Caution - Genius At Work

I'm sure that by now y'all may be feeling about the Bumble Beast similar to the way Earnest T felt about Romena talking about the weather... Well too bad, I'm gona talk about both anyways.   I could hardly wait for it to warm up enough for a good ride on the Bumble Beast this morning.  But as discussed yesterday, I needed to mount the 26 x 2.1 Maxxis Aspen.

Maxxis Aspen 26 x 2.1 MTB tire

 It was 32 F at 6 AM so the first thing I did was pull the tire off my bent and bring it and the new tire in from the garage to the house to let them warm up a little.  After waiting a little over an an hour I swapped the tires.  But before I did anything I measured the height of the Maxxis Larsen  26 x 2.35 tire inside a door jamb (kinda like folks measure their kids...).  It stood at 27 /3/8 inches tall.  After mounting the Maxxis Aspin 26 x 2.1 I took another measurement on the wall and this time I got 26 5/8, so a difference of 3/4 of an inch.

A quick spin around in the yard revealed that I had cured the problem. The tire scrub was completely gone!  It was now 9 AM and had warmed up to 40 F so I decided to bundle up for a quick trail ride to see how the new tire worked.  I really could not tell any difference in grip, but you have to realize, the front tire on a recumbent is very lightly loaded. I went for a slightly longer ride today, riding about 4 miles total in an hour and a half.  That gives you an idea of my speed but I did have to cross several logs that have recently fallen across the trail. I did not even attempt to ride across them as they were about a foot in diameter.  I also took my camera along and took a few more pics of the Bumble Beast.  But first, here is the obligatory photo of the bent in front of the garage door.

Garage door view...

 taking a break on the trail

the view from the front of the Bumble Beast (that's the holler in the background)

drive side view of the Bumble Beast

And for good measure I took one last photo and this time got the drive side.  I just realized all my previous photos were from the other side (oops, forgot the one earlier in front of the garage). I also took the time to measure the length of the bike and she measures 8 ft 2 inches from end to end.  This does make a difference out on the trail and I quickly found several places where I had to be very careful threading my way between trees and around turns.  There are several steep section on this trail and I ended up walking the Bumble Beast a little more than I would have on the MTB but when I got home I felt great. This same ride is OK on my MTB but my rump is usually letting me know its displeasure by the time I get home.