Time Flies When Yer Having Fun

    whoa, it's been a long time since the last post. I haven't done much riding because i was letting my back heal. when i got word i could ride again, i went out and tried it. it probably wasn't the greatest idea but i needed to get it out of my system. i lasted only an hour the first time and only noticed sharp pain when i pulled up on the handlebars, trying to get over logs. the second time i went out, was for an hour and had a little less pain from going over logs but a strong tight feeling in my lower back, at time it would be unbearable but a sign i need to wrap up the ride. so i gave it some time and didn't ride for a few weeks.

    well i just went out recently and the lower back hurt a lot less but i'm so much out of shape, from not being active. i have been a lot busy doing home projects and prepping the home for the new babies. my wife is pregnant with twin boys, so there has been a lot of work done in the house. last month, all i did was spackle, sand, prime and paint for a month.

    i dragged my wife to an after hours bike shop pizza party, sale at Halters. i bought winter gloves, Giordana Silverline lobster style. i also got woolie boolie my favorite winter socks AND i finally purchased Light & Motion Stella 200L bike lite for nite riding.

happy trails,
dirty bert

NEW Favorite Site!

    so i was lazy today. the first time in a long time that i actually did nothing. it was beautiful outside, in the 90's and i didn't ride. i couldn't find anyone to ride with and usually that doesn't stop me to ride but their was a lil urge to go but was deflated when i saw i had a flat rear tire. UGH! i HATE changing the rear tire, it causes me some many issues, i feel like i need another set of arms to change that tire.

    so i pretty much spent the day on ebay, surfin' the web, looking for a good deal on bike lights and reading posts on mtbnj forums. It has become one of my favorite bike site/forums for New Jersey. I can now find new people to ride with and share my experiences, opinions and hopefully make new friends.

happy trails,
~dirty bert

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

    I know rain is good for the environment, it makes my flowers, weeds, and grass grow and my trails wet. It's been raining, literally 5 days straight. 3 days of it has been the misty rain, which I personally like the best. At least with the misty rain, you still can ride, it delays the point where you are completely soaked. Of course this weekend will be beautiful, i have a wedding to go to that's at least 2 hrs away, nothing close to home, where I can get home at a decent hour and squeeze a ride in. And with summer drawing to a close, the hours of sunlight and warmth are going to end.

    I have been thinking more and more about buying lights for my bike. It would extend my riding time but being the way that I am I would want something good and that means trying to buy HID lights. I can't find them lights for under $300. I also had a hard time finding reviews on lights, word of mouth is helpful but I wanna see what the lights look like at night. So I searched on the MTBR forums and found this lights shootout. Yes, it is from 2005, 2 years old but at least it shows what the lights look like at night. There was a set-up on there that seemed as bright as HID lights and it was TurboCat S47 system. Now I know a lot has changed since 2005 and i also know that a lot online retailers don't sell TurboCat. I hear from the forums that Light & Motion is good and so is Nite Rider but what do you buy. Magazines never do an in-depth articles, a shoot-out of lights and if they do it's all the high-end lights kinda like what they do with their bikes (i.e. mountain bike action). So who do we turn to?

    So what are you using? Why do you like it? How much was it and where did you buy it? Did you buy and extra battery and how much? Do you know how much the bulbs are? All important questions that need to be answered by... YOU!? who knows but I NEED ANSWERS!

~happy muddy trails
dirty bert