time, and I've been looking for a replacement. I ended up getting a 60cm New Albion Privateer, a somewhat budgetish frame from one of Soma's sister brands. It arrived last week, and I got it built up and some miles down this weekend:

It's my typical crossy kind of road bike frame. Like my old Crosscheck, it has long horizontal dropouts for running single speed, but in this case I have it set up for eight: