Aaron, don't read this post....

Team Cove made it's way to Whistler for the beginning of the bike part season. I think it's safe to say that the new bike likes this place a lot.

The day was mostly split up between Ian's fave, Schleyer and mine, Crank it up. Got a few good pics of Ian bombing around today but notso many of me. This is pretty typical for a blogger to be absent from his own story.
After today I think I'm ready to replace B-line with Crank it up for my warm up runs now. A few rips and I was ready for some tougher stuff.
I wanna start linking up some of the tougher sections on Schleyer, the rock faces have always vexed me. My battle with the pier drop a few years ago was epic in scale, but I eventually got her done.

Below are a few shots of Ian on Schleyer. Nothing overly difficult for him. I just wanted to stop and get some shots.
I really wish that shot above wasn't so fuzzy. On the small screen it looks really cool.

Not that I wanna drop consumer alerts on this blog, but I gotta say that the service at the Long Horn was really horrible today. We waited 20 mins to see a waitress, 20 more minutes for her to bring us our drinks. All the while we noticed everyone in our area looking around wondering where the waitress was. We decided that if we stayed for food and paid with credit card that it would be another 90 minutes before we could get back on the hill. So when she brought us our drinks we asked for the bill immdediately. 14.25 for a one ounce rum drink and a pint of cheap kokannee. Unreal! Talk about the insult of overpriced drinks to go with the injury of slow crappy service. I asked for my .75 cents change and left hoping she would get the hint.

The rest of the day was good. My energy ran out after 10 rips all together. On the last rip I finally fell trying to stop on a line that I didn't like. It was kinda funny as I ended up doing the turtle in some loam next to a tree. The STD is finally starting to look less than new too, with some chafing from my leg armour on the top tube. Ah well. Cant keep it new forever.

On the way home, Ian and I got to talking about an XC ride for sunday. I said yeah as long as my other bike was ready. Ian suggested we go pick it up.

Guess I should stop and give some back story. Yes I bought a really snazzy new Freeride bike. The Hustler frame was no question when Chaz quoted me a good price on it. Yeah it puts me in the financial shitter for a while longer than I was expecting to be, but it's basically the perfect ride tandem for me. So the Stiffee got pulled apart and its parts moved over to a nice new matching green hustler frame. It's true what they say. Mountain biking is as adictive as cocaine, and twice as expensive.
Decisions like that are Chazomatic. I mean who can blame me? Ian and I left North Van looking like we had just done a smash and grab at the Cove bike shop.
For those who don't know, this is Chaz. Oldschooler, pilar of the ride community and all round genuine guy. Cheers bud! See ya on the hills.