Like a rabid rakehoe junkie I’ve been beavering away on a new section of trail, dubbed ‘Red Tape’. Hopefully it’ll end up being a fun little extension to an already fun loop but the hills ain’t giving up their secrets so readily this time around.
Even though I’ve been exploring that section of bush off and on for a few months and thinking about where the trail might go, the new section basically just seems to suck more than not. There are a couple of fun features, like a rock ramp part way around a fast narrow blind bend that sends you into the air if you’re on the gas, and the descent flows ok enough… but overall, I dunno, it’s not working. Maybe after The Mont 24hr I’ll start over on it, or maybe magically it’ll seem better 🙂
While looking around in the shed for a tent to take to the Mont I came across my old Look MTB shoes. I loved these things to bits over years of riding and even though they’re semi falling apart I reckoned they were in need of a spin. Wow, what a huge difference to the Shimano M182 shoes I’ve been running since retiring the LOOK’s. The Shimano shoes are far less comfortable overall, but the soles are so much stiffer creating an efficient power down feeling. The LOOK shoes are so comfy and are much easier to walk around in. They flex a lot which was incredibly unnerving on the bike initially but after a while it was like you could feel more of what is going on. It got me thinking a shoe inbetween these two extremes would be just right.