Mountain breakfast and brake failure...

I needed to ride. I woke up early on an autumn morning with a plan: I wanted my breakfast uplands, somewhere over 2000mt. I left at 7am, with that plan, a further plan to ride no less than 4 passes... and somehow in a hurry: got a lunch some when past midday... (Happy birthday Mom!) Weather was lovely. A freshy morning, but temperature were rising... even if up there, on the passes, it barely went past 10°C during the morning... I decide to attack Manghen Pass, I wanted the breakfast up there, with that superb landscape... and the silence of the mountain, way before the arrival of any other tourists, cyclists, hikers or riders. Probably an earlier morning shower made me ride on sunny day but slightly wet tarmac... so my ride was more oriented on the landscape side than the performance one. I arrived on top, riding the road with a maximum grade of 16%, before anybody else. Nobody there. No one. Even the bar-chalet was closed! Once it opened I enjoyed the breakfast, by the fireplace (I told you it was rather fresh...) and continued doing the next 3 passes (San Pellegrino, Valles and Rolle)... clocking some 260km on the whole loop. But an issue with the bike made a great ride far from perfect: all of a sudden the travel of the rear brake pedal became close to zero. And pushing the bike I felt it was partially on brakes. Once at home (I did it!) I disassembled the caliper and found out... 1) 100% worn pads 2)one of the pistons simply refusing to get back in the caliper. Well, I had my ride. I had my breakfast. Mission accomplished! I enjoyed the weather and the landscape.... as for the bike... I already ordered the parts... we're going toward a complete caliper rebuild (seals and pistons) and a brake pump master cylinder repair kit. As I am on it, I decided to go for both... making sure everything will be new and I will not experience further issues like this. After all, a spoiled ride is a great loss for a die hard rider!

A Day Well Wasted.

I told you we often plan the next meeting while we are still riding one. Well, the truth is we planned this the day before it happened, but surely we talked about it during the previous one!

Vi avevo raccontato che spesso pianifichiamo il prossimo giro durante il precedente. Beh, questo l'abbiamo pensato il giorno prima di farlo, ma comunque ne avevamo parlato durante il precedente.

Still meeting and still pissing.

Every now and then me and the other well wasted life sharing a well wasted riding life along with me, well wasting a lot of fuel, decide to meet somewhere in between our locations (north and south of the Alps), up there, at the peak of a pass, just to say hi, take a piss, maybe a snack and ride back to the respective homes. To make a long story short, it's been ages we spend a whole riding day alone, crunching hundred of back twisty roads kilometers, just to meet somewhere, spend less than one hour together (pissing privacy included) and then say bye and split again. Agreeing that this might sound pointless, but -to us- it still is a great idea with a superb excuse (the piss? you might read HERE for the supreme version of it!) to have a great ride and see a mate. I am not yet sure, despite all those years spent doing this shit, if the meeting is the excuse to ride or if the ride is the excuse for a meet. Never mind. Sure it is that after few hundreds of kilometers at high pace, the vibration of the engine CERTAINLY causes a desperate need for piss. And pissing up there, well over 2000mt height, is a superb experience... as once a great friend of mine (Jari) said in the process: "I had never pissed with such a beautiful view" (Manghen Pass, 2003). We did it a lot of times, but we aren't tired yet, and after each of these events (often also while they're still on) we talk about the next one. The next meet. The next piss. The latest one saw me clocking 605km on the following passes (all in a superb dry weather day!): Pennes GIOVO Rombo aka Timmelsjoch(one way and back) Giovo (opposite direction) Pennes (opposite direction)